Sensible Spending -Local: December 2008 Archives

Our Selectmen met 12/10/2008 in a” budget workshop”.  In a continuing effort to not just provide the information, but also bringing to the forefront issues and concerns we present the following from this meeting:

1. Possibly eliminate the public pay phone ( saving $750) and the bottled water ( $3,000) per year.
2. Fee structure/application fee ( for out of town users not residents or property owners) for boat launches. 
3. Recreation department made a request to convert the cell phones to a reimbursement policy similar to the Police department. Study group to be formed to look at this across all town offices. We would like to know the cost difference and the Police policy.
4.  Recreation questioned whether some programs that are not utilized would be cancelled. Some may and some may not. ( Which ones we don’t know) . It was suggested that they may need to continue to run losses on the senior trips until it becomes better subscribed. How much?
5. It was discussed by the Town Administrator to save money by reducing the advertising budget by 1/3 by not publishing items not required by law to publish. ( Granted there is a web site that will provide much information, but we continually find it difficult to get basic information from our elected officials. )
6. A proposal was made by the Town Administrator  to create an Office of Development & Inspectional Services (ODIS. This would bundle together CEO, Planner, and Land Use accounts.  Per the minutes “…the CEO felt strongly he should only report directly to the BoS”.
7. Town Clerk is proposing and increase in her office from 53 hours per week to 70. Does this mean we will have a full time Town Clerk?

Minutes follow……