Chilmark selectmen on Tuesday reviewed town receipts from the season just past, taking stock after early worries about a quiet summer on the Island.
According to town administrator Tim Carroll, who shared the fiscal updates with the selectmen on behalf of the town’s financial team, summer revenues this year held steady with only minor declines from last year.
Current estimates tallied at the end of August show that beach sticker revenue was down $10,000, Mr. Carroll said. The decline was due in large part to fewer summer rentals in the area, especially in the month of June, as well as certain cases where properties were not rented at all, he said.
The town also saw a small drop in harbor revenues this summer, with the harbor bringing in $2,000 less than last year, despite reports of steady activity on the water from harbor master Ryan Rossi earlier in the season. Mr. Carroll said the figure is likely to rise slightly in September as the harbor returns deposits paid up front by boaters through the town’s new Dockwa reservation system.
The $12,000 drop in beach and harbor revenues will not factor substantially into grand totals, Mr. Carroll told the selectmen, noting that both categories brought in a few hundred thousand dollars each this season overall. The slight summer revenue deficit was also offset by an uptick in miscellaneous revenue totaling $40,000, with $35,000 coming from state-issued Covid relief funds, Mr. Carroll said. Final reconciled totals will be released shortly, he said.
Chilmark’s usual end-of-year surplus, or free cash, is still being calculated as part of the town audit, but Mr. Carroll said he is hopeful the town will have a surplus. “Right now we’ve closed at a good position so we hope to have free cash to operate from,” he said.
In other financial news, the Tri Town Ambulance committee voted to repay the town in full for its contributions to the ambulance retirement fund, giving the town a healthy one-year financial bump. The town is also awaiting $126,000 in uncollected real estate taxes for the 2020 fiscal year, $50,000 of which will be coming in shortly. Collections on estimated taxes for the first half of FY 2021 are exactly on par with last year’s figures — a 71 per cent collection total, Mr. Carroll said.
On the whole, despite the unforeseen challenges of a pandemic-dominated year, town receipts do not reflect any major financial crises, the town administrator concluded. “We have a solid and steady tax base. We don’t have any major concerns with revenue or with tax collection at the moment,” he said.
In other business Tuesday, the selectmen heard updates on a climate action plan formatted by its climate working group and solidified the schedule for early voting at town hall in the upcoming general election.
The selectmen also voted unanimously to approve the Chilmark Town Affairs Council and Chilmark Community Center’s fall tennis program through November. The tennis program will run in a socially distanced manner apart from the Chilmark School’s outdoor areas when the school year begins, selectmen confirmed.
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