Good evening. Welcome to the January 28th uh joint meeting between the select board and finance committee. This is the second of our department head budget meetings. Uh the agenda tonight, first we have a revolving fund vote that needs
to be taken for elder and human services at 6:30 or 6:35. We'll be talking to the building department, then the planning department at 6:45, facilities at 7:00, elder and human services at 7:30,
uh it at 8:00, the finance committee reserve fund at 8:30, and just added to the agenda tonight, emergency executive session um to talk about uh strategies with respect to
collective bargaining and we will not be coming back to open session. after that. So with that, Karen, do you want to >> evolving? >> Yeah. >> Oh, must be >> Oh, I'm so I'm so sorry.
>> Um, okay. Uh this this is something that uh Liz and I had uh uh uh talked about recently and thank you very much for adding this on to this uh to this agenda. uh it is
something that uh this has to do with uh programs that are going on, yoga, fitness, things of that nature that uh for the revenues that the expenditures that are coming in uh the revenues uh it
was I believe it was it was 20,000 you already the revenues that the expenses I'm sorry >> the expenses I apologize is uh already at this point of approximately $35,000 because of all program the programs that are going on within the building. So,
the request is to increase it to the 60 $60,000 mark and there is enough money in the account right now. I believe there is um there is approximately there's a little more than $60,000 in there to cover uh
any overage right now and u so they can finish out the fiscal year. You guys have any questions, discussions? Liz, you want to add in? We good? >> Oh, I'm good. I maybe just one thing
because I'm proud of it. Um, in FY 2015, we had about 1,200 programs. So, our $20,000 spending cap was perfect. Um, but so far in the past seven months, we've held over 2,000 programs. So, increasing our spending cap now is
necessary. Impressive. Move >> the select board and finance committee vote to amend the good. Steve, >> go ahead. >> Oh, to amend the fiscal year 2026 department revolving fund COA recreation from 20,000 to 60,000.
>> Second Chuck, seconded by Mark in favor. >> I same motion here. Do I add it? >> Sure. I'll move that the uh finance committee vote to amend the fiscal year 2026 department excuse me revolving fund
COA recreation from $20,000 to $60,000 second by Rick M. All in favor? >> I unanimous. >> Thank you.
>> All right. Henry. Evening everybody. >> Evening. You want me to go line for on it or how would you like it start? Do you want me to just go read it through and read all
the information? >> However you want to handle it. >> Okay. All right. So, um under major accomplishments, we um the small grant program we found that uh this is we're working with elderly housing, affordable housing I should
say. And what we're doing is um there was money that was granted for folks to have things enter their homes uh window replacement, stairs replacement, things like that. So that part of the program I was able to um assist with um reviewing the uh the
proposals that came in, issuing permits and u doing final inspections on it. So it was a good project. Um kind of happy to be involved with that. Very uh went very well. I thought uh schedule of inspections for the 110
inspections for the um restaurants and alcohol licenses in town. All of that went well. Um we're trying to maintain the profess professional level in the in the office and emails and person. We try to work with everybody. Hopefully you haven't heard anything
bad, but uh we try to do the best we can of every day. Yeah. >> Um >> I think you know >> and I would hope you tell me. I would rather try to know. I would rather >> Yeah. >> What do you mean by that, Doug? >> Nothing just to coast.
>> Um so existing property folders, we're that's kind of a a goal for us in the office. We're trying to get all those documents. um downloaded into the respective folders and so then if people go online they can just go to that property address take a look at and
everything that's in that folder will be online. So that's a kind of a goal for us. That's what we're hoping to try to do. Um department goals create a spreadsheet so we can kind of keep track on perially
strong with residential solar sign permits. uh um things like that. And um it's been a good thing for us. It's kind of telling us like in January of last year how many permits issued residential wise to where we're at now. And we're
down just a little bit from last year, but still got a couple more days left in the month to try to catch up with that. So that's worked out pretty well for us. Um education we have to do. There's no uh the inspectors have to stay caught up
with that. um inspections where again same thing the the following three are all things that we we have to do. We have to uh um take care of inspections. We have to streamline the building permits. Code enforcement is it's just
um everything that we have to do. We don't uh don't have any really choice in the matter and and making sure that things are safe for everybody. Uh the operating budget request. Um, so
this my budget supports um full-time building commissioner, a full-time shared um electrical inspector with the town of Actton um a part-time plumbing inspector. We're funding for alternate inspectors, too, which would be
plumbing, um electrical, and building inspector. And we have we're sharing um an office coordinator with the planning department. Um we reduce the telephone data by $500
for the for the change in the bottom the bottom line on it. Um the projected fiveyear operating needs for the hardware computer. We're just trying to base with that.
We're we're requesting a U replacement of the Ford Explorer. We have two there. Um each year I'm afraid we're going to be spending more money than we're allowed in our budget to um um keep the vehicles
up and running. Um, we invested $3,000 in one of the explorers last year and I've already told we're going to have to probably put another thousand dollars more into it at some point during the year this year. So, little concerned about that. So, we're hoping to try to
um get another vehicle. Um, the vehicle that we just did all the work to would be shared with conservation commission and um we would replace one before that's there. Um, jump in.
>> Um so these are vehicles that were kind of handed down >> to the department. >> Yes. >> Are these um maintained by an outside third party or that we use in highway at all? >> We've been using a third party on this um particular one. The the big repair it
was just so much of it. We went to a third party on that. U typically it's just I just brought it in for oil change and sticker. So it says that's small money but while it was in there they said that you know the front end it's going to loose I don't know mechanical
area. >> Yeah. So he's probably want to keep that in mind. >> What years are you said you have two. What year are they? >> 2015 and 2017. um the request for the uh replacement and I
know it's everybody's kind of geared toward electric that would be fine but we're looking to try to get a another Ford Explorer or a uh a Ford 150 pickup truck. So that's for FY27.
Um FY28 looking to probably bring on the local inspector. We're anticipating um the poly group pro project going probably shake a link going. So I'm looking to see if we can bring somebody
on 20 hours a week and then in FY30 probably bring on somebody fulltime as well. >> Would that be an additional full-time or replacing the parttime? >> Replacing the part time. Yeah.
>> Any questions I can answer? Um, do you want to really talk about the impact of 550 on your department as we move into that process? What do you what do you see? You have a half person. I mean, what's the workload that you
anticipate there? Um, until they actually get going over there, um, I I think like for this year here in FY27, I think one person can handle what's going on. Um the
the inspections I have I'm anticipating being there twice a day. My inspectors are doing the same thing. So we're anticipating being there early in the morning and possibly in the afternoon if they need us. We'll set it up so that we meet with their team. We'll have a pre-con meeting and that precon meeting
will let them know that we have um sections of the building we want to do. We don't want to be all over the place. So, we go in to do an inspection. If there are six or 10 units ready here, we're going to do that building. Or if this is a commercial space, we'll work on that one building, take care of that
one space, and then if you call us for another inspection in the afternoon or the next day, we jump on something else. But we're going to try to stay so that we're not bouncing all over the place. The inspectors have we all kind of sat down and talked about that. We said that
we feel comfortable with that. Um we I've done projects in town need and west where multiple you know 400 500,000 units at a time and the system we've had in place has worked
good for us the part-time inspector coming in I think once shaker shaker gets started and uh if the lola group is aggressive as they're speaking about um then we we'll need somebody to help out with help with the inspection. and so
they can keep everything else going on. >> What about preconstruction reviewing all the plans and everything? Is that >> Yes. Say give me some. >> I'm I'm ready to to start reviewing it and I think we're getting closer, but u we've got tomorrow and then her team
will take care of that for us. But that's something you feel confident of being able to do without additional staffing. >> Right now, yes. I think I think next year it'll be different because if the plans are going to be bigger, um it'll
be a lot more eyes that I'm going to have to put on it, the more time I'll have to put into it. So, having somebody that can take care of the inspections for me, you know, 20 hours out of the week would be great. That would help out. And if the replacement vehicle for this
year was a used police vehicle, you'd be okay with that? >> Yep. The only thing I would ask um with it is if it's coming down to us, we need just to consider money to be sure that that vehicle is up and running so that
you know I don't get a car that's needs some tires or need front end alignment and things like that. So that's what ended up happening. We have to find an alignment, replace four tires. So before you know it was $3,000. >> We'll have the institute of limit law
here. >> Is answer any questions? Anybody else? >> Just one quick question here. The 32,000 increase in the personnel service from 20 25 to 26 26 to 27. And is it because of the um the app full-time
inspector? There's a 32,000 more $32,969. >> Um I'm not sure what that is. I'm not I'm not sure what what that question is. I'm sorry. >> It's building inspector admin staff went
up. That's the one I'm referring to. >> Yeah. >> 17%. I think part of that is probably the office manager being moved on into that line. I don't >> Can I speak to that? >> Yes, you can, please. >> I believe it's because we increased some
of the hours for the alternate inspectors in case they need some help with any of the pre-construction reviews or anything like that. They need to have the alternate inspectors in a little more than they do this year. We wanted to give them that flexibility. So one more other the other other question software maintenance and
support isn't that not part of the IT systems they don't cover the software maintenance and support >> well they were but then they then it was changed to us so we had to we're starting to provide that the money so we're we were asked to budget that in
our account >> so the IT budget was changed a few years back to when the um departments has specific software needs, it was moved into their budget rather than the general IT budget. >> Okay.
>> Doesn't mean they see the true cost of running assignment. >> The other thing that was moved into individual department budgets that had that are assigned town phones is instead of that being an IT's budget, each
individual department is is uh accounted for. Thank you. Anything else for Henry? >> Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. And Henry, thank you for all your work with the small grants program. It's been
immensely helpful. >> Maybe you're ready. Good evening. Um, thanks for your time tonight. Lauren Tutill, town planner. >> Cooper Matthews, assistant town planner. >> Um, so a few highlights from the slides. Um, I think one of the things I'm most
um please um want to brag about is is um receiving uh notice uh that our housing choice community designation um was uh renewed. Um so that basically um gives us extra points on um certain grant a
lot of the grant applications and makes a Littleton qualified for um additional grant programs like the housing choice grant. Um Henry mentioned the um housing choice or the small grant program. Um it
looks like we'll be able to um help about 20 households altogether um with the health and safety repairs that um Henry was referring to. And that was funded through $120,000 housing choice grant um awarded after a application in
2024. So we're coming to the end of that program. Um but that's one example of what our housing choice designation has allowed us to offer. um goals for the upcoming year. Um just keep meeting
up with the professional level of planning services. Um uh training opportunities for staff and board members. Um follow up on all applications and inquiries. We expect significant um permitting activity for
the um King Street Common 550 King Street and 410 Great Road. Um planning board's in the middle of uh the first um site plan application for the phase one first five commercial um and mixed use
buildings. expect the application tomorrow for um the first uh large apartment buildings um at the 550 King Street site, followed um some later this quarter um by the uh application for the
open green space um I think between the Tuttle House and the first commercial buildings um and the application for 410 Great Road. Um they're hoping um that that'll come in in um March. So those uh
permit applications will take a a while to work through, but as Henry noted um shortly after that the construction can start on those. Um, other things the uh department and the planning board are doing, looking at updating the accessory
dwelling unit or ADU bylaw uh to better meet the state requirements. Um, working with the town administrator's office to update the uh 2019 Littleton Common Revitalization Road. Um,
excuse me, with a legislative earbar. I'm working on how to get that scheduled in with everything else we have going. and uh to continue to support the affordable housing trust and um with continue with grant writing initiatives
budget for next year. The request was um quite straightforward um revised um budget um given this is seems to be a difficult um budgeting year. um proposed reducing expenses by $500
and adjusting the um professional services and grant matches from um 25,000 down to 15,000. Um and then since zoning board of appeals is a separate budget
separate page in the budget book, um we have a slide for that. Um those expenses um will continue at $300 for postage. Um the shared office coordinator um and assistant town planner and town planner
all work together um to cover uh the work of the board of appeals. Let's see. Fiveyear operating needs. Um we don't anticipate an increase in staffing. Um
as we work through the sharing of the office coordin um we're looking for to replace the unicorn that is lovely unicorn that is Lucia as she's announced her retirement um so we're interviewing now for a
replacement for that coordinator position um capital requests um anticipating requests from CPA funds um for uh update to the housing production plan. Last time we completed that was in 2014. It's
overdue for an update. Um we will also be looking for um uh grant funding to replace the $50,000. Um but we can't can never be assured that grant funding is is
going to come through. Um and then um out years for um capital improve on the capital plan. Um we need to start funding the master plan u
proposing a three-year um cycle of requesting funding to update the master plan. I think I covered the high spot. We would be very interested to know what questions you have
>> for the 50k going to CPC this year. Have you been in touch with >> Baron Harvey brought it up at the um CPC meeting um this past week formal request to them for March for
February meeting? >> Sorry. in the outlook. It's pretty good to get that, >> I believe. So, >> okay. Um, you talked about the applications coming
in, the plans coming in 550. >> How long processes that would land? Is it one month, three months, five months? Um, so not to speak to any particular applicant, but when the development team
can respond to the questions and concerns that are raised by the town um, quickly and respond with updates to the plans, then that process always goes quicker. um seems to be going well with
um responses to the initial planning board concerns about the development, but now still have some more um issues to work through on the current application. Um going quickly, you know, if it takes
four months to get through the process, that um would be a quick turnaround for for the planning board. Um once and maybe quicker after we get through this this first one. >> Okay.
>> And after you it goes to Henry. >> Um >> pretty much >> pretty much. >> Yes. Because they've been through the um state med review process. Only part of the site needs to go to um conservation commission and it's all town sewer. So
board of health deals with the restaurants etc. at the back end of it. >> What are you giving up by your cut in your um professional services budget? >> It's hard to say. Um it's um this year
using the professional services budget. Um we did some um form-based code training for um building and planning staff. Um we were able to uh get a a peer review of um the NEPA
traffic report um so which is outside of the um application for 5 street. So that was very helpful and then um be able to point to that for um matches for any
grants that we apply for. So, um, since we didn't receive any of the grants that required a local match that we were targeting some of that money for, um, did I give anything up at that point? I don't know.
time to say >> if I may, one of the things is one of the accomplishments that you've heard Henry talk about and and Marin uh regarding the housing choice grant. You can see that it's was announced in fall of 2024.
We're now in 2026. We have we applied in the in the the most previous round. We were denied funding to continue that program. Marin and Cooper were proactive, met with um the team from the
state to evaluate the requests and why they were denied and areas that we can maybe improve upon. Uh and the one thing they they love the program, but it's not going to it's the it's not going to continue on the cycle. It's a pilot
program. That's how they looked at it and they they support the pilot program, but anything beyond that is going to be probably absorbed internally to continue that. Um, however, if there's a there's a different program or a new program that can come out, they they would absolutely they would they would love to
uh to entertain that. So, that's where we are. I forgot to ask Henry who is here. Northern Bank, do we do you have an update on Northern Bank? We do not have an update on that. Um reached out
several different times, several different ways, and they haven't shared any um construction schedule for the rest of the of that development. >> Unless administrator's office heard anything, >> Tony's reached out. It's been pretty quiet. >> Okay.
Then I'm answering the phone. >> Anything else? Mayor, >> thank you. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you for joining me. >> Eric, good evening. >> Good evening. Thank you for your time. Eric Derba, facilities department.
Um so I guess the u one of the accomplishments this year was implementing the maintain x software and um as of right now we have completed 227 work orders on that program. Um, so
needless to say, it saved my phone from ringing 227 times, but um I can accept decline it, you know, provide feedback um document things, all that. So, it's
worked out great. I think it's worth the investment and uh I think we should continue with it. Um there's also some more things that uh Nancy and I are going to try to explore. um like building out assets and and specific
things in buildings like specifically here the generator or you know the fire station heating system stuff like that. It can all be an asset that's tracked and we'll know the the lifetime of it and all the filters and all the numbers
on it. So that will help us tremendously. Um, we opened and completed a punch list for 36 King Street and the center on Chadic Street. Um, King Street was a little rough. Center on Chadex's been going
pretty well. Um, we just replaced a breaker for the heating system that was miss. It was an improper breaker because the panels were switched around on some of the HVAR equipment. So, that was settled out. That was the second to last
issue. The final issue is the flooring bubbling and seaming that they're going to meet next week with the PMDC um on site and we're going to go through every area that's going to be redone which is a significant part of the more than half of the flooring in the whole place will
be redone um under the manufacturer or I'm sorry under the installers warranty. What would the what would the impact maybe Liz can chime in? What would be the impact to that disturbance on your programs, Liz? >> We're going to try and do it over the weekend. >> Oh,
>> and uh the contractor is going to do that. >> And this is going to be absorbed by >> Yeah. or not us. >> Good answer. >> Yep. Um couple other things.
We were trained on all the new building stuff. So the center on shadic is an extremely complex building that's run through one computer and they trained us on the one computer but they didn't train us on what to do when something doesn't work right or what to do when
you want to convert from AC to heat and this and that. So it's been quite a learning curve and um we've found a few bugs in the system. We've worked those out and I think Liz and their staff are pretty happy now. Hope so. Um
we've responded to now 28 snow ice events in December and January. Um this last one was pretty good uh pretty good test on the equipment and uh like thank God we bought another snowblower last
year because we really needed it. Um we also in this building replaced over 100 fluorescent lights. So, all the lights and tubes you see are all changed over. And um I think we've been saving about $3,000 on the electric bill. And that
was a $7,000 project. So, already got a return on investment. >> Eric, the snowblow, was that the gift from the friends? >> Uh no. So we have one that's a gift from the friends and then facilities purchased a another large full-size one
which we haven't had to use because we've only got less than 4 in of snow. So the friends one of the COA we've used for the 26 other events and then the last two days we've used the the big the extra big boy >> because usually we use one big one and
one small one but now we needed both big ones and it was still over the big ones and we did it twice three times. So going forward um after the the new two the two new buildings have gone through a fully operational season of
heat and cooling um we'll have a much better idea of how they function especially 36 King Street but learning there's still a lot of ice dams and icicles um because the auditorium wasn't insulated the main building was, but the
auditorium wasn't. There's a lot of icicles on the auditorium, so we're keeping an eye on that. Um, but we're really I'm really starting to learn on how the buildings function and especially the COA with the solar. My biggest concern with especially
budgeting wise was that there's no natural gas backup for that heat and they almost had no electric bill during the summer because the solar was producing great but they weren't really doing heat and I didn't know how much the solar would be blocked or how the
sun angle would affect it. So I cut some of that out of my budget looking at the first month or two um of heat season. It seems to be performing pretty well. Um, and then we're going to go through in
the next couple of within a month, um, we're going to go through both the center on Shadic and King Street for all the one-year warranty items. So, they go through the, uh, OPM, the architect, and the engineer will all walk through, they
call it like an 11month walk through um, probably in February, March, sometime around there. and we'll go through everything that was installed at the King Street that's new and then obviously everything at the COA and just basically pick it apart and if there's
any issues with it, now's the time to do it. And uh our OPM's been through a bunch of those and they said they're pretty good at getting good results. So, we're hoping Vertex will come through there. Excuse me.
Um and then the last thing is um I've been kind of conducting and evaluating five or several need studies for each building that I have. But basically a
list of the top five financial and you know existential things for each of the buildings, town hall, senior center, police, fire, library, etc. So, um, I'm hoping now with a full year and seeing
all the buildings and how they function during the seasons, I should be able to have a pretty good dollar value on that roughly. Um, so we started a little high with the budget because we thought we had the
fuel island and some other stuff. Um, we have absorbed that the town the town administrators billing which is just a lot of the collect all like postage and and paper and uh light telephone polls around town things like that that were
just there wasn't somewhere to budget it to that were just kind of budgeted through Lisa and the town town administrator's office. So, we've absorbed that. Um but like I said, we cut some when we're told we needed to.
Um a significant part of that is from the um $30,000 of the SE center on Shadic that I had budgeted for for the winter heat with the electric heat. And I'm just praying that the snow sheds off
the solar panels and that we can start producing. And it seems like it takes about a day or two for a small storm. It started shedding a little bit today. It's so cold. Um it should start to produce.
And then um the biggest need that I can see going forward is the HVAC at 36 King Street. And uh we have a plan a hybrid hybridization plan from green communities but that is a year old I've
heard gone up about 40% so that might change um and we might be able to get some different type of grants. I'm not sure. We're still on the line of whether that's a school building or whether it's a public office
building. It's kind of both. but it's it's also a school building. So, um, moving on, I I really think the facilities department needs their own dedicated vehicle with tool boxes and a
snowplow similar to what the school department facilities department has. Um, this will allow us to get around to the various buildings with all our tools and equipment in the vehicle. Currently, we're using the Parks and Rex old Ford
Ranger, and it's a single cab with two seats. So, to put anything in it, it is on George's lap next to me or on the seat next to me, and we're just crammed in this little truck. And there's no coverage in the back. So, we fill it
with salt and tools and stuff like that, and it gets rained on and the salt hardens up and all that stuff. So, um it's uh I think a necessity that we have a full-size truck with toolboxes um
to function. I mean, it doesn't have to be brand new. It can be a couple years old, but I don't see the town having another vehicle like that besides DPW mechanics vehicle or the school's facilities vehicle that would kind of hand me down to that. But, um so that's
why I put it in there. Eric, on that that vehicle, what would be kind of like the minimum? Do you think it needs to be like? >> So, the minimum would probably be like a 2500 with a toolbox body on the back, like a square toolbox body, >> like a you know, with the toolbox doors
that open up similar to >> utility body. >> Yeah, like utility body like a fire engine type of thing. So that because we have boxes of different things for each site and you know we can't put it on George's lap every time to go bring it
to the police station to change a toilet uh flusher or whatever you know. So >> I don't know why you don't sit there and put George in the back but this weather I think I get in trouble for that. Um
>> let's try it. I think he I lived he'd get it. >> He'd do it. If I told him, he would do it. >> He's a good support. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? >> Um, you said you replaced the bulbs in
here with LED. Was that a green communities thing or just a general? >> Um, I think with the green communities it we weren't going to get enough back, so we just paid straight out for it. I think we just paid out of operations. So, how did you decide to do this building? And are you looking at a
similar thing on other buildings? Do you have a priority list somewhere? How are >> you? We also did 36 King Street, but I don't have the data on that >> and uh a lot of that was done as part of the insurance thing and also the remodel. I'll try and get more data on
that for the next meeting. Um, so 36 King Street is I'd say 75% LED. This building is interior of all LED except the jail cells and the exterior. And um we spoke with the electrician about the
exterior. Obviously, he doesn't want to be out in the bucket truck when it's this weather, but he'll be doing it as soon as the weather breaks. They have to take the ballast out and then convert it to a full LED. We can just put a a bypass ballast bulb in, but it's still going to draw that same energy as it
would if it were a fluorescent. You have to actually rewire it and get converting. So, it's about $45 a light for the 2 by twos and a little more for the 4x2s. >> You just give Conor matter.
>> Bill Mo wouldn't like that. >> So, the question was more like, are you looking at other energy savings for other buildings outside of >> Yep. And if there I didn't know if you had a priority list or >> So we have done a few things. We did um
insulation at the fire station, insulation at 36 King Street. Those two were done under green communities with a grant and we paid a little bit of money and uh yeah, we're definitely continuing to work. We think the fire station is the biggest one next. There's some
exterior envelope work and obviously the LEDs as well. Looking down the road over the next few years, do you see yourself needing another George? A half a George? George is fine as George for now, but George is
going to retire at some time and I will definitely be planning for that. >> Okay, >> if I could, um, you you know, kind of alluded to the asset tags so that you can track stuff efficiently. who brought that up at this meeting and any number
of times as a board um that we need to tag any asset we have um especially anything that runs or >> has the potential of breaking down. >> Um >> in order for us to implement that
successfully um there's going to be some cost for us to do that. Um is there a special software that we we need to get you know we got to print labels and just Have you looked at that at all or so? >> Tom might be able to speak to it too because I'm sure you guys are I think you mentioned that you're working with
dance. >> So yeah, I um the app itself has the capability of doing that and I believe the DPW uses it to do that for their equipment. So I'll talk to both Steve's and I'll figure out
how they implemented that and we'll go that route and we'll take care of it. >> Sound good? >> Check with my water as well. Yeah, I think they do the same thing as Joe. >> Y >> I just I think that's >> it's a great idea. >> Something we absolutely have to do and >> Yep.
>> It's going to make >> I don't know. It's going to make your life easier. You might get more of those phone calls than you didn't want to get that. >> I just just think it's good to >> Yeah. You know, we talk about a fiveyear plan and >> to know that the the useful life of
whatever component or whatever machine is X, we know we're coming up coming up on. >> Yep. >> Okay. Thanks. >> One of the things that had popped up in conversations was the HVA system in this building. >> I see you didn't make
>> anything for 27, but where do you see that following? So that'll depend on when we can actually shut the system down and perform a leak test, which is probably in March or April. We have it isolated. There's just one section that's isolated right now that has no
heat, but the other areas can, you know, supplement that enough for now. Um, >> is it Bernard's office? Can we make it office? >> It's right, it's right before Bernard's office, actually. But um >> you would have heard about it if it was
his. >> Um but I think it's just an issue that we've seen once and it's possibly one of the flare fittings that was attached and there's multiple flare fittings on the
VRB device and there's multiple VRV devices in the building. So if it is a single singular problem then that's fine but it could be an a problem indicative of a failure down the road. So, we're having our HVAC contractor
look into it as soon as we can actually shut the system down because if we shut the system down now, it's going to take way too long to get back up to temperature. So, but it's not I don't think at any risk of catastrophically failing. It's just
something that is they've repeatedly had to trace leaks on and add refrigerant is my understanding. So it just has a history. >> And if if you if other parts of the
system are helping that out, those are working harder. So their useful life gets affected. >> Yep. >> Green grass grows all around all around. >> Anything else for Eric? >> Just one question. the HVAC upgrades need to happen at the 36th Street ASAP
otherwise we'll lo we risk losing the grant. >> Um so I believe the grant that grant has already um that fiscal period has already passed. We have to reapply for the grant again to do that. But um it
when the remodel was done, the only the broken HVAC equipment was replaced. But in that building, in the size and complexity of the building, I think there's 18 individual HVAC units and only the ones that literally didn't
work were replaced. And the other 14 or 15 from 1993 were left. and they work, but for who knows how long. And um luckily it's kind of split up around, but there's one 15 ton unit in the attic
that is from 1993 that does a significant part of that building. And fortunately, it can be worked on because it's relatively older, but you know, um it'll have to be taken out piece by
piece. the time to replace it would have been roof but I wasn't here then so >> yeah to answer your question the grant I think is passed Thank you, sir. >> Good evening. Okay, I know everyone on this side, but
I'm Liz Triak, director of Elder and Human Services. Thanks for coming in tonight, listen to all of our budgets. Um, if you don't know what Elder and Human Services is for the town of Littleton. It is our full service social service agency. It's
our senior center. It's our clearing house, no wrong door, place where people can go to get resources, benefits, information on any number of different topics or um issues or concerns in their life. Uh we operate under three main
categories. Um community outreach and social services, health and wellness programs, and social and recreational programs. And this um very tiny printed list is just a smattering of all the different things that we offer. I kind
of meant for it to be um very difficult to read because I wanted to convey that we do so much for the community. Um it goes from tax preparation assistance to elder abuse reports to chair yoga and cribage. And
tonight we're having a bluegrass GM session in our building and it's full of lively music um right now. So we do pretty much the whole gamut of everything. So to put us into context for the um
entire town, we are um our budget is a little less than 1% of the total overall budget. Um, I would like to think we have a very small cost and have a very large impact for that small price tag.
So, for that um dollar figure, what you get from us um is many different things. Um, here are some of the things that we're most proud of in terms of accomplishments. Um, for FY25, we held over 14,000 events or activities
that you could participate in. Um, we logged over 6,700 senior tax hours, the majority of those done within our building. Um, 8,744 meals on wheels were delivered to participants in Littleton. We delivered
2,624 bags of food to individuals in the community. Uh and our one Shine counselor Shine is ser um serving health insurance needs of everyone on Medicare. Our certified Medicare counselor met with 125 people and guided them through
open enrollment. Uh so those are some of the numbers that we're most proud of this year. Um I just say one thing at the bottom. I'm sorry. So, well, we've seen with this new building that we've been open for seven months, uh, we have seen that our
transportation and our outreach numbers are holding steady, but our program and meal attendance for our daily congregate meal on site are really increasing. comparing December 24 to December 25,
the the difference is 132% increase between those two um exact same months. One in the old building, one in the new building. Um this is our activity signins by calendar year. So you can see with the new building, it just skyrocketed. Um we're seeing the
major increase within the past seven months and we're tracking our trends right now. We're trying to keep our growth sustainable. Uh we were told and the the general consensus is when you open a new building for a senior center building, the increase you'll see is
about 30 to 40% and our increase just was astronomical. Um some months it's 125 150% uh over what we were previously seeing. So, we're kind of tracking the trends and seeing if this is u going to
continue at that pace, level off. Uh is it just a shiny new building that everyone wants to check out or will this be our sustained new normal for us? Um so, some of our other major accomplishments within the past uh fiscal year, we were
awarded a community transit grant in FY24. We finally took possession of that vehicle. It's a fully electric wheelchair accessible vehicle. Uh, and we got that this past summer. We also installed with the help of Eric from
facilities and um, LWD a charging station on the side of our building so we can charge our vehicle. That um, that vehicle is fantastic. It's a $115,000 vehicle. That 80% was paid for with the
grant. The other 20% was paid for by the friends of Littleton Council on Aging. We added 183 additional opportunities to engage in a meal for seniors. So that's not counting our daily Monday through Friday meal. These are breakfasts and lunch and learns and opportunities for
people to get out of their house and come socialize, engage in their community, connect with others. And the biggest accomplishment was actually opening this building in May and getting uh ourselves in a position where we can
welcome all these new people and um provide the services for them. Since opening, we've seen 400 new people sign up to become participants of the senior center. Generally the numbers we're seeing are
about 19% of our usage is out of town and the rest are all Littleton residents. Okay. So our operating budget as we originally requested it uh we remain level service in our expenses. We have a
new midyear appropriation in the works. Uh, as we've discussed at previous meetings, this is currently uh posted and we're hoping to have someone in that role in the next month or so. Um, we
had a increase in our our largest expense was the um cross town connect which is our dispatching service. that nearly tripled in price um over the past couple years because it's an intermunicipal agreement. One of the towns that was in dropped out so the price for the
remaining communities increased. We were able to offset that increase by switching our mental health referral service for the town from William James interface referral service to care solace referral service. I would say it's a
level um change. It's a great product. Same high quality mental health services for about half the cost. So, we were able to kind of offset that increase with a decrease in another area. So, we did make some revisions after there was a call to see what we could
trim from our budgets without having a impact on the services to the community. So, we reduced our community program line from 3,000 to 300 because we are mainly sustaining with our revolving fund, our COA recreation revolving fund.
And then we reduced our travel line from 1,344 down to $667. Uh the travel line was when our um community outreach workers were going to people's homes. We found that over the past seven months more people have been
coming to us. So traveling has been less. I don't see that this will have any substantial impact on our service that we provide. We'll still go out to people as needed and be able to reimburse for travel mileage.
I'm a visual person, so this is what our expenses look like. Um Cross Town Connect is our largest fee. Professional services is second largest. That's the kerosololis. That's our database for our tracking. Um our participation and our
care management notes postage is after that because we mail out almost 700 broadcasters every month. That's our newsletter to um members of Littleton community. This again is just highlight highlighting the changes. a decrease in
the mental health service um cost, increase in the annual fee for our dispatching service which is cross town connect, reduced the travel line 50% during the revisions and reduced um our community programs line by 3,000 because that can be covered by our revolving
fund. So we operate very leanly but we don't use just um town funds to operate. Uh we have additional ways that we fund our mission. So every year the
executive office of elder affairs now known as the executive office of aging and independence gives every town uh with a senior center a state formula grant. Ours happens to be $40,352.
We use that to pay all of our fitness instructors for a year. So that covers all of that. MART is the Montuset Regional Transport Authority. They reimburse us 100% for all of our van driver salaries. So we have five van
drivers who are reimbursed 100%. That was about $44,000. We take in a significant amount of donations and grants for various reasons. We brought in $56,42 uh last year for various reasons. It
could be um our emergency uh emergency fund for residents, our outreach and programs gift fund. We have a senior breakfast gift fund. We have all kinds of different gift funds that people donate to. Tread is a significant portion of the donations that we receive
and that's uh tax relief for the elderly and the disabled. Uh so for our five-year operating needs, we're doing the midyear appropriation for the full-time 40hour office coordinator. We're hoping to begin that this year um within the
next month or so when our current 19.5 hour administrative assistant position uh that employee is set to retire in April. We're not going to fill that position immediately, but it is in the budget again for FY27 and that will
bring us to a level of staffing that brings us comparable to communities of our size with buildings of our size. So I think at that point we will be pretty well staffed at that point. Our operating needs are being sustained right now through different revolving
counts. We have a meal site revolving account, a beverage revolving account, recreation revolving account, fitness revolving account. So, we're charging very nominal fees. Um, usually $3 or less for a program if the any call and
it is actually sustaining us um for all of these things that we offer. potentially out in the future, we're looking at a cook or nutrition coordinator, potentially FY29, and I'm fairly certain and positive I can get this covered with grant funding.
I don't have any capital budget requests for this year because we have this brand new building. And our future need uh we will need to the second bus in is our 2017 um 12 passenger bus that will probably be need
to be replaced in three to four years but I'm fairly certain we can receive another mass dock grant um to cover the expense of that as well. And our goals to continue on for the next um several years, we want to
increase and expand our meal program, our daily congregate meal, increase it by at least 25%. Right now, we are working on creating a staffing plan that allows us to have some evening hours such as tonight. And in those evening hours, we might potentially offer dinner time meals as well. So, that's part of
that plan. and we want to enhance and increase our Alzheimer's and dementia outreach in the community and expand our efforts with um collaborating with different departments to do that. >> Questions?
Um, I just wanted to remind people who were here last year and then tell our new members when Liz was talking about the um, office coordinator position last year during this budget session. She
expressed a need for somebody. The building wasn't open yet. We didn't open the building till May. Um, so we hadn't even been in there yet. We said, "Okay, there could be a need, but we didn't put it into her budget.
Finance committee made the determination that we would cover FY26. If it was determined that she needed the funding for this person, we would cover it out of our reserve fund. She needs it. We need to cover it." So once the person's
high, we know the exact salary impact. Um Jim will be back with a reserve fund transfer of parts for that position and that position rolls into next year's budget. It's already in there. You can see the big increase that's sitting in there for that
position. >> Okay. >> I have a couple questions. Um just ballpark how much in the way of funds do you receive on an annual basis from the
friends and the various grants rotary and that you know there's a bunch of them that come in over the course of a year is that park >> um I believe that was for last year about $56,000 >> I'm sorry
>> $56,0006 for gifts and grants Um, so far this fiscal year for just programming support, the friends of the Council on Aging have given us about $5,500 to support different programs.
>> Okay. And the the second question I had was on professional services. >> Um, you know, three years ago the actual was 19,000. It went up to 20,000.
This year's budget was 17 and now it's going down to 12. So, are you not using the professional services? Are you covering it out of other funds?
I just it's just a pretty dramatic slide and I'm just >> Yeah. So, previously under professional services, we had um the William James interface program and that
was like $32,000 for that service. It's $8,500 now um for Care Solace. So, we were able to save in that area. So, it's not that we're not utilizing >> the services, we made a substantial
change. >> Okay. Who's serviced by the office? >> Just trying to make sure Jim isn't bludgeoning you. That's all. >> Oh yeah. >> And the other question I had is, you know, cross town connect. >> Yeah.
>> You know, started at 11,000. It's up to 27,000. >> And you know, you you cut seven out of what you had put in there. >> Is it worth it to us to even participate in it? To me, it's very much worth it because they provide two full-time
dispatchers Monday through Friday, okay, to take all of our transportation requests, schedule them, and do the reporting monthly where for $27,000 a year where I would not be able to hire one person for 27,000 to give me
full-time dispatching coverage for our 200ish rides per month. >> Um, so it's >> great value to me. So the 27 will cover you. You comfortable that'll cover you or are you having to cover the difference between 27 and 34
with other funds? >> Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. >> I thought I had a minus there. It's a plus. I'm sorry. I'm I'm done. Thank you. >> Karen had a question about carousels. >> Yeah. So Carousel is how who does that service? that services everyone in town,
>> all ages, um, or employees of Littleton. Anyone can call into Caras Solace and say your concern, your needs, and they will connect you with a therapist, a day program, an inpatient program. Um, they'll they'll do all the leg work for
you. It'll take your specific information or insurance information, and come back to you with a list of providers who actually have availability. Uh the public schools also use Care Solace, but they use it in a different way where they're um they have
clinicians on their staff and they do what's called like a warm transfer. So if they're seeing somebody clinically in, you know, through guidance counseling um or a transition program, they can refer
directly to um a counselor. So they have a different version and we have a version that covers the rest of the town and town employees. >> Thank you. >> Um I your all your AHS van drivers here you have listed they're in the book but
they're not actually in in the expenses because they're covered by Mark. So it's just it's just a weird thing because the salaries are shown much higher than you're actually showed for reimbursement, right? But they're not anywhere near expenses.
higher than if they're coming up with a mark. They're >> well, she also showed like $55,000 in mark funding, but these are showing thou over $100,000 in salary. So, just just one quick question. Um I think you mentioned about 40,000 is being used
for the fitness training from one of the grants maybe state grant. >> I'm sorry. >> So one of the state grants about 40,000 is being used for the the fitness >> trainers. >> Yep. >> Um are there any online program being
used there? Looks like there are some online I don't know whether the ones that you have are uh you know in person or online but uh looks like there are a bunch of online programs that can be leveraged. >> Yeah. Um so right now that's the
state formula grant that's $40,000 that covers all of our fitness instructors. That's two chai two chai tai chi classes, three dance classes, two different chair yogas, yoga for strength and balance and two stretch and flex. So, it's a lot of instructors. Um, some
of those do have the capability of doing hybrid where they can do it online and in person at the same time. We haven't done since co we haven't done fully virtual. Um, but that is something we're exploring because we're having the good problem of all of our fitness classes
filling up on the first day that we open registration. Um, so we are considering the idea of having a virtual option for those who are on the wait list. Um, you don't get into the class. >> Also, there are some free uh online
programs, fitness programs that can be subscribed to and maybe do it, you know, as a group. >> Yeah, we do. uh anytime we come across those we do try to promote them. I know Blue Cross Blue Shield has a good uh program that they often put out and
Emerson um also has some that are free that they put out. So we try to cross promote different uh community resources or free resources that people can take advantage of too. That's a great idea. Thank you. St. >> I am not Nancy Dunkin Ross.
I can only hope to measure up to Nancy and I'll answer any questions as best I can. Uh so what we've done this year completed all network installs for the center on Shadic for full occupancy. Completed all network installs for 36
King Street for full occupancy. Completed new zoning layer for access GIS online with planning and assessors. Added zoning conservation health and fire departments to online permitting. Added dog licenses to online permitting.
assisted in ProQA software install here at the police department as well as assisted with first due software install here and upgraded all computers to Windows 11. Goals for fiscal year 27 is to add
planning to online permits training and work with newly established training team to create training process and documentation for end users. Safety departments establish regular scheduled on-site hours at police and fire which we have started already.
Continue to research, promote enforce cyber security awareness. Very important. Work with departments to convert physical forms to online fill fillable forms to be available from the website and create or clarify IT policies.
uh operating budget. A lot of that is munis annual fee. Increases in equipment licenses due to additional buildings, all the switches, wireless access points, computers, increases in user licenses due to increase in staff and user accounts and
increase in backup storage and security. software and systems increased by $6,534 due to an increase in the yearly Tyler Muse contract which was after the original budget was submitted. Um obviously no increase in personnel
upcoming in the next five years. All service and support contracts are subject to 5% annual increase. Stricter Massachusetts laws for ADA compliance on digital access may require additional funds to comply with the new state standards and additional
buildings, departments, and staff will increase expenses for both equipment and accounts. No capital requests with the environment. Changing to cloud-based solutions, the need for physical onremise equipment is greatly reduced and routine PC replacements are factored
into operational expenses. That's one area I wish we had more money to >> purchase more computers. >> Maybe next year. >> What's that? >> Maybe next year. >> Um, so Tyler went up 12%.
Unus. >> Yeah. Um, have they given you any inkling as to whether or not there's another anticipated increase this year? >> They have not that I've heard. Maybe Nancy has heard, but that one came in
unexpectedly. So, >> there surprises I would expect it to be around 5%. It's never going to be flat. >> No, everything all the contracts maint
staff to do that. It's expensive. >> We're not in California. I don't care about those. >> So, the ADA requirements actually come in in the next fiscal year. They're not
pushed out to FY28. So, um so is I don't know where you're budgeting for any ADA stuff in this coming year versus future years. Uh so I thought so NY's started exploring that and she just uh did a
webinar on it. I'm not sure if it's this coming fiscal year or the next one where we have to >> I was on that webinar. It's okay. >> June of June of 27th >> or it's some it's either June or April of 27. >> So it's before
>> No, it has to be implemented. >> Oh, it has to be completed. >> Completed. Yes. We're we're a small town. Um, Boston has to be done this by June of this year. So, I just be aware um aware of that
possibly impacting I don't know if it's going to like um it's probably more time than anything else but in training. >> Yes, I think there is there will be additional cost to it. There's lots of webinars to tell you
what you need to do. >> Yes. >> Done. >> Um, how much do we spend on the mun contract annually? >> On the mun that one is 126,000 is what we have budgeted for
FY27. >> Okay. >> If they get you, they get you. >> Any else? >> Thank you. Thanks. >> Thanks. It's an easy slide. $295,000 and uh we didn't give up anything. So,
it's still a 295. One of the things that and Robert and I talked a little bit about it. If there are some smaller deficits as we figure out this whole budget stuff that we're in, we can
reduce that number a little. We used to carry 250,000 years. Few years ago it was increased and it never went back down. So we do have a little extra there. This year um
6. We put extra in that account for the fight violence overtime from last year. We didn't let that go into the budget. We kept it. And Chief Mccur will come to us if he or expenses overtime budget for
his wages budget. Um I think they were just about 50% last time we looked. >> Yes. Actually, even more so, especially with with a
recent storm like that. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So, we can expect something toward the end of the year, but we have extra money in there for this year plus Liz's position. There'll be only two expenditures I can think of. Can you think of anything else yet?
>> You uh mentioned account uh assessor software. >> The assessor software that was >> 15,000. >> It's going to be less than that. going to be less this year. >> So those three things >> are the assessors actually going forward
with that. I know it's been on and off and on and off. Are they actually doing it this year? Okay. >> Yeah. Robin and Kim had Kathy double check the numbers with Patriot to make sure that
>> good was was good. So that's under under control. >> Yes. >> And that's our budget. Uh, is there anything else for tonight for department budget? >> Just want to remind people that didn't
remind everybody up front. Make sure you take your notes and things we want to cut or add Saturday when we talk budgets. Um, we're getting down to the wire. get some additional information and
we'll have a lot to talk about on that side of it. It'll be a busy day. >> Anything else? Madam Chair, you have none. Thank you. >> With that, I will uh look for a motion
to go into executive session. I'll move that the finance committee vote to enter into executive session pursuant to MGL chapter 3A and 21A3
to discuss strategy with respect to collective bar bargaining specifically regarding health insurance negotiations as discussing these matters in open session would have detrimental effect on the bargaining position.
of the town >> and not to come back to open session action. >> Okay. Not to come back to open session. >> All right. We need a roll call. Sam. >> Yes. Y
>> I move the select board vote to enter to executive session pursuing national law chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss motion >> with respect to collective bargaining specifically regarding health insurance
negotiations as as discussing these matters in open session would have detrimental effect on bargaining position of the to return. >> Mark's not coming back to