[Music] all right Well good evening everyone Um I'd like to call the select board and wage and personnel board to order at let's see 5:47 p.m um on Wednesday April
9th here at the Lakeville Police Station So with that um Lake Cam is recording this meeting Is there anybody else here recording No All right If we could all rise for a pledge of allegiance
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Well thank you very
much So the first couple of items on our agenda um one of our uh new select board members um is on their way So what I'm going to do is I'm going to kind of circle back um to agenda item number two and three Um and we'll just start with
agenda item number four which is discuss and possible vote to schedule the special town meeting for June 9th 2025 at 6:30 p.m up at the Aonoquit Regional High School So typically when we have our annual
town meeting we do schedule a special uh because there's a few articles that we can add um to that and we need to actually have a vote to hold a special town meeting So uh Madam Chair question Yes Did we vote
to hold the regular meeting as well already Yes we've already done that Yes Thank you Don't ask me when we did that cuz I can't remember the date Love that All right So um with that we have a
handout Um just for uh purposes of what's going on here So tonight we would schedule the special town meeting and open the warrant The warrant would close on April 16th at 400
p.m And the last um couple years it was open for a couple of weeks So if there's any you know last minute items we can get that on that the article for that warrant On April 28th any of those articles will be sent to town council for
review And the May 5th we'll vote and make the select board recommendations for the articles to be placed on the warrant Also vote on the final warrant On May 22nd the legal ad will be placed in the paper May 22nd The warrant
posting warrant review will be on June 2nd and then the special town meeting would be held on June 9th So I will entertain a motion to schedule a special town meeting on June 9th 2025 at 6:30 p.m at Uponquit High School um and to
open the warrant with a closing date of um what do we say here April 16 Um yeah April 16th 2025 at 4 p.m So move Second There's a motion and a
second on the floor Any discussion hearing None If we could do a roll please Um we'll start over here Mr Day day I Candido I Carboni I H I Excellent Okay So schedule town
meeting uh special town meeting has been scheduled Okay if we could circle back to agenda item number two So if we can we have two new um faces here tonight And I would like to
welcome our numis members to the select board So we have Christopher Planka and Paul Hunt Welcome Thank you madam Very happy to have you here If you'd like to say a couple words feel free
No we're good No I'm good No I I'll stop by saying I'm excited to be here Looking forward to use my applying my experience as finance committee could support my finance committee at the select board level Again thanks for everybody who supported me and voted for me Thank you
And um if I may I would like to extend um my greatest appreciation to uh Leah Fabian for the time that she had spent um serving on the select board Um she was certainly making an impact um you
know to the business that we've been conducting in town and um I just wanted to make sure that we acknowledge the fact that you know six years is a lot of meetings and a lot of agendas and a lot of other um studying up on issues and
talking to the people at town So plus assessors before that too right It's assessor two terms or like a term and a half or something like that Yeah So long history of service Um and I'm sure she'll she'll be back around uh doing something else soon I hope so
All right So just um you know if you have any questions um you know our town administrator as you know is is available you know to help you along I know you know Chris you've been pretty much you know in the in the Mhm you know the the weeds of the budget as we're in
the budget cycle now And I know Paul um you're just coming into it but we're all here um you know to help you along and you know answer any questions that you have and um information is all good We don't no open meeting law violations sharing information um you know just not
opinions Sounds good Thank you Very happy to have you here Okay And with that um so we have um I guess kind of a bylaw that after the first meeting following the town election the select board reorganizes and we need to
reorganize and uh vote in a chair and a vice chair So that's what we're going to do this evening So I am going to open up the floor for nominations uh for chair for the select board for this coming year
You sure you don't want it another year Anybody can step up to the plate with this Um it's been a I think she's probably got a countdown somewhere Can Can I first ask can we hear from who's interested in We certainly can Is there So and and give that person the
opportunity to present why they're interested Sure All right I am interested in becoming chair Um I think I can lot add a lot of context to some of the decisions that we've been making I've been involved in a lot of the rule
making that's going on the last year and before that some of the actual execution Um and I'm able to see both sides of some issues and have some unique perspective Um I've also got a passion for action and I think we got a lot of
action packed stuff that's going to go on this year and I'd like to help guide some of that along Okay This is your second year correct This is my second year It used to be tradition back when we had a three member board that the person in there last year or the year
before the next election became chair But now that it's five members all all bets are off We haven't made new uh we haven't made new rules around it or we haven't created our own new traditions around it as well Understand Okay Any other interest I'd throw my hat back in
the ring too I mean the last time um was fun but I felt like we purposfully held back a little bit when it was member Fabian and Carboni and I because we we knew that the five member was coming and we were like let's not do anything too drastic over that time I think we kind of we survived that year and got through
it as we hoped We did We did I still have all my hair It might be lighter and grayer but I still have all my hair It It was fun I enjoyed it Um I think we got you know things done that we've wanted to We put off things that we wanted to And I think this year um we've got as this evening will prove a lot of
challenges to come Um so um I think it's uh you know regardless of who it's a thankless job So thank you for your last year of putting up with it Thank you And we'll see how the year goes Madam Chair refresh my memory Mhm Um your experience
I I know you've done it how many years on the select board I know you've done it in the past You did Fidcom I did it finally think 2021 to 2022 and then 2023 to 2024 on select board Yep I think
those might be off You did a year with us on fin though a few years ago Yeah Right So two two terms on fin Yes One was a unexpired term right You I know you filled up right And then you did how many years on the
select board So you just I didn't expect this much math before the budget Sorry We did 2020 to 2021 was unexpired term and then I when I didn't go for re-election on that I was elected to
Fincom and then at the end of that I came back to select board in 2023 Yeah 23 Okay That's right This is your third year from fin board Okay Yeah And then if you were wondering for for me I did three-year term on
fin one year terms on fin as well Yep Okay Not in order right Uh four five years on the rent control board Um what other things have I those were the elected um positions
and one appointed a position for Lakeville Okay Okay Thank you Okay So um I'll entertain any nominations This is always awkward Anybody Well I'm
I can s I'll nominate Maren Candido as chair for the the next year Um I would need a second Second Okay Um again any other
nominations I'm hearing none Um we'll do roll call please Um I usually start with my right Okay Hunt I plunk eye Carbon I Candy do I say I Okay All right Congratulations Mo Thank you And now I
will open the floor for nominations for vice chair I'd like to nominate Brian Day A motion Do I hear Second that And I have a second Any discussion Hearing none Roll please Hunt I pluck I Carboni
I can Oy O Oh okay So um at this point I am going to turn over my torch um to Miss Scandido and we are I believe moving on
to agenda item number five Thank you And uh just want to say a big thank you for all the sacrifices that you've had to make this year to make sure everyone was organized and everything got on the agendas and trying to keep us all on
task in our very long 4-hour meetings Yeah Yeah It's been an absolute pleasure to have you as chair and thank you very much for all that you've done I appreciate that Thank you Maria Oh and I I for the record and I
appreciate Lorraine again working with you Finance committee uh appreciates your support in the finance committee over the the few the years I've been doing it um and ensuring that we're always involved at those board meetings So again so definitely for the on behalf of the finance committee thank you
You're very welcome Thank you And I hope we can continue that Absolutely It was great working together Thank you Thank you everyone Um so item number was it five Five discuss and possible vote on change order for fire station waterline
design Everyone has a updated from Tracy and the end result is a $33,000 increase uh or change order
Andrew can you speak to this um to give us a little bit more context on what the issue is Yep So similar to the police station when the police station was built uh in 2019 they did the water line up front as like a cost savings measure cuz it's going to go in anyways and the design takes a while So they want to do
it up front Um so the water line itself is going to be kind of separated away from the whole fire station project So they wanted to get working on it now And so this change order is to the design contract with Sosio and Associates Um and by the the charge of the committee
any change order over 20,000 has to come to the select board for approval What percent uh increase is this for the cost of that small portion of the project Is it more than like a a 15% increase No it's probably like under 1% probably
Okay Yeah Oh no I'm just talking about the water portion of the project Um I'm like wait well they haven't really started this is like the first phase of that they wanted to put on the design contract as opposed to just single use contract Got it And this has been vetted
through everyone that this is a a valid change order etc etc Okay Um open it up for any questions A question if I may Um I was curious are we limited to this being stopped at where the fire station
is proposed or can this design also look at another like an add alternative of if we design to the new set of fields We looked into that Okay Um to get to commissioner fields we got about a million and a half estimate Oo Okay It's a lot more expensive than you would
think Um so we're potentially looking at maybe a grant of some kind outside of the fire station project to do that in the future Okay Have you looked into the federal water grant yet for that Uh no Looked at
community one stop Um unfortunately they look at more like housing as like a driver of who gets that and there's really no housing along here Well it's kind of a catch 22 is it not Yeah it would be I mean on on this side we
really can't build housing on our stuff Mhm It would have to be on the other side and there's already houses there's like houses and it's more involved and separated away from this project Any other members comments questions
Okay Ready to take a vote All right I'll make a motion um to approve the change order for the fire station water line um for pair civil services in the amount of $33,50 Is there a second Second
Any discussion Hearing none Hunt Plunk I Carboni Ide Yay My first item Uh uh agenda item number six discuss and
possible vote on proposed food for fines program at the library Would like to speak to this Thank you Madam Chair So I'm proposing a food for fines program um to be run Could you do me a favor and identify
yourself Jennifer Jones library director Um so I wanted to propose a food for fines program to run for a month to collect food for the council on aging food pantry Um so what would happen is um in lie of paying for an overdue fine
person could bring in a non-p perishable item unexpired to pay for that fine It's very important to note um and then that charge would be wiped out So it would be a one for one deal So if you had five different overdue charges you would have to bring in five non-p perishable items
This would not count towards anything that's lost That would still need to be paid for separately And um any other things like printing costs would not also be under the food for fines program And really it's just as a means to help
out in the community We currently take in about $300 a month for fines Last month it was less possibly around 250 260 Um and so I'd like to to offer that to the public I would like to do it for a month at least to give them you know a
good time to collect and then um if it proves successful maybe do it another month depending on if there's need at the food pantry And I did put forth a letter and some charts to show you how the lines have been going since there has been
automatic renewal of fine Collection has dropped significantly That was back in 2021 I believe or 22 So we haven't taken in as much as we used to Um so roughly about I think 3,000 a year or
so So I I think it's just a good way People love to donate anyway So I'm hoping to also just put out a donation bin at the library food pantry as well Chair if I can So looking at your graph thank you for including this Um at one
point we were close to about $8,000 um that we had in fines and it looks like we're down to about what you had indicated about $3500 Yes Let's go for zero We've got a month 30 days to try it Let's um you know obviously if the board
adopts it um I think we let's get to zero and then we'll help that food pantry Good Go Anyone else have any comments or questions I'll say that this is a fantastic idea I I I support it Fantastic What the great work that Miss
Fay has done at the uh COA with the food pantry Yep Good collaboration for sure Yeah Very We like it Very cool Would anyone like to make a motion I would like to make a motion um to approve the proposed food for fun program at the
library um for 30 days So it'll be through I'll work with Lori Yeah Come on Perfect I'll second that We have a second Any discussion Let's go for
zero Take a vote Punt I Plunka I Carboni I do I passes Thank you very much Agenda item number seven Uh we're going to now ask our department heads to
sit and have conversation about 2026 budget First up is town administrator Do we want to have the finance committee Oh yeah Are they all here It looks like it Um and if if I can Madame Chair um
Mike Ellis our um finance director um is now in the hot seat So because we flip through and we have different lineup um it would be very good for us to know what page in our binder our budget book
like page 7 cuz I'm I'm going to be flipping through this to find it And um and I know you're very intimate with us with the book So if you wouldn't mind just let us know what page Yeah this is an easy one This is the general government tab Starts on page 11 Thank
you like to invite the finance committee to come to order Um so as the vice chair because Chris um I like to call uh the finance
committee to order Wednesday uh April 9th at uh 607 or so Um so protocol Darren Beiels governs that right Larry
Cost um is do you mad chair do you mind if we take care of some of our house key so uh first order of business is we have to um uh call for a vote for reorganization of the finance committee um for chair and
vice chair I'll make a motion that we um reorganized Anyone want to second that Second Um any I'll I'll make the first motion to uh well roll call
Darren Beals Barbara Manovski Larry Costant So I'll make the first motion for a new chair for Darren Beals I vote for yes Second Second Okay All in favor Larry Clan and I Okay Mike
Right Barbai And to be clear that was under under distress We were a few minutes late He hid the bruise as well So as as the new chair I'll pass down the agenda
Um all right I make a motion for vice chair for Michael Wright to be the new vice chair Second Take vote Cost I right I deals I all right let's
see now that I'm chair let's see next uh so that is that order of business is closed and we will move on to the department head budget meeting thank you chair great thank you so much switch yeah no worries I'm new to this
I'll put a big gavvel everyone know um Andrew I'm gonna let you speak to this and you please carry on Um and then in future meetings would be fantastic And I know this is
just new but I'd love to have it up Um so people can see the whole thing and we can have it shared so they can take a view of what we're talking about but I know you do have it online for people to look at and follow along Yeah exactly Um
so I'll start out with uh the select board and town administrator's budgets Um as you can see I've kind of taken it down quite a bit Between expenses and salaries were down about 30% Um from fiscal year 25 Um I'll kind of take it
from the top to go down to the bottom Um it's a little bit of a symbolic move Um trying to lead by example with this Um it's page 13 Um so it's symbolic trying to lead by example I'm not going to take a salary
increase next year Um that's about a $5,000 savings Um I think that's you're probably going to hear a request later on tonight I think that's a better served to go to someone else this year Um for the
assistant to the TA position Um it's not that I don't think it's needed Um but I'm pretty uncomfortable with the amount of free cash we're using at this point in time And I don't think adding on 90,000 to that number is going to help out other departments Um if I add it to
that amount we're probably looking at close to half a million in free cash Um which I think is far too high at this point in time Um the executive assistant um will be retiring in August and um I'm kind of looking at it to kind of bring
the salary down Um I'm going to propose a compensated absences article at town meeting which will um help with payouts of retirees So that longevity um will come out of that longevity any vacation time all that will come out of that
article Um training and postage you're going to see this in everyone's budgets has been taken away Um that's been uh centralized postage is now in the treasur's budget Um and then the training budgets are now
going to be in HR's budget So um we're going to propose kind of a policy of how that's handled but that's going to be basically people will put in their training requests to the HR department She'll okay it and then pay for it out of her budget Um the contracted services has kind of acted as
a catch-all over the years Um I just took it down a little bit just to set a new number that we have to hit by We have to live within it Um same thing with printing advertising office supplies Um meetings and travel expenses
I'm not someone that's going to travel Um I thought 6,000 was pretty heavy so I brought it down to a,000 Um dues and subscriptions just based off um obviously I don't really see a lot of dues and subscriptions especially if we
don't have an assistant to the TA position Um and I took down the reserve fund Uh it was at 100 Um just trying to save anywhere we can We don't typically use a whole lot out of the reserve fund So I thought that was a good spot to potentially take out
of So that's really my whole thing Um if you want to go into the public build properties um we tried to go to the actuals and kind of take down from there So uh I think page 14
So we've kind of looked at looking at how many how much money is spent every year and kind of bring it down to that level And so we did that throughout this whole um public buildings and properties lines Um and then we kept everything else level
funded So um open into questions Show there's going to be a few So I I have some comments rather than questions Okay Um this is ob obviously an austerity budget and I really appreciate that you're
trying to lead by example However this leaves you so lean and at risk for not being able to accomplish your goals And that's my my thing You're one person Um you're going to be
onboarding um a new person and replacing someone that has Tracy how many years 20 over 25 25 years of experience um you're going to lose all that institutional knowledge Um and I've got concerns on
what that's going to do for your availability to help lead your teams So just keep that in the context of you know just worrying a little bit of of what's going on Um
other other questions on there um would be that role for the assistant to town administrator understanding that you're not looking to replace it and that you're you're looking to try to do without Um is there any type of
grants out there to support a project manager or someone of that nature for some of the things that are coming up that your office will have to be doing with Route 79 or some of the stuff going on with any type of construction um for
the new police station or any of those procurement related functions Um so Route 79 is taken care of We do have a on call not an on call it's a it's a consultant contract with AECOM So that that should be taken care of I'm
not aware of any grant programs um for like a assistant to the TA position It would be a project manager A project manager Yeah I'm not quite sure of any Okay For that but those are my concerns And then a question I had is um
on the auditing and actuarial services um back 2020 prior to COVID funds it was every 2 years that we would have to do the actual uh services and the numbers have gone up greatly since then after we
finish all of our ARPA and CARES does that money go that number go down because we go every other year again starting next year or is this a new is this a new thing that it's going to be every year Um it's a great question actually I sent an email out to our
audit firms who handle that this morning I haven't heard back because we need to as we approach the end of the fiscal year we actually need to solidify a contract as well So it's to be determined right now but I can absolutely get And is that still Parker Elmore or I the invoice I pulled in the
contract said Odyssey Audit Solutions Okay And then we were using Markham for our annual financial statement And when's the last time we went out for bid for those Um that I I do not know Um we've been signing year contracts We were using Markham for quite some time I think the entire tenure when Todd was
here Um they've been bought out by a company called CBiz So we're going to need to at some point Andrew and I sit down and iron out a contract but I I don't know when the last time we went announced a bid was Yeah Keep the board updated on anything you find Yeah I can try Typically financial audits you use
them for quite a while It's rare to switch Um and I believe is it exempt under 30B It might be exempt too Insurance and audit Insurance and audit Yeah So a lot of times it's Yeah All right Um opening up to the rest of the
board Um and also to the finance committee for questions I'll echo remember to Kenny's concerns that Andrew you've been doing a fantastic job of working working with you since day one I appreciate the support Uh but again we
want to keep an eye on that We don't want to get you burned out And again I agree with me Candidos you know with basically leaving um we appreciate that you declining to fill that assistant position and do forego your raise next year So that's admirable and appreciate
that But again it's hopefully if need be if during the year if we have additional funds if we got to revisit this then we can certainly do that Thank you Anyone else have a comment Um I just had one Um
obviously I s support that initiative because um you know we'd like to keep you around for a little while you know so burnout's not an option Um the legal services So I know that's kind of been a you know it's been wonky up and down you
know for quite a few years And um I think the $75,000 is you know pretty much what we we've earmarked So I know in the past we've had to come back but it would be really nice if we could just kind of like hopefully no issues will come up
that we'll have to tap into that So what could possibly go wrong Yeah Nothing right So but other than that I mean this is this is more lean than I've ever witnessed the select board um town administrator budget here Yeah And I should say I mean I know the history of
the TA position here I know Rita was here a long time uh Moren obviously and Ari there's a lot of like financial focus Um I think part of that is going to be jettisoned a little bit to Mike So um not all not I am gen certain things to different people like Lacy's taking
on a lot more stuff outside of HR than I think would be normal So um I'm trying to get creative with people here maximizing what you have here Right So absolutely Um it's not all doom and gloom There's there's ways I can manage
manage Yeah if you could bring me up to speed a little bit what happens in your absence I mean I know you have a young family and you have time that you do off and so forth What do we do without an assistant when you're away Mike has the unfortunate
um he's going to be the acting Okay TA in my absence Okay Yeah Thank you I've got some thoughts if it's my turn Absolutely Um I mean Andrew has been nothing but stellar since coming on board Everybody we've
talked to whether it's in the town or our state legislatures or representatives sorry other towns the school district Um I I can't see him burn out We We have to figure out a way to fill this administrator position I don't care what it takes I've got ideas
of other positions in town we might be posting that aren't necessary right now Um if he's thinking of taking a salary cut and he's basically trimming everywhere then um board I would say pick a number I don't care if I want to be chair second third fourth or fifth but I'm going to take zero salary and
give it to Andrew That's not fair So he can for five grand and take my 4500 Thank you very much Um reserve fund I actually have a question maybe for member planka Was it inter fiscal policies
There's a set number we were not supposed to go under for per year I feel like you brought that up in the past Uh that was it that for the um for the for the finance committee Yes we have it So what do we have it set
at 75 right now I feel like we tried going under 100 and you found something that said actually we can't but I it's I'm blanking on what that was Yes I believe I don't know but I moved it from 150 to 100 and I I remembered there
being something and it's just gone Yeah I tried finding the policies but I can't right now So bylaw Uh I'll I'll take a look Yeah but I think we had this discussion last year when I tried to do the same thing and we had it restored Anybody in the finance committee remember that discussion We
had it restored to 100 I I remember the conversation I just don't We're all getting old That's That's four of us I will say there was a late change I think Mr News and Mr Hassid had it at 75,000 until very late in the game last
year and then I noticed unexpectedly it got increased to 100,000 Probably that one moment where you're like "Oh you can't It was under Bob then." I I noticed that So we'll just have to look into that Yeah Sure Can't remember why Can I ask what this number is cuz no one
has said what it exactly is Sorry I think it's 100 reserve fund Thank you I'm sorry There's a lot of numbers on these pages Um what was it The financial policy It might have been Uh yeah but searching
for those terms in my email bring back all sorts of stuff right now I bet Um I think it's a valid point and we should explore that as a followup I'll look at my emails too because I was
the one that I'm sure I communicated it to Bob and Todd All right I have a question on leaving expenses Absolutely Are we um are we on a retainer or is these project based
billing This is just KP laws It's just KP laws right Just KP So it's the services they provide for the town in general Yeah But we're not itemizing that out We're not breaking it out by which department is paying is spending which kind of money cuz I would be interested to know what that is You do
get an itemized bill You do Yeah I asked the same question and I got last year's um whole shebang for well 2024 was it Um I think the rest of the board got it the itemized but yes KP Law puts you know
what board or committee they're supporting For us we don't have a line item that says you know so this is contract professionals under general right But it's not going to be allocated to you know to each It has been in the past I don't know if that's something
you want to change or I think it actually changed Well we're not on retainer is what I heard you say right Am I getting old It's we're not we're not on retainer It's not a retainer It's a just a rate an appointment on a rate and I think it was 219 per hour Who was
the gatekeeper on those expenses Okay Us Yeah Okay Yeah Well okay I just think um having been on a board and not appreciating the cost of a lawyer it's easy to say well let's ask you know yes there's somewhere around 219 an hour and
we appoint them once a year when we do our annual appointments is we appoint KP law as our So if a board comes to you and says we need to have review of XYZ then you authorize or say you know no we don't need to have that at this time or whatever Correct Okay Do you feel that
the do you feel that that um you're saying yes or no more often There's a lot of requests that come in more than I would like That's why I always kind of not I always try not to use them as much as I can It's a contract stuff that I'm used to I don't
like to go the the KP law route cuz it's expensive and that the rate's going up to 250 this year So um like everything's going up So Okay Yeah And we as a select board um had talked about that at one of
our previous meetings where um if we were to have a a question about you know council we go through the town administrator We try to use um that position to funnel you know all the information And then there might be additional requests from the same
question um where the town administrator will keep track of any responses from um town council but also what's being asked A lot of times someone from one board is asking the same question That's why I'm asking And so previous um and I don't
know if we've ever found it No um uh Rita started a uh Rita Garbett had started um a book of all things legal and I added to it So every time one of the members of the board or anyone asked their legal question I had a copy of the
answer um not always the question but a copy of the answer from KP Law and I kept it in this big book So whenever it would come up I would be able to say "This is the last ruling on that." And then if I did reach out to council I could give them fill them in on this is where it is this is how it is here's a
copy of that read that real quick instead of them having to do all this research So I found it cut down significantly in the billing hours Um and I'm hoping at some point we can uh discuss doing that again We um we rely on 100% volunteer boards for all the
things that we're doing So even $75,000 is small change relative but it's a big it's a big reduction from the prior year and I do expect we're going to have more of that this year Yeah we're just about I think over the amount allocated So
we're going to have to either do a transfer or come to you for a reserve fund transfer Um there was one more item Was it advertising
Um the advertising budget um is that just for warrant articles etc Warrant articles procurement um is that going down I don't know that We'll have to have a conversation about that because we spend a lot of money on town meeting uh
warrant printing I think was it four four between four and 5,000 Um the state election last year was,100 for the ad The warrants special
and annual was over $4,000 and um just the special alone last year was $781 for one question So we have more items on the special this year um depending on the annual Um so it
was um a lot It was almost $5,000 to do the special in the annual town meeting versus the $75 ad that we used to place That was my question Okay Did you do all of page 14 yet or did we
stop Uh no I I kind of just we tried to trickled We tried we tried to research the actuals which is what we allocated and No I had a question if if it's okay to go there if not to say so Uh cable TV advisory do we think they're going to need 5,000 this year They don't have any
contracts coming up do they I don't know We just kind of kicked it off We used to put 5,000 a year and then in contract years we put 12,000 um for the contract year Um but if they have something coming up possibly we could do something
Yeah I don't know if they have anything Yeah We could possibly take you know this year's allocation and spend it in July if that's possible I don't know if there's a statutory requirement to like list it under them or if that could be part of the other contracted services that I think
we had Think they just call it out to make sure we don't forget about them That's probably more likely But I do see that that could be an area member um because um to member day's point um it's not something they use
every year um and they use it for things like um the Verizon or the Comcast contract that they go for But that was like 2 years ago I feel like they're two or three years I think we did I think we did a 10 year with at least one of them
So that should be a long time before that is a necessary I'll reach out to a couple people see what Marshall there is some there is some associated risk um with what's happening um with that service
because the cable you know everyone's cutting cable right they're cutting those boxes so the revenue on that situation is rapidly declining there is a bill before the state house I think Bob Marshall came here and talked with you guys about it so if If this if these fees would help
with that that's going to be important I don't know if they do or not I don't know what their services are Yeah So I don't know what they can use it for but I know what we can allocate it for was legal charges for contracts So I don't know if that No I don't think that's I don't think it applies
Does anyone have any other questions [Applause] anything you'd like to add or are you uh are you comfortable to be out of the hot seat Um well the sun's putting me in there quite literally
Um no it's just I know it's uh I don't want to say this as a sign of things to come but I mean if we don't find a kind of a financial solution um this is might this is something you might see across town I I don't disagree um all the signs
are there Um that it's um that we're going to be I hate using the term but it's a fiscal cliff that we're we're going to be walking over if the state can't fund us like we used to and we don't have any new growth numbers in order to support and the school budget
keeps getting bigger and every other budget gets bigger because that's what it does It doesn't go away Yeah So yeah just just trying to get creative with what we have I really appreciate it and again um duly noted everything that you're trying to do to make sure that
every what is that leaders eat last so very appreciated we're the leader so but we need the leader to be fed I'm young so I believe in the put on your oxygen mask first as well right all
right town administrator check library so this is under the culture and rect Tab page 76 See Nice Could you reintroduce yourself Jennifer library director Um so first I wanted to
highlight a few things we've accomplished So we've added some new services like Canopy which is a film streaming service auto repair course for anyone who wants to DIY auto repair Um Creative Bug a crafting database Mango Languages which
is a language learning database with a great app An expanded large print section with new titles added often We have a new online calendar which we put all of your meetings on so you know um a revamped website with plans to update the website again before the summer a
dedicated public computer for genealogy in the Brian H Reynolds local history room a genealogy club to go with that as well and steam events in the evenings and afternoons for school age children and a play group for younger children So we've been pretty busy at the library Revi we've been revising and adding new
policies such as collection development unattended children rules of conduct and meeting room policies We've boosted the Wi-Fi at the library We've upgraded the access points and we have a gig of speed now so no more slow downloading um renovating and simplifying the
gardens and grounds So you'll see a lot of changes around the outside of the library which I think is looking really great thanks to the DPW I saw there Yes Yeah We've added some new lighting in the front to enhance safety and visibility as well And I think what's important for our budget um is that we
remain certified with the Mass Board of Library Commissioners So this year we received $34,795.17 for um being certified which means we met the open hours requirement We met the materials expenditure requirement and we have met the municipal appropriation requirement
which is the most important figure and that is calculated with using the last three fiscal year figures and increasing that by 2 and 1.5% So that's the average plus 2 and a 12% So based on this year's appropriations our MAR municipal
appropriation requirement will be 422467 So um based on personnel increases and some operating increases we should be adequately above the mark and we'll be easily certified this year A note when we reach 15,000 residents
and I don't know how soon that will be we will be required to open eight more hours and we'll be able to drop down to 15% for materials expenditure requirement So that's just something to keep in mind for the future So in terms
of the budget um for salaries it's all contractual step increases The COLA will be determined by town administration And there are some longevity increases this year I have two employees that are going to attain 20 years of service during this facility Well done
For operating I didn't make any changes to electricity We have added more to that budget After 4 months we found ourselves spent uh 45% spent So my goal is to look for some ways to reduce electricity costs using LEDs energy
efficient machines We'll figure it out heating has an addition of $200 which I've taken from um repair and maintenance buildings and grounds There's no change to water We will hopefully get the irrigation well and
get the water situation sorted out Um I've shifted $800 from the um RNM buildings and grounds to heating I've asked for a $200 increase to repair and maintenance office equipment due to increase in copier contracts and the
sales PC support is costing more And then I have added $600 for rubbish removal At this time the monthly was averaging 150 It went up to 175 the last month And I know Tracy is working on looking at ways to unify all
departments to reduce costs for rubbish removal That was a question So thank you Um other contracted services um it will shift 500 to office supplies and 500 to custodial With other contracted services a lot of them were facilities based and which now have moved to the facilities
budget So I wanted to reduce that a little bit and move it where we needed which was in supplies There's no change to telephone Postage was removed and consolidated Office supplies and custodial supplies add that 500 each from the other line I have asked for
1,500 more for books and this is because we typically supplement our materials purchases for books with state aid to meet our materials expenditure requirement and the appropriated amount hasn't changed for some years and this increase is a small percentage to
address that growing gap between the requirement and what is appropriated from audio books I'd like to shift um 102 audio from the video line take $1,000 out of video because DVDs are dwindling in popularity and a
lot of people are moving to streaming services And this amount should cover the purchases of a streaming service when we're ready to move to that I asked for $300 more dollars in periodicals We have some requests for print periodicals from patrons Mother Earth News The
Atlantic and Boston Herald So that should be s sufficient to cover print cost and as well as um adding another local paper or two and then no change to dues and subscriptions that is where our sales library network fee is so that's
why that number is high and we may see an increase next year but the fee is steady for this year and then documents I've shared with you tonight I gave you some circulation statistics um which you'll see there was a huge
increase over the past 5 years in digital audiobook usage Print material circulation is rebounding from CO during CO there was a pretty significant drop but we are seeing a more steady increase in that and ebook circulation has spiked in CO
and then leveled off And another thing that I shared with you was um responses from a sales survey in regards to the cuts that are going to be made at the federal level to the Institute of Museum and Library Services that for the state
pays for some statewide services such as the Commonwealth catalog ebook sharing and um the statewide databases So if we lose that cost we could see a reduction on our state aid number the state will have to shift money around to cover that
They're looking at cut of $3.6 million to um library services across the state So sales put together a little survey to ask how patrons would feel if some of the statewide services like Libby and Comat were to be cut And that document
you have I think seven pages worth of responses is pretty interesting A lot of people talk about how important Libby is to them especially for their aging parents um who need stuff to read They can uh enlarge the print as much as they need or they can listen to it A lot of
the audio book used through that And a lot of the comments talk about how important library services in general are to them So I thought it would be nice to give that to you to read so you see what the responses are from the public Thank you Madam Chair important thing
Absolutely Um Jen if you wouldn't mind you listed some significant accomplishments this past year um for the library Would you um mind just maybe sending that into the town administrator so he can I'd like to include that in my
my budget book so that I have it readily available um as reference I know it's very helpful for the newsletter too Yeah in the newsletter would be really good but I'm sure you've already shared that But we would share
as much as we can on social media but whether everybody sees it as an maybe the finance committee might like a copy as well Question for um madam director I appreciate that this year you've asked for more money on the books line because
I think last year I'd said why are we using state money to state money to achieve state accreditation Did that close your gap that you had talked to us about last year or is there more to go It doesn't close but it brings it up So I was planning to just continually
increase it to a smaller gap like 8,000 I had like 6,400 in my head but it could be up to I have it in here somewhere I think it's like 66,000 I have to spend this year Okay On materials All right I appreciate that So yeah I like I like
the foresight and hopefully we can just get you to the point where you can use that state money for other things not just to maintain Used it this year to upgrade the staff computers We used it to make the Wi-Fi upgrades Nice So I do use it quite a bit Thank you Anyone else
questions comments I have uh one quick thing It it'll be on another night but the capital projects at the library this coming year One's going to be the roof and the other one's going to be the heating controls So um they have to be approved obviously but those are two big
items Since you brought it up my question is can Green Communities Grant cover any of the things for the library we're just talking about like reamping or some type of heating efficiency or anything to do with heating efficiency
for the roof any anything like that I don't think so I think that was looked into Yeah I'm trying to remember when the um the grant opening was for green communities this year Um because I know
that we've we've been a community that has received you know a tremendous amount of funding like I want to say close to a million dollars for all the projects that we were able to most of the schools you know to accomplish So
was it this past year We just got the 90,000 for a heat pump at the animal animal shelter So I don't know if so I don't know that hasn't happened yet So we're not we can't apply for a grant if we haven't completed the current project but it might be something to look into You know maybe there's reamping and
stuff like that just for what you were saying for some efficiencies Um rather have someone uh besides us pay for it and we reap the benefits from it if we can Right Anyone else questions What are you um under the line item for
video Um would you say that we're not necessarily buying videos or DVDs anymore but that if that if those funds aren't used that we would be applying them in the future towards uh streaming is that correct So if we are allocating
the funds now is there a way to do you set it aside or just ask for it as you need it I mean if we don't need the full amount I mean I guess I just It seems like we're putting it in a savings account but it's not actually a savings account It's an expense So it's I still
am buying some DVDs They're not produced as much as they were either So it's getting harder to find ones that I want to buy Um I think I still have a thousand something left in that line right now Um but it's still part of the
materials expenditure and I do have like like I added Canopy which is the film streaming service and I um paid for that I believe out of state aid at the time but I can shift Canopy to the video line and then paid for that streaming service That's what I mean is
like as I add more things digitally I'll use the video Okay Instead of the traditional physical format Okay Thank you Um I guess my only other comment is you know we have for for the public is just to have an appreciation how
much more important um the library becomes as your uh population ages because seniors are likely to am I correct And also um when we have economic downturns such as a recession that the library becomes the staple for people to have resources that they otherwise can't afford So that's my
support of the library But thank you question number I thought you had something No supporting my number Very good I love getting ready to hand me a very supportive environment Very supportive environment Does anyone else have
anything to add or any questions or comments You just finished your year too I don't know Three four five six Might have been a year and a half yet Really end of May will be a year and a half Yeah Well this
is a thoughtful and well presented budget Thank you very much Thank you Um if there is anything else any questions for anyone If not I will allow you to get out of get out of here and move on to the next Next up is town clerking
So it's under the general government tab page 31 Hello good evening So looking at my budget it looks like um Let me start off with my accomplishments Um I was able to obtain
new voting machines which are much faster under the AR So I want to thank you for providing that for me Uh it was very helpful for the presidential election Um and that was our last minute
arper where we reshuffled and found our priorities Yes it was Uh I was able to obtain formal pull pads which was um which brings me a total of 10 which that was an excellent choice to do because at the check-in table we had two people
doing that so people were not waiting because previously I had to do A through L and through C So imagine that chaos and one pull pad at my clerk's table which we were able to process all vote by mail that came through the mail
during election day And um so that was very helpful and also one extra poll pad for just to look up for anyone that was not a registered voter So speeding up the election during election day for a
presidential was huge So it put myself in a good spot versus in 2020 So I was working smarter not harder this time How what's the life of those type of items How long you know before they end up having to be replaced Do you have how
many So voting machines definitely every 5 years 3 to 5 years And so I was able to obtain the fastest ones that we have right now Um which is I'm I'm very happy with that Something to keep in mind as we yes you know scroll through that even
though we get great new technology usually the newer technology the shorter the life span of the item Cool Thank you Keep going Um I was able to satisfy uh 9,800 registered voters for the vote by mail which is around 6,400 requests for
the presidential election That is huge That's a huge undertaking And I had the opportunity to hire a part-time um assistant uh for my office which she was able to do all the elections for me Um so there was hands on all three of us
doing this because keep in mind as we are getting those vote by mail cards that everybody received from the Secretary of State that's a huge data entry versus um also creating these kits mailing them out receiving the ballots making sure that those are accountable
and that we have some procedure to make sure those are safe and doing audits on a weekly basis So um it's not easy like back in the day when which the election was one day and then we had absentee So vote by mail is here to stay and it's
just going to create more because it's the convenience of people to to vote I think I'm on page 31 Mhm So uh my assistant went up um she stayed at grade six at grade C step six Um so
her increase due was due to contractual obligations I did have to request an increase on the town clerk um other contractor services and that was an increase of $2,600 that has to do with general code
that we have for our bylaws So every time that the planning board decides to make changes to our Sony bylaws I have to start thinking it's going to cost money because these changes to that to our code is in is is huge It's very it's
it's a nice um um database that we have It's online Um it's easy for um a building commissioner real estate agents and all all the key players But it does cost money to make those changes Um even just the last one that
we just had for the I think it was the annual town meeting just that one word that was by a citizens petition um to make sure that we had to change our bylaw um no person being on the
finance committee to select board something like that that cost him close to $1,200 Got it So it's something to think about So I do had to increase that by $2,600 because I had to figure out the um the last town meeting that we
just had the special town meeting involved There were some changes and then look at changes that are coming up and the annual town meeting in June That's very expensive for a database ad Very It is but it's something that
everybody wanted and it's very I think it's a great tool but yeah that's just huge It's huge a lot It's something that LEL needs Yep Um versus um my my office keeping it up to date as a word document
100% It's going Yeah Anyone that's had to look anything up you know and had a question being able to have that as a resource is very good Um so um like um Andrew had mentioned that the postage had changed is now
under um transfer to the treasurer's budget which is uh my elections and my registration So I no longer have that My training and education is now under um the HR budget which has to do with the town clerk and elections
Madam Chair question Um Lily one more The postage that was moved to what department The postage is now with the treasur's office Thank you Her budget Is there anything else you'd like to Yes I wanted to add that um the alley wages
to my temporary um staff that I have um is went down So which I understand that needed to go down Uh but it's something that we might need to revisit later on cuz this person is essential So if we have anything in the fall maybe we can
uh recuperate um something to consider She's one of our floaters that we have Um but I also utilize her in my office as well So in in addition to the part-time person that's Well keep in mind my part
is only 19 hours a week right So this is an addition to that person That Yes that person I still have Okay But it's not temporary This was a part-time position And I just cuz I made a little note here and I just wanted to make sure that I understand This person is not I don't I
only use her when myself and my assistant is no longer in the office And keep in mind one person in the office is no longer feasible Even on Fridays one person in the office is impossible
Okay Brian you might have to help me here because I remember this might have been right before you came on but because we designated in the budget that you were allocated a part-time person which I do have Yes Okay Yes I do have
for 19 hours a week Okay I just wanted to make sure that that was Yes still Yeah in your budget It is Thank you My question on the floater is is that floater shared between other departments or is this dedicated floater to to you I believe she is shared to other
departments right now Yes Okay Um and then my other question is how do you all fit in there Um you really want me to tell you I I make it work Unfortunately like today she was sitting in my table that we have in the hallway and working
from that area or sometimes she's at the counter helping all the right now we're inundated with dogs So she's concentrating doing that task Okay But um just for this board we should probably have a discussion at some point at space allocation and how
we're using our space And I knew there was going to be a problem We've designated a subcommittee for the the reuse of the building Hey I'm on that committee I know you are So um but if there's temporary um accommodations that we need to make until we get to that
point which might be three or four years out or whatever we I think we can absolutely address that We've been making it work since she came on in July So it's been somewhat of an issue but it's it's okay for now But it can't be
like that for the future That's for sure No it's it's a tight fit Question if I may The um just make sure I understand this right So when we say the floater we're talking about line 512000 Yes So the floater salaries aren't all
under HR No it got split out I think at some point it used to be Oh okay 2019 and 2020 it was all under HR It seems a little odd like like mid year if they need to reallocate hours like
why wouldn't they be in one pool I think it also gives a pretty good idea of how much usage So if the lens department is going up and up and up and somebody else's isn't then at least you know is greater Sure But that that's just a tracking somewhere just why does
it have to accounting wise be how department by department I guess is my question We want to have that as a follow-up discussion I would like to have that So you're saying move up move the floater into just one jumbo fund or whatever I I
thought they already were Larry I thought all the floaters were under HR's budget Yeah it would make sense And it's all in one place and then instead of breaking it out it's easier to track I think it was split last year maybe or the year before Yeah I forget what the explanation was Yeah Well I think it was
split because before we allocated the part-time person specifically for your office I think it was I think we did have money in your your line for that But yeah I'd like to revisit that Um cuz this person does really help me when we're both not there right And my part-
timerr that I have right now would not be sufficient Okay Yep Yeah I'm not I just to make it clear I'm not saying pull the help away Just just put it in place on budget Yes I want to make sure that wherever that goes to that we have enough monies for that Sure That's
all that I do realize that my budget was cut which is understandable So I'm fine with that and we'll make do with what we have Um I did have an increase in my printing in regards to registration The increase
of um the census and the street listing has gone up So I'm only asking for an extra 500 and my increase in supplies for elections Um I only ask for an extra 200
and that's because of food I do feed my pole workers and I do just they do deserve to eat And of course the cost of food is just keeps going up So it's just an extra $200 Um I do realize
that in the cuts that were made it has to do with um elections for my phone workers Um we'll just have to keep an eye in regards to um whatever elections we keep putting on
that uh we revisit that But um comfortable with where it is Question Were the training and education programs really cut or they just moved to a different They were moved to HR Okay So that's not really a cut in your budget No Same with postage So it looks like it's less Correct It looks like
less on on paper here but no those were like I mentioned earlier those were transferred to those Okay Yeah I just want to make So the cuts aren't as much as it seems if you Yeah it seems a lot on my online thing Okay Thanks I had one other thing um on the the
cover sheet on page 30 of your note there That's why I questioned the part- timerr Um is there some way we can just add that to the organizational chart just for the record Yeah So that we don't lose sight of that Oh yeah
Cuz we advocated hard for that We did definitely let me just tell you that this person has at least 20 years of experience with elections She's one of my coworkers I could not have not done the presidential year without her She
was huge in instrumental of getting all these requests out the door So everybody that's here that requested a vote by mail we received it on time Wasn't there another accomplishment in your office Didn't your assistant receive some kind of a certification I
did mention that to you Yes she um we were able to send her to um let's just call it town clerk school right It's at PE state It's called the New England Municipal Clerks um and city clerks Um she did a three-year program and she
obtained her national designation which is a certified municipal clerk Fantastic So um it took 3 years and she went um during the summer which is in July for a whole week and she so she learned a lot
She was able to network with a lot of town clerks so in case I like I always tell her I get hit by a bus she knows who to call so she's able to move forward Yes That's not the hit by the bus part but that's fantastic
Yes It gave her confidence Good Yes Now I know everybody has met her and Mhm I love having her Yeah Um question on that When we are professionalizing and everything does that not add to our bond
rating as well when they're taking that into consideration for the professionalization of the staff I can double check I'm not quite sure off hand but doesn't it helps for sure Yeah Isn't that is that an every two-year one or
two year that um we have to reertify the um the bonds for the individuals Oh the individual bonds Yes the individual bonds annually gets annually Yeah Yeah So that might have an impact on dollar
amounts etc But I don't know It's a great thing to to continue to professionalize everyone in town A different question if I may Um Madam Clerk what if you know or had a guess what percentage of all those mail-in ballots actually come back Actually came
back Yeah Okay Like how much of your time is getting wasted Basically like people you really want me to get frustrated Yes People I think people should realize that Uh yes It's very frustrating because out of the um 6,400 requests that went out we had um close
to uh trying to um picture my my spreadsheet here We had close to 5,500 that came back So the the remaining those people showed up at early voting
in person with the ballot say I'm here to vote which is the same ballot that you were going to get at the early voting site the same process Or they came to the polls and said "Oh I'm here to vote." So not only did we pay the postage because
we are have to pay the postage mailing these ballots back but they didn't have to pay the postage of returning those ballots because the state had a they paid the postage on that So it is a little bit frustrating It's a lot of time consuming but if you're going to request a vote by mail and um for
convenience you know please use it because it's not It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be Lil and and I am guilty I showed up on voting day and she's like "Get out of here and go to town hall." Cuz I they were sitting on my counter like "Oh I got to mail these Oh I got to mail these." But those have to be checked in
and then brought back to the poll Great job Brian Yeah it's on me But they couldn't make it any easier to actually do So yeah So I mean the opportunity to vote is there You just have to get it in the mail Get it in the mail Drop it in the drop box That's why we have that drop box
Yes And then lastly I was going to talk about my um my my salary I feel that I came before you last year and it was not the year that asked I've been coming before I've been
asking the previous town administrators for uh a pay increase and they always say no it's not the year I said okay fine So last year was the first year that I've been coming and asking and again it was not the year but I did
notice that um contracts were given to the department heads and pay increases were added and then pay increases were added for FY26 So then I'm saying to myself okay
so you were able to satisfy that but here I am I've been an employee for 25 years I've been in my role since 2014 and it's been overlooked So I feel I feel a little bit selfish
asking this this year because of course is not the year to ask when other departments need monies But I just feel that I just want to make sure that at least it's considered
Um I can tell you it's top of mind for me Yeah I have it highlighted also Thank you for that consideration I just feel that um I think it's time and I just want to make sure that the next town clerk or whoever we get in my office that the
pay is there You know you're going to be hiring a new assessor where a certain dollar amount and then FY26 you're going to be hiring that you know that person's going to be making more money So and then 3 years ago you have again it's not
the person it's the process You have the assistant to um to the town administrator coming in at a certain amount more than me than I've been here a long time holding the town together like all of us are you know and it's just a little bit frustrating Really a
little just a little bit frustrating Um so I will say it it was in originally I did approve it um it was one of the last ones to get cut Yeah Um the reason I did cut it is because I thought it probably should have been separated from the budget first I thought it would kind of
come to the personnel board which is you guys And it's also a separate article at town meeting So I figured I'd support this 100% up to what she asked for which was 85 85 85,000 Um but I thought the process should go to the personnel board and we can I have no problem making the
change on this budget It's just it'll come as a revision before we finally approve it I have it noted in my book and we need to have some conversations about it Yep I know I know the uh the um the survey that was just done last year
had all of us in a certain bracket and mine was I think it was 90,000 I'm not asking for that I'm asking me meet me somewhere at least Um but if it's not possible I can understand that But it's
just a little bit frustrating that you know last year you were able to be able to satisfy stuff like that Yep We're aware I don't I don't disagree that the optics don't feel good Yeah The lack of separation between
number one and number two jumps right out at you as well Mhm Y and that's what another thing I was going to mention that the department heads are they're between um 25% versus their
assistant and myself I think I'm around 3,000 between myself and my assistant So and and that's because um she's a she has steps to follow with and an increase on top of
that So and my salary historically was almost close to the treasurer collector but since she became appointed her p her pay went up substantial I have a question for you though Does your
longevity count towards your retirement Longevity is punching it It is Okay 25 years Yeah Yeah I know you and I have had this conversation at least the last couple
years So yes you're entirely right You know you keep asking very politely and everybody does keep saying like "Oh it's not the year not the year." But your your observations are accurate that when we find ourselves in a pinch to find somebody to fill a spot they end up with more Correct And I'm pretty sure the
next town clerk hopefully will make more money and which is but you need to compensate sometimes with the experience too Well I I appreciate this and and bring it to us in the way that you're very respectful about it and you shouldn't
have to be this understanding for this long Um and I'm hoping that we can find some way to um take what is it Water from a stone somewhere um and and and and do something at some point um you know
before before it gets to the the working Absolutely Um madam clerk what is the typical pay for your towns similar to us say free town or you know other towns that are you know our size and let's say
compared to quantine or you know or Plymouth but some something in our side Do you know those numbers I'm sure I I do I do So let's see Kingston is paying at
89,000 I'm at 78,000 Uh let's see Medway is at 95,000 Roit is at 88,000 Seco is at 81,000 Rentham of course you have all
those stores and all that 86,000 Carver is at 81,000 You know of course we can't compare this but Wear him just hired a town park at 90,000 Okay Do you know if any of them by chance have similar certification
stipens like you do Um if not that's fine Just curious They do Some of them do Okay But I have obtained my master municipal clerk which is the highest I'm also the uh administrator certification for the state So I make sure that the
town clerks that take their certification goes through me I'm also on their eboard and I'm also the president of our tri county town clerks of our of this area Well I didn't know
any of those things Yes So I need that in I'm representing Lakeville very well the facts that you don't believe I know we watched that And and just a little tibbit I did mentor a town from um Pearl
on election day She came and sat with us um the whole entire election process Um she was just appointed um and she was she all right after that experience No And her first election is
in May Oo So the poor town clerk her her her head was spinning but um she was very glad that she was able to take that leap and said "Lil I need to shadow you." Yeah Well we're very lucky to have you Thank you very much um for
everything you do in your presentation here today Um anyone have anything to wrap it up Any finals Yeah it's not a great comparison but our sister town uh Midbar has an elections official making six figures and they have a town clerk making six figures So Oh they divided
they divided it out and they paid them I think one's like 105 and one's like 102 or something So I think I don't even think they have combining experience and will not No they don't So I do have a question Madam Chair
Absolutely Um first of all you amazing job You've mentioned something that holds us together and you literally have like you know you really have you do an amazing job for the whole time I've been here I think Um you have mentioned earlier in the conversation about how things had changed and the additional
burden you had with the mailin balance right and you know I know that that number obviously changed because of the pandemic and now that people are used to it and more more and more people are getting more and more used to it So if you had to look back what kind of a
change are you seeing in that additional burden relative to say you know I don't even want to use pre- pandemic but say 2022 Uh the convenience of vote by mail People don't want to stand in line and and go vote They want to do it in the
pocket of their homes So what I mean is what's the cost to you The cost is the postage It's the postage but it's the manpower right because you have to do and I didn't have that manpower in 2022 So I How much is it increasing though if you were to say like 2% just a
ballpark idea doesn't have to is that at least 15% So every year you're seeing a 15% increase in that particular category is one of the many things that you do and you're absorbing that in a budget that isn't necessarily reflecting that Is that correct Yes Okay Uh so keep in
mind every four years is something to think about is the presidential year because during those years we do have four elections The presidential primary early voting for one week then these a town election Then we have the se uh the
state primary with early voting in August So that's an election every single day for a week Then we have the presidential election in November with early voting for two weeks That's an election every single day That's paying all those pole workers every single day
for early voting All that vote by mail and and that's just huge So like that that person that I have part- timerr um the the one that was just reduced That's just huge because I need that extra body
The three two of us two and a half of us is not enough Lake is growing and we're going to continue to grow and it's something to consider My office is just too busy like everybody else and it's something that we're going to need to
consider because not only do we don't have the space but we eventually want to need more people Mhm But we'll make it we'll make it work We always have How many registered voters do we have in total as of the last register uh the
last registration 9,800 that does not include um 3350 inactive voters that potential are still in Lake they could still vote but correct so we have 986 98 6400 requested ballots while
correct it is and we have 12,000 residents I mean not that we ever get 9800 people voting last I assume was about 600 no but you've in mind for the presidential election we were at 89% Yes Because a lot of people came and looked in person
Yeah It's going to be fully paid for with the old colony vote coming up in November That's a headache for Will's office Yes Yeah But hopefully not the express No the expense will be covered But it's just another thing you got to
worry about But thank you for your support and thank you for listening to me Thank you Thank you Thank you All right On the agenda parks please So it's going to be way in the back It
has its own tab enterprise fund and is page 86 Melissa is here for parks but um we have our newest elected um parks member that's here as well If you can send the information do we uh did everyone get
sworn in I did Yeah you did You want to introduce yourself Yes Get up as close as you can to one of the mics Andrew I just honored to have been elected and uh you know eager to uh use
my experience and everything to help out in any way I can Fantastic We're very happy to have you It's amazing whenever someone new comes aboard We always end up seeing like the same faces after a little Whit So seeing new faces and um and and younger people
It's a win-win for for all of us Anyone else And I think the parks hasn't had their their meeting yet following the election So I don't even know if we have I tried to reach out on Facebook and I get an error message You cannot talk to this part I was like okay Well what you do Melissa
Melissa Hi Introduce yourself Melissa Turkot park commissioner Um our chair left this year and our vice chair can't come to meetings on Wednesdays So here I am So I'm not as prepared Just found out
yesterday with me So we'll do what we can Um page 84 Do you have 86 Oh I'm sorry 86 Um and do you have everything that you need in front of you or do you need one of
the budget books to look at Um no you can go through it I'm sure you guys are all familiar with it and I spent most of yesterday going over everything familiarizing myself so we should be good All right I'll let you start Oh let me start Um I feel very underachchieving
with all of these guys Um in the fall we redid the skate park We took out all the bad transitions so there's no more going up the hills falling off your thing cuz it's all one smooth transition And we redid reconreted all the ramps and jumps
and stuff So that was our big thing for this year More to come in the spring but Great Does that mean we all have to I'm doing that after meeting
covering the broken hips Yeah We have insurance right And mostly we can talk about that Um did you want to speak to any of the um any of the wages Well as you know um the select board decided not to give us the 175
this year for Clear Fine That's absolutely understandable But we did cut back on their salaries because we assuming we're gonna have to cut their hours or increase profits And for right now cutting the hours is the we know that's can happen We don't know if we
can increase the revenue Okay And we also have um repairs and maintenance for our grounds has also increased because we took the money that we're getting rid of at Clear Pond and put it in there for a
few things We have a lot Lun Pond Lodge is in need of a few things New heater um new gazebo We have We also had a lot of tragedy this winter our you know our roof needs to be repaired Now the gazebo
roof needs to be repaired Clear Pond Park we had a tree land on the roof that needs to be repaired And um all the poles up at John Pond when we lost a pole 2 years ago we had the remaining poles tested and replaced the ones they told us needed to be tested and did not
for the ones that they said were okay Well we had another pole come down this winter so all the rest of the poles have have been replaced I think they've been replaced already Mhm Melissa I have a question for you You said the roof was in uh was damaged Yes At by a tree Yes
Is that covered Yes it's covered but it it has a $5,000 deductible Got it Roof is more than $5,000 Yes Well it's small And I almost died when we got the bill from Middle Barrow Gas and Electric for $1,900 to disconnect the cuz when it
came down it of course came down on the electric meter So they had to replace that and that was $1,900 in itself So I said to Peter I think we might make the $5,000 Keep that bill to the side so we can get back to it That's covered under your claim The tree ring was also cover
Okay I can the DPW took care of the tree rules So I don't know if they would have some get an invoice from them to put it all together Thank you I know you guys have questions I know you guys do your due diligence You're
all set to go Um how about we go on for the expenses Um big jump in the electricity Yes Well last year um we took on Lun Pond Lodge We used to pay the electricity and they used to we
build them Now it's all one like they don't pay fees separately It they give it to us at once So this is our electric bill and Lon Pond Lodge's electric bill So if you look in the revenue there's also an electricity line there where they
reimburse us They pay 100% of their electric and their heating and 60% of the trash removal If I can Madam Chair just on that one with the electrical um this is for where is that The revenue page
should be on page 84 Oh I see But not broken down Okay Not broken down Thank you But if I can make a point about that electrical line um when we do our green communities reporting that's going to be really critical that we have
that explanation as to why there was a jump there Okay Um and I'm I'm sure you know Andrew's office will be able to you know work with you on that And as it's noted because they you know they're going to see an increase They're going to want to know why you know that amount
went up Okay It's it's explained right And we can probably pull if you need it we can pull past like what they paid what we paid separately And then it might not electric went up We all know that right Right But we can be as much
if we put those numbers side by side Okay And then you want to continue down the line because there's just some some big percentage changes Yep The building and grounds right We covered that with all the new repairs and commissioner fields Love
Commissioner Fields Soccer team loves Commissioner Fields Everybody loves Commissioner's Fields When they put in the sprinklers they didn't map out where they put the sprinklers And we of course in the fall have a sprinkler leak So in order to repair that they have to dig up
until they find the sprinkler where the leak is and all that stuff So was that covered under the maintenance agreement with the sprinklers or no No there was there was no agreement Okay Do we know where they are now No not yet Okay
You can help with that I know you Larry Larry you're you're going out You going to get your shovel Actually you're knocking it up He was thinking about it I have questions about why it wasn't mapped out Who installed it I can't I don't Gracie can answer the sprinkler
installed How was it that we had a sprinkler system put in without being mapped out That was really a big question in 2019 and 2020 So but if it's been fixed how do they not know what they are still Well it's not that good This is the
first pipe that's broken up there That's Sorry I thought you meant they already fixed it No not yet We don't we don't have that in this budget to fix So it's going to have to wait until June We just follow up on that Tracy Okay See
if we can reach out to I know Norm East Hydro Seating did the It says completion of the multi-use athletic field All right So I know that they were the ones that were out there seeding it and yeah
doing all that We can figure that out as a followup um just to see if there's anything that we did The expectation should be that they would come back and map it out for us put flags in it whatever Absolutely It just doesn't seem It should have been done when they laid
it out There should have been a plan Here's the prints Here's everything you need seems to be a problem with water in Lakeville There will be a problem on any sprinkler system You'll hit it with a you know whatever You'll hit it with a fire and a lawn mower You you'll have a car driver Something's going to happen
I've done all of those things Yes So I'm sorry about that Madam Chair took me took me They did install the irrigation system All right So we might have it We just don't have it accessible So I'm sure they'll have it for us And if not do it We can make
some phone calls Sure Um equipment going down to office supplies Um yes I asked that same question We need Peter's computer
doesn't he needs a new computer because his computer won't support Windows or whatever iOS whatever system he's using they won't it won't be supported on his computer so he needs a new computer and the other one was for Clear Pond which I
have already mentioned that maybe somebody else has a computer they're not using that an older one that we could take cuz Clear Pond it's only open for Doug to use for a every 10 weeks right So we don't need a brand new $2,500 computer Do we have surplus um computers
from Well my answer was if my iOS system my computer doesn't handle my iOS system all the old computers that are around probably aren't going to handle the new system the the software that he needs So just we might All right We might Yeah Yeah I
think we can at least point you in the right direction and get you something at a better price I do have an old select board laptop that I can dig out at home and um bring it in and have Bob look at it and see if he can upgrade it If
that'll if that'll do it and see what the harm would be there Yeah I'll bring it in Yeah So at least some of the problem would be solved Um love to share resources when we can Yeah Um all right That was office supplies Um
and then we go to equipment repair maintenance equipment Yes Uh park expenses equipment Yep That's mostly goes from the um DP not the DPW but Ryan our DPW employee for whatever we need for the park And I honestly don't know what we're going to
need for that increase to be there But I I know that it's got to be something Last year it was a new um g a new gas cabinet Like it seems silly but you would walk in the maintenance shed and it would be littered with little gas cans The little ones that you use at
your house So last year we built got a new thing and it looks so much nicer It's against the wall and it holds 12 gas cans so they're not all over the floor anymore And would you mind very much just following up and yes and let you know
Um but yeah the cost of that cabinet was like $3,500 So it's like crazy Everything's crazy Crazy Yes I agree Yeah but I'm not sure what exactly what piece they need So once you find out if you share it that would be helpful And then a very
concerning park activities events Uh negative 33% What's that No panics nothing no events would be cancelled Um it's mostly Clear Pond because he brings in musicians and game
people and all that kind of stuff And we have Lakeville Day and it hasn't cost us as much as I thought it was going to cost us because we offset it with vendors Got it And then trunk or treat we didn't have to buy as much candy cuz people donated candy to us So it was
good I know trunk treat is well attended Um Oh my god Yes Yeah I'm pretty sure members of board have been there uh for the last few years for trunk or treat Quite an event She knows what I mean Insurance up up indirect
charges Um which indirect charges are are those Are those those are all provided by the town but you don't I think it's a small small percentage of the fringe benefits for one of the full-time employees that is under DPW but works at the park It's a small
percentage of the fringe Thank you for that Mhm Question if I may Absolutely Um Andrew or Michael is there a way for us to track this better Because I feel like one of the things that we owe the park
is in order to get in line with the state guidelines what is their target Like what kind of revenue do they need to be bringing in to really operate as a true enterprise fund if it's going to stay that way And this is a big component of that Um otherwise you know they might not know what they need to
raise Our budget this year is $313,000 and you one of you had given us a thing that our indirect charges should be almost $100,000 So that means we would have to raise $415,000 That's what I mean like was that you know how close were we on that Is that
accurate Is it not I mean do you track it for a year to give the residents more accurate data if we come back again at town meeting Yeah it's not it's not very close Um I used the state template and state guidance to build that prelim and direct cost fee and I scaled things down Um it's all public documents and
templates that I used Um also enterprise funds can have their own reserve fund So as we talked about earlier in the meeting we had 75,000 maybe going to 100 So when you list these catastrophic unforeseen uh circumstances if you had a surplus in revenue or retained earnings
you could have that um quote unquote emergency fund to tap into So um it's a great question Um if you wanted to you know by by all the bells and whistles yeah you probably want to raise close to 500,000 if you wanted a true reserve fund and a true indirect cost fee Yeah
is the what I see here and if I'm interpreting it incorrectly I apologize You know revenues are going up 44,000 and change but the indirects aren't changing So we're not and we're cutting positions cutting back and not capturing
all the indirect charges So this is starting to now affect the general fund It is Yep Um so in my previous town we relied on two very high indirect cost fees coming in from both our enterprise funds to help offset cost in the general
fund So when you have two general two enterprise funds and one is obviously not going to be a enterprise fund much longer Um you do want to help offset some of the costs in the general fund and we're we're not capturing those So you're exactly right Um anytime a an employee that's funded out of the
general fund works on an enterprise fund a their a portion of their salary should be in the enterprise fund budget or b it should be charged via the indirect cost fee Um anytime we hire the audit firm to come in and do a financial statement audit if they audit the enterprise funds which they will a portion should be
charged to the enterprise funds They're they're their own um small business if you will They're their own uh functioning entity Mhm Um but on the flip side you can't bankrupt an enterprise fund if the money's not there So I think retained earning was certified by Todd after fiscal 24 at
$43,000 So if we were to implement all those things I just named I mean that 43,000 goes away fast It's you're operating in a deficit And as I said an enterprise fund is like a small business What happens to a business when it operates in a deficit It you know it goes away So um or it needs a general
fund subsidy So um it's very close to not being self- sustaining which is the goal of an enterprise model And if you factor in what you mentioned Brian it's it's not self-sustaining So yeah Oh I was just going to say years past I'm talking way back like starting like 2013
2014 we asked every year can we get a business plan Can we get a business plan Can we get a business plan Um not saying this is a vote I'm just saying this is a really good way to start solidifying what your plan is what your you know what your expectations are
year-over-year I think it would be fantastic if we could all get together and hopefully you know sharing of services and come up with a true business plan for all those enhancements that you know both the parks and the
town have paid for to get the parks where they they're going to be this this year and how we can monetize that in a way to get us to a level where it's either self- sustaining or we can have that conversation again in the end of the year You know what do we do What do
we do to make sure we're able to provide all these services for the park Um because at the end of the day we're it's providing services to people It's just how we fund it how we get how we get to the number how we make anything like worthwhile of all this effort that
you're putting in I can tell you that Clear Pond great to have you know great thing for the town Not many towns have their own beach you know Um that's the big money suck Like that's we lose $35,000 a year Like you guys we split
that with you guys before So now we're got to absorb that whole $35,000 cost Play around see what we can do Was there ever and I'm sorry if I'm taking up all everyone's time but was there ever a discussion to increase the
beachfront at Clear Pond Park so you can increase the capacity of the amount of people that are able to use the facility At this point capacity isn't the issue Like we've never had to turn people Well I've been there two and a half years We haven't turned anybody away And I've never heard of them turning anybody away
because there's no room It's just people don't want to come they'd rather go to um Rainom Athletic Club and pay tons of money for their I'm going to stop I'm going to stop you there on that there's there's not any room So last year and
anyone can correct me if I'm wrong We had voted as a board Um your chair came to present wanted to open it up to Middleboro Um and uh when we got that presentation we were just assuming it would be open to Middleboro and all Middleboro residents could use it And
then it turned out it was an announcement that not all residents could use it They could buy the pass because there would be too quote unquote too many people and we couldn't support it Yes So last year we opened up season passes for Freetown and Middle and that
did help and this year we're looking to do that same thing maybe just in general open it up to anybody who wants to buy a season pass whether you're from New Bedford or Brockton or Berkeley or wherever That's a discussion we haven't had yet Um I can't answer that Okay Cuz I just
don't want us to say that we can't make it bigger when we when we stopped it Yeah when we've stopped it in its tracks at every time This is a a conversation we can actually have with you at a later date about Clear Pond and all that stuff if you want who we open it up to Fine
But um if you just open it up blankly to everybody you can have we can absolutely fill it but is that what you want I'm just saying like if we're talking about we're saying we're not filling it but we could fill it What's that sweet spot
that we want to be able to hit And I do enjoy the prospect of using people that are doing the the subscription for it basically or the the family pass etc Um to be able to make sure we're controlling it But at the same time we
also have the problem that um Clear Pond is a all cash business other than season passes because those get go through Erica ahead of time Other than that we have no way to take credit cards at Clear Pond And it's funny because we just spent all this money to put in
Wi-Fi and broadband and we still can't take credit cards because we could just literally have a Well credit cards are going to have a 3% charge on them at a minimum What about a not a debit card Debit card They charge matter what you use PayPal
Give him the floor He doesn't Um so we're going we're going cashless at the transfer station in like a month God willing Um we found a company that actually doesn't charge any sort of fees Of course the town has to pay for it but we won't charge the residents any s
charge If that works we're going to parlay that for the parks hopefully All right And we don't need a social security number or anything to take that No Nope social security Yeah that was the problem for the credit card machine You had to put in your social security
number so they could give you a 1099 so you could pay taxes on whatever income that you took and nobody was willing to because we wouldn't be credit taxes anyway So yeah we I think if the town was using some sort of like credit card system fly by night they they they had to tie the social security number and I
don't know we're doing something separate Yeah that's Thank god you didn't go with that Yeah I know But no I appreciate all the context um and you know all the willingness to have conversations Um I I just we have s such great resources I don't want to spoil
them right But I would love people to be able to take advantage of them We are we are getting a concept plan hopefully this week We have a meeting Friday morning from the um again nothing to do with finances but for the clear pond engineering plan They've been working on it I've been
opening the gates for them they've been coming in and out Um she took the final meetings her final measurements on Friday last Friday So this Friday we have a meeting to go over the first draft of the plan for Clear Pawn Park So great They said don't get excited because it'll have to have a few
renditions but we are excited First one coming Sorry Michael Actually I was going to say it'd be nice if we could get a better breakdown on like the revenue side because if our I don't know if this was the final log contract I'm looking at but like their rent was only going up like 500 a month each year of
the contract So only $6,000 So revenue has gone up $44,490 I mean what did you guys I mean that sounds like something that we should be celebrating If you found $38,000 of more revenue like how did we do that What can we do more I'm going to tag off of that because it
was my understanding Correct me if I'm wrong Melissa but when you were talking about the electricity that $12,000 difference um is what we're picking up for Bloom Pond So that 44 is actually minus right Yes Thank you Yeah
So but again comes back to like how do we get them that business plan What do they got to get to be truly self- sustaining and not continue affecting the general fund And if I can um maybe this is a a a separate meeting you know with the parks um where we can collaborate with um accounting but you
know when we're we're talking about $100,000 you know kind of get to 415 and you had mentioned maybe 500 $500,000 would be the number the magic number Yeah um how you know what would be the incremental realistic incremental
um amount for increase of what you have to find right to bring in and maybe we set that as part of the plan right so and I I think it would be a deeper conversation great also for um EDC um to
have become help part of the business plan there and economic development um for our own interior use as well to help with those type of plans Yeah we're like I said we're open to any and all ideas and suggestions It's just you know
sometimes you feel like you're beating your head against the wall like you you out the education That's public service in general in a nutshell Um does anyone have any more questions Ly I have a few Absolutely Um thank you uh to your so
far Uh vehicles I see it's a 400% increase for vehicles What's that increase Repairs and maintenance Is it repairs and maintenance on vehicles So it says RM vehicles Yes But it's a 400
He did She did not know that one She said she was going to get back to us on it You on that Obviously we need another piece Okay So we're missing some pieces Okay Um what is does Cleoporn do daily passes or is it all season Note Clear
Pond does daily passes for Lakeville residents and Lakeville resident guests and if you have a season pass even from other towns and you can bring guests So those people pay daily So if I have a season So that brings my
second question How many season passes did did you guys do last year Well there's the in town ones for $110 and we sold maybe like 200 of those And we had that $200 out of town ones and maybe like 75
And that was the first time we had opened it up And that was the first time And we discussed lowering the price on the $200 out of town ones because boy did Facebook blow up when we charge everybody $200 for the out of town pass They're not maintaining it So but um so we talked about lowering that but Mr
Barry said a lot of people from like middle bar would come and he would explain it to them and they would probably buy a pass this year So he said don't do anything His recommendation was not to lower the price or do anything drastic Give it another year and then see where we were So if you buy a season
pass that's good for your family household up to six people Up to six people So if it's my household and my sister and a ne and my nephew come to visit they have to get a day pass I'm
just trying to understand how you guys work In my experience Larry though no one at the gate is checking them I was going to have just says how how many people you have and if you show up at that number or less you're good You're just going to go in I I can't imagine because I I I'll be 100% honest I've
spent zero time there Okay But I I I I I've been by and I see it's younger staff members and so I kind of doubt they're going to have a conflict with someone you know Brian shows up with you know six people I need
to make sure they're all in your household They're not saying that They just they count to six You're cut Well most people that we have the season passes they come enough so that everybody knows Everybody cut What How much is the daily pass
It's $10 for $10 for adults $5 for children It could be 10 and eight I'm not sure Do we offer any discounts for veterans or anything like that Yes So in town veterans and children and seniors are free Okay
good Uh going over to Lupon Lodge what's happening there now Didn't we have we lost that um service that was in it was originally Yeah So last year contemporary catering came in So they're and just entered into
their second year of their contract So it went from $9,000 to $9,500 $9,500 to Yeah 95,000 to 10,000 Yep And and you have events booked throughout the year or they do everything They handle
everything So no one books So if someone called and said if I said hey I want to have a you know whatever party for my grandson you direct me to them Correct Yes If you said the finance committee wants to do lunch I'd say come to the select board See if they'll wave the fee
for you Okay So so my point is the town charge you double Well actually wait We don't have that big of a budget We're going to talk about that later Um all right So you you've answered my question So we do have someone that's running the whole show over take care of
soup to nuts Lotally um good job We get the $10,000 a month for the next till next March then it'll go to 105 And we in this contract that came through we still get the room fee Okay Oh so and that changes in the in the future
contracts or No renegotiate also Yeah it goes out to We'll have to see Okay Questions Questions Um yeah I have a question about Clare Bond as well Um do you have any idea like before COVID when it was open to all towns like what the season like what the passive volume
was that was sold I don't know Did they do season passes back then 2019 had season passes 2020 was residents only and then opened it up again Yeah after But so I know one of the problems was
when like it was in between my time My kids were gone already and I hadn't come to the park yet So it was so many people coming from the cities and out of towns Um there were dirty diapers around Um people were going in the woods There were beer bottles Like it was just too
much to keep track of and it was like destroying the park So that's one of the reasons I believe that we went to residents only Okay Yeah So that's why it kind of makes you if you don't want to open the gates to everybody and have to circle back to that and then start all over So that's why we're thinking
like season passes maybe for open that up Yeah It used to be like parking lot overflow people parking all along Clear Pond Road They'd be there all day Now it's like 20 cars right So I already have a question You're not opening up to everybody are you And I'm like I know we're talking about it I haven't talked about it He's like cuz I don't want
people parking on my lawn again Because when it was opened up to everybody people would be lined up down to their pond parking on people's lassrass so that they could get into the beach Did we increase the size of the of the ability for people to park on when we talked about the engineering like you
know is there more Not that I know of but I've never in recent years I've never seen that plot No that parking lot near capacity It's um drainage because some of it can't be used if it rains So that got it cuz I'm like I I'm in my
mind's eye I'm like that's pretty big Today the bad It's that bad And I was just I know Andrew I was there this week in the rain opening it for somebody and I watched the rain I literally opened the gate and I'm standing there watching the
rain come down the road through the gate past my feet and over to the where the puddles in the parking lot Like I always wondered why it always puddled right there That's why it comes down the street through the gate and into the puddle So it's coming down Clear Pawn Road Uh Andrew that would be something
that we could talk to possibly Franklin about Maybe doing a little diversion Well it's weird cuz we just paved that road Well that's why it's like yay or traffic going over broke the curb and now could be But I know he did something
similar for us on Highland or Freetown Street because we were the water was coming down so frequently and when you were crossing um even the buses would skid because you know it would drain in and water and it would shoot right down to the end of the road But if you could
do something to divert that I as soon as I went home and I alerted the engineering team you know whatever you do in the parking lot isn't going to matter cuz it's all coming from the street And she's like "Oh thanks for letting us know." So I'm sure they took it into consideration Got it Good Good
Anyone else We like you maybe paved the apron just getting into Clare Pond but Frank do his drainage Yeah Sorry No more Anyone Anyone All right Thank you I will get back to you on that
I appreciate it I appreciate it Thank you all Thank you everybody Thank you Andrew Would everyone like a small break Yes please All right for a break Anyone Sure Seconded recess I am dead
Roll call I don't think you have to You're just saying small break back on Um and we are starting with the animal control Uh Dave Frights could not be here and we'll be talking to Andrew
M Control is in the public safeties tab It's page 54 So I'll just kind of go over the uh the animal control budget briefly Um up top obviously is the animal control officer uh Mr Freight Um second salary
line you see there is um the call back stipen line for animal control So in Mr Freight's absence there's a call up um for assistance Um next is longevity for the animal control officer and uh a small clothing
allowance as you can see of $150 Um expense lines electricity um heating R&M buildings um all shaved down slightly um with the exception of electricity because we're seeing slight
increase um but we cut 200 out of heating um increased building and grounds 200 So we kind of mixed and matched where we needed to Um rubbish removal as mentioned earlier is uh somewhat of a rising cost So you see a
significant increase there Um the other lines um training education are uh level funded and one of the big increases is
uh dog food dog and cat food And uh Tracy's here she can add to this as well but it's uh something that we've talked about since I've started It's been a significant increase Um I think you're trying to correct me if I'm wrong but streamline kind of what you feed the animals cuz it's saving costs elsewhere
Um so the animal control officer was having digestive issues with the dogs because um he was getting the feed donated So one day he would get this brand the next day he would get this brand And we all know if you have dogs you can't do that You know what happens
Um it's a mess So um he had one dog that had a severe sensitive um stomach food allergies So he switched to a sensitive food diet for that dog and found that when he fed it to the other dogs that the um digestive problems were gone
which led to less cleanup and less odor and um so he has gone completely to one brand of food Um it's 80 $81 a bag Um and of course depending on how many dogs he has in the shelter at any one time
sometimes he can get away with three or four bags sometimes it's more sometimes it's less Um but we have to pay for it now So um there was a big increase Uh it was only budgeted for $400 a year anyway
which is not enough to supply um occasionally he gets um cats in and so he would have to go buy cat food and and stuff like that So um that's where we are We I took you know an estimate of the amount of bags a month and times it
out and it came to the fig the new figure of 40706 407 Thank you Wait what is it I think that number again Oh no I'm sorry That's a year expended Um 3500 3500 Yeah Um All
right So my question is we have significant gifts and grants um that we have Um this is an absolute use case for the gifts and grants Yeah Um and to put the call out for the people of Lakeville that we need this $81 dog food as well
Um but I do I like the reason behind it and the context I think is very helpful um to know um you know why we're switching and it's not just a a preference that there's a health benefit for the animals that we're serving Um
but I do um and I obviously I'd love everyone's opinion on it I do think we have I don't even know how much in gifts and grants 50,000 150,000 are we at 83,000 give or take Yeah But if I can
last year I know we it was it gets used pretty frequently We've established um a fee base for those municipalities that utilize our services and we went up uh you know to what $500 I believe for the year which I know we're going to see how
things went one community and I'll call them out because I like the town administrator in Carver Glen Cannon um sent us a lovely letter saying that he appreciated our services but no longer needed it So we lost $500 there But um
there's that fee that may be able to allocate you know to the offset the the cost of the food um portion of it because if there's the gifts and grants that 83 is awesome but if there's something that comes up and I
know part of that donation that made makes up that 83,000 was specifically for um the care and custody of the animals So but the money that we're getting for fees goes directly into the general fund correctly
and like it doesn't is it a revolving account Uh no It goes into a special revenue fund It offsets costs for uh immunizations uh things like that Got it Madam Chair when I reviewed the vote that you took when you raised the rate um the vote was specifically for the operation of the animal shelter Yep And
we made it broad Yeah So we kind of figured the the little adjustments that we made to the budget were covered by the increase Got it For the fees for the other towns And is that actualized Because I know we did just lose Carver but we didn't lose anyone else did we I
don't believe we lost anyone else No just we we lost Rainham the year before Um and so um Carver this year Got it We also like a lot of times when I do donations um they'll that people will
send like a a wish list on Amazon and it's very easy to just and it's anonymous so nobody needs to know and you can just do that So I might suggest we do something like that cuz people do like to give money but it's it's super helpful if we have the name to give people of what the dog food is That's
why you have to have something like a you know you can't let people just go buy it Yeah we can make an Amazon wish list I think that would be fantastic people would love to buy The people of Lakeville have supported the animal shelter like nobody's business Like I I I've never seen people get together as
much as they do when there's a animal in need or you know the call goes out that you know we need blankets like there's a mountain Yes Yeah So being able to call out what that is and direct people to what that is is
an absolute benefit I'm I'm surprised Madam Chair unless Tracy tells me otherwise which is possible that nobody's formed like a 5013C on one of these to then get tax write offs and Yeah I think we talked about that How long does it take to to do that It was
It's expensive Yeah Well not us but somebody else right It's a couple of thousand to to form a nonprofit Friends of the Lakeville Animal Shelter Yeah cuz where I was going to go next It's like I won't say names but there's a shop in town that does a lot of donations
themselves and they they would just you know I want to make a donation Dave shows up stuff Um they sure do I think also um with the donation account um we are going to be taking a sizable
amount of money at least that was the last I heard to pay for the balance of the animal control truck I'm thinking it was like 15,000 at least Yeah I think it was $30,000 vehicle 15 out of free cash 15 out of the donations Yeah So that is going to be a big change I did not know
that That is helpful Yeah Good And I don't know if that included the lights the radio and that may be an additional like the decal the paint This is the open vehicle right The back is open It's not a closed back Predates me So I will
um I believe it is a closed back because you're required to have air conditioning in the animal control trucks now So um but it would be there would be a cage between the animal control officer and the truck Um so okay and we would charge
any retrofitting to the donation account since the 15 has already been voted at a prior town meeting It would just make sense to charge any unforeseen to the donation So madam one more question So am I do I understand this correctly Prior to this
year we were getting $3,000 roughly in donated food cuz I if I understand this I you're budgeting $3,500 for food Prior years it was less than cuz it's high-end food now And right 1500 bags Yeah Like 1,500 Okay So
maybe half that would been So we were going from things you know like a parina a pedigree to now we're going I think it's the name of it It's a high-end food that's coming from the pet food shop in Lakeville Yeah we should buy from them
Yes we do We should have it instead of We do We buy everything there I do too Question They've been very good to us Not about dog food Question Um I apologize if somebody said it and I happen to miss it Rubbish removal has gone up significantly Um I tried looking at DPW really quick Is there any
opportunity for consolidation between those two properties You just showed that the library too right Part of the problem with the animal control off dumpster is is hazardous waste So it is a higher charge for the
dumpster for the animal shelter than it is for the DPW Our dumpster at town hall is twice or three times as big as David's and it costs less at town hall and they also charge us a transport charge from the shelter So I've got the
um the dumpster contract from the state bid list and I have the company they're supposed to be getting back to us with a bid um to service all of our dumpsters So um we'll hopefully he'll be getting back soon And another question that it
might be in that rubbish line Um do we know if that also includes the cremation fees for the ones that we bring in Middleboro No the the cremation is picked up by Final Gift in Middbor and that's what we use the um contracted services for It's for the dead deer and
any um animals that are euthanized They come back to the shelter and then they come and do a freezer pickup Okay All right Thank you Madam Chair Here's our formula error under salaries for 2025 and 2026 I think the totals have been flipped 2025 should be the 118 981 and
the 2026 should be the 121416 Dump dump dump Yeah cuz at the bottom it didn't make sense where you have 146 to 144 Got it Thank you Thank you I appreciate you pointing that out
That would be why he's the finance J Sometimes things just fit Sometimes things just fit right I love math finance That's where we go with it Does anyone else have any questions about the
animal control budget No If not we can proceed on to the veterans agent please That's in the human services tab uh page 72 health and human services I should say Could you please introduce yourself
for the record My name is Christine Wood I am the veteran service officer for the town Um so I just want to point out that one of the big things that has taken forever um the town was awarded the purple heart
um blessing from the medal of purple heart committee So um it is going to be costing I think they I ordered six signs and three flags Um it's going to be costing around six
something Um DPW can install the signs Um but it is a nonprofit so it is tax exempt for the town So that's a plus Um there is going to be a huge ceremony but that is a future date once
all the stuff comes in Medal of um Purple Heart Association will come down and we expect a big brewhaha town every everybody the news Um and then we have to adopt I guess I have to it was in the proclamation we have to adopt August 7th
is National Purple Heart Day So I will have flags that I personally will on that day go out and put on the flag poles um obviously under the US flag but um that is Purple Heart Day So part of us being
that town now is going according to the day So any questions not about Purple Heart Day Um I have like a semi-related question Absolutely So I don't know when that ceremony might be but like Memorial Day is coming up
the end of May So my where I'm going is for you Do you know if the old town hall bathroom will be done by then So we can get that shipping container out So I think I think it should be done by then I'm thinking I can confirm We're like probably
July time frame um they're making signs and then it gives us a time to you know get your state representatives out get the media out They want to obviously bring light to Purple Heart and especially the
organization itself So I probably won't see the signs He said about 6 to 8 weeks from he put the final order and the final blessing um in I want to say two weeks ago So we're still looking at two months out
That's fantastic I'm just thinking more of like the Memorial Day ceremony that we usually have Like be nice to Well for Memorial Day the Friday before the weekend um the middle school is going to march down um and I'll meet them So I'll march them down and then they're going
to come to me to the cemetery right on this road and their job is to help replace all the flags Um so there'll be a bunch of little kids scurrying around Can you write that up for us and send that to the court so we we know what's going on I'd love to be able to share
that with you Yeah So there'll be a bunch of kids running around flags So hopefully they don't call the cops on me like they did They thought I was destroying flags uh as I'm pulling them off the ground Um I just want to make it also known that I'm also the graves
officer for all veterans graves in the whole town of Lakeville And uh I'm finding that Lakeville has a extreme amount of graves Um or just cemeteries in general It's kind of weird Um just as
many grave yards as ponds Yeah seriously And some of graveyards are like ponds So it's you know double win I guess Um so I am sometimes like so a lot of times I'm not in the office I'm out doing graves
I'll clean them up There's some dating back to 1800s So um yeah So I'm in charge of that as well So I try to spruce them up I have to replace the flags and the markers that you know identify them as the veteran
Can I add a one question while you're going after how many veterans are you servicing it now for That's a really tough question and answer because um some of the veterans just come in to talk I don't necessarily seek services
but that's a service in and of itself Well I'm like a bartender I'm like a a priest you know Um most people in life just want to be heard in general Yep And that is uh if you ever get a veteran in a room the one thing we can do is talk Uh I know your wife knows that Um so
Ouch Chris It is um it is one thing we can do and when you get a bunch of us in a room it's loud and crazy So I feel bad for the COA Sometimes they hear some not so nice language Do you have a guesstimate
on how many I know just for chapter 115 and they take up a lot of my time I have 16 people and that's a lot of paperwork That's a lot of filing chasing them down for their certifications and unfortunately that population is dwindling
um because those are a lot of the widows uh World War II vets that are receiving the benefits Um how do you do you have any plans or is there some guidelines that you're following around uh following to increase engagement in some
of the veterans I know with the COA they've been a blessing um they are doing a lot of I wouldn't say the leg work but they're actually um holding on May 8th there's going to be like a veterans get together um just to
draw them out cuz it's really tough some veterans don't want to be don't talk to me don't ask me I don't want to be part of it and that goes some people in the town are Purple Heart recipients and they don't want anything to do with the ceremony nothing I get it we come back with a lot of baggage so Um it's just
meet and greet A lot of people will just happen to come by If I'm not in my the cell phone that I have is on there they'll call me Sometimes it's just I don't know how to turn on my computer you know It's uh it's a generation that's dwindling that's for sure But
um yeah so the COA helps a lot and they just come on they shuffle on down and come on in and could be hours later they leave So um okay Well there's not a lot of meat and there's not a lot of change going on in this particular budget I'll
open it up for anyone to ask some questions if anyone has anything or one minor question Absolutely I I don't remember what year it was but a few years ago we had to throw some extra money to make sure that your predecessor had enough um grave markers and whatnot Are you in good shape We got way too
many now My lord So my predecessor I never met him left me with more than enough Okay Um well he didn't have enough We started that drive for
I probably have enough for like 5 years I love it Awesome But I now don't um I won't use the services that he went through because they're really expensive Okay Um so the
Department of Corrections um they have a lot of veterans that are inmates So when they go in whatever they're in for they lose their disability they lose their ability to provide for their families Um so they no
longer get their pensions or anything So they paired up and they do make flags they make the purple heart signs they make all like you know veteran park and signs So I go through the department of corrections and each one that they get a
certain percentage on their time So that's who I go I prefer to keep it veteran based and cheaper in the long run Nice Does anyone else have any questions before we wrap it up I believe at the finance committee was it was last year
Was it $2,500 that No it was two years ago when Rich was still on the um the board we had voted to put um that money in $2500 was $2,500 right Yeah Two years ago Yep So
we got you got five years worth of stuff now That's good 5,000 flies Good stuff They're in your office Okay Thank you very much You're welcome Any other questions Thank you And right
on in the same tab just page 69 Few pages back I just want to touch on what um Christine was speaking of the COA board wanted to do something extra for um veterans and so they're they're doing a
quarterly veterans gather and so they did um speak with Christine and she's going to be coming in at the first one um to speak about a topic and do that quarterly Um so page 67 is our staff organizational
chart Go through that quickly Myself I'm Lori the director Congratulations Welcome Um we have administrative assistant is Cheryl I have one full-time clerk Karen I have three part-time van drivers and I have
one part-time um outreach coordinator I do want to mention the two Shine counselors and I've done this every year They're volunteers but I think they need to be mentioned because they do an incredible job So I just like to mention that we do have two Shine volunteers part-time but they're there Um going to the budget I want to
say I have no capital improvement requests this season this budget season So nothing there for me Um the salary expense account um you'll see contracted um step and polar raises I did um put in
for an enhancement I will go over that with you after I noticed a uh correction So I have handouts to give all of you for correction on that Um if you go down to the town expense account as each other department the
training and education is now with HR postage is now with the treasurer So taking that out I had a reduction of 1,850 It was500 from the electricity line and 500 from the heating
fuel It was um $250 from office supplies and 600 from vehicle gasoline I think I'll be fine in all of these Uh we've been pretty proactive when a room isn't in use Turn the heat down shut the lights off We've been doing really well
Is Nate got control of the buttons still Date has so actually um Paul does facility So Paul does but that's just like first thing in the morning to get the heat kicked on and then at a certain time at night to get it kicked off So during the day we can physically go in
and lower it or raise it whatever you know it may need So even with the addition I still think we're going to be u pretty good electric electricitywise Um and then the other two it shouldn't
be a problem I don't see a problem with any of it Um one other thing that we did I was trying to I I think I told um these two gentlemen about it I did speak with Nancy Lefave regarding the historical
society and the Lakeville Garden Club So typically we only have night meetings for committees or boards of the town the historical society and the garden club has just been something that's always been there since I worked started
working um at the COA 9 years ago I did re I did speak with her about it and explained that we did have a reduction in our electric electricity and our heating line and that once the historical um
building building is complete I was I told her she could reach out to Tracy to see if maybe they could hold their meetings there instead that would cut out two to three extra night meetings that we're holding at the senior center because that really does um put quite a
bit of like extra added electricity and heating costs Um one week last month we had a solid week of night meetings so it gets to be a lot I think that was Excuse me I'm sorry No I was just saying
that's a good point I didn't think of all the night meetings Go ahead But that was the intent that you know once we got that building up and running um with the new heating and air conditioning and the bathroom that it would become you know an additional meeting space Excellent
Yeah So definitely help Yeah So anyways we're looking on that issue of it that side of it Um I do want to go over I know we're in a budget crisis but I am going to hand these out real quick This is just
um I did make a mistake in it like I have one to you guys I'm so sorry And I did um the chair I did pick up on it and I just wanted a good
Mr I was thinking So I'm just going to read um the enhancement request justification Um I am requesting a level increase for the COA administrative assistant position from a level two step six to a level one step five on the town
class and comp plan Giving Cheryl Cheryl this level one step five increase will also give her an extra year to get one more step So instead of going from level two step six to a level one step six I went to five So she'd still
have another year of growth Cheryl has been a clerk at the COA for 5 years now and was upgraded to the position of administrative assistant in 2022 Cheryl has been at top pay under the current pay scale for three years
and this is my second budget season requesting this change for Cheryl Cheryl goes above and beyond in this position and has kept the office running smoothly during our intimate and staff shortages and was in instrumental in training our new full-time office clerk Cheryl is
currently responsible for monthly scheduling of 18 delivery driver volunteers and 10 packager volunteers for our meals on wheels program This was a new process last year and is going extremely well Cheryl also completes end of month
reports to OCE and the RSVP program for proper documentation and mileage reimbursement for the Meals on Wheels program She also sends in monthly reports to OCPC for our volunteer medical driver mileage reimbursements and GATRA for end of the month report
reimbursements These reports are always filed accurately and on time This is this only briefly touches on all of her responsibilities but I just wanted to you know make a point of certain ones When I'm out of the office Cheryl is competent and capable of handling any
issue that may arise as well as our regular daily routines I have full confidence in Cheryl during my absence It is for these reasons and more that I hope you'll take into consideration when discussing my level increase request for Cheryl And so if you look on the second
page I just want to explain where I had gone wrong We see the star where it now says FY26 current When I initially put it in I put it in under her FY2 budget So that's why there was such
a larger difference in the amount it was going up So now with the increase I'm asking for to what is proposed for her it's a difference of $877 I just wanted to correct that cuz before it was a larger difference and I
just wanted you to realize that it was not Um I did have some information as well on um certain grants that were received this year I don't know if you want me to
go through that or give us a topline summary Let me see Let see if I can find It's been a long day here Don't know if um it's probably over my other paperwork but that's all right I'm going to just
go for it Um we applied for a SIG grant this year through MCOA and we were my friend I think she named that And we were awarded that SIG grant Um that's the service incentive grant It was a $5,000 grant that was awarded to
us that is for our outreach um worker We also in a applied for um six grants for our lake uh local Lakeville Cultural Council and we were awarded all six grants I won't go through all of them but the total came to
$2,275 and most of those grants go towards um special entertainment and programming for different events that we have at the senior center I applied for and was awarded again a $5,000 grant through the Senator Roberts Community
Empowerment Fund Last year he gave us a grant uh we were awarded $10,000 and that was able to purchase six laptops and an instructor for digital literacy This year's program um we were awarded $5,000 and that is for continued digital
literacy So the same instructor will be back It's a different series of um classes that she's teaching I we were at our graduation that we just recently had for the first graduating class Um if we fill each slot it's a total of 36 uh
seniors in Lakeville that get um digital literacy education through this program Let's see Sig grant um a little update on the uh food pantry edition We have a few
more little things we're waiting on A couple of doors that need to be painted It's going very well We're functioning our meals on wheels program out of there right currently We've started to stock the shelves We're waiting for doors to be painted some landscape on the outside and one um railing to be
installed Hoping to have a grand opening in June We'll just see how fast those few things get taken care of Just so you're aware um we are going through uh Southshore Community Action Council I'm not sure if you're familiar with them They are located in Plymouth I've gone
to them several times now for our food that's going to be um stocking our shelves I should say in the food pantry They have frozen foods They have shelf stable foods Um great source I can get go there in
bulk I can go three times a week if I want I'm I'm picking one day a week to go Um and then again I want to thank Jennifer um from the library because you know with her help it's going to keep the shelves stocked Just a reminder
we're we're only like going to be a supplementary food pantry It's not like we're going to be filling their fridge and stocking their shelves but everyone needs help at some point Um and we want to be that person We're not going to have any guidelines you don't have to
follow a guideline or be under a certain income in order to come in It'll be private It'll be by appointments Um there'll only be one staff in the food pantry um with the shopper at the time that they're in Our outreach worker is going to be one of them She's really she
has a great interest in helping them out Um so yeah it's all it's looking pretty good So this food comes directly just from this one entity Is there any opportunity for Lakeville residents to donate Absolutely So in last month's
newsletter I told them to be looking for May's newsletter And what we're going to do is I'm going to have a little bit more detail on what we're looking for and they'll be able to donate Absolutely We just didn't want to do it yet when we weren't set up and we didn't have the shelving up and and it will just be
shelf staple items or would you be like fruits and vegetables too in season I'm really not I have a big garden that I'm planning Well here's the thing So folks bring donations of fresh fruits and vegetables all the time now And so what we've done with it in the past is we put
it on our free table cart We have a cart that goes out daily and people can take from it if they need it So if something is fresh and we don't have someone scheduled to come in I would think that would more likely go on the free cart and that way it doesn't go to waste You definitely don't want to have waste um
Old Colony Elder Services they're working with us as well So we do have a freezer stocked with um frozen meals and so we're able to give that to folks that come in also Great services Yeah it is needed Much needed So I'm guessing
there's lots of questions who want to start first Um not specifically in the budget No I mean all the work that they do is amazing I was there last night for a meeting or like 10 bucks for leaving a light on overnight 10 bucks That's right
Times exactly So we might have to make a small adjustment here But I I've never heard a single complaint that comes out of the Council on Aging It is a surprisingly wild crowd at some of those events Oh my goodness I don't know if any of you saw some of our latest
postings We did a Wicked movie event Um and Karen our newest employee and Cheryl I could hear them in there chatting and they're like "Lori can we do this?" And they explained to them I'm like "Let's do it." I mean we were all dressed up and we had a personal photographer come
and get some pictures for us It was so popular that we're doing it again in May because just the crowd size We couldn't have that many in doing the movie at one time But it was great Lot of high morale over there It's really pretty cool to
love my job I say it every year Love my job Just say um on the director's salary line Yes You want to explain um and go through Sure So on the director's salary line that's from the con the contract that we went into last year So the first
half of it I received um last July It was retro from July 1st And then this is the second half of the contract And if anyone had question and I know things are tough I just wanted to mention that about Cheryl
cuz again when she came into that position I'm not beating the dead horse I just want to it was already at top pay because she went in as interim so it was kind of stuck Um and I know the other one other administrative assistant we have is already in that level one I
think Charlotte's only in those level two Never hurts to ask I always appreciate people advocating for their people Yeah absolutely I couldn't do it without her Honestly it's a team effort over there We got a really
good team going Anyone No All right Well thank you very much Thank you And let's move on to fire It's a public safety tab Page 47
You're really good at that Mr Ellis Yeah Is that his instruction No Really good Uh madam chair is it okay if I give out some materials some absolutely feel free I have no I brought
it up and I apologize So the first document is just a um a comparison budget of um a 35 model This is what you emailed Keith right you you emailed these doctors right Yeah
this the same ones he emailed to you Sure Okay Thank you Um on kind of the the other document is uh is basically a um
one of the things that makes the fire budget difficult to analyze is the number of variables that have an effect on it Um so there's a one with a document with bar with some bar graphs in it and they're just quirky kind of
uh effective things for us to uh take a look at uh you know the benefit of of having the four colors some of the uh some of the things things that maybe people wouldn't consider or think about
um because I'm not great at multitasking Yes Another thing um is when you try and get data when you try to figure out um uh you know when
you try to analyze something it's difficult to get clean data from the fire department uh because our our turnover is the problem of and that skewed data can cause causes problems with being able to analyze what the
effect of having 5 hours has had on the department Um so I was able to pull out some pay periods with clean data meaning um no no vacancies in the department and it's a very small sample size because we have heavy turnover Um so I just wanted
to explain the documents that I just passed out and then I'm going to jump back to uh what we've done this year Um so the department it's a it's a statistically weird year for us We had we had one of our slower increases in
qualifying We we generally increase every year Um we've had years where we've increased 10% Um that's been our average for a long time for about 20 years but this year we only increased 3% Um which I was grateful for Um but within the 3% increases we saw a record
year in fires It was still a record year of course business-wise overall but we saw a record year in structure fires We saw a record year in um wildland fires brush fires Uh if you guys remember back to last summer things were pretty dry Uh we were running every day to brush fires
not only in Lakeville but um as far away as Abington uh in Littleton Milton as well We we spent a couple days in Milton Um so it's been a record year as far as that there was a um you know we saw an
increase in our patient assist which is uh basically when when you have an older population they they try and stay in their their homes for a long period of time and um they they lean on on ambulance service for assistance We do a lot of lift assists and and getting people back to bed things like that Um
those aren't those aren't a revenue item We can't build for those services Um but they those increased um our billable calls did increase 17% Um which uh reflects in our revenue on on the other side or what the projected revenue that we're going to end up in So we had a
really good year Um we had some excellent uh accomplishments as far as uh academy graduations Uh uh Lieutenant Sylvia just earned his doctorate this past week I saw that Congratulations That's amazing um have have you know have a hard charge
and poor group of firefighters uh the abuse sitting way too far back She's uh you know um my partner in crime on most days Um I'm blessed with a real strong uh group of uh leaders in the department that have
uh really filled me with a sense of pride um being part of the organization part of the team Um they're a passionate group They care deeply about the community and they work very hard um when nobody's open uh to do the right thing about the community So that's been our our pretty much our our year and
review Um so going back to my operations budget um the operations budget that's being uh submitted uh by Andrew Um and I'd like
to I know I'm a pain in the butt Um I try not to be emotional about things but this the Irish comes out all night These guys have been great Um they've been very um transparent with everything and and I know they're finding their way and and doing a budget is requires a lot of
institutional knowledge and we're blessed with some really engaged uh select board members that help these these guys out and I try to help out as much as I can too with providing the history behind some of the things and and hopefully it translates into a a good budget for for everyone not just
the fire column So on the on the 35 fighter column um going down the the line basically you see some um some salary increases Most of these are contractual obligations and
um and an assumption on the co on the cost of living adjustment for the non-union group which also affects our our own call firefighters as well You also see uh some large corrections on uh contract wages o overtime Um
basically that's the the call back line Um if you recall back to fiscal year um maybe it was 20 3 23 and 22 we saw significant transfers in the department at the end of the year basically the the
call volume the demand for services within the framework of a threeman minimum So basically how it works is we try to we we've decided that the three man minimum three three firefighter minimum is is is the is the bare minimum that we can operate safely um for the
town of Lakeville And it's just some it's something we pulled out of three uh with thin air Um I did a survey a staffing survey for FCAM which is the fire chief of Massachusetts Um I surveyed 124 fire departments Um and
basically I gathered their population their area covered what kind of fire departments they operated They ran firebased EMS Um and basically crunched the numbers for all the fire departments and anybody participated in those the survey I pushed the the data back at
them And what we found was we had um we had there's 20 21 comparables for the for the town of Lake to be comparable you had to have similar population you had to have a combination full-time and on call fire department and you had to provide EMS
based services um so nothing to do with budget just yeah it was just basically the the size of the department size of the town uh and the type of department you ran and the and you had to provide EMS services um so the tunnel lake at
that threeman minimum we were um at the bottom of that group we were the last of of 21 uh 21 fire departments at a fourperson model We were in the lower half but we were more towards the center of that group as far as staffing for for all those
considerations Um there was another survey done by the Hansen Fire Department Um was just done for the county and at 4 we were still last but um at 3 we're we're we're getting last So
um I'm sorry I got distracted So you see some adjustments in this on the expense side Um and these adjustments reflect the realities of operating in a in a three firefighter model Basically for a call back to happen it means there's nobody in the department They've been
all all three firefighters have been committed to the calls We tone out we tone out based on the severity of the call So we'll tone out a small portion of the off duty firefighters for something that's more routine Um if it's a fire we call it a one-1 tone which
means we we pull the chain and you all come in Uh if it's a car fire something like that it's just a group tone So the water rescue yesterday um we we try to be conservative We sent it out as a group tone We didn't get enough staffing back and we elevated to a full tone and
we got maybe one or two more people back It's a very inefficient way of covering your calls and u because we don't have somebody back at the station and we don't have a dispatcher to to dial people up and call exactly what you need So you throw a net out there and sometimes you catch enough fish and
sometimes you don't catch any at all And um that's typically when the deputy and I get plugged in she gets plugged in first and then I get plugged in second So we ran a statistic that gets in there and told let's see on the second page of the
bar graphs it's chiefs and deputy staff in the ambulance And basically when you when you start feeding the four person model you you put the ARPA firefighters in there are our our the instances of us being committed
to EMS calls went down um deputy transported to Morton today and yesterday um because of a if we don't get a strong call back she gets plugged in more than I do Um or if the acuity of the call if the patient's condition uh
is such that they can't wait for somebody to come in from home to staff that ambulance then then her eye will get plugged in to to to staff that second call So we're doing simultaneous calls We're looking last a few years ago was about 220 times I think we're up
over 350 now 350 17 calls a year and we've run as many as six calls at a time um on two occasions Do we lo we uh it's it's just an odd odd thing It happens and it's just it seems to
happen uh God it seems to happen more at night and on weekends I'm not sure um it doesn't track our heaviest call volume days It's a it's a random thing Um we tend to we tend to go to um our multifamilies
and our our institutions more than anything else So uh people more vulnerable populations depend on us more Um and unfortunately our um our urgent care in town is our number one destination We go there we went there 209 times last year
So um and that's an operating policy basically with them that creates that Correct It's tough to speak freely You might provide my opinions on it So it it I'll say this tactically I'm learning how to be tactful Um it depends greatly on the
quality of the staff there Um what makes them nervous What makes them and that's a credit to our staff our firefighters When when a doctor gets nervous he calls for Lakewood Fire Department you know that's that that's a tribute to the care we provide And that's not something that happens at the Middle Burough Fire
Department As far as I've heard from conversations for the other urgent care that exists in Middleboro near the Rotary I can't speak to it I don't know how how often we go there Um but it's it's uh it's been significant for about
a year and a half two years We saw we've seen a steady increase and it it it spiked My theory is is hospital capacity issues have uh taken off and wait times have increased Um people who are very sick tend to try to get away from going
to emergency rooms and sitting in the the waiting room Um and so they'll go to urgent cares So we definitely see some people there that absolutely should be in the emergency room should have gone in the emergency probably by accident Um but then we we get some head scratchers too like why are we here Um but we are
there frequently We are the designated EMS 911 system for the town of Lakeville Um so when you make a 911 call it has to come to us Um and if it's a any and you can you can document if you're a doctor
you can you can spin a situation to make it a 911 call Um I you know I I they are a burden but it's just part of the burden That's not that's not everything Cool Um
basically this threeperson budget is a little closer to um reality than our last third three person budget which was a couple years ago We had what Ari described as a significant structural deficit you would say and Todd said yes there is a significant structural
deficit and that was part of the argument for the increased staffing was to answer that And if we go back to that three-person group we still have to maybe address the significant uh structural deficit And
conservatively we we've made some in the threeperson model we've made some progress towards addressing it but I I'm not confident that that we have at the end of the day Um one of the uh one of the the big variables and I spoke earlier as I was passing out
papers about the multiple variables that can really kill our budget The biggest one is turnover And it's it's not just a Lakeville fire department problem It's a it's a Lakeville problem Um our I can't speak for the police chief but I know he experiences high levels of turnover as well
Um uh God I sorry Andrew you're you're the I've been here for a little over six years and I think he's our my fifth town administrator It's it's a Lakeville problem You know it's um I think the cost associated with these vacancies You
know it takes me it took me 6 months 7 months to fill one of my last vacancies Uh due to the the climate the the the lack of qualified applicants Um the cost associated with these vacant positions there's a sweet spot somewhere where we
could um find out what it costs to retain people what you know what not all it's not all benefits but if we if we found that sweet spot of what it would take to retain a firefighter or police officer um I think it would end up being a net positive for the town and I'm
maybe I'm not the I'm probably not the smartest guy to or smart enough to figure out what that sweet spot is or what it's going to take to to turn the tide for us but it's definitely a it's a community problem It's a Lake problem and it's definitely a Lakeville fire department problem Um so why I speak
about um the turnover is because it can destroy my budget next year We lost um we lost nine people in the last 18 months Uh I only have 12 full-time floor positions You know it's in for my core group the people that have been here for
well I don't have any I don't have any full-time firefighters that have been here more than 12 years um which is pretty shocking for any fire department And so um how we compensate for that is that our my best responders are spread thin We we supervise and we we
micromanage a bit and we get our least experienced firefighters uh through the tough spots Uh that's how we operate and it's a it's a it's a a scary thing because then your operating model is based on the continued availability of these very few experienced firefighters
you lean on a lot Um so I guess that's I mean if I had to I know um I don't want it to sound sanctimonious or whatever or high-handed but if we could ever figure that out as a community how to how to retain our uh our our town employees and
our be selfish you know obviously I want my firefighters to stick around longer uh and provide more value back to the town If we ever get around that I think the new fire station uh will be a positive a huge positive for the for the fire department And I and I think the
last contract that the town entered into with the firefighters was a real good step in the the right direction but I you know I I haven't really got my head around how to fix it all It's it's part of it It's just the culture that's acceptable to leave here Um I I don't know It but it's definitely has an
impact on my budget and it creates this uncertainty um that results in this volatility results in these transfers that that are embarrassing for me uh to not be able to manage my budget based on things that are beyond my control like call volume
and turnover These things blow me up uh they blow me up twice in my six years and and coming in and asking for 50 $50,000 is ridiculous Mhm So on the expense side um we adjusted down repair
maintenance vehicles uh by $5,000 Basically it's a crapsh shoe Um pardon the expression We have newer we've done a great job in updating the fleet Like when I first walked in the door we had a free town engine sitting in our in our station because we didn't have enough
fire trucks fire trucks We had a fire truck that failed DOT DoD DOT inspection and had been condemned and taken off the road Um so we were you know we were using really lousy equipment So now that we've worked hard to update our
equipment our our repair the frequency of repairs have gone down So we have some really good years where we have like unspent funds in that line But then when we get hit with a repair it's like everything's like you know we we get hit with a $14,000 repair on our ambulance So because the fuel system it's just you
get whacked heavy when you do get whacked but you don't get whacked as often I guess that's the point I make So it's it's okay to go down five grand Um it's we may not even spend the 20 grand but we could easily spend more than that if we get some bad luck again Plus
engine 32 years old Engine 3 is a problem Um so we also dial back the out ofstate travel I don't like flying That just terrifies me Um so I don't really go out of state very much Uh that's pretty much it
Um one of the things I want to point out is and I know you're probably sick about hearing this um is please understand that when I speak about our revenue it's not that I want to consume our revenue
So the history the the history shows and trends and and I've had some discussions with Mike just to make sure I'm not I am not executing bad math spreading bad information Um the history shows that our our ambulance revenue since uh 2018
since I was hired has gone up about 150% A little bit more than that I'm rounding down a little bit Um and basically for every dollar that you guys have given me in my budget um since I've arrived here uh about um a little over 60% gets returned you
basically get a rate of a return on your investment of 60% Basically it generates about $160 in revenue Um and there's a connection there Um one of the things that that jumped out at me or one of the things that jumped out at Mike was that when our opera firefighters came on
board suddenly was an uptick in in our revenue Um and our monthly deposits went up and because we're staffing a second ambulance Um you know we're we're or we're st I say we're staffing a second
ambulance more often um we're available for um and and it's not the not shouldn't be the goal but we're available for a mutual aid call So that's still revenue That's still we average about $1,000 every time the ambulance goes and takes somebody to the
hospital Um so you know today uh or that water rescue happened that's another we had four people on duty We were able to staff our boat staff our ambulance get down there We transported the patient Um the recall staffed the second ambulance which went to a person having a heart
attack Um they also staffed the third ambulance that went to a third call So on average we just generated about $3,000 in revenue which more than offset the overtime related to the response of that call um which is you know I mean I hate to think in those terms um but
generally our our the revenue that we generate pays for a lot of what you see but it doesn't come back to my budget and in reality and also when you when you compare the revenue that we generate and we we we you know the increases in it if we're consuming u less than in our
operations budget I know there's other expenses outside of my operations budget if we're consuming less than what we're generating then that goes to that makes things a little bit easier for the rest of the the departments in town as well So my fear is is we've seen a we're we're ahead 20% around 20% we're ahead
of uh we're ahead of last year at the same time about 20% revenue and and so we're we're we're projecting to finish the the year out about one $1.2 million Um the not my fear what I know is is we're we're
basically we're going to have a downturn because we the data shows that you give me resources and I'm able to improve our operations there's a correlation to our revenue it bumps up every single time and it it's proven itself out in this during this addition of four
firefighters Um and so my worry is is that our revenue projection for EMS this year it's it's the same It's pretty much I think it's the same for both three and four person models Is that correct Uh yes I believe it is Y and so in the four
person model it's basically under reported Uh it's a low it's a low number in my opinion and I know there's reasons behind that Um in the third third person I think we're over reporting revenue and we might not make that number Um so that's that worries me as well Um there is a there is a connection between the
two and I know it's not my money it goes to the general fund and it helps the town not and it helps helps the fire department indirectly but it helps all the departments as well Um so when I look at the difference and I hope I'm making sense cuz I'm making sense in my head but what comes out of my mouth is a
different measure Um what uh what jumps out at me is that there's about $130,000 difference in the two budgets And because of the turnover the the nine lost firefighters in the last 18 months
we have shot ourselves in the foot and devalued the potential savings of the four firefighters really it's really uh it really hurt us as far as making a case for keeping these four firefighters Um with the revenue that we're pulling
up and the savings of the four firefighters um that that was generated by the four fighters the decreases in overtime I really think we're closer to a wash between the two budgets and me coming pulling a number out of my hat and telling you exactly what it is would
be disingenuous disingenuous because there's so many variables that could affect that number Um but I I truly believe it's it's it's it's something that's paid for itself Um and it's something that you know we've talked about dollars and cents and things like
that Um there's a demand for it There's a need for it because even if if Lake Hospital never happens we have an aging population we have um when the economy goes uh to heck um people don't take as
good a care of themselves They let um their health suffer to a point where it becomes an urgent matter Um so if our economy turns we're going to see increased demand for our EMS services Um people if they're living in uh substandard conditions and not taking care of themselves we see an uptick in
fires All these things translate into increased demand for our services aging population things of that nature We're going to see if nothing changes and our population doesn't go up we're still going to see an upre We've seen it We see it every year 3% 3% 5% 10% Um if
Lakeville Hospital never never ever comes to fruition if that project comes to fruition um they're they're um the person they hire to do an impact um uh estimate um put it at 350 calls so you
get 350 calls a year Um a similar facility in in Kingston is hitting them for 480 calls a year So they've obviously low ballalled and I don't I can't say we're going to be 480 calls but we should probably figure out
something closer to 400 So um that's huge Um and and the the other matter uh the other thing to this too is is if I have if I'm having trouble filling
positions now and retaining people now um I can't imagine what it's going to be like uh when I have when I have to let people go It's uh it's going to be devastating Um we're we're trying to operate as efficiently we can I pay attention to
revenue Pam pays attention to revenue She quality control on the reports Uh because we want to pay for as much as we can We want to make us as easy to provide resources to as we can um because we know it's needed Um and obviously we get emotional because we're
a front We have front row seat for the consequences um of you know uh you know with a threeperson shift if somebody goes into cardiac arrest right now we don't have enough people on duties to provide them effective care Um we have to depend on somebody coming off
out of uh from the outside from from a call back um the guys sitting in the back of the room um worked one way or another 350 days out of a year uh when we were at a three three person group That's
horrible That's that's quality of life There's there's so many things that beyond the dollars and cents and trying to pay for it Um you know the these two the Brian Pam and Greg they basically on average and the
last time we had a a uh uh responded to the station average of of like uh between three of them combined it was an average twice twice a day like that I don't know if I'm articulating that but basically we we recalled an average the last time we had three firefighters 5.54
5.45 four or five letters a day where we called back to the station to cover calls That's insane to cover your town right It's um Chief I've got some questions for you All right I'm sorry I thought I just quick cuz I I'm really getting tired talking No you you've done
a a great job at illustrating your problem what you see as the fix Um and you've made obviously what you've always done is you've advocated for your people which uh is always important as any any leadership role Um some of the things that I wanted to talk about are some of
the things that um you had followed up in some emails with too as well So um knowing that the that the firefighters were uh paid for for money and they were onetime money um we knew we had some challenges if we didn't get that grant
Um have you attempted to go for the other grant Like like is that something you know you're going for Are you going to partner with maybe like a middle burrow who you know was ultra successful in in the maxed out version of the grant
Yeah there's a lot to that Um we're going to as you know and when you were tell administrator there's not a grant that we don't try for N um the middle borrow one of the things that works against us is when you you deal with a um uh notice of funding the grants are
designed to to get points for certain things Um Middle was pretty savvy in how they got their grant Basically they moved all their people out of a fire station into one central station closed a building and their their scoring for their safer grant went through the roof
because it was intended to open a fire station So did we get scored inversely bad because we had funded those firefighters with ARPA and they wouldn't fund us because we'd already That's not how we had it staffed It's kind of playing I'll switch the camera's off
We're playing fast We were playing fast and easy We we we we wrote it as new hires Okay Um we scored uh uh we actually scored uh poorly because the um firefighters were going to be used as
EMS providers as well And that's another thing Middleboro had in their favor is that their their firefighters u one of the biggest uh my head would explode um when I first was hired because Middleboro when their EMTs their privately private ambulance company
needed help their firefighters who were paramedics wouldn't jump in and help them They would call Lakeville and our Lakeville uh EMTs would go over and staff their supplement their staffing over there It blew my mind and we put an end to it Um but unfortunately um somebody didn't get the memo happened
recently again but we we corrected it Um so you did mention something um that the new hires were supposed to be the ARPA was supposed to fund the new hires Y so last year around this time when we talked about how far the money would
stretch Yeah for uh for these new hires Um I think myself and other members of the board were under the impression because of the four new firefighters average salary um that that we would be covered until the end of December Yeah
Coming up and and that that would have bridged that gap Yeah it So can you speak a little about like how that came about and you know Yeah absolutely Um that basically my understanding is was
that the my misunderstanding was that the money was available to me to through July 1st for the ARPA firefighters and that was the make or break date for getting it added to my budget Um so when we had an ARPA hire the
original ARPA hires all went slid into that that uh that bucket and as I think we lost two of them uh to resignations or or one was termination one was investigation Yeah I went to another department Um I slid other firefighters
into those holes basically to to not lose the money is a yeah I basically thought that uh um that the I wouldn't be able to spend the money in time Um so and then when I'm dealing with the other seven um positions that I had to fill
and uh the seven other seven losses in replace uh basically uh lost track of of of who I had in there and combine that with the with the lack of urgency to get them out of the most expensive ones out of there because I I thought I was dealing with a defined time frame of
July 1st Got it Um so what that did in effect is reduce your ability to support for the next year Yep No it was if if I could redo it all over again um I would have I would have uh not I would have left it empty I would have slid anybody
in there But in my mind I was doing the town a solid by spending ARPA money versus town money Understood Understood Can I open this up to anyone else for questions comments madam chair um is mentioned before the uh adj
adjusting the EMS billing rates I assume we'll have that discussion soon I'm I'm hoping um later given some context just to back up uh what Chief O'Brien said Um I was there
when he adjusted the EMS rates for the first time in how many years Five years It was five years So there was a big there was a big lull and that was a big significant increase when uh cuz we had missed three adjustments basically um three periods that we could have
adjusted upwards um and and done that So we're sitting at 20 months right now So you're but you're going to present that like next what Monday Uh April 28th I think is going to be the target date Okay Yeah Um so a Monday uh the um I
hate billing for ambulance service It's uh leaves a bad taste in my mouth especially when I have to send somebody for collections or something like that I'm not paying the bill It's it's it's lousy But Lakeville is weird Uh it has a weird uh demographic for our margins of
service Last time I I checked and I checked three times and all three times we we 20 to 22% of our our our users of EMS don't live in light Um they live outside the town So if we were to not build for EMS services which everybody does every community does um we'd be
subsidizing a lot of people's healthcare medical treatment that don't pay taxes to Lakeville Another thing is we have uh it's not a frequent flyer program but um there are um a single users or single person that'll use the service 30 40
times in a year and the vast majority of the time never uses the service at all So what you're paying for your tax dollars like the insurance policy of being there and then the people that are using the service all the time they they pay more of a basically a tax they pay a
higher level tax they user fee Sorry to jump in on your question No thanks I appreciate the additional info Um do we have any idea what the projected increase in revenue would be if I haven't focused on a little bit but generally runs about 3% Uh I think the
next one should be about a 3% adjustment Um we can what would that do to the projected I I I see you know you get the history of the EMS revenue numbers here We're looking at potentially coming in this year at 1.3 roughly If I I've we
sat down when uh Andrew got hired I set up a meeting with him and CommStar so he can ask all the not go through me Um ask direct questions to them and and we ask them like these questions and there's so many variables like you asked a question about Medicare I believe um like
Medicare reimbursement rates We have to accept what Medicare gives us We can't charge what we want Um so that's 30% of the calls 38% of our our patients are on Medicare So we get lower rates The state understands that we take a hit on on
providing medical care to Medicare recipients So what they do is they they'll reimburse us They we basically submit all of our operating expenses related to providing EMS services They take our 38% they apply it to that They're going to come up with some number and they raise us a check for
about 50 grand a year Yeah Yeah Do you are you telling the story where the your previous community that money the reimbursement money comes right back directly to the fire department the no yes we have revenue sheet for the revenue that he's speaking of I just we're not able the ambulance revenue no
I didn't see provided I mailed it to you in the email it was in the email but it's not in here which would be helpful okay I can provide you Um we we we do about $50,000 a year from reimbursements for Medicare
We do um anywhere between 15 and $20,000 a year for permits mostly burn permits Um we we're considering we we're going to propose a um a fee for fire alarm lockouts So basically if you have a fire alarm system they hire contractors to
maintain the fire alarm systems We did what 21 lockouts last week alone So 21 times we have to send a guy in a truck to a business to take the fire alarm system out of service so the people can maintain the system A lot of communities charge for that service They charge $10
$20 for each instance So there's there's there's more revenue to be to be had out there trying to be creative This is one of the things that this one this is one of the babies um that that she's going to propose She she's going to take the bull Chief could you resend um some
documents and if you wouldn't mind adding some additional context on um calls percentage of what the calls are for if you have the data Yep It's it's generally a 7030 uh 70% of our calls are EMS related
Um 30% is breakdown to fires um uh investigations false alarms Um you know part of the reason it's not ideal for for us to I will send it I'm sorry No worries I'm going off on another tangent Um part of the reason
why why you guys when when the select board allowed me to hire EMS only providers it was a really um it was a really liberating or freeing kind of you guys gave me some flexibility to hire uh
quality people versus people with credentials So you gave me flexibility to hire like a really strong firefighter because now I have a medical only position somebody that's always going to be on an ambulance Now I can hire the 6'2 muscle bound guy that swing an axe
and I can hire the the you know the the firefighter um the call firefighter that we had that served the town with distinction for five or six years but just couldn't get their medic and they were strong you know strong employee Now I I get the the flexibility to hire them
So like that's like another that's there's a there's a money aspect to this too because our paramedic only people make less money than a firefighter paramedic and our firefighters with a basic EMT license make less money So that's actually it was a net positive for the town financially and the quality
of our workforce got better and I think that's going to translate a little bit into better retention just hire being able to hire better people Um more questions I I didn't get I'm still waiting for so back there question it would be impossible to try to project
our revenue to be with the rate increase I asked I we asked CommStar and they were kind of like cuz when the you remember the first rate adjustment it overshot when I tried to do an estimate and it revenue took off like we overshot um we what we thought we we maybe
adjusted at 10 12% And and we saw like a 20 30% gain It's the thing that has to happen for us to get revenue is we have to have an ambulance with trained people in it and they have to go to a call they have to pick somebody to provide care and get them to the hospital or we don't have the revenue Um that has to happen
Um the other thing that has to happen is um people have to have money to pay their their medical bill because what happens is we set our own rates We can set whatever rates we want That's that's the rule But what we try to do is be reasonable So what we do is we take all
the towns that provide BMS billing and we try to get in the middle of the pack We don't want to be the most expensive but we don't want to leave money on the table We try to be reasonable Um and that's kind of where it's all again all these moving parts But if we have bad reimbursement rates because people aren't paying their bills um because the
economy is lousy that's going to affect it We know that we adjust our rates we're going to see an increase in revenue but I'd be if I gave you a number then I'm I'm being a liar because I can't tell you what it is Thank you Member D Two questions I think
Um I'll do my best but um hopefully the chief can help me make it into a better question Um when you're able to to hire the nonuppression employees in the past you've referenced um some national standards like you really need like two people on a piece of apparatus and
whatnot Do they count towards that No that's that I almost said suck but you should say suck at a slack meeting Um that's what sucks about it Um it's we're less compliant with the standards but we're more we're we're it's a net game because having a having having that
medic there like if you know if it's your loved one that needs an ambulance and and and 70% of the time that that specialty is required for our call volume and we're playing the odds Um unfortunately when we've we've had fires
uh we're not even close to the two and two out rule where um or Greg I keep on looking back at Greg Greg the the South Farm fire Greg was by himself in the building He went to the fire by himself Uh Pam came from home I came from home
Um and and and then you know we hit the tones and and we literally called mutual aid while we're driving down the road Talk about distracting driving you know Um and before it was all said and done we had 50 60 firefighters on the scene And that's that's the benefit of us
giving out that mutual aid is they're obligated to give it back in those situations Um the the county road fire we only had one person in the building and that came in the barn that burned Um it's just a crapshoot One person staple shore We the three the three fires that
we've had we've uh recently we all three times we had one person in the building because of medical in the staffing model where there's three people if we have a medical two people go in the ambulance the lieutenant or whoever is the officer in charge will go with them if a call
comes in and that person leaves in the squad and they go back to retrieve the engine and so both times when the fires came in there was that one person that was there and if you look at NFPA 1710 that gives you your staffing models and
it shows that you know an efficient fully staffed crew of four people per se um they they could operate with the efficiency of you know like 75% You have three and you reduce it and reduce it one person really the efficacy of that
of that of that engine crew is marginal The same thing on an on an ambulance crew When we have double medicals which we do often that third person will now be in the ambulance but you cannot drive the ambulance and tech the ambulance at the same time So it's a it's like
rolling the dice So you just go for that You do you can you lose revenue Um but also you want that first provider to be giving quick care to that person You Let's be blunt Let's be blunt Our second ambulance when we have three people is is is staffed by him or her Um that's
our staffing model because they they live close to the station Ryan Sylvia is 25 minutes out Uh so he's coming in but he's not close enough And if they're on vacation it's going to be me because I'm the next closest person if they're away or whatever committed I'm the I'm the I'm the fourth person that comes and
comes to the So the efficiency if you have the four person stacking model you have two fully staffed ambulances right from the get- go You're not having one person plug the equipment in and you're you're watching the watch hoping that somebody comes to to help Here's the key
too is is because they live so close and because um I live so close or whatever we're we're going to be getting there with the second am before a mutual aid ambulance will ever get there um they're going to be 20 minutes 15 minutes out Um so with these guys it's it's six they're
they're they're at the station they're listen a lot of times they I don't know how they do it they sleep listening to the police so they they hear the they hear they anticipate the calls as they come in so they're a lot of times they're rolling into the station before even that we're we're notified of the ambulance call It's uh but there's
people on this board that have been around long enough in different capacities and and there's two right there that um were you know you guys were employees too of the town and you've seen some the department um survive some pretty bleak times when
very important people weren't available to us for for months and months and months on end injury or illness whatever it was and and the the effort that it t took to compensate for these critical people that just make all the difference in the world for the town Um is uh it's
pretty dark It's pretty dark to to think that we might have to do that again Um and that's what scares me and that's that's what uh causes me to to write uh emails with really typos and uh that are too distraught Member Dave did you have
a another part to your question Yeah just sorry another whole question if I may Um help me understand So you were talking earlier about how you've got like um I'm going to get the the terms wrong I apologize You have like a group tone and then just a full tone whatever you want to call it When when that
happens like what's the minimum hours of over time everybody that comes back gets the qualified players get paid for the time that they work Um I think it's like 15 minute intervals or whatever increments Contract uh pays a minimum of 2 hours uh to the to the to the union
firefighters when they get called in Um it's actually two hours is pretty town friendly Most towns have three and four Okay Um yeah some have a every time they leave the building they come back even if it's they'll get another four um
instead of treating it like in a continuation So the this contract is very town friendly as far as the call backs are concern So some some towns they they actually increase the dollar per amount if it's after midnight hours of like 1 and 4 their rate increases We
don't do that Okay But it's again it's it's inefficient Sometimes we have way too many people for the for the call That's kind of where I was going If you don't have that control and 10 people show up you just pay half a firefighter for a week I know I'm oversimplifying it
but it's it would be um if we had uh we don't have the capacity One of the problems that Chief Perkins deals with is is dispatch problems um we don't have the capacity from that perspective to control who comes in There's no we do it we do it through um so when they hit the
tones in there we have computer software or an app that transmits to our phones passively um it and basically alerts our phones wakes my wife up and me and um we listen to the tone we listen to the radio transmission we find out what's going on
what needs to be done um the request is made from the scene or a lot of times if we say if we have a call like a a car wrapped around a tree and we know it's going to be bad we tone out right away We don't delay cuz that's what's in the best interest of the patient Um what's
happens more and more lately is is uh we wait until we get to the scene um and we assess the situation then tone out And if we do a group tone then you have only half of the unqualified fighters are alerted to it they week on week off and
then um contract if you not qualify you um you have to have offer that over time to the full-timers in reality not many full-times take call backs it's a different mindset now like used to be when I was starting out everybody you you just that was your part-time job you worked overtime you took call backs um
now you have a tend like their time off they like their vacation so they they show up for the days and then it's the same the same names all the time that come back like the schedule yeah exactly I don't think so I think my comment to that would be it's very efficient and I've told you in the past like I don't
know how to run a fire department I'm not going to tell you how but like is that inability to control who comes back Is are we treating the symptom or we're treating the cause Like is there something that we could invest in as a town to say we could do this more efficiently I think we need um there's some other widget because we have so
much money we should hire um there should be a second dispatch around during busy times um the quality of the dispatch would get better We'd be happier because um they'd be more responsive to our needs as well as the police department's needs That's one thing that we need to fix Do other towns
I'm sorry Do other towns do it different Hm Free town has two dispatches No No Do other other towns do the toning differently Is is there a method that that No Um pings people Um we're pretty stingy actually Like Berkeley like pretty much everything's a full tone
anybody Come one come all Free town's pretty much the same thing If you look at the pictures of the of the bowl call yesterday you'll see three or four Lakeville guys because you know the the the nature of the tone that we transmitted um where in Freetown
just hit the all call But I mean that that's part of the um the structure of Freetown They have a lot of people that are on the call department that live in town A lot of our people they live like 15 minutes out So when we recall they may not be there for our second medical
but they're there for our third medical And that's why we rely heavily on all the people that live in town for the supplemental call back The solution of if you're seeking stability is is uh and you guys can throw something at me right now Um if when you go to our comparables
there's a reason why they operate at six firefighters and five firefighters a shift a group Um they don't use callbacks They staff for the calls that come in They don't have 5.1 firefighters coming back off duty every single day They um they have two firefighters uh on
each ambulance and they have one firefighter that oversees the whole thing and swings back and forth with the for the ship leader to and that's how they operate And the only thing they call back for is really bad accidents and fires and and that's that would be a
such a beautiful budget to manage u because you have stability and predictability Madam Chair can I can I ask a question Absolutely The budget Go back to the budget for a second Um so at the end of the day we're talking about $130,000 right Cuz ultimate I mean short
term I know longterm there's things everything goes well Yeah But longterm there are things we can do but today we're talking about $130,000 additional money you need for four firefighters That doesn't include fringe benefits Yeah that's just operations Okay that's fine So the numbers I'm looking at so in
your uh Andrew in your presentation last week you said you're projecting EMS fees of a million50 right So based on that million50 you're saying the expenses for salaries is 1.7 right I mean those are the numbers Yeah Chief you said you're projecting
this year 2025 based on your email you sent earlier I think last week 1.2 almost 1.3 million 1.2 million Yeah I did the first uh projection at at the 6mon turn and we were chugging in in the
in the fall We were pulling over uh 100,000 110,000 a month in revenue Um it cooled off a little bit So I but I am comfortable with 1.2 million Okay So based on so right there I mean just based on that that's $200,000 difference
between what your presentation said we're projecting in in 2026 never mind 2025 One of the things that makes me a little bit more comfortable is if you do a calendar year analysis of our revenue we were at we were over $1.1 million with the 12-month book Okay Well so my point is if you're saying in 2025 it's
1.26 In 2026 we're projecting probably more than 1.26 or around there at the very minimum right based on the history But we're only saying it's one 1,50,000 I mean that's $250,000 right there There's context to that I mean they can explain
it better than I can why they came up with that number but that it's and historically we've we've lowalled the revenue number every year in our budget by a couple hundred grand And um I don't know the cause but but what did it's indirectly causing them is is when they
um aggressively change that number try to be more realistic with the number would you have to go to with a PCR Well I think you know these are called local receipts So the EMSS are built into local receipts So what we do is when we
set the tax rate you have an actual receipt column from the prior year and an estimated receipt column for the future year If you estimate higher than what you collected in the prior year they're looking in the rears whereas you're looking forward So you have to
provide DLS who certifies our tax rate an explanation as to why you think it's correct to go higher on your estimates than your actuals in prior years So you have to be conservative with local receipts Okay So that 1,ion50
sorry is a local receipt You know I can tell you the reason last year or this current fiscal year they used a million25 um as a receipt because in fiscal 24 they only collected a million1 million26,000 So they made it by $1,000
Mhm They made that percentage shift by $1,000 Okay So that's why you have to be conservative You know in the budget uh the summaries tab in your book there's the sources and uses You'll also see for example motor vehicle excise If we commit and expect to collect 2.7 million
in motor vehicle excise it doesn't mean that everyone's going to come to the counter and pay their $2.7 billion So we have to we have to you know estimate conservatively And uh you know I know he is on pace to hit 1.2 million but typically rule of thumb is to be 80 85%
of your prior year actuals for your future estimates So that's why we chose to be at around 1 million50 But um I think I just have one question Absolutely Economic downturn factor into that as well Yeah that's been the whole
conversation this week with like motor vehicle X size makes me very nervous We only went up $55,000 but as everyone's seen there's a lot of vehicles who aren't not going to be shipped to the US Um so that's something Um I went up investment income $30,000
15 of that's going to be the transfer station now that it's deenprised but even that is might be a stretch And there's going to be I hate to say it but new growth 250,000 We're understanding that may not be attainable too So um you know you have to look at it more in the
rears than in the future because if you had one bad year last year you know you don't want to overshoot and then have to come back to a fall town meeting and make mid-year cuts because you're 5 months into fiscal 26 and we're not even close to our revenue projections So you really want to be again you want to be
conservative with the projections So you know there's only been one year since um I've been here that we had a negative year in revenue Um and that was because of uh CommStar having to shut down because of that data breach Um so they didn't build for like 6 months and it cost us money I was looking at that and
I know there's no guarantee things change and things would change but based on the history it would seem that that's where we're headed But I guess they're rules that you got to follow That's fine Yeah And I think you can write can you write like a narrative basically saying we doing rate chain right It doesn't necessarily mean that if you if you
estimate higher than your prior actuals the the state won't let your tax rate slide but you do have to provide an explanation and it needs to be justifiable and realistic Um you know I can't walk in and say we're going to we're going to just you know put motor vehicle up to 3 million because I think
a lot of people are buying new cars You know there has to be a reason for that That makes sense to me But in this case we have a history We have rates going up It seems like there's definitely some room to we we don't have history That's what I'm trying to say We only have 24 24 is the only fiscal year that's been
closed and that's officially in the books 25 is still in progress So although he's on pace to collect 1.2 million the reality is the most recent fiscal year close We collected 1 million26,000 No I just mean the growth year-over-year other than one year Yeah
we Yeah that would be something to point We would have to explain it in a narrative if we decided to our average Our average revenue growth is like what $128,000 a year for the last for the last eight years That's our average Um we're adjusting adjusting our rates for the first time in 20 months Um we have
to do it more often We need to do every 12 Um so you could work these into a narrative justifying a higher projection for for and now you hit that number Um the demand for services are going up and the rates are going up and um
so I like the way you're thinking Well I just think it I mean if there's a way to do it we should find a way to do it legal Obviously we want to follow the rules Conversely too my my other point we can't expect to make I don't think we're going to make our revenue number if we if we go down because we're not we're not staffing with the staffing our
second ambulance as often Right Right So you need the four to meet the self-fulfilling right You need the four to meet the and then general working conditions the value that it provides our firefighters as far as uh being able to uh have a honeymoon Somebody's
getting married here in a couple of week a couple of months um to be able to go away and enjoy a honeymoon and stuff like that without feeling guilty because they're not they're our second ambulance won't be staffed for the entire time they're gone I can't imagine any if we can find a way to pay for it
responsibly Anyone's going to we have to find a way to pay for it It's also something even if you don't look at the revenues right I know you don't want to like lean on this sheet with a projected small sample size but I mean if you look at like the cost when you were fully staffed in the savings and you project
it out like that it's just $70,000 that you're difference like above what you're trying to increase It's like whenever um it's such a gut punch when somebody resigns because it's you know like you like to think that you're you're funny
and you're a charismatic guy and you can you can kind of control people to stay and and build that culture that you want to be a part of Um but you also know that it's just blows your your case for your four fiveers Uh because now your your numbers are are lousy and it's it's
been so difficult to try and find good data to to to because I know Brian's looking for looking for the comparison you know want he wants to see the benefit and and I that's the that weird wacky stupid um bar charts are just
different ways of trying to look at the benefits and how and trying to tease out the value of the four fiveers versus the three Larry you had a question I have a whole bunch I don't know if I want to ask them or not Larry excuse me Larry I tell people it'd be less than
four hours Well listen that's not my fault That's my fault I'm talking with insurance rates This your your right You said what 30 How many What's the percentage of of state insurance Medicare 38 38% So 38% of our
patient right So other insurance did they pay the bills I mean you know you have Blue Cross Blue Shield TUS whatever you have I call you get a bill Yeah we have um I don't know the numbers off the top of my head I I I I pushed I pushed something
off the back side of my head when I memorized some stuff for tonight Um but we have a we pretty much have a standard reimbursement rate that's we we do Well we have a Is is there a billing system for it Like just like a hospital gets a billing system They say this is what we
pay and that's what you pay We renegotiated uh our contract with Palmstar a couple about a year and a half ago We pay 3% commission on on everything that they fill out Um they and um you know we have bad debt We have
about any time we have about $400,000 in the works in the in the pipeline being processed Some of that turns into revenue some some doesn't some does not Um we have a policy that the select board wrote on how to handle um unpaid debt balances So we we do use a
collection uh agency um which is a a nice thing to do But uh so what's Cal Styles recovery waiting for us I'm drawing a blank I don't want to shoot a bad number at you Is that something I can add to the email after Yeah that'd be great All right So email I want you want the EMS numbers Um EMS
revenue numbers Um am I leaving anything else out Well you had something else I had suggested type of calls I'd like to see the example type Yeah I'd love to see the chart You want to give you like a threeear sample Yeah Like the parallels between you know here's our calls here's
our percentages here's our revenue Yep If I can make one quick comment and then hopefully we can wrap this up Mike Mike I mean no offense by this at all but given the amount of money we had to give you from ARPA to put the four people on to see this somehow work out
to being like 32,000 per firefighter per year is hard to like I want to grasp on and say like oh is that really all it is Yeah Like I know there's so many variables and there's a lot of hope and prayers here that overtime stays down EMS numbers go up It's the thing that
scares me because one of the things that we've never built we've never had a we never had a budget with a contingency for the turnover and that's what kills us every year Um and I've I racked my brain about why we have uh like I'd say "Oh um we're not adjusting the salary
lines for overtime We give in pairs You guys add Junth to the to the holiday list but then that's money for our firefighters." That there was never an adjustment for that So I'm trying to get trying to get my head around this the structural deficit And the biggest thing that I keep on coming back to is the turnover And years that we have high
high turnover that's vacant positions And when you operate when that artificial rule says that you have to operate every day with these people then it causes the the causes the shift over time But then the more people you have in the building the fewer recalls you have to do as well And that's not that's
not a rule That's just the demand for services straight up Sure Excuse me Madam Chair Um Mr Ellis Yes What would be helpful for me if you can um run page 47 um with the act with the requests for the years So you you know
how you have um the requests and then the actuals Yes it would be helpful to me agree with that I have a general question about uh one of the expense lines in all the other departments We moved like training and education programs to HR but we did not
do that for the fire department It's $12,000 Is that your reason We didn't want to do that to HR So basically what we um we drill we train especially with such a junior fire department Uh training is critical Um so we we used to
have a monthly drill and it's not a very efficient way to to deliver training So what we've done now is instead of having 15 20 people come in on overtime to train all at once we train four times while they're on duty and we bring in one or two people to take the first call
so they're not interrupted during the training So it's kind of a net savings to the town We try and like there's things that we do program wise to dial back some of these expenses Um that's one of them We try to we we kind of think of ways to be a little bit more efficient with how how we spend The downside of that is you can't we're
we're gonna still do the group trainings four times a year instead of 12 because it's just there's such a huge benefit to getting everybody in the same same room and doing those exercise type drills versus like the skills drills Um we didn't do it with police either Um
they're more complicated Not the stuff we moved over is more cut and dry trainings There's much more comp There's a lot of obligatory stuff that we have to do too for EMS Um we have to do the state requires us to to do stretcher training I mean God if we're ever an expert on how to operate a stretcher
it's we have to do it annually Um state makes everything harder than it has to be They I know very constant You're up Yeah So so I want to get back to my So I guess one you're not going to be able to answer but hopefully What's the retention rate for
firefighters in the industry across across Massachusetts I don't want to say this across I mean it is the fact we're losing firefighters at such a rate so system is it is a situation here in Lakeville or is it is it in such
a nationwide there's a shortage of EMS people um and so there's fewer fish in the pond to be had historically there there would be one job and 60 applicants out the door
trying for that one one job And now there's 60 jobs for one paramedic And so um young people they're they're smart they're savvy they know their worth and if we can make X dollars and have this this and that then they're going to they're going to want to go where they
can get more stuff So they may start off here We'll we'll do we'll take the onboarding cost We got to get a medical physical We got to get a PAT We we do the training We set them for gear We have to start like from scratch with the basic recruitment academy and then next
thing you know they get their firefighter one too they get their EMT they get their paramedic and they go on to another department where they can make more money And so then we start all over again Groundhog Day And now we got to get another employee another physical
Um more more um onboarding costs for us more time away from doing direct operations because now we're interviewing people and they can lateral back and forth which they never used to do that before And actually some of the departments even Rhode Island has has
made it easier because you don't have to recape the PAT So they they just go back and forth They give credit for years of service They give for like pay pay rates and step steps Um one of the things the select board allowed me to do was uh
have them sign a document that says if they leave within 5 years they have to reimburse me for the cost associated with training and equipment How's that work That worked great They get up and they walk out and refuse to sign it They come in and they try to negotiate salary with me Okay Um it
became a a detriment to hiring Okay So I stopped Yeah So I stopped bringing it I stopped putting it out there because people were like walking away They'll go out They one firefighter went over to Freetown got his job and and it's just that's the climate work Part of the problem is you know paramedics
they're actually making for the first time in history they're making more money in the private sector than they are in public So we can't compete with you know they're they're getting you know 100% of of their insurance and they're getting 50 bucks an hour like
just pays $50 an hour So how do how do we how do we compete for that And now on top of that um what they're being tasked with having to get their firefighter warn too And it's it's not an easy role which is why we explode that non-suppression because not everybody
that can be a paramedic wants to put the mask on and uh not everybody that likes to knock down walls can can calculate men doses in their head It's it's it's a very it's a very unique skill set One of the one of the unintended consequences
of the firefighter thing is our our recalls went down and our shift overtimes went down and all all our providers got part-time jobs working for for the local ambulance companies So all of a sudden when we did need them they weren't around anymore They all got part-time jobs and they were making more
money in their part-time jobs than they were in Lakeville Um it was unintended consequences of trying to be you know savvy with the budget Do we have any more questions from any of the boards Um or do we have any more follow-ups that we would like to chief because this
budget is so deep and there's so much going on Um Mike's very polite He just your budget's very convoluted There's just so much going on with it that I'm sure people are going to have more questions etc etc So is there any
follow-ups that we can ask for uh the chief and the deputy to send to the boards or do we think we've captured everything Final question I think would be not to the chief and deputy but to Mike and Andrew to say like is there room in the
budget or is it all in hope That's what makes me a little nervous Where would the source be if it was there's no room in the budget now I mean we we presented an a structurally balanced operational budget [Music]
243,000 from cash from 364,000 already from free cash Every time we add whether it's $5,000 we're we're making that gap free cash We have we have a we have a a community that has no economic base other than residential taxes Correct For
for we have nothing So the fact of the matter is if the community wants to continue to live in a rural area like we live in they're going to have to accept that it's going to cost some money And we have these apartments that have been approved the state's going to keep shoving them down our throat as long as fast as they can get them built And that
burdens the rest of us with these huge taxes That's I mean I'm tired It's way past my bedtime I just I I I I I it hurts my heart to think of a fireman sitting in a station right now worried about the fact that he's going to have a job or not when
they do the toughest job Not one of us could do that job And it just hurts my feelings to think that we as a community are going to have a conversation like this for this long over how much did we add up It was like you did the mathund
$130,000 What does that cost person Is it really 133 Even if it's $200,000 but Barb at the end of the day where's it coming from What else are we cutting And we may have to raise taxes And it sucks and I hate to do it And I
don't want to do it but we still have an incredibly incredibly low tax rate relative to the communities I'm on a fixed income I think the one thing the one thing that we I know we talked we're focused on the budget but
in reality is the $130,000 is is probably a wash and if what's going to blow up the four person budget is going to blow up the third the three the 3500 budget and that's turnover and that's demand for services If it's going to get blown up it's going to get blown up at four or three And the reality is is is
at three we're shooting ourselves in the foot If we're having a a revenue problem our revenue is going to be down And if we're at four our revenue is going to be up And we know this we know this is going to happen These are the those are the certainties of it all Like we know that we're not going to be able to we're
not going to we're not going to be able to produce the revenue that we produce a four group And the numbers support that that that this is all hard important conversations to have And I know no one wants to be like well we can't fund this or we can't
fund that But it's just important to find out the the why behind the numbers and be able to you know come to a place where we can vote you know what it is that we want to see So are
the are they the state aid numbers Um they're hard Yeah But they set in stone because I've heard rumors of uh I have conversations with um elected officials about Lakeville getting help I I've talked to um Senator
Rodri this week Um most of us Yep We were chit cchatting away um and asking and um he did not sound hopeful Uh he sounded um kind of downtrodden about the whole thing So I spoke with him
yesterday and he's a little bit more I think I think he was like let me ease this Chris Planka guy into it Let's not scare him He laughed at me and said good luck Let's not scare let's not scare anyone But you know at the end of the day
sometimes we just have to say of ourselves and we need to see what that looks like Like if we're not if we're not able to depend on the state and we're certainly not able to depend on the feds um at this time um we have to depend on ourselves And what does that
look like And if I can just um for this exercise that we go through our department heads So at the end of each of our nights so we have three nights that we meet with our department heads and I believe that there was interest in having a recap meeting Yes So at the end
of our meetings if you can run a tally of cuz I have the tally already I can give it to you for tonight in um requests enhancement requests or additional requests right now Just tonight after going through all these
department discussions we're at $225,900 297 above the budget The budget that we already pulled free cash and Yes Right Yeah I just want to keep a running
totally you know tally for each of the nights um so that when we do get to our combined night where we really talk about this I know it puts it into a better perspective Well one of my friends uh gave me the advice tonight to not be
emotional in to the data and um because I am an emotional person and part of that is because there's real consequences to not having these positions Um and and we're not paying we're not four or five fighters isn't an ideal situation It's not I'm not going
to like four firefighters is a is below below the comparables It's a it's it's not great And three firefighters is is is pretty unthinkable um as far as delivering the level of service that the demand for services that we have And there are real consequences for that And there's people that are alive today
because of the decision that you guys made um to fund the to provide me with opera funds to fund those positions There's absolutely within days we save we had saved a life because we had extra people in the building Um and you know it's it's sucks to be dramatic but
there's people that are going to pay for there'll be a cost to uh going back to the way we used to do it because we've only gotten busier in the two years Well I think it's a budget meeting and at at the end of the day what's the cost of your of your personal safety when you
have three people and that one person is at your house and he has to wait for staffing to come and that's your loved one on the ground What is the cost of that safety Do you want an ambulance fully staffed right from the beginning It's more efficient Um the turnaround time is faster Or do you are you relying
on somebody hopefully that they're home and they're listening and they're going to come within minutes Hopefully Or calling you Julie I appreciate everything you guys have laid out and it's very important for people to understand the facts behind it and to be
able to form their opinions based not just on data but on how they feel about the issue So I think we've got a well-rounded discussion that we've all had to be able to support some good decision making I didn't get that emotional You You were good You did a good You did a good job You did a good
job Thank you Thank you Thank you Um that is it for the budget discussion Um we will as member Carboni said we'll have a chance to have a wrap up at some point where we just go over things again
and then the select board can uh have their budget as this is the town administrator budget Um so at the end of that we'll make some decisions Madam chair just as a reminder we are at the library tomorrow night
Library tomorrow night everybody Library Yeah you're going to show up here Let me show up here I'll make a motion to adjurnn at 9:55 Uh let's uh roll call Motion to adjurnn I carbon eye
Thank you You got it You got to dissolve your meeting