##VIDEO ID:i-ljqEAkgtk## uh welcome to the January 28th joint select board finance committee meeting uh we're going through a bunch of different departments today starting with operation uh um starting with the school department clean Lakes parking IR Elder and Human Services planning zoning of felds building department it Town Administrator Town Council facilities select board finance committee and we will adjourn promptly by 9:20 so start with the schools sure I pledge alleg to the flag United States America the it stands one nation God indivisible withy and Justice over to you all right thank you very much good evening everyone um so this evening we have the fiscal year 26 uh proposed budget for the school department we've put together um couple of slides to review with you folks this evening the um the talking points are all sort of Consolidated onto this cover page so what I'd like to do is walk you through um some of the changes that we're proposing 26 versus the current appropriated budget of fiscal year 25 um and then we've got the supporting detail behind that um we can talk about the revolving funds we'll talk about our plan uh capital projects and then certainly answer uh any questions that you folks have with me uh with us we've got Janine Woods here with me tonight we also have superintendent Kelly clenchy and business manager Steve Mark so on the um on the first page here we're looking at uh fiscal year 25 school department had an appropriated budget of 26,4 188,189 based upon contractual steps and Lanes um even with some proposed efficiencies that increase comes in at 9 75,200 increase on top of the budget uh which would be a pretty bad place to start um from knowing that the town is under some Financial pressure to try to uh level fund as best we possibly can so what we're going to do this year is uh a couple things we've done in previous years but we've expanded upon this a little bit is we're going to take uh we're proposing to take $250,000 from school choice Revenue to offset the salaries we're also going to take $200,000 of the 204 uh sorry the 240 Grant um and then what's uniquely new this year is $100,000 offset from the prek tuition money received so that whittel the salary increase from 975 down to 425 um which represents a 1.6 increase uh on the prior Year's budget which is a good place for us to start before we make any changes from there I'm going to talk about four uh new positions that the school department and the school committee fully support the first being uh the addition of a unique athletic director um hire we have a uh wonderful athletic director in BL um a bit of old school philosophy here where this individual's uh not only the athletic director but also a classroom uh teacher as well some instruction and the value that we receive from the current athletic director is exceptional if you attend any athletic events you'll see this individual out um late at night the school department would like to get in a position um upon this individual's retirement to hire a true uh dedicated individual uh to just run the ad role that seems to be the norm going forward um if you've heard from our athletic director if you you uh listen to the notes from the school committee meeting a couple uh meetings ago uh Littleton Public Schools has got a uh wide variety of athletic um teams for a town of our size the scheduling needs the busing needs um it's it's it's a full-time job so upon um upon this need we'd like to make sure that we have the money in the budget and then what we would do is take the existing salary that's in the the previous years appro appropriated and apply that to a full-time teacher as well um this being a specific ad that might not come to fruition we hope that we don't need it um the school department and the school committee would like to acknowledge that if the money is not spent on that additional position that we would then take the $80,000 from the budget and uh make a contribution to the uh School building Capital the school capital building fund so if we were to be awarded this position and the money go unspent it doesn't get redirected anywhere else it'll uh flow through and it'll become a year-end contribution um the next line heem here is a $95,000 spend on a bcba staff member you folks he us talking about this uh sort of year after year how the um educational needs of our students are evolving over time this is a uh behavior analyst position um we'd like to support uh uh these needs of our youngest Learners the best of our ability and we feel that we're currently underst staffed and this would be uh necessary to fulfill all of the the needs can you just Define bcba yes it's a Behavior Uh behavior analyst is the Crux of it but the board certified Behavior certified behavioral thank you you're welcome the uh the next line item here is a $65,000 um protects support there's I don't know got to be over a thousand devices or uh perhaps 2,000 devices at school department supports um technology needs increase every year they increase exponentially as we're all aware um we have a small Department we feel that it's um imperative that we look to hire an additional support person here uh to assist with all of our technology needs and then last but not least which I believe everyone is aware we're budgeting uh for fiscal year 26 $75,000 spend for the second school resource officer which um we are happy to report is already in place and a this resource officer is already in place at this point correct yes great so we have signed a memorandum of understanding uh between uh Littleton Police and the school department great okay um before you move off this slide $550,000 that you're spending up at the top to lower the the net the net ask yes is that sustainable yes or so so next year we'd expect something similar okay thank you you're welcome um can I just add to that it's sustainable for now and for the near future but I can't speak for 10 years right about for the next right I was just hoping that we weren't going to be absorbing that 550 next year right this is not a one-year trick um you accepted the answer so uh easily I didn't want to expand on it but um those are all annual recurring Revenue that we hope to see that those levels could change uh we hope that the change would be not dramatic from year to year and we do plan on continuing to use those offsets as we go forward right but the intent is the intent is continue to offset salaries from some of those Revenue sources faring whatever the president does with federal grants these days yes there's always a contingencies but all right so uh to sort of wrap up the additional salary increases it's to the tune of $74,200 which represents a 2.9% increase over the prior years appropriated funds um then we're highlighting four additional um operational expens es where we feel that the current budget doesn't adequately uh assist our needs so you can see that this is a really solid attempt at a level funded budget um the first two are um related to our busing contract so the $4,285 is an assumed three and a half% cost of living adjustment on top of the base contract that excuse me that we pay now for our busing that's um standard we that every year the second line item there for the 89,000 that was the school department and school committee strategy um to ease the um three what did we refer to that is the three uh we were running three we were running three Loops now we're running two loops with more buses and the shift and start times um so that 89% uh $89,000 increase represents um onethird of the operational increased associated with the with the busing that was an expense that we asked for last year it was granted and next year you would you should plan on seeing an $889,000 line item associated with that as well um so the total busting increase would be 134,000 in change it seems um Small Potatoes here to be highlighting a $5,200 line item but we've just uh recently s um successfully renegotiated our hbac maintenance contracts we're experiencing a a net increase there of $5,000 230 bucks which will be reflected on the uh supporting documents and then when assessing our um annual reoccurring costs associated with software updates subscriptions licensing fees Etc um we think that that's going to come in to the tune of around $25,000 so the um total operational increases is um this all rolls down forward to uh a $94,000 increase on top of the prior year appropriated budget uh for a 3.55% increase um we can go to the next slide here the next page and this is just going to give us um slightly deeper dive on where the 904 ends up can we just flip one more slide I'm just fing along with the presentation we this is all you have because this wouldn't have shown just this just in the hand okay everybody's got the handout so for those of you that have the handout um these are our different cost centers that we run through uh school department so I'll just by way of example I'll highlight that top line item there which is the regular uh education salary so um we we said on the previous slide that our total salaries are going to be up 975,000 um the variance here that's listed is [Music] $111,500 those offsets are spread across uh regular uh regular aded special ed Etc um so you'll see the regular Ed variance there of 111,000 special ed variance of of 169,000 uh student support staff salary um 129,000 that is where we're going to pick up one of those additional um positions um that's likely where that uh resource officer position is okay um the other instructional salary uh 98 Grand that's going to be where the ad position is um if I were to jump back up that students uh student support and staff expenses the 25,000 that's the tech the additional Tech spend if you're um cized a little further down the page the transportation busing salary It's all under expenses that's $134,000 increase couple line items below that's the 5230 for the HVAC um so these numbers tie out to the first page uh per our cost centers $740,000 increase for salaries $164,000 increase for operational expenses um for combine 904 if you flip through to the following page we detail this just a little bit more for you um couple things here happy to answer any questions that you might have but um under that student student student and support staff that's the further breakdown so we've got the $80,000 ad which is the um athletic director and then the 29,000 for additional guidance Services Under the athletic service there's um 85,000 there if you go on to the next page you'll see a couple um line items that they're actually showing negative I'd like to explain those for you so traditionally we had budgeted uh substitute spending in one bucket whether it was longterm or short term it's hard to predict what those needs are going to be um what we did this however it does cost us there's a little bit of a difference in cost once a once a substitute is on for um certain number of days pay increases of course um so we took a look at some historical spending there and uh tried to break that out so we fund we actually funded a we're asking to fund a long-term bucket to the tuna 70 and keep 172,000 and the short-term needs um the line item here for par professionals where you see that spend going down that's we don't actually plan on spending less for par professionals what we what we've done there is we've applied um a good chunk of that $425,000 offset for that line item happy to answer any questions about this um but did want to touch on um what our plan is for U capital projects for fiscal year 26 and uh potentially 27 jump into that Justin I just want to thank the school committee and the administration for providing this level of detail this year it's not only going to be a good tool for us to use but I'm sure the school committee can use it as the year progresses just taking additional dump out of theonomic system so thank you for that welcome thank you to use for creating One hand washes the other um maybe before we talk about capital projects uh we should just talk about the revolving fund usage so that's believe big folks have that as well oh sorry yes sorry could you repeat the question the 550 after in the first page where actually in the second so what you would have to do is so the SEC the second page you know pages one two of the supporting documents the variances there and the salary increases are net of the increase so um what you'll see is the $425,000 net increase it's we we didn't break it out for the 975 less less the is probably someh it's part of the the increase already right part the school department receives a lot of funds outside of what the to appropriation is so this budget is just the to appropriation what they're using is additional not I think it's on the last effectively on the last page I think right where Steve is this being handled the same way we had similar conversation yesterday with fire where they were offsetting some with some grants and we wanted it to not look different year by year is it basically handling it the same way yes in the long run it is because some of those offsets happened year after year in the past and they will in the future as long as like school choice remains at a certain level they'll be able to get it not only for the capital but for that's correct I'll um I'll talk about the revolving funds you folks have that do you all have a copy of that yeah okay great we we can certainly um jump back to the budget should a question pop up but um what we've provided this evening is uh a detailed breakdown of all of our revolving funds usage um going to talk uh a lot about um the school choice funds and how we plan to to use those as it relates to some capital projects but what we've given you is um year end information for fiscal year 23 24 or projected for 25 and budgeted for 26 so if we were to look at that circuit breaker um in school choice um accounts there of course we spend all the circuit breaker money um in every G in every given year it's the first money that we spend as it relates to those eligible expenses from the from the expenses that are incurred the previous year um but you'll notice a trend here with school choice money so um a nice healthy balance um continuing to grow and then for sort of the first time ever it kind of levels off and that's due to the um additional um offsets that are detailed in the presentation as well as our plan used to fund some capital projects for fiscal year 26 which I'll give you a little bit more detail on um as we roll through this nothing sort of jumps off the page at me needing an explanation or story but wanted to provide the accounting behind revolving fund usage at your last meeting with the school committee um approve the financial policy no we did not not that we uh voted it down we just wasn't on our agenda so okay we'll have it on the next one um so for fiscal year 26 it's typical that the school department would present a couple um capital projects to you folks and uh we understand how precious uh free cash is going to be or how how precious it is uh the operational um sorry the uh capital expenditure projects of other departments and then the Shaker Lane project that we're all sort of marching towards um when we ex when we take a look at our fiscal year 26 plan spend it's to the tune of uh $400 to $450,000 um some hbac items some other smaller stuff that we need to clean up and what we'd like to propose and officially go on the rec is that we will have a zero uh dollar request for fiscal year 26 um we plan to use School of Choice funds for not only 26 but firing any major changes for 27 as well um the planned ask for 27 was about the same so somewhere between four 400 and $450,000 um we're going to handle those Capital expenditures in house and spend some school choice money down um which it should in the end represent about 10% our our school choice balance should represent about 10% of our overall budget which we feel is still um pretty healthy number for us to be carrying in the event that um some extraordinary expenses pop up but uh the strategy behind that is if we don't have to ask for that money our the school department and school committee's hope is that uh finance committee and select board would be able to um make a contribution to the school um School building fund so that as we look to approve fingers crossed a new cap um a new Shaker Lane building and look to what our borrowings might be that we would be able to reduce the borrowing load keeping in mind the Associated Tax Bill associate uh with that so um at the end of the day we have a top performing school system with a very dedicated staff um I've got a couple I've got three kids in the school system everybody seems to love it um we're presenting a uh as I said nearly a level funded budget um coming into the tune of a 3.55% increase it's it's um and a commitment to uh taking care of not small but you know small potato stuff 4400 $450,000 of our own Capital needs over the next couple of years there are some larger ticket items a few years Out roof project which we're all aware of boiler project that type of stuff um we certainly won't be able to fund those ourselves we do plan on applying for any and all available um State programs that might help offset those and we will keep both the finance committee and the select board in the loop on what we think end of life is or um a planned project time so that we can um I'll be ready to tackle those projects when necessary again I want to thank the school committee for voting to handle those Capital items within your your funds and in our preliminary numbers we we have those dollars set to go against the school building stabilization fund so it's a big help and we can keep that up going forward it's going to help reduce the cost and the burdens of the taxpayers thank you for that you're welcome um just want to thank Janine Woods for her assistance um business manager Steve Mark and superintendent Kelly clenchy there's a lot of work that goes into the budget there's some incredible efficiencies that have been created um over the past few years we not only feel that it's best for um our students to stay in District because they're in school with their peers but we want to be able to provide um appropriate programming for those students that might have um needs Beyond traditional schooling there's been some efficiencies created in the budget uh associated with that it's not to say that we're able to keep everybody in District there's big um there's big spends here for out of District um placement but we're fortunate that um the budget is uh as efficient as it is we're also fortunate that every year we attract and retain some School of Choice students the the idea isn't there to um fill every classroom to the maximum ability but if we have a couple a couple empty seats in a classroom and a student wants to come to Littleton and we can Ace the receive the associated Revenue um for that it's a win-win um all the way around so can I ask question I'm just um just looking at the bottom of the the revolving fund sheet the here the balance tends toate between five and change them 60 that um you know that's about 25% of the the of the budget it's it's the number is is and I'm just is that um that an appropriate level seems like I mean I love that you have that you have the money but just various it that's the level that you're wanting to maintain yes so it's you know fiscal year 23 it ends with what 5.6 jumps to 66 6155 is that what you're referencing yeah yeah yeah um some of that is associated with if you look circuit breaker plays into that a little bit um I mean I don't want to I don't want to take your time and highlight where all the differences might come I mean like Student Activity I I wasn't wondering about the Comfort level yeah Comfort level fine um again this is money that we plan to receive and we have Associated expenses with it so um we certainly want to end the year with a nice healthy balance of five5 like this um but it's money in money out so it provides a nice cushion in the event that um we get surprised or we we don't have uh that Revenue source to offset against current years's expenses nice healthy balance so I did have a sorry sorry think I think there was another answer no I just wanted to clarify a little bit the fin policy that we're talking about that Mr was talking about 10% was a number of uh school choice balance not a total revolving fund many of these revolving funds are geared specifically toward specific functions um Food Service Athletics H and things like that circuit breaker is a big number in that circuit breaker we get one year we spend it the next year then we get it so that so that number kind of rolls forward so the the financial policy that Mr Bui is talking about really dealt specifically with the school choice balance being like a percentage of the operating bu the that 10% number school choice like a stabilization fund Bas the rest of the numbers here the fees with certain programs that you have to spend for that program like PRK things like that okay tigers den it's tigers den right so in in is 3.3 and 10% would have be at 2.6 so that's out of the reason they're now picking up their Capital right to reduce that balance down it's great and we're able to put that money to scho St it's great I'm just trying to understand correct so by the end of 27 we should have reduced other than Revenue coming in and normal expenditures we're going to use an extra almost a million dollars with that school choice fund for capital projects okay and it's very much appreciated so sorry I was going to say we're also very fortunate that we've had um somewhat level enrollment um in the schools I know there's a lot of talk about housing but if um we don't have new construction I think the trend is that you lose enrollment because people after they put their kids through school they they stay in their house especially since littleton's such a great place to live um so it's it's wonderful to be managing a budget where you know the the kindergarten class every year coming in is has the same sort of look and feel as prior Year's class we don't have to have this big you know we're not anticipating this big swell up we haven't had the budget for a big swell up or any bubble years I think like our bubble year is like there's an extra 20 or 30 kids in the class something like that so it's very manageable they really wor about said so much harder one of the things Brian with with our discussions with the school department about school choice is their contribution to the school stabilization fund because of their Capital basically we we look at that every couple of years and make sure that the level of school choice is maintainable so students St to go down they're certainly not going to be able to fund it to the level that we had talked we agree that in couple years we would take a look at this absolutely so on the revolving funds there's a couple that go negative M um 27 and 26 there's the nonresident tuition yeah those are they should be zeros at the end that those are typos on my but okay and um like the athletic gate isn't going negative but it will if you keep it will go negative and again I apologize for that that's okay my watch try to get this out okay okay thank you we don't put involving funds into the negative okay we try not to right Michelle if we do we hear from her okay and the state good anyone else have any questions yeah I just have one it's a forward looking we we've been talking about the roofs for a number of years now and we we keep talking about our quote $4 million roof um we realistically is is that a half realistic number at this point or is it going to be in your mind significantly more so for the yeah so for the high school um I talked to um an engineering company and our with consultant company and that number is they both agreed that that number is a pretty close number it's going to escalate as we go out prices go up um we're also going to look as we're also going to look to apply for msba funding for some of this I don't know when we'll get accepted into an MSP Department if we do but um but the 4 million is that includes Roofing that includes engineering class that includes OPM because you have to it's over a million dollar so you have to have an OPM um and and and when can we apply I I know there's a a window that opens up um I think in February it's open up till March to apply this year for msba for for that project um I don't remember the exact dates but um we'll we'll we'll submit the SOI and we'll be coming to the board of Selectmen to approve the SOI to be submitted um and a whenever that date opens up okay okay so so it's it's eminent right just my concern was we start process okay great there had been some question of whether the group has old enough yet right right so typically typically msba not typically msba does not look at projects or accept projects where the roofs are less than 25 years old um if you look at the data um a year or so ago was the last time I looked um the average age of the roof that they were accepting into the MSB msba project was 28 or 29 years old that was the average age um we're not there we're we're at about 23 years old for the roof so um we can apply I suspect we won't get accepted because of the age of the roof but if we then apply the next year next year it comes to their radar great we also hope to bundle that with uh potentially bundle that with high boilers as well so we can get msba for all of that um at the same time that's hopefully the plan so okay and the other roof estimat are also solid I know they're a little further out but yeah the the Middle School roof is not solid that's just kind of based off a square footage on what I think the high schol is going to be and then translate that into the into the square footage of the the Middle School roof um so it's not solid we haven't had a engineering company get up and actually do an assessment with the Middle School um we actually paid um soot Tech which used to be um to it up and do an actual engineering study on that roof and we have those studies available I shared those with the to director as well for his riew thank you thank you great thanks very much apprciate iton next is clean Lakes Mr chairman uh Mr chairman so uh just wanted to uh considering this is clean lace this is Chairman felson's uh uh first uh introduction to the budget process so I thought it would be good for him to come in and uh do a brief overview we'll go through a couple of the slides here that highlights the ass that he is uh that he's he's made the request to the town fall um then maybe highlight some of the things that the clean Lakes would like to do and potential some other funding sources that really came out of the stakeholders meeting that many of you were there that happened some months ago and um and so if we can uh right there if we can uh uh the operated the highlights uh we met with the clean Le committee and uh as part of the the budget process uh what and there was a $25,000 ask of by by Clean lakes and we're going to add $10,000 as a new line item to FY 26 budget uh under the operating expense uh and that we'll put that under the Public Works uh budget and what we can the 15 the balance of the $15,000 is request by uh chairman fsam to for to put into a stabilization account for for the clean lakes and that $155,000 will be added at the May 6th annual town meeting um and then that point I can turn it over to you if you want to just highlight some of the things you would like to be doing over the next year and thank you Jim been a bit of a rough road for us up late I don't if you've all heard but uh uh we are we're pursuing a new permit this year uh most of our annual expenses go right now to a removal of uh aquatic invasive plants uh it has taken up an awful lot of our time and money and out of control we've come realized that we're going to need a larger uh permit from the state and uh they actually refer to it as a light dredging permit uh we had a HED to have that replac by this spring uh looks like it's not going to be in place until October uh which means we lose an entire season of of potential harvesting uh we're going to Chi around we're reallocating funds right now uh the funds that are being offered up we're very grateful for because we can use those uh for uh for uh the assessment of the different lakes uh $55,000 for uh a a survey doal Pond uh to assess uh conditions there uh in terms of what invasives and what plants need to be attended to uh another $5,000 to examine the uh the beaver DM uh at Long Lake uh We've also got monies from uh uh from the water commissioners of course uh we have a total budget of $1,600 that we're asking for this year uh we secured 108,000 from the water Commissioners we've secured 110 from the community preservation committee very grateful for their uh support and uh and of course these monies will help too uh uh with the uh with the permit holding up an awful lot of the uh uh cleanup that we're hoping for we're going to shift over in a couple of our links to herbicide treatments for a season uh we'll be a get a smaller permit for that to take care of those things uh but we're also looking uh in the short term towards uh comprehensive assessments of each of our Lakes so we'll have from an engineering firm uh a road map essentially to uh to guide us for cleanup uh of each Lake and uh and base that on on real science rather than just our own desires uh sort of puts things into official capacity so we're very grateful uh we've been uh uh diversifying this year we have funding uh for next year coming from uh four different sources uh hopefully and uh we're just had uh sourcing from this year we still have uh refund or we have funds uh still outstanding from about five uh different funding sources so we're scrambling 200 thank you all for your generous contribution question CPC um I I understand sort of reclamation sort of fits under the CPC umbrella going forward when does it get to the point where it's more like maintenance and I'm not sure CPC umbrella covers that so it mean that you know what is the thought process there as to how how you go forward it is a fairly uh new area for the CPC to fund uh activities reg regarding uh water bodies uh we consider it open space uh so uh rather than Recreation or uh but it's restoring open space uh and it's maintaining those facilities because often times we have lakes that are adjacent to conservation land so on uh and we like to look at those things as uh as not uh routine maintenance but more management UH responsibilities so far that's going I know in West they lasted for 10 years uh and then they said this is more maintenance than anything else and they cut off some funds so I mean I don't think that's a a forever Source but uh but for specific tasks uh we're looking at uh uh a new uh a new dock design for uh perpective P Pon this year they're they're funding that they're funding uh herb side treatments and uh um also future uh Ecco harvesting that may aan we've been very generous but again it what is the state is is usable so that's the key to me so Saul do you have any comments being on the CPC about what where you draw the line on the not specifically I mean they yeah the line is described is maintenance or things that are in sort of a regular scheduled budget but I think it's it's a fairly question get something like invasive treatment there's probably examples on the land side of regular basic treatments yes so I just grual question I just don't want to get commit to something on an ongoing basis and find out that it it doesn't fit exactly and that's that wouldn't be I mean this this this introductory um treatment uh would not be that butti a point of when does it reach the Tipping Point that it becomes that that it becomes that in as much as I respect the the position of the chairman we will confer with Town Council to be able to talk with the state that makes it's that call right no as long as we're doing that I'm fine just absolutely a little bit squishy it's on everyone's radar everyone's taking that into account that this isn't by night that this is going to hit a wall at some point we're trying to figure out how to handle it you know pass them everyone's the the money's for stabilization uh we'll be able to use for what would be considered more uh routine maintenance uh recurring expenses and things like that so I were hoping to establish that so so any of your other funding sources going into the stabilization account uh not at this point in time but we're hoping uh that we can uh reach an agreement with parks and wreck and they'll contribute okay and then of course the bulk of the monies that we're still receiving right now are from the water Commissioners y uh we having well we have we have challenges at every level but no the war commiss money can only be spent on spec FS right uh that's true they also have some some oversight funds that they're putting towards uh our our surveys of of the lake quality uh uh lab test and so on uh for each lake so we got AIT for that they have some kind of an agreement with West recipient agreement with Westford is there any way to play that that works out between you Litteton Water Littleton water and Buford water to get something going there it would be great to coordinate that right now we have we have uh an open uh invitation for all lion residents uh to go swim at the the town beach in Westward uh that's that sort of their their their open space or their their their access yeah just just another thought maybe there's some opportunity to you work with Westford and takes an awful lot of coordination so I have a question more for Jim and Ryan and this is more of a bookkeeping is there a reason we put this under Highway rather than conservation I think it's it's just had it had to land somewhere so um so that's good that it ended up falling so it's the same thing sustainability committee is under DPW as well okay uh yeah it just seems like the conservation agents are the ones that are kind of directing the fund so I don't know if it may yeah not you know I mean it's it's it's probably P it just would be cleaner if we're likely to move it later because it's very hard when we move things in the budget to track how the expenses change we every couple years we move things between different accounts and it makes it look like there's a huge increase and decrease and if we think it's going to end up there or if it makes logical sense to end up there do it earlier you sure mentioned uh Westford pulling their funding and I know that you were sharing invasives control for mwaniki or whatever they call it over there in Westford um so how is that going to affect like next year and going forward are you going to reduce the invasive control for that lake or plans are to uh to attend to our half of the lake okay um we are crushed that they will not be contributing in kind but you're just going to try your best with what you have we're we're hoping to make a demonstration project of our half okay so that they'll say we got to jump on board here okay thank you now is this 15,000 for the stabilization fund something that you're going to be looking as an ongoing contribution uh we would like to continue that uh into the future uh and and use as much of that have it have that available to us uh for for most anything it comes up and things always are coming up town meeting has to approve withdraw from that again that would be fine whatever stipulations I knew it would be some sort of uh formulation uh but yeah we'd be happy to uh to say let's let's tap that and come before you to uh so it gives you like I mean gr time meetings is six month lead time how much you need to spend we have we we are we are juggling the schedule as okay so it's a little frustrating uh the uh the delay on the uh the dredging permit is it's the worst yet but uh we will see that through this year uh spec bond is going to suffer but uh we'll make up for that uh the following spring so I just want to remind everybody on committees this 15,000 is not included in anything we have here so we have a balanced budget in front of us that means we need to make 15,000 cuts from somewhere to fund this you can take it out of my salary out a Chuck salary so like I said we still need 15,000 cut my salary in half we still need I notice you didn't volunteer I know I have thanks John thank you you appreciate time I Do It For The Love next up par you have a page number Ryan uh so page number for par hold on 265 thank you 65 all right good evening everyone thank you for your time um so just going through um you know the basic template of our budget um you know we had a really amazing year we were able to run 454 programs and uh served over 6,200 participants um in discool year 2024 so uh that actually was a 16 16% increase um from the previous fiscal year um 11 special events uh we our agency won agency of the Year from Massachusetts parks and recreation Association uh we were able to obtain a grant from United Way uh that helped our after school program uh for the sum of $ 27,29 and um the big project we had been working on the prior year was the open space and Recreation plan um and that was approved by the Department of Conservation so we're set for the next seven years um we sold out a majority of our uh summer programs uh for the third year in a row uh and then uh we were able to work with um the town administrator's office and uh be able to complete an ADA uh compliant walkway at Long Lake Beach um which has been uh a huge benefit to the public uh a lot of really good feedback about it so thank you for the support on that um so our department goals uh we do have a lot going on so we're trying to keep our goals relatively simple um so essentially we're still working on the seven um seven-year strategic plan uh obviously we have all the data and information from the open space and Recreation plan uh the 2017 master plan and the 202 3 statistically valid recreational needs study um so uh with that we're going to be focusing on Parks facilities and playgrounds within the town um and looking at developing solutions for Ada and aab access issues and improvements for those uh areas and authorties um our parks and playgrounds are um really Consolidated so the number two part here is researching land opportunities to see if there's any possible uh right first refusal with Town Council um we have uh three main areas uh for Parks here in town uh and they're very Consolidated to one specific area um so we want to look into seeing if there is a possibility um to develop those facilities being parks and playgrounds um in other locations within towns um that hopefully we would be able to do so in the future so that's a goal is to to look for for those um then the last is we have a uh large uh it's gone um we have a large um list of projects uh coming up uh or in various states of completion um so we are um at the point where we are working on the uh design for the Middle School tennis courts and uh rehab to wicom baseball field that process is going along really well um completion of the renovation for the space at 36 King Street um the we're working internally on that plan to meet uh the Department's future indoor space needs um and then being able to implement that strategic plan once we get that set so those are our main goals for uh fiscal year 2026 oh wait but on the divisor plan to meet your indoor needs yeah do you know what your indoor needs are or are you coming up with what are you com coming up with a plan to meet the needs or are you coming up with what the needs are no we're coming up with a plan to be able to meet the needs so um we'll talk about it a little bit later when uh we look at the um possible capital projects in the future um but one of the areas that we're trying to work out um again with Town administrator's office uh facilities um school department as well is you know being able to use the space that we have at 36 King Street um but we also have some programs that need to have uh physical sites that we will not be able to house within 36 so what's up so you have some kind of a document that says what your indoor needs are we're working on that is okay the point that I'm making okay yep we leave this the tennis courts and the baseball field what's up now it's early in the process for the project we still on budget yes sir on time yep okay trying as best we can had ask yeah no I appreciate it uh yeah the Tim's been doing a really great job with that and uh the company that we're working with activitas has been fantastic about being very timely with things so yeah we're doing good um all right next slide please all right so Capal requests um The Dock comption of uh component of things I'm not going to go over that because we've talked um with fincom and uh Town administration's office that that's something that we want to look at going through CPC for that so for tonight it doesn't really make sense to go over that um the the one request excuse me but the reason for it is what so the reason for uh uh the increase or the coming back and asking for funds so when we originally did the quote last year because we were approved for the 42,43 um at Maytown meeting uh we had calculated in a 6% inflation um but when we uh checked back in with the company because the quote's only good for 90 days so when we knew that that was something that we were going to go ahead and move forward with the uh increase had actually gone up to about 15% so um to be able um to complete those um sorry so to be able to complete the project as we wanted to be able to do it we either would need to add an additional at really quick 15, uh $268 um to complete the entire uh design as we had originally um designed it being having a fishing dock that would actually have a tea uh on it um and that's something that you know we wanted to be able to complete that if we needed to be able to pair that back we could do a paired back version of the design for I think it was around $5,000 um but the fishing dock would be really drastically cut off and that extra um space that you would need for the tea for people to kind of maneuver around would not be part of it it would just be a long shot so so um yeah that was the the difference for that okay so so that's a project that you''ll be going to CPC for correct yeah um so the one that uh I did want to talk about tonight is the uh van so um we in uh May 2022 had received 37,000 uh in capital funding to purchase a new uh B uh obviously prices have gone up quite a bit since then um we ran into issues with actually finding a 12p passenger van that was kind of the time frame right after covid where a lot of the auto manufacturers were having issues with microchips and being able to maintain parts so to actually get a 12 passenger van you had to get onto a list and have one built for you um so after two years of searching and trying to be on that list we kind of gave up on it um I did get back in touch with uh one of the representatives on the state bid list that we've worked with in the past and they said that they are actually having some luck finding them um so the updated quote that they gave me was 61,800 so if we were able to um maintain and and use that 37,000 that we still have from 2022 um and add on the 24, $84 um then we would be able to update um get rid of the old old 2009 ban and replace that one um with a new one okay you can skip that one already covered it um so this one is um I don't want to spend like a whole whole lot of time on here so um I just want to say you know our department is very aware of the large Financial requests uh that are coming to the town uh in the new near future so the projects listed on this slide or items that are referenced um by that open space and Recreation plan um the statistically valed Recreation needs study or Andor the 2017 master plan um so again being aware of that potential debt um increase um we know that the reality of the completion dates that we're asking for are not realistic within um you know these projects so that's kind of what we put the or longer right um so but because these items are things that are being requested from the public within uh those reports that we're having um that we're collecting that that data um you know I feel it's my job as a director to make sure that we bring those forward um so that it's something that you know the fincom and selectboard are aware of um so sorry um yeah what was your Most Wanted request oh I yeah I hadn't finished on that sorry Ryan um so at this time if we are looking out of like these four um no no I mean it says in the survey this was the second most this is the third most but you don't say what the I'm just saying that um when we actually did those specific reports so the um the recreational need study that the dog park came in as that was the second wanted from the the town right so what was the top one that was one you got the number two and the number oh I got you um remember the top of my head um yeah I apologize for that so Cricket oh it was Chuck literally was it was you're not you're not kidding it was cricket yeah yeah yep um yeah thank you my friend so um all right there you go um okay so operating needs um so you know the the amount that we get from general fund um is pretty simple so um obviously it covers the uh director the assistant director for salary and benefits um uh covers longevity uh both Tim and I have been here for anywhere in that between that 7 to 10 year frame uh uh utilities and those utilities uh we've actually broken those down um further this year just to be a little bit more transparent with those expenses um so the utilities specifically are Water and Electric costs only um we have Professional Services uh those are going to be items like trash removal porta potties um Pest Removal tight take paint sorry tight tank pumping um and then the last one would be vehicle supplies and repairs so specifically for um annual inspections for the vehicles and any vehicle repairs that we might have so um that's what's covered in the utilities and then special events uh these this amount for special events we also have um a special events accounts for the uh revolving funds but this is specifically for any events that we put on that is no cost to the public um so if we do uh say we have our TI and TR stance that's coming up we charge for people to come to that that's actually going to come out of our revolving account it wouldn't come out of this one so just to clarify the usage of that um so yeah that was our um request for this year um so the change is um in the past we had 50% of the office coordinator covered by the general funds um that is being removed so in fiscal year 26 um will be taking on the full wage and benefits of that office coordinator which estimated around $7,295 okay so operating needs in the future if that's something that we're able to relook at being able to cover you know a portion of that office coordinator um it is a position that is um administrative you know they they help with um the payroll AP packets um cash check credit card turnovers all of those things that um you know keep our our we'll call it small business running um so you know it is helpful to be able to have that support for that role specifically okay I was gonna before we go into this are there any questions on general fund before we go into revolving so in in the budget in the book you have $20,000 in Professional Services is a new expense this year it's not a new expense all we did was um we instead of just throwing Utilities in there we broke it down into specific um areas so the um as I had mentioned the Professional Services are people that we've contracted so trash removal we you know have a company okay so that's what you're calling the Professional Services okay thank you okie dokie all right so this was asked for last year so I wanted to make sure that I I did this um and just gave you guys an a overview of our revolving budget um so I if you guys are interested and want me to come back and do like a further presentation I'm happy to do that I just want to keep this on just you know an overview um but in general you know um this is how we budget out our um revolving fund we do break down uh a majority of our programs um and areas into specific uh account lines so um on this sheet we have uh the beach we've got campt um our community education programs um adult sports leagues after school programs our preschool um our playground program and um they'll be one on the next page that's a tah hadan extended program those were uh kind of offshoots of uh Camp te and have grown so we've given them their own budget lines um and there were a few others that were on there um tennis vacation program ski Revenue um sorry ski program and then uh the field maintenance which we do try to keep that one specifically at a zero balance level so the field maintenance fees that we get from like the Youth Sports organizations or other folks that uh would be renting the field um in comparison to um you know having that Sports Council representative and also um any of the expenditures a lot of that is um paint for the Athletics um if there's if we need to update any of the equipment say you know um any of the the bags at the baseball field all of those things we work with highway to accomplish all of those um and then we have our um expenditures that um May some may be direct some may be indirect um with the programming that um cover the rest of the things um that make our department run so um overall we do have obviously a lot of uh you know about a million four that comes in through the department um but we also expend a lot of that out um so that's something that um you know we try to be really cautious of our our mission statement is to be able to do affordable program and we do take that very seriously um so that is something you know we do try to be in the positive each year by a little bit so um you know prior to the the changes that we kind of added on we were uh about 16,500 in the positive um so adding those components on then you know we have a little bit of a a deficit that we've got to make up um and that's something that we once we know what our set budget is so um we will go back and change any of the rates um I shouldn't say but like incorporate those costs into the the program fees so those can be spread out across the programs um usually starting September through August um we kind of have a unique uh setup so that our our programs or I guess the fiscal year changes right in the middle of our programs um just when they start so um you know I guess a calendar year kind of makes a little bit more sense but um you know it adds a little a little bit of a challenge but we work around it um and then the last component that was on there is um the park commission has been in uh touch with the clean Lakes committee um they have not come to an agreement yet about funding so that's something that um they are working on can I ask you a question from two slides back there was um Beach revenue of yeah 125 is that for SPM programs for Beach wages oh for um okay great question all right yeah so um all of the the revenue that's in here sorry I itemized it out so um the revenue specifically is um memberships so uh we have you can do a season membership and that essentially um allows you to have a parking sticker um as well as the um ability to you know just use the beach when whenever you like um we also have uh parking and day passes so if you choose not to do the seasonal pass um the parking and day passes um would just be if you want like a one-day visit um Snack Shack food sales um all prepackaged stuff uh we do have programs so our sailing program is uh extremely well well attended um we've also started doing a uh fishing program for kids in the last year that's done really really well um and we also have Beach yoga that takes place out there um and then uh the last component for the revenue is The Snack Shack um so like rentals we have canoes kayaks uh and paddle boards that people rent okay that's awesome I'm just pleasantly shocked to see the number so high yeah it's running out of deficit now though it is um and it's one of those things where we we try very hard to be able to keep that a balanced budget um but the reason we kind of budget it in the negative is knowing that we're going to hopefully be zero or in the positive a little bit um but knowing that we can use the other programs to cover those costs if we need to um so the last couple years we've um had some new progr staff uh on board so uh at the beach we tend to run the employees a little bit um the uh scheduling a little bit fatter if you will because it's um it's a safety concern right obviously we want to make sure that there's enough lifeguards um on staff as well as the recreation attendants that can help so that there's never any issues or you know any any stress about not having enough people there um so that's one thing uh the other component of it if we do have uh rainy days where we do have staff that are scheduled um we are required to pay at least four hours um for them to be scheduled because obviously we you know if we had canceled it in a more advance but when it's raining or there's a thunderstorm you can't necessarily know that that's going to happen in timely manner so um you know some of those um it depends on the weather three years ago we had like nothing but rain it was a dismal summer but um you know it's it's kind of a bit of a a Fickle Pickle area yeah I'd be interested more in that like I don't know what the $40,000 in expenses for the beach yeah um so the expenses they they cover things like um because we have lifeguards uh each of the lifeguards is certified as a pro rescuer um so there are uh there's Medical equipment and supplies that we need to keep on site uh a fair amount of those things do um um go past their sell by date obvious unfortunately shortly so that is something that we usually have to replace those items every year um we have uh uniforms for the staff lifeguards tend to cost a bit more because they need to have swimsuit we need to be able to make sure that they actually have like a sweatshirt all the kind of things to be able to keep them warm you know glasses visors uh whistles all of that stuff so um uniforms uh we have program supplies so for the three program areas that I talked about the yoga fishing and sailing um we do train all of the house or all of the staff in house however we still have to pay Red Cross to be able to have those certifications so training um Beach supplies so that's everything that um you know you need in the restrooms as well as Snack Shack items that we sell um and then facility and equipment repair um so all of that yeah add up so I'm looking at this the beach is running in negative and compared to a lot of the other things a significant negative bucket and you have increasing on the next slide increasing like overhead at 432,000 so you're going to have to increase your Beach fees to try and mitigate that 21,000 negative that you're running the program at that's one way of doing it because you're you're relying a lot on Camp te to cover all this yeah and there's probably a limit on what you can do to Camp off agreed yeah so how are you going to not only increase the revenue to cover your deficit on the beach but also increase your Revenue to give money to clean Lakes as a donation how is that going to work yeah so that's something that we're going to have to be able to figure that out um we've talked about I think even today we were talking about does it look something like a um I don't want to use the term service fee but that's something that people are common uh you know see commonly but it being uh something knowing that this fee goes towards um helping to keep Long Lake clean um so that's something that we could potentially look at um it is something if we need to we can look at raising the prices of you know all of the programs across the board um we can look at the non-resident rate and see you know that's something we've tried to keep kind of um just a little bit over what we've done but that's something where we really could increase those and that's an area um you know that definitely has potential so there's there's definitely um a lot of thought that's kind that's gone into it um but I we have not committed to any specific solution yet yeah yep oh do you have anything to add on that at all just on the on the side are considering probably SE charge to together with both the memberships and ab so it's this is the piece that's going won't be it won't be a fixed amount we be depend on attendance and weather and those sort things but that's Direction other question NOP all right thank you all for your time appreciate it other and Human Services good evening um I'm Liz TRC I'm the director of Elder and Human Services um happy to be here tonight um I usually like to start all of our um budget presentations with just a very brief overview of who we are and what we do I would hate for you to walk away thinking we just do Bingo and Meals on Wheels because we are so much more than that um so this what you see on the the um screen right now is an overview of what we do for our services uh we generally try to focus on emotional intellectual physical and social well-being through programs and soci Social Services uh we provide events and activities as well as Social Services to all ages throughout town our department is four full-time staff one part-time staff and five van drivers um and we we tend to um despite how busy this slide looks uh we manage things very very smoothly on Monday alone we had nine activities running including drop-ins including our social services and um everything ran great next slide um typically we see about 48 to 50 people per day coming in through our doors um that's in our current space here in town hall 70% of the people we see are over 60 30% of the people we see are under 60 and that's generally been um the statistic for past five years or so um we love data and we love tracking the numbers and everything that we do as you can see by the various charts I've put up so far um this past fiscal year we had a 12% increase in our event signin um some other notable things that we have seen are um this past fiscal year we we completed 80 housing applications 285 medical equipment loans and 123 fuel assistance applications when we talk about our accomplishments there's the the people things in our that we do and then there's the operational things that we do that are larger so so these are some of the the people focused things that we do that I wanted to highlight for you um 2,456 bags of food delivered from the um loe's and Fishes food pantry through our volunteers and our van drivers um over 2,000 van rides um provided from our van drivers 7,497 Meals on Wheels delivered 6,199 hours of senior tax workof completed and that is 91 households of workers um 125 shine appointments completed and that's a 39% increase over last year for our one certified shine counselor and shine is serving health insurance needs of everyone and that is um a Medicare counselor um and then 4749 Fitness signin U so we're busy for our more operational accomplishments this is um what we're most proud of this past year we received a $10,000 Grant from mcoa for caregiver respit scholarships and that was where we were able to give $1 thousand financial aid scholarships to caregivers in the community um caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's or dementia we also received another large Grant the um Community Transit grant program for an electric vehicle that we'll be receiving in hopefully by the end of June of this year uh that's an approximately $115,000 vehicle which we are very excited about uh we implemented new Innovative Innovative nutrition opportunities for residents adding 165 additional opportunities to engage in a meal um in FY 24 and that's not counting the 662 meals that we served annually in our senior Diner that's you can drop in anytime at noon downstairs and have a meal um and then we broke ground on our new building which is currently on schedule and within budget so for some goals for the next um fiscal year coming up we're obviously looking forward to expanding our services more and making our services more accessible um in miday we plan to have our grand opening of the center on shadik Street um goal number two is to expand our daily meal program uh which we call our congregate meal program uh we would like to increase it at least 25% and hope to do that by bringing new faces in the door we're already seeing a lot new lot of new folks coming to um check us out they've heard about the building project we had 13 new people come in since last week to sign waivers to sign up for our programs brand new faces for people we've never seen before um so that's very exciting and then goal number three is to enhance our Alzheimer's and Dementia Outreach efforts through collaboration with Public Safety Safety which we've already started working on um with the police department so on to the numbers um so all the things that I just described that we do is within this teeny tiny pie slice of the overall um Town budget um we provide I think a pretty big value for how small of a slice we are um our FY 26 budget is level service and nearly level funded um most of our budget is the people power it's the salaries we keep our operating expenses very low um and I've also added it on the slide the Mart funded driver salaries so the massachusett regional transport port Authority funds 100% our van drivers up to six positions so I've added that to also to give a better picture of what our salaries look like uh we fund our mission in other ways as well so to provide a more accurate depiction here's where our other outside funding sources come from and what they fund so every year we receive um a formula grant from the state um this past year it was 37,8 $130 that formula is they give us $15 per Elder based on the last census um so we use this funding for most of our fitness and wellness program instructors so this pays for a majority of our programing I already mentioned the markf funded driver salaries um the small grants the just under 10,000 that was like our um small grants to provide like we received money to put um backup cameras in our vans those are some of the small grants and then our donations and um our gift funds $65,100 in donations Straight To Tread which is um tax relief for the elderly and disabled so that is a direct service that's not necessarily operational but I wanted to highlight that a lot of the donations that we do receive go directly back to serving the community um so to drill back down into the numbers and what we're asking the town for here are our operating um expenses as you can see a majority of our expenses are the cross town connect fee which is our van dispatching um fee that is an intermunicipal agreement with Acton and S and I believe one other town that I can't recall top of my head right now but they provide us two full-time van dispatchers um Monday through Friday 8:30 to 4:30 um for um for last year it was $1,500 and then this year they've increased the price but I will get to that in a second um you can go to the next SL ran and that's working well I know we didn't used to do the re regionalization but now we are is it is it working to your satisfactory so as long as I've been here we've used cross town connect so about five years or so um I think it's fantastic we wouldn't be able to hire um two full-time van dispatchers for the cost um so let me talk about that right now so the past several years their fee for us has been $1,500 um Acton is the fiscal intermediary of that intermunicipal agreement they did a study to determine how the funding is looking with that and determined that we should be paying more into that so our bill just went up from 11,500 to 27 and change so it just about tripled um so in conversations with the ta's office we um decided that we would put in $20,000 for fy2 budget we' cover the rest through our formula grant which is an allowable expense um that is offset my going back one more time um that increase is slightly offset by a decrease in our Professional Services line um for several years we've used a mental health referral service called William James interface program uh we were able to find a uh comparable service that um is fiscally better for us so we save just about $7,000 switching and that begins February 1 of this year uh so this operating budget overall was probably the most challenging that I've Done Yet while here in Littleton um partly because I'm planning for the unknown moving into this new building in just a few short months um I I have asked or I've I've brought to this table um a few years in a row that I will probably need to increase staff once we're in the new building probably need more administrative staff um but i' after a lot of careful consideration I I don't want to make a request right now for FY 26 until I'm actually in the building I don't want to commit myself to a certain position job description the whole nine yards without actually being in the building living in it seeing what we actually do need um so again I'll just put it on the radar for the future that we will need additional staff I don't have an ask for FY 26 though would it be fair to say though that um and and and I applaud that brush to staff but I would expect that moving into the new building you will have some unexpected unforeseen expenses that we wouldn't be surprised that they're moving into a whole new building who knows what these fenses would be so um it's a great unknown right so I can imagine us needing to do something if not now in you know six months so I would have phrased the question slightly different uh after uh chair vudi whacked my hands a couple years ago when we were adding staff in October's town meeting um I would suggest that we allocated money now um with the intention of hiring someone more towards October right so that we're not coming back and doing something that we decided we shouldn't be doing I don't want my hand slapped again in the short term could you utilize senior Staffing to that this thing it's not a short term though it's a full calendar year effectively right if we're not doing it in May in October until she really gets a handle on what her actual needs are if we can sta I I I fully support not hiring someone now I'm just wondering if our general policy is not to hire and budget staff in mid year we should budget something now for hiring someone in midy year that's totally totally totally support and I just want to and a so box raising the department because I turned 65 this year and suddenly suddenly it's I'm there a lot and um the department does more things than I had uh any idea they do them to an incredible degree and I really want to give a shout out to Lisa um uh I only have insurance because she straightened out some God awful messes uh that that happened so um anything they want give it to [Laughter] them I got like seven more years um just before you move on back um when you were talking about the overall budget could you say roughly what the friends contribute um so recently the friends contributed $50,000 to the new building gift fund um they they also contributed $850 to our monthly breakfast um gift fund we use that to purchase food that we used to cook breakfast um three times a month um and I am sure I am forgetting something the van oh $221,000 towards the the new van as well so the the 50,000 for the new building gift fund what's that going to be used for so I it was for naming rights of the multi-purpose room and so it's in the gift fund now and I think I haven't fully decided but we're looking at potentially using part of that for the gym fitness equipment um the coffee service station um incidentals for the new building I was hoping you going to say a parttime staff person until to retired retired no I don't know if it's best practice to fund a staff person on gift funds well if we were to say yes we approve it but we don't have the money this year that type of thing because remember if we add a staff person here we need to cut something from somewhere else list as a potential ad but we need potential cuts to sorry okay uh I have no Capital requests for this current fiscal year because we are having our dream building built right across the street um looking further down the road far out as we can go fy3 perhaps we might need to replace our 2017 uh wheelchair van approximately costing $120,000 I would plan to again offset this cost hopefully 100% 80% with the mass do um Community Transit grant program I triple checked with them there's no limit on the amount of times so you can apply for that so um I would expect to go back a third time for an fy3 uh request um so again going back to the um future op operating needs these are a couple of the things that I am predicting we might need um new centers that open see a 30 to 40% increase in their patronage um there are plans to expand our meal program now does that include adding a position for a nutrition coordinator part-time is there grant funding for that I don't no yet but that I just wanted to put that on the radar um many senior centers that have a great kitchen also have nutrition coordinator a cook um right now we're filling that position with um senior tax workers um but if we wanted to establish a program a full program we would need a staff person um most of the other departments in town hall have an office coordinator we don't have an office coordinator currently we have an administrative assistant part-time um so looking to the Future a potential new position would be an office coordinator which is a grade nine that's the approximate cost for step one through three if we were to add that position um I expect our meal site food cost to increase um I think we can offset this with a revolving account if we are charging ing uh minimal fee for a food program a meals program um did this at a a previous Senior Center where we ran it almost like a cafe or a restaurant we were able to become self- sustaining within about three years so I just wanted to put this on the radar but my plan would be to have it be a self-sustaining food program and um just to squeak in at the end it would be great if the town could cover the cross town connect fee 100% um and I didn't have to dip into the grant funds which I use for programming to pay for onethird of our um van dispatching service so just for clarification you're asking for an office coordinator and maintaining your administrative assistant you're not converting so these are potentials uh we currently yeah I understand but you wouldn't plan on going from one part-time to transitioning that to full-time you'd keep the parttime and at a full time okay so in summary uh we have a lean budget any increases we had were offset by a 7,500 decrease our operating budget supplemented by grants um I always like to just point out that our senior tax workout program gives value back to the town uh we're not just taking um and our future operating budget with a new building we know our operations are going to um our EXP expenses will increase um but I think we will be back in FY 27 with some ass shoot that up appreciate the heads up I applaud your fiscal Conservancy I am concerned that you're going to go into the building in May and become overwhelmed and and need more staff before we can react uh I I also had that concern and I still do have that concern I talked with Jerry um about it at length in our meeting um we do have a very robust um set of volunteers and Senior tax workers who are on a rotating schedule with us right now that really help us stay afloat um I would lean heavily on those those people who know what we do know our operations and can kind of bridge this um bridge this gap for us in the meantime I just didn't want to commit to something and then side it's not an office coordinator I need it's a Outreach coordinator it's a yeah just you you said that you had expect uh an increased use of the services with new building of a certain amount of I know that's a guess but what what was the number you said it's 30 to 40% um so our the database that we use to track all our statistics it's called My senior center and most senior centers in Massachusetts use this they put out a poll for anyone who's opened a new building within the last 10 years um the directors completed the poll they pulled the statistics that have been entered into the datab base and determined that it was actually a 30 to 40% increase after opening a new building so I would say Mark Department that's going to have 30 to 40% increase in utilization probably needs some help I I I'm going back I know when we opened the library they had the same 30 to 40% they handled it but with allocate how they allocated staff but they had a lot more staff and they asked for more hours very shortly thereafter we were opening on a different point in the fiscal year than than you um or you're going to be opening basically right before the fiscal year so if you have to wait too long that's my con that's my concern that you don't have then you're not going to be nimble enough to react without something so and without topping politics in into it unnecessarily it's entirely possible the federal support for Elder Services um I mean I can get could get severely whacked which is only going to exacerbate exacerbate the problem so I think this is an expense that we should fully anticipate do I thank you yeah the directive was to keep a level service level funded budget and that's what I tried to do with this um I appreciate your support and advocacy for additional positions and I would take anything you would like to give I'm not suggesting which position you hire I'm just suggesting that we probably you're going to need more budget right and how you allocate that is entirely up to what your department needs but I have a hard time believing you're going to uh I hope you're not underwater um mentally come July maybe you can make a recommendation where we can make Cuts so that we can hire somebody you can have show you already hello good evening my name is Marin tuo I'm Town planner for the town of Littleton um very nice to be here again um with you this evening uh planning department um has three full-time staff now uh Town planner assistant Town planner and planning department assistant uh major goals uh major accomplishments for this last year includ Ed um some very successful grants work including uh just a recent very recent announcement of the another $1 million um uh infrastructure Grant um that will be focused on the 550 King Street King Street Commons development um planning board is working on several zoning bylaw amendments um we had passed the MBTA Community zoning bylaw and remain in interim compliance uh with those requirements which means that we'll be able to spend the grant funds that have been awarded uh planning board is interested in moving forward with um further reducing um the number of potential marijuana cultivation facilities in town FEMA has adopted new flood plane Maps so Bing board is looking at up or the town needs to update our flood plane Bar law uh so we can match uh the FEMA requirements and that will allow any residents that are um have flood PL Insurance uh to remain in in the flood plane insurance program and the state has um updated uh the regulations on Accessory dwelling units or adus and Littleton over the next um probably year or so we should update our Adu bylaw to match the state requirements uh planning studies that are underway or just recently completed um underway is the current uh Hazard mitigation plan our zoning diagnostic pushed that off a little bit because a couple other things came forward uh that were more important um we're looking at updating the Littleton common revitalization road map that was the 2019 report uh that and planning study that led to um the new Village common zoning District our form based code um course that was uh issued in 2019 and lot has changed in the um landscape of the Littleton common since that time uh permitting going forward um we have uh well Northern Bank is under construction and so that permitting has been completed King Street Commons uh the master plan um for development of the site has been approved and we anticipate getting this detailed site plan for phase one um sometime over the next several months so we'll continue with the permitting um Department goals for next year I've covered um some of these already um nothing in particular I'll let you read those for yourself I guess would be a better way to put that um no Capital requests for um next fiscal year uh the next big Capital ask will likely be to update the master plan but until we get through um implementing some of the uh growth that we expect to see in Littleton common it's hard to say ask what we want to see next before we realize some of the growth that we will be seeing at the King Street common uh so the planning department budget request um was supported U and is the same the ta's um capital budget request so there was no difference um fiveyear Capital plan again we haven't come up with any projected asks except for a master plan um start to fund that a few years out so let's see what's changing this year in expenses we've increased the expenses for the legal ads to reflect um to better reflect what we've been spending on the legal ads that are required um for zoning bylaw amendments and we have the new ask of Professional Services um and that that would be to support um some of our grantsmanship work either for uh Consultants to help with writing the grants or as a local match if local match is required for Grants um and the next slide is just that we we agreed with the town administrator's office on the budget proposal um for um projected operational needs for the next several years um current Staffing level is um working very well for us um actually I misspoke the planning administrator is um uh 32 hours a week not 40 hours a week so um and then um we'll continue with um working closely with the local building inspector I gave the one example of making sure that um we both understand how to best use the um form base code uh that's in the village common and the King Street common District um sorry that was the brief presentation um hope I left plenty of time for questions that you may have so I had a question on the Professional Services you said you wanted to basically help with um consultants and things if you look at the budget it goes 020 020 are we expecting it to the 20 you're asking for 25 this year are we expecting that number to be reasonable and that the number you're going to ask for going forward or are we how do we come up with 20 five we went from zero to you know Full Throttle effectively here right um so we've been able to cover some I'd like to be able to keep it at a specific number and keep it level um we've been able to um cover the cost of a lot of planning studies a lot of planning work um with grants um the most recent about approximately $20,000 that we spent was the first time the NBTA communities did not was not successful at town meeting needed to hire a consultant and that was done through a reserve fund transfer um and so we used that funding for the consultant that got us to where to to the approval for the MBTA communities so um I like I said I I would love to be at a number that we could key level and so we can expect that that's what it but it sounds like we don't give you anything it encourages you to go for more grants I don't think it would adversely impact to have some money up front don't we have money in the PA's budget for like matching funds and things like we do we have some we've got a this this current fiscal un coming up being proposed it's 5,000 5,000 yeah yeah but I did that resource for the hazard mitigation plan and for some mapc work as well that was thank you you evening everybody okay so um I'm Henry FTE the building commission here for the town of Littleton uh so our major accomplishments uh for 2024 the maintain quality service and Community for the contractors and businesses uh certificates of inspection the annual Building Inspections we we completed all of those I was in new hire in October so thank you Bo members here um so some of the information I don't have all the complete information for the whole year I can only give it to you for the last quarter um our department goals for uh 2026 is um we want to work collaborative with the land use group um Department establish goes that all the work we all work together and and um try to figure out um what's going to be good for all of us uh we're hoping to start uh next week weekly and bi-weekly meetings weekly all by-weekly meetings so that uh we can sit down and just talk to each other and see uh what we can do to keep everything going well um we're working on updating the building department website creating spreadsheets for the U for permiting and annual inspection so we have a a record of um what's being done when it's done so we're able to give ample uh time for the uh inspections um and then the building code just changed in 2021 the international code and the uh Massachusetts building code just changed so we're we're going through a new change here in January so we're going to have to educate the U the homeowners and the contractors um as we learn it ourselves so it's it's not too many changes but it's enough so that um we have to make everybody aware of it our goals for 2026 is uh continue to attend planning board and Zoning Board appeals meetings I like to stay up today with that so I do attend those meetings I think it's important to to know what's going on in town um and for the time being we're looking to relocate the building land Department to the second floor um create some new office spaces and workstations up in some conference areas uh FY 26 Department capital budget requests so the building department and Facilities we're looking to replace our vehicles there was a grant requested that has been submitted to the green communities for two electric U pickup trucks we're not sure if the Grant's going to be enough money for us so um if it doesn't then the building department will um we'll be looking to do something later on for Capital uh the explorers that we have the vehicles we have they're in real tough shape but they're getting us around right now we're we're able to to use them um we have small budget to uh repair them if we need to but at least for the time being I think we have at least one running right now um so that should at least keep us going on with that so um when we originally bought the lightning it was supposed to be shared is there's no talk of sharing it when the parking 's not used I mean it's not when it's not when it's lettered BL and pox and wreck all over it no that was the whole purpose we B it just to be CH we can put a magnet on that can we what's that can we buy a magnet and put it over the Littleton Parks Rec I'd rather relet it than buy a brand new truck because their letteries all already that was the intention that's what we approved I I don't know what happened in the the as Henry as Henry pointed out too looking for potentially some other vehicles electric vehicles that to be funded through the green community's Grant I don't you know we should be hearing back from them relatively soon in terms of where that is 45 days or so right right and then I think Henry segueing into his next slide which is to get some other options if that doesn't pan out yeah so um FY 26 through 30 um we're requesting a to replace the building the pment vehicle at that point with if if the grant doesn't go through for us um and in fy3 looking to bring on a an assist building inspector assists Z enforcement on this so if the grants don't come through you're not actually asking for money this year if the grants don't come through you'll be asking for money next year 27 yeah or reapplying or yeah okay any other questions if I may the um you mentioned moving folks to the second floor um can you just expand on that a little bit we're um we're kind of crammed downstairs there's a bunch of departments there now conservation plan uh planning uh Board of Health Board of Health's going to have to expand their office they need a nurse and uh and nurse's office to do things hry Henry uh that was something that uh something that I have proposed um to the team downstairs uh to get more up on the second floor more of a better flow a better working relationship with with each other um I understand they're on the ground floor but uh there'd be more uh conducive U um uh things going on that that uh would benefit everybody um but as Henry was saying you have you have people having hippoc calls in their car because there's no privacy there's no confident confidentiality so we would like to recognizing with the new space that Parks and Rec is going to be moving out to transition everybody up there onto the second floor and identifying uh space and Eric has already working with Henry has already identified and done a layout and given privacy to areas of with existing um petitions that will go Florida that will that would go Florida ceiling and it would also give an opportunity for uh uh larger spaces for uh permit reviews uh plans and uh things of that nature for correct office space for for uh B Marin and uh Henry and uh in the operations that was the whole purpose we mve down to the first form that's it's just seems like rehashing um pickup truck and this is no reflection on you said you came in October um but um there was a very concerted effort to put building use on the first floor which is more conducive to contractors coming in off the you know with with dirty boots and everything else coming into the building right off the right off the parking lot um I just think your Rodeo but I we spent some money doing that and um I just hope it's get a lot of uh is consideration goes into thiser I think it's got exercise equipment in that's the gym throw the exercise equipment upstairs you use the Cooper room and you've got everything you could put the health department in the Cooper room it'd be private it'd be separate they have everything there the Cooper room is the Cooper room is not subdivided so you don't have a nurse's office I assume that there are there I know there are existing partitions in the in the first floor of the of the library so I you know we probably shouldn't second guess Eric like who made the plan we can ask him but let's give him the benefit of doubt that he's thinking about it ahead of time yeah I don't just also could be that that the it could be the expansion of the health department is bigger than you know Ed Ed had considered when he asked for that space and they need more space remember too when ited as when that space was configured um we didn't even have the show yeah that was we were using the show at the time so that's why it was in the that was the plan was to have the health department down there right but it still may it maybe it's it wasn't mean we didn't look far enough down the road for that not going to micromanage it but I it is something that we need to we tend to bang bang stop real shoot you know needs to be prob V it and take a look at the whole thing and figure out what what is the best way to do it maybe look at some of the history and you know talk to some of the folks that were were involved when when it happened and my you were around as well um just to make sure that we're not redoubling our efforts and then spend the money all over again trying to do Renovations and my understanding was Park M wanted to try to still use some of that space uh for some programming so I mean that's just all that coordination and they can they'll be able for the daycare they'll be to take them with the the space that's going be going to be vacated um they to use that whole area for their for their daycare oper first floor on the first floor thank you okay any other question seems like we're just we're we're renovating stuff and then we're repurposing it all over again it's just frustrating is there a budget involved with that with with the renovations uh there is minimal budget but a lot of it's going to be done uh with through through the effort with with facilities anybody else thank you thank you okay um I'm going to play the role of the much less glamorous St Ste L cross as I bring you through our information systems budget this is Page 136 so um major accomplishments for information Technologies in 2024 first piece was munus upgrade munus is the major expense um for us uh it is our primary accounting software um it's provided more functionality for us over the years so we've appreciated that but um it also means that we need to upgrade it on a regular basis last upgrade uh major upgrade that we had that means shutting people out of the system and planning months ahead of time was in July um next piece was the newsletter publication Nancy's been uh working a lot with that and taking in um updates from uh department heads uh throughout the town um that started in June 24 uh we're maintaining our our ongoing security awareness training uh just recently um through a program called No before some of you may be be using it uh we actually um just got another uh update on that where um the expectation is for all Town staff to be doing um 15 minute old class and those updates provided to us on a regular basis as well and push through the the software um one of the major changes that we've had um as we're moving toward a more cloud-based um uh system is that we decommission the remaining Hardware that was shared with lwd so now we are um completely uh separated from lwd which provides protection to both the town and lwd um should there be um um any um any challenges against uh our respective systems uh next piece is the full implementation of the multiactor authentication um so when staff or self in this case if I want to log on to my system uh we the authenticator comes up we enter in a code and uh that's how we now um access our system um you staff have uh sometimes complained but when they step away from their computer and it goes into closing mode and having to Rel log on again so there is some inconvenience but compared to uh what the implications of us um having any sort of Cyber attack uh it's uh it's time well spent as far as we're concerned um the it office also assisted with the implementation of electronic voting which you um as you all know uh began at the last annual town meeting second phase was the at the special continue on with that and uh Nancy has also been active with weekly meetings with Architects the owner project manager and vendors for the center on Shad Street and 36 King Street so she's an active part of that effort as well so goals for fiscal year 2026 will be uh the 36 King Street the installation of the it room fiber uh door and camera security Security's been part of that U program as well uh so that's she's been heavily involved with that uh including all of the other pieces that are associated with basically outfitting a uh new building pretty much same sort of things on the center on shat Street uh installation in the it room fiber camera security Etc um another uh goals that that Nancy has for next year is updating maps and the online uh GIS with additional layers um so she's hoping uh for adding in zoning overlay districts and water flood planes uh on on the gis so those of you who use it GIS is a really helpful um Tool uh both for uh for employees Town employees and the residents who use it it's it's a um great system that we have and that's very helpful um last is uh for view permit um this is what Henry uses to manage his permitting system and to looking to integrate Planning and Zoning permits uh into that so putting even more functionality on the existing system moving forward uh there's no uh Capital requests um as um mentioned earlier with the change to C Cloud light based Solutions the need for physical on premise equipment it's greatly reduced so it used to be you'd see um you know you you'd need new servers and regularly have to update that so there' be a regular part of the of the capital budget now we're really focusing more on just routine PC Replacements which are just part of our operational budget um two uh employees two full-time fdes which is our it manager and it technician um and expenses this year are uh level funded so uh moving forward uh The Five-Year look forward on the operating needs um uh the with with additional staff becomes uh comes with additional it expenses for software and security licenses um so um that's obviously something that that we're going to be keeping an eye on additional buildings uh we have two new facilities we're going to be bringing on in the near future with 36 King Street and uh with the center in Shad Street and of course then maintaining that that's going to add some more expenses to us as well um and of course the annual increases in maintenance support and licenses so um that is pretty much it anything any other question questions what we get a lot of service and and and um I think we get Great Value through our two employees um we are uh you know they they they were very hard to um not only maintain Town Hall going but all of the other facilities especially police and fire U dispatch is a lot of work down there as well so U we're very well served by these two and and we're fortunate to have the key that we have in place May were recognized at MMA and then we recognized at MMA yes yes for website of the Year yes yes thank you um the town administrator's office uh seems to be for the major accomplishments in the C for for for 24 the common theme as you can see so many so many the the team members are are a part of this Center on shadik Street uh project that's uh on schedule substantial completion and uh looking for that moving in March uh another common theme has been the 36 King Street construction uh for the uh substantial completion in in May it's potentially going to be pushed out to to towards the end of June uh because of some issues so that's still up in the air question on 36 King Street yes sir I keep hearing we find every time we turn around we find something else that needs to be fixed y um and if we're staying close to budget yep what aren't we doing or are we you know are we going to end up with a building that is not really what we want because we've had to fix half a million dollars worth of stuff what's your take on that just just the opposite actually we've been in there with the weekly meetings with Bing parks and r into those meetings as well as the schools trying to um hear what they what they need and making sure that as we come across the things that that they're looking at um and and what they believe that they they want to want to see U we've been trying to be very sensitive to that but also at the same time be sensitive to the budget as well in terms of what that is our next focus is um is HVAC and trying there's um a largest system in the Attic that uh we're looking at what our options would be to do something that's a little bit more environmentally friendly than what's currently there uh and uh seeing what our options and our alternatives are uh at that point so I think by bringing both parties to the table through this exercise as we've gone through and you know seen things that um you know it's like with any renovation that you do you open a wall and say gee I don't know what that person was thinking there um we've certainly knocked into some of that and it's a very interesting exercise or lesson to learn in terms of comparing the center in Shad Street a brand new building that you're doing from scratch seeing how that goes versus looking at um you know working with the building that at one point as I understand used to be a hay barn uh so you do see some of the interesting things that uh that come up um you know with that but um you know we're feeling good about where we're at there's going to be a few more um uh bmvc has uh been keeping on top of things and you know we feel good about where we're at and um again hopefully for a May June um time frame U so that's what we're we're looking at and you know things look good right now good thank you is it is it safe to say that there may be things that we're looking at replacing in five years or 10 years that we didn't originally anticipate it it could be um it could be that uh I mean I that unlike shadik Street where everything is is brand new there are some things that we've upgraded other things that we're trying to maintain um you know it seems somewhat odd because the last renovation there was 1991 and you think you know oh well it's relatively new but it's actually a pretty long time ago it's like what we say about the high school the Steve Mark uses this quote all the time well the high school's brand new people think but really you started getting that 23-year window where you're looking at the replacement of new roofs uh and looking at um you know new boiler to replace what's there so um I I would not be surprised that once we start getting into the building and starting to see what you know what those needs are that there might be some other issues that we'll have to look at so um it is we aren't going in and and believing that everything is pristine we know that we're going in with our eyes open so will will we see that in next year's Capital fiveyear plan I think it's something we would have that Eric and I are going to have to be looking at and assessing and seeing you know seeing once we're in the building just you know similar to what Liz was saying similar to what that is seeing what those systems are and figuring out you know what those what those needs are our hope is that you know we've got more time than others but but then more time than not but at the same time I can't tell you that when you get in and you know we're starting there and every you know there are going to be things that could come up because it is um you know it's essentially two buildings that were we're put together at different times and it's um you know we're doing the best we can with it and we've got a good team that's looking at these issues but um certainly I don't want to give you any guarantee about what that at the end of the day it's a third the price of new construction for municipality so if we need to do some maintenance going forward we can figure that out um getting back um uh Su uh successfully uh launched the the monthly uh Town newsletter which uh has been uh we've been uh really it's it's gotten better and better it seems like every addition there's uh and getting back to Ryan was talking about uh Nancy does a fantastic job at it with uh um you know encouraging uh stories to come in and be being very very creative different facts and figures that that that she puts in there in data points uh and for two years running so we've been received not uh recognition from MMA annual one for our town report last year and then this year as mentioned just a few minutes ago uh the website winner for uh for for 25 um and then uh lastly uh successfully managed the May and the October the May annual town meeting and the October special town meeting with no cust not many um are you saying that because you saw MMA uh Department goals for uh the 26 we participate the ongoing msba V shaine Elementary School support the ongoing Town sewer project construction project uh Provide support to the for the to be established Charter committee um in coordinating the needs and staying on top with the Redevelopment of 550 King Street and 410 Great Road one thing that we want to uh put in there also is uh I have uh the office is going to be more aggressive with doing uh business visitation we've actually uh divided the town into different sections all the all the all the businesses are listed in every single in every single section and as we as uh as I go out there I will be able to check check them off so by this time next year all the businesses uh over the course of this between the spring the summer and the early fall all the businesses will be uh uh will be visited uh and ter invite them onto the podcast what's that get them five minutes each on the podcast there you go it's a great idea um no Capital uh budget requests at this uh this time um not Capital plan uh not applicable and uh in terms of our uhi the financials um in uh for Personnel Services we at a 2% increase from from this past year or $966 and for expenses remains unchanged and that was level funded uh from from last year same same amount uh what we um projected for for five years with OP operating needs with the potential with the change in governance as uh there there absolutely would be some Investments that would have to be that would have to be done um uh through through the administration and other in other areas of uh of of town operations also the change from to a town manager for government I guess the select board is this going to be part of the charge of the committee to quantify what this is you mean financially yeah we haven't really discussed that at this point it's very early it's my experience that that has it's not the the financial impact I think it's it's it's really looked upon as the operations the governance and the operations of of delivering the services and the financial stuff would it would it's up to the municipality at that point in terms of between the the select board and the administration and the FI the finance committee on on sustainable Investments and the timing of those so so where do we stand on that with that Charter we have uh I'm sorry no go ahead uh we have uh tomorrow is the uh application deadline uh for for submission to be on uh to be on the committee right now we have 12 people that have expressed interest and uh the select board is going to be meeting on Monday evening to conduct open interviews for all for all of those individuals and then there will be um select between seven to nine members not to exceed nine and there's presumably there will be a schedule of public discussions about all of this yes just because we have a community compact grant that we uh uh the Callin Center is shepherding the process and they are uh helping us steer steer the pro the the uh the project and with that that was one of the main things when Ryan and I originally approached them about this uh after the Department of Revenue did their study and uh did an evaluation of and made the recommendation it should be a town manager form of government that um key to that is being very transparent and having multiple opportunities for public input uh throughout the process this is going to be a long process it's going to be a marathon it's not a quick thing it's going to be anywhere from 18 to potentially 24 months uh and through that process there will be different stages that the committee will identify as okay this is where we are time for public input then they would go for another stretch of time and uh replicate that same thing okay and yeah I'm just a little touchy I want it to be a heck of a lot more transparent than the shakery design project was because I'm still annoyed at how that was done so yeah I don't want to be I don't want to have another Wednesday meeting where we're told it's getting submitted on Friday and this is it and it's too late to do anything no and it sounds like it's not so thank you okay thank you um Town Council oh thank you okay now we have uh Town Council Town Council uh remains unchanged for fy2 and um and they do all the leg obviously the needs and support for the boards and committees and uh and label our representation so that remains unchanged from last year do they send us hours yes they do have we ever done the math to see whether we're we're in the right ballp part for the retainer yes okay that's all I need to know those two people over there thank you sounds like a fun job okay Eric mon folks so um the um major accomplishments this year for the facilities Department obviously um I was hired and um on August 3D thank you all um that's a strong start right okay good good I I the mic drop right about right it's been awesome really uh it's a great great place to work and I want to you know thank everyone and I really appreciate it so um I've been getting to know a lot of people in town got to learn the buildings started to develop relationship with the different departments around town that I'll be working with um I've been attending the owner project manager meetings um and the permanent Municipal Building committee meetings for 36 King Street and the center on shadik Street every Wednesday and every other Wednesday night to you know provide input or things that have changed um you know just we sort of keep everyone informed and you know um provide input from the town side um on my opinion on things and of course you know 36 King Street there's been some U latent conditions that were unforeseen and we've had to come up with some projects or uh come up with some solutions there um we've completed repairs to preserve and clean out the nagog Orchard and uh put it up for a potential lease um in fiscal year 2026 I I uh plan on fully implementing maintain X software to allow our staff me and George to um basically document and um keep track of all our work on a um application and computer platform that we can send out either a QR code or a link to anybody in any of the Departments that we work with they can put in a work order say they have a light out they have a heat issue they have you know whatever that will get submitted in and we can I can review it submit it to George I can we can update whoever put in the ticket and then we can keep track of what we done and we can also keep track of all the assets so that's part of what I'm setting up now is each asset so like fire department police department all those assets and all the equipment that's there is all in the app so if I have an HVAC guy go there I know all the size filters I know all the equipment I know modered serial numbers everything for all my buildings so that's going to be uh one of the huge things I'm going to implement I'm going to try and convert as many buildings that are not led to LED as possible I'm already in the process of uh converting the police department to LED um that project is in process right now and we'll hopefully be quickly seeing a return on investment hopefully within this year um it's pretty inexpensive project to do and change everything to LED and we won't have to be over there every week changing light bulbs buying light bulbs disposing of mercury Light Bulbs Etc one of the if we can just talk about the software for one more second v a vital detail data point that will come out from that is they're gonna from the time the ticket comes in to the time it's assigned to the time it's completed so we'll be able to track in real time what that did and ER will be able to be able to identify if there's areas of improvement that need to be need to be done and what could have delayed it uh whether there was no part at over at Harish on Hardware or something to that effect so it's it it you know for future budget reasons it will also be very very helpful thank you it's also going to be helpful for like Jim said also Parts tracking so I can have make sure I have essential boiler Parts in the winter make sure we have Essential Air Conditioning Parts in the summer um you know just things like that um reminders to snake drains to and uh pump tight tanks at the fire and police station all that kind of stuff so it's just going to be a tremendous help and um yeah so converting buildings to LED and then um hopefully in 2026 we'll be moving land use and the first floor departments to the second floor or 550 King Street we're not sure yet but um that would be a nice Improvement get some more space and some offices some confidentiality for some of the Departments that need that and Henry and I will be working with those departments to make sure that their needs are met so before on on the maintenance and the software like I know this building has its own Software System for controlling the HVAC um is there um are you trying to unify that software too and take that under more of a gool rather than having to go into each department or the back room of each building to log in and yeah so I'm not sure yet how that's going to work um I believe the commissioning for the COA is in a couple of weeks and I'm going to learn all probably more than I need to know about the building yeah and um hopefully going to try and integrate um that type of system we're also trying to integrate all the cleaning products and integrate all the um you know try and use less paper towels more concentrated cleaning stuff like that uh that I didn't mention in here also no I was just trying to make it so that you didn't have to learn four different software systems for four different buildings on how to control them if there's any way we're trying to integrate any of that or centralize it so that you like I think you can log on to this one remotely but I don't know if you can on the place in the fire if there's a way of like bringing that all under one umbrella yeah this app seems like it would have the capability to do that so I can definitely look into that and that sounds like a great idea um so moving on to the budget um I guess it was my first time going through it so it was a good exercise for Ryan and I to go through look through some things that um had kind of been you know could have been shuffled around had been overlooked maybe in the past cast and uh we were able to shuffle things around and not make any significant changes to the uh operations for facilities budget um we were able to make educated guesses as far as what you might expect for utilities at 36 King Street um and we extrapolated the the energy use data from the library and tried to get a pretty good number for the COA or COA building uh to budget for that based on the library uh utility usage and um yeah there's no ta budget requests the 26 to 35e plan um we're in the process of attempting to receive grant money from Green communities for several different things one of which is F150 lightning but it's not expected to be that much uh one thing that isn't in here is I'm working with green communities to potentially um increase the insulation and of the exterior envelope at 36 King Street uh to help with some of the energy costs there as well um if this doesn't happen we'd be looking potentially to purchase a gas pickup truck with a snow plow in FY 27 so can I just add one thing too because one of the questions Fred asked was like so with the presumption that Eric was here um you know then okay well what else will we be needing to look at in terms of other um Capital needs and you know it's something that that we talked about and thinking about our our buildings um and one of the first things that came up was the changing over to LED lights at the at the police station and figuring out you know um you know how we could do that at one else food but do it with in our existing budget we also looked at what what our other you know our other needs were um and you know I I think uh that this is um as Eric gets more more and more into the facilities we may see more in the upcoming years but for this cycle we we really did try to think through what um what we have um as well as looking at Town Hall and knowing that that's not going to be something that we're going to be likely our home over the long term what kind of Investments we make there so we did give a lot of thought to that um and you know this is probably more of a of a comma in the sent period so we know we'll be seeing more of that uh over the upcoming fiscal years but uh um and again especially too as Eric uh gets to see and you know see more especially in these older buildings we probably have more on the list but it is something we considered for this cycle is there a possibility to ask the lake Department to help in switching some of these fixtures over LED that's that's does right right so so in this instance we were able to um to do most of this with it basically under I think what was at under $8,000 with with it so it was a really straightforward exercise and taking the Ballance out and and changing that out too so um you know we it was a relatively you know yeah this was this was a good project because we're actually keeping the exist existing fixtures and we're just eliminating the ballast and wiring in an LED uh 4ot or twoot bulb depending on what size it is and like Ryan said it's just a pretty pretty straightforward project it'll provide us some savings over the long term yeah and as well as a means of the police department isn't looking up at the scene like I seeing you know four different colors exctly made Eric the Steve's Point our light our light department does this they do it for municipal buildings they do it for commercial buildings so I would make sure that that relationship with Connor especially you is done because you maybe you could have done it for nothing okay I don't know all right yeah something that we should be as a as a as a group here we should be educating you on that and letting you know that you might not have done that yourself I have been working with Diane Dickerson and the light department on some of this but I will reach out to Connor and see what I can do very easy to get absolutely yeah he's your guy thank you so I had one operational one Capital request I question I know we the library and ends up borrowing the lift from the school quite a bit is that something that your department is going to end up needing or are we just going to keep moving it back and one lift in town is enough or are we going to need another one at this point at this point because we have such a you know we have we have a good working relationship with we actually got donated another one so there is one at the library currently now that we're going to utilize to fix that uh cage door hopefully tomorrow okay um my other question is in last year's budget the police actually requested a facilities guy like 10 hours um that I thought we were going to move under the facilities department so I didn't know if that was funded or not asked for or it's still funded it's still within in the police budget most of the focus yeah most of the focus that he's had because the police have the 247 operation really has been primarily you know for that for that use um and um I think they' they've been doing a it's it's interesting when you start bringing in prisoners um Eric had to deal with a situation where a uh overnight guest happened to uh take out a sprinkler head uh and uh unbreakable sprinkler head but I guess if you have enough time and uh unbreakable is a relative term so it's um so so I I think that based on that that type of demand it's actually been a good fit for what their more immediate needs are it's actually probably helped provide more relief to what um you know what Eric's had to deal with especially you know maybe with the exception of the unbreakable uh sprinkler head and it's also freed up George a lot for me because he used to do the jail C cleaning over there all the time so he would be gone for however whenever they had a prisoner they would have to clean the cells out and he would also do a weekly cleaning of the cells as well so now that's been taken off of his plate he can do more you know town I just thought when we voted it last year we decided it should be moved under the facilities budget so that we could reallocate the person as we needed so yeah I mean it's it's if yeah I mean it's it's something we it's something we can do but it also has been working very well for us police budget and if if he's benefiting from it that wouldn't you know get broke um jump in um all you brought up the second floor so I'm bringing it up again um you also mentioned the possibility of 550 King Street 550 kingst street is is so I just I have I have a tough time renovating this building to do anything with it if this if we're looking at alternative building I just I I I'm having a tough time swall that well absolutely it's all M it's all a matter of timing I mean if this is if we're if we're going to be real aggressive on the approach with of identifying Town Hall as uh senior affordable housing and making and and and making that a priority for uh for what the vision was a couple years ago um then we would have to relocate then we would rethink about moving up to the second floor obviously we're not going to we're not going to move up there just to be moving out um but uh but if it's but if it's not going to be an aggressive approach if it's going to be uh if this if identifying that as senior affordable housing um isn't until maybe phase three or four of that multiple phase project over 550 King Street then we would move up there because the people have expanded now since from we've got a facil person we've got a Board of Health person that's expanding I I'm not sure that there was an assistant concom agent at the time no um so nurse right and then so the Board of Health is gonna so that area was good when you when it was originally went down so I understand that but it sounds like Board of Health needs to move no all because you're dealing with we we'll have a conversation offline I don't agree that all that needs to but we can have a conversation of that offline so just to go further on what Chuck's saying I think we need to determine a plan for that building before we spend any money in that building so if we like when the school and department and uh COA moves out what does it mean if we can are we mothballing part of that building and what does that mean or do we take the advantage of the old park and W offices that already set up with four offices and move some people over there and mothball sections of the building and how any of that works we need the logistics of that and the plan for that should be determined whether we're moving out you know in six months or five years we should kind of figure out what that plan is we do have a couple plans right written up it's it's it's it's a it's a it's an on it's an ongoing conversation that we're having that we want to make sure that we we're confident in the direction we're going to recommend before beforehand and part of it part of that plan is definitely mothballing a portion of that and turning off the utilities if that's even possible and in certain sections of that of uh of the building we're planning for both is the answer we'll see we'll make a decision and it would be good to know what it mean what how and what we can moop ball I mean do we moop ball by sections do we mly by four and so on and so forth and what what advantages we get disadvantages and so on and so forth so okay another question may um yeah um you mentioned 2027 looking at the potential if the lightning thing doesn't work out with green communities um the possibility of getting a combustion engine truck with a plow on it this is not you don't have to answer right now but I just just want to keep in mind we've been sold by the police department and by the fire department that they needed a plow they needed a plow for their own parking lots yeah and so we've spent between 50 and $70,000 to buy a truck with a plow on it from police department and from the fire department yeah so if you were to get a truck with a plow on it would that eliminate the need for them to have plows and obviously they already have them so it would it would be a natural life and then eventually they would need to replace those I'm looking at that for down the road okay I put you in that spot but I'd like you to start considering that so we can we can plan yeah we can have it to off uh offline discussion about that there's several factors involved with the winter and electric vehicles and needing a garage space or having it plugged in all the time Etc so but I don't know the answer is I don't know yeah kind well how many Department need a plow that's just how how many departments in a pickup truck and from the pickup truck well let's put a plow on it's power well we've got like departments that actually plow I'm going toine that the highway department needs a plow at least at least one there matth I know I'm a record just we keep buying these things yeah each year we well we needed do the parking lot but we also needed to get the front of the ambulance that we had to have that special kind of an ambulance because if it snows out that ambulance can get up the driveway well then the next year they need a plow truck but they need to put that plow truck in front of the ambulance that was supposedly able to get up those driveways that's why I bought the expensive ambulance they also have Bobcat too so I don't know why they need a anyway um you in the middle of that one all right take it on the operating budget are so the operating budget um there were no adjustments there either um and for the projected operating needs we had done at this time like Ryan said it's kind of a comma about period but right any question for Eric thanks Eric thank you thank you folks I I have one quick question on the utility usage it's is it closely tracking to what the 25 budget is do we know the I haven't actually seen that for the for overall utilities yeah um so part of the reason we probably that um we were um able to accommodate 36 king and the senior center is that what we were seeing was probably U we were a little over budgeted in our utilities and so we were able to reallocate some of that that's why we were ADV we weren't advocating for any changes so I think overall um if anything it probably be a little lower than where we've been well what the budget is so it's it's a good thing that we can take advantage of in this instance since we talking utilities to some degree um I think I mentioned to you might have off I don't remember but um schools have a really good guy Dave can't remember Dave's last name he's like the energy SAR um Dave Riley yes that's it oh Dave Riley yeah all there yeah so they can the high schools at 80 degrees doesn't need to be you know what so he he's we've saved a lot of money by by employing D Riley yeah um so that's where I thought you were going with your question about the utilities and the different program the the software package and stuff like we also considered that in part of the savings of the utilities is also I can you know buy parts that fail instead of like having a middle man and controlling it from remote stuff like that so yeah so know we we we have realized some Prett pretty significant savings by having that Consulting his magic so definitely be in touch with it yeah yeah I was hoping your estimate on the senior center for the electricity usage is outrageously High since you have like three times the number of solar panels that are on this building and it's uh two thirds of the or about half the size a little over half the size it shouldn't be the same electricity as this building I'm hoping it's not going to see a huge amount of use but it might find out hopefully it's very s yes thank you thank you guys ni all right select board page page 166 all righty and we're up uh strategic goals uh what we want to do is uh review the uh pursue reviewing the current local structure the charter committee to be appointed on February 3rd um developing is uh development plan utilization of the neog Hill Orchard and that Orchard lease uh negotiation is in progress now uh review and revise the format and substance of the select board's regulations and policies the consultant uh is currently reviewing select board regulations impul of consistency and redundancy partner with the economic development committee and other Town departments and boards to support the town sewer project development of town common groundbreaking for Mass works $4 million site work at 550 King Street is scheduled for March for March of this year uh additional $1 million which was just recently secured um through the state for phase two of the project uh develop an employee rewards and tuition reimbursement program the HR department is supporting the new staff engagement committee which has developed employee recognition and engagement opportunities tuition reimbursement program uh is is being is to be developed establish a plan to pursue grant opportunities we continue to pursue grant opportunities through the green communities program is overseen by Diane Dickinson in in our office successfully obtained the two Community compacts grants to support the charter committee process UMass Callin Center and the orchard the with Metro metropolitan area Planning Commission uh enhanced town-based communication resources successfully implemented a monthly digital newsletter and this just uh last month in January the 2025 kicked off Theo Town Town podcast with myself and selectwoman Morrison uh operating budget uh the only thing was the addition of the $4,500 for the um uh the person doing the administrative stuff that does the minutes uh and that that's uh that was inadvertently removed in the FY 25 budget and that's it no plan for S come back I I on that rail the profession office take no position on that matter smart why why Reserve or stabilization fund so if any of the select board members need um babysitting or something that we could we could submit we could submit a uh a receipt and reiners the door Dash fund you go door Dash you know it all speaking I ask you a question about that um about the minutes it made me think are we including um wages for minutes for the charter committee anywhere because we were we wanted to provide that service to them as well it's a it's a it's a good point I think when the budget was developed um that um we um we didn't we didn't know where it was going um I think that's it's a re it's a reasonable question um I know some committees take minutes on their own so we didn't necessarily presume that but we we actually made the statement that we were going to make sure that they had somebody that was skilled in doing the made that clear maybe tax work off make sure yeah uh potentially so we'll have to we'll put or make a note and we'll we can add that so yeah try to and Steve's gon to tell me okay now you're going to have to find places thank you I'm about to come up with a solution oh okay all right okay Steve the minute Master he's gonna give up his salary if you look at the finance committee's budget there was a $600 increase to our clerical line for our minutes we've been doing mostly joint meetings with the select board and we hop on your minutes so that's the plan going forward just hop on you is eight grand we could give up this at least the $600 increase that you have there and put it towards the for the I'm glad you brought that up because we have your budget here so one more thing on the minutes so I have been doing I was doing the minutes for the orchard group and I have to say that the AI solution is remarkable and cuts the time I spent doing minutes by about 90% so you still have to review them but you can get a transcript of the meeting run it through AI generate detailed meeting minutes and then just go over it and it takes about 10 minutes instead of an hour to do a long meeting so I would look I would look very seriously at like finding a service and I use free web services I don't pay a penny for it I would like to have a conversation with you about that good sorry $6,000 600 I just found that oh for you 90% um so yeah so we did and we did add this is your budg budget up on the screen so for the finance committee we did add $600 to clerical wages to reflect your actual spending so um over right we were doing lots of meetings on our own could but we just so appreciate having them here right we would feel lost without the S well that's do there's still money there there's $800 I think we can get by even though Marilyn caught me in the hallway today when are you going to have a meeting need some tax work on and Maryland do I have the solution for you the CH Charter commit there you go it's great it's great so that that's there for the time being but you know again if that's something you want to change we we can do that um and then um one of the primary things that's under the finance committee is the reserve fund um just to remind everyone we did make an adjustment on that into fy2 um I think what was the amount before Steve do you remember off manood I don't think it's it's not no it's not that but think different thing I think so it was reduced it was 290 this was 290 and just for clarity this is a kind of a catch all Reserve fund for emergency right this is so at the end of the at the end of the any transfers from this is a is a request thats needs an emergency staff halfway through the year that can come in do a right right makes sense so but this is this is basically unchanged from FY 25 in terms again that's two solutions I just came up with there you go so um just for um I talked to Ryan briefly about this if a as was mentioned we're working on the lease for the orchard if the lease falls through will likely need to figure out of you know we spent yeah I mean we for the buttoning up of it was roughly about $119,000 that we that we play classic construction to come in annual cost DPW is probably another 20 25 maybe so um that's another Factor we'd have to keep in mind should any of those things change than so we can also come forther yes can don't CH me punch you that's it sh do adjourn I guess second oh there two minutes very good all in favor