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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - AC - 04/11/2016 Cohasset Advisory Committee Minutes, April 11, 2016 Time: 7:03pm-9:40pm Place: Cohasset Town Hall, BOS Room Attendees: Advisory Committee: Nan Roth, Chair Tanya Bodell George Chamillard John Chapman Rich Fitzpatrick Leland Jenkins Helene Lieb Peter Pescatore Presenters: Sam Wakeman, Capital Budget Russ Bonetti, Community Preservation 1. Call to order. The meeting was called to order at 7:03pm by Nan Roth, Chair of the Advisory Committee. 2. Capital Budget Update: Sam Wakeman. Ron Menard proposing duplicate data centers. Ron filed for E-Rate, education reduction (anywhere between $50,000-$75,000 reduction), but do not know if got this reduction yet. $62,000 prior year appropriation also pulled forward for this year. Police tasers, according to the police department staff, are a safer way to deal with people (increase in opiate incidents that having tasers could be very helpful). Lee questioned the XP device replacement. Sam stated that it would be less expensive to replace then to update the XP device. Having just two access centers for the internet connection for the town would save money and there would be a more robust connection. $120,000 savings in labor costs by having just two centers. All the savings go back into the operational budget. We need a better central tracking system. Nan hopes that there will be redundancy in the system. Sam said that there is redundancy in the system. The savings mentioned above will disappear with an increase in productivity and quality of service. Sam doesn't want IT improvements to be looked at as cost savings. Nan asked the time frame for implementation. Sam stated that Ron hopes to advance some of the funds for this fiscal year to get going on some of the IT improvements. Ron is targeting the Fall of 2016 to have IT improvements in place. The schools need these improvements as soon as possible. John had questions about the phones. Estimate on the phones is $250,000 for long term plan. IT infrastructure needs to be improved first. Lee asked about the fire house floor. Sam said that the floor needs to be filed down and resurfaced. George moved the motion to recommend $1,432,230 in capital projects and equipment for town departments (Article 10 of the Warrant); Peter seconded the motion. Approved by 8-0 vote. 3. Community Preservation update: Russ Bonetti. Cost $48,000 to study 100 Sohier Street improvements including landscaping plan, plan to redo drainage, and improve playground and more. One option is to move parking lot for safety reasons. Rich asked if there is an idea of what the total cost of the 100 Sohier Street project. Russ says the total should be $65,000, but there is a lot of uncertainty of what the project will cost. Milliken Field Shed/ bathroom project for $188,000. The plan is to move the new shed to a place that has less effect on the neighbors. It will have a small snack bar, handicap accessible bathrooms and other improvements. Also the project includes replacing batting cages and a cement floor for the shed. John thought a more detailed description of improvements would be helpful for the warrant article. Lee asked how many days of the year is the field used. Russ was not sure, but he thought the usage will be the same as the past years. The following list is the contributors to this project: Cohasset Soccer - $30,000; Rec Department- $25,000; Clark Chatterton Fund- $4,000; High School- $3,000. Therefore, the total cost of the project would be $250,000. Affordable Housing Authority- wants to fix three of the kitchen units that were last done in 1974. CPC can help support Housing as long as it's permanent improvements. The Debt Payment item of $25,377 is for land acquisiton by the water department. CPC is looking for more affordable housing. One idea includes repurposing the Beechwood Congregational Church. The other would be to work with Habitat for Humanity. Motion by Helene to fund Article 17 (CPC projects); seconded by George. Approved 6-1. 4. Town Warrant, May 2, 2016. Rich thought it would be beneficial to have a financial report to describe where the town stands financially and why things are the way they are. This would help to explain why the $192,000 additional fund request from the School Committee is concerning to members of the advisory committee. Tanya thought it would be helpful to put the town finances in terms of the effects on town residents. Reviewed the articles of the warrant Article 5- Creation of a Special Education Stabilization Fund. Nan had some reservations about this fund, especially the details of the fund. Nan stated that it is important to have specific rules for use of the fund, otherwise she feared that it will be just an additional source of money for the school budget. Tanya was concerned about the language in this article. She didn't think that the language addressed the extraordinary variability in special education costs Rich questioned why rush into establishing the fund if there is no policy for the fund. Tanya wanted a list of all the stabilization funds. Mary Gallagher then told us the names of all the funds. The vote on recommending this article was deferred by the Advisory Committee. Article 7- George made the motion to recommend and Lee seconded. Approved by 7-0 vote. Article 8- Supplemental Appropriations for Fiscal 2016- Nan asked why do we need so much money in permits and inspections? Mary stated that there has been extra work going on with the planning board. Nan wondered why we need more for the transfer station. Mary said that it was unexpected, mainly overtime costs. John moved the motion to recommend the supplemental appropriations for fiscal 2016; Lee seconded; motion approved 7-0. Article 9- Change to $200,000 from $100,000 with respect to the General Stabilization Fund request. Helene moved to recommend this article; George seconded the motion; Approved by a vote of 7-0. Article 13- Funds for Facilities Projects. John asked Mary why not in the regular budget? Mary said items that normally don't come up i.e.. painting an office are not part of the regular budget. Nan and Lee wanted more details. John wanted to defer the vote. However, in the end George moved the motion to recommend Article 13; Rich seconded the motion. Approved by a vote of 7-0. Article 14- Allocation of funds for one time cost. Nan asked how much free cash? Mary reported that there is $51,301.00 of free cash. This article requests money for the next stage in Master Plan/Open Space Plan. Rich moved to recommend Article 13; Helene seconded;Approved 7-0. Article 16- Lee moved to recommend this article; Tanya seconded; Approved 7-0. Article 20-Acquisiton of Property for Cunningham Bridge Project. BOS deferred this article to wait and find out if this is necessary right now. At the BOS meeting, neighbors were concerned about the project. Selectmen were waiting to learn if they needed easements. Advisory deferred the vote. Article 21-Acquisition of Property for Bound Brook Dam Project. Need easements to do this project. Tanya made the motion to recommend this article; Helene seconded; Approved 7-0. Article 23- Citizen's Petition for sewer connections on King Street. Nan said this article is to expand sewer for a group of properties. John thinks that we should wait to see what the sewer department says (Does it fit into their plans?). Article 24- Citizen's Petition. The article is to use the room occupancy and real estate excise to be spent in certain ways for FY17. Rich moved the motion; Lee seconded; Approved 6-0-1 (abstention) . Article 6- Operating Budget. Some talk about the school budget. Nan wants us to study the operating budget and be more prepared on April 27 to vote on this article. 5. Minutes for March 30, 2016 Deferred acceptance of the minutes as Peter has some comments for the next meeting. 6. Adjourment at 9:40pm Motion to adjourn by Tanya; seconded by George. Approved 7-0.