Finance Committee Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the March 23, 2023 Finance Committee 

Members                                   Absent                                      Other                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Shaun Galliher                      Russ Parks             Bob Graves, Town Administrator                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Jim Chivers                                                                    Ray Huntoon, Select Board

Bonnie Conner                     

Mary Rice                                                                      

Tracy Lussier

Candy Galeucia

Sara Baumann

Heather Brown

The meeting was opened at 6:36 pm. 

A motion was made and seconded to accept the minutes for the March 2, 2023 Finance meeting.  The motion passed with one (1) abstaining.  A motion was made and seconded to accept the minutes of the March 9, 2023 Finance meeting.  The motion passed with one (1) abstaining.  A motion was made and seconded to accept the minutes of the March 16, 2023 Finance meeting.  The motion passed with two (2) abstaining.

Chairman Galliher reported that the first part of the next meeting on March 30, 2023 will be with the Fire Department to discuss options to finance the new Tanker. 

Chairman Galliher, Bob Graves and the Committee discussed the Budget, and the necessity to cut some of the requests for funding.  If we funded all requests, we would be over the 2 ½ levy limit by a fair amount.  There is not much Free Cash available and a lot of department requests.  There is approximately 25K left in the Reserve Fund and we still don't have a final figure on Winter Roads and Fuel to name a few major ones.

The Committee went over the Capital Plan and possible areas we might need to eliminate this year.  We also discussed Staffing needs, payroll increases (in an effort to retain qualified employees), equipment requests and many other issues effecting our daily needs.

Chairman Galliher reported on our meeting last week with the C.B.R.S.D. School Department and School Committee.  Our School Assessment has increased over 4% and we all feel that we just cannot afford it.  We have a lot of Town needs and this is a huge impact on what we can afford to fund.  Although we have not taken a formal vote yet, It is the general feeling of our Committee that we should reject the School Budget and make them go back and revise it to better reflect what the Towns can afford.

We will continue to review and adjust the Budget in future meetings, with one scheduled for next week.

A motion was made and seconded to adjourn at 7:46 pm, the motion passed unanimously.  The next regular meeting of this Committee is Thursday, March 30, 2023 at 6:30 pm in the downstairs Community room at Town Hall.  

Respectfully submitted,

Mary A. Rice, Secretary