all right 7 o'clock i will call the March 31st meeting of the finance committee to order uh present we have Bill Paul Bonnie Trace Zach Kevin Kevin did I say Paul paul sorry kevin and I think online we have
Steve Brandon and that's it yep all of us yeah all of us are here today yes been accounted for who do we have first
first we have I'm not sure everyone knows Amanda nope hi Amanda amanda is the uh director of the library that is following Lee's footsteps good evening thank you so much for your
time and it's nice to meet you all um thank you for giving me the chance to talk about library budget one of my favorite things to talk about libraries um so we were very grateful for our fiscal year 25 budget it allowed us to open 50 hours a week starting in
September as long as we make it past Memorial Day which we will at 50 hours a week we will be eligible for a full state aid again hey Peter this is the first time since 2008 that we'll have full certification
from the state and it will also allow us another 12.5% of state aid this year we received $46,280 of state aid um with that additional 12.5% it would have been almost
$53,000 um state aid comes from state revenue and has been a priority at the state level so we believe that they will continue to try to increase the state aid line items um so the budget I prepared for fiscal year 26 the total
request is 3.8% more than last year um the salaries are increased by 2.8% uh the Norton library is a unique department um within the town and also with other libraries because we have a municipal appropriation and uh money
from a trust that was established when the new 34 year old building was built um it's a val for trust and it comes with some limitations including that it cannot pay for our staff salaries um the trust was set up to continue in
perpetuity and the board of library trustees and the trust committee um work to make sure that we're not drawing down too much and that the trustee is in a healthy state so that it will last in perpetuity um the library budget that we
ask for the town pays for payroll expenses and salaries including Medicare and social security um the fee to be part of the sales library network that allows us to have access to more than 4 million items for our card holders um it
provides both our internal and patron facing softwares and technology cooperative purchasing opportunities and the only IT support that we have so those are things we could not afford without our network membership uh it also includes materials for patrons to use and borrow that is a
state requirement that we spend 15% of the uh town appropriated budget on materials for direct patron use and there's a line item for some computers and technology for staff um our supplemental budget covers everything else from building repairs and
maintenance uh electricity equipment and repairs fuel furniture the library grounds and the library park grounds um our insurance an annual audit or review and trash disposal staff dues and travel
and even our water bill all comes from the supplemental side of the budget um Bob Berg the treasurer of our board did send me a preliminary budget for the trust and that is $141,950 um that's conservative that's
without any massive failures for the HVAC system or um last year we had to replace our entire Wi-Fi system um that is what we hope to spend next year from the from the trust but we may end up having to draw down more depending on what happens
um so our state requirements are mainly that we be open 50 hours a week for a town of our population we have a municipal appropriation requirement which we are meeting and have been meeting for several years um and we have to do the materials expenditure which is
15% of the m municipal appropriation to the library um if we receive less than our budget request we'll first make cuts to technology and materials because we can supplement those with donations and grants um we do get some donations from individuals we have a very active
friends of the library group i believe they donated $15,000 last year just from fundraising um and we can use um materials for patrons that we get through uh cable grants we can use that towards our materials expenditure so
that would be kind of where we would look to cut if we had to cut excellent anyone have questions Madam Chair yes ma'am mike do we have a breakdown of the budget this that's what's in our packet but you just did a
lot of describing but we had nothing to refer to yet expense it's hard for us to ask questions when we don't have the line there we go salaries yeah we have that we don't have
the expenditure we don't have the expenditures broken down we have the total thank you so um are you talking about the supplemental budget or the municipal budget the municipal budget so typically we have what was up there was that
right typically we have that broken down and then totaled like this okay okay at the bottom say or the next page which is what it looks like this is so we just don't have that to refer to to ask questions you're saying the seller is up 2.8% 2%
was uh expenses increase 3.8 for the total budget this is the town that's just responsible for salary mostly salaries the sales library network membership um some payroll expenses and then the materials
expenditure requirement from the state sorry I didn't mean to put you on the spot i just questions the library when you were here under Lee right for a few years yes yes I've been here for 13 years um worked under Lee very closely
and uh really benefited from that it was a great experience um nobody has any questions if I may just impose and talk about libraries for a minute um last fiscal year we had 62,868 visitors not including visitors
to the library park um we have 1,500 programs with 10,158 attendees uh we added 963 new card holders and we are adding approximately 77 new card holders every
month um we're often the first stop when people move into town uh we have programs for all ages from infants to seniors uh we try to meet the educational civic cultural social and economic needs of the town um we help
job seekers we help with learning opportunities um we we do a lot and when we did our strategic plan last year um what we heard from people was they want more they're happy with library services they like they like their library um
they want more programs more experiences more materials um I know that you all have some very difficult decisions to make and I appreciate your time so much tonight thank you mia yes josh just one question on your
trust how was that originally set up was it a private donor yes balffor um uh LGN Mildred Balffor Trust and so they built the building and they included a one I believe it was $1 million at the time trust uh which I believe I I don't have
the exact number but we are a little bit over a million still um even withdrawing down from the interest they've been able to manage the trust to to stay uh healthy in in perpetuity so okay thank you it did have quite a few restrictions
that you know was put in place that's why it's still able to give at least every year the uh the interest yes and there's a separate trust committee of three members who oversee the the trust itself and then the
trustees are responsible for um the day-to-day operations and how the trust funds that any other questions all right thank you so much for coming nice to meet you
next we have uh the accessories budget and uh up a little bit so in the assessor department you have three full-time employees um so the uh budget request for salaries
is uh just um required salary increases by contract um longevity pay uh $3,50 and incentive pay um
$4,090 um and then expenses uh the one large increase there um was uh 131,000 for contracted services uh because at the request of the finance committee instead of an
article um what they the uh they have to do their cyclical program each year and that now it's Anything else uh no that's it the main change is like Mike said is the local
program which is now a line item instead of an article which is required by the state and it was always 100 something thousand years yeah the last few years it's been around that yeah i mean obviously it increases a little bit you know um but
yeah so it's been about 510 you know and is this like I said it's state required it's part of our certification so if this isn't done then we won't be certified by the state which our tax rate won't get certified and all
that is thank you um is this every 3 years um so we're we're on a um cyclical goal so we're on the certification of every 5 years now but the cyclical goal is supposed to be done every year um we did kind of put a a stop on it during CO um
they stopped doing the inspections um so now we're picking up again and getting back out there and doing everything so the 110 will be annual now instead of every 3 years um yeah well depending on what the contract is so this is part of the three-year contract um we're in the second year now and then next year will
be the last year they'll have to give a new contract so we'll have to see what that's going to be at that point probably around the same I would think similar a little bit of an increase any other questions for about you yes does this co does this cover the
assessments what do you mean you do you assess the whole whole town every so many years so no so that's different the assessments we do every single year these are just the inspections that's required by the state it's called the measure and list um we have a person going out just um so
we have to verify that we have the right right information we want to make sure that we have the right bedroom count bathroom count the conditions right the quality of construction's right um and then they'll do some measurements on the house to make sure it's right um so you do assessments I thought every 5 years
or something so it's different so every year we reassess everybody gets reassessed every year every five years we have to be certified by the state where we have to go into a deeper dive into the assessments um the state will you know really look for a
lot of more information from us make sure all of our cyclical inspections are being done if they're not being done then you know we have to get them done um and is that fiveyear is there additional expenses on our fifth year um yes usually a little bit more so just a
small Yeah so like for this part here this is a three-year contract so we'll get the next contract will be in another what 2 years um and then part of that contract will be for the 5-year inspections again um so we'll have to
wait and see what that's going to be at but yes pretty standard thank you yes how successful are you going door to door to get people to let you in um some people let us in some don't so
but it's required by the state so as long as we get there and you know we try to do something then that's considered an inspection well would it would it save any money if if you have a ratio of every you get in one every 25 houses
wouldn't it just be easier to just say inspect the outside and skip the knocking on the door and all that kind of stuff no we can't the state's requiring us still to come out there and do the inspections it's all about that we're we're so regulated in our office by the
state everything we do is what they're telling us that we need to do hopefully some I mean we can do part of our inspections can be aerial views that we do do so that's counted um but we have a certain percentage that we have to do every year and for a certain percentage
we have to do for every 5 years to be certified so we have to do those inspections every year to make sure that we're at that count at every 5 years so you have to meet a certain goal of actually getting into that or actually just going to the house you know as long as we get there and try to get in
they're considering that you know inspection um you know and it's important to get in there it is important to get in there to make sure we have it right um you know especially for the older houses where um back in the day we didn't get into the houses on new construction um now working with the
building commissioner I'm getting in there so we're getting them right for the most part um but if there's anything any additions or anything like that if we don't have it right then you know we could be overassessing people which does happen so we want to make sure everything's right
thank you you're welcome any other questions yeah um Madam Chair um just a quick one the uh the mapping line item is that in case for the uh public GIS website we have yes yes yep cool i love that website yeah so now we
we just um upgraded our canvas system so that we can update the map go um I think we're doing it weekly now for the ownership where before it was only once a year so now because we've upgraded now we can start seeing them with all that so that's going to help with that the
permits so Denise just curiosity do they wear a uniform or are very obvious that they're there for the town or something um so it's a it's a third party company it's our software company i believe they have something on
their car it might say assessors or something like that i'm not quite sure but um they should have a tag they should have a badge um I have all their information which um I sent to the police station so they're aware of who's out there what they're driving um who
the person is um we should be getting the same person again and follow up when they knock there's no response are you guilty of trespassing you're strolling around measuring the house from the outside without having the homeowners permission to so we can go in and and um
we can measure the house if they're not home you know walk knock on the door and nobody's home will measure the house if there's a fence we will not go through the fence so if it's a fence yard they might just do the front try to get a measurement on the front um otherwise they'll just leave and we don't I don't believe they'll leave um contact
information anymore before they would leave a card saying that they were there because then with the state it was required for them to try to go back out to that same house we don't have to do that anymore the state's not requiring that so that's why we're not leaving cards um as long as we noted that we've
been to the house that's fine for the state and I thought I heard some communities actually have the assessors do a once transfer have access to we do so that that's another way we do the inspections
so we um every time there's a seal we'll send out a letter um to do an inspection um and we get some done that way so that helps us a lot um so what the houses that we're looking at we every house needs supposed to be looked
at every 10 years so we'll have a list of homes and neighborhoods that haven't been done in 10 years and those are the ones that we're going to so if you're if you pulled a permit or bought your house or anything like that in the last 10 years most likely we're not going out to your house we've already done that part
of it and if um there's a permit out there and if I'm going out there I'll mark that as an inspection so that we don't go back to that house again i mean sometimes you know they might fall through the cracks but as long as we've been out there once in 10 years we try not to bother anybody and go back out again
any other questions you're welcome um also while Denise is here um one of the articles um see what number it is there's an article on a possible
pilot most likely article 11 it's a pilot on 12 Hill Street excuse me when I say pilot they make that Denise can explain that sure so this is a solar pilot um this company has been in
operation since 2017 i came in 2016 and found that they were out there so at that point I asked them to do a pilot and they didn't want to do what whatever reason um and unfortunately the
way the state does their their solar um we're not required to actually bill them you know a lot of times they'll make a deal with the town either a pilot or something else so they're giving money to the town this particular company didn't want to do that at that
point um but now you know years later they're ready to do it because of new laws that are out there so if they do do the pilot it's only going to be for the remaining years which will be about 11 years I believe and we're hoping to get about $15,000 a year from that pilot
yes so you're telling me the company was able to operate a business in town buying up real estate not payment unfortunately yes and then every year like you know we try to go to the ATV the appella tax board but because of their rules all the towns were losing
those cases so we never actually brought ours here because it would be too expensive so it was better off that we would bill them every year and they would have to abate it unfortunately um so then there's a new law that I was hoping that we could just start billing them but there's too many questions we
might end up back in court and again it's very expensive so if we can try to do this pilot for the next 11 years at least we're going to get some money out of them um which is that's part of the amount that we would have went with with the pilot anyway when they first started
so if we can get half that money back it's that's what I'm hoping for so we're still in negot negotiations but we're very close any questions on article 11 m yes sir is this the the the dump on on Hill Street
um so there's two on Hill Street one I think it's under the town and then the other one is a private so they're across the street from each other this is the private this is the private one the one on the left Zach when you're going uphill yeah i don't know which way
you go yeah you're on the left you're on the left you're on the left madam chair yes why just why just this property like why not the solar on plane or the other ones they were already in pilots all our other property all our
other um solar farms are in a pilot this one for some reason just didn't wouldn't do it at the time because they knew they they didn't have to basically any other questions madam Chair yes i make a motion that we
support article 11 presented by the board of assessors second i have a motion and a second bill yes paul yes bonnie yes paula yes tracy yes zack yes
gavin yes kevin yes uh Steve yes and Brandon yes can I tell me yes we're all here madam Chair yes uh Denise is there a
list anywhere on the website of properties in town that do not pay taxes whether it's churches or uh schools or whatever it may be exempt you mean um we don't have them listed anywhere we could do that if you want i'm just curious of
what that looks like i like this one nobody seemed to know about it for a decade i I don't how many more of these are this is the only property that's like this um this is the only one all the other ones are exempt or they're paying taxes um you know this one it's I
mean we know it's out there trying to get you know like I said we bill them every year trying to get some money out of them but they knew they didn't have to um it's just it's a unique case you know we just would have been too expensive for the town to try to pursue it okay thank you
any other questions for Denise okay thank you everybody um next is the treasurer's budget um and I was going over this with Wendy today did notice um some errors here on the salaries um if you look at the second
page you'll see um there's also a uh part-time position um that wasn't included on this so um this well we rework this and get it
back to you but the office salaries there's um four full-time people in the department the treasure collector the assistant treasur collector and two other staff people in the office and um based on uh the salaries that were
provided um by union contracts uh that would be $283,7325 and their other proposal is 18 hours a week uh for a part-time person which would be $23,400 could you repeat that number Mike yep
283 283 073.25 and then round it and then uh 23,400 for the part-time and then on their expenses they're pretty much in line with the
previous year um their expenses have only increased $740 and Mike that um five-time position is a new position yes that's the one we're looking to have a reserve fund transfer
for then I have to come back to you again and it it really is necessary um I know Wendy's on um and Wendy can talk more about it um you know we've talked about it before and it really is an important
position um I know the town accountant is also very supportive just saying work there's just too much work about that and if you have questions I know the treasure collector is on
hi everyone hey did you want to say anything about your budget um as far as the budget I think that Mike did it exactly how we had talked um the other thing that we talked about was the fact that we have several people that have
been here for a while and they're taking their time before they lose it so and I think when I came to you before with the other um request for the reserve transfer I think I was like a little bit
nervous and so I didn't exactly say the whole thing that I should have said so we've always had that other well we had didn't always but it wasn't funded the last budget year and because Jen was always the backup um so when she was the
backup because we were in such close confinement but then when she moved upstairs because her position required a confidential space it left us a body shot she did take the work with her up there but there's nobody to watch the
window there's a particular part of the day where the full-time clerk has to do the window and the phone and all the downloads from the online payments and that's what we were basically looking was to fill that body in the office um
it was funded prior um it's so we had somebody that was on vacation last week it was just the three of us in the office um Jen didn't have a payroll week so she was able to cover the the office
phones and the window while the other clerk did the downloads this week I have one that's out one day that she was out sick it's taking away from me being in the office doing all the task titles and my assistant doing
all the um reconciliations for us to go and answer the window and the phone so basically it's the body that we need to do that i pick up the phone but a lot of the times I'm involved in doing stuff that like
taking tax title and I can't keep getting interrupted and when my assistant's doing reconciliation she can't keep getting interrupted she answer the phone as well while all the other downloads so February was an exceptional month
because we have real estate and motor vehicle bills so we noticed it drastically and so the way I look at it is if if the town's okay with paying me my rate to set up the count up so be it
but if we could do it as minimum I think the 18 hours would be sufficient i think it would do all the downloads and and whatnot and we would be able to be a lot more productive but other than that I didn't raise anything else um other than
like the postage because the postage obviously went up but I try very hard to stay within line and kind of level fund a lot of things all right thanks does anybody have any questions for funding all right the next um is the tax title
foreclosure um and that's been lowered this year wendy you want to talk on that so the tax credit foreclosure when I came in um the 22 23 and 24 was not done um I
was able because we had a little extra help in the office um with Paula for a short while um I was able to do the taking for the 22 and 23 it wasn't an actual thinking but it was putting the lean on the property and doing the
proper notification i'm in the process of doing the 24s we're up to date with 20 uh subsequent and the 24th with the grace of God by the end of April should be all lean and the only thing we'll have out is the um remaining for the
25 the schedule goes that all subsequent are supposed to be done by September 1st um and they were not for the 24 done on time to avoid any penalties I raised to get that done um so that's um all up to
date right now as we stand so that's why I was able to stay at the same amount roughly um because I don't need to put any in there anyone have any questions on that madam Chair yes sir i assume that's those fees
are fully recovered one way or another um yeah honestly like when we put it in we add 105 recording and then when it's turned over to the treasurer so to say there's another 105 added for the releasing of the leaf if you looked at a
tax title bill and if you'd like I can put one in your mailbox for you to look at it it'll have a breakdown on the bills as fees um as part of the taking so it'll have the advertisement fees it'll have the warrant preparation fees it'll have all the fees that are added
on there so they're all itemized on the bill so when you put something into taking it's committed interest plus base tax plus instrumental um cost to put it into tax so that's the regular thing in tax you can charge
interest on interest as long as it's committed interest so how long does one not have to pay before they get foreclosed on is there a standard so as far as taking goes if somebody's already in tax title the
subsequent have to be turned over subsequent means that anybody's in tax title if they have an outstanding current bill that has to be turned over to the treasur no later than September 1st of the following year so by September 1st of this year I'll have to
turn over all the 2005 subsequent as far as putting properties in tax title as far as taking a lean it's noted that because we pay 6 months in advance because we're in a fiscal year the taxes
are considered delinquent until after June 30th so what happens is is I send the demand out on June 14th it's due by June 30th and then the process starts 5 months after that they get well 3 months
after that they get a friendly letter um five months after that they get a second a little stronger letter and then it goes on and then by March for us we do the taking of the following year so in March of next year I'll do the taking for
25 and then that gets a lean on it and then once you get several properties that's when you meet with the town administrator the town attorney and you decide who you want to put into land for okay thank you you're very welcome
any other questions thanks my little uh You're very welcome don't go yet maturing debt and and interest so so now or did you want me um I I'll just
start Wendy and then you can uh so uh the maturing principle on the long-term debt is 3,494,485 and repayment of temporary loans $520,770 and then below that is the interest on the long-term debt
2,266,447.34 and the interest on notes excuse me $12,6235 any questions or did you want to add anything to that um no mike has a a paper that he was going to hand out that shows the debts
as of 2026 I do not have any debts that will be maturing on the long-term debt there but there is um as far as anticipation um there's a question of whether or not we're going to go out to
formally um do a ban or a anticipated go um for the fire department roof um I think that's 304,900 but that's not on my sheet here um that's something that once we go out
to bid and see what kind of interest rates we get we'll have to look at that in November or whenever the fall meeting is i apologize october any questions on that all right thanks again Wendy she's not
done yet she's not done yet sorry i was trying to get you out of here we're still grateful i'm saving um just the last section uh for Wendy is um employee benefits
and uh so on employee benefits the first section contributo that's what we pay to Bristol County retirement um and then the uh medical
insurance and then um Medicare for retirees anyone have questions on the benefits madam Chair so Mike how are how are your
numbers different than the department requests um my numbers um what I looked at was after we had our last meeting with the health group and we went up 8.2
two so it's a little bit little bit less than the 9% that we had planned on and then uh the on the contributo um the the um
4,510,572 that's uh the number we pay if we pay in one payment which we usually do so it's a discounted payment thank you other questions on that chair yes sir so Mike this is townwide
right this includes every department including the schools correct correct yeah how long do you think the town can sustain those type of medical increases without changing plans or reducing benefits or doing something
cuz that's a big number year over year over year and it's frankly choking us down it it is a big number um I will say it's a much better number than most of the communities because our health group
uh has such good uh rates that you know we went up 1% 2% over several years and and then even this year going up 8.2 when other places are going up 14 15 even higher um it's done well um
we will have to look at um trying to encourage more people to go on to the high deductible plan that would save us save us some money um it's actually a a good idea um for people that are willing
to go on to it maybe younger people that can because you have with the high deductible plan you also have a health savings account and um the town puts money into that matches up to a certain amount um what what the uh individual
puts in and that money you can build it up if you hopefully stay healthy and um later on you can use that money for things other than health um but you'd pay a penalty for that um and when you
retire you can use it for anything it'll be counted as income so you'd have to pay income tax on it but it's a good way to put some money aside and uh your health insurance costs are a lot less than people on the regular plans um we
did switch uh trying to think of how many years ago it was now that we switched to a deductible plan we saved millions of dollars by doing that um so so so my my question is
what you know you did that how many years ago the last time you looked at it was when 10 years ago um do you remember it was like nine years ago would it have been you also switched the retirees to a different plan two years ago so it is an active
thing you guys look at so yeah by switching the retirees to a higher plan we save millions on our oped liability mike do you know what percentage around the are on the high deductible plan currently what percentage of other people are on that high deduct it's very
it's it's it's very small we we really have to do a better outreach uh on that and also um trying to get people to use CAN RX which is a subscription service we have for pharmaceuticals
and if people that have things that they receive regularly go on a CANRX they've not they don't have to pay a deductible for that cuz it's so much cheaper um for the health group so those are things we have to push um and as I may have said
before one of the things we're looking at is uh limits on WGO and Ampic because the amount the percentage of people that have it and the amount of the cost as a percentage of our total
group is crazy and it's really driving up the cost of the health insurance so we're looking at ways to uh limit that any other questions on um equally benefits
all right okay thanks thanks Wendy um next is unemployment um right now I would just recommend uh going with 80,000 on our unemployment
um in 23 we used uh 41,890 24 43,618 and this year we upped it cuz we're anticipating a lot of layoffs so in the
end it was $341,226 um we spent $73,682 to date so um I think 80,000 would be a a good target and uh hopefully we
don't have to add money to that in October mike how much more um is that number going to go this year um I Wendy was looking into that today um she was going to get back to me um
someone was getting an extension she thought so I put a email out excuse me about you um I put an email out to the unemployment person and that person was being um
extended because um there was something going on with her and the business in the um department or something and they were going to get back to me but the original um plan is that they don't collect more than 26 weeks and she was
already almost hitting the 26 weeks so they're going to get back to me um the unemployment depends but if you if we lay anybody off it's like a person and a half because you got to pay the unemployment insurance so it's like
we're losing a person and a half in order to make a difference so most everybody else is is through their 26 weeks at this point they also All right any other questions on employment yeah you Yes
we still have a a ton of unknowns in regards to like layoffs of any you know the schools i mean the schools alone have don't have a contract with any of their teachers or par profofessionals or janitors uh I don't know where that's going to come in does anybody else is
this something to revisit in the fall uh depending on what happens this summer Mike yeah that that's what I said earlier right there okay we don't have to look at it in October but thanks you're welcome
it looks like we're even even just this year with all the layoffs we had we weren't anywhere near what we appropriated so no it looks like they all got a job right away the idea is that way i was um reading an article the other day talking on the shortage of workers
in America and if everyone that was on employment took a job there'd still be jobs available there just isn't enough uh enough people all right any other questions on
unemployment so uh next is uh miscellaneous so fuel expense um 150,000 and then the next section uh is the insuranceances um I did talk with
the insurance agent and the one variable they're waiting on is um the workers comp um the state workers comp bureau has requested a 7% increase on the rates um last year they approved an 8%
decrease in the rate so um he's a 3% colar uh on the uh salaries in town um and if he's looking at
217,000 for the workers comp this year um the rest of the uh items he said look like they're in line but we don't know uh obviously final yet but Any questions on that budget madam Chair
Mike how come we've only spent49 on uh fuel year to date or up to December um that was up through December i I don't I don't know um I'm wondering if
uh the new electric trucks cut down on the amount of fuel we using um so um I'll get you an updated number for the next meeting so you can see that yeah that'd be good because it looks like they're you know basically
requesting similar to what was appropriated last year but if it's not necessary and it'll be this will be an interesting year to see um because we were at 151 and then I went down to 132 right and um
I'll try and see if Jared I know he he can give me a breakdown how much of that is that the price went down or how much is it because we're using less fuel right i think I'm going to report thanks i was anticipating a big delivery in the
next couple of weeks to fill the tanks the first few gone down yeah we'd be interested to see what's driving the price are using less so I'll try and get that
now you Yes sir uh under my police choir accident insurance the appropriate 72,000 you spent nothing i'm not sure that's a typo or same thing in the Medicare reimbursement
expenses um expenditures saying through December nothing yeah I'll I'll have to look and see um whether we Yeah we should have paid the bill by now i would hope so also
your fleet your your fleet insurance that seems awfully cheap for the amount of vehicles i assume that's everybody fire department police department town absolutely that seems How many vehicles are in town 50 100 i don't know i mean be honest right
yeah i mean it seems low i I had the figure per vehicle but I I forget what it is now it's like he gave me that figure one time it's very low compared to what we pay
any other questions Madam Chair yes mike just out of curiosity skewed a little bit from the actual expenses but do we do anything at town level or department level to track like recordables and loss times townwide is there any kind of quality like safety programs or like
like do the department directors manage that is there anything in place like that yeah so um the like the highway department does that and the insurance company sends people
out to uh the highway department water and sewer uh schools they do audits and um make recommendations on changes that should be made and also the fire department works with
us on on different things any other questions next mic pilot i go on to what's next on your agenda capital capital okay so the capital committee uh met
last week and uh I'll go over their recommendations so um the plan that they're recommending under um data processing 35,000 for replacement of end of life
equipment uh the police department um two of three um line cruisers replacements and uh 21,000 for electronic weapons uh replacement fire
Department turnout gear 15,000 uh excuse me 30,000 and that's split 15 uh out of capital and 15 out of ambulance um pump tower replacement this would be payment two of
five 649,800 out of ambulance station rehab repairs 300,000 out of uh ambulance um animal control replacement
van 80,000 uh Norton public schools um fire device mitigation at the Norton Middle School migration excuse me at the Nton Middle School um this is complete completion of
loop 7 through9 uh 48,288 uh indoor carpet um at the LGN the main office and the library 25,000 tech displays um purchase three-year rotation or lease to own 5 years
35,000 highway year five of five on the Peterbuilt dump truck that's 28,150 out of capital and then uh roof replacement that the highway department borrow
640,000 under sore um 26,000 um you'll see the purchase of a Ford Explorer is split 26,000 from soore and 26,000 from water and then
um the Cob Street sore station phase three um 250,000 And that's out of uh store obtained earnings and then a water meter uh and transmitter replacement
program 175,000 out of water so the total uh plan would be $427,438 out of capital 640,000 borrowed
um 21,000 out of water surplus 276,000 out of saw surplus um and
964,800 out of um ambulance reserve do you have questions on Madam Chair yes Madam Chair yes the um 640,000 borrowing does that require any kind of a different thing of town meeting um so
when we when we do the uh vote it will probably a few thirds because it's bar and that doesn't affect the levy limit or anything like that that looks like a solid levy limit don't you yes Paul
that's the second payment we already made one I believe last year that's for the new uh tower and fire truck no I was talking to 640 for the roof oh I thought I thought you said No that's a new borrowing for the roof for the highway i
just Yes other questions mike is it um 593 is that what we have in capital right now um so yeah capital the beginning balance was 59315 there other questions on the question normally a lot of the capital
gets put through October is this all going to be done at the annual yeah this this this this is annual yeah the total requests um for capital were 2,740,23 we couldn't fund all of that so anyone else with questions madam Chair
yes make a motion to approve the capital budget as presented second that do we want to read off the numbers from where they're coming from either as presented i think Zach said 640,000 borrowed
42 go ahead yes 438 from capital 201,000 from uh water retained earnings 276,000 from sore retained earnings and 964,800 from ambulance
excellent for a total of 2,59,238 second okay I have a motion and a second all right Bill yes Paul yes Bonnie yes Paula yes Tracy yes Zach yes Kevin yes Kevin yes Steve yes Brandon yes I am yes
so it's 110 madam Chair if we could do one more article um this article is um article 13 on revolving funds and um what uh we're looking to amend on
this is under um the recycling revolving fund right now it's $20,000 a year uh looking to increase this to 40,000 right now we're at a point where uh highway
has already hit the $20,000 limit on um the main culprit is mattresses and uh they've let people know right now they can't take any more mattresses cuz they have hit their $20,000 limit on expenditures uh they had the money in
the account cuz people pay when they bring in a mattress but because of the cap at 20,000 they uh they can't expend any more money um so we're looking to increase this to 40,000 and right now
they have 19,000 that they've collected that they could pay out to get rid of some of the mattresses but um they just can't because of the the cap on it i hate the cap but if we could uh increase it to 40,000 he believes that would
alleviate this issue in the future there any questions on that did we vote are we vote on any of these yet any of these items from um the others are all the same um so the only one that changes is the um the
recycling revolving fund okay everything else is the same any questions on that madam Chair yes sir explain to me the uh uh the camp eth revolving fund that was set up um when
um we purchased the camp um I think Jennifer was here at the time and that was set up so that um if she rented out the camp and had to do repairs on anything um the money would go into a
fund and they could spend up $60,000 a year on repairs but we haven't collected $6 yet no Madam Chair yes like does it cost us to have like a revolving fun
no okay the cost was to maintain uh no it's it's just on paper there's no money in make it 6 million and uh the other one uh that if you're wondering the storm water bylaw
revolving fund um that was established so that um if the planning board um had was approving a project and um a lot of times now they require on a
subdivision that they put in detention areas and um we end up having to maintain those so the idea was that when the planning board approves projects they'd get a payment from the developer that would go into a fund that would be
used by us to linkage right legal ground um can I ask one more question i thought Council on Aging was in trying to increase theirs too they did in the fall oh okay so that's already the increase number
madam Chair yes make a motion that we um recommend article 13 as presented to specify the amounts do you want me to specify change okay spending limit for
the uh 237 Mfield Avenue 60,000 forestry revolving fund 30,000 home cost home co-ost home composting bin 2,000 the recycling revolving fund 40,000 hazmat
10,000 council on aging 20,000 storm water bylaw revolving 100,000 and campaign green 60,000 second madam chair yes before we vote can I ask one question is the is the recycling is it is it a
profit center or is it break even like it costs us 10 do we charge a resident 12 or is it just a pure pass through um pretty much breaks even all right motion a second any other questions or discussion
all right bill yes paul yes yes paul yes tracy yes zack yes gavin yes kevin yes steve yes brandon yes and I two on my yes one zero madam chair yes we go back
to capital for a second mike you had a page that's missed and it was for borrowing of 250,000 for the Cottage Street ground storage area mixer and that wasn't listed I don't think under the other list but it looks like it's recommended by you guys yeah uh
that was done at the special we had in March so it's not recommended now there were two articles that was the other one and capital had to approve it
because it's borrowing um so uh the what they consult they want to know if capital approves the borrowing so that's that's why they voted on that it was just uh some housekeeping things madam Chair I don't have anything else
next week um Southeastern and First Lady all right and tomorrow night 7:15 here here 7:15 not 6:15 subject to
change without notice it has been posted 7:15 it has to be 7:15 we'll be there i know that um I know Paul and Steve won't be there um if anybody else isn't going to be there let me know madam Chair yes do we have to establish
a date for the public hearing that so many people attend people are waiting to know when people are wondering we should probably rent out Gullet Stadium yeah all two outside mike when when does that hearing need to
be remind us i'm trying to remember i didn't bring the schedule i can move it last year uh yeah may 19th is a Monday that's all I know last year again
you do it on the 22nd the 22 madam Chair yes mike what's left for budgets other than the southeast and we're still laggy that we haven't gone over are we close to done i think we are okay
so we're going to see your recommendations in the next couple weeks next Monday we did it on April 29th last year but it's the holiday yeah 21st yeah the 21st
is doing so Monday 28th bumble one come all we ever get um the charter school make us feel here cuz we spend money for them
which one though kids probably go to different chart schools foxboro isn't that the main charter school for this town you could have see if they kind of would be like a sales pitch on them i'm sure
it's more like a hostage situation how much do we get now good sharing we just get the cherry number that shows the to any other questions madam Chair yes sir does anybody have any suggestions on
how we get public participation in our in our uh meeting in our open forum short of stream of streaming on Facebook that's where the main debate is
28 days yes the public hearing nobody shows up at so we start the meeting and then 15 minutes later we end it right it's like Yeah we open it and then we close it i I think I've seen one or two people since I've been on this meeting yeah we're here
yeah use that little kitchen over there serve with herbs and use a voice notification to give people a heads up yeah let me give you an idea here no one alerts and Peter can inform us on the in the
Peter Wiggins Facebook channel peter Wiggins Facebook channel that's right live and worldwide live and worldwide around all around the world thanks Peter all right any other questions or suggestions
for I I actually I does it will the uh will it go on the um the thing up there that I probably read the thing the sign sorry the programmable sign I guess that's start it was going there then it's
gone sign's gone it was I literally noticed it the other day frontier yeah it's been taken a new sign There'll be a new one put up but make a line of Sharpie and
put it out right should be commissioned until the new one was up great yeah i mean can we get the schools to work on theirs i I thought last year was going to be a busy year because of everything going on
and nothing happened was thinking there was a change any other questions i have one i I know we're all trying to get out of here so I won't you my interest do we have a social media like person in town tom Clark posts on posts
on Facebook right pets yeah we got like people but we got a small town presence i assume that's limited to Facebook yeah Charlene um Charlene become a Tik Tok people in here i don't know i mean with the school budget being a big thing
you think you know but I guess if if we already do have somebody and she she's aware of that she probably thought of it so that would be my only suggestion is things other than Facebook madam Chair yes sir i'd like to make a motion for Kevin to make us a Tik Tok video
it's not on my phone it's not my phone it's also on the cable TV scroll there you go put that as well but chair yes motion to second bill yes yes yes
yes sorry everyone