Will Saybrook Spend Surplus on Hepburn?

OLD SAYBROOK:

    After the accounting books are closed on each town fiscal year, prudent management of recent town budgets have meant some funding is left over. So at the end of each summer, the Board of Selectmen checks the surplus to determine if some portion of it should be used elsewhere.

    This year the selectmen have recommended to the town that $215,000 out of last year’s budget surplus be applied to the renovation and restoration of the former Town Hall into the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center (KHCAC). The extra funding would pay to complete the building infrastructure work that will support the planned theater lighting and sound systems that the KHCAC Board of Trustees’ independent fundraising efforts will buy.

    An affirmative vote by the town residents would increase the construction budget for the KHCAC renovation project by $215,000 from $4,340,000 to $4,555,000. Under state law, the town residents must authorize the total cost of a municipal construction project even if as in this case more than $1 million of the project’s funds come from federal and state grants.

    The Special Town Meeting to authorize the appropriation of $215,000 from the town’s 2007-2008 fiscal year budget surplus for the purpose of increasing the KHCAC project’s authorized budget is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 4, at 7:30 p.m. in the Old Saybrook High School Auditorium.

    In 2006, some of the budget surplus was applied towards the municipal project to put Main Street overhead utility wires underground, to restore the wrought iron fence for the upper cemetery, and then allocated across various capital sinking fund accounts, accounts used as the town’s savings accounts for capital project needs.

    Last year, about $212,000 of budget surplus was allocated to the school district to offset construction project costs that the district had paid for from that year’s operating budget so that the unanticipated work items would be completed while the school site was still under construction during the renovation project.