Board of Selectmen Meeting Minutes |
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Any and all corrections to the following minutes will be made at the 01/20/00 Board of Selectmen's Meeting and are considered unapproved until then. Corrections will be noted in the minutes of that meeting.
BOARD OF SELECTMEN JANUARY 11th, 2000 NEWFANE TOWN OFFICE
PRESENT: 1. CALL TO ORDER Planning Commission - Chairman M. Rohan indicated to J. Spicer and G. Garbe that the initial increase in the town expenditure budget and the reduction in the surplus from FY 1999, showed an increase in the town tax rate of $0.13 or 24%. Because of that, the Board had to look at everything for reductions in the budget requests. The Board reduced the Planning Commission budget by $3,500 in the area of legal and consultant fees, as the PC does have a Planning Grant ($5,400) that could be used for planning purposes. The grant has been used in the past for the purchase of a new computer, the ArcView Mapping program and for consultant work. J. Spicer and G. Garbe would like to start on the process to digitize the town tax maps. The current tax maps are not to the GIS scale and need to be converted. The information would be very useful for zoning purposes, the Listers and the public. The anticipated final cost could be as much as $30,000. The PC anticipates that the cost could be shared by the Listers, PC and Zoning. At this time the Listers do not seem to be in favor of having the maps digitized. The question was raised by J. Anderson as to whether the state has a master plan for having all town maps in the GIS format. PC members have not hear of any master plan as yet. As for consultant work, the PC is having Attorney Pyatak look over the proposed bylaw. That work should be completed during this current fiscal years budget. It was suggested that the wages line item could be reduced. PC members noted that much of the time is currently donated. If new members are appointed to the upcoming vacancies, that practice may change. The legal fees line item for the PC is for legal advice. The Board kept the Planning Commission expense total at $4,900 but reduced the wages by $500 and increased the Legal Service line item to $1,000. Overall Budget Expenditures - The results of the previous reductions in the budget from the meeting of 01/06/00 the estimated tax rate for the town is $0.59, down from the previous estimate of $0.67 before the reductions and up from $0.54 current town tax rate. The Board reviewed the budget line items again, in particular the highway department. Budgets are a guideline to be followed for overall expenditures and should not affect the way the roads are maintained. The bottom line of $427,475 got highway expenses remained. Tires and chains was increased to $9,000 and sanders was reduced by $1,000 to a total of $1,500. Maintenance to the sanders, other than the current year, has been an average of $1,200 a year and the capital budget has the purchase of a new sander in FY 2001. The current budget shows an expense of $4,544.07 for small equipment which must include the cost of the generator. That purchase should show as a capital expense. Wm. Noyes will be contacted to see if the way the expense and revenue is shown for retreatment has been done correctly for the future Road Maintenance Plan.
B. REVENUE BUDGET
C. CAPITAL BUDGET & PLAN B. The Board members will consider names of citizens to dedicate the town report to. Newfane Board of Selectmen Posted: Town Clerk's Office, Newfane Store, Patsy's County Seat Market, Lessing's Family General Store and South Newfane General Store & Deli and www.webwerk.com/newfane
Route 30, P.O. Box 36, Newfane VT 05345, Tel. (802) 365-7772 Please send all comments, suggestions and questions to info@newfanevt.com |