The Board of Finance held a regular meeting on Monday, September 13, 2004 in the meeting room at Town Hall South, 3 Main Street, Newtown, CT. Chairman John Kortze called the meeting to order at 7:35 pm.
PRESENT: John Kortze, James Gaston, Harrison Waterbury, Joseph Kearney, Peter Giarratano (7:55 pm), ABSENT: Michael Portnoy
ALSO PRESENT: First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal, one member of public
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: Ms. Ruby Johnson, 16 Chestnut Hill Road, distributed figures regarding tax revenue with open space v. commercial/industrial v. residential development.
ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES: Upon motion by Mr. Gaston, the minutes of the 8/9/04 regular meeting were unanimously accepted as presented.
COMMUNICATIONS: Chairman Kortze received a notice from the Town Clerk that the Annual Report is due October 1. He will prepare the report.
Mr. Kortze received the Year End Financial Report from the Board of Education, dated 8/17/04. He stated that he read a newspaper article saying that the Board of Education returned $26,809 to the town as unexpended year end funds. Actually, he feels there was a half million “above and beyond” beyond from that budget. Funds were used to buy down the pension plan and other important projects, which was a fiscally prudent thing to do. However, the town had reduced the schools budget by $1.4 million and then heard that programs had to be cut, but with a half million “leftover” no programs were reinstated.
FIRST SELECTMAN REPORT: First Selectman Rosenthal advised that the Economic Development Commission has refined a Business Incentive Program, which the Board of Selectmen has to approve. Before sending on to the Legislative Council, Mr. Rosenthal plans to send this to the Board of Finance for input.
Capital Improvement Plan and Town Department’s Modifications for 2005/06 – 2009/10
First Selectman Rosenthal advised that he instructed town departments to submit only modifications to the Plan, not resubmit the entire plan.
Modifications include reducing the Commerce Road Technology Park costs from $5.4 million to $3.5 million, with an adjustment to the years it is to be in the Plan. We have hired an engineering firm who will be doing the design and giving recommendations. Next year, we should have better numbers to work with. We have also applied for a STEAP Grant in the amount of $500,000 for 2005/06.
The Parks & Recreation Commission has changed their request for the Dickinson Park pool from $720,000 to $2 million. The Board of Selectman have requested more information about this and for the present have left the request at $720,000.
For the next meeting, the schools and town requests will be combined and the Board of Finance will rank the projects.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Chairman Kortze advised that Mr. Tim Northrup of the Trust for Public Lands plans to attend the next meeting for a workshop. First Selectman Rosenthal advised that he would like to use a particular piece of property as a sample for this workshop so it should be held in executive session.
Mr. Gaston stated that he would like to discuss the financial aspects of going out to bid for a school bus service. Mr. Giarratano would like to discuss ways to reduce health insurance costs. These items will be included on a future agenda.
Having no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
Jan Andras, Clerk
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