will be following the published and posted agenda uh this evening will be broadcast live by Chancellor Tel media and recorded for future viewing uh we do not however have the ability of Zoom this evening uh through technical difficulties uh first order on our
agenda this evening is approval of minutes from January 9th 2025 has anyone had any opportunity to review them yes yes yes okay do have a motion so I'll move to to approve the minutes of January 9th 2025 second all right any comments requ
questions all right all in favor I I got six in favor all right moving right along we have a presentation review and discussion the town manager's proposed fiscal year 2026 recommended operating budget with us this evening presenting this for however many times he's done it
already is our town manager Paul Cohen good evening thank thank you for having me this evening uh it's been two months since we gathered at the uh school administrative offices for the tri board budgetary meeting and um I
guess as we all know the situation sort of has gotten worse since then you know terms of the fiscal challenges for the town um the governor's budget came out was a little underwhelming in terms of local Aid you know 2.2% is the increase in
unrestricted General government Aid to the community U because that's the growth in the state budget technically although her spending plan increases by over 7% because of the fact that she's factoring in the um fair share tax or millionaires tax whatever you want to
refer to it as into her spending plan uh including also funding a portion of Chapter 70 for the first time um so anyway the budget came out as required in the fourth Wednesday of January the next day the local Aid uh numbers came
out we obviously utilize those as we always do because that's our best indication not only in terms of the proposed chapter any education funding and unrestricted General government aid but more importantly it also gives us insight into the cost of our assessments for charter school tuitions and so forth
for the upcoming year and what we may receive in veteran benefits benefit veteran exemption reimbursements and so forth um so we took that um at that same around that same time the end of January the
um uh information was coming out in terms of our health insurance premiums um we knew back at the tri board meeting in January that it would be a double digigit increase in health insurance we were expecting 10 to
12% um when we then learned at the uh Municipal conference uh in Boston that the range of increases the average was 14.8% the range was from 99.8% to um
19.98% and then we learned last week uh from our broker that our actual increase is um going to be 17.77% which is slightly above the 17.5 that we sort of left there expecting and the reason for that is is because every Community is
rated individually and even though we're on the Benchmark plan um which means that's the lowest amount you can get to under which mirrors the state's Group Insurance Commission plan um the fact is your your premiums are
rated on your claims experience and right now we're running at 100% of claims to premiums which is really a deficit because you have to have administrative and overhead and other costs into your premium base um to fully fund and basically the plan itself much
like the state's Group Insurance Commission plan is running at a deficit this year so the reason for the extraordinary rate increase is they have to make up the loss for the current year and then project the premiums starting on July 1 through next June 30th which is still as we know a few months out
from the commencement Point um and the other sad part is is The Benchmark plan from the state hasn't been adjusted in terms of deductibles or such uh in in a decade uh and in fact there's a story about that today in terms of what's happening to the connector plans and in that story if you look to the very
bottom of the story that I read they said oh you know the states Group Insurance Commission plan which provides the insurance for state employees and such as well as participating cities and towns um yeah hasn't is also suffering a loss and they having double- digit increases uh and again they haven't
adjusted the co- payments DBL in a decade um so it sort of boxes you in because if you bid it you're you're going to hit with the market is and then you can't go below the four because you know where we
pay 75% of the premiums for active employees um the employees pay 25% share so they're not obviously wanted to pay the 25% share of the higher premium as well as take on high deductibles it's not going to happen um and then the other disappointing news which we knew
months ago as we know we talked about the tri board was the uh middle sex County Retirement assist assessment which is going up by 88.4% of which is a $13 million payment to the town uh of which basically 11 million of that is for the unfunded
pension liability uh that schedul to be pay off in the next decade uh and as we know next year's increase will be six and a half percent so when you factor in the health insurance premium and the retirement assessment 69% of our net new available additional revenue is is
utilized before you even pay anybody anything for the upcoming year um and obviously we have to pay people because of the competitive labor market um and you we are in the process of negotiating contracts so the end result is what you see there on the slide I ended up
recommending funding the CHC public schools at an increase of 2.4% % or $ 1.77 million to 75.6 5 million um John and I sat with the superintendent um arrived at that number um he presented his budget I
guess nine days or so ago now and they're going to have the school committee have its budget hearing the Tuesday after school vacation week rough roughly two weeks from now um and if you recall his increase was was was basically double that he was
looking for $3.5 million level service and as I saw at the presentation you'll see in the budget packet which I sent to you is you know he's obviously made some adjustments some of which we discussed in December such as paying for the cafeteria program director out of the
enter out of their revolving fund um they've applied their school choice monies they've applied you know circuit breaker and so forth and again the superintendent will go through the details when they at their hearing and when they come in visit you and then the other piece was nooba tech
nooba tech was a was a bit of good news this year uh the increase is only. 3% to $133,000 to just over $4 million you know 4.05 million um and the reason for that is because um although the district's
enrollment increased slightly our enrollment as a member Community declined uh and you pay based on your membership enrollment and your required minimum contribution by the communities and that worked out because both the shobra enrollment October 1st and the CHC of Public Schools Enrollment at
September 1st declined so there wasn't as big of a transparent shift between the two is if that works in an opposite direction if you have an increase in one and a decrease in other that's material then your minimum contribution follows the students this year they both declined and as we discussed at the
noober breakfast that morning noober um can't do anything more because they're $1 above their net School spending requirement in their budget and so they you know they're they're at the full um so that's that's was good news on the shower which again got offset by the bad
news on the health insurance and retirement and then we ended up coming in with a 1.7% or $222,000 increase to the general government departments which as we've discussed at the tri board meeting it's about half the size of the school department as a operating
Department outside of benefits and so forth um so obviously our increase is 1.7 their was 2.4 um it's we did uh eliminate positions you'll see that in a later slide um and also we
have Debt Service increasing um because we have to do the responsible thing for our infrastructure you know we maintain level funding in our Capital plan at 6 million which again if you're running a $168 million budget is not a uh an overburdensome amount of capital uh in
terms of funding um so the the and the sensible thing there is not to cut Capital spending that'll just put the town in a you know a hole going forward uh and that's not fair to the community it's irresponsible for those who come after us um and so there's the list you
can see of the positions that that were funded in the current fisc year budget but not funded in the next year's budget fortunately a number of those were vacant um because as we known and as you know a year ago I presented a report to you is to the select board and shared it
with others about we could see this you know tsunami coming at us uh and so like when when our public when our retire retirement Human Resources Director retired we didn't fill the business development director when that person um
wisely slid over because had had she not she probably would would have been let go uh two weeks ago in all honesty so we so some of the positions were vacant the highway division labor for example was another one that was vacant so we didn't have to uh terminate but unfortunately
we did have to lay off three people in real time uh when the budget was released and I want to emphasize again and and I know you'll hear from some of the Departments I know one in particular um regarding the departure of an employee it's not that those employees
didn't perform a valuable service in the not that they're not needed for the budget it's just that we have to do the responsible thing going forward um in terms of maintaining our fiscal
Integrity in in the realities of the financial situation that our residents businesses and others are confronting um because this isn't a correction this is a trend and if you saw the news yesterday about inflation you can clearly indicates that inflation
is is a trend that's being very hard to wrestle um and so although you know my question on these and and in light of everything it's it was just a question of if not when you know we are at critical Staffing levels in the
municipal government side and some might say even slightly below that and I'm sure you'll hear from those whose budgets lost Staffing they'll say that that's going to be painful and it's not acceptable it's just a judgment call if you remember when we had that discussion and when I sat with the department heads
I said I could pass out everybody a blank sheet and I'm sure we'd have 30 different budget plans um I'm just doing the one that I think is the most responsible and and again I'm more concerned looking ahead uh and that's why you see that in
some of the funding decisions as well as some of the warrant articles on how to prepare for what's ahead um so you know that's sort of H how he did it and basically where there were people where there was no Prospect for future employment to the town we let them go immediately if there were some that were
either working in some capacity in the future such as a senior work program employee or or election and so forth where there was viable employment going forward we held on to those people um and then the other part thing of those decisions Is We I sat down with the
department heads and said how can you help with this situation what can you do in a number of instances the choices were made about the ability to perhaps get grants to backfill those positions and that's what happened in the health department and in the police department um is we believe we'll be able to
backfill those positions in part or in whole by Grant uh funding opportunities um as best we know at this point in time with the uncertainty that the state is having and certainly with the federal government uh which funds many of the state programs uh and again other things that were emitted which
were valid requests uh were also there and again the other Cuts you know losses and I've heard from people about the loss of the Sunday Library hours and the lifeguards at the beach and and it you know it just became we looked at
everything we literally built the budget you know John and I built a budget from Ground Zero you know in terms of what we have to do and as we discussed and I'll try to be sync but you know no matter what we've got to assess all properties we've got to issue bills we've got to account and issue warrants we got to
issue payroll you maintain vital records and so forth and that's really how we went through the budget um going forward and again valid requests for additional Staffing that you've heard from in darious forms um just couldn't be honored and and likely will not be
honored in the foreseeable future um and and so again as I mentioned earlier the you know the bud the benefits and insurance eats up $4 million or almost 69% of the available Revenue um again of that 4 million 2 million is for the 17.5 and now really
17.7% 7% increase in health insurance premiums and reason I put numbers out is people then get the context oh you're insuring 685 uh you know active employees and their families yes uh and again the town pays
75% of the premium which is now over $35,000 so the the real cost of that is is is now approx $226,500 for the town share uh and then we we we we also provide Medicare supplement plans for a thousand eligible employees and that
number has been steadily growing over time uh and and we see that in the charts that are in here as well uh and and that's a midyear plan so we're now trying to forecast the known number for the six months of the year but six months into the fiscal year almost a
year from now we don't know what the new premiums will be because those are on the calendar year not the fiscal year uh and the Town Fund 60% of those premiums um and I mentioned about middle sex County being another million dollars to 13.1 of which 11 main of that is for
the unfunded liability and that's what shows you the cost of passing the things on and not being responsible by prior Generations um and that you know we we're suffering imagine what we could do with $1 million in the budget uh in terms of offsetting and providing
enhancement of services because that's what's missed in all this the service demand since the pandemic particularly in the education area and the public safety area for mental health issues is phenomenal meaning in terms of the demand that's come on these people and
we see it we see the reading scores and the math scores are down from even pre pandemic levels um which is unsettling but we know the police and fire on Mental Health calls um are are just staggering uh and and the difficulty of
the state's even having you with the state budget about trying to in ability to to provide adequate Mental Health Services um in the state budget um so we can see that you know the property tax is is our essential funding source over
76% of our budget that's governed by a 2 and a half% regulator that doesn't have any impact on inflation so therefore when inflation is running at 3% or a few years ago at worse than that significantly worse than that that's what puts us in the predicament that
we're in and so that's that's that's the story is the the driving cost of inflation particularly in the area of benefits of health and retirement assessments and the limitations of proposition two and a half uh where even those we can't ask for an
override it no practically and in those communities they're not even asking anymore Westford failed a year ago they didn't even bother to ask this year and communities that did pass them slightly like Acton a year ago aren't even asking for them they're cutting this year because they realize the difficulties that residents are having in you know
just whether it's the grocery store the utility bills uh again news is coming out again today about people's gas bills and the Staggering increase that the state adopted in the distribution charge not the supply charge but the distribution charge for you know which provides those for the
utility providers as well as the Mass Save and other programs um again as we talked about the tri board we push local receipts to realistic numbers so far that's holding solid uh the state had a good Revenue month in January they're they were optimistic that they're not going to make Cuts in the state budget
this year um and then our available funds are what are just sort of comes up what supplements that um again the disappointing part on Chapter 70 funding even though it's the historically the highest amount of Chapter 70 funding in the state's history uh which every year
is quite frankly unless they level fund it um the $75 per student is is is less than the $104 per student that we ultimately ended up with a year ago and um we're hopeful that the legislature will increase the governor's numbers um
and then the discussions that the finance director and I had with the superintendent of the schools was that even if if if that were to occur you know your number is your number um we're we're sort of putting ourselves out there um in terms of the budget wise
because we have unsettled bargaining uh contracts without a funding source and you have your contracts funded in your your budget allocation in your budget because you don't come back to the town for that um so whatever the chapter ends up being or whatever the new growth ends
up being that will just sort of go towards that fund as you see later on described here but 75 $5 per student um as you can see in that funding chart doesn't put us to where we've been um and uh you know it's just a real
problem you know 2.62% sounds good but we know the cost for educating children is higher than that because of the demand particularly for specialized Services um and that's why I give the historic just to give you a sense of and the sad part is even if it went to last
year's number you probably talking an extra 200,000 at best if it went that it went that high not that we wouldn't welcome it but it's not going to solve the town's Financial challenges um the capital Improvement plan John's going to speak to after I finished from the podium this evening
but as I mentioned earlier it's it's level funded at roughly at $5.9 million uh and it's responsible uh and again it goes to things that you can't put off and avoid such as the biggest one which is the McCarthy School roof uh and and obviously in real practical ones
like security at the entries to our school facilities uh and boilers uh and you know so HVAC and Roads and so forth Enterprise funds you know the beauty of the Enterprise funds is that not only they stand alone in the self funding and self- accounting is they're not
constrained by proposition two and a half they're basically a fee for service um so the sewer Enterprise fund increases by 5.63% um but that's really driven by the assessment to the wastewater treatment facility of $200,000 to $2.4 million and
so remember that's that's that's paying for not only the treatment over there but remember our Wastewater flow goes through the city of V's pipes that gets to their plant and as you know the city's doing some upgrades there so we know there'll be double digit increases that for the forceable future given the
consent order that the city is under for its Wastewater Plant because the federal government um doesn't like the the disposal of raw sewage into the mar River uh and I don't think even with the new Administration that they'll wave that requirement um and so that's that's
a real you know a real cost same thing stob water Enterprise again under the federal regulations and state regulations that increases by 6.5% um to address the proper drainage uh in you know infiltration and testing
of you know which is part of the groundwater Supply uh in the district Peg access is funded by um cable revenues so that's basically holding um because they're declining I think it's being held by the fact that they're
declining the loss of cable subscribers but the cost of program is going up even those who were doing streaming are realizing that oh they can't hold those artificial low prices anymore that they got people to cut the cord for now they've got to turn that around so I think the hemorrhaging is kind of
stopped from the cable people because they kind of quickly realize that the streaming you know um has its own Financial challenges and how many of those streaming services do you want and do you get the the the volume of Channel choice that you'd have as well as the
convenience anyway so that's that's okay and then the form and the golf course just run along uh at at level funded amounts the ice rank as you know we made a significant investment a few years back between the ice surface the electrification and so forth and so
that's now has no foreseeable significant challenges under the management company going forward so basically that 65,000 goes and builds our reserves over the year or something that arrives unforeseen uh and then same thing with the golf course at
$30,000 um so that's sort of the concluding part is is you know we're we're in this challenge um and you know the select board on Monday night made a request for the legislature to provide to support the governor's filing once
again of Municipal empowerment act um to you know provide some relief at the local level even if it isn't with the local option taxes which the legislative legislative leadership seems pretty cool on as we know last year they deep sixed it and they're very they don't seem to have moved much this year but we're
saying provide some assistance in some manner form particularly in those that AR don't involve local option revenues um so we'll see if if that occurs um so uh yeah so that's sort of that in a
nutshell um to just I can quickly go through some of the other slides you know for those watching and I know you've had this presentation material and heard of it sometimes again our priorities tend to be education Public Safety capital and public health um the
line item changes again to show you how the where the money is allocated across and you can see you know when they're small budgets numbers move real quick um but basically you can see the bulk of the money goes to benefits and insurance
you know the 3.97 up the 5.7 25 1.77 to the schools uh and Public Safety 435 436,000 and you see some negative numbers because of the cuts of positions uh in Health Department notably in community services and then Municipal
Administration as well uh and our debt service declines in the aggregate but that's most of that is really driven by the the decline of excluded debt which doesn't provide us any relief within the levy and you can see the key ASP there being it doesn't include the funding for the unresolved collective bargaining agreements for Public Safety and Library
employees um as as we'll talk about later this evening there is a possibility that two a couple of those agreements could come in in time for town meeting I know that deadline we can't bring it in on the doorstep of town meeting so hopefully by the end of next month uh the latest you know we'll
have something in place and I've made that aware to the bargaining groups um again 5.6 million you can see the bulk of the money comes from the property tax um and then I provide data on fiveyear comparisons just to show people like well where does all the
money go over extended periods of time and again the money goes to three critical areas schools which is the CHC of public schools in terms of aggregate amounts um but percentage wise it isn't disproportionate uh Public Safety DPW
benefits and insurance you can see the benefits insurance is dis is disproportionate over 41% in five years uh and you can see our debt service is declining over that period um and then I do the 10-year which again shows similar results excuse me you know
um and um and the municipal facilities jumps out more there that's just because of the continued aging structure of our buildings we haven't built the School in over 50 years uh since 74 four was when the last school building opened um and
those that's where our square footage is primarily and so forth um so again the schools that I mentioned they're getting a 2.4% increase of 75.6 five which again is below the $3.5 million request that they had um and
again there are issues and you'll see in his budget is Wages Transportation feding tuitions increases so forth I provide you with the funding levels uh as you can see historically through that and so in recent years they've been around 4 and a
half% um and you know so this 2.4 is a departure you can see this shows where they are compared to net School spending requirements we're about we're over 30% above net School spending um and you can see the the growth in net School spending
requirement is over $3 million and and now thank which thank goodness we're not net School spending because we wouldn't be able to do it and that's what you're hearing some of the communi say to the governor and the legislature they can't meet net School spending because they don't have the revenue if they wanted to meet net
School spending because the how the formula works from from the from the from the uh the state under under the the formula that was adopted back in '92 and there's one more year left of this school funding formula six-year
plan and already the Senate president is talking about well we've got to look at this formula and start developing a new plan the the formula built in the 90s as we know in Chumps real well was really tilted towards those who had enrollment growth um and so here's a case here
where we have a decline in enrollment growth but yet our net School spending goes up by $3 million um so that's that's you know again unsettling um and then this data is available uh again get puts into perspective because people say gee my
tax bill is almost $9,000 on an average single family home well yeah but the the latest data we have back two fiso years ago is that the per pup expenditure for a student at the chood public schools a k through 12 District was almost $18,000
and therefore we can feel comfortable today that it's over $118,000 as we sit here and stand here today um and again I try to put it into somebody's mind well what does that mean that means if you're looking at a classroom it's probably four $400,000 sitting in that in a traditional
classroom of 22 students uh and it costs about $2,200 a day to to educate um under total total cost which includes not only their budget but the benefits The Debt Service and everything that goes to that and this this provides the enrollment as you can see the enrollment
declined as of October 1st from 5130 down to 5068 so it's roughly where it was 10 years ago you look at it that way there were 5 5,056 students on October 1st you know for fy15 so that would have been October 1st
201 uh 14 and then on October 1st 2024 there were 5,068 uh clearly you can see the number of teachers has grown since that 10-year period uh and the student teacher ratio has improved in that 10year period and
you can see class size in recent years has gone up uh and it's about where it was 10 years ago uh at 18.9 again that's just an average um tyly teachers is that um like any licensed professional teach professional
okay um and again here's the budget drivers that that account for the funding increase uh in this in the in the again the school department we saw this U Back In December at the 3.5 the request and again they have a 1.75
shortfall from what they requested back in December chch at the time this was prepared and released it was my the estimate was 4,50 it ended up being 4, 53,6 or 0
41% increase or just over $133,000 um and you can as I mentioned earlier our enrollment decreased by eight students to to um um to 2010 which basically means we're sending about 50 kids per grade level between grades 9
through 12 um and the obviously the district member enrollment increased by seven uh and therefore our percentage went down from 28.8 to 27.4 n and that's why our assessment only went up slightly um by you know 0
41% um and you can see our enrollment has pretty much stayed pretty much stayed steady now you look going back to 21 you're we're in the low twos um and you know again they had lost enrollment
when they did the construction project back uh over a decade ago and and they've also moved out the choice students that they had brought in during that period because they had the capacity and now I think they said there'd be one choice student in the school for the upcoming year um so you
know and they're really constra even with their addition they're constrained for space but the demand for technical education is growing and you can see the most recent data we have for that is that two years ago because they take it from the end of year reports was that it was almost
22,45 for a for vocational Tech per people expenditure and that's because the cost educating just a high school is greater than an elementary school and certainly a technical high school is greater and so really it's not out of line to figure that they're probably spending over
235 uh per student again no shch has the same budget drivers because they're funding everything as a town contractual increases special ed Building Maintenance and capital um vendor and other fixed cost cost again real quickly police same
Staffing levels that we've had for two decades uh it's below where where we should be uh there calls you know again have been steadying at 36,700 range you can see for recent years um the most popular being their
property checks it's so you can see they've just been steadily at 69 officer the same thing in fire 63.5 you know four platoon minimum of 13 the minimum of 11 and that's been the
model um now for again decades uh although we see you know the call calls are sort of in that 6,400 range um again two-thirds of the calls over two-thirds of the calls are medical so in last year calendar year 4330 of
those 60 369 calls were medical related um uh again for employee compensation without contracts it's just over $100,000 um again the next slide basically is the Blue Cross and
insurance again the actual number is 17.77% in health insurance um and so again we're at we're insuring 679 at this point if you went back 10 years we were insuring 610 and the same
thing at 10 years ago we had 857 retirees we were providing U insurance for now it's 992 um and again part of that's due to longevity in terms of mortality schedules and such and also it's just the reflect of if others in the private
sector can diminish their plans then there is more of a trend for somebody to take a municipal plan um so again you know it's the employees cost in this is you know is going to increase because it's if they paying 25% so they're going
to have like a $1,300 increase in their premium um the town's assessment to Middle sex um again 11 million of this assessment of 13.1 million is to advertized the $16 million unfunded
pension liability uh and you see on the next Slide the the history of that uh you can just see that that fourth column the payment on unfunded liability how it just explodes out there
um and again it's going to increase by six a minimum of six and a half perc for at least the next half dozen or so years assuming their rate of return and everything else comes in through the market um we'll see um but it's just you know
that this is legally required to pay it same Solid Waste and Recycling again those are vendor services so those those contracts infl by inflation um so we've got to pay $115,000 additional for collection and Disposal
and then Medicare tax is based on your payroll so we have to fund we're now funding 1.3 million or an additional 5% or 62,000 Medicare tax um Debt Service as of now as we've known over time because we haven't had a
major school project and we've had limited Municipal projects our debt service is very low uh and it's basically going to be paid off in the next 10 years um however what what's really better than the numbers is our
excluded debt is declining now to almost denominal number we're we're falling from 1.11 million to .27 million or a 75% decrease um however it doesn't provide any relief to the operating budget um
because the debt is put on there only and you can see this chart you can see how it's declined we were at you know if you go back five years we were at 3.6 million we're now at 273,000 that's the remnant of the sewer project um the DPW debt exclusion this obviously
doesn't doesn't include the recently approved uh debt exclusion for the fire station project the $25 million project uh that won't hit probably for another year um because we're really just doing design and we don't intend to start construction till probably spring of
next spring um so that's why you're not seeing that here yet and obviously a school project you'd have same thing you'd have short-term borrowing and bands and you really wouldn't see that debt exclusion if it's approved till really the 2030 decade um because you
wouldn't be paying that off you'd be under short-term construction borrowing and bands um but but what is what is significant is our non-excluded debt service and you can see if you go back you know um we were at 7.5 million we're
now at 7.8 um it increased significantly and that's basically the fact that two things were happening one is we're we're responsibly funding our capital and and accelerated that with the real cost of capital so we're now at 6 million out of 160 million and then there are those
outside things such as the school kitchens at the high school and and the roof uh project and so forth that we're not part of the capital but in terms of the capital Improvement plan but we're part of the capital and those coming into you know into our amortization schedule the next chart is a full-time
equivalent employees uh and again why I put this on in a 20-year history is in 20 years we've added 8.6 employees or three less than three and a half percent um on the general government Department side in
the last five years that's just over four based on the numbers that the school budget that came out their number for the up for the proposed budget is 83.6 so that TBA is now 83.6 which is a decline of 4.2 from the number in their
current fiscal year budget uh and that's an increase of 1086 uh employees are 15.63% over 20 years uh or 16.8 or 2.14 over the Last 5 Years um and then I provide this on the
general government side for two reasons one to show you the detail of the level Staffing essentially again like the the right column is the proposed the middle column is the current and then the left column is 20 years ago and when I say Core Staffing
levels that's what I'm getting at you know despite the growth of the in um population of the town as well as the some of the demands on services such as what's goes on now in the clerk's office with vote by mail and all these other
requirements um staffing has pretty much been static um and this is what alarms me going forward is is even in the depths of the recession of 2008 the Great Recession and the you know the economic downturn um in just over a
dozen or so years ago we we just realized we can't operate less than that um and so what worries me going forward is is where do we go and and I do you can see I provide a lot of detail about DPW because if not it gets obscured because
for example 20 years ago we didn't have a facilities department at the time there was the pilot program where the town would and the schools would have emerged facilities operation so if you just put the DPW number out there it kind of distorts it and then it actually
underplays the school side because they had the facilities people um so that's why I put this detail so you can see 20 years ago we didn't have any facilities now we're at 17.5 um sewer Enterprise and Stormer Enterprise again they're not part of the tax levy or the operating budget we
obviously didn't have a storm Water Division 20 years ago he didn't have one 10 years ago um so but we have 11 employees that are funded from the SE charge and again as the sewer ramped up and finished its final phases uh 20 years ago we've been pretty much static at 1
since then um so again I think it just provides some insights you can see even the libraries operating at less lower Staffing than they did 20 years ago police and fire pretty much constant uh and and then when you do when you then you even look at a number like well gee
you you you have a lot more inspectors well know one of these inspectors the increase of one from for the current up proposed year is the fact that we've taken on the regional sale of weights and measures that was provided by the the regional planning agency know the middle count governments we're now the
lead host Community for a three town program and so therefore the body goes to our body count as as a town even though we're being reimb will'll be reimbursed for two-thirds of that cost so again that's helpful um you can see our budget drivers our health insurance
schools re we we've it just sort of Beats it through again the allowable 2 and half% increase is just over $3 million we're projecting $2 million of new growth um that won't obviously be known till the end of the summer or early fall
because it's a reval year um so and we and we bumped it up to 2 million because it's Ral year and also because we know that the first phase of the west campus at two uh 25 prinson Street uh first units should be occupied this spring so
we basically figuring you know that that will affect our growth rightfully so because New Growth goes through June 30th um so again we're looking at 6.45 um on the revenue side you can see again the idea of how much we're reliant
on the property tax uh and even over a fiveyear period you can just see again that doesn't change it actually increases we slightly um and you can you can just see how you know our general government Aid is really tied to the
growth in the state budgets over five years it's 185% and we did get that bump in Chapter 70 funding a couple years ago um and same thing over 10 years um you can see that over 10e period if you compounded two and a half% over 10 years you can
see how the general government Aid is just lacks um in terms of real real value and then even the the Chapter 70 starts waning uh but you can see again the Reliance on the property tax even over a 10-year period um so again the new growth in the
tax levy is 5.1 million from the 2 and half% 3 million to base1 the base increase 2 million in New Growth the slid that I always put every here U shows the where your average single fa property tax bill is allocated
so 45% of that without the benefits and other supportive costs this is the school department budget uh not the support like benefits and and Debt Service uh is over $4,000 and then obviously benefits Insurance our second leader at 20% of
our budget um and and so forth public safety as you'd expect what come after that um and the other thing to note is the shift in valuation and the property tax um so we're now at 85% comes from the residential property valuation and
only 15% from commercial uh which again is a negative Trend um and there's no sign that that's going to change um like I said it's kind of leveling off but it's certainly you know a challenge because of the struggling commercial
market and that's the actual number that does not include the tax shift right okay yep and then the average single family property tax bill you know again if you were just to compound 2 and a half% over 5 years you'd be at 13.14 five years we're actually at 19.8
because of the shift to single family into residential uh and I guess the good news is a relative good news if is if you rank us and the state does account for this and rank us you know one being the highest single family tax bill in the
state in the town of Weston um down to 351 we're now down to 84 um whereas last year we were 79 if you went back to 2007 we were 61 um so yeah taxes are going up in chood but they're going up everywhere uh
and there's no Escape it um that doesn't make you feel any better but it just and and that's why we put the comparison to other towns to show you that the increases in chelsford aren't out of line with what's happening in our neighboring towns um in in recent years
um state aid again the big part of the state aid two-thirds of it is Chapter 70 education funding over just over $15 million and then 28% or just over 6.38 million is General government Aid
um bulker receipts we're estimating 13. .1 million um an increase again over the current budget um that you know it's interesting to see what's in the obviously motor vehicle is a big component of that at
6.15 million of the 13.1 and then um permits being 1.7 million is significant um we don't see anything big out on the horizon uh you know the last big project was the west
campus project um and so that's why the 1.7 seems realistic again if you look at historic levels um even in the first week we haven't seen an influx of Adu permits so every thought that might be a rush through the door not that that was going
to be a significant amount but the bottom line is there's just no indicator and if you look at the issues and whether it's you're in Boston or otherwise the the the market because of the high interest rates is is sluggish available funds again this is all the benefits and everything that
come from the revolving funds that get flowed back to the budget so it's and then the last one I always put the slide in is about inflation and again it's not the 7% in calendar year 22 um but it was 3.1 through November and again it's still over 3.1 because
the J January numbers just came in um and that's that's the problem you can't have 20% inflation in five years and you're at 2 and a half% and expect to hang on in the fact it was postponed because we had that one year of the extraordinary Chapter 70 adjustment um
so that's I'll stop there uh before I know John's behind me on the capital if you have any questions at this point in time or if not I'll return L later after John to review the uh warn articles all right thank you right thank
you and thank you obviously next on our agenda we have the presentation review and discussion of the fiscal year 26 recommended Capital plan with us is John Souza our finance director good evening Mr chairman finance committee members so I just like to
um provide you with a brief overview of our our fiscal year 26 Capital plan and I believe it after the um it's right after yes right there we yes there we go right after so you may recall from the
tri board meeting back in December that the capital planning committee voted to recommend 19 projects totaling uh just over 5.96 million this slide shows a um shows you know the Breakout by functional area and we looked at that
back at the meeting the next slide actually shows um a financing summary of the plan uh you see that um we have uh relatively small amount of recaptured funds which are funds that are remaining from prior year project projects that have been completed and the small
balances are no longer needed so when you take those all in aggregate it's just over 27,000 so the net amount to be borrowed would be about 5.94 million and then what we'd like to do we'll just start uh the first area that I'd like to begin with is community
services so the first project uh involves the senior center and this is uh phase two of the um replacement of the flooring tile with the senior Center uh at a cost of 170,000 and as you see on the slide this
this tile is over 30 years old goes back to when the senior center um was renovated back in the 80s and then we can move on to the public libraries we actually have three projects in this area so the first involves um the rehabilitation of the
parking lot here at the Adams Library uh which is over 20 years old many of us still think as the library is relatively new but in reality the the parking lot uh has a lot of Challen es you see the cracks in the photo the curbing the concrete curbing has a lot of damage to it uh one of the things I wanted to
point out is um our Public Works director uh brought to our attention at the capital planning committee meeting is um we are able to achieve a 50% $50,000 reduction in the total price of um split if we did two packing lot
projects together just because of you know you have less mobilization costs you have economies of scale so uh this project here it a cost a 365,000 it would have been 25,000 more if it was done solely and we'll also look in a future slide of a police department
project so uh that that was a significant savings the next project is involves um the computer replacement of of of computers for both staff and patrons at the Adams and McKay libraries that's at a cost of
60,000 uh the library has a uh 4 to five cycle for the replacement of their computers and then the next project involves this is phase two of the um HVAC system replacement at atoms at a cost of
450,000 um and as the as our DPW director explained um there will be a phase three at this point the cost of phase three is unknown but this is um critical to keep this keep this going um
so because the system is at the end of its useful life next we'll move in in the public safety area uh this project involves the the rehab of the rear parking lot at the police station which you can see goes back to 2004 the cost of this project is
45,000 and as I mentioned earlier this would have been 255,000 more if it was not being done in conjunction with the library lot then we move on to the fire department uh this involves the the replace bement of a staff vehicle uh
that's used by the officer in charge whenever there's a whenever there's a um you know an emergency going on uh this is just under 112,000 uh the vehicle carries a quite a bit of heavy duty equipment and it replaces a 2016
vehicle and then from there we move on to Public Works and as you know from prior years um we always uh try to maintain our infrastructure and the sidewalk Improvement area the roadway Improvement area so we have 375,000
dedicated to sidewalk improvements 425,000 dedicated to Road improvements and these will be based on um priorities assigned from the pavement management database maintained by DPW as well as the sidewalk assessment and master
plan next project involves the replacement of a um 2013 mini excavator you can see it's used by the highway division for a number of project uses the cost of that is 130,000 and then the next piece of specialized equipment is a sidewalk snow
removal unit um you can see it's replacing an older 2003 unit the cost for this is 210,000 it was explained at the meetings that the new unit will be able to have uh different attachments added so it will not be used just for um during you
know winter season and then from there we move on to Municipal facilities the next two projects involve the replacement of trucks and I just wanted to take a moment to explain one of the things that we heard at the capital planning meetings were that um as we've been
talking about for several years uh Public Works is having a difficult time trying to attract private contractors during the snow removal season so one of the ways they've had to cope with this is to try to use more uh Public Works and facility staff to assist with the
plowing so that's the reason that you see this truck here an older 2010 Chevy Colorado which is a lighter duty truck will be replaced with a heavier Duty 3/4 ton pickup that be equipped for snow plowing so that's why the cost is
85,000 the next project replaces a light duty 2008 Ranger that's not able to be used for snow plowing you can see it's a higher mileage vehicle that will also be replaced with a 3/4 ton pick up equipped for snow
plowing the next project following that involves 150,000 for um for Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility improvements at at the town's um public parks playgrounds open spaces and the
actual projects will be based on the recommendations that come from the town's open space and Recreation master plan next project is um involves actually this right here in this building uh this is going to be a multi-year project this involves 180,000
to begin the renovation of two of six restrooms this is basically phase one uh if you've ever used the facilities in this this building you know that since this is a very old building uh there're sorely in need of repair or some upgrades and so this will begin that
that effort the next then we transition to school facilities so just to highlight some of these projects so this this first project involves the securing building secure entryways which you you may recall from the last year's project
this was first piloted at uh McCarthy middle school and so the whole idea is to provide secure access um be able to construct a containment era area so that if someone was to come in uh they could be kept in a certain area till the
screening was done um and you can see that the reason for the um the cost of just over 877,000 is this involves doing this at Four elementary schools biome Center Harrington and South Row as well as the Parker middle school and also
this includes the renovation of a stairwell at at chumford high school to allow for better emergency egress so all of that is combined in this project the next project involves the partial roof uh replacement of a section
at cental school that you can see is 25 years old that's a cost of 130,000 and then there's a project at South Row school for 60,000 this involves replacing the water heater and mixing valve with that school you can see it the unit current unit's 12 years
old and the goal is to try to replace it uh so that we can avoid a you know unplanned or catastrophic failure um then we go to McCarthy middle school um you may recall in this year's Capital
plan fiscal year 25 the design work has been funded this is the first phase of the actual roof replacement work and you can see that this is an a roof that's 23 years old and this shows the the amount of um squiff what area that will be done under this
plan John yes so just that's a lot of money for 36,000 Square ft and then compared to the center school which is 130,000 for 8,000 square ft is it is the McCarthy like it's an older building
obviously is it more expensive because of how it's built the center yeah it's it's an older building and you have um the Center School roof is kind of it's a section of it has asphalt shingles and this is more of a different Design This has a flat roof and I believe the and
you also have um it's a it's a special rubber type of roof I believe and you also have um you also have to solar panels have to be uh removed and then reset so that adds a little bit to the cost as well and I will say this
project because McCarthy is such a large school um this project will also the next phase will be need to be funded in the FY 27 Capital plan so that's the reason for that and then
um also at McCarthy Middle School um 700,000 is budgeted for the replacement of four boilers that you can see there that are 18 years old and approaching the end of their useful life and that is the final project so if there's any questions I'd be glad
to try to address those and then this just I'm sure you know this that that first slide just said you know the the next step in this processes this will be brought before town meeting for town meeting consideration and then assuming town
meeting approves then we would then move in the summer months to borrow the funds to complete these projects so I just have a a question on the you know because I I'm really thinking about the the town and the issues that we're facing year-over-year in terms of of
just getting additional resources so how do we get assets that provide some payback versus more of a consumption asset and what I mean by that is that if you for example with solar um you get a return on that a financial return that reduces your energy cost every year so
how much could we invest to reduce that energy cost to free up more cash flow every year we have been uh pretty aggressive over I'd say the past 10 years or so adding solar capacity wherever we can um there it's at we have
um extensive amount of the the McCarthy Middle School um we have a smaller uh amount at the senior center basically whatever um you know wherever we we allowed to um you know wherever the facility will you know support it um I
think we looked we looked at the Forum but it did not have the the structural that building was constructed in the 1960s and the the structure of the building would not support that so um yeah I guess I'm just wondering like how much are we spending on electricity and if we got creative because you don't
have to put solar on a roof you can there's many different places that you can put it you know how much we save in in the operating budget every year yeah actually we we did a large uh energy saving Esco project I want to say roughly Paul 10 years ago or so slightly more and we have a we receive
um solar payments for solar renewable energy credits we have a there's a um there's a there's a facility in the town of Bolton and we receive revenue from that whole Arrangement um that that Esco project also allowed just for example to
replace all the street lights at that time with energy saving street lights and make a bunch of um HVAC improvements in many of the school buildings so standing here right now off the off the cuff I couldn't give you an exact answer but we have been pretty aggressive at
trying to add solar and and other energy saving features in you know wherever we can to yeah yeah I'm totally with you and I think you know the town's done a great job in that I'm just trying to think like how much more can we squeeze out of these things that will be productive assets versus consumption assets you know in terms of you know for
example if you delayed the parking lots for a year and then you took that money reinvested into solar you generate cash flow starting next year that whole income stream will be into fer the next 20 years or so right and so it'll be some payback period but it's it's productive
asset yeah it it's a little you know what what I've seen with the solar solar project is a little it's it's usually complicated usually you know you you're not going to get an immediate payback but it it's we also have fixed costs for electricity so it may take a while to
for that but we also have to B your your points well taken we have to also balance that with we have um you know some physical facilities like parking lots and that where the library is well used and I will say they've been very patient and um this Project's been
delayed for a while and we also have to look at you know safety costs for example um when that when Adams library was constructed with value engineering the concrete curbs were substituted for granite well fast forward 20 plus years
many of those curbs are crumbling it's kind of a safety hazard so we don't want someone to trip and fall on that and then you know you can guess what comes after that um so it's all kind of a balancing act I guess is the way I would um I I didn't want to talk about it
tonight but we're on it you got to anyway now that it's I'm on the committee so first of all I I approve that okay so what your about to hear is comments that are regretting some of what I did okay from this point of view
I think given the financial condition of the town it's difficult to justify two in my mind two libraries to spend we're going to spend almost a
million dollars between the the air conditioning project not only this year but um subsequent we I think there's more to come I know we save $50,000 on the parking lot but that's
because we're doing redoing the parking lot how of and is the building open every day well we're doing the parking lot at Adams but I mean it won't be now we're taking out the Sunday I think we we have to keep in mind here is that Capital has
to be addressed we can't just simply not address it and so the M the amount that's been increased hasn't been significant over the last decade two decades and there's a plan that goes out 10 plus years on what needs to be addressed and a lot of stuff keeps getting pushed a
year ahead a year ahead a year ahead because you can't address it the other thing to keep in mind is this is a borrowing this it's a borrowing every year and we're we're paying The Debt Service on it not the full of value of it so I'd rather buy projects need to get done that have been pushed off with today's dollars and worry about it in in
tomorrow's dollars right well I I appreciate that um I I you know I might have used capital a few times in my career and understand that a little bit okay um but we're sitting on a situation
where we don't we have two libraries not one and most towns only have one okay and we're in a very difficult time where we're laying people off uh they're losing their job and you
look at this and at the very least you'd say why would you defer this um and maybe there's other projects if you look down the road there's a bunch a whole bunch of projects and you really got to weigh not just what's there
2026 but you got to look Beyond and I think it's going to be a very difficult time for the town to invest in all these infrastructure issues um so uh while I understand if you delayed
delay that's that's an argument I understand the argument but I also understand that you got to make some difficult choices and two libraries versus one library is is in my mind is a difficult Choice especially for the Limited hours
right so I I you know was out with my son trying to go to the library end up in north cheler and you know pulled up and it's just it's closed right and so then to me it's like do you have the the fixed asset you also need the operating costs the whole reason why it's valuable is because the operating cost because
it's open right to serve the public right so it's the same thing if I look at a parking lot we're keeping the library open I'd much rather keep the library open on a Sunday than pay for the parking lot because that's the whole point of of the libraries a community place to bring people together I understand we're comingling Opex and capex here but yeah know Mr chairman if
I may um the parking lot is at Adams library in chumford Center that project and the HVAC system is at at at Adams library in chumford Center so only thing I think in this whole the plan is um a computer replacement I will say very few
of the computers because it's a small building are dead are for McKay in north chumford but I just wanted to highlight that in the slide because we often receive questions of what's being at from town meeting members on that I think the comment still stands though right so if you were to take the Opex
from one library and refund the Sunday hours on the other one at least you'd have a library open on every Sunday I have the discussion every year with the Li Library director the McKay library is it's it's it's a glorified house let's that's what it is so the operating cost
of closing that building are not going to be material because basically she reassigned staff from the center Library full-time staff over to McKay uh for those few few days a week that they're open and so as it's been explained to me and and I'm sure Leslie
and the library directors will come in because they're the ones who control that budget not me they'll come in and say that there's there there's no appreciable Savings of closing the Kay be and they can't sell the asset because of the trust um so the problem they're going to have is yeah you can close
McKay and it it Goods good Optics but it's not going to materially impact the library's operating budget because those employees who in who who move over to McKay those few days are going to come back um and and you're not you're still G to have to heat the building in the winter time so it doesn't freeze or
you're going to totally decommission the building um I it you know it it it it gets discussed periodically but it's not going to materially address and I you know and I know all nickels and pennies add up to
dollars but it it I again I I'll defer that to the library trustees and the library director when they come here but believe me we we've looked at everything and um if it were a major functioning asset we would look to decommission it it just it just
doesn't Pro you know um doesn't materially affect anything in terms of the the I think I I don't see as I showed you you got the same Library Staffing that you had 20 years ago and so I don't think you can come in here and say okay we'll close in McKay we're going to wipe out three employees it's
not it's not going to happen in terms of for them the ability to function um just like we used to talk years ago about why don't they find people when they're book so late I mean we we've had those discussions it just doesn't get get anywhere uh and maybe maybe problem is we've been
we've traversed this road you know over 18 plus years and we've we we we have the scars and and and and experience you know having visited those issues um and the bigger problem with with with capital going forward is the cost of
capital we I was on a call earlier this week with the msba because we're doing the The Accelerated repair program for the South Row School roof and we talked to the op owners project manager we just brought on board and they're like you know your budget's
going to be tight because the cost of roofing is approaching $40 a square foot and we thought we were we were being conservative by by carrying about $34 a square foot because when you went back for a few years ago it was in the high 20s and then when you look at the price
of fire apparatus what's not on here this year but what's what's lined up you know in front of us a fire apparatus and a a fire truck because is is now approaching a million dollars uh not to mention a ladder truck at 1.8
plus and that's because quite frankly the same thing that happened in the school bus industry happened and look it up in the fire apparatus holding companies Consolidated the fire apparatus industry and now there are fewer manufacturers and fewer and less
competition just like when this when this same thing had happened in Massachusetts with the school bus contracts when they now go out and bid for school bus transportation they get one bidder uh and then that bidder which is in our case our bidder is now held by a holding company out of Chelsea and you
know somehow the anti-rust things aren't being uh analyzed closely enough then that's beyond our scope at the local level so bottom line is the cost of capital continues to grow you know just try to do an addition on your house and
that's what John was saying about the bathrooms in this building we're going to do two of six we you know I think originally we were hoping to do two to four but it the costs are just ridiculous and and how many years have we put those off yeah we put those off for years and and
and I'm not sure when we'll get it done and we originally trying to scale it with the elevator project for this building because you want to shut it down at the same time I'm not sure we're going to be able to do it it it is you know this is the this is how I relate to the residents is that doing the same thing you know you know you know it's
going to be H since to see this Adu thing because I think people thought this was like adding a bedroom to the house way do they find out what it's going to cost to construct an Adu in today's market just like it is to put a significant addition on your property or to buy a car or something else it the the inflationary aspects are
staggering uh in in and not to mention the the time leads for this equipment and so when we're talking the roof projects we're talking F summer of 26 not summer of 25 numbers um and we want to bid that work um you know next fall
or next winter to get a good bidding Market because you you you you're just not going to get it in today's climate uh sad sad but true um so anyway it's we I want you to know that we we do look at everything and I'm sure you'll ask these questions of the Departments and boards
when they come in such as the library trustees um you know believe me you know I'm I'm sure their pri first priority is to keep is to keep the library open on Sundays throughout the months of the year they that they've had in recent years and they're having two struggles
one is the cost and two is the employees don't want to work Sundays and that's the other part um is and that's why you see us with these vehicles why are we replacing the smaller pickup truck with a bigger one because we can't get the contractors or the the vendors who want a snow
plow um and so the snow's back yeah snow back Snow's back and it's more the ice is back that's what the salt and what happened with the salt right because you had two years the price gone ridiculous in they two years so now nobody wants to hold in dead inventory so therefore when
it snows in in February you can't find at the hardware store because none of the hardware stores want to hold on to dead inventory because they got burnt the last two years of mild Winters you know it's not that you know that's it's it's just a tough situation
um you know any other questions all right thank you you might as well stay up yeah stay up here let me let me let me go let me go through the I I provided you the print out you have in front of you and I'll go through the slides for those watching and those in
the room because I think sometimes a visual it helps in terms of where we are with the warrant the warrant is is scheduled to be signed uh by the select board a week from Monday uh on the 24th uh so here's the presentation as of tonight uh on the 13th of February first
article is always hear reports of officers and committees so there'll be a financial overview there perhaps an update on the Strategic plan if there's anything you can think of or anybody watching it that they'd like to hear a report on let us know but we'll present it next item will be the consent agenda at this point without talking to the
moderator there's probably 13 of the 34 articles could be consent agenda that's generally pretty much a static list over the year so we won't spend any time on that article two is the adjustments the Amendments of the current FIS budget that really won't come clear into Focus
till the end of next month uh as we near town meeting and the deadline and we'll come in in before you recess to tell you our forecast to get through the final payrolls and how we came through the winter and so forth um article 3 is noova Tech as I mentioned the number is 4,3
5,630 and the superintendent will be providing her um detail presentation I again I provided you by email the the the budget presentation handout you have that the school's a 7 75 m650 th000 uh again Dr
delay's budget is out I forwarded that to you and again they'll be going through it on U Tuesday uh a week from this Tuesday um in detail the next one is the operating budget and again I'll fill in all the line items uh again collective bargaining agreements there
may be one or two that that I'm hoping will be reached uh in time for Springtown meeting um next one's Reserve fund I'm level funding that at $400,000 um to provide emergency or unforeseen I think that's going to be tighter than ever as
the budgets get tighter um so again this year as we've said in the past we'll get through this year and we'll get through this year with free cash at the end of the year but if we budgeting the reserve fund for the upcoming year that's going to be a bigger challenge um as the budgets get tighter um for unforeseen extraordinary expenses John went through
the capital budget so again we we needn't uh spend time to review all those slides so that brings us up to slide uh 40 uh we'll get there oops it's the it's the storm water um sorry sewer Enterprise fund I'm sorry I call it
wrong again as I mentioned earlier in the one of the brief slides is $5.6 million for for sewer Enterprise revenues I in the spreadsheets I provided for you you have the breakdown of that again most of it as I mentioned earlier is for the city of L for the wastewater treatment
um and um the debt that debt increase um for of $992,000 next article article 10 the storm water management Enterprise fund 1.67 million uh the budget increase of 4.92% um for all the town's uh 95 miles
of drains and so forth detention bonds and then there's a Capital One under that uh uh for $290,000 for the purchase of a 10- wheeel dump truck for the storm waterer division um Again The Forum ice rank article 12 is level funded in a
level appropriation at 65,000 um article 13 the cable access again 5.78 um 578,000 um again those details you have in the spreadsheet article 14 is the golf
course again level at 30,000 um Article 15 is the annual appropriation of departmental revolving funds because the municipal reform hasn't been enacted we have to vote these every year under Municipal reform we only have to vote if if the amount
changed um again it'll be consent agenda a cemetery Improvement fund uh David and the trust Cemetery trustees are looking for $50,000 to pave and repair drainage structures at the West jumet cemetery and to remove some older hazardous trees
across the cemeteries property valuation Services we're seeking $100,000 from overlay Surplus to fund the revil for this current fiscal year we're in the 5-year revil cycle some of you might say wait a minute didn't we fund $80,000 a year you know last fall the answer was yes we did but but we we met made an
error we've we we neglected to have the assessors declare the overway Surplus so when they submitted it in the do said where's the Declaration we're like well we don't have it it's because we don't it's I'll take the blame for that I've been around 35 years I guess the M the mistake does is it doesn't occur all
that often so again it's $100,000 to for the property required property revil uh in the community again it happens every five years now on to some more substantive and and important ones article 18 was brought forth by the veterans agent Regina Jackson This
follows legislation that was enacted this past summer under the heroes act um providing new local options for veterans um what we call the cause 22s uh because most of the property tax exemptions are
under chapter 59 Section 5 it's the chapter so big they went from chapter to section to Clause um so anyway under the Clause sections um and what this is basically doing it's providing a Coler increase for the $400,000 exemption
under the um veterans provisions of of the exemp property tax exemption of state law if you go to the next slide you see that we estimate the cost of this is to be less than $5,000 uh in the upcoming year because it's a it's roughly a
3.1% CPI uh on the uh the $400 the reason we're doing this is because the the $400 if it stays static then the purchasing P power or more importantly the value to the recipient diminishes with inflation so it's the fair thing to
do the legislature recognize it but of course the legisl doesn't provide you with any additional reimbursement for the increased exemption there you go um on now so therefore they you know so the real heroes are at the local level because we have to make this Choice uh and take this on and then similarly uh
under under Article 19 under what we call the cause 17s um for for what what are exemptions for seniors who are less than 7 years old minor children with at least one deceased parent and surviving spouses with Estates within certain limits
basically it's it's it's really only a handful of people who qualify for cause you know 17s so that's been $175 um so the estimated cost of a CO on that is less than $50 but it's something we should do uh again just to help those
people because it's it's been $175 since the 1990s um and again the state doesn't give you any reimbursement for this um but it's something that that I think the town in good conscience and again we see other towns doing this is you know if you're going to provide exemptions they
at least should have some material value unlike your social security death benefit that stays $255 for forever um so anyway so that's what we're trying to do there we are working with the assesses to see what more relief we can do in terms of some of the levels of qualification for that
but mindful that the money that goes to exemptions in What's called the overlay account is the same money that comes from your property two and a half tax levy so if we provide relief we got to be mindful of it's the same dollars that we need for the operating budget so you know if we were to if we were to go to
extremes and start doing $100,000 of benefits well that's $100,000 left do you have to to fund you know the operations core essential operations of the town so that's that judgment call a balancing act and I think it's appropriate and we did sit with the
board of assessors John and I and the veterans agent and I think we all agreed that the cola makes sense at this time uh and then we'll look further to see if we can address some of the thresholds uh qualifications for for seniors um
article 20 and this is what I'm talking about going forward um I'm asking for a $50,000 appropriation to to basically as may be needed to look everywhere anywhere going forward of how we can
better provide Municipal operations look for enhanced Revenue sources um what have you so again I don't have an aark for a particular purpose but I know sometimes you can't do it on the expertise that you have Alone um and so I'm basically looking
for this funding um because everything's off everything's got to be on the table now and you can see I G some examples of that whether it's you know looking at new Revenue sources such as cannabis which is an advisory ballot question and then that may take some time either with
Council or industry experts saying well what can the town really receive if it went down that road to well what about Regional Public Safety dispatching do we join a Consortium like in tuxbury where tuxbury and Dr or do we provide a regional dispatch with a smaller community that it joins us that's going
to take a little bit of expertise in order to be confident that if you brought it forward to the town meeting or brought it forward for execution that you knew what you're getting into um same thing with solid waste and recycling you know we're years ago we we stopped collecting solid waste and
recycling at what we call Commercial residential units you know basically apartment complexes um we like Westford and other towns we can look at it again you know a lot of communities don't pick up at residential dwellings condo or or rental
above four units what we do what would that save what would that provide uh we know how it would be received but but we got to understand that and that's why some communities go to it's either a trash fee you know we've gone to the two barrel limit you
know the Other Extreme would be straight pays you throw per a bag you know those those are things we got to look at and it's not just going to be me we're going to look the town last did this 20 years ago where we gathered people together and say hey can we look at stuff and I imagine we'll do that again um and you
know even the water just I think is f to the to the water takers which is the entire town that doesn't make sense in the year 2025 and it has been looked at since 1990 for the town to still be operating
by three independent separately governed water districts or would it make more sense to have Consolidated Administration Consolidated governance I didn't say Town takeover I said Consolidated so again look at the whole piece and that involved obviously an
outside party coming in saying what what would the operating cost be could all the rate payers benefit from a Consolidated water governance and administration as opposed to three billing systems three superintendents three boards you
know perhaps better expertise on the on the various treatment plants that are being pilled for p and then really the situation in East um we don't we I'm I'm concerned as a professional what's going on in East um because we we we don't see
a plan other than we'll just use L's water if past becomes an issue we don't know what the St I don't know anything about it I can't find any information out it on looking online or or and even talking to the Department of Revenue we said well what's their free cash they're like well they haven't submitted the
balance sheet in years and and we we they said wasn't that a problem they said no only if they want to go borrow do they need a balance sheet um and an audit um so again I don't know I'm concerned it's a small District obviously um there's infrastructure that
they obviously are responsible for um I'm not knocking anybody or anything I just it's just that I'm just concerned that there are chood residents who through no fault of their own could be you know in a situation that could be deteriorating in terms of their
investment in their homes that are served by the water districts and so forth and so that may be an issue of of analysis uh again I we're we're trying to do the right things by all the residents of chelsford this isn't you
know this isn't an attack on anybody or anything it's just that when we see towns our size and larger that are operated in a holistic manner doesn't mean the whole the system functions at one but but it's a holistic manner in terms of governance and administration
and oversight and so forth that might be looked at as well so again not there are no sacred cows I guess is the sacred is the safe way of looking at it we've even seen School District talking about the school busing situation earlier the town of Framingham is basically going into a program where they're going to lease school buses and provide their own
drivers and run their own School Bus program I don't know if that's the right thing to do I know con had looked at it they've kind of gone both ways I don't know but when you're in the situation everything everything should be on the table and there is no outrageous or or ridiculous question that's kind of what you were getting at is well you're
looking at everything so but sometimes you need a little bit of money to find some answers um so that that's what that article is um to provide opportunities um article 21 is it's submitted by the superintendent of schools with the support of the
school committee um this is this again falls under state law that in order for them to enter into an agreement um with the state agencies to receive federal reimbursement for Foster Care
Transportation they need the town meeting to approve the memorandum of agreement initially for that to take place under the provisions of chapter 7 chapter 44 section 70 so they have the memorandum and so forth they think this
will probably get about 10 or so $12,000 but hey every 10 or 12,000 helps while leaving it there assuming the federal government still funds it that's the other PR so anyway that's what the that's what this article is is to authorize the um execution of a
memorandum of agreement with the state um Departments of uh executive office of Health and Human Services and Department of Elementary and secondary education and Department of CH Children and Families um to report the cost and receive the title for the allowable
Federal reimbursement to the district so that's what article 20 um one is article 22 is an article I submitted and it has to with the budget process and I've been aware of this for some time but it really never became an
issue until the Forefront of this year and and I Pro and and I really provide all the language in the article because I want people who read it to see what it is but basically the charter contemplates that the manager will receive all departmental proposed
budgets prior to the finalization in sub midle of of the manager's budget uh and the paragraph even even states that you know that the prary budget from the school committee will be submitted um to the manager for review but the problem
is the deadlines are are Co concurrent it says that that the school department submits those 90 days in advance and yet the bylaw of the Town says the manager submits his budget in 90 days um there's a real problem with the 90 days I know for the manager one is um
and I'm trying not to disrupt the process but and this is why I've given you this illustrative schedule how would this work that if you brought it the 90 to the manager down to 80 the additional 10 days will make a difference and let me and let me fast
forward to next year to see if this were in effect and you got to go backwards from town meeting so town meeting next year will be on April 27th my budget would be submitted by Thursday February 5th which would which if we were here tonight it'd be last Thursday submitted in the select boards packet for Monday and I'd submit it to
you at the same time like I did this year the difference is the school department always releases the superintendent budget the first Tuesday in February so the problem is is when I submitted it in last Thursday in the 10 days before last Thursday in January I
didn't have the knowledge and and the benefit of seeing what the detail of the of the school budget and that matters when you're making tradeoffs in terms of funding levels as we were sitting with all the Departments of the town of what can we do where's this what's that this is what I support as you can see as that
gets tighter that's more important and and it's only fair um and again when you were doing level service level you know Staffing yeah it was it was it really didn't matter but now we're in a different world um the other thing is
the nooba budget was always released the last Friday in January so I'm kind of like quietly going to the superintendent can you kind of tell me what we might be looking at and and westfit has the same issue and so we kind of get a you know but then I can't release it because it's
not fair you know I don't want to spoil anybody's breakfast um so therefore I don't have their budget so the last so again they'll submitt it the last Friday in in January so again if that's the last Friday in January I can have till the first Thursday in February to incorporate into into the budget it be a
no number and then lastly the more probably very the most important is the governor's budget this year with there being five Wednesdays right in January I had the benefit of before releasing the budget that of knowing the the Cherry sheets and and the governor's proposed
budget next year January starts on a Thursday so the governor's budget is not going to come out to the 28th well that's not going to help me my budget's you know gonna come out on the on the 29th I I you know we're not doing all nighters um trying you know and and the
sad part is even though the budget comes up the 28th they don't release the local Aid numbers till the following afternoon so literally I'd be submitting my budget be slightly before or slightly after the the the local Aid numbers it just doesn't work so this is the timeline that if we this town meeting accepted
would work for you my 10 days right if you accept all I'm doing under this thing is modifying the bylaw for for the 10 days and and you know to so that I I can you know I can be in compliance with the bylaw by by an 80-day time frame and
given that this board hasn't met the first Thursday in in February I don't think it disrupts you so I I basically trying to take the path of least resistance and least disruption to to to um to get this rather than trying to do a charter change and moving everybody
else backwards um so I think that that that's what I'm proposing here and and I know there's no penalty or sanction if you don't meet the deadlines but I think it's it's only fair and it's only necessary and it's only what I think it's envisioned in the charter that you
have as much information as as anyone would want to have to release a budget plan that's going that goes to the to the town through the finance committee and the select board to town meeting that you don't want to have chaos saying well had I known or what if or did you
know you know that's not it's just not effective so that's why I'm proposing amend the town bylaw to from 90 days to 80 days and that's the scenario that I see how it would play out um and I think in real time it works right yeah it's G
to be a busy last week and we and I can assure you we'll have communication like we have going up to this but but you you got to see the actual you know you got to see the actual documents and the actual plans in terms of the the local Aid charges as well as revenues from the
governor's budget where nooba lands where the school department comes in and again I can't dictate how they do their budget but I can have an opinion and then decide a funding level based upon what I see as everyone else can and we you know
and I think that's where the dialogue and everything would come in because I don't want to be disruptive um but especially we're coming into a period where if if it's very challenging the the the decisions are
more painful than they're going to be than they've been this year that that it we need we need complete information um and again I will work with everyone because we start our process early as you know and I think our process this year has got to start even earlier in terms of the
dialogues um to try to see where we can land um so that's why that's what this article is about is is um a polite way to be frank about trying to come in and saying hey let's let's adopt the regional schedule that's not going to change
anything other than the submission of the manager's budget in real no brainer what's what what would the objections be uh the the superintendent has to be 10 days earlier I think that would be the objection
yeah yeah that's it yeah I think so yeah yeah I mean he can still stay in the same schedule but I need to see it um and and I need you know and I need and I think that's what's contemplated is I need to be able to see sounds like you should have it not just me whoever the whoever the manager is because I'm not going to be the manager forever I mean
I've been doing it for 18 years I love it um and we've had a series of superintendant and you know there was a manager before me there'll be a manager after me but in terms of for the town to function effectively I I just think that you need that holistic approach um to to make an
in an informed decision it doesn't mean the decision is written in stone but you got to at least be able to justify because I can tell you this wasn't a Pleasant building to be in 10 days a you know two weeks ago because you you're making decisions and people want to understand the
context and and that's only fair and you don't want to say oh never mind oh we didn't realize the governor was going to provide or we were going to get hit with this charge from the cherry sheet or oh we we were off on the cha thing because of the aroman shift or because they needed you know to add a a cost above
the the minimum net School spending and so forth and I just think it's I just think that we we need that process uh to take place um or you know you're are you just I'm just gonna I I you know I just it's not fair to the manager that
basically then unilaterally you know I can't issue an executive order but just unilaterally just say well I'm not going to release it and then what kind of what what's that going to do it's not um you know we we don't want to you know I just think it's the best way of going about it is let's let's let's
amend the deadline to to 80 days which I don't I don't I think is doable and I think we've known by our experience that it is doable but you're not affecting the school like their timing of the budget they're still doing it on their time your time you got not practically I mean if you went literally by the word
of the law it would be because what what the what the what the charter says it's the school committee's preliminary budget not the the superintendent correct but I'm I'm not going to go there I'm not going to disrupt their their world I mean despite I mean we you I I'm I'm just saying I need the
spending plan and what we've seen in recent years is the superintendent plan is what the school committee adopts and I'm not looking to you know insert myself into their process I'm just saying I need a plan that indicates what's being
contemplated yeah um in order to make a the the difficult decisions on all sides because you know it's one Revenue source and it's it's one you know budget okay the next article is dog
license fees um again it's been several years since license fees went up so I'm proposing to raise them by $5 for the license fees $15 for the domestic and training cels and then more you know for
personal kennels you can see $15 and then more for that for the commercial kennels um so that's that's what's taking place here to to cover the real cost of of not only the licensing but the oversight the inspections and so forth that goes with the veterinary kennels commercial
kennels and so forth um again it's been some time since those fees were adjusted under seal of weights and measures the same thing um now now that we're no longer with Nim Cog our assessment was $199,000
on the Nim Cog um it's no longer going it's probably going to be closer to $30,000 for our proportionate share to hire an employee benefits vehicle equipment you know the ongoing training and so forth in a three town
Consortium um which we we we consulted with the state as well as the Nim Cog uh who was providing this program part of the reason they get out from under it was it wasn't tenable they weren't fulfilling the full requirements of the position um so I've got to adjust the fees
accordingly um article 25 is the community preservation um you know annual propriation for Debt Service and administrative expenses and reserves and the town accountant us we'll we'll pull those numbers together uh in the weeks
ahead article 26 is a community preservation article this is basically seeking a $2 million appropriation to suppress the uh utilities and remove the utility poles through the Central Square um and if you
see the photo that's what we're trying to get rid of what you see there in terms of the polls and the utility lines and The Challenge on this thing has been the traditional funding source which was the source that did the town common was a search charge from the utilities and
in Verizon's case it was from the landlines well the problem is the landline L isn't a viable source of Revenue anymore and Verizon is not moving to to take on the project without a more uh viable funding source and so
working with Town New Town Council and doing research um with that we found that Community preservation funds have been utilized in other communities for three Pro three similar projects um and so that's what we'll
we'll do is we will we will seek the $2 million to apply it to the to the project mostly the Verizon cost National Grid has no problem with the search charge is $3 million over that in the account to fund their portion and this will enable that to remove this
basically for where it ends up by the common right through the heart of Central Square um you know it's just I know it's a huge amount of money a huge project but it's well supported in the community it's the vision that's been in
place for this Comm now for 35 years uh when this has started uh and we're now trying to execute the next phase of the project will this include um because OB obviously trenching that's got to be done yeah will this include uh
resurfacing or it does not include yeah basically it'll do the they'll do their their base resurfacing okay um the Big Challenge in that is as people may recall there's a brook that runs right across that which doesn't help the the cost as well um so basically
that's where this will come and um my guess is if we with all the engineering you're probably seeing this project constructed probably spring of 207 maybe 20 you know it's going to take a while May hope maybe before then but
time you get Verizon National Grid can agree with a set of plans they don't prioritize these type of projects because it doesn't do anything for them doesn't bring them Revenue doesn't doesn't do anything this goes just to the common doesn't come down down here it goes It goes from the common where
the common is already cleared yeah down through Central Square basically to the library okay just straight down yeah it doesn't come it doesn't come this way no there are future phases in the original Vision that went down slightly onto Bera Road and then down chela street yeah
that would have to be a future phase those phases aren't as expensive but the real intent of the project was the heart of the center and that's why we're moving there next um I think it look great yeah great I never noticed the lights until I had a cousin from Italy
came and she's like why do you guys have straight like these these strings there wires everywhere they're terrible never like oh right they are kind of ugly like I never noticed so true so how does that work like in terms of National Grid just
tacking on fees and then we agreed had an agreement with National Grid and over time under state law we don't we don't yeah this this was done decades ago literally they they have it's it's in the statute that they basically put a SE charge on your electric bill you know and for
right now there is no surar charge because they're sitting on $3.4 million on our behalf or yeah on our behalf only to chelsford um electricity takers um are there other pots of money out there that just are kind of out there you have
to know that they're there no no that's why you don't see these projects very often and and certainly not to the scale of what Chumps would en visioned but I think we can at least get the heart of what we want to do so is it because we're going to be spend we're going to we're spending money that we're getting
them to kind of do the work do the work they're sitting on our money right and then the interesting thing is whether we use Community preservation or sear charge it's it would be generally the same people paying right the beauty is these people are already paying it in the sear charge and we have funding in the community preservation so it actually would they might be a little
bit better off than if we said oh we're gon to we can't we can't do it on cell phones but but if you were Buy in the sear charge you know you you can't you can't benefit it from it and if you're a low taxpayer you can still get right it off in your taxes so I think the search charge approach is actually more
beneficial yeah and again it won't increase the levy because that's fixed you know so we're not increase in the search charge article 27 is the citizen petition article that was uh postpone from the fall and we did reach out to
the petitioner and she does want to come in to Springtown meeting uh so I guess you can reach out to her again Jim and schedule her I will do that all right um Article 28 uh is a zoning article
that's sponsored by the town manager uh and this has to do with with all would allow for fast casual restaurants in the Route 129 overlay uh you can see we'd have to amend the use regulations to delete the word upscale and insert the word
fast um so instead of upscale f F casual would be fast casual um and we would allow two onone property which would fill our quota We Believe of the three that are allowed in the uh under the current zoning and it would also allow them to be
freestanding uh not located as an endcap like you see at Press Cafe uh and we would reduce the size so they actually be smaller freestanding buildings that instead of 35,000 minimum 2,000 and instead of a 50 seat minimum 30 um and we wouldn't requireed they
provide dinner wear uh and we would also re remove this in the bylaw the Restriction of ours that wouldn't prohibit the planning board from if a permit came through of imposing hour restrictions um so I think the best thing to do is visualize if you see the
next slide I just want to put it into context if you look to the top Center that's Press Cafe that white roof uh the triangle you know there's route three there's the the Clover Leaf interchange the building property that that's that's
burned this is on milroad the old white house school which is that parcel right there it's encapsulated by the offramp in mil Road and Bara road so basically it's certainly a a clear commercial property that a buts the off-ramp on one
piece a buts Bill rer Road and a buts millroad um that's what that's what sort of moved this forward um because by the bylaw you can only have it on on that port of mil Road or Bill rer Road um and we we've now been years into the BW and
have not seen any other interest in amenities why this works and why it comes from them is they're trying to fill the property with Lighthouse school vacating and like anyone else in the office Market uh they're not finding tency uh they're also not finding anyone
who wants to put a school in there and really the value of that partiel is its proximity to the highway The Interchange and and so the idea is there already a traffic signal um 90 plus per probably 95% of the traffic would come from B rer
Road in the highway onto Mill Road use it and turn around and go back out um so that's what's being contemplated it would provide amenities which was part of what the overlay was designed to do was to provide overlays the cost what they've told us
again it's not spot zoning but zoning the whole area but what they've told us in this property owner is the cost to demo their building and then build the freestanding requires a grade a tenant lease to justify that investment for
financing and operations So you you're not going to do that with a little Plaza like they tried to do across the street never found a tenant uh or and so forth and so basically the what you call grade a tenant in today's world are your Starbucks your McDonald's those type of
of people who have the track record and the market uh power to to do this type of tency um for the project and um I think if you go two slides in terms of what might it look like that that's
that's free Port main that's the McDonald's and Free Port main that has a drive-thru they took a colonial building and made it at McDonald's you can see in the window if you look real close that's the little golden arches that exists up in Free Port Main and with a drive-thru they took obviously an historic Colonial building
now that's not what we're going to get in chelsford um but the point is is I I think you can as you can see by our CVS in chelsford you can work with the permitting and the permitting of that to get a building that I think is aesthetically fits the
community um in design uh in appearance um so that's why I think this is worth consideration of town meeting um you know I know it's different than what was originally envisioned in terms of upscale retail um but I think I think
the people in the in the community I think in general and I think the people in the business district uh would welcome a Starbucks would welcome another dining option um and yes it may not have table wear at McDonald's but yet if I drive by Press Cafe I can't
tell you what table wear they're using in the building um and I just think that this is worthy of consideration because I think the market has kind of told us where where we're at uh and and this
um I think should be considered by the town so that's that's where we are on on this under this article article 29 and 30 are are zoning and general bylaw amendments pertaining to outdoor lighting Kelly Bey was in this room with
the planning board last night uh in the room virtually I guess um finalizing that lightning bylaw and that will take some discussion at town meeting because you I haven't inserted it because it is quite lengthy and and I'm waiting for the final revisions which should be in
the next uh day or two and then finally um the that brings us to article 32 which is I'm sorry 31 which is technical Corrections what what this is for the MBTA zoning is the attorney general
approved the bylaw the town adopted um but in their approval they said you know you might want to to go back and modify some of your definitions to make them fully improve with with today's standards uh meaning you you remove or
add language and remove language that talks about need for school facilities or in or adequacy uh excluding school systems and excluding the school systems under special permit language and so forth uh and then the definition of family they they kind of suggest that we
change that um to the current language he cross through any number of individuals related by blood marriage adoption Foster legal guardianship living together in one dwelling unit as a single housekeeping unit but not including more than four persons living together unrelated by blood or marriage
no you might want to add something like one or more persons occupying a dwelling unit and living as a single nonprofit housekeeping unit so again this is technical Corrections they're not substantive but they just thought that this is better preferred language that's
basically says the same basally does but it's their preference article 32 is the flood plane zoning District again this is done every 10 years when the federal government updates the flood plane map so we again Chang changing the maps as well as the
some of the nuances of the federal definitions it is lengthy um and so I I haven't been able to fit it in all these individual slides but you will see it eventually article 33 is a latecomer we we're installing electric vehicle charging stations over at town offices
Adams Library the senior center Roberts Field West fire station vinyl square and our current Town Council believes that town meetings should vote to approve the easement for the electrical infrastructure from national grid that goes into these locations um so we're
going to do it there's no harm in it um and then article four 34 the final article is a street acceptance for wood buying Street EX extension um again the town is doing some drainage and another work out there and again we're trying to correct our Maps what you can see that the top right
there is Market Basket on that map um and uh so that's wood bind sheet that runs parallel behind Market Basket so that's so that's what we're what we're doing um so again that'll be a consent agenda item I know I know engineering
has been working with Council on this to again we want to have as much Road that we have as public way improved because that affects your chapter 90 funding and that's your warrant so it's probably three three sessions if I'm guessing if we're lucky if we're lucky could go the
four thank you it's the zoning articles that get you every time my God they certainly do yep okay so moving along in our agenda this
evening which I've just lost we have a reorganization discussion and vote now we're we are missing one member this evening we can proceed pursuant to the agenda or if anyone wants to defer we can certainly do that as
well um it would be uh probably better if we had the full board but I think we have most people here and I would doubt that there would be much objection if we would ask the current chair to serve another term are you
willing to do that what's another year well that's the way I see it yeah you know yeah it's it's it's basically running the slides and writing the letters yeah it's a lot more than that don't don't don't don't sell yourself short so uh if if there's
no objection to the um to that for the from the rest of the board I would uh nominate that Jim Clancy be chair for the upcoming year I second any other nominations I move the nominations be
closed I second it vote all in favor hi hi hi hi so do you have to take a vote on the on the actual nomination there's only
one left so I guess I I can't make the I can't make the motion to nominate oh I oh I okay so I would I would uh I would certainly um also in similar vein I would suggest that we continue and ask uh the current
Vice chair if she would be willing to serve for another year we have to we have to vote on the oh I'm I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry so we have to take a vote on the um yep so all in favor yep all in favor I I abstain
okay um I would also ask the the floor for yeah I would also ask the uh current Vice chair if she'd be willing to serve for another year sure of course you would all right Jim does all the work anyway so there you go one of these days I'm not going to
show up to a meeting that's fine be prepared just to test it yeah uh so we have a nomination on the table do you have a second second okay any other nominations all right seeing none uh
motion to uh close motion to close uh nominations second all those in favor I I all right and a motion on the actual appointment um those in favor for uh Anita tanini as Vice chair I I I'll abstain okay all right
takes care of that moving right along the agenda review and discussion of liaison assignments for fiscal year year 26 budget review let me pull up the leaz on from last year I do have the list okay I didn't see well you're look at
that way yeah I'm so Capital planning kind of stays there it's done can you make it a little bigger can I make it a little bigger oh there you go there we go thank you I keep going or that's good I can keep going Perfect all
right okay so um last year Anita you had Board of Health sure you want to keep that yeah sure okay and anyone wants especially Steve if you want to jump in on one more than one person's perfectly perfectly fine for a lot of these um uh I'm not saying
you have to take over Cathy's um that's an option um it would help though we got a lane too though yeah yeah so I guess what what makes most sense here right so my personal interests you know are aligned with my
family at this point which really are schools libraries um and you know probably in finance across the town right I've got some history too um with a bit of the DPW in terms of like Cemetery side but not much beyond that okay in terms of things that would be
helpful to experience so let's as we go through we'll will'll we'll add you in a cemetery uh Dave the the running joke isn't you've been the best person for that one I have to protect my future [Laughter]
home that's funny anyone else want to join Mr gosin or we can keep it keep it you can handle it it's a quick Dave's awesome you can handle it Dave Bo is Absol there fair
enough okay uh trans Public Schools this is where we lost Kathy yeah happy to jump in there good okay o v a no I got it right here you want I didn't want to do it wrong it's hard one I it once I got in there once
we're all set um and then Dave you want to stay on Sam you want to stay on well okay perfect uh Community preservation fund has been Kathy traditionally I can do that okay we can give Elaine all the hard ones right she's not here exactly that's
how that she tried in her defense she tried to be but we had the issues with the with the zoom um so I've gotten all new set of links and hope so next time around knock on wood we should be all set going forward good we don't have our phone number do we like to text her see if she there's anything she wants no no
no let's not do that she's watching I I know she is and we and this is not final list we can add people on too so so Elane if you're watching you can let us know what you'd like to be added to so don't don't feel like uh this is the final final round if you will
um uh once again have you been on the senior center do you like like that I feel like there's a trend for some reason it seems to fit fair enough all right last year uh for DPW
waste sewer storm and pu cilities we had Cindy and Sam um I think Steve you said you'd be interested in in joining that group yeah again it's sort of I think continuity matters right so the relationships and everything else so um you know if you can you want to slow me
in in areas where it's it covers a lot of stuff so yeah that's fine sure um finance department accounting uh Anita you've done that with Cindy in the past I like to stay on just because sure kind of have our kind of we go through them okay yeah
that works with John sure he may not want that but so we'll keep that for the canning assessor information technology and treasury collecting um fire department I have been on recently um and wants to join that's
fine um completely up to the group how intense is that it's not it's not intense no yeah I'll join you sure and then Library it was Kathy and Cindy I'll I'll stay I might throw aaine
on there there you go but again Elaine you can change if you'd like uh nooba Valley uh last year was Dave Dave Sam and Cindy um happy to continue doing that uh yeah
I can sure sure yeah okay um Peg access Sam traditionally that's been you okay Police Department I have done again anyone wants to join that's fine don't have to we talk to elen Lan wants
see what she wants to do Town manager we just saw the B budget this evening um and then last year you did veteran services Sam yep that's fine okay and again Elaine just let us know and we'll um we'll we We'll add you in where you
like to be okay for Warrant articles um let's take a look at the warn articles again we just went ran through them see which ones we'd like to have come in um if we need to have a contact with them we usually don't have a separate contact
that goes out and Lea with them um but we set schedule them for different nights I know we're going to have the cemeter the uh pet cemetery come back in I'll reach out um likely with uh a few of the articles I don't know uh as far
as the the U the zoning articles are concerned whether it would uh cuz I know they were presented by you for a couple of them Paul I don't know if we want the planning board to come in or yeah I'm just presting the one the planning board will do the we're doing the flood no that's Kelly right yeah I think
we're just doing the flood plane right I think so and the NBTA zoning oh that's right yeah so um yeah so Chris will come in for the MBTA zoning the flood plane those reach out to Chris for that one and then um I think that covers most
them there aren't a whole lot there wen't very many artic that were we only have the one really the one citizen petition I guess you can count Kelly's as one um but really Mary Donovan's is the one I can think of top my head yeah we'll probably want to
schedule them after that yeah in March even my I do I do too yeah certainly okay perfect all right so I'll add those in I'll circulate this after after this meeting so everybody has a
copy um okay uh discuss budget hearing in Springtown meeting warrant article schedule so Pam thank you very much for sending us the uh schedule for this year um budget hearings started this evening
um we won't hold one next week because the the possibility of getting people out and meeting is is is possible but with it being a shorten weekend with the holiday and being school vacation week typically we don't have a meeting next week so the following week uh would be
our first um opportunity really for holding a meeting that the that be the 27th of February so we have one schedule for that night so uh over the next two weeks if people do meet with their leaz on assignments let me know uh we can get them scheduled put them into the schedule ask them which which night
works best for them uh typically is the way we do it and so we uh make sure we accommodate people and accommodate times and stuff like that um we won't hold one the first week in March and the reason we never hold one the first week in the Thursday first Thursday of the month is
because of the conflict with the um appeal board uh they meet the first Thursday of every month um but then we'll have following that the 13th of March the 20th of March the 27th of March really should be where we're
looking to vote um if we have to hold one um after we could technically um because we have the ability um to go to the
10th uh again skipping that first Thursday the 3 I'd really like to try to avoid that if we can so it allows us time to vote and then get the get all the Articles together especially if there are any dissenting votes or not or or or votes that are split where discuss
why we voted the way we voted um just to because enough time to get everything together and get the book out um so that last date would be the April 10th but really we should Target the 27th for being our being our our night that we plan on voting
um Pam will start putting them put together starting the 20th and that that final day would be the 11th um with the uh Finance Community providing uh I'm sorry with Pam provideing the book at that at that time final shair letter
would have to be by the 17th but if we vote on the 27th we should be able to do it wait uh before then uh so we can get the book finalized and get that off for uh the printer and for um the town website and if the earlier we do it really the better and um that way we can
get it on online I know um the warrant the that the charter provides that we only have to have it the week before but if we can have it before then you in in time for the um the strategy session uh the Wednesday before town meeting um and that will be held at the senior center
that yeah um and and tele televised or just recorded I think it's recorded recorded for for viewing it's it's hard to get a hard to get a a live view on that one but um I know there are lot just looking
at the um people signing up for uh town meeting representatives there a lot of new faces that are that have pulled which is great but that information session is really important um and uh it really goes through and walks through a lot of the uh articles and I think it
helps reduce the time spent going through things at town meeting um because people have a better understanding and have the questions answered that week before um so having our information to them prior to that is duly helpful um and then uh Tomy will be
begin on the 28th so get ready for your three nights I'm done three nights in a long time it's been a while yeah we were due for one yeah we are all right um that concludes the the
hearing schedule uh next item on the agenda is public comment do we have any public comment we have one member member in the public but he's not going to comment smart man all right uh I will entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second all
those in favor all right see everybody in a couple weeks