Video index

1. Call Meeting to Order

2. Roll Call

Roll call (10 Present, 0 Absent, 0 Excused)

703

2. Roll Call

3. Public Participation [Per Town Council Rules, this segment of the meeting shall not exceed thirty (30) minutes unless extended by the Mayor, with the consent of the majority of the Town Council.]

Jim Morrison, 167 Ayers Road - I know the ph for the athletic fields is next meeting but decided to come tonight. concerns #1 - drainage in the field and how it will effect his property. Saw in the proposal is the retention pond - how will chemical effect fish - #2 - is the light pollution - already have light pollution. biggest problem is the Little League Field - they currently exceed time and the amount of games played on that field. Impacting quality of life. #3 - town isn the process of rebuilding Nevers Road - still have no proposal of how it will effect properyt (type of culvert, type of concrete, guardrail - presently there is a berm but if the road is raised will take berm away and will end up with guardrail. #5 other concern is if sidewalks are put in front of my property. Understand the BOE is going forward with question of new school. #6 - when working on pond would need engineering study/environmental study.

Jack Philips, 200 McGrath Road - also came to talk about the athletic fields proposal. First I wonder about the need. If ther eis a new school proposal there will be fields. CREC will also be putting in fields - how many fields do we need. This ballfield does not qualify as open space or farmland. in year 11 what happens in year 11. There are numerous reports on fields with artificial turf. Do not think artificial ballfields are necessary. Do think that instead of coming into it by leasing the field if the Council wants to go forward should go to referendum. should allow taxpayers of the town decide on how to spend the tax dollars.

Jim Lippy - Scantic Road - why would you go for a primary and expect the taxpayers to go for that. Your taxes went down because of your ham radio tower. If you are expecting to run for a Mayor how could you let that go by and not be able to know that you were being charged too much.

4. Communications

Beaulieu - as many of the residents may have seen on Sunday, Lara Eaton lost her mother to ovarian cancer and - many businesses have joined the cause for awareness of this disease. the best thing that every women can do is pay attention to your body. there was coverage of the event in the Patch. Miss USA was at the event because that was her platform. Teal is the color - Turn the Towns Teal. com. Great event on Sunday. Thanked Lara Eaton and the Junior Womens Club. Delnicki - thanked Beaulie for bringing issue forwrd to the TM and Mayor. We have declared Sept. Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Is there value as a Council sending letter out to communities asking them to do the same thing. Galligan - will be having discussions with CCM - Letters from political parties goes a lot further. Should all be partners in this campaign. Delnicki - thanked Lara Eaton. Thanked Erin Brady, Miss USA for attending and helping with the event. Anwar - this is a cancer which we have a huge opportunity. we have learned enough that we can identify things earlier and take care of the diseases early. whenever there is a family member who has it, it is important for other family members to be checked. Glad you took the leadership in this Beauliue. Tomorrow is the evening of Rashashaun - happy new year.

5. Town Manager's Report [Per Town Council Rules, this segment of the meeting shall not exceed ten (10) minutes unless extended by the Mayor, with the consent of the majority of the Council.]

Galligna - Andrew Hildebrandt wanted to be here tonight to talk about ___________-, did hire Emergency Management Coordinator - already jumping in to this program. Union updates - still negotiating and when more things come up will have executive session to give more information. Referendum - Evergreen Walk - small piece of property - it is a piece that we do not need but would be beneficial to them. The only way to do this is by referendum. I put a value of 174,000. Hazardous Household waste - have had trouble with getting communications back - consider changing your agenda to put another resolution onto the agenda. will discuss in more detail. Did RFP for Advanced Life Support - sent out RFP and committee will ge ttogether to discuss. The Fire Dept. bid for the pumper came in - being reviewed and will let you know if moving forward. With help from Senator LeBeau - - will have meeting - 9th - start putting program together. Fund balance report and also report dated 7/31 - spent on STEAP Grant.

Prague - how many bids on fire truck? Galligna - 3 - there was low bid but had to be thrown out because _____________. next bid was 50,000 Havens- who were the two bidders and the other one at @M Galligna - Amar - ALS 5 year period 2.2M, ASM - one hourly and one with all services - SW Fire - no cost to the Town. Committee needs to review the bids. Havens - support local Ambulance Corp for years - I know you have to go by the lowest bid and who provides the best services but want you to consider the great service SW Ambulance Corp has done over the years. Galligna - the committee will take all of that into consideration Havens - 174,000 does that go back to the State for the referendum? Galligan - we are negotiating that. There were things based on economic development that it may stay with the Town. Anwar - glad the household hazard waste is coming to action. would like to know a little more about it. Gallign - we were paying MDC 20 something thousant. if you would get 3 towns together it would cost 20 something thousand. Anwar - this is somehting that Manchester is doing? Galligna - Manchester and Glastonbury are working together. Last year did with Windsor Locks but the are going in a different direction. Fred Shaw is working on getting together with Manchester and Glstonbury. I think it is quarterly. Anwar - very happy to see in the Police Report about the resource officers for our school system. they are functioning already. I am also glad about the Emergency Management Coordinator. At some point may be worthwhile to have him come and talk about the plans.

Delnicki - household hazardous waste - what day in Sept. would collection occur Galligna - will have to get that date. Wil have Fred put out an annoucement. Delnicki - it is 11,000 but the fee is a one time fee Johnson - the existing agreement - required to pay capital expenditures - this is the number they came up with 11,000 which is a one time fee and then there is a useage fee. Delnicki - it would be less then what we have paid in the past. Prague - we have the household hazardous waste in front of us. Galligna - we are trying to be a part of the 7th. Delnicki - unlike a couple years back - this is closer Galligan - closer and more times to use it.

6. Items for Discussion

A. Budget Surplus (requested by Councillor McCann)

McCann - asked for a discussion regarding budget surplus. Council receives each year a print out - showing encumbrances, balances, deficits but at the end of the year we see everything. Without a report these printouts are helpful but do not give us the picture of where the town is. - looked like we had a 2.9M surplus. That brought up several questions, is it real; why wasn't the TC aware of the surplus during deliberations of the budget. if it is real what should we do with it. I followed up with the Town Manager and we had 889,000 - excess education grant of nearly $1M and we had underexpenditure of nearly 1M. as to why we were not alerted. I know the TM works closely with the Mayor but the Council was not made aware. It owuld have been good if the information was shared with the rest of the counicl. Followed up with the TM and asked if appropriate to discuss with the A. The Town can not rebate to the taxpayers. If we can't rebate cna we adjust the taxes going forward to reduce the burden and it is somewhat uncertain. The Audit Committee met and TM said the excess education grant is to be used by the BOE. The fact of hte matter is that is essentially off of the table. Anothr 800,000 had been airmarked last year in the budget in the fund balance to balance our budget. Nearly 1M set aside for BOE. 800,000 airmarked to fund balance which should be put back into the fund balance. $1.1M left - do we adjust the taxes going forward. Do we leave that in our fund balance, This is something tht the TC needs to focus on and should have a discussion on. It is surprisinjg that we would have such a large balance when we kept hearing "Tough Economic Times". We see some very good signs that although there are still many people that face tough econimic times and always will by and far we are in a better place then we though we were. Part of the surplus came from the institution of a budget freeze. 2008 is the first time we had a budget freeze. There were only three council members that voted for this item. McCann and Bazzano voted for. Oates also - rest of council voted against. few months later a budget freeze was instituted in 2009. in 2010 we repeated. 2011 TM decided to start. 2012 - again TC adopted. expired end of fiscal year 2012/2013. we have enjoyed a budget surplus because of that. we need to take into account that we have more revenues then expected. we are within a different economic time since 2008. The TC should take notice of, should take into consideration in everything that we do and I layed out a few things for discussion purposes. Would like to hear from other Council members what we should do with surplus.

Delnicki - do you ever hold back information fro the Council? Galligan - I would not do that? Delnicki - was ther ea 2.9M surplus Galligan - usually the Council waits for Audit Report. I think at this time - I start my budget process in September - in Apriil of last year Anthem was still predicting an 800,000 shortfall. We were anticipating 800,000 shortfall. This fund balances raises you to 6.2% of fund balance of a budget of 103M. The BOE came back tot he Town for 350,000 and another 350,000 - our financials are strong. the problem with your budget process - when someone gives report tha they are going to be short. I would never hold anything back from you - this council is in box when doing the budget. when you adopt in may you still have state and federal budget going on. The 962,000 =- under ECS funding they have 13.9M and then the state calculates what they think and they deduct from there. Usually Finance Director takes that off of the top. We will look at these things and make calculations. Delnicki - counicllor McCann - if I were here in 2008 I would have voted for the freeze. Yagaloff - was assured that BOE budgeted all of the revenue. the reimbursement rates change. One question still unanswered, is this additional revenue and was it part of the budget process or was there an error made and did not account for? Galligan - with the Director of Finance not being here there was an overlook. Looking at the new budget - the amount bieng raised by taxes is 5.2% - it was the revaluation that changed everone value. Yagaloff - did the school budget the revenue? Galligna - yes Yagaloff - it showed up in the town budget - we have used fund balance year after year. There is no surplus of the 800,0o00 Galligan - your surplus did go down 1.1M. Yagaloff - the world is not as it really is it is as we see it. 5.2% is huge tax increase. Peoples taxes have gone up quite a bit. Revaluation impacted taxpayers also. How would this have effected the last budget. I am glad we were not discussion an extra 1.1M extra because feel that would have been spent. I am okay with the fact that we have increased the fund balance. I would have liked to see impact on taxes but tht would have been small. I think it has important fact of stabiilizng our rating. This council should not be spending the surplus - should think about reduction in taxes or stabilizing our budget. I have never heard of a counicl giving out tax rebates during an election year. My vision is that we do not do excess spending.

Mayor will continue during regular meeting.

B. Board of Education Elementary School Plan Recommendation Status by the Superintendent of Schools (requested by Councillor Snyder)

7. Executive Session

8. Adjournment

Bazzano, Anwar, unanimous

Sep 03, 2013 Town Council Work Session

Full agenda
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1. Call Meeting to Order

2. Roll Call

Roll call (10 Present, 0 Absent, 0 Excused)

703

2. Roll Call

3. Public Participation [Per Town Council Rules, this segment of the meeting shall not exceed thirty (30) minutes unless extended by the Mayor, with the consent of the majority of the Town Council.]

Jim Morrison, 167 Ayers Road - I know the ph for the athletic fields is next meeting but decided to come tonight. concerns #1 - drainage in the field and how it will effect his property. Saw in the proposal is the retention pond - how will chemical effect fish - #2 - is the light pollution - already have light pollution. biggest problem is the Little League Field - they currently exceed time and the amount of games played on that field. Impacting quality of life. #3 - town isn the process of rebuilding Nevers Road - still have no proposal of how it will effect properyt (type of culvert, type of concrete, guardrail - presently there is a berm but if the road is raised will take berm away and will end up with guardrail. #5 other concern is if sidewalks are put in front of my property. Understand the BOE is going forward with question of new school. #6 - when working on pond would need engineering study/environmental study.

Jack Philips, 200 McGrath Road - also came to talk about the athletic fields proposal. First I wonder about the need. If ther eis a new school proposal there will be fields. CREC will also be putting in fields - how many fields do we need. This ballfield does not qualify as open space or farmland. in year 11 what happens in year 11. There are numerous reports on fields with artificial turf. Do not think artificial ballfields are necessary. Do think that instead of coming into it by leasing the field if the Council wants to go forward should go to referendum. should allow taxpayers of the town decide on how to spend the tax dollars.

Jim Lippy - Scantic Road - why would you go for a primary and expect the taxpayers to go for that. Your taxes went down because of your ham radio tower. If you are expecting to run for a Mayor how could you let that go by and not be able to know that you were being charged too much.

4. Communications

Beaulieu - as many of the residents may have seen on Sunday, Lara Eaton lost her mother to ovarian cancer and - many businesses have joined the cause for awareness of this disease. the best thing that every women can do is pay attention to your body. there was coverage of the event in the Patch. Miss USA was at the event because that was her platform. Teal is the color - Turn the Towns Teal. com. Great event on Sunday. Thanked Lara Eaton and the Junior Womens Club. Delnicki - thanked Beaulie for bringing issue forwrd to the TM and Mayor. We have declared Sept. Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Is there value as a Council sending letter out to communities asking them to do the same thing. Galligan - will be having discussions with CCM - Letters from political parties goes a lot further. Should all be partners in this campaign. Delnicki - thanked Lara Eaton. Thanked Erin Brady, Miss USA for attending and helping with the event. Anwar - this is a cancer which we have a huge opportunity. we have learned enough that we can identify things earlier and take care of the diseases early. whenever there is a family member who has it, it is important for other family members to be checked. Glad you took the leadership in this Beauliue. Tomorrow is the evening of Rashashaun - happy new year.

5. Town Manager's Report [Per Town Council Rules, this segment of the meeting shall not exceed ten (10) minutes unless extended by the Mayor, with the consent of the majority of the Council.]

Galligna - Andrew Hildebrandt wanted to be here tonight to talk about ___________-, did hire Emergency Management Coordinator - already jumping in to this program. Union updates - still negotiating and when more things come up will have executive session to give more information. Referendum - Evergreen Walk - small piece of property - it is a piece that we do not need but would be beneficial to them. The only way to do this is by referendum. I put a value of 174,000. Hazardous Household waste - have had trouble with getting communications back - consider changing your agenda to put another resolution onto the agenda. will discuss in more detail. Did RFP for Advanced Life Support - sent out RFP and committee will ge ttogether to discuss. The Fire Dept. bid for the pumper came in - being reviewed and will let you know if moving forward. With help from Senator LeBeau - - will have meeting - 9th - start putting program together. Fund balance report and also report dated 7/31 - spent on STEAP Grant.

Prague - how many bids on fire truck? Galligna - 3 - there was low bid but had to be thrown out because _____________. next bid was 50,000 Havens- who were the two bidders and the other one at @M Galligna - Amar - ALS 5 year period 2.2M, ASM - one hourly and one with all services - SW Fire - no cost to the Town. Committee needs to review the bids. Havens - support local Ambulance Corp for years - I know you have to go by the lowest bid and who provides the best services but want you to consider the great service SW Ambulance Corp has done over the years. Galligna - the committee will take all of that into consideration Havens - 174,000 does that go back to the State for the referendum? Galligan - we are negotiating that. There were things based on economic development that it may stay with the Town. Anwar - glad the household hazard waste is coming to action. would like to know a little more about it. Gallign - we were paying MDC 20 something thousant. if you would get 3 towns together it would cost 20 something thousand. Anwar - this is somehting that Manchester is doing? Galligna - Manchester and Glastonbury are working together. Last year did with Windsor Locks but the are going in a different direction. Fred Shaw is working on getting together with Manchester and Glstonbury. I think it is quarterly. Anwar - very happy to see in the Police Report about the resource officers for our school system. they are functioning already. I am also glad about the Emergency Management Coordinator. At some point may be worthwhile to have him come and talk about the plans.

Delnicki - household hazardous waste - what day in Sept. would collection occur Galligna - will have to get that date. Wil have Fred put out an annoucement. Delnicki - it is 11,000 but the fee is a one time fee Johnson - the existing agreement - required to pay capital expenditures - this is the number they came up with 11,000 which is a one time fee and then there is a useage fee. Delnicki - it would be less then what we have paid in the past. Prague - we have the household hazardous waste in front of us. Galligna - we are trying to be a part of the 7th. Delnicki - unlike a couple years back - this is closer Galligan - closer and more times to use it.

6. Items for Discussion

A. Budget Surplus (requested by Councillor McCann)

McCann - asked for a discussion regarding budget surplus. Council receives each year a print out - showing encumbrances, balances, deficits but at the end of the year we see everything. Without a report these printouts are helpful but do not give us the picture of where the town is. - looked like we had a 2.9M surplus. That brought up several questions, is it real; why wasn't the TC aware of the surplus during deliberations of the budget. if it is real what should we do with it. I followed up with the Town Manager and we had 889,000 - excess education grant of nearly $1M and we had underexpenditure of nearly 1M. as to why we were not alerted. I know the TM works closely with the Mayor but the Council was not made aware. It owuld have been good if the information was shared with the rest of the counicl. Followed up with the TM and asked if appropriate to discuss with the A. The Town can not rebate to the taxpayers. If we can't rebate cna we adjust the taxes going forward to reduce the burden and it is somewhat uncertain. The Audit Committee met and TM said the excess education grant is to be used by the BOE. The fact of hte matter is that is essentially off of the table. Anothr 800,000 had been airmarked last year in the budget in the fund balance to balance our budget. Nearly 1M set aside for BOE. 800,000 airmarked to fund balance which should be put back into the fund balance. $1.1M left - do we adjust the taxes going forward. Do we leave that in our fund balance, This is something tht the TC needs to focus on and should have a discussion on. It is surprisinjg that we would have such a large balance when we kept hearing "Tough Economic Times". We see some very good signs that although there are still many people that face tough econimic times and always will by and far we are in a better place then we though we were. Part of the surplus came from the institution of a budget freeze. 2008 is the first time we had a budget freeze. There were only three council members that voted for this item. McCann and Bazzano voted for. Oates also - rest of council voted against. few months later a budget freeze was instituted in 2009. in 2010 we repeated. 2011 TM decided to start. 2012 - again TC adopted. expired end of fiscal year 2012/2013. we have enjoyed a budget surplus because of that. we need to take into account that we have more revenues then expected. we are within a different economic time since 2008. The TC should take notice of, should take into consideration in everything that we do and I layed out a few things for discussion purposes. Would like to hear from other Council members what we should do with surplus.

Delnicki - do you ever hold back information fro the Council? Galligan - I would not do that? Delnicki - was ther ea 2.9M surplus Galligan - usually the Council waits for Audit Report. I think at this time - I start my budget process in September - in Apriil of last year Anthem was still predicting an 800,000 shortfall. We were anticipating 800,000 shortfall. This fund balances raises you to 6.2% of fund balance of a budget of 103M. The BOE came back tot he Town for 350,000 and another 350,000 - our financials are strong. the problem with your budget process - when someone gives report tha they are going to be short. I would never hold anything back from you - this council is in box when doing the budget. when you adopt in may you still have state and federal budget going on. The 962,000 =- under ECS funding they have 13.9M and then the state calculates what they think and they deduct from there. Usually Finance Director takes that off of the top. We will look at these things and make calculations. Delnicki - counicllor McCann - if I were here in 2008 I would have voted for the freeze. Yagaloff - was assured that BOE budgeted all of the revenue. the reimbursement rates change. One question still unanswered, is this additional revenue and was it part of the budget process or was there an error made and did not account for? Galligan - with the Director of Finance not being here there was an overlook. Looking at the new budget - the amount bieng raised by taxes is 5.2% - it was the revaluation that changed everone value. Yagaloff - did the school budget the revenue? Galligna - yes Yagaloff - it showed up in the town budget - we have used fund balance year after year. There is no surplus of the 800,0o00 Galligan - your surplus did go down 1.1M. Yagaloff - the world is not as it really is it is as we see it. 5.2% is huge tax increase. Peoples taxes have gone up quite a bit. Revaluation impacted taxpayers also. How would this have effected the last budget. I am glad we were not discussion an extra 1.1M extra because feel that would have been spent. I am okay with the fact that we have increased the fund balance. I would have liked to see impact on taxes but tht would have been small. I think it has important fact of stabiilizng our rating. This council should not be spending the surplus - should think about reduction in taxes or stabilizing our budget. I have never heard of a counicl giving out tax rebates during an election year. My vision is that we do not do excess spending.

Mayor will continue during regular meeting.

B. Board of Education Elementary School Plan Recommendation Status by the Superintendent of Schools (requested by Councillor Snyder)

7. Executive Session

8. Adjournment

Bazzano, Anwar, unanimous

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