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Date: 10/26/2022
BELCHERTOWN – The Select Board talked about reshuffling positions, an update on the feasibility study for Jabish Brook Middle School and became aware of news relating to the town’s free cash during their Oct. 17 meeting.
The Select Board talked about a letter they received from Town Accountant Jill Rossi after Vice Chair Jim Barry wanted to voice his concerns over the town’s free cash.
Rossi explained that the School Committee spent $700,000 on federal grants but did not fill out the paperwork for reimbursement and detailed the impact it could have on the entire town budget.
Barry said that a possible solution would be to use free cash, but it would “basically bring our free cash total to zero.”
Town Administrator Gary Brougham said the school business managers failed to file for reimbursement before the deadline and stated that this also occurred four years ago. He said there has been plenty of dialogue between the town accountant, Superintendent Brian Cameron, the Department of Local Services (DLS), and the school’s business office.
He added that the plan right now is the submit the year end report with the deficient, apply for reimbursement and hopefully get the free cash back in March.
Barry asked if the town will receive that money from the federal government if all goes well but it could go either way.
Barry added, “This is very concerning to me as we now will have this question mark over our head until March because they failed to submit the paperwork in time.”
Select Board member Peg Louraine was shocked to hear the news after the board just agreed at their joint meeting Oct. 11 to give the School Committee over $600,000 to pay their teachers and now have an invoice for over $750,000 because of a missed deadline.
Select Board member Ron Aponte shifted gears with talking about reorganization of the board.
Aponte said, “Going off past precedent since I have been on the board, which has been the last 25 to 30 years, the board has always rotated its chair and officers. What we are trying to do here is get a unique and different perspective each year.”
He added that it was not done this past May and wanted to board to discuss the idea of it. They all agreed to discuss the idea of it.
Aponte explained that based on past precedent, the vice chair has stepped up as the new chair. Barry was voted as the new chair of the Select Board; Ron Aponte was voted as the new vice chair and Peg Louraine was voted as the new clerk. Those new positions will go into effect next meeting.
New liaison duties will be assigned next meeting also.
Barry offered an update on the feasibility study that was conducted for Jabish Brook Middle School. Skanska USA has been chosen to be the owner’s project manager (OPM). The board approved Town Administrator Gary Brougham to be the user of the report system that the firm is going to use to submit documents.
Brougham added that the town of Belchertown and Skanska already had a contract agreement ready and are just waiting on a couple more items of paperwork to be done by Oct. 21 deadline.
Chair Jen Turner opened the conversation to discuss the 2023 office licensing fees to potentially make any adjustments before they notify people.
Barry said, “A year ago we went through this very carefully and we adjusted a few. I do not think any changed enough to fix any of these amounts.”
Brougham said there have been no complaints or concerns from town departments that any of the fees need to be adjusted.
The board voted to keep the licensing fees the same price.
The Select Board then discussed hosting another meeting to discuss American Rescue Plan Act funds with other committees who have submitted requests for projects.
Aponte and Barry both stated that they would like to host that meeting sooner rather than later and let department heads know about the meeting so that they can attend and explain their requests.