Town Manager Report
February 19, 2008
1) Virtually all of the last two weeks have been spent in one way or another working on budgets. I really pleased with the new format and clarity of the budget and look forward to having our budget meetings.
2) As you are aware, we had to move quickly to avoid a $60,000 increase starting March 1, 2008 on our employees’ medical insurance program. We were able to get a very comparable plan, and save about $14,000 in other benefits, the greatest of which is that 1x salary life insurance is included in the medical plan whereas we were paying for that separately under the recent medical plan.
3) The snow events have been relentless and our budget is now in some trouble with diesel, salt and sand, and with overtime. I am working to come up with a way to mitigate these budgetary issues.
4) Poland Spring Bottling has notified me that they have approved our 4-year $271,000 level payment plan. That number replaces the $400,000 number in the proposed budget.
5) Staff held a team meeting on the budget process and the format for presenting the new budget at Town Meeting. I am in hopes both the Board of Selectmen and Budget Committee will be comfortable with me being the primary respondent to any questions folks may have about budget items, and giving an opening statement to summarize the budget and its primary impacts. I am also in hopes that the B.O.S. and Budget Committee can vote on their recommendations for budget amounts as we review the budget. You received a memo to this affect earlier.
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