[Music] okay it is 6 o' on the 3rd of March of 2025 this is we're call to order the meeting of the finance committee uh
present on the phone we have uh Michael Bennett uh in the room we have Cheryl Burke Frank Johnston Ed Brian Bill Smith Mike Retta and myself so with that uh we will go ahead and get started so first order of
business I don't think I think the minutes from the last meeting just went out last or today so uh we will not have any minutes to approve for this specific um meeting uh moving on from that uh agenda item we will move to budget
updates and the first up is our fire chief thank you good evening every everyone uh so first off I'd like to thank Frank and Cody they went through my budget with me a couple times we had a few meetings uh I had to go back and revise a couple of things within the uh budgets to kind of get where we needed
to uh be with budgets um the actual numbers so thought pretty long and hot about a lot of things that I wanted to change in here and where I wanted to make my specific cuts to uh you know be to meet the needs of the town on the budget side um I went through and I and
I made the cuts that I needed to make uh you know for what's in the best interest of the department so I'll start off with the first page um anybody have the cheats or just want to speak freely yeah speak freely all right so obious I have
the sheets here my salary is the first page that I have and that's contractual um you know I still have another year on the contract so that's basically contractual it is what it is um page two I have on there is clerical uh when I spoke to Cody in regards to this um you know I still my understanding is they
still going through negoti ations and the new Union coming in so this was basically uh like a holding Point whether it goes up or down uh but I basically have 56385 is what I have in there uh is what Cody told me the numbers were to hold so
that for clerical uh clerical yes let me uh step y question on that or no no that was Cody gave me uh projected for what could be in the future so that's what I put in
there I'm good with that any other questions okay so the next page is uh wages uh wages is where you know obviously the difficulty comes in um full-time wages line number one on my full-time wages is basically just a 2% that's with uh I li that's anticipated
with uh Bachelor and Associates degrees so contractually they have a bachelor's degree in there and an associates degree in there associate degree is 5% more and a bachelor's degree is another 3% which equals an 8% increase so the number that I have on there is all of the
anticipated raises and with Associates and Bachelor degrees that are going to be during that fiscal year okay uh part-time wages is just basically the 2% uh Cola anticipated um for the cola raise the overtime is we're running a
little bit of a difficulty um obviously as you can see from my spreadsheets that I have here what was approved last year was 17111 uh year before that I spent 27,34 year before that was 188 599 drivers you have for overtime I'm
sorry what's the biggest driver you have I think right now what's killing me is FMLA uh and what I mean by that is last year I had four people on FMLA that's 12 weeks that I paid them and I paid overtime 12 weeks for four person hour this year I had somebody on light duty
uh which is contractual again uh L Duty I paid them for the five weeks to do clerical work and I also paid time and a half to fill the shifts for the um I like that I say five and a half weeks five months five months now I have two more people that are going to be out on
FMLA I had one that took some of their time in the beginning they still have another eight weeks that they're going to be out and then I have one out that's going to be out for the 12 weeks right now they in filming time and a half for so I think what's really killing me is FMLA and contractually um you know sometimes it's
double time you know CHR certain holidays a double time pay I had a few months here that the the pay scale was really up there I had a few people out on injury uh when a full-time member FS a part-time members shift on a hold over it's double time okay so we had quite a
bit of people out uh F injuries things like that and just trying to fill all the ships plus filling a double time kind of catches up to us you're fully staffed right now you I'm fully staff right now yeah so I have one member that's out FMLA okay and one member
that's going to be out in the beginning time frame might change but in sometime in April okay so he'll be a for another 8 weeks uh you know in the future I mean obviously get the finance committee and I'd like to see the town maybe establish something for FMLA or things like that that wouldn't technically hit the
budgets from each individual time you know what I mean um at least it might be something there that might help because right now my overtime for this year to date I'm at 86% 86 99% of my overtime budget's already spent so
of your overtime how much of it would you attribute to FMLA more than half of it at at this point yes uh at this point I've I've spent quite a bit of money and obviously you know as well as I do that I have no control over FML F it's they basically send me a letter saying this person will be on FMLA from the next 12
weeks and that's what I get so um that's really hurting um and I think when people are out on FMLA trying to fill the shifts you know we have a smaller Department I think it gets to a point where people taking so many shifts that they don't want to come back either you know what I mean you don't want to work again you want to work again the guys
that are working you know 70 something hours uh overtime straight um and then you know is is there a Max technically there is a Max uh so it's in that contract 48 and then it has to be approved by the chief but if I
didn't approve anything beyond that I won't let him go beyond 72 and and 72 anything going into 72 if it'll put him onto a 7 too it has to be approved by me and I usually don't unless I absolutely have to 24 then a 14 how they uh so right now they work 10 hour days and 14
hour hour nights it's a night shift and it's uh two days a week so it's a 24hour shift a day there's two different schedules one's one on one off one on five off and the other ones a one on Three off one on four off so it's different shift too like they
technically worth 24 hours okay can I ask a crazy question crazy has um is there any benefit to if you had an additional part-timer on staff
for example is there any benefit to that in terms of trimming down overtime cost that resource it's a loaded question and what I mean by that is contractually I can't so contractually the union has to have first first rights
to an open shift so if I can't fill it with them then it goes to a part-time shift now you know I had a a discussion last year with you guys in regards to trying to move some money around to try to bring my Staffing up a little bit which would create um a a little bit of funding for the town and B less overtime
because I wouldn't have to fill the way I feel now or wouldn't have a holdovers that I'm looking for So currently we have 10 full-time members I know this can be a little a little crazy but we have four shifts I have three shift I have uh two shifts that have three members and two shifts that have two
members so the two member shifts um I fill with call Members if I were to put two more full-time members on that would give me three full-time members across the board so I have 12 me three full-time members each shift that all be paramedics and I would also fill with a
call member during the day right okay this is what my you know objective was last year to try to do this what would happen would it would be is if somebody called out sick I not I wouldn't necessarily have to fill that shift because I would still have the same Staffing that I have now uh the benefit would be obviously that I three
full-time paramedics and full-time members and then I would have a call member that could be a medic or it could be an EMT but I wouldn't have to necessarily EA fill the double time over time and or even fill the shift if I couldn't fill a shift then I wouldn't fill the shift I'd run the three members
and would still have the same Staffing so in the future yes my plan is to try to get two more members I think it will cut down a lot of the overtime yeah why you talk a little bit about the cost of two what what it cost this for two more members so when I looked into it last year it was about uh Russ with
everything um obviously no what we time know anything like that but it was about $70,000 for a full-time member to start um that's not including you know gear things like that but we're roughly around $70,000 per man up might be up a little bit more this year with you know raises and things so what I was planning
on doing last year was taking about 140,000 transferring it from the part time to the fulltime hiring two more full-time members to get me two to three full-time uh members on each shift yeah uh and then what instead of having the
open shifts that I have now that I would have to fill day and night I would mostly fill the day shifts seven days a week with calls so during the day I'd be running four members which would give me the ability to actually staff two different pieces of apparatus the way we
currently run we only have three members two members on the ambulance one member might be in the shift Commander's car or in the engine depending on the call there two people in the ambulance go to the hospital leaves me one person in town that's so by having the second member there that can staff another vehicle um staff
another ambulance staff another engine you know what I mean and also cover the town last year I missed about 90 Mutual Aid calls by only having one member back here so when the ambulance goes to the hospital we do a recall and try to bring anybody from home that's you know wants
to come in for the shift uh so they'll come in cover the shift while the MS is gone we're probably under 15% un filling those right now uh and that's pretty much part with all the other departments around here all of us are telling you know each all the other Chiefs around
here that you know running light so so you would need but you would need two bodies to make that work I would need two two more members two more full-time members to make that work but the difference is you know at an ambulance run of 2600 bucks roughly uh you know for full pay um we we've missed 90
Mutual a runs last year yeah so that's a significant amount of money but also put correct me if I'm wrong when discussed this couple or couple months back several weeks ago whatever it was talked about two full-time members coming on
that would also cut some of the overtime cost of that yes when we would move that into pay up to full-time firefighters that would cut some of the Overtown that would cut some of the holdovers down and the holdovers could be a double time hold over because it
depending if it's a call shift or a parttime shift that we're filling with a a full-time member that's a double time shift so it would cut down on some of the overtime cost most definitely now when you hire some of this everyone hired a paramedic everyone's hir as a paramedic
yes okay any questions on that or um how many part timers do you have je you said 10 fulltime how many I got 10 fulltime and roughly six right now 16 17 parttime members and how many how many calls for service do you run on average uh last
last year we did about 1,800 runs we're up about 200 runs from we were what we were last year and with the new walk-in clinic coming in that's anticipated to go up even further plus the 55 and all the community that's coming in so I'm anticipating probably another five to
600 runs more per year okay so five or 600 more runs more per year you know the things you don't think of is obviously the ambulance billing we pay per ambulance run so that will go up that will increase the Ulin uh supplies
that'll go up because we're using more supplies um the call back will go up because every time the inlands goes out we're doing a call back now if we're running 15% now do I see it increasing drastically no but obviously that just be more runs that we're we're calling back for so it could have an impact on
and you're running about 2600 you said 2600 per run uh for name called for not for Medicare Medicaid Medicaid and Medicare are set by the state and it's specific number to my head I really like 4 to 500 bucks uh Max of what they pay
out so private citizen6 but a full insurance person would be about $2,600 and something dollar so I just changed that recently with the board of Selectmen how we Bill uh what we can bill for uh and we currently working with the uh Building Company now to try to you know make sure that we um can
collect the money that we can collect yeah so okay all right um holiday pay pretty much St is the same just up the 2% uh longevity is the same exact thing uh incentives went up quite a bit um
incentives are basically U certifications so in the contract they say that if they get a proboard shirt from the Massachusetts fire academy there's technically only a list of them that are uh in the qualifications I think there's like a handful maybe 15 15 of them that are um available to them
their first certification is $1,000 anything after that is $250 and it's still Max of $3,000 per person that's contractual so that went up quite a bit uh I have quite a few members that are going to be get the for a certification for $1,000 how long is this current CBA
in effect uh till next year okay six time buyback that's uh that's basically enough that Sho buy a training uh before I switch that sorry any questions on any of that no okay by training full-time weed is that's just
the up to two % um 2% on the increase there part-time wages uh that was rolled into full-time wages and even some of these right now the categories that I have here on these sheets are a little different than what we have um you know when we pay out everything it's but I
can explain that so tuitions and certifications is one of them right now uh tuitions and certifications is now education reimbursement so in their contract we talked about um they do get 50% of reimbursement up to $2,500 per
person uh on successfully completing a class so we pay 50% of their education and right now I have seven members at $2,500 a piece which is $17,500 um so that increased you know contractually that increases quite a bit
pretty fast so when you say per class year this is specific to the firefighter training y so in their contract it's basically the only class they can take is um Emergency Management [Music] um uh fire
um excuse me uh Emergency Management fire science science fire science yeah yep uh and there was one more I believe um but that's the only classes they can take they specifically for that and only to pay for those classes that will get them to that
degree so nothing else are they taking these at M or they can take them they can take them anywhere as long as it's certif you know a college accredited college um so as long as they show me the paperwork that basically says they you know got a passing grade uh will
reimburse him the 50% but that's right now that was put into their contract negotiated last year and that really wasn't discussed too well so it's kind of killing me yeah so that jumps things quite a bit um the supplies I actually dropped I decreased that uh this was one
of the cuts that I made because I was trying to keep on the last page uh on the over time as you notice I increased in my overtime budget as much as I could so I made Cuts throughout my whole budget in order to supply more money elsewhere um so I can show you instead
of making the cuts in my overtime budget I made Cuts elsewhere uh supplies I dropped a little bit um out of state travel I dropped a little bit and then just meetings is basically the same meetings are for my Captain's meetings things like that everything that I have to pay for for them to come in okay
questions on fire training all right uh expenses expenses is what I went through quite a bit and I started making a few Cuts here and there um you know obviously we need to get to the numbers where we're at I don't necessarily agree with all the cuts that I made but you
know we have to get to a certain number to uh make sure we have the right funding so um I did make cuts on most of these nothing went up drastically at all uh even you know the new gear in here that I have uh Turnal gear that I had I even dropped down a little bit too uh I
decreased it by ,000 bucks just to move money around so that I had money on I well what's your biggest concern with those cuts I mean right now we're running a very bare minimum on everything and my biggest uh problem right now is my
overtime obviously you know if you see on my overtime budget if we're funding 171,000 but last year is 207 was 188 I'm already in a deficit before I even started my budget you so I'm just taking money from everywhere else which which is basically the pot time budgets uh so
you know that just takes away from what I can do and how I can do it and what did you do for gear last year did you do half of your gear is that uh so what we did was we we ended up funding the full sets of gear for everyone but for the first initial set okay all right um you know I was talking about how the
rotation of gear would be and everything else um I took that out of here put it back in a capital so that we can get on a rotation instead of coming up to 200,000 and asking for 200,000 the town for new sets of gear for everyone trying to get on a rotation that it's always less money and it's anticipated cost
each year uh I think it was like 37200 for six sets a gear okay um so just trying to get on a rotation for that so are you in are you still in the position now where everyone has that new set of gear from last year so as of right now everybody has a brand new set of gear okay um there's still a couple
pieces of equipment that I need to buy that I've ordered and I'm waiting for them to get in so everybody has a brand new set of gear nobody has I shouldn't say nobody there's a few members that have a backup set of gear so when we issue these this set of gear to everyone um per NFPA standards they're compliant
for 10 years so after 10 years you can't wear them all right so they just basically you throw them away because they're not good you can't wear them they're not certified to be worn um so what I'm trying to do is get everybody for a second set of gear I know there's a cost associated with that I fully
understand that my argument is if we're spending this much money to outfit everyone want to get you know the protective gear that they need and then say you go to uh a fire you're coupled with cenogenics and everything else and you know our sop is to wash your gear after every fire they walk back to the
station their gears in a washing machine they get another call what do they do yeah that would seem like it would be something that you could forecast out for a future so if you know that all the gear you have has a 10 life a 10year life right
and it was bought last year we you know setting that as like a fiveyear goal to have everyone with a set of back backup gear in place that way you'll just be on a fiveyear cycle I'm we you're bringing new gear in every five years so for Capital I'm putting in for another six sets of gear obviously
so when I sit down with capital I'm going to explain to them that yes we did just get new gear last year there's a few members right now that have compliant gear but in a few years from now maybe two maybe three depending on when they were issued um they could be non-compliant yeah so by trying to get everybody on a
rotation in 5 years from now yeah still have two sets of complying gear and then from on in we can just keep buying six sets of gear to be on a rotation instead of having you know the two or 250 you know uh 200 you know 200 or $250,000 bill that I'm asking for the town for
it'll be the 37 or 38 or 39 whatever the increases are you know each year to keep everybody comp yeah and if it's not a possibility for this year at least there's a there's a vision for it yep in future years to have it done yeah I'm
hoping you know what I mean obviously I understand that you know budgets and everything else but uh to try to get on that rotation I think would be key because if we miss a couple years the problem is you may have once you once you get everything out of out of sort sort of speak you know where some are compliant some AR you may have somebody
with a pair of pants that are are compliant and a jacket that's not or vice versa or you're taking miscellaneous gear someone that retired you're taking their gear and you're putting it on somebody else so now you have two different pieces of gear that have different expiration dates you know so that's where it gets a little
difficult uh real quick let me ask you on the gear that you just purchas recently is that all thought uh clear not all of it because at the time um so some of some of the equipment is to answer your question some of it is not because not all companies were in
compliance in compliance yet um and be honest with it the gear that I have uh I'm glad it wasn't because theyve had a lot of difficulty with the gear so far guys are getting burnt because what's happening is it's not releasing the heat like it's saying it's supposed to yeah
so comp yeah well the P gear that's supposed to be compliant they're having a lot of issues with guys are getting burnt there not doing the heat release they having heat stroke heat related like that yeah so it's like anything when it's new
it's uh any questions on expenses at all uh station maintenance um I don't know you have the numbers on yours but uh last time I I talked to Cody I did cut it down a little bit we were talking about the electricity uh Cody trying to buy different credits and everything else so
we did cut it down uh Cody had it you know roughly at about 14,000 on our electricity um discussions with him we originally put it at 4,000 for outside services but those numbers wrong uh when I was discussing with him because it
should be should be a little bit higher um and I was going to have a conversation with him about that the outside Services I know that sounds a little crazy but we have things like PLO vents that uh diesel the the capture system we have so when they set the trucks the capture system he brings
everything out um you know it's getting it's getting to that point where it's having problems I've had them out four times last month um um just my last two bills were about $1,100 to have them come out uh that's one of the things that obviously Building Maintenance doesn't service that's something that's warranteed under us um if it doesn't
really fall into them a compressor air compressor that kind of uh you know has to be serviced and checked and uh make sure there's no issues there you know there's a few other pieces of equipment that are fire related so to speak washer or dryers for the gear extractors things like that uh that doesn't fall into Building Maintenance that we need
outside Services money for do you a generat on there oh you do have a generator yeah is everything still under warranty uh no no the extraction system is one of the older systems and just it just keeps blowing all the lines they're basically air control through air
compressor um but because they run on a rail it's the old system that they have they run on a rail and every time they run the truck goes out the whole system guides on the rail and it rubs on the Airlines and basically what it does it wears holes and all the all the piping and everything else so we'll have the airline brakes all the time um we'll
have air leaks all the time what happens is when the air system goes below a certain pressure it will release from the truck so when they drive out of the station if it doesn't release it rips them off you know what I mean there there are disconnectors there um they still do damage so with modern
technology it sounds like that's not under warranty um it well it was installed quite a few years back so I that's been there for probably 10 or 15 years uh the newer systems are a little bit different there are some grants out there fortunately right now we're not compliant with that so
um the uh the there's a there's a grant out that I am going to probably apply for that will change the system that we have over to the newest piping um it's just more heat rated like right now they're only to stop the vehicle and drive out of the building whereas the
new ones you can actually run them inside and you know check everything you need to check and then shut it that to uh it's going up till next year not going out till next year so hopefully we'll be compliant everything else we'll make it until yes so on the electricity
we're at 145 uh I Cody had it at 14 is what he was talking about and then making the outside services to 4,000 but that still leaves me to okay hold on I'm confused because yeah I'm seeing 185 on the most
recent spreadsheet so on one of the cuts that I made on my I brought it down to, 165 and and then I moved to $2,000 over for our requests but but Cody was saying that he's going to basically use credits to buy elect elect so for numbers and to
separate them he wanted us to make it at 14,000 for electricity so that he could figure those numbers out and I my discussion with him was go ahead sorry um I've got my notes here um he had us put it at 145 that day in the second
meeting for the electricity and outside services at 4,000 for a total of 18500 got 20 I've got 20 here okay so he added he added 2,000 outside yeah 2000 for outside service
185 for electricity you know what he did there no what what he tried to do is basically he tried to separate the funny there because I told him the outside Services I usually steal from the electricity we're only paying x amount of dollars so the rest of the money from the electricity I was
using for outside services so what he was trying to do is these so why can't we just put it in electricity if that's what for outside service well because outside service May pay for it's not electricity it's like the plal vents and things like that understand that so take
it out of electricity and put it into outside service that's what he did so B it still says 185 um it should have been changed so we changed it on o when we had the discussion but I don't think he changed it on this is from the 14th of February
my newest one that I submitted actually has the changes on it so so what are you showing on your changes Che so I had it as 14,000 for electricity per Cody and then 4,000 on the outside services but then I added because the numbers don't add up I added the
4500 because we were missing 500 from there so you have 4500 outside service I had 4500 for outside Services um that was after our meeting correct our second meeting after our second meeting okay well it was I have it as during our
second meeting but if you heard 145 000 during the meeting okay um is there another five on the one drive or is this the there's three of them on there this is the most recent
yeah I saw two of them when I you're sh what if I go to fire I've got three I've got one from January 11th one from January 18th and then one from February 14th so we're looking at the one from February 14th and what are you show
electricity on that 185 185 20 for outside service and nothing under supplies and equipment and then 2,000 for outside that that's what it was originally and then after I made my cuts and resubmitted um when did you send your
new sheet in today no no no no um this says 113 of 25 but okay I I don't know what to tell you yeah yeah no problem I know I know what he was trying to do is he was just trying to separate numbers because he was talking about uh
electricity credits so he was just trying to basically separate numbers so that he knew exactly what the numbers were when you was going to take the the funding so what I had was the 14,000 and the 4,000 or 45 he had know what his credits are now and that's why he's
tweaking it the way he's tweaking it yes yeah so he was at that meeting he didn't know what his credits were going to be probably yeah he was also I'm assuming you said to him that you were short on outside services without I am short on outside Serv so he was probably just trying to reallocate over there to give
you the funds he didn't give us an exact number because he wasn't quite sure what the credits were going to be so that's pry much finance committee but the problem is the right even the reduced rates right
now are not red I think he's plan on buying credits from I guess they must have filed for so many credits and didn't use them so if he was plan on that then the 185 should have went way down and your
2000 yeah 185 that was the original one I put in because this my original one it's 185 in the 3000 that was the original one when then we had to go back and and discuss else iut yeah okay that's what well what I'm
looking for got 185 and 3,000 yeah that's what that was my original one that I submitted and the data on that one is 17 Mike P can you see that on your screen yes okay
data I have on that one was 17 okay and then the revised one that I have on here is 113 yeah if this is the only paid we're doing good I mean I can discuss it with Cody we can leave it at the 145 in the 4,000
or leave it at 14 and 45 what do you need Chief that's outside Services I need the 4500 okay yeah so we could leave it at that and leave the other one to 14 but you actually will spend in 24 for electricity with only
114 yes but all these numbers aren't 100% accurate because like I was talking about the way what budget it goes in there um but but yes to answer your question right so your total spend in 24 actually the total spend between outside
services and electricity was 12 well 12 13,000 uh for what year sorry 24 24 I have 14,23 I'm just talking two L serves equipment yes so right so electric see
outside Services actual spend was 13,000 so that's what was happening whatever I was spending electricity the balance I was using to outside services so that's just that's a long way to 185 and 3,000 um I get I get the 4500 need that makes
sense but the 185 just seems the outside services and 45 makes sense no that I get that part yep but the 185 see skewed for electricity way high especially if we're in the process of buy credits yeah and that's why we were talking about 14
for electricity yeah I think comb okay cat next yeah we'll have to take care of that with Cody to make that
change but I understand so you want 4500 on your outside services and then you know if you take 1,500 out of what's there now you'll be down to what 16 1,700 for electricity because right now it's 185 for electricity in three you
take one you know take, 1500 out of electricity and move it over to your services line that get you where you want to be right my actual Cuts yeah my actual Cuts were to 165 originally okay so all right that
makes sense all right so we'll work that out in our or have a conversation in our next meeting with Cody but now we know where you stand what you're looking for on service yeah I need more in outside service gu most
definitely okay um but I do go by there midnight usually pretty dark in there what we don't know is I believe the bill for just the company but not the Service Company correct so we're going to be paying the service company but not the Electrical
Company yes exactly pay the delivery to which is more than the it is believe me I understand uh vehicle maintenance I I did whatever Cuts I could could um you know I I cut
it down another $1,500 on everything just to try to get the numbers where I needed to be um I'm hoping that will be okay but the best I could do well what do you got for numbers in there Chief just run through them real quick absolutely so I had it at 30,000 2,000
and 4,000 okay looks like we got some changes up yeah went up yeah down because what we had was like you just said in our last second meeting was 30,000 2,000 4,000 I'll take it um give me one second let me just
double check my original one that I submitted so it was 41200 is what it was yep so he has it on my original ones he probably has the original one there not the second one that I submitted or he might have had a mixed I don't
know I don't know this is the original one that I had that's the exact number right looks like you just might have saved the wrong file that's all yeah definitely but the first couple of pages that I went through those were all we myy major Cuts were so if those were right yeah I was going down when you
going through so those he might have mixed the two or I'm not sure and then in the second meeting we discussed 30,000 for outside maintenance uh 2,000 for the certificates of license and 4,000 on the uh supplies that's correct
a total of $36,000 that's correct okay so we can ask that question too Jim um we may not be looking at the right spreadsheet right I don't think we are yeah or at least it doesn't appear that way how you spend this year on meeting now
um it's it's not bad as far as uh outside Mee yeah outside meance I'm up there um we've been having problems with the pl events um and the compressor back the air compressor so we've we've spent quite a bit of money I think my last two
bills was over $1,100 about vehicle maintenance oh vehicle M uh y that's every time you send the truck out it's uh probably $400 $500 an hour so yeah um we've had quite a quite a few problems uh I had to put a new turbo in uh one of
the trucks that was about 7,000 bucks um and then to reprogram it had to reprogram because they had to do work on the towa which was another $2600 just to reprogram them um just every time you send the truck out you know it's a
commercial vehicle they get you so yeah it's it's uh it's going to be tight I mean fortunately for us Tom a fantastic job with um maintenance does whatever he can in house and he you know he saves a lot of the money but when it does have to go outside because he doesn't have the computers to do it or he doesn't have the software the programming or
something like that uh and that's pretty much what what happens if he doesn't have the programming and whatever it has to go so so what do you got left out in the 31,000 uh as of right now for fiscal year 25 or
approximately I think that where you were going right yeah right now for vehicle and Equipment um at this this one's a little older but it's probably I'm over 50% right now yeah over 50% right now so I'm okay but
I've still spent a lot of money that you do for new ambulance this year next year yes so new ambulance this year didn't you just get a new ambulance uh we got one three years ago two and a half years ago but they're on a rotation um they're on a rotation which
would be about every six seven years so um so earlier you were talking about tuition reimbursement for some courses um that folks could go through up to $2,500 so right are those part of a
certificate program classes so you're talking about get you're combining the two one certification and that's a specific number through the contract and one's education reimbursement the education reimbursement is up to$ 2500 per person okay for that's for college
classes only and that's for 50% of the tuition for each class okay and those college courses have nothing to do with any type of NFPA certification nothing at all nothing at all so once um you talking about a proboard certification
yeah for certifications the proboard certification which are specific classes through the proboard through okay Department of fire Services yeah they have to basically go to a class study and then go back and take the exam and pass exam to be proboard certified and then the only way they get that
certification money is to show me the proboard certification okay and I usually do look on the DFS website and make sure that it's legit okay so two different things all right uh vehicle maintenance those are the cuts 36 any
questions Okay ambulance supplies I just level funded that um I I think we'll be okay um you know basically what clinical one and other vendors have basically told me that we're looking at a little bit of an
increase um but you know I had to make some cut somewhere um hopefully we'll be okay with it you know I usually have a little bit of uh you know supplies on hand in our supply cabinets and everything else so it should be okay
just just going way back look like 222 yeah you know why because of the regular um non rebreather that was $45 now it's 12518 $20 and then once one vendor can't get it the other vendor is Char even more money for it so you'll
see a significant increase in in you know all of our stuff our medications um I just got one medication for our truck it's $925 for One V medication it's only good for one year that's it it's absolutely crazy and
we have to have it so we we don't have any choices you know what I mean uh I think that covid hurt everyone especially as soon as you say RV or boat or medical price goes up um so we you know we've looked at different vendors to try to keep cost down uh clinical one
is who who we use now but we have looked at other vendors and we do shop around sometimes um right now all of our medications we try to buy at the hospital so we the hospital will sell it to us at their cost whatever they pay we pay uh so that is a little bit of a help
um before we used to do one one to one exchange but no hospitals are doing that anymore so now we buy all of our medications problem with it is Medicare Medicaid is killing us because we may use you know couple hundred dollars in
medications and we're only getting $4 to $500 reimbursement for you know certain ambulance runs so only business say know that you can say no I'm not paying it doesn't matter what the is I'm not paying it you're just level funding that correct level
funding that correct well amance billing I'm going to level fund that as well like I said I think that might increase but we have a little bit of play there um you know obviously we're up 200 runs we'll probably be up another
5 600 next year if not more and uh you know I think we'll be okay with that though and as far as Emergency Management goes I uh just cut out of $5,000 which your number on emergency uh 3,000 yeah that's what I have as well
okay we get that one right not really looking at the previous sheets our previous meeting sheet here compared to our second meeting sheets here yeah so that spread sheet we're looking at is not the one that 's operating from I think he might have
split because if the beginning ones were the new numbers that I have those were all my where my cuts were so might have had half of one spreadsheet the other I don't know we we we'll figure that out okay um Jim I have two things okay one's
a question um for anyone do we know when um the first set of car is open down 58 when was asking have they even how many of they sold we even I don't know how many they sold um I do have a
meeting coming up with them because uh just code enforcement um the they've actually been working with me quite a bit they they've come down and discussed a couple things with me um decent company to work with so far um I they're a little behind from where they thought they were going to be I
know that um I don't know exactly time frame as far as when they think the structure is going to be up or anything like that but I would anticipate 2027 at this point I was asking for your budget for 26 because I
wanted to make sure that there was at least a thought as to what that impact is going to be whether it's call Related for ambulance or I'm more worried about the walkin clinic right now than I got you know I got some time before that building is built before they get it
occupied um and even at that you know I think there'll be some runs out of there but I don't think it'll be significant I think that the walk-in clinic is going to be more of an issue um than most people think in the community and when did they anticipate that open they're already in their building so I would if
I had to project a time frame without going in there in the last couple weeks to see where they are the last time I remember they had all the walls up uh all the permitting went through as far as I know and they're working on Main walls inside I have the plans in my
office I would say they'd be up in myly to [Music] same company as the one int and I can't think of the name off top head um it it's not a compass it's a
private company but uh there are two or three of them out there and I know the one yeah you know I had them in Penbrook I had three when I was in Penbrook I had three in P actually Four in Penbrook and we would there every day all day so you'd go there and you'd walk in um you
know the problem is people think it's a walking Clinic they go in there and they're like oh yeah I just don't feel good I short the breath I have chest pain I'm want to go to The Walking Clinic it's smoking me Clos the issue is you walk in they don't deal with stuff like that you know they deal with bandaids and FES and stuff like that um you know the average cold you have a
cold respiratory issues things like that um but this this place will have x-ray machines they will have other stuff so that you know now it's an ammonia or anything like that it's calling ambulance and transport to the hospital you walk in with chest pain you walk in with shortness of breath calling ambulance you know if they drive there
they drive there with chest pain and they walk in pain don't leave call unfortunately yes so what happens is they they do a lot of transports out of there um you know maybe our Saving Grace and I shouldn't say this but maybe our Saving Grace would be that it's not Medicare Medicaid so it's full reimburse
reimbursement um I think that you know that might bring some money into the town if if that is the case and we're doing that many runs but it's kind of unfair to say on my behalf um obviously they got to treat everyone but it's a private company they can do whatever they want right so that plays into my
other comment which for the rest of the committee I I I I think we should at some point Kick the Can on hire hiring two more FTE what that would look like from a budget standpoint probably not realistic to do with it this year but um
for the near future because if that's if there's an opportunity to increase on on the Staffing side and make a reduction on the overtime cost of the savings and that seems like it's a no-brainer especially when you said what you just said about the walk-in clinic
right so if having those two additional bodies puts the department in a position to be able to manage and sustain with what they're being asked to do for the community I think there's there's at least a discussion to be had there no absolutely agree and and chief maybe if you could help us gather some
statistical information on so 90 run that we miss times $2,600 is $234,000 right it's significant money we losing you so you uh you know coming from Penbrook and if you could talk to the current chief there um and get some data
on how many runs they get out of there uh out of their Minute Clinics or whatever it is they have over there and we could certainly take take a look at that over the course of a year and then it could basically pay for itself it could be a wash right really
right and put the department in a better position for the community yeah so that would be really helpful for us to kind of rationalize that when it comes to to looking at that not that you're in a poor position with community at all right exactly you got my
point any information will help you know like most definitely uh you know any any numbers we can get um and I think even by changing the billing that I have and things like that we you know we equ to more money in the future yeah I think that you know steps in the right
direction to help you know in uh you know more with more manpower is going to be uh what we need so sure well I think the the overtime piece to for me is is one of the biggest drivers especially if you're sitting here saying that FMLA is your biggest contributor that there's something that we can do to help with
that right and that's that's what kind of triggers it in my brain to just say look at it because it's a it's an expense that is outside of your control yeah and I think that the last um three years because when I first got there we had a member out on FMLA but
quite a bit of time and then obviously the four members the next year and then two members this year you to remember who were hiring is the younger generation you know what I mean they're walking through the door s families and so that's what we're getting and I don't think it's going to stop I think it's going to be one of those you know that I
I think police dep Department seeing it um School committees are seeing it you know just what we're up against so thank you for well appreciate it Chief thank you any more questions at all one second
we do have some members of the public on the phone does anybody have any questions for the fire department and their budget request okay hearing none we will close that agenda item thank you Chief thank you thank very thanks all right um next agenda item we have is
the just the other budget Le aison updates but Cody is out ill today so we'll push that to next week um and then probably finalize some of the other items there uh on that specific item anytime you want to stay you're welcome don't exactly exactly thanks a
lot so next agenda item is committee liaison update so the uh the capitol planning committee met last week for the first time uh the chief's gear is on there there's also a number of other the ambulances on there um and uh but
nothing was really settled we just kind of reviewed what the requests were uh and then we have another follow-up meeting I think the 12th the 12th right and do we know what free cash is free cash was what one
1.3 or something like that yeah 1.3 was certified free cash Jim on Capital planning um are all the requests in didn't have a deadline of be by a certain date all requests that are going to be considered
are in they are so that's closed for this that is closed for this fiscal year yes okay good not too many then for this year yeah there was plenty was there yeah okay there's plenty but not exactly
not everybody's going to be able to you know get what they want so the 12th ofch March so and I think we'll be having a couple of the department heads in who are looking for things both Chiefs replied that they'd be there I have not heard that from stop okay is that
do yeah um no was um it's in person but I we could probably set up soon yeah we could set up soon 6 o00 it was on Zoom because the one young lady didn't come um six yes
yeah so yes happy for everyone's to come and have their input because there's a lot of things out there um but that's all I have for liais on updates anybody else wait Personnel you want talk about
that chy wasn't here the wage and Personnel personel I missed I was in right you that's right that's right we tried to hook it up we tried believe me they
tried so sure um wage of personnel um I don't have my notes on there disbanded right yeah went over to the we're disbanded well it's a three member committee through the selectman now going
forward yeah so they're not we don't have to the finance committee be a part of that since they're going to be doing all the negotiating and they have a new clal Union that takes another 20 people out of the non-union section I think that
only leaves him with a handful like 10 yeah something like that so they'll just be dealing with Cody directly I think at that point uh and and the selectman do all the executive sessions to negotiate the cbas so we don't really participate in that STS are all they're
all finalized no changing last yearand yep and that's certainly that's certainly fine um schools so I don't know if anybody watched the Silver Lake Regional
schol committee meeting last week no I did not okay so they're they they got their end certified at 2.3 million uh they're going to be using that to close their gap on their budget from the school committee perspective they're not making any Cuts this year they'll take
2.3 million yeah well they'll take all that 800,000 all yeah that everything else will be the motion that they approved was a FY 26 operations budget of 4,644
440 they directed the superintendent to allocate $3,533 th000 for additional resources their anticipated circuit breaker funding is 2.5 million FY 26 Grant and revolving account will be
$133,000 and they the final approved budget that uh was voted was $ 44,1 77,000 440 that's silver l silver L the increase of that
our at the time our our um our contribution was like a 5.8 or 5.9% increase over last year so they're taking 2.3 million they're going to reserve
800,000 and apply .5 million to the budget now a couple of comments at the end again you you should watch the watch the video it's only an hour um there were comments at the end that they recognized that they have a budget issue next year they're going to
be hitting a fiscal cliff um I would you know there's there's probably a number of things just from a financial perspective that I might have done differently but they didn't and it certainly is their choice but they will have some hard choices to make next year uh the challenge will be is that you
know they're going to have to come back to the towns for more money and that may be however that however that manifests itself through an override through taxes whatever but uh that's what the that's
what Silver Lake voted on last week and I don't think we've seen anything from the elementary school as of yet no so still you know up in the air s the not just they did
did yeah today oh that so okay yeah I think we all got that did you read through that M just curious I did not until I came okay all right uh let me get back to my
notes for this meeting all right so um that's about it for the committee leaz on updates anybody have anything else for that part of the meeting all right so we'll close out that agenda item we will move on to the corespondence and as may arise um
correspondents we did get the uh we did get an email from some of the um I guess specialists at the school so so I'll just uh and it came with an attachment um I guess we would we should
enter that as part of like the record I guess right the attachment yeah can you share that on the screen if we to look at it or sure um then it'll become part of the video
yeah um are you on I am not um I'll just email it to you Lindsay and you can just pull it up on the screen okay and share it with everyone else for Thea element yes should be there
h there I just got now you got both of them yeah you can you send me those to H can you send those to me yeah I think you're on here I didn't get them right there I didn't get them yeah
she's on there okay so this is what we received today from um should be a share share see the green the green box with the arrow share select that share
that okay Mike can you see that yes okay so we received this today from several uh from three specialists at the elementary school um just to I guess give us an idea of what uh you know the
work that they do every day uh and how critical it is just just to the children of the uh of the that go to the school now undoubtedly I think anything that in my opinion uh that has to do with children needing special attention or
some type of um special education or assisted assistance in you know enhancing their own ability to learn stuff is always critical in their upbringing and I think it's um I think it's I think it's good to read through this I think it's a good thing to
understand um because I don't believe anybody uh who has had children or has children uh wants the school to be sacrificed in anyway however I think you know it's really we we can certainly we're making two recommendations to the
town one will be our standard budget with what we can afford the other will be with the potential override and it's up to the residents to vote on that as to whether they want it or not it's not really we can we will recommend one or the other and we'll vote on that at that time uh when we get those um so as I
said it's a it's it certainly is a valuable they these people are valuable resources and the children that leverage these resources I'm sure benefit greatly from them and I don't believe anybody here on this committee wants to see them go away in any shape or form but um you
know we have to you know as as everyone understands economics it's all about trade-offs right so it's not like there's any more there aren't any more dollars for us to allocate uh and it's you know who is um you have to not do something to do
something else those are the tradeoffs we need to that that need to be considered here any anybody have any questions okay anything else I don't think we got any other emails from any other citizens or employees so uh as may arise
anybody have anything for the committee as a whole since we're all here okay all right so uh public participation uh we're coming to the close of our meeting does anyone uh we have I think a couple of people still left on anybody have any questions for the finance
committee okay hearing none we will close out that section uh next meeting planning is what next Monday right next Monday and the school will be there yes is the school there on the 13th or the no that's the 17th the 17th
so the elementary school will be coming to meet with the finance committee on the 17th so I plan we should be we're GNA have that as an iners meeting yeah 10 10th is yeah the 10 the
10th is is zoom that's next Monday the 17th is the following Monday and that'll be live because we'll have the school here with us here [Music] think so no we're gonna have Cody to go
through probably some of the other budgets that he's closed out in internally here in town hall just to kind of work our way through those so and we can take a look at the fire budget again with Cody on the pH okay so the
10th Y and the 17th with the school Y at say the school doesn't help out Elementary or Sil L I think it's going to be just the elementary school 6 o at 6 o' talk in person yes all right good meeting okay so that
brings us to the end of our agenda uh can I get a motion to adjourn so moov than thank you roll call vote Cheryl yes Mr Bennett yes thank you sir Mr Johnston
yes please you Mr Brian yes Mr Smith yes Mr Retta yes sir and I am a yes as well this meeting is adjourned thank you all for coming in good night everyone good night everybody
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