by Alex Brooks
The Grafton Town Board held a Special Meeting on Monday September 22. They passed a resolution to pay all bills as audited (which they had not been able to do at the regular meeting two weeks earlier) and granted a travel trailer variance to A. McElroy and J. Doyle for their property at 6 Firetower Road.
[private]The Board also authorized the Supervisor to approve the purchase of a new plow for the truck the Highway Department purchased last summer.
Supervisor Frank Higgins announced that there will be a public meeting on Wednesday, October 1, at 5 pm in which Assessor Galarneau will present information about assessments, property sales and equalization rates. Individual assessments will not be discussed at this meeting.
Budget Workshop
The Board then conducted a Budget Workshop to put together a tentative budget for 2015.
They were able to assemble a budget that will stay within the tax cap limitation of 1.6%, but it requires the Highway Department to tighten its belt. Highway Superintendent Herb Hasbrouck called it “a maintenance budget, not a progress budget.” He is concerned that the budget does not leave room for improvement of either the roads or the trucks and equipment. He noted that his newest truck is ten years old.
Highlights Of The Budget Workshop
The Town Clerk’s office requested an increase in its contractual budget to pay for software. Cathy Goyer said she would like to “computerize” the office. She has spoken to other Town Clerks, who recommended software from a company called BAS. She said nothing is computerized at present, because, she said, “Sue’s not a computer person.”
Buildings – Higgins said the Town is already over budget for 2014 on this account, and the Board raised it by $1,500 for 2015.
Parks – The Board added an “Equipment” line with $2,500 additional in it to buy a new mower for mowing the park.
The Grafton Library requested a $2,500 increase. Supervisor Higgins said he supports the increase. Rick Ungaro said it was a 10% increase, and he seemed to think it was too much. Barbara Messenger said the Library has not had an increase in ten years, so she was ready to support the increase. It was left in the tentative budget, perhaps to be revisited later in the budget process if necessary.
The State retirement assessment is reduced slightly this year, which gives the Board a little extra to work with.
Town Bookkeeper Maureen Seel recommended that the Town change the way it does its Unemployment Insurance to a self-insured system which would cost less, and the Board agreed to make that change.
One of the Town employees who was single is now married and his health plan must be upgraded to cover two people, so the Town’s cost increases by about $7,000 because of that and about $3,000 because of an expected 10% increase in premiums from the insurance company.
The bad news on health insurance was partially offset by good news about Garbage and Recycling revenue. It was set conservatively at $12,000 this year, but $16,000 has already been received so the Board set next year’s revenue figure at $17,000, an improvement of $5,000.
Highway
Highway Superintendent Herb Hasbrouck said the personal services line was okay if there were no raises. Board members then started querying Bookkeeper Maureen Seel what the cost would be if they raised pay by 1% or 1.5%.
Hasbrouck suggested that they take out the extra pay for the Deputy Superintendent for this year and use that to raise the pay of the three senior workers so they are at a higher level than the new hires. This would allow the overall budget for highway workers to remain the same as last year. The Board accepted that idea.
The Highway Department’s contractual expense for machinery is over budget this year. Hasbrouck said there were some big items this year, and he hoped it would be better next year. The Board raised that account from $63,000 to $70,000.
While some details remain to be worked out, the Board was confident by the end of the evening that they would be able to stay under the tax cap this year without any painful cuts, but some were concerned about the aging fleet of highway trucks and the rising repair bills that come with older trucks.[/private]