[Music] good evening i call the meeting to order this is a meeting of the hand select board being held in the townhouse auditorium April 2nd 2025 5:30 p.m this meeting is being conducted in person and remotely using video conferencing technology please stand for the pledge
of allegiance pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all is anyone else recording the meeting
other than ourselves kristen no sarah okay all right if they come later on it's we're not I know we'll be selling those copies they're going to be They'll be tardy do you want to call your Oh yes all
right I will call the Wilberham uh select board to order uh also joining the Hampton Select Board on this meeting of February 2nd 5:30 at the Hampton welcome we uh yes Mike Swindo um is trying to be
in at least for the first few minutes I believe name already and he'll join us in person in a bit yeah I'm here okay good very good why don't you up to the big room this time okay from kind of an upgrade you turn the heat on
we turn we turn the lights on got the buttons for their chairs we have some minutes but I'm going to forgo those get to the main point so they can our guests can and Craig won't be joining us tonight so we typically vote minutes for the full board
hello hi thanks thanks for having us okay where are we um I will chair there was a discussion at Monday night's meeting among um the Wolver board and our thinking is basically and I I
thought we closed out at the end of our last joint meeting along these lines that um we feel like the way the original agreement the regional agreement is currently drafted is something with which we are relatively comfortable and
very willing to acknowledge and consider the concerns that the Hampton board has um our feeling is that if you want the agreement to somehow reflect something other than what exists that we need to hear what you're thinking
i think it was fairly clear we talked about equity i mean we're all in agreement that the way it's set up now for Mitchog nobody has any issue with it's a jointly owned building we jointly have a stake in it we jointly participate in upgrades and repairs and when we're done it's still
the property of both communities i think the issue here and I think Craig and Don both said that last time is that if the town of Han participates in an upgrade or repair putting capital into it is there a return on that equity
purchase if you will great and I think that that's kind of where it went everything else to that point was historical but I think we need to look forward brian I think has worked this week and I don't know if he shared it with Nick but I think he's got a fairly
good proposal that he shared with the board right Don well let me go back to the your beginning statement you said that you were fine with the amendments the way they are we we are in general specifically around the issue of of the
sharing of the middle school and from our thinking it already should have been treated as a regional building because it's got all of our middle schoolers in it um and I'm in agreement that I think we
all came to that sense that we want to hear what you're thinking in terms of some way to participate in ensuring that the building is healthy and safe for our kids and not make investments into a building beyond what is reasonable and
what both towns would of course have to agree to before any capital project moved forward and the idea of getting some sort of a return on investment i believe our agreement at last at Monday night's meeting was that we're certainly willing to entertain that we need you to
show us what that looks like or what you're proposing that to look like so that we can discuss it as the as the amendment stands now the amendment that the the middle school would be considered a uh regional school and we
would split the capital costs a portion the capital limit what was the same limit 35 35,000 you I guess the question was I'm asking this question because the school
committee can just say to us "This is the amendments we want and we're obligated to put it on the ballot on on the on the on the town meeting on the warrant." Right right so I'm wondering is do
we just say I go ahead and we'll see what the people say or I think that's a fair fair point in fact I've looked at the current agreement i don't see where it says that necessarily in there and cuz we never did it that way in the past at least we hadn't been exposed to that
in the past the current in terms of capital cost being pushed right to the warrant for miniock are you talking about making it i think that's what you're talking about Don right but they could yeah yes but the regional agreement is what I'm help maybe maybe
the regional the regional agreement as it stands now says that the uh school committee to to amend to amend the agreement to amend the agreement can just go to the towns oh boards and say
this is what we we want we'd like these amendments can you bring you know and we have to bring them to town meeting so that would they could bring that making the middle school a regional school to the towns to vote they don't need our buy in to do it they don't need
our buy for it that's fair that's right okay but I think they're asking for it and that's why we're here right yeah okay so Brian has Well he didn't hit anything
that was good they got us outnumbered brian Brian has a draft a draft draft of of a thought get the door open in here
so last I'll I'll give a quick quick overview uh last Friday um I had sent an email to the board with thoughts about potential kosh caring arrangement within middle school and then um earlier this week Don had suggested
that I put it in a more formal uh a more formal memo and that the the board can uh the board can discuss it um so I've done a lot of listening for both of the joint well
that single joint meeting and I've also talked to some people about the historical happenings of how we all got here because obviously I wasn't around Um so I tried to reflect my understanding of of the current situation and the viewpoint from Abraham
and Hamen and it seemed to me that some arrangement where Ham could contribute to capital improvements to the building with a defined uh useful life for a defined term of years so
um so in the example on the second page talk about hypothetically there's a there's an a capital improvement that's made that that somehow we agree upon what the what the term of years of that improvement is so hypothetically in this
example it's it's 10 years um and really just just to simplify it if if there's any remaining years left on that capital improvement when Hampton students are no longer in the building
then Handen would be entitled to a refund in proportion to the cost per year that Handy contributed for the capital improvement times the remaining years of the useful life of the equip
equipment um this assumes that Hammond would would would pay upfront for the capital improvement and that it would be in the form of a refund um that's that's the idea it provides it provides Hamen with no equity in equity
so to speak in in ownership of the building which I think was a sticking point in our in the last conversation and it addresses Hampton's concern that that they're not investing in the building and I I guess for lack of a
better term I enriching Wilberham in the sense that the building is in really great shape when it's sold so it it has more value um that's that's sort of the general framework um I don't think that that works quite as well if if there's some
type of shared debt there i think more thought would need to go into that if there's debt for these capital improvements but in terms of uh in capital improvement where Hannon pays up front I think that might work and the board had asked me to share that this
evening and and you folks have already looked at this and you have discussed this no I haven't discussed it email to us now very good well I'm going to let you guys do that we would look forward to that well that's I think it's a great starting
point i mean it lays out I think Brian did a good job of summarizing a bit where Hammond stands on this again this is not you can't equate this to the Machog building but so you're into again here
you are here if we put something into it what's our equity stake brian did a good job of equating how we can look at that going forward something happens the town of Warberham sells the building and Hammond has participated in a million dollars of
upgrade to it with a $200,000 stake the town of Warham is going to get their money back from whatever we should get a percentage of how we upgraded it into the value of the building there may be things based on what we've seen from
the school department so far that could have a 10-year life and have no value at the end seems like we're switching out computers switches that are a capital item but then at the end of it there's zero value and there would be no equity
in there because you buy in we would buy in at the end they either trade them in or throw them away yeah i I hardly like you I hardly see those as capital expenses you know they they But they're so expensive now it seems to hit that threshold they certainly don't have But if you're replacing all the windows Mhm
and you're looking at $2 million and Hampton's looking at $400,000 as part of it what's the lifetime of those windows 25 years assuming the building's around 25 years then if it's gone before before 25
years is up there may be some return to us if the building is continuously occupied for 25 years then this is moved you didn't upgrade it came up and I actually didn't think about it last meeting but the um three four years ago we took an MSBA
project on with the middle school and so they expect us to be in that building for 20 years by virtue of that so the same thing with Green Meadows when we did the upgrade so it almost seems like so I I I don't think we're going to have a problem with some of that that issue conceptually at least because seems like we're going to be committed to that
building for a number of years anyway right so well like I say the window thing for instance you might say at if you're there and you're past what we talked about is the lifetime of it and you're still there there's no issue because we both paid in
we got the repair done and the building improved okay i know that's that's my thought i think there's a solution how you how that's worded in the agreement is is a whole other thing right
we can get a lawyer on it and add another seven or eight pages if you'd like yeah there um um I think as a framework I I would think this is a good starting point i think my initial my initial response in
concept and I'm not at all voting what I'm about to say from a financial standpoint but it just comes to mind is an absolute return relative to the upfront investment based on the time left of the useful life doesn't account for the depreciation value of any capital improvements so I would just put
that out there as a potential talking point would be an initial thought but again framework wise I think this is a decent framework to start from okay that's the that's the the note I made myself was with regard to depreciation of the value of anything over time um I think
that there's certainly some mechanics to look at and and just the question of borrowing and I it'd be lovely if you could just write us a check up front to pay off and it would stra our borrowing we would all be surprised if either of our communities was in the position to
to fund a major capital project um all at once um I like Mr swindo I agree this is a really good talking point um I think we need to talk a little bit about the depre isn't the
depreciation just trying to think trying to think of my apartment building isn't it depre Isn't the depreciation is if it's if it's a 10ear life every year it goes down 10%
that's the depreciation yeah I think but referring but in the example in the example just because of the example given right if it doesn't show any reduction in value 800,000 I'm sorry if 200,000 is the the Hampton share right that's 20,000 a year at the
end of eight years there's a depreciation of some amount of if it's 10% let's call it 80% right right but to get a 100% of that upfront investment back doesn't reflect the depreciation that's and I don't again I don't know that I'm actually saying we're not asking for the 100% back no
he's talking about Brian i understand your point there may need to be yeah no no no but I think as a framework it's fine i just Brian you see I see where he's going with that that maybe because some of the value has gone down a bit it might be you might have an equation to it oh yeah the other the other factor I
would think is uh some of the capital projects that we might undertake add no value to the building except for the occupants except for the occupants so I think that's something we would need to work through well like it would just like I mentioned switches things like that which are loose parts
inside but a huge capital cost lockers I mean if you ever sold a building you're probably not going to sell it as a school so there's no value to the lockers i mean I just thought of that one or if you start doing gym equipment I mean there may not be any value to that and again I'm I'm being nitpicky
there but it's something I think we need to work through there's are certain items that are not going to add any value to the building when you do them well would you agree this is a decent framework to It's a It's excellent starting point yeah i I don't understand about the lockers
well I mean if a if a business bought it they'd tear the lockers out no value to it i know but I just use as an example i mean no but yours but but you're assuming that we replace the lock i guess I guess my my point is I think there's items we're talking about
capital we need all new windows windows is a different issue okay so we get windows so that's something that's been replaced and we pay for but I don't think we're talking about replacing the lockers no it's a more of a loose part type thing i'm just thinking there's there's going
to be issu there's going to be items that come up over the course of this I would think that no add no value to the building so how do we fit it into over the threshold and require a capital yes like you know whether it's a or if they want new desks I mean you know there's
all sorts of things a new laboratory well if you need lockers we'll give you the ones back from Thoren Burgess yes exactly really the market value just take it as a donation now we're actually selling them away your your feeling is
your I guess the position that building is in is because you put a new roof on it that they're there at least 20 years i would unforeseen that's the that's the minus the number of years since we did it so
that's the MMS requires and at the same time I believe the school committee is looking to do another project there as well as some of the elementary schools yes they have another project so I mean it looks like we're moving forward with that building for the foreseeable future yeah that was the case like I say with
Green Meadows that if we ever took it out of service we'd have to pay the MSBA back the money they fronted for the project i think we're in position to do that right the way things go now they take the money back in a second okay so what do you think the next time
share back some points yeah why don't Why don't you Nick and and Brian do it so we don't violate the open meeting clause i I do think that we're going to have to have more conversation and do a deeper dive on the question of excluding Yeah this is a basic frame i I told them
to put together a basic framework someone we could something we could kind of nuclear arms agreement kind of you know talk about the big missiles first then we'll get down to I'm not sure two's a small point though yeah right um
what's two pre-existing item oh yeah that's Yeah that's my favorite thing how do you say and the reason is because you've done it before and you did in 2016 when you when the original first
amendments were a thing you carved out the roof they said that Hamlet would be responsible for the roof and then H wouldn't be responsible I forget the exact wording for other things so parking lot was the other one too i think it's again it's a
framework i think I think I think we have I think we have to do number one and maybe that'll be a little change in number two number one is exactly let's see if we can't sit down with the regional uh committee and say what capital improvements you guys think we're going to need 5 10 15 20 years
down the line right I believe that exists already could be they might they've got the capital needs proposal I do remember that in those conversations about regionalizing unifying at at our building the the
middle school in Wilberham there was also discussion about using um not trailers but I guess they're trailers right modular like classroom modular classrooms and so there were a bunch of conversations that went in
slightly if you if you look at the uh feasibility thing from 2015 they a lot of them uh say if you put the modular classroom you should do this there's no modular classroom so we don't need to like for like for instance they said you
need to run a second gas line right and second line of things but but those but that it's not applicable now so Mhm great i think we're on the pass do you want to talk about Hollow Road
it's fine are we going to meet up at the four corners at any point fine glass of cider whatever we're supposed to be well while we're all here is is the is the region going to offer separate warrants for all
the Apple things i'm not 100% sure i believe so but we had that discussion deeply last time and because you're you're probably risking everything going down you know yeah we've we've had that conversation as
well and which way separate or omnibus omnibus yeah so we understand Dr slatter's position but it's news and for those of us that have been involved for three decades or so it it we want to know why like to make sure that that is
in fact the required i think you can probably get an opinion both ways i think that's the last time we went through this we just went with the separate articles last time right John and I think our board would prefer separate articles
and I think we're looking at one article but individual votes within the article well um the motion would specify and if there's a question on an item then uh it could be pulled I think is how it would proceed
okay we have the assessment letter this back to you Michelle the capital items that we tendedly have on our warrant right now are those still the ones you want to present or are there possibly be changes and I speak
specifically to the fire road parking lot one are you keeping that on there could potentially be a change okay m cuz we plan on signing the warrant tonight and posting it within well we get no action right right but if
they wanted to bring something out to replace it instead because again I've made the concern before I think the security upgrades i.e door locks etc should replace that i think that's of a higher concern
than making the paved road instead of 10 ft 14 ft you know so and certainly in our walk through through the school last year with Aaron at the time and Brian was there as well
that seemed to be a concern they expressed to us right Brian was the security and door upgrades and honestly I don't think you get too much push back from the people in town to talk about the fact we need the doors safer and we need to be able to respond quicker in the case of an
emergency rather than the janitor sorting through the 100 keys on his key ring and this like the old pictures Green Meadows that's Green Meadows same we have the same situation at Wil exactly right to me that's a higher priority and the town's already committed to doing the parking lot working with you
for the parking lot repairs you're looking at me for the parking lot repairs well you're retired you can't sling a shovel like anybody else i can i can sling it that's for
sure so so I I guess I guess we're going to look at this we can both look at it we can send We can send our thoughts to Brian you can send it to Nick you can get it to you guys right kind of I mean so we got to do it right right you
know and uh we want to meet again we can meet at your place this time if you'd like do you want to CC John or Michelle on those conversations i've been CC and John you know you'll be able to find it have only one room that works unless we Okay police
station yeah i don't think I've been in the same room for a meeting any joint meeting we've had here tell you we the place is huge we don't have that many i think I've been in three different rooms in three different meetings that's all we have trust me okay we're out of rules we came to our selection right in the front of the Right in the front building
and then the last two here yeah wait to see next time we'll be at the old academy hall perfect what's a day pick a day couple of weeks [Music] yeah couple weeks yeah do a Wednesday
or do it on Are you guys meeting every week or every other week we we try to skip a week every month more or less okay well we can have you in a regular What's your next off Monday then the tw 21st which is Patriots Day which is off
for you guys thank you patriots day oh so you're not off every Well that just happens to be our off this month sometimes we It's not every not every other Monday no no no no no no no you just pick one right
and you know Wednesdays are doable I think or Well so you are you're off on the 22nd well we're not meeting 21st tuesday no we're meeting the 22nd i'm sorry we're off that we're meeting the 21st no we're not i'm sorry we're not meeting Patriots
Day patriots day sorry Mike are we running that day the marathon my wife might run a marathon on me okay second or 23rd or are we looking at a Tuesday i would kindly for the 22nd
over the 23rd 23rd is my birthday so I could think of a few other places I might want to be on that one meeting that that was a prescheduled meeting for 22nd 22 that gives us enough that gives us two weeks to kind of go through this and
work some things out 5:30 again 5:30 is great we'll we'll try and find a new location Mike okay perfect we're going to go to their place right either one well they're off they're off we're going to do our stuff after yeah okay oh okay very good another room
maybe we'll have it at Thorton Burges we'll let you know we'll let you know where we are exactly map with clues able to put that in here select board
all right thank you thank you for coming on thank you thank you for having us appreciate the heat you said the 22nd or the 23rd you said the 22nd at 5:30 5:30 right 5:30 when we're ready to parameulate the town borders we'll see
you at the uh granite markers we want to have that in nice weather right the last time it was done it was my father and Art Booth and that had to be back in the 70s both of you at Sucker supposed to go to they granted markers at the corners of
town 10 years I think or five years it's been I think that much we talked about trying to pull it off oh we don't want them to go since we started moving them every year we move them a foot over yeah the one out in the woods on the offers
we moved them a foot and a half back all right move to a journ second all those in favor i guys thank you for coming over thank you guys glad you made it safer hope they're so programmed
exactly all right Marielle is going to give her a pitch now what do we got next the animal little early for the animal control officer you want to knock out the minutes let's
do the minutes march 4th 2025 minutes regular session okay so moved second although same the same thing at the end
oh is this the corrected one no this is the um municipal meeting okay that's Oh yeah okay i wonder why Craig didn't okay all right so was you we'd have to get
second all in favor i Okay march 10th regular meeting i believe this is the regular meeting all right let's see it's mostly budget budget
budget budget and more budget and budget motion to approve second any discussion all in favor i uh executive she said I got one i don't have an exe march 17th i don't
have regular March 17 oh here we go here we go okay regular March 17th yep all right we got a minute we minute did minutes the fire chief was here new probation
firefighter uh Minister of Assistant update fire department budget review water commission report animal inspector position oh that's the annual uh thing that they have to do town meeting warrants move to
accept second all in favor i and the executive session not to be released March 17th 2025 move acceptance without release second all in favor okay
all right moving right along the uh there the animal control officer has something to say oh you're on all right bring it Shelly all right um yes on March 14th up on Burley Road
uh 23 Burley where the Loveings live uh their neighbor next door at 31 Burley Road they have two dogs that um there are a couple of mixes uh mixed mixed breeds
and Matt Loveling was outside um doing something with his car and he had his little dog that's six pounds tied out and the two dogs uh from next door came running over and they they had gotten away from the the owner and they went
and Matt got to the his little dog that's six pounds faster than um but They got to him too and they bit her under the on the stomach um and uh the owner came down got the dogs brought him back but I guess two other times when
Shondaanda Loveling her daughter was walking the the little dog on the street these two dogs got away from their owner twice like over the summer and jumped on the daughter trying to get the dog and then the owner did come take the dog so they quarantined them both at their home
31 million for 10 days and they you know they've been released since um but I had suggested that they um if whenever they take them out in the yard they should have a prong collar on them take one dog at a time and muzzle them because if
they get one's 78 pounds I think it was and one's 90 compared to a six pound dog and they and the owners of the two dogs said that they just don't like that little dog the barking but they go to they go to a doggy daycare in Windsor a
couple times a week so they like other dogs but they just they don't like the neighbor's dog mhm but they're leaving their yard going to that yard so they're not under control no no and they have them in training now but you know my
fear is that they're going to get out when they you know away from them and when the little dog's outside and when the daughter was walking the dog and they went after the dog did they go after the daughter as well to get to the dog no they were just jumping on her but
they weren't vicious towards her but they were jumping on her trying to get to the dog yeah so and the bad dogs are in the old Manel house yes yeah okay yep
it's a clear case and not under control so before something happens again you know I wondered if you know you could help me come up with things that they have to do to make sure that doesn't happen so the dogs just play in the backyard
not on a leash or run or anything like that so there's nothing to contain them in the backyard well that's what I think do we have to have a hearing for this well I hope you know I was hoping not they're very cooperative two sisters that live in the
Muscles house now have you have you done anything formally with them and like a written letter to them or anything like that no only quarantined the dogs and then released them no I told her I was going to talk to you guys i told them all I was talking to you to see you know what
if we needed a hearing or what you know could happen and how were they quarantined how were they quarantined well they had to keep them in their own yard yeah and leashw walk them and they don't do that normally i mean they would
take them on the street and they're they're pretty powerful dogs and they if one tried taking them they you know they pull away from you they don't have good control they they injured the other dog did they pay for the uh They said they would and I told Matt to bring the bill over to
them we don't know i don't know they have so you said they need you recommended they get prong collars and a muzzle are they utilizing them do you know uh when I had taken them off quarantine they had not yet gotten
yes at least we're reinforced the animal check and check and see if that's being done and did they reimburse the owner for the expense analog bet expenses we can we can have we can draft up a letter or have Right
so we're going to we're going to draft I guess we're going to draft up a letter and saying to them that you know the animal control officer has advised us of the situation that they've advised you to that she's advised you to have prong collar and muzzle when you're walking the dog keep under control and to
reimburse the owner and any future complaints we'll have to take right will be dealt with well I told him if it happens again it's not going to be good i think that summarized it yeah yeah so I think you put that up yeah but I I mean I don't even think they should walk
them in the yard without a muzzle on in case they get away from Yeah right in their own yard but I I mean a caged muzzle so they can breathe and drink water yeah i understand i understand and they don't have a run or anything there no really
okay all right we'll draft Did you make some notes okay we'll draft up a letter and show it to you first okay okay all right thank you Shel thank you Shel what do you got advisory give us advice
are we waiting for anybody else or just you two we may have We may have some other people coming in have some other things for I think 6:30 how is it now so well we're really moving along we are zooming along so in the event that other people are going to
appear if you want to take something else to us no you were [Music] what about the annual town meeting warrant want to go over that again i think it's good to have a larger I'd like to move forward
yes you want to be on camera shot i think you guys want to go actually Doug you got a microphone over there if you want to guys want to sit on that that would be best yeah that way we got you on record great yep copies of the current warrant
right there too but again same thing Donna we are potentially change it school article you know and we can't just wholesale change it on the on the town meeting it's quite a
different thing I think well they got a fortune our signature page says at the date at the top there date and kind of implicitly saying this is what's in there but we can't do anything about we
I know I'm coming to the party late but why isn't the middle school deferred maintenance what do you mean deferred all the all the middle school problems why aren't they not deferred maintenance since they've had study after study saying these are the things that need to be done and they have not done those why is
that not deferred maintenance and that's total responsibility it is that's my argument argument well okay all right i just want to be sure I'm on the right page i'm saying to myself why do we have That's why I want to see if we can get a carve out saying
like they did the last time that the rules That's why you referred back to that study and said look you identified these before right go through the things and say these are the things that we're all we're not going to pay for these too bad you didn't do them but do them now it's expensive and in the future we'll
look at the other stuff right something happened because they do they put that roof on so they're they're there for 20 years that was the major cost right there well windows are enormously expensive they haven't they haven't done windows have they no no they did I think no they've
done uh they've done two actually act actually because I have Who else is coming back i think the rest of the board well I know Kathy's not coming but Sandra and may be coming we're
posted tonight just in case okay were you meeting with anybody but us or No okay they had the f they had uh did you get a chance you've looked over the warrant articles and you're fairly familiar with them quickly
i guess my issue is why is there no discussion about it because they can go forward with any question they want is that the idea because the region can go forward with any question any question they want and their kids are in the kids are in the building kids are in the building now so
the the issue becomes where do you draw the line between maintenance and capital by the report by the two reports that were done and saying this is going to be for maintenance guys yeah I got both of them they did they did a million five for the roof they did
uh in in 2019 they did 131,000 for the PA system the telephone and clock uh and that was split between S road and then they split between S road a refrigeration and walk-in freeze with
compressor for 98,000 mhm and I asked the former my finance director if they do any if they do pay for any maintenance and he said his note here you said no the
arrangements with Wilberham indicate that we pay for the items that are less than 30,000 they do not provide any funding for maintenance of the building on their own [Music] so that's why I want to carve out that's why I want I want to go through the list
and say these are the things that need to be done and you didn't do the responsibility that building is about the same age as TW one year different one year difference one year different but we're built on dry ground
i'm sorry our first floor is above ground still not that we don't have some swamp here but it's pretty far away a new school huh we don't need a new school pass why won't they just go for a new school because they're not going to get it
yeah now now with what it cost I mean look at the fact that we built Minog for 80 $80 million and you look at what East Law Meadow just did east Law Meadow just did 175 for basically the same size
district office pool the whole thing and that's just a Yeah the high school the high school was authorized total vote was authorized at $82 million right because we built it during the the great recession of 2008
we actually built that building for $69 million i mean we got an incredible We got an incredible deal you want to be on that and the model we should have got two of them we should get two of them one of you know looking back I mean
there were certain things that that were not done in the high school project because we were very conscious of the cost like replacing the stadium bleachers we didn't do that we just had to do that we didn't we didn't do that we didn't air condition the building we only did a few sections you know the
admin area the the preschool um can't remember there was a couple other things that in retrospect you know we probably should have loosened up a little bit as a I stand usually oh my god i know it was It was good that was a good deal mhm
it seems like a lot of time so are you are you saying we shouldn't sign it tonight but they got to they got to get Oh they got to get posted and mailed and green sheeted and our our public hearing is posted with Lauren they're looking for
whether it's official whatever it's the draft my point is I think we're looking and I certainly hope that they're going to change that article and get rid of that fire road thing well but they can't do it until they get another meeting right which they're having tomorrow
night right so you're talking today the school committee yes yes you know and I want them to change it and we've been clear about it we want them to I want them to change it to fixing the safety concerns like they're doing for I think it's super sunny hill changing
the door locks the whole thing and put that money towards that what parent is gonna Nobody's going to vote against they they could reduce to bring this forward yeah i mean I'm sorry no I mean you know they they they school committee has the right to
bring forward these articles including whatever thing is any way they want right um individually you know whether whether that's you know advised or not is another issue right well we've mentioned a couple meetings that we
would advise them we school committee invited advisory to their meeting tomorrow night to discuss the budget so we're going I believe over Finance was also invited but they declined [Music] looking at their numbers change in the
assessment letter and basic pretty huge jump for the Hamlin part you know based on the year before went up 160 this year went up over 200 and that's just in the minimum local
contribution but the discretionary pretty huge jump that minimum local contribution by the state right right yeah but that's almost worthless I know calculations it's like but but if anybody did minimum local contribution they wouldn't be able to
run a school system but the discretionary which was 2 million last year went to 2.3 plus this year you know roughly I mean the state funding is lagging behind the increases so as as the district increases you know costs go
up the funding from the state goes up what is it $25 or $50 per student it doesn't keep up so that were they hoping for 75 this or something well there's every every year there's talk about increasing it it ends up about the same place
but the bottom line is that the gap between the state funding and the expenses of the school district keeps growing because of this whole harmless situation at this not to get too deep into it but do you know if they carried something in their assessment letter for
negotiation uh I understand that they have they have put in consideration for some type of an increase i don't know what because you don't want to tip your hat your hand either right so they so they have put
something into their their budget request that you know anticipates an increase on the salary side what that amount is and how close they are with on the bargaining I don't know i asked them that's not close
um so I mean that obviously creates the possibility of them arriving at a a bargained number that's not budgeted in which case they'd have to be looking at their END um one of one of the discussions that we had in the operations
subcommittee I want to say in January the very first meeting um I actually asked was before the new district an interim that was there all right so what what does a school district need as as a excess and in
deficiency what what should you be carrying right and I think I think they agreed that a $500,000 EMD would be appropriate given the size of their budget and the potential for the the big potential is the moveins with special ed
expensive IEPs i mean that can you know that can be a couple hundred,000 with a single student so you know on a $55 or $60 million budget carrying a $500,000 E is seemed pretty reasonable so that I believe is what they
have anticipated with their number they've budgeted you know they've that's the target that they would leave that's the floor basically that I believe is what they've left in their END with this assessed number that they've presented i thought there was a motion but I didn't
even get a second i thought there was Yeah to to re to increase the amount applied from END to the current budget that was not supported right i don't go to these meetings i just kind of pay attention to what what's
happening there fast forward so more to come okay i guess what are there all right where are they yeah that we're we're on we're on schedule we can go oh that clock is not
that clock is not right it's 6:21 621 all right well why don't we start what about Do you want to change the date of this well why don't we are we going to talk about the budget for the warrant we're here at your invite why don't we talk the warrant first that way when the
others get here because the numbers they're more all right so as you know we're looking at the consent agenda just saw that yeah [Music] and um will you have a discussion before
that i mean I think Rick's got a PowerPoint and everything ready for good enough okay y Rick with a PowerPoint could be doesn't move though handdrawn one of the overhead projectors oh the old one must be able to have find one of those somewhere it's probably
still there well the consent agenda you know has it has promise that that can make town meeting more efficient you know without losing anything yep so the first we get the budget six
things are pretty rope we uh I don't have a number yet that's something I'll probably as soon as the new lady is coming in Tuesday one next Monday Monday something I'll sit down with Jane and her so we get the a sense because that will still remain
under the opices of who's in that um I would anticipate though that we are going to need a bit from the the levy uh we did see an increase coming through
in the Mac contract this year okay that's not supported by increased bag fee we did that last year So how much of a how much of a gap is How much you got not much not enough i would say I think
last year we put 10 in and it's not going to be any less than that but it's not a bagg year so that's good yeah i noticed I noticed all the boxes up there last week i think it was yeah all right well you'll have a number for Yeah i mean if you wanted to go ahead
and the revenue that we get from the solar field up there if you want to turn that right over to the TR enterprise fund then we won't need any i would hope not that revenue is projected when it's fully operational is 150 a year oh it's up to 150 now yeah because it's too
split between uh release and pilot pilot wow that's good much as much as I I really don't like next week generate a lot of revenue for the town i think uh Kelly had thrown a
number of 500,000 and I I actually heard a larger number from one of the assessors yeah that was last year so before this one kicked in oh well so you'll know when the solar is on when all the lights down dim
well they turned it on [Music] the windmill right over the the uh 150 as you know we're going for 10 again I think after the town meeting Don and I talked about sometime during the summer putting out the call for a committee I
would like to step up but that is three years so sometimes get people enthused for three years yeah we're all good at the beginning like another meeting oh god like and tough to book anything huh you book
something you know Yeah I need you for 2028 i'm like I don't even know if I'll be alive you know people can do some you know people can do some brainstorming right well I've been doing some research and you probably same thing you know what have other towns done right you know what was the I think Rockland just
had their 150 uh things like that so we'll see what they do and do it better school resource i think Brian got the number in the typical 11 or 12,000 right uh 12,629 yeah no prior
bills are you up to speed on the veteran thing uh I heard an explanation that took us two meetings two long meetings we did the second meeting we like oh that's not what we
understood last time because when we heard 100% we thought it was like 100% of the whole bill and it's not it's 100% increase to the current exemption right which is 400 or $440 so it double the exemption right but not erases the whole
bill so So so a veteran can get a $440 credit on their taxes right and this could increase it by some percentage up to 100% depending how it's voted right i mean it all helps but I mean it's not
No cuz we were a little like So I think they said a potential impact did they say around $40,000 yeah 42 i thought 42 so if with their current assessment of veterans and the bill and if we went for the full 100% and everyone applied for
it and it will come out overlay increased to the overlay ask well I mean we have advisory we have not discussed it but I mean personally I'm in favor of it i mean I I support veterans right again it doesn't technically show up here comes off the
overlay but that comes off the recap oh it all flows through it affects It affects taxes no question right right 13 I think uh pretty self-explanatory 14 brian's got some numbers he's got new ones today or the moving costs yeah i
mean you had two different quotes right Brian up high and low um yeah I've got I've gotten moving quotes from three different U movers and specialty um it's going to the ask would be around 80,000 and it could be it could be less
than that they're covered at 80 right yes yeah the more packing we do the cheaper it gets quite honestly the more stuff we do ourselves the cheaper that could be the first meeting of the 150th committee we need you to go through all
these historical items pack them in these boxes yeah really carefully very carefully legally will pay um that last one there BR 15 we got a couple quotes Brian just sent us for
some AV and door control works and I have to tell you this may sound silly but all that stuff comes from overseas and I just wonder what today's thing is going to do with those quotes okay i know the people in Del Valley and they get their stuff
from in Yeah not Pittsburgh no so I worry that those quotes we just got aren't worth the digital paper that were printed on would um what did they give us for a quote if I can ask you again it was right up there one more cameras were 30 around 35,000
and the access control was 52 was around 50 something,000 which so I I have a spreadsheet of costs and I think it it really warrants a discussion at at some point and maybe it's an advisory committee meeting about
about the approach to moving into TWWB because yeah we have you know I have all these cost estimates I I have cost estimates for all new switches and wireless wireless access points and all those types of things and um you know it's
we're trying to do this as as cheaply as possible uh but make sure we get a good a good product in the end so you know some of the stuff is some of the stuff might not need to be done immediately and some of the stuff does depending on
the availability of funds mhm um so um I mean we could spend a lot of money over there but do we have to no um well I think as soon as we're putting people there the security concerns are pretty apparent and the door control we talk
about different paths that go into the library as opposed to going into you know that's going to have to be a thing there's quite a few exterior doors over there i'm sure Brian has been working with Scotty maybe there's a safety grant or something like that would help with that
yeah the the the current proposal from Valley has access control on five exterior doors with the rest uh blocked from the outside and I believe it's nine interior doors we would separate out um the way that it's laid out currently is the library would have a separate access area parks and
wreck would have a separate access area in the back and the rest would be the the administrative offices um I would allow it to be compartmentalized hopefully so those those things that could work but they may apartments really have
unique operating hours yeah the different brick walls between but it's not just the controls too there are places where you actually may have to put in another set of doors that's because if they have three out of five classrooms all of a sudden the one down here isn't going to do it now you got to put another control set right here right
so those are separated out and we all know the library area there are many exits from the library that could go into a part that's not under the library control you know the hallway on the golf course end right which is next to the
library extra you know would not be part of the library part so that would have to be controlled off things like that well everything is not going to get done all at once no it's a big building with a lot of issues and it's never as easy as you thought it was going to be before you started and I I think you've done
your house that's the approach I would like to take is there are for different types of improvements there are different grant funding that's available okay um you know there's energy improvement grants that the town could but all these timelines or these different types of grant
programs are annuals right so we're not going to catch all of them at once um and then we've had conversations about solar on the rooftop as well that's a couple years out fortunately we participated in or we're going to participate in a shared grant for regional energy manager um with I think
15 other towns through the Pine Valley Planning Commission so we'll have it was like 15 hours a week yeah 15 hours a week of staff time and that's the board had talked about that being one of the priority projects is to figure out what to do with that and maybe that maybe we can fold in the roof costs yeah exactly
at the time so there's a lot of different options there it's a big roof well maybe great horse would pay us something to not put panels up there hey which way you pointing them right there you go um get that layer right on
the right on the key and on the green uh the two lawnmower things as you're aware uh Mark wants one Park wants one obviously any department we endorse any department coming forward i certainly have some questions about the the need for the park lawnmower they have a
lawnmower then they got a truck so they can bring it back and forth from the park and now that's too much trouble i'd like to keep one at the school if we sell the truck and the trailer we should be able to get that uh lawnmower but they don't understand they that lawn
mower was good enough to do both before maybe if Mark is getting a new lawn mower how bad is his old one maybe instead of trading it in you'll leave it at park can't imagine the much trade in value on those i understand but maybe Mark the highway department is going to
be mowing the bulk of Thornon Burgess right this is just and we've all been involved in sports this is the occasional one when oh there's a soccer game scheduled the school comm you know school department mowed the field three days ago would like it knocked down a bit before the soccer game and they go
out and mow the soccer field it's not the whole property so we've all been parents where we've gone and done that for our kids right right so we're not looking for the three tier what number What number does the
did parks and racks submit for the mower it wasn't a small number it was between 20 it was similar in line with marks yeah i They give a range of 22 to 25 i had I have a note of 25 $22,000 yes well I was saying this begs the question
where are you keeping it seriously no i mean you have that little tiny shed next to the basketball where are you keeping this double check let me keep that kind of lawnmower for occasional field mowing what was it what was it you saw 28 22 uh
23 um anyhow they put it on there i'm certainly not a fan of it i'm not sure about them but I think it's tight budget year i think it's got to be pretty good rationale for it yeah I I think senior center is probably going to be very cadet at home i can Yeah there
you go don's looking for Mrs dav i think she can walk behind one oh walk behind you're a nice guy my mother had that old real one that's right with the senior center perfect right through the path um it's
going to be a matter it's going to be a matter of adjusting to the new arrangement before we invest a lot of money like this yeah I don't see it being a priority uh see Gary came in with a number recommend about 220 225 was it 220 I think
2 210 210 yeah um I just I had a call into him yesterday i haven't gotten he hasn't gotten back to me and he did have a little carry in there just in case things went up yeah yes yeah i think that's that's wise very wise this is roof bathrooms and some windows roof
bathrooms all of the windows um and repair to the septic system i thought that was a pretty good number for myself i mean pretty yeah there is a uh you know there's some caveats in there also you know the if the
the plywood is damaged due to leakage and things of that nature they also have uh some heat coils up there too and that's up in the front part oh I know yeah for the ice ice yes okay is there an issue with the heat and the
air conditioning there too or not there is a concern with that uh not addressed in this number here okay and and there is there'll be more of an opportunity to take care of it if we were expanding great let's do it all once yeah okay there is some
um we're waiting for the lighting survey which we may come back at and I'm saying we mean the center building committee may come back in the fall for some improvements there or all about getting a really good deal from the state i mean they used to have a nice 8020 and now
it's 2080 yeah no yeah we did this building once back when it was 8020 it was a terrific deal you know we paid 20% of the cost upgrading to T12s they were threw away the they took care of the ballast upgrades and
everything yeah so uh fire station repair done you had some numbers from they were still they're meeting was it tomorrow night or something like that get the final number tomorrow night going to be a lot
a big number for the for fire yeah i don't want to even say a number because it might be wrong so it's more than a million the way that it's currently written it would be prop two and a half dead exclusion yep okay do do you foresee the senior center
being an exclusion vote or G Dick was pretty saying for 200 he was comfortable with that okay not back in the day when the dump truck at 200 was a vote at the time you know at the election now it's like you want one you want two it's
right oh my gosh uh the three articles from the school for Green Meadows we talked briefly about the second one the first one I think nobody has a problem with flooring repair uh that's been a ongoing maintenance thing i did like how
the original one was just under the uh the number they had to do so they quickly threw in another classroom to make it the 35 minutes so as Don said something I voted no i'm voting no on this i'm telling you right now i know they didn't classroom off they were they were doing you they've been doing this yeah for a number of years you know as
part of their maintenance budget right so keep it down under 35 and knock off five rooms instead of six well I think what the school committee is you know attempting to do is to free up more cash for their operating budget by stuff out into capital it's nice
it's nice of we'd like to free up some cash too uh you know I feel about the parking lot and fire road not just cuz I'm on It's a waste switches well I don't I can't find the rationale for mean can I explain to
you what an IT network switches yes you've seen them in the closet right it's you know where all the cat 5 cables go in it's a black box what's wrong with them they they get old quick that's all I know
from my research it's 10 years yeah why they must i mean I got It's electric right i got fixtures in my house that are 50 years old they still work that's right you think about replacing them can replace them every 10
years they'd be broke when Tom Edison gave that bulb to you you said I kept it i kept that bulb i don't understand what what is the switch what does it do the schools spend a lot of money on network switches mhm um and I asked the same question and it
it has to do with the connectivity of all the various parts of the computer it is a lifetime thing i've got these in my office and they will fail in the cable will fail and if I understand it correctly and Brian please correct me if I'm wrong it has to do with the
technology advancing and that the old technology the old switches don't have the capacity to handle the new the new bandwidth oh the old built-in obsolescence thing well I mean the first switches came out they were 10100 or actually tens 100 now it's all gigabit
switches and with what's going through them now with so much video going on and stuff like that you can't get by with barely a one gigabyte switch and the fact that every classroom now has so much connectivity going into it plus I imagine their access points the whole
the whole building right all the all the students all the staff everybody's connecting to this this internet over there i mean is that necessary how often do they use it do we keep That's a discussion if the school committee is meeting tomorrow night that's a discussion for them it's the
truth no this is a discussion for them too but I have to say it no if all the psychologists and and everyone says you got to kid keep kids off those screens you can't be have look at the screens all day why is every freaking thing in the school on the screen
that was my question before how many books you've been buying the past couple years you're not supposed to ask questions like that okay all right i just want to make sure but this goes to Brian's point earlier that the need of the school in terms of that throughput I think is different than the town hall
it's like they came tried to upgrade us at the office and I said we check email we're not online we don't have an online business we don't need gigabyte stuff like a school would i don't think the town hall does either we don't have We check email we have a couple all the students have been issued Chromebooks i
mean you know the connectivity is unbelievable now whether it's good or bad is another discussion fact is it is and you know this is what's necessary to operate it okay uh I mean the men talk things are no talk things don you been
to meetings more than I but the I'm not I'm not hugely up on the Kabota thing so Well I mean is the one they have or I know that one of the advisory committee members here thinks they should get a bigger one
heard this at home or something or I mean do they have one they have two they have they have it's a I' I've heard they got four schools over there maybe I've heard they had three but from a letter that I got this was a replacement for one that they have and they have no
others but I'm not sure you know that's the letter I want to get some clarification on it you know in in the grand scheme of scheme of things it's not a a big item it's right it's more the idea frankly and you lose your credibility when you Well we have other
departments that are skimping and doing without um Yeah and as you know I'm a big oppon I I don't believe in it but uh you know as Doug said in the grand scheme of things
it's uh you know it's very small but again it's all right where do you uh the lease amendment is basically when they we did a lease for the solar property at the landfill for whatever reason they came in and drew a line around where the
panels were when they should have just gone to the edge of the property when they went to put the fence on the slope part next to crossroad d has said "We'd like a little further away really don't go on the slope." Well they did it's outside the line that was drawn can we
move the line so it covers the thing why didn't you just bring it to the edge of the property before housekeeping it's housekeeping defense is up dp signed off concom signed off it could generate some discussion just because people have such strong emotions about these solar fields
but it could be like it could be like the cemetery fence from years ago exactly we'll never forget that one speaking of which here's another CPA thing there we go north Road thing which is going to be
like the uh what so I thought the pony thing that went on for I thought we did this already oh yes we did okay the town appropriated the funding but it didn't authorize the sale because they were the property at the time they had they had
to have article 30 is you Doug sorry article 30 is you Yeah article article 30 community preservation there's two articles two requests this year one is from Parks and
Wreck for some shade structures inside of the the fence for the spray park on the grass um I can't remember if it's 22 or 23,000 around 22 um two structures
with permanently installed um metal posts and then a detachable like umbrella type thing on the top that would get stored um so that's that's the first one the second one is a request from the land
trust for trail access on off of North Road onto this property so we'll be we'll be doing a cut in off of the road creating a you know a parking area um probably like a little kiosk type thing
start the trail some slope 27 I think it was that right I got to say and I wasn't at the CPA meeting last time because we had our select meeting the same night but and you and I have had this conversation before you have the three mandated areas open space historical
preservation and affordable housing then they came in with some limited recreation stuff we've got to do more for housing we've got to do more for housing and then historical we talked to Connie for years about hey how about something on
the I'd like before the 150 spend some money on the historical upgrade the statue we already gave the kid away sorry Don but uh you know that type of thing that's going to be I think the focus you know going forward but you're right these are the people that come in
the door and ask for it so what can we do for housing though what could be some things we could do for housing we talked about the fact that we've got as part of the set aside in terms of percentage of unused in this point that could be the match towards something you know the
town has to pony up just like we've done with some of the projects in MVP where we had to put 50 in to get a grant of 500 now of course with the latest things happening with housing projects being cut or grants being cut that may not be as possible but we always thought that
could be a seed to something else okay we we the the CPA money that we've spent you know in the affordable housing category has all been over at the maintenance only really well over at the housing right maintenance well the the very first one was for an engineering
study because they were looking at a potential expansion she says like 20 years ago and it wasn't that much money but it the study came back and said that it didn't have the the land didn't have the capacity because the septic field right
um then after that it's been primarily you know capital upgrades you know the lock blocks and some tubs work there might have been some some walk-in shower things there was some roof work too
i mean but it's it's just here and there i mean no no real big expenditures it doesn't expand it though that's the problem keeping them so that's just my two cents and then Don batteries actually Damett has been on she's been a
the housing authority member on CPA for years and she said that she's not going to be able to continue yeah never know unfortunately so uh battery area John or Don you're done with that right the battery battery things done waiting for
We're Rose we're Yeah I'm kind of arm wrestling with Rose yeah and same thing for ADU yeah ADU um yes yeah there's some suggestions that but again same thing these aren't we're not killing New Brown
we've got other communities to base these off of right well we did and Rose said no okay so on the battery on the battery yeah the battery is she reinventing the wheel
well I think she's just trying to keep us from getting a lawsuit but you know I'm going to sue us everybody's going to sue us i know realistic i think the key to the battery if it passes is a cover letter explaining the purpose
the reason why that we have a limited fire department we don't have water pressure we don't we have aquafers we have woodlands we have wells and that's why we need to protect all this from a potential of a battery runaway battery
fire yes which does happen absolutely you know something you know it because I looked excuse me John but I looked at the Wendle and some of the other ones that were rejected and that's the reason why the AG said you didn't give us a real purpose
so okay um we'll have to work on that because it's going to uh yeah public hearing once it passes town meeting then the cover letter with the Yeah background all or put it into it so in Wendell it passed at town meeting but
was rejected by the AG yes so because they they limited it to one area of the town and they didn't give a reason why they limited it to that area of the town yeah the same thing happens with some other towns too the AG is really and
he's a guy who worked for for 24 years they're really off off the mark on on this that I mean they're saying that an act if if Wilberham if I own a battery company you know battery story and I put it in Hampton and I build a road from East
Long Meadow to Hampton that road can't be stopped because it's part of the battery thing oh yeah yeah um that's the Tracer Lane decision so they're both with the attorney at this point they are okay um what do you think about reserve fun
going to ask for the full 25 well we haven't talked about it but um why not yeah we in for a penny almost for a pound we have we got almost all of our numbers in yeah uh we'll we'll see this might be a
year where we put in a smaller number like before the 520 split but we'll see um obviously the last two are assuming the stabilization but you have you're
putting your spreadsheet together and obviously looking at all the different components to it obviously a large increase in county retirement etc i know we had a levy capacity of over a million dollars with what's going on and
obviously like Brian said a couple things going outside that do you think we're tapping too far into our levy limit or we have no option my understanding of the lewood we're at about a million3 in excess
capacity and in terms of operating budget we cannot the town cannot put an override on until we've exhausted that excess mhm so the the increase in the operating budget and these are just rough numbers
i don't want to I don't want to get quoted on that sarah if you're listening um is about 1.2 2 about a 7 and a2% increase on the operating budget now that does not include any of
the other articles that we've discussed tonight that's not the warrant articles that's strictly warrant articles this is just this is just the budget which is inclusive of the school number inclusive of the school number exclusive of the school number what's the what's your
ballpark increase um about 600 yeah about 650 600 650 it's almost 50% in and out but the million five is the excess capacity that we that we also will have
new growth we'll have our two and a half um we don't we don't have a new growth number yet um but you know the 2 and a half will probably be in the range of 250,000 275 something like that so that
so there'll there'll be enough capacity here to avoid an an override issue um but if if all of this passes and you know obviously it depends on the fall what we do in terms of reducing the tax
rate and um I mean speaking personally because we've only discussed this briefly on advisory but I've spent some time thinking about this um I like to retain some of that excess capacity
because if we if we spend it out then in the next year and the year following we have almost no leeway and given what's going on with you know inflationary pressures can assume that we're going to be looking at budgets that are going to well be well above of 2 and a half% for at least the next few
years how much after we did the transfer for the water project how much did we leave in uh stabilization under a million or right around um now we took 600 out for that yeah I took some out for the I want to say we're about 1.3
that sound right Brian is that 1.3 in stabilization definitely yeah i mean we're in good shape on that but but we also have another you know another roughly 500,000 in the water district that'll be coming into the next the next budget one good thing is our
bid actually came in lower than we had budgeted so but I mean the you know the the pressures on the finances are unrelenting i mean and looking over the numbers that we have there's very little discretionary money in here mhm i mean
the the vast majority of it are mandated figures that we have to meet when we get a hit by negotiating county retirement Don I know that's one of your favorites yeah yeah we get a bill that's it yeah yeah you know the health insurance
the insurance I mean you know the insurance on TWWB yeah that's one thing I will say the health insurance I I don't think they fight hard enough i mean we do it every year at work and we're always looking at new plans and possibly changing some i
just think they just take what's here's your number okay well I know I know Dick is you know he's the the rep to Valley i got it but I don't think they negotiate like they should shop it around you know
Blue Cross I'm throwing a name out hey your increase is going to be 9% oh golly thank you well really I'm going to call Fallon i'm going to call Tus i'm going to call Harvard i bet they'd like our business with 3,000 people in it or whatever it is yeah i I don't know enough what the Scantic Valley Trust
does or doesn't do with regards to that but I mean everybody else you know you have to get into plan design issues you have to have to tweak it i'm not sure if they're doing that i I don't but also they don't get the ACA charge that companies do they're exempt from the ACA
so you know that's 3% extra that they're not having to pay mhm so my favorite sub numbers what's your favorite sub pieces this year what's your favorite one no he said the Hampton County retirement port i thought you going to talk about the generator i'm sorry no no generator the front i got
the generator done only took a year and a half is it Is it working not yet it's mounted they they put fuel in it they put fuel in it okay good they got to test it let's not rush it come on start up right the It's got to be ready for
the 150 perrick Perrick released the Perrick is doing an audit of the Hamnakand retirement board again and there's two situations that they have one is that u they've had a lot of data problems for the last year and a half and they don't know if their data is
right like data corruption type of thing yeah you know the data they they transfer to a new system they had a lot of data problems and they don't know if the data is right so which therefore there's a couple of us are saying well you don't know if our assessment's right
kind of follows doesn't it you know and so per the executive director of per was at their last meeting to discuss that with them and they have another audit but they per released their standings of the in 2025 of the of the funding level
and uh the Ham County retirement board is the fourth lowest at 54% funding I think compared to other regional ones that are at 80% and 90% funded we're at So so no relief from the assessment no relief for assessment for years for
years all catch up right the worst of the worst in the country the worst in the state is Springfield they're at 41% that's what happens when you promise and underfund all right any questions for us now the only the only question was on
the fire budget um the fire um have been reclassified yes mhm the um so actually we just got the numbers today to what the new figures
um is is that let me let me is that inconsistent with Collins or did you do this independent of that i think we found a place to we found a place to equate it on Collins collins hadn't done it
originally they weren't on there so we took their their um you know our temple temple at a place that we thought was based on experience and the only thing we don't have done we have not completed the highway union at
this point Brian we have a but you put on that you put two and a half in for them right I asked Mark to put in two and a half but we haven't completed those yet that's another one out there so I thought the fire department they did it after the Collins study they went back
and said "Can you take a quick look and give us Yeah we didn't so they didn't do that." We can't find No no our understanding that they did or No a lot of that was run through Bob and sometimes on the last page of the report
there there is a recommendation from Collins but it acknowledged that they didn't have very good comparables couldn't find very good comparables based on the effectively Okay um they're not call full-time daytime
firefighter situation they found that to be quite unique actually okay there wasn't a lot of that that's what the report said but it was prior to my time right and then the ambulance contract we're we're putting a writer in uh
there's some legislation that they feel may increase the reimbursements if they do that'll benefit the town but on the other hand if Medicaid cuts the things that'll be worse for the town so we got So we got putting a writer on that but what the number the num the number is
good for now this year which is a good number yeah they do a they do a good job for us you know has there been any more discussion with the fire department about the ambulance or no no that's
pretty much the ambulance has been sold oh it's gone yeah it's been sold make room for the generator well make room for the 450,000 big truck ambulance truck oh they had a request from another department that could use
it all the time so Sure yeah good all right i don't know anything further you guys no I'm good all right anything else what else we got we got meeting again well next next Monday at advisory
tomorrow night we're we're some of us are meeting with the school committee we're not posting because we're not going to be meeting as advisory they're inviting us we won't be deliberating um and the 14th the hearing right i mean the 14th is our hearing
what's the 16th you hear something on the 16th that we're supposed to do jury duty what i have jury duty i got nothing you got you got that on your calendar don't you no I 16th is is the hearing for the planning board correct that's
planning hearing for B i will say the and in those cont the auditorium for that day should be interested as do we have to do I have to arm wrestle arm wrestle yeah Joanne and uh Bonnie Bonnie
I I'm not sure who's taking press whatever um don't know okay 14th for you uh we'll have a we'll have a budget for you know a preliminary budget for probably Tuesday of next week
i know this comes up every year so Don what do you think we start our meeting in here and keep the Zoom going for their public hearing i know you're not Zoom that's fine i mean okay the public hearing I I think is good i I wish more people would
attend it's an opportunity to have a informal conversation about very real things sure and great all right all right oh you read on Facebook what you did wrong hand
uh I have nothing to report i have nothing to report brian um we submit that the the Y to the onetop program for the $1 million for the DWB principal uh those applications are due uh in June so
they'll that's an expression of interest so they'll give us comments back on to what grant program we could apply to that's it that's it lauren lauren i have nothing tonight how are you nothing
[Music] mr chair could I submit a motion to uh adjourn i'll second that so moved all in favor i What are we Are we signing so we're not signing this or we changing the date other train
today yeah