All right, everyone. Uh, welcome. It's Thursday, March 26th. Um, this is the Lunberg Finance Committee. In accordance with the requirements of the open meeting law, please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast over the Lunberg public access channel and on Facebook live on the public
access Facebook page will be uploaded to the Lunberg Access YouTube channel after the meeting. Uh there is also a Zoom link as well as a call-in number uh that can be found at uh the lunenbergmma.gov of
on the calendar where this agenda is. And with that, if we can stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America for it stands, one nation under God,
indivisible, and justice for all. All right. Um, are there any announcements from anyone on the board? I don't have one.
All right. Is there any public comment from the public? And just be advised, this is a public hearing as well. So, there's opportunity to make uh comments during the public hearing. >> Ron Delesio, 181 Reservoir Road. I just had a question slash
um concern. It says that later on the agenda you'll be discussing the warrant articles and I have not se physically seen the warrant articles.
Horrible sound. >> Jay, you there you go. Okay. >> You haven't seen them? >> I have not physically seen the warrant articles, so it makes it difficult as a member of the public to ask questions about something that I have not seen.
>> Okay. There is a copy behind you, I think. >> Okay, great. Um and um we'll be actually hearing them for the first time. >> Okay. >> Tonight officially in a meeting. Um they've been kind of out there and I know Select Board has >> Well, they've talked about them, but I've never seen them like posted.
>> There's no public >> in writing. Yeah. Okay. All right. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Any other public comment? >> Go ahead. >> I'm not commenting as a member of the school committee. Okay. I just wanted to
comment, Anthony Skullbringy, uh 92 Be Street. Um I wanted to say this publicly because I think it's worth saying, but um after our meeting last Wednesday, I was a little down in the dumps. I was a little pessimistic and on Saturday, I got a call from somebody and I returned
that call on Sunday. And this person is a tireless advocate for the town and a positive person no matter what bad things are happening. And I want to thank Anna for a conversation that really helped me sort of refocus because
I knew that we were going to have a long week this week with three meetings and I don't think I was in the right mindset before. So I just want to say thank you very much. >> Thank you and thank you for the work you do. All right.
Anything else? Excellent. All right. So, first up, um I'm going to ask for some help. Uh Tom, I made you co-host. If you can watch the
um uh participants for anyone coming into the waiting room um and just let them in. Uh, Gan, you're also a co-host, so if anyone pops in. Um, just kind of a team team effort here because if I'm
driving, um, the police chief will tell you, you shouldn't be distracted um, when you're driving and that is a bit of a distraction, right? >> Absolutely. >> Thank you for that public service. All right. So, with that, I will um,
is there is there a town manager or finance director report? >> No. >> We're going to hear enough from you. >> Oh, yes. >> Okay. All right, then. Um, we're going to we're going to flip the first two um and we're going to do the school department balanced and override budgets. Um, we
have a lot to work through tonight and we have um a report that's due the basically the Tuesday after next. So, um I do want to try to get through this tonight. Vote on
as many articles as we can. I cannot be here next week and Mike cannot be here next week. I think um we may discuss having a meeting on Monday or Tuesday the week after to finalize that report if necessary, maybe just via Zoom. So just keep that in mind. But um I do want
to do a lot of work tonight if we can. So I just wanted to start with that. So with that um you want me to go through the presentation that you sent? >> Yes, please.
And I'll be sure to tell you next slide this time, Mr. Chair. >> Um, all right. Excellent. I'll start. I know there's a lag. So I want to start and end in the
same place that the budget cuts that we are proposing. >> Can you actually hold on for one second? I actually um Sorry. >> Can I um have a motion to open public
hearing or continue uh public hearing? >> So moved. Second. >> Okay. Um all in favor, we're going to have to roll call. Uh, so, uh, Jay, >> I >> Tom, >> I >> Mike, >> hi. >> Anna,
>> hi >> Tanya. >> Hi, >> Jean. >> I >> and an I for myself. All right. So, we are in um public hearing. Sorry about that. >> No problem. So, we're going to start and end at the same place discussing the
impacts of the budget cuts that we are proposing in order to get to a balanced budget. And on the slide um first slide please on the slide it says a drastic injustice the human cost of budget cuts and I
don't mean just an injustice to the school committee um and school community I mean an injustice to the entire community there is a drastic human cost to every position that We are proposing
eliminating here >> we will have increased class sizes of 30 to 31 students in grades 1 through 5. We will have inaccessible extracurriculars so opportunity and engagement for our
students will be lost. We'll have eliminated all the supports for our students so vulnerable students will be abandoned. And as you all know, we've been talking a lot about literacy goals in our first before you. We will have decimated our literacy
goals and that could impact it will impact the future trajectory of our students. And what we're balancing these recommendations against is meeting legal service requirements um over compliant
over care for students. So that is the trade-off that we are making with this budget proposal to get to a balanced budget. It's meeting legal minimums at the expense of student success and well-being. There are some additions that we have.
Um if you go two slides forward, Mr. Chair, there are some position asks even in a balanced budget um that we made work by making more cuts. One of those is an English language teacher for the
district. This is critical for building um bridging the achievement gap between our students who are multilingual learners and our students that are not multilingual learners. This is an ever
growing population. I've talked about it before with the committee that we are up to about 71 students. Um, but the main reason that this is included in our balance budget is that it ensures strict compliance with state
and federal mandates, mitigating legal risk. The other ask that is in our balanced budget is for a special educator at the primary school. Next slide. Um, this again is about
compliance. We have, I would call it a historic number of students coming in to the primary school with individualized education plans, which means that they require specialized instruction. That specialized instruction can only be
delivered by a certified special educator. So, this is for a special educator at the primary school. Next slide. The next slide isn't a new position.
It's the promotion of a current position in central office. That's why the cost of it is only $10,000. And this is for an assistant business manager for Mr. McNamera. Mr. McNamera is working tirelessly this year to get you what you
need. Um, and quite frankly, I think he's afraid to get sick or afraid to go on vacation. um because I might try doing some math. But this will be necessary to avoid budget confusion and
budget errors and um some of the mistakes that have been made in the past in order for us to be compliant and be able to offer the type of safeguards and security that we want. Um this position
is a necessary position. Next slide. And I will say that was >> thank you for that. The next position is one that at one point was out of the budget and now is back in into the budget. So I wanted to highlight it. We
had talked about eliminating through attrition one assistant principal and having an assistant principal go between both um campuses, Turkey Hill Elementary and Primary School. However, after thorough consultation with the
leadership team, what we realized is that if we have classrooms of 30 to 31 students, that just wouldn't be a feasible model. Each building would need its own dedicated assistant principal to provide support. um to those classrooms as well as leadership support to the
principal as they're dealing with um a variety of behavioral issues, academic issues, and trying to still somehow be academic leaders in their building. Next two slides. So, how do we get to
balanced? As I mentioned before, it would mean eliminating a teacher in first grade and second grade at the primary school. This would raise our class sizes to 30 to 31 at the primary
school um in grades 1 and two. Next slide. Trying to go through these fast because I think the board has heard most of these. I'm doing this for the public. Um 2.0 O classroom teachers at Turkey Hill Elementary. That would be in
grades three and four. We can't eliminate one in grade five because our rising fourth grade is already at 27 to 28 students. This would also bring our third and fourth grade classrooms up to approximately 30 students in a
classroom. And that's not including anybody that moves in. This is a position that is in our tier 1 core budget as well as our tier 2 restoration budget. However, to
get to balanced, it is a position that we need to eliminate. It is a 02 music teacher at Turkey Hill. That would bring that position down from its current.7 to a.5. The reason that position is sits
at a.7 currently is so that we can offer our fifth grade students band. So that would be a necessary casualty of making this cut. Next slide
is a 1.0 certified occupational therapy assistant. We have a retirement this year. We would not refill that position. What that would cause to happen is we could very easily be out of compliance
on some of our IEPs that require occupational therapy. Occupational therapy, for those who aren't familiar with it, is working with children on their fine motor and developmental skills. This um position works under the
direction of our occupational therapist for the district who would then have to assume the entire case load by herself creating a fairly drastic um deficit in our ability to offer services.
Next slide. We have decided to eliminate 40,000 in order to get to balance $40,000 in curriculum adoption funds that we had placed in the budget. These funds were
intended to purchase an elementary school Turkey Hill um school science curriculum. Unfortunately, we've decided that if we are at classes of 30 to 31 students, asking teachers to teach much
beyond literacy and numerous numeracy skills would be an unrealistic expectation given the amount of small group and um that they would potentially have to do.
Another reduction. Um Jordan Puchini might disagree with me. he is our technology guru is a 50 thou I think is the easiest of the cuts to make. It's a 50,23 reduction in um several of our
technology line items. We would also be eliminating a 1.0 custodian. This is due to a recent resignation that we had. We would not refill that position. that position will be at the high school. And unfortunately, we've just started
hearing how um clean the high school looks and how things that had been neglected for years um because we were fully staffed were being taken care of. This would be a necessary cut.
We have in the budget a.5 state reporting secretary. This is part of the central office reorganization. This would be a new human that would work part-time. Um, currently right now, um, through no fault of the person doing it, it's
because they're doing three jobs. We have had some errors in our state reporting and it's very difficult to focus on multiple tasks. This person would be dedicated to looking at our state reporting which impacts the amount of funding and the grant funding that we
can receive from the state as well as any recognition or merit that we receive from the state. So this was a position that we were um asking for. We again cut
custodial supplies another $15,000. We can't cut any more from custodial supplies or else we will not have anything left in which to clean our buildings. And then our extracurricular impacts. We are reducing our athletic trainer to a
half-time position. This will compromise student and athlete safety. Um we've heard a lot of testimony from the public about this particular position and the value that it has played in their students life. Um beyond just the
training aspect of it, we have a student that has committed to a division one school to play lacrosse because she was able to get the medical services that she needed on campus. We have um I think
it's actually the same student who is going to her after high school plans are to study um athletic training so that she can be an athletic trainer. This will um potentially result in some of
the um emotional support as well as the physical support that our student athletes are receiving. There are three sports that we would be eliminating. Um the first would be girls lacrosse. These were chosen because
they're currently our lowest subscribed sports. Girls look and this is the coaching salary that we are seeing on the supply um on the slide. Our girls lacrosse team currently has 12 members on it. So that makes it one of our three
lowest subscribed. However, as I said, we have a goalie that's committed to a D1 school, which is very exciting. Um, our golf team, um, for 3,362, that is 15 students and they are
champions. They are our league champions. And I think from what I've heard, the district and the town talks about this particular um sport perennially is the ski team um which currently we have a
co-op for but only four skiers are from Lunenburgg. >> And I know one maybe >> I'm not sure. And the other question is can can Lister or one of the other towns pick up this this sport?
>> We're going to explore that opportunity. >> Okay. >> We still will have before I go on to the next step. Um what's not included in the slide presentation is the fact that we'll still have a part-time athletic
director. Um Ms. Burns has graciously extended and negotiated an offer that allows her to stay doing both roles, though shifting more of the athletic director role until after school,
allowing her to be more present as the assistant principal at the high school. This is for a savings uh um a cost of only $20,000. I just happened. >> I think it's worth noting that not only
has Miss Burn's work been universally praised this year, but the fact that she is willing to do this for the cost that she's budgeted represents a tremendous savings to the town. But it also means that we're essentially staying level
even in a balance even a balanced budget on the athletic directorship and that is a huge boon for the high school. So, it is worth like I think every single person who has a kid in school should go and give Shannina a high five cuz that was a really selfless, generous thing to
do. And as with all the people that are in the ploy of the school district, they are doing it because they really care about the kids. I mean, this is just clearly straight up she cares about the kids and that's why she's willing to do it. If I may paraphrase what she said to me when we were discussing this is, I
don't want to see all the good work we've done this year fall apart. And that is the type of employee that we have working for the schools. Another reduction, next slide please,
is cutting all athletic transportation. This really becomes a matter of accessibility and equity for our students. There are some students that will be able to get themselves to games. There are some students whose parents aren't working that will be able to
drive themselves to the start of games. This will create significant district liability and scheduling chaos. There are ways that we can mitigate liability, but it requires parents to sign a waiver um and carry a certain amount of
insurance, $100,000. Um and they would have to sign a waiver for every sporting away sporting event. So, they'd be signing multiple waiverss in a season, not a single waiver.
And then because there wasn't parity between cutting athletic transportation, though it's a much larger amount due to the fact that 48.5% of our high school students before we counted in um the actual spring totals
were athletes, $5,000 um for band transportation at the high school. So, we will no longer um be providing um transportation to away games or competitions or festivals. And
this will further diminish the size of our band, which is finally rebuilding um because of the success of the fifth grade feeder program. Our middle school band has um I think it's about 60 students involved in it right now. um
which will be an excellent feeder to our high school band should we be able to maintain these things. And then I then we're raising our athletic fees by $75 given our current rate of participation
and this will generate $120,000 in revenue. It will mean our athletic fee is now $400 and we would take approximately $65,000 of this to offset coaching salaries in our budget.
And then I promised I'd end where I started in order to get to balanced. It is a drastic injustice to this community. Athletics are a foundation, a little bedrock of this community. I've
seen it myself. I've experienced it myself. We are This budget will hurt children and at their most formative years where they are learning numeracy and literacy
skills. Not to overextrapulate, but there's a study that shows having a bad teacher two years in a row um will greatly impact your after graduation plans.
This, I can guarantee you, will be on par with having a bad teacher because our teachers, as wonderful as they are, they've been holding things together. they will not be able to do what they've continually done. But it's not just the
schools budget that I am worried about. I am also worried about the town and the town asks. I feel those are equally as important because without a safe and healthy Lunberg, we are not going to have safe and healthy schools. And so I
stand with Chief Tibido and Chief Sullivan and um department Mr. Bernard, our DPW director in supporting what they're asking for too in an override scenario as I know the school committee does.
Um, so we I sent to the chair, I don't know if you had a chance to disseminate it, a link to a website that I have started to build out today with FAQs about what's
in um different levels of the budget and what is not in different levels of the budget. So I just went through the balanced budget scenario. In our core budget, the proposed
additions are a 1.0 paraprofessional in kindergarten, a 1.0 interventionist at Turkey Hill. An interventionist is a teacher that is the stop gap before special education. She takes she or he
takes small groups of students and really works to improve their literacy and numeracy skills. The next two additions are packaged. It's a 1.0 bridge program teacher and a
1.0 bridge par profofessional at the high school. This is exactly what it sounds like. This is >> Send that to everyone, right? Okay. >> Okay. This provides a bridge for our students who may not be quite ready to access what comes next for them in high
school, whether it be through their grades or through social emotional issues that they have. The classroom does need a teacher and a PAR because we try to include these students as much as possible and the PAR would provide classroom support. The related cut for
adding these is the 1.0 0 interventionist at Lunenburgg High School. Um in the tier 1 core budget, um we felt that while serving different groups of students, the primary function
was similar enough that um we could potentially reduce the impact of the ads by eliminating the 1.0 interventionist. Um, we're also asking for a point4 music
teacher at Lunenburgg High School. This is to increase the amount of elective offerings. Right now, our students for um music and performing arts have access to chorus and band. This would allow us
to restore a previous cut that was made and restore this position to full-time. a 1.0 world language teacher at Lunenburgg High School. Without this world language teacher at the high school, there will be changes into how
8th grade world languages are delivered. We will have to we are working on a combination of things right now with the high school leadership. we may have to start restricting our um off our Latin
offering to students so that teacher could pick up a section of Spanish. We may have to cap the number of students who requested Spanish and they'd have to take French. There are many scenarios being played out right now. And even
with the addition of this teacher, classes could potentially remain at 31 to 32 as they are now. And here you'll see the English language learning teacher again. You'll see the assistant business manager again. You'll see the.5
state reporting secretary again. and you will see a related cut um of a previous ask that we asked for in the full restoration budget of an interventionist at Lunenburgg Middle School. We felt that it was more important to have the
interventionist at our youngest grades. Another tradeoff that this budget um the core budget tier one um makes is that it it requires us to swap out the
interventionist at primary school for that special educator that's being asked for in the balanced budget. In the balanced budget, that position is being cut completionist position is being cut completely, which is why the special educator position is a new ask.
In our tier 2 restoration budget, we are asking for all of those things. And in addition, um, we are adding back the interventionist at Lunberg Middle School
because we do feel that that's important though not mission critical at this point. And that is my very rapid presentation for tonight. You also have our budget and any questions Chris and I are here to answer.
>> I have one quick question. >> Um, thank you so much. I I love all of this and I am for, you know, obviously I'm for education and I'm actually for both of these tiers. Um, for the literacy and language programs and the additional staff for those programs, um,
I think it might be a great idea to also implement and Mrs. Scalabrini, maybe this can be done at a school committee meeting. um once hopefully this goes in and all these positions are added um kind of a report of how our students are arcing up um so that they the public can
see the difference that this is actually going to make within the next one or hopefully two years of um these added positions and added programs. So we've started doing that actually at our school committee meetings this year.
We're at our major assessment periods at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. We're providing updates so the community will be able to see that and we'll be able to show year overyear data. >> And how does that look? Probably level or equal because we haven't added anything. >> Because we have some strong
interventionists in place at the primary school. We saw um significant growth actually at the primary school and the kindergarten level. One thing that's throwing off that data, and this is new for this year, is that if you look across the board in the
state of Massachusetts, after the MCCAST became non-mandatory for graduation, high school MCRS scores plummeted. And so, the thinking, and I don't know, but the thinking is that the high school students are cognizant of the vote and the change in the law, and they don't
care anymore. So, they're not trying, right? But if you look at the scores for the younger kids, they did decent. The other thing I want to point out is that the school committee, at least for the last 5 years that I've been on it, they had a once a year review of the assessments. And by doing it three times
a year, we're hopefully giving more data for a longitudinal perspective. >> Yeah. And I think the concern is that third grade level. That's the one that's >> um so it would be great I think if you even just say in your presentation we're going to be tracking this and we're going to be putting this out so so the
public can see >> we track it all the time. I think that the difference between previous years and this year is that we've been disclosing it disclosing it more often. So we did it at the beginning of the year and then we provided the caveat because you know the beginning of the
year tests always look bad because they're asked are they at grade level and they just started that grade. Then we did the the middle uh of the year assessments and we talked about that. We showed the difference between the two and my my assumption is we'll be doing the same at the end of the year so we
can see you know the hopefully the progress upward >> and then according to the state too. >> Yes. I kind of measure it. Hopefully, it's going to go the same. >> The state data will be um at the beginning of the year, not the end of the year because of we're just
administering the test now. >> Great. >> I just have a clarifying question before I open it to the rest. Um I don't see in tier one or tier 2 athletics or operations tech and supply. Are those not restored in
>> the tech and supply will not be? the athletics will be >> in which one >> and both the core um tier one and the tier two. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, you may want to update that on the >> Thank you, Mr. Manard, for letting us
clarify that. >> And then just for the public's perspective, this page is already live or we got like a >> you got a sneak peek tonight. I'm hoping that once Mr. McNamera clears it, it will be going live tomorrow.
No pressure. >> Hurry up. >> Okay. All right. So, I will open it to the >> Before Before before you open it, can I just make one comment? And this is from somebody who is not an educator. >> So, I think it's important to say the
like health of the community thing and the the political thing as well as the educational stuff. And for the educational stuff, defer to the experts. for the politics thing. We live in America and so everybody can be a political expert. But I think that one
of the things that the town of Lunberg has to understand and I try to minimize how much the sky is falling rhetoric I engage in. But I think that we are at a crossroads and that if we go through and do not pass any override and the
balanced budget goes through, not only will that be bad this year, but next year we will be at a point where we are starting to cut things that will have delletterious impacts across the board. And what I mean by that is we will be cutting things that put us right at the
line for state mandatory compliance issues. And we will be cutting things that act as an incentive for people to come to school here. And we will be at class sizes that are at or exceed the
limit of the physical buildings and the rooms in those buildings. We do not have the ability to cut anymore. And so one of the things that everybody needs to be aware of is that the primary mechanism for state funding is at least in part geared to the number of students you
have. And so if you cut and the cuts cause people to leave, that reduces your funding, which will cause more cuts, which will cause more people to leave. And so this the way that the state funding mechanism is currently set up
creates sort of a a point of no return or point where the death spiral starts. And I want to make clear that if the balance budget is the only thing we have, next year we will be at that point. We'll be at the point where we are minimally compliant with laws
regarding curriculum requirements. We will be at the point where we can no longer put more students in classrooms, especially in the lower grades. So, those are real concerns that I have going forward. And like I said, I try not to ring the bell about the sky is
falling, but I think we are at the point where this is it. Like, we've got to make the change now. If we don't, I'm concerned that we won't be able to pull it back. And next year, we will not be able to pull it back. It will start. The death spiral will start. And maybe we should have, you know, maybe we should
have regionalized 10 years ago or 15 years ago, whenever it was. But when we decided not to do that, we put ourselves on the course that we are at now. And what what I am trying to make clear to the public is if we don't pass something soon, we will be at a point where our
schools will not be capable of taking any more cuts without going out of compliance with the law or having problems just cramming kids into a room. All right. Well, so why don't I start with Tom? Do you have any questions?
You're mute, Tom. >> Sorry. Um, I don't have any questions right now, but I will in a minute. I'm I'm looking at a few things here um that I did not get a chance to look at before. So, uh, >> Okay. Thank you. Jay, did you have any
questions or comments? Uh, not at the minute. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mike. >> Mike, >> um, yeah, on the on the core budget, tier one tour core budget >> in your proposed reductions,
the two the two interventionists, we don't have those now. Correct. >> We currently have a high school interventionist. We do not have a middle school interventionist. It's being cut from our restoration um ask, which is
our major ask. >> Okay. So, it's all right. So, the middle school one's really not a reduction. It's a reduction from what you'd like, right? >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. >> That was it. >> That was it. >> Okay.
Um I'm going to bounce back between com comments and questions just because I was taking notes. My first question is on the budget spreadsheet that you gave us. Um you have the balanced and then the level service, the core
budget and the restoration. The level services is as everything as is today. >> Yes. >> Yes. which we are quickly coming to
realize is not sufficient for our students making progress. >> Okay. Um All right. And and and it was not as if you called it level service and made some strategic changes on that on
>> we actually the changes though they may seem many were very strategic and there is >> on that one budget >> and yes. >> Okay. Okay. And um and that's still $700,000 above
761 above the current available funding. >> Correct. >> Okay. Um this is a comment you last year we changed the legal services uh provider. We reduced the hours and now we're increasing. I'm just making a
commentary on year-over-year budget. um the occupational therapist that that's not something we can charge insurance companies. >> It is not because if it's on a student IEP, we are legally required to provide it as part of a free and appropriate public education.
>> Sure. Um the when you listed the cost um to include and for you know adding employees and reducing employees were the insurance costs. So on that just the personnel Chris I'll let you answer
that. >> So the >> doesn't sound like we have any sound. >> Hello that one on for >> they were included um and they were in the slides. So if you noticed in the
slides some of the numbers might have seemed relatively large for a teacher. So the health insurance was figured in based off the fact if they took the highest level family plan possible. >> Okay. So so on both sides on Okay. >> Correct.
>> Just as part of um and I know last time you were here um I had brought up the social workers and you said that you had made a phone call. >> Did did we did you hear back? And >> I've made several phone calls since then and I still haven't heard back. back. I I know, you know, after hearing your
presentations um and your concerns about it, um one thought I had, you know, if maybe we that would be if they ever recall call you back, maybe trying on the upper grades if to see if there is a trying in
a smaller level to see if there is a possibility of success and then maybe expand it if they ever call you back. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. um the athletics uh department, the changes they've made, you know, I
think I think the school committee needs to create policies around the athletic department to create kind of the guard rails on, you know, how we're expanding athletics,
the costs associated with it. because I I feel like if we don't have those guard rails, those policies on when is the appropriate time to add a new athletic, a new sport, the cost associated with it, you know, we can end up in a
situation like we did last year with the ski team and now so I would look forward to the school committee to doing that. >> That is on the agenda for the next policy sub. >> Oh, I should see a man. We we had already talked about that um when it came to our attention that there was a I
think it was winter cheer. >> Yes. >> And gymnastics were added this year. Gymnastics resurrected a program that had already existed and it's a co-op, but winter cheer was new. My understanding is that there was also and I don't know if this happened, but there was also uh a push for uh a girls
volleyball team. All of those things are great. We just need to make sure that there's a policy to handle how they are added and when they are added so that we are not taxing the budget unexpectedly in the middle of the school year. So yes, we're already doing that. That is going to happen. >> That's awesome.
>> Going to happen. >> Um another com, this is a foreign information. I know some of the conversations you have had about um how you handled the selling of tickets at athletic events. Um, well, I'm going to
give you some I'm gonna give you some new So, >> everybody's so mad at me for that. >> Oh, no. I'm not I'm I'm cool with that. >> Every single person in town was so mad that I said we shouldn't do cash transactions. >> No. No. So, so one fun thing is the town
actually already pays for a software, my rack, and and we sell you can sell membership, you can sell tickets like and we do that at the town beach. It'll be in my opinion it'll be great if we can wrap the school services on that and
that way it takes a lot of administrative overhead on be selling tickets at the door and not and you can take cash, you can take credit card um and maybe you might be able to expand the membership type of style that that
ends up being a money maker versus not. So that is a a thing to that like we at the town beach we have been able to sell memberships and sell at the door which the at the door I did not look at this year's number but I know in the summer
of 24 we had 1,400 unique people walk into the door and that's a big number you know for a town beach that's operating for six weeks but anyway it's a service that we only have that we only use, you know, 3 months out of the year
for that specific. It also um manages scheduling for facilities extremely well. So I'd love to sit down with the permission of the town manager and walk through whoever handles that because it might be a tool that we already pay for
and we can set it up so that the the funds will go like whenever they they collect the money the accounting team in here they because you set it up it goes straight into the school revolving fund. So there's very little touching on that. So
>> just so that the the committee is aware the current software that we use was an extension of an existing software. It was huddle right? >> Yes. >> So the the the gate management software that we use was part of huddle and huddle provides a ton of sports related
IT services. So we did not buy anything new. We just extended or expanded what we already had. I think there was a small fee for that. I would love to find some solution to this. As you know, I proposed it in policy subcommittee. We brought it to school committee. I was uh
laughed off the stage because people wanted their children to be able to make change. So, I totally I like this idea. I'm just saying uh >> take it on, Anna. I'm not >> in my prior experience, it was a it was a a candle not worth the book, but yes, I'll look at it again.
>> Yeah, I'm I'll be happy to help to help facilitate it and and is a software that is actually used in a lot of rack departments. So it's it's more suited for that for this kind of of event. Um so while you know like Dr. when you
said, you know, you're looking for a healthy Lunenburgg, um, you know, the support for the chief, for the two chiefs, they're here, the the PWU. I I had this criticism. It was a criticism, uh, the tribe board, and I will repeat
that I don't put every request that we seen on tier one to be at the same critical level. Unfortunately, I'm just the person making suggestions. Um, and that's and I will renew that for now. I always get behind whoever I need to get behind. I, you know, the only
operational budget uh override has ever passed in Lunberg was actually only a school budget, a school override. All the other ones have been said to be no. I also believe that the smallest of the requests are the ones that more likely to pass. Um, so I appreciate what you're
saying, but I don't put every request that has been shown to us on tier one to be at the same critical level as classroom teachers. and and I anyway. So that's that's are my comments. Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Very good. Any comments, Tanya? >> I didn't know we're doing one round robin, so I apologize. I didn't >> No, it's all right. >> Um, no, I don't think so. I think the one question that I did have is you were talking about an assistant principal
full-time at Turkey Hill as opposed to having this principal split between two campuses um based on class sizes. If these overrides pass one or two and we're adding staff to those classrooms and those classroom numbers go down, are we
going to be altering that position or we just going to keep that position? >> That's the current position that we have now. And um anybody who has a child at primary school can tell you how busy uh Mr. Smith is there and um Mrs. Cormier,
Dr. Cormier, excuse me, is just as busy at Turkey Hill Elementary School. They are constantly running. >> Okay. So, what was the correlation between keeping him, cutting him? because we added it into our um balanced
budget because we felt that it was that essential to maintain. >> So that won't be coming off regardless of class size. Okay, >> that's it. >> I just want to thank you for the presentation. It was great and I I appreciate all the work you put in to
developing this plan. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I mean I'll echo that as well. Um, I think the presentations this year have been have been excellent, very understandable. Um, the discussions that have gone on have have been really good.
So, I I I appreciate that. You know, if if we do go to a position of a of a balanced budget, if that's the, you know, what the town decides, I I I do think you need to start having discussions about telling the state that unfunded mandates need will be mandated
when they're funded. um in in bring in lawyers. I I'll pay for lawyers if you know for that kind of thing. If they want to if they want to increase their budgets, their chapter 70 fund into us by 1.3%. They're going to stop getting services and we need to start pushing back and
get 213 other communities to push back with us. Um so I you know I I I think they've put us in a really bad spot. And I think you know one thing we're going to go through later on is when we look
at the the effect of you know normal increase to the raise and appropriate to the um you know to the the Prop 2 and a half increases plus the the tier one and the tier two. We're going to see some
extremely large numbers for for for people who are in expensive homes. And just because you're in an expensive home doesn't mean that you necessarily have a high income. Um, you know, so I I think um
you guys have done everything you need to do on this. I I don't think you're excessive in any of your asks. I'm not saying that. But we're going to have hard decisions if this if the you know at least one of these overrides does not does not pass. Um, and it may be in my
opinion lawyering up and pushing back on the on the state. So, you know, so that might lead you towards don't do the reporting. You know, tell them send them a bill. If you want reports, you got to you got to pay you for the for the reports. Um, but we'll see how that goes
over. Hopefully, we're not in that situation. >> We should do that anyway. We should be pushing back on the state anyway. I I would note that a uh similar lawsuit in New Hampshire, where I practice law, went before uh the court and they found that the state was improperly pushing
down burdens on local taxpayers and they were not adequately funding local school districts. I think that is not something that is a frivolous idea. I spoke to one of our legislators about the unfunded mandates and the reporting responsibilities that went along with it
and the costs and they said, "Wow, I never knew that that was an issue." So, you know, and they said, and I'll use the they so it's not attributable to who um although maybe I did um you know, to quantify that and and supply that
data. But, you know, it's really sticking your head in the sand, I think, if you don't understand the the ramifications of the requirements you're putting on onto the town. >> My state association and I are also pushing back very hard on the state. >> Okay.
All right. So, whereas this is a um a public hearing, I will open it um like we normally do anyways uh to anyone in the public that has a question or a comment or anything like that. Um, I do see someone coming off mute. Again, just
uh name and address. Um, but uh 7248. Go ahead. >> Dave Rogers, Mr. Chairman. >> Hi, Dave. Where do you live? >> How are you? Good. >> Highland Street. >> All right.
>> Yeah. Um, to your comment, uh, tell Rip Van Winkle to to wake up and and look, uh, at some, uh, TV, uh, reruns relative to what is discussed uh, by the various
committees in town. It's it's unconscionable to say, G, I didn't know that. Anyway, I'm going to give you three or four things real quick. uh historically years ago, I don't know how many, but our late son Jason was
involved in in sports and the the sports programs needed help. Tommy Sza, myself and a whole bunch of other people uh got together and we had uh Thursday, Friday, and Saturday uh a fair and we sold
everything and raised enough money to take care of all of the expenses that were teetering back and forth so it can be done. Okay. The other question I have is what about uh Pittsburgh State College? Is there anything that we can
do up there to to solicit some help from those that are going to uh go into education and teaching? If so, uh let's get at it. Uh I have a real real problem looking forward uh and and what it's
going to look like. If it's bad now, it's must be terrible uh in years to come. and and I think that's all part and parcel of some some projections that we need to talk about. Okay. Um the
other my last comment is reading. Uh I I can't tell you uh the machination that I went through with with when I heard about the uh the third grade and the fifth grade and I mean I went I went
nuts. Why couldn't we put together a a group of uh individuals that could read to these kids and to help fill that gap and uh uh even in in uh even to to help
them uh in the classroom for an hour or two or whatever. We we've got to be creative. And I'm I'm sure that if we put the word out and organize it properly, Lunenburgg will respond. Okay. Um I have more, but
I'm not going to take any more of your time. Uh but I will stay up and uh maybe you'll hear from me again. Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. Can I respond to Mr. Rogers last comment? So, I hope all of our
seniors stay tuned with the senior center being led by Mr. Rabbit. We are um gathering a cadre of senior citizen tutors or adult citizen tutors for our
third grade students who will come in and read to them and be read to by them. Um Dr. Sari, our director of teaching and learning, is organizing this and will be doing the training. So, watch for more information coming. And Mr.
Rogers, I hope you volunteer. I'd love to see you at Turkey Hill. >> I I did mute you, Dave, if you want to say anything. >> Here we have the flyer here. So, one other just note I I think um you and Mure have been the library director
have been talking about um maybe some curriculum through the library, not curriculum I guess, but some programs through the library to maybe help with that kindergarten reading score. Um and the other thing you may want to look at is um I think National Honor Society has
requirements for volunteering. um often times about 2 weeks before it's due, they're they're rushing around looking for something. Um but I do know that there's been um program, you know, projects in town that have provided real
value to the town. So um you know, it might be another avenue to help solve. Maybe it's on the town side, maybe it's on the school side, but it's, you know, it's one one budget in the end. >> All right. Uh Laura, you have your hand up.
Yes, thank you. Laura Bushian at 389 Mulpus Road. I'm commenting um as I have at many of the school school committee meetings both as a parent of a senior, a 10th grader, and a band member. Um as well, I appreciate everything that the school committee has done to present the
budgets. I said it's never been as transparent as I've seen during this process and so well done, well thought out. None of this is a good answer. And I'm going to reiterate some comments I made last week at the meeting when there were 117 participants on the phone with
me um or on the Zoom and others in the room as well. It is critical that if you have a stake in this town, if you are um you use the facilities that this town offers, the school, the the roads, the uh the ambulance, the police, that you
get out on May 2nd and show up at the town meeting, and that you then show up on May 16th and you vote. We have control over our town. There's little sometimes that we can control in our world, but certainly um this budget process is in our control. And it is
terrifying to me as a parent and as my senior is a special needs as well. Terrifying to me to think of what next year will look like without this override um passing because it I can't even imagine being a teacher in a
classroom with you know 31 first graders and I've heard repeatedly physically how will you fit that many people and that many students in a room as well. Um, it's just I remind the parents, I remind taxpayers that this is our year, that we
are at a crossroads. Um, that we will need to make massive cuts next year. And that's not the town that I know we want to live in. That's not the town certainly that others want to move to. That isn't what keeps our property values up. Okay. >> Um, I will say as president of the Music
Gators as well, I will say we do have the largest sixth grade uh band right now. Um, Mr. Ballister I believe let me know that last year the fifth grade band this they the kids that started the fifth grade 90% of those kids finished the fifth grade band and now have moved
into that sixth grade and um that's really encouraging uh you know for for our program and for our feeder program. the musicators are committed to help filling the gaps that um you know that that that these budget cuts um will mean for our music program because we just
all feel so strongly about the benefits that it's given our kids and we I just want to remind people get out on May 2nd and on May 16th uh because this is something that we can really have an impact on and really the for the good of the teachers for the administrators and
for our kiddos we really do need to make our sure our voices are heard And I again appreciate everything that um you know that the school committee's been doing. So thank you. >> Thank you Laura. >> Are there any other comments or questions
>> from the public? >> No other comment. >> All right. With that again I thank you for for joining us again and for all the hard work you've done. Mr. Chair, I have to go home and put my boys down. May I
be excused? >> To bed. To bed. To bed. >> They're children. >> They're in a farming community. >> They're They're children, not horses. >> Of course you can. >> Thanks. All right.
>> Can you drive for me, Mr. Chairman? >> Yes. Which one am I? I might have >> The one that I dropped one in your drive maybe 6:00 p.m.ish. Had a missing one on the other one. >> Do you want me to share it with you,
Ken? Um no just um what um which one in budget impact statements? >> No updated budget fin 32627. >> Okay. You want me to just share? >> No, I got it. It just took a second.
>> Apparently cutting back on Wi-Fi or something. Oh, you messed up my first slide. >> I did. >> Yeah, that blue just moved. But that's okay. >> Okay. Sorry about that.
>> Okay. So, good evening everybody. Uh I was I've been before the finance committee uh over a number of weeks but last presented the preliminary budget on February 19th 2026 and since that time
um we've done a couple of things. So the preliminary budget that was presented was unbalanced at the time. So since that time we have balanced the budget and in doing so included uh fourth shift fire in that balanced budget. Uh we have
also identified um some restorations uh which would be in a tier one uh override as well as some small additions in a tier one override and some restorations and additions in a tier 2 override. Uh we've also adjusted the revenue and
we've made some other cuts closer to actual. So I'm going to kind of quickly go through some of that uh background and then uh hopefully get to where you're most interested. So next slide please. Okay. So, one of the areas that we did make a adjustment since the preliminary
budget was to revenue. Um, as a reminder, and that was specifically to local receipts. As a reminder, local receipts uh represent the smallest piece of the revenue revenue pie. And they um are motor vehicle excise tax, mo u meals
tax, fines, fees, for pictures, and they should be budgeted conservatively and not at historically high levels. So next slide please. So since uh the preliminary budget we've adjusted in two places. One is an additional 75,000 to motor vehicle
excise tax and the second is an additional 100,000 to investment income. Um while we recognize that uh there are other local receipts that are turning back high, we also recognize that free cash pays an
important role in the community. Um the division of local services recommends that a community has between five and 7% of its operating budget uh certified each year as free cash and in the last 10 years uh the town of Lunberg has only
met that mark three times. Um so we are uh historically coming in under what the recommended recommended level of local of free cash is. Uh so that's one of the reasons why we uh have decided not to adjust local receipts any further. Additionally, we've made a lot of um
cuts closer to actual on the expenditure side. Uh so we know that we may not be turning back um from there as we have. And lastly um this is the area that will be most impacted by the economy. So if
investment income stays strong, motor vehicle excise tax stays strong and the economy stays strong, we can take a look at pushing this again next year. Um based on also seeing where the the efforts or effect of our reductions on
the expenditure line is playing out. Um is can we deal with a couple things as we're in this slide? >> Okay. the the school department revenue which is the revenue that we get from preschool tuition we have
historically like since 20 even like the actuals through co were down um but once we came back from co where kids were in student were in school we have you know consistently been over 150,000 so I'm
going to address the very first thing that you say that you know the DLS recommends that we're between 5 to 7%. And all that it so that's a recommendation and I don't think it's one that the DLS comebacks and punishes
us if our finances are in control. Um, two town managers ago, Caris Caris Spyell, who's now the town manager of Conquered, she always kept us in a much shorter leash on the free cash because free cash becomes sort of a slush fund and prevents us from making strategic
decisions with our money and that that I see as financially speaking a problem to just have a slush fund that in the end of the day we're going to come up with ways of using. So that's the problem that I see. There is no although they make a recommendation it's not
mandatory. Um I I see the department of school revenue it's you know we have consistently been over 100 you know around $150,000. Um I I don't see why we can't have that
number to be that. Um the motor motor vehicle exercise you increased by how much? >> 75,000. So now it's one >> 1.95 is the number on the >> Okay. Yeah. I think my um the biggest
one that I see is the department of revenue from the revenue from the schools. I I think there is at least $80,000 there extra that maybe is an extra teacher on the schools. And >> so so this this is a pot of funds. All
of the local receipts come in together into one pot and we're looking at the total number. So we are not expecting to hit any of these on the nose. Some are going to come in higher, some are going to come in lower. And what we hope is at the end we're offsetting in a positive.
And um I I hear your opinion, but respectfully I disagree with it regarding free cash. So I think I think what may be wise on this then is as we go into you know the off budget season and we start to look
at policies which we kind of started about a year ago and then put on hold maybe this is one where we start to have that discussion have the discussion with the select board and the you know the two of you and then um maybe it's something you kind of create policy or
guidelines or rules of thumb that everyone is kind of agreeing on. Um, I I had the same questions I think as Anna had, you know, earlier in the process. I'm not going to personally I I'm not going to push on
that one too much. Um, and again, we do have a lot of stuff to get through, but I I do hear what you're saying and I I think we are fairly conservative in our estimate of re of on the revenue side. Again,
I'm going to remind folks that we have only hit that recommendation um within the LA three out of the past uh 10 years. Free cash is used to fund our it is not used to fund slush funds. It is used to fund our stabilization
accounts. It is used to fund our capital. Yeah. >> Um and so free cash plays an important role to the health of the overall budget. >> I agree with that. Yeah. Well, I I see Jeffrey since that was a response to my comment. If we're going to go there, I'm
happy to go there. We have funded all these things you have said previously in a more strategic way and our free free cash was much lower and we can talk about different ways of doing. We have, you know, there are many different ways of doing it's right now
we have, you know, $80,000 that we could be funding a teacher that we are leaving there and and you know my characterization of being a slush fund is we get this money a year and a half later and then we get to decide on how
to spend it. Meanwhile, that year prior we are shorting cash. So, so you know, we don't have to dwell into it, but you know, if you if you address me comments that I made, we don't have to agree. I I'm going to address that I think that
everybody can agree that the state of our infrastructure within the community our buildings is not in good repair and that unless the community would like to do a different type of funding mechanism for the capital projects that it is
critically important that we continue to return free cash so that we can make necessary repairs. Um I think TCP building is a testament to the lack of investment in our infrastructure >> and I next slide please.
>> Okay. >> Okay. So um this just is a slide. We've seen this slide many times. This is an adjustment based on that additional revenue. Next slide please. So with that additional revenue that left 1.4 4 million1,431,358.89
after the assessment to Monty Tech was taken out. Next slide, please. And distributed proportionally across the uh town and school budgets, the school received $784,814.7 and the town received $646
$646,544.82. All right, next slide, please. So, changes since the prelim preliminary budget. You have this before you just to compare. Um, this shows what our FY26 budgets were in the general categories, what was presented at the F at the
February 19th preliminary budget, the uh balanced budget, the tier one and tier 2 overrites. Next slide, please. I'm not going to go through all of these, but this is a summary of areas where we went back through um operating
budgets in all versions of the budgets and reduced lines closer to actuals. Some of these were very small, $50 here. Some of these were larger, $10,000. It it really varied. Um next slide, please. And and this it continues here. This is
exactly what I'm talking about where we have gone in and cut expenditures and gotten closer to um the actuals. Next slide, please. We've also removed uh several items from
the operating budget. Um we had talked about the uh special assistant to the assessor position who's doing the temporary project because that is temporary in nature. It may last more than just FY27. It may go into FY28, but we're going to take it out of the operating budget and fund it outside of
operations, whether that be with free cash or with assessors overlay. Uh, and then TCP, um, for those that aren't aware, um, TCP has had greater decline, uh, due to active water infiltration.
And uh we know that we're going to have to continue to fund TCP for part of FY27 as we wind the building down, but it will not continue likely operationally into FY28. So that's why we are pulling these funds outside of the operating
budget. Okay, next slide, please. >> Can I say something real quick? That's why you dropped the electricity and natural gas. >> Yes. All of all of those drops on that slide are all related to TCP. Those were all additions uh to each of those lines to fund TCP's operations.
>> Thank you. >> Okay, so now we have some more um substantive changes. Some of these you may have heard about. Um I I believe you've heard about most of them. Uh so in the preliminary budget, the assistant town manager position was funded for a half year. It's now been funded at a
full year. Um the tech admin support position was eliminated to fund uh part of that uh cost. Uh there was a correction made to telephone charges which we discussed. A 10-hour a week uh position in concom
has been eliminated in all versions of the budget. Uh there's been an increase of $2,000 in land use for mapping and other professional services. Uh there is a new line for economic development expenses of 3,100.
Uh the 19-hour a week clerk position in the police department um has been cut. A correction was made to police patrol salaries. Uh K9 expenses. I made a rounding change. Uh the ex anticipated
salary for the new fire chief was moved out of the operating budget and into the salary reserve. The administrative assistant for the board of health was has been uh reduced as we are reorganizing that position and combining it with other land use
functions. Uh there was a correction made to the assistance at the um the meal site assistance at the senior center and there were corrections made to retiree and town health insurance.
>> Are these changes when you say updated is this updated to the balanced budget or to the tier one? So >> the preliminary >> these are updated in the balance budget. >> In the balance budget. Okay. >> Okay. On the health insurance, does that
include the um PEC? >> This is retiry health insurance where there were corrections. So, >> okay. >> So, um the PEC um is still in the process of voting. Um but it is likely
that they are going to vote to affirm uh the changes. Uh there's roughly a $200,000 savings across town and school budgets that will be yielded from that. Um I am not planning on adjusting the health insurance budget accordingly for
the town activives as uh any overages there will be used to offset uh snow and ice if we can cover it within uh that year as a transfer at the end of the year. Next slide. So the FY27 budgets. Next slide.
We have three budgets. We have a balanced budget, a tier one budget, and a tier 2 budget. >> This slide, >> you got it. The balance budget is $49,925,699. Um, $2,354,000
more than that is the tier one override. And then uh $3,245,000 over that is the tier 2 override. So next slide, please. Tier one roughly a $2.4 million override.
The average single family home in Lunenburgg is assessed at $517,296. Their current tax bill is $7,440. And the impact of a $2.4 million override alone, so not including the regular increase from Proposition 2 and
a half, just the impact of the override is $56.95 on top of that $7,444. >> And and that's on top of the two and a half, >> correct? >> Yeah. So just I I had talked to town manager right before I was pulling stuff
together today when I had a free mailment and she was busy as heck pulling these slides together. Right before the meeting I had dropped a um table in the town report folder. I don't know if you guys got a chance to see it. That is something that I'll need someone
here to to kind of um make right probably with the help of the um uh town manager or the or the finance director um over the next week. But um >> yeah, because these your numbers don't match up to this.
>> Yes, that is right. >> Okay. I just wanted to >> Yeah, cuz I my numbers built first towards just the balance budget increase to taxes then tier one and tier two. So, um this is showing just the impact of
the override. >> His is more right, >> right? His is his is what the actual increase will be. So, you already have the the proposition two and a half increase that would be occurring regardless of any override. So his combines the that increase together with
the >> right. So so really the the impact is 506 but in reality the increase over the 744 is more like 700 and something. >> I haven't looked at the math to >> Yeah, I do need someone to look at the
math because I think I took the increase but I did I didn't factor in maturing debt and some other stuff that would impact it. So I I do need um you guys to just double check what's in there and put the right values in. >> Is is a qu a question is it two and a
half plus whatever percentage it is. So it's a percentage on top of a percentage. >> So but your your average tax bill does not increase year-over-year by 2 and a half% necessarily. It's that the whole levy increases by two and a half. But it does. So you're going to have the effect
of the Proposition 2 and a half increase plus the effect of the override. No, I I I understand your that what the first part what you said, but my question was is it two and a half plus the amount or
is it the like let's say is it $2.5 million? The levy is 38 30 whatever is the amount of the levy. You add 2 and a2 millions to that and then you add 2 and a2%. Yes. >> Or do you add two and a half% and then you add two 2 and 12?
>> You increase you increase the levy. >> You increase the 11 and then apply another 2 and 1.5%. >> No, you don't add 2 and 1.5% again. >> That you add 2 and 1 half% and then add whatever on top of >> Right. Okay. The 2.4 million. Yeah.
Wouldn't you just if there's just the the if none of the tiers gets approved, you would have a uh you they would calculate the the tax rate based on the the the the money that we do. If tier one is approved, then it would be the
the tax rate of that. So, you just calculate the tax rate and you can get and then anybody can calculate the value of their house and and do it. So, uh, I think it'd probably be better to just I mean, show give it examples, but also give them the tax rate. It's it looks
like it's 98 whatever it is, uh, $15.37 for um, you know, and and just do that. >> Yeah. The the point being that if you go to the Department of Revenues website and you say, "I want to show the impact of $2,400,000
on my taxes." That is only part of the increase. It does not include the 2.5% increase on top of that because it's based on FY26 tax bill. So the 2.4
million is not really 2.4 four in that calculator. >> Right. >> Right. So that's what I was trying to arrive at in that table. I just think I was missing. >> Uh I don't know that I had the right value for the the just the balance budget increase portion of it.
>> So >> are we for you? >> Are we going to be showing this when we present at town meeting the increase per tier to the residents when they're voting? So, we're going to have a calculator on our website that actually
links to your property address, so you can type in your address and it'll pull it down. Um, but we'll have to have the disclaimer that that calculator works like the DLS calculator and it doesn't include the the increase that you would be receiving. Nonetheless, it's only the
effect of the override. >> So, is there a way to implement that into the >> We can look into that. >> Okay. >> Yeah. And I'm >> going to ask for sure. >> I'm recommending that we have a table. >> Mhm. >> That one can find approximately what their house is worth and approximately
what the tiers >> a handout or a QR code >> in our annual report. >> Okay. Yeah. >> So, we'll get to that later tonight, but I just wanted to point that out. All right. Thank you. >> Are you on the tier two?
Okay. And so similarly on a $3.3 million override, the impact on that same home would be $698.35. Okay, you go down two slides, please. >> Your feedback.
>> Is it Tom's video? >> Well, Tom's muted. Oh, is he? >> It's somebody online. >> Everyone's muted. Jean does not. >> It's Is it Mr. Rogers? I hear a phone. >> Yes.
uh to to um Anna's point, uh I'm not going to use the right uh categories, but what's what's the uh um uh line item that that uh deals with retirement uh that we must have, you know, uh
couple hundred,000 in that right now. >> Oh, OPED. >> Yes, thank you. Yeah. Um, you know, and this is not a popular uh point, but I think it's a common sense point. Um, the the obligation is in the mega millions.
Correct. >> It's it's a very large obligation. We're under 10% funded. >> Yeah. Okay. Uh, and there's no way in hell that that that we can come up with that kind of money. So, my point is this. if if we could find a way to
reasonably uh add another $50,000 uh to the the uh uh uh budget that we're trying to recon uh construct. Uh you know, every little bit helps and and I know that this is
probably not a a a popular position, but nonetheless, I wanted to share it. Thank you. Okay, next slide. Okay, so I'm going to walk there's a lot here. I'm going to try to walk through
this relatively fast. So, uh these are the reductions uh that were made to balance the budget. Uh so these are reductions in the balance budget and I'll identify uh if they're restored in tier one or tier 2. So, select board contracted services
preliminary budget was funded at $13,500. Level funded at $6,000. This will be restored in the tier 1. This line was funded at 135 to fund the contract with John Gilfoil Public Relations to provide professional crisis communication, media
relations, and strategic content support. The tier one request reflects the annual cost of maintaining the full service agreement. Funding the line at the FY26 level will require reducing these services. Town manager contracted services reduced to $6,000 from the
level fund of 10,000 restored in tier 1. This line item provides the town manager's office with limited funding for professional services needed to carry out administrative functions that cannot be performed internally. Uh the tier one request maintains level funding with FY26 and reflects the typical
annual cost for recruitments, consulting assistance and small project support that arise during the course of the year. This is typically used uh for recruitment related activities. Next slide please. Land use meetings in schools reduced from $5,50 to $3,50 restored in tier
one. This line item funds professional development training and certification for three land use department heads. the building commissioner, the director of planning and econom economic development, and the conservation agent. Regular attendance of professional meetings, courses, and conferences are necessary to remain current and
compliant. Economic development expenses. This is a new line that would have been created in the uh in the FY27 budget at $3,100. It is restored in tier 1. This line item is proposed to provide limited funding for the activities of
the economic development committee, specifically the annual town official meet and greet. The balance budget removes the funding entirely. If the line is not funded, the event will need to continue to be funded through donations or not be held. Next slide, please.
Uh, okay. Uh, APDC expenses reduced from 500 to zero restored in tier 1. This slide item provides a small amount of funding for use by APDC for routine administrative expenses. Central purchasing office equipment reduced from
7500 to 6,500 restored in tier 1. This line item provides centralized funding for the purchase of office furniture and similar larger items that cannot be absorbed within individual departmental office supply budgets. This account is p used primarily but not exclusively for T
town hall and Ritter buildings. Typical expenses include desks, chairs, filing cabinets, tables, shelving, and other furnishings needed to replace worn or broken items to equip workspaces. Um, I just saw a desk going out of here that
had to be from the 1960s the other day that had been used by the payroll and benefits administrator for the past >> Did you bring it to the historic Society? >> I did take a photograph of it. It was metal um and green. Okay. Um, central
purchasing equipment maintenance reduced from 7,000 to 4,000 restored in tier 1. This light item funds central purchasing of common equipment supplies used across multiple departments, primarily town hall and Ritter. Items charged to this account typically include copier and printer toner, ink, paper, postage
machine supplies, and similar shared use materials. Police Department admin clerk reduced from $22,485 to zero restored in tier 2. This line supports a 16-hour ad 16-hour admin who processes accounts payable for all
police department receipts and detail accounts. The impact of losing this position in the balance budget in tier 1 budgets will be that the executive assistant must absorb these duties. Police uniform reduced from $31,000 to $29,450
restored in tier one. Police Now it says salary reserves firefighter. It's not. It's It's really a police line. So, reduced from $47,898 to $22,976.
Restored in tier 1. This funding allows the public safety lobby to remain open from the between the hours of 3 and 7. Some of the usual daily requests are accident reports, crime reporting, phone call inquiries for non-emergency assistance, obtaining reports or requests, and prisoner monitoring.
During those hours, the public would encounter a locked door after 3 p.m. and would need to speak to a dispatcher through a kiosk who would let them enter the building's lobby and call an officer to handle the call in the lobby. Also, after 3 p.m., when someone calls the non-emergency business lines of the public safety building, they will either
leave a voicemail or be directed to Nishoba dispatch, and an officer will have to return to the station to return phone calls during those hours when the front lobby is closed. Next slide. fire firefighter salaries per DM reduced
from $291,70.34 to $225,000 restored in tier 1. This decrease effectively decreases the plan perdm coverage in the FY27 budget request from 112 hours per week to 70 hours per week. The reduction in the balance budget
results in the career staff being supplemented by a PDM firefighter EMT 10 hours a day instead of 16 hours a day. While the exact hours that are covered would yet to be determined, the PDM firefighter coverage would supplement the career staff during the day. This would leave cover evening coverage at
three career staff. Without the fourth PDM firefighter in the evening, it will be more difficult to staff the second ambulance or have at least two firefighters respond on an initial fire call if the first ambulance is out. Fire out of pay reduced from 5,000 to 3,000
restored in tier 1. This line funds firefighter working out of grade although adequate for current staffing with the addition of a fourth shift. There will be an additional shift officer. This will result in additional out ofgrade pay for some coverage for this individual. While the total amount
in the line appears to be adequate if it's exceeded, the funding will have to be drawn from another line item as this is contractual. Fire outside training reduced from $50,473.12 to $25,000 restored in tier one. Although this line has been underspent
for several years, it is primarily due to not needing to cover overtime and shift coverage for a member attending paramedic training. Uh for those that are not aware, uh in the fire contract, uh we provide training for those that are not paramedics and they have to stay
with the town for a number of years or pay back uh the town for that. So, we haven't had anybody go through that training recently, which is why the line hasn't been spent as much um as it could be. But with the addition of the fourth shift, it is more than likely that one of the new hires um at least will have
to attend said training. While the amount in the balance budget should cover a one paramedic student, it leaves very little funding for other members that attend training. Fire equipment maintenance EMS reduced from 46,000 to 45,000 increased in tier 1. This is the most
volatile line in the fire expense budget as EMS call volume has continued to grow and the cost of consumable supplies and medications has continued to skyrocket. Annual maintenance on some EMS equipment such as cardiac monitors, stretchers, and other hardware also has seen
significant increases in the recent years. While this line does have an increase over FY26, it is not in line with the FY27 request. In years past, this line has gone over budget and transfers have been required. uh this line the line that's often drawn upon uh
for the transfers has also been cut in the FY27 balance budget which may necess necessitate drawing from more critical expense lines. Next slide. Fire training reduced from 21,000 to 15,000 restored in tier 1.
This line is has been used for hiring outside instructors for training and covering tuition for paramedic students. It has been underspent in the past years as there has been not been a need to send. Oh, I have this slide twice. I'm so sorry. Now I've lost my place.
>> Where are we? Chris, what slide are you on? >> Fire training number 21 to 15K. >> Okay, thank you. Okay, so fire training reduced from 21,000 to 15,000. Um,
I feel like I have a bad copy here. I already Hold on. Like I said, I was scrambling today. Um, Chief, help me out here. >> Reduction in training. >> The 215. Oh, no. I'm right. Okay. Sorry. This is
used to hire instructors for training covering tuition for paramedic students. It I saw a paramedic and my mind went to the other line. It has been underspent in past years as there's not been a need to send anybody to school, but with the addition of the fourth shift, um it's likely that we'll have to am I saying this? Did I do this wrong? Okay.
>> Paramedic tuition. >> Thank you. The amount left in this line should cover one person for paramedic school tuition, which leaves no additional funding for bringing in outside instructors for EMT and paramedic continuing education training. Thank you, Chief. I am sorry for the fumble. Uh fire reertification reduced
from 31 $3,150 to $2,000 restored in tier 1. This line has been reduced to being in line with more recent actuals. However, with three new full-time staff, their reertification costs will need to be covered. Fire training supplies reduced
from 7,000 to 5,000 restored in tier 1. This line covers training expenses such as textbooks and other materials for firefighter training. Other materials off um often include materials to build training props and other consumable supplies. Next slide. This is where I
thought we were before. Fire meetings schools for firefighters reduced from $6,565 to 4,000 restored in tier 1. While this cut is in line with past expenditures, costs have risen for many of the training seminars. There are also many
new trainings which are coming to the forefront such as lithium ion batteries, active shooter in incidents, photovoltaic systems. These trainings were not on the radar a few years ago and the cuts further restrict personnel training to stay current with emerging safety threats. Uh the next line is
similar to the above reduced from,400 to 800 except uh this line is used solely for the chief's training. >> Can I ask a question? Why does those lines called meetings schools like like is it just like >> is that a
>> meetings that they they have to attend because it's everywhere on the budget. >> Is it a Yumus thing? >> It I I mean I didn't mean to interrupt. I thought it was going to be a quick question answer. >> I think the simple answer is it's always been that way >> and
>> it's been that written that way as long as I can remember. So I don't know. >> It's uniform municipal accounting. Oh, so it's just like meetings people that go like when you have to attending a meeting off site or >> tuition for you know training. >> Okay.
>> Is the reason why it's called that you miss you miss accounting and I ran out because I'm losing my battery. Not >> Oh, okay. So it's not my fault. >> No. >> No. >> Not all classes are free. >> No. Understood. It's just like >> you have an extension cord.
>> I can get on the floor. >> No. All right, I'm gonna have to move. Um, >> there's a there's one over here. Are you >> You know what? I can let me just I can go off the paper for a second. Let me give this a little juice over here.
>> Yeah, I'll go off the paper. This is why we had these printed. Okay. All right. Fire capital protective equipment reduced from 20,000 to 18,000. This line covers personal protective equipment or PPE. This line was
increased in the last fiscal year and was just keeping pace with inflation with the goal of purchasing four to five sets of PPE per year. Even a small reduction in cuts um even a small reduction cuts into what can be replaced each year. Firefighting protective
equipment has a lifespan of 10 years. And the generally recommended practice is to have a spare set for personnel to allow proper decontamination and cleaning after each fire or hazardous materials incident. Next slide, please. Fire capital replacement equipment
reduced from 15,000 to 11,600. This line was funded in the preliminary budget at $15,000 increased in tier 1. This line covers replacement of worn and obsolete firefighting equipment such as hose, nozzle, thermal imagers, and other
miscellaneous tools which have seen significant cost increase in the last few years. While this line stays level with FY26, the requested increase in the FY27 budget was to get ahead of the expected cost increases. Fire equipment maintenance reduced from
15,000 to 10,000. This line was funded in the preliminary budget at 15,000 increased in tier 1. This line covers maintenance, replacement, and repair of radio system components including portables, portables, mobile radios, repeater
systems, and pagers. Leaving the budget at FY26 levels will limit replacements and repair of broken or worn out portable radios, mobile radios, and pagers. Costs on these items, like everything else, has been increasing dramatically in the last few years. The line has not been increased in over 10
years. The goal had been to replace one to two portable radios per year. But as the cost now stands at around $4,500 radio per radio for a fire ground quality radio is becoming increasingly difficult.
DPW drainage reduced from $100,000 to $83,000. This line was funded in the preliminary budget at $100,000 and is increased in tier 1. The tier one increase is in line with the preliminary budget. This line is used to replace drainage pipes, add
catch basins, add pipes, clean swailes, clean waterways, and other related drainage work. Before a roadway is repaved, the drainage system is repaired to help improve the longevity of the new pavement and reduce flooding. There is a backlog of drainage improvements that are needed throughout the town. The
impact that residents would see from not fully funding this line would include areas that flood will continue to flood. Catch basins overflowing with water during heavy rain and citizens request to improve drainage at or near their homes may not get done in FY27.
DPW storm water management reduced from 110,000 to $100,000 restored in tier one. This line funds the storm water vendor services to aid in MS4 compliance and some small storm water projects. The balance budget pulls the town further
out of compliance with MS4. DPW supplies reduced from 35,000 to 25,000 restored in tier 1. This line is for the purchase of supplies the DPW needs to perform various maintenance and repairs to roadways. Purchases include crush stone, rip wrap, lom, lumber, building
materials, parts for small engine tools, etc. Many of these supplies are purchased in direct response to citizens requests to make repairs that affect their property, mostly flooding. DPW pavement management reduced from
282,000 to 50,000 restored in tier 1. This was reduced from the $600,000 DPW requested amount and this line was already substantially reduced in FY26. In FY 2016, town meeting voted to approve a $4 million debt exclusion to
fund the payment management plan along with using the operating budget funds and chapter 90 funds for FY 2016 to FY22. the plan in 2016 to fund paving with the debt exclusion, fund the initial paving with the debt exclusion, and then
address funding in future years beyond 2022 by adding $50,000 per year to the operating budget until there was $1.2 million available per per year for paving. The $1.2 million is a combination of chapter 90 and operating
budget. The FY27 chapter 90 aortionment is $718,71829. The restoration in tier 1 brings that total funding to a million. >> The balance of chapter 90 is still in excess of 2 million, right?
>> The the balance in the Yes. Yeah. >> Board of Health Administrative assistant reduced to $31,182.19. We're still doing a little work here, but it shouldn't have an effect on the end uh budget. We're reorganizing this
position. Uh this line currently funds a full-time administrative assistant assigned to the board of health. As part of a broader reorganization of land use and regulator regulatory departments, staffing is being restructured to provide shared administrative services across multiple departments rather than
maintaining separate full-time administrative positions within each office. specifically that's that will be covering planning, building, zoning, conservation, and board of health. Um, we're doing some restructuring. So, not sure where the budgets will land finally, but it won't affect the bottom
line. Board of Health purchase of services reduced from 75 to zero restored in tier 1. This is just a small amount of funding for incidental purchases for the board of health. Council on Aging Assistant Meal Site uh
reduced from $19,825.74 to zero restored in tier one. This line supports two 9-hour dietary aids that provide essential operational support to the meal site manager. This includes meal setup, dining area sanitation, dishwashing, basic food
prep, table setting, meal service, and coordination of the meals on wheels program, including distribution to volunteer drivers. Elimination of this position will require the meal site manager to assume these duties, resulting in decreased operational efficiencies and likely a reduction in the quality
and timeliness of meal services provided to program participants. Council on aging programs reduced from $8,000 to $6,000 restored in tier 1. Program funding supports a range of fitness, wellness, social, and educational activities that promote health, independence, and community engagement
among older adults. A reduction in the funding will limit the scope and frequency of program offerings, thereby reducing access to services that support the well-being of the senior population. Council on aging kitchen supplies. This was a new line in the preliminary budget
uh reduced from $1,500 to zero dollars but increased in tier 1. The meal program operates as a self-supporting service funded by participating seniors with no dedicated food budget line. Maintaining affordability is critical to ensuring access. This line was proposed
in the preliminary budget for FY27 as a dedicated expense line for paper goods, cleaning supplies, cups, and kitchen equipment. If not included, these these will need to be funded from other budget lines such as office supplies, and the shift may create budgetary strain or result in increased meal costs for
participants. Next slide, please. Library staff line reduced from $269,48.83 83 to $226,77.79 restored in tier 1. This reduction eliminates the position of a young adult
services librarian, a 30-hour per week employee. The community would lose a key professional librarian, one of five M's level librarians who work with the important young adult demographic. The loss would be especially impactful shortly after town leaders committed a significant amount of capital to
improving the teen room with more than $120,000 from ARPA funds. The reduction also decreases staff availability for absence coverage to meet operational safety requirements. The library will need to eliminate structured afterchool activities and teen advisory board
volunteer opportunities. Additionally, the community will see reduced quality and frequency of summer reading programs for young adults, book displays, and collection maintenance and outreach and partnerships. Operational impacts will include increased strain on remaining staff to cover evening shifts, potential
scheduling gaps, negative impact on morale, and increased difficulty to retain staff talent. To counter, the library is considering closing one evening per week, but this reduces community access by 25% for evening space use, creating significant impact
on local groups such as scults and would result in los shifts for one library page. Other impacts will be less immediately visible, but reduce teen focused programming and increase reliance on outside funding services. The young adult services librarian represents 11% of total staff hours and
plays a critical role in supporting teen engagement, literacy, and safe afterchool space. Reduced staffing and resources will directly affect service quality, accessibility, and the overall user experience for the community. This is a position that's currently not filled, but we've paused the hiring.
We've done some interviews, and we've paused the hiring on this until we get through town meeting and really the election. Uh, next slide, please. Library programs reduced from 21,000 to 19,500 increased in tier 1. The tier 1 increase is in
line with the preliminary budget. The impact of funding library programs at this level will likely not be immediately apparent. The dollar reduction may apply directly to young adult programs, reducing the quality and frequency events for this important demographic. This reduction equates to
approximately five fewer events that the library can reschedu uh can schedule, I'm sorry. Library materials reduced from $16,937 to $96,200 restored in tier 1. This line funds
circulation services such as new items and digital resources. Funding at this level will be a reduction in service immediately noticeable for dozens of users of the digital resources that will need to be cut, including staff. We will eliminate our niche academy resources which help teach how to use digital to
tools and resources, the morning star investment database, national geographic kids database, and fold three, one of the genealogy resource databases. In addition to dropping those four digital resources, they will be able to buy 200 fewer physical books for the collection.
Next slide, please. Recreation park supervisor salary. eliminated in the balance budget, restored at $30,919.54 in tier one and increased to $75,000 in tier 2. This line funds the salary for
the recreation director. The position is responsible for coordinating recreation programming for the community, including summer sports camps, STEM and afterchool programs, parks and rex billing, management of beach staff and seasonal operations, and scheduling and oversight of the fields and park rentals. If this
line were not funded, the recreational director position would be eliminated along with most organized recreational programming provided by the town. This would affect after school and summer programs that are widely used by families and the associated administrative duties would need to be reassigned. In particular, billing and
scheduling functions related to parks and field use would likely shift to existing Phil facilities administrative staff, increasing workload in that office. Under tier one funding restores the position at its current level, allowing recreational programming and related services to continue. And we did
just hire somebody into the part-time position. They are aware of the potential uh elimination of the position. Recreation beach salaries reduced from 25,000 to 15,000 restored in tier 1. This line covers the salary for all
beach staff including the beach director, lifeguards, and swim instructors. The main responsibilities of these role are to provide lifeguard coverage for free swim at the beach and teaching swim lessons to kids. The beach staff conducts roughly 165 swim lessons
per summer and 2,00 and 2,200 users for the summer. The funds in the balance budget are to cover the summer of 2026 beach season only because the beach bridges two fiscal years. If an override does not pass, the beach will likely not
be opened in c uh summer 2027. Recreation programming reduced from 5,000 to zero restored in tier 1. The salaries programming line is typically used to offer free programs to residents or to occasionally offset the cost of being one or two people short to run a
program with the loss of funding combined with the loss of a recreation director. Uh there likely will be no recreational programs. Next slide. parks purchase of service reduced from 80,000 to60,000 increased in tier one.
This line is reduced from the FY26 funding level of $70,000 in the balance budget and is increased in tier one. This line item covers all maintenance and repair to the town parks and fields. The primary users of these fields are Lunberg school baseball and
softball programs, the Lunberg youth baseball and softball league, as well as a couple rentals for various leagues. The reduction to this line item will limit uh regular maintenance to just mowing at red reduced frequency, seasonal cleanup activities, and some
infield maintenance. This will also leave the parks department with minimal uh funds for un unforeseen repairs, and no money for improvements such as fence repairs, field repairs, improvements to parking areas, and repairs to structures. This is the line the facilities and parks department have
been trying to increase for the past few years in attempt to tackle some of the deferred maintenance at park locations. Parks department expenses reduced from $6,400 to 6,000 restored in tier 1. Department expense line is used for parks related
office supplies, some repair materials and beach supplies. The departmental expense line has been lowered slightly and will have a minor effect. Historical, there's two lines here. Uh one's for office equipment, one is for office supplies. Both are at 500 and
reduced to zero. Both are restored in tier one. Uh one the office equipment line funds incidental purchases by the historic commission. The accounts been used infrequently with a recent expense in the past year being a historical
marker sign purchase of $2,500. If a need arrives in a future year, an expense could be addressed through another available line item by requesting a transfer or by soliciting grants or donations. And uh similarly, the office supply line has been used on an occasional basis for items required
uh that require a legal ad replacement of the Boston Post cane and materials related to historical markers and similar projects. Next slide, please. Band concerts reduced from 6,000 to zero restored in tier 1. This line item funds
the town's summer band concert program. The program typically consists of five concerts held on evenings during the summer and features traditional New England town band performing a variety of music including patriotic selections, marches, show tunes, folk music, jazz and music associated with the armed
services. The funds in the account are used to pay the performers for these concerts. Next slide please. So that is that is the conclusion of um the the cuts uh in the balance budget and where they're being restored. Uh now uh
increases that are included in tier 1 that haven't otherwise been addressed. IT tech admin support eliminated in the balance budget $31,193 in tier 1. So partially restored in tier
1 at 19 hours fully restored in tier 2. This line funds the position of the IT communications manager who provides communications, public information, and technology coordination services for the town. In the balance budget, this position is reduced to zero in order to help fund the creation of a full-time
full-ear assistant town manager position. Under the tier one override, the position would be restored at approximately 19 hours per week, allowing for a limited communication support, but at a reduced service level. And under the tier 2 override, the position would be restored at
approximately 32 hours per week at allowing for higher levels of public communication, project support, and technology coordination. Next slide, please. Also in tier 1 is uh DPW junior engineer project manager, $86,000 increased in
tier 1. Presently, the only professional engineering staff at the DPW is the director. A junior engineer, project manager, GIS coordinator is needed to perform the following duties. Document all storm water maintenance activities such as sweeping, catchbasin cleaning, BMP maintenance, etc. for MS4 compliance
reporting. Assist with public outreach and education as required by the permit. Assist with elicit discharge detection and elimination required by the per permit. perform on-site inspections of planning board permit applications and perform on-site inspections of storm
water BMP practices. Oversee the work of contractors on public works projects, paving, draining, bridge projects and the like. Verify quantities of materials for payment requisitions on projects. Review storm water plans for new construction. Perform on-site inspections of planning board permit
applications. Help prepare construction quantity estimates and specifications for public works contracts. uh investigates and recommends corrective actions of citizens requests for issues such as water from the roadway eroding or flooding private property. Next slide, please.
DPW part-time administrative support, the balance budget is at $13,000 and the tier 1 is at $24,150.33. The preliminary budget created a new part-time administrative support position at 19 hours to support both the DPW and facilities department with
accounts payable and invoice reconciliation. The balance budget funds this position at 10 hours. Uh and then town active health insurance increased by 21 $25,000 for the junior engineer.
Next slide. Tier two. And you can skip right over to the next one. Next one. There we go. Okay. So, tier tier 2 override increases. Select board committee clerk increase
from 6,000 to 12,000. This line funds the pool of minute writers that support boards, committees, and commissions. Really, other than the select board, it tech admin support, as I just stated, it's eliminated in the balance budget. Uh, partially restored in tier one and
fully restored in tier 2. The police department admin clerk uh that was is cut in the balance budget is restored in tier 2 at $22,485. Again, this is the 16-hour week admin who processes accounts payable for the
police department. Next slide, please. Police Department sergeant salaries increased from $273,77142 to $365,28. This line supports the restoration of
the fourth sergeant position. Police patrolman increased from $891,887.30 to 1,34 $34,612. This addition will restore patrol officer staffing levels to 14 officers,
adding two additional officers to bring to that uh level of 14 in accordance with the police department staffing plan. This increase also allows the restoration of two SRO's. Um we had reduced to one SRO. Uh there's also increases in overtime, holiday, court,
educational incentive, inservice specialized training, less than lethal training, the SRO stipen, and supplies and firearms qualifications that go along with the additional ad of those two staff members in the other line. Next slide, please. Animal control
increase from $45,000 to $80,000. The town currently utilizes a long-term employee to provide animal control services at a cost that is well below the typical market rate for comparable services. In addition, the town does not operate its own animal shelter for the temporary housing of animals. This
funding is intended to allow the town to plan for future provision of animal control services as staffing needs change. Options under consideration may include contracted services, participation in an intermunicipal agreement, or another service delivery model. The goal of the funding is to
ensure continuity of service and allow for a transition on to a sustainable long-term arrangement when needed. Next slide, please. Recreation park supervisor salary that is eliminated in the balance budget level funded in tier 1 is increased in
tier 2 to $75,000. This will fund the recreational director at full-time, as has been discussed for several years, as a way to expand programming, improve coordination of park and field use, and provide more consistent year-round recreational
services. The town health insurance line also increases by $125,000 to support the three additional uh folks in the police department, the recreational director, and the restoration of the full-time IT communications director.
The end. >> All right. >> Are you tired of saying this report over and over again? I'm tired for other reasons. >> Well, I appreciate it. >> Um, all right. So, why don't we do what
we did last time? Um, so Tom, do you have any questions or comments? the the um what was I um
I no I I just trying to get my words together here. the I um one of the things that was brought up at one of our meetings had to do with uh uh storm water
and uh storm water uh uh and uh that's being put on the back burner this time around >> perhaps. >> Can you can you can you explain that? I I I I'm still kind of confused.
What is What do we What is our >> What are we doing? >> Yes. What are we doing? Why are we >> putting it on? Is it just because it's too much money and we don't we it's we we we just want to kick the can down the road. >> So, um the select board had a couple of
budget workshops, two budget workshops in which they discussed the tier one, tier 2, and balance budgets. Uh during those conversations, we discussed fully funding MS4 compliance within the operating budget in TO2 to uh avoid the
utility because if it's funded in the operational budget, there's not the added administrative costs that are associated with the utility. However, um it was really too high of a cost added to tier 2 that there was a concern that
it might not um it it might essentially sink tier 2. Um and so there was some small discussion about uh funding or or proposing to town meeting and to town election to have a standalone alone override article uh just related to
storm water. Um however that has been tabled as well and uh the storm water task force has withdrawn their article relative to the utility for the town meeting warrant. So, um I think we're doing a bit of regrouping. Um and the
stormwater task force is probably going to be uh coming forward with something at the fall town fall special. >> When I know we've been getting things uh from the I guess it's the federal government
saying we're not in compliance. >> No, not yet. >> Okay. So, we haven't got anything, but we uh So, what's so do we have any time frames that we have to get this done? >> Well, we're already past the time frame for compliance. Um, but I think one of
the important things is that MS4 compliance is not just tapping the base and checking a box. It's also the work that is is being done under under the MS4 permit is to mitigate flooding and other storm water issues. So, it's not
so much only that we're not meeting compliance with the MS4 permit and and the federal government has not knocked on our door, but we're already out of compliance. Um, it's also that we're not doing the work associated with the permit. Not just for the compliance sake, but
for the for the effect service that town the town needs to do. >> Correct. >> Okay. So, so this is something that will be discussed after after uh after the budget's done and uh a new plan will be will be
discussed. >> I think folks are going to go go revisit um where they're at and the storm water task force is going to uh regroup and and perhaps come with I I don't know, perhaps come with the options of a
utility or an override. I don't know. I I think that they're going to have to do some work over the summer to make that decision. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Jay, did you have anything? >> Yes. I um I guess I'd like to understand
um the uh justification for eliminating the IT position which says a reduction in services and supports uh
town departments to fund the assistant town manager position when we're operating without a town manager assistant facility. several years. >> So, in my opinion, we're not operating well without an assistant town manager.
We have an assistant we have somebody currently that has the title of assistant town manager, HR director. Their function is HR. Um, that is what they do. They do HR. They they do procurement on top of HR, but the procurement work really draws from their
ability to fully perform the functions of HR. Um the frankly the level of work that is being required is not sustainable. Um I I cannot describe the amount of hours
that I am working um in order to complete the task and there are many things that are not being done. Uh there are many projects that are not being forward and the reality is is that the town needs to get projects moving. We need to get projects completed and they
need shepherds and um and frankly a town of this size, a budget of this size, an assistant town manager is appropriate and I think is uh long overdue. And in terms of you know the cutting of the services in communications,
communications are very important. Um certainly that's why I think we see a restoration in tier one and then a partial restoration in tier one and then a full restoration in tier two. But if I had to stack if if I had to make a decision which one is more critical for
the town of Lunenburgg and assistant town manager is more critical for the town of Lunberg, I would expect that they can perform some level of communications to keep communications functionable. Um it certainly is a service reduction. Um departments are going to have to do their own websites. They're going to have to make their own
flyers, but um when it comes to the needs of the town and project completion and doing the work, that is the primary need of the town at this point in my opinion. >> Does that answer the question? >> Was it the IT position you're talking
about managing the IT um >> vendor and inventory? >> No. So, so Souzar IT is our primary IT vendor. This um staff member operates
between Souzar IT and the town. Um they uh they complete all the they they do the IT budget. Uh they do all the bills for the IT department. That will have to be shifted elsewhere. All that work um and we'll have to rely on not having a
real inter a dedicated intermediary between the town and Souza IT. Again, um the primary need for the town of Lunberg is the assistant town manager over that position. >> Okay. >> Okay. Thanks, Jay.
>> Yeah. >> All right. Um, anyone else like Mike? >> Yeah. Um, just to comment, a couple comments. Um, been watching a lot of the all the meetings going on here lately and uh
trying to catch up on them. It I I just feel we've elevated the tier one numbers close enough to tier two. though we hope that people will jump into the
tier 2 zone. Um I I I think the issue with that is if we've pushed tier two tier I'm sorry tier one to the point where it's a fence number right sitting
right on that fence it could blow either way and I think we're putting ourselves in a dangerous situation because of that. um looking at some numbers. I mean that tier one number >> can I can I ask for clarification because there there are I believe only
three items that are increased in tier one. They are the DPW junior engineer the um the DPW junior engineer the restoration of the 19hour a week uh IT commute comms
person. No, that's not in tier one. Um, >> I mean it's $800,000, >> right? But a lot of those things are rest. So there were many things that were cut from the preliminary budget to to have a balanced budget. The
majority of the things in tier one are restoring those lines. I >> I understand that. I'm just saying that is a big number. Whether it's restorative, new, old, whatever, it is a huge number. You're looking at 9 to 10% increase on people's taxes for that number.
We're very worried about getting that at least that passed. >> Can can I ask a question? Wh why wasn't this similar question asked to the school department who performed the same exercise? >> I'm just saying overall.
>> Okay. >> Okay. It's just I'm not saying just the town. It's it's just this number, right? And I'm just I'm not I'm not saying it's a it's bad that we don't need it. I'm just saying I'm worried about it. We we
need to pass something. >> But I think it's a misnomer and a misstatement that the tier one override is an $800,000 increase. It's an $800,000 increase over the balanced budget because the balanced budget was gutted. I
>> I understand that. But it's a number you're asking of the people to increase their taxes by >> to maintain the services that they have today. >> Okay, great. It's a number you're asking for the money for. Correct. That is the number you're asking increase their
taxes by. >> That's correct. >> I agree. We need that that is a number that we need. All I'm saying is I think we're playing a kind of a dangerous game with a number that large being our only option for an override.
Okay. Does that make sense? I mean, I I can't say it any differently. I understand your point. >> I understand that it's a big number. I understand that asking people to reach into their pockets and in increase their taxes is difficult. We have cut our expense lines dramatically um down to
actuals to help offset that. We've made difficult decisions. The tier one town budget before you tonight is primarily other than those two items, the preliminary budget that was presented to you on February 19th with some
additional cuts. >> Understood. Okay. I'm I'm just throwing it out there. >> I agree with him a little bit, but I agree with it more on the school side. And I think we should have questioned it there because only 300,000 difference. Well, and I'm not trying to make this a whole town battle at all. I didn't agree
with you and it was still here. It's just, >> you know, in tier one for the town, there's very small additions. Um, I I I don't want to misspeak. I believe it's only those two additions and and
everything else is restorative to what was presented on February 19th. Um, and a lot of those are res a lot of that is, if you look at your sheet, is restoring things to level fund, not level service, level fund.
And we've already taken those actual lines down where we can. >> Are you all set? >> I'm good. >> Okay. Well, I agree with Mike. Um and I have asked I have I have elaborated that
the schools we should focus on I have said this to the school side and the town departments that the safest override to pass is the one that is level services and we don't have this on either side. I so I think that's I'm
saying the same thing that Mike was is was saying is that the safest one would have been to have level services for both sides. Um I thought we sat in a room where we talked about level services with a sprinkle of salt and that's what the select board and myself
engaged in in the two budget workshops that we participated in. I I understand I and I and what I'm saying today is exactly what I said Tuesday night. Um, so same thing that I did with the schools. I'm going to make some qu have some questions, some comments. Um, I do agree
with with the lend um the reader building staff. Um, just talking about historically what that staff used to be. We used to have full-time assistant because we didn't have full-time leads. So, for example, we had a full-time
building person because our building inspectors used to be part-time into I don't even know when was they became full-time, but it was it was not that long ago. It was maybe within the last decade. Uh we used to have a full-time assistant to the planning board because
we didn't have a land use user director but Adam well a position was created at some point because we had someone volunteering. So those executive assistants were all in place because we didn't have a full-time person. So it
makes a lot of sense that we realigned that. I want to comment there's one additional major change that's allowing for this and it's online permitting as well. Um with the online permitting open gov um the permits are processed in such a different way that the efficiency is
is so much greater in that building as well coupled with what you said. >> Yeah. Um, I, you know, we only got this here, you know, six o'clock, so I really had to read it. >> I'm going to have some comments and questions now, but I might have them
more later, and I apologize. >> And I have time to answer your questions now. So, >> there you go. Appreciate. I have a question. My first question is um, in terms of the police, it said on the slide said restore two patrolman to
staff level. When did we lose those two patrolmans? >> Chief, when the department was last fully staffed, if you want to come up this >> bring just a mic over there. We'll just bring one of the extra ones. >> The department was last. >> Yep.
>> 2023 to uh 2022 through 2024. >> Okay. The reason I asked that is because we last year when the chief was here um he said that he was fully staffed. He didn't need extra staff at that I'm
>> last year. Last year this chief was here. >> So was it two years ago? >> No, last year. This is my first year. Okay. >> He said that he was, you know, we were not following the staff plan, but he he felt satisfied with his current staff
and the current needs. So I hear you. >> What's changed? Is that your question? What's changed? >> I I I I >> uh So 2024 we were at 20. Right now we're at 18. What changed was uh retirements uh loss of um Jeff Hill. So
we've occurred we've occurred those vacancies. >> Are you today do you have less staff than you had in February of 25 >> of 25 of February of >> last year? Yeah. >> Last year. >> Last year. >> Yes.
>> You have less officers now than you had in 25. >> Yes. That would have been uh we would have had 18. Right now we have 16. >> Now not right now we have 17. >> 16. >> 16. >> Okay. Um so we have lost two patrol two
staff since last year when you were here last year. Okay. >> Yeah. >> So that's what I was asking. Um the it you know I feel like the chief made a decision to move uh to move it to one SRO person. Um
I you know I I don't if we stay within the same numbers that we were last year. I think department heads they can make decisions about their budget and their personnel any way they want. Uh, I just want to make sure we're not going to an
extra staff than we were. I mean, he's free to change his staff any way he wants. And through you, Mr. Chairman, if I can ask the the chief to comment on something, I think something that you shared um with me is that there has been
there were trends leading up to CO and then there were trends coming out of CO and now there are trends today. If you could comment a little bit on that. Uh so what we were obviously with CO our numbers went down a little bit. I I took the liberty of running some numbers.
2024 some of the big numbers you had 315 um I call them ARS or arrests which require court interaction. Uh 2025 there was 435. Um of that in 2024 there was 92 in
custody uh arrests. In 2025, we had 147 in custody arrests, which everybody knows affects our prison watch, affects all those things. Um, we're trending right now to we're actually trending higher than what we were trending in 2025 at this time. So, the numbers, you
know, they keep increasing. >> Okay, >> we're back to um 2018 when Chief Marino put in a 10year uh 10-year plan to hire 10 more officers than what we had. Um, we saw huge spikes um in our arrest
totals back then. We were in the 600s. Obviously, you know, CO put a put a kink in everything. We went down to the uh 250s and 300s and now as as of last year, we're back to the 435s. Um, and we're we're growing and and we're this
year looks like it's going to be a big increase. >> Okay. Thank you. I Yeah. So, all right. Um my um the OPED building on to what Mr. Roger said, is that a mandatory
payment that we have to make? So OPED is not funded within the operating budget. Um we're going to talk about that when we go through warrant articles, but um we do have a town policy that we fund with that we make an annual contribution to OPED with free cash in the amount of
10% of the certified free cash of the prior year. So um but that's not in the operational budget. >> Okay. But my question was is oper per our per the town of Lunenburgg policy. It is non-discretionary. >> Okay. But it's not mandatory through the
state. >> No. Um it affects your bond rating. It affects other things but it's not the state does not require you >> okay >> to fund your open. >> Um the reception is from 3 to 7:00 p.m. Sorry I'm bouncing back. I just mean my
notes are just I surprising that I can follow that. The receptionist for the police department between 3:00 and 7:00 p.m. Do we keep track of how many people walk up to to that window? Like do we have data on that?
>> Uh we used to. I haven't taken any from the last couple of years because it was a position that was always funding and never in question. Mhm. >> Um some of the last uh totals that we had from um I think it was 20. >> Well, he's pulling that up, too. It's
not an administrative uh staff that covers from 3 to 7. It's an officer that covers from 3 to 7. >> So, it's part of their their overtime cost. >> Yes. So, in 2018, uh, the 3 to seven deaths, I did a lot of, uh, researching
on the old annual reports. There was, uh, 50 detainees between, uh, 3 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., the desk officer. So, that was, uh, 50 people that got arrested throughout the year. The when the desk officer is there, that that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, uh, helps out with our prison watch budget.
>> Okay. >> So, it's almost like a domino effect. If if we don't have that desk officer, we're we're definitely going to see uh if not a negative in our prisoner watch definite uh very impact. >> Right now, right now we're trending over
our prison watch budget. >> Okay. Um so regarding the the school preschool charges, who decides on the cost of those? >> The school resource officer. No, no, I
moved on away from that. >> Oh, sorry. I >> I was asking my finance director to get me a drink. >> You need water, girl. >> I do. >> Um, who decides on the preschool charges? Like because the preschool, we offer preschool to We have a list. >> You're talking about on the revenue
side. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. That's the school department. >> They decide on that. >> That's not decided by the town. The charge for preschool. >> Yeah. >> We We don't set the rates for preschool tuition. >> We don't. No, that's the school department.
>> Okay. So, the school department sets the rate for for that. >> Not the town. So, I I don't know when they've last done it, but >> it's not the town manager. >> No, but I I don't I don't know how to answer the question without the superintendent here. It's not a question. It's not a rate that's set by the town. I don't know whether it's set
by the school committee, the superintendent, somebody within staff. I I can't answer any questions about that. >> Okay. >> Um Okay. My train of thought on that was going to be you know I know this this revenue ends
on our local receipts perhaps and I don't know how the fees are calculated or charged perhaps this is something we want to put it as a revolving fund for the school so then they have an incentive to to increase that if we are not the ones setting the rate um you
know just create some accountabil like accountability on that um but I know it so I will be curious to see when was that last reviewed uh how is the sat and perhaps this will be a place that
I eventually I do want to see the schools to show us a budget for all their revolving funds and all their grants which right now we have no visibility on it so I'll put that into ask for more info
Um the town clerk and the acco is only on tier two. >> The town clerk has been removed entirely. >> Okay. >> Um the acco is only on tier 2. That's correct.
>> And that's so current it's a total fund uh increase from the current total acco with the uh the salary and supplies is 45,000. Uh it's becomes 80,000.
Okay. And um how that would look remains to be seen. Um but we're going to have to start to work on this. I think that this will take um at least a year uh to to work on. >> Okay. I I think like if we don't have a
plan, just you know, tagging on what Mike said, like the less that we ask for money, >> the more likely we are to be successful. I it's an opinion you you you and the select board were to make a decision. >> I understand. I just the the a
the acco position is adequately underfunded. It operates because of the person who is in the position who is doing the job. Um the animals don't go to a kennel. the animals go to this
individual's home where there is a home kennel license. >> Um, and so this is something that the town actively needs to work to transition around. >> But you're not changing that in 27. >> It's I don't know that that's the case.
>> Yeah, that that's my point. Like if we don't need that funding now, >> but I think that this is something that we need to start working on immediately. Anyway, um, all right. So, now moving on to adding I I think I only have two more
things to cover. >> No way. >> But they're going to be long. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, I asked uh the fire chief to give me information on the need for that fourth person, the added staff, the the
pertium, >> the added staff to all shifts. And I know it's been we reduced to the 16 hours and so I'm just going to go through numbers here and I don't know what they they mean but you know you've seen Jen I'm probably going to reach out to many
different towns and see how this thing does similar to what I did to the schools. >> Yeah. >> Um so the chief said that we have about um 5.6 incident require mutual aid
uh per month. So that gives us about 70 calls per year like less than 70 calls per year receiving militual aid. I remember um when that you've had on our first tribard presentation I think that
you've said that we your number of calls from giving multid is about 4%. It was four or 7% for some reason. As far as giving mutual aid, I don't have the numbers on them. Our mutual aid
EMS last year went up 37% out of over the year before that. >> The the G descending, >> but that's just EMS, not also fire responses and things like that. >> For some reason, I had in my head it was it was between four to 7% because I
never not cracking 10%. Um but I'm you know I'm right to it's okay. So that gives us if if we say you know out of the 2,000 calls 4% would be about 80 calls so a year. So like those
numbers seem to be even that we are giving as much uh mutual aid as we are receiving. It's my point with that. >> Yeah that would be about accurate. Okay. >> Back and forth. Years ago before we had paramedics it was much more the other way. M >> we were g we were gaining much more than
we were giving. >> Right >> now it's more even. >> Right. So when I divide 2,000 calls by 356 I we get about you know 5.6 calls a day in average. And I know I I know that's
not how public safety happens. We're just talking about >> and the 2000 number is not accurate. We actually do about 1,600 calls. The 2000 number includes inspections and calls that are coded by the dispatch center like fire drills, trainings, things like
that. Right? We were actually between 1,600 and 1700 calls for service which includes about 1,300 EMS calls. >> Right. it. So when I got those numbers and then I got your number of that in
calendar 25 there's there is an average of 17 incidents that you need to do the call back which I now I know what it is. >> No, not not quite accurate. Anytime we send the tones go out, we send out an ambulance, we send out a firet truck, almost all of those calls include call
back to come back for our call personnel or our career personnel to come back in and cover the station in case there is another call. The numbers I gave when you quote the 17.4, that's how many average in the month of simultaneous
calls means the ambulance or the firetruck has gone out and we get another call while the duty crew is already on another call, right? and we have to staff the second ambulance, another fire truck, something like like that. So, it's about every other day that we get that that occurs.
>> So, okay. So, with 5.6 and I'm talking averages I and I need to put this into terms that I know with 5.6 calls per an average per day and and you know we are getting 17 incidents
a month. It feels like every it >> the average of mutual aid calls over the month was it was 5.6 calls for calling mutual aid in to cover a call for us per month on an average. >> I'm using the 17.8 that you said
>> that's the simultaneous call >> right >> of those 5.6 we had to call mutual aid. We were able to handle the simultaneous calls either with personnel that will call back uh the ambulance coming back from the taking a call coming from the
hospital. Sometimes a lot of those ones involve me jumping on the ambulance to be part of the crew during the daytime right >> when we're around you know >> I I'm I'm not I I think we are saying the same same numbers because I'm reading I I'm saying the average I'm reading from the paper the average was
17.8 incident simultaneous calls per month. This required an average of 5.6 incidents per month requiring mutual aid. >> Correct. >> Okay. So, I'm I'm just reading that. It it seems like,
you know, breaking this down, we're we're putting, you know, 17s in average per month times 12 is about 200 calls, give or take a year. we are spending
you know that and I don't know the numbers because I haven't time to review but I just want to give this this this number this this aid and and I don't know what that means in the world of firefired okay like I know certain
things and you know a clickth through rate of 5% is really good but I don't know what this means you know in fire world but we're talking about you know the your full line for PDM was $300,000
and I think >> it was under $300,000. >> Yeah, just under I don't know what where >> 280 I believe somewhere in there. >> Keep in mind the that is not strictly PDM. That is also call back for the call firefighters and EMTs when they come in.
PDM is funded out of that, but it's also the recall of when we call the call firefighters. >> Right. I'm I'm I'm just trying to put a a a a cost like are we at a critical I'm trying to figure out through the numbers you provided are we at the critical
level that we need to add a staff to those shifts and and I'm just and I'm putting a number to >> my answer to that would be yes. I I hear your answer is that is yes and I I take your answer for it and my job here as
you know I mean Jen knows that uh the school committee they told me they needed a staff and I emailed 45 different school district to understand that value and you know and it's just my process so it's the process of the
fincom um and and we are you know we're talking about 200 calls a here that we are funding what is the current funding that you have for level budget. >> So the um for the balance budget 225
>> 225. So we're having 200,000 200 calls that's costing us $225,000. >> That's not accurate. >> So how do I how do I arrive at that number? That number is based with the
fourth shift provides us three career people across the board which is an improvement. Absolutely. Three people can cover one and a typical ambulance call and that with that fourth
person that allows us several things. Allows us under most circumstances to cover a second ambulance call that we can staff the second ambulance. It allows us to have because right now with three people if the ambulance heads to the hospital I have one person back if
no one comes back on call back and the challenge why that line is under or has been under is we don't get to call firefighters back like we used to because we are that much busier. I'll use the simple analogy of you have a day off and that how many times do you want to come running back drop what you're
doing to sit in the fire station cut waiting for the ambulance to come back and that if you've got one day off average ambulance call was an hour to two hours depending on where they went that can pretty much eat up your day I've been in that position more than once so I just use that as an analogy
why we don't see some of the people back as much which is why that line's been under but again covers number one it covers the the second ambulance with two people in if the first ambulance is out. Now you at least have two people in the fire station. If there's another call, two people in a
fire truck isn't ideal, but it's better than one person driving it. If there's a fire and everyone's in, now you have four people on the engine company that meets it in uh NFPA standards, which they recommend having a fourerson engine company. It also in includes there's
been multiple studies, manpower studies on crews. fourperson crew is 50% more efficient than a threeperson crew. You can get more done. Just having the three people now has made a difference on a couple fires. There's buildings that are still standing and being repaired and
fixable that would not have been a few years ago if we were waiting for guys to come in, get the trucks and move. And again, we don't schedule when we're going to have these multiple calls. We don't know. You know, I gave that as an average. As I mentioned in the other message that some day, some months that
might only be a couple, other ones it might be 10. And that it varies. Summertime nobody's around. Those numbers go up. >> Mhm. >> And that I I can't judge where they can. I can look at the predium and know I can look at runs and go what what's our busiest time of day and try to apply it
to that. But that's trying to that's always been part of the discussion on the fourth shift right from back in July of reallocating the existing predium hours that we have to fill in more of that time and it was adding 16 hours of predium a week which as I said what
we've been under in the budget would easily cover that without adding funding to the budget. So those numbers in the in the TL1 budget those are FY26 numbers. It hasn't changed in pium. >> All right. So, I want to this this this
I am so lost, Anna. I don't even know what anyone's The numbers are flying back and forth. Just >> open you can open the you know their presentation and you'll know. So, I would like to I >> So, >> I'm just asking that you wrap it up. It's almost 10:00. We We're going to go
till 1 in the morning. >> Perhaps we need to schedule a second meeting. I would like to go through the work. Perhaps you need to have a conversation again with the chief outside of here cuz I don't think anyone else is following anymore what what you're asking. >> My my numbers have been the same right from July September I
>> February. >> So we have here's how I'm going to wrap it up. We have started uh and this is what I've been saying about many different things. We have started we we brought in the firefighter. We added staff and I know there was a pause to
the plan. There was we did all that in the good times and when we could afford without an override my first meeting here last year I said I don't think we need to get you know an override to do our fourth fourth shift right now my my
question is bases that perhaps now based on the cost is not the right time to be adding staff and I am investing I'm looking at the numbers you provided so that's where it comes from. Now, is it safety? Is it important? Yes. You know,
it's just the timing of it is the part that maybe is better in the, you know, in a year or two. Um, so that's how I want to wrap it up. I will continue to look into it to see, you know, because that's what I do.
>> And I will just add the predium staffing is already there. The funding is there. not asking for any more money for that to supplement the career staff that we have added that we've shown the need for. Um yeah, we see that different but so they
be like anyway um the next one is really Jen I want to thank you for your work you've been doing the past year it has been her I think Malonza loves to say her herculean effort um you I think it has been very
difficult you have had a lot of staff that are in and out people that were in that were looking to be out ride when you laughed and has made it very difficult. I understand you're working crazy hours. Um I don't think adding an
assistant town manager right now is the right thing to do and I would ask you, you know, let's have a year of stable staff to see how this workload feels. Again, we are we are reducing a lot of
community services and we are adding an assistant to manager. just doesn't and you're going to add it. The select board already approved that because it's their their it's their budget because it's it's their budget to approve your budget
because they're they they're your boss. So, you can do whatever you want with them, but you know, they don't seem to have had an issue with it. I I don't think it's the right time to be cutting services, general service to the tow and hire another full-time a full-time
assistant to manager. I again I stand on we have added an assistant hall manager once before during the good times and when people are hurting it's not the right time to cut community you know services that go to the community in
order to add you know I don't I if I was in the slack board I would have pushed you know a couple years ago there was a uh school committee member that was very upset with a budget present and he said the budget was tonedeaf. I don't think your budget's on that I think is
representative of everything you have gone through but perhaps we can give it a you know another year see how we go maybe put more money in reserve where we can hire but I don't think we have a clear picture of what your workload will be
>> yeah I I just want to respond that I think that this is something that's been going on before my tenure here I think that the prior uh town manager could have absolutely benefited from an assistant town manager as well. And um
I'll just leave it at that. It >> um I I will also add one comment that you had made to Jay was a town like Lunenburgg should have an assistant town manager and >> I don't know that that was I don't know
that that's accurate of the comment but >> well >> just let make your make your statement. I well when I look at the town buddings our towns in Pepro um Graten I think the first town that I found to have an assistant town manager
was Littleton which is you know so within our micro region so I I would hope for the sake of everything you know that maybe we can put some money back into some of the things we're cutting
and see how it works and you know I I'm Just going to state that I feel so strongly about this. I made the difficult decision to cut that position. That didn't come lightly. I do not think that Lunenburgg is going to be able to
continue to make forward progress at the rate that residents expect without having another set of competent qualified hands to be utility player in the office of the town manager. And when we look at abuing towns, sometimes it's
relevant, sometimes it's not. It's often based on the size of the community, the size of the overall operating budget, and what's going on in the town and the health of the overall organization. Um, this is not a healthy organization. >> Those are all my comments. >> Thank you, Anna.
>> I'm going to be brief under one minute. Um, I have to disagree with Anna and agree with town manager on this assistant. Um, I feel like we're doing things at this level. We could be doing things at a higher level. And I think we're going to
lose this town manager if this continues to be the workload that continues and I wouldn't blame you. Um I don't think it's sustainable and I think we are very lucky to have
you. I've seen a lot of town managers in a lot of cities and a lot of towns and we are very lucky to have you and I don't think that we should be even making an eye blank at this budget line. um for the fire. I mean, we need to have
two units going out. We can't just have one unit going out. We have closed hospitals. We have hospitals that are further away. I just feel like that's also a no-brainer. Um what my question is, is the continuing to fund that
program of the fourth person as well as the fourth shift, is that the restoration in tier one? So the the fourth shift is included in the balance budget. >> Okay. >> And the um balance budget for that line
well so let's start here. So FY26 for the firefighter salary line the PDM line that uh we've been talking about the FY26 amount was 291,000. >> Okay. >> In the balance budget that's been reduced to 225,000. In the tier one budget, it's been
restored to the 291,000. So, it's level funded over FY26 and nothing happens in tier two. >> Okay. So, tier one, if that passes, which I'm hoping that and more passes, that fourth shift will be there, we'll be able to keep that fourth person.
>> The fourth in the balanced budget, the fourth shift will give me 10 hours a day, >> okay, >> of of a fourth person. The predium under the tier one, it would go back to 16. >> Okay. And then your assistant would be tier one as well. >> Balance budget.
>> Balance. Okay. >> I'm done. >> Okay. >> Jen, I just want to thank you. This has been a brutal, brutal, brutal year and and you have put in so many hours.
I totally agree. you need an assistant town manager and and I I'm glad that you put it in the balance budget. >> All right. Thank you. Um, so just again I make this observation I think every
year and I don't maybe it's just me but so library programs likes to offer things for free but Rex charges the schools charge and the in the um the town um the uh Delta Activity Center
charge. We got to stop that. The library needs to charge for their programs, especially when they're competing against some of those other programs. I think you should cut that budget from the library and keep the rec director over that. That's just a comment. Do it as you want, but I don't think the I
think the library tries to do too much for free where the other department where the other departments have to charge for it. Okay. the the library budget totality the bottom line is at the level that it cannot be cut any so the bottom line I
hear what you're saying but just the point being that the totality of the library budget cannot be reduced any f further as it would fall below the municipal appropriation requirement and would lose certification but I I understand that that's not necessarily what you're saying >> all right I just I think we need to work
on common approaches to common services. Okay. So, I don't know which one to go on this first. Um, I will start with the assistant town manager. I I think we do need an assistant town manager and I will say
that from the perspective that I speak with Jen very frequently and probably at times that's not appropriate for for what, you know, we pay her and the role of her job. I think this thing's not happening in town
because there's only one person in that role and I think this town needs to get its together. Okay, we have TC Pacios that is that is flooding and is about to have mold in it and everything else. That building needs to be torn down and it needs attention on folks
like Jen to get that ball moving and rolling and everything else. They spend a ton of time in these meetings. It's going to be coming up on 10:00 shortly here and she's here. I know her day probably started at 7 or 8. Okay, so that's the town manager. I agree there's
a need for that. As it relates to pdemon and fire, when I look at the services of this town, I would put fire at the number one priority. We need to be able to to have fire and EMT in Paris coming out to our homes. If Lemonster did not
staff their fire and EMT um department properly, I would have three children right now, not four. So, I will die on that hill. And I will believe that Chief Sullivan has the right idea for what he needs in today's age for properly having
fire in in in Paris in place. We also know that we also lost almost lost a previous elected official in town from a heart attack that only was revived because you guys were having a training
program at that time. Um so that is like the basic like above school extracurricular and reading and everything else life and safety is like the number one in the hierarchy of needs. So I am behind that.
Um, other than that, I I think, you know, as it relates to what went into tier 1 and what went into tier 2, I watched two weeks of emotional school committee meetings. I watched several maybe
slightly less emotional but still um um you know animated uh select board meetings to come to what we we have in in those two tiers. We spent a lot of time in the tribe boards so I think our voice was heard. Um
if I were in those meetings would I have made the same recommendations? Maybe not. Okay. I think if you got five people um who are, you know, in those meetings, you're going to come out with slightly different recommendations. If there were more time maybe to coordinate across them, maybe you might come up with
slightly recommendations. I still have what Anna brought up as a fear that tier one doesn't even pass and we're in a real big problem, right? So, I think it's a legitimate concern given the amount of money that's in tier one and the amount of money that's in tier two
because there are people who are living I said this earlier and I'll say it again. There are people who are living in very expensive homes but probably don't have the the income commensurate with those. And when you start looking at the tier 2s for like the million-doll homes, which sounds like a lot, but it
really isn't anymore. you know, we're looking at um we're looking at pretty significant, you know, $16 $1,800 maybe increases in taxes this one year. And if you're on a fixed income and you're looking at
$1,600, that is significant, right? So, in the tier one, maybe it's a little bit less, but I think Mike's point was that the tier one is almost the tier two. So you're not given a lot of wiggle room for people who say maybe I'll make that you know that um
I'll I'll make that sacrifice but maybe I can't right you know so there's a lot of legit and I don't know how we don't have a lot of runway to change those numbers at this point but we are at risk with them I think um and that will um I
think that will weigh in on on people's decisions on this. So um and you know just a final comment and um the fincom is left yet again in a really tough you know position where we're
having a public hearing about 12 days before the warrant closes and we need to have you know our our votes taken and we need to have um a report written and we're just having a public hearing today. So, I know we strove and we made
good progress throughout this, but we cannot leave FINCOM in the position of having no time to deliberate on things and and make our recommendations in in a time where it gets out to the public. So,
and with that, I will open it to any other comments um from members of the of the uh public or anyone in the room. Ron Delio, 181 Reservoir Road. I just
had a question regarding um >> It's actually through you to the town manager. >> Yeah. >> Um >> I don't care. So it was about the um >> Gil foil. >> Yes. >> I see you on page one.
>> Yeah. I was trying to see it. It's so small. >> I I know. I I was making jokes earlier that folks needed to bring their readers. So, um the town uh first engaged with Gilfoil under uh town
manager Lemieux um for crisis communications. Um that contract has continued. Um it's a little shy of that total contract uh is a little shy of $10,000 a year. Um this year it's being
funded from different budgets. So partially funded out of the uh town manager's budget, partially fired funded out of the police and fire budget. Um so in the FY27 preliminary budget, it was bringing that that one contract back
under one line. Um they perform uh 24-hour a day, 7-day a week crisis communications typically around uh public safety. If there were to be an officer involved shooting, large-scale crisis event, they have a team of uh 18
folks that can be on site uh to assist the town in messaging, you know, the flooding, anything like that. In addition to that, um as a regular part of the service, uh they provide up to three content creation um items a month.
I think that one of the best examples of that is uh officer McNamera's recent article that had uh that went national um that wouldn't have gone national otherwise. Um but it it it helps to you know show with those professional services how we can really get messaging
out in a better way. But it's primarily for those crisis communications. Um, if we didn't have the contract and we had to have a one-off and they come out, it's uh upwards of over $5,000 potentially just for a one-off. >> Okay. Did I hear you mention at the tri
board meeting that you were going to use this for promoting the override? >> Not promoting the override. Um, we're going not promoting. >> Okay. >> No, not promoting. Um, factual. >> I was going to say >> no. Absolutely not. So there is a
>> use tax. >> No, no, no. But >> Rhonda, as awkward as it is, can you just speak into the >> Sorry. It we are we are using Gil foil uh to provide factual, unbiased, straightforward messaging without any uh
you should you shouldn't just the facts ma'am messaging. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Which is Yeah, that's that's a very bright line role in municipal world. Well, I I was just going to comment
messaging. I'm immune to messaging. I just focus on numbers. >> Yeah. So, it's it's to help, you know, folks unlike you. >> So, please save the money. >> No, it's it's covered under the contract already. It's already covered in the contract. So, but it for folks unlike you who don't uh follow along and
understand all of the nuances of this process, it helps to distill down some of these concepts into easily biteable uh portions for folks. >> Okay, thank you. >> Hi, Rene 6 Court. Um just a couple of
things. Uh the number is big. Tier one is big seven-digit number. Um, but I think you heard the superintendent say earlier, level services is not cutting it. It's not working. And I think on the town side, it's also not working. It's
not good enough. Um, if you ask the DPW director, he could tell you all the projects that just things aren't moving. Um, the assistant town manager, I agree with Tanya and Chris's comments on that. Um, I've I've seen firsthand uh all the the
work the whole staff has done in the town manager's office and and it's it's not sustainable. It's just not. If you want to things to move in town, this this is how we get it done. We got to start. I mean, otherwise nothing's
going to happen. Um, what was the other thing? Uh, I forget it's too late, so I'll let you go. I can't remember. Anyway, thanks. >> Thank you. I just want to clarify. I'm not saying that I'm against that tier
one number. I'm just saying we're we're running like >> Oh, I remember. >> Okay. >> I remember. >> Go ahead. Finish before >> No, I was just going to say I I I just I just feel that we're we're we're we're running a real tight line, right?
>> Yeah. But I think level service just isn't isn't enough. But if the override I feel so strongly about this if the override doesn't pass at the ballot. Um I would go back I would support another special election to bring back
an override whether it's the same number a slightly different number. Um I did the math. We have we have until September 15th to pass this 35 days and notified the clerk. we would get three more attempts
um if we wanted them before September 15th. It doesn't I know that's not good for schools because if we don't have this by the fiscal year they're going to lose teachers and they're going to be the schools are going to be um in a much
bigger world of hurt honestly than the town side. It's not pretty but we could gut it out for a year. I don't know what next year would bring. Um, but I acknow it's Yeah, it's a big number. There's no denying that. >> Yeah, the whole the whole situation's scary.
>> It is. >> So, I mean, >> I don't like it. I'm I'm retiring this summer. I don't like it. But, uh, it's, you know, it's it's it's that important. I think in my opinion, >> believe me, if I won the lottery, I'd help you guys out. I mean, I' I'd be
right there, but I just haven't. >> Think of all the taxes you'd have to pay if you won the lottery. >> I know. Um, yeah, that was the other thing I remember. >> I'm not in favor of gutting it out on the public safety side on either one of these departments. >> That's why we put it in in the balance budget.
>> Yeah. Um, and additionally, like these guys here have been to all these meetings and have stayed very very late. These are only our only departments heads that have been consistently attending. >> Well, they're the three big budgets. So, >> Oh, yeah. >> They're kind of vol They're volunttoled to be here, but I'm very grateful that
that they are. >> I appreciate it. And it does not go unnoticed by, you know, the boards or by the public that these are the faces that we see. It's very important. Their budgets are important to them, too. >> Absolutely. >> All right. Um Laura, you have your hand up again. >> Yep. I just said Laura Brush in 389
Mulpus Road. I just want to say how much I don't want to be part of a town that is that we're squeaking by with the minimum and we're especially when it comes to our fire and and police that we're that we're giving them the minimum tools that they need to do their jobs.
These are the most critical folks that support all of us that lives are safe. I remind everyone it was just a year ago right on my road here that there was a girl missing and within hours she was found. We've we've got to get behind it is a huge number, but we have got to get
behind it. We have to tell our neighbors we have to get out to the vote. And I appreciate so much um I believe it was Renee mentioning there are multiple um opportunities for this to pass. And it it is it is we are at such a juncture that this is so important that the
public really needs to understand that this is this is not one department putting against pitting against another department. This is our town. This is our town's critical moment to to give uh you know the support that that all of our um officials need. So I thank all of
you for all the effort that you got. I think that even though the number is huge, there is nothing extra in there. There's nothing that's fluff. Um and I just I remind the public May 2nd and and May 16th. So thank you.
May 2nd and May 9th >> 16th. May 16th. >> May 16th. You gota be there on the election on a Saturday vote and you got to be there on the 16th for the vote. >> Thought it was Tuesday. >> Got to update my report.
Thank you, Laura. All right. Any other um questions or comments from the public? Okay. So, next on our agenda, um I just had on there, you know, discussions on prior briefings just to cover our butts,
but I didn't think it was necessary is really draft warrant articles. So, this will be the first time we kind of hear the warrant articles. Um before we go into this, I just want to I just want to get the pulse of the committee here. Um
the other two things we had were were voting on these articles and then going through the finance committee report. The way we typically do it is we hear the article, we get feedback, and then we close the public hearing and then we vote if we want to and we go over the
the finance committee report. It's already 10:00. It's probably going to take a little while to go through all of these. That said, I think Mike and I are both unavailable next Thursday. Um, we should still have a meeting next
Thursday, but the question is, do we want to plow through with with votes tonight or schedule a meeting on either Monday or Tuesday of the the next week? Um, via Zoom. >> Do you mean this coming week or the week
after you come back? >> The the week after. >> Okay. So the eth is when we need when the um the article the warrant needs to go to the printer. So that means we have the sixth and the seventh when at least
I'm available. Um I it's it's suboptimal to have probably five members voting on the the articles. We have all seven of us here tonight, but we're roll call voting and it's going to be pretty late doing it. >> So early next week. don't think we can
do a Monday or Tuesday. >> I cannot do anything next week. So, if you want to do it without me, that's that's fine as well. >> No, I was not sure if it was Thursday that you're not available. If you were available during >> I am not available all week next week. Okay. >> Sorry. >> My suggestion we go through if we could quickly go through the warrant tonight
so that we can put together any questions that we have. >> Yeah, we're going to do that regardless. >> Okay. And then schedule a meeting for the vote. everybody's back >> and then the the final um uh report. We should vote on the final report. What I'm recommending is on that
sixth or seventh um cuz I think you probably should next week even without Mike and I go through the next revision of the of the annual report for your comments. >> And I'm going to need someone to take over ownership of writing that. So,
we'll talk about that afterwards. Um, you're all this way. You're >> looking at me. >> There's a good chance I can be online Thursday night. >> Okay. >> I'm just going to be somewhere in New York. >> Okay. So, >> all right. >> Okay. With that, we'll we'll circle back
to that, I guess. But, um, >> so, right now, we're just reading. >> Right now, we're going to go read through these, have any questions for town manager Rom, and also allow the public, if they have any questions on the articles, to to comment on them. That's how we typically do the public
hearing. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have not picked up and looked at these articles in about a week and a half. Um, so there's some changes. They're still in draft form. The select board um will
be discussing the warrant in a out of cycle meeting next Tuesday, the 31st. Um, town council will be present. Um, I know there were some questions about a couple of the articles related to the trust fund commission. um town council is going to be addressing those uh
questions to the select board if you want to tune in to that. Um and then uh the select board will be voting to finalize the warrant on April 7th. So after April 7th is when the document will be publicly available for the
public. Um of course they can get a draft copy now. So um the articles are currently lettered. There's a few that are not on this draft and I'll talk about them as we go. Uh the first is article A which is the authorization to
hear reports of committees of the town. I'm not aware of anybody currently planning to make a report. Article B is authorization to borrow in anticipation of revenue and to enter into a compensated balance balance agreement with the bank. This article provides a
fail safe if the town's revenues fall short and we need to do a revenue anticipation note. It gives us the authorization to go out and do that short-term borrowing if there's a cash flow issue. It's more of a housekeeping article. Article C, similarly,
authorization to expend funds in anticipation of reimbursement of state highway aid, otherwise known as chapter 90. Uh, this article allows the town to uh go and spend chapter 90 funds before
receiving the chapter 90 money itself. Uh, as stated previously, the FY27 Chapter 90 aortionment is $718,71829 contingent upon legislative approval. >> All right. I will say if anyone has questions on just ask them as we're
going through them. And if anyone online has questions, just raise your hand as we're going through these. >> Perfect. >> Thank you. >> Uh, article nine, I mean article nine that looked like a nine. Article D, Economic Development Committee Revolving Fund. This is to
create a new revolving fund for the economic development committee. Um, it doesn't fund anything. It just creates a revolving fund. Um, it would allow for receipts credited to the fund from uh user fees, ticket sales, vendor fees, booth registration fees, aven program
sponsorship, donations um and other receipts. um and would allow um economic development type activity to be expended from the revolving fund. Uh set an initial FY27 spending li limit at
$10,000. Um the economic development committee is going to go here first um to fund their activities uh before going to that $3,100 uh new line item in the operating budget in tier one uh technology
revolving fund. This is a technical correction. Um the um under the technology revolving fund, the persons uh currently allowed to expend from the fund no longer exist in our salary
administrative plan. It refers to um uh the town manager, IT director, and land use director. We don't have those titles necessarily all anymore. So, it's just saying that the persons authorized to expend from the fund would be the town manager or their design, which
would allow me to authorize the person who pays the open gov invoices to pay the bill. >> So, where did that money comes from? Oh, from the fees from the building. >> From open gov. Got it. >> Yep. Yep. So, that's just the fees that come in on open gov and this just allows this is changing who can expend from it.
>> The actual people. >> Got it. Article F is uh the authorization to set the spending caps for each of the revolving funds. Um the details of of those limits and caps will be in the motions. Um I have not seen
any requests from any departments seeking to increase the revolving fund limits over last year. Article G, authorization to pay expenses from a prior fiscal year. um at the uh annual town meeting. This requires a
four fifth vote as opposed to that super high threshold at the special of 9/10. Um and we are currently tracking two bills of a prior fiscal year, both from Aeroseptic for Portaotties at the cemetery. One is in the amount of $1,317.50
and the other is in the amount of $577.50. It would be my recommendation to the finance committee that you defer all recommendations to town meeting on this in the case that um any additional uh bills of a prior fiscal year arise
between now and then. FY26 budget adjustments. This allows us to um make adjustments within the current fiscal year at town meeting outside of the uh 33b transfer process.
uh the the snow and ice deficit. We don't have all of our bills yet. We're probably not going to be able to cover it 100% within transfers from the existing operating budget. So, uh once we have all of the final bills in and we
know that exact deficit and we can project out where we can make transfers, uh we might need to close out a little bit of the snow and ice uh deficit with free cash. So, this will allow us the opportunity to do that. Um,
article J, um, fiscal year 2026 capital program funding reauthorization. This sounds more complicated than it is. I have to credit Miss Lissio partially uh, for this article. Um, but this is to
correct some funding error errors. So, this article corrects and clarifies prior town meeting funding actions related to the FY2026 capital plan. At the main town meeting of last year, uh there was a vote to transfer $325,000
from unexpended funds that were originally appropriated under the FY23 capital plan to support the FY26 capital plan. A portion of those funds, $300,000, had already been committed at the November 14th, 2023 special town
meeting to fund roof repairs at the TC Pacios building. The unexpected project uh unexpected project from the FY23 capital plan that is being reappropriated was the hazardous materials abatement for the old primary school. So basically um in
FY23 there was uh funding for hazardous materials abatement for the old primary school. Uh grant funds were obtained to tear down the primary school I believe. So it was funded outside of the capital plan. Those $300,000 was then
appropriated at a special town meeting to cover roof repairs at TCP. Thankfully those funds were never expended. that same funding source was used to fund FY26 capital plan. So we when we
realized that there was an issue here, we intentionally stopped uh two projects on the FY26 capital plan to get this corrective action at town meeting. Uh so honestly, this is this is something that's probably could go in the consent
agenda because it's just a technical housekeeping correction. Um, but it but it probably will also confuse people too. So, I don't know where that'll end up, but it really is a housekeeping matter. Um, and then there is the FY27
capital program. Ju just a quick note, it's it's housekeeping because we cut before we spent money that we didn't have. >> That's correct. >> Okay. I just want to it it's a little more than than housekeeping because if we would have there were errors twice
twice we appropriated the funds that had already been so yeah thank you Rhonda she was part of it Rhonda Chris Ruth so little beagle over there watching everything um the FY27 capital program. So I
presented capital early on um to to finance committee at the preliminary budget when there was not a um a a certification of free cash available. Um I have now gone back and gone through
that capital plan again. I've sent um my new capital plan to capital planning committee. I'm not sure if an email went out to capital planning to see if folks wanted to reconvene. I'm not sure if they want to reconvene. Um, do you have in your drive the capital plan that you
could share? I think I dropped it in there today. Or no. Uh, do you have it from Peter? I have something in Excel from 14 hours ago. >> Does it have green and red? >> I don't know.
Is it a Christmas button? >> It is. >> There is green and red. >> Okay. >> Does it go Does it is it green all the way through the adults activity center? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Can you share that, please? >> Um,
Zoom share. >> Yes. Thank you. hands. >> Okay. So, we go back and grab the two projects that were initially skipped. Um, the playground design and the second
cruiser. Um, I will note that that playground design has been included in a supplemental budget of the legislature, um, which has passed the House. I don't think the Senate's taken it up yet, but that might be funded outside of this. And if that if that's the case, it would
either be available for contingency for other projects that run over or be able to be appropriated in another future year. We won't know that by the time a town meeting, though. And then, um, let me just see. Too small. So, I think we had stopped previously at
the public safety building boiler upgrades. Uh, with the additional free cash, we're able to pick up the school door security intercoms at Turkey Hill and Primary School public safety control upgrades. uh we already had the front-end loader
uh with snowplow because that was being funded through the vehicle equipment stabilization fund in the adult activity center network upgrade. So um two of the projects are being funded out of the vehicle stabilization fund. Uh this is the first time that the vehicle
stabilization fund is being utilized since its creation. The total being funded from there is $594,000. Uh there's roughly 2.6 six a little north of $2.6 million in the stabilization fund. Um the amount of
free cash to support the capital program will be $991,627 and the amount of raise and appropriate from taxation will be $244,576. The next article and the capital just one second. Yep. I the only thing I'll
say again on this is that DCP >> the lowest ranked project on here was my number two and I still stand by the fact that it should be the number two >> except now it's going to be a much higher cost because we're going to need to abate the entire building because the
whole thing needs to come down and that was just for partial. >> Yeah. I I mean I I don't know if you can I I know we've got this so-called rule that on the floor we can't change the um the capital plan, which I I think is
crap. I think that that was just someone telling their lawyer to make up a ruling that said that that was the the ruling. But I I do not think we should borrow we should be funding the capital plan to its limit so that we can start doing
something with TC Pacios with monies that we have in FY27. >> I know you feel that way. >> What >> I said I know you feel that way, Mr. Chairman. I think we're going to be looking to get a total price to just take down the building and that's what we'll be
bringing forward >> when in in 28. >> Uh we'll be bringing it next time this year. >> So for the Yeah, for the No, I don't think for the fall tower meeting. Probably not. But >> okay, >> which makes sense because we need to
empty the building like there's some other logistics other than just money. We're starting to plan for emptying the building now and uh rehousing people um from our departments that we can. Yeah. So, I would also say that I think that
that's a good case for why being very conservative on revenues could play to a need that we're going to have next year. Um, with either free cash or I don't know if you're going to look to borrow or something, but >> it depends on how much we might need to
do a small borrowing for the total >> Renault or not Renault. >> Uh, take down demo demo, not Renault. Are there any other questions on the capital plan? I know we've gone over in the before, but I don't think we've seen
how it was funded or where the line currently is. >> Yeah, the lines change. >> Um the number 13 that did not get funded, the six wheel dump truck for the DPW. Um it that's not an urgent need since we are tapping into the
stabilization fund, the vapor stabilization fund. it it's not so much that it's not an urgent need. It's that there is a big purchase uh that will be hitting the stabilization fund for for a firet truck that I I think without
looking at my sheet it's either next year or the year after. And so for those really large purchases, I'm trying to um set aside some money. I thought I had shared maybe in your a couple months ago um in your drive a projection of the
vehicle use stabilization account. I think you should have that in your drive. >> Are you going to be putting money in the stabilization fund and then taking it out as well? Okay. >> Not this one. >> Okay. >> No, we used to do that in my last town. Um >> any other questions? >> I just have one statement again. I want
to say that I don't think the adult activity center needs outside Wi-Fi period. Like I think that's an expenditure that's a little bit a want instead of a need. >> It doesn't add a whole heck of a lot to the project. >> I look at things that didn't get funded
that are a little bit, you know, less. >> So, frankly, without adding it, it wouldn't be funded at all because it wouldn't meet the threshold of the capital plan also. And so I mean that one well not only that I mean there's
the beautiful pavilion out back and I think that they're trying to utilize um the exterior space more for events and activities and to have that Wi-Fi available for that >> like a movie night. >> Exactly. >> Right. Right. >> So anything that you'd be streaming even
streaming music while you're >> Right. >> So that doesn't add a lot to the total of the 20,000. I was going to say >> it doesn't add a lot to the 20,000, but removing it, removing the exterior Wi-Fi would drop the whole project under the
capital threshold. >> That makes sense. >> Um, the next article is the omnibus budget. So, this will be the balance budget. Um the next article after that >> just on the on the bus budget do you is
it going to be solidified enough that you think we should make a recommendation on it or do you think it's going to change >> on the balance budget? I I don't see it change. I don't see the bottom line changing. >> Okay. there might be some small movement from here and there like I had talked about the uh board of health
reorganization and we still don't have um enough information on the salary reserve yet but >> the bottom line okay >> no >> um the next article article M is the override so the select board hasn't
talked about how they want to do this whether it's it's whether it's one article for tier one and a second article for tier two or whether It's one article with multiple motions. There's a couple different ways that this can be done. Um, so right now it's just here as a placeholder. I imagine that that
conversation is going to occur with attorney Costa next Tuesday if folks are interested to see how that structure actually pans out. >> How that is structure is set up, does it change how it's it goes in the ballot? >> So the ballot ha the ballot structure is
quite specific. Um, the ballot has to be two separate questions. uh a tier one and a tier two. The appropriation at town meeting um is is very different. You we could have I talked to attorney Costa about this earlier today. You could have one article that does all
three budgets. You could have three different articles. You it there's no bearing one to the other. I think the more alignment there is between town meeting and the ballot, the simpler it will be to um to to talk to the public
and to everyone about the the um the override. So if that can be an influencing factor towards how the select board chooses there, that would be at least my input into it. And I know that we have had some folks reaching out
um talking about placement of these articles too on where to place them on the on the order of operation. >> To ask that is this the order of warrant? >> So this would be what I would recommend as the order of the warrant. This is kind of the typical fashion and cadence. I think there's some folks who are
advocating that this question be moved to the very top of the town meeting. Um, I think that that comes with, in my opinion, a lot of risk um that something could pass and then there could be a vote for reconsideration when folks have left the room. But the select board, I'm sure I'll be talking about order on
April 7th will be the final decision on order. There's two um special articles that we need to add for >> Can I ask you something about reconsideration and maybe you know this question, maybe you don't. is uh if there's a motion to reconsider an article, is it up to the moderator to to
accept that or as long as it is second? I think it has to be somebody I I believe and and don't quote me. So I I believe that it has to be somebody that's changing their vote number one from a yes to a no or a no to yes. And I
do not know if the moderator has discretion about whether to consider. In the past, he has said he has discretion on it that if if enough people have left who that he would not allow a reconsideration, >> right? That's something that we'll we'll want to ask attorney Costa about that as
well. >> Hold on. >> Well, we know the moderator and attorney Costa don't always uh grade after last year. >> Accurate. Nothing like a bunch of attorneys in the room to get consensus. Um then there's two articles that aren't
on here. Um but there are special funding articles. I had talked earlier about funding two things outside of operating budget. I need a mechanism to do that and that's the TCP expense line and that special assistant to the
assessors. So those um are basically just a funding article. TCP is likely going to be funded with free cash. Um, and then the uh the assessor, special assistant, the assessor is likely going to come out of the overlay.
>> Was that N? What? What? >> They need to be added. >> What letter were you on? >> I was on M. >> M. >> M. >> No, you're N. >> Oh, yeah. >> It says override, >> right? And so I'm saying there's two articles that need to be added. I So I spoke them,
>> but you're not going to read them there. >> Oh, so it's >> So it's M and a half or something. M and a half MA MB for or actually just one it'll fund both of them probably uh for the TCP and the special assistance the two things that we're moving out of the operational budget need a mechanism for
funding >> is that onetime funding for those >> yes and that's that's the reason why we're doing it in that way getting it out of the operating budget because it's one time and the end of the TCP expenses >> at least in that way in operational expenses >> um it's one of the ways we balance the
budget actually by moving that that was a big chunk that we moved off to balance the budget. Um salary administrative plan this is the cola for folks in the SAP and 3%. Um I do not have that total calculation
for with me tonight. Uh article O is appropriate free cash to the OPED trust fund per the policy. This is a 10% of our certified free cash. So that will be $335,437. that will not change. So even though
that number is not on there, you can lock that one down. Um and then uh there's two additional articles also that need to be added O and OB appropriate. And I cannot believe
>> Can we just stay on OPED though? Even though that is our policy on the floor that number could change and the town could say no, we don't want to do that this year. >> Absolutely. So >> we we can consider that as a >> the um the two articles that I do not
know how I how I missed are funding the stabilization fund $250,000 into the regular purpose stabilization fund and then $250,000 into uh one of the special purpose stabilization funds but not the vehicle
use stabilization fund. I'm going to put $250,000 in the health insurance stabilization fund. And so hopefully uh with whatever increase we receive next year, even if we have to use that um as a one-time source immediately next year to help uh
offset the increase and avoid a potential override. That's a strategy to get another year. >> The schools did not ask to put any money in their um >> No. So the way that they would have needed to do that is through their operating budget. So there would have needed to be a line in their operating
budget to fund the special education reserve fund. >> The current years or the prior years? >> Current years. >> Okay. >> So just to confirm 250 on the general stabilization, 250 on the health insurance stabilization. >> Yes. >> Okay.
>> And OEB was 330 >> 335437. Then next is uh I we created this fund last year, the compensated absence of reserve fund, funding it with $10,000 last year. This is an additional seating
of $10,000. I don't know how much more we'll do after this. This might be it. Um this is just a place that if um we have an unexpected retirement or departure that we haven't left a plan for that we have a source to uh backfill and it's a
safety net and I think that um we'll probably let it ride after this for a little bit. Um appropriation to the 300th anniversary committee. As everybody is aware the 300th anniversary of the town of Lunberg is coming up. Uh
there had been an appropriation at the May 22nd May 2022 town meeting um appropriating $5,000 for initial committee expenses. But the way that that was funded was through the operating budget. So when those funds were unexpended, it just closed out to
free cash. So by putting it here in a special article, um they're not tied to one specific fiscal year. Um but the planned motion under this article would be to transfer 15,000 from free cash to fund um 300th anniversary related events.
>> Um the state like I seen the state usually gives money to anniversaries you know mean like this is a 300th anniversary. Have we talked with our legislators but like they routinely give out money for this celebration. I have not been involved at all with the 300
anniversary committee. So I cannot answer what their um conversations have been but that is a great question for them and at upcoming and gives them an opportunity to talk about the 300th anniversary and what they have planned but I do not have that answer for you. >> You don't know if I mean I
>> I don't know if they've explored it is what I Yeah. >> No I don't I mean I don't know if they would reach out to the state delegation on themselves because usually that goes through the select board. So, um, the chairman of the select board's on the 300th, so I can certainly talk to him
about that. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, if you could, it's Caesar the one who's on that? Yeah. Tell him that the state routinely routinely gives money for the for for celebrations across the Commonwealth and I would like to get some that money.
>> I agree. >> I'm sure our legislators are going to want to talk at these events and take pictures at them. So, I think we should have a barrier to entry on that. I there is I will say there is a giant cake. It's it's like a a big wooden cake
that's running around from community to community and I I don't know where it is now, but it was in Pepol not so I think Pepper not so long ago and I'm going to make sure that we get the cake for the 300th. Um then the next article uh related
establishes a gift fund for the 300th anniversary. um just a repository uh for for them to accept um donations and to make expenditures for celebrated celebration related activities.
Article S is uh the trust fund commission legal fees that you heard a presentation on um at I believe your last meeting and this would be to transfer $14,252.39 from free cash to fund legal services required to pursue cypay relief in
Massachusetts probate court. I do want to state that after that last meeting, I was a little concerned that I had I had authorized the trust fund commission to work directly with attorney Costa and I had questioned with whether that um authorization had not been made express.
So I uh reached out to attorney Costa to ask him whether or not it had been expressly made and he said in fact it had been so expressly made that he had been working with the trust fund commission already. He has uh nearly completed a draft of the cyp prey
relative to the worthy poor. Um the trust fund commission should be aware of this because they had been communicating with attorney Costa. So the worthy poor which was the one uh trust fund that was most ripe for cyprey and easiest to pursue. I had already given authorization for them to work with
attorney Costa on that one and that is almost done. Um then the question on the American Legion and whether or not uh that that language around eligibility for the Legion post um was a barrier that the Trust Fund Commission could not work around. Uh Attorney Costa said he's
happy to provide um guidance on that. So really this is down to the uh gazebo and the uh the other uh I I believe it's another American Legion um uh trust fund that has and that's the trust fund that
has the total of $14,252.39 but worthy poor is being taken care of by council. >> Um is I know trust funds usually you're only supposed to take the >> the the interest. Yeah. You're not allowed to invade the corpus. So, is
there ever a situation where the money is so little that this the courts or the state allows you to deplete the fund? >> So, attorney Costa is going to be coming to answer all sorts of questions. I if you don't mind asking sending me that specific question in an email, I'll make
sure we get that asked next week. >> And I think you weren't here when we heard this one, right? >> Yeah, I was. Yeah. >> Did you watch it afterwards? No, I'm not going to watch that. >> No. Have you watched it? >> I I will not watch that section. I watched other parts of that meeting. I
watched Bill's presentation. >> Okay. Um, so in short, our recommendation on this was that we supported the spirit of making sure that the trust funds, well, okay, I will say mine was that we supported the spirit of
the trust funds being able to give out the money for the intentions that they were and that there were legitimate concerns about, you know, where they stand versus what they were hundreds of years ago or whatever it was. But I I will state right now just in
case you do vote on this next week, which I'm thinking maybe you should without me, that I think this motion should be withdrawn. But lacking that, I think that we should um vote to not not recommend approval on this. So I will
just make make my position stated right now. >> Yeah. Why? Like I mean the select board owns the town meeting. what goes into a meeting unless collects. Why why are we putting some like it's it's like the
select board has in the past not allowed all requested how many words I >> I don't think that this I think I don't think the select board voted on this one yet on whether to include or not. They were going to wait to hear from attorney Costa next week. >> Okay. Yeah. because like you know you
don't >> I think generally speaking the the tradition is that if another commission recommends an article that they they do put it on. >> They they haven't always Yeah. >> They they tried but they haven't and I can list >> Yeah. I'm just saying like in general, I
know they were at odds with the finance committee on whether capital plan could be voted individually uh to remove things and they still put it on even though they completely disagreed with our position at the time. >> And just to confirm, I think they that
they put forth we're going to use internal counsel for this, but I think they were asking for external >> counsel. >> Yes, I think so. Yep. >> Yep. So >> it's really research I think was the position. >> Okay.
>> And the next article um also relates to the trust fund commission and what happens when there is a lack of a quorum. Um and so this would allow for the select board to stand in the shoes of the trust fund commission uh so that
they could still act if there was not a quorum of trust fund commissioners. Um the next article has been withdrawn and that's the storm water utility should cut at least 1 hour from town meeting >> and a lot of paper.
>> You never know there could be some weeds that we >> I know >> three hours. >> All right. Article V, amendment to the sewer bylaws. Uh so this this changes language uh in the sewer bylaws. the
current language. Um, >> there's no financial impact. >> There's not. >> Okay. >> Okay. Do you want me to skip over it? I keep going. Okay. So, it just changing the language from criteria emergency circumstances threaten the safety and continued use of a property that a
waiver may resolve. Changing that to unusual or extraordinary circumstances that threaten the safe and continued use of a property that a waiver may resolve. Um I think that they have been encountering certain circumstances where they wanted to provide a waiver but the
language was too limitous um or too limiting. Um the next article uh funds uh the PEG uh enterprise fund. Um I do need to go back and adjust these numbers so don't weigh in on this one until I
do. Um but this uh this article I I know that uh PEG is relying on their reserves to fund their operations through this article as was described to the >> so for next Thursday all the articles should be numbered and finalized
>> by next th the select board's not finalizing the warrant until April 7th but >> not even the numbers in the I >> the article >> next weekend's Next Tuesday is just a special meeting. I'm not sure. I'm sure
they're going to make progress and we'll get further along. I can't guarantee that the select board's going to finalize the warrant next Tuesday on their out of cycle meeting. They are planning to do it on the 7th. >> Can someone tell me how the select board
expects the finance committee to make recommendations on articles that happened the day before the warrant? >> I'm I'm not saying that they're not doing it next Tuesday. I'm just saying that I can't speak for the select board and how they're going to act next Tuesday. >> All right. I I'll just say that I keep hearing things like, "Well, we got
time." You don't have time. You didn't have time last week. You didn't have time the week before. >> We don't have time. >> No, I'm I'm speaking to the >> I mean, we can't vote on on these until >> I don't think we should vote at all to
be honest with you. Like, we should say the select board gave us no time to vote on these and our in our >> Well, so some of them are done, right? So some of the articles are final because the details will be in the motion. Some of them you're going to defer to town meeting anyways on because things are changed. They're dynamic and
then so it's going to be probably a third a third a third. You know there'll be there's some that are finalized right now whether it whether it's an X or a 14. I don't think your votes change. Um >> all right. >> And can we choose to vote on
>> we don't have to vote on anything. >> No you it's complete. So the the finance committee is supposed to make recommendations on articles that have a financial impact. Um and those recommendations I believe are supposed to be included in the mailer. Um and but
sometimes you can't make like bills of a prior fiscal year is the perfect example of that. I wouldn't never want you to make a recommendation on that until town meeting because that could change. A bill can arise the day before. It just doesn't look good on our
committee when we sit at a town meeting and have not voted on something or couldn't vote on something because we didn't have the >> you you should be able to make progress next week after their meeting on Tuesday. >> Okay. >> Um but things like this one, the PEG access enterprise fund, we will be able
to update these numbers ourselves internally next week. And so you'll have th on something like this. Those numbers come from staff. >> Okay. >> Um Yeah. And I know I have an email from her with what these numbers are. I just have not plugged them in.
Um solid waste uh enterprise fund. Um I I believe that this is also 500,000 again this year, but I just need to check the water enterprise fund. Um this is going to be at $120,000.
Um the the total bills we're estimating at from that we will pay to Fitsburg are a little shy of 90,000 plus our 30% on top of it. Um as you know water enterprise was a major
issue at the fall special. It will now be appropriately budgeted and we will be able to start with that 30% um containing that money within the enterprise to pay back the general fund. So, when when are they going to be able to pay back some?
>> Oh, it'll take some years. >> Oh, really? >> Yes. >> I thought they once the the the initial bills were paid, we would uh recoup most of the money. >> No, no, it's going to take a while to
pay this back to the general fund. >> Okay. >> It was so woefully underbudgeted. I mean the $45,000 enterprise was nowhere near the actual cost from to run the enterprise. >> Yeah. But it wasn't part of the problem. We hadn't buil >> there were multi there were multiple
problems here. >> Okay. Oh, >> but yes, one one is that we had not build. We have build now, >> right? And >> and one was that we hadn't raised the rates. The select board has raised the rates. Uh, so
there was a compounding effect of things, >> but we did pay that back bill and we're going to recoup from the bills that you did, but this is different. >> Yeah, it'll just take I think it was it's going to take a while with that 30% to to build. We need to build up the the 30% to pay back the town. >> Okay.
So, um, the next three articles, um, are all funding the first year of the collective bargaining agreements for the firefighters, thank you, firefighters union, uh, the municipal
employees union or the askme clerical union and the teamsters, uh, the new union uh, for the DPW, Teamsters Local 170. uh town meetings vote is what binds the town to their obligations under these collective bargaining agreements.
It's not what approves or authorizes the collective bargaining agreements. The collective bargaining agreements are approved by the select board. Um but this this vote binds the town and then um in these we transfer from the salary reserve the funding to fund the first
year of these contracts. Um the firefighters union is essentially done. the uh clerical union is essentially done. We're just waiting on paperwork. Um but the teamsters local 170 um is in process and I'm hopeful
that we're able to include it on the Mtown meeting warrant. Okay, next article DD vacation system transition liability reduction. So this article funds with free cash a buy down
um of acred employee vacation balances prior to the July 1st 2026 transition to acrruelbased vacation system. So town meeting in the fall uh approved changes to the SAP converting the town's vacation benefit to a monthly acrruel
system. Under that change, existing vacation balances as of June 30 were to convert to a vacation bank with employees required to use the bank time over several fiscal years. Um any vacation time over 3 years, I mean 3 weeks, we were required to buy off
immediately. Similar transitions are occurring across collective bargaining agreements. So, this article was initially to buy down uh all of those uh all of the time above 3 weeks uh for
folks. Um this is time that they've already earned and they're already owed. Um we're just transitioning from one system to another. So, we need to either pay this liability or allow folks to use this liability. Um, we have discussed with the select board, although I don't
think that they've officially voted yet, buying off all of the liability so that we do not have a accounting issue with managing buckets of extra vacation time across three years across multiple unions. And the total cost of that would be $270,000
of free cash. The other benefit of this is that we would be buying this in today's dollars and that we would um immediately be transitioning over to the uh acral system without having living between two worlds. So the change of the
systems has already been voted. Um this is to buy off that liability. And I understand that from looking at your faces that this is confusing. >> Mike, is this right? you're gonna this is going to be an attempt to buy off the vacation time, but if not, they're going
to be they're gonna have to use it or lose it over >> not lose it. So >> over several years or >> so, so this is time that they so the way that the town was operating is that you
would work for up to a year and you would not have any vacation time whatsoever and then on July 1st you get dropped an entire bucket of all of your vacation time for the upcoming year. We have left that system for the SAP and we
are le we've left that system for the police union and we have negotiated it with fire and clerical. We're still negotiating it with the DPW. But so these folks will all start acrewing vacation on July 1st. So that's that's
going forward. But we still have to handle the time that they would have that would have otherwise dropped on July 1st that they've already earned. And so we must buy back anybody that earns over 3 weeks of vacation, we must
buy back that amount. So everybody that has 3 weeks or under, we spread that amount over three three years. Managing it differently, managing it into a se separate bucket. They essentially get extra although it's not extra they've already earned it vacation
time but we have to monitor that track that as we burn it down across the unions and that liability somewhat not substantially but grows as as the actual dollars grow from fiscal year to fiscal year in the salary. So $270,000
clears every municipal employees liability in the transition of systems. And so everybody would start on July one just acrewing and no buckets of time. >> What does the monitoring of this work fall to? HR director? >> No. Uh payroll and benefits coordinator.
>> Okay. >> A lot. >> It is a lot. But it also if we um >> if we if we buy off the liability we don't have to track and monitor this over the years. Um >> they can just reaccu they can just reaccr
>> so that's right. So they right now they get drops they acrew for a year and they get drops now but we owe them that time as of July 1st they've already earned it now going forward July 1st everybody is moving to an acrruel system where they
can acrue they they you can use it in the red um it's it's not indexed to a fiscal year it's a continuous acral and it caps off uh once they have their annual acrual plus one week. Um, but
that's going forward. So that we still need to handle this liability that's owed on July 1st. >> Understood. I mean, it's just but they can still just keep acrewing. I mean, it's just kind of went to a different system. So, we have to pay them off with that old system and >> Right. >> Yeah.
Otherwise, the the So, I guess to kind of respond in a different way, if we didn't separate it out into buckets and let's just take an employee that has 3 weeks vacation. So, under the new system, if we didn't do this kind of either buy it off or spread it out in
buckets and we were just going to handle it all in one year, on July 1st, they'd have their drop of the 3 weeks that they have earned from the year before. then they'd start acrewing at a rate of three weeks. So if they took no vacation time by the end of that year, they'd have six
weeks. If they took all their vacation time in that year, they're taking six weeks. So it so we cannot afford to have especially fire DPW police taking essentially double their vacation
because of the costs of the backfill. So that's why we have to spread out that liability over the three years. But in this way, we can just buy it off. >> Gotcha. Okay. >> Did that help? >> No, I get it. >> I'm gonna need pictures. >> It's just a >> Are the hours capped?
>> Under the new system, the hours are capped at your annual approval plus one week, but we still have to deal with the liability that would have dropped on July 1st. All right. Amendments to the salary
administrative plan. Uh so changing the title there's some of assistant town manager HR director to HR director assistant town manager we'll need to add uh the new positions here as well at DPW
junior engineer um and full-time recreation director will all needed to be added to the SA well no yes full-time recreation director as well will all need to be added. Article FF has been withdrawn or Yep. withdrawn relative to the mosquito
control program. Article GG. >> Wait, you you you withdrew the this the mosquito control program. >> I thought we were going to get your vote on it. >> Uh I think the the select board. >> Did you not? >> Well, I mean the public vote like the
>> I think you deferred it. >> Did you defer? I thought >> I will say that a substantial amount of select board members gave an indication that they were not in favor of including it on the warrant. I I can't recall. >> But we want to know if town meeting is in favor of it. Like
>> Chris, do you see in the warrant article tracking that I shared with you in your spreadsheet the warrant article tracking? You're my secretary now. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The warrant article tracking sheet that you had me send you. It's purple and pink.
>> It's >> Is it in the SharePoint or the >> I don't search warrant article tracking because it was indicate whether this included it already. >> I think it's a fair thing to let people
you know like I mean we were talking this is an article that you brought forward. >> I did >> and one that you believe you know should be taken into consideration. >> I still do. So I I would like to see this forward. It has a financial impact
and and I hear like you guys got a sales pitch from the guy who gets paid. >> You didn't vote. >> You did not vote. >> Tracking sheet. >> Oh, you did not vote. Okay. So >> yeah, you haven't voted yet. >> Yeah. >> I I make a strong recommendation to bring this to town meeting. Like let us vote on it.
>> I make a strong recommendation to withdraw it. >> So I don't >> I don't think we should be bringing this. Not let the people vote. Sure. >> No, I don't I we've not discussed it enough. We have not had the ramifications of that.
No, I don't think it should go forward. >> Well, I Okay. Article GG, notice of town meeting. So, um this is similar to the article that was at the special town meeting um about uh the the mailer and
the notice of town meeting. Um, I know that, um, Lou Franco and Caesar Nolo and I believe some folks at the Council on Aging uh, did some work on this on the language of this article to address the concerns that were raised at the fall
special. Um, and so this is bringing this article back again. Uh similarly, article HH brings uh back the transfer of the care, custody and control of kids kingdom and the land it is on from the school committee to the
select board um with the support uh joint support of the school committee as well this year. Uh the open space committee has an article and I think I need to swap out some of the language in this. uh they had some revisions, but um essentially
making the open space committee an official committee um codified in the bylaws of the town of Lunenburgg as opposed to an ad hoc committee uh of the planning board. and the eminent domain article relative to Flat Hill Road Bridge um is not going
to be required because um although we need to go through the eminent domain process, the eminent domain vote that you took at a previous town meeting still uh gives this select board authorization to proceed with eminent domain. And this is around it's temporary easement for uh one of the
parcels abuing flat hill uh that we need access to after those easements expire and we cannot get agreement from the property owner. So unfortunately we have to go this route. >> All right. Were there any final
questions on any of the warrant articles? All right. With that, I would entertain a motion to close public hearing. >> So moved. Second. >> All right. All those in favor, roll call vote. Tom
>> I. >> Jay. >> I. >> Mike. >> I. >> Anna. >> Hi. >> Tanya. >> I. >> Um. Jean. >> Hi. >> And I for myself.
All right. It is closed. All right. Okay. So, um I I'm going to say we're not voting on articles tonight. So, the question is I I I think the only article I'm kind of
opposed to at this stage is the um the one from the um trust funds. So, other than that, I'm okay if you guys vote without me next week. um >> mosquito one >> if
your recommendation. >> Yeah, I don't think it's going to go on to be honest with you because I watched the select board meeting and I think that the services are much higher than you know mosquito control and they do a lot of things that would then be pushed on the bill and other things. So, um,
so yeah. Um, all right. So, we'll schedule for next week, next Thursday, votes on articles. Um, the next one up is the finance committee report and I worked on that
a little bit today. The approach I took was to take last year's um format and just kind of update it for for this year. Now remember last year
there was kind of five major articles that we were we were tracking. So, we had like the um Marshall Park, we had the um the the town hall, we had an override, and there were a couple other
kind of bigger articles in there. Um this year, in my opinion, there's kind of two primary articles that are that are really need people to focus on. It's not to say the others aren't important, but certainly the omnibus budget and
then the um tier one and tier 2 um overrides. So the way it's written right now assumes that tier one and tier 2 are on the same article. If that changes next week, then we would just break that out in the report. It if you
guys all think that the way this report is written is the way we should go forward. It's in the um SharePoint. Um I then make mention at a high level of the proposition 2 and a half in the
uh it's on the ballot on the 16th. I would change that right now. Um I I gave some homage a paragraph just on the tribe board process that we went through. The next paragraph, the next section is on town revenue projections just like we
did last year. I will say there's been I think some changes related to this. So there's probably some math there's probably some numbers that need verification. Um and I think you said you you know where it is. You can you can update it. Um
um I talked about state aid and stuff like that. Then I start into the Proposition 2 and a half override and operations. Um so I go over just kind of you know there's two tiers. one called core, one
called restorative. I put in the values associated with the town and the school departments and the totals. I then created a table that shows the impact of those. Um, and this is where we're going to need help again to make sure that I
got all the numbers right. Um, I used the assessed values that we used 2 years ago uh during the override. So 250, 350, 450. I think I put in the median at 517296 and put it in bold. Um I may not have
referenced why it's in bold, but that's the, you know, the average, not the median, the average. Um, and I went all the way up to like 1.55 million for some reason. Um, which right now, if my math is right, is over a $2,500
increase for tier 2. Um, I just I wrote a note here in yellow that says that you know how I did it and and that sort of thing. There's also some notes in the Excel spreadsheet. I then put in and this is where I think
we got to have some discussions. I I I kind of put in a paragraph by department to describe the balance to tier one and tier 2 operations. But that's all I have as a statement is says someone needs to describe balance tier one and tier 2 operations. Alternatively,
we could just link to other artifacts like the school committee has the the superintendent mentioned that she has a live, you know, um website that kind of shows those impacts. I think town
manager, you're going to have something. >> We should be live within a week, I believe. >> Okay. So, this is where there would be some major work required by someone and not me just because I I'll I won't have the ability to do it next week to fill those in.
>> Is Is this something that could come from your presentation like the town side? Because like a lot of that's already broken down. >> Yeah, I feel like you went over a lot of this tonight. >> Yeah. And that's why I say like the details would be there if there's a it's hard to summarize probably even you know
but in here I had like facility and recreation department right you know basically I would describe the balanced budget as saying we are getting rid of the wreck department we are slowly saying that there's no need for a wck department in the balanced budget tier
one says that we're keeping kind of the way we are today and tier two you know would say that you know we're um were actually moving in the direction we had planned to move towards a full-time and trying to make it self-unding and stuff like that. But there's a lot to
summarize for things like school and fire department and police, etc. And we have like a week and a half. We really have a week to get this done. Ideally, we should vote on this next week. Okay? But this is where I need help. Okay? I
need someone to kind of take it from where it is today and um and fill this in. Alternatively, we work it past the ETH and it just doesn't get into the the Warren article um which I think is less than ideal to be honest with you. >> I'll work on it and then come to a
conclusion next week. >> So, we really can't do that unfortunately. So, what needs to happen is only three people can work on it. >> Okay? Otherwise, we're kind of we're deliberating
offline through some crazy stupid open meeting law violation. So, um now certainly I'm I will I will at this point kind of turn it over, but if there's, you know, if you want to
>> Well, ask Jay Tom if they're interested. I I have no problem doing the bottom the the the everything but the school department. I can take what town manager gave us, try to put something together, word it up a little bit, make it sound
good, and then but the school side, I I'm not I'm not good at that. >> Okay. Does someone else want to take the school side? Right. So, Jean will do the school, Mike will
do the others, and then Jean, if you can work, that's kind of the bulk of what's remaining on it. >> If you can work the rest with um >> Yeah. with Karen and town manager just to make sure it's right. >> And if you guys can get that all kind of in place and we can vote on it next
Thursday, I I'm fine with it. I I mean, I'm not going to be here. We're We're kind of our back up against the wall. >> Now, here's where it gets interesting. Sorry. Go ahead. >> Now, can I am I allowed to distribute that out to you guys once I'm finished with it just to get re get feedback on it? >> Jean.
>> Yeah. So, give it to Jean. You can edit it live in here is fine with Jean. You two kind of work it. Um and then um sometime prior to Thursday kind of lock it down and say, "Hey everyone, this is
what we're going to review live on on Thursday." >> We track changes live in the system on the SharePoint. >> Okay. >> Probably I I get really confused with >> just can't talk about it. Okay. >> Yeah. You have full Microsoft Word
function in here. >> All right. So, um, Jean, you're kind of leading this. Mike's volunteered to help on on writing it up and then I just give a quick summary and and and thank people and enlist,
you know, the um the the seven of us at at the bottom of it. >> So, here's where it gets tricky. So, if we do not get this done on Thursday, we either have to right now post a meeting for Monday or Tuesday the week after
um because you can't decide Thursday evening that you want to have a meeting on Monday or Tuesday because there's not enough time to post it. >> Can >> I think we should put it on and then cancel it if we don't need it. >> And we can do that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Okay. So I will post an agenda for
Thursday which is votes on articles in finance committee report. >> Are there any other topics that anyone wants to bring up? >> I think it's good to have like your core agenda so that we can talk about >> well public comment and other stuff like that. Do you want
>> like previous discuss, you know, budget discussions, tri board discussion, >> all the old business stuff. Yeah. Okay. >> Yep. I'll do that. Um, okay. So, then it comes down to do we want to do it Monday or Tuesday
of the following week? So, the 6th or the 7th? I >> I'd prefer Monday. Tuesday I travel every day. So, >> okay. >> I prefer Monday as well. >> Yeah. >> Any preference Jay or or Tom? Okay. So, I will schedule something
>> Monday. >> Monday. Okay. So, I will schedule something for Monday. the 6th and I will probably just do it Zoom. I'll do it as a Zoom meeting. So, a completely virtual meeting. >> Okay.
>> Um which means ideally we've gotten through most of the votes at that point, etc. Um Jen has a tracking sheet that's in the um the um SharePoint, so we probably should just update our votes on that same
tracking sheet. Okay. My one comment, Chris, I very very much appreciate this table of how much it's going to cost residents based on their house >> value. >> Yeah. >> I I think that this should be made public as a one pager.
>> There's nothing stopping us from like getting it out, >> just having it on the table at town meeting. People can look at it. >> Yeah. Yeah. you know, like in the packet, >> whatever. >> Okay. >> I mean, it might be scary to some people, but with full transparency, I
think it's going to feel better as a resident to kind of know the structure and that we thought about that. We just didn't think about the median house price. We thought about these people that bought their farm houses 50 years ago for $25,000, but it's 20 acres. Now, it's worth $1.5 million, >> right? Yep. >> You know, so I get where you're coming
from on that. >> Yep. >> Okay. So the other alternative that could be done on Thursday is that you all vote to accept you know pending final revisions by you know like gene arai or something like that then we don't have to have a meeting we don't
violate the spirit of any of the discussions that were there but you trust us to make final revisions to a document outside of Thursday and and get it to town manager for publications. Um, okay.
All right. Sounds like a plan. All right. So, we had minutes that have been posted for a little while from um February 5th, 12th, and 19th. Have folks had an opportunity to review those? >> Didn't we just get those at 6 like 6:00? >> The ones that came in today, I haven't
seen watched. There's like four or five more that just came in, but there's three that have been sitting there for quite a while. >> The three are done for me. >> Okay. Yeah. So, I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes of February 5th, 12th, and 19th. >> So, moved.
>> Second. >> Okay. Roll call vote. Uh Tom >> I. >> Jay. >> I. >> Mike. >> Hi, >> Hana. >> Hi, >> Tanya. >> Hi, >> Jean. >> Hi, >> Chris. I All right. So, those are approved.
>> I'll also put the next slug of um minutes on the the the next the Thursday agenda. >> Okay. >> Okay. Are there any committee reports? >> All right. Any actions or topics for future meetings? We kind of talked about that.
Um, finance committee April 2nd. Yep. And then maybe the 6th. Okay. Uh, any final public comment from the public? >> All right. Any final public comment from the um committee? >> Yeah.
>> Oh, wait. Do I do I have a hand up? >> No. Okay. Sorry. Go ahead. No, I I just want to say that, you know, I I take this job here as a volunteer very seriously and I have been saying and I'll continue saying that I think the best chance of an override passing is
the one with the smallest number. Um I will ask anyone the tough questions that they need to ask you and you know you can't tell me all the children or you know this is safety. I I think the job of this committee is to you know make
analytical decisions and not put in motion. So I will continue to exercise that and explore those those those thoughts. So yeah, I am asking the chief of uh fire, you know, questions about
expanding the services and is it now the best time to do both things and you know and I it's not that I don't support fire or I don't support police or don't support schools. That has been my what I
do on every request that includes an expansion of services and the timing of those requests also matters to this day. Like everything we have included added for fire which was all after 2012 has
been done within the budget our our general budget without having to ask for an override. So I think you know we can't have everything all at once. We got to be patient and you know we can ask for an override but we got to be ready for the worst case scenario. Um
and I think if none of the override passes I think there is a department that will be more affected by the lack of funding. Um, so you know, I will continue to ask
questions with very little motion, just facts and you know, what is the cost associated with this new service we're adding? And that's it. So, thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other public comment? Okay. Um, do I have a motion to adjurnn?
>> Some move to be. >> Did I get a second? >> Second. >> Okay. Mike seconded. All right. So final roll call vote. Um Tom >> I >> Jay >> I >> Mike. >> Anna >> I >> Tanya >> I
>> Jean >> I >> and an I for myself were ajourned. Thank you everyone. Good night.