Board of Selectmen: Budget and Spill Reimbursement

By Ruth Melville

First Selectman Matt Riiska started the April 5 meeting of the Board of Selectmen with a summary of his discussion on the 2023/24 budget with the Board of Finance the previous evening.

The Board of Finance requested that salary increases for town employees in next year’s budget be set at 3 percent, although Riiska said he had been hoping for a 4 percent increase. 

The mill rate for next year will go down slightly, from 27.84 to 27.79.

Included in next year’s budget is funding for the reconstruction of Maple Avenue, for fixing the Botelle School roof and for the two bridge projects. One, the Mountain Road bridge, is finished, and the town is currently paying down $56,000 a year on it. But the repair on the River Place bridge will not be completed until next fall. The current delay is caused by unforeseen work that needs to be done to strengthen the footing underneath the headwall on the Route 44 side of the bridge. Water is getting in and undermining the footing, which therefore needs to be made larger and stronger. The design work is being done now, and crews should be back at work in May, but there is still a lot of work to be done. 

Norfolk’s payment to Regional 7 is going up by $90,000. Norfolk has more students going there next year, and the price per student is higher because overall the school has fewer students. The budget is up $21,257 for Botelle, whose enrollment is down to 63 students. 

In response to a question from Selectman Paul Madore, Riiska said that spending for the Public Works Department went over budget this year in part because the cost of road materials was higher. Heating for the town garage also went over budget, but the town is locked into a lower rate for oil and propane for next year.

The annual town budget hearing will be held on Monday, May 8, at 7 p.m. in the Hall of Flags at Botelle. Copies of the proposed town budget and budgets for both schools are available on the town website, under Board of Finance.

Turning to his Selectman’s Report, Riiska said the town has received its first round of reimbursements from Federated Insurance, the agent for the trucking company whose gasoline tanker truck overturned in town last fall. The reimbursement request, which was submitted in early January, was for $172,933.52, and the amount just received from Federated was $168,772.18—almost everything the town asked for. The request was divided into categories: for the Public Works Department, the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department (mostly to clean, repair and replace equipment), the town’s emergency management and the Sewer District. A request for $15,344 was made to reimburse the town for providing alternate living accommodations for people displaced by the spill.

Riiska said the next round of reimbursement requests will be submitted soon and will include fees for the town’s law firm of Shipman & Goodwin. So far the town has spent about $31,000 on legal fees.