Town of Pittsfield
Budget Committee Meeting
October 15, 2008
Work Session

Members Present: Lenny Deane (LD), Fred Hast (FH), Cher Keuenhoff (CK), John Kidder (JK), Al MacLellan (AM), Ross Morse (RM), Dick Munn (DM), Laura O’Krent (LO), Helen Schiff (HS1), Helen Schoppmeyer (HS2), Linda Small (LS) – (Select Board Rep.), Leslie Vogt (LV) – (School Board Rep.), Daniel Ward (DW)

Members Absent: Bill Abbott

Others Present: John Freeman – (SAU 51 Superintendent), Denise Morin – (Select Board Rep. Alt)
Meeting called to order at 19:05.

Minutes Action: Minutes of July 30, 2008 were accepted as submitted.

Organization of Committee: No nominations for Secretary. Dick Munn was nominated and elected as Vice Chairman. Cher Keuenhoff was nominated and elected as Chairwoman.
CK thanked those that attended the recent Budget and Finance Workshop presented by the Local Government Center held in Bedford NH.

John Freeman reviewed the expenditures over $10,000. of budget for fiscal year ‘07 -‘08 within the School District. Prior to the meeting he was only requested to provide detail of the over-expenditures. He shared that there were also many items that were under- expended. Many questions were asked and adequately responded to by both John and Leslie Vogt.
John Freeman reviewed Current District Budget Issues. Areas of particular note included the Food Service Expense and Revenues being Impacted by State of New Hampshire distribution in School Building Aid and Catastrophic Aid. The District has been notified that both Revenue Areas will most likely be less than anticipated due to current economic conditions affecting the State Budget.
LV asked if committee members would like hard copies of the School District quarterly expenditure report. A request for 6 or so hard copies was made.

It was decided to attempt to maintain the previously published budget review schedule for the remainder of the year committee meetings.
The Town of Pittsfield 2009 Proposed Budget overview was distributed to members present. Further updates and detail information should be available for the October 22nd meeting. Members should be prepared to review pages 1-9 and 22 on the 22nd.

CK shared that as Chair she intended to maintain the discussion format where each member would have a maximum opportunity of 5 minutes to provide comment and ask questions per budget item. This should allow each member the opportunity to speak if they choose. After each member has utilized the option to speak further questions/comments may be addressed.

CK adjourned the meeting at 20:18.

Submitted by: JK

approved October 22 , 2008