Colchester Commission on Aging
INFORMATIONAL Meeting Minutes – No Quorum
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 – Colchester Senior Center
Members Present: Chairman Jean Stawicki, Vice-Chair Clara Erickson, Bernie Erickson
Members Absent: Bill Wagner, Sue Maikshilo, Betty Ann Oppelt, Barbara Warden, Theresa Hendricksen
Others Present: Patti White, Rosemary Coyle, Norm Dupuis, Maggie Cosgrove
The informational meeting began at 1:05 p.m. Maggie Cosgrove spoke regarding the financial status of the senior center. She explained that the senior center has an operating budget of approximately $235,000 for the fiscal year of 7/1/2009-6/30/2010. The bulk of this amount is for payroll related expenses. 63.8% of this money comes from property taxes, 32.7% comes from intergovernmental revenue from the State of Connecticut and the balance is from fees and charges that the town imposes. The senior center does take in a small amount of revenue from the dial-a-ride program that is also applied to their budget. The operating budget is based on a fiscal year and at the end of the fiscal year, any monies leftover are put into a reserve fund (rainy day fund) for unanticipated costs the town may incur. The
Board of Finance has designated that 7% of the operating budget should be kept in the reserve fund.
Aside from the operating budget, there are some special revenue accounts for the senior center. They are kept separate from the operating budget because they are fee based revenues or donations to the senior center. The special revenue accounts keep their balances from year to year. The largest of these accounts has approximately $46,000, of which about $21,000 is from memorial donations. Some programs are run out of this account, like the Green Team. Most donations are put into this account because they are made to the senior center with no restrictions imposed by the donor. There is another account with a balance of approximately $7,000. This is kept separate because it was donated with restrictions from the donor and can only be spent in a certain way. There is another account with about
$5,000 that relates to medical out-of-town trips. Most of the cost for this program comes from a grant from the State of Connecticut, so this money is a
back-up to the grant. Maggie explained that all interest generated from these accounts goes into the town’s general fund.
Norm Dupuis questioned how to make a substantial expenditure with this money. Maggie explained that any capital expenditures need to go before the Board of Finance. They would also have to follow the town’s procurement policies. There are no charter requirements to go before the Board of Selectmen or Board of Finance for other types of purchases however she strongly recommends it so that everyone knows what’s going on. She said some other departments have a written policy on how to utilize this type of fund.
Jean Stawicki asked Maggie for a copy of the letter that came with the donation of $7,000 so they could see the stipulations.
Patti White reported that the Board of Selectmen will interview applicants for the Senior Center Study Group on Thursday, October 15th. It will then take about 2 weeks for the appointments. There were 5 applicants for the 3 at-large positions.
Respectfully submitted,
Michelle Komoroski
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