SPECIAL MEETING – Brookfield Town Board – 7PM - Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Didn’t miss much tonight. Fairly quiet by Brookfield standards. Small gathering. Quick meeting.
1. Polling Places Designated: Leonardsville Elementary School; North Brookfield Fire Hall, Brookfield Town Hall.
2. Deputy Town Clerk authorized to attend NYS Clerk’s Conference in Saratoga Springs, April 25-28;
3. 284 Highway Agreement – Rod Jennison ran through the options, given limited funds available and need to reseal/maintain Academy ($45,000), Keith, Chesbro ($57,300)& Wratten Rds. Decided to patch Academy ($10,000) and reseal next year; seal Keith and continue on Chesbro & Wratten (with CHPS funding if it arrives from Albany in time). Town expects approximately $138,000 of CHPS funding this year – once the budget passes in Albany – rumored to be mid-May. Salka noted the NYS budget is $9 BBBBillion short this year… and next year is expected to be worse, rising to $20 billion! ….and we think this year is going to be rough!... Interesting factoids: it costs approximately $10,000 per mile to seal a road; and CHPS money can’t be used on the same road within a 10 yr. period.
4. Assessor’s $770 Clerical bill was approved after being held over from the last meeting. According to the Town’s agreement with Assessor Rhonda Wiegand, in addition to her regular annual salary, she will receive additional salary of $6,900, plus up to $4,500 in authorized personnel; $800 postage and $40 envelope stuffing. According to Supervisor Salka, Rhonda indicated the authorized personnel figure would be less than the $4,500. These extra revaluation expenses are partially offset by the per parcel State Aid (reduced from $5 to $4.40 per parcel this yr) or approximately $8,000. Salka also reported Weigand would consider a suggestion that annual updates be done to keep the equalization rate at 100% rather than revaluing every 3-4 yrs. George Cowen recommended they find out more about the annual assessment activities she now performs. Cowen “reluctantly” made the motion to approve. Passed unanimously. Interesting factoid: The Assessor is considered a Town Employee for whom we pay retirement, and other benefits in addition to sharing costs for equipment, software and clerical costs.
5. Website “Guestbook” Replaced (..almost!) Aaron Boise gave a presentation for the new “Forum” format to replace the “Guestbook” which was “Banned in Brookfield” due to some regrettable personal remarks. DeWitt Head and several other Board members, and Doreen Corbin, voiced their vehement objections to the new Forum unless real names are used. It was agreed that the change would be made and Aaron will look into once again revising the format to enable free discussion. Aaron deserves a lot of credit for a lot of aggravation and time for very little money or recognition.
No public comment ALLOWED at this meeting! They were pretty darn definite about that one!..But did manage to ask about the hourly rate for the Assessor’s clerical assistant (was not in the bill); and the Board did not believe they had a formal written contract with the Assessor, but could not say where the salary figure came from but would try to find out.
