BOARD OF FINANCE
SPECIAL MEETING
MARCH 20, 2012
Page 1 of 2

Attendance: Chairman Janet Brunwin, Sally Huyser, Chip Spear, Aileen Magda, Robert Brinton Jr., First Selectwoman Gorski

Visitors: Pua Ford, William Brinton, Battina Theil, Janice Howard, Nicholas Poulmas

Chairman Brunwin called the meeting of the Board of Finance to order at 7:05 p.m. The meeting was held in the Conference Room of the Bethany Town Hall.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Chairman Brunwin called for a motion of approval for the meeting of March 13, 2012. The motion of approval was moved by Chip Spear and seconded by Sally Huyser. Sally moved to correct the header as it was not a special meeting. She also moved to correct the vote on approval of minutes to five yes votes and one abstention that of John Grabowski. The corrected minutes were then accepted on a unanimous vote.

REGISTRAR OF VOTERS
William Brinton and Pua Ford were both present to discuss with the Board of Finance members their budget. They explained the reason for the large increase in their budget due to two primaries in August, November presidential election and May the municipal election. They explained some of the proposed election laws before the present legislative session.

TOWN CEMETERIES
William Brinton gave a brief update to the Board regarding the formation of a Cemetery Committee and what they plan to accomplish. Some of the goals of this committee are to repair broken cemetery monuments and have a survey done of both Carrington Cemetery and Methodist Cemetery. The Carrington Cemetery has an endowment fund. By an act of the Town Meeting they would like to have this fund made available for the care of all town cemeteries. They are suggesting a budget for all cemeteries of $8,000 for mowing in the budget for 2012-13.

PARK AND RECREATION
The budget for Park and Recreation was explained by Janice Howard. Janice indicated that participation in Park & Recreation programs overall is down. Part of the problem is that enrollment at the Community School is lower than in years past. The school is also offering after school programs. At this time it is hard to project how many children will attend summer camp this summer. There budget has increase by $21,000 in expenditures over last year’s budget partly due to the request for increased hours for the assistant. The projected revenues for next year show a decrease. The department has made no Capital Expenditure requests for next fiscal year.

VFW MEMORIAL WALL
The VFW has requested $10,000 from the Town this year to complete the landscape at the Veterans Memorial Wall at Veterans Memorial Park.

BUDGET 2012-13
The budget for Solid Waste has a very minimal increase due to increased cost for per ton waste disposal.
Chairman Brunwin reviewed with the Board the budgets for other departments. Most othes had little or no change over last year.

Chairman Brunwin will modify the budget spread sheet and modify where needed. She will then forward it to members befoe the meeting of March 27, 2012. The Chairman asked members what areas of the budget they would like to discuss before finalization. Robert Brinton Jr. suggested taking a second look at the budgets where new salaries had been requested such as the Park & Recreation, Tax Collector, Public Works and the Elementary School.

ADJOURNMENT
Adjournment was called at 9:35 p.m. after a motion was moved by Aileen Magda and seconded by Sally Huyser. The vote taken was unanimous.

Respectfully submitted,

June G. Riley
Clerk, Board of Finance