Finance Committee Minutes
Town of Bellingham – Municipal Center
Monday, April 28, 2008
1. FinCom Present: Raymond Szczepan, Joseph Collamati, Roland Lavallee, Toni Picariello, Henri Masson
2. FinCom Absent: Gary Maynard, Carol Dill
3. Meeting called to order: 7:15 pm
4. SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
Article 1, Item 300, School
Appearing for the School Department: Debra Page, Gwen Swansen, Superintendant Mattocks, Michael O’Herron.
Amount requested: $20,347,486. The members of the Budget Committee were Mary Chaves, Dawn Davies, Robert Donahue, Michael Drone, Denis Fraine, Lloyd Goodnow, Michelle Lemay, Michael O’Herron and Raymond Szczepan. They worked hard on the budget.
The School Department will be saving money by keeping special needs services in-house and not out-of-house, which saves $130,000. Special Education children have federal rights to be educated. There was an increase in special education of $600,000, but that amount saved $1.0M. There are no special education children from out-of-town attending Bellingham schools at this time.
The average class sizes are below 22-25, with lower class sizes in kindergarten through 3-4 grades.
Two and a half custodian positions were cut, and Spanish will not be offered in grades 1, 2 or 3..
They are working with Honeywell regarding the energy issue. They have not signed a contract with them yet. They will be giving the Flansburg Associates report to the Capital Improvement Committee.
A draft bid for the Keough roof is out and the High School roof is being looked at.
Raymond Szczepan/Henri Masson motion to recommend the School Budget at $20,347,486. VOTE: 5/0.
Article 1, Item 303, School Transportation
Amount requested: $1,600,000 an increase of $200,000.
The new contract is with Vendetti. There were no escalation clauses for gasoline costs in previous bids. The bid is based on the number of buses needed. They will not know how many buses are needed until they figure out the routes this summer for the 2008/2009 year.
Since we don’t know now definitely what the cost of transportation will be, Marilyn Mathieu suggested that the budget be $1.6M and the Town can revisit it at the Fall Town Meeting and adjust that budget then.
Denis Fraine and School Department are looking at transportation fees for 2010.
Raymond Szczepan/Joseph Collamati motion to recommend $1,600,000 for the Transportation Budget. VOTE: 5/0
Article 9 – Amend Article 1
The School Department is requesting that $84,000 be transferred from School Transportation to the School Budget. The special education buses shared routes with the regular buses.
Joseph Collamati/Raymond Szczepan motion to transfer $84,000 from School Transportation to School Department budgets. VOTE: 5/0.
Article 10 – Capital Outlay (School Technology)
The School department is requesting capital outlay in the amount of $8,936.40. This amount is Bellingham’s share of the USSL Fund, the assessed tax on telephone bills. The money will be used for technology in the schools; i.e.: pay the Webmaster, for technology professional development.
Raymond Szczepan/Henri Masson motion to recommend transferring $8,936.40 from the USSL Fund to School Technology. VOTE: 5/0.
5. GENERAL DISCUSSION
A. Police Department Computer Program (Marilyn Mathieu)
The Police Department would like to install IMC software for their record management). They are unhappy with Pamet & Biokey. Both the Fire and Police Departments would use it and the Fire Department is in agreement with the change.
This will not cost any additional money. If this fits in with the MIS budget, Marilyn Mathieu would need to seek authority to enter into a 10-year lease at Town Meeting. Town Meeting needs to approve any lease over 3 years.
B. Commission on Disability – Salary request (Article 1, Item 183)(Marilyn Mathieu)
The Commission on Disability is requesting to increase their clerk’s salary to $125.00 per month from $100.00 per month. In order to keep the bottom line of their budget consistent, the FinCom voted as follows:
Joseph Collamati/Henri Masson motion to recommend the Commission on Disability budgets as follows: Salaries: $1,500.00; Expenses: $1,300.00 for a total budget of $2,800.00. VOTE: 5/0.
C. Master Plan Review Committee Member (per Planning Board’s request)
Roland Lavallee suggested that we appoint a member to the Master Plan Review Committee at the May 12, 2008 meeting.
D. DPW Culvert issue (per Joseph Collamati request)
Donald DiMartino informed Toni Picariello that the Road Committee will be meeting the week of April 28, 2008 to discuss the culvert issue. Joseph Collamati and Roland Lavallee (Road Committee members) will meet with Denis Fraine and Road Committee at Lake Street on Thursday, May 1, 2008. The FinCom will discuss this issue at the May 12, 2008 meeting.
E. Accept Minutes for April 14, 2008 and April 22, 2008.
These will be reviewed and discussed at the May 12, 2008 meeting.
Adjourned: Raymond Szczepan/Henri Masson motion to adjourn. VOTE: 5/0. 8:30 pm
(Accepted July 14, 2008)
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