PRESENT: Chairman Friedman, Councilor Kelly, Councilor Cheney and Councilor Hogan, Town Manager B. Reed, Code Enforcement Officer Allan Thomas, Assistant Clerk K. Humphrey, Office Administrator Julie Reed, Deputy Code Enforcement Officer John Ellis, Assistant Fire Chief Carl Tenney, Police Chief Mark Leonard, Public Works Superintendent Butch Free, Superintendent Tom Perry and Principal Scott Nichols; Budget Committee Members John Manter, Joan Perkins, David King and Suzanne Hart; Member of the Public Terrill Studley. Councilor Hathaway was absent and excused.
ITEM 1. The May 3, 2004 Veazie Town Council was called to order at 7:00 PM.
ITEM 2. Consideration of minutes: Motion: Councilor Kelly—to accept April 19, 2004 minutes as written. Seconded: Councilor Hogan, Voted 4-0 in favor.
ITEM 3. Consideration of the Agenda: There were no additions made to the agenda.
ITEM 4. Budget Workshop
Assistant Fire Chief Carl Tenney was present to hand out a revised budget to the Town Council and Budget Committee. The budgeted amounts for Medicare, FICA and Workers Compensation have been changed and reflects about a $1,400 decrease in the total budget.
Manager Reed outlined that included in the Council packets were each department’s budget in the format that the Council requested. An additional item was added to the budget; MS 4 Compliance NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems). This item will fall under the capital plan.
Superintendent of Public Works, Butch Free, discussed the possibility of purchasing a used street sweeper in the future. The department’s bulldozer would be sold and the proceeds would go towards the purchase. Superintendent Free stated he has done some ‘shopping’ around and the price would be in the range of $25,000 – $28,000. This would eliminate the need to contract out for a street sweeper and it would allow the Town to control when the sweeping was completed.
Councilor Cheney inquired what the cost was for hiring a street sweeper for Veazie. Superintendent Free stated that normally it would cost $4,000 but since the department presweeps it only costs the Town about $2,000. He added that the department always gets a lot of complaints because the sweeper hasn’t done it right or they have missed areas.
Councilor Cheney inquired whether Public Works had started presweeping yet. Superintendent Free stated that they have.
Councilor Kelly inquired how long it would take to sweep the Town if the department did buy a street sweeper. He also inquired what the overhead costs would be. He outlined that there would be a lot of costs associated with brushes, maintenance, etc. He outlined that paying $2,000 a year to have it done by someone else may not be such a bad deal.
Councilor Friedman mentioned that the City of Bangor has two new street sweepers. Manager Reed outlined that there always seemed to be a conflict with borrowing theirs because they were using it. Manager Reed stated that Superintendent Free will contact the City of Bangor to see about borrowing/renting their street sweeper.
Superintendent Perry stated that the State has not made any final decisions on the state funding for education. The final numbers should be out this week. He outlined that the numbers he used in the proposed budget are the most conservative, the figures that come out this week should be a little better than that. He added that they will also find out whether they will receive a hardship cushion or not.
Assessor Allan Thomas stated that due to the additional houses built on Chickadee Drive, Buck Hill Drive and Black Bear Drive an additional $3.5 million in community value has been added. That does not include the increase in value in already existing homes.
Manager Reed outlined that things have ended up more positive than originally hoped. He also explained that when the mil rate increases the value of the TIF district decreases and plays a role in how much state aid the Town receives. Manager Reed emphasized that a slowly increase mil rate helps stabilize things in regards to State Aid to Education.
ITEM 5. Public Comments: There were no comments from the public.
ITEM 6. Manager’s Report:
a. The Council reviewed a copy of a letter from DECD outlining that Veazie was awarded the planning grant requested for the Penobscot River Restoration-Planning Project. Also enclosed, was the official press release and the Bangor Daily News article that was in Friday’s paper. Manager Reed outlined that the Town believes that this is very good news for Veazie and all of the communities that joined with the Town in the final application. Hopefully this will lead the Town towards the larger grants or awards that the State had discussed at the informational meeting that the Town Council conducted with PPL several months ago.
b. The Council reviewed a copy of a memo about Veazie’s forest cleanup day, which took place on Maine Day, April 28, 2004.
c. Manager Reed stated that he met with Greystone Trailer Park manager Richard Moffit before the meeting. The Town is going to contract with Terrance Dewan and Associates to come up with a proposal for Greystone Trailer Park. Ideally the park owners would like to eliminate a lot of the older trailers and develop an area into townhouses.
ITEM 7. Requests for Information/Council Comments: Councilor Hogan inquired whether staff was still planning to include in the Town Warrant articles that they were recommended by the Town Council as well as the Budget Committee. Manager Reed stated that it would be done. Councilor Hogan also suggested that when using acronyms if the full name could be placed in parenthesis on the first use of the acronym.
Budget Committee member Suzanne Hart inquired whether it could be explained somewhere what foundation allocation and debt service meant because someone always asks every year at Town Meeting.
Office Administrator Julie Reed noted that the School Department did not turn in a lunch warrant therefore the Council could disregard the warrant item.
Councilor Kelly inquired whether the Council could get an update on the cemetery at the next meeting. Superintendent Free stated that he would prepare one.
Chairman Friedman stated that he would like Code Enforcement Officer Allan Thomas, Deputy Code Enforcement Officer John Ellis and Manager Reed to get together to discuss various properties that have several vehicles parked on them as well as some refrigerators with doors still on them.
ITEM 8. Warrants: Town Warrant 22 & 22A, Town Payroll Warrant 22, School Warrant 22 and School Payroll Warrant 22 were circulated and signed.
ITEM 9. Adjournment: Motion: Councilor Cheney—to adjourn the May 3, 2004 Town Council Meeting. Seconded: Councilor Hogan—there was no further discussion. Voted 4-0, Meeting adjourned at 7:50p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Karen Humphrey
Assistant Clerk
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