okay so let's open the finance committee meeting at 5:30 pm on whatever day today is March 10th yes yeah let's open the select board meeting at uh 5:32 pm on March
10th all right minutes I move that we accept the minutes from March 3rd meeting I think so too second any discussion all those in
favor that's unanimous 6 all right Board of Health anybody like to make a motion make a motion that we recommend 14868 for Board of Health payroll account number 512-
5110 we have a second second make the same motion for the select Board second we're ready for discussion okay great um you
okay soed of he's got a step increas and the nurse has that many hours so thought that 18 hours per week
wasas number of she's been doing some things on her own time which not real comfortable with like making home visits vac clins we didn't have one
here we didn't have a vaccine clinic here last year at Town Hall so I'm hoping she can help arrange that and streamline it a little bit more how many hours was she working last or was were in the budget last time I
believe we only had 12 hours budgeted for her for um fiscal 25 uh so it it is a fairly large increase but it will reflect more of what she's doing she spends a lot of time at the senior
center so and she's not on the class comp plan right so is it a contract with her or how is that arranged it's just an agreement and so the 3% if she were on class comp she'd
probably get a two and a half% step increase plus whatever we've decided to this okay and then the um the Board of Health agent position it's a different person so um it it is quite a bit more than it used to be um so is that more hours is
that a higher rate is it a little bit of both is it it's a little more hours there were two part-time agents um B bir oh oh wait so if I add them together then it's not any at all well the
78 yeah might be a little different but okay yeah and our backup a our backup agent is covered by greenfield if I need an inspector as part of the shared services Grant I
believe okay and you do the sewer inspections also not just just the restaurants and stuff right septic I don't have the right terminology I apologize but Title Five pools housing
all it yeah skating rings um and I'll probably be doing the barn inspections in the fall the what in barn the barn inspections that's oh the animal I call
them barn because it's yep separate so Ned and just to check an mastero she's actually from the public health uh Valley Health right so she's while she's filling in for Cindy right
so that's the same thing the public health Excellence Grant would be paying for an alternate agent that's correct right so there's I don't know if it's a savings not having to pay an alternate agent or get
paid no they get paid by the grant y that's what I thought I just wanted to make sure I wasn't misspeaking I just that's not only finance question but I'm just curious when you said the barn inspection I can you just expain what that is um the animal inspector is basically
going to uh different properties that have chickens cows sheep anything but cats or dogs so any sort of agricultural they're supposed to be um like residents who have chickens in
their yard also but in the past it's been uh commercialized commercial inspections here in dfield but I'm hoping I can get to the residents who have their own backyard chicken coops and things
like that rabbits sheep cows I'm there's no State agricultural kind of Department that does those kind of things not necessarily but it doesn't have to be the health agent it could be
just hire a person for that period um like they do in weightly for instance but I'm not sure about the agricultural part of it this is just I'm just walking into that part of it today I think the animal inspector is
governed by a certain statute and I think the Department of Agriculture oversees that but I I personally believe it with health pretty well especially now with the Avan with the AV um my question though is on the public health
nurse um so if she's putting in a lot at the senior center are the other towns Contracting with her separately or are they paying any portion of their assessment toward her services
so um the senior center director was approached on maybe covering some of her payroll since she is at the senior center and um that was a hard note so um what I did
was I included the Board of Health budget into the indirect costs it doesn't end up being a whole lot that's being charged to the senior center that way but it's something can you explain that more
detail um what what Board of Health like just can you just explain how that works what you just said the indirect costs so the indirect costs are figured on certain line items that
um you you can't directly charge to like the wastewater treatment plant skims and and the senior center so there's certain things like General Insurance there's um uh The Collector Treasurers Office the select
Board office the accountants office that that are um the expenditures of those offices are applied as indirects based on
that particular budget versus the town's entire um I guess that was my question was whether it like is it an estimate of the number of hours that you or The Collector or whatever spends on that service or is it just pro-rated some
percentage prated as a percentage based on what their operations are plus any grants they have as compared to the entire town and so for the senior center it's a very very small percentage but I
see um because of what the nurse does for the senior center I took it upon myself to add the Board of Health budget the entire budget in for the calculation of the senior center indirect costs okay
thanks I understand that go ahead John are there fees associated with what you do I mean if you go inspect something is there a fee that the town bills the whatever
business for example a perk test would be $350 for the first three hours um there are fees for the permit all the permitting for the restaurants food establishments um Title Five
inspections so I guess yeah your hours aren't going up NES I was yeah wondering if to be an associate related increase in fees but probably not right
so anybody else have questions because I have more questions but I can I don't have to hog the uh I'll just sort of related to that so I'll just jump in sorry so would that be um that income that he's talking about in fees is that under licensed and
permits mostly under Loc okay so a little B further in the middle there okay just part of those you can actually get a print out right of what of all the different the so from DLS you can get a
print out of that that broken out like the the income we've received in past years from meals taxes etc etc I don't know if um I just found it not too long ago but
all of a sudden I still I already can't remember what was on are they okay when it build ins separate from all the others but that's that's the only separation they have there
we set the fee amount or is that the state we set the Fe amount when was the last time we increased it I believe 2022 couple years ago so back to the nurses's hours the
what I heard was that we set the position for 12 hours but she actually worked 18 so this year we're doing 18 so I'm wondering if the Board of Health have thought about or
discussed what the appropriate number of hours are and whether we should like it it may be 18's the right answer it may be that we would ask her to step back and do less or whatever yeah I think um
I don't know if we've discussed it as a board we've talked about it individually with with Brenda and um I guess it was a little bit of a moving Target when Carolyn was kind of setting up this pulling away from furog getting her own nurse um using nacho
Grant and I think we've had a little bit of time to see what is paying for what and what the needs are and you know I'm I'm of the mind of friend of two that I think that we may need to request from the other two towns
uh some some cost because I think her best the best work she does is visiting people in the home visiting people at town uh at at um the senior center I know that the senior center has a kind of a back you like a friction with with
having a nurse there mainly because um it may interrupt the programming that they have planned but it doesn't mean that they don't agree with the mission of it and I think for for me as a board of health member and I think of our seniors and and the needs they have especially the ones that are are shut in and at home
and that she does visit with that I would love to add more hours I just know we don't have the money for it I think 18 is she's probably been doing more than that and I think she was like whoa I I don't know if it was who was communicating those hours to her but she wound up working a lot more of that and
so I think the 18 is is a if we can afford it is a good number whether we have to come back and look at it again uh I'm sorry yeah um so um I think it's important to do I think it's it's it's probably the best value that we spend to
our seniors um uh for for their you know blood pressure checks she does so much there but I do think it's worth having conversation with the other towns and seeing you know because she does a lot there could they could they afford to uh to add that I don't know if we've approached that conversation with the
towns yet other than just with with um so Tim has some something then so the short answer is no the Board of Health has not had a discussion specifically about this and I would you know a six-h hour increase I'm learning
about today so um it's something that the Board of Health should have a discussion about and maybe we should put it on our next agenda uh Christopher um because although I agree with everything that's being said about the need for the
community we need to take control of this a little you know we don't have a contract we don't have an agree we have a verbal agreement um so we need to be more responsible about managing this process so uh I don't know how anyone
else feels but that's how I feel yeah one one thing I should mention it's uh Cindy is only doing the home visits in Deerfield the only work she does at is but at the C Center she just kind of sees whoever's yeah whoever's available
yeah uh I think the other component component of this that I've been talking to her on a regular basis when she's in her office is the education part that's going with the seniors as well so it's not just doing the blood pressure checks and those sort of things it's it's it's a broader range of what she's doing
that's probably extending those hours but I'm in agreement with him I think we need to have a discussion so we have some parameters to work with here and I think also it'll give us a better opportunity to have a discussion with with waitley and sun saying you
know we might be providing three hours a week to sunderland's seniors and three hours a week to weightly seniors I'm just making this up but it would give us an opportunity to have that discussion better frame there's an agreement with the senior center that
Deerfield we don't need to solve this now yeah Deerfield I'll finish my comment Deerfield pays 50% the other two towns pay 25% each so maybe if you look at the hours that she spends at the senior center specifically that may be a a something you could apply to it or something um or start of the discussion
at least one of those other towns does pay for the public health nurse I I don't know the number of hours or how those you know they're allocated so um I guess that's something that we I just wanted to make a note too that there was a question on bard of Health Revenue so
Brenda provides the revenue detail so they are laid out um under the revenue accounts for of Heth anybody is interested in looking at break down so a lot of this kind of rubs me the wrong way but it I mean it seems like
the kind of the right thing to do it I'm wondering uh if I I was going to ask if we should table this but this is my motion so I'm wondering if we should just withdraw this motion and give uh the Board of Health sometime to figure out what the number should be maybe it's
18 maybe it's more maybe it's less but uh I don't like the Genesis of this budget item so far so um would you be willing to maybe talk about this at a later finance committee meeting after we find out what the Board of Health wants to
do fine by me all right I'll withdraw my motion who second is it is the issue more who's paying for these hours or that there are extra hours um my my issue is both um you know hearing that you know we went from 12 to
18 because there was some sort of miscommunication I'll call it that um is one of them um who pays isn't as important but it just seems like uh uh our our Board of Health is here and wants an opportunity to talk more about what that number should be so I think we
should uh do that can I ask so we're still um we're still going to discuss it for a few minutes even though the motion I've forgotten who seconded it um you going to withdraw your second okay but
whatever um so the the public health nurse also has a responsibility for like tracking cases of different like if covid or I don't know if the bird flu becomes a problem or whatever that
that falls within the scope of what we've hired this person to do right or is that something the F because that's something the fcog person did yes the furog uh nurse Lisa had done that would would manage
and discuss with the schools and then you know generally something most of the time props up in the school system the school nurse would have a conversation with our nurse would also conversate with um with Cindy I don't think we've had anything recently but um but yeah
something can pop up me can pop up you know something can pop up pretty quickly and we need to uh keep on that and that's generally what what that communic would be with our with our public nurse and our Board of Health agent the other part of that as well is
the fact that she's uh in charge of any grants that put out like the covid testing or if there's anything else that needs to be done for the seniors or if she has to coordinate anything with the schools because of the measles or the biru or whatever the case whatever comes
up so I know that she's she gets involved in that aspect of it too so I mean there's a lot of moving with her and like I said we need to find out exactly what all of those are because yeah we find out that she does a lot of work it's a big job and it's an
important role within the community so I don't think anybody's saying that we don't want a public nurse doing their job but it's just the it feels sort of arbit it came around like the Board of Health should talk about it yeah it it developed it maybe that this is the right number no conscious discussion
yeah yeah okay yeah since I'm the one with drawing it like I said you maybe the number should be more I I don't know I think you know some some of the stuff um this the same person is it one the
same person works for another town too right is it a full-time job Al together or is it she's just she's just working for the town of Deerfield which okay which is why she limits her home visits to Deerfield because she said the Thunderland nurse visits the the people
in suland and I'm assuming weighty has a nurse that the people in weighty so she has limited her home visits to just Deerfield residents because of that but okay she's still at the senior center 69ine hours a week at least right oh wow
okay yeah does the Sunderland nurse go to the senior center too no we know that no I don't know well I don't know if the Board of Health could speak to this but it has I know there needs to be more conversation with the other towns
but has there been any agreement for the Deerfield public health nurse to go to the senior center at this point so I think and again I like I said I I've been talking to S quite a de and one of the problems is there's not a place for them to really set up where
they are now it's very temporary so it's hard for them to set up the clinics and do the things that need to be done so I think that she was she got herself in there and could get herself set up and then to have another nurse come in afterwards and maybe have to change
where they're going to actually set up the next Clinic where they might be doing blood pressures that sort of thing so I I think that might might be what the problem is the fact that they're in a temporary location and they're having trouble with a when they were at the church they had a specific place where
they could set up and do what needed to be done in the new place where they're they're splitting in in waitley and then sundelin and especially the the the unit in sundelin is so small she could probably do a table in a chair and that would be it so that's where her office
is now in the no her office is here oh okay okay but this this is just for the senior center is what I'm saying okay the whole reason she's at the senior center at all was that
was that we felt as a board of health when Carolyn was on that it was extremely important that that this board of health nurse or the town Deerfield nurse spend time with the seniors it was critical uh had to be there had to be spending time there was push back from
the director saying like there's no room there's no time but uh it was something that was kind of uh really I mean it's really where her need is the most but it's just so inconvenient because there's not a real space in not real privacy so she does hold her office
hours here but she kind of goes where they are and then goes to where they are at home mostly as well so I don't think she I haven't been had a chance to talk to her about she's been out for a bit how much time she truly spends there but I don't it might not be as much as we
think so go ahead I'm back to fee Revenue again I don't want to leave nickels on the table if I have three chickens you're supposed to come in and inspect my facility or coup whatever you
call associated with that I'm sorry is there a fee associated with your coming in to look at my chickens no no price of eggs yeah no there's no fee um I do foresee a problem finding all
the chickens in the town right that was going be my next question right last year chicken tag a dog tag yeah I looked at the the inspections from last year and mo they were commercial
inspections they weren't any residential they're technically supposed to be residential commercial could thank you okay that was a lot of discussion for something we're not voting but I feel like we're prepared to vote on it
when it comes back so let's go to one more thing um with the the animal inspector position it's it's listed under expenses and it if I was to take the position it would go under my salary the
$2,000 stien so that's a lead into our next St I think we should probably just hold off on all of the rest of the Board of Health stuff right now just um so that that could be worked out right is that what you're saying now
right yeah dick dick is Dick does the inspection right now um he just submitted a a time sheet through the end of March so I think he's planning to be done at the end of March right um because he usually submits some
six months at a time and this time it was just for three months if we're not going to discuss the other the Board of Health expense um it seems like maybe if anybody has any questions for Mr sisy now so that you don't have to drag him
back here a second time so so we're not going to why don't we go ahead and discuss the the the Board of Health expense also okay so so that's 512- 5400 so you're suggesting we don't make a motion and
vote this this evening because that 2,000 could shift over to the salary line correct if n's doing it it should be in the salary line I okay yeah so are there it's a 2.16% increase are there any items that you feel like you should talk
about the only item that was increased was the Mosquito Control by $250 and that was uh across the board for themit Char oh okay okay got it anybody have any questions on the
expenses line I would just say if we have anybody watching from the public that tick testing is a line item still on here where we um subsidize homeowners um we encourage them highly with warm weather
coming when ticks come out if you have ticks on you uh please bag them and mail them to I think it's UMass is still doing it is that right um send them to UMass and then and then we we get that data back which is crucial to
know what what disease load is is happening so please continue that is it on the website so for that is that just like every time somebody does that this line item gets charged and we're just estimating this is the number of ticks that will get
sent in okay got it that sounds right because I think it's 50 and you get charged 15 if you're in dfield so is this any ticks that I found okay that's what that was my question if you found the yard you found
them out okay right yeah I didn't know if they were doing General testing on it okay y Trevor confus are you saying that the homeowner gets subsidized price back
because they know that from the yep I just know that I I walked one in last year like I put the bag went and dropped it at UMass I just don't I don't remember any kind of subsidy or when when you pay for it you put your address
in well I've done it online you pay for it you put your address in and the price that comes up is $515 and if you lived somewhere else it would be a different number that waight tick across the Deerfield border and so is information for people to mail
in their ticks on the town website did you verify that will yeah and I hand delivered one too so yeah home visits how do you what how do you qualify for a home visit I'm just
curious that has nothing to do with the budget usually usually it's it's we know our our ones that are shut in or can't get out um we have a list of people that you know maybe have an operation or something or home alone or elderly um so
we regularly kind of check in with them and then um our nurse will just go and visit follow up with them really spend some time with them a little bit and then they can kind of catch as something you know going on did they not see and are they getting their blood pressure
check that kind of thing but yeah anybody can but generally it's those who can't get out to their doctors and I I think that's fluid too in other words you go to the hospital for a certain instance she'll be coming bu to check on you make every make sure everything's okay until you get to a point where you
feel comfortable say I don't need you anymore that type of thing so it would be like not a home health care but it would be just checking on you and making sure that whatever had occurred in the hospital is being followed through and then that way you've got uh continuity
as you go so you you don't end up back in the hospital so Ned um if you are able to appear at our next select board meeting on your board of health comments you might want to mention the tick thing um it is on our website if you go in and search for tick um you get a link that
says sub subsidize tick testing for tick born diseases this is from April uh from August to 2023 so we might need to update it with with UMass um because this was no costest um and I think there since then it we
subsidize a portion of it but I'm yeah so yeah I appreciate that n well thank you for coming by even though we didn't vote on anything we look forward to the updated budget next
time anybody else have any further questions or comments for Ned thank you thank you thank you right I'm sorry um on the public health nurse and further investigation on the number of hours and she's only two hours shy of of
being a benefit of employee so I would select board to be very mindful of that yeah she's not interested correct yeah okay okay all right so um we could do the school budgets if you want that that
was what was on our agenda I'm going to assume that no changes were made last week because I didn't hear anything otherwise okay far as I know so um froner did the public hearing and then they met two days later and voted
the budget and I I haven't heard but I assume they voted what was present at the public hearing I don't think Deerfield has voted it yet right 27 or so okay um at least that's what it said on their calendar I would
be comfortable discussing it and voting it pending their the School committee's Vote or something you guys are okay I did ask them about that she said that the balance right now is about
900,000 and that the expectation is that some of the playground was going to be paid for from that account so she expects next year for it to be down to about
700,000 the other comment that was made about it was that and I'm not in the position to argue at back I'm just telling you what she told me um the the other comment was that made is that we are down to two classes per grade in
every grade except for sixth grade um next like one year from now now that sixth grade class will graduate and at that point they will probably be down to two classes per grade they will be down to two classes
per grade in every grade um which is further reduces the number of school choice kids that you have because it's one less class they're filling up I mean sort of philosophical question of what our role is with the school budget because it's sort of ironic in a
way that we go through some of these budgets not a fine tooth problem like Brenda does but we go through some of these budgets in detail on dollar amounts that are not that significant right and we talk about the school budget without looking at it it seems to
me very much at all um in terms of just what whether we I'm just philosophical as I said from the beginning I don't know whether we what we feel our oversight should be since obviously there's a school board whose job is to do that right but
but um I had asked had some emails I was hoping for when I was on the committee you get a nice narrative right and you know exactly what the plan is just like we have we have the sources of income where money's coming from various things and what they're spending it on and what the
changes are this year to next like you know be add my lose teachers like you're saying going down class sizes I don't know how much of that we should care about or whether we should be looking at sort of generally what kind of increases do we have Etc my issue with the school
choice thing again was just again philosophical I totally think the school should be supported and then some um but but they have a large chunk of money that is sit sitting there in the reserve
is way more than the reserve that was there in previous years it's the town's money um and you know should we have a lot of debt to pay for and you could grow some of that on the debt now so pay
on that forever and ever so that's just one thing I'm saying but the other thing is I just want to push I'm not pushing back at all because I don't know the facts but the same discussion last year we were told that school choice at the end of
the last disc year was going to go from million 16,000 down to 935,000 at the end of that fiscal year the balance was 1,1
122,000 so it was almost $200,000 more in the account at the end of the last 6 year than was predicted I don't know exactly why that is but in terms of that question about are you going to spend it down or is there some reason we shouldn't spend it
down I don't know you know what I mean I just I just that now sitting on this committee and knowing all the sort of um you know pressure points on the town and needs for certain things it just seemed to me that there should be a
discussion about sounds like you've had some information about how that how that is going to get drawn down in the next year but that that's a big draw down from end of last year million what did I say
million mil down to 700,000 is interesting I don't know what's in there now Brenda because lately when you've been giving us these monthly sheets it hasn't been down no it was uh it was just a I
thought just a a little over a million when we met the last time and I looked at it yeah um so I don't know trly what you meant when she said it it's what she said yeah that it it was around what she said
it was around 900,000 she didn't give me an exact number and I think she was going off with memory yeah um in the meaning yeah um because the other thing is if is that kind of a pull down that
should mean that significant increase in spending that's more than the're being okay unless it's unless it's going on to some Capital stuff that we don't know
about it's part of that discussion which is great so part of the I unfortunately didn't bring my notes with it so GNA push back just a little bit sure I mean I'm just I put out to this committee the dates that the school
committee meetings were and encouraged everybody to go and the reason we do that is because that is our Forum to have the business manager and the superintendent and ask them these questions and that's the right person to
ask those questions of because they are much more ingrained in it I did go and I I did ask that question my memory of what she said but maybe we can ask her again maybe I I'll send her an email and ask her to send us something that way my
memory is that they use that school choice voice budget as a buffer so when they have some expense that was unanticipated they can cover it with the school choice funds instead of having to come back to the
town they use it for Capital expenses but they also use it I'm not going to put this right but basically that buffer goes both ways so when they're able to save money she they made the comment for example that
they're pretty good about their their substitute budget they pretty much don't spend anywhere near what they have in their substitute budget because they're able to cover the classes with other people in the school and rotate things around and they don't spend that and
when they don't spend that that's money that they have available to do other things with and then they don't dip into the school choice account as much this was my impression with what she said um so I feel like it's just a a buffer that
they are able to use to to smooth what they show at the town which is great and I'm I'm all for having a buffer I'm just I guess I'm questioning uh the extent of the buffer um given it's so much more than
the sort of $500,000 range that I remember it used to be when I was on the Comm and then again to use your phrase push back um if it was a buffer and was used for certain expenses you know the end 2023 fiscal year the balance was
1,10,000 so it's a great buffer how much of a buffer do we need whose job is it yeah that's like a 20 plus percent buffer right the whole thing is five million and and I guess what I'm saying Julie is that there's no variation there like if
it's a buffer it's be maybe it's being used as an account during the year but it's not like we're seeing something bad happen that year and so they had to dip into it right because the end of the year you know there only there was a drop at the end of 2018 I think but that's years ago you know 2022 it was
1.2 million 21 1.2 million 20 I mean it's just a solid Chun of cash I don't think we're earning a ton of interest on it just whatever it is interest that the town of Deerfield hits but but it's you know
it's less than these days it's I I don't know what account Sarah has that can't tell you what the interest rate would be but it's less than the interest we're pay on debts that we
yes so I'm again I really don't I mean very slight opinion I'm just sort of questioning who you know what I mean do we have any other accounts with that kind of money as a buffer so so to speak I mean really a
security for Calamity happening to our town budget so the school can you know keep going at the level five so and I also don't know the differ like e and D is sort of like free cash right essentially yes and I don't have a
feel for how big their end is every year and I I think they're limited AR are they not limited to how much they can keep of that I push Li they have excess that they have to give back to us right if um they have too much yeah
yeah I don't know and like those those school committee meetings are the place to ask those questions I I do think that they've had access to other funds over the last three or four years that they were never anticipating and they come
when they just I mean I I I think that they might have an intention to spend some of the school choice but then they get the or the rural School uh money or you know various other Hots of money that they then use
instead yeah um and I don't know if they always know when that's going to be coming yeah christop go ahead Christopher I was just gonna me I don't know if you want it but I have the excess and deficiency numbers
for this year um and a couple past years so it's this year was around 650,000 um um and then if there's I think it's more than 5% than that of their budget including Capital that has to go back to the towns um and excuse me actually that
was for Franklin County Tech let me pull up the um Frontier one as well yeah and so for Frontier similar so their end was 670,000 [Music]
um so yeah you have the Deerfield Elementary let me take a look yeah I'm not seeing it here on the list I'm looking at I can do some digging and um try to get you all those numbers because I believe they're they're listed some
somewhere by year um so I can send that along to the committee the flip side of the debate too is what I sometimes felt which is you know sometimes there's a lot of stress about the school budget among in the school right among people teach
whatever and I remember thinking like why are we making people stress when we have we could put more money into it easily and still have a very healthy balance so I'm I'm just throwing it out there that whether it's money that gets spent on school budget or money that goes towards paying the library debt
some other debt I just don't know that you need to carry a million dollarss for a Cen um and I don't know that there's anybody's been presented with capital expenses that we're trying to save up for either so that's all when I and so when I feel like we're not that anybody
feels giving anybody a hard time or any budget Department headed up here feeling nit but just you know we stress on people's budgets and at the therey at the dees meeting they did mention that you know they're concerned about
expenses with building you know it's getting it's getting sure no no there's always but the expenses they were talking about were like $50,000 not 500,000 back to Jim's notes from that first budget from the first um
elementary school committee budget meeting um that they are applying looks like they were applying at the time $55,000 of their rural funds rural aid funds um but I don't see any other indication that they're applying any
other so I think though they they increased that a little bit right because after that meeting they were above 3% and then they they voted to make it a 3% increase so they applied a little more oh
okay I did try to attend that meeting so you don't scold me too much but I was remote and it was horrendous service I saw you were there and so I logged off yeah the one I went to was um there was no remote at all apparently so um
yeah and I just have a question about um is school school choice money treated different L than you know money that we would give the school so if we gave the school excess money at the end of the year do they have to give it back I mean
is it like other budgets where and as school choice specifically we don't have control over it yeah it's it's theirs to control so the school choice is a is a fund a special Revenue fund and so all of the state money that's given per
school choice goes into that fund and then the school chooses how to use that they they use it you know typically they fund uh several quite a few ia uh positions with it and then they
fund um Capital with it and then they um they use it to offset budgets and then they have it as a reserve for you know in the middle of the like if if they didn't have school choice in the middle of the year the town would get hit you know if we have somebody with a special
education move moveing the town that they would they would use school choice funds for instead of asking the town for money and I think you're just saying that the the Delta is kind of too high and should come down and I I know we sound like a broken record but I believe
that is going it's all trending in the other direction and and yeah so if it brought if it brought it down to 500,000 or something like that instead of 700 or 800 or 900,000 that makes sense I so I think they're going to use uh quite a bit of
it for the for the U like you said the playground the IIA inst structural assistance I think there's like six or seven funded with it and then and the reading Specialists and all and then several Capital items and then their
Capital this year when I talked to Darius he said there's only one that he really uh would love to have which would be um a c a water pump circulation pump that kind of failed I think at
weightly uh it was yeah and then they so they have two over here to change so it might be a couple year program to change that he said the flooring everything else on the thing could hold if it needs to for a year it's not not critical but that was the one request he had go ahead Trevor has has the um
School Union and and Frontier Regional School District um are they are they phasing out school choice do we know no no they're not they are not so for Frontier they uh they vote every year whether to do school choice
and Frontier is the beneficiary generally and they only add uh most of the school choice that comes into Frontier I think based on that meeting we were at was was feeding from the elementary schools and then uh
the only the the other portion where they add students is in ninth grade beginning of high school because a lot of kids get pulled off to to tech school and so that's and then after that they might just fill in a few spots here and there in 10th 11th and 12th if there
happens to be an opening but generally it's mainly the theaters are from the elementary school and then after a lot of the classes go and then really that what I heard from their discussions about school choice is that it would be a dramatically different school if it
didn't have school choice sure we would maybe fun one less a couple less teachers or something like that in classrooms but we'd have quite a few less choice for the kids a lot of the AP classes a lot of the other Arts like band um sports that kind of thing you
just don't have the population to to fund those diversity and then it's like a dog chasing its tail it just it just kind of falls apart kind of pioneer had that problem and it just it just fell apart uh so there's a kind of a happy
balance there and I think that they're at that and for Deerfield uh they're quite a bit more selective I think in what they're taking I think some of the other schools Conway weightly they they they need you know again to keep the schools going they need that that those numbers Deerfield only takes enough
school choice to to fill up the classes that they already have so if they have a class that only has 13 kids in it they'll bring it up to 16 or 17 or something and they're they're back to they're down to two right every grade
yeah K through6 yeah yeah go ahead Jim so this just occurred to me and I don't know the answer um the town the school system gets money from school Cho from students School choicing into Deerfield when a student in Deerfield
School choices to another school district the town pays that right right it seems like that would be an obvious like balance offset or whatever like shouldn't the incoming school
choice funds pay for the outgoing school students it do it does yeah it it works to our benefit and it but the school choice money comes into the school school so for Frontier it's all at Frontier right none
of it goes to the town for Deerfield Elementary you're right the school choice money comes into the school the school choice goes out of the town one other really is the same is the school choice amount that comes in for
pupils that are coming in from other schools is it compensating us fairly for what our costs are no no feates inil this this is an important point right if you follow the monra that
Deerfield Elementary School is following where you only add a child to a classroom where you already have the classroom anyway it's $5,000 per child plus special Edge so if the kid needs any special ed the the sending Town pays
all of their special ed so it's $5,000 per child so if you have a class where you have 13 kids and now you have 15 kids and you got $10,000 it is not costing you $10,000 likely to add those two children
if you're in a position where you are adding classrooms then no if you had a full classroom of kids at 5,000 a pop that does not cover the salary of the teacher and the teacher's aid for that class what if you
had to add a teacher not a classroom you don't need right right but Dearfield Elementary does not add any teachers say say again Dearfield Elementary does not add any teachers for school choice so it's either if depending on the number
number of school choice kids to come in it's either a new classroom or the student teacher ratio gets think about this way that's what I'm hearing no let me give you another example if there were 30 kids in first grade I think you would probably want
not to have one classroom right there were 30 I what's the expression Dearfield kids if there's 30 Deerfield kids in the first grade you don't want one teacher teaching 30 kids right I hope not at elementary right you no no
noise 30 30 Deerfield residents correct right right so so now there's add you know maybe two or three kids to each classroom because you're only going to seven if there's six school choice kids that's they would they would school gets
to decide how to take yeah yeah you you decide how many slots are open there might be two slots oh you don't have to take any it's a lottery and choose how many slots one per class and two in this class and one in that none in this class
yeah I have you another question David alluded to the budget we're looking at A5 half million budget and we don't look at the line so I was just thinking so I really
to push back again welcome to go to the meeting I advertise the meeting go to the meeting but now that I vented for a second um we have we can get the slides from Shelly so what I think we should do is next time we meet go through the
slides from the school committee meetings it won't be as good as the presentation that you had from Shelley and Darius um but I can go through them and everybody else who has been in the meeting and we can look get that both of these um this Deerfield Elementary and
Frontier both are Level Services there there aren't any new um new classes new events New anything this year there were last year but there are not this year um so this is both of these are Level service but I think it's worthwhile to go through the slides that that they
presented which gives you the description and and and a little bit more of a breakdown I think we need to do that I don't think saying will you volun to go to the school committee meeting no I didn't say will you volunteer to go to the school committee meeting I said we are holding a meeting
on this date and that you should go and if you have questions about the school committee finance committee meeting they have it was not a published finance committee meeting it was a school committee
meeting at which the school committee people presented not the school committee people the business manager and the superintendent for the school presented the budget and those meetings were advertised because that is our only
venue to get them to answer questions about the budget that's why we advertise the meetings and that's why you are welcome to go if you want to we can make it a finance committee meeting too if you want to and I think I think we need to do that you can still get the budget
with the line items correct yeah they're all there it's available if also I think it was recorded Darius to come here to our finance committee meeting because they already go to Five school committee meetings every month plus the public hearings plus everything else it it's
excessive to ask them to do that um are you done with that yeah can I just ask Brenda I'm just curious um just for comparison sake do you know what the frontier school choice account
looks like on average the end of every year like are they carrying a buffer I don't I don't get that information from Frontier so it's a lot higher we have the numbers oh okay I I'm not they have a bunch that they also carry on year to
year in their account yeah us so when you say we I'm sorry when you say we don't have that um so so in other words the frontier has their own account it's their own District right that's in there somewhere it's their own District yep so they have that we don't have it as a
town like and they have far more choice in than they have Choice out no so again I'm not looking for the Delta of like I mean obviously the subject clearly every year there's Choice money that's coming in y and it's being spent and that's great that's how the whole system is supposed to work yeah there's also this
other account at the end of the year which is Schoo account like what's still in oh you're wondering what the balance is in Frontier school question I meant yeah so what just for comparison sake because you fronti got m then you could argue this is sort of a standard thing
it wasn't that but I mean I supect Frontier may not have that they don't and really generally that's how they used it like to pay off the the loan we had they they you and to zero out our budget the other
year so they used that quite a bit to kind of um again for all four towns or four towns they they used a lot of that school choice money Esser money and other money to kind of zero out the borrowing that we were going to use but yes there is I don't know the dollar amount right but it would be interesting
to get that number because if that number is sometimes not nothing or corre 100 or 200,000 then they should probably have more for bu but I think that would s demonstrate that maybe some of this money should get spent on things the school needs yeah
or and the only Authority we have around this I suppose when you ask about is is around whether we approve or don't approve the school budget right meeting yeah well or you could make a motion to reduce this number by 200,000 and but
this is why I'm trying philosophically because I think the schools do a great job Elementary School do a great job of coming in you know working their budget in a sort of whatever we're I don't know two to three% kind of range unless there's a crazy year yeah so I'm certainly not at
all complaining about that um but again that there's money they could spent on the school be less stressed out or I think the town should be spending it on we should ask shell perhaps we should simply ask shell what the resort what
why they're maintaining that large what what they have in mind for their Reserve that Reserve yeah and the answer to that was the buffer business and the they're going to be subsidizing the playground next year and whatever
that the school choice population is dropping because the size of the school is dropping and that they won't have as much going in that is the answer when I ask that question go ahead John they use if they use school choice money for a capital project does it go through the
capital project committee one for Deerfield yes not for Frontier I don't think unless they're asking well it it depends for Frontier Brena I'm just
you were gonna say you had your hand up so second go right yeah I you know I I think I I get that we really should be going to those meetings I try to make them whenever I can the the one thing that's not lost to me though is combined you know the the dees and and the
Deerfield part of the frontier budget you know are over 10 million they're the line share of our budget they are and they should come in and talk to us um you know I don't I don't know you know I I know when I tried to pin Darius down for Capital he you know unfortunately
had a lot of other meetings going and stuff but you know if this if this were like a small budget and we had a chance to you know take a pass at something that may have been 100,000 and we lost our opportunity than then fine that's on
us but I find the whole process kind of weird to be honest it feels like we we have these meetings like super late and it's like you know we only have like this one opportunity that's kind of like a shared meeting where we can kind of ask questions but we kind of don't get
to pick it apart like we do with others so I don't know I I guess your points you know very valid but it's it's $1 million out of a what is it what are we at like 21 million or something this year um whatever our total um expenses
are going to be but it's it's a huge number yeah it is should talk about share of our budget exactly I think we should talk about it some more and you know maybe uh maybe we do this you know better next year you know I think it would be kind of uh unfair to try and haul like Darius and Shelly in right now
um you know we but next year at least if we can plan a little bit better um you know not saying that your planning was wrong bad but mine certainly was um and you know see if we can talk about it with them more um you know maybe we find
that and I I hope we find frankly that every single one of those line items is well Justified but it's s it's such a huge number I think we have you know the the kind of the duty to give it the same scrutiny we give everything else if not more well tricky I agree the tricky part about that of course is that the school
committees right are tasked with um not our budget uh going through and sort of like they're the sort of experts I suppose or they're the the elected folks actually from the town about what the school's priority should be in
fashioning a budget and and my understanding of how it sort of has worked is there's always they have a real sense of the finance committee what the finance committee wants or you know or is looking for and that's what I mentioned that there's that real effort to sort of stay in that two to three
percent range which they seem to do so I'm just sort of suggesting I don't know that' be great to have him in to talk about some of the philosophical things of course but in terms of um attacking line items for them that you know who that's a philosophical discussion about
priorities and is that our role yeah I don't know every line I'm sorry to cut you off no it's fine but I mean it's um yeah they're not their budgets aren't out of whack which they're not in terms of not running you know I mean some four towns
I guess 10% Wai fronti actually waight with Elementary I think I read in the paper is over 10% sum um but my my real issue is just that right and the things you could do at school or things you could
do the school committee to tailor on to what y'all said though the school committee is responsible for making sure the school is spending responsibly but I feel like we're responsible for weighing like they're interested in the school
they're not interested in the public health nurse or the EMS or the treasurer or whatever right so so it's sort of our respons possibility to weigh that across the full abely Bo I'm just saying they kind of know to
stay glob C if I I can just interject it sounds to me like one of the things that you're saying David and correct me if I'm wrong is if that number is artificially high
if they could spend 500,000 on not asking the town to pay that 500,000 that we would have 500,000 to put into OPB or to put into some other thing and and and so I agree that
maybe we should have a philosophical discussion with the school committees and and say look how do we want to look at the budget um is it fair to keep a lot of money in reserve for the op for the chance that something catastrophic might happen when when something
catastrophic might happen maybe we use catastrophic stabilization fund money because we didn't we didn't leave it in the school to begin with um and again to be clear I'm not I think it's great that there's a buffer there oh yeah I do I do too I'm sure making that clear but whether it's a million or
500,000 question right would it perhaps make sense to try to arrange a joint I don't know three committee joint session with school committe finance committee select board at some point like in the
fall when they you know before the budget crunch planning Crunch at that point what would we have to say besides prop two and a half says two and a half percent so keep it to two and a half percent I me a good time to look at like
line or the philosophical question of okay let's just make up a number you've got 1.5 million in pots of money that are hidden somewhere that are not reflected in this budget and so explain to us why you feel that's correct
budgeting and is there another way to think about it and uh you know and I'm I'm with everybody schools the most important thing you can do for your kids is just educate them yeah so we could like I don't think we're gonna get darus and Sh to our
meeting but um we could invite the school committee chairs or somebody from the school commit to come we're g to I I just I I agree with everything um that's been said with the exception of that I don't think there's anything artificially High about the
balance in school choice account I think that it's just a matter of allocation um and and how those funds the existing funds are used but you know we're going to continue to have questions about declining enrollment this was a big year on that we're going to continue to have
questions that so I think looking to the Future and really having conversations with whether it's the school committee chair or the administration which by the way I know Christopher Brenda administrators here attend several
meetings a week at especially during this time of year so um I do feel for the school administration they attend a lot of meetings but during budget season when your budget is is this is this High when we have a budget going before the
en enre town for approval I think it does warrant a broader discussion yeah so one comment before I forget which is vaguely related to what you just said at the April joint school committee meeting they're going to have somebody come and
talk about regionalization for the elementary schools um which I'm very interested in going and listening to but um that was my comment I'm so glad you brought it up yeah should all go don't have it in front of me it's their
April joint meeting and um I will find it for for all of our um Collective reference I believe that the school all these budget hearings have been recorded so I'm sure there is a link to the video recordings of these meetings if I can
find them I'll share them okay the public hearing for the elementary school they were having difficulties and they did not record that one um but the other one the the one the month before where they discussed the budget should
be please come to the regionalization one I think that's going to be fascinating to hear what other people have done do we have a date for that uh I could look it up I'll look it up and let you know as you move on so being the new guy here this this
year going through I did go to Frontiers I didn't make it to the elementary school the information that they they given US during those meetings was very informative as to what they were doing what was going on I think I kind of agree that if you can get and I would
say going with Darius and with um whoever you know is running the funds prior to getting into budget season they can predict or can maybe even come up with what they're doing and what they need the money for before we do it and
then we get into this part of it we have basically have understanding and then go back and attend those meetings that the schools put together and then at that point you can you've actually got to reference the work offer to figure out where where the
schools are going at that particular time I really want to avoid any kind of um you know certainly town meeting stuff about this um or even any vote here that's foring something really would love it to come
fromation of a recognition that that count should be drawn down over budget Seasons by then so how about here's a proposal we skip gear field we skip Frontier next time we meet we will bring
the slides from their presentations and talk through what the what they presented at the meeting and we will invite the school committee people to come to that meeting if they can um and so we'll go
to Franklin Tech no just somebody from the committee yeah okay you guys Franklin so Franklin is I will April 8th April 8or April 8th
for that meeting the regionalization meeting at FR all school committee meeting I think usually in the library Frontier I will U I will move to recommend the sum of $
um any discussion on this they came they came and talked to us and gave us detail to this meeting they gave us a detail and a breakout yeah which is good because I attempted to attend their meeting via zoom and it
was completely incompr any discussion no all those in favor exensions up down or no okay all right so I would just add um Franklin County tech
school um is having a meeting on the 12 at 6: PM there's a uh mean can be remote as well Bob Decker sent me the agenda and they'll have a public hearing on school choice at
7:15 they also doing an audit I think um just to give you an idea if you want to attend one of the meetings I could send you all link we had our chance I think to you came here and went the whole yeah
and and not to just I mean just to point out that this is a huge drop this particular because the number of kids dropped yeah I mean particular so it's a 3% increase in their budget yeah yeah yeah oh you might have yeah you might have missed that he came
like in person and and presented the whole thing I sent Julie the link if you wanted oh thanks yeah I'll send it out V more than $60,000 savings from ask
okay uh so that's um is there any discussion on the select board none okay all those in favor CH McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim
LGI Frank Tech Debt Service 320 5800 have a motion second same motion for the select Board second I had a question do you know why it's up I would just maybe it would start
dropping they have an equation that tells you every year who pays how much of it yeah and yeah and I think some of that is
Deerfield has a higher per capita income than it okay is this debt excluded it is not am I reading this right Brenda too um three out of the last six years there
were declines and three of the last six years there were increases well including FY 26 yeah okay any discussion just a reminder that um Russ when he was here with his presentation uh did explain that they're beginning
the um the process of the facility study to to build their new school so that's something we need to look to in the future yeah any further discussion all those in favor against
abstaining any discussion on the select board none all those in favor chair McDaniel I Lake Gilmore I Tim Hil I all right so uh we were into the 600s last
week um the next budget that we hadn't looked at that would be for the recreation department director's salary and that is 634 d5110 like to make a motion to recommend some of $
72,5 for the rec department director salary for count number make the same motion for the select Board second discussion okay sorry I I have a horse that's collicking so um oh no don't mind
me I keep getting a little bit distracted no Bill's taking care of it um so uh who Boston city council ever says that years ago also should you go like a horse cing is
bad right like very bad it can be it can be but he's just not finding the medication and and he's he's in contact with the vet so baby no it's more like a yeah yeah it's it's our old guy so um so sue is
retiring at the end of August and um we thought it would be important to have a little bit of money in there for a transition um so Christopher and I met and talked about it and thought that
that a couple of weeks should should No in fact Sue Sue wasn't even sure she needed a transition only because she felt that whoever was going to take her job was going to change it all anyway but I think it's important for them to
know where she's at and and to be able to make that decision as to what they want to change so we were thinking a couple of weeks should be good with her um to do that so her comment was no one ever gave me
any help she might have been the first Rec director though so apparently there's a few people already interested so that's that's a good thing there intended to be a full-time job going
forward you know this this we just recently increased the hours to 37 and a half a week right and um she felt like that was certainly better I don't know that it
covers all the all the hours that she puts in but she seemed fine with that we can certainly change that but I wasn't recommending It Go up no I was wondering if if yeah don't
know yeah you know yeah I see that but I was G to say maybe it maybe it starts out with what we're we're paying sue for and then that person can make that decision for the next budget season as to whether they felt like it should be
increased oras go ahead well she's she's going to be getting paid through the end of August um it it seemed okay to leave it in there in case that we have to hire at a higher rate because it seems like we
have to most of the time anymore I'm sure it will depend on what qualifications the person has coming in how much experience so brenon if we hire somebody at a lower rate that's not going to be an issue or is it going to be an issue no so I mean you know if we
hire him at a lower rate it'll just go into free cash at the end of f year I mean it just puts out and not that this is necessarily the time but who's running the hiring process for the rec department I is there is is like is Su hiring somebody
or is that the the town Administration Christopher you have a comment oh I was just gonna say Tim it's on the list uh we gotta get through the town accountant first uh and then we'll get to the rec director I thought it fall on that's I just wasn't
sure any discussion feels like a lot of money to 10% increase for I know she works way more hours than this uh and she has an unpaid assistant too yeah we unid her husband yeah 20
years that's right so there's that and I know that she's also like buying like the kids like pizza and cupcakes and I used to I used to coach baseball and you know the amount of work that she put in she does a lot and it's all like after hours and
okay it's just normal step isn't it I mean the increase the salary increase and then it's just a normal step increase and then the 2500 for the transition Brenda is there does she have an expense account where again you're saying about this
stuff she has a revolving fund where um all of the revenues from all of the programs go into and then the expenditures come out of that so yeah I don't know how much of that covers what you's actually spending money
on yeah I'm sure I don't I don't know if it even covers baseballs but yeah well I'm I don't know if you've seen the price of baseballs and clickx uh but never mind yeah yeah well she's she always has money in the account and
it's and it's usually pretty comparable with previous year um we did uh what was it maybe eight years ago we we moved that from a from a um 55d to a 55e and a half so that she
could carry the money over because the 55d didn't allow anything past 10,000 to carry over um if if the select board wanted to push that and so it got moved into that and it seems like she's been carrying around $30,000 in that account
and then she also has a donation fund so um there are donations that are made General donations that she then I mean she's purchased computers and programs through through um those funds and has
always kept them at a decent balance so I have a question I know there are limitations on what the revolving fund can actually fund through what either it's in a it's in a regular revolving account now not Recreation revolving correct so my question is if
she always carries money these transition costs for very parttime overlap taken from the instead of put on the I believe they can 53 e and a half does allow payroll through there I
believe right it was just question I think it's an interesting idea but revolving fund carries some funds year to year generally the the revolving fund does yes and it doesn't go to free
cash it just stays in the fun it stays in the fun do we know roughly how much what's that do we know roughly how much well like I said the balance has been around 30,000 you know she right 30,000 is in the account at the
end of the fiscal year I want to say so yes yeah so I can't so there's so there's money coming in it goes higher the money goes out based on all the fees that are coming in so there I mean yeah it's great for a new director to come in and have a little fun
inov with but that sounds like 2500 Prett easy here we are again talking about little bits of money Christopher you had a comment oh I was just going to mention so the the you know that revolving fund is was authorized by town meeting and
it's in our bylaws and so it just describes what you can spend money on and it just says activities and expenses related to providing recreational activities so that's that's the extent of it so what the heck I'll make a motion to um reduce the
budget request by 2500 um and recommend that the 2500 be spent from the revolving fund should the transition costs be necessary discuss any discussion yeah so just just the complications around I'm
assuming the transition is the transition payroll yeah so what what are there complications that are going to create a problem for the town accounting department doing payroll out of a revolving fund GNA take a whole bunch of
time for three weeks of work three weeks of pay or four weeks of pay I just be curious about administratively what kind of hassle we're talking about here I would defer to I would defer to Brenda but I think that it would
basically be to report on your time sheet the fund that you want to be paid from that's correct yeah I I I think that like you know however much money we can keep in that fund for a new director to invest in gaps and that they identify in the
program and stuff would be good you know I wouldn't want to take take money from whoever's coming in um they might have to you know purchase a bunch of new open or something so um I I don't want to do this
I think for the select Lord that maybe would have a I would just maybe ask the question you know we could ask and then come back to it but uh from Sue is you know does she care where it comes
from so if the new person were hired at a rate less than what Sue is making now then it would be a Mot point because you wouldn't need anything that's correct for transition costs so this transition cost would only be if the person were
hired at the same or higher amount than than her current salary and just to clarify a third time we're carrying about $30,000 in the revolving fund you said right that's what I okay 28 30,000
any further discussion on the motion we allowed to ask whether Brenda has any major objections to any of these things you're totally neutral I'm neutral I would just a little buffer in the account is
always kind of nice in case you don't have as many participants in programs for you know I'm sure they have to make adjustments to the fees and so so for $2500 it probably fluctuates through the
year also depending where you are yeah all right any further discussion so we are voting only on the motion to change the bottom line to $2500 less all those in favor all those
opposed that passes for two so should we wait until you're done and then we'll make a new motion okay yeah um so now we have a motion an
amended motion on the table for the total wreck department director salary line item at 70,000 $7 70017 which is 2500 less any discussion on
that all those in favor oppos that passes five can I just ask a quick followup question just procedural how it all works is there a w committee there is
okay there is right yeah so there's a body that sort of works with the director at overseeing polic priorities okay we know someone on it well I was wondering that but yeah good good no's I don't think there's official
training they have to do or anything so and would that committee have a role in hiring probably not I I guess I would just suggest given the amount of children's activities right I mean it's a huge proportion of
the rec Department's activities of kids stuff that maybe someone on the committee push or the selectman if they were listening would move to have a parent or a teacher just show up for a hiring committee with when you're hiring the rec director maybe not sure how that's you wondered how the hiring
process is going to be I was just suggesting given the amount of kids stuff that's involved be a good idea to grab some willing teacher to show up to be on the hiring committee or someone from the rec committee Rec itself that's a great great point coach would be
y absolutely so just for the record I think the rec department and committee should be commended because I I feel like we have a very robust Recreation recreational stuff going on and they they do a nice job of and willing dealing with like
Deerfield Academy and letting us use their facilities there's a lot of a lot of stuff that they do that's more than just keeping activities going yeah um the basb kids for instance would get to have a couple weeks ahead of the kids get there's a lot of lot of
cool things that that that Sue does very very happy for all the time that we had with her so yeah I agree um s board agrees uh we're going tow a previous motion I'll make a motion to approve the recreation department director salary
account 634 5110 at $ 7,17 second any further discussion all those in favor McDaniel I Lake Gilmore I Tim hry
I second same motion for the select Board second any discussion there's no change from last year all right all those in favor unanimous 6 any discussion from the
select board none all those in favor McDaniel i l Gilmore I Tim helch I right so then how about the Veterans Day Memorial Day expense 692 5800 make a motion to recommend the sum of
$2,500 for the Veterans Day Memorial Day expense account number 69258 make the same motion for the select Board second so you can see the committee has not requested an increase for many years
um they do end up often dipping into their donation account and their donation accounts are not keeping up so they felt like it was important this year to increase that to 2500 to cover the the parade and all the things that
go with that um yeah they purchase grave markers um the the bronze grave markers from this account as well yeah Flags they they did have another account that they could use some of the grade markers but that's now gone thanks to all of
our I don't gotten to that point yet but yeah because they buy flowers they buy water for the participants of the parade they buy I don't know what else the memorial they get the wreath that they put on the different monuments and
stuff too so there's yeah it's just coming from the donation all right any further discussion all those in favor all right further discussion select board all right all those in
favor Trevor McDaniel I Lake Gilmore I Tim Hil I before we proceed it does occur to me that it might be useful to post on Deerfield now or something mention that you can donate to the memorial yeah
those markers I was looking at them they committee was talking to me last year so I want to look them up they're pretty expensive for them the markers so that would be something that maybe could kick off a so what a campaign for that what would the address be to to make donations is
that on the town website John say had done it but I'm not sure if they have a new address for that for them usually Paul just brings in the check you know like from the Polish club and other other organizations and people that that donate usually give the money
to him yeah there's also some of the veterans that that are involved in that committee as well we could we could work with them on that yes so um let's go to the fog core yeah go to the fog core assessment
at 830 d5400 83 move that we recommend a sum of $ 41,46 for the furog core assessment account number 830-4005 make the same motion for the select Board
second if I remember right they had they had gotten more Grant Revenue last year than they had intended and they actually gave us $35,000 back uh that ended up in our in our coppers for the end of the fiscal year um so they're very very conscious
about making sure that the towns are are um not being assessed more than than what they actually need I sit on the um chair of the council and uh they just do amazing work it's a a great organization we you know
it's money well invested for sure for all they do for our region and and our town um I just do want to just take this moment to to mentioned that um they will be bringing a uh Charter change to all uh towns that make up the furog every
town meeting has to pass it um so U just it's pretty small uh bookkeeping changes um you know just language changes nothing nothing major a little bit of you know things have changed a lot in the 20 20 25 years
since they organized so they're just small small changes but there'll be full language on our on on our warrant you'll see that coming up any questions or discussion all those in
favor unanimous any select board discussion all those in favor sh McDaniel i l Gilmore GI so uh can we take a a little break and I can tell you uh you had requested last
week that I find out what our our veterans District assessment oh yeah was okay so every town is required to have a veteran service officer so this is intended to save all
of the money that are participants by by providing that for us they take care of all the chapter 115 um benefits for the veterans they find other sources of revenue for the
veterans whenever they can so as to uh limit the amount that the towns are spending um but this this does pay for their budget and it's based um 50% on equalized valuation and I think 50% on
um the population Greenfield uh covers I think they said 56% Greenfield is is paying for all of their software um it was just recently that they started making the other towns pay
for some of the benefits of the of the employees um so the towns are paying for 44% the other towns besides Greenfield uh veteran services is our agent uh is the
Veteran's District agent the does he do Outreach in each of the communities does he spend any time in each of the communities doing Outreach okay good uh not not our person uh but they do they do have somebody
that comes um and meets with people here at town hall for any any uh veteran that need service or need help with anything they hold office hours here so they'll meet in the in the conference room but um our representative just attends the meetings and votes on stuff but doesn't
do the actual Outreach they have a they have a staff person that comes and meets with them here somebody actually phally coming definitely y yeah and his point was you know we have a lot of veterans in our community and so we're seeing that we're
paying one veteran but they covering a lot of services for the other veterans that we're not seeing y okay that answer the question enough for everybody okay great um do you want to
do the reserve fund okay either that or sewer oh okay what do you want to do we can do sewer we can rebu sewer so how we have sewer and then we have res fund and a couple other op and
okay um let's take just a before we do anything um next week we're not meeting the week after we have a meeting on Monday and then we scheduled a meeting on Wednesday also in case we needed the
time um so next Monday we had on the agenda Capital do you think Capital will be ready to talk about out by then a week from Monday a week from Monday it is possible I will know more after tomorrow all of the capital requests
that are outstanding will be IDE okay so we we're going to go through schools which will probably take us some time capital and then that's that'll that'll do us and then we will'll need to do like look at
the budget as a whole um and then do all the warrant articles um so I'm kind of feeling like we're in decent shape and that we don't need that Wednesday you guys are good with that the 24th next week we don't meet at all
Monday the 24th we will meet we'll do schools in capital Wednesday March 26th I think we're gonna cancel Monday right right but we have to get through all the warrant articles and
that kind of thing and we don't want to go right up to town meeting uh that's what we're discussing we haven't done it yet but we're about to everybody's good Brenda you think that's good I I think so um I
I'd sure like to know um how quickly we can get these Union contracts um wrapped up but I know Christopher's working on it and um he knows that we would like to have something soon any comments
Christopher on progress on this we're working on it working on itead can we just keep the meeting because it's a lot easier to unpost than it is to PO all right we'll leave it there next a week from Monday when we have our meeting we'll see how well
we're doing and wait and okay so it is still on for and then we'll we can see what John says yeah yeah okay um do we want to at 720 do we want to push through and do all the remaining items
there's maybe six left I at 7:30 7:45 I think we might go to you guys feeling strong no I I mean I say nothing good happens after two hours in any but yeah sewers already been voted but there's a change right right right so we
shouldn't have discussion right please let's do sewer all right so if you look at the sewer payroll so the only thing that's changed here is that we now have a DPW superintendent and one sixth of the DPW
superintendent's payroll is always charged to the wastewater treatment plant so that number has changed just a little bit and then um down lower so I haven't found it on here yet line is that the very first line very first line
very first line thank you yep and then down towards the bottom workers comp uh we just had our audit um and paid for our well we had the audit in the fall but they didn't bill us until a couple weeks ago and the uh workers comp had
gone up drastically for the uh wastewater treatment plant so I just increased that another 500 just to just to cover it better so those are the only two changes on this page I move that we recommend a new sum
of $485,900 wwtps second same motion for select Board second discussion look like an increase of $2,114 pretty
sensible all those in favor that's unanimous any discussion select board none all those in favor govern McDaniel I Lake Gilmore Tim helch I all right so the next page is the
wastewater treatment plant expense the sewer expense account and the only thing that changed here was I I had a chance to put together the indirect costs and and it had been left in here at 73,74
to do payroll the cost of the you know the captur yeah so is this um all of the accounts that have administrative expenses on them they're all changing or just this one no this
this these are just the indirect costs so so I had figured yeah that I'm I'm sorry I said the wrong word so but there's indirect on like South County Senior Center and whatever yep and the and the the the South County EMS had that figure in it I I had this since the
middle of middle of okay February I just didn't want to give it until I had the new highway superintendent in there so I don't think we have a motion motion either we don't um move to recommend a sum of $894,000 for the sewer expense
account number w tp- second same motion for the select Board second discussion so for non sewer users that's going to be reflected as a decrease in the amount of money they have to
spend no it has no impact on non I think it's already but it's it's income to the JN right Orit oh I see what you're saying yeah yeah okay you're
right sorry I was thinking about the um the loan expens anybody else NOP all those in favor it's unanimous any further discussion from select board none all those in favor
Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim hel I so the sewer Debt Service is unchanged that is unchanged the sewer Enterprise fund summary sheet is changed the bottom
line right so the only thing that changed was the um well the expenditures and the expected revenues um this represents a an increase of like 2.7% between
2025 expected revenues and 2026 we we voted this before you did yes mainly because of the use of retain ears we might as well go ahead and vote the new sheet just to be consistent anybody want to make a
motion for the sewer Enterprise fund so I'll move to recommend um expected I don't know how we want to break this down expected revenues of $2,996 18 and the expenses that are
outlined on the sewer Enterprise fund um allocation sheet and the retained earnings ret any discussion same motion for the select Board second now any discussion
all those in favor that's unanimous any further discussion none all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore timg next we can vote some more things or if you want to look at the revenue and expenditures that I um provided tonight
with the most updated information we could do that you know what let's just do that and then not vote anything else and and wrap it up okay so if you look at your new Revenue sheet um the things that changed from
last time is that we now have a Governor's budget um so that was plugged in for fiscal 26 and that reflected $132,000 increase and the indirect costs on the second page that we are getting back
from the senior center the wastewater treatment plant and and the EMS um had changed so you come down to um if you leave
200,000 on the table for free cash to carry us into the next fiscal year that gives us a revenue of 2 20, 636,000 just it just says if we leave 200,000 on the table that we aren't going to use
this is how much we have available so if you look at your expense sheet your total expenditures come to 20, 400,000 so in in a nutshell we have 200,000 to spend on
Capital um I I did increase our need for snow and ice to 75,00 ,000 I had it at 70,000 I don't think 75,000 is going to cover it either but I have plugged in two people for smithb and right now we
don't know of anybody that's going to smithb but we don't have the the the deadline for that hasn't even come yet so we can't even ask Darius about that until towards the end of March so it is possible that there's
more here for Capital than than it's showing at the moment we are going to push the front loader to next year so there's some hope I think we I think you have to wait
until the new Public Works person is on board before you buy anything for the new for the public works department yeah I mean I personally would be open like if there's something they desperately need to doing it this fall
as a part of special Town meting um but I was going to say I met with him today he's pretty excited about the freight liner yeah okay okay okay yeah beautiful all
right so we will meet two weeks from today we'll do schools we'll do Capital we'll do all these other little line items and we'll talk about whether we need to meet that Wednesday or not at that point oh I have one more thing sorry um
I did receive just to acknowledge I did receive a letter um on the um Senior Center um from Beverly King so we have
that from who Beverly King yep every select board member got letter yeah yeah I mean it it's the form letter that the senior center handed to people and said here send this in so um Beverly did
okay the receipt of that probably everybody else has one too there's a box in here you're looking for where it is okay motion toj we have a second motion
to all those in favor McDaniel I to a journ or what vot two I think we got two four five all right that passes finally