yeah yeah good evening this call the meeting to order this is a meeting of the hamon select board being held in the townhouse Auditorium on March 3rd 2025 at approximately 538 p.m. opening
the meeting please stand for the pledge of [Music] alance the United States of America to the Republic for which stands one nation under God indivisible with Li and justice for all is anyone recording the
meeting other than ourselves Dave will you be recording not for this portion okay and Kristen are you [Music] on no Kristen okay the first item on the
agenda we have some minutes um we have executive session minutes for January 16th January 27th in Jan in uh what's the other one uh January 22nd executive session uh they're all dealing with the same
subject so I'll entertain a motion to approve all three of them at the same time just ch make motion to approve all three executive session minutes without release second all in favor I I have a uh we have minutes from the February 3rd
2025 regular session meeting uh we met with the board of assessors to discuss veterans exemption veterans exemptions Conservation Commission uh budget had a financial update for the town treasur
the town accountant we went over the Council on Aging budget some one- day wine permits for the senior center talk to the town meeting about uh Town moderator about the town meeting water district discussion and their
project and we briefly review the select board and Board of Health budget motion to approve second all in favor I and I have the February 4th 2025 regular session
meeting uh have the fire department budget this wasn't regular no just the municipal oh this is the municipal buildings meeting I'm sorry um we the fire department gave their update on their on their project the senior center and the thonberg is update and
the library director was here and gave us a brief uh analysis of what she thought the library could do at the Thorton verges a motion to Second all in favor
okay all right the next item on our agenda is all the mass autobond Society annual deal deer pellet public hearing oh no we're not oh yeah public do probably a public sorry we opening the public
hearing need to feel left out Eva you know like I did not my chop liver yeah this is a public hearing uh guys to M General law 54 section 25 ba
A1 not to be confused with TR right and the purpose of it is that it allows towns to opt out of early voting by mail for municipal election is there a recommendation from the regist yes I recommend that we not offer
early voting for the local election it it's just cost prohibitive for one thing and the lack of participation um we do offer absentee voting if people cannot be at the election that's always an option but to offer early voting it's as I say it's
just it doesn't it's not warranted not for the cost of the the work that's involved for the very lack of participation so you're talking strictly the town election Town election in May Town election in May correct we have to offer prate elections right but for the
town election we don't but it's at the recommendation of the board of registers with the approval of the selectman a motion to endorse the recommendation of the board of assessors to opt out of early voting for the
municipal election in May 2025 any second second any any further discussion any input from the public anyone on Zoom that would like to comment on it talking someone's talking no okay all
in favor all all right now the let me ask you I got you we have a number of items going to be on the town meeting that I don't know if we're going to go to a proposition 2 and A2 exclusion or override whatever do you need and a half K about the
recommendation of the slackman it's got to be 35 days before the ballot before the election does the town have to vote on it first and then the 35 days you can the the Suman can put the two and a half on the ballot and if it's subject to approval at town meeting I hate to say
it but it's likely it's going to be on the ballot anyhow but but you can suggest at a two and a half you can put that on the ballot at the recommendation of the selectman as long as it's done 35 days in advance of we could have the town meeting and then the town election that would be on we could put it on there
correct okay if you if we 35 days in advance right it's got to come to me 35 days in advance okay all right and then the vote will make the determination of whether or not it's a valid question and inperson early voting we have to opt in
rather we're not opting in for the same reason for the very same reason right thank you thank you gentlemen to close the hearing start to drag you out so at least I was thank you close the hearing at
5:44 p.m. second second all right now we're on to the now we're on to the mass aine annual deer pellet count request this is a this is a second annual year they're doing are
requesting to have access to a certain portion of town property which we have approved in the past I spoke to Andrea today and uh I had also spoken to Jonah who has been before our board a couple of times and they're very appreciative of the work that town has done partnering with them and I know Craig they've been a tremendous partner with
the Water Commission as well you know working with us so Jonah would appreciate the opportunity to come and speak to the board in the near future um but I think what Andrea is doing is like Don said was a simple request we did this lastar a job not necessarily
a job I W we did this last year right we did we last year so they're going to extrapolate some data obviously they only have one year data so far and maybe when we talk to them in the future the population going up going down who knows I think it's going up but Craig you in
your backyard what do you think there's a lot of deer pellets I mean well that would mean yes there's a lot of deer I would think so yes know if you can speak you lowlander you but I know we we have a lot here but not so
many since the coyotes have been hanging out there all the ones you imported nice and the Bobcat oh nice so I'll make a motion to uh recommend uh allowing the oton to cross the town property to do
the deer pellet analysis for 2025 second any further discuss all in favor they're not asking for our help right no good it's a job that I really tell what they're eating when you start
analyzing that pellet how good for them I think it's a job that we all may be qualified for at some point reading [Music] Facebook all right we have the police department budget but also we have request for the appointment of an
officer I'll so see the officers here with his family we'll do that next [Music] right what do we have here this is Wesley Wesley hi Wesley say hi nice to meet you nice to meet you
best you dress up better than we do are you doing a computer yeah I got a computer right here can I see it sure you see all his games big phones computers it's not it's not I don't have
an in anywhere because here's Minecraft on that Roblox what's this that's a mic there say hi to the people Mommy that's Mommy that
you okay who is this guy H this is Everett hi ett hi Everett right all right good good evening evening good evening uh Mr chairman and board of our select board um I'd like to introduce you to Andrew Warrior Andrew lives in town here I did
send over a little sheet uh about Andrew uh Andrew has been given a conditional offer um by myself um as a full-time police officer within our agency uh as you see myself sergeant yvon and Sergeant Cooney um had done a u
interview process there was a background check done on him and um to a little bit of his history as we do see that after the inters are conducted and poro lives in town of hamon on wolam road with his wife Catherine and his two children that are
here uh Andrew is currently a Corporal at the Hampton County Sheriff's department has been employed there since March 2014 uh he attended and graduated their Corrections Academy he's a native of Holio 2009 graduate of Holio Catholic High School Andrew obtained a Bachelor
of Science from Westford State University and a major was criminal justice and environmental science um while uh at the Hampton County Corrections uh he oversaw and supervised inmates uh as his career progressed over there uh the sheriff's department he attended the reserve intimate Police
Academy um and that was through the mptc uh as you all are aware um 2019 2020 uh there was a bridging process that was allowed to to go about uh so you became a if you were a part-time police officer there was online uh online training uh along with hours that
you could get which was a 2400 hour Patrol hours through the Sheriff's Department in working patrols over at the Forest Park area um alongside Springfield police also in Holio police uh he was able to uh get his 2 2400
hours became post certified to be recognized as a full-time police officer uh and uh so U he has done some work with the squat team through the um uh Corrections Department uh Forest Park area the Marine unit um and uh he was
highly recommended we we had had two applicants for the position uh him and another the other one had a little bit experience in the policing World more so uh Andrew definitely um seemed to be our one that Rose top over the other one for the first pick um and so I think he's
going to be an excellent uh addition to the police department and I'd like to recommend him to the board for a full-time appointment uh it is contingent upon is one more step which is a psychological to do uh has been scheduled we just found out today it's going to be scheduled for Wednesday uh and he's already finished up everything
else and then uh he'll give us two weeks notice we get him on board to start training how long you been in hon uh 2019 I moved here okay how do you like it I love it and you're oldest is in he's two and a half
so he's not in the prek or anything not yet two and a half yeah pretty sharp kidar he was reprogramming Don's Computer he finally got it to work oh yeah look at that little pop-up screen there I mean we got post certification
you live in hamen i mean I'm not not sure there's really much else we need to Hound you on you know you fit all the qualifications right that's right did did well on this one yes tell me about the Marine unit we're part of the uh Connecticut River task force so we help Patrol Connecticut River we also Patrol
Lake Haman uh we do ATV Patrols in the hold reservoirs and Cobble Mountain as well I was thinking scanic can maybe go for a right you take a kayak Department kayak Department kayak we think in my backyard most of the most
of the spring questions I'm assume they talking to Mike Cooney you're going to get a real sense of how we feel about community policing yes which is key and living in town great background to that as well so I would only say welcome to hen I
mean it's vetted by Mike who's been here longer than me getting I think he opened the police department didn't he something like that backgound was spell p i mean had the whole thing um want to say for myself welcome to H thank
you motions that too I make a motion to endorse the chief's recommendation to appoint Andrew po foror to the role of patrolman subject to all uh required certifications Etc
probationary status or no there'll be there'll be a Year's probation it'll be yes second any further discussion you got anything to say got the thumbs up we're good all in favor all welcome AB board
sir a quick picture picture the board will go around the back and pict know come on me too one two three see you later big guy conratulations okay yeah thank
you how much it going to cost us a negotiate salary yet what you negotiate salary yet yeah yeah what are we doing now where are we police budget good Chief knock 10% off and
we're good to go all right I'll go back to the drawing board see what we can do all right all right we're done thank you what do we got all right so uh good evening again um as you can see we've submitted our advisory sheet along with the uh with
the budget I did like when we had this table here but it's all right um anyway so the chief salary gener General salaries have increased the career incentive is increased elections town meeting has decreased due there's no um
presidential election Towing clerk STS are saying training is increased uh Cruiser maintenance uh has increased uh we are not looking for a new Cruiser equipment stayed the same um for with inside the agency building maintenance
stayed the same and general expenses has kind of increased so as you can see most of the line items have increased by a little bit uh not not a lot obviously we are under contract obligations for the um salaries for our officers as a signing a new contract um did you spread
your stuff out yeah maybe you tell me I was a little scorched thank you we're going to meet down here for a few minutes come up with up here all right so continuing thank you
uh continuing uh obviously not obviously but as you can see there has been a few increases uh the um as I did say contractual obligations maintenance career incentive um we did uh do the career incentive which is
different from our Quinn Bill where we have a couple of officers including our newest officer that is going to get the uh career incentive um immediately starting July one um so um not Quin Bill though right just he's not Quinn Bill no he has a bachelor's degree he'll fall
under the career incentive right there's no Quinn Bill Quin bill as we have had in the past is you work and then you get as it you get paid up front with a career incentive paid right up front when you get your degree now count for new inside the current fiscal year how
is that going to impact you or he's not going to be qualified until next salary he's not qualified till next budget which is July one all right as far as career incentive does that account for new um degrees that are coming online that does yes there's one online
that we have that I've been made aware of that will that does account for that right that's why right yeah um going to um the cruiser maintenance um we did take I'm sorry were you're somewhere else John no I'm trying to follow as we skip through the first part
I think I would appreciate just in the future SC most departments come in with a 25 and a 26 page so we see what the increase is on the back you didn't get the advisory no I no I'm saying on the individual Pages like that type of thing oh it's on the back if you look
it's broken down right but I mean you want you want to see inside yeah okay yeah so we can see the what went up oh I I okay I see I'll see okay I'm sorry yep Cruiser maintenance Cruiser maintenance is going
up because of the vehicles so uh uh we're not going for a new vehicle but to keep them going and we did talk about we're approaching I think 880,000 with one of our um more older vehicles which You' say but it's not really that old a lot of hours on but obviously we're
going to experience more issues as we move along we have also included the ACO um car that I've been taken care of in there um she's had some work the last uh two years that we've been concerned about so we kind of just spread it out a little bit um some
may take more than others but there's no really set increments for for each vehicle what's the delivery time on vehicles now uh to be honest with you they said uh rather quick if we if we were to get one right in July if we were to get one July we would we would once you do the upfitting we would probably
have it within a month and a half oh I'm kidding they have a lot of vehicles they have a lot of vehicles right now okay so the possibility of a fall vehicle would still get it inside the the years yes that would be a that would be a suggestion yes he's gotten a lot better
they've uh McGovern has taken over the market now through mhq they've got the market to do all their outfitting upfitting there and everything and they've been getting a lot of vehicles on the in on the ground for them moving them throughout the state uh so so going in with you know other uh the expenses that have moved up through
the general expenses the building maintenance that just falls into play with our annual contracts that are that are increasing along with um um other um vendors that we have that have increased um and so uh just keeping everything is
is is going up and uh just going up with when we get the new invoice come in and mhm we showing an increase we put we put that in all right one thing on there this is I know it's a small number but you're the only Municipal property in
town that has an outside service put along so I can explain this um so when I first became Chief we had sprinklers and the sprinklers were were on the lawn was being mowed by the highway department M and the landscaper
who put the sprinklers in BAS basically came by and said Chief I want to take care of your lawn I want to mow it I'm going to mow it just for the town of hit no no cost okay and so he started mowing a lawn and uh he
maintained the lawn uh he liked the angles he liked going by he had a business in town and really really really liked it so he continued on so I went over and spoke with Mark Mark said I have no problem it frees me up an extra summer guy to do other things around so the increase of monies is for
for F izer spring cleanup fall cleanup maintainance of the lawn itself the flower beds and around the place Department not just for the mowing so that figure is what constitute our spring fall Cleanup in in in the um the
lawn the edging um the blowing of all the materials around the D the parking lot and the sidewalk to keep it looking nice right but what the highway department does for every other Town building as part of their budget is just m no they're not we see them out here
edging we know that they maintain so I appreciate no no no no no no no I was there at the time I certainly appreciate what St Clair has done me too volunteerism is terrific right but it's that type of thing why does this department have a budget for not that
Cemetery doesn't as well but when the guys are 400 ft down the road at the senior center are doing the same business I mean if the town budget if I can get a commitment from the highway department wants to take care of my flower bed bring in mulch do the edging and all that then I'll take out the
$5,000 M if that's what you want me to do next time he comes in but yeah I mean I I just know that there somewhere else you can use $5,000 I mean $5,000 is is nothing for what he's charging me to do what he's doing agree sure there's somewhere else you could use
it but then there Highway budget might will probably go up I think he got a guy next door it's like the guy is there it was fertilizer and molch you know I I think I think for 5,000 but if that's what you want me to do I can I can I can look at that septic pump
septic pumping so the septic system has to be pumped out every 3 to four years we we utilize Bond Septic Service I thought it was at the senior center no we have our own septic system yeah shared well isn't it though well we
have a well we have a shared well yes and that's why we had had the issues with the sprinklers and stuff like that right is it really that low usage where you go every 3 to four years I'll take well um I've been there four years now we've done it twice okay
usually they say every other year okay and I know they did it this year so they're going to do it again next year no they shouldn't be doing it this year they shouldn't be doing OB seing your setic P 1500 we got, 1500 it's there in case we have a problem with it
it's it's it's it's there but I mean I put it in there to have it in there but possibly be done no I just happened to have Billy came this year and did mine I think it was 500 roughly four we have we have considered a business Commercial it's it's definitely bigger bigger tank
um bigger setup and that's the cost of what he gets yours was only 500 you said yeah for a normal home for a house yeah for a house right B so I talk about training okay the I
know the mass U police training committee had some issues and that they suspended online training for a while is that still off or is it on or so the uh mptc did suspend online uh in service training which is required and mandated
by police officers in uh in around the state um and that they did suspend it it is back up and running it's uh it's a hybrid model as it was before the online was suspended the hybrid model in person was still continuing um they've gone back to online uh and and allowing that
to continue we we have that we allow our contract allows online right so our officers um through their contract obligation uh whether training is in town or out of town uh either in Li of a shift or overtime they get paid to to
that online training since it's when First Co first came in um we were doing all of our training onine line where the officers would get paid overtime to do that training you got a the other thing is I got is a you have a vacancy in a
Sergeant's position and one time you had suggested a lieutenant position is it worth opening the contract to talk about's position um you know we we probably are going we definitely need to go ahead and establish something a
lieutenant as I'd said before and I still stand by a non-union Lieutenant uh is is a big plus for for the chief of police in the aspect of internal investigations can deal with the Union contractual members in in a different
way uh and overseeing underneath the chief of what needs to be done um I do say recommendation of possibly two sergeants with one Lieutenant would be a would be a big plus for our agency again there are certain criteria that we have to discuss and put in place to start to
look at that I don't know if we're there yet um especially knowing now that you know we have a open vacancy for a sergeant uh and possibly another one coming in July where we do actually have to get that exam going it's a 45 posting
45 day posting time to get uh that exam out there I'd like to get a list a Sergeant's list prepared and then maybe really dive into if it's something that we can maybe have some talk myself and Brian or or the chairman of the board of of where we may want to go uh there is
going to be a definitely increase in salary for that Lieutenant above and beyond of what our sergeants are I do think it would be very helpful to our agency you know you you had a resignation of a sergeant so he was
doing it stuff as well correct okay now you who's doing that now so so um uh I do have another officer who was the secondary officer according to the uh the contract obligation is a primary and a secondary uh and that secondary officer has stepped up to the prim
position is now um continuing to move forward um he did have experience even prior to that sergeant that has resigned of of running our in-house it um I do think it's a benefit to have someone in-house um but also um you know we
might be wanting to look at a point in time to have someone come I mean do you think do you think again that's that's a contractual thing I think the contract says it has to be an officer but is that something that we need to reopen change I know wilam has a civilian right
correct so so wilam does have a civilian um that has come in to to run their it Department along with their town has their own it Department we've been very lucky to have an officer inside and know and has been experiencing our system
came from here Main Street and went over to the uh new building and was part of building our infrastructure which which is a big plus um but there is again another I think time to talk about do we
go ahead and have one person inside and then also include an outside person who can work hand inand with them um you mentioned the retirement possibly in July have you have you figured that in there must be a payout for that right so
so that payout has not been figured out in my budget itself no but there will be a payout you talk to the treasure about we usually that goes under employe employee benefits correct right so maybe you need to so I did touch to the treasure I have a somewhat commitment of
expectation of of being July um of that so so I did talk to the treasurer about uh um what we're going to have to look to do and and I'll continue to talk are we better off hiring another officer than paying overtime well as I mentioned before and
we I think we brought this up last year it's not you can't just take one officer and put them in there and and cover wherever our open happens to be I think maybe down the road we start to add if that's something we want to do and there's a concern with our overtime I mean you hire a new officer uh at say
64,000 and you add the benefits and all that in my overtime maybe he's around 100,000 um and so one guy is not going to cover it our contract here when we did have our detective's position who was my utility detective that allowed me
to cover some of the overtime I can't do that that anymore with the contract we have to go out to the First Rate refusal to our officers our officers get 40 hours a week to their fulltime first before it goes to a part-timer so as I mentioned before dropping to a 32h hour
for the full-timers allowing our four five or even six seven part- timr to work along with that first R refusal I don't see I I mean I think I did come here a few years ago saying that we might be losing most of our part-timers I mean coming 2027 the expectation is
there's no more per se training and everybody who is certified is going to become certified uh I think we're going to still have those part-timers out there are willing to work I have some on now so I don't know if you add one you're going to have to add two three one per shift because now when you go to minimum Manning someone's not going to
be yeah okay so it's and what about the school resource officer over at greed medals is that worth it I think a person that has the breaks the barrier down as a police officer with the school kids I've done it I'll stand behind a school resource
officer all day long it's a home run uh can we have that school resource officer do more within that school sure are there more jobs that we'd like to be able to give them or more hours over there sure but to be able to have our students from prek to fifth sixth
seventh or eth those prek and kindergarten kids problem they they they haven't been but they could be I will tell you a living next door joh day uniform school resource officer but
you're bringing a guy in at overtime and you know that's different than it was when it started when it started it was a guy on patrol and you would the chief would assigned him to be SRO at that time maybe that's how it evolve from dar days it said I want to morph from one to
the other so I think kind of the question is does it have to be somebody brought in an overtime to be Sr unfortunately the contract we're obligated by the contract we have had it the different ways because we've stood
by it but the most recent contract doesn't allow me to do that um and so doesn't allow you to put a patrol guy and say hey for the next three hours you're going over to Green Meadows oh I could take the guy off the road sure just leave one off on the road and one in the in the school but I have but but
I if he has to leave he has to leave but but no I need to have a according to post that post commission I have to have a certified SRO now I can't just take John Flynn as my patrol not our contract is post as a requirement no no our contract doesn't allow me to use my detective to back fill and let him go
over there and not C cause over time the new contract says that I can't use my detective as a utility detective that I wanted it to use and if I put my SRO over there who's certified over there I have to go ahead and fill it first of all with someone from the rank and file
of overtime and they have to be certified and they have to be well no they don't have to be certified my SRO who's in the school has to be certified the only way to change it is to go to minimum so so if we're going to open up the contract we've got a you know we open up the contract and we deal with a bunch of things that we've right you just change it by changing the minimum
Manning right but your minimum Manning is at two now so if you put one over there for half a day now you're down to one and a half so so my you have to back fill that which is why what you're getting at right but if you added another person on during the day you could technically throw somebody over there but then now you're paying the salary for so the way we had it prior to
this contract signning is I had my detective my utility detective I could take him and put him on days with my other officer working and send my SRO over there this contract here doesn't allow me to do that this contract Here and Now was tied my hands and said if that guy goes over there this shift open
up and now you have to pay overtime for a guy to come in well my point is you could put three officers on during the day and put one over there but then now you're well then I have to have another certification of an SRO right no no I think even with three guys you run through the same problem Scott's talking about here with the SRO
certification you have your fulltime guy be certified as SRO that that doesn't affect that you have the you have the SRO who was an officer okay so he goes over there he's he's working the school right right and then I put two guys on the road bring someone but I have to bring someone in
overtime I can't just why can't you just change the schedule so there's three officers on during the day where am I going to get that I have to pay I have to pay them there to be a full-time officer overtime I can't just say you're coming in and not why does it have to be overtime why why can't can't you adjust the schedule
so there's three officers on during the day because we don't have the numbers to do that we have that's my point well then then so then you're going to add more officers on our department sure but you're not just going to add one officer full-time officer as Mr chairman said to alleviate all the overtime issues you're
going to have to hire at least three more full-time officers to take one per shift and then go ahead and work that into the schedule the ratio is really four officers for three shifts then you can go down to a minimum Manning but if
you're going to take four officers say times 60,000 Plus benefits you're way over what we're spending in overtime already you only have one officer that certifies SRO yes and the certification costs uh the training is a couple
thousand dollar they have to keep it they have to do a yearly annual uh and but they actual get into the certification there I think there was a 5-day class that they had to go to say time and a half because they get paid time and a half to go to that overtime class the initial they get into maybe be a little bit more expensive but after
that um so you know you could certify a few the SRO part is there a requirement Statewide that X number of hours must Beed contained at the school for SRO it's just I mean right now you have 60
hours in and if the SRO goes on vacation okay it's 4 56 it is what it is or whatever right 52 so if you did choose to make one of the patrol people the SRO or worked out they got certified or
whatever and they were two hours into their SRO shift and got called out to help with something it's not like there's a deficit in SRO hours that needs to be made up to the school that's like the DARE officer could could have respill could have gone to any call he
needed to and just left car B at time as rsr was there is considered another up exactly I've got an extra man on I I brought someone in overtime plus I have my SRO was at the school who's coming to assist with whatever events going on in the community that we need help with well kind of back to Craig's point there
the 1.5 the option is whether to backfill that or not and that's where I'm saying okay is this shift here and you're the chief you know the status you know how things run during the day is there a possibility that SRO
could be the control if they were certified Etc could be that person during the day and save that 60,000 I guess we could look at that I have to say your budget it went up 6% in this times and of course knowing
what's there in the contract Etc not bad when you see all the other constraints we have electricity going up fuel going up Etc so I applaud you keep managing as best you could with it thank you so anything else we're done with you thank
you started with a 10% cut and you still walked out with 6% for now all for now it's not over till it's over right thank you want to skip one we're going to skip over select board Health thing we have a joint
meeting with advisory a school committee how do want to do this Doug no well we're your house done you haven't heard their presentation yet right [Music] correct come on
up take a seat are they can they get in here can they can they screen share next to you we don't have technology with us scen
chair you kept it at a minimum you're not a quum you kept it that way no we have to do you want us to send you a document you got more than one I think we got the let me sit next to them I we have the documents the screen
share that you got to ask John uh this [Music] afternoon that's what they want yes you don't have a forum we do we're a subcommittee special we're going to start with capital bottle start with
capital start is that the same do you want to start with the budget rather than the capital nothing oh so this is the one we'd like to do first if we can that's the Capital One yeah so I'm just going
to call us to order did you the second one call is that okay you call for order can I call ourselves sure okay so I'd like to call the um Finance operations committee oh sorry go ahead sorry I'm
sorry I like to call the operations subcommittee to order um yeah I'm here Mike terasi Sean Kennedy I Michelle Buro here there you go all right we are in Open Session thank you just so it's clear advisory we have
a posted meeting this evening we actually started downstairs and we just moved ourselves up here thank you all right you got that y share away we should have that available
brand oh they can do it oh there you go here we go we got a bigger T that's G chicken do that's good we focus mostly on the right hand side of this if that's all right um so
just find way of introduction my name is dou Slaughter I'm the assistant superintendent for finance operations and HR um I've met many of you recently but not probably all of you so uh like I say I'm excited to be here and just started in the beginning of January so hope
I'll I'll provide you with the information you need to make the decisions you need to make um in talking about Capital requests did earlier meeting in December I think with with some requests laid out a little bit of what we're looking at for for future years uh I've spent some time refining
that with with the help of of staff and and feedback from both uh both towns as well as the school committee um last Thursday night school committee met and and approved this as a capital plan for fiscal 26 uh in the top section there under under hampen we've got uh a series
of projects that are shared and so your portion is in that fiscal 26 column so there stadium seating there's adding and replacing uh mini split AC units uh there is the um upgrade to the uh radio
communication within the building um and there's a camera system upgrade and then uh from facilities there's a a tractor that they need and that's all shared equipment I'll get into the other stuff that's particular Green Meadows in just a minute um the thing I'll share with you and I I sent a note out today uh a memo with
with some some description of how we came to the pricing that we came to um you see the total project cost there in the in the right hand column the rightmost column um and and it says 20% for for Hampton it's not exactly that it's fractional it's nearly that but
it's a good ball part for what those the division is between the two um relative to uh the stadium seating you know we have a we have a quote from from a vendor on that I shared that with you all today hopefully you get a chance to look at that if you haven't today um
but that was just for materials and installation and uh the day I actually received that from our athletic director he's like hey here's the quote was the day that uh some tariffs were announced on aluminum uh so you know we we put a pretty hefty contingency in in regard to
that and so that price tag is bigger than we had back in December um but I think we're trying to hedge our bets on on what we think we're in Need for uh refined design and and permitting and then of course you know whatever the the cost increases for for things like
aluminum R um for our uh AC units you know we've installed a few in the last couple years we're continuing to install some that's generally driven by by particular need for for meeting student requirements um we've got experience with that even in this current year so we're using our our recent uh purchasing
history on that to define the price for that uh um the two-way uh radio repeater um we have a quote from from a vendor on that we actually they they Lo us the equipment to to test out to see
if it would work for our circumstance uh so we're currently using it on loan at the moment um their quotes officially for $1,540 they may they may very well um um honor that quote they may they may redo it when we actually go to to make
the purchase um but in the meantime um I did a small contingency there in case they raised the price just a little bit should be pretty close to 11,000 for the total cost the camera system upgrade uh pretty significant in upgrade to the camera system at the high school um we
had in December a much larger number there um went back and looked at quote both for labor and for for materials and and um not sure why it was so large unless it was originally may have gotten onto the capital planning as a as a multi-building kind of upgrade but uh
even with a a a modest you know contingency for for what might be uh increases in prices over the last year or so um it's it's about half what was originally on our on our sheet so hopefully that's a much more palatable uh you know purchase there uh it also
will integrate nicely with with uh Poli has a similar system uh so if we want to and we can find appropriate you know sort of policy around that we can integrate with the police department but more importantly just our own equipment uh both at the middle school and high school are going to be on the same
system so that's helpful there and then that RTV is a form of tractor it's not like a classic like plow of the fields tractor but it's a it's a small uh uh device used for a lot of you know things like spreading sand and salt that
sort of thing uh we did a vendor quote on that we called vender up said hey what's what price one quick thing if we just roll back to the bleachers yep so we had the email that came in today and it showed a a budget price of 1.3 1395 MH and but your spreadsheet
shows 1.8 is that the contingency you're carrying is that much contingency yeah pretty significant contingency on that one which is in the like I said in the memo on that one it has a significant contingency and I think we just have you know you know we'll have to do design permitting you know so that that's just showed up and put the Erector Set
together as you know without any specific design if we have some specific design criteria we need to you know apply we hadn't factored into that so we'll just have to but more importantly I think it's just the the variability in price that we think might happen and of course there are other
things which I mean you're I mean saying a significant jump from this afternoon of 1.4 and now walk in it's 1.8 right so $400,000 jump 25% you know I talk about the tariffs if the that doesn't happen
how does the money get returned is this an appropriation that's spent up to these num numbers or you know say we appropriate H that appropriates the $442,000 based on you know right worst case numbers right does that
number not get spent is it a I going say it's not a blank check to allow you to spend that or something back in the bill and the money just gets released and recalculated against the tax rate in a future year the approval for Capital I'm you may want to speak to this too but I
and speak to my experience with this is that if you you know it's a formal approval by town meeting for a particular project it has to fit into that project for us to spend it for number one anything that's under that uh is turned back to the town so we we say we no longer need this then you can
resend that and and how you choose to then spend that is you your call well I guess that's my point is I mean you tax for this and you're going to go ahead and collect the whole 442 right you submit bills and they Comm in at 380 right for the whole thing and then at
the recap sheet you get 40,000 that goes to free cash for the following year basically yeah but we've already I think that's the way it would work it be but if this is inside the budget this appropriation but if it's inside the budget we've already technically increased the levy
limit to accommodate the larger number right right so but it would be a Deb exclusion de exclusion if it goes this High Li you don't think you can fit it in I I thought in the past that on capital projects like this we were actually
build for the project right off the invoices uh so it would be like any other appropriation we make I don't think they'd get the money until they spent it and we' pay our 20% and anything else is just an unused
appropriation gets rolled into free cash the next year I'm pretty sure that was the way it's worked in the past we we would be setting them a check for 659 they'd be billing us as they did each project correct M that's correct right but they're authorized up to they're worst
case like like every other line I agree that's what I'm saying the coming back goes into free cash but it raises the number if your think is a de exclusion because this is over what we can handle inside then it wouldn't affect it yeah that's that's all right I think the
other thing I'll say is at uh a conversation we had with the wil Bram finance committee you know they asked about things like naming rights and so I think you know if there are other sources that can help support this then then of course you know we'll leverage
those as well which is also a potential uh reduction to a project cost if if possible you know I mean I don't know how likely that is or not that could be you know can Donuts bleachers what's that the Dunkin Donuts bleachers Davenport Stadium sounds
pretty good to me while we're on the topic of bleachers what's what's up with the current bleachers are they just not safe anymore they wearing out so I I know less about that than probably anybody in this safe to say that this is time for them to be
one side's already been done several years back and it's time for this this side to be n years ago when I on the I know nine years ago when I started on the school committee we were talking about how old they were and they needed to be replaced we have taken it apart
we've sanded it down we've duct taped and glued and done everything that we could and it's just not we know we're on borrowed time yeah yeah very much so there's cracks and breaks that put your bottom when you said are these items going to be
presented to the town as separate Capital items it can be a worn article that says you know a million bucks for the bleachers you think like last time where we broke yeah broke it be this will be
one and then these can be different right so I think that um again I think that the the ones that are assessed via the regional so Regional properties and and that you know will probably be separate from those that are green mow specific which are much more just like you would for a
police cruiser or you know fire truck or something like that as far as a capital appropriation um so you know for the with projectss there Green Meadows which are are mostly smaller in scale and based on our our history with some things um you know those are much more
your your sort of uh uh Capital planning articles that you would have you know you may do them as one you may do them individualized I'm not sure how you particularly approach it in your in your town meeting I think that's different than what's happening in the in the top portion which would be um you know gived
up and and then assessed by virtue of the fact that you have a piece um similar to your operating budget there's a you know the capitals assessed as as as a separate thing but again the rules still apply as far as the specifics to projects we still have to only spend money on the things you
authorize us to spend it on so um you know well what I'm asking is is it going to be the last time I believe didn't we do like three different Warren articles with different things so are you going to do the stadium separate and the AC
unit split separate and the maybe maybe package the other at that point yet or what's that are you at that point to make that decision no no but I'm just thinking last year I mean we we pushed to have the capital separated from the operating budget because they didn't
want the operating budget to rise or fall based on you know Capital request um and I would think the same will apply here I think there's a discussion to be had that maybe some of those things can be grouped you know but it's a discussion they have
we're going to close the warrant tonight so I want to we want to at least have some placeholders in there for that right and I you know I have no preference it's probably more on works best and functions well for your community to make the decisions they need to make I would say if it's presented to one town one way that
should be presented to both towns the same way right and I'm not familiar with exactly does either so I'm flying a little blind here as green that Stu uh Brian and I took a tour over there earlier when Aaron was here walked around with
darl at that point it was prior to the fall town meeting they seem to think there was a a pretty prevalent need to get the security upgraded at the school they had door lock concerns they had uh the entrance concerns with some of the doors
not being terribly secure and I'm surprised that that didn't show up here because in our when we came back and talked about it that was number one or two on their list now does that mean that you were were able to fix all that without coming back to us I wish but I
don't think so Replacements what's that I'm sorry the I think the thing is is that you know it it is one of those things that that does need attention and and it is one of those that also we want to do it in a pretty thoughtful way in regard to that and and and uh so that
you know there are some things that we had in our listing for you know when we talked to you guys in December they got bumped out a year or so so that might be one that got got bumped out um something like you know exterior door or creating you know kind of a person
trap between the exterior and the interior that kind of thing is a much more intensive project to to to set up that's often a security measure that older school buildings don't have where you can step in the exterior door but then you have to connect with the office in some way before you can be led into
the actual building itself uh so you're in the airlock and and so that's a much more uh intensive kind of project for that the the structure of the exterior doors was rotting away and that the doors could not be certified to be
secure so that's one thing I'm surprised another thing that jumps to my mind is that the $7,000 for the kitchen floor I thought there was a that was inside your number that's in the least the the
lease the current lease says that um effective July 1st 20 25 which would be this year $35,000 is the anything below $35,000 is not a capital
expense so that would mean the floor replacement potentially yeah potentially and secondly uh maybe it's inappropriate to speak about it but I'm not a terrible strong fan of extending that fire
Road next next to my property yeah right now no no and I always say it because right now what it's used for and I see it all times people go around it's fine there's no purpose unless you're saying this is part of the and Craig is
a parent maybe you know as part of your flow structure for picking kids up that's what you want to do but other than that I see no purpose in making that driveway stronger going around all the playards in that back part of the school
the basically the north side has two fairly vibrant play playground areas and you want to make a a road going around them is that what the plan is basically that's it that that path going around that way would now be an official
road so is that what because I haven't heard that yet is that what they presented yeah well I first say that 35,000 is probably not going to get it done just given the amount of patment that would involve you know so that's the sort of I I view that project and I we had a
conversation earlier today about whether to take you know extend Fire Road off of the listing or not um I think because it's gone public it was it was voted on by school Comm I didn't want to change the title of it however I don't think that that you know that fire road is
necessarily um going to get extended with this appropriation of of 35,000 I think you know repairs mod I also want to put it above the going back to and Daryl made a pretty compelling case I think Sharon spoke to to it two of the rekeying of the doors inside the school
how critical that was so that if God forbid some emergency happens they're not fumbling through a key train trying to figure out what opens A4 and to me that had a higher priority than some of the things on this list so well you know what I can say there is
that I had a conversation with with our facilities director about those you know the sort of different projects and where we're at and what we can do and and and you know that was was push off a little bit you know the door the re the re you know and and replacement of doers you
know door hardware is a pretty significant um uh investment I mean if if you look kind of on the other side of this list you'll see that there's a number of those in there and each you know sort of each building's in the you know 4550 High Middle School's at 95,000 you know
it's a pretty big bite and and there's also just capacity of staff to get it done um uh cuz we'll do a lot of that work ourselves uh with our own maintenance staff so I think the the idea being that that uh you know in comparison to the whole uh you know if
it waited a year it would still be uh it would be okay not ideal obviously and again it's not something you can stagger like let's do some let's do some I mean I appreciate what you're doing with the the the floor work right you know that makes sense let's get five five five right but the door project if you're
doing it you're doing them all because you're doing it for a purpose that we're going to make it convenient right yeah exactly it's it's best to do whole buildings and at a time if possible on that uh which I think was part of the thinking too as far as bumping bumping that out a year
um and again I think that if if 35,000 is the is the is the minimum then you know the the flooring maybe goes to six classrooms to get to 35,000 uh and then we pull off the the kitchen floor the other thing that crossed my mind this morning I'll have to check with our food services director whether that's eligible if we can use
some of our Food Service uh resources for that purpose I know we can we can use it for things like buying a new oven or walking cooler that kind of thing it may be a thing where if we have resource available within our food service budget it might be considered an eligible expense as well so that's another thing it could potentially come off to check
on that um and and and see um whether or not that can be accommodated in a different way um but the uh I think the that was most of what I wanted to say about the capital as far as what we have here on the list we bumped a few things out we try to modify
it and reduce it a little bit to make it uh manageable both from a from a financial standpoint but also a work workload standpoint um for implementation purposes The forign Replacements uh just background on it we're doing five classrooms a year does
that represent 10% of the building does that represent uh 15 prob depending on the size of the building obviously and the life time on that is it because I mean Doug we just did that 20 20 years
ago 21 years ago1 02 I think it was yeah so is the lifetime is that why you're doing in a staggered manner at this point or well it's a couple I think there's a couple reasons to stagger them is is um is partly so that if you think
about this sort of you know forever sense of going through and it's like then we're always taking it's kind of like replacing police cruisers like instead of having replace the whole Fleet four years or five years right exactly that but I mean is that is it a lifetime thing at this point like I said people are going to say well gosh we
just finished paying off that building right right um are we starting to see things fail major things like this why are we replacing the the floors the flooring replacement right now is is I mean that's a Green Meadow specific one so I think it's
it's yeah those are right but I mean the fors old part the new part I mean there's part of the building that's the original if you will but I mean why are we replacing those floors is the question I think that what we're
seeing is is uh you know chipping and breaking in some places some wear some you know heavier wear in some some places and so uh some of it is is due for replacement maybe um I would I would suspect it's mostly in older portions of the building or or well I think that's a
you know an explanation for that cuz people are not going to say oh my gosh the two Wings in the back that can't be they're brand new new wing on the side that can't be but if you're saying the original the main quor some of the ones we didn't touch in O2 okay makes sense yeah John I think when I did a tour for
Capital planning there a few years ago they were talking about they were also replacing the floors uh with a flooring material that allowed them to cut down acostic materials in the building uh that it was easier to maintain with environmentally
safe cleaners I think there was a whole angle about that I don't remember this specific but it might be worth looking into yeah that could could have been the older part of the building too yeah like you said everything here has justification Everything is defendable
Everything is uh needed at some point that's right we're buying a lot of those switches right yeah I got a question they're looking to for
$43,000 on the so it's side by side be realistic it's not a tractor it's a side by side to spread sand and salt it doesn't do anything else no I think it does I'm you know it does a whole host of things it's about getting
things moved from point A to point B be you know extravagant what's that it's pretty extravagant does that incl are they going to put a plow on that cuz I know those Kubota rtvs are really good for plowing uh they can you can put a boss a plow on
them and really go to town right you can also get a one that's a little less expensive probably half the cost with so I'm asking again what's the justification you're looking at a lot of
money yeah I think sorry to say it's you know that was that was the cost of the doors that we got last year for I think it was $440,000 to fix the doors at green meals so again I'm you know that it's
spread across both towns is this replacing a vehicle or it's replacing an existing one that we have reping an existing yeah and I think that the um it's it's a similar model to what we have currently um and have had for a
number of years um so you know it's not a a recent replacement of of uh so not you're not adding to the equipment no no no this is not an add to equipment by any stretch it's a replacement of existing piece of equipment we have and the similar model and style that we've got and and for
similar purposes for sure all right what do you got what do you got that's next look the rest of the mess yeah that was the easy part right exactly so um so last Thursday we took we took the um the school committee
threw a draft budget um and so just to take us through that it's it's looks like that on the front first slide just so you know that was emailed this afternoon what's that who was emailed this afternoon um that was mailed this afternoon
yes didn't include that in the in the email What's the title of it I thinkal 26 draft budget presentation or something and they'll say 0227 2025 out long all
right we start right here we don't see it just kidding still slide do want start we can start on three yeah if you want us move to page three on that so this is so what this page shows
is what I presented at the at the budget Round Table there's no change here just a reminder of like where were we at the beginning of February when we discussed this uh this budget uh and so a couple things to point out we didn't know where we were going to be on our transportation cost we had some idea but
we didn't have the refined numbers yet we're still waiting on health insurance we're still waiting on our am County Retirement assessment um we had put in steps for uh uh our Union staff but no colas for any individuals whatsoever so that's where
we were this looks this exact same slide you saw before but just a reminder of where we were Slide the next one please um so what's happened since then um there a few things so Hampshire County excuse me sorry hen County Retirement
assessment came back to us they finalized our assessment increase at almost 133% higher so that was much higher than we were you know anticipating they' given us a number at the beginning of about 8% um but you know there's a couple pieces that are involved with that uh one is is you know
sort of what does the system need to to sort of be on track to to meet its requirements but then it also changes depending on how many people you're responsible for so if we kept we we're completely familiar I think everybody here is familiar with the way that pensions are calculated and assessed and
yeah so we got hit hard than you know so either the only way it would have stated 8% is if your salary numbers had not increased at all right they didn't understand the question when they answered it yeah it was pretty typical yeah so needless to say that was a that
didn't help us much our health insurance was a little better than we anticipated we had had it at seven it went to four um we got a refined set of Transportation costs from from our our transportation provider which is low P Valley educational Consortium um so we we locked that in it you know there were
aspects of our transportation cost that didn't change it's really around our our our you know regular transportation for students on a day-to-day basis that that uh improved just a little bit for us and as is the case and we you know continue to do this uh is to go through and and
just have continuing conversations with our administrators and our staff and budget and finding places that we might be able to shave a little bit here and there and and get updated information from from folks about what our needs are uh so we had some some uh you know modifications of individual budget lines
that that worked out to help us a little bit and then I put in a you know uh a cola projection that's con you know as I right here sort of consistent with current good faith negotiations so we we need to to budget something based on what we've offered in in negotiations
but also just as as a uh a place uh to to make our request from you all for for this purpose uh and what we see when we do this and this is kind of a Consolidated version are any of the contracts settled you have five up right that's
correct nothing no of them are settled not yet so it's yeah it's it's a lot of unknown in that regard um but we you know try to pick numbers that that are uh available for
for for uh like I said good faith negotiations but also understanding you know the limitations that each of the communities has as far as uh you know the resources they can generate from from one year to the next um and so this is this is a bit of a Consolidated
Viewpoint uh it has all of our our our uh offsets as they've been called in the past and the revenues which are things like Chapter 70 funds and and uh interest income and use of end and that sort of thing and those are all the assumptions there in that lower half of
this with the orange and blue are the same as they were before so there were no changes to that um but what this any indication that the that hold harmless figur is going to change are we still stuck at whatever it was or 50 still
working off the governor's budget which was $75 per student we haven't seen house or Senate yet I do hope that that gets a little bit better traditionally it does but right but we don't know what those numbers are yet haven't heard anything about that but but no significant departure from that might
there might be a a Crum I have not heard that right yeah I have a question the umir share any [Music] ofation to the towns
on govern's bud so fair share would be distributed to the towns through the chapter 74 uh as you can see even with fair share we are still a minimum Aid as are 233 other communities in the common wealth 233 out of how many John 319
thank you 351 351 319 districts I should have said districts not towns well that number's growing yes yeah so as I mean you know so the overall increase is is about just shy of
6.3% uh you know and uh and the difficulty when we have you know uh reductions and some of the sources that that help us out you know our uh P grants are a little less um um you know and and you know that offsets you know
our gains in in in Chapter 70 from the statutory minimum Aid to what the governor proposed or you know basically reduce in half by virtue of the fact that we lost some some funding uh through some of our entitlement grants and that's really the entitlement Grant
change is really driven by uh changes in the population of the two communities it's not it's not by who students are it's it's uh it's driven by the the uh the overall sort of census uh type uh demographic demographic data and so it's
we transition from one threshold to another and and and our funding dropped and that's really that's independent of of changes in federal you know uh leadership that was that was in place uh before that that change um so it's a pretty you know but but 6.3% is a pretty
hefty increase we're seeing you know well as you can see on the chart there you know I mean health insurance was four uh but that's still about prop two and a half kind of increases in 12.7 at uh retirement you know that's sort of an indication of what we're
seeing in in a number of areas uh for us uh and so then you know compounding that is of course you know what we're thinking about is happening with with employees that's a large largest part of our budget um if we go to the next slide you can see sort of a a more traditional
uh version of of how we present you know the budget these are the offsets this this basically is is the sort of the top Parts the expenses that's the same as as you've seen from years past uh and and where we are in the current year uh the lower portion is just those things that
are considered offsets and so things that are considered revenues like Chapter 70 interest income Medicaid reimbursement those things will be on what's classically been called the color sheet um uh but nonetheless this is this is sort of a a u uh is no different than
what we saw in the previous slide it's it's just a different presentation and it is more classically where we are and if you you scroll to the bottom of this it I think it still got cut off I I should have updated this but um the percentage change at the at the bottom here um after you take the
offsets out and again this is ignoring the the sort of Revenue piece which has to do with Chapter 70 which is not what it keeping pace and and some of the other things uh it's a 5.69% uh increase in in our in our operating budget um and and it would have been less had
you know some things held steady but you know we've got pretty significant drops in in in those entitlement grants that that have imp you know impacted us and it puts a greater burden on the communities to fund that um so uh if if we go to the next slide
please and so a different way to look at this and this is actually in alignment with the with the um with the regional agreement which says that we're supposed to use uh a group of of accounts that that the state has has uh put together
uh and so so we have these series of administration costs instructional Services costs other school Services other school services are things I have a slide in a couple that you can look at later that talks about what those things are but other school services are
Transportation Athletics um maybe health is in there um Student Activities food service that's one I was one uh operation and maintenance of plan all our utilities are in there um our maintenance work U that sort of thing
fixed charges that's where uh our retirement insurance is so most of the cost there in that in that grouping is uh cost for people and the benefits we provide them not exclusively but most of that um it does have property insurance and a few other kinds of insurance in
there but but most of that uh is is people costs then you have debt retirement service that's exclusively the the debt on the on the high school building and then programs with the schools which mostly special education cost um and and what you see here and I
split out you know salaries from from expenses just to show sort of how much we're we're skew towards people um and if you roll to the next slide it has a kind of a pie chart and and the way to read this is to start at 12:00 and and we clockwise around so that dark blue at
12:00 at 2% is our our uh salary expense for administration then we have our other expenses that are Administration expenses that big green section is our salary expense for instructional services so most of where we spend our money is is is on people to teach um that is inclusive both regular and
special education then the light green that follows it is is the expenses related to instructional services and then as we just work our way around clockwise we see the the other expenses broken by uh expense or salary um and I try to kind of keep generally the colors
same so our you know our um operation maintenance salaries is in dark and then light orange is is the expenses but you see the you know the fixed charges there the purple it's a big chunk again um if we take and and just tally up the stuff
that's for people and salaries and and benefits it's right at about 75% of our budget almost almost exactly 75% is is about people we're in a people business you know if you look at the Town budget is going to be pretty parallel to that in a lot of ways I mean the pardon me the
10% whichever that's the uh 5,000 group so that's retirement and health insurance or yes retirement no retirement health insurance retirees health insurance right um you know it has a few other things you know some property insurance in
there it has um what else is that in there bonding for people that collect cash which is a really small number but but the lion share of it is is if you you take health insurance and other insurances that you offer uh and and uh and retirement
that's almost all of that the part where you actually buy books and stuff like that is that the 3,000 that's the uh so that's going to be in the instructional Services light green so that you know sort of 2% there at the part under
expenses so yeah so if you if you see the dark green that's the people that instruct and then a lot of the stuff that that falls into um you know sort of cric materials that sort of thing is that light green section I will say though that there are some other things that are covered you know as a district
so let say we have some professional development some that's going to be up under the administration category just because we buy it as a group for the whole District um but yeah it's it's sort of astounding how what I mean the actual D books are under expenses not
salary that's correct 1. million correct I want that was my next question thank you the shift has been more electronic of course you know there are there are some books still around and our library is still buy materials as well um but no a lot of it is is digital or electronic
and and so some of that uh is is in that section there's no doubt about it and um you know the the U but that's also where you know some of those other things that we're doing with regard buying computers is that part of that as well I was going
to say last year we had discussion about making computers operating expenses opposed to Capital essentially operating things so the computers are in there um and they fall more into the IT interestingly falls into a bit of
the operation and maintenance of plant um because it's a physical device that you're buying which is different than when we're buying software to use on the computers that's going to be under instructional service expens but as long as they're in there because we were talking about doing old you know basically periodic replacement we don't
get to the point where we're replacing all of them at the same time right so this has a certain number of computers budgeted in it does it does and so we're we're trying to do a a regular replacement schedule of that um to have it sort of be a steady um steady
operating expense and um if you scroll to the next page is uh just description of those different categories and what's included in them um just for your information so if you're wondering where where does something live that's where how they're
they're broken out and again it's it's some sometimes helpful to see it in this view versus the other view which is more building based but not exclusively so there's just different views exact same uh set of data and then uh if we go to the last slide is is where the the
assessments are looking for fiscal 26 um and you know they're pretty pretty steep you know increases from from the previous year so you know as I know before we were about 6.3 so that's you know you guys are think about 6.4 and is there I see an asteris there but that's
not actually on this page or it say this includes the capital assessments for the Mr in what meaning the I I really should say the debt assessment I should have used the word debt it's not Capital right so the stuff we saw the first slide 20 minutes ago
not on here right so this the Deb assessment that you see for the um in the next to last line is is for the building Debt Service and dropping every year yeah it's it's tapering over time uh but it's
a you know pretty significant increase uh from the previous year and so I think I'll stop here talking quite a bit so I'll let you guys ask other questions that have come up for you or you're thinking about with regard to that um
it's a lot it is a lot and and I think the other thing that you know we've been thinking about is um the potentiality of of whether you know you or wilam or either both of you can't make 41,46
4,824 right because you know that's a that's a pretty significant so we have composed uh you know Administration has sat and and gone through and composed um you know uh a series of reductions uh that we committee and that was going to be my question is this essentially a
level service budget this is a level service budget this is this is not cutting programs it's not adding programs maintaining what we have I'll throw out my caveat that I always do it's not quite level service because it it it is built on the reduction of twb
as a building with expenses with it and it's also built on having three-tier busing rather than two-tier busing so so there have been changes so there have been some changes in and red you know more efficient ways of providing Services the objective was to provide
essentially the same level of service correct without without increasing programs or decreasing programs correct we do have an important program increase it's U basically budget neutral so it doesn't show up here but we are still
pursuing The Innovation career Pathway to high school so that would be a new program but it's a new program with without additional costs I know Don did bring it up at a school committee meeting but there has been a savings to the district by taking
thoron Burgess off your books correct so and you're taking that off our assessment correct in a way right over their head way in a way that $1 a year that we oh really that's right so I missed the round table meeting and with the legislators and stuff and I know it's
been brought up every year with the transportation re urement how did they present that short ball again this year it was a lot of smiling and handshaking but oh we'll look into it again I can say that the governor's budget is
starting off 95% lower the thing is you know we approach 100 like 100% is it right that was the promise 100% was the promise 100% the boms That's the Law subject subject to funding
and never it's never never been priority other priorities only one year we ever had I think it was the first year 1997 to 1998 made a mistake [Music]
I have a question for for Capital planning and capital Investments are you targeting a a a certain amount and we should plan that going forward you expect it to go up and down or is it what's what's the thought process there so I can give a s personal philosophy
around thatan I think at present we're in in a circumstance where it's it's probably going to vary a little bit year to year I think what I'd like to do far as I understand how much back of capital projects there are it's a lot easier on
on both communities if if the the change year to year is is something predictable and that it's so that you have anticipation plan for it so un is going to increase 2% each year you can plan for it and you make your plan accordingly um I think
there's also questions on some of the projects that we're we're looking into they big ticket items but we're going to try to you know you want to replace a roof or you want to do doors windows in the building um the exterior doors with us um you know we're all going to apply
for msba funding trying to help us out um we those sales taxes and some that money is ours so we want to bring it back into the community and so those things uh you know sort of play a little differently because they're such big ticket items um they can have sort of
spiking or drop effect um but so so how we manage debt is a conversation want to make sure that that we're having as well what stuff we're going pay just cash Capital so here's the money SP wisely that's it and what me we're going to borrow for um but yeah
to get to a place where it's a much more predictable uh and and more even not as much PE valy would be ideal in my opinion because I think you guys can plan better but I think it also kind of depends on your capital in town too
if you know get a lot smaller number of things you know you may have more Peaks and valleys than the town ass because you know um if you're replac you know make example like police cruiser if you replace one every year and then you have a year off and you
know how you have that's let's say you're on a replacement schedule you may have you know one year replace one one year replace one repl year off well suddenly there's there's a drop in capital that year say $90,000 um you
know you you tend to have more volatility in your number at the Town level depending on what you're trying to come so we're you know the school buildings and and and even size the number of them you tickets the the ass are bigger but
also hopefully we can structure the smaller more modest stuff in way to kind of keep as we can best I think for everybody so I'd like to get our our 10 plan for heading in that direction and obviously you know we start looking out more than a few years
you know um you know you're you're speculating on things you need some things you know for sure you're going to need in a couple years and some things it's like we're going to need that and then something else interjects you had plans on and you reshuffle the plan and go from there um i' like to get so much
more realized amount ofs Doug's background being on the select board before I think shows that he understands where we're coming from you know so not just coming this is the number you need to pay it you know it's the constraint that
your board our board has to vote so for sure um at our first subcommittee meeting this year um you did provide us with a fairly comprehensive 10y
year um Pro you know projection report of capital needs for every single school um and I was just wondering if just to follow up on Brian's um question has this been shared with
anybody else besides the subcommittee you know I mean I'm sure the school committee has it as well that would be who has seen it not the for town or I don't think so unless you guys brought it back to them I don't think so
and I think it needs some more work I me I'm sure yeah we have we have select board representatives in that subcommittee but didn't we also bring this up when we we were talking to Capital we had a meeting of capital and we brought it up with
them okay so and I think some of you that haven't seen this I don't okay very I mean got the hard copy right in my hand so so what's been presented here essentially is a refinement or Le the first year starting
you know starting point look ahead and see what are some of the big ticket items that you know are coming in in the next few years years might be very important for you to have this yeah there there's a fair amount of that that
there's a little bit of balancing in the out years that I've done but only a little bit there's a ton of them that that need some more reement and some will be very dependent upon um you know our success with uh you know the msba um they can provide a pretty significant
amount of support for us um they're going to you for accelerating repair which is most of what we're going to do which is roofs course windows swi to heat pum cces boilers anymore um you they're going to every other year application process so we're going to
apply this month um and we'll see that'll shift range the whole chart as that plays out sadly no put a [Music] window wish than you I don't have any questions
I I'm pretty familiar with the numbers frankly they're sobering numbers your job is to bring it to the town we ask that you need to run the district and our job is to review it figure out we can do it we
have a lot of things coming up internally get into the we whichever I know it's oram's turn on negotiating committee and probably squ m s um do you think you'll have a
resolution meeting Michelle you part of it and not to get too deep into it but is Hope if there's we feathers wood I was on that commit a couple times
it seemed like going through massis really was and chance we get up to after May and we have to take is it the 112 because we have no sense of impact on your budget hope that doesn't
happen but you're hopefully getting some back and forth from you said it all okay thank you very much tomorrow yes thank you thank you got a Col
2.5 2.5 I OB I think you're more reason obviously you look at the light of what the CPI is ETC and the fact that honestly we've done a pretty good job I
think in the best years even one year to bring Equity would it be as much as people want of course not but I think it's fair and it's relative in light of what's around us we're all in the world around
us we know what it is assume you would hope that we would be fair in applying that number it it's the same discussion every year try to be fair to employees and fair to the people that are paying the
bill the balance there and I'm sure some years you know we're tip it one way or the other but on balance I think we do a pretty good job last year was three and a half last year and half last year year Social Securities number is two and
a half this year step up on the uh health insurance 75% we also increase life insurance as well yeah and you you do you got to remember too that when people get people get
steps that's 2% every other year so that's basically a 1% raise as well so most people will get 3 and a half% over the ones that didn't get it last year the ones that didn't get it last year exactly but they got four and
a half last year or five and a half yeah all right so as long as as long as you're in agreement not objecting proceed on that carry
on all right good very [Music] much meet next to Monday okay uh we have have the Clos the annual town meeting warrant is there
[Music] anything well I want to throw I sent the email out is there any thought and better making the a motion to change the start of the annual
down right now unfortunately it's but it has to be 7:00 our experience with the 6:30 and the fact we're seeing some of these we can't it won't affect it this year obviously because it's a path we want to go down for the future or I heard a lot of push back at
630 last I heard a lot of push back at 6:30 and just wor about something like this well push back that they we not liking at 6:30 really it takes so long to check people in it's just like that was that was the consensus of people I
got to that thought it was too early based on I get I get your point I looking at 30 plus articles you know but theenda so everything that I have is in the the draft warrant that was provided
to the board right now I have 35 articles listed poti that was just a placeholder CI position was going to be a zoning change to the zoning byw but they
decided to we want to remove that 32 is there a place you think they get no no I'm saying you're saying John you mentioned at last
meeting the um electronic voting possibly mixing that well I think Rick was Rick was really the The Voice against that that uh on too too many changes at once or something I just trying to eliminate cost
I think if we I think we could take it off and we we could take the F we can see we have for free cash we can do it for them for the next well for keeping the uh AV money in the
budget all I think we can take that off electronic vo 19 19 uh oh of confused some of that CPA and going back to I thought we spent this money already so what is this extra money
for so it's not a money article there was an appropriation of the of the CPA funds but there was never an authorization from the voters to the select board to purchase the property that another that's an authorization to purchase the
property we got the money already correct CPA got the money and then articles 11 article 11 is to turn around and Grant to the menog land trust of conservation easement to connect for the park the proposed parking lot which is I'm sure
coming um to the existing property Mount Vision Property it's my understanding are these the recommended orders or are we thinking about maybe moving some stuff around um this is I haven't given much thought to the exact order of how everything's
going to happen um one of the things that that so this is has a consent agenda listed on it because that's what the moderator suggested we try that so the thing with the consent agenda is that there's there's one single motion for all those articles so any dollar
amounts that that that we might need for those articles need to be listed in the warrant so if you wanted to listen uh list the conservation fund for $11,000 or we know what the assessor mandated costs are we could put those dollar figures in the Articles and then include
those in the consent agenda if we wanted to what was the thing on the hand anniversary thing could be one of those because we're talking 10 but what was the thing you talked about before that we needed to have some chapter and verse to be able
to that couldn't just be an appropriation make it more oh there's a there's a specific anniversary revolving fund that can be created the one time I had experience with this it was much easier to to run
it through a like a friends of nonprofit uh organization than it was to run it through the town but so the two Appropriations we've done so far are being kept out as warrant articles to point I'd have to double check at least
at least the 25 one is so do we want to do Article 15 against money you want to push it the P it can we use CPA for that
gazebo is the Gazebo historic or Recreation it could be Recreation Recreation let's leave it on for now we cost electronic voting we're we take we're taking electronic voting off yeah
[Music] want more for parts of rest more for the [Music] highway oh let's go back to Lawn
Park I understand that's their request but I got a lot of problems why it's a good question they can make their AR but they came to us a few years back saying oh my gosh it's a pain to ask
Mark to bring the mole over to th burges can we have a truck and a trailer that was the whole reason for the truck on the trailer that was the whole reason for the truck on the trailer yeah and now it's too much of a pain to use the truck and Trail the town gave them to bring them M so can want second second M
leave there and I'm like sure then we have the truck trailer back give it to the facilities people y could give it to the facilities people well I hate to say but I mean that was the whole purpose of it right that was that was a big that's got be part of the
conversation because they came up and said this and I think we actually went through Mark we took a vehicle out of service earlier than it needed to be so then don't need they can't fit it in the shed
there more for the highway department [Music] you know what you know what our purpose is here our purpose is here just to close the take take off all right is there anything missing add yeah the green metal Prem metal capital projects
if those are going to come separately then we need to add warrant articles for those yeah the answer there is forget it the question is does it need to go on the warrant yeah but doesn't it also get into so done your point before about the
capital of minr they were separate right right now we have one article are we going to separate them they didn't have a good answer to that they didn't but I'm saying we couldn't I'm saying close it with the potential that that could be 26 27
28 we agree to we agree to leave the capital articles on the thing yeah for both of them yeah Min agreement but they could go from two to six right I just I just want to point out on the green medals one 35,000 35,000 the lease yeah
and if those if they look at those that be all separate projects that's they pay for them all we said the kitchen floor the floorings are going to go from 30 to 37 CU they're going to combine them both 37 they're only getting 30,000 they're
going to add a room add a room bring 30,000 vote no that would be pous stop that I got for you no one's no one's voting for eight8 and a half $1.8 million for bleachers bring your own bring your own
lwn chairs I just thought funny they were factoring in the tffs I mean you can buy steel aluminum in [Music] house they melt down the other ones and sell it yeah all right so you're going to make you're going to make space B for
the miniature Capital Improvements Y and you're going to leave the I guess the green medals on we'll add that in there just a placeholder for now we can agree to a placeholder right yeah okay we can agree to a place we
going to close the warrant so we don't get any more stuff going on right second all in favor okay now what about uh select reports you skipping over the instruct the zoom operator try Make
a Better Effort to you may have seen that conservation as well to if there's a presentation on the floor [Music] you got nothing rep uh the wam Regional planning committee is meeting again uh
uh tomorrow night at 5:30 the uh tomorrow morning at 10: CL is the municipal building committee discussions we have and on the 18th is a public forum for
the got to put that on the website I would point out Regional agreement the issue of way and voting it's said and voting always been there we just never done so we don't need to press that
are you touching in your report are you touching on the uh new plan new proposed layout for the school I was going to talk about tomorrow the meeting tomorrow going pick you tomorrow in that's
fine PA report um uh spending a lot of time on thoron Burgess um um we talked with moving companies years my life stop we we've uh had two moving companies come by to uh assess what the
cost would be of moving the administrative offices and the library to twb I also met with um one energy consultant company who's going to be doing who is associated with National Grid who's going to be doing a HVAC audit and lighting audit at twb and give
us uh cost estimates for upgrading of the lighting and uh HVAC upgrades so we can contemplate those as well so um I was anticipating at the last meeting a full report on double polls
done because I took so much time on the loader last time I do have a report that but I I do I don't have a report on that oh could you repeat what you just said
because about which one oh the energy yes the energy consultant um so they doing a lighting audit of twb and uh HVAC audit of twb and the senior center actually because at the last building meeting we talked about doing looking at
both buildings so we did the HVAC audit today and the lighting one will be scheduled uh just the initial visit they think there could be a significant amount of savings because all the classrooms are wall to- wall fixtures lighting fixtures and they thought they
could reduce those by probably 2/3 um so um we'll wait for that but we would promise that would be uh happen shortly so any
else I would entertain a motion to go on Executive session uh pursu of national section 21 A2 to conduct strategy session of preparation for negotiations of non new Personnel specifically the highway
superintendent and also a mo motion to go into executive session pursuing the M law 30A section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respective collective bargaining uh with the highway uh
employee union not to return to open session second who I start with