Westport
in Brief!
EverythingWestport.com
Sunday, December 25, 2011
photos/EverythingWestport.com
Quick
Article Index . . .
Westport's "free cash" account depleted by
Special Town Meeting.
|
Westport's "free cash" account
depleted by Special Town meeting. EverythingWestport.com Sunday, December 25, 2011 Click here to review the Special Town Meeting Warrant
articles. Westport's "free cash" account is
in free fall. A preliminary review of the town's finances
reveal that because all money articles passed at STM, the Free Cash balance
is now less than $10,000, not enough to even pay for one, extra light-snow
removal this winter. And town officials are afraid there is no money left for
unexpected emergencies. Free cash had been sitting at $613,497 before
STM. But most will think the spending was money well
spent. Highway
Department gets long overdue equipment for snow removal. Finance Committee
recommended against the purchase at this time. Highway Surveyor, Jack Sisson, got three
new trucks with plows after fighting unsuccessfully for years to update his
aging fleet of vehicles.
Sisson's department also received an
unexpected $50,000 reimbursement for Tropical Storm Irene expenses. This
amount will probably be reimbursed by state and federal emergency management
programs. Inset:
Highway Surveyor Harold "Jack" Sisson makes his case with town
meeting voters. There should be no more ghosts of Christmas
past haunting the highway department, suggestive of last February's scene of a
broken down snow plow on Horseneck Road. Article 3, granting the highway department
$101,636, less than the article's requested $110,760, was passed near
unanimously, as was article 4 appropriating $9,300 for computerized sign
making equipment to be used by the department. "It will help us more easily create
replacement signs, at a far lesser cost," Sisson said. "And other
departments can use the equipment as well." The department had been using an old,
manual system, but it couldn't keep up with the demand, according to Sisson.
Left: Article 1 took over a
half hour to pass, with Town Counsel required to render judgment on procedural
questions involving the disbursement of federal and state emergency maintenance
reimbursements. Right: it took little time for School Superintendent Dr. Carlos
Colley to convince voters to authorize $3.2 million in short term borrowing
to fund completed PCB remediation efforts at the Westport Middle School. Town
Moderator Steven Fors looks on.
Above: Beach Committee
chairman Wilfred (Tim) St. Michel delivered a compelling argument for the
creation of a Town Beaches Enterprise Fund that the Beach Committee could tap
to improve conditions and amenities at the town's local beaches. No cap was
set for the fund. Beach
Committee gets the go-ahead for an Enterprise Fund. Town meeting attendees voted near unanimously
to accept Article 6, creating a Town Beaches Enterprise Fund, a separate account for the operation
of the town beaches. Finance Committee chairman, Hugh Morton,
said "it would be a blank check for the beach committee" in
explaining the Finance Committee's recommendation against establishing the
fund. "All town departments are stretched thin," Morton said,
"and they need the money." "Approximately three years ago the Board
of Selectmen raised the fees on beach passes by 50 percent, from $20 to $30,
and seniors from $10 to $15. Then we were told to reduce our budget by 10%,
which we did," said Beach
Committee chairman Wilfred (Tim) St. Michel. "I have been on the Beach Committee for eight and
one half years, and because of the budget we work under, the only major
improvement has been new gates at Cherry and Webb beach at a cost of $1600. - Tim St. Michel While the Beach Committee has lived within
its annual budget (around $34,390 in 2010), the sale of beach passes has
generated revenues of up to $77,565, with the balance going into the town's
general fund. "Since I moved to Westport 43 years
ago, the only change that I see is the color of the beach passes,"
Michel said. "Folks cannot access East beach, (all
1800 feet of it) because of all that
cobble. That can't even do it with the assistance of a Sherpa guide," he
quipped. "Now we have an answer to make major improvements,"
St. Michel added. "A report by the Massachusetts Barrier
Beach Task Force says on page 22 "barrier beach revenues, however, should
not be used to subsidize the general fund,"" Michel said. "Why should you (the town) get to keep
that money when the beach (committee) has done all the work to create the
passes and hiring the life guards and trying to make our beaches more
accessible," resident Heather Reed asked the Finance Committee chairman.
Town Meeting agreed and voted overwhelming to
accept Article 6. "A boardwalk from Cherry and Webb
Beach to the parking lot, benches along the way for rest and putting on your
shoes, a compost toilet close to the beach, a pavilion-type structure across
the street at the little children beach that could be equipped with picnic
tables and shade for the little ones are among the improvements that could be
made with the additional revenues," St. Michel said. "The bucket list could go on and on,"
he added. With the passage of Article 6, the excess revenue
can now be used to create boardwalks to the ocean, composting toilets, and
other improvements including gazebos similar to the new Horseneck Beach
visitor centers put in last year by the state's Department of Conservational
and Recreation. The town treasurer will maintain the
account. The downside is that the town will now
experience a revenue shortfall that will have to be made up through increased
taxation or by budget reductions for the other town departments. Warrant
Article 1 modified just prior to Special Town Meeting. Note: Article 5, dealing with reimbursing town
departments for Tropical Store Irene damage was deemed not suitable for consideration
at the Special Town Meeting. Finance Committee Chairman, Hugh Morton,
said that "the Town Moderator ruled that article 5 is not in order for
consideration by the meeting." Voters then clearly voted to pass over the
article. Article 5 included a line item for $34,935.13
to reimburse the Highway Department for Tropical Storm Irene expenses incurred
by that department, but the article was passed over. However, a $50,000 line
item was added to Article 1 at the last minute before Special Town Meeting,
prompting concerns by residents in attendance. Article 1, a request to transfer funds from
Free Cash to cover expenses for veterans' personal service, veterans'
expenses, animal control personal salaries, animal control officer expenses,
and town hall expenses, created a stir when a line item for $50,000 to fund
Highway Department expenses resulting from Tropical Storm Irene magically
appeared on the slide presentation, but was nowhere to be seen on any posted
Town Warrant or Town Warrant information provided to attendees. The warrant article increased from $118,400
to $163,800; animal control personal expenses were decreased to $5,000 from
$9,600. "Were the warrants outside misprinted? - Westport
resident Timothy Field asks about the addition of a $50,000 line item in
Article 1.
"That's an excellent question." - Town Moderator Steven Fors
in response. "These articles 1 and 2 which supplement
appropriations ... that deal with prior fiscal year matters have been part of
special town meetings traditionally for years . . . and often remain in flux
right up until the time of town meeting," Fors
said. "I will grant that an addition this
large is unusual. The article itself does not define the sums . . . it's also
consistent with our tradition, although perhaps stretching it a touch." "If that's true, I guess there's no
point in closing the warrant because the warrant is never really
closed," Field responded.
Inset: Timothy Field (left) with Gary Mauk. "I do have a problem with Article 1,
Mr. Moderator," Mauk said. "We have always been led to believe
that when an article is written, posted, spread out through the town by the
constables, that a given article can be decreased in terms of monetary value
but never increased. And this is clearly showing a $50,000 increase," he
said. "I can truthfully say, with perhaps a
bad memory excepted, I've never seen this happen at Town Meeting before,"
Mauk added. "This paper (warrant) was given to me
today at Town Hall this morning," Highway Surveyor Jack Sisson said in
response, waving the new town warrant. "Most of that ($50,000) occurred from
Hurricane (Tropical Storm) Irene . . . 43% of that will be paid back by FEMA;
and all the work we did on East Beach will be paid back at 100% of the rate instead
of 75%. Article 1 including the $50,000 line item was
unanimously passed. Kicking
the can down the road. Article 2, which included town payables due
(bills) in the amount of $80,408.57,
some of which have been carried forward from many previous town meetings,
were finally approved by voters who were clearly in a spending mood, deciding
not to kick those cans any further. That mood carried over to Article 7, where the
Special Town Meeting quickly passed, unanimously, a short-term borrowing
provision enabling the school district to pay PCB remediation costs incurred
in cleaning up the Westport Middle School. The $3.2 million will be paid back over a
period of 10 years, approximately $400,000 per year, directly out of the school
district's budget, an amount clearly not feasible without drastic cutbacks. "Up to 20% of our staff would have to
be let go," School Superintendent Dr. Carlos Colley has said in the
past. The short-term borrowing provision is just
kicking the enormous can down the road. A long-term solution, such as a debt
exclusion article, or a proposition 2 1/2 override will be needed to fund the
$3.2 million, seen as a daunting task as town voters in a general election
are far more reluctant to spend that kind of money than are town meeting
voters. Left: Finance Committee
Hugh Morton was left to answer the tough questions as to why the Finance
Committee didn't support articles 3 and 6.
Right: Newly appointed
Veteran's Service Agent, Jerry LeBoeuf, waits anxiously to see if he gets $876.28
in prior year's expenses paid into his Veterans Encumbrance account. The
expense was added to Article 2 at the last minute. He got his money. The season's
holiday spirit descended on Special Town Meeting. And in the spirit of giving, Westport town
boards and departments watched, sugar plums dancing in their heads, as 437
town voters unanimously passed seven town warrant articles totaling $613,497,
and cheered the results. $250,000 was pulled out of Free Cash and
into the town's Stabilization Fund with a clear 2/3rds majority vote as
residents were piling out of the high school auditorium. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, but
a thousand years from now, nay, ten times ten thousand years you will never
see Town Meeting as generous as they were at this December 6th Special Town
Meeting. "I thought we were going to settle in
for a long two nights of Town Meeting," Interim Town Administrator Jack
Healey said. "I'm glad to be going home before nine."
Above: Westport Selectmen
had very little to contribute as they watched town meeting voters pass seven
out of seven articles, most unanimously. Voter
attendance by district: Precinct A - 59 Precinct B - 132 Precinct C - 47 Precinct D - 81 Precinct E - 118 © 2011 Community Events of Westport. All rights
reserved. EverythingWestport.com |
