Civil servants are the passionate, hard working people who keep public services going.

With everyone working double jobs just to keep essential services going, very few people had time to consider private concerns.

Commissioners believe a 12 percent increase in the current budget is needed to keep services at the present level.

As such, it needs help from other towns to keep services up.

A short-term extension of the old contract, at a slightly higher rate, kept services in place through September.

Only a few dozen remain healthy to nurse the sick and keep essential services running.

Government officials said they would be able to keep essential services running smoothly.

Q. With the city's budget problems, how would you keep services at the current level?

"Ideally, we can keep services up to the standards and still find other ways for adjusting," he said.

Keeping such services at today's level would cost $4 billion a year by 2025.