Can we afford these out of control budgets?

This was posted by Bob Davis Budget Committee Member and I approved this posting: Oct 28, 2008, The Budget Committee once gain fails to cut any serious money from the town budget. They did however cut a little money from the Selectmen’s proposed increases. Tonight it was Sharon Haley’s turn to discuss the Financial Dept’s budget. Last year her budget was $115,223.00. She came before us tonight, requesting an increase of $12,602.00 in her budget, which would have brought the total to $127,825.00. The budget committee, after a small debate, voted to cut $4,182.00 which includes the dept's performance bonus, bringing the new total budget to $123,643.00. This is actually another increase in town spending of $8,420 for this dept. These are not real honest budget cuts. What I discussed with the dept head, what everyone over looks, which doesn’t show up in her line item budget, is the hidden costs under the line item called insurance.

The accounting supervisor, Sharon Haley, receives a $43,474.00 salary. However, when we add in the hidden benefits of ; 3 weeks paid vacation, 10 paid sick days, 12 paid holidays, medical, dental and vision benefits and the cost of living raise and performance bonus she's received, her pay actually totals out around $55,557.42 (using 2006 -2007 stats). Now the accounting assistant, Amy Bond, receives a salary of $34,758.00. If we add her 2 weeks vacation, the 10 paid sick days, the 12 paid holidays and the cost of medical, dental, vision insurance and her raise and performance bonus, we come up with an actual total salary of $55,404.60.
Now as you can plainly see, the real budget numbers of the Financial Dept. are $160,554.42, not $123,643.00 and all of this is for just two people, in a downstairs office. We're not done yet, we still have 4 more offices to go. To make real budget cuts, I called for a cut of Amy Bond's hours and pay making the assistant job part-time. This job was done for years with one full time employee, Irene Ethridge, and a part-timer. In all fairness, the work load has increased a little; but can still be carried out the old way. There is no real need for having two full time employees and it's costing us a substantial amount of tax payer money to boot. We are headed for very hard times, with all of these increases; because if we don't act responsibly and really start cutting out the pork, next year people are going to be taxed out of their homes.
So what if the employees have to work a little harder and buckle down on these expense items, we all have to tighten our belts in bad economic times. This is letting the tax payers down and increasing the risk that some more of our neighbors and friends may lose their homes or have to move away because they can no longer afford to live in Winchester. I ask my fellow board members where is the fiscal responsibility that we are entrusted to carry out to protect the citizens of Winchester from continued over spending ? I didn't see any again, at last night's meeting.

People in town not paying taxes!

Is this true? Are there some people in town not paying their fair share while the rest of us pick up the slack? Is this a case of our town officials unlawfully looking the other way?

We've received the following letter from a concerned citizen that this may actually be the case regarding a neighbor of theirs.

Hello there,

I wish to inform you that I discovered that I have nearby neighbors who live without permits of occupnacy and have done so for a long time (17 years). This makes me wonder how many other homes are there in town that do not have permits of occupancy and yet peole are living in it? This neighbor is( name has been removed while we investigate this claim),who has a an extension cord to his house from the phone pole to his house that gives electricity. Why are we allowing this to take place for so long? I wish to remain anonymous but my other neighbors are very upset that the building inspector has let him get away with it for so long. We believe that he has something on the building inspector. That he is also selling a piece of his property (a for sale sign by owner) is apparent and we are wondering why we weren't notified that he sub-divided his property.
How many places are there in this town with this problem? We need to tax them as well for it is not fair to others to see this happen.
What do you say?

The letter writer provided us with their name; but wishes to remain anonymous.

Cash strappped town in need of reform!

We are a cash strapped town with plenty of pork in our budget that needs to be cut, however those in charge are making sure that the dept heads are getting their fair share. They do not want to save the tax payers any money, they just want to protect their bottom line and keep their bonuses, raises and special perks. Take the Highway Dept., under Dale Gray's leadership for example. This dept is costing us thousands in perks that no other town government, would ever conceive of allowing such give aways.
The town Highway Dept has satellite TV, ( the excuse was they need to WATCH the weather to be fully prepared ) they get Green Mt. coffee delivered for $93.00/mo at our expense, they wear comfort fit jeans, jackets, and shirts at a cost to us of as much as $290.00 a month for cleaning, they get 10 sick days, paid vacations, cost of living raises each year and get to drive their own personal piece of town equipment back and forth to lunch on us. In next year's budget, Dale Gray, wants an increase in diesel fuel for the equipment, from $28,000.00 to $50,000.00 with no over sight or control of the usage. No selectmen can tell us, where this amount of fuel goes. To be fair it is hard to anticipate the cost of fuel for next year; but with no checks and balances, with no control, no paperwork, nothing to check the actual factual usage for town vehicles, you have to wonder. Could they be heating the town garage with it? It burns in a heating system just as well as it does in a town grader. It would burn cleaner in anyone's furnace then the grader. Could it be used in town employees personal diesel trucks? It does make you wonder, why no accurate records are kept, doesn't it? No one is being accused of any wrong doing and even if they were, most of the selectmen would protect them just like they protected John Stetser. We know Ken Bethiaume and Roberta Fraser wouldn't tolerate it, but that is just two who we feel actually concern themselves with how things are being done. This is why this year, we must elect people that will work in the best interest of the town and not their allegiance to their buddies. We must demand our officials keep accurate, honest records of all expenditures and make them available for viewing at any time, by both the town's Budget Committee and the public themselves. There must be accountability at Town Hall.

How many raises did you receive last year?

It seems that some town employees enjoyed 3 raises annually for the past 3 years. One: annual raise for performance, Two: the cost of living and three; the (zinger) performance bonus. Can you image only one person failed to receive the performance bonus last year! The payment is a given! Some raises where done at the expense of the tax payers by calling it a promotion. At the Budget Committee meeting Tuesday night the motion from Ken Gardner to remove the line item "performance bonus" from the budget was passed by a 6 - 2 vote. This was the same amendment that Bob Davis attempted to attach to a motion 2 weeks ago and it failed. Colleen DuQuette and Roberta Fraser voted to keep the performance bonuses in the budget.. Upset at the outcome, outraged member Colleen DuQuette said, she will make a motion to increase the annual raises next meeting. Will she succeed? We will let you know.

Bob Davis went on record as saying, if we do not make an honest attempt to cut the taxes,the tax payers will be angry and outraged. At the deliberative session we know people will not consider a default budget and will attempt to cut the budget by $500,000.00 or more and at least one $1,000,000.00 from the School Budget ...Winchester Informer feels, we can do this! It is our best weapon! The Budget committee is quite evenly split, between the people that want to cut taxes and the ones that want to allow continuous overspending. There are several people up for re-election this year for Budget Committee and we would love to see the people in town stand up and vote out those that would continue the current trend. If anyone would like to run for these open seats the process is am easy one to follow. It is so simple and doesn't require much of your time. Just $1.00. Please help support those of us who promote change and vote out those who continue the unchecked spending. It's time to remove these people who think the tax payer is an endless supply of dollars. We cannot continue to follow this path of tax and spend and expect our town to grow and prosper, it's time for change.

Preserving the Historic Look of Ashuelot Village

The Informer has received a request to open a discussion on preserving the older buildings in Historic Ashuelot Village in a natural way instead of using synthetic siding. We received the following letter and thought this was a very important issue that merits space on our blog. Welcome people of Ashuelot Village!

People in the village of Ashuelot would like to see it begin to be thought of as an Historic place.
We are asking that the Historic district preserve the look of the exterior facade of old buildings such a the Hotel in the village, by painting, and not siding with synthetic materials.

Historic Commission Public hearing tonight: Monday Oct 20 at 7 pm at the Town Hall
Please stand up for our history in this simple way.

We already have our beautiful covered bridge, lets keep looking good, and become a destination that people travel too, throughout the state.
Thank you.
Julia Ferrari

What's Van Dyke up to?

The Informer has received the following emails asking us to start a new discussion. It would seem that many people are keeping an eye on what has been going on out on Franklin Mountain this past week and are very concerned.

Would it be possible to start a new discussion regarding that contractor Van Dyke and what he's up to now out on the mountain?
Keene Road resident

What's Van Dyke doing up on the mountain now? Thought he couldn't do any more digging while there was a lawsuit pending? Could we start a discussion on this subject?
thanks,
Mary K.

Saw that contractor tearing up more of the mountain by Shamrock this past week, why is the town letting them work when there's a lawsuit filed against the town? Isn't this illegal? Be a good topic to discuss on the blog don't ya think?
Green Valley folks

Diesel Truck Expenses ..

The Informer has received the following email asking us to start a new discussion on possibly saving the town some money on fuel expenses .. We'd welcome feedback from everyone on this subject and if you have other cost saving ideas, please bring them forward.

I would like it if there is a way we can start a new blog to address the issues of the diesel truck expenses. I sincerely believe that it is time for the town to get a veggie conversion kit for the diesel truck instead of forking over thousands in diesel fuel expenses. I have done some research and discovered that a veggie oil conversion kit and labor would run an average of 2 grand. There is a such a mechanic in Rhode Island. Is it possible that this blog can address money saving methods for the town to survive?
Thank you.

Sincerely Yours,
Silverhawk Spirit-Carroll

Questionable Conduct and more Payouts

We have been informed by reliable sources that at the Oct. 7th Budget Committee meeting a question in regards to a line item expenditure out of the A.C. Lawrence Account came up. The answer provided was that the BOS have approved paying John Gomarlo some $15,000.00 or more he is demanding for 520 day hours of accumulated sick time he never took. At the rate of 10 days/80 hours per year, this goes back some six years that he never took a day off. Though this practice of paying employees for unused sick time was disallowed several years ago, John is demanding he get paid. With no way to replace this money, once again the taxpayers will be forced to foot the bill. It was also reported that John has used up all of his pay allowance under the Land Use Dept. and wants to be paid out of the Highway Dept. budget. Dale Gray objected to this and reminded the board that Gomarlo doesn't even work for he Highway Dept. Despite this fact, the Selectman overruled Gray and approved the payments anyways. This is just plain wrong and outrageous conduct by our BOS. What do you think, should he be paid for this unused sick time or should the Selectman have stood firm and refused under the town's rules on not continuing this practice and should the Selectmen have taken the money from other accounts to cover this leaving us to foot the bill once again?

After posting this, we found some of the reported information to be incorrect; however if we were to edit this to reflect the errors, it would skewer the responses below. So for good or bad we have decided to leave the original post unedited to avoid any confusion editing could create.

Wastewater Treatment facility Upgrade report:

In February of 2004, the town was notified by the state DES that the town's WWTF was approaching 80% of it's permitted flow. In June of 2004, the town retained Tata & Howard to conduct an evaluation of the plant and report on it's condition and submit recommendations. At last night's Selectman's meeting the board received a report from Tata & Howard that basically states the plant is out dated, needs new rotors with automatic controls within the oxidation ditches, recommends the installation of two(2) new center feed clarifiers with flocculators in the center well, recommended the replacement of the existing chlorination/dechlorination system with an Ultraviolet Disinfection System (UVDU), the installation of a packaged centrifuge system within the existing drying bed enclosure, installation of a new generator, installation of a new return activated sludge (RAS) and waste activated sludge(WAS) pumps, the purchase of new laboratory equipment and additional I/I investigations. Additional upgrades would include upgrades to the existing headworks such as a new grit removal system and grinder and the on site construction of a septage receiving facility. Based on this evaluation the estimated probable implementation costs for the recommended improvements which would also include a 25% engineering and contingencies fees was at the time of the report $2,970.000.00. Based on escalation costs of 15%, the estimated probable implementation cost has risen to $3,415.000.00.
All of this was based on the projected population of Winchester being around 5,350 by the year 2026. There was no discussion on just how the town is suppose to pay for all of this or why the plant has been so neglected all these years or where the money ear-marked for this plant has gone in the past. With people exiting New Hampshire in droves ( US Census report ) does anyone seriously think Winchester's population is going to increase to those projected numbers, especially with the town fast approaching maximum build-out and that there are only three potential areas remaining in town for development? While there is no doubt the plant needs some serious upgrades, do we really need to be looking at a complete re-build at such a high cost?