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I didn't see you that's okay I saw you last year are you guys all set yes y y we're all good to go yep stand by thank you and 5 4 3 2 1 Welcome to the March 24th 2025 meeting of the long meow
select board this is Select board chair ven haavi I'll be confirming that all members and persons anticipate on the agenda are present and can hear me Members when I call your name please respond in the affirmative Dan Zoro Here Andrew lamb here Mark gold here Josh LaVine here staff when I call your name
please respond in the affirmative Lyn Simmons here here this open meeting of the long met select board is convened in person and Via Zoom webinar as posted on the agenda and Town's website identifying how the public may join there's no chat or Q&A function all the materials for this meeting are available
on the agenda posted on Longet ma.gov the public is encouraged to follow along using the posted agenda unless I note otherwise this meeting will feature resident comment for residents attending the meeting in person please raise your hand when we get to the comment section of the meeting and I will call on you to
approach the microphone for res participating in the meeting via Zoom webinar format please use the raise hand icon at the bottom of the screen the meeting moderator will promote you to panelist unmute you and give you permission to speak if you join the webinar by phone dial star9 to raise your hand and star 6 to mute unmute
residents who wish to speak will identify their names and addresses only each individual is afforded three minutes for comments please note that this meeting is being recorded and that some attendees are participating by video conference please remember to meet your phone or computer when you're not speaking if anyone in attendance is
recording this meeting please announce yourself now okay great we will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God
indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right we will now do select Bo announcements the annual town meeting is May 13th warrants will be distributed to households on April 24th the annual Town election is June 3rd nomination papers
are available in the town clerk's office and completed nomination papers must be returned by April 15th for a complete list of positions on the ballot visit Long Meadow ma.gov The Long Meadow Community Earth Day cleanup is looking for volunteers for this year's community cleanup on April 5th from 10:00 a.m. to
2: p.m. volunteers are still needed if if you're interested please visit long meow ma.gov SL1 1241 earth-day the planning board will hold a public hearing on April 2nd regarding the 9116 William Street site and design
review application you may send correspondence to the planning board by emailing planning department Longet ma.gov or by sending postmail to the uh to the planning board at 231 Maple Road all materials are on the active case File site on the town website under the
folder marked 2025 02051 916 William Street okay uh that's it for announcements we will now move into resident comments anyone here to make a resident comment you can come up uh to the microphone name address and uh you get
three minutes thank you uh Scott Foster 1587 longm Street members of the select board I first want to thank you for your service very few individuals in our town of high achieving personalities are willing to sacrifice time their spouses and children and commit to serving the town
through Civic engagement like you I'm sure your children look up to each of you and that you surely must realize the example you're setting for others I looked up to my own father as he selflessly served in the same position as you for multiple terms serving as chair more than once I noticed his care and attention looking out for the town's
long-term interests often advocating for programs and improvements that would still be benefiting the town long after he is gone he was willing to hear different perspectives and he came prepared to discuss issues in detail he was and still is a proud veteran I believe the last one to serve in the select board when in 2023 he was asked
to step into a vacant seat on the board of assessors my father again answered the call as you know each member of the board of assessors is required to take and pass an online exam offered by the Commonwealth my father was willing to devote the time necessary to become a qualified board member and he took the
appointment very seriously his dedication and devotion was noted by the long-term chair of the board Michael Zeller who served on the board for Assessors for 15 years and who has since resigned and protest for reasons that continue to baffle me a member of the board has seen fit to repeatedly defame my father in
public and on camera claiming he made a town employees job quote more difficult and caused a quote undue burden on Town resources apparently insisting a town employee compliant with Massachusetts law makes a job more difficult and correct ing correspondence erroneously
sent out by a town employee to town residents poses an undue burden on Town resources perhaps the select board should give the benefit of the doubt to a long-term resident and public servant instead of giving credence to vague allegations made by a short-term non-resident employee rather than launch
launching ad unfounded ad hominum attacks perhap the select board should ask why did a town employee hire the only remaining incumbent member of the board of assessors essentially her supervisor as her mortgage loan originator in September
2024 perhaps the select board should wonder why a town employee that engages in behavior that seems to be a clear violation of the Massachusetts conflict of interest law is so eager to throw off the Yoke of responsible oversight and instead Curry favor with elicit transactions each of you speak from a
power of authority as an elected official in our town and at least three of you are licensed professionals surely you recognize the need to take personal responsibility for your public comments rather than offering the weakest of fake apologies to those who may have been hurt by poor choice of
words Our Town deserves to be represented by elected officials that rise above Petty personal politics and demonstrate maturity professionalism and thoughtfulness to all of you I have a simple demand do
better thank you anyone else here yep you call on up don't worry it's something different Tom Shay 81 Green Meadow as you know I was the one that came up with the idea to use interest on stabilization funds for Capital
expenditures that will make over $400,000 of extra money available annually this pres presented the finance committee in December this afternoon you received a draft policy from me that the town was previously provided but did not adopt I advise you to review and adopt
what I gave you among other things it corrects the improper term from 2018 and adopts the use of interest on stabilization as the third permitted use rather than the separate unconnected paragraph onto the budget as you have heard in joint sessions with the select
board school committee and finance committee all Express frustration with the town's infrastructure and DPW performance one participant said the DPW is in shambles major recurring mold issues at Wolf Swamp and Center School most
recently again at Center School are absolutely unacceptable and public health issues how to fix it the DPW budget is increasing by 44,000 7.6% were we not doing heac maintenance previously
150,000 and are we planning for mold or is there mold now that you need $50,000 to remediate people need to know if there's mold now a detailed implementation plan on the turnaround of the DPW needs to be
presented to the select board in April including who is accountable hiring process timeline to fully implement and measurement of progress monthly at a select board meeting a project report on the turnaround needs to be presented by
the head of the DPW HR director and town manager to report progress over two years ago two select board members requested this type of monthly meeting it has never happened two of you Citizens need to see a plan in progress
It's their money and infrastructure get this monthly meeting on the select board agenda for April otherwise we'll be talking about it at the town meeting in May monthly DPW report to town manager and select Board needs to show hiring and vacancy percentages need to show a
heat map of open work orders by crit criticality and aging I'm going to run out of time but let's get onto the capital plan why not bond for the Center School Chiller in the blueberry one 900,000 for next year totaling 1.6 million as part of the other bonding
it's Finance 101 to finance over the life of the assets which are 20 years old the use of the annual capital budget for 26,000 which you propose is actually against your Capital policy additional Capital we always look for more Capital
defer the OPB and Fir Tru 425,000 pick a project and then use free cash of a million which is after the snow funding in November I'm out of time but thank you very all right thank you anyone else
here for a comment do we have anyone online no no okay all right we uh so the next item on the agenda is a presentation uh about our water and sewer rate evaluation that is going to be delayed until next week uh or our
next meeting sorry so we will now go into select board comments if anyone has a comment Mark I have a couple I would Ed a couple of um agency meetings on behalf of the select board just wanted to comment that the pvta which is the bus
transportation program uh for the Pioneer Valley continues to show increased ridership and I want to remind everybody that ridership in pbta buses is free and it's important for people know that that's part of the reason the
ridership is up but unfortunately ridership in what's called par transitor di ride is not free and uh we do have a extensive use of that in the town of Long Meadow I think it's wonderful we have two systems actually in Long Meadow
something called the trown trolley which is Long Meadow East Long Meadow and I think Hampton and and that that runs at a pretty low rate but after hours they do use di ride and uh because the usage is way up which is actually excellent in
town uh I think you'll see in the budget that our assessment from dvta is up a little bit I took time and spent some time with them to find out the assessment process and and split it's ridiculously complicated but
nevertheless it's it's worth listening to if somebody is interested in how we got our our our allocation it it it's ultimately fair but it's it's necessary so the pbta is is is out there uh the other is that that attended the building
committee who uh at at the as a result of the permanent building committee meeting they decided to write a letter to the select board uh expressing their concerns about the capital plan and that letter was in our packet today and so I would point that out to everybody who uh
who who may be looking at the packet it was the reflection of a sense of discussion I guess at their uh the the meeting they had late last last week and finally the recycling committee is is continuing to meet and they're getting
close they want to thank people who participated in the survey on trash bins I think the people are finding out that a 95 gallon trash bin which they call a container is humongous and and uh so they may be adjusting that a little bit
but uh it was very very valuable information and I know they're they're working on it diligently to get those on order great thank you Andrew uh following along with with Mark with what Mark said I also attended a recent recycling committee meeting and I was really Blown Away by how hard these
people on the committee are working to try to find the best solution for the town the survey did show that most were in favor of the largest for paper and cardboard and certainly I'm sure we all know people who are strongly in favor of that but some people have also visited them in person which I encourage
everyone to do at the DPW like the vestibule at the entrance to go check them out because the committee is still avidly seeking feedback uh which you can uh share by emailing any U member of the committee which you can find on the town website their the individuals names and
emails and also you can message them on Facebook um also uh Dan and I went to a recent school budget Summit I think they called it which was really interesting Lynn helped organize that and it was basically uh a representatives from like
12 towns in the area all with the same concerns about the uh difficulty basically providing level Services uh in our school districts and we talked about the problem and how to best advise and solicit help from our legislators uh
specific challenges like special ed and Behavioral Health Services and what to do about uncertainty regarding federal grants and things like that so I thought it was very productive and the group composed a letter basically that will help advocate for ourselves essentially um with our legislators and hopefully
make some difference great thank you uh Dan yeah the the one one thing to thank you for bringing that up Andrew I think the one thing that I found important uh was really the uncertainty especially at the federal level with the current Administration what we're talking about
potentially the impact what it would mean to Long Meadow with like $900,000 uh potentially uh in cuts and what that might mean to uh to Long Meadow and I think residents should know that you know superintendent OA and um the
finance director uh Tom Maza are following this on a regular basis so um I I'd like to say that we're in good hands in terms of being proactive and and kind of seeing what's going on at the federal level even though there is certainly a lot of uncertainty um we're
definitely keeping an eye on on how we can best handle uh potential Cuts so uh something to keep an eye on but I did want to mention that I thought it was also a good a good event to attend thank you Josh uh I just wanted to comment on first on the
the recycling bins uh humongous is the right word I I went when I picked up my dump sticker I could not believe how big it was that it will not fit in anyone's shed it won't fit anywhere it's absolutely massive um so uh I I wish more people have gone to look at it
before they did the survey I think it might have changed their minds um I just wanted to mention uh monthly update on the Middle School building committee uh at our last meeting we had a lengthy discussion on on uh HVAC and power and
uh the energy exchange using the groundwater uh it if anyone watched it unless they were an engineer it was probably was very confused it was all Greek to me but I think uh it I clearly we have some good Consultants who know
what they're doing and they're we're opting for a good design I think or honing in on it that will use ultimately a lot fewer um ground Wells than was initially anticipated so that will save some money
so that's good uh overall it'll be very efficient uh there's room for uh solar panels down the road so uh there's a lot of it's going to be a pretty green building if it all goes through uh and also we had a a brief discussion and you
can see how things evolve as we talk two meetings ago we looked at outside designs and there were some you know cool modern looking things but our questions were mostly focused on how do we keep this keep the maintenance pretty easy and cheap for long term because DPW is
stretched as it is and even though we'll have one building we may have another big field at Glenbrook so um the the design came back with a lot materials that would take no maintenance they'll put in Plants they'll be uh naturally
low growing or they're native plants so um it you know they're you can see consultants and our design team working with us and evolving the design as we go and again I anti encourage people to to watch the meeting uh watch the meetings
every month and uh participate send in ideas uh we we certainly listen and I I hope we hear i' would like to hear from people more before we're leading up to the vote Now's the Time to really participate and uh frame nudge things
how you want along thank you great all right thank you everyone uh ly town man uh so as I mentioned at my last report in the beginning of March um the natural grass versus artificial turf study has been completed the Public Presentation is scheduled for Thursday
April 3rd at 6:30 p.m. at the adult center a link to the full studies available in my town manager report and it's also on the homepage of the town website the town's Municipal aggregation plan um has been approved by dpu good
energy the town's Municipal aggregation contractor is going to solicit requests for proposals from energy suppliers in late April 20125 negotiations will then take place with the expectation for the new plan to go live in August of 2025
leading up to the go live date there will be a substantial amount of education for the community and linked here in my report is a recent uh release from dep division of local Services who was sharing parx's
January 1st 2025 list of retirement boards by funded ratio um this is a Statewide list that was prepared the chart that I have linked in my report um shows the top five um funded facil
funded uh Retirement Systems and the bottom five least funded Retirement Systems and sadly uh the Hampton County Regional retirement system of which are a part of ranks number five in the lowest percent percentages at
54.7% funded um we're joined in that category by the City of Springfield Fall River Worcester Regional and New Bedford and so you can review that um entire report it's linked in my study or I'm sorry in my the study is linked in my
report that's all I have tonight yeah go ahead Mark I'd just like to add to what Lynn said about the Hampton County Retirement Board that uh it's the five lowest they analyzed 99 different pension plans throughout the state also
in that report and why it's I think it's worth looking at is the projected date at which it will meet its their they will meet their funding uh requirement and the Hampton County has been pushed out yet again and so I think it's worth
people seeing the the projected date that that it is in in essence and I apologize for the vernacular it's a shambles the the h County Regional Retirement Board not to mention the fact that they are 6 Months 8 months 9 months
behind on issuing us a an audit of their Actuarial numbers which is required for us to ISS to complete our annual audit that's why we have not yet done our 20 fiscal year
2024 budget audit because we're waiting on Hampton County and we continue to wait on them and continue and it's not us it's us and 35 other organizations you know it we're it's just it's just a mess and you know there's not a whole
lot we can do apparently but from my mind we've got to find something because there the five of of 99 programs they the five fifth lowest funded they're continue to extend out when they'll be funded they can't even do simple audits
of their their system and and they don't do the audit internally they hire an outside company at I think it's uh uh I forgot the name of the company that that that does it does it and and they can't even put it together so it's just it's just a mess and I appreciate Lynn that you continue to bring this to
everybody's keep this on the Forefront of everybody's attention anyone else okay uh thank you Lynn um and next we'll move into Old business and we don't have any meeting minutes to approve tonight um so then you will soon
work on um and then we can move into our discussion about the operating stabilization fund policy update the policy that reflected our discussion from last meeting is attached to the agenda hopefully we can get a vote on this tonight but any um comments
questions um about this before we maybe vote on this Josh I guess the only issue I I would see is are we comfortable with not having language in there what happens when we do get above
10% and I I know I think it's Moot and based on our discussion last time for the most part because we can stop moving money in um and the interest rates have to go really wild up uh for it to really be an issue um so if we're comfortable with it I I'm okay with it I just want
to bring it up again since we didn't address that yeah I think um I think what we ended up saying at the last meeting was that that would be just a separate discussion that we have in Ian and maybe the finance committee we're going to look into how to yeah um maybe
some ideas for how to handle that I also I mean I think that that was uh that's a very interesting discussion to have I think we were having so much trouble just getting through the basic uh matter at hand that we basically said let's just talk about that another time I I felt it was kind of mood as well because
at any point in time anyone could have a two3 vote of the town meeting if we needed to use the money for something um I also want to thank Mr Tom Shay for um Coming with this idea to present to the finance committee essentially I think that it's definitely created
uh an interesting thing for them to put forward and I think that it's it's definitely an interesting use of funds that I think we've all got kind of gotone on board with uh Mr Shay did uh provide a lot of like edits and such and that's not what we have before us I
personally am comfortable in general with what is here rather than I think it just definitely um rather than kind of continue to a lot of the minutia some of which I just I kind of brought up last time I think at this point it it basically accomplishes what we generally
the consensus I believe agrees with so um I was happy with uh what's here okay anything else I'll move we amend the operation stabilization fund policy as listed on
the agenda second any further discussion all right all those in favor okay great next up we've got the town manager FY 2026 budget presentation thank you I know you got to juggle a lot here yeah
let me get the PowerPoint up here [Music] okay okay so I think that that is sharing okay all right uh thanks yes so tonight I have um the FY 26 Town budget um just
going to quickly review for you um how we got here where where we started um um so as you might recall in December of 24 we did a joint meeting with the select board school committee finance committee at that time there were initial Revenue Source projections um using our four
funding sources that we primarily uh can look to the proposition 2 and a half tax levy the state aid and local receipts you see the numbers up there that we were um anticipating at the time um I will call out that that state aid number because it comes up later on in the
presentation but at in December we were um conservatively estimating a 4% increase it's been right around where we estimate every year and then we had some expense projections that we used in December based on what we knew at the time um and
all of that combined to give us a projected budget deficit of a little over $700,000 so then um after that kickoff Department worksheets go out and everybody starts working on their budgets they get those back to Ian and I
early January and we start um putting things together and other numbers start to come into Focus outside of town departments like health insurance um liability and then uh what the governor's budget proposal is uh has been submitted for uh and so at least in
this budget you have here tonight um it's balanced without the use of reserves uses the full um allowable Levy uh the of the 2 and a half% and it provides much needed funding to DPW operations to carry out the goals that
you've been presented over the last year or two um specifically in the area of buildings grounds trees and storm water so this is a a large overview of apologies of where it's probably easier
if I do this in sled show okay sorry about that okay um so as you see uh we're showing here what our Revenue highlights are um and all of this drills down to show you where we end up balancing or
how we end up balancing um so the the largest is our property taxes so that represents um both the 2 and a half% and then new growth um the state aid that I talked about as we projected in December we were projecting 4% turned out to be 2.2 so
that's what is in the governor's proposal um it remains to be seen if that's what will end up being adopted but that's what we go with once we have that something concrete submitted that's what we end up modifying our budget to follow um if you might recall last year
um we did we did the same thing we go with the budget um that the governor submitted and then depending on what ends up getting past um is what we end up actually having for um state revenue um and last year we ended up doing
better than we had projected and then we were able to do some more for DPW and the schools we did budget amendment at the annual Town me special town meeting in the fall uh and so who knows what'll happen this time hopefully it's better than 2.2% um hopefully it's not less but
we'll just keep monitoring that as it makes its way through the process and this gives you a just an overview of where departments are based on where they were uh for the fy2 budget as amended um and we show the percent
change but also the dollar change and while the percent change is interesting it doesn't tell the full story because some of these Department budgets are so small that um a a larger looking percent change actually doesn't truly reflect the dollar amount that goes with with it
so here you see um just how things shook out and I go into a little bit more detail below and I'll I'll also be able to answer any questions that you have related to some of these numbers so the big notable items in this budget um and while this top bullet here
is not necessarily a dollar amount notable item it does have long- lasting implications so this is related to the new curbside um residential trash and recycling company contract uh we we go out to bid for a 5-year contract um we
just did that um it's what we've been talking about with the new um automated bins for recycling um the new contract for 26 has its cost savings over 25 so over our current contract and while it's not a lot switching to automated
collection does offer us substantial Savings in all of the out years as well so that is an important investment that saves US money over the long term um a a small other small investment is uh an increase to the cultural Council
every year this group comes and asks me for additional money they receive more applications than they have funding for and these are direct uh programs out in the community and this year we were able to do a pretty substantial increase for them from the $2,000 that they've seen
over the last four fiscal years to $5,000 uh and so that will go a long way for them to be able to offer programs in the community um one of the significant cost savings actually in our budget this year or this coming year is the scantic Valley
Regional Health trusts our health insurance was a 4% increase um we were originally projecting 7% in December so we were able to save some money when it came in at 4% but the biggest highlight here is the fact that most of our other
communities um that are outside of scantic Valley have double- digigit increases anywhere from from 14 to 19% in health insurance which is driving a lot of the uh conversation you're seeing related to um school funding falling short because if your health insurance
numbers are going up that high you're not able to fund your largest um budget expense which is generally your schools and so we are very fortunate that um gantic Valley offered the 4% increase um because we are not having to go after
departments to help make up a difference in that um with this budget we're also able to put more funding at OPB than we originally thought we would but I will call out that it does not meet your policy um but it is an effort um more
than we were able to do last year until we made it up at the fall town meeting um but so this is at least a a better reflection of what we've been able to do than what we've been able to do in the last couple um budgets and um one of the big budget
Drive you'll see in the public safety increase was the fact that both police and fire now are absorbing 100% of the regional dispatch cost assessment so uh the grant was a 5-year Grant it trickled down from the first three years being
100% supported by the state to 50% then to 25 this is the first year we're at 100% on the towns um footing the assessment and so we split that between police and fire budgets so that's a pretty substantial increase for those budgets that's why you'll see that number number look as high as it
does um so the one that I I feel um most positive about here is that we have been able to make a pretty significant investment in the DPW for the 26 budget um you had been presented with various reports over the last two fiscal years
uh one of them more recently regarding trees and you'll see that we have a almost 24% increase in the tree budget we're able to add um money to take care of some of the trees that need um to be removed and or just cleaned up and then
we're also making a significant investment in tree planting to replace some of the uh shade canopy that we've lost over the years we're also able to add for turf management so this was actually going to build on top of what we were able to add last year so we're
incrementally making improvements to that line item to actually um try to reflect what it really is going to take to maintain our fields to the standard that we expect them to be at same with athletic fields so that's a pretty significant increase in
grounds um Building Maintenance enhancements uh while we have been able to make some significant improvements there I will say that it is um just a drop in the bucket our buildings need a lot of work um and so we're starting here with funding HVAC Services through
a contract we have been unsuccessful in hiring an HVAC person uh for almost 2 years now and we are going to contract this out uh and if we are able to eventually hire someone then we can scale back on that contract but we do need the funding there in order to make
sure this work is getting done and then remediation of organic growth is a new ad this year um over I'd say at least three to five fiscal years we have um had popup situations of um organic
growth in buildings not just School buildings but Town buildings as well it is turning into a um situation that we just need to be responsibly prepared for um between the changing climate and some issues with HVAC Systems off and on this
is just a a normal um business practice now that we need to get ready for uh responding to and so this is a an effort to have funds available to respond as needed some new requests in DPW um are fence repair and playground maintenance
so these are ones that arguably should have been in the budget for ever they just should be standard items in a DPW budget uh they have not been and so we're actually able to do that this year we have fences all around town that there was no funding mechanism to make
repairs or replacement to this will um start to address that and then playground maintenance again um when you invest in assets like we have you have to maintain them and we did did not have a line item to do that maintenance called out so um we are making an effort
to do that here ly are those two for U materials or is that for contracts um it could be either but here it's going to be for um materials we don't have contracts in place for for either of these so that would be uh DPW staff that would make those repairs um Pro
hopefully uh if it was something larger or more specialized we may contract it out it may be more cost advantageous to do that and then um new staff positions so we have um positions added in the areas of operation Foreman maintenance
custodians a couple more laborers and a clerk for the DPW to handle the workload that's coming in we've noticed that that's been an issue uh over the years with um not only responding to calls but also inputting work orders into the
system and then tracking them and then just providing just basic administrative support to the Visions there so some of the challenges we had as I already spoke about um state aid came in lower than we had originally projected um another issue is that uh
the school committee request came in at 3.2% uh in this budget I am only proposing to fund it at 3% which is an $81,000 difference um I do want to point out though that the school committee
requests whether it's the 3.2% or a 3% is um a reasonable request uh the school committee is grappling with a lot of challenges in uh Rising costs that they do not have control over uh I spent the
entire day today at a joint Ways and Means Committee public hearing that was all about education funding and local Aid and we are very fortunate that we are not facing a lot of the challenges that many other communities around us are facing
between the health insurance number and the fact that we do not pay for busing um to the extent that many of these other schools do uh we Faire much better um and so I do want to point out that although I'm not able to fund their budget at the
3.2% um even that request is not out of the realm uh and so I really thank the superintendent and the assisted superintendent for the work that they've done to maintain uh the school budget and the parameters that they have and I do think that this is something that we're going to need to um keep close
watch on and be strong advocates for at the state level because we do need a fundamental change in education funding because it's going to rely more and more on cities and towns unless we do have that change so enough on that topic um and uh just pointing out that while I am
making a significant recommendation to improve DPW funding it is not the full extent of what DPW does need uh in order to get us there I think we're going to have to Chip Away away year-over-year but this is a big step in the right direction uh one of the other challenges
and you'll see this in um our other conversation that we'll have relates to aging infrastructure uh and so I know you all know this but the arpa funds have heavily subsidized the storm water utility and those funds have gone away
and but the work needed to maintain our and improve our storm water infrastructure has not gone away and so you'll see um in the budget we're um recommending uh one of the larger repair projects uh for raspberry Brook is going
to be uh funded with a hybrid approach of the operating budget and capital uh and so we'll get into that in a little bit uh one number that continues to climb and it's not keeping Pace with what we're able to fund in the budget is vehicle maintenance and and uh vehicle
replacement costs so this is the second year in a row that the fire department has exhausted all of their vehicle replacement funds midyear and have had to go to the finance Reserve fund and make that request we're incrementally increasing the uh vehicle maintenance
line in fire and police but it's likely not going to be enough but um we're going to continue to monitor that uh and then also we have um been replacing police cruisers through the operating budget that's been the standard practice
instead of capital the cost for uh Cruiser replacement has just gone up and up and up over the last few fiscal years what used to what we used to be able to buy for $50,000 is now a standard 70,000 and so it's really hard to absorb that in a relatively small uh Public Safety
budget um but we do have that in this this budget here and then obviously what we've all deal with all the time is that we have limited Revenue sources to continue um to fund our operating costs so that's something we're always going to continue to
Monitor and so what we're looking at for the future obviously we're going to monitor the state budget just to see if there's increases or decreases to unrestricted government Aid any uh changes to Chapter 70 one thing that's not related to the state budget is the net metering
agreements I know uh we've talked about this over the last year we're very close to finalizing the last bit of change with our last net metering agreement once we do that um I should have a much better picture on how I can redistribute those credits that are
currently sitting on our streetlight account that should have some Financial savings for the utility lines in various budgets um we're also closely monitoring any changes to programs or grants with that we're receiving Federal funding so
this is not just the schools although that's a big number um the land and water conservation fund Grant that's upgrading Bliss park playground that is a Federal grant uh so we're at this point still um have the funding available to us but it's unclear if
that's going to stay so we're monitoring that and then certainly um economic uncertainty that we're really not sure what this next year is going to pan out for so as we generally do I provide the just our overall fund reserves for the
last um 10 or so fiscal years you can see we've had significant growth get this to work just our fund balances as of right now as of I'm sorry as of uh January 31st um that free cash number
you'll want to keep an eye on because uh you'll get your first draft of the warrant in the next conversation and that's where we're pulling some of those warrant article funding items from that brings us to the end um finance committee will hold a public
hearing and then you will vote on your budget which will then become your budget on April 7th for inclusion in the warrant for the annual town meeting and this PowerPoint along with the um Town manager budget message the line item
budget and the sources and uses have all been uploaded to the town manager website great thank you L uh any questions comments from the board mark thank and I I guess I
have a lot of questions not just about line items but in general the one of the things that I guess you know people do in their home budgets is when things get very very expensive they relook at Capital purchases and I'm speaking
specifically here about the police vehicles because they are an operating budget line item not a capital budget line item and you know people who may drive by through and around the police department notice that
there's a lot of vehicles there and so I guess the question is you know we we had when when we had the money we were on a pretty good cycle of two vehicles two vehicles three vehicles two vehicles two vehicles three vehicles and the question is at what point is it time to rethink
that and squeeze another year out of our vehicles recognizing there is a cost in maintenance to do that but you know vehicles are are very very expensive the other part of that I think is the you know the maintenance cost of our
vehicles that you you highlighted you know one of the justifications or one of the ideals we thought of with the new DPW facility was we would have a full-time mechanic and take care of all of our own maintenance
on the vehicles and invariably there's police vehicles certainly and other Town Vehicles down at the local garage down here getting routine maintenance done and I think that you know when times are are are financially difficult somehow we
got to figure out a way to get back to that process of taking care of our own vehicles and even stretching out the time between them I thought you said you had a lot of lot of com I'll do one at a time I mean I'll look somebody else yeah I just
just looking at I appreciate this Lynn by the way I know you put a lot of work into it um so I I was just curious with the shift over the town hall over to to Greenwood um is it too early to start kind of seeing what kind of savings that
we have um just overall whether it's you know like copying machines and and things like that I'm just curious if we're seeing some of those savings already with with the move yeah great question um it's a little soon but uh we are seeing not only savings but
efficiencies uh we did uh make a a drastic change to how departments print and copy records or or anything for that matter um and we're still working out some of the Kinks with that um it's a
system called paper cut and it literally tracks every single person's quantity of um photo copies or or printing um and then we get monthly reports for that and so Ian and I are diving into that with the new IT director to figure out the
best way to track that and assess it to departments um but there W there is going to be a cost savings from that um uh one of the things that threw some of that off this time is we did it midy year and also um the town
clerk was um was taking a step at looking at a different way to print the census this past year and actually brought that inh house thinking it would be a cost savings uh and so that skewed our paper numbers from what we've normally done so we're analyzing whether
that really was a cost savings or not to Outsource this Outsource vers um bring it inous so I can have more information on that probably as we close out this fiscal year but it's definitely something we're tracking um and if it's not going the way I want um or Envision
it going then we'll figure out why um because they're on the face of it there should absolutely be a cost savings there's less um equipment than we had before just with like the energy cost though too I'm just thinking having everyone in that in the building there are we seeing a difference just with the
high cost of energy and having to heat these buildings and um there hasn't been a tremendous energy cost change uh the we were heating the building anyway um and actually that um facility gets a lot
warmer than we were used do so most staff are keeping the thermostat pretty low um but I can run all of that uh and have a better idea once we get a little more time under us and have uh summer numbers to calculate in and then just a couple other ones
that I I took notes on um I was really happy to see the the athletic fields cuz that's something that I know personally I I hear a lot there our fields are in bad shape obviously uh wol swamp Fields excellent um but there's other fields that that need
um a lot of help so I'm glad to see that that we've increased those items as well as um you know ongoing maintenance for for our playgrounds too that was a in my opinion never really should have been a contentious issue in the past with the you know some members of the finance committee but um I'm glad that we we
funded that and and we're going to move forward continuing to fund that so thank you Josh I have some L on questions on the first page um you had a Town Council
the request was 64,000 and it was actually 48,000 I understand that's that is an increase on the monthly retainer why was there $64,000 request in the first place uh when we did the original budget projection
there was discussion about them um Our Town Council needing to increase their rates um the workload was more more substantial with us than they had originally anticipated and so the retainer was going to go up um luckily
the retainer didn't go up as much as we had projected in December and then just a couple lines down on the increase to fully fund the legal budget I I know we've recently had a few legal matters come off our plate uh why the large
increase and are are we backfilling or is this for ever Source I guess uh no we're we're not backfilling um but we have had to replenish the legal fund every single year um actually since I've
been here some of that was due to DPW some of that was due to the dpu matter um but what was happening was other things were popping up and we were pulling from the legal budget maybe funds that were um earmarked for DPW or
for um the dpu case cable um and then some lawsuits that came in uh and so this is an effort to more adequately project what we think is going to cost based on just the trends that have been
happening um I my goal is that we do not have to use any free cash to supplement the legal budget okay and in theory not going would it could be less far less than that yep okay yep um thank you Lynn for putting this
together I thank you also for sitting with me earlier this week literally letting me torture you going line by line I I really thought I it was clear that you put a ton of thought into literally every line of the budget um I think that uh you know I was certainly satisfied myself that this I think this
does a good job of meeting like our most important priorities obviously it's a difficult situation there's a limited amount of funds um I was very glad that the DPW as you know is being supported we're sacrificing things like you mentioned the OPB um I'm certainly hopeful that in the fall that that could
be you know supplemented as well so thank you and uh back to you mark great how going if you don't mind Lyn just go through some line items and and and I guess that concerned me many of the questions you did answer but you know like the DPW clerical I assume that's
the clerk that's being added and and and things like that but the there's one thing traffic control pretty up pretty substantially $115,000 on a $25,000 budget what's that is that do too you uh can you just tell me your line just so I
can get to it quicker my line item is 346 uh something like that yeah 348 it's in this it's in the spreadsheet Excel spread oh yep I got it here uh 346 on mine um yes so this is the
um the uh literally our traffic control devices is our our intersections um this is more this is accurately reflecting the contract that we have for um some of that signal maintenance uh and also
um uh repairs that have been needed uh the costs of those repairs have actually been staggering um in some of the spots in town you may or may not know do not work uh specifically the biss and Long Meadow Street intersection that's one we've Ted talked about quite a bit in
terms of our um traffic and Roads Advisory Group and um DPW needs more money to maintain what we currently have okay thank you in in the DPW you've show an increase this in line 408 in
utilities and after your comment about the again unknown but the the settlement on on our distribution of of net metering wouldn't it be more likely that utilities are going to stay level as a
as a town given all the credits that we can put in there um this remains to be seen so the the cost right now um is going up based on what the Departments submit to me what they know right now is the cost
goes up they're not privy to the entire conversation on the net metering agreement changes or the how the credits are going to be distributed so when they submit a budget it's based on on what they know uh it's possible that the this line 408 the utilities and the grounds
maintenance department will be the beneficiary of a lot of those rewards I I don't know yet um but they are not the heavy utility user uh and so I think moving forward I would be targeting those reward not reward those um those
credits toward our higher energy users maybe you can just explain for the people at home I think I understand how where the credits are and how they're going to potentially benefit somebody in this town yeah so this is um this is a multi-layered project here so
we have net metering agreements we are buying solar energy credits uh and they were being applied to the streetlight account um the streetlight account previously was uh a pretty high use energy user when we had the high press
sodium lights we swapped two LED lights and so our energy use went down significantly the we were still purchasing the same amount of solar credits and they were being applied to the streetlight account and not being able to be used because uh we were not
consuming enough uh Power in order to apply those credits to and so we've credits have amassed on that account and um in the meantime we've been working on modifying our net meeting agreements to cash out um the one of the agreements
that we have and so so we will no longer have credits being applied to the account it will literally be in the form of a a check that's sent to the town not going to get into the all the nitty-gritty we're still working on in terms of dispersement of that check um but what will then happen once that
agreement has been modified we will then go to eversource who lets you one time redistribute credits out from one account to as many other counts as you want and so we will take that opportunity that one-time opportunity to figure out what our credit balance is at
that point in time and then distribute it out to the various uh utility accounts both town and school side and then we're going to myself Ian uh Lisa at the DPW and um our new energy manager are going to sit down and figure out
what makes the most sense in terms of Distributing those credits thank you you show a fairly substantial increase actually a doubling in the in the
DPW which is really the recycling over overtime solid waste recycling overtime 9512 I assume that's for work down at the recycling center although it doesn't say that I'm wondering why that
increasing increasing so much yes uh so the overtime at the uh recycling center we um this is a a couple different things um but the primary driver is that we have had sign significant staff turnover down there and when we have staff turnover of recycling attendance
we have to force overtime for our general laborers or um others in the DPW Division and so that's why you see that that going up the last year this fy2 budget they um did not have enough
funding in overtime to cover the cost so this is to more accurately reflect what it takes to actually run that facility is there commence for increase in our recy sales of recycling stickers to to cover this I mean if
no I guess the next question should there be you know should should we have should we be covering you know and it's kind of rhetorical question but but one would think that that would have happened
anyway so uh and and the other you know just a a quick comment about about opep my concern about underfunding opep is that we don't find ourselves in the same situation that the Hampton County
Retirement Board is with funding the retire uh pension plan that we're on a path to fund that and I think we need to stick on that fund and I appreciate that it's something easy to cut because it's not immediately available but as I said
at the last meeting there's 83 million or something like that in the OPB fund that could spin off some substantial amount of money and and it it' be a shame not to fund oped because you know it's the we save a few dollars
now and it costs us a few plus dollars down the down the road so I think it's it's a some it's a concern I think we should all have the last thing ly is I you know I I I'm very conscious of of staff additions here that seem to be
make a lot of sense but I guess my I'd like to know how we're making sure we don't add to the hole that we're digging for opad band retirees for staff and new staff in other words what are we fully
funding their full cost or are we just funding their salary and immediate benefits because of a person hired today May cost us a substantial amount of money down in the retirement plan and and it'd be ideal if we said you know
somebody were hiring today and we're paying them X doll per hour we have to put aside yll into an opep fund specifically for them otherwise we just are falling behind every time we hire somebody um so to answer that one no
we're not putting aside uh funding for when we make a new hire um toward their OPB other than what we're doing in our opep contribution anything else just real quick um in terms of local receipts so was around
172k um are there areas that jump out uh just compared to other years and just wondering I I like to see when our receipts are up of course I'm just wondering yeah let me get what's driving that you know yeah um so we some of the
good things is that um our meals tax generally stays pretty stable so that's even when the market takes a dive or um even during the pandemic we did not see um a significant reduction in meals tax like many other communities saw with um
you know large downtowns that relied on that uh Revenue source so that's been a generally a good thing so I feel pretty comfortable with that where that number stays um uh the ambulance receipts that number is has been growing year over year over
year and that's one we Ian and I and uh Chief Ry carefully watch um as much as we want to up that number that ends up having uh an effect on the backside which is any Revenue in excess of what we've projected here goes into the
ambulance fund so we don't want to up that projection too much and then short ourselves on the ambulance fund so we watch that carefully um and then one of the ones that Ian and I had some kind kind of almost last minute conversations about were motor vehicle excise that's
one that we have been conservative in our estimates on and is an area where we could up it um but we felt like we we were not comfortable upping it more than
we did this year um because of so much uncertainty in the market right now and whether or not it's going to yield people cooling off from buying cars or um if if uh there's going to be delay in actually having supply for new cars so
we we didn't feel comfortable messing with that number too much yet um once we have this kind of year and this new Administration under us maybe next year is a year we could look at I think things might hopefully shake out and stabilize potentially um who knows but
um that's that's when we've been um we kind of had some last minute discussions about and then uh one I just I want to point out um because Ian and I have also discussed this one in great detail actually and this is the MGM money um so this is not
money not Revenue that we can count on forever and so Ian and I have talked about um phasing it out of our budget at some point like slowly so it's not one big hit when the um surrounding Community payment goes away um but we
have not been able to do that yet we've we tried to do it last year and we weren't able to and then this year with going into the budget with a $700,000 gap and then that Gap growing we just we weren't able to to start whittling down our um Reliance on that
money but um it is something to consider that eventually that 320 plus th000 will not be there for us and that will be a big gap okay anything else Josh I U you covered a lot of my line item questions
uh one just small thing but line 102 is postage it's $43,000 which is a like something like 60,000 letters is are we required I think I might have asked this last year are we required to send the tax bill by mail every year and are is
that mostly covering required statutory requirements for mailings um I don't have the actual granular detail on that I don't know if you do Ian but in terms of whether we're required to tax bills I believe we are
unless you opt into receiving an electronic version um this definitely is an area that I would love to see us make significant progress in it kind of goes hand inand with the push that I've been putting on departments to digitize and
um electronic um means for doing business I just it not only do the paper savings come but then the mailing savings come as well yeah that's exactly what I was thinking with like the town clerk having the new uh online permitting software the more we can do that the more it can be
email it's incremental but our budget is it's tight so the the little things we can do I I think are really um can be advantageous um and [Music] then then uh line 420 was contracted
Landscaping which you cut in half yes uh can you explain uh why yeah thanks for that question uh so over the last couple fiscal years we had um I think it was like $100,000 I didn't pull the line up but um and that was to maintain the
adult center and the high school um the high school had a significant backlog in landscaping work that needed to be done and so the quotes that had come in to do that work reflected that $100,000 need um working with the landscapers we've
gotten to a baseline that they can very easily maintain now and so we were able to reduce that contract amount um and this is the the amount that's built into the budget reflects them being able to more um efficiently maintain what's here
okay thanks and I can't remember if you covered it uh so we we've increased forestry we've increased the planting uh fee or money available for planting do you have an approximate on how many trees we anticipate putting in with that
amount I don't um but I I know that the current budget had $88,000 in it and now we're going to have 32 for tree planting um so I can get that number for you but it's it's a lot more than what we've been doing and does that include all like the the bags that we all got and
the uh Gator bags yeah the gator bags and the The Mulch ring and is that all included in that when in the tree planting line yeah yep just one last comment cuz Josh made a really good point on the postage piece um it's just kind of spitballing but I'm
just wondering if we could do like a like a ma you know a mailer where we have like the insert and we can talk about X you know if you opt out x amount we're saving the the town $220,000 $30,000 do you want to be a part of trying to help the town save
some money so I don't think people look at them which is why it's St that we ma but I'm just trying to think on the fly yeah yeah no you're right it just it kind of goes back to the point of why are we sending them okay
um so if we're done talking about that then we can move on to uh the capital Improvement plan discussion yeah uh just on the budget just to wrap it up here um so you guys can decide uh if you want to hear from departments directly or if um
you want to write in questions and I bring back answers at the next meeting like at some point you you just have to figure out if if um you want more information or if you're going to come April 7th and and be ready ready to discuss and vote um and so yeah at some
point I'll just need some guidance from you if you want more from me or the Departments yeah um so my my initial thoughts on that are I think that especially this year because of the shortfall that we started off with um I think that we've had more discussion
throughout this whole process so at least I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of the budget this year and I don't think that we need to have the department heads come into our next meeting or you have a separate meeting for that I think last year we did do this where we sent you questions and you were able to get answers and we were
able to discuss them at the next meeting so if anything I think that that would be the approach we should take this year but you know happy to hear from other folks as well all right let's do that though all right thank you Lyn yeah thank you um okay uh and then so then to to go to
move on to the capital Improvement plan yes let me just uh okay I'm going to do you want me to put this up on the screen might be helpful sure yeah that be great thank you okay so um this we we've done things
a little differently this year with capital um and uh it it ties hand inand to the budget as it normally does but this year more than usual um I'm just trying to figure out which makes more sense to bring up for
you um so let me just touch on a couple things um attached to the agenda is the capital planning committee's recommendations so they were supposed to present to you at the last meeting and um we didn't get that I did reach out after the meeting and they did send me something so that is linked here uh and
then we also so have the um Memo from the permanent building committee as um select board member gold mentioned during select board comments uh they did um draft a memo to the select board encouraging you uh to consider the
police department uh building needs if there were additional funds available or uh as you looked at the capital budget uh and so um why this is coming up to you never mind the fact that you need to actually adopt a capital plan is that
the budget for FY 26 um is balanced essentially by a reduction in the capital plan uh and the reduction is mainly attributed to the funding mechanism for The Chiller at Blueberry Elementary and so instead of
an outright purchase as I originally proposed in my Capital plan that I submitted in December um we have decided that the best approach to take would be to bond for that Chiller and use The Debt
Service um to pay to use the capital plan to pay the debt service of about $216,000 uh for the next 5 years out of the capital plan um we're still able to tackle the same number of projects that I had proposed in December but just um a
different funding mechanism and thereby reducing the overall capital budget to help us balance the budget overall so I'm I will um bring up here what that plan looks like [Music]
that's the fiveyear sorry and he while she's bringing that up somebody just refreshed my memory when we requested that road work be bonded did we not also suggest that the
bond payments for that come from the C Capital plan yes and it is so in here it it's that supplemental road is the bond
payment and not just more work on the roads um I I just yeah sorry that's what it is that's fine I it just said Road repair road paving oh no it does say bonds okay all right sorry it looks like I had the 5year plan twice so let me
just get the the other plan that so I'm reading the same thing you are it's it's it's called revised budget yep uh yeah so if you look under um line 50 the road paving that
$350,000 covers the bond The Debt Service on the 5 almost million Bond yeah that was my question because I cuz I thought previously that number was like four wasn't it like 400,000 um yes so we would try to fund as much as possible in the capital plan
because that's what we were doing with chapter 90 but so we're able to I was able to reduce the um Capital allocation for roads to just cover The Debt Service I we could
we could if you I mean it it eventually becomes your Capital plan so if you wanted to move some some of this around you could if you wanted to go up to 400 you then just have to cut 50,000 from somewhere else to make it all balanced um all that would do is is escalate your
debt service payment so that $350,000 is that a 15-year Bond then to the road roads um I don't what you well you we
just uh did we oh bid bids are due Wednesday have not yet yeah so as soon as the bids come in and we evaluate them um then what will happen is Ian will start all the work with Bond Council to figure out what's the best plan to put
forward right but if we're borrowing $5.2 million and paying back 350 did some projections last year to the Bond's going to outlast the roads um no no uh Ian when you did these
projections when Sean presented this plan in O I feel like it was October um you you had something then I'm pulling it up I'm playing but I believe this this I think it was also in the town meeting
article warrant yes the um the explanation talked about it as well so in October I requested Bond Council to run a schedule for Paving Bond at 5.1 million for 15
years this would give us an annual principal of about 350,000 and then total principal of interest of about 500 32,000 okay anything else so the total interest is 350 principal interest is 532,000 where's the other
$172,000 come from sorry I I was not I was pulling this up but what so was the question is the total principal and interest is 532,000 on a 15-year bond for the road paving and Mark is asking where the additional
150,000 comes from to service the debt if the capital plan asks for 350,000 from the general fund to fund the road paving and I believe the answer would be that it would come from the general
fund for the additional 150,000 yeah the I mean good thing is at your next meeting we'll know what the bids came in at so if it's 5.1 then we'll refresh all those numbers and have a comprehensive answer for you if it's
4.75 then none of what we're projecting right now even matters um because it would we would only borrow what the bid came in for right I understand that I I just thought that the bond was going to be paid for out of the
capital plan and what you're saying is only the bond interest is paid for out of the capital not the capital plan out of the capital fund that 2% of our 2 point something per of our this was a sample run back in October I no I hear I hear you Ian I'm
just saying that that you know are we go you know it just says that that what Lind got up there that 350 $50,000 under general fund road paving should that not be $532,000 right and and I think I mean it
it will be what it'll be is what your point is and so so a lot of this is it's our best guess right so when the capital plan gets prepared it's a best guess at that point we haven't gone out to bid yet so this 350 is just a placeholder next year it might need to be 475 or
something to to start making up for that difference that you're speaking about there just there's a lot of unknowns as we put this together I get I you know again my concern is that a a 15-year bond for Road repairs seems to be to be a very long period of time I
thought we're in the 5 to 10 year range for name a road in this town that's lasted 15 years we're going to be paying this Bond when the roads are still you know we're going still paying the bond when the roads need to be redone again so we can look at a five or 10 year it's
going to be that much more expensive obviously and then what are we cutting so it's I I understand that I'm just saying philosophically I think the select Board needs to get on board with are we going to bond for 15 years or are we going to bond for something less than 15 years for roads that's all and and
I'm not suggesting other than my opinion is 15 years seems like a long time for roads yeah I think when we talked about this you know we had this discussion I think the number we were saying we put towards this was 750 somewhere around
that so that would be you know less than 15E if I may um I can read from the article the town annually funds road work with Mass DOT chapter 90 funds approximately 480,000 a year and capital Improvement funds ranging from 340 to
740,000 a year yeah um I mean I I think at this point with the bids coming or due on Wednesday let's get that and then we can have this discussion at our next meeting well I I
guess beneath the question we ought to ask or you know advise is you know will the bond will Ian be talking to bond Council about a 15-year Bond or something short of than you know the I'm I'm not arguing when I I I understand the bids are going to come in with the
bids come in at and we're going to try to bond all these projects you know hopefully we can get them all done and then some and we'll find out what what the cost is the question is the cost has two factors to it you know how much well three how much you borrow what the
interest rate is and the length of the and the term of the of the borrowing right and we can we're going to find out how much we're going to borrow when the bids come in the interest rate our bond council is going to tell us what they get for bids but we can adjust
the the term that's all yeah and and and he can you bring back different options of course yeah that's what I the only the only other thing that I think of that we would have to do is amend article 7 of the special town meeting where we appropriate the
sum of 5.1 million to pay for these costs no we can we can spend hopefully it'll be we'll amend downward to pay cost but that article says nothing about the term of the bond or the interest rates of the bond which we can control so I you know I mean if we if we have to
amend hope you know I'm expecting to amend that downward because the but who knows that was the the plan right that we're going to get favorable bids because we the timing to go out and the number we go right I don't think yeah the you didn't read the whole Warren
article I pulled it up it's silent as to the funding sources or where we're applying and to remember if I can remember correctly we can we can't pay principle out of chapter 90 and interest out of here correct correct correct okay
yeah 19 got to spend y I mean we have we have plenty of roads that have been around for 15 years I don't know if they should be um but yeah I me I generally I agree but that you know that we did this to do a big splash to make a to do a lot
of Paving and we still got to pay for it so uh yeah I agree with you Mark um 15 we got to look at our options see where we're coming in at and cross our fingers that U it looks favorable for us yeah as long as the door is still open we we ought to look at it but and you're right
it all starts with what are the what are the bids we know the roads we want to PID what are the bids okay anything else okay so I mean I think also at our next meeting we'll be able to talk about this further okay um okay one one thing
actually CU When I was looking through this so um obviously we've had a lot of incidents at at um at our Parks our pools um so one of the things I I keep seeing that pops up years out is is cameras so that's something again I hear
a lot about and you know it makes the newspapers and I just wonder like can we maybe take a look at funding uh security cameras um at our Parks um this this go around rather than waiting a couple years because it seems
like every few months there's another incident and I'm not suggesting that a camera is automatically going to solve the problem but I think it might help deter um some issues that we're seeing so yeah cameras are in the works at um
Greenwood and Bliss pool um it's been delayed due to turnover and it um project starts and then stops and starts and stops so that that is in the works and then like Wolf Swamp as well
or that one we we've been entertaining getting some quotes for um but not entirely sure it's it's a worthwhile investment any W swamp Fields oh yeah wol swamp Fields sry yeah so we don't have a total cost on
that yet um and the type of situations that have been occurring there the cameras wouldn't capture enough to um potentially help to be worth the investment so we're we'll continue to
see what it comes in at just we put one on the concession stand but um we would not blanket the entire facility and this is me not knowing the cost of of what the how much it costs anyways I'm just I just know we keep seeing incidents and trying to deter folks that's all Dan
assume the camera cost five bucks and the wiring cost $5,000 $50,000 anyways that I just want to make a comment on that go ahead just uh was it everyone's reading of the capital planning
committee's memo to use the stabilization fund uh interest if we have it next year to do the police station funding and I I remember because it said we sent you a 2022 memo asking for this to be done and
I do remember we keep pushing it off because this is a lot of money but I I went around it today to look at it and I see what they're saying it's like looks like my house where a lot of delayed maintenance and it's just going to keep adding up um but my reading was they're they're looking at that next year not
saying it's priority next year just uh and if that I I think that that is a good idea for Josh you're talking about Capital planning letter this building committee ler I'm I'm sorry the uh what am I talking about I'm talking about the building committee right right I thought it was this year well I I'm not sure
what the letter said because I just had trouble interpreting it but at the meeting they were talking about making changes to do it sooner rather than later okay it said if it said something along the lines of if you vote to use
stabilization interest we recommend using it for the police facade which to me would be next year and and I I think you know yeah this has been talked about for a few years now and I think one piece that we
were waiting on was the building um study that's being done and how that might affect you know anything here so um you can I would need to know at that at that
meeting April 7th you would need to be prepared um if you wanted to use that stabilization interest um and you wanted this to go to the annual town meeting I would need to know then because the warrant goes to the printer that week um if you want to wait
and do it in the fall we can do that you can spend some more time with it I just want you to know that the do we have an idea in how much that would be the interest it's $440,000 so in theory that could be the police department and get us towards funding our bond
depending on what it comes in at for roads Yeah so basically we have we're saying well we're we have the interest on the operational stabilization fund we that's not part of this you haven't allocated to anything nope so I mean I think there's consensus that we should
use for capital projects I have no objection to doing that essentially so for what it's worth so if it seems like that's a consensus we can work up a draft article when you do your deep dive into
the warrant next meeting it would be on there at least for you to consider yeah so that money I for Grand is a lot and if if there's the a greater chunk I'd rather see you go towards the roads if there's some lesser part of 300
Grand we could spend I guess but I I know that is there a percentage you can put to that Josh like 5050 or that depends what the bonds B comes in that I mean wouldn't we rely on Lynn and the cap and the Perman builing committee and the cap capital planning committee
to if we just tell tell like what are your priorities as you've already done essentially here's the interest on the operational stabilization fund what would you suggest we use it for clearly they want they I mean I don't know how much exactly it would cost to do the police department but that could
certainly be part of it I mean I Andrew I I answer your question by saying the take the capital planning the plan that Lynn has proposed to us and add the amount of interest
from the stabilization fund which is about $440,000 and reduce the and the CH no and say and what and what else would you do recognizing that the 350 number may have to be adjusted up or down yeah okay
and then is there money still left over for an another project and the recommendation of the building committee is that it be the police building facade or police facility facade but you may say your recommendation is something
else right have to get more information especially yeah I guess so yeah that that that's a better answer to your question about percentage okay I I think we should fund the paving Bond first and then left over we can see where we're sitting which I guess isn't much of a
change from now but we're going to have a bigger chunk [Applause] I I I guess the the question is ly if we add $440,000 from the of interest from the
stabilization fund to the capital plan are we going to pull operating revenue of $440,000 out of the capital plan to go into the into the operating budget because the intent or we going to be
able to expand the capital plan and I thought the intent was expand the capital expenditure recommendations of the Town by that amount of money right because the budget that I presented to you uses no right
okay that makes sense yeah I I I think um yeah I think I agree with what was said that maybe some options for priorities that we could fund our next meeting y it would be great to have okay uh anything else on
this B that just comment that it needs to be I won't say dis discardable but it needs to be variable because there's no guarantee we're going to get a two-thirds vote at the town to approve the expenditure of interest from the
stabilization Fund in other words it needs to need be optional optional whatever the number name the word is it has to be it can't be an essential like we can't Bank on something we really need to happen I agree which is what the policy is to we just aded tonight basically a
non- recurring right no he's saying we may want to do something but if it doesn't get two3 vote it's going to fail so we can't we can't do something that we absolutely need to happen yeah as if we really need something to happen it'll be in the budget obviously yeah yeah yeah I'm sorry yeah I I I I don't think
I explain that well but yeah right okay anything else all right um thank you Len yeah um okay so now we're we will move into the annual time meeting warrant review so there's a draft that was
provided there are you know a good number of placeholders that's still in the works so I think at least for tonight you know hopefully everyone's had a chance to review the draft warrant tonight I think instead of going line by line and you know through this whole
thing if there's anything that's jumped out to you guys that you think that um would be good for us you know that needs to be edited or discussed we can talk about that or also Lynn if there's anything that you want to draw our attention to um as well uh for a discussion sure uh the only thing I
would draw your attention to is that uh I did make edits to it today a new version was um uploaded this afternoon it tells you at the top when it was last updated so um there's some additional ones in there and um some things have
been reorganized just a little bit so it flows like prior years um two ones that were added were uh from what you may have looked at over the weekend were um uh an article to authorize the select
board to serve as the MLP board and um to uh an article to resend a vote vote uh a prior vote from 1988 to uh a regarding preliminary elections I'm still working on the exact language on both of those a lot of this is still
work in progress as you've seen uh but just so you know those topics have been added quick question there are five spaces for Citizens petitions are there actually five citizens petitions or okay thanks do the do they always go towards
the end yes okay generally um you guys can reorder it any way you want yeah we moved up the uh the middle school last year it was zoning before that yeah I think a lot of the stuff on here have been you know items we've
discussed throughout the year that have come up um and then also some you know exciting things that I I think we're we're good to see on here finally um I know that one thing I I think you know there are two firefighter uh or
fire department related articles with the overtime that's needed and also the um the vehicles and the engine that you you touched on earlier and and especially I think the the overtime budget one explanation on
there is is important for I think for people to see about what's been going on um anything else that you know from the review of these articles that you all saw that needed an edit or needed
discussion what is the weend the adoption of chapter 5x in 1988 um so in 1988 the town adopted uh a special act to require um nonpartisan
preliminary elections 28 days from the um annual Town election luckily we don't have a lot of preliminaries here and so this has not been one that has been closely tracked uh this is a rarity in the state we are
one of the only communities that have this special legislation um we've been encouraged both by elections division on Town Council to get rid of it and this year alone we are seeing why we need to get rid of it the turnaround time from a
preliminary um to our uh annual ction is incredibly short it's why we had to move our annual election um date because our preliminary at that time was lining up with town meeting um and also the
charter requires um the timeline to withdraw your name um from sorry I just got distracted uh the charter requires um a certain amount of time to be able to withdraw your name
from consideration that date is um like 4 days before the preliminary election and so it's causing a problem for us to actually be able to have ballots ready and so this is it there every time we turn around there's an issue with this
special legislation um 28 days is very small the state is 35 that that extra seven days makes a big difference so does this put us to the state default so we would still need preliminary elections if we have more than two
candidates for every slot or does it or do we go back to not having preliminary elections I need to research that a little bit more I'm not entirely sure which one it is I just know it's better than what we have right now cuz judging by how many people pulled papers for select board we're
going to have a preliminary if everyone turns them in yes yeah okay how many people have turned them in by the way do we know uh as of what what is it last week it was one just me I guess I I don't know just I just know one
person yeah when we had the discussion earlier I thought it was just about the length and not necessarily doing away with a preliminary I remember talking about this but I remember yeah so this special legislation calls out the 28 days yeah
um the the the state provision on preliminaries is 35 uh no sooner than 35 I think ours is so specific it's 28 days exact it's not no sooner than 28 no less than 28 and it
we have really backed ourselves into a corner with this so we can't get rid of the preliminary because of the state cuz we adopted it locally we can I'm sorry is it possible to eliminate preliminary elections or not I'm going to research that still
okay based on Josh's question I don't know what happens when we get rid of this if we default to the state which is the 35 days or if we just don't have them in general I'm going to I don't want to speak out of out of uh confirmation yet if there's a way to not
have them I would I would I find them rather I think they're onerous I think they are expensive so I think that it's like yeah I don't I if there was a way to include illumination of it and put it before the town I I'd be in favor of that
yep I will have more info the next time I come back to you okay um anything else on the [Applause] warrant
okay all right we can then uh move on to the zoning bylaw so these are just bylaws that need to be referred over to the planning board this is just procedural correct yes and you've already seen um
you've at least seen the Adu one when Karen brought this to you a while ago um planning board has been tweaking it and um now has a final version that's what you see tonight but it now needs to formally be referred back to them to start the clock on their
public hearings I move that we refer section 3151 17b accessory dwelling units uh to the planning board for review and public hearing second any further discussion all those in favor
great and then uh Lyn do you want to talk about the lctv satellite Studio update sorry um I need you to do oh sorry move that we refer section 31515 flood pain Zone uh to the planning board for hearing and
review uh second any further discussion all right all those in favor okay great and now the yes up highight uh so with the move to Green wood Center um and we have a large conference room at the end of the hall
it presented the opportunity to um potentially add a satellite studio for lctv this would allow them to uh to have ACC to have facilities to record uh and transmit from both this a15 but also the
Greenwood conference room there's been um more and more requests upon them to record and um air boarding committee meetings and with just one room equipped to do that it's been a jockeying of meeting space you know whose meeting is
more important that type of thing uh and so just it presented the opportunity to better equip us to to have more meetings filmed uh and so lctv has um been doing their due diligence to figure out what it would cost to do that and they have
presented um this to you guys just to make sure it's actually something you're interested in having them pursue this is not a cost to the town lctv would be um taking on this through their Capital funds uh it does not deplete their Capital funds um they do have they would
still have funding left over um but um wanted they asked that I bring this in front of you to just uh get a consensus and confirmation that this is a direction you'd want them to go okay great and then the total we're looking at for this is
46889 yeah yeah something like that um let me it's whatever that quote was that I attached I'm pulling it up now great yeah I mean I um I I think that this sounds like a good idea I think that we have this
other great space we have this opportunity to have technology there and lctv you know they're they they've done this work of looking for quotes and also are saying that they're going to fund it and
if there's Buy in on their end I think that that's that's great and I think that this is something that I I would like for them to so well said where exactly would it be uh the studio I mean at at Greenwood but
where in the building I'm trying to we're it's not going to be as robust as what they have here um and so they're going to have a small footprint we're still yet to decide exactly what they need but we want to accommodate them if they can make this happen and they're
wiring up the room that's got the big seal in the back yes okay is there other is there other wiring or other needs that that um should be done there while this Project's going on and obviously it's not coming from them but I'm just trying
to see if if if it makes sense um no we've pretty much done everything we need to do there for what we use it for right now excellent so Lyn if you recall on the contract that we approved last year do
they have to run this Capital expend by us and we're supposed to review the budget but is this a requirement that is a good question I would need to familiarize myself with that operating agreement to know for sure I I'm familiar with it but I don't remember to
my head I but I I I think that if they have the funds to do it and this overall seems fairly reasonable to me um the more opportunity we have to tape and broadcast and have people be able to watch these meetings uh I think is good
um so I'm in favor of this I think it's a good idea okay uh so you said that we may have to approve this no I well I I guess we could vote to just in case um I I don't remember we're supposed to
have not approval of the budget I don't remember exactly what it says we're supposed to see it but it's not really our budget right ly right yeah you're supposed to have an at least an annual presentation just to here's what's happening here's because it's our residents funds but
it's not it's not our budget this isn't our money we couldn't choose I don't even know if we can say yes or no I just don't remember but uh we may want to vote on it just to give clear give cover yeah okay Mark
yeah I think the it seems to me the intent of this is this room's not adequate for True public hearing or public meeting and you know so the question is is what room is the most appropriate to have other meetings in
that you'd want to have televised and in the past we I know we've on to the business Technology Center for a couple of meetings and other things and and you know I have no problem with the back room of of Greenwood Center but if there's other rooms in town that are
higher priority for public meetings I think we should at least suggest those if they're if they're available I don't know what they are or where they are but if that's not why we're suggesting going to the I'll call the old cafeteria I guess is
the area right and Greenwood Center then then you know where where would we want to see a televis are you saying weighing the benefit of a larger Space versus the benefit of a second location for whatever like you know that might be I'm
saying the benefit of a second location beside here right that that would make sense to have you know lctv put their resources in to televis from I I think that that room is much more akin to where when I appear in other towns that
room is much more akin to what I'm what I see the the way it's laid laid out I think for where any anything beyond that I don't see where we would we wouldn't want to permanently wire another place I think uh if we did have something like
that I think the business center or high school gym if it's a really big one I think that that they they seem to have the apparatus so to do that um so I but I think the only place that makes sense to permanently wire at this EXP F would be
there that's fine I just didn't want us to say oh yeah let's go there and find out the better place is yeah you know one of the middle schools the old police room where you had your meetings whatever wherever it might be I mean you know maybe Josh to include in the new
middle schools some some place for lctv to trans plan don't add another um hold up the agreement and the we get periodic
reporting is the idea annually showing year expenditures and budget prepared by an independent CPA um that that is really to present to us and um we review it but I I I believe that's
it okay all right um so we should give them some kind of Direction here on this yeah even though we're not approving I think we should probably vote to say yeah good idea yeah that's the place
um try to see what how Tracy worded it at her email um so Lynn there would be like a studio like they have a studio here and then the other room like that lunch hall or or that other space that I don't really know what we want to call it
but so the idea is that the Greenwood room at the end of the Hall the former lunchroom is the large meeting space um whether they have a little um Hub in that room or whether they're in the kitchen space or if they're in
the post the not post the mail room um we're still working all of that out it's not going to be as big as what they have here so even if they do end up sitting in the same meeting room you know in a in a little workstation it can still
happen yeah just think of all of our the seniors that are at the adult center and I think it'd be just a it's a good location I mean just other opportunities for folks that are already in that space at the adult center they if there's an event going on there it's accessible oh
to you mean to come to the Greenwood yeah to go to to go to Greenwood from the adult center and there might be opportunities with lctv that they're going to present there and I think that's a good thing for um yeah our older population yeah I mean some
background on exactly why I suggested this site is that um it then gives us a facility at a school and a facility at a town building and the Hub of Municipal operations are now at Greenwood and it just provides a nice Synergy between
staff working in their spaces all day and then being able to go across the hall or down the hall for meeting space um and with the Middle School building committee meeting now on Wednesday night and on lctv it created multiple conflicts with planning board who was
also using lctv and so that just um spurred the need to do this sooner than later um I think more people want to be able to see what's going on inside their government and this gives us that great opportunity uh and actually the
Greenwood site is just every single day has proved to be one of the best things we've done um there's adequate parking one level everyone's under the same roof plenty of bathrooms and it's all right there and I in the next few weeks we'll be able to open for nighttime
meetings you got to miss Community House a little just the dance at the basement okay um so I move that the that the select board approves lctv spending towards
wiring up and U setting up a satellite Studio at Greenwood second okay uh any further discussion okay all those in favor okay great and then we've got a one-day
liquor license application we approve uh St Mary's Academy uh for an for one day liquor license for an event on April 5th 2025 second any further discussion all those in
favor okay and then uh correspondence any comments okay oh H yeah just um just commend Erica on keeping up on that and that's a good way of capturing some money that is owed to the
town great and I will move that we adourn second any further discussion all those in favor all right thank every thank you thanks