By: Maria Moore

In our recent report on the Town Government budget we quoted First Selectman Dan Jerram as saying that he has been busy working up a proposed Town Government budget with the help of Selectman Bruce Gresczyk and his Administrative Assistant Christine Hayward; see our March 8 report Town Government Budget: Zero Is Not A Pretty Scenario.

We spoke to the different department heads and team leaders at Town Hall today to get their input on their department’s budgets for the next year. From our conversations with them, we understand that they have not been asked by the First Selectman to submit a budget for their departments for the coming year. They all confirmed, however, that they are planning to attend the Board of Selectmen meeting tomorrow afternoon, most with a budget in hand in case the selectmen solicit their input or in case they need to provide clarification of any part of their department’s budget.  We are not including the salaries for each department since some staff members are members of a municipal employees’ union and that union has been asked to make concessions for the coming fiscal year.  The union contract includes a 3.6% increase for the coming year.

Town Clerk’s Office

Donna LaPlante, Town Clerk said that she foresees her budget being about $1,000 less than last year.  Her department’s budget for this year (excluding salaries) is approx. $37,000.  Donna  said that the $1,000 savings is being realized by her office having upgraded their Cott index system this year.  The Town Clerk’s Office leases hardware and software from Cott Systems which provides an online indexing service for land records.  By upgrading their system, Donna received a 7% discount on the cost of the lease, as opposed to having the cost of the lease increase by 7%.  Donna said that the indexes are made available on the internet for $186 a month, an amount that she feels is reasonable since its widely used by attorneys and residents.  The next step is to make images of documents available online once Cott introduces that service.  She said that Cott foresees making the documents available on a subscription basis to users.  The company will then no longer charge her the monthly internet fee, but it will instead forward to her the $1 revenue per document she now charges.

Donna has been able to meet most of the cost of computerizing her office through the state’s Historic Documents Fund from which she has received grants earmarked for upgrades.  Because she has been able to fund her upgrades through the grants she has not had to make capital requests to the Board of Finance, other than to ask for the release of funds that had already been previously allocated to her for the recent Cott system upgrade.  Donna will be at the Board of Selectmen meeting tomorrow evening with her budget.

The Tax Collector’s Office

Linda Sheffield, the town Tax Collector said that her budget for the coming fiscal year is approx. $17,300.  The biggest expense her office has is the data processing system which for the current year is $7,600 but which she expects will go up for next year. She said that system provides the online component including a direct ink to the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles).  She also expects postage costs to go up and that’s not an area she can cut back on.  Fortunately, Linda said she’ll only use about $1,000 of her tax collection budget of $2,500 since a marshal is handling the tax sale with no upfront costs to the town.  Had she gone the route of using a company to handle the tax sale, she would have had to get more money from the town to cover the costs.  Another cost savings for her office, she said, is that Debbie Ventre, her assistant, will be finishing her certification so that expense won’t be there next year.  Linda said that overall, her budget will be shaved by about $1,000.  She, too, confirmed that she plans to attend the Board of Selectmen meeting tomorrow evening.

The Tax Assessor’s Office

Beth Paul, the Tax Assessor said that she will have two budgets available: one which will be very pared down, and another which she said would be best for her department.  To illustrate the difference between the two budgets, she said that maps could be digitally updated as the need arises if the money were budgeted in for it, or she can update the maps manually now and at some point in the future when there is money available, they will have to digitize them all.  Beth said that a realistic budget for her department is $17,000.  With an additional $2,000 she said she could make the maps accessible on the web, but she said that she didn’t even try to add that in for this year ~ that would be too much like dreaming.  Beth confirmed that she will be at the Board of Selectmen meeting tomorrow evening.

Land Use Office

In the Land Use Office Karl Nilsen also said that he hadn’t been asked for input on the budget and that it was hard for him to comment on it without seeing it first.  He is waiting for the budget to come and to have had the time to review it and then, if appropriate, he will comment on it.  Asked what he sees for a Land Use budget he said it would probably be the same as last year’s.  Our reporter later calculated that would be a budget of approx. $72,000; however she needs to confirm that figure with Karl.  Asked if he planned to be at the Board of Selectmen meeting tomorrow evening Karl said he had plans for that evening, but that he would try to be at the meeting.

Budget Discussion at Board of Selectmen Meeting Tomorrow Evening

Our reporter hoped to have an opportunity to speak to Dan about the Town Government budget this afternoon but his office door was closed as he and Annie Witte, the town’s bookkeeper worked on the budget for tomorrow, as Christine Hayward, his administrative assistant confirmed.  By tomorrow evening’s Board of Selectmen’s meeting, the First Selectman’s Town Government budget will be finished and he will be presenting it for the first time not only to members of the public at the meeting, but also to Selectman Tom Klebart and the town’s department heads and team leaders.

The Board of Selectmen Meeting: Will be held tomorrow evening, Thursday, March 11 at 5:00 p.m.  For the agenda for this meeting, please see our Community Calendar.

The First Selectman: will be presenting his Town Government budget at the Board of Finance workshop, scheduled or Saturday, March 13 beginning at 8:30 a.m.