By Sarah Opdahl

New Fairfield’s Board of Finance (BOF) held a special meeting on Wednesday, July 30 to discuss and act upon a series of budget transfers. Though they were not fully aligned at the meeting’s start, the BOF ended in agreement and approved all requested transfers.

There will be a transfer of $950,000—$600,000 from the General Fund interest income and $350,000 from General Fund property taxes—to cover the high amount of claims and payments that were required at the end of the medical insurance year cycle, which runs July to June. Though concerns were expressed regarding these transfers, the money for which would have been part of a future surplus declaration from the auditors, in the end members were assured that the move was appropriate. Town Finance Director Mr. Adam Lawrence said, “These are both lines that significantly exceeded budgeted amounts as far as revenue goes.” He relayed that he discussed the transfers with the auditor who confirmed, “there are no concerns…with regard to the practice of implementing an additional appropriation from excess revenue within the fiscal year in which that revenue was collected.” Final surplus amounts will likely be determined in late August or September, though Lawrence noted that there is already “one and a half million in revenue surplus wrapped up.” BOF members are invested in building up the Medical Reserve Fund for the future. They were relieved to have followed the medical consultant’s advice on more fully funding the plan for the current fiscal year, which just began.

There was a lengthy discussion about another transfer that the BOF eventually agreed upon regarding monies needed for road repair and the paving of Gillotti Road. The transfer request was for $100,000 from the General Fund, which holds what is often described as “rainy-day” funds. At first, members questioned why the request was coming out of the blue, rather than going through normal approvals in the budget season. Mr. Wes Marsh remembered the plan to wait for all construction to be completed before completing the work and that there was $225,000 held in the budget for the work, in addition to $385,000 in Local Capital Improvement Program (LoCIP) funding from the State. To explain, First Selectman Ms. Melissa Lindsey said that the Department of Public Works received a very reasonable quote for the work. The $100,000 requested transfer will cover any overages, if problems are found once the work begins. When it was asked whether they might be overfunding the line item, Lindsey said, “it’s virtually impossible to overfund in this town for road repair, because it’s been underfunded for so long that they will definitely use every dime and then some.”

The next regular New Fairfield Board of Finance meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, September 24; they will not meet formally in August, though they will hold special meetings if and when timely approvals for spending are needed.