No, we don't have Joe McDonald yet. Well, but we have we have more than a quorum. So, I guess we'll get rolling and Joe will join us hopefully. I've not heard from anyone about not being here, but that Joe McDonald I see we got Joe. I don't either. All right. So, um I
guess uh roll call vote to call to order because we are hybrid. Um so, let's do that. Uh Mark Yes. Ed, yes. Um, Jeffrey, yes. Henry, yes. Maryanne, yes. John, yes. Emily, yep.
And Joe, yes. And I don't see Joe McDonald on Zoom, so no. All right. So, uh, just going over the agenda real quick. Um, uh, we'll have an opportunity for public comment. Not that I'm expecting much given the rest of the agenda. Um, it's time to reorganize.
It's a new fiscal year. Um uh we have leaison reports and leaison assignments to uh to cover. Um uh we're going to get some information about um the uh the funding status of past and current large capital projects. This is something we
talked about in our last meeting. You know what's the leftover what's the delta between what approved and what we actually borrowed and what we actually spent those three numbers. Um and then planning for the um uh financial forum is the big one. um since this should be
our last meeting before that I believe. Um and likewise other we can talk about other meeting schedule and and future agendas and then yeah we have the opportunity to talk about um uh communications with the select board um uh I don't think I have much to say on
that but we have it is on the agenda if if um select board leaison wants to share anything. All right. So, is there any one who would like to make make a public comment members? Everyone in this room is
downstairs or committee. I don't see any hands on Zoom. All right. Now, I did hear a request before the meeting to take um the funding status of past and current large capital projects out of order um so that Joe can
go somewhere he needs to go. Uh um uh does anyone mind if we do that now or do we want to do reorganization first? Let's let Joe go. Let Joe go. All right. So we'll take the item on funding status of passing current large
capital projects order. Let's talk about that now. So Joe, do you want me to start or do you want to just go over sharing that? So, in your packet, I ran you um the capital projects, the active capital projects
that we currently have. The first one we show is um the center for active living. We have not done a barring for that. Um we did an internal barring with the selective board last week. I apologize if it wasn't clear that that was what I intended to do. I think I mentioned at
town meeting that um the excluded debt um for the kilum and the center for active living would not appear under fiscal 26 bill because we intended to do an internal borrowing and then borrow it in um January. So there would be no
principal or interest payment in fiscal 26 giving people like a year to kind of prepare for that to hit. Um and so you'll see that there's no um money collected for the 27.9 that we authorized, but we did do the internal borrowing. It just gives them the cash flow to get started. And in January when
we um when we borrow um we will pay back our reserves that we borrowed to get started. So when you say we didn't do 27.9 in internal borrowing, did we? cuz we don't. No, no, we just based on whatever the
cash flow was coming from the OPMs is how based how we had to do it. Yeah. Expensive stuff. Yeah. And we were just trying to tie it out um trying to get them all to actually be at the same time all borrowings. Um we needed to borrow for the fieldhouse floor in May to get them
started in June. And I had hoped we'd have birch metal phase 2 ready to go, but there were some concerns that maybe we didn't ask for enough money and they didn't want to borrow it and then have people not be happy if they needed more money. Um, and it ended up working out, but I didn't know that until after we
did the um short-term borrowing, which sounded like internally. So, we we borrow um a large amount from our reserves, more than we normally would. Um, and it's kind of just the way we structured it to try to do more capital in fiscal 26 because moving those debt payments out makes it so that
at November Town meeting I can take on more capital. It also made it so the debt exclusion would not appear until fiscal 27 on their residents tax bills. And it really made it so we could do a little bit more in the capital area because those debt it's 5% debt in capital and having moved those debt
payments out a year, you're able to do more and we were kind of in need in that road paving area, we were kind of low for fiscal 26. So that being said, um, looking at Kllum, you can see kind of our go on the on the recount. The internal
borrowing, if that money has been spent, would it show up on this report? Yes, whatever's been spent would show up on this report as of the day I ran it. So, no invoices have been processed against it as of yet, but we just did the internal borrowing last week. So, they shouldn't be spending. I don't let them
start the project until I've borrowed or we've done an internal borrowing. There has to be cash when it comes to like a debt authorized project cuz Recal authorized a couple of invoices in the last week, I think. They haven't been paid yet. Okay. Well, I banned this report last week. It could have gone through a
warrant this week. Um, but I if there if there's nothing here, I ran this report on August 7th. Okay. So, nothing's happening from that journal. Yeah, it would come out of here. It would keep track of it here. Um, and then Kellum is, you know, has a
lot more going on there because in there is also the $2.2 million for um the feasibility and schematic design and all of that. You can see where we're we are thus far. You can also see how much money we've um collected from the MSBA thus far.
Then we have the fieldhouse floor which is why I have Joe on because there was a lot of questions about hearing that the bids for the floor had come in under 3 million and asking me why did you borrow 3 million and Joe had said he needed the 3 million and he's going to go over kind
of what the costs are that lead up to me borrowing three instead of I think I don't know what the bid came in. I'm never at the table for the bid, so I don't know off the top of my head what the bid was, but there were other um costs related to this floor that had to be taken care of as well. Joe, do you
want to jump in with that? Sure. Thank you for everybody. So when we initially put the design package together for the fieldhouse floor replacement, which includes new bleachers, uh we knew as a group on the school side that we would we would like
to see um some of the athletic equipment that's in the fieldhouse get replaced. Um and when I talk I I'll be talking about that in a minute. Um, so the bids
came in at $2.683 million for the project. We we executed two change orders with capital in flooring. And the reason we did that is because these are directly related to flooring the flooring part of the project.
One of them was um the school department wanted a new logo put on the center court of the floor with the Reagan Rockets logo as well as side curtains which is a safety thing on the bleachers when they pull out completely and logos on the front of of the bleachers. It
just it just gives it an overall better appearance um and a finished lookout there. The other thing we put a change order in for um which was change order number two was for um a court covering and as everybody probably knows this
flooring out here is now a maple floor for the center court. We depressed the slab so we wanted to make sure we protected it. Okay. So what we did was we had we ordered that through capital carpet and flooring also to get uh a
protective mapping that will be stored on large rolls that can be unrolled and pulled out over the center court. So for things like voting, any school functions, you know, we do a number of things out there that you're going to want to protect that floor so that it
doesn't get scratched or damaged or anything like that. So, we also had a small change order in the in the amount of uh $5,750 which was outside the scope of work for uh testing
that we decided to do when we compacted the slab. After we did that, we had our structural engineer come in to make sure the compaction was good, that when we put the new slab in, that everything was as it should be. Um, we also took advantage of the opportunity to paint
the inside of the fieldhouse, which we were never going to have another opportunity of. When I say painted, it's from the floor up to the bottom of all the windows that go around the four walls. And that has not been done since the renovation in 2006. That was the small amount of money was $17,500
for that. Um, we have electrical work that we had to do as part of the contract. We decided it would be a better way to do it to have our electrical contractor that's contracts with the town of Reading do it separate. And when I say separate, it's part of
the project, but it's not a change order. So, you automatically save money by doing that. Um, that was a $14,000 job. And that's to provide power to the bleachers, which are now fully automatic. So, basically, instead of pulling them out by hand with a cart
that's motorized, we can pull them in and out much easier. requires less manpower and these bleaches are are are heavier than the old ones. Um, we also took the opportunity uh to get in there and do a heavy cleaning of
all the high duct work and all the beams and everything so that um nothing would fall down on the freshly um you know installed surface and then we had everything covered. If if you were to go out there right now you see everything is still covered mostly in plastic
protecting what we did. So, we felt like, yeah, that was a worthwhile thing to do under the project. Um, another couple of things that we did outside the pro the project, under the contract, I should say, was um we ordered new scoreboards, which again are
original to 2006 renovation. Um, we got new scoreboards for both ends of the uh fieldhouse, which are brand new, which is going to be going in in um probably in the next 6 weeks, I'd say. that came in at $34,000 for that. And then we also
um took advantage of replacing the original backboards on the center court, which are from 1970 on each end of the court. We replaced the bolt though. Those haven't been put in yet, but we're going to be doing that. New backboards, a new batting
cage. Um and we're doing new divider curtains. under the divider curtains are kind of a key thing because they can sort of cordon off the, you know, the main court and then the two practice courts on each end. The ones that are in there right
now are in rough shape. I mean, the the place gets heavy use right now. We're looking at um around $37,776 remaining. There's one last piece we need to purchase and which is going to be a new piece of equipment. It's an
automatic scrubber. So, we can clean the floor. The new surface out there is different than the old surface. It's uh 13 1/2 mm thick. The old one was six 6 mil. So, you're going to take take advantage of that, but it's a little more porous and we
need to get a new machine that can actually clean it deeper um out there. And again, that's something that is important to the care and upkeep. And so we're we're probably going to come in with around 17 15 to 17,000 remaining
when the project is done. So Joe, so everything that from the 2.68 and everything else that you listed in there, when you net all that out, the pluses and minuses, you're left with the 17 roughly. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. And we we were, you know, we've already go ahead. You want to say something? I I did want to say something. Um, Mr. chairman with your permission. Um, one thing Joe's not mentioning is um, we the town named him the OPM of this project because it would require an OPM and he
has the qualifications to do the OPM. We have two major other projects going on but he was able to OPM this project which is a savings of about 9 to 11% of the whole project cost. So just want to put that into your receiving any extra money to do.
Yeah, we're going to pass a hat Joe. Uh, just so you know, um, that's why we took you out of order. Sounds pretty good. We're getting up pretty easy. Um, hey Angel. Uh, another question. Go ahead. Go ahead. And then you should let someone else. Yeah, exactly.
Um, how we looking on time timing like um for the floor like with school starting up? We rushed out of the project. Um, you know, it was one of those things where there's not just one contractor working in there, there's five contractors
working. Um, Capital Carpet has done been doing a great job. Um, they've really, um, stepped up to the plate. They've been working till 6:00 every night. They've been working weekends. We're hope hopefully going to be turning it over on August 27th with
with a a little float if we need it, which is the 29th, which is a day off of the school department. So people So if I do the subtraction right, so you there's an addition above the 2.68,
you spent another about 300,000 and the additional things you got. Okay. Yep. About 10 minutes. And we did this and not to interrupt anybody, but the reason we did it the way we did it is because the the bidding
is really volatile right now and we we didn't know what we thought we were going to come in. And luckily, um the bid came in favorable and it enabled us to do sort of the wish list items that we wanted to do as part of the project. Um, so we were able we were able to take
advantage of that. Trying to I'm trying to decide what what I what I think or what I want to ask about here. Um, I mean on on the one hand, you know, a lot of the things you talked about are obviously would be part of the project if at all possible. Like for example, like cleaning and wrapping
the ceiling so that you don't drop stuff on the new floor. That's, you know, or or or or painting behind the bleachers before we put in the bleachers. Um I mean, there are other aspects that seem and okay, maybe if they're backboards that are older than I am, then I can
imagine there might be a safety hazard. Uh and and want to see that addressed promptly. Um I don't The old scoreboard did work, right? They did work, but they were not working reliably from what we've been told by
the athletic department over there. Um, and the new ones the the new ones will be um an enhanced version of what's up there right now. They're going to be a little bit bigger. So, people uh um one of the uh I should say
this before we reorganize. One of the hazards of being a fincom chair is that, you know, people come to you when they need money for things, often much smaller money than the kind of money we're talking about here. So, uh, there's a lot of stress about, you know, $10,000 here and there. Um, but, uh, so
I understand why people would be concerned about $300,000. The only question, go ahead, Mark. If just say that the bids came in at like you know 3 3 million and then you still had these other things you wanted
to do with the process of it. You would have been gone back to town to get these other things. Yeah, we probably would have had to come back and talk to uh Sharon um about uh another capital request to do those things.
Yeah. And and go ahead. Um and then is it safe to assume then Joe um if we did that you to kind of follow on to Mark's comment that it might not be at the same you you're taking advantage of the time that we're
doing it so you're getting competitive and better costs at while you're doing it while while you know the project's open versus having additional cost to do it after the fact. That's correct. And I guess I don't object to anything
you did. It sounds like a great collection of things to get done. I just wonder how we can better explain this. You know, when we've had the vote at town meeting to say we want $3 million to do the floor and the bleachers, how do we tell them, "And by the way, if the
bids come in favorably, here's the list of other things we will try and and squeeze in under the $3 million cap so that people really understand that what the full scope of everything that that we're going to get done here." You know, I I don't know whether somebody would have said, you know, yeah, the
scoreboard would be great, but you know, I think something else uh would have been a better use for that money that, you know, how we get get that feedback from the from the voters. You know, maybe something else in in Birch Meadow phase two, you know, we
could have done something. Maybe we need new backboards for the basketball hoops outside rather than the ones inside. that, you know, how do we how do we present all of this to the voters in a way that says, "Okay, we definitely are doing the the floor and the bleachers and if we have room, these are some
other things we want to do." I do like the idea Karen, I see your hand, by the way, I don't want to respond to what Jeffree just said there. Um, you know, I I do like the idea of trying to be explicit with this without meeting cuz I think that I mean, if you said, you know, we're going to spend
this money and, you know, you list out the the the nice to haves and if we don't get to have them, so be it. Um, you know, I think, uh, it's not that I think Tom meeting would say no to that. I think it's just that people are are um uh, you know, concerned that, you know,
they feel like they voted for one thing and got another. Um, and obviously that's not an impression we want to give anybody. Is this the This isn't the first time. I feel like this is maybe absent on another project. I'm sorry. Hands are up. Go ahead. Um, yeah. No, I I see my hand, but I and
I don't know how long I've been missing Karen's hand on Zoom. So, go ahead, Karen. We should probably call first, though. Okay. Point of order. Taken. Well, no. Go ahead. No, no, go ahead. You guys are right. No, no, I agree. Go ahead. I just wanted to ask I just wanted to ask Joe has has
this happened with other projects without incident where there's items and these aren't like super tangential these are basically improving the whole part of the project and and has there been concern raised? I feel like this I don't
know if this came up. You know, we had lots of money left over from Parker Roof, but then we voted to do what else to spend that on. I'm sorry. No, did we? Okay, that's Yeah, that's because it was outside of the scope of Parker. I think that's I think that's I didn't get to finish
asking your question. No, I can see where you're going. No, but that's I guess that's my point. I'm trying to say is is it customary in the way we do business in town that if things like add-ons to a project that aren't completely unrelated like where
we went and took this money and you know planted flowers at the senior center and I'm just making that up you know where this is something that's within the same building and it's improving the whole part that is is it understood the way we do projects in town that
I I guess I'm just asking Joe, you've done you've done a lot before. We've done a lot of projects in the last 20 years, but like I will tell you that we're very careful when we get an allocation for money to spend. Um, we would never take for instance like HVAC
money and go spend it on it wasn't one of those. That's that's what I'm getting at. This was kind of part of the project fixing other broken things. So, we're very careful how we do that. like carpet roof was an anomaly as far as I'm concerned. Uh we did the bidding
just right on that and we were able to we had to reclassify that capital, but we're we're very careful on um when I do an ask with Sharon, I try to give out the town. I don't want to be coming back to you or anybody and saying, you know,
give me $2 million to do a project and then on bid day it comes in at $3 million. So, it's very high. I mean, we have a we had a design done with a cost estimate and it ranged between 2.8 and $3 million for this project. It came in
lower, which was unheard of, but we're careful. If we're going to spend any money with residual funds left, it has to be related to the project directly. I don't know if that answers your It does. That's what I was getting at. You've answered it. Yeah.
I appreciate, you know, Jeff's point too where these are tight times, but I guess this wasn't egregious. I think Andrew had something too. I go ahead. So, what I just wanted to add that um when you borrow, it's very specific what you can spend the money
on. And so, Joyce is a professional. They do a lot of quotes. They go through a rigorous process. And what happens sometimes is uh as the as the expenses come through and everything gets booked, there's there's a certain level of trust
that we need to give Joe and his team that did the money that's available. He goes in and he does what he does best. He does the service and he does it at cheap because I guarantee you if you're going to have to rehire for all of those items, they will not cost that much
money. They'll cost way more. So that that's um that's the economy of scale. You have all the contractors there and that's why you have someone like a facility manager that you want them to make that call. You don't want them to like stand get back and say okay let me
go back and see if we can borrow this. It's it's just not the way that um business is done. I think that's the right way to do it. I think it's Joyy's pretty good at that and so we got to be kind of happy that he's got the expertise on that.
Well, like I said, I I think the decisions that were made were correct. I just want to figure out how can we put that on the warning so town meeting knows this in advance. It's it's easier, can I? Yeah, go ahead. So, it's easier said than done cuz the other thing that you kind of So, if you
let's let's go the opposite way. let's go to town meeting and say we're going to borrow 3 million but we might need x amount of money more if we so then the town meeting is going to ask why are you borrowing three why not borrow why not borrowing 2.5 and then if something
happens you come back to us and then the other question is that could come up a lot is the bits that are you getting are they correct is is it scoped appropriately why is it such a big difference in prices it's all of those things that It's uh, you know, it can go
both ways. Um, but I do understand what you're saying and I think that it's mostly answered by we're very lucky to have someone like Joe manage this type of project cuz he's got experience. If you put somebody else with less experience and okay, maybe you'll be a
little more careful. But that's my opinion at least. Uh, Ed. Yes. Uh so just I think to Jeffrey's point and to kind of carry on from what Andrew saying I think it can go both ways. I think you're right. I think it would be great in that presentation that
we get at town meeting and and that was less I think Joe and chairman that did that that was and and not saying that because they're not here but the schools made that presentation. what what what and it was really you know and I recall because it was pretty recent but it had the the flooring expert and everyone
else in there and talking about all those different options. I think in that package you you you could say hey these are other things that while you know that that depending on what the happens with the bid here are the what are they
called alts I well they're good alternates or add alternates but these items aren't necessarily yeah but like but in that but in that realm like you could have that be part of it the the other side of the coin I think to Andrew said but once you put that out there and then if it doesn't happen then
you're then you're dealing with stack clash like, "Oh, why didn't you do that?" You know what I mean? You know, so I think you're always you're always going to be chasing, you know, okay, well, you did all these things, you didn't tell us about it, but then if you told us about it and you didn't do them, but why didn't you do them, you know, because we didn't have the money?
Well, answer the bids came in at 99 million. We say, "Well, we didn't do any of them because we didn't it didn't." you know, so just historically saying that we don't have the money, that's not going to go very far. You know, that that you know that that it doesn't end there that if
there's there's a there's a several layers of hand ringing on the back end of that. I'm just I'm just giving the other side of the of If I could just add something, I think what I'm hearing is like this was a fairly complex project because there's so many moving parts, but I think what
I'm hearing from you guys is how we're packaging it in the beginning. Yeah. Like that's really and and I pro and I I blame I blame myself for that because you know I could have packaged it a little bit different and you know mentioned all these other things that we were hoping for but um I think we all
know what the intent was but like I put them here and it's how it's packaged in the beginning so that people have a full understanding of what could be and what might happen if you will. I don't know if that's correct like reverse value engineering if we get valuable out of these things.
I mean it's what we're doing. So I guess to to sort of this point I mean if I I promise I'll keep it short and out of character. Um you know Marian made a good point earlier about trust and how we do need to you know trust Joe and Sharon and Jane and Matt and all the
other literal professionals what they do. And I think you know the what the good thing I would like to see come out of this discussion is you know any any tricks we can find to help um you know in uh encourage that trust in everyone
else in town um people who maybe don't get the benefit of of getting to talk to these folks and getting all the details like we do. Sounds fair. Sure. I just wanted to mention that the size of this project and Jane had said it would merited us to have an OPM and
Joe did that for us and saved us about the 300 grand that he spent on these extras. So we kind of traded that OPM in for these things that we needed. Do you know what I mean? I mean, imagine having the truth. I mean, if if imagine having a brand new floor and having scoreboards that fail
on you and having old basketballs to go with your brand new floor like it makes sense to put these things together and to protect this investment and have the covers and all that. I do think it's important that maybe we find a better way to present it to town meeting with the options. The thing the thing I worry
about is when you put things in there and you list the things that you could potentially be getting out of the project, people remember that list and if they don't get them, they're upset. And so it it is we got to find a way to make sure that we say this is what has to get done. This is what we're looking for. We need this floor done.
Absolutely. And then if there's any nexus left, these are the things we'd like to have. and hope that that that sticks that the nice to have is is a potential ad if we can afford it within the budget. But having that OPM come off kind of gave you all those things, you
know, and we took a similar approach to that with the pickle ball project last spring and we said it's going to be six courts and then if we can if the bids can be favorable, we'll add another court and then we'll add lighting, you know. So that approach that was to
sound. Yes. No, I think that I mean I thought that approach that was that that that approach probably helped push a controversial question through um uh because it did uh demonstrate the flexibility and the part where you know no we will not uh spend in particular
that we will not spend more of your money um to get the same thing um if things come in high. Other comments for the committee because because like I was gonna joke that one of the problems being chairs are to go to Ed. It's worse when he's right
and about letting first nobody else. All right, Karen, please. Thank you for your patience. Thanks. A lot of good comments. Um, from a historical perspective, when we did the library project, there were alternative nice to haves. Alternative
nice to haves. And there was a committee that was well aware of them. I don't remember if they went all the way to town meeting, but since one of them was the imagination center, innovation center, I I do believe they did. So, there's a precedent for this. And I guess, you know, I'm I have to be really
frank. I'm an offset town meeting member and looking at three future projects where I don't want to have this discussion again and and have these kind of surprises. And so Joe, thank you for managing this
project. We're finally budget or within this budget. That is awesome. I I have to be really honest as a town meeting member. I I feel like new scoreboards out of scope. Backboards out of scope. New banding cage out of scope. New divide curtains should have been
presented at the town meeting. Um floor scrubber absolutely that makes a lot of sense. Should have been presented at the town meeting. and cover for the floor. If we can afford it, makes a lot of sense. It should have been presented to town meeting. So, you know, if we had an OPM and a committee to manage this, an OPM would
not just have made these decisions without having a committee vetted it. And and and I'm really concerned and part of my angst is that I have four or five official town committee me committees fighting over $20,000 and the select board is being asked to
um consider overrides. So, so you know if this keeps happening, this is an untenable situation and and and pickle ball that's a great So, pickle ball is a separate project than the senior center. It was separated. It needs to stay separated.
pickle ball if pickle ball needs to go out and what we're going to do is put it in front of the um I I I if we commit to the two town meeting that we're going to build pickle ball for it and not spend more than X dollars when the bids come in lower we need to honor that and we
can and I say now this as a I say this as a town meeting member or resident and the select board we need to honor that commitment because in my 22 23 years of being a town meeting member. I have been assured every single time we went to approve debt that we're wording this up
to this amount to cover us and we've built in contingencies and and a comment was made earlier about trust and and this is just a breakdown. So, and that we are in a very tight financial situation. So, I I I really I'm just
trying to say we can't do it this way. There's nothing wrong. I'm sure these are all none none of this is like oh you know we spent it wantingly on a on a frivolous things. They all add value to that 50-year-old field note. This project came back to town meeting twice.
There was no reason for it not to be presented more clearly that optional things you know are the floor a better to protect our investment as a town meeting that would resonate with me.
I I I I'm just we are in a tough financial situation. Our approach to projects can't be like this. We have to show that we are delivering what we got approval for. We have to not spend every dollar
of contingency and certainly we need to have an open and transparent process when we start doing autoscope items. That would just be my take as a kind of an offset tummy. But again, I don't want to disrespect
um it sounds to me like this project is completely um on time and um and so that is wonderful and and I appreciate how complex it was. Um so thank you. I appreciate a lot of the other comments you all made tonight. Good ones.
All right. Any other comments on this topic? And this was I think people might have had other questions for Sharon about money, but was this the only one that we needed to keep Joe for? He's kind of involved in all the all the capital projects. So, I was going to go all the way through so that he can tell us like, you know, if the money that's
left over can be released to other projects. Do not underestimate how much it does. Got it. Okay. Um, so the pickle ball is here. Nothing's been expended yet, but you can see we've moved the 200,000 from the ice arena. Um, and then this project looks
like it's at zero. The west street, we had moved um the remainder of that already. Police station any bids yet on these on on what? I don't uh pickle ball will go to bid uh
probably in the January time frame. December January time frame. We're still taking it through permitting with you know CBDC consultation etc. Do we lose Joe? Um no no he just turns camera and so
it's um so zoom zoom is confusing like that. Sorry. Yeah. Okay. So the next the next project is the police station renovation. It has 130263 remaining. It does not look like
it's got any invoices that we're waiting. So that amount I think can be I highlighted it as one that we could transfer somewhere else at November town meeting. So yes, so I guess this is a question it's it's kind of maybe a follow on from from Karen's. So on on just using this
one as an example. So that 130263 what happens? So like say if we're all done and dusted and that we're left that's left over. What's explain to me what the process is. So it would end up needing to be a warrant article for town meeting to move
the remaining funds from one project to another. So I'm going through them to tell you what's left, what we know is finished and left and we know that there's no extra invoices coming in. um when we know a project's complete and that there's no more invoicing coming in
that that's when we can actually decide to say, "Okay, let's move all the the access that we have for these completed projects by way of a town meeting article to another project." This is a this is a really small version of park,
1300. We did one um at the last one too because for the um the Haven Street part we had moved leftovers from West Street and other places to to cover that our part of that project. So, so that 1302
I'm I'm expecting at November 10 meeting I would want to move that I don't know where if we would move it to you know take half and bring it to Kllum and half you know just so you have to borrow you know it's just basically doesn't change the authorization of those projects it just means that I will borrow less and
this money was borrowed at a very low interest rate so um is it the determination for um state for that 1302 would it would it be necessarily um something that's
um that exclusion outside the levy versus a project that's inside or like you have I guess that's a good question. I don't think it matters because it would actually it would it would reduce the amount of excluded debt I have to borrow. So it would impact the taxpayer
in a positive way because I wouldn't be borrowing as much excluded debt and it would impact you less than it would have. So that's why I was like, let's go through and see what we got left because I know some of them like the library we when we get to it has like over $90,000 in there. And I haven't been able to
move it because it has to be the the project I move it to has to qualify for equal or greater terms in terms of borrowing. When you do a building project, it could be a 30-year borrowing. You know, some of these projects would not most of our projects
wouldn't qualify would be a building project. So that's why I say killer recal would be perfect for that particular fund. It's been sitting there for a long time. And maybe it's fine. No, I think she mentioned it. But it's just they have to be similar projects with the same
lifespan. It's as simple as that. But you cannot use uh funds that are for example um for um let's say you borrow to replace the HVAC for example. Mhm. You cannot use that money for a building. two different things, right?
Okay. So, so yeah. So then the fact that this was that 1302 was for renovations for the police station. You can use it for renovation that so that I thought it had to be equal like no the amount. No, in terms of greater borrowing terms. So like anything the building project
could take on anything but what what he's trying to get it is what I'm trying to say is the the um the use. So if it's for capital, if it's for a building, you have to find another building. It's and then the the terms are sharing the same. We're talking about two,
both of which matter. One is is terms where it's it's equal or greater. So the obviously the police station money was not borrowed on, you know, kill terms, but you could apply towards kilum because it's greater. Yeah. Yeah, just the other way around, but the library was was borrowed on
building project scale terms and so it could only I couldn't like transfer that to our smaller scale project. And I guess my so my other kind of following question then is as you do that analysis like so you're you're knocking those items as in against
what's already in the capital plan as well. Like so like if we have another if we're doing something in town hall if we're renovating town hall that's money could be could be used if you're doing if you're repainting this room you know you could use it for for that if that's in the capital plan. So like
is is there a point in this year where you kind of have these things in there and and then you're presented with the capital plan. You're like okay well we can start to net you know like you know there's some netting that goes on. Well, you know, I mean, I could, but I I tend to usually because we borrowed this money, I usually tend
to put it to another project that I would be borrowing for and reducing the amount that I would borrow. Some of this money we've borrowed at really low interest rates. And right now, those interest rates are not nearly as good as they were back when we borrowed some of this funding. So, it makes sense to reduce the amount that we're borrowing
currently rather than reduce our capital plan. You know what I mean? Like take things off our capital. Yes. But I I guess my the distinction though is what we would borrow for excluded debt versus what we would borrow like for what we what the town would borrow
you to do a project, you know, to do a a renovation. So, is it worth it just to keep these open? Well, it's it's always an option. you I mean and and and and just make the determination that this will help us if because we're we're never going to see
2% rates for you know for a while as far as what we borrow to making that determination based on something like that versus you know kind of looking at like whittling away or you know the the the kill recount that is you know like
this isn't really going to make a it's not going to make a lot of difference but it's a nice opportunity to to clean up these projects that are complete and have them be done and down to zero. And especially the one for the library where the library has been done for quite some time, but we just paid it
off and yet we still have $90,000. I mean, that makes that. So, since I was already entertaining that one, I was like, let's just clean them all up and just Joe has to go to the next thing. So, if you wanted to grab a project or answer a
question. The next one is the um energy improvements has 17,9773. Joe, is that done? No invoices coming. It should be complete, right? Uh Joe is on the call but currently muted. I think he's answered this for me
before, but I believe it's available to be, you know, that it's complete and that that money is available to be reclassed to another project, but I don't see him on there, though. Well, it's because camera. Yeah. The parking
for a moment. So Joe, the energy improvement um 2 phase 2 has 17,9773 that looks to be available to be reclassed as something to another project if we wanted. And Parker Roof
again has $30,000 available. It's like the gift that keeps on giving. Um but there is an incumbrance for $12,000 still out there for Parker Roof. So I didn't know if you knew anything about that. Can can we talk tomorrow about that number? That project is closed out. So,
yeah, there's there's still a PO out there. I'm not sure what it's for. That can go back. Okay. And then Birch Meadow is the FA that's the complex. So, phase one and two isn't here. That's still going. Um, building
security has 13,99656. That is complete. Correct. That can go back. Yep. That's closed. Yep. The Mlette still has some stuff that needs to um be charged there. Haven Street is still in process.
Turf 2 has $882. I think we're done there. And then the high school turf and track is $13.29. That That's really close. Wow. And then the library has 90,66269,
but there's also $3,050 of POS still out there, which I don't know what those are for, but yeah, that that can be everything can be closed. So, if I close those POS, then it would be more like 93,000. Yep. Okay. And that's all I got.
Perfect. Other questions, especially for Joe on his way out the door? But I just wanted to say to um just a shout out to Kevin, the assistant director, because these projects we're
doing, I I would not be able to do them to the degree we do them and we work really hard down there, but you guys have a great assistant director and Kevin Gabuzzi, this guy just kills it every day for the town. So, just want to let you guys know he's an integral part of what goes on down there.
You know he's on, right? Right, Joe? Oh, he's There you go, Joe. snuck in on there. Okay. Wow. That's um Yeah. All right. Well, that's off. I was telling him what to say. All right. Thank you. Thank you both.
Serious. Now, I want to thank all of you. It's a pleasure working with all of you and you know what we do, we obviously can't do without your support. We appreciate it. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you for coming out this evening. So, this
Thanks for joining us, guys. All right. So, we're done with Joe, but I I don't understand how we can have $90,000 left in the library project if we paid the library off. I mean, in my mind, if you paid something off, we don't have that money
anymore. You paid off the loan. We paid off the debt. The money we borrowed, but we borrowed this money and that's leftover didn't get spent. So, it has to go somewhere else. We We paid off the debt. We're not can't pay the we paid off the money that we borrowed.
It's really hard to get a large project like that down to zero, right? It's really not easy. I mean, because there's contingency built into these projects. And if some things don't come to fruition that you don't need all the money, there is always going to be some kind of a remainder. And in that case,
it was about $93,000. But that project was over almost $19 million, I think, for this little project. It's less than a half% of what what the total project cost. When you're talking big numbers, it's
really hard to spend it all, but I I I would have needed a town meeting vote to pay debt with it. And it would be an odd thing. I'm not even sure I'm allowed to do it that way. Um cuz capital projects don't pay debt. So, what would be viewed as a comparable project that you could move that 90,000 to?
A building project, which we haven't done one since the library. So it would have to be a something I could borrow 30 years or greater. So it could could it go to the kill them then? It could go to either one. I could split them 5050 and move it. If I were to clear the clear all the projects that
have been completed, I could just take the total and split it between the two projects or I could put it all towards one or the other. But with their excluded debts, they they benefit the resident because I'm going to borrow maybe a little bit less. But you know, it doesn't it's not going to make a big thing. But it will also clean up our
general ledger. And you know, we've been waiting to get rid of this 93,000 93. Yeah, that that's the one that I really am more concerned about cuz it's the first opportunity since we finished the library that we could actually move this to something else.
See, got scolded for not letting the committee talk first. Correctly. Correctly. Okay. I'm still struggling with this $100,000 for coffee. I don't know as much as these two. So maybe I should try explaining it.
I'll just say common sense. I'll just say this. So the contingency that they build in for example, let's say they put in. So I understand my my problem is we said we borrowed we approved debt for a certain amount for a 10year term, right?
For the library was just 10, right? So we said we want I don't know 12 or something million, right? So and you issued that debt which means we were paying interest on the full whatever it was 12 something million
and and there's $90,000 that I'm trying to figure out where that was part of that would have been contingency money that was part of the $12 million that you issued. So, somebody bought debt from the town up to $12 million. Yes. And we had $90,000.
We can't prepay anything. When we when it comes to our bonds, we can't refund them like right away or anything like that. So, we realized we had this extra money. We couldn't actually refund it at that time. So, it's not that I could pay the debt back with the money that was
left over because there's specific rules related to when I can call that debt back, when I can actually refund it or refinance it or whatever you'd want to do. But there's not enough money that I would even attempt it. I would have waited for a project. I mean, and what we borrowed for back then is way lower
than what we're buying for now. Yeah. And we've been earning interest on this money, holding it in our account, you know, like the entire time, investing it and getting returns on it the entire time. So, it's not just been sitting there, it's been growing. If you think
about it, it's it's part of our cash balances and we we do seeds and investments and things of that nature to get us a return on that money. So, it hasn't been just sitting there. It might be on here for, you know, $90,000 is what's left of what we actually borrow, but it's been earning money for us as
well as part of our cash pool. So, we $90,000 we have because we issued the debt and we got the money and we stuck it in our bank account and it's sitting there and then we paid off the because the library is all paid off. You got to look at them as two separate things because we borrowed. It's almost
like a mortgage on a home. like we borrowed to do this renovation and we had our setter term payments 10 years of payments to make and that is separate and distinct from the actual capital project fund that I'm talking about. This is the project where the capital
project fund is where the building is happening. It's all the expenses related to the building not the debt but the building of the project. That's where the money went. That's where the the borrowing went is to fund that project. But I'm not allowed to pay debt out of a
capital project. I cannot do that. I'd need some sort of special vote. And I'm not even sure. So we have to transfer. Whenever we have money left over that we've borrowed for a project, it has to be transferred to another project, another like project.
And I think it's nearly impossible to get any project of that size down to zero. I would say when I first saw one for $882 for any of these projects, like to have that little left, that's that that's remarkable because they all have contingency. Especially a renovation or
a building project, there's going to be money left over if we don't experience any, you know, major issues in the build. And there was something about a similar or longer term. So, it has to be like when we borrow for a building or renovation, it could be a
borrowing of 30 years or greater. Well, not every project qualifies for a 30-year borrowing. We borrowed for 10 years for the library project. And so that that 10 years is already expired, has run out because we paid it off. So I'm I'm trying to understand why
we would why the term of that matters because we've already had it for 10 years because because that's the money. The money was borrowed. It wasn't it wasn't pre-cash or anything like that. So we have to adhere to what did we borrow it
for and what what did that project qualify for? Yeah. Like what what terms does that type of a project qualify for? So even though we borrow for 10 years for the library, it qualified for a 30-year borrowing. Um and so I need to pick a
project that would be qualified for that same term. Even though you're not actually borrow I'm going to So already lost Mark. We lost Yeah, we lost Mark. I don't know. Oh, he had his hand up. John Sullivan had his hand. He may have I saw John, too.
He might have been up to tell us that he had he may I Yes. I don't know what that was. I hope um I don't know if we have any texts from him or something, but um uh so anyh who. Okay. He may rejoin, he may not, but all right. Um so I wanted to jump in there because, you know, we
had somebody leave and that's going to go in a minute and so forth. All right. Um, I don't know if you're satisfied with Sharon's answer yet or if I should give John a chance. I try to answer. I'm not allowed to pay debt out of the capital project fund. So, that's the issue. So, I couldn't just say, "Okay,
I've got 90,000 left. I'm going to pay the next debt payment, but 90,000 from this capital project fund and the remainder from our budget. I can't do that. I'd needed some sort of a legal vote anyway. And I'm not even sure you could do it." John
interest or none of that money included in this 90,000 figure? No. No. Because all interest is general fund money unless otherwise stated. And so there's it's not a grant or anything like that. It doesn't have to be separated. So it's part of our pool cash. So it's been
earning money for us. It's just not in that pool. It's part of that lovely line that's come in way above projection for a couple years there. uh people's income regeneration then it becomes right when it comes in higher than
projected regeneration. Yeah. I mean it's it's I mean if if I borrowed uh $10 from Sharon and I put it in a box where I'm only allowed to spend that money on people named Emily, then I'm
going to pay Sharon back the $10 I owe her plus interest. And then if Emily, if this Emily leaves, I have to find someone else named Emily to give that money to. That was a ridiculous example, but I hope that it actually I mean
compared to a lot of state laws, maybe not. So I think that that's a great example, but I think this is going to help you. I think Okay. Okay. You can try that at some point. We got to let this go. Spend all night when you think of it as from your
checking account. Okay. Yeah. So when you pay, you pay from the checking account and then you have a box that you have al you said that you out of this box maximum that can come out of it it's $10 and then
Emily doesn't work only works part time. So she only will invoice us $8. So that box that you have 10 has $2 left over. That's exactly what's happening here. That's contingency. 10% contingency.
Those 10% don't always work out. That's all. So when we get invoices, you don't get invoices for the full amount. Some of the invoices are lesser than than what what was projected. That's all.
It It's just weird that we have paid off the debt. Yeah. And there's still money left. You mean paid off the debt? You need to look at them as two separate accounts. Like you have account that you pay your bills, your you know your debt bills, let's say the the the loan on the
the property and then you have another account that you're paying for building something like building the library or renovating the library and only only expenses to build that property goes to one account and only the debt goes to the other account. They cannot be coingled because it makes it a very
messy thing. You can't pay debt from a capital project. Even though it's the very reason you have the debt capital fund came from the debt but you but it can make it very messy if you mixing in your debt payment in with it
like it makes it a little bit more plus state law have authorized you not authorized you I don't think it's whatever I think the payments for we did 10 years for the one borrow was 10 million it was a million dollar a year for the
principal payments and whatever the interest was so and then there was a second borrowing and it was closed library in 10 years is very impressive very impressive we have no excluded debt for fiscal 26 which is wonderful
John it's been more general on all these reports there's the yeartodate revenues and expenditures some of these projects are several years old so more money spent prior to that or is that year to date or just like so when you're looking at these particular funds that I'm showing you
the capital projects. Those are considered multi-year and so they're they're lifetime to date. So from the day that that project starts to now because it will show you all that's happened multi-year because their setup is multi-year. So that is how far we're in total
project. There's no additional money. No YTD actual is a misnomer it looks like cuz we didn't spend we didn't pay the library the the year-to- date actual column title. is a misnomer. We we didn't we didn't we didn't pay the
library architect $175,000 in fiscal year 26 the library um oh that happens to be the one I'm on because it's got the 90,000 I'm talking about but any of them they have um all of them have a year-to- date column that happens
all these all these projects that we haven't spent a dime on in months or years um have something in the year-to- date actual column but that's because it's the project is today an actual column not the year to date like right that's
yeah these are the contractors the biggest yeah but at the top of that column the title says YTD year to date is this is the way but really you got to look at it yeah it's it's definitely all the years it's been
there I'm get what you're saying now's okay that's a time today is what I call John gets full marks for actually reading what it said um which is is you know so thank you
I see we have uh looking around Karen you've had your hand up for better part of a week go ahead I'll be quick um I love my name I can I ask the question so we um we had
this um $90,000 If the library was about 1.8, so let's just say that's a half a percentage point and we have um three big projects in front of us and I'm extrapolating and hearing Sharon say how hard it is to close out projects and um
wondering if there is a a legal um mechanism by which a municipality could sharpen the pencil around how much we actually borrow for. um say just so that we don't end up with it could be half a
billion dollars from three projects sitting there for 10 years that we don't we can't do anything with. It can't be used where we actually need it. So I'm wondering um you know you could selfund the last
$500,000 of a of a contingency. it also that there is a pressure having been on the library project there was a pressure to spend every last bit of the contingencies and and again we commit to the taxpayers that they're there we need
it we're not wantingly spending it but you know people are human so that's why I'm asking this question so we have to balance the cost of issuance which I told you is correct you know to issue debt could be $50,000 and so you want to
make sure you have enough when you borrow. You want to borrow as much as you can. And the contingency is part of what you're expecting. And so it's kind of hard to know, you know, what to, you know, what to put there for contingency and borrow because if we only a lot of these projects, we only borrowed once.
We went out and borrowed $10 million and then we needed more money for the library and borrowed a second time. But most of the time, it's one time and so you really have to be good about getting enough money so you don't have to go back out and issue again. you don't want to pay 40, 50, $70,000 for an issuance.
They can they can they range and so um it's a balancing act that we have to do if you think about it because that's a you know that's a lot of money to pay to to issue debt. I mean just there there's always going to be another building project.
I would hope. I mean there is like we have you know I mean that that was one of the you know we've been really good waiting until we paid off our excluded debt to entertain any others but you know every building is going to need work with this time I would think that none of this money would ever be a
waste. We would be using it towards something else. We we did this math or someone did this math during the killing discussions where it was like look we've got whatever six town buildings and seven school buildings or something like that and if years would you be doing so exactly and if they if they all last 50 years then you're doing one of these
projects every seven years or and and so yeah so and if it's earning interest in the meantime I mean even if it is waiting seven years cuz it just missed the window for one and has to go into the next one and it's earning interest that in that time I'm not losing a lot of sleep over it and we are borrowing um these projects
like Kllum and the center for active living entrances. So that would help us get closer to the number because we'll get you know further into the building and be able to discover some of that contingency that might be there if there is you know
so I so something that Ken mentioned and I wanted to just add to it. I think the best way to approach what Karen said is when these projects come up and there is the project manager or the team that's talking about it there when they talk about contingency we need to be vocal
and and try to ask as many questions at that point and trying to question what that contingency is and what's what's it about. So I think the best way is to do that at the time of the project in my personal opinion because the the way
that the town does it they kind of weigh as as Sharon said the risk associated with it. It's a very big risk if your projects if you don't have enough money to finish the projects and the risk is you you're going to end up paying more.
you're going to delay the project and it's going to end up in the news as and it's going to look like the town did not know what they're doing. Yeah. So, but to Ken's point is when these projects come up, we need to be we need to be asking question. We need to be
present and and as Ken said, select board need to ask a lot of question. We need to ask a lot of questions. So maybe that's the way to approach what Ken said. I guess the other thing too is just the environment that we're in with all the tariffs coming. there's so much uncertainty with pricing of what we're
going to need to build these that the contingency absolutely has to be there for these um projects because I don't if ever think we need to have contingency built in strong into the community well as we go through the design process
it the the numbers get refined right so these projects are now going into design development pricing and so at the 60% design pricing they will get priced again in December before we go out to bid and always looking at the market,
always looking at what's happening. Um, I think we lowered our contingency on pickle ball because as we get closer, we don't need as much contingency because the numbers are solidifying, right? We don't have we don't we're not further out. They add the killing project's
$500,000 a month in contingency. So, you know, that's that's what we're carrying. So, so those things change and our OPM tracks that information. Um, we'll be having more pricing conversation very soon on both of those projects and they will be coming up in the meetings for
those projects. So, encourage you to tune in. So, that sounds like both. Exactly. No, exactly. I think we're on larger. So, cool. Other comments or questions about this agenda
item? I wish we had Mark here because Mark was specifically asking me about this before, you know, and actually as an agenda item as an agenda item and be clear, I mean, we're obviously on RCTV. Um, and and so he can watch the replay and and follow up with questions. He
knows where to find, you know, Sharon, Jane, Matt, and the rest of us. Um, but so do you need anything from us on this or just I just wanted to, you know, we did have that conversation at the last meeting just kind of making you aware of where we're at with some of these projects and
um and just know what we have remaining on these. But then you know you you and Joe settled out which ones are done and you can close and then we can we can plan to close it out. Yeah. So you would see it as part of a town meeting article when we decide to do it whether it be November or
April. Would you want to do this on this in November like that? Yeah. Yeah. Just get it over with and, you know, put the money in gives us cash flow as well cuz it's money that is already there. Um that we can just move to these projects and expand cash flow
for them while we're waiting tomorrow. All right. Um that one first agenda item just took an hour. No, I mean we're you did this for our benefit. We asked you for information. and you provided it in great detail. I really appreciate it and and I suspect a
lot of other people do too. Yeah, I think it's worth it's better for us to know now too. You know, it's it's always a better problem to have to be able to have spare money for scope than like what we may end up finding a few years down the line with Kell and if prices are filed that we have to start
descoping things and telling people to to back off. So, these are really small potatoes compared to what could happen with that project, which I hope doesn't happen. Very exciting. Yeah. All right. Okay. So, next agenda
is to vote to reorganize. I believe the protocol is that I hand the gavvel over to Matt for picking um uh nominations for chair. Gav's in the box. I think uh there's no gavvel in the box. We have to steal. I mean, I think Brian's
probably still wielding the gong steal. It can be an imaginary gavl. It's okay. All right. So, yes. So, I'm I'm handing the the mic g whatever it is. Um over to Matt.
All right. So, I will open up nominations for chair for finance committee. There nominations. You can't see me. Oh, you can't see Emily. Oh, sorry. Yes. Um, first, thanks Joe
for your service. Uh, you were wonderful and appreciate all the work that goes into this. Uh, and if our current vice chair is willing, I would love to nominate her to be the chair of the committee. If she's willing, thank you. I I I I guess I discussed
with Joe that I I wasn't sure. My work has just become very intense and I don't know that I'm up for it for this year. From other people too. So I think I I think if Joe still has
the time it would be fine and there's people I think I could say something different next year but I just know what's happening with this. Okay. Any other I appreciate it. I think it's true. Was that an official nomination of Joe? Oh, are you nominating Joe? So, we had a
nomination for you. She declined my nomination. Yeah. Nominate. Don't So, I nominate Joe. You have a nomination for Joe. We have a second.
Okay. Um, any other nominations? Is anybody going to ask me if I that worked on. Yeah. No, it it is I I will actually point out because I did I did I did reach out to Mary because I am interested in in not you know getting any static for having been chair for too
long. Um this just isn't my year. So, so I mean there is there is a there is actually another another reason why um uh trying to take turns in a year makes sense is because Marian's up for reappoint this year. Am I?
Yeah. Well, I thought it was next I lost track. Yeah. And I mean this coming you don't want to reappoint yourself, I guess. Yeah. That's just it. and then I'm up for reappoint for the following year and I don't want to be in the business of reappointing myself and and and I don't want to put you in
the position of reappointing yourself. So, um uh yeah, so I'm I'm you know, you know, two years. Yep. 26. Wow. Time wise. Mhm. No, I can't believe I'm up fully one year after. I I mentioned to Jackie too that at least
my name dates there are incorrect. I don't know what the 32 is because I could be reappointed again 27 to 30 but not beyond that but not beyond that right because I was appointed in 21 y
years a person who didn't get a full term didn't do a full term was me right I did two years so Jackie said she she thinks it was wrong but um our gem's out out this week so yeah we can check okay yeah I'm I'm pretty sure we're
Okay. The finance committee can count. So, yeah. Jo been nominated and accepted and seconded. Any further nominations? Do we have a motion to close nominations? Motion to close nominations. Second.
Okay. Do roll call. We have We don't have We are no longer hybrid. So, just all in favor. All right. So we have nominations are closed. Let's vote on
it. I I I can take it from here. I think we should nominations. We'll do the ultimate vote. This is the vote. They haven't voted. Oh, we haven't done the vote. I thought you now we're voting on
you% right Joe chair all in favor I opposed seeing none Joe congratulations you can take it from here and like I said I'm not going to do it again because next year I will be up for reaction so um maybe that maybe that puts weight on the question of vice
chair um because I will be looking for a replacement any year um so but Yes. So, moving on to the question of uh the vice chair. Are there any nominations? Do whatever. I know.
I think you want to try. Fine. You're so good at motions. I am good at emotions. So, that's true. Uh similarly, I'm in work explosion. Um, okay.
But I feel like vice chair is less of a stretch that just got to read a lot of emails. I mean, I do that. I'm a firm believer in CCing my vice chair on emails that Marian has experienced. So, she's she's right to
warn you about that. Anybody else wants to nominated? Speak now, please. Yeah. I mean, are there other nominate yourself nominations? Yes. I mean, um, there's, you know, there isn't anybody here who couldn't do it in my opinion. So, um,
for Okay, that was if I was going to nominate someone else, I was going to pick you. So, thank you for saying that. Um, maybe next. Um, okay. All right. Might be I was say I was going to nominate you for vice
chair. and accept it the first thing, but then they'll go crazy. We'll change one thing at a time and next year everything will be next year we'll just do it all different. This is good. It's good to give everyone a chance.
Okay. So, um any other nominations? Right now, the only one's opening. So, now I'm going to actually do the two steps like Matt was doing and like I failed the follow. Um, so to So Motion to close nominations. Thank you, Ed. Thank you, Jeffrey.
Um, all right. So, all in favor of closing nominations. All post passes. What are we? We're down to 70 at this point. All right. Um, then yes. Uh, so all in favor of uh appointing
electing Emily as vice chair. Opposed 70. All right. did not go as I expected. It's not it's not bad. You can still CC see me on email if you want. You can't break.
I can't I I I can't imagine you not being a dedicated and active finance committee member. I already got a half page of reports already. Yeah. Speaking of which, thank you for the segway. We are on to uh liaison reports.
Uh so uh would anyone like to go first? Uh so uh it's about IMLD. Um I attended their meeting which was an hour before our meeting. They announced that the uh interim GM that they had appointed that he had appointed had resigned. So they
now are looking to appoint someone else interim. So they the the person that was in the name was uh Michael O'Neal. He was the director of operations. Mhm. So he served for just a little bit I
believe just like one month and then after FIPS. So this is the resignation. He completely resigned from so they probably
Also, I wanted to update you guys that they also have a hiring com committee for the new general manager. They did go into um executive session to discuss the um the pay for the interim general
manager and they will be looking they'll they're actively collecting résumés. There was a question that was asked on how long this process is going to be and they will leave it open until that pool of resumes builds builds up and they think that they have enough um resumes.
So it doesn't sound they have a specific time frame in mind but that's where we are now. They go they went into executive session so I had to leave to come in here but it's kind of excitement is intriguing. Wow. Yeah. That's that's excitement that
I'm glad to be closer to. Yes. We're glad to do. I actually had a power outage the other week like literally the first time in, you know, whatever it's 14 years. Yeah. It was like a block. It was like it was like
that's it. All right. Uh something like that. All right. Other portals. Okay. So, I've got um a select board one and then a mixed one that um I'll probably throw over to Emily regarding like,000.
Yeah. Well, it I guess it's a general thing that it starts with, you know, after our last meeting. Um and our select board member who's on the call is aware that I spoke I spoke to this. We there there became um interest in making
some money off Matara Cabin. We were like, "Good. This um little Montasauri Forest preschool wanted to rent it." Good. But the rates they were offering were just like below way below market rates. And so I had spoke at the select
board meeting even though it's not up to them. It's up the conservation commission where I think at the time they were going to offer oh something like $9,000 and that was just well below what a lot of rents were and there was a lot of underestimating use. So I I don't
know where the negotiation stands. But why this came to my mind again is because several rec committee members reached out to me because of something that happened at the rec committee the other night which is Emily's leaison but as I understand
it and Jane will correct me if I have it wrong cuz they said it I think it's someone from conservation came to you and wanted to get $9,000 up to $9,000 of w committee revolving money. Is that a document?
No, that's not No, I think that may have been what was said, but that's that's not quite that's not quite where was said in the meeting, but that's not the real the fact the the process that you just mentioned wasn't true and the amount that was said in the meeting was too
high. That was that was the amount that was said in the meeting, but it was too high. I I can elaborate the Yep. Okay. Please do. So, at the select board meeting July 15, um as uh select board member Herrick referenced earlier, we had uh several
different committees that were, you know, putting in there to request same 20,000,000. That's correct. So, the select board kind of agonized a little bit of like how do we allocate this? We can't meet the need of the conservation commission. And so I said, "Let me see what I can
do." Um, and look within my department, someone had called in and made a point that passive recreation, walking on trails and in, you know, engaging in conservation lands is a form of recreation. And I think that that is true. Um, so I said, "Okay, let me let
me see what I can do." Um, it's a good point. So I spoke with the recreation administrator and said, "Can any of these expenditures that were in the packet for conservation commission aligned with how we use recreation
revolving funds?" Um because recreation uses the matering and things like that. And so through some discussion, uh, he said we could fund the picnic table and we could fund
the sign kiosk, um, that that conservation had requested. So those two together, the sign is $3,100 and the victory table $1,600. Um, so recreation can make those
purchases. The agreement was to do that in exchange for some nature-based programming that would be operated out of the Mata cabin um by conservation conservation members or the conservation administrator. Uh this would be a one-time not to be repeated sort of
thing but to be able to fulfill the mission that the conservation commission was seeking to do without looking for additional funds um elsewhere in the budget. So that so it was nobody from conservation came and spoke to me. I offered it up at the select board
meeting to see if I could look into that and make that work. I asked the recreation administrator to bring it to his board and have a discussion there before I brought it back. It's like they were four hands separated. And that's how people reached out to me. And they
reached out to me just knowing because I had asked, tying it back to this Malbury Forest preschool that the school committee still won't even approve till next week that I feel like it's it's great that there's going to be a use, but I think conservation needs to get a fair rate, especially if they're going
to be using it, you know, 35 hours a week. And then that money could help with, you know, conserv conservation things. That's just one update that is an interesting thing and I don't know if it'll happen just another update um which is I think is more interesting and
Jane you also played a role and I also spoke uh at the last board meeting um and Sharon as well clarified the amount of the internal borrowing and I wanted to follow up because it I thought it was more than we perceived at select board.
I thought we were thinking was going to be 2 or 3 million and apparently the state recommend is 9 million which represented such a large percentage of our free cash that I wanted to just ask more about that. So the select board did approve that internal borrowing and that
will get paid back to our free cash when the actual borrowing goes out. Doing this will probably save us you know I don't know $40 $50,000 in interest something like that. Yeah, the it was trying to make it so that we borrow all at the same time. We had borrowed for um
we did a a short-term borrowing for the field toss floor because it was the only project that needed money in May or June. Um and then I thought we might borrow for Kllum and recal like in July or August. Um, when we talked to the bonding agent, she's like, "Well, let's
if we do a nine-month ban on the fieldhouse floor, that will bring us up to like January, February, let's do a borrowing in January. That way, it sits within the time frame we can pay that ban offer." Like, you know, you can do it within 3 months of it maturing. She
said, "If you do that, then you kind of avoid the debt payment for fiscal 26. You can do more." We we had a lengthy discussion and realized we could do a little bit more capital in fiscal 26. We'd save on, you know, the debt issuance because we'd be issuing all those debts all at once. So, we'd be
issuing Kellum, pickle ball, recal the field floor as a permanent borrowing and birch metal phase 2. So, we'd be borrowing five projects all at once and it cost us $40 $50,000 to issue debt. So, you don't want to do it five times, you know, and every time we do it, we
have to do um a bond rating. You don't want to do that. That's part of the cost. And so, So that's that was part of the decision. We didn't really know what we were going to do for internal borrowing and I I apologize for not letting you know that it was going to be that big like live and learn. We didn't
realize that the the cash flow was going to be that large for just a few months but we had to base it off the cash flow that we got for the the center for active living and curriculum. And then last minute I heard that birch metal was ready to go when they needed their
funding. And so they didn't they weren't ready by June, but they're ready in July to start thinking about putting that project out there. And so we need funding to get started. So it ended up being a much bigger internal borrowing than I had anticipated as well. But it does save you from having to issue more
than once. And then we're we're we're borrowing from ourselves. So we don't pay any interest. You know, we're not paying somebody else for a ban. So there's a lot of savings to be. So, I think the question I forgot to ask and it's occurring now is as we do budget planning,
what and and you have to certify your free cash and talk to the state and we talk about free cash usage, are we going to be able to count the full amount once we're paid back or are we going to be basing it on, oh gee, now we're down to 8 million. It doesn't get counted because it's happening in July. They're going to
count our free cash as of June 30th with all the regeneration. Okay. So even though we're temporarily taking it out, we're going to base our free cash usage in FY 26. No, FY27, I'm
sorry. FY27 on what it will be when the free cash is paid back to us. Yeah. So basically, it's as of June 30th, 2025. They will look at our results of fiscal 25 to set our free cash for fiscal 26. And we're kind of in
advance borrowing from that freezer. You know what I mean? Almost like in advance. It's not exactly that it's counting after we pay ourselves back. It's actually that it's counting before we borrow from ourselves. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I was I mean it's the same thing. Which if you pay yourself back in full
to report to do when we do an internal bar so they can keep track of that then we've actually got that kind of reserves to be doing the borrowing but also to make sure that we pay it back. All right. Right. So the last update and this is not may or may not result in
money is the select board discussed various money making activities including um fees for accessory dwelling units which I just talking the concept that's newly allowed by the state. So I don't know if a lot of homeowners have
been taking advantage of that yet. Um fees for short-term rentals which we may or may not even have a policy. I don't know how many people are Airbnbing in in Reading, but and the the more interesting one and Jane had an excellent analysis of this was um the
idea of like advertising on our fields or putting things on the fence like you see in Wakefield, but and I don't know whether that's sponsorship or advertising in correct me if I have it wrong, Jean, but I think you pointed out that your research on this showed
advertising this if we went the advertising route, we would have to take all comers for advertising even if something was arguably in inappropriate to go put up on a fence and it was better to have sponsorships. Yeah. So, and that was just my point that those may be things that our select
board is discussing. Well, if you want to add to that. No, I think you summarized it nicely. We have to be careful. Um, we have to either create a very a very tight policy about who we sell advertising to. Otherwise, you can open yourself up to,
you know, maybe maybe folks who don't want to have advertising in front of kids on fields or certain types, right? Certain ads or something. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. I don't want to speculate, but we all have wonderful imaginations. Um, so especially Ed. So,
um, thank you. Um so so uh yeah the sponsorship thing seems like a good way to go and um you know we we'll have to bring some more back on that but um I did that was also the recreation
administrator Jim Sullivan we can be more selective with sponsorship we can turn down sponsorship without correct yeah and that gives and and we've talked with town council about this as well we'll continue those conversations so that we don't navigate ourselves into dangerous waters so we'll be very
pragmatic as we go forward. And and I guess the last thing and I don't have the exact date is the I I'll defer to Miss Herrick who's on I believe you guys I didn't state for the agenda where you were going to form a water and sewer rate advisory committee or you
were discussing that. Did you guys vote to end up voting to decide to form that committee? I watched the replay earlier today so I know the answer. I just want to remember the answer. I'm a little fuzzy on that one. Sorry. That's okay.
No, they didn't actually vote to form a they just discussed the idea of it. Discuss the idea and then they compare with other communities that have such a committee and yeah, there was there was a lot of money questions about tax rate discussions coming in the next few months and that's it for me.
Yeah. Great. Um, on the AU thing at CPDC, they said that there's been an increase in inquiries about ADUs but not an increase in the applications. It's it's it's it's quite an undertaking to unless you have an in-law, you know, that you're going to or something or teens like what you're
going to do. It's really creating controversy in some surrounding communities. Like Medford's going to change their zoning and they're going to have like six units on a I just know I'm from there so I'm following it. And it's you could go really too far like you know one unit versus
turning three families one by right into one unit by right with the state law. Right. But if I think they were saying convert it to a commercial property and that's not allowed. Any is not allowed in a commercial property. It's only on residential property.
Well, I'm just talking res Medford has a lot of like two family and three families and they're just thinking if every one of those units is a condo and could have an ADU then you could take the two family become a four family and a three family become a six family and what about the parking? Anyway, that's
what's happening there. I don't think we're in that boat cuz we don't have many of those kind of units. We would be lucky to turn single families into with an ADU. Small clarification on this topic. Uh like my So the the the impact on
revenue, you use the word fee, but I might be I'm probably taking false precision here. It was it was I thought the impact was that ADU construction counts as new growth. Is that right? Is that all right? Yeah, I mixed my things fees on um short-term rentals.
Now, if you if you proceed to Airbnb out your if we if you Airbnb your ADU, then uh there's a tax that you pay to the state that comes back to us. Um tax and we could raise that tax. Yeah, it was it's currently 4% and I guess
could be six. A lot of Yes, it could be six. So, yeah, I saw in the packet it was something like we collected like between 10 and $17,000 in that over, you know, each year. So, if if 14 is in the middle and you increase by
50%, it'll be $7,000, which is not going to, you know, it's going to right. It's going to take a nickel off everybody's tax bill, but we'll take it. Well, right. And it would be enough to it would be enough to put Exactly. It would be enough to put one or two
committees requests you know to bed actually. So there you go. Um can I ask since Jane it sounds like you might know the answer to this no guarantees are all ADUs new growth or is it only if there's like new structures like if you
turn your attic into an ADU is that count as new growth? It's an interesting question because it's existing square footage but it's not finished square footage. So I really question your assessed value is that I mean affect your assessed value.
You would you would pull a permitation. Say you're putting another bathroom in for the but like if you have a a new law that you're trans Yes. How house is it the same? You have the same but like so has new growth. Yes. I I would assume so because the
second you pull that permit know the value goes up and now you have to pay more. I mean you can put an addition on it. Yeah. Increases the value but that's not if it's an existing basically if you have like an existing it's already an inlaw. It's already
done. You're just saying now it's an ADU. I know you get there's some new maybe it's not that much of a bigger tax increase versus like when we had downtown and we added all those new units and then that remember it added like a million in new growth that was still in Buffalo was town manager.
Yeah. Like if if you're just adding on to your house and making it worth more, that doesn't change the total tax levy that can be collected, right? So if something didn't exist before, like say you built an addition onto your house that's new growth that didn't exist prior that that square footage
didn't exist prior. The finished we just got hit with all that. So I mean congratulations renovation hidden close to home. I mean if you're the relative No, this is an interview question. Yes. if the if the house you know your taxes depend on your relative value of your house to
your neighbors. Um so if like houses that are painted blue become more valuable or something you you know it doesn't change the size of the levy at all but your taxes might go up some else goes down. Um but yeah this is good to know that that the um additions and and use cuz yeah I was wondering if it's a new structure. Yeah. I mean I feel like the real new
growth would be whatever they do to Eastern Gateway and that well that's this is not going to that's years down the line. Right. This this is also indeed the amount of new births we're talking about here. If there have CPDC has not actually gotten the single application yet, then they
there has been an uptake in the application and we've had a ADU bylaw for a while. Okay. It's now changed because of the state law and there that has not led to an uptake in application. Yes, state law is by right and we by right. Okay. All right. Our law, our
bylaw said that it had to be if you had to put in an ADU for a family member. A lot of states has few. You don't even have to be living in the house, but correct. Okay. So, um I should have more on school stuff, but I think that can be
for for my turn. Um who would like to go next? Uh we're just at this point we're just going around. Do whatever we got to do, man. That's what we're going around. The recal committee met last week and there's a little bit some good news. So the
construction estimate has come down about $1.3 million between schematic design and uh design development. That's right. I got that right. Uh most of that is either is part of it is
because there's less uh contingency since we're further along in the process. But also we did a geotechnical survey and have been able to simplify the foundation which is going to save some money. But some of the contingency might go back up. There's some discussion about
it from like 10% down 5% at this point. Some of the members thought maybe 7 and a half was more appropriate given the international trade situation. And then CPDC approved the uh childcare facility on Habil Street.
The one that's been applied for Main Street is still in processes. Oh yeah, the Hill one went through quickly cuz that one had like a couple of meetings versus the one that's in between two houses with the narrow driveway on the Yeah. And then there was some discussion
of updating the our ADU bylaws, but it sounds like that's not going to happen before, at least not before November 2026, please. Um, so I'll I'll start with Rex since Marian brought up some of the stuff I wanted to talk about. So Jane, thank you for clarifying because I have
a question for Jane question mark here. Um, so that was great. Um would like to start just uh acknowledging that longtime WC member Mike Coleman passed away unexpectedly last week. So um that was a bummer. I knew him obviously very well from being on wreck with him for
quite some time. Uh very sad that he will not get to see his pickle ball courts come to reality, but um there will be a memorial service tomorrow uh at 5:30 Memorial Park. They reorganized Rich Hand who's been on there about 25 years is their new chair. So, they're in
great capable hands. Um, and yeah, I had some follow-up questions about the $9,000, but I feel like they were amply answered. Um, but Jim also noted that they had about 20% less uh income this revenue this summer from their summer
programming because of all the construction going around town, like some of the spaces were constricted. Um, and they also noted that next summer they're anticipating the coolage gym to be offline, which is the primary site for their summer camp. So, they're already starting to think forward next year, how are they going to handle
summer camp uh on rainy days, basically. Um, but that's on there. And then just as a followup, you know, the the 9,000 I was like, that sounds like kind of a lot for what I was thinking was asked. So, thank you for clarifying, Jane. Um but
the rec committee uh there was some some voice that was you know we have things that are on our priority list that keep getting bumped because we don't have adequate funding the inclusive the inclusive programming and and um the
therapeutic sports and you know yeah unified basketball and and that stuff. So, and they they uh I think it was Bob Wyman maybe uh also mentioned, you know, if they lease out to Mater, they can have more revenue and we can do
this. But, you know, Jim and then I talked later with Jenna. Uh it sounds like, you know, they're working kind of internally to figure out what's the right balance. They're talking about um cohesive programming between the two to kind of work things out. So, it sounds like town staff has it under control. Uh
not concerned there. And then uh I've been working I volunteered myself or something because of course I did um working with the um community services folk uh to bring forward a plan for an
operational plan for recal. Uh so when they came to talk about recal one of my questions was well like how are we staffing? How are we lighting? Where's the money coming from to operate this building? And so was talking more about it with Jenna and she's like, "You'd be great to help us with this plan." So
we're we're starting to just kind of brainstorm, you know, what is the tech support needed? What's the building maintenance? I know I'm a glad kind of question as a citizen. So, uh, just a volunteer
to like look at some stuff and and wasn't there some dispute between the the the Council on Aging says we we want this place even at night and Rick wants it at night. I thought they were still disputing over who is going to have all
the uses spaces. Some of the policies we're going to be dealing with is like programming prioritization and how does this all happen? So, the good luck. Yeah, it's uh I feel like this was a mistake, but we're doing great. Um doing a great job.
We're going we're going to COA on Monday to kind of say here are the things, you know, cuz they see very each group sees the thing that they need, but the building itself needs all these things, right? So I think the plan is to go and say hey we understand that you care
about programming and you care about space but we also need to care about but and we'll get your input on these three things or whatever you want and we'll get this group's input on these four things however it's going to work. So I feel like it's getting the stakeholders to the table making sure everybody feels
heard to avoid knockdown dragouts will report back cuz it's going to be spicy this summer I think. Oh boy. I mean, are you are you the person determining or are you going to get representatives and representatives from do they feel like they're they have equal representation or should they have
equal? That's the plan is to make sure that the the important stakeholders are going to be all talked to and they're all going to feel really warm fuzzy inside. So, what's up with the cooler gym? Is that on the capital plan and I just
don't remember it that it's not available next year? something about the slipperiness of the floor. It has to be stripped and redone. I didn't I didn't understand if it's just been stripped and redone. It sounded like it was something that
can be done in house, but it just running around, right? We heard in the in the context of the fieldhouse floor, we heard a lot about what Joe Huggin Company do for floor maintenance for our existing carpet floors. So yeah, that sounds like
this. Yeah. So that's all I got for right. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Um I love it. I should not talk to Jenna anymore. It's really learning your lesson and this is the safe space for you to talk about.
Yeah. All right. Um so I got a quick on TV. But anyway, I got on this. Um uh so um couple things on Kellum. Um we actually we we haven't met um our next meeting is Monday. Um but um u I
think some folks have heard um modulars have moved from uh Kllum to the high school. Um uh and that was kind of a precursor to you know starting it to getting some of the um work done that
taking advantage of this this summer to be able to do it. Um and we're able to um um use the modulars in um uh at the high school they'll be used um for uh pre uh prek um and then after the
project they'll be used for like ad uh administration offices is what it sounds like. Um we are similar to what um uh John was saying about um recal. We are in the design development uh drawing and
specs. Um we'll get an update. We we we've we got those um um as committee members to review um in the last few weeks. Um and we'll be discussing some more of that on it.
But we're going we were officially going clockwise. All right. So um for me I mean these um so so first when the lazy audit committee which actually met for the first time in my time as a finance committee member I think um and we
missed a year there. I remember asking Sharon about the circumstanc so so the so the audit committee met to review the um RMLD audit um and uh which was uh very educational for me um and and uh um
you know it was interesting cuz it wasn't it's not a budget you know we're in the habit of reviewing a budget and nitpicking like well why did this expense go up or whatever and it's not actually the audit is more like are the expenses what management says they are Um so um people still ended up asking uh
about um specific expenses and things like the um uh like the town's actually of interest to this group um Armald's uh uh the the money that Armald pays the town actually went down slightly.
Yes. And then and so which you know prompted questions and because of course all the other numbers in their budget go up just like all numbers in all budgets go up. um you know their their costs went up, their revenue went up, and their money they're giving us went down. What gives? Uh it's because the formula
for the money they give us is based on kilowatt hours sold averaged over 3 years. And apparently that actually has leveled off and turned down slightly. Uh which I I mean I'm you know I don't uh you know as a conserv conservation
minded person I love saving energy. On the other hand, I, you know, as a finance committee member, obviously I would a taxpayer. Um, uh, would would have liked the money. So, um, but that all it really went down even with more
people with electric vehicles and chargers, you would think. Yeah. I mean, it's more and all the people working at home, you think there'd be more electricity usage. Yeah. I mean, I think it's it's partly things went up at the beginning of the pandemic because of everybody working at home. So that was part of what I think
it went down relative to that went back. So if we went back to preandemic per capita, are we like level? It's just we're down from this spike. Okay, that's a good question. I don't know. Um but, you know, it was um but I mean certainly Armald has been pursuing, you know, various, you know, encouraging
projects to encourage you to do, you know, electric heat pump, get an electric car charger, rebates for things, you know, I wish I got an electric snowblower. I could have got a rebate on that. um they have it all but uh to try to encourage uh use of electricity rather than other uh sources
of of you know basically lighting things on fire um to get energy but uh yeah so and then let's see how so community president act study committee is chugging along we have finished I think I may we may have already finished our round of everybody you know rec gives a
report conservation gives a report historical gives a report housing gives a report um we're now in the process reaching out to other committees. Um uh so um and actually that started this week. Um Senator Bagio and I went to the
um town forest committee meeting on Monday um where they immediately proceeded to ask me about finest committee stuff. That's not why I was there. Um uh I'll get back to that in a second actually. Um we're also going to other town groups that are not necessarily uh you know town government
groups uh to a running aquarium society meeting yesterday since um uh CPA money can be used for um funding uh historic preservation of things owned by nonprofits as well as things owned by the town. Um speaking of other committees, we
don't have a liazison to town forest or to um conservation or trails. Um but uh the um uh the what the um the town force um committee chair uh wanted to talk about town force committee want to talk about
was um their interest in trying to secure funding for invasive species control especially in areas where dead red pines were removed. Um, and it's uh, you know, I I did I told them I was like, it's it's it's getting
increasingly harder to ask for money just in full transparency. Um, on the other hand, that there's there are arguments we made about protecting your investment. You know, we had to cut down the trees for safety, but now if we don't control the invasives, it's going to be a mess. If we want to control them later, it'll cost more. So, there's back
and forth there. Uh and then I actually uh chatted with the conservation administrator earlier today. Um because conservation has similar interests for you know having a more predictable budget than what they currently have. Um and certainly the current process where they go and like we have like five
committees have a little like nice fight for SL board is like really why like this is I'm sorry like this is just you know and and and it's it's um uh 30 to $30,000 a leads and $20,000 a month. Uh uh it's not a collaborative way to do
this. So um I'm glad to hear town staff actually talking to each other. That sounds like a collaborative way to do this. Um but uh any so there's some interest there. Um I got to ask uh Chuck about the um uh the Montasauri forest school because I questions about the
amount as I understand it the the way they arrived at the rate that they are. So, first they haven't actually made the deal yet to um uh rent a cabin to this the the forest tell the school that as as we speak they are having an open house meeting. Well, but they have Yes, but they have
to recruit now or they won't have any students to pay the money that they are would be signing a contract to pay. So, there's chickens and eggs there. Uh but anyh who uh so apparently the so we what this was town council's advice was to um uh because we it's careful it's
difficult not to use conservation properties like a like a like a profit generating uh entity and so we have our we have our established costs for if a nonprofit wants to rent the cabin. And so the agreement was to use that rate.
And then the number in the cycle packet and this is going to be I think in the contract is based on um an assumption of 2 hours a day for every school day plus 30 days a year where they would be there for 4 hours a day. So 15 whole days. Um
and then uh the um I asked if you know what happens if they use it more than that. Um, uh, Chuck said that it had not been, you know, the contract hadn't been put together, but that, you know, you should be able to ask them for if you use it more, you pay for it more.
That, assuming that's true, that's what I that's what I posted. Their website lists school days longer than, you know, 4 hours. They have like 7 hour school days. So, they have to account for where are they going to be all that time. Yeah. That's just like if what they're
sell if they're charging $20,000 for a year and saying we're giving you 35 hours a week of school and they're telling Reading we're only using we're only going to be oh at at the most 2 hours inside and it rains all day. I mean we had you know 11 rainy days in
May. I just feel that's why I spoke up about the usage and what the wear and tear will be. We we we can arrive at something more realistic but I didn't. So I I've looked at this a lot. So maybe I have too much opinion. I I was also encouraged to understand
that that um Chuck had come forward with a much larger figure and uh town council told him that he couldn't get away with asking for that because we need to be asking for the standard amount that we ask uh any nonprofit for for you know given projected usage. So if we're asking the same as other nonprofits and
we are charging for usage then I mean it's about the hours. It's about if they say oh it's 2 hours but we're really here six hours. Well, that's right. Something different. There's there's also a question about whether the rates are correct. Uh since practically nobody rents the cabin for most of the time, the you know, it's not
been a big issue, but um uh the you know, the conservation commission could revisit those rings um and raise them, but they'd be raised for all nonprofits, not for one, you know, school in particular. And I think those are all the updates
for me. Um, all right. Back to the agenda then. Um, leazison assignments because I feel like we're going to get to 9:00 and having done actual business. Actually, the conversation with Joe and about that was a lot of business.
That was a lot of good business. So, and a lot of what we go forum, too. So, yeah. Yes. No, that's true. All right. So um uh Jackie has of course uh u pulled up the the current assignments.
Um uh so I guess maybe I'll start by asking if there are people who have particular interest in they especially want to keep they especially want to change.
I didn't even know I was the library leaison. I do not remember. Sorry. Sorry, they're doing a building project. Okay, that's my update on their own money. Yeah, the terrace project. Yeah, I'm happy with my assignments.
Okay, quick work for you. Yeah. All right. So, I'm making some of my own notes here. Um likes it. Whereas I I don't I mean I've Mary Marian that sounded like a request
to swap with. Yeah, I don't know. I'm I'm happy. I feel like I I let you down because I do read the read their agendas and and stay on top, but I haven't been reporting because I forgot. Um and Charter Review has been not that active. So I follow
Select Board and I tend to follow CBDC, but John Sullivan's already covering that, so that's fine. But I I like still following Select Board. But what else do you need help on? I mean, do we need trails and conservation? I was going to make that observation
that we have um uh other, you know, like I think trails and conservation can probably be lumped together because they're generally working the same properties and generally trails. The trails is not the same as town. We don't have anyone on town forest, but forest feels like it overlaps with trails.
Yes. So trails tend overlaps with both. um kind of all over that. Well, conservation is different because it's all people with wetlands on their property putting up fence, right? And and and conservation does manage land, but it doesn't manage the types of like it's funny. If you have a question about building your wetland in
the town forest, it's conservation. If you have a question about like maintaining a trail or managing invasive species in the town forest, it's town forest committee not conservation. Conservation does not have ownership or stewardship of that land. um this town force committee does. But yes, I think
there is um probably a uh these these committees which are you know openly talking about you know interest in a budget and and I I'm certainly not dismissing the possibility. Um
well I I wanted to take on I don't know what one of those which what did you say you wanted conservation or Yeah. Yeah, I mean we have, you know, conservation I can I mean they meet at the same time with us so it'll all be after the fact.
Yeah, I mean um both of them have also already reached out to me but I shouldn't make myself. Yeah. No, and I know people on the board I know someone on the town forest can can keep me updated informally if we need someone. Yeah, they seem to talk a lot about dog regulations.
No dog regulations on Monday night, believe it or not. Um so yeah actually okay so maybe we'll put down um I don't know I should be looking at one do I have select board I mean you can leave me on charter I don't know that a lot has been happening and
you can put conservation down and informally town forest conservation/forest I guess I know it looks like four but they don't have a ton conservation will be the busy one unless someone else wants
I there's there's a couple the two conser the two former conservation commission members should probably look at each other and make faces or something about whether Oh well yeah John is just being real quiet here even though he was on conservation for years. Okay. Um I was only on for a short timer
but yeah. So afraid they've gotten shorter since we were on. They could not have gotten longer. I'm sure they did. Well, but the thing the thing is we're not reporting back on all the homeowner stuff. It's only like their bigger issues. You can fast forward all the uh Yes. Um
it's nice. The recap does AI review so it can get to the issues and then then you can it can focus you on where you want to go in the meeting because it's gone through everything. Yeah. Or like and then still press. All right. Um so actually where does that put us? Um okay. So, so I've still
got conservation complex in hand and I will be Yeah. Um, you know, I can and just take library off me, I guess, unless nobody's doing it. I don't know. I Somebody somebody should somebody Well, Joe Mcdana was on library already. I don't think library needs more than one person until they start their
They're not spending town money on the Yeah, though. I guess the town is managing the bid even though they're spending their own money like you guys put out to bid. Oh, on the um still everything has to go out to bid. Yeah. Everything everything that's privately run, right? Yeah. Because it's the trusting funds
and so forth. But um what's the project they're doing? Terrace. Terrace. Yeah. Should we toss this to the designer? Yeah. Look right out. I know. It's going to be right in front of my house practically. Yeah. Hopefully there aren't too many noisy concerts. I mean,
it's going to be quieter than my kids. The routine hangout. Keep an eye on every parent's dream as a big team wants to hang out at the library. So, I'll take it. Um, it's strictly better than most alternatives I can think of. All right.
So, other changes here and we have our like we have our perennial topic of liaison to town departments where I don't know about everybody else but that didn't uh I didn't do anything with facilities.
Um I mean other than participate in the discussions that we all did um I sent one email after we reorganized and was like hey if you need anything call me and that was that didn't happen. Yeah the department's very
yeah they don't need a whole lot. Can we get a leazison for bylaw? Um I mean I don't don't know why we would need one. They they can't spend money basically. They're among the few committees that hasn't figured out a way to spend money
yet. Don't give them any ideas. So if you're community services, you'd be the leazison to keep us a breast of what's happening in the um gate eastern gateway because we know what's going on with that. Eastern I mean committee representative. Yes, that's true. We should write that down. Yes.
So, um I don't think that was captured in the official liaison list, but for John Sullivan, um Eastern Gateway committee, right? We we voted to appoint John to the Eastern Gateway steering committee as the uh exeicio fin
representative. So that just like I'm on CPA and he's on that. And John, not me. Don't give me more work, Jackie. Thank you.
Aren't you recreation as well? Uh, where you reported? Uh, Mark Mark took on Wreck last year, but I still do community services, which covers elder and wreck and everything. So, when he doesn't,
we want to hear about all the spiciness. Yeah, I was saying I will there'll be a lot of updates I suspect. Like Armald is getting spicy, too. That's going to be Yeah, I'll I'll pick up anything anyone wants to throw down, but I don't feel like we need double and triple on
anything. So that we don't already have select boards. I think they're good to have too. Yeah, those are the ones that and you know you watch the leazison on reports a select board meeting when they have them which they they didn't actually get.
It needs a couple of us to cover. Yeah, we've never Yeah. Um and then for school committee, speaking of other big deal committees, um we've got is it Jeffrey and
Mark? Okay. Um, so Mark is also on the audit committee with me. He was there, which was good. He actually told me what we're going to do cuz I never been to one before. So he was a big help. Um, did you chair it?
Yes, I was the chair. Right. Apparently the fin chair is on the chair. Advised you. He did it for years. I think I told him to listen. First thing Mark told me is you didn't come to the last one. Uh, let him be the chair yet. So, we'll be having another one.
Still waiting on our right. We got to do I was going to say we got to do the town sooner or later. All right. Um, let's see. Other changes. Obviously, there's a couple folks who are not here. Uh, if I were maybe a little less busy in my own work,
I might have remembered to, uh, email Mark and Joe because I didn't know they weren't going to be here. They could they might. Yeah, they can weigh in. They can weigh in on, right? And we can always I mean this is not carved in stone. Uh if uh you know Mark comes back next
week and says I've never been to a school committee meeting and never want to. Uh then sure we can probably vice chair probably checking in with them and just seeing if they uh if they need What's wrong with you? You were right. Oh god. All right. Okay. Are we done uh
assigning liaison and trolling each other? I think so. Well, I don't know about the trolls. Well, the chair forum has our next. All right. Yes. So, okay. Back to the Why is my mouse not working on this thing? Need an extra mouse.
Oh, yeah. Forum before the other. Yes. So, more bullet points. Zoom in. Yeah, there's a lot of This agenda is a monster. Um, we skipped Oh, by the way, this is this is um I guess this is sort of technically future agenda as well because it's it's July 2026, but um I
was looking up whether the CPA committee needed to reorganize and I was looking like what's the wording that says you have to reorganize and does it accept ADOC committees and I couldn't find anything that says ADOC committees don't reorganize. So, I was like, "Oh, well then I better go through that particular promotion." I don't I'm not expecting I
mean I will I might be able to recruit somebody uh to chair that. We'll see. But anyway, um but yes, so I saw that the uh the general it's not in the charter. It's in the general bylaw specifically says the committee should reorganize between June 1st and July 31st. And we didn't we didn't meet July
at all. So next year we should probably have a July meeting. We did the best we could. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's not. It's not um turns out the consequences for So you're saying it doesn't stick and Marian has to stay in the vice chair? Is that what I'm hearing?
No. No. No. Okay. Nice try though. You know, I think technically with we started off the meeting in roll call, too. We were supposed to keep roll calling white votes, but Oh, god. I don't know. We're not going to I mean, it's it's um I don't know the
rationale for why hybrid must be roll call. I've been told that before. Yeah, I know. Yeah, we've been like Martin dropped off deliberately. Yes, it saved us like an hour of voting on
the one of the clerks. Y So, all right. So, yeah. So, we're I'm going to keep operating as though that's the if someone can find a source that says that that's incorrect. If you start hybrid, you have to keep doing this, then so be it. Also, I'll like kick
people off Zoom before the meeting if we're hybrid for the budget mode cuz we do not want to roll call all every line of the budget. All right. Um, financial form one topics. Um,
so, uh, actually I'll get the easy one out of the way, which is that I mentioned the CPA study committee is reaching out to everybody and doing presentations and asking input. Um, obviously we'd love to come to financial forum um, to get the
input of this committee. Um, I imagine that would be the less spicy. We keep using that word um part of the the financial forum. Um although maybe not without controversy but um you can't talk about property tax returns without
some controversy. Um how we want to so at a higher level I understand that the big idea is we want to talk about the operating budget, the amount of free cash, the fact that we probably won't have as much as we did a
year earlier. um cuz that's what happens when you spend 6 million on it. Um and uh um so certainly we're interested in updated free cash projections other than
staring at the line going the wrong way. How do we want to actually talk about this topic? We could talk about override timing that when do we think we would have to get to that point with the projections and and usage. I mean we had we kind of mentally
thought 2028ish which is 10 years after the last override and maybe we are shifted out a year and maybe not. Is it too early? I mean that's only a couple of years away fiscally. Yeah. I mean it's it's elephant in the room. We've got a you know
I one thing I think is that like none of us were um you know thanks like none of us were on the committee for the um the last override right I mean I'm looking at the oldest timer we've got and no but I remember people going to come and begging for you know give us this money
out of free cash to keep language in the schools those kinds of I remember all of it and keep middle school foreign language I remember tons of meetings on that yeah we had about forms leading up to that. Yeah. Right. There was there was the failed
override in 2016 and then there was the 2018 but leading up to that we got the when 16 failed we got in 17 all of the school superintendent and then I don't recall all the town side cuts but that the foreign language was a big one
and just I think on the town side we just had replaced some positions that you know I think that's we brought our budget down on the town side into yeah the the library lost its Sunday hours. I mean, it was like little things that were most schools where it was kind of
more the layoffs and the cutting of major programs and let's get rid of Latin in the high school and those kinds of things. Jeffrey, but you had high schoolers at the time, so you might have the treasure. Yes, sir. Yeah, I mean it was the the middle
school that they were going to eliminate the So right now there are two half years of foreign language at the middle school and they were going to eliminate foreign language in the seventh grade. You'd only have a half year in the eighth grade. And so when you got to high school, you'd essentially have to do
that all over again. And move from the middle school model where they have these teams that work together to a junior high model where the kids just kind of randomly scatter around and they don't have a cohesive educational team that works together to say, you know, here's how we coordinate the lesson plan
so that you know your science project has somew writing parts that works on. Yeah. So yeah, I mean it was it was as as a current middle school parent, I understand what you're talking about. Yeah. I mean programmatically now we've even be with the increases in the budget,
we've added more things. Now middle school has language survey in grade six where you try the different languages like which they didn't have anything like that before. There's just more offerings and then the high school has all the added innovation pathways. So there's just more things now. I guess
you could look at it if we had some worst case thing. Well, now there's more added things to cut so that we not that we'd ever want to do that, but yeah. I mean I do feel like the cutting into core curriculum to meet the state the core
I mean I guess the the question that I don't want to ask but we have to have the answer to in order to like in order to justify ever having an override we have to talk about what we would lose if we didn't um
and so it's early for that this financial form Yeah, I mean that's the me will be the free cash so we can go on building the budget. But when are the union contracts up? That's the big one. 2027. All right. So that's that's what's just
what I see what's happening in the other towns. What's killing them is that that will be the thing what we you know school committee they're negotiating the town's negotiating. What kinds of things can we agree to so that we can agree to a certain free cash
usage and we don't have to say it. We could just say these are the things that we'll be discussing. I think to let the public know, right? I think that's better. Yeah. You could go into the minutia. Oh, no. We can't we can't give away negotiating position. We can say this this is it's not so much program cuts
personally. My thought is paying the union contracts because that's salaries are our biggest expense. Yeah. Correct. And controlling and we have more positions maybe now too than before. that's more like like in the school,
right? No, we did add them assistant principles and adjustment counselors and so forth assistant principles and non-union I think. I don't know. Well, I don't know. But I mean, you got to pay them for that. And you got to provide health benefits for them, too, which is what kills us.
Um, that's the thing that grows, you know, ahead of revenue. So, I guess what we can talk about is something like, you know, Sharon, you can our June meeting where you had the unexpected you know, 20% like the health insurance increases, right? And the kinds of
things that we that we for trash that we for that we do forecast that will impact next year's budget and program the trash. Yeah, we close on the trash. Oh, so we have something by the financial forum.
Yeah. 17th September, I think. You think we'll have it? I think it'd be close, but we're we're in the middle of it right now. We have we're doing is that an early financial form because September I mean they've happened in September and
most of the Jewish holidays every year because yeah those are this is before the Jewish holidays this year and then I mean what we've done in the past like last year we had two forums but also last year we had you know an entire forum for kill um and uh
because usually I I can remember prior to like if we're not doing projects and stuff I think we've always done around Halloween like October was like I was just giving you accommodated cost and free cash and all of that. Now I could have some projections of those things but if I'm not going to have the rubbish
completely button down cost will be up in the air. No, we will have it if you need do you need it buttoned down by the 17th. Well, usually once I present it I don't like to change it. So once I've presented a diff income I would like it to stay this pretty much the same. Well,
we well Wednesday the 24th is Russia Shana. So, we're not doing it that goes Wednesday, October 1st. So, I think we were either going before that or after. I mean, the the question here, what we
like to work backward from is voting on guidance on free cash usage. Usually that's like not that first meeting, but we did it on October. No, we would do it right. So, so we did Yeah. So, so, um, generally we've had like last year what we did and I think worked well is we had
a we had a financial forum that covered topics relevant to free cash usage and then we it wasn't that wasn't the kill and recal one and then we voted on free cash usage at a regular meeting in October October 9th last year and then we had a separate financial form to talk about things that are you know outside the operating budget um
killing recal um I don't know if we have need for a second form this year I haven't heard anybody last year we had form on September 18th. So, oh, so yeah. So, 17th is is earlier but not by much. Um, the the process recently the rubbish
recycling contract was we opened the bids last week. Um, excuse me, the proposals. Yes. Um, we're doing a proposal process. Um, we're meeting with some of the vendors who sent in the proposals. We are
pushing them. Do we push them to then we did process we're pushing um and there's a lot of factors in these proposals is there this is probably the most complicated contract I've ever worked on um v accepting big you know construction
projects and that is it are there things you're trying to do to mitigate what's happening now like the union things we're lucky we're not subject to the strike they are the future whatever we're doing we want to keep that
Yeah, we we we got five uh proposals uh to that. They were from good companies. That is fabulous news. Right. It's not going to come in less than we are now. I just want to make sure
that I was going to say that's a that's a uh I say this turned into comedy. We now this is we are now officially in the comedy part of the evening. Yes. No. That's my fault. But yeah, so it is our goal. It was our goal through this whole process. We
spent a year on the building this contract. A year, maybe a little more. Um so that Sharon would have the number for accommodated cost by September. That's the goal. So um we hope to have um a notice of
intent to award in advance. we have to get it in uh as early as possible because whichever vendor we go with will need to procure a new truck u more than likely uh or two and so that there are lead times on you know supply chain to get chain to get the trucks so
that's another factor and is the commencement would be the following July 1 so yeah so six months five year the five Good luck.
Um, what I was going to what I was going to say about about this is is that for the um I think having the you know obviously we'd like to have the most precise possible and most highest confidence around the free cache numbers
at the forum. But on the other hand, if we're not actually voting on free cash usage at that, then it's not the end of the world. If there is a kind of we think it's this and Right. Exactly. You vote on a regular meeting. Yeah. Exactly. No, I don't intend to vote on it at the forum.
I could give you an estimate on that date, but it certainly wouldn't be a certified number. And part of that pre-cash calculation is um the any fund like a grant fund that's in deficit, it's as if they borrow from the general fund. So that gets deducted. Yeah.
But we have to September 30th to collect those funds and doesn't get deducted. So the month the numbers are moving until September 30th. So they could be up or down, you know. So um I can give you an estimate and then when it's certified ser it will give you
th those numbers as well and we have the past spreadsheets about what we think the usage would need to be I can give you those spreadsheets as well you know once I start I mean the numbers are still kind of moving for fiscal 25 we're just starting to you know close it down and um so I couldn't
give you any kind of projection I mean it's going to be probably at least what we used last year I would think what the regeneration No, I'm I'm sorry. The free cash usage it's not going to be less than what we So free cash usage year over year wouldn't go like isn't going to go down presumably.
That's she No. Yeah. It's going to be at least the six. Yeah. And I can't imagine it it being I mean on the revenue side I can see the numbers are close to $2.8 million of regeneration somewhere between that and 3 million. So that's helpful. Yeah,
it's the expense side that's the numbers are still really moving and we haven't got all our injuries in and so I can't really that but I see a question from take a question from Karen here. Oh, she's got a hand up.
Yes. Almost invisible. So, um I would it would be great to have um everybody at the forum, you know, hear the trash contract situation. Um but this committee I was reminded this
committee also discussed um changing insurance um formulas that employees pay and I was wondering if um I'm not clear whether that to Marian's point I I understand salaries are a huge component of the budget. I'm not sure
understanding whether that um changing the insurance formula is something that would be part of contract negotiations or is that separate? Is that insurance? Is that a bail? She's talking about the split for health insurance.
That's that is a negotiational negotiations. That might be a worthy financial forum topic to sort of educate people, you know, what are other communities doing? This is something we take seriously. Um, and then let me just be a devil's advocate and say
we so backing up, you know, since co since ARPA, since all of the the good times when the economy in Massachusetts was state revenues were great, cars were full, we've been very generous um in spending. And so why why would it be
inappropriate to say, okay, the pendulum swinging swinging the other way and and finance committees would recommend a lower percentage or a lower absolute number. Why why would why would we assume you all would do that? I think we said that last year, didn't we? You mean
like a less percentage increase in the budget? Yeah, right. I think we even last year we were I remember the school committee chairs then chairs sitting here and saying we want this this year but we know like it won't be three and a half this year it might be three next year or three and a quarter.
I think we're thinking like 2.75 whatever the number was I think we're going to go back off half a percent. I think we all kind of got the message that this is the last year you're going to get this health, you know, going the other way to follow. You know, the good news is they I'm not
clear and I'm going to be clear why form is is the the state came through with a healthy for people funding and that it's got to be like super helpful for the school department. It would be great if we understood that.
I I don't understand how school funding works, but you know, they were supposed to be getting $150 per per student. That should that should help a lot. I wonder could we have the superintendent present to us on how that impacts the budget cuz I also hear that ready is special and we
don't have the normal we're grandfathered or something. We don't have the normal normal funding formula. So, you know, I'd love for people to really understand, you know, what is it? Did you get a great bump from the um millionaires sir tax fund or not?
That would just be my input. Thank you. So I want to go back to the topic of scheduling cuz um so we don't we don't have a need for two financial forums this year cuz we don't have a bunch of extra topics at Kel and Recal. Um and obviously we'll know more in
mid-occtober than we do in midsepptember. Um possibly a lot more. Um uh but then on the other hand, we want to have a financial forum before we vote on uh recommendations and guidance for the budget.
Uh so when do we what's sort of what's the deadline for voting on recommendations and guidance for the budget? I mean that's input that you all need in order to work on the budget. Yeah, I mean we're working on some budget predictions already and salary projections and whatnot, but we once we
have that number then we we really know. Um so after that we go to the select board uh in December we go to FIMCOM again in March. In the meantime I get the budget sharing we balance it. So um so I mean I historically it's been
September October no later than that cuz then we're into town meeting holidays and whatnot. Uh and we need some more time but October would be fine. That's when you voted I think. Yeah, it's October. She said
like just so we could reform on the October 8th and then make our vote on the 22nd in that of October and that wouldn't be too late if we blew off September. Is that agenda here? I mean I feel like September 17th I
think that because we've had a lot of topics, we've had multiple forums in the past because we're talking about projects. So, I think that's where we started to get into the September forums, but I think that it it doesn't matter to me. I just know the number would be more solid
if I got to October somewhere to give you a more solid estimate of October 8th is like the soonest we could meet because the first is right before you I mean, I still could give you an estimate, so it's really entirely up to you, but I feel like, you know, you'll
get a better estimate. Do we need September? Do we need four? No, I don't. As you said, I don't think we do. I haven't heard anybody put forward topics other than the information that we need. You can get updates on the buildings.
I mean, I don't know. And you know, on the on the big capital projects, the um um Oh, I see two is I don't I don't see anything that requires bonus. Yeah. Two meetings. I mean, you just you just wouldn't have a I was going to say I mean, we can
include so so this we can include uh updates on the buildings because they're not going to be as long as the presentations you have the buildings before because we're not making a decision about $100 million. Yeah, you could have an update on it. I It's up to you. I mean, updates on where where we're at.
That's so So, in terms of topics for financial forum, we have all the free cash protection stuff and updates on, you know, some of these accommodating costs. Usually we start with detach and accommodated cost and that give you an idea, you know, with each operating budget. And we're going to be aiming for
much lower numbers um and what they cost, you know, for free cash to fund 2.75 or 3% or 2 and a half. Um and we've been working kind of with the select board to try and identify areas where
the forecast is coming in advantageously for us and bringing down that free cash use for fiscal 27. So, and if and if sorry if we cancel or if we only do one does it makes which one does it
should we choose the September one or we can't we canceling the so so originally prior to this conversation we're having right now I thought we were going to have one in September and then we wouldn't need the one on the 29th because we wouldn't have anything else to discuss. But but if the stuff for
shar we don't need she's not going to have the stuff forever. Um, so yeah, no, it sounds like where we're going with this is, and this sorry, this is requiring larger changes to the regime Jackie presenting would be, you know, not having a September financial forum, having a
financial forum, I'm going to have the ETH proposed. Interesting. I had the ETH on my calendar as our meeting, but um, uh, that, you know, either way, um, and then yeah,
is it not all shift in docs anyway? um ultra 5 in and google.com. Um so yeah and then um so instead of having so basically we'd be swapping the order of those it'd be financial forum
financial forum one on October 8th and then the vote the recommendations guidance and everything on the 29th of this will need to um the warrant for the subsequent time. So we would have we would have to have the vote um sooner because we're supposed to be available
on the 22nd. So So that was supposed to be 22. So go with Yeah. So let's go the 8th and the 22nd. What about that? Yeah. There's no reason for the It doesn't need to be 29th. It could be the the 22nd instead.
They would give us two days to get them printed. Uh well, okay. Okay. So, how do people feel about the I mean, if that's the 15 the 8th and the 15th. Well, just for what it's worth, the library community room A and B are free on the A. I
I was going to get to the part where we're totally screwing up any room reservations that might have been already done. But, um uh one problem at a time. Um, from a scheduling point of view, assuming that we can wave a magic wand and create conference rooms, um,
what's on screen here, financial forum on the 8th, getting back together a week later to actually vote on the warrant articles and the guidance, you know, with the benefit of the input that we got at the at the forum. Does that look good schedule-wise?
Does that give us enough time to print the book? Yeah. Yeah, the 15th is probably not bad. The the 22nd was kind of close. It sounds like I hear that. And the 15th the library rooms aren't available just for you don't have to do the library. You could do the um high school library too. I'm just talking
public library. So anyway, for your meeting. Well, the 15th is just us, right? No, I was just talking forum. If you wanted a bigger space, we always can get the high school library cuz we've had it before. But just for what it's worth, the Ready Public Library shows
that room available on the conference room combined thing. Yeah, we want the financial form at the library, but the other you're meeting, right? So that's the ETH is open at the library. Okay. I give you guys enough time
that gives me so I just feel like that extra couple weeks will be you know all right and then yes hopefully our other correct locations Jackie will confirm that I'm guessing
yeah we'll make sure that library room and then we'll be somewhere in town hall others if if there's no virus room town, but obviously right now. Yeah. So, yep. Uh yeah, I
mean conservation is usually already booked the second and fourth, I think, but that's actually the third 15th is actually the third Wednesday cuz first Wednesday. So, is there trash? Uh well, so there's
Yes. No. Exactly. Exactly. Right. The um Yeah. All right. So, have we successfully scheduled our um uh financial forum and we have talked
about topics for it? Um so, do we need to meet before the financial forum? another 8 weeks which I mean no for what it's conservation meets the 8th
and the 22nd so they'll be here they won't be cool we have a shot of the blackboard room on 15th according to their schedule here we'll be meeting two weeks in a row then yeah after not meeting for after reading once we're in a 3-month period. So,
yeah, that's fine. That's that still works for us. So, we get we get the good room each time. Uh, no, we have we have to do a hearing on the budget. We don't have to do a hearing on the vote on the free cash guidance thing even though that's actually a really interesting question.
Um, but yeah, um, the the charter says you have to have a hearing on the budget, I believe. Um, so and they actually did that this year, the first time. the first time I was like that's what I get for reading the
terror. So um wish crazy talk. Um so um does it make sense for us to keep like just a placeholder for 17th in case we wanted to add things to the financial forum agenda and if we don't
need it I mean since we're here now and have it we can always cancel it if there's nothing. It's It's probably easier to do it that way than trying to pop one end, right? No, I understand. I think I think that that might be prudent with the finance committee. We're big on prudence.
Um so yeah. Um making closer room to then if we don't have, you know, enough for the agenda, I think it's it's consult with my vice chair. It's going to be great. So okay. Yeah. You know, I think that's fair. But in terms of telling people like when
I report to the selected it's going to be moved to October, right? Oh, yeah. So, so I think the dates for the set. I think that part that part is set. The only thing that's up in the air is whether we need to meet the finance committee needs to meet again before.
Yeah. So maybe you and I connect about financial forum agenda and then if we feel like there are questions we want to bring back to this group we otherwise that sounds good to me. Great. All right. And then in terms of the rest of the scheduling stuff does is there any questions?
Everything else we have. I mean that's that's one thing about being the chair of this committee that if there was any discussion on the organization I was going to say is like the chair does compared to the other committee that I'm a chair of this is nothing because the agenda is basically
dictated for us it's the budget schedule um there's there's not a lot of discretion like do do we do we want to do we want to decide on freeat no you're going to make a decision but it's not we just kind of force it on you right it's going to happen and you know so all right so in light
the comment earlier about how we're supposed to reorganize in July. Do we want to go ahead and put that on the schedule? Because if the June meeting goes away, then when would we decide how to I think that's a Yeah. No, July. Um well, so that's that's not um so it's
actually be July 2026 is what? Uh which is in fiscal year, right? But but I but but uh looking at the 2026 appearing before January, I can see that we're talking calendar years here. So, right by calendar years, so July date
TVD. Um, I mean, we can I can pick a Wednesday in July out of a hat. Um, not uh, you know, I'm getting loud non-verbal cues here about wrapping up this meeting. By the
way, everybody is yawning and packing bags. Turned off 3 hours ago. and all the lights are on. Those turn off quickly which so yeah I mean I don't know whether it's the you know 8th or 15th or whatever of
July but yeah TVD is fine I think we don't need to we have chances between now and then. All right, back to what else in this agenda do I need to make sure we do before we um Yeah, I mean I don't um I'm going to acknowledge the topic about communicate,
you know. Um I don't think board did I miss something or was there not actually an official response to the select board or from the select board about the topic of No, if you all talked about it during your meeting, I I missed it, I'm afraid, but I don't think it's come up. So, all
right. That's fine. There have been You didn't ask us for something. I was like this. No, I mean it was it was it was not not really I think so. All right, moving along. Um we've talked about future agendas. Um so yes, prior meeting
minutes, which I totally looked at approve motion to approve uh June 25th uh meeting second. Thank you and thank you Andre. Um I'm trying to scroll down to
them. Uh people have discussion while take one last look. We had a lot of discussion. The whole complex police department is debating with itself and somehow somehow two unions
got in a fight and town lost. Oh well. Um, all right. Anything else? Does anyone else have any minutes? All right. So, then let's let's vote. Uh, all in favor of the motion to approve the minutes as
presented. All opposed and one abstain. So, 61 with abstaining. Jeffrey for Jeffrey. Sorry. That's why it's late. Thank you, Emily. Thank you, John. We
have a motion to adjurnn. All in favor? I. All right. That one is unanimous. Thank you all very much.