Minutes of the Special Town Board Meeting held Friday, November 4, 2011, at 5:00 PM, at the Keene Town Hall. The following Town Board Members were present: William B. Ferebee, Supervisor, Paul R. Martin, Robert M. Biesemeyer and Marcy A. Neville, Members of Council. Absent: Lawrence Jaques, Member of Council. Also present: Susan Whitney, Bookkeeper, Bruce Reed, Highway Superintendent and Ellen Estes, Town Clerk.
The Chairman, Mr. Ferebee, called the meeting to order at 5:00 PM.
Mr. Ferebee began the budget discussion by asking the Board what kind of percentage would make them comfortable.
Mr. Biesemeyer said he felt that 2% shows good government.
Mr. Martin said separate from the emergency expense he would like to stay within the 2%.
Ms. Neville said she would like to try to keep within 2 or 3%.
Mr. Biesemeyer said he realizes you can’t stay within 2% with the 50,000, 12% match, and the $8,000 B.A.N. interest payment for 2012.
Mr. Ferebee also stated that nothing can be done about the increases in retirement, health insurance and social security.
The Board went through the budget line by line:
- In discussing insect control, Mr. Biesemeyer said he is suspicious about this program, Mr. Martin commented that you used to see the technicians. Mr. Biesemeyer did compare the difference of going to Jay, where there is no black fly treatment. Ms. Neville commented that it is done. The Board discussed cutting the amount paid for insect control by cutting the area treated. Mr. Ferebee said as soon as he discussed this with Kathy Vanselow, he began getting calls from businesses. Ms. Neville suggested the Adirondack Mountain Reserve and businesses contributing.
- Mr. Ferebee said he looked into reducing street lights and was informed by NYSEG that getting rid of 10 lights would reduce the expense by approximately $2,000 per year.
- The next discussion was in regards to Little Peaks. Mr. Biesemeyer was surprised with the information that Little Peaks does not pay the Town anything. Mr. Martin said that they have offered. Mr. Martin and Mr. Biesemeyer suggested asking for $5,000.
- Mr. Ferebee informed the Board that the new figures under Youth Programs reflects the reduction of 1 counselor for the Youth Commission Summer Program and no overtime to be paid for the attendant at the skating rink.
- Next was a brief discussion regarding the shuttle bus, in which it was decided this makes money and is not an area to cut.
- Next was a discussion about pay increases. Mr. Martin suggested giving a raise every other year, this was disregarded. Discussion followed that the seasonal employees would be Sean Auer, Sheila Ferebee, Eloise Endicott and the shuttle bus drivers. There was discussion about how many hours a week are full time, in the office it is 35. The Board decided to give a 3% increase to everyone except the Town Board, Tax Collector, Code Officer, Assessor and Justices. The Supervisor elected not to take his increase if everyone was not getting the same.
- Ms. Whitney and Mr. Ferebee said they would look into retirement again, which is up 78%, to be sure they understand it correctly.
Next, the Board discussed the Highway Budget.
- Mr. Reed explained how the personal service items were figured for wages.
- He said he had left $65,000 in equipment saying he would like to get a new truck through a 4 year lease-to-own payment. Mr. Biesemeyer said he did not want to do that this year saying he would like to stall it for a year. Mr. Martin asked if he had considered buying one with a loan, Mr. Reed said the percentage rate was 2.9%.
Discussion moved to the Library Budget.
- Mr. Biesemeyer began the discussion saying how about it not being a full time position. Mr. Ferebee said it gets lots of use. Mr. Biesemeyer said it’s a huge amount of money for a little library that’s falling apart. Mr. Ferebee said it’s a $68,000 item with a $1,600 revenue. Ms. Neville suggested going to 3 days per week. Mr. Martin said he wished the Board had talked about this with the Library Board. Ms. Neville, who is the liaison on the Library Board, said the members on that board are all over the place. Ms. Neville said it is used quite a lot, that young families go there, but she just doesn’t see it as an essential service. She said it’s nice to provide, but with cuts, it needs looking at. Mr. Ferebee said there are people there everyday saying it probably could be scaled back, he said should it be full time, probably not. Mr. Martin suggested leaving it as is for now and indicate that changes to part time are coming next year saying this would give the community time to get used to the idea. Everyone seemed to agree.
Mr. Ferebee gave the percentages for the budget saying overall it is up 7.65%, breaking it down as the general being up 3.9%, the highway up 11.5% and the library up 19.6%, saying they no longer have an unexpended fund balance.
After discussing the current number of hours per week that the library is open and discussing part time hours of 22 hours per week, the comparison was made as roughly a $16,000 savings. (This looks like a mistake to me, I think the bi- weekly savings was figured in 52 times.)
Mr. Biesemeyer said that would be a $30,000 savings with the benefits and said it was irresponsible to fund a full time position when it was not needed.
Discussion returned to insect control, everyone was in agreement to treat just the hamlets and cut this item from $36,000 to $23.000.
Mr. Martin said some things need to be kept for now saying more changes can be made next year. He said a lot of towns will not be at 2%, though they will be cutting down and trying to do better.
Mr. Biesemeyer asked Mr. Reed if he could wait a year on the truck purchase. Mr. Reed responded that he may need a loader in a couple years. He said the truck can be cut this year and put back into next year’s budget but he disagrees with the idea. Mr. Biesemeyer said he would go with Mr. Reed’s decision to wait a year on the truck and said he hopes the interest rates stay down. Mr. Ferebee suggested leaving the money in the budget and maybe not buying it for now and letting the money roll over into next years unexpended fund balance. It was, then, agreed to lower the equipment line from $65,000 to $40,000.
The next discussion was in regards to Ryan Hall.
Mr. Reed explained to the Board that Ryan is not figured into his figures for personal service. He said that he had hired Ryan to fill in for Lance while he was on active duty with the National Guard. He said Lance’s orders have been changed and he will not be going. He said he would like to keep Ryan on until April 1st saying he had him pass up plowing work so he could work for the highway. It was figured that it would cost $10,000 out of the 2012 budget to keep him until April 1st, $12,000 with overtime. Mr. Reed agreed to cut $10,000 from the snow removal contractual to add $10,000 to snow removal personal service to keep Ryan on until 4/1/12.
The Town Board filed the Preliminary Budget, as revised during tonight’s meeting, with the Town Clerk.
Resolution No 202 - 11
Ms. Neville offered a resolution and moved its adoption. Be it resolved, that the Town Board schedule their Public Hearing to review the Preliminary Budget for Tuesday, November 15th at 6:00 PM and schedule a Special Town Board Meeting for Tuesday, November 15th immediately following the Public Hearing, for final revision and adoption of the 2012 Budget. This resolution was seconded by Mr. Martin.
Roll Call Vote:
Mr. Ferebee: Yes
Mr. Martin: Yes
Mr. Biesemeyer: Yes
Ms. Neville: Yes
Mr. Jaques: Absent
Resolution No. 201 - 11
Mr. Ferebee offered a resolution and moved its adoption. Be it resolved, that with all business having been transacted, this meeting be adjourned. This resolution was seconded by Ms. Neville.
Roll Call Vote:
Mr. Ferebee: Yes
Mr. Martin: Yes
Mr. Biesemeyer: Yes
Ms. Neville: Yes
Mr. Jaques: Absent
The meeting was adjourned at 7:06 PM.
Ellen S. Estes, Town Clerk
November 10, 2011
William B. Ferebee, Supervisor
Paul R. Martin, Councilperson
Robert M. Biesemeyer, Councilperson
Marcy A. Neville, Councilperson
Lawrence Jaques, Councilperson