Granby Selectmen Transmit $13.62 Million Budget to Finance Board

In what was little more than a formality, the Granby Board of Selectmen on Monday unanimously forwarded to the Board of Finance the revenue, expenditure and other funds budgets for the 2012-13 fiscal year.

The expenditure budget - comprised of the administration, personal and property protection, public works & environment, libraries, recreation and social services, capital budget, CNEF Levy, Economic Development Funds and Debt Service - is $13.62 million.

The other funds budget is broken down as follows: dogs fund ($14,700), recreation events ($333,500), sewer utility fund ($147,826), capital equipment/improvement ($1.44 million), education quality and diversity ($690,930) and 2013-22 capital improvement program.

The selectmen’s revenue budget - which consists of the property tax, intergovernmental and local departmental and fund revenues - is $9.28 million.

The $13.62 million expenditure budget calls for a .9 percent, or $125,000, spending increase over current year; it includes a $9.17 million municipal operations budget, which represents a 2 percent increase over current year’s spending.

The proposed 2012-13 budget is broken into three categories: Town Operations - $9.17 million, representing a 2 percent, or $180,190, increase; Debt Service - $3.3 million, representing a 3.9 percent, or $135,000 decrease; and Capital Budget - $1.1 million, representing a 3.7 percent, or $40,000, increase. There was an insert of $40,000 for a CNEF Levy that was included since the budget workshops were held two weeks ago.

Town Manager William Smith noted that the Board of Finance provided goals to both the town and the Board of Education to come in with budgets that called for spending increases at or below 2 percent.

“We are very pleased that we met the guidelines supplied by the Board of Finance,” Town Manager William Smith said. “We held the line in all respects and I’m hopeful [the budget] will pass and meet the needs of the town on an ongoing basis.”

First Selectman John Adams said that he was mindful that the town still has staffing requests, most notably at the police department, which requested a full-time investigator, the department of public works, which requested a maintenance worker, and the Parks & Recreation Department, which sought to increase an assistant’s position to full time.

None of those staffing requests are included in the budget forwarded to the finance board this year.

The Board of Finance will meet on March 26 to discuss the budget.

Public hearing set for possible new business

The Selectmen also set for public hearing on April 2 at 7:15 p.m. on the proposed lease at 83 Salmon Brook St. between the town and the owners of Pepper Mill Deli and Country Store. The Planning & Zoning Commission and development commission have both recommended the arrangement, which would have the owners make investments in the building at 83 Salmon Brook St. and run the deli/country store out of it.

April 29 Sandy Wickman Mason Day

The selectmen also read a proclamation declaring April 29, 2012 “Sandy Wickman Mason Day” in Granby. Wickman Mason, the field hockey coach at Granby Memorial High, earned the Doc McInerney High School Coach of the Year Award by the Connecticut Sportswriters’ Alliance, which she will receive at the Gold Key Dinner at the Aqua Turf in Southington on April 29.

Wickman Mason won her third straight state Class S title as head coach of the Bears this year, and has a 141-7-24 record in nine years at the helm.