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North Stonington Board of Finance
Draft Meeting Minutes
of
Wednesday June 6, 2012
New Town Hall
North Stonington, CT
- Call to Order: Chairman Dan Spring called the meeting to order at 7:31 P.M.~ Emile Pavolvics, Peter Nimirowski, Mustapha Ratib and Brent Woodward were present.
- Public Comments and Questions:~ Comments made by citizens are as follows:
- Brad Borden suggested that deleting a million dollars from the budget might make it more palatable to the tax payers. His ideas for doing this included changes to the debt repayment, taking money from the reserves and reducing the school budget. He felt something should be done to improve the communication process in hopes of better educating the public on the budget facts.
- Brian Rathbun recommended that the cost of bridge repair be extended into the out years.
- Joe Gross said the budget failure was as much about public discontent with recent Board actions as it was the tax increase.
3. BOS: Project Updates /Transfers: First Selectman Nick Mullane and Selectmen Mark Donahue and Shawn Murphy were present to provide supplemental information as needed. Project updates are as follows:
- Main Street Bridge – Water lines, for residendial purposes, have been successfully installed beneath the river bed. The next action is the installation of cofferdams.
- Village Green Bridge – Approval from the Wetlands Commission is needed to continue.
- Hewitt property bridge repair design is with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) for review.
- It has been discovered, during Main Street bridge repair, that the wall running along the brook adjacent to the Town clock has been badly undermined and will require repair. The repair will be added to the list of existing mitigation items.
- Work on Northwest Corner road has started.
- The $179,100 tennis court cost has been submitted to STEAP for reimbursement.
4. Tax Report/Profit & Loss Report: Dan Spring reported that tax collections were running $146,000 below this time last year. Nick Mullane reported that nothing on the profit and loss statement had any impact on the proposed budget.
5. Referendum Review/Action: Resulting from failure to pass both the education and general government budgets during the June 6, 2012 budget referendum, as shown below, both the BOE and BOS have been tasked to reduce the tax burden to the tax payer. The BOE has a specific target of 2.6 percent increase above last year, which will not have an impact on current teacher positions. Although a specific goal was not set for the general government side, Nick Mullane acknowledged the need to reduce spending and will review spending increases on the line item level.
Referendum Results
|
Yes |
No |
General Government |
179 |
546 |
Education |
215 |
509 |
6. BOE: Discovery Audit: The contracted auditor, J. H. Cohn LLP, submitted a formal status report delineating accomplished work to date and is scheduled to complete the audit by June 15, 2012.
7. Previous Minutes: Peter Nimirowski moved to approve the minutes of May 30, 2012 as written. The motion was seconded by Mustapha Ratib and passed 3-0-1. Dan Spring abstained.
- Future Agenda Items: FY2012/13 budget, executive session, mil rate and budget process review.
9. Adjournment: A motion was made by Dan Spring to adjourn. The motion was seconded by Peter Nimirowski and carried 4-0-0. The meeting was adjourned at 10:26 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
Brent Woodward
Secretary, Board of Finance
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