Council Votes to Let DPW Run Certain Costs in the Red

At its regular monthly meeting on Monday, the Montville Town Council decided to let the Department of Public Works run certain costs in the red until April.

The department had requested a total of $205,000. Much of that request, but not all, was related to the series of storms Montville has experienced this winter.

The requests were:

            $25,000 for overtime for snowplowing

            $15,000 for repairs to trucks

            $150,000 for sand and salt

            $10,000 for streetlight repairs

            $5,000 for tree work.

Council Chairman Donna Jacobson expressed concern over the numbers, and whether the items should be sent out to bid.

Public Works Department Director Donald W. Bourdeau Jr. explained that many of the items for which he was requesting funding were not the kind of items that could truly be put out to bid, unless the bid were focused on an hourly rate of pay.

There’s simply no telling how many trees will need to be cut, or how many streetlights repaired, he said.

“If you have to send each expense over 10,000 out to bid,” he said, “I’ll be spending all my time going out to bid.”

Jacobson said that, according to the charter, that was what was supposed to happen.

“Yes,” Bourdeau said, “if they’re all different projects.”

These are the same projects, he said, but all over town. He can’t know, when the season starts, how many potholes will turn up, how many trees will snap, how many streetlamps will need repair.

The only way to bid these jobs out would be to do it by hourly rate.

The discussion then turned to what these financial requests represented.

In most cases, he said, his request is what he believes the town will need to make it through the rest of the winter.

The council and Bourdeau discussed the difficulties of this particular winter, and the town's response to it. Councilor Gary Murphy said that, as far as he remembers, “This is the first time we’ve had three major snowstorms and not lost power.”

He said he believes that is because of the tree-trimming the town has done, and has had done.

Bourdeau said residents have been very good about calling in about tree near power lines, or trees that look like they are going to fall. The town has paid to have 12 trees cut down, Bourdeau said, and has cut and trimmed many others.

The streetlamp request comes from a survey the police did around Halloween, Bourdeau said.

“We have 1,700 streetlamps,” he said. “We repair them as soon as we can.”

The vehicle repairs are mostly storm-related, Bourdeau said.  

“The storms,” he said, “the vehicles take a beating. I’ve had over $4,000 in broken springs. The guys did the best they could…” but the amount of plowing and clearing has taken its toll.

In the end, the council voted to rescind the requested resolution for additional money for the department, and let it run certain line-item expenses in the red. The department has the money, but in other areas. At the end of the winter, when the numbers are known, Bourdeau can request the exact funding his department needs.

This idea sat well with Theresa Hart, the town’s finance director.

“I prefer to run these (line items),” she said, “run them in the red, and then we have a clean number in April. 

“We were criticized for that,” she said, “but as long as it’s cleaned up by the end of the year, there are no auditing issues. It’s a more accurate way of doing it.”