Town Diary - May 2000
Annual Town Meeting
On Monday, May 1, 2000 Barkhamsted held its annual
Town Meeting and Budget Meeting at the Barkhamsted Elementary School on Ripley Hill
Road.
With thirty-two residents in attendance, Town Clerk Maria Mullady recorded the minutes
and First Selectman Michael D. Fox presided.
Above is a photo of the Barkhamsted Town Hall
(white building) and the elementary school. Many of the small meetings are
held in the Town Hall, but large meetings such as the annual meeting are held in
the school gym.
The Town Meeting was called to order
by Mr. Fox at 7:00 pm.
With just three simple items on the agenda, the meeting lasted just five
short minutes.
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- The Annual Report was accepted.
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- The Board of Selectmen was authorized to enter into
agreement with the State as necessary for Town Aid and Dirt Road Appropriation
and Local Capital Improvement Program.
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- Lisa Valentine was elected to serve on the Stanclift Cove Commission
until June 30, 2003.
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Immediately following
the annual Town Meeting, Mr. Fox called the annual town Budget Meeting to order.
The fundamental components of the proposed 7.5 million dollar budget were:
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Budget Category
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2000-2001 Budget
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% of Total Budget
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Regional No. 7 High School & Middle School
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$3.2 million
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42%
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Barkhamsted Elementary School
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$2.6 million
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34%
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General Government
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$1.5 million
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20%
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Capital Expenditures
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$291,857
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4%
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The meeting's only dissent came in the form of letter from Dr. Leon Reich, owner
of the Mallory Brook Plaza, home to Ames department store and the 2000-seat
Cinerom movie complex and Barkhamsted's second-largest taxpayer.
2000 was the year of the decennial property revaluation and Dr. Reich
objected to the plaza's assessment of $3,327,700 (an increase of $503,410 or
18% over the previous assessment), citing the poor condition of the plaza before
he took over in 1993 and the great improvements made to it since then.
In consideration of the new property valuations,
the mill rate for Barkhamsted has been set at $29.1 per thousand.
That rate is up from 23.7 in fiscal 1999-2000 and contains a base rate of
28 and a fire assessment of 1.1.
The 7.5 million dollar
budget passed overwhelmingly, with only one person voting against it.
The following table contains a random sample of items from Barkhamsted's
2000-2001 budget. To put
the current budget in historical perspective, consider the figures taken from 25
years ago (fiscal year 1975-1976).
Looking back nearly 50 years, the budget for fiscal year 1954-1955 contained
just a few of these items.
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Budget Line Item |
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Electricity
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$8,500
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Telephone
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$6,000
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Snow Plowing
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$37,500
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Road Improvements
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$91,000
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$15,000
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Resident State Trooper
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$65,000
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Stanclift Cove
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$5,500
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Northwest Regional No. 7
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$3.2 million
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$416,029
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Tuition, High School
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