Town of Lyme
Budget Committee
January 17th, 2007
7:00PM
Fire Station Training Room
Approved: January 24th, 2007
Present at this meeting: Selectmen: Judith Shelnutt Brotman & Richard Jones. Budget Committee Members: Chairman Barney Brannen, Josh Kilham, Elizabeth Glenshaw, Wayne Tullar, Gibb Cornwell, Freda Swan & Dave Caffry. School Board Representative: Kathy McGowan. Library Trustees: Judy Russell & Tish Smith. Town Offices Committee Chairman: Peter Bleyler. Town Clerk: Patricia Jenks. Architect: Geoffrey Thornton. Community Members: Barbara Roby, Jeannie McIntyre & Laurie Rich. Spectator reporter: Matthew Sturdevant. Staff: Administrative Assistant Carole Bont & Bookkeeper/Scribe Dina Cutting.
The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm by Chair Brannen.
1) Mrs. Swan moved to approve the minutes of the January 10th, 2007 meeting. Seconded by Mr. Kilham. Corrections were offered. The minutes were approved unanimously in favor.
2) Mr. Brannen reviewed the schedule for tonight’s meeting.
· Town Office’s Committee report.
· Mrs. Shelnutt Brotman has a few changes from the Selectmen.
· Mr. Smith’s motion to approve the Library budget at $122,739.00 needs to be addressed. This motion was tabled at the last meeting.
· New information from Mrs. McGowan for the school budget.
· The Public Hearing is on January 24th, 2007. If any material changes are made to the budget at the meeting of the 24th then we will need to have the Public Hearing on January 31st.
3) Town Office Committee: Mr. Bleyler passed out a handout of information and a map of the recommended site for the new Town Offices/Police Station (See attachments). The recommendation of this Committee is to purchase the 3.3 acre property at 223 Dartmouth College Highway. This land is currently owned by Upper Valley Land Trust (UVLT). The Committee is also recommending building a new facility on this site for the Town Offices and Police Station. Mr. Bleyler reviewed the needs for new Town Offices/Police Station. Safety issues & non-safety issues were reviewed. The positive features of this site are the following:
· The site size. It is big enough for now and the future. (50 year solution).
· This is a vacant lot.
· Least expensive solution.
· Lowest variability. No surprises. We are not buying an old building and finding a lot of expensive surprises to fix.
· This site is not on the Common but it has many positive features: easily accessible for community members, provides the shortest timeline from Town Meeting to completion, no tenant or landlord responsibilities, does not remove tax-paying property for the tax roles, no congestion and/or parking issues.
The Committee has come together on this property and building. It was not a slam dunk. The Committee looked at many other options before they settled on this one. The Committee is almost if not unanimous on this recommendation.
Concerns over the proposed site were reviewed. The property is not on the Common but the Committee has come to the conclusion that there is no viable option on or near the Common. Concerns that this will add to the Route 10 sprawl. The UVLT will sell this property regardless of whether the town purchases it or not. This site is closer to the Common than other recent development on Route 10.
Other properties that were considered: The first 3 were analyzed in depth.
· Tuckaway Timber
· Lyme Timber
· Nichol’s Hardware
These 2 sites were discussed extensively:
· Alden Inn
· Converse Free Library
Following sites were discussed:
· DHMC Lyme
· United Development
· 1 Lyme Common
· Property on E. Thetford Rd. across from Record Ridge Farm.
· Recreate Shop
· Lyme Fire House/Jim Jenks land/gravel pit.
Mr. Bleyler reviewed each property and the steps the Committee went through to get to this point. It seemed like every time the Committee decided on a property and got to the discussion of financial issues things would fall through.
· Library/School: This option was discussed by the Committee just recently. The School Board was open to looking at this as were the library Trustees. If this were to happen, it would take 5 years or more to complete. There are issues with space. A project like this would remove parking and/or playground space. The Committee concluded that this would not be a viable option and feels this situation needs to be addressed sooner rather that later.
· The discussion returned to the UVLT land on Route 10. Part of the agreement with the UVLT would be for the Town to provide a trailhead on this site, 4 parking spaces for hikers, and to set aside an area of land to have no building on it. The money to purchase this land will come from the Land Acquisition Fund. The Land Acquisition Fund has $110,000.00 in it right now plus $20,000.00 the Selectmen have put in this budget request would be enough to purchase this land. $25,000.00 will be used out of the Town Offices building fund (CRF) this will be used for the design and other administrative cost for the project. The total bond will be for $1,750,000.00.
· If the project does not pass, the Town will still need to put other funds in this budget to address the problems of work space and safety issues. The Town may need to rent a temporary office space for the Town Offices and/or Police Station. Additional funds will be needed for air quality issues in the Police Station and the Town Office, if it is decided that these offices are to stay where they are.
· Followed were questions and answers concerning the New Town Offices/Police Station plans at the UVLT site. The size of the new building and the present space was discussed. The new Town Offices will be about 4100 square feet and the police station will be about 900 square feet. This does not include the vault and storage spaces. The cost of construction is $100.00 to $250.00 per square foot depending on the part of the building. The Police Station will go in the lower level. The original plan was to have everything on one level. This site is sloped so it makes more sense to have the Police Station on the lower level and in the back of the building. Mr. Bowles
has put many hours into the plans for all the various options the Committee has discussed. This has saved the Town considerable money. He is working with Geoffrey Thornton. The Conservation Committee has visited this site and will make recommendations on where the trailhead should go and will lay out this trail. The trail will require a bridge to cross the brook. The bridge abutments have already been put in by the UVLT. Again, the Library/School option was discussed. There would be a parking shortage at the school site. This would require a huge change for the school. Mr. Bowles and Mr. Thornton felt the Library building would not be a good choice for the Town Offices. It is a bad place to store documents, too damp. No room for the police department and no room for growth. There was a discussion concerning the possibility of putting sports fields on the UVLT site. This site would not be big enough for a soccer field. It was pointed out that if this was community-oriented it
may help sell the idea to the community. It was noted at this time that the hiking trails were an important part of this proposed project.
· The point was made that this is a big project and the money is going to be an issue so the Committee will need to educate the community. $1,750,000.00 over a
20 year bond will be $87,500.00 for the 1st year’s interest. In 2008, the principal and interest payment assuming a 5% interest rate will be around $175,000.00.
· The timing of this proposed project was reviewed. January 31st, 2007 the Selectmen are holding a Public Hearing for the bond. The Committee will use this as a Public Forum also. The Committee is planning to send a mailing to the whole town plus send communications through the school newsletter and the local papers. The Committee feels there is enough time to pull this together and get the information out to the public to be ready for the Town Meeting in March.
· In case this proposal is voted down: the Committee should be ready to make an amendment for alternative plans. The recommendation of bringing these alternative plans to the Budget Committee was discussed. It was felt that it would be beneficial to bring these alternative plans to get a sense of the Budget Committee before Town Meeting. The Committee will gather financial costs of alternate sites to rent office space and/or options to fix air quality in the present offices if possible.
· Followed was a discussion concerning the possibility of making this project a phased plan by doing the Town Offices and waiting on the Police Station. This would reduce the project by about $100,000.00. Because of how the building is designed with having the police station in the basement, there is not a significant savings in waiting to add the police station at a later date. This is an all or nothing plan.
Review what needs to be voted tonight:
Line 449-Land Acquisition CRF has been voted for $20,000.00.
Line 393-Land has been voted for $130,000.00
The following lines have not been voted:
Line 413-Highway Salt Shed for $10,000.00
Line 415-Design & Study for $25,000.00
Line 416-Building & improvements for $1,750,000.00
Mr. Shelnutt Brotman moved line 417 at $1,785,000.00. Seconded by Mrs. Swan. The Budget Committee discussed the different scenarios associated with passing this amount now as opposed to waiting for the 1st Public Hearing to give Budget Committee members more time to think about this proposal. Mrs. McGowan and Mrs. Glenshaw felt like they were not ready to vote on this project. The Budget Committee reviewed the protocol concerning approving or not approving individual warrant articles. Mr. Brannen and Mrs. Shelnutt Brotman briefly reviewed past attempts to get a plan and bond passed for a new Town Office. Mrs. Glenshaw stated she felt the issue concerning the Library moving to the School had not been investigated thoroughly. Mrs. Russell noted at this time that there may be a legal issue with
the bequest of the Converse Library building that would prevent the Library building from being used for anything else but a Library. It was the sense of the Committee to have a vote on this bond now because of the time issues. Without a doubt, this is the lowest price of any other option the Building Committee looked at.
The motion was voted 6 in favor 2 abstentions (Mrs. McGowan & Mrs. Glenshaw)
4) Library budget:
Mr. Smith’s motion to approve the Library Budget at $122,739.00 was put back on the table. Clarification of the Library Coordinator position was made. The school is the supervisor of this position. The school will advertise for this position in the new year. It was noted that the Budget Committee was given the impression that the present employee would be staying and working toward the media certification. Mrs. McGowan stated this had not been decided, the supervisors had not discussed this with the employee yet. The administration did not know for sure who would be filling this position. Followed was a discussion concerning the certification of the librarian, getting a state waiver if needed for a year. The model that the school and library have now seems to be working and
why it was changing was discussed. Mrs. Glenshaw stated she felt the School Board was reacting to a situation the Library forced on them. Again the issues of too many responsibilities for the present Librarian were discussed. The point was made that in the future the Budget Committee would not like to see increases of this kind in any department’s budget. Mrs. Swan expressed frustration with the fact that the Budget Committee had already voted to pass the school library budget and now we are giving the town library such a hard time. Mrs. Swan suggested getting a sense of the Committee concerning making a strong statement to the School and Library that this has got to stop. The 2 department have to work together and come next year with a budget not greater than this year. Followed was a discussion concerning the fact that supporting this budget change between the school and library is in fact supporting a change in staffing for future positions within the school. This will
inevitably cause an increase in the school budget in the near future. For example, while the school presently forecasts spending $20,800.00 for the Library services coordinator. When that person becomes a certified teacher and joins the collective bargaining unit in a couple of years, the annual costs will almost certainly increase to $54,000.00 per year. And this makes no allowance for the incremental costs for Principal Valance in his presentation last week. At the same time, the Town Library’s costs are not likely to go down in the same period. For this reason the Budget Committee felt they could not support the sense of the meeting on Mrs. Swan’s suggestion.
Mrs. Russell responded to various statements and questions that were posed earlier in this meeting. She reiterated the need for this change and gave a brief overview of why it needs to happen. Mrs. Russell responded that the School and Library had discussed this situation; she felt there was not any animosity between the 2 departments, and that they had worked collaboratively to come up with a good solid plan that was the best for the students. Mr. Valance was very open-minded and never once gave the impression that he felt the Library was forcing this on the school. This change will be better for the Library & the School. The Library is an essential part of the town and any child in the town can benefit greatly from the Library. Mrs. Russell reviewed the financial changes for
this budget period. Mrs. Russell noted that the Library will still be working closely with the school and having programs for students in the coming years. The following question was asked of Mrs. Russell: What would the Library Trustees do if the Town said you have to go back to running the Library/School programs the way you used to? Mrs. Russell could not answer this question with out discussing it with the other Library Trustees first.
The motion was voted 6 in favor, with 2 abstentions (Mr. Caffry & Mrs. Glenshaw).
Ms. Russell asked for some clarification on the Budget Committee’s authority. Does the Budget Committee decide on programs and/or money issues?
Mr. Brannen stated that the Budget Committee does not decide on programs but that program choices obviously have implications for money issues, which the Budget Committee does decide. He reiterated that the Budget Committee was not going to just support a high % increase in any department with out a lot of discussion and planning. The implications of an increase like this year’s requested budget for the School Library services and the Town Library has to be discussed and looked into in great detail. The budget implications down the road are significant and the Budget Committee needs to be aware and understand this. It would behoove the departments to come to the Budget Committee in July and fill them in on any possible increases and or changes that have financial implications.
This way they do not have to be surprised and hear about these kinds of issues last minute.
5) School:
Mrs. McGowan reviewed the changes in the surplus.
· To allow for surplus of $50,000.00 being added to the High School Trust Fund; offsetting revenue, so there will be no tax impact.
· The School Board would like to take out the $5,000.00 budget line for snow removal for plowing of the school parking lot.
· Would like to reinstate the original request for the curriculum development line $4,000.00.
· Would like to reinstate the original request for the furniture line $1,000.00
There was a brief discussion concerning whether or not the surplus revenues impact the bottom line of the school budget. Mrs. McGowan will confirm these numbers for the next meeting. At this time, Mr. Brannen said he felt it was too late in the meeting to address these issues.
· Library/Media account 2220-$20,800.00 line # 184 in the school budget. Take out this inter-departmental payment.
Mrs. McGowan moved to amend line #184 to $20,800.00 for Library services. Seconded by Mrs. Glenshaw. Voted unanimously in favor.
The total school budget will now be $4,439,119.00 this is a bottom line change of $16,200.00 lower than the prior vote. (previous figure was $4,455,399.00)
Mrs. McGowan moved the School budget at $4,439,199.00. Seconded by Mrs. Glenshaw. Voted unanimously in favor.
6) Selectmen Changes:
Mrs. Shelnutt Brotman reported the following recommended changes by the Selectmen:
· The Road Agent said the road crew would like to plow for the school next year. They will give it a try and see how it works out.
· The Selectmen support the revised Library budget for budget purposes only.
· The Selectmen would like to add $10,000.00 to the Transfer Station line 253. The Transfer Station Committee would like to add another day for collections. They are trying to respond to what the Town wants.
Mrs. Shelnutt Brotman moved to add $10,000.00 to line 253 for a total of $22,564.53. Seconded by Mr. Tullar. Voted unanimously in favor.
Mrs. Cutting noted 2 budget lines that needed re-voting because of previous changes to the budget.
4312 Highways and Streets: Mrs. Shelnutt Brotman moved line 246 at $633,776.18. Seconded by Mrs. Swan. This needed adjusting due to the revised Block Grant amounts. Voted unanimously in favor.
4902 Machinery, Vehicles & Equipment: Mrs. Shelnutt Brotman moved line 408 at $208,500.00. Seconded by Mr. Tullar. The rescue truck CRF funds from last year do not need to be included in the 2007 budget. The Board of Selectmen has voted to carry over the appropriation to 2007. Voted unanimously in favor.
At 9:45 PM Mrs. Shelnutt Brotman moved to adjourn. Seconded by Mrs. Swan. Voted unanimously in favor.
Reminder: Wednesday JANUARY 24TH 2007 1st Public Hearing. 7:00PM at the Fire Station Training room.
Respectfully Submitted,
Dina Cutting
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