TOWN OF FITZWILLIAM
2009-2010 Budget Committee Meeting
Thursday, December 10, 2009
- Present: C. Yon, T. Parker, S. Hagstrom, M. Nolan
F. Bateman, B. Doerpholz
- Absent: W. Brown, W. Wright, B. Thomas
Meeting opened at 7:05pm by S. Hagstom.
B. Doerpholz made a motion to accept 12/03/2009 minutes as written; F. Bateman 2nd. S. Hagstrom asked to discuss page one where it was written that “T. Parker said perhaps she and her husband should discuss the matter, it may benefit them.” S. Hagstrom wasn’t sure if this should be in the minutes because it is a personal matter. B. Doerpholz said that Ms. Massin has a family plan that it should be discussed with her husband and felt it was ok to leave in the minutes. Committee agreed. Minutes passed as written.
Conservation
P. Kotila, B. Green, R. Corrette
P. Kotila reviewed proposed budget with the committee. He stated that the request for 2010 is the same as 2009 although some allocations have been changed. He explained that the focus of the Conservation Commission will be different in 2010 and that they will also have a secretary. C. Yon asked if $300.00 would be enough for the secretary. He said that they had initially requested $1300.00 in 2009 but didn’t have a secretary so that figure was reduced to $300.00. At $300.00 that averages to $50.00/month, will that be enough? B. Green said that in 2005 the secretary averaged $73.00/month. B. Doerpholz asked if that line should be raised to $900.00. P. Kotila said that they were unsure what the pay would be for the secretary or the number of hours necessary per month. T. Parker said that the Commission should meet with the Board of Selectmen to get the pay grade for the secretary and have the number of hours determined. Once this happens the Commission can revise their
budget and resubmit to the Budget Committee for review.
P. Kotila explained that line 315 Consultant Services will cover mostly the Open Space Plan. They will be working with Community Conservation Partnership and the Monadnock Conservancy. T. Parker asked what an open space plan was. P. Kotila explained that basically it is a plan for the use of the open spaces in town. He stated that they are working off of the Natural Resources Inventory and figuring out how to translate that information into open land uses and priorities. M. Nolan asked why the planning board isn’t doing this. He stated that it seems like duplication of what the planning board does. P. Kotila stated that ideally the Open Space Plan should feed directly into the Master Plan, which the planning board is handling. C. Yon indicated that the planning board
could have handled the open space plan but that board is busy working on the Master Plan which will be completed before the Open Space Plan.
P. Kotila continued with the review of the proposed budget. He finished with stating that the Commission is requesting $15,000.00 under Capital Outlay line 710 Land. He said that last year, 2009, was the first time in 5 years that the request was not approved and he would like to see the town continue saving for the purpose of purchasing land.
The Total request for the Conservation Commission may increase after the commission meets with the BOS about the secretary salary.
There were no additional questions regarding the conservation budget.
CIP
S. Hagstrom informed the committee that the CIP had an unofficial meeting and will not be making any recommendations for 2010.
B. Doerpholz asked if the Fire Department had come to any decision at all about their request for new ambulance/refurbishing existing ambulance. T. Parker stated there had been no further discussion about the ambulance request. T. Parker did say that in the BOS meeting minutes E. Mattson stated that the existing ambulance could last another 2 to 3 years as is. T. Parker went on to say that the town now has funds coming in for ambulance services being charged for and the town may have enough money in 2 to 3 years to buy a new ambulance with little or no loans.
Discussion about the future of the ambulance service and how it should grow in the future took place. T. Parker stated that he does not want to see a full-time ambulance crew in the near future. He would be open to looking into combining efforts with DeLuzzio.
Highway Dept.
Reviewed Highway budget without Gene Cuomo present. He was unable to attend this meeting, but gave the committee notes on budget increases and decreases for review. He also made his cell phone number available if necessary.
The committee reviewed the Highway budget with the help of notes given by G. Cuomo. Highway budget request decreased $48,716.00 over 2009 approved budget. Most significant change was the backhoe lease payment is not in budget because the town now owns the backhoe. There had been discussion about replacing the loader in the same manner as the backhoe, but this will probably be pushed off a few years.
T. Parker told the committee that one employee had been given a merit increase and moved from start to Grade 1.
M. Nolan questioned line 140 Overtime. He asked why, if they only expended $541.00 in overtime, where they requesting $8000.00. T. Parker indicated that he thought that figure was incorrect.
C. Yon stated that he was concerned that areas were being reduced that shouldn’t be. He gave the example of salt; G. Cuomo stated in his explanation that they would “try to use less”. Although he likes seeing reductions, he doesn’t want too much reduced where it could become a problem.
B. Doerpholz asked about Capital Outlay. T. Parker said no request had been submitted, but expected to see a request of approx. $250,000.00. Some discussion about road projects took place.
There was no further discussion about Highway budget.
Recreation Dept.
M. Patterson, T. Garcia
T. Garcia introduced Melanie Patterson as the new Recreation Coordinator. T. Garcia explained the restructuring of the Recreation Dept. and some of the issues that the Rec Commission has been dealing with. She went on to say that it was somewhat difficult to create a budget because K. Stark always took care of it so the Commission was learning as they went.
Line 120 Part-time salary was significantly reduced because of the restructuring of the department. Breakdown is as follows:
Recreation Director $8000.00 stipend
Summer Recreation Coordinator $3500.00 stipend
(1) Jr. Councilor $1400.00 ($8.05/hr)
(5) Sr. Councilors $8000.00 ($9.29/hr)
Lifeguard $500.00
Soccer coordinator receives a $1500.00 stipend and the Basketball coordinator receives a stipend of $1000.00 which is covered through the revolving fund.
Some questions were brought up about Workers’ Compensation, why there was nothing in this budget under this line. C. Yon said the entire town Workers’ Compensation was in the Executive budget. Last year that line was $14, 000.00.
Line 353 Advertising is up because each season the Recreation Dept. will need to advertise for the coordinator positions and summer recreation councilors.
C. Yon asked if they were comfortable with the presented budget. He noted the inexperience with the recreation department (M. Patterson new to department) and didn’t want them to run into trouble because they cut a lot out. M. Patterson said she had worked with Paula Thompson and is comfortable with the presented budget.
Solid Waste
Reviewed the presented budget with help from the notes given from G. Cuomo. There were no questions or comments.
Review for Dec. 17 meeting
S. Hagstrom advised that next week will be a work session and thought perhaps the ambulance should be discussed. C. Yon thought that maybe the budgets with significant decreases should be reviewed to be sure department heads weren’t being too conservative.
Motion was made to adjourn. Motion 2nd.
Meeting adjourned 8:45pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Heidi L. Wood
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