is that new in progress okay today's Thursday March 13 2025 at 6 PM uh we have a joint meeting with the board of Selectmen and the finance committee for Budget review uh
we are at Oldtown Hall 1111 Somerset AV uh could I have a call to order Nicole Melo present Mark Pico present finance committee wants to open their meeting uh finance committee will call to call our meeting to order to and again tonight
nobody on Zoom so we won't do the roll call except to say hi to Woody okay so we have um the planning board here I believe and um I believe identif a motion to take
um oh the Pledge of Allegiance yes thank you very much that's very important to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation under God
indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you for that I appreciate it um I would entertain a motion to take the industrial and development commission out of order as well um I'll make that motion second favor I
I all right Dan Vice chair for the planning board um so we're proposing a I think is a 2.4% cut I did the math right um from last
year um aside from mandated changes such as clerical Union prescrib thing basically we're eliminating the line item that was for overtime additional it seems to never get spent year after year
so it's just been eliminated for professional legal services um I think we're cutting it rather lean but we did decrease it by $2,000 these are for um potential legal fees that may come up during the course
of the year so from 12,500 down to 10,500 um some other smaller reductions in terms of postage legal Publications for public hearings um there's a line item here about the serpent assessment it did go
up by 25 cents so um that was uh the only unknown at the time that this was put in but it was only a quarter uh change here so it's a decrease from what was last year's proposed budget and approved of
6,866 down to 59,00 357 um I didn't know anybody had questions about any of the particular line items have 58 996 here you said was 59,000 um the copy I have which actually
Carrie provided was 59 357 as the total is that not what's matching up your record so that get you the 2.5% uh yes that brings us down to 2.4% right maybe that's it um I can go through her I'm not sure
what you're looking at I can go through what her line items were for pretended cost if you want to do it line by line that the members you've got four members on the board in addition to the chair is that that stay steady that stay
steady and is that the most you can have five five members um at the current time I believe so I don't iue statutorily I think it can be as many as seven by state law but we have a set five yes
thank you oh so I guess on that so the stiens I just curious as to this number so if there are eight members uh CED members uh it comes out to 2239 per member five
four plus the chairman five right right of the of the four S that's just a weird how did that get that 2209 2239 I'm sorry if I may over the years they've been giving them us uh increases
to to the stiens you know it's 2% 2.5% so so that's how they their number kind of wound up like an oall number as opposed to like like a like a sort of flat rate like 2,000 per person okay and then to be a member on the um planning
board are there people make uh it is an elected position um I don't know that there are any particular qualifications required to run so other than to be a resident of the town okay thank you uh so in the mail we did have
a planning board with the 59 35753 okay the Math's a little off on the the changes because it's showing an increase year-over-year but I'll pass this down if everybody wants to take a look at it
biggest hit biggest hit for you um was the professional and Technical line correct reduction of 2,000 okay um it's a complete estimate based upon what are the legal needs in the coming you know fiscal year um it's cutting it rather lean
actually yeah so my my followup question was how lean is that cut and then two where are you at spend year-to date I think we have as of the end of the year I only have spent for actual expenditure on the 24
oh sorry is it right here no my question oh okay just looking up the current spend I don't know if the top of my head thank you um 5300 um that's weird it's I can't explain why it's only $100 that does not
make sense to me unless there's a large back blog of same number the receips yeah over halfway into the year legal service has definitely been used more than a 30 minutes you have the special article so I think she's been putting
some legal services through the article and not through professional and Technical okay all right okay on a on a previously passed article yes under
department so on that vot Serena was that just the legal yes I believe that was two years ago that that vote was taken okay so that's why there's not a lot I guess yes you're right that makes sense okay is it I'm just I'm trying to procedurally
if that worked in the past is that what's that I'm sorry go ahead no I'm just saying if that worked in the past I guess my question is um why have the professional technical subline here and we just have to vote on giving you the funds that you need for the legal my
understanding and I have to go back and reference that article I don't remember the language off the top I head it at the time it was intended for a specific case okay and legal fees associated with that case so I when she said she's been putting money against it it's probably as it relates to that case it's not a an
open item for any and all legal fees gotcha so this is an the the 10 five is the open item for okay if I remember right that that article was for one project right one one development that the money was set aside to defend I
think initially it was I've had to look back at what the final language in the motion ended up being um if we restricted it to that one particular case but I have a feeling we might have worded the motion a little more open-ended in case there were any other appeals in other subdivisions or
projects that we just didn't know about so that money was you know wasn't only for that one project I have to go back to read the final motion on that right because what I think what we're trying to understand is um like if you look at 24
expenditures to you had the 125 budget did and about 1100 of it was spent right and I would assume again because probably the primary legal battle that you were facing we had the vote like that you got the funding for it so didn't come out of this line so I'm just
talking out loud about the only consideration when I when I say it's leaned not so much that we expect to spend to that amount because we have a planned schedule of legal requirements during the year as it is to the fact that should something arise if we are
unable to pay our lawyers basically it's easy for somebody to just outbid us and drag us out in court and suddenly we're don't have the ability to continue um so um even $10,000 is not a lot of money but it gives us enough of a buer to cover should that eventually arise right
and and and I totally understand I me last thing we want is not to pay the lawyers that we need right um it's more where we could get that funds from that I'm wondering about uh like if they're necessary so just to clarify in 24 the expense is so
low because the the article was available in 24 as well okay okay that's all I got any questions no I don't have any questions either all right so uh next can I ask
one more question what is the average hours per week how often does plan board Mee uh twice a month during normal sessions it's reduced schedule once a month in summertime that makesense
ande two hours roughly I mean it varies but I'd say closer to 90 minutes but yes okay thank you okay um 189 industrial and development commission um so we've had a standing
request over the past couple years um the Comm actually was dissolved it came back again so since it came back three years ago it's been a standard request of $1,000 a year we did reduce that down to 900 um you will see expenses far below
that for this year um actually for last year too there's two reasons for that one is that um we are doing a lot of campaigning this year that involves print material but we've managed to U make use of a home printer from one of
the members that is sufficient quality to cover our printing for color um and we're only going to be paying for paper and color toner so our printing costs are about 10% of what they would be if we were to do it professionally and it
gives us the same quality material that we need the second is that um we have a project that's two years in the making which is to um actually goes back even further than that but to do some digital marketing by creating a um short video
um we spent one year with funds taking videography Drone footage of the town still footage of the town to use for stock material um we'd like to turn that into something that we can put um in emails put online that sort of thing so
our plans for most of our um unused money this year is to encumber it and contract with a marketing firm we've actually been talking to several schools as well as a private individual um and then that plus funding for next year if
we get you know the $900 request would give us sufficient funds to to do that but most of the unused money this year the intention is for to be encumbered can I just clarify the encumbrances for so for funds to be encumbered you would have to order like an order would have to be placed before
June 30th correct okay thank you and that's the hopefully to uh bring businesses into dtan except precisely yeah what is is a business guideline um it's a um you'll see it in the planning board if and also I believe
out in front of the town clerk's office now it's a small trifold that we put together um that is a quick start guide for starting a business in town who you need to go to what you need to be aware of what is the process we have a SE second similar one that is more of a
generic marketing about discover dayon here's what we have to offer here's what our committee can help you with that's what of thing so um those are the two triodes that we're starting to circulate now uh we also have a new website um
www.don bus.com that brings you directly to the town's web page with all of her information in there links to the townwide directory of local businesses that you know we encourage people to use for shopping local that sort of thing so the town website link back to
YouTube um our page is on the town website it's one of the department Pages ands is available commercial property list oh to list commercial property in town that's something we would love to
do um if we have conf figure out the right resources and get the correct buyin from people to put their property up there as as necessary um but that is definitely one of our goals whether it'll be something we work on this year or it'll be referred to next year I
don't know but a longterm G AB thank May something I wonder if you could work with Paul with those leaned properties to list the lean properties as potential development sites depending on what they have for zoning two birds
one you Paul Reynolds he's actually a member of our committee so yeah get his list get his list of proper like that yeah we're at like a million dollars right yeah any other questions
on thank you appreciate it picking up you changed the name of the development industrial commission too correct you did it's Economic Development the economic development committee okay um hopefully we can change that before town meeting the name of this L can you
just say that one more time the dayon economic development committee think you my question I appreciate it thank you so much thank you thank you thank you okay so now we have the zoning board line
176 to apologize on vacation and wasn't able to to meeting I'm BR Vice chairman of the board um she was supposed to send me some documentation to have for this meeting I don't have I just got some texts back and forth from Carrie um so
um the base budget uh we pretty much working at the bottom minimum of our budget um we have the I don't know what kind of questions you might want to ask I don't have anything to put in front of me right now to look at so that be awesome I was say yeah
there's another one five five pages in there okay 176 La as the of Appeals how many MERS we have right now I believe six five that actually come all the time pretty much we have one that's one chair five members
yes sorry what page was this on uh five of 17 there it is I got it I got you no this is an appointed position from the selectman um anybody can apply anybody anyone in the town of D can apply for this we appreciate the
cuts I I so you can see we're working on a bait Bare Bones we don't have much going on with that from physically years on and how often do you meet once a month we meet on the third Wednesday of the month thank you awesome actually
we're doing it on Tuesdays now I apologize because of the conflict uh yeah but one once a month what do you guys use the professional and Technical funding for well it's pretty much like hiring uh a lawyer to come out and take care of uh any kind of questions or some concerns
that the board's not comfortable answering okay thank you any other questions for zoning no the education s yeah I believe that is for when uh Carrie goes to different um meetings and
things of that nature that the towns asking some of it's been for the uh the new um accessory structures things like that um she's been going through some of these things on the side so so it's generally the chair uh chair or or the the office Personnel one or the other
okay you have any questions no I don't do thank you I appreciate it like I said I just I was really nervous because I didn't have any of this great job thank you thank in in general Ralph question for
you the education stiens that are in the different departments it's all contractual yeah so is that in various unions or is that specific unions well most of the people
here are in the clerical are in the cleric clerical Union so in general clerical yeah yeah the you because they had uh special educational stiens for like right for CPR they have work related stiens and then college degree
stiens so as a chair of that committee would Carrie be would that be some of no so actually that line is strictly carries um education and being a notary okay so that's strict like contractual
like we can't change that number so we have line 600 SE next that Woody online is that I don't see 600 it's at the very end it's at the end they're an Enterprise fund so it's
separate from general fund perfect is that why you're here Woody we hear you yes sir okay thank you I'm sorry I can't be there tonight in person I'm not feeling well and want toing the building thank you
yes no no big projects this year Well we uh we're in the process of rebuilding the pump station at the PO plant with some Opera funds and due to some
technicalities that money [Music] um Ralph made a couple of phone calls I made a couple of phone calls it looks like we're going to have to get the money back so and Ralph know about it so
in the future um you know we don't know our next step from here this is all happened in the last week week and a half um we're going to have to figure out where to go from here we just found out about this about a week ago and I I put
in a couple of calls myself too and nobody's call back um it's just you know I I don't want to really get into it tonight about what I think about the hour funds you know it it just it fizzled out and the funny part about it is we did manage to
get I think $87,000 to pay for part of the engineering and now all of a sudden because the final plans weren't ready by a certain hey you know the engineering company I don't think you really need to
hear all this um all I'm going to tell you is we need to work on this okay so we took an 87,000 well the 87,000 being paid in are aware of that you know and it didn't come for
from all so actually the amount that we're going to return we have to return is approximately uh 322,000 when do we have to return it by we had a number of different town
administrators um and they all did a good job you know working on the a funds then Mike left and then Jim came in and he was a fantastic guy and he was kind of out of the loop with all that but he did
the best he could he was really working hard on then came in went that lot you know we may be looking for some money and you know that's if I conversation for another I
could just just quickly I could you know and we could fill you in uh more so so the about um $39,000 were put through Opa to be obligated to uh not obligated but to go towards the Dion power plant uh Pump
Station uh so we had secured um we had received a $39,000 400 409 the uh I'm sorry the 409 I have to do the math U the 409 we um for ARA money the money has to be OB had
to be obligated by 1231 uh 20 2024 we had received the contract for ghd for approximately $78,000 to the engineering on the study um uh they they had not um we had
finally uh got that uh that uh contract secured um I think by by August so in that time they also had to do the engineering study and also come up uh with um uh they had to at least a
purchase order for um to do to do the job we had got we received an estimate uh on on M costs on materials and and labor um but uh they couldn't secure a contract prior to the end of the year
and as a result um we have to we have to return approximately 300 U $320,000 um you know we we you know we were we were doing our best to to see if we could stall it put it off and we're
looking at other options um do we uh can we s a grant a mass Works Grant um spoke to Senator dun's office they were asking us for ear marks um so um we're looking to see how we can complete that project without um without putting um any
further burden on the uh the taxpayers of dayon thank you that oh God that's that's not money that's in is that money that's in their retained earnings no it's sitting in the ARA fund Grant
from I'm trying to hold on to that money before it get sent back so are we that that's not what you're using as a pillow Woody is it but as far as everything else with our budget um we are operating on a sh
spring budget um we have a fantastic superintendent his name is har Garcia he has done so much for the dep um and he's he's like a simple man he keeps the car down driving around a pizza junk Tru that I don't even know
how I should be embarrassed to drive a truck like that um and you know we have a lot I don't know you all understand about the different pump stations that we have and how we have to maintain them um and the
one over to adding schools a big problem because it was it was too small the design was small and they caught us on because they had these great ideas how they were going to have these composed toilets and they were going to use left water you know we get these high level
alarms all the time so I don't think really you know that people understand what goes on in the F Department we have a lot of employees that work for us they have to check the stations every single day uh and Harold how's right on top of
everything um whatever Harold says is gold that's all I can say about that and our budget really is operated on users expense um the town's not paying any of our salaries or employees or anything
that we do um it's all paid on you the feat so um this coming year I think May 26 our office manager is going to be retired or have a long time working for the job
fantastic job and we put a little extra money in the budget to bring her back to train whoever was going to hire because we had one office girl we had a number of different office
girls on the high time basis and the last one left took another job in the city of c and we have not filled that vacancy yet so that's why we're leaving a little money there we plan on hiring somebody you know within the next maybe eight
months or so it depends you know I I'm just can't speak for the entire board but that's our general game plan and um you know it's going to be tough to fill Diane Sho because she knows every that department where
everything is you know she just has a personal connection to the people that work you know for us and the people that we serve us so um I think go all well you can work over our budget like I said
it's our budget um you know we maintain it we pay all the bills with all the money from my users if anybody has any questions i' be more than happy that what did you say that she's not retiring for eight months
or you wouldn't find a replacement for eight months yeah we're not sure you know I don't want to speak out of school on that but I'm telling you she's going to retire I believe May 26 and Serena might know that too
because you know they get pay back they got I don't exactly know how their Union contract is set up but they do get some things on the end you know okay for the new members you guys
you guys UND the sewer is an Enterprise so whatever yeah self- sustaining so it's not really part of the budget but we do get some over we get to ask Woody questions we have to hide you know anybody's welcome to look
at and any excess they make that above and beyond paying their bills that goes back into reinvestment in the system yeah yes St and you know something a lot of the pots that we we we have to buy to keep these P stations running there so
much Electronics nowadays yes and with the new regulations there's more new regulations now build a new pump house believe it or not it has to have a b in U we don't have any with B yet but they
come big com any questions for down here for Woody is it a public bathroom right I'm pretty sure it be un I have any question I don't thank you thanks Woody very much and thank you for doing
all the work feel better all righty next is budget 610 Library hi Mark how you doing good how are you very good thanks awesome Mark sorry my sheet says the next is oh I am
so sorry it's okay that was nice I'm sorry Parx and wck I already cross them off all right um 6:30 Kevin where's my pickle ball court I'll see you in a bit hi
Kevin just over like I know I you cross hit me I know I'm ready for the pickle ball courts Kev let's go get them rocking yeah so I think you guys can see we we kind of we CAU across the board um
one thing we were able to save a bunch of money from previous years with our Portable Restrooms we entered into a new contract with a new um uh Servicing Company for that we save a bunch of money there compared to previous years um aggregate materials were close to the
same general repairs like you guys know we like to um keep a little bit in there just in case something breaks and we need to fix it um on the Fly um professional and Technical we typically don't have a bu out of that um but we always like to keep that little bit in
there in case there is some dues or subscriptions or we need to do some sort of publication and then uh we cut down uh recreational activities because we kind of decided as a committee that we're not going to continue at least for now doing um the firecracker Festival kind of La
of better turns fizzled out Hest um so we're going to hold off on that for now um and then two we we did establish our revolving fund which has allowed us to kind of take a different approach for some activities I mean we're still going to do like what's listed there we have t
day the Easter egg hunt so we're going to still have uh activities and events that we provide free of charge for the public but we do have other avenues if we want to um expand we can do sponsorships and then pay to play so to speak activities and then um the last
one the briak garden was 750 last year um and then we that down to 500 and my hope is after this fiscal year that will actually reduce that to zero and that will be a community like donation sustained
project as well um CU after this year there's a couple little pieces that we need to buy to kind of sh up some fencing and like we need a lawn to cut the grass inside because the highway department can't get in there and then after that should be good Kevin do you guys have any um
planned maintenance or any projects coming this spring that you know about um we're going to attempt to through the CPC and through some other um potential donations we're going to um try to revitalize the what
is now referred to as the Timothy Ryan's Memorial playground on Parmer Palmer and School Lane um but that none of that will be done through the budget that will be done hopefully through CPC and then like as far as general meaning I we just have our normal stuff
like where we need to infill you know mulch for different playgrounds um I have the north Lon baseball field needs to be pretty much kind of dug out and refilled with um stone dust but that's all going to happen out of this year's
budget so I think we'll be in good seat for next year okay any questions on the any of these items do you maintain the elementary school playground or is that through the school budget so that is through the
school awesome thank you yeah we just have tricentennial uh Lane field on Main Street uh the Ryan playground North Titan um and then ospr Landing which is part of the boat ramp but that's kind of
like a little bit of a that's just I mean mostly just grass so that just gets M okay thank you meow no I don't have any questions okay thank you Kevin thank you than Kev I'm scared to say it but I'm pretty sure
our library is up I think I'm right all right right one time see yes all [Applause] right all right so I was very conscious uh not to really increase any lines but there there were a couple I felt I did
need to there was 5290 staff member who was very close to retirement I thought it was going to happen this year I don't want to speak I can't Pi the future I think it's very likely it's going to happen this next fiscal year wanted to make sure vacation sa time was paid out and also 5870 I did
have to bump that up uh for replacement equipment the laptop I ordered this past year I was under budgeted um so I want to make sure I'm not under budgeted next year but the rest I was very conscious you to keep the same or or cut or decrease so you're saying you wanted to
make sure you weren't under budgeted do you anticipate meting another laptop yeah we're going yes yes that that that that covers the one laptop and it's in addition to that one laptop it's all the software on that laptop okay yeah because like we can't just take a we got to have software installed for circulation and catalog things so yeah
yeah so it's it's more than just the laptop so I was under budget last year but I won't be under budgeted next year 5510 yes I know there's a formula that correct you guys are there yep we are actually it's a little under but I'm
going to use some State a to supplement that I would like that line to be higher but I'm not I'm not going to push it I'm going to keep it where it is we can get it from the state we take it yep I can use the state to supplement to meet where we need to be okay y you anticipate being in hoping to be
in the library the fall yes fall I I say fall with an eye towards September and the reason I say an eye toward September is because if I say fall it's human nature I'm not calling human Slackers I'm not doing that but you say fall it's like well it's still fall but if I say with an eye toward September like that
really that's really going to put extra motivation to make sure it happens to be September um so I will I'd run through a brick wall to make it happen September and I think we're on track to make that happen the HVAC work the um contract has been awarded it hasn't started yet but it will very soon and that's really the
last piece of the puzzle that can affect the timeline either way so hopefully if that's on track I have no reason to believe it won't be but let's assume it stays on track I think that early fall September grand opening is very very realistic and will happen so and your
Staffing level will be the same it will be the same yes uh so the possible retirement will not be will be replaced absolutely yes yes that that when that retirement happens that will need to be replaced yes that position
course I'm I'm going to assume it doesn't look like there's any one time charges there between the moving no that is that's all in a separate that's all this is the the um Library operations budget the uh what's going on with the new building is in a separate budget line entirely completely separ yeah so I
don't I'm not pulling any any funds from library Appropriations to use for the new moving or and any of the renovation work there utilities we've got under the public buildings correct correct I I I had on discussions with um Town Administrator and the town accountant to next year once once we know what it's
like in the building as far as utilities go I I will be taking that on in the next fiscal year that that's the plan anyway we had put that in that was that 15th yeah it was a big CH anybody else any questions on Library Tracy are you sure I get all
yeah yeah yeah you still planning on doing the uh the brick donations and stuff like that we actually had a a meeting today and we discussed possible fundra and brick the brick donation is one that came up so I mean we we're we're pursuing all angles through to you know sort of Jin up as much interest as we can whether it's with fundraisers or
programs whatever um that's one thing that's been tossed around quite a bit it's a fun it yeah so you donate and then they're in the bricks on the outside of it you put like your name family's name or donation by and then there's a way of you know you're kind of part of the
library we talked about a lot of ideas I don't know which ones we're actually going to do but that's that's one idea that we talked about a couple a few different times now um so we we we'll see what happens but one Way Or Another We're getting in that building two have um resulted in
presenting to the trustees $10,000 each year so we've given $20,000 to the trustees um which Mark has done a great job using that money for some very important we hoping this be the same more I just placed an um TV screen came
in today the Smartboard order went through so that's that's yeah so we got some really cool stuff coming um it's going to be exciting love one question recreational programs yep are those generally free to public yes they they always free um per um nblc
requirement we can't offer as a public lab we cannot offer a program that we charge for um all programs we offer need to be free yes all right Mark I only have one question for and that's on the education stip it looks like you have last year's
budget but you're going to budget again yeah I I I have I have yeah the education step I have I have a step yes okay yes it just so happened the staff member who that applied to retired and was replaced with another staff member who that will also apply to okay yeah all right thank you thank
you any other questions right thank you thank you thanks thanks okay 543 agent hello hi don't see you for a long time
and see you two nights in a row spend a long time part time guy yeah right good evening and um you have the presented budget that I feel comfortable with for FY
26 have any questions I I do have one question 515 under theary for the office manager parttime hours yes um generally the increases we've seen with salaries are 2.44 this is coming at
5.66 increase well what's built into there we'll be having someone probably mid budget leave retire and the retirement's in here then there'll be a little bit of a Lear I you just said that before so we'll have a new person
coming in but it's so technical there's going to have to be a training period And I share that person with uh Jim agar from the building department and he has that in his budget so we'll be able to uh train the person that is the increase
the way from what I remember by I think am I right y thank you okay this is less about federan services thing what is the line I mean see it in a lot of the Departments the vacation sick time buyback retirement somebody's
reti somebody's so so that basically is clue somebody's retiring so it's in time that's okay when when they retire you have a check yeah yeah um gasoline and and diesel fuel you have access to the town vehicle is that
we have our own van you have your own van okay years old oh I think it's older than that yeah yeah no but it's in good shape is Insurance in this budget for the van or would that be I would think it's a general overlay
that's probably got it a general fund you seeing numbers wise now any I know we talked last year about you were starting to see some increases in the number of veterans in town is it is that still increasing or well we have one new
um client coming on in uh April which will take up part of what you're seeing here probably $2,000 of it and we did reduce this budget as we talked about for the last three years we would gradually if we
could and we don't feel as though we'll have any real big influx in there you know I hope I don't have to come back because this is one of those line of departments that if they qualify we have to pay so
you'd have to make those adjustments to transfers but it looks good we have one person and trying to find the most delicate way to say it given the age that it stays back balance
rtion but what's coming at us in the future we do not know from the Gulf because now Gulf veterans are now getting to be older and disabled and they may need the service so but keep in mind 75% of that
line item gets reimbursed from the state so on a cherry sheet so any other question questions there any questions thank you thank you okay and thank you all for for funding a veterans budget the way you have and uh giving us
a good Department thank you thank you for the work you do all right 161 sound how are you good how are you good hello hello okay okay so 161 let's see here so salary Town um so basically the
salaries for myself Town Clerk and our um special clerk so it's a standard 2.5% increase so standard um and then on the overtime um
it is I still have $600 there this is actually going to be for I want to have an opportunity for our assistant town clerk to be able to come to some of the training um that we have maybe on a Friday because some of the other Town clerks will have training for the new
vitals coming out so um she would be involved in that as well so that's why I kept that um at $600 for overtime and then we've got benefits um and education
incentive um so this is actually we've only used 300 of this this is for for our stien for um to be a notary Justice piece I am in the process of becoming a constable um so I have uh yeah I'm
excited about that and makes life easy um so we've only used 300 of that um I'm not going to use the other 300 this time but I that's why I'm requesting the um 600 um for next fiscal
year so so that's why we haven't used the other 300 it's kind of halfway through forgive my ignorance what does being a constable allow you to do so I can post meetings um like around town um because what happens right now is we
have to actually go to a constable and have them sign off and um post so oh okay charges um we are lucky enough that um we have a great constable in town that does not charge us yeah it's been
great um but I I have not used the other 300 this year so I do have 600 total for next year so the clerical their education gets paid out in June so that's why we're still seeing money left in that line
okay okay um I still do have the $375 for netos spect I know I haven't used it um knock onone wood we haven't had any problems um but that is for 3 hours of our
um tech support for any printers or computers that we might have issues with and is there a light to that or we have to use it within a year two years um the so the 375 so no our printers like we'll
use until they can't be fixed anymore but technical support the technical support if we if we need them that year that's why I have the 375 kind of put aside if I need them to help fix something great if I don't then
obviously that would go back into general fund okay with nrpc is that a specific there are tax support that we use it's the company vendor that we use yeah townwide townwide yeah so not in the data processing right
correct okay um professional technical I have 3,000 in here um this is for conferences um legal consultant fees if we anything ever comes up um you know Town seals uh we do have to buy those um
we do have three conferences a year this includes the hotel food and incre incremental costs um I actually kept the 3,000 in here as well because I'm actually in process of being part of NY
which actually is um New England v Clerk's Institute and this actually goes towards my certific um for Tok I have 4100 in that line yeah I do oh uh I show professional
technicals for npy 5300 sorry that's what I put it under yeah 5300 on my sheet I have the request is for this year last year was three grand yeah this year this year the request was 4,100 so I'm actually okay with um
keeping it I thought I just kept it at the three grand and okay um and because I still have money left over okay okay yeah and um that could go towards that because honestly like it's it's a great program to be involved in but trying to
keep the budget and the cost now yeah no we appreciate that that's why I was just trying to clarify yep that's fine um okay so that was professional technical sorry can I just Backtrack on that yes please okay so during when the three of us had met yeah we increased it to 4100
I I'm actually okay to be at 3,000 okay so can you just send me an email I absolutely will sorry I kind of wanted to save a little bit here and there we're trying to give you money actually have to have I have to add a little bit of money somewhere up okay can you let somebody in the wa
out of the waiting room sure thank you I have um $650 under Communications this is for dog license business certificates past through notices that we send out and these will go out May
1st because we we wait until um late fees um after we do um bry's Clinic yeah if someone goes to the rabies clinic this coming week it's coming up soon in April it's the 12 April the same day as it's the same day election yeah oh all right that's easy
to remember if they was the wait sorry is the charge for them no so we that's why we're waving the late fee then we're not going to actually charge a late fee until after the 31st of April then we're going to add the late thing nice just to
kind of give it a little bit of time um to go to the clinic come back and because if they you know they're not going to pay there unless they pay check and they come back and pay um us for the license beautiful
yeah okay um and then office supplies I have 4500 there same okay um so this is for um Bal record sheet protectors um storage um for the books um for
permanent Town records for all of our Vital so births deaths marriages um so we did need um extra sheet protectors because we still do have a backlog of a lot of births that have that are still in boxes
um so and we're actually going to change all of our vitals um it's going to be from like a 5 by S or whatever all vitals are actually going to be standard paper size now so we after this we have to start buying new vital record um
sheets so basically all of our births deaths and marriages go into these permanent sheets so that way it saves them from um deterioration so so um we do need a little bit extra for that and like I said we have a backlog we have a whole
box of 19 um 20s to 1955 and we actually used up what we had for backlog um for our uh sheet protectors so we're going to need more and it's just because the state is changing everything on us so
where so all those old docents have to be switched nope it's all new it's all new and going forward we're going to need new sheet protectors um and you we're actually going to we just actually spent
$558 on a set of six like you know what I mean so they're very expensive for uh for packages of 50 um so is the state selling I know I
know it's crazy and they they're they're changing everything on us like all are changing um so they're starting with death certificates first um so yeah so they're going to all be paper size instead of a GU little 5 by seven a dumb
question yeah why are we still using why and we because they're permanent records God forbid something ever happens to computer whatever they are permanent records that stay in our
vault forever they're Forever Records elections is that paper or you guys um well you would do your annual town you do a per records for election to the um paper on paper your certified election results and I'm sure all the results are
backed up on a hard drive or whatever from the computers the left the iPads now we have yes we have them obviously backed up and things like that but things can go wrong we do have databases we have Excel databases with all of our
permanent records however we have to have them hard copy put away for you know per forever and those go in our vot yeah or somebody could hack yes you never know I mean it's obviously we've
seen it okay um where was that sorry that was the 4500 dog tags thank you I just to get in here dog TX okay so we have um
for line item 5580 the dog tags so um this is actually for the dog tags the carbon um paper um license and the paper that goes out into the census um so so so I guess then in 5300
professional and Tech what's that dog license so 5300 sorry um um oh 5340 yeah 5340 5340 communication so this is actually pass due notices that's past du notices that we
end up sending out so that is postage only okay and that is obviously for um the dog license business certificates and yeah thank you yeah of course so this um we are expecting a
slight increase for um fy2 26 um but I stayed at the 1,950 um because we still had a little bit you know I didn't use all of it this time but I do expect an increase because we do get a slight increase every year
so I kept it the same what's the revenue on the dog likeing in the town you have any idea what is it I'm sorry do you know what the revenue total is on that I don't know the complete total but every dog it depends it's
$5 um I have to report to you every month on not for my clinic yes and now with the all these law correct right so do we have any idea what kind of Revenue that generates in a in a town I can look it up thank you I and I can I can find
out too the dog license Revenue yeah okay you know I know it's like what what is it $10 if they're spay or neutered and then 25 if they're not and then you got K license Fe you got all kinds of so there are different fees whether they're
um spayed or neutered or whether you know yeah hopefully it's covering all the charges well that's my exact thought so it's if you're mailing out a p d fee you know5 is that going to take away
from what technically I will tell you um last time we did send past you notices I was very surprised and I can get that for you guys and email it but we ended up getting I want to say it was over $800 just by sending out those and um I
know it was almost $800 so I can definitely get that to you guys because I was excited about that what's the penalty on the past du so it is $10 so it's an extra $10 it's an extra $10 correct MH thank you
yeah okay um travel so this is for mileage um this this is for mileage going back and forth to all of the conferences um as well as um post office I go to the post office every single day
um and it's kind of straightforward um you know mileage going back and forth um for me my uh the assistant town clerk um you know and the clerk that works for us for 10 hours we like will go to different conferences so that's just for travel
and are you anticipating more then is that why the increas so the increase I wanted to kind of put yes so and I wanted to put down so it was when we first started doing this when I started was 64 cents a mile it went to 67 now it's at 70 so it keeps
going up and um so that's okay okay and I do this is where I kind of want to increase I'm so sorry Serena I was going through it right before I got here okay um so so dos and subscriptions I had 300 in here we did
spend 425 yeah we have a budget at 42 oh good okay I just wanted to make sure cuz in my end when the last one I sent it said 300 I was like 425 great thank you guys so I didn't
have to ask for more oh good okay um 162 you want to go to 162 yeah okay all right this is for elections cover that up because I don't
need that anymore okay so elections 162 okay so line item this is for um 51 5120 um this is for our salary election workers I am requesting 700 we actually
um only have one election um we have the local town huh 7,000 um [Applause] 7,000 can you imagine Hey guys you're only making 700
bucks 100 bucks a piece no so that's 7,000 um and that is we do get paid back some of that um you know depending on what election and things like that um sometimes we'll get paid back for um the
election workers from the state um from the state um but usually that's with um State elections um Mark you know this um with local because this will be my first time just doing local I still can get
paid back um a certain percentage for the election workers you'll get paid back I don't know what percentage um okay so the three-hour law was when opened at 7 the town elections 9 to 5
what's it's 7:30 to 5 7:30 5 so you won't get the first three hours correct on that because that's a bulaw so that you won't get but you'll get reimbursed for any unfunded mandates so any work you do towards vot by mail correct or um
early voting if you host any early voting okay that's what I figure okay I just wanted to make sure that I had that like 100% um so technically they would do if because we are going to do um we're actually I'll tell you after but
we're going to be doing vote like sending out vote by mail with um in our census so any kind of pre-election tabulation because it has something to do with the election but that $7,000 would be enough to um for the day of the
election as well as anything else that we might need for training because we do we're going to offer training um um we are going to do a closing training um to be prepared better for um our primary and um the elections coming up in the
future f so right now we have we typically have about 13 that we've used but we've gotten a few more and what's happening is now I'm going to start doing half days for certain people um full days
obviously uh we'll have specific closers cuz um they get paid by the hour they get paid by the hour hour some of them are 15 some of them are 16 the uh iPads from last year we able to use those just for state or oh I use them for everything I was I love those
like love them so I use them for Town meetings um all elections um pre- tabulation everything we've used them for they are amazing best investment and they're wonderful they I
will tell you working with them have been absolutely wonderful they've been great with me EXC yeah yep okay so my let's see my salary
clerical um I'm asking for this this is for any state mandated hours like Friday that we might have to be um before a certain election um that we have to be open on Friday till five or any other reason so
I have that in there that hasn't changed from last year so same is above like any pre- tabulation due to vote by mail testing things like that that's specifically to for my um for my the two uh clerks the
assistant town clerk as well as the clerk that works for me for 10 hours and anything that we don't use like you know because this is just for State mandated things that we might have to be you know places um anything we don't use obviously would go back in one
question yeah of course School rental do we I crossed that out the reason why is because we haven't had to so at one point um I was talking to to um the guy that helps us set up for the elections
and things like that and he was mentioning it and but I never have gotten a fee so I'm actually C I crossed that out on my end for school rental because we haven't had to hey anybody we've been very
lucky um so the um 7,000 that's for um the tabulator program the ballots so we go through a vendor called SNS and they program all of our um equipment and um send our ballots for local
elections um I also built in an increase here um I this is why I'm doing this because I feel like this is more of I consider it more of an operation budget um I'm actually wanting to buy three
more pole pads with the printers the reason why is because that way I'll have two per Precinct it'll make things a lot more seamless and faster for the residents um so this is actually the time to do it because I'm still under budget like you know what I mean I still
stayed within under my budget for um elections I was lucky enough because I only have one so I am actually um requesting to do that and also because with our current fiscal and Financial State it's unlikely We'll be asking for
you know the capital fun but I really do truly think this is more of an operational thing I think it's going to be much better for our residents and um I'm excited to have them and I think that two per Precinct is plenty and because right now we have
the one and like I said we use them for everything um so it'll help us going forward um especially like within this fiscal year of 26 it'll help us going forward because we will have other
elections coming um right after that like basically we'll have the other two um State elections so we have three precincts we have three precincts currently we only have one per Precinct and how much are they so they're about 1,700 a piece about and that includes um
the pull pad the printer because you have to have the printer with the pull pad and it includes the software um and that software will be good for um any kind of questions or whatever for the is good for a year um and then but we I
haven't had any um incremental costs yet from the PS but originally they said it was a year um but I also don't use the cloud so it's cheaper okay um so we're
coming up on one year with the p we had so have you had to update the program I updated the program no cost July one the yeah I right on the I bet you right on like the dot oh you already got them
right yeah because you use a lot of them and and you know I and the reason why I would like to have two per Precinct too is because it really is more of a seamless transition especially like we noticed there were so many people like waiting in line and it would
have been so much faster if we just had the two so um and I really really believe that this is better for like it should be in my operating budget instead of having to go in front of is the population evenly divided
between the three precincts um no I well I mean there it's pretty average but Precinct one is a little bit more than Precinct Three they Clos though yeah okay just curious um what's the percentage of our show
up so we have 6,300 yes okay about a little over 6,300 for town meeting we had a little over I want to say a thousand at most that's town meeting or town election Town
election sorry Town election town meeting it's about 125 correct so we'd be lucky to get more than that I I I would hope so yeah is it yeah thousand normal for town
election it depends on it depends on if it's um for Town election it depends on if it's you know contentious if like you know anybody's running against who and things like that it all depends and I'm going to say ask one more question now that we've got early voting mail and
voting how many people are voting day up it all depends um local we did about 40 I want to say last local we did about 47% 46% about so half are still coming in
person but um you know we are offering vote by mail again this year so um it's going to be interesting to see how it works um because we did have a huge um election of course last year so we piggybacked off of the vote by mail
cards and so we ended up getting you know about three a little a little under 4 3 20 something yeah I love these I think that and and honestly just having three more
it just gives us two for Precinct I think they I think they're great for our residents it's a lot faster um yeah and it was nice we very tight I know I know so that would be why I'm asking for
that just there um off duty police officers we're only going to be using the two officers um for need of our budget I still believe that you know we have plenty of safety and you know everything like that with you know just having the
two there um and that's pretty much what we kind of spent last time for Just Two Shar could you do you know of any other communities that use two p ps for um um so I know that um I know when I
talked to Laura she was saying that she uses like a ton of them um when I when we were doing pre- tabulation it seemed like it was to per Precinct but I could be wrong and I can check on that okay I will definitely check on that
yeah okay um let's see here so Communications um this is 6500 this is for our census the confirmation mailing um this is for printing and programming um this does not include
postage um this is an anticipated um increase so my projected increase uh line 5420 office supplies um requesting 650 um this is for we need new storage
bins ours are falling apart um and this is specific to putting the ballots in the storage bins and you know um what for the police officers to um handle and um we are in dire need of those um this is for our permanent seals so um when we
um have to once our um ballots are counted we seal them up and those are permanent seals um until we are able to um get rid of them um this is also for pens Inc and State computer um and uh voted stickers
we are completely out we used every one of them last election um and then uh the vote by mail I actually um decreased it from what you guys see there I decreased it to 4500 um because I have a great idea I'm
GNA add one um to the census so I'm gonna actually have it um actually included in the census that we sent out it saves US money um we still um so it will save a actually a lot of money um
doing it that way um and then um you know incremental cost to the vote by mail so that would be any post tabulation depending on um if we can do it beforehand we do that with the post pole pads as well or we would do that there and just have
it um at the election and have um certain um election workers open up the vote by mail and and do that they'd be working half days do you find that you get a lot of the um we do but then we send out a
confirmation mailing stating that you need to um let us know if you still live here um so then we end up randomly getting um quite a few more back so yeah we still get about I want to say
a week we're still getting about I want to say now like 30 or 40 so they're still coming in I'm like so trust me that's all fun and games until you have to file it and then you
do it all day yeah um okay any other questions on 162 thank you NOP um I have 163 now okay so the um this is uh the 5105 that's the salary for the registar that's $600 that hasn't gone up this is
an actual cost for the stat for the register uh 5300 the street listing um I have 1500 um this one is for the annual Street listing um books that we have printed um this is for the preparation
and the printing um the expected increase it was a little bit um you know more than what we had um so I have about 1,500 um and then the postage so this postage is like our biggest um expense
for this um this includes the um census um that they charge us for postage that we send out confirmation the confirmation mailing that they'll charge um our vendor that we go through um and then our automatic voter um anything
that we're sending with vitals burst mes uh marriages deaths things like that so that's um my total cost and I'm still waiting for um my monthly uh postage that haven't received
I'm just waiting um I feel like that's it and um I know uh Serena you had one more right like the um the town meeting the 113 just for those two we did that
you did yes oh good that's I thing off my plate okay more for you any questions I just want to make sure I understand registration would be births deaths marriages vitals as births deaths marriages yeah elections
obviously would be elections and then um more of the records from town clerk would be more of the dog licenses that type of um the vital records I'm trying I'm between the three I'm trying to get
okay the differences between the three okay I just go here and the main reason is because I see census for 6500 and two and that's that's so that's why I'm trying to wrap my head around so the census you mean for postage I guess communication 5340
and uh 162 and 163 okay so um let's see 160 so here so the sun says so the communications is 6500 that is just for the census confirmation mailing that's just for the printing and
programming okay so we go through a company um and um that vendor we go through they charge you um per like what you're going to put in with a census so we put in like an application for the dog license we put in an application for
you know um just to fill out that's just appliation so really so elections 5340 is is the the vendor for the cost of the yes that's that's just for the census confirmation mailing we put that under um the communications for elections
correct and because that actually if you don't send back your census and you don't send back the confirmation mailing you go inactive and um after two State elections um like presidential um then
you end up um you can just get removed we just actually removed a whole lot of them and then they call and they say hey why did you remove me well because you didn't fill out your senses you didn't vote you didn't fill out your
confirmation well that would be why and then yeah so then 163 is really the stamps for the yeah yeah that's postage for everything that's the postage so we'll charge that line item for um any
postage that comes through we charge that line item but Paul hasn't gotten you his no Mr Paul I have to uh oh that's our that's that's next week's uh agenda with
Paul any other questions then no okay hopefully I wasn't confus thank you of course thank you guys think you here being here so late it's a good
time sure cating definitely all righty historical commission 691 you skip 189 or we already do that we already did that that's right you're trying to give me a heart attack I don't want do it twice you did it again I
know came earlier he had he had another one no special treatment oh I tried to take them later it it was a surprise surprising I'm so glad I don't do that all right so mine's very simple compared to
shar's um basically we we reduced our budget we were at 1,400 for this fiscal year so FY 26 were asking for $1,100 and um so we went through it our biggest change was probably in um
professional and Technical um 5300 and we calculated for two to three members to attend a possible conference um or Andor Consulting fees in the past couple of years we've had
some technical fees associated with our surveys um such as the GIS mapping um expenses and we don't have that planned for FY 26 so that takes care of a big chunk of that that we also found that um
our commission members have become fairly stable so there are those that go to conferences those that care not to some who figured out they've learned enough on their own um so we're only planning for maybe two to three people to go depending on where they are and
what the content is um so that's the big change there Communications is for postage uh just given the cost of stamps other supplies would be uh printing any historical brochures and office supplies
that we may need in the past we've also put historical markers in here um right presently we're having trouble finding an appropriate vendor for that to make the markers so that program's
kind of on hold uh we did build that in our past budgets um so that's you'll see it like an fy2 I don't even know if we're going to get there because we're still looking for an appropriate vendor um of course travel went up a little bit so um that would be for if we
go to a conference or anything great any questions so there is a difference I just want to speak to FY 25 a little bit because I know you always look at the percentage that we've spent so far so
our percentage is low but we do have expenses coming up because we do have a survey out there there I have an estimate from the G GIS map M maker that'll cost between $350 and $550 and as part of that survey too we
have some printing costs that are coming up and um there's a conference in June that some people may attend so that's why our percentage is not up there because Serena always says I'm like oh we're really low how closely does the historical
commissioner work with the town historian we consult with each other um the town historian is not really connected with the commission she's her own separate entity okay I was I was getting that's what I was getting I didn't know if it could be one budget item so your based on what you just said
it makes sense to keep them separate um at this time I would say yes okay thank you appreciate it any other questions okay than you okay thank you thank you um
okay Town historian I'm sure that's simple right yeah no want to say there what is what is the 250 there did she gave us a call and she said it was 250 and that was pretty much it it's been that for a while I think as
it was at 500 you reduced it to 250 a year or so ago and okay was it used this year or is it just like an end of the year I don't think it has been used no it's have they used that they us they
used still have a budget from last year they still have a budget from last year 69 69 that's what I I would assume yeah that's probably just anend year has nothing has been spent today through February I would assume was
probably just an end of the year I think it was previous years okay bab may do some you know she may participate in some archiving as as the town historian not a h
okay the one we've been waiting for all right agricultural commission 179 not the one I was like that's the one no offense to the agricultural but I okay I thought we were moving on to Serena good evening um Ken rjo I'm the
chairman of the ad commission we just completely reorganized as of last Tuesday night and uh as far as I believe last year we asked for 500 this year with the budget asking for 10% we could live with
that um what we've been doing is we've been Outsourcing and looking for free help which getting some assist assistance from uh serpent uh we're also getting some assistance from MD mass mass
Massachusetts Department of agricultural resources to try to give the Board of Health and some of the other people departments in town some more guidance so we've been having some issues and it's which probably all have been whereabout to try to give you know the
department heads in the town whether it be you know zoning Board of Health conservation whatever to give them some more guidance and we've been seeking some free help so with the money we're asking for is in case we have to do any
mailings I don't have any requests yeah I'm giving it in person tonight okay because uh somehow or other I trashed an EMA email that was supposed to be sent out two weeks ago so okay so what's the total amount that the request is then
$450 okay and can just ask was that officially voted at the meeting okay 450 thank you and are we correct that you didn't have a budget last year no we did have a budget but we never used
it thought it got moved there was uh there was an issue with two of the board members on the commission that couldn't get along and what have you so that's been resolved just in FY 24 they had a $1,500
budget FY 25 was my budget right that's what I'm saying I don't have I don't have a voted budget for now the reason why it was so high in 20 2024 is because of the uh community garden right yeah right right so it was
a lot of expense then and now Cox and Recreation have taken that project over so that would be on their budget versus ours okay so the 450 is for just for communications just for communications okay all
right and what was that going to be used for again um we're working with like I said we've got three projects in the works right now in it's in case if we have to do mailings and you know it's rather than we get something we can make recommendations to
help the Board of Health and or animal control Andor conservation thank you you're welcome good night hello um I just have a couple of updates from Tuesday night's meeting can I do
that first please so I looked at the snow and ice deficit as of this Thursday and it's actually negative $126,000 sorry what was that deficit 126,000 not 90 snow and
ice and then another thing I was asked to look into was the Ada salary so I did have it overstated on documents so I do have a new number and that will um you know after we go through all the budget meetings I was going to send out new
sheets with all of the changes um but if you wanted to note it now the new number is $3,215 45 um the other update was um in the highway budget the 422 the office manager in comparison to this fiscal
year in 26 so actually in fiscal year 25 the salary is overstated because we calculated her at 40 hours a week instead of at 35 hours a week so the number that's there for FY 26 is
accurate at 51,000 okay is a 2.44 yes which one is that s Department 422 the office manager so you have to look at the office I think I think it's 40 and change Y and then go
to Department 432 and add in the 8,000 okay so those two together is her 51 that's right she split between the two they do split up some of her salary yes along with Tom's salary and the workers y okay um and then just another
side note next Tuesday I'm not going to be able to attend the meetings but if any questions come up if you if anybody just wants to email me and then I can follow up when I am back good luck want me Serena I'll keep not and then there's changes or issues or anything I'll EMA
all yeah perfect that would be great too I didn't think about that changes along the way I was going to look at the video after and catch up on those thank you okay so my budget is pretty straightforward um the salaries are
contractual I have the overtime at 650 we've used about half halfway through that's for um my assistant it's usually when payroll when there's like a Monday holiday and we need to just do everything in two days instead of 3 days she works a
couple of extra hours um so it's considered overtime even though it's still below the 40 hours but um within the clerical it's you know above her normal 31 hours a week so I just have a little extra funds there and then the education stiens is
all um contractual professional and Technical I was able to lower a little bit the audit is lower this is actually a new contract amount and it's lower because speaking with Auditors last week we are the um single
audit is an additional 5,000 when we have to do a single audit Federal audit but that limit is being raised to a million dollar so we're not projecting to spend a million dollars out of any of our federal grants so we won't need the single audit so that's why it's
lower um I kept office supplies the same professional and the development that's was really where I could um cut some money besides the audit I cut that in half um my assistant's catching on pretty well and I'm able to just kind of train her on the job she doesn't feel
the need to go away for the training in at murst dues and subscriptions is pretty standard her and I um and then I did not have anything for additional equipment this fiscal year but I did add in $500
we have a small little HP printer that we print our vendor checks on every week and it's starting to get a little funny so if I need to replace it or I need to fix it um that's where we print the checks every week if it goes down I'd probably have to print the checks after
hours on the copy machine to make sure nobody like prints on my checks so I'm hoping to just keep that little one in our office so the printing doesn't get you guys get regulated forf especially fora the
government specific um I'd have to look into that I haven't bought a toner in a long time but right with the scanning of the checks because it it'll tell if you make
a copy of it it's uh fraud proof I'll definitely look into that line 5157 the education line 1350 um does someone in your office plan on taking courses or are you just putting it there because it's a contractual amount yeah so in
everybody's budget it it's it's there it's contractual so my contract I get money for my bachelor's degree no no I I realize that that's not the question I'm asking I know that's in your contract but we are budgeting that amount yes so is the intention that somebody in your office is going to use that so it's not
to be used she gets the stien for having the education so everybody's I know that was a little confusion with everybody theary correct and you'll get it every year correct why don't we just include that
in the these are like hidden numbers I mean well they're not hidden because they're right there but I mean that would make much more sense because yeah your job and your qualifications this is your salary but if you put in the salary wouldn't that get increased every year
with the colas yeah yeah so that wouldn't make sense then she would right because then the full dollar amount would be subject to the the the contractual percentage increase and it shows the town's acknowledging their additional education too you know we' already pay for it
right right where I mean that seems like kind of crazy we pay for the education then we P I don't know how much Town actually pays for employees education like degrees cost thousands thousands dollars what do we cover like maybe so that's under the department 9 920 the
tuition um you know each contract is a little different I don't know like what the clerical reimbursement amount is for classes but that would fall under that department when somebody's actively taken a class and gets above a certain grade then we re reimburse whatever portion okay is contract you don't
reimburse the en thing okay that 3,000 a person I know that I CL I think the 3,000 is the fire department specifically I'm not sure clerical and the other contracts I took advantage of um education and I remember in the policy that they had to go through the
Selectmen they had to approve it I remember oh yeah we didn't do something never seen anyone go through since I went through no few years ago now so I'm not sure be worth looking into cuz um yes but I think it was, 1500 that's what I remember yeah because I know I would I
would go over when I took the classes so you pay the differ Dr yeah and I separated out U maybe last year or the year before to have that 5157 just to make you know budgeting easier when we go to do the cola I know
that nobody's education is in their salary line so I can take just their salary line and not have to subtract things out and then go forward again so I think in years past it was all just mixed into the salary line and then I started separating it thank you welcome any other
questions just because I'm thinking of we talked about talking about Tuesday did the assistant Jonathan's assistant do we figure is that included in your professional and Technical we're going to look at it yeah we're going to move
it uh it's not currently it's not included it's as a separate amount but I think we're going to for for clarity we're going to we're going to move it to the uh uh under my budget under the under ta's budget so I have to look back
at my notes from last year to see if um in the end we put justina's money into the pnt under the admin budget I didn't have a chance to fully dive into that your notes said that we did that's what my yeah that was why so I I looked back at my notes last year because I was
confused by the time we got done with the that call um and the in the town administrators professional and Technical it had gone up last year by 600 and my notes were that we moved 15 Jonathan's 1500 for the assistant to
Town Administrator and I cover that so it wasn't that it got removed and somehow it was that we moved it over to Town Administrator like we moved to the Ada yeah stien yeah so to clarify that in 26 I'm
going to have a separate line that says Ada um auxiliary AIDS and then Ada he had something else like other supplies or something yeah so like his three lines will now say Ada under the town admin's budget so it doesn't get cool mixed and construed
yeah okay thank you thank okay 698 cable good evening everyone all right so we'll start right at the top so the reason for the increase in the salary parttime line is mainly to
maintain competitiveness with surrounding towns um uh we've had multiple people apply submit their application be interviewed by the committee for recommendation of the board of selectman and that's kind of where it's
ended um we're only a three- member committee with the ability to expand to a five person committee um and to be perfectly honest we need more people with the expanding equipment and the expanding I don't want to say needs of the town but wants of the Town based on
what people have approached us and asked us for um and the skills that are required for that we need more talent and we haven't gotten it um spoke to other towns specifically raob raob is a little different from us not only in population size but they have a
full-time employee who makes $60,000 a year um and they also pay their video ographers um $25 an hour with a 3-hour stiped I'm sorry not a three-hour s but a three-hour minimum so it would be um $75
per shoot we don't have any minimums um because we get paid hourly um Berkeley it was difficult to compare to Berkeley because Berkeley's um cable committee um is run through their Town
it so his salary is more more so the town it salary than our the way that we run it um seon there wasn't really much comparison as far as what they put on for programming and they also don't have a studio space same thing with Somerset
and then once you start getting into your Taunton and out burough you're getting a lot bigger than what we have here so I didn't want to go too far with that um so any questions about that
on the labor no okay you get reimbursed through Comcast though or yes so all of the money that we use the entire budget line comes from Right comes from our Peg access fund um which the uh the contract
that we have right now is really good um I know some people have been concerned about you know losing customers of streaming and things like that I guess my counter to that would be we're having more housing developments come in so that's going to offset it uh the percentage decrease hasn't been drastic
and people are always going to want to watch sports and watch cable news so we always have that going for us yeah well now all the streaming services cost the same as cable so you might as well have cable yeah yeah honestly um cut the cord
but also have 30 other cords so we we've been fortunate enough that um the salary not only the salary line but our entire budget is well below what our Peg access brings every year I believe it's somewhere in the neighborhood of
$140,000 um so that covers not only our budgets but things like last year when we had War couple warrants well one warrant fiscal year 25 One More Physical 24 for the studio and the new server that that can be easily
accommodated what is the peg access sorry goad I was going to say what is the just out of curiosity what's the peg access balance right now um right now I don't know off the top of my head I know that it is in between the 300,000 and
400,000 um the way that it's calculated is odd because the money gets put back if we don't use it so right now it's the entire warrant line the entire salary line is taken out of it but as you guys can see we haven't used all of our money
and that gets put back in plus deposits so it's difficult to say exactly how much is in right now so last year we had you guys needed the server you needed some other equipment yes I'm assuming you got all that we did yeah and so what do you need
now uh as far as equipment goes yes there I know we we had the conversation last year that it's Comcast's money let's use it if you need something you guys should ask you want a van as generous as that is um we're and
this is another reason why we need more Talent is we're running into limitations where you guys are paying me in some instances to learn how to use some of this stuff where we do have the cablecast which is uh this program that we use for the server I'm on the phone
I'm emailing them like what do we do with this we've had people come up to us and say hey I've seen a raob they have their entire Catalog online why am I going to YouTube because they can on demand see see the Channel
online do everything onstop shop and I've said hold on cuz I know we have the same exact server as reoboth there is a way to do that I need to figure out how to do that um so as far as additional
equipment I don't want to go crazy um this room could use upgrading but that would be more a lot of the things that we buy um that's not so much a budget thing as it is a warrant because they're they're one times and then if it needs to be replaced we replace it with a
warrant so go crazy man I mean what so did you say if you don't use all the money that contast is so all the money gets put in the peg account and then whatever we use um it doesn't go into like the general
fund or anything like that it goes back into the peg account so so the budget from last from 25 to 48,000 if they don't spend the 48 it goes back into theast general account no we don't we
don't like give it back to Comcast no okay Comcast pays us to be the sole uh TV provider in town okay so you can have you can save up and if say you needed a big item or whatever save up multi they SP five grand this year goes
back in but they can request it to come back and so you know you look have a balance between three and four 400ish right you're budgeting this year at 58 as a request You're Expecting Comcast to
pay 140 that difference also goes in Peg access yeah so the N are you talking about the 90ish Thousand yeah that that that goes right in and we never like look see it I guess it just right but you can draw on that font like if you needed something crazy yeah if the
studio burnt down something I guess uh I'm what what I'm saying is as yeah separate problems if your studio burns more money it's funny enough and tragic enough but rith actually used
some of their Peg axis funds then when their COA burnt down the cable office in the COA kind of Shuffle things that's clever um but please don't take my money well then I've got a question said
it's hard hiring other people because of funding well starting salary so if you've got the money available go get them why can't you uh why isn't everybody getting a little sorry if the
money is available in this contast account yeah and you're having trouble hiring new people because you aren't paying well enough mhm why doesn't why don't you uh ramp up the pay this increase that's what you figur right so so the committee recently uh voted to
increase the starting rate to 25 an hour and the veteran rate to 30 an hour so that is accounting for so that is an increase yes that's the 15500 increase from last year okay yeah yep you think that should do it we hope so uh we have
we have somebody who just applied um but a little background on the last person who didn't come in um he's he stated that he was making $40 an hour which to be perfectly honest I don't believe but uh he might have some good people in his
Corner say uh you know try to go high so any questions on cable um there is something else that I would like uh to request an increase on actually I believe it would go under
dues and subscriptions I'm requesting another $240 in addition to that um with the it's called the VOD video on demand um we need to pay for a domain to house that because as of right
now it's just our IP address and that's not very safe luckily no one knows that right now but they're listening no I mean I mean no one knows what our I is are they those too are they Paul's listening
uh so it would be $20 a month $240 in addition to the $680 so that' be 920 920 240 on top of 680 okay we I didn't know if it's 240 I 250 oh sorry no no no thank
you does Serena need an email on that I know I was going to say email Serena she does definitely well um other than that we so something else that I wanted to bring to your attention on the 100% reduction to
equipments repairs and maintenance I know that last fiscal year we came to you guys and requested that that stay at $10,000 um for um other the server was getting old and things like that obviously we have a new server now so I thought it would be uh
necessary to take that down um a notch Notch 100% um and thank thankfully still our engineer is uh very um helpful and a lot of the times he is available and
does not charge us which is very nice because he's an engineer who makes a lot of money so did you say the 10,000 you're keeping it uh we're reducing it down to five yeah um because with the new server and a lot of the new equipment purchased
in the Warren article we don't imagine us having to repair or maintain it so much okay all right thank you thank you look at us go before we adjourn I just kind of wanted to feel the finance
committee out uh Doug white at the last meeting he kind of mentioned pooling some of the lines like equipment repair and maintenance and he mentioned office supplies I didn't know how you guys felt about maybe exploring I I thought we did it on a like like maybe
this fiscal year equipment repairs and maintenance to see if the town could find any savings in that like going through perhaps one line would you guys have any interest in exploring that I think to to me and just just from
my standpoint I I was thinking like it I thought we kind of were with the data processing and that that was all kind of grouped but you get down to like office supplies and I don't know I could almost see people pointing fingers and saying
you know well they're using all the paper that they want why can't I get an extra I agree with you on office supplies 100% um I just think equipment of repairs and maintenance might be one where I don't know it might be nice to have it vetted through and yeah it should probably I mean you guys you
probably want to use the same vender right so that you've got the same people looking at the same problem correct right yeah what does the procurement look like for these things right now is it all divided up like each individual departments going out and finding a
vendor I think a lot of people just have their own um they got a guy printers and I think still most of it goes to nrpc but they can kind of decide if they want to just replace it or have nrop speec come in it might be nice just having everything go through and you have more resources too if you had like one bigger
line just with what's available maybe is raising his hand you want oh uh sure hey good evening everybody are you able to hear me hear you excellent thank
you all very much I I hope you're all having a great night I am uh watching the meeting tonight because my social life is just that vibrant I just wanted to um offer a little complement information regarding a comment that was made during the town accountant present
about the potential of the vendor checks to be check okay there was a comment that I think it's a great concern to raise um to the best of my knowledge the toer card pages on which our vendor checks are printed are not indelible ink
and while delible ink is um resistant to Common check washing agents like acetone benine carbon chloride Bach Etc um for the Peace of Mind of the the board and the committee I just wanted to let everybody know that I implemented a technology known as pay positive
positive pay which means at the time that we create the vendor check file and issue vendor payments a check file from our um accounting software Vadar is directly uploaded to the institution and it requires a um a four
point exact match between the check gate the check dollar amount the check number in the exact KU line so if there are any circumstances wherein the exact name of the pay issued on the vendor check does not match the vendor file it kicks back
to us for manual decision um so while the checks themselves may be susceptible to check washing we do have a technology in place to anticipate prevent fraudulent checks from going through and we do occasionally get in Optimus charges that come through such as a
perfectly legitimate payment to ABC Corporation however the second line might say accounts receivable Department or something to that nature um we actually are sometimes even required to manually decision things that the the
Top Line matches perfectly but there's supplementary information on the secondary line so I just wanted to um provide some the Peace of Mind of everybody present that we do have really robust uh cyber security policies in place and um we do have all the
technology lined up to um to prevent so even in the event that a check blood intercepted from the man and check Lo we do have systems in place to to prevent frag payment from going through thank you than you Paul so um I appreciate the information
yeah so I guess like would when uh the clerk was talking about the service contract I kind of thought that was in one spot it would probably make sense for something like that to be so you can all right yeah her printer broke right
we can get a renew Serena printer breaks absolutely I feel everyone throws a couple hundred bucks at it in every department and we might find a little bit of savings if we just had one main account for it yeah yeah that's something we could explore we'll check after to thank youwin because she
usually handles that perfect thank you very much any other comments for this evening no okay ition I'll make that motion second all in favor I I I post guys have it