finance committee joint uh budget review meetings this is for fiscal year 2026 this is in person in Via Zoom at Oldtown Hall 1111 Somerset AB night and mass 02715 uh tonight's being is is being recorded the meeting ID number is 898
4717 0490 and the pass code to to join is 35943 uh can we please stand uh actually have a roll call please Nicole Meo pres Mar pres and Peter Ken pres can we please stand for oh want do your roll
I'm sorry uh no please do yours uh since we do have zo tonight Tracy car Doug white and Jake Jake St thank you please stand for theedge ofg I to of
the United States of America to the stand godice for all thank you first up tonight is the Dr Regional School District
hi I'm doing excellent how about yourself believe Mr vitaco is going to load some slides for me okay all right good evening everyone um just want to uh thank everyone for the opportunity to be here
um I really appreciate your service uh to the town um it means a lot to us as employees of the district and I know it means a lot to uh to the staff and families I'm uh grateful to be joined tonight by um the chair of our school committee Mr Andre also another one of
our school committee members Mrs coocher um as well as our uh new District business administrator Leo brim um I think it's important to make sure that I mentioned that uh tonight is just a snapshot of where we are as of today um
our budget hearing is a week from today and I will allude to a little bit more information about our budget hearing um but uh things will change a little bit between now um and next Tuesday next slide I I am going to get on my Soap Box
just a little bit um it is unconscionable to me that we can have an average inflation rate of 4.95% over the uh last 5 years and the state revenue um for our district has
increased by less than 1% um I am hopeful that uh the members of the House of Representatives and the members of the Senate will correct this gross uh misjudgment on the part of the governor um a statistic was presented to
me today uh The District budget in 2019 in today's dollars is 25% more than what it was in 2019 our increases are 16% since 2019 so um if
you if you think about the the impact of inflation I think that's a pretty telling story right there next slide one more so um somewhat in the governor's defense I will say that the Chapter 70
funding formula is Antiquated um I do have a petition circling uh circulating uh on Town Facebook pages District Facebook pages and um Senator ls's Bill is to reconvene the Chapter 70 uh
funding formula commission and I think that would go a long way the amount of money that it would cost to reconvene that uh commission is projected to be $250,000 $250,000 is a lot of money but when you compare it to a multi-billion
dollar budget for the state I I think it's um I think it's a drop in the bucket so I'm hoping that uh I'm hoping that Senator Lewis's bill will pass I'm grateful to Senator duner um to representative Thurber and representative howt who's on the
rehobath side who have already told me that uh they support uh Senator Lewis's bill so next slide I think one of the things that's extremely important uh for um the community to understand and for all of you to understand is that um a major
aspect of our budgeting each year is uh soaring special education costs last year our special education costs represented uh 26% of the District budget this year they represent 24% we gladly uh provide these services
to these students who desperately need them uh but we cannot we can cannot ignore that at the state level those costs continue to soar and the revenue from the state is not commensurate with those increases next slide
please um I noticed that when Bristol Plymouth uh presented their budget last week they took the opportunity to break out the difference in operations and capital um and so it was suggested to me uh to present that to you tonight um we
are currently at a total budget of 4.08% but if you do look at it from the standpoint of what the budget increase would be without Capital those fixed costs for roofs HVAC improvements and those types of things um our ask is is
really uh 2.3% which would be a 1.62% increase uh to the town uh but still at the end of the day uh where we stand as of now is slightly less than 4.1% and the assessment to the town would be
4.30% next slide please so uh when I was here before the board of Selectmen a couple of weeks ago um I was asked about level services and um level Services is something that's honestly a pipe dream for us uh if you look at the bottom row
of that table uh level services for us in uh early February was 7.92% so uh we immediately start looking at efficiencies we sit down with all of our budget managers so that be our principles and our department heads and we start looking for ways that uh we can
cut Corners uh there are times where we do not backfill retirements uh there are times where um based on some uh vendor changes we're able to save a little bit of money uh but what I presented to uh the school
committee uh two weeks ago was a a current increase of 4.08% we're still working on it um this is just a slide that just gives uh the the fincom and the board of Selectmen uh just a progression of where we've been
over time and if you notice um did put an asteris there for years where we had um Esser assistance uh through um through federal grants from the covid and um you know we've got a couple of
very anomalous years in terms of uh Dion approaching 10% uh for their assessment I am um pleased to say that you know we are less than half of that as of today 4.3% um but I'm cautiously optimistic that within a week we'll be able to get
that a little bit lower so um next slide if you will uh keep going Mr vitaco if you don't mind I I changed the order on them a little bit keep going one more I don't go back once we go forward that's it that's all right still talk to
uh one more okay so I I I did make reference to um our bu budg hearing our budget hearing is one week from today March 25th 6:30 p.m. um at the dhobi Regional High School auditorium um we are constantly refining
the um the the current 4.08 proposal um it dropped a couple of uh hundredths when we finalized our health insurance um there is one final set of efficiencies that we typically employ um
in mid to late February uh with Leo being new to the position um we are starting to get into that now that it is um now that it's mid-march and I'm cop um cautiously optimistic that when uh I present my um final presentation to the
school committee next Tuesday that um the districtwide budget will be less than 4% and that the town assessment will be less than 4% um how much less than 4% I can't say at this point um but we are um cons consistently working on
efficiencies to try to make this as palatable for um each of our towns as possible you can't go backwards you can't go backward um I just what I thank you that's the that's the only slide that we
really need um you know as I said I'm I'm cautiously optimistic that a week from today um districtwide budget will be less than 4% and the town assessment projection will be less than 4% all I want the community to remember and I did say this when I was before the
selectman a couple of weeks ago um our staff has been decimated the last two years um we proposed 12.5 Cuts in FY 24 and proposed um 20.5 Cuts last year for a total of 33 cuts um this year we
actually have a net Staffing gain uh we are not going to backfill two retirements uh but we do need three new positions we have two um class- siiz situations where we are flirting with um being out of compliance with the Teachers Association contract and then
we also have one position that we're adding for special education because we're dangerously close to being out of compliance for case loads and special education so um we are we are razor thin I I there's an article that's coming out in this in the Taunton Gazette tomorrow
it actually it's actually online today but I think it'll be published tomorrow uh where I basically compared it to a rubber band as far as our class sizes and our staffing is concerned uh We've stretched the rubber band about as far as we can go so I I'm I'm hopeful that
uh we'll be able to to maintain this um this Staffing level going forward so thank you thank you obviously uh anything could come below the 4% is phenomenal as far as I'm
concerned uh I personally and I'm not speaking for the other trth don't um care where the Cs come from I I don't mean it to be callous uh but if it's Administration or teachers or uh
Capital it's it's your budget uh you're the ones that have to live with it right uh we have to live with the overall budget uh percentage wise and dollar figure wise so for fortunately the efficiencies that that we typically put in place in mid-February and like I said
we're a little bit behind um will not have have any impact on Staffing and will not have any impact on programs so great I'm sure uh students and parents are very happy about that it's one of the biggest complaints that we get about the school system uh not the school
system itself but about the scho schools is the amount of teachers that get cut and programs that get cut but it's the same parents that don't want to have uh the taxes go up so it's Catch 22 for us um Nicole do you have anything you'd
like to add at this um first I just want to thank you for getting the slides to us prior to this um presentation that's always helpful um I did have a question I've seen online um you guys mentioning that you have night classes or night classes are going to be starting is that some adult continuing education does
that bring in additional income like how does that work are they paying for these classes or is this just a service you're providing um folks will have to pay for any sort of adult continuing education classes it'll be you know uh maybe basic
Automotive Maintenance um as we continue to get it off the ground you know I'd love to see like our um Early Childhood Ed teachers teach a babysitting course and maybe even some uh first aid certification um right now we're we we're trying to to build as much
interest as possible so it's there's no real profit margin for us it's it's you know if we're going to be changing oil then obviously they going to be some fees in terms of um someone get getting into the program if after 2 3 years we
can um get it to really Thrive uh then you know maybe we would see some profit off of it but I'm not I'm not thinking that's going to happen anytime in the next two years no I didn't think so I just thought it was a great idea additional Services I tell the school committee all the time that uh there are so many wonderful things that are going
on in our high school if we can find ways to get the community into our building even if it's just to to bring your car in for an oil change or to take um an evening course uh you you'll see what we see every single day which is wonderful things going on in the high
school thank you that's all I have well you have to add just two questions the million dooll Capital expenses that was shown could you just touch upon what those look like and what some of the projects in the pipeline so um we we are still paying off some msba roof
Replacements um we had a boiler project um that is still ongoing uh the solar arrays are still being paid off I think those are um hopefully going to be paid off in 35 2035 or so um but that's primary that's where the bulk of that
comes from okay and my second question is just kind of for my own knowledge when you work on the budget with the school committee do they have access to like a line by line item like itemized budget like similar to what we do in town I can't remember if I asked you that last time yes they do yeah that's
all I have thank you they you guys have that right no I don't have a line by line for the school department they don't have the binder for the school department um we can provide it but we have
normal not not in not in my tenure oh really oh okay thank you uh it's off to you guys you had mentioned I think last year that you guys were looking at expanding the u tech ad side of things and the state
reimburse differently on that side have you have you had any chance of expanding that yet we did we submitted a letter of intent for um criminal justice program and for um a medical or health assisting
program uh the state kind of pressed pause on that I think some of the changes in the commissioner's office um kind of threw some of their Staffing for a loop um but uh we had a meeting with our CTE liaison um about a month ago and
when that window opens to submit in the fall uh we're going to it's a part a application and if the part a application gets approved then you can submit Part B so we we're going to submit part a uh for criminal justice and for um medical and health
assisting I on the solar AR if you could just explain that those are now up and running I've been yes thanks for bringing that up and by the way thank you for your service to the um to the finance advisory committee I appreciate that I meant to mention that in my opening and I forgot uh so yes um you
know we have these solar arrays that um to select M Pico's Point um are contributing to our capital year-over-year and um we found out that they were not operating anywhere near um you know uh
effective efficiency uh I was approached by a colleague of mine um in attelboro who um has a um has a drone service where they assess the effectiveness of your solar arrays um he came in and and did a relatively inexpensive assessment
for us and um we found out that you know we're grossly inefficient as far as those are concerned Leo has done a fantastic job along with Damen Preston who's our facilities director uh to get those repaired um we now have a monitoring system I I get the emails
just like Leo gets them and just like Daman gets them um even sometimes when there's snow on them and they're not operating at maximum efficiency so we're we're we're confident that over time we're going to start seeing um more
profit from the solar arrays and um we also uh the school committee had the presence of mind to direct us to um get a maintenance contract as well not to interrupt when you say a uh profit off profit a income off of this
how much will you anticipate Leo do you happen to remember so we have some projections they come off as far as credit off of our utility bills unfortunately we're never um we're never fully you know 100% efficient right but the projected over the over
the 10 years isth of $2 million okay thank you one one quick thing uh Mr roach's Question the uh the full line Mr K's question the full L byland budget uh is on the district website if you want to
get it sorry we didn't provide that in your packet but it is available there okay thank you thank you that's fairly easy to find if I remember you just go to school committee 20 uh budget hearing and then it says 26 fway 26 committee
budget awesome thank you thanks okay let you do you guys any questions for uh Jake or I don't know if Doug's still there or I'm here okay any questions for the
superintendent I have two questions um how are we doing on our um the number of students that are from dton that are eligible to being in the district that are choosing to go to Dr as opposed to other schools what's our percentage of
uh that pie that we're we're getting to go to the to the the Dr schol so that's a great question um I I looked into that in the fall for the school committee um in FY 23 we were at about
66% of what I would call a conversion rate um last year we were at 69% and this year we're at 72% so um it is um it's not massive gains um our high school enrollment is
up by about uh 14 students um from last year but um the the message The Narrative is getting out there the positivity is definitely spreading and um so we we actually have 65 more
students in the district than what we had on October 1st of 2024 we had an infusion through um uh through a new prek classroom that we opened um and uh so we're we're hopeful that the
foundation budget for next year um will be a little higher based on an increased enrollment out of those 70 the 65 how many of them have moved into the district compared to what students have
moved out with going to BP or Bristol agie is that that number all because of students deciding to to stay here no part of it is like we open a new pre program okay so um we open a new pre-
classroom I should say um but I I don't have any more specifics than that okay thank you I know he had a second question I believe yeah second question is um as far as the um 22% you know that
the town was unsuccessful in being able to um break the two and A2 so if you would have to bring your budget down to 2 and a half or below and you went through your line by line itemization if you ranked order those
things would you be able to um take the most important ones to keep and eliminate the least important ones to get to that two and a half if we had to get to two and a are you talking about two and a half overall or two and a half for the town's
assessment two two and a half for the town's assessment so two and a half for the town's assessment actually is is pretty consistent with what the district's overall assessment is so that would mean that the district assessment overall would have to get down to two and a half
or maybe 2.75 um that's you know that's over a million dollars um 60% or so of our um of our budget is based on salaries so we would
um have to we'd have to Prior prze cutting salaries first place that I would go would be those three new positions that I had made reference to earlier um the two that will help us with class sizes on the k through eight level and one for special ed compliance
um so that's where I would start but then I'd have to start looking at uh other places where we could cut staff okay I only asked because we've all had to look at those um numbers in every Department within the town and um
have either no increase or less than two and a half increase right and and when I came before the selectman a couple of weeks ago I I I do completely understand that perspective but given the fact that we are 32 in the whole um in terms of the
last two fiscal years um you know I'm I'm just hopeful that folks can keep that context rather than just a year-over-year um perspective okay I have no other questions thank you
Jake yeah I just I have a question you had referenced the the 2019 budget comparing it to now which I think is is you know an interesting comparison because that was Prior you know prior to co craziness right where there tons of
federal funding falling into the um into the schools I I guess from a staffing perspective um and I guess you could talk about ratios where do you sit from a teacher to student ratio when we compare to
2019 um and I'm also curious to understand these uh student to administrator ratio as compared to 2019 as well do you have any data or can you speak on that at all I wasn't here in
2019 um what I can tell you is that the 33 proposed Cuts over the last couple of years um have changed that ratio um there are a a couple of the new positions that we're proposing for this year are because of the fact that we're
getting close to um contractual compliance which I believe um is a class size of 26 um at the K through 8 level and um we also uh tackled the the right sizing aspects of the Staffing at the
high school immediately upon my arrival um and so the the high school has probably taken the most significant percentage of those cuts um but that's not that's not hard and fast data that I
have in front of me going back to 2019 yeah and and that's fine I I really aming the question because I'm trying to understand you know I think comparing the the the 33 Cuts over the last 2 years like I think a lot of that as a result of you know we had a lot of
hiring because we had a lot of additional money coming into the district from the federal government which is and the state which is you know unfortunately gone now because Co you know is not happening anymore right um so I I'm just trying to understand from that perspective that's why I was you know encouraged when you started talking
about comparing this year to 2019 because I think that's kind of the the last normal year and I think we're approaching normal again you know from a additional funding perspective so that that's why I was asking anything you can provide in that would be fantastic I
appre yeah I I understand it a little bit more clearly now I I will say that um you know some of the decisions about the federal Esser funds were made before my arrival um I will say it was probably
50% devoted towards salaries and the other 50% was for techn ology and other Support Services uh for our students so it you know it wasn't like the 33 Cuts represented the departure of the federal
funding okay thank you no question you on the pre classroom that was added um we've talked about the money following students is there any state or federal funding that comes with the prepay classroom or is that parent funding
uh the the prek is that the the parents have to pay um if the students are General Ed um if it's special ed it's is a part of our intervention yes and that is covered by the state part of it is yes okay thank
you a question that is probably more for a real one of the things we've been looking at is the uh benefit and payroll tax costs involved with with with the payroll the town so to ask you directly
do you guys in in the town it's 20 20 roughly 21% of payroll is would that be the same with you guys we yeah just I understand the question could so in Dion the benefit cost is
roughly benefit and tax cost is roughly 21% of payroll it's in that ballpark okay yeah it's in that ballpark y it is thank you no problem and I have just one more um which I'm going to ask to you only because the microphones are
this way but I'm curious if the uh school committee members have received phone calls regarding uh budget issues from the town's people as well no no thank you one more when is the contract up for the
teachers uh June 30th of this year year okay so we're going to into negotiations soon all right thank you but Mr roach to your point um we we would um welcome anyone to come to the budget hearing next Tuesday 6:30 p.m. thank you all right so thank you
all right thank you have a good night you too thank you thank you guys we on line yes sir we're here thank you thank you for having us thank you sorry for absence today in person we just came
back from the state house today it was a day at the state house so we just coming this time um I'm going to present the screen is blank I don't see anybody on video so I'm just going to do our best to try to keep uh contact and information purposes as we go through the budget itself so for the on the call
myself is Derek C the superintendent of Bristol agie and then also is stha Stone our business manager here for slag so just to give a preliminary review uh for our projected Revenue um at this time the preliminary Chapter 70 numbers in Regional Transportation numes has been released our foundation budget here at
the school for Bristol lagi has gone up 4.65% from uh 10, 653,000 to 11,148 th000 um during the FY 25 budgeting process um the original County contribution for fy2 uh was decreased by
$658,000 status of the uh County's overall budget uh upcoming for the year uh for tuition for in County specifically the impacts for Dion uh We've increased our student population for in County from 511 students to 531 is an increase of 20
students and um at this time we're holding an increase for our student tuition increase for $400 where the tuition would be set at $447 our debt assessment for the upcoming year Remains the Same um for per pupil uh that assessment is at
$557 66 just to kind of give a little bit of a deeper dive into the processes right now we're in the on coordination of our payroll um we at this upcoming year are in contract negotiations with our teachers so we do have a set um
confidential number in place but our budget is being held at about a 4% 4.91% increase on overall proposal for our um our contract so um we've done some gains on our accounts payable which is our overall operating expenses in fiscal
year 25 our budget had increased by 7.21% about $295,000 uh for our boing expenses um Miss St has done an excellent job with the department heads and the district administrators both setting the uh standard on the FY 26 budget uh we were
at 4.19% and she's had a reduction over the last month to uh 3.23% so it's an overall reduction um that we have in place at 3 2 3% our largest expenses are coming in our four projections let make up about a
16% increase in the overall uh active employee health insurance we're holding a 16% at this time we're hearing ranges anywhere between 9 and 16% for healthcare increases uh we were hit mid year with a 20% uh increase on the retirees uh for the medic plan and we're
holding a 16% uh for next year for the overall insurance plan our campus insurance for property values as you can tell by the increases of our property and the amount of share new buildings and construction has increased by 10% for this upcoming year and there's a 5% increase on utilities we are showing
some gains now as we've had a first year Associated to the solo projects on the CC facility which is our science building and then our de Barn which has now produced enough energy in that facility for the dairy barn to be Net Zero um we're seeing some uh some savings at around $119,000 a month in
across the entire utilities of our campus so we hope to be able to um have that really arat over the U the whole year now that we're in our first year and so for our last piece of it I think the town of dyon uh just to be made aware of it um your increase for uh your
total students for this year for FY 26 as you know we do Bild in the rears um you have 35 students that will be joining us for this upcoming year um with the tuition rate set at $4,475 1979 is66 your total expenses for
tuition and debt is $363,000 88310 for the upcoming year so we're continually working with our Board of Trustees to U review our budgetary process um we're in the first stages and rounds of discussions with them um we should have a budget implemented in
place for their review and vote by May first thank you Nicole do you have anything you want to add at this point um the 35 students I want to understand is that um just did you say that was incoming or that's collect L what you have that's what you have collectively
at laggy so yep 35 for October one numbers of of last year thank you y Mark do you have anything at this point no thank you Peter question
no good Jake or Doug uh yeah just just one question um the uh the 16% health healthare uh increase are you guys fully self-insured are you in a captive I mean are you are you fully insured level fun like what
does that look like our program right now is obviously through the county we're going to collaborate with Maya have any questions no more for you Jake thank you D no you're
welcome I don't have any move on to thank you have a good night thank you sir Pi thank you for the ability for us to be able to present you any questions please hesitate and I don't know if you guys at the the town are you you purposely not
sharing your screen I wasn't sure if we were putting your camera on or not there you are could anything before Oh wait now you're gone again oh there you go all right
no that's fine s would you like to share one up there I have this good evening everyone Hi good evening has anybody had a chance to look over our budget the the line by line yes
and um I just wanted to recap a little bit on this beautiful presentation that our office manager prepared for us I apologize that you do not have that that's okay and um we just wanted to let the the board and the finance committee know that this past year we were very
fortunate that within the last two years we acquired over $200,000 in Grants and that's what really has been um running our supportive Day program and helping to um subsidize our Council on Aging
budget uh here and there and uh if you could you can follow along that the grants uh the one of the grants that we did receive which was a hrid grant for $50,000 updated all of our technology the infastructure the fees um uh also it
uh provided for an Outreach coordinator for a year and uh also paid for our strawberry refine U mailing and we replaced all the blinds that were over 20 years old in our facility our supportive day Grant
which was for $26,000 also helped immensely in um updating our uh three bathrooms that we uh one ADA Compliant so we updated three bathrooms we
um also were able to purchase a medical equipment uh storage shed which is not arrived we're waiting to um receive that we bought new chairs for our dining areas and many other things we also
received a patio grant for $25,000 which we will be able to do that beautiful job in the back also with the help of um the dayon highway department and many other Town entities who helped us in finalizing that big project we were also awarded a $6,000 Grant which is just
bought brand new refrigerator in friezer because ours were very very over 20 years old and uh prior to or rather like in the first few months of taking the position as San uh Pico granted us with a beautiful
$10,000 uh ear Mark which also helped us tremendously to get going um right now we are work we have we were able to work off of our funded uh Town funded budget and we we're doing very well so far this year not going over stay maintaining
under what we were allowed and we hope going forward that we can do the same with also help of other grants that we still do have on hand which are our annual formula grants that come from the Department of uh Health and Human
Services executive office of Elder Affairs and we have a little bit of money there uh that we because we were using these other grants that we acquired we were able to like save that for this need that's coming up uh this
year next few years coming up and and we did uh process the budget according to ta's um directions and also Serena the town accountant and we filled it out and the way that we were told to with the
cuts and then when we sat down with them they uh did add a couple of line items that we had brought to zero but they upped it they felt that we could um uh bring the equipment repairs and maintenance which we had budgeted zero
they said that we should budget for 500 as we can always use it to pay for our IT personnel gentleman who is costly whenever we have a problem and also the communications line for 2,400 which will
help pay for our uh Vine you know stamps and our newsletter part of our newsletter as prime time uh our supportive Day Care uh our supportive day budget is helping to
uh pay part of that mailing which is a little expensive and we're kind of sharing costs as the both departments are in the same building and utilizing the same printer same every you know we share everything so they're helping to
um supplement the town budget and our supportive Day program is doing wonderful we are uh bringing in bringing in uh a good amount of income and and putting out less in expenses so we have
a little cushion and we will continue to use you know utilize the money for the purposes that it was intended and to also help um with the building that it is in that is occupying
holy phenomenal job uh as always with your budget and equally with the grants that you get thank you very much I'm so blown away by what you do uh sincerely uh between what you do every day to coming through with your budget the way we asked uh the Town Administrator asked
you to as well as the grants what do you have up your sleeve for next year's grants well I do have about some carrying over we have some carry we're going to be carrying over we hope that we can um most of our grants have to be expanded
by the grants that we acquired last year by Jun by March 31st of this month and going forward um we will utilize the formula grants which are the grants that we receive from the executive office of Elder Affairs and uh we we have about we
have two still full ones there one and a half we have one and a half still and we they've already paid um they gave us only half of fiscal year 2023 uh they only gave us uh half of that $25,000 and we are in the process of
applying not applying but doing an annual report to get our next funding which the state is running behind I believe six six months to a year so we do have enough money uh to uh bring us
through this following year and I have also applied for another three grants and I did get one denial oh that was hard we did get one denial and there's still I believe three out there waiting um for great we will
continue to try to get money from other sources sure um you're doing a great job absolutely the strawberry vine do you get money from the ads that are in there no the ads help to pay for the
printing well that's what I mean it offsets the printing yeah we get it printed for free okay because the people who print it for free for us do the advertis by the advertisements themselves right hands off on it for free they get the money from the
advertisers so you have the the you've talked before about the 2400 being part of the postage the postage so that's all that is is postage yeah it's about $800 a month wow it gets mailed
to 17 oh I I have that it gets mailed to everybody in town who is 60 and older it's one per household so there's no duplicates um we do have an electronic version where people can choose to sign on to that and we remove them from the mailer um but we're not quite at that
generation yet that mainly prefers it electronic a lot really want the hard copy okay um and we do update that mailing every year um I'm sure you remember me reaching out to you um for the um census for anybody who's 60 and older and we tweak it to be one per
household but it is definitely a costly expense um which was very thoughtful that you guys thought to put in it was three months into the town budget for that um and then we'll use some of our annual formula grant um Bella had discussed it just to explain what that
is every year every Council on Aging in Massachusetts gets what's called an annual formula grant um it's based off of how many people are in your town that are 60 and older and it's $14 per resident 60 and older so every year it fluctuates obviously a little bit um but
our average is kind of within the 25 to 22 to $225,000 range per year so it pays literally every single program we offer um so that that doesn't burden the town so it in cures all of our instructor costs great and our um Outreach
coordinator moving forward our elder population 6 NOA keeps growing we've uh since the 2020 uh census we've grown about 400 people have either they've moved in or turned 60 and so and the number from
2024 was 2,214 residents are 60 and older and we mailed to about 1,400 households okay thank you Nicole do you have anything um I don't have a question I have an um an observation I just wanted to share um I
was watching you present and I was thinking about the first time you came before us and presented and how nervous you were and I was watching you and I was thinking who is this woman like I'm still nervous just she's a better actress at it an amazing job in a short amount of time and I'm I'm personally
very proud of you and your team and I just I just wanted to make that we don't always realize our own personal growth so um you did great thank you Mark um I Echo the comments made by my colleagues and thank you for
beautifying that building and um your leadership with the grants and just running your department I appreciate whole team thank you thank you thank you for the great presentation as thankful as you are to me I am thankful to my team also because it was a team effort
that was you know helped us to get to where we are today question for you in the past there has have been issues with collecting fees you guys know that
stands for the day program no um there's a new invoicing system that's in place so everything is actually up to date um and then if there is a month that is out of balance that gets put onto the next invoice um so everything
is actually up um on page technically slide six but page I guess three um our average monthly income is 7,140 so Prime Time operates strictly off attendance fees they get build every
month um that expense then pays out salary um Hanford bills office supplies all the odds and ends um and as Bella stated moving forward into these more challenging years we're going to use that to offset a little bit more of our
paper toner um they're going to actually completely absorb the Crystal Rock because they use more of the water um we're we were just trying to be creative about how we can keep we were trying to present obviously the under two and a half um when we submitted our budget so
we were looking at ways to lean into that extra cushion that we've been having a good average for the past couple of years income outcome expenses you know out of that 7000 all yes yes yeah yeah so I
heard thank you oh sorry yes for the day program yes we when we we opened up we we I believe we opened up with eight um attendees and we've been steud
at 16 to 18 and our cap is 20 so it's pretty good very good and we've had to put a wait list on our drums Al live class for the community that our instructor only teaches up to 10 she has um the supplies for 10 and we have a
wait list for Friday's class so sign up quick when you get your newsletter anybody else any questions on thank you great thank you so much thank you thank you have a good night thank you you too uh Board of
assessors 141 thank you oh there you go um so uh Stephanie sheer um Town assessor um I'm assuming you just want me to go through my line items any explanations on those I guess you really
don't have to go through line by line unless somebody has a question for it it's kind of straightforward um we were able to um cut some funding that we needed last
year for our um appraisals of the Dion power in Aquaria um we have some things that haven't changed um some of our dues have gone up but the
um P Pitney Bose machine is a postage right yes so you don't share it with the we do um that's a new thing now for us this past year um our office we always purchase envelopes with stamps already
on them because we had a problem back in the day I don't know the what happened there but um so now we're we're part of it I just haven't gotten a bill yet so I really don't know I don't think it's going to be too crazy cuz we still had some envelopes so
um yeah so you guys have your own machine we have the machine that we use in the um copy room with everyone else in the has got yet I haven't that's the bill I haven't received yet is that what you're saying
yeah so the 3200 annually is what he bills you no B us no 32 the vental in leases current lease is 3,200 annually I don't have event that's not
what number you want oh I'm on 146 that's why I'm sorry I'm like I don't have that no I got it sorry about that that's okay at least we got that out about stamp machine that makes it easier uh question on the professional
and Technical yep is that is that the education classes is that uh in a year where there are no changes in the assessors would that's the education still
um I need I'm the only one that has their certification okay so um so that's for your education mine but anyone else like my assistant just took the 200 it's required in our new um job descriptions so it's not and there zoom and there's
still $550 for these classes that are Zoom it's just a crazy amount so um but our um local uh chapter BCAA our Bristol County um they we're I'm vice president on that but we're trying to get classes
for free so we can get the credits within the two years so we're working on that so hopefully we could cut back on that if we needed to as long as we just get some programs we have one on on Thursday and it's canceled CU not enough people signed up for it but um we're
working toward it we have a 2-year plan of of what's coming up so until the worry gets out there that you're offering them free of charge right and if we have um people outside of our um Bristol County they're we're going to
put a little heftier fee on them that's what they do so we're we're going to continue it nothing's for free so actually we are going to be hosting um a solar um uh what's his name the lawyer
that does solar he used what's his name the one that goes to our meetings the lawyer that does solar oh um yeah I can't even think of is
it no I'll think of it before I'm done I don't know maybe I have a paper left over in here he's going to be um coming and we're going to host the our local assessors and everyone to come and learn
about solar and all the new taxing that's coming up with the pilots and things like that so okay yeah I'm I'm on on fire again it's my second time today overheating can I ask you a question
that U is it's probably I'm sure Nancy's probably going to jump in on this one but in the past uh Nancy's has recommended um set aside for the pilot money is that would that be something
that the elected members would do or would that be something that or recommend or would that be something that you would be recommending um I think that we have talked about it maybe Nancy will come up because I think we can put it in a in an
account that only you can use for specific things but I think we haven't really sat down to discuss second yeah the recommendation is still a from the Department of Revenue the good news is the in order to do this
years ago you needed a home rule petition and legislation the law change so that money comes in now and goes into estimated receipts and closes out to free cash you don't need permission from the state to set that money aside the
recommendation is still there the biggest problem is for long-term planning when it comes into the account and ends up in free cash if you continue to spend it for operational expenses the clock is ticking on all
those pilot agreements and the expenses are G up and when they're gone those people living in this town run for a big shock because there's no guarantee that Pilots will be renewed so that's why they keep saying you need to put the money aside not all
of it obviously but you should have a u significant plan to set the money aside um taner hob did this from the beginning they actually did the home rule petition and all that other
stuff so when they were able to buy Francis farm buy that police building from Dartmouth they had money already set aside from all those solar Farms so that wasn't a direct impact on the the residents and
also they're not spending all that pilot money that's still coming in for operating expenses so that that liability is just out there so um if you can put it into whether it's Capital stabilization or the regular
stabilization account um I know in the past all the finance committees that I serve da and as a selectman each year we try to put money into savings which is what I'm talking about um but um I will be
presenting uh a pilot agreement at the June annual town meeting finally uh for Brook Street solar which they've pulled twice and this pilot agreement for 20
years is in excess of $800,000 the big one that we have is the big farm behind arujo Macs that's 1.2 million over 20 years um obviously we've got a other
Pilots that we're we're collecting payments on better aren't that big but with those coming on board I mean we're going to start billing them as of July 1st of this year which brings them into FY 26 this kind of planning
has to be looked at um because if if something isn't done future Generations are going to be in tough shape and for the the um young families that are here now they're going to be around for 20 years and it's going to be a big whack
so it's it's really something that needs to be looked at and as I said Department of Revenue uh urges that towns do this long-term planning so and I know money's tight but um just something to think about is that something that the board
of assessors would recommend to the Selectmen or would that be just a general U I think the the board of assesses from the discussions that I've been involved with which and there's been some changes in the board
obviously uh support doing this because we're not saying put it all aside like another community did um but put something aside and don't don't eat the whole Apple every year because you're going to run out of apples and you're
going to be hungry and it's going to be painful actually it should be a joint uh effort by uh assesses Board of Selectmen finance committee because if we all agree we need to put aside pick a number
then when we go to town meeting it's going to be a special article I'm going to ask the voters to approve it and we're going to have to explain to them why we want to put money into this account in the past we've been able to put money aside because we've had
it but now we're looking at let's say some extra money and Now's the Time to stop planning this so and not just say well if we have enough if we have enough actually sit down and say we've got to do it and we
need a number the number can vary each year but we really need to do it so just so for you guys for the new members the the these pilot agreements they they're 20-year agreements but they frontload the revenue so we get more
today but as things go it it diminish yeah yeah so we get we get they're they're front end loaded so for the First on 20-year agreement the first 10 years the town gets approximately 60% of the total taxes so when I say 1.2
million over 20 years or 800 and some thousand over 20 years are those aren't equal payments by the way some communities do that they just divide it by 20 and you those so Farms pay the same amount every year um but I reason
is when they're brand new they're producing maximum electricity so we want we want the money then yeah than thank you are we collecting from any of the pilot programs at this point oh yeah we've got
um we've got one one way way down Williams Street that's the little one right no the big one the one that that two phase one that's that one um 2320 Williams it's almost
into samet or swansee it's almost down to shoplot road yeah yeah we have on Richmond Hill um we have um DG Dion 1 and two so there's there there's an entrance off of Elm Street right near the car property
but that driveway access is two because there's one out out back mhm so we are collecting from a very small one on Williams Street that's almost across from the old Aruj Jo's Farmstand Bob
Elliot oh yes and uh let me think um the one on the corner of uh actually on two streets will uh Tremont and middle um middle that's the one I'm was going to ask you that's new that's going to be new for going to be coming onab um cabal
and Racine yeah um and then theer ones and then Brook Street so there'll be five new yeah but for right now um one two Williams Street two on Williams Street the big one I say big one not as
big as Aros behind Aros um that is also ISM Sola um and then the one on they don't have a pilot agreement so we just taxing them based on uh the assessed valuation that our consultant
has come up with but so for Pilots there's William Street two on um M Elm and then we've got these others coming on so the thing is when you approve one of these at the June
toown meeting in order for us to get it on for a vote in June it has to be actually listed on the tax rad by January 1st prior to that June town meeting so if
you missed so if you get one that comes on for July 2nd they get like a free year okay so uh the only one we had that was questionable was Brook Street and we really uh worked hard with the Building
Commissioner to make sure that he could give us a letter indicating even though that one is not fully connected to the power grid yet that the I items that had to be taken care of in order for us to get it on the tax roll for January 1st
were were minor and so uh that one is the one that's on for January 1st that will be coming up in June at the End of Time me um that will be the end of
the Solon pilot agreements unless uh the one on William Street down near the somerset Swansea line decides they want one they've asked before then they pull back and then they ask they have not gone to town
meeting well the the rejects the ones I've had to have table were relatively I mean they were they were Brook Street plain as thank you okay thank you thank you thank
you uh conservation committee commission you guys are up hello how we doing you have questions or or do we uh uh I think the biggest thing is going to be the 2250 for fa
work oh that's other than that your basic uh budget um so in fact we ended up reducing our budget for clerical because we removed
our part-time clerical worker and now we only have um Kendra who does the minutes for us um but I just wanted to can we back up a little bit Peter I just wanted to kind of introduce ourselves I don't know if the finance committee
understands um conservation and what we do do you do you know what we do your wetlands and wet yeah wetlands and waterways so we enforce the wetlands protection act and our local bylaw so we
um we review every permit application that has anything to do with wetlands in the town and um so I've been back I've been here I was here previously years and years ago but I've been here since Charlie retired which is around 2000 um
so I came in 2021 but um basically we we have to review every application for the performance standards under the wetlands protection act and our local bylaw to make sure that this storm water protection this um Wildlife protection
but not only that it's to protect our groundwater our drinking water public and private drinking water um so we deal with a lot of of Engineers consultants and um lawyers because we have quite a
bit of um violations that we've been dealing with as of late but um so then you can kind of see where maybe our professional and Technical budget and that kind of budget has increased over the years because we're we're dealing
with appeals if we deny certain projects specific projects in town um um most likely developer appeals our decision because they still want to build their their subdivision Jim's been on for 50 years
um unpaid and I've been on since 2021 unpaid um so and I am the only staff member besides Kendra who I have who does the minutes for us once a month um I'm the only staff member and I'm
only 25 hours a week so okay that's where the 25 comes in as an important number because since this budget was submitted to you the commission reviewed the time that Lisa
puts in and in many cases it goes well beyond the uh 25 hours a week I know when I start getting phone calls on a or texts on a Friday or a Saturday and sometimes on a Sunday because because
some engineer or Bist has called her uh the the commission uh at at our February meeting uh decided to request an additional five hours which is not in
the initial proposal that you have that um five hours additional time because would bring her up to 30 hours are an increase of a very close to $1 11,32 uh per
year now you might say well that's going to bring us over well uh the the paper that you have is a reduction of over 10% in what we requested last year and with this 11,000 would actually bring us up
over last year's budget by a few by a few per not not extraordinary but a little bit uh but what we want to uh make note of to you people is that at our last town meeting the uh the towns people
voted to uh amend uh at our request the conservation bylaws which has a fee structure and this fee structure will be bringing in additional funds uh it's estimated that if we uh have 24 filings
it'll bring in roughly $5 to $7,000 extra a year and uh uh you know we wish to use that whether it goes towards the salary or whatever but we'll need some time uh to because right now it will go
into town funding I believe u rather than into the conservation budget itself into into our account which we will have to have it voted upon uh this coming June I believe special Rue account uh so we'll have to have an account so right
now we're we're asking uh you that in addition to what you see before you in print that we add an an additional five hours into uh leases time per week uh which would be
$1,322 I think that's what um Paul had had calculated uh $ 11,32 um which is um a little bit more than last year's budget I think it's it's um um uh let's see
$5,000 more than last year's budget and yet if we compare that to let's say uh the Board of Health their budget which and and you know it's 128,000 a year and uh we are not requesting you know this
is anywhere near there this is still about half and Lisa is responsible for for I know field work for dealing with like as she said with lawyers uh and bists and engineers and uh um and
sometimes just nonsense cases that people call in on uh there's also the enforcement orders and this is a lot of field work that she has to go and observe and 25 hours really a week you forgot one the administrative so all the bureaucracy and the paperwork all has to
come through me too I have to check all the boxes on all that as well so someone has to be checking it otherwise it's an incomplete application um so so what we're really asking as a bottom line you know to add
11,300 to to um the conservation agent uh request and then that would and that would bring the bottom number from 63 to 74,75 but but we also estimate that we would bring bring in 5 to 7,000 in local
fees so we think at the end of the day it would probably only bring up 4,000 or so for that budget well actually it would uh that would pay for any difference over last year that that
would compensate so so in a in a way you know it's kind of confusing but in a way it's still the same as last year's budget because we're going to be bringing in money and that's anticipated I you know we can't say it but but seeing what's been happening we're
inundated and uh um you know with with filings I think we have how many new filings just just this week well for this month we have five new our um agenda is three page long pages long we have I think nine
hearings um probably seven or eight violations other matters um so you know and all these require field work for Lisa to go out and uh and sometimes one one of us uh um if we can make it and
and we have to be you know uh we're going to be protector of Lisa too if she goes on a site uh uh somewhere that um there wasn't a problem MH I mean we've had them ex yeah also what the job has
that's out there but in any case I mean I you know I I just wanted to kind of bring to you guys' attention that you know we're kind of we've got the same if not the exact if not it's different but the board Board of Health reviews you
know septics but we're reviewing the whole project you know not just the septic um they have a part-time agent um but they have a full-time administrator in the office you know to answer questions answer calls you know I'm
juggling all that from the field as well it's it's just a lot so okay now now I'm going to assume that you also going to storm water meetings as part of my job um I'm doing perk review loc location reviews I'm going to the packed meetings
um anyway okay can I assume that you did get my my letter of request to do additional 5 hours that was uh dated uh March 3rd which was uh um on on our February
voting so that was going to be my question through this budget process have you guys discussed have you have done increase in the hours yeah we we talked to Ralph so yeah he did copy you guys on
the letter email today from Serena that has this $1,250 per Serena but um huh so typically an increase in hours is not something that comes to us but has to be approved
SED okay well then then we're talking to both of you at the same time because this letter also went to you and and I and I you know I March what Yeah March 3rd it was sent to both okay so so we're asking for that an increase on the budget right with an
increase of five hours a week okay Mark Nicole do you have any questions do you have anything P you guys all said just from that standpoint we'll wait to hear what they have to say but if there's anybody else have any questions on anything
else okay thank you guys all right thank you I don't Jak is on okay okay is Doug still on yeah I'm here okay uh Board of Health good [Music]
evening good evening good evening everyone Hi how are you good how are you sir so I'm not sure if we got the actual numbers back from the waste collection disposal cuz we were waiting for borous
so that is really just an estimate estimate what far is the what point of the process are you guys as far ASO go the contract I asked him and he was still trying to get numbers from Cass
and their disposal fees who's going to review that contract uh are we are we jump into waste collection it it seemed to have skipped over but I just wanted to give an answer oh that was the first one I had okay sorry yours is in a different order I'm
sorry no that's okay was oh okay 433 433 I'm looking I was looking at the spread we were able to reduce the Board of Health significantly uh with the part-time Health agent we estimated if he can only
work 19 hours maximum a week um and at his rate it only brings about uh 494 as a total oh don't they they're two different line it all right 433 and
then so if we could just check one so let's finish with 433 first [Applause] okay I'm going to get a paper good thing you're a nurse all right so on this one we're
waiting on Gores yeah okay we're just assuming those numbers are going to go up significantly up up from this the increase on here or no from last year up from last year okay
okay so you're basing this increase on past performance or yeah what the last increase was Ral how are you getting a good feeling on that or I'm a pretty good feeling preliminary discussions with Mr Bo just
s has Us in that in that range I think we the C mass is always a little bit of mhm you have anything um Hazmat disposal that's not hazardous waste day right that's just into the Sharps no that's us
the sharps container when people bring in syringes use needles that is purchasing the containers with them to buy and disposing of them okay you guys distribute the containers for people's Sharps mhm we sell them oh we sell them
all right that was my next question I was like I have never heard of that we we sell them if they purchase them from us they're free for disposal okay so and does that cover the cost yeah okay Mar do you have anything um I don't
think so thank you you guys anything for Waste uh disposal okay what a heal 51 we're on one page we got lucky so the health agent you said that
yeah we were able to reduce that okay because of the number of hours worked or yeah because he can't go over 20 hours because that would be a benefited position so we just and he's right now probably the most he worked was 10 it's roughly like 7 hours
6 hours it's okay probably won't even come close to 19 okay is that something that is more of a springtime expense or it gets busier in the spring when it's warmer
and there's more construction going on okay yeah so I I guess my question is the Board of Health and the Conservation Commission how do you what's the difference between you're both going out on um work sites
our health agent does do field inspections so once the septic system is approved he goes out and he does all of the you know open hole um he's out there four different times inspecting it and then he does a final at the end so that's his field
work uh is the Conservation Commission involved with that scene no okay no she just if I get a per application percolation test y if it's around 100t buffer zone she gets notified because there's wetlands in the area so she goes out and looks at it to make sure they're
not going in her territory Wetlands aspect thank you you're [Music] welcome just to to point out um 51 5115 if you look on the um it's actually listed as our as the fincom
recommendation with the 5127 was the from the email is corrected two and a half per. yes Ralph the chairman and the members are they considered a stien yes so why are they not cut in half like the others
uh they they should have been okay on my recommendation on his recommendation they are Town Administrator recommendation okay and how many members are on the board three chair and oh chair and two
okay I'm training so you guys it looks like you did not use any last year no the health a we didn't have a health agent most of the year a health agent he works for another town full time so hopefully he's utilizing their training
budget and not so much ours as well as you guys have that Grant now that you should be able to pull some training money from yeah but is the for board of health professional and Technical uh we use that for it it
we reduce that one a little bit I think last year there was a few purchases that um we use most of that money but we're able to reduce it when you
guys have an IT issue would you use the same company as everybody else okay for mileage um reimbursement for travel do you guys try to use the town vehicle when you can um yeah well I don't really go out
but Matt won't be using it either so I mean when we did have a health agent she did use it versus her own car so that's mostly from use for Trel inspections I think so it was like uh used for if they had a training they
would use if they had their car they would go to the training and use that so it hasn't been touched in a while thank you you're welcome anything else right no Mark all set okay any question on Board of Health
and and for the chair and the members do you need any special qualifications for these positions no okay thank you welcome thank you thank you thank you have a good night a good night thank you
thanks hi Chief you're up I'm up good [Music] evening for [Applause] is everybody on the
budget so um so there was an email sent out today um to the to yourself um Mr vaco myself with some um with some increases in the in the
salary part just because of the the CBA um the SRO line the full-time salary line um there was an increase also in that line in the 5106 line because the new hire um has his uh
bachelor's degree so there was a um with the shift differential shift differential there was an increase in that line um that was included in the uh the um email as well uh 5108 line um there was a mess up on that on that too with
the um the SRO line 51 10 the admin salary was corrected and then the buyback at 5155 for the for the admin buyback buyout and also in the email was the uh Communications but I'll get to that when
we get to the uh Communications budget just to just to make sure I'm following it the 5155 the 27 is the accurate uh um on The Bu on the admin the 5155 increased Town emission let me
[Applause] see sure I wrote the number down huh oh to requested amount to the 39 yes I'm sorry yep yep yeah because um I don't think they
realized uh she's um she's projected to leave a year from June going to be TI and if you'd want me to start where we made some cuts um read my small print here um
5580 we made some uh reductions there I'm sorry 54 yeah 5580 um um I'm seeing that right 5481 gasoline and fuel um and that's down because gas is
down um no we figured like if we if we could make some make some reduction in in our in our um part of the cutting back um that I started there um just looking back to last year's fuel line um
I look at prices or anything cuz I God knows they could go some go back up again but I I looked at the lines where I didn't where I was Frugal last year and I tried to make the cuts in the same in that area so you can use those bikes yes we're going to use that bikes we're going to be we're going to be in the
best shape ever um so gasoline and fuel is one of those um print of my print out really small here um the office supplies I believe is another area where we made some Cuts
also um professional see equipment repairs and maintenance um we cut some money in that area as well we're trying to apply for more grant money um Sometimes some of the
grants that we look at are driven more towards bigger communities um there was a ballist like just for an example there was a ballistic uh um Shield Grant um it was the brine Grant um when I talked to the woman on the phone um she said that it
was going to be a tough Grant to apply for because taon had to go in with like taon for Riv to bedf for his Partners to try to ramp up what they want to try to get the grant so not to say they they favor but it's it's definitely you know where they have lower income you know there's more advantages they have more
advantages than we do but um but we've been getting the safety traffic Grant every year um thankfully um we try to include some things in that Community stuff when we do the mock crash at the school we put money in for that you know we do that in partnership with the the fire department of course um and and a
couple other events um but the the highway safety Traffic Safety Grant I've tried to increase that to 30,000 I had false hopes a couple years ago so like oh yeah put in for it you'll get the money nope rejected 20,000 seems to be the max what we get every year for that of course we're looking at other grants
as well too as they come out um I got my deputy and one of the sants actively uh doing grant stuff now so to look at you know being able to save Nicole do you have any questions mark um I I know traditionally you your
department tries to find a police cruiser through a special article I don't know if it's at annual or special so I I did that for uh special meeting in the fall and it got it got tabled so I didn't even attempt right now for uh but that tells me you have a need you
know cuz you put in so my question is um Can Can you fund that through your um I know you have a account for when you do details when you use your your detail Cruisers right yeah so the revolving account for that is just for um for
maintenance the way it's worded in that do you do you generate enough Revenue in that to take on purchasing um it hasn't gotten to that level but that's what we're hopes to do is um I've looked at other communities I think like C con and a few others when they they get a significant amount of money they try to
buy their cruises from that line but we haven't even been we haven't been that busy to um to even try to increase to even see that amount go up in that account but uh that's what that account was generated for in the range
account was to try to supplement cost for like ammo we try to use that range money for the ammo cost like I had talked about this past week and that's what what the hopes are with that Cruiser account awesome yes but you mentioned it's not worded in the way
that would allow you to buy it was that something you consider amending on it yes so I I guess I have to do that um at the special town meeting is that the Ann do I do that at the annual I was told I think I have to do it at the special town to change the wording it to be able to purchase CU I
was looking to do that with the uh with the rrange to be able to purchase firearms out of that instead of doing it out of the regular budget okay thank you thank you for that no problem R maybe you know because don't I mean we usually have to renew a lot of the revolving
accounts so wouldn't that be more of an annual than a special you can uh we could discuss it I you can do it can annual okay time go open and we we could put that in we could review that all perfect yeah don't know why I misunderstood yeah maybe maybe it was my
end but I thought I had to do it at the annual but I mean the special but okay special is not guaranteed annual is true Chief is the U I know Deputy is a new line is that position filled yes it is that so that was the formal
Lieutenant line uh we changed the language on it basically just changed the heading of the job um and we um me a deputy chief to make it uh more understandable for the public and within
um professional and Technical you guys you've got the academy fees and new higher exams and all is that in case there's turnover um well yeah it's always been yeah that's always been kind of like um the case in case someone leaves uh to have that money there and I just read
that the academy fees in the state went from like 3,000 per um register now up to 6,000 it's there's a lot of chiefs upset about it so did the uh former Lieutenant move from the full-time officers to the deputy chief line that yes it's its own
line just like myself um and mainly also too because um they're not within the uh the CBA of the patrolman's uh Union with the sergeant as well do the SRO do they have a cruiser um they one picks one up at the station
and then the one that has the Comfort dog has a cruiser assigned to him because of Cu of Oki yeah [Applause] yeah Chief want do uh communication all your Communications yes sir so in the um
in the email today um also that was referring to when I started um on the police budget 5106 the part-time salary um was increased just because the um again grants we can't solely rely on
grant money um to be funded every year um we have been lucky with an incentive Grant to be able to pay for overtime for training um and to also pay for part-time um employees salaries and for their training as well but that was put back
up um I talked to Serena today and Ralph you were included in that email as well um so I get it was all um we all agreed on that um just because that um money can't be guaranteed on every every single
year Wendy here what's that Wendy when would you hear about next year's Grant um so we just got we just got next year's um Grant in for um it's it's an incentive grant for 303 $33,000 but there's also training training money that's got to come out of
that for their annual training so I was like I didn't want to kind of I didn't want to run that line to its bare minimum either because Communications utilizes their part-time dispatches more than we use our part-time offices per se
so any 26 Grants you've heard about already um so the so the $333,000 for the 26 Grant we we just got not noticed that we notified we got that grand money for the year but um we put in for that
in January so we'll find out in January for FY 27 so that 33 that goes towards that the operators salaries would go up by more so so so we I didn't I didn't want to I didn't want to redu
reduce the uh salary um in the part-time in the uh part-time salary line just because the in that incentive Grant also pays for the full-time dispatchers training and overtime so that that $33,000 I mean it's it's not a ton of money for when
when you're paying for training and other stuff out of that and Equipment as well so out of the two we call it 300 just to make it a nice round number for part-time and fulltime it's really 3:30 it's
um yeah it's I give it to you yeah [Applause] all positions right now full for um fire uh police and um Communications yes there's uh four there's four uh full-time dispatchers um
one's projected one full-time dispatch is projected to leave uh September 5th of this year um and then hopefully one of my part-time dispatchers that have been there will yeah step up yeah I mean obviously have to post the job for 30 days and but that's what the hopes are
otherwise all the all of the police positions have been fed so um patrolman forer's position was just filled with Mr Lopes uh the last time and there's still a vacancy there that we we had talked about that we haven't built
so that position is funded in the budget it is y so how many full-time officers do you have no myself and the deputy no take leave those 13 13 correct okay and then
how many reserves do you have more or less four five okay and then you have um I have specials yeah so I have four four specials
okay which are retired law enforcement right okay so the SRO the uh the reserves and the specials don't obviously Reserve uh receive any benefit that just per DM okay call it will um we try to use the
reserve officers um for um filling for training try to keep the overtime cost down trying to keep the overtime line down um but they have full-time jobs as well yeah um a few of them have taught in firefighters so we try to C them on their days off but it doesn't doesn't
always work right okay thank you that's why see do around so yes exactly he's be getting [Laughter] lucky ask a question go ahead
dou so we have our range in town and I know that we you know can make Revenue from having our uh some of the neighboring towns use it from time to time as a revenue raising idea have you
considered having a couple times a month a um public range night where you know wanted to to be able to use it to be able to shoot there when you guys aren't using it and it's outside of those Ops that we
are trying to avoid hey Doug my house is like six houses down from I don't need any extra yeah so uh so I just tried bringing in another agency to utilize it because their range had closed and it it didn't um it I took it off the table
because of um extra dates just right now good so that was T that was put on the back burner for now okay I just thought of it as a you know a way to raise a little Revenue to help get the car you know um just
another source thank you be quite a few Firearms owners like myself that may be interested in uh being able to use the range Doug we just went through um a month of the neighbors complaining about
the the noise and um some of that was brought on by the fact that Somerset was going to come on board but the people who live in that neighborhood who have to put up with that sound uh were very much against that so the Suman decided that we were not going to go down that
Avenue so not to shut you off at all but uh it is a possibility that we don't want to consider and the the chief pulled it before uh right yeah just one more question sir the unfilled
position what would the normal range of salary be um so um between 60 and 68 depending degree and then doesn't include benefits right so well no that would be with Benefits oh all right that
would be with Benefits that the that would be the employee would have benefits but that wouldn't be the cost to the town for the benefits I was going to say health like Health oh yeah well yes yes yes sorry thank you no thank you if if I
make just quick clarification on the communications um I had uh Town administrators um uh recommendation was approximately let's call it even numbers 270,000 we we since uh
understanding uh the the grants we we're going to we put it back up to 300 it's not 330 it's it's back up to the three the 300 but the chief had originally uh put it we thought we could shave it off a little bit because we had a grant
discussion but we further information yes so the 2 253 and 42 mhm and out of that we received a grant for 30 not all that's going to go to payroll but right yeah yeah so that's why I had put in we
thought it did we found up it's more yeah towards education right it's towards the salary and Education and Training so so we we're comfortable with with keeping and there's also um the the the
recorder in and in Communications um every city in town is going to be reliable for purchasing their own recorder because the uh company that does 911 now is not going to be maintaining those recorders so we're going to be eventually with the
next year or two to be um purchase our own so I'm waiting on a quote on that as well too so there's kind of like some things on the horizon that we have to um like this week I just replaced two computers out there as well so definitely like we were talking for like
trying to maintain and not fall behind the the aall what's your guess on the recorder just pick a number is it a big that's why I'm asking um carw car I would I would I would say
I would say a few grand I'd say few thousand doll not not tens of thousands of dollars yeah not like a subscription no no no no no it' be yeah it'd be it'd be a few thousand if I if I were to guess say maybe between four and six okay the
server yeah pretty [Music] much how many hours this control yes well the only thing I can add to this as far as um as far as the ACO budget goes is that on the 5300 Animal
Health and Welfare um PR small this tring to find Mount this Stacey you just here for moral support questions um she was hoping to
get a little bit of more in that in that line and um when we had when we when I had talked to her in the beginning um just because the the increase in neutering and spading and um
the animals that she we have to we have to try to um well we have to service and by law uh she said there's have been a lot a bigger I don't know if you want to speak about I can attest to that first I have no problem with understanding that
just like everything costs go up a a normal spay or neuter depending on the size of the dog can run anywhere from $700 to $2,000 I have a dog that I placed in a house doing great I had her ultrasound at Bristol Agy Bristol AGI has been
great for me but they don't do everything so I still have to have another vet um ultrasound didn't see anything we thought she had already been spayed well now she's in heat so now I have to have her spayed she's an older dog so it's going to cost anywhere from
$1,500 to $2,600 depending on if they just do a spay or if they have to do an exploratory cuz there really nothing there and we have to find out why she's really in heat so that will wipe out my budget this year I will be done as of the that bill comes in I will not have anything else in my budget if it's 2600
why are we responsible for spaying and neutering because that's the state of Massachusetts requires us to spay and neuter anything that leaves our facility have a heartworm test and have blood work to make sure that okay and we're also supposed to Behavior test them all
by by the law is there a fee for um adopting an animal through US yeah it's $150 it doesn't it we couldn't right we couldn't recover everything that we need to do what we need to do that's not a way an older dog an older it was a how
did she become your responsibility she was astray she was as stray so she became my responsibility and she was was adopted out through me I did my due diligence trying to figure out if she was Spade or not because I wasn't going to open her up if because she was a little bully
breed and she has some um breathing issues so I wasn't going to open her up unless I had to and now we have to because she came into heat even though we didn't see anything in there so I did my Dil as I said for swag has been great they do cat cat spays and
neuters they're now neutering dogs they prefer not to do dog spays that's a big do Spades are a big cost um they used to be4 $500 now we're talking minimum $1,000 so and if they're older mature and
bigger it's even more because of the risk right because of the risk yeah and this unfortunately this little bully breed is not only older but she's blind and deaf too so oh what thing so even a even a youth in Asia is you know that's
the only option that she has has those are not even cheap anymore no they're not no is there anybody other than than Bristol Aggie that's willing to contract
with you to give you a I use I use D and Veterinary they're very good okay um but they only do cat spays and neuters they don't do dogs I have to go out for dogs so that is a true statement it is a true statement I have to go out for dogs um um they do little tiny ones but I don't
usually get the little puppies right I get the five or six year old dogs that haven't been spayed or neutered and it's a lot more risky and everything and unfortunately no matter how much you whe and deal I mean Vitality I use them sometimes but they were $1,000 to do op
they were over $1,000 so how does it work as far as let's say you catch a stray and you scam for the chip no chip no okay let's say if they have a chip though but then you get no response from the owner well with the chips with chips I call the company the company tells me
who it's registered to right I'm going to be very honest 50% of them aren't registered to the owners at this point they're registered to the breeder yeah or the other shelter that had them right which is good because I always tell the story my son's dog came through me to go
out to um Las Vegas and I get a call from Las Vegas asking me this chip comes to this kind of this dog and I'm thinking I said by any chance there a German short hair pointer that stands about this and she goes yeah I said that's my son's dog so
they do I do call shelters if they go back to shelters or I've called um breeders and breeders goes yes I sold that dog to so and so so I do check for chip uh for chips dogs nowadays younger dogs have them more than the older dogs
do because breeders and shelters are putting them in before they leave yeah and then what is what about as far as supplies for like that you need there at the holding area sometimes I get donations yeah I've
seen that um sometimes I don't unfortunately it seems like and this is going to sound awful the dogs that I get aren't easy dogs to have meaning they have skin issues or digestive issues so you can't just go and get something off
the shelf you have to get a limited diet or whatever so sometimes it's hard to find donations in that Bas State's usually pretty good about giving me some kind of program but I go in there and I go oh NOP don't have that dog anymore I
need this kind of dog food so um it's it is tough to get that kind of stuff cats easy cat food and little kitty litter is always easy cuz that's usually pretty basic but the dogs are where we end up with the most cost I think I'll keep
that in mind for the food you guys have anything else no that was eye opening next time I see a stray animal and'll be like don't look at it well unfortunately why we why do we get stray animals because people don't
want to pay for whatever is going on with that dog right and that's why we get Dy animals M we actually put a camera outside the the shelter the shelter cuz I've had things dropped off at the shelter good idea though yep yeah they shouldn't be allowed to do that no but
people do yeah so um I have a question sure building repair and maintenance $500 we haven't expended any this year do you expect to spend expend any from that account I didn't know that was even a line cuz I thought that went under the town we're trying to we're going to definitely power
washing house to be cleaned up this year so I am going to be spending a little bit out of that this year for this year so I see that for next year's budget too and that was the same reason do you think that'll be an annual thing or yes yeah do you power wash like the inside too like the no just the outside cuz the
outside looks really it's green right because of the way the everything falls onto the front siding the inside it's really kind of hard to power wash because there's no drains inside right I do the best I can to keep it as clean as possible um so and then um
for we haven't expended anything from uh let me just see 5315 contractual disposal I think that was um final gift yes that is final gift um we haven't emptied the freezer this year I don't think um not very much in the freezer
I'm trying to make that less and less um I have the highway pick Highway Department pick it up because once they pick it up they can do they can compost if I pick it up I have to send it to final gift okay so they pick up a lot of roadkill because so it's not like a yearly cost it's just no it's every time
they pick it up so if my freeze is full it could be more than if I only have two or three things in it okay your vehicle maintenance like the sticker for needs ties or whatever is that all through the highway department budget yes they no it's throughout my budget but the highway department does it what line is
that in your budget vehicle mainten 5260 5260 I just had tires put on my car my truck my van tires sticker down oh I see that I need to get a sticker in April but they need to replace that mirror before I can get the
sticker um all's V kind of was signed into law and that changed the way um I know it changed a lot probably for your role I don't know much about it but I know one of the talking points is Ken the licenses are no longer you need to license every dog individually set of
yes there's still kennel licenses and we can still keep kennel licenses kennel license are different now in the fact that if you have just four dogs you yes you have to register every dog but it's still under a kennel license we need to go after those people
that are grooming training our veterinarians that keep dogs overnight those kinds of places cuz that's really what all's law is all about because of the tragedy that they had um and come to find out we have a groomer
here that doesn't have business license or anything so but they need to be inspected more than once a year so their prices will be different than the regular kennel licenses we've already talked about that because right now I just inspect once a year because most my kenel licenses are people that have four
more dogs in their house now with this I'm going to have to go at least twice to three times a year I would say three times a year just to make sure everything's still the same as as it is when we start yeah does this budget reflect you be able to do that no
because this is something brand new are you working to update I know a lot of surrounding communities are working to update their bylaws to reflect the new requirs of all law we are we are writing a new bylaw for this com y for June do you are you planning on updating your
budget to reflect the needs or are you going to put it in an article for Tom we'll see we'll see um I mean brist lag's been good they've they're running clinics for us um we're doing rabies clinic which is nice but even bris lag is going to be inspected
differently awesome thank you my last question um I already have the chief stand up do you prepare your budget or does the chief prepare we we talk about it but you sit there and talk about what what what we have and you know where we'd like to go and that was the main
thing was the the uh Animal Welfare line was pretty much the thing we're looking at the most this year she I will I will go over my budget in Health and Welfare other year I know I will thank you I appreciate it one more question so you have to do these inspections yes are the businesses responsible for the cause um
we don't charge them at this point they they have to get like if they need a business license they'll get that kind of they have to do that and they have to get the kind of license we haven't done that um because it's just it's part of my job I mean I get paid to go and I
already in my budget get paid for that so we have never it's never been separate well I guess what I'm saying is maybe we I mean someone's going to pay you right now the taxes are paying you so if the service is being rendered these inspections that allow them to be
in business maybe they should be picked up by the cost of the owner no no different than the building department inspection or the cost of business waight to measures yeah so that's never been discussed because it's always just been part of
but I do but now again as you're now having to do more yeah I was say now there's more State mandates all mandates um yeah we can't expect to just be taking on those expenses ourselves when it's the price of doing business what's an argument we
have with trash Stacey based on that feedback is that something you'd be willing to review and oh yes I'll be it's something we can talk about it's just as I said it's never been something it's always been I I do my state inspections and
it's part of my salary so thank you right especially she's saying she may need more hours now with the additional inspections we'll need somewhere to put absolutely for those dollars that would make sense with the and working on a new bylaw that would make sense to include
that thank you question I have a question I have a question yes sir is um there way as I heard you talk about the expense that we incur to um
spaying new to these animals and um other care that they might need when they come into your um when they come under your uh control is there any way that we can collect a fine or a uh
expense or Fe from the people who either wrongly or or rightly um abandon these animals or uh you know is there any way to recover money from the person who turns them into to us
well I'm going to tell you most of my all my Strays are not turn-ins and I'm very honest I don't like to take turn-ins because it ends up costing the town a lot of money because they tell you oh it's just because I can't have the dog anymore and the dog comes into
your shelter and it bites and it's got a lot of sickness and that kind of stuff and we have to get all that figured out before we can adopt it out or euthanize it if that's the case all my Strays that come in are people that I have no idea where the dog belongs you find it on the
road you do the microchip thing there's no microchip and nobody comes in and says oh that's my dog if they if they've turned it out if they've turned it out I mean yes a lot of people do go oh you have my dog I'm going to come and get it but not if um if it's a true stry mhm
but if we do find out that somebody and I'm going to use the word illegally even if it's not probably proper you know just abandons the dog and we find out who it is is there a fine or a fee that we can collect that help offset the cause there's a few
things it can be a fine and it can be legal they can be um given a ticket because it is illegal to drop off a dog and abandon a dog it's called abandonment and we can go after them legally we collect any fees for that you can
have I no because I haven't had that problem because as I said most of all the dogs that I pick up I have no idea where they come from I can try to guess but do you have tickets available for like abandonments or leash law or we I
do have tickets available for leas law violations and that kind of stuff yes awesome that's all I okay thank you you guys take care goodbye thank you hi G good evening [Applause]
[Applause] not sure we start what are we starting with fire ambulance Emergency Management starting with fire fire 220 and ambulance and then the emergency prop okay so um you'll see I just I cut
through the budget um trying to make up the request for the $50,000 cut that I had um I was able to do that I took from places that I felt like I could um but I really don't feel like I can anywhere
but um I did what I was asked and um in the in the lines that I didn't it was because there's increased in fees or other obligations to those lines thank you for doing that mhm thank you you if I may mention Chief you also had
come to me um about opioid funds looking to um use that for something that you needed as well so that was appreciated that you looked outside the box yeah I mean if there's money there that's available it won't cover the whole cost but it might help offset some of it and uh that cost would probably come from
the ambulance revenues anyway but if if we can save a little bit why not yes thank you yeah those funds are year marked if if we an ear Mark we should use them right I just um we just have to figure out if they if the what I need to purchase qualifies it's all the monitors
the two uh EKG monitors for the ambulance are coming to end of life and they're going to stop providing pots to fix them and it's really a priority to have on the ambulance so yeah so that probably brings me to my question for
you um between supplies and and maintenance I know we always ask you to make sure that you've got enough you always do yeah um that's a tough answer this year um if you right
currently right now my two repair lines um my my ambulance repair line I'm currently in the negative and we're not through the fiscal year yet um and the fire repair line I have um where is it
right here I have about $1,500 left in that line and I still have state inspections to do and all that kind of stuff so um to say that I'm concerned is as I've said to
Ralph he sick of me here saying it is is an understatement um I have an aging Fleet the newest truck that I have is engine 3 that was just delivered last July after being ordered before covid M uh um the next truck newest truck that I
have is a 2009 so it's a you know that and then it goes down from there to a 2002 a 2000 all these trucks are are going to start to need things and that comes with a price as everybody knows with
inflation and all that stuff the parts the labor is all through the roof so um but I I did what I could do to to try to make it right so realistically in 23 24 25 and are already well yeah 23 24 and
25 we've already spent 28 29 and 31,000 mhm so 16 doesn't seem reasonable I'm on board do um I know there's a time a
certain point that a truck AG just is out um you can't certify it are any of the older trucks getting to that point no no so all the trucks are tested annually that's part of the cost of operation maintenance the uh the pumps are tested annually ground
Lads are tested annually um all the proper safety inspections are all done and everything continues to to certify uh one thing I'll say about my Personnel is that they take pride in the vehicles that we have they're very well maintained and when uh mark down the highway department will do everything
and anything he can within his power but there's a lot of stuff that's just outside of his training as far as specialty stuff with the pumps and um generators and stuff like that that just he can't do so it ends up having to go to a a repair
shop with an with an aging Fleet we're not we're not going to see maintenance Bills going down no the 50106 that is that that's great out because um Serena is still looking into that line is
that uh yes I believe her and I just need to sit down and she she has some questions about my numbers that's all just because of there's some funky stuff in the new CBA that we need to just sit down together and make sure we match
Nicole do you have anything else I just have an observation I think looking at the zerob based budgets some departments do them in different levels of detail and I think is by far one of the most you give us a lot of detail and therefore it's one of the most
transparent so I just want to thank you for that thank you are you still seeing a lag uh between purchase time or or between placing an order and receiving so um currently if you look at um on this one the
5870 and there's like uh you'll see that there's what is it 17 ,000 currently for this year that's because I have $166,000 worth of gear on order so um fire gear has a has a life 10 years it's not not
ank an FPA compliant needs to be taken out of service so they don't keep it on the shelf so when I order gear it takes between 3 and four months to make a set of gear and and receive it so it's uh it's on order I'm just waiting for
delivery any else yeah I'm extremely thankful to the Chief and chief I I never tired of you saying I need more money because I know you do um so we gave him a tough task
and I appreciate what he came to us and we realized it was too it was too difficult so um that it was too difficult he came with the 50,000 below so um s and I we were looking at it how could we add back I know um we added back on the replacement
equipment 5870 you know $9,000 and and um on the ambulance side uh fire rescue 5850 $111,000 we we taking that from the ambulance fund you know we had designated 475,000 uh you know that
20,000 from the ambulance fund to reli some pressure from from the fire how much is currently I'm not sure what the total is right now we we we it's it collects around $650,000 a
year but we have 475,000 now being taken right for this and then we have another ambulance playment that'll be due okay so that's just keep that in mind 105 yeah that'll be at the usually we've
been doing it in the fall because the payments um I think that payment's du in January so that would where the 5870 then that would put the replacement equipment at the level we try to go back to the previous
years L which part part of Chief the chief's plan on replacing some keep turning the equipment as opposed to buying everything right so in our conversation um I think Ralph recognized my
initiative to try to keep the Gear replacement on a you know annual basis so that way we're not coming to the I'm not coming to the town with looking for 30 sets of gear for the whole department and having a $400,000 price tag attached to it if I can keep it rotating like I
have been over the last several years everybody's gear doesn't expire all at the same time and they all have to have a second set of gears so that way we can decer it and dry it and all that so we've got to keep track
of I keep track all the dates do you yeah it's [Laughter] fun any questions on 220 no9 you want to you don't want to do 2 31's basically the same as fire you want to go over anything there I just assume
we basically the same thing as long as nobody has ask the same question here between medical supplies and ambulance equipment repairs can we can we cut those so uh 5550
5240 sorry I'm on the wrong um the the the so the the medical supply is the medical supply line is that what you're speaking Yeah so that's the 5550 is going to be that'll be a tough a tight one um because if you look
right now I'm I'm in March and I'm down to $7,000 um but we'll we'll try to make it work my only maybe thought to that would be is is if it's if it's a the medical supply lines is specifically ambulance
supplies um if we had to at a maybe at a special I could I could ask for a thing from the a transfer from the ambulance fund it would be the only consideration maybe okay um because that is specifically that's you know bandages
Band-Aids gauze cling um AED pads battery batteries for aeds stuff like that that all comes from that line is it possible anything in there could also be paid for with the uh opioid
money I'm still trying to educate myself on the opioid monies um I don't know what is eligible it's not e it's it's not easy they haven't yeah and then they're annoyed that nobody's using it and I'm like yeah cuz nobody understands
it right right direct correlation to opioid use opioid education and and and saving you know those so we don't have I don't know the number but it's not a we're not down with a
big number I'm sure or they need Band-Aids like I've used Band-Aids in their Liv um is there a busy time for the ambulance service like is winter busier because
of no I wish I could predict it um but there there's really not like there's times where we'll go and we won't roll a wheel for two days and then the next day we have seven runs and in an 8 hour shift no Rhyme or Reason no Rhyme or Reason at all okay we tried to
look at data um to see you know what day of the week's busier what time it there's no there's no Rhyme or Reason to any of it the whole week is is covered with with runs when you play out the whole year kind of czy You full moon
our runs are all up I'll say that like um we've gone up I think 4% from last year in runs we're doing right right just under a th000 runs a year which is a lot for us I think when I took over as Chief we were doing around 6 or 700 runs
wow so um the ambulance runs are up as are the fire calls so we'll see we're an aging Community as Bella was I mean yeah yeah and and to look at developments like Hunter Hill where we're putting in 55 and olda and we're
going to Hunters Hill quite a bit now never mind adding what's another 50 homes or whatever's going in up there that's going to be another burden on us so to speak you know all right anybody else any questions on ambulance no no
you got anything Doug he keeps surprising us and he startles no I'm all that so emergency preparedness just in good faith I made some uh I just made some Cuts there to try to save a little
bit of money um really the majority of this money goes towards um The Code Red emergency notification system so uh that's around I think it just went up it's around $3,200 a year and then the rest of it goes goes towards um stuff
that we use um in in emergencies pumps uh lighting uh cones barriers stuff like that so when we're out chasing limbs down in the roadway we have stuff to block roads off along with uh Tom Ferry who also utilizes uh who also utilizes
the equipment he has access to all of it so he knows that he can go grab cones and barriers if he need will not be affected At All by some of the I know a lot of federal grants for these types of Emergency Response items so I get a grant every year from Mima that also goes to funding a lot of
that stuff also okay so that's not affected at this point no nope great guys on emergency preparedness good no thank you Chief no problem thank Youk you have a good night have a good night all
right go to the worst the worst budget lineup all I just put in for the uh I think at that point we were talking about a 10% drops so I cut that
um nobody's nobody's used instate travel in years I was just going to ask you where are you guys traveling I think I was probably the last one and that was to try County for training oh okay all right uh and then du's we have the
um uh MMA dues Which is less it was 196 this year so I cut it to the 225 and then the same with the reserve fund I cut it the um I tried to do the 2 and a half% even though that may not be the
wisest place to do it but to the 4875 [Applause] 750 anybody have any questions on that question it might be a silly one what's the reserve fund for other than
obviously Reserve but like it's just a small so I was just yeah so yeah the only thing the reserve fund is like like Tom came in with the the pin issue we were able to do that Jim Jim has come in before with um demo where he ran out of
demo money but he had houses that needed to come down we've made transfers out of that okay um year end I'm going to guess we're probably going to end up blowing through the rest of what's in there for this year if we don't have really the transfers to the other transfers to um
just to just to give both boards an update uh seren Ian um running numbers we added in uh an estimate on trash bags uh with the increased price So based on my my recommendations which is 50%
reduction in stiens uh we're looking at a plus side of $82,000 um we're kind of hopefully in the next two weeks we'll be finalizing the um the snow and ice budget and we think we're we plan for a deficit of
200,000 it looks like it'll be 150 so you know another 50 so um I probably would probably make a recommendation given that it's such a tight budget looking at the numbers we kind of want to be on the plus side 100 but to put a little more into preserve fund transfers
just just because it's going to be so so so tight this year so I know we'll give those up num as they I haven't facted in um hopefully a little bit of good news tonight from from V so Factor those numbers and and
um pretty much l is the same number they've been given us since December so from an expense standpoint are we looking are still still tracking that we're not going to have transfers
within so we we might be using the reserve fund for that's yeah that's put some money in there yeah okay um from our standpoint we meet and I guess that's good good time to announce this Doug uh the our next
meeting is going to be April 16th after tonight and it be at the Council on Aging 6 o00 uh believe that's a Wednesday April 16th yeah I will be back you'll be
back um right now Serena is set aside the 16th she's looking for a place for the 17th if we need it um we may not need it it's just that that meeting will be to go through and make our preliminary
recommendations um and then at some point probably the first week of May we'll probably end up having a joint meeting to go over any differences so for that April 16th if we could have like a really good Revenue number for next year and um I know
you've got some updates to do based on that that email that went out today yeah um the number I gave you is included those update so okay yeah so so the 82 is in including uh the information from okay
okay we I double checked what Serena we I said that's including this she goes yes okay so forgetting forgetting the school that would probably come into play next week how much free cash are you planning
on using for the budget next year 471000 still oh my God okay so the only reason that we even agreed to 200,000 last year was because there was a plan that we had the
November uh or that there was the plan to go out to vote on the debt exclusion and then if the debt exclusion failed that Mike had a plan as to where Cuts would come from starting in January so I could only speak for myself
but I I wouldn't be comfortable supporting a budget that's $470,000 of free cash that we know is not sustainable especially without a plan so maybe maybe we could have a plan
for March April 16th too put a plan together I know I know um it's not the best thing to do but but the keeps the services we have um that's what we're looking at is
I spoke with the department heads and they know fiscal year uh 27 we're looking at serious service look C service and personel deduction as a result because we can't there's no expectation of the continuous use of
free cash so so we go to borrow free cash do we put a hiring freeze on that would be you know we have H Mambo now so we hoping going through patrici um that's step number one um you
know we have a few people um as was indicated during these uh budget talks that are should be retiring in the fiscal year 26 so um we'll look at that and we'll see what that uh what that
correlates to and then we have to you know we have to hold the line that that's it no new hires no new hires even for public SA mhm as well is the only unfilled position in the town right now the one police officer or are there other
unfilled positions I believe that's the only position that's um we did uh a lot of uh unions had their contract negotiations have we looked it um what's
the split on health insurance 75.5 um again the contract of J is that uh has that come up as an option of maybe going 7030 or it would it it would have to be negotiated the should answer is yes and
it would be require renegotiation yes yes okay it was a tough it was tough to get that through to begin with I have no doubt we went through three votes four votes before we got an
approval on the on the budget I on the contract you both of them C and um it was difficult to get through I have no doubt but
um as you know the percent increases of these items y um keep going up there might be no but no increases for wages but you it goes out to vote and they turn it down and they'd rather have a position
cut uh because it doesn't affect me if somebody else gets cut well that's understandable but if the town needs a position yeah we we have no there's no negotiations going on right now just the teachers no the town Highway Department
Highway yes next week just starting next week as a percentage how far off are we with that what was it 475,000 that we could potentially have to support outside of
the budget what perc of our total budget is that number 1.7 1.6 so I mean if we had an across the board everybody's got to make their most
important items list and they've got to cut 1.7 from the least important until we come up with a budget that eliminates that shortfall except that 60% of it is from the schools who don't necessarily
have to listen to us so we the production come from the people came here today which is about 89 million because I although we have A2 million budget we only have really inol
over not even yeah so Doug better way to look at it pull off the school you've got roughly 9 million so you're you're at about 5% so other than school department if we got
5% across the board you've got to live with that number and make adjustments although they're hard and then we solve the uh the deficit could were that easy yeah right
they just cut heavily the so then the the other the other caveat to that is out of that nine approximately 82% is payroll and 18% is expenses so you're you're really
you're really talking payroll from Union negotiated that like the school we can't touch it say say that again the salaries are negotiated by the union correct and just School we can't T
it it's yeah an individual salary can't be adjusted it would have to be count again just um just to bring it back to what I first said last year the lar of don't
has control was $8.8 Million this is uh the Departments that we presented tonight 8.97 and that's .2% increase from from last year so and
and you know as you know I asked from me some some cuts and and even for the bone CU a lot of it again as you know and understand a lot of it it's contractual and
Sal they squeeze it as much as they is the overtime part of the contractual agreement um the rate would be the rate yeah usage would be on a department by Department the rate I
could understand but the usage is that that's not it's it it's not contractual but and the caveat for that is especially with the fire and police department they have four standards that
they have to have fir back and then is there a clerical Union and so does the clerical Union so if every department has a clerical person they all fall under that same
Union correct yeah it may be coming up in a year or so clerical maybe in a year I I think yeah I thought that one was just 234 and oh thank
you um so when I first C off the board the admin Town administr Mullen presented taking trash out of the Town budget just thinking trash yeah it was a very popular decision I think of the board at the time to keep it as is cuz
it's a well- loved track uh Town service um however I don't know how you guys feel but it might be something more reconsidering now and just looking at the facts because um just looking here yes it's a $818,000
budget um and I think I remember talking about at the time my big question was if they pull it if we pull it out of our budget as a town someone has to send bills and someone has to um monitor because there was a way to opt out
basically um someone has to monitor that um but the I think that circumstances have changed I don't know how you guys felt and I'm not following with the the monitoring where we got so part of The Proposal with it was it wasn't just
because some people had their own dumpsters and they wouldn't want to pay for trash service if I remember right right um so there was a way in the original proposal to opt out of getting a bill and then um having like a having
it out of the budget but then my question was someone has to send those bills and someone has to monitor for compliance like if we if you opt out of this service then I want to make sure you're not you know having someone have Bard
just whoever prot up your trash you know so that that would cost to it too like those very difficult to achieve I was just imagining we just there was no trash and then everyone that's another thing you have to bring it to the transfer station it doesn't eliminate
everything because you'll now have you still have that trash that has to be removed from the transfer station so it's not like looking at it and saying oh let's save $800,000 you're looking at it and say let's save $300,000 track right right I you go to the trash
station i i i AP you you would create an Enterprise fund so the sticker fee and the bag fees would would cover would cover that cost yeah well Enterprise fund or going into the general budget doesn't really make much of it's not going to change the bottom line well
you're you're taking out 800,000 from If you eliminate trash If you eliminate trash but but the but the Enterprise fund it it's a one for one would reduce
and looking at the negative SES to that how many people are we going to have to start ducking their trash in wooded areas there's tons of communities that don't do trash um and they don't have that problem they said we would have this problem when we had the mates they're not mattresses all over the
street right any thought on privati I mean there's lots of communities that privatize and um you know with privatizing that uh company can handle the building and everything else that's
anyways so they can come in they can give specific rates tell you the truth I wouldn't mind having two companies come in competing right and bring that price right down I don't know why the government has
to throw your trash out it's nice when we have the money yeah well exactly yeah it's good but it's very expensive I I like what you just said there uh because it does create that opportunity
for competition it does create the opportunity for you to shop around and contract with your own trash company that you pick it's like when you have your oil delivered there's how many oil companies that deliver oil to people's
homes and you can shop out for the lower cost why can't we do that with trash that would eliminate even if half the cost of the town that makes up that money we're looking for right
some well it would from a from a budget standpoint it would eliminate all of it because it's it would remove the 800,000 then it's just a matter of How It's whether whether there's an Enterprise fund set up so that it is still being built through the town or
everybody's on their own and has to yeah why not why do we have to build it through the town why can't everyone have to figure it out on their own MH so it sounds like the board had an appetite to for us to look at it again certainly the we as selectman but
there is a trash committee that has looked at it and one of the things that came out of there was people were not ready to eliminate trash pickup you went through you have the senior citizen who has enough time hard enough time dragging the trash out to the street now you're
going to ask them to bring it to a transfer station yes other communities do it uh and Dion doesn't but that's one of the things that people like about Dian now if you want to change it we can change it and chips Fall Away they may right at this point I'm not advocating
it the way I just Advocate just to put it back on the table I guess not not you know that's maybe not the way we want to go maybe it'd be nice to spar some public input and some public comments on on it as well and here you know we're all better informed on the
impacts of our decisions now we have a $471,000 shortfall so interest change so public has to say yes absolutely and what the alternative is if we don't if we don't do trash then X Y and Z you can either take it to the transfer station
or hire someone what else they would possibly lose something has something has to right go if it's not if it's not if we don't want to we don't want a Deb exclusion we don't want an override here are our choices we've got we can do something with trash whether
it be an Enterprise fund or something else we we can start making Cuts but you can't can't still buy eggs for $3 a dozen right right something's got to give something sizable has to give yes
if you guys can talk about that that would be great yeah chick is we'll get back to you he his throat all right motion to adjourn yeah I'll make that motion second motion second any discussion all those in favor all
right motion second all in favor all for