Town of Pittsfield, NH
2015 Budget Committee
Meeting Notes
1-14-15
Meeting called to order at: 6:04pm
Members Present: Chairman Louie Houle, Vice Chairman Robert Schiferle,
! Secretary Faith Whittier, School Board rep. Ray Ramsey, !! ! !
! Selectmen rep. Gerard LeDuc, Helen Schiff, Helen Schoppmeyer, ! !
! Jo Anne Ward, Mary Thorpe, Fred Hast, Cedric Dustin, Jacob Kitson, !!
! Josh Roman
!
Guests/Presenters: Town Administrator, Mike Williams
! ! ! Economic Development Committee Chairman, ! ! !
Ted Mitchell
! !
Reading & Motion to approve minutes of 1-07-15:
! ! ! moved by Fred Hast
! ! ! seconded by Ray Ramsey
! ! ! minutes approved with two corrections; p.2 change school
board to school administration, p.4 change January 18th to February 18th.
Town Budget: Economic Development Committee chairman, Ted Mitchell,
handed out copies of his committees budget recommendations prepared for
the select board. Discussed in detail p. 4 entitled Central NH Regional Planning
Commission and Arnett Development Group EDC Assistance.
Component ! ! ! ! Budget! ! ! ! Notes
CNHRPC ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Every town has a
Update 2007 Economic! ! ! ! ! ! specific plan of there
Profile and Master Plan! ! $4,000.00! ! ! own. Strategic study
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! tells what we have!
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! for resources, growth
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! potential, demo-! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! graphics and helps
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! develop a Master !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Plan.
EDC Assistance! ! ! ! $2,200.00! ! ! Includes 4 All Board/
! ! ! ! ! ! Some of this money! Committee Forums
! ! ! ! ! ! will be used to cover
! ! ! ! ! ! cost in next! section
Arnett Development Group! ! $800.00! ! ! Includes 4 All Board/
! ! ! ! ! ! Estimated low,! ! Committee Forums
! ! ! ! ! ! it will be closer to ! and other Assistance
! ! ! ! ! ! $2,000.00.
Ted Mitchell explained that the last profile, currently in use, was done in 2007.
He anticipates the new profile being completed by mid to late summer. Pittsfield
is trying to make things happen. The committee spends 80% of their time
keeping businesses in town and 20% of their time pursuing new growth possibilities
for Pittsfield. He feels the $7,000.00 budget proposal is tight, but they
will make it work. The budget committee discussed the Project List in detail
and was invited to attend the next Economic Forum on January 31, 2015, from
9:00-12:00, here at the Town Office, to share ideas for projects proposed and
any new ideas.
Town Administrator, Mike Williams, handed out updated town budgets and addressed
questions from the budget committees last meeting. He addressed
the questions concerning the new part time office assistant position p.1 Executive
(Lines 7,8,12 ) which is an increase of approximately $20,000.00. If the
person hired for this job is also the part time welfare director, that person would
be considered a full time employee with benefits even though the pay would
come out of two different budgets. This means p.23 Welfare (Lines 429, 430,
433) benefits lines would increase. Town Administrator passed out a sheet of
Actual Welfare Expenditures 2009-2014 which shows the most dramatic decrease
was after the current welfare director was hired. The current welfare director
is highly qualified to fill both positions and is interested in a full time position.
Anticipated total increases $10,000.00 in welfare budget and $27,000.00
in executive budget if it is a combined full time position held by one person.
Say we do this, in the future could we eliminate the Assistant Position and still
keep the Welfare Director? Yes, because the funds are from two different
sources. Can we outsource the payroll instead? This would help with the dual
control issue, but not with accounts payable. Town Administrator will look into
outsourcing options and get back to us next week.
Fire Department p.14 (Lines 259, 262, 267) will change by 65% because one
officer will be taking the benefits and not taking the buyout.
Highway Department p.19 proposed new full time position person will take the
benefits buyout. Superintendent of Public Works, George Bachelder will oversee
this position which will include oil changes for the fire department and trouble
shooting maintenance issues. Other departments will submit work orders
to George.
General Government Buildings p. 7 (Line 108) Computer Hardware Maintenance
is up because of a fixed contract. Fire Department server is at the end
of its life and will be connected to the town cloud server. The town cloud server
will be the host to the police station, as well, when its server reaches the end of
its life in 2016. The town looked into several options and this was chosen before
the new administrator came on board.
Warrant Articles should be finalized by the Selectmen before our next meeting.
Town Administrator will get them to us by next week. Three articles the selectmen
are discussing are; Town Hall Capital Reserve of $5,000.00 and possibly
spending it on a security door at the Town Office, User Fees RSA 261:153 that
would be used for road and sidewalk repair, and Union contract negotiation
costs of about a $47,000.00 increase.
Capital Outlay p.27 shows the budget is down without Warrant Articles and before
Capital Reserves are figured in. The Town Administrator hopes the selectmen
will have their final budget recommendations wrapped up next week.
Financial Administration p.3 (Line 56) up because auditing costs are high and
not many auditing companies want to do municipal audits.
Other Business: The Town Administrator will have the following for us next
week; Warrant Articles, surplus figures, EMS hours update from the fire chief,
and ask Rob Freese to come and speak about Emergency Management Plan.
Chairman Houle will make sure the notice for the Public Hearing is posted at
the Town Hall and in the newspaper. Next meeting is Wednesday, January 21,
2015 at 6:00pm.
Meeting Adjourned at: 7:36pm
Respectfully submitted,
Faith Whittier, secretary