New Hires
Courtney Francis was recently selected as the new Library Assistant. She will begin work in early December. We are also interviewing for the After School program in Recreation and two openings at the DPW. Two new hires at the Fire Department on November 1, Christopher Stewart and Lynn Gianelli were both hired as Fire Fighter/EMT basics.
Special Town Meeting Recap
The Special Town Meeting held on November 15 lasted less than an hour. Article 1 which proposed limits on house size based on lot size and building coverage did not obtain the two thirds majority required for a Zoning Bylaw amendment (the count was roughly half in favor and half opposed.) Article 2, which authorized the Selectmen to negotiate a utility easement with Horton's Campground, was postponed indefinitely over issues regarding the ownership of Highland Road and South Highland Road. It is unclear if the roads are owned by the Town or by the County. Further title research needs to be done by the company requesting the easement.
The remainder of the articles were financial. Two new revolving fund accounts were established for the Truro Central School for nonresident tuition and Adult Education. Several articles requested transfers within the FY 2012 budget for items that were underfunded. We were able to fund all of those transfers without using Free Cash or the Reserve Fund due to savings realized on our County Retirement Assessment and Workers Compensation and Municipal Liability Premiums. By paying the assessment and premiums in one lump sum, Town Accountant Trudi Brazil saved nearly $100,000 that we were able to redistribute to other parts of the budget.
Budgets and Belt-Tightening
Budget materials and instructions were distributed to all department heads at the beginning of November. The budget message from the Selectmen remains level funding all budget lines except salaries and contractual obligations. We hope to realize a savings on health care costs with the new requirements under the Health Care Reform passed by the State Legislature. Measures under that law include requiring all eligible retirees to obtain coverage from Medicare and passing along higher deductibles and co-pays to employees covered under Barnstable County Municipal Health Group plans. We will have new rates for employees in January, and then we will have a better idea of what the actual savings might be.
We have also noticed a decrease in funding from the Federal government for planning and projects. State agencies have been cutting programs for the last several years, but there was still funding available from Federal agencies (often funneled through the State) for environmental studies and infrastructure. Recently we have seen funding cut for wetlands and tidal restoration, flood mitigation and planning, and engineering studies. We expect to see further reductions next year in areas such as housing rehabilitation and alternative energy.
With no new sources of revenue on the horizon, this means the Town departments will continue level funding and belt-tightening into the immediate future. The term “level funding” is a bit deceiving because funding line items at the same amount as last year is actually a decrease. You probably know from your own experience that nearly all costs for day-to-day goods and services are increasing. We still see dramatic and unpredictable increases in energy costs, insurance costs, and the cost of all kinds of materials and services.
We are doing our best to control and reduce costs and to look for outside sources of funding for special projects and capital expenditures. The budget of our little Town is experiencing the same stresses and uncertainties that all public agencies and private companies worldwide must deal with. We hope the situation will improve, but that improvement will be gradual and over several years. Meanwhile, we will continue to ask our staff to do more with less and to prioritize and economize. We will provide you with a more detailed update once we have a look at all the requests for FY 2013.
Rex Peterson
Town Administrator
townadm@truro-ma.gov
(508) 349-7004, ext 10