Uh welcome to our meeting and we always start with our public per participation at town of Hatfield select board meetings. The Hatfield select board welcomes everyone to its meetings and all the other public meetings of 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 while 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 to the Hatfield select board for for the public's information. This meeting is being recorded
uh under announcements. Uh, Friday at 11:00 a.m. we'll be having a small memorial service for our colleague Kyle Scott, our building commissioner that passed away. So, public is invited to attend. Um, and those are my
announcements. I don't know if my colleagues have any announcements. Okay. Tonight's meeting is uh mostly a meeting with the finance board, but we have some uh items that that we want to take up beforehand and we're still waiting for
members, so this will work out. Okay. Okay. Uh we'll uh announcements are done. Public forum. Anybody here for public forum? Uh no. Uh we we have a consent agreement with the
minutes. No, we don't have the minutes, do we? >> No, I don't have the minutes. >> No. Okay. >> Uh, posted business topic one. Uh, Real Folks Congregational Church request to conduct a bake sale at town election on
May 19th, 2026. This has been going on for years. They always do a very nice job. Uh, we've always allowed it. So, myself, I have no reason to deny this. I my colleagues are if my colleagues are
in favor of this, I'll take a motion on it. >> I'll make a motion to allow Real Folks Congregational Church's request for to conduct a bake sale at town hall on the election day, May 19th, 2026 from 8:30 until 1. >> Second that.
>> Motion made. Motion seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Motion carries. Uh topic two. Um, we have an appointment of Walton Merrick as interimm building inspector and I believe Walters agreed to the terms uh
that that we put forth on with a with a mini contract of some sort. >> Yes, that is correct. So, we wrote him an offer letter which we have in front of you this evening. We also have a um employee, you know, transaction form uh the wage adjustment form. So, that would
get everything started. Um I've had some good meetings with him. uh he's hitting the ground running and and taking care of of uh some of the backlog that we have and and uh I think being proactive as well, which is great. Um I set the hourly rate of compensation at 36 an
hour, which is right around what what Kyle's making per hour. Um Kyle was on a salary versus this is being treated as an hourly position right now at 19 hours a week. Uh Mr. Merrick is fine with that uh on an interim basis. for longer term,
he recommends that we think about setting either the compensation higher or thinking of it as more of a salaried position instead. So something to consider for us as we think about the posting and once we approve of this, if you want to take a moment to talk about the posting, I think that would be fine. But um you know, he's he's comfortable
with the terms that are here in this letter um at least for the next 30 days. and you know he'd like to see we'd all like to see a good faith effort to to get a posting together and and uh plan on trying to find you know the right person for the position after. I think he should definitely do interviews for
it and I think he would be a candidate for it but he would be interested in seeing the compensation you know altered in that sense. >> Okay. Since Kyle did recommend him I have no problems with him being in term. >> No I have no problems. I like >> okay if that being said do I have a
motion? I'll make a motion to appoint Walter Mark as interim building inspector from April 7th, 2026 to May 7th, 2026. >> Motion made, motion seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Motion carries. Okay. Uh topic three,
we're getting ready to go into the finance, but since we're still waiting for one member, we could discuss warrants, I believe, if if that's okay with the chair of the finance committee. Uh Sean Sean is chair this year. Okay. I mean, >> do you want to call your meeting to
order? You can weigh in on warrants if you want to or >> Okay, sure. >> Call me fine to order. 605 607, whatever it is. 6076. >> Okay, fine. I don't want to split hairs.
>> Your job finance. >> Great. So, I uh I have for you this evening a a draft warrant that we can start working through. Um and I think that could be useful because it does start to make some decisions around what to do both on the capital side and on
free cash. And it also sets some of the terms of thinking about what to do on on the budget side. I suppose I should just start with, you know, the last time we talked, we discussed that right now it's looking like we have a deficit uh on the the budget uh based on um the initial
spending request that came in. Uh and then the state assessments that were being charged which have uh definitely increased uh from last year to a significant degree and then of course the health insurance payments and a couple other things that are out there. So, um, we're right now looking at a
budget deficit. Last time we talked, I said it was $568,000. Um, I, uh, through cuts alone, and we can talk about what those cuts look like, can can get it down to closer to 480,000. And then through some other means, I'm close
to getting to 143,000, and we'll talk about that tonight. What's our path to getting that deficit shrunk from $568,000 to $143,000, and then what to do about the rest of that. So, that's kind of the the outline of the night. And to do that, to kind of talk about that broader picture, we can talk about
the warrant, we can talk about the budget, we can talk about free cash plan, uh capital plan, everything else. And we kind of want to just bang everything out tonight so we can be uh be in good shape for the next two weeks, next two meetings, uh to get a warrant
agreed on by April 28th. So, that's kind of the broad outline. That's helpful. So, do you want to start with the warrant or do you want to start with Now we have our board member. You can start. >> Yeah. Why don't we start with the You want to start with the budget? >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. >> All right. So, you have a handout tonight that just says this is a topline snapshot of uh summary of projected revenues and expenditures. I'm happy to project that. I just need to remember what I saved it
as. There we go. All right. So this is just a very high level look at these broad categories of both revenues and expenditures just to try to get a sense of where we're at. And where
your eye will probably be drawn is the bottom here where you see general fund surplus and shortfall which right now as I said is at $481,000. That's after um some cuts and changes that I made that I will go over um to the the general fund budget. But if you
take a look right now, the property tax levy, you know, shows increasing >> by 11.9% over uh 3 years from 2025 to 2027. That's a combination of 2 and a.5% growth and new growth that gets brought
in. Was there any debt exclusion that came in at that time too? >> Uh yeah, there is excluded debt as well, but you'll find that >> part of that. >> Trying to see where that would show up in this top line. You'll see debt
service increases significantly from 670 to 1,133. But uh much of that is um debt excluded. 450 much of it is death debt excluded. I think around >> 400,000 of it is. So, um, of that amount
and I'll show you the full in fact it might help just to show you the full spreadsheet here. >> But that's all that's part of the 11.9%. Right? >> You know that that wouldn't be in the 119% but it is taken into account and isn't
add to our general fund deficit. I'm trying to see where it would show up here. >> Why wouldn't it show up in in the levy? It wouldn't show up in the levy because that's excluded debt. So, if you look at the tax levy here.
>> Oh, wait. No, I think you're right. >> You're absolutely right. It's in the levy. Yeah, absolutely right. It's in the levy. >> And I bring it up because someone on town floor is going to see that and say, "Hey, what the heck? 11.9%. How does that math make sense?" Right. I think we need to be able to explain that very
well. >> Yep. Yeah. That's my mistake here. >> So, it's your Yeah. So as that's a great point >> plus. >> So if you look at just the levy limit alone 2025 is 10 million then you tell 10 million 10 million 322 and that makes sense. That's an increase by 2 and a
half%. Then you add in the the prior growth. We're estimating new growth this year of 87,600 for the moment. We were told to estimate a little lower than last year's final of 101. And if it comes in higher than that that's great but we want to estimate lower the moment. We do have a decent amount of
new growth with the Amasta project being finished, pickle ball being finished, and then uh good progress on the Western Earth Burks project. Um and then some other residential properties. Um but yeah, that's a great point, um Darl, that when you talk about levy limit,
that does include excluded debt. And that's a million dollars of excluded debt coming uh this year alone. And that's a growth around uh 20,000 $30,000 from last year, but a huge uh increase from the 628. >> That that's essentially, if I correct me
if I'm wrong, the sewer project, >> right? >> Yeah. That that >> right, >> some of Yes. A decent amount of that came on last year um and continues to be on this year. And I can show you, you know, overall what the debt is. >> The boilers in the roof have haven't hit yet. Right. >> Right.
>> The boilers in the roof are not are not in this yet. >> Yeah. You can see that here boilers and roof are not in this year's because the project is not complete >> right >> there will be >> there it is >> a tiny amount of interest >> wastewater plant
>> so so >> David remind me how did we pay for that was that levy or was that >> that's excluded debt excluded >> the schools >> yes >> that's debt exclusion >> okay >> and there'll be $38,000 this year >> next year probably starting right >> right >> well some of it starts because you're on
the short term >> yeah I mean you might have some interest or whatever, but paying interest, >> but nothing nothing major on that. >> $38,000 in short-term financing for next year for the elementary school and paving project. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> But you can see last year we had
$150,000 for wastewater. Actually, um it's more than that. It was 29 uh $295,000 in interest for wastewater. And it'll be around the same this year between these two.
So yeah, certainly that's part of the the large explosion in the in the debt. So it's a sewer project. >> How long on the on the town hall renovation stuff this got we got left? >> I can show you
town hall renovation. Uh article one it's one four years. This other piece is three years. Then another piece came in later and was spent later in 12 years. >> Looks like, >> but most of it
>> is coming. >> Well, I guess this part's bigger. So, >> it's not huge. It's not huge numbers, but >> it's it's um yeah, 565,000 in principal. And yeah, it's significant. >> Yeah, >> you can see this uh water transmission
line is going to fall off, which is nice. One year left in that. A couple things with only three or four years, which is good >> for debt. >> Yeah. Get a good break in there for a little while. >> Yeah. >> So, it's a few things coming off. Then
obviously some larger things coming off. All these things here are still in their short-term financing. They're on bans. Wastewater treatment plant, mini pumper, main street culbert, and elementary school. >> Is that because we haven't gotten a mini pumper yet?
Uh, for whatever reason, I guess we've just been been financing that through um through short-term and so we can roll it on roll it into a bigger project. >> That's probably not enough. >> It's not a huge piece of debt we've taken out there. So once um
>> issue, >> we're going to put that together with the um >> just that. >> Oh, >> with the culvert for this year, I believe. >> I guess my question is we have the new mini pumper. Mhm. >> Okay. >> Yes, we do. >> I think just the cost of issuing it.
>> Yeah. >> You know, would be >> some of that some of that was paid for by a grant. Correct. >> I couldn't say. I only have the debt scheduled for >> that truck. >> No, not that truck. Okay. >> Yeah. So, it's it's small enough it just carry it on a
>> Yeah. short-term basis. >> Okay. But once the culvert goes in >> the what? >> The culprit. You want to issue for the culvert. You want to lump them together >> and I can show you. Yeah. A lot of
treatment plant. Yes. That we did. >> Yeah. A lot of that will come. We'll have principal I believe. Yeah. >> Still in short term and then we pay all that. >> We did that out of regular debt obviously, right? We didn't do that. >> Yeah, that's general fund. >> General fund debt, not >> general fund is firet truck, fire mini
pumper, and street culbert. None of that was excluded. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, I think that's all useful to to think about as we look at the overall position. And so this property tax levy that includes excluded debt has
increased 11.9% over the last three years. But a lot of that, you know, a million uh at least half a million, I think it was close to 1.5 or close to 800,000 was the uh excluded debt. So it's important to see. And then if you look I I said state aid cherry sheet
that increased about 7.3% from 2025 to 2027. But if you compare that to state assessments, which is kind of on the other side, state assessments have increased by 40%. So while we're getting some extra state aid in some areas,
we're also getting assessed at more from uh FY26 to FY27, uh it's almost $200,000 more that we're seeing for a state assessment, whereas the cherry sheet, the state aid has only gone up by $60,000. So that's going to be tough this year. That's another
source of this deficit that we're dealing with. >> Remind me what some of those assessments are. >> I'll show you the biggest one that we're dealing with. >> Charter choice. >> Charter and choice. >> Choice. Yeah. >> And part of it is last year I used the
early numbers. Uh the the charter school sending tuition was 376. I think it ended up being closer to like 420. So this increase looks huge. It it was a little lower because of where the 26 number ended up being. >> It's a big increase over what we
budgeted. >> Yes. >> But not over what we spent. >> A little less over what we spent, but that's in part why we had to do that November fix. That was one of the issues happening. >> Does um does vocad come out of the charter school or is that >> No, Vocad is a separate uh line item in
the budget. When you look at our education line item, the vocad has actually been smaller than expected lately. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um I've been a little aggressive with our projection for that for next year, but it's in line with what we've been spending. In fact, uh we cut the VO headline this year at the
November meeting by like $50,000. We're still going to end up like $50,000 over, >> right? >> So the vote was just less than we would have expected. >> And we'll find out soon what the total number of students going is. >> Yeah. >> So uh yeah, I think this is a useful
exercise to kind of go through. So there's revenues and the point I'm trying to make here which I think is mostly true is that on the expenditure side we really haven't added that much spending to departments. So going up 4% over 3 years in general government, less
than 4% in public safety. And the public safety increase for this year from 960 to1 billion43. Chief here will tell you what that is. That that's the the ambulance assessment that we're going to be charged from South County ambulance. That's $70,000
that I've budgeted and then uh evened out using the um ambulance uh receipts reserved for now, but we'll have to talk about that. But that's an increase and it's still not a ridiculous increase of 3.55%
from 2025 to 2027. Education, not a very large increase, especially this year. You'll see a decrease because I've reduced the amount of that VO ed assessment. schools came in at a level funded budget. Public works is a decrease because of just the
number of line items that were either double counted or not really being used entirely. So, we've gone down there over three years. Um, at least in the proposed budget. Health and Human Services small uh comes off as a 6.33% increase, but it's really not that large. I'd say
we can look at any areas to cut there. But and debt service is an increase as we said that includes >> projects. >> Yeah. And and excluded debt risk management's come down because we were over inflated in our property um
insurance line. Uh so I've right sized that there's an a decrease there. And then employee benefits is our 10.27% increase. Um, and if you just looked at the health insurance increase, you know, that's $600,000 alone.
So that's what we're dealing with. Most of his increases coming from health insurance with state assessments close far behind and other amounts raised we can talk about later. And the offset number, I still haven't um come up with the final
offset number for this year. So, that is one area where we might see some variation and that could actually help us a little bit on the um on that budget deficit. As I said, right now it's 481. Uh as I said, it was before 568 and that
counts some cuts that I'm I'm happy to go through just so you kind of understand where we're at right now. >> Remind me what the offsets. These offsets for enterprise indirect costs are anything that we pay for in the general fund but then gets reimbursed
essentially from the um water sewer budget. >> So say you know we we want to reimburse for accountants's time. If uh the accountant is $100,000 then maybe we'd say 5% of their time goes to water sewer. So, we say $5,000 will
>> will come from the uh water sewer budget to pay for >> same with the collector. >> Yeah. And we have two choices. We can either decrease the amount that we show in the general fund budget and add it to the water sewer or we keep it the same
in the general fund budget and then um just show it as an offset. And we're doing a little bit of both for some reasons that that makes sense, >> but uh just as long as we're clear on what happens where >> it should work. >> We don't want to show like a line item
on the water sewer side of of their share of of insurance costs. That's just becomes cumbersome. >> So you just have to include it in a thorough accounting of your indirects, which we will. Okay. So that's enterprise funds
numbers. Uh, don't look at yet. That that'll be updated. >> Yeah. The other reason not to do that is because it makes it very hard if anything changes. >> It does. >> If we put everything if we put all the costs like that into each individual
budget, then if the costs change, we're in trouble. >> You'll have a little more variation. >> Hard to move money that way as opposed like we have all the insurance in one line. It's just easier to deal with that than it is to deal with. >> Kind of comes out in the wash a little
more. Yeah. Yeah, I'd agree with that. >> So, I'll take a quick pause if there's any questions and kind of this this high level overview at the moment. >> And obviously, I'm not trying to say that we don't need to do anything about our spending, uh, that everything's great there. It's not. Clearly, we have a deficit. So, we're going to need to
talk about in the long term, you know, what we want to do about this. And we could even talk in the short term about what to do about it. Um, you know, what I will present to you tonight is what I'm thinking of as a path forward for this year to try to close this deficit. Um, but one avenue available to you is
to in the next few weeks think about where you would want to do significant spending cuts and just move forward with that. I feel like that would need more time to to get right and I would propose that we try to, you know, develop a path to doing that over the next year. looking at more either um consolidating
or regionalizing of services and then looking at areas for more cuts. I think that's more of a year endeavor than the next few weeks, but that's up to all of you to determine how you want to go. And one thing we can try to do is be more aggressive with with cuts. I'll show you where we're at right now and what I've
identified for that first round and then I'll show you what I think is a is a path towards getting us to closing deficit this year. Are are you going to go through individual budgets since we haven't seen we the finance committee haven't been seeing a lot of the select
board side of the ledger? >> Um I can um >> I think it makes sense to do so. Um yeah, we certainly can. >> Um >> Sure. >> I think I'll I'll keep it >> this helps get a better sense a general sense of
>> where we're going, what we're thinking about. And I can keep it high level for the moment, but I think at some point we'll need to get a little deeper there because we still have some decisions on some line items even if that that makes sense. So I'll just show you my overall thoughts on a plan here. So I kind of
have four overall buckets. So there's looking at how do we spend use alternate sources and that that is tiny. Sorry. tiny and can't see anything. So, if we need to So, the number I've
been playing with, we're having to get to this says 425 right now. We're trying to get to uh 568. So, that's why it says needed is another 143,000. So, the four large buckets are using alternate sources. So like we talked
about water sewer um or community preservation act or just other sources that we have. Um the next is cuts. So bringing down the general fund budget account closings. That's like what we did in November when we had money that was sitting out there from other
accounts so we could close and then move those savings to the general fund budget. That's a one-time source, but you can do it. And then the last option available to us, I'd say, is using free cash and stabilization. Our free cash came in pretty high this year. Um, if we
feel comfortable using some free cash this one year to try to close that deficit. I think it's an avenue available to us. You could do the same with stabilization. It would be better to not because that's supposed to be our long-term money for a rainy day. You could also argue this is a rainy day. Uh, and I think that's a defensible
position as well. So, can you tell me about alternate sources? Maybe I'll take you through that. >> Maybe I missed No, you're not discussion on that. >> And it's kind of a broad idea here. So, Community Preservation Act funds, you you can use up to 5% of your annual
allocation for admin costs. We have some staff members who are putting a decent amount of time into admin costs for uh CPA and we haven't been capturing that from their salaries. So, I'd like to do that with the assistant planner and with the uh administrative assistant. So, uh Belly Joerger and and Lori Pecard are
putting decent amount of time. So, that could capture $10,000. It's it's not huge, but I think it's something allowable and it makes sense. >> Um the assessors will be meeting next week, but uh you they do want to see regular return of overlay surplus into
um either into the budget or or wherever else. We did do $60,000 in November. Um, but there's a decent amount there. Uh, and it's it could be uh considered all right to do another 20,000. We have to decide if we were comfortable doing this again, but last November we did the
cemetery sale lots at 9500 to cover the the cemetery budget line and DPW. We could do that again if the cemetery commission is is comfortable with that. So, so, so just remind me I the cemetery sale lots were se selling more or
>> what's I'm sorry the question was >> are we selling more lots? Is that what >> No, it's it's a it's a line it's a um historic amount that they have from selling lots in the past. They are still selling lots as far as I'm yeah >> aware and they they still
>> have it but >> we expanded it right. So there's still there's there's money in an account. >> There's money in this account >> from sale of of cemeter. >> I don't think we should think of it as an entirely renewable source. I don't think we'll always be getting it, but it
is an account that we have that we don't use much of. Um, and we did it we used it last year. We could use it again and still be in a decent position, >> but we don't want to make a habit of it forever, I would say. >> And what do what do we use that money for if not for this? I think it just
sits there. >> Just sits there. >> Use it for say if there were capital improvements that needed to happen. I mean, our our chair of our cemetery commission is here in case he has any thoughts. Uh but but uh changing hats, but uh yeah, I mean again, I wouldn't
want to make a long-term habit out of it, but it it is >> okay. >> The source that came to mind. >> So if if there was some expense that needed to happen for one of our cemeteries, we have some money sitting in an account that we could possibly do that with. That's right. And at the same time, like we also made a nice
investment last year from capital from community preservation act funds for our cemeteries. You know, that's that's a project that'll be happening this year. >> Um, >> you know, we have some decent sources to help our cemeteries. If we ever needed to, you know, pull free cash to do something there, we we probably could.
So, um, I think it's defensible, but again, it's a small amount of money. We'd have to decide if we want to bother with it. uh using water sewer enterprise to pay for a quarter of the assistant collector's salary. The assistant collector will be spending a lot of time this year on uh water sewer billing and
so I think it's uh understandable to go in that direction >> to charge anything to water and sewer >> for that position. We haven't in the past. >> I thought we used to. >> Are we quarterly billing that this year now? >> Quarterly billing. >> So that's extra work for them because
we're going to quarterly billing, right? >> Yep. That'll be extra work. We don't. We did do it in the past. I'm sure of that. >> That makes sense. >> Yeah, we have. >> And it's possible that it's being collected. >> I'm just trying to figure out like why' we stop. >> Yeah. And it's possible that it's in that offset number that I have, but I
I'll go through and make sure that we're not double counting it. We don't want to double count that, but >> No. >> Um >> I mean, I think it's a reasonable idea. I mean, >> absolutely. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> We also had some uh changes in that position. We had that assistant treasurer position that then we we
zeroed out last year. I think could be part of it. I don't know. Right. >> Uh I'm proposing using a small amount of cable enterprise funds just for maintenance utilities just we hadn't been capturing that in the past from what I can tell. Talk to John if he is okay with that. We have money from tree
works that we had this our cannabis money that we had set aside uh to go towards the carpet project at the schools. That's no longer necessary because that came in so far under budget. So that money is just sitting out there. If we wanted to use it as a one-time offset for any budget, we could. Um, it's also money that's
flexible, and that's a nice thing to have. But, um, it's something that I'm saying we could use this year to to deal with this deficit. >> So, that's the alternate sources line, $94,000. >> Thank you. >> Cuts. So, this is cuts that I have found
in the budget um since it was first presented. Um, and I'm really focusing on larger things here. So, health insurance, um, because there will be some, uh, layoffs in the schools and because of
some other, um, uh, finetuning um, from the the interim budget to the final, I think it's coming down by about 20,000. The public works professional services had kind of overinflated from last year. We can bring that down
$18,000 and still have plenty. Cuts across departments is just, you know, if we do the game, which I think is worth doing of just looking at is there $1,000 here, $500 here that we can bring down each each budget. That'll get us around $20,000 total because we can't think of
it as a large solution. We're not going to, you know, cut off a supplies to to get out of this this issue. But if you do that in enough departments, you do end up with around $20,000. And I feel confident in saying that. Um, the building inspector salary can come down by $15,000 uh if we change that from uh
33-hour a week position to 19 could probably even come down more than that, but I think we should leave some room for it because we want to make sure we find a good candidate and we can talk about what that'll look like. >> So, so can you just So, currently I
>> the former Kyle worked 33 hours. >> Three hours a week. And so what you're you guys are proposing is that or maybe to cut it back to 19. >> Yeah. From early discussions I've had with internal and external folks, it looks like we could
>> and part of that is because, you know, they're the zoning enforcement officer as well. But there's now a a really good amount of support on the zoning from both having our assistant planner from having a engaged um council and then and then our administrative assistants
really done a lot to educate yourself on the zoning as well. We have some support there on the zoning. So you can while the zoning enforcement officer has to make the final decision, they're getting some decent support from the planning staff which is nice. And then there's
been some administrative support from the bet planning office as well, which is nice. So I I think that's adds enough support that we can bring that down. Uh this is eventually your decision, but our finance reserve is 40,000. We've used between 30 and $35,000 of that in
the past. If we cut it down by $10,000, we'll probably be okay, but that's up to you. And then legal, I had increased by $20,000 because of some expected higher legal costs for next year. um together with a settlement that's been hanging out for a while and with the fact that I
I'll be proposing a separate special article to deal with our Route 5 project. I don't think we need 50,000 in legal. I think we need 20,000 but then to set aside other money for the Route 5 project if that sounds good. So that'll be $20,000 in savings for my initial budget.
>> So this is these are just big items that I wanted to draw your attention to, but obviously we should spend some time going through the budget program. Just on the other side, what are we doing on unemployment? >> That's a great question. Um, >> unemployment. Sorry. >> What should we do about unemployment considering
>> increase Yeah, >> it's going to have to. Yeah. >> Now, unemployment, we have both a line item >> and we have an unemployment trust that exists. >> Any unemployment funds we don't spend each year go into the unemployment
trust. So, if you if you budget $25,000, you spend 20, 5,000 goes into that trust. The trust sits at $108,000 right now, which is nice. The um budget we usually put aside is $25,000. And I'm recommending we put $25,000 into the
budget for this year, but that we also >> what's that? >> Use the trust if we have >> use the trust and then set an additional amount aside probably from free cash or we can decide from what a separate amount aside from free cash to replenish that trust. uh just so we have it directly in the trust in case we have to
pull from it a lot this year with those uh layoffs with the schools. The total um from what I can tell working with our treasurer's office, the total liability from what it looks like right now for those uh educational positions would be
about $134,000. So if we have 25,000 budgeted 108 in the trust, you're basically there. But we don't want the trust to go to nothing. So, I'm going to recommend >> and that's if they take all whatever 20 weeks total or whatever that they're that they're 30 weeks whatever they're entitled to. >> So, if somebody gets a job,
>> they're not taking >> they're not they're not going to take all that. So, if somebody gets a job starting in September >> Yep. >> in another district, >> then they they we don't have to they're done with unemployment. >> Yep. >> Well, kind of. >> Now, now the question is when does
unemployment start? >> UN they will be employees through the end of August. >> Correct. Yeah, >> but but if you take another job and then you get laid off from that job, we're still on the hook. >> No, I'm not I get that. But but there's
a possibility that people could get a job and uh >> but how long would you be on the hook for though, Shen? If they were there for a year and then got laid off, are you still on the hook? >> Uh it just depends on how long it goes for. >> Okay. Yeah.
>> You wouldn't be fully on the hook. So the hope is you're prorated on that. >> So the hope is the hope is that we have really good educators that some that that can find another job someplace else. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And then the question is how confident are you in that? And how much of a liability do you
>> Well, I'm not saying we should be confident. I'm just working through in my own mind that that >> you should budget conservatively. >> Yeah. >> That's my recommendation. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And the recommendation would be essentially to have the whole thing covered in the trust, budget at the
25,000 because without even thinking of those positions because we could have other things that come up like we always do, >> right? >> And then have the entire liability covered in the trust, >> right? Well, unemployment is not solely necessarily a function of laying people off. >> For sure. Yeah. We we've we typically
pay >> could file unemployment claims. >> Yeah. We'll pay between 10 and 20,000 most years in that because things happen. Account closings, this is very straightforward. Smith Academy carpets came in under budget. Trash compactor is
going to come in under budget. Police cruiser is going to come in significantly under budget. Um, we had $84,000 from last year's special article. Uh, we're going to come in at around $60,000. So, we'll have some money there that we can put into this year's budget if we want to go in this
direction. >> We have that vehicle yet? >> Uh, yes, we have the vehicle and we just paid for it for some reason. They never sent us an invoice. So, we never should have asked. >> So, is it on the road or is it still getting its work done?
>> I can't answer that. I wish I knew. Yeah. Sorry. >> It is operational. >> There we go. >> All the paints and everything's been done to it. >> It was October. >> Okay. All right. What about the trash compactor? Is that done or not? >> Yeah, the trash compactor that the main
portion of is done. Uh we're using those funds to just fully equip it with some new bins and other things. So, uh that will all be done done in the next uh month or two. So, that's in the right direction. >> Okay.
And then right now, as I said, this is my least preferred method. We have $650,000 in stabilization right now. We have, and I'll go over free cash um in more detail. The current proposal from
me includes $200,000 of free cash. And if you put all of that together, we're still $143,000 short, which I'm trying to close further. And I think part of that will come from nailing down exactly what the offsets are. We should
also talk about leases and the capital plan because right now I'm covering the new vehicles that we'd like to to purchase and we can talk about if if we'd like to wait on that or not. >> Now you're you you I miss might be reading this incorrectly, but your general fund
shortfall for FY27 is 48 481,000. Yeah, I did this after I already made those cuts that I alluded to here. >> Okay. >> And it's not exactly right, but um
>> work work with this number for now. This one from here. >> Okay. >> Um and then and then we'll I'll uh update the work. >> I'll have the accountants update their worksheet. We'll have the double check and then we'll we'll get to an exact number. Did Did you I'm I'm sure you
did, but did you comb through the general budget to see if there's some one-time costs in there that we could comfortably use free cash for? You know what I'm saying?
>> I I Yes, I Yes. Um I went through pretty obsessively um to both look at areas >> find anything that >> the things that I pointed out before. So, public works, uh, professional services, um,
uh, the the, uh, legal line, things like that. >> I mean, >> there's maybe more. >> At some level, at least a portion of your health insurance increase, you're hoping is one time. If this goes up 12, if this goes up 12% a year for the next
five years, um you're gonna have to you're gonna have to uh make some real serious changes in the way you run the town, you know, like I mean that's not >> so presumably at some point it falls back into a normal line of,
>> you know, five, six, >> 7%, whatever is the norm, you know, but it's hard to imagine it stays at 12, 15%. % a year. If it does, we have to radically re-evaluate things like
because that won't work. >> I agree that. Um, >> so in some ways, at least a portion of that is >> because because the the the Hampshire County Trust isn't the only insurance form that's that's under the gun. I mean, even the GIC is
>> running shortfalls in their >> right >> in their insurance money. So, it's not just Hampshire County Trust. that's having issues. >> Huh. >> It is not the only um everyone's having issues right now. >> Yeah. Everybody Everybody says, "Oh, is jumping on the GIC bandwagon, but
they're in the similar situation as Hampshire County Trust as far as the amount of >> Yeah. I mean, they didn't have 40% increases. No, but >> but they're they're >> their bottom line isn't any >> their premiums are higher for a lot of comparable plants, >> right? >> So, >> can you go back to that last slide?
Whatever. The one that showed >> the proposed. >> Yeah. No, not that. Which one? >> Which one? >> Um, >> brother. Now my brain is not um >> we had this
>> the stabilization and the free cash. >> Sure. >> So the stabilization you just put >> I put what I'm comfortable with. But but to be honest, there's $650,000 a year. >> That's what I wanted.
>> Free cash. Actually, now's not a bad time to talk about free cash. That's okay. >> I mean, me personally, I'd rather keep stabilization there and push up free cash. Yeah, but >> that would be >> there's no reason to. >> So, let me show you where free cash is
at right now. >> That's one pocket to another anyway. If you're >> really in the end, I mean, >> right. >> All right. So, our free cash was certified last year and can folks see this somewhat. All right. >> Yeah. >> Free cash was certified at 1,ion59,995.
Um, our accountants have asked that we use $92,000 uh to correct an issue that was made years ago and never fixed when $92,000 was marked as being taken out of free cash but never actually moved. So, we need to correct for that. The
auditors would like to see us do that and I think we probably should. I'm currently budgeting $94,000 for health insurance for this year. As a reminder, you know, we didn't budget enough for that midyear 20% increase. It
was only $94,000 more, which is actually pretty good considering, you know, how much more it's costing us. But, uh, I'm currently budgeting that from free cash. We could also see if we can make some internal transfers, uh, from our current budget. Uh, that's also an option. Same
thing with snow and ice. Um, Marlo is confident that he can find half of this amount from his current budget instead of transferring it all from free cash. So, he thinks that our total snow and ice liability for or total snow ice
number for free cash he thinks should be around $35,000, which would be great because we've been at 100 for the last two years. So, >> but well, but we're really at 70. >> We're just we're just finding it somewhere else. >> I know, but it would be great.
>> I if it's not >> I mean, it would be, but it Yeah. >> And and to be very clear, >> just remember that probably closed to free cash this year, >> you know, which means next year you aren't going to have it cash. >> And we could do this from cash. That's
that's an option >> because we've always done it from free cash. >> Yes, we have. And and I will say you were hitting at something important that the more we do this, you know, using your free cash from this year and the more we, you know, make make uh transfers from other lines, we might not have a lot of free cash next year. It
might be pretty small. So, we should just be aware of that that we're not always going to have tons of >> right as we tighten up. I mean, all the I mean, free cash all comes from money that's unspent in the budget and basically >> and and revenue that came in higher than >> that we didn't expect, right? Which is
great. Don't forget, don't forget part of that $1.1 million is that we didn't spend >> half a million dollars of our free cash last year. >> That's right. Right. >> So, >> we ended up at 567, I think. >> And so, if And the other thing is depending on what we decide that we're
not going to spend out of that this year. >> Yep. >> That'll still be there next year. Y >> So, let's say the number is 400,000 this year that we say we're not going to touch that. >> Y, >> we're going to leave it. >> That's our base. >> That's our base going into next year. We're not I don't see it any at all that
we're going to spend all that free cash. >> No, no. All I'm saying though is that when you shrink lines >> I No, I'm I'm 100% with you. >> You reduce your future free cash because that's where it's coming from. >> Yeah. >> And also last year our free cash number was was healthy like it is this year and we put 100,000 stabilization which is
great too. So that stabilization number is where it's at because we part >> and quite and quite truthfully the the the if you look at the capital plan for the next five years. There's not a lot of smaller kind of
things on there right now. Anything that's on there is going to be big money that you're going to have to do some sort of a debt exclusion or override or whatever to get any of those things up. So, if you have a couple hundred,000 in free cash expenses every year, that's
really where we're at. I mean, we knocked a lot of stuff off of that capital plan last year. >> Yeah. Yes. >> Between what we bought, we spent money on, plus the debt exclusion for the schools, for the parking lots, uh, that kind of stuff. So, a lot of stuff came
off of that capital plan last year. Um, >> a lot of stuff that was on there for a long time. >> For a long time. Yeah. >> Like those parking lots. Exactly. 10 years. I you know >> plus we also got like 900,000 infrastructure money a couple years ago that we were able to use that helped us
right >> in a lot of ways. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> So um current plan shows 68,500 from snow uh from free cash to snow and ice. We could do less if we wanted to and make up some of it from this year's budget. I'd still
like to do the OPED reserve transfer because I think this is the liability that that'll be out there forever. It's a good idea to at least stay on track with our modest contribution. I am not right now budgeting for anything to go to stabilization considering we're talking about
potentially even using it. So, we don't need to put towards it. But >> I I think you should just get rid of the line for this year to be honest with you. >> See that there just so I'm reminded of my own personal failings. But, uh, I'm a glutton for punishment.
>> So, right now I have $200,000 for for budget supplement. So, that's the free cash going towards our FY27 budget. We'll talk about that. >> Uh, this is a real budget breaker. Uh, $27,990 $2,790 for the prior year's bill.
>> Yeah. >> Right now, looking at $92,000 for capital. That basically, David, funds all the things that you had on your capital list. And I'll show you what that looks like. I um want to we might play around with this number. I have $60,000 right now
for Route Five expenses, but what I'd also like to do is we have a $90,000 line that was put out last year for um MS4 work. We still haven't touched that yet and I think it's going to take longer. So, I'd be comfortable moving some of that to Route 5 expenses, too.
Um I'd leave it to this group to think how much we want there, but that would get us to at least like 105, maybe more. >> Did we cover all of it out of MS forward? can move to the full 90 if we wanted to. It's it's a question of when we're going to start doing some of that MS4 money. Uh doing some of that MS4 work, which
>> What is the MS4? Sorry. >> That's um some uh compliance and and uh and reporting that we need to do um in new systems on our uh small sewer system essentially that the state issues us a permit for having a sewer system and we need to
>> show compliance on that. Um, yeah. So, I think we need to figure out what we want that route five number to be. >> Yeah. Could we just move that 60,000 rather than the full 90? >> Yeah. >> And just fund that whole line. >> Yeah. I I I would do that. And >> you think that's taking too much or >> No, it's it's really a question of what
you want that route five number to be. And I think we could get by with only $30,000 for this year with the MS4 money. I' I'd be comfortable with that. >> What What's already in there, Andrew? >> 90. >> So, that's what we appropriated last year. >> Yeah. and we haven't used any yet. And
>> and what what are the chances you're going to use 90 the next fiscal year? >> I don't even know if we're going to use >> I think they're small. I I think you know it's it's something that we're working on. It's it's somewhat on the back burner. The our engineering company DPC is is doing that, but they're also working on our
>> sewer plant and a number of other things for us. So, um I think it's the kind of thing that we we'll work on when we can until someone tells us you have to get this done immediately. >> I don't think that'll happen next year. Is it something we can just reach out to Dave Pricket about and find out? Like >> I'm comfortable with that.
>> We work better under the gun anyway. >> And then we can calculate what we >> would that would be nice if we could >> satisfy that from the MS4 money. >> Yeah. And we'll see what we think the the legal and engineering money should be for next year. and I want to put it in
its own um >> but that's a separate article correct >> was that >> that's a separate article >> I would like to put a separate article for for root five >> right yeah >> for this year or next >> for FY27 I want I want our own account >> legal and engineering
>> for route five legal and engineering to help us figure out what's what what we're going to do to mitigate the route five project and then ideally all that money comes back to us in some kind of agreement settlement. >> I I don't want to open too big a can of worms, but
>> does the state have any responsibility since they funded a big portion of that? Are they helping us in any way or is that not even possible? >> They've been very responsive and and want to help and we'll see if that translates into dollars.
>> Okay. That's what I was wondering. >> I would not rule it out at all. I think it could absolutely happen. >> I mean, that that would be good. >> Yeah. >> We've been in contact with them. >> Yeah. No, they the mass works program staff and obviously our our legislators have been very responsive and they
>> because I I would assume they're probably just as frustrated as you guys are. So, >> they were they were shocked when I told them where we're at and they're not happy. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, we'll figure out the right number there. $35,000 for that
unemployment trust like I talked about earlier. I think that's a modest contribution that would help me sleep more easily. And then Elm Court, we can talk about this, but there seem to be interest from the board in moving forward with this at I'm going to put uh 60,000
just to round us up. Whoops. What did I do? Come on. >> Yeah, there we go. >> Just for now. But um >> is that for the cementing the floor thing again? button buttoning up the building >> to get that building into usable space
as a DPW garage, >> concrete floor, electrical, and uh >> garage door openers. So, it's actually weathertight and usable. >> Yeah. >> Including like an apron out in front of it and all that stuff. >> So, we can decide if we want to do that this year, but I think there's a lot of
good reasons to do so. And I have that separate from the rest of the capital plan. Um capital expenses. >> We're that close to >> Oh, no. I >> we would have we we we all supported it last year. >> So we're real close to fishing there.
>> Capital expenses. We talked about uh fire radios, guardrail mower, debris loader, and then the fire department apparatus roof. >> So Andrew, did you get Marlo's um email about Okay. He's also hoping in his budget to to have the money for the
guardrail mower as well >> out of this year's budget. Leftover money. >> I'm carrying it. We don't have to. Um, >> yeah. >> And uh, and just so everybody's up to speed, the apparatus bay roof, we have two choices there, >> right? >> That's the metal roof cost.
>> This is the >> the asphalt the higher one >> cost is 35. >> Yeah. >> So depending on which way you wanted to go with that. >> So that means the that means no vehicles coming out of capital this year. Is that what you're telling or you're >> Yeah. This would be vehicles coming from
leases. This would only be leases for vehicles, >> right? So, we've cut the budget Marlo's budget for leases down because we're trying to save money there. Correct. >> Uh, we've cut the Marlo's budget for
leases down because two leases came off the books. Yes. Two packages. >> And we're not pl and we weren't planning to put more on that. Correct. >> Well, I put them on there because it seemed like the interest it seemed like that's the way the capital committee was leaning. So, I'm covering it. >> Okay. So, here's a here's a thought.
>> Mhm. >> Could we cover the first year of the lease payments out of out of free cash and and to to try to save that Marlo's, you know, money on in that line in Marlo's budget and then restore that
number back into his budget next year when our hopefully our financial situation is a little bit better. So, you're starting even lower then. >> What's that? >> You'll be starting even lower behind the eightball. >> It won't be better be I mean
>> because have to make up this >> $200,000 right off right off the bat off the bat. You know what I mean? So, like I think it's a I think the lease question is really a question of like have we done enough over the last 10
years or however long we've been doing it to get ourselves to a place where we can do less of it now like can we do that? >> Are you looking at the the chief's vehicle and the mini loader? Is that what you're talking about? >> That's correct. >> Just those two pieces. >> Just those two vehicles.
So, if you because So, you're looking at about a $45,000 firstear payment on those two. >> I was I was carrying 40. I'll have to look at what the exact numbers are. And to be honest, I was carrying 30 because I was looking at the possibility of half of that lease payment coming from
ambulance receipts reserved, but we'd have to decide if that's really appropriate. >> Can we do that? I would say yes because the the vehicle belongs to the ambulance director slash
um fire chief and I think paying for part of it from that fund is is appropriate but we'd have to confirm with the accountants and you know I think it's also a question for the department head who who's here. Um but I I that's how I've been carrying it but we can change it if we need to.
>> No no but it it would be I don't want to say legal but it would be appropriate to do that. That's my understanding from that accountants told me when I when I >> but we we can double check. >> All right. >> Because I think that I have those numbers here. I'd have to let me dig for
>> the fire department apparatus bay roof. Which building those >> the chief the the fire chief vehicle if if we did a 5-year lease would be about 19,634 for the first year. 19634.
>> Yes. The mini loader is is 12,000 more than that. >> Okay. >> So, I'm going to guess that that's going to be probably what 21. Yeah. So, probably 40 or 41 42,000 >> would be the first year's lease payments on those two things. >> Yep.
That's why I was wondering if if you know I don't know that that was what my kind of an idea was if >> and to be honest yeah Dave there's a chance that kind of all of the lease payments end up being made for free cash
when when the accountants look at how do you apply free cash to a budget they'll kind of look for capital expenses onetime expenses that they feel more comfortable with. So it might just say, "All right, all your leases for next year, let's put a special article together and have them paid for by free cash." That that might be something they
do with all of them. So it's could already be counted in that 200 >> for this coming year. >> That might be something the accountants recommend. Um because when I say $200,000 in free cash in the budget, you kind of need a mechanism for that. That might be what they recommend. >> Oh, okay. Oh, okay. using that $200,000
that you're recommending go towards >> when I say $200,000 towards free cash. They might say you do it but by to pay for that lease. >> Where do you have it as funding sources now? >> I I don't I kind of have it as a hypothetical. >> Okay. >> But that wouldn't reduce the would that
reduce then Marlo's line item in his budget for leases. >> It would >> not functionally. >> It would just change the funding sources. >> Just the funding sources. And and if we wanted it to reduce it, then I'd list it here as a >> right
>> as either another use of free cash. Yeah, I would use I'd list it here as another use of free cash. >> Yeah. >> Essentially, >> yeah, if it goes in a funding source in the budget itself, it doesn't reduce the line at any time. It just >> it's just all >> instead of from taxation, it comes from cash and then
>> presumably unless you do the same thing again next year, you got to >> move it over to taxation. Can we look at debt just though for one second? >> Yeah. >> Um, let's do it from here. >> I guess my question just is
the entirety of the sewer project. Mhm. >> Oh, >> where is that? >> That lives here. >> Excluded. >> Yes. >> Yeah, >> there are two different Oh, sewer
pieces. >> Actually, I Yes, it should all be excluded. There's one piece I need to just confirm. >> One piece that's separate, though. >> Supposed to be $132,000 that comes from the town. I need to just confirm that.
that still counts as excluded debt or if that counts as something it's supposed to come from. >> We did that the following year, >> right? >> Um it's it's really just a part of our the hundreds or $30,000 I'm thinking of really just comes from our uh documents
with USDA. They they look for a town contribution of some kind. As long as I can still count that as part of the regular project here, we're fine. But if that needs to be counted from some other source rather than debt, then we start looking at does that make sense to have come from water sewer enterprise. But
that's that's another story. >> Well, I mean I guess that's what I'm sort of poking for here. Is there something is there anything we can move to water and sewer rates? I mean, given that we've taken on
the town has taken on $150,000 >> in debt payments to fund the sewer system solely at the expense of taxpayers. >> And they did so, you know, through a debt exclusion that taxpayers voted for. So, so most of that debt
>> Yeah. Even if we said, "Okay, now it's from water sewer." It wouldn't translate to general fund savings. >> No, I understand that it already is. >> Yeah. No, I understand that part. The the part I'm I'm looking at though is that is there anything that in water and sewer that the general fund is paying
for? >> Interesting. Is there anything coming from water and sewer? >> So, either uh regular borrowing uh >> could be one thing. >> So, let's look at a regular borrowing because I was thinking about that today. vehicle is is uh leases are already captured by water sewer.
>> Um if you could make the case that any of these are there's are related in any way to water and sewer spending then you could do that firet truck fire mini pumper or
perhaps the main street culvert. >> There's a piece of storm water water drainage infrastructure there you could try to make an argument that it's related to water sewer. Um I don't know if that would hold >> with a No. >> No, I don't think so. >> Yeah.
>> So, we're not doing we're not doing anything else, right? We're not doing the um So, like all the other sort of project, not the mechanicals, but the actual infrastructure stuff that we did is all paid off. The nonrotating biological contact or the grit conveyor
like all >> done. Sure. That's um being paid for through enterprise debt already, I believe. So, wastewater gravity thickener conversion, water filtration plant. Those are already being paid out of water sewer. And then we've got
Yeah. The rest of this water transmission lines, that's excluded debt. >> So, explain to me again the $12 million we're investing down there, it's all debt excluded.
Why can't some of that be come out of water and sewer? >> It can. >> It could, >> but it doesn't help you with this question of what do I do about my general fund? >> Just reduces the >> deficit with with the >> just reduces it. >> It it it would reduce the tax.
>> It doesn't reduce >> your um >> Yeah, because it's not a general it's Yeah. would it would reduce the tax rate and increase >> water and sewer rates presumably or whatever reduce the >> So it's a separate it's a separate problem you're looking at a separate question you could do that
>> but it would reduce the tax rate >> it wouldn't do anything to >> it would but it wouldn't help you with your levy limit >> if if right now the big question we're talking about is how do we get under the levy limit it doesn't help you with that >> no >> right and and we're not when are we when
are we capturing the full rate of the project >> uh I would say next year the first year or 28 >> 28 will be the full impact >> and then at that point yeah I mean at some point
whoever whoever's on the board board of selectmen don't we need to decide how much of that actually comes from taxation and how much of it comes from rates I mean we had talked I think that was a date cricket or I probably got his name wrong.
>> No, it's the state brick. >> Yeah. >> Where, you know, you could do, you know, 40% from from your water sewer or, you know, and then 60% from the D, whatever. But >> but that's a discussion that we probably
can't that can't happen until >> we fully take on the debt. >> I will say this, the right time there are two right times to have that conversation. One is once we see the full impact of the debt, but the other is in a couple weeks when we talk about setting the water sewer rates for next year because you want to set yourself in
a position where there's enough revenue there to start doing that. >> So we'll come back to that when we come set the water sewer rates before July 1st. >> So we'll need to do that probably the first meeting in June. >> Yeah. >> Set those rates.
>> Great. >> Okay. So, um, just so my colleagues are aware, one of the things on the, um, capital plan is Ferry and King Street pump station emergency generators, which
are things that need to happen and it's a $650,000 expense, but there's hopefully going to be money left over in our grant from the USDA for the in the wastewater treatment to take care of that. or that would be a number that would be on our capital plan that we'd
really have to be looking at in the next year or two. >> And I will say um what is >> the bid the bids >> backup generators for the ferry and King Street pump stations. >> Oh, >> so we had that budget at 650 um because of this is the one that we were rolling
into the Yes. the project. Yeah. >> We had a budget at 650 because that's the number that uh our general contractor came back with. We went out to bid for that and I think the the full amount came in around 350. So, >> we're going to move forward with that. >> For the two. >> For the two. >> Yeah.
>> I was going to say for a generator. >> That's what they That's was just a number that was put in there by somebody else. >> Well, that it's the number that our general contractor said they would do it for. It's just they >> it's but you bid the project and now it's
>> we re we bid it out and our bids came back very competitive and we can do it for 350. >> Yeah. That's great. >> It's really great. And that's grant money. So it's not that's not going to cost us a nickel. >> Doesn't cost the town anything. >> It's it's the grant. So we're looking to spend
>> our challenge now is to spend the rest of that grant. >> Do we not have backup generators at th those locations now? >> I think it's it's for replacement of them, I believe. >> One other one other quick >> have a backup generator on Route 5. >> Oh, great. >> Yeah. >> One one other need one right now, right?
currently only one, but >> I'm just saying if we're looking to spend the rest, like that might be an option there. >> Good thought. >> One one other one other uh capital plan and Andrew, you and I have been in touch with this over is the the town hall uh
flooring project. >> Sure. >> So, a grant was a CPA was >> right >> put in a grant for the to replace it. They've denied it. They're don't believe that they didn't get enough information or they didn't what
whatever CPA is >> David's not better >> has has yeah has considered it twice and they're not going to fund it this year. >> How much was it for? Was it like >> $28,000? >> Can we just take that out of free cash and do it? >> So that's >> I'd really rather not because we can get
it funded by CPA. >> I think I think they'll go for it next year but we're put we have to put it off for a year. >> Um >> that's how I'm feeling. Yeah. I >> Why do you think they'll change their mind next year? >> Well, >> we're gonna be nicer next year. >> We've we've brought them more
information which they requested. Uh one of their members has already um looked over and and is is supporting the fact that we put maple flooring down to match the maple flooring in the rest of the building, which would be historically correct. >> We'll have a better application.
>> Yeah, it'll be it'll be a Yeah, they didn't like our application. and they didn't like how they didn't get all the information they wanted in a timely fashion. And so, >> and there were also legitimate questions about the we were kind of building the the plane as we were flying it and I think next year we'll we'll be ready to go, which is good. So,
>> as long as we feel comfortable with uh waiting year of the project, which I think we can, but >> yeah. So, >> well, do you feel that floor is unsafe in any way at this time? >> What's that? Do you feel that the floor is is unsafe, would cause anybody to
trip or get hurt when they walk in? I >> I don't think that's the issue. I think the only issue is is how concerned are we about the >> Well, the only reason I brought it up because if it was, then free cash would be the way to go around. >> The concern is obviously it's crumbling
and the I'm assuming the mastic in there has asus in it. >> Yeah, both the mastic and the tile have asestous. If we can find a easy way to cover it for the year or something, maybe that would help. But >> just got to grind it. The only way to get the adabus out of that nestic is you
got to almost like grind. >> They're going to replace they're going to pull it all out. It has to be a total abatement job. >> Well, I know by abatement company, >> right? Go to Home Depot carpet put over. >> Yeah. >> Um >> yeah, if you covered it with some carpet
>> Yeah. >> that would that would take care of it for for a short term. So, I think one of the things we should discuss too is the the roof on the fire apparatus bay. And since the chief's here, it might be a good time. >> Sure. >> My general feeling with it with the
lifespan of shingles now, I think we could probably get away with asphalt shingles. Also taking the consideration that there is, you know, between the comprehensive plan and it's in capital for future for a public safety complex somewhere in town that might not
necessarily be that building that if we were going with the cheaper option of the asphalt, we'd essentially save ourselves that extra money, $23,000, but also we can deal with the roof problem in another 20 years, whatever that
building might be used for. um if that building ever gets retrofitted, there's a dormer added to it, anything like that, it would just be a shame to cut into a metal roof for that when you know if we we certainly could go with a cheaper option now and then whatever
happens with that building, even if it is in 20 years, we have to put a roof on it again or 30 years, however long it is down the road, but it'd be a pretty substantial savings this year. >> Which which building is that? >> It's the just the general fire station >> where all the trucks are charged >> like the base.
>> Why Why don't we just call it the fire station? >> The apparatus bed. >> Think of the fire station as is where like the training room and everything is. We're talking about the one with the the engines in it, right? The actual apparatus. >> The actual apparat Okay. >> Yeah. >> So, I I mean,
>> somebody built a building that I'm not aware of. >> It has two layers of asphalt shingles on it now, so it has to be stripped regardless. But it it's lasted this long with asphalt on it. I think we can probably continue it with asphalt. Um, what do you think, Chief? >> My opinion would be to put it as
>> great,000. >> 35,000 is the quote from Florence Roofing to do that. >> I would say $33,000. It sounds like it could be used somewhere else. >> Yeah. >> So maybe out of that so that we're not having to find the additional 28,000 to do the tile. It's almost would be you
could do the tile tit for tat on that. So the savings that you would see from doing the roof and asphalt instead of metal would essentially fund the the tile project and the town hall. >> The other thing you could do is just take care of the um asbestous
remediation and then wait for the rest of the project. But I guess it's really you do it all in one shot. >> You got to you got to put something back down though because you're pulling the tile out and the underllayment which has >> all one shot >> which has Yeah. >> Yeah. My only concern about that that
waiting for CPA is it feels like a reasonable offer to do it. The money feels reasonable >> to just do it for free cash. No, I mean like the 28,000 doesn't seem like a lot of money for that project considering you're going to do abatement and everything like
>> do you if you wait a year >> what happens >> is somebody you know is the next price going to be 38,000 >> but that would that would be CPA funds not >> right >> free cash I think that's the that's the >> trade-off
>> but the the the crux of the issue is personally I want CPA to pay for it >> I don't think it should come out of free cash or anything because that's a it's a it's it's fixing a historical building which we've spent how many millions of dollars on >> and we can't fund that out of any of the
leftover line item money from like the school boiler replacement or any of that stuff. Right. >> Oh, interesting. Um probably not because that was funded through um debt exclusion and we were pretty specific about what projects we were funding. Yeah.
>> On that in the exclusion ballot vote. Um but it can be reallocated once that project is done and if we end up with extra money we can vote to reallocate that in some way right >> and we've already captured the over money from the
>> carpet installation right because there's money >> carpet installation was was 3 I I have it in the budget >> oh yeah it was like 3500 or something >> what's the CPA balance currently >> like and it's the time to uh start thinking
about taking a half percent off or putting it to a vote of the town of taking a percent off that every year to come up with some of these shortfalls. >> It's a great question, John. Um because I I thought about that earlier this year. And the only reason I wouldn't suggest doing that right now is that our match is still really good. We're still
getting because we're at the 3% we we basically double our our money from from the state match at the moment. But if the state match ever starts, you know, decreasing, um, which it could now that there's more towns that are taking part in it, then something to think about. >> I think we're in about the top 10% of of
match from the state compared to all the other cities and towns that do CP CPA, but I'm with 100%. There's about $3 million in the CPA account right now. >> So, our search charge was 251 and final. >> Some of it though can't be spent. >> No, no, no. I Yeah, some of it can't be spent on this project
>> on this project. Yeah. I mean like >> they're finally we're finally going to have a housing one on this year's >> right >> um warrant. So >> we've not spent any housing money out of that at all >> right >> since since it was established. >> But if we get that housing trust we'll
be able to transfer that money into that housing trust and probably actually use it finally. >> We'll have some live money. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Well, on that note also they can't spend the money if people don't bring projects. Correct. People should bring Absolutely. There's no question.
vindictive thing because they're not going to do the flooring. It's just >> But I will say if you do bring projects, they do still need to be well thought out and good applications because I had six rejections this year and uh >> not like me. >> Not like what Andrew tried to pull.
>> Yeah, they just have to be very thorough applications. >> I I still think you've we just spend the 28,000 or whatever and do the floor and get it done with. I mean, I'm frustrated with CP CPA, too, or C, but just get it
done. It I agree with Sean. Small dollars. Next year is going to be more. Yes, it's going to be CPA that might take it, but they have their chance. >> Probably 32,000 next year, >> right? >> Which is which would still be less than I thought going into the project of what
it would cost. I figured it would be 50 grand or more. >> Yep. >> Because if there was a speestous in there. >> Yeah. >> But Some of the CPA members couldn't believe that it was only going to be like 12,000 and something to do the abatement. >> We can >> do you have the paperwork on I said, "Yeah, they >> Yeah. When you
they're they're going over in like a fine tooth." >> We do those at work all the time and literally they you don't you never see them. They come on Friday night, they tape the thing off, and they're gone by Monday morning. Like they'll have that done so fast. It's such a small area.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. doing. >> Well, I I think we can certainly carry that for now. And if we need to make a change based on, you know, where the final position is looking like, we can we can do that. We can also ask the DPW director, um, Marlo, if he feels like he'd rather get it done this year if he
thinks we can wait and it's kind of call. I defer to this group. >> If you put it on the warrant and the people decide >> that's true, >> if they want to use CPA and wait or they want to use free cash, right? I mean, that's another way.
>> Well, it's Yeah, it's I mean, it's unfortunate that it happens to be right in the entryway to the town hall that we spent millions of dollars on. And it looks like it does. You know what I mean? Like it's >> How many people walked over that floor coming in to watch a basketball game
back in the day? >> Yeah. >> Right. >> I'm sure it looked better then, though. Yeah. Place >> used to be packed. Yeah. Balcony was standing room only. >> Yeah. Okay. Um, well, this gives you an idea
of kind of what our free cash picture looks like. Um, that would be, you know, a decent amount of spending. If we did this current version of the plan, and I think a few of these we still need to narrow in on, it would leave us $353,000 for next year, which isn't terrible. So, uh,
>> no, I Yeah, I mean, just being realistic, >> it's probably important to do that because this may happen again next year. I mean, I'm I'm not trying to be >> it's going to happen next year if we don't make significant changes.
>> Yeah, we we I mean, >> even if we do make significant changes, we don't know what the overall picture of next year is going to be like, and it seems like it might be slightly unpredictable. >> Yeah. So, like how are how are Medicaid cuts, you know, potentially going to
impact the state? >> You know, >> we're in the top four states of risk of hospitals closing here. Thanks. >> You know, so like how are those things going to impact, you know, the over states ability to continue funding
things that they've been funding, you know, like and other stuff could happen. >> Is the cold that you're coming from? >> If insurance goes up another 12%, we're going to need coat back. >> Well, they got the mini splits on. So, >> yeah, >> they just thermostat's over there.
>> It's uh Yeah, it's like the air conditioning. >> My hands are freezing. >> Nice. >> Okay. >> All right. Oh, Sean's on it. That's all. >> You would hope maybe that the that the
that the uh the the funding school funding formulas will maybe change for next year and that this the rural districts might get a little bit more >> Yeah. >> uh help than they than they've been getting in the past. Ju just generically
speaking though, if you just review where Hatfield sits in that >> unless there is some kind of major infusion of money like there was the first time,
>> right? um and all boats are being lifted >> where we are relative to foundation and stuff. It's just hard to imagine how >> they Well, it's that's the whole funding formula that needs to change. It's and it's not even just infusion of more cash.
>> Yeah, I know. you. It's really hard to get votes in the legislature to change the formula in any specific way unless you have cash to hold people harmless because it's hard to get people to vote to say, "Hey, we're going to take 20% from your
school. Is that cool?" Yeah. >> And you were going to give it to somebody else, you know, like people don't want to do that funny enough. And so that's a problem, you know, like unless you have large amounts of cash to push in there to move everybody up and some up more than others. It just makes
it hard to make those adjustments, get the votes on any because everyone was going to do the math eventually and go, "Yeah, I like that." You know? >> So, I mean, that's how they did the f just like regionalization, right? >> Like that's how they did regionalization. You push a whole bunch
of cash onto the table and nobody gets hurt, so everyone's okay with it. But without the cash, it makes it a lot different >> and without continuing that funding that they promised. >> Well, right. I mean, you can I mean, but 10 years from now, you know, >> right? >> That's another person's problem, you
know? I got to worry about this election and the next one. Like that's kind of >> I mean, Washington just moves depends on whoever is in the office. depends whether they're giving money to the states or they're not giving money to
the states. Whether they're funding certain things or they're not funding stuff, which always puts us in turmoil because we never >> It's a math It's a math problem. >> Well, and it's happened to many different things. Every time there's a a change in the way you fund things, some
there's always weird outliers, right? So, there's always some weird outlier in there who's getting hurt by it because of whatever their circumstance is. And usually how you fix that is not we go out and try to rewrite the whole formula to account for that one person, but we
go, "Okay, we're going to put aside a quarter of a million dollars a year and all the people who fall into that bucket." And there was that was >> there was a rural regional school aid thing for that, right? There was that happened with the county sheriffs. It's happened throughout history. And what
they do is they set aside a pot of money and then you can draw out of that pot of money to make up for the problem. they used to in ad funding they call the pothole account but you know eventually 15 years down the road somebody says why are we putting money in there because
everyone's forgotten what the historic reason for that was 15 years ago you know so that's without that money though it just makes it hard because somebody will get hurt >> okay >> so are we thinking part of that 200,000
budget supplement from free cash. Some of that could be considered health insurance helping the health insurance side or Right. >> I think so. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I think I'm not sure how much it matters what we apply it to. I
think our accounts will help us figure out like what makes sense. I like it. I think you're right. Yeah. And that and that 200,000 free cash that's separate obviously from this 94,000 for this year's health insurance >> because that's that's this year's bill. >> That's right. Right.
>> You know, it's also it's not like it's not like a necessarily a legal requirement that you use that one-time items either. >> Right. >> I mean, we could say >> we could say we're using it to buffer the cost over two years. You know, you can do whatever. >> Other communities I've worked in have just done it when you set the tax rate
to say, "All right, now we're going to use some free cash and we're going to bring the tax rate down by by doing this." And that's >> not a great practice, but it's something that a lot of folks do. Um, so it's fine. It's Um, great. Okay. So, I think um
I guess what I want to say is >> I just had a question. So, we're going to put 10,000 in OPED again. >> That would be my recommendation, but that's up to all of you. >> Do we need to capture that on the blue sheet that you had printed out for us? >> Because Great question. I the reason I
don't put that on there is because um I'm recommending taking it from free cash rather than building into the budget. >> Um so I I'm leaving that blank for now. Um because it's not if you put it in there as a budget expense then uh it'll start throwing the budget off track.
Yeah. But no, great great point. Um, so I guess what I'd say is even with all this, >> we're still $143,000 short. >> That's correct. >> I guess that was probably alludes to my next question. So like the public works line. >> Yeah.
>> Um, that's just for expenditure, right? That's not salaries as well. Or is it both? >> No, that's basically a consulting line. >> Um, the the PW professional services. >> No, no, the public works on the I'm on the blue sheet. Sorry. >> Sorry. On the blue sheet. That's everything. That's salaries and uh and
expenditures. >> Okay. So that's the same across for all of the different department >> all of the Yeah. And I can show you the specifics. >> So can So to that point to to Luke's
point with salary. So did you include any kind of cola any cost of >> any of that stuff? >> This covers a 2.6% cola. >> Okay. >> Okay. If schools are doing 2.7, then I need to update it. It's not a lot. It's not end up being a huge difference,
>> but it carries the 2.6 cola for all >> employees. I did keep boards and commissions stable at the 0%. I did not add an increase for them. We can talk about if you'd like to build that in. Um, typically we do. It's not a lot of money.
>> Walk away. >> It's typically it's not a lot of money. It's not a big deal. >> So little money. At the same time, my my thought is >> my thought was in a tough budget year, do we do we ask our board and commission members to to to take a level amount
>> can't take his that would probably fund every all the boards and commissions >> for 2.7%. >> So I think that's a decision if you'd like me to just model it with the raise for them. It's not a lot of money. >> I've been on this horse for a long time.
Like just in terms of this is this is not doing this is how you end up with somebody gets a dollar. You know what I mean? Because in 17, you know, 98 they got a dollar and that was a lot of money and it never changed since then.
>> You know, like and so that's how you wind up with these $150 $300 items in there. Mhm. >> And so I've been sort of promoting the idea we should always include them because you know it but but the reality of that is it's never going to actually work because there's never actually ever
enough money and it's never going to go up enough. We'll be here for another 200 years doing the same deal. >> So maybe what's really what we should really do is at some point sit down and figure out what is a reasonable amount of money to do this thing and should we
just get rid of some of them like is the $150 for the fence. Is that attracting anyone? Is it making any difference or is it just >> do we even need it? Yeah. And so maybe we could at some point go through all those and just try to figure out like
which ones should really get paid and then we really pay those people something meaningful or get rid of them and not worry about the $200 the fence viewer or whatever it is. >> Good point. >> I Good point. >> That's a good job for you, Johnny. be the
>> Can I ask another question? >> Yes. >> Since Since the fire chief's here, >> the $70,000 for ambulance with South County, um since I don't pay attention a lot of the times. So, we had
some of that this year that we have to pay. Is that correct? >> Nothing in FY26. It'll all be in FY27. They have sent us a letter. South County has said that starting in FY27. That That's right, Chief. Starting at Yep. Starting F27,
>> they will be charging us uh $350 for each uh call that comes to them from from here that they respond to, even if it's canceled as as they're coming. Um so that's roughly $70,000 is an estimate,
>> but it's based on six months worth of actuals from this year, right? >> That's correct. >> Yeah. So it's it's a pretty >> It's a good estimate. >> It's a solid estimate. >> It's a good estimate. >> Okay. And and do how long is it? Do is this a contract that we have with South County?
>> Some kind a mutual aid agreement or whatever. >> We're going to sign an agreement saying that we'll each charge each each other 350 for for calls to each other. So it's just >> for how long? >> Next year. >> We're going to start with next year. >> Just for one year. >> Just for 27. >> Yeah. >> Yeah.
>> So they could if if it continues in 28, they could come back and say it's $500 a call. They could. >> They could. >> Okay. They could just >> Okay. >> And I think that's, you know, when I say we need to look at all of our options for next year, we need to think about >> that.
>> Now, can I ask now some of that is because to no fault of the fire department, just the inability to be able to cover the calls. and we've put some money in the budget in the last few years for staff
or potential staff that we haven't, you know, so I'm trying to figure out is is the 70,000 in addition to all that are we going to continue to look to fill the positions that
>> you know what I'm trying to say. So, the the chief put together two budgets. Bob, you can step in and answer. >> One of the budgets had, you know, increases for staff that he thinks will help make us more competitive. I believe I took those numbers. I need to triple check to make sure, but um and and we'll
have to decide if we want to keep those higher >> rates numbers, right? We're talking about PDM people here. >> So, the whole budget is built with fulltime in the PDMS is a one and done. So, that that's a full coverage. I think to Darl, your question is is that are we going to reduce the amount on the other
side by 70? You can if if we don't want to cover those if one of those the budget is built to go to a 16-hour a day, 7-day a week coverage. Yep. Um but working with predominantly PDM staff, they can't be forced and that's our issue. We're
having a hard time keeping full-time staff, >> right, >> as well. Um so it leaves a lot of vacancies and then we're not able to cover the calls. No, no, I'm not looking to reduce. I'm just looking to understand. That's that's all I mean. So, in the event that something changes
and you're able to get more predium people to come in, the money is there and then if there's fewer times that we have to call South County, then that would be >> the 70,000 would would reduce, >> right? It would revert back just like it always does for the
>> No, that's Thank you. I I just wanted better understanding. based on how many times they had to call South County last year, my understanding. >> The first six months of FY26 is what it was based off of. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Over this year. >> Thank you. Appreciate it.
>> So, those are the shifts that weren't covered in South County then >> or overnight overnight >> or overnights when we don't staff. Right. >> For sure. >> Yeah. >> Right. Okay.
>> So, um Yeah. So the current plan that I put together still we need to find some additional funds and whether I just take it from free cash stabilization or if we want to try to make further cuts which I think makes sense or >> do you have ahead?
>> Sorry. Do you have the breakout for the public works like you just had for public safety? >> Yeah. >> All right. So I do um >> for the expenditures. Did >> I go right past it?
>> There it is. You'll see the biggest change is that we had this capital outlay. That's the leases and that decreases. >> That's the biggest and and we knew that change was coming. There's $100,000 in leases coming off the books. >> Oh, >> okay.
>> Can we do um I guess education as well? Let's just do all the big ones. Sure. Just so we >> Yeah. So So we took $100,000 worth of leases off the books and we're not planning on putting them back on. >> Right now we're covering $30,000 more. >> Okay.
>> Right. Right now I'm I'm carrying >> Right. >> 30,000. Yeah. >> So we'll save 70,000 in leases alone plan. >> Uh yeah. um education and just the way that education works in our budget is it
all shows up as an expense >> because we only see the big number. So 2026, keep it level. So it went up $150,000 last year. This year it stays level. Vocational, I have it as an $80,000
decrease based on the numbers that we're going to spend this year. And I'm hopeful that that's where we come in, but we'll see what they tell us to budget for in the next couple weeks. >> Yeah, >> I still think this is the right number, but we'll see. >> The cost we have no control over,
>> but you don't have transportation in there, do you? >> Uh, the 590 covers transfer. >> It's invoke both. >> The 590. Okay. >> Yeah. I I didn't break it out. >> The 590 is just vocational transportation >> and tuition. >> Vocational tuition and transportation
all, right? All in one. >> The regular busing is comes out of the >> Yeah. school budget. Yeah. >> I I probably should make a habit of showing here. You know, they have this in 25. This was transportation. This was >> That's why I was asking because you have the numbers in the in those two budgets. >> I had it in one. Yeah.
>> Yeah. >> Okay. >> But I I I don't have that broken down for last year. This year, >> that's okay. >> Would it be helpful to see the rest of these? I'm just looking at the big ticket stuff on here. When you say personal services, that's
salaries. Correct. >> Salaries. Salaries. Personnel. Really? >> Personnel services. Yeah. >> Personal services. Funny. >> Happy to dig into any of these. Um, I personally think, well, we can wait
till Sean comes back, but we had a week or so to kind of percolate some of this and look at the numbers and >> and you really have I mean, if if we need to have another meeting on the 21st, we can or if finance wants their
own uh meeting as well, we can. The biggest question tonight, honestly, is is because we only have until April 14th to decide on this. If you wanted to take the route of an override for any of this, that's on the table. You know, if
you feel like the best way to close that $140,000 or or call it 340 and not use any free cash, you could do an override. I don't think there's any appetite for that, but I wanted we have to discuss that as as an option for this board. >> Yeah.
Yeah. Well, >> yeah. In my mind, if we could get to 143, like we must be able to get to the balanced budget from there. But, um, you know, if we're talking about having a long-term deficit of some amount, one way you can plug that deficit is by
doing an override and then it goes away. But that's up to us to decide. >> Yeah. With the previous override and the debt exclusion, I don't think you're going to get much >> support for any kind of a >> debt exclusion override right now.
>> Y >> unless you had some big ticket item that needed to be taken care of like the roof on the elementary school or something like that. >> Plus, we've had to increase some of the water sewer. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah.
When Sean, when are we meeting again? Are we meeting next week to go over some of this stuff? We certainly certainly could. >> Well, we have next uh we have April 14th set up as a joint meeting. If if you >> Oh, we're already set up for next week. >> We're not um >> we haven't posted, but
>> we haven't posted. >> I think I think we should meet >> Well, the 14th. >> We should meet. No question. >> And we're not right now po uh are you right now meeting on the 21st? >> We are not planning to meet the 21st. >> Many plan to meet the 28th. Correct.
Yeah, the 28th >> to finalize pencils down >> to finalize the warrant. >> That's correct. >> Yeah, I'm not available on the 21st. No, no, I'm just >> We don't I mean we can finalize the warrant that doesn't mean >> school vacation week. >> That doesn't mean the budget has to be done. >> So, but if we meet
>> No, but yeah, the warrant has to be done. >> Yeah, >> I think I I think given this given a week, we should Yeah, we need to meet we we should meet on the 14th. >> We we're going to meet on the 14th or is that what people want to do? Yeah, join us. Join the select board on the 14th.
>> That works for me. >> I mean, I think this this has been a useful format so far, >> I'd say. >> Uh, does anyone want to recognize the >> Oh, yeah. So, just looking at it just because I'm sitting here and that's why I come to these meetings. >> Y
>> um so fire and ambulance um by looking at those numbers up there, that does not include the ambulance budget. I don't know if you have that somewhere else in your workbook. I know it's funded out of >> and this is the first year I've done this, but I just I want to carry ambulance separate from fire. I think it's going to be
>> an easier way at least on on this format. Okay, it's easier because then I can just see what's the total and carry that for uh receipts reserved. >> Okay. And then the next question was you this is as submitted right by the department heads. You did not go through and make any cuts to what's on this
sheet as of right now. I have made some cuts and I need to review it with every department head to go through, but I and since you're here, I want to make sure. Does this look like your budget that you submitted with the higher numbers for I
don't know if you can see this. All right. >> 125 >> 125 for part-time salaries. >> Uh broken down into two spots. Yes, that was the right number. Okay. >> I was more concerned about my expense. >> Yeah.
>> As it's sitting here, that's a $13,000 drop over what I submitted >> on that form. You had like 25720, I think it was. >> Let's um >> So, I'm just >> Let's you and I go over that then. I don't I It shouldn't be 13,000. That
seems excessive. >> Yeah. My mine estimated is 38 945. and that fire annuals expense line there. >> Okay, >> that's what kind of caught my attention. >> 38945. >> Correct. That's how I submitted.
>> Do you think that would be captured by having ambulance together or No? >> Nope. Those are two separate budgets. That's the actual line 19 on that screen. >> All right. Go over >> So >> go over this. >> Okay. I don't think I I didn't think I did anything significant there, so I
might be missing something. >> Okay, >> so we'll check. I mean, I I'm comparing request to Okay, >> we could talk after I as well. Make sure to find >> I see a couple small cuts, so we can go over those and see if they make sense. The only one I cut that looks sizable is
this radio pager maintenance. And I only did that because I wondered if that was going to be covered by the capital expense. If you'd need less maintenance because you're planning on spending the capital. >> No, that's still page replacement. You need the full amount. >> 425 a piece. >> You still need the full amount. >> So, >> got it.
>> I mean, probably I could probably drop a thousand if I have to. >> Okay. I'll keep the full amount for now. It's not a problem. >> Yeah, that number hit on the expense and it was $13,000 less, >> right? I don't see why that would be the case. So, we'll we'll have to go over this and
>> okay, >> figure out why that would be so much lower. >> Okay. >> Um, it's also possible. I was cap uh covering some of it as capital instead of expense, but we'll check. That
actually might be the difference, but we'll check. >> And you did get from actually a little issue with colas go through. >> You need for salary lines because last year we were missing one line that was 17 and a half thousand and never got the
2.6. >> You needed for the intermittent employees and for training. Correct. >> Yeah, training was the one I missed last year. Yep. >> Yep. >> Got it. >> Nope. Nope. Not a problem. We'll keep this going.
Why are the training salaries separate from the >> training gets paid out, you know, as like a >> a different rate? >> Yeah, different rate. Substantially less, right? >> That makes sense. I don't know if it makes sense, but makes sense while
they're separate. Why they're separate then? >> But not for everybody. >> Well, yeah. I can't imagine. um >> just for your perma plays. >> So, do you have any other reactions to >> firefighters? >> Yeah. >> To this things you want me to look into
over the next week. I know we'll talk about this again in a week, but I'm happy to meet with anybody, you know, during the next week, whatever. That's helpful. But any other things you want me to be looking at so we can figure out how to trimming out 143,000
not going to be a super easy task here. Can you set Can you send these things to us or you want to not >> do that? >> Do we do we have an idea of what comprised
this year's free cash? Yeah. The only reason the only reason I asked that is then maybe it gives us an idea of >> areas we could possibly look at. I I don't know. Just give you some insight
to what's coming in next year too. >> John, can you um >> absolutely >> pause my sharing for a second >> just so I can try to find a document. >> Thanks. It's still showing >> me up there. >> Yeah.
>> It's not a big deal, but so yeah, let me find because what I have is comparison of of um budget to actuals from FY26 or FY25. And we can go through that.
All right, John, you can let me share again. Okay. The very big caveat on this is that um because of just how our accounting appears and how some transfers happened. So,
>> uh, it'll look like we had how much? 100, uh, 1 million unspent. >> Yeah, >> it was closer, I think, to half a million, >> right? Cuz 500,000 five thou 530,000 or something was
>> still free cash, >> right? >> End of year transfers. >> Yeah, it's it's incumbrances and transfers. The free cash is is separate. Um the big one if you go to uh showcas
education. No uh it shows schools I think. So school incumbrances are this minus 44 uh $444,000. So it looks like you see this unexpended $444,000 from the schools. it balances
out with this incumbrance that they use to pay teachers in in July and August. Um, so that makes it look like there's more cash available in the schools than there really is. I got very excited when I saw that number last year and thought we could cut things down. It doesn't really exist. Um, but yeah, you can go
through here and you can see the unexpended balance at the end of the year uh in all of our departments and I can send this to you so you all have it. But this this helps you kind of see where free cash comes from. And you'll see it's it's kind of small
amounts across the board. Um you know from ambulance all of that goes into the um receipts reserves and ambulance trust. Um if it's unspent. >> So is that budget or is that
>> this column here is unexpended by the end of the year? And you can and you can see here the variance. So so 68% that means 68% of their budget was spent, >> right? >> 66% of the budget was spent. That should
have all been paid. Hopefully it was. That's a salary. All salaries should be paid by this point. So that's something on us. Yes. You might see that's not a helpful one. ambulance. So, I'll send this to you so you can
look through and and see if anything pops out. But I I've gone through this a lot and I did in November as well to try to figure out, you know, where are there areas where we can try to reduce our budget and a lot of that's already been found. For instance, like this tax title line. >> Yeah.
>> That's been cut consider also have a revolving account for that. It's some of it like how much do you want to cut legal down because you just don't know how much you're going to need to spend there. And that's the case with a lot of these accounts, >> right?
>> It's tough because a lot of like the the ones that had a little more left over have been spent or have been cut or reallocated in some way. There's not a lot of, >> you know, fat left in the budget, I would say. But if anyone can find any,
I'd appreciate it. >> Yeah. Well, >> the other thing I'll do is um once we have kind of honed in on what we want our increase to be that 2.7% um I'll work with uh our treasurer's office to make sure that we're
calculating an actual salary for each line like how much will we be spending based on the number of based on the rate and the number of paydays next year so that we have an actual number for most of them instead of keeping you know extra um because like if somebody budgets 50,000 for the next here I'm
adding 50,000 plus 2.7%. But if they didn't spend that 50,000 then it would should actually be a little lower going up to that. So >> you can find a little savings in there. Not a ton. >> So just to clarify for my brain. So that
2.6 or 2.7% would be for nonun, right? >> Yes. >> And non-contractual. >> Yes. >> Okay. Okay. >> Non-UN, non-contractional. >> Okay. >> And it sounds like we want to include um boards and commissions in that 2.7,
which is fine with me. >> Yeah. Which is going to be about $30. >> It's not going to be a lot. >> Am I thinking incorrectly? Didn't our accountant number come down for this year? >> Yep. >> Um I'm carrying the >> You captured it. >> We're going to be at 87,000. Yeah. >> Right. Rather than the
>> And this this is um last year's report of the of the budget. um that this is FY25 what we spent compared to what we budgeted. >> Yeah. >> So that's lower than FY26's budget and lower than 27's budget. But you know
that is that is a source of savings. So I didn't include that in a cut on my list because I already was building that in when I got the um initial deficit unfortunately. So yeah, happy to send this around and we can >> Yeah, that'll be down.
>> That'll be something to fall asleep to. >> Not a lot of uh >> not a ton of room items here. >> No. When you get in the room will be >> $43,000 you need to find. It's It's rough. There's a few more things that I'll need to do just to make sure we have the
right numbers and you know I can work with department heads to see if they have any more room to cut a little bit and >> well and we haven't we haven't um looked at any increases yet. >> Right. So we haven't gone through
>> that's a good point the budget because some of the there are increases in some of these budgets. We haven't gone through and that's correct >> called those out yet. >> That's correct. which we could do to see where we wind up there. >> Oh, yeah. >> To use as an example, the fire chief, I'
I've used his higher numbers and um we haven't made a decision yet if we're going to adopt that yet. There's, you know, an increase in a couple increases for staff that we haven't discussed yet. >> Um so, we'll need to >> I'm sure there's others too. I mean, there's COA, right?
>> COA assessors. So I mean if finance wants to have another meeting to to go over some of those that you control >> did they increase >> the planning the the person that assistant planner. >> Yeah. >> So we might just have to look at those and see. >> Yep. >> Right.
>> And if you do all of those >> to be realistic that that can maybe find us another $20,000 maybe more. But again we got to get down to the zero from 143 >> right? And that's if you are comfortable with the rest of the plan I I laid out. If you thought any of that
>> needs to be revised, we we can talk about that, too. >> Yeah. I mean, >> I don't I don't have any better suggestions at the moment. >> No, you know, and we need to >> Well, some of the savings up there was
money coming back from supplies, but I don't know how much on supplies could be actually cut. >> Yeah. I mean, that's why I kind of said like >> probably a small amount. >> Yeah. I mean, if you look around at every budget and think, you know, bank
fees here, uh, supplies here, um, uh, professional development here, that can get you $20,000 total. I think the realistic amount, and that's kind of what I'm carrying in, >> yeah, look like 6%. >> I mean, from their supply budgets, which
still went an amount to 140. >> No, it's a little bit and it starts to add up, but it's it's not everything. >> And you could look at Do we expect to see any sort of significant uh utility savings with these new
boilers that we got at the school? Anything measurable? >> That's a good question. And I don't know what I don't see their line items, so I can ask what what they've got. >> Well, if it's a brand new upgrade or are we going to see >> even if it's off a little bit?
>> Yeah, you'll see savings on usage, but then the gas prices have gone up. That's true. Right. >> Well, don't we see some savings because of the solar panels or over there on the roof or >> at the high school roof? It's there are some savings in there.
>> It's a it's very minimal because they don't own them. >> Yeah. >> Oh, that's right. It's a rental. >> Um do we have a do we have a thoughts about foil? >> Uh only in that we'll we'll do what we do every year and go through the uh the
competitive bid through the fur cog. um which generally helps us get a good price. >> Yeah, I mean >> Carlo had numbers for that too already. >> If he does, that's great. I I for some reason I didn't think that data had come through yet. I think he was just submitting uh our estimates for usage
and uh >> their numbers come back a little later. I wish it had been two months ago, but >> yeah, >> it's fine. We'll see what we get. >> Yeah, only because you know, who knows what the future brings, but >> Well, is 8 is it 8:00 yet? >> No, not quite my concern. >> Home heating oil is
going on >> by 8 8:00 Eastern time tonight, right? He's going to >> looks looks like they've got a ceasefire, but that's that's we'll talk about >> whether he's going to obliterate the the country. >> All right. >> Um, what else would be helpful to look
into? >> Any more good news? I I I got to say I this was helpful for me to talk through all. I think we're making some progress. >> I don't think we're in as bad a shape as many communities are. >> A lot of towns and cities are in
trouble. >> Huh? >> South AD is like 11 million they're looking for. And >> there's a lot of places in a lot worse. >> Did they decide on an override or no? They have a couple proposals they've brought forward for like the big override of 11 million and then the the smaller override of 8 million and
they'll see what passes and then you know they have the nightmare scenario in which nothing passes and they have to cut a lot of staff. >> And to be fair, we're already cutting staff here. So we have five and a half positions. >> Then Hadley Hadley shut down whatever
override or >> Yeah, they shut it down. >> They don't want it. Sunderland. Sunderland's talking about an override for their elementary school. >> Southampton override. >> Yeah. So, I mean, when I talk to other
folks in the field, most towns are looking at overrides right now or or significant cuts or both. Um, and you know, what I try to do is is compare our situation. And you know, if you look at other towns budgets and the size of their deficit and the town of our the
size of our budget and our deficit, I think we're a little smaller, but it's still present and we'll have to make some >> some real decisions this year to get us through and then next year to figure out what the future brings. But, um, I think we have a path towards, you know,
minimal damage this year, but you I don't want to kick the can down any further than this next year. Andrew, >> can you scroll up to police for me? >> For sure. So, I'm like in 27 requests on the bottom it says 38347. >> In the sheet that we have is like it's
like 379. >> I um >> 22. I know it's not a lot, but >> I went through this with the chief because he was using kind of different line items than we're coming across in the accountants wrap up. >> Yep.
>> So, we filled this out together kind of updating that request. Um, but we can uh we can double check it because I I do want to make sure that he's he's getting exactly what he needs. He did say that he could cut down his um his police
telephone line from 2400 to,200 uh because he's discontinuing some some phones there. >> Mhm. >> Um and then like he had a line that was 10,000 and and here we had it listed as like 5,000 and 4,000. I don't know. It was a little difficult to to reconcile
what was on his budget to what is here in these line items because they were listed differently. But um I went through this with him and I think we're on the same page. But if we need to reduce anything, we certainly can. >> So I'll send these to you so everyone can kind of look through. >> Yeah.
>> What the current recommendation >> I'm sure there's probably been changes to these sheets since we first received them >> a little bit. Yeah. Um >> I just caught I just >> No, it's fair. >> I was looking at it's like four that $4,500 difference there. >> Yeah. >> 630 next week. I can
>> 6 is a little tight. >> Yeah, we can Well, we'll do select board at 5:30 and bang out the rest of your agenda and then have finance committee join at 6:30 if that sounds good. >> It's fine. >> Next week a lift week or is it fairly >> I don't know yet. Um
I think they'll Yeah, hopefully it's not too much. We should be able to get everything done in an hour >> and then dive into this for an hour and a half. want to um go through some of this stuff at another point in time.
>> Probably should. >> Do we want to have you talking about >> go through these stuff that we have? >> Do we want to meet before Tuesday night? >> Um >> is that Monday?
>> Monday would be I I don't think I can't post her. Thursday. >> Can't Well, you could post for 8 o'clock on Thursday if you do it really fast. >> How about Yeah, Monday would be the night, right? >> Don't you have cards on Monday night? >> Yeah, I could do it if we think it's
going to be beneficial. >> What's the What's the date? >> 13th. >> 13th be Monday. >> I think it would be helpful. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. You know, I mean, if we're going to meet the 14. >> What What time is cards?
>> Do you do cards? >> I can do anytime. We could do We can get a sub. It's fine. >> Yeah, but what time? >> It's normally seven, so it's not going to work for you. So, >> okay. I thought it was normally earlier than that. No. >> No. >> Okay. That's what I was trying to figure out. We can make it
Well, I could I could try to squeeze in at six o'clock on Monday. >> There's no deadline. I mean, I can do seven even. whatever you want. >> Let's stay with 6:30 on Monday.
>> All right. Yeah, I think it probably be helpful before we meet on Tuesday to just >> Yeah. >> see what we can bring out of it, >> right? >> Okay. >> Yeah. We can all talk about the results of that on Tuesday. See if there's anything we can do.
>> All right. If anyone thinks of other things you want me to look into, let me know. Well, we'll we'll keep working on this. >> Yep. >> Um, we'll get it done. >> Okay. >> Uh, a motion to >> motion to adjurnn.
>> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> All right. >> We're done. >> Thank you guys. >> See you next time. Do you want to join as well or do you want to >> anything else? Anything else? >> Up to up to you.
What do you think, Mr. Chair? >> Anything else? Or do you want to join as well? >> No, I don't have anything else. I mean, we can look through this. We don't have to go through this tonight cuz this is just a >> unless you want to just a quick review.
>> We certainly can. It's up to you. >> Well, when is the final time to >> We can do the warrants on on Tuesday. Um the warrant has to be done by the 28th. >> Okay. So, next meeting. >> This should take long. >> Yeah. Start looking through and I'll add
um >> the floor >> town hall flooring. >> Yeah. add the floor. I think that's the only item that's missing. >> Yep. And you know, we're going back and forth on some of these numbers, but it doesn't have to be the final number in the warrant. It can say a sum, you don't you
fill that in the motion. >> So, >> so it gives every gives us a time to read this again. >> Certainly does >> and double check everything. >> Yep. >> Thank you guys. Take care. >> Thank you. >> Is there anything else in the uh agenda?
>> Is there any other old business >> that we have to attend to tonight? >> Uh no, I had nothing else for you. >> And I'll entertain a motion. >> Make a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Motion made. Motion seconded. Any
discussion? All in favor? I I Okay. Thank you, John.