By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES— The annual mantra has been don’t raise the mil rate.

Each year, Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) are cut to adhere to that request.

During the most recent Naples Board of Selectmen meeting, the selectmen decided they would prefer to see the budget before it is pared down to a zero mil rate increase. Last week, on Jan. 18, the Naples Budget Committee started its weekly meetings. That same night, the selectmen gathered for a make-up meeting so both groups were in the room at the same time.

On Jan. 18, the agenda item was the Fiscal Year 2023-24. Naples Town Manager John Hawley was specifically asking the board about any CIPs or major purchases that should be included in the proposed budget.

Chairman Jim Grattelo, who also sits on the budget committee, explained how those end up on the chopping block every year. The CIP list starts out long, and stays intact until the end, he said. Then, those projects end up being cut out and postponed for another year, he said.

After some discussion, the board asked to view two versions of the budget.

“I’ve already gotten direction from the board to not rise the mil rate. If you are going to continue to live by the mil rate can’t change, it won’t do any good to show the numbers that were cut,” Hawley said.

Earlier in the conversation, the talk was about CIPs that couldn’t be avoided as well as a practical wish list.

“We haven’t had the discussion about what kinds of CIP items we want to budget for. One has to be gym demolition,” Hawley said. “I don’t know if you want me to start working on pricing. Do you have other projects that you wanted priced out?”

Selectman Ted Shane favored spending money on roads. Toward the end of the discussion, he asked to see the roads improvement plan.

“When you talk about taking money out of reserves, we have to put more money back into that reserve too. We have $510,000 for paving. That is for one year, gone. We have to put money back into reserves for paving,” Shane said.

Selectman Kevin Rogers mentioned the need for a public bathroom in the Causeway area. The first step for that would be purchasing land to build a bathroom facility.

“If we want to have money in reserve because we need money for it. It is an obstacle not having money for it. We probably want to start putting money away for that,” Rogers said.

Shane agreed.

“It would be great if the opportunity came along to build a bathroom this summer and we have the money already set aside,” he said.

Shane later returned to the topic of paving.

“Right now, we are asking for $500,000 and we have $500,000 in reserves. This summer, we could potentially spend $1 million,” he said.

Hawley said that was a possibility.

“I think we are going into budget season in a good position,” Shane said.

Hawley said the other requests and price increases need to be taken into account.

“All the departments have increases for next year. If other departments come in higher, the hits come to CIP budget,” Hawley said.

Then, there is equipment for the maintenance department.

“Public works — do we start setting money aside,” Shane said.

Rogers reminded Shane that Naples has a maintenance department rather than a public works department. Still, the maintenance department needs machinery to complete jobs. 

“If the town needs the equipment, if the town needs a tractor or a backhoe. It is equipment that needs to be bought and replaced,” he said.

Chairman Grattelo, who joined via Zoom, asked the town manager about the preliminary audit report.

“The auditor is still working on 2021. Not sure if we will have it before the end of the season. When budget committee meets [again] next week, I’d give you my best guess,” Hawley said.

Grattelo suggested that the selectmen see the budget before the CIPs are eliminated. 

“Let the budget committee go through individual departments and make their cuts. Here is where we are at before we go whack the CIP budget,” he said.

Hawley clarified this departure from the norm.

“Every year that I’ve been here, the guidance I hear is don’t raise the mil rate. The budget that select-board ultimately sees has already been cut by the budget committee,” he said. “Some of the comments have been, ‘We would have like to see what was proposed and cut by the budget committee.’ Do you want to see both numbers?”

Rogers responded.

“We don’t have a scary mil rate. We don’t want to rule out that we go up 5 cents or 10 cents if that is what we need to do to get our roads up to speed. That is a necessary evil. The maintenance department, the public bathroom don’t come out of thin air,” he said.

Selectman Colin Brackett asked if the board could see the budget earlier than usual.

Most likely, the selectmen will see the budget by the first week of March just in time for their meeting on March 13.

Currently, the budget committee meets every Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the large meeting room at the Naples Town Hall. As always, the public is invited to attend.