Jobs are frozen, expenses trimmed in Dedham.
Town Administrator William Keegan told selectmen Thursday night he is instituting a town-wide hiring freeze and cutting expenses.
He is serious, and other town officials are following his lead.
But that is just the tip of the iceberg.
After freezing jobs and cutting expenses immediately, the town will have even bigger cuts to make in the 2009 budget.
Dedham simply cannot afford its current budget, period.
This budget will be brutal.
Many leaders of many towns have called for spending curbs with the economy slumping and federal and state money uncertain.
Keegan has done something to fix it.
Much more will have to happen. There will be bigger cuts to make before the budget is finished.
But Keegan has given the process a jolt.
There will be exceptions, but the freeze and the spending cut do exist and some money is being saved and that is a tangible reduction in spending immediately.
In the current economic and political world right now, this is a decisive move.
