Westport News

Present:    Lisa Arnold (LA), Bob McCarthy (BM), Warren Messier (WM), John Miller (JM), Tony Vieira (TV), Hugh Morton (HM), Tracy Priestner (TP), Chuck Goldberg (CG), Jack Baughan (JB)

1.     LA, Chair, opened the meeting at 7:00 pm with the traditional salute to the flag.

2.  Minutes of Previous Meetings:
February 10, 2009:  CG moved and BM seconded a motion to accept the minutes as circulated.  The vote in favor was unanimous.
        
3.    Thank You Letters:
WM made a motion to send letters of thanks to Jane Loos and Paul Schmid for their time on the committee.  TV seconded the motion and all were in favor.  It was so voted for JM to draft the letters for the next meeting.

4.     FYI:  
    a.  LA reported that the BOS met on Feb. 17th to set a strategy for the union negotiations.  JB said he heard that each Selectmen has an assigned union.

    b.  LA said that Mike Coughlin would be the lead speaker at the next meeting since he was on vacation.  She said that in a conversation with him, he stated that the BOS strategy would be to create a macro budget and present to Fincom.  LA mentioned that there were only 15 budgets available to Fincom at this time.  CG questioned if we should redo our budgets or wait for the BOS.  LA says that we need to wait for BOS but if things don’t start moving soon, Town Meeting will have to be postponed.

5.    Budget Hearings:
a.    Fire Department:    Brian Legendre, Fire Chief, was in attendance and presented the proposed FY10 budget for the Fire Department and answered questions about the proposal.  He also fielded questions regarding the new Ambulance runs and the revolving account.  He also stated that he has another budget prepared in case significant cuts need to be made.

b.    Treasurer:    George Foster, Town Treasurer, was in attendance and presented the proposed FY10 budget for the Treasurer Department.

c.    Assessors:    Bob Grillo, Steve Medeiros and Jack McDermott were in attendance and presented the proposed FY10 budget for the Assessors Department.  Much discussion was spent regarding revaluation and whether or not an article would be needed on this years warrant for Town Meeting.  They felt strongly that they could skip the article this year.  They said that changes are made based on sales of previous year.  They also said that abatements have doubled this year but feel that no extra expenses would be required for them.

d.    Town Clerk:        Marlene Samson, Town CLerk, was in attendance and presented the proposed FY10 budget for the Town Clerk Department.  She stated that she is looking into increasing her fees starting 1/1/2010.  

e.    Tax Collector:        Carol Borden, Tax Collector, was in attendance and presented the proposed FY10 budget for the Tax Collector Department.  She said the amount of excise tax bills is down from FY08 in the first commitment by around $100,000.00.  She stated that she has an article on the Town Meeting warrant to raise demand fees from $5.00 to $10.00.  The state allows this to be up to $30.00 but she cannot override this past $15.00.

6.    Other:    
TV distributed some material he got from www.srpedd.org spotlighting Westport.  (See attached.)
LA distributed an updated schedule of hearings going forward.  She did mention this was subject to change since some departments weren’t confirmed yet.

Adjournment and next meeting:  There being no further business to come before this meeting, CG moved and WM seconded a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:05pm.  The vote in favor was unanimous.   The next meeting will be March 3rd at 7:00 pm.
                            

Respectfully submitted,
Nicole Botelho, Recording Secretary