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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-02-03 Board of Selectmen Minutes Board of Selectmen Meeting i February 3, 2007 i For ease of archiving, the order that items appear in these Minutes reflects the order in which the items appeared on the agenda for that meeting, and are not necessarily the order in which any item was taken up by the Board. The meeting convened at 8:30 a.m. in the Town Hall Conference Room, 16 Lowell Street, Reading, Massachusetts. Present were Chairman Ben Tafoya, Vice Chairman James Bonazoll, Secretary Stephen Goldy and Selectman Richard Schubert. Also present were Town Manager Peter Hechenbleikner, Assistant Town Manager/Finance Director Bob LeLacheur, Fire Chief Greg Burns, DPW Director Ted McIntire, Police Chief James Cormier, Library Director Ruth Urell, Highway Supervisor Mike deBrigard, School Finance and Human Resource Director Mary DeLai, Finance Committee Member Michele Williams, School Committee Member David Michaud,Finance Committee Member George Hines. Discussion/Action—Items The order of business this morning is to review the enterprise funds, review the Capital Improvements Program, and develop the method to balance the budget. Review. Enterprise Budgets - DPW Director Ted McIntire reviewed the water enterprise, the sewer enterprise and the stormwater management enterprise systems. We don't have final rates for water and sewer from the MWRA yet. What drives the water and sewer budget is the debt and capital. The water budget uses $600,000 of reserves, and the sewer projects use no reserves. Review 2008-2012 Capital Improvements Program - The Capital Improvements Program was reviewed. The Board-asked that staff develop additional information on the need for the new financial computer system. This could be anecdotal as well as statistical information. The Board asked for additional information on the artificial turf field—how much additional use do you get out of an artificial field versus a regular turf field. The Board further discussed the need for appropriations for sidewalks, and asked that we begin to look at how to fund the feasibility study and design for structured parking for Downtown. The Assistant Town Manager indicated that he felt in the future we should do the full capital planning in the Fall at the Fall Financial Forum, and reserve the Spring financial discussion for the budget. Final Review of FY 2008 Budget- With respect to balancing the budget, the School Committee has made several decisions and made several other recommendations in order to balance the budget. They reduced the unanticipated SPED costs by$90,000, suggested using $50,000 for the Medicare Part D reimbursement to offset health insurance costs, and reduce energy costs by $5,000. The total reduction in accommodated costs is $145,000, approximately $30,000 of which accrues to the benefit of the municipal government. They also suggested reducing $85,000 in capital for the savings in doing the Killam roof. The Board asked to make sure that Board of Selectmen Meeting—February 3,2007—Page 2 we talked with the Board of Assessors about moving the Senior Tax Work Program to the overlay. Chairman Ben Tafoya noted that we should not delude ourselves that State Aid will increase as outlined. The Board gave staff the following direction: 1. In the area of reductions, do not reduce Police or Fire overtime or Library materials. 2. For additional programs, add the additional Dispatcher,Nurse Advocacy and,if possible, add back additional funds for Library materials to get as close as possible to the 15%. The consensus of the Board members present was to agree. For the February Town Meeting, we should provide for the Nurse Advocacy Program to begin in the latter part of FY 2007, and also the additional Dispatcher. Staff will work to balance the budget in accordance with these guidelines. Chairman Ben Tafoya thanked the staff and the volunteers for their hard work on this budget. On motion by Goldy seconded by Bonazoli, the Board of Selectmen voted to adjourn their meetin,g of February. 3, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. by a vote of 3-0-0. (Richard Schubert had left during the meeting). Respectfully submitted, ecretary