[Music] all right it is now 5:01 on April 10th I would like to call the meeting to order If you can please join me in the pledge
of allegiance To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Thank you So 501 is to revisit the ballot question
All right There is confusion out there regarding this ballot question to be placed on the May 19th Actually this question to be put on the May 19th I had someone call me who said that
the reason it's on the ballot is because I put it up I don't have the authority to do that Number one no town administrator has the authority to do so This board had held a legally hosted
meeting like we normally do before every 10 meeting and decided to address the question We decided not to sit at town meeting because every time we go there we have a hard time conducting
businesses So we conducted our business here On April 8th I had put together a letter to the town clerk from the board indicating
that you took a vote on April 8th in accordance with Mass General Law chapter 59 section 21C subsection K to place a question on the May 19th ballot as follows
Proposition two and a half dead exclusion question We put together the form of the vote and yes no that is expected to be on the annual town election warrant based upon a vote of this board of
select The board of selectmen I'm going to remind you has to sign the election for it to occur If you don't sign an election warrant it will not occur Okay everything has to go through
the board of selectment for approval Whether it's a town meeting warrant or whether it's an election you have an active vote at a duly posted meeting held in public That said you want this question on the
ballot on Tuesday night the question failed That does not mean the ballot this question does not go forward because you have ordered it So what happens is if you don't want it on the ballot you have to vote to resend
your prior vote to make it official that it is now not to appear on the ballot Nothing else will stop it except you rescending the vote What happened
Tuesday night is you no longer have an appropriation for the project If this goes to the general elector and it's placed on the ballot
and it passes by 50% plus one vote you now have funding booked for it but you don't have an appropriation You would then again have to schedule a special town meeting to bring the
project in front of the appropriating body our legislative body Just like in the federal government we have an appropriating body They would then determine that okay we now have
funding Are we going to go forward with the project as presented and if it passes there you then have an appropriation Now when you say funding Chris you mean we have in favor for it you have you have approval to for people again
proposition two and a half vote whether it's an override which is permanent Yeah Or an exclusion vote which is only there to raise the debt service for a borrowing or bonding Okay
Once that disappears it disappears And the type of vote determines where it goes in the calculation of the maximum allowable levy limit each year I don't know if there's been confusion I don't know if there's issues
but I take offense that I'm being accused of being the one to put this on the ballot Number one Fair enough Okay No the town administrator does not
have that authority Pure and simple I believe the town clerk is mis is under a misconception and I believe probably some members of this board and I know members of that meeting on Tuesday night were under a misconception
All that happened on Tuesday night was there is not an appropriation for the project If you want to allow 259 voters the opportunity to speak for
the whole town the suggestion is to resend this vote to put the ballot in front of the general electorate of 4,100 voters or do you want to get a true temperature of the town and see if
they're willing for an increase in their taxes for this project again Then if it passes on May 19th you would then have to come in front of
another the legis the appropriating body again to see if they will pass the appropriation That's the process Okay But again it's up to the board of
selectment to decide if they're going to bring the project back in front of the appropriating body It is your warrant Okay there are other wrinkles that could
occur along here if you wanted to I'm not going to get into those tonight because they're not germanine to this topic But this revolves around this If you do not want a question to be put in front of the general electorate you
resend your vote tonight before the town clerk has to print the ballot When is she printing it chris don't know April 17th Okay So the issue becomes
is we have to make a decision This board doesn't meet again until April 29th So the question is do you want to put it in front of the town or not or let who was in attendance on Tuesday
night dictate the fate of the project so we had 259 voters on Tuesday night I don't think that's a good representation of the whole town We have 6,000 people in our town and you got like 4,100 voters
I agree with that If we were Sorry go ahead No go ahead If we were to resend that I don't think it would be fair to the people that weren't at the meeting that didn't get their voice heard that want their voice to be heard
through a ballot vote So especially with sports and everything else that's going on there's a lot of people that couldn't attend if they were working So I don't think it hurts anything It gets like you said the temperature of the town to figure out where they stand who wants it who
doesn't and then we still have to go back Does it have to be a special town meeting or can it be part of our part two annual town meeting no because your warrant has to be posted by May 5th Okay And we're not going to know till May 19th Correct Okay
So what you could do is we usually bifurcate the annual diamond split it in two Yeah you could schedule a special town meeting with the second half of the annual to bring this topic back Okay
because then you will have had the uh vote on the 19th and you still will have two weeks to be able to post a special town meeting to bring this topic back in front of the general or in front of the appropriating body
And it has to be a special town meeting off of the original one for part two Yes Which would only be to appropriate the money if it passes at the ballot Right Correct Okay
And if it doesn't pass at the ballot well that's the wrinkle Okay Okay The board of selectmen if they so desire can schedule a subsequent election for 45 days after the original
vote And the reason the reason it comes to 45 days it takes 35 days notice to schedule an election whether it's annual or special When a vote is held there's a 10day
period where people can contest the the count That's how the 45day comes about But again it's up to the board of select and only the board of select to make that
determination That's math of 45 days Yes They say you're going to bring it back in front of the electorate again Good Okay And in the mass journal law and in the Proposition 2 and a half primer that is out there on the Department of
Revenues website okay it doesn't say limit you to the number of times you can bring it back That's interesting However at some point the voters are going to get angry Sure And you will be voted out of office
Don't threaten me with a good time But I have to say it that way Yeah Okay That's fair enough It's there It ends up really in your lap at some point Okay Okay So tonight I'm
asking shall we forward the letter that was signed by the board on Tuesday night to the town clerk to include this question on the annual election ballot i
think so I say yes Yes Okay So we will forward that Let people decide Okay Yeah Thank you Can I ask a question sure How are we going to clarify this for the town's people because I've been
asked by 25 people what have you I know Yeah I've also been asked by a lot of people what happened as well Um because like Chris said there's a lot of confusion on what's going on and why we were there to begin with because they all thought it was to put it on the ballot because
that's what was put out on Grammy Town meeting So that's a page that's not a public that's not Yeah from the town Yeah It was put on there that it was incorrect Okay
And I really feel before they post they really need to talk to the people who are actually doing the background work and know what's going on But is there something that we can create and give to them to put out on their social media websites i guess that would be I think
the only way to clear it right because a lot of people go on those social media sites as we know which is why everyone had the confusion So I think if we can create something whether that's Do you want me to just put down what I stated tonight I think that would be good
Social media people Yeah We can put it on the town website too A lot of people go there for it So I don't know if do we have a bulletin or a message portion of it This is board Yeah Where we have important announcements Yeah And then if
um the chief can put out his the call that says well you can email too right for whoever's on that list or is it just a phone call if they provided an email address I believe it would go out to the email and telephone right text message right text
one of the two right yeah I wonder if we could just like put a shortened version of it on there and just send it out so that they get it too so we kind of hit it from all angles so just give you the wording and then you copy and paste it in That's the simplest way
it's unfortunately that's how the first message when it went out but it had the wrong date because had the right day wrong So we can get it out through the people through that way if they're on that list Yep And if you're not they just go to the website something like that Okay People
registered in the town with their phone number So So then it just be there's a vote on the 19th or would it be there's a vote on the 19th and if it passes it goes to special town meeting for appropriations
Well if you make the message too long they're not going to read it You lose them You have them for maybe 30 seconds at the most Well you have some time between the 19th but I'm not sure the second half is how many that right now it's scheduled for
June 9 Yes So maybe do one message that says like uh you were saying Lynn May 19th on the uh I don't know we got to shorten it but May 19th election one of the questions will be for the West
Street building project Yes or no which yeah because then I know it's going to be it's not it's not user friendly Now the the what you would basically have to say is please be advised on May 19th there
will be a question on the annual ballot whether or not to fund the continuation of West Street building renovation project Period
Then if well if it passes after then if it passes you would make an announcement that please be advised that there is a special town meeting scheduled for June 9th to
address appropriate the money or the funds to continue with the West Street building renovation project That's the way I would do it Of course I'm not an expert
so it would just be something of that nature And maybe it just needs to be tightened up a little bit I think it's cheap because again be reminded you will have a new town administ or the permanent town administrator as of June
second So I will not be present at those meetings to assist in explaining why we're there again I'm sure Tammy's following it though and you you still see her on Fridays to kind of like give her a rundown of what went
down for the week Okay Okay And then whatever we type up for that system uh I can reach out to the I think it's Mark Bale who's in charge of the Grammy Town meeting and then GCAM will have the statement too and they can put
it out on their sites too that just has that advisement Yes So as you know they're the committee that you you folks are pointing in favor Is the board in favor
am I in favor of renovating it for that amount no I am not And I'll be completely honest I have not been for it since the beginning So that's part of the problem having a United Front We're working for you We
were we were um appointed by the board to go out and do your work the town's work town's business and to bring it this far and not be supported You just gave us the amount on February
24th of 2025 that it jumped from 5.7 to 15.4 to be fair [Music] a blame game But if we're going to do something for the town and we believe in it then we should be united front
Now if you're not for it then what's the alternative we don't have an alternative right now because we didn't charge the committee with an alternative In my humble
opinion the only other alternative you have is to tear it down and build on on site The the the other alternatives that have come up about acquiring the the the rented
building or using the annex at the annex building or the Carnegie Hall I don't believe you can use those that they're not going to meet the the uh the water the public water supply issues That's that's the reason why we abandoned Kellogg Hall I was on that committee
Um when we looked at renovating it and the the kicker was that even if we put the money in to renovate it we weren't going to meet the the water sewer separation requirements for public for public water
So I don't believe Carnegie Hall or the annex building will either once it's once you use them to the full capacity So I would think that those are off the table
what would be on the table is to to raise the the school build And if you're not happy with the price that you're getting now it's going to be a lot more to build on that piece of property That's the that's the largest piece of property the town has that has a septic
system and a water supply that has the the correct separation That's that's that's huge Who is it who who manages that mccclure engineering So so then then what's our our alternative
at that point i think we need to look at other options because if this doesn't pass on the ballot which I can't imagine it will because if you think about it 20 to 25 years of paying this bond we're going to be paying $29 million for for this
building after the 2025 years I did the math for the debt that was on that paper I can't imagine people are going to say yes to that That's going to tie us up We don't know what's coming We do not have a 5-year strategic plan for the town So we have no idea what's coming down the
pike for taxes in anything else And people are scared And I am one of them because I do not want to outpric myself in a town that I just built a house in So that's why I'm not for the project I have a beautiful home It's
been my husband built it for us He went through everything and I don't want to lose it because the taxes keep going up Fair enough You know I I get that that piece of it Um but what's the alternative where are we going to put our office
downsize the building COA is here Smaller building just for town offices And then in the future if we want to add on like you said it's a beautiful property It's big Something we look at later on are well it's not going to get any cheaper down the road if you think I understand that but we don't have the money for it either right now well I
again it's like buying a car you bought the car for 30,000 but you know there's going to be interest on it by the time you're done paying for it or a house I agree that's all calculated into what we we presented at the the average of $300 whatever came out to a household for the
next 20 or 25 years depending on what what bond rate we went with so I actually liked the idea of it Jeremy Lll point Le Point Thank you um of building a smaller building
within our cost measures and starting with that and then yes I agree Jim I understand construction fully you know um I I agree 100% that the costs never go down but we're in the same situation
with the abatement right now if only half of that building gets approved then we're still sitting on half of it that's unabated which will go up Also I would be open to downsizing it putting a new structure on that property
and then down the road adding on to it So you raise it for 4 million or I'm sorry you raise it for 3 million and you build something for 5 million So so it's 8 million How do we know it's
going to be 5 million we don't have prices on it yet So sorry I thought that's a jar No he said a 5,000 square foot building for just town offices He was probably looking at the 2018 study which well at 1,000 a square
foot at a,000 a square foot if you went to it roughly if you went to it right away and got something going So your downside you're looking at 5 million a needs assessment done for all the departments for their needs and their um storage
requirements That doesn't that's less than they have now Okay Well then we'd have to research that then I guess Well we have the numbers We did that work That's why back in December of 23 we came to you and said this is how much they want 16,000
square ft this is what they need not what they want And then we actually we drilled it down I I we we still have this building which we own again
But Chris is this on public water yes Yes Well we have an issue because our wellhead is located near the pond over there And when that decides to flood it comes very close to reaching
the top of our wel And nine times out of 10 when during the wet season when we have a lot of rain we start getting colorful hits Mhm All the time So
yes we do have water here The only saving grace is we have public sewer here also So we don't have to worry about separation of a septic from our wellhead But again that wellhead is just borrowed time because that's some point
and we all here the groundwater is rising That's an issue in the town of Graanby and at some point that wellhead is not probably going to be compliant to DBP regulations Can you replace the wellhead so it goes
higher i would have I'd have to defer to the engineering firm that oversees the outer operations for us No we we go back but we take possession of this 2012 something supposed to be a temporary
solution Here we are Aldidge the senior center was often shot wasn't it yeah But then the municipal officer went into Aldridge fall and ended up here because of uh temporary soldiers pestilence problem up there
So if I may the 2018 study that the Wilberham architect did gave a couple of different options for how to get out of our problem with make room for a new school offices and there was everything from knocking it down and putting these
modulars of a certain size so you could avoid uh certain systems The other was renovate and they had those costs in 2018 which is living room and the other was renovate only a portion shave off the rest of the building and hold off
moving the senior center till sometime down the road where the taxpayers would maybe have the appetite to spend more take on more that I personally at the meeting and at the public information you know didn't like
the idea that if we got to a bid stage and the contractor potential contractor comes in time there would be these electives that maybe some windows wouldn't replaced And what if that was on the west street face it would look like East Germany and West Germany So the part
that we would be occupying now seeing your admin would look good but then there be this limited money intent So I was wondering if we were limited in money and that was part of the issue if we you guys had to make a choice on
which scenario to write for those warrants But Joe Fernie on the stage said "Sometimes it might be nice if the taxpayers the people going to be going to authorize or appropriate and pay for
could have a choice of options." And there were some suggestions I'm not on Facebook but someone read was on mentality and Gail de Marary spoke about if we abate and mothball Cath
building could we raise money by renting it to concerns and finding ways to help build cash and capital for a time when the town has indeed more So she was saying do the
whole building and rent the other half out Yeah But not fit out the other half Obate it and do the windows So that's what that's what we proposed Okay That upper half can be used for whatever the town wants to use it for whether it's
renting for businesses or so be it Absolutely It'll be clean show space Right And we did discuss possibly the VA possibly doing some something there at some point So that was discussed So I I think we are between a rock and a hard
place And I I actually think it's unfair to say that they're going to support human They've clarified that they got a mission You guys got a mission as defined back in early I mean
283 and um they're taxpayers too And I looked at the chart when it was 8 million I felt better than when it was 10 million But I thought we need a fix I don't want to see the building to run down but we have a certain socioeconomic base
in this town and I think many of them are worried on their fixed incomes I know some people who will be priced out I don't know why they're hanging on and say they shouldn't leave home anymore and they should go into senior housing in some community It's not granny
because we don't have enough which is shame that we don't have enough but there's no easy solution There is no right So somebody something has to give So it's nice that these two who can't be
in favor of it along with a bunch of other people who raised their hands won't resend the question from the ballot I think that's fair enough Let it go in the ballot Thank you I will let it go to the ballot
Let the people decide I I understand that but I'm just trying to focus on the alternative There's I've been I've been asking myself even throughout this project what what could we be doing differently there's no there's no easy
solution now Now if you want to scale it back somehow and and pay for it later you know fine If you just want to move the admin the administrative offices
over there on that one wing and forget about the rest of the baitment the windows then then would you still have to heat the other side and everything cuz that was very expensive this winter I read on the warrants it it was expensive Yes Yes
You would you would have to uh keep the space condition you would have to keep it in you know 7 69° but you would have to so the pipes don't freeze in the winter Or could you close that off and winterize it for the winter
yeah you you never want to winterize a building Okay Doesn't especially be a future plans for it Doesn't do anything Okay Expansion contraction all stuff So I guess that that was one of the options that we presented back in February It
was option A right it was a C It was it was the municipal offices without the COA but it was prepping the COA and the gym and the cafeteria very minimally for future renovations And the discussion was it
was only $2 million less and that we're never going to build something for the seniors for $2 million down the road And I think we're also limited Lynn when we're looking at something that's already has infrastructure So we're limited by working with what we have So that might be one of the reasons why the
costs are so expensive is because we're trying to fix an old house Like think of think of it that way It costs more to fix an old house than if you just tear it down and rebuild But a lot of people keep it because the infrastructure is good and there's problems as you rip down a wall that you didn't know that were there and now you got to fix that
whole wall or something like that So that's that's what I fear as well cuz it happened to us You get to a point and I know it's brick right basement but you still got to worry about the basement and the high water table And that's one
of my concerns is the high water table So we do have a problem with hydrostatic pressure which I'm sure Jeremy could attest to because he's in there cleaning water out of there all the time or often enough that it's a nuisance And the
um architect was looking into that I realize they can mitigate it in ways but that's has that already been figured in to that cost or is it just the renovation shame Question We don't necessarily know if
it's not surface water coming in That's that's one of the reasons they wanted to investigate whether it's hydrostatic pressure or if it's if it's surface water coming in drain from some kind of drain like that courtyard Okay fair
enough We were looking into that Either way it's it's not good either way It's it's not a a major fix when you put some pumps pumps in or agree fix what's what's what's there on I wouldn't I
wouldn't get that as a a deal breaker for anything There is some contingency in there for these types of things is built into the budget Yeah I I just if if we go down the path of tearing that building down never
bringing it back and you've got a solid structure there with with an abundance of space for future growth If the town had deep pockets I would say okay let's let's let's act like Long Meadow we've got big
pockets and let's tear it down and build the Taj Mahal We don't have that The the numbers we the numbers that were presented from the previous committee and I was more the previous committee presented because I wasn't privy to all the
details but we were moving the town forward But as it turned out the two 5,000 or 7,000 square foot structures they wouldn't they wouldn't be uh adequate for that We've grown
but if you listen to the finance committee we haven't grown So how what do you mean we've grown by how i I would question that He He said back in the 40 years ago we were at 6,000 but that's not a true statement this this town is more like three three to four thousands
uh population I I seem to re I tend to agree with Jim on that I think those numbers are a little bit inflated I I seem to remember reading some of those numbers and I don't think they were at 6,000 back then I do have to agree with
that from what I remember This is another reason why we need to be you know I'll put my planning board hat on They need to be more supportive of business I don't disagree with that at all I don't But that's that's another bridge
to cross with the infrastructure of water and sewer Well you're right But there's different types of businesses that that don't aren't as dependent on that like John Okay Yeah Yeah No sewer
no water it's all it's all private Mhm But those types of businesses that pay the same rate whether they have it or not are are contributing to our our base Which is why I questioned what I found out was the DCR property
the old police station that's you know rotting away has water in the basement It does but at least you're on a hill there You could again mitigate water as we know It' be nice to use that property but we can't
So I I so so I definitely agree Bring it to the ballot but the the mass um the masses show up hopefully and and vote In the meantime I think this art committee is going to try and educate the population have some more
meetings and then and then we're a we're a branch of you If you want us to take another look at how we can I would say minimize it even past option C if you can see what other prices you can get because as soon as
they see the big numbers it's not going to pass So what did John Libero say towards the end when he said they was given a I asked for what the options were because I not and the warrant was based on you
guys giving them advice to go with the the most comprehensive how it floats But John Ober said it was one that would have only required another 5 million of which the finance committee would have cobbled together two out of the two fund stabilization and capital projects So
taxpayers will only be asked to consider funding 3 million and I think he said it was like bare bones It was just the office COA but what did he say about the finishes or something it would be open rooms Open rooms Okay Right So it is the
barebone renovation for municipal offices only So those big classrooms would pretty much be it painted it would be abated but there's no privacy which is one of the main issues that every department head has We
need right um but that was municipal offices only and abatement of the cafeteria gym and COA rooms that we intended on using So just getting them cleaned up for the future um without abading the
whole building which is something we added on on February 25th Yes When we met cuz we gave two different scenarios that total ask for the town uh was 10,600 10 million 10.6 about then you take away the 5 million that
had you take away the 2 million that you stabilization which brings it to an asset of almost 3 million which would bring um the average homeowners tax I think John said it was small $700 a year which we came up with
that but it doesn't fulfill the privacy we need them to function it doesn't fulfill the assess the needs assessments that we went through so it's a give and take Yeah So then there's that second level the um needs the value engineering that was
done which was a little more uh 2 million more than that What's bio engineering value engine less renovation using less expensive alternatives Okay
Um but so that's that's doing just that portion of building and not abating the up the upstairs part for future innovation But then this lecture had made a decision that night after we talked to them to do the the
1.3 million abatement for the whole building It made sense to not put the can down the road Let's start the process now And that was all windows windows And that's the windows the doors Yeah And I still agree with that because
I I know that it will go up in cost no matter what So it's just to abate the whole thing even if we don't use the whole building to but you don't agree doing it at all So he doesn't agree I don't Yeah What we have right now I may
agree with something differently if Well you you got to give us a charge here what what you think is going to be palatable to the town It I would rather say cut the project in half then that's your
alternative I don't see any I don't see any other alternative with buildings in this town Okay So I think that what Len just proposed us being on the hook as t for taxes taxpayers on the hook for that money if it were closer to three to four
million I think it would be more feasible and easier for people to swallow Now you talk about privacy you need the privacy Well if we want transparency as we talk about all the time then why do we have to hide in rooms
i'm just asking I'm just asking Yeah I'm sorry Everybody was talking So can you can you explain that to me transparency is pro They they were talking privacy like the town clerk needs to talk to somebody about something private or
assessor or you know somebody is you know So what if we left the major part of it as an open floor plan and had a couple of smaller conference rooms that people could go into to have those private conversations
because right now when you go in everyone hears your conversation with whoever you're talking to So you don't have any privacy right now Those rooms if you went that route could even be soundproofed So before the finishes go on the framing they could be
soundproofed So you know that nobody is listening to your conversations Okay So So without getting into the weeds too much Mhm If we were to come back with another proposal you're charging us with
that I'm all on board to to help the town but I'm not on board to come back and not have the board this board supported It's got to be United Front And I'm I'm let's just say it's got let's just leave it at that We we've if we're going
to present something to the town and we we all have to believe it's the best solution and if and if the the town doesn't want to spec if you're telling me the town even with this the the next um at the ballot but they're not going to support it then this this school is
the only answer I see and if it means shrinking the project until the three or four or five million dollars is caught up then we go on to something else you know another section of the building then fine I'm I'm okay with as as would I be if we saved that much
money up front I think I could be on board with it but I'd have to see it And again I want the people to decide that I don't want to be the one to decide that And would we be able to do two options one where you're downsizing and you're
keeping the building and one where the building's knocked down and it's just the minimal you're giving them the minimum of a 5,000 square foot building Doesn't have to be brick but if we raise it because that's the other option that people wanted at the town meeting or the special town meeting they
said "Well if you if we build a 5,000 square foot building and we put the offices in there what would that cost?" So I mean we have a rough estimate If we go with the rough estimate right which was 5 million I'm still kind of confused how it could be 5,000 square feet when
2018 six seven years ago the architect at that point said "Build two 6,500 square feet one for municipal offices and one for senior center." And the only reason why was those sizes was so they could get
not have to put a sprinkler system in and save money Was that 65 or 7 i thought it was 7,000 square feet Oh they changed the code So and when we came originally way back and let's check that or whenever we came first time that was no longer the case
When we talked to um um the original architect and former fire inspector they um we couldn't build that for what they could have built water under the bridge right so now here we are with the old building and
6,500 wouldn't be enough I don't think because they need storage right they need storage They need space Think I mean there were departments that came in and said we want this much space and we said you're not getting that much
space right we all have to be reasonable Right Well and the engineer was pretty good about that too He sat there and said "Okay but you have two people in your office right now but went on maybe three somewhere down the road." So just a another couple outlets and a computer
port or something and enough room to do it there That's your square foot Put another desk So he he really did evaluation with each department head as they went and and they looked at best practices on other so of similar size what they needed So it wasn't like we
were just randomly cutting it was it goes And then what what was the amount that they said what was the minimum amount that you said that he estimated that with all of them that they would need 6,500 for two buildings No was the 2018 asking for their
assessment once they ran it to all the town offices I thought it was 17,000 but um I I have to look that up Yeah because that I think was then that's where they said well if you not want that then we'll do 22,000 that the way the building laid that was going to be so that's one of
those issues where so we thought it would be 17,000 ft but we have 22,000 square feet there If you want to cut back that go back at 30% then you're going to build a wall and you're going to have to move things and now you're negating the money you're saving by
making it smaller So we are using the existing structure of the building because we're limited in money You could cut that building up all you want but now we're spending money to change the layout So I guess hope we don't know what our
committee is doing anymore So I I hope we're trying to you know we're trying to help I hope we're getting somewhere I think we need to start with going back to the open floor plan as I suggested So going back to option C and put a couple
of conference rooms in for people to or take one of the classrooms maybe and divide it I I don't remember what options look like I don't have that paper on me just was more he said it
architect said it'd be open spaces less finish really no finishes but um getting it up to code getting electrical getting all that stuff up to code um but I'm not clear on whether or not you want to abate the whole building and
so there's a big difference here option C was option C to abate half of it correct there's two options there's option C with only abating the 22,000 square feet Yeah The total ask for the town the very last
ask would be 3 million versus if you do just the 22,000 ft and abate the whole building The total ask is 4.1 million 4.2 So it's it's an additional 1.3 million to abate the whole building
Right That's including window stores Get the PCBs out of there Yeah And then that 1.2 million number he said that's that was all glass on the other side where we can put some panels Panels are like 30% cheaper Sure But they
designed it so it doesn't look odd Look odd right yeah But I guess this all if if this is going on the ballot on May 19th people have to know what they're voting for Yeah Agreed
How much money is being spent so I'm sorry We're We're running out of times There's not a lot of time I um I'm sure on Tuesday we could speak to the architect and say "Okay let's go back to option C." Mhm But
then we only have three weeks to get that up there Scrap everything you've seen people It looks like this now This is what you're voting on And now you But people are going to be paying attention now then after that special town meeting and
the confusion that occurred People are going to be paying attention I mean you might have people that are upset that you changed it I signed a little bill I know That's why you guys get paid Um and then there's that middle option which is a little more you know not the
high not the bare minimum but they're just right And that was 6.2 million versus 4.9 million And I know when we originally talked about this we were told that it's not wise to put more than one choice in a
warrant And people wanted the choices at town at special town meeting That's what was that's what so I think if we had those options at the special town meeting I think it would have went in a different direction possibly if we started off with option A and then said okay that failed option B okay that
failed now we're down option C And the thing about that is you could have done that through amendments but hindsight right Yeah How how do you do it it's very confusing for people I don't understand how towns work Yes
I'm wondering Lynn if since you guys already have your option A option B and option C if there's some way that we can get it out there whether it's on the town website um and say on May 19th you would be voting for this project The option will be determined at the special
town meeting on June 9th Is that a possibility so that people can look and say "Okay I don't want A or you know but I I want B or C so I'm going to vote yes and then we'll figure it out at town meeting." Is that something be clear on what each option what amount how your
taxes are going to be increased People aren't going to go to a debt exclusion vote not wanting to know how much So you have to give them several charge This is before the May 19th because they're not appropriating money No but I'm not going to say yes to something I don't know how much money my taxes are going to go
up Right so the whole thing the whole thing on May 19th is people are coming out to say that I agree for the debt exclusion I'll let my taxes go up $200 a year give or take for the next 20
years If that 200 is it going to be 200 is it going to be 150 is it going to be a 9 to5 yeah Maybe you say anywhere between 95 and 200 There's just a lot of education that has to be done Yeah And
and Chris um as Crystal's suggesting how do you bring to town meeting several options you have to be either you do it like you said for amendment or it would have to
be individual articles Article one fails That's what I was thinking Individual articles Then you go article two at option B Then you go article three at option C And you only have to go to two or three if one fails You're going to
have two Two and three Yeah Keep in mind too we're into this Yeah We're we're into it very deep already with timewise I'm not talking about committee time but time wise are OPM and
partial effect Yeah Got the design We're ready to hit the ground The bidding is is the documents are prepared to go out in a couple weeks We're that close to it to to stop this and scrap it
It's not just a waste of time It's a waste of resource and money If you don't if you can't get behind the the whole cut then you got to give us some direction and tell us we'll we'll spend up to 12 million
Give us some sort of a figure that we can Well the what's already been appropriated is no longer appropriated It's been put into a 3 million of 3 million of the five million is now gone into a demolition fund bucket So which just it
just means that at annual town meeting we have to reappropriate it if that's the route that we go So like Steve said it's just moving it from bucket to bucket really But um I think because 259 voters said no to the whole project I think B or C is our
options I don't think A is an option So I think C is probably the best option I think that's going to be the most palatable for people in this town at this time especially not know having a strategic plan and not knowing where we
stand in 5 years We don't know when bonds are coming off We don't know when debt is leaving We don't have a document on our town website that says that We don't have a plan And I think that's that's where I struggle with making these
long-term 20 25 year decisions And so the least expensive is probably going to be the most palatable with an ad or 1.2 million of the whole building What do you mean with an ad toate Oh to abate Okay So option C with
1.2 two to abate is what you're saying or option C with I guess I'm saying option Catement and if the number comes in lower than what we anticipate you add in addins or Chris would do deductions okay yeah
start is the 1.3 million to abate the whole building is it going to be in or out of what we're going to discuss on Tuesday night with our architect is the question I have how do you want us to bring Okay Forward If you left it up to me I would say in get it done I would
say in get it done Okay Did you and we'll see where those numbers are and you guys Oh sorry And then the people will decide either way and you guys put in for the war to say we don't want to do
the Yeah So if and and I would I would suggest that sitting up there you guys will read the tenor of the room and if you're if you're seeing that it's not going to fly then pull 1.3 out Mhm See if that flies and
then go from there because I can't you can't I can't rely on someone in the audience to understand what that means these numbers Sure I can agree to that go to option C and then we and then it can be discussed to have those couple of conference rooms for
privacy and if it's an open for an open floor plan where you have whether it's uh you know we get office furniture and dividers then everybody is separated a little bit that way and then they can have their privacy in a couple of rooms
if that could be figured out So you want option C and not option B option C and then discuss adding in just those two rooms Take a portion of the space and he might already have that I don't I don't
remember what the option C look like He had conference rooms It just was a much less finished design Um I'm okay with that I don't need again I don't need the Taj Mahal office buildings
Are the Taj Mahal well I know and you know but to Jim's point it's um office buildings from what I've seen before I actually left the trade and went to work for the city of Chabby were going to that kind of open floor
plan Uh Yankee Candle was one of them that four-story building in Deerfield They took all the offices out except for the CEOs the VPs things of that nature And it was a complete open floor
plan with the dividers and desks So a lot of them are going to that direction now So I am open to that And leaving COA here is what happened Leave COA here Yeah until we have more money
We're not going to get them there for option B was getting them there right but getting there it was the it was the less renovation using um less expensive alternatives So still bringing
everything up to code Um and how much one was that one Lynn with abatement of each building as well Option D with the full abatement Uh you want the town total ask for what it cost totally Total cost Total cost
would be 13.93600 And then when you subtract the 5.6 6 million that we already got from the town minus the 2 million that came out of stabilization The total ask would be 6,249 361
I don't know how that affects your taxes I know that I know that probably cut them in half if the 8 million bond was uh let's see So the average house is 350 That's the median I'm sorry Thank you
The median is 350 If it was if we were getting 10 million you'd be two or 20 $198 for 25 years I'm sorry 8 million If you ask that town for 8 million it was
$198.74 for 25 years But the average household is going to be paying because the average is 407 The average household will be paying 2552 at least Although yeah the average household is how much well 407 So maybe a little bit less than 255 Somewhere
between 198 and 255 Yep Annually So if we cut that in half for the 6 million half because this is an 8 million right and so this is the Well you just told me it would be
$6,249,361 if we take off the 5.6 and we take off the two of option B Option B is Yes Yes So option B taking everything out before you bond would be 6 million 6.2 million Yes Okay Yeah So what I'm
saying is if we take this and put 6 million there instead of the eight y it's half of the cost of what's on here Not half three borders Yeah What is half would be option C
And what was the total for option C with the full abatement so offensate municipal offices only 1188600 0 you and then you subtract the 5.6 and the 2 million and the total ask comes
down to 4,199 I'm sorry $4,199 $361 Okay So those are the two and that's what kind of brings the 8
million in half That's what John John was talking about about even last John was talking about no ev Oh uh John Leair but okay We had not spoken with advance committee They haven't come to any of our meetings So he was just going off theformational
meeting or something I don't know what he or the numbers or the numbers he did came to theformational meeting Okay Yeah I don't know what the other numbers we're looking at Windows too This includes all the windows Add an additional So so now
you've got larger show space down the road First thing you have to do is sprinkle building Mhm The shell space Then you can peacemeal different sections as you as
as you feel you can afford to Agreed And do we do we have to sprinkle the whole building though we have to sprinkle the whole building because because of the square footage right well because wouldn't we all sprinkle so they would
occupy can't occupy it right but does that also mean we can't use it for storage no we can use it for storage because it's going to be right Can't use it for storage I thought we could I thought the fire said no I thought the fire chief said as long we had heat sensors
smoke detectors and Okay As long as the alarm Yeah for life safety has to be in place So I think for simplicity for the May 19th option C with full abate or option
C with full abatement and then when it comes to the town meeting we can start off with option B and see if they want the COA there or not and then go to option C on the warrant or do you want to do it the opposite way
what are we going to say on the ballot what we're asking for don't ask for dollar Well you can't put it you can't put it on the ballot You can just say yes or no So like Lynn said we have to educate them ahead of time Read your ballot question You didn't I have it from yesterday I do
have it from yesterday Your ballot question says is that the one shall the town of Brinkley be allowed to exempt from the provisions of Proposition 21/2 so-called the amounts required to pay for the bonds issued in order to pay for
the abatement of hazardous materials and the renovation of the plus or minus 44,000 square foot West Street building into plus or minus 22,000 square ft of municipal offices and seniors
including the payment of all costs incidental and related there too So we have to decide if we're taking senior center off that out off the bottom It would have to come off of option B takes it off because option C takes it off because
there's no COA in option C But again if you don't if you don't put the senior center on it then you can't do option B because you're only talking about municipal offices Can't bring option B to special meeting if it's not at if
it's not being funded So option B is the town offices with the COA Yes So option A and option B would work with the ballot Option C would not So you go to ballot with option B at this point and then you go to town
meeting if B fails If B fails you'll offer option C And I don't know what you do Go back to the ballot I don't know I don't think you'd be able to because now you they they haven't addressed just municipal buildings
The electorate hasn't addressed just Oh my gosh I know it's just But what about if So question Chris for you now It can we put two yes or nos on there that's up to you Can we do one for That's up to you I think we should do one for town offices
and COA and one for just town offices and see what they want But again yeah because the ballot Well no I can add it to the ballot So we get rid of both at that ballot The question should be this Are you going
to abate hazardous materials on the 44,000 square ft and then are you going to be renovating 22,000 square ft or even
under option B or are you going to be doing 17,000 that I've heard what are we doing for square footages or do I take the square footages out it's always 22 though No I think option
C was 17 right yeah mentioned 17 You're still prepping the COA the gym and the cafeteria You're just not moving people in there because it's not move ready but it's renovation But are you renovating the full 44,000
square foot building you're renovating You're 22 on option Bing 44,000 square feet Renovating 22,000 on option B Mhm And option C And option and C because see even though the COA
isn't there it's prepped for the COA to come future by abating it and putting the windows and Yeah And it's move in ready Move in ready after some Yeah shut space Yeah
And again just let me give you the number without full abatement I know you want full abatement and I agree However let me give you the numbers It's only up to me though I have the numbers for that If you don't fully abate option B you're asking the town for
4973 361 So that's the bottom line That's not okay For option C the total asked to the town without full maintenance would be 29 23
361 and that's like you said after 5.6 and the two come off Okay that's the bottom line So it would be up to to whatever you choose you'd have to explain the town meeting why you
chose what you chose We chose 4.9 million no abatement of the whole building because that's what we thought you wanted Yeah That's what we thought would Yeah would get us the offices right would more affordable and it would get
us the offices versus But if we want to think about the future and not kick the can down the road can you afford 6.2 million right Because the 7 million and the 8 million
are off right yep knowing that it's not going to get any less expensive And what if you know I'm thinking okay we talk about a 5-year
plan down the road What if the COA is here for 5 years if that abatement is not done so we have it move in ready essentially then it could be $3 million for half of that building
So I I understand the realistic end of that So that's why I would be for full to have it shell space right but don't forget either any of these options the
senior areas will be a big correct Yep Yep That's what I would prefer Full bait No no no That's different than full of bait Yeah So the 22,000 part of the COA is part of that and that's no matter what is getting um abated in every
option right it's just that the rest of the building to use for teacher for whoever wants it like you have people come in and do a business or you say the senior center hey this part can be yours I don't know Right So then there would be a baitment on that side unless the
town agrees unless they want to go with the other option and put the extra money in So we back we're back to figuring out what we're going to put on the balance So the abatement in hazardous materials pay for the abatement of
hazardous materials and renovation of 20 plus or minus 22,000 square ft because both option C and option B do that because we don't want to put the full abatement on here right we want the full
abatement Okay and then into full West Street building into plus or minus 22 square feet Chief you'd just like to see the full abatement through the whole building I see the way that it's like okay we're going to bait the whole building and then plus and renovate plus
or minus 22,000 ft I thought that's how I understood it But I just think like Chris says it does plans for the future right well that's where I was leaning Like Chris said though it does say um abate of hazardous materials and renovation of plus or - 44,000 So we
might have to separate that to say abatement of hazardous materials of the plus or - 44,000 ft and renovation of the plus or - 22,000 ft² So that we're clear on what we're renovating because right now it looks like we're doing both
to the 44,000 ft And that would take waste offices and senior center They say municipal space Okay But keep in mind whatever isn't abaded cannot be used for storage Right Okay Because we won't be able to
enter the space It'll be sealed up Right But we have it on here being fully abated Just only renovating the 22,000 ft Right So if you amend it that way then you can go with option B or C because right
specifying municipal office and senior center it's just municipal space generic term okay and then we can explain if it passes the ballot box at the special town meeting what that means you would you would explain when you are
presenting article one and article two Okay At different figures And you want the committee to do both option B and option C with the full abatements for the town meeting i'm in for the full
abatement So I think I think we still need to give the people options Would you agree with that yes I think so If we take A off the plate and we give them B and C maybe we're going to get a little closer to getting something done I hope
Okay Because we plan on having moreformational meetings It's okay Yeah Absolutely That's a great idea Absolutely More intimate meetings where we can actually sit and walk through plans rather than a a big meeting like that
have several of them so that we can especially when some of the naysayers that aren't in favor of anything Yeah Try and convince them why this this is your only rights And um Lyn I also want to remind them
you guys did put in for the grant So we don't know when we're going to No we did put in for we did but we need um we need an appropriation to get the grants I was going to say most of them you have to be shovel ready appropriated and everything Yeah Right now if you want to keep on
pursuing that because we can't get appropriation for the building Y you have to ask I mean it's let's say it's a million dollars to do for commercial kitchens and we have to get that appropriation and we also have to we have a one-stop application in we have been told that we probably will not be
eligible That doesn't mean we're not right That means we need to sit down and talk with them to find out how we update that to make us eligible It just might be the way it was written They're looking for ADA information Okay As far as the commercial
kitchen we're not doing the COA Leave the Leave the Kitchen O for now Was the kitchen part of B and C no Okay I didn't think it was Okay Well the COA No I'm far as I'm talking as far as if this goes Part of B is B would have a
kitchen like C Well so would A but A and B have a kitchen that a warming heating cooling bake replicated pretty much whatever they have here just you know newer or whatever over there So they still see it wouldn't count So they
still wouldn't be able to cook though Yes it would It would be a kitchen like they have here but not a commercial grade kitchen with like if we dryers and that Okay Yeah No no no C would not have C has
abatement of cafeteria gym and COA rooms only So you're walking by rooms that you're not going to be using and you're walking by a kitchen What you're saying is if the COA goes down there they're going to have a kitchen Oh they're going to see it goes down which is option If
the sea moves they will have to attach Yes And that's something that could be upgraded down the road Yes Also yes I realize it's more money again down the road but we might be in a better position at that point And grants too And grants the grant is really some some
of the grants will even help us pay for the sign you know depending on how and what you're and I think like Lynn said once we get started and there's money appropriated to the project then you can start going for the um the grants that are out there Many money grants to look at but we can't look at them until we
have money We have a project We have an ADA one that's due in May but we don't we're we're stopping Yeah So what would you like us to educate the public on B and C b with the potential of C Yes
I think so Yes With full abatement for both with full abatement And this is your option because are these are your options because there we don't have the
car to use like that's the second half that people are asking questions or what if we don't do this where are we going and that's what that's what our committee can't discuss right and the Carnegie Hall it is if we ever had to use
it I hate to say cuz Jim's right This was supposed to be temporary It's supposed to be temporary right you're supposed to have another job that you're going to And Chris had talked to us about it last time and it's just not big enough for everyone to go there So that's not an option We can't
fit because we I had asked Chris we can't fit the assessors there We can't just fit the tax collector or the uh tax collector the clerk or the board of health and that's who's at the annex right now We can't fit them in that building So that's not an option because we can't fit them Space for planning
conservation right then you guys would lose that space as well And then the annex we haven't negotiated a contract for an extension yet It's in the process of being negotiated but we haven't negotiated it yet But the the point being sure you stay you negotiated
contract you stay in the annex until West Street is renovated enough to put those people in there But if you don't renovate West Street and you get rid of it what are we going to do people are in the annex for a negotiated amount of time And I think
Lynn what would help also um move this project along is if we tell them how much we've spent so far on it because like you said the OPM and the um last night but yeah but how how much have we paid them already so how much are we already into it we paid our architects
Well we haven't paid the last bill but it's gonna it's going to be a total of $300,000 or less that we've spent Yes That we've been building and it's But the contract is for
Oh yeah You the contract But if you look at the the contracts both say you don't have to but the recision clause in it states that we would have to pay them for any work done as of the date of recision So if we end
it tomorrow it would be probably $300,000 that we spent on OPM and architect Um oh actually I have to we spent a little about 31,000 on the oil tank and um
total almost 300,000 total between the oil tank OPM and designer fees And we probably should remind people that we still owe roughly 100,000 on the roof 160,000 I was going to say they said that several times so on Tuesday That
would be a shame to throw that away also Starting this process from scratch I understand completely It's I completely understand It's time money and everything escalates But how long have we been on this since August December 23
maybe 22 I don't know Yeah I think it was 23 And then December we gave you guys the charge We had to make advanced charge Yeah Because we had and then we came back in February 24 with all the options 25 So my my point is the time spent
doing all this everything is escalating Yeah So another three years or two years to to come up with something different You're going to be sitting in the same position but less for more Sure I don't disagree with that So well let's find an option that'll work That's I think
that's where we are Let's try to satisfy everybody and I hope that it happens But again I can't speak for the people No we can't speak for and we have to we have to get the finance committee to understand this too
Well that might not happen fight No but we need we need to make a a an attempt to let them understand what we're doing now Okay So they're the United Front is going to make the the taxpayers feel a
lot better We're all on the same page as far as not just the cost but it's our only alternative Chris do you need us to re um write this so that we'll read as you want it on the or as we want it on the ballot and sign it for tonight no you can't sign Okay
We're meeting on the 15th anyways 20 Oh no We're meeting on the 15th We have We have a executive session on the 15th Oh right I'm sorry Yeah Okay So what we should do is just put this on
for signature only No discussion Okay Unless we want to talk with Glenn but no public discussion But with the um changes that we made tonight Okay I think that would be the best And then go ahead I just want to think about the wording a little more
too Okay To be clear And that will still get she said she has till April 17th So we still have some time Okay It's 2 days before Yeah So Okay I'll agree to that So option B with full abatement and then
the backup option C with full abatement Yep And then you you guys will draft the ballot to make it work Yes Correct And we'll try to get information out and you guys will get information out What and it might it might be a joint
meeting with with the finance You want to be involved in that you want us to deal with it yeah I can't I'll be involved with that meeting I'm willing to sit in on that also We'll have to post it for all of us right if we all show up But I think it I think it would be beneficial for us all
to sit down at the same table and figure out where everyone's at So what we'll do is we'll meet on Tuesday to chart what we're doing next the next three weeks and we'll figure out a date that we can I'll meet and then invite you guys Very
good Sounds like a plan And I know he's on vacation April break What's that 20 21 to Well yeah To 25 Yeah Yeah Well then you'll have to zoom in I can do that Yeah I'm kidding I can do
that if And then our next meeting was the 29th because I think someone had some something going on in the 28th right glenn couldn't make it on It might have actually it might have to be that week because we're already there Yeah Let me know I'll bring the
laptop as long as someone representing the board Yeah make me feel a lot better this okay I'm here April break so whenever you guys decide to do it because you're meeting on Tuesday the 15th so whenever you guys decide to do it just
none of my kids are in sports so spring is a little easier right thank you for that thank you thank you thank you I don't think it was what Chris is imagining I know well we're already running an hour and a half behind but you know what we've got some
good business in your opinion All right Please Chief you're first budget time Unless Chris did you have anything you wanted to go over before him okay Well actually no The only other thing we have there is there is a document there
that the chair needs to sign telling the state that Thomas Quinnland Jr is now our building commissioner He has been duly appointed into that position And you need a vote for me to do it no
only chair Yes I will make a motion to sign the building official certificate for Bristol to sign as chair for Thomas Quinnland to officially be our building
inspector Commissioner commission Yes I will second that motion Any further discussion discussion All in favor i fine pictures We got a huge packet on Tuesday night so just give me one minute to find yours
You should bring pictures underneath those little ones Okay there it is Ramy Police Department Did you have a chance to read excuse me my my little letter to about disc um discussing it i did Okay The 3% Yeah
Yeah So um if in the past we've gone along by line by line Dave I don't know if you want me to do it that way or you would want to just any questions you guys have on it Um I don't think Dave's been part of the budget yet No No Exactly Okay So
so um line by line Um we have the salary which is mine Uh that's contractual The wages are also contractual That does reflect one officer getting a step step raise Yep um part-time you'll see that
we've probably dropped up just a little over $15,000 We're down to two part-time officers And with that what I did was I took the average they've those two particular officers have worked over the last three years and came up with that figure Okay
um overtime I took an average uh I I I calculated out what where I think we're going to be for through the rest of the year and I took the that plus the two years prior what we actually spent and that isn't that that averaged and divided by three and came up with that
figure for the overtime Uh the incentive pay is uh contractual that is the what they used to call the Quinn bill Yep Um and that that that looks like it it did drop a couple I have one officer that is getting a degree I had one that had a masters that
retired resigned Okay Um longevity again that is a contractual thing that the um the officers get PAT incentive that number hasn't changed that or actually I that did change because we have dropped a part-timer and
increased a full-timer Okay So that's where that's why that dropped the uh the $550 Uh the on call stipen is $1,500 that the uh sergeants get a 750 a year to be on call every other every third
week Okay Um the technical training stipen again that number dropped down by 400 because that one of those officers went last year went from part-time to full-time So that's why we're down Okay that used to have three part- timerrs built in there
Um the merit pay again that's the potential if the part- timerrs work 84 shifts they get a $500 stipen by contract Again because we're down to two part- timerrs I dropped that number down Uh repair and maintenance on the
cruisers I just added 3% to that Mhm Um the maintenance agreement is a a 5-year deal we did with the the tasers and that doesn't change That's the number for 5 years uh criminalistic
services that is a whole list of investigative stuff that includes uh a membership to the New England uh investigative services that also includes our our email our Comcast for
uh internet uh some investigative uh um tools one being Celebrate and one being uh Lexus Nexus which is uh does background checks and and helps us establish relationships sometimes if we're trying to find whether it's an
investigative to to look at um who's related to who for trying to find somebody or if we're trying to do a you know an investigation for something else So all right uh and then we also have the our
um our our uh by law our Facebook page or any of our social media has to be backed up That's that's also in that number All right as well as um the cell phones for the department Okay uh training again I just went up the the
the 3% uniforms again that I'm sorry the office supplies and miscellaneous supplies that just went up to 3% that was asked to stay within uniforms dropped down by the difference again go with one full-time officer compared to a
part-time officer that there's a it's a $1,500 for full-timers 750 for part- timerrs by contract Okay um mutual aid that's our um radio that the inter
inter municipality radio system and that is the portion that we are required to to pay to be a member makes sense uh and classified again it's just different expenses along the year um that went up to the 3% it replacement this is
something we put in last year so uh in the past we've we've changed change like all the computers all the servers everything at one time Rather than doing that if we we go on a cycle that'll get us approximately three to four computers
so we're not coming to the town with a capital request Okay Um smaller Yeah Yeah So it's not So So it's not a big hit all Exactly Exactly And then the the weapons Uh last year we
we got all new firearms that the town now owns Uh we've had some studies done and most municipalities are now going to um red dot optics It's a safety safety thing as well as flashlights built onto
the added to the to the weapons This allows the officers if they are in low light they can use the flashlights built onto the gun and they're that they still have both hands on the gun Sure And uh red red dot optics really help you focus if you had to use it for some reason on
in a tight area You know you're you're you know where that you know where that bullet's going Exactly Um can I interrupt for one second Chief the line item that you have there is that the cost to rent just the
optics no that is that includes the optics flashlights and holsters for 15 weapons Okay Because it was the same as almost the same as when you purchased the weapons Yeah it it was it's it's funny like that but yeah it's that was a
question from the finance committee when N That's exactly what it is But so I'm sorry if it wasn't clear Um that's the flashlights built onto the to attach to the weapons the optics and holsters Oh thank you Yep Hopefully the finance committee will watch this and they'll answer those questions I'll be glad to
answer it if they give me a holler Right now we are in So that's all for budget fiscal year 2025 column right i'm sorry No what I the sheet that I have says fiscal year 2025 There's nothing
under fiscal year 2026 You don't have these i have these Yeah So everything that you're saying the numbers the numbers not matching right So right this this is what I emailed to Ira back at the time I don't go
yeah we have fiscal year 2025 Yeah that was the that was the form that Hold on hold on hold on We grabbed the first one we saw Okay We have the 2025 Got us It was just behind the 2025
I think I think the when you said it went only went up I was like "Wait a minute I don't even have the 2026." Yeah Okay All the notes on the 2025 No it's not your fault Yeah that's I think the the the first set you have there is what Chris originally sent us out and then I asked for an electronic version so I
could neatly present it All right this makes more sense because I was like he is saying he went up but I don't see where he went up All right Just give me one minute to Yeah no worries Yeah like for the part time like we went
down I was like um that's $8,000 more You said for the overtime one it you took the three averages I took uh correct I I well I projected out where I thought we would be the rest of this coming year till July till July June 30th and then I took that number and I
took the two numbers from uh FY24 these were four and five 24 and 25 but this is actually this is what was budgeted not what was expended Ed the way the sheet was written up So
did we expend more yes Okay And is there is the cruiser not on here because it was a capital project correct Okay And that number if you want to just if you want me to just do that is roughly 7 well 77606 is what we
went to the um capital committee with That's the cruiser basically is 78606 with a No I'm sorry This year I did not trade Well that's something I need to discuss with you too Unfortunately we've done a little more research with the um our
green energy and Dave D Roger was hoping to take one of my old cruisers and replace his old Crown Vic Well we did some research Mr Martin got a hold of somebody from the energy and you have to increase your fuel economy by at least
one mile per gallon to do an inner inner agency or yeah inner town swap Yeah the Crown Vic and believe it or not the old 2013 Crown Vic I think is what he has I think it's a 13 Maybe it's a No I'm sorry That's the god dog car I was trying to do I think he has a 2008 Crown
Vic and a 2019 Explorer we're trading in hopefully in a few weeks here or we're going to try to do to him They're the same on the books Same right same miles per gallon from from rating wise I'm sure it's not
the same if you actually did it but unfortunately they have to go by the rating Sure So when I drew this up um I was hoping to take the dog car is a 2013 Explorer I was hoping to take this
22 Explorer and um repurpose it again Ran into the same issue because it's a different department technically It's same miles per gallon Yeah So we can't do that You can't give it to the dog I can't give it to the dog
officer Your jurisdiction Yep Wow That's too bad Unless we can again we have some time to think about that Maybe do a little more research Maybe if I call the gentleman and say look that she actually is under my department Is that a
division is that you know I'll do a little more research But we so that 77606 of not trading a car in which we usually do um is was our capital request this year was cuz the hope was that I was going to be able to remarket and
have a newer car for the animal control But yeah it would be nice if we could do that Exactly I'll do I'll try to do some more research on that just say because we're not really going in inner department technically So yeah I get it I'll see if if if if uh they'll agree to
that get something in writing so it doesn't bite if they get the same mileage then maybe they'll be a little bit lenient Right Right I'll I will do some more research I have the emails from uh Mr Martin that for the for the information we got so I would try to
reach out to this gentleman and say um and chief you have written on here a grant 36,496 It's handwritten on Yep ours anyway It's not on yours I wonder if that was notes from someone else It could have been notes from which page is it written uh
the second page of his may take a look and see if it's okay Where's it burn burn B Y R N E Yeah Okay Well 36,000 that was our 36 and some change set 47 something maybe 496 496
Okay That was the burn right Yep So that was I was telling him about radios that we got through a burn grant this past this past fiscal year Okay So I don't know why he's got it written down there I was just giving him information Okay Um so that that that is not any money
that we're going to be getting in That's actually going to be expended at some point to our radio project because we use the money from there and then put it back We'll we'll put it back from the burn grant So that's and it is a grant Yeah Because grant you have to spend on
a certain thing anyways Exactly So Okay We don't have an actual for 2024 do we actual We have a actual like so you know how you project and then what you actually spend and then budget and then actually spend There's no actual for 2024 Just for the overall
actual whole budget Yeah I think that may be on that first sheet that you you were looking at It's like one 1.539 Yeah 1293 Well that came close that year Yeah Yeah All right Thank you You're welcome Being
patient because No no no worries Move on to dispatch Yes Okay Are you also yep Yeah Okay Okay So dispatch Um again wages this was contractual Uh nobody had a uh there was no step
increases this coming year Uh part-time wages again that was a project that was a 3% increase over budget fiscal uh what we budgeted for fiscal year 25 Um overtime again we've been successful
with just doing an additional 3% uh incentive pay I did I'm sorry Oh back to part-time I did because sometimes that includes a part-time officer working the desk but I did we had talked
earlier this year at some point about possibly hiring a part-time dispatcher I was projecting that in here with with a with some other figures as well Okay Um Okay So we did we talked about overtime again being at 3% incentive pay Again
the contract is a little little vague but if they have a degree as a full-timer they get an incentive pay So I just projected in there that if in case we needed if this part-time person has a uh some type of degree we may have to pay a portion of something Mhm Okay
So um was just trying to be prepared and not come back if we Sure Um the longevity pay again uh contractual the PAT incentive they they have the same uh right to run around the fire now we
do it at the fire department to for physical fitness physical fitness thing Um that went up uh uh $550 because part- timerrs get half So projecting that this if this part-timer comes
uh again technical training statement the part-time police officers get half So that that I added up the $200 which is half of the 400 that the full-timers get uh copier repair and maintenance That's
actually a little under um 3% but we seem to fall okay with that It's annual and stuff for the copy machine uh the software maintenance agreement Unfortunately that is by contract and you call them and they tell you the good
price and this is a quoted price Um I I have it so it will not go up but yeah that's that's almost uh just under 7% increase just there Uh the telephones you'll see they went down a little bit We've uh finally got
our our phone system uh tied in pretty tight So I think we're pretty good there This is the big increase you'll see is the teletype which this includes No it's a big Yeah it is And and there
there is an explanation Um so the teletype has um things in it that include uh a server maintenance agreement with the for the sieges equipment which is a
criminal justice information system that we have here That's it's required 800 that's like $840 The fingerprint machine has a maintenance agreement every year Uh the big the bigger increases were some of our IT or IT functions
Um there's there's 500 I'm sorry there's $500 extra I'm sorry $1,200 extra in the malware because all of a sudden now every not only is the server and the
firewall need to be the protection Each individual computer has to have protection and there's a monthly fee for that Sure Um we we did increase we we pay quarterly to have this company on call for us And we literally pay
for six hours a I think five hours now but now we're going to do six hours a month And we've been pretty blessed that we haven't had any major issues and they're pretty flexible on coming in and helping us when we run into issues I try to do as much as I can with the system
but there's just some stuff that uh these guys have to handle too Yeah Um and they're they're they're unique because they handle they have the clearance to work on stuff that uh nobody else can that nobody else can touch because of this the the criminal justice information stuff and things
like that Uh the web backup for our website used to be like $900 That went up $1,900 Yeah It went up $1,900 on top of the n on top of the nine So it's like 2,700 Okay But the biggest the
biggest reflection in there is we have this new radio system coming Yeah And it is going to need a $12,000 a year maintenance agreement when when the original warranty runs out But that is that's always been a responsibility of
well the dispatch budget but me to to maintain the system But that also does the schools the highway department fire department EMS all of us have use it you know So it's just just to
explain that it's just not the police department that needs a $12,000 a year So it's just comes into your It just comes out of my butt right nobody else has any kind of radio maintenance thing like that for the for this the big infrastructure part Sure So
um that was that was the uh big hit That was a big hit there That's why that increased so much Yeah Uh the office supplies and miscellaneous supplies again I just went up to 3% And uniforms went up to 750 which is half of what a full-timer gets So that would be
hopefully for that part-time off the part-time dispatcher if we can find one And then finally animal control That was just literally 3% across the uh across the board Across the board Yes As far as I know that this the
um so the wages are again that's just a 3% the um the alternate dog officers Knock on wood we haven't really had to use one Um Kim's been great and makes arrangements to have another town help cover when they're out when she's away
So um what is the not that it's a lot $110 miscellaneous salary is again that was if we had to cover something for somebody else coming in and that's always been but I think we've given that back every year So okay I was just
curious Such a small number Exactly It is just a small number Uh the uh software maintenance that's so animal control and and uh town clerk they can register the dogs and then we have the numbers and if we find a dog
running around we can hopefully figure out who's who who he or she belongs to postage is just to notify everybody of their their dog licensing Mhm Uh kind of a crude uh determination for the the dog
pickup but if we have a dog that's injured or hurt that we have to transport transport and then supplies some sometimes with the supplies again that went up the to 3% but sometimes we'll take this we'll have to you know use some of that money for the animals
that are hurt and okay you know we you know the past couple years we've dealt with some abandoned animals that need to be helped or euthanized And it's unfortunate It's It is unfortunate Thank you for running through that with
us No no Good explanation Thank you Chief Okay Thank you Yeah If you have anything further after something please don't hesitate Give me a call and we'll uh we'll do get you the information
Thank you Have a good night You have a good night too Thanks You too All right Jeremy come on up Sorry for the wait No problem All right So I'm assuming that Chris is giving the most recent copy of Let's
look at the right rooms Hold on Fire came a little confusion So fire came after So one second I didn't want to take my packet apart and then lose a piece of it So I kept it all together but I should have put tabs in there for the different departments Well
you got it It's in here Yeah I should have got past fire Public buildings There we go And revised to 2825 Was that the one that we're supposed to have no it shouldn't should have So that's the older one So hold on
I think he gave us everything Got a lot of receipts in here Uh yeah those are actually all proposals Okay No that's the only one we have We only have the 2028 one
with all your proposals Yeah All the rest is receipts Okay All right Well we'll have to have Mr Martin I was going to say we got it I'll I'll read you out what you I didn't know I'm just going to make sure I didn't end up in the back Hold on
one second They show you which one 2026 public buildings I or public building utilities Okay so that's the one we have So hold on
Fiscal year 2026 revised 228 Do we have That's the one he's saying that we shouldn't have And then we have all the separate ones Communications You put it all on right yeah For Okay So we need the updated
And I think we just went upstairs Oh he's actually Oh okay Wait a couple minutes I should try to skip Yeah why don't we do that because I'm a visual person Yes If you give me a moment Yeah
absolutely Thank you Thank you for I actually don't have one Okay I'll try Sorry Just wonder if it got mixed in anywhere else Well I think these packets were put together when Ira was still here so we
probably have all the older stuff Right Which doesn't help us cuz it was public building Uh Chris we only have the revised one the old one from 228 So Jeremy's just going
to go make copies of the one the newest one Oh all right That's utilities is the fire department that you're going to go over with us Is that the correct one i'm going to try and go over it with you Okay Okay But unfortunately Russ wasn't
available today Okay But I can try and explain what he's trying to do Okay And if we want we can bring him into our next meeting and then he can be actually explain it too Okay Okay But yes that is the one that I presented to the finance
committee Okay Where a lot of that was his explanation of what he's trying to do Okay Thank you Gerald very much Thank you So before I get confused I'm just going to get rid of this old Okay This is two pages correct yeah
But your letter is still good right yes Introducing your budget Okay perfect So yeah So going over it actually So the salary and wages gone over it with Mr Martin so that way
we can make sure that we had proper uh step rate up in there and also the cost of living adjustments So that way we're all set with that So that's all in line Same as we also are figuring out the overtime excuse
me Um going based on the last couple years for what we've had for any type of snow removal call-ins for maintenance etc So that's where we came up with a 4% increase Uh you'll see on water we stayed within
the uh 3% that the town was asking for for that stay And then sewage we're at 8% based on this is the only building actually we have the sewer that we pay for uh to the town and the rest of them
we have septic So we're going on prices of what this year we should be paying for Uh two places have their septic systems pumped out Okay Uh we rotate through the buildings unless there's a blockage or another issue with sewage that cost more Uh this
past year we actually ended up incurring a couple costs for sewage that weren't normal because our septic tanks needed work We had floats that are in there that adjust to tell us the levels of it and have alarms and uh that was at the new library So we had all of those
replaced and then the junction boxes inside were all corroded So we had that replaced as well Yeah It's it's kind of funny We are newer buildings but we're now hitting the 13 to 15 year mark on the two new buildings Starting to incur some costs Um the
biggest thing is the vehicle repair and maintenance You'll see 5239 you'll see a 157% increase Um the purpose for that is we've had to do a couple major repairs on vehicles the
last couple years We just retired a vehicle 2008 A lot of the problems was uh as I came in we've been doing this now for 5 years purchasing vehicles and each one is going to start needing certain maintenance that the current level
wasn't up to the amount that I'll need to do those So I kind of did a breakdown for the repair and maintenance I'd like to just go over So you'll see where that cost comes from But like our um 2022 truck this year will need all
six tires replaced and the alignment done on it That's a main plow truck That's the first one that goes out all the time Um oil ch oil changes times 12 throughout this year
$1,280 Um M3 which is the transit van we have an estimate already The brakes and rotors are already going on that and we're going to need those replaced at $3,650 Um standard replacement of things such as wiper blades uh and fluids are
usually about $300 a year that we run State inspections times seven vehicles including the Chevy Volt that's outside Um we do that one So there's three commercial trucks the van um the Toro mower and two commercial grade utility
trailers So that's all on there So just under 600 Uh snowplow services that we do on them can average about $1,200 a year with changing out the hydraulic fluids in them doing any type of wiring changes or replacements that we may need
Um this year we're anticipating one will need a new cutting blade blade Um that's just our straighten So uh the sander we're figuring in for you know service that one on there is actually this year one of them needs replacement of the
drive chain that's inside of there Um and then they'll just do a tuneup on that one with the bearings They can replace the bearings on there instead of the whole front assembly cuz if you let them go out of alignment too much it'll it'll ruin the drive gear So that's $1,200 Um then we're looking at two
radios we currently don't have operational in the 2019 vehicle has no radio and never has So we're looking at adding one of those and then uh replacing the one in the 2022 truck um that keeps going in and out So I've
already had CIS come out take a look at it and it's just antiquated The radios that we currently had that were working were actually hand-me-downs from the police department Okay Um because we try to take whatever we can at that point re reuse it Um as the police chief already
said they are updating a lot of their systems and doing that So at this time we're actually getting ones that can do analog and digital So if they can convert over all to the digital at that time we wouldn't have to go out and buy new radios again Uh so I believe it's
about $300 more per radio to go to digital and analog right off the bat than just the analog system So we are going to you know step it up a little bit so that way you know they should hopefully work for 10 20 years down the road and we won't have to worry about
that Most all the radios too obviously if we take them from the police cruisers if we change vehicles down the road can just be swapped out too Right Um then the other thing is we wanted to do an upfit on one of the vehicles that we're having a lot of difficulty with
when we have a sander on and it's a wider it's a double wide Uh we're looking at actually putting a backup camera on that unit onto the sander for safety The tight quarters that we use a lot especially behind this building and then the police department we have
cruisers coming in and out and we're backing up and a lot of times in the mirrors we can't see them So um for safety we'd like to get that done And then unplanned repairs I wrote in $3,000 just on an average of what we've been coming across throughout the year
either if we have U-jints or other issues that are going I know that uh most recently they decided to use the Chevy Voltmore which is out there which is great And we're anticipating we're going to have to replace the rotors and brakes
on that this year just because they've got quite rusted out and get grooves in them Um so I I don't know what that is but it should fill in that unplanned repairs fine We shouldn't go over that if All right So that's that's why that's a extremely high increase Um because
otherwise we have to do balance transfers and fund transfers all the time and this would hopefully eliminate that um electrical repairs I did increase quite a bit on there and you'll see you know with histories where we've gone for
were budgeted one year $5,000 in 2023 actual $8,148.50 and then in 2024 budgeted 5,000 actually spent $8,418.72 Um this year we were budgeted
5,150 and I know you don't see it on that line item but I believe we're over $6,000 already for electrical repairs Um so I was looking to increase that by 258 Uh yeah
2,850 And I know in a lot of my weekly reports I put in there again some of the buildings are now getting 13 15 years old Um we do have a lot of those emergency battery ballots that we have to replace Um and the cost of those
being about $350 a piece And I know in another report I actually went back and said you know we did do a cost analysis what it would be if we started replacing sections of those lights with rewiring and then doing um wall-mounted lights And it's actually
more expensive to do it that way Um and I'm actually this Monday going to be having in a Novvice uh energy come in and I'm hoping to talk to them about coming through and doing an energy audit at the new library at least for our lighting that's in there because that
still has fluorescent lighting in there So if we could try to get some type of incentives from you know electric companies or other programs you know brands it would be nice if we could update those So but until then our electrical systems unfortunately need
some some work Um just still a moment I just lost my place Uh plumbing repairs uh kept that at 4% Just wanted to increase that a little bit I believe I've gone about 20% over budget this year already with the uh plumbing
repairs A lot of those had to actually uh this building had some major infrastructure problems with the plumbing where we had gases coming up through some of the areas Uh so we had to replace that And we've also had major problems over at the highway department
The hard water eats through a lot of the pipes So we had to replace a lot of pipes that were in the wall that caused water damage So before we had more structural damage we repaired that So I'm just anticipating with that we're probably going to have a lot more um because we only took out one section of
the piping Um okay So then repair and maintain equipment Uh I did go up beyond that one as well because this year is going to be the first year that we actually are going to do the major services on our
John Deere tractor We've had that now for two years We there was a year and a half almost where it was used minimally because the hoisting engineers license and at the time person that had it was out with an injury so we were not able
to utilize it to its full advantage Now we were putting a lot of hours on it Um we're doing fields with it and other working rounds with the bucket So this year it needs the hydraulic change It needs all of the major fluids changed on there and a tuneup on it
Out of curiosity on that how many hours are on that machine do we know off hand i believe it's 62 right now So this was recommended by the owner's manual to go through 50 So that's why we're we got to get that Y right now Thankfully we just
passed that believe it or not just this just this week because we just finished doing the all the ball fields We just finished today on um Brown Ellison Okay So we're hoping it'll sit fairly idle for the next time So as
soon as we get the budget this year we can have everything done on it to bring it in Otherwise we will again be probably about 1,500 bucks more into doing that if we if we brought it in right now Um let's see The other thing
is the Toro um mower that we have the wide area mower now that it's already aged are we just actually replaced a uh alternator on that and at that time it was recommended with the batteries as they're testing them all that we change out the batteries this year They do
believe we can get into July or August and they said the hot weather is going to affect them even more than the old So at that time we should really replace all the batteries So on there there's two different sets of batteries There's the actual starting batteries and run it and then there's a separate set of four
batteries that run all the electronics on it So so that's crazy Yeah it's kind of a dual system which makes it very difficult You know if if the electronics go down the motor's no good to me I can't even can't start it and I can't operate it So that's why we're we're
going to try to make sure we have that done Uh carpentry repairs you'll see on that I usually get you know $2,000 We haven't really utilized that funds in there this year We have a lot of things that are
coming up because this is our fiveyear uh where we need an architectural and structural design u inspection done of all our fire escapes So we have two of them in town that I oversee One is this building in the back
of the the building here and it's all wood There's 23 stairs that go up to the top and all wooden runners The other one is at the Carnegie building the library Um so with both of those they need repairs One I have that we're going to
get into this year so it's already going to be taken care of financially Next year next year's budget is the one out back So we already know we have to replace all the stairs on So that'll be under carpentry uh for that one So that was the increase on that budget just
because I know under the regular excuse me allergies tonight under under the regular um repairs it just wouldn't cover it So and then contracted uh janitorial you'll see on there each year
we've tried to maintain a standard in there of what we needed for the money In 2024 we actually budgeted 45,000 and it came in under Um but now we're told with them trying to get their employees up to the rate that they need to be at with
all the laws changing So we had to do a 5% increase instead of a three which we would have liked to have been able to do Uh we were able to keep water licenses and tests at 3% Hopefully there won't be any increase on there From what I've heard from the uh contractor that we use
currently McCclure Engineering we should be right in line with that The other contracts that you'll see underneath there under uh 5310 See each year we've kind of fallen under what we gone way over what we've
budgeted Some of those account for the NFPA 25 testing that we had to do with fire sprinkler systems that at the time I came in wasn't aware that a lot of them were going to be due Some of them rotate every 5 years Um this year we have a couple more tests that are in
there in contracts So we need to bring it up to 5% to be able to cover that Under contracts that covers all of our fire alarm systems that are in there That covers our HVAC system um emergency I mean excuse me energy
management system contracts is also going to have under there all of our extinguisher inspections things like that so all the contracts fall under that that are separate from water licenses and janitorial contracts in the newer buildings you have duck smokes I imagine they do they do they manage
those we don't actually have a lot of those in there because they're actually right at the ex external um area of them so they're not built into the machines Okay That's something we have to do So yeah that's uh yeah when I worked at Wingate
at South Nursing Home every single one had a duck smoke in there Okay Um but because they built them right near the exit of the main the first I guess they got away without putting it in Okay It's very surprised but they do have CO2 uh they got detectors all through the the
building as well Carbon monoxide detectors Okay Those need testing We just replaced believe it was four of those uh this past year and then we actually added to the safety complex another CO detector because they added another room
to doing um the sleeping the overnight quarters Yeah Um it originally was an office space So legally they shouldn't have had that Yeah So we had to relocate and made sure that it was up to code Kind of a funny building to kind of you know Yeah not be able to show you know
Sorry let just find my space again here Uh Jeremy one of the ones that we had skipped sorry was the building repairs That was up 7% We went to carpentry repairs and then we skipped down to um contracted janitorium building
repairs 7% 44 So it's just I I think it was a 7% increase it says So that's just for all the buildings right yes So again trying to get in there because uh this past year we've had a lot of repairs that
we've had to pull out of there Some of them were actually for the HVAC was the major contributing factor on those Um the new library incurred some of the most costs as you probably saw from a lot of our our regular expenses Unfortunately at the 12 to 13 year mark
a lot of the components started actually becoming obsolete as well So we're having problems with that So that's been a big increase The other thing were a lot of our exterior doors and windows All of a sudden now we're starting to get issues with those with having either
penetrations and repairs needed So the costs are going up So we're anticipating doing more this coming year especially at the safety complex We have a lot of rust that's starting to show through in some of our area So we want to fix that before it becomes a problem Sure Also their roof is having major issues
because it's a metal roof off their apparatus bay which is also fairly steep So the snow has been sliding right off A lot of the tabs that actually hold back the snow on there have broken right off So it's it's an unsafe uh thing in a couple ways People can get
hit with the snow and ice that's coming down The other thing is as it comes down and it hits the ground a lot of times we're not there to do snow removal anymore because the storm may have already passed and then it freezes and clumps outside their apparatus base So then it's a a fall hazard hazard and
they had blockage out behind the chief's vehicle bay uh during one storm So they it's even hard to come out So it's going to be a little costly for that to do it So is um so the the snow stops or blocks whatever you want to call them is that
something that can be replaced yes Um I currently have a roofer trying to procure them Okay uh he went up there and got the manufacturer and everything And uh the toughest thing we're finding again with a lot of the newer buildings that were built they turn around and a lot of the
companies even the manufacturers that of products that were used went and flow shop They just closed back We have a lot of them that Yeah They're no longer in business They don't produce that anymore So but we're trying to get comparable
material so that we can get that fixed properly Okay And of course as you know economically as we can too We don't want to just start going crazy with that So all right So sorry for skipping over that one No problem All
right Just trying to find my place again Contract So telephone looks all in line with the 3% um building equipment supplies So in line with what I said with that about trying to do repairs some that we're
doing inhouse I went up to 15% and a lot of big cost of that is actually uh painting supplies that we're looking at doing over the next year in talk with the safety complex both police and fire department We'd like to try to start doing a painting program uh inside of
the police department first because seems like they have more wear and tear with a lot of the walls with things that are being done in there So if we can try to pick a couple offices at a time especially in the winter time if we have downtime where we're not plowing or doing anything else we'd like to try to
go in the ones that aren't as utilized at that time pull everything off the wall and paint them You know it could take a couple days here and there Um but as you know in maintenance you probably see paint costs went Oh yeah through the roof this year They are crazy And
incurred about an 18% uh increase Yep Uh custodial supplies we're staying in line with the 3% I'm actually still trying to work with our um person that we deal with mainly for custodial supplies I do sometimes buy from a
couple different vendors because if we're offered the same style of product um that I can get for a discounted price I prefer to do that A lot of that is paper supplies if we can get toilet paper or hand paper towels from another company Um just this past year and I
know I put that in a report we actually saved a significant amount of money on the paper supplies by fishing around you know getting the best deal And then uh CO COA repairs we're keeping it to 3%
Um again some of the repairs that'll come under here will either be carpentry or it'll be under plumbing So we should be pretty good The other that we would call COA repairs are any type of window uh repairs door repairs locks things like that that come up throughout the
year And public safety repairs we just went up 3% on that because again some of it will be things that we're going to do ourselves So that's why we're able to keep that at 3% Uh we're hoping with doing the painting and other you know
minimal repairs ourselves it doesn't increase too much then and that's the only reason it has its own line item is sometimes we have issues because of the heating and air conditioning or the plumbing where we know every year we're going to have
the same type of problems Um just in case you don't know for that building because I know you're fairly new to it um the building even for their hot water tanks Yeah During this time of the year we actually use our heating system uh to heat all the hot water domestic hot water Yeah In about another month we'll
switch it all over and we're going to go to one electric tank that's in there to heat the system Almost never fails that at that time of the year we have fish uh issues with our mixing valve It's a different amount of pressure that goes through We have sediment that may move Uh and just to rebuild that can cost
$1,000 Uh they're very costly And again that's a repair not a replace Rebuild You rebuild them Yes Yep You take all the insides out All the springs and everything will get replaced packed Uh most of the other lines So the
biggest jumps that we have there is library repairs That's actually the Carnegie building um for that one there And it's $6,800 And that's from the front ramp that's on the
building Currently has a PVC style railing And during our last inspection that was done uh it did pass at that time but just barely because it really doesn't meet the code for the weight bearing uh you're supposed to have I
believe it's 150 pounds pressure downward pressure before it would snap and it doesn't doesn't really meet that anymore So what we're looking at doing is having a company come in and I got three estimates and this was believe it or not half price from what a couple
others came in at to weld excuse me weld custom railings in there put brackets and supports So that would bring us all up to code on that because we're going to obviously need that for meetings that we have and when we have voting in there we have to keep it handicapped you know
Right So you'll have a a top rail and a mid rail for Yeah And that changes on you know and it because it has a a first landing that's on there and a second landing So kind of strange but even all the turns Yeah ends up costing you more than
having it done on there Um so they figured that all in Uh so some of that will be done on site and the rest you know will be brought in already pre-done but all the corners are going to be turned there and welded together on site Okay Uh the next one is
equipment 21,800 You see I haven't had anything in there the last couple of years with equipment under there because we have had larger pieces of equipment that have had to go out and actually be on our capital So I believe you got a sheet on
each one of those excuse me from Taplan So there's there's one in there that's the $12,79 Mhm So that one is a standon blower unit Billy Goat which brought a picture of that So it's just a large stand on
blower unit for the large areas that we have Um we're also if we were to get it it would actually help us too in the parking lots to be able to blow the sand out of the areas a lot easier Currently we're using backpack blowers and we have a smaller push be walkbehind push unit
uh it just doesn't have the power to move the amount of sand that we're putting down The safety complex is the biggest thing with that You know if we're moving the cruisers all around to one side to blow we're working an entire day we probably get about a third of it done So we're hoping to get that unit
And then also for the parks um today was a good example of that Brown Ellison trying to get it out from the fences and the backpack blower was barely doing it where I think more powerful you're on it and it's done in you know virtually no
time But then to pick up the leaves we haven't had a a suction unit that can actually pick up the leaves and put them into the back of a truck So all of it's usually done by hand We have to rake it onto the front of the loader or put it in buckets and then dump And we've had
the U National Honor Society come and do raking and everything Then we have piles sitting there waiting to be picked up Sure for good weeks because we just can't do it So we were hoping to get a unit Um we weren't looking for a trailer We were actually looking the one that we
put on there was a skid mount So you can actually mount it right to the back of the truck itself This one is missing the tube that would come from here That's that sucks it up Um but this is a representation of how we can mount it right to the back of the current truck We would just put a wood box into it on
the current uh stake body trucks we have And those stake body trucks are dump beds So we'd be able to back up right to a pile and dump it in So those are the two items under equipment that I'm looking for for that one And those are Is the Granger under too
Excuse me No the Granger is the Granger is under a different No the Granger is actually just under our equipment I mean I'm sorry Supplies Maintenance supplies Um but I just want to show you too that that is a large cost and why and we need
that We don't currently have any flammable storage and of course by code we need it Department of Labor standards we we need it We currently you know try to not keep all of our fuel stored in one area So then we be at least
dispersed of the different areas Um and with the quotes that you'll see from Taplin obviously we actually receive a pretty large you know discount We get a 5% all the time which might not seem like a lot to the to some people but it's pretty good And then on another one
I think we get an 18% discount on the blower because we try to go with everybody that has a state uh bid on there or contracts Let's see And then uh we do have the line item on there where we didn't really go up this
year but last year we didn't have it in there was the old library electrical So again keeping in uh compliance with our certificate of occupancy we need to put lighting out at that ramp area Currently that doesn't have backup
battery powered lighting out there Okay So you have to maintain a 25- ft path that's clear of obstruction and illuminated So currently it doesn't have anything that's on battery backup So that would add that to that And what they did on the other I already
had one done this year was on the back fire escape because we had to bring that up to compliance right away We added on to our emergency lighting that's in the building so that the battery backup works for outside and we illuminated that that never had illumination so it
wasn't in compliance So now it's 100% in compliance with everything I think that's the last line item Yes it is Do you have any questions on any of those and again I'm sorry for my voice
but we worked outside all day today and it just wre havoc Where does the mowing come in on here like u is that that would be in salary and wages right correct And then whatever Okay Yeah And then repair and maintain uh
equipment is for the equipment that we use for doing mowing Okay And that's the that's usually the largest cost of repair and maintain equipment is for all the mowing equipment because you have we do all of
our own oil changes on those throughout the year So we have to buy the oil and the filters uh air filters on them as well Replace the blades The anti-scout wheels um go quite off And last year we had the larger Toro mower down for a
period of almost two months while we were waiting for them to do repairs and work on that one So we were out on due frame park for an entire week Monday through Friday with two zero turns mowing the whole thing So by the time we get done with that then we'd have to move to another property It would grow
for a week and then we'd have to go back and we do it again What do you do with the waste oil do you have a waste oil we have a waste oil burner at the highway department So all the oil can go there Okay Very good Um if we ever have any type of uh other fluids we have a local
um maintenance place Yeah They will take it for us for cost Okay Um and none of this equipment is available from the highway department for you guys to share They don't have they don't have a large blower or van Okay Yeah Okay No but we'd be willing to let them share
They need it Um before Jeremy leaves too Yes Under the budget David had put in for a new skid steer Okay Copcat Yeah And the he wants to be able to keep the
second the original Bobcat because that has a hydraulic snowblower attachment to it I remember that being discussed Okay So what that will potentially save us is I think it's about $2,000 to a take off
the mower and put the blower attachment in and then another 2,000 to take the blower off and put the mower attachment back in So by that's a sub that's a subcontractor You don't do that Correct Okay It's it's a it has so explain Go
ahead It's a proprietary computerized system on there which then allows the system to know that it's no longer mowing with the front deck It's part of the safety features that are on there Okay So unfortunately we can't just do a swap and it takes two mechanics approximately 5 hours okay to do it on
location All right Okay So I just want to let you know that there's a potential of saving budget if town meeting approves the purchase of the new Bobcat with the secondary Bobcat being stored at the public safety complex with the
blower attach or yeah the blower attach snowblower on it already Okay And the good thing with that if that happens is I believe because the Bobcat is no longer lifting anything that weighs over 500 lb
you know as as a a load It's actually pushing uh I believe you don't need a hoisting engineer's license to operate it I'm going to check into that a little further with the state but I believe it's Yeah I think it might same as if it had a sweeper on it Sure Um so that
would mean that I wouldn't be the only one that could utilize it My other two gentlemen would be able to as well Okay With with of course a little training right practice Yes they take practice Lot of practice I I plan on ours once in a
while Oh uh sorry Jeremy The other question So when you mow the other properties do you charge the other departments does anything come out of their budget to mow the properties school school department school department the inind services we
back charge them and why is that I guess because you don't charge the police to mold their yard we because because under ed reform because to be able to go towards our net
school spending figure we're allowed to backcharge services that are done by town departments and paid by town for that one department You're allowed to but you don't have to Right So we're allowed to Okay But the problem becomes
is when the mowing season does start these fence we're in northern amount of time just at the fields out at the schools Yeah But they're a town department So I guess I just don't understand why we're charging them
They are town department but they fall under a different agency desi They don't follow the same rules that we follow here under the do but it does take away from so we're counting it as spending for per pupil but we're not spending it
goes towards our cost of educating the student population Yes How much does it cost you do you have that number or know that number give me a second That might have been the first couple of pages We back charge
them $2,900 a year That's for 6.5 man hours $30 an hour and we do about 15 mowings over the course of the year 2900 Chris 2925
Yeah And I think we've been keeping that dollar rank the same Yeah We a lot of times we spend a lot more than that for for time out there Yeah Doesn't seem like a lot So the other item too I didn't uh bring up and I don't know if you have it on
there or you've seen it There is one capital uh improvement item that I had put in for which was the Graanby safety complex If you don't have copies of that I do hope they don't have the capital Okay I don't think they sell our capital
Well just so you know what for them So that one there as I've talked about the energy management system that's on there is gotten antiquated and right now we actually even have some of our controls in there John's controls the displays
don't even work anymore So the only way you can actually see what the system is doing is to plug a computer into the system which then we also run into a problem a lot of times because one safety complex is run through the computer system that the police department utilizes So therefore a lot
of their firewalls block you when you're inside the building Um strange enough I can go down the street to the old library and log in via Wi-Fi and do it So there are times we've actually had to have a service person there at the building performing work
and one of us sitting at the computer out of the building to do it Um it just it's blocks it even when they've used the Wi-Fi card on their thing to do a different network it seems like something with the proximity is telling the system the firewall don't let us do
it but um that's almost totally separate from this So what we did was under the recommendation you know FMC was the second company that came in and told us that we really need to update the system and change it We also have Polar Refrigeration that we deal with all the
time Uh Bill Bragel in town who does a lot of HVAC work He's brilliant when it comes to looking at the systems figuring out which is integral to us being able to get things fixed quickly because a lot of times if FMC dials into the system remotely from their home office
you know across the state they say "Nope the valve is opening up fine Everything looks great You should have heat." Um I look at it and say "Yep looks saying that it's there The computer says it." He can come in and go "No this is wrong This is you know not happening." problem
with is a lot of our actuators are failing and they're obsolete Um so they went through to see how much it would take to do all the controllers everything else and wrote us this proposal I again I have a novice energy coming in on Monday and they're going to
do an energy audit on both of the systems at the library and at the police fire department They're the ones that we've used in the past and come through and tell us are there any type of grants that might be available are there any type of initiatives out there from the
energy companies you know mass saves something like that be able to do it but at least this gave us a jumping point for the cost Yeah And then we we'll put it in there for the capital because the other thing I was told is a lot of times we're going to need the funds up front
anyway Okay And then you you know you get reimbursed if not all of it you know at least part of it So at least gives us somewhere to start with I don't want to come in to a failed system because there's really no way to just bypass
things on these systems No I understand that It becomes a nightmare You may have seen a lot of times on my reports where I'll say it's called in for this problem or that problem I think I had to go back online and check it several times during the day We re our most recent failure of
the system was on an actuator that opened a valve that was for the apparatus bay So they called me saying it was cold again I looked on the computer told me the valves open at 70 or so percent and that the room was warm Come in and go "Nope it's freezing It's
50°." Mhm And the valve is totally closed So even you know it wouldn't even tell the system that it was doing the wrong thing So that's that's what I put that in for I did have some great feedback from a person on the capital funds committee to make sure that we own
the system and that we also have the licensing for the system so that way we don't have to pay somebody else if we decide we're going to change something that they say oh no no we own it years um so I thought that was great so that's what we're going to make sure is if we
do move forward with anything in the future is that we have full rights of the system and we're not paying a a maintenance to somebody all the time I have to be honest I'm not shocked with that number No because we have
some are uh well let's just say that number is 10% of what we have to replace I I actually have two people that have told me that doesn't seem right and it seems low by about 30% So So I'll see
what the other experts say on Monday Okay Um it it'll take a little while to get their report back but I'm anticipating a two week turnaround from the time they look at it from what they've said Right Yeah Maybe a little low
Still a small number compared to what I Yes in comparison the the price I will choke at or recommendation is when they look at the electrical system at the library because that's the same type like miniature I had where that's why we that
was when we had that discussion about the lighting not to change it because it's Yeah Yeah Because every every light at the library has its own IP address So you can't just change a fixture It's back to the computer system You'd have to rewire the entire thing to say go
back to an occupancy sensor right or a switch Sometimes you wonder like why do they make it so complicated that only one person can come in and fix it there you go It's like vehicles You just want to turn it on and off guys On and off Well to be honest with you when it was
put in place there were probably three places that could service it Yeah Two of the places I went out of business Okay But now we're down to one So now I believe the only place that does it I think is out of Canada Yeah Out of
Ottawa Wow So and because of the particular systems or because Yeah because of the system that that one again it went it went out of business a couple years after it was put in and then they sold licenses to work on it even and the person that building wanted
that system Yes So that's that's the thing is I mean you know at the time it may have seemed like the greatest thing that was around and technologically it was a great thing to put in Um but even for the age it was put in I was very surprised that they
put in fluorescent fixtures right because LED was already available Yeah So that should have been a kind of a red flag putting in I think probably because of the shading that they were going to try and have
the computer do so that if it if it's full sun was going to be very low light right if it's as as the sun went down then they would slowly brighten So it stays the same lumens Yes I don't think
you'd get it with an LED type of system probably not with the with the gradual change in the position the sun season it is things of that nature Sure I think that's why they went with fluorescent versus an LED No you got to use the
button turn it up turn it down Yeah you do Yeah And we're having problems with some of those switches too Um Yeah And that's And I And again we can't just change them like you'd want to do And I was told the price on one switch that was in that community room was over
$1,000 just for the switch Must be a large bank then Large bank Yeah Yeah Oh yeah It is We We removed it with the electrician there And I couldn't believe the amount of wall space it took up Yeah And I think they literally configured
that room to the hallway with the wall just for the accommodation of the switches I wouldn't be surprised by that And all the battery backups that are at the lighting that are on flush mounted lights are all in junction boxes doubled deep into the walls Yeah So you have to remove the entire fixture just to change
a battery backup on the lights Yeah Energy management systems That's the architects love them Well thank you very much You look nice What do we do for them yes Have any I'm feeling his pain No I don't Thank you
All right Thank you very much for your time Thank you And sorry for the weave Oh can I apologize that our and co is next a little stair sorry for the wave I know
All right Sorry I have to take my glasses off but now you guys are all fuzzy Sorry That's okay All right So um when I did the budget I added the 3% to my budget from 2025 Okay
And got the total amount And then from the salary I did everyone got a step up and then did the 3% cola which gave me the difference at
expenses and um the first salary went up just a little bit Um the outreach one I left the same and the wages
um went down a little bit I left the same for repairs and maintenance on that first one 54 5240 But on the repairs and maintenance I went up a little bit for the white van
the white band I have two quotes and one verbal I'm waiting for a paper quote on that one to fix the rust on the bottom part of it Um the inside's good It's just that um I want to keep the vehicle
longer and for it to pass inspection in the future I want to nip it right there So that's why that one's up a little bit That's not the poor transit that he was talking about right the what that's not the boarding one Yeah the wheelchair one Okay Yeah
Let's see Where are we at printing newspaper I left the same I went up on postage I've gone up um mailing out an extra 400 newsletters per month since I started
in I think it was June Why such a large increase because it was never updated So there was that month many people that have aged into it that never received it for like almost four to five years Okay So in May when I get
a new p uh that booklet of everybody's dates and everything I'll go over it and add more people um for the newsletter And they do have the option for online too right they do my email Yeah it is on the newsletter I'm going to try to
encourage um more of the email Yeah And then for the office supplies I left the same and miles meals and meetings I left the same And also for the dues And for uh Natalie for the part-time you
don't think you're going to need the full amount cuz we did 39,000 last year and you're budgeting at 32 right i am missing a part-time driver He passed away Okay Um we did hire now I'm trying
to hire a new one but uh no it just came out that way when I added everything up So I kept it um I lowered it to 32,000 I'm just worried if we're Oh I see Never
mind Cuz I was looking at budget FY2025 but that's not what we actually spent Okay And then if you look at the other ones it's in line with those Even the actual for 2024 is low compared to Okay that makes sense I see it now Yeah
About 3,000 lower than she has now Yeah Okay All right Perfect Thank you for that And expenses too You went down too right you don't want to What's the expenses for is if the
other ones are like supplies and stuff like that Say that one more time Are the expenses like for unforeseen things if you go up to the top Yeah says it's a little lower than last year Um I think that's a little lower because of the um
the wages went up a little higher Okay Yeah All right It's pretty clut drive Yeah Yep It's a senior lunch program So with that one I also did the um step up in the 3% and that's what
I've got for total All right Seems pretty cut and dry to me Not a lot of categories for you Yeah they don't have a dish You don't guys don't have a dishwasher anymore Or
because you have it you don't have to Yeah I do have the dishwasher Um that did break a couple weeks ago and yeah so I called someone they came and they fixed it within a week Um I still have to put that in the warrant coming up
All right So I don't know if I'm looking at the right one now because I have the paper from you that says fiscal year 127 127,963 but on the paper one that I have it says
1,00 Okay never mind I was looking at I wasn't putting the wages and the expenses together so we're good now Okay All right Yeah because those two go together and then that would be the total That makes sense All right I don't think I have any questions Thank
you for doing this Make a lot of steps Great Thank you You're welcome Have a good night Make sure to You're also Thank you All right Now it's just us Chris Select board Do you want to start there do you
want to go through the select board budget first and then go back to the original or All right before we even go Okay Okay Let me just read to you my proposals change to the
All right Okay Yes For the question Okay Okay The the question that I changed it to read as follows Okay Shall the town of Graanby be allowed to exempt from the provisions Proposition 2 and 1/2
so-called the amounts required to pay for the bonds issued in order to pay for hazardous materials abatement in the plus or minus 44,000 square foot West Street building
and renovation of plus or minus 22,000 square ft for municipal space including the payment of all costs incidental and related thereto Can we say municipal spaces for plural
spaces I'm just wondering because that will say municipal space because what if we just throw one department in there for a time being No And municipal space is municipal space Yeah How we break it up it's municipal space how we break it up will
be assessor's office so on and so forth It's only going to be one really space that we're right I'll change it to spaces I don't have a problem with that No I was just wondering if we do the plural because it could possibly include the COA or not but it doesn't matter That would be a
municipal space or municipal office within that space I agree I think that makes sense And then then Yeah Oh I debated space spaces Yeah Yeah It's word smithing It means the same thing Yeah Okay So okay I'm just letting you know that's and that sounds good cuz you
separated the 44,000 abatement and you separated the renovation So that's what we needed to do Right And I actually I'll I'll get it together and get it out to you guys by email just so you have a chance to look at it Okay Okay Okay And then that will be the first thing we do
on the 15th Yes Okay All right Uh order slide Yes This was a little bit of a complicated budget to try and put together Okay Uh
Glenn has always tried to get $5,000 a piece for each of the select board members Yeah When I talked to the finance committee they're saying no they're only going to allow the 3% increase So that could potentially be an argument on town floor if that's what you so desire Okay So is that why it
says um the 33% The 33% was our request Okay They're going to deny it and if you really feel passionate about it you can make an amendment on a meeting floor to increase it to be 15,000 Okay Because they're they're going to
knock it down to it's 112 11 23 They're going to knock it down to 11585 probably Okay
that's 3% over this year Yeah And with the amount of time that you guys have been putting in I think you need you should get more too But that's that's a fight outside of my control Yeah Uh again salary is per the contract that
you just signed with the new long-term y administrator The next slide actually the next two the 12377 and the 10,400 Kathy's going to stay on for part
of the year Okay Okay She will get five weeks vacation as of July 1 So trying to get an idea of what she is doing is like wrangling
chickens Um so I am planning for her to be here to December 31st half year Okay I'm I'm saying her salary per her contract will be 73702 Um divi I divided that by 26 pays
to get a her pay cost and then I plan for 15 pays which would be instead of 13 which would be giving her paying her four weeks vacation out Okay Okay It's a it's it's a guest of it Yeah Total guest
of it Then I turned around and said "Okay when we hire a new assistant town administrator what do we think we're going to pay them?" I projected
60,000 Would be less would be more don't know All depends what the board decides their final job description is going to be Yeah So that at 60 for half a year is 30,000
Then I turned around and budgeted a stipen for the assistant tunnel administrator of $50 at 35 days So you're going to be going out on vacation sick personal away at meetings
so on and so forth I figured 35 days over the course of fiscal year Okay And then we have the other clerk who I budgeted for the full year at her
that did at her step and grid That comes to the 20 12377 Okay I don't have 123 on my paper Do you do you oh no I do Got it You got it Yep Okay I was on the wrong line I was like what no that's okay I was on the
the salaried line Okay No Gotcha Okay So coming down below to the 10,400 again I figure there's going to be some training of the new assistant by Captain Yeah
Okay I don't know how long it's going to work but I'm saying at the maximum would be 20 hours per week at 13 weeks at about $40 per
hour that comes to 10,000 Is that high possibly I don't know Yeah Okay If you want I can reduce that figure Again like I said
trying to gaze into the crystal ball and it's hard to try and figure out what you're going to do Okay I erred on the side of caution If you want I can adjust it accordingly if this is what the board so
desires Again it's my best guesstimate I I think 40 You think I think 40 is a little bit high but if you think we should keep it Well her current rate of pay is about $45 an hour Oh okay All right then I guess 40 an hourish Okay So
I'm saying you couldn't be coming back to help right okay Okay So part time You got to give it Yeah Yeah No that's got to make it worth for a while Yep That's fair then And and and you're right Right Because you you want to pay her 30 bucks
an hour to come back She ain't worth it right i'm just Yeah I'm I'm thinking if somebody replaces her parttime but you're thinking Kathy helping part time So no we're going to replace the position He's saying Kathy's going to train them So this line item is just for
the training of that person for her to sit down with this new assistant Then that's and say this is what this is what we do Yep During when it's time to renew the licenses alcohol licenses This is what we do at this is how you go about
putting together the annual town meeting booklet This is how you do that Okay Okay Okay I agree with that then All right Don't know if it'll take that long I don't know if it'll take that much time but depends on how fast they
catch on Right Right Like I said I'm airing on the side of caution Yeah Okay And he's got 13 weeks built in there Yeah Right So if they only need five hours one week but they need 10 hours the next week or something like that then they may catch on and you don't
have to do it for the full for three months Yeah Okay Fair enough So that's where that is and that's how I come to that 10,400 for that line item And if you look at the wages
overtime it's down a little because we're not going to be paying Kathy at her rate for the full year Okay I'm hiring the replacement of what I feel will be at a lower rate Okay Which then would affect any overtime hours
that that person would put in to get the job done Yeah Okay The only thing that I was thinking and I understand I wasn't thinking lower rate I was like well Cali's been doing it for years You don't think it's going to take them double the time but again at a
lower rate which I I didn't go there that would make sense Okay And that's all I'm just trying to like I said this was a difficult one to try and work Yeah sure Okay And longevity pay goes with her Well the
longevity pay just went down because you're not paying my longevity Mhm Okay Okay Mine was $2,500 a year Well on Kathy's contract hers was up $35 every
year $2500 minus uh 35 comes to the 2460 deduction Okay Okay office rental Again this number may change depending upon
negotiations This was budgeted at the same monthly rent of 2,200 for 9 months Okay because it was originally guesstimated that West Street building was going to be renovated and those offices would be
vacated by March 31st That's the only information I have at this point It may change based upon our discussions that we've had here on what we want to try and see if the owner is willing to go along with So that
number could potentially change Okay Okay Um repairs and maintenance that is up 100% because we now lease two copers in FY25 That was to lease the copier up at
the annex We now lease one here Well subsequent to that the one upstairs here decided to die So we're now leasing the copier here Good And they're the leases are very
close to being the same So that's why I just doubled Mhm Uh the contracted services that's the 12,000 that is for us to pay for uh Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative
to build the Medicare related expenses that the school incurs Medicare Medic Medicaid Okay Medicaid Okay Yeah I I have problems with Medicaid versus
Medicare Um all the other line items are pretty much the same The only one that I went up a little bit is advertising because it seems like we got this year actually our budget was over spent in advertising because we did the
fire chief twice Yeah We did the town administrator Uh you know we we've had a lot of positions that building commissioner Yes Okay So I'm just budgeting just to get a little buffer on that one Okay And then we contractually
we have travel and under for the new and new administrators contract I bumped that up for what you promised her she could have y for conferences and so on and so forth
That makes sense And basically that's the budget Well it's real simple Well it's not that simple but Well I mean as opposed to uh what Jeremy and the chief just went through
Okay So that's 122 Finance committee is 131 They just have me do it 3% Reserve fund relieving level at 130,000 Where I'm sorry I'm at 132 Go
down one page It was 131 We don't have page numbers No it was this finance committee numbers Oh okay Okay I'm I'm looking at departments I'm sorry Okay So 122 was us 122 is us 131 is finance committee Oh I have 133 next Hold on Oh
you do okay So let me push those off please Site 13 computer Computer system Yeah Okay We have a couple items coming up in fiscal year 26 but I think can be absorbed by the
budget In October of 2025 Windows 10 will no longer be supported by Microsoft So we now have to migrate to Office
11 Okay or Windows 11 I'm sorry When going through that one of the machines that we currently have uh
supported or under our IT contract is so old that it will not be able to be upgraded to Windows 11 So we have to buy another computer Okay that's going to be about
$3,000 That's down in the computer hardware That's part of that increase of 6,400 65 6,500 Okay Yep I'm sorry I I switched to 4 So 3,000 for the computer and then all
the software you have to put on it No Okay No the software is going to be okay They they quoted me about I think it was $9,000 to do the upgrade to the new licenses All we're buying is licenses We don't have to buy the
software It's just we buy bundles I think of five licenses that way Okay Okay I have enough in the current budget to be able to do that Okay The only other item that I have to buy
is we have to buy a notepad for our building Yeah Okay The quote I got for the notepad was
about 20 Let me find it was about $2400 Wow Okay So and the other part of that is
cost of our laptops have been going up every year I got enough in there to probably buy a B&B replace for either the mini desktops or
laptops and I don't see any of them really having any issues at this point So the expenses Chris are for all the licenses all the malware the system itself for backup and everything Yes And then the capital would would be for all
the stuff that you just mentioned that needs to be updated new Yes Okay Yes Okay Everything goes up All right All right So you said one 31 right well don't worry about that I I forget I have
my whole packet here but I went through with the finance committee Okay And I got to go back and put my head in 135 is 135 is the town account Correct Okay Oh yes This is where we agreed on the
software And that's the biggest jump that you're having Yeah sure is That was the ADP right adp and Vader Okay Okay the ADP was is going to run us about 36,000 year 1 and VDAR is going to run
us about 12,000 Okay which is the biggest which is at 54,000 because they're also a setup fee of like 6,500 and with A&P and things of that nature
So just to try and cover all those expenses Okay How how did the part-time wait because you're no longer the TA and okay county when we had originally looked we were going to contract out
accounting services contract services okay okay it's not contract it's now payable okay so you're going to see the minus60 down below low Okay Yeah And then the plus 44 up top Got it For a net
change of minus6,000 15 and change Yep All right Got it You can tell I'm getting tired when I got to the audit one I was like "Adult adult what?" Yeah What adult professional services what is
that wait a minute We won't go down that one Um yeah The audit is to have the independent auditor come in on an annual basis and review the books Flight Oh Chris I'm sorry I should have asked you What are you so you're a contractor
for the town until June of 2026 Are you at the current time at the current time So that's something that the next board will have to discuss with you because if you're not going to stay on we're going to have to put it out there And I'm going to be honest I'm going to
I'm going to talk to to you right now about coming back The accounting part was simple but the amount of stress that I've had being the interim again Yeah Is really taken its toll on me Mhm And I'm going to be
honest with you about we've had a lot of things that have come through that languished in the month and a half that I wasn't here or about the month I wasn't here And now everybody wants it taken care Yeah
And again while my health is still fairly well I was getting a good jump on it I'm starting to feel it again Yeah Okay And and to be honest with you that's a concern of me at this point
It's it's good that we have so many starting soon Yes Yeah But not with the amount of stuff we have going on almost not soon enough because believe me we feel the stress being on the board with all the stuff that we've been going through So I mean it's a lot It's a lot
And at my age I'm sorry I have to say it you know in 69 going to be 70 And yeah it's it's amazing how in a three-year time period it can change and how it affects you
right You know the 10:00 meetings Yeah Yeah All the time It's like 10:00 It's a 5h hour meeting now all the time And it's just really taxing And it's not that we're trying to make it long It's we
don't we want to take care of business right that's why we have the meeting but the business just keeps going Yes And that's And that's the problem And it's And for me it's not like a 10 15 minute ride home Yeah 45 minutes Yeah That's So
I got out of here at 10:00 Yeah You're looking at 11 or 11:30 depending on who can go home right away and just put your head down Nobody Yeah that's the way it is I know that's the way it is So but yeah but I'm just being honest with the board Yeah I appreciate
your honesty and Okay Is and all we can do is our best and you know what our health comes first So it is what it is and that's what it is I put my health on hold for for many many years Yeah Yeah No I can't do that No Yeah don't blame
me Yeah just can't Sorry Um next one is legal department that we have Yeah Oh boy You know I Oh not too bad of a jump Okay Basically it's a 3% that we're going to pay for the retainer fee for our town council
Town council Um I know IRA was looking at reducing it I prefer not to I would rather see us go through a year
or two of reduc reduced reduced need for outside counsel Mhm I don't see that happening because we have labor council special counsel that are involved in a couple of topics Yeah that I think are going to
run into time and money [Music] And if Brian Tulle happens to be here advising the board because the new administrator isn't
as knowledgeable of the laws That's going to run into money Yeah We'll have to fall back on a little Okay So until or until she can get her feet wet a little bit more and get a good feel for it you know because I know when
I was gone Brian was here at meetings Yeah we did have them on a couple of them actually because we had some big things going on and at $1 say $85 an hour five hours a night Yeah it adds up quick It does So would that be under the
salary or would that be under the expense no that goes under the other legal fees because Okay I see where you are now The the the retainer one is to call him and ask him for a quick opinion on this quick opinion right you know he's been involved with a couple of the
an investigation you know that's been going on and things of that nature And I just think I'd rather be safe than sorry Yeah Yeah Yeah I think we have to meet with them at this point because of what's going on and what we've been dealing with Yes So the expenses would
be for all the other councils Yes Labor Jack Collins Comcast August That's almost to an end actually Uh him and I have had a
conversation Well same how we are in legal counsel We are close to accepting the offer that has been negotiated with concise Okay Uh I want to say for what
we requested I want to say we've got a good 90 to 95% of what we asked Okay An additional channel uh they are basically close to funding what we
requested for our capital needs for 10 years They are close to funding like franchise fees and things of that nature We changed the methodology They were going to try and reduce us of what we're
going to get We counter offered They wanted to give us a dollar per subscriber for the next 10 years Well we know with streaming services out there sometimes you don't need Comcast right
So we we think that some of the subscribers are going to be reduced as we go along I was one of them Yeah I only do Wi-Fi through them I'm just being I'm just being honest That's where it's going Yeah So
they were going to do just a dollar per subscriber for the 10-year period of time Uh we don't want that We know we're going to lose subscribers by the end of this contract So we had proposed doing a dollar for the first five years
a$150 for years six through 10 Okay I can accept a little bit but we want to make it up a little bit towards the end Yeah they didn't want to do that So what we ended up doing or they made a
final offer to us was to a dollar the first year increase it 1% for the first five years and then jump to a buck 25 for year six through
10 Pretty close Yeah Yeah I don't want to be greedy but they were willing to pay it to us So we got another channel Okay we get the capital almost every dollar that we
requested for capital needs and we're I feel we made a good deal for the driver the uh attorney August had gotten back to Comcast and I'm just waiting to see if the final contract comes through Good
That's awesome That's a long It's a long process Yes it is It's back and forth back and forth until parties agree Yes Yeah You wouldn't think you'd have to deal that much with them as a but I guess you need the services It used to be a committee that did it Yes Really
but we don't have anyone who wanted to do it So we went for outside counsel to do it for us who negotiates contracts like those Yeah Yeah Okay Yeah And him and I had been in contact like I said during the whole process So we had many conversations regarding what we were
going to try to request from them So um basically that's legal budget Now I'm going to ask with it getting late Do you want me to continue going through each one or do we just want to go through and ones you have questions
on we deal with really running an hour behind what we projected to be doing It's up to you I think I'm good on board of appeals We can just look at it one at a time
Just state which one we're on and then you have any questions No that's fine Like I said it's just the lateness of the hour and I know you guys want to get Yeah There's only there's there's almost no changes on that Yeah Advertising which we know
goes up Yes Yeah So and then the tuition and meetings that's just when they go when they have to post when they want to go to a conference and be learn on a certain topic or whatever and utilities public utilities buildings
and gas went up Actually public utilities ended up going down Yeah I was going to say electricity was down the propane went up but we know the price of propane went up right propane has been been a tough item It seems like it keeps going up and up and
up especially ever since Eversource took it over from Colombia Oh yeah Because they're paying off all that explosion in Boston area Yeah Well well we're paying for the Yeah the in Lawrence It was Lawrence
right yeah So but uh we've been lucky with the heating oil We get a very good price from a local vendor Uh we've been paying probably $34 a gallon Nice
Uh he's been very good to us We've been lucky with the pricing as compared to the annex where we get it from another local vendor and it's like $3.94 Yeah Big difference Oh but the annex
because we rent it we can't take our um we have to use their Okay Yes Excuse me And the West Street school for heating You expect it to go down because we don't know what's going to happen right so again
I guess you know I base it on historical data as much as I can but if we're going to shut down half the building and not heat it or keep it at 52° or something of that
nature Yeah you know it may help us you don't need to go through the calculation of electricity for us Nope that's okay That's I just put it there so you can see how I come up with my numbers
I am curious for the library now that we talked about those lights all the time with the Okay because you would have it under here as Carnegie Hall maybe or there's three libraries so one of them's got to be Carnegie Hall right hold on
The one with 116,800 kilowatt It's the fourth one from the bottom That's the new library That's the new public library Okay What helps us a little bit with that is we have a solar panel on the roof Oh
okay Okay Only one Well well it's covers a section like a side or one or two sides Okay No it's not just one single panel Just saying there's a solar system on it Okay I'll change it to that So
that helps us a little bit Then the other thing that helps us is that they're included We buy power from a solar fear That's curs right right Ours is out in a so we get a
100% reduction from national grid for the power cost and we only pay 80% of it towards the cure So we save actually 20% on every kilowatt and that is curs on here I was curious
about what that's actually it's a it's is that right there where all the negatives are the third column from the from the right see it says cursarch curse arch okay and the ones with the negatives are the ones we have included to buy the power from
this solar field you said some savings yes now the high school does the same right do they get from a solar field they got it from I think east All right And this one doesn't have a name on it or one says natural The one
behind it says natural gas Is this one the oil one where it's got Aldridge fire highway okay That's the oil one Okay Yeah So if you stat it by year so you can see the increase and decrease
depending on how much they're charging for oil It's amazing huh yeah Can you imagine 2001 $4624 oh we were in a different building
There's that too Yep All the way to 5,000 Yep Yes So where do we have natural Oh here we go West Street building here Natural gas here right or
propane yes we have natural gas here And we have propane at the new library The new library has propane And then the dog pound is heated with propane So this one's the propane one The pump
stations too Pump stations Yes Okay Yeah And then the highway every now and then has a propane heater that sometimes we have to fill in the winter time Yep When
there's not enough waste oil that comes in Oh To to continue heating just by waste oil Okay So it's a reserve tank when they don't have the oil to burn Yes Right So the public buildings for gasoline that's really for his um trucks
and stuff right actually gasoline is for everybody All department all our departments police fire highway uh council on aging you know public buildings Jeremy's equipment Okay
Cemetery it's included under a lot of this stuff too So do you think that number can come down some or you don't know what the is going to happen with the gas prices right what's going to happen with OPEC yeah What's going to happen with the tariffs no Okay You know I'm It's again
can we knock it down we might be in trouble later We could try but then all of a suddenly uh OPEC gets upset and they start an embargo again You know who knows what's going to happen That's
another one Try and read your crystal ball is what the price of oil is going to do If only we had one Yep Mine's kind of cloudy to be honest with you All right Communications That's all our telephones and our cable
connections to all our public buildings police fire gear highway annex old library And I be honest with you I I have been toying with the idea of looking at what
fiber would cost us at the go gtt Yeah go to switch over from Comcast to them for fiber Is it I don't know if it's I haven't done my research on it either if it to know if it's a better system like if
it's a faster system on a interrupted system I've heard people who are on it they've had very little interruptions very little issues regarding connectivity Yeah it's been a very stable system I don't know about the
cost and all the other stuff that goes along with it I've heard the same that it is a good system but I also heard that it's more costly Okay So but that's only a few people that I know that did decide to go with it And would it just
be for internet or would they run a telephone through it too sure They must run telephone Yeah Yeah I'm sure they can because I believe some people still have telephone through the old Grand Vel the 467 Yeah One of them are just
still just Right Ours was with Comcast one Yeah Sure So is the inspections like the um building That's our building commission Okay That's what I was thinking Um I just wanted to get that to
you so that you could see we incorporated the new contract into it Yep Okay and his I was going to say and his um classes
That's the 1,800 for tuition meetings Okay got it I'm sorry Where is it that's I see it 1800 telephone right yeah Yeah Yeah That is telephone Where is it i got to figure out where it
is Education and books right yes and I think in his contract Chris we had he has to come to the board if he wants to go to something you budgeted yes you budgeted uh x number of dollars but however in order to attend he has to get prior
approval of the select board so would we have to pull that from our budget because I don't know if it would be in his budget right under the $566 Let me go back and look at that I don't think you have to pull it from yours Okay I think it's just in part of his We
would be able to find it in here I'll I'll be able to look and see Okay Okay I'll let you know May I ask uh what is Mileage Electrical okay The what it is is our inspectors
We contract out with inspectors to go out and do you do electrical work We pay them $35 per inspection plus mileage to go to and from the site Got it Okay Okay And
that's all that really is So even for the the gas inspector we have mileage for him to go Okay and do his inspection So it's the mileage to the trade Yes Got it It didn't make sense to me Where is their inspections will go underneath the
inspection part got it And if you notice under stipen I have it at 4,000 which was I believe what you had negotiated with him I think it was like 3.40 a month or something or other I believe I have to go back and look at
the is it that much What's the stipen for i think for him to use his own vehicle to go to meet I thought it was just mileage reimbursement that we were doing So it's going to be under that stipen Yeah I think I think that's where it would be because that's where we put
Damian's for his $50 a week Okay That he was getting I'm a little fuzzy on that one because that one Kathy was talking to me as I was trying to figure everything out Yeah I'm not sure if we gave him a
stipen I think we said he can take the car out there Bell electric car He uses that for the inspections daily Okay Okay Around town but I think there was something else about him using his own vehicle for something out there Attend meetings or or whatever Something of
that nature I can't remember what what it was I can I'll have to go back and look I don't remember that Can we look into that a little bit sure because I don't remember the stipend of it I remember I thought I remember mileage Okay let me
let me go back and look inside the contract itself Okay thank you Ser way contract with Northampton right yes So good
Good Emergency management Emergency management is basically uh you know the code red system we use to notify people Yep Um it's also pays for
um we uh we turn around and uh contract with a private firm for weather forecasting for our site alone or like the town itself uh that runs us uh actually that's under
uh the uh emergency management supplies is like 15,500 a year And what they do is they have when a snowstorm is coming in they have a weatherman for lack of it a
meteorologist who is on site available for us to talk to Yeah and they tell us what the weather's going to be in Grandy ahead of time Yeah Versus going based upon what you see on channel 22 what you see through the National Weather
Administration Noah all that It's like we have our own Noah for the town of Graan Viet itself and then they advise the highway department that please Yes Yeah We also have that in check
I'm just It's hard to explain It's like you have your own weatherman on Yeah on step on on street Pretty well Chip That's where it is So so the sewer enterprise fund pretty much should pay for itself because everyone pays their sewer fees
Yes Uh just so you know prior to town meeting we will set sewer rate for FY26 Okay That will be coming in front of you probably first meeting in May to be
honest with you Now do we need that in order to do this budget for it though well what it happens is is the board will decide if they're going to use any of the retained
earnings to reduce the impact of that large increase from South Adley That number that they increased here from 15 to 35 units and they went
up dramatically on peru cost Yes So the question that's the coffee pot Okay Because it's plugged in What it does it keeps the water in the tank warm I'm hearing something gurgling I'm like what is that yeah No actually it's
actually it's bubbling because it's being heed which gonna um what the what what happens is is the board if you feel that the rate is going to go up too dramatically for a group of people you can take some of that retained earnings
and apply it to help reduce the fee fee Just like we do to reduce the tax levy it's the same idea but you're doing it in the enterprise fund But the only downfall of that would be if if something happens to one of the units or something and we have to
replace it because that's not on them right those boxes or what does David call them the boxes that he has to go station So if something happened and actually I think there was a couple of them that did go right that he had to do this year
He he has issues with the grinder pumps a lot Yeah Okay Okay They're the ones that go because people decide that they're going to flush down towels Yeah Yeah Uh the pens diapers you know so you get the plastic that gets caught in the
grinder and or then all of a sudden there's not enough really flow So the grinder is you know doesn't have enough other stuff to help break it up and things of that nature We won't get into the issues with solid
waste Yeah They've got I was going to say they've got inspections on here Chris do we have uh repairs we do inspections because what we do is for the community septic users we we have 48
users What we do instead of having to do title five inspections on all 48 every three years we break it up We do 16 a
year so that it's on a constant rotation basis So you go through they come in they inspect the debox they inspect the tank they inspect everything to make sure that everything is okay And then what happens is if
everything's okay we pay $300 You just use that as a number for them to do that They'll do 16 this year then they'll line up the next 16 the next year Then it's just a constant rotating basis across business Okay
But there's no if something goes wrong at those pump stations it's not on here for fixing it Well we don't have a If you look we have maintenance If you go down to 5240 Okay So that's going to be
there's 16,000 there Okay Hopefully hopefully we won't have something really major you know a crack in the wall or something of of that nature because then we would probably have to come back and start
doing either look at transferring out a retained earnings or going out and borrowing in order to be able to pay for the repair and but then again that would then get charged back to these users only for that borrow
Okay Okay Then this is waste management municipal So this is municipal solid waste Again it's getting to the point where the board's going to have to make a decision Are we going to continue curbside collection i really don't think
we should I really think we should have a transfer station Chris And then they they come in and they grab it And I agree I think it's Where are you going to put it where do we put it so who um owns the old dump whose property is that
management Yeah Could you put a transport station at the highway department we have an issue there with wetlands because you have that little stream that runs out behind him No Because he's got a couple dumpsters there now right but
they don't hold waste all the time Okay The type that waste that we would be having at a transfer station because there's going to be potentially food waste We should really be doing a food waste container Yeah Right We really should have like the clothing We should
have textiles We should have all this other stuff But that's for recycling only Yeah What are you going to do about the actual municipal solid waste the trash That's part of that's the major
part of this because they could collect both recycling and waste Yeah I mean thinking back to when we were using the dump like I want to say they could fill two 40 yard dumpsters on a Saturday just because everyone's going on the same day
right okay Well and then I'm thinking too the only big property we own is West Street Yep Right just and again it's going to get the the nibblies not in my backyard who are going to come out and complain because that actually is a good
site for that because it you come in on West Street you go out on Porter Yeah Yep It's a drive to through facility and you just drop drop I think that's how long you I know this is going to be on your time and the
other two members but I really think it's something that needs to be looked at because like you said it's just going to keep going up and the taxes are just going to keep going up And where can we save we can save on with the transfer station instead of getting curbside pickup And
that would also solve the problem of all the people who are like "Well we're sick of paying for doortodoor service because I'm paying for a huge bin and I only have one bag right?" So they're like "Yeah." And they're like "Well it's not fair." And I'm like "Okay but how do
we see how many people live in the house and average your price on that that would be so difficult to do So every household has to pay the same right because that's that's I don't even want to get into that can of work No No honestly look that was the whole problem
Yeah When we first started curbside collection when when when the landfill closed Okay We're no longer taking waste We're not doing this We were in a bind Yeah Absolutely
What do you do with it do we turn around and because if you tell them to take the waste away you're paying for disposal fees with the company that is collecting it right and right now trash is
gold The trash market is gold to be to find a place to put it Number one And number two who's going to take it away so we would still have to pay I know Chris when we see on the warrants where tipping fees Yeah there we go I don't
see it on here but on the warrant because it's just it's just part of municipal waste solid waste handling cost Okay those are the tipping fees So we could tipping fees and the pers the cost of waste management to collect it right this one is but if we had a
transfer station we could cut that number down and only pay the tipping fees potentially Yeah Yes And I think that's something Well it'll be whatever it costs for them to haul depending upon how much waste you get Yeah on a weekend or are you going to open it two days a week so are you going to have to haul it
out two days a week you know what I'm saying Right Because I know my way up my way our transfer station is open two days a week month Wednesdays and Saturdays
So if you get influx of people who are coming in on Wednesdays you're going to have to get it out of there Plus it also depends what D is allowing you to license for okay because you got to go through a licensing process
to be able to run a transfer station Accurate Dave That's going to be on you guys Making notes No I'm just saying yes it it's it's not an easy solution No it never will be I mean obviously a trans transfer station would save us
significant amount of money The residents might be happier with that but then but it again you're going to run into the issue is you have to have someone up
there to monitor it to make sure someone doesn't throw away illegal waste What about the salt shed is there any room over there for dusters no No Because because they're only using that you know Well we have to
No we have to be careful because the Leech Field or the West Street building is right there Is right there That's the one that's across from the highway department right that open field You're you're talking at the back side
of West Street building Yeah When you look Oh okay over Yeah You see the big structure there yes The leechfield is right in that area over through there It goes across Crescent Street Okay And
then the leechfield is on the other side where I grew the old boneyard Okay In the boneyard area Yeah We don't have any other land in town where we could do that really because at one point we had when the
highway was being built there we knew we had that other part of land and they were talking about potentially putting a transfer station there But I think D had a concern because of the stream that runs down behind it behind wetlands better behind
the highway department Yeah You know the woods to the Yeah to the right of it Yeah There's there's wetlands right behind there And there's a concern that leaving stuff there and leeching into the wetlands
Is there um isn't there property across the street from the highway department sharers is it it's residential homes Uh those are all residential homes on the other side of Presley For some reason I didn't think there was one right across from the highway but I can't picture it
right now Yeah you're probably right Well nothing we can do about it They went up in cost So and that was just for the one-year extension Yeah Jeez I know That's why we really got to figure that out Yes
All right Liability insurance That's for all our properties and everything right yep Okay So and that's just contractually what they went up at Well yes They've said to me plan a 5%
increase in your regular cost Yeah But then they then I also have to pay vacant building cost for West Street building That one runs me probably about
$27,000 a year Yeah Just for that one building Yeah As a vacant building And when you start looking at the way that goes that increases for the last two years it's been increasing on the average about 15% per year for the premium Wow
So that's why we need to identify what we're going to do with that building So I can we raise it we can potentially save 27,000 a year for just insurance costs but I don't want to cut our nose off in
spite of our face either Yeah Well we'll know soon enough I guess Yes County retirement is just everybody's retirement Yep and our assessment based upon our percentage of the uh total
wages that are paid out Workers compensation Oh this is nice huh yeah Wow I like the decrease Yeah that's shocking but nice Unemployment
compensation Good What helped us there was the reduction from 2% assessment to a 0.1% assessment Is that for which one i'm sorry Unemployment Okay
Insurance is the is the biggie Yes 18% increase in insurance Oh there it is And that's because the town still pays What's the percentage for the town we pay Well if you're married or if you're single
and the school versus the town right do we have separate rates or we have the same rate they're all the same rate for the town If it's a single plan the town pays 74% If it's a m family plan we pay 64%
But the the problem that we ran into is the Hampshire County Group Insurance Trust subsidized the rates for about the last five years because they had excess reserves The Hampshire County Hampshire County
Group Insurance Trust HCGIT Now they don't have that money Now their reserves are down They don't have the excess reserves to subsidize the rate So now we're seeing the true impact of an
increase Like I said they artificially kept them low Yeah Plus claims data are up You know you you go and you look at what's going on with the claims data I believe they've had a
few large claims large issues You know someone gets cancer someone has open heart surgery somebody has you know some major medical problem and easily gets up to a million dollars if you're not careful
So it's just crazy what the cost of insurance is Yes When you know when you think about it I mean luckily I'm fairly healthy I don't use it but I Oh I was fairly healthy too I
went to the doctor's went to the doctors once a year That's all I did No pills no nothing Well guess what i didn't have anything now No I know it changes I I understand that But uh you know it's amazing what you pay out all the years and never use it Yep You see those
numbers and it's just Wow Wow So that was the biggie here And as you can see that's almost a $600,000 increase in expenses Yeah For one department Yep
It's crazy And then the next one is life insurance And that's pretty much basic Yeah So that's the budget in a nutsh in a nutshell So I think Chris one of the questions I've had I mean you see on the news all the time all these different
towns are cutting in every single department We were lucky I was told to keep the status quo until a new administrator We were able to get through We were able to get through this year without cuts
but we used all our free cash to do this Did you what's in this budget here yes Okay Okay I had also I had already told the administrator since I went through this budget with her once that I'm just doing status quo for her
It'll be up to her to decide what has to be done next year Yeah is there's no way that we can continue that You can't continue like we're going Yes Unless the state increases re the chapter 70 allocation that comes to the school the
school can't operate on a $47,000 increase in chapter 78 over one fiscal year to the next We get more Which one are you on we got well I have basically based upon the
governor's budget as well of the Desi website It's like the U cherry sheet right it's like a cherry sheet Okay Okay And it says okay that gives for the town of Graanby
The required net school spending went up 470,000 from 25 to 26 Our chapter 70 aid went up $48,000 which meant the town had to come
up with an additional 422,000 or 25 to 26 on top of whatever additional asks they were asking Yep So we already do the 600,000 Yep Then we had to come up with an additional 422,000 So that's a million Yep And then
they were asking for an additional 300 some odd thousand30 Were we able to come up with that no Any any of it well we lucked out because the inind he budgeted 2.8 million It
came in at 2.66 So about 140,000 Okay So So about half almost half So again we're we're we're we're being squeezed ourselves Yeah You know it's it's nice to be able to try and give the
schools what they want but as you heard Kevin the cost of maintenance for his software his equipment Yeah Yeah Here's the price Pay it or be done That's the issue we're running into You can't be cut off There's nowhere that we
I guess I guess Chris where I'm coming from is when every budget in every other town is cutting and the only thing we're cutting for ours is the school It looks very bad I didn't cut the school All I said we gave them 600,000 above minimum
They wanted a million I can't do it I'm sorry I I just can't do it If the board wants to turn around and say "No okay I want I want a h 100,000 from each of the other departments so we can give it to the school." Don't you think that's going to be a a hard nut to
swallow well it's not like you're giving it to your to the school necessarily You're saying if one department has to cut everyone has to cut it It everyone should be sharing that burden It shouldn't just be one on one sole department It's like if you say and I know but again I I I I will I will
argue with you that we hold them to 3% increase The school says we're doing level service that's an 8% increase Where does it say that that didn't say when you look at the school when when you look at what they give you a level service
budget for them averages 5 to 8% increase from year to year Remember when we sat with them they talked about that it's 8% It's 8% I'm trying to hold everybody else to 3% But none of the not all the line items
are held at 3% Based on when you look at bottom line from year to year It's 3% 99% unless it's something that's way out of our control like health insurance Yeah Okay That ended up being a
that ended up being a 29% increase but outside our control Either that or we start playing with what we're going to be paying for including in our for people to be able to be covered by our plan Do
we start playing with the plan do we start doing other things you do that the unions are going to want to negotiate because you're changing their health insurance coverage What are you going to give me if I have to pay more in health payments what are you going to give me in
return i know the school's facing a problem that they have union contracts coming up Okay Yeah the teachers the paras the secretaries custodians they're going to want increases You know we have
a actually our fire contract our fire union contract is up June of 25 I think the police contract is coming up too June June of 26 Okay Okay Those are issues we got to figure
out because they're going to want increases You know it it's it's a very tough time right now That's what I'm saying And I feel like and I know that there's going to be areas like you were saying and like the chief and building maintenance that are
required in order to for those buildings to function and in order for the departments to function Yeah It's just but there's needs everywhere And I just feel like I'm not going to argue that I I agree with you
Again it would be nice if we had a large company or a large benefactor came in and gave us $1 million Here you go folks Enjoy And I think this is why people are going to have a hard time with the West Street
building I agree Because we are spending all of our free cash We have nothing for reserve right no So but free cash disappears every June 30th So we would have to go out and get it reertified before it becomes an available fund Free
cash is based upon the prior year June 30th balance sheet That's all it is So free cash that was that was calculated for fiscal year 25 is based upon what our financial
condition was as of June 30th Yeah Okay They say okay you now have this what actually a free cash is excess undesated fund balance retained earnings So if the line
items weren't spent it's got to be given back to the town and then it's put into free cash which has to be registered right which then becomes an available funding source for the next other type of things whatever You know we use a lot
of it for the capital items We used it for the uh technology upgrades up at the school for the replacement of the generator for buying their own field maintainer There's $300,000 in free cash
that I used for those four topics Yeah Okay It's again Jeremy 130,000 for his energy management system Yeah He had another 130,000 for the library management system And I said I can't do
both No Pick You got to pick and choose That's where it comes down to is again because It's it's a very it's a very difficult process when you're starting to do the budget because you're trying again look
18 months in the future What's going to happen on the oil market what's going to happen here what's going to happen there and you just don't know First of all and like I said mine's become cracked and it's becoming
cloudy you know nothing is clear anymore because you don't know what's happening down at the uh Washington DC with the Feds Every time you turn around it's bad news coming out of there You look at the Fed Reserve that's bad news all the time
Nobody's going to want to invest in in municipal bonds so we won't be able to do much construction because we're a poor risk because they don't know what to do with their money because they don't know if their money's going to be safe for four years Sure Okay It's it's such a a fluid process
right now Well it's volatile It's And I think that's Yeah And I think that's one of the reasons why so many people came out for the West Street building because we don't know where we are financially We didn't have a budget in front of us before that meeting You know what I mean so we had a I had so many insecurities
about like what was going to happen that I just I couldn't vote on it Yeah And and I'm going to be honest with you this budget should have been done when I was gone I came back and I was expected to put a budget together in a week week and a
half Okay Yeah That normally takes a month to a month and a half to put together to really go through and analyze and think things through and talk with people None of that was done I think well from what Ira had told me he met with everyone He was doing that collaborative meeting on that Thursday
and then he was presenting the budget to us afterwards But I don't think he was going to do a what you say status quo with the budget I think he was going to do a lot of cuts But again he would turn around and just say he turned to highway and
said you have too many people in your department He has five people He has five people He has a mechanic He has a heavy equipment operator He has an assistant mechanic
and then two truck drivers That's what he has in his department He didn't say too many He to me anyways He said too many FTEEs doing the same thing between the building and the highway department Okay The issue becomes we have three
people in public buildings They're out mowing constantly during the summer We have brown elves you've got due frames you've got the high school you've got this building you've got the annex you know East
Meadow right in the back for East High School East Meadow Y that's a lot of acreage trying to get it done in a week's time It is Okay Cuz yeah we have big equipment That's a lot of acreage
And when they're up at the school they have to be careful if the kids are outside because they can't mow if the kids are outside I was going to say they always mow when I'm teaching because because the kids are inside Cuz
the students are inside Yeah But they'll get over to East Meadow They'll be in the middle of mowing and all of a sudden they'll they'll they'll release this sixth grade class out into that play area behind the area They can't mow because they can't take the risk of something flying and hitting one of the
children Okay GAA calls and says "Oh we need the fields mode every Tuesday and Thursday because we have a game." Well what has to give something has to give because they have to be there mowing the the ball fields so on
and so forth Okay It's it's my right We get a recreation person create a recreation department that person's going to want certain things done in a timely manner We just don't have enough man be
honest with we don't have enough manpower for what everybody wants to be done Yeah Do you think that's why a bunch of citizens came in front of us last year and wanted to volunteer their time right so we do have that form So if people do want to volunteer and help
they can right but but again they should coordinate with Jeremy too Because Okay Yeah I can go out and mow the field Are they going to mow it on it scalp it no Okay Are they going to hit the automatic sprinkler system on the soccer field i
made reference to that uh to Glenn Durham in regards to we have to you know it's great that if you can get people volunteer but you do have to coordinate it Yes Well yeah they have to fill out that form and whatever they're they're
wanting to do whatever department is in charge of it they do have to talk to them now right but I don't see anybody knocking down the door right now So and that's all I'm saying I'm not I'm not Hey I'd be glad to get all this volunteer help okay you know it helps if
the National Honor Society goes out and breaks up pine cones Actually Jeremy gave us a couple other um projects for April break But but you know what I'm saying that helps Yeah But again it's a department of three people What really helped was when Dave brought the
dumpster for us and we put the needles and picked up the pile So all Dave had to then do is come and take the dumpster Right That's what helps Like Jeremy said you can't have them come and do the piles and then not pick up the piles because they don't know when they're going to be able to get to them Yep And
I agree with that So that year that Dave brought the dumpster was perfect You know and and that's the problem is right You know you look at Belchtown they have a department of five six people just doing field maintenance These guys are doing field
maintenance and repairs and building right okay and inspections you know and and that's the problem is we got we're getting a good bang for the buck from the people we have but really we should have more people We're lucky that Dave D
Roger is is a civil engineer because he does a lot of the work that we would normally have to have contracted up if we don't have them
You know police you talk to the police Do we want to get rid of third shift we could reduce the staff but you're going to get a third shift probably You're not going to have police officers out on the road right okay How
many people are on third shift at the police department well you got the dispatcher and then three the supervisor and two patrolling you know we're talking about looking at regionalizing dispatch Actually I was going to talk to the chief about that tonight because him and I had the discussion and he did meet
with the gentleman for it Um but I didn't want it to be a longer meeting than it was going to be No but but the issue is is when you look at it it'll be beneficial to the town for probably three years because the state will pay for it as we get it up and running But
then we have to pay full bore for year four What is the payment do you know could be 300,000 a year Oh my goodness But we would house it here and the other communities would pay us No not necessarily You have to look at do we
have enough space to house it Okay Because I think that's what he would that's what he was looking into But you got to look at it would be the house community current dispatch area Is it big enough to have enough dispatchers and enough equipment to handle three three communities four communities
whatever you end up doing Yeah And I was under the impression that we didn't have enough space Okay To help to hope the host community That's the thing with government Everything they want to regionalize because it saved money right and I get
it But you've got to have a facility Sometimes it doesn't save money to regionalize Yeah And I'm going to be honest with you schools is one of the big one Everybody says regionalize the school You're going to save money Not necessarily Yeah
I'm sorry That's the way that's the way it is Everybody says "Oh you're going to it's going to be cheaper." Number one you're going to have to bust these children somewhere if they're not going to stay Oh busing is ridiculous right now Yes I can't believe how much we pay for
buses for transportation and in Graanby we don't have that many students so the buses are empty I see it when I'm driving when I'm driving it I see I feel like you're like you have two kids on a bus I feel like there should be a better system Like we should have all short buses going through Ramy not the large
ones to be honest with you right less passengers Yeah Yeah And heaven forbid that the buses try and get out at at release time because you got 50 million parents to wind up trying to pick up their kids That's part for
the course you know but I'm just saying it's just Yeah Well we could talk about the blows all night long but I know right all right Okay All I'm gonna say is there will be some tough decisions that have to be made in the upcoming fiscal
years Very tough decisions Um Chris would you be able to have the fire chief come at our April 29th i'm going to see if he can make it to that meeting Yes That way we don't have to spend another you know it's 9:20 I agree I know I know the feeling So so
I will make a motion to adjurnn I will second that motion No further any further discussion I'm telling you no All in favor i I thank you