Finance Committee Meeting Minutes
Community Room, Downstairs, Town Hall, 39 South Street, Hinsdale MA
Posted at 1:08pm on 4/13/2022
Members Present:
Shaun Galliher Bob Graves, Town Administrator
Mary Rice Ray Bolduc, Select Board
Russ Parks
Bonnie Conner
Chris Pike
Jim Chivers
Heather Brown
The meeting was opened at 6:33 pm.
A motion was made and seconded to accept the February 3, 2022 minutes as written. The motion passed with one abstention.
Bob went over the Accountants report and noted a few items as follows;
Treas/Collector expense – not much off in combined accounts.
SB expense – expenditures up due to advertising for so many job openings lately
Fuel – trending up due to the economy.
Highway – General Expense, Town Garage – Rebuilding the grader, Bob with talk with John and get
more information.
Police Department – two accounts are trending over, Bob with talk with the Chief.
Town Waste – due to new company increased costs.
Winter Roads – trending over as expected. Select Board needs to vote to authorize overrun.
Vocational Tuition – Billing is behind
Landfill well monitoring – Work has been done, reports sent in, not billed yet.
Bob also discussed other issues that will impact the budge. One is Water monitoring system needs new software at a cost of 17K. He thinks all software used in various departments should all come under the IT department. This may result in a uniform software that can be accessed by any department, and eliminate extra costs and maintenance. He wants to make sure we are spending wisely and efficiently.
Bob reported the Ch. 90 money for next year is 153K. The Budget is also going up. We need to increase salaries to attract and keep qualified employees. We are already down one person in Highway. The Committee also discussed the shortage of Assessors and what happens if no one runs for the three open positions. That seems to be a problem in all Towns
Bob reported that he worked on and submitted the Grant Application for the Maple Street Bridge. However, it was denied on a technical error he was unaware of. Bridges are measured in meters, not feet. Heather explained that Bridges are indeed measured in feet and it is the last state department to be converted to feet, which is a little known fact. Bob will resubmit in the future. There was also a discussion on who owns the bridge, the Town or the State. The State claims the Town owns it but Heather disputed that. Heather had researched this issue and believes the State owns it and that it was never turned over to the Town. This also brought up the ownership of Ashmere Lake, which the State has told Bob, they do not own it, the Town does. Heather says the State does own it and it can be proven. Heather has a vast knowledge of these issues and told Bob several ways to verify this.
Bob has also submitted the Grant Application for the culvert on the Schnopp Road Project. The estimated cost is 500K to 700K for one culvert. He discussed the problems with submitting applications because they constantly change the rules and that causes much frustration.
On a good note, Lynne Baumgartner has returned to Hinsdale, now as our Treas/Collector. She is very knowledgeable and can help with various account issues and with any questions Clarissa may have in Lynne's former position. A definite asset to our Town government.
Jim Chivers, School Building Committee, reported that the old school is down and the debris has been removed. There is an issue with the foundation removal but that is being handled. Some equipment has not yet arrived, but a dates have been provided for those deliveries. There are some issues still with the heating and ventilation controls, light switches, and miscellaneous issues that are being addressed.
Bonnie Conner, Seven Town Advisory Committee, reported that they had another Zoom meeting recently. She feels that it is basically a waste of time and that most of the discussion is geared toward the School Committee doing whatever they want to keep control and not abide by what the Seven Town Agreement states. She feels that they have no intention of abiding by the original agreement and should another issue arise, they will use the majority rule and not the rules set forth in the original district agreement. That is what they did on the vote for the new school. The Committee discussed the enrollment figures which are down all over the district. The current District wide figure is 1542 students. There are 57 in pre-K, a fairly new addition to the figures. Our assessment increased by 4.14% overall although their web site indicates the budget increased by 2. 5 %. They have also added many new positions including an Assistant Superintendent at a cost of over 40K per year. The good news is, our Capital budget went down by $3,500.
Mary Rice, Water Sewer Committee, reported there was no continuous leak report for February due to a shortage of employees to do the readings. She also reported that DEP has mandated yet another report due in July 2022 for SSO (Sewer System Overflow) that Dave Prickett has agreed to complete for a cost of $2,450.00 to be paid by the Sewer users.
The Committee complimented Chairman Shaun Galliher for his excellent Annual Finance Committee Report.
Bob reported that the Assessors Contract is due for renewal this year and that Viv Mason, Assessor, is working on the budget request.
A motion was made and seconded to adjourn at 7:36 pm. The motion passed unanimously The next Budget meeting of this Committee is Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 8:30 pm in the downstairs Community room at Town Hall. The next regularly scheduled meeting is April 7, 2022 at 6:60 pm also in the downstairs Community Room at Town Hall.
Respectfully submitted, Mary A. Rice, Secretary