Public gets their chance to weigh in on proposed Middlefield budget
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Thursday, April 29, 2010 - 12:37pm
The public hearing on the proposed Middlefield town budget last Monday, April 26, was not very well-attended. Nevertheless, the dozen or so folks who showed up asked pointed questions and listened to interesting discussion.
The upshot of the two-hour-plus dialogue was that the Board of Finance (BOF) will have held a special meeting on Thursday, April 29, to finalize the budget they will present to a town meeting on Monday, May 10, at 7 p.m. in the Community Center auditorium.
Some of the topics touched upon at the hearing were the planned tax increase of 1.7 mills for the fiscal year beginning July 1, following the current year’s .23 mill decrease. According to BOF member Bob Yamartino, .63 mills of the increase is due to less money coming in based on a host of reasons including a drop in the grand list (or list of taxable property in town), and just over 1 mill is due to the proposed education budget. Middlefield’s percentage share of the District 13 education budget has shifted upward for the first time in many years as it is based on the actual percentage of students attending District 13 schools from Durham and from Middlefield.
Additionally, .21 mills of this year’s budget will begin to pay down the cost of the town’s acquisition of Powder Ridge.
Residents commented on the planned 20 percent drop in street light expenses (from $50,000 to $40,000), a project that BOF member Jeremy Renninghoff has taken on. Renninghoff estimates that the town will have to turn off 50+ streetlights to reach the 20 percent goal, and he has already entered 26 orders into the system. As an example, First Selectman Jon Brayshaw cited a large light pole at Peckham Park shining on a pile of crushed rock just beyond the covered bridge. “No one knows how it got there, but we certainly don’t need it,” he said.
Resident Al Smith commented on the Park and Recreation budget, particularly use of the park by groups who, he contends, are not paying their fair share. He also initiated a discussion of the director’s salary, which led to the information that the supplement in the budget funded at $2,300 (a mere guess) is based on the director actually bringing in four times that amount of money while establishing new programs. When members of the BOF asked how that particular percentage was set, Brayshaw deferred to discussions with the Park and Rec (P&R) Commission. BOF chair Rebecca Adams then stated that the BOF would make it a point to get together with the P&R Commission to discuss the whole issue. Brayshaw added that his aim was to eventually have the recreation department pay its own way, much as the goal is to have the building department pay its own way through fees for services.
Attendees questioned Levi Coe Library and Durham-Middlefield Youth and Family Services (DMYFS) planned appropriations, with BOF members essentially saying that both groups were being watched to ascertain what value they were bringing to the town, but cutting below the levels in the proposed budget seemed unnecessary at this point. Adams added that DMYFS was being encouraged to fulfill the state goal for such agencies of working especially with at-risk youth.
Selectwoman Mary Johnson added that comments about the Levi Coe Library board mishandling endowments were decades too late. “Endowments were mishandled, but it was by persons long dead and gone,” she said.
The planned website came up for comment as well. BOF chair Adams explained that the posting of minutes and agendas on the eventual town website would be the responsibility of the town clerk because “It’s what you do now,” she said to town clerk Donna Golub, who was in attendance. All other maintenance and updating of the site will be the responsibility of the first selectman, Adams added. “He has the responsibility of figuring out how to pay for it with the dollars in the budget,” Adams concluded.
Additionally, several speakers mentioned the unfairness of the BOF lowering the raises for non-union and elected employees of the town from the 2.5 percent raises in the first selectman’s budget. Brayshaw had used the raise negotiated by union employees as the standard for all. The BOF lowered non-union employees to a 1.5 percent raise and held elected officials with no raises.
The budget approved by the BOF on April 29 will be published and available at various places around town, including the Community Center, Levi Coe Library and Town Hall, in time for residents to look at it before the Monday, May 10 town meeting to vote on it.
