Hampden leaders review preliminary FY25 expenditures, plan reserve-account transfer request

Select Board members on Monday reviewed a preliminary year-end expenditure recap for fiscal 2025 and authorized the town administrator to prepare requests to move funds from the reserve account to cover identified shortfalls.

The recap, prepared by town finance staff, showed program line items that need reconciliation and several instances where expenses appear in the wrong account, town officials said. Town Administrator Brian (role: Town Administrator) told the board that staff would return with formal transfer requests to the advisory committee for approval.

Why it matters: The transfers would reallocate existing town funds to ensure bills and payroll for FY25 are paid without disrupting core services, and they determine how much free cash the town can carry into FY26.

Board members and staff flagged specific items for follow-up. The board discussed a planned request to move funds to the reserve account and the need to finalize the last FY25 vendor warrant. Finance staff Cliff (role: finance staff) and Brian told the board the final FY25 warrant would be prepared for signature the following week so payroll and remaining vendor payments could be posted.

Select Board Chair Don (role: Select Board chair) asked for clarification on several entries. The board identified the following items for follow-up: an audio-visual (AV) expense that has been moved into the Select Board expense line and will be established as a separate line in FY26; a roughly $11,000 tax-title expense; and an allocated radio service agreement listed at $28,608 where charges posted to a police/fire communications bucket instead of the radio-service line. Don asked Cliff to adjust the coding where appropriate.

Health and retirement lines drew particular attention. Staff said health-insurance accounting shows 11 of 12 monthly payments booked and that a final payment of approximately “50 something thousand dollars” remains to be processed; staff described the exact final charge as pending and to be reconciled before the transfers are finalized.

The board also discussed capital and one-time items that may affect free cash, including a boiler and split-unit repair for the Wilbur-Hamden School District that appears with zero allocated and zero expended in the preliminary report; board members said those zeros likely reflect incomplete line-item entries rather than no appropriation. The select board also touched on an anticipated $700,000 ventilation need at Wilbur Hill Middle School and a separate bleacher request the regional district may present; Don said Hampden officials are considering whether to negotiate a carve-out for the ventilation cost if regional agreement terms would otherwise obligate the town.

Procedural actions: The board voted to authorize the town administrator to prepare and submit reserve-account transfer requests to the advisory committee. Motion: authorize town administrator to prepare transfer request for advisory committee review. Mover: board member (recorded). Second: recorded. Vote: unanimous voice vote.

The board also addressed a separate procedural question about warrant signatures. Because the board now meets every other week and schedules vary in summer, members moved and approved a temporary authorization allowing a single select-board signature to sign payroll/vendor warrants in weeks when only one member is available to sign. Motion: authorize sole signature for warrants on posted meeting weeks when a majority is not available. Vote: unanimous voice vote.

Next steps: Staff will finalize the FY25 vendor warrant and prepare formal transfer requests for advisory committee consideration; the board requested corrected line-item coding where expenses posted to the wrong accounts and asked for final reconciliations to be ready when the warrants are presented.