April 3, 2018

Present: Don Hawley, Bill Hiller, Gary Thomas, Becky Stone, Terry Gould, Michael Ernst, Walt Engels via cell phone (remote participation)

Others: Larry Gould, Jack Conboy, Heather Venne

Meeting called to order at 5:35 pm and is being recorded.

Purpose: Review Budget proposals for Fiscal Year 2019

Pg 54 #18 Asst Maint Super Salary: Terry Gould recused herself from this discussion. In 2011, the part-time position was created and duly advertised for applicants with only Larry applying. Tonight, there was discussion as to what to rename the position to so it would more accurately reflect his duties in the position. The new title name will be Building Project Supervisor/Project Coordinator by unanimous decision. This account is now PASSED with a 5% increase, title change, and approved at $12,853.07.

The capital expense for Repeaters was discussed. The owner of the emergency services cell tower was contacted but we have not heard back from SBA yet. Derek is not certain the repeater needs to be on a tower. It just may need to be located at a high spot.

Pg 47 #50 Inspectors: There was discussion as to what to use this for because its purpose was not clear. After a lot of discussion with the next account, it was determined this should be used for Jack’s salary for holding Town Hall hours as Sanitation Inspector. Therefore, the name of this account will change to Sanitation Inspector Salary and was PASSED at $1606.80. This is a 3% increase to $15.45 per hour for two hours per week equaling $30.90 per week.

Pg 69 #74 Sanitation Inspector: After a lot of discussion, it was finally determined this account should be left as a single line item and should be used to pay for Jack’s expenses for Food Service inspections. This would include supplies, materials, inspection fees, and training. However, this account should be paid to Jack on a quarterly basis as a stipend, the same as the Animal Inspector’s quarterly payment pays for that position’s expenses. This means expense payments will no longer be submitted against this account – the quarterly payout will cover expenses instead. PASSED at $6500.

Pg 91 #36 Town Hall Admin Assistant: One line item needs to be changed to read ‘Education Allowance’.

Pg 61 #52 Police Dept. Expenses: This account was PASSED as presented for $16,485.

Pg 52 #16 Maintenance Labor: The two boards agreed to add a Contingency line item and fund it for $1992. New account budget PASSED at $115,273.76.

Pg 63 #53 Police Dept. Labor: When Becky was recalculating she questioned how some positions could be calculated at 55 and 54 hours per week. Additional explanation is that Roberta was covering vacation time. PD II (Sergeant) is calculated at $26,557.44, PD I for CW is calculated at $19,084.00, regular PD I is calculated at $20,431.84, and the total budget should be $76,073.28.

Capital Expenses were discussed. The Select Board unanimously agreed to not consider Maintenance’s paving requests this year. Bill would like to table the Fire Alarms as he believes we can do a better job for less money when the entire town is connected to the fiber broadband. We are still waiting for more information on the Radios and the Repeaters before a decision can be made on them. Highway wants to pay for the 2 yard sander/spreader out of encumbered funds. We are considering financing both the replacement for the International Dump Truck and the purchase of a new Loader/Backhoe unit over three years. Another budget meeting will be scheduled for after the April 10^th Select Board and will be posted for 7:45 pm so that it may be called to order after the Select Board meeting. At that time, the Select Board asked Becky to prepare a more formal list of Capital Expense requests and show the before and after effects of that list against Free Cash and Stabilization.

Bill still needs to submit a budget for the MLP.

Another budget meeting will be scheduled for after the 7:15 pm April 10^th Select Board meeting and will be posted for 7:45 pm so that it may be called to order after the Select Board meeting. This meeting adjourned at 7:20 pm.

Respectfully Submitted,

Lisa D’Orazio

Selectmen’s Secretary

Town of Otis

List of Documents

A copy of the document from the Police Chief explaining the budget request will be filed with these meeting minutes.

A copy of Becky’s Capital Requests as of 4/03/2018 will be filed with these meeting minutes.