Brattleboro Selectboard Special Meeting Notes: Paying the Piper

The special meeting of the Brattleboro Selectboard examined the cost of borrowing for proposed Police and Fire facility options, life cycle cost comparisons, how and when to apply the excess fund balance, and preliminary Police and Fire facilities survey results.

It’s increasingly looking like two full fire stations and a Black Mountain police station will be presented to voters, but no decision has been officially made as of yet, and more meetings are scheduled before those decisions are cast in stone.

Preliminaries

David Gartenstein’s only preliminary comment was that skating on the Retreat Meadow has been good and he encouraged people to give it a try if they get a chance.

Town Manager Peter Elwell told the board that they would be required to go into executive session at the end of the meeting to discuss contracts, collective bargaining, and possible pending litigation.

DBA

Town Manager Peter Elwell completed his review of the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance’s proposed FY17 budget. This was done at the request of the Selectboard upon being informed of surplus funds in the downtown organization’s coffers.

Elwell found that DBA had an operating surplus of $10,522.28 in FY15 that came primarily from understaffing for the year. He also found that DBA also had an operating surplus of $8,992.35 in FY14, from a combination of sources. These two total $19,514.63.

DBA, however, show retained earnings of $30,389.02, which Elwell said he had no reason to doubt, but had trouble confirming where the money came from. He said it came from “no clear source, but nothing seemed amiss. The year [the River Garden] was sold was very complicated. Everything seems to be in order.”

The only way to be certain, he suggested in his memo, was to commission an audit. No one felt the need, and the budget and workplan were approved. They will be properly worded and approved for the Representative Town Meeting warning at the next meeting.

Police-Fire Debt Service

The Brattleboro Selectboard were set to discuss one set of numbers presenting levels of debt and associated costs of a variety of Police and Fire facility possibilites, but a newly revised version of those figures was presented at the last moment. 

David Gartenstein explained the changes between the two versions, and how the newer version shows total costs of principal and interest for each proposal plus the total annual tax rate for each over the life of the project. (The life of the project was defined as 20 years for the more permanent options, and 10 years for the minimally prudent alternatives.)

Assuming the town asks for and receives approval to do both fire station projects and the police option at Black Mountain Road, the highest year for bond repayments would be in FY18.

Town Manager Elwell suggested they look into borrowing from a bank, rather than by bond, to see if the payments could be smoothed over a longer period of time to limit the impact in any one year.

Donna Macomber asked if there were other, unexplored options for tax relief in a specific year (ie, FY18). Elwell said “you have to pay the piper,” and repeated his suggestion about borrowing from a bank. He said the length of time for repayment could be increased, but more interest would be paid.

Gartenstein and Elwell noted over $750,000 of anticipated savings from other bonds being retired in coming years, the savings from which could impact property tax rates.

Macomber noted the possibility of “dipping into the rainy day fund” for a one-time, FY18 payment.

Later in the meeting Lester Humphreys had another suggestion as well. His idea was to borrow more than necessary, then use some of that in FY18 to offset taxes.

Question of Project Life Cycle Costs

Does it cost more to add a new building to the municipal system of structures? Not the Black Mountain Road facility, says the Town Manager.

After calculations, consultations, and assumptions, it was determined to that “the bottom line conclusion is that after full examination of the full costs over 20 years, we confidently predict life cycle cost of the Black Mountain Road alternative would equal or be less than option A at the Municipal Center.”

He went on to explain that if the vacated space in the Municipal Center was leased out, it could result in some net income for the town.

John Allen said that staying and leasing the Municipal Center weren’t the only options.

Preliminary Survey Results

Town Manager reported that 421 people responded to the recent Police and Fire Facility survey, of which results will continued to be tallied. 

Overall, 77% said yes to the idea of a full renovation of Central Fire Station. 76% of respondents liked the idea of a full renovation of the West Brattleboro fire station.

60% endorsed the idea of moving the police to Black Mountain Road.

John Allen asked if the survey was limited to people living in Brattleboro. (It was not limited.)

David Gartenstein then took up the issue of how to proceed. He said there were two viable options for presenting this on a ballot. One is to warn all three projects as one, and the other would to be to warn each project on its own.

The board hopes to decide on a single option to present before February 2nd.

Complicating matters to a very small degree will be consideration of the previously borrowed funds, and how to word the new articles to take the prior bond into account. The Town Attorney indicated he was on the case, so to speak, and was doing the research he felt necessary to know what to do when the time comes to do it.

Both Gartenstein and Macomber mentioned a tour of the police facilities that they were given yesterday. Macomber called it “an emotional experience,” and said that we “have people risking lives, working in a dungeon.”

Gartenstein said any minimal alternative would likely cost more than the lowest estimates so far. He said he was giving up advocating for the lowest cost option for the police station.

Using The Fund Balance

More debate on whether to use all the $268,450 of excess fund balance in the coming year, the year after, or to split it over the two years.

While no firm decision was made, the board seemed inclined to split it half and half over the two years. Only John Allen advocated for all of it being spent this year, on his theory that there would inevitably be more next year to do the same.

Executive Session

While the board wrapped up, Elwell reminded them they had to have an executive session, to which they invited the Assistant Town Manager and Director of Public Works.