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Town of AmherstBoard of SelectmenNovember 26, 2007
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Chairman Bruce Bowler called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. Selectmen present: Thomas Grella, Reed Panasiti, Brad Galinson and George Infanti. Also present Town Administrator Gary MacGuire.
Upon a roll call vote, the Board entered non-public session under RSA 91-A:3 II (d) at 6:37 p.m.
The Board exited the non-public session at 7:05 p.m. Mr. Infanti announced he was leaving the meeting and would return between 8:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. The Board resumed their regular meeting at 7:12 p.m.
There were no concerns or questions from the audience.
Director Nancy McMillan, Maintenance Foreman Keith Trott and Recreation Commission Chairman Dana Redmond met with the Board. It was pointed out that at 3:15 p.m. a new budget was printed out in the amount of $307,231.00. Ms. McMillan explained she tried to put together a realistic budget to meet the needs and not increase it by much. Increases were: Director’s and Secretary’s Wages a step and COLA. Medical and Dental the numbers were uncertain, but she included a 5% increase in Medical. Social Security includes both full time and part time employees as does Medicare. Deferred Compensation is for both the Director and Maintenance Foreman. Longevity is at zero, Telephone was an average of four years that includes fax, two lines and cell phones at $5800. Custodian was contractual cleaning. Heat was an estimate amount put together by the DPW Director. Spaulding Field is irrigated and the Water line was an average figure of four years. Vehicle Repair she budgeted for an additional $200.00 based again on the four-year average and spoke briefly about an inordinate amount of repairs.
Mrs. McMillan continued … Equipment Purchases was budgeted at $2500.00. They were looking for an additional trailer to be used when mowing – they have two trailers and three vehicles. Mr. Trott briefly explained the plan they have in saving time by not going back and forth to load the equipment. Mrs. McMillan reported no change in Office Supplies and Postage decreased. Gasoline was an estimated 1510 gallons at $2.65 an increase due to a better mowing schedule in addition to new fields. Diesel was increased by approximately 400 gallons and a price increase. Mr. Trott remarked that this was the same situation with the trailers and their sending out more vehicles and more people. They would be using more fuel because they would be sending out the tractors more often.
Mrs. McMillan indicated she was requesting to replace their 1990 pickup truck with a ¾ ton truck to be shared with DPW. In response to a Board question, she advised the truck had 144,000 miles on it. Mr. Bowler asked about the comparison cost for a ¾ ton and a one ton. Mr. Trott explained a one-ton did not serve their purpose. “Kids don’t feel comfortable” and for their needs a ¾ ton is what is what they would like. Working with Bruce Berry, he had a need for it as well. Mrs. McMillan commented on the $25.00 increase in Mileage for attending meetings and conferences. Vandalism and Supplies remained the same. A reduction in Baboosic Lake of $1500 was due to the reduction of hours for the Aquatic Director and moving Swim Lessons into the Revolving Fund to pay for this program as they have done for others.
Mr. Bowler questioned dock installation and removal at $4000.00 per year. Mr. Trott explained it took the company two full days to do this and there was no way the Department could do it. Mr. Grella asked about other sources with Mrs. McMillan indicating the vendor used in the past went out of business due to a death and finding a company to do this was very difficult. Electricity was budgeted for the lake house and bathrooms and was up and Trash Removal was for the Recreation Office remaining zero. There was a need to increase the size of the dumpster and Mr. Trott briefly spoke about the time spent for his Department to go to the Transfer Station.
Mrs. McMillan indicated that Advertising was for hiring seasonal employees and advertising bid specs. She also spoke about the Baboosic Lake Monitoring Program in which it was not budgeted in other fiscal years. UNH has a program when they come in and test the water both on the Amherst and Merrimack sides and bill the Town. Amherst pays half and Merrimack pays the other half. The Recreation Department tests the lake weekly and post it on their website. The Maintenance Employee line includes a full time park foreman and a similar person they share with DPW 32 weeks of the year. In response to Mr. Bowler’s question regarding the wages between her Department and DPW for this employee, Mrs. McMillan indicated that under Recreation Wages her salary for this year was wrong. Mr. MacGuire advised it had been under budgeted for the past two years. With their Maintenance employee last year they had a Park Foreman who was in a higher step and the new Park Foreman was hired at a lower one.
Mrs. McMillan indicated that a Part Time Seasonal Laborer (collage student) was hired, the hours were increased from 25 hours to 30 for 20 weeks. She commented that she thought the Selectmen would see the Department was running a tighter ship than in the past. Field Maintenance will remain the same and she briefly described what the funds in this line item consisted of and what it was used for. Overtime Maintenance Employees have been reduced 30 hours each for the Park Foreman and his Assistant because she does not have a need for much overtime. Mr. Trott added their day is planned out and are able to get things done in an eight hour day. Field Electricity has been reduced. A small amount has been budgeted for Bean Property Repairs to keep up with the landscaping and to do some small repairs as needed. IT Wages are shared. Mr. MacGuire remarked that her Department has a much smaller amount than everybody else.
Mr. Panasiti thought an increase of 1.96% was very good. He wondered if there was a comparison for maintenance costs between the Schools and Town. Mrs. McMillan was unsure whether they could compare “apples to apples”, however, they could look at what the Department does and what the School does. Mr. Panasiti thought the Town had an asset with all the fields and had an opportunity to grow into a total Parks and Recreation Department that included the Schools - it seemed like a natural progression. It might be prudent to do some work on this. Mrs. McMillan noted that the Recreation Commission has taken into consideration what total recreation is and what is loaned to them. They have been asked to take care of the third field at the Middle School. Her suggestion would be to take it a step at a time. They have been doing a great job on fields since Keith has been on the job. The next step was to determine how much manpower it would take to maintain all Commission fields and School fields, as well as community grounds such as all commons. Before they entertain that plan, they needed to look at what they were doing and to see if Recreation met the needs of their users. Mr. Trott remarked that they couldn’t do this without the support of the Selectmen, but he was up to the challenge. In response to Mr. Panasiti’s question, Mrs. McMillan explained the Middle School uses the fields 85% of the time and in the Department’s best interest they take care of them. On the flip side, they rely on using the Middle School’s indoor space without charge.
Mr. Galinson also thought the budget under 2% was terrific. In the past, they talked about the Revolving Account and asked where is the amount they charge and how much is offset by the users. Mrs. McMillan advised there were two budgets – one is the General Fund that is the one they have and does not reflect any fees. Mr. MacGuire explained that because it is revolving, you don’t see it in the revenue. Recreation, PMEC and the Police Department have separate Revolving Accounts and are not part of the budget. Mr. Galinson asked to hear what expenses were offset by usage fees. Mrs. McMillan explained there were two types of user fees – one is attached to a program and expenses relates to that. What she budgets for is for those programs to never run at a loss. Sometimes they will get more than the minimum amount of people and they will get a net gain and stay as program fees. The non-resident user fees in the Revolving Account are used to offset maintenance costs. The Recreation Department and Board of Selectmen need to have a discussion on the philosophy of field maintenance through the General Fund or offset through the Revolving Account. The discussion needs to be held so that the Commission and Director knew what to budget for residential and non-residential fees.
Mr. Infanti returned at 7:52 p.m. Mr. Galinson remarked that they were only getting two-thirds of the picture and for next year he would like understand what the Town is actually paying for expenses – outside of this discussion, there was the usage fees he had asked about. Mrs. McMillan indicated that neither the Selectmen nor W&M have looked at the Revolving Fund budget nor it had not been part of the budget presentation. Specifically, she said, it was hard to predict revenues. Mr. Galinson noted they were potentially missing part of the budget and they should at least be able to discuss this, but they didn’t have any numbers. Perhaps they should review how this is presented. Mrs. McMillan advised that in past practices this wasn’t requested – whether or not it was needed, she did not know. She saw it as two and distinct budgets that were before them. In the Revolving Fund, she saw it as a user budget for those who were willing to participate in programs. They needed to have a discussion on what were the taxpayers willing to underwrite as a service. Mr. Galinson asked if $300,000 too much or too little and how much were the users funding. - he had no idea and had no comment because he didn’t know that answer. Mrs. McMillan explained user fees for programs go up and down. Mr. Galinson questioned the maintenance part of this. She indicated they now have instituted non-resident fees and they collect approximately $11,000. She reiterated this was a dialog they need to have in order to give the Director and Commission direction. Mr. Galinson felt that after the budget, they needed to sit down and have this discussion. Mr. Bowler advised that Gary has asked Merri to run the numbers.
Mr. Grella questioned diesel fuel and thought it a bit too high, however, everything else seemed reasonable. Bruce Berry explained that DPW manages the fuel to the various Departments. Last year diesel was at $2.50, they have increased the price to $2.65 and actual usage. The theory is that the price will go down next summer. However, there really was no way of knowing. In answer to Mr. Bowler’s comment, Mr. Berry indicated they could run a report for every Department for every month by vehicle.
Mr. Infanti focused on Baboosic Lake and how they were doing. He mentioned that Camp Young Judea wanted to put in a full size Olympic pool and feel you can’t have a camp without one. He would like to look at what might be down the road and see where they were going. Aside from this, he thought the budget looked good.
Mr. Bowler also thought the bottom line looked good. He knew that Keith has done a tremendous job in streamlining the Department. A few years back they had shown the bottom line in the Revolving Account. He wanted to see the user fee structure for what they are charging for all the programs in order to justify the Revolving Fund. Perhaps the budget could be decreased, if they knew that there were particular items directly associated to the fields and if those items should be picked up by the users rather than the taxpayers. One thing they heard about was there were not many Senior Programs, even though those Seniors were contributing to the bottom line. However, he did know about the Senior Program at the Fire Station. Mr. Bowler spoke briefly about the Selectmen’s meeting in Milford where they talked about having a Senior Center. He also asked that the user fee structure be given to them.
Questions from W&M on the lease purchase of the ¾ ton vehicle, the difference between vehicle repair and equipment repair, soil testing and related costs were answered.
DPW Budget Presentation
4195 Cemeteries
Cemetery Trustees Chairman Peter Bergin met with the Board. He spoke briefly of meeting with the Selectmen about developing Cemetery Fields back into a Cemetery and ways to fund it. In 2005, $15,000 was appropriated for a capital reserve in order to fund a consultant to develop the land for this use. For many years the Cemeteries were maintained through the Cemetery Trust Fund. A few years ago, the Trustees felt it was time for the Town to maintain the Cemeteries through the Town’s budget. The choice was to try and save money to develop Cemetery Fields within four to five years or plan for the Town to pick this up in their budget.
Mr. Bergin explained there were a number of things neglected over the years and maintenance of the Cemeteries had gone down even though DPW supplied people to mow, but they didn’t have the manpower to get many things fixed. Last year they hired a part time person for six months a year - 1200 hours at $15.12 per hour. When presenting their regular budget for the part time person, they discovered that this was a big bite for the Town to take, so that in the current ’07-’08 budget the Trustees picked up this part time person. A small tractor was purchased for this person to carry his tools and do various jobs he had to do. The Trustees wanted to purchase this piece of equipment but were restricted by the use of cy pres funds. They, therefore, entered into a three year lease purchase. Mr. Berry added that per the Attorney General’s Office, cy pres funds can be used to rent but not lease, therefore, they lost $2400. The machine costs $9,000 but with interest on the lease purchase, it will end up approximately $12,000.
Mr. Infanti reported Marie Grella took him through the Cemeteries before this summer and he thought there was no reason for them to look the way they did, with the exception that DPW can only do so much. He recently looked at them again and it was incredible the amount of work Mike accomplished. What bothered him was that the purchase price was $9,000, but with the lease purchase $12,000. The equipment and the man made a big difference to the Cemeteries. Mr. Bowler asked if they bought it could they get a $2400 credit. Mr. Berry said he could try and find out. He talked about the need and thought the machine could be used almost totally throughout six months on a daily basis.
Mr. Bergin told the Board that next spring or summer they will begin to put in a split rail fence, take down the picket fence and will be a nice look for the Village. Mr. Infanti remarked that he was told the Trustees would pick up the wages for the Town. Mr. Bergin advised they had a presentation by the landscape architect and he asked the Trustees to review it and get back to him and he hoped sometime in the year to get a cost. They will start working on this project and will have a feel for the tax dollars needed. Mr. Berry indicated what was unclear was the costs for Forestview Cemetery. DPW did the renovations in Meadowview, but he was not prepared to do them in Forestview. Relative to the capital reserves, Mr. MacGuire advised that budgeted capital reserves will all have to be on the warrant.
Mr. Bowler noted he agreed with George on this issue and said they had to ask the question. Mr. Bergin mentioned they had a meeting on the 4th and will bring it up at that time and get back to the Selectmen. Mr. Bowler suggested that the Town pick up the tractor and the Trustees pick up the wages. Mr. Galinson wondered if all the items on the second page were valid because they were all at zero change. He also asked if they needed to budget $3,000 for Tree Care since they hadn’t spent anything in three years. Mr. Bergin spoke about the trees behind Town Hall that were to be removed. Mr. Berry added they didn’t have a history because this budget had been picked up by the Cemetery Trustees in the past.
Mr. MacGuire suggested removing the $500 in the Overtime line so that there would be a 0% increase. Mr. Bergin explained this line depended on the amount of burials. Mr. Berry will get back to Deirdre Rogusky on the clarification of outside hire vs. wages.
4194 General Government Buildings
Director Berry explained there was a decrease in Wages, Electricity had a slight increase and covers every Town Building. There was an increase in Water because the PUC allowed Pennichuck to increase their rates. The unknown is the Central Fire Station that reflects the filling of the fire trucks. He had a $5000 increase in Repairs and Maintenance. This line covers Town Hall, Police/Rescue, Recreation Office, Library, etc. Recently they completed replacing the Library roof and were looking at the tile floors at the Police Station that were lifting. Mr. Bowler asked about budgeting $85,000 in FY07 and expending almost $95,000, budgeted $85,000 for FY08 and has expended $27,000 to date. Mr. Berry advised the $27,200 didn’t include the Library roof yet. He briefly told the Board what Building Contracts included. Trash Removal was up slightly for the cost of the dumpster used by a variety of Town buildings. Mr. Bowler asked if this was for the dumpster at the Police Station and if so, he suggested contacting Dennis Slocum about getting a 30-35 yard roll up. Mr. Berry will look into it. Bob Petrella asked about the zeroing out of the Cable Access Channel. Mr. Berry explained it has been moved to Gary’s budget.
4311 Public Works Administration
Mr. Berry told the Board that the Telephone line has been reduced based on Gary’s work with Verizon Business. Heat reflects the increase in costs based on previous usage and covers DPW home heating oil and propane for DPW office and Transfer Station. Mr. Bowler asked about the expenditure under Building Repairs that was unbudgeted. Mr. Berry explained it had been brought to his attention that the hanger that houses their 10 sanders and 10 vehicles through the winter had some severe rot on the legs and the $6,230 was the unexpected expense in repairing it. Training and Development was raised an additional $300.00 because they had over expended the budgeted amount.
Mr. Petrella asked why Advertising was up $500. Mr. Berry explained they advertised in the newspaper ten bids this year also they advertised for new hires and the price seemed to increase significantly. Mr. Infanti indicated he had met with Bruce before and all his questions were answered. Mr. Bowler asked where they were with Stormwater II and were running into the final phase. Mr. Berry explained they were in the final year of the five year phase and has run into a small problem with the former assistant leaving. He spoke briefly about the Town’s status. Originally he had budgeted $20,000 and reduced it to $14,000 to partially fund the part time Engineering Assistant. He also commented on wages for summer interns. Mr. Petrella asked if this was mandated. Mr. Bowler remarked that it was an unfunded mandate by the Federal Government. The $14,000 was also for water testing, advertising and other educational needs.
4312 Department of Public Works
The Director reported there was an increase of 3.29%. Sumer Wages were up slightly and he has spent more than half of the budget year to date. Overtime is down a bit with Sick Leave Incentive has been given an increase, Vehicle Repairs has a $4,000 increase to include repairs to the Transfer Station loader, to the backhoe and repairs to one truck. There is also a $4,000 increase in Equipment Repair with Mr. Berry talking about several pieces of equipment and their age. Line Striping is down and he explained that he had purchased a machine to do stop bars and cross walks in-house. Outside Hire has been increased by $88,000.
Mr. Berry mentioned the $400,000 that had been approved and said he would like to explain it further with a Power Point presentation on “Amherst DPW – Improving Our Road Infrastructure”. In researching the five years prior to his arrival, no articles were done for road repair. Back in history, road repairs were almost exclusively done by warrant articles. There was a total of 6.71 miles added between 1990 and 1996. He talked about the number of improvements and repairs done this past year and included the life expectancy of the repairs of crack sealing, patching (without infrared heating), one inch hot mix overlay with 3/8” top, two inch hot mix overlay with ½” top and reclamation / reconstruction. Relative to funding, he commented that additional funding last year began as a warrant article, but was moved into the road budget at the deliberative session. With this available funding, improvements were made within the first three and half months of the budget cycle as follows: (1) 3.96 miles of paving and (2) 5.56 miles of crack sealing. Regarding outsourcing, he showed estimated cost figures associated with repairs by others in the next several years. The 2005 estimated repair was $3,439,888.34. Added to that would be engineering at 15%, contractor profit at 10%, contingency at 15%, and a ten year note with 5.25% interest – bottom line being $6,224,290.31. If the bond was spread over 15 years, an additional $632,000 would be added. Again, he spoke of the life expectancy of those repairs being the same as described above with an added note that “Most of the recommended road repairs have an estimated shorter life cycle, than the life of the bond.” In closing, Mr. Berry asked for their support to continue with the existing strategy.
Mr. Bowler thanked him for his presentation and liked the approach. Mr. Berry explained that he had taken the $400,000 and broke it up and did not put it all in paving. While they did other things on Lyndeborough Road, he will attempt next year to break it all out. Mr. Petrella commented that there was no doubt that the Town could do it cheaper than going outside. It was hard to say the number of roads that needed to be repaired, but at a point in time DPW would have to come back to make repairs, it was hard to see how they could keep up and they may never catch up. The bond would be there if they needed it and would be used to get someone in to accelerate the program. DPW could then come back and repair. Mr. Berry responded that it would be hard to determine what “coming back” meant. Many of the things done were by outside hire with DPW managing it. He added that he could only go back to records that were kept and there was a lapse over the years of some things that didn’t happen. He remarked, “our roads do have some rough spots, but in looking at other towns, they are encouraging”.
In response to Mr. Petrella’s question, Mr. Berry noted that with a bond it would be nice to fix all the roads, but they would have detours all around Town with everything ripped up. He could see some projects being requested in a warrant article. He looked at Boston Post Road and felt the only way to repair it was to do the entire road, but it was a road with vehicular traffic being 7000 cars per day. In answer to Chris Nowlan’s questions, Mr. Berry commented that in looking at crack sealing in general, there are some roads that shouldn’t have been done and in his Road Maintenance Report, he spoke about the purpose of crack sealing. Relative to the chart on page four of this Report, he explained that every road needs to be reclaimed, but not every road needed to be crack sealed and not every road needed to be overlaid. The biggest problem to roads is drainage or lack of it.
Mr. Berry continued with his budget … There was no increase in Tree Care, a reduction in Safety Equipment, Sand and Hot Top. An increase in Gravel was part of the $400,000. Another decrease was to Street Sweeping that had been charged to Outside Hire last year. Their goal is to get as many roads as possible cleaned, however, this spring the Department was hindered by the floods. Mr. Panasiti asked if they could reclaim the sand. Mr. Berry explained they couldn’t because there were other by-products that were in it, but after testing they found some of it could be used for fill. New Equipment was up because they were looking at a replacement plow along with a 20-ton trailer. The Department did not have a trailer to move its own equipment and having this trailer they would be able to move all their equipment with the exception of the grader. Longevity was also up because it reflected changes in his people’s anniversary. Gasoline was up based on usage at $2.65 with diesel down. Equipment Lease Payments covered payments for the Massey tractor, the Zipper and shared lease with Recreation. Pennichuck Water Main Assessment represents an increase by the PUC for the first time in 20 years. This increase is for the hydrant infrastructure that PWW picks up in January and the Town projects their budget in July. He briefly described the scenario if a subdivision was approved in Town with hydrants and when Pennichuck would begin billing and the lapse in between. He mentioned that for every hydrant that was removed, the Town would save $166.00. He also indicated that the Town also pays a rental fee to Milford for two hydrants. Mr. Bowler questioned the figures associated with Milford’s two hydrants at $250.00 per year with an extended cost of $332.16
Mr. Infanti had no questions. Mr. Grella remarked that the Power Point presentation was very good. Mr. Galinson had no questions. Mr. Panasiti asked if there was any discussion about raising the road near the Pennichuck Water pump station. Mr. Berry reported this was part of the hazardous mitigation plan and it was his suggestion to see if they could get engineering approval - at some point the Town would have to address the bridge. Mr. Berry spoke briefly of his thoughts for a sidewalk over the bridge. His second thought was to get some type of hazard mitigation funding, but this was not built into his budget at this time.
Mr. Bowler mentioned that every year they talk about Pennichuck’s assessment on the entire tax base, not everyone receives these benefits and there was a $40,000 increase in this line. However, using the same scenario, not everyone in Town received benefits from cable TV. He also questioned the step and grade for the Recreation Foreman as being different than what Nancy had in her budget. Mr. Berry indicated the rate was the same, but he made note to change the step and grade. Mr. Bowler indicated that Mr. Berry had done an outstanding job the past summer. A complete job on Lyndeborough Road was done and he noticed that the catch basins were working. The same outstanding job was done on Horace Greeley Road, Boston Post Road and Thornton Ferry Road.
In answer to Ms. Rogusky’s questions, Mr. Berry explained a great deal of the funds for Drainage is used to purchase drainage stone and everything else related to it. Relative to Gasoline and Diesel, the Town does not pay taxes on them and both items were budgeted at $2.50 in two previous budgets. The diesel tank holds 2,000 gallons and the gas tank holds 5,000 gallons with both being budgeted at the State bid price. He advised her that School maintenance vehicles come through their pumps, however, he did not know what they budgeted for it.
4316 Street Lighting
Mr. Berry announced there were no increases and changes in this budget from last year.
4323 Souhegan Regional Landfill District
Mr. Berry reported the District has increased the budget at an estimated 2.63% and run a calendar year budget.
4324 Landfill Department
Mr. Berry advised Wages were up due to a step and COLA. The Telephone line had been reduced slightly. Another increase is in Outside Hire and covers shredding of yard waste and disposal of tree waste. They have been consistently over in this line and the increase reflects this. He told Mr. Bowler that they receive nothing for the chips. This year it was shredded into mulch. In the spring, it is his intention to bid this out. Diesel has been reduced and he briefly told the Board the reason for the reduction. He also told Mr. Panasiti that he received very good feedback on the summer hours and when the Transfer Station is renovated they will be open in the evening. There was no increase under Demolition Disposal, but there may be a change in the hauler. There has been many changes with the contract he has been given and may look elsewhere.
John Siemienowicz asked Bruce to describe, as he had at their meeting, how the landfill was being inappropriately used, thereby having a cost impact to the Town. Mr. Berry explained there were two demolition loads that had asbestos in them and they had to pay to mitigate it. Mr. Petrella asked about revenue for this and were they loosing money. Mr. Berry indicated he had to look at the revenue side of the budget for this and did not think at this point they were losing it. Demolition waste also covers all electronic waste and charging for monitors, which is a large expense to the Department and there is a risk cost for all other electronics. He has kept this fee low because if it ends up in a plastic bag and ends up where the solid waste goes and discovered, he has to send someone up there to pick it up. It was cheaper to charge a lower fee for this reason.
4522 Parks and Grounds
There is a zero increase for this budget, said Mr. Berry. Wages remain at a straight $10.00 for summer help.
4130 General Government Executive
Mr. MacGuire advised that the bottom line is at 4.58% or $14,400.00. The majority of it shows up in two places - $6,000 step and COLA and as discussed before, the Cable Access Channel line was now in his budget at $10,000. Most of the other lines were up a little or down. He has included a copier lease and has gone back to the program originated several years ago. The new copier will replace the current copier upstairs at Town Hall and that one will be moved to Recreation. Mr. Galinson asked that with the $100,000 from Comcast, did they need to budget $10,000. Mr. MacGuire indicated they could talk about this, but he had some information from Doug McAllister. The Board decided to talk about this further during the final budget discussion.
4253 Legal Expenses
Mr. MacGuire reported these were fees for regular Town Counsel costs, labor costs and code enforcement costs – the Town uses three different sets of Attorneys. Town Counsel, for the first time in many years has increased his rate that is the $5,400.00 increase. Collective Bargaining goes up and down and he anticipated beginning negotiations, therefore, it has been adjusted slightly. Cable negotiations they know are at an end and do not anticipate funding this further.
4155 Personnel Administration / Insurance
Mr. MacGuire explained this makes up Short and Long Term Disability and Life Insurance. These numbers were the best quotes from their provider at this time. Workers Comp Insurance is based on their history - they had a bad year about four years ago. The numbers will drop as their history drops and they were at the high end now. Mr. Galinson commented that it is what it is and inflation was out of whack. Mr. MacGuire added that some of it was the Town’s issue and they needed to work hard to keep their losses down.
4196 Property / Liability Insurance
Mr. MacGuire advised that this insurance was also affected by the Town’s performance and was based on a Primex quote - he will shop around. How this is handled affects their place in the pool. This was an area they need to keep focusing on as an employer. Mr. Grella asked about the Safety Committee and was it an ongoing process. Mr. MacGuire explained they have stayed on track and he is working with the Department of Labor on some issues of compliance and updates to reduce their losses. Ms. Rogusky asked if they had issues recently. Mr. MacGuire replied most were older and they have some pending.
4411 Health Administration
Mr. MacGuire noted this was up 1.95% due to wages for the Health Officer.
4442 Welfare
Mr. MacGuire announced he was please to have the Town’s Welfare Officer sitting at their table. It amazed him on how she managed to keep this budget flat each year while assisting people and keeping the Town’s interest in mind.
4415 Health Agencies and Hospitals
Mr. MacGuire reported he had made several adjustments that they can discuss briefly that night. They have agencies that repeatedly request funds the Town budgets for and then they do not request the actual money. What he has done this year was any agency that has gone three years without requesting payment of funds he had zeroed them out. They ask every year, but then do not ask for the money. Obviously they are good agencies, but if they don’t need the funds perhaps the Town doesn’t need to budget for them. In looking over this budget, you will see several with huge increases. He would like to propose that they choose a “not to exceed increase” because the Town was living with a 1.95% COLA. He suggested a 5% or 10% maximum increase. There were packages in their books that explain these agencies. He would look at the agencies to live within a similar budget that the Town is living with. He asked them to look at the report on these agencies, they will see the cost for citizens charged – some are pretty high, some are pretty economical and there were some he would like to see as warrant articles again.
Mr. Bowler agreed. There was one agency that had a $4,000 increase and serves five residents. He thought the Board needed to think about this. They were telling their employees 1.95% pay raise and they have one agency asking for 114% increase and another at 19.23%. Mr. MacGuire commented this was a philosophical point and thought they should revisit it and then come back. It may help to read some of the requests. Mr. Infanti thought it should be reviewed as they did last year.
4589 Amherst Heritage Commission
4583 Patriotic Purposes
4611 Conservation Commission
Mr. MacGuire indicated there were no changes in the above budgets.
4915 Transfers to Capital Reserves
Mr. MacGuire advised that in the past once a Capital Reserve was established, these lines were funded in the budget. They have found this is not the proper DRA accounting for them. These lines had been zeroed out to $171,000 and he anticipated they would include them in a warrant article that the Board would see within the next week or two. They will have to do these through a single warrant article or individual ones.
Revenues
Mr. MacGuire gave the Board a copy of the first draft for revenues. He also presented them with gross to net budget figures indicating that they were now looking at a budget of $4,598,000.00. He said he wanted to get this information out so that they could begin digesting them. A great majority of the revenue comes from vehicle registration and just as hard to guess as fuel costs in and he had been conservative on the LUCT funding.
Ms. Rogusky asked where did the County assessment fit in. Bill Belvin added that it didn’t show up in the budget. Mr. Bowler explained this was a separate amount on the tax bill. The County sets the budget and sends out the assessments to the individual towns in the County. The Selectmen have no control over their budget. Ms. Rogusky said traditionally the Selectmen offer some guidance. Mr. Bowler indicated that they came in last year with what they thought was a good budget comparing “apples to apples” and they can’t this year because of the capital reserves being taken out. If they set a number this is where it will come in. He thought last year worked quite well in not giving them an exact figure, they haven’t yet and were seeing pretty good budgets. There were some increases such as with the Cemeteries and hopefully they could come up with something.
Ms. Rogusky asked to talk about the IT wage lines across Department budgets. Mr. MacGuire explained the IT vendor they use provides services to everybody in Town with the exception of the Library. They don’t say Recreation used his services for 14 hours and then bill the Department for it. Most of his services go to the Police Department and Town Hall. They were in the process of trying to upgrade and are in better shape now. The vendor is comfortable where everything stands now. He told Deirdre that in prior years they had a part time wage line and now they should have a vendor line – some IT charges were to an employee line.
Ms. Rogusky commented that the schedule for November was incredible and asked if they have one for December. Mr. MacGuire noted that tonight concluded the presentation of all the expenditures and allows the Board to start discussing them. He hoped to begin this discussion next week and then finalize the budget. He will put numbers together with the help of the Department Heads and Finance Director and begin the warrant articles discussion. Mr. Bowler added that next week they will have a public forum about safety in front of Town Hall and on the 17th they will recognize two teams that went onto the World Series.
Ms. Rogusky thanked everyone for putting the details back into the budget. She also wanted to recognize Gary and the Department Heads because this year it was obvious that the Committee was receiving solutions to problems that had come up.
Other Business
Mr. Infanti reported he had gone to Milford’s Selectmen’s meeting to discuss a project he was involved in. While there he took the opportunity to thank Milford’s Fire Department for their help at the recent fire. To say that he was impressed was not enough. Both Departments did an excellent job and to see Milford’s Tower Truck and Amherst’s Tower Truck on each side of the building working together was great and he wanted to relay that message to the Milford Selectmen. He also briefly mentioned when the Planning Board’s next meeting will be held to discuss Zoning changes.
Mr. Galinson reported that the new impact fee warrant article will be on the list next week. Mr. Panasiti had nothing to report nor did Mr. Bowler.
Mr. MacGuire reported he spent much his day on the telephone issues with both Verizon and PUC because he is now receiving termination notices. This was one of the most frustrating things he has done, he said.
Minutes
Mr. Infanti moved to accept the minutes of November 19, 2007 as written, second by Mr. Grella. Vote: 4-0-1, Mr. Panasiti abstained.
Mr. Infanti moved to adjourn the meeting at 10:37 p.m., second by Mr. Grella. Vote: Unanimous.
Respectfully submitted,
Sharon L. Frydlo
Executive Assistant