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Budget Committee Minutes 2004/01/14
Town of Lyme
Budget Committee
January 14, 2004
7:00pm
Lyme Town Offices

APPROVED: JANUARY 21, 2004
Present at this meeting: Selectmen: Richard Jones, and Peter A. Bleyler. Budget Committee Members: Gibb Cornwell, Mike Smith, Wayne Tullar, Jeff Lehmann, Josh Kilham, Chairman Barney Brannen, Earl Strout, Judy Shelnutt-Brotman, Freda Swan, School Board representative Manton Copeland.  School Board Chairman Laszlo Bardos and Principal Gerry Clancy, Recreation Commission Chair Cathy Cramer,  Administrative Assistant Carole Bont, and Scribe Dina Cutting.

       The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm by Chair Brannen.

Chair Brannen reviewed what the Budget Committee had left to discuss and or vote at tonight’s meeting. Town Budget:
                        Recreation
                        Trust Fund for Town Poor
                        Parking Lot
                        Personnel lines (line 81)
                        Highway Facility Bond
                School Budget:
                        The answers to last week’s questions requested from Mr. Bardos.
The Budget Committee wanted an overview of the Town Budget before they picked over the school budget for cuts. The Budget Committee addressed the Town portion of the budget first.

A new Budget Worksheet and a draft  MS-7 was distributed to Budget Committee members.

1)      Mr. Cornwell moved the minutes of the January 5, 2004 meeting. Seconded by Mr. Lehmann. Corrections were offered. The minutes were voted unanimously in favor with corrections noted.

2)      2) Mrs. Swan moved the minutes of the January 7, 2004 meeting. Seconded by Mr. Lehmann. Corrections were offered. The minutes were voted unanimously in favor with corrections noted.

3)      Recreation Commission: Ms. Cramer described the many sports the Recreation Commission offer to the youth in our town. Followed was a brief discussion concerning how the revolving recreation fund line works, the sport programs, the recreation director’s hours, and Post Pond. Ms. Cramer noted the Recreation Commission would like to see Steve Small (Recreation Director) get lifeguard certified and spend more time out at the Post Pond beach area. Mr. Small met with Ms. Cramer to inform her of the time he spends doing specific duties involving the sports programs.
*Dealing with registration and scheduling 50%.
*Dealing with parents on various issues 15-20%
*Attending Upper Valley Recreation Association meetings, field work,      organizing referees, and scheduling issues 20%.
Mr. Small is budgeted for 38 weeks at 15 hours per week, and 4 weeks (during the summer pond program) at 30 hours per week.  There was a brief discussion concerning the amount requested for the revolving recreation fund. This line is an in and out line. The revenues have to be at least equal to what the commission pays out in expenses. Because of gross budgeting this line was increased to $18,000.00. The Budget Committee thanked Ms. Cramer for coming to the meeting to answer their questions.

Line 325 Parks and Recreation: Mr. Jones moved line 325 at $70,231.00. Seconded by Mr. Copeland. Voted unanimously in favor.

4)      Town Poor Trust Fund:  Ms. Bont reported that the Town could set up a fund for this purpose. The Town would need to vote this amount each year. The Town would not be able to spend this money on anything else in the budget. Mr. Jones reported the Selectmen are opposed to this fund. It would create more recurring warrant articles to keep track of.  We would need to make sure we did not forget to vote this article every year. It is in the New Hampshire constitution that we must provide for the poor. Even if we do not budget for it we would have to pay those expenses. A brief discussion followed on undesignated funds and how they are used to lower the tax rate. The MS-7 form was discussed. They also discussed the need to keep the undesignated fund balance available for the town’s use. After this discussion it was the sense of the Budget Committee not set up a trust fund for the town poor expenses.
5)      School Budget:  Mr. Bardos reported on a graph showing the FTE chart for the Lyme School teaching staff. Followed was a discussion about the relative cost of Special Education compared to enrollment, regular education numbers and costs, offsetting revenues for some special education costs, and projections for 2004-2005 school population. It was noted that the number of Lyme special education students has dropped. The National average of special education students runs between 11%-16%, Lyme is at 17% now. We were much higher a few years ago. The questions from the last meeting were answered
A) Mr. Clancy gave a review of class preparation time for the teaching staff. This school does have a policy for maximum class size. What determines the need to split or not is the make up of the children and their personalities.  
B) It was reported that Mr. Schnare does not want the Special Education Trust Fund to go below $100,000.00.  The $25,000.00 drawn from this Fund would reduce the Special Education Trust to $100,000.00.
C) The $25,000.00 bond money did go to lower last year’s tax rate.
D) The money from Vo-tech comes from the State, a reimbursement for 75% of vo-tech costs from the previous years.
E) The administration could cut out the phantom High School students, but if we get new students we need to pay.
F) The administration reviewed personnel, but couldn’t find anything to cut there. We are getting a bargain for what we have.  We really need the Special Education Coordinator. This position saves us money in the long term. This budget is bare bones for administration costs. The administration could cut $10,000.00 out of renovations. If there is money left in 2003-2004 year we could get some done early. The estimate on the roof looks too high. They could look at the cost of the roof repair again. It was the sense of the Budget Committee not to cut from maintenance. The building needs to be taken care of right.   The only item the Budget Committee would consider was not to draw from the Special Education Fund this year.
6)      The following motions and votes on the Proposed School Budget were taken:

Line 12 High School Tuition: Mr. Jones moved line 12 at $1,409,495.00, seconded by Mr. Strout. Voted unanimously in favor.

Line 31 High School Special Education: Mr. Jones moved line 31 at $162,269.00, seconded by Mr. Smith. Voted unanimously in favor.

Line 69 Regular Education: Mr. Copeland moved line 69 at $ 1,034,463.00, seconded by Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman. Voted unanimously in favor.

Line 95 Special Education: Mr. Smith moved line 95 at $218,658.00, seconded by Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman. Voted unanimously in favor.

Line 112 Guidance: Mr. Smith moved line 112 at $ 39,377.00, seconded by Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman. Voted unanimously in favor.

Line 126 Health Services: Mr. Strout moved line 126 at $33,318.00, seconded by Mr. Smith. Voted unanimously in favor.

Line 129 Psychological Services: Ms. Swan moved line 129 at $ 12,000.00, seconded by Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman. Voted unanimously in favor.

Line 134 Speech Services: Mr. Strout moved line 134 at $19,800.00, seconded by Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman. Voted unanimously in favor.

Line 139 PT/OT Services: Mr. Strout moved line 139 at $8,500.00, seconded by Mr. Cornwell. Voted unanimously in favor.

Line 143 Neurological Exams, Visions Exams: Mr. Jones moved line 143 at $1,500.00, seconded by Mr. Smith. Voted unanimously in favor.

Line 161 Improvement of Instruction: Mr. Smith moved line 161 at $19,350.00, seconded by Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman. Voted unanimously in favor.
Line 164 Library Operating Expenses: Mr. Smith moved line 164 at $29,868.00, seconded by Ms. Swan. Voted unanimously in favor.

Line 183 School Board: Mr. Cornwell moved line 183 at $11,921.00, seconded by Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman. Voted unanimously in favor.

Line 211 SAU Administration: Mr. Jones moved line 211 at $124,997.00, seconded by Mr. Smith. Voted unanimously in favor.

Line 237 School Administration: Ms. Swan moved line 237 at $140,152.00, seconded by Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman. Voted unanimously in favor.

Line 272 Building Services: Ms. Swan moved line 272 at $186,149.00, seconded by Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman. Voted unanimously in favor.

Line 289 Transportation: Mr. Strout moved line 289 at $99,223.00, seconded by Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman. Voted unanimously in favor.

Line 296 Debt Service: Ms. Swan moved line 296 at $120,908.00, seconded by Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman. Voted unanimously in favor.

Line 303 Transfer Funds: Mr. Copeland moved line 303 at $7,000.00, seconded by Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman. Voted unanimously in favor.

Line 324 Food Service: Mr. Jones moved line 324 at $46,327.00, seconded by Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman. Voted unanimously in favor.

7) Chair Brannen reminded everyone that all the votes taken so far were tentative. The Budget Committee wanted to look at the big picture. If money needed to be cut the Budget Committee wanted to see how the increase would affect the tax rate. The Budget Committee requested Mr. Bardos stay in case something came up and needed to be addressed before a decision was made to cut money from either budget.

8) Line 426 Library Parking Lot: A rough estimate of $4,500.00 was presented for the work on the parking lot behind the Library/Town Offices. Followed was a brief discussion concerning cutting trees, paving, and noting that this is a recommendation of the Parking study committee. The parking is really needed for the employees of this building. It was noted that the decision whether to pave the lot or not can be made at a later date.

Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman moved line 426 at $4,500.00, seconded by Mr. Smith. Voted unanimously in favor.  This will increase line 427 to $125,000.00.

9) The Revenue side of the Budget is not voted. It was noted that line 39 will be increased to $20,000.00.
10) Line 23 Motor Vehicle Permit Fees: In order to be closer to the correct projection the Budget Committee needs to increase line 23 to $275,000.00.

11) Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman requested the vote on line 357 Library be reconsidered. Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman explained that she was going to change her vote. Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman moved to reconsider line 357, seconded by Ms. Swan. Followed was a discussion involving the Trustees setting the hourly wages for the employees within the library budget. The Selectmen’s budget included higher wages for the employees because they went with the Wage and Classification study done last year. The Trustees are satisfied with the wages they are requesting in their proposed budget. Mr. Tullar explained that the Library Trustees felt it was important to increase the hours of the assistants as opposed to the wages. The motion to reconsider was voted, 2 opposed (Tullar and Jones), 9 in favor. The motion to reconsider passed.
Mr. Smith moved line 357 at $106,810.00, seconded by Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman. Voted 1opposed (Jones) and 10 in favor.

12) Mr. Strout requested the Budget Committee reconsider the wage amount for the Selectmen’s Clerk and Assessing Clerk.  He feels the proposed increase in wages is just too excessive. Mr. Strout would like to recommend reducing the two lines by $4160.00. Followed was a brief discussion about reducing the wage and what this person will be doing in the two different positions. It was suggested and Mr. Strout agreed to get the sense of the Committee on reconsidering these lines before a motion is put on the floor. It was the sense of the Budget Committee not to reconsider these two lines at this time.

13) Line 86 Personnel Administration: The amount was adjusted for the $4,000.00 being taken out of the Library employees.

 Mr. Jones moved line 86 at $52,973.00, seconded by Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman. Voted unanimously in favor.

14) The Bond proposal was reviewed. Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman informed the Budget Committee that the total amount for the Highway Garage will be $555,000.00: $25,000.00 to come from the Capital Reserve Fund and $530,000.00 to come from the bond. Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman passed out plans for the proposed building (see attached plans). Followed was a discussion concerning the transfer station, the Capital Fund for Public Facilities, borrowing this money for 30 years and recommending a 20 year payback. Questions were asked and answered concerning these topics. Mr. Smith recommended the town make a payment on the principal of $8,833.00, with the first payment being on 12/31. In the future, if at the end of the year we have a surplus some of the money can be used to pay down the principal of the bond. Because of interest rates and the cost of borrowing it is best to pay off the bond earlier than planned when possible. The Selectmen have the authority to use surplus funds for this purpose.

Mr. Jones moved line 380 at $8,833.00, seconded by Mr. Smith. This figure was set at a minimum; the town can pay more if the funds are available. Followed was a brief discussion concerning whether or not you can expend more money than voted on the line. Ms. Bont will check on this. Meanwhile the sum of $8,833.00 will be considered a minimum amount. Motion voted unanimously in favor.

Mr. Jones moved line 382 at $13,000.00, seconded by Mr. Strout. Voted unanimously in favor.

Mr. Jones moved to reconsider line 415 Buildings, seconded by Mr. Cornwell. In light of the report from Ms. Shelnutt-Brotman concerning the Highway Garage this amount needs to be changed. The motion was voted unanimously in favor.

Mr. Smith moved line 415 at $530,000.00, seconded by Mr. Cornwell. Followed was a brief discussion concerning some possible warrant articles that will be presented at town meeting to be considered as possible add-ons to the proposed highway garage. The cost of the project is just too high if you add them on to the initial proposal. The motion was voted unanimously in favor.

Building permits: Mr. Cornwell met with Victoria Davis (Planning and Zoning Administrator) and the projections for the building permits were very close. 4.6 million was the totals and 4.7 was projected.

Chair Brannen reminded all Budget Committee members of the first public hearing next week, Wednesday January 21, 2004. If the Budget Committee increases the total amount of the budget by 10% or adds any new line items they will need to hold a new meeting to discuss and vote these lines.
* Wednesday January 28th, 2004 will be the public hearing on the proposed bond for the Highway Garage. At 7:00pm the Selectmen will hold a public hearing on the proposed bond. At the conclusion of this public hearing the Budget Committee will continue their second public hearing (if necessary) on the Town and School budgets.
* Tuesday February 4th, 2004 is the deadline for Petitioned Warrant Articles.
* Wednesday, February 11th, 2004 is the public hearing for the Budget Committee to recommend Warrant Articles containing money.

At 10:05 Mr. Strout moved to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Mr. Smith. Voted unanimously in favor.


Respectfully Submitted,




Dina Cutting