Members Present: Karen Lascelle, Jennifer Morin, Robin McAfee, Mona McCready, Carol Merrill, David Baker, Brian Duchesne, and William Barnett

Excused Absent: Henriette Girard, Robin Pelletier, Gabby Daneault and Ben Fontaine

Unexcused Absent: Tom Irzyk and Thomas Gilligan

Others Present: David Jodoin

Jennifer Morin called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

Brian made a motion to accept the minutes of the last meeting as written, Karen seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

David J. noted that a couple of the nominations were not correct, because Tom nominated Karen and Dave B. nominated Jennifer. Jennifer stated that this was correct, but we must remember to give our names for the tape.

Jennifer stated she had listed all the subcommittees on the last page of the handout. They are: Fire Department, Police Department, Highway, Recreation, Executive and School Board. Was anything left out? Karen noted that the Sewer Commission was missing.

Karen stated that she wouldn’t mind giving up the school board subcommittee if someone else had more time to devote to the board. So far the other committee members are Henriette and Tom Gilligan.

Brian and Dave B. indicated that they would like to be on the Police and Fire Department subcommittee.

Karen stated that she would like to work with the Highway and Police subcommittee. Jennifer stated that the highway subcommittee will be an important one this year. David J. noted that the Town may luck out on the landfill. Because we are a small Town, the legislature is trying to pass a bill that would state that as long as the Town cleans up the landfill, does test and monitors everything; we may be able to get away with a keep up.

Mona and Carol also stated they would like to be on the Highway Department subcommittee.

Bill noted that he would be interested in the Fire Department and the Executive subcommittee.

Jennifer indicated that she would like to be on the Recreation subcommittee.

David J. stated that the Sewer Department may be looking at a plant this year. Karen said she would be interested to be on the Sewer Department subcommittee if there is no conflict of interest since her father is a sewer commissioner. No one could see a problem. Jennifer stated that they would also place Gabby on this subcommittee.

Jennifer stated that she will e-mail Robin P. and tell her that there are spots available on the Recreation and Sewer Department subcommittees and see which she would like to be on.

Fire Department: Bill, Dave B. and Brian

Police Department: Dave B and Brian

Highway: Mona, Carol and Karen

Recreation: Jennifer

Executive: Bill, Robin M

School Board: Henriette, Tom G and Jennifer

Sewer: Karen and Gabby

We will check with Robin P to see which committees she would like to be on.

Jennifer state that last year Dave E. e-mailed the department heads and let them know that the committees had been formed and who was on each committee and asked the department heads to get in touch with the members. She will notify each department head.

Jennifer then asked David J. to give an overview of the expense reports for all the new members.

David explained that the first column – Per Year Budgeted – those are the dollar amounts that were passed at Town Meeting for each individual department and it also lists the subcategories for each department. Period Expenditures are the expenditures so far keyed in (actually a running tally of everything), Encumbered column is not used very much and balance remaining is taking the budgeted amount subtracted out the current expenditures to show what is left and gives you a percentage.

Each department’s budget is broken down by line. There are some lines that are over budget, what happens is at the end of the month each department head is given a report, we go through it, sometime we find that David has keyed in a wrong number, sometime the department head has written down a wrong number. Then David then goes back after reviewing the items and makes any corrections that need to be made.

We do not see anything at the end of the very last page with regards to accounting for the School District until the Town has to set the tax rate. Then those numbers will be added on to the report. There will be no report for the sewer department because it is a separate entity.

He also informed the members that the DRA had approved the $22,000 for the Fire Department. So this amount will not have to come from their budget.

Jennifer asked what the ER stood for under Executive, David stated it was Elections and Registrations. She then asked about Financial, David stated that this is for the Tax Collector, Assessing Clerk, Audits, Tax Map, Revaluation of Utilities (this is a company that comes in to place a value on Public Service, gas company and all other utilities) so that the Town does not have to pay an outside legal firm.

PERS is all the Personnel expenditures, it has to do with health insurance, dental, life insurance, Social Security, Medicare, etc.

TZ – is the zoning board; TGB – General Government Building (Town Hall) and what it takes to maintain this building; CEM is cemetery expense; INA is the insurance on all the buildings and all the vehicles; ARA is Advertising Regional Association that is the Central NH Regional Planning (we will discuss more about this during discussion of the planning budget). The Town hires this firm on a contracted basis to review plans by subcontractors and developers so that everything is performed under Town ordinances and regulations.

PD is the Police Department; AMB is the Tri-Town Ambulance; FD is the Fire Department, they also control Civil Defense (CD) and Forest Fire (FF); BI is the Building Inspector; HWI is the Highway Department everything from HWI to SWB (Solid Waste Recycling) is all the Highway Department. HA is the Health Officer; HLTH is the Police Department’s Animal Control Officer. HA is the Visiting Nurse Association and Community Action. The Town pays them a set amount each year to help out. WEL thru WVA all have to do with welfare; P&R is Parks and Recreation; LIB is Library (they are a separate entity with a separate Board of Trustees) this is the amount that the Town votes on and then it is turned over to the library trustees and it is spent according to their budget.

PP is Patriotic Purposes this money is spent on Memorial Day flags, Old Home Day; CONS is Conservation (after many years there is now four out of five slots filled on this commission). EDV is the Economic & Development, this was started many years ago with the industrial needs committee. ESP is all the bonds and tax notes. CAP are all the capital expense items, these are large ticket items, usually warrant articles at Town Meeting. ITO – Transfer to Special Revenue Fund. This is money on the warrant article for DARE; CRS is all money on warrant articles transferred to capital reserve funds which are basically savings accounts that used for large expenditures.

Fire truck bids have been returned they range from $270,000 to $348,000. They can’t have the $348,000 because there is only $322,000 available and the other bids do not meet the specifications. Jennifer asked if they had money in the capital reserve for this expenditure. David stated that they have $330,000 but they were only given approval to spend $322,000. They are redoing things now. They also do not have a Fire Chief.

Karen stated that the Parks and Recreation department is making plans for decorations at the Town Hall for Memorial Day, so would these funds come from the Parks and Recreation Budget or the Patriotic Purposes budget? David stated that this expense is in the Parks and Recreation Budget. The Patriotic Purposes line is usually used if flags are needed.

Jennifer stated that after moving some lines around to correct some overages, things look good. Karen stated that Highway is over on their overtime budget, but this is understandable since there were so many snowstorms. David stated that he had filed paperwork for a grant from FEMA, that may reimburse the Town approximately $6,000 to help with this line item.

Jennifer stated that she will try to send out notices of meeting at least a week ahead of time, she now has everybody’s e-mail and will be sending out announcements via e-mail.

David J. asked if the committee would be meeting in May. Jennifer stated that normally we do meet in May but not in June, July or August. The committee decided to meet on the third Thursday of May and then not to meet in June, July or August. The next meeting will be on Thursday, May 15, 2003.

David J. will mail the expense reports to all committee members before the meeting so that everyone will have an opportunity to review them before the meeting. The minutes of the meeting will be out sooner (Jennifer noted that it was her fault that Committee members had not received them sooner).

Jennifer will also notify all department heads about the subcommittee assignments. Jennifer will e-mail David J. and he will place this information in the department heads mailboxes.

Dave B. made a motion to recess, Carol M seconded.

The meeting was recessed at 7:25 p.m.