Finance Committee, October 11, 2017
Minutes Holden Finance Committee, October 11, 2017, HMLD
Members present: Dave White, Paul Challenger, Al Berg, Joseph Dolak, Karl Makela, and Chris Lucchessi. Also Present: Selectmen: Anthony Renzoni and Geri Herlihy. Moderator: George Balko.
The meeting was called to order at 7:02pm.
After calling the meeting to order, Moderator Balko first postponed nomination for Secretary due to the absence of Marilynn Foley. Joe Dolak "volunteered" to be acting Secretary for this meeting. David White was nominated and was unanimously voted for Finance Committee Chairman. Paul Challenger was nominated, and unanimously voted for Vice-Chairman.
Moderator Balko announced a tentative town meeting scheduled for November 17th. The purpose of which will be getting approval to spend money to abate and demolish the building at 18 Industrial Drive. The Town Manager, Peter Lukes, will ask the Infrastructure Investment Fund (IIF) board to fund this project. Chairman White announced that there will be a joint Finance Committee and Board of Selectman meeting on November 8th, to have the DPW Building committee present their current plan. Before dismissing himself from the meeting, the Moderator directed the committee to discuss whether the current four IIF members should continue, or if new members should be appointed.
After some discussion about the current direction of the DPW facility, the meeting turned to this year's budget goal. Vice-Chair Challenger poised the question of whether the FinCom wants to be more public. Some ideas discussed are to have a regularly updated Facebook page, televised meetings, and having a year-end / pre-town meeting televised report to the public about the budget that will be presented at town meeting.
Chairman White announced a "Round Table" meeting on November 2nd that will involve the Wachusett Regional School district, representatives from the five member towns (FinCom and Boards of Selectman) and State Representatives.
Vice-Chair Challenger brought up the IIF Committee membership. It was decided to keep the same members (Paul Challenger, Al Berg, Karl Makela and John Lambert), because the future of the committee is expected to be short lived.
The next Finance Committee meeting will be the joint meeting with the Board of Selectman on November 8th.
The meeting adjourned at 8:52pm.