WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=S_v5Mvzw0nk

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: S_v5Mvzw0nk):
- 00:00:14: Introduction: Upcoming Speakers and Override Presentation Overview
- 00:01:51: Proposition 2 1/2 and Halifax's Looming Fiscal Cliff
- 00:05:12: Explaining Prop 2 1/2, Override Need, Regional Fiscal Issues
- 00:09:55: Halifax's Heavy Residential Tax and Revenue Options
- 00:14:51: Historical Context, Inflation, and Impact Without Override
- 00:17:50: Reduced Services, Staffing Cuts, and Override Proposal Structure
- 00:25:52: Override Impact on Taxes, Property Re-Evaluation Question
- 00:28:41: State Aid, Free Cash Usage, and Tax Recap Questions
- 00:30:19: Budget Increase, Significant Cuts, and Commercial Properties
- 00:36:49: Commercial Property Questions and Individual Financial Burden
- 00:39:58: Concerns Over Town Finances and School Budgets
- 00:42:08: School Spending, Transparency, and Master Plan Discussion
- 00:46:19: Assessment Value, Home Value, Master Plan and Grants
- 00:49:00: Long-Term Financial Goals, Efficiencies, and Grant Importance
- 00:51:59: MBTA Compliance, Grants, and Commercial Development Queries
- 00:56:41: Land Availability, Zoning, Master Plan and Committee Creation
- 01:01:39: Focus on Senior Center Cuts and Additional Board Changes
- 01:04:00: Council On Aging Director, Darlene Reagan Introduction
- 01:04:20: COA Director's Perspective: Grant Funding and Senior Services
- 01:26:31: Gratitude Letters and Future Senior Centers Growth
- 01:27:03: Audience Input: Criticizing Senior Center Cuts
- 01:27:37: District Attorney Remarks and Triad Program Overview


Part: 1

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Good morning everyone. I want to get started. I know Stephen is pretty busy with with all the town matters, so I want to make sure we're not too late getting going. Um, welcome to Triad. It's great to have

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so many of you here today. Um, uh, and I want to announce who's coming after this meeting. So, next month, June 2nd, John Sheay from the Historic Commission agreed to bump back a month. So, he'll be here talking all about the

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history of Halifax. Then on July 7th, we have um Sierra O'Sullivan. She's a client relationship manager. She's going to talk all about alternative housing. Then August 4th, we have Cassie

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talking about um comfort keepers and elder law. And in Sep on September 1st, we have senior Medicare patrol and ambulance billing. So, we have that coming up. But today, now we're louder. I guess

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he he turned it on. Um today we have Stephen Sobo. is going to do our program about um the override potential presentation. So, he's going to present about the override um and our concerns

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about the town budget, the town meetings coming up, and he's going to walk you through everything that we have coming up. And then after that, Darlene Reagan, our town our um council on aging director is going to speak. So, welcome.

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And thank you Stephen. >> Good morning everyone. Um, just bear with me today. I'm not feeling quite 100% a little under the weather this week. So, uh, if I lose my voice, it's just a product of that. Um, but I'm

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going to try to give the same presentation. I've given now four times. This will be the fifth time I've given this to the to the public in various capacities across the town. Um, it's been pretty consistent, the same same presentation each time. We've had a little bit of updated information as

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we've gone along and then I will open it up for questions at the end before um Darlene takes over and talks about the impacts and the other work she does at the Council on Aging. So, um, but just to get started, those of you who haven't met me yet, u, I'm Steven so I'm the town administrator here in Halifax. I

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started on January 26th. So, I had a really short runway to work with in order to get this budget together. What you'll see today is effectively two budgets. Uh, I had to create two budgets. one being a proposed cut budget, which is what happens if the override does not succeed, and then a

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second budget that outlines if a override does succeed, what will happen in the event of that. Um, but this presentation will sort of go through how we got here, why we are here, what we hope to do, you know, what my plan is and what my role is in that. Ultimately,

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you guys are the taxpayers and the residents of the town. So ultimately you decide what happens at town meeting. Um but this is just meant to give you an idea of how to make those decisions in an informed way. Again, this is not about persuasion. I am only here to tell

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you about the facts and what you'll be voting on and hearing on both May 11th and then again on May 16th at the town election. That will be as a result of whatever gets through town meeting floor on the 11th. So uh and this is just this is only going to refer to the ballot

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questions surrounding the override. The government study committee has been doing some work with some of the appointed uh the elected positions that are being proposed to remove to move to u appointed positions but they'll talk to that at town meeting. So

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all right that's a success. All right nothing's working. Caesar, where are you? Uh, the remote's not working. want to sign this and put your email address.

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>> Everyone should have my email address. Okay. >> Everybody should have it. >> All right. >> All right. So, we're back in order now. Um, is everybody aware of what Proposition 2 and a half is? Does anyone not know what

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Proposition 2 and a half is? So, I don't have to go over it. Everyone aware of that? So, Prop 2 and a half is what the state uses to raise taxes each year. They raise the taxes by 2 and a half%. That is a standard increase that every community can collect in addition to what they

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collected the previous year is two and a half%. That's why they call it Prop 2 and a half. Um so as I say the annual levy increase is 2 and a half%. So you see your tax your property tax is typically increased by 2 and a half% each year. An override actually takes that 2 and a half% and extends it even

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further. But what you need is approval from town meeting in order to do that. So that's what I was just speaking of. In order for this to go through, you need it to go through town meeting, which is on Monday, May 11th. It will need to pass town meeting floor, and then it will go to the ballot box, which

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is on May 16th for voting uh from 10 to 6 p.m. at the elementary school as well. So, the override only increases the amount of taxes that a municipality is allowed to collect. So, why is an override needed? Um, right

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now, Halifax is facing a fiscal cliff. A fiscal cliff is a point where the government's finances have become unsustainable very quickly. Uh and this is happening quite frequently across, as you've probably all seen in the news, a lot of communities are facing overrides right now. Um

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it ba basically finances become unsustainable very quickly, forcing sudden and often severe actions like cuts, layoffs, or tax increases. Across the region, you're seeing towns like Lakeville proposing a cut of 38 to 19 as far as firefighters go. That's full-time

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firefighters, 38 to 19. Middleboro is looking at a deficit of about $4.5 million. Freetown's looking for an override in the neighborhood of $5 million. Marshfield's looking for an override in the neighborhood of $7 million. Uh Whitman Hansen is looking for an override. So, across the region,

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you have a number of communities in the same exact boat. And the reason is fixed costs have raised at a point where it's unsustainable and is not captured within the typical 2 and a half% growth rate of revenue of the Prop 2 and a half

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increase. So people may ask what do those increases look like? I can tell you for a fact that one of the largest line items in our government is our health insurance cost and that went up 14.2% this year. So right there that's

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14.2%. 2%. Another huge line item, retirement, went up 8% this year. So in those two line items, you're looking at well over a million dollars of cost. And the revenue capacity that you actually capture in a typical 2 and a.5% override is around $500,000.

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So right there, your revenue from your tax increase of the 2 and a half% is gone. You're starting at zero already. And that's before you even put that into a capital plan. So, you can do one-time capital expenses. You could do a rooftop at the elementary school. You can

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renovate the Council on Aging. You can put money towards a new Council on Aging. You could buy police cruisers. You can buy an ambulance, which this town drastically needs. Um, so there's a lot of things that you need to do with free cash or you should do with free cash. Best management practice is to use

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free cash on one-time expenses because free cash is one-time money. Therefore, if you spend free cash on anything that is not a one-time cost, if you specifically spend it on operations, it's like spending $1 now that turns

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into $2 next year. So, every dollar of free cash that we spend this year will be $2 that you owe back next year. So that's why we're facing the situation we are in a rather this is the last year possible that Halifax can actually use

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free cash cover the deficit because then next year if they decide to use free cash to kick the can one year further down the road you're looking at a situation where you can't cover the deficit with free cash and you will be making cuts that are twice as deep and

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you will have to make them or you will have to do an override that may be twice as large. Those are the two scenarios for next year if this year does not go through. And again, this year is only addressing level services. We are only trying to

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maintain what we have today. Um, so that being said, that's where the biggest decision needs to come is the the fact that free cash needs to be utilized in a way moving forward both this year and years to come in a way that is

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consistent with best management practices. Applying it to operations continually is going to continue to put this community in the same boat year in year out. So that's why throughout the rest of this presentation you'll see why I recommended what I have

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alongside. Um so basically the current situation is this number's come down a little bit as we've gotten closer to the town meeting. The structural deficit when we first set out was approximately 1.1 to 1.3 million. That number is probably more like 900,000 now. Um after numbers have

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come in a little bit closer or a little bit better than we expected to. But when we are at times when we need to approve these numbers in order to go into town meeting and what we have to move forward with, we have to set them at certain times before we get the actual numbers in. Like for instance, we just received

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the most the most upto-date school budget number earlier last week. So, we have to adjust we we had to adjust adjust the warrant to say that. So, now as the numbers have come more into focus, the deficit is more like

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$900,000. Um, one of the main reasons, and this isn't to say anything bad about Halifax, it's that Halifax relies heavily on residential tax rate. Um there's not a very huge amount of commercial property

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in town to offset residential tax rate. Therefore, residential tax has to carry a majority of the burden for the town to pay for services. Therefore, in order to pay for any level services in the time of a deficit, you have to ask the

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residents for more money because there simply is not enough commercial tax base to ask for an increase in their taxes because they pay the same tax rate that you folks all do. It's a flat tax rate. There are communities out there that do have a split tax rate, but that's

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because they have enough commercial business to offset that. And that's a very fine formula which you need probably about 35 to 40% of your town to be commercial in order to take advantage of that. Otherwise, you'll drive small business out of town completely. Um

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that leads to the next point which is limited new revenue sources. If you're reluctant to have commercial development come into town, you're going to lack the ability to tie in new revenue sources. So if your revenue source, your main

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revenue source is residential tax rate, you're going to rely on heavy residential tax rate. Slow commercial development means, you know, a slow growing tax base. But you got to think of other ways to bring in revenue. What are those potential other ways? Are there any services we can think of where

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we can charge more money for them as a town to recoup some funds and put them into the budget? Um, some thoughts there are, you know, could you do some solar installations on some of the the public own publicly owned areas in the town and sell them for monetary value? Um, that's

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certainly a model that works in other communities. I've deployed that model in other communities. Could it work on the dump that's out back here by the DPW? It could. Have I started conversations to see what that would take? I have. So those are the types of discussions,

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alternative, innovative ways to bring in more revenue in ways that aren't just simply residential or commercial tax rate. Those are the things we really have to think about. Um and then of course as we all know and have seen um with the urgent care for

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instance with the new 55 plus uh condominiums we're now seeing increased service demands uh on areas like first responders, police, fire um because we do have an aging population in Halifax as well. So the demographics of Halifax

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are shifting towards a more senior um demographic age in general slowly since the last census. So there will be more of a reliance on first responders. We will simply need it just because the stat statistics say as as humans age, we

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need more care. I mean, I'm 43. You want to know how many times I've had to be taken to the hospital via ambulance? More than I want to count. So, I've needed it. I can appreciate the value of first responders. Uh, and I know if there was an override in my community, I'd be voting for it if uh it was

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related to fire and first response. Um, so just to put a little bit of historical context on this, so the last time a a operational override was actually proposed in Halifax was in 2005. And this was for full-time firefighter paramedics. I believe it was

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four total. Um, and back then the total amount of the override was that you guys were looking for was $297,541. to put this in perspective um when I say that the costs have increased significantly since then uh if you look at it this way so that's been

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20 years approximately maybe 21 but let's keep it at 20 years if you've increased your taxes by the 2 and a half% over 20 years that's a 50% raise in the actual revenue that you're putting in the inflation amount over that same period of time has been 65%.

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So therefore, based on the amount of money you've put into the system at 50%. You've still got a 15% gap in which everybody else is operating at, but Halifax is not. So there's a gap that you need to close there in order to get up to what everybody else is spending

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money at based on the current value of the dollar. Um, and obviously, as you see here, town revenues have not kept pace with the incurring the increasing cost of inflation across the board. Uh, and I I I don't want to leave this slide

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without that being said. We understand especially in this group with fixed incomes. Um the cost of gas prices right now, the cost of groceries, and I expect coming from the oil and natural gas industry, costs are only going to go up. And this is not a scare tactic. I've

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seen this before. I've seen oil shortages. I I was around when I was in the oil industry when the United States was getting involved in Afghanistan and Iraq and saw what that did to oil prices and the the staggering shock that we saw at grocery stores.

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Get get ready for more of that. And at 2026 prices, $7 gas, $8 gas, it could be here. So, um, that doesn't change the fact that the town still need still doesn't need an override because we're going to have to also budget for that as well.

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I'm already thinking about ways because we've entered all our budgets in for this year and we didn't factor in $4, $5 gasoline. We factored in $280 gasoline because that was the market rate at the time or $3 gasoline at to just to be

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conservative. And now we're up against the fact that, you know, all those first responders, those are gas powered vehicles. You know, we have to we have to account for that stuff and we're going to be short even there now. So, we're scrambling just to address for that. Um, so I don't want it to be lost

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on you folks that we do know that everyone's being pinched right now. Um, everybody's being pinched. It doesn't matter if you're a senior, doesn't matter if you're a parent, you got schoolaged kids, everybody's feeling it right now. We we understand that.

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And just to show you the equivalent to today that 297 $500,000 that shows you roughly that 65% increase um in inflation since since 2005. Uh so what happens without an override?

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Uh these are these are not generalities. These are actual numbers. So your ambulances would be reduced from two to one based on the fact that we would still have two ambulances, but we wouldn't have the staff to run two. Uh that pro that produces a significant

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problem because when that one ambulance will be called, if it has to go down to um Plymouth to drop someone off, it may not be back in town for 3 hours. Um, it will also require that the police

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and fire, which historically they've worked and they've always worked very well together in this town. It means police will probably be called in to assist on some of these more emergency events like motor vehicle accidents where they're commonly involved anyways to come and help to the scene. Um, but

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it may require more work from them and they're also facing. So, um, this is where I speak to emergency response traffic shortages which could lead to delayed response, higher liability, ISO ratings. Now, ISO

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ratings have been a hot topic because um that's your insurance that's related to your insurance, your homeowners insurance. So, ISO ratings are related to fire response in a community. I believe right now the town of Halifax, the chief, don't quote me on this, but the chief said it was four or five,

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which is actually pretty good for um the way that this department is deployed. Um, but if that goes any closer to 10, which I guess going up is bad, you're going to see an increase in your homeowner's insurance that would probably outweigh the impact of the the override. You can see a 30 to 50%

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increase in your homeowner's insurance due to fire staffing. Now, I can't tell you when when that would happen, but it could be anywhere between 12 and 18 months from the staffing change because the chief has told me that they don't just automatically come in and respond to a staffing change. These are typically cyclally done events unless

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someone tips them off and then they will come in and do an essentially an audit to figure out how much fire response they have, how that has an impact on potential the ability to put out fires, structure fires for instance. Um so it's all tied to statistics and insurance.

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So um this would include the loss of the school resource officer who will be um basically put on to different duties um within the department itself. Uh there's a position that will be not backfilled which is a sergeant's position at the

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police department. Um you know obvious they have their reduction in police support coverage and then overall between both departments you're losing about three full-time employee equivalents. So that's the almost the entirety of the call fire department which is two

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full-time equivalents and then one full-time police officer which is the not back filling of the one position. And that's a that is a management mid-management position of being in a sergeant's position. And I don't know exactly I mean I don't know how exactly they're going to handle

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that um internally as far as organization but it is still a loss of of a full-time police officer. The elementary school this number is actually 10 not eight. Um from math literacy to specialist that

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might even be more. Um class sizes would increase from the smallest classes roughly 26 students up to 40 in the sixth grade classes. Uh reduce student student services and potential for higher costs for families. Now I put that potential higher cost for

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families because we asked the schools to potentially investigate the cost of busing and um kindergarten tuition which is something that a lot of communities in this area do. They charge for transportation costs which I know in Halifax is a little bit unique because

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based on the geography of the town there's not much value because by state requirements you're required to do a certain amount of pickups and from a monetary value it's not going to make much sense from Halifax. But the charging for kindergarten could be

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something where the school could make some money. And in all honesty, having a young one at home who is prek, she's four and a half. Um, I know the cost of child care and I know the cost of child care once you put a kid into kindergarten, how much cheaper it is

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than the private market. Uh, so there is actually, I think, some cost savings there. Granted, it would be a subsection of parents that would have to pay that first year cost of suddenly there is a new kindergarten you know cost but it's an option and you know as the figcom

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asked all departments to pretty much look for innovative and new ways to find money and start revenue streams that could make sense. So now over here on our side here town services and government general government we're losing the equivalent

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of seven full-time employees. We'd have reduced department availability in this building across the street um at the council on aging. It would put a we haven't figured out exactly what the impact would be on town hall hours but you're looking closer to

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a model like Clinton. Um you know we'd have a strain on maintenance which we already do. Uh I was informed yesterday, as a matter of fact, that uh within the next year, we're going to have to do $200,000 of maintenance work in order for these buildings to stay open because they're

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just not up to code at this point. And that's from the fire chief and the building commissioner. So, and that's not just this building, but that's other buildings in town. Um so, those are needed. That again goes back to capital items. Those are one

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time items to keep buildings open. And again, maintenance is one of the few departments that lose staff last year and now they're going to lose more staff this year. Uh, we're going to pretty much getting rid of the custodian fully from this building. It still gets done,

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but it spreads the staff that's in that department. Um, and significant impact on senior services as you all know. I'm pretty sure you guys have been very cognizant of the fact. I know Darlene does a great job keeping you guys informed. Um, and

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she's probably been highlighting or I should say lowlighting exactly what the changes may be. Um and then of course we also look at and this is one of my biggest um fears and one thing that I'm keeping the closest

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eye on is increased compliance risk because we're cutting now into some of these departments especially financially the financially related departments which have such a high level of compliance scrutiny through audits and through the department of revenue. Um,

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and we have we have uh staff that's relatively new to their roles, still learning their roles. So, we are bringing aboard some software that should help and allow that staff to focus on more of those things. But again, if you're not in compliance with

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those things, do will come in and make the changes themselves um and adjust things as they see fit. So, with all of these, you have increased risk. You know, ultimately that's what local government essentially had to become is

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basically an insurance policy on a lot of things. And now you're just cutting out that layer of of insurance policy. Um, you know, downstream expenses, which people really don't realize. I mean, how much do you

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guys save by utilizing the services at the Council on Aging? I'm sure if that would be a very helpful flyer or informative graphic of how much money is saved by seniors who use the council on aging. So at town meeting folks knew exactly what was on the line for you folks

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and could actually put a number to that because I think there is a number there that is associated with that again direct impact on safety education. I think we all understand that. So the override proposal structure

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basically has two main components even though it's one over it basically split into general government police fire and operations and then the school department. Um the overall target is $1.5 million

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and this stops to the potential use of the funds. So we be restoring a lot of the staffing that's projected as cut. Uh that would mainly entail school, police and fire. And then the last important point there is we have some

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expiring contracts with um folks at police and fire especially in the leadership positions uh that need to be negotiated with and we're currently negotiating with five out of six unions in town. Um, so you know, all the staff and the

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staff that will remain, uh, regardless of how this override turns out, um, I'm bargaining with a lot of those folks in a key retention, you know, that that speaks to retention all day. And that's going to be tough to do even going through the override

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process. And then if there isn't much to give in a bargaining sense, it's going to be really tough to retain folks here in Halifax. Um, and this is the slide that folks probably want the most information on and it's what's the impact to your

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pocket. So, even beyond this, what's better uh is on the front landing page of the town's website, there's a tab on the top that says FY27 budget. It's a landing page. In there is a

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calculator. If you know the value of your home from this year, you can plug it in. It'll tell you what your tax bill will be next year without the override, including the 2 and 12% increase. And then it'll give you another number that will show you the tax bill that you will

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see with the override succeeding. And then it will actually show you another column that will show you the difference between those two bills. So you can see exactly what the increase to you as a president and taxpayer in town is towards your and so it can help you

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budget and finance better towards next year as far as what your by annual tax bills will be and this is pulled directly from the do website they have an override calculator on it this is what I use for the basis of the calculator this

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is actually uh if you help if you can see this uh I know you might have to go up to look at it but this talks to the average home in the Halifax is $532,178, which means your average 2026 tax bill of the town was $7,493.

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And the um average tax bill impact from 26 into 27 would be an estimated $532.18. I have a question on aren't they re-evaluating the properties in town or this year? >> Yep.

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>> Is that going to be affected on next year's capital? >> I'd have to check the way it doesn't work. >> I'd have to check in with the assessor to see when those rates would come into effect. But yeah, I would expect if as you all know that there is a cyclical inspection going on that is done I

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believe every five or seven years based on state code and compliance and um they go and reassess the home values based at the state level every seven years and that's being >> is it every 10? Yeah, I don't know the exact statutory timeline but they're out doing that right now. And typically for

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most folks there is an increase that is associated with that. Um but I can't I can't be 100% on that. basically double taxation goes up. >> Well, I wouldn't say it's a double tax. That's just what your home's that's what your home's worth. That's what your

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home's assessed at. So, yes, sir. One thing in your presentation as you say is the cut statewise less. So >> well the schools got what they typically get. The state um had asked for more.

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They had asked them to double the per pupil uh input from 75 to 150 and that was not passed. Uh they kept it at $75. Um unrestricted governmental general governmental aid or UGGA. Yes, that was um

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historically lower than it had been in years past. And the fact that fixed costs raised at such a rate this year that it just eclipsed it. I mean, I did have I do have data that shows in years past leading up to this year, it was roughly 3 to 4% that Halifax would

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recoup as far as um you know, unrestricted governmental aid UGGA. So, be about 3 to 4%. This year was about 05 just to show you the difference. >> Now, I understand the Senate budget is

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proposing to significantly increase for But if that were to pass, what happens with this whole we still stuck with that increase in our taxes even if the town was significant increase in federal

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state? >> Well, yeah, once you vote and pass this, then it would go into effect. I mean, you could do an underride at some point. Underwrites are possible. You can lower the tax rate as of active town meeting as well. It's obviously a lot less

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frequently done, but it it has been done. Um, but in in that case, I would say that I have heard rumors of that legislation. I know what they're asking for. They're asking for approximately a million dollars for each of the 351

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communities in the state. Um, do I see it having any motic of success? In my opinion, no. I don't think it will change much of anything. in a million dollars. That's essentially a million dollars of free cash. Doesn't change the problem. The

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problem here is the town keeps taking credit cards to pay their their bills by utilizing free cash the way they've been utilizing free cash. Every dollar you put towards operation is $2 the next year

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until you pay it back. So last year, this town decided to pay $750,000 in free cash to bridge the gap for the schools. You're looking at an approximate $ 1.5 million override. That's almost 2 to1. $1

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time 2, 750 is 1.5. So every dollar you add, so if say you were to take 500,000 and allocate it during town meeting this year towards operations, you're essentially adding a million dollars to the deficit next

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year. So then you're starting at three, you'd be starting at 2.5 and then you don't have enough free cash to cover it all and then you have to cut. This is the last year where Halifax can get away without making any cuts. But here's the thing. They'll be twice as bad, if not

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worse, next year. And that's not a scare tactic. That is just simple math. >> No, that'll be done. That'll be done on tax recap. After so after June 30th, the closing of the books, we sit with the assessor. Uh, and then over the summer

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they start doing tax recap. We don't know how much approximately. >> Oh, with the override, it would go up to 15.02 for $1,000 of valuation from the 14.02 it is now, but then tax recap will start again at

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July 1 as the new year gets underway to start setting it for next year. >> Now, the question had nothing to do with it. Next year supposedly the debt for the schools, high school

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is going to be done. What happens to that money? I mean, >> it's it's 200 grand. >> That's it for a year. >> Well, it's 200 grand for this year.

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>> It will fall off and then it's essentially money we don't have to extend. >> Um, from what you told us, inflation and cost to go exceed two and a half. >> Yep.

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>> It seems to me we're going to be looking at the same thing the following year >> potentially >> unless we seriously address some cuts. And what you proposed is continue what we're doing

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or massive cuts. Why? Why is >> No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not proposing continue what you're doing massive cuts. I'm proposing no use of free cash towards operations. That's a big difference. >> Why don't we have another

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significant cuts instead of just >> there's 1.3 >> exactly what we're doing? >> There's $1.3 million worth of cuts here. >> What would be considering? >> That's up for you guys to decide at town meeting.

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But if you again if you just the only way you can fund only a half a million dollars worth of cuts is by using free cash. Every dollar you put towards free cash towards operations will be $2 you have to pay back next year. So by you saying okay so that's effectively if you

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only wanted a half million dollar override you'd have to fund 800,000. So you're doing exactly what you did last year. You're making next year's deficit number three million right off the start. And then you don't have and then if you get the free cash that was this year, which was a little bit higher than

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we expected, um you're looking at only being able to pay for half of that and then having to make $1.5 million of cuts and going even deeper, like eliminations of departments deep.

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like this is buying time for some departments that knowing next year if it doesn't improve they're completely gone and we're probably looking at other departments to completely wipe out as well. Yes, sir.

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>> I understand that commercial. Why is it the towns that most towns pay more commercial property is higher rate than the residential now all the commercial property coming into

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this town. There should be an awful lot of extra money just on but they should be paying taxes. Not just our poor people here that living on a few dollars. >> Compared to other communities, Halifax

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has nowhere near the commercial residential split. You're talking a 5% commercial split here in this town. Towns with an actual split tax rate are approaching 35% commercial.

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I come from a town I my previous position before this was in the town of Norwood and I'll tell you so Norwood has one of the lowest tax bills in the entire state of Massachusetts even though it's a town of 30,000 and has 60,000 people in it during the day. Now

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the 60,000 people during the day versus 30,000 people at night should tell you one thing. A lot of people go in there to work during the day. There's a ton of economic activity. The population out here drops during the day. There's e economic activity outside of

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Halifax every day. There is not enough e economic activity in Halifax to offset the residential tax rate. Otherwise, you will drive all those commercial businesses that currently exist here out of town because then they will be

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subsidizing the residential tax rate which they will not see as fair. That's how that works. So I understand that Halifax wants to remain as a residential community and that's very much what you are a a residential rural

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community. You are nowhere near a commercial a place where commercially you could have an offset. I mean if you really look around there's not many towns in this region that have offsets besides like the Plymouth of the

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world and think about their commercial zones. compared to years past. Yes. down the street and >> it's because they don't make any more buildable land. >> I'm talking about myself. I don't have anybody

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I'm high insurance. I'm pay my taxes and everything else. Health insurance income doesn't cover all that people.

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I think the town of all of the expenses the town has and all of the different and so forth schools. Now I was under comm schools the schools will never have

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enough money. Now I understand the silver lake has three administrators. Why does a school have to have three administrators? Because the way the regional schools district set up is that if two of the

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three communities in the regional school district vote for their budget, their budget carries. So Kingston and Plimpmpton voted for their budget. Halifax gets dragged along whether you like it or not.

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I know that one. >> I will tell you that there's a lot of questions surrounding the amount of money being spent by the schools. And I will say that the the finance committee

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is very interested in how much money the school is spending, how they budget their money, and how often they meet with their committee to explain how they're budgeting their money. and they are trying to stay on top of them as am I. Um,

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we understand that we need to get the school spending at least more, I'll say, transparent so that we all know what's actually being spent and how we can have more of an impact on how it's being spent at the regional level.

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Um but we don't have that much control if two out of three communities are approving their budget and we are by law dragged into it by being one of the three and out and simply outvoted. That's just the dynamics of how the region the regional school district

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works. So I agree with you by saying I have looked very closely at their budget. I've seen the amount of money that is spent in administration at the regional level. Uh, I've seen the amount of money that's spent at the elementary school. It's why I proposed an $800,000

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cut to their services. Um, it wasn't wellreceived by all, but it's what's best potentially for the town in my opinion. town produces

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every little bit of income I have. I have to figure out how am I going to cut costs. I just had my oil barrel filled. I have heating oil. Would you believe it cost me almost $1,000 to fill my tank?

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>> Yeah, it's oil. >> $960 to fill my tank with oil. Good thing you did it this week because next week it will cost you 1,800. >> Where are we getting our money? Food increases gasoline.

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>> That's not lost on us. Like I said, >> stand to say, "Well, what about us?" >> I'm not saying you need to pay them. I'm saying it's your choice to pay them or not. I'm just telling you how they're connected.

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>> And I don't know where you're going to have properties, but I hope you're going to have real tax people, not outside tax people. inside town. When someone wants to come out and freeze my property, I want a person to know about taxation on

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real estate. Ask some town employee said, "Well, we need more money, so let's increase it this way." I was in commercial lending, residential lending for 39 years in banking and a person would come to me and say, "Well,

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be a real I want to see a cop." I said, Well, I need to know the dimensions and I need location and so forth. I said go to the town. They'll give you all that.

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>> I really want to see the sales. You know what they want to see >> the value. >> Yeah. The selling value. >> And that's what do I real want to see the

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That's the price that cuts down. >> I can tell you that our assessing departments tell you ago the banks almost went down and that was because they had poor.

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Yeah. >> When it comes to town, if people get things straight, you're going to see a big problem for the homeowner and the banks. I don't know about that because we have

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properties in town that were sold for $27 million and are assessed at 115. >> I just want to know who's going to come to my house and >> a professional. A professional that's capable >> they are.

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>> It's a requirement of the job. >> Okay. Okay. >> Which one? >> Yeah. Go ahead. We have the evaluation or is that based on the new evaluation that's based on whatever

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you think your home or you want to do that. So there you have the number. So if you want to plug that number on that box so you do whatever you want so that you know your house might go by% you can

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build that in more I think the concern is because it's because it's not going to go up like 20 or 30% the over into effect

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is going to be up another%ove what that is going to be. You're saying you're going to face a 20% increase due to the valuation, the cyclical valuation. >> Look at real estate. How much is

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increased in the last 10 years? >> You know, what you pay the house 10 years ago, what you pay for it today. >> Yeah. But that's not that's >> again that's not assessment though. That's not assessment. That's that's not assessment. assessment is what the

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actual property value is, not the selling price. >> But I didn't know if you already figures for the assessment consider but >> but to this gentleman's point, an appraiser is going to be doing this work. We're not just going to simply be chasing down selling values and and that

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that doesn't make up the whole appraisal value number at all. Just part of the data complete. >> Not quite yet. No. No. Um, I don't know if I have any slides left, too. All right. So, looking ahead, if I don't

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have any other questions on that stuff. Um, obviously the the long-term goal here is to stabilize >> looking out more than just this year. Um, you know, this year, like I said, I think we've got the the deficit number

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down to closer to like a 900,000 to a million number. So there will be with a successful override some ability to build in some reserves and stabilization and this would reduce our reliance on emergency cuts, be able to improve our long-term planning and be able to

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maintain service uh for residents more than just this year because as I said with this override, I don't fully I don't plan on fully restoring every position. Again, this isn't about necessarily restoring

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everything. It's about restoring the town to a point where we can move forward and effectively grow out from there. Um, that's my last slide, but speaking to that, um, you know, I don't have everything reallocated to go back

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into the budget. Um, there's positions we want to take a look at, there's departments we want to take a look at where we want to put some staff and see how it might work out a little bit better, try to crossrain some staff. um you know see if we can have floaters in between departments that might be able to serve multiple departments in a

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part-time capacity in both departments. So being able to at least in the general government sense I'm not talking about across the board but in the general government sense we have a lot of folks in this building that uh have the ability to serve in a multitude of roles. So if we can spread them out uh

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and have them serve certain responsibilities in a multitude of places, that's probably the most cost-effective way. Um so that's my plan. And then again, like I said, and I've continued to say, is to take an

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efficiency look at each town department, plan out the next five years from a financial pro projection standpoint, you know, because we do have some more development coming up with Klondike, I mean Klondike, Thorndikeke, um, with the Thorndikeke buildings going up, the

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additional condo units. So, we'll be able to capitulate what the tax revenue should be there. the new businesses downtown. We should be able to figure out what the annual tax revenue will there will be. So, we should be able to build a pretty good projection schedule over the next three to five years. I know it's something that Fincom wants.

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Um, and we'll be working closely with them as we move forward because part of this is getting level services for at least the next year or two, but also developing a more long-term plan so we're not just doing this every year. Um, I don't think everybody and with the nature of the way things are increasing

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inflation wise, if we can somehow get out of this cycle before it starts, it will be a win. Um, there are going to be some communities that I do see struggling with overrides annually because costs are going to continue to rise. Um, until this war is over,

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there's going to be a lot of cost impacts across the board. So, yep. >> If this override, that make a even Steven >> for 2027. Yes. Can't guarantee anything

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off after that, but I do like our chances based on some of the information I have. >> It'll catch us up a good ways and then you have to think there's going to be that much more revenue coming in uh with some of the things that are coming online. That's the hope. Like I said,

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other innovative ways. Another big piece to this that I can't let go by without pass without mentioning is the impact of not having grants. Um I don't know where people stand on grants, but not

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having grants is one of the main reasons you are finding yourselves in this position. There's a $400,000 grant for the schools that would have been on the table this year if you had simply been MBTA compliant. There's another $200,000 that would have

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been for maintenance and improvements to buildings. The $200,000 I was speaking of that might be needed for building just to keep these buildings open by the building commissioner and fire chief. Those improvements to the green communities grant program which are

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being held because of MBTA in the amount of almost $200,000. That's 600 grand right there. Um, we are not applying for grants because the grant applications simply say on them, if you are not compliant with the MBTA zoning compliance act, do

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not apply. That is first responder departments, police and fire. Uh, so you we have potentially, if I'm to be conservative, I'd say at least half a million dollars on the table every single year that you're

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leaving behind cuz I you can guarantee almost $200,000 a years in in green communities for infrastructure improvements, efficiencies, windows, doors, weather stripping, insulation. That's a guaranteed 200 to $250,000 a

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year. Um, they'll help you out on solar projects. They'll help you out on fuel assistance and fuel acquisition, whether it's electric or natural gas. Um, you know, there's other things like

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uh all the municipal vulnerability preparedness grants or MVP grant program which helps with stream crossings and um river crossings on roadways and obviously link up with mass DOT to assist in roadway development and increasing those those situations.

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Tons of money being left on the table and again not the magic bullet isn't going to solve the problem. But would boy would the number be a lot less with $600,000 more a lot less comfortably? Yes, 100%.

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>> Is that something that could be reevaluated on again? >> Yeah, so from my understanding it's there's a moratorum on town meeting floor for a certain number of time until it could be brought back. Um I think it's two years, Jim. Yeah, two years.

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So, uh, again, and we're in litigation with the state, so we can't really do anything until we find out what the outcome of that is. But I will say, just going back to that whole situation, grants are important. They are a central

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artery of mostly of most well-run governments, local governments. they are a lifeline. Um because it gives you the ability to leverage fewer dollars as a municipality against what the states giving you. And I mean

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this town meeting in this town has famously said on town meeting floor that they would pay more out of their pocket in order to not take it from the state. I mean it was said on town meeting floor. I have the video because I watched town meeting before I took this

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job and I remember people mentioning I'll dig deeper into my pocket to pay for this help the state gives us. Well, it overrides a chance for you to dig into your own pocket and help your community pay for what the state

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normally gives you. So to the folks who are in that camp, Piper's here, you know, >> can I just have a couple questions about commercial development?

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>> Sure. >> It seems like we're having businesses come in, small businesses. Do we even have land anywhere in Halifax for larger commercial development if we were able to get it?

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I mean, that's probably why you're having some businesses targeting Halifax because one thing you can't build any more of is build the land. Um, and I will say that a lot of the land in this town, having lived here for a number of years, is quite wet. So, it's very

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difficult to build on. Anyways, um, the infrastructure is lacking as far as public water infrastructure, sewer. So, that's a tough any large corporations or commercial because you don't have that place. So they have to invest in that

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themselves. I mean I've seen other communities like when I work at Bridgewwater for instance and the carne family came in those huge farming buildings right off 204 right there right across from what they did with that was they took their own sewage on site that was $10

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million. They had to do it on their own because they were too far away from town. So they had to put it in their own and they also had to do a bunch of other things. They they filled out the planning department with a community and economic development director, a town planner, a conservation agent. Like if

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you had the land to do something like that, it's the way to fund government operations and build things. Sure. But to your point, do we have a parcel that big? I don't know. I don't think so. That being the case, we we're pretty

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limited. >> Do you think I Well, we have, you know, hazardous waste coming into our town. We have water >> hazardous wast >> on the at the other town street and

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>> whoa, what are we speaking of? >> We're speaking of trucking from McDonald Industries that has >> but hazardous in one sense. It's not hazardous. Well, it's it's restricted sometimes. >> It's not restricted. >> Okay. All right. Let's say we don't have

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that. We have water problems in a lot of our homes that really impact all of us even if it's not our water. >> We have the MBTA problem. >> Do you think that part of the reason and this is a question because I don't really know the answer, but I've been

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concerned for a long time that we don't have any master plan. We have a master plan that's so outdated that Um, every I'm pretty sure >> 1983, >> excuse me, >> 1983, >> right? And there have been in the past

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times when we're grants for stuff like this. Obviously, we're not eligible. No, >> this is a great point. This is a great point. >> Is that something that is impacting our situation here, the fact that we're just I mean, we don't have a lot of control because we don't have a plan,

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>> right? Yeah, you you do a good point. So, um, last year Kathy Latashra's office earmarked $50,000 for master plan in Halifax. Now, when that was accepted,

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that was accepted in June or July of 2025. So, it needed to be spent by June 30th of 2026. Guess what we haven't done? We haven't spent it, but I did put in for an extension to get it

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extended to 2027. >> So I can't guarantee that it's been accepted as being extended, but I haven't done the good work that we're hoping because I come from a little bit of planning background. I've worked in planning departments. Uh I know exactly

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how we can take advantage of that $50,000. And you are right because some of the grants do say does your community have a master plan because they need to have one in order to apply for a grant. Some of the grants, not all of them, but some of them it's very helpful because what you have to say in those grant

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applications is in our master plan regarding open space and recreation, we have laid out as a town, we want to do X, Y, and Z. And then if the grant is applying to that X, Y, and Z, they'll award you that money because you had it in their m in your master plan and you

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thought about it as a community. So yes, you're right. So it is very crucial that we get that up and running and we get a master plan because yeah once they hit 10 years old they're kind of expired. So 1983 I would have been one years old when

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that was made. >> So it needs an update. Go >> ahead. >> Sure. Is it possible for the town to set up a committee for

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doing this one doing this that doing that really have a central committee? >> I think that's um that's sort of what the various committees do anyways in a way. So you just joined >> focus as opposed to being a secondary

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focus. You know, we keep cutting back on health. >> But here's the thing. So it's a great idea. Um grants do have to be weighed because you have to consider, you know, because in some of them it's a

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share, you know, it's a shared cost. You know, you want to obviously evaluate that. But what I think what we'll have now in place is a committee will see a grant. They'll say, "Hey, we're going to review this grant. Do are we appropriate for it?" Then you elevate that beyond your board or committee. Ends up in my

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office to take a review at it, a look at it. I'll sit down and speak to the board of selectman about it. And then, you know, eventually gets down to the accountant fin. We start talking about this is the amount of money that could come in. This is the amount of money we would have to put towards a share. How

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would that work out? Um, but again, without having really the ability to apply for grants, it's really kind of a time suck right now, you know, because we don't know how many we're actually going to ever get. I mean, I don't deter any of the staff from applying for them

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because the best thing we can do is get them and then have our state reps report and run, you know, news stories about how the state decided to hold it or take it back. Sometimes that will help us out in the long run. So, I mean, because these weren't supposed to be punitive

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damages, but holding grants are kind of, you know, that are holding us from doing infrastructure improvements and $400,000 for the schools that are now putting us in a precarious financial situation or could have at least helped out immensely. So, but it's a good point. I

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would say please keep bringing up any grants you want to see uh and that you think you know now that you now sit um on the council on aging board. Correct. So anything you see I would certainly bring up and say hey I think we should take a look at this at least run it through the town administrator's office

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and see if it's got any any value. >> I'm just um being cognizant of everybody's time. We want to make sure has a chance to speak for >> I know you about maybe 10 minutes or so, >> darling. >> Couple of days. But thank you so much,

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Stephen, for all the information. So hopefully Yeah, I know. >> That's all right. Yeah, I'll be I'll be quick. >> Well, it's hard to follow up with everything. I mean, there's one thing we can't change, of course, is aging and

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the services, you know, that we provided at the COA, I have to say, complement exactly what's going on today. Um the state of course is uh the federal and state governments are narrowing down on um you know their services you know and

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narrowing down on the costs of you know funding the towns and so on. But there's one thing the COA has done and the one thing I've actually have done is been proactive in getting grants. That's what all the COAs do today. Uh senior centers

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they look for grants. We have funded through the executive office of aging and independence. I don't know if I this is not a tax but how do you have the click? >> Oh, you did. Good. Okay. So, um,

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ch, uh, chapter 40, section 8b states that a city by ordinance or a town by by law may establish a council on aging for the purpose of coordinating and carrying out programs designed to meet the

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problems of the aging in coordination with programs of the department of aging and independence. So that means that I am to work and our staff at the COA is to work together to bring the services to the people here in the community.

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Whether it be aging an aging person, whether a person with disabilities, whether it be a a caregiver, we are there to take and look for these services throughout the industry, state and federal programs, and bring them to

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the people. And every day we do that to put a price on that as a whole, it's difficult to do. The thing is every person is different and when you come to the senior center and I'm looking for a resource to help you with your fuel, to

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help you with nutrition, to help you with um your Medicare part A and B and the cost of care today. Health care is a real factor today in everybody's lives. and when you come out of the hospital, where to go, all these different things

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that we're expected to provide to you by way of the state. So it makes the job of any uh town um any COA director to it makes our job as a COA director more

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difficult because we're stuck in the middle between towns that say it's cut and be and you got to limit your time with people. But the state is also providing us funding, grant funding, and it's

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cyclical. That means every year it's based on um the census. In the town of Halifax, we have 78 um that population is 7,800 uh individuals. Of that, 2,115

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based on the census is registered as a senior over 60. and we are funded $33,840. Now, if that changes, it it's every 10 years that census is is completed, but right now going forward,

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um we are going to be still continuing to get $16 per senior. Now, how do I divide that up? when I look at a senior and I look at what their needs are, I can't put a price on that >> because every every senior is is is

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needing different things. So, with that said, I have to look for grant funds. I have to look for different state uh state funds and donations. Look to donations. I also have to look for reimbursements,

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not just grants, reimbursements. And that's what we did. I looked to my town administrator to assist with looking for these other opportunities that we didn't have to pay back and that is Gatra. Gatra services is a reimbursement

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mechanism. It funded by the federal government to and it trickles down to us. Their objective is to provide transportation to the seniors and to the community within Halifax and other communities as well. So, when I'm

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looking at gas reimbursements, I'm looking at good money here that provides transportation for our seniors. It provide it pays for our uh van drivers. It pays for the vans. It pays for the insurance. It pays for some of my

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salary. It also pays for the fuel, any of the maintenance that goes into any three of our vehicles. So, that could be on an average of five to $10,000 a month. So that's a reimbursement rec mechanism that

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supports our seniors. In addition, we are state we look for I look for state funding. Um Massachusetts Council on Aging always has options for us to look at SIG grants. A lot of different

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types of grants out there. So it's my job to get out there to make sure that we can apply for some of these. Right now, as it stands with the MBTA situation, of course, there's a limitation, but you know what? The no wrong door does apply and I will find

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other ways to do this. For instance, okay, I actually know that we like to have a social worker in board. Okay, we could not afford to have one. I've like I've tried that for five years being here. So, I had to look for other alternatives. And when that was offered,

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I actually was awarded. we were the town was I went to um Dubberry they wrote the grant and they offered it to the other towns as a pod. So I asked if we could have that opportunity to have a social worker in town whether it be an intern.

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So we tap into these other resources. Okay. Because if it's not there we don't just shut the door. I have to go continue to look. We've been awarded a intern from uh Bridgewwater University

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and 16 hours not coming out of any taxpayer money, town money or anything of that nature. So I have to say these are the types of things that and that's 16 hours per week this person will come in as an intern and we can access more

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interns out there. It's just a matter of being able to have the time to devote to that intern. So that intern learns from their director, learns from the staff, learns from the people here. So, I mean,

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we here are a group all working together and and I'm saying that if we have a loss of revenue at the senior center, cut the hours, there's going to be a reduction in transportation and transportation, as

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you know, as we age, we're going to need more and more of this type of services. And how do we I know towns can't afford to maintain that. So it's my job to find and every COA director's job to find

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some other alternatives. So we will create I mean with the reduction it's going to create stresses and it already has. We have one van driver. She's working two days a week and she's going to take a vacation at

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some point. Okay. I gave back five years. Every year I've given back my vacation time to the town. And if I had to put a a dollar on that, it was a lot of money. I feel I never said anything about it. I never complained because I

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want I respect the community here. Delays in outreach services, SNAP, fuel assistance, mass health applications, Medicare counseling, those are important factors today. people have come in. I have examples.

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Sure, I could have done a podcast and get people in front of the, you know, the camera today. But to do that, it takes time to get everybody up here, but people that have come within the last three weeks, one gentleman in particular, fuel assistance applied.

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Didn't realize he could have qualified for it. He came in for one thing, fuel assistance. I looked at that person's income. I looked at that person's con situation and I was able to match him with the programs out there at the state and federal level. He was so happy that

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he's saving 2020 a month now back in his pocket for a a Medicare savings plan. He didn't know he qualified his prescription drugs. He was paying $40 every time he picked it up, plus then some additional ones. Now he doesn't pay

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that. He couldn't believe it. extra help federal program. He now also receives DTA services, SNAP program. So in his household, he's able to have access to this DTA program that actually

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provides a supplement to his nutrition. Mass Health combination of all these services mean something to individuals. Wellness and fitness programs will be limited in timing because of the fact we

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don't even have the spacing for it right now. But I'm driving all over the place to try to make sure that we get the services out there. U private businesses are opening their doors to allow us to have this space. So we want to increase

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the opportunity to have more fitness classes because that keeps us healthy in the long term no matter what age. The bookmobile services for homebound will not have the they wouldn't be able to have that access to the books to

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deliver to their door because we don't have enough van services out there or someone to drive them. The Shine program, the counseling would be offboarded. Now you'd go to Middlebarro. Mass health navigation as well. If you

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can find someone to help you social security, when do I sign up? 65 comes pretty quick. Seems like book club offering a book club being able to expand upon these book club.

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Senior nutrition programs will be limited to reducing meals. That is old colony elder services. OCE is right now helping through the meals and wheels program is helping a lot of the individuals to come in for a hot meal.

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Some centers are fortunate enough to have a staff person's chef that's funded uh through a grant to actually cook one hot meal a week for a senior that may not have that opportunity.

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the response time to caregivers and supports will be delayed. I stay till 8 9:00 at night. I know seniors are in bed and I wake them up sometime. I hope I don't, but I don't think I do. I try to be respectful of that, but I make sure they get a call back. If they called me

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at 10 and I'm in a meeting and when I get to that go through the day and it's 4:00, my door doesn't shut. Okay, I open that. I open all my emails. I I look through all my uh messages and I try to be respectful of the individuals that

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call in. Um it's my next thing. I did it. I can't believe I did that. I feel so important now with this clicker. Um, so with that said, with that said, I

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just wanted to let you know since January, I keep track. Everybody's like, "Oh, you keep track through those key the key tags." Well, they're so important to have a key tag because then that way there when we get grant funded through the state, I have to provide

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some kind of systems out there that says, "Hey, we did this this year." And of that for instance >> the activities the activity types the events that we offer meaning that somebody may have taken 10 two or three

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activities but 167 people since January as of yesterday um participating in the events program we have the rides 27 new people that were actually on board with us but we ser

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period of time which up to 64 a month. That's a lot. Services. So services could be a multitude of things. You could be coming in for SNAP application. Volunteers. We do have some volunteers. Volunteers are wonderful. The

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opportunities, they have volunteers. They're not going to be always available there. So how do you run a business on volunteers? How do you run a senior center on volunteers? That's it. That would be consistent. It can happen in in

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terms of having them not to be burned out and then have more people come in. We have um the North River Collaborative School come in to support us right now. We had uh Silver Lake students come in last week. They pulled the weeds out

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there. So maintenance took the burden off the maintenance department. We try we try or I try find services that support the police and the fire department to try to take some of the stresses off them. If I know I can help an officer out there that has been

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exposed to somebody 10 to 12 times a week for calls, I will try to do my best to get that to get them to a state or federal program that I know may work for the um the individual. And I'll be persistent and we have to let things go

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after after we make that referral. But we've become a hub. The senior center has become a hub of a lot of different resources. So the total log calls every month. We get a call for

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something. And we we get it's it's mostly transportation, but we get a lot of calls from caregivers. Caregivers meaning that it's the son of the daughter. My mom just got out of the hospital. My dad just got out of the hospital. My my husband just got out of

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the hospital and nobody's followed up. The health care systems is burdened out there. So they don't have the capacity to handle all these. There's not enough staffing out there. So where's it go? The COAs, we're the front line to the

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community. So I try to make sure that we uh navigate that we go through and able to find the resources out there whether it be state or federal and then our state legislators you know their the senator the the senator's office um the

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connections the lobbying uh right now this uh the seniors are going out there next week to the state house to lobby for aging to lobby for the older adults Freddy and Tina are going. They volunteered to go into Boston into Boston. It's a long

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day. It's a long day, but he they have the meaning. They they support this community. So anyway, any questions on those anyway so far? But that that's our numbers. That's why we keep our numbers. That's why I asked for the key tags so

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that I can report back to the state. Hey, we are doing our job. So this is some of the fun social things that we do. Socializing is so important today. For me, being alone down in some

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place where I live, it's very hard for me. And I realize it's hard for other people being able to do the art classes, being able to get access to these different programs that are available out there through Mass Cultural Council,

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through our local cultural council. To me, that's a that's like manum from he heaven when we have entertainment. Um, we have the spring fling coming up. So I mean just so many things that we can participate in and we do. Um so but

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we have a good group of people here and they deserve to have good programs. I just got to show you one more thing. So this year we had um Silver Lake come in and Southshore Community Action Council Lee

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is going to be doing that next week. Well, actually tomorrow uh down the Southshore Community Action Council to access food bags for individuals in the community as well as families. We share with the food pantry. Uh Sarah's a part of that food pantry across the way. So

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we share with that opportunity, get it out to the community. Southshore Community Action Council is funded by a lot of the towns. We pay into that. We access their bread. We have bread day. We have all these different um nutrition

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um access to nutrition. Um some of the it's little sweet stuff, but we we'll forget that part. But there's fruit and vegetables out there too, but we try to market it to the individuals with respect and then complement it with

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maybe uh a nutrition program that they're not familiar with, the SNAP program. So um but uh we delivered the food bags to individuals that couldn't come come to the center. They may be homebound. Um so we do deliveries um to

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seniors within the community out of respect because of the fact they may not want to come to the center because they feel embarrassed too to pick up food. But it's not an embarrassment today. And I want people to understand that all people have some kind of uh needbased

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situation. And let's see click. So I transportation, social services, educational programs. I don't know what happened to all the the things but where become a hub of resources, wellness and

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supports. So with all these different things that we offer in that little building, it's okay. I mean, you can be working at a one office. I I understand that part. And we try to I'm trying to work with all the different changes. And I know that the town is going to

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struggle is struggling with the finances. And I'm trying not to make sure that we have a burden on the town for, you know, or ask the town for more money. if it's my it's my job I fail to get out there

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and to look for these um opportunities or grants or some other way to to access funding. So I want to say it's going to be a tough ride and I hope that our senior center grows continues to grow.

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we um 40 and I was looking at the dynamics of the town census and I through the state and it said that there the town of Halifax has a population between 44 to 60 of you know that's the majority of their

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population. So at some point you know they're going to need our services whether it be for a parent or for themselves or when life does take over. We never know when that happens or a stroke or something or an

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accident, god forbid, but we're available out there to to help with supporting the com, you know, the community or individuals out there. So, we have all this crazy stuff. So, I thought I'd just throw some music in there because music sales the soul,

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right? I think I don't know if it'll work. Let's see. Ain't no stopping us now, right? So anyway, so it's just music. >> All right, we got to have it. But anyway, so with that said,

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And I offer um we got a number of letters of thank you for the services within the last couple of months from seniors and I was it made me cry a little bit because to do something for someone saves them money it's meaningful

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to me. Um, and I hope that the people that haven't been to our center do visit our center, whether it be FinCom, whether it be the Selectmen, come to our center sometime and see what we do. >> Right. >> Thank you.

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>> Thank you. >> Thank you for all the work you do, darling. You're so appreciated. I don't know. We can thank you enough. >> Thank you for Thanks. Um, >> our senior,

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>> our joyous board has got rid of the two assistants and now is embarking on a program of cutting the senior senator down in half. If that happens, my suggestion is we cut

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our board of assortment down 100%. This is getting serious. The senior center has taken the front first out of the shoot for any problems within the town. We've

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supported this town for how many years? I'm 90 years old. I've supported it for a long time. as most of you have. And I'm saying to our watermen, tread lightly. You're looking for the seniors

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to come out of the woodwork. And it's not going to be perfect. We need to have some cuts made in the town. And it doesn't start with the senior center. I'm telling you right now. Well, folks, um Christine, is there

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anything for the DA's office? >> No, I just I I know some of you know the sheriff's department can't join us anymore due to their budgetary um constraints. However, the DA's program, we're still going to be highly involved and we're willing to support you guys, you know, however we can.

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>> Thank you. And then I have to say that they've been great. So, and then the triad of course just something that we it's our the community here. It's just police and fire and district attorneys and all the sheriff's department all together to serve our our constituents

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in the town and to get them to places. >> It's a good opportunity to bring people together each month to learn get maybe learn about something that >> nice free program as well. >> Nice free program. Right. So next month

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um John Shay about the history of so thank you all thank you for bringing all Sure.