CLERMONT TOWN BOARD
JANUARY 6, 2014
The Clermont Town Board held their regular meeting following the Organizational meeting on Monday, January 6, 2014 at 7:00 P.M. Those in attendance were Supervisor Raymond Staats, Councilman Edward Kahle, Councilman Robert Desmond, Councilman Evan Hempel and Councilman Kris Gildersleeve. There were three residents present.
The Supervisor opened the regular meeting at 7:30 P.M. with a salute to the flag.
MINUTES: The minutes of the December 30, 2013 year-end meeting were reviewed and accepted on a motion made by Councilman Desmond, seconded by Councilman Hempel. All in favor. So carried.
TOWN CLERK’S REPORT: The Town Clerk presented a check for the General fund in the amount of $651.66 and for Trust & Agency for $375.00. A motion was made by Councilman Desmond, seconded by Councilman Hempel to accept the Town Clerks report. All in favor. So carried.
CORRESPONDENCE:
The Supervisor gave the Board the December 31, 2013 Budget and Revenue reports.
There was no other correspondence to report.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
IROQUOIS COMMUNITY GRANT: Councilman Kahle reported that we received a $10,000 grant from the Iroquois Community Grant. Councilman Kahle and Supervisor Staats thanked Mary Howard for her work in getting this grant. We have also received $500.00 from Taconic Farms for the Town Park. The Bank of Greene County next grant is due on January 15th and the Supervisor will review it before it is sent in. Councilman Desmond congratulated Mary Howard because she got the grant done in such a timely manner and with this grant there will be enough to put in the swings and a fall surface. This will be a competitive bidding process and he will work on the draft and have our engineers finalize it.
- Supervisor Staats congratulated and welcomed Kris Gildersleeve, our new Town Board member.
OLD BUSINESS:
- INSURANCE: We had our insurance renewal presentation for 2014 on December 30th by Greg Fingar of Fingar Insurance. The rate increased from $l3607 to $14,029.00. We asked Mr. Fingar to check our deductible, which we thought, was at $500.00 and increase to $1000.00. We found that we did increase the deductible last year to a $1000.00, which is reflected in the $14,029.00. We did get the rates for an increase to a $2500.00 deductible would save about $326.00, a $5000.00 deductible would save about $746.00. We have had no claims for the last six years, so to maximize the savings we could go to the $5000.00 deductible, which is believed to be per claim. Supervisor Staats thinks that we could increase to the $2500.00 or $5000.00. All town board members were in agreement that we should go to the $5000.00 deductible based on our record of no claims. A motion was made by Councilman Desmond to increase the deductible to $5,000.00, seconded by Councilman Kahle. All in favor. So carried.
- PARK GRANTS: Through the efforts of Mary Howard we have received $10,000 from Iroquois Community Grant and last year we received $1000.00 each from The Bank of Greene Co. and Fingar Insurance and $5000.00 from the Hover Fund. We have other grants coming in and thanked all those for their support
- POLICY REVIEW: The Town Board will meet on Saturday, January 18th at 10:00 A. M. to review town polices and review the books of the Supervisor, Town Clerk, Tax Collector and Justices.
- FINANCIAL UPDATE: We do not have the final sales tax figure from the County but looking at what we have received we should be in very good shape. We budgeted $86000 from fund balance for this year but with the revenues received including $29,000 from DEC through the efforts of the Town Clerk, the Supervisor does not believe we will have to use anything from the fund balance and may increase the fund balance depending on the sales tax. If it continues at this rate we can keep the tax rate where it is. He believes that with control of spending we will be in very good shape financially.
SUPERVISORS REPORT:
- There were no County committee meetings in December. The County budget was increased by 2% and the Supervisor feels that more could have been done to reduce the budget. There has been no incentive to reduce positions through attrition in the County which would reduce hospitalization and retirement costs. The Supervisor did not vote in favor of the budget. There are seven new Supervisors in the County this year.
- The Supervisor and Board thanked the Village Green Committee for the Holiday Party and thanked the Highway Employees for everything they do.
- At the Organizational meeting the Supervisor thanked Dianne O’Neal who resigned as Historian and Jane Churchill who resigned as alternate to the Office for the Aging for their service to the Town. At the organizational meeting, Dawn Brownson was appointed to replace Mrs. O’Neal as Town Historian and no appointment was made for an alternate to the OFA.
ABSTRACTS:
A motion was made by Councilman Desmond to pay Highway abstract #1, voucher #1, in the amount of $2,370.83, seconded by Councilman Hempel. All in favor. So carried.
A motion was made to pay General Abstract #1, vouchers #1 – 15, in the amount of $4,737. 17 by Councilman Hempel, seconded by Councilman Kahle. All in favor. So carried.
PUBLIC COMMENTS:
None
A motion was made to adjourn by Robert Desmond, seconded by Kris Gildersleeve. All in favor. So carried.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Helen Shannon, RMC
Town Clerk