##VIDEO ID:D7SmAbAhPSM## Wednesday January 8 and I will call the finance committee meeting order this meeting is being record and K from the finance from the select board Zoom I have from the finance comme Hunter genda just aou SP on the committee I think I send everyone an email that my would resign um and we're looking for people um like Andy solicited people he couldn't find anybody I sent an email to Mark well I it's not right for him to join he was going to see if he came up with anybody but I haven't heard from him analy Mitchell contacted me with some interest and I believe she submitted her application and Tom has somebody who he's going to have submit his application anybody else have any nibbles I had somebody still looking but I haven't heard back yet if you hear back from them have them submit the application on the town website and also send an email to Alan okay and tell them timing is important because I think Alan will make a decision quickly because he knows we were starting the meetings tonight tonight we start over the budget I have AED some pages of things I just wanted to mention um I think we should kind to determine what we want to concentrate on throughout this process and um then set a schedule of which departments and people were're going to hear when um so does somebody want to start or do you want me to start you to start one of the things that I thought would be helpful is to obtain the amount of donations going to councel and aging library and Fourth of July committee um because it's my understanding at least with the fourth and and what they're used for my understanding that at least with the Fourth of July committee those debt donations and need offset on the other two I'm not sure how the money is used it may be external to the budget other stuff but be nice to know just the re did you did you knowes 12 12 I'm sorry hear you that's um this is with respect to revenue um you know we've been going back and forth on revenue for the past few years and have projected and my suggestion is is that we come up with a percentage whether it's 90% or 95% of the prior actual FIS so we're not questioning each year and just say okay this is the calculation we want to see and we just need to discuss what if that makes sense and what percentage does that make sense across all various Revenue types because they have such different Dynamics might mean that qu excise might be very different than other aspects of these just mind we looked at what the Run rate tends to be is it well I think that if there's a onetime revenue Source like I think this we had saying it's nonrecurring I don't think we'd want to include that sort of thing if we have anything that's unusual for a given year I think but I think that they're relatively consistent so I guess the question what's the formula that use now they don't just plug it in look at it okay so historically I've always been concerned on that is gradually become less it you're interested oh yeah be so cons um the the biggest variable probably is the investment we might want to treat that differently that's that's the what right yeah but I mean what I noticed is this year we went down in a lot of categories have to we gone up and I mean some of them the 25 budgeted was very close to the 24 actually then some cases higher than the 23 so I just think if like for this fiscal we go off the 24 we just come up with some type of a percentage that we're comfortable with let see how that works that makees sense or how people feel so we're looking at about 3.4 million and you said 5% yeah 90 so I did the in of course um taking the 20 2024 actual and subtracting out that 209 figure at the bottom which came to 3777 about 95% would be 350 3,588 and 90% would be 3,399 5% seems like a manageable error two things I don't see in the revenue but I could be wrong is the launch Rue I saw the expense but I didn't think it didn't look to me I thought we kind of agreed that the launch Revenue isue would be 5 because that's what we're expecting we did suspend and then the other thing I wanted to talk about in revenue is the building permit fees from CST I know Greg wants to use them towards Capital but they still should be included in the revenue because we use taxation for I mean we use revenues right so you have any thoughts on that Andy nothing meaningful to add right [Music] now Sarah I just wanted to mention something it's Andrea the the launch fees um are all included in the fees um line so it's lumped in together so I could SE I believe I separated it out later on in the book okay so did you include the 50,000 yes okay I think as long as there's a separate report that we can look at that that would be helpful yes there will be know we talked about looking that separate report q1 and or Q3 and Q4 I know we didn't quite get to it but it would be helpful to look at how we finished the year with the launch first year of operation we had something at our last meeting oh we did yes yes positive and slightly over subscri and I think came in I think I've been afraid the maintenance numbers yeah and she has on page 55 she has a a separate page for the launch services and on the next page she has the revenue broken out so it cost we budgeted 41,000 Rue was 425 can we go back to the investment returns real quick yeah are we comfortable with that Prett strong Mar I mean we for the investment we could do something like 95% of a threeyear average or something like that because clearly 23 was was substantially less what is it well 23 actual is 234 2 right and 24 is 263 and they're assuming 24 it's 46 I'm sorry 462 and they're using an estimate of 230 46 24 was a strong there right so they're only including 230 estimate conservative but you still be conservative should be tied um Andre what do you think about the investment income assumption number that's a tough one I would love to have like a you know crystal ball and know all the investment income right and what the interest rates are going to be um but I know that the FED has been you know either keeping them the same or lowering them um but that could change in a year so I mean FY 25 we budget 150 um we'll see about 26 didn't we get a breakdown of the ass location I'm sorry say that again we get a breakdown of all the asset allocation for the Investments oh look yeah I know we have something like that but look andry was there some particular thinking on the 220 230 number did that have a particular logic behind it not in particular I kind of went off of what the 23 actual was and carried that forward um and just hoping that interest rates will go up it certainly stands out here to me is the one needing the change the most so Tom do you want to look at those Investments and just kind of Crystal B either for 42 years in business okay um so should we revisit this next meeting people can think about okay yeah and Sarah speaking of next me meeting I'll have the um quarterly report for you all hopefully by the end of this week um next was page 16 the W salaries were up 9% I think we need to look at that a little more in depth at some point I think the snow removal we were talking about using looking at the threee average and there's only two years here yes so maybe if you can look at that and see if we can decrease the snow removal yes I'll I'll look at no okay great um on page 20 the summary article four the numbers don't just don't quite add up so that just needs to be looked at again Article 4 Page 20 the total difference is 547 498 not 64 7 498 so something isn't quite right the the 113236 Greg on the second line is the difference between the two numbers is only 13,236 so I don't know what's all I did the adjusted numbers you gave us so if somebody can just take another look at that I did it twice you know what I'm talking about on that page are you article you Downer summ article four the expenses line we were given new numbers yes and the new change was supposed to be 113 236 yes it's only 13 236 thank you thank you and so then the total is off to and I just don't know yeah what number needs trusted right things will change 22 the other discussion I would like to is the projected Factory decree this is coming in at only 1.6% with all the expenses coming down the line I just think we need to have a conversation of whether we want this increase to be higher and have a larger Capital exclusion something like that decrease the bonding I also understand we' got issues with the school so I just think we should be close two I think we should be aiming for 2.5% increase and therefore to achieve that what do you what do you what's your thought to be closer to the 2.5 the thought is to increase the capital exclusion amount on Capital items and increase the bonding longterm bonding or do we need leeway for the school this moment link to the lad first yeah but I just like to keep that in mind as we go along I think that's we need to have more come out of tax well part of the strategy was um many problems with over our preliminary school budget was to account for that the excess capacity they're using all the reserves all the excess res that's my understanding 1.6% talking two no no I'm not talking about Levy I'm just talking about the standard 2.5% yes in the standard Levy yes rather than putting it into the rather than to have more y excess Levy because our goal was kind of to have the excess Levy capacity during Co um and we're out of Co and it just seems like we should be using the 2 and a half% because we know it's going to be going up in the future yes the extent to which I'm I do fully anticip a much bigger number for the school right so that's that's that's why I kept that as low as we have about 800,000 capacity so there is ability to go higher than two and a half without an override but it's still so I think it's something to keep in mind as we continue going through yes um page 27 I'm not on board with the salary Reserve fund um when we agreed to the salary Reserve fund last year it was because we knew the two Union contracts were coming in and had been resolved and I saw that as a one- Time occurrence but to me it just seems like it's un allocated M I'm sorry 27 27 on the finance committee and Reserve negations yeah I I saw it as a one kind thing so this was put in because of poal adjustment B adjust the classification of some positions I would like that to occur line it yeah that's what I would yeah yes yeah I just think this is just another Pool of money Andrew's probably kicking because she she had it Eng departments and I said well maybe we should together as a reserve fund um because we need to have the discussion about I didn't want to artificially drive up those departmental budgets so it's yeah I'd rather have them in the department to before we to the end of buod you know then asking occur tomorrow the other thing I know noticed was in the page 37 Land Management 5,000 in legal expenses have been spun on to Land Management and we're already increasing the lingo budget and my concern is if we have a separate line item we're going to lose of what the total legal budget is I'd rather have an onone budget rather than isolating one I agree it should be recorded separately in the department should be advised but um because this means we're increasing the legal budget yeah so what I did was I took 5,000 away from the Professional Services in the profession Services Line This Rec dist 25,000 well we need to understand exactly what the Professional Services are going to be provided in that department for legal show so instead of having a 5k legal fee in the Land Management budget we'll have a a 5k Land Management fee in the legal budget no we're just increase the legal budget by 5 yeah or not depending on what makes sense but 20 grand for Professional Services is a lot for one department so it be nice to know what it's going to be used for now I'm on page 42 Land Management teams and I think this goes beyond land horn um last year the zoning board of appeals increased their application fee to $1,000 no one complains I think in January we need to have all the Departments and every all the boards look at their fees is increased and that I would say would be including the fire department Fe I don't know when I sold my house 12 years ago was 50 bucks for an alarm inspection I don't know if it increased them um but I just think a lot of these themes should more accurately reflect including um you know there was a huge disar in the health department too and would be expenses versus Fe what other towns charge like what Hamilton I don't cons I'm just thinking you know we look at the number and we're Low by we're 20% we've got room to come up well I what other time and I came here with 500 so that dou nobody and I would think that you know when you look at the fire department you look at how low grasing fees are how low I'm just saying it's 500 enough in your in your example you know if you look at neighboring towns and you find that 750 for what I mean just I'm just wondering how do we how do we line up here that you know it's not like it's a recurring fee it's basically it's you've said before it's a onetime fee people are spending a lot of money doing something it's some proper bu conservation only collecting $800 in fees yeah and we're paying the conservation agent 50 Grand right and I don't think conservation agent has ever sat there tribling their thumbs right um and I think that there's I don't have any applications every se but there's a lot of seems to me town [Music] employ employee time involved when there's a conservation application more so dob is it a fixed fee or is it a ratio of what's being done I think it's a fixed Fe so just if you just roundabout took the expenses took the revenue and made the and divide the revenue what you need for Revenue by the number of permits see where you land I mean might scare people that be a scary number then then I think we should ask the question well okay is is the expense is it designed to be a loss right and same thing with plany if zba increased their fees to a th could increase their pleas pick a number we're not going to break but we're going to be within 40 that's just my the Fe set a standard that you're sh shooting for I think that's your overall would be how much them to come in by the end of January with num so it can be included Revenue estimates for the 26 budget they don't have to go into a what page 36 there we are 46 increases are very high and I think it covers more than one year and I just like better explanation the lieutenant Sergeant comes in at 177% and the patrolman I think comes in at all but I could be yeah I just and then the other thing for both police and fer is we've been pushing back and overtime a lot part of that was because the fire was not Being Ned appropriately I would like to reex whether the 100,000 for a year is realistic and I think that for both fire and police we could have different overtime budgets for a year in which we have the fireworks versus a year in which we don't but certainly that's what I think Chief with Jael said is early on they had a huge amount of overtime fo Firs so this budget we put additional dollars in the Fourth of July Market over time okay okay I just I just would like it we looked at in both departments to make sure that it's realistic and it's not just an artificial number that we've been pushing back on because I think they're doing a much better job of managing three employees right but you know it's they're going to spend it any yes on the fire I would just like a better explanation of which lines go together which lines go together on the sil so the the fire captain is showing a 77,000 increase I'm assuming the lieutenant was promoted and so there's nothing in one of Lieutenant slots and and then there's something further down where there's a firefighter PA that's a negative and there's a new floater from 22 that's an increase just yeah I find it confusing people at I think it's just about Fe the other issue is in the harbor m the deputy home Master coming in from thought we were doing the budget last year they knew they were hirings I'm surprised to basically right higher salary you say again I just didn't hear all of it so5 budget anticipated in $775,000 so and to bring a person on board started late years we have the page 57 building department so we've completely eliminated building work so the person sitting in that desk isn't doing anything with building permit but not as much as they used to so trying to get it all it's difficult with a person not being physically in I have to look at building permits online and I happen to notice that it's much slower to get them approved I have a house next to me where the building permit was submitted on December 5th online it says no documents issued they started con they laid the foundation this week that seems a month seems to be much longer than ever there may be stuff outstanding but it just seems to me it's much slower and I've noticed it on other things too so I'm hoping that that transition isn't substantially slowing down the building public process the op 11.5% adjustment 59 I'm there I mean we were given a sign and dance about saving money and the person would only be here for five years and they seem to know who they were handing separate issues Okay so the owner's project manager that's a boost to the engineer salary to take on that additional Ro separate from of the works that we will so this so there's so there's an adjustment post 26 to and because we talked about the cost of Hing LPM yeah stand alone is significant to $200,000 right yeah so that's okay that was that's what that's reflected okay page 64 is the health department um I think it would just be helpful if we knew what instruction an hour in House of which weren I was surprised to see a $10,000 budget for medical inspections I kind of thought everything was coming in house it seems like a lot I'm looking for all the medical I know medical facility so we've kept the 10,000 in the Professional Services yeah and eliminated the medical inspection R so there's no money technically in medical inspections but there may be some expense that would be picked up on the Professional Services for medical inspections so that's what would be nice to understand is what's being done inh housee and what we're still Outsourcing because that was one of the reasons of hiring the health agent was to bring stuff in out that's majority yeah so that just read nice that detail yeah notal facilities yeah I don't know library page 68 need more information on the calculation for the books and magazines it's a recurring theme and it's an 18% increase and I thought that it was tied to the budget and the budget's only increasing two and a half per. I thought it was tied to what the state requires but it was a percentage of the budget but I don't know what portion of the budget right right I see okay yes like a minimum state it went up 2% M colum says 17.9 7% that that 17.9 7 is just a percent of the total budget that's not the increase okay oh 18% there we go went from 100 to 102 so the computer operations line there is that into town or they totally separate they totally separate thetion subscrition fees they own Wii right yes they do that Greg as I know this is new but what's the reason behind that that they're totally separate from that function well it's all part of the the whole consorti because they sh driven by the Consortium yeah you know sharing books and being able to books online through the Consortium the computer the consorti computer system and they're also using that software I think if you apply for like museum tickets or something while we were on the library still yeah 150 that we appropriated last year for a grant match if we don't get that Grant does that go into un FL do we have any barometer on that supposed to be here Friday okay they delayed it um based on the deadline for compliance with 3A Z okay today's ruling oh did they rule that our plan is which says the law is legal but the regulations weren't handled administratively properly so temporarily there's no enforc correct which could yes it could yeah and of off the numbers and it's obviously there's no path forward without increasing taxes we talked a little bit about messaging is that something else we should take up I think sooner than later more is better oh we need to look at a longer term plan the communications plan good y a couple of questions on the bond and stuff I'm still so we only spent half of the 7 and A5 Million last year does but we're already it's already budgeted and paid for so let not paid for but we haven't started paying down but we lovey for it no no we have so we have to appropriate the money in order to go out to bid yeah but we don't bond it till we spent it right so we don't we can't charge the taxpayers until we have L payment was and that's why a year ago I think we had a or maybe it was last year we had a over 1% increase for this Memorial School because it was the final piece of bonding we went out with didn't hit our tax rate till right we just go out to B didn't we just go out to B I thought I just saw us go out to bedru se Tre yeah we just it was in the paper we was for the design contract or for the actual instru that's for the actual oh that's great I was going to delay but uh okay good your point Dean and to Tom's Point we've we've um talked to the taxpayers we've appropriated money for bonding but we haven't it hasn't hit the tax bills yet we need to clear so quote unquote the job of getting the voters to approve it is done but the impact on the V voters voters is not yet help and that's part of the messaging because if you've got this over here that you're going to start charging the voters and we're asking for more that's that's when you may have people go oh my gosh I didn't know well it'll be won't be as difficult early on but you're looking at long range plan keep piling on right you're going to hit a saturation point no exactly so so I think it's probably important for us to understand on the larger projects the construction schedule and when we might be going out for pieces of bonds if it's if it's a long duration I think project whe we have to bond during the construction pieces I think that's important to so the multi-year long-term plan it's eventally 5 years and 10 years no I even talking about just the DPW project yeah but I'm saying if you think about a fiveyear window taxpayers again it's more our thinking and a 10year plan you know what is the impact on expenses bonding essentially expenses in capital and revenue and you know we tend to kind of go on expenses and budget like this year to year let's get through April then we'll deal with next year get through April but I think we need to to tie a few aprils together here because on the capital side we're starting to look out and we don't we don't have a lot of detail on expenses and revenue over five years but we you have history we probably eager to sort of say are we kind of in that same envelope anticipate some pretty big I also think the finance report can say something about you know we've approved these projects this is what we expect it to hit and this is a potential impact or something like that so more just that report but yeah I would say too that you know it's kind of the tail wagging the dog if we're talking about finding tun Communications approach it's going to cause us to Shar defens too we're talking about bands versus right so that's G to kind of back in it almost stes me to think it would be useful to have a schematic is a really different you know there's you're point out is that there's the approval time and then there's the it's on the race time I mean as though when write to the voters who owns the diagram would be a good idea yeah be able to visually capture this approval that's right that's right bonding payment yeah yes I I don't know if that would be too confusing but it strikes me as maybe a good idea I guess what I'm just saying is the perspective I think we should think about fromation point of view is what's the taxpayer seeing while they're sitting at their pitchen table opening up as oppos to what we collectively the town has approved through various Town me yes yes and and what is the go forward look on that communication is just two way it's a message you're sending a message but if it's not being received you're not communicating Zing was successful because of the the bonding back back to that um how we've been funding the capital is through um the reduce Bond payments know that 4 million a year now that's not going to happen anymore because we're getting more bonds and one of the things we talked about at the last leaon meeting was whether we need a main and spawn to keep up with some of this road work because the roads are really getting bad and if we're going to do facility and keep up the town we're we're funding a lot for the roads each year right well not next year um I'm not in favor of a bond for I think that we need to pay as we go as much as we can and we should be reserving bonds for big projects not Ono maintenance there's a sister question to this that I still don't know the answer to are we doing enough road work to close the gap are we you know roads Weare out a fair Fairly predictable way I mean they have different classifications for different uses but you know are we making Headway on being more on top of Road weight issues I'm maybe others are clear on this I'm not question our conversation with we're not laying down enough T to move and keep up with the and it's not like we can just overlay a road because we're trying to do so it's becoming a little bit you know roads are deteriorating faster than that does this get discussed in your discussions with Chuck and so forth you know are we yes okay the more challenging aspect is not so much money that relocating to Bing as is the backlog of the pipes underneath yes that's what's holding us back um showing better progress on Fresh car I see and it's the pipes underneath that are the big SP you also sort of determine that the town can kind of absorb so much construction and you start going Way Beyond that you know and what's the sensitivity level on that and maybe you say okay well we go for two years or three years of 3.1 million and then on the fourth or third year we bump it up another 20% take the arrows get a little more done and then then go back again I think we also have the issue is yes we're waiting to do roads until we've done the water and sewer pipes yeah but the water and sewer pipes last a lot longer than the roads do so once they're done what is our plan for repaving those areas because I don't see like we're doing a lot of repaving I mean I look at the upper Pine Street Road to the compost that's wasn't done that long ago and it's not in very good shape you had Waste Management going there before too you got Waste Management going there yeah not quite as much but but you know I don't think there was a proper subbase that was just overated right that's what I think I think it was a inexpensive but I do think I was a terrible issue with side issue with what sidewalk side I've taken three very nasty skills they're not even and if you're not looking I mean there can be this much difference in the OR there can be uh water things sticking up but again that was one of the things you know how to keep up with this stuff now that we're not you know getting extra uh money from bonding being paid off with the capital exclusion and then the other thing that Nate was talking about is a committee for DPW like combining some of these little committees that we H for downtime grou this that he would like like a facilities DPW committee I know we don't want another committee you know we have enough now but maybe we could consolidate something but that was the other big message that you had well I I think the finance committee needs to do some work on the long-term capital plan regarding where buildings could be you know if I could comment on that uh Dean so um another way to handle that which we have reviewed with DPW is handle things like a project and instead of so if you have a sidewalk or road project and you need help prioritizing what's important you don't need a committee okay you just need to run it like a project and have those committee identify you know a liaison or a spokesperson to attend meetings and and help the DPW by giving feedback on on their project but we don't need to stand up an additional committee uh they just need to they don't need to go to Every meeting to get the feedback they they need to ask people to come to them and and run it like they get two points to your comment one is putting like a project means bringing in the people yes that are relevant to that project not that they need to be in everything just that project that's your point so we've you know that's a different Paradigm Shift um the the gpw tends to go to committee meetings to get the feedback and they spend a lot of time doing that yes but if they call a meeting like this and say hey we're running the sidewalk project and get the people to come to them it's much more efficient for them um and also you get the right people represented and those committee people those people from the different committees they can talk to each other right and and so you start to break down the silos it's a much more efficient way get feedback if that was your point Dean about getting feedback from point it's been part of that discussion defining the project you're doing a roadway it's got 10 components to it is that is it your concept is the project the all 10 it's whatever you want it to be and so that's that you know so this concept was introduced um you know about a year and a half ago uh to all the Committees and the department heads and we're still looking for an appropriate project willing to try this new approach so um it's been very successful in other areas and um I still been used actually in DPW area not no in the private sector this private things are done what's discussed in that operational audit um we haven't seen the results of that think we're seeing that at our next select board meeting GRE yeah on the 21st we're going to get our first look at the results of the operational AUD no I agree with you wholeheartedly that I think Capital roads pipes um roads particularly needs to be an annual Capital we don't bond for that we bond for things that are onetime longterm and and really when you get down to it roads are roads are basically an asset that we're maintaining on a on a regular basis um pipes you know I I hadn't thought about it quite before but pipes water have a lot longer lifetime there's probably some ratio as to how long a pipe sewer and a water pipe last relative to the tar on top of it you know it's probably 3x or 5x number of years or something like that 5x yeah but yeah yeah so so I guess it would be helpful if there was some type of a road maintenance plan long term and then we can understand what the annual cost need yes yes the Run rat as you point out the bike run rates are probally didn't deal the service and I'm I'm not sure where assets circus going Chuck and have given us a plan of road road projects looking out five or seven years which I thought was pretty good I think we saw that a year or two ago well changing and part of it I think the pipe problem underneath but I'm talking about not just the ones with pipes more right I'm talking about the roads if you do a road right in 20 1925 when do you have to do it again exactly and therefore how many roads do you have and if there's pipe and Sewer work you might right but there's lots of roads that don't need miles and we're spending X is that ratio sufficient on just the surface your question really is if we took the plan we saw a couple of years ago and we replicated it every five years or seven years that is not a world maintenance plan that was pipes and Sewer when you're going to do the roads because of that I don't believe it contain maintenance go ahead yeah I I'm gonna say uh I think my recollection is you know we had roads we had a program for roads and we did talk about it as Mory said in the context of you know pipes and wires under the roads but there was a separate effort and we I think we kind of came to a conclusion you know a couple of years ago that there was a budgeted amount of say I don't know it was like $400,000 a year where we were you know attacking roads um sometimes those were roads that were you know associated with a piping project that happened like School Street and like Pleasant Street will be but otherwise you know it was just doing uh various roads around town and I don't know I I probably don't travel all the roads but you know I mean I don't notice that they're you know terrible um so I I don't know I I I'm I think maybe it's a topic the next time Chuck's in a meeting with us and and Reporting but um I I I guess from my perspective I'm not I'm not sure that I see a problem I'm not saying see a problem I just think there ought to be a run rate you know we a year are we keeping up with laying down tar um you know you got 100 miles or whatever the miles of Road in town seems like a pretty straightforward uncomplicated thing to be able to determine Y no and I I think I think that was part of the conversation that we had had a few years back and so you know I think perfectly good that though Peter you so another nuts and bolts question about so tap Street we had approved a couple years ago to do that and then we ended up doing Forest Street and then the the co we didn't end up doing tapping it was deferred there was RightWay issue but what's that money ever de assigned to that job the problem is is in DBW you we're not allocating the capital projects to a specific project so they can move the money around any way they want right so they they add at that point so they're spending the money we allocate and not necessarily to the projects we expected for various reasons whereas all the other Capital budg all the other items we haven't found before specific projects I don't know what else we spend it on oh maybe it was so okay so I was wondering if there was aot of money the only way to gain control of that is to require that every DPW project is allocated for a specific project and is not that's right right but everyone else has to they have a different they they have a different mandate though you know I mean there's not too many other services where you get you know broken pipes on a Christmas Eve or you know that kind of that kind of event or or other you know it's the Confluence of of Permitting authorities um sewer pipes aging sewer pipes and water pipes underneath streets um you know and other factors that Implement that impact their ability to take on a given project I myself see that there's value in giving them latitude to execute the projects that they feel are the priorities at a given time and you know unless and it's always a worthwhile conversation to kind of be talking with them about whether or not that's happening effectively you know we can't just you know kind of close our eyes to it I get that but um I I know you know I I I I and I'm open to being convinced otherwise Sarah I I see your point yes I'm sorry um just along those lines um what we're talking about here is very visible to the residents okay and they you know have no Pro if if someone comes up to me in the street talk to me about something it's usually about the sidewalks V so um I agree personally just my own personal opinion flexibility is important but what I hear is we may not be getting the communication about these changes as quickly as maybe we would like so maybe some um more structure around the operational pance around when DPW comes before the select board or fincom and here's what our plan was here's how we change maybe quarterly or some just something a little more structure so people get the information and the might help might find it helpful even just issuing a report a report just something on a regular basis like the fire department we get the fire department reports every month they're fantastic right y been verify yeah just don't know until we see the whole dug up on the street we see an article by GRE I was basically think flexibility is very helpful give it the variables that occur in DTW project but there should be very sound Communications and heads up when those happen I will just i' throw in two points I think we're sitting here now talking about DPW budget that's going to get approved in hopefully April it may not get enacted or may not get put into motion we could be we're talking here about something May 16 months before Bo it actually happens and a lot of stuff happens with DPW time frame and I will think back about one glowing example which was I think it was Chuck who came in and laid out a really good plan for pipes and everything else and then we had to have fire on Summer Street and the town said oh we need to fix this road immediately and we've diverted like years a good portion of years worth budget to solving that's very specific item which just unraveled I think a lot of very careful planning keep it done yes the communication communication we plan to do this we couldn't we're doing that was the fire on University that there a whole bunch issues but that led to Diversion redirecting P can in thear where should we start we started with start with the ones that might require us to revisit okay we get down the road a piece because of the complexity of what they do to me that's either Public Safety or DPW um particularly DPW for just the conversation we're just having complexity DPW always continues to surprise me um so we did fire police DPW I think this month I think is simpler budget the normal this year right please yeah let see yeah is the Deputy Chief in the background we need to discuss you think we can do fire next week on that his wife is expecting a baby just so um marri not if she's having the baby next Wednesday night [Music] 115 is police and harb 122 right will be tpw that time grade yes and so then 127 would be fire yes meeting on Monday 127 well I guess I didn't add right okay 129 so yeah 129 have you have we have we have a meeting on 115 and then 123 123 the okay so D and 129 would be fire so we're not meeting we meeting on the 23rd the fourth the fourth week of each month we meet on Thursday M Wednesday because I think of your schedule yeah exactly i' like to do that a go to Thursday for the second Wednesday of the month I've scheduled the whole I have it all scheduled through April 16 this point I think it's too late to CH okay sir so you going into February now to do the next meeting would be the 5th yeah February 5th we do that who your time town [Music] government well wait a minute when do we have to do the school that' be too early it's too early so the school school usually get to us around the last week than for dates the and do fire on the fth okay have conversation before maybe the baby will be sleeping at night by about 29th we're doing the school okay oh than February 5th we're doing fire there we go okay so this is like off but there was discussion at one of our last meetings about having a joint meeting with the school I would strongly advicate we have a Manchester meeting with the school and let es have their Home Med I I just think doing this and I feel like it's a good opport we have plenty of group meetings with two towns and the school but I think the opportunity for us to talk directly with the school independently and for essics to do that is a healthy thing I agree I just I looked at the last meeting and I just thought you know I think it's good for us to school here Dale you have your hand raised yeah I have um two 25 for fire 229 for the district 129 129 129 for the district can you really 129 for the district yeah um well the okay and um what are we doing on the 15th and the 23rd 15th is police at Harbor 23rd is gpw thank you and so then 212 would be the town I'm sorry Sarah so 25 would be fire yeah 212 would be Town got it when you when would you like that let's do 219 could the town and the library be done on the same night yeah that possible is that just too much that's too much [Music] the library we'll start with the library on the 12th and then do the town and then we can do the T if there if you need to spill over yeah we can spill over their town and health too yeah and then that's right we got to do CPC when the CPC finalize their stuff almost there yeah we're going to have a meeting uh next week and uh we have all we pretty much got applications for all the Mone so we do CPC on February 19 would it be 220 your schu no no we're Wednesday on the 19th it's 227 is the yeah next one okay sorry well it's the fourth Wednesday of the month so depends when the first is so 19 would be seing CPC before the library no after the library after Library so library then CPC on the 12th library and town and then on the 19th CPC that's okay got it 27th be good for a capital discussion and that we've kind of rolled up all of the operating revenue for the various departments see Capital but it's kind of well on the 15th we also need we need discussion on the revenue estimates right January we talked about formula for estimating revenues we said we revisit okay that should take that start with that and then see what we change yeah one more question so so on 212 it's the library and the town yes thank you I'm good now sir let me just go down the dep so on the 15th is the place in front and Harvard plus the estimate Revenue formula thank you on the 23rd is the DPW yes on the 29th is the schools yes on the 5th of February it's the fire yes 12 12 to2 is town library wreck all that stuff CPC 19 yeah 27 is capital okay I I missed that assuming we'll discuss Capital with each of these departments I hopefully will unlike last year yes please and if on the 12th with Town parks and wreck and Library we get a little overloaded we could finish it up on the 19th right right and you'll have plenty of time to post that if you need to those would be topics for discussion you would know that after the meeting on the 12th so you can post for the 19th e well I can or I can just yeah that CPC my problem is when we have a Thursday meeting it's very difficult to post for the next Wednesday not open would let me Po what Tu Tuesday be better for what instead of the Thursday on the third fourth ible no then Tuesday's bad after Wednesday meeting okay so have so many and Sir can you speak to me just a little bit about March I know it's okay I'll tell you the meetings I have schedul March 5th March 12 March 19 and March 27 I also have scheduled in April April 2nd April 9th and April 16th and all of those are scheduled for this room um possibly School dropping in on a couple of those yeah CPC inion well we need to have the oped oped conversation yeah but Andrea needs to schedule that Andrea yes can you say sure is available on March 5th yes I can okay do you want the Auditors as well sure we want to make sure on the opab that he's prepared to discuss what we need to be putting in because we're not seeing that number anymore okay be helpful to have a sense of if we put X in or Y in when we'll pay it off we sort of had a Target date 2032 he gave us a number and we were paying more than that number which we're going to pay it off I think in 2029 but we're no longer seeing that number to know if what we're putting in this as much over the number as it was at the beginning that's the piece we're missing we've been just increasing it a certain percentage these next few years CH sh because of the higher increases yeah just makes it all the more important that we the right numbers even if we had a little chart with our best guest but how do we finish how much we pay to finish up in 29 30 you want get 313 how do we land when town meeting again please what so I don't expect you'll need all of these weeks in April but I just it's fine I fig it easier to cancel yeah I asked um May minutes did people have a chance to review those there are three of them there three three and I gave some comments today on one of them which was the M of essic and that you and I were left off both not there but it need to be listed interesting an interesting me Sarah I'm I'm good with u the minutes except for the uh The Joint meeting with eth Essex I was not there you were there at the beginning Andy online okay I'll take you out if you want me to yeah I didn't really hear the meat of the meeting but I'm I'm good either way I just I don't feel like I can I I'll abstain from the vote that's all all right yeah I'm good with that thanks can somebody make a motion with the dates the dates are 10:30 11:21 and 124 1121 was a joint correct a separate motion motion to approve the minutes from October 30th and December 4 second any discussion Peter yes yes a motion to approve the minute from November 21st that's joint yeah I'll second it we wer I wasn't there you obain um yes says yes Sarah says yes and says yes got it I abstain yeah got it is majority not you can still approve oh you can okay yeah a suggest I didn't have a chance toine okay so we laid out our next meeting the only other thing I wanted raise to people was that um the the school district is having um the department of Elementary and secondary education do an operational audit on it and there's going to be a focus group for Town chairs and town administrators on January 30th from 105 to 205 I was planing to attend does anybody else want to attend about what the meeting is about please I don't know what was the date it's January 30th from 105 to 205 p.m. it's a hybrid I think they're get feed do you think the school is doing a good product oh I see I have no idea so did you want to go handy I don't think I'll I'll be able to attend at that point during a day to fill a position right agent is that being filled or not okay because of oh okay okay we are hopefully there's not an opening to make an offer cons oh okay we hir G through two in a couple of months okay yeah take a motion to moves to Second all in favor hi okay thank you night everyone good night back