Recap Town Council Meeting -March 4th, ‏, ,2014

             RECAP TOWN COUNCIL MEETING – MARCH 4TH

At last night’s Town Council meeting, it was business as usual.  It was tension free and Councilors followed their normal pattern. 

Under Council Orders, Resolutions, and Ordinances – There were three items and all three were approved with a 7-0 vote.  These three items were: (1) Review and approve Council schedule through June 30 and fiscal year (FY) 2015 operating budget timeline; (2) Lisbon code book for schedule amendments and (3) Approve the charge for the Finance Committee recommendation to Council with two amendments.  One was to add “with input by the Town Manager to item number 4 and second to add Review a donation policy to be completed no later than July 1st.

Under Other Business – There was an excellent presentation by Superintendent Richard Green on the 2014-2015 School budget.  It is in its early stages with a lot of variables still unknown but at present there is a $232,877.00 shortfall.  

This was followed by Mr. Steve Warren who updated the Council on the Trail Commissions projects for the future.  The Trails Commission recommended NOT putting a sidewalk on Davis Street.   

Next, there was a lengthy discussion on the direction for the FY 2014-2015 budget which ended with going with a maintenance budget and then a listing of options and recommendations to eliminate a part or all of the $500,000.00 shortage we are facing right now.  

Finally, Chairwoman Lisa Ward announced that she had talked to Eaton Peabody Consulting on the time frame for getting a new Town Manager.  According to the timeline, they are hoping to have the process finished by mid-May.

Under New Business – The question was asked when the council was going to start work on getting the people the right to vote on the Municipal budget by department as stated by Council Bickford in a previous meeting.  The answer provided by Councilor Bickford was that this was not going to happen instead the Council was going to lower the requirements for a petition from 15% to 10% of the voters in the last gubernatorial election. 

The Council went into Executive Session to discuss a Personal Matters & Human Rights Commission Complaint, Town Manager Search and the Interim Town Manager Contract followed by Union Contract, Dispatch Service Agreement & Cable TV Franchise Agreement.

Larry Fillmore