Town's fiscal outlook still up in the air

WINSTED — Mayor Candy Perez said last week that she hopes the towns’ newly elected Board of Selectmen and new town manager will be able to straighten out finances for the current fiscal year by the time members meet for their Dec. 7 regular meeting.

Perez said she is happy to have an old face back at Town Hall, in the form of former Town Manager Wayne Dove, who last week signed on to serve as the town’s interim town manager for the next six months.

“He has a knowledge of the town and he has had a career background with financial institutions where he was asked to take on increasing responsibilities,� Perez said of Dove. “We are in a situation where we need someone to come in and be able to move right away.�

Last month, the Board of Selectmen received news that the town could be more than $500,000 in the red by the end of the year, due in part to late reimbursement payments from state and federal beneficiaries. The board scheduled a special town meeting for Monday, Dec. 14, at 7 p.m., for the purposes of scheduling a referendum on Dec. 19 in which voters would be asked to approve a plan to borrow against future tax receipts. Both the town meeting and referendum are considered tentative, pending reconciliation of the town’s finances.

On Dec. 7, selectmen will meet with the new town manager to decide if the town meeting and referendum are necessary, and if the town will be able to get through the end of the year without suspending payroll or mandating a furlough of town employees.

“We are in a complete spending freeze right now,� Perez said, adding that it was too early to tell if the town will find itself in the black and able to meet its financial obligations. “On Monday we will have a better idea of whether or not we have to continue forward with the town meeting and referendum,� she said. “Obviously, it’s everybody’s hope that we do not have to continue down that road.

The Board of Selectmen meets Monday, Dec. 7, 7 p.m., in the P. Francis Hicks Room at Town Hall.