this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers all right I'm calling to order the meeting of the Southampton select board for February 11th at 6:00 p.m. if we could stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance we have our small small flag
here I pledge allegiance to the pled of the United States of America and the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy Justice for thank you
right well tonight we have the beginnings of our budget hearings for FY 26 uh we have our select board members here uh John is out of town actually on work business and I'm thinking Steven is coming but I believe that will be happening and we also have our finance
committee members here tonight uh they will not be uh having a a quorum for discussion purposes we have our Town Administrator Scott who's going to lead us through this process and Bradley uh our town accountant who's been working hand inand with Scott to unravel things
and then we've got our various presentations tonight so we have our first 246 departments or um divisions shall we say to present tonight so we're going to do in order uh we have Library Park commission Cemetery commission Town
accountant assessor and the building department tonight so that's the plan so with that I'm going to let Scott kind of give us a bit of an overview of how this is going to work cuz it's all a little bit different than what we had u in the past how we've done this in the past and
especially with a brand new uh budget book scenario and ation hi Stephen all right so we are recording uh and like I say this will be put up on our website in a couple of days once East Anon media
collects the card and does their thing so go ahead Scott let's turn it over to you yeah well welcome to budget season 25 yeah um so right after football season so uh so my my three words I was looking forward to to kind of form the budget
this year uh was efficiency transparency and responsibility efficiency I wanted to make sure that it's easier to do the budget but that requires a little bit of forward capital and eventually we'll get that return on investment so uh
hopefully this will pay off over the next couple years uh transparency because obviously we're a public entity and we need to make sure that when we ask the voters for money in the citizens we got make sure that it's transparent um that the information is a available so I set up the website but also it's
understandable um so it's one thing just to throw all the spreadsheets it's another thing to actually make sense of it all and then responsible uh for the taxpayer monies obviously uh but also to the employees and all the volunteers make sure that they have the the necessary things that they need to Su
succeed in their jobs and their responsibilities and and their goals so uh unfortunately um if the school department was level funded we'd be all set and we could all go home unfortunately we are anticipating an increase on the school department that's
nothing new um so we are going to be looking to making some some cuts to the budget and the requests uh Hampshire Regional last night um their preliminary numbers were a little under $400,000 increase which is about
6.8% um noris School uh it's still in development but obviously I expect that to uh come in for at least a few percentage points um how much you know right now we're still not 100% sure you know how much we're going to need to cut but it's going to be in the six
Bakers Scott what's the what what's driving the increase health insurance uh is a big one um transportation I think is the other Transportation um there's a lot of cleanup that the uh central office have done a lot of things that they've discovered that weren't being
paid appropriately or were being paid not appropriately uh so that's a lot of it um if you look on the presentation I posted on the FY 26 budget page um from the school department which is these right here they actually go into some pretty good detail
um about all the drivers so okay so it's really good yeah I think transport insurance is certainly one of the one of the big ones and we just um one of the school committee members just popped in so we're going to have um have them um somebody Margaret Larson or someone else too will probably come um from Hampshire
region and just give us an overview of where they are and one I understood that's hopefully you know the worst case that we can expect she said that they don't have all the revenues plugged in yet so hopefully there's a little bit brighter scenario but there definitely will need to be some some
budget tightening here I'm sure but we'll have her uh come in on our regular select board meeting on the 18th and give us kind of an overview of what the budget is looking like for the school so right before we do the other hearings on the 18th we'll have her give us an overview of what it's looking like from their perspective but go ahead SC
uh so just to put that in dollars and cents essentially right now every 1% of our entire school budget is equal to about $130,000 that we're going to have to have to reduce so is that big enough for people can you see I don't know if you can see
that kind of sorry um some changes to the FY 26 budget so we reorganized a lot of departmental budgets uh we Consolidated where we could things such as like maintenance custodial work uh we started a townwide it plan um and we also
Consolidated things like our waste disposal so instead of having each facility having their own budget having to do the process to give Randall the money at the transfer station we just consolidate into one expense so that we can make a little bit easier um because
of the reorganization a lot of the numbers are going to be a little bit up and down so some of the uh percentages and the number of variances that you're going to see aren't truly accurate because they haven't carried over from last here uh revenues are still being worked on but hopefully next week we're
going to have a little bit of a clearer picture we have um the governor's budget you know that's been in uh we do have our property tax increases we have things like that uh we're finishing up revenues for the first 6 months of fy2 that'll give us a little bit of a better
picture on uh our estimates for those um and then we're going to put those together and we're going to go over the uh the revenues and uh one of the things that we're looking at as well is looking that special accounts grants trusts that we need to look at uh Bradley did a really great job over the last couple
weeks putting together going through with a fine tooth comb all of our different accounts uh and we have some that are decades old that are having that have money in it so you have some uh these are grants or other
special revenues that have never been expended um so these are just for special revenues there's a significant amount Capital One oh I'm sorry y so he a revenue so things we have to address each one of these individually and
figure out what the money's for could we use it for something else was it a grant do we have to send the money back to the state or the federal government uh or can we use it for something else so uh some of this goes back you know close to 91 years yeah it's crazy too because a lot
of the grants that we get for those who may not know most of the grants that we get are reimbursable very rarely that we get a grant where we get the money and you can just do it and if you don't use it all more power to you if you're you know if you're you're economical in what you do but most of these are reimbursable so you might get a $50,000
Grant but you only get reimbursed for what you put in for receipt so um some of these that still have a balance it's it's a question mark as to what ever happened here so there's a lot of research that has to be done on some of these and then also capital projects so there's a lot of money that is available
um everything from the computer network server from 6 years ago 7500 $1 to um Highway plow that we from 2020 and so on so um quite a bit of money so do we have
have the cash or is it just a an obligation of who's ever pledging that we can pull the money down if we do what we're supposed to do this would probably be against our capital budget so we pulled from the capital stabilization account to make these projects so these
are all encumbered against what we you would look at our total so so just a when you're looking at the budget you know just some quick things by the numbers you know currently our operating stabilization fund is at $950,000 it's I would love to get to over a
million that's 5% the recommended amount is 10% of your total budget so we're very far from that we won't be able to get that this year but you know the recommended from the DLS is to get that 10% uh built up into stabilization uh our Capital
stabilization is at 350,000 um last year's budget was 21 million uh our compensation adjustments uh which are taken into effect for uh January for the salary plan um and will be effective again in uh July 1st will
be 75,000 and our schools make up about 62% of the budget so so that's why I stress that our schools are the biggest cost driver against the town so the stabilization of account and the slide
before that are those incumbrances against the stabilization of the capital fund that can be released and it's just a paper thing or is it actually found money in some way that benefits us on a
c basis r capital stabilization fund we fund it through an article at a town meeting usually through free cash giving it money and then we dip into it also through an article at a town
meeting for projects yeah so like the library $7,000 from last town meeting for their lighting project uh that reduced the capital stabilization fund by $77,000 there are interests that over the year does slightly increase these
stabilization funds but mostly it's transfers into it from an article so with the appropriate authorization it goes where it goes into the state the money goes into the stabilization fund and
then comes out through a vote at a town meeting for capital or operating okay it's actual money though I have a question too and regarding the fact that the school School budgets take up such a high
percentage of our entire budget we hear a lot about unfunded mandates and I I know this isn't the time to debate what's going on at the state house but is there hope do you think for some of the like being a rural community and uh having to bus our students to Hampshire
Regional and those kinds of things that is their hope talk about time uh that might be better for uh representative pce beas um but I I know that we have a good stabilization fund um I do see
some uh storms on the horizon storms we calm seas we calm seas I know on the state level at least but um but I don't I I don't know if there'll be too much relief this year or not I mean the governor's budget was released so and it
wasn't a huge increase so uh so just some uh numbers just especially around Insurance some of the soft costs um when you're looking at at the Staffing levels uh so you become benefit eligible at 20 plus hours a week
so you might have heard 19 19 and 1 half 20 so right around that Mark um so once you start working 20 hours plus regularly you become benefits eligible and that means you're entitled to our health insurance but also our dental insurance our OPB on and on and on um so
by adding a employ it also comes with the cost of 20,000 16 or 7,000 for depending on which level of plan that they take for health insurance um and this health insurance this year we're looking at an 18% plus increase uh so we'll go with the library
first so some some things just to keep in mind with the library so library is a little bit of a unique budget because they have a state required minimum funding for materials which is based on a percentage Jo you can probably explain a little bit better if you could um but one thing
that we did do is we move the custodian salary into the maintenance budget so the um five or six hours that Dave usually works we put it into combined 19 hours for both Town Hall library and uh the police department uh and there are uh other things of not an increase of hours for employees to become in
benefits eligible uh so let me bring it up you want your yes thank you thank you to the select board and the finance committee and everybody who's here and also behind me are Jessica and Kristen who are on
the board trustees at the library I'm so thrilled that they were able to come tonight so we've been working on this sort of as a team which has been a very different experience um than I had in the past when I presented budgets to you
all um Scott and Bradley and I have been able to meet and actually talk about it and so this is going to be a more show you rather than tell you sort of evening um and so up there that's going to be our major like piece from 2024 it's part
of our covid recovery um you can see the total circulations that we have how many physical items we own um how much do we lend to other libraries and a lot of that stuff is you know you might expect
that from a big Library Consortium system but what you also get because I have to report this in one of my reports is real use of money how many programs we have had so how many times the
meeting room was used how many people attended events how many children um were able to to have a great start of their life and their relationship with the library so um as I continue with the
budget presentation I just wanted that card to to be up there as a I continue on quick question yeah just the one that hits me the 197 events just give it a sample of what what is what do you define as an event so um so if we looked
at let's say January so every week week the Quilters meet the Girl Scouts meet to use the um the conference room there's Lego Club there's um meeting things that uh uh I don't include the
trustees and the friends for example in in that so it's basically the use of your community room it's the it's not just that though it's also including Story Time and um groups that come in to use the meeting room certainly but also
programs that we that the library puts out okay exactly um for example with the Good Earth gardeners that was that's like a a big event MH um that we hope to have again in April the one that was that didn't happen in January but even
just this week so we'll probably have five events every week yeah thanks the comma in one comma six 77 attende days yeah is really small it is I don't know
what happened there maybe it's just how do 67 children are only no you don't want people walking away with that you know what I don't know what happened that it's a thing have been a
1,6 though it was maybe I flipped my finger a mistake but thank you for that so it's yes um so um so that actually but you point that out those stepen and that's adult programs and so below that
then you also have 176 programs for children 0 to 18 that's great so and how many children attended those programs and so especially like with um let's say the youth summer reading program where we're having you
know four events for children each week and then just the general sign up these things can really add up right so anyway um so again showing rather than telling but I do have to
tell certain things so um for the budget narrative um uh do you want me to just continue on with with the obviously I just put up the regular budget yeah that's fine thank you so an explanation of of what
we came up with um as we look at the budget the significant numbers um I applaud the select board for SE to bring wages up to a competitive level the increase in our total budget is almost entirely due to
the increases in salaries um the library has a responsibility not only to the town of Southampton but also to the state of Massachusetts as you know and this is speaking to the m by state mandate we need to achieve a minimum Municipal
Appropriations requirement the m is a calculation of the three previous years m or Tammy's Town appropriated Municipal income uh whichever is higher divided by three and multiplied by
1.25% and that's how we get State age so when Scott was going through all of the money that you could see sort of outstanding State you might have seen Library State Grant and that's um so uh last year unfortunately I don't have the
number in front of me but I think it was like $177,000 that we got from the state because I have to do the two large reports in the summer and um and that's a really great sort of um return for the library is
that but so if you look at the library Personnel um and unfortunately I have very poor eyesight so I can't really um speak to the number up there so I'm just going to have to Rifle through on my budget um but Scott and Bradley and I
worked on that and it looks like I'm I'm getting a an increase um per what they suggested for that rate um and then the other increases for the staff are also noted
there now and then the substitutes as well and the substitutes as well thank you um this year of course we still had um the custodian in our budget next year that's going to be a separate
line um so our total requested compensation um and again these this number at the at the end Scott if you can scooch it over for the Personnel yeah that um 163
22845 um I think has a little bit of play in it because I don't know what the total compensation is really for FY 26 um but again that's our increase in budget is largely
about that increase in C um as we go to page two um we see that we have Library expenses which are I'm holding steud on those those are principally day-to-day costs paper toner
supplies uh books and materials is another mathematical um theorem from this day our books and materials need to be 19% of our total budget and so that goes up a little bit as you can see
because of the total budget going up and in fact because of the um salaries going up next pay period um I need to actually find another $1,000 which I've written
uh and received $500 already from East Hampton Savings Bank to help with that um to get me to that 19% the utilities that's a wild card um and we're hoping that our lighting
project which was completed and looks fantastic and we have a little bit of leftover money from that um we're hoping that that um will help keep our utilities in check in the long run and our maintenance costs are another sort
of wild card but um we're sort of just is going with the copy machine rental our website maintenance because we do the select uh excuse me the Southampton historical resources as well as the library the biannual hbac maintenance
Etc so at this point I can pause and and ask you if Ty any questions about what you're seeing or hearing so I think it looks like you've got certainly change in Personnel here right what you're asking for yes not sure that came out in your presentation
so you have you have three that are benefit eligible right now and then you've got one was asking for one that's under 20 20 hours and you want to move that one up to more than 20 hours so that's what takes you up into the four Staffing at that level right so one of
our goals and initiatives C in FY 26 is that we want to see an intensification of our efforts to create the library for the 21st century and to do this we need to create a long range plan we haven't had a long range plan since
2012 um so I cannot do it all I need help um the working document of a long range plan will help us create goals and increase our services we've already begun this
process by creating surveys we've gotten grants we've started we we've made all the these initiatives I I I do better with a template and that's why I'm requesting that Emily Mena receive more hours um so that we can have more of a
dedicated circulation desk person so that I can spend less time on the circulation desk and um so that one position is the circulation that's the one that yes that's the circulation position this is the head of circulation
okay so that would go from 25 hours well that would go oh 19 to 25 I'm sorry EXC yeah so just something to consider um and that's but I just wanted to give you
the reasoning behind why I think that would be a great um a great move for us so does that increase make her eligible for insurance or yes it does it does and do do people always take them or I don't
we have to assume that they do though have to assume that they do assume that they do have to budget accordingly but some people are on their spouses plan or something and they may not take it always myself and another staff member do not take it yeah but as Scott was saying that's probably another 20,000
thereabouts right it's a little bit of a tricky situation um you know essentially if they took family plan you'd be doubling the cost to the town um which I'm not in favor of a lot of part-timers I've had a problem
I think you get a u more dedicated staff that's available um long-term if you have full-time workers instead of multiple part-timers filling positions to save on health insurance costs um I do think that we kind of have to it is
in that gray area so at 19 hours you're not benefit eligible but at 25 you are so what's the return on the investment for offering benefits should they be 30 plus or 35 or should they be 40 uh so it's just kind of food for
thought and is it a one time thing that you need the help or do you see this your needs continuing I I actually would love to have it obviously continue because uh honestly there's I I would love to be able to do more research on
grants and um I mean I love to bits in public it's my favorite part of the job but um um you know between the amount of uh work that a director has to do the fact that I'm I don't attend a lot of
meetings because I simply can't leave the library we have to have two people in the library at all times for safety um I just think it it could be a win-win situation um and so I just wanted to to
toss that into this budget and um I mean it is about about a position and not a person but I I think that in this case the person would is is also really um valuable to
theate go ahead also if you're talking about efficiency if you have a director who's working on the front desk you're having you're paying somebody $35 an hour versus somebody $20 an hour to um to do the same job
mhm so my my question is sort of the flip side of your question which is you know I'm reading your paragraph here about long range plan um forward facing steady upward trend on circulations Etc and you're already anti you've already you know documented the upward Trend
started very successfully I personally think your library is wonderful and love to go I don't go often enough to spend only 24 hours in the day and um but I will say that I would anticipate that you get good people in these roles and you are going to be able to utilize them
you a little more broadly with their expertise not to be the director but to you sort of enact the kinds of things you want what's southton as a community where we are located between cities and other and you know major metropolitan
areas we need to be that kind of town that has those kinds of things you know honestly when I first moved to eastampton it was everybody was telling me don't move there it's the PS and we went there anyway and I started going to
The eastampton Envision East Hampton meetings this is way back in the early 2000s and did you go to those it was it was like wild you could not Envision what was on the table in front of you
and they were able to do it generally speaking it's it's you have to have the Visions to you have to have a vision or else you're just going to do what I feel somewhat like that we have been doing we're research and we're trying in but
we're a little bit spinning our Wheels um I can make a community garden do people really want a community garden I haven't even asked you know we're working on this uh library of things and we did a a survey because you're like we
got all this we got money for Library things what do people want um so that's part of the exploration of that um so it's it's I wanted to put that out there is something to consider
um so back on the the total with the the the mer versus the mar if I've got this right yeah so your request for us tonight is 229,000 altogether yes of which for if I'm understanding this 40 just the books and materials yes 42
has to be that 19% I think it's it's a little bit less but that's okay as long as it's like 18 because I can um I can if it's a little bit less that's fine you see as I said like um for this year
let's say It was supposed to be 38,000 because we had the increase it went up to$ 39,000 so I defined $1,000 and I feel comfortable with that amount personally I would like to see us giving or budgeting for the full 19%
that's a state requirement um it's close it's it's a little bit less from still mean that you have to find you know 00 yeah um and in the case of this year it sounds like you actually ended up having to find more because mov around so this
year our budget is going up to so originally we were budgeted where the town had given us 21,000 plus dollars which was fine and then we have this beautiful thing where people are are getting increases so but for us that's
um that raises up us to 210,000 which made my new book budget go up to $ 39,9 so um I think I Scott probably thought she uh she wants to shoot herself in the bot and not get an increase because it's like how am I
going to this this looks like about 18% so to Becky's point it looks like about 18% the way I'm calculating so I mean we definitely want to be sure that we're helping you get to what you need to do for state requirements obviously tying in with that I know You' mentioned a couple of Grant in the past could you just tell us a little bit since I'm on
the grant committee too just tell us a little bit about what you've been doing with grants and I know the green community's Grant helped cover the lighting finally but then you had already gotten Grant i' had already gotten and can you still use that for something so I have left over money
within that Grant and yes I can okay that's actually uh so that Grant the $3,000 um is is still I think it's 3,000 that is still in the here uh the second $10,000 we haven't
started to use yet we except for um we we're going to be doing the sensory garden that was another $10,000 Grant then this year there was a mass D grant for about $1500 but that one is a reimbursement thing so they're actually
cutting off that for that mass DP we have to actually submit the right the bills so um so you have about 13,000 money available right now do some of your programs right right and that part and but with
10,000 of it is supposed to be year March but and and that will be gobbled the the community garden will will gobble that up definitely um so those are the three grants over the last couple of years and are there some that you would
have liked to apply for but you haven't been able to that you're that were qualified to to apply for or they well because how often do they come up those um ala grants and they well we got two in a row so I don't know how you
know I I can keep on applying to um the uh I'm trying to think of of other sort of brants like T-Mobile or Walmart or any of these other Industries
um but that would be just for special programs it's that part of your core expenses really it's it's to do other things you to do other things exactly and one thing about I wanted to add about the state Grant so when we get
that money that cannot go towards salaries that has to be ear marked for other expenses good point um just as an FYI okay anybody else have other comments questions thoughts
I didn't realize that you guys actually had my budget Narrative of course we do didn't realize that um there is one thing that I did um do a capital request so I didn't use all of my Capital requests that's also outstanding that I
got from last year when they um helped us to spip up the conference room I did put in another Capital request to replace our boiler room door and casing which is currently SE separating from its hinges um it's not um it's not crazy
but it it's something sort of to be concerned about so that's one t request that we think for this and money left over from Capital but wasn't needed comes back in right yeah yeah so we'd have to do a town
meeting vote to resend whatever was approved that's not that's not been used for that purpose town meeting voted for a purpose X you know this amount of money if you were economical and did better than what you thought and you have a couple couple thousand left over
then we would have to do a vote I think at town meeting to pull that back into the cap so but when you see it it's sitting there and and that will be up to you then yeah that'll be a Bradley and Scott activity probably okay good anybody else have any comments or
questions all right well thank you very much apprciate you I had one more slide a snapshot of three years of Co recovery I'm sure it's up I was like what about my Snapshot um but so and I don't know
if that's it's okay it doesn't so anyway it's just it's about our Co recovery I just wanted to express my gratitude because I really do think that without um support we wouldn't have been able to get here I still will do curb slide
pickup for people um a snapshot of circulations from um you see how many library cards that we made with the library card initiative in the census um we uh if if we can scroll down a little
bit Scott for the circulations again um for the recent circulations just over um the end of last year um that was uh I think sort of interesting like how we've been fulfilling loans getting loans in
from other libraries and um and working hard and I couldn't do it without you and certainly not without my staff but without all of your support and I want to thank you ahead of time so any questions please feel free to email
me thank you much thank you [Music] next up I think we have doing in park commission I'm D moley I'm uh chair of the Parks
Commission uh we Scott brings this up my budget's a lot simpler so one one of the thing I just want to point out with the parks um I know Dylan had talked to me about some additional um funds for like AED and other improvements and that kind of took
Bradley and I down to Rabbit Hole uh so I got to ask you a few questions sure um right after this so there might be some possible money in some revolving accounts that we're looking for I just wanted to bring that up um as well as this year we mov the waste removal into
the town wide waste budget so you don't have to pay for that anymore great um and then I know I just want to mention the AED purchases uh but one thing is uh I don't know if you've ever seen these
uh this here but you have um 13,000 in the field usage P okay I can cover that I I can go over all those okay I just want make sure um do we have a narrative on this one or
no should um maybe I forgot it sorry I I have a copy with me if you want you can speak to it that's we'll get a copy yeah um so do you want to start with those
few issues first SC or do you want to do the budget and then go back go back to those sure um so the parks department the Parks Commission is obviously the the overseer uh their operations and maintenance of the three public park Pon Park lbr field and Crossroads Park um we
set policies and procedures for Park usage appeal approve the field use application collect fees rent The Pavilion and fund necessary maintenance and capital projects uh or oversee those if they're being usually used that either CPA money or grant money to for the for the major improvements uh you
know the mission of the commission is to improve ensure that the residents Southampton have a well-maintained safe and appropriate open park space Recreation relaxation place as well as casual and organized Sports um the big Trend we've seen over the last few years as the town is growing is the usage of
the parks um we've got some incredible new uh Capital assets that have come in service in the last few years the pickle ball courts which get incredible amount of usage uh the tennis courts and basketball courts been recently resurfaced those are seeing increased usage because of that and then um the
the donation of madd's magical playground over at lbr field has also seen seen additional use um and just for the park usage overall where you know my impression of Park usage is is five plus years ago was primarily for Passive walking and sports teams organized Youth
Sports the overall user base has grown that we've got a lot more um organized pickup ball tennis as well as just pickup play usage in those Parks uh with the playground we're seeing a lot of families traveling to the park specifically to use those play
structures um as well as you know in the winter we see cross country skiers out there which is which is awesome to see too so the parks are getting here ice skating too it Li there was we haven't done it in a while kind of like there's a little Pond forming there yeah when it forms it freezes over Randle is a great
job he bows down all that long grass in that drainage covert and it just naturally fills with water once it freezes and and it gets used for skating which um i' love the seat even bigger but I think that's kind of that's kind of what when it naturally fills in it does become a usable space for that as
well um somebody has a fullsize rink across the street they do yes I don't know if they that or not should approach him and say can we Annex that into the park and can a good use of it um unlike a lot of other departments we
are primarily self-funded uh from the usage of user fees from the local Youth Sports organizations Sy primarily we were getting some usage of the L field large Diamond that has sense dried up um
I I think some of that was we readjusted our fees about 2 years ago and with the increase in fees we are now on that field specifically over the pricing for a lot of surrounding towns and the quality of that field is not up to par with what uh
the surrounding Fields the surrounding towns are offering for a field of that size it's a very large Diamond it's a fullsize uh adult diamond so we don't even have any local teams that use it any Southampton base or even Hampshire Regional based teams that use that field so I think there's an ongoing discussion
of what we want to do with that in the long term this past year part of the reason they were we we did not get usage this year was we received feedback we'll say from some of the leagues that were using it that the mound wasn't in sufficiently good condition that the clay wasn't in
sufficiently good condition but we were collecting less than $500 a year in usage fees from that and to purchase a material alone to improve the condition of that field to their standards would have exceeded um probably our yearly our yearly come from how would you have
charged for that is it like per season or per game per game so it's $100 per game which is surrounding towns are charging anywhere from 50 in the larger communities where I think their fields are more heavily subsidized to to right around $100 so we're on the upper end but at the upper end those fields are in
um substantially better condition the town comes in and lines the fields before the games they have lights available and it's just things I I don't think as a town we since we have no use for it what I'm saying we're we're not serving our residents with it that all
these leagues are coming in from from surrounding areas I mean not even neighboring towns most of them are coming in from from further away some are coming from Connecticut to use it because it had a halfway point uh for people coming down from Franklin County so they were meeting here it but since it really wasn't serving the town I
didn't view it as something that we wanted to invest our limited resources in to bring to that level because the level of draw that we were getting to it was low uh we also in the past have had some negative interactions with user groups on that field um none of the ones
that have been there in the last couple years everyone I've dealt with recently has been fantastic to deal with but there has been that experience because it's adult primarily adult baseball competitive baseballs um and there's been conflicts with them and and I hate to say it for
kids in town and parents in town when arriving for you sports event so there has not been much of an appetite to the further expand that there just wasn't a good cost benefit analysis on that I think there's thoughts of potentially looking at readjusting that field to
change it into a um field that would be usable for youth baseball in town but that's I think a bigger conversation that we need to have with syaa and with the town in general because there's naming rights to I don't want to it's not it's not a decision I
want to make hastily I think it's something that needs to be well considered well thought out and kind of make sure there's support for making such a major change because I know that field was that that Park was well thought out and well planned and I I don't want to come in and try to undo the work of a previous um commission
just because I think it's the right thing to do so it's something that we're looking at I think that with and with the non-usage of it this year I think that's something we need to look at sooner than later so the soccer fields are all getting quite well used right all surrounding the baseball the they are they are very very very heavily used
every year there's always a la discussion about who's going to be where when and how do we line these and and how do we get user groups to use them the you the fields are almost over utilized um which I'll get to the budget in a second but I think as a as as a preface to that part of the problem
we're running into is the quality of grass on the fields is declining and that's there's three major factors to that number one um if you don't water it it's not going to grow number two it's IR is fertilizers we need to be able
applying fertilizers as well is aerating and overseeding that annually which is expensive proposition and and three there need Fields need to be given rest so in Ideal World we would have probably two more Fields than we need and then
you can rotate them off so every year one field has a chance to be basically unplayed allowed to regrow so you get that good perennial growth get good root structure and then you can rotate those usable Fields so that the fields that we do have remain in in excellent condition
I mean regardless there's going to be to them I mean there's no that's just the way it is um but that's kind of the struggle that we're dealing with now we did this past year do a two fertilizer applications and overall the playing conditions improved dramatically we just
got lucky this past year with the rain and that there was regular rain throughout the summer that allowed those fertilizer applications to work well um which brings us to the budget so sure point of interest when you say field how big and you need two more
fields to accomplish your bre objective how big is the field they vary in size realistically I think you'd be looking about 2 acres per field plus parking plus parking well I
mean I would say so at L if you had the space you would need any additional parking because you could just move the you would basically leave one field unlined onk Mar and then You' Mark everything else and the next year you take another field you put it where the unmarked field was and you kind of do
that point if there's additional space added elsewhere then yeah you'd have to accommodate for that I think but yeah I think we're looking I I look it depends see the fields are anywhere from I think the smallest fields are the kindergarten fields and those are something like 15
by 30 ft and then the largest fields are are very large I I don't know the exact dimensions on but I said by the you get done with but you need two more Fields or two more field in order to rest potentially more
than that because as is we are this is from soccer at least is telling me that they have to figure out which fields are going to line based upon what the interest is and they've been I don't say lucky but it this it's
worked out that they haven't had teams in every single category for the older kids because that's where the largest Fields come in as the teams get bigger the fields get bigger so if they need to align two of 11 v11 Fields they're out of luck because they don't have room for
two 11 v11 Fields so it's always been when we've needed an extra 9v9 field they haven't needed the 11 v11 so they've been able to line it but if there ever came a year where they had to field all those teams there'd be some we'd probably be double lining Fields um
with two different colors so that just for spacing what comes down to so I have a question sure so you mentioned water being a really important factor for good grass we know that um and fortunately we did get some rain this year but isn't aren't there
sprinkler systems on those fields and I did hear a previous presentation about it costs a lot of money to use Town water to sprinkle on it is there still a sprinkler system there there is a sprinkler system there it needs pretty substantial Renovations at this point unfortunately after it was installed the
didn't settle completely and so sprinkler heads were beginning to pop up into playing surfaces and I think yes so and in the middle of games or during practices if a Coach or a referee found one there was no time of course to dig it out reset it properly and do it so they would unscrew the head and they
throw it off to the side of the field so we have a box of sprinkler heads um and we would need to go through and figure out where those go reset those heads in realistically that's something that again we're we're looking at of what
level does this need I don't want to turn it on until we are ready to undertake a project on it because once we turn it on then we have to be able to winterize it and that is an expense so there's a process to to powering the sprinklers and we do want to do that
we're probably thinking hopefully this year we're going to do that if we can figure out the budgeting for that um the issue is even if we were to get up and running I'm estimating it's going to be between 7 and $10,000 per year to run the sprinklers on that field um
roughly the other direction we're looking at and we're getting we've reached out for some rough we haven't we haven't asked for quote for a bit but just rough estimates from a well company to come in and install a well system that could run the sprinklers and also
provide water to the Fieldhouse which is in the next planning phase of L Bri field that has not been completed there is CPA money that's been approved for that that we would we would probably either come back for more or find a funding source but if we were to do the well that would potentially decrease the
cost of building it because we wouldn't need to draw into the city we wouldn't need to do all the work to pull off the city water we could do it off the well and then our overall operating costs of using that would also go down because we again wouldn't be paying for Town water for any of it it would be coming out of
the wall that's right over the Barnes aquifer so I don't see a reason why we couldn't but that's you know I'm guessing the the rough estimates from what I've heard so far you're looking 50,000 to 60,000 for a well that would be capable of powering um that large of
a sprinkler system is what it comes down to is basically it's the size of the well and the the size of the pump that would need to pull to be able to run that many zones we've gone back and said well is there any is there a way to do like a charging tank is there a way to rezone the thing
so that we could do a smaller well and spread the amount of time out that takes to water so those numbers are cut up in the air um but that's something that we're considering as a one-time capital investment rather than a necessarily having an ongoing budget line for water
because if we were to pay 9 to 107 to $10,000 a year for water that that alone would wipe out all of the user fees and then some we would be we'd be in the negative trying to run that and you still do have CPA money that's been allocated though right for this for both water and and the Fieldhouse or just I
don't know about the water I have to look at that I don't know the answer for that um and are you thinking about doing any kind of like a feasibility study about this this idea of the well and the sprinkl or has that been I mean you the so the the spr system installed and is
is in the design and the master plan for the brief field already the well I think we're just trying to get a ballpark number on what it would actually be and then if we need to do a feasibility ask for money from there right now we haven't spent any money and we wouldn't ask to spend money until we're ready we want to go in that direction but if it
came down to if if a well company said just from looking at it said n it's not going to work or it's going to be incredibly cost prohibitive to do this then we would you know I I don't see a point of spending money to throw bad money you know good money after that so that's my thought on it and if we so yeah if that is something we want to do
absolutely we would we would consider doing a feasibility study on that of whether or not that would be done yes go ahead back to your um thank you so the prace about all the usage is kind of why I'm asking for more money I that
that is a very large increase um removing the the trash from our usage is going to be is going to be huge I mean that's $44,000 a year already that's going to come off of our our overhead which is a very large portion of our just ongoing operating expenses for the parks um the Cen Park Pavilions are
basically Revenue neutral every every dollar that we take in goes back out to pay for cleaning maintenance uh electricity the Cowal credits come out of there so that's it's in the negative but I think when you get done with the receipts catching up with the expenses
right around Revenue neutral um so at that point the only source of income that we have left is the um the field usage fees which primarily come from the parents of Youth Sports in town and right now that's paying for everything else that we do in the Parks um so some
of the things I would like to see potentially moved into the the general you fund for our usage is is the the porta potties basically is one of the big ones um we've had one put into Conan park on the library side this year par
the crest the pickle balls partially the crest the library because there was a lot of usage of the library which is affecting their budget because of consumption so we brought that in this year and that's got quite regular usage La Field with the Maddies playground there again is is getting more usage so
we feel it's one of these things where these are these are services that are providing benefit for the entire town so should necessarily be paid off the back of just the sports users and I'd like to see that sport usage going to paying for the fertilization program which is right
around $7,000 per year uh watering the fields Field improvements purchasing grass seed um you know additional any anything that we can do to improve the fields for that specific user base everyone benefits from it but that at the same time it's something that can be
used for that purpose now any of these things in terms of the the fertilizer and the seating and whatever else is is that all focused on the briis or some of that at conent Park too for the Little League folks and all that that area of Ballfield we would absolutely expand it right now we've been focusing on labre because the quality of the fields at Lis
is is poor the quality of the fields at Conan because it's so wet over there have been very good um if we were to expand into a fertilizer program and we're seeing good results from it we would absolutely be looking at expanding over the con as well if it needed it but they they're not needing that attention they're not those fields are Lush and
beautiful um and you know I think there could be some usage for like some pre-emergent weed control but for the most part those fields are are very thick they're grass and right now I believe syi baseball just got a grant to rehab all those fields so they're going to be doing some pretty major work over
there to make them nicer and and hopefully we can work with them on upkeep and making sure they remain in really good condition okay good is there any expenses that you might be able to use from the the trust
accounts potentially um so I know yeah I got to look more into that I think there's restrictions on both the brief Field gift account as well as the Conan Park trust account um the trust I believe the Conan Park we can only access interest we cannot access
principal right and I believe that's the same with L as well um we actually need I Bradley I got to talk to you there was a bunch of user fees that were deposited into the thebr field account by previous folks and those probably
need to get moved over to the field usage account which is a revolving account but I don't know how we that might have to be an annual town meeting transfer so can we explain each of these the revolving funds and the gift funds so that we understand what we're talking about here so the Kota Park pavilion fund is um the the account that we
deposit all of the the the payment for the rental of con Park pavilion and then out of that account comes all the expenses related to The Pavilion um the park commission field usage is supposed to be for the field
usage fees that come in from syaa or other user groups it's for the usage of the playing fields for both fields for both cor for the Bri and con is that what you said the 7,000 fertilizing comes out of correct that's what we' be taking out of out of last year we took
less last year we only did about 3,000 this year we're going to look to step it up to about about 7,000 we're hoping to um Park Renovations I don't know um that I I don't know what that account is for uh and then Conan Wildlife is not under
our purview Conan library is not and Conan Park is again the gift account when the park was established and my understanding is that gift account again is limited to expending of interest only and not princial that that might be the interest available oh yeah so uh we we
met with you today um and this is still very preliminary very early we got to do a lot of work our investment fuel um but they had your your beginning principal at 54,000 and your beginning earnings as Expendable as
$36,800 um so you said the library and the wildlife ones are not ones that you manage or if they are it's news to me but um it's possible um I don't know I I have to do some more research into
that sorry I have a better answer for you right yeah I'm wondering if the um if the wildlife one would have been around the same time of the the gift of the park you know from the conuts I wonder if that kind of went together when was the last time you
applied for and received a park Grant it was 2 years ago go and we purchased with that the sprinkler equipment for the splash for the spray deck as well as did the feasibility study and the designing of the walking path um at that time we
were told politely don't come back and ask for another one until you get a master plan done master plan is done so we need to go and and look at reapplying for a new park Grant to complete to complete that spray deck project um it's going to be about $100,000 we'll need $120,000
location is a common part correct y GZA had already done the design on that y everything's good to go it's it's just it's literally just finding funding at this point but it's good to know about that I didn't realize that would be Expendable interest because there's
been some requests for some did fing okay so yeah good I had a question that's not right out of my mouth yet I remember what it was um sorry while you're thinking so back on the on the Pavilion so the the did you say that was Revenue neutral so that
what for the Pavilion you know basically is covering your electricity costs or or not it's well we're at a flat rate with eversource areas a non-metered account so it's $30 a month regardless so it's not it's there's stuff in there that has
been part of larger Town Projects like the cowp pal credits those come directly out of that account I don't know that's just the way it's been done I don't know ask us about cowp credits don't ask us about that yet we're Still's a whole there's another energy cred that's coming out of there there's there's just
kind of the ongoing the ongoing part costs have been tied to that account historically I have not I have not made any efforts to remove them from there mainly because I'm I'm not an accountant and I don't I still am learning the financial stuff um
but the it's it's hard to say some years we've had it was Revenue making some years it was Revenue we were in the negative on it right now the account as you can see is technically in the negative yeah um but
I don't know if that's the correct amount because I don't keep a separate I should I don't keep a separate Ledger of our deposits and our expenses out of that account so I'm not sure if that number is representative um Revenue up to date
so as you can see Revenue 12524 and expens there 21125 I think there may have been another deposit but there may not have been regardless I think that account remains has been in the negative for years and years and years um but I
keeping track of payroll for is that I can't see here's real payroll is payroll on that one so we if we don't I don't know why we it's considered payroll we don't set we don't supervised we don't control that employee that employee through the highway department yes and
we are just sent they are just PA out of that account um so we have no control over the and they do what the Mowing and the what that is for the cleaning of the bathrooms and the phys not the trash Tipp fees but the physical removal of the trash from The Pavilion cleaning it
up that kind of thing so that might be something that doesn't need to be in their account does it probably not seems like it ought to be if you're going to move the trash fees why wouldn't you move the person that goes with some of that maintenance too
good conversation have yeah anyway what count would we pay that employee out of figure that out in terms of whatever maintenance um and I would say you know to be honest you know I'm asking for this I would is I understand percentage wise a very
large increase I you know I would say in the alternative if we're looking at removing a significant number of our expenses and not changing our fee structure that I wouldn't necessarily be looking for an increase out of a larger increase inrease it would be a much more limited increase out of the general
fund so this taking into consideration so you've put in the request for the 7,000 not taking into consideration moving out the 4,000 correct already so maybe we don't have that big an increase then I mean I would
not maybe maybe not maybe not yeah um I you know by by think if I were to say the one thing I would like to see is at least one of the the Portable Restrooms be fed directly on the general fund specifically the one on that side of con because there is no User Group paying
for it um you know the other two we we're in conversations about changing our field usage policy right now the current policy says that user groups are to provide the portapotty for their season the problem is it's s getting
picked up and dropped off a times of the year my our thought was to rather than doing that figuring out on average what those groups are paying removing that requirement charging a one time futility or U facility fee adding that in and
then purchasing year round the other two M um that way there's continuity for for those facilities so yeah I think I think the requests given that we're taking trash out and if we're looking at the the STA salaries we could look at a substantially smaller request for an increase so right now you've got two
Port potties at at um lebris and then there's one on on con field on Clark Street area by The Little Schoolhouse correct and then there's the one over by the library correct there's four all together there three two is one at labr we probably should add the second one there's one at labr it gets justly used
so as a general observation because I kind of wander around there for the various reasons the pie especially the ones behind the old schoolhouse is used by anyone driving by Route 10 m like ordinary work people that have to you know stop for a moment and it's well
used and sometimes needs cleaning your fault I mean I called the number and said you know that shap um so it it should come out of the general fund that's my personal opinion it's a service it's a wonderful service and uh but I don't think it should just be
Parks um if that could be done okay yeah and and that's something that if they are getting heavily used and we're getting it I can always call the company and have them do right now we're paying I think for either weekly or bi-weekly cleanings we can have them step it up to somebody could evaluate
that I'm just for I'm just letting you know so that's one of those things that we can always so that's the nice part with that is the cost is shocking reasonable for what they are is that right yeah and have you done any uh changes in the Pavilion usage fees over time last we have we're up to $200 for
residents and 250 for non-residents which is slightly below the overall cost of the surrounding Parks specifically Stanley Park and notat tug Park however both of those Parks have um
newer facilities with more amenities and we feel we have a rate that is appropriate given the size age and amenities that are available I have a couple more questions one is and my friend Dan over here has asked a couple of times what's the
status of looking for a dog park is that still out there or not just say not if it is it's not on our radar but it's something that I think if the right the right opportunity way come up we would fully support anyone who wants to help
take the lead on that isue cuz and there there is that property you know on the right side of the driveway going from East Street that the rights who are the owners um have said they'd love to see some use for it they still own it the
other question I have is um your one of the members of your commission comes to the open space committee meeting when we ask for reports there um Paul and she's always saying is there any land available are you still looking to see acquisition of more Park related Park satisfactory
yes um we as we as I mentioned before not just resting of the fields but actual field spacing um one of the one of the things we're running into which has been a point of some
contention has been the soccer fields that are placed in what is ultimately The Outfield of the baseball diamond that is on the Clark Street side of Conan closest to the road kind of um in a back the one the non fence baseball
diamond and that that those fields are used for practice at the same time baseball is practicing for fall ball and Home Run yeah uh you know it's amazing that we have that to remind parents that
don't sit with your back to the baseball field while they're doing batting practice uh but right but we do and so it's kind of gotten to the point that as Recreational Sports are growing I wouldn't be shocked if we saw lacrosse
at some point come into Southampton that that's a sport that's growing considerably field hockey is continuing to grow considerably so at some point I would not be we have not been asked yet but I would not be surprised if at some point we were approached by a group to say we would like to use field space to
create a lacrosse team for for kids of Southampton um so yeah we're always looking for land primarily be the part of the reason we're always looking is that um as you well know there's not a lot of flat land in Southampton so it's
kind of when stuff becomes available that is large and flat and would allow for parking that that is something that we're kind of we know we're going to grow into have you been asked by anybody who wants to do archery cuz I know that's quite a interesting sport that's
grown in the areas not yet but we would love to love to see more usage of all of them I'll add some uh additional funds for our insurance just want to make sure I Happ to have two archers and and you want to put the targets not from aggression
which is more another reason why we'd like to put the soccer fields not there so that way they're done there you go yeah I just have one it's more of a comment really and talking to um folks around I various things come in my uh come across my radar heard a lot
especially more from Seniors about extra lighting at conut Park yeah um that's just really a tough one especially you know if they went to a concert or had an event in the evening and it's you know dark out or getting dark you know walking down from the Pavilion down to the to the parking lot is not
terribly feeling safe I think for a lot of people and so I just would like to throw that out as a consideration for somehow to figure if there were a grant available or something and I don't know how that would tie into our current electric system that we have there because that was another challenge I think with the park grant that they
wanted the the electric line if I'm not mistaken I think they wanted it buried and we had just put in the overhead one so I'm not sure what ever happened there but um long story short but just a just a thought for consideration I think it's been hard and then just the you know and I don't know
the if the sound system that's not maybe with within park that's anybody who comes for that one right yeah so that's a different one too but especially some extra lighting I think would be a thought on the radar screen at some point yeah we're that's I can address that briefly I had a conversation with a concerned citizen regarding that specific issue um and I think there's
there's a couple competing interest there where I want to try try to make everybody happy number one technically the parks are closed under our current scheme at dusk the parks are open from from dawn to dusk I think when you put in additional lighting it gives the impression that the park is in fact open
which it's not um however I do understand also the need for safety and you know the summer concerts are wonderful they're they're greatly they're hugely attended they're a beloved tradition in town I you know I want nothing but those to continue to be very clear in that but I think you know
looking at how do we put something in there that that not only says well we're not really open at night and number two light pollution and neighbors and having lights on 24/7 is a problem so I think one thing we're looking at I think now that actually as soon as you mentioned
this this money in the Conan Park line buy do tiki torches take care of well solar ones that you put along your dve those those would get those would get trashed I think I think I think more realistically what we think about doing is because there's existing wiring in the Pavilion putting a few spot you know
flood lights on the outside on the switch so that when the concert's over flicking on lights up the whole parking lot in that area they're going to last and have it be part of the user agreement that at night when you're done you shut those off when you leave something it's kind of it's a balance I mean it's not going to make everyone happy but at the same time I don't think
T torches I don't think consistent 20 you know all dark lighting is also appropriate then yeah I get your point yeah okay good thank you all right just to address a lot I'm sorry I know I know I'm way over my time here everyone wants keep everyone to address the ads quickly I've been in touch with the Girl Scouts
they're looking for a project to do I throw that as one potential possibility so that might be something if that doesn't come through okay will be in touch um and what was the other one was the was there something else you want to ask about uh no just um cuz we're looking at the trust funds that might be
another place we might draw from in order to do those too this we to have a portable ad well they've there's a bunch of other Parks I I don't know if I've seen one locally but I've definitely seen them before they're locked boxes that you mount to a building that has
existing electricity so that would be at the Pavilion at The Snack Shack down on the other side ponent and then there's an electrical piano at labris that board that's kind of hanging off the parking lot and they have a code on it and the code's accessible when you call 911 so you call the dispatcher the dispatcher
gives you the code and then walks you through providing the the service while they send the ambulance so it's really kind of uh it's a really nice system they're pretty they're well built they're very solid they're bright yellow um and I think it would be a really good
Community um service to have available for residents yeah okay good all right well once we sort out what some of these funds can be used for you may have you may have a little bit more money than you think you do um or at least the interest that's acred over time then you know you may not have
been aware of that and that's been part of our our challenge I think by having our investment account we've only in the last couple years had the bartholomy people come and talk to the select board to get a general idea about where is our money anyway and so some of these revolving funds that have been around for years and years and just trying to
figure out where they've where they've been and how they've grown or not grown or what we need to do with them so y good well thank you anybody else have questions sorry chat okay great thank you so much thank you appreciate it all
righty okay next up the Cemetary commission Mr Floyd oops there was one minut to uh the narrative I put there for you good evening hi hi welcome have
Floyd wearing your hand of the cemetery commissioner tonight it's invisible looking at listening to the two presenters before me I was quite impressed and I'm doing 180 return from what I originally was going to present
to you all um sorry or maybe not uh 80% of our budget falls into three categories one is our trees one is the expansion of the cemetery and the other is the computerization of our
records um we're very frugal we ask for less money than we want but we felt this is what we need and historically we've operated level funding mostly through the years
and sort of a Band-Aid approach reaction you know tree would fall there goes the money for the pins the next year see we need a surveyor there goes the money for the pins we'll do the pins the next year but we've had the surveyor in we've had
the pins in and we hired actually we invited it was didn't cost us anything to get barlet Tree Experts in and tremendously um well recommended by local K&J and other um Tree Service
Groups and they did an assessment of every single tree which I didn't expect and they did an analysis of what could be done to beautify that tree or to make it more healthy and at a tremendous
expense we think maybe over a 5year plan but we can do a little presentation and we decided we save our Oaks CU we had to have an oak cut down which was alive but it was dangerously um uh hanging over the back
road so much so that people were reluctant to drive underneath healthy but it had to come down and because it was over the stones $3,000 I stood there for every second and filmed it they did a tremendous job
I also negotiated for them the tree tree trim some branches on a nearby oak tree and they did that as well but there went money that we expected for something else um so we've asked for uh a little
over 9,000 this year um and we do some of the work we already spent $900 for the oak trees and they went and sprayed uh the fungicide around the trees I guess they get canasa Surs and
the tree roots um if it's super saturated with water or if the season is dry and wet that's what it adversely affects the trees so we want to save the Oaks they're pretty impressive and big so we have a 5-year
plan this is a piece of that 5-year plan the other one is the computerization of our records they're all done by hand hundreds of years meticulously we draw the plot we put who's to the left of the plot who's to the right who's in front
who's in back um needed information uh we have it in a big book and the three of us have big books and we fill them up each year um periodically with with new participants in the cemetery and uh when anybody
wants to know where somebody's buried we have to dig the book out at night and do the research or in the afternoon and some people um research the surface fire some of the inhabitants were buried in
Southampton for a family member um we feel if we computerize them that they'll be accessible to everybody the public completely and they'll be exact uh we're human beings we have redundancy we have
a big map and has to the name has to be put in can that map all around with you um I got a call once at 5:00 somebody needed me in a cemeter they're having a um cremation area which we allow people
to do and the family instead of hiring a grave digger and so I showed up in 5 minutes they dug the hole the wrong place um I had enough information to know that but I needed jeice because I was away from the map and he know I was going to have a problem so I was able to
call Judith and again this is 5:30 Judith came with the map and we figured exactly where they had to be um and we do this in weekends evenings um but we need those records computerized and I really don't want to
um borrow from that account this year we're hoping we're not going to have any disasters of trees falling down or or what have you um do you have some estimates you got the 6 and is that just a a placeholder or do you have some it's it's a placeholder ideas of companies
that actually do this I've seen it where it's 8,000 and I've talked to a few cemeteries and one Cemetery commission said they went to another um Cemetery commission find out where they got their software from and when they went to that
software company it was $4,000 higher so they mentioned that Cemetery commission and it dropped 4,000 so now we know two cemeteries that the software so maybe we can get a a discount but six is a good
solid figure but you all have to be responsible for entering that information in I'm willing to um I have volunteered physically doing much of the work we probably will need
other volunteers to do it but one thing I'm sell at through my photography is short-term memory of remembering data or Vision so when I'm putting down information I know whether I did it an
hour ago two hours ago and maybe where I can get it so yeah that's that has to be done manually and um there's a photographer in town who's willing to put up U photos of uh each gr site in that
software which would be available to again uh us public anybody and 24/7 is there any ongoing maintenance fees to like the software like yearly subscriptions no but if it is I think it' be incrementally small there
certainly as any software would be revisions right updates um I I aware of that that would be a future budget request okay would it be possible with the record software and the new area design maybe shift that to the capital so I think those will probably qualify
as we're starting to to plan more now we're starting to plan ahead which we didn't do before being encourage you've encourag us to get a three-year Capital plan so that probably would be better in the
capital well that qu your CPA as well I don't know that's a good good idea though might be able to how how many new barial do you have typically in a year 12 to 20 okay
and uh I read somewhere that you charge $600 $750 300 goes for it's easy for you to say Perpetual care and many of our Graves didn't have that Perpetual care
the early grades but we're still responsible for them and the 450 goes into an account sale the semetary lots and we protect those two accounts cuz we knew way back when when one day there'
be an expansion and we would need money that the town would be unable to give us and so we don't go to those accounts very rarely in emergency we need every penny for the future are you competitive with other ceries in terms of what you're charging
or yes we are we probably could have rais our rates but we did raise them from 600 several years ago to 750 and one thing and maybe it's just a a typo in here because that you talk about the training fee going from 600 to 750 but it talks here about the sale of
the Lots at 600 in our narrative we got the lot themselves at 600 oh that's split between that be my yeah okay and then but then you've got a training fee that has gone from yeah we want we7 we want we want
training in green burials computerization and operating cemeteries more efficiently okay and they're not offer it all the time we belong to one or two Cemetery associations but the current plots are are 600 or they they
they're 750 they are 750 okay so that's just an error in okay and so you said half of that goes to Perpetual care or 300 goes to Perpetual care and 450 goes to sale of cemetery lot account In Perpetual care it's just a fund to me
people expect their grave s sites to be maintained the rest yes through through perpetuity thank you and it's a gray area so if somebody I mean we've had situations where we'll go and dig
something ourselves and put sand in and the sum job maybe there's a wavy line or responsibility but we need the mowing uh we have they we have um vegitation coming in through the north fence mostly
for cpia we have that trim because it covers a lot of the stones on our north side and we set up a new section 11 and we had trimming of that um and then um
we had the town pipe that drains pomoy Meadow and uh goes into the cemetery the pipe ruptured and eroded the bank more drastically more especially all the rains in the last year or two and you've
been there at least and um Chris um so we're concerned that if the pipe ruptures a little bit more underneath section 11 it's going to cave in and we know the town they do decide to come and repair
it they're going to need to set up camp set up their Machinery in order to repair that so we removed the grave it was between 800,00 $8,200 I was there through the whole process long process we checked with the
family everything was okay uh but we were afraid that machinery would have to be parked over that grave that section 11 was going to give us a good 2 years we fa so we lost that buffer just like
that and we feel to be IR responsible to have Grace there because we don't know what erosion is under the I've gone down in Four Four Seasons carefully very suery in the winter and I could see
water coming under the pipe as well as the pipe itself so I believe the fracture is Upstream war and that forces us into expanding the cemetery uh we have a section in the
southwest corner um roughly an acre um we brought in a surveyor ready to pay the surveyor and the surveyor says you know you'd be better off Haring someone to come in cut the dead trees down cut
the brush cut the saplings to get a good look at the Contour of the land and we did and that was $3,000 and uh it's done um in the spring we want to get an architectural firm in
to take a look our idea is to have the hearse back up off High Street through a locked gate and the gate the hearse backs up unloads and there would be a um
there'd be an oval a walkway through that section of the cemetery where the hearse would come here off a high street so people could walk around and visit the various gra sites no cars allowed wheelchair accessible that's our dream
and we're I we're learning about green burials uh work we talk with the health department they have to be involved do we want it for that section I don't know we'd have to vote on it we have to educate the town we have to get more educated ourselves uh it's a process
very interesting originally we wanted the 80 acres or so for de en and Johnson that section of land that was acquired ired for the water department Cemetery commission and
anyone help conservation conservation thank you I was part of the conom no that and the three U commissions would um fought for that property and it was acquired and we knew we would expand the
cemetery we knew there was a stream there there was talks of building a bridge which would be too prohibitive so we thought we'd have a trail coming from the Northwestern section behind the balloon place the The
Bouncing you know business um have a pathway going through the property where there would be a bench and maybe two or three Graves some green some not another pathway going cuz we want people to walk the cemetery we want people to walk the
land we want to treat it as a park more as a park and we felt that pathway we'd have three here five there and not clear cutting as a standard Cemetery would be and we studied that we had a consulting
company come in um gave us a plan everything work we're ready for it we voted on it we appropriated funds we got the Wetland scientists to come in I walked with the Wetland scientist I know hydric soils he kept showing me his
order gray gray gray gray every Square in of that corner where we envision a walkway is hydric soil WS Y no pathway no Bridge there inly so there's no way to get to that 80 acres that
we've actually it's the only way to get to those 80 acres from the cemetery as it exists the central Cemetery the edges W is first and and I will try over he didn't even charge us cuz he said there was nothing the flag everything is wet
unbelievable and this was up slope from the stream we can drive out col Tri Highway paloy wall C and go up and take a look from the other end of that property I've talked to kro about it
it's possible we're waiting for the spring to do it it's a schle for somebody wanting to visit somebody in the grave at the center cemetery and then get in the car Meandering through we did because of that vote to approach
the town and we asked the town for 2 Acres of the new College Highway property and that's a dream we need to be realistic and not real life that dream may not come tomorrow so this is why we're
pursuing the area of the southwest corner the Cemetary just one Quicky question on the computerization is that going to be for both uh SE um Center cemeter and West partk yes both yes um we don't have great records for
the West partk some of the GRE move we to have one existing uh deed U for the West part Cemetery I've approached the people and tell them they can't have any Machinery everything has to be hand carried in they've agreed to that we've
agreed to give them a plot in the center Cemetery they don't want it so they're legally allowed to be buried there oh well okay interesting one last question we don't have any particular space in our Cemetery like East Hampton does for
um for cread right there's no one I left it out one of the things one of the aspects we're looking at is a cremation wall for cremated remains this is something we realize is important and that would be part of the uh design or
request for that new property okay so why don't you talk to us about these uh accounts here maybe what do we know um well the first one is from the the money that we received from the burial plots can that a little bit
bigger sorry there we go oh thank you the middle two are from uh Stone Restoration for the two um and then the last one this is actually look at the Bartholomew report um Expendable interest so not principal
but the interest game the um the one about the um the graves the gravestones we used to sell the hydranges we would have a Flores come in and maybe get $400 $500 and we would put in that little small
account so when we wanted to clean a stone professionally it cost about a th000 so we want to clean Three Stones was 3,000 but we've learned to clean them ourselves very expensive liquid which we spent somewhere budget for last year at 425 it's called D2 and you apply
it on the stone you don't touch it you don't rub it you don't scour it and then you rinse it off and the stone is shiny white It's amazing And we use volunteers from the church across the street um I think can celebrate Southampton a couple
years ago they did a great job so you have possibly $42,000 available to be tapped into is that what do that last account Scott what come from9 is what what's it come from Perpetual care
MH so out of the Perpetual care do you do you contribute how how does the how the Perpetual care we contribute 300 of the 750 but how much do we Sorry does the cemetery contract with the town for lawn
mowing at the cemetery or is that a separate the town does the lawnmowing we used to do it it vasculated back and forth okay and then we made a case it's your property it's your land grass is growing from your land and they did take care of so the Perpetual care money
doesn't go toward lawnmowing for example okay so what could you possibly take 6,000 out of that or something we haven't discussed it um as a as a commission uh this is um one of the funds that we know we're going to
tap into big time when we expand a so following up on Chris's question just in general you know the presentation doesn't talk about the fact that they have some money socked away but it's helpful to know so I I commend Scott for
posting that but for 67,000 is that that's money that we have that we've accumulated over the years that could be used for expenses as well isn't it I mean the whole said 100 ,000 up there that's
available where $110,000 66,000 in sale of cemetery lots but looks I mean and granted I mean you know you want to keep on building it so it's that's why it's invested right in Bartholome I don't know what interest what interest it's earning but it's
accumulated over time but I mean when you've got a special project it seems like that would be the ideal time to try and tap into a little bit special project that we always had our eyes on is expansion mhm but am I reading that right is that over $100,000 it's kind of
pegged to the cemetery what what is f column can you go to the head on that balance it sounds it sounds like a cash balance which ones were you talking about Scott for these two right here the sale
of the cemetery lots are 66,000 Ballance and then Perpetual Care at 42,000 there you go good job but I mean it brings up a bigger question I mean is it appropriate Within These separate groupings to have them have an account
with significant funds in there and then come to the select board every year for an ongoing expenditure and never touch this money it doesn't seem like that's the most efficient way to well I think a lot of these we thought well at some point many of the groups I think haven't had
much knowledge of or access this whole barol investment thing so many of them I think with many of the commissions committees whomever that have gotten gift funds or whatever else or somebody has passed away and you know given something through their will or whatever
most of it has been well as probably true but at least assumed that you could only spend the interest and you wanted to keep the principle growing right so that's why people I think like in parks for example they they haven't ended up spending a lot because they know they can dip into
the interest but they haven't really had their hands on the bigger pot and I finding this out more more clearly this doesn't especially the first one doesn't sound like it's a you know an endowment it just sounds like it's Revenue that's been
accumulated that hasn't been spent historically what have do you know what those have been spent on very little has come from there in an absolute emergency where take care of tree where where a tree has fallen we
need to remove the tree but we don't even discuss that we've had more discussion here tonight and we do a meeting about those accounts were you were you aware of these accounts oh yes so so you're you see okay in fact a couple years ago they sort of
disappeared and the they didn't exist and then we were knocking on the door where were they we do know they exist but again it's we know we're going to need a money for expansion we know the town's not going to be they're giving us all the funds we're going to need so to be responsible we leave these alone but
if a tree fell tomorrow and we had nothing in our general funds maybe we vote to take that money out how much do you think the uh Cemetery expansion would cost we don't know and and with that Robert you're talking about that southwest corner off
a that's that's what you're talking about right now because you can't access correct in a Johnson's place yet right so so that's the immediate expansion there which that is yes and we we have the land that's available to us and um
it's beautiful and it's a great vision to have that wheelchair accessible and I'll have that oval and no cars inside no vehicles and it would be good to get that fence straight up yeah we didn't really expect the landscaping company to
take it all down we take a section I had a concern some yeah Express dismay about that yeah well I mean maybe it's you know nothing we can really renovation from the summer no that's lovely when they cleared or
did preliminary clearing of the southwest corner for expansion a chain Ling fence along the roadway okay got pretty so you're the cemetery commission is looking for $23,800 for the items
noted yeah I I'm I'm listening to what Reggie's pointing out the the balance is great did you need to have some money held it for whatever you need for expansion but some of this could have come up that expansions can come next
year we get the architect in they go okay we can do it how much is it going to cost we've already been here we can't come to the town don't spend it all then but some of this could be covered under some of those accounts I do think that the um the software and the new area
design that should definitely come under Capital just because like with the parks it's it's a town asset and we have to preserve it and continue with it yeah I would I would think the record software would be under Capital cost I I would think that's where that fits better it's relatively small yeah but it means the
threshold it's at least $5,000 think the way Robert's kind of managing his his fund is that he might never get any money from the town again but there has be some kind of assumption that the town is going to support the cemeteries yeah in perpetuity so he doesn't really he
doesn't really need to do that I mean he doesn't need to sit on $100,000 the town's going to look at it every year he needs he needs to look for unforeseen things for the next 12 months not the next 200 years Perpetual care um
the annual interest might match up against some of those ordinary things things like pruning and water that seems to be part of picking of water we we're so involved in the three big factions of this but we didn't account for the water
and for the trash pickup so we're responsible for them we pay them but we have to borrow from Peter to pay Paul we didn't include it this year is trash pickup also going to be centralized so the cost of the cemetery I handle for everything all all facilities Parks
Cemetery all that yeah and we were distracted too with the fence and the water piping and got those projects under our belt now M okay but last year's budget was 136 and so you're looking at about a
$10,000 increase um I mean if we could I don't know move the top to the capital I think about theof on Capital then that would make this a little bit more totally palatable maybe I mean just just because there is that balance but I
think it's it's it's good to know that those funds exist and I appreciate you wanting to preserve them but at the same time I think we have to figure out I mean these are two very special requests that I think you have they're obvious needs in terms of the you know the um
the planning for the new area as well as you know computerizing all the records for God knows how many years so I I would think that that would be a you know a valid thing to do uh from Capital very easily but feels like we need to also dipping a little bit into some of
those funds and not not coming back for New funds when we've got some sitting in the bank already but maybe we can figure out the right formula to do that so do you ever have um are you aware of grades that have been purchased that are
not not being ever been used familys they bought we may have a few [Music] um do they ever come up or say I want to say no I'm hesitating maybe there might have been an exception to it
but I I don't know the exact answer to that question but generally there are Graves where somebody has purchased and hasn't fulfilled them yeah yeah you but there'll be a few there would be wouldn't be sure and then
there two we we think way back when what happen if someone didn't keep Good Records before us that's right so we have frauds that we fraud the Earth that a ro looking okay let's not go here yeah
okay good any other questions comments from anybody I I think the the fence looks really great from the summer so great job on that the fence restoration I got a lot of positive comments really great job on that yeah oh good yeah
that's a big um um um beautification project and great asset to the town people driving by taking a look at it I tell people they coming to cemetery for the first time never use their
GPS they'll announce when they get there you have reached your final destination I've never heard a complaint from one of the tenants soing into love this thank you Robert
appreciate all right very good very informative but good uh good information on on our end here that we're finding from the bartholomy report so I'm thinking that's somehow we need to make that all
much more visible to all the people all the different committees and commissions that have got some money from gift funds or revolving funds whatever it may be that they understand where literally came up just hours ago so it was I was trying to Ambush anyone but that
literally just came up earlier this morning so good no that's that would be great all right next up we have uh Town account we can probably we're going to S okay want to go to assessors since we have some assessors here all right go there next
can I call the meeting of the assessors to order uh at uh you can take minutes to Linda at 7:45 because we do have 100% of our board here and I'm going to in some quicker Linda green and Kimberly kest
and I'm Cindy Palmer and chairperson and for people watching there will be an opening on the board of assessors so please remember that um for people who are interested in volunteering in our town for the next election um so
um I I do think we are um we are a first of all our principal assessor could not be here today we assessor and so we're doing our our best to provide what kind of information we can um regarding our
budget request here it is um basically um the board the board of assessors oversees the process of assessment of properties real and um personal property in our town it's a very important thing we want to make sure we capture the
right properties and we capture them correctly and um to do so we need a professional principal assessor and we also have um a an assistant of administrative assistant in our office um we are a volunteer board and none of
us came with any of the backgrounds that's required of an assessor so we have to take a course through um DLS to um understand the basic concept of of what is required under assessment um we
um said we provide the uh information to the treasurer or the tax collector to in order to send out the right tax bills um January 1st of each year and then there's a process for people that need that want to request an exemption or
want to request um some kind of um second look at what is comes in their in their tax bill um there is also excise tax on um motor vehicles and boats um and also um senior exemptions there's also veterans exemptions there's also
disability exemptions a lot of processes involved in this um so um towards that goal we also need to run an office and in the office there's um things that we need to be considering this year I would say we've
had a great deal of attention put on the Personnel responsibilities of this office we um at some point uh in the last um calendar year we um moved from having our um interim principal assessor made into a permanent position and he is
now our regular principal assessor as far as I'm concerned he's doing a very good job and I'm appreciative of the whole process of looking at the um at the fact that our salaries have been studied uh through throughout the whole
town and be become there's you know transparency and equality and and looking at with the responsibilities of all the um Town positions and towards that end we discovered that we could um we should be paying our principal
assessor and our Administrative Assistant um more so consequently the greatest increase in our budget really is as Joanna Johanna pointed out for the library is related to an increase in the salaries so that if you go to
um the Personnel aspect of this is it up there right now I was looking at this part um you can see that we're raising the principal assessor um hourly rate up to 3593 per hour per fiscal year 26 and
um that came was uh increase from 3143 and our administrative assistant is also increased from $19.32 an hour to 2255 um and just to clarify that's based on the new Compensation Plan and
schedules that we've all worked through it's not an arbitrary figure it's something that's come out through the whole thank you for rephrasing that that's what I was trying to say it was you know looking all the way across and comparing with other local communities Etc so that's the biggest increase we
are asking for um a slight increase in the number of hours in our um principal assessor hours um and where is that exactly what does he at next I think that was 26 to 30 yes that's right from 26 to 30 and the
administrative assistance stays the same right the administrative assistant right now is the same yes um we are also taking advantage of the senior tax write off program and we have a senior in the office who exceptionally competent and had done the work in the assessor's office in previous years so that's been
really really beneficial um so there isn't a whole lot more to say but I am going to ask if there's anybody else on the board that wishes to add anything to why we're doing what we're doing increasing the hours of the princi school assessor and anything else um
that you think is critical um to add to the whole budget discussion we did we do want to um allow for um the the things that have been part of our budget going right along um we we pay dues can't remember we pay D
to the m Association assessors Monday yeah and also there's of course office supplies we do have a contract with vision software this is uh a specific kind of software for the um entry of data and for the um you know
the production of the of the property cards Etc we do have to purchase Town Maps that's through um um tyan Bond thank you very much and um we use Consultants um we've on a limited basis they've done the
commercial and Industrial um um evaluations valuing they go out do the the actual um they go right to the properties and do measurements Etc uh and then we do have requirements for cyclical evaluations and this year um you know
it's based on geography within Town um so the cyclical is a 10-year one I thought they were like three years I think it's 10 it's 10 y required and that's due up this year so you didn't have it last year it's due this year we did a cycal last year in a different
area of town this it's like quarters I think Dave explained like every quarter like a quarter of the Town you'd have toate something like that yeah um so I think that's pretty much much the overview unless you you two either of you have any additional points to
make um we're really not asking for uh a tremendous increase in the budget except as related to the Personnel any questions wa just going from 26 hours 25 26 hours to 30 hours what I know 24
hours or was it 24 hours 24 to 30 is that it the current ass what what is a what do you find that needs to get done that isn't getting done now with the fewer hours so that by adding six hours to his
schedule what other things are are you hoping to get perhaps we missing for one thing that we could we can anticipate that our principal assess will go out into the field more than he's been able to do that because he's you know stuck in at his desk uh and I think he anticipates being able to go out to the
field more um which will perhaps reduce the the need for the Consultants to some extent um he can go out and do some of the assessments himself so that it's not built into the other into the budget that's going to specifically reduce the number but we you know want to make sure
that that's available um so I think that's part of it I also think this is just me that Dave stays a little bit late sometimes and he works a little bit longer and he's aware that he's um putting in a little bit more hours in um
so I I mean that's my my opinion is um he's realizing the amount of work that needs to be done and he's the one that specifically asked for the increased numbers of hours well I think a couple years ago we were realizing that we were missing a lot of the real property uh valuations there were a lot of things that had not been captured regularly
captured kind of sporadic and it sounds like you've made a great progress on that and part of it with the software as well as the what is it that the flyover software whatever you oh near map one of them we're sharing that with some of the other that investment is paid off I
rather to help really get that's right some of that more up to date than it had been at least but that's where I was kind of going was like you know what what other kind of things do you think you know might improve you know given you know you maybe notice some gaps in what isn't being covered fully or something that you know maybe maybe the
extra hours would help yeah I think so plus I will say this I understood that um the whole change to and somebody maybe Scott you can help me the name of the um new software that um oh Vadar Vadar that has been a new um thing in
town that's used by multiple offices and I've been told by the administrative assistant that there's a learning curve on that and that everybody's faced with that I think Bradley's office has been faced with that a number of people have had so it's not to say there that's going to always be the case but um we
are discovering some things our Administrative Assistant comes with a a skill set that's pretty dogged she's very eager to make sure everything's in the files correctly and that we are capturing things that we're putting lists and check checklists in certain
files especially with chapter 61 um situations um she came up with some really good ideas for um notifying Town residents when they were going to have a cal assessment sending out a postcard we're going to be you know seeing your property on within the next week or two
um and you know notifying people that people are just wandering around in their yards looking for you know looking in their backyards um what other things um I think we're just looking at greater efficiencies we're certainly certainly looking at the
original Mandate of what's required within the office I don't I don't know if you can speak could you pull up the narrative I just want to have you talk a little bit about the um the revenue pursue the full full review of the pilot agreement with city of so you you've heard me speak at the select
board pilot stands for payment and L taxes um the city of hok or hok Waterworks specifically um has um has owned property around the Tha Cary Reservoir since the end of the 19
century and um the Acquisitions have happened over time various kinds of time that I I can't even follow how come they bought this land at this point in time we um have been eager to understand understand if the titles are correct if the Deeds
are correct and certainly are we are we actually capturing the um properties correctly Town residents have come personally to me and said are we doing this right um and then the question of stumpage fees periodically they' had timbering operations around the TA
carony Reservoir and apparently and I don't have the answer to this but I'm understanding that there should have been fees paid based on the number of of tre that were CAU that we perhaps could have collected now we may be too late on but we're we are in the process of
trying to determine those answers we did have an individual who's a title examiner all set to do this job and unfortunately for health reasons had to back away um so I've got some questions out to some other people right now as who else could assist us with that and
that would have come out of the Consultants line um so that's what that is about right there um um and uh the only other small thing under Revenue was the free the fee structor for roll back taxes um could we
be looking at increasing that a little bit it's $6 for rollback tax certificates and Municipal Lane certificate maybe I do I thought it was roll back to well one was issued all the
time routinely and the other is only for the withdrawal of is that for the withdrawal of chaper land that yeah that's the subject but I think that happens IR irregularly okay
as compared to uh refinancing the sale property and a request to go back in the records and see if that back taxes O Okay title is Municipal Le or those are common and I don't know what the common
practice is for reimbursement uh I'm not apologizing but my background is not as an assessor um so that's the presentation unless you have more questions I'll just note that we wouldn't have any Revenue if the
assessors were on the ball we wouldn't have any credibility if you didn't tend to law do app so it's really really important that's right that keeping it up to date no I think you know the assessors
are certainly that office is the our first line of defense in a way I mean it's where our Revenue stream starts right and I think that that there has been turnover in um the employees in the office in the last several years for a
number of reasons and um if we could get a you know the solid personnel and give them the support they need and um make sure that they're on they're recognized for the kinds of contributions they can make that's that's really where I'm at um I really
respect the two people are currently um working in the office I'm just going to add one thing we have reason to call the BL what was that board of local Bureau of Bureau of local assess and and Linda had Rec a
call on a on a general question quite recently and um got some pretty high respect for principal assessor um I think that was a very important thing for us to hear that de zagorski has been around for a while and he's um he's um
really wanting to do the best job I think um we're working with him on that okay anybody have any questions straightforward all right good thank you Madame all right next you want to hang
in here for a minute Bradley we'll go with with Ron Lauren and building department just a few things with building um we are looking at implementing a townwide e permitting so we were able to move some of that the right now the $44,000 into the uh
townwide it budget eventually that's going to we're looking at making that supportive as user fees so when when you would use the online system we would adjust the fees so that the company would take and pay for itself so it's a a cycle um we did add some buildings
security cost and then the tree Warden budget I moved into the building department just because in the past it was a not just because Ron is our tree Warden um but because in the past it's been a separate budget so if Ron doesn't run for re-election and someone else is
a become stre Warden they wouldn't have any Municipal background in the finance stuff so at least they would have a a point person to go to to you know make sure that they the purchase orders and um properly expend the fund so we put that underneath that just because um it
would help out so can I quickly uh just insert I adjourn meeting of the board 8:00 thank you okay
okay all right so Ron you're year up yeah personel Serv first put my eyes in here or no y so how big of a raises art getting sorry how big of a raise is Art getting
this year oh arts art not getting actually have to cut our SS um that the uh I mean my budget's been pretty much level funded for the last 5 years that I've been here um it's fine we got plenty of
money with what we have as far as operating expenses are concerned um in the past few years had to take continuing ed classes because we're in a renew renewal cycle for the commissioner's licenses but um we're in
we're in a new cycle now so I probably won't have to do a conference this year which will s what 500 bucks um so like I said we got plenty of money as far as that goes operating expense I guess Scott Scott's study showed a little bit
of an increase in in salary for the position um not necessarily you know it's I guess we went out to different communities and came up with that number so um think that's the only
increase yeah building security is something that we might want to look at cutting in the future just funding another way um but something that the costs have been this year we've had a lot of unfortunately problem properties that we've had to property gets condemned um becomes the responsibility
of the billing department to secure that property meaning boord it up um winterize it if there's um any any um hazardous things in the yard that need to be dealt with that to get cleaned up so that's where that's where that money comes from and then in in after that's
done then there's a lean that's put on the property and then the money come back to the town um when the when the property is sold um so that end being like a little mini revolving fund or I mean should that be something like that something like that yeah yeah at least having left left money in case Cas we
have an emergency like we did with the um with the house that we're still kind of working through but you know yeah yeah yeah that house there um yeah that was the most recent one how much did that cost to board up
uh just the uh the the expenses on my end were they came up to about 7500 uh that included the the plumber coming out the winter I drain drain the uh drain the um boil and drain all the
radiators and stuff um and then the uh the the carpenter came out and boarded all the windows up and secured it and um and then then there was some dumpsters that were required cuz there was a fairly good size structure that
was falling over was close to the neighbor so where has that been paid out of so far that money uh the accounts been was set up a few years ago it was a town meeting article for $20,000 I believe
and originally we had in the general fund then we moved it to special Revenue to keep the balance going forward into the next fiscal year we've been using U little bit of money that we've received from the town meeting and so it's been in special revenue and now it's going to
we're talking about putting so should we change it back or keep the way it is do you think your idea was to make it a budgeted item because we can't rely on it's not going to be self-sufficient right going forward so we're going to run out of money so I think it is smart
to reserve our budget some money every year for this purpose otherwise we would have to keep doing town meeting articles do we have some balance in there from this year I mean do we so we've used a fair amount of the 20,000 that we allocated I think
there was some refunds or something that like we''ve got I think it was carry over from last year what we used I swear there was something about we had expenses and then we got reimbursed somehow from the state or something that's what you're saying if
if the property sell yeah um yeah Board of Health the Board of Health um they they they um were able to get the the bank to cover to basically reimburse for the one the house on cold sprad so um
that money came back into the account and then they ended up condemning another house that had to be boarded up on a different Road in Southampton so then that money came back out again and that was used to for the most current one but but but you take a lean and
you're in first place before first place so usually at the end of the day you get paid out at some point in time right um whether it's I mean a lot of times these houses get they get a receiver signed to them and then the receiver gets the prepares the
proper property to the point where it's ready to be auctioned off and then when it gets auctioned off I believe the town is the first first lean holder um a lot of times that's that's the property tax back taxes that are owed plus this here
would be so I don't know this this almost feels like that ought to stay in special Revenue I don't know shouldn't it's not something that's ever going to be an expense in the long run to the town because we'll almost always get reimbursed yeah just matter when it's a
matter when so it would almost be better flowing through a deposit account should it be mov to a revolving fund instead of special Revenue I don't even understand that distinction yeah we need to set of spending Lan
every fiscal year for it but IDE self-sufficient money and money out for those SE it a little bit no you you might you might have a negative or something and then get recovered in a year I think Massachusetts capitalized
and then it'll riously slow to go through foreclosure process yeah I was going say that probably I have to insert something here because I went to the Board of Health meeting last night and there have been so many problem properties in the town in the last couple of years I know you
know every one of them right and they're using you know Charle Ki is a consultant on an hourly basis and they're not able to collect fees now I know we're not talking about Board of Health right now m but there's you're going to hear a whole different thing when they come to talk about their budget needs and they have a revolving fund that is
exhausted not exactly I didn't look at it today is doing pretty well oh is that right I'm glad they talked to you bad sorry to interrupt but yeah okay but yeah maybe that's something we don't to think about though I mean just I mean it's not that we would necessarily use
it as a budget item every year I don't know it kind of depends I guess we we've paid more attention to it in I mean these houses have been around for a long time in this shape right it didn't happen overnight so it's just that we've spent time over the last year or two to try and enforce things better right and
and take action comparatively compared to what we used to essentially it would come if we did it this way it would just come back to the general fund when we do get it as a budgeted item or we keep it as a special or look at doing revolving fund and it would just be a be in a
circle mhm seems like yeah I don't know cuz typically if you have it in a uh as a line in the budget it's not money that comes back to you right so it's just money that's going out right so if there's money that's going in and out then yeah think it makes more sense
feels like a revolving fund to me but I don't know anyway we can we can study that one a little bit more but that's good to know yeah it wasn't it wasn't in place until we had an issue out on out in the pond section A few years ago and that's where we went to town meeting
because you know Ed was here at that point and and I went to see him and said listen you know it's it's you know it's Our obligation to secure this property and you know put the X on the on the front and you know stuff like that how was this handled in the past when we didn't have this account I don't think
it was handled I think we haven't we haven't taken a lot of action on kind of these things like I say these these didn't happen this way overnight I mean many of them have been just not been dealt with for years so got to the bottom of the list of things to do um
just for those of us who may not know as much just tell us how this works with your um your gas and your plumbing inspectors and all that they there's a fee that's charged for their work and they get a portion of that fee yeah so in my guess too so so I I get um I use my own vehicle and for inspections and
whatever else I'm you know doing um so so I get a I get a monthly stien of um $240 which covers my my fuel costs and um you know what wear and tear or whatever on my truck um that comes from
the uh operating that comes from the operating budget so so that that's that that comes up to uh 200 $2,880 a year for for for the gas typen for me and that that leaves that leaves
uh uh roughly 2000 2010 M um that leaves 2010 in the in for for the other expenses that we incur um meaning code books pens pencils
um uh any training that I attend stuff like that um like I said that's that's that's more than enough as far as the plumbing inspector we he he has to do continuing education for his Plumbing uh Plumbing instructor's license so that's
always been that's always been paid out as a uh as as an expense um it's $1,000 a year ,000 a year so so when he so when the pl inspector attends um continuing
education classes a lot of times it's out in Greenfield because I think that's where the uh whether it's a union hall or whatever that he has to go to so um in addition to the cost of that he also keeps track of his gas gas or not he keeps track of his mileage and then gets
reimbursed for his mileage to and from so basically it's to and from the Town Hall that's that's how that's measured um that's just for the plumber and not yeah the electrical inspector doesn't doesn't um I don't he's never been set
up that way this was all done prior to me coming here it's just been continued to to be done this way so um and so again when they when they go out to do an inspection there's a fee for that inspection that's right he gets
he gets um a percentage of the of the plumbing permit or the electrical inspector gets a percentage of the um of the electrical permit um they don't they don't they don't get reimbursed for mileage when they do their inspections it's just a just a straight fee so and
where do what what kind of account does that come out of is that a revolving fund or is that that is okay okay um yeah like I said it's just I mean unfortunately building activities are down a little bit too this year so we're
seeing a little bit of a decrease in in permit activities so um I I calculate I'm just talking about residential permits I'm down about 4% from last year because we run out a calendar year so January to January um so there's there's definitely
a slow down um three so 2023 I did 330 residential permits and then 2024 I did three three 3177 permits so
like I said it's about a 4% decrease so I had a question about something in the narrative um you mentioned um to cover the cost of software upgrades the building department will introduce a user fee in this F will fund enhanced
training programs equipment modernization and improve public Outreach initiatives I just wondered if you yeah I haven't I haven't come up with ual fee yet because it's still kind of kind of um a concept at this point um I think that's assuming that
um I mean Scott Scott's vision is to basically pull all the whole town into this this software so that all the all the different departments and boards are kind of kind of part of the process um so like you know when a house gets built there's um signups that are
required and right now the the applicant just goes from you know whether it's the planning board signing off they just they have a piece of paper and they you know um the Conservation Commission so they'll all they'll have I'll have be users if if it goes through the way that we think it might go through they'll all
be users of the software um which will be quite a bit of money I'm not sure what the number is but um you know it's going to it's going to probably make it more efficient for for for the applicant and it's also going to be probably a little bit more um there's going to be
you know a little bit more checks and balances as far as like when the you know when the boards review and then they'll they'll they'll sign off before the permit can actually be issued it'll be like um there'll be like um a mechanism in place that won't allow the permit to be
issued until say the plan and board says okay we're good we're satisfied and then they'll lift they'll lift their hold on the permit um conservation if they have to review say for example house permits I'll get reviewed by the conservation commission so they would have they would
lift their hold once they were satisfied and then the highway department with driveway permits they would lift their hold after they review and issue a driveway permit so um with that with that added expense the there would be a a fee to um you know
that would be covered through the um the person that's applying for the the permit I mean I don't think it'll be a massive fee but it'll be something there's other towns that are already doing it we just have to kind of look at Hadley for example is doing it or East Hampton and see what you know what their
their fees are um I mean our other goal is to at some point eliminate paper applications all together um one thing we're going to do is set up a a computer out in the hallway so um so that if people don't
have access to a computer and they want to do online they'll be able to come to the town hall sit down up in the hallway and then somebody if they need help you know there'll be somebody available to help them too so great can you talk a little about the online permitting you have now what what does that get somebody when they go online what do
they get right now right now they they get the entire application and they they they a building permit yeah so they fill everything out um the state forms all of the um different different forms that are required um whether it's a homeowner exemption or it's the industrial
accident boards form to um you know that that out deals with workers comp and stuff like that so that's all online they fill all of that out plus they can they can submit attachments if it's if you know if they have you know uh house plans or or additions or remodel they
can they can attach that to the application okay and then um if get submitted um then we the then we review it and then like I said if it if it requires sign offs and but then so the difference if I'm hearing you right the difference
is going to be that this is a first line right now we've got a piece of the online permitting but then once it's in the system then it's paper by paper by paper around to the difference exactly like the fire department has to review so this would all be done so now the new software would eliminate yeah everybody
would be a user exactly and and then they would like I said there would be just different levels of like of holds on the permit until the fire department reviewed you know the smoke detectors or whatever and then they would lift their home um so I mean it's it's it's a good
way to to do things and it's probably more efficient for the applicant too because now they're not looking for the fire chief or or um you know looking for the conservation agent or um you know the planning board trying to you know put stuff in the mailbox or whatever and
then yeah so it it'll be I think more efficient and um better trans you know better checks and balances but that's that's that's not going to be part of my budget I guess that be bigger going go to the computer
budget exactly no but that's good to know I mean just to understand that we we know we've made a step in the right direction already with some online permitting but it doesn't go very far right it stops at a certain point and then we're still back to just manually passing paper around yeah and that's only for that's only for like house permits usually I mean like um if
somebody's putting a new kitchen in they're not going to go before the plan and board they're not going to before go before the conservation um that's that's more geared towards additions um ground Mount solar has to go has to go before the planet board so that would be um treated that way um any
of these adus that we're going to start seeing um so um but yeah there's there's always like like depending on what kind of project it is there's going to be different boards involv like the um Board of Health for example um if it's if it's an Adu that they're probably going to be looking at the septic system
is the adequate to handle another bedroom um the water department they have to sign up and make sure there's portable water before a permit can be issued so it's a good good good concept at this point and it's records retention so was moved to electronic we don't have
to have filing cabinet after filing cabinet and perpetuity and it also allows access for the public for all the information and other departments so yeah so the public can see what you know somebody's happens to be driving around and say oh I wonder if there's a apartment there well they think they'll
be able to view that um you know so it's going to you know it's going to be so this is a good summary refresh my memory I think we funded this acquisition and it first year of operation already y
[Music] good okay any any comments or questions all right all right very good thanks R all right thank you all right okay
next up last but not least the accountant the loud one yeah on the accounting department here one thing I I just want to point out with the accountant budget is um
Bradley is a contractual employee so this is assuming an increase from 34 to 35 and um consistent with the the rate stuff so but we're still working on we have to get you officially negotiated and signed so mhm um and then the assistant Town account is still at 19
hour so there's really no changes for that part so the assistant is non- benefiting correct that's right it was originally 21 hours and when we hired Tom we reduced it to 19 MH yeah so really the only increases are
the salary accounts independent audit is our yearly audit expenses we are told how much it's going to be and then it might change depending on the scope of their audit so in our contract there are no concrete numbers
that we can rely on it's really whatever our auditing uh firm tells us we need to pay uh my town accountant expenses I need to pay for general office supplies
and I have education programs the mm AAA uh education courses in March I would go with my assistant but I with him I decided that I only I I
should be the only one needing to go he is all set with his role in the department and when I'm away he can take over my duties to review payroll or post expenses whatever so I think it's would be smarter for just budget for my
education program in the past I've taken additional education classes which I'm not taking in fiscal year 26 because I've taken just about all the ones I need to and I have all the notes I need to review if I ever need to so so you've got your your licensing as a certified
accountant I need to do that need to do that so I need to go to the March education program okay which is about 300 or $350 per year and what about the any classes still related to the um procurement officer position well I've
taken those classes and I've been certified but I mean do you need to renew I believe things on that something so when that comes up I can budget you should be okay this year though I believe so all right so again
uh office supplies and 1099 reports every year we need to report to the IRS and to individual vendors who we pay over $600 and that are taxable as uh so Proprietors or Partnerships or lawyers those type of
vendors that we pay I need to send out a bunch of envelopes and accounting software support in the past we were paying soft right and in fisc year 25 we budgeted for paying the accounting software support to sof right just for just in
case so when we are closing fiscal year 24 we still have access and have help for that service in the coming years we're going to be using Vadar exclusively so that I believe will be a
townwide expense not a county specific expense that's amazing how a lot of these items have been somehow over the years kind of shoveled into various departments whereas you know just intuitively a lot of these things are townwide that benefit many departments
it's like I'm not quite sure how the how the thinking had had been over time but you know and I guess honestly you know seeing it laid out differently it it it allows us at at least allows me and I've been however many budget years through here five year five years of budgets I
guess um it just presents a clear understanding of of how it all goes together because I think before it's been so muddled we didn't uh really see the the duplication or the the best place where it should sit so I'm I'm thinking this is much more help with
soft we I was logging in and inputting all the AP warrants now with fadar we've given responsibility to multiple committees and departments to input their own and run reports for their own accounts yeah so we are spreading it out
and allowing everyone to use our financial software that's good that's good now are you finding with the with the software that you're having fewer errors to correct to from uh well I still need to review everyone's inputs
right but everyone is doing pretty well if I do see an error I'll correct it and I'll let them know if it's a recurring issue yeah but everyone's doing pretty well and I I feel bad that I have slightly
less work to do don't say that we're just getting started I know I think we saw a spreadsheet early on in this presentation that you got a lot of work to do on these special revenue and Grant ones so I don't want to feel like I'm have my
feet on the desk and relaxing while everyone else doing noticed that my nap time is usually 2 to 4: we remember that so yes Vadar is has its benefits over our prior software but
there's still a lot to learn and things that we can discuss with they are to make it better for us yeah are we using I I assume we're not using all the model modules of Vadar yet yeah the next big step is going to be having uh receipts entered by the individual departments uh and then once we get that
done it's a matter of looking at maybe budgeting software um purchase order system software which we don't have the modules for okay so but that's all under Vadar yes oh wow yeah okay yeah there's different little bits and pieces you can
do yeah sort of like a little Lego set so so just along those lines I do know that um Kathy and in the assessor's office mentioned that it doesn't transfer Excel spreadsheets easily or is that something I'm still trying to
figure out when we're running reports for accounts or anything how we can convert it into an Excel file I'm not um I imagine we could talk to Vadar and maybe they have a way of doing that okay but right now I there's no quick easy
option to convert a PDF or just a regular report into to the Excel [Music] mhm okay all right so the one change is just hooking you up for one extra
hour yes which I currently I work 810 in the morning till 4: in the afternoon Monday through Thursday and then 4 hours 9 to 1 on Fridays so that's technically
$35 a week apparently I'm not complaining just it works out for me for my schedule to get here early sure okay all right seems pretty straightforward anybody have any questions this being a smooth running
operation what I see no I think things have you know definitely come together it's it's really good to have a a person sitting in that seat and and uh keeping on top of things so we really appreciate the work you've been doing I stepped out for
a moment when you first started but is your assist your assistant the plenty of work for that individual and he's got lot he joined in October and he right around Thanksgiving or just
after Thanksgiving he emailed us saying that he needed some time away to oh that's right go on leave of absence to train skiers in Colorado and we considered it and said yes he may and he'll be back I believe early April oh
oh he's still not from back I think I think it was March well he said up through March so pretty long leave of absence depends on yeah well I'm I'm assuming that you know I mean honestly the kidding aside but on that special revenue and capital
list that you had there grants sorting out and what grants have been closed out over the last decade um it's that's going to take a lot of unraveling I think just to find the original documentation some of these yeah it's just you have money in certain accounts
right what do we do with it yeah I mean are we can we abor it or do we have to send it back can we use it or we have to send it back to somebody or not Grant maybe the state doesn't care anymore but it would be smart for them to get the money back that so we have to
individually look at all the accounts I did quick research for each account to see it wasn't the last time we used it we right got it yeah it's just and some of them may or may not have yeah Clarity in terms of you know how it can be used right so you know if yeah yeah but again
a lot of these reimbursables it wouldn't be a matter of returning anything it would have been whatever we've put in our receipts for and gotten reimbursed hopefully but U I don't know okay well I think that's kind of kind of it for now so thank you thank you everybody I think
this has been a good some didn't I good session we did pretty good 8:30 I understand what was presented yeah I think we do too um so we have just uh just to get us up to date so our next meeting is going to be on the 18th which is next Tuesday we'll start off with a
regular select board meeting and I don't think we'll have a terribly heavy duty agenda um but we will have um Margaret L will come and give us a little overview on the hrhs U budget and what they're what they're facing at school level so we have a better idea
of that kind of unknown quantity what time uh we probably well I'm going to say I don't know 6:30 to 7: we've we've got a we've got COA scheduled at 7:30 so we plann an hour and a half on the board meeting I don't know if we need that much I don't think we need that much I don't know if you need that much so I'm
going to say maybe those are all going to shift up about a half an hour so 6:30 is Shish I would say 6:30 645 that we'd have the school and then we'll go right into the COA budget and then uh the police budget those are the two on on uh
next week and then after that uh the following the 25th we've got four others um Health fire Highway and water and then some in early March as well so but uh anybody have any comments signatures from last meeting for the PCF for the
change rates for the um oh for me oh for oh yeah Jen wants um majority oh that's right right you want to explain about other boards or committees that aren't in this current schedule uh so there's a couple that are kind of out there I was hoping
to kind of put them in on our second meetings um like I planning has like $500 so it's not a lot but we're going to be looking at some bigger items coming down the road so um and um Staffing conservation we have scheduled
um what was the other one that we there's two or three others that we CBC um and I Look to mention all and we have accounts that we know the status of right so there's a few smaller ones that we have to kind of put
together yeah that'll be probably the you know there should be relatively quick so okay you guys just does does the town clerk have a budget that person going to present is
probably on the list they're they're in March well thought out schedule so good I think I'm only one has to sign this yes PCF I think so prf the date on it from last meeting the last meeting not today's
[Music] dat C I still your compar with the blue yeahor uh you want when did we meet uh Fork here this ISR
[Music] SC all right sign thank you very much guys your department sorry guys uh we are
adjourned at uh 8:33 this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers