CIP Meeting Minutes 06.26.19

July 9, 2019 Karen Hambleton CIP Committee, Minutes 0

Members Present: Marlene Freyler, Carol Troy, Caleb Connor, Jason Allen, Justin Dohrn (arrived 12:14pm), Claire James, Karen Hambleton

Meeting opened at 12:09pm.

  1. New members Introduction
    1. Caleb Connor & Justin Dohrn briefly introduced themselves to the other CIP Committee members.
  1. Review of CIP 2019-2029 v. Approved Warrant Articles 2019
    1. Claire presented 2019 Warrant articles reviewed against the 2019 CIP recommendations. A couple of needed corrections to this spreadsheet were pointed out, including the Culvert & Catch Basin line item, which was listed at 35K but was actually 38K. It was also noted that 60K for the Town Hall was added to the operating budget line 4194 (General Govt Buildings), as opposed to the originally proposed Town Hall Restoration fund.
    2. Claire commented that most of the CIP recommendations were in line with the actual warrant articles voted on. There were 6 items included as warrant articles, the funding/allocations for which were not included in the CIP:
      1. Highway Garage Mold Removal ($3500)
      2. Culvert & Catch Basin Replacement ($38,000)
      3. Naughton Property Well Monitor ($2700)
      4. BACC Repair for Water Damage & LED Lights ($10,000)
      5. Masonic Lodge Purchase ($20,000)
      6. P/T Chief & Firefighters per call basis ($35,000)
    3. Claire noted that the items included in the CIP which were either not funded or not fully funded via warrant articles were as follows:
      1. Fire Dept. Heavy Equip. Fund (CIP proposed: $110,000, Actual: $70,000)
      2. Main St. Improvement Fund (CIP proposed $50,000, Actual: $0)
      3. Salt & Fuel Fund (CIP proposed $1,000, Actual: $0)
    4. In Summary
      1. 2019 Warrant Articles approval totaled $482,550.
      2. 2019 CIP recommendations approval totaled $464,350.
      3. $ Amount of CIP recommendations NOT funded totaled $91,000.
      4. $ Amount of Warrant Articles funded which were NOT included in the CIP totaled $110,200.
  1. Review of CIP Application form and draft
    1. All CIP members agreed that the current CIP application form was unnecessarily complex and required simplification.
    2. A discussion was had regarding minimum project cost for CIP expenditures and the type of limit that should be set pertaining to this. Jason suggested keeping the 10K minimum for cap expenditures and agreed with Karen’s suggestion to ask the department heads for a list of any additional projects outside the CIP minimum guideline of 10K and/or outside of their operating expense line items.
    3. Jason offered to modify the existing application using the town of Warner’s application as a model. Karen will obtain the word doc version of this application from Warner and send it to Jason for modification. Jason will present a draft to committee members at the next CIP meeting.
  1. Other Points of Discussion
    1. Two CIP line items which were discussed were the BNSYS and Lake Massasecum Boat Launch items. Committee members agreed that since these line items are recurring, they ought to be taken out of the CIP and placed under the operating expenses – perhaps in the Parks & Rec budget line item as per Jason’s suggestion. The issue with doing so is that these two organizations are not technically town organizations, even though the town has consistently voted to support them via warrant article funding in the past. Jason inquired as to whether or not the town has an obligation to support these organizations. Karen advised that the town is not obligated to do so. Marlene asked how other towns fund the BNSYS in particular. Jason responded that other towns place this in their operating budget. Claire suggested that we propose bringing to a vote adding the BNSYS and Boat Launch items to the operating budget, which would remove them from the CIP. All members were in agreement with this suggestion.
    2. Karen suggested doing a recap for each department of existing CIP projects, as opposed to asking the departments to provide this recap.
    3. It was suggested that Claire put together a CIP info. packet for new members Justin and Caleb – and also Carol Troy – which will be provided to them at the next CIP meeting. Claire will follow up on this.
    4. Claire will attend the 7/15 Select Board meeting re CIP application and getting the process started. Departmental interviews will begin sometime during the month of August.
  1. Next Meeting: Wednesday, 7/10 @ 12:00pm

Adjournment: Carol Troy motioned to adjourn the meeting. Jason Allen seconded. Meeting adjourned at 1:24pm.