MAcciard said
Publius please publish this as an article submission, I will try to submit these for both Police and Fire as well;
I notice alot of you are asking if our road agent, and our highway dept. is a good value? or should we go to a full time highway dept. with town owned equipment?
Do we get value for money from our Highway Dept.?
Here are the results of a study I did on that issue when I chaired the budget committee. I compared the highway budget for Atkinson, Sandown, and Hampstead, and then tried to break it up by $ per mile of road for an accurate comparison. This is the same exercise I did year in and year out for Highway, Police, Fire, and Library, to see if we were getting "bang for the buck".
THESE ARE ALL 2007 BUDGET NUMBERS
HIGHWAYS AND STREETS- HAMPSTEAD, NH.
Highway Labor $23,690
Road Agent Salary $20,188
New Equipment $10,000
Paving & Reconstruction
Engineering Support $4,000
Paving & Reconstruction $250,000
Cleaning and Maintenance
Contract Labor/Equipment $50,000
General Supplies $6,000
Patch Material $600.
Culverts $1,000
Street Signs and Markings $13,000
Tree Trimming/Brush Cutting $10,000
Fuel for Equipment $2,000
Snow and Ice Control
Telephone $300
Communications $3,000
Installation plows/sanders $3,000
Leased Equipment $1,000
Contract Labor/Equipment $185,000
Equipment Repair $8,000
Salt $85,000
Sand $6,000
Other Supplies $5,000
Town Garage
Electricity $4,500
Heat $2,000
Repair/Maintenance $4,500
Garage Cleanup $2,000
TOTAL $699,778.00
ATKINSON HIGHWAY DEPT.
Road Agent- Summer $17,220
Road Agent- Winter $17,220
Health Ins. $16,239
Fica $2,135
Medicare $499
ENGINEERING
Telephone $3,182
Oth. Prof. Serv.-Engineer $10,000
Electricity $1,327
Heating Oil $3,000
Educational Conferences $500
Legal Notices $1,360
CLEANING AND MAINTENANCE
Labor- Summer $28,470
Labor- Winter $28,470
Fica $3,530
Medicare $826
Radio Maintenance $500
Equipment Repairs $8,000
Minor Equipment/Sm. Tools $1,272
Gas & Oil $6,958
Truck Lease $9,200
Gravel/ Summer $9,000
Loam/ Summer $1,500
Patch Material $120,000
Culverts $4,000
Sealers $6,000
Other Materials- Summer $2,060
Catch Basins $3,000
Stone $1,800
Minor Equip/ Summer $1,300
Equip.Rental/Summer $2,000
Line Painting $13,000
Contrat Labor/Equip. Summer $30,000
Tree Removal $8,000
SNOW AND ICE CONTROL
Minor Equip./ Winter $7,600
Salt/ Winter $52,000
Sand/ Winter $3,000
Cutting Edges/ Winter $3,000
Contract Labor/ Winter $100,000
TOTAL $527,168
SANDOWN HIGHWAY DEPT.
Cold Mix $2,100
Equip. Rental $1,500
Equip. R&M $2,000
Equip. Purchase $10,000
Gasoline $15,000
Materials $2,000
Payroll $125,572
Salt $74,821
Sand $7,500
Signs $1,200
Supplies $4,500
Tree Removal $2,000
Vehicle Maint. $6,200
Plowing $106,428
Seminars $200
Officer Details $4,100
TOTAL $365,121
PAYROLL DETAIL
Road Agent $23.18/hr. $49,696
Asst. Road Agent $15.86/hr.$34,013
Laborer#1 $15.45/hr. $33,119
Laborer#2 $10.94/hr. $8,774
Now if you look at the salary, payroll, and contract labor lines, that is where you will notice differences. Sandown's total is somewhat misleading because the budget committee pulled the requested $120,000 for paving out of the budget and put it all into a warrant article.
Mark, Your post states you are giving figures to break costs out for $$ per mile. I think that the actual # of miles of roads in each town must be stated so we can divide the costs and come to a real #. I also believe the only way to do a true comparrison is to take actual numbers as opposed to
ReplyDeletebudgeted fiqures. We may find that we always run over budget or under budget and without real #'s then we are again just guessing as to good deal - bad deal. It would be best to go back to the last fiscal year for each town that is currently available. We can then divide by the miles of roads for each town to make a true comparison. I am hoping this is something you will be able to provide. Thanks for your efforts as you are truly appreciated!
Now we are getting to some real facts and figures to analyze. Cost per mile is a good metric I would like to see. What about cost per household or per capita?Why do we have to go to a blog to get this information? Why is it so hard for our town to provide it to taxpayers at a greater level of detail? Mr. Acciard, can you please tell us how we can get the info from the town ourselves? Do I have to make a Right to Know request?
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, I thought I included the mileage;
ReplyDeleteAtkinson has 53 miles of road Equaling $9,946.57/mile
Hampstead has 70 miles Equaling $9,986.83/mile
Sandown has 56 miles Equaling $8,662.88/mile with the paving materials, that are already in the other two budgets.
This information is readily available from the selectmen's office in any town. It is on the Road Report that each town must file with NHDOT., Although I have heard that Atkinson has failed to do this for the last 3 or 4 years. I don't know why.
Also, I have always wondered why our Town website so lacks the basic info. found on other towns websites. But I encountered a lot of resistance when I wanted to put the budget on there, and the budget committee minutes. So I just had them put up there, and dealt with any complaints after.
There is no reason, for what we pay for website, and hosting that we can not have streaming video, or at the very least the selectmen's agendas, minutes up in a timely fashion, and basic demographic information.
Mark,
ReplyDeleteYour additional information is helpful however it doesn't give a true
picture as to "good deal - bad deal" for the Town of Atkinson. I believe we can all agree that there are two sides to the economic picture of the town. You have the budget side, which I believe is put forth with the best accuracy as possible attributed to committee members of high integrity. Then you have the spending side which never matches the proposed budget. Line items are put forth for a few thousand here and a few thousand there which are not always spent. When their are surpluses on these lines
they do not automatically go back to the town. Usual practice would be to spend them elsewhere ex: salarys, contract labor, etc.. At the end of the day the overall budget for any one department will fall close to the projection, but the costs are shifted around to different cost lines. This is why I
feel actual numbers are required to see if we are getting a "good deal - bad deal". Some would call this truth in budgeting and other call it "business as usual". If we were able to find actual expenditures for the prior year then we could do a true cost analysis of the HW Dept. I am disappointed that this information was deleted from the town report as was done in past years. I feel this process is neccessary for all departments and should always be analized for the following years budget. I know we have a town auditor and do not understand why this information is not readily available. I believe this is the purpose of the town auditor to over
see spending at the end of the fiscal year and make this information avalable to all.
Any class 6 roads in town I can go wheeling on?
ReplyDeleteAny monies not spent stay in the general fund, and are usually used by the selectmen to buy down the tax rate.
ReplyDeleteWe on the budget committee used to encourage dept. heads to use their left over funds to buy forward purchases intended for the first quarter of the new year. The reason for this is so that those monies can be reduced from the upcoming budget
Speaking of Warrant Articles
ReplyDeleteAren't we, the residents, supposed to received a printed copy of the proposed warrant articles -
7 DAYS PRIOR
to town meeting????? You know, the meeting coming up for this Saturday?
Here it is Tuesday evening - 3 1/4 days prior to town meeting and no published warrant articles.
Isn't this a duty of the Town Administrator?
This year, as last year, you will prrobably have people walking into town meeting who haven't yet seen the warrant
ReplyDeleteAlmost $10K per mile of roadway... Hmmm. Do you think for this price they could plow Granite Ridge Road so that two cars can pass at the circle? With every storm, the street gets narrower.
ReplyDeleteHow much are they costing per mail box is what I want to know.
ReplyDeleteI heard Walmart has some great deals... but they're going fast!
ReplyDelete