CIP Minutes 11.28.18

January 7, 2019 Laurie Colburn CIP Committee, Minutes 0

CIP COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

NOVEMBER 28, 2018

Attendees – Marlene Freyler, Karen Hambleton, Carol Troy, Jason Allen, Claire James

Absent – Jim Bibbo, Sheila Jackson

Non-members Present – John Pfeifle, Selectman

Meeting opened at 12:18pm.

Review and Approval of 11.7.18 Meeting Minutes:

Jason Allen made a motion to accept the 11.7.18 minutes. Carol Troy seconded.  Motion Carried Unanimously: (5-Yes)

Discussion of Items Changed Since Last Meeting:

  1. Claire shared with the committee members that she adjusted/corrected the following items on the spreadsheet:
    1. Road Repair Bond (2014-2023) – Payments for this line items were carried through to 2029 but should have been recorded as ending in 2023 (which is the final bond payment year). This was corrected.
    2. Total calculations for interest on bonds and leases – The total calculations for these items had not been included on the previous spreadsheet. The spreadsheet was updated to include these.
    3. Highway and Road Shimming – This line item had not been included in the Offsetting Revenue section on the previous spreadsheet. The spreadsheet was updated to include this.
    4. Capital Reserve/Trust Fund Balances – The header for this section was updated to read “As of 12/2018”, instead of “As of 10/2018”. This is due to the fact that cap reserve monies voted on during the annual town meeting in March are not added to the funds until the end of the year (12/2018).
      1. Fire Dept. Heavy Equipment Fund – Total balance updated to $263,965.
      2. Revalution Fund – $5,000 was allocated to the fund in 2018. This was not previously reflected on the spreadsheet for the year 2018.General Items of Review/Discussion:
    1. Pick-up Truck for Highway Dept. – Claire asked if the Select Board had voted to purchase a new pick-up truck. They had not as of yet. John stated that they are still in process of gathering information.
    2. Fire Equipment Fund (Newly Proposed) – Claire asked the CIP members for their thoughts on funding this newly proposed fund starting in 2019, with $1,000. Jason stated that it was only $1,000 and would not materially impact taxes. The other board members felt it was best to hold off on funding this account until more is known about the general direction with respect to the Fire Dept. once a new Fire Chief comes in.
    3. Non-tax Town Revenue – John pointed out that non-tax related revenues brought in by the town were not accounted for on the CIP spreadsheet in the “General Budget + Capital – Tax Rate per $1,000” line item. He elaborated that last year the town brought in approximately $579K in non-tax revenue but that this was not accounted for in any way on the spreadsheet to offset the total tax impact figure. (Ex. – in 2018, a total tax impact of $12.26 was listed on the spreadsheet but in fact the actual tax impact would be measurably lower when taking into account the offset of non-tax revenues brought in to the town.) The committee agreed that going forward, this information should be included in the spreadsheet for an accurate picture of the actual tax impact.
    4. Cemetery Funds – Marlene stated that the balances are still not correct and that the funds themselves should not be included in the spreadsheet, as she spoke with a cemetery state representative who advised that the funds can only be used in certain ways. Further clarification on this is needed and the updated balances for each fund are also still needed. Claire stated that she requested this information from Harry via email and is awaiting his response.
    5. “General” Section of the Spreadsheet – Marlene commented that the smaller, “general” items (BNSYS, Boat Launch, Revaluation Reserve, and Master Plan) do not belong in the CIP. Claire stated that these items have always been funded via warrant articles as opposed to being included in the operating budget and that if going forward they were to be included in the operating budget, that they could be dropped from the CIP. Including them in the CIP for now, however, allows for greater visibility in terms of being able to view their contribution to the total tax impact each year, as they are not included in the operating budget and therefore cannot be seen via that document.
    6. Highway Department
      1. John advised that he thinks the salt shed project is important but that it doesn’t need to be done immediately. He added that the committee should take the approach of figuring out what is absolutely needed and then work around this when establishing the CIP plan. He also stated that he thinks one of the plows should be replaced between 2020-2021.
      2. Jason explained that he spoke with Steve Hall about allocating 30K in 2019 for road shimming and that he was amenable to this as he didn’t think he would need more than 30K in 2019. This number will be revisited next year if Steve feels more than 30K in funding is needed in 2020.
      3. Karen asked that the expenditure years for all Highway dept. projects/equipment replacements be included on the spreadsheet, as well as offsetting revenues for those expenditures. Claire advised that these had been purposely left off the spreadsheet as per past meetings it was discussed that the best approach to take with respect to highway equipment was to repair it until no longer possible/run to failure as opposed to replacing it, given that equipment is not an asset but rather a liability. Claire acknowledged that at some point the equipment would need to be replaced and that as such she would designate expenditure years for replacement as requested, but that these years would essentially be arbitrary and would for the most part most likely be reflected in the back half (last five years) of the current CIP plan, as designating early expenditure years for all of these items would unfavorably skew/unbalance the tax impact overall from 2019-2029.
    7. Bottom portion of the spreadsheet/Total tax impact – Marlene recommended removing the bottom portion of the spreadsheet entirely, as she stated that she thought it was too confusing. Per discussion about this earlier in the meeting, it does not include non-tax revenues brought in by the town and therefore inaccurately overstates the tax impact. This needs to be fine-tuned for next year to make the spreadsheet less confusing and more accurate.
    8. Page numbers and year headers – John asked that page numbers be included on the spreadsheet, along with the CIP years included as headers on each page. Marlene agreed that including these headers would make the document easier to read.
    9. Town Hall Restoration Fund Establishment Year – Karen pointed out that the establishment year was incorrectly listed as “2003”. It should be 2013. This will be adjusted on the spreadsheet.
    10. Net Valuation of Town – This was listed as $199,700,000 for 2018. Karen provided the actual number: $199,424,344. This number will be updated on the final version of the spreadsheet. It does not materially impact the forecasted tax impacts in any way.
    11. Jason reviewed a document he created which highlighted the 2019 proposed figures only. Last year’s CIP expenditure requests totalled $481,350. However this amount was offset by 20K in savings from the 2003 Fire Department Station Repair fund, making the total tax impact figure to the town $461,350. The expenditure requests for 2019 total $507,350 – a 5% increase over 2018.
  • Town Hall Restoration – Claire advised John and the committee members that the allocations for this line item would remain as is given the circumstances. She further elaborated that last year the CIP approval process was held up until February due to the fact that she had been asked by the Select Board to hold off on placing the plan up for final approval until the numbers for the Town Hall Restoration plan could be worked out. Claire emphasized that waiting this long to approve the plan essentially defeats the purpose of the CIP as an advisory document to the Budget Committee as they enter into budget season, since they (the Budget Committee) are expected to have approved a final town operating budget in February.Claire advised the committee that per the 11.28 agenda, it was expected that committee members arrive at the meeting prepared to submit final votes. As this was not the case due to unexpected, additional changes requested, Claire stated that one more meeting would need to be held, during which an official vote on the final document would take place. Marlene, Jason and Carol all indicated scheduling conflicts in the coming weeks and/or inability to attend the regularly scheduled meetings on Wednesday at noon. Given this, Karen asked if final votes could be submitted via email. Jason, Marlene and Carol all agreed that they would vote to approve the CIP plan, contingent on the appropriate updates being made, including the Highway Dept. project/equipment expenditure years. Claire advised the committee that once the changes were made that she would email the final document and that votes could then be submitted via email.*Meeting adjourned 1:27pm.Minutes submitted by Claire James.*POST 11.28.18 MEETING EMAIL VOTE RESULTS:2 – ABSTAIN (Jim Bibbo, Karen Hambleton)
  1. 4 – YES
  2.  
  5. Final Vote