MONSON BOARD OF SELECTMEN
TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2003
The regular meeting of the Monson Board of Selectmen convened at 7:00 p.m. in the conference room at 110 Main Street. In attendance were Edward S. Harrison and Richard E. Guertin. James R. Manning was absent due to military service. Also present were the Town Administrator and the Media. Town Counsel did not attend this meeting.
Mr. Guertin made a motion to accept the meeting minutes of December 30, 2002. Mr. Harrison seconded and it was so VOTED.
A joint meeting was held with the Water/Sewer Commission to fill the vacancy on the Commission. Stephen Lobik and Marshall Harris approached the Board of Selectmen. Mr. Lobik stated the resignation of Ronald Klisiewicz took effect as of January 1, 2003. Mr. Lobik and Mr. Harris agreed it would be a good opportunity for Mr. Harris to fill this vacancy as Mr. Harris plans to be on the ballot in April to fill Mr. Lobik’s position when his term expires. Mr. Lobik stated he and the other Water/Sewer Commissioner Jack Gustafson discussed this and agreed that one of the benefits would be Mr. Harris’ knowledge of the water system, having been the prior Superintendent before recently leaving this position in exchange for the position as the new Fire Chief. Another benefit would be that Mr. Harris is keeping his
distribution and treatment licenses. In the interim between now and April, they feel it would be very helpful to have somebody like Mr. Harris participating on the Commission. Therefore, the Water/Sewer Commission is requesting and hoping the Board of Selectmen would appoint Mr. Harris for the interim to fill Mr. Klisiewicz’s position. Mr. Harrison agreed Mr. Harris would be very helpful to the Commission. Mr. Guertin added he felt this is a great idea and a giant plus for everyone. If Mr. Harris weren’t willing to take this position, someone else would have to be appointed that would most likely have less experience.
Mr. Harrison asked if anyone in the audience had anything to say in favor of or against this discussion. There weren’t any comments. A roll-call vote to appoint Mr. Harris was held as follows:
Roll-Call Vote: Richard E. Guertin – Aye
Stephen Lobik – Aye
Edward S. Harrison – Aye
Mr. Guertin made a motion to appoint Marshall Harris to fill Ron Klisiewicz’s position on the Water/Sewer Commission until the next Town Election in April. Mr. Harrison seconded and it was so VOTED.
The next item on the agenda was the snow and ice deficit. Ms. Neggers said the Board of Selectmen have a request to authorize an additional $50,000.00 in snow and ice deficit spending. This request went before the Finance Committee last week. Ms. Neggers stated this brings the total deficit authorized to $100,000.00. This amount is on top of the $60,000.00 that was originally appropriated.
Mr. Guertin made a motion to authorize and approve the additional $50,000.00 recently authorized by the Finance Committee. Mr. Lobik seconded the roll-call vote and it was so VOTED.
In other business to come before the Board of Selectmen, Ms. Neggers said she just wanted to make a public service announcement stating as part of the towns’ Block Grant for fiscal 2003, funding was obtained for the First Time Home Buyers Association Program. Eligible residents are able to obtain deferred payment loans to assist in purchasing a house. This loan can assist with down payments, closing costs and contingencies. The maximum home loan in the amount of up to $10,000.00 may be received. Ms. Neggers explained this is a deferred loan, meaning no payments are made during the time of the loan and no payment is required at the end. Payment of the loan is only made if the property is transferred or sold during the time period specified. Ms. Neggers said this is the first time the town has done this and she feels
it is a wonderful asset and a wonderful tool for people to become first time homebuyers who are low to moderate income. As part of this program, they are also sponsoring through HAP along with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, a first time homebuyer training program at the Monson Free Library on January 18th and January 25th from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. These two programs really coincide with each other. For anyone who is interested in these programs, Ms. Neggers said it is posted in the Town Offices, or they can contact the Selectmen’s office or contact the Hampden/Hampshire Housing Partnership at 1-800-332-9667.
In other business Mr. Guertin said he would like to say something about the state revenue situation for next year as well as potentially this year. Mr. Guertin said he has taken the liberty to write some words down so as not to leave anything important out that he would like to read to the listening audience. Mr. Guertin read the following into the record: The State of Massachusetts is in the mists of a financial crisis. We are being told that state revenue to individual towns next year (the 2004 fiscal year) may be cut down by 10% to 20% less than previous years. If we use this years Cherry Sheet amount of 6.7 million dollars, which came to the Town of Monson as a guide, a 10% reduction would amount to about $670,000.00. This would mean we would get $670,000.00 less in fiscal 2004. A 15% reduction would be about a
million dollars and a 20% reduction would be about $1,340,000.00. For this reason, representatives of the Selectmen’s office have been meeting Monday nights with members of the Finance Committee. They have been working together to try to find solutions and/or make difficult decisions relative to the anticipation of such a massive revenue reduction, all the while still trying to maintain critical town services. Within this past week, this task became even more difficult. The word out of the State is they have announced they may not remit to the towns the anticipated revenue for the remainder of the currant 2003 fiscal year. If this were to happen, the town would not receive approximately 5% of the total revenue it anticipated receiving when budgets were approved at the Town Meeting. This 5% shortfall amounts to approximately $335,000.00. While we are uncertain the State will actually take this action, we really feel it would be unwise for town officials to ignore this
potential revenue shortfall. This was discussed in great detail at last nights Financial Committee meeting. At the conclusion of the discussion, the committee voted unanimously to ask the Selectmen to initiate town-wide spending freezes on all non-contractual and non-essential budget items. As a result of the anticipated revenue shortfall just outlined, the Board of Selectmen are indeed initiating a town-wide budget freeze effective immediately. We fully expect all the departments in town to comply with this freeze. Failure for any department to comply with the freeze will seriously jeopardize our financial ability to deal with next year’s serious revenue shortfall.
Mr. Guertin explained by putting the spending freeze in place now and hopefully not spending all the money that is in this years budget, the town will be in a stronger position to deal with the shortfall next year. Failure to comply with this would mean the town would have fewer options when trying to deal financially with next year’s shortfall. They are therefore hoping everyone acts in the best interest of the town and complies with this particular freeze.
Mr. Guertin made a motion that the Board of Selectmen ask all the town departments to, effective immediately, put a spending freeze on all non-contractual and non-essential budget items. Mr. Harrison seconded and it was so VOTED.
Mr. Guertin added this is being viewed as a precautionary note. If later on it appears as though the state isn’t going to have these cuts and the revenue is going to be there, they can take another look at the situation. At this point in time, they are trying to be conservative. Mr. Guertin added his understanding is the Governor needs the approval of the Legislature to put this step in motion. At this point this is all speculation, but the rumor has it that this will be done. Ms. Neggers said that any department head with any questions could either contact her or the Town Accountant, Debi Mahar. Ms. Negger’s doesn’t anticipate that the steps they are talking about here will compensate for the reduction in state revenue as a worst case scenario for the currant fiscal year (the full
$335,000.00). They do expect to recoup, if they are very careful and work very well, probably almost half in the best case scenario. This shouldn’t have a huge impact on services. If drastic steps aren’t taken now, next year will certainly be worse. Ms. Neggers said she is awaiting instructions from the state on how to manage this from an accounting prospective and she added we will do the best we can. Mr. Harrison said even if there is no shortfall for this year, it is anticipated that next year there will be a significant reduction and perhaps we should consider trying to remediate that by trying to put some of the money in the bank for next year from this years budget.
Ms. Neggers spoke with Mr. Manning by telephone yesterday and today regarding this issue and he fully expressed his support for any actions being taken by his fellow Board members.
Correspondence was read and completed.
At 7:35 p.m., Mr. Guertin made a motion to adjourn the meeting from open session to go into executive session to discuss litigation and collective bargaining, not to return to open session. Mr. Harrison seconded and it was so VOTED.
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James R. Manning, Clerk
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