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Town of Lyme
Budget Committee
September 13, 2006
7:00PM
Fire Station Training Room
Approved: November 1st, 2006
Present at this meeting: Selectmen: Judith Shelnutt Brotman & Charles Ragan. Budget Committee Members: Mike Smith, Chairman Barney Brannen, Freda Swan, Jeff Lehmann, Dave Caffry, Josh Kilham, Elizabeth Glenshaw, Wayne Tullar, Gibb Cornwell. School Board Representative Kathy McGowan. Principal Jeff Valence. Staff: Administrative Assistant Carole Bont & Bookkeeper/Scribe Dina Cutting.
1) Minutes of the April 5th, 2006 Budget Committee meeting: Add Dave Caffry. Clarification and change to the last bullet of these minutes. Delete last sentence in draft. Last sentence now reads: The Budget Committee is to look at the position only which would be an appropriate topic. Topic #5, second bullet, add ” It was believed” at the beginning of the second sentence.
· Mr. Caffry moved to approve the minutes of the April 5th, 2006 meeting with corrections. Seconded by Mr. Lehmann. Motion was voted 7 in favor with 1 abstention (Mr. Cornwell was not present at this meeting).
2) Review of meeting calendar: Mr. Schnare has a conflict for the January 3rd, 2007 meeting. It was the sense of the Budget Committee to change the date to January 4th, 2007 to allow Mr. Schnare to be present. The Committee reviewed the Budget Committee procedure and when various department heads will be coming in for presentations.
*Mrs. McGowan moved to approve the proposed calendar, with change. Seconded by Mr. Cornwell. Motion voted unanimously in favor.
3) School Budget: Mrs. McGowan & Mr. Valence informed the Budget Committee of topics to be aware of for the coming budget year.
· The School ended the year with a $14,000.00 surplus. At Town Meeting, the School Board took $50,000.00 out of the original budget. This created a smaller surplus.
· Discussion of the Special Education issues. The Special Education Fund was set up to cover 1 year of unexpected cost. Mr. Valence reported special education costs are going up and the more we can do in-house, the greater the cost savings for the town. The school has 2 out-of-district placements this year. The cost of 2 out-of-district placements could total $144,000.00. The school did some pre-buying of supplies in anticipation of the higher special education costs. High school special education costs were briefly discussed. The Special Education director does a good job of making sure the district is getting what they pay for. The school board has taken steps
to help with the unexpected costs of the special education issues. They have cut from 3 buses to 2. Building maintenance planned for this year totaling $10,000.00 was done last year. High school tuition is $43,000.00 less than planned. The school board believes they will end the year without drawing from the Special Education reserve fund.
· The School Board is anticipating the need to draw down the Special Education Fund next year.
· The lunch program has an $18,000.00 deficit. Mr. Valence reviewed the program and what changes have taken place. The program needs to sell 95 lunches per day in order to break even. Now Lyme serves an average of 71 lunches. Followed was a discussion of cost and different philosophies of the cost of this lunch program. The school will be looking at how to make this program work over the next school year.
· Librarian & Library services: The Library came to the school with a request to look at an in-school library teacher to work with the middle school children. The K-4th graders will still work with the Library staff. This will be a 16 hours per week position. The school will be paying half of the cost and the Library will pay the other half. The school has agreed to this for the coming school year only. The school has the money for this position within the budget. Mr. Valence is gathering information of various similar sized schools as Lyme to see what they do and what the costs are. The School Board needs to look at the Library program and makes sure the
services are the best for the students. Followed was a lengthy discussion concerning what is best for the students of Lyme, the cost of this additional position and where the Library will get these funds, what we are getting for the additional position. This position will be hired and supervised through the school. Discussions continued concerning the present student population. The Budget Committee would like a spread sheet with the past years’ costs for the operation of the Library. The Budget Committee would like the Library Trustees to come to the first department budget meeting. This is November 1st, 2006 at 7:00PM.
· Mr. Valence informed the Budget Committee that the 8th graders will not be acting as crossing guards any longer. Mr. Valence has discussed this with Chief Field & Officer O’Keefe. They are looking for volunteers to fill in for this job and/or donation to cover the cost of hiring someone. It was suggested Mr. Valence discuss this issue with Those Guys.
4) Town:
· Shoestrap Road: Mrs. Shelnutt Brotman & Mr. Ragan informed the Budget Committee of the significant washout on Shoestrap Road. Shoestrap is temporarily closed until the town decides what they want to do. The Town has applied for FEMA funds and will receive $9,300.00 for this repair. This figure is no where near the amount that will be needed for the repair to bring this road back up to a two way road. An engineer from CLD engineering is looking at Shoestrap and will give the Selectmen a recommendation on how to best fix this road in order for it to be safe now and in the future. The Selectmen need to find out what the legal obligation is to the residents who
live on this road. Then the Selectmen will be bringing this issue to Town Meeting. The Town will be given the options and the costs and then they can decide what will be done to Shoestrap Road. The Selectmen will keep the Budget Committee informed as this moves along.
· Town Office Committee: Ms. Bont reported the Committee is planning on having something ready for Town Meeting. There will be a public hearing to inform the community of the choices and the information the Committee has gathered on costs and other various information. This meeting will take place October 2nd, 2006 in the school cafeteria.
5) Mr. Brannen reviewed what the Committee would like to happen in the first 2 meetings of the Budget Committee. November 1st will be the Library and as many department heads as possible. November 8th will be Ms. Bont’s budget and the Town Offices Committee presentation. Mr. Brannen is encouraging all Budget Committee members to attend the October 2nd public hearing for the Town Offices Committee.
6) Sub-Committees: Mr. Smith will head up the Capital Improvements Committee. This Committee will gather the information needed and get together with the Planning Board. It is clear the legislature has said the Planning Board is responsible for this document. The Budget Committee is offering to sit down with the Planning Board and get the work done. Mr. Smith is the Chair of the sub-committee. He will recruit members of the Budget Committee to help get this done.
7) Compactor and Salt shed:
· Compactor: The bids for the compactor went out in the mail today. The site has been selected. The Selectmen will inform the Budget Committee of the final costs when the company has been selected.
· Salt shed: The first payment has been made. Arrangements to move the piles of stone are being made. The contractor will start as soon as the site is ready. Mr. Ragan explained the various cost associated with the salt shed. The salt shed and the compactor (using preliminary figure) funds are about $1,500.00 short. In order to save money the Selectmen are hoping to pour the concrete for the compactor at the same time as the salt shed. The salt shed will be about $61,525.00 and there is not a set price for the compactor yet.
· The Selectmen are looking to have both of these projects completed soon.
At 9:10PM Mr. Smith moved to adjourn. Seconded by Mrs. Glenshaw. Voted unanimously in favor.
Respectfully submitted,
Dina Cutting
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