home

‹ previous page  1  2

First Budget Meeting Date Set

Beginning July 1, the Town enters a new Fiscal Year. Before then, it’s up to the Town Board to work out a budget for that year. After receiving a proposed budget from the Town Manager, the Board typically meets for several budget workshop sessions in the spring. The Board has set Wednesday April 3 at 8a as its first budget meeting. The Mayor said he expected that first meeting to be shorter than later sessions which have historically run for several hours. All the budget meetings are open to the public.

On Town’s Accounting Being More Specific

Commissioner Johnson said that “up until very recently” the Town’s Financial Statements showed between $8,000-$10,000 in Miscellaneous Expenses. Johnson said he worked with the Town Manager and Office Manager Heidi Artley and “been able to sort them out.”

Johnson outlined some new line items. One was for “South Avenue Professional Fees” which showed $2,600. Also, he said there was a line Item for “Litigation-So.Ave” for the Cox-v-Town Of Oriental lawsuit. (Johnson among others had been saying the cost could be $20,000. The statement shows $3,210 spent on legal fees, so far and Johnson commented that “that number is not as bad as I thought, but it could still grow.”) He said there is also now a line item for “Insurance Claims Denied.” Johnson said that in one instance, a windshield was cracked by a rock that flew up from a job the Public Works Department was doing. The claim was denied and the Town had to pay $400. Another Town vehicle was involved in an accident, said Johnson. In all, the General Fund Accounting for February shows that the Town paid out $1,344 for “Insurance Claims Denied.”

Earlier in the meeting as the Board was going over and approving minutes to previous meetings, Commissioner Venturi noted that she had asked the Town Manager for a line item list of the costs associated with the Town Hall renovation. “I want to note I don’t have that yet,” she said. The Mayor said that was something to be discussed later, but it did not come up again at the meeting.

Tree Board and Parks & Rec Committee Can Now Accept Contributions

The Board voted to set up line items for contributions made to the Tree Board and the Parks & Rec Committee. Commissioner Venturi noted that some $80 in contributions had come in to the Tree Board recently. ($25 from one resident, $50 from another in exchange for two trees that the Town Manager had removed from the lawn of the Town Hall during the renovation, and $5 given by a cruise ship visitor after Grace Evans took the group on a tour and touted the work the all-volunteer Tree Board has done in recent years in planting and or tending to hundreds of trees in town.)

Bidding Ado: Midyette Street Small Boat Launch and the Cost of Repair

As he had done at the recent Board retreat, Commissioner Summers, noted that the small boat launch at the end of Midyette Street was in “pretty bad shape.” He said that the Town Manager had gotten an estimate of $3,997 from a local contractor to repair it. In addition, Summers said he wanted to see a kayak launch added – a Yak-A-Launcher developed by local inventor Al Privette – for an additional $800. He moved that the Board approve that spending, but ran in to resistance from the three other commissioners present.

The small boat launch at the end of Midyette Street. The boards on the floating dock have wavered and need replacing, as does other hardware and the pier railings. Commissioner Larry Summers wanted the board to approve the first and only bid that was sought for the repair job. It approached $4,000. The other Board members said they wanted to see more bids first.

Fellow Commissioner Sherrill Styron said that the Town “should have gotten more than one bid.” He added that with the one bid now made public, it was a disadvantage to that contractor because other bidders could underbid him. Still, Styron said, “I don’t want to take one bid and go with that.”

To the questioning about the lack of multiple bids, Larry Summers responded, “I don’t know what the policy is. I don’t know that we need a second bid.” Commissioner Venturi asked, “Wouldn’t we always want a second bid?” Venturi, Styron and Commissioner Johnson voted against going with that $4,797 bid.

Commissioner Johnson asked if the job of repairing the dock could be given to the three additional people hired in the Public Works department who until recently had worked on the Town Hall renovation. “See what the lumber and materials cost” for the dock repair, Johnson said, “Something tells me they could do it for less money.”

Mayor To Resident: Time To Speak Has “Come and Gone”

In the audience at least one resident raised her hand to speak on the matter. Mayor Bill Sage did not allow that, saying “The Comment Time has come and gone.”

The agenda for the meetings puts the Public Comment section at the opening of the meeting. Spurred by the Mayor’s refusal to let a member of the public speak at the end of the meeting, at least one resident said afterward said she’d ask use the Public Comment period next month to ask the Board to allow public comment at the ends of meetings as well. That way, residents didn’t have to wait an entire month to comment to the board about something heard at a meeting.

‹ previous page  1  2

Posted Saturday March 9, 2013 by Melinda Penkava