In a nearly two hour meeting Monday night, the Town Council voted to allow expenditures of $1,650.43 from the Maintenance Trust Fund and $3,850 from the Fire Department Capital Reserve Fund.
According to the order request, submitted by Administrative Support Coordinator Steve Cotton, $1,255 from the maintenance fund request will cover “winter maintenance activities” like shoveling, plowing, and salting driveways and walkways at Town Hall, the Police Department, the library, the access center and the senior center.
The other $395.43, according to the town, will pay for plumbing repairs in the bathrooms at the South Fire Station. It will cover materials and labor needed to replace leaking vacuum breaker and flushometer diaphragms on four of the station’s urinals.
The Fire Department fund will go to purchase a portable lighting unit for use in “large scale incidents using the Town’s emergency services,” as well as during Old Home Days and elections, according to Cotton, who presented the department’s request.
Cotton said the plan would be to purchase two units – one paid for by the Fire Department’s Capital Reserve Fund and one by the Old Home Days Celebration Committee. Fund monies from the Old Home Days committee do not have to be approved by Town Council, he said. He also noted that the department had opted for two refurbished units to reduce cost.Both expenditures were approved 4-0. Council chairman John Farrell was not present.
The council also discussed the upcoming budget season.
One of the chief changes, according to the town, is the decision to use capital reserve funds to purchase vehicles outright for the Fire Department and the Department of Public Works as opposed to leasing them, which will save the town in finance costs and have a minimal impact on the tax rate – a 7/10 of a cent increase.
Council Vice-Chair Joe Green pointed out that this year’s request had an increase in line items, but said that the increase in items was a change in regulation from the state. He said services like road maintenance and trash pickup had previously been covered by the operating budget, but that new state rules required them all to be broken out into individual items. The town was not requesting any additional money for these services.
“It’s not a shell game,” Green said. “It’s something we need to do to run the town properly, the way we always have.”
Town Manager Kevin Smith encouraged citizens to participate in the budget process by attending the public budget hearing on Jan. 14 at 7 p.m. at Town Hall in the Moose Hill Council Chambers.
He also noted that any citizens who would like to draft a warrant article for the deliberative session should have those turned in at Town Hall by Jan. 8. He said the articles will be reviewed by the town attorney to ensure they are properly written and can be enacted if they pass.
The deliberative session will be held on Feb. 9 at 9 a.m.