okay good evening welcome to the um February 25th 2025 meeting of the Hatfield select board I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting to order and as usual I'm going to open the meeting by reading our public participation policy the Hatfield select board welcomes everyone to its meetings and
all other public meetings of the town of Hatfield all regular and special meetings of the boards and Committees of the town of Hatfield shall be open to the public and shall conform to the open meeting law executive sessions are closed to the public and will be held only as prescribed by the statutes of
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts it is important to recognize that the open meeting law affords the opportunity to listen to the proceedings but not necessarily participate during meetings of the select board an attempt will be made to find a balance between hearing from members of the community and
conducting the required business of the Hatfield select board um so first um we have a few announcements um first um great news Hatfield has been awarded $115,000 um this is a fy2 district local
technical assistance award um that will allow Hatfield to continue moving on its comprehensive plan implementation anything else you want to add about that no all all I'll add is that um you obviously it was a great effort that was done on the conference of plan we've talked a little bit about
some of the efforts that we're looking to put in to make sure this plan doesn't just sit on the shelf and and moves forward in the future and we'll address some of that later this evening too this was a um great collaboration between the planning board myself and uh our planning assistant putting together this application um that will allow us to do
three things uh to implement on this so first is to have staff assistant uh that will help uh this new committee that we've talked about the happfield 2040 committee the second is uh help to put together our housing production plan which we think follows pretty naturally from the um the comprehensive plan and
the third is um to do a deeper dive into some of our zoning and some some next steps to reform that zoning and and move forward um on some of the recommendations to plan so we're excited to have that help and uh pppc is always a fantastic resource we're looking forward to working them more on this
great excellent also thank you very much um I just want to mention the Council on Aging has moved back down into their space it looks lovely the new floor is down um had the chance to attend the Valentine's luncheon which was really nice um so it looks good and
congratulations to the COA on being back in their space I'm sure everybody's much happier being down there um we wanted to give a thank you to the DPW the we had the storm was that last weekend we last week yes all blur um it was a very tough
storm so we've obviously had a little more snow this winter than we have for the last few um and the storms have been you know the storm snow has been sort of light and this last one with the ice and the freezing rain and the long duration
icing and then the bitter cold um it was a really tough tough cleanup um and I just want to commend them for that I've had the opportunity to drive through a bunch of other towns and we really did a pretty good job um compared to some other communities so I just want to thank them for that it
wasn't an easy one and then I just want to mention um I had heard sort of unofficially um that the FedEx building FedEx is moving out of their building they're closing their building um that's not anything I heard officially but I've heard it from a number of sources that
are Fairly reliable um so obviously that's not good news um because you know we like having FedEx here um and they're they're taxpayers but it also got me thinking that that building might be something we want to consider for a public safety
complex it's a good location it's probably a good setup you've been in the building probably work I I guess I'm just I think what I'd like to do is reach out to I think it's a holding company um and just see if I can find
out what their plans are for the for the building at least as a first step just to ask so um I mean that's the first I've heard of it but I not saying it's not a bad idea I mean it doesn't it doesn't hurt to ask
I just found out about it a few days ago yeah see what's going on yeah but yeah oh there'd be a whole lot of planning and all kinds of stuff asking towns people and whatnot but we got us you know it's at least
worth asking I think interesting if you're okay with that I'll try to see if I can reach out to somebody very informally of course um okay is anyone here for public forum is
anyone I can't see who that is on the uh from Judy hi Judy um Mary Beth are you here for public forum oh okay great I'm thank you
welcome it sure um this I haven't coughed all day I don't know where this came from probably too much talking so um so the first item thank you very much is the approval of our consent agenda thank you um which is the minutes of the
February 11th 2025 meeting I'll make a motion that we approve the February 11th 2025 Mee meeting minutes second a motion made in second any further discussion no all those in favor
all oh my God okay topic number one um is appointment um a Housing Authority appointment but because I am on the housing authority and I've already voted in this I'm going to recuse myself from the discussion so I'll turn it over to
you too okay I mean I'm just how's the process this on this work Andrew yep so the process is this is a uh position that's elected uh so to fill that position we we asked uh the uh Town Council and what he described to us was
that the process is there is a joint vote between the Housing Authority uh the remaining members of the housing authority and the members of the um of the uh uh select board and um through that uh joint vote you elect somebody
for the rest of uh until the next town meeting so whoever is elected will need to to run a town meeting an elected position um and that town meeting is of course in a couple months but um the the Housing Authority has already held a
meeting uh and cast their votes there so the chair has has cast uh their vote there and we have with us tonight uh the executive director of the Housing Authority uh Northampton who uh works with us in administering our Housing Authority so I can just basically say I
make a motion to approve Su slish as part of the Housing Authority or so you would uh make a a moot yes you would make a motion to appoint her um because you still need to cast a vote here as well and then when that appointment vote is read we'll also share the the roll
call from the vote that was held by the housing authority and we'll have enough votes when sharing those votes together okay so I'll I'll move to make the motion to appoint sish uh to the housing
authority and jorski I and I think we should second that motion second y good Dan and I all right so is there any discussion so now as we're in discussion I think now is a good time to have the roll call vote presented of the Housing Authority that
sounds okay executive director yes yes very good okay so I'll read the um from the minutes so that can reflect correctly um in in the for the record uh the certificate of recording officer an extract from the minutes of the regular
meeting of the Hatfield Housing Authority held on February 19th I have Alex here too by the way um I Cara leaper the duly elected Secretary of the Board of Commissioners of the Hatfield Housing Authority do hereby certify that the following extract from the minutes
of the meeting of the members of The Authority is a true and correct extract from the or minutes of the meeting on file and the record in so far as the set original minutes relate to the matter set forth in said extract that the members present voting at the said
meeting were residents of the city of Hatfield on the date of the meeting and that the notice of the said meeting was filed with the city clerk in accordance with the requirements of Mass General Law chapter 38 subsection 20 as amended the members of the Hatfield Housing Authority met in regular session at the
community room located at two School Street in the town of Hatfield on Wednesday February 19th 2025 at 5:30 p.m. the meeting was called to order by the chairperson and upon roll call those present and absent were as follows present were chairperson malinowski Vice
chairperson shell commissioner Zol absent was commissioner Smith the extract of the minutes page two Miss leaper explained that the select board meeting was being held on 22525 meeting they would be appointing Miss
slish did I say that right to complete the term of Mr Scott through 52025 and that although the meeting required each member's Presence at the select board meeting it would make it easier to have them vote to accept the appointment by way of roll
call vote at that meeting and allow me to present the extract of the minutes to the select board in their presence on M on February 25th 25 the purpose of this would alleviate having to post joint meeting agenda and multiple role calls and votes and would be less confusing
for the public and both both committees further that the attendance of all members at the 225 meeting was mandated by law upon motion of Vice person CH uh shell seconded by chairperson melanowski and then by roll call vote all in favor
it was voted voted to accept the select board appointment of Susan slish on 22525 and then upon motion of chairperson malinowski seconded by Vice person shell and then by roll call vote all in favor it was voted to attend the
22525 530 meeting of the select board I certify that the above certificate and extract are true true and correct Carol leaper secretary okay so we had a motion we had a section we had discussion so is there any further discussion on this
none and uh all in favor let's do a roll call vote just for torski I I Zain okay motion carries there it is I at this time I'd like to thank Susan for
stepping up to this position I don't know if you want to say anything while you're here I thank you for I'm good thank you though I want everybody to see your face so they know who you are and I am yeah I have to do an orientation with you so
I'll get your phone number and we'll get together okay all right perfect um and select board I actually have been asked um by the commissioners of the Hatfield Housing Authority um to present to you a letter and I'm not sure when you would
like me to do that um so I also have that as well but it's regarding a different matter so please let me know when you'd like me to do that okay I guess you just talked to Andrew and does it have to be at a separate meeting no oh um I I think we can do it now it's
say essentially in the same topic okay I mean we can at least take it and if we need to have another meeting perh weate uh Alex I'm just keeping you on for the presentation of the letter um our board our board um I
will so I'm going the attachment I'm going to just give to you sir um and that way you can maybe make copies um but I do have a copy of the actual letter for each of you thank
you and do you want me to read it into the record or not thank you I think it would be appropriate okay is that all right did you see it it's my first time seeing it but is it is it okay to read into the record I'm
treating it as essentially published for yep as long as we don't deliberate on it it's fine so this uh letter is to the Hatfield select board dear members of the Hatfield select board I hope this letter finds you well as the executive director of the Hatfield Housing Authority um
this is a joint letter from myself um and the chairperson uh but it was voted upon uh by all members of the uh all attending members of the uh Housing Authority board at the last meeting um uh we're writing to formerly
request your intervention regarding regard ining the conduct of uh one of our board members Mr Christopher Smith and after careful deliberation the Hatfield uh Board of Commissioners has voted to send this letter to you requesting that the select board take appropriate action and addressing the
failure to fill his duties as commissioner uh it is with regret that I bring to your attention the following concerns one failure to carry out duties as commissioner Mr Smith has not been fulfilling his responsibilities as a board member he has failed to attend many board meetings without PRI
providing prior notice or valid explanation for his ATT absence despite multiple attempts to contact him there has been no response to our correspondents which has hindered the functionality of the board and effective operation of the Housing Authority breach of fiduciary duty as a board
member Mr Smith has a fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of the housing authority and its residents his failure to engage in board activities and his lack of communication indicated a disregard for his responsibility compromising the Integrity of the decision-making process violation of
bylaws and P policies Mr Smith's actions also appear to be in violation of the Housing Authority's bylaws and policies specifically those related to active participation in meetings responsiveness and engagement in proper execution of his role qualification laps according to the
executive office of Housing and livable communities eohc all Commissioners are required by anually to complete mandatory State training Mr Smith has failed to meet this requirement within the time allotted further questioning his ability to effectively serve on the
board I've attached a copy of the required training to the package I gave to um to you all given the above points we respectfully request that the Hatfield select board take appropriate action which may include censure disciplinary
measures or removal from the board in accordance with the applicable procedures outlined in state and local regulations the Hatfield housing authority and its residents deserve a fully functioning board and Mr Smith's actions have compromised our ability to
operate effectively we trust that the select board will consider this matter with the attention it requires and appreciate your prompt attention to the issue should you require any information or document ation regarding the situation please do not hesitate to contact us thank you for your time and
consideration sincerely Carol leaper executive director Alex melanowski chairperson of the board and this was voted by all members uh Diana zel Alex malanowski Judy shell affirmative to send the
letter well thank you for bringing us forward I if Andrew if we can take this letter and check with our legal counsel so we know exactly the steps that we're allowed to do by law etc etc you know
what I'm saying I agree yeah thank you so much for thank you for your time okay thank you cara um next we have um the appointment of John peas to the Hatfield comprehensive plan implementation committee which I think is a great call because he worked on the
um comprehensive plan and certainly can be a good representative of Agriculture on there so I'll make a motion to appoint John pce to the half field comprehensive plan implementation committee second may I I
just make one comment um might want to just uh specify that he's filling one of the um at large positions that's focusing on agriculture open space or historic preservation we had two at large you add that to your
motion we had the SEC I had no but we had to he wanted us to note in the motion that it's the atlarge position focusing on agriculture so okay so a motion maid in second any further discussion no I I think John's a great selection he's uh been very active in
town over the years he's a great guy so it should work out very well I agree so all those in favor I I okay next is our audit
report excuse me from roselli Clark and Associates we're joined um online by um those folks hello I believe Tony roselli is jumping on just now so he will be on in just a
moment so we can either Vamp or actually have to vamp B so I'll just say that we did receive the the final audit uh within the last week uh we invited um roselli to be here with us tonight and he's uh graciously
offered to be here and uh present the high level takeaways from the audit the audit report is in your uh packet both the financial side and the um the governance letter uh we have our accountants on the line as well which is great we have Elizabeth and and Mary
Beth from cbiz they'll be on the agenda later tonight to talk about their budget um we might even consider taking that out of order item for them and I know we had it on the uh joint meeting with Finance but I don't think they need to be that so so
we're still waiting for Tony so do you want to talk about the budget Elizabeth Mary Beth would you be open to going out of order and speaking about uh your your budget briefly um we could do that yeah hello everyone good evening thank you for
having us tonight Elizabeth bro with CZ formerly known as markam formerly known as milans um we don't we're not making any changes to our budget for fiscal year 26 we level funded our assessment knowing
the um struggles the towns have been all facing with financials and um it impending other costs I know the health insurance went up rather high so we're keeping everything set Co I think the Vadar um expense went up slightly I
don't have that in front of me at the moment um but that's pretty much the C of our our budget we don't really spend any on supplies or anything like that so okay thank you I don't know if you need any other
information thank you T here do you have any questions on the budget no okay Tony welcome hi how's everyone we're doing great good to see you nice to see you too sorry I'm a little delayed I had a um I had a refrigerator
payment come and they they give you a range of time and they don't tell you what time they give you a range and he came right at the end of the range he just left so um said let me jump on to that meeting well we'll turn it over to you
for the um you know sort of presentation of the um audit okay super I don't think I've uh been uh on the Hatfield zoom in a couple of years probably two or three years so
um so glad to be back um been uh going back and forth with uh with your team we got the reports out thankfully um everything got uh finalized last month um for those who don't know me I'm Tony roselli I'm the managing partner with
roselli Clark and Associates and we've been doing the audit for the town of Hatfield for probably about 10 years so we've gone through all the ups and downs and uh hopefully we're going through an up a nice uptrend now uh we had um a few
um findings last year that seem to finally uh have um gotten fixed and taken care of this year so it looks like you're going in the right direction so the first report do you have the reports in front of you everyone
yes so the first report I'd like to quickly go through is the report that's uh it's a governance report it's uh it doesn't have a cover it's just on letter ahead it's a little three-page uh report and um so this is a new report where
we're required to discuss if we have material weaknesses or any disagreements with management so I can go through that really quick um first page there were no scope limitations um which means that we were
able to access all uh the documents that we asked for there was nothing that was not that we were unable to find or anything that was withheld from us um there were no Gap departures and GAP departures means that you're following
proper accounting procedures so there were no Gap uh departures uh which you've had in the past uh there were no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies uh last year unfortunately we did have that because of um cash
wasn't reconciling uh which which this year it has it was reconciled um just going down uh a little bit um the uh there were no difficulties encountered during the audit go down to
page two I'm just picking out the the biggest highlights um there were no major uh misstatements so again this is a pretty uh pretty good report it kind of summarizes everything and there were disagreements with management which uh
which is also important uh if you go to the the final page of that three page we've got three bullet points that we can talk about where we have other um other types of findings um there were some findings but we did not believe
there were material weaknesses or significant deficiencies because the town showed improvements so we um we we did record some findings but like I said they didn't rise to that level of severity like they had in the prior year um so there was some debt payments that
were not made during the year or not recorded they were made but they weren't recorded $37,000 um those have since been corrected I believe right Elizabeth so so as of now those are in
the records they're all fixed um secondly the general ledger includes a water and a sore fund so you got two funds but when you submit things to the uh Department of uh Revenue it's submitted at this the Department of
Revenue allows you to submit it as as one fund and um elist if you have this as a water and a sore fund or or both so my understanding is the town voted several years ago to combine them but they
remain separate on the general ledger to get reported separately for fiscal year 25 they're combined combined at this point that that's what it is thanks thanks for refreshing me on that so years ago the town voted to combine the water and sore fund which
you were allowed to do Under the municipal modernization Act and the town chose to do that but continued to keep them separate so my understanding Elizabeth from what you just said is that those are at this point are combined moving forward
okay and then uh finally um in terms of just Rec reconciling things but withholding balances um they've kind of been off for a number of years we've always had this as a variance they've gotten better um is this something can you give us an
update on that Elizabeth they still weren't completely reconciled uh as correct they we are working on that for this year to get that all cleaned up so still working on it I think Mar's got most of
them um reconciled and balanced there's just a couple you know the the usual suspect health insurance and sometimes a lot of That's Got to Do with timing so um we're working on that we found some things from prior years that
we were fixing in this year okay so um what happened the year before is there was a lot of turnover um there was some turnover with um between um Elizabeth U and um the gentleman that rich Richard
right so that was was moving around there there was a lot of uh movement in the treasurer's office so it made 23 uh very difficult um so if we looked at the 23 report you'd see a lot more findings material weaknesses and things
like that so it has taken the year to settle out uh we're pretty happy that it's going in the right direction uh it was nice to see that we came in in 23 we started the audit we came back did some more did a little a bit more just it
seemed to drag out this year we kind of did the whole thing and almost got it all done in one shot which was really nice so um so things are definitely moving in the right direction um any questions on those on that report or those uh handful of items
no I mean I think it's such it's a great report especially given the transition we did have so everybody's done a good job thank you and just quickly we can look at um in the the which is the financial statements we can highlight a couple of
things sorry sorry that's okay uh I don't know if you have the logger report which is the financial statements yes we do yes and I just want to highlight a couple of things uh just from a financial standpoint um so the uh the town if you
go to page 13 and on page 13 is the balance sheet so this basically tells you how solvent the town is you know kind of where things stand if you go down you if you look at the columns you'll see the general fund is the main column which is
the very first column and way down at the bottom you'll see something called unassigned fund balance uh almost 1.9 million everyone see that so that includes your basically your free cash your stabilization funds
your undesignated your money that's not restricted for anything it's kind of like the the free money the town has um or unrestricted I should say and if we look at page 15 and you look at your expenditures in
the general fund it's about 13.6 million and the way I look at this and the way the bond people look at this is when they look at that ratio the million 885 and and divide that by the 133
million in expenses that comes out to 185 divided by 13619 comes out to about 14% so you're in very close to a tier one range in terms of where your solvency stands the
standard and paes ranks uh tan communities at 15% so you're just below that tier one and you're very strong tier two so that's a really good uh performance measure for the town from a financial standpoint so I just wanted to kind of throw that out there that you've
done a good job saving your pennies it's reflected in your uh financial statements uh your ratio came out to 13.8% just below the highest level and um so from that perspective uh the town
is on the right track also we're not seeing those big when you see big brackets at the bottom those are when whenever you're looking at reports and you don't have someone to guide you through it when you see brackets you want to find out what that means every time you see brackets you're like hey
Tony what does that mean and or or somebody explain to me what the brackets are in that column we don't see brackets so we're in really really good shape also in the school choice fund you have which is the third column you have over a million dollars in the school choice
fund which is used to to help out the um the school side so it's almost like a stabilization fund for the schools that's an ex ra reserve and then you'll see in that second column you'll see something called the community
preservation fund there's almost there's over $2.8 million in that fund as at the end of um the year so that's very again a very strong number and that's going to help you with some of the qualifying projects under CPA um some of the things that are
eligible so um from a financial standpoint and I wanted to point this out this stand the town looks like you're in a really nice place um so just to kind of summarize things we've got a management letter that looks like the control side is
improving and we've got a financial report that shows the town is in a very good financial situation so from my perspective as an auditor this is what I want to see this is where you guys should be this is one I what I want to see and this is the momentum that you
should you guys should try to uh maintain does that make sense it does yes I try to explain things in English because a lot of these reports are not in English and uh I try to pull out the main part so hopefully everyone kind of
understands that and uh and and the town's doing a really nice job in my opinion thank you Tony we we appreciate your assistance and and Elizabeth and certainly our Treasurer's Department on keeping everything together and administrator as well so
and I remember the first time you came on you were sort of like yelling at us and and we deserved it we deserved it so finally we're we got I remember you I was actually there in person yelling at you I remember and marene uh marene did
a wonderful job you know uh she was a great asset for the town uh hope hope hopefully she's in a really good place now and uh it seems like you have a capable um replacement uh we've gone back and forth a few times so um so yeah I think the town is in uh in a in a good
place and uh we don't have those that craziness of seven or eight years ago that was going on great well we app happy any other questions concerns nope our Treasurer just walked in the door um we're just talking to
Tony good report great report um nope I I'm good I don't have anything Greg that's good news I want to thank everybody involved on making this a great report so I know it it takes a bunch of people working together and I
know the finance committee's been there and I know our treasur office been there and I and and the new accountant we've had I mean you've been there to help us so there's been a lot of work on this and Marlene was there so it's been a lot of people working to get us there so I I
want to say thank you to all those people it's been a team effort yeah it didn't it really has it really has and um you know I'm uh glad you know happy to be your auditor and you know get you know when my staff comes out and and reports back uh some years it hasn't
been great this this year was was really nice to hear what was going on excellent thank you okay thank you thank you Tony great rest of your meeting thank you thank you thanks bye bye okay so we will move along here to
topic three which is the put potential donation of land um to the town and this is U Main Street south of Depot Road yes and this was discussed at the last meeting I just wanted to give you an update on where we stand on that and to to get a sense from this board about uh if it's still something we're interested
in moving forward with so this was a a parcel that we we shared the map of it last time is not a buildable lot this was this belonged to a um uh person who passed away in May his wife is interested in donating that land to the town um we also introduced this topic at
the Conservation Commission and conservation is interested potentially in moving forward uh this is a piece of land that's very much in the wetlands and helpful for them in their uh conservation measures and and this is pretty close to a small stream that that
uh you know if it were to flood it could be a useful thing to have in conservation land as I said it's around $250 a year in taxes that we'd be giving up we think we can take that in our budget if we need to the bigger question and we talked to Town Council about this is what sorts of risks are that you might take on in doing this so there's
two that he flagged in the beginning the first would be um you'd want to make sure you have a title examination done to make sure the person who claims to own it really does own it there's no leans that there's no leans exactly so this is a a pretty wise thing to do if the person is is uh you know really
interested in dispossessing of the land and we're not super keen on taking it you know we could go kind of either way with it um and you might look to see if the the donator uh the donor would uh consider paying for it um in this case we could also see if conservation wanted to pay for it through their funds so um
the other thing that we'd have to potentially pay for to mitigate some risks is to do an environmental report these come in all shapes and sizes but if we did just a phase one it's kind of a paper search to make sure there wasn't ever anything on this land that would be of concern then we're probably in the
clear um it's hard to imagine anything was ever on this site think it was a super fund or a Tannery or anything else but uh you can do the paper search and if it yields anything then you can take it to the next stage or maybe we say not for us uh so some expenses along the way
um if you're still you know not scared off by this then I think the next step would be to discuss with the Conservation Commission and the current land owner what that balance of costs might be I will plan to proceed with the um the assumption that we want to spend as little as we need to from the town
general fund side um since this isn't necessarily land that we need to take on but probably would be helpful for conservation okay I'm I'm in favor of all that yeah I'm in favor of it I mean the um looking at the um prior uses I mean we all know that land hasn't been
anything for it floods every year yeah it does flood every year um but okay all right then we'll proceed like that yes thank you great so then topic four um is a location
agreement for short film production in Hatfield is this just a so I wanted to bring this to you just to see what what's here in the beginning um I had a filmmaker in New York uh reach out to us um with the interest of
filming a short film here in in the area um it's co-au the script is co-authored by Rich McCarthy who's an Amorous resident and a columnist for the daily Hamshire cazette um I read the script it's actually very nice um it's kind of pitched as a love letter to Western
Massachusetts it's a nice looking uh small small production short film um and we talked about where they'd like to film there are two locations that are in public property one of them it's more
complicated than the other the first would be they'd like to just film a short scene in which a character is is driving down the road on Main Street we wouldn't notice that there's filming taking Place uh they might have an SUV in front of the car to to film behind it and then they have an interior shot too
you wouldn't notice that it's there but they'd be you know filming some small uh vignettes and some uh uh that the sign as you cross into Hatfield on Main Street other things that doesn't seem like much of an issue they also want to film a long take uh on the Dyke and I'm
asking for more information on that because depending on where they are they might actually be on private property we have a right of way uh in that area um so Town Council has said we can give them permission you know to film to the extent that the town has permission to give essentially but I'm willing to work
with them to to see if they need help getting permission from whoever private property is uh belongs to as well so if this is something we're interested in doing uh and allowing then I'd work with Town Council just to prepare this short agreement they would have um Insurance they're really not asking for too much
from the town but they did say they'd like to make a small donation to the town don't get too excited it's a very small donation but I thought it was nice about $200 um and it looks like just a nice production and a good thing to be a part of um obviously there's any complications with the the Dyke shot
then we can figure that out and uh but as long as this board is comfortable with me proceeding with this I'll work with Town Council to put this together I don't think we notice too much is going on um from from the shoot um and if they do film on the Dyke what they would do is just have production assistant on
either side and just ask folks to hold on for a second before continuing to walk along because they want it to look like they're in a desolate area not desolate in a uh in a quieter area um so they don't want folks interrupting them but it wouldn't be a very long thing will we get to see the finished product
I feel like we should host a screening I know wouldn't that be fun red carpet I would do that ask them what they do a PR here it would be really nice yeah how cool I think it is too I mean you know there's been quite a lot filmed in the area even in the last few years Deerfield Academy had a big thing
weightly shelburn Falls um you know so people do look to this area I can't remember a time it ever happened in Hatfield yeah um so this is nice I think that we'd be a great um setting for a movie yeah triger wolf that was a a scene for 30 seconds in a
big movie I forgot which one that is oh really they built something on top of uh Mount Sugarloaf that's so cool it was like a 30 second it was something Darkness oh I don't remember that one M I know Deerfield
Academy has been the site of a couple of movies the holds the holdovers but years ago I think death be not proud or something was filmed there too remember that movie when I was a kid it was Southampton was a oh yeah Southampton
who's Afraid of Virginia WF yeah that's right who's Afraid of Virginia wolf so this this would be know small production the Nicole Kidman movie they'll try to get like a big actor in it so we'll see really we'll try we'll see they do could be a name I don't know maybe like a name
we down yeah could be a name we'll see script is good and uh it should be a fun thing to be a part of so I'll keep you posted on that but well it's a positive putting putting this area in a positive light very cool okay topic five authorization for signing a grant
contract with mass historic commission this is very simple oh this part of the application is simple so um this is for the um Farm Museum roof application that in through uh Community preservation committee they made the request that um
they'd like to see you know the town Administration uh pursuing State funds as well if they're going to be giving local funds to it so they've requested uh that that the town uh apply for this Massachusetts preservation projects fund it is a long application and I'm trying
to decide if it's actually worth it for the extra funds because would require High Hing an additional architect or engineer from the beginning which uh might increase the cost in a way that's not worth it but I'm going back and forth to CPC on that I think we're having a good conversation I wanted to
get this completed uh before the deadline just so that we can have it done you don't need to sign anything tonight but we you would need to make uh two motions that we've written out for you um that would just officially say that the board uh says that the chair of this board is is authorized to sign this
agreement should we be awarded the grant uh that will that form that um is in your packet will be signed by the town clerk uh we'll just take that vote tonight be in the minutes that the vote took place the clerk will sign the form and I include that as a part of the application okay pretty straightforward
okay so Greg want the first one sure I'll make a motion to authorize select board chair zel to enter into a contract with mass historic Commission in the event of receiving grant funding a second
a motion made in second any further discussion all those in favor I I and I'll make a motion to authorize select board chairs I know to sign a preservation restriction on the Billings way Tobacco Barn with the mass historic
commission second motion made in second any further discussion no all those in favor I I okay easy enough thank you Andrew for managing those things so next is the topic six DP W director position and
superintendent job descriptions I'd like to bring up something on this topic I mean as I've been investigating I mean from the last meeting we we sort of got the impression that maybe we don't need a DPW director
but we do like to have some kind of way of understanding where what everybody's doing so and somebody to answer to so I I was going to bring up the idea for discussion at possibly our next meeting
uh possibly what if we were to change the position of Town Administrator to town manager because I know in the past there's been discussion on that I don't know I I would like to see some pros and cons like for our next meeting to see if
it makes sense I did before I brought this up I did have discussion with Andrew I did ask him if if he felt uh Town Administrator becoming a town manager was a lot more responsibility in some ways he said I
I'll let him speak to that uh but there are some pros and there are some cons to it I mean basically what I see so far is it does take some of the responsility away from the board if you have a town manager the board becomes more of a CEO
operating the town manager but the town manager has day-to-day operation over over the operations of the town and people then answer to the town manager whereas the board Now does not may not do some of the functions they normally
did in the past of some of the hiring where the town manager could do that or I don't know if the Town Administrator has the ability to take uh people like the superintendent's report to him etc etc so I just wanted to have a
discussion cuz it's been mentioned over the years in town and now I think this is an opportunity to have that discussion and I just as you know we just want to make sure we get this right and do the right thing so I I just want
to bring this up for discussion at this time and possibly next meeting have some kind of pros and cons on whether it makes sense or not makes sense or if it's a good or it's bad or so are you suggesting that in that role
the town manager would also absorb some of what the DPW director do right the town manager would actually be the go-to person uh they would actually the people would report to the town manager
and now I think Andrew's done some investigation too I'll let him uh speak in this regard to how this would work because there's a whole process it doesn't it's not like we wave the magic wand and you have a town manager there
might be a process that you go through it might even take a year but I mean this is I let Andrew have some input on this discussion we were doing some talking about it yeah and and I will say um you know this does open some larger questions but it could be worth having
that conversation for sure um I did have an inquiry in with Town Council just to give us a little bit of an overview of the the process um essentally under Asal Law chapter 41 section 23A that the select board can import can appoint a Town Administrator uh a bylaw
or town meeting boat calls for it um which you know has been done here um that person can be removed at the discretion of the board we serve one or three years as the town meeting chooses and carries out the duties given to him by the board so the town manager form of government can only be entered into um
through a charter commission or through a special Act of the legislature it can't just be done by a a bylaw um or a town meeting vote um there's also no explicit um statute kind of saying
that a town manager does have more responsibilities than a Town Administrator there are some forms of government in which a Town Administrator does have more responsibility and power than than a than a manager it really does depend on the language that's used in your bylaws special Acts or um or
Charter so so um I think you know we can talk about the process for sure but it also makes sense to think about what responsibilities you're interested in because you might not necessarily even need to have a town manager uh this might not need to be done by by special act it it could help uh have it by
special act or by by Charter uh Charter commission um but just looking at what the end point you want to get to U might be enough and I would say because we have the special legislation uh that moved the um public works department into the care of the select board that
would probably give us and I I'm not a lawyer so I can't say for sure but probably give you enough ground to start delegating the authorities of that office of you know the the Department of Public Works as you see fit probably including to to giving some of that
directly to a Town Administrator if you if you wanted to um because it is under the the offices of the select board at this time so I'll start with that I think thinking about functions job description responsibilities that leading the way
more so than title um is is useful for now and then we might need to think about title but um you know Town manager there's lots of pros and cons to it um it could certainly worked here you might not even need to do it uh to get to the things that you're looking for and I
think I left the last meeting with I think the concern was the word I was looking for is accountability okay that's the word I've been looking for and this this may or may not be one way to uh provide us accountability and it's
a discussion doesn't mean we're going to do it or not going to do it or uh if we want to put more responsibility on the Town Administrator or the Town Administrator becomes in a different role or how we want to work that to help
us with accountability doesn't mean he's going to operate the roads he's just going to have a person uh provide some accountability for what they're doing I mean just just thinking out of the box that's all I think that's
part of it I mean I first of all I just want to say I think you know I I again I want to say that the superintendant are doing a good job um in you know in in these circumstances um so for me you know part of it is what you're what you're talking
about that that sort of day-to-day management who answers to who and accountability but for me there's a bigger part of the DPW director job which was sort of that strategic planning for our our DPW and the
projects and you know we we we talked about it a little bit at Capital planning last night I mean you know we have road projects and water and sewer projects projected out a number of years and that takes you know some oversight and some planning and some um you know
going after grants and and being strategic about what happens when and so it's that strategic piece of the you know the actual DPW um projects that I want to make sure we're covering our bases even you know
the move to Elm Court and you know all of these things are you know they require a lot of oversight big picture um thinking but I mean other projects we've had so far over the years have been brought in
outside uh consultant outside contractors to guide us in that respect you know I mean I can see what you're saying on on some of these projects but we've there's been a couple that we've done inhouse that the crews have felt
comfortable doing whereas the bigger ones if we brought in picket or we brought in when we did the Culvert we had the experts there to give us their opinion on what was available I mean five 10 it was the engineering guy
coming in sort of providing expertise so I guess if if I thought there was going to be a lot of big more big projects and i' I would say yeah but I'm not sure if we have those big projects iess feel like we we you know we do we bring in um
you know engineering firms and we and all of that but there's a whole lot that happens before you even get to that point to decide you know sort of the the you know that that strategy and and priorities and capital planning and all of that so I just I just and and it's
entirely possible we can do that with all the folks here if you between our superintendant who are you know such experts in their you know individual um departments and then adding you maybe we've got it covered I just want to make sure it's part of the
conversation that's all I think it makes a lot of sense yeah that's certainly something that was flagged from the the early stages when reading through the DPW director job description is you know they're supposed to be there you know giving Insight on particular projects on engineering components of projects but also thinking about you know the
long-term and the Strategic elements of how do you run the department and set the town up for success in the future so we're fortunate that we have a lot of good plans and things to draw on the comprehensive plan definitely helps so the engineering plans have been put together in the past for water uh sewer
uh storm water other other assets those things all certainly help um tying that together that's a question of who does that it could be director it could be the superintendent it could be Town Administrator could be a select board could be everybody right I mean the you you bring up a good point I mean we we
are just finishing a major major project um I don't think that we are in a position to think about the next phase of that for a little while um so you're right it it if you know we are Maybe in a little bit of a lull but we won't be
forever um and we have to be strategic about you know those plans so me there's always Outsourcing experts to provide that advice or which we really do I mean which we normally do most municipalities yeah yeah you do but you know like even
the your to your point even the Culvert I mean when we were at that meeting um and we had everybody assembled there on the side of Main Street you know there was there's a whole Culvert system that we you know there's a whole lot of Culvert problems um and you know those are the things I want to make sure that
we're you know we have the day-to-day covered that's great but it's that that other stuff okay so possibly do you do you entertain my colleagues entertain the idea of just having some pros and cons
for next meeting on discussing this to see if it even makes sense or doesn't make sense because at least we've cover all the boxes and try to come up with the best solution that's available for the town I guess I mean you know like
sort of listing out all of the DPW director responsibilities and then really just mapping out who who could take them on will lead us to realize if there's gaps yeah it's kind of the simplest way to do it correct I
mean are we able is is it is it feasible to give you know to delegate out some of those duties to Garrett and Tony and Kenny or to you is is is that feasible and then what are the gaps it's that
simple and if there's no gaps then there's no gaps well the only Gap right now is the facilities in the school wants that yeah but we still have our facilities yeah so would you I I had put together
that initial kind of overview of that would you like me to get a little more detailed and try to come up with look like now I mean these are those are your decisions yeah I mean I I think or even just you know sort of you know maybe even do some some meetings you know with with our
superintendents to for them to say you know I'm comfortable doing this um but I'm not you know there may be areas that they yeah so we're not missing anything yeah they might they might already be doing those jobs I think in some cases they well they
were and they are yeah right great yeah okay um and then we still had that exercise that we talked about reviewing the superintendent job descriptions now that we've found more recent I have not had time to do that but those those uh are printed for you need but I think uh
that's another thing that's kind of part of that exercise so I'm happy to lead not lead on that however you want maybe chair we can talk about how to see next steps with that yeah we can do that yeah I mean it's you know it's it's it's busy
budget time but you know we we really need to it's really part of the budget discussion because you know there really could be an different allocation of salaries based on a different allocation of Duties and if we go away from DPW director then there'll have to be some
changes in the writing of the existing contracts as they are so right there's going to have to be some changes in the wording possibly so we got to know right what we're going to do before we change those hi Sean we just have we
we're can we just wrap up your administrative report quickly is that want to do that after uh no I'd like to just it really quickly yeah let's do it really quickly right I just Lo up my notes close for some okay um projects this is super
quick this is just wastewater treatment plan at the moment as we talked last time about how the other projects were closed which is great and I don't have an update on 5 and 10 but we will at our March meeting we'll have Mike O and uh Ryan giler in here to talk about five and 10 project so a month from now we'll
get a full report um I do have I'll share some updates from them at the next meeting as well um waste waterer treatment plant just it's more on the financial side but we're uh locking up the interim financing for that which eventually converts to USD loan us da loans and grants we have not heard
anything yet anything with USDA are we freaking out or no okay we're all going to we're it's it's cautiously optimistic we'll see what happens I hope it that nothing happens to that USDA how could they like the project is underway right they already shut off all these other
yeah we have agreements with them but they also haven't put the money down yet but we have an agreement okay it really everything got frozen taken away right that's where we're at um so I'll speed through quickly on uh the other items that I had listed on here so
diamond back we talked last time about making sure that we ended uh that relationship with uh the storage facility we were using um that's on track to end at the end of March we paid our last invoice for that um all materials be transferred here there's one pallet of heavy materials that just
be too heavy for the space upstairs and we've got a lead on a very cheap and easy storage facility for that um So the plan is to to move there and I'll keep you updated on where that goes but we'll be down with diamond back uh April 1 and um just on that same note very quickly
um it might be a good idea to revisit our mou with the Historical Society we have one that's written and it was written for a one-year term back in uh March back in 2022 so we might want to revisit that and see if there's any changes you want to make based on some of the conversations that we had the
last meeting um I also got an answer about the 30b procurement um removal of materials um that historic material that they decide to dispose of uh things under $10,000 um it would just be subject to the town's written procedures that we
have on disposing of materials if it's above that uh then we'd make sure that it goes to a auction process a seal bids process um noi fees this will need to go to town meeting we had that vote last time uh moving it um we did check in with Town Council recommends that we put
this through to town meeting so we will make sure that's on the warrant for town meeting uh G yes uh Ed and I had a great demo yesterday with one company we've got another tomorrow and then another next Monday uh please feel free to join anything you can we're getting good
sense of how this GPS technology works and if it makes sense in any of our vehicles so Ed and I will check in on that after the demos and we'll have a full report uh at your next meeting uh parking improvements and checked in with uh police chief and we'll uh continue working on some some mockups of that to
bring to you uh no need to rush on that at the moment um uh but we'll we'll have some updates on what we might want to do there so that's all I got excellent that was quick thank you back very settled yeah are you taking a break Ed yeah they got a settle okay
come on over I guess we're taking a quick break e e e e e e e e
go ahead okay okay great welcome back after just a brief break as you can see we've been joined by our finance committee um and we've got a few budgets to take up tonight right I put my agenda away that wasn't
smart um okay so first up we are um joined tonight by tamy walowski our town Treasurer welcome Tammy thanks for being here so um I guess we'll go through yours first is that okay with the finance
committee yep sure take it away Tammy tell us which one you want to start with it's my first time doing this so we can start with whatever you want all right well I am open to Group Insurance let's start with the big one
let's hit the highlights okay we're done classes so our health insurance so health insurance went to a vote um
and the trust had voted 18% increase for hmos and a 20% increase on ppos and that'll be starting July 1st coming this year that is significant yeah they said
the reason for the drive is um a certain um drug that is driving that of which they don't really have control over right now cuz there's no generic um unfortunately it's mostly being used for weight loss instead of
what it should be using As for a diabetic so there's not much that we can do for it so I I've had meetings about this at work it's um penally catastrophic
seriously to the to the health insurance system we don't have time to go into all tonight but um so okay so that's a pretty significant um increase to that line with then we have no control over it we do
not what does that mean for increases to our employees because that's our portion of it right what the we split we split it so theirs is going up 18% unless they have the PO and which is
20% although you know yeah so they'll pay 45% of it should just be noted though that if you look at it over the last five years you've had what two years with a 0%
increase and one year with a negative -2% decrease so even at 20% over six years your your average increase is still probably under
5% for you know so compared to what most people are doing I I don't think anybody is doing any better than that really probably all agree that if we had if we had 5% increases every year versus this the big hit that's the difference
is really is you're getting the big hit right I mean that that makes sense right it's a logical explanation it's still tough on our employes absolutely yeah yeah absolutely but Tammy has broken down um what cost would look like in increases for um employees right you
have that you yes we can provide those to the board later if that's helpful I do with the with the three Tammy ran ran three different scenarios as well showing what would happen um in the case of colas is
helpful to show the what that does to uh Town budget and then also if we decided to take on higher amounts of the insurance coverage if we say move to 60% instead of 55 so we're trying to do that like every couple years try to
incrementally so that we could ultimately be more competitive but taking small bites at it and um it might be if we can swing it at all it might be a good year to try to do that because because of the expense that that would help
offset I mean and the group Insurance trust did say they're not trying to make money on this increase this is just going to be them level so they're not losing so Tammy can provide those those spreadsheets to us afterwards it's worth looking at when we go into deliberations
just just to see what the sample numbers are right yeah I have the col ones here if they want them great you know a few years ago actually probably before Co I did bring somebody from the GIC in to meet to see about if if it would be more
competitive for us at the time it wasn't um but I mean maybe we're getting to a point where that eclipse is happening and it would be more competitive what do you think about that Sean I mean I have no idea currently historically has not been more comp it
it hasn't been but this is a big has buil and disadvantages um but number one is it offers many more plans right U that people could select from right so theoretically you could get a plan that
was cheaper maybe right um I mean I looked at the rates they're not all that different but you know I mean if you just it's impossible to say because I can only look at the rates that a state employee would pay which
aren't necessarily the exact same rates that we would get but they're not those are not wildly different I think the assumption would be too is if if there's a certain thing driving the cost for the Hampshire County trust wouldn't that
same thing be driving cost for the GIC as well so potentially but doesn't hurt to have a conversation so I mean if if you want I can try to do you know Mike Barry I do not oh
okay could reach out to Mike he's come out before and from the GIC and talk to us let me know if you want me to do that it's good to explore all wouldn't it take time wouldn't it take a couple years to make a change like that probably but I mean you got to start somewhere
at least ask I mean literally last time he came out and said you know what we I can't do any better for you so he was you know pretty honest about it maybe that would be the conversation but right I mean if we're going to see increases like this I don't think it's the use of
that drug is not going down next year no and it'll be another drug right down the road so it's not I mean bottom line to the budget that's $200,000 right off the top before we
even start with anything else well not quite yeah with all insurances you're you're counting um retirement cont re re retirement which we haven't talked about
yet that's okay about so this is 150 that's 50 so there's I mean this this line is what it is we can't do anything about it you know we could do maybe some long-term things but nothing tonight
unfortunately Tammy which line do you want do you want to do retirement next since that makes sense I know where retirement is is it what is retirement under County Retirement County Retirement oh it's under County it's
under SE okay yes it is yeah would have the 12% increase no I don't see a County Retirement so the top of the binder under cultural Council under cultural
Council the right one about $50,000 see it got the same thing we okay so that's where the 200,000 and then 3% yes that's what it looks like to me $31,000
essentially yeah so Tammy likewise this was voted on hire we we were given documents saying what our contribution would be this year and then actually increase that a little bit and then we do have the memo with the increase which we don't know exactly
what that's going to be um for April 9th for the retirees only um we are at um 969 354 we usually do take the onetime payment and save um uh roughly about
almost 16,000 so we usually take the onetime payment first of July um so right now we're at 953 670 um where oh yeah okay I see that which is usually what we do do historically since I've been here we've
taken the first pay and the trust plans to add a little bit more to our contribution because stilling a a Colo to their staff right Tammy so that's so small increase in that we'll put it we'll
see so but we're planning for about a 50 $50,000 increase over last years of 922 so we'll probably end up somewhere that 970 980 range we'll have those final figures shortly we can do about it y yeah no
it's based on you know Actuarial yeah data of how long it's going to take how much it's going to take to fully fund the pension obligations in the future okay how the Investments perform want to go to tax title next
sure something else I can't find is that is that how I should be doing this I have to know my alphabet Dave dude I like this binder it's hard to read the tabs though they're kind of sunk might just have few
tabs more things under treasure this is yeah this is all work think I ever knew her no tax title Tammy are you ready to talk about that one so tax title we just did um
take on a new tax title attorney um so going forward um our new tax title attorney um only bills us for when the tax when they complete the project and we can assign them and have them put
aside anything that we want like if they want them to specifically work on a certain tax title taking so that they can like accomplish that one and then maybe give them two or three more if they're smaller um they've actually
evaluated the ones that we have ones that they think that are worth taking ones that they think aren't worth our while because of the money that'll go versus what that piece of land or property is worth um so that's something
um Andrew and I have to sit down and actually look at the properties and see what they actually value see if we want to pursue the ones that we actually have that are really old there were a few that we have already
um turned in from tax title this year we've gotten a couple people out I'm still working on another one to get that one out of tax title before it even goes to the new tax title attorney um so we're still waiting on that person's
supposed to be selling land um and keep their home so we're working on that and we're still moving forward um anybody outstanding 24 I think there's really only about five more people I'm working
toward to collect for FY 24 wow anything other than that would have been older tax takings that would have rolled in so we're still working working diligently on those still our um budget
has two different line items for tax title we have a revolving account which works out great because we have Revenue that comes in when we close these processes and we can pay Direct directly from that and then we also have a line uh right in the general fund as well pay for tax title should anything come
sooner or or just to to supplement that that revolving fund so right um moving this new attorney is great because we'll uh have fewer expenses that come out before um the revenue comes in uh but we
we do have uh this these two healthily funded lines because we want to be doing more on this this year good okay what else Tammy Tell Us Where to Go here just to the treasurer line sure treasur
[Music] expenses I don't have um really that many huge increases that I'm really looking for Treasure wide smaller things of which I've made notations for um like mcta prices that actually just
increasing dues and fees for the school and stuff like that um and a couple lines were small things that I'm looking because I'm hoping to attend like their conference in at the Cape Cod in the at the conference for
them um anything else that really mcta is mass collectors treasurers Association yep just for people at home I mean other than that I don't have have anything else on the treasurers expenses that
really have jumped yeah nothing on there just just a note because it's easier for me to bring attention to it Tammy but U Tammy will be in contract negotiations so um that's a line that will need to be determined as her salary for okay but all of those are I mean pretty
much just driving by mcta those are my only few small ups that I'm looking for okay the rest of the staff lines should be subject to the same Cola than everyone else there's no Contra
contracts in okay yes you guys good with those two how about unemployment unemployment my uny
unemployment I believe we did look to go up on it a little bit we've had a lot of unemployment mostly through the school claims um obviously nothing that we can
control if they're leaving um or if the school is um getting rid of them and they're eligible for unemployment we've just had a lot of turnover this year um but we had they're leaving though they don't if they leave they don't get an employment right no I mean if they're
let go they Flight Wave yep you could um if you another job and then L lost the other job then you get um but other than you can go back to the original you work with and you do there's a certain go back look back
period of months and then you're prated for the number of months unless you want to take the person back which usually you can't do because you've already hired someone else right yeah we filled that position now Sean you know the unemployment um
Insurance the $2.1 billion overdraft Y which is you know I don't may come back to employers would municipalities would public employers be included in that well you're not paying in we're not paying in that's right we don't pay in
we just pay that's why you have pay claims yeah because you're not into the trust okay kind of our own right right yeah you're kind of self-insured yeah self-insured right okay we did put in I think a $5,000 increase for that unemployment line but we do have also a
unemployment trust uh with the town as well which is helpful for uh make sure we can address because they're they tend to be variable you just don't know exactly what they'll be in a given year so the the trust think wasn't necessarily used um for uh a couple claims that came in this year so we'll be making sure that that's
being done moving forward I think that's a helpful thing to have so if we can't do that $5,000 increase probably that that's it right for your lines well I mean I appreciate you holding steady on the ones you can there's nothing you can do about the
other ones thank you I don't have anything else you guys thanks Tammy appreciate it thank you Tammy very much was were there three tonight no because we already did accountant sorry treasure and so now it is um DPW come on
up G so there's I know there's a bunch of tabs here for you there's a ton of I'm just so you want to start can we go alphabetically like SE is Cemetery yeah cemeter is yours the only ones I have are the level funed ones okay well cemeter is level
funded so are we all good with that one page sure um yeah we level oh we didn't do collector salary it it just be subject to the is
was there a collector expense that we didn't do or was that all the same under Treasurer um I don't see a collector expense it should be the same under treasur treasur it must okay I
believe all right conservation aging these Tabs are just hard to read sorry [Music] retirement oh what about debt oh no we didn't have that well debt um the
finance committee talked to Tammy about that make sure her report comes to you too if you need it facilities are will you speak to facilities or no that facilities is called something else does it no wasn't facilities it's
facilities it's works is the other one motor pool just passing over Cemetery or we Cemetery I have it's level funded 10,000 on this one budgets I thought the it said
7500 7500 10,000 26 budget request additional a second page page two oh level funded oh yeah okay sorry I looked at the first page right so Phil prepared two budgets one was level funded the other is level funded to meet
operational needs so that is higher than the level fund um so if you see two budgets here the second budget that you'll see will generally be higher oh I see so they're the same they're okay some of them are some of them are the same some cases
they are the same this one so the $20,000 Phil had proposed a $2,500 increase for Cemetery um for Main Street and Brad Street how is that different than the CPA money that the cemeteries are
looking for do you know it looks like this is saying this is for the operating operating it's not a project it's just okay all mowing right just yeah and if you mower blades May in right standard
stuff to do it so going alphabetically then the next one would be facilities maintenance fac that one I don't think I have so this oneic he still has the rental of the historic archives in the so that's diamond back that can be pulled out
right should be pulled out y um it can at least be slashed in half or maybe even a quarter well but if you're if our if we're ending April 1 with Diamond Back Then should be very little if there's anything it would be for that other space that I mentioned I still
need to find out how much that's okay so that's a that's a big savings there yep I just heard it I wasn't here before so we shouldn't have to maintain 18 you said you save $5,000 for okay you
said there's a SM another cheaper way to do one little one of the heavy pallets that exactly correct come into the building yeah it could not come into the building because it weight would bring floor would be in the first floor yeah that would be the concern yeah so I'll have
numbers on that by the end of this week um for that space I don't think it's going to be very expensive at all but if maybe we keep $6,000 there just in case we should be in shape okay so so what this increase for
Mini Splits adding 10 mini splits in the building which building here is it here yeah there's 10 total and I know the ones downstairs run all the time so there's definitely an increase new ones were put in for upstairs right for the
second floor that's just the M that's the maintenance on for because they went into the historical area and it looks like all this does is bring us to the level that we've actually been spending ending at for the last two years two years ago this this line was
$144,000 this year we're on track for it to be around $144,000 line where is 14 I'm I'm seeing 37,000 we're talking about the build oh the maintenance of the Mini
Splits we were talking about the electricity line got it I apologize I was looking at the maintenance one so we put in mini spit splits and we're spending $110,000 more yeah they're expensive super expensive well I mean is there a
maintenance contract or do does a contractor provide you a copy of information on what the maintenance is required and etc etc and what person to put them in is that where the price is coming from well no this is the electricity electricity to run it it's
the it's the power just to run them right but still there them it's not expensive it's not I mean that's not a huge number I I think there I think the electricity the Run Mall is a lot more and I have a guy that comes up and does ours who's
so what do we save on fuel or natural gas because we're not yeah are we saving anything probably not you don't think we'll be saving anything I mean numbers penny for Penny I don't know is it like some giant number so why' we do it are
the Mini Splits more for air conditioning on the heat I would say yeah okay we really don't have other any other air condition conditioning ability here other than the Min splits correct yeah right yes there's no there's no there's no air conditioning in the whole
building for there's just one electric meter for the building plus there's a meter for the fire pump right so is this part of taking the the total electric meter and splitting it into
pieces no what I'm saying I mean you have mini split p i mean if there's only one electric bill you can't break it down say if it's Mini Splits or something else right so no it says like on the box when you install them what it costs right I'm just what I'm trying to
say I don't know if I'm coming across what I want to try to say is you have one electric meter how are we determining just saying the building is going to cost this much for electricity or with this 14,000 here and there's is
it split up throughout the building for the electric bill that's what I don't understand if you only have one meter I don't know how he wrote it I don't I'm not positive on do we get one bill for the whole building Tammy so Andrew do you know what we've actually
spent on that so far this year on the town electricity line but you don't even see it come through the treasur numbers as of December 31st yeah was 16,000 uh sorry 11,000 12 is one for through
one for street lights there's a separate one for that fire pump I get that but I guess I just mean for the building but we did July August more than one hot month right we did the hottest months so so so what I'm just trying to figure out
is you know is the 37,000 a guess or can we base it on what we think we we're going to spend this year I think we can do the latter Garrett does this meant is this for new Mini Splits or the many spits we already have we're not adding anything those are all new the ones up
up new but we as of when uh this summer you you don't have any numbers on those we wouldn't have paid for them this summer so they came in after August yeah when the renovation yeah yeah oh so this year those are GNA be the high Haven
seen the bill the electric bill from those you I mean or very or very minimal electric ites it makes pretty perfect sense Heating and Cooling more space Oh no yeah so the electric bills go aru
like I mean that upstairs used to be 48 degrees you know most of the time you had to huddle around the light yeah I mean but I'm just curious about the number what I'm trying to say is if you only have one meter are you saying well the mini splits are 14 Grand the lights
in here are 10 grand the computer Outlets are five grand or is there just one bill should that be just one line item somewhere under under the building for electricity that's what I'm trying to say isn't that what this is a line item for the building well saying it's
14,000 for electricity for the Mini Splits it but is that for I think that Mini Splits is just a part it's tell why there's a big increase because of all the that's the build that should be the bill that's the new thing in the bu annual right should be the annual
electricity cost is what's right there for the building right right he's that's explaining the increase that increase is due to the new Min splits yeah and and for me I'm just trying to figure out like okay this is what he requested this isn't the level
funded if this is what it's going to be we can't go with the level funded because we're going to spend the money right I mean although don't forget part of that something that's in here that the Diamond Back stuff is coming
out right so no it'll you might be able to that at a level funding because you're getting rid of that expense yeah what you're say I'm on Diamond Back is going to go to electricity now to to run the Min just just to run the electricity for
the whole building yeah really yeah right so if that's that's a cost for the whole building then okay yeah okay are we good don't have their own meters yeah so as I've seen two bills I did see the bill for the fire pump
because they insisted on putting a 480 volt fire pump in there sure so that was a separate service and that that bill goes way up sometimes yeah if that pump runs and then I saw the other bill for here so I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page that it's
actually one bill it's not just many splits it's just that it's increased because of the many splits yep so I just one more question town hall building supplies um consumable supplies including office supplies and paper so
Tammy that that stuff isn't built into individual budgets that came out of the facilities budget office supplies and paper do you have an office supply and paper budget okay is it just worded that way or I don't
one I just buy it or come down here and date yeah I mean would we really I don't use a lot I'm just curious about the wording I like if we buy paper for The copier in town hall we don't portion out each room of paper to an individual Department right
like we used to like you're so like the copy paper isn't in there yeah that seems not okay I'm just curious that's all it's fine and so an increase of 2,000 due to market prices I mean that's kind of a
guess would it make sense at some point maybe not for this year but down the road that may be under the town administr budget that all the expenses for cleaning supplies and paper and all that kind of stuff for everybody be under one line under the town administrator's budget for the town hall
instead of The Collector having one and the treasurer having one and the uh you know at Le having one I don't know the only thing that happens really I think it might make sense but unless there's like specialized things exactly that you like you need for some specific purpose
only you use it right like like Elena may have specific things she has to have supplies for like dog tags right like everybody's not using those you know like copy paper right copy paper cleaning supplies trash bags yeah yeah yeah that stuff some of that stuff may
be in other people's budgets too who I don't know that for sure because everybody's budget seems to have one of those lines for you know cleaning supplies and C you know that kind of stuff so it wouldn't make sense to try to streamline it yeah buy it so we're
going to I mean are we okay on this facilities line once we get some better information from pulling the Diamond Back fees out of there and yeah the other thing I'm doing is just matter of finding the money Diana I'm just using your job we've
actually spent I think that the heating line can actually be lower based on spending uh in the last couple months those are the highest months and we're not going to reach this 24,000 that's in here so so maybe as we get closer you can do better projections yes
yeah yeah great okay so Highway take me 10 minutes to find where that is oh yeah we got to get you guys have a deadline right um she's got a deadline we have
other people oh we have a deadline so in Highway the salary increases those are contractual correct because this says no Cola the other salaries are contractual the uh salary increase in the bargaining the overtime
line I mean hard to predict this Winters Pro prove that does that go into snow and ice though overtime it's overtime there is is there a snow and ice overtime line separ
I'm sure we're going to be spending a lot of money right and and salary is separated out that okay salary so do you know what so the first
page is a level $111,000 $122,000 so 10 of that is just Highway other supplies do you have any idea Garrett what that $10,000 increase was other supplies
man um off the top of my head I don't know but I know we use this for for different things but I don't see all of it is the problem I didn't see all of it because some of it was on the other side that I didn't do at I know what we
used um let me check what yeah if there's some other where the heck is other exp oh mean $10,000 increase with no sort of no increase in cost doesn't
really so if we could flush that one out I I would like that information is that this one no that's 15 to 30 no no you're on the right that's what I thought 5530 Highway
other supplies y yeah okay thank you yep I'll have that detail for you okay thank you I can take a about or to I I just I know there's stuff we used out of it
okay is everybody good with the highway one as long we get definition of what that is other things that need to go on either the highway budget has to be added onto a budget that would came out of used to just come out of my budget
and I think this is probably some of that 10,000 like um fur Cog the annual fee for furog is 3500 bucks that us I just used to pay it because it was never put in a line item and is that in Highway yeah that's
how I used to pay it yeah so every year that the cost to sign up for the furog to do your bid is 30 I thought that used to be itemized out in here but I thought there was a separate line I thought it used to be separated out that should be in other Professional Services that's
the correct line yeah where you put it I don't think it's a I'll get that ad okay any the other item is actually transfer because it's the uh amount was $2200 or $2,100 for monitoring Wells gas
and water at the transfer station there's there's they have to come around it's a state mandated thing that but isn't there there's a transfer line but it's not it's not in there because I used to pay used to just pay it regular out of the transfer station but it probably should be a line them since
every year you have to do it how much right 20 22 200 will that increase I would think yeah that will cover it cover next it doesn't go up a huge amount maybe $100 so you're saying 2200 would
cover it that will cover 22 I trust you those are the two things I had to add to add to Highway one to Highway one to transfer actually how come the overtime shift coverage that pretty substant that's
$115,000 for snow and ice or no is it labeled that or no no it's 51 it's in the regular and it says he put a line it said we spent
28,000 in in in in 25 but we're in 25 24 24 was 28,000 yeah through December 31st we already at 15 so or we need to but it's not snow and
ice no that's regular Highway overtime storm damage storms things that don't happen in the winter right gotcha I gotcha wind rain okay trees and we don't hear about it because for the whole line we're gonna end up for for
all the staff we're gonna end up in a comfortable place uh I think we have at least one position that's not buil at the moment but we are over for that line so it probably should be increased 30 okay okay okay are we good with that one you
want to move on here what's next would it be snow no it's going to be motor pool I think oh assessors are waiting oh well let's mechanic no
we should probably we should probably just go to that you should leave any time can sorry we we have a commitment the they're waiting over there for us so I just okay yeah um can I just ask one quick question do you think we're going
to be okay with fuel money in the fuel budget for yeah it's the same right yes level funded I think we yeah that's usually I mean it's rack it's a it's a commodity so your commodity numbers change are
we we still have a fixed contract usually that's what we do with fcog is well we had one I mean but I don't know if we but it wasn't all of it what's that the contract that we had for diesel fuel we had for like a partial
contract we didn't no I did it goes through F yeah it all goes through the f 7,000 gas 7,000 diesel I thought it didn't yeah but right that's a fixed price but not necessarily A are you talking about yeah at one point we had purchased in advance a fixed amount of
diesel fuel at a fixed price that's what we do every year yeah and then we do all and we do all of it that way 7,000 gas 7,000 thing and 3500 fuel oil that goes between the sore plant and the library and that usually covers it yeah
yeah I actually talked to Kenny today and I said you know the these bids got to be in by Friday so let me know kind of what you want and I told them we're going to keep it at 35 right so we'll just go continue going through with Garrett and okay well
thanks for coming in no we understand we're gonna and they'll let us know if there good bye Daryl by
yep bye Dave see you tomorrow see you tomorrow I'll bring it to you I'll come to your meeting Dave and I have meetings together three nights in a row should be so three nights in a row all right
Garrett we'll just keep moving along through here I mean some of these like um Tom live fuel we're good on what about fuel we might be able to bring that down because you're in great shape this year yeah yeah we're but did
we skip over mechanic I mean I thought we were going like alphabetical we can do it any we want okay motor pool sorry I just got excited about Fu uh yeah this is the mechanic motor pool um so I mean he's asking in this in the
there's the level funded but then there's the $10,000 increase in parts I mean you know I mean they're not going down in price no but it's just you know most of Phil's numbers were just so big and Round right that sort of like not really
um yeah and this year I mean we had a couple problems already this year yeah that were are unex expensive yeah 1,000 for a new exhaust system on one of the trucks it's kind of yeah yeah we wanted yeah the budget has been spent this year already we're
actually spending $4,000 on inspections everybody that goes fire that goes oh yeah pleas everybody okay it's $35 for a car does every anybody have questions about motorpool no we gonna just keep moving ahead
here Ed you good yeah I'm good okay I'm just going alphabetically here these Tabs are so hard to see sorry sewer well that's are you g are you able to speak to that um what do you
need to know I I'll give it my own this between Garrett and we be so this has the 2.6% pay increases that is that a cola or those so I thought we had no Cola
budgets and then it shouldn't have included yeah so does is that a cola that's what that a cola so that will be subject to the same okay increase that everyone else gets whatever that may be yep and then I don't know of any there's no contract that would say that they
need it and new vehical lease wouldn't that be in the lease line not in the sewer line so on this thing on the new vehicle lease he has a thing in here that I can't read we did talk about this with the uh Capital planning last
night because we we did want to work the lease payments into the operating budget so that's why this this line is here so yeah water and waste water we're looking for those new vehicles that's why it special what do you have it's that same thing there's a
note just on the bottom clarifying why this is why would we do that um it's it's good Financial practice to try to move um vehicle payments which you know are going to be pretty constant uh out of just your your Capital sources
and put them into the operating budget um because you you know you can count on having to make them each year um so it's it's not a bad but I mean they're like fiveyear leases right and then the vehicles we're keeping our vehicles longer than five years so then is there
going to be an expectation that that money is going to stay in the budget when the vehicle payments are gone I think if there would be no payment you would remove it but okay as long as we do yeah okay it's funny with water and waste water just because they're small departments typically when
you do this you can always replace it with other lease payments but but here you probably would reach a point where you don't have any payments to make since it's a small Department right think yes so um as I look through down through this sewer
I mean the even the increases are fairly small except for the bottom one except for the bottom one and that's where I was gonna I'm trying to remember a town meeting we had that was that AR so what there just so people at home no there's
there's a new item in the sewer budget USDA Grant shortlived asset Reserve this requirement put in place by USDA as a stipulation to receive um the upgrade grant for the wastewater treatment plant
project that wasn't all part of like the what we this has to be a separate line it it must be in the the loan paperwork somewhere so I'll have to get more info for you on that I great make sure that we have that together um unless Tammy remembers this better
than I nope sorry Tammy no it's it's 66,6 67 and it says that we have a requirement to put it in place by USDA as a stipulation to receiving the
upgrade grant for the wastewater treatment plant project I will I will get that uh language from the paperwork and provide that for you no problem can reach out to or whatever Library folks you're going to be with the finance committee yeah um
I think they I assume they've gone upstairs yeah uh sorry not that we aren't happy to see you thank you for stopping that's great thanks for for checking us out okay yeah if we could just get a little information on that because
that's yeah yeah that's easy that's a big big number snow and ice um I mean it is what it is right what are you gonna do I don't I mean I have a couple opinions on it but
the number is too low does it matter though do it's too low as long as it I mean seems like that's what people get hung up on right wasn't it double that last year well yeah I mean because it was $42,000 yeah it's like 10 loads of
salt if you called it 142,000 would would they be upset right I don't you know that's what it cost to do it yeah every slip every everything you did on snow and ice is in a folder in my office everything if it had to do with Stow I I have a copy of a
receipt yeah well you know I mean there were questions at it about it at town meeting so we should at least be prepared $67 a ton yeah I know and hard to hard to come by all right so anybody
have questions on the snow and ice I mean ask till the end of the year Street lighting looks like it's good level um what else you got here you might be able to bring that
street lighting number Down based on townwide fuel going to be able to hold that pretty steady that's comfortable we're going to finish way below there this year I think okay so we might be able to bring that down a little bit too okay
haircut transfer station so again he there's a oh that's got no Cola how can it say no Cola when there's a $10,000 increase in the salary lines for which one transfer
station is that new employees Garrett there two employees over there is it new nobody's new they've had the same no shouldn't be new employees so I don't know why he's asking for he he put in for 10,000 more I think it's saying that this is what was spent in the year
before so it must not have been yeah enough that number ran the salary line item for I mean that's weird it's pretty constant up there like the the same thing all the time it's the same all the time I don't I
mean there's increases there's wage increases but nothing that significant so I'm curious why that number would go up like that it was never budgeted at the right number it just was okay well looks like we spent 28,000 in FY 24 we're on track to spend 27,000 this year
unless we want to make a change to how often that staffs right is that is that it's St Saturday 7 700 am. to 300 pm on Saturday and then noon to 5 on and those folks would receive the same Cola as anyone else yeah yeah and there I mean there's two of them and there has to be
really I think yeah they're comfortable yeah I ask them all the time if they need you know what they need what they don't they oh we're good yeah but I don't think you can cut anybody there no you need no you need them there so it's going to look like a $10,000 increase on the budget but it's really level funded
if you look at what we spent and so the TR I'm surprised hauling fees are not he no anticipated that's a commodity too those are just but there I've never seen that crazy increases that well there has been increases over the years right Ed we've talked about the fees going up so
much that wasn't even worth it right yeah I mean that we haven't had that conversation for a few years but okay everybody good with the uh transfer station line I would say it looks like we might finish below that
hauling fee amount this year so 33 might be higher than we need but okay not that much I think there might have been two extra days till we worked I had them staffed like the day after Christmas we did an extra day yeah that's great and
then yeah there was one still not going to amount to well you're saying we were just underfunded okay it was the [Music] wrong free Warden yeah you got a big problem with
trees in town are the oh I know I have a couple of them and the ash trees are bad I don't have ashes people call all the time I mean God bless the tree Ward because it's it's every day there's phone calls every single day Jenny mostly answers
most of them but people stop by a shop all the time you got a dead tree dead ash trees they're dead everywhere up the East Coast there's none alive anymore even the ones with the green leaves on them are still dead so so many Town owned ash trees they no good boy I had
Matt from the sewer department go out and count them I didn't see the number but there's got to be 75 W 75 and what 3,000 a piece to take down 3,000 a piece to take if they're in power lines if they're not in power lines I mean I'm
about it if we got a slow day let's go we you know see how many we can take down but well maybe they just the you know somebody if they're in the power lines there's the power company's not doing anything about them cuz I mean we've had years where ever sources come through and they do and they and if
they're in the line of scope that they're going to do like they did all that work on panse road and stuff if they're there absolutely they take them down but are you gonna call them and have them come and remove vast stre because it's in well they that the power line it's you have resources responsibility that's my understanding
right you're never going to happen but yeah so I mean so again out of the 75 are those all Town own or are some Town own ones there's probably 100 50 of regular ones in people's yards and everywhere but I think he he went through and counted one mat from SE
Department went through and counted everyone that was on Town Ean there's quite a few well 10,000's not going to cover it it's that no way but it'll get a jump on it you know it'll get
you through some of it may long range planning like so many every year Poss yeah that kind of thing I mean that that's reasonable right I think it is we have that much money it costs this much per tree 3,000 a tree we're going to cut down 15 a year or 10 a year those
expenses are in the spring typically that all year do them C them anytime I'm just saying because we haven't spent much of that budget so far this year but that's that I would I would anticipate most it takes place in Spring um as far as a tree budget wise the whole budget
free word and other expenses we SP p is 10,000 right off the bat what brush pile it's 10,000 when's that typically when it's full when it's full yeah I there's a certain spot that I have an agreement we go to this telephone bow in the yard and when it's there a little before I
call them it's the same gets massive it's huge oh my God okay yep what's going on with the loader not sure yet it's got It's instead of having the minor stuff done
like fuel line and that drain the fuel out of it I'm not paying somebody to do that we just we put it in the garage today all the lines are taken out the fuel is all going to be drained check all the lines before before we go any further fill it back up pressurize the system and put it and see if we can get it to run if it runs then that's the
problem then we fix ourselves Schmidt was over there for a day and a half nothing the guy says I don't we don't have it so I'm not going to send it down there to have them pull fuel lines off doesn't make any sense to me it's unfortunate now because we really
need it but he's work Donnie's working on it now that's I mean that was his plan and I I agree with it you know have him do as much as we can do in housee and then we'll go from there hopefully that's just the fuel problem and then the water one do you
would you prefer we talk to Tony about that I talked with Tony and a I'm happy to walk through his budget that's helpful he uh he couldn't make it tonight but we we talked in advance this one okay so the heating
gas that's to what heat the water plant yes um historic expenses there I I think we can bring that down to around 20,000 because we've never spent more than 10 we're not on track to spend too much
this year but he's got 246 in there I think it could be brought down yeah he he increased it from 186 I wonder why that that number okay yeah I think it's I think that was it makes sense to to think that
everything's getting expensive for eating but so putting putting a 5% increase on the year before makes sense but when you look at the historic spending we're probably going to be okay so some of these it's it's confusing me because like this so the Building
Systems line it went up to from 10,000 to 8,000 it says spent 16,000 in fy2 does he mean 24 15,000 FY 24 yes because we're in fy2 that would have been a mistake yeah should have been saying it should have been saying 20 so so that sort of
through all of these budgets he refers to FY 25 okay not Tony not 20 [Music] um okay um yeah I don't the budget was brought down well it was brought up
because that was how they were planning it we went from 3,000 to 10,000 but the amount spent in FY 24 was 15,000 and we're on track this year to be above that again so 18,000 is conservative there okay water Building Systems I mean I've got this water
distribution system maintenance did I I'm going to need to take a look at the all these budget lines because there's some serious discrepancies with how much we're actually paying and how much they budget for is happen in this year too and in some cases it might be that expenses roll in the second half of the year or whatever but it does easily
could be but I think we're we're way above okay a couple of these that's be a problem okay I'll talk to about that would be great need to be some seems to be hard okay and that's the last one I don't what's the um
Public Works one 423 423 4 yeah 421 in the water budget no Public Works uh for fix is 421 Public Works Professional
Services admin supplies yeah Public Works supplies business travel expenses mailing administrative te telecommunications yeah that looks like a general expenditure line for the uh
DPW it's not very high not a lot of spending here but that's where like office supplies and things would come from okay it looks like it was basically level funded level funded 3700 bucks what is this cost of phone fax
internet is that just what is that Vadar I mean did do you charge Vadar things out to departments okay just to the people that use their certain modules what was that
okay did you have questions about that one no I'm good Public Works y you no Ed so there's a lot more information needed yeah if you're comfortable with me kind of going through these a little deeper in a couple areas and I would
work with Garrett and or Tony or whoever and Garett and I have checked in it's just you know the deeper you get each of these and people here ask good questions so we'll we'll Circle back and get get uh more details we're not horribly far off on at
least big light is yeah I don't think so cool thanks Garrett you're welcome G can you make sure we don't get any more storms great put that request is in great great be perfect we're just gonna slide I don't want to look at our
Stone and Ice budget yeah the first you know few were you know late and good five feet of snow is great it's almost free to do time that's it the problem is gett went to Florida which just corded ruined everything yep you
did I was on full report did you I was thinking you missed that storm yeah it was that was crazy I mean it's it like SED and was you know all day yeah I go right I'm ready I I mean I
think they're saying it's sow Saturday but just a little flurry it's going to be tough the road's you know 50 degrees for three days and they're saying next week it's gonna cool down a little but not out you know it's February Tammy's shaking her head I hope you're right I have a big event next
week it'll it this doesn't last long now no it'll warm up you can yeah you can feel the sun warming up all right do you have anything else Andrew no okay thank you Garrett thank
you yes good job that's it that's our agenda so okay motion to adjourn second motion made in second any further discussion no all those in favor I I