all right it's 7 o'clock on April 23rd i'm going to call the meeting of the finance committee to order uh present we have in person we have Gavin Paul and myself and then on Zoom we have Bonnie Bill and Brandon did I miss anybody else
okay all right mike what do we have first i just wanted to go over uh where we're at right now uh with the run expenditure sheet so with the uh the latest state numbers
that came in on the cherry sheet um right now uh we're proposing to use 1,517,38 of free cash and $320,411 from stabilization um and we're we're looking at the free
cash so hopefully we could fund it with the free cash instead of using any stabilization um we're just got to go through the numbers some more um Snow and Ice I think was 104 and uh just having everyone go
through their budget one last time okay and uh I won't get that to you but hopefully we can do that okay yeah because I know um can I just ask a question about stabilization when we use stabilization money I mean first of all it's a 2/3 vote correct and then it's also can
impact our bond rating correct is that correct okay so yeah personally I mean I think we talked about this last time if we can find any other way of of mitigating that and not using stabilization um that's probably my my biggest then that'll be the
concern Did you give us the updated um revenue sheet or No you you have isn't here okay um can I ask a question about the house budget too um so it looks like they're going to be um upping the minimum per
pupil to 150 per pupil um I know last year that was kind of a back and forth with the superintendent and the school committee with they they thought that they should um get that extra money for their budget on top of their percentage um is that something that that has come
up um conversations between you and the superintendent at all yet it has okay i mean I just I would like to see if we can because that kind of came up after the fact even though the budget had come out the numbers had come out in the spring um we then kind of backed on the fall was sort of a little messy so if we
can kind of work that up because I also noticed that the unrestricted um general government is that the EGA went went down um a little bit so overall we were a little bit of an
increase but the perfeable definitely was a was you know an issue last year so and uh this is uh one year where who knows what's going to be the final numbers there's no usually the house ones pretty close but yeah that's the
one we typically use though correct for the budget okay anybody else have questions on um and the next thing um on your agenda is um town meeting articles and um on the Hey Sandy oh
Bonnie go ahead it's kind of hard to hear um so I don't know if you can move the microphone closer so we can hear or the computer closer you guys need to have the microphones closer to you but something is it hard to hear all of us
or just some of us everyone okay how about now um kind of the same so just stay as close I guess as you can all right on the annual town meeting warrant um
there's still um there's two articles are these mics not working their volume is low so I I'm not sure about that i turned it on low his voice was very
clear so he was clearly near the microphone that that comes he's near his laptop um article 9 is uh capital improvements appropriation i recommend no action at
the town meeting all right any questions on that madame chair yes i make a motion that uh we uh have no action on article 9 all right i have a motion by a second
all right um any any further questions on that all right gavin yes paul yes bill yes brandon yes bonnie
did you ask me i'm sorry yes bonnie let me ask okay that's NIO yes that's 60 and uh article 12 uh this article is to um
authorize the select board to um grant or convey property to Habitat um this also I'm seeking no action i spoke with Habitat about it there's some more research that needs to be done uh the
main issue is the town took it's a paper road on on the map it shows as uh Ross Street and the town took all the properties along the road but the road is still in the owner's name so Habitat's going to do
some more research and then hopefully come back in the fall so I'd recommend no action all right any questions on that madam Chair yes i make a motion that we take no action on article 12 motion a
second second all right motion a second gather yes paul yes bill yes brandon yes bonnie yes and I Yes
on those what's the number 6 6 and um on the special town meeting Warren um articles article five is um would supplement the sewer enterprise
budget and uh we don't need a supplemental appropriation so I'd recommend no action on that we have that packet and if you want I'll I'll go over it's articles five six and seven that I'd
recommend no action okay and you can vote them all at once so article five is store enterprise operating budget and they they don't need a supplement so I'd recommend no action um article six is
capital improvement fund appropriation i recommend no action that would put more money into capital and article 7 capital improvements plan amendment there's nothing to be amended in the plan so I recommend no action on articles 5 six
and seven all right anyone have questions on that uh yeah Madam Chair yes just so I understand um we can't just remove these because of just where we are in the timelines yeah right okay just do no action gotcha thank you
so we got the awkward pause at town meeting yeah yeah madam Chair yes i make a motion that we uh take no actions on article 5 six and seven of the special town meeting all right a motion to have a second second second all right
um Gavin yes paul yes bill yes brandon yes bonnie yes all right and I show Yes to 60 here okay um and then I'll on the if you want
to go over and vote on any budgets tonight some of the smaller ones are it's up to you what do we want to do do we want to wait until we have more people or we want to take care of the easy ones i'd say take care of the easy ones all
right okay so uh the first uh budgets um are miscellaneous town offices and board expenses and under finance committee
um I'd recommend $2,320 give us one second Mike yeah $2,20 what's a thousand representing in the third from the right column it it's just representing um the
FY25 budget appropriated was uh 1,320 so this is $1,000 more than that there you go and then under uh the zoning board of
appeals $300 tree warden 2000 historical commission zero memorial and vet uh 10,00 and historical district commission
zero madame chair yes no um Mike Memorial and Vet went down a thousand why um we only expended $64723 last year
1300 uh 4698 so just adjusting it to the average of the past history and hopefully uh that'll be enough
and and and this is to is this to purchase like the flags and and that kind of stuff or something different it is it's to purchase flags and any expenses that might occur from parades
on Veterans Day and Memorial Day okay thank you any other questions okay Madam Chair yes make a motion that we approve for the miscellaneous town offices and board expenses as a total bottom line of
um $5,620 do we want to break that yes okay i make a mo I we make the motion that we do um for fiscal year 2026 operating budget finance committee account 131
$2320 the zoning board of appeals account 177 $300 tree warden 294 uh $2,000 the memorial vets day account $692 $1,000
for for a total of $5,620 do I have a second second motion a second paul yes gavin yes bonnie yes bill
yes brandon yes and I only Yes all right under fixed um fixed general government expenses uh the reserve fund um I'm recommending
130,000 and the reason for the drop off is just trying to balance the budget hopefully uh in the fall that we we could add 20,000 back to that um depending on the free cash um legal services 80,000
and obviously that is hoping that things we will have to be very conservative on what we spend on legal expenses um we had to come back for a reserve fund this year so um I'm recommending 80 for that tax
title foreclosure 30,000 um elections 26,100 that would be 700 for personal services and 25,400 for charges and expenditures
um Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development $4,173 and Town Report $2400 madam Chair go ahead oh um Mike does the reduction in the reserve fund make us look bad
no in the eyes of rating agencies no that that they won't even look at that okay thank you and the reduction in the election is that just because it's not a big
election this year I'm sure yeah last year they had uh the presidential yeah gotcha any other questions on anything from that list question Madam Chair yes uh pardon uh pardon this question but
what is um what would the balance be in the reserve fund if we're taking uh 150,000 out of it do we know the balance you have in this year's reserve fund
right now in your in the reserve the there's not a um it doesn't carry over Brandon year to year the reserve fund is a line item in the budget and so whatever doesn't get used from at the end of the fiscal year just gets turned
into free cash oh okay apologies thank you no problem any other questions one at a time i want the whole page you do the whole page madam Chair yes i make
a uh motion that we uh fund the reserve fund account 132 for the fiscal year 26 or $130,000 legal services account number 151 to $80,000 tax title foreclosure number
one 158 to 30,000 the elections account 162 to 26,100 of which 700 of that is for personal services and 25,400 is for charges and expenditures southeastern Regional Planning and
Economic Development account 176 4,173 and the town report account 195 to $2,400 excellent motion all right motion a second kevin yes Paul yes Bonnie
yes Bill yes Brandon yes and I Yes um the next uh under the same uh category fixed general government expenses the next ones are postage for
all departments um recommending $52,550 um sailor awaits and measures $6,976 um we contract with the state for our sailor awaits a measure we don't we don't hire somebody and um this is the
first time there's been a substantial increase in that it's been the same for ever since uh I've been here um the street lighting 52,000 and sanitary landfill
um 8,000 and just reminder the sanitary landfill is uh the Hill Street landfill and what we have to do uh for monitoring for D on the facility yeah it looks like that's decreased
that that um what it changes um as you see like in FY25 it was 15,400 because there's um years when they require us to do two types of testing um and then the next year we
don't have to do that so that's why it's lower this year all right any other questions Madam Chair yes Bill uh Mike on street lighting mhm kind of a two-part question
i thought it was a year or two ago we went through the whole um process of changing you know the light bulbs to high efficiency LED and then I guess the second part is
given all the solar we have in this town why isn't this lower um we we are looking at how we can reaportion our solar credits um before we went to LEDs we were well over
$100,000 every year for our street lights um so it's been a significant savings part of the item in this also um is uh when we have to replace it's maintenance too so um it's the electric
bill but it's also the um paying uh to have the street lights repaired or replaced okay thank you you're welcome any other questions Madame Chair yes i make a motion that we
uh fund the postage and all debts account number 199 at a level of 52,550 the sale and weights account number 244 at $6,976 street lighting account number 425 to
$52,000 and the sanitary landfill account number $438 to $8,000 all right i have a motion is that a second all right gavin yes paul yes bonnie yes brandon
yes bill yes yes um the next is the fixed and shared expenses um maturing debt 711 um
$4,15,255 interest $2,279.71 employee benefits which uh account for retirement health insurance and um Medicare 14 million
6846 million 14,684,350 um unemployment 80,000 miscellaneous expense fuel expense 135,000 and charges and expenditures 1,95,433 for a total um in of
1,230,433 and total fixed and shared expenses 22,280 $89,19 um just on a couple things on that on employee benefits um you know we've been fortunate over the last few years that our insurance increases have
been relatively small even this year um our increase was 8.2% where some communities are closer to 20% it's been a a tough year uh for a lot of the groups and I saw the other day the GIC
was out of money and they're looking for the state to subsidize them uh the GAC GIC is the Joint Insurance Commission um back in two early 2000s uh the state
allowed towns to join the GIC and uh I think unfortunately for the state the towns that joined the GIC were towns that were on their owns like the town where I live who may have
bad experience ratings and couldn't get a good insurance on their own so they joined the GIC so they've taken on a lot of uh a lot of uh bad bad debt um bad experience and uh our health group has
done pretty well and we just uh rent them has now joined our health group there another community and I was at a meeting of town managers recently and one of the communities that was in our health group and got out uh their budgets being blown up by um a
19% increase in their health insurance they wish they they had stayed um and just another thing on the maturing debt um you know something to think about in the future
um the um train project is almost a million dollars a year i know an override didn't pass but thought for the if if we did a debt exclusion for that million dollars that would go a long way
to helping the budget if uh what's the total that's um bonded for that Mike i don't remember what the total is um but it's not paid it's like a 30-year note
wasn't the idea of that that the income we drew from Yeah um I I'll I'll ask them to cuz train is supposed to give a report every year i'll ask for that yeah because we should be saving enough to offset that right that was the idea
um and hopefully the fuel fuel prices stay low right Jared matt can I ask about the unemployment um I mean last year obviously was was a higher year with all the layoffs at the um schools but we still didn't spend 80,000 um which is under right and then
before that it was closer to 40 do we anticipate that it's going to be that high i mean is there I don't I don't know it's come down to the schools again in terms of Yeah what they have to cut okay can we get more information from the
schools as to how many layoffs there might be and what that number would I'll get that for you anyone else have questions uh Madame Chair yes Bill um Mike I think it was this week it
might have been last week uh um and I thought it was Blue Cross Blue Shield which stated that given the cost of all these weight loss
drugs they're not going to um prevent someone from um obtaining them but they are going to charge them more for their health insurance if they do um yeah in our in
our in our health group um we voted a couple months ago that um they're not going to be covered anymore unless you're um a diabetic um effective July one so OMPic
and Goi will not be covered it's amazing i don't have it with me i'll get it to you the small percentage of people that are on that and what a huge percentage it is of pharmaceutical cost it's crazy yeah
yeah um so yeah we had to make that decision so um we're doing other things um with um programs to help people diabetics and people that need weight loss some uh programs to help them with
that um in lie of having that drug covered thank you any other questions on any of those items madame Chair yes ma'am i make a motion that we uh fund for fiscal year 2026 the
maturing maturing debt account 7-eleven to 4,15,255 the interest account 750 to2,279,71 employee benefits account number 910 to $14,684,350 the unemployment compensation account number 911 to
$80,000 and the miscellaneous account number 940 to1,230,433 have a motion by a second second yes Paul yes
yes bill yes Brandon Yes and I Yes that's all I have okay can we just talk about the changes you sent us to the updated budgets
um no it was the what the highway and the council on aging right and actually library what was what was different about the library back up um the library was increased slightly from before
so um with with the proposed those proposed changes um with the council on aging it would add one position um and that'll that'll be on your agenda
um next week um because it would require uh an amendment to the wage and salary plan okay to add that position uh so that's $70,000 and um the library um we were able to add I
forget what it was before but to be 3% the library would be 627944 so um we're actually at 623987 now and highway um it was uh that
position wasn't added that was the one that was not in it last year and it just knocked again right okay anyone have any questions i know we'll save the vote for next week but if anybody has any question yes
so the the highway department budget that we saw was inflated by a position and thus that's where you got kind of got the money for the
um the senior center correct thank you and um I know I was asked at the select board meeting uh the other night about a headcount um as far as headc count the only new position would
be um that position at the senior center all other departments the only other change is that we're taking away a part-time position in the board of health and adding a part-time position in the treasurer collector's office and
because it's a lower salary this the net is like a savings of 3500 on that right but as far or net one then yeah as far as head count net one at the senior center which one you said board of health was
the one that you took one away from yes sir the assistant uh health inspector i can tell um if I if I could I just let you know um so that position in the board of health was
$25,758.72 and now that position in the treasurer's office would be $22,238 total so roughly $3,52.72 savings brandon did you have a question on that uh yes so I I know uh Mike you had said
it's a net ad of one position but I just want to make sure I'm not confused you had said though that it wouldn't cost any additional money because the budget was removed from the highway department oh it it position
well it it wouldn't be any more money based on what we had as a budget that I was showing previously but it would be an additional person from um what we had last year right yeah i just meant like monetary
wise right so it would be the same yeah it's it's a little over $1,000 less um for the position at the COA so that's where um some of the money was added back to the library
okay thank you y did you have anything you wanted to I suppose I'll wait to hear a vote you said next time we'll be voting yep did you have anything you wanted to We have our budget hearing Monday yes we do have a budget i would love to speak at the budget here um am I misunderstanding
though so I put Do you want to come to the mic and just It's mostly your question you might as well your thoughts i came all the way out i might as well so I put it into two positions am I misunderstanding correctly are both positions right now not recommended and
the request for one of those positions will be used for the library right okay i'll save all this library not for the library in this book i'll save all my other comments for this all right thank you
um one question um you said there was an amendment to the salary plan necessary is that just like to add the new title yeah cool anyone else any questions on any of those items or any of the budget in
general to prepare for next week because you you said that you have the minutes to hopefully we can the next meeting go over some of those how many does how many does she have in draft right now um pretty much every meeting okay so
yeah to your next meeting you'll have one meeting just for Madam Chair i missed the um library adjustment what was that going to be for was it just to fund their full request whereas Mike could cut them or it it's not
they're still not at their full requests but to be able to keep the certification and all that the right hours and all that mike yeah because there's a formula okay that we have to follow anyone else with questions all right I will take a motion to
adjurnn make a motion to adjurnn second i have a motion second gavin yes paul yes bill yes brandon yes yes and yes all right thanks everyone
we'll see you Monday thank you be well what what