Finance Committee Meeting Minutes
Community Room, Downstairs, Town Hall, 39 South Street, Hinsdale MA
Posted at 3:00pm on 3/4/2022
Members Absent Other Shaun Galliher Heather Brown Bob Graves, Town Administrator
Mary Rice Susan Rathbun, Police Chief
Russ Parks Dick Scialabba, Select Board Chair
Bonnie Conner Ray Bolduc, Select Board
Chris Pike
Jim Chivers
The meeting was opened at 6:30 pm.
A motion was made and seconded to accept the January 6, 2022 minutes as written. The motion passed unanimously.
Chief Rathbun discussed the future of her department and requested input on where we go from here. The Chief and the Committee discussed the problems facing small town departments such as ours. Currently she has one officer that is almost done with his “Bridge” training, and another who is about half way through. She has one that does not want to do the training and will be leaving Sunday. Another will also be done the end of February. Both Officers were part time and do not want to be full time. The State has eliminated part time police training and every part time officer has to now complete the “Bridge” training to become a full time officer, weather or not they want full time work. This is creating problems for small departments that relied on part time positions to fill the shifts.
Therefore, she is requesting adding a 4th full time officer to the department. Currently, she has one officer that would like to stay with the department if he could get full time. He currently is working another part time job in addition to being a part time officer. She would like to retain this Officer as well as he is a great asset to the department. The ideal scenario would be to have 5 full time officers, but at the moment she has no candidates as the pool of officers and those wanting to become officers, is very small. She would also like to appoint a Sargent position that would be better able to take over until a new Chief is appointed. She has about 18 months to 2 years before she retires and would like to leave the Department is good shape. We all agree that she has worked hard to get this department to the level it is now, and would like to keep it that way going forward.
The Chief and the Committee discussed regionalization of departments, something that is now being done in Becket and Otis. This problem also is being felt by the Ambulance and EMT's, where it's harder and harder to attract, train and keep volunteers. She encouraged us all to think about how we could all work together to solve this problem. The time to start the dialogue is now and hopefully this is the beginning.
Bob Graves reported that Charlies Expenditure Report looks fine, the Treasurer Expense overrun is the result of an accounting adjustment and is not over expended. He also reported that the State is putting out a lot of Grant applications and that he will be applying to some. One being for the culvert on the Schnopp Road project estimated at 15K. If he gets it, and the culvert is done, it would put us in a better position to apply for the STRAP grant again to complete the project. He will also apply for a grant to complete the engineering for the Maple Street bridge. The State has determined that they do not own it and it is our responsibility to fix it. Another one could be for the spillway at Plunkett Lake.
Scott Rodman has agreed to become our representative on the Berkshire Regional Planning and will attend the meeting in a few weeks. Our goal is to keep us on track for funding for the Peru Road project. We can update the engineering and Bob has gotten a quote for 12 to 15K.
Bob reported that he is working with Officer Elizabeth Zipp on the Police Contract. Jennifer (Treas) and Clarissa (Admin Asst) are working on the benefit comparisons to other town departments in our area. This is not an easy task as there are so many variables.
Bob reported that we are losing employees in our Highway Department which has become a problem county wide. Qualified people are changing jobs for better benefits. We need to be looking at how to retain our employees in the future. He has advertised for the position but has had no applicants so far.
The Middlefield Road project is up and running with Maxymillian as the General Contractor. The capping of the landfill is still on the agenda and he will be getting quotes for material. The Police department will be requesting an upgrade to their radios and Ray Bolduc said there has been an update but he is waiting until he receives it in writing.
Bob reported that he has sent all the budget requests out and what he has received so far trending the same as last year. There will be a few areas of increases such as IT for one.
Jim Chivers, School Building Committee, reported that the old school is now down, and piles of bricks and debris are yet to be removed. There are materials still arriving and adjustments still being made. There is training going on for some of this new equipment and technology. The official ribbon cutting ceremony was held last week.
Bonnie Conner, 7 Town Advisory Committee, held another Zoom meeting but felt that the main goal is to see how Dalton can stay in control over the other Towns. She had pointed out to them that Dalton pays less per student than any other town in the District, which seems to be grossly unfair. Cummington is still in our District because they cannot come up with the funds required to opt out. This is for the unfunded liabilities currently owed by every town, including Cummington.
The Town has received approximately 500K for Covid Relief Funds that the state now said can be used on the Landfill. The Board of Health has no update on the progress of condemning a property in Town at this time.
Bob also reported that Free Cash has not yet been certified.
A motion was made and seconded to adjourn at 7:48 pm. The motion passed unanimously The next meeting of this Committee is March 3, 2022 at 6:30 pm in the downstairs Community room at Town Hall. Our Saturday Budget meeting is scheduled for March 12, 2022, details to be sent out soon.
Respectfully submitted, Mary A. Rice, Secretary