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Minutes from May 26,2010 meeting

June 3rd, 2010

Town of Carroll Budget Committee Meeting
May 26, 2010

Members present: Lori Hogan, Tom Gately, Carmine Fabrizio, Becki Pike, Mike Shea, and Bonnie Moroney

Excused: Jim Covey

Guests: Chief John Trammell, and Mark Catalano

Meeting called to order by Lori at 7:03PM

Roll calls taken all present accept for Jim Covey.

Lori went over the corrections from the April 21, 2010 meeting: in the paragraph about by-laws and conflicts in other towns about people being on another committee and on the budget to. It stated that Lori mentioned it, but it was Tom.

Also second page Lori explained Capital Reserve studies, not the impact fees. She further explained, should be we further discussed.

Tom made motion to accept minutes as amended, Carmine second and it passed.

Correspondence, there was an e-mail from Jamie Dow at the DRA, asking if the committee would like to have them come and talk to the committee. It was discussed to weather we would be able to have her come up to one of our regular meetings, instead of us having to have another meeting.
Possibly the meeting on the 3rd Wed. in June.

Bonnie went over the old business with the answers from Maryclare on the questions asked.

1. Financial Admin. – Misc. over budget $930.73 -- answer: Proven & Lorber for Old Town Rd.
2. General Gov. Bldg – Misc. over budget by $322.00 – answer: there were items that should have been charged to Contract Labor (200) and these were transferred. $992.62 to Tom Devin for elec. Work at PD & $90.00 for Sean Moran for work at PD.
3. PD Vehicle Repairs & Maint. – answer: this is higher now as a repair bill had been charged to the incorrect line.
4. Solid Waste – Equipment Purchase over budget by $583.84 – answer: Bill Dowling does all of his own allocating and there were various bills from, but not limited to, Cat, and Whitefield Hardware.
5. Water distribution and treatment – over budget by $2925.92 – answer: because this is a new dept. butget, there are a number of lines it is lacking, i.e. office supplies, office equipment, etc.
Went over the budget printed 5/26/10. Noticed the Planning Board legal and engineering numbers were little high. It was stated that it would be due to the case on the Rines case.

Chief Trammell, said he just wanted to go over a couple of lines on his budget and explain some things. He said is office supply line would be over very shortly, because of all the paper work they have to do from increased arrests. He said in 2007 there were 14 incidences, and 31 arrests 2008 to 2009 there were 88 incidences and 44 arrests and at this time in 2010 there has been 116 incidence and 75 arrests.

He said next year he would also be putting $25,000.00 on the vehicle repair line. He said that he had cancelled the Verizon account because the equipment that they have would not work with Verizon, but he is working on getting a new program in with wi-fi program. It works within our area but not outside of Twin Mt. general town.

John said that he was also planning on added a Vehicle Lease line for $15,000.00, so that he has something to fall back on in the event that they don’t have a working vehicle. He said that Chief Gardner puts $26,000.00 in a least line on his budget in Lancaster every year.
He said that he has no idea where ammo is going to go, but he is planning on leaving the same amount in for next year, until he sees where the market is going.
Mike asked Chief what most of the increase arrests were from and he said drugs.

We next started to address the survey that will be sent out to the town’s people. We went over the questions that Lori had put together and sent out for the members to look over, and everybody was very pleased with them. We next moved on to the questions that the members were asked to bring.
(These questions are listed as they were on the sheets the members passed in, after these the discussions about different questions will be put in.)


Carmine:

What do you expect from your town government?
What can we do to bring business to town?
By voting “no” on town services and necessities do you see that as helping the town?
as a place to visit?

Tom:

Do you know the true purpose of Capital Reserve Funds and the impact of not funding them year after year?
What are looking for from the Budget Committee to do with the small amount that it can control?
How much of the tax rate does the budget committee control in your opinion?

Mike:

Do you think hiring a town manager would be a good idea?
Responsibly to include: a) oversight of all town departments/employees. b) seek out Fed
and State aid and grants c) be an intermediary between select board and town employees.
Would you support term limits for elected officials?

Becki:

Do you find the Warrant Article questions difficult to understand or confusing?

Mark:

Why do you think the Town of Carroll residence have voted down virtually all spending warrant articles for the past two years?

What do you think the budget committee/select board could do to reverse the trend of voting all spending down?

Would you support the Town of Carroll working closely with other nearby towns to group purchase requirements in an effort to reduce operating cost through cooperative buying?

Jim:

What are your feelings on the number of full-time and part time town employees relative to the size and population of the Town of Carroll?
a) We have just the right amount of employees.
b) We have to many full time employees.
c) We do not have enough full time employees.
d) We should find a balance between full and part time employees.

Would you be in favor of the regionalization of certain Town of Carroll departments such as the Fire Department., the EMS Service, the Police Department, etc (sharing services and costs).
a) I would be in favor of regionalization of certain town functions.
b) I would not be in favor of regionalization of any town functions.
c) I would like to know more about regionalization and how it might benefit the Town of Carroll.

What are your feelings and perceptions of the budget committee and the role it plays in the spending of your tax dollars.

Bonnie:

Do you consider the Town of Carroll as a
a) business
b) support system
c) other _____________________________________

Do you think the town needs a town manager?

Would you like to see the town go back to a Town Meeting or are you happy with being an SB2 town?
a) town meeting
b) SB2
c) _____________________________________________________

Do you feel you are informed enough about how things are running in the town and what needs to be done?
**************************************************************************************
Mark had verbally suggested the question, Given the current financial crisis do you think the local government is doing enough to reduce the current budget.

Mike, said he felt that this question was too much like the #5 on the survey that Lori had put together.

There was discussion about who to send the survey’s to. Some felt that it should be sent only to registered voters for the Town of Carroll. Bonnie said that she felt all tax payers should have their say, weather they vote or not. It would be one of the only times they get to express their feelings.

Mark suggested that the select board make a public announcement during the select board meeting, as it will go on Channel 2 and let people know how important it is for people to complete and send them back.

Becki asked if we thought we should but a question in about weather they are in favor of gaming coming into this part of the state or not. Lori said that she wasn’t sure that was an appropriate question so she opened it to the group to see what they felt. It was discussed and decided that this would not be part of the questions.

Jim’s second question was read – Would you be in favor of the regionalization of certain Town of Carroll departments……… Bonnie said that it was not a clear question and would need to be simple, for all to understand.

Lori said she would put all the questions together and then send them out for all to look over. After discussion it was decided that the committee would rather go over them at the next meeting. It was mentioned that we should also think about a return by date to be added as well.

Lori, asked that the members take the copy of the bylaws home with them and bring whatever changes they felt needed to be added or subtracted to the next meeting. Also consider that next year the members will be elected and we want to prevent conflicts.

CIP, Lori and Bonnie met with Carol Bont that morning to go over what information that she needed in order to get the CIP that she was working on completed. After meeting with her and going over what she had, Bonnie was able to show her she already had most everything she was looking for. There were only three things she still needed and Bonnie called Maryclare when she got to work and Maryclare got them over to her before noon time that day.

She is hoping to have ours done and to us by July 1st. CIP helps to level taxes because it shows what is needed when and that way it funds as needed. If it is funded properly each year it would help keep the tax rate about the same without spiking as we have done in the past.

Many of the pages that Carol gave us has history of tax rates and budgets so that she can get a story of how the town runs and votes. Other sheets include the town’s assessed value, the items or repairs that need to be done, the approximate amount and what year they need to be done by. There is a lot of work that needs to be done on the summery list and maybe make a separate wish list as right now it is added with existing things that need to be done, so bringing the total to far up.

We need to try and get a CIP committee up and running. Bonnie will try and get some people to be willing to join it. Each department needs to meet with the committee and go over their list and either change dates, things, and prices. Bonnie said that she doesn’t think the department heads were explained what they needed to do.

Lori said she had missed a mail item from LGC under correspondence, it was about the activities that they are offering this summer.

Next meeting will be June 16th, at 7PM. Tom motioned to adjourn at 8:35PM, Carmine second and it was passed.