PITTSFIELD BUDGET COMMITTEE
Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Opening:
The regular meeting of the Pittsfield Budget Committee was called to order at 7:04 pm on December 08, 2010 in Town Hall large meeting room by Louis Houle.
Present:
Louis Houle, Bill Abbott, Dan Ward, Dick Munn, Stan Bailey, Mark Reil, David Menard, Lee Adams, Joan Osborne, Fred Hast, Helen Schiff, Paul Skowron Town Administrator.
A. Approval of Minutes
Motion by DkM. Vote 9-0
B. Open Issues
C. New Business
What department heads do we want to have in next week? We will invite the Highway, Waste water, Police, and Fire department heads in. Does Paul owe us anything? Don’t think so.
Discussion of revenues: Paul says they appear to be in line. The board of selectman has decided to move forward on 15 delinquent tax payers. Land use is low, not many conversions. Line 37 Police special details discussion. Doesn’t seem right that we are not reporting an amount that is more in line with what we expect to receive. Maybe we should transfer the 30,000 overage in line 13 to line 34 police detail.
4153 Legal: Why is line 48 only 16k when budgeted for 25k? Legal fees are difficult to plan for. 25k is a good number for average.
4194 Government: Computer hardware maintenance discussions.
4210 Police: 6 part time officers right now. Positions that were not expended have now been filled with returned soldiers. Repairs look high for last year? Are we shooting too low for 2011? Overtime: why can’t balloon rally overtime be combined with regular overtime?
4215 Ambulance: paramedic intercepts are down. Is that due to our staffing? Yes.
4220 Fire: was there anything done with fire alarm box. The elimination of the system is being discussed. Are there any grants, or otherwise that the town would be required to pay out of surplus funds? None anticipated at this time.
4312 Highway: Was there any discussion about street lighting? We did talk some about it last week. Rates have increased even though we have converted to high efficiency bulbs. Line 241 overtime: can we reduce? It was 30k the year before.
4324 Dam fees: There is a BCEP budget meeting tomorrow. Could change, but probably won’t. Line 279 we only spent 53k yet we are still budgeting 133k. There was a refund that offset our expenses this year.
4520 Parks & Rec: Gazebo in need of repair. Someone suggested we remove it. Selectmen looking into it.
4651 Economic Development: Currently we have 100k set aside to buy property.
4723 Interest: Tax anticipation note. Why the 50% increase? Expecting the rates to go up. Can no longer get lines of credit. TANS are based on uncollected taxes.
4902 Vehicles: Command vehicle issue. Nothing included for Dustin Park repair. Dustin park gazebo needs some repairs.

Public input:
Discussion about sewer fees: Do they show up on town report.
Command vehicle lease payments will come out of next years budget.
Comp time buyout was going on for the last three years.
What does the economic development fees get us? Lets us know about grants, signs on 28, new regulations, etc.
What would happen if the 15 or so property owners that are delinquent would come in and pay tomorrow? This money would go back to the people.

D. Agenda for Next Meeting
School budget
Paul to get us balance of surplus, and what is set to go back to us.

Adjournment:
Meeting was adjourned at 9:10 pm by Louis Houle. The next general meeting will be at 7:00 PM on December 15, 2010 in Town Hall meeting room.
Minutes submitted by: David M. Menard
Approved by: