Okay. Uh just a quick agenda review here. So, um we have we have some things we need to get accomplished tonight. Uh basically, we've got to finalize our budget that we're going to present at
annual town meeting. Um, and uh we may have one or two items that are not uh not final, but I don't think we have a choice. And just in terms of the process uh and the timing, we're just going to
have to deal with those things um if they do change. Um, and then we're going to look at the draft town warrant and um discuss any articles that we need to
discuss and vote on whether or not the fincom is going to recommend their approval at at town meeting. I think those are kind of two main uh accomplishments uh or goals for tonight. Um, and then I think there are a few
sort of just budget update kinds of things that um we ought to sort of bring people up to speed on. Um, okay. Uh, so I not seeing Haley on yet. I think we'll we'll take a look at
minutes then just while we're waiting. Uh so this is minutes from 422. All right. And Jim, I see your hand up. Did you uh have a question or comment about the uh minutes? Yeah, they're just they're just two typos. Jim
Jim Kelly is back again. This is um George. Oh, I never fixed that on the next because I created them too soon. Look at that. Okay, I better look at this notes, too. Um yeah, that's weird. Probably because I copy one from
the other and I never Yeah, copy and paste. We'll do it every time. And uh 3D. Um I think it should be Haley is as opposed to right. Those are the Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
All right. Thanks, Jim. Uh Bob Oh, you're muted, Bob. Sorry. 4B. It's kind of a awkward uh formulation, I think. So, um one, you know, the one this is needed
for legal cost due to ongoing litigation for the solar bylaw litigation. So, I think one of those litigations should disappear. for the solar bylaw. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And then uh C, the town clerk has been certified, the town is
required. Uh somebody mentioned at that meeting that we had bylaw that that uh that actually mandated that we had to pay certification bonuses to people. I don't never heard of that. So I don't know why we're required to do that. I don't know if that was an accurate I'll
I'll talking, Bob, I'll dig it up and share it. Uh, okay. Fine. Uh, Grace, what in an email uh to me that uh that Grace sent when she notified me of her
this development, she included the uh the bylaw, which I yeah, I was unaware of it apparently. So was I. So I wanted to bring that up. But uh the other thing I wanted to just point out was it said in the minutes G that the committee
finance committee uh agreed to use excess levy capacity. I'm not sure we we voted on that but um I I I understand that's where this is headed uh with all the numbers. But um I I don't I'm against that. So I just want to make
that point. I don't think we had a vote to say that we're going to use it. Suppose when we vote in the budget, we'll be implicitly uh if we do vote to support the budget, we'll be explicitly endorsing that statement. But I had a problem with that statement.
Uh sorry. Uh okay. What if it said something like uh it was um the committee discussed the likely need to use excess levy capacity to balance the budget. I' got to be perish
myself. Does that work? Okay, Bob. Yeah, it would work. Yes, for me. Okay, that's it for me. So, the committee discussed the likely need to use excess levy capacity to balance the budget.
All right. Okay. Done. Uh I'm just going to show this real quick, Bob. Just uh uh Okay. I think it's this article. A motion was made and seconded that the town vote to accept the provisions of
uh section to allow additional compensation for certified town clerks beginning FY 2001 at the town set aside $1,000 free cash to fund the first year partial year that certification is
received. So maybe it's not quite Yeah, I'm not clear that what that means. Are you? Yeah. Uh, I mean, I'll tell you when I first read it, it maybe I read it quickly, it seemed like a an obligation that we had um relative to
our bylaws. But maybe that's, you know, maybe that was just technically a provision, but it says beginning in FY. Yeah, I think I do read that as like we're we're kind of obligated to do this, but I don't know.
I guess one reading of it for me it seems like a likely uh reading is that you're paying a bonus when you get the certification but it's not an annual statement. So that's one way to read that that paragraph. It seems to me that's the way I would read it. Yeah.
Okay. That's an interesting question. Is it is it an ongoing annual uh obligation or is it just the first time? I'm not sure. Susie, we can look up. I'll look up the um citation. This is when the town accepts uh
Massachusetts general by um law. So, I can look that up and it'll state that more clear. That would be great. I think at least for this budget year, what seems unambiguous is that this is her first year getting certified. So, I think she's entitled to the I think we
could probably agree that she's entitled to it if if if not on an ongoing basis, at least for this first year. Does that sound right? Yeah, I think so. All right. Anything else on minutes? All right. I'll make a motion to approve
as amended. Right. I'll second. I approve that. Hemingway. I Cashew I Moer I. Salvador I and Stein I. All
right. Okay. So, that's minutes. Um maybe we can talk about some budget sort of developments. Um and uh I think other members might
have some bits to share. So I think one is a development on this um well let's let's let's tackle them in this order. So we have uh we got an update from Ryan on the library
uh loan expenses. Um and the update is that there is a delay in the um the construction that is essentially
kicking our interest expense to FY27 not FY26. So, um, so that we had budgeted a certain I can't recall what it was, maybe George remembers a certain amount
of 57,000. Yes. So that's actually dropping out of our FY26 budget and I think you actually made that step, George, before sending the latest version. Is that right? The last version I sent, I took the 57,000 out in both
the revenue side and the uh debt service side. Great. Okay. I left the lines in because we're going to need them next year anyways. So, I just set them to zero. Yeah. Perfect. Okay. Um, so that's one development. There's a development on the PAS
uh clean water trust loan, which didn't sound great. Uh, I'm going to read from uh Ryan's email. Just pull it up. All right. He says, "Good morning. I've
just had a meeting with DP and the CWT where they have shared with me that the town of Sheets's PAS project is not there's a typo here, but not no longer eligible for their financing program. The short of it is that previous
administration provided approval of this project and new administration at both entities are unable to find how this project meets requirements and are unable to move forward with supporting it. As a result of this, the town is responsible for the cost of this
project. Town has already voted a town meeting to approve the borrowing of two separate $150,000 loans uh for a total of $150,000 to cover this project. I am borrowing the first 150,000 in May for
this project. The town must either borrow the second 150k or pay for it out of other funds in the budget. I know the finance committee had discussed using stabilization to do so. If this is the case, an article must be on the town meeting warrant. So fin needs to make
this decision ASAP so that we can prepare to borrow for it uh if they choose not to or if it fails. Okay. So and then in a follow-up email
um Haley uh mentioned that she has communicated with Elena Cohen who I think is from the Clean Water Trust if I remember that name. Well, she she's Joe Kmerford's aid. Oh, so she Okay, got it.
And and Joe Cmerford is going to be reaching out to the Clean Water Trust on our behalf. Um, so I don't know what to make of it, but I think, um, we do have to make a decision
about what, you know, we right now what we have is $150,000 that Ryan is about to um, borrow that's been authorized at a previous annual town meeting. We have a
warrant article that we're sponsoring to fund $50,000 for PAS costs. So that's $200,000. We think we've spent somewhere around 181 I think was the number that was discussed at the last meeting so
far. Um so that doesn't leave us much in in the way of costs for FY26. So I think we've got a couple of options. One is to um
decide to propose a transfer from stabilization for some number of dollars for PAS mitigation. Um, option two would be to
uh have another warrant article that um that um authorizes Ryan to borrow an additional 150k. Uh option three I think is to not do anything at this point in time but um
further like uh explore options see if anything develops out of comfort's intervention and potentially have a special town meeting at a later date. I think Ryan had said
that September or August was kind of when he really needed to go out for financing for this. Uh so I think those are the three options we have. I don't know is that does that sound right to folks? Um Bob, yeah, I just want to
suggest that it seems to me from what I understood from our last conversation with Ryan that we have paid some invoices uh totally like the number that you just quoted. Correct. Uh we have a we anticipate that we're going to have expenses in the coming year which might
uh reach like a $100,000. That's what we were talking about last time. It seems to me that would be wise to have an article of town meeting to provide a transfer from stabilization. Uh whether or not we use that money would be
determined by circumstances as as they develop. But borrowing the money and and and and and you know getting Tom meeting to vote to prove borrowing the money is going to commit us to paying the interest even if we don't need the money. So it seems to me the best way to go is to get the
flexibility in our future to have money available from that source from the stabilization and then have it there if we need it if we don't need it or if something else comes out of Joe Commer's efforts or something else hopefully comes out of the blue sky we won't have
to use the money but we won't have to borrow and and and won't be committed to that path. That's my my view. Other thoughts? I like the idea of waiting till a special town meeting and and seeing if
we have to if what happens with Joe and we have $50,000 that we're transferring already. So, we certainly don't need 150 if we're transferring some from stabilization. You uh option two is transfer funds from stabilization. Well, right, we've
already done a third of what we need. So to me, I'd like to see I mean they they had an obligation. They signed a contract with us, did they not? And now I don't understand that. Yeah. Oh,
I thought they did, Bob, for the first for the first portion. I talked to Brian about this today on the telephone. Okay. Would you give a little background from him? Yeah. B basically he was on a on a on a call with the state couple of people from the state from that agency
whatever it's called clean water agency and also u other people from the state and from the county so he said basically according to the law we were never eligible for this the state is passing the buck saying the prior administration
of that agency should never have given Becky or anyone else any confidence that we were going to ever receive this money that we were not eligible. They cannot contribute money to private residences. That's what he said. That's what Ryan told me anyway. So that we're not going to be eligible. We're not going to get
this money. It's not going to happen by law. We're we're not eligible. So we have to there might be some other sources of money or support for us, but it's not going to be that particular program. So Bob, the issue is that that that that there's a specific law that
prohibits them from awarding these loans to entities for the purpose of mitigating PAS issues in in uh private homes. Is that that was ambiguous? Yes.
So they they made it clear this crystal clear this is not going to happen and whether or who depending on who you want to blame probably enough blame to to to spread around u we just find this out this week. So uh this is the situation
we're in. So we have to go forward from this point. All right, Susie. It was called the Clean Water Trust Emergency Fund and it wasn't listed as just general
residents. So, I'm not going to argue with them. Um, and this year has been such a struggle. Um, I guess I'm in favor of um there's 312,000 in stabilization. I'm in favor of drawing
the 150 from that. And we also don't know um how many invoices are still in transit. The process of finding out what what um invoices need to be paid and getting them copied and sent to the right
people. I don't know that that's totally been finished. So Gab's guess was that we needed $50,000 a year to keep moving the the um PAS program forward. That was a
guess. So for me, I'll sleep better if we just transfer this out of stabilization and be done with this piece and and the full amount of 150 instead of our pre to replace our
previous plan of transferring $50,000 for uh Yeah. Yeah. And we don't and and we don't know what number is the right number. Do we leave the 50 in and do 150 or do we just do 150 and call it this
year? I mean, we if she's thinking it's 50,000 a year and we've already um thought we needed the the 136 came out of free cash. That's what that's what that was. Yeah. And that was in January
of 20 whatever 23. And then um so I don't know if we're spending at the rate of those two borrowings of 150. So we could just do
um this 150 and call it for FY26 and the past. Yeah. Uh Bob. Yeah. I just like the idea of getting leaving the 50 there and having taking 100 having a different article for 100 to transfer from the the
fund the stabilization money so that there'd be two different trenches of money and we wouldn't necessarily have to open the second one until we needed it. So uh I don't know if that makes sense but it appeals to me just as a concept. I don't know we don't know what the expense is going to be peranom. So I
think that 50 is certainly guaranteed we're going to spend 50. It seems pretty pretty pretty sure thing. So why not have 15100? I think that we might need more and if we need more we can get it when we need it and until that time it stays in our reserves. Isn't that true? Or where does it go? George
Sure. I mean Ryan was confused me last week. Yeah, it sounds like there's a it sounds like there's a PAS uh mitigation line in our budget. But
what was confusing and unclear to me until last week was that we had been paying for expenses with free cash, but um on on the assumption that
we would eventually be receiving funds from the Clean Water Trust that would then but that now that's not happening. So, right. Um, yeah, the the the fund there's a fund in the books right now that has about $89,000 PAS mitigation
fund. And it sounds like that 136 was one of the things that filled it. Um, and we know we have a lot of bills right now because they're out there right now testing. So that is not going to be the balance at the end of the year. But the 50,000 we have gets us through another
year. So in my mind, I'm sorry I jumped the gun, April. Um, I see no problem in in waiting for a special town in having a special town meeting if we find out we don't have enough funds to get through the year. Yeah, but actually I'm I'm leaning towards what George has said, you know,
and I also don't have an understanding of what how much of a chance do we have of being able to move this issue so that we actually are made eligible. I have no idea. But it might make sense just if we waited a few months, we it would cost us
the same amount of money if we have to. But possibly we won't have to, right? Uh Susie, does the Warren article, the two of them, obligate us to
borrow this money? Um Ryan seemed convinced that he has been authorized to borrow this initial $150,000 and that he doesn't have any discretion at this point over that even if we didn't want him to do that. We
passed that at town meeting last year. Right. So I think that part has been is a done deal and is and is is authorized. Well, the motion says, this is um from
ATM in 24. A motion was made and seconded that the town of Shootsbury vote to appropriate the sum of money not to exceed $150,000 B and here is appropriated to pay costs of PAS mitigation construction
activities and the payment of all other costs incidental and related there to blah blah to meet this appropriation. And I'm trying to find the thing where it says he has to do it. Um, the town treasurer with the approval of the select board is hereby authorized to borrow set amount under the blah blah
blah or pursuant to any other enabling authority and to issue bonds or notes of the town. Therefore, and then it talks about the clean water trust money um and authorized to execute and deliver
any and all agreements and other documents required by the trust blah blah blah. So, you know, I don't know what it means. I don't know if it means you have to borrow it or you're authorized to borrow it and it's to meet the costs. So he was
saying that we could take it out of stabilization and he doesn't have to borrow it. I I think that mean my my understanding is that was a reference to the second uh tranch of the second
$150,000 allocation that we thought we were entitled to and now we're not so sure. But um but I I thought he was pretty unambiguous that in his view he is actually required to um
borrow these funds like next month right or whatever the time frame was. Just just to echo that yeah Bob there's no other source of appropriate the appropriation was passed no source of funding was provided except for the loans or bonds or notes. So that's kind
of implies that we agreed to borrow the money. He's saying he's obligated to do it. The appropriation was passed without any other source other than borrowing. So uh I Ryan is very very keen on that
very very certain on that point. So I think we have enough we we can't fund that one backwards with we didn't pass an appropriation from stabilization to free cash. So we cannot do that. Yeah. Yeah. So my my assumption was that this
conversation that we're having now pertains to what we whether there's an additional um uh allocation of $150,000 on top of the $1 150 that he's
about to borrow. Um I agree. Uh Jim and then George. Yeah. Just a just a question. H has anybody heard from any of the other towns about how how they if they've been afflicted with
this um um clean water trust mix up that it was you know we're or we're were as misled as we were about how we could use that that money. I I'm just curious whether we're alone in this or whether we have company
locally. So I have no idea. I thought we were one of the first towns to actually have identified this as an issue and and well maybe I'm not sure George. Yeah, I don't know many towns. I know Westfield, but I don't think that's that's like us. Yeah.
You know, one of the things is we all went right along with this loan and we didn't really question it because it was a zero interest loan. Yeah. Certainly now that we you know, now that we have to pay interest, we should be looking at other options. And I just don't want to make a knee-jerk or a quick reaction to
this thing, especially cuz things just seem to be uncertain. And so that's why I I still stick with my position of let's keep the 50,000 transfer. We know that'll get us through a good portion of next year.
Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Kathy. Yeah. I was going to ask the same thing Jim asked about whether other towns um whether we knew what other towns were doing, but um I'm wondering what defines an emergency when it comes to PAS. I mean, isn't the
fact that it's present kind of an emergency in and of itself? I don't know. I'm not a what do you have to be a hydrogeeologist or something? I I I'm not an expert, but isn't just the fact that it's been discovered an emergency? I don't know,
Susie. I think that was part of the conversation that Aaron Saunders held with Becky and the sense of the emergency was it was happening, it was detected, most towns are not doing this
kind of checking on it and it really was the first one. So when they went to Clean Water Trust, they were told, "Okay, we can work on this. It's called an emergency and this is what we can offer a zerointerest loan with possibly some of it paid back." And there is a
signed document in the town hall from the Clean Water Trust. But I don't tonight, we don't need to fight with that. Um, we just need to um be clear about meeting the 150,000 from
the 24 town meeting. Mhm. And making sure that whatever needs to be done for that one is in place. And I guess I'm getting more and more confused about whether that's in place.
So I I my understanding from what Ryan uh spoke about at our last meeting is that that is a done deal that he has an obligation to pursue the uh financing that he's
about to go out for and that that that relates to that authoriz that authorization at at the 24 annual town meeting. Actually, is it 20? So, we we made the same article
in in January of 23, in June of 23, and in April of 24. And you saying all three meetings had an article that uh Yeah.
Well, the one in January of 23 was to use 136,000 from free cash. That's the done deal that we know we've taken care of. Now, we're in June of 23 and we have the $150,000
article. And then the next year in April, we had the $150,000 article. Okay. So, um I didn't realize there were actually two separate town meeting votes.
Um so I don't know. Yeah, now I'm I now I am more confused. um that because I thought Ryan was under the impression that the first of those 150k loans had been the borrowing for
that had been authorized, but that we hadn't yet done that for the second. All right. I did send Ryan Yeah. list of those votes, dates. Yeah, dates and votes. And he didn't know anything about
the 136, but of course he wouldn't have known because we weren't asking it to be borrowed. And so when he was referring last week to they took a hund they took the money out of our free cash, it's like no no that was that was our doing and we did that and that was in January
of 23. So what's going to happen for June of 23 and April of 204? That's what we need to be clear on. Okay. And I don't know his um c his um schedule that he sent out
lists two separate PAS borrowing amounts for 150,000 and they're he has them both dated at um 52925 and then they're
due a year later And so I guess he's saying he needs 300,000 to cover those two. Can I ask a question? I uh Bob. Yeah, Susie, maybe you can help me out. I'm
just speculating now that the the 24 June 23 was to uh was was an article that was uh saying we should borrow that money from the state and then the the April 24 was the article to permit Ryan
to get money to pay that loan back. No, both of them are are from they're a neither one can in can engage the state. So both of them say and in fact they it's a template warrant
article for June of 23 and April of 24 and it says um that to meet this appropriation the treasurer with approval of select board is authorized to borrow. So they're both borrowing articles. Okay. Let me just make a speculation here based on just my
reading that both of those were uh articles that would uh allow Ryan and actually actually order him to borrow money to cover the two trenches from the state agency both 150 each. So each of those articles refers to one of those
processes one being the 23 the one he's now executing because you borrowed the following year. So he's executing the first one, the one from 23 meeting and then he is planning on executing the second one which would be the one voted
in 24 uh in the coming months. So that's my interpretation. So the total was 300. So that those numbers do add up. I think you're right, Bob. So then why did he make a big distinction about there being
him being having sort of no flexibility on the initial 150k and but not on the second some potential flexibility on the second one I think because we can fix the second one at town meeting by appropriating funds to cover the amount. Got it.
That's what I think we should do. We should cover the amount that takes him off the hook. If we don't do it, George, then he's going to want to borrow the money. We covered from the 50 and the 100. We got 150 covered from our reserves. So then Ryan is not going to
go around borrowing money for us and inflicting interest payments on us. So I think that that supports the notion that we should do something totaling 150 at town meeting. George, yeah, that's a strong argument. Um
I we're speculating on a few things here. I guess we think we got it right at this point. But to me, we've never talked to the accountant and she seems to be the one who can answer some of these questions. And you know, one of the reasons I wanted to delay and I
didn't mention earlier, but I was I was AJ and I talked about this today earlier and that was one of the things I was thinking because Brian didn't have all the answers and if AJ had been with us, I mean, sorry AJ, if um the accountant had been with us, she could have
answered a lot of things. So, I you know, I'm just afraid that we're making decisions and we don't have all the information. And I'm also I am of the position that we approve those loans thinking there wasn't going to be interest on them. Yeah. But that was that was a that was an illusion. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, I guess it was. Yeah. We were we were uh hypnotized. Um I hate to take the money out of stabilization. it just it it's going to hurt our ability for future financings, but you can always put it back what we think
is true. So, I think I think we we've got a couple options. I think one would be to take um to to to draft a warrant article that [Music]
um transfers $150,000, maybe a hundred of it from stabilization, 50 of it from free cash or some something like that. It doesn't all have to be from one source. and with an understanding that we can
always pull that article at town meeting if in the next month we learn something um through Haley's intervention or Joe Commer's um advocacy uh and we determine that
either we don't need it or that we want some time and I do think Ryan has some amount of time. I think I think he I can't remember if he said September or October. August September. August. No, August. So, I do think there's a little
bit of time there. So, um that might be the safest course of action because, you know, at least we'll give us a month, but you know, if we don't do this now and if we don't draft an article essentially now um and vote on it, we're
you know, we're not going to be able anything at town meeting. I I would support that. I make a motion that we we take 50,000 from free cash, 100,000 from uh standalization in an article or two
to uh support this idea at town meeting. I think having separate articles wouldn't be a bad thing. So, you might want to pull one part and leave the other part intact. Uh who knows? But I think that would give us even more flexibility on that regard.
If we go for stabilization, it's a twothirds. And I don't think we're gonna have a fight on the on our hands because the town wants us to take care of PAS. Yeah. I think it's actually ser to do it in one article and and identify two different sources of free cash because
the town's people's heads are going to be spinning anyways. So I just think one article, two sources adds up to 150,000. Go for twothirds vote for it. I would support that motion and and we could modify that number on town floor if need
be. Right. We can pull it. We can modify the amounts, the sources. I mean, we would have some options. Yeah, I don't think he got a second. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he he will in a second. Um, but we're still going to leave the $50,000
in our budget, that line item. So, so the the the it's not in our budget. It's the 50K is not in our budget. It's essentially like a capital item, right, where we were just going to have a separate warrant article transferring
funds to So, this is going to just combine it all. Correct. This is going to replace what we were previously planning to do. Instead of asking for a transfer of 50, it'll be 50 from free, 100 from stabilization. So I'll sec I'll
second it. So well, if if a stabilization fund vote requires twothirds, then the Warren article itself would require twothirds, even though free cash is in there. Okay. Yeah. But I I think that's a good thing. I think we want the a I I kind of agree
with Susie that I don't think this is something that's likely to have a lot of push back, but it's also like I think this is the kind of thing we should have sort of overwhelming support um from from the town. It's um it's an issue
that concerns um a lot everybody. So Susie, so I just want to make sure I understood what April clarified. We will not have a separate PAS
mitigation 50,000. We're going to do this one article that combines both pieces. And it seems right to me because I don't think we're spending at the rate that the $300,000 was planned for. So I think
that's okay in terms of that risk. Yeah. And in the long run, if things turn around and we can always transfer those funds back to stabilization out of that fund if we find other sources. I I just want to say I think that I think it's a
good idea to to have a two-thirds vote because I do think this issue really hasn't been uh fully understood not only by members of this committee but by the town at large. And I think that people should be uh sort of proof of it if they and I'm not even clear whether we have
to do this or we're doing this because we want to be sure to uh to contain this issue but I think an airing out of the issue would be a useful thing for our town government. So I think it's good that there's a two-thirds one. I agree with that. uh gym. So 150 would be the maximum we
we would need because as I recall we can't we can reduce on on town you know during the meeting we can reduce the amount from 150 downwards but we certainly can't go above it. Is that correct? Yeah. Correct. So, I I think this is
what the article could potentially look like if you're looking at We'll come back to this later in the meeting, but article 10 to see if the town to transfer $50,000 from free cash and $100,000 from the capital stabilization fund for the continued payment of
ongoing costs of PAS mitigation requires a twothirds majority vote. Uh, George. Um, yeah. The only thing I would say is it would be great if we could get a meeting with Yes. Ryan and the account and to make sure we fully
understand all this. I I know it's short notice, but before annual town meeting so we have information we might need to make a modification to this or information we need to not touch it. I I agree. Yeah.
Uh, April. Yeah. I also wanted to to hear from Haley a little bit uh regarding her sense of uh the possibility of us being able to get a loan through the Clean Water Act. You're still there. There you are. Yeah,
I'm here. How did that How did that go? I haven't heard back. Um so I don't have a lot of updates. I I've reached out to Joe Kafford like I told you AJ um and Rep. Saunders. So, I've asked them to look into it, but I've not heard back
from them. U based on what Ryan told me. I I'm not optimistic that we would get the loan. Um there's some concern whether that was a state loan based on federal funds and if that funding was cut.
Um yeah, it's it's very up in the air, which is not an answer that I like to give. Um, but right now it's me waiting to hear back from everyone that I've reached out to. All right. So, it sounds like there
there might be actually two separate potential issues here. One is that this that these funds were kind of a pass through of federal funds that have no that are no longer available under the new
administration. That's one potential problem. That's one potential because Ryan's wording was that the the past administration had approved the loan but that it never ought to have been approved in the first place. So I don't know if that means administration of clean water trust. I know
that you know and I don't know what happened. There was a 150 authorization then there was you know I think Brian had been told to not borrow the money then we needed to go back out for the second 150. So, I I still don't really understand what happened in that period
between June 2023 and April 2024. Um, I might have to go through some old minutes. All right. All right. Well, all right. So, we have a a motion. It's been seconded. Um, I guess we might as well
just vote on this proposed article here, right? And save us from having to do it later. Does anybody have any problems with the wording of this? Does this sound It seems straightforward enough, I guess. Um, all right. Uh, so if there's
any do we want to say capital stabilization or just stabilization? Well, I I was wondering what the balances were like in 312 in 312 in um stabilization. I think I meant stabilization. And how
much in capital? And in capital 212 it's uh 204. 204. it. Yeah, it's it's not a capital item. Yeah. So, we should just put Yeah. From the town's stabilization fund or
the town stabilization fund. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for catching that. Uh, all right. Any other discussion? So, in this meeting, you're changing the warrant article and we're voting to
approve this warrant article. Correct. Right. Recommend uh approval at annual town meeting. Yep. Yep. And I think I'm right to put the select board as the sponsor here. But yeah.
Um okay. No other if there's no other discussion we can we can vote. Ivanis I Ro I Hemingway I Cashew I Moer I Salvador I and Stein I good
all right well we will come back to this document but at least we've got one done uh all right Bob I just wanted to share with the committee that I did talk to Dave Grineer finally and he does want the article for the greater repair uh
back uh uh he said you know he did he did do some maintenance work on the on the machine but he would like to do more repairs FY26 so the money would be useful to him for that machine so I
think it's fair I would support him uh that article being reinserted in the town meeting docket okay so this is the greater okay um okay I've
Uh, you're going to have to refresh my memory as to the dollar amount of this because 16,000 600 16,600. Okay. So, is that what it said, George? Was I was missing? I'd have to look. I I don't know. Yeah, we could double check
that. I can find it. Yeah, I know where to look. I've got it in my uh Let me get to the right place. It's Highway Department greater repair. Repair. Yes. Uh 166 16,600. All right. And I'm
assuming will uh will transfer from free cash. Yeah. Just just to just to give more information to the committee here. He is he was originally proposing that Ammeris Welding would do this work and they had
provided that estimate for that work. He's had some of the work done from his his repair and maintenance budget uh through cat of Milton and he's going to do more work through cat Milton. So I just think it's fair to that kind of that sum of money is could be well spent
on that machine. So I would support it but I think that the details are are they the necessary? They're really not, are they? It's going to be used to repair the machine. Okay, that's the restriction, right? Mhm. We're just writing
the article now to see if the town will vote to transfer from free cash $16,600 for repairs to the highway department's greater road greater. Yeah. Road greater. or
take any other action. Okay. All right, Susie. And I would like to say that if they get farther into this road graater and it's getting more expensive than they anticipate, I would like to go and
reconsider the other option which is to use our uh chapter 90 money and get and finance it through the state. Um especially because we're in a time of tariffs and things get more expensive later. they don't get cheaper.
So if if he's putting some money in now out of FY25 and he's got 166 out of FY26, I feel like there needs to be an end zone here in which case we switch the um way to approach this. And this
road grader is used on half the roads in Shootsbury. And so at some point it it needs to be very functioning. So I just want to have say that this should be the um this should be the limit.
Okay. All right. Um, so I think in terms of other sort of miscellaneous um, kind of budget updates, Haley, you had one since our last
meeting relative to this um, dog officer animal, what was it? Animal inspections. Uh, yeah. Background on this again. Yeah. Yeah. So, we we were able to execute the
contract for the dog officer service. I misspoke at the last meeting. I didn't realize that that did not include inspector of animals, but I did some research and there's no set fee or sip that you have to pay to this person. So, we do have some discretion on what you
want to set as a parameter, but we will need to find an inspector and that is a state requirement. All right. So, you're required to have an inspector of animals, but there's no uh set. No. Yeah. Um Yeah, there's no
set thing. And this is the person that goes and inspects all the barns and like that. So, that's the 5818 that we're going to be that we budgeted was for that person. If you're referring to last meeting, that would have just been for the dog officer themselves.
$5,800 for the dog officer for the year, right? Yeah. I don't have the number in front of Yeah. I believe that was the figure. That's what we Yeah, that was the stipen. We've since moved to a contracted service because our dog
officer signed and that's why we need to that's why we're thinking about these expenses right now. So, we put 58818 5818 $5,818 in the Inspectors of Animals line
and we set the dog line to zero. Now, right, the opposite. And but we should have done we should have set okay so we should set the inspectors to zero and we should change the dog
officer to 5818 unless we think that we need to allocate some funds for an inspector of animals but we're not
uh uh that's what I'm not clear on. Bob, I just want to ask Haley, do you I think what you said, if I'm correct, is we are mandated to have an inspector of animals. So, I need to get an inspection ticket for my chicken. Um, yeah, I don't I think since it's the
right to farm community, it might be a little bit different. I I have to admit, I don't know all the ins and outs. Um, but the state does require that every town have the inspector of animals. Um, and I was looking at some of the other communities and our former person
represents like three other towns and I don't think we could win her back. So, we would have to try to find the new person. Do we know do do you know what we what her compensation was previously? Um, I could get that to you tomorrow. I
don't have my expense print out, but she just got a sip. I think it was somewhere in the ballpark, I want to say, of like 1,200. Yeah, got it. It's got to be on the yellow sheet from last year. Well, the dog officer was bud line was
budgeted at 3472 last year for fiscal 25, right? And did we have but we have animal inspector in here somewhere. Yeah, animal inspector line. So, she was and she performed both functions and
that's kind of what's also exacerbating this problem. But I think that they are entered as two separate lines in our budget. Yeah, it was $566 last year. Um, so maybe we should just do the same
thing and move the $5,818 to the dog office. Right. Right. Yes. Any anybody? Yeah, Jim, does um dog licenses that you know that
local residents are obligated to um you know purchase every year, doesn't that money go towards comp, you know, cutting into this amount a little bit? Uh the clerk processes all the dog officer tags, but I I don't actually believe
that the funds go back to that. I think they support another line item in the budget, but the library, I believe. Yeah. That sounds right. It seems like we ought to the fees ought to be the fees that we collect for for
licensing dogs in Shootsbury ought to go to, you know, at least reducing this amount somewhat. That seemed to be the the best thing to do. Uh Susie, I'll look it up where it came from that that money goes to the
library. I can't remember from my town clerk years whether any of it went off to the dogs um animal inspector or dog officer. I'll look that up. But um the other thing is we could
um we could allocate what's in there. Although we know across the board wages have gone up and finding somebody for the same amount of the past might not be that doable. In fact, Nancy Long was underpaid for being the dog officer. So,
um I I suggest we make it $1,000 and then um if that doesn't work, we can take it out of FINCOM reserves next year if we find somebody and they're actually more expensive. All right. So, we've got two proposals.
One is to fund that inspector of animals line at $1,000. And another option was to just fund it at the same [Music] um the same
$566 amount, which looks like we had from it's always been funded from FY22 to FY25. It was constant at $566. But Bob, yeah, I just want to support that number. I don't think we
have to preemptively add to our budget here. We already have enough trouble keeping things under control. If this does happen, as Susie described it, we need to spend more. We'll just uh have to deal with that uh issue when it when it comes. But really, I don't see the
point of adding another 500 bucks to to the pile of of problems we have. So, yeah. I I would support just just flat that I'm checking the I'm checking the expense report right now for fiscal 25.
Yeah, that's a good and um the dog officer line is so far we've spent 20 I'm sorry I'm looking at dog officer. I'm sorry. Let me scroll down. Um inspector of animals. We've spent
$436. 77% of it and there's 129 left. But that's for the person who left, right? So, yeah. So, we were spending at the rate of 566 a year. Uh, Susie, but I'm going to tell you, Nancy Long was
underpaid. Yeah. Underpaid. And if we went to other towns, we could find out what animal inspectors get paid. But I think part of what happened with her is she was being underpaid as a dog officer and as an inspector of animals. So, we
can we can stick with what we have and try to adjust later or we can try to adjust now. Where is the inspector? I support the $1,000 because I I agree. We're always short. It's only $334 and if we don't
$434 and we don't spend it goes in free cash. It's it's has no impact on the tax. Yeah. All right. Anybody else want to weigh in on this? All right. Uh, I'll make a motion
to fund this line at $1,000 for FY26. I'll second it. All right, let's vote. George I Groves. I'm going to vote against it. General principles. No.
Hemingway. I Cashew I Moer I Salvador Istein I Okay. So, um George, I'm making changes on my copy, but you'll you'll do the same on
yours. Yes, I will reconcile. So, $1,000 is the new uh budget amount for the inspector of animals and $5,8 I think is the number. Yeah. 5818
is the new budget amount for a dog officer. Okay. Uh Bob, I just want to say while I'm thinking of it, I did discuss with Steve uh oh not Steve Grineer. Dave Dave about the article about the uh line for the tree warden.
Yeah. That we were planning on restoring it to its prior level and he was cool with that because he does recognize that he has money in his budget for some of that work but he said that that would be acceptable to him. We discussed that and you asked I was asked to yeah to to run
that by him and I have done so. Great. Okay. Are there any other sort of miscellaneous budget updates? George, can you think of anything sort of a new development from our last meeting that we haven't discussed? No, I can't. Um
the only thing the only thing different um that we talked about is I changed the note um for the dog officer line to show that we'll have the contracted, right? Um, no. As far as the dollars go, no. I'll have to and I can send this out to
everybody tonight because as soon as we're done, I'm going to be able to I'm going to be able to do that because I have been updating this. Uh, no, I think we need to close the barn door. Yeah. So, the door. Yeah, we need a new door.
We need more secure door, right? We need a garage door opener. Anyway, um the only thing I wanted to check on um was I'm assuming there's no development on the police chief uh negotiation. Is that
right, Haley? Correct. All right. Um so I think we've got a we've got a a value that we plugged in. I think it came from Gabe, if I recall correctly. We have no idea if that's going to actually track
with what ends up getting negotiated, but I'm assuming we're going to go with that. Right. And there we can always we can always modify this at town meeting if there's some development between now and then. Right. Right. That's it's at it's at 90,000. Is that correct? 95 is
on the schedule. 95 and we lowered health insurance by five. That's right. Right. Okay. So, that was one thing. And then for the um the
uh administrative assessor, we we we're reason to believe that like that that might not be as sufficient, but we're not going to do anything about it at this point right now. Right. Is that we got another barn door? Before we
before we shut the barn door, I wanted to make sure we we were all comfortable with what we're doing there. Make sure the animal inspector's out. [Music] Um, one other thing about the the budget
though. Um, go ahead, George. Um, so I wanted to ask Haley. Um, well, I wanted to mention to Haley, I guess, you know, it was the town administrator who always prints the budgets for annual town meeting. Mhm. And produces the budgets. So, I've done
pretty much all the formatting I can think to do on this thing. And I set it so that the revenues will print on two pages and it will be back to front is typically what we do. And the expenses will print the the sheet called revenue will print on one page, back to back, so
it's two pages. um of data and then expenses are on six pages of data, three pages back to back. It works on my printer, but you definitely need to play with that a little and if you know if you're having difficulty with it, we can talk about that and see what solutions
we come up with because, you know, not every printer and apps aren't always consistent across PCs. I don't know. So, I just wanted to alert you that I don't think and what I'm going to send today may be the final budget. Yeah. Uh, and Haley, one other quick note. We
had a little snafu. Was it last annual town meeting where the the elementary school has its own budget documents? It's such a complicated organization and it it's only reflected as a
single line in our in our overall town budget. So, it's really important for residents to see the details of that budget. So, there there will need to be printouts of both the town's budget,
overall budget and the uh elementary school's budget. Susie, and I talked with the elementary school. They know and they're going to provide copies. The other piece we know by now we should is that everything has to go online on the fincom page where people can look stuff
up and it should include the schools. We should get a PDF of the schools one and I don't remember what level we do at the region. I don't remember if it's I don't think it is. So, but their electronic
document could be on our electronic page, our town web page, but we don't have to have it printed. Yeah. I think what we should do actually now that you mention it is that that overall kind of budget summary that
um that that has the assessment, you know, for for each town, but also has sort of the big large revenue categories and the overall exp. I think that document we we should make available. So I can I have the PDF of that. We can post that.
Uh, by the way, since it just came up, the lever select board last week, I think, voted two to one uh opposed uh to
support the 14.1% I think it's 141, whatever that number was increase for for leverage regional school assessment. So, that has been endorsed by the select board, which is the town meeting this Saturday, I think.
Yeah. Um Okay. [Music] Uh All right. So, I think what we need to do now is actually just pull up the budget and um and have a and and and just have a
vote on it. We should kind of make sure we're all on the same page in terms of what um we're using, what precise free cash um amounts we're using for which items,
and then how much we're utilizing for of of excess levy capacity. I think we should just kind of review those numbers and then and then have a vote as a committee as to whether we um approve the budget. Does that sound right? Yep.
All right. Uh George, I'm wondering if I should just share mine or should we share yours? Uh uh I don't Doesn't matter. Um I I did change the excess levy capacity to balance the budget. All right, let's share yours.
Um all right, so do you have sharing privileges or do I need to? Let me check. Yeah, just check. I'm in the minutes so I don't see I'm gonna hit share and see what happens. Yep. Okay, great. So, did everybody understand why I sent
an alternative format of the budget? Yeah. So, less costs. It uh it it was really the revenue page, right? It's the revenue page. I'm going to explain it right now if I can have two minutes. Yeah, please. So, I'm going
to shrink this just a little. in our historic historically. All right. Historically, revenue we had always shown how the levy limit is calculated. add the 2.5% add new growth you get your numbers
and then to that we add the debt exclusion override and then we get the maximum levy and then we have the excess levy capacity and then we get what we need to fund the budget the amount of we need to raise in the middle of all that is this nonsense which has nothing to do
with any of that and so my proposal is to take this and move it out of there. Oops, I keep going the wrong place. And move it to the top and then
have our calculations. So, when we're explaining this to everybody at town meeting, there's two things. Chapter 2 and a half says your tax rate can't be higher than $25. Rows one, two, and three show you what our levy ceiling
would be. It's $25 per thousand of our projected total town assessed value for FY26. That would be 9,127. And Commonwealth says you cannot tax above that. Well, the good news is
we're coming to town, meaning asking for, you know, this number here, something much lower. So, the first thing we would say is the levy limit is a percentage. So, I I don't know what I'll do about that, but this is our ceiling. The state says you can't calculate that. And then the state has
another limit and that's the levy limit. And the way the levy limit works is you have you have a property tax levy limit that is set. We set it we actually set it 15 16 years ago when we had a two and
a half override because what we did was we added to whatever it was at that time and we reset what our levy limit was for that year. And that number goes up by two and a half every year. right? New growth and then you have a levy limit to your levy limit. You can add debt
excluded override items so that you get your maximum allowable le levy. As long as this is below the ceiling, we can approve this budget with a majority vote. So the ceiling that was is up here
is no longer in the middle of all this because these numbers all flow. And so that's why I propose that we switch the way we show this. Yeah, I totally support this, Susie. I liked it, too. And but the thing I always wondered
about is why in this page it doesn't project the um tax rate because in some ways that's a small enough number for people to wrap. It's on this little table, but I don't have those that table on my notes. Am am I Did I print it
wrong? or no no it's not supposed to print. It's not something we give to to the folks in town. The reason it's there is so that I can c so that I have the numbers for the annual report. Okay. And so here I want to say that's a grabable holdable number. I think people can see
it and hear it. So maybe that table would be on the last page. The average single family. There's a space on the last Well, I have three printed pages for revenue. I don't know if you've changed that, but Well, like I said to Haley, she's got to be careful because that may happen to her, too. Yeah. Can
you Can you put that? Oh, well, we should talk about it as a committee. I feel like that's kind of the essence for people that could definitely be put in here. Um Becky and I had debated this in the past and I forget why we weren't doing it. We
both talked about that um back when Joe Marian gave us this new format. Um, don't know why we didn't do it. Honestly, it's just one line. I mean, really, alls I have to do is insert a
line here. I'm going to insert two lines. I think well I think I think it's a good idea but I think the key is that we should make sure when we refer to the tax rate and the average
single family tax increase that it's an estimate and that people need people need to know that this is all based on a set of consu well I you know I I think we I think the
reason we decided not to put it in here. Two reasons. One, I don't like talking tax rate because tax rate confuses everybody. Everybody thinks tax rate matters. And it's the formula, but it doesn't tell you how expensive it is to live in one town to the other. Tax rates are not a measure. And everybody looks
at the tax rate. And people are going to look at this and they're going to see the tax levies going up in 2024 and 25, but the tax rate kept going down. And then we have to explain that. And I want to talk rich. I don't want to tell people that we think that the if
you look over here on the right, I can't find my mouse. Here it is. If we look here at the right, I'm calculating what our average single family will be based on the numbers on this schedule when we put in the means test edition. It's
going to be a $330 increase from this year's. And I don't want to say 330 people. I want to say somewhere between 300 and 350 because it's a range. I might even want to say 280 to to 340 because I think we're being conservative here and I think our estimates on the
high side and I'd rather talk in terms of ranges and not actual estimates. That's I think the reason why we had it in the past. But what about the whole table? That little table average single family table on the last page. not to change the flow of the of the revenue
sheet because it is more iffy and I mean actually everything's iffy but just put it in the in the back and and it and because it has tax rate and average s uh single family cost that anchors it more
not just rate but um how those two things work together. Well, we don't have to have the budget done tonight in terms of the format and the ready to print. We just need the number for the Warren article, right? Good point. Yeah. Yeah. So, I So,
the point being, I'm actually going away again for a few days. When I get back on Monday, um I'll make a version of that and distribute it. Okay. Yeah, I'll do that. Could Could you also include in that what the value of the average house
value is because I I think that would help people. Yeah. No, that's a great idea. I think what I'll do is these are the things I'll put in there. I'll have one I'll do it like this. I'll do this. I won't I I won't include this
line. I'll just include this, that, and that. Yeah, exactly. Yes. Yeah. No, April, I'll do that. In fact, let me let me do that now. And do you want to include it from two years last year and this year? Well, the thing is if you
have if you're showing all these years, you have to do it for all the years, don't you? No, because it's a little table. Yeah. Well, fine. I mean, I I mean, I can. I just have to go back to the recap sheets from the previous years. I mean, I I I
think I have access to all that. So, I think I could do that. But basically, I think the important thing is is the FY25 and then the proposed FY26. People don't need I don't think they need the sort of long historical details on that. Well, I might put them
on and you can, you know, we can make that decision. I don't think it's going to be that much work for me to do that. So, I'm going to give it a shot if you don't mind. I mean, if you have a strong objection, I won't. No, no, not at all. Go for it. All right. So, here you go. So, it'll be here. It'll be a part of the page that
prints. We're going to have to make the page a little smaller to get it to print on two pages. I really don't want it to go to three. So, um All right, we'll do it. Tax rate and single family taxpayer. And I also got
the values on here, April. Okay, perfect. Okay. All right. Can you can you scroll up, George, to and to the cash reserves used for to fund the budget? Yeah. Okay, because I want to make sure that
everybody's clear before we vote on what what actions we're taking here. So, um All right. So, some of these Okay. So, the first three are actions we've already taken at special
town meeting, right? Yep. So then we have discussed using $34,000 to offset the school elementary school uh temporary costs. Okay.
Um All right. and then $33,825 to support our transition to the utilizing the regional agreement or statutory method for the regional school assessment. $8,250 for veterans
benefits and then $50,000 to fund 50% of the health insurance increase that we're budgeting for in in uh in FY 26, right? Those are comes out
to 51%. Okay. Because we lowered it to 99. Yeah. All right. So that so those are our um four uh line items that are at least either fully or partially funded through
cash reserves and that totals $126,75. Right? So there's nothing else that we've discussed as a committee or that anybody has proposed. Does that sound right to folks? Okay. Um, all right. And then the the So then
then the George, can you point us to how much excess levy capacity we're needing to use here to balance the budget? Yeah, the change in levy capacity goes from 862 to 714.
And that means we're using 148587 of excess levy capacity to balance this bud to right now. That's what it would take for this budget to be balanced. Okay. Right. All right. And
then um any questions on the anything any questions or anything need to be clarified on the revenue side before we vote tonight? The only thing I would point out is we still don't know what the final chapter uh the final cherry will be. Yeah. And
the assumption we're making is it'll be a little higher than what we have, but I guess that doesn't really affect anything we're doing here. Right. Yeah. Right. Hello. Uh sorry, Bob, do you have a Yeah, I just want to make a couple comments. One is yes. The levy capacity
and the cash funding of our budget combined uh equal a total of about uh what 200 what4 million dollars, right? Sounds right. Say that again. Total of
the excess capacity and the cash and the reserve funding of our budget total uh I think about quarter of a million dollars. of our budget. The thing that's a state bet the thing that uh concerns
me is number one we are funding some items. Some of the items we're funding I really fully support because they might be temporary like part of the school funding. The thing that bothers me is things like the the insurance funding part of that with cash but I don't see the insurance going down. It's going to
continue to go up maybe just as dramatically next year. Who knows? So I think it it's kind of uh not transparent to to fund it with cash and not a good policy to use cash for that. Uh I think that just that's related to the issue
which I raised at our last meeting which is that you know we talk about uh compensation for different jobs in town but we never actually include health care as part of the compensation we provide to our employees. And when you
have dramatic increases like this 20% increase in health care cost, uh that's a dramatic increase in compensation which should be calculated in the general compensation package. Uh so that it's not just there and not counted. I
mean I think that's not really fair to the taxpayer. Uh I I have social security and Medicare. My increase in social security was eaten up by my Medicare tax. So that's because they count it as part of my compensation. So
uh we don't and that's that's that concerns me. That doesn't seem equitable to me. Uh the other thing is if we're putting these raises that we're providing that we've actually supported uh in in phases. We already agreed to uh significant increases in the tax load
that's going to come land next year and that's going to just be deferred for one year. uh supposedly I think and George used the word to soften the transition. Well, I don't see it just softening the transition as much as it's just delaying the impact of something that's already
been agreed to so that it's more uh acceptable at town meeting. We should be more transparent about these things. We should debate them openly. We're going to provide them. We should fund them. And I think that this is a very significant increase in our budget. it's
been somewhat oluded by the uh calculations that we have here in front of us. Uh but I really don't think that it we I don't think we really did our job here. Uh that is to balance the needs of the taxpayer with the needs of the town government and its related
expenses. The only person that we pushed back a little bit on was Kristen. Everybody else got exactly what they asked for. That to me is not it's it's not really us doing a good job. This is too much increase in spending for people
many of whom who do not have conccominant increases in their income. So, and those are the people that we need to be most concerned about since we have a regressive tax system here. That's what's that's what my concern is. That's why I have a hard time supporting this budget.
Um, well, I see Susie and and George's hands, but I guess I just maybe I can just respond to a couple things. I think I mean like let's let's be frank about this, right? Like the highway
department, for example, has a 3.87% increase in its overall budget this year. Um, fire is It's but it's it's over five, I believe. Oh, here the fire. Let me take you to it. 5.2%.
5.2%. Um I think I mean my feeling is and I thought a lot about this like most of that's through maintenance. Yeah. Uh I I I I think the only department that had
proposed a significant increase that that really represented potentially there was a question about whether it reflected a level services budget or not may may have but to this to this day it's possible that that it did I think there was still some confusion about it was the police
department and and you know that department you know the chief had volunteered to to delay some of the department changes that she wanted to make. I just don't think there's a lot of of of areas to trim this budget, Bob.
And I I don't think we had I I don't I I'm very feel very comfortable that there there was not an opportunity to push back or um reduce a departmental budget that um
I I just don't I I just didn't see a lot of opportunities here that uh we haven't taken advantage of. So that that's my sense of it. And then I think on your first point, I do think that we there's precedent for us using cash reserves to fund operating budget items. We I think
we've had two two rationes and and two justifications in the past. One is about a truly sort of temporary unusual cost that we're that represents a kind of unique cost in a single fiscal
year that where we don't expect that to be a recurring issue. That's one. But we have there is a precedent for us using free cash to essentially cushion the impact of a
significant large increase in a um in a in a in a budget line. And you know, we've got two choices. We could, yeah, we we could say, you know, we're going to make taxpayers deal with the increase to the regional school budget in total
this year without any any utilization of cash resistance. We could we could we could at um we could put the burden of our increased health insurance completely on taxpayers this year and not use any cash reserve. That's an
option we have. I I think we we're we're doing precisely what I think you've advocated for, which is to sort of look out for the taxpayer and do what we can to provide them some cushion, some
relief in this year. And so I think um I think there is precedent for us using cash reserves to do that to kind of transition a what is a large significant change in in an operating line uh bud budget line. So
that I I'm comfortable with us using using it for that purpose for the regional school and for the health insurance. Uh Susie hate to take it off of this part of the discussion but I need some clarification.
um we lowered the cost for the debt service and yet our use of excess levy capacity went from 117 up to 148. So I am confused why that happened. Two
things happened. Um we we we dropped the 57 but we added um we also dropped the 30,000 in revenue for the legal. So you you you remember Susie at one point we said we were gonna we had the the legal line at
$40,000 instead of 20 and we we had thought about use about using $20,000 of free cash to partially 30 30 that's right 30. So when we made the decision at the last meeting
to essentially pull that out and almost treat it at the same way we treat um capital items where we're having a separate warrant article we want to promote a debate a town meeting whether the town should so that
it got pulled out of our operating budget and the re on the both the expense and the revenue that right? So, but why wouldn't simply cuz cuz I need simple tonight. Why wouldn't simply moving the debt service
of 57,000 out of the operating? Why wouldn't that lower what we Well, because we also had revenue on the revenue side because it was a debt exclusion override. Oh, okay. We had to take that revenue out of the revenue side. All right. Right. Okay.
All right. Um, any other uh So, George, sorry. Yeah. So, a couple things, AJ, I thought I thought you covered uh some what I was going to say. So, I think we're doing a I think this budget does a very good job of balancing the needs of the town with the
needs of the taxpayer. And I and I think part of the reason that is is because we're using cash reserves. Um I I every year we go to town meeting, we bring a level service budget and we're doing the same thing this year and
the region is the only exception and we really have we have little control in the region. Our say in that matter is pretty small. So we're bringing the budget we always bring and which traditionally has passed. So I think it's what the voters would want to see
us bring to them. So how are we going to fund that? I think this balances the need of the town and the taxpayer because the big increase in a few of the items are smoothed in. And I think one of the benefits of that
is yeah, it it keeps the tax rate from spiking, which is something we always nobody wants to have happen. Yeah, I'd rather have a bigger increase than wild flu. I'd rather have an increase each year than wild flu fluctuations from year to year. I got a budget that I have to manage for my home. Um, and I also
think we're being transparent, uh, Bob, because we're put we're showing these numbers and this is going to be discussed. We're going to present it in an annual report and when we discuss our budget and the concept of how we're balancing our budget, we're going to mention that. And additionally using the
cash, there is one other thing which I'm going to sound like childish right now and that is there may be new revenue in the future. And if the state if the Senate does increase chapter 7 funding, if the Quabin bill passes, if they ever address pilot, some
of this cash, we may we may have new revenue to replace this cash instead of having to increase our levy. So I, you know, buying a little time from that perspective, but from that perspective, I I think it's another reason why I'm
not shy in using cash. And then finally, um, the personnel board and the salary issue. Yeah, we know that when you hire an employee, every employee has benefits. And when we hire an employee, those benefits are going to impact our budget. When the personnel board does
the analysis of the salaries and compares our salaries to every other town, every other town also has that. We can't say we're going to pay our people 20% less than the other towns because we pay health insurance because people are going to go to that other town where they do give health insurance as well as
20% more. So the personnel board is aware of that and that is figured in these negotiations. Um Bob, yeah, I'll be brief. uh just want to say to in response to uh my colleagues here, I think that we do uh I
do pride myself in that I try to be fair-minded. I have a lot of sympathy and respect for the town employees, but I do uh care for the principally my obligation is the taxpayer. So I could say that I have had good relations with Dave Greier and I think I get have good
relations with Kristen and other and Lenny. But, you know, doesn't mean that I don't look at their budget and look with a critical eye at what they are asking for, whether they need it or whether they just want it. And as far as just the comment that uh that George made that about Lenny, I like Lenny and
I like the way he runs his department. But when he put that uh request in, he said that the maintenance line was underfunded and he wanted an increase in a substantial increase because that was just funding routine maintenance, not repairs. Well, that's just not a true statement. It's not true. I've been on
this committee for nine years. There was repairs were done out of that line. And there were repairs that were shown when he gave us the document. There were repairs shown in the document from that line last year in the expense report. So that's something we could talk about. We don't have to just rubber stamp every
request. Uh we can talk to the the persons about it and we can try to control the growth in our budget. I think that's an important aspect of our job. It's not disrespectful to any department to do that. I think it's essential to the conduct of our our
obligations. So, so I don't make any apologies for it. I think it's can be done respectfully, but it can be done with sharp pencil, you know. So, uh I don't see that we do that. That's my own take. Okay? I've said that all along. You won't have to hear it much longer,
but uh that's that's my take. I think we could do a better job in that regard. I'm sorry that you misheard the fire department's request because misunderstandings are really not
helpful. The former fire chief had not done all the inspections that are required as a way of saving some of that money for maintenance and repairs. When Lenny took over, the other chiefs told him, "Do not skip over those
inspections." So, he showed me the list of money that had been spent for um they called it maintenance and repairs and and I thought I shared it with you. Those were inspection costs and he could
not do repairs. So, changing the title from simply whatever it used to be to being able to say they needed repair money. And I know that they've used repair money um to help um prolong the
life of some of the equipment. So, that's that was the difference of what was happening from the past to the current. And then year after year, the finance committee worked with the departments to come in with budgets that were actually below 2 1/2% increases.
That meant people were very cautious and very um conservative about how they spent. That's where the excess levy cap capacity came from. We did not try to engage the full 2.5% just because we had
it. We spent what we needed to do for level services. Now it is in the year that we're facing. We do need to use some of that excess levy capacity. And people aren't always good at remembering what they didn't have to spend over the
last many years of the two and a half. And now we need to engage some of it to make sure that we can get through FY26. George, uh, I'll just point out that we we had to make a I think it was $9,000
fin transfer to the fire maintenance this fiscal year. So, we can say this is an increase from year to year, but the reality is, you know, he did run out of money, I guess, for the reasons that Susie, it sounds like for the reasons that Susie said. Um, I would point out
that by not t by not charging to the full extent that we could have of taxes in the past, you know, we hope that we'd never be in this position, um, but we are and we're not alone. Uh, there's many towns in our valley that are having having to
vote two and a half overrides. And, um, we're lucky that we have the ability. We haven't been taxing people the way we have, but and I I do want to try and keep the tax impact as low as I can for the people in our town, but our town historically
supports level funded budgets. So, I think the level funded budget is what I'm comfortable bringing. All right. Um, so I think I'm gonna, if there's no other sort of commentary or kind of clarification questions, I think I will
make a motion to approve our currently drafted budget. Should you include the total amount in it?
Yeah. Um, okay. to uh so I'm making a motion for the fincom to approve our proposed FY26 budget which uh includes a total revenues of 7
million Wait, let me get the right number. Uh George, I have 7 million677,86. Is that Is that what you have? I I clicked the wrong thing. 6,678 806. All right. To total revenues.
Uh total Yeah. Did you change the excess levy capacity? Well, you know what? What? Why don't we have you plug in? Well, here I'll show you my screen and then you tell me. Okay. We'll try and reconcile what you
have to what I have. So on the ex the total budget is 7 million wait sorry the total budget is 67 million678 807 806 yep that's what
that's what I have y okay and then on the revenue side you should have the same thing and if you're out by $1,000 it's because your excess levy capacity should be changed to No I have I think I have the right I have 7677806. Is that what you're showing?
Uh, sorry. I'm glad. Yep. That right there. Yeah. Yeah. So, no, we're we're we're matched up. All right. Just to restate it, I'm making a motion to uh approve our current proposed
FY26 budget, which includes uh total revenues and expenses of 7,677,86. Second. And do you need Okay. The regular article for the budget includes the the sources of it. Are we just you're just going for the budget? I
actually have that here. So what I did was on the bottom of the sheet is I here's the Warren article. Okay. And it breaks out. So the total budget is the first yellow one. And then the second yellow one by raising the sum
of 7,54271. That is this number here which is tax levy cherry sheet local aid and then the next line is transferring from pre-cash which is our
126705 and then the septic betterment which is 10,000. So these three items are these three items here and then the first item is this and they add up to that as they should. So, this is something Haley, you might want to take a screenshot of or or whoever's doing
the warrant article can fill the numbers out based on we're going to fill we're going to do that um during this meeting. Uh okay. Okay. I'll plug those in right now. So, yeah. So, the revenue piece is broken out this way.
So, I think there was a second. Any other discussion? Okay, George, I decide. Uh, I'm going to vote I reluctantly with the kind of uh misgivings that I tried to express. So, I Emway I cashew I Moer I Salvador
Impstein I. All right. So that motion approved 70. Okay. So I think what we need to do now is go through our warrants. But before we do that, um Haley, I think you
might have have had uh an item for tonight. Did you did you need to talk about the FY25 legal expenses tonight or No. Um there will be a separate meeting for that. Okay. Got it. All right. So,
um I'm gonna share actually. George, would you mind um just as as I'm I'm I'm going to fill in those three sorry four numbers um that we need for the
warrant article. So, uh you want me to share the screen again? Actually, if you don't mind just reading them to me just because I I'm on my laptop so I can't actually Sure. So, okay. So the first one um so let's just read to see if the town will vote to raise an appropriate transfer from
available funds borrow or otherwise provide sum of money to meet town expenses including operations capital salaries school expenses of 7 million 678 806.
Okay, great. By raising a sum of 7 million 542 731. Okay. And transferring $126
and75 from free cash and 10,000 from septic betterment fund. Perfect. If there's somebody out there with a calculator, add up those last three and see if they equal the total. Bingo. Nice. Thank you. All right. So, I am
gonna go ahead and share the town warrant. Okay. So, I have just uh can everybody read this? Okay. Uh um so I think what we need to do is just um discuss vote on the articles
highlighted in blue here. So the article two is our regional school budget item which is much simpler this year because not using an alternative assessment method this first year and who knows how
long. Uh so the article reads to see if the town will vote to adopt a budget of 37,77,171 for fiscal year 2026 for the Ammerst Pelum Regional School District using the statutory method as outlined
in section six and section seven of regional agreement and assess member towns as follows. And then it spells out the the amounts. I pulled this language directly from what the regional school committee voted in
their budget their their sort of final budget meeting. Um so I think we're good on this Susie. So the fact that it's a rolling five-year average doesn't use any word modified in there. Nope. This
is because I think we can just this is can be described as the regional agreement method because that's that's written into our the regional agreement. Okay. So I'm going to um uh make a motion for the fin to
recommend approval of article two as written. I'll second that. Okay. Any other discussion? Aren I Rose I Hemingway I Cashew I Moer I Salvador I Enstein I
70 all right budget sorry article three is the budget we've already done that um article four so uh this is kind of the I think there are a few sort of proforma ones here to see if the town will vote to set the salary compensation
for all elected officials of the town as provided by MGL chapter 41 section 108 as contained in the budget or take any other action. So um Susie can't we just do this like the housekeeping or what
what did he call them? Um what does the moderator call them? I think it is housekeeping when you do multiple in a row. He groups them. There's a word for grouping them and just saying yep yep consolidation or consent. Anyway, uh so
so what? Let's see. Articles four, five, five, six, six, seven, seven, eight, eight, nine. Now you guys are really challenging me now because I this
is not how I was set up to do business. Okay, hold You just call it four through eight. Yeah. I got the descriptions of them, but Okay. I just want to consolidate. Yeah. Approve the the uh following. So So we're going to make I'm going to make a motion to recommend
approval of articles four through maybe nine. Nine includes revolving fund. We never mess with that. Yeah. So all right. So article four the salary. Article five is compensating balances. They changed
since the last one I had. Article six is what? Is to allow the town to apply for and accept except grants. Okay. And then seven. Oh yeah. Okay. That changed. Walter Tibbitz. Got it. And nine is the
revolving funds. Got it. Okay. I got it. I'm good. I'm with you. All right. So, is there a second? We're voting. Great. Got it. Any discussion? No. I Rose Iway.
Cashew. I Salvador I. Anstein I. Can you scroll down there for a second, AJ, please? Yeah. Dog officers getting married. I mean, the dog tags. Let's see. Okay, I'll get there in one second. Want to
fill in these real quick. All right. Sorry. Is this is this what you were asking? I just was curious what was put in the budget for dog license and control,000 bucks. And uh I don't see the animal inspector
there. No, I I I believe that is um a revolving fund to help pay for the dog tags. Yeah. Um and so there's cost out and money in, but I don't remember for sure, but we've never messed with it.
Yeah. Good. All right. So, um I think we already voted right on our PAS 11. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so I'm c I've got that. If I got my numbering right, that's article 10, actually, George. Yes, right. My
computer's Oh, my computer's There we go. Okay. So, now we have a set of capital articles. So, article 11 to see if the town will vote to transfer from free cash $11,400 for a new mower for
the highway department. I'll second that. Okay. Any discussion? Arberines. I Groves I Hemingway I Cashew I Oer I Salvador
Istein I passes 70. Okay just for I didn't want to screw up the numbering even more here. We added 11 what I'm calling 11B but if that's okay George we can just
call it that for now so it doesn't screw up the numbering of everything else. Uh, so which one? This is the one where we put back in it highway department's road graater. Okay. So, the article reads to
see if the town will vote to transfer from free cash $16,600 for repairs to the highway department's road graater. And we already approved that, right? Yeah. No, I don't think we voted on this yet. Yeah, we did. AJ. Okay. We did. Yeah.
According to the minutes, we did. And I wrote down that we did. I suggest BJ. Yeah. Go ahead. Capitalize the B. Otherwise, it's like one pound. Uh, sorry. Capitalize what? A B. It does. It looks like one pound to me.
So, you know. Okay. So, all right. So, this is 11 capital item 11B is the greater. Yeah. All right. Well, again, I think we my notes I I wrote up top that we approved it. I don't see it as a vote. I don't have it as a vote. Let's
vote it again. All right. Let's just to be safe, let's vote. I'm going to make a motion to recommend um approval of article 11B as written. Second. All right. George
I em. Cashew I Moer I. Salvador Istein I. Article 12 to see if the town will vote to transfer from free cash $8,648 to replace the fire alarm system at town hall or take any other action.
Did I describe this right? It's the fire alarm at town hall, right? Yes. Yes, that is right. Upgrade, I would say rather replace. Oh, they were going to replace a panel. Yeah. So, it's an upgrade on the system. All right. Let's let's call it upgrade the fire alarm
system at town hall. And I'm putting I didn't know should I put the building committee as the sponsor for this? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Then we got to tell them. Yeah. Um Okay. Um so uh uh yeah going to
make a motion to recommend approval of article 12 as written. Second. All right. Any discussion? I Groves I He Cashew I Moer I Salvador I Stein I
Okay. All right. Article 13 to see if the town will vote to transfer from pre-cash $10,000 for needed town hall meeting room repairs. Yep. Again, I the building committee as the sponsor for this
second. All right. Um all right so any discussion? All right George I Hemingway I Cashew I Moer I Salvador
Istein I Okay. All right. Uh article 14 to see if the town will vote to transfer from free cash $8,000. So, you guys got to tell me if I got this right. To allow the select board to apply for grants that require
matching funds for funding improvements to the Lake Wyola Recreation Area. I I would apply or [Music] um I already applied. I thought matching.
Yeah, I thought these were matching funds, right, for proposals that the town was be submitting for funding. But I don't I don't think the select board is select board the one who's actually applying for the grant. Haley, I see
your hand up. Yeah. Um, so this is we are applying for a grant um with help from GZA and the grant will be stronger with a match. So, we're asking for the 8,000, but we've spoken to
um some Lake Wyola association. I don't have all the names memorized yet. Um but they've al but they've contributed 4,000. So, in essence, we will pay 4,000. So, they've matched our match. Oh, and they approved that,
I believe. So, double check. We said 8,000 based on the possibility that they might not. So if we know they did, we could lower this. Right. Right. Um I could get let me get back to you on that. I just don't want to say the wrong thing, but they seemed very amicable. Um
because it would be an important project for the dam. So I'll make a note to follow up with you. Let's do this. Let's keep it at 8,000 now, but you know, we can even even potentially before the select board meets next week, we can
revise this down if if if we get information from Haley in the next week. Does that sound Yes. appropriate? Okay. I did talk to Jen Wallace. She said Lake Wyola was going to make their approval.
Um they were going to make their approval and they were hoping that we would approve ours, too. So they didn't know if they were going to need to be contingent or we were going to need. So anyways, like everybody's contingent on everybody else. Yeah. Yeah. Where does I go the What came first the chicken?
Yeah. Just I just wonder if it might be better to say to allow the select board to provide matching funds uh for a grant instead of that formulation. Yeah. Allow select board to apply for grants that No, they already
applied. So they're providing matching funds to for grants. All right. To allow select board to provide uh matching funds, but we need the number because it's money.
The number's there. So, we will vote to transfer from $8,000 to allow the select board to provide matching funds for grants grants fund for for improvements to the Lake Wyola
Recreation. Yeah. For grants. Is it a grant or how many grants? One grant. Okay. for a grant to fund improvements at to the lake grant to fund
improvements to the lake lake recreation area going y so to see if the town will vote to transfer from free cash $8,000 to allow the select board to provide matching funds for a grant to fund improvements to the Lake Wyola
recreation I would say for a grant for improvements I think it's a little better a grant for improvements Well, it's two I got I I wrote down provide matching funds for a grant to fund improvements. Yeah.
Whatever. This is just word smithing, right? Is that does anybody Anybody have a preference? This is good. We got Okay. All right. All right. I'll make a motion we pass this if we recommend this. I'll second it.
All right. Any further discussion? All right. George Abern's eye. Groves. Eye. Hemingway. I Cashew. I Salvador. I Manstein I. Okay. So, article 15 to see if the town
will vote to transfer from free cash $30,000 for legal expenses to support the town of Sheesberry in its solar bylaw litigation or take any other action. So, I don't know. I put the sponsor as the planning board. Does that
seem appropriate? It's their law, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's their bylaw. All right. Um and again this is so just to to remind everybody this we've taken this out of the operating budget because we
want to promote or a discussion at town meeting about whether we want to kind of commit to funding this or if we want by not funding it basically communicate that we want to
change strategies. Yeah. Um, so does that does that wording sound right to everybody? Does to me. All right. So, I'll make a motion to uh recommend approval of article 15 as written.
Second. A rose. I Hemingway I Cashew I Moer I Salvador I and Stein I All right. Um so I'm going to
suggest we uh make I'll make a motion to approve articles 16 and 17 as a block here. the the these are um MLP's items. Yeah, sure.
Okay. And um Jim, I think these numbers came to me from from Haley, so I think I think they've plugged in the Yeah, I I'm going to reconfirm them with um with Steve and um and Gail just to be sure that we're all on the same page. I'm
gonna copy and paste them. Okay, great. But they I think everything looks fine. Yeah, if if there if there's an update, we can always do that next week at at uh with the selection. Sure. Okay. All right. So, yeah, I'm making a motion to uh recommend approval of articles 16 and
17. Second. Okay. Any further discussion? Harbor Imingway I Cashew I Moer I Salvador I I
Okay. All right. Let's see what else we have. So, uh, is Haley still on? Uh, do we know do we have any out, um, bills from prior years that, uh,
yeah, go ahead. Oh, um, not that I'm aware of. Okay. All right. So, I'm going to just leave this in for now in case anything emerges in the next week, but we're not I don't think we need There's nothing we need. Probably we won't because we passed them at the special town meeting. Yeah. Yeah, that's right.
All right. So, um All right. So, now there are a couple of planning board. I I was assuming we do not need to no no need
to know it's and that includes article 2 as well. Okay. Then there's a series of articles. Now, I I'm not sure how we want to deal with this from the the CPC.
Um I I assume I is Rita still a member of the CPC? Do do folks know or I think she is. Okay. So, I'm assuming at at the select board meeting next week, she or or somebody will kind of just review these, but we have not actually
talked about these. Now, these are not like this is not our money. This is not um anything where um sure is our money. I mean it's not coming from uh it's not operating budget and it's not coming from any of the the funds that uh we we
take actions on. So um we could vote tonight just as a block. Um, and my my I'll just tell you my instinct is like is to say the CPC exists to vet to like accept proposals for projects and to vet
those projects. And if they're recommending and putting forth these projects, I think um I I I don't think it's appropriate for the fincom to sort of override any recommendations that they're making, but that's my approach
to this. So, I would be inclined to just as a block, you know, re support um or recommend approval of these items, but I I'm not sure. We haven't really discussed that. Any thoughts about this? That makes sense to me. That makes sense
to me, too. Okay. All right. So, in that case, then I'm going to make a motion to approve, sorry, to recommend approval of articles 22 through 31. No, sorry. 32. 32. Wow. Yeah,
there's a bunch of them. Um, as written. Okay, I'll second. All right. Any further discussion? I just want to mention that in the past the FINCOM does make a recommendation and you're saying let's make it as a block.
Yeah. Yeah. I well with a caveat that that um if reader is still a member of the CPA um yeah we might get we might get some
additional explanation at next meeting uh with the caveat of what should I put this in the minutes that we may get further explanation of these items at our next meeting with the select board the select I wonder whether we should
wait to vote on them till we get that explanation. What explanation are we looking for? Well, well, just a narrative. If we're going to improve something, shouldn't we have some knowledge? Yeah. Yeah. I would like a narrative about it. But what we
know is that the CPC is a committee that act that um put this in front of the town. So then why are we voting on it? It always it in the past it says Fincom recommends. Well, George, because we advise the
taxpayer who has to approve every one of these single articles has to be approved by the taxpayer and then I'm sure they're going to be voted on separately at town meeting. So, we advise the taxpayer. So, I think we have a obligation to review them and to recommend or up or down, you know. All right. So, why don't I do this? Why
don't we hold off on on voting on these tonight? I'm gonna follow up with Rita and ask and confirm that at at the next select board meeting there'll be at least some review or discussion of these
items. Um, and whether that comes from her or somebody else from the CPC, it would be we we felt that that was important for us to have that some, you know, that that context before we made a recommendation. Yeah.
Does that seem reasonable? Very reasonable. Okay. All right, then. Um I don't think uh article 33 is relevant to us. You guys tell me if I'm wrong. Let's
see. Uh energy code article 34. I don't think we need to weigh in on that. This will be a long meeting, isn't it? Yeah. decarbonization.
Break all records. Oh my god. Oh my god. Not sure how that would look if if the entire incom just like got up from the table and left. We can tax seem like everybody gets an hour off. Yeah. Put our heads down and
sleep nap. All right. Article 36 is proposed amendment to the Furcog charter. I don't think we need to weigh in on that. 37. Uh, what is this? See the town will execute. I don't know what these
to me that doesn't seem Yeah, 38. Uh, same with 38. Uh, same with 39. Think we might be done, guys. Let's see. Oh, no. It is in petition. I don't think we need
to weigh in on that. Oh my god. 41. 42 42 private property. These aren't small bylaws, by the way. No, they're not. Hunting on land is going to be a
big debate. Yep. Yeah. But is it to to to ban hunting on private properties? I don't know what it does. I just That's enough for me. Honestly, I didn't read this. Yeah, I didn't need that.
Okay, we're not going to do this right now. I know. All right. So, I guys, I think we've we've we've deliberated on everything we need to um for for this meeting except for the CPC ones and and we'll get to that next week. Um so, just to
um just review, we are meeting jointly with the select board. Actually, now that I think about I've got to verify what time that is. Um and um I will I will share with um well uh with
everybody Haley and the select board our our draft of the articles that now have our votes included. And um I will follow up with Rita about wanting a little bit more information about the CPA
items. And um and I think we should just I I you know we should be there to answer questions to do a little very brief very brief overview of the budget and um yeah uh yeah we should be
we should be there in person. Yeah. For our section. Yeah. Person. Good. Yeah. Whoever can. Yeah. So, will you give us a time, AJ? When we I will. Yes, I uh because I don't know. I know. I know they usually meet earlier than we do, so I've got to just verify when that's
going to be when when where we're going to be in their agenda. So, um I will let you all know. Susie, so you said that we're we're meeting with them other than the CPC. We're just clarifying questions
they might have and and we're going to send them the documents, the budget and our votes on the warrant articles ahead of time, but I think it's I just want to go in it knowing that we're not there for the whole evening to listen to a lot
of rehashing on their part. That's their decision. Yeah. I think um I think our obligation is that when when it comes to um article three uh the budget article that we're there
to I think do a brief overview. Um I know that Rita has has um spent a decent chunk of time in the last couple weeks on at least the last version of the budget. So, I think I think she's um really informed. I know I
see Melissa's been listening to tonight. So, I but I think our I think our duty is to be there to answer questions. Um but they will know what our recommendations are because I'm going to send them the the document that we've
just been looking at. Good. Hey Jimmy, before we leave meeting now, uh, well, let's hear George's got something. Sorry everyone. So, um, I'll send out the budget tonight. It'll it'll have every change we made except it won't
have the tax rate and the tax single taxpayer bill in it. Um, the annual report is going to take a little extra work. First thing I'll ask you, AJ, is if you could go into the document and add the 166 to the to the capital expenditure because I got to update the
Yeah, the expected I'll put that in the annual report and I'll change the expected cash reserves after town meeting. I'll also obviously change the revenue and the expense sections and that includes the graphs. So, I'll send that out to everybody, but probably not
till next week. When do we plan on actually reviewing that, having that on our agenda? Oh, let's let me just quickly pull up the schedule. Uh, and you said the select board meeting that's May 6. It's next Tuesday. Next Tuesday. Yep. Um, all right.
So, all right. I think what we should do is at at we're going to meet with the select board May 6. I think May 13th, we should meet and do two things. One is review and and finalize the
annual report. And I think we should discuss and have a plan for our public information session and how we want to present at annual
town meeting which I think is going to look a little different this year. I think we should have a discussion about those things and and and the sort of logistics of of um how we're going to deal with both the public information session and the annual town
meeting. What? Every week for two months. I know. You get extra pay. I think that's right. Double double. You know, we I mean, if we don't do it the 13th, I guess in theory, we could do it on the 20th, but um get over with the
No, we No, we we need to Yeah, I'm not saying I'm not suggesting I know it has been a lot. I agree. Yeah. Uh Czy, and it sounds like in your plan it doesn't include a meeting with departments. Um,
and if we get the report out um, shortly after the 13th when we meet about it, then that's part of the getting everybody to know where we are, I guess, because um, I don't think any one budget is
sticking out in a way that people from inside or outside will particularly target. That was part of my idea. Yeah. And no, no town department is going to say, "Well, you didn't tell me this when I came in." I don't think that's going
to happen. So, I guess I can see letting go of the meeting with the departments as long as the information gets out to them and we do our liaison part and say, you know, did you see it? How does it look? Do you have any questions or
concerns that we can address? Yeah. I think what we should do after like right after the May 13th meeting is we should email a copy of our annual report that we'll have just finalized and the budget
and I and and I can send that to each department head say you know this is what um this is what we're planning on bringing to annual town meeting you know uh your your liaison will be reaching
out to you to see if you have questions or concerns, something like that. Um, and then I think each of us can reach out to our respective uh departments and and make sure they've had a chance to look at it and see what questions they
have. Sounds good. So, and yeah, go ahead, George. Did Did we ever I was wondering the other day, did we ever tell um Gail that we would like her to produce that report to replace Open Checkbook? Uh, I didn't. So, I think
um I think I should and uh I don't know that I've got to check. I know that she's she's shared some expense reports recently, but she's offered to do it, but I don't know that anybody's ever gotten back to her. Yeah. Um I think uh
Yeah. No, I I think I think I should reach out to her, but and also I think we're gonna need to Sounds like we want to meet with her and Ryan about the PAS issue as well. So maybe I'll send her an email to uh communicate both of those
things. Yeah, good good reminder. Yeah, that's good. I just didn't want I I'd like to I think it'll be helpful for us next year. I hate to forget it. Yep. Susie, and do we need to communicate with the planning board about the article being separated?
Yeah. And how do you do that? The planning board is Matteo, right? Is he? Uh, no. He's the land use clerk. Okay. He's landing Nate Murphy's the chair of the planning board. All right. So, I will send an email to uh to Nate and um
uh explain what our thoughts on on that article. And uh yeah, I think that's part of what we need to discuss on the 13th is. Um because look, we you know, we actually have like we we we voted tonight and we've got, you know, finance
committee recommends seven to zero to on that warrant article. And I think what we mean to say by our vote is we want to promote a a rigorous discussion about this at at annual town meeting. I think that's what we're trying to communicate
there. not so much that we necessarily have discussed and weighed in and we think this is um we should continue on this path right and so I think even that has to be explained um so you're right that we need to reach out to the
planning board and I think we need to discuss what we want to communicate as part of that discussion at town you're talking the 30,000 for legal correct Susie and I I last time I spoke spoke as
an individual, not as the committee. And I would probably do that again. Yeah. Right. Okay. Uh, anything else for tonight? Well, that was a lot. We got But we got
We're not done yet. So, we got accomplished what we needed to. So, thanks. So, I'll move to ajourn. I'll second that. All right. Great. George. Arnice I Groves I am Emingo I
Cashew I Moer I Salvador I and Stein I All right thanks everybody Haley I'll I'll give you a buzz tomorrow and and Sounds good night everyone George Celtics go Celtics X