Town Office Building January 4, 2016
Selectmen’s Conference Room 5:00 P.M.
First Selectman Mailhos called the meeting to order at 5:07 P.M. with Selectmen Kowalyshyn & Blessington and Business Manager, Donna Latincsics.
Donna presented a copy of the current budget for the Selectmen to review. First Selectman Mailhos noted that the CIP will be reviewing the Selectmen’s requests. She then recapped last year CIP requests and the new items that were submitted to the CIP Committee for their consideration the upcoming year.
Projects that were previously approved for 2016/2017:
TOB Masonry/Door replacement $45,000
TOB Renovations $70,000
Plan of Conservation & Development $30,000
New requests are as follows:
Senior Complex Septic Re-permitting (2016-2017)
MS4 Consultant (2016-2017)
Update Phone System & Voicemail at TOB (2018-2019)
Online permitting software for TOB depts. (2016-2017)
Donna said that she will be submitting the dollar amounts of each request into the spreadsheet. She hasn’t had a chance to review them all, but she believes it will be a large number once again this year. First Selectman Mailhos noted that the Selectmen have a line item for Capital projects to cover the cost of some of the requests. The amount previously approved for 2016-2017 is $551,000. It is the CIP Committee’s job to figure out which items should be placed in the list each year and also need to take in to consideration that some things can be offset by grants or other funding.
The Selectmen reviewed the current year’s budget. Donna said that there are a few departments who are showing a favorable budget thus far.
So far, the larger line items (Legal, Engineering, health insurance and the snow budget) are in good shape.
First Selectman Mailhos stated that she had held discussions with Superintendent Harding about improvements to custodial services for the Town (including the Library, TOB, Public Works and the Old Town Hall). Superintendent Harding believes we might be better served by sharing the services between the schools and the other municipal buildings, by hiring a new employee (which would fill a vacant position from last year that has since not been filled.) They will meet to discuss next week to see if it would be cost effective.
First Selectman Mailhos noted that Superintendent Harding has locked us in at $1.50 per gallon for fuel (which is more than a dollar per gallon less than last year.
First Selectman Mailhos asked if the EDC was going to request an employee. Selectman Kowalyshyn said that she didn’t think so – at least for this year. She noted that the EDC has been very busy, and there is a lot to do. The EDC had approached the BOF a few months ago to get some direction as to how to approach, if they decide to do so. The EDC had also discussed possibly sharing a person with the Land Use department, but is not sure if they will be asking to fill that position again this year. First Selectman Mailhos noted she believes if they would partner with the Selectmen, it might go better for them. Discussions over the past 3 or 4 years were filling the position (under the jurisdiction of the Selectmen) at 10 hours per week, and it seemed to be favorable at that point, but
when it came time for them to present to the BOF, it was submitted for 20 hours per week, and it was a hard sell.
First Selectman Mailhos stated that she would like to look at how much we spend on Emergency Services as a whole, and the breakdown between the two departments. This includes lease payments for apparatus, payroll and operation costs.
Years ago, Fund 17 was healthy and the fund was growing. At this point, the fund is no longer going to grow as it has in years past. We will need to figure out if that fund will be able to support the paid staff, as it used to increase each year, but has remained flat for several years.
The Willington Word distribution budget was then discussed. Last year, the Selectmen had decided to decrease the mailings to three times per year. The Recreation Commission has since decided to go back to four mailings per year, and they were going to have the Library and Revenue Collection Department to chip in to offset the difference. First Selectman Mailhos noted that the cost keeps going up every year as well; even though we can afford it this year, at some point, we may need to see if it would be cheaper to just send them out directly from the Town Offices. Selectman Kowalyshyn said she would look into a few publications to see how much it would cost. Selectman Blessington said that is how the Word started out a few years ago. Selectman Kowalyshyn said sometimes you
need to pick up and move on to wherever it is the cheapest. Donna stated that the current budget for the Willington Word has been set for $3,000 (for FY 15/16) but will need to be increased.
The Transfer Station’s preliminary budget shows a large decrease. Derek has changed the way we are sending out our bulky containers (we are compacting the bulky bins and sending the bins less frequently.) First Selectman Mailhos said she will ask Derek to come to one of the next meetings to discuss the Public Works & Transfer Station budgets.
Selectman Blessington said he would like to look into televising or videotaping the meetings and have the broadcasts made available on the web. Selectman Kowalyshyn suggested that there could be quite a substantial cost related to that, such as streaming equipment, hiring a videographer, tapes and even more money for technology upgrades to support it. She added it might be cheaper to look into a service.
Salary increases are slated to 2.95% as per the union contract.
The Selectmen reviewed the meeting calendar for the month of January.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:15 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
Robin Campbell
Robin Campbell
Administrative Assistant
Board of Selectmen
860-487-3100
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