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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=LUAQyRZKtZ4

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Good evening everyone. I'm going to start the meeting uh by reading the script here. So, good evening. Uh this is uh Jillian Printerast. I am the chair of the finance committee. This open meeting is being conducted via Zoom. Speakers on the agenda will be participating remotely and the chair may

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allow for the public to provide comment in accordance with open meeting law regulation 940 CMR 29.10. Please be advised that all FINCOM members are attending this meeting remotely. In addition, because FINCOM members are attending remotely, all votes taken at this meeting will be by roll call vote.

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Lastly, if any FINCOM members are not clearly audible to their fellow members or any members of the public, please notify the chair immediately. We will do our best to remedy the problem and inform the public whether the meeting will continue. Um, so please remain to confirm that all members and persons

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anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me. Fin members, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Katie Yes, >> Nathan. >> Yes,

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>> Linda. >> Yes, >> Mail. >> Yes. >> Excellent. Thank you. Um, and I see that um, Kevin, you've joined us as our special guest tonight. Can you hear us all right today?

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>> Yep. Thanks for having me. >> Great. Thank you so much for coming. We appreciate it. You're >> welcome. >> Um, all right. And then uh please note that while option for remote attendance and participation is being provided as a courtesy to the public, this meeting will not be suspended if or terminated

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if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast to individual attendees unless required by law. Accordingly, please be aware that other folks may be able to see and hear you. So, please take care not to screen share your computer. Anything that you broadcast may be captured by the recording. This meeting is being

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recorded. later. You can also find this meeting being posted to the WAVM YouTube channel. Thank you WAVM for your support. For our meeting materials, you can find them on board docs. Thank you Katie for posting them. Um and we recommend that you follow along there

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unless I note otherwise. Um and now we will turn to our uh first item on the agenda, which is our very special guest Kevin uh is going to talk to us about the budget transfer requests. So, thanks for sending those over. >> Thank you. Um, would you like me to

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share my screen? Has has everybody been provided the list of budget transfers? >> I think that would be great. I'm having a little bit of a lag tonight. So, um, that would be really helpful. >> Okay. >> And they are on >> my camera. Otherwise,

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>> if anyone wants to refer to board docs, too, they're on there. >> Okay. So, I think I think I gave you permission to share, but if not, I can also make you a co-host here. >> Okay. Um, so I don't know. It's probably I

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don't know if you guys want me to go through each and every transfer or basically just give you a synopsis of it. And if you have any questions, you can review, you can ask me. Would that be better?

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I've got about 90 90 or so transfers. >> Yeah, I think it would be great to to start big and then go small. >> Start big. Okay. Um, so this fiscal year >> like sort of like a general overview, I guess.

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>> Sure. Um, yeah, this this fiscal year wasn't was unlike any other. So uh we face the same issues such as rising utility costs, IT costs, um postage, you know, personal

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contracts, etc. Uh overall, we ended the year with about a little over a million dollars in unexpended funds. Um expecting about 150,000 or so in incumbrances.

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Um so the transfers tonight we have well just under $1.3 million. So some of the highlights um the largest

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surpluses we have um Council on Aging because we appropriated $200,000 for the senior center lease. Um, so we are going to take 120,000 of that.

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Um, health insurance. Um, we're going to take 107,000. Um, firefighter salaries. I think each we've been over bud or under over budgeting each year this this past

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fiscal year. So, um, we have firefighter um holiday overtime. So we this year or in the past um contract they switched uh holiday pay to be included in the base pay. So that's been overbudgeted and

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needs to be adjusted. Um we had a lot of a significant amount of um vacancies this year. Uh for one the assessor that positions been unfilled for the for more than a year now. Um, so we're taking

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we're going to utilize that full salary as part of the transfers. Um, several others, assistant treasurer, collector, assistant town clerk, um, DPW, business manager, health director, and public health nurse were

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all partially funfilled for part of the year. Um, town administrator contract settlements. So, this is budgeted to cover some of the contractual costs that we don't know the exact number for. Um,

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highway workers, as you all know, I'm sure we've been without a lead mechanic for at least a year now. So, that was um under budget and police overtime

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was about $65,000 on the budget. We're taking from there. Um, so that's great. Um, some of the bigger costs of overspending, uh, firefighter retirements. We've had

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several firefighters retired and they received significant, um, payouts for sick leadback. um overtime to cover some of the vacancies such as the lead mechanic and some of there's a couple

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a few in fire that I think there is one on FMLE FMLA leave and uh one was on administrative leave so overtime to cover those costs um some contractual wage increases that

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we don't we um didn't have the exact numbers for the beginning of the year. Um, of course, utilities have been out of rising significantly.

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Um, also part of that is u our contract with the owners of the solar panels at the solar farm. It reached like a milestone. So, the credits we were receiving were significantly reduced. factored also

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with um there were some billing issues with Eversource that came to fruition this year. Um so we owe them significant amount of money. Um vehicle maintenance to cover the loss

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of the uh lead mechanic. So we we've been utilizing outside vendors to um to deal with some of those repairs. Uh and inflation of course uh we have

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higher postage costs. Um higher uh some of the contracts with like the the auditing have been higher too increased. Um let's see.

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And that's that's pretty much the big picture. Um, do you want me to go through each and everyone or >> is there any question? >> I think I'll I'll open it up to um the committee first for questions.

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>> I had a couple questions, Peter, Kevin. Sorry, Kevin. Um, one is the line on the solid waste for the new program. So why did we have so such a high expense? It's in line 88 and 89.

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>> Why would we had had such a big expense in FY26? >> Um so the 22,000 uh >> was yeah >> 98 that's for Lindy's salary which >> I guess was budgeted in highway. Yeah,

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>> I think that is Oh, it's sorry it's budgeting DPW admin of 40,000 here was under PT clerical. >> Okay. Yep. it was charged to solid base and then >> the but the 147 I couldn't

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>> yeah the um there there's been a significant amount of um cost associated with advertising and so on and so forth just for the new program um >> really that much wow >> not pro I don't I'm not sure the exact

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number on that was spent on advertising but I did see you know a lot of bills come across my desk for flyers and postage and all you name it. My other question was on the unemployment and that was a question

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that came up even at the um budget subcommittee meeting is um it's supposed to be mostly related to the schools and is there any any more information on why we're why when we're seemingly not laying anyone off why our unemployment went way

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over. Um, that's a good question. >> Okay. You know, I think Greg was going to follow up on it. So, we can follow up on why >> is directly related to mostly the schools. I don't think there's anyone

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filing unemployment on the town side that I'm aware of. And the and my last question is the overall bottom line, were there other accounts that were, you know, had some money left that you didn't have to move?

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>> Yeah, >> there were. Okay. Okay. So, this is just where you just move to cover to cover deficiencies. So, there's others that you didn't have to touch. Okay, great. >> Right. I tried to pick the the larger ones. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. kind of highlight them. And what I used for a

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basis on transfer transferring in was anything over that was over spent by at least $5,000 in order to just make and also to make every department whole which is not required but um

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it's how we've been doing it I guess. >> Can I ask one more question? This is to Jillian. Jillian, what's our role here? >> Do do we have to vote this at a finance committee? >> So, our role in these budget transfers?

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>> Yes. So, we have to discuss it um you know, sort of look and ask questions. Yeah. >> Um and we do have to vote on it um for them to be able to do this transfer. >> Okay. >> And then I think the select board also votes on it, Kevin. I don't I don't know.

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>> Yeah, they voted on it. I always mix it up with the other we do. >> Okay, thank you. >> And I think it's due in like August. Is that right? >> Um, sort of. >> Or is there like a time you have to close your books?

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>> Yeah, basically by Yeah, it's basically by the time we close our books. But it's it's hard because it with the you can yeah I guess you could try to predict where you'll end the year but during the last like the beginning of

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July is where the split payroll is and we don't really know you know what's going to be encumbered just yet what's outstanding but I think the next select board meeting isn't until like August 19th or something like that. I could be wrong

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though. >> I thought it was next week. >> Is it? >> I don't know. >> Yes. Our next select board meeting is next week. >> Totally wrong. >> Oh, okay. Great. And I'm a fiber.

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>> That's good news. Uh Kevin, can you speak to the um the additional expenses to the utilities electric accounts? Uh I'm just I'm I'm trying to eyeball from like the town warrant uh this year and it looks like

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for FY27 we decreased the budget by something like 71,000 for utilities. Um >> yeah. Yeah. So that um that's a good question. Um, uh, the DPW business manager did a

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analysis and I think it was preliminary, like pretty early on before we knew kind of what to expect. Um, so back in I think May of like 2025, we stopped receiving a bill from

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Eversource because we had so much in solar credits and they had changed their their billing. So we had like I don't know 400,000 built up in credits which were only to be used for the accounts that you know

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they were applied to. Um so when they changed the billing they effectively started applying those credits to the entire bill so we weren't receiving the bill. Uh so we reached out to them and based

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on where we the amount of credits we had built up, what we were earning in credits each month from the solar farm and what our expected on utility or energy costs were. We weren't expecting a bill for quite some time, but

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that wasn't the case. I I guess because the contract with um the owners of the solar farm, what we were receiving on our credits to decrease like in half basically I think um so we weren't

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receiving as much credits and he was looking at data from you know when only a few months like into the year so and I think things have just the costs have been rising. So,

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>> so I I mean maybe I'm looking at the wrong account, but if our budget for like uh utilities for the next fiscal year has gone down 70,000 and >> yeah, that's no that's incorrect. Yeah, it's be adjusted.

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>> Yeah, he was predicting low. Um Rebecca the um our um she did an analysis too. So we have some better numbers now I think. So I don't know if we'll be sounds like I don't know if we're having the special

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town meeting or not but we may end up adjusting that then or doing it all at once with the annual town meeting in the spring. Yeah, I wouldn't expect it

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utilities cost to go down next for FY27. >> Okay, thank you very much. >> You're welcome. Um, this may be just like a a very silly question, but I was just wondering um uh with the the traffic lights. I see it's it's 5 and a

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halfk there, but it says um 0% sort of in in column K. So, I was just wondering um >> Oh, sorry. >> Why that was? >> Yeah, good catch. Um I put these uh percentages in before I had I had actually done a transfer today. >> Gotcha.

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>> Um >> between these two accounts. So everything at first was charged to street lights and I went downstairs and I said, "This doesn't look right. Um, can you look at this?" And so I did it today in the meantime.

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>> Is it do you you may not you may not know the answer to this necessarily, but are most of those repaired at this point or is that going to be like a larger expense uh going forward? >> Uh the street lights or traffic lights. >> Yeah. Like are those repairs like mostly

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completed at this point or you may not know that >> it's like an ongoing thing. It's like every time this street lights stop or the traffic light stops working, you have to call um you have to call someone to go fix it. >> Gotcha. Thanks. >> Yeah.

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>> I had a general question while we're sort of in these lines too. If there's um increased Oh, that's police detail. I was I was going to ask why there is an increase for water sewer things here. Never mind. That makes sense. >> Because it's a police detail and it's

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not water and sewer repairs itself. >> Yeah, >> I missed the column C. [laughter] And I know Linda was asking sort of questions about like lines 88 and and the related with the solid waste.

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>> Was that the 140 that was sort of set aside for like the gap when the program like was transitioning to like the fully paid by the customers part? >> No, that that that was uh that's to be used I mean that was voted at annual town

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meeting so it's it's to be used for um this year's gap if there's a gap in um our enterprise fund. >> So if the enterprise I mean if we're not collecting enough to cover >> okay >> cost of the enterprise >> this wasn't like the stuff that was

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dedicated to enterprise funds is what I'm asking. No, no. >> Okay. >> And when you we've done these sort of transfers in the past years, has it always been around a million, 1.3 million? I feel like that

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number is is a little higher than it was last time. Um, I think last year's was around a million maybe. Yeah, it was a little little under a million. Should I not admit people I don't know

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their name to the room? It's a James Smith. >> Technically, I know technically it's an open meeting, but we did get zoomed at the beginning of it. Um, >> can we admit and like and remove um uh

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video access? >> I think so. Um, that's a good question. I think we can, you know, just be ready to remove them if something happens. >> All right, I'll hit admit. All right. Um, do any other members have

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questions on the transfers? >> Julian, I just looked and in FY25 it was 954,000. So this isn't totally out of line. Was close to a million last year, >> right? No.

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>> Yeah. So it's I think it's in line. >> I That's one of the questions I always ask because you know I always like to put it out there that it's a lot of money but

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similar to what we've seen in the past. >> Yeah. And like overall departments seem to be pretty pretty okay. Um like I didn't we don't have to do all these transfers. Um

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but I think you guys like it for like transparency to see you know where we're over budgeting or under budgeting or overspending under spending. >> We do. This is really great transparency. Super duper detailed level. We really appreciate that. Thank

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you, Kevin. >> You're welcome. >> And the solar farm shutdown. I know we talked about that, but I was I think that was around when I was like, "Oh gosh, I have to kick all these people out of this meeting." So, I stopped listening for a second. Um, >> was that um has that been since

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resolved? No, I don't believe No, we're still we're not getting any benefit from that right now at all. So, >> okay. >> So, like the the solar panels are not

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like currently working or whatever. They're being troubleshooted or something. >> Yeah. I don't I don't really know um the exact status of it, but we're not it's not generating I don't know if the electricity is being generated. it's

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going to the grid or what or how that works, but we're not receiving any credits for it right now. And so, you know, the outlook for FY27 is not great.

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>> Okay. So, that might be a question I can ask Greg, like what's happening with the solar farm. Yeah, >> Jillian, I can say it came up at the budget subcommittee meeting and Greg

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described it as a stalemate that we own the land. This company, Luminous, is the tenant who owns the panels and I understand that the it and it's the reason it was shut down is it might have been uh not electrocuting but shocking

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people in the in the area. Um, and I believe that it's a stalemate between Luminous, the tenant, and Eversource or the the the who's um regarding who's responsible to mitigate it, but that it

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did come up at the budget subcommittee meeting last week or on the 14th. So, no particular >> That's really helpful. Thank you. like he didn't have a um any end in sight.

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>> Okay. But that this is sort of is this what we expect from that solar farm in like credits? It's in four six like 70k or something like that. Like the the cost that's being offset is

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>> Yeah. Is it in the original budget or is it in >> the projected expense is a little is what you're making up for. Do you know what I mean? I don't know how to English today. Sorry. So yeah, our projected FY27 expenses are

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going to be a lot higher, but if I think part of the year, I don't remember exactly when the farm was shut down, but that impacts some of these expenses that were over um to some degree. Not

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probably not too too much, but because the original budget would be factoring in that you would have the solar credits and then what you're projecting expenses means is like what you're doing because you don't have it. >> Um

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that's the projected expense. It's I guess it's not really projected. It's what we need to cover the um the overage in those accounts at the end of um FY26. Okay. All right. And I know we did a couple of

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versions of the spreadsheet. is um are you feeling confident that this is the version you'll take to the select board as well for their approval? >> Yep. >> Yeah, there should there should be no more changes. >> Okay. All right.

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We have any other additional questions or comments from the finance committee. Do we get all of our questions answered or would we do we need additional time to review this document?

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Is the committee comfortable taking a vote on this? What I am inquiring? >> I' I'd be comfortable. >> Yeah, I would be too. So, I I would move that we approve um the FY26 budget transfers

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as presented by Kevin Peterson tonight in this spreadsheet. >> Um I will second approving the FY26 um year end budget transfers. >> All right, we got a move in a second. Do we have any further discussion?

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All right. Hearing none, I will take a roll call vote to approve the transfer. Uh Katie, >> yes. >> Linda, >> yes. >> Nathan,

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>> yes. Male. >> Yes. >> Right. I am also a yes. Um so they are approved. Um do you need anything else from me, Kevin? Do I need to sign like a um the transfer? There's like a form or something.

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>> Um I'm not sure. I can't remember what we did last year. Um, I don't know what you >> I have a vague remembrance that I had to sign some kind of form and drop it off. >> Okay, I'll I'll take a look back. Um, >> I can also send Greg an email.

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>> Yeah, I don't know if if you sent us the minutes or something or maybe that was it, but I'll take a look back and and just see. >> Okay, that's sounds great. Um, if there's no other topics, um, you're

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still sharing your screen though, Kevin. I don't since it's being captured by the recording. >> Um, >> any other questions for the >> other budget budget related or not? Uh

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I I don't have any questions. Uh I think we talked about the STM. We're not entirely sure if that is um is going to happen or not. So we'll find out uh at our upcoming meeting. >> Okay. Um,

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yeah. And I think that was that was my main question for you about that. Um, and do you know anything about the um economic development bond bill that Senator um Eldridge is going to be

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passing for the water infrastructure improvements? That's more of a Greg question, I would assume. Yeah, that's if I'm a great question. Oh, I'm sure I'll hear it from him, but >> yeah. Um, the only other question I had about was the printing cost and things

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like that. if um if we were going to consider like sending out prints for oursel instead of on the act unlimited. I assume you guys have thought about those kinds of costs and that it's probably like way more expensive like looking at these transfers anyway like

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the printing costs and things than doing it through active unlimited. But I thought I'd ask you about that to get sort of a feel. I know that's one of the things we always struggle with is when our written comments are due for printing >> and when all the other articles are due. So actually the cycle the citizens

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petitions are due after our written recommendations are due. So we're just not going to have any comments probably for any citizens petition. >> Okay. Yeah. It's always a really tight deadlines to get to the printers.

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>> Yeah. No, I I don't know if we're looking at other um ways of sending those out or not. I'm not sure. Okay. Yeah. No, that's all that's all good for

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me. Um, I don't I didn't have any other questions. So, unless the finance committee has other questions for Kevin tonight, I would like to release you so you can be free and not have to attend our full meeting. But, you're welcome to. It's a public [laughter] meeting.

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>> Yeah. I got to go put my kids to bed, so that's >> what I figured. >> Yeah. >> All right. Well, thanks so much, Kevin. We really appreciate your time tonight. >> All right. Thanks for having me. Good night. >> Thanks for coming. We're going to jump

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on to our next topic. >> All right. So, let's see. Um, one, two, three. We still have quorum. Okay. So, um, so that was the reserve fund. So, there's no reserve fund transfers. Uh, just the budget transfers. uh and

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that was approved. So, thanks for that. And then we're next topic is planning for the special town meeting. So, like we've discussed, not entirely sure that there will be one. Um it sort of was a little bit back and forth at the budget subcommittee meeting which is, you know, between all the different boards. Um my

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understanding is that the articles um are being developed right now for consideration for the select board. Um so that includes some articles about the budget, about zoning, um potentially the creation of a stabilization account and

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transfer from it for the use of community electrical uh aggregation program searchcharge for coordinator support. So I think that goes to the mayor power stuff, but I'm not sure. I haven't gotten any documentation on it yet. Um and potentially to amend the

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bylaws to have the select board set trash rates. Um, right now it's the board of health. Um, so Greg said that there might be a special town meeting with sort of those types of topics. Um, and I think that

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we'll know more after the select board meeting next week. Um, and I did also have an update for the budget subcommittee meeting. There was a question that came up about how much Maynard may expect from the winter recovery assistance program which is

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wrap funding. Um and it was a little bit over 100K. So it was 108 um,889 and some change potentially. Um so that sort of goes towards that um

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funding. So, and like I was sort of asking Kevin also about the special town meeting about the printing. I also asked Greg about that. Um, and he also said it's hard to accommodate sort of all questions and comments um and align with

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the bylaw timeline in the charter and meet the act and unlimited deadlines. Um, so he said that they do print a lot of documents for most town meetings as handouts. Um but mailing to the households he thought would be a challenge and it kind of seemed like

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from the budget transfers tonight that the printing is kind of expensive too. So and that's why they go through the act unlimited for the service of sharing all the print mailouts to the different houses. So um

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so that's the update there. Um I also asked about that potential citizens petition on the flop camera bylaw. Um, so my understanding is the bylaw committee did get that, but I'm not entirely sure if they had a meeting yet. Last time when they had a meeting that I heard about, they didn't have quorum, so

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they didn't discuss it. >> But the police chief um is expected to meet with them next week. Um, and has a lot of questions about this bylaw and some potential concerns. Um, and Greg has asked the chief to present his review to all stakeholders. So that's

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primarily the I think the select board. So, that will probably be at a future select board meeting as well. >> Yeah. >> I don't know, Linda. I think you to them, right? >> Is gonna meet tomorrow. Um, but in the in the email chain that I

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see, um, the citizen who is sponsoring this bylaw is going to meet with the chief and is set to defer till the spring. I think she realizes that it's going to take a lot of work and it would that that's my sense. complicated

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>> and so it's complicated and she realized that she needed to meet with all the people. So I think that's >> [clears throat] >> um it's that's my understanding um that it's she's she's going to do more work and um meet meet with the

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stakeholders and um you know re reddrafted and come better prepared in the spring. But I did hear CPC may also have an art >> on um if there is a fall town meeting for benches on the rail trail between

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Marble Farm and downtown something in that stretch in Maynard. So that's would be a um from CPC might might be on if there is a special town meeting. >> Okay. But nothing, you know, nothing um

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>> so technical. >> Yeah. And I can sort of share the general timeline here. So if there is a town meeting, I believe this is still the same timeline. Um so the 27th, which is today, would be um a submission for

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sort of the placeholder articles. Um and then the August 10th is sort of the real submission deadline. Um so we should know by our next meeting um what's submitted and [clears throat] if

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there is a town meeting or not. So if there is one then we'll have to keep an eye on it because our recommendations will be due September 9th. So not many meetings between August 10th and September 9th. So, um, and like I said, the citizens

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petition is due on the 11th, which is after our deadline. So, um, hopefully they'll be submitted early if there are any and if there is an FTM meeting. So, all right. Any other questions or

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concerns or topics for the FTM meeting? All right. Um, if that's the case, um, we will be having a quick meeting and moving on to the routine agenda. So, um, the first thing on the routine agenda is approval of prior meeting

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minutes. So, I will bring those up. Thank you, Linda, for sharing the minutes of July 13th. Um, so this was our first meeting that Dick opened Um I guess I would say the only thing is that

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it is correct that there were no pending transfer requests at the meeting but they were sort of in process. Um, >> so should I say no uh finalized transfer request

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instead of pending? >> Maybe something to that effect like they were being prepared but they weren't that they were expected but they weren't ready. >> Yeah. that the Julian reported that the

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transfer requests were being prepared and we're not ready for this. >> We're not ready at this time. >> I don't know something like this yet. >> They were expected. Okay. transfers but not yet ready for voting.

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Okay. All right. Do you have any further edits, questions, or concerns? And I see that you updated the the budget to the new one. Thanks for that. So, this new fiscal year

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Right. Do we have a any other feedback on the meeting minutes? >> I would like to move to approve the meeting minutes of July 13th as amended. Do I have a second?

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>> I'll second. All right, we got a second from Nathan. Any further discussion? >> No. All right, so I'll take a roll call vote to approve as amended. Katie, >> um, I'll abstain since I wasn't there. >> Okay, Nail.

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>> Yes. >> Linda, >> yes. Nathan. >> Yes. >> I am also a Yes. Um, do you want me to send this to you, Linda, the updated one? >> I I had it. I got that while we were

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talking. Yep. Thank you, Joe. [clears throat] >> Great. Thank you so much. >> All right. And I'll save that. Okay. And then our uh next topic is updates

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from chairs and members. Do any other members have updates you would like to share tonight? >> I was going to share a little more on the budget subcommittee. So we talked about the solar array. >> Perfect. That'd be great. >> Yeah. And then um Greg reported that the

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cherry sheet was a little better. um the final cherry sheet was a little better than he had in the budget around 200 and some thousand better. So that was good. And then the big topic at the meeting was the how to fund the I think it's

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roughly $20 million for the the next phase of the Rockwell Rockland AB well um which would be actually making the well um and I my understanding is the consensus of the select board was that it won't be on the

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October meeting will be in the spring and the big discussion is where it will come from if it's going to be um people's tax bills or um through the water enterprise zone. So I think that's something they were asking the finance committee you know about um our dis our

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deliberations especially with respect to um where that funding should come from. And then there was also um some general discussion of any interest in a quad board meeting and what you know what we

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would want to have on the agenda and you know what and when and what would be the purpose. So there hadn't been any you know um certainly any plans made but I think people were

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wondering if if we should have one in the fall. So, that was the budget committee. And then I just wanted to report that if people go by 141 Parker, you'll see a lot of construction progress on the senior center. Um, so that it's in that kind of used to be a

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drive drive-thru. So, they're um, you know, putting starting to put up walls and stuff and [clears throat] the last I heard was occupancy in December. [clears throat] So, that was good. But they're actually cons con under

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construction. >> That's good news. >> Yeah, >> thanks also for sharing about the um quadboard and uh >> Brotheen situation. I I have a feeling that sort of a mixed and it's sort of

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one thing that we didn't really or they didn't really um and by they I mean I think Justin presented very nicely on you know the potential costing structure and I think having it all go through the enterprise funds is just going to break it. It's just going to be so expensive.

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Um, but you know, I think the one thing that we didn't really talk about before is sort of a hybrid model where part of the cost will be in one thing and part will be a sort of a raise. And I don't know if that's just not something that's easily done, but

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I mean, you know, at the end of the day, it does come from the taxpayers, but it's just sort of how does it hit the wallet in different ways? And I feel like there could be a hybrid way to spread it out where some of it will be on the bill water bill and some of it

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will be general taxation. >> I think I think I mean my sense is everyone agrees the project will has should go forward. I don't think there's any discussion on that. It's just how to >> right you know as you're drafting the

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the debt override is how how to how to structure that financing. Yeah, and it sort of nicely ties into one of my updates here which I wanted to share. So, um I think I shared this file around

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directly. So, the town administrator and I think the select board got um a certified letter from um you know uh digital way um about the brown water. So, I guess they're having sort of brown water

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issues at um the mayor crossing. So, and that's something that um they requested an investigation of to understand I guess when they were doing the building and stuff that it was not sort of

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stated to um the developer that they should have like um filtration uh at the units, I guess. So, I'm not um entirely clear what um what what the will be going forward. Um

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so, it's sort of like, you know, they're asking for sort of review and explanation and assessment. Um but I'm not entirely clear if this will, you know, potentially turn into litigation or what this means. So, um, it's just something I wanted to make you aware of that

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has been received. Um, so it's from a resident there, I guess. So, I don't think it's necessarily from the developer themselves is what I'm trying to say. Does rather tend to raise the the legal

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hackles, uh, as it were. Um, >> it does. Yeah. So, um, so I just wanted to sort of share that with you. I think we're all sort of aware that, you know, certain parts of the the town has the brownwater challenges and, you know,

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they do have that filter rebate program in place for for residents. Um, where and where it's available? Um, >> is is Halstead like a is that a business that's in that development? >> It's the big apartment complex. Got

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>> Yeah, there's Chameleia Gardens and then Hallstead. I think it's got around 180 units. >> Yeah. >> And my understanding is the the tenants there pay their water. I don't know if they pay it to the landlord there or they pay it directly to the town, but

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the apartments evidently are separately water metered somehow. >> Yes, that is also my understanding. >> Yeah. Um and then uh in the budget subcommittee meeting documents um that I shared to the group,

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there's also the sort of what you were talking about, Linda, the different sheets in there. So um this was sort of circulated. So I was trying to find it to pull it up while you were talking, but I didn't have any luck until right now. So that's in there as well. So you can

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see the the tuition reimbursement um and the chapter 70 funding. Oh, and he was talking specifically about the chapter 70, right? But it's kind of did he talk about how it's sort of

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offset? Yeah, it it he talked about that and then um I the bottom line is when he when we voted the FY27 budget, it included a an estimate of receipts from the cherry sheet and the estimate when we

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passed the FY27 budget in May, this n this final number came in higher, which is good. So the receipts from from um the state's reimbursement will the state's local aid will be higher than we

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had projected back in May, which is good. So Oh, there it is. At the very bottom you can see the annual town meeting recommendation. the very bottom here. >> Yeah. And then um

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and then the difference was 263. Yep. New revenue. >> Yeah. So if the charter tuition reimbursement is lower, that's what the is that does that mean less people are going to schools

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outside? I don't know. Maybe that's a question for the schools. But all right, stop sharing. And I thought that um his report was really nice too that he shared the

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general fund accounting report um is also in the documentation. So that's why I give an executive summary too. So these items are all on board docs and some of the items are you know that

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we just talked about with Kevin. So and Greg says he's using AI to help him draft these reports. He go you know they help him with the first draft. >> Oh nice. >> Yeah it is nice. and then he goes over them, you know, he goes over them and

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and edits it. But it gives him a um it's a very efficient way to, you know, get started um and prepare a very useful report. Yeah. And I think the only other thing I

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was going to just mention is that um you can also find in our documentation that I shared for the meeting, there's sort of this like report about how we might be able to get connected into the mass um MWR. So like sort of like to the other

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water supplies than just making wells. And this was a presentation that um Justin and some other groups did um at the um the state level. So um and then you know sort of talking about

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how you can sort of buy into the program um and otherwise. So um let me stop sharing. Let me open the other one. The other one's better. Um so that's something to sort of just keep in mind. So this is the Metro West connection. This is sort of a group of

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towns um that are you know considering that and doing cost allocation studies and like looking at making the water more resilient and you know what um how that might tie into different things. So like and it shows you I like

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the map because it shows you the communities that are participating versus the ones that aren't and you know how that might work. So um and then gives you an idea about the different scenarios and things like that. So

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this was a pretty I think neat presentation. So um so that was Justin and um Matt. So from the two towns were doing that presentation. So, I think um and the other thing I just wanted to bring it let everyone be

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aware about is that Senator Elridge filed an amendment with the economic development bill that would have have us get about a million dollars for Maynard water infrastructure improvements. So, um, and those are definitely all of my

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updates now. Do any other members, uh, want to share any other updates? There's no other updates. I want to thank male so much for being on the finance committee since this is your last meeting with us tonight. Um, we

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really appreciate your time and service. two thumbs up. You've been um a very helpful and a very lovely person to work with. Um would recommend again. So, and we want to wish you all the best.

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>> Thank you very much, Jill. Uh and everyone, uh I really do appreciate that. Um it was so great um you know getting to work with everyone over the course of the past two years and just you know learning a ton about municipal government and um municipal finance and

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and uh particularly for my own interests like local law and stuff too. All really great just to learn um and help uh you know draft recommendations and do some stuff in data wrapper and with the the DLS uh stats and stuff. So, uh really really great stuff and glad that I could

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help and uh thanks everyone so much and really great working with uh with all of you. So, >> thank you. >> Good luck too in school. >> Thank you. >> All right. All right. And I think with that, if no

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other members have any other updates, uh, we may be at the end of our meeting at 8:00 PM sharp. >> I'll move to adjourn. >> No other updates. >> Move to adjurnn.

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>> All right, we got a move. We got a second. Do we have a second? >> I'll second as my my last uh my last ever second perhaps. Um, >> excellent. So, we have a move and a second. I will take a roll call vote to adjurnn. Katie, >> yes.

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>> Male, >> yes. >> Linda, >> yes. >> Nathan, >> yes. All >> right, I am also a yes. We are ajourned. Thank you so much, friends. See you at

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the August 10th meeting. >> Bye. Have a good night everyone. Best of luck with