[Applause] I mean have access to hey so Mar squid how you doing they make me they keep making me work they make me work every Thursday like 9 to 5 and I'm think I'm thinking of like just
taking like a half day off or like because it's you know yeah it's not like the old job where it was like 2 hour lunch once in a while nobody cared this one it's like it it feels like they wait for you to be away from your desk to and
then that you hear that little beep the email goes off I know I saw hey Brian hey how's it going this guy is recording or Broadcasting
how you do Timmy Jimmy is this a budget or what is this uh budget I saw a think so but no his his firm is the council for his
firm is the councel seen the bud came it's over there reporting in progress America stand secondate notice of this meeting of the
township Council of the township of Roxbury was given as required by the open public meetings act as follows on December 31st 2024 notice was emailed in facts to the Daily Record the Northstar Ledger the West Mar repor and published in the Daily Record notice shall also remain posted throughout the year on the
Bulet board in the main hallway of the municipal building please councilwoman Au here councilman Carrie Deputy Mayor Crowley here councilman D Filippo here councilman Hall I'm here councilman Riley here
mayor patillo May rep represent counil committees 202 F thank you Deputy Mayor we um as Council knows we kind of changed our format up a little bit this year for the budget review at the last
meeting um which was the first budget meeting we had we had we discussed the water and sewer funds both operating and capital so we try to combine those and uh give us a little more time to finalize the numbers for the operating and the capital budget for the current fund general fund and Council has that
um tonight and my goal is to begin by really starting at the just beginning of that budget getting through it um partially then of course at our next meeting we can continue and then follow up from there as we need to have additional meetings and get additional information for Council to consider
before the final budget is proposed so we have tonight um we'll go through a lot of the budgets a lot of them are relatively straightforward and simple council's aware of that they're relatively small a lot of them don't change very much we'll still discuss those even if it's briefly and tonight we have um three department heads with
us here tonight we have Melanie machete from our engineering department uh Matt Holland I believe is here from the PD our new Chief and I'm I know I saw Tom bancia from fire there may be some other fire here tonight not 100% certain but um we also want to discuss um the fire
department um both the operating and capital budgets mayor okay for absolutely discuss keep them through an hour budget open name and
your my name is Madison amder I live at 26 Toby Drive in sakaa um thank you guys for allowing me to speak um I've had the privilege of calling Roxbury Home for over the past 24 years throughout my time I've grown to love and deeply appreciate this
community from Friday Night Football games to Smiling faes walking around Horseshoe Lake um but there's one troubling aspect of our town that's remained a constant and that's the intersection between Pleasant Hill and El Avenue over the years this intersection has been the site of numerous accidents I've personally known
six individuals that have been involved in the accidents here including Luke stannic John tessero Anthony R Jed Amer and most recently as of last night Jay and Joyce am dur ages 82 and 85 despite the town's ongoing efforts to address the safety concerns of this intersection
the problem persists initially stop signs were unsolved but that did not significantly reduce the frequency of these accidents the addition of solar powered blinking stop signs followed yet the results were still insufficient most recently rumble strips and additional signage were added but once again these measures have failed to prevent further
collisions it's with great concern that I stand before you now adding two more names to this growing list of Vics every time I witness flashing lights fire trucks and ambulances responding to another crash at this intersection I'm reminded of the urgency of this issue I've personally worked to raise awareness and support for the traffic
light that needs to be built but it seems that every effort is met with frustration and no meaningful change so my question to the council is simple how many more accidents must occur before action is taken how many more victims must be count before a traffic light is installed and is it really necessary for a tragedy potentially involving a child
perhaps one attending the elementary school scho just up the road before this issue is addressed properly Roxbury is a close-knit community and I have no doubt that once a decision is made to move forward with this change the town will rally together to support it Roxbury takes pride in its values its history and sense of community but we can't take
pride in a town where its citizens are continually at risk due to an intersection that has become in mis's danger it's time for change and it's time to take action we the residents of Rox are no longer asking for help we're demanding it the safety of our community particularly our elderly and children
should no longer be compromised thank you for your time than com traff traffic committee we've talked many years about that intersection and things as you noted there's been many
changes done besides flashing lights the rumble strips uh have residents cut the trees down so there's a longer sight distance along John let's bring it up to another traffic meeting acci how many
have I think we've been pretty good other than yesterday but I could be wrong about one or two but I'm not I'm not aware of any since we've done a lot of the work but this one obviously happened yesterday circumstances yesterday I don't know the details personally need the
injuries I don't think there's anything significant but I'm not 100% certain I don't have all the details on what to card yesterday of people invol the anyone else Kyle Smith 12 Cedar Lane
s wanted to bring up the point that the paving budget in robber and I'm not sure we're going to be discussing it tonight or not but Cedar Lane has been skipped over many many years and I have a
petition back here sent to the Town Council back in 2013 alerting them the necessary need for Cedar Lane to be paved at that time uh several of the surrounding streets were B but somehow Cedar Lane got skipped at the time and we kept on thinking that it was going to become
another year it would be there next year it would be their next year it would be their next year it never happened we resigned a petition in 2019 nothing happened 2022 we spoke up again I have several emails to Rick blood he promised
that at the time he couldn't guarantee that it would happen in 2022 but it's on the horizon and I can guarant guantee that would to be done in 23 and 24 I have that right here in writing from Rick blood that it's going to be done in 23 or
24 here we are now 25 I hear there's budget talks Paving I stress the fact that if you're going to do any Road in town it better be Cedar Lane if you ask Mr sise I'm sure he would say the Cedar Lane is probably one of the worst roads
in Roxberry so when you're climing your budget I hope considerar Lane as top priority I mean we obviously have to go through the budget unless we have no Road PR Paving program this year which I do not anticipate that's not recommended
Cedar Lane is on there 100% the gentleman's comments about the road being one of the worst it probably it may be the worst we were going to do it last year we didn't have enough funding because we have serious significant base repairs there because of the condition of the road so it's not just Mill and pave it's base repair which is those
costs are probably more expensive than the actual Mill and pave we want to do it right we don't want to do it not do the base repair because in five years it'll be garbage so um the comments are are are well taken um they've waited they've certainly waited their long they should
have question but just as a reminder the the the need that Cedar Lane is so bad is because it was delayed for so long and as you guys consider other roads that need to be paved it when you kick the
can further down the road it just makes a bigger problem as you as you go down further and further there's there's there's so many road I don't know how many how many does anybody know how many miles of Road there are in rockbury town own roads I think Municipal roads are
about 115 miles 115 miles so what what do you think the average a road surface lasts 20 years in 20 summer 30 if they're built right in their side streets they can last 30 years but at 20
is a reasonable number to work with so we have to be Paving a certain amount of M I I don't I can't do the math quickly in my head but there should be like 15 miles of R page I'm correct 10 maybe more like six or seven
would probably get us if we were in that cycle that would probably be reasonable six or seven miles a road do we have the funding to do six or seven miles a road this year the Year this year it's going to be tight we got to give some extra cost but we're we're at the very beginning of our budget John be giv us
we just we just received it from from John on Friday okay thats think you we the last cple years number to our thank
youse mayor I I wanted to actually I I brought the the resen of C Lan with us to show you how how much it we pay taxes too get done yeah I just want Qui I don't Kyle I'm sorry I didn't get a
chance to talk while you still at the mic we we have a lot of uh feeder roads in Roxberry but of heavily travel roads in rockberry so our game plan was to hit those as quickly as possible because they get use so much um I think we're at
a point now is as John had mentioned we can backtrack and and and take care of Cedar Lane for you so just so you know there there is a plan what we're doing here thank you okay based on those comments I won't I won't take to time
yeah Jim hael 15 CED Lane I don't want to I don't want to repeat anything Kyle said he said it pretty eloquently um the road hasn't been paved since we've been there that 2005 it's become a hazard not just for cars but also for pedestrians I know a neighbor an elderly neighbor who lives
next door no longer walks on the road because he's concerned about falling as an attorney who works in this area um obviously now the town is on notice of issues with the road so if someone does get hurt walking on the road jogging on the road um it's obviously going to be
an issue for the town so we're hopeful that you know an excuse that we can't do it because so much needs to be done because we ignored it for so long I don't think that that excuse is going to be something that's if an issue arises so again thank
you for your time and I appreciate you coming thank you for your coming anyone else Cindy Graham 18 Forest I'm the original person who started all petitions in 20139 I walked every single house in the neighborhood so after what like he was
saying it took so long to get paid but Cedar I walk that you can't walk on that road and also the gas company ripped up all the newly paved roads and they repayed everything but Seager because they said it was so bad they couldn't Mill one side it was just in such bad
shape so now not only is the road bad on the one side that's been bad now where they ripped it up for the gas company you've got that thing in the middle you've got pieces and patches that are sinking it's really really a Hatter this is like to me it should be number one I know it's going to be more money but
it's been neglected forever it's really in that shape I won't even walk on that street anymore okay no not a problem at all it's good to hear from the residents first the um so we're going to be operating and we're going to do a little bit of capital for who we have tonight with us we don't
have a lot of capital projects we can kind of toggle back to the capital budget a little bit talk about those but um I just wanted to give everybody's had a chance probably to read my budget message I just wanted to two sentences two or three sentences out of there for the council uh just to kind of set the stage and for anybody that's here tonight
um you know while Roxbury still maintains a favorable fund balance as in 2024 limited Revenue growth has placed additional strain on the 2025 budget um the result is a capital budget while increased from 2024 um it's still not sufficient to
address all the capital needs of the township um in the future years the township should look at alternative funding mechanisms to support the capital budget while continuing to build revenue to support the budget um in 2025 there are no new staff positions um
fortunately in 2024 the township was successful in retaining key employees as well as attracting new employees when vacancies occurred um as the council knows um it's not always easy these days to keep and retain um employee or retain and attract employees we've done a
pretty good job with that and I want to thank everybody for that and for the Council has been supportive on our key Township staff um to balance the 2025 budget a proposed tax increase in the current fund is 2.5% um the proposed tax increase for
the average residential property in Roxbury is approximately $60 per year which equates to $5 per month obviously depending on your assessed valuation of your property it could be more or less than that but that's the average just so Council has some idea what that impact
is on the on the on the tax that being said I want to start at the beginning so we're going to go through these individual before you move on John you pointed to a couple of key items that really affected the budget yeah and the impact okay absolutely Joe I'll get to
I'll do those right now and then we can talk about them again when we get to those lineups but thank you we can talk about those now um but you know I mentioned number one data processing it's not a big amount it's only $26,000 but it's a significant increase percent manage wise so when you take a look at
that um we have a lot of equipment maintenance contracts we're doing more cloud-based we talked about this with our technology committee with the three members of Council on that and also our Our IT director Rob Conan so you know when you see that line item you see that budget increase it's a substantial amount percentage wise it's not a huge
number but try to call it as ones that really are kind of an anomaly than compared to what we normally see in 2025 the big one is Group Insurance um our health insurance premiums increased we're in state health benefits which is run by the state of New Jersey they increased by
approximately 18% um our line item for Group Insurance increased by $925,000 so when you think about that amount of money for current employees and retirees who the ones are still eligible to obtain or to receive
um Health Care through the town that number is significant everybody on this Council was here in 2023 when we received a 25% increase in that medical insurance was again was was sticker shock in 23 sticker shock again in 25 um
I also mentioned just for reference that all the employees pay a portion of that because everybody pays a significant amount of money into their health insurance cost if they didn't it would be even more of an impact on the township budget but that's a big number and our only option with that obviously is to look for some other benefit plans
that are out there um we went to State health benefits probably back in 2012 2013 I wasn't with the township at that time and I think we did it because it was a cost savings um last year we did look a little bit we kind of fed around a little bit out in the market to see
what else we could get we provided some more information some of our loss runs to another um it's like a hiff like a gif a health insurance fund and they actually said they couldn't the rate that State Health was providing us which was kind of a shock um considering how expensive it is um it's one I don't have
the answer to I just know it's a significant cost for us seems like a huge J it it just is it ISE if we all remember the one for two years ago it was just that sticker shock and how are we going to absorb and we absorb it into our budget so we talk
about not being able to do Capital not be able to do things instead of spending let's just say 700,000 of the 925 on Capital project we pay it to the state for health insurance so is this sustainable is it does it go up and down what what what do you think is going to
happen in the future it's definitely not going to go down sometimes we get smaller increases a 2% like 7% last year and this year it's 18% and also one thing to keep in mind is we had a lot of retirements this year
so not only are you carrying the retirements you're also carrying a new employees so that's kind of drives the ccept also there's um as we've negotiated some of the contracts going forward
future there is I mean the primary relief in the future is with a nonuniform right the police are a little bit different just how their pension works when they can retire some of the agreements we've made with them um but for the non uniforms eventually that um
retiree health care benefit goes away for various reasons one because the pension increases to 65 we've written out of those Union contracts that it takes time to get there it's important but that's C down the road it's down the road I think unfortunately most of us will no longer be here by the time those
benefits kick in but it's still beneficial to the township um but in the inter room we we have some significant bills to address um I mentioned pensions a little bit our police pension obligation went up actually for the nonuniform it went down which is amazing because usually
the pension obligations go up um so that impacts us it's good for the town to be just to be aware of that um and you know how that impacts us anytime we can get that close to zero that's wonderful because we pay a lot in for the pension contribution for for all the employees who are eligible for the defined benefit
pension plan that might be yeah yeah and you know depending on when people left and you know years ago people could retire earlier even on the non-uniform side so you could maybe retired 55 you recovering someone for a 10year gap until they got the 65 to be
eligible for Medicare so so that kind of went away with how the state does the pension plan for the non- uniforms now you have to be 65 to retire but for a lot of employees at Abed here that's not the case it's for the newer employees so it'll it'll take some time to get there it is it is and for anybody that's
retired their benefits you know never change that's just not legal for changing those benefits for people there's no talk of pooling risk somewhere in the state approach yeah we we did we did out and
they basically took ours and it's it's a tough one I mean I wish we had better answers for the for the council um reserve for future Appropriations we have 100,000 included in the budget for Fire Company number two the engine um I originally wanted to put 300 in I just couldn't make that
work this year I think as we discussed this budget we need to try a way to put more to put some more money in there Valerie just got some updated fund balance numbers yesterday we haven't had a chance to analyze those yet but we're going to if we can we'll try to you know increase that number I'm sure council's going to want to increase that number
our goal is to try to have as much of that paid for if not all of it whenever that truck arrives in a few years we get our fund balance what we us the last five years yeah we'll we'll get all the information for you we just again I think the numbers you got late yesterday afternoon from the auditor we didn't
even have a chance to talk about it so we'll get more information on that as we discuss the budget uh and one final item just you know no worry I think from an operating standpoint um doing a great job paying off the turf field um I mentioned how much we collected user fees which is a significant amount um what we paid in in
in debt service we're only using a small amount of our Recreation trust fund to make that payment which is how we planned it and I think that's heading in the right direction councilman Paul yeah and I just want to make the public really this is all self-liquidating debt this is not coming out of regular
taxation whatsoever this is money that was previously saved and it's coming out of a recreation trust fund account and users and the users that are that are that are paying this down there no taxation increase their public user Fe that's a way it is that's
working out really well financially it's working out really well we increased that by $5 I think two years ago or last year and I think we're that's working out really well that's a great thing that pays itself off we don't have to use any general tax that's how that was designed when that project was built a few years ago so that all being said just for a
little bit of the overw one yes well if you if you will de the can we if we can do it sequentially we're going to get to it tonight that be great when we get to engineering we're going to bring melan up we're going to do operating we're to do Capital if that's okay if not I'll get i'll get unorganized one things yes yeah we
definitely have that tonight while she's here we'll talk about we've received in the Grant and how we think that project will work thank you you're welcome excuse me so again starting off with um Administration I'm going to start down
with it's the account is 20-100 I mean again I'm on the operating side I do not have that page number if anybody needs Lenor I'm going to ask for your help page four thank you so again this is for the um my
office there's a few employees in there there's some operating costs the um the budget is relatively same as 2024 we added some money in there for unused vacation buyback which we haven't had in the past in previous budget so um there's any questions on administrative
and executive 20-100 okay so we're going to go and I and I will mention the ones that I'm skipping because I don't think there's a reason discuss but if anybody wants to discuss them we will I will mention them um Central stores Central stores the budget
decreased slightly from 2024 mailing materials copy release things of that nature I'm not going to spend a lot of time but if I go to fast please let me know or we can always go back to any of these we need to those are
yeah we we just aase and actually was a little bit cheaper that's why the budet went so the next um categories for the Town Council Town Council budget went down just a little
bit Yeah elections the election budget St flat something near and dear to the clerk's heart the money is she didn't appreciate my joke about the elections she doesn't think it's fun no
that's not a that's not a good topic um the next department is the finance department um could be I apologize let's go to clerk go too fast yeah so clerk is up by a few thousand about
$5,000 overall small increase in clerk it's related to wages for fulltime P primarily same number of employees in the front office John if I could just say I like what you've been on the bottom you the
actual difference from 2024 I don't we have that last sh guys I we have that last I don't remember seeing on the bottom of each one of our tab sheets the difference anyway I think it's I think
it's very nice good all right I'm going to jump down to finance now since I remember to the clerk so Finance changes a little bit with um just wages some wages for
fulltime some things we had agreed to last year we included in the budget for this year for one employee most of the other line items stay the same and the overall percentage increases relatively the same same number of Staff in the finance department
so I'm going to skip over audit because it's pretty straightforward yeah some of the ones just are so they're not much to discuss we can discuss them if needed data processing is next excuse me so data processing I had mentioned
earlier when I did the overview about the increases in the equipment maintenance service contract s um whenever we had our committee meeting a few weeks ago um that Mark and Fred and Sean has on here tonight were in attendance that we went over all those
various contracts and I think that the committee was satisfied with what we're doing and also I can say that councilman Hall certainly had some concerns um just about how we're handling all of our security issues so I think he was satisfied with that discussion but Fred
I don't want to misquote you no I think test we had a very nice meeting and uh obviously with everything going on in the world we want to make sure that we're safe and secure with our personal identifiable information and we're doing more we're trying to do more training more employee training with trying to
make sure we don't get involved in various things that occur that we see on in those so is the increase attributable to the increase in security part of it is part of it's more training related to that but part of it's just the equipment contracts we're doing more cloud-based things and more cloudbased things
apparently have more annual maintenance cost related to them it's a perfect um introduction to the capital budget for for data processing so I will I will reference the capital projects that that are related to the specific departments we
discuss there aren't a lot of capital projects for tonight based on the Departments that are presenting but if you if you had a chance to take a look at the capital plan for the um information technology department Deputy Mayor just mentioned about replacing the the PCS which is we we're doing that on
an annual basis that's around $24,000 you have some Network infrastructure upgrades planned at the cost of about 12,000 and some security equipment and supplies cameras and things of that nature at around
$34,000 um we did have one other project and unfortunately I recommended moving to an oute the sound system in this room just because of financial constraints good project needed project it's just we have to pick and choose what we believe we need the most so I don't think
there's any questions on those what you just say is people really don't need well I don't know I guess it depends what we have to say right it's it's point of view it's an important project um I make recommendations Council makes
decisions so we all have our jobs to do see if it works I support Paving Cedar Lane they hurt you so it works right um but I don't know if anybody has any questions on those on those projects we discussed those at the committee level I think the committee is satisfied with
the uh discussion on that okay good thank you next is tax collection I believe what's this right tax collection slight increase in collection I think much's related
to wages in the department but other than that that budget is relatively flat a lot of those costs are split out with water and Su you know because they collect for all the utilities in for in
for taxes next is the assessor um everybody's had a chance to take a look at that budget it's gone down significantly which is great in 2024 Council authorized the hiring of a part-time tax assessor um to replace our
full-time assessor and I can report back to you and I believe valer would concur that was a great decision we're getting everything we need and the number of hours we have here totally satisfied so this is a this is a nice savings for the town and no production in
Services I'm sorry Jim yeah well we still have we still we still have one full-time employee right we have a full-time assistant and then we have a part-time assessor so the assessor is at three days a week rather than five oh yeah it would definitely we would definitely save on he healthare
piece absolutely got it absolutely so next is legal services we reduced those line items where we believe we can um Council recalls last year we included some additional funding for some potential litigation we thought we might be facing but we don't believe
that threat continues I don't think there's need for that extra on the of but we know we certainly reduce that we can look at that again we try to be careful just so we don't have you know we're not missing any funding but um you
know we've tried to look at that and reduce it where we think we can but if we want to spend some more time with that we certainly can I would if decision ESS okay don't know get figures but Jo yeah absolutely absolutely we've taken it
down where we can we can spend more time on it so at least it's a good start there may be more there so the next budget is engineering I'm going to ask Melanie machete Melanie is our town engineer everybody knows very well we're
a longterm employees to come up and we're going to talk about Melanie's operating budget and then also some capital projects which would include the um Deputy mayor's comments concerning the El Avenue sidewalk project which is Grant
funded so you can take a look at engineering some of the engineering budget has increased in salaries you can see that number if you recall last year we were fortunate enough to finally hire an additional full-time engineer in the engineering department where we were
down a staff person about for about a year and a half so again those those salaries are spread out between the utilities and also the current fund but um she could go back to putting her feet up I mean you know if she had a place on
her desk to rest her feet she can do it so needs a bigger office um but again a lot of those line items in engineering operating are very similar the wages are a little bit higher which was just explained so I don't know if there's any you know any
comments or questions about the operating side of of engineering we have the same number of staff that we've had in the past one of the line items set up a little bit is part-time inspections we have a little bit more there um but keep in mind usually when we when we're doing part-time inspections with our staff there's usually a permit associated with
it so there's a Road opening per there some sort of permit that you don't see the revenue side of that there's revenue generated and we just did more you know did more last year so it's kind of like fire prevention you see the wages go up there's revenue on the other side of that so it's actually not a not a bad
thing so for engineering again we uh we have a few capital projects for for this year and one of them is storm water compliance counil with that that's one
that we fund um every year um a lot of things we have to do are related to our DDP permit for storm water discharge and we purchase a lot of things out of there related to the storm water drainage system so we've tried to keep our funding Rel relatively consistent with
that so that's one project there were some other projects in engineering some of these projects you'll you're you'll be familiar with them we've had to push them out because just there constraints so we continue to move some of those some of them are drainage
related stabilization projects things of that nature we push some of those but we we what we do have included in 2016 I'm sorry 20 25 is we have the um the Del Avenue Paving project for
$218,000 that's what we received in grant funding Council recalls we anticipated receiving a lot more we've done over the past few years received a lot more money from the do we just didn't in 2025 so we're going to scale that project back and probably want to
do that in phases over a few years um and that's DAV heading out you know away from town and eventually get you past the driveway to the Public Works building for you for the folks that drive out there it's a concrete apron there's a lot of heavy traffic there and it's not in the greatest of
shape the other large project that we have included is the sidewalk project on El Avenue which provid access to Kanas Park and the $73,000 is the grant amount we received from the state excuse me we do have that
in place um it's going to be tight Melanie hasn't bit that yet but I think her design estimates more than that it's going to be tight so if we're lucky enough on our on our on our bids if Council authorizes it we'll be able to do it with the grant funding if we're a little bit short we're going to have to
make a decision we're either going to have to you know not do the project which that's a lot of money leave on the table or we're going to have to look for some old capital money and see if we can add a little bit if we if we run a little bit short but um again that that's a grand project that we have and we really need if we don't do it we're
obviously going to lose it that that's good probably for two years but we really need to get it moving because keep in mind we have the paving money that we held up for a year I think we have to have that under contract by November this year that's that's why these add-ons sometimes get to be a
problem because now we got additional funding but it requires us to spend additional M and we tried to get a um we're trying to get an extension our Paving because of this funding and so far I'm not so sure we've been successful with
the not with this project with not with Paving not with this we not with a payment we have two years to pay um we're so we're already one year gone um under the current without requesting an extension
um it has to be awarded by uh November 1st of this year in order to not lose the funding if if you authorize us to proceed with um the sidewalks I will get the surveyor out as soon as possible get that
authorized and um proceed with that and um if we can move this quickly through we probably we should be able to um award in November and then construct next
year I my uh the survey work is about say two weeks worth of work because there are certain areas that are a little bit tighter than others um and then the balance of it maybe another month and a half two months
get I really would like to like so have we got signed off by the residents there as well I'm sorry sign off by the res we did this yeah we should yeah we definitely want to talk to people depending on councils we're kind of where we stand on this if we
want to move forward we should talk to them I think we're going to our works within the right away but obviously we don't want to have every resident along there unhappy with the decision I I think the issue there to Mr Riley's point was that there's a lot of trees that would have to be removed and I think the residents had a concern about
the removal of the trees that's not my real question is still going I think the sidewalks are more important than the trees some of those trees there there are some ash trees along the roadway that have to come down so one
way or the other they would be coming down um and they are large diameter trees and if I recall when I was out um there are a number that are marginal that should be coming down so even though they're there they're T
they're tall they're they're um they have foliage they're at some of them are at the point that they need to come down are Town trees these are Town trees well there are trees within the right of way yeah they I don't think they're
o I would say if they're not part of an approved subdivision a planning board decision to put Street trees there just a tree in the RightWay doesn't make it ours but in this in this in this instance if we're going to do a project we would be removing the trees because
it's our project we wouldn't tell a resident to remove a tree in the right way so we could do our project that would be part of the project but if for instance an ash tree that if someone is with the right away they're going to eventually have to remove that if it's the dead or dying which an ash tree it is we need to communicate this the
residence how do we how do we propose doing that I think that if council's in agreement with moving forward with at least at this point we could just get a get a resident meeting together we'll work on scheduling it and getting it in get we should we'll get the engineering plans in order I don't think our our agenda's Chang since we talked about
this last year and that is we want we need to sign off we need to get an idea of what's going to cross so we decide whether we want to move forward with the project that hasn't changed the tough part about this one is just the budget just because if it turns out to
be $200,000 you can't you know right right it's hard an estimate but it's it's going to be tight the look is not great because you're down a big Grant but it's not something we were planning on doing we got right if they're dead or if they're dead
or dying they'll have to and there's other ones that they may want to from other reasons just because it become so large they're you know unwielding is thereis well melan's engineering estimate is a little bit more than the 703 her estimate is probably a little
bit conservative which is what Engineers do so whether we could do this for 703 that's where I'm just saying it's going to be tight we don't know that for certain because a lot of times you know the estimate sometimes they're really sometimes they're really off sometimes they're high sometimes they're low 73
it's just sidewalk sidewalk that's just a sidewalk just a sidewalk and all the work associated with survey work and things that that includes the removal of the trees correct yes so yes we have to
put we need to have u a a barrier between pavement and the where the sidewalk to go otherwise you're going to you're you're going to have sidewalk up here brass that'ss here your your your
come in like this you're lose your shoulder if I can suggest one you have to proceed so that we canion in days right we have 30 days the back of the envelope in my head to say move forward
or or you want us to make a decision soon I would I would like personally I would like to have an authorization to proceed with the um design work at least survey work in certain areas that um so will the design give us a better cost
estimate yes I think that makes sense to move forward with that if we decide not to do it then we decide not to do it 20,000 approxim I hate spending the money 700,000 in the
balance does it makes sense to reach out to the residents first before we spend the $20,000 to see if there's a consensus that whether or not they want this to c we could do that we could do that but I think what we'll have to show them is
going to be limited right you know design because we're not going to we have a we can have a illustration I think get 5050 typ mix what do we normally do though like when we doing water lines G I can't remember what it is is it like 60% to
put in water lines or 70% I'm just thinking about water not mandatory no but I'm saying it's it's normally like subid by% project yeah so well I mean I think you're talking about how many you want
to say or for it before you move forward yeah I that's all I'm saying yeah it improve access to it does I mean I think the thought is a lot of people are going to use this sidewalk that don't necessarily live in front of or it's their Frontage but of course it impacts the people but get
more more access to well it should be safer all right that's why don't we see if we can pull together something with the residents and we'll keep you posted some council members being involved probably valuable stud to
doer we don't get a resident meting for two months yeah we we're going we got to pull something together we need to make a better case for why this is beneficial to them and to the
community I think we should go I'd rather go ahead with res we're going to have to have that meeting if we decide at the design stage forward okay $100,000 okay so that's engineering so
Historic Society is next that's we've been providing in 4,000 in funding for a while I us skip that one but if anybody has any comments on on that EDC um that funding level SP at ,000 for
some years now it's projected to remain at that amount well we have the five we the additional five that we get from the Grant from cable vision they do c yeah 5,000 what it was 15 years
ago so sedc the zoning board um some of the zoning board costs have gone up it's primarily related to um their Legal Services some of their hearings some of their costs related to
Legal cont yeah yeah two three since um 90% of the zoning permits don't utilize escrow it's just you know thear typical the Zoning Board hearing Zoning Board hearing and
when Russell was there when we had an in-house person we were able to do all that review in house so that's why that line item is a little bit more so we're saving money not on on the salary wi of a salary light item for planning but we're spending a little bit more on the contracted
services for their internal the review and the ones that don't have that scoll it's Val mention just the ones we have is like usually residential applications for residents to keep the cost down for them planning board um we've done some updates on that
on some of the um adjusted some of those numbers various staff and also some of our contracted services that we have for planning board Now using planning Consultants we don't have a full-time staff person in charge of the department we've adjusted those
those numbers accordingly so that overall budget for the planning board is actually reduced um pretty significantly if's any questions on the planning board well did we add money to this some of that potential a as well I don't
think we did for litigation as much I think even for contracted Services we you know I think we weren't certain exactly how things were going to work out without having a staff person how much work there was going to be escrow work versus non escrow work so I think that um you know it was significantly
less than we thought because again all the escrow work that we getting listed under 204 that's what specifically says okay well it could be related to some of the things we were thinking about doing in Hercules to um so we've we reduce that one reduce those as much
as we can or we could reduce we could probably even reduce that to a four a little bit more but we took it down from where we started in 2024 I don't think should down pretty sure we have air there's still some yeah we still have money in there for
planning studies we actually over over budget last year but we reduced that sum so we don't think we're going to have quite as much there we still like that line item for planning board you know for things that Council directs us to do that are planning related it's nice to have a bu want to do a study or analyze something we could do that would think
we can actually sort of find a point I mean we learned a lot of things in the last couple of years of the massive Warehouse proposals that come us as a result of that we've our planning staff in the town are looking at ways to look
forward to Lessons Learned so that we may Tak steps to be able to address those kinds of projects better in the future okay we can always revisit planning board if there's any recommended updates to the
numbers other insurance I usually skip over that's our general liability we in what year two Statewide year two slight increase so the next budget account is the state uniform construction code the
building department any questions concerning that there's some slight adjustments most of those line items stay relatively flat within the department a slight increase less overall we mentioned earlier in the
overview the group insurance I'm not going to revisit that again with the state health benefits but we know that number that's you see the budget sheets for that we talked about that earlier nearly a million dollars increase cost one year from year to year
right and we're not we don't have a thousand employees here people Insurance million State unemployment workers C I kind of skip over those there's nothing too exciting there um next is the police I
believe the chief is here tonight Matt Holland and Matt to come up talk about his budget some um and again it's actually operating you think the police have Capital Pro they don't have any for 2025 and keep in mind when we do the police um Vehicles we've been
doing those with a lease um so when we do those usually be getting vehic sometimes four kind of getting more like level recently they're actually operating budget because they're straight out purchase so if you had a chance to look police you know we we'
really um purchase yes yes least the purchase um you know when we get the uh PD budget we about Healthcare impacts but you know the the the flip side of that is because we've had some some police retirees and some new officers come in there's obviously a change in
those salaries for people that have been here for many years in New Year so you can see our police line item for salaries has actually gone down some from last year that's not normal right usually the police budget's going up take their number take it by two or 3% and that's your new number so as much as
the health care is impact as we save some money on this end um again from a police standpoint the number of employees we've just fin tuned those numbers to um be more accurate with our new Workforce um have what how many do
seven over the last year year last year yes yeah big big turnover but I think they're getting it ready and it's been it's been working relatively well and um people in the academy getting out of the academy going into field training getting off the field training and then
getting real noral field experience so big change over the P other than that even though the police have the largest portion of our budget a lot of it's related to salaries and wages and things of that nature if you look at their budget it doesn't change
very much but if there's any questions specifically about any line item you know I'd be happy to answer the chief valer we can't get you the answer here tonight we'll we'll get that for you at the next meeting but again a lot of their line items stay the same a lot of
their programs are the same they have them in place yeah I'm GNA let Valerie do that she can give you an idea some of things that come out of there or Matt I can't it's a there's a whole lot of things um
theas body lens oh lens lock I'm sorry lens lock yes and that are also [Music] well we're trying we have we have this is our last year for
the body warn camera grant that we have so we're trying to make room for that it have to p4,000 support contract Towing out of there sta psychologist theing all
that they have in the Poli vehicles that have able to to the inter radios DMS DMS evidence software maintenance contract are all they haveed out it's
page1 the budg the backup for operating that's how get it could be that I mean we may have not have extended everything yet this year A lot of times when we do this simmer you
know bills are not in this line item yet so that very well could be it could go up and be what we're anticipating it to be we could get a we'll get for ccil an update on those expenditures because the budget's the same Deputy mayor's comment is you know last year we didn't spend
that so do we need it right in essence many cont right and that's where we we kept the budget the same but it's the actual it's the actual versus the expended so let us let us do that let us take a look at that we'll give you an update on that we'll look at every one of those
things that come out of that line item and give you an idea where that where that is we we're going to have to get just my own 200 for are we not having as many vehicles or is it the interest rate on those
leases are less no how was it sound what we did here is we we've gone we typically get the three vehicles um which this lease includes the three vehicles plus the
upfitting but we also have um through their off duty um Fe they char there's a vehicle fee that goes into a trust fund that could help offset some of the this cost so that's why we brought it down just a little bit not a lot just a little bit just in case if it doesn't
come in if we need a little bit more money we can supplement with that with that trust fund yeah if you recall Council authorized that last year we're starting to get some money in there which is good so we're still looking at three I believe three okay so the fleet is the
same and you just explained why it would decrease okay yeah that's unfortunately the outfitting really gotten more expensive and so with the vehicles you we used to get a significant discount on the vehicles from the major manufacturers that's gone that's I don't see that coming back after
Co what we what do you have for vehicles I don't even know get Durango Durangos durang yeah and it's really the only option hard to come by right now in the recruiting you just you mentioned are we
still local flavor to the the the new recruit tend to be local uh yes yes we have we have uh off the top of my head one two three rockburg high school graduates and everybody's is very local
and like I said that's uh that's the biggest uh and it's not it's not hard but we're rebuilding we we're focusing all our efforts on uh getting everybody up to speed and and maintaining the the high level that prer is all there
as aent yes abely any other we're going to get you more details on what Deputy Mayor asked any other questions on the PD budget cap operating I'm sorry there's no capital projects we're going to jump down while
Matt's still here we have some other pieces to this so it's the police [Music] staff get there yeah so you get to the police staff that budget stays relatively the same slight adjustment and some
wages contract Contra it is it is um you know that budget stays relatively the same it's probably what a percent different um but that's our the staff component of the police department budget yeah see
issues with that crossing guard yeah and the crossing guards um are the same I think we have the same number right same number of locations we we reduced a few last year that that W that level so that's PD
than so next on the list we have Emergency Management um that's primarily Bob hacket on a part-time wage everybody's familiar with Bob and then other that his budget stays pretty much the same every
year okay so again that's Emergency Management so moving from there we're going to discuss fire and I know we have some of our fire officials here tonight so depending on any questions that come out we might rely on them but depending on the questions we may or may not consistent
so the first um component is actually first aid then we get into fire so they go by companies we have first aid Fire Company one you'll see that the majority of these budgets for the fire departments on the operating end are very consistent or exactly the same
as they were in 2024 so the first one is fire company number one first aid the budget total is 43,500 if there's any questions on that fire company 2 who also is running
first aid 2,160 their their budget's the same as24 question okay then Fire Company 3 right now is not running first aid so we don't have any budget funds for them so next on the
list is I believe in the sequence is fire prevention um operating we don't have any capital projects for fire prevention um we do have an increase in some wages in fire preven mention um as I had mentioned earlier with some of the
engineering inspections the fire prevention um the fire prevention officer and his assistants do a lot of inspections there's a corresponding Revenue with this I think I think Mike pel who's been here for many many years told us last year in 2024 is maybe the first year in many many years they've
actually gotten all of their inspections done because they've had enough staff to do that so that's wonderful and um you know it's a great Revenue Source but more importantly it's important to do the inspection um we know we have safety issues we have buildings that catch on fire so they do a great job inspecting
businesses and going into homes doing smoke detectors carbon oxide things of that nature so slight increase in fire prevention but I can assure you that there's corresponding Revenue with that no new staff in that department so next is fire company once
now it's the fire side of operating I'd like to hold off on that but I have a couple questions first okay we had meeting last night recovery just outy we contract for purchase yeah it's
a little bit convoluted the person that we actually were working with on our various meetings she is I gu purchased the company from EF recovery so we have Tony and really Jim Bryce or Tony's office trying to figure
out how that contract can be possibly assigned to them um their the new company is willing to honor the agreement I think I think they're willing to honor it I think Jim Bryce we Jim gave us a
response back probably later at the end of last week I've had a chance to follow up with him kind of of talking about whether or not the existing agreement provides for that provides for an assignment it's not really a subcontract
it's an assignment even though even even if we don't have an issue with it he might tell us there's a problem it it was I think they bought the m so it's a mercher and acquisition basically they
they acquired the company and in I guess the bottom line here is is there was there assignment clause in in the agreement to allow this to occur and do we have to tell them we accept that assignment I would be surprised if CH didn't have that in there there's something in there we're trying to work
on our Lang I got to talk to Jim BR the new company has no issues with honoring honoring and moving forward we got to get that figured out with Jim if there's something we have to do maybe it's just a resolution in front of council that makes that switch to them no needs to be
not understanding completely you know that contract they sent us that we slowed down I slowed down was completely different than what we had agreed to with them in advance price didn't wrote up the contract the way we had agreed to it and they agreed to those terms and
then we got a different company yeah now we got a different company so we had to make sure that that those cross 100% And and so far our response from the we I believe is the I'm going to say the owner or president president of the new company is they'll honor the
contract that was signed which includes the changes we wanted but we got to figure out how to do that well no so we just got that at the end of last week okay so that's where we stand
on cost recovery well this is like too many things been a long process and we got to get to an end at some point in time for all this right well it would have the timing one that couldn't have been worse from when we approved it to when apparently the company was
purchased it had to be right around the exact same time which we had no knowledge of it would have been nice if they would have given us the knowledge I'm sure they knew something was up while we were going right could even waited and done with new company let's get those questions answered and then like since Sean's not here like to hold
off on fire anyway fire Tru which already Pur okay yeah we could we can certainly hold hold fire we can just roll it into our next meeting with operating Capital John just just out just out of
curiosity I mean obviously there's an acquisition of here and I agree everything that Council riy have to say but is there do we even want to do business with these folks I mean have we deed them that or you know is there is there anybody else that
we want to use maybe well we only had one company responded to our initial RF RFP our request or proposal right we only had one response we were satisfied with them once we made the changes to the contract I believe that we talked about so we
have no reason not to use them but I mean we might have to bid it again and if we do you know we'll be with a new company or if there's other biders and one of them is more lucrative to the town we'll certainly consider that but we had one we only had one one proposal
whenever we did this last fall I'm only saying that if we had if we did it again and received multiple we would certainly consider obligated aren they oblig they they do not have an issue with honoring the contract we have to make sure on R and our legal team is
satisfied that we can do that absolutely are they tra I'm gonna say no only because I think they're small I'll roll it into the next meeting so mayor we can I was I wanted to get
through fire tonight if we want to stop at that point I mean we can add it to our next meeting I think we're in a we're in a good place so you can do that we fire we'll go through other departments we'll go through other department directors in two weeks and um then we'll you know go
from there based on what council's direction is for Bryce that for sure yes yes oh yes absolutely absolutely this worked out good doing it together Kyle SMI 12 seater
Lane just hearing the banter a little bit about the kan's sidewalks as a lifelong resident grew up in suck myself over my bik to kuas park many times like to offer a little input on maybe something that you guys haven't
considered might be another option there's several dead end streets that dead end into Kanas Park from the neighborhoods and I I think it would actually be more attractive to the neighborhood people to enter the park from the side doors of
Kanas rather than comeing through the front door on E Avenue you could enter from Toby Drive there's a there's a a walk a path through there Constitution has a dead end streak there also at you know Church Church's
property in the first house to owns that try to come good to know thank you okay so now we hit