Town of Lyme
Budget Committee
Wednesday
December 5th, 2007
7:00PM
Fire Station Training Room
Approved: December 12th, 2007
Present at this meeting: Selectmen: Richard Jones & Simon Carr. Budget Committee Members: Chairman Barney Brannen, Josh Kilham, Freda Swan, Gibb Cornwell, Dave Caffry, & Elizabeth Glenshaw. School Board Representative: Kathy McGowan. Staff: Administrative Assistant Carole Bont, Bookkeeper/Scribe Dina Cutting. Community members: Mike Smith.
The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm by Chair Brannen.
The minutes of the November 27th 2007 meeting will be approved at the next meeting.
Mr. Brannan reviewed the purpose of this meeting. The Selectmen will be presenting their budget.
1) Selectmen requested budget for 2008:
Mr. Jones reviewed the memorandum passed out at this meeting. The Selectmen focused on the big items, increases of $1,000.00 or more. The proposed operational budget is $2,002,479, Capital Budget of $1,364,423 and estimated revenues of $1,669,164.
a. This budget request does not reflect the proposed improvements to Chase Beach and the ball field. The engineering study for this project is expected within the next week.
b. Town Offices Committee: The Selectmen are estimating a request from the Town Offices Committee for $975,000.00. ($875,000.00 from the bond and $100,000.00 from the Public Land Acquisition Capital Reserve Fund). The Selectmen are expecting the Committee to do private fundraising for any additional costs.
c. Operating Budget: The largest part of the operating budget is represented by wages & benefits (54%). The major costs are health insurance increase of 9.9%, and the Town’s contribution to the NH Retirement Fund increase.
d. The Selectmen have voted to support an across the board raise of 2.8% for all employees. This represents the Social Security COLA plus a .5%. For the first time in a long time, the Selectmen discussed individual employees. 20% of the employees will be receiving a merit raise. This will be above and beyond the 2.8%. These merit raises total $5,871.00.
e. Program changes come from the increase in elections this year and adding funding for a transition Town Clerk. The costs of these changes are $6,601.00.
f. The police department’s total increase is $200.00. Any increases were offset by the deletion of the Animal Control Officer.
g. The Planning and Zoning Administrators job has increased from 36 hours to 40 hours. Questions were asked about programmed hours verses new requested hours in the 2008 budget. Mr. Jones explained that any hours that are working hours as of 12/31/2007 were not considered “new” hours in the 2008 request. Followed was a brief discussion concerning retirement increases and increases in personnel costs.
h. Mr. Jones reviewed the following budget line requests that increased more than $1,000.00.
· Timber Tax: $1,500.00 increase due to the April storm
· Planning and Zoning: $1,000.00 increase in training due to hiring new employee
· General Government Building: $1,100.00 increase due to the rental of the storage trailer.
· Insurance: Not an increase from last year but a change from the department request. Put back the $ 2,400.00. The Selectmen are currently discussing the Town’s contractual obligation with the existing carrier.
· Fire: Training increase of $1,000.00. This line was severely under funded this year. The Fire Department is doing lots of training. The $4,000.00 request in the Clothing line was moved to the Fire Fighters Safety Equipment Capital Reserve Fund.
· Highway and Streets: The Town has not received the Block Grant figures from the State as of this date. This figure will be adjusted when the Town is notified. There will be a carryover from 2007 to 2008. The Baker Hill Road project did not get done prior to the plant closing for the winter.
· Solid Waste: $3,800.00 increase. The electrical system for the compactor needs to be covered and protected because it freezes up in the cold and rain. Also, the workers need a place to get out of the rain. They cannot shelter in the highway garage because they cannot see what is going on in the Transfer Station section from inside the garage.
· Beach repairs: $1,000.00 increase due to beach sand, beaver deceiver, and fencing. Followed was a brief discussion concerning the Barker law suit and the present problems involving the beach and the beaver dams. Mrs. Cutting stated the Recreation Commission, Conservation Commission and the Selectmen were all working towards coming up with a solution that will work for both areas.
i. Mr. Jones reviewed the Capital Budget. The present recommendations do not include the repairs to the Chase Beach & ball field and the new town offices. Mr. Jones said that the appropriations to the capital reserve and trust funds remain the same although there is some reprogramming on the amounts to the various individual funds. Followed was a discussion concerning the Fire Fighting Safety Equipment Fund. Mr. Jones reported this fund is under funded. Mr. Jones explained that the money goes in and a portion of it ($4,000.00) will be spent in the 2008 budget year. The $4,000.00 is moved out of the operating budget but it does increase the appropriations for
the Capital Reserve lines. It was noted that it is a philosophical difference as to whether turnout gear should be funded out of the operating budget or the Capital budget. It would be too much for the fire departments operating budget to absorb the expense of replacing this gear. The Selectmen are concerned with the overall increase in the fire department’s budget. If this $4,000.00 appropriation is left in the operating budget, the total increase to the Fire Department’s budget would be 30%. At this time, Mr. Smith recommended the Budget Committee wait to discuss the issues of what types of things should be funded in the Capital Reserve funds. The Capital Improvement Program committee is working on these issues and will be making recommendations to the Budget Committee on these very issues.
· Buildings: $20,000.00 to be spent from the Major Maintenance & Repair CRF. This request is for the installation of egress windows in the Town Clerk and Selectmen’s offices. Even if the Town Offices do not stay in this space, this work should be done for future use of this space.
· Improvements other than buildings: Assessing: The separation of payroll and other funds is just a bookkeeping function. Ms. Bont explained the duties of the Assessor and the requirements of the State for evaluating property for tax purposes.
j. Revenues: Revenues are not voted on by the Budget Committee. The revenues are very low compared to the past years. Timber tax-the Selectmen are estimating a loss of $10,000.00 due to the storm. Library-this revenue is gone from the budget this year. Solid Waste-These figures seem to be off. Mrs. Cutting will update the revenues for 2007 and the Budget Committee will revisit this at the next meeting. It was noted at this time that the DRA (Department of Revenue) corrects the revenue figures prior to setting the tax rate. The projected figures will not affect the tax rate. The Budget Committee feels it is important to have these figures as close to accurate as
possible.
k. Mr. Carr reported the solid waste fees will be changing. C&D will be going up but the bags will stay at the present price. There was a brief explanation concerning the money in the undesignated fund. This is the Towns surplus, when money is left over from one year to the other it goes into this fund. This money is used to offset the tax rate. The standard amount to keep in the undesignated fund is 17% of the Towns operating budget.
l. At this time it was noted that the line “payroll contract” has a typo change $25,000.00 to $2,500.00. This will be corrected for the next meeting.
m. The Budget Committee decided to review the budget department by department.
The following departments were reviewed:
· Utility Appraiser: This is an expense that will be well worth the cost. The amount the Town receives in taxes is will over the cost of the appraiser.
· Legal expenses were discussed. The Selectmen are going to work on bringing these costs down.
· Planning & Zoning: The Selectmen have not hired a new Administrator; they do not know what the cost of benefits will be. Right now they have family benefits in the proposed budget. The Master Plan funds will be carried over.
· Cemetery: Saved money this year. Hired a new employee. Very good, fast worker.
· Police: Changes were absorbed in the change in program.
· Ambulance: Reviewed costs and the present arrangement with the Dartmouth Skiway.
· Fire: Increase due to generator and turnout gear.
· Solid waste: Miscellaneous, what are the costs in the 2007 budget? Followed was a discussion concerning the savings from increasing to 2 open days. The savings in hauling charges due to this change, and the cost associated with these hauls were discussed. The Budget Committee felt it would be helpful to have an analysis of cost verses revenues to see if the compactor is saving the Town money.
· Town Poor: The money in the Town Poor Fund is almost gone. This Fund was started to make sure there was enough money to fund the town poor without holding the Town’s operating budget captive to overages. So far in 2007, $22,000.00 has been spent. There is about $1,900.00 left in this account. The Selectmen will discuss this with Ms. Grandine. We may need to increase the appropriation for 2008.
· Library: The Selectmen did not make any changes to the Library’s requested 2008 budget.
n. Mrs. McGowan passed out spreadsheets showing the increase in departments over the past 5 years. Followed was a brief discussion on the reliability of spreadsheets that do not have all necessary information. Mr. Jones felt you need to compare all facts in order to come up with a true comparison.
o. At the next meeting, the Budget Committee will continue to review the requested budget and plan on taking a non- binding vote on the proposed budget. Followed was a brief discussion on the funding of a new fire truck. It is not realistic to think this could happen in the 2008 budget year. This fund is under funded and will need to be addressed in the near future. The Budget Committee will review the capital expenses at the next meeting. The spreadsheets will be updated with the up to date expenses and revenues for the Budget Committee to review.
At 9:10pm Mrs. Swan moved to adjourn. Seconded by Mrs. McGowan. Voted unanimously in favor.
Reminder: Next meeting December 12th, 2007 @ 7:00pm Fire Station
Respectfully Submitted,
Dina Cutting
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