Village of Mantua
Finance Committee Meeting
November 14th, 2009CALL TO ORDER: 8:00 A.M.
ROLL CALL: Jim Rogers, Ben Prescott, Roger Hawkins
OTHERS: Jenny August, Donna Hawkins, Giles Seith, and Councilwoman elect Linda Clark.
MINUTES:
- Linda Clark asked about the Sam’s Club bill that was discussed in the minutes. Jenny said it has been changed to one membership, with two cards for a cost of $35.00. Our bill is being credited.
- Donna wondered about the reduction in the Love Insurance bill. Jenny said part of the reduction is from taking off some equipment we no longer have, and some is possibly due to not having any claims.
- Donna said she would tell Ed to get estimates on fixing the Jet truck. Linda Clark thought there was a member of the community that volunteered at a Council meeting that offered to take a look at the truck.
Motion to approve the Minutes from the October meeting by Jim Rogers, seconded by Ben Prescott. All ayes on vote.
FINANCIAL REPORTS:
Jenny gave the Financial reports. The Fund status at the end of October was $375,050.95. Revenues were $129,413.58. Expenses totaled $101,136. We were about $28,000 to the good this month. Water and Sewer reconciled exactly, and the bank reconciliation went through with no adjusting factors. There is a new report included in the Financial reports. It is a reconciliation between the UAN program and the Income Tax program, which the Auditors wanted Jenny to start doing. Jenny said this is a good month for water-sewer payments. Our big customers have been billed and are paying now. We will know after paying the monthly bills how short we will be on the semi annual payment. Jenny thinks the funds will be short, and felt the General Fund will have to pay a portion of the OWDA bill again. Jenny wanted to stress that we are still paying more to operate the sewer plant than we are taking in, and we need to find a way to cut expenses. It must be addressed. Donna said “Or we need to generate revenue”. Jenny said she asked Ed for a dollar amount of revenues from the Aurora Meadows project. Donna said we will get about $20,000 per year, based on flow. Ben felt that we could try to negotiate with Harold Huff. Donna said he will not, but she could try talking to the Commissioners. Jenny said the Water fund should be okay, but sewer funds must be addressed.
LEGISLATION:
Ben reviewed the legislation that will be presented at the Council meeting Tuesday.
- 2009-48 - Well drilling at Crestwood.
- 2009-52 - 2010 appropriations
- 2009-57 - Cemetery Rules
- 2009-58 - Amending Personnel handbook so pay raises get approved by Council
- 2009-59 - Amending the Personnel handbook to change the evaluations to annually instead of quarterly.
- 2009-60 - Amending the Codified Ordinances to change the evaluations to annually instead of quarterly.
- 2009-61 - Increasing appropriations in General Fund and Streets.
- 2009-62 - Mayor to investigate a grant for the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy(CEDS). Jim explained that we are number one in Portage County for the last four years. This is to see if there is grant money available for Mats Rd. bridge. Jim said the grant is for $700,000 with a $200,000 match, which Stamm’s will match in the form of concrete. This will cost the Village nothing out of pocket. Ben said we need to suspend the rules and pass it right away. Jenny asked if Stamm’s will sign a contract. Jim said we have a signed letter of commitment on file. Linda asked what if something were to go wrong and suppose Stamm’s couldn’t come up with it. Jim said we simply wouldn’t do the project. Jim felt our chances are very slim of getting it, but it can’t hurt to try.
- 2009-63 - Authorizing the Mayor to investigate and request earmarked money that the Village could use as matching share of grants. Donna spoke with Congessman LaTourette and he is willing to earmark up to $2 million dollars for the Village of Mantua, and we should at least try. Donna spoke with John Grossman and Rod Garrison of E.G. & G., and Rich Iafelice, our own Village Engineer. Donna said you can use earmarked money as a match to leverage other grants. There would be no cost to the Village whatsoever. The focus would be on replacing the infrastructure of water lines down Main Street, using the drawings done for Downtown Mantua Revitalization Committee. We could have earmarked money in a year and a half, and have up to six years to spend it. Jim said because of all of the existing paperwork on the infrastructure improvements that DMRC had done that we can show that we are really working on a plan. Ben felt that it is not clearly stating what we are trying to do. Linda Clark felt that there could be stipulations. Jim invited Linda to come to the table and review the DMRC plans. Donna said it will cost about 7 million dollars. Linda agreed that it seemed vague to those that are not doing it, such as the people we represent.
- 2009-64 - Authorizing the Clerk to pay certain invoices upon receipt for employee medical bills, and gas and electric bills only. Roger would like them to be marked “Paid” on the bills of Resolution.
BILLS OF RESOLUTION:
- Donna questioned the charge to Community Journal. Jenny said Harry shopped around and found a better deal on having his forms printed.
- Jenny said we are outsourcing too much. Why do we have to pay Bica to fix a door lock.
- Donna asked how much we have actually had to pay the auditors. Jenny thought it was around $16,000.
- Linda Clark asked about line 90, boots from Walmart. She wondered if we supply uniforms or do we give the employees a uniform allowance. Jenny said the part time employees get $200 per year, and the full time employees get $400. Jenny said we could save money by changing colors of the Police shirts, but Harry said it would cost too much to change the whole department over.
- Roger Hawkins asked if it would be cheaper to hire our own diesel mechanic instead of paying Fall & Stebbins. Linda said we used to have a mechanic in the service department that did all oil changes etc.
- Donna wondered what we need to do to take Louie off the payroll. Jenny said we need a form filled out by Ed that states that he was terminated.
Motion to recommend the Bills of Resolution to Council by Roger, seconded by Ben. Both ayes on vote.
Other Discussion:
Mayor: Donna wants authorization to have Ed get rid of the junk in the storage shed. Donna also wondered how will we be paying for Stamm’s to have the cement flower holder sandblasted. Jenny said she will submit it to Kevin Poland. Donna feels the cemetery board should volunteer or get volunteers to do those planters. She feels that $700 to sandblast those planters is a misuse of funds. Donna said Kevin Poland must produce the missing stock certificates before we change trustees. Ben said we should make Michele the trustee of the Cemetery fund. Roger said can we make it the Village Solicitor as the Trustee, not Michele specifically. Then it stays in the Village no matter who it is. Roger wondered if Ed got the new mower from the trust fund. Jenny thought that he had.
Roger Hawkins discussed getting one trash service in town. Jim said we need to collect a franchise fee from them when we negotiate. Linda Clark said Roger may want to contact Linda Schilling because she has been working on this. Linda Clark said we should negotiate getting our Village dumpsters picked up for free. Jenny said we should get an annual curbside pick-up included, or allow residents to put out anything anytime, such as chairs. Ben said we need to start at the Committee level, put a letter together and send it to each company, and let them make an offer to us. Jenny said we should try to do a curbside pick up this year, and every couple of years because not everyone can take stuff down to the pick up site, and Portage County Recycling won’t take everything.
Citizens: Linda Clark said we need to negotiate with Time Warner Cable for free high speed internet for Village offices.
Motion to adjourn at 9:26 A.M. by Jim, seconded by Ben. All ayes on vote.
___________________________
Ben Prescott, Chair of Finance___________________________
Jenny August, Clerk-Treasurer