Windham Solid Waste Management District (WSWMD)
Brattleboro, Vermont
Finance Committee Meeting
Via ZOOM and In-Person
DRAFT Minutes of January 11, 2024
Committee Members Present: Committee Chair-Merrill Mundell, Wilmington; Patrick Moreland, Brattleboro; Michelle Cherrier, Dummerston
Additional Board Members Present: None
Committee Members Absent: James Damato, Readsboro Alternate
WSWMD Staff Present: Robert Spencer, Executive Director; Vicki Hayes, Finance Manager & HR Administrator; Anita Grant, Office Manager & Operations Liaison/District Clerk
Others Present: None
Merrill called the meeting to order at 6:03 PM
- Changes and/or Additions to the Agenda: None
- Approval of Minutes- November 2023:
Michelle made the motion to accept the minutes as written, Patrick seconded, and the motion was carried.
- Review of Check Register- December 2023:
A brief discussion centered around check #30247 for $32,674 to Sanborn Head which was charged for site work, permitting, and site design related to the Compost Facility Expansion (CFE). Sanborn Head is the engineering firm that does the District’s stormwater permitting and has been retained to work on the CFE.
Check #30233 was listed as “Final HHW Cleanout” but was incorrect, as it was the 3rd quarter cleanout, Anita will make the change on the check register.
Check #30262 for Tarrant, Gillies, & Shems were legal fees associated with the surface rights regarding the CFE. Bob informed the committee that WSWMD had committed to paying up to $2,500 in legal fees to have Jet Gas sign a quit claim deed on the property. He is hopeful that this will take place within the next couple of weeks.
Michelle made the motion to recommend the Board of Supervisors approve the check register, Patrick seconded, and the motion was carried.
- Review of Financial Statement- December 2023:
Vicki reported that the District ended December with a deficit of $59,000. She warned that the District was moving into the slower season but also indicated that the biggest contributing factor was the transformer repair on the solar array. Normally the renewable energy credits (RECs) for that quarter would be more than $50,000 but they were reduced by about $20,000 due to the outage. Tipping fees dropped $9,000 from November, but revenue is still steady at 4% ahead of budget. Payroll finished 2% above budget, all other expenses were in line, other than equipment repairs were up over $15,000 for December. Vicki expressed that she would be looking into that further and see where costs could be cut back.
Vicki also reported that there was $38,000 pending payment from the SWIP grant, and her efforts to reduce hauling costs with Casella which are already on a downward decline. She concluded that there were no capital spends that had taken place in December.
Michelle made the motion to recommend the Board of Supervisors approve the financials for December 2023, Patrick seconded, and the motion was carried.
- Compost Facility Expansion (CFE) Bid Review- Steve Horton Consulting:
Bob said he did not need Steve Horton to attend the meeting since we would not be selecting a bid at this point. Bob explained that two bids from the four companies interested had been received by the 2 pm cutoff on Wednesday, January 10, but indicated that both bids were more than one million dollars, and there was only a budget of $700,000. Bob said that he had already had discussions with Steve regarding the scope of the project and felt they could downsize it to meet the initial budget. The original budget was created almost three years ago, and construction costs have significantly increased due to inflation.
Bob pointed out that WSWMD is under no obligation to expand the compost facility but if the CFE was not implemented we would have to turn away food waste from haulers. The committee said that a lot of work had been done, money had already been spent, and that WSWMD should not walk away from the project.
After a lot of discussion, it was decided that the Committee felt strongly that Bob should put the project back out to bid with a smaller scope of work, seek additional funding sources, and contact the current funding sources to see if any more money was available. Another suggestion was made to phase the work out over a few years, rather than one full project, to absorb the cost into future fiscal years.
- Other Business:
- Vicki reported that she would like to do an analysis and suggest hiring a full-time truck driver and part-time transfer station worker but stay within the payroll budget. This position would be held by one individual as there are not 40 hours of driving. She would provide an analysis of in-house hauling vs. outside hauling, to support the driver position. Since there is no February meeting due to the charter, Vicki suggested a February meeting of the Executive Board to discuss the proposal. Patrick requested a written analysis before the EB meeting. A meeting date was set for Thursday, February 8, 2024 @ 3:00 PM.
- Merrill asked Michelle to ask at the BOS meeting (following this meeting at 7 pm) to ask for volunteers to join the Finance Committee since there were one to two vacancies.
- Executive Session (if needed): None
- Next Meeting: Thursday, March 14, 2024 @ 6 PM
- Adjournment: 6:50 PM
Minutes prepared by:
Anita Grant
Office Manager & Operations Liaison/District Clerk