from the town administrator report of February 16, 2017

The T/A met with a representative from MIIA,town insurance rates will be rising up to 13.3%. The Town Administrator (T/A) states he does not think the rates will go below 12% increase.

Also, highway department has spent $192K on snow & Ice with about $20K on ordered material, so the T/A has authorized an additional $50K in deficit spending for a total of $250K in snow & ice spending, with $125,000.00 of that in "charge card" spending. That is $125 thousand spent more than what was appropriated at town meeting.

The town is supposedly looking at cel phone usage and looking into paying employees a stipend to use their personal phones rather than using town supplied phones. Perhaps the question should be, do we absolutely have to have cell phones? Can the town run without cell phones? More importantly, have town finances gotten to the point where phone expense is a major concern? Enough of a concern that the selectmen are going to conduct a study or research project to analyze cell phone usage. Perhaps if 16% pay increases (raises) were not given to some employees, this would not be an issue.

posted by Jeff Bennett