Finance Committee Minutes 9/15/2020

Minutes for Finance Committee Meeting  September 15, 2020

Members in Attendance   :          Michele Miller

On Zoom                                             Rebecca Wolin

Attendees:         John Weingold on zoom

                                Cassandra  on zoom

                                Unkown person on zoom

                                Don Corburn                     

                                Shawn Tryon

                                George Cain

1. Shawn presented to the finance committee his reasoning for purchasing 2 new trucks at the special town meeting which is planned for October 24, 2020.  Shawn repeated the presentation from March 2020 during the DPW budget presentation for everyone who was attending  in case they missed the presentation in March.   The truck they have is too old, too big, we are having trouble getting parts.  In March the trucks  would have cost us $220,000 each.  It was decided to purchase 1 truck but due to Covid both the select board and the finance committee decided to put it off as we did not know if our state funds would be effected in July.   George spoke requesting we only purchase 1 truck as we gave the staff a raise in July and we should just purchase the 1 truck  We learned that the price of the trucks had increased in price and now cost $226,000 each.  The costs are just going up due to a shortage of parts to build the truck.  We voted 2 -0 to approve the purchase of the two trucks.  We will meet on October 1 with the select board to discuss how to pay for the trucks. 

1. We discussed that next year DPW is going to want to purchase a truck for $330,000.  The select board was asked to go back and review the capital plan and see if we can move anything forward.  We have $750,000 in the stabilization fund and if we purchase these 3 trucks it will wipe out the fund.  We will speak to Unibank regarding financing as the rates are below 1% now. 

1. We discussed the fact that we need better controls at year end.  No one is looking at the contracts to ensure all payments have been made or are encumbered.  Department       heads are still not keeping track of bills they should receive so they can encumber the expense at year end.  We can send out new control procedures for year end during the budget process

1. Michele offered to write something up for the October Monterey News

1. Michele mentioned she was not getting reports from the Accountant.  Michele will call Melissa and make sure she is on the mailing list.