Another budget season kicks off tonight, when Mayor Christopher Louras presents his fiscal year 2011 proposal to the aldermen. Louras said last week he will touch on some of the highlights of the budget, but as always, the real in-depth discussion will happen in a series of committee meetings in the weeks to come.
One point worth mentioning is that Louras has broken out the budget into about five individual budgets — which he said he is hoping can be placed on the ballot in the same form, giving voters the opportunity to make clear with what they take issue.
Although the agenda going into the meeting is light, there is at least one other issue that will be introduced during the meeting.
On Thursday, Board President David Allaire told some of his board members during a Finance Committee meeting that they can expect to find on their desks tonight his draft of a charter amendment that would give the aldermen the authority, if they had a supermajority of the board's vote, to add to line items in the mayor's budget. As it currently stands, the aldermen can only cut from the proposal presented to them.
School lawsuit
The city was in court for a hearing last week in the lawsuit brought against it in 2008 by the Mountain View Community School. The defunct school, which was on Church Street, filed a civil suit against the city last year arguing that, for the purpose of the property tax statute, they're a public school.
Last October, the city was preparing to take the property to tax sale because the school had allowed its property taxes to go delinquent. Ultimately, the school's landlord, Joe Giancola, foreclosed on the school before it could go to tax sale, according to City Attorney Andrew Costello.
According to Costello, the school and city have been given 10 days to write and file briefs. Costello said he expects the judge will make a decision within a month after that.
Mountain View's attorney, Ted Robare, did not return a call seeking comment about the lawsuit.
Another town signs on
RRA Executive Director Tom Macaulay told his board last week that Proctor was the latest town to unanimously vote to sign a letter of intent to participate in the Rutland Telecom initiative.
With Proctor on board, that makes 11 municipalities. The others are: Poultney, Fair Haven, Castleton, West Rutland, Rutland City, Rutland Town, Mendon, Killington, Pittsford and Middlebury.
The RRA board is set to meet again this week for a hard look at the RT business plan, through which Macaulay will walk the group.
Committee lists
The aldermen's weekly schedule of committee meetings continues Tuesday with a meeting of Alderman Dave Dress' charter and ordinance subcommittee – one of two – looking into the city official selection process. With two meetings already under their belts, this group appears headed toward recommending, at the very least, that the city move toward hiring a city manager. The other group won't meet again until Nov. 10.
On Wednesday, the Public Works Committee will discuss flooding problems at 39 Nichols St. For Thursday, Dress has also scheduled a charter and ordinance meeting to talk about term limits for all elected city officials. This is an issue that has been on Charter and Ordinance Committee's to-do list since Dress referred it there in July. Dress has long been one of the few proponents of term limits on the board; recently, Rutland United Taxpayers has also brought the issue back to public consciousness as they circulated a petition to have the prospect of 10-year term limits placed on the March ballot.
Outside of City Hall
The Rutland Area Food and Farm Link will hold a somewhat novel event Wednesday: A casual mixer for new and aspiring farmers.
For those who might fall into this category, the event will run 6 to 10 p.m. in the Brick Box, and will feature a period for mingling and enjoying local beer and snacks from Table 24, as well as a screening of the film "FRESH" about the future of sustainable agriculture.
Anyone looking for more information or to RSVP can e-mail
india@rutlandfarmandfood.org or call 417-7331.
