need a pencil or found it okay my pen that's not a pencil I know scatter rain [Music] today I wish people would stop using the abbreviation POS good evening and welcome to tonight's meeting the lunenberg select board today is
Wednesday March 19 please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and
justice for all in accordance with the requirements of the open meeting law please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast live over the lunenberg public access channel on Facebook live on the public access Facebook page and will be uploaded to lunenberg access YouTube channel after
the meeting the agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the chair votes may be taken as a result of these discussions not all items listed May in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by the open meeting law
we're going to start with public comment are there any public comments from the board no any public comments from the public just realizing I never joined Zoom my apologies hold on one [Music]
second recording in progress all right not seeing any public comments on Zoom either so let's jump right into the budget we have two to go over the first one is with pavement management plan restored to 200 79,000
and the other is no payment management plan which one do you want to start with Jen well I think I'd just like to start before we actually get into any of that is just the what I kind of discussed last night a little bit is the shift in revenues so um there was there's an
additional funding because of the decrease to 175,000 for um the overlay the assessor overlay so that did get factored into these um so if we're going to so that that
brought got brought in you've received communication that we've made adjustments within the sheets and so we became unbalanced and then we rebalanced and so this no pavement management plan is balanced that you have before you
today so no major major changes here um there are some minor changes but there's no major changes here um and then the second budget is with the payment management plan being restored to 279,000 that amount is the difference
between the 550,000 from Taxation and if the increase chapter 90 um is approved so um I I really I I don't know do do you want to just start on payment management plan and how that piece was
balanced but there are other things that have changed okay so the payment management plan is on the are we looking at the no PMP or the PMP return PM Resto yes towards
the back restored it to $279,000 under what category it's under under Highway labor right which is yep so it's let me see one we show you ler just tell me the category the
subcategory that it's the number that's it's on the new the aqua one what's the number in front of it oh I see what you mean uh the number is well they're not in order but 421 421 okay okay there we go and it's the big
orange in the Box okay so we had made an increase to the snow and ice budget over last year so that we wouldn't at the end of the season be looking for such a large um restoration
so that has been level funded the $50,000 for the grant riter position has been removed $10,000 in police overtime has been removed um in talking with the chief
he's aware of that um there is a small reduction in police training they have a new system called a Milo system which they think is going to be able to allow them the opportunity to do more training during their shifts um and also uh
reduce some cost there before you continue I want to follow along sure but I don't know where you are so I'm just saying all okay the things how where this 279 came from okay gotcha oh okay you're explaining how we got two okay
gotcha yes um reserve the reserve fund was decreased from 200,000 to 185,000 it purchase Services were decreased by
$5,000 um the uh PD motorcycle lease is up at the in October so we're paid through then um this is the one area where the chief felt he could cut um so the motorcycle would be
eliminated there um was $115,000 in uh training under the insurance line that was not being fully utilized so that was reduced uh historic commission equipment was reduced um apdc was
reduced and the final thing is um the amount of money that was offsetting the capital plan was reduced so all of those items to get to the $279,000 to restore to restore it
to the full 550,000 I'm into [Music] layoffs what what's the capital planning impact more detail so actually do we have something I your free
cash so the capital program is now being supported $244,500 from taxation it's a reduction of about $39,000 so there's no overall impact to the capital plan it's just shifting from using taxation to offset
the capital plan to using that same amount in free cash okay I don't have any concerns about those reductions okay me neither um I don't like them but there's no
good I guess areas to cut there was no Staffing it was overtime that was the closest thing I heard to staff and only $110,000 right Chief is confident with these cuts that he can still yeah do everything he needs to do yes is that including restoring the current open positions and funding
them for all their overtime and training and everything yep so really the reduction in overtime is that um there were some folks who were on the higher end of the pay plan who are no longer with the organization and so when they're being backfilled by folks lower on the pay plan um he believes that it
will be fine um the the number that requested was I believe $175,000 we're not running that high right now um right now we're running at about $66,000 a week so um he believes that we'll be okay okay um so that's
kind of to restore the the payment management plan there are some other shifts in here that overall got us to the bottom line um the Sal because as things as we became unbalanced we needed to balance right so um the salary
Reserve you're going to be hearing um from Julie at your next meeting um there was the potential of a adjustment to the pay plan um that is no longer being put forward so it's just a 2 and a half%
cola um so that got reduced there um there was some funds in the salary reserve for the uh Library director and his salary has now been set so that is out so but the biggest change in the um salary Reserve was that adjustment to
the um oh boy I'm tired to how much was that amount do you know approximately so um the original amount we were looking at 110,000 and now it's closed to 50,000 okay mhm
um there was um so the Council on Aging director had uh requested a little shift in uh her her staff um and so I was not aware that she had made that request to the finance
committee um she came from a community where the finance committee it was their budget so that's where she submitted that request so I have honored that um but that in making that shift there is a reduction in a part-time Outreach
position that she feels the um she feels that the needs are better served in second to last page thank wait I don't understand can you say that again sure so um there is a part-time Outreach position that has been eliminated from
this budget yes um she had other staff members she has two part-time kitchen folks that were being paid out of the formula grant that cannot be paid out of the formula grant so they are now living inside this budget so that was the that was the offset there
and what's the do you have an indication of what the impact is to the services rendered um the primary uh the primary task of that individual is um providing U male birthday cards uh to seniors and
she feels that can be accomplished with volunteers okay thank you and that the the um need was through uh the Food Services okay um the there was a little bit of confusion with the library budget
between what was uh what was requested what Carter tanini had had recommended and where we landed and uh so we are in between of uh Mr Tan zini's recommendation and the library's request
so we are falling in between there um there was a request for an additional position at $118,000 that is not included in this but there is um additional 100 an additional 100 hours of float time that have been added so
that uh he can adjust accordingly in the library is where right below now I'm wishing that we had numbers on these Pages below COA okay the next section thank you you'll see band concerts Library the band concerts
remain at $6,000 um so again I think that this is these cuts to restore the pavement management plan while not ideal we
can we can live with these Cuts I think it certainly puts increase the the grant r or reduced to zero certainly puts increased pressure um on on staff to perform in that area but it wasn't
utilized this year anyway right it it's going to be utilized probably by The Parks Commission to do a park Grant okay um if they can get it uh done before June 30 um but it other than that it has not been utilized so um if there were to
be an override I would want to see that position not only um restored but enhanced to cover the other deficit areas I think that exist Within operations for Contracting and Grant Management okay and just to be clear
that's not a position that we're eliminating that was a contracted Services line currently yep has the DPW director commented on impact of reducing to 279,000 he has not okay well he proposed that losing it all would have
no impact I know I know but but soon after that one year it just crashed right it's for for the losing I know there's been some Communications emails um for but for the public edification losing the pavement management plan for
one year has little to no impact on the condition of the roads but there would be starting to be a decline um that would be noticeable after a few years on what page is the uh school on
well they have the small section so yeah let's the bottom right here so in the bottom it says total just look for gray total education yep so overall um yeah and just I'm just
going to look at the first page so when you're doing the percentage and change because this looks like a 4% growth that's accounting for the override let me look at the formula okay well
last year's over last year's over oh [Applause] [Applause] course so this number is higher than I remember what is which one the school oh what's that
column 26109 no the nine that's post override that's post overide and post increase at the STM they had a increase at Chapter 70 so that's included within there in that 2025 revised budget right
so that change is including both the other right and the es incre and the last two columns are the difference between the revised budget and the requested right Just For Education the other departments so because because education had the override and then had
the special time meeting their revised budget is more true of a revised budget some of the other fy2 revised budgets where where we reduced the budget by to trans to make a transfer into another department to balance out so it's less
of a true need so that Mo the all of them except schools are FY 26 versus fy2 original appropriation except for [Music] schools is my memory wrong it was I thought it was 94,000 something for
school and now it's 935,000 um so the this is all schools oh 9 no school department well they had the uh special to meeting increase as well oh so that wasn't include that 33,000 at Chapter 70 wasn't in that 90 okay no no that was
before that was that that was that town meeting and the special town meeting came after the fact so it's it's the two I want I want to make sure I understand what you just said your formula in this in the change
and the and the percent changed is from the FY 25 original appropriation for everything except schools okay so the comparison is fy2 original
to uh FY 25 revised budget so in other words the percentages are based on the difference between the FY 26 so fy2 fy2 original is what was voted at town meeting right I just want to I just want to say this differently
so just the percentage that we're looking at is the difference between the fy2 original appropriation column and the FY 26 request column and the exception is the schools because you had to C count other monies um so the logic behind that was
to include the override in the in the change because otherwise it was an increase on what Heather's recommended budget was not what was passed at at town meeting and then added at this point well but I mean but wouldn't it if
we revise the budget in fy2 and we have the revised column why aren't we comparing what the budget is not what it was passed but what it became because some of those let me use an example where there was um a position that was unfilled so if there was a position that
was unfilled I'm sorry I'm just having so so um oh you're hearing it e yeah I can't hear it it's intense yeah I can't focus at all with that exactly so um if there was a position that was unfilled
let's say and then that money was used to offset another budget that's not we did a transfer to maybe fill snow and ice or something like that or to cover a shortage that position being vacated needs to be restored right so if you we
were down one police officer and and we were able to transfer from a salary line to an equipment line that equipment line shouldn't Remain the fy2 revised budget is after that transfer and so it's not really be what
the budgeted requirements are for that department it was a transfer that was needed after after the fact and I believe that's how did it as well at least that's how it internally yeah that's not how it traditionally has been done but I understand the reasoning
it just makes it again without the formula if I didn't hear that and and without her saying without time manager saying that I still would not know that and I'd be like why aren't these numbers so again it makes it difficult to read what I'm comparing I think there's a
difference if you are to go to a special special town meeting and do a or or may town meeting and make a true budget adjustment where you are supplementing a budget I think then we would want to be looking at the revised but where you're
making um inter fiscal year transfers to cover that's not what the budgeted amount is so the position if we were down one police officer but we're restoring that police officer we need to keep that hole in the budget I think
what would be helpful when we get to the town meeting presentation oh that's yeah maybe I need to turn this on oh nope I'll come over this way I think that what would be helpful when it comes to the presentation is for there to be an explanation of what was approved in the
budget for FY 24 pre um override you know what that increase was in total with the override and then to also compare that cuz I think that for that department in particular as you look at FY you know 24 or uh actuals or you know
I know that we're still in uh 20 25 but when you look at when you're comparing them year over-ear it gets a little more complicated in the formula right so I think it's just showing that growth that you know if it was a 7% 8 whatever it really was I think that would be helpful another comment broadly and I know I
said this to you um in email but I'll you know it seems as if going through this budget you know I think based on collective experience that you know I think the two of you guys clearly wanted to make some adjustments to you know why is this sitting here why is it sitting there this makes a little bit more sense
fully understand that uh I think that there's a task though that comes with this which is and I know that Mr Lonzo mentioned this before but I think it becomes even more urgent um for it to be done as soon as possible um which is to now since this budget will be dramatically different in format um that
it's going to be really hard for anyone coming after this to do a comparison year-over-year because this is a dramatic change and and what sits where so I think there's need to do some kind of analysis of growth over time by Department um whether that's uh income
or not income um budget and personnel and then to you know make that hard note that we made some budgetary adjustments so that way I think just for the record because the hardest thing that we even found municip design is trying to go back I know there was some substantial change about 2011 that made it hard to
go prior to that and so we have another one of these that's my only comment is with all shifts if if that's what makes the most sense to you I would discourage them but if that's what we're going to do to speak to the shifts that I I would like to speak to that publicly so these shifts are not because Ezekiel or I just
decided we wanted to make shifts in budgetary lines okay this this was borne from the recommendations of the budget task force and that's why these changes have been made um to consolidate budget lines um to allow more flexibility um
but really to consolidate some of these extraneous lines so there is never going to be a good time to do that right it's always going to be confusing um so I just pulled up um so this is what folks are used to seeing at town meeting y
Folks at town meeting are they're not getting this sheet at town meeting this is for our if anybody would like it they can have it but this is not this is not for town meeting this is what's traditional for town meeting to that point the any fiscal year revised budget
does not typically show on here this is really for us for our purposes but that's not showing on here um I have started to do that mapping that you saw um and I think that there's a way that we can do it to show folks
this move but this that the amount even though it's moved is either the same or increased and really show that to to folks um I want to Discount the rationale nor nor even argue with it cuz I it's not up to me and I respect that you know as you guys as professionals
that you're going to make decisions a group met for a while their recommendations you know my only comment really is geared towards you know if someone in if someone in the public wants to know you know how has you know pick up DPW grown over time uh or how has their budget changed over time it's
just you again there's a lot of work now to be able to do that historical analysis so that way that's put in a box it's done it's it's over with and that way going forward we can do it so you know I think I suggested that we take a year but I recognize that sometimes you know there's no good time to make
changes so I accept what you're saying I accept the rationale I'm just urging that that level of analysis you know gets done now um since it's going to be really hard for anyone in a year or two from now to look back and make sense and just so the percent increases don't
typically show to town meeting voters we can show them but those percentage increases and those dollar increases don't are not what appear in your budget book today correct I'll just add one note because we have a lot of other stuff to do I I totally concur with what Mr Jeffers is saying and I I think you
and I have spoken a little little bit about it I'm for the changes the shifts okay because if they make logical sense and it makes it easier the point is not for me not for town meeting but for these meetings as I've just said like you have an asteris Nest to the schools like everybody else's calculation is on
another column and the one thing m is not evident from the document okay I didn't know so next year because you shifted all these what I would recommend is that you keep all those places where they were as hidden hidden rows and
bring them when you do the comparison of the years into the new row so that you can do a comparison and you know so the narrative is there that in 2026 you move these down but until it ages out in five years ages out of the the the chart they
still need to be carried forward so that we know and still say oh we've only had this last year and before that it was zero and be like what we just had this column added that makes it difficult and I I think as the accounts you moved are
aligned with best practice correct so as I went through each line and there'll be changes for next school year as well but um there's a standard called the um uniform uniform massachus accounting system so that's the the standard that
we use I think I brought it to the budget task force and those are the the alliance the subcategories the new ones that you see in there those are aligned with the Uniform Massachusetts accounting system as well so this isn't isn't arbitrary we didn't pick and choose this we use a standard that
Massachusetts had set to go forward and there'll be other consolidations for next fiscal year as well and I as a note I would not have a problem if it was preferential so it's just a matter of
documenting um if I did my math right and as he can check me um school department looks like 3.76% increase yeah cuz the 4% increase on 25 million is is 1 million right or roughly
if my math is correct yeah I see what you're saying yeah I'm comparing it to the the FY 25 revised so so that's what they got after all town meeting I just I know it's EXO and if there's one
mhm just check them all mhm clear go I told you I'm very Pro clear go it does all this for you it removes the human error yeah okay so what are we saying I can't open um so the percent
for the schools 9:35 980 980 it's just take I'm trying to take the camera the thing think it's a Twist okay oh good lord
unless I who goes the gy that way is 376 that's what I got that's what I got if you're that's how you do if you're comparing it to the original pre- override I get the same percentage as you are you I got 3.77 Renee are you trying
to compare it pre or post override and Chapter 70 increase I am comparing last column final the fy2 revised budget the final F I just did that and I got 3.6% 3.64 3.6 I got 3 matters
how let's see but if I move it to the original Appropriations 3.77 I think that what if you you guys look up just a couple two more lines up so it's 300 uh school department it says 3.64 Monte Tech 8.88 and it looks like
the balance is or the a whatever you want to call it is 4.0 yeah 4.0 4.01 is between the yeah between the two of them I'm still getting fingering this if you go two lines up though but so it so Rene
it matters how you do it so if you take the the 935 980 yeah okay and you divide it by the 24.8 million yeah then you get 376 but if you divide the 257 87 by 24883 then you get 3.6 it's kind of like
the difference between markup but isn't the 935 reflecting the increase in FY 26 24 883 87 474 minus 2 4 883 maybe I lose
376 see that's a number I remember 904 98 that's the that's just the overall I don't know you guys have lost me at this point 904 no that's not the override I know what they're looking at butus the is the FY 26 minus the chapter
7 y okay yeah it's minus the chapter 7 that 904 was the number I had in my head yeah it's minus the chapter 7 minus yeah it's minus so it depends on what your if you the Chapter 70 at the special time meeting yes the 33,000 that
came in yeah so what is that um okay that is not reflected in the fy2 revised budget I believe let me try to help maybe hopefully not her the
number on the revenue distribution sheet that I think Rene is remembering that was the additional FY 26 revenues that were given to the school is $94,000 mhm but you're seeing a number that says 935 980 yes
because that includes that Chapter 70 money from the special town meeting right okay which doesn't seem like it's in the fy2 revised budget the 24.8 million it should be CU I thought we
looked at that included that see that's this is confusing because what you just said what the town manager just said is for the school it was calculated on the revised right and the projected but that 935 isn't the difference between those two colums it's 90
four so I'm going to do another plug for let's use Clear go again next year what are you going to say another said another plug for Clear go again next year because it does all these calculations for you well so I'm sure can get it wrong too these are just built-in formulas right no so so the
issue I'll talk to offline okay well it's just a software I shouldn't have said it's just a software that we used to use and we didn't use this year right a budgeting software we were building spreadsheets this year for this year instead of using the budgeting software because that was
the direction okay I'm not so but it's it's it's made there's a human error element that that comes in when not using the software correct yeah and when mhm so is the 935 correct or is 9004 correct
[Applause] 904 is the additional funding given to the schools this year okay so that column where it says 935 the change is not accurate right that should be
90408 3 four five and that brings a percent like what is the formula for that for that cell I can open it up yeah yeah I have it here so that form is taking the
935 no he's saying where's the 935 what is the 9 how is the 935 calculated so that's the change that's the 26 request from the original appropriation right which is what the town manager said it shouldn't be because we should have done it off the revised
so so it's 904 okay y Rene is correct is correct and therefore that means the last column probably changes too with the percentage the percent is a little lower lower like 3.42 or something like that so it's 90408 instead of 935 980 cuz I got a
little excited when I saw 935 980 90408 9040 098 098 I so the percent change is 3.64 right okay y then the number then that matches up okay 3.6 and the total change in education
3.8 Y no thank you that's why we're having this yeah well you of course we're going to look at that line right yeah um sorry to no no it's good okay um this the Council on Aging the meal site
position mhm adding hours is that still in here that is in here yep that was combining the two yep something okay so it's making two part-time positions a full-time position um and then also the two part-time meal assistants pulling them
out of the formul Grant and putting them in okay would you be proposing that next year we would be looking at restoring the snow I mean increasing the snow oh yes that yes we need we I know cuz you we needed to do that but this is not
doing it yeah it's going to be more challenging I think to fund Capital programs if we're using more free cash next year to balance snow and ice so I know this is a larger question um does that then mean that the total
number that we arrive at at the last page is is the dollar change is not in that got it thank you you're still the same it's the same total buet okay at the bottom it's just a change calculation right yeah that formula is
different yeah um I don't know but at some point can you comment CU I know we talked about the recycling program we talked about yeah was another okay just to your question your question the change is the
change is changing at the bottom to the budget so it will change the change but not the budget number not the FY 26 request total not the total Omnibus but the change and the change for set change right and and so the dollar amount changed yes so the dollar amount I can give it to you now yep 1 million hold on
hold on last page yep 1,259 24081 that's what it was that's what it is that's what it is so there was no change oh how could a column all right we'll check the for we'll check it in
it's XL hell that's why okay I'll do it now continue I'll do it now in the mosquito program I just cuz I it's on this page that remains still there Y what would be included in the reduction in it purchase of
service so um there's no I think I know it's not like individual but are they think they can function with the proposed Cuts yeah so I think that there was a little bit of um buffer in the internet services line that the actuals
were not the actuals were not at that um higher rate so I think that it's not actually going to be a cop okay that's good please now if at the end we find uh that
the with that adjustment to that department that there's an additional 30 you turn it down so hopefully it won't just us thanks um if somehow there is a you know when you go back to look at the formulas if
there's another 33 R somewhere will come from the capital plan offset okay thank you anything further to balance will come from there I believe unless unless there's for some reason a departmental reduction um the it would come from the
the taxation that's offsetting capital got it thank you which again reducing that number is not not good budgeting practice but is necessary mhm I think we I think we've all kind of stated and agreed that we're in the
Kyper belt of normal practices here so yeah sorry for the astronomical reference but if we're not in a traditional orbit at this point no what else are you looking for for this one are you just getting our feedback on how you're restoring the pavement management
and what those cuts are elsewhere are you just looking for our opinions on that for this well I no I think it's really just to present it I think the task that was given was to restore as much as the payment management plan as possible and I didn't see or hear any uh
wines or groans in the method by which that was accomplished too much I mean I think it's not great but no to the contrary I I think you did a great job in in listening to what the concerns were and and doing it in a in an even-handed way I do and all the
department heads are aware of this and that's yeah I was going to say is anybody screaming and crying about this no and that was really rude way to say that anybody overly upset about no but it was a nice segue so I don't know if we want to segue let me just go to the Segway so
this morning um we had a department head meeting um and I task them with all going back to their departments and putting together um list in uh by two so we broke at 11:00 and I was requesting
back by 2: p.m. um what they would uh if there were to be a town override what their requests would be for needs not wants um and so the department heads are very much
aware that we are trying to make ends meet A and B that there's potential of talks talks for an override um in I also asked them I mean I think my
opinion is pretty well known on the override but I asked them despite my opinion to provide their honest assessment of whether they thought we should be going forward this year or not and um you have their emails with what
they would be requesting um it these responses only reinforce my opinion that this is not the way to package a townwide override um you know I in looking at Bill
Bernard's for example I I saw one of his things was ms4 compliance and I said oh my goodness $200,000 nearly that was not even on my radar right now and that this is and um I think the library
specifically said this morning during the department head meeting that they they want to take the time to go through what the process actually is um for for planning for something in a more comprehensive way
so I think that the department hads understand the landscape that we're in you know the chief is the one who I called multiple times today when I kept hitting his budget police chief okay um but um yeah I think I think that they
understand that and uh the Council on Aging director knows about the one we had a conversation there um but I think that what you have now this only reinforces why we shouldn't be um
trying to put together an override under these conditions because the fear is that we would be missing things that we really need to cover right and that that we aren't looking at this holistically we're not out getting quotes we're not talking to vendors we're not looking at
realignments we're not looking at Staffing structures we're not looking at what it what wage rates are in comparison to the market which changes every year that it's not a holistic View and um but there is a concern I will say
that too there is a concern from department heads that if an override were to pass they don't want to be left out and they feel like I don't want to speak for them you have their emails in front of you but I think that there's a feeling that they they want an
opportunity and they have not been provided an a chance to ask for what their needs are and just scanning these emails it it looks like I don't know tell me if that's correct they're only looking at FY 26 that was that was going to be my single sing Single not a couple
hours to look and they're not die confident in a single year that's that's just from skimming some of the comments that's what I'm like um you know I know the facilities uh director has is really interested and I think the community is
really interested in making Recreation director a full-time position um we did have the change to the revolving fund but we need to we need to get that revolving fund such that it can support at least part of the salary before somebody leaves their full-time
employment um there's also a staffing need there between facilities and DPW when we created two department heads with one ad correct and so that's one of his requests is for part-time saw that in both of their support yep um so Mr chair are we transitioning fully to the
override conversation yeah so I was going to wait until it there was a lull first I do want to ask you do you want to go through these do you want to go what the department requests are just so we can have conversations about it I didn't know if you wanted to actually I just want to put one final bow on this
restoring the the PMP with the 279 the town Department the department head are fine with this they okay it they know what's being cut from for their departments yeah okay I just want to so was are we making a decision right
now on whether that is our non override number or are we not there yet I the bottom line going to change no I mean in terms of like full payment management versus this plan are we ready to make that decision or not yet I don't understand I'm sorry the two
different the two different not talking about an override these two okay no payment management plan or the reduction understood well it sounds like we're it sounds like we're okay with how the town manager shifted things around to restore it right SP right if we had
if we only had those two choices eliminating the PMP entirely versus the partial no of course we're okay with that one that's all I was want to get before we move on thank you for all the hard work that went to getting to this point I know it's been a lot so I think that where we're at here I'm totally okay with it Mr I am as well I have one
question about a line item so I see a large increase in the expenses of the IT department which is increasing by $66,500 what is that so there are a number of this I think that this will be
better Illustrated through the other exercise that you that you both have asked us to engage in there are a lot of things that are moving into that department and moving out of that department okay um what page is that one on that's on
second page it's the line it's a 11552 like 2/3 of the way down right above the green information technology department total the one the white line right above it yep 166,000 6% increase right so that is the line above that 13
what about a 537 per increase am I seeing that correctly no that's its own thing I know but what is that number that is um contract contract so that's going 53 it manager role is shifted into the contract contracted so
you'll see the ited the top salary line is reduced to zero and it's built in within the contract so when you move a staff position like that to a contracted position you also take away the benefit the health insurance right cost mhm okay
so that's that's in there well but there still benefit no not for a contract if you if you make contractor a contracted position well again the town manager is a contract position oh no that's what I meant talking about a consultant a
contractor position okay all the terms are important because again i' I've done this for so many years and when somebody uses another thing I'm like okay now I'm thinking of suer right yeah Outsourcing a position which so we didn't reduce health insurance because of that
reduction of headcount because health insurance was the area that was available for transfers cover snow and ice generate free cash so we tightened up in general health insurance um but it's not the school does it by
individual heads we have extra family plans in here for people coming on let me ask you a question and it has to do with budgeting policy again that you spoke about when we talked about when people asked well how do how do we have like a
$2 million free cash and you pointed out that that is the proper way to do it that's what you should do the budget we're putting together we will not be anywhere close to that no no no correct I mean so so one I'm asking because I want people to know when it comes next
year right I'm just I'm just kind of thinking of how to frame this so what I can't tell you sitting here today is what our Revenue pictures will do that because if if Revenue goes way up and we have a windfall for some reason then we might have free cash but based on the expenditure line
alone based on the expenditures alone we do not have uh a lot of room here in these budgets and I am not expecting um the same level of free cash to be returned because of that so I do
believe we will be under what the recommended amount is and that's because we're not I'm going to use the word although this not really a good word but we're not padding each line with a conservative amount we are getting as close as we can to
real okay and and when we get close to real obviously that causes concern and um you know I'll say it again for the public would I be surprised that we're making adjustments at the fall town meeting or special town meeting no I
would not would I be surprised if we're making adjustments in May no I would not can I ask you a question about how we offset the snow so we're not increasing the snow budget by doing this do we cover it I know some years we've covered it out of the operating
budget if there's excess is it also sometimes covered out of can you just explain to me again how we cover the deficits when we run over and are we going to be able to do that next year yeah so right now we're covering it the plan is to cover it with free cash that's my concern um when that may
change by town meeting or not but you could cover it within a one Department that ran under free cash is more the typical thinking next year if so that's these things so doing all these things I do think that yes we'll be able to with we'll have enough free cash to cover our
snow and ice obligation will we have sufficient free cash to support an FY 27 Capital plan no that's where I think you're going to certainly not at this not certainly not at this fund okay I think we're banking on
global warming my kid I don't know my kids really loved this in the snow beile so we're uh I'm a pro snow but well the lake it's some people the ice it's the ice it's not the snowstorms it's
treatment for the salt and being up there yeah um okay do we have your bow Renee for this yeah you said you were trying to put a pretty bow on it no I just wanted to State clearly that the
department heads were aware on board yep MH cuz there are cuts and I think the only department head who doesn't know where we got to is uh the DPW director who doesn't know that we have restored $279,000 to his payement management plan
but he knew it was the task and that got restored about we finished that task about two hours ago so so last he knew it was Zero last he knew it was Zero hey he's going to have a happy morning are not staff there is one position okay one
position okay hardtime position and that would not have happened sorry now I'm just to clarify again in my brain that would not have happen if we weren't restoring the pavement management or it would have happened anyway was that cuz I you said that was a proposal that they brought forward
making some changes um that could have happened it might have happened regardless of the restoration of the payment management plan okay all right so it sounds like we're all happy with this path forward Happ the word Ed sure I'm all
satisfied with this I feel better with some pavement management so do I I think that I think you know even though our roads are in great condition our roads matter a lot I think it has become you know part of our town identity over these last you know couple decades and I
it's a factor I mean if you leave the town and go into fitzburg I mean it's awful and like you you you know and when RES when other people from other towns tell me that they can feel when they enter Lunenburg I think that's a success for our community well that's just because we're such welcoming lovely
people well it's voted by Town you're I mean this I certainly feel when I'm leaving Lunenburg on the way home yeah and it's because a lot of people work in Boston I mean you know a lot of people work in the Boston metropolitan area you know you have to get out of town and as Tom mentioned in a couple you know we're
not we don't have the car maintenance issues you don't have the axle issues you know when you do have a problem they're right on it I know I had a call DPW maybe a week and a half ago about a big pothole that showed up in front of my own State Road by the way and I mean they were right on that within a day or
two the whole thing was fixed and I mean that's to me is a standard that we want to a because once you start falling back on that it is so expensive to try to even catch up you know so hearing thank you yes hearing from the board I think
that our next steps will be now that the you like the 279 plan is to now take this and put it in a way that's digestible for especially for to me meting voters and um and the public at large that are not town meeting voters
and so we'll work on that over the next week and I would appreciate feedback and suggestions um as we go through that process we need to needed to get to this Baseline first and now we can make it understandable thank you yeah thank you
both sounds good all right so let's move on to the next conversation which is the override so we have the citizens petition already for the school override we're going to have to make a decision if we're going to place it on the ballot and we also have the placeholder on the warrant to decide if we want to include
anything on the town side do we want to talk about that first or do we want to talk about how much additional money we can give to the schools first doesn't matter to me is there money to give to the schools the free cash I think I think it's still we're
still in the $500,000 right we are cuz I see 350 oh well the rest of it would be coming from that very Bott yeah how low can that go I mean it can go to go to zero but I mean how how low are you comfortable taking
that I think considering the circumstances I would be fine if we take another 150 off of it for this year so that would bring us up to 500 yeah um the other things though that are
in play are the up above the special education um move in for 50,000 if the school can absorb that within their budget this year they are going to can I ask you a question is that one one people I believe
so um so if they can absorb that within their budget that's that wouldn't be coming out of free cash and that's what they've been asked to do we'll know that as they get closer yeah now because chapter 90 is involved in this too and I
don't know if you'll know that answer because Capital planning hasn't met yet those two DPW trucks it would be my position based on the reduction in our payment management plan and potential difficulty
in maintaining a high 550,000 or higher that we don't buy equipment with the chapter 90 funds is there any benefit to using that to buy equipment to free up free cash for school something
um not in not in my opinion but I could certainly be convinced otherwise it might be a capital planning disc I don't know Capital planning I will reiterate does not go over funding it is not the
purview of the capital planning committee to go over funding we go over priorities how that gets funded is out of the scope we can I mean we've never made recommendations there are members of our committee who would like to do that I have always pushed against that
since that is really not to me the charge of the capital planning if the priorities stay the same I guess is a better way of putting it I don't know what you guys are talking about well I think your I think your question should it be used for chapter from the chapter 90 funds is a valid question I just don't think it's a capital planning
committee question I I if and it's a big if if the bond fund the chapter 90 bond fund goes through and this is another big if and it's maintained at that level in FY 27 both of which we're not going to know
by town meeting then I have no problem using chapter 90 because then the plan for using chapter 90 is supplanted with money that we didn't know we were getting anyway right so to me that makes sense but those are two very big ifps plus we're also cutting pavement
management so we can really need the chapter 90 money for the roads to do what I I think I I think if we buy equipment with chapter 90 money we're going to fall behind on the plan so um I think my
bigger concern is about those vehicles in particular is should we push them off a year because we've just bought a bunch of vehicles though and and they're all going to be timing out at the same time reaching end of life so that's why I'm push it off for a year only only so we
get a little more staggering see that that makes sense and that is something we probably should talk about and we did talk about it the capital planning because the the big 10-wheeler that the the plow trucks and that Sanders the big
ones we bought two years ago and because of supply chain took forever and now we I think we're supposed to be getting them if not have gotten them I'm not sure last year we got two so now we're going to get three all at once and that means in 15 years they're going to all three of them going to be gone at the
same time if we remember I was just gonna sorry ask if sort of un it's not unrelated are we fully staffed at the DPW and now that we're running all of our trucks once these trucks are replaced because there was a few years where we had vehicles but not enough staff to run them are we back at that situation or are we oh yeah so I'm not
aware of any staffing issue I'm just curious if we have if we're back fully staffed there with we have all the heavy we all have the the heavy equ there was a period of time where we did not a couple years ago we did some of the folks that um are newer to the organization are currently going through
their CDL training now to obtain their CDL so yeah I mean I think you know the re as I recall the reason why we ordered so many trucks was cuz there the backlog and I thought the plan was for it to get a bit staggered and then it was such a huge backlog that we're like we got to
get these orders in to make sure that we actually get delivery well actually years I believe it or not I I don't for the for those trucks I don't think that was true they were well overdue and beyond their useful life all three of them then we got hit we didn't order
them anticipating that we were going to have supply chain issues that was like the ambulance and everything and on top of it everybody had arpa money right so everybody had arpa money there's only so many folks that do these I know like locally you know the one vendor that upfits the trucks has had trucks there
for months that were just waiting the upfit and we were you correct Tom we were waiting we were down Vehicles we didn't yeah we didn't we had non-operational trucks so all right all right does anyone feel like there are Town needs for an override this year
if I can speak to this because I think that I'm hearing uh at least two of my colleagues with a pretty strong opinion on this so maybe I'm going to join them and uh and and at least there may be a majority coming out of this but I think that you know to the voting public you
know let me step back when we met with the school department I'll speak to their um that discussion a second but when we met with them was pretty clear that the strategy and I'm calling it a strategy that they wanted to take was to approach an override and and the you
know the M bus word holistic approach um to be able to look at Town needs and combine it with school needs as a wise strategy um but as a fact the school department is a uniquely different situation than every other department in town which is that if they do not
receive an override they are going to have a substantial effect on their Department uh they are going to have cuts to teachers there will be increases in classroom sizes and they're roughly looking at a 10% or so somewhere in that
range um decrease and that's my understanding of what their request is versus and maybe it's only 8% but I thought it was closer to 10 no other department is in that same situation I think that all the um non-educational departments in town um have a little bit
more buffer in them because of all the equipment needs that all the Departments have right and so if you have to make a 10% cut to most departments probably can cut equipment before you hit people and that's not always true everywhere but generally it's just a different way of working point is I think that in a
voting public to say hey we asked as a form of strategy Departments of what they wanted I think the voting public would look at most of this as a wish list that was not thought out in a in a long enough way that doesn't address potential outcomes for future fiscal years years and therefore I think most
of the voting public myself included would say this is not the way that we should be budgeting and planning for substantial increases in Municipal growth so I do not believe that a municipal override at today is warranted
but I think it's on the horizon I think we see it coming and I think the wise thing to do is prepare for it now having said that I wish that the school department would have had the same thought and and and maybe foresight that we have here today I wish they would
have had that years ago cuz I think that when you hit substantial budget shortfalls for the most part they are foreseeable you see them on the horizon you see them coming at you and then you have to try to react and address them and I think what happened last year um was that it was almost like treated like
it was unknown that it was coming or maybe the communication wasn't as for whatever the issue was this year I think we went into this year knowing that there was going to be a need for an override and I think some of the analysis that I've seen from the community is that even if the schools
receive a $2 million override this year they're still going to need a 3 million override next year to remain at the same funding level and so a 2 million override this year is not going to solve the problem however my position my
opinion is that um if the schools recognize that there's such a detrimental elector Department I think we should de democratize that process I think there should be a a vote for for the voters at town meeting to have the opportunity to pursue an override but in the context of the school department
saying we can weather it I I don't know how how that even gets Advanced I don't know who's promoting it I don't know who's supporting it um but I to me as a just a citizen any Department who says if I don't receive significant amount of money I'm going to increase classroom
sizes to 30-some kids special education is getting cut all these other factors I think you have to give the voting public an opportunity to answer the call so that's where I stand all right I mean I read through all of it and I think all these are things that I can get behind certainly
but philosophically these are two different types of overrides right this is more so needs that are better services that are provided instead of emergent needs in order to close a gap and that's not
where we're at which is where the schools are at I would respond to that but I think the answer is it depends right so I think I don't think that that's I I think there are some things on here that really are needs mhm um especially the fire department and
exactly fire department is a real need um I think you know when you look at Chris Ruth and he says he needs a small amount of money for Consulting Services he absolutely needs a small amount look he needs more than a small amount right we we we are shortcutting or we are um
underfunding capital projects historically because we haven't been able to get good numbers right because you don't have that professional expertise and that's what he's looking for to me that's money well spent that's a need that is not that is a need for us to put together our building so I
wouldn't say that all of these are wants I would say that these are needs we are cutting things from our budget we are cutting the pavment management plan we are cutting things so I just want to I I don't characterize these requests as wants I
am not comfortable saying whether I would support a town override right at this moment I want to finish this conversation but I am comfortable saying I will not support a school only override as my personal opinion I think we did it last year I think it is a need I understand that I have two children
still in the school system but having been a staffer having still working closely with staff members seeing all this information I can't support another school only override because I do not think we will get three in a row that is my personal position on it well I
will offer my opinion that first of all uh it is my perspective that the first and foremost thing when you are dealing with an override is
showing the proper planning and the proper projections that give people the confidence that what you're doing isn't just a Band-Aid that's going to come back next year maybe the year after and
all the things the town manager said that needs to go into that to get real numbers to get projections into further years to come up and say we have with these assumptions a confidence that what we're asking for will carry us through x
amount of years and I think lacking that that is not a good override okay there are good budgeting practices that we talked about there are good override practices it was a came to us last year as a complete catastrophe
emergency and just like we're doing with free cash this year I went along with it to say okay we'll do it to tie over but when people got asked is this going to are we going to be back here next year and the answer was we don't know
maybe that's not doesn't instill confidence now people by a very slim margin still voted for it okay but I can't support that for another year second reason you also need a time frame one of the things I like to say when even as I'm looking at these
numbers when I was at the fincom I would say data without the narrative or narrative without the data doesn't give you any kind of story there was nothing you could do to convince people so we need to do the due diligence and without that data you also need
a Runway to educate people to tell them what are they voting on we are 6 weeks away from town meeting there is no way enough time for the town manager and her team to do this now we were caught because of the you know the town manager
interim Town manager position because of our previous Town manager leaving we were caught without without a town manager I mean that that happens right but doesn't matter the point is there no time to get for them to get the numbers to get the narrative to get enough
public hearings and public meetings to let people know what they're going to be voting on I just don't think there's that kind of time third I think that our we had a meeting about this with our own elected school committee who publicly stated
they don't believe this year is the time either I understand people's position I really do I am as Pro education as anybody else I I think Mr Jeff or somebody else said it that nobody on this table is anti-education okay I can
tell you what I'm Pro I'm Pro proper budgeting I'm Pro future perspective and futur looking budgets and I don't I think we've gotten away from that in the last few years and that has hurt us I almost never see budgets going forward
which is part of the plan from the town manager again we had an interim that said here this is the 5-year projection those are critical critical things and half of that or 55% of that is from the school department and the school committee we need those projections to
know where we are so for all of those reasons I do I will not support putting it on the ballot for a town or a school either I'm against any one of them all right
Renee so I agree um and I know and I've heard and I've read a lot of comments about the budget task force even calling it a farce and I've held my tongue till
now um I think when when I wrote the charge for that we set very lofty aggressive goals knowing full well I think we sat up there and said do you really think you can get this probably
not probably not not not this year not with an interim Town manager not with our town and school Finance directors less than a year in the position the school Finance director I think it was her second week on the something right
um and then and then we had our fincom representative who is the mo the the member of the task force who had the most Municipal lunenberg Municipal budget experience resigned in September or something awesome guy
great with the numbers it so I wrote the charge like that because so it's there it exists it's in place just turn it on it's ready to go we had a delay and just getting the charge written and all that didn't
first meeting I think was July um so I get upset because I don't want people to minimize the effort that the staff put in as he included school
superintendent Finance director the volunteers um it was a a lot of work people see you know people see these meetings right it's like an iceberg they see the tip of the iceberg is these meetings and how much work we do um and what they don't see is what's
under the water they don't see aie emailing me on a Sunday afternoon answering a DLS question even though I tell them I don't want an answer till Monday I still get emails on the weekend so it's not for a lack of effort and yes we didn't get there we can't bring a
full picture multi-year override together but you know what I'm not going to make an excuse but the fact is the deck was stacked against us between the time less than 5 months the staff we had you know turnover in position new staff now so that's all a negative right the
positive is as he's been here now he's going through a full budget cycle himself he he's got you know a year plus now in lunenberg we now have a full-time Town manager sorry you only get this budget cycle and then you got to get
out um we will have a new superintendent yes there's so that is new um and I guess a the school Finance director I think that position I heard was changed um so I think and the and the the charge is written it just immediately after
town meeting it can be activated and I think everyone's got their eyes is wide open now on on all of this we caught got caught last year like oh my God where did this come from why do we have such a gap well now no excuses everyone's well
aware of the Gap they know how we're going outside of our best practice and comfort zone when it comes to budgeting to to make this work um not ideally but it works um so I mean we have to it has
to go next year it has to has to has to go and and town has to be educated now they have to know it's coming um I think it will be up to the town to decide how much they want to restore how far do
they want to go um so maybe offering you know two tiers Harvard's doing that this year two tiers of override I don't know and I'm not lobbying to be on the budget task force okay make that clear I'm not lobing to be on that again um but I think those are some things that that I
was thinking about so I agree I am not comfortable I wasn't last year I am even less comfortable this year with an override I think I it sucks that we can't the timing didn't work last year but I think we are well primed to come
with a solid plan this year as well as I to piggy back on those comments I think you know the three of us that are still going to be on the board should advocate for more joint meetings earlier with the school committee I think that the school committee felt the same way but I think
that also will be helpful just getting them in the on the call was several towns do them regularly like very regularly you know the other thing that came out we all looked at it from different angles right and we all came to the same so that's reassuring right
right because we all come I mean look I think most people on committees have full-time jobs very few are retired so so we're you know we're going to miss things right and we're coming from different backgrounds different experiences we bring different things to the table um
and getting the more eyes on it getting residents involved bringing ideas forward that is all that that's that's what makes it successful that's important um we had very little resident involvement during the budget and I
think you said the same thing with the municipal building um but so I I agree having quarterly I don't know at least I think that um you know typically
in a community after town meeting you put away the budget binders and you go back to work right you go back to the rest of the job things that have been tabled and I think that what I've heard pretty clearly is that there is an
willingness and desire that on May the 5th you know while it's still fresh we get going June the 5th June no I mean May Monday after Monday after town meeting that we need Monday after
meeting yeah you have to have something but but we need I me but we need to we need to keep we we can't we can't wait until September right we can't we have to we have to start in the summer and get going and start nailing down the on
the tree um but you know start projecting out some of the things that we know what we can project out we know Healthcare is going to be one of the major cost drivers and now we've been told you're at least looking at the same if not more so let's start really nailing that down
and and last year we we thought it was a 12% right everyone's oh my God it's going to be a 12% and then it ended up being less than six yeah this year that didn't happen and it sounds like it's not going to happen again
um I I will say and and I I only say this because it it true being the only person on here who's been through bad times everybody on the board hasn't been through bad Cycles when I started it was they were bad 2008 was the worst that
was the year we when we had midyear Cuts okay being in this position when you have to cut things in the middle of the year there's nothing worse than that and we had 10 12 I think one year we had 14% Health Care increases I think for three
years in a row it wasn't it was double digits for three years in a row and you know you couldn't grow anything everything was stagnant or shrinking and you know unfortunately that is just part of the economic cycle eventually things like that happen and it's the no one
wants to be there and there's only so much you can do because if the if the economy is in a bad cycle asking people for more money is almost impossible you know and and without a solid plan it mean there are some years that are just
Contracting and and some years you're expanding and you try to meet more needs every year but you just can't always do it all right sounds like we know where the board's at where you at um you know I'm still kind of on the fence about it I feel if residents were
able to collect the signatures as quickly as they did There's enough appetite to at least let voters decide and I'm not over here strategizing about whether or not putting one forward for residents to decide on this year makes next year easier or difficult I
obviously we all understand that we seriously need an override and we have a list of things here that really need to be addressed and I don't know I I would be comfortable putting it on the warrant I mean the ballot I'm comfortable not doing that if that's where the board's
at happy to go with where the board is at and I think that's pretty clear at this point I think on this one you know I think everything Tom said was extraordinarily compelling um and you know something that I you know as I was thinking about this before coming here
you know I thought back on you I don't want to get too deep in the story but I think it's really important for the select board to support other elected boards um and when we don't support other elected boards it's a problem I mean our you know we trust that um the
people who are doing the work that they're in it they're in the weeds and that when they come to us you know yeah we can make decisions about what to put on the warrant yes we always have that Authority um but I think for the most part we show a lot of difference to those elected boards I'm not an educator I've met with the school department a
lot with the municipal building design committee um you know I think I've been pretty clear about my one criticism of those interactions which is I didn't always feel as if they were being honest Brokers and their requests um that sometimes it was we need this and and everyone else was thinking I think you
can live here um and you know and so we had to compromise a lot with things that were out of our lane uh because it just felt like what we were being told didn't make sense um nonetheless I I I I think we must support other elected boards um
I also think that we have to you know it's a democracy and so I will you know in this one I'm not I respect where everyone is coming from this is I respect it let me say that I respect everyone's opinion it's clear that the
majority is not going to pursue a ballot question here for an override I respect that um because it is consistent with what the elected officials on the school committee have already determined you know I think I think of it as a resident in this lens and in this in this limited
lens which is if residents say hey we we're willing to have the conversation to bridge the gap I want to be able to support those parents and those residents um because I think that a conversation about you know these Cuts you know it's dramatic so I will again I
respect the board my preferences that we do pursue nonetheless a school only override leave it up to the community but I respect what all the reasons I've heard tonight and I'm not going to push it yeah so I respect it all right and you're committed to starting
us out at this long term oh yes and you're committed to uh shairing the I'm going to be committed to some Institute I don't know and I'm committed to being in one of these chairs I won't I promise I won't sit in the back I will sit in
the front road to make sure that what we say here today actually happens he'll be hitting us with a stick and you won't see me you guys really messed up all right Jen are you looking for any more guidance from us tonight no okay is
there anything else any members want to discuss on the budget tonight should we I mean you know do are we do we need a it's clear I don't know if we need a formal vote it's um on what on the over putting the override on the ballot right um I would prefer to actually explicitly
put it on the agenda for our next meeting and then vote at that got it okay I don't think it was clear that it would have been okay so voted and we to vote on the the warrant article right so and I'm not looking for a vote on your recommendation on the Omnibus tonight I
am looking to provide the details that you're looking for for your next meeting so that you can digest more and make that vote yeah and through you Mr it would be bad form I think for the you know the way the charter is written it's
the town manager's budget no but you but you make your recommendation right yeah we do yeah but I I I was just saying I think it would be bad form for us to be like you know this is the budget we want you to you know like obviously it's a lot of interaction you know I think Renee hit it well when she said it is you know what people see as the tip of
the iceberg so many much happens one-on-one outside of meetings um you know that this is just when we all can talk together I think that if I was not if if I had to restore the payment management line and I was not comfortable with where those reductions
were I think you would have heard me come with a lower number and say this is as far as I can go so I'm I'm comfortable with the restoration thank you all right awesome the only thing is yeah I'm curious will you bring the capital plan back to us after the Capital planning it
depends on what happens tomorrow it changes of I'm curious to see if that changes and do we feel like we need to meet next week or we I don't think we do I think we can cover everything else that we need to cover on April 1st thank you you're
welcome all right any other discussion on the budget tonight April 1st really that's the we're going to vote on all this it is well we got a lot so we have an out April yeah just kidding like all right so we'll move on and that's it
but we do have warrants so we'll go over those real quick we have an accounts payable warrant in the amount of $239,300 out in readable format that are you know now I don't know if the people in the in the in the audience had it we should
make copies again come in but but it is so to me this is so critical because how I look at these is I look at those change I'd love to see a dollar change and a percent change for all the other years or at least two other years I want to see Trends and that this is so
helpful getting it on the iPad as you can tell does it really work he I can see this and then you're moving it all over the place and then you're just lost so thank you for this yeah I was I was looking at this file he if you're instrumental thank you for recomend
you're welcome Tom and I do also just want to say real quickly I think this is the most readable spreadsheet that we have seen for the budget so it's this it's the easiest representation of our budget that I've ever seen so Ezekiel thank you very much it's read I mean I think you've
heard some of Tom's comments about maybe some opportunity to be a little more clear but I do agree fully that it is uh thank you Caesar thank you as well thank you whoever was behind putting this together this really made it simple I could not be sitting here before you
tonight without this man he has been incredible yeah I was looking at this on my laptop before I came over and I was dreading like how are we going to have this discussion I can't even right you don't you don't hear this often publicly probably but I'll say it publicly that
behind the scenes anybody who's worked with you has said exactly the same thing I've not heard one comment of criticism and I say that wholeheartedly and that that is an amazing thing so thank you conc especially Municipal the
mun and your team you have the full support of your team MH all right payroll in the amount of $948,000 counts payable in the amount of 1,691 3529 yep and that's it and since public
comment was cut off in the beginning for participants on Zoom so I will ask if anyone on Zoom would like to make a public comment and I see Mr bone you have your hand raised yes minutes yeah have you had enough of me
um John Bowen um 162 Highland Street uh lunenberg I just wanted to say that um don't uh I can I I want to compliment Ezekiel as well so uh as a person just in the public Ezekiel has always made
himself available so um I want to give kudos there um to you know everybody else's um you know I guess support for the work that he's done and the respect that he receives
from the staff um I wanted to just say that I just wanted to comment that I know the capitol plan is meeting and I know that I had mentioned last night with regard to the $50,000 recommendation that came from Carter to
go go to the expansion of the North Cemetery and I just wanted to make it clear that we have 80 uh some OD plots already available uh between the North and South Cemetery uh that we don't have any plan to sell on
the next I don't know four years uh but they are available that for us to be able to spend money into an expansion uh for as I mentioned yesterday uh because of a promise somebody had made to a family member who wants to move a body of their husband to
another location in that new location uh should not happen so I just wanted to uh reiterate that from what I mentioned last night that it's not a necessary expense that $50,000 uh also the Omnibus uh budget
request from the cemetery for $10,000 from the S watch fund they uh decided oh we're not going to ask for that right now uh well that's fine don't ask for it but don't ask for $50,000 when you have $96,000 to spend and I just wanted to
make sure that we make that clear so that the town manager is very well aware that this is an expense that is an unneeded unnecessary expense with the overwhelming cuts that are being done to our Public Safety uh to our schools and
so on and so forth that this is an expense that does not need to occur for at least a couple of years and we could wait and I just wanted to make that mention all right thank you Mr sorry I I'm sorry I'm all dressed for work so oh that's that's fine Mr Papio
sponsor yes thank you Mr chair Dave pasos Jefferson New Hampshire presidential Highway um I'd like to respond to the previous uh speaker's comment on the 50,000 for
the expansion of the cemeteries the expansion of the cemeteries was not agreed on and submitted because of a family wishing to move uh a deceased loved one to that section yes that
conversation was had it was I believe stated to them that when it is ready to be opened and ready for burial that the proper process would be gone through and it would probably be uh possible to do
that the DPW director uh uh at Capital planning and at Cemetery uh meetings uh stated that when asked actually by the chair I
think of uh cemeteries that should we start moving forward in the next fiscal year to open that and his answer was yes so you can't pin it on uh what the previous speaker brought forward as the
reason as to why that uh section of the cemetery is going to be open secondly numerous times the DPW director was asked for a specific number of uh Graves available and go back to the last
Cemetery commission meeting and he danced all around the numbers and said well it's really hard to tell is primarily what he said um and I'll leave it at that I don't want to get tangled up in that cuz that's there's a lot more to it than anybody knows and has been
presented with by one person from the public uh one other thing that I would like to cover very quickly is um the comments made about the uh grant writing services uh line item number one that
was inserted into the general government uh section of the budget which comes under the uh care custody and control of the Town manager immediate after town meeting and that was brought forward originally by the finance committee
immediately after town meeting last year when that was inserted in the budget there was conversation as to okay how does someone access this how does someone request the money and who uh handles dispersement of the money and it
was decided at that time that the then Town manager and one of the members of the finance committee would sit down and uh punch out a uh procedures uh for applying for and some
guidance as to uh what was foreseen to be the proper uses for that money back then that never happened it didn't happen with the town manager at the time it didn't happen over the summer with the interim Town manager who
was approached a couple of times uh I believe probably by the uh Parks Commission on my urging and was pretty much put off uh that uh the procedures and stuff were not in place so it bothers me that you
folks sit in open meeting and ask a question that did anybody request money from that account they didn't except for Parks only because nobody many commissions committees and departments were not aware the money was available
how to access it and what it was to be used for thank you all right thank you Mr pasos any other public comments from the public TJ yeah coming up grab a microphone can I sit it's
awkward uh TJ Laughlin 207 Rolling Acres Road um pretty short comment you look like you belong at the table by the way TJ I should stand that at least I wouldn't have to say my name an address if I join the BL um I mean so first thing uh
everything you all said about your opinions for the override is logical um that's not surprising though uh because we've heard it before right it's exactly the same set of arguments we used last year word for word um I re-watched some
of the recordings from last year and it's like boiler plate at this point so logical it makes sense and I don't even need to argue the points actually cuz we just go back to last year um this time last year I spoke at the finance
committee and asked that leadership in general in lunberg uh join to create a holistic plan for everyone for everyone's wants it's been a year and that didn't happen so I understand the
logic it didn't happen so across three boards wanting it it didn't happen for whatever reason didn't happen uh this year there is a big unfortunate difference in how things played out the school committee made a decision to say
publicly and vote publicly that they don't need additional funding I hope they're right and I hope the families don't end up disagreeing with that decision we didn't have that last year I do appreciate everyone's opinion uh I mean that overall this isn't easy
comfortable um and there's no obvious solution I didn't file the override because it was comfortable because I wanted to uh it was just logical um and again all I can say is I
hope and there there's that word again uh that we find Solutions next year um I do have hope that the town manager will be driven to do that in a way that we didn't see from other people last year thank you all right thank you TJ anyone
else all right Rhonda can I respond back real quick before the next one or after um I just let Rhonda go can have people come from the board as well Ronda 181 T took the chair with them I don't
need to sit um I was just wondering this um 279,000 restored pavement management plan budget that you were all looking
at does that include a contribution to OPB yes okay yay thank you yeah problem all right public from the board sorry I didn't know if we were going to do that no that's okay I just wanted to respond back to the previous speaker that I appreciate you know how much effort you do put in as a resident um and you know
for our students and our our our school system um and I would say you know there's a lot of new people on board this year you know I wasn't involved in the process last year we have a new town manager we're going to have a new superintendent so while I totally agree that we're having the same conversations
that we did last year the players are vastly different and we are having hope is the only thing that we can have at this point in time so I know that all of us that are sitting here that are still going to be here next year are saying we're committed so
hold us hold our feet to the fire stay involved stay here if we're not doing it speak up I know you will um and I have High Hopes because again I still have two kids that a long time in the school system so I know their needs are there as well as in the town so I am fully supportive of doing a full Deep dive
next now for next year thank you Amanda any other from the board with all my free time I will just say also to to U the pre the second previous speaker that I
appreciate your involvement because we really need that in town and while we may come to different conclusions I do not I do not believe and I certainly from my perspective do not think you have anything but the best intentions for what you are trying to do and I
think that you know we're just coming to different conclusions for different reasons both rooted in the fact that I think we're doing what we think is best for the town and and I agree with you that this was discussed last year and I
also agree with you that I'm disappointed as one single member of of two different the three different bodies that you mentioned that it didn't happen um I think we have a different commitment now from various people and
and I would I don't want to say well Deval Patrick the former Governor used to say you know his mother his grandmother used to tell him hope for the best and work for it you can't just hope for the best you do have to work for it and I'm certainly committed even though I'm not going to be on the board
I don't intend on going away and you know you know just not being appearing I will make sure from my perspective along with you and and the people who are you know as part of your group and the larger part of town to make sure that this does
get gunned because come June I will be at a meeting just not on the stage asking is this getting started because I think we need it thank you Mr chair all right anyone else all right is there a motion to
adjourn then I move to journ second any additional discussion those in favor say I I those oppose no it is 8:39 p.m. the select board is adjourned we will see you all in April Mr chairman hello