FARMINGTON — Selectmen on Tuesday, Jan. 9, approved transferring Recreation Department funds to two other accounts and accepted a $100 donation to be used by the department for supplies.
Transferred was $1,800 to the Hippach Field Reserve Account and $2,000 to Vehicles and Equipment.
Land improvement funds not able to be used in 2023 were asked to be moved to the reserve account by Matthew Foster, director. He held on to some money designated for capital improvements after the May flooding. Four pumps didn’t work immediately afterwards while other equipment such as weed whackers and leaf blowers were going through the FEMA process, he stated.
“I was trying to be pretty conservative financially this year, holding off on a lot of things because I was scared something was going to fail at the wrong time and we were either going to blow our budget by having to spend it or be without it,” Foster noted.
Selectman Byron Staples had no issue with transferring the funds, wanted to make sure it could legally be done.
Town Manager Erica LaCroix said both operating and capital accounts are used to buy a good or service, with capital expenditures being for bigger items. Money moved to capital at the end of the year doesn’t go away, while savings at the end of the year goes into the fund balance, she noted.
“A lot of times there is a little bit of money left,” Foster said. “It is not enough to do the project that I need to do so that’s why we move it into the reserve account and kind of stack it up instead of me coming next year and asking for even more money to try to accomplish something.”
Foster thought it was a good practice for managers, a way to encourage department heads to be more frugal. He said he is super tight with his department’s money.
Staples suggested budgeting for what is needed in a given year and put the difference into a reserve account during the budget process. Try to get the operational budget as close as possible, not try to save for the reserve account, he noted.
“Ideally that is how it would work, it is not always possible,” Foster stated. Proposed projects often get turned down, he noted.
LaCroix said budgets shouldn’t be going up and down repeatedly as the tax rate follows it. “That is why we pre-fund a lot of capital,” she stated. If a $500,000 expenditure is known, $50,000 can be put away every year over 10 years so the budget doesn’t spike when the bill comes due, she said.
“It is usually not very palatable to the taxpayer to have one year with a really low mil rate, the next year the tax bill is way up,” she said. “I think people deal more with consistency as long as you are not budgeting high just to keep it that way. You should be budgeting for what you need.”
LaCroix is not comfortable with the way capital accounts have been done, is trying to get the town back to a more government style of accounting that is a bit more predictable.
The $100 donation accepted came from Debra Miller to be used for senior art program supplies.
She really likes the things the Recreation Department is doing, the donation would help get more supplies, Foster noted.
“I want to thank her for that,” Chair Matthew Smith added.
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