call the meeting of the Towns and Finance Committee to order at 6:02 p.m and could I have um roll call for attendance please walker present dam Grant present mary
Jane Churchville present gerald Maz present terrahus present john Hayes present with that there's six members present we have our forum we are good to go um this meeting is being recorded um it
will be played back on channel 9 and will be available on the Townson YouTube channel um at this point I do see other people on the Zoom is anybody recording this meeting also or just
decamp heard the there are no others reporting the meeting uh additions or deletions at this point i have um no no additions or deletions at this at
this time nothing um moving into the work session um I had reviewing of the minutes and we had three meetings within here February 18th 20th and 27th were there any
changes required who's a typo is there a typo i think it said busy B USY nes instead of B USI i can't remember where business oh business okay good enough can we do all three at the
same time we we can if but if there's one where we need a correction where's my email my last name and you thought it was B UI yes i thought it was B U S Y U S Y busy busy
busyiness busyiness okay we did not find it on the 27th all right all right yeah no we we should don't see it on the 20th direct spelling is only
announcing your years different another different account absolutely so I'm not really concerned about Oh we don't read our eclipses anymore so it's not necessary i think I can't find it so I'm sorry i retract that
i was looking and I can't Yeah I did searches for the Oh you put it in i put B USY and it didn't pop up on any of Maybe it was another minute i was reading maybe it's one of the newer ones oh god i used my job i don't know
okay we're not going to have a problem are we i don't think so okay okay yeah sorry it It kind of like as I scraped across on the mouse it turned the Oh microphone back on again okay
okay keep going that okay all right i'm sorry i guess yeah if there were no changes suggested then a motion to accept the minutes for February 18th 20th and 27 i'll make that motion second
okay we had a motion um to approve the minutes and a second any further discussion none being heard roll call carol House yes carol yes mary Jane Churchville yes sam Grant yes hey Walker
yes yes unanimous the minutes have been accepted can be voted to click yes i have four of them all okay we don't have to do this anymore um no we still have March and then we'll have March but I
hadn't sent I didn't know I had to send them to the town oh we approved so So so I sent her all of last year's okay keep her busy she has them all keep her busy for another week
um okay um I had put correspondence on here um the only thing we we had in there is what I had sent out for meeting request joint with the boss selection for next
Wednesday April 9th at 6 o'clock 6 o'clock or seven it said seven the email said 7 email um yeah sorry it says schedule a joint meeting with the board april 16th budget forum is 7:00 no but
you said 7:00 for the Wednesday meeting then I But you really wanted it to be 6:00 yes okay what meeting that did you want to get into the board of selection joint meeting with the board 6:00 not 7 oh no
at 7 it's at 6:00 on the 9th we have most members will be there so we'll have a I'll just be a little late for something maybe yep it will be a joint meeting i think
we discussed on the agenda it would it would look like the joint meeting would start at 6:15 i got a question that's seventh member does he that person exist or is it an empty slot um it is not an empty slot right now it's Andrea Wood um Oh okay yeah definitely not and I would
there no want back i I've been reaching out by text but haven't heard anything sorry so what's the joint meeting going to be like well so what were they so what were they
saying last night about the the bag thing that they didn't like they said that it I'll just pull it up so you can hear it yourselves how about that then it will I I mean I don't I just curious what well there they say that there's a a point of diminishing returns if you if
you increase the price of the bag that eventually people will ship y and it's a compounding thing according to Veronica it's a compounding I don't understand that part because I'd rather compound the $4 bag and get rid
of it when the trash goes than to have my override and have a tax for the rest of my life go popping up But she used the word compound so I'm using that mhm they clearly didn't like that okay we all concur with that opinion
it's our opinion but it's kind of like and as we had the discussion last week um that we looked at it from the revenue side only we were looking at one side of that equation was increasing the revenue by going up to $6
a day but wasn't that the goal to find more money it it is but as we do do that the offset is at what point does it become a a price that's too high people
will go private and we we end up lowering our revenue now let me ask you this so it was they were 375 the bags the big one and now they're going to go up to $6 that was the suggestion that was the suggestion that's a lot of money
um I agree that's 30 that's $30 for a package of five five bags should last a normal family one month you can go out and get your own private um service
for over $40 we don't know exactly what that is and that's going to escalate too we also put it on just a flat minimum fee we pay individually for each ton that we dump the tipping fee when when when the
board of health presented their they presented two possible contracts okay one was we pay I think seven or $800,000 and covers everything right one was you pay a base $300,000 fee and then you pay a tipping fee per tonnage okay right
okay so and that I did bring up when we when we when we did when we ran some numbers based on the tonnage that we were seeing after we went to the bags paying the tipping fee is going to cost less than paying 700 or even or
$800,000 flat and so it just seems like that we should do that and if we increase the price of the bag some we should be able to cover the entire trash cost with the bags and she's probably
right people are going to slowly go down and not that but then we're only paying for the people who put their bags into the thing the dumping fee the tipping fee right the tipping so that if if people opt out the tipping fee is going to go down too but well don't you think
that that's a decision that people should make and not the board of select don't you think that the people should be presented with the option and then they can vote on it um the board of select what I was told when this whole thing started last year
was that board of selectment can put a fee on anything they want to no I understand that but I'm talking about letting the people make a decision where did that thing make they make a decision whether they buy the bags or they get their own service that is their personal
decision i can definitely keep down to a maximum of $30 a month if not less for me um because we usually under normal circumstances
get two bags out a month right i mean it was every other week uh we we put put one bag out that's not all the time i get it um but that's because we don't know how to one separate all our recycling how much longer are we going to talk
about trash i mean this has been going on since last year yeah and nobody seems to have an answer nobody seems to have a solution they we the FINCOM brought our recommendation we did and I think we should stick by it and I I think that um
for them to it's not a dialogue situation they tell us what they want and we make a recommendation we're not asking for their advice maybe what we should do is take a look at it and and look at look at the whole and have that conversation we we've recommended and so
far in the budget I don't think it it has changed from where we are so if we want to continue to recommend the the increase do we want to do a deeper dive into trash and so we
look at what the returns where's the budget so we can see well I mean we also that's that's my fault we also mentioned that yes the fee could go up from there but the fee can go down from there too because the fee will be based on a history
of how much the town is paying for the trash which is the straight services contract plus the tipping fee if we end up compacting our trash properly uh we should as a community be
able to bring it down if one of us decides I don't like it they are more than welcome to vote by not buying the bag and calling up ster Harvey and Harvey or whoever and get their own um
uh trash service for themselves and they can in other words it's it's free to opt out right it cost you $30 a month to stay in right if you count that much trash you need more than you know five bags a month that's basically on on
average you know four weeks of trash plus an extra for when you really have a party or something or if you have a baby with dirty diapers you might have a lot of trash but how much time are we going to spend on this trash so I don't know
we said what we were going to do but the budget hasn't changed so I I don't know what more we can say about trash that we haven't said so they're going they're going to have to change after the uh election and the town vote down the
override that's the other thing they told us they were going to have a separate budget for that and we haven't seen that yet either can I ask a question on the override because now it says um assess an additional 625 in real estate and personal property taxes for
the purposes of funding the operating budget of the town and the public schools so I what was the 625 that was voted for the schools at the last election what are we what are we paying for the school they were they were the question very
vaguely that is the public schools so what do we what more money are we putting towards schools we are not putting any more money towards towards schools the the that's written poorly well it's misleading because misleading either
one will we'll have to come in in the forum um to explain when we look at if you want me to flip to the budget and and get off for a minute i'll I'll go over to They should just not put public schools in there they should take
it out they should take it out why can't they take it out they can't at this point you can't take it out because the ballots are people are going to be misled into you know what this is on purpose there is no transparency i'm getting
closer closer to calling the state for a state audit well I would recommend that i wouldn't be opposed i'm just so I wouldn't be opposed Carol that's what you want to do i mean this is getting ridiculous we got a ballot that's incorrect and we
have no idea what the number is again they when we vote the budget it's the entire budget so what has been done that's not what people understand though and and that's where we have to explain the the budget hasn't hasn't changed
once we call anything to do with the school budget what is that who are you identify yourself please is they here i don't know ask them again who is it i don't know
they need to identify themselves it really was not clear either is there any initials there that we can figure it out and because I Is this is this the newest one or is this the one from the previous time this This is the one from today I when it came in I I took How many pages
um it's still about 800 lines so it How many pages it's like this many pages no numbers well I I can't tell you if if I page it differently is kind of like but
800 lines if you get 80 on a page that's 10 10 okay let just can you go to line 37 I want to see if they was I just want to see if they've corrected this um because this is the one I knew was wrong this is the old one this is from this is
from the if if he has a newer one that just came in from Nelson line 37 wait did you send it to us last time I have not resent it I sat down here we we got the I I just want to see if they fixed this line so did I get an email
an email it should say 64,396 what line is 337 which column should say that fy25 fy2 okay what What's the item it's the accounting salary the what the accountant salary oh
and so what so what what was supposed to change well they had 52837 the last in the last one but when she remember when the budget you know all those worksheets well when I went back because I thought
this was low for what she said she was making now so I went to the worksheet and the worksheet for FY25 said she was making 64,396 so that's why and I didn't go through all of these but that that one figure was off so that to me that meant the
whole thing's not right so I wanted to know if they fixed that that line to to put the cut what she's actually making today the what she was making whatever she was making a year ago so you're saying that that
52,5 is wrong is wrong but we're concerned what is FY286 right no Don can I talk to that this is Veronica Kell yes please um when the budget goes in to
the state and gets put in the accounting it is done when the budget is accepted and so the budget was accepted with her salary at 52,000 this was for FY25 okay um
Pardon me the I get that okay theou that raised her salary was done by Eric Slaggel it right before he left and the budget had
already gone into the state and you have to use the state budget the approved budget you can't change that after the fact and so that's why the number is not the number that she was actually getting
from sometime in August forward when when this budget was put in the number was in the 50s so that's why there's nothing wrong or underhanded it's just the way it
works okay but if we're going to be doing an FY26 budget they were using numbers that are not the FY26 budget is the 66 um it's
the 4% over the 64 that she was getting so if you look in your budget book the notebook the numbers that um Katie put in there should have been the correct 64 number
that that the 4% over was being based on it just makes it difficult when we're trying to look at numbers if you're not I know but she did but she did turn in the correct numbers when we asked for it this column is based on what it was when
the budget was accepted at town meeting for FY25 you it would mess up with the state if we changed it after the fact we would have to go and have another budget vote but then why did it
change yeah it changed because she has a personal services contract and the town administrator at the time and I was not a selectman when this happened but the town administrator at the time
negotiated a different salary with her at at before he left town and that's why it changed also had to do with um and we talked about this in our joint meetings with the fact that the um I should turn
on my video shouldn't I um sorry um also has to do with the fact that the um as we lessen Markham who now has a different name CBiz or something like that the the duties are changing that's the way the
um the uh the contract worked now there were no specific numbers put in that contract that was pretty much it's only been two years she's in the third year of a three-year contract and the first year
was set then there was theou that was in the late July early August time frame must have been late July um and and then um the the 4% for next year is not uh
memorialized anywhere in writing at this point so just know that why isn't it uh it's a personnel matter okay so so if you go to your budget book the
number that's in there should be the number that Katie is actually getting yeah that's right and the number the number for this year is 74,000 not not uh that was um that was apparently a
promise i I shouldn't talk too much about this but it's not memorialized anywhere what is memorialized is the 2% um cost of living the cola and the 2% step
so that's why it's in there at 66 at this point um it's possible because the C biz markum is going down it's possible that you know in the fall or when we do know what funds we have to work with that we
could um you know you want to treat your your employees fairly but at this point the the best we can hope for is the four 4% so that's why it's what it is it
isn't anything underhanded or non-transparent okay so how can you do proposed cuts based on those figures if they're not all We aren't doing proposed cuts based on
FY25 we're looking at FY26 and you guys are the FINCOM we did those joint meetings you have the figures um they're in the budget book when each department head came forward
just like the stuff that was talked about last week um with the lieutenant it's it's all there right and we have been looking up but this one is is one that is different because there was um information that we
were not because the number in the budget book is 74,000 not 66,000 for FY26 yes it is but we could not find that memorialized anywhere it's in other words it's not written down in the contract right now if we have funds it's
possible that we will negotiate if we can and we are certainly hoping we can keep the employee but the number that is in this budget is the number that went into the state these numbers get turned in after the
budget is approved at town meeting don you know that correct and then and then that we make corrections as necessary like we did in August of 23 when we took a lot of money out because it was hard for money and we needed to change the
budget because of the requirement that but but the state budget doesn't change what changes is the budget that you're working on in your Excel spreadsheet this shows what the state expects to see
okay but let me just ask this so we So how often like you have to live with the numbers for a year till the next time i mean unless you revote the budget in a town meeting and this was not revoted in
a town meeting what was revoted in August were um numbers around the schools etc i wasn't a selectman at that point you were there Dawn so you know what there
were certain line items that were revoted in August and those are the line items that would get set differently for the following year i just want to be clear so all right you
you vote this you send it to the state and they approve whatever but during the course of the year things happen so that's in the BVA you see that in the BVA if you look in the BVA you will see that that line it's
not quite negative yet I don't think but it's it's more than the 75% that it should be now but all I'm saying is you never go back to the state to amend the figures only if you have a vote at town
meeting that changes the budget for the town for the year that's my understanding do you have a different understanding Dawn um no i I mean there are there are changes and things we do that that don't
get reported with the state but that's um covered correct and we see that in the BVA well we I was thinking of the municipal transfers at the end of at the end of a year we actually end up changing the budget by moving dollars around that is
correct and that's an approved process with the state there there are there's a procedure for that and forms and the whole bit yeah right so the BVA is going to have the correct amounts or the act I shouldn't say
correct amount but the actual the actual dollars that are being spent yes and at the end of the year the expenses and the salaries if if they are that's when you do the municipal
transfers if you are over for your entire budget in that department and there's another department that is below the amount that they spent you can do a municipal relief transfer or there's
another word as well to even that out to level it out to show that you haven't gone over your total budget so that's where that's rectified in like the last six weeks or so of the um of the fiscal year in the very beginning of the next
fiscal year that's where all of that takes place so let me ask you this Veronica there's three contracts that the contract term expires 30 June and um those three contracts are the
police what else no this is Vadar systems contract term expires 30 June 25 that's an an that's an annual expense in the accounting office or the treasur's office i'm not sure which one does that
does Vadar but Vadar is our accounting system and just like for it for the email Microsoft 365 the town pays annually for those software services so somebody's going to capture whatever
the the renewal fee is for that it's it's more than likely one of the expenses that didn't get cut when all the department heads were asked to cut their expenses okay then there's the virtual IT services contract expires 30
June this contract will be renewed uh we did virtual IT in our meeting on Tuesday we voted the renewal that's for Guardian okay but it says not to exceed 10% so I'm just making sure you're capturing
these increases in the budget okay so Dawn go to MIS um yeah they are captured okay um we just did that one all total it was 122 i can pull out my papers and tell you
exactly what we're paying Guardian it was a new contract that's right i started on the agenda for Yeah so that's what that th those are software services that the town uses to do business well yeah i just want to make sure that in the metro gov is a 3 and a half%
increase i just want to make sure that those contract increases are captured in the FY26 budget uh go to Metro Gov that's under the board of selection and we have not I don't think we've signed
the metro gov yet um for for next year what I Okay I just I I just was concerned that there somebody I think that's on the agenda for next time we have to have a discussion about that because what we do there is dependent on
what happens with one of the um ballot outcomes so um in any event yeah so it there was no increase from FY25 to FY26 on that line correct if I remember right Don I
don't know if you were on that meeting or watched that meeting um what Nelson said was that instead of um they they reduced the number of hours a week because we have or a month we haven't been using the contracted number of
hours a a month so instead of increasing the overall he just in the wording decreased the number of hours on the IT or the web master on the IT it's a virtual IT with guardian
okay so we're getting getting less hours yes because we haven't we haven't used them you know we were contracted for greater hours everything with the it has pretty evened out four years ago 3 four years ago that wasn't the
case but things now are pretty settled and um so uh Guardian was able to do that for us to keep us in budget on that line item just taking a
look um and again one of the one of the things we were doing with the hours is no projected no projects we when they didn't use the hours they were putting them into a hold so that when we had projects they would take them and use
the unex um unused hours and put it towards the project so we have no no projects we're planning this year um for the IT you would know better than me Don you would probably know better than me on that
i I haven't been involved with the projects over the past year and a half to two years so and I don't know of any IT projects that are coming on board beyond what just needs to be done to complete what
we've been doing in the town okay um sorry and I know it's been a while james you had a question for me i don't remember what it was sorry no it was a point of order it was a point of order veronica was talking over
finish okay and I was going to say while we're here and we were in the accountant area um I just want to point out what one of the things that um I was doing this
afternoon was trying to identify the lines that are different from in this version of the file versus the last um we on line 44 in the budget which is the accounting professional
technical funding audit we had put in $30,000 because we didn't have a contract in place we were estimating based on prior year what a new contract price would be um we have the engagement letter essence
it's going to go to the board of selectment for review and and approval and right now that line the audit line is going up uh to $35,000 for the annual audit along with the single audits that we would
expect for FY26 so that it's line 44 is going to 35,000 35,000 yep again back in this in this section one of the things that we didn't review last week was a change um another change the
finance committee reserve fund I30 um we had think we had tried to keep it at $50,000 and so we reduced it to $40,000 to take 10,000 off the budget okay this this
year we haven't used it yet um prior years we have used more than 50% one year we were overextended on it but ended up not transferring a final $8,000 so we we have used it but um in in an
effort to try to balance the budget and take $10,000 off the budget how does that fit over last year you said we had an extended we overextended one year but we were at a lower rate at that time we we um a lower total total
budget was lower and it was raised to 50 because it wasn't enough at the time does it did it still come under the 40 it it did would not have come over under the 40 but there would have been things we we would not have recommended that we
use that money for at that point um they were that that was the year we had a lightning strike on the police tower and this the pumps for the septic went out and this the ceiling in the town hall felt um unusual um but those those are
pieces that we would we would be looking at um as we get requests for just saying if you this is all we got you can't break anything else but that's going to be it kind of like this bund I was concerned about the usage right uh over
the long period of time and you know before we start throwing out the this is the very important balloon in the hydraulic system that expands and it contracts because of other things that go bad on the way down the line right and and this
we have we will be you know re reviewing those probably with a finer finer tooth comb than we have in the past okay and whether we approve them um once once that money is expended it's not there so we have always been cautious about when we use it in in the in the year during
the year i don't remember one time I was asked for that we didn't go over with a fine tooth comb personally right i'll just take a look at the numbers and things
that change these these um other changes the the accounting the audit went up by the $5,000 Um there was $50 taken out of conservation commission um supplies and materials
um added um added to it i'm sorry so it's line 169 oh you added 65 we added $50 in that line so added if I did my math right it was
250 it is now 35 and I will get you these um also in conservation commission line 171 the dues and memberships went down by 100 so that went from 500 to 400
okay so the conservation total went down by 50 and that's why that line in there okay um planning for professional services um you missed it uh 191 191 okay um I'm sorry yeah that's
pretty um professional service went down from 1500 to 500 down a thousand w professional service yeah
was at 1,800 it is now a th00and line 218 the wave use training was taken from $1,800 to $750 which is a reduction of $1,50 um what do we drop in i mean what was the original
18 needed for in the first place that it's not needed for anymore the land use budgets that were submitted Yeah were from somebody that um was preparing them and had done a um
a job she was getting ready to leave i don't remember if you remember that that day she her her last day with the town was the next day new people have come in on the on the land use and um other positions and they're looking they've been asked to look at the at the budget
and they're coming in and these are the areas that they said no longer getting what they need without getting too much right yeah and so the land use training is
um as I mentioned was um going to 750 line 218 The land use dues and memberships was reduced $200 and went from $450 to$ 250 what was that number 21 what um uh 219
219 yeah and what was the number again um it was Yeah it it is now 250 it was 450 savings in land use was $2,50 and with all those lines let me ask you a question what does land use do
town's a couple hundred years old you know a long time ago you know the zonings were set into place and things were you know so theoretically if it's not you know town they do like um they go out and do reports like I can give
you an example there's the I think it's West Meadow Road i think it's West Meadow Road there's a solar array there well they're required to file a report every year because of the vegetation that they planted and then um so they so
the land use goes out there and and make sure that they do what they're supposed to do um that's one example um some of the storm water management still go out and make sure that the builders are conforming to
their storm water and stuff that's when I was on their website this week um I also saw that the flood plan is probably on the where I found it so and and again this changes this year to
new flood plans are coming yeah because there's a there was a little development on North End Road um of maybe four five six houses yeah Campbell Farm so Campbell Farm they're required to have a storm
water plant and thing so the land use people go up there and they make sure that it's it's actually working and that it's all built according to how it's supposed to be done so they do do other words they're
they're responsible for looking after past applica you know past devices installed somewhere having to do with how the land is used and is being used properly as it's supposed to be like you said the drainage bas where they need to be
and yeah there's this thing oh and I only know this stuff because I worked in doing files and stuff for a while and there's compliance certificates So until they until they get their compliance certificate the land use office has to kind of monitor it and then I think once they get that
certificate of compliance it's it's done and file there so thank you very much that's our experience with land use um okay um another change was um fire
EMS line 341 the replacement equipment was at 20,000 and it came down to 15,000 is it you said mine 351 uh 341 341 okay was it 220,000 it was 20,000,000
is it what 15,000 and when I send it out I'll send the file with the work I did to identify these um and in the public safety that was the only line so that's the public safety
total decreases by 5,000 also um highways energy line 519 and maybe I looked up the liability but um it's at 22,000
22,680 count and I somewhere i had it at 20,000 so I had I maybe had a wrong number the last was the last print out you gave us from LA from last time it said it was changed to 20,000 and now it's back in to the 22,000 it's back up to 2268
so that's that's that's why I brought in the numbers from the last one we looked at 519 519 519 Highway Energy so you put it back it It's back i I didn't put it back but it was put back to the
22,680 so and what was that for um that's the energy that's um heat and electric that's not the proposed cut no there's it it I I identified differences from the version we looked at last week to
the version we looked at this week okay and so last week it was at 20,000 now it's back to 20 22,000 228 yep so it's back back where it was
um the line 521 for highway repair and maintenance for the building um that is now um 4,488 level funded over FY25 last week
it was 6,000 so that's a $1,500 so it's been 4488 44.88 yeah okay line 523 the highway equipment rental um that is now $0
so the cut is 1,607 what we're here for um renting equipment that they would use it doesn't specifically say but if it's equipment he doesn't have he needs to go out and get it
we're not going to need it this year um that's what it looks like it's kind of like he's trying to trying to you know they they ask for cuts and that's the this is the Oh good luck i hope he was renting things that he doesn't always need right yeah i don't think it's
anything i mean for myself I get an old backhoe at home going to sell it this year sometime or next year well I'm going to put it up for sale soon because I know that for my purposes anymore going out and renting one at Home Depot is you know it's take the money I get
for it put it in a little savings somewhere with synchronies and um save that money to to to rent one because it's much better to have the cash on hand than it is to have something that's only used once a year y and that's what
I hope the town is doing you know right it's kind of but Yep it's kind of I would expect them to to be doing that line 525 on highway communication um it is reduced to
1,648 which is a savings of 2476 and it says it's due to Comcast bill reductions probably had to do with the fiber optic we put in last year um line 528
um highway building supplies um it is now 1,125 down from 200 2249 so savings of 1,124
um line 529 the highway vehicular supplies um was at 36,300 it is now over 30,000 so a savings of 6,300 line
537 I'm sorry 531 here I was looking at that is there don't we have old equipment um we do have some old equipment he is um on
the capital equipment we are replacing one of his older trucks um the oldest trucks so So we're getting rid of some so the second oldest truck if it breaks down and stays broke account till next year's budget well I I don't know that you know
cutting that um cutting that cutting that much out is going to preclude any it may be major repairs but the mechanic is up up there is is does well at keeping them running so what was the number on that
uh um so the new number is 1,606 or what other supplies 531 other supplies 531 that's the line I thought it was on yeah line 534 the highway replace equipment
um that has been reduced to zero so we cut it 100% so the total savings from highway um last week to this week is 13,553 if you want to update the subtotal or the the highway total
um that is now 67,224 he did a good job of finding places that he could say if everybody did as well as him we'd be in good shape um we'll see um he's a
very thoughtful person as far as the town goes um line 610 um housing housing authority training was at 1,400 and it's going to move to 500 so savings of nine 500 so
savings of nine um 10 year yep line 611 the AHA office and general supplies was at that,000 is being
reduced to 250 um it had been lower last week so um but the so the total difference um last week to this week is 450 but overall for the FY26 it's pound
700 so it's the housing authority photo is updated and then um do you want the updated do you know what the final snow and ice bill that one up snow and ice right now is up um I'll I'll get to that
when we get to the um um I'm sorry it it I will check and make sure it's here um um it should be in this file too but I know it's in the recap sheet um because we had we have three more lines that
they changed here line 654 Council on Agent Repair and Maintenance Equipment what kind of equipment repair and maintenance equipment at Council on Aging um that number is now
1,480 so it's a reduction of $2,000 um and the Council on Aging Training Line 655 be consistent um it is now 1,230 um last week it was
1,245 so it's a $15 difference week over week but when we look at the total amount it's a $615 difference from the original budget and the last last line that we have a change on line 699 the recreation
department is 60 I'm sorry it the last change it's it's going to correct Y26 62,284 62 28 84 84
was that 62 or 52 62 60 62 62 Was that on the worksheet um I think it was on the worksheet as as the 59 um can you check the worksheet because I I think there was a remember I mean are they
giving out raises but it um we're also in that case um they they cut the um assistant director Don can I talk to that
yeah go ahead at the budget summit on um the Saturday March 1st um that all of you attended there was an error found in the calculation of the and that was
corrected to the 62 when Nelson um put it he he didn't um advance that number that was discussed and decided at the budget summit and so in this version he
did do that okay because I see on the worksheet it says her propose was 61102 mhm right and it was okay that was I I had brought that up at at that okay at that meeting i didn't recall the number
at the top of my head okay um so that is that is now corrected and and again that you know it's it's a little bit higher than what was proposed but um the mass not much not much higher than the proposed no but that's you know it
was the total raise for the position so that that's all the changes I could find um from last week to this week how much was this total saving bomb well how much snow and
ice that will kind of deflate some of the savings it will so let let me just see if I can find the snow and ice in in the bus 541 that's around would you say 541
that's where the snow and ice starts right below the highway oh okay so we don't see any changes in the snow and ice budget this is what we present to to the state and this is the line
that can go negative right this is um so when we go to the reconciliation sheet we see what the what the final is going to be on the recap sheet sorry reconciliation so if I scroll down
that's this one right yeah that's that's that one it was around 250 and I believe deficit right we um additional
so what do I do today okay snow i don't know what the heck I'm looking at they have to identify themselves whatever it is they know they're alive i don't think they know the that's um so
the snowite deficit now which is line 18 in the in the current uh recap sheet is listed as 285,000 that's the total right that's that's the total for for the fiscal 25 you're
saying for fiscal 25 borrowing any additional any 285 28 28 yeah 285 and we budgeted 202 no sorry it's kind of like this is the deficit so this is in addition to Oh so we So it's So we So
you're saying we spent 400 thou 485,000 this year on snow and ice on snow and ice oh oh okay so the 285 is over the 241 okay so let me see i'm going to call up the VBA okay so where does that money come from
um that's the free cash we we had Do we have any more free cash we we had allocated 250 the snow and ice deficit okay um and I and then we did the 200 to the school the budget yeah the school and we did 81 to the fire truck yeah um
which I think left about 40,000 so looking at it I'd say there's no there's no remaining cash 40,000 will cover the the 40,000 35 over in the 250 we've already donated
don't anything happen right yeah no no more snowstorms no more no more ice last night's snowtorm was lost so that was good yeah the snow and ice budget is totally under the control of Jim Smith correct as far as especially the expenditure
what gets done when it gets done how it gets done well if he's as good with that as he's been with the rest of his department i give him a thumbs up i haven't seen him in since they did Old City Road um stopped in once and they
went in his office which was quite good hope no late no late season storms they've been petering out when they get here my wife keeps telling me the sky is falling and I go out and it doesn't fall on me yet
you know when my phone says it's raining i got to reach around like this to catch all the drops we have had some major snowtorms lately well they have happened they have but the weather systems we've been living under now aren't projecting
anything like that don't I don't have the last day or so is the big snowstorm we're going to have this spring did you get it did you hear it did you see it i woke up in the middle of the night nothing on the roof there were 10 roofs there were any reindeers on the
roof no reindeers on the roof no re I had some ice popping but nothing nothing stopped at all um but it looking looking at it this was the end of March the end of February number the the 2278
um when the BBA for March comes out let's see we're at the third so by next next week I expect the March BA will be up and that's that's where we'll see the March can you send that out to us when you get
it yeah y Okay so we know we have this um the temporary health help under the board of selecting but they're in a negative for 14,000 for this year yeah
what was that for don would you like me to answer that yeah I think yeah yeah um that was for community aggregation so the consulting that was done um for that the
um the uh you know determining the rates etc etc that's what that was for that's what it was spent for we zeroed that out for next year I believe but that is what it was spent for it was total was 20
24,550 which was yeah there's only 10,000 budgeted so Well I I think it and again if we if we look at the top line on there for the town administrator um it was the same person doing the
aggregation that had been inter town administrator and they had put some money into the town administrator line for that but it looks like it was all paid out of temporary help so they again that's correct an accounting kind of
thing um because when you look at look at that number that's that's not that little salary for like 20 no I know that yeah it's still 25 and so that's that's why there was extra money put into that line when when we had the
interim between Eric and Nelson well I just had a question for you John when you look at the BVA because we're pretty much what 75% of the Yeah so if if you look
um like if they're only in the in the low you know I'm guessing you know it's around six the low numbers um that they haven't been spending the money is that money that potentially
could be not spent and used for something else um that's that's where we get to the end of the year we have lines like that that there's money in that we didn't use um and there's a place we need to use it that's where the
municipal transfer requests will come in okay are municipal transfer requests only internal department or they can they be between departments they can be between departments and and expenses so Zondo can give money to James Clint
right and in in the past sometimes we we had extra money in healthcare we which we moved around right um and then sometimes we've gone the other way it's kind of like um sometimes it's kind of like it when we budget for a position
and somebody leaves town employment we may not fill the position so sometimes there's money in salaries that we allocated at the beginning that's available so the money for those transfers can come from a multitude of
places in the budget any other questions i see lots of highlighted on the Oh yeah i Well I was looking at all the negatives yep that were in the negative right highlighted the ones that are in the I
guess the red um what I don't understand is it was for the police because they were in negative 47,500 but that's for the No that's for the new equipment so I'm assuming that's
the cars that's the That's the cars yes but why would it be a negative 47 because didn't we cover that cost um let me take what line where you Oh this is in the BBA oh I don't know where you if
you look up on the screen if you um I mean I'm not quite sure how this how this works but Okay so cuz I thought we like allocated money for those cruisers um we we we did but it's just the way they account for it um the way they're
the way they've accounted for it they did so we left um when we did the moving of the money last I think it was September we left 40 thou 47,500 because it had been planned for
95,000 for the year and uh Chief Sartell put off well that's why I I guess I this here says the original budget was 47500 but They expended 95,000 right um so
that's that was for the two cars that that's got to be for the full a full year's lease paid paid up front um now if I recall properly somewhere under his wages um he
has um when the operating staff still had 394,000 in it um so it was only at 56% right um when we talk about the transfers at
the end of the year this this was one of the places that he identified that he would be able to transfer from his wages because he didn't have he he was not fully staffed all year okay so he budgeted for
and um but he will be fully staffed for next year i correct yeah yeah i just highlighted all the negatives yeah that's a that's a good good thing or if it looked like it was a low low
usage yeah longevity is going to work but in the end it looked like the balance was not in the even though there was negatives it still was money overall o overall in the whole budget yeah um if
I get to the bottom bottom line I mean I didn't see a Well maybe this one no that's all expended that's not That's I didn't see the totals in the in the whole I think it's just Yep there
the totals aren't there for the whole budget okay oh no total so the original budget is 27 million um the adjusted budget is a little higher
um and at this point at the end of February it was 72.37% expended so there was 7,641,95 left so we only got So that was of February
right that's the end of February um so this would be 75% at the end of this month so it's running pretty close yeah it is what if we run over um well again this these lines that are um we we there's no
way we can run over we What do you mean there's no way we can't run over we can't um maybe not supposed to but we're not supposed to well that's you know we're not supposed to but if you're at 72.3 and you still got 4 months cuz
that's February so so that's really should have been 66 again your energy is going to be more expensive over the winter as you get to the spring you're not spending as much on the energy lines as we have um they they need we're not
going to spend any more on police cruisers that annual police has been paid so there's some things in here that are expended out over the whole year um that there there are some there are some expenditures that have already been
completed that aren't going to continue for the next four months i think that but we're still we're still pretty close um this Yep yep it'll need to be continued to be watched for the next
so what happens though say we get like really I mean what if we start creeping the next just say we we like like we creep up through the end of May and then all of a sudden due comes and it's like oh
we're like we got like a buck left you know well I I I think the Yeah I was going to say the accountant and treasurer need to be looking at what what the monies are that are coming in and what the expenses are um and as as
it goes the um we should be looking at how much money is left to be spent on um on benefits and on payroll and maybe take a look and tie up the the expenses
that but that's that's something that we need to um I haven't seen the finance committee recommend that before but you know it's kind of like it's a um overall budget that that Tom used to be
watching that we don't we don't put ourselves going top bottom on the recap she This was the one we had at the March right do we have an updated one um again I'll I'll forward it it was
supposed to be attached to the email i sent here the files and I didn't realize I had forwarded to Nelson that didn't include the I thought I wasing Nelson's original file that had
the again my um I did spend the afternoon making the update so I'll send my updated version of the file but um not change I just um add column so that
yes I don't have that um so right now all is is where we're at trying to trying to get this the total appropriations to be released is the 2828 750 746 Um this this is the line that identifies
how much money is is there for um um abatements and other things by the assessor uh like the senior work program and and items like that so the number in
here is it it's an estimate of how much money needs to be there um it should not take it it should be only the real estate and excise taxes and do we know so many people actually take advantage of the senior work off work I have not asked
for those numbers but that's interesting the work um program program you I did it actually you get $500 yeah off well I thought you got $500 off your property taxes but you
have to work I forget what was 40 hour i forget what it is so many you have to work so many hours um to get the uh but in the end they send you a check with the taxes taken out so you don't really
get they do it yeah so it's See I thought it was just going to eventually come off my property taxes and um Oh instead it's like you pay the wage so you pick up my daughter actually figured out I forget how many hours oh 63 hours i think you have to work 63 hours cuz
she says "Mon you're working for seven bucks an hour and I really work cuz I was cleaning the land use files." I was doing that for that so um over there asked question well you asked was three in um FY24
you asked how many did the work off 23 program oh three there was three in FY24 three in FY24 three people that's it qualify for it or or can you just No it's kind of Well you send in the paperwork
um and then maybe um maybe they they only reason I did send in my paperwork and I think it went into the circular file and I happened to say something to the Lind Juice office and I said "Oh we can really use
somebody to clean out our files." So the next thing I know they hear that I got it i guess I went down time for somebody so it's been and I even went back after my hours were done and I kept cleaning up files um just because I felt bad and
the files desperately need to be cleaned up yeah senior work program is is there for for us to try to of a certain age um and I think it's over 60 so you might even that um that you
can work for the town you get a check in the end um equivalent to work for the town they get 25 or more dollars an hour driving their bloody truck you know there you go kind of like everybody has their option but it's there for to try to They're still crying for a DDL oh yep
yeah well I still have it i don't have it till the day I die fedally mandated the minute we bought a new trailer and truck well the new truck it wasn't a new trailer new trailer was 26 um
drive one of those big yeah I was 25,90 lb which was 10 lb 11 lb below the u u required you know the the requirement for the CDL then the new truck came in
and it came in with about 10,000 GBW it came out with 14,000 GBW so that threw me way over the limit i had to keep it actually I had to go back for it i just canceled it before I destroyed the old truck well they're always looking for people to with CBO IC well I'm looking
for a 36-hour day too so the um the other items in here um the Cherishi Oxy offsets and the state assessments these are the best the these are taken from the DOS cherry
i think didn't the numbers go up by 26 they did um so the 26 this is for the twin mics so looks like the governor's going to give us a little bit more money maybe
maybe it's kind of like these these are the estimates um once it'll go to the house and then the governor will be signed before we get the final when they sign the final budget that's when we get the final numbers oh it depends on how long and
it's 26 26 26 and then I think I guess I didn't give a sh but that's that's ours then we have
line 24 the Hero Act which is an increase in the uh veterans exemption i believe that's going to be a warrant on town meeting what it's it's it's um similar to the overlay this is
for veterans um they can get additional um abatements um to their tax bills oh okay so this this I believe requires a town vote before it's implemented but if it is implemented it's in here for the
planning phase so does the bedroom on the property or be married to the owner i don't have the details on it um but isn't that a state program rather than by town it's it's a state program
implemented town by town oh okay but that's on our property tax um this would be on the property tax um considering at the present moment I need to know how much before I even thought about it so with with those um the additions of the
591,000 in there which included the snow ice deficit of 285 that leaves the total amount to be raised by 27 is 29420,7 say that again 29 29 million 420,17 and that's the budget
That's that's the budget for FY26 for FY26 yeah what did you call it veteran program act yeah so abatement tax abatement so you said the snow and ice number had
to change to 285 based on this year's deficit right okay because you're saying that's money we have to raise for next year to cover this year that's a bill that we're going to have to pay before the end of June when we hit town meeting so you'll see in a
little bit that's where we'll see what we have so where we going to get $285,000 well that's going to be your free cash we don't have the Oh okay so Oh and then there's some items in the recap sheet you're going to see them on the
expense side but you'll see the offset on the receipts side okay okay and then I'll then there'll be no more free cash right then we got to go play the lottery with anything this um so right now the cherry sheet
receipts are showing at the at the 2,172,555 um the enterprise indirect costs the note here estimate from Dave this is the amount that the water department transfers to the town for the use um and
for us paying the health insurance for their uh for them the um the services for the accountant treasurer all the all the items that are in town that are expended on behalf of the water department by the town are recovered in
this um in that line in that line okay and that's going to 4:30 right now yep yep then the local estimated receipts um is 2 mil is showing at 2 million
um and it the note is saying that it includes um 278,632 of our funds in receipts for what kind of
receipt Um I would say all the fees like dog but not the property tax not the property tax okay the other fee oh that reminds me time to pay the bills no time to find out where the bills are
they charge $50 a vehicle um if you accidentally forget to pay your waitise tax the the excise tax well I have not received two excise tax bills
and I know that they did they didn't all come to me well that's what I got to find out okay they did come out yeah I know i paid them and when I paid I didn't hang on to the because they're all supposed to be pay
one check i have two trailers that weren't paid for and I keep forgetting to go to the tax collector they're saying "Okay I've given you enough time why haven't you sent them to me please tell me." So they should have been on there i mean I think I went back over my history records
they're there can you yeah so Don just Yep clarifying on the Hero Act what you're saying is the regular um excise ones that are exempt and we get reimbursed for that's staying the same but that there'll be a
article on the warrant to go for the increase in the property tax abatement that is not reimbured by the state um yes I'm Yeah that's what I'm saying it and um because it because it's here um
that's why I was assuming it's going to be on on the warrant i haven't I haven't seen the war articles yet um I believe that's that was one um so y just for
clarity if the 625 which I can't tell yet whether it includes this is that one of the numbers that they're using to get to their 625 still not clear even with what come out today on what's in the 625 that's in the 625 this this would Yeah
if if we go to the bottom kind of like the number Yeah the bottom line number in this file is 640 which is more than 625 so right but if that is in what they calculated for the 625 cuz it's new it's not in our budget currently so
I'm thinking that perhaps maybe that was a number that was included in the 625 figures we don't have a list of the 625 figures so just whether here or there so if it's in the 625
but it's yet to be voted on at the town meeting how do you include something that's yet to be voted for in a balanced budget like I'm just not clear on that um if yeah if if if the vote fails then
then you don't you you won't need that 75,000 and so an override of 625 would be but but the override could fail and the vote could pass and so we're having the override not knowing the context if this is a new
warrant article that has to be voted on by then we need we have it in something that hasn't been voted on yet and don't need to bait debate it I'm just asking you that if I'm clear on that that that it's not been voted on yet will be voted on May
sixth but it's going to be part of the override even though it hasn't been to town yet how can that be because they put the cart before the horse and we have to work with it the best way we can well a little little bit because we have to
prepare the budget um and and try to get it finalized we should be you know real close to finalized now and you're a month out from town meeting and and you're trying to prepare the budget based based on votes that are going to happen in the
future if you don't have it in there right you need but if we if we don't put it in here and it's not part of the 625 we're not going to be able to do it in FY26 because there's no additional money to be there so you've you've got you know
it's kind of like but why did we vote on that special town meeting in March 10th seeing it was passed in August um did it make it on the warrant i kind of How do things get on the warrant
um if if we knew that this was coming up why didn't they plan to put it on a warrant so earlier because it's poor planning if we're if we keep if we keep doing stuff backwards it
makes no sense i mean I'd still like to know what makes up the 625 i mean what am I actually what am I actually voting for and that's what we need to do and work it and I think next week with select board that's what we're going to be
trying to do cuz that that 75,000 is is one the other is we have to prepare and and I'm scrolling down as we get to the receipts the pay as you throw um grant for 62,000 if we don't do trash next
year we don't have the 62,000 so it's kind of like so there are things in here that you're going best based on where your budget is and where the override is going to be if if trash if if the override doesn't pass and we
have to get rid of trash this $62,000 goes away too so there's going to be more there there's give and take in in everything we're going to be doing um going forward so every every you know it's going to
say back to physics every every action is going to have it's not equal and opposite but it is it's going to have a reaction to it so as as we take some actions and they happen we're going to have to take different different actions
um and the results are going to going to change the assumption you think if the override doesn't pass the trash goes away that's a possibility that's um the the way the budget is is built right now is
um we have the money in in the omnibus budget with 480 so we're funding 300,000 through the budget right now roughly rough numbers so um again back back to receipts
right and that was the number that I that my proposal last last week to do with the six $6 right that would so that that 480 would now go up okay and and and whatever goes up would
would come out would would not need to be in the override i know and the trash in the woods will go up too but that's Well that's only if we stop stop collecting trash no it'll go up even with the purple bag increase it will go up so and and that's where we were we
were on the My wife had a question theoretically about that she cleans up the road that the town doesn't clean up and then we're paying to throw it away the fact that she's doing such a job that it really doesn't affect I do I do
the same thing i can pick up a bag of trash just on my street and even as some comment about that with the recycling peep center out there um we picked up a double pane store not
store window basement window tried to figure out what to do with it okay then we had to pay them to take get rid of it yeah and uh I'm kind of complaining about it kind of not and I think cuz I'm sitting on the fence on that at least we got it off the street i guess I was You
had to call the highway department and come pick up right yes i didn't know that he there plenty of extra people to come running around for this stuff with a mattress or something yeah but he doesn't but there's there's a line on the board health budget um and they work
depending on the size um they will work with the highway department to take it up to the recycle center and get rid of it and uh I'll remember that we don't get much real big trash you know and things like that actually
most of what I get when I go out there to mow um is soda cans and plastic bottles so they go in the recycling bin and uh so they're taken care of that way and a little bit of paper trash like the
candy wrappers and things or of that um yeah I'm not that was the only heavy thing we ever had we donate the $5 whatever it was to $10 not really no but we don't really have
an account of where that money's the 625 is i don't even know that's the number i thought I Okay that that's the number that's written on Where did that number come from it's on the I don't know it's on the Yeah we know where
it's for yeah okay so if we continue continue down this list so the um the total revenues and so I'll just do the big rather than hitting all all the little lines so the estimated revenue is from from those
sources is 5,82,555 the other available funds that we're going to have motions for and again this gets to putting the cart is a put in the cart before the horse ambulance receipts usually one of the first items on on town meeting is to
move money from ambulance funds to fund the budget well that's here if if we're not going to do any of the other items in front this this is this is is a piece of that too um it's kind of like so yes
when we put the budget together there are some assumptions based on historical things that done it kind of but how do we know how do we know how do we how do we know this if by chance the override
passes how do we know that the money that we voted to say is actually going to where it's supposed to be going well because we don't even know what makes up the $625,000 it's not well but I think the
$625,000 is basically just the bottom line of this sheet it's the bottom line of this sheet but it's all in support of the omnibus budget that we had that we first we know that the 625 does not have anything to do with the schools regardless of what it says on the No it
doesn't say breaking the budget but it says right there in the schools which is misleading yeah it is but there's nothing we can do about it it's already I'm going back a couple years because I'm still as a taxpayer forget the finance committee as a taxpayer I'm still passing it because
what was it when we voted for the trash yeah that one article that was on the Lauren article we all stood up and voted yes we want to spend the $800,000 for trash the next thing you know is we don't have $800,000 for trash
so now we have to go pay purple bags so it's like I felt and I was in trouble i'm with you i lose but then but I as a taxpayer I felt like I was lied to because I voted I want trash no you were
lied to but you weren't lied to by the town you may have been misled but you were lied to by the stateowns they're the ones that promised us certain funds that they do not give us they're the ones who tell us that we've got to spend this money okay every time I see a
school bus whether it's ours or Lunenbergs or whoever I get angry i can't see one of those without being angry at those creatures down there um that really don't care much about you
know like somebody gives $2 billion for some Well Mr chairman we are hoping that as many people in town as possible write letters to Ways and Means and get the letters down there i don't know if wants to consider writing one as a board but
the more letters that we get down the better i know the superintendent and I will be testifying on Tuesday okay i I think I did see that where is it at the state house having a a hearing
well do we want to take a motion on that do our local representatives know anything about it they have been helping us organize yes and have been Scarsdale have been at every way and means hearing to the best of my knowledge that has been held across the state i sat and watched her
sit for nine hours last week at one so I know she was there the entire time advocating um and there's a whole site with all of the paintings so it's well it's called 211 there's now actually 232 and the whole state
is that the number of towns or the number of school districts school districts school districts reason I ask is because there's a difference middle sex is three towns one school district rotten dunables two towns one school district so there's two school districts with five towns
that's only the ones I've known i don't know where Lunberg stands kim what's the site um if you do fix MA funding I'll get it for you in a second i should know off the top of my head um or if you just Google 211 I'll
get it just the number 211 okay fix funding formula.com is anybody thinking seriously about doing anything about the number of seats on a bus that are necessary that's all on the state side what their unfunded
mandates are and in there is full reimbursement for transportation there's a multitude of bills that have been supported from legisl having an empty seat drive around every twice a day every day for my
daughter of course she eats empty for my daughter and her friend and that's just us so there's a spot right on there write that letter like get all that information in there but just advocate for us the more people that advocate the
less chance that this will happen in the future for not just our municipality but across the Commonwealth if we can get that fixed and the tax was put in place it covers schools we see it chipping away in other things but we've got to get our voices known because it's um
impacting budget from across the state oh yeah thank you i just thought we'd love a letter John love a letter okay well then why don't we take a motion i make a motion that we write a letter
to the Massachusetts 211 assistance program or whatever what we emergency man management agency Kim no it's fix funding formula ma it's to it's the ways and means okay are we sending that as a
from Yeah good idea so you made the motion we had a motion to send a letter from the from the Okay we have a motion in a second to board a letter in support they if you go
on the site those example letters you can just where was this okay um any further discussion on the newsletter who we want to since it's Tuesday then we should get
it get it done um roll call Carol yes daryl yes mary Jamesville yes sam Grant yes dave Walker yes d yes and we'll be sending a letter to so
I guess the question is who's pulling that together there's verbage right on the site for what's right I I know I I know that but someone's some one of us still has to go to the site and pull it together just send me the site
I've written a letter I'm just trying to finalize it I like to write this down the name of the site like fixing formula fix it for
fixed funding formula ma.com formula formula any That's my name M A yes thank you let's finish going through okay let's
finish going through so we had the ambulance received um one thing that this 130 from paid access if we and I talked about offsets if I scroll up you'll see that there's some revenue for 130 for TAMP payment that's the PEG
assets so Comcast gives us the PEG access money we pay it to TAMP so there's some pluses and minuses in here um on the warrant articles that are going to happen at town meeting as we put the budget together it's uh it's trying to take into account all the
actions that are going to happen so those two lines are essentially canceling each other out they cancel each other out okay um the transfer from Title 5 that's the inspections for um septic systems the um transfer from the
breeding room the $62,000 grant for a page of throw and then the free cash um additional free cash was the 200,000 that was voted in March at the special town meeting for the school and then the snow and ice overage so that again
offsets the the deficit above this will be coming from the free cash um and then the last item they put in here um the upper um the unexpended salaries for the community services coordinator position
would that be community services coordinator not human resources so that was one one of the recommendations we forwarded to them so the total total revenues and available
funds these are the recommendations we is still what 6502 yep 6502 55 okay so the total they have showing as what
we need to get from the levy um from the tax levies is going to be the 22,918,15 have another question do you know when you'll be getting the overlay surplus again um I don't i can see if Nelson has
gotten it or contact where that is then this area is a calculation of what the town led limits are and how we get there um what we have if I highlight lines 60
through 65 you'll see that for fiscal year 25 we had a starting starting levy amount the 2 and a half increase to that the new growth to give us the new the new total levy at the end of the school
year 2025 is the 20 2033,000 that's the number that carries in and is our base start for 2026 okay um but that's that's that's how we come up with the the levy limit is just
brought from the last year then the 2 and a half increase to 20 million is the 507 um with the new growth um estimated by the assessor office is 130,000 um and so
that's rough estimate is the 20 20,941,561 um when we then this additional amount is what can be on the tax bills is um and this was my little note it's the two
school exemptions for the prop 2 and a half um for the building overrides that we had voted in town when when when they bu were built to our extent expanded the show so that's 1 million335,943
so the total levy that we're getting on our tax bills just strictly sitting uh and sticking with prop 2 and a half is 20 the 22,277504 so this last number the 640 is
the difference between how much we're able to raise using exactly two the prop 2 and a half trying to pay all the all the bills that we've identified um between the omnibus and those items that we're going to be paying on the warrant
articles the Warren articles says 625 but today's budget said it needs to be 640 that's that's what it looks like to me yep so there's a difference of 15,000 that we have to go with okay and we want to be more than that okay you don't want
to be that that close going in so now since it's already published that we can change the amount and just say the override does pass but it's not enough so then we got to go and ask for another
override no we or we go in $10,000 from somewhere yeah and and you know as a minimum I'd like to see 25 out of that um just to give yourself a little little space kind of and again we what we saw we didn't
see a 3 and a half% increase on the web master budget on the on that line so there's still a couple of things that are in here that are replayed but they shouldn't I'm hoping they shouldn't be very big where which line is the trash
in the in the omnibus um it's under solid waste um it's near the end solid waste there it is okay which line is So that line is 570 570 so that
line is currently 780 yes we can cut that down to the 340 or whatever well no we we we couldn't cut it down to 340 but what that number again 780 that's that's the one that's
for the That's for the um pay the flat fee contract that's not for the contract to pay the 300 plus the tipping fees that's wrong you're wrong i'm wrong that is that is for the um it
is for the lower priced one the one where we pay for the pickup and then the tipping fees come to the town we put a 300k offset in that don do you have the contracts i don't have them in front of me but it's like 488 or something like
that it's it's in the 400s let's Can we see the contract okay so you're Okay so you're saying that you're saying that basically the 300 base fee and then you put 480 as the estimate for the tipping fees no 480 is the base fee and the 300
is the tipping fees oh 480 is the base fee yes it's 4 it's not exactly 480 but No sorry let me pull it up do we have a contract that we can see yeah unfortunately i thought I had sent them up before okay let me share what can we
send them to us can read them these are the ones we got when the when the health department they Yeah they gave us We got the We all have them they gave us uh I'm not sure if they gave us copies or but they presented it
to us that is correct i got everything here all right so Dave what you voted last time the motion you made we had already accepted that so we agree with that recommendation
to go with the the the tipping fee contract correct exactly okay well that was there were two different those were two different com I don't know
he should identify whoever is talking we got a machine that work that didn't sound like English okay let me get back to that this is the door to help oh yeah
i don't know some guy cute dog okay sorry ireland i don't know so what she is suggesting is that 48780 there is a flat 480 for
the services and then approximately 300 so if the town gets together and does a good job of keeping their tonnage down that will reduce the tipping fees and theoretically it will reduce um may reduce a truck or two over time
um which would won't do anything with the contract as far as this event but next year's contract may be re-evaluated at a at a better rate or equal rate because the guy who running Shaws knows how many trucks he needs to get around
and It doesn't I mean they know he goes around four to five days a week but you know they could extend a few miles to get another road out of the way because he empty so much question yes so if there were no
trash in the budget what would the trash be your own what do you mean what would the trash Well just said without trash get your own wouldn't the tenants have to pay something well yeah so what's that number okay uh
if I'm going to jump here oh I'm sorry well we'll That's okay no it's still a short contract because it goes in conjunction with with there so the town um they they plan to put for the board of health the fouryard dumpster this is
the list of the dumpsters that they're putting for a total annual charge of 960 $960 $9,600 so if everybody gets their own trash the town only has to come up with $9,000 no plus plus plus tipping
fees so it's Oh the tipping fees aren't included in the um individual person's monthly bill no no we're talking about the town right now so tipping fees are not included in this price for putting a dumpster and emptying it on the schedule
that they're posted the tipping fees would be in addition there'll be um a fee for that those will be 20,000 maybe altogether i mean seeing that we have no high tax figures let's use 20 so 20 and 9 is 29 that's
30,000 so that would reduce um that would take how much would that take out from the budget i don't know just saying 700 well it it takes it takes the the 738 out plus then you have to offset it and take the revenue right and then
you have to take the pay as you throw grant away right so you have to take take those things out um let me um revenue if we're going to do the scenarios i'll I'll we'll get back to that but okay just looking at the
contracts right now because I'm not getting the option I wanted to share so it's kind of late so this is the this is the proposal for um each each year the first year is 478,980 so you could say
479,000 but that's that's where the 480 comes from because and then then you have the tipping fees at 105 per ton for the weight 105,000 or $105 a ton um and for recycling it's
$125 a ton yeah so we should just start throwing the recycling in the trash instead save $90 and take it to we can save on tipping fees $90 what a year yeah um so okay and then and then
we had recycling and then if you want% of our trash they also gave us that that night they gave us um a sheet that had the tonnage that had been for the last for the prior
year right yeah um but I I think that was only tonnage through December yeah right it wasn't Right it was it was only through November or December um but I just remember the tonnage was dropping it would dropped once we
started doing the bags the tonnage dropped the tonnage did drop yeah but the I thought I saw the recycling had dropped too on that sheet i meant to ask Irene that I would have thought that would have increased but maybe not but I
remember doing a quick doing the math real quick that night on those numbers and and I thought that the tipping fees plus the base just running the numbers over 12 month you know replicating those numbers over 12 months came out to a little less
than the 780 $22,000 less i thought it was more than that but I don't I mean I can't remember that's the number but that's the number that we have in there so that's okay so we want to do a little work maybe it would be cheaper to send it you
know the bags would be cheaper the $90 some It's an option it's an option that I think we should be looking at i mean we've had two years to figure this out and nobody seems to know what the numbers are what the solution is you know we bat this around like some kind
of a kick the can down the road but pepper find out what they're doing what that'll do for us if we have to they have their own transfer station i was going to number one number one every person would have to take it to a transfer station number two you'd have
to set up transfer station to if you're going to emulate Pepper no I'm saying go to Pepple not emulate it that you go to go to pay $90 take your cheaper bag and go to the car i'm sorry you might have to go in the car that's that's that's
the piece kind of like well I mean that's the piece but there's always a piece you know right so go to the store by the flags those those eruptions and a lot of people may not know that that's an option that's my point we have a million options we have no solution let's just get rid of the trash
eventually down probably get a little tired of all that trash no they probably will they're making money prop I I did have a conversation with um the people at the transfer Senior Seniors can get a $75 sticker not
the $90 sticker they have bags they have the small bags they have the large bags they have stickers that you can put on a 39gallon black bag that you're buying at the grocery store so you don't have to buy purple bags and put you still have to
buy the sticker and the sticker is more is more expensive than the large purple bag um bags of pepper um they they would be the same price the 350 a bag in pepp $6 we don't they're not $6 yet that was
no it's kind of like I mean it's just crazy but we spent a remarkable amount of time and before they even introduced the trash they didn't have a clue but they just said okay we're going to do this so I don't understand that as far as fiscal and sound governing i don't get that part well those those are the
pieces if if they there there is a large contingent of people in town that like the curbside pickup so they're trying to preserve the curbside pickup um for those people that want curbside pickup um and not have to contract it out on
their own um but there are there are options if say we got rid of trash would we need an override that's my question you will because the difference is going to be about 300,000 that you'll take
down when you have the roughly 800,000 um and then 480 that you're you're getting in revenue that that washes and you've got it only takes 300,000 off the budget you've got like 540 that you got to give back the 480 in estimated revenue plus the
62,000 grant for the trash program both of those 480 but is the 480 a real number or is that just something else we've No well that's a real number that's That's an estimate that's We don't know the real number of the revenue based on history that's all we
have history isn't even 12 months that's right but that's all you have but it's not real but it's actually 36 36 it's closer to 36 a month instead of 40 a month so but what what the purple
bags and it depends of what the it depends that's $4 difference you mean it's higher or lower no they're basing it on a 40 they're basing it on a 40,000 a month but it's actually closer to 36,000 a month so already And then if
depending on what the receipts are for February it could be it could go up or it could go down spanish well in January I don't think we had the receipts for January we didn't have the numbers for January February we have to know what the receipts are yeah we need the
receipts for January February and March to make to see if it's even if it's close to 40 or is it dropping down to something closer to 30 so we're spending all this time on something we don't know is that no smart well but you you can't
know it right but you could you you can know history you can't you can only go by the history that's Yeah but we only have history back to October or and we don't even have the September number because the September number is really where you had the initial kickoff where
everybody bought to get their initial bag so you just take it at a random number okay I get it i get it it's not a random number it's it's the number that that the state has validated that we can use for estimating what the revenues for patients are i just don't get this whole
state thing where we can't have real real real time accurate numbers in the state because we can't use real time accurate numbers i just don't think you know what I think that's just to compare the budget but then there's real life
right and and I think that we've been spending time on this this um arbitrary state you know mandate or whatever you call it we're not doing real life yet well that's what I'm saying okay the state blessed the budget okay take that
bus budget stick it there right now now we're trying to do a budget for FY26 we need to do that with real real time current numbers we're not gonna the states numbers sit here and we don't
touch them until we can do whatever but we can't balance a budget if we're using the state numbers that aren't current that aren't the current numbers i I even if I had to do a whole separate books
apparently apparently the administration is good with that so how do we work around that how do how do we work around something that's not real and we tell the taxpayers oh well um we did our best but we didn't really have the numbers because the administration couldn't give them to us because state said I mean the
excuses go on and on but even Okay I I get the state blessed them we can't touch them but that's one set of books we should have a new set of books with the real current numbers to do our FY 26 budget you do it's the BVA this is
Veronica Cal the actual numbers are the BVA but you can't project off of those um I don't you you you the BBA does not include revenue statements any revenue but it's
all expenses no it doesn't but if you want to look at the budget of what is actually being spent that's where you look and you have that data and we used that in our meetings to see whether or not the numbers were um valid numbers
that were brought forward by the departments we did look at that i'm confused i'm confused i'm just so confused i guess there's like the numbers and
then there's the the real Okay i I don't know i just think the people sitting in the taxpayers Unless there what what number do you No I think you No I I mean what do we need to do we need to go to the accountant
and get receipts for from way zero to see what all the No no i No we can't oh my god we've already done all this for three months i mean by now we have a number i don't get I just don't Why are we How is it so hard
why is it so hard and and and could have bought a sled when before is this happen every year and it's okay did you wait till the 11th hour and you have some fake number that you give two weeks before it's it's not okay and year over year for as long as I've been here we
try to put together a budget with um all the way through um just before town meeting to to get it to balance because well maybe we should be looking at it from July when it starts and then by December we might
know something and then the next three months we won't be doing this this is crazy well we don't we don't have real numbers yet and it's kind of like Mr chair mr chair could I ask a question
who's who's speaking this is John Priest i I just have a question i'm I'm just not understanding why aren't we running this through a revolving account everything on the pay as you throw program says the purpose is to remove
that from the tax levy budget discussion and that's what other towns do they either have a revolving fund or they have an enterprise fund for trash we had discussed that for FY26 um in
FY25 it was started mid year um and so the the it was when we started it it was determined that it would just the funds would go into the general fund um because the bills paid out of the general fund if it's on the revolving
account then you have then um the payment can come from from there but um not quite sure who um I guess that would be the board of health revolving fund but yeah we have to we have to set it set up um who's
who's responsible the revolving fund and and who's getting the invoices and paying them to Yeah it's already in our bylaws though to be managed by the board of health for any crash fees and it's how the other like pay as you with towns do it it's either an enterprise fund or
a revolving fund and it's like you've all said you're spending so much time on this but the whole point of it is to remove that piece of it from this it's whether we're funding a portion of it from the general fund or we're having a fee and bag
charges the point is to take it away from this and just so you know it already appears like there was a border health bag that would have already been funded but there was and that was set up for overflow um but it wasn't
specifically just for that um board of health has one revolving fund and it handles the recycle center um and so that's why the the collection the um but couldn't they just use that same
funds um couldn't find a record of the revolving fund with the name referenced in our bylaws in any of the documents yeah no you you it you you'd see the revolving fund um in the annual town report the that's usually the article
the article before um we go to the budget at in in all the town reports well I think that what she's saying is incredibly reasonable thank you so why can't we look into that
with the board of health i mean with with the board of health with the board of selectmen it's kind of like in in the account we have to make sure that we if we're setting up the new revolving account we have to we we take a vote at town meeting uh to set it up and then
continue it it's kind of like um and then we have Well if it's already there that's what I'm saying well board of health one is but that's right now running running used to run the recycling center specifically it's for that reason yeah um I believe Do we know
for sure hang on i'm going to I'll pull it up now on my computer since I'm sitting right here and you are having to you have other things to talk about i'll pull it up and if I find it I will chime back in well look they were using the revolving fund for the overflow bags our bags say
overflow if you look at them but once you buy they say overflow oh do they you got to pay attention yeah they were they were overflow they were collecting the overflow bin so the revolving fund name is called recycling okay so that's the one the board of
health has excuse me sorry i did find it so it's actually under um the fees section of our general bylaws and under solid waste collection and disposal where the board of health can establish fees and then there's a dedicated revolving fund to be called the solid
waste fund shall be established i will shall be or is it says it in here it's it's 37-5 a dedicated revolving fund to be called the solid waste fund shall be established the fees collected under
37-4 which is all of the fees rel relating to trash and solid waste um shall be placed in this fund fees from this fund are to be are to be spent under the direction of the board of health i remember bringing this up last year i just brought it up to the wrong people I think
are you assuming we're the right people yes I am because you take the time to actually talk about this and I appreciate it so much we appreciate your input believe me no we had Yeah well let's make let's solution oriented here um right that's a
great idea let's find out about it if it exists well Veronica do you know if it exists or not no I don't know i wasn't involved in the trash discussions last year that would be the order of health people board of
Health would know yeah what was your question if that fund that Don just brought up the solid the revolving solid waste fund it said it shall be created now did it
ever get created i mean this is Jones we voted we voted as recycling and we changed the name it's that's what's in the in in the motions we make at town meeting but that's different solid waste and recycling aren't they different
things yeah I would think so how can you just switch like that i don't see why they can't according to what she read they can't open up one called solid waste account goes to the work that was done last year when we were setting this up um board of
health didn't want to manage it in their revolving account it's set up for $20,000 a year oh they did not want to they refused to or did not want to the there's a whole process of there were people in the room that decided how
the process was going to be and the process was paid to throw bag money revenue was going to go into the general fund not the recycling so health wash their hands if if they're not getting the revenue board make that
decision or was it pressured by the board I think it was it I don't think board select were in the meeting I think it was I think it was department heads um and people implementing it uh for where the where the revenue was where zero money was going setting up setting
up the accounts uh for where the where the money was going to post and transfer into the town of Well I think that's a reasonable to clarify this wasn't part of like last year's discussion it was just something I found in the existing bylaws so it looks like it was actually adopted back
in like 1992 with reasonable things we have to make the way the bags come in just says B a Y- trash bag revenue it's how it's listed on the revenue on the revenue
yeah so it goes into the general fund but it goesific the postings from way zero will May we'll be there i don't Don this is Todd Means when you get a second I have a question okay go ahead so I'm sorry I'm late i
meant to be on here earlier but I just got home y has the cross charges from water from water to the um we we did hit it the line on
um I don't I I don't think I'm sharing it right now but u but yeah we we showed um I think it was 400 430 was on the transfer days can I ask if and I fought
for roughly six years to get this to be used was the department of local services/ the department of revenues spreadsheet for calculating those cross charges supplied because the previous board was very good about doing that we
set our budget based on what we guessed what the cross charges would be and it's not something you can just pick out of the air and put a number to this was a very transparent way so that everybody knew what the calculations were coming
from dennis so they are supposed to supply us that and we voted on our budget back in January and it's the board's job to do the budget for the water department um so I'd like to know if that that
document was supplied to you so you could have backup of why those charges were it's an in it would you say it was $430,000 yeah yeah so that's that's like a $48,000 increase from the previous year
it it is um how many um what did we have for headcount increase um with the new waste water treatment plan no and that that's fine and and it may be an accurate number but you're not going to know and I I fought six years to get
this implemented it should be continued the other boards did it and agreed that it was the proper thing to do so if you're putting numbers out there then those numbers should be backed up by that document i I you know that was one of the reasons I started
running as a commissioner was to fight that it's a way to be transparent with the public on what goes on with the water enterprise account and you know it's you know like I said we have to set our budget in January because we have to
set the rates for the coming year and that has to be done so we can notify the public so I just like to make sure we're using that form that and that's what I fought very hard for
can can I ask a question Don uh this question is for you Todd have you talked with Dave Vant that is the formula that we were using back when I was a selectman before i know that for at least the past four years that's been
used dave Vant gave that number to Nelson and so I am assuming let me finish i am assuming that he did use that formula and that he ran it by you guys is what you're saying
here that Dave that the water superintendent did not use that formula no I I in fact I don't know but that's that might have been that it might even be because I can't find my notes so what I'm telling you is the board of
selectman should have a long time ago sent that to us that's not for us to come up with that's your job as the board of selectman and the town administrator's job is to send that to us in a timely fashion so we can set our budget i think that is the
estimated upper total of what he was estimating at but unless you unless you guys use that sheet it's not Dave's job to do that okay so you want us to determine that number we can do that Todd that's not what's happened
so long as you follow that document that when you supplied that to this this group this committee you should have included that so it would show the breakdowns of insurance healthcare um the cost that you charging us let me
finish let I let you finish let me finish that breaks down what you charge us per individual employee and what the water department uses in time and staff and it lays it out very very simply yes but it
is not Dave's job to do that that is your job and the TA's job that's interesting okay i will see that we do that then thank you it's the way that it's been done since we've been here since I got it implemented
and it would Mr chairman yep yes and it would seem that if there's a formula based on what that just discussion was of numbers that would not be all round numbers that they would be known that could be plugged into the formula and it would be highly unusual at this point
for it to be a whole number that it like the prior years that they round up I thought I thought they no no sense you round up the whole dollars but um what Kim is like the
FY24 had 386,855 uh fiscal year 25 was 381,651 she's saying it would be very unlikely to be an even number of
430,000 e yeah so um but it it goes to and it does say estimate it doesn't say um I just want to add one thing too is that that gets usually gets sent to us and in what has happened in the last few years
is if we had most of the time it's been dead on because they say percentage of the time of the town accountant percentage of the time um right in per per person and stuff like that um so in that regards you know that's
supposed to come from them because that that's their staff what Dave gave them was probably an estimation and that's what we went off of we set our budget back in January and now and and you know and I just don't want to be I did it it was happened to me before on the on the
on the floor of town meeting you know it this number got changed at the last minute and I had to stand up and say it that's not the way to do it it's wrong and it passed town meeting and we had to make it up out of our budget and stuff like
that but um I just want to make sure that doesn't happen again and I I Dave didn't do anything wrong he was asked to give a number an estimate and that's pro and that's what he did but he it's not for him to come up with that calculation
we can calculate it Todd it's not a problem i know exactly what formula you're formula you're talking about and I know what happened you know five or six years ago so um yeah we can do that not a go
did that change anything on the budget we're not going to change anything on the budget right now we're just going to highlight that it we we need to valid validating that it's the formula right valid validate yeah yeah oh that's good valid validate that it it it matches the
formula and it uses the formula and what we're putting in here is is a number so but that's not something we do that's not anything we do that that comes from the accountant um going out and getting cost for the health benefits and how
much you know what percent of her time is spent but we as the fin should know if that was used and the figure is accurate so how are we going to get that feedback um it will be between Nelson and and town accountant that we we make
sure that that this is reviewed and updated and water department um gets um from town administrator at the um so can we like by next week when we have joint meeting can we confirm that that's right
we should yeah okay so it'll be confirmed yeah to be confirmed is that good with Todd are you there okay so I get it this is I I did I'm sorry I muted myself and I was
having trouble unmuting that's good good for me but on and if the estimation that Dave gater Dave Yeah Dave gave her that would be the absolute upper limit of what we fit into our budget and I think that's what he did give if I'm
remembering i was trying to go back through my notes to find the when we approved the budget and what we set that at and I I couldn't when I got home so I I apologize for that um but yeah that's you know it's that that's what it is if it's you
know but if the you know we've always discussed with the board before you know if those numbers were different than what we had estimated or we disagreed with percentages and stuff we we talked it through and stuff it's just very late in the game to be to be trying to do
that right now and so um that's all I want to do is make sure we're you I've made every other board use that and it would just if we're I'm just trying to be consistent in what we're doing and just making sure I'm protecting the water enterprise account and again there
probably wasn't a procedure in place to prepare the budget passed from town administrator to town administrator so that's good information yep i I would also like to point out that the water department did not attend any of our
meetings for budget though invited nobody came so we were I know at least I can speak for myself on the board we were relying on um Nelson and Dave to work that number out so I'll confirm it
it's not a problem thank you did you get I will I will add to that that this is a well-known document from the department of local services in the department of
revenue every superintendent that I work with uses that for the town this isn't something out of the blue this is something that is wasn't used in our town for whatever reason um
before but most towns use that especially for water districts and and water enterprise water enterprise accounts specifically so that there is no mism communication so that it is transparent on what you're getting charged for so
whether we were there or not that should have been done that should I I I we should not have had to go to a meeting to do that most of this budget has nothing to do with us except for the cross charges and that's where
the document comes into place so yeah we did not go because I don't we don't have input on any of these nobody sets our budget but my board that is one of the primary duties of my board um coming up with the cross
charges um that that's the town's job to tell to you know to say this is what we've come up with then it's our job to look at it go through it and say well we disagree with this or that or we agree with it for the most part we do because it lines it out very very specifically
so that we didn't attend a meeting doesn't excuse the the thing that the the board and the town administrator who should have known didn't use that document it had nothing to do with the superintendent it had nothing to do with my board it had to do with the fact that
it wasn't done previously now the numbers may be you know it may fit but you're not going to know exactly unless you use the document she Veronica says they're going to use the document and come up with the number that's great but you know that's all I'm I like
I said I've made every other board do it i had to fight to get it in here it would be It's not It's not um what's the word I'm looking for um it's not consistent if I don't i made
everybody else do it and it's not So that's that I guess that was my point coming on so I'll let you guys go all right okay thank you thank you okay can we go back to the trash sorry no I've been waiting for it
well I mean so the town resident Don Yeah she brought up and can we discuss that with board of health or at least speak to them about that revolving fund about the revolving fund if if it is a recycle only what happened
to the solid waste fund that the by say they were supposed to set up another one or or this is it renamed it and just read it or well if they renamed it then it's not it the two revenue accounts related to bags one says B
uh P A Y T- trash bag revenue the other one says B um revolving trash bag fees oh they got two so those are the two
that one is re one is just a general line item revenue coming in okay the other says specifically revolving those are the two that so there's an option that the board of health could look at did they look at
that do we know we don't know i don't know it was I have a hard feeling why you know from listening to the trash thing since I've been on this board for
how many decades um you're kidding every year no okay goes on and on and on um but the point is that it should almost be seriously like
the water thing we've just been listening to the board of health should be figuring out all these things that we've been talking about because they have the data available to them they theoretically have the expertise they have the communication with Shaws
they've got everything that we don't have and they should be saying "Okay you know the budget for the town has to work its way down to zero how are we going to get this trash problem solved for the
town and the community for the pick you know drive as you pick i want it to work but I would like somebody to really look into the numbers that we've discussed we've only had a little bit of ease on all the little numbers that are involved to come up with you know
information and it would be really nice to have the experts that they're supposed to be or at least somewhat expert at least more knowledgeable than we are on how to solve this particular problem to get you know to make sure that we cover the
$780,000 that that's paid out that it does come in from somewhere i have personally have no problem with it $6 okay because I know that I'm still being a member of the community and I am
paying less per month through the $6 a bag or $30 uh you know a bundle um that in order to you know because that assume that I use that many in a month right and it makes me
conserve because if I can get as I said two weeks in a trash bag instead of one week in a trash bag my family benefits from it the tipping fee is going to be re reduced um and therefore the town will
benefit by my little tiny you know minuscule amount but it'll still help yep got it okay so I have no I love the so many years we we've bid up our taxes to pay
for the for that problem we've had a big problem over the decades from Beacon Hill on our funding our schools we have been fighting the school department school but I'm saying this is what happens to
the trash bud okay so I'm accepting that hopefully we will take care of it but I'm just hoping that this lady little fix the town you know fix massive stuff make make a deal because it is
kind of important that we get back on track of taking care of our schools i came to this town you're talking about the letter from Kim the letter from whatever i got the examples right here on my computer i'm going to write it tonight okay I said it everybody to look
at we got the letter covered but because it it is the whole system okay and this trash is part of it now we're fighting amongst ourselves not just us but the town people are fighting amongst ourselves about how to solve our trash problems right but we have more
problems to solve besides that as the budget people yes let's move on to the next is there another one oh yeah you had you had asked about taking taking out the trash so there's this good that Don
Praon I like this input yeah it's good to know that somebody's listening to us anything else next okay well I if we want to look at the budget on a simplistic form
from removing trash altogether from the budget taking away the revenue and taking Oh did you do that those numbers already i just I just it's hit it now yeah um so it will drop the operating budget by the
700,000 do change mhm and so if I if I take that line out so it's a right now 11,933 um if I take out that line from the omnibus budget it drops it to 11 million 153 if I went down and I took
out the 480 from the receipts and I took out the 2,000 program that reduces the number to 42,611 so it red it reduces it from
where it was at 640 so it it takes about 240,000 off the bottom line that's a nice number it's it's an easy number it's an easy hit by by taking it out but okay so it's an option well
and if if the trash moves to the board of health in a revolving fund we essentially do the same thing here oh if if if um if we can guarantee there's going to be enough revenue in there for them to pay it yeah how often do we
collect the revenue i mean how often do who collects it the the revenue from the page and throwback right it is transferred monthly by way zero into an account that posts into the the books like on on uh the downside so it it goes
by who i zero okay is that something we're paying for no oh sure no it's kind of it's part of the price of the bags it's kind of like Oh yeah we are paying for it the price of the bags right kind of so they they pay because they manufacture the bag they as as they ship
out to the stores they so they all the stores that are selling the bags pay way zero way zero will take their little cut and then do the stores get anything for selling the bag they're very nice people and they're doing it at at
no they are doing it for no value zero the money bag and not take something out with you besides the bags i don't know anybody who can go in just for one item and go out with just that one item yeah it It gets It gets you for
traffic it gets you in yes oh get you in the store so you buy more yeah i guess that's the same reason for lost leaders oh the bags are a lost leader not necessarily for the but they get you in the store all the all the way they said
that gets you down to 402 yep i want trash he's never going to get out trash no I'm not i'm just looking at the number looking at the number that that's what it will come down to if we totally if we totally take trash out of the plus and minuses out of the budget whether it goes to the board of health or it goes
the way of the dodo well that's your only but again that there definitely has you know then there's there's got to be a definite Yeah if it goes to the board of health they have to do more to determine what the price of the bags needs to be okay can we um take a
different path right now can we pretend that the override did not pass what happens well I think we just take the first cut in it is 240 out of the budget okay well that's good to know that we have a plan well it it's a it's a starter out of
$780 i mean I think just like last year we go back and try to cut the budget and come up with a new number and go have another and have another override vote why do we have to have an over well or or you cut the number enough where you don't have an override at all why are
you doing that i mean what's wrong with that task or that exercise that Well you we could you could do that but then it's a matter of okay what other functions in town what functions in town do you are we going to shut down right we have to say shut down can't we say modify
you can say modify but chances are that somebody's going to get shut down right well yeah maybe maybe not maybe shut down modified i'm going with modified $780 we're only saving 200 and a quarter
you said the What happened i can't remember on the highway everybody out there has got to figure out where you know what highway they're going to dump the trash on remember he put Remember when the $250,000 that's been gone for a long time that's
been gone since since March 1st yeah that was long gone that was one of I just keep hoping you trash i keep on roads well I I would too i mean I mean my car is just dying it's It's pretty It And it's not just
It's every every time after two trips to the school I figured the rattle's not going anywhere so I let it go so then So now we have to come up with another 200 no another 400,000 yeah and pretty much you pretty much you you've asked all the department heads to go through and cut
all expenses they cut their expenses so now I think then you have to take some really hard looks somebody actually couple of people actually mentioned to me to get rid of the TCAM and go hire
the audiovisisuals from the high school to take over then we would move that then we wouldn't get that revenue from Cam is a is a net zero is it net zero net zero because we get money from you that money comes in from Comcast and
so kind of like does you get rid of TCAM but it's not going to do any good so we have to come with $400,000 yes okay so we could cut window check what would you save anything by closing town hall on Friday
because it's only open I don't know I don't know what the savings is from clo for closing we never I mean it's hardly open anyways right I don't know what it would cost I mean save I don't know never been to that they're still expected to do the
40hour whatever on hours is expected but do it within 4 days or do it Oh no if you only work four days you only work four days i mean you can't ask for 40 hours and 30 one of the things you're reducing is hours therefore you're
reducing are you reducing hours and the people that are getting paid by the by the hour what about the people that are getting paid by contract well yeah that's true i don't know well what about All right well let's go back to I hate to bring this up and I'm
sorry to the HR position because that's already cut no no it won't cut it the community outreach but um the community that's we're talking about we've already she's gone she left on her own she understood she But that
the human resources number is already zero right so again it's a whole different budget that you don't see proper money so no so when when we showed a line it's not zero there was $200,000 line in the revenue side of
this um that says figures include the opera funds of 278 278,000 278,000 but that was for last that's I'm sorry that's FY25 numbers that's that's
what we did in December um okay so and again that was just identifying the difference so when you look at the FY25 it was 2,178 um and that included the 278,000 above
so if that position was terminated like we took the motion last week and the monies were reallocated does that affect the budget in any way shape or form by about I'm going to use a round number because I don't know what it will be if
if the BOS continues the position obviously it goes down last time we saw the figures it was plus or minus 120 but that does not include what may or may not be being paid out of the levy already for insuranceances so Right right that's
like $25,000 i think the insurance is 30,000 for one position yeah $30,000 right in retirement and such so there's a a savings that we don't see um on the ARPA funds itself so there's the ARPA
funds there's salary now there's been some discussion around a number that I said and the 40 that I referenced was town hall employees which the sheet that I was given for the town from the town on employees had 40 in town hall so
that's the number that I use um but but for clarity we'll put this out there there's um 130 of the employees that were referenced by the HR person make under $10,000 and not that they're not important to me part-time but those are like the wreck group and and I know the
rec director does those some of those are the work off program that we talked about and again all that I got was the 24 numbers for the actual list so I have to go with the numbers that I was given but that's where the 40 came from was the spreadsheet that I was given on town
hall there's other options um well like hell would say the school hasn't given a number or talked about it because there's been no ask like if you did x y and z for us what would that cost so it's hard for them to just say it costs so there's efficiencies that
can be had with um online things with contracting um if there was a meeting um I know on her list she you know creates a binder um it said for the negotiations but I know when it comes to negotiations in the past it's always been attorneys that
do that um you know with our um unions so it has nothing to do with the person holding the position correct it has to do with the functionalities of the community yes and in many towns our sizes as I said it is shared um between
schools and municipality and most of um I should I shouldn't say most many it's under the TA's job description that they handle it and if you look under the TAs it's TAs and TA's assistants that are helping um granted there's some departments that have might have more
complications but um everyone's doing their own interviewing and a lot of the HR functions these days can be automated there could be training videos done it's very easy um to do some of it in an automated fashion for those that might
need it and given the choice of cutting other services and positions in a very big way it is an opportunity for our community to look at it i know there's disagreement on it but there again that was when we did the straw poll wanting
to talk about some of these things at town meeting versus doing override first and then donating so well I think that what happens when you get to the part about money that you've got you've got the wisdom of the head and you got the
wisdom of the heart and I think at this point if we're going to do the let's pretend the override didn't pass we got to go with the head because we're looking at a potential bankruptcy if we can't pay our bills
because at one point we're not going to be able to pay the fire truck the police truck the highway truck whatever and then the state's going to come in if we have to let go a position that was not funded appropriately by the federal government then so be it it's got to go
so how much would that save well I mean according to the line of the budget it says zero right no but that's not right well but that's the number that's in there now but they put that number in that number wasn't there
before but you there's there's the thing of getting getting through this year and then looking at the No we said permanate immediately and take that money that's what we And then you don't have that recurring expense no you don't but it
it's kind of like do we need to put in a line on the professional services that that allows them to have human resources help um what did we do before what did we do before CO what do they don't the departments take care of their own a lot
of them do i actually got call from a couple department heads that said that they take care of their own on boarding their own testing their own appointments well I know at least two and I also know that Nelson told me that nobody does a insurance check if
you remember that part remember said it was too disruptive when I asked if someone was what she call it checking the vendors to see what better pricing we can get oh yeah remember he said "No no no it's too disruptive we don't do it." Oh yeah i think that's what I said
but I've worked for companies where they change it every year every year they change it what do you mean too disruptive well that was his word what does that mean in other words they don't want to do it they don't want to go out annually to bid for the health insurance
life insurance um a lot of companies go out and rebid at a lower price and he said "Oh no no no we don't do that because it's too disruptive." And I said "What do you mean?" He said "Well you might have to change doctors." And I said "Well so
where does that come into these sheets i mean that's where you know what I'm saying where does that come into these sheets?" They gave me I'm not disbelieving you i'm just trying in the line item that they have in there
now,000 I knew I talked to a really great doctor so if you know where the ARPA funds are on your Yeah no I think the problem is all the all the $2 million in ARPA is not anywhere on
our website or anywhere for anyone to see i know this i couldn't find it it's supposed to be a project sheet and I went and that's not what I know it's kind of like you had access to
it before but I couldn't find the most recent copy of it dave you're saying it's a zero does that growers make any money it's paid by our it's it's paid somewhere else and doesn't it never should have been hired
by I'm not I'm not arguing that point at all right you're saying the money's not in the budget i'm saying how does that help us balance this where the $2 million number doesn't change and the zero number doesn't change oh we can't bring in as revenue but she's getting
paid out of opera funds now and will be continued to be paid out of opera funds for FY26 so if he's terminated June 30th we can take that opera money for FY26 and reallocate it so you're saying that
number goes from 2 million to 2,140 i mean no it's 2 million but 80 80 is for a salary for next year you're going to take that 80 and move it but that 80 but that 80 salary is not in the
number that you came up with 29 420 correct what you're saying is take the 80 and say throw it to the town administrator or reduce him to 49 that's that's correct that's what you're you're reallocating the if you're if you're looking at a
number and we say 80 80,000 you're saying you can reduce another line item by 80 is what you're saying if you say I'm eliminating that position so now we have 80 benefits i can now I can now and then you save on the benefits too which are $30,000 is
that what you have and then you're going to save in FY2700 grand right there you won't have that position we don't have that we don't have the money to fund okay there's no need 600,000 all right well
every adding up is when we every touch I mean you get we have a bigger number but it is straight that's good it's not It's not really Excuse me sorry i have the ARPAC account in front of me if I can help at all it
appears there's $98,797 left in there that is available to be allocated for salaries and um whether it was to HR or to another
position um the easiest way to do it is to allocate it to police salaries because there's already an existing project number 18 uh and then have the police department reduce their budget by the same amount
and then that would free up just about $100,000 that could come off of that override as well this year what about next year right then we then next year the position won't won't be there um for HR but hopefully I mean I
know that a lot of us are really optimistically hopeful about the school funding changes for next year um for fiscal 27 but for 26 we could utilize that more effectively i
also I mean I looked up the our what in our budget book from the last one I saw was 2020 the four towns named as our peers um air Lancaster Lunenberg and PBLO I just looked up what they did and
uh doesn't have any HR they have a payroll person Lancaster the town administrator does the HR the treasurer collector does payroll Lunenburgg the assistant account administrator does HR and there's a payroll person and we know
PEP roll does have an HR director their collector treasurer still does their payroll I know our payroll is showing is being handled by the accounting so um it just seems like a a place that we're spending that a lot
of our peer towns don't I think that's important for the town people to I think it's very important and I have a hard time with with wherever we're deducting the money from as we get into next year we we have to
look and see are we going to hurt somebody else's budget by not having their money funded like if you did it to a police officer would we be able to fund a police officer next year that's I don't think that's apples to apples though we're talking about money that was
allocated until 2025 it is but what I'm saying is are we going to have the money in the budget next year to fully fund that position we're decreasing the amount of this year well someone either the board of selectment or the finance committee
has got to be a vigilant vigilant body all year to make sure that that h doesn't happen right sit back and wait until That's what Yeah that's okay well that at least solves some of our difficulties it gets February 26 but we got to make
sure and then we try to start working on the You're saying you another person will get cut next year no no in in fairness keeping the HR person it's also a temporary band-aid because we'll be out of these ARPA funds and have to
absorb that cost next year so this is just utilizing the funds better for fiscal 26 and moving forward i don't think it's meant to um say there would be a cut the following year this could actually go to any salaries it's I I
picked the police ones simply because they've had ARPA funding in the past the issue is that our we have a select board policy that gives our select board full authority over how these ARPA funds are allocated and reallocated and I really had to dig through minutes available to
figure out where this money was even actually going based on the sheet in front of me looking different than the minutes and the where the money actually went um and I'm still waiting for some documents to clarify that but just I just wanted to clarify it doesn't have to go to police but it can go to any
salaries right and the other salaries that it was paying was council on aging firefighter um there there were other salaries that were paid by opera funds oh really yes oh that one girl's gone right the the wellness
coordinator wanted to talk about her but is it the kitchen help that they just let go on there was there was that yeah it's kind of like and that's why I say I mean there there were other positions so they already let somebody go that's on
operately so what do we have a problem with light in the HR so why why discriminate yeah when those people were hired they were told it was I
hope that was that doesn't mean it's a guaranteed position just as you're looking at numbers if you are looking at that number like I said Don and I both have different numbers both from the town like the numbers are just a little bit off um but it's around
that that's why I say plus or minus but there is the um unknown amount um for the insuranceances and that is a savings on the insurance line right so added significant 100,000
um I'd say that total salary over 100,000 correct so do you think it's around 25 I'm trying to it's a rough number for so we used 25 so now we're up to 375 okay in The rough part is is
we've been paying for those two positions out of the levy if indeed they took that um for the length of it so that is money that could have been paying for something else well
thanks it has nothing to do with the people in the positions just process okay so all right so that so there you go we've got 375,000 we need another 225 feel like I'm at an auction
um what else okay I'll say it what about recreation changing modifying the way it's done what about having her paid out of revolving funds that she makes from the whatever well obviously she doesn't make that
much money because before she came it was selfunding department it's supposed to be selfunding i know but her salary is not too hard it's either selfunding or change
so when the um when she became the director she somehow she wasn't able to make what she was she she couldn't selfund the department and pay herself so she asked the town for help and she became an employee of the town okay
that's the long and short of it okay so okay so that's fine but I don't think she runs a Help me here i I don't know what she does so I can't help you well she has a daycare program before and after school
and she runs a summer program in the summer for eight weeks which I think is mandatory for any town they should have program so in the interim she does this that and the other thing she does a babysitting class she registers
for the Mount Ski Club yeah that can't be a 40hour a week well I I see i don't know i don't know you know I put in a request for um the revenue coming in and what was going out but Okay so solution
all right i found out and I don't know if everybody knows this that the Spalding Memorial Daycare before and after is private not public it has nothing to do with the school it's a private thing so why wouldn't she be
able to get that contract and work her program out of there get more kids make more money and maybe self sustain itself i mean that's just a a potential solution for Okay or put it part-time
and just have a summer program i mean I think there's wiggle room there in in that department that's what I'm saying without banishing it to the other perspective and all of it um so when I look
at resources across the ages within our community um I think all of our folks whether it be recreation library or senior are doing an outstanding job um recreation has a little building out
here and one staff person raising money to pay for the staff i don't know that there's the same access to like earmark funds to call it that probably a improper term but that the library gets
revenue flow through money there's like from our state they get money coming in um there's the friends of the library there's the friends of the senior and there's multiple people at the senior center revenues so I think that in its
totality that might be something that gets looked at overall you know fees for out of town people um for the senior center i know there's some fee out of state i don't know if there's in town fees and not that I want seniors to have to pay but I don't like that the kids
have to pay either but there's there is a vast difference between the amount of staff that we have for young people and the amount that we have for seniors um to just try to figure out where that balance might be and maybe try to figure
out opportunities for recreation to have more access to facilities that they could run additional programs out of too because if you only have that little building there's not a lot of programming that you can run out of there but we do have other municipal
facilities that might and I haven't talked to recreation about this but it might be a good overall like strategic planning discussion of what could be possible with more space so they do have a recreation commission
so what is what do they do what is what is the recreation commission rule i guess it's like us or no it's like the HCC yeah it's supposed to solve problems they're supposed to but they don't do
any fundraising or anything or I mean I I don't I don't know i don't see it but maybe they do they do fund raise they're doing a um an Easter egg thing right now where they will e put Easter eggs out
for a hunt for your family so there there is not fundraising it's a program she told us it was a program not a fundraiser so the revenues were going to the
revolving fund right it's I mean I think that Okay let me put it this way because I see that it's controversial i think we should take a hard look at recreation and look at options and look at what we should find out how much is coming in what's going out where is it going out
are there other options say this about the town not about one person we've been start talking cuts why not other opportunities for revenue increases anyway you mean Oh you mean as opposed right well isn't that a great idea i
like that the other side of the glass yeah so you It's really what Kim was saying is there's other opportunities out there to increase the revenues that the town's getting oh but she had specific on Well she was she was talking recreation but
senior center came up too you know it's kind of like the without raising taxes you're saying without without raising taxes fees fees what about the the meeting hall there that's in the middle between the library and the that belong that's a town I know the
library does a especially during school vacation because my bingo class is cancelled because the library libraries has all these uh the kids for spring um break so they're basically taking over the whole with the kids activities so
they'll fill up the whole Wouldn't that be a really great opportunity or recreation to have that space during vacation that would be a very good Yeah library is doing it with all the kids for free when they have paid staff so I I just
think it's a bigger because I've been you know looking at all different things in our community that when there's services that are for free which is great and there's paid staff that don't get paid out of revolving funds and the and the friends do a great job
um and the library does a tremendous job and the senior center does have a tremendous job as does wreck all three of them are doing a great job but they're really independent and is there a way to look at them as like a unit that might create more sustainability
long term because this budget crisis is not going away tomorrow um and what are other opportunities and I've even you know um the ability to through the historic society write a grant that connects with kids that's recreations
based or to connect with seniors that's program based like can there be that leveraging if everybody gets their minds together um cuz in our budget even a delta of 20 to $50,000 makes a difference so I think I I do think
there's opportunities for the community Yeah I think we should look somebody should look at that i mean that's not our job i No but we if we come up with ideas we can pass them to board selectman so that we can think about
them for the joint meeting next week because that we've all been looking at what the budget is what the what the override is now we're talking about what happens if the override fail well I mean that's that's a real we've been hearing
that since we first got the meeting and we're going to have another we have to have two budgets we haven't seen the first budget yet so we'll probably never see the second and it will not and we won't know but we just we started with the with the first and I can talk to Nelson audit i mean
very simply it was it's deleting you know subtracting the amount of the solid wasteline and taking out the the revenue associated with with the program so you're you know okay so that's a good thing he's saying we should look at more revenue uh how I like that because it's
a positive it's a positive thing but shouldn't we in that case have an economic development board it was recommended in the master plan i was going to say that was master plan it was it's kind of like earns so we
already talked about that well we haven't we haven't but if you're going to do that it's a position that requires funding it requires a salary economic development committee committee committee committee versus job no we're
not creating a new job great oh you haven't heard the statement didn't I oh then you can turn it after two years so let's I mean is that a recommendation i mean solution if we're looking for
solutions here right we're looking for solutions to the budget and that's you know it it's kind of like but I don't know that you'd be able to get some an economic committee on board to help with the FY26 budget but maybe the FY27 is
going to take some time to Right i mean one wasn't built in a day i get it and but if we don't start it will never happen that's my theory starting after May 5th 4th whatever it is
um whatever happens we'll probably continue to be working on this because something's going to go wrong and everything's going to into the May and June but sometime one point or another we'll get actually by the the 1st of July I think it is we've got to have it
done regardless of what happens because that's when we need the new money to pay the stuff um I don't see why we can't continue to do what we're doing now on July Tuesday and the next Tuesday and the next Tuesday to try to answer these
question try to ask the questions try to figure out the stuff before Christmas comes i agree with you one million% they didn't just Proactive works reactive is you're asking on the board you know this is the first time in uh since I've been
on the board that all the seats have been filled this year tell us how great we are i already said that i don't say it i was going to say tell her again because she's up in Yeah i'll be out of here in You can't leave days you can't
leave we'll see can't leave what is it march when is it june i think you're in 2026 okay i'm only in firm i just took something to place because Well keep it you're doing a great job it's not my decision
john Bar decision the next time john Barrett Minute Man okay you should join the Minute Man oh your wife she was going to do the horse no she's got somebody else you know how many horses you have to have for this area all right let's find
another 275,000 let's raise All right can we raise it what can we do without raising taxes well it's after 9:00 tonight all right let's go home and think about it i I have one more idea if
you want to hear it okay um or one more idea for tonight how's that i do have a list because I I have been trying to find some things to help um do we know which positions in our
current budget that is proposed are currently not filled we know some of them right Don um I think the only one that is posted right now was the animal inspector
animal i saw I saw that was posted but is the like is land like I thought the land use position I know um Veronica had brought up at one of the select board meetings and I thought it was a really thoughtful suggestion that you know there are three other people who maybe
could for now absorb those duties to not fill that position and um if that's the case we probably shouldn't be carrying them in our budget that way can I talk to that Don it's Veronica
um land use is we are not filling land use and if you look at the omnimous budget on the land use line what we did is we put 30K in there because there are things like the um uh the storm water report for the town not only do people
that develop in town have to previde a you know storm water plan but the town also has a storm water plan for the town that has to be reported on annually and typically the land use coordinator does
that so we do need some uh land use coordinator consulting so we put 30,000 in for a consultant that is the one place that if um we have the 640K that we actually need looking at
the omnibus budget as it is we can drop that um by 15K to get down to the uh 625 um which is the reason for the 625 we would like to keep the land use in
there but if in the end after we get all the final numbers for everything like audits and C biz for accounting etc etc and and now you know I have to look at how um the water enterprise number came
in that was a a collaboration between Nelson and Dave so but anyway we have a little bit of play there um if the override doesn't pass uh I do know that there are two other positions that will
probably be empty in the next fiscal year that they will not be filled that's the first place we'll go before we cut staff so um there are a few things that we can do there and
uh yeah so everything has to be collective bargained um but if we have positions that we don't fill that is okay doesn't have to be okayed by the board that's a reserved management right so
anyway so yes that's a good suggestion and it is one that we will incorporate and we will have not necessarily a budget um we will have a plan for if the override doesn't fail and we are looking at all those things
so so is the income going to be included in knowing what those plans are or not i'd say we it should be you'll know before town meeting you will know before town meeting these are all collective
bargaining things um I expect we're going to have executive sessions in all our meetings um through the time of the vote um and then the collective bargaining will uh happen if the override fails for the
other positions we can't do it's our our calculation is not the 402 that you have up on the screen but 387 um is what what I'm looking at so I'm not exactly sure what you were doing mcking with those numbers to get 402 i
know it was taking out the trash and the first thing that goes is the trash so that's 325 plus 62K in my mind so we have to come up with 387 um and we we do have a plan but but
unless it unless things are collective bargained we can't really talk about it i don't know what happened how did it get to be 387 from four well I I do it oh because Oh probably it's because you used the 640 number so we can lower this
by 15 and I'll bet we'll get to the 387 um that's the number that I'm I'm working with that that we're working that we're looking at so if you subtract um Yeah what's your what's the difference there is that 15 yeah
yeah 15 so that's the 15K so the the amount that um we have on the land use line will will change to 15 and will get put under consulting because if we're not hiring the position it has to be
zero on the budget oh details but they'll they'll get there cr so yeah I I had subtracted the 780 that was in the omnibus yeah yeah yeah yeah i see what you did now um Yeah so
it's the number is 387 so Oh I got 375 we need 10 we need 11 all right i make a motion to adjourn tonight i'll second that thank you
Dave that's okay i don't care who says it as long as I he asked who's for I'm sorry so we had a motion and to adjourn and second it um roll call vote dave Walker yes dam Grant
yes jane Church yes yes yes hazes yes unanimous extainly turned