Nottingham Budget Committee
Thursday June 16, 2011~- 7:00 PM
Nottingham Town Offices Conference Room #1
Not approved
Attendance(X = present, E = excused, A = appointed during meeting) |
Members at Large |
Additional Role |
Term Ends |
X |
Chet Batchelder |
Vice Chair |
2012 |
X |
Donna Danis |
Chair |
2012 |
X |
Michael Koester |
|
2011 |
|
|
|
|
X |
Gail Mills * |
Member at Large |
2012 |
|
X |
Barbara Scannell |
School Building Advisory Committee Alternate
|
2012 |
A |
Doug Simmons |
Member at Large |
|
|
Bunny Walder * |
Member at Large |
2012 |
|
Rick Morrissey |
Member at Large |
2012 |
|
|
|
|
* Member appointed by committee to fill vacancy, term will be up at next election.
|
Other Board Membership |
Board Representing |
Term Ends |
X |
Hal Rafter |
Selectmen Representative |
2014 |
X |
Susan Levenson |
School Board Rep |
2014 |
7:04 Call to order and introductions
Three members of the public were present
7:10 Chet Batchelder made a motion to accept the minutes of 2/7, Donna Danis second. Discussion ensued. Vote to accept minutes 5 for, 2 abstain 0 opposed.
Donna Danis , motion to approve minutes of 5/19/11, second by Hal Rafter.
4 in favor, 3 abstain
7:20 Member-at-Large appointments
Rick Morrissey wishes to become involved and was concerned there was not a full board. He has experience as a Police Chief in Melrose, Ma and has managed a budget of 2.9 MM. He is concerned that the town is beginning to spend beyond its means.
Barbara “Bunny” Walder feels this is the time for her to take action. She has 25 years experience in banking/credit finance and has managed multi-million dollar budgets. She also has experience running a business and believes that budgets should be taken seriously.
Peter Perron has military experience. He is currently employed by Fairpoint in a Sales/Marketing role. He has lived in Nottingham for four years and would like to become more involved, he has two children in the school district.
Michael Koester explained the obligations of the budget committee members.
7:40 Donna Danis motion to accept all three individuals as appointed budget committee members. Second Gail Mills. Unanimously approved 7-0, new members join the committee at the table.
7:44 Nominations/Elections of Chair and Vice Chair
Hal Rafter nominated Donna Danis as chair, Michael Koester second. Chet Batchelder motion to close nominations, Hal Rafter second. All in favor of Donna Danis as chair, 7-0.
Hal Rafter nominated Chet Batchelder for Vice Chair, Susan Levenson second.
Michael Koester highly recommends Chet for this role. All in favor 7-0.
7:50 Appointments to other committees
Discussion of default budget committee, school board would prefer to take their own first pass at the default budget. Budget committee will work on one as well for internal use.
Sue to discuss with the school board if they would be interested in having a budget committee rep on the newly formed survey committee.
School Building Committee: Michael Koester/Barb Scannell, alternate
CIP: Gail Mills/Peter Perron, alternate
Default Budget subcommittee: Michael/Bunny
7:50 Draft meeting schedule for 2011 – 2012
- Something for Charlie and Dawn to go by in the fall
- Sch board, is august 11 or 17th good for financials?
- Early Sept for insight into cumulative school budget, books are closed; financials are ready to be released. BC will be briefed, not signing off on anything.
- Meetings to coincide with sch board roughly
- BC is here to understand how well we did. Budget to actual
8:10 Committee Reports
School board- phase 1 (address space, safety and health issues)
- Closets, stairwells, lockers being used for storage and in some cases as offices and for teaching space. Looking for opportunities for getting folks into better spaces. Storage units to be purchased. Over the last few years, students have been placed in combined grade classes, compressed into larger classes (two instead of three) per grade and the current grades 7 and 8 were combined in three classes and had curriculum delivered out of order. Grade 8 will receive grade 7 instructions next year, due to the shortage of one classroom. Next year grade 8 will have classes in the cafeteria; library and several classrooms will be shared.
- 15 year old school is no longer up to code: there is no sprinkler system which is now required and will cost approx. 250K to install
- Classrooms are lacking.
- Phase 2 will need to be defined
8:20 Other Business
- Local gov center has budget session in Bedford NH. Not yet on official calendar, Sept 22 anticipated. $40 fee, town pays, recommended. Abbreviated version.
8:30 Round table / Adjourn
- Mike- Donna is appreciated for taking on chair duties. Thanks to new members ,August 11 deadline check with town clerk
- Barb- looking forward to an appt position
- Gail
- Sue
- Chet
- Peter
- Rick- long range heavy assets we have to pay for. Hope to resolve issues. 2 year moratorium on state grants. Other states same issue.
- Bunny - subcommittee work group for default sch budget.
- Donna- thanks for trust and new people. Diverse opinions.
8:42pm Adjourn
Meetings
BC ---August 11th
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