LISBON WATER COMMISSIONERS MEETING

Monthly meeting of Lisbon Water Commisioners

The Water Commissioners of the Lisbon Water Department will hold their next monthly meeting on April 10, 2018, at 5:30 PM. The meeting is open to the public at the Water Departments office located at 639 Lisbon Street. 

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SUBMITTED BY:  TOWN OF LISBON

WHY ARE DEMOCRATS WILLING TO REPEAT HISTORY?

POSTER CHILD

TOWN COUNCIL MANIPULATED OVER AND OVER AGAIN!

For the past few years, our Town Council has been manipulated by the Town Manager, Diane Barnes, when it comes to the Municipal budget.  Every year Mrs. Barnes comes in with an outrageous Municipal budget like this year adding $1.9 million dollars to last year’s budget knowing fully well this will never get approval in its entirety.  This is the shell game our Town Manager has been playing for years.

 

This strategy, used by Mrs. Barnes is like a con artist.  The con is to make the mark (in this case the Town Council) believe has done something good by reducing the demand which in this case is the Municipal budget.   I remember this strategy from my school days; two steps forward and one step back.  In this case Mrs. Barnes has proposed an increase of $1.9 million dollars when she knows fully well she will never get the full amount.  But it is important for her to make the Town Council think they have been financially responsible by reducing this budget in the best interest of the community.  This is extremely important for the con to work.  The Councilors actually believe they have save the taxpayer a large amount of tax dollars when this is as far from the truth as you can get. 

Here is how it works!  To understand this you need to first understand the primarily principle of economics which is:

 

                        REVENUE   =   EXPENDITURES

 

Now in Diane Barnes case it is different:

                        REVENUE    +    TAX INCREASE   =   EXPENDITURES

 

This is the reason our taxes go up every year.  Mrs. Barnes is counting on our Town Council to be satisfied with their cuts to not recognize the fact that every years our taxes go up.  Mrs. Barnes does not offer ANY options to reduce the expenditures of the town.  As long as the people continue to pay their taxes the town will never go bankrupt but what about the people?  Do the people of the community, especially those on a fixed income, have the resources to continue paying the tax increases every year?  THE CON IS THAT BY REDUCING THE PROPOSED BUDGET DOES NOT STOP THE INCREASE IN EXPENDITURES OR TAXES GOING UP EVERY YEAR.

 

Our Town Manager, Diane Barnes, knows that the only way to stop the tax increases is to reduce spending which she is not willing to do.  Mrs. Barnes understands that the Town Council is the ONLY entity that has the power to put a stop to this shell game by holding the line on last year’s budget and not letting Mrs. Barnes get away with this shell game she plays every year.  Without the Town Council recognizing what is happening to the people of Lisbon, there is no hope to stop the steady annual increase in our taxes.

 

I guarantee that the people will go bankrupt before the town if this is allowed to continue. 

 

The people need to call their Councilors and demand that this strategy be terminated immediately and that the Town Manager look for ways to reducing the operating cost of the town before forcing the people to pay more taxes.

 

Larry Fillmore

  

LISBON SCHOOL COMMITTEE AGENDA - APRIL 9, 2018

LISBON TOWN COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING

Council Meeting-Special

Minutes

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SUBMITTED BY:  TOWN OF LISBON

LISBON CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS

Charter Communications Notification - Effective March 29, 2018

Please see attached letter.

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SUBMITTED BY:  TOWN OF LISBON

TOWN COUNCIL BUDGET WORKSHOP

Council Meeting-Workshop

Budget Workshop

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SUBMITTED BY:  TOWN OF LISBON

TOWN COUNCIL MINUTES

Council Meeting

Minutes

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SUBMITTED BY:  TOWN OF LISBON

LISBON PUBLIC HEARING

Public Hearing Notice - New Victualers

Notice is hereby given that the Lisbon Town Council intends to hold a public hearing on Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at 7:00 PM in the Town Office Public Meeting Room to hear comments on a new Victualer’s for Tyson LaVerdiere & Jason LaVerdiere d/b/a The Flux Restaurant, 10 Main Street, in Lisbon Falls, ME.  The public is invited to attend.

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SUBMITTED BY:  TOWN OF LISBON

LISBON PUBLIC NOTICE

Public Hearing Notice

Amend Chapter 70, Zoning Ordinances, Division 13.-District Uses, sec. 70-531 Table of Land Uses

Notice is hereby given that the Lisbon Town Council intends to hold public hearings on April 17, 2018 at 7:00 PM in the Town Office Public Meeting Room.  They will hear comments on the Amendments to Chapter 70, Zoning Ordinances, Division 13.- District Uses, sec. 70-531 Table of Land Uses.  A copy is on file at the Clerk’s office and online. The public is invited to attend.
The Council also intends to hold the following public hearings on April 17 to hear comments on new Victualer's Licenses for the Flux Restaurant,10 Main Street, Lisbon Falls; Walts Place, 13 Village Street, Lisbon;  EZ Marts of Maine d/b/a X-Tra Mart, 10 Frost Hill Ave, Lisbon Falls; and Richard George d/b/a Subway, 568 Lisbon Street, Lisbon Falls..
 

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SUBMITTED BY:  TOWN OF LISBON

SUPPORT VETERANS

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FACTS

A REVIEW OF TOWN COUNCIL WORKSHOP – PART 2

 

The numbers at the end of the Departments is the time it started to be discussed.  This can be used for the people to review exactly what was said.

 

This is my take on the three and a half hour Town Council Workshop held on March 27, 2018 pertaining to the proposed 2018-2019 Municipal Budget.  It started off with:

 

ASSESSING DEPARTMENT (1:22):  There is only one employee in this department and her Medical Insurance increased from 2018 - $3,060.00 to 2019 - $16,644.00 which seems to be excessive but no one questioned it.  Also, they want to add an additional employee part-time for 20 hours at a rate of $14,560.00.

 

TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT (23:10):  This was most entertaining.  They had a discussion about whether or not the new software was working as well as advertised.  I find this odd because the time to have this discussion should have been before the town entered into any contract.  The question was which is better MUNIS or TRIO.  The town intents to maintain both software packages which make it very hard to learn two different systems let alone pay for two software packages.  This should have been ironed out before entering into a contract.  Also, there is no disaster recovery in place and why not?  The town wants to keep the Vehicle and Assessing modules of TRIO and convert everything else to MUNIS.  Also, there is no Life Cycle Management in place.

 

TOWN BUILDINGS DEPARTMENT (1:12:30):  The town will have to adjust Electricity and Heating line items at a later date.  R&M Building was reduced $35,000.00 because some items are being taken care of using the Undesignated Funding. 

 

PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT (1:45:46):  The major problem here is the salary for the Public Works Director is based on a comparison of other towns with a population close to Lisbon, however, it should be based on total Revenue.  It is impossible to determine the salary without having the Revenue coming in to pay this employee.  Think of it like this:  “Is Food City the same as Shaw’s or Hannaford?  Is Family Dollar the same as Walmart as far as the Revenue the towns receive?  It is not possible to determine the salary without first knowing the Revenue you have.  The Town Manager, Diane Barnes, is looking at the Department Head salaries of other towns with much more Revenue to work with.  A simple comparison is to check out the number of businesses of Lisbon and Skowhegan.  How can towns pay the outrageous salaries when they do not have the money to pay them?  This is directly responsible for the increase in taxes EVERY year.  You have to compare apple to apples and not apples to oranges.  This outrageous salary of $75,005.00 needs to be adjusted to reflect what the town can pay based on the Revenue received.

 

 I do not understand why the Town Manager is advertising for a Public Works Director when the town still employees Elwood “Button” Beal.  Button Beal was the Public Works Director for many many years and has a very satisfactory track record.  Button Beal was before the Town Manager’s time but Public Works functioned very professionally and provided a great service to the community.  Going outside to get a new Public Works Director is totally misuse of an excellent asset already employed and a total waste of time and money.  It is a disgrace by the Town Manager who apparently does not realize that promoting from within increases the moral of the staff.

 

The town needs another mechanic and could use the money they want to increase Department Heads salaries to pay for another mechanic.  The town should establish a cap on Department Head salaries that is based on the Revenue received to operate the town.  It is critical that the Town Council get their heads out of their fourth point of contact and start cutting spending instead of raising the taxes on the people.  The Town Manager and Town Council were hired or elected to be financially responsible to the people and they are failing miserably.  The people need to elect individuals who will not be “YES men” for the Town Manager and instead do what is best for the community; raising taxes is not the right answer.

 

The line item “Motor Vehicle” was raised $15,000.00.  This is more spending for toys for the boys.  Look at how much the Asphalt Reclaimer is being used to help out with the roads.  Are you happy with our roads/streets?

 

 

Larry Fillmore

 

 

REMARKABLE

WORDS OF A GREAT PRESIDENT

THANK YOU LIBERALS

TOWN COUNCIL AGENDA - APRIL 3, 2018

 

LISBON TOWN COUNCIL MEETING

Council Meeting

Agenda and Attachments

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SUBMITTED BY:  TOWN OF LISBON

A REVIEW OF TOWN COUNCIL WORKSHOP – PART 1

 

The numbers at the end of the Departments is the time it started to be discussed.  This can be used for the people to review exactly what was said.

 

SOLID WASTE DEPARTMENT (2:56:01):    I found this discussion the most laughable one of the entire evening.  Chairman Allen Ward went into a rant about the staff at the Transfer Station NOT doing enough to educate the people on recycling to offset the 2% yearly increase in Waste Disposal cost.   Having the staff at the Transfer Station lecture the people about recycling equates to the statement by Nancy Pelosi “We cannot arm teachers; it violates the rights of the shooter.”

 

Not so long ago the Town Council established a sub-committee to investigate alternative options like pay as you go; curbside pickup and pay per bag.  The end result was THE PEOPLE like the Transfer Station just the way it is. Bases on the findings of this sub-committee the Town Council decided to keep the operations the same.

 

I cannot see the staff at the Transfer Station holding recycle classes or making it mandatory to attend a recycle class at the town office prior to being issued a Transfer Station pass.  However, it was suggested that raising the cost of the Transfer Pass to cover the increase in Waste Disposal and I believe this is a much better solution to offset the cost; providing the town does not go too crazy on the increase.  I can see the town raising the cost Transfer Station passes to cover the ridiculous increased in Department Head salaries.

 

Councilor Lunt brought up the FACT that the Transfer Station is under staffed.  I believe that Councilor Lunt has a point.  I go to the Transfer Station roughly twice a week and there have been numerous days that there was only one individual there.   As far as I am concerned, and I believe that I speak for the majority of the town is that the Transfer Station staff does an excellent job and is a credit to the community.  According to Ryan Leighton, (a very unreliable source in my opinion) there are three individuals on a daily basis and four individuals on duty on Saturday.  I have been back in Lisbon for eleven years and NOT once have I see Ryan Leighton at the Transfer Station.  Mr. Marcel Obie should be the Department Head, in my opinion, and that the staff needs to be increased.

 

Another point of discussion was that there is no one monitoring who uses the Transfer Station.   This means posting a full-time individual at the entrance checking for Transfer Station passes to ensure that ONLY authorized personnel are using OUR facilities.  Also, Chairman Ward pointing out that the lower building is NOT supervised; again, this goes back to staffing.  If the Town Council redistributed the funds currently designated for Department Heads salary increases; there would be more than enough to hire two more individuals at the Transfer Station to cover all the demands of the Town Council.  

 

I cannot understand how the wages increased but FICA, retirement medical insurance and unemployment line items went down.  An increase in wages should normally generate an increase not a decrease in these line items. 

 

WASTE WATER TREATMENT PLANT (3:12:48):  I have a real concern over the salary of the Waste Water Treatment Plant Director.  Again this is based on a comparison with other towns with the same or close population and not the Revenue of the other towns.  This is like comparing Food City to Shaw’s or Hannaford’s or even better Family Dollar to Walmart or K-Marts.  Salaries should be based on the Revenue the town has and the people can afford to pay.  Check out the number of businesses in Lisbon verses Skowhegan.  This salary need to be adjusted to meet the Revenue of the town and not population.

 

I do not understand why Postage has increased $500.00 this year?  But what is more puzzling is why no one on the Town Council questioned the increase.

 

Larry Fillmore

 

REVIEW OF BUDGET WORKSHOP

On Tuesday March 27 I attended the marathon town budget workshop.

I was the only member of the public that attended.

 

Prior to said meeting I printed the new budget so I could follow along.

 

I strongly suggest that each and every member of the community and taxpayer

obtain a copy of said budget and read it.

 

At the budget meeting I asked about the part time person in the Assessing

department, and the salary for the Waste Water Treatment Plant.

 

I was told that various towns in Maine, similar in population were called and that

some of those town had part time and some had full time assistants, and that was

the salary paid to heads of Waste Water Plants.

 

I always assumed that each and every town and city, not only in Maine but across

the country was different and unique.

It would seem that I am wrong.

 

It would seem, according to Town Manager Diane Barns, that that salaries of

department heads in the town of Lisbon need to compare to each and every

town of equal population in the Great State of Maine, no matter how many and

types of businesses or industry, income of residents and tax payers; if homes

and businesses compare in value.

 

As I said, each and every town and community is unique, we and not them.

 

                                "WE ARE LISBON" 

  

Note: read and pay attention to the articles Larry Fillmore has witten in the Lisbon Reporter

on the Town Budget. Be informed.

 

Note: We, the citizens of Lisbon, can vote on the school budget, but cannot vote on the town budget.

We have to rely on the common sense, or lack of, of members of our town Council.

 

SUBMITTED BY:  DOT FITZGERALD

                             CONCERNED CITIZEN