Town Office Building January 17, 2012
Selectmen’s Conference Room 5:00 P.M.
First Selectman Mailhos called the meeting to order at 5:03 P.M. with the following in attendance: Selectman Lilttell & Blessington, Public Works Director, Lynn Nicholls and Business Manager Donna Latincsics.
Donna Latincsics presented draft #2 of the budget. The budget reflects an increase of $50,539 (1.38%) so far for the Selectmen’s budget. She has added place holders for elected positions, the Fire Departments and the Library. The budget will increase as other departments submit their requests. Region 19 has not been factored in as of yet. Donna will factor in an unofficial increase as a place holder. Donna has also increased the Public Works Secretary’s hours to 18 per week as per Lynn’s request. A place holder for health insurance has also been added for $18,000.
First Selectman Mailhos would like to have the option of doing merit increases (based on performance reviews). She said she cannot think of another workplace environment where raises are just given without evaluations. A different procedure would need to be discussed for elected positions.
The snow budget was discussed. Lynn asked the Board to consider adding another truck as a back up for plowing. The first real storm of the season was yesterday and they had several break downs, which made it a long storm for the crews. Selectman Blessington said we made cuts last year and knew we would run into problems. He feels we will creep up and will be back to normal (with 4 contractors) again. Lynn said that it was a long route for the drivers and said it is a nightmare because these guys don’t take a break. Selectman Blessington added that even though we do not have a back up contractor, we were able to get one today. First Selectman Mailhos said that figuring the snow budget is tricky and depends on the storm. Selectman Blessington added that last year was an exceptional year and you can’t
budget for an exceptional year every year. First Selectman Mailhos stated that even though there was a delay, school was still held and the roads are safe. The job got done. The Board of Finance understands when more money is sometimes needed such as last year.
Lynn then presented her budget and breakdown of what goes back into the roads from her budget. A discussion was held on maintenance versus improvements. First Selectman Mailhos clarified that chip sealing should be considered maintenance – not an improvement. There is no money in the budget for road improvements under the Public Works operating budget – it is all under CIP. Lynn presented the GASB list, which is an alphabetical list of the roads in Town. She also noted a few of the roads that are in bad shape, and will need more than just chip sealing. She added that she got prices for stone and emulsion. The proposed cost difference this year is an increase of $5,000 (for the oil and chipper). The proposed roads to be done this year will need more shimming and prep work on them. This
year, the loose ends will be chip sealed and next year will be back on track for a normal route. First Selectman Mailhos suggested reviewing an eight mile per year goal, assuming this would put us on a new eight year cycle.
Discussion was then held on outsourcing sweeping. Lynn has received two estimates; The first company quoted $70,000 and the other company quoted $40,000-50,000. The second company stated they will start early in the year, bring two or three sweepers in and will do the entire town in 2-3 weeks. Having the sweeping outsourced will free up our crews to do their normal work – shimming, tree trimming, mowing, etc. Right now, our crews sweep the roads, and it ties them up between March and July (sometimes longer), and limits them only to sweeping. Lynn would like to also add catch basin cleaning when she goes out to bid for the sweeping. First Selectman Mailhos added that we would now be adding an additional $50,000 to our operating budget, however, the refurbished sweeper request for $130,000
would come off of the CIP request and we would be saving on fuel and also be gaining three workers (our regular crew) for the summer.
Lynn stated that she collected approximately $30,000 last year from insurance companies for damages incurred to the roads. This year, she has collected $20,000 - $14,000 from one incident alone. She added that it is time consuming, but cannot see taking that much money out of her budget to fix guardrails.
Each line item was reviewed. Increases include: tree removal, trash removal (contract has gone up and new compactor rental), temporary help (at the Transfer Station) and street sign replacement (Lynn stated that she replaced 106 signs and 30 brackets last year).
First Selectman Mailhos reviewed the lease payments for Public Works. The lease payments have only gone up by $10,000 (adding the dump truck and Lynn’s pick up). By adding a new backhoe will increase by an additional $5,000. Donna stated that the first lease for the five pieces of equipment will end in FY 2013-2014.
First Selectman Mailhos recapped from the beginning: The Selectmen’s budget is already up by $50,000. Adding sweeping outsourcing will be an additional $50,000. Health insurance is looking favorable, so far; we don’t see a lot of changes and the premium rate should be flat.
First Selectman Mailhos said she would like to explore maintenance, repairs and improvements to the roads and will create a chart. She suspects that an analysis of where the Public Works money has gone over the past several years will show that we are putting less money into road maintenance and even less into road improvements. Selectman Littell added that it would be an important figure to show and support the CIP.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:25 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
Robin Campbell
Robin Campbell
Administrative Assistant
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