Capital spending shaved by $500,000

KENT — Budget planning season is underway and so, of course, is budget trimming season. First Selectman Bruce Adams came before the Board of Finance (BOF) March 20 and presented cuts totaling a half million dollars from the town’s five-year capital plan.“You asked us to cut $500,000 in anticipated spending in the capital plan for fiscal year 2017,” Adams said. “This was achieved in two ways. First, the Kenico Road maintenance work had been scheduled for $600,000 in that year. We moved $125,000 of that back into fiscal year 2016, and $275,000 forward to fiscal year 2018. “Second, with the agreement of the Kent Volunteer Fire Department, we split the 2017 truck replacement amount of $125,000, adding $62,500 to the 2018 and 2019 fiscal year amounts.”An additional savings was found by the Board of Education, which got a new cost estimate for the planned roof replacement at Kent Center School. The new estimate is $500,000, down from the original amount of $625,000 — and it could go even lower, Adams said.The combined five-year capital plan for the Board of Education and the selectmen (BOS) shows spending in fiscal year 2013 of $311,000; in fiscal year 2014 of $375,000; in fiscal year 2015 of $875,000; in fiscal year 2016 of $900,000 and in fiscal year 2017 of $847,000.The BOF approved the five-year capital plan as presented.Adams also presented the selectmen’s proposed municipal budget for 2012-13 (the fiscal year begins July 1). The proposed budget of $2,788,884 is 1.9 percent higher than the current budget. Adams noted there are very few increases in the proposed budget other than salaries or salary-related items. Town employees (full- and part-time) are slated to get a 2.5 percent raise, on average. Some employees will get a higher percentage increase due to increased responsibilities. There are also some mid-year salary increases for the town clerk’s office, Building Department clerk and treasurer. Treasurer Barbara Herbst said that some bonds were sold March 27 and the sale should realize some savings for the town. The town is currently rated AA2 by Moody’s rating service, the third level down from the top.The finance board will review the proposed Board of Education budget in the beginning of April. After reviewing that and the municipal budget, the BOF will present a combined town budget for the new fiscal year on April 27. A public hearing will be held on the new budget on May 4. There will be a town meeting at 8 p.m., at Town Hall, on May 18 to vote on the budget.

Latest News

Bunny Williams's 
‘Life in the Garden’
Rizzoli

In 1979, interior decorator Bunny Williams and her husband, antiques dealer John Rosselli, had a fateful meeting with a poorly cared for — in Williams’s words, “unspoiled” — 18th-century white clapboard home.

“I am not sure if I believe in destiny, but I do know that after years of looking for a house, my palms began to perspire when I turned onto a tree-lined driveway in a small New England village,” Williams wrote in her 2005 book, “An Affair with a House.” The Federal manor high on a hill, along with several later additions that included a converted carriage shed and an 1840-built barn, were constructed on what had been the homestead property of Falls Village’s Brewster family, descendants of Mayflower passenger William Brewster, an English Separatist and Protestant leader in Plymouth Colony.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Creators: Sitting down with Garet Wierdsma

Garet&Co dancers

Jennifer Almquist

On Saturday, March 9, the people of Norfolk, Connecticut, enjoyed a dance performance by northern Connecticut-based Garet&Co, in Battell Chapel, titled INTERIOR, consisting of four pieces: “Forgive Her, Hera,” “Something We Share,” “bodieshatewomen,” and “I kinda wish the apocalypse would just happen already.”

At the sold-out show in the round, the dancers, whose strength, grace and athleticism filled the hall with startling passion, wove their movements within the intimate space to the rhythms of contemporary music. Wierdsma choreographed each piece and curated the music. The track she created for “Something We Share” eerily contained vintage soundtracks from life guidance recordings for the perfect woman of the ‘50s. The effect, with three dancers in satin slips posing before imaginary mirrors, was feminist in its message and left the viewer full of vicarious angst.

Keep ReadingShow less
Kevin McEneaney, voice of The Millbrook Independent

Kevin McEneaney

Judith O’Hara Balfe

On meeting Kevin McEneaney, one is almost immediately aware of three things; he’s reserved, he’s highly intelligent and he has a good sense of humor.

McEneaney is the wit and wisdom behind The Millbrook Independent, a blog that evolved from the print version of that publication. It's a wealth of information about music venues in this part of Dutchess County interspersed with poetry, art reviews, articles on holidays and other items, and a smattering of science.

Keep ReadingShow less