y let public know we're live all right everybody we're going to get started here so I'm going to go ahead and uh call the meeting to order of the uh uh dble Advisory Board here we get things kicked off um so just want to start and
say thank you for everyone for showing up tonight to discuss the budgetary issues we have going on as everyone knows we uh we struggle with this on an annual basis and uh we're just trying to go through uh everything we can to be able to make sure we're providing the appropriate budget to the town's people
in the best fashion possible I think we've developed something that's uh pretty good here but at the same time it still requires an override so with that we want to just make sure we've uh We've crossed all of our tees and dotted all of our eyes before we uh present that forward to the town's people that uh
provot so I do want to just say that uh you know obviously we're all coming at this from the position that we believe every uh person in this room has uh a right to all the uh requests that they have made for the the financial needs that for each Oney year departments we
understand that but it's kind of one of the things when I talk to anyone that joins the board here we always talk about having the difficult conversations and this is probably one of those nights that is a difficult conversation because you know who doesn't want to have fully funded uh departments across the board
and uh you know we we struggle with that obviously given the fact that our tax base is just uh on property taxes so it puts us in a challenging situation so um as we do progress forward just understand that uh we're we're trying to find the right way to the right balance to be able to proceed forward um and uh
like I said wish we had all the money in the world but we don't uh so we have to have a night like this with a little bit of a difficult conversation but I think some of those have already been had but at the same time we want to flush that out and obviously we're uh uh taping this year for uh our YouTube channel so
this was going to go out there for anyone who wants to be able to watch that at some point in time so I don't expect things to get too rowdy but uh do watch your p's and q's uh we don't want to get uh censored off of uh off there so again thank you everyone for showing up tonight we
appreciate it U and uh probably get things kicked off here Jason I just have we've talked about this several times so I'm not going to go in great detail on everything because we've already done that but I do have a few slides just to provide an overview and an opening and
then kind of turn it over to the Departments here so real quickly our overall tax levy is projected to increase by 3.54% um excluded debt is substantially
decreasing um we were initially planning one thing that's contributed to that um since last time we spoke we were planning the first p u mitigation payment for FY 26 won't be 12 527 so was able to remove about 60,000 from from R
excluded that the overall tax levy when you incorporate The Debt Service um the excluded Debt Service 2.2 um cherry sheet is based on the governor's number now that we have it that's um increasing by
4.8 we usually count on $750,000 of local receipts to balance the budget this year I have elevated that number to $800,000 um after talking to the town accountant he's comfortable I'm comfortable with it it's I prefer to
keep it at 750 to be honest but um but knowing the situation we're in we have been a little more aggressive with local receipts than we normally are so total revenue Allin that's included in water Enterprise everything is 2.8 um and all revenues appropriated
is um just over 4.5 um this is uh the breakdown of increases uh by budget category overall this is the this is based on the level service budget of of the schools um General government's going up
13.8 Public Safety just over three schools just under eight that's both Regional School Districts Public Works 2.5 Human Services three Library three library in R 3 um total debt Service as I said is
decreasing and insurance and assessments are increasing by 10.92 um we have for the first time since I've been here also appropriated an additional $100,000 of free cash 50,000 for General
stabilization and 50,000 for the CIP trust that we just created last special town meeting so those things are new um we've decreased our free cash for operations and capital by
$50,000 so we use 358 in last fiscal we're using about 308 this fisal this just runs through some of the major changes health insurance rates are going up by
14.13 we worked with Maya to um to look at some plan design and deductible changes um we just had an insurance advisory committee meeting today and they it's a tough sell um to change
the impact on the rates isn't isn't um worth it it's not worth it basically um now while the rates are increasing by 14.13% another thing to make sure we
understand I've only increased the health insurance budget by 2% we have we generally carry some flexibility within that line item so we're eating into the essentially the flexibility we have part of that is
we've had um an employee drop off so we're saving some money so just so everyone understands that we the budget will be okay just not it's it's going to be a tighter budget year next year pension assessment is a 24% increase uh
general liability we're planning for 3.2% we do not have final numbers but I've talked to them several times that's based on those conversations we've increased um both police and fire Communications
lines police by 10,000 Fire by 12,000 that again remember we have a um we're going to have a first dispatch assessment payment due in 28 and so that's going to be a 50% payment that's
our first payment so rather than having to come up with the entire amount in one year we're trying to plan for that strategically over the next several years um to soften the blow what it comes to school district brought unable
assessment again 7.9 the greater L Tech assessment is almost 11% um total Municipal in debt service is 4.9% 4.19% and Municipal salaries are just
shy of five this is all this is revenue Allin for operations the other thing that's new we're using $25,000 from overlay Surplus which essentially is a onetime revenue but it was available in the
board of assessors agreed to make it Surplus for the budget so that is an additional 25 ,000 Fusion that we normally don't have and these are General these are
operating expenditures plus um plus Town capital and then State assessments and overline so we have as you know we have two scenarios we're running now one is a level service school budget in that
scenario we have a $480,000 [Music] deficit there's another scenario where our budget is based on what the town of Gren can afford for their school contribution in that scenario they can
afford $1.36 five million in that scenario we are running a definit just shy of $189,000 so over that's that amount is we yearly behind right
the um yeah you could yeah yeah you could look at it that way yeah so that would be the difference that we' have to come up with just to yeah level f with gr that that's really our Baseline number the the gr assessment is the Baseline number we're not going to get any lower
than that this year because they've already fully committed that number to the school district so that 189 is the number we're going to have to come up with if we don't get additional revenues at minimum at minimum at minimum now the
the other scenario of course is gron passes the O passes an override and we don't then we have to come up with that much more and it also should be noted that between the level service and Grant assessment if the over the larger
override fails which my recommended budget is based on if that fails and we have to meet the grant assessment the school district is still in line with having to cut $875 $865,000 in addition to the cuts
they made this for this fiscal year so the grant assessment leaves a substantial gap for the schools to have to cover if um if that's the budget scenario we're dealing with this a break down can you read that it's a breakdown of the um tax impact on
the average single family tax bill the level service budget of 480,000 um that's 3 um $ 38380 for the average single family tax
bill and the grot assessment match is $150 now that's only for that override number that is not all in so when we just look at our tax levy increase without an override just as a matter of
course the 2 and a half% growth we're going to see roughly these are all estimates based on the 25 rate so take that and keep that in mind but it's a $25 increase so when you're looking at the the average single family
tax you got to take 205 and then add them to the other numbers you can just so just as we've kind of talked about already before and just more for the I think a little bit of the education just to those folks that may be watching versus haven't
attended our meetings in the past so we we've talked about this before so the the level service would be to keep things level service with them across uh across all the budgets we have here inclusive of the schools um that that side of it is we're assuming that gron
is also passing theirs um to be able to to to get to that point but if they do not pass their override right um we are still left with the deficit there as Jason mentioned $189,000 plus or minus if ours fails
uh or if we wind up in this option a option B versus whatever you know sort of a uh that's been presented to us before if we had that situation uh where option A would be to uh go with level service and option b is
to go to the Groton assessment if we passed just the the call The Groton assessment override and gr and past their override we could be in a situation where we would have the override of that to fill in that gap of
$190,000 and then on top of that having to try to come up with another 300,000 plus REM Min us to be able to get up to that point so um we'd be in a very difficult position I think uh you know passing an override and then not being able to um uh still not being able to
afford the level service budget I think would be problematic and then it would be difficult for us to explain um that's continuing why I would say that the level of service budget uh over ride makes the most sense uh but you know we can get into that later down the road
here but there is that there is that risk that if we just went with the lower number and Dr past theirs we'd have to make significant cuts to our budget on top of having an override which just almost doesn't make sense we asked for an override we got the override and then
still had to make you know for us a couple $1,000 where the cuts is is deep so go and the last thing I'll say is just the other thing to keep in mind is the election schedule and the town meeting schedule get a little wonky um
because of the the budget scenarios we're dealing with so you don't we don't have a balanced budget in front of us right now we're just considering two options both dependent on overrides and so the way I'm proposing
it is we'll go to any town meeting with two budgets both dependent on overides and the an at the annual election which is the week after time meeting we'll request this needs select
board approval of course but the way I'm kind of looking at is at annual Town election we'll ask for the level service budget overall if that fails then we have to go
back um to next day and call another election for the lower override um or in the case that Grant passes theirs maybe ask for the larger number again but
um going so call another election going for another override on the 10th of June if that fails we have to call special election I mean I'm sorry we'd have to call a special town meeting in June to
pass a balanced budget so um there could be a lot of steps to this depending on how to meeting goes how elections go so we'll we'll deal with that as we move forward but that's that's kind of that's
the timeline schedule right now I also think R made it very clear that if we did not come up with the money that they would explore the super town meeting option someone mentioned that at the last j meeting they two of the members of the SS made
it pretty clear that they that that was not something that they would not consider more like more than likely that they would actually the and and I'll move to the budgets all right sounds good I think the uh I think the order we had it in here is almost similar to how your left
or right set set up for us here so I believe pleas is the first one on The Chopping Block here answer some questions is that that's too hard to read is that you can zoom in yeah there you go do you want me to kind of walk them through and then you can what do you
yeah if you guys have questions all right so the police budget is um is going up overall um 2.6% um you see here the the increases um the expenses are the larger part 6
and a half and that's largely based on the communications line that I talked about earlier for to help with the regional dispatch assess assessment um here's the expenses you see that the big the big one other supplies is also increasing by
$2,000 that's largely based on historic spending so they have they requested that based on spending um in Prior years um the only other thing of note I'll say is that this budget um includes the
funding of um of the new Poli contract which uh we're still waiting to get officially voted on by the select board but there is funding in to fund um fund that contract as
well and you had a position on the negotiations were close to being is this yeah no we're negotiations are wrapped up we're we're just we're waiting on the draft okay um so for each of the
Departments I put just a quick overview of some some of the major changes then some issues they're dealing with um the like I said new Union contract Communications line and then the $2,000 and supplies um it should be noted that this
budget does not include a ninth officer that they lost last year um it was something that the police chief requested um and I think it's still something that the police department needs to be honest but it does not yeah
it doesn't include that um we're also working on and this goes for fire and police we have a small working group that I put together that has been meeting we've had three or four meetings now on just Public Safety facility um plan planning in
general and so you know th that's more on the capital side but at some point we're going to have to address facility issue from the police and for the police and fire department police facilities in better shape than the fire facility but
the space requirements and needs of the department um say out growing facility but kind of out growing the facility so we're going to have to um determine how best to move forward to address everybody's needs we're working on that now at some point that's going to be a
thing that's uh that we come to you to talk about that's that's kind of the here I have I don't know if you want to add anything Chief no I think Jason hit all the points uh I me obviously the ninth officer we'd love to get that back um
you know we lost him a couple years ago now after paying for him to go to the academy and then he went to P um which was a a hit but uh you know it's really important that we get that that second late night position back still having one guy out there on the road hasn't got any safer we got a casino that just
opened up pretty close um and I'm sure at some point that will bring issues um so moving forward that's going to be something I probably ask for every year what is your call volume with like call numbers I don't have them but and
it's not so much that the late night shift is super busy but it is the when something happens I only have one guy yeah and you know we do work great with the towns around us and they're always coming before we even ask but
there's going to be a time when they're busy and then our guy who's alone gets a hot call they don't happen often but they do and he's going to be there by himself for quite a while before somebody else can get there and without getting into specifics
It's tap I mean it's happened where there's been an emergency yeah we've had we've had medical calls where one officer shows up and has to perform life-saving measures and and unfortunately things don't always work out when it's only one guy there that
can only do it for so long Jason the dispatch increase on the 20 10,000 what is that being kind of set aside for this half payment in the 28 how was that being so it's being budgeted for um now it will be in their
budget and communication one um but not you mean like carried yeah being spent this year okay we're just building that amount up we're building that amount it's not um we can't we're not planning to like incumber it year over-year but
um but it is it will be built in there um into the budgets and to be to be completely transparent the hope is to be able to address some Capital stuff um in the meantime until we need it until we need it for the dispatch I mean that's that's okay that's for kind of how I'm
looking at it is to take a few things off the table from down the road yeah okay should use it little yeah I don't know if you folks have other thoughts but that's kind of how I was looking at it is we're going to need
we're going to need 50 it's probably at that point will be between 55 and $60,000 in 28 right I what is it now 102,000 102 with the proposed 3% each year exactly so we'll be right right do
the so right around there and so and if we have to come up with that all in one year that's that's tough being as far as the facilities ofation just touched on you're I just out growing it from that perspective yeah we
don't have enough storage we don't have an adequate facility where we can do any types of training yeah um we got a usually Branch out to other places other departments sometimes we've come to the Town Hall in the past um you know so we don't have anything like that and storage is at a premium in our place
because unfortunately we have to hold on to a lot of our records for a very long time um and we're just running out of space understand I just want to make sure you couldn't put your hand inside the police police station station no no we're
addressing here very soon yeah I mean it seems like you're doing the floors there's a few things floors are done was painted roof was done when Janine D was here he did that maybe two or three years before he left so the room should be good for a while um that's right I'm
kind of try you're getting new windows or something right yeah we we set aside was it 20,000 Capital last year plus the ear mark from rep garsdale so those have been ordered and the project should probably start in two or three weeks all the contract signed which is waiting for
the materials they'll be schedule for delivery on the 14th I found oh good okay yeah just turn to balance like the lifetime of the existing structure yes yeah and whatever we decide to do with the public safety building working
group I mean that's still a good building I don't think the town whe I don't know if they sell it or if they keep it use it turn it into something else I it's still a good building for something regardless how long is your contract the contract you guys are just finishing three years
start okay anybody else have any other questions or concerns or anything there I think everything makes sense so that's we've kept pretty much every other line pretty tight so yeah good me I just wouldn't I agree
with you we should have the ninth officer and it comes to like you know we had an officer we had the Winter Fest out here yeah he got hurt he was out for almost two months and now we're even shorter you know we're supposed to have nine then we had eight then we were down to seven you know there's no flexibility
with our personnel and I've said it before we have a couple of part- timers but ever since the initiation of post and the new rules for training and stuff like that we cannot get part- timers there there is no PO we posted maybe a month and a half ago now and then this
is the second posting that we did and we have zero applicants it doesn't help so keep cutting budget no I understand over have anything else appreciate the time thank you for coming
down are all the other shifts good though I mean do you like you have what you need on the other ships or yeah I mean there's always times when you're going to need extra bodies but you know running the two guys on the evening shift right now and then three of the days during the week I have two Patrol plus my cell phone Duty those are the
days I kind of Reserve to do admin stuff go to meetings and stuff like that and then Thursday and Friday I'm on patrol with just a pat okay and when another reason that it hard not to have that guy
is just talking yeah you know like I said Nick JG was injured an incident out I also have another member of the department who serves in the military and he's going to be leaving for a deployment for 4 weeks and so now that puts us down again if that was to happen
and then I get a guy get hurt now we're down to six guys it's not enough to run a 24-hour operation and provide adequate Public Safety so question you mentioned surrounding towns coming to help us is there also like an agreement where
sometimes we have to go help them and then that puts risk correct there there's a time when if if PE has a hot call and our guy is in the area they're going to call him to go over there and then that leaves no one for here and now if we get a call and he's really tied up
now they're calling tingbo to come here or they're calling Gren to come here I've heard it before that also stresses that relationship too if we're if we're constantly the one calling for help and not being able to provide help that it does sort of puts a strain on
that relationship it's called Mutual Aid not one way Aid supposed to be mutual good okay thank you sir got all right so fire you want me to do the the menu okay
um so fire salaries are going up 165% that is largely based on your contract with fire chief um wages have been reduced slightly um about
$7,000 that's basically an overtime an overtime line that we've been carrying we've had the last two years well last year and then right now in this fiscal we had we have some room in our salary
line in the fire salaries and wages and sorry and the wages in the fire so you'll see in wages I haven't increased those um at all in fact I've decreased them the reason is we I think
we can we can survive the production um and basically that reduction is is to help um funing salary line um the other increases are what I already talked about one the regional
dispatch and then repair and maintenance you'll see in the fire and in Highway budget that for heavy M Machinery fire trucks Etc the repair bills have skyrocketed through the roof so we're we're increasing on that line I don't
think as much as he asked but slightly increasing that and then the $12,000 that accounts for the increase in his expenses here's the salary and wages um and [Music] then so we just went through the changes
but I reduced the overtime line entirely increased the salary line um essentially level funded full time salary and then decreased I'm sorry basically level funded on call slight increase Communications for the dispatch and
then, 1500 for repairs some ongoing issues that that I know of I'm sure the fire chief knows of more um one is um we've been working on emergency medical um response it's um it's one of those things that's been on
both of our lists since we started um as I think all of you know Ambulance Service in an emergency situation it's a 15 and 20 minute response time right now and honestly that's not acceptable and it's been that way for a little while now so we are to
work that is an issue we are actively working on and um I'm hoping to at least be able to with the fire chief and the police chief I'm hoping to be able to um present at least options that we have
and by the way all of those options are going to cost money so um that's another that's another thing but it's one of those issues that's important enough to really kind of dive in and at least give options for um for for making an improvement in that
area so we've had several meetings about it um but I think we're making progress with some of the conversations we're having so more to come on that but that is a major issue um another issue is we don't as as you all know we've reduced overnight
coverage in the police we have no overnight coverage in five so it's completely call and I know the fire chief has talked about this in the past that at some point call volume is going to require different type of coverage
overnight and he can elaborate on that for and then um the facility needs again same thing with the police we we're meeting together and um trying to develop plans longterm short short-term midterm long-term plans for um Public
Safety facility um needs and so yeah we did I mean Manpower is a huge problem especially at night after 4 um I mean even even during the day we do a little bit better during the day there are some people that work in the area that can that do come back but still I
mean we had to you know good size FS this year um and it was you know like I always said it was a struggle for the first 15 20 minutes until people got there and then even like we said you know rely on Mutual Aid you call five times from Mutual Aid thinking you're going to get
30 people and now you know everybody else is having issues too whe they're Rob in the ambulance you end up getting 15 so um it's that's not that's not really sustaining and then like I said after 4:00 there's just no we're down to three people in town I think one's going
to be moving away soon um we did a recruitment Drive uh in town and we got nobody no applications we got plenty of people from outside of here that want to come and get sponsored so they can go to the academy but we're not looking to just put people through the academy and
then have them you know first of all you have them six months it takes them to get through and you you know you can't use them and then they come out and they get a jobs when they leave so we we tried to you know kind of open it up more just to focus on like a town Recruitment and we just you know we just didn't get
anybody so the best way I think to do that is going to be to get more you know for DM overnight because once you know 4:00 hits and the guys go home for the day we're down pretty much next nothing and it takes just as long for our guys to get here as it does for the
anals to get here at this point so it's almost even you know before you could say like oh we can get there before the anals but then after 4:00 or not so it's it's if that fire at um crossing the firehouse had happened at night it would
have been you know a complete a complete loss and and there would probably been other buildings that we would have been would have been involved I gotta say that fire I mean that fire watching the response was impressive to
me I I you know I Patrick did a great job coordinating that really really well and if you if you have time to listen to it on on YouTube I highly recommend that you do that because it was it really was impressive how how well it came together he had like I said before we had we had
the perfect crew working for the day that could have been working um a lot of experienced people um the two that were on um we got notified early but like it's just an old building and you know who knows what you know was in that building for years that uh it took off
and it's like I've always said that's an old you know it's an old building but it kind of helped us on the we cut into the house there because the construction was so good that we were able to kind of held the building but if it had been one of newer buildings it would have it would have gone you know much
quicker yeah if if anything almost an advertisement for why we need increased financial support for our First Responders says you know the house across the street from the fire department is in is in half and they saved it which is the great part that we have good people here that are able to
do the work that we need but they need that additional uh financial support to be able to respond to that accordingly and it's it's definitely it's it's very it's a very dangerous situation at night for the citizens for the for us the
police everyone so it's it's not a good not a good situation um it's just unless we can get some more you know interest in town here which just doesn't it's not just doesn't seem to be uh we don't have the people in
town just aren't you know looking to do this kind of work um we have a little bit of what would be the requirement for somebody in town as we're to be able to do that yeah you got to go to the you have to go to the acad and that's you know the part that's what
we had a few people that kind of uh were interested and asked you know questions as soon as you tell them you know it's it's four months at the Academy two nights a week and a in a weekend day I mean immediately it's just you know I can't so I mean if we don't get anybody that can step up that wants to you know
that that's only just that's just the begin of commitment once you're in then we you know we need you to come to these calls at night and on weekends and right everybody has other stuff going on now it's not like you know back in the day everyone in town they worked in town you know everybody's doing something else
everybody's got kids kids play travel Sports people are not around you know at once you know the day end so we're going to have to the best way probably to do it financially is you know more more perms at night because we don't have to pay
the the benefits and trm and all that stuff so but what you know same thing Firehouse is not in good condition so you can go work somewhere else in a better Firehouse for more money everybody's paying more my we were at Five Guys Burgers the other day is
paying 22 bucks an hour now and you get a free meal we're paying 18 and we don't even have a kitchen so it's it's we talk about Recruitment and Retention I don't have much to even flash at somebody to get when they really want to do it
well obviously we're a little bit late in the budget cycle for 26 but that wouldn't be in my mind something just a comparative analysis if we could just understand what the you have that okay I'll send it to you appreciate that yeah
but I think that that would should be something that we present the town meeting to you let them know that the reason why I can't get anybody you know the schools are nod their head behind you because the fact they know that they have the the AIDS that are in the room they just went through the exact same situation where everyone else is paying
more and it it does become very challenging when you're right you walk into Dick Sporting and they're paying $22 an hour and you got discount let's see I can work inside a controlled environment and pull t-shirts all day or I can run into a burning building which one am I going to choose
right we offer you know the big thing free training right free training that you have to spend all your time going to yeah well now you put it that [Laughter] way but it it it is it is real it's hard to bring people in and they do look at things in that in that direction is very
challenging for you know for the community that we live in to sit there and say you know take four months off work go to the academy it's do it always like that though uh no I mean it's it's gotten the time that you have to go to the academy
has increased over the years because I mean I you know I would love to do it like yeah who wants to spend their day at work and then rush off to the academy two nights a week now it's the weekend and you going to go spend all Saturday and some of Saturday and Sunday so I mean I probably pass out too after like
the first power that's different story and that's just you know we're first responder for the EMS side so that's a little bit you know easier than go send you know sending someone in ENT school as ENT basic schools even you know more times so we can get on the EM side we can kind of get you speed a
little bit quicker but still you know fire academy takes you know four months to get through it's just it's too much of a time commitment for people just to it the only thing I was obviously we know the situation with the facilities are are both of your groups funded
enough to do the preventive maintenance on the equipment that you need or do we not have that as well this year we've been doing just fine and then this year we had we ran into a bunch of problems uh early on and know it's again a $250 part ends up costing you $4,000 to get
put in because they're they're know they're labor Char labor chars you know just ridiculous just through the roof and take apart half the engine to fix one part yeah I mean the people that we use you know we could send it elsewhere for and it's there's really no
saving I mean we've looked around these other places we could send it other places but and you might save maybe a little bit but the truck might sit there for two weeks everybody that we use would use you know uh pump repair company in New Hampshire that's in marac they they're mobile they come they'll
come right out um usually they will fix any anything that day and then anything that's wrong with trucks we send over to tsoro so it's right there and they you know they've come out on weekends to us or we brought it to them so I mean the little bit you might save it's not really going to save you to have a truck
sitting in like methu or down at one of these other places for two weeks sitting out in the weather that they're going to get to it when they get to it because it's not you know one of the trucks that they sold so it's it's um the prices have gone significantly
for for the maintenance it's kind of you know I mean we got hit all our preventive maintenance gets done after July takes us from like July to October to do it so by like October already this year we were like I can't spend any more money
we've already we we have to do this we have can't can't these truck start to go it cost so much just to keep them up but if you start let them go it's gonna be oh yeah you can't I understand and that's that's actually another big item that I think we have in
cap a trck right yep yeah the trucks they say should be the place every 20 years um so we have to you know got to start playing drawer now because we just can't
wait till you know till the truck goes out of service permanently with you know significant issue and then have to try to buy you know truck and fly didn't we get a I don't know if you were you here when we got through Grant the last time for half of the most
recent purchase right we got engine one was purchased on the gr yeah just I think there was something wrong with the radio or something right we had get the radio replaced yeah we got the squad truck the squad
truck that we got with the money that we had already appropriated for the what they called the rescue time that was a de exclusion those programs I'm assuming we're researching those programs replace whatever we can with yeah well the trucks at this point won't be we do have
a grant in right now for the forestry yeah because that's old enough but uh like engine six I we could put it for but we're just not gonna not old enough at this point but it's you know like I said everybody supposed to be replacing these and it can it can linger probably you know a little bit it's still
actually engine six is still in pretty good shape but uh it's just still something we have to you know going the same thing with that the price is the engine one I think they spent do you remember Harold four four
something $89 million now 899 million easy um everyone's telling us you know buy not get on a contract out so you can get it I say I wish we could but we can't and U you know they just so everyone's telling me if you're still looking for three years down the road plan on a milon
do unless somebody steps in from the government and can do something about it it's the theice is just going completely completely uh insane and the weit times too if we order it 28 they are catching up because everybody used their Co money to buy new fire trucks basically so everybody's
prices went way up and it's from the time you order a truck it's three years basically before they'll deliver it they're thinking by the time we are up for it that that should be significantly reduced but who knows it's still could be we could order a truck that's why I'm saying we got to get we got to we got to
keep on it because if we don't order the truck for another 3 years could be six years before getting you know about time from today to get the truck could who [Music] knows I don't really have any issue any questions or
anything anybody else questions issues I appreciate the time thank you thank you so no one Highway was next on but I don't see any from Highway so
just cut look at that we got 200 Grand on a fire it for the people there we can come back it after we if we want so next is the library you want me to just pass this
over to you um did I see something you you sent me you want me to pull up aou it's just a slide version of perfect [Music] I guess I would say from the the library
side of things that obviously we're bringing you out here tonight with I think or requested your presence I think from more from the side to sort of increase awareness of what you have going on in the programs that are available how much they are utilized within our community I think the uh I'm sure you've heard you know obviously we
look at our budgets here and what we do and what we work with um and this would be fall into kind of one of those difficult conversation uh situations as I was kind of referencing if we if we went with a smaller override and gr passes theirs and we wind up in
that Weir spot you know um as you can look at the rest of our budget $300,000 basically kind of just wipes out half of what the town does and we already don't have police at night fire we have one police officer at night the fire department's
empty we're kind of running into the point where we're uh going to have to start you know cutting away bone because we don't have any more fat or muscle left to be able to trim um so this is one of the reasons that we wanted to be able to do this is that you know like I
said have the public forum that we may not get all the time to be able to discuss what's going on there because we as much as we don't want to have to uh end the program at the at the library that would be the uh I don't want to say Quick Fix it's not really a quick fix because it doesn't really fix much of
anything um uh but it uh it would be one of the things that if you look at our spending I know Jason had a slide from a year ago whatever it was what we spend on uh on the library extends quite a bit more than the other governmental
spending that we do have so it does uh it it makes for an easy target I should say so um I do appreciate you coming here tonight and obviously just looking over the the information you have here I look forward to you going through that and being able to discuss that in a a
good forum to be able to for folks understand what's going on over there thank you I'll just say one thing before just so because of the cuts we made this year to the library we had to seek a waiver for um
to maintain their certification um which we luckily got but you know how often are we going to be able to get that um I I don't know um Amy and um and Morin probably
have a better idea of that so um so this increases based on certification so it's 2 and half% increase over the last three years I think I get that so with
that without the getting the waiver we wouldn't be getting our state funding which is averages about $7,000 a year so if you guys could just me I who you are but I don't know if everyone else on the board knows who you are so I
thought you should ince yourself of the library um and I'm Watson um I'm the chair of the board of Board of Trustees um currently I was appointed into John cahan seat in January um which is turning over many up for reelection
hopefully um so we just put together some content because like you said I think not everyone knows what the library does and how much you get from kind of the return on investment um that we have in denable um sorry the slid a little longy didn't translate from
Google slides to PowerPoint but the thing that jumped up to me um when I first joined in January and got to see the um annual report from maren was the 28% year-over-year increase in circulation transactions which is pretty
amazing um for such a small town we that's about um 11 transactions per resident um and then to see there's over 3,000 participants in the children's programming like we don't have that many children in town so the fact that you
know we have um repeat attendees um and just some some really dedicated patrons who are coming back again and again um I'll jump to I know um fun so um Mar kind of mentioned it but basically
in order to maintain our state certification um we have to meet What's called the state Municipal appropriation enironment which is known as meeting the mar um so it's an average of the last three years um increased by two and a half% and that's for us to maintain um
certification for state aid to public libraries so we didn't need it last year um we were able to get a waiver for that um but in order to leave the mark for this year um we have to sort of that two and a
half um this just goes for kind of the return on investment that we get for um getting that state certification so obviously it's over $7,000 in state aid um the big one I think um on this list
is the inter Library loan privileges so in 2024 our patrons borrowed over 5,000 items so that's um physical copies that we had sent to our library and then also digital items that people borrowed through tools like the L app um so that
is that's also amazing utilization of the in library loan privileges especially being a small Library where we we have a you know somewhat limited collection to have access to all those other resources um is really important for our patrons we also lend um you know
thousands of materials that go out to other libraries as well because it's a reciprocal system so we pay to be a part of that Consortium right exactly yeah and that's been increased Yeah so basically if we are
not part of this um the Consortium and we're not certified our patrons cannot borrow anything through your library loan they um they could if they tried to go to another library and borrow something they could be charged a fee um
and so they just lose access to a lot of um important resources without the state certification um so I think based on what had been proposed in some earlier budgets this new amount it's like a $1,500 difference and so when you think
about the return on investment of what you're getting in state aid inter L loan privileges um the ability to if you know we wanted to apply for some additional funding opportunities um it's a really strong return on investment and I should say we're in the process as well working
on um a couple different grants um and looking for additional funding opportunities it's not in the slide but on the um one pager that I handed out um on the back bottom how I do want to just
give us credit um because I looked at the basically the appropriated M Municipal income per capita so what we're spending for citizen I looked at comparable towns and so that blue bar is what's appropriated by the municipality
the green bar is um additional operating income so things that those are bring in fundraising or donations and their friends groups um dump school is really at the bottom of the list for those like additional funding opportunities so as a Board of Trustees we know we have our
work that for us um to sort of bring in the additional money but I I was really happy to see that um within that those comps of gr and Ash PE BR get T um duno is investing $59 per um per capita or at least this
was based on the most recent State data from 2023 um and so we were ahead of all the other towns that I compared us to other than Gren um so I want to give us credit that we're um we're making the Investments that we show in the library
we're just asking for you know a little bit more to get us over the edge to that state certification um and then I'll just make one little obviously I um I'm new to town I just moved here um in 2023 and um I live in a 300y old house I
know the importance of having a responsive fire department um but I also one of the big reasons I moved here with my um young family I have a two-year-old son and I'm um expecting baby girl um was because you know we love the idea of
living across the street from the library and being able to walk there and um I think the idea of not of a town without Library Services would be pretty devastating in terms of property values attracting new people to Home Care um I
think having a great library is just having um a great school system um and great public services so um having any any questions about the budget but that's just um I also want to thank um Jason for all the work that you did for
the waiver the waiver got easy it wasn't easy it's my first year here and you know that was the first thing I got to do so P the [Laughter] ne that's 7200 that comes right through
that's cherry sheet just so you know that's when you look at the budg that's part of that number so this is this is great um you did a great job the only thing I would probably add if you were going to add anything to anything like Boston Public Library because we have a library and
all that we're able to actually get a library cop from the Boston Public Library which is which is huge they have a lot of they have a lot of great events online and stuff like that too so in case you couldn't tell Amy I think it's like this is her profession
too so she's an we are very we're lucky to have an expert as chair um on the trustees too so but there's no crosswalk from your house to the library we already discussed that here we go
just with it just looking at that the only question I know that it came to my mind so I'm assuming it'll probably when we're looking at that SL how does notable compare we're looking at the uh appropriated Municipal um income per capita is that you're so
56 5911 there how do we get to that number um versus the other towns obviously you know like I said we're sort of looking at the amount we're spending and how how do we get to that point where our spending is that much more significant than some of the other
communities obviously gron is a stand out there and almost $90 there but ours at the 59 how do it looks like we're spending quite a bit more than the other towns and yet they're still able to I'm assuming they're able to uh keep their
certification so how does that how does that work so it's partly an economy of scale where a lot of some of those to um larger population where dividing it by for example but um part of the so the
the mar is not necessarily based on the per capita spend based on not making disproportionate cuts to the library versus other services in town and so okay it's just the requirement that you have to take the average of the three
prior Year's budget and it has to be a 2 and a half% increase and so if all the other departments town were to get you know 3% and the library only that two the state would call that out as a disproportionate cut to the library so
it's yeah so it's not about per capita it's just be growing at a comfortable rate okay with the other department yeah definitely agre obviously Dr things substantially larger but the ashb PE I
think you know a little bit larger than both of them and those towns are bringing in revenue from other sources too so we we know that as a board we're going to look for additional opportunities to reigate our friends group um and start more GRS
too got some great programs over there I know when I first moved here was in a similar situation with my kids were younger and that was one of the first things that they got involved with and I think that was a have some great programs over there and I appreciate all that you do I said the uh the
challenging part comes if we don't uh end up with you know the uh these are one of those things when we put up the if we don't pass the override this will happen and I know the first two speakers this evening will speak to exactly that you know that police and fire saw that
last year we said hey if we don't pass the override this is going to happen and I don't know whether or not people didn't believe us or not uh but obviously uh Cuts were made there and then very similarly C also made with the school was up next so uh but I think whatever we can do to sort of have that
explanation out there uh when it comes to town meeting um you know obviously once something gets on uh gets on the ballot you know this board and other boards can't you know can't really promote anything but uh obviously your boards are more than able to do able to
do that or pass out flyers have these sitting there just telling people to get out there and vote to you know to move forward with it we understand that it is challenging to tell people to spend more money but at the same time when you're getting the benefit that you uh potentially you know have provided to you by Library Services you know I think
that's one of those things that uh uh we should be we should be promoting and when we do run our surveys those are the one of the top things is the um are the public programs that are available to us so U that's one of the things that the town wants and we want to keep that
there we're just uh you know we've got we have some large hurdles to uh to jump over here so anyone have any other question for Library cons library is that just a set fee or is that based on
you of some sort do you know I just curious how okay so all these tal are p yes I believe they're all part of not all part of the same cons but they're
all this this came this data came from um the Massachusetts Board of Library commission any other questions comments anything good appreciate the time thank you very
much and on to the star of the show um Jeff Bruno and new superintendent schools um I'm just going to walk through maybe the um a few of the slides from our budget certification uh meeting that was on March 12th uh
just to kind of give the big picture of where we are so um as as uh you've heard from from Jason and some others our the superintendent's proposed budget is really about um
preventing further reductions in staff necessary staff so it's and actually over the last two years uh have you know had to operate with almost 30 positions reduced so 24 last year
um and and so this proposed budget actually restores to critical positions um the guidance counselor at the middle school that was cut and last year and as well as um middle school nurse uh so
there's two buildings uh North and South South has been renamed it's actually the mar and's daughter building uh for graad five and six um and then the Middle School of North which is seventh and eth we had to close that um the health clinic in that building so all seventh
and eighth grade students uh have got to walk over to the to the south building um and then we have one of our nurses who's um sharing uh time at Florence roach and at the middle school so uh those are the two positions that are
being restored uh or proposed to be restored at this budget and then we're reducing uh one FTE Administrative Assistant of the central office so overall um if you move to the next slide Jason to uh hang on to
what we have uh and not have any further uh reductions in Personnel or programming uh it's roughly 6 and a half% increase uh from fiscal year 25 to 26 and uh we did have some good news in
terms of uh our operating increase specifically with our uh health insurance renewal rate came in under budget um which is a pretty big number when you factor in 100 roughly 153
employees um or FTE anyway so you advance to the next slide um is that is that is that benefit increase solely based off of the premiums and not based on any contract negotiation yes like with any adjustments with the like how
much the employees have to put in that well yeah so that the uh the reduction the renewal that came back lowered our overall but we did have as part of um our un a teacher negotiation did were
able to successfully negotiate a change in that um employee contribution versus so that that but that amount is Sol just a premium well that factors into the overall increase the benefits total yes
okay U but what what we did was what we typically do is is budgeted about a 10% increase um we actually adjusted that to five it actually came in at 2% 2% increase so that um led to a reduction
in our overall increase in benefits but it's this this slide really illustrates that you know we're about 80% of our budget as Personnel um so between you know the wages total and the benefits total that's that's the overwhelming majority of our budget and if you go to
the next slide Jason this kind of shows the overall FTE analysis of the last couple years so uh um in FY 2024 our total FTE across all different kind of employee categories was
377 um FY 25 down to 352 and then um for FY 26 as I mentioned we're um proposing to restore two positions and then reduce one so it's a
net increase of one FTE um for FY 26 Revenue assumptions you know uh and we've said this several times starting well not just this year but last year I mean part of the reason why the proposed
budget requires um an override in both towns in order to fund it is that the flat funding from Chapter 70 that's um going back 15 20 years now of essentially receiving the same amount
money um from Chapter 70 so um the town assessments what we put together was these three scenarios that that Jason was referencing earlier um passing of the two overrides if there was an
override that either failed um in gron or didn't happen and then dun passing the smaller override and then um the kind of worst case scenario if overrides were to fail in both in both
towns so we'll we'll share those and then this slide I think really accurately illustrates the impact of of being flat funded from our state subsidy in Chapter 70 um in 2008
35% of our operating budget was funded through our Chapter 70 State a and if you go to the next SL slide go to where we are now um last year that 35% is now
24% and so the the the entire difference there that that needs to get picked up is from the combined local assessments um which is almost three qus of the funding for our budget now um just some of the ways we've been
stretching resources and student services so I mentioned the nurse and guid guidance counselor positions we've also had to reduce positions in special education um we go to the next slide curriculum and instruction so we have um
our math supervisor kada 8 is now also an interventionist we've had to find sources of money uh to fund curriculum leader stipends uh and then a lot of our interventionists and this is definitely happening with our math interventionist
at uh Florence roach which now has you know over 600 students they're becoming instructional coaches as well as interventionists because you know for tier one and tier two interventions the classroom teachers really need to develop those skills um
because we can't you know we can't service all the kids with the cuts and interventionists um uh this next slide so the the oper operational efficiency so we're the um independent operational audit that was
talked about last year uh is underway uh we're hoping to have some initial draft findings um by the end of of April this fall um we've also already evaluated our HVAC and building operation systems
we've um already reduced an FTE um at the central office and admin support so those are some things that are already kind of underway in terms of trying to operate as efficiently as
possible given cuts that that we've gone through the last couple years um and so this the first scenario is this proposed budget and as I mentioned requires the override both in Bron um and in dunable
at if you want to go to the next slide Jason um so the the number right now in terms of the override amount for the schools in order to to meet it is uh 673 th000
uh and dunable the override to meet the proposed budget um is and these numbers I think may have changed changed we presented it's closed but it's changed yeah um and dunable is
5002 48 now yeah yeah so that's the total that would be the override required investable um and then just to be clear I know last year I mean the amounts were much larger that was a multi-year override this is a one-year override
um and then this budget scenario too which was referenced um that Jason referenced earlier this is where there's um gron Can can increase their um operational assessment by 1.65 million
and still be under the levy and then to if that were to happen without without an override in order to match that number dunable would need to pass a smaller override and so in that case so in this case uh the inst impact of Dunstable
would be roughly 185,000 um is the override needed to kind of meet that budget scenario too that that is would roughly be and it'll come up in the next slide but that's that's roughly about 875,000 in
uh reductions in order in that budget scenario so and this number has changed slightly so it's 180 now not 185 same idea there you go that's get smaller exactly going the right in the right direction we go 5,000 that's all
right and then the third scenario would be severe would require more severe reductions in personnel and this would be no override in either town this is based on what dumpable can afford under our L yeah which now is not an option
because C is already committed the 1365 million so this is initially what we were running for if dun doesn't get an override what can we afford under our but at this point it's not really a real option just
to clar just because in the situation as you were kind of referencing earlier this goes back to the fact that they already have an appropriation yes that uh requires the override with us but uh they would be able to procure that funding through supertown meeting so
this really no override really isn't an option for us yeah yeah and so so the um impact in this is obviously no override in either Town what would that do
um and then if you advance to the next slide again no override pass and then it'll give you kind of like these three scenarios again um superintendent proposed budget it requires the 673 th000 override in gron
387 and dunable or sorry that's five should be 387 is the School portion right so um and then the second budget scenario the reduction the Personnel scenario that would we would have to reduce um by
875,000 budget scenario three um we would have to reduce by about 1.6 million almost 1.7 million what would that look like again we're 80% Personnel so the bulk of that reduction in scenario 2 would be people
um roughly 775,000 of of of that reduction would be a reduction in FTE um in different areas um there are a few non-personnel reductions that that we're hoping for um
so that to meet that number um just a couple one other thing that was an efficiency thing is we did um replace an an athletic trainer with EMTs that actually um our our two of our
School nurses are getting got or in the process of getting EMG certified so they'll actually be covering games too which has it's all benefits they know the kids anyway so and that reduces uh some somewhat you go to the next slide
and then that third again is just under 1.4 million in Personnel reductions to meet um that reduction so it's it's you know and that would be teachers student support ad
administrators um both both those scenarios would be would be really um pretty catastrophic and again that's for some nonpersonal reductions for the worst case scenario for the $1.7 million reduction um and we did have just some
when the numbers shift particularly IND Dunstable um because of the regional agreement where assessments are based on a five-year projection of enrollment in the district so the assessments 70
roughly 77 um% Bren and 23% dle that's the breakdown in terms of um enroll students so because of that you know what each town can afford under the levy doesn't
necessarily line up with that fiveyear average of enrollment so that's where you can get in the situation where groden can give 1.65 in order to match that assessment um Ro relationship or that
that assessment proportion vable needs to pass a smaller smaller [Music] override um and then some of the changes in what the overall reduction again was based on what dunable could afford under the levy or what dunable would um would
need in terms of an override that makes a big difference in terms of um any possible reduction scenarios that we're facing this is just a chart that that goes through historic um excess and
deficiency um how much has been used um to help cover basically you know being flat funed by by the state requires us to use excess and deficiency to avoid further Cuts so I can we go back to that for a
second because I'm I'm thinking of the past four or five years prior to your arrival so I'm not saying this to you but I am okay is that both towns told the school to cut and the school didn't they pulled it
from this so last year they had a big mess on their hand because they needed a huge increase because they hadn't cut the previous years like they were supposed like everybody else did the town did the schools didn't so they were asking for a lot of money at once and I
really do believe that's part of why it failed was because it was it was too high you know it was a lot of money but if they had cut like they should have along the way rather than pulled money from different Pockets to funded they would have it would have been we all would have been in a much better
position last year than we were does that make sense um because I I was surprised in the end after a certain number of years that the school hadn't cut anything they had they took the money from other Pockets so now they were looking for
even more money each year because all they're doing is delaying the problem for the following year well and and a little bit of what you're talking about you can see in in this chart if you go because this tracks ex the use of excess and deficiency all the way back to fy16
and so you have some years where that that um the money in that in that line has been severely reduced right and so you want to you want to keep I mean we're we're in a decent spot now being a
um 1.2 1.4 million and that because you know if you have if you have like a a furnace go or something Happ mid year I mean you Ian you know you got to keep sending the kids to school right so you need you need obviously money in this
account to cover um any you know significant things that go wrong during the course of the year uh so we've built that up back up at least to a level that's that's reasonable and you can only have so much percentage of your overall budget in that account to begin
with um but there were some years there where probably more than more of that money was used than should have been um anyway but the the the part of the guidance from the school committee to has been able to to reduce the use how
much money we use from that account from one year to the next and that guidance was it was reduced to roughly 400,000 um for this year FY 26 so that's that's something I think that that the school committee is is very much aware
of the last one of the slides in the presentation that said you reduce it by another 100,000 corre for 26 so if you reduce it to 400,000 and 25 is 300,000 and 26 it was 500 I believe in 25 so 400 for this year it's unless this
sl's wrong no they're using the certified so this is they're using FY 25 certified 400 balance I mean okay understand can I just [Music] during I just wanted to kind of follow
up on what just said and respond a little bit to that um so first of all I'll just say like you know I agree with you like what what you're saying um but I so this isn't an excuse or or whatever but it's just sort of an explanation
right um Jack wasn't there but you know and ctin wasn't there but I was there for some of those years not all of them but I can sort of speak to what some of the thinking was behind that and and and this may have been the wrong call and
and given what happened last year I mean it's easy to to make that argument now right but coming out of Co we had a lot of students who were presenting with all kinds of like new and increased challenges in reading and math
behavioral all kinds of things I mean some of you may remember a couple of years ago when we had the infamous like red shirt meeting where teachers came and they talked about a lot of the behaviors that were coming out of seemingly nowhere um that they the
challenges that they were facing in the classroom and so I think that part of what we were thinking is on the one hand we're sort of seeing the the co money dry up but we're not seeing any kind kind of like Remediation in in behaviors
or in reading and math skills and so part of what we were thinking was isn't it better to kind of maintain some of these interventionists now to try to get ahead of some of these challenges and therefore maybe um down the road prevent
future problems like if we if we cut these support systems out now is that too early and is that going to like then compound these issues in like ultimately be more costly so I think that was sort of what our thinking was and I'm not saying it was the right call but that
was I think just by way of explanation what that discussion of the table was all about yeah I mean I I I understand that and I I respect that I mean obviously you know it's easy for me to say this now but I I do remember at the time saying to Dr chess yeah you why
weren't you cutting yeah and and I understand there was a need there but she also had those temporary funds they sh to us they said that they were going to the the that the reductions and that the new people they were hiring were going to just fill positions of all the
people that are going to retire and that never happened yeah Contin to build but yeah there were the temporary positions became permanent positions and nobody retired yeah and here we are so I think what you're saying is accurate but it you know no
we're expecting all these people to retire and they didn't retire and we are left with with the bill I understand the thinking behind it we do but you would also probably say that you know we did we did say several times and I know
it's why during some of meting that like we've got to get ourselves down to 3% we need to understand how we're going to get to that number and we continue to go in with you know gr we're starting off in a much better position right now you know on the the six to 7% range here uh
but I will that that is the smallest increase I've seen them asked for so thank you it's still too high still double yeah and you know again the the idea obviously when you're talking about school funding is that there should be
some degree of proportional share with increases and that just hasn't happened and and again we're not alone I mean that's that's 230s on my districts now in the Commonwealth where are dealing with the held harmless that you're just getting what you got last year and
unfortunately that's not how budgets work certainly um in education or anywhere else I mean you have there has to be a proportional share in that year-to-year increase and there just hasn't been but even with some of those slides
that you showed too is I I see you're doing work to kind of continue to to you know measure what you're spending and and make Cuts accordingly which is great to see CU I you know I feel like there there seems to be some sort of an effort to look at the cost and try to get try
to get some control around some of them with um you know with reductions so I appreciate that as well I I guess realis is there is there a way to 3% I mean if if
again the we of 3% is additional revenue from the state proportional share but that is I know what you're saying it's in other without reductions there is no way that two 3% it's it's not possible it's it's it's math it's not it's just
not possible without some intervention from the state I mean even the as I'm looking as their at their end use I mean their Arc of end use is not all that different than our Arc in free cash use um our
free cash was was at its peak and right around the same time and now we're doing what kind of trm we trying to trim in the right direction um moving off of that and it looks like they're trying to do that do that too and um yeah know it
creates this kind of false Gap right because you're looking at like an increase on the assessment of you know S 8 n% in gr and dble because you know this is a perfect example but we got 6 and a half% increase assessments got to
go up higher because the state increase is probably one and a half and I I think you're right they probably could have made Cuts in using arpa for for year-over-year expenses it's not not
a good practice obviously because it's a one time um funding infusion I would also say that they I think they probably made up for that this fiscal year unfortunately because they they have made some pretty dramatic
U reductions impact and the whole lot of stuff that's happening right now in the in the in the schools so um yeah I think our like with the 24 positions cut I think the the operational increase last
year was just under 1% yeah but I mean I will say the um one of our legislators office called called me today asking they have a meeting they they have a meeting coming up with the
chairs and means and they ask me what are what our budget priorities were and um I think he knew what I was going to say but we did have a long conversation about chapter 7 I think it is in people's mind what happens as a result
of that I don't know but it's not lost on the state house at this point that Chapter 70 is a massive problem um I think and it's getting more and more attention so I don't it's not going to get attention probably this budget year
but out years Poss I guess again I I take nothing away from any you know I I'm on a lot of these different ones where I know we're working towards something I just it it is very challenging
to say you know we some even next year if we went if say we went down to 3% the reduction of the utilization of end is going to take if you took 3% now it's probably four and change right of of the mark up there so and that's assuming we
only increased by that that 3% which doesn't appear possible we a very you know as we look at our budgets as a school is a big portion of that the big portion of your budgets is the the uh the teacher salary so this is going to be a very challenging situation for us
to be able to uh all to get to a number where we're going to have enough you know we're not going to have to come to the towns on an annual basis to ask for additional money I just I'm I'm struggling and I think we
were I was kind of talking about before the meeting started that we have to try to find a way uh to find something that the towns are going to agree to on a regular basis because this is a regular basis
problem and I don't know how we're going to get there uh because it just appears we have a large hurdle to to jump over and then to have to do it year over year is going to be uh is going to be challenging gr's in a much better position than we are because like as I
was sort of saying with the talking about the library as we've trimmed the fat we've Trimm the muscle we're down the bone and us not making an override puts us in a very difficult situation not the similar from last year and you
know would say that we we we got relief but then anybody who's apparent on this board or in you know watching this here knows that you didn't get relief you're just you're kids education took a hit in order to be able to get that relief on your uh on your tax set of things and
then at the same time as talking with the Chiefs earlier here you've also put yourself in a situation where you're less safe on a regular basis so we've got to find a way to be able to fund it and it just I
just I have have very low hopes for our state representatives to come through with something that is going to do something for us I know they're working towards it I know they say they're listening but I'm sure there's another hot button priority that they're going to come up with they found a billion
dollars last year but all of the school districts they probably could have covered all of their shortfalls uh with that swipe of a pen but they would you know they chose to spend it elsewhere um and w're in a different we're a very difficult situation and we've gone to
them and I appreciate uh both your board uh Lacy and and and Jason writing these uh write lighting these writing these letters to the state to try to find some spot to to get some increase in caning traction that's great I just
realistically I know how slow the state moves and we could be three more years of this this is kind of the reason that this board as well as the rest of of the select board went for the multi-year override with the hopes that we could make enough noise to be able to do
enough to get to get something done by the time that we were looking for another increase and I think it's either Jason and I have talked about this several times where it's we're just do we just become a town that hey we need an over rde on an annual basis and if you don't want to agree to that then
know there's some great real estate agents around you know um it's it's a very challenging situation right we if we don't get an override we're not going to be able to continue to fund anything that Everyone likes about this town and uh that's a it's a very difficult
U difficult way to look at it and it's the challenging part of our board here is to try to figure out where those cuts are going to come from and there are a lot of things that we don't want to see cut and trimmed back on obviously our community Public Safety our school
system all things that I believe are critical Fabrics to any community and if we can't fund those stuck right so prior to last year though we we've been very lucky in the sense that since 2008 any override we've needed for the schools
especially we've passed R hasn't and because of that we were able to avoid having another override for like five years because we passed the override Grant and didn't so we were we were ready to fund them at the full level gron didn't so they kind of saved
us in a way where we didn't need another override because we were able to sit on that money for a few years and spread it out and last year was the first time it it failed and and this year we're in the situation if we don't have an override cotton doesn't need one to be able to fund more than we
can and it puts us in that situation scenario 3 is not even really it's not a real thing because they're they can just give them 1.3 million and that puts us in the spot where we we owe walking out the door right um and uh gr has been clear then I'll
get less than that and so what's the what's the so in addition to the the 1 million they're giving them we also have to make up to the 600,000 right no that's all it's yeah it's all
that was for and the 600,000 of additional money at least understand was spent on one time issues so that but part of why Bron can afford more right now is because they raised that am up
last year