All right, a couple of agenda changes. So, there was a plan for the select board to join us tonight. Um, which I I think would have been a very helpful thing. Uh, unfortunately, they somebody
dropped the ball on their end and they didn't have it on their agenda. Um, and so I think rather than do a last second change to their agenda, um, Rita is going to be joining us kind of
independently, uh, when their meeting wraps up. And, um, the context for that, by the way, is I think there's just there a couple things. One is there there's a specific request that they've made to
increase the legal line. um another 10,000 we'll get into this um and so that since that was really coming from them I I thought it'd be helpful to have um the select board explain that. So anyway, Rita is going to join us so she she can do that. And then the other sort
of context was like I think the you know it's been such a crazy year for the the select board. Um and they've just had their hands full with so many things and I think they're feeling like all of a sudden
they you know feel like they've been a little bit out of the loop on um on the budget. And not in a not in a way that like like assigning blame or anything like that, but it just just kind of a sense that they've like
they sort of haven't been like totally aware of some of the challenges that we've been dealing with and I think we're interested in kind of getting um getting up to speed on it. So, that was the plan, unfortunately, like I said,
but we'll have Rita. Rita did spend a bunch of time looking at our budget um uh that George sent around. So, I think she's she spent quite a bit of time going through it. So, I think she's feeling like she she understands it uh
now. But anyway, uh that Yeah. Go ahead, Jordan. Quick question. Is the select board meeting tonight? They are. Yep. Okay. That's why Haley's not here. Is Haley gonna show up with Rita? I I think so. Um and Rita was, you know, I guess you never know, but she was sort of
estimating that they might be done around 6:45 or so. Um so hope hopefully they'll we'll see both of them at that point. Um okay. And then the other um kind of special guest tonight is the
is Ryan is going to be joining us I think on the earlier side. Um let's see. Uh and the context for that was I think there there was a discussion about
um PAS interest and whether our PAS loans would include an interest expense for for this year. And so um anyway there there's I think a discussion we need to have with him uh about that. uh
I don't think he was initially aware that those were um interest free loans and anyway it's a complicated situation. So we so he's going to join us and we'll talk about that that issue.
Um why don't we start with uh looking at minutes and so we have April 8th minutes. Uh Jim. Yes. So George um in the members present right at the
top um you've got me down. You got Kathy and and both of us down as Jim Kathy Salvador Hemingway. Oh yeah. Okay. I Yeah, I pasted Kathy because she was absent the previous one. Obviously not in the right spot. Got it.
Did you hear the news about me and Jim? You guys didn't hear about that? Well, I fixed the problem. Okay. Oh, good. Okay, that's great. All right. Any other questions for George or
suggestions for changes? Hello. Yep. People might just be looking through them. All right. Uh I don't see any hands. That look good to
me. Uh so I will make a motion to approve the minutes. I guess as amended, we made one small change. Second I Groves I Hemingway I Cashew I Moer I
Salvador I and Stein I All right. All right. I'm going to shoot um Mariah a quick email. See? [Music] Uh oh, I'm sorry. Ryan's coming later at
7:30. Um, that's right. because I thought we were doing the select board first. So, we'll see him later. Um, well, let me uh I guess what we can do now is just talk about um some kind of budget updates since our last meeting. And I
have a brand new one um that's actually not on George's um current uh budget that I might as well get into now. I spoke with um Kristen this morning about the police department's budget and I was had asked
her for another conversation because I I was sort of still feeling like we didn't have this totally nailed down at least to my satisfaction and I was feeling like I was kind of leaning
towards asking for some kind of a compromise. um proposal for this for FY26 so that we kind of wouldn't experience the full
uh impact of this proposed staffing change and I just wanted to sort of talk through some of those items with her. It turns out she's I think been sort of independent of that um has been feeling
like we like we need she needed to make a change in her proposal because of the kind of larger context of a really challenging budget year. um seeing how the police department was kind of
appearing to be somewhat of an outlier in terms of the you know looking at a I think you know 30 plus% increase over FY25 when most other departments were in the kind of mid singledigit increases
and I think she was sort of feeling like this might actually be a difficult year for her to get buy in for that proposal. So she volunteered to kind of maintain
like to postpone implementation of that staffing change. So, not hiring an additional full-time officer until FY27 and kind of continuing with the
status quo and like really sort of spending this year like um kind of pulling together sort of the information, doing some additional research um
to kind of help make the case kind of, you know, like an effective case for doing this change in FY27. And so then I suggested well we could uh increase the police wages line by 10%
um as opposed to I think it was 34.4% in the the draft budget. um which I think is if I if I understand this correctly and she she this was aligned with her thinking too that that was the percentage increase that the
contract um for the officer's contract um required for this year and so she seemed very comfortable doing that and actually I didn't even really ask her to do I mean it was I was I was sort of
heading in some kind of a direction like making proposal of something along those lines, but she had sort of really kind of independently made that. So, I think if we do that, um, we we recover about
$33,000 and change from in in from the bud in the budget by by reducing that police wages line. We still don't have a number for her contract which I think is um still in a kind of long protracted
negotiation right now. Um and and one of the things she asked me and we should have a sort of plan for this is what happens if there isn't um an agreement on her contract before annual town meeting. what would we what would we put
in the budget? I didn't know the answer to that because I don't recall that happening at least in my years on the fincom. But I I thought there were there were sort of I said this is just me thinking off the top of my head that there were sort of two options. One was just to sort of find out what the last,
you know, the kind of the last offers on sort of both sides of that negotiation are as of um you know, our budget deadline. and that we could put in either the highest of those two values as a placeholder um or an average of the
two um and with kind of an assumption that may maybe they'll ultimately land some somewhere in between those two. But um I guess we don't have to necessarily figure that out right now, but that is something that seems like it might be a possibility. Uh Bob yeah just a notion
here that I think in normal cases when and it's often the case that say a teachers union does not finish this negotiation in a given here and town meeting comes along and the budget has to be nailed down. I think in the past I've seen communities do this uh just
use the old contract for the pay scale and then pay whenever the contract is resolved pay back the employees whatever they're due under the new contract retroactive to the beginning of the fiscal year. So that's one way that these kinds of things are handled and
that would require um you know a special town meeting or whatever to provide those monies uh right to the uh to the budget retroactively. So uh that's one way of dealing with it. Got it. Okay. Uh
April, what did we do last year around Becky's because her contract was still was also up in the air and I don't that I don't remember. I don't either. Yeah, I remember. Georgina Ge I do remember Becky basically told the select board and the finance committee that she
wasn't asking for a pay increase and that she because Becky was always a proponent proponent of managers getting the same increases as the nonUN employees the um the rank and file if you will. So Becky
and she specifically stated that I'm not asking for more money. That wasn't the sticky point on her negotiation. So, we were able to just increase by 3.32. I see. Okay. We have 95,000 in there now for the chief, which is a 30 something%
increase. 32% I think. I have to go back and look. Yeah. Uh 31.8. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bob. Yeah. I just want to say I did ask when I met with Kristen before our last meeting, I did ask her to do something like this and she was aware that we were having problems with our
budget from our meeting with her and also from my meeting with her and she did show a willingness to think about it and I frank and frankly I still am not sure that we don't that that budget that she proposed that we're now going to probably see changed was level services.
it was more hours per week than what we had been used to pay paying historically. So that's another issue that has to be looked at by by us. Yeah. Yeah. I I I agree. But I think it's now
become an issue for FY27 and not for uh 26 g given this um you know sort of her her current thinking about about the budget. I I I just I'll just say from my end, I
was really super appreciative of her offer to do this. Um, I think it really showed demonstrated to me like an understanding of the kind of challenges
that we're dealing with this year and um kind of a willingness to not like you know like it's not like I suppose she could have dug her heels in the ground. I mean this is obvious this is the path that she you know thinks is the best path forward for the for the department
so and for the town and you know I think she probably could have chosen to sort of dig her heels in and continue to advocate for it but she she sort of listened to to the concerns and um I was just really appreciative of of her kind
of flexibility and willingness to sort of hold off for a year on Yep. Um I agreed. Um so I would propose uh at some point when we pull up the budget later in this meeting, George, uh if we that we should go ahead and and
make that change. Um and just did Okay, great. And I think it's just yeah, just increasing the police wages line by exactly 10%. Right. That that picked up 33,000 33 443 and our deficit moves to
110 290. Correct. Yeah. Go ahead, Bob. Kathy will also back me up here. We we did provide 10% exactly to the wage line for the hired hands at the police department. Okay. So, that's the correct number. Yep.
Yeah. All right. Good. All right. Um, I see Ryan has joined us, so maybe we can get into the PAS loan topic. Hi Ryan. Hi everybody. How are you? Good. Good. Thanks. Thanks for joining.
Um, so George, I'm gonna kind of lean on you if you're if you don't mind since you you're kind of Sure. been Yeah. Well, I talked to Haley about it. So yeah, Haley had updated me. Yeah. Can you tee it up then for everybody?
Yes. So, so Ryan, um, just I just want to finish the minutes here. Um, so we all know that there's a interest rate free loan coming from Clean Water Action, I believe. Well, Clean Water Trust, and um, Ryan, I guess you're
aware it's a two bands at 150,000 each, and they haven't been distributed to us yet. So, you're thinking, and let me know if I'm I'm off base, but you're thinking, well, we need to borrow 300,000 because that's what we need. And so, you send us your debt service
schedule for FY26. And of course, I noticed that those interest charges are on there because that's not interest free that those initial amounts, they're just in anticipation of reimbursement from the Clean Water Trust. Am I doing all right so far? Yes.
Because because we have to borrow in advance, we have to pay the banks that we're borrowing from advance interest. So, and so then that interest expense, if we were to do that, would then be reimbursible at a at a at a later date or No, no, the interest expense is a
town expense that the town has to budget for. Okay. Essentially going to our regular borrower to get that money for a shortterm note. I see. Yes. Mhm. So, the thing I wanted to point out the a couple questions for you, Ryan. I'm not sure.
Um um I talked to Haley about this. I hope she passed these along. You know, we see that there's an account that started the year. It's PAS mitigation and it started with about I actually have it on another screen here. Um it started the year at about $164,000 and so far 75 has been
expended. So there's 88 89 88716 sitting in that account. And the finance committee has also I don't know if we're sponsoring it, but there is also um a warrant article at town meeting that is going to transfer
from our cash reserves to this PAS contamination account another $50,000. So essentially at this point in time we're looking at about 138,000 88 and what minus whatever gets us to the end of the fiscal year and then a
replenishment of 50,000. So the question I guess is do we really need to borrow that 300,000? Um can we determine if we need to borrow it? make an estimate and possibly not borrow anything or borrow
borrow something much lower than the 300,000. Um to be honest, I don't have a clue what that um line in the budget is that for PAS. I have no clue why it's in there or what it's for or how it
possibly relates to the project. Um sorry if you can hear my dogs in the background. If not, pretend I didn't say anything. Um, I have no idea what it's for to be totally transparent with you. I know that if we do not borrow this money, we will have a $300,000 hit on
our free cash. And that's why we need to borrow it. Well, why would we have a $300,000 hit on free cash? That is a question for your accountant. I don't I don't participate in the calculation of free cash, but the town took $150,000 hit on
free cash last year because we didn't borrow and this year we'll take the full $300,000 hit if we don't borrow for it or um it's complicated as far as I I don't reality is Becky Becky's your
project manager. I'm not your project manager. I don't know the details of the project. It's just not I just borrow the money as town meeting tells me to. But you know, Becky was the project manager. Gabe came in and tried to be the temporary project manager and now Haley's in here and is the project
manager. I don't know the level of knowledge that got passed from Becky to Gabe that got passed from Gabe to Haley. I think there's some confusion as to whether the Clean Water Trust even has approved us for that second 150,000 or not.
Um, if the Clean Water Trust doesn't approve us for that second 150, I cannot borrow that second 150 and we'll take $150,000 hit on free cash no matter what. So, the right now it's right now the options are uh we'll take the $300,000 hit or we're going to take the
$150,000 fit hit, excuse me. Um, I'm hoping that the Clean Water Trust and Haley get it so that we don't take a hit at all, but that's kind of where we're at with those right now. No matter what, I'm borrowing 150,000 of it. Um I believe it's next, what are we in April?
Next month. But I still don't have approval. Bond council doesn't have approval to borrow that second 150. Um I've sent a list of requirements to our town clerk and Haley that bond council is asking for in order to get approval to borrow that second 150. I'm still
waiting for just some of those. I I've received some of the uh requirements, but I'm still waiting on some of them. All right. Uh, yeah, I know it's complicated, but I don't understand why I think I'm more confused now than I was before. I just don't understand why we
would take a hit on free cash. Uh, the town is authorized to borrow that money and I believe the town has already expended money. So, we've expended money, but we don't have it. And the town voted. So, we have on our um statement of indebtedness $300,000 of
outstanding approved authorized debt. So, it I'm under the impression that is where it hits your free cash. But again, you have to ask an accountant. It's just not the role of the treasurer. Okay. I can tell you that the accountant told me today um we are screwed if we are not allowed
to borrow the second 150,000 quote. Okay. Uh Susie, this is one of those situations where there's lots of people, lots of pieces, and not a solid picture yet. I did go up
to talk to Haley today because what I don't understand is has there been confirmation of what the Clean Water Trust agreed to? And um
so when I dragged out the um it's called a loan loan questionnaire that was signed the um there was one signed on 62 um 6 uh 2624 something like that date. Um Becky
had filled out the application. So there was a name on that if you have any questions. So, when I was up there today, I said to Haley, I I think we don't have the confirmation of what the Clean Water Trust has approved or what
what has what if there's anything left to be done and and we do know that there's two pieces that we're talking about. So, she was going to try to get some that person on the line and talk to them. Um, but you know, it's classic. we
have had so much turnover and it was in a very complicated process. We just don't have the information right now. But um I know that the um I had thought that it was made um that the information
went to the treasurer because it was part of the issue around um how to pay for the warrant articles that were there. And um so I can there is one piece of paper in that folder that does say this has been approved. And then
there's other um I can't tell from this time sequence of if that was the second one or the first one or all that. So I feel like we have to get this information. I think the Clean Water Trust must be part of where the information's got to come
from. she made an effort to contact them today. Um, so I don't know that we know what is needed or what has been approved. And I don't know if anybody's talked to Becky. I mean, at this point, it wasn't going to be Gabe and it's not
Haley that knows what's this is. I thought maybe Ryan would know because it's been a process. Um, but if not those two people, then I think we should ask Becky and I think we should talk to the Clean Water Trust people. Yeah, I when I reached out to Haley last
week with the list of requirements u in order to accomplish that, she has to communicate with the Clean Water Trust. It's the only way she'll be able to actually uh satisfy the requirements. So, I believe that once she's in communication with them, she will be able to get clarity on the project. I think it's a lot to take on. I'll be
transparent. I do think Becky is a huge part of why we're uh so deep into the woods on this project. I don't know how much help um I like Becky very much. I'm not speaking to her character in any way, shape, or form. I just think this project got away from her and that's why
we are where we are at the moment. Um because like I said, I have approval and bond council's approval to borrow 150. What I'm trying to get now is bond council's approval to borrow the second 150 that was voted at town meeting.
Okay. Uh just a couple of clarifying questions because I think I'm not I think I'm behind some other folks in this meeting in my understanding of what's happening here. Um so th that PAS mitigation line that we have in our um
expense budget like how did that how did those funds how did that line get funded initially like where did that money come from if it didn't get awarded to us from this clean water trust is that did I
understand it correctly that when you said earlier that those th those awards haven't yet been distributed to the town. Um, I think there's kind of two questions there. I don't know anything about the expense line in the budget to be honest. I I had no part in it. It
means it just doesn't mean anything to me. I did relay that to Haley. She asked about it last week. I told her I have no clue what it pertains to. Uh, the town has not received any money from the Clean Water Trust as of yet. I know for certain that the trust has committed
$150,000. Right. I don't know if the trust has committed a second $150,000. I just know that the town voted to borrow $150,000 twice from in regards to the Clean Water Trust giving us two sets of
$150,000. Okay. And so, and then the the the reason why we would take a uh a free cash hit if we don't borrow this funds is these funds is because we've been
expending money on the promise of getting uh these awards from the clean water trust, right? Is that is that the the issue? And so we've got essentially like we've been incurring expenses. We've got an a line in in the accounting
accountants um uh expense budget that is capturing that and it has been assumed that those funds would be paid for from this the these clean these awards
from the clean water trust. Is that does that sound right to you? Yeah, that's my understanding from okay my you know quick education from the account. I have a question. When you said that um Ryan, you said that yes, the trust clean water
trust has committed 150,000. What's how does that what's the mechanism for it to be sent to the town? I'm assuming eventually they should receive everything that they need from the project manager and they will send us $150,000. The way I know that they've
committed is that bond council gave us approval to borrow it and a part of bond council's um list of requirements is they get information from Clean Water Trust committing to it. So that list is what I'm waiting for now from
Haley for the second borrowing. Yeah, I stepped in here for a sec for Go ahead, Bob. For clarification, Ryan, maybe you can help me with this. We ex we had a line in our budget for the PAS account which I believe at least I
believed was the funds for which were provided by this loan and we've been spending we've been paying contractors out of that line. I mean where's that money coming from if it's not coming from the loan? We never transferred any money into that line except for this 50,000 that we're proposing now. Maybe
if we did transfer it at some point, we counted that $150,000 as resources available for us to address this PAS issue and we paid contractors and we paid for POET and all the rest of it. So, I'm I'm not clear how that happened if if we didn't
receive any funds from the state. That's where your hit on free cash is coming from. If we were to close the books today, $210,000 hit on our free cash if today was June 30th. Yeah. So, it's getting So, Bob, it sounds like it's the money and we haven't received it. So, Bob, it
sounds like those all of those bills are getting paid from our whatever general um uh account and it's getting it's it's getting allocated to that PAS line, but
there's never actually been funds that have been actually transferred into that line. It's all based on the the assumption and promise of this award from Clean Water Trust. It sounds like
and and the assumption that we're going to borrow short term to cover us until those funds are I got that. But if that's true, then we have to account for that in our free cash uh spreadsheet, which we haven't done, right? Yeah. Well, no. No. Free
cash gets certified at the beginning of the year or the end of last year. The free cash balance we're using is what free cash is adjusted for what was passed at special town meeting in December or January, whenever it was. But right, Ryan, that free cash number
was already accounting for that 150,000 when it was certified. Oh, I'm honestly not sure. That's that's all right. You can't we can't change free cash balances without warrant articles, right? And so if there was a warrant article
for PAS contamination, it was accounted for in there. And that's why there's a beginning balance that's so high. Yeah. For this account. So then if this money does come in, where does it go? It goes into general fund, goes into the No, no, there's a PAS contamination account. It's going to
that line done expense report on page 12 cuz that's a hell of a lot of money then. Do we need that much money? That just goes back to your original question. Yes, that was my original question because especially because we're putting 50,000 in. Yeah. Yeah. Susie, I know
that Gabe um spent time as she was ending up her time here copying invoices and submitting them. Now I think they're being submitted to maybe um for the clean
water trust um balance. Um so so when we talk about what happened, we had a um a big lag between the end of Becky's time and the turmoil at Becky's ending and
the six months with um Gabe and she um at some point was took on copying invoices. I'm not sure if those invoices are outstanding invoices. I don't know what the status of them are. and you know giving gave only 20 hours a week.
It wasn't it's not going to become clear through that process. So um I think we're still in a pretty big muddle about what money is owed to contractors and what money has been paid and what money has been
um approved by clean water and what the action at the um in the free cash column is. And this is probably way more than Haley can tackle. Um, so I'm not sure how we line
up the resources to figure this out, but it does not seem clear to me yet. Yeah. Uh, George, um, I could probably reach out to Becky and ask her if I could have a meeting with her and see if I can fill any of
the gaps. It might be good to have Haley there. Um, yeah. Uh, I think Susy's right that we have a balance. It's around 89,000. Now, I can tell you that somebody was at my house last week taking water samples. So, I
think it's pretty safe to say that we're going to be spending a good chunk of that 89,000 between now and June 30th. So, what we might have on hand is 50,000 if it's approved at the town meeting to start the year. The question is, is that
enough? And yeah, I I agree with Bob. I'd like to go to the original question and ask, it sounds like we need to borrow something temporarily, and the sooner we can get money from Clean Water Trust, Ryan, I assume that we can pay that loan off as soon as we get the money from Clean Water Trust. Uh,
typically when we go out to borrow, you don't have the option to prepay. So, you have the loan for one full year. So, that's where that uh what did I budget for interest? Just a little over 7,000. Um, I'm hopeful that that rate's a little high, but basically a little over
7,000 per each 150. So, in the end, it'll cost around 15,000 to borrow that money. Well, yeah, I think, you know, I think we should I don't think Can you finish? I I didn't hear what you said there, George. Can you say that? I'm just thinking, you know, it just
seems like if we're putting 50,000 in to the fund at the beginning of the year, we can probably borrow something less. So, so if we took 150,000 from free cash, the beginning balance was 163. So, there must have been some other source
previously and maybe we did fund that contamination line at a special town meeting or town meeting previously. Um, we're going to add another familiar. It is. And you're saying, Ryan, if we don't borrow 150, then we're going to get another 150
in hitting our free cash. Well, as like no, as of today, we're going to get hit with $210,000, we're in the hole. So, even if I borrow 150, we're already still in the hole. And we still have quite a few days left of this
fiscal year. We didn't budget for interest this year. Are we going to owe interest this year? No, because we didn't borrow for it last year. Yeah, we didn't. Okay, which was a mistake. We should have borrowed for it last year. I actually
did borrow for it, sent the paperwork to Becky. Becky reached out and said, "No, that's a 0% free loan. The money's coming from Clean Water Trust. You need to change that." So, I got special permission from Department of Revenue and the bank to change the loan only for us to not get the money from the Clean
Water Trust and then run out of time to borrow the money again. Wow. Which is why I don't think reaching out to Becky is going to help us in this process. I don't think she understands the project. I think the only question I would ask her is who's your contact? What kind of
arrangements have you made with them? What do we need to do? Do you remember what we need to do to get the money from them? I think that actually goes to Sue Perez cuz she's the signer on the document. I can show you um the folder
that has one that says this has been approved and then uh the questionnaire that I think must be for the second one. And this woman Sue Perez is the one that signed off the first thing we have. And um the other piece
was um Haley checked in with Jeffrey Arps, but it's actually Jeffrey Faulner um who seems to be um part of the contact people. So, Superez and Jeffrey
Faulner are the people and actually I think at this point um really we have to talk to the clean water people and if there's steps that haven't been taken, we've had a lot of change in our administration and we need
their good graces to keep moving forward. Yeah. One of the Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Bob. I just want to say I think my impression from what you've said, Ryan, is that we've been paying for this out of free cash that you say we've taken a hit on free cash. Well, we've
already the free cash has been adjusted according to what I understand from what George said when the dispersements were made on that line. It was coming out of cash. So, we've already sort of lent uh this line money from our free cash from our reserves and we are going to get
repaid presumably for the first $150,000 that we covered and possibly the second 150. So, why can't we continue to do it that way instead of paying $15,000 of interest for a line in which we're not sure we really money we not sure we
really need to borrow? Why can't we continue to borrow from our own reserves? if we can handle it uh within our concept of our reserve levels and we're sure that this and we find out we establish we're going to get this money from the state and we establish some kind of a timeline. I don't see why we
should borrow money at all. Why don't we just use our reserves and dip into them and then replenish them when the money comes through? I'm not You would have to talk to the accountant on that. I don't understand the legalities behind it. I just know that I'm told I have to borrow this money.
Why? I I don't not clear why you have to borrow. Please help me understand that. Because the way we're getting because of the way we're taking a hit on free cash. Getting a hit on your free cash from my understanding is not the same thing as you transferring money from your reserves to cover expenses. But again, that you've got to
talk to an accountant about that. It's the treasurer handles your cash. I don't handle your GL's and your expenses and revenues in that capacity. It's just not what a treasurer does. Okay. Thank you, George. I I think the biggest
struggle we have right now is getting um is getting a project the project manager who historically has been the town administrator up to speed on the project with a partnership with Clean Water Trust and really understanding what's going on and where we're at. Um,
we're at somewhat we have some leniency as far as time goes in a in a benefit because I have until September uh to do the borrowing technically because that's your last deadline before you are going to get the hit on free cash. So, we have it's not June. It's not as bad as it
sounds because you're thinking June probably June 30th. Um, but I already have a borrowing scheduled for May for that first 150 along with the other because it's all I'm rolling it all into one along with like our dump truck, etc. So, all that's going to happen in May no matter what. That second $150,000 that
I'm referencing, we technically have I can borrow that money in August. So, we have we do have some time here. It's not as um timerestrictive as it might seem, assuming that June 30 looming deadline that we're all so used to. Um so, it does give Haley some time to get kind
of, you know, into that. But, I think that's got to be what basically her top priority project right now. It's it's not my place to tell that that, but I've sent the list of requests um requirements from bond council and I know that she's working on
it. Right. So, hi Haley. Hi, Rita. So, we're talking about this um this PAS loan. So, it it sounds like that there's a couple things that need to get clarified from clean water trust. one is
the status of our second award. Um, and just clarification on whether that whether they've actually awarded that, right? That's that's an open question. We're not we haven't we're not sure we have
confirmation that that second um $150,000 loan uh interest free loan whether that's been awarded or not. So, that's one thing that needs to get clarified. And then the second thing is about kind of what what needs to happen in us for in
order for us to be able to draw down the the funds that they have awarded, right? Because we haven't received any of it yet. And they potentially are waiting on something from us um before they actually cut us a check, but we're not entirely sure of that. Um and Ryan,
that's the Go ahead. No, I I was uh just going to say um this is Rita uh that I uh I I believe that they needed the invoices in order to um pay that first
$150,000. So, it's a reimburseable that they are going to reimburse us. We've spent all that money. Um but we needed to show them what it was spent on. Right. Okay. So, we potentially have to compile all of the invoices that we've
been paying um for this work and and submit that to them for reimbursement. Is that your understanding? Yeah, the first 150 was done. Yeah. Gabe before she left did the first 150. Oh, she did. Okay. So, they have all that. They're
just processing it now. I see. Okay. Got it. All right. So, that Did they give you any insight as to how soon? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off. I apologize. Please go ahead. Um, but where you said they're processing that, did they give any insight as to how soon they think they'd accomplish that? No. No. But I um I did have a good meeting
with Jeffrey, so I can That was last week, so by the end of the week, I can follow up with him again. But that's Jeffrey Arps, right? Yeah. But he he was he was the one who informed me that they were processing it. Um I still have that contact that we figured out today,
Susie, that I need to reach out to. So, I've got a couple people um to work on. Okay. And Jeffrey Arbs is with TIG and Bond. Is that right? I am. And so they are part of processing the invoices so
that um the Clean Water Act money can be awarded. Is that what we're saying? As far as I understand it. So So they they give us the invoices. We're paying the invoices from Tai from Tai and Bond,
right? So it's it's then our responsibility to submit those invoices for reimbursement and it wasn't done. So that's what Gabe sort of was, you know, having to go back and go through all those, you know,
invoices now from like two and a half years ago, three years ago. I can't remember when this all started, but yeah. And and since then, you know, as you guys have been talking about and Ryan has been saying, you know, we've incurred additional um expenses above and beyond that that
150. So, yeah. Um yeah, if I understood you correctly, Ryan, we're at 2 210, right? That's the the amount that we've Yeah, that's what I was told from the account. Okay. So, so the so the the package that Gabe
has submitted covers whatever invoicing up to the initial $150,000 it sounds like. Yep. Got it. Okay. All right. So I think the question for us and George I see
your hand up is still like I mean are we supposed to proceed on the assumption that Ryan is going to um pursue these kind of one-year bands
for in the amount of $300,000 is that is that it sounds like that's the message that the Gale has communicated to to Ryan is everybody body in agreement that that's the sort of pent. So we're not really Yeah. George want to go ahead.
Town meeting vote town meeting authorized me to borrow the 150,000. So I'm borrow 50,000. No one else has a say in that matter. You know, town meeting told me to borrow it. I'm borrowing it and I So the town finance committee has
to budget around 7329 for the interest of it for interest expense. The question then becomes, I'm hoping that we get some confirmation on the second 150. I'm requesting that you budget for now because we're getting close to your budgeting deadline. You know, worst case
scenario, you over budget $7,300. I know it's a tough I work in small towns. I know it's a tough year. I live in Orange. It's a tough year financially. But the if we get approval from them to borrow it, the likelihood of us getting that money from them before, you know,
that August deadline comes around is low. And we don't want to be on that getting that full $150,000 hit on our free cash versus just budgeting $7,300 in interest, right? And and your thought is that we couldn't So the difference
between 210 and 150 that you already confirmed are going to be borrowing. So that that $60,000 you don't think and I I know you said it's really a question for the accountant, but your understanding is that we couldn't simply
fill that gap with um a transfer from our cash reserves that we bring forth to our town meeting um next month. um that that's that's not going to be
um well I I don't see why you couldn't if that town meeting if you wanted to put an article on there that says uh you know your free cash was certified or your stabilization funds you wanted to get say you wanted to put a motion on there transfer $150,000 out of stabilization you succeed and get your
twothirds vote uh there's no reason why we couldn't use that 150 and then not borrow for the second because you you've now covered it it's okay so I misunderstood I thought I thought earlier there the idea was that we that was not going to be possible. So George
15 has just been voted to borrow. No one's voted to pay it off from like stabilization or something like that. Yeah. So uh George, does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. I think I'm starting to get this now. So yeah. So the So our
decision our decision is really about I mean we know we're going to be um we're going to have $7,300 some odd dollar interest expense on the 150 that you're taking out next
week or whatever the timing was that. Uh and so that that's a known and we're going to have to budget for that. There's no there's no um no options available to us around that. The question becomes, do we budget for an
additional interest expense on the assumption that you're going to be going out for another $150,000 sometime over the summer basically. Um yeah. Or the only other option in that would be to try to get do your counter to that is that you have
town meeting vote and approve another way to pay the 150 you know. Yeah. Does it have to be? Yeah. Budget. Does it have to be $150,000 though or can it be some has to cover it has to cover that. But keep in
mind if you you know if your plan is to go to town meeting and you don't put in your budget to cover this and it fails at town meeting, you're you're in it now. Okay. All right, Bob. Yeah, I just would be Oh, George. Oh, sorry, George. Sorry. I you I saw your hand
down, so I thought you were disappeared. I don't know. It does that to me. Go ahead, George. And then somebody spoke. Um, I'm completely confused, but I the first thing I want to ask is what is the 20 thou just for the minutes, what is the
2010 represent? 200, it sounded to me like those were expenses that we've already incurred. Yes. Is the expenses that have been incurred by the town, but there's been no money received and there's been no money borrowed to cover. So,
if Haley has a conversation with Clean Water Trust, they have the invoices, there is a very good chance that we're going to get 150,000 back and that number is going to go to 60,000 that came out of Right. Yeah. Yeah. And the 150 we're
going to get from them is going to go back into the free cash. Is that also correct? because free cash put the money in the PAS contamination account and now P now that that needs to be replenished in free cash and then we have a loan. So we're
still got $60,000 worth of invoices that will presumably be covered by the next 150 which we don't even know if we're going to have access to. So that to me you're taking 150 looks like we're going to need at least 60 and now we're doing more work. So clearly we're going to
need the 100 other 150. Bob, I I Bob, I agree with Bob 100%. In fact, AJ and I talked about this the other day. Why' we borrow if we've got reserves? Especially if it's going to be a temporary borrowing, we can use reserves on a temporary basis. And now I'm also
thinking maybe we can take those from stabilization. The question would be is if we made a stabilization transfer to the PAS contamination account for 150,000 could when the funds come in for the second loan would those funds be
automatically I confused myself but could those funds automatically go back into stabilization? So essentially stabilization at the end of the year ends up being the same as the beginning of the year. The only thing that I I misspoke on is if you borrow 150 and we get 150 from them, you're gonna have to
pay off that loan. That's where that's going. Yeah. So, that's my suggestion is that we not borrow the second 150 and we use our reserves to cover it. Yeah. The only
caveat to that I think George is that I think that assumes Haley gets confirmation from Clean Water Trust that that second $150,000 has been Yeah. Well, to us. Yes. Thank you. You know, the other thing I was going to say when I put my
hand back when I put my hand up was um we're going to know probably by town meeting what's going on. And if we put something in the budget, we're probably going to have to live with that. But if we have a warrant article, we can
withdraw that. Um because we're going to have to have the budget done shortly. As Ryan said, you know, the timing for the budget is much different than everything else. Just something to consider. Dizzy. Wait a minute. Oh, wait. Sorry, Bob. Yeah, that's uh Look, I think what
I'd like to know is what the projected expenses are based upon the last 12 months for this coming fiscal year so that we understand what we're talking about and what kind of money we're going to need to spend in all likelihood. Maybe have a cushion there. But, uh, I think just one small correction. I agree
with what George said. If we have already expended the $61,000, uh you're talking $211,000 total of 150 plus 61. Is that right? Then we've already spent you already spent that money. So, uh we're
just talking about a very very small gap between the the 51 that's in there now and the 61. So I think we should handle it with cash if we can afford it because we can we can put the the right amount of cash in aside 150 to cover the loan
cover the interest free loan and uh what if we don't need it we don't need it if it if that amount of money would handle the projected expenses we don't have to borrow we don't have to pay interest uh if Ryan is concerned about that we could possibly put it in two articles one of which is withdraw to town meeting you
know one could precede the other in the vote so that we're safe. Uh for for example, if the town I would not have anticipated this, but said they they rejected the idea of setting up funding the PAS account from free cash or from other reserves, we could go ahead and
vote on a loan so that we'd be protected from that kind of contingency. So I don't see why we shouldn't just get better information. If we can get information about what's spent, we know what we have to handle for this coming year, then we'll have a better handle on it.
Just for the record, we don't need um any type of warrant article uh requesting to borrow. We we already have town meetings approval to borrow. Oh, that's the first 150. I'm talking about the second one. We have two. Yeah, the town meeting has voted two borrowings already. Three, actually. 136, too.
Right. Yeah. Sorry. So, what happens then if we don't borrow it? We Is that an option? You said it was. I thought you said it was. Then you get hit on your free cash. But if we if we transfer the cash to cover it, then we don't have to borrow. Correct. You can do it out of reserves. Yes. Okay. That's okay. I'm
clear. Couple of things to clarify. One, Gabe did project the 12 months and that's where we came up with the 50,000. 50. And then um these are loans from the clean water trust or if
we have to go to the bank from the bank for ongoing costs. And the clean water trust offer was own was two parts. Zero interest and maybe some loan
forgiveness. But this is an expense the town is carrying and will carry to meet the PAS mitigation. So, um I'm not sure I haven't got this clear in my head, but
this money that the um Clean Water Trust, I don't know if you call it, is underwriting the loan. It's not for the principal for not it's not for the work. It's for they they will give us a um a
deal only on the interest. And by the time we got up to here, I we began to hear other towns are needing PAS money and loan forgiveness was starting to look weak.
April, yeah, I have a question that may not have an answer, but given some of the things that are happening in our federal government, is this federal money that's coming to us or, you know, through the state? Is there any talk about this money being disappeared? And
I I don't know if anybody's knows. Just a thought. I don't know. I know it's the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust. I don't know where their funding comes from to be fully transparent with you, but Susie brought up a good issue. We still going to have a liability of
$300,000. Uh part of it, which which might be forgiven, but don't bank on it. Right. Right. We shouldn't assume it. Okay. So, I think we have some some clarity uh and and it sounds like there's a plan in place for
um for Haley to get additional clarity from Clean Water Trust and and I'm encouraged to hear that we have submitted um you know whatever documentation was needed for that first 150,000. So
hopefully we'll have some better information at our next meeting about kind of when we can expect to actually receive that and confirmation that that second um award was was uh was actually awarded
to us. Um okay. So Ryan, just I think you know we'll have to like ultimately decide what to do in terms of the FY26 budget, but it sounds like um can can you give me the precise number if we are just budgeting for the interest payment
on the initial 150k ban? You said that was roughly $7,000. Do you have an exact number on that? Yeah, it is $7,329.58. Okay. Do you want do you have the full
interest for FY26 that I budgeted? I think you're in that email. I saw it was 14,660. Is that what you have just for those two? I was like all of that. All of it's in there. Ryan, I checked
schedule from Haley last It's all there. And um and I just added 7330 for um the PAS loan that you are definitely going to be taking. Awesome. Thank you very much. I I really And so we'll we'll we'll we'll in the in
the coming, you know, the next couple weeks, we'll deliberate and decide whether we want to um uh propose a warrant article to
um transfer stabilization funds um or whether we'll pursue this another one-year ban. and we'll we'll get we'll we'll pro we'll we'll share that results of that discussion with you. Yes, please. I would appreciate it. All
right. Thanks for coming. Uh anything else for Ryan before we let him go? Thank you. I appreciate and I just I do want to be very clear that when I don't have an answer and I'm like it's the accountant. It no way am I trying to push something off. I want to learn and
know as much as I can. There's just there's such a distinct difference in what she does and what not she but in our case she Gail does and what I do and often you ask me a question and I'm like that is the accountant but it would be nice to know. So I usually do follow up with her after and be like this is their question to educate me so that I just
have a better understanding. So you know I appreciate uh the opportunity to be heard and to come here and chat with you all tonight. So don't ever hesitate to reach out. I know you can't as a forum but individually don't be afraid to email me. Okay cool. Thanks Ryan. Thank you. Have a great night. Thanks, R.
All right. Um, so I think uh is there anything else on PAS that anybody wants to say before we move on to I put it in the budget and our deficits 117 620. Okay. Um, is that after? Yeah, that's
after making the police department. Yes, that's both things. Yeah, I'm just going to keep roll tallying them as we go. Okay, great. Um, all right. So there were a couple of other um I lines that
um we're where we're potentially seeing changes since our last discussion. So we ought to just talk about those as well. So we've already talked about the police wages line. So Haley, just to fill you in, um I had a conversation with um the
police chief this morning about the budget and um in the course of that discussion, she proposed basically delaying our implementation of a staffing plan that she had talked to us
about earlier this year until to FY27. Um and the the the fiscal impact of that is that instead of our police wages line in our budget increasing by 34.4% where it's just going to be
increasing by 10% this year. So, um, so that's so, so the last budget you saw, um, you know, there's essentially $33,000 in, um, that that we're restoring, um, by making that that
change. So, we've already talked about that. Um, we we've talked about the PAS interest expense. Um, George has put that in. Uh Haley, do you want to tell us about this um dog officer thing that
we hadn't planned for, but you alerted me to this? Yeah. So, what happened is our dog officer, uh Miss Long, no longer met the certification requirements to be a dog officer. And so that puts us in a
position that's not good. Um we need the dog officer, we need the animal inspector. So Kristen had helped me by reaching out to the Furcog and the sheriff's department and seeing if they could provide a service to the town and they
said yes. Um so we would be looking to contract with them through the rest of this fiscal year and then also next year um so that we can maintain um you know a pos a dog officer position for the town.
Got it. Okay. And that um and that cost is is that 3,472? Is that the right No. Um for for FY26. Yeah,
it would be. Sorry, I don't have this. I can search through my email for the specific amounts. George, do you have that handy? It it's so Haley is it the amount that was on that table that came from Furkcog Sheriff's Department? Yeah.
Um so I think it was about 5,000 for Yeah. 5,800. Um and then it would be something like 1300 for the rest of this fiscal year. I just want to make sure that that's the 2000. I want to make sure I'm
using 20 uh 2000. Sorry, fiscal year 26. It's been a long day. Um, and not fiscal year 25. So, I just want to double check that. So, how are we covering that expense for this current fiscal year? Do
we is there um do we need like to do a transfer or something or there is enough in the dog officer line? And then I talked with Gail about um you know some other options. Okay. So, so we don't need to
take any action um to cover us for FY25. No, she's she's on it. Um and then then we just need to budget for the next year. Okay. Got it. Uh Bob, u can you just tell me is this a required uh service that we we are legally required
to take? Okay, fine. Thank you. Okay. All right. So that and and George, your does your latest budget have that 5,8? Yeah, I just want to ask a clarification
question about that. What I did was because it's basically going to be contracted work with one entity. I put it all in one line. I put it in the inspector of animals line because I figured that that the scope of that
would also include the dog officer. So, I set the dog officer to zero, dog officer expenses to zero, and I made the inspector of animals 5818. If that's the account that the accountant will be able to pay, reimburse them through, then we can
leave it that way. If it's not, then we need to reshuffle where we put the money. Okay. Not my call, but I think that sounds like the right way to do it. Yeah, that seems to make sense. Okay. Okay. All right. So, and that's in there right now. Okay. Yes, got it. All right.
So, I think the only other line that's needs to be updated from our last discussion is the legal expense line, which we had previously budgeted $40,000 for. And Rita, I think um the
select board is concerned that that's not deficient, right? and that that can you can you give us a little bit of sort of background on this and just clarify that you're yeah where you'd like this line to be?
Good question. Um so uh the that line covers not only our legal expenses sort of in day-to-day town management business but also
um any litigation costs. And right now we have and one of the reasons you know why we've been needing more money is that we are um kind of in the thick of the um solar
litigation and um what we had determined was that we were going to be needing you know not only we had outside counsel from me Tower and Costa we have Donna who um is kind of you know in sec second
chair so we have costs associated with that um where the litigation is going now is we are going to have expenses that I believe we pro provided for this the balance of this fiscal year
for experts that have to be paid um and you know the the exact we haven't gotten the exact amounts but it was somewhere in the neighborhood of about $20,000. Um, and that was uh, as I said,
you know, anticipated that that that would come out of this year's. Now, depending upon what happens with the with the suit, and I can't go into a lot of specifics because it's all done in executive session. Um but depending upon
what happens um whether or not we end up going to trial or not and we won't you know if if that happens um that those costs would be hitting us sometime around September and so it's uh you know
we get through this expert phase and then if um if we end up going to trial then it's going to expensive when we don't, you know, they can't tell us exactly how much. So, you know, I guess my caution is is that um
no matter what we put in for um for legal, uh there's the the chance that it's not going to be enough and we'd have to go to special town meeting. All right? you know,
but for the purpose kind of G given that unknown, your re your recommendation is that we fund that line at uh with an additional $10,000. Is that that
correct? So that $50,000 for um for FY26. Okay. Um, does anybody have any follow-up questions or anything need to be clarified on that? Uh, Susie,
we had a little discussion about this particular legal cost to the town. And in that January, I don't know when, town, special town meeting, it was in front of the voters
whether they felt they wanted to um fund the legal pursuit and they passed it. This has gone on and on and we're into it for more money. the
one uh strategy is to put it at this level and then bring up a special town meeting where people can vote whether they want to keep funding this legal cost. So that was that was an alternative strategy that um allows the
voters to be part of the decision. [Music] And that that special town meeting vote would be something that would be contemplated if this $50,000 that we're going to
budget for in FY26 turns out to not be sufficient to cover the cost of our litigation and as well as the other legal expenses. Is that your thinking Susie? Yeah. Yeah. They they it comes to a place where it's a separated out issue and people can look at it at the town
level and the town's people can vote. Mhm. Yeah. Okay. Um All right, George. I was just going to say Susie, you you're suggesting um the additional amount, the
$10,000 would be presented at special town meeting for discussion. In other words, not add this amount at this point. And I thought you were talking about beyond that, but yeah, you weren't specific about the dollar amount for that. We I
think that's what we're talking about. Is is this at what point do we feel that it would be good to allow the town to make that choice? Is it at this extra 10,000 for the experts? Is it at the point where it goes to trial and then
they're talking a a different ballgame? But this isn't um this isn't just up to us, I think. Okay. So, why wouldn't we could have this conversation at annual town meeting
where there's more people although special town meeting certainly I think in this situation a lot of people would show up and um there was another point I wanted to make about that. So, we'd have this conversation at annual town meeting. Oh, shoot. There was another point I wanted
to make about that. It's a good one. Um, so everybody, um, I'm going to put my hand back up when I remember. All right, Kathy, I'm just curious, has the town ever been in this situation with regard to a legal
uh matter? And what happens if the town's people didn't want to vote in um additional monies to cover legal legal expenses? Does that force a settlement or what what happens? We've never been in that situation
before. Do you have a thought about that, Rita? Um, yeah. I I mean, we have been um proceeding on the um you know, on the the votes of of town meeting that that
special town meeting. I think George's um idea suggestion that we have this as part of the discussion at annual town meeting when we have a much bigger turnout um would make a whole lot more sense than uh you know waiting to see
what what happens. I mean we are you know the the marching orders were you know to proceed in defending our bylaw and um nobody said to stop uh you know
we could you know that could be part of the discussion at at annual town meeting. I say sooner the sooner we make that decision the better. you know, if if everybody wants to say we don't want to spend any more on
legal, we're um we're okay with um abandoning our um position and and and abandoning this litigation. um we you know we can do that and but it
it really should be town meeting that's saying we're doing that rather than the select board or right finance committee or anybody else. So, can I follow up to Rita here for a second? Yeah, please go ahead, Bob and then uh George, we were sued by the lit the litigants are suing
us, right, to our challenging our bylaws. Is that correct? That's correct. So, really, we're not in a position to quit to settle anything. Uh what are we going to say? We'll change the bylaw. No, don't they How do they have to prove to the court that our bylaw is
unconstitutional? They don't have We don't even have to be there for us in a way for the court to defend our bylaw, do we? Is that not Well, we have to defend our bylaw. That's That's what Yeah, that's what we're That's what the the attorney
states certify this bylaw. Isn't that was it reviewed by the state? it it was reviewed by the state but but you know since the state reviewed it then there was the you know the the the case the Waltham case which the name of it
escapes me which brought a whole different um perspective on the legality of certain provisions of our so one of our bylaws was tossed after that right it it um yes well the I think it was the 2023
um edition But yeah, we have, you know, we have been sued on this bylaw kind of based on this case, which again, I'm sorry, I can't remember that. Okay, thank you. It just makes it a
little clearer to me, but what what we're facing here that we are defending the bylaw. If we don't defend the bylaw, I don't understand exactly what would happen at that. Well, the by the then the um then the pure sky and and Kohl's
would um would win and therefore our yeah if we don't defend our our bylaw we sort of walk away then the judge is going to say fine you know they they have prevailed and there's no
bylaw and that's that's what we're looking Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Uh George, yeah, that was my question and Kathy and Bob both kicked it off. It's if we don't fund this, what's the impact of what happens? And I think
that's something we all really need to think about. Um it it's it sort of, you know, it opens the door and then the developers can um submit under the special permit process for
from that perspective. Sounds like pretty much everybody in town is going to support it. All right, [Music] April. Yeah, just a thought. So, I know this is very complicated, but maybe a way to keep it front and center on town meeting floor would be to have this be a
warrant article, the the 40 or $50,000 for legal and have that coming out of free cash of some sort. Um, and that would be another way for the town's people to vote whether or not to continue. Yeah, I I think I think you're right,
April, that if if the goal here is to essentially set up an opportunity for the town to consider this issue, hear an update about kind of what what it's
cost, you know, what it's cost us to date and a sense of kind of where where we are in the process and, you know, essentially asking the town to um to
to consider whether we want to proceed and sort of framing that around a warrant article that is going to essentially uh transfer funds into that legal line so that so that they could proceed if that's if that's the decision
of the the town. I think I think it would have to be something like that. Um, and I think what makes it, it's complicated because there's so much of this is under executive session. So there's huge swasts of it that we can't discuss. But maybe it's time, you
know, to take what we can before the town and and see where people are at. How much have we spent so far? Do we have a a total? I'm just curious. Yeah, it's total somewhere. I don't have that number off the top of my head. So, but
that would presumably be one of the pieces of information we would we would share a town meeting and have people consider um you know whether they want to whether they want to direct you know the town to proceed or not. I guess just
you know um one piece of clarification so the 4050 includes other just um you know legal costs. So, I would say, you know, if we were going to do something, if we were going to um separate it out that we should have the legal line item
in the regular budget and then anything above and beyond that is, you know, it's free free cash in a in an article. Yeah. So, that actually was my was my question. I don't know if it's possible for you to answer this now, but
do you have a rough sense of kind of that let's let's say we talk we use that $50,000 figure um and let's let's like is there a way that you could roughly aortion that is that's sort of how much of it is
um you know likely to be spent on this litigation versus all other legal expenses that we have. Yeah. What what do we have this? We used to do 15,000 and then with the um consom and
the other ones it's changed up to 40,000. So we suggested 20,000 is going back to the base for us. All right. So, we had guys we had already
talked about um in a previous meeting um uh utilizing $20,000 of cash reserves. Yeah. For the legal line. Um and so maybe we increase that to
30 and no, sorry, let me think about this. Um yeah, increase that to 30, but present it as a separate warrant article. um which would be a $30,000 uh transfer from free cash to the legal
line based on for specifically for the costs of continuing this the this litigation and then the town either thumbs up certain thumbs thumbs down right I mean would that be the way to structure this Susie
yeah and and leave 20,000 in our regular operating ating budget for legal. Exactly. But I have another part to this discussion which is that this has gone on for a while and in the meantime the state has um studied this issue and
decided how to push forward um uh energy programs that um include solar and um so this is not in a vacuum. this this bylaw that was back from the first round is
now sort of out of date given all the things that are happening and also the solar industry is changing and the state's emphasis of where the solar should show up is changing. So, um, the presentation would probably have to do
contextualizing the issue around solar. Um, and so, you know, I don't know who's going to do that leg work, but it it's it's definitely the state was really active last year. I think this whole um federal funding scare is distracting
everybody and but I bet you can call that woman that's the head of the energy um in the state and she could update us to what is the state's view and how they're um sort of directing development
of um z net zero and all the other energy words that you say George just technicality Just a reminder, anything that we're going to fund the budget with for free cash is going to have a warrant article. So, we were already going to have a warrant article for the 20. We're just going to
be 30. But it is an opportunity, I think, for Rita and or who you know who can represent this whole lawsuit, talk about this lawsuit to have that conversation in front of everybody. Yeah.
Rita, Rita, I think we can only divulge as much as um as uh you know, our attorneys say we can and and what we could do outside of executive session and obviously you know
we um you know there is a there is a legal strategy here. Um what I would say to Sus's point is yes, the state is um you know there's a lot of talk around um around solar and about the incentives
and and what the what the state provides. Um but uh a lot of those regulations are not going to be effective till sometime in 2026. In the meantime, we have this lawsuit and the
judge is saying, um, you guys need to we need to move this along. This has been going on, you know, a long time. There have been, um, delays and we don't have any choice to just, you know, we can, as
we can walk away and town meeting can say, we want you to walk away. Um, but we we just can't we can't we've been given a deadline and we can't um mess around anymore. We can't delay anymore
and and yeah, it's another year before um the state's coming out with its guidelines. Susie and if it is presented at annual town meeting and um it's
um its context is that the town could turn down this expenditure and walk away. The um the town meeting information would really need to make that clear. You
can't have people think I just I just skipped over that part of part of the agenda. It it's it's got a um impact that not just like money there or money not. So um the PR for it has to be
careful so that people say don't after town meeting say I didn't know that was what the vote was about. Yeah. Now, this is complicated. Like, who's who's the sponsor for this Warren article, right? Is it is it the FinCom? I'm not sure that we're the right like
group. I mean, who's gonna um uh Yeah. Anyway, uh George, I have a real reservation about this. Um and that is if there's there are two groups in town on this issue. People who want
solar, people who don't. This is an opportunity for people who want solar to stuff the ballot box by all of them showing up and voting this money down. And so that's a concern for me. Um and also if we vote down the whole 30, I
think 20 of that 30 is not necessarily needed for the solar. No, that is so that is a concern I have about this. So, so George, I think what we would do is we would we would keep $20,000 in the budget, the operating budget, and that
represents the budget for all legal expenses other than this litigation. And then the warrant article is a $30,000 transfer from free cash to the
legal line for the costs of defending this our our you know our position on in this litigation, right? But we're going to but we're going to lose $30,000 $30,000 needed to balance the budget. Uh and even if the 10 doesn't have to be in
the budget anymore, we're going to lose 20. And it's gonna go tax levy. So it'll just tax levy. I'm not following that because if if if the if if that gets voted down, right, then that's not an
expense that we would be incurring in FY26. It would be because we're adding it to the budget. So we increased that line by 20,000 and now we want another 10. and we were
going to fund that 20,000 with cash. Now we're going to fund it with 30. People who don't like what's going on, don't want to pay the the 10. They're going to vote down the 30. So the 20 that's in the operating budget will have to come out of taxes. It'll just increase our tax. It always did. It always did. But
it was always going to be there, right? We were we were saying Yeah. That's Well, unless somebody makes an amendment to lower the lines. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a little tricky. I just want to I'm just trying to think about all the traps. Yeah. Yeah. Uh Bob, yeah. I
just want to say I think would it be reasonable to just have a fund for the 30,000 uh or whatever the amount is that we need to cover for this a special non-recurring expense, hopefully non-recurring expense. Uh so we have set up a fund like we would for buying a
lawn mower or or doing a paving job or something and fund it. So it's not part of our budget at all. just like a an expense that's funded by a transfer from free cash or from stabilization. Would that make sense? Would that make sense? That's what we've been talking about
though. I'm not talking about adding it to people adding it to the legal line saying just create a separate account for this, you know. Well, right. It's a warrant article for legal expenses for the solar Yeah. Right. Cash reserves. I
think your point is right, Bob, that yeah, we would we if if this were to be approved at town meeting, there would be a new separate line. Yeah. You know, litigation expense, solar litigation
expenses that that would short remark about what George said about packing the pilot box. I mean, I don't see why any side of any contentious issue should be blamed for showing up and voting one way or the other on anything. So I assume that there are people that are passionate about this issue that will
show up whatever side they're on. Yeah, I hope so. Um the other thing is the other alternative is um we could have two warrant articles 20 and 10 and 10 being specifically legal additional legal expense to cover um the solar
lawsuit in the event that that goes to trial and the 20 for the increase for all the other litigation that's going on. Oh, I thought that I thought the 20 that we were going to do out of cash reserves was for the litigation stuff.
Yeah, it was. Oh, and that they want to change it to 30 now. Yeah, that's what I thought. I think you're right. All right. I think that's right. Yeah. Okay. Um All right. So, I I think I think we
uh I think we have I think we've got a plan. Uh, I think the trick is going to be for us to figure out now how to present this at at town meeting and who's who's speaking and how do we how do we promote a good
healthy discussion and debate at town meeting and what what context can be shared and who's sharing that and like there's some there's a lot of work to figure that out. Um, but I'm not sure we're going to figure that out tonight. Yeah, yeah, you know, I just say who is
the sponsor? I'm I'm not sure that the select board wants to sponsor it and and it's not the fincom. It's it's that there's a legal cost coming to the town and the people who are forwarding that are the ones that need to represent it. And that's what happened at that special
town meeting. It wasn't us. Um yeah and so we would need to tell um planning board planning board is good law and they they can get prepared and and and we can also ask that we want to know we
want the facts of of how much has been spent to date and um where are we in the process? those questions we can ask um them to address because it's their project that they want funded.
Yeah, that I think that that sounds Yeah, I like that better than than the pincom sponsoring this uh article and having to organize that discussion. Okay, got it. Uh all right. Uh George, am I missing anything? Is that are those
all the the lines that had changes that we needed to discuss tonight? No. So here's here. So um can can I can I give you can I give you uh sharing privileges and you can um Sure. go ahead and pull
the share the put the budget up on my screen and then um I'm gonna go right to the top of it and show you um just so everybody's aware of what's going on here. Okay. Do you see the budget? Yep. Yep.
So, open items. Um, we put in 35,000 for the assessors. Is that enough? We don't know, but maybe it is. That is something that might change. I know that we discovered, right? Well, I guess we all know that the consultants aren't going to work. We're going to have to hire
somebody. So, that's what we put in there. Maybe we want to leave it. That's fine. Um, but I had it marked as something that's still open. Police chief's contract still open. And then, u treework. Um, Bob, did you ever talk Yeah, I did. I did talk to him. I talked
to Dave about that. I pointed out to him that after that I discussed with Tim the history of the highway crew and how how how they handle a certain tree uh limb falls and tree falls around town and that it's in the budget and Tim informed
me that it was taken out of uh expenses. Uh so Dave said he was he had become aware of that and knew that and that he didn't you he should be able to handle the routine tree work that the highway department has done traditionally. In addition to that we do have a tree
warden uh account which I think we I don't know if we we looked at that number and whether it would it was changed last year. Uh it's going up what 89% difference. I don't understand why that would have to be so. I don't see
why. Well, if we think it isn't. That was the question for him. I don't think I don't think Dave was would object. Dave is not the tree warden as far as I know. It is. Yes. Is he not? No. No. Superintendent. Yeah. The superintendent is the tree warden. Okay. So, we made
folded into the highway department's budget. Well, there's no reason why that expense, which was extraordinary this year because of some work that was done along Prescat Road, will necessarily have to be repeated. That was because of
some dead dangerous ash trees that were down there that were hazard. Uh the ashbor. Yeah. So, that's not a repeatable that's a that's sort of a onetime event. So doesn't he so he told us that on an annual basis twice a year
he has a tree service come to town and clear trees that he identifies as needing removal. Well, you're saying he can cover that in the highway department budget? I I'm saying yes, but that Tim did cover hiring I think Pete's from uh I think it
was Pete's tree service from Greenfield a couple times a year. uh that was part of what he handled from his highway department budget not and the tree wardens I don't know how Steve integrated the two um funding sources and his operation which was only a
one-year uh extent operation but you know fairness to Dave he didn't understand it either he didn't know but I I just informed him what I had learned from Tim and he said he wasn't comfortable with getting you know getting the tree warden expense
and funding some of the tree work from his highway department budget. So, did you come up with a number that he wants? He said he was comfortable with what he presented for the highway department. So, he didn't tell me about the tree warden line. He didn't mention I didn't
see that this this this this increase was part of our consideration here, but I don't see that as necessary. Uh I did I did talk to him and he was cool with just keeping things level. So that was my impression.
I think that there's a problem in that when I printed out the form to send to each department, I did not include tree work on their lines. So
then the discussion came up because this year they had made that extra request and that's what brought it from or where's that number from 4,400 to
8,500. So that was cuz it was real expenses this year. And because it is confusing to him, I think we just need to know um what he thinks the tree expenses. I mean either we go ahead with
the 4,477 like it was last year or well actually look at that. FY24 was 8,000. Well, Susie, just so everybody understands, it was budgeted at 4477 in the previous year. This
account is one of those accounts that is required to roll over when it's not spent in the previous street board and wasn't spending anything. So, the actual was roughly double, right? I did call Dave today on and yesterday to try to get clarification on
this point and another point and he was out working somewhere. I did not answer my call and I didn't feel like use you calling it cell. The first time I did call it cell he was I think out of service. So um that's something I can do
before our next meeting. Uh one other thing I want to mention while we're talking about the highway department is Dave said that he got the greater repaired from his maintenance budget. So, I don't know what that does to our article about the 8600
or the the the money for the repair of the greater because he's already getting the greater repaired by cat caterpillar. He's not out of Milton. So, he's not getting it done from Ammeris Welding. He's getting it done from Cat of Milton. So, uh he's already it's already underway. So, we don't have it and we're
not using it. I mean, finance committee didn't do anything for that. Um unless it's in the capital. We had from capital planning. It was capital,000. Well, that's something we have to sort out, too. Yes. Yeah. Well, that's good. We can take it off if he's telling us he doesn't need it if he's getting it done
from his budget. So, well, he might want some more put into his maintenance budget because it is an old machine and he's going along with it. Well, I'm just saying he's getting it repaired from this budget right now. So, I don't think the article for the
repair is makes any sense anymore. Right. All right. Well, when you talk to him, can you Yeah, just confirm that that's Yeah. Well, I I think Susie's right. I think we should fund this at level from last year and um so he'll
have it and we'll see what happens and we can go to free cash like we did this year or cash transfer from the fincom if it goes over again right back goes under it goes to free cash although it would have to be rolled
over actually right but if we go to 4477 would we all be happy I did this math I didn't need to do oh that's Mhm. I think it I think Dave was cool with it. So, uh, but I'll I'll double check that, make sure that he's aware of that
those numbers and what is projected in our draft budget here. And next year, I'll give him a form that has the tree stuff on his form. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, great. Oh, we got a hand up. All right. Uh, Jim. Yes. Um well bear in
mind that um Nelson Tree has been doing a phenomenal amount of tree tree removal and tree work all over town on on both the three-phase line that runs through most of our town if not all of our town from one end to the other but also
singlephase lines all over the place. And this I think takes a great burden off of our um necessity of of Shootsbury paying for tree removal on its own dime so to speak. I you know I think we could probably get away with spending a lot
less on on on tree work tree work to the extent that the tree work that the that the uh that the highway department can't do on its own and they need to hire you know a boom truck or something like that to to complete the job. But I mean, I I
just can't believe being on the MLP, we're very conscious of of of what Nelson Tree is doing because um and they've been doing a phenomenal amount of work up and down all the roads. So, I I I think that takes a
little bit of the burden off of us. That's all I'm saying. So, you think 4477 just keep it flat for a year? Yeah, I would. Yeah, I think we should do that. Yeah, I agree. Okay. All right. Um there's So, um Haley
sent an email to me and the town account is questioning why we're funding this at 2245. The actuals have been much lower. She said this year's actual is going to be probably roughly the same as 24's
actual. And so she recommended we change it to 10,000. Now, just for your information, the same exact numbers here. So, it's funded by the It's a revolving account. It's funded by the people who are taking advantage of the
program and we're spending the money to do the work. So, I don't even know. It's not that important to me, but the town account thought that we should lower it to 10,000. Good. Let's do it. I'm I'm fine with that. That makes a lot of sense because we
actually are going through the town and and improving people and modernizing people's septic system. So over time it would make sense that the number of houses that require that kind of improvement would go down. Okay. Yeah. All right. That's good. Um
so so what do we do? We save $423 on the tree warden line. What's the other thing we did? Oh um what's the other thing we did? Uh, oh, you know what? There was one that we didn't talk about, the clerk certification. Oh, yeah. Um, so,
uh, Grace, uh, sent me an email, um, a week or so ago. Uh, she has now been certified. Uh, just kind of came through, I think, in the last couple
weeks. And so, she's entitled to that $1,000 um certification um reward or reimbursement. I don't know what what to call it, but yeah. And uh so that's I think that's a
that's an legal obligation we have. It's there's something in our bylaws that uh requires us to do that. So So that's $1,000. Yep. He wrote it in. Yeah. And that was already in the budget
that I had sent out. Yep. as was the um dog officer as we offic. Yeah. So those things were in there and just just to be clear for everybody, the legal line is still at 40. Yeah. So I think we got to change that to 20,
right? Based on our earlier conversation. Yep. Beautiful. And then the other expenditure will be in a warrant article, right? Greater was maybe greater was the one that was on your mind. Um that's going to be out of the uh capex thing. Yeah. Yeah. Well,
no. Actually, what's bothering me is I'm not We started at 143. We're at 93 and I'm thinking we should be at 101. Did I change something else? Did we I'll figure that out. But right now it says we're at 93 because I was just
doing a reconciliation as we go. Uh, the PAS is in there. Okay. The PAS loan. We added the tree warden. We Oh, the tree warden's I go I'm going the wrong way. Yeah. Do you have the under the dog officer? The dog officer was already in. It's
under 143 at the top. All right. I'm off 390. Okay. Fine with that. I'll figure that out some other day. I Oh, I might have some Well, actually, let me just look at the Just make sure I typed in my numbers right. 70. So there it is.
7330. Yeah. 7330. Okay. Got it. This is why I do it. Okay. So the other thing that uh so in answer to your question, there's one other thing we need to talk about. Um good. Um $10. Okay. I'll go back and
fix that. Um, over here we got to change the legal line to 30. Mhm. And we have this police line. Did we put the police in here? Yes. Down there. Just under. So the 34. So I think you got to just take that out al
together. Right. There we go. Yeah. Okay. Done. So now our deficit is 117 587. Okay. Boy, I like that number a lot better
than where we were couple weeks a couple meetings ago. All right. Uh, all right. George, um, wasn't it before, George? Yes. Yeah. And then the legal funding. Oh, this is this
is complicated. And then the legal we added not in operating and 10,000 in cash. So the deficit because your revenue is here and we put it in our revenue number there.
So that's affecting the deficit. Okay. I know it's so so drum roll please. If we go here Uhhuh. and we put in 118 because I forget the exact number.
average single family tax bill goes up roughly $3667 most 63 of it of which is for the library building it's the new debt for the library next year so basically 300,000 for operating
I I I can't $300 and and we've covered all of the issues around PAS right all the money the interest that got in there y interestone home and and the 50k uh oh wait no yeah yeah that's a
separate um right that's in the capital that's a capital right which we should bring up in an update for the greater but yes I mean I I'll finish this today I'm I'm actually flying out on Thursday um so I'm going to finish this tomorrow and
distribute it to everybody so you're all going to have an opportunity to look it over ask questions I don't know when our ne next meeting is. But, you know, certainly I'm going to try and get this cleaned up. I think this is as far as presentation goes, it's pretty much
done. If we find some the police chief salary um and I think we're not going to do anything about the assessors, I think we're in good shape. The only other question I had was um and then I'm going to start the annual report, which is I've actually
made some progress on. And now that I have these numbers, I can probably get that done and email that to everybody before our next meeting. When I say get it done, the number stuff, there are some, right? There are other things on there that you want to consider risk and
opportunities, upcoming capital. Um, the only other thing I wanted to bring up was when when I print this right now in landscape with the notes, it's about 50% this size, which is pretty close to the size of the budget we distributed last
year. And I was looking at some other towns annual budgets and they don't present nearly as many years as we do years. So, I'm wondering if
you know, how many years do we really need? Um, and the other thing I would say is just so everybody knows, if I drop off the first couple years, then I can get a slightly bigger font size. It's going to be easier for people to read at town meeting, but it will spill into a six
page because the columns will all be a little taller. But, you know, you'll have three pieces of paper that have the budget front and back. Well, if we say we want to we want our budget to reflect a five-year period,
that allows us to get rid of FY21, right? Yeah. And then every year, every year moving forward, we just eliminate the, you know, the oldest column. Yeah. We we would have five years and we'd have three years of actual numbers, which is
pretty good. That seems pretty good to me. Mhm. Bob, I just want to say personally I really like having the years that are on the present presentation. I think it's important for people to see the budgeting over time so they can understand better of the trends
that are out there. So I it may be easier to format or make a presentation to eliminate some of the years, but I think it's a very important aspect to the way we've been presenting the budget. I think it gives people better insight. Right. How about five years? Is
that good enough? Well, I prefer it the way it is, but I I think I'm just making the point that I think more is better. And of course, there are limitations to what we can do, but I think it's pretty good the way we do it. Well, I think the way we've been doing it is every year we add an additional year to this
spreadsheet, right? We've never we never take one off. Um I I think probably we did, but we still had all those years. Five years sounds good to me. Well, when I've done research for the committee, I've I've looked at the town reports and it's really useful to see these trends
at for you to understand what's been happening at the different departments in town. What what what's You don't You don't think five years is enough? I mean, if we just dropped the 21. Yeah, that sounds good. I hear you. But, you know, but I think it'd be really valuable for people to be able to read
it easier, right? Or we can we can buy um those glasses for everybody. Are we gonna be outside? Are we gonna be outside again? Um uh AJ, I I need to go. Yeah. Um so
anything else? Um will you guys When are you meeting again? When are we meeting with you? All right. So, uh let me pull up my schedule. Uh okay. So, um we are meeting again on the 29th. So, a week from
tonight, that is the night that we have to as a fincome finalize the budget and vote on it. Um, and then the schedule that at least that I'm looking at had us
attending the select board meeting on May 6th, assuming you haven't you're having one on May 6th. um where uh the assumption was that that's when you guys would be voting on warrant articles and we would be there to kind
of represent our votes and give answer questions and and yeah, give a little bit of an overview. Okay, great. Thank you. So, if there's anything else that um before May 6 that we want to um want
to weigh in, the 29th is an opportunity. The 29th would be the the meeting to join. Yep. Okay, sounds good. Um, and I think the only thing you haven't seen now is is the capital uh plan. Um, which is which for this
year is uh is is much less significant than it has been in years past. There aren't the same big proposed projects this year. I think they're all in the like 8
to $12,000 range or something like that. So, it's just a lawn mower. The lawn mower and the u uh yeah so the the dam, right? And the dam is cost there's there's the highway department mower is
11,400 replacing the town hall fire alarm system is 8,648. Sounds like the greater is coming off um based on the information Bob gave. Um, town hall meeting room
repairs$10,000 and Lake Wyola grant matching funds $8,000. Do you have that all of those? Yeah, I can I've got it right here. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, you can pull that up. So, first thing you're saying is delete this, right? Oops. I I I think
Should we hold Should we Should we wait for um Bob to confirm? But it sounds like that's No, the greater repair is confirmed. That's confirmed. We can take that off. It sounded like to me. Okay. Yeah. So, let's take take it off. And
then illegal goes to 30. Yeah. I think I changed it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You did. Okay. Yeah. While we were talking earlier. Yeah. And we got rid of the police department. I got rid of the police. Yeah. You're okay with me just deleting a row
there? Yep. Yep. Yep. So, so I So, I want to just confirm. All right. Just give me one second. I want to confirm that this ties to our budget while I'm here. Yes. Yeah, we should. 206. Is there something in Oh, yeah. A
156075 because the 50 the first one 156075. Okay, we're good. Yeah, we're good. Okay, great. All right, Rita, do you have any questions for us before you head out? No. All right, I'm I'm all set. Thank you. If I Thanks for joining questions, I'll
let you know. Okay, sounds good. Light. Thanks. Thanks for joining us. Good night. Good night. All right. Good night. Um, okay. So, I think we're getting there, guys.
Um, we uh What else? What else do we need to talk about tonight? Is there anything else? Oh, I have one update uh unrelated to the budget. So, let me go first to Bob. Well, actually, actually, I'm sorry. I can't raise my hand because I'm sharing. Sure. So, if this is where
we're at, then we need to probably change at this point the excess levy capacity number. Yeah. All right. So, I'm going to basically 117587. It is now 745. You can see that. Yeah.
And we're at zero. Now, we're balanced. Yeah. Okay. Now, one other thing I want to mention to everybody and then I'll stop talking um tonight. Um, one of the things I did we haven't talked about was that's our assessed
value. What I did was, and maybe I had talked about it, is I increased our assessed value of our properties by the amount that would raise $45,000 so that this number is a little more accurate because in the past we haven't done that. I just want everybody
to know that I've done that in this model. I think it's really important. It's kind of a departure from the way Becky did it, but Becky and I used to debate this every year. We way overestimate by a lot. And I can even show you what the difference is. At
367, if I didn't do this, comes up to 419. Yeah. So, but that's not really reality. So, I just want everybody to be aware of it. And this is your last chance I guess to object to it. So is that new growth
assumption is that what's in our Yes. revenue. Okay. Got. Yeah. Good. Okay. In fact, when I put this number here like this 6608 660 877 should be what we have on our tax
levy. Sorry about jumping around. 600878. Okay. Yeah. So, so everything's tying out. Okay, I'm done. Great. All right, sounds good. And maybe and I think I can't remember if you emailed this to everybody, but folks should know
that there was um new a new cherry sheet estimate that came out between our last meeting and tonight. And that um that helped us by what was it like 30,000 or so.
It's 47. Yeah. So, um, Susie asked this question today in an email to me after I sent this when what we've been working with in the for the revenue over here was a preliminary cherry sheet that was available back in February, early March
and it didn't have it didn't have this line right here in it. So, what I was using didn't have this. I was using 7765. But the reality is, but when I
looked at the chur sheet last week, I saw it in there and it's here. So even though the difference between this and this is $33,000, we also picked up the 14,000 because that's wasn't in the number we had been using. Got it. Okay. All right.
So that was a good development. Um, so that and the police department were worth a lot. Yeah. Anything else on the budget that folks needed to uh bring up? Bob, it's one of This is not in the budget, but it's on the capital part of
the budget. Anyway, Dave asked me if he could get the lawn mower before uh the end of the fiscal year. I said, "No, it's got to be voted on before you can buy a lawn mower." Is that accurate? Well, we voted for it. We we approved it at the capital. No, but it's going to be
in FY26. He's saying he's saying before annual town meeting. He wants to buy it now. So I said no, you cannot do that. You'll have to rent. Yeah, this confirmed. Yes, that that was the right response by Susie. And along
um it is important to know that that's just the House Ways and Means draft. They got to go to the Senate, then they got to come in conference, and the more the federal government heats up, the harder it is to make things happen. But, um, in that ways and means cherry sheet,
the regional school ended up with about 113,000 increase. Um, I did write to our rep to thank him for fighting the big fight and that really rural aid is another key thing. So there may be some
more positive changes. The House Ways and Means isn't set in cement and we um we have a I appreciate how hard everybody wrestled with to get this budget under wraps and I feel happy and it's we can represent this to the town
and we still have a lot of little issues out there whether it's the legal or the police contract, chief contract, there's still stuff percolating. Yeah. Uh George, yeah, special town meeting is in our future for sure. Um yeah, so
historically, governor's budget, House budget, Senate budget, and then there's a committee budget, which is basically hash out between the House and the Senate. And historically, we've always gotten more on the cherry sheet than what the House or the Governor provides. And so, we're
I think we're being conservative by using the House number. That's And if it comes out higher, I'm just just for educational purposes. If it ends up coming out higher than what we use in our budget, the assessors are going to know that they're going to use that number and it's going to lower the
estimate on the t the tax levy will end up being lower at least to that extent than what we're showing the town. I don't think it'll be there. We're not talking large numbers. 10 20 $30,000 more maybe. [Music]
Yeah. All right. Good. Anything else on the budget? I just want to say that that process when we went to the uh select board and voted per item, it was really awkward. Now, I don't know how I'll figure out
what the hell we did, but don't do that again. It took forever. Yeah. So, I think I I agree and I think we've solved that by doing one thing, which is since we're voting next week, um we don't have to go through that process during the
the select board. So at the way we did it last year, which I agree was awkward, was we we did our internal vote on each warrant article and then the select board had to do there. So we'll have taken care of that, right? Um before before that, you could remember. Okay.
Yeah. Um and are we going to try to have that other meeting with all the departments at some point? That was after the votes. Yeah. After the 6th. just if the department meeting is still in the hopper, I'd like to keep
track of it. Yeah, I I think we probably should and I think we can maybe just build it into an agenda for one of our, you know, regular FinCom meetings and and and whoever wants to come can and
you know, no requirement, but uh yeah. Um yeah, I think that's probably a good idea for us to still do that. Um I have one update which is that um there has there is a process right now
happening that's being kind of spearheaded by Lynn Griezmer of the Ammerst Town Council to establish a four towns fiscal sustainability task force
that is going to be charged with kind of doing a deep study of the sustainab abil like the the fiscal sustainability issues around the regional school budget. And this is I think that this group would would collect lots of
information um and share that with the larger sort of four what we think of as the four towns group, that larger group that ultimately kind of makes decisions around the the regional school budget. and it would sort of establish a
guideline in terms of what what those what the four towns believe is an affordable increase and and so on and so forth. And if any town is or a group of towns is inclined to propose an alternative assessor
method, I suppose this group would be the group that could deal with that. Hopefully that won't happen. Um so anyway in terms of membership there's like we would be represented by a select board member
um a finance committee member and a school committee member and our town administrator. So we would have this is a big group by the way uh but we would have four Shootsberry people would be
participating um in that group. So, this that this is going to come before the Ammeris Town Council since it's kind of developed um from I think um Lynn and Kathy Shown I think is supporting her in
this. So, um I'll keep you guys posted on that, but um I think that might be uh a group that we we will be working with to kind of tackle some of the some of the school finance issues that we've been struggling with. Susie, do you know
if Ammerst is going to have a different number of representatives? We have four. So, it's I'm looking at uh I can't unfortunately they I'm not permitted to share this little draft committee charge thing, but I can tell you in terms of composition, it's four select board
members slash town councsil president. So that's so that would be one for each community. Finance committee members um so that's four so one for each municipality. School committee members would be one for each town. Town
administrators, town manager, that's four. So, no, I think I think they would have the same. Oh, the Ammerst finance director is is an additional person. So, that is probably the one
additional representative that Ammerst would have that there isn't equivalent to the other four other three towns. and the school superintendent is a member and the school finance director would is a proposed member. So that's
the composition. And so I just want to be clear for the minutes. AJ, what is the charge? What is the responsibility of this committee? I think it's I think all I can say at this point right now is that I think the committee would
um essentially be a study group that will develop kind of a a fiscal strategy for supporting the regional schools that
is sustainable over the next five or so years. Yeah. I think that's probably the extent of what I can share right now. All right. I'm sorry. Just for the minutes. Uh I got distracted. Gather information about school spending to develop uh a a a
sustainable fiscal strategy for regional. Yeah. Got it. Sounds like long range planning, right? Yes. Anything Susie? Did that answer? Um, I just wanted to make sure that Haley knew
that George takes the minutes, he sends out the draft, and he also sends a draft. He sends once they're approved, he sends it to the town clerk. So, he he's the man. Oh, yeah. We We had that conversation. Okay. Yeah. No, Haley figured it out real quick.
Yes. No, no problem at all. All right. Good. Anything else anybody needs to discuss tonight before we adjourn? Make a motion to journ. George is in favor.
Groves. I Hemingway I Cashew I Moer I. Salvador I and Stein I. Thank you very much everyone. All right. Have a good night. All right. Thanks guys. Thanks for joining us. All right. Yeah. You've had a long time. Yeah. You have