##VIDEO ID:wvTteY7c4c4## okay so we are back and we are joined by our um colleagues from the finance committee because it is that time of year again here we go let's kick it off um so thanks for being here um I do want to mention um there is a new member of the finance committee David Kier but he's just not able to be here tonight correct and there's still another opening on the finance committee still another open okay but and Sean is the chairman Sean is the chair yep just congratulations drew the short stick or yep you know I volunteered excellent yeah darl and I are gonna yeah take turns until somebody else is ready is ready or willing or able not mentioning any names or anything John but doesn't have to there's no pressure on him it could be somebody else yep the finest need to call order sure you can do whatever you want to do yep we'll call the me order right um and you all have had a chance I'm sure to meet Andrew yes yeah yeah um so this is um our really our first joint meeting in this process our boards um and our department our department heads and all our boards and everybody who has control of a budget has gotten some direction from us and budgets have been requested and they're in budgets are in um so uh tonight we're just basically doing a budget overview and it looks like we are going to go over some of our um sort of smaller more predictable budgets okay is this Karen the this is the new or this is yes so in the packet this evening for the select board you should have in order that I plan to talk about them different budget pieces and these are all ones at the administrator submitted so I just thought I knew I'd be ready to talk toight so I thought I'd take this first meeting okay um and we can start with a budget overview if that's help that's what I was gonna say let's start at the beginning so on the budget overview I I don't have too much to say tonight because this document was still coming together until about today um but you should have all of the department budgets in your your binders now uh because of the way that we do our our budget you'll notice that some departments look different from others but for the most part the guidance was given to everyone to submit a uh level funded budget and a level Services budget so that's what everyone should submit on some occasions uh there might be a third budget that's in there some departments really want to show you a level services that meets their operational needs budget or a level services that actually brings us or it was close to level funded level services but actually uh meets what they believe that the town needs for services at this time specifically the the fire chief has a a budget in there that I think we'll we'll need to take some time reviewing so you have your budget binders I'm also starting to work with the chair of the finance committee to uh look at our overall budget workbook and budget picture just to try to get a jump on that um to have an idea of what Revenue looks like and everything else and and get a sense of really how much in new spending we think we we actually can add in the next year of course those decisions will come to these boards but I'm trying to to get more of a holistic look at that from the start so hopefully at our next meeting I'll have some more information on that um the other thing I'm trying to do is put together an overall spreadsheet of all the asks that have come in and put together what what I think is kind of a budget that that is easier to digest uh looking at line by line and I can use that to come up with you know a model of what could potential colas look like what could potential ways of meeting the asks look like in kind of a a Town Administrator uh suggested budget I don't want to say recommended but I'll so I'll have that document as well to to look at and we'll we'll continue to work with the chairs of these committees to to share that um so that's what what I'm doing on my side um and you have of course before you uh the budgets from from everyone just kind of the raw asks which I think is helpful as well so I wanted to hit just a couple of Trends and themes just to to keep in mind um before we dive into everything so one just to get the the bad news out of the way first we obviously have costs that we can't control that are coming coming from from some places and the biggest one is is health insurance um and we have been told to expect a 15% increase in health insurance that was my reaction as well and it's it's terrible news um I know it's because healthcare costs rise everywhere it's uh been told that plenty of communities had had uh increases that large but it's still tough to hear an increase like that and I'll try to work with our health insurance provider to try to find out are there things we could be doing in the future the community I worked in before this was doing a lot on the wellness side to try to see if there ways to build in some employee Wellness work that that help bring these things down but at a certain point there's only so much you can do and and that's just the position we're in at the moment so we're planning on that 15% if it actually comes back as 15% then that could be right away around $115,000 um added to to the budget so I wanted to start with that and that's the good news right as I said getting the the really bad news out of the way so but I guess and I we you know I don't want to Deep dive into this but I have in I've in the past um met with marleene and we brought someone in from GIC to take a look at that and at that point the numbers didn't um you know it didn't it wasn't beneficial for for Hatfield to go over to the GIC but I'm just wondering if our costs are going up that much no you're shaking your head so just structurally speaking and I haven't looked at any numbers but the hord county health insurance trust has the ability to cherry-pick who it takes it can take on it only takes on groups whose experience and potential experience Act is better than the existing group so as long as it has the ability to do that it's just hard to conceive of how the GIC does better given that okay just given that the GIC has to take everybody who's left uh you know like they don't have that same those same options now maybe they're unable to find anybody else at this point they also have a huge trust that they draw upon to reduce potential increases from or have in always in the past several years and we should look at what they're doing with that in that regard which the GIC I don't uh think can do that um so there's several kind of baked in advantages to the insurance trust that the GIC doesn't have um the big difference just being that I guess the GIC probably does offer um they may offer fewer plans so it might be a little cheaper that that way they they they historically haven't offered all the same plans it's certainly we can look at it but it's just there's a lot the the insurance trust has some big huge advantages working in its favor that GIC doesn't have I mean we went through we went through years with no increase in health insurance costs yeah when other people were seeing 10% 8% a year so and as I remember that was done because they have a trust were able to absorb those that was many sometimes that was done that way and sometimes it was happened because they brought in a large group city or town from another part of the state or some other group that their experience was so much better that it lowered the cost for everybody you know like GIC doesn't so if the Hamshire County insurance if you apply to be a member of the trust right and they reject you like a city or town then your option is to go to G and they have to take you so that's why I'm saying like I got you okay that's fine I just like I say I don't want to go too deep into it I just it's always good to consider options but if you know yeah you might be able to get a break just based on the plans they offer but that would also reduce the options for employees and it would they offer less plans than the group Insurance trust I mean well they offer different plans yeah and there may be like you know but it would have a potential impact on the employees you have to look at that and see what the what the impact is I mean I I guess I'm shocked so GIC offers less plans they'd have to offer more they offer more I mean maybe some of them aren't as good at for western Mass they they don't offer um uh if I remember correctly the and you can look and we can talk about the Hampshire trust offers an Indemnity type plan that GIC does not offer and it's the most expensive one so but I don't know how many people take it especially in hfield because we only pay 55% of your health insurance and it's the most expensive one so right how many people take it is a different question I mean there's a lot of options for GIC did they yeah did was there an increase last year I can't I'm trying to remember or to the 55% no no not no no to the like I want to say I thought it was sounds about right yes because I'm remembering the years where yeah it was like 2% yeah they it was barely nothing so yeah does seem to sorry I didn't want to Sidetrack too much but I'm sorry no it's good to know I I think it's good for people to know how that works that it's it's a different system I think I certainly think it's worth looking into the increase and are there options to not having it go up that much but probably there won't be many options but it's worth the [Music] question so I'm sorry Andrew to get you off track I just need to know what the increase was from from last year so it looks like last year there was a 10% still large okay um so wanted to get that out of the way and just say that that's something that we're we're facing and of course we haven't gotten the the final numbers yet but we were told to anticipate 15% so um getting into items that we can control um of course one that ends up taking up a lot of the conversation any Community R worked in is what the cost of living adjustment ends up being for uh non-represented and non-contractual staff so I just ran some early numbers just trying to look at how many staff members um would potentially be asking for for a cola and seeing that about each full percentage Point Cola increase for non-school non-contract non-represented employees would add about $177,000 in the budget so if you had zero Cola to to 1% you'd be adding about $177,000 and this is early numbers on my side but it's just useful for modeling okay so we can continue to play that so 3% Cola a little over $50,000 and spend it what did were we 3% last year it ended up at 2.6% last year so each .1% would be um around a uh $1,700 increase 15 um an overall at $177,000 that's 0.1% of her overall budget so each time you're you're adding a 1% Cola you're adding 0.1% to her overall budget so there you go um as it was previously repeated uh reported from the financial uh update uh our free cash number came in at a good number this year which is great so over 1 million 1.18 million and we'll have a number of capital requests that come in through U Capital committee and typically um free cash source for a lot of those also a good year to look at our financial policies and try to think about meeting uh the contributions we're supposed to be making to our stabilization funds could be a good good year to do uh do do that uh with the 1 Point uh one million in free cash it's also a good year to think about maybe reducing some of our debt obligations as well you could think about getting a jump in some of those payments if we wanted to some of the free cash that we have it's just another option available to us so get that out there and just another thing that I saw in a lot of our um requests and just trying to match it up with what we've spent in the last during this year and two years ago uh just because every department has their own budget we end up with which makes sense individual lines for for things like admin and office supplies postage professional development business travel all these things for each department and maybe some of them get spent each year and a lot of them don't this is not a lot of money we're talking about but it just be a good idea to think about maybe some of these and centralizing it and just thinking about requests U maybe from the town administrator's office maybe from somewhere else um and have a certain amount that we're spending each year instead of maybe everyone getting their own thousand $2,000 pool that actually doesn't end up getting spent again not a lot of money we're talking about but when we get down to thinking about if a cola another 1% is $177,000 in the budget maybe centralizing some of those spendings can get down to even half or all of that so something to think about as I look through what was spent in the last couple years uh maybe changing the structure on that could be helpful so I start tried to start from highest impact and now I'm at lowest impact just putting it out there so that's all I wanted to start with with with budget overview um we will get down to a point where we have a better idea of what overall spending looks like and I can present more about you know what the overall increase to the budget would look like what cost center It's associated with everything like that um and I'll have more information on that when we get closer to a real budget but just wanted to put that out there in the beginning thank you that's great how about you do you want to throw anything out there have you had done any pre- meetings any thoughts on the process in general or an overview or uh the only thing that we've really mean we had a meeting talk about process and such and you know uh I think we're comfortable with whatever uh you know the process that's laid out is fine we can talk about this I I think that when it comes to putting the actual budget together um that um what we should do is work backwards from the amount of money that we have rather than work forwards from all these bu all the requests because in reality like we've just spent most of it already sitting here you know what I mean so like we can we can have an endless conversation about all that but like in the reality is you've got very little money to spend right uh so you know and if you're going to do any kind of cola and it's going to be across the board you've really spent most of it you know just between and that's why in our first meeting I was like we're talking about let's find out what the health insurance increase is because until we know that you know like that's it's really a driving force and and how it's going to be about 30 35 % of your new money yeah this is already out off the table um and that doesn't include if you know liability insurance increases utility increases over the past few years I mean that's right yeah certainly not going down well no and and you know because insurance companies work on even the Health Trust like for example works on reinsurance at level the cost of half the state of California being on fire raises the cost of reinsurance because the insurance companies can't lose money so it's I would anticipate liability insurance is going to going to go up because I mean we haven't gotten rid of anything like if we had gotten rid of some major structures or done something you know like then maybe you could it wouldn't but it feels like it's going to go up because why wouldn't it I will say we've been budgeting pretty conservatively in the past couple years on our liability insurance or I'll actually talk about that that's in the presentation tonight or the the the budgets tonight um so much so that we were kind of budgeting 5% on the previous 5% so we we're kind of above where we needed to be for a budget at the moment so that we shouldn't see uh get raised too much however it's only around $200,000 total so that's not a ton of cost savings but it it's nice that it's flat instead of Y let's plan for high right and is anyone coming in with utility increases you know the utility increases it looks like from looking at our spending across the board um we're on track to actually ahead of where we need to be at the moment now of course that's probably what you'd want to see because we're entering the time of the year right spending a lot more on some of those utilities but um I think folks properly looked at how to uh budget more in the last two years when costs were really going up and I think we're hopefully ahead of that for this year so we'll see great so we all know those little things that come up you know the fuel and all those like I mean I don't know that's G to be dramatically higher than it has been in the past but just and we're still joint purchasing all that the electricity well we were under contract ra for fuel for a while but I don't know if we still are we'll have to find that out that would be the one through fog or yeah we had prepaid you know yeah we some we have some amount of fuel that we purchase in advance right I'll check on that but isn't our electricity through a used to be through the Cog and of course the Cog is not doesn't exist but right we're we bu kind of aggregation I don't know who we buying it there whoever took them off I thought I thought that was still a group byy or electricity I did not think so yeah remember so we we have the um I I'll get back on that that's just not this this budget tonight but we we are on a a plan that's saving us on municipal buildings the clean energy yes we have that I know in previous towns I've worked and we had a um contract rate that we bought into for all Municipal energy so we could just predict what our costs were going to be I I don't know of a similar agreement that we have here so I'll have to check on that yeah maybe it's all maybe what I'm thinking about is the clean that might be one that does that does save us 15% in some of our uh our highest users which is great okay so do we want to start going through these Town Administrator budgets uh that works for me if everyone's okay that y yep perfect so the order that I had here is the the order that I plan to talk about this system the select board packet so hctv um this is relatively straightforward I did talk with uh John Novak about these different centers you'll see the biggest increase is for Capital replacement and fortunately this is one of those accounts we have an Enterprise account that we're drawing from we also have an agreement uh from our most recent license negotiation with Comcast that put a decent amount of money forward for uh Capital Improvements as well so while you'll see increases here they don't really hit the taxpayer at all through the uh Enterprise account and that Enterprise account is very healthy right now in part because of those Comcast payments so uh regular salary this will be one of the cola ones um that'll go to the same Cola every other employee so we'll decide on that we decide on it the rest of the uh items here are flat uh the spending I think justifies it from from this year and I met with John trying to see if we could cut down any of them he actually did have have a different items that he want to spend on for each of them for a capital uh equipment uh the plan is to purchase two new computers a video playback server and some new cameras so got the new studio upstairs and new room for meetings and now we'll fill with some equipment that we'll be able to really meet that those uh areas with so pretty straightforward happy to do any research or or any questions that you have but the capital is through the Enterprise fund and all of this is through the Enterprise fund and the capital uh is is even bolstered beyond the Enterprise fund with these Comcast payments okay right so the next two is uh animal inspector and Animal control officer and you'll see that both of these are are flat as well it's our current plan um the salaries for both those I believe would be subject to the same that's typically how it's been done so I show it as flat but if we go with the cola those should increase as well is Scott still doing this or is he he is I thought he was talking about I think he is retire talking about retiring and so we should probably have a conversation with him um about that because um you know it might be tough to find somebody with the qualifications um that you need to be able to do this and I think there's some Regional Services um I will say I've begun conversations with someone who's doing this regionally about trying to see if we can expand uh a potential region and create a more robust Regional uh service kind of extending from here into the hilltowns but um that seems like our best approach at the moment um there's some real interest in trying to put something together so going to look for some support in doing that um and we'll back to everyone with with what plan like that might look like my Hope was that we could get another year out of Scott but see if that's the case we we should see cuz see me that's great sure good good to have conversations with them I would think yeah you know if something's going to change it's better to be plan for the change than to Y have it thrust upon you we've been lucky to have Scott it's time to oh he's be ready for a change yeah I I met Scott for the first time yesterday he did not uh signal anything anything about wanting to to leave which was great to hear um yeah okay so I I don't think I need to go into any more details on inspector anal control at this time but clearly the big question about what's the future of that department is important conservation has an an ask this year that I think is a a reasonable one they would like to um include hours for uh our assistant planner to to also help with conservation um our assistant planner Bella has been going to some of their meetings and could take a greater role in some of their enforcement work uh which I think would actually be a very good thing for very helpful um they have uh a funding source um of sorts that that comes in when when they have notice of intent permits that that come in that should be going into a revolving account through the Conservation Commission uh it has not always been in the past but but we are making sure that that's happening now um they also had some slight increases for professional development uh which would help that assistant planner get some more training uh for for that conservation related work I think that's a good investment um and they think that they would need to be spending a little less on some of those other Professional Services the cost of a vendor or contractor if we have more of the staff time good to see uh slight increase in dues and membership as well to help the uh assistant planner take on some of those professional associations to increase their learning that's conservation small budget um some higher asss this year but I think they would help professionalize uh that staff a little bit great next is auditor um we asked for a number from our current auditing Services they they expect that it would basically be flat it would be a $1,000 increase for for their services for next year we're we're happy with our auditor services so I think this would be fine yeah the audit we are waiting for the audit uh results to be coming in that that should come by the end of January so that's also helpful for our budget conversations see if there's anything else legal um I increased the legal budget slightly just because it feels like you could always have more legal bills coming in but I'd say if that needed a slight cut we we'd probably be fine because our Our Town Administrator very good to us with the the um rate City charges and he's also very mindful of our time um it's really been great to work with big fan um and we right now we're we're not even we're at 24% of our annual legal bills being spent we spent $24,000 two years ago um clearly the best way to to save on legals to not be in litigation um we have some of that this year but but not too much so that's a good place to be so next I have insurance premiums this is the one that I mentioned earlier that we'd really been budgeting pretty conservatively in the past uh on insurance um and our actual spending was about $8,000 below our our budgeted spending in 2024 and we budgeted 5% above that and we're on track to come in well below that right now uh spent to date is 143,000 which should account for most of our premiums for property liability insurance but they may come back with an extra assessment for workers comp and some other things so we're in a good place there if we budget 210 we should be in in decent shape for for next year we were told that we should not have an increase in our Maya premiums for next year uh we did lock in a rate for a 0% increase for next year and a two and a half percent increase in two years this your right and that's our professional liability professionality yeah that's property and uh that's property and uh they provide workers comp as well and then the fire and police is through separate through CH okay select board um this is basically flat um I adjusted business travel based on what had been spent in the past but certainly if this board would like I probably should have asked the board about that first if if you'd like to see that re uh level to this year that's certainly an option um and I did increase the amount for um professional development so if more folks want to go to MMA or anything else um we have the option for that I think that's a it's a good opportunity if that's of interest um basically flat for select board Town Administrator budget so professional salaries comes directly from my contract um administrative salaries is flat here but this is another one where we would put in the the cola increase so whatever cola's approved that's what everyone would receive um part-time temp wages is something that we keep flat at 3,000 U that's a the board's been interested in keeping that flat in the past in case we need more help seasonally and that's much appreciated to know that that's an option that's typ and I added that's a contractual uh element $1,00 um advertising I kept um level uh professional development is slightly increased um other Professional Services um we had spent $110,000 in the past on this and we were over our current amount at 5,000 but we're already at 5,400 I think it's useful to have a line for any um consulting or anything else that might come up in case we just don't have the capacity to do it in house so I think 10,000's pretty reasonable obviously if we've got a tight budget that's a place to to cut um but I think 10,000 is reasonable for this office um the Telecommunications is new that's contractual that's um otherwise postage is level admin office supplies is level and business travel and user level is the Telecom communication just for is it for everybody or is it just a reimbursement for the Town Administrator for using their personal sale oh okay yep thanks yep [Applause] appreciate any questions on ta budget technology uh so this assumes that we move forward again with our um current vendor suar it um i' had never worked with them before uh but so far they've been providing good service from what I can tell they are able to keep our budget level for next year for our overall contract it's $40,000 we had a good meeting with them recently uh Karen and myself uh where we talked about some options for maybe even limiting or or bringing back some of the um help desk time that we have on site on uh once a week we're just not sure if the number of tickets that we're actually filing and having completed uh meets the amount of hours that we're getting so there's even room to adjust that a little bit that and they're prbly willing to have a contract that that meets you know what our needs are that was a good conversation uh other Prof Professional Services I um am requesting about $5,000 to do a bit of a Refresh on our website Civic plus will work with you to um just kind of do it across the board look at maybe a little bit of redesign looking at ways to make it a little more um resident friendly uh and finding things and then uh kind of audit it make sure we remove any materials and and uh and um information that's just not needed anymore um it's a nice to have if the if we're in a lean year and need to wait on that or just have us do a first round of trying to to do that without Civic plus support that's an option um but I I think it's a it's a nice investment in showing that you're trying to uh improve your um the first thing that most people look at when they look at what what's going on that's the kind of thing we might look at free cash as well if it's a one time expenditure you know we're not it's not annual it's we're going to do it y right it's a great Point might be something you do every three or four years or what yeah at some point too we're on the lowest um service level of of the Civic plus websites so it's it's the oldest version of it I actually kind of like it compared to some of the other ones that they've put out recently but um at some point they will probably require us to upgrade and if we wait long enough that upgrade may be free um but they also will be trying to encourage us to to make that upgrade sooner I wouldn't recommend doing it I think that the the system we have works fine um so we'll keep an eyee out for that as well if we wait longer perhaps we get even more out of a redesign you do redesign at the same time you have to upgrade nice uh software licensing this is a slight increase um this was somewhat suer uh recommended somewhat me recommended and just trying to make sure that we have the the licenses that we need for for um some departments that seem to be looking at having some extra capabilities from from their Tech we may not use it all but I I think it could be wise to upgrade this a little bit I'm seeing that we went over the budget in in 2024 this year we seem on track but it could be useful to have an upgrade there again that that could be cut if needed and then Capital qu and replacement that line uh came from souer they think around $8,000 would get us to Replacements of workstations that we need for this year um probably do around five a year this that's what this would pay for um that's just decent uh Capital Management on the it side Town Hall operations this is kept pretty flat uh we're in in good shape in our budget for these lines for for taking care of uh Town Hall the biggest one here is the the the uh copier leases um that's what the 10,700 is for there'll be another uh cost center uh Town Hall operations um that's about town hall facilities to taking care of the building itself this is really more about uh anything that you see in The copier room down the hall so there you go and water um and last one I have here is veteran services so uh at the last meeting two meetings ago last meeting the board did vote to uh renew our agreement with Northampton I've put in a line for what I think that agreement will cost us this year but we will wait to see uh what it goes up to we'll have that number before the end of the budget process so clear it's it's more than we used to spend in a in a stipend to a veteran services officer here but there are increased um requirements from the state now about the kind of certification that you need in order to do that position so at the moment it feels like Contracting Northampton is is the best move but we can continue to look for in-house if we want to so those are the budgets that I wanted to present tonight um gets a decent number out of the way and our next meeting we'll plan to do police fire and COA pretty straightforward thank you Andrew good presentation can I one on the techn yeah I'm just trying to remember my brain's a little slow but are we backing up everything on the cloud now or do we actually still have we're all done with having servers we are done with on Prem yeah we we have we offering cloud services at least yeah from the town side yeah that was an upgrade that happened I think a year ago two years years something yeah okay if all nights go that smoothly that would be great um this is a good plan um and uh I mean this would have us done a little sooner than we normally are oh yeah the like the overall plan yeah yeah is there anything else that you want me to try to prep departments for as when they present to you is there certainly they've done this more than than I have but is there anything that would be helpful compared to past years that that you'd like to have in their presentations I think they're usually pretty good about you know if there's increases explaining why um and you know it's not on here is capital projects would that be just part of the general I I made a note I think it's the March 25th meeting or I made a note of of when maybe it's March 11th that when Capital planning should be done with their their deliberations and they could Capital planning uh next week oh yeah really what night is that 21st sou capital I do have that they have a scheduled meeting yeah great so that's with the finance good treasur too or no so I'll make sure to schedule a time for yeah thank you yeah are you gonna be here I don't have anything else you guys have anything else tonight you guys want to go somewhere to schedule a couple meetings yeah we should before we do that yeah I will not be here on the 28th is your office open your on the 28th okay all right we're going to continue in the other room okay thank for coming thank you thank you course thank you I'll make a motion to adjourn make a motion to aurn we second it a motion made in second any further discussion no all those in favor I over and out --------- ##VIDEO ID:lU9xx21oQI4## okay um good evening and welcome to the January 14 2025 meeting of the Hatfield select board um happy New Year everybody um as usual I'm going to call the meeting to order and I'm going to open the meeting by reading our public participation policy the Hatfield select board welcomes everyone to its meetings and all other meetings excuse me all other public meetings of the town of Hatfield all regular and special meetings of the boards and Committees of the town of hfield shall be open to the public and shall conform to the open meeting law executive sessions are closed to the public and will be held only as prescribed by the statutes of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts it is important to recognize that open meeting law affords the opportunity to listen to the proceedings but not necessarily participate during meetings of the select board an attempt will be made to find a balance between hearing from members of the community and conducting the required business of the Hatfield select um so our first order of business tonight is announcements we actually have several um we're going to start um by reading a letter that we received today from our DPW director Phil geneves um I'm writing to inform you of my intention to retire effective immediately this decision did not come lightly but after careful thought and with input from my family I have decided to retire as a result of some health concerns that I'm facing I thank you for your understanding in this matter it has been an absolute pleasure to have served the people of Hatfield over the past 15 years so uh we want to you know recognize that um and do we have to actually vote to accept that or is that would we do that later I I thought typically you do vote to accept if you want to do that later in the meeting that makes sense yeah we just wanted to make the announcement in the beginning we do have it as a as unanticipated business later so remind me that we didn't actually but we did want make that announcement um you know first thing this evening so um uh I another a couple of other um sad notes um we want to recognize the passing of Ted salaka um Ted was a longtime member of our ambulance department in fact he was our first ambulance manager um was really instrumental in getting our first ambulance from what I understand um longtime member of the fire department um and just a general great guy I was you know um really great guy so we we were sad to learn of his passing and also I read in the paper the passing passing of Chester prell who um it said was on our zoning board um I knew Chad I didn't know he was ever on the zoning board or anything like that but I think it said water Commissioners too so um just wanted to um recognize those two passings and send our condolences um to their families um we have some good good news um so the Healey Driscoll Administration um had a $3.6 million in Grants that they awarded to support Farmers specifically for programs that include initiatives to improve food safety composting cranberry bog renovation and climate resiliency on farms and it's really nice to note that um there's one two three four five six seven Farms unless this is not a complete list there's a a further list there is a further list okay other grants that weren't quite but our um Bardwell Farm from here in Hatfield was awarded um uh one of these grants which I just think is really um great and and worth announcing so they'll be getting some new plastic storage bins and harvest crates um with that money so that is some good news for the evening you said you had something you wanted to share yes if anybody noticed over the uh uh yesterday actually on West Street at the prospect metal Farm there was quite a commotion going on there there was lots and of people there uh they co-sponsored the inaugural National care farming conference there and it's a conference going on at UMass it's going to go on through today and tomorrow and there was I was told there was over there was 48 states being represented there so there's people from all over the place up there and that's a really really cool farm I got to tour it and it's pretty impressive very impressive I'm embarrassed that I've never been there quite honestly oh really impressive yeah I I enjoyed being there and uh again hats off to Hatfield Sean Robinson for all he does for that organization and he started with like one one person as far as an employee now he's up to over almost 30 and they got like 90 kids involved in that program and I and I think it's great yeah Sean was here last week we had to do a quick meeting for something and um you know I think he mentioned that they're using it as the national model for care farming and Care farming is farming that engages um the help of people with developmental disability so um people are are working there and getting a lot of experience and um earning some money and it's a it's really a beautiful thing so congrats to the farm and thank you both for going um I wasn't able to make it um okay is that it for announcements Ed did you have anything uh no okay okay is anybody here for public form no okay um so we're going to move right into our posted items our first is the consent agenda which would be the approval of the minutes of our December 3rd 2024 and January 8th 2025 minutes I'll make a motion to approve the meeting minutes of December 3rd 2024 and January 8th 2025 second motion M second any further discussion all those in favor I I our second um actually topic one of our posted business is a transfer of the class one license from gns industrial to Harrison Diesel and I know that we have you folks here um I don't know if you want to come up to the microphone um but it does look like everything is in order here Karen correct all the paperwork um I know we we had you in once before um and it looks like we're ready to actually finalize that transfer and issue the new license to Harrison diesel any questions I'll make a motion to approve the transfer of the license of Harrison Diesel from as indicated in the handout provided to us I'll second that a motion made in second any further discussion all those in favor I thank you congrats thank you unless you want to do a speech what's that speech they got a lot on their agenda this is the updated application with the check do you guys want that now you guys paid in September for this you refunded us I was trying to find that all I stuff in here too that should be everything but no you yeah you refunded that okay I was trying to look at that tell me um so what I'll do is that one there I'll email it to you but I will mail the original okay okay all right perfect thank you great easy congrats thanks for doing business in Hatfield and Gary thanks for all the years of doing business in Hatfield Gary and Mary okay thank you very much so topic two is some appointments um we have um an appointment to the um Conservation Commission we have Christina Hodge who's submitted interest in being on um the Conservation Commission which is really great and and Christina is actually here with us which is a nice street that doesn't happen often with our appointees so thanks for making the time to come down um and I mean this is great um really terrific experience um so I don't have any questions or anything do any of you no I'll make a motion to a point Chris a hes to a Conservation Commission I second motion ma in second any further discussion all those in favor thank you thank you welcome to the Conservation Commission you'll get instructions about getting sworn in and things like that um yeah thank you so much thank you appreciate it um we also have um an application from Nancy Shay um to be um the on the town bylaw advisory committee which is which is great I think nany would be great I will say um Nancy came well recommended by Joe L valy we had a nice conversation about it and I also had a good conversation with uh Nancy as well and she had some some great ideas and and uh is very interested in being involved that's great that's terrific so I'll make a motion to appoint Nancy Shay to the town bylaw advisory committee at wir position motion made in second any further discussion all those in favor I I great that's great and as always I'll put a plugin there's always openings on a variety of different town committees and Boards um so if you're interested there's information on the website right about openings vacancies um and I think you just come down to town hall and fill out a form and um if you're interested in doing that so I would encourage you to do it it's rewarding um okay so topic three is the approval um of the renewal of our mutual Aid agreement with Tri-State fire Mutual Aid Inc for three years um this is something we just um do every three years [Music] um this comes at the advice of the the fire chief um and this is kind of just providing a baseline level of mutual Aid think about some of the agreements that we have out there that might be a little more intensive this is a very large agreement with a a wide uh um geographical area um so this provides for you know Mutual Aid in a case of of needing you know significant amount of health so right um this is a good agreement to be a part of it it costs us very little um and it's it's a good thing to participate in and just so people know I mean this go this includes towns in um Southern Vermont Southern New Hampshire um and certainly all up through Franklin County out towards Wier I mean it's very um very big list um of towns so great I have no problem with this no I'll make a motion to approve the renewal of mutual Aid agreement with Tri-State fire Mutual Aid Incorporated for three years second motion Maiden second any further discussion all those in favor I I this one does ask for a signature from the oh chair yeah actually I'm I'm looking I'm I'm shering my duties here now hang on one second I can sign while we move on to the next the tree Works tree works so this is to actually so tree Works people would remember we had a Comm host Community agreement with tree Works which is a cannabis operation out on 5 and 10 um a $40,000 pay pay to the town which we had um negotiated with them to do some um carpeting at Smith Academy but this is to actually officially vote to allocate those funds so we we've had much discussion and and decisions about this it's just sort of the final um vote to actually allocate the funds I'll make a motion to allocate 40,000 from tree Works agreement to Smith Academy carpet project one second motion made and seconded any further discussion all those in favor I and we thank tree Works once again that's a great use of that one-time money okay um so implementation process for comprehensive plan including um possible committee forming a committee Andrew you want to I mean yeah I'll take it away here so um as as you all know that the select board has approved the the comprehensive plan as did the the planning board um and we are well underway of having it we we are complete and having the process uh accepted and and uh filed State uh at this point now there's a real desire to make sure that we're finding ways to integrate this plan into the everyday functions of the town and finding ways to not just have it sit on the Shelf we're about to print copies of it and I keep thinking like these are going to be great uh I hope taking them off the shelf opening them up and looking at how to how to use this there's a couple posters we're printing to of the um whole visual exercise that was done to capture some of the elements of the plan and we'll be able to put those in some areas maybe even this uh this office if that if that uh interests people to have a visual reminder of of this uh 2040 plan um but all that to say um something that could work really well is there was a committee that was put together to create this plan there's been some interests in that same committee or or from other folks in the community of uh seeing a community a committee formed that would be task for its implementation so the action plan is great it's you all know that there's different uh parts that are allocated to different uh uh boards and departments within the town there's there's different uh pieces of the action plan that belong to different entities uh one option is to have a committee that uh consists of different members of of those different entities and put them together and make sure that they're collaborating working together and and driving uh the implementation of this uh and I also spoke with Diana other options include is having it on maybe uh quarterly on the select board's agenda to have an update on the plan um where you could just be tasking you know Town Administrator and others with his implementation those are certainly some other things you could do but you know this is an opportunity now for a conversation about what are some ways that you can drive forward uh this plan and make sure that we are checking in on on it on a shortterm and long-term basis I this is just an important moment in time because this this the work that went into this was just phenomenal but then this this document that's been created not only has specific actionable items but it indicates who should do it so there's there's almost like a road map um you know to get some of this done and um regardless of how everyone feels we should go in terms of forming a committee or whatever I think that there should be maybe a quarterly or whatever if you have other feelings on that um you know agenda item quarterly to make sure that we're staying on top of what's happening and reporting to towns people um you know how how the implementation of this is going so I mean should should the idea be we take some of those from the original committee form like a subcommittee from that group to sort of stay on top of it or should we form a newer committee to stay on top of it their disadvantages not they'd have to understand the report or do we keep the original committee to periodically come back and give us a report I like a hybrid of that so I like the idea of some people from the committee because um you know they're so familiar with it and and really understand I I you know the the the spirit behind it and and all of that but I think bringing some new people in particularly people who can actually participate in those to that to-do list maybe from specific departments so maybe you H you build a committee that has someone from the select board someone from you know the police department somebody from the school what however whatever it shake however it shakes out people who can actually go back to the committee and ask them who would be interested from their committee of being on a subcommittee of of that group yeah I think some should be on it for sure right we might want to look at the charge of the initial committee I'm not sure if because it's an ad hog committee it might have dissolved once the plan was completed I don't know if it's still right so we could form a new committee and put see if some of them want to be on it um you know so I guess I would look for a suggestion from um either you know you or you know the the original committee on who from the town structure should be on there um you know if it should be people from boards if it should be department heads or how how it would best work who could sort of represent each of those um sort of sectors of to-do lists and then and that would give us a number of the committee and with I think keeping in mind we don't want it too big want it too big too big is just a problem Quorum wise and schedule wise and might be one person from the planning board that's on there because I don't know if any bylaws may need to be incorporated or change to implement some of the plans within that right that task y I would absolutely think planning board um I would ask for a consideration Town administrators since the Town Administrator is involved in the in the writing of the plan um you could consider a select board representative that might be helpful I think um you'd want to probably consider having some school representation since that's that's a major one in there um if planning board's there you can think about if conservation might want to be uh represented as well there's a significant amount of thinking about uh conservation land you I think agricultural uh advisory committee makes sense or at least someone to repres present Farmers that's a major portion of the plan um trying to think of the the other headlines that that are in there um I think Emergency Management probably make sense to represent as well since this was a plan that was uh written in part about how to manage for potential uh emergencies specifically floods that that could occur um so between those you're you're off to a good start um then you probably want one or two at large members oh not historical Pres ation in some way should probably be represented yeah histor I mean basically you have all these pieces of the puzzle for people that are read representing different parts of that plan so if you're going to implement say the covert plan it's going to take certain people that are familiar with the coverts in order to see how to get them clean and then fall through on either getting grant money or some kind of timeline for the future and on some of the other parts of the plan it's going to be other people with expertise in those fields to try to see if we can Implement those items I mean I mean building everything up out of the flood plane ain't going to happen overnight right that's but yeah some some items are heavier lifts than other items but um that's a good start I mean I guess maybe maybe have a conversation with um maybe with Stephanie and see um you know sort of run that by her and see if she has any additional input um and then maybe we could have a suggested list maybe they could prioritize you know one to five years helping for this part of the plan gets implemented five to 10 maybe this part of the plan and then blah blah blah yeah we've also asked um in a Grant application for assistance from Piner Valley Planning Commission um in Staffing this effort should it materialize some some help from them and facilitating and and uh add some resources to some of these meetings so we'll see if that comes through well and also I mean if they're let's say they're talking about you know something to do with agriculture or farming doesn't necessarily mean that everyone has to be on the committee but they can certainly invite um you know some of our Farmers um in to to have input on it so yeah an interest in in establishing such a committee um tonight and then we could even post for those at large positions if we end up with them or would you like to have a proposal brought to you and we'll talk about the next meeting I'd rather have a proposal about the the makeup of it we need structure structure to figure things out I don't think that's a problem at all all right I'll come with an idea for next meeting are you all set with that topic are you I'll set with that yeah and Greg okay got a I I'll add one other thing is is that early discussions have started even in like the capital planning um committee to think about you know what are ways that we can make sure that in our Capital planning and and other areas we're bringing in what we talked about those plan so maybe it's in the ranking of capital projects you could add a criteria does it take uh under advisement what was recommended in 2040 plan so there's there's sorts of ways that we can try to build it into decision that we make across the town I think that' be a great thing to do sounds good we keep that conversation going on THS that'll be Thursday night my meeting Thursday night our meeting Thursday night okay so topic six is um there's a request for a wage increase for the Council on Aging um director Jerry um who we all know is doing an incredible job um is this what is this wage is within the budget so I think we want to invite our Council and aging St to to speak we have some Representatives here I will say that yes it uh this was brought to me as being uh within the budget um and also coming from uh the coa's formula grant so I think that COA staff and for members will speak more to this this okay sure because I mean sure I if you want to go ahead go ahead cookie we always would like to hear from you Cookie go ahead here goes my mouth um everything's within the budget okay we have we have the formula grant that we've been receiving for numerous years so there's money left from that and then a balance left from our regular budget so it's not coming from it's coming from within we have okay and we've all all approved it and it's bringing Jerry up to date I'm sorry up to um the level of the next person the town of Deerfield Jennifer rard so she's getting 63,360 a year pay increase right I have no problem with it I mean I know she does a great job for really great job and she's definitely deserving of it and because you do have it in your budget that helps make the decision a little bit easier for me I don't have a problem with it either I'm sure that it'll trigger a pay an increase in your next year's budget line probably yeah so um I don't have a problem with that Jerry's doing a great job she's doing a great job yeah so do we need a motion on that I keep employees yes we do need a motion I'm Mak a motion to approve the increase as presented to us for Jerry r as COA director second that a motion made and second any further discussion no all those in favor I I I and that increase would be it's about $2 an hour a little less than $2 an hour a little bit less than $2 an hour yes thank you thank you thanks for coming down and being supportive of Jerry that's kind oh my God look at me taking up all the space sorry I just realized that we are just moving right along here good to see you Cookie thanks um so DPW report obviously um are you prepared to do that yeah okay y thank you well as far as the DPW there's some items that I could present to you I mean the Culvert uh project is is ongoing they did have a problem with the size of the pump and they've now corrected that so that's moving along 5 and 10 as Greg reported uh they did have power hooked up ever Source was there I'm still not positive what else is required at the pump station I don't know if they still need a couple pipes to tie in or not but we'll find that soon enough because spring will be around the corner pretty soon uh upstairs John is been working with Comcast uh and trying to get them to move the equipment from Smith Academy to The Upstairs Downstairs the COA that project Andrew's helping out with that making sure that stuff was moved to the pods pods were here everything got moved COA is upstairs it's supposed to be like a two- week project and they started today so I mean those are some of the updates of what's been happening and the storm season hasn't been that bad so so far so we're good in that regards great thank you Ed thank you things are moving up moving along we appreciate that uh you scooped me on the project update that's that's great I'm not gonna complain about that all um so we do have a couple of specific items under um DPW report one is um to take a vote um to allow deficit spending for snow and ice which is something do every year the state allows for deficit spending um because there's absolutely no way to to uh budget for it um so we we we budget a certain amount and then and and then deficit spend so when we we make this motion we've hit the target of money spent already right I mean that's usually what happens once we spend a certain amount of money that's been allocated in the budget then we have to make the motion so I I assume we've hit that amount and we want to do it just a little bit before just in case you know a storm comes in before our next meeting and which it will which it will that's what it looks like so there if not there already we'll know when the invoices come in and it'll be helpful to have that vote all right I'll make a motion to allow us the DPW director to deficits Bend for snow and ice second motion made in second any further discussion no all those in favor and then um we need to approve the um Springfield murf contract which is M materials recycling facility um this is something we've been doing for decades now um and this is just allowing us to bring our recyclables um to the facility that's correct and this includes a a two and a half percent uh processing fee each year that's you know this is a a municipal um entity so it does make sense that be looking at that 2 and a half% as an increase they seem like Fair fees we have not gone out for uh comparable pricing from other places we we certainly could um but uh this is where we typically go and it seems like a a rate that's fair so that's the advice of our Highway superintendent to continue uh with the murf um but we can also review it in the future certainly before the next uh uh contract extension five years from now sounds good to me I'll make a motion to approve the contract with Springfield recycling facility for a five-year contract extension second motion made in second any further discussion no all those in favor I I so number three is the project update which Ed has taken care of good um number four maintenance of school grounds I'm not sure if we've gotten anything on that yet from anybody of what they determine on how they're going to we're gonna have to push the reset on that maybe and um yeah okay can we just maybe move that to a future agenda I think that sounds perfect is that okay with you yes I we don't have any further much else to do right at this at this time there's not much further we can do on that however I do really want to get to the bottom of that particularly before we get to you know mowing and weed whacking season because that props up every year as um as an issue so we've got a little bit of time okay okay topic eight Town Administrator report very good how about it Andrew so I wanted to begin uh with a COA flor's project update and I really don't even need to because Ed Ed mentioned it and you also probably could tell if the work had started by walking in the building today and discovering a new odor uh that that's that's out there um it's the work that they're doing downstairs has not been without some slight disruption so we had a fire alarm go off today and we had uh have this this smell however uh the team that came in is doing an amazing job uh they've been very good to work with so far Capital carpent imploring out of uh Wilmington Mass um two two great guys who are starting the work today um the crew might expand in size as the project goes on but they got right to it uh pretty early in the morning today um and have been been a pleasure to work with so far so that's heading the right direction and as edit said earlier it's it's hoping to be a a 10 Working Day project uh they've given us no indication yet of of need to change that schedule but I think we're budgeting more like 15 working days because that's kind of what we expected to the end of January feasibly January would be great yeah and then we can get uh folks back downstairs in COA and uh get things back to normal but uh good start so far today which is the only question I had on that Andrew I there was a concern of the veterans equipment downstairs did that get moved into the bus yeah so um they so far they didn't need to move it yet today they're they're starting in another area so uh veterans equipment will be able to move down the hall that won't won't be a problem uh we we found some room to to move it uh into one of the the the rooms there all right that's where the floors aren't being done that was the only concern the COA had on on that particular equipment yep yep no we we um I spoke with the the um contractor about that this morning so we should be in good shape all right um tax title services so I want to bring you in on a conversation um before an action's been taken and just um see where this board um stands on it we we do not need a vote but just wanted to bring this to your attention so uh we've been using one attorney for for tax title services for some time uh the work has been good um there's an interest from our treasurers and collector's office and maybe pushing a little harder on some of our tax title work and catching up on some some project projects that have been slow to to work on in the past what can often happen with these projects too is they'll they'll do all this research and all this work on it and then it'll hit some kind of snag and then we have to start all over again um so we're we're looking at some attorneys that might have a little more resources a little more um ability to to up our game a little bit in this area and we had a great conversation with brown legal out of Boston uh they uh work with East Hampton and a few other towns around us they actually worked with Newburyport as well so I I know a little bit from my work there um and we had a great conversation with their team they actually did some some research ahead of time and and looked at our our list of properties and and laid out a plan of like how they would plan to to work with each of them uh it's clear they do their homework and kind of go the extra mile for us they're not killing us for that early work that they did just to you know talk things through it's just kind of a good audition um and we'd be interested in potentially moving forward with them uh their fees are a little higher than what we're working with right now but because this can lead to revenue for the town I think it could be worth it and as I said before we've had some issues in the past where maybe some work get done and then has to be duplicated later on so we think that maybe this is one of those areas where um making a bit of an investment there would would pay off for us in a number of ways so we're interested in moving forward with them I don't think it requires a select Bo vote this is something that can be uh contracted by the the treasurer's office um but this is the direction that we're planning on going in uh reaching out to our current attorney and informing them of that so wanted to run that by the board and see if there are any concerns no I mean I think it's great that we I I I think that we it's sort of a cyclical thing sometimes we've gone after the tax title things a little bit more and then sometimes they sort of they lay around for a while and just so people at home know ta what tax title means is just properties that are pretty far back in taxes um and so it's the town really taking that effort to try to collect those taxes and clean those um clean those matters and and collect the the tax revenue that um in some cases years pass du um you know most people in town are pretty good about paying taxes so um you know we're lucky in that regard but people who don't um there should be repercussions at some point I mean I think the town's pretty gracious um in we had a conversation with the potential um attorney about that who and we talked about how he's done payment plans and other things and they they was against that a lot of the time but they really want to be a partner to us and they understand why we would do that and they they they want to work with us and not try to change anything drastic they just want to offer their expertise to help us move some of these things along right so really good conversation they want to be a partner to us and I think it could be a a good thing for the town I think the town's been great as far as people that have had a little gotten behind working with those those people to help them catch up at the only biggie was always uh some property that nobody knows who owns it and that's always been a big question and and how much money do you want to spend to figure out or take that property it probably sometimes costs even more than what it's worth because a small piece here or a small piece there and really we don't want to own a lot of them or have to dispose of them so each one is just sort of its own story but I think it's really um I think it's good to take a a good look at it and get some kind of regular cycle going with trying to pursue those um matters that are generally speaking pretty behind yeah basically we don't want somebody's house we want the we want the taxes instead for sure yeah I'm GL I'm glad that the treasurer and you want to make some uh progress with this and do a bit better work so I support it I think it's great and Patty cotton assistant treasur has been a big driving force behind this she's very thoughtful in these things yeah ask asked good questions to the potential attorneys we spoke to a couple firms and um she's she's very sharp with this so it's very helpful great no I think it's worth pursuing great okay I want to give a quick update on the if you're ready for number three uh quick update on the opioid uh funds task force we had our our first meeting a couple weeks ago and have another meeting on Friday um first meeting went really well it's a good group that we've been able to put together and uh uh they um elected Dr men's as as chair of the group so he'll continue to come to this group and offer updates when anything else happens um we're working right now on putting a survey together that can go out to the community to get ideas from the community of how to use these funds so you said it's around $120,000 total but over 10 years so um about half that money will be in by the end of next year um so it gives us something to work with um at the same time um it's it's something that you know we we want to be thoughtful about how to use this and preserve money in a in a thoughtful way so um good first meeting and looking forward to getting some some Community input on this um and I think that's really all there is to say at at the moment uh survey is mostly based off of one that was put together by a some organization called Hampshire hope that that ran a um opioid survey across the region to get some ideas from Member communities and how to use some more F so that should be good and we'll be asking for this board's help and others and getting that survey out there and finding ways to engage Community yeah and we should encourage people when they see the survey to take it and weigh in themselves thank you Andrew good um so we have a meeting our meeting with the finance committee is not until 6:30 do we want to skip ahead um and go to um unanticipated new business yes yeah so um are the unanticipated new business is the resignation that I read earlier um of our DPW director um so we need to talk about um you know designating an acting director um I'd like to bring up an opinion first uh now if just follow with me for a second if if the director said he was going to be on vacation for two weeks everything would work the way it works so I'm really thinking because this has just happened whether we should take two weeks to think about some of the options because over the years a lot of different ideas have come about how we want to deal with that position and maybe it's it's a good time to take two weeks to reflect on it and because I know if for the next two weeks uh everything's going to run fine you your Tony and Brandon will take care of the water treatment plant uh Garrett will take care of his laborers and and Kenny and miles will take care of the the the water treatment plant and as you know I don't like to rush into something right away unless I've had a chance to think about it unless it's you know life or death type of situation so my thoughts are let's let's treat that at the like he's on vacation for two weeks and then you have the opportunity to either e talk to some of the the individuals in town or the superintendents because right now we did promote what all those guys to superintendent we gave them additional money to take on the additional responsibility so I think they'll be fine doing what they're doing right now for the next two weeks until we meet again and then we can come back with ideas because we've had a lot of different ideas whether whether we should coordinate take that position and have those folks report to the Town Administrator or make that into a different position or something else there's been a lot of discussion because you could actually on one hand you could take that money and say well we're going to add up we're going to divide up these responsibilities now I'll give a little bit more money to this person to that person etc etc maybe that's the way to go maybe it's not the way to go so my opinion is let's wait two weeks and really think about it do some investigation talk to people and and look at what other towns are doing too to see if they have uh the needs I mean do we really need at this this moment in time somebody to act or can we wait two weeks I think we can wait two weeks I don't have a problem with but I'm not sure we're going to accomplish all of that or know all the answers to that in two weeks so why would we not I mean I think it's somebody should be designated is there a a reason we wouldn't want to designate a DPW director I mean I understand if he if if Phil was just on vacation for two weeks we wouldn't be you know delineating someone um but but he's not and there's a lot of things to consider you're exactly right but do you think we're going to have all that done in two week I mean in two weeks we're still going to I think in two weeks we'd be able to either designate somebody as the acting director or or decide that we want to change position I mean I think in two weeks yes because we we do have those positions as superintendents those those guys are responsible for their positions and but if you feel you guys feel you you want to move ahead and say somebody's going to be doing I mean somebody's got a report to somebody that's fine but I I just it just happened I mean how do we know that the person we designate will even take that position right yeah how do we know that point I mean there is no rush to do it tonight J or Mary you got that positioning I don't want it you know I mean right so if there wasn't a DPW director like you said if he was on vacation things would still happen everything will still go on the roads will still be taken care of everything I mean at least temporary sense so yeah yeah I mean the board if if something was bad to happen the board could meet an emergency session absolutely we could we could jump in there and an emergency session if something major where that happen or we could ask uh the Town Administrator to take that because they the Town Administrator represents the board I mean that's the other option for the next two weeks yeah yeah I mean but the the first thing that comes to mind is just making sure that we have someone authorized to say approve of contracts uh expenditures uh payroll all of those things most of those come from within those different departments to begin with um Phil was signing off on most of those so as long as we have someone who's still authorized to think we're okay but that's where it's helpful to have like an acting person just so if there are any functions that that only the director can fill then it's being taken care of by this acting person but I just don't know the list of what well you're concerned with more of the administrative side of the house so right now when when the bills come in for fill does the town Administration actually review it uh yes I I mean I you've you've seen the warrants I review every bill that comes in I mean so I mean actually you're the chief procurement officer also for the town of Hatfield so I mean if it's administrative for so so let me walk through this process so I get in my head so garet submits his time sheet to the town hall they put in the time correct yes then Garrett submits if he has bills do his bills go to Phil then the town hall or do his bills go to the town hall it would go to the field first I believe for field to approve it and then to the town hall that's typically how we've done it okay so but you could probably make the argument that the highway superintendent has authority to submit anything for the highway department it says the water department would things for the water department right Tony would submit or Kenny would submit for sewer didn't necessarily have to go through I don't think those go through Phil first but I me Phil wasn't in and either Tony or I mean Phil was out for his hip and so how did we before you were on board how do we manage it then I think they were just super by superintendent and signed off on by the same people who always do okay yeah I would think so we'll put this on as an agenda item in a couple of weeks and give this some thought and is there anything you want the Town Administrator to do for research or anything else for structures of departments or if you can I'm going to I think uh see how other towns operate and stuff yep and I mean there was always there's always been discussion on that position whether to adjust it modify it or possibly do something different or take that money and give other people responsibility so it's just yeah get some input from the uh the supervisors of those departments too that'd be important to yeah they want to give that input they Andrew that' be or if they want to contact us I guess either way whoever they feel comfortable contact any of us or all of us or or whatever yeah I'd really like to know what they think I would or one of us can meet with all the department heads at one meeting and and hash it out what their thoughts were too right yeah I I I think we should approach this in a way that we're trying to cover all the angles you're right it is very new so yeah use this as an opportunity for us yeah so maybe if the department heads want to uh meet with one of us then you can contact the chair and of the chairs on available then the chair could have one of us meet with the department heads who's available and get their input and ideas how's that sound sounds great like a meeting with the the three of them and yeah with with you sh four you have water superintendent you have the two um two wet water that'd be Tony and Brandon okay and then you have Garrett and then you have Kenny so there's actually four right but only Tony would beart be the superintendent yeah because miles assist Kenny uh periodically miles I thought his name was um mat chippy Matt Matt chippy so there there they're um they're under the superintendent so I would say it would be the superintendent yeah yeah Matt works for Kenny and then yeah Brandon works for Tony but I think it would be Tony Kenny but's Brandon's position was brought up in case Tony was out he could operate the plant and he still be a assistant superintend right he's still assistant I think it really just needs to be the the three I supp super okay so I I mean yeah you could contact them and then and see if they want to meet with the chair and if the chair is on available then the chair can designate or decide who which one of us would is there a preference to meet with them together or separately probably together is fine I don't know why guess you know if they express that they'd rather meet I don't care I'm open to anything and I I'm I'm not oppos oos to hearing from all members of the DPW yeah I just think that we start with the three superintendents but yeah yeah that' be fine that's a great Point Ed yeah yeah yep so and I and everything will run everything will work out as I always say everything will work out it does y okay so we at least have to accept his resignation for now right yes oh yeah we do have to do that I'll make a motion to accept resignation of the DPW director what what was the motion to accept the resignation oh I'll second that yes a motion made and second any further discussion no all those in favor I I okay topic 11 our fire chief is requesting permission to attend CFSI which I assume is a what's that I know I'm like I don't know what that that is um and Washington DC which would be at no cost to the town but he would be considered um counted as work time so I can read this message from the chief if this dis that would be so he's asked to join a contingent of Fire Chiefs from Western Mass specifically Hampshire County Fire Chiefs to attend the Congressional Fire Service Institute from February 11th through 13th in DC uh CFSI is a way for fire service leaders to meet with and educate our legislators about the needs and challenges of today's fire Emergency Services they this year is to thank for the uh supporting the continuation of the afg and safer Grant programs um and also supporting the recent social security Fairness Act ham Hamshire County Fire Chiefs Association is covering the costs as he's uh requesting permission to attend um good opportunity for professional development also for meeting with legislators and others and so the eboard will be deciding this week who's selected and if if the chief is chosen uh the needs to book book travel so he might not actually be selected to go but if he is then we have permission already set up in advance for for him to be able to take that time out of town here to to attend this without taking days off exactly but not auring comp time and stuff that's not just not taking vacation time for the days I mean I have no problem with it I guess it's not costing us anything I'm okay with that just cost us time without our chief here on site but I think he's using his talents in a in a good place yeah I have no problem with it so we need to approve permission for him to travel because it's out of state yes that would be right but do we have to approve that if we're not paying for it an excellent question I don't know why I'm not sure about that so I I think it's really just to approve um that he can spend his time at this and have it be considered a work day okay I think that's what it is okay don't know so why don't we just do the approve that he can count those days at that conference as work days yeah and then if for some reason we find out we have to approve the outof state travel I don't see why we would do that we're not paying for it yep that's two days I believe as I recall that was 11th 12th and 13th yeah oh I don't have okay is it a bus STP with all the other Chiefs or I mean they're covering the travel I don't think it's our is he taking concern yeah he's not his own vehicle or what might mean his own vehicle no I think they would they would pay for travel yeah but I mean I but I don't think the chief's car should be out of town that long and I even to like if if he's flying there or whatever I mean he should take his own yeah personal vehicle to the airport or the train station or however they're going no crost to the town so yeah and I will check uh on the policy for out of state but I'll I'll make a mo that we um approve those days at the conference as work days I'll second that oh motion made in second sorry we got all out of order of how we usually do this um motion made in second any further discussion no all those in favor hi I I've got a message that's just the work approval so we're good just texted doesn't doesn't miss a yeah Finance comes in in seven minutes so take us 7 minute break there we don't have any other finished business business do we I don't think so that was it you've got through your agenda we've gone through the agenda so we have a couple minutes for a break before the finance committee comes in great we're gonna take a quick break