Present: Chairman David Mason, Beatrice Davis and Jerry Dougherty IV, Selectmen
Visitors: Office Administrator Diane Falcey, Road Agent/Fire Chief Jay Henry, Police Chief Karl Meyers, Sarah Clemons, Joan Aubrey, Tax Collector & Town Clerk Bill Botsford, Gino Funicella, Office Assistant Linda Dresch, Hank Dresch, Dudley Davis, Paul Palubniak, Bob Davis, Jerry Dougherty, III, Kathleen Dougherty, Roger Chambers, Henry Mock, John Pietkowicz, Annette Libby, John Allen, Transfer Station Manager Jon Edgerly, Betsey Harding, Sam Harding, Sarah Duffy, Kathleen Kopitsky
Chairman Mason opened the Budget Hearing at 5:06 p.m.
Chairman Mason explained the budget contains no wage increases for this year; the reason the line item for wages looks higher is because there are fifty-three weeks this year. The tax rate is projected to be a little less than last year so the tax rate is stable. The tax rate projected is $4.22 which is more than last year and that is created by the fact the Selectmen put in One hundred eighty five thousand dollars for land purchase as there is a petitioned article asking the town to purchase the Partoon’s land for parking and the money has to be put into the budget in case it passes. Chairman Mason touched on highlights and members of the public asked questions as items arose.
Line 4131.02 Elected Officers’ Salaries has an increase in compensation for the Checklist Supervisors.
Line 4131.00 Town Clerk Office Wages has the Town Clerk’s fees included.
Line 4131.02 Town Clerk and Tax Collector Expenses is increased because of the $2,000 fee for the audit that would be required should Tax Collector & Town Clerk Botsford not be reelected.
Line 4150.00 Office Wages is higher because there are fifty three weeks this year.
Line 4150.02 Town Office Health Insurance did not go up.
Line 4150.03 Town Office NHRS Pension has an increase that takes into account the increase in Jackson’s contribution that went into place in July (2010).
Line 4150.09 Accounting Expenses was overspent in 2010 with the audit.
Chairman Mason noted there is a new law that is being implemented which requires towns to do an annual audit. If the town elects an auditor, the level to which the audit needs to rise is reduced and compromised. It has been suggested that the town of Jackson put in a write-in auditor who can work with the town’s CPA who would advise the auditor without the town having to spend the money for a CPA audit.
Line 4152.00 Reappraisal, Revaluation, Tax Map Update the town has a contract that covers most of that.
Line 4153.00 Legal Expenses Jerry Dougherty, III noted this line is up a lot. Chairman Mason explained the town has normal legal expenses and two cases going forward that are scheduled for a hearing in 2011. The first is a Declaratory Judgment regarding the Solid Waste Disposal District contract and the second is another case with an individual with a building permit dispute which has already been to court once; injunctions were issued, now we’re going back to court. The Board has no way of knowing what those things are going to cost but it’s conceivable they won’t cost what has been budgeted. Selectman Dougherty asked what part of this expense is relative to Bartlett and Chairman Mason noted it’s hard to say; there is a meeting of the Committee planned for
early March. Bartlett’s attorney says we might be able to meet and resolve this so the cost would be a lot less. Roger Chambers asked if any money not spent would go back into the general fund; which was affirmed. Jerry Dougherty, III asked how the Board came up with that amount and was informed that $40,000 was their best “shot in the dark guess” based on what might be involved.
Line 4194.00 Maintenance of Town Buildings Chairman Mason noted, for clarification, this amount is down this year because items were moved that used to be under this line such as utilities. This is done in an effort to get a better accounting of expenses.
Line 4197.00 Eastern slope Airport Authority No petitioned article has been received so it is set at zero dollars.
Line 4199.00 Health Insurance Others is a place holder for folks who might be buying insurance through the town. The town pays up front and the others who purchase the insurance pay the town back; this amount is offset by income.
Line 4240.00 Building Inspections Jerry Dougherty, III asked if this is a place holding line as well and Chairman Mason noted the town includes it as revenue so it’s gross appropriated; the only reason there is a place holder on the insurance is because the town doesn’t know who is going to buy the insurance. This line includes site disturbance and septic inspections. Selectman Dougherty noted this is only an estimate; we don’t know what we’ll be faced with for inspections and we also received Fifteen thousand dollars income on building inspections. Henry Mock asked who gets inspected and was informed anybody with a residential or business project is required to be inspected. Henry asked who performs those inspections and was informed Andy Chalmers is
Jackson’s Building Inspector and he’s certified in all the codes.
Line 4195.02 Cemetery Health Insurance The employee pays more than half of this fee.
Line 4195.03 Cemetery Checking Account Chairman Mason explained the Cemetery office has their own account but the Selectmen have to include the funds as it is an appropriation.
Henry Mock would like to go back to Line 4240.00 Building Inspections again; he asked how much the Building Inspector gets paid; he’s wondering if that is a bid situation where anyone can apply? Chairman Mason noted the job pays Sixty five dollars an hour and the Board had proposals from four others and took this proposal. Henry asked if this was the lowest bid and was informed it wasn’t. Chairman Mason noted this isn’t put out to bid every year, the town finds an Inspector who does well and as long as that person is doing a good job and the fees are reasonable we stay with him or her.
Line 4210.10 Special Details (Police) is offset by fees; the town will be reimbursed for that service. This line is set at Ten thousand dollars but the Board doesn’t know how much it will be; the town pays the Officer and then offset that expense when the income is paid back.
Line 4210.04 Gas/Oil, Police Department has a One thousand dollar increase because fuel is said to be going up.
Roger Chambers asked why there’s no contingency going in for an upgrade of equipment and it was explained there are some warrant articles such as Five thousand dollars for a cruiser and there’s an Expendable Trust for maintenance of equipment as well.
The Bartlett-Jackson Ambulance is budgeted at Five thousand dollars. The Selectmen met with the Bartlett Selectmen and Sue and Rick from the Ambulance a couple of weeks ago; it was decided Jackson would put five thousand dollars in; the Ambulance is doing well in paying its own way but they are having difficulty with collections. Selectman Dougherty noted Hart’s Location will put Five hundred dollars on their town warrant to put toward this as a good neighbor gesture for the ambulance service that is available to them.
Line 4220.07 Operating Expenses, Fire Department is lower because they have pulled out the electric charges.
Roger Chambers asked who is operating the little red truck the town has; is it the Highway or the Fire Department? Chairman Mason it’s a combination since the same guy is the Fire Chief and the Road Agent. Fire Chief/Road Agent Henry noted it depends on the time of year and which hat he’s wearing when he’s using it.
Line 4220.10 Utilities is new and shows these broken out from building maintenance.
Line 4291.00 Emergency Management is funded by a grant the town already has.
Line 4311.12 Utilities (Highway) is just for the new garage and the Gray’s Inn garage.
Line 4319.00 Safe Routes to School Henry Mock asked what this is and was informed this is a grant to improve crosswalks, sidewalks, et cetera that make it safer for kids to walk to school. If we don’t get the grant then we don’t spend the money but it’s there in case we get it. Fire Chief/Road Agent Henry asked if the town can use these funds for crosswalks and Chairman Mason noted he’s not sure what the funds can be used for. Gino Funicella noted this grant provides planning funds not for the actual doing. Selectman Dougherty believes the funds can be spent on things other than plans. The point is the funds have to get put into this budget so we can expend them if we get them. Jerry Dougherty, III asked who expends these funds, is it the
Board; this was affirmed. Roger Chambers asked if anything left would go into the general fund and he was informed there won’t be any funds left over from this grant if Jackson gets it.
Line 4721.01 Bond Interest Garage & Salt Shed Gino Funicella asked if the Seventeen thousand six hundred twenty five dollars is the bond interest is for three years’ interest and was informed this is the interest-only payment for just this year. Next year we’ll have a payment of principal and interest. Chairman Mason noted the town has some funds that were generated by the bond sale that may be used for the principal payment.
Line 4324.04 Joint Operating Account (Transfer Station) Jackson puts the same amount aside every year and if any is left over it goes into the general fund. This is funded by sales of recyclables, et cetera; it is prudent to have some money in there.
Line 4324.05 Repair & Parts, Transfer Site Jackson owns its own compactor. All other maintenance parts are handled out of the Joint Operating Account. This balances out on equalized valuation. It was noted that anything associated with Transfer Station Manager Edgerly license and trainings are paid out of Operating Expenses.
Line 4442.00 Public Welfare has been increased because there’s more activity; the Board felt better putting more in.
The total operating budget is $1,705,185.00.
There are several proposed warrant articles.
The Highway repair article calls for $84,700; Jackson’s share is $41,022 with the balance coming from a Block Grant from the State.
The Board would like to put $25,000 in the Capital Reserve Fund for heavy equipment for the Highway Department.
There’s an Expendable Trust Fund for the repair or lease of equipment; the advantage to putting funds in a trust and not in the budget is that the Town can hold it over from year to year rather than the funds going back into the general fund.
$5,000 is going for the Bridge Repair Fund. Road Agent Henry noted there’s been discussion with the Board about repairs on the Wilson Road Bridge; this is to be done and that means there’ll be no money in the Bridge Repair Fund. He feels the Town needs to put more money in this fund; we’ll either pay now or pay later. It was noted the town has three or four red-listed bridges; there have been estimates created and they range from $125,000 to $300,000; the State is supposed to pay eighty percent of the cost to repair the bridges but the State doesn’t have any money; Jackson is in the queue for the funds. None of our bridges are dangerous, they need maintenance and eventually they will need more maintenance. Putting money away at Five thousand dollars each year is not
going to get those bridges done. Jackson will either need to do a bond and get reimbursed when the State has money or end up waiting until it’s necessary. Betsey Harding asked if in order for the town to put a bridge onto the list of repairs Jackson had to commit the twenty percent. Chairman Mason noted that when the State tells us they have the money Jackson can raise it at that time. Betsey wondered if it makes sense to put more money away in view of what’s to come. Selectman Dougherty noted the money for the first round won’t be available until 2018 and Jackson may not qualify which would leave us looking at 2023 for these funds. We have to have a specific engineering plan which means we have to spend a lot of money upfront on engineering to qualify for State money. We need to find the balance. We could arbitrarily put a large amount in and it won’t go to waste. Roger Chambers thinks the town should
bump the amount up now; we have bridge repairs that are waiting now. We are going to be replacing the decking on Wilson Road Bridge but nothing else is planned in this years budget. Chairman Mason noted the Board could put more funds into this. Jackson has what is needed to do what we’ve got to do this year but we need to do more homework. It won’t hurt to put more in but the Board would rather have a plan. Roger urged the Board not to ignore this as it’ll only get worse. Chairman Mason noted the Board could put $10,000 into this and the tax rate would still be less than last year. The $185,000 for the land will be what bumps the tax rate up. Selectman Dougherty, seconded by Selectman Davis, made a motion to increase the article to $10,000. The motion passed unanimously.
Jackson puts in $20,000 to the State aid reconstruction fund and the State matches that with another $20,000. Road Agent Henry noted he used almost all of that (in 2010) for reclaiming in front of the school. He will talk to Kenny because he wants to pick somewhere bad and the State will allow us to do another reclaim.
Henry Mock asked about the Library fund which is $52,401; how does this compare to last year’s. Last year the amount was $56,139 and $125,000 from the Capital Reserve Fund went into construction. Henry clarified that last year the Library spent $125,000 plus $56,000; this was affirmed but it was explained that $21,000 came from Library trusts so only $34,000 came out of taxes. Allen Brooks noted there were also donations and fees that came in as income. This year the town portion would be $43,672 with the rest coming from trust funds and donations. Betsey Harding asked why this is going down $4,000 from last year and Allen explained that some of the money was the school appropriation which is not involved anymore. Roger commented that these funds will still be coming out of Jackson’s taxpayers. It was pointed out that the money for the Library is the operating cost of the Library and will be offset some but the town has to appropriate the entire amount.
The Baker Prospect Farm property needs to be surveyed; they have been timber harvesting but we have to know the lines. The cost of this will be covered by funds from the Trust.
Henry Mock noted there’s information that says Timber sale with a figure of $11,000; he’d like to know if it cost Jackson $11,000 to sell the timber; he was informed this was income from the timber sale and since it came from the Farm they’d like to put that money into the Baker Prospect Farm Trust. Roger thought that went to the school for the bus? It was explained that was a separate tax revenue not related to this article. There will be logging and timber management on the Baker Prospect Farm covered by funds expended from the trust and they want the revenue from the timber sale to be put in the trust. Henry asked if some of these figures are expenditures and some are revenues; he was informed these are all expenditures but some are offset by revenue.
Gino Funicella asked what the plan is for the old cruiser; he wondered if any thought had been given to using it for a third police car for the third officer. He’s wondering if there’s enough revenue to do that. Chief Meyers noted there is $40,000 in the Capital Reserve Fund for a cruiser. The plan is to have the old cruiser used by another Town department or we might sell it with a sealed bid to generate revenue. Selectman Dougherty asked if it would be worthwhile exploring a trade; typically we’ve used them so long they aren’t worth a trade but this one is still in good shape. Chief Meyers noted a trade could be possible; he will look at a trade, use by another department or selling it; we’re not going to let it just sit there.
Historically Jackson has put funds into the Transfer Station Building and Recycling fund in order to replace the compactor. Roger Chambers asked if we’re going to buy a scale; now is the time to buy it and it would be Jackson’s alone.
PEG (Public/Education/Government) programming is something people have been talking about and some are very excited about getting PEG here in Jackson; the cost will be $5,000 to receive Channel 3. Currently the town is not asking Channel 3 to do any filming. Jerry Dougherty, III asked if this is offset by revenue from the cable company; he was informed the town gets franchise fees as revenue to town.
Town Office Equipment Fund has $10,835 in it. Selectman Dougherty asked if the Board wants to cap it; Chairman Mason noted we spend as we get it; he feels the town is putting in the right amount.
Selectman Davis would like to talk about the article requesting the town to spend $185,000 for twenty-one parking spaces. She would like to remind folks that the $185,000 is just for the land and there’s a lot of work that will have to be put into that property; it’s not just the $185,000 that’s being petitioned. We do have to have it on the warrant because it is a petitioned article but she doesn’t support it. Selectman Dougherty asked if the Board supports this article or not; it was noted this can be discussed further at the Town Meeting. Roger Chambers noted you can’t park cars on that land now so the town will have to put more money into it. Selectman Davis noted the problem is underneath the property; we don’t know what’s there so we don’t know
what kind of work would need to be done. Chairman Mason would like to see the article amended to allow it to be looked into and have a discussion about the price. Selectman Dougherty doesn’t support this article. Chairman Mason doesn’t think it would be bad to own the property but he also believes $185,000 is too much. Jerry Dougherty, III asked where this property is and it was explained this is an acre abutting town land by the ball field. Selectman Davis noted Jackson now has a parking lot at the tennis court which is just across the street from this property. Sarah Clemons noted that there’s always been discussion about getting grant money to help with walking and exercise; she’d like to know if the town could use grant funding, if we get it, to put in new crossing lines to help folks walk that distance. She noted that the area by the pond has always been off limits for parking; it’s only the last couple of
years that folks have felt the need to park there. She noted it would be good if the Board could have a figure, from perhaps our Road Agent, as to the cost to make this property into a parking lot. Another issue with this property is that we don’t know if we can get a state driveway permit.
On the document distributed the 2011 gross appropriation is $2,199,114.45 with an anticipated net of $1,616,478.45. This will be up by $5,000 for the bridge which was just increased. The $185,000 for the land would add forty-eight cents.
Betsey Harding is wondering why we are not proposing funding for the Eastern Slope Airport; she was informed no one put in a petition.
Sarah Clemons would like to go back to the Highway Department budget; the Selectmen were talking about $25,000 for a truck; did the Board decide to do that? That hasn’t been decided yet.
Jerry Dougherty III asked if the Selectmen will be taking a position about the warrant articles and was informed that the warrant will state if they are in favor or not.
The Board will take a position on the purchase of the land for $185,000; none of them are in favor of this article.
Gino Funicella noted that every other year the town appropriated money for pay increases and he’d like to know why this year nothing has been put in for the employees since most folks would agree we have a well-run town now. He asked if it would be appropriate to discuss increases at Town Meeting. Chairman Mason noted we know that inflation is nil and the Board asked every department head if they had anyone who needed an increase due to coming in at a low level or having increased duties. All of the department heads told the Board they were all okay with no increases, except for one. Gino thinks a three percent increase is called for. Costs go up as fast for those who are lower paid as for the wealthy. Chairman Mason noted Gino could add money on the Town Hall floor to the
operating budget with the suggestion that the money be made available for increases for town employees. Selectman Davis noted Jackson’s employees were given a good raise and they are also getting overtime pay instead of compensation time. If anyone has progressed then we gave the Department heads the opportunity to give those employees raises. Dudley Davis asked which Department thought they needed a raise and Chairman Mason noted this is a personnel issue at this time so he can’t discuss it.
Henry Mock asked if he is fairly safe in telling his neighbors the tax rate will be $4.22 per thousand. Chairman Mason noted if we are able to defeat the purchase of the land that $4.22 would drop by forty-eight cents or almost that amount because the budget was just increased by $5,000 for bridges. The Board may also put in $30,000 for the truck; the Board usually puts in $50,000 towards the truck; this year we didn’t put any funds toward the truck but we put $25,000 toward the grader. We need to put money aside for the truck so we don’t have issues in the future. We will need both a new highway truck and grader. Selectman Dougherty would suggest the Board put $25,000 into the grader fund and $25,000 into the truck fund. Chairman Mason noted the Board has tried to keep the
tax rate stable; we don’t want it coming way down by not putting away money towards the things we know we’ll need. Jackson’s accounts are all looking the same. Selectman Dougherty, seconded by Selectman Davis, made a motion to put $25,000 in the Highway Truck Capital Reserve Fund. The motion passed unanimously.
Gino Funicella asked for a print out regarding the tax rate info. Office Administrator Falcey will have that information available.
Sam Harding asked how the $185,000 land purchase article got on the warrant and was informed it was petitioned so it has to go on the warrant.
The Budget Hearing was dissolved at 6:25 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by:
Martha D. Tobin
Recording Secretary
| 
