March 15, 2006
The Board of Finance held a special meeting on this date at 7:30 p.m. at the Wequetequock Fire Dept. meeting room. Members present were Glenn Frishman, Chairman; Andrew Rines, Secretary; John O’Brien; Dudley Wheeler; Bryan Bentz and Kevin Burns. Also present Maryanna Stevens, Director of Finance; Bill Brown, First Selectman; George Sylvestre, Director of Administrative Services, members of the BOE and town residents.
Mr. Frishman called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
Budget Deliberations
Mrs. Stevens provided for the members two 2006-2007 Budget Reduction Scenarios sheets, one based on the Governor’s Proposal with no MV collections and the other with Motor Vehicle collections. Mrs. Stevens stated that the mil rate is .06 higher using the Governor’s Proposal. Mr. O’Brien, Mr. Burns, Mr. Bentz and Mr. Wheeler were more comfortable including MV collections in their deliberations. Mr. Frishman stated that he would have preferred to go with Governor’s proposal even though it is not definite. Mr. Rines was split.
Mrs. Stevens covered for the members the General Fund Revenue for the 06-07 proposed budget. Mr. Frishman asked the members where they would like to begin deliberations. At this time; First Selectman Brown stated that Mr. Sylvestre had good news. Mr. Sylvestre reported that after spending the afternoon working on the Health care he stated that the figures in the budget may be premature. He added that costs are much better now than first projected in November; he would be comfortable in reducing the Health care costs by $300,000.
After a collective sigh of relief, Mr. Frishman stated that it would be best to defer deliberations to next week after Mr. Sylvestre has confirmed this announcement. Several members at this time indicated specific areas they would like to address next week when deliberations continue, particularly staffing.
Mrs. Stevens provided a Debt Service summary and schedule.
Bid Waiver – Highway
Mr. Burns suggested and the members discussed the option of purchasing a second sweeper with a vacuum to handle the state mandates regarding catch basins and street sweeping. It was agreed that Mr. Stewart, Highway Superintendent would be contacted for additional information. Mr. O’Brien made a motion to approve the bid waiver for hiring Capital Sweeping at a price of $90.00 per hour to supplement our own sweeper. Mr. Wheeler seconded the motion and voting was unanimous.
Previous Minutes
Mr. Wheeler made a motion to approve the minutes of the March 1 and March 8 meetings. Mr. Rines seconded and voting was unanimous.
Correspondence
Memo from Joseph Bragaw, Town Engineer regarding Town Hall addition.
Subcommittee reports
Nothing to report.
There being no further business to come before the Board, Mr. Burns made a motion to adjourn. Mr. Wheeler seconded the motion and the meeting was unanimously adjourned at 8:15 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Andrew W. Rines
Secretary
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