The Mattapoisett Finance Committee met with members of the Capital Planning and Community Preservation Committees on March 25 to discuss their financial decisions for fiscal year 2016. Both committees will have their decisions voted upon during the annual town meeting in May.
Chuck McCullough, Capital Planning chairman, accompanied by committee members Jerry Johnson and Alan Apperson, made his presentation following many months of meetings with Town departments to review needs with hefty price tags. McCullough explained the scoring process used to prioritize those requests deemed necessities by department heads for the operation of their department.
The spreadsheet contains 13 line items totaling $422,456. Starting with priority number one, those items are: $15,000 – new helmets/Fire Department; $50,000 – truck wash basin/Highway Department; $35, 956 – bundled town administration equipment and repairs; $32,000 – Route 6 crossing signals; $25,000 – Center School floor repairs; $40,000 – station vehicle/Fire Department; $40,000 – building renovations/Highway Department; $35,000 – Old Hammondtown School/playground repairs; $40,000 – police cruiser; $15,000 – Town Beach building renovation/Recreation Department; $7,500 – generator/library; and, $30,000 – HVAC system/Police Department.
The breakdown for the $35,956 Town Administration bundle includes: $4,500/GIS Point locator; $3,675/refinish COA floors; $1,100/equipment for environmental inspectors; $2,266/power rotary broom attachment; $6,780/lease buy-out Bristol Aggie student transportation van; $1,570/public safety inspector equipment; $890/lateral file cabinets; $2,675/Town Hall security system; $2,500/Shipyard Park fence; $8,000/voting tabulator; and $2,000/town clerk furniture.
McCullough also provided the Finance Committee members with a 10-year capital investment spreadsheet. Equipment such as ambulances, trucks, snowplows, and sewer grinders, along with construction projects such as wharves, town buildings, road repairs, and school building repairs were all listed, totaling approximately $30 million.
John DeCosta, chairman of the Community Preservation Committee, along with committee member Jodi Bauer, also met with the Finance Committee members. DeCosta presented the committee with a four-page report detailing the CPC account balances, estimated income, disbursement of funds, and process for selecting projects for funding in FY16.
CPC received seven applications totaling $469,230. DeCosta said that after interviewing each sponsor and evaluating each application through a scoring process, five projects were selected for funding by the committee.
Those applications are: Bike Path Phase 1B (requested $25,000) – $15,000; historic Quaker Meeting House restoration project (requested $146, 980) – $80,000; Mattapoisett Historical Society Museum cataloging project (requested $10,000) – $10,000; historic Christian Church window restoration project (requested $22,750) – $11,000; and wharf restoration project (requested $146,980) – $80,000.
Harbormaster Jill Simmons also came before FinCom saying, “I’m not sure why I’m really here or what materials you want…” and then produced an impressive year-end review highlighting completed projects and other accomplishment over FY15 along with FY15 expenditures to date.
Although the committee was pleased with the background information, FinCom member Patricia Donoghue said, “We need a budget … you haven’t done this before … but what we need is a budget for 2016.” They suggested she meet with Town Administrator Michael Gagne, who was not in attendance, and return when ready with her budget needs.
The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Finance Committee is scheduled for April 1 at 6:00 pm in the Town Hall conference room.
By Marilou Newell