Lenox Finance Committee plans for the future

LENOX – The finance committee is taking a hard look at how best to plan for the town’s financial future.

That was the chief focus in a recent committee meeting, where this year’s budget and long-term financial planning were the major points of discussion. The committee was joined in this meeting by Town Manager Gregory T. Federspiel.

The meeting served mostly as a brainstorming and planning session, with the committee members discussing how best to advise the town and the selectmen. The selectmen have asked the finance committee to give them an alternate suggestion for this year’s budget.

“I’m thinking that I’m not in a position to say…gosh, we should cut this clerk back to 20 hours a week, I just don’t know enough about the details of who does what,” said Finance Committee Chairwoman Lucy Kennedy.

Nevertheless, she suggested the committee try to set a goal of gaining more knowledge so they could make more specific budget suggestions to the selectmen in the coming years.

The committee also discussed the prospect of reducing town services in the future.

“To me, that’s where the discussion needs to be,” said Town Manager Federspiel. “We need to look at what services we think are more important than others.”

Still, it was acknowledged such a course of action would be easier said than done.

“The services that lend themselves to that exercise [cutting] are really near and dear to a lot of people and valued,” said Committee Member Joseph Nejaime, who pointed out a number of services Lenox provides, such as the library, the community center and a robust police department, were provided because people wanted them.

“If I have a goal for this year’s budget, personally, it’s just to make sure that we’re not increasing expenditures,” said Chairwoman Kennedy, who pointed to increasing the marketing and events committee’s budget as something the town might want to avoid.

She also noted the 10-year financial plan for the town, which was largely written by Ms. Kennedy last year, would have to be revised with numbers from the current budget.

Health insurance, capital expenditures and the town’s bonding capacity were other issues the committee touched on, and plans were made for finance committee members to meet with the town departments they liaison with.

The finance committee will be making its recommendations on this year’s budget to the selectmen at the beginning of April.

“If we can start making some very gradual adjustments now, we don’t have to have the dramatic effect on the town,” said Chairwoman Kennedy, when asked by The Beacon what reducing the budget would mean for Lenox. “Let’s get more precise about what the goal is, and then it’s up to the people who are managing the town to agree or disagree with our recommendations.”

Posted by Bera B. Dunau on February 21, 2013. Filed under Community News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry