7/16/2010 -

Supervisor Duffy has made the following announcements:

"I am pleased to report that sales tax revenue estimates for the 2nd quarter are up approximately 14%, bringing us on trend for meeting the full 2010 budget estimate.

Also, legal action initiated by my office has compelled the previous Finance Director to return Town documents."

$1.305 Million in Notes Refinanced at 0.9%

I am pleased to inform you that the Town of Lewisboro has successfully refinanced two Bond Anticipatory Notes. The two notes were combined to be able to attract a larger bidding group.

The results were better than expected, lowering our interest rate from 1.12 percent interest to just 0.9 percent interest.

New - 2010 Land Use Task Force Members

 Charting the Safe Course Through Challenging Times
Supervisor,
Charles P. Duffy

Now that the first quarter of 2010 is past this is an opportune time for me to let you know what we have been doing to guide the Town through the current fiscal crisis. 
 
Just days into my term as your Town Supervisor our municipal bond consultant called, greatly concerned about an upcoming conference call with Standard & Poor's about downgrading our credit. I was at the newly elected officials’ conference in Albany and no one on the Town Board had heard anything about the previously scheduled call. The Board pulled together as a team to successfully avert this left-over crisis.

Also in January we were able to finally schedule the closing on the sale of the houses on the former Bell property, thus bolstering the Town's finances. The sale had been under contract but delayed for unknown reasons. The liquidity afforded us by the sale aided us in maintaining a good financial outlook and S & P rating.

In other efforts, the Board has adopted sound business practices to prioritize projects and agendas and work smoothly. The current Town Board meetings are focused and productive with a bipartisan spirit of cooperation.  We have done more with less and in some cases with virtually no new capital expenditure of any kind. We are paving roads and parking lots where required for safety, ecology and economy. We will soon have cell coverage for the Town and look forward to an excellent income stream into the future from the service.

A small accomplishment, but I am pleased to report that we were able to sell 5 life-time pool passes to help with our current cash flow, and have privately raised substantially all of the funds for our 4th of July Fireworks.  I hope to see everyone at Onatru Farm on June 26!

I was particularly pleased to hire Leo Masterson as Finance Director.  Leo is a local resident and a CPA and MBA with impressive experience in the private sector.  I believe he will be invaluable in helping steer the Town through our current fiscal crisis.

A major accomplishment has been the completion of the upgrade to the Oakridge Water and Sewer plant.  However the first payment on the previous administration’s financing proved to be an onerous burden for the residents served by that plant.  We were able to arrange re-financing of the bond which allowed us to reduce the $316,000 payment due this year to $191,000.  Payments for future years will be approximately 15% less due to adjustments in the borrowing designed to ease the burden on homeowners. 

We have created a seven-member Sustainability Committee comprised of a cross section of knowledgeable volunteers from throughout the Town who will guide us toward more energy efficient and sustainable practices for Town government operations with the hope of helping both the environment and our finances. With that in mind, I am pleased to announce the re-opening of the Town's recycling center. Closed by the previous administration for budgetary reasons, we are now able to re-open the center on Saturday mornings for the collection of not only light metal and container glass, but now we are recycling plastics #1 through #7 and household paper.

We also experienced a “what can I do to help” attitude when employees from all our departments found time and funds in their budget lines to tackle needed projects such as the paving of a parking lot in the Town Park.

The Town Board has initiated cooperation with other municipalities and entities to seek out grants and economies of scale in purchasing, providing services and modernizing our energy infrastructure.

As always the heart and soul of the Town is our volunteer organizations without whom our community would not enjoy the rich and diverse opportunities it does. A leading example is the Lewisboro Baseball Association.  We worked closely with the LBA in their efforts to improve field access, including ADA compliance and safety at Town Park.  Our volunteer boards, consultants and employees lent their expertise as LBA families gave their generous financial support.

While I can’t say for certain the  Town will see clear sailing in its immediate  future, I am confident we have charted a course that will gradually restore our fund balance,  improve our credit rating and  allow us to move ahead with projects such as our ADA compliance, storm water regulatory compliance and highway and infrastructure improvements.