WHITMAN — Selectmen approved line item transfers Tuesday, June 22 to close the books on the fiscal 2021 budget.
Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman said the fiscal 2021 budget, which closes on June 30, is balanced overall as revenues exceed expenditures as approved at the 2020 Town Meeting. The transfers for the individual line items before the board have, or are projected to have, deficiencies at the end of the fiscal year.
“Moving monies between line items in the last two months of the fiscal year or the first 15 days of the new fiscal year upcoming are allowed with the approval of the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee,” Heineman said.
The transfers were:
• $1,500 from tax title line to the clerical/collector line to accommodate personnel and outsourcing changes in that office including overtime to handle a backlog of work to finish the fiscal year;
• $5,000 from to the legal line from claims deductible/expenses to handle possible overage in legal services;
• $7,000 to ambulance repairs/maintenance from the Norfolk County Agricultural High School tuition line to pay for unforeseen ambulance repairs;
• $7,000 to ambulance billing from the Norfolk County Agricultural High School tuition line to pay the billing company;
• Three transfers to auto expense and inspectional services — $500 from building inspector/zoning enforcement, $1,000 from assistant building inspector salary and $1,200 from expense/wire inspector — to pay for maintenance and routine repairs to the building inspector’s vehicle;
• $74 to recording secretary/DPW from union/labor salaries, DPW to pay for secretarial services for one more DPW meeting that was not budgeted;
• $8,000 to the health inspector line from the Visiting Nurses line to fund overlap between the former health inspector to the new one and CARES Act funds are available to cover a lot of Visiting Nurse costs during this fiscal year;
• $4,800 to recreation activities/expense from recreation director salary line to help get the recreation program back on track post-pandemic, especially the July 4 celebration, for which funds were not appropriated, and the park program;
• $2,000 to park programs salaries from the recreation director salary line to supplement programs;
• $5,000 to unemployment compensation from assistant library director line to cover any unanticipated expenses;
• $10,000 to union salaries in the water/sewer labor line from budgeted reserve for water and sewer to cover labor overtime costs involved in repairing last week’s water main break;
• $3,354.93 to water and sewer/gasoline from water and sewer/gas heat to pay for a final delivery of diesel fuel for the fiscal year; and
• $5,542.10 from fiscal 2019 encumbrances for water and sewer to the fiscal 2020 line to pay sewer bill to Brockton.
“There are more than sufficient funds in the Norfolk County Agricultural High School line because the original estimate a year ago of how many students would be attending this school year was lower than what it ended up being,” he said of the ambulance-related transfers.
Selectman Justin Evans asked if some of the expenses were eligible for CARES Act funding, especially ambulance costs. But Heineman said billing issues were not applicable because an increase in ambulance runs were related to emerging from the effects of COVID and the repairs were to the non-COVID ambulance.
Heineman reminded residents interested in serving on the School Committee that letters of interest and résumés are due by Tuesday, June 29 to his email lheineman@whitman-ma.gov.
Selectmen voted to appoint School Committee member Fred Small to the Capital Committee through June 30, 2024, as well as appointing the following persons to fill existing vacancies, some of which had been inadvertently omitted from a previous agenda:
• Chris DiOrio to the By-law Study Committee (member), through June 30, 2022;
• Jake Dodge to the Conservation Commission (member), through June 30, 2022
• Brandon Griffin to the Board of Appeals (associate member), through June 30, 2022;
•Bryan Skuderin to the Conservation Commission (alternate), through June 30, 2024
• William Haran to the Cultural Council (member), through June 30, 2023
• Julia Nanigian to the Cultural Council (member), through June 30, 2024
• Tina Vassil to the Cultural Council (member), through June 30, 2024.
Selectmen accepted the resignations of Wayne Carroll Jr., (effective June 8) and James Cranshaw (effective June 10) from their positions as auxiliary/special police officers as well as the resignation of Norma Gardner (effective June 7) from the position of member of the Historical Commission.
The board voted to appoint Daniel Kelly to the position of special police officer through June 30, 2022 and to appoint Adam Kosterman to the position of auxiliary/special police officer through June 30, 2022.
Selectmen also voted to permit Richard Rosen to conduct the 11th annual McGuiggan’s Pub 5K Road Race on Sunday, Sept. 26, to close off Legion Parkway from noon to 5 p.m., and for a one-day liquor license to serve from a tent at 16 Legion Parkway.