1963/03/26Berlin Board of Finance liarch 26, 1963
~inutes of Iqeeting
A meeting of the Board of Finance was called to order at 7:30 P. i~i. on Tuesday,
L~]arch 26, 1963 at the Town Hall.
I.iembers Present: Chairman P. D. Doran and iiessrs. %~. $. Dro%,aa, T. '~. gard, Jr.,
R. W. Ch~berlain, $. ~. Sargis and ~. J. ~ietras.
L~inutes: of i.[arch 12, 1963, I~[arch 1~, 196~, March 19~ 1963 and !darch 21, 1963
were approved.
Communications Received:
1. Street Lighting Breakdgwn in current budget from July 1962 tkrcugh Febru-
ary 1963 and estimated breakdown of the requested figure for street light-
ingfor 1963-6~.
2. A letter dated 1,iarch 21~ 1963 from Civil Defense Director Gilbert Austin
advising he has do tained bids from a local firm for transistor radios for
the town schools and has checked with the State Oivil Defense Office.
Said Office advised that no matching funds are available at this time for
such radios. Thus, Civil Defense would not be involved in the decision by
the Board of Education to ~%archase or ]tot to purchase these radios. How-
ever~ Iir. Austin recor:~end~ that it would be desirable to have them, at
least to have one in the high school~ which has been officially designated'
as a fallout shelter.
~,~r. Austin also enclosed a copy of a letter dated February 25~ 1963 to
First S~lectman Arthur Powers on the excavation for the emergency generator
fuel tank.
I~[r. Austin had verbally advised Chairman Doran that as yet he has received
no answer from ~r. }~owers.
3. A letter dated Iqarch 25, 1963 from Town Counsel James F. Dawson in reply
to our request for an opinion dated l.~arck 22, 1963 concerning the holding
of the Board of Finance "Budget" meeting and tile annual town meeting that
acts on the annual budget.
This 3oard had advised Atty. Dawson that in vie~.~ of the late r~ceipt of
certg~in bud~ets and their complexity it was a?parent that the time re-.
quired to do the necessary work on these budgets and to hold discussion
meetin~£s with the various town boards and officials would necessitate ad-
journing the Annual ~udget i.~eeting to a later date than that prescribed
in the ordinance adopted in co~nection with the change to the uniform fis-
cal year. Atty. Dawson was asked to advise on time procedure to follow in
accomplishing this and also draft the wording of e~ly appropriate resolu-
tions ~d the call to said meeting to act upon adjourrm~e~t.
In the !]~rch 25 letter from Atty. Dawson he advised that }~is reco:muendation
to the Se]ectmen will be to recess the annual town meetin~ from i~pril 2nd
to a date not later than a date compatible %~ith the proper levy and collec~
tion of taxes by the tot,an. This 2oard, he advised, should be ~r epared bM
april 2nd to supply a suggested date at the at, ual town meeting. Likewise
the "public meeting" required by ~ection 7-3~ ~ould be convened two weeks
0riot to the date of said annual town meeting and recessed to a date not
~ess than two weeks prior to any date to which the e:~nual toYm meetin~
should be recessed.
Bills:
1. It was voted to approve for payment from f/6, Board of Finance Acct., a
bill in the amount of ;i92~.35 presented by the E. R. Hitchcock Co. for
supplies for this Doard.
Transfers:
1. It was voted to transfer ~.~900. from ~127~ Contingency Acct., to ~£30~ a~now
Rei.:oval Acct.: upon the request of the ~electmen.
Old Business: L~one
New Business:
1. In reference to Gon~unication ;/3~ it was voted that the date of th~ annual
Budget H~aring be established as iday la, 1~63 and the date of the ~nnual
Budget I.[eetini] be established as flay 2~, 1963. It wcs further voted that
the Board of Selectmen be requested to issue a legal notice calling a to%~n
mee~tin~ on April 2, ~963 for the i~ur'~ose of reces~inc the Annual ~udget
]~ee.~in~ %o imy 28, 1~363~ and the Chairman was directed to notify the B~ rd
of Selectmen to this effect.
2. Board of Education Chairman i~usseli Fletcher and ~oard of Education member~
~igelow, I.ieilan, Delanay and I.icIntosh as well as Supt. of Schools G. Bount~
tess and School Business I.ianager ~;. Dorsey were present upon the invitatio~
of this Board for further discussion of the Board of Education budget re- .
~iue s t.
(itinutcs of ilarch 20, 1963 continued)
Copies of a tentative bud~et, r~nalysis ~repared by this Dca rd were distributed
to Education members.
Chairman Dcran explained to the Education Board the ~;srious figures presented
in the ai~alysis. He i~.ointed out that the Board of Educablon t{equest tot~ied
Q1:360~000. while other to~n services requested totaled ~gi~O00. These t%!o
figures totaled .~2,17~000. Fixed Bond Pay~tents amount to :~350,000. bringing
the total e):})enditures to ,~2~52~,000. Esvi~,ia'bed Total i~evenue is ~500~000.
thus meshing th~ a~,iount to raise by tsoaes ;~2:02~000. Tlie corrected Grand List
is .~6~755~55. a:~d at ~7}~ tax collection this %.~ould al~ount to
The tax rate to raise .,~2,02%,000. is ~.5 mills, or a 7 mill increase.
A tax rate of 3~ mills, or a 1~; mill increase, will rsdse .,~1~ 770, 000. To achieve
this it would be necessary to reduce all requested bud~lets by approximat~ly
11.?~. Fairly applying the 11.7~ reduction to both the Education request and
the request for other to%.~i services would give a reduction of ~159~0OO. for the
Education request and a reduction of ~95,000. for other to%?n services, or a tot-
al reduction of .~256,O00.
Inasmuch as expense for the i.iary E. Griswold School is indefinite~ the proposal
of the Finance 8oard is to delete this item (.~36~775.) from this budget and mske
a special al}propriation when this expense becomes known. Therefore~ the actual
reductions in Education would be ~2~,775. for Plant Expansion and ~97,85C'. for
O~eratin~j and Capital totaling ~122,625.
C~airman Doran noted that actually the Education budget would be cut afproxi-
mately 7~ when the Griswold school proposal is considered. It was further noted
that the school board will h~ve a% least as much to spend per pupil next year
as it does this ye~r. This is assu~ing th~ school enrolll~e~t increases by
approximately 150 pupils. If the enrcllment goes up by 100 pupils, the cut bud-
get will give the school de~art~ent an estimated 9430. per pupil co~pared with
~0. tnms year~ or s~-~ mncr ese of .~10. per pupil.
Chairman Fletcher noted that the proposed elimination of klsnt Expansion would
delete the requested guidance suite and this is '¢ery much desired by the School
Board. He advised his Board would meet at an early date to discuss the overall
reductions proposed by the Finance Joard. He said hu is sure the Board of~ Edu-
cation does not ~.,~ant to let the guidance suite slide and thst frobably the Board
of Education will want to keep in the request for said suite. However, he said~
the School Board is not going to jeopsa~dize the rest of the school budget for
the suite. He advised that following the School Board meeting, said Board will
report back to the Finance Board.
The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 2, 1963 following the recessed
Annual Budget Ideeting.
The meeting adjourned at 10:30 P.
Respectfully submitted,
Cl~em