BERKELEY – The town is borrowing $2,061,914 to pay for vehicles, lifesaving equipment, and other capital projects.
A recent ordinance appropriates $2,170,437 and issues $2,061,914 in bonds. The difference in these two numbers is the $108,523 that the town has to put up as a down payment (5%). When a town appropriates money, they are setting it aside for a purpose. If the cost goes down, then they’ll have money left over to put toward something else. If the cost goes up, they would have to pass an amendment to pay the extra.
This ordinance doesn’t include the interest rate of the bond. Usually towns pay them off over a couple decades. If a lower interest rate is made available years later, they will try to take advantage of that.
Municipal finances often put things in terms of the number of years they are considered useful. This is based on Local Bond Law. A vehicle might only have a useful life for five years. This means that after this time, the cost of maintaining it exceeds the cost of buying new. Surplus items are then auctioned off to the public. It is considered good financial planning to bond for items that have five or more years of useful life.
The following purchases will eventually be made:
- Five outfitted police vehicles, totaling $442,814. These have an average period of usefulness equal to five years.
- Equipment for the Division of Emergency Medical Services (the paid ambulance squad run by the police), including an automated external defibrillator (AED), chest compression device, ambulance remount (when they take the back of an ambulance and put it on a new chassis), power load systems and laptops, for a total of $324,983. This equipment would also have a usefulness equal to five years.
- A street sweeper for the Division of Streets and Roads, with an estimated cost of $314,490, and an average period of usefulness of 15 years.
- A robo garbage truck and a rear loader/garbage truck with a plow for the Division of Sanitation and Recycling, with an estimated cost of $670,911 and an average period of usefulness of 10 years.
- Equipment for the Bayville, Manitou, and Pinewald volunteer fire companies at an estimated cost of $286,201 and an average period of usefulness of five years.
- Equipment for the volunteer first aid companies, including Bayville, Silver Ridge, Tri-Boro, Holiday Heights, and Holiday City at Berkeley, with an estimated cost of $131,038 and an average period of usefulness of five years.
- Engineering, legal fees and other soft costs adding up to $100,000
New Chief Financial Officer
In related news, the township hired Christine Manolio to be the chief financial officer. In this role, she will be overseeing all the budgetary portions of the town’s day-to-day operations. She used to be the CFO for Toms River.
At the end of last year, Fred Ebenau retired as Berkeley’s CFO.
An ordinance from February listed the CFO salary range as between $60 and $80 per hour.
