commes well I can't call the order without oh one minute is she in the chamber in the um be was meeting you Jerry you I'm here
VY and we have the volunteer form everyone we're just going to be a couple minutes late we're waiting for Veronica to show up in order to get a quorum did you find her yeah
[Music] and okay so we're just calling to order once 5:45 and continue on well they have to call a joint meeting to order too yeah I know
that but as far as in my I going to is the is the select board gonna adjourn joint meeting with the scho Comm yes okay that's not on here
yes no I didn't put that in the motion and you have it under 3.1 s545 but 2.1 is 6 o' I think that's fine it doesn't need to be yeah is there theend in the yeah it's
right over there hanging on the thank plastic C there Jerry it's hanging on the wall there yep that that's where they always okay thank you of course be a minute for
hey Sam how you doing good how are you Sam how's everybody here good you excellent we're here it's a good step how are you doing good how are you I'm here good I'm glad to see it I'm here to talk about this as well as everything else you here to talk about
what this well of course that's all we're here so um since a joint meeting hasn't been called for you guys it's G to be three people or less but you can't have a quum we have
AUM we can't have the meeting then or or someone needs to the work session was around is that allowed not to my knowledge no well um could be allowed we can't take a vote obviously not we're not here to take a
vote we're here to discuss okay um that might be a distinction I'm not familiar with but that might be true okay everyone well sorry that we're a little late but I'm going to call The Joint meeting of the
selectman in the North Middle sex Regional scho school committee uh to order at 5:51 p.m. and if I have a call Vote for This
elment uh Veronica present I'm sh present into the preliminaries right now we'll just get on going with the uh School Board would you like to call your meeting to order will uh I don't believe we need to
because we don't have a quorum we only have myself Lisa and Randy seem to be here so we don't need to call it we have to have five for Quorum so um I I'm gonna just step out for a minute okay
um Veronica I think got a text message from Kim oh so if we can hold off for okay always something new weap
um Sabrina is it true that a work session could have a quorum for I think we can but I don't think we can vote on anything right if um if that's the distinction then I'm okay with it I'm not familiar with all the
rules regarding yeah we have done that too before Nelson we had a full group as a work session okay all right not posted I mean we posted it as a work session you know votes were not going to
be taken that's not the same thing yeah they didn't post at all Don didn't you're not posted yeah so um so it has to be three people or less okay um if somebody shows up can I bow out and just sit in the
background um Don's here I I am but Mary Jan gets here I I hadn't received any email back so one of us will get yeah we're talking right now there's just three of you so that's not a problem be glad to take
off email to try to ask you yeah I said yeah please don't come in on Zoom you came in in person you were refining me as well as everybody else no I was just straight to you on that one it's so but uh I haven't got anything since this
morning yeah I haven't looked since this morning okay no we're still fighting the weather now we're digging ditches in ice to get the water are you coming Saturday morning should I might it might not
whatever we we do have one scheduled for THS um as the season goes on we end this particular season yeah I would like to have a long discussion with whoever is
involved with what we can do about this problem some of these pages are unreadable even with my glasses yeah and the ones that are when I take I can read them a bit with a magnifying glass but by the time I get from what I'm talking
about to the number and listening I'm lost again um I'm not a expert shape or form with Excel but I do know well that we used to have the Excel sheets handed to us and that they can all be broken down
by by each particular section and print 11 sheets and we're not getting I was very talk you last very pleas that is really being yeah no that is it's very hard
whether I'm here in person on it it's impossible you I can break in when necessary on the obviously break here but really seriously need to talk about there's no reason why we can give
it to the town in May whatever and not be able to read it it's just there exactly it's kind huge increases because of police some of
these aref not L voice now we have a problem we spent a lot of money I can't hear anything can you we I just unmuted us um we're good we
are good can you guys decide have to finish this please okay um will do you happen to have now I I don't believe so I don't think he need all right so we
we'll move forward would you like to introduce the members that are [Music] W say that again okay sorry really sorry about all this um would you like to introduce
yourselves so uh will Hackler is here school committee Townsen representative I believe Lisa Bloom and Randy Rush are in attendance but we do not have a quorum right now okay well thank you all for joining us and we have
one order of business uh to conduct [Music] and yeah I wonder if I should get her out of there are we ready yes um I moved to appoint Kim Craven to the North Middle sex Regional School District school
committee as towns and representative with a term effective April no February 25th 202 5 until the annual election on April 26
2027 second okay any further discussion hearing none a roll call vote would be on our behalf Veronica um Veronica Cal I and
Laura Sher and I will Hackler yes I okay you also might have to once in a while H Wonder well once in a while you might have to
you know so that you don't lose okay um thank you very much we've we have voted and uh thank you to Kim for volunteering and good luck to the school
committee thank you appreciate it thank you all right thank you do we need to adjourn um when don't we adjourn a part of the joint meeting The Joint meeting joint meeting I make a motion to
adj adjourn our joint meeting with North M sex Regional School District school committee in our second at 5:58 second roll call uh both Veronica Cal I and Laura sh
I okay and I'll call the order for six or what do you want it's literally it's a minute and it's actually yeah I think they can come in get settled I been do we need have we done
the preliminaries already no but I'll but they can come in yeah um town counil they can't delate here right I know that so it's three people or less three people or less would you ask who's going to come
in are they just three people Don knows it Don knows it three of you three people can we come in three three three of you can come [Applause] in they didn't post oh they didn't post
so they can't have a quum okay hey everyone good evening my name is Laura shiffrin and I will call the meeting of the board of Selectmen for February 25th 2025 to order at 6:m could you join me in the plg
please FL uned States the for it stands one nation under God indivisible andice like to thank all of our veterans and all of those currently serving our
country now here and abroad and all of our emergency response volunteers as well as their families for the sacrifices they make for all of us is being recorded and will be
uploaded to YouTube is anyone else recording the meeting yes indeed okay made record show that syndic King is recording the meeting Chairman's additions or deletions I would just like to say um we
still have lots of volunteer positions available for the community to participate in we have had um a few people take out papers for the elected positions uh not all the positions have
people who have taken out papers and there are many more volunteer positions available as I said opportunities for everyone to help out I would like to say a thank you
to Ellis strs who is 94 years old happy birthday and Ellis currently serves on the uh cultural Council here in town as well as she has served in the past on many other committees I also want to
thank some of you in attendance who I know are serving on two three or four different committees and you're sitting at this table right now and I appreciate your assistance the town appreciates your assistance and all that you do for us uh we have nothing under 1.5 for
minutes this evening and we'll go right to 2.1 and have a work session with the finance committee or three members in a work session in a
work session no no cor okay Don I'll let you take it over to um we want me to bring it up and share yeah why you ask Harley for a Shar this is Don Hayes I'm coming into the
zoom yes I'm I'm looking for your uh for you right now Don I'll I'll I'll put the sharing in as soon as I find it thank you cop right I do yes see order joh we don't have a copy of budget in our
book facilities we have we don't have the concert use is here for B concert yes share point I submitted it to both the Town Administrator no
one it's the same it's the same amount as previous years okay what was the amount around1 me nobody right now what I have up is BBA code 660 Memorial
Day is 692 so we'll start with 660 um the Memorial Day um so if we look at that um there's three lines in the Memorial Day expenses the Professional Services and services and then other
supplies the total concerts is $665 from memorial memorial concerts sorry so what are the other supplies do we know so that yeah so in the memorial they other suppies
um what sorts of things going what what items are going into would be re floral WS for the cemeteries meaning each Cemetery where we have a service so B Flor for
Riverside and Hillside um few geraniums I mean a very few like Comm in $45 total to go to the cemetery um sometimes the cost for ammunition but
the legion has been taking care of it the last couple of years um One West Hound in and then Highland Street what about the little the um the older Cemetery for the up
okay there are two kinds of re that we've gotten in the past okay the two big floral ones which are placed during the services right but then we bear in mind we have 17 veterans macers around
town Corners you see that or number of years were were re there we certainly put bre here in front of the Town Hall small of the Civil War Monument one re does go to burial ground
okay that's um usually one goes in front of in front of small now re as far as live re again you have to have your mind separate things the two Services the
war there's been difficulties the last few years getting them just because there weren people still make them anymore and then acquiring the for so there has been some substitution
in the last couple of years of some artificial Rees or artificial decorations on the 17 V markers but those basically are the supplies
thank youly you know pretty loose loose flowers but also we were put we were putting in the river and if we have natural Laurel then we can put
that in the river but if we're using plastic GRE they're obviously not going in the river do we collect them at at the end of the season or anything like that or we I don't know well again a realistic question
um we started and I'm not sure it was two years ago three years ago with artificial ones and CU they fade they fade and again it's like Memorial Day is not just one day I mean it is one day but it's not like you put something out
and you take it back in that's all you care about the summer right right and then by the end of the summer they're pretty much right is integrating so some years has been a cost of buying AR official ones and other years
so that's 6,000 should I just expound all the other expenses why not all right um there's some busing to move some matches from the reading room say the
children from the reading room to fding and usually a bus transports the town band from the common to the BFW then when they get done matching from the reading room back to spaling so
this busing course there you need to keep people in one place you know 30 people Here There and Everywhere and I that's one concern that there could be an increase in busing
just the way the world is going I mean I I have some built in but I mean things we hear on the news you don't know if all of a sudden things are going to be quad because we talking Memorial May
2026 oh 2026 2027 yeah yeah the second half of the year6 2026 but it it's yeah okay never mind yeah next next calendar year so
it's not this coming Memorial Day this one's already then last couple of years there's been some money budgeted to reimburse the school department for the Spalding school restroom is being open
just for a short period of time in the afternoon for the matches between parades to L the facilities we have to pay for that yeah of course have to hire someone in to do it to open the do and clean up the bathrooms I I believe that
they have tried to in the past been as considerate as they could have been with price and still fall within their guidelines of what a person has paid to to be there and oversee it and then there's also please
detail that because streets are being blocked off for the parade to go by certain spots please detail and usually I am only included within my
budget th possibly 15500 and some years the police department included in their budget and other years they didn't and course it all depends what their world is like so I mean I think we're going to get by
with what I proposed for Memorial Day but I'm just telling you that there could be wild hats I mean I'm not anticipating him but we're just very fortunate I think in towns that we still try to Ser Memorial Day like a lot of other
communities yes it is good okay that's memori what else I scr down 92 is band concerts
um that total amount is 15,300 two lines make it up the band concert band services for 14,900 and the band concer other supplies before I have a question for you
Benny so when you have your band contest each week it's sponsored by a church or an organization locally correct no the con is sponsored by the town towns okay so the activity that goes on during the
B concert does that in any way bring any money into your fund no and as some of you well know one has to struggle to have some of these organizations be out there having a lawn
party because they have Manpower issues and obvious ly if they think they're going to take well hope to take in a few hundred and all of a sudden they have to pay money to B conses they're probably
definitely not going to be there we had this conversation we had this conversation before pretty much everybody here know I've been managing the band for 55 years so congr and we thank you for
that and certainly if some of these things come in under this proposed then that's good but it's just I need to make sure I'm in a position to deal with what might have to be dealt with now do you
have to deal with anything like it rains and do you still what's the deal with when it rains as far as b b the band you still have to pay them or okay that's well I didn't know how you so sometimes obiously we get money
back then there's money there's a rain date right sometimes rain we run out of Summer okay we good on the band
concerts um just out of curiosity because it's sitting at about 53% or 54% used um when did the B concert start con of July August and June right okay
so right no no no I understand that but what week in June did they start what what week in June did they start is it the first second third the first one the first week of June okay so you have that would be four for Co but
in June if we don't have any Lane dates and with that you know how much the average band concert costs so with the players that show up they get paid do you have an average um that you pay out on a weekly
basis probably $1,430 okay love the bookkeeping Yeah by so that's that's good I just haven't seen what the what the numbers were and seen that before so that's first that
question okay I don't have anything any additional questions anybody else questions I I guess my only question is will everybody be there on Saturday for the um budget Summit um we
Nelson and I had a conversation if there were items like this I don't think there's any questions about the budget submitted so there may not be a need for everybody to command if there's no questions on we have everything and we
have an override on the warrant if that override would not pass um are we asking everybody to consider how to drop their budget by a certain percentage Yeah I think we would
probably be forced to um have everyone submit a revised budget request X percentage so people should be aware of that I just don't want people to leave here or leave Saturday thinking that
this is a fun no this is contingent on an override there is going definitely going to be contingency on an override because the budget is going to exceed the revenues that we have I ask what your even speaking about Saturday what
meeting March 1st this coming Saturday is budget Summit and there was a published um I think it's uh cultural is the last that we're talking with
correct so from 9 to 12 or 1 I think it's 1 o'clock 9 to one every hour there's a different group that comes in and we're looking at the overall total budget I wasn't even where it was happening but I do not anticipate being
in the area okay and when Don and I spoke this morning for departments that um didn't have anything that we need to discuss further we we we felt like they probably wouldn't need to come in
because we're sort of we would be discussing the same budget twice essentially right so um I think at the end of tonight we'll probably good good sense of what the schedule might look like that way I can start letting department heads know that they should
plan on coming in on Saturday to discuss things further yeah and it will be a good summary and reminder for us what we've viewed over the last over the month of February the budget so how are we GNA let the people know who are not coming about the temp about
theage yeah I'll I'll yeah I'll inform everyone that do you get that Penny no okay how can we get in touch with you well okay I I have I have her I have her
email but I'm not sure if so there's an all Department email that goes out to everyone I don't know who might be missing certainly all the major department heads and boards and committees but I I don't know if it includes every single so L is going to
be your Conta but when I sign out all Department I you know I I think make sure that Benny May is on that email distribution in fact everybody that has
a budget should be on that email distribution yeah all I'm not sure this is a question I should ask but years ago they kind of tied my band qu of Memorial Day together
should there ever be things like this that occasionally have come up in the last 50 years and I don't mean that um that if all of a sudden they had to be a
parent do I assume that they could still be considered timeing together I don't think we've even discussed that well percentage we're talking about and you know if if we're then if it were
percentage big enough B concert wise would end up cutting you know two-thirds of a concert or whatever and I'm hoping that I don't reach my cap on Memorial
Day if there's fluidity which you know as I say years ago I mean was back I think days of bely sleeper actually called me when I was in some other part of the country and said can we tie these together just in the event you need to do
this I said just question there are ways to tie them together at the end of our budget year we have two months where we can transfer money from one account to another so they don't necessarily be attach need to be attached but we would
transfer from one account the Memorial Day into into bqu if that was or alternately if if you haven't used all B con money that that runs across the two seasons so there there
are alternatives for us to if but the money has to be available in in those accounts to transfer but What's the total of her budget um the two budgets together um
um would be 21860 21305 no eight okay okay okay yeah where's the other one 219 um so so this one is 692 the band concerts so it's
15300 and if I scroll up just a little bit the 6605 is the Memorial Day account oh 6,000 okay that we're looking at so if we're doing percentages I don't think you would be
losing that much out of here that's just my personal opinion but we have bigger fish to fride thank you for what you do and I had a dyslexic moment on a on a
number so the total was between the two was 2,9 okay thank you more questions okay next is facilities here yeah I saw y Rob can you
hear and see us yeah I I see you and I can hear you I'm borrow my wife's uh computer in her office thank you for thanks for I didn't think they were but not the others well the ad assistant the admin
assistant is but the temporary help and the support staff I thought was not why did they say you new Contracting increase I think probably because they just probably figured it was same increase across the board for whether your union or
nonunion that would be my guess is that correct yes so here we go rob oh he put all there is you want to look at the sum or the detail Treet for so it's per contract that they get
the step increases uh Rob does but everyone else you know it's just kind of in the Danielle she saying it's just assumed that they'll get the so they all
have reviews yeah the department had because you have to have a satisfactory review to get a step increase and that's on before this would go into effect before July 1 right because it's a new fiscal
year that this goes into theity is I don't know if they started as step one but the typically you got put on um the step when when the colums report was implemented it depended on what they
were currently making at that time you got put on the the step that um was either equal to or right above what you were making so can I ask um
and that was five years ago so they probably started at somewhere you know nine or so step nine the parttime positions how long have they been employed Rob that's a question to you for Eno and Paul I I have H A Cleaner
Paul and uh I have uh Eno copi um yeah they they receive uh a step increase but they're about popped out they're not going to go any where probably after this year yeah how long have they been working for us if you don't mind uh you
know I think he's been here for like same as Paul six or seven years he was here prior to uh me coming to Townsen uh to the facilities Department he was under marck marcurio
[Music] how how um so how many hours a week does he work and then the two do the two part- timers fill one full position is that it they they don't exceed uh 38 hours a pay
period or the both of them no each of them is 38 hours every two weeks 19 hours a week yes yeah you committ here thank you and and Eno has been working
um 15 hours a week because um I'm pretty much exhausted they gave us $3,000 last fiscal year extra for um parks and cemeteries uh laborers to help facilities out with the
shoveling uh and everything else and um that's pretty much dried up now it's going into uh Eno's um count so um you know it the facility's been quite busy with the weather and
everything else is going on people moving offices and asking for furniture and um you know we can only do so much with the the crew we have and you know it's nice that Jimmy
uh Mr Smith uh has extended out his help uh to help fa ities uh with moving heavy items so that's keeping the cost down so the automatic raises for temporary help explain that to me again
about the 20 hours versus the 19 hours they can only work so many hours uh under um I actually think Eno was a fractional employee and Paul is a h part-time employee that's the
he's part time he's fraction I think those are one in the same I thought they weren't I thought that was disuss what's the difference then um oh our time
is 19 and a half and 30 hours and anything under the 19 and a half you're considered fractional so so it's three buckets fractional and then it's part time and then it's full time so um and it's based
on how many hours you work a week oh okay can we are we done with the salaries um if there's no more questions on Sal um I I will ask for Danielle um it look like that might be a
2% no sorry yeah there is a line item for Danielle that um does uh some of the um uh the billing for uh facilities it shares with the um Highway Department it's fine I was thinking a
different line everything with numbers that look like the CH can you go back on Yep this this was just something I the clothing is supposed to be is it supposed to be 600 I think that's a typo
isn't it no the clothing is 850 now okay yeah 850 okay okay supervisor yeah yeah CL Union is different yeah and then you're the only one eligible for longevity so the 5
is that all that all work good so how it was approved 600 so was 500 or 600 what is it that was Prior oh this is done incorrectly
so what should it be 850 or 600 and 50000 and then after what's it 10 years it goes up to the Thousand something like that so is that FY 26 requested or
is it FY 25 requested column the the both columns are the same the only increase between the two columns is the increase in the base salary in FY 26 but where's FY 26 I don't have it on my page oh
um sorry um it's oh I'm looking at this oh okay you're you're looking at the summary sheet yeah okay I haven't G back it wasn't that the fiscal gear is incorrect on the summary sheet it should
say FY 26 it says fy2 it was a clerical error when the Sheets Were Made yeah we we've seen if some have been corrected this happen but yeah on the summary [Applause]
sheet okay now detail sheet for expenses um 191 needs to be expense side work look at that the energy is still going at ,000 six I'm jumping back to the bbaa
that I had through the end of December um and the energy is sitting right now at at roughly 37% used oh it was at 48 on the on the end of January one yeah if we're into the heavy use on the on the
energy so I would expect higher jumps into into January February which I had a couple $10,000 payments for the senior library for one month but but that's about right for yeah
I that's what I would expect it's kind of like sort of get a what you think about he had what kind of payments for what the library library oh I didn't hear what he said um there would on the energy he had a couple of $110,000 payments for the energy so these are for
all the buildings this is for yeah all the buildings but North police right highway or water what is it it's the memorial hallor Center library library Senor
Center uh the energy also comes out from the recck department West Townson reading Municipal garage he probably the one in the back here in the park okay thank you just to be clear it's not highway
department and what about the um Kimble house is that included cemeterian Parks yes quite a few quite a few facilities in it and it holds up into the one two but not water not fire not Place
want School and not so the Professional Services are for all the buildings and what would that be did you hear that question all the Professional Services would come under um all the inspections from anywhere from the uh cleaning of
the boilers uh to um some of of the floors um Professional Services would um be the exterior of the buildings
um the just a a a list I didn't have it it's um it's a it's a big list that that comes under uh out of facilities that covers it um the the hood ranges uh for the the
stoves Memorial Hall the boilers uh the uh impact fire for the uh suppression systems and the suppression systems at the um senior Library um the um backflow backflow
preventers that comes out for facilities for the fire alarm systems sprinkler systems um yeah it's up U anything to do with electrical work that has to be uh repaired or replaced Plumbing
fixtures um there's just there's a lot that goes into those buildings for uh maintenance because of the usage I don't you know Communications uh there's a line item in there as well for the guardian info and uh the phone
systems um it it's pretty in depth when you you break it down when you really get into this uh line items um it's pretty deep I have generators that that that comes out of it as
well so how does that that's Professional Services so how does that differ from the um facilities repair and maintain buildings so the building maintenance and repair at 36 that's the way that was
broken down when I came to work here um they um I I sit down with Katie and uh we go over this a lot um with the the building for uh purchasing stuff um and
the Professional Services um the equipment uh for the uh Senior Center uh the kitchen equipment there's an equipment line and then there's a there's a building line
rep yes I have uh which is pretty expensive for the elevator services in Memorial Hall the handicap elevator um all the AC units that uh gets um maintained um monthly and yearly the
boilers it's just there's a lot of equipment in all of these buildings per code that we have to visit uh and um it's on a a revolving schedule do you have contracts for most
of this equipment and another one is a pest control uh and the the price keeps on going up on that and um that that light them that line item doesn't even have enough money in it what's so when that goes Negative
they have to go into another line item and um basically tap from that to um to pay the vendor ground's keeping supplies down to the bottom uh Roger sends his guys over and I mean I've I've gone through three
tons of ice melt this year even gas for the snowblowers the snowblower repairs come out of equipment right now I just signed off on a $4,000 Bill to re uh the the um Senior Center generator is failed they don't
have any backup right now because I just um signed off on a $44,000 repair for a um uh a radiator system hoses and belts and the Aged uh diesel generator that supports Memorial Hall that that's
in that's aged equipment as well all this stuff was uh in Memorial Hall is uh over 30 years old it it's you know the same thing is all my um condenser equipment outside the building that supports various rooms I
mean I I've been uh trying desperately to um watch my budget line and um shop for the breast price and um repair these units and replace them as they go along if if the um the the
next the the oldest one is the uh services the um the Great Hall is a 10 ton I was just working went rise engineering today they were out here torn all the buildings I was working with them for six hours today uh on the next round of
um Green community grants exactly so that's where we could get help with paying for some of these items because where where does where is Capital planning on all that stuff that's 30 years old this is the way I i' I've taken over and
I've been level funded for the last five years we went through a pandemic um uh I I begged for some uh Opera funds uh I got pushed to the side and uh that was basically supposed to be for uh Building Maintenance and Repair
um so here we are and um Town Hall needs a lot of work I have sashes that need to be replaced um to P the stained glass windows in um I'm working on a grant with uh Aaron and now I found out that
she's leaving so um it's just one thing after another I have to do the best I can do to keep that building in perpetuity for the taxpayers it belongs to the taxpayers but that Grant is going to be going over to the person who's
replacing her I hope so because um will be the grant was appli for historic buildings no it's not applied for yet we're still working on some details um but there's that she did apply for it
well she looked into it quite in depth and there was some things that yeah that she when Eric slagel was here we didn't have enough money we had the bids come in we were shy of dollars um now I'm I'm I'm
reaching out to vendors to um come in here and and um reapply uh and give me some more quotes um I've even offered to um do painting on the the the trim that has to be replaced uh to cut the cost down
using help inhouse um so we're just gonna sit back and wait aren't there warrant articles for Memorial Hall that were the past few years put into place for things like
that there is there's some money left over Miss Kell um and I talked to uh Katie today um there was two line items um one was the Memorial Hall in the fire station down by Cherry Hill uh ice cream
that building was repaired whatever is left over it's sitting there there was another line item that she pointed out to me um one of those uh jobs was compl oh there was the staircase on the rec
Center um that was completed and there's money left over so I would like to recapture some of those funds and put this in there and the more money I can get to fix the town hall um and matching funds from the
grant we can move forward that together um with remaining funds are about 50k so I thought it was about $70,000 she brought up to me at one point yeah there's another um one somewhere so yes
there there are and these are all in um uh warrant articles so they don't go away at the end of the year and you know the way other things in the budget might so um no and and I recall the the one with the money left over on the stairs
on on the rec center was reallocated in a in a town or special Town um I have to go back look at which one it was there's also green communities has done a lot with facilities and I know that energy
is planning to do another round of that this spring so uh We've regularly been receiving funds for um for buildings right and then there was the
investigation we had somebody in looking at all the buildings and coming up with recommendations of that's rise engineering that's required for that and the other problem I have is the um the library the roofs on that complex down there when I came got here five years
ago there was four rooms and there roofs the flat roofs are all leaking so I I reached out we reached out to Goen construction and um
basically I um there was no reply they sent they sent them over to do something else so I'm just trying to weed away a little bit of at a time yeah yeah Rob tomorrow um when
you're um with the capital planning committee um those roof repair items and other stuff will be um part of what you'll be presenting to the committee okay it's just the committee doesn't have a so is I I the senior citizen
houses over on deadly Road part of this too no no so when it says P control dudly Road P control that's not it no Dudley road is uh that that's over
at the uh senior Senior Center what am I looking at up there it just says 12 road but there's no money in it nope that that comes out of one fund it was $6,000 set aside for Pest Control right
and that um Mr shank and um and Chaz signed the um the contract was $6,000 and and we're pretty much running negative yeah yeah we can see see the
usage is is high but the and at one time we're looking at the BBA and there's two lines in here with Zer dolls assigned but they both say pest control and they have addresses one for 12 Dudley Road and one for 272 Main Street right it got
compiled under one fund so um The Pest Control they do um the the police station pays for it itself um and then I have Memorial Hall um all the bait stations around it all the bait stations around uh the um
the municipal garage because of the the restaurant behind it and um and then we take care of um around the library and inside the uh the senior center and the uh mezzanine above
it Veronica um back about 10 minutes ago we were talking about the H station yeah that's been taken out of the out of the um it's no longer the budget
right correct correct okay the one that's being renovated yes yeah that's okay thank you why what why isn't the budget well I think last year a couple years ago we were talking about it but then
the um the gift went along and right so so the gift doesn't come through the town at all no the town in annual town meeting last year um signed that building over to the fire Association for like 99 years or
some such thing Le um it's well I don't know that there's an official lease but it was passed on I'd have to look at the verbiage but it was Town doesn't own it anymore that just no the town has passed
it over to them in 99 years will revert back unless there's another article is it a lease or a sale I don't get what you're saying it's not a sale so the assigned it owns it we own it but we have no responsibility for it we
assigned that to the fire I'm just trying to understand in terms of real estate ownership and conveyance it's either a lease or a sale or I was just trying to get that cleared out I think it just has come under the umbrella of the fire department but actual ownership
of the building still the town oh the town still owns building but we have no responsibility for at this point right we don't have to fix it right I get it and it doesn't come through public
records of the town or anything like that I know that yeah that kind of was my question I understand that um okay I have no other questions I think we could do probably a better job if we had shopped around for another pest control um to cut down on
the the cost I mean the way those contracts are written up uh it doesn't have to be treated like it is on a monthly basis we look at this we can look at this we have a towns and first policy and I
believe that the contract is with monus Pest Control who's in town here is that correct yeah well you're gonna have to we're gonna have to find some more money and and put some more money into that line item then the months okay thank you how much
is it a month does he know Rob there's a question is the do you know what the um is whether it's a monthly or quarterly payment to for the pest control um they pay him monthly they pay
a month how much is a month and do you know the amount per month uh I just signed the warrant articles on that but if you break it down I mean it's running shy and um we have to call them back back for um spraying the buildings when
we have pop up uh um hornets nest around the library and the senior center or town hall when I see it um I have to call them back in and there's an additional charge so I can I can tomorrow when I
meet with you I can get you those uh numbers but that's not for Capital planning Capital planning doesn't do p control but there'll be a couple of finance committee members there we
can take the numbers and feed it back we have a meeting well if you break it down to 6K on the table right now and if you go through 12 months I mean that would give you a flat number but then on the other hand there's an additional call
backs and we have to pay for it more than one building too I mean it's multiple buildings it's multiple multiple buildings right yeah so if we look at it it 5,000 for 6 months so it was addressed it was adjusted in the
fiscal year 7 uh 26 proposal so yeah that's that's the one line that has the major major increase of 20% so trying to adjust that amount and a would bit increase in the
water with the new rates we best budgeting I guess my question is why isn't test control rolled into Professional Services because then you would sure change me under Professional Services if you want to add that into
Professional Services it it just seems that it could be um Incorporated in there and then if if it fluctuated it wouldn't be showing on the line item but I think having it P
control that pretty well spells it out that's where it belongs whereas the other things there's so many of them that we just kind of get lost in them and and I think it was a couple years ago I remember that it was pulled out somebody had requested that it be pulled out in SE put it on a separate line okay
from Prof I'm just thinking if it if it fluctuates that much then why not put it in the Professional Services line because sometimes you use Professional Services and sometimes you don't so
actually it would be just a line move with the money so he's not losing anything correct correct where where are you add with um on that line item as far as like you have been pulling up for six months the BV yeah I have um 88% has
been used on Professional Services uh no Pest Control professional Serv Professional Services 19% 19 right yeah so that's why that's probably why it should go into Professional Services well that that's
where it'd be extra money but is I was hearing it it sounds like the $4,000 for the senior sener generator has not hit this yeah yeah yeah um as well there will be yeah there's other things right
but where where do that put if you put that 4,000 wouldn't that be repair and maintain buildings yeah right wouldn't that be could it could fall under several
buckets kind under ground keeping supplies yeah um probably not that it probably would be um repair Maintenance building repair maintenance equipment or Professional Services it could even be
that it's it's ambiguous enough that could you can make under the building supplies if I can chime in here um that could Pro probably be shaved under it if you want to um if you want to have the um senior center in the
library step up to the plate and and buy some of their own paper goods for the bathrooms uh towels and uh other things um no because I'm I'm paying for the cleaner to go around so
um I don't know uh Miss Kel's mentioned about cutting 10% so um we can nip away here and there it's the finance committee and the board of Selectmen and the budget of the town if we don't have
if the override doesn't pass there will need to be cuts um that's just all there is to it Rob I have a question about the um all those items are they anywhere broken down per building or is everything just lumped
in it's pretty much lumped in um this goes back from what I understand um several several uh select people ago the way they wanted to break everything down uh into line items but at the end of the day when I show
negative on one it's going to get drafted out of something else no I get that but I I is there anywhere that we know the breakdown per building just so we have an idea of which building is costing us more or or
do further information um yeah the library and the senior center and um uh a big user is Memorial Hall but the biggest is the complex on D Road the senior
Library I'm not surprised I think we should know that yeah what the buildings are costing per building must be bigger excuse me square foot must be bigger well square foot age
age facil you know okay you got I guess Memorial Hall that's even though we had weatherization done that's um it uses a lot of uh fuel are the boilers new uh no not at
all I have uh there are five boilers that Supply heat to that building and they're quite aged and I I are the Professional Services I have the vendor come in uh more than I should uh to keep them going I give them additional care
um so they last longer so the efficiency is not real high uh no nope I was just in there to rise engineering and there was so much with that building um to step up to to code
um they want to get a consultant and and tore that whole building uh heat and a AC balance um the windows uh it's going to be a pretty big list and I can't wait for them to uh we
can visit this and see what direction we're going to go to um keep this building alive is that a result of that test that um study they had done last year or the year before no that's probably one of
them but they're gonna um we're working on Green communities Grant right now between uh Memorial Hall the rec center uh the highway department and um the police station um which looks more positive uh spending money at the police
station and helping out the highway but there's so much to in-depth uh look at um Memorial Hall with the code changes um they're going to have to come up with a plan to help us out
thank you explaining that anything further [Music] questions I saw online too okay thank you rob okay thank you we all have a good a good
[Music] evening I think they want Recreation yeah I was gonna say um what color is it I can't I can't read Purple dark
purple dark purple the dark purple which one is two I have two it's in the yeah it's in thepo 6 it's 655 you say
yes what's the number on that 655 655 yeah okay everybody questions the only the only increase I have is the union increase according to my salary that's it spend 2500 for my
building um and it's operations for I don't know five years now five or six years now and it didn't increase on the ad's position we're looking at rewriting that and kind of changing it to a little bit more modern than what it was um so it's still
the same thing no increase off of it um really it's just the we'll still carry the 10,000 and you guys carry a portion of it um but yeah there and then my longevity been here 12 years
now was race over the last one yeah like I said there really isn't a whole F I think between last and this one it's $3,000,000 work sheeet um so you have the 2 be
hired is that somebody that you had that left yeah and then we've been carrying it um I haven't failed it um which is we've been so if you might know note the pay rate is very
low um and in today's industry when you know a front desk person at McDonald's makes $18 an hour to hire an assistant director at 1950 is pretty unrealistic so as I said we're the board is actually looking at rewriting it to shift out some of the
responsibilities to be more on the um digital ERA with leaving me with the harder core stuff because before we had had some split um in admin duties but we really need somebody that's more able to do things like stay on top of social
media and to um hunt out you know additional um classes instructors and do that sort of research stuff so shifting out some of how the assistant director's description is to make it more in play with what it would be making financially
um what the pay rate would be is what we're looking to do this year so we can actually hire for that position it's been open because that's so part of that would be like a virtual assistant to do research which wouldn't require as many hours exactly it's only a 12h hour a week
during the year with the exception of six weeks in the summer it's 30 hours so it's 12 to 15 during the week I think I have an in 12 um 15 and then 30 for six weeks during the summer where we actually have that position to acts as a second for us during the summer um
because we're all hands on deck for our summer wck program we don't we're not office folk during the summer do they I don't know much about the recreation do you have any um nighttime program adult so we have in the past we don't
currently um and again a lot of that has to do with just the current state of the economy has a lot to do with it um we don't as you can see we are not there's no subsidy from the town for our department so we have to bring in enough
to cover whatever is taking place and at the rate of inflation for not just employees but vendors um it counterbalance finding those deals is harder but yes we've done computer classes we've done craft programs we've
done cooking classes um and I am looking back to get back in I was hoping things would stabilize a little bit um because we have been poking around in some of that research to find those kinds of vendors again um our vendor for our cake
baking classes our cake decorating classes she came from down near Sturbridge and her travel went from $50 to like $200 as a fee like so you know it's kind of one of those things to um to look at and even things like face
painting you know getting I mean yeah so for us we're it's a we really loved having Aaron she was really helpful with the grant situation because again it's just me um so grants are a big thing I'm looking at Amanda Dwight we have to make
up the shortfall from the ARA funds um being removed so um I'm looking at a right to cover those things for the summer um because we have some things contracted already and then there are like I said there's some adult programs I'm looking at right now that I'm kind of excited about but fingers crossed
keeping our eyes open and hoping the idea behind a recreation department for a town is that the majority of the town can afford whatever programs we're putting in place and right now with the way vendor costs are going and what I'm seeing for instructor costs um because they tend to be small businesses
themselves the rates are so high it's no longer even affordable for us to offer it as the community rate um especially again if I have to have staff in so that's where we're at do I have a question sure so what activities are you currently so we do wck kids currently
that's our only well no I got w kids I've got the kids the does that mean w kids kation yeah kids programming for kid all right um after school before school during school you know could you be a little bit more specific so we do um
movement and mindfulness in the morning so we do have a morning program okay and then we have an after program um that goes in the evening and that's play driven so individual child play driven and then we have the ski program which is Monday evenings
for seven weeks over the winter I'm gonna say seven and what is that what is it so um it's actually a f a family program that we're connected with um watch you Mountain oh the ski ski school um or ski program Ski Club whatever you
want to call it in that place um and we're getting ready to do egg your yard um we've been doing that this will be year five um and it's actually like it exploded beyond our wildest imaginings when we first put it out and it still is um I hope there's no kids watching or G
watch so basically um parents purchase by egg and we have um Easter Bunnies staff and volunteers and we bring them and hide them around their yards on the Night Before Easter so kids can easter egg hunt the next day so it's Candy's
toys and I got staff all wearing Easter egg or Easter bunny ears and pom poms and so your morning program what hours is that 6:45 6:45 until BS pick up and the bus stops here
M and then the afternoon program until 6 p.m okay so starting at 2:30 or whenever the bus drops off um usually it's between 3:00 and 3:15 depending on which bus it is we do have um we have van participants as well until what time 6m 6 p.m.
6 you charge extra the kids don't leave by 6 we do um luckily we haven't had to typically an email warning or a conversation with the parents is enough um but yes we would if it becomes um an issue so what happens in the
summer so in the summer we run our summer program um and that is 8 to 4 Monday through Friday um we're contracted currently with the schools um and it's so it's hoed kind of weird it's basically to say it's the Monday
following the First full Monday off from school so they have a full week at minimum after school ends before we move into the building let me get this straight so okay your some runs from 8 to
48 I wasn't done what was it sorry it runs 8 to 4 but we also run an extended day program that runs from and this year it'll be from 6:45 until 8 o' okay that's and then yeah and then we'll be doing it in the afternoons for 4 to 6 I
was just wondering what happened no it doesn't no it does not disappear we didn't do morning last year there wasn't enough call for it but I've had enough emails and conversations with parents that they are looking for the earlier morning it seems more so even than the later afternoon and it
it's it's discussed yearly which if either because again if I don't have enough students to to kids to pay then I can't pay my staff so I have to it has right it has to work its well its way through so where we're at the
summer program pays for itself so I have another question so you have four things going on you have the currently the during school the ski the eggs and the summer yep and I'm working on oh gosh um I'm working on so
next Fall's lineup currently and I'm still working on funding to finish building the fitness Court the tennis court the fitness Court oh the fitness so I I have a history question here historically in Talon
this recreation department has been self-funded is that possible that they could go back to that we are with the exception of $2,500 oh I see so that's what I'm right expens I'm talking
salaries only the um assistant director and we pay the difference over 10,000 correct we the town so it's not self-funded it is not totally self-funded correct like it used to be that's what I'm saying like it was self
not as long as I've been on finance committee it's changed a maybe 10 years ago 10 how long have you been here Emy 12 10 years ago so it was 10 years ago so it's been a I know when I became a selectman it was um the director was
staff I don't know when you select but you're saying for 12 years it's been um 10 years 10 years 10 years it's been funded by the town what's been funded by the town the recreation department no no just made and in the last three years
the assistant director's position over $10,000 and $2,500 to my building the programming the expenses for the programming all the staff for the programming the active part of the programs that is funded by the program so you're you outside the recreation
department your Administration a town employee I'm a town employee oh I see so you're a town employe I'm a town employee my staff is employed by the towns and Recreation Department and the town because the town is the overhead umbrella but they're
funded by the our programming so the fees that people pay for the pay for our staff and our expenses pay for all the expenses and any of the supplies and the people that buses help with the
progam vendors yeah all that yeah so like the um the egg your yard the folks that are making that purchase are the ones that are actually paying for the program to
happen so if there was no Recreation Department you'd still have a job no because you're a town employee right but I had the recreation department so you work play as for the most part I mean for the
office for a whole heart yeah Emmy plans all the programming I'm the director so I'm the overhead if it was the library I'm the librarian okay there's job description that might be useful you know do you have access to
the job description should it be online is it not online I don't think are the job descriptions online I don't know in new website I don't think so no if it if they were they would be under HR but um
but there are job descriptions for every town employee okay so who worked for you I mean so I have staff that is hired to actively like my Rec counselors okay does that yeah so
maybe if I title them that'll make things easier to understand so I have R counselors I have staff supervisor um during the summer I have um operations and Logistics um I have a lead arts and crafts lead Sports and activities okay
so I have we hire individual right positions to run to be the on the ground for the programs and you don't see that here in in the budget for recreation because those
positions are all funded through the revolving account right the program cost so what people pay to be able to right take advantage of the services before and after school that the Department
provides all that funding goes through a revolving account and it pays for the the um counselors etc etc that get hired by the rec department okay I think that's what was confusing in yeah
missing piece yeah so now that we know we have a revolving F and that pays it's so my employees are paid um so they are employees of the Town however they're not paid out of the general fund they're paid out of the revolving F which is exclusive to the recreation department
and is exclusive to the fees that we take in for the programs that they staff so um it'd be very much like I If I had a vendor um say I have um so the cake decorating I have to charge enough for the cake decorating in order to pay the vendor and her supplies whatever her
bill is right so I have to take in enough for my R Kids program or my tennis program or the summer program to pay the instructors right you no no not really no I think I have get it yeah
so yeah I'm sorry yeah the hierarch the hierarchy is weird I think I'm the only Department in town that works this way so it makes it a little weirder to try and explain how the umbrella look temporary health in parks and Cemetery covered
through is covered through budet right but wck is sustaining right so yeah so sorry I didn't mean to create confusion I wasn't aware that yeah we are a little weird in that way that's why I was like I don't really have anything on here right that's right right and later on as
we get into March we we plan to look at the stabilization funds right um because there are many of them um going through so that would publicly make it cures right we haven't looked at them yet so how the you mean the revolving account stabilization has nothing to
y wrong word yeah so I'd like to clear up another thing that's kind of going around town you probably heard about so what's going on with the fitness equipment that we're hearing all kinds of different stories about that it's not being used and it can't be used Etc can
you give us some Enlightenment on that sure the F the fitness equipment is in the garage it needs to be built okay so um we're looking at the cement pad um building department is working on that for us with alongs with cemeterian parks to actually put the pad down the pad
down and then I'm currently in the process of putting out additional fundraising request letters I have $30,000 that I need to fund for the contracted Builders to cover the warranty to actually build the equipment into the Fitness Port so it's here we've
purchased the program it's got you know it's warranty in place um so people who are listening who would love to donate to have who can they contact they can certainly contact me at eoff towns
ma.gov um because yeah we're down to 30,000 out of 200 but you have to have the 30,000 under a contractor to make sure that your warranty stays correct it it has to be a contractor that is um
hasi okay yeah so when does the warranty start ticking so once we Bell that the equipment can just sit there yeah the it doesn't doesn't change the warranty no we do have some time sensitive materials um that we have to
be aware of um but they all we have more than enough time to to worry or manage those so yeah we're actually I'm targeting again $30,000 isn't a ton comparatively to what we've already done um so I'm really I'm I'm in that push right now
now that I've got my board is met to iron out summer um and that'll be going out the door as soon as unipe finishes finalizing my transactions now my focus is I want to get this done because I want it built for the summer now is this going to be moneymaking no it's free
it's free to the town that's the whole idea behind it it's I mean certainly we can hold classes um but it's self- sustained in the sense that it has um instructions on the board there's QR codes there's an online um program that goes along with
it there'll be Tred ambassadors within the town that's volunteers that'll actually be trained by NFC to give classes for free um and it is free for use so does that clear up whatever rumors are going sure I haven't heard any
rumors so it does I wasn't aware of any well there are there were so thanks for yeah you're welcome bringing that up I mean unless you want people to talk about you I mean you know no not at all it's like I said we've it's an incredible program
we've been working with them on and off for five years to get this done because it's a free resource for the town it's just amazing uh the National Fitness board there their entire program and it's the only one of its kind with the kind of infrastructure that it has
um we can create corporate teams um fire department and police department can have teams the high school can be utilizing it Senior Center can be utilized there's specific for seniors they're specific for handicap I mean it's really so inclusive and um Cutting
Edge to what's offered out there uh and Massachusetts already has I want to say there's probably a dozen here in Massachusetts already and Massachusetts Blue Cross Blue Shield is a huge supporter um and one of the grants that we've received as well okay thank you
thank you very much thank you and if you can't tell I'm very excited about it there's a couple of other things that I want to that will bounce off of that going forwards having that Fitness boort in
place so it's couple of the longer range plans are part of that which makes it again very exciting just G to jump back to Sure labor um on the top line for your salary yeah when I look at the numbers it's
looking like a six % increase because it says that fy2 is 57583 and they proposed for f by 26 did I math WR did we math WR
so and again if we take that 57583 and look at the BBA it says 57652 the year those those numbers are there but if I jump
um I took and copied out your math sheet for your exercises yeah um when I look at the current rate of 3453 yeah um I just did your numbers I took the 30 32 hours weekly out here multiplied it
by the weeks um and this year for FY 25 I'm seeing 59 did we P so we cut that last year is that why so I pulled this from last year's submission we must have changed it off
right so the it should be whatever the 4% rise is that's it period so whatever that is is that's what it should be but that's that that becomes my next if I look at the current rate and a raise of 4% that's a138 an hour I get
35.91 not 3523 I pull that right off of our spreadsheet The Matrix Union Matrix spreadsheet can you check that I'm wondering I might got the wrong FAL year
numbers sry no no and that's why no thank you we have the questions we look at the review because if no I appreciate it um so the FY 26 seemed to be the right number it was the 27 number yeah um that
well the FY 25 number that's in here for current anom is incorrect based on both based on the on the on the base yeah and of course if I started with the wrong number then all of them are going to be wrong absolutely correct
right but if I if I look at the fy2 page I say if I highlight the current plus the additional the num is down down in the low 3591 yeah I see that which is very close what R had he three
on on in the supervisor so that's yeah where I was going you grabb the wrong I must have had the wrong spread sheet the wrong and again I copied it
out it was and I couldn't thank you but just no thank you I appreciate it I obviously like I said it looks like I I I went off of one and it thre all of my numbers down so let me get back
to I took thank you 204 [Music] those those numbers and again it it's kind of like when when I go back and do that comparison number
for5 would be low in the in the in the BBA in the current budget I feel like there there was one in between that though excuse me maybe that was on it must have been an old Matrix I'm pretty sure
there's one in between and that's the 35 23 that's the next step up okay that's that's the next step so but not the not the additional two that was part of the Union
matrixing this takes into account the the yeah this would take the the 2% Cola and the 2% so I mean you you clearly okay the
3523 got looks like raise okay so that so that Matrix was off because that's the one I used off of Melissa so she didn't have the the four we only have the two in the increase um no the that step increase 2%
year-over-year and then because I'm looking at the FY 24 Matrix and fy2 yeah and that particular step the 3523 the year before it was 3454
okay so what's the bottom line so so we should do the based off what her current rate is okay and use that as a base obviously which is 3453 okay now again if we use
3453 at the current calculations for hours I'm seeing that's 59,000 888 change so 889 Which is higher than yeah so I did I I didn't take I didn't actually do the formula off of my current and arrays I
pulled the I left the old ones and just pulled the separate one so my apologies on that you guys not check that one I did not I was just like oh this is the next one so just so we have the right numbers
in the Omnibus for yeah Saturday yeah because that is what we're going to be looking at correct the omnius Budget on Saturday I think so yes and the recap sheet I can go thank you I do again I
really appreciate it I pulled numbers without no no no it it's like I said something see in in that particular cell I didn't find a formul and seems as though adding the current and the increase did not match did not match
number thank you we double check and and and see that's why we have you great and again when I when I worked for the assistant director it's sitting at 2% but you don't have anybody in the
position correct so we're fine we're just doing Nelson do you want me to send you a c the what I worked on here which was from from she um
no and I'll do mine so what's the number we're agreeing on for the salary 59 um that would be Tarr fy2 F FY 25 would be the 59 889 fy2 fy2 this current year based on
the 3453 and the same number of hours and things comes to 59 and again we have to do the round up it's not the B it's not in the BBA so the so last year's budget is
incorrect is what you're saying that's what yeah saying and we found that a couple of times yeah and your 32 no 32 yeah yeah okay that's yeah 32 and six weeks at 40 eight
eight weeks at 4 eight weeks at 40 six weeks yes eight weeks I summer before and after the weeks the program so what number should I put in for the the 26 yeah uh 62284
and we're just going to keep the assistant director as is yeah okay sorry water water a man so any other questions for any tonight I maybe didn't screw up not about that to get it tell you
about eight let's talk about my friend d other questions of course feel free to send me an email if you don't forget your phone that came I thank you I appreciate it appreciate each of you thank you than you see you guys later bye next
I probably [Music] hang on well that's the thing it's kind of like because I what should we doing next okay
obervation or um stop kind of like I had Miss I just um when we look at the L by I responsible for conservation mrpc planning boarding
[Music] board and land use has its own budget and then each of those areas has a p um but yeah and and that's why I didn't have and none of them are in the board that I could see okay
I I didn't find any they're all on don't know if you guys have we don't have access to shint animal control assessor building department Communication Center Police Cemetery budg Council on
Aging tea water health library facilities police Recreation so we did not see any and I didn't see any in the book so maybe they come in later after the books were printed um maybe I did put it in
the share drive but let me see how I can uh so so that we can yeah I did put it in share point so I can um I can join in on zoom and I can
share yeah okay and what I'd suggest is based on this probably go based on the department number and just go and I think it's conservation mrpc planning board zoning board and then land
use at least that's how it's in the Omnibus theorder in the Omni so you want to start with conservation's here she eron are you still there I'm here hi thank you for being
thank you for being [Music] patient Harley Could you um give me sharing Privileges and I will get out kick me out so need to print anything
um we I think I heard my name but it's hard to hear we we're getting set up we're gonna share your files J do you want High copies of
the department I I don't have to do it now yeah just have for Saturday be great okay you got that thank you okay so this is a
conservation L on Department 171 so it's a different number oh that number includes the clothing allowance okay
yeah I I would rather see that split out the Su yeah it's kind of like the summary sheet usually had more lines on it so that you would associate with each of individual items the longevity so you could see the salary and all pieces that
they up it is in the labor it is yeah so so this is the labor detail um there's just one conservation agent right um I will ask the question
about the clothing allowance that looks like the old which is oh no it's a different a different different so this is clerical Union versus supervisor that's the reason yeah I think when you look at land use that's
supervisors and there should be um so it's I do have a question though um the bva has a salary for last year at 39,6 161 so did we increase it when we
advertised the position um that that was a position that was empty for a long time um actually uh it's actually one of the positions that was partially funded through arpa I
think it was was if I remember correctly five extra hours yeah yeah it was five hours of this position was going to be funded by ouro okay so it got rolled in is that what happened yes um I'm good
with that yep do we know what step um that if it is it's yeah he's a a great e I'm doing a step that is a step a thank you
but yeah there's only one person that in that uh Department if you want to call it that um get a holding allowance and and step
then you can jump to expenses this is level funded from last year um as I understand it um based on the budget that I had last year I level funded it the um this is outside of the expenses and all that good stuff um
there's a special town meeting article that was put in play last spring uh Conservation Commission education that is for the Conservation Commission to educate the public about conservation not for the education of the agent
themselves just if you're looking at the bva is it a different account number or is it it's a it's an article it's the same yeah it's still under 171 it's just an article in the BPA see it's not in m so we don't get four
sometimes they run with just the expense on and think the training conf stuff went down I was going to say I'm looking at this 250 the for the expenses this one is
also 2350 as well okay um but in can we go over it's kind of like I've got Professional Services at 500 office supplies at
500 my in state at 350 prining conference at 500 and dues and memberships at 500 this is different yeah so if the numbers are off um it may be because I
was using the the last budget that was in the the last edited budget that was available um I thought that was probably the most up to date that might have been one that was um there had been a request to reduce
spending um for if there was a you know possible budget cut so it may have been um that I used those budgets for all of those right and I was going to say looking at it
what I see is different is you on the one you've presented advertising Printing and postages there for 300 um is not in the current but it makes sense that you would post maybe have post from for
um hearings seems is that something that conservation would do is is is post and use postage to um send out mailings when there a
hearing yes they do they use the postage and the mailing to send out notices on hearings um notices to AB Butters things like that and also a newspaper you got to advertise that as well so that will yeah what's in the
bva um I yeah it's level funded yeah it is from a high level it's just that the categories are different yeah yeah that's Services there are no office supplies no
there are there 500 but none expended to date yeah um maybe that's because we didn't have anybody in that place until [Music] recently anyway that says something we can continue to
watch again confer for the board this level funded is just redistributed the money into the differ is an additional category
from I probably just stick with the the way it's laid out in the Omnibus and and bva um would we would like to move on to the next one anybody any questions good
okay so it's the next one is this line here um mrpc dues and memberships um this amount for 3475 um every year they send us a letter of
what the the do the ACT yeah so that amount is uh taken directly off of their um their letter that they provided to my office and we get a lot back town gets a lot back being a member of mrpc in the
grants that we've [Music] gotten no questions on PC so this is the summary for the planning board um maybe start looking at
so uh there's a planning board admin um she's at 25 hours supporting the planing board um just their uh step and cola she gets a longevity stien her
years yeah I think she's yeah I think yes the 500 is for five years that's it for labor and then on the expense side um it's it's lower than last year the
expenses last year were 1,950 yep it's Professional Services that are kind of cut in half from 1500 to 800 so once again um I took these from the from the
previous land use coordinator's uh budget folder so these may have been when we were trying to reduce expenses um but you know what Aon you might be good with what you've put in because um nothing has been spent as of
the 5th of February spent from the expenses lines at all for planning board um I believe what usually happens is everything comes out of land use and then once that kind of runs out this is
my understanding once that kind of runs out then they start to look at okay where do we need to start pulling from um but I have not been in this role long enough to really know how um the the inner workings of the budget have worked thus
far yeah so let me let me go up to land uh well down to land use um yeah even there well land use has not has a had a thisy year this
year I mean some we have had a lot of open seats yeah yeah um travel travel seems to be the um but other than that not a lot
used so I I think maybe what you submitted is fair game but whoever is submitting this we need to remember that this budget has already been cut in half [Music] I think also that when all the seats are
filled and we are able to actually complete more work for the town that we're going to be using more um more funding to provide those Services um so I would be hesitant to use the what we've done the past year because for I
don't know um four or five I think it was three months I was the only person in the office as Beth was out for a little while um conservation agent was out for much longer um and Jessica had been gone for um I think several months
before I was hired into the position so there's um there was quite a while there where I was the only person in the office um so I wouldn't necessarily use what we've used in the past year as um
what will be used in the coming year very G um so did you want to use eron's numbers or just sort of level fund everything I think you eron
numbers next year I mean if we are going to level fund we should up it to, 1500 on Professional Services um but I don't know it seems fair
I'm just looking at the and I I would keep that at 800 I would the Professional Services and the planning board it is a cost um but it's not a bad thing okay and then if in fact
everything works out positively we can up that next year should drop the office supplies as well for a total of 11 we have had quite a few things that are coming into the office recently that
might start to kick things up um so I would be um hesitant to pull from the Professional Services too much um as we might have some different items that are coming forward that are going to require
those Professional Services um maybe a thousand there I don't know go for 1300 level funded until we need to um
until we have to change it okay might be the best way do it I appreciate that thank you all the fees have been increased as well this past year for people who are you know getting
permits have to come for planning so that that raises funds for what they're doing by the same token you know we have to make sure we have covers for Public
Notices too again that's we're supposed to collect the money for that that will cover whatever expenses are but they don't show up here because the income doesn't show well let's just leave it level funded and there
agre CBA is 176 if we want to just follow the order in the Y [Music] and zba is um just literally one item it's uh Beth who is the planning board
um she's the planning admin but she also has a few hours dedicated to the the the zoning so uh that's where [Music] in hand
just 2% step and 2% Cola that's 179 [Music] yes it is it was internally for a week and then we post exter
okay um so the land use coordinator um the land use department so there's the lane use coordinator which is uh department
head that's a currently errand a 30 hour position um St who uh as you would call planning as well as zba she also has
couple hours assisting land use [Music] um get some yeah right Extra cover done that for quite a bit in the last five years when we
didn't have anybody else yep so so I I think that was sort of a the the agreement moving forward that she would have a couple hours a week assisting land use very
excit definitely helpful because that office has been fully staed in quite a while for a long time yeah um and then further down is the uh the the
um the grant portion yeah gr portion y there's a housing portion that but that's a little that's another budget that we would talk about this is the Grant's position is um n and a half hours um per for the
GRS yeah we have an we have an accept we have a uh some the candidate accept it so they just don't through the hiring process yep yeah Aon and we interviewed okay
y so uh so yeah so that uh grants person is nine and a half hours under the land use project when are we appointing that person uh I believe next yep at the next
next select board meeting okay yep okay just a question on there um I'm looking at the BBA and had a clothing allowance I'm assuming that's for the land use coordinator uh I just looked at the um the cont the contract and there wasn't a
clothing allowance for the land use coordinator okay and um I I just pulled that contract up because I wondered about that might be for let me
see is under planning board I don't think you get one for each of the different part time she does get one conservation administrator that's the agent there's a
conservation we um we combine these two positions so it's just the agent at this point okay go to supervisor yes it's and 600 that
one clerical for clerical yes it's 600 so under supervisors it is in the bva but I didn't see it in the I didn't see it on the detail uh I don't see L use for right so
it's correct the way no no clothing but you would think it it kind of makes sense at least someone would get it because um they're on the field a lot you know looking at site not in the
CPA I know I'm just saying they're out there like McKing around in the wetlands and things it's all bargained so if it's not there it's not there you know and we're not putting it in unless it gets reared you know
yeah so I I don't know I think that's just uh you know all everything was redone last year correct for these so we're in the second year of a
three-year contract I believe correct and so it's possible that it was different prior is now yeah it's it's weird all and I'm looking at the FY 24 BBA and
the um colding allowance is not on there but it suddenly appeared yeah I think it's just an error yeah that's what I think so we have 850 for free cash at the end of the year unless we use it for
something else in the meantime yep so so I'll take it off of the FY 26 request since it looks like an oversight I didn't think it was only f26 for no you're right I I just I had put
it in under oh automatically yeah oh it might have just propagated from when you you know pulled the old file no so um the fy2 6 um column there I I hand entered everything oh so uh
I that auta we can talk about expenses I think this was also another area that no actually I think uh I was
worried that eron had used some um uh number that were severely cut down but it didn't look like that was the cas sh 62
53350 yeah well there's a clothing allowance tossed in here materials operation supplies and expenses I think that goes away I wonder if I took that off
it is level fund yeah so I don't know why that that clothing lowance just keeps appearing everywhere I think the clothing allowance was a note from the past so I wouldn't necessarily say that that is what that is used
for oh okay I think I was asked to to submit this the day that I started in the position so I kind of rushed to get it completed I apologize yeah I think it because 5350 was what it was last year so that would be that's a
level fun yeah everything else so okay we're good the last thing the Housing Authority housing authority and Housing Trust um that's the last thing [Music] we have
housing well keep keep airing because the housing is under land juuse and and the job is paired with the gr R so it covers the two boards the Housing Trust was not on
the it's a question about it gets we'll talk about it let's go to the Housing Authority first I know is yeah I saw the I didn't see that whatever the Housing Authority is
inth is it yeah it's in it's in the SharePoint but you guys can't see the share it's um this is the um so the Housing Authority Department
[Music] 525 and uh so this [Music] one um this would be uh the grant coordinator the other half of
their pay comes from the Housing Authority um budget as well as and the Housing Trust so right now you'll see that it's budget at four and a half hours um the other four and a
half comes from the um Housing Trust um money so that adds up to the nine um and I think the other position was another 10 hours n and a half
so so that's 18 and half eron is that correct correct yes yeah so um so who does that that the housing the grant coordinator slash
housing I'm sorry the grant writer that's person that you're going to okay that you hired or appointed or whatever we we interviewed so we're going to appoint them oh so you interviewed yeah we're going appoint them at the next um SEL board so where does the housing
director come from there is no housing director at this point there's a no there's no housing director no housing director we would love to have a housing director would you direct well there isn't a need for one
yet so um so so it's in budget anyway no it's in 27 and oh it's a dream I stopped looking at we keep moving it out year to year to
year so so there's no house correct all right so are we done with housing authority uh there's some expenses uh are they what you've been
doing I'm not the Housing Authority so Natalie and Jack we don't have an active Housing Authority on it well there is Anum on it oh we need more people we need people to
run for it and nobody's C papers oh [Music] it's I'm not or written in position so this looks like a cut from
prior it yeah this one would be uh there's nothing on the budget is 2500 and Aaron has put in 1800000 it's a 7 yeah that was 1,400 I believe um
training is a th000 poet supplies is400 raining is one thing that would be very useful there are a lot of conferences um that are available to the Housing Authority um as well as
um they've looked at working um with some other organizations to try to learn how to become a a better Housing Authority when they have um housing to overse so I I would um like I said
before I I used a budget that was um provided previously um but I would uh probably um have plenty of money in the training um possibly more than the um
the office supplies um there hasn't been a huge need at least in the last year that I've seen for office supplies for the Housing Authority so I would up the training to, 1400 then if we're gonna if we're going to level fund I would swap the office
supplies in the training and make the keep the office supplies at a th000 that's what training was Prior and make the training, 1400 even though we don't have a person there we should keep a person
there but we do have a person the person we're hiring for March they they'll use the the supplies they'll use okay so but won't be doing anything for the Housing Authority not at the
moment until we get people in there okay now the house are we done with that one um did you want to send it to me and I can screen share um you sent it to me I did send it to you you have it
not okay I was gonna put it in this afternoon and then I thought i' mess you up Sabrina if I popped it in there so I didn't when I was in there it wasn't in there okay so this probably isn't in the bva
and it probably isn't in the on the bus budget it's been I'm gonna talk for just a minute Aaron and then you can talk if you want or I can do it either way but um the first year that we had a budget which
was probably 2023 2022 2023 um it was put in and then zeroed out because the funds came from Mara and then I think it was last year Eric decided not to put it in at all because
the funds weren't coming from the general budget and they're still not coming from the general budget you know so it becomes a question of how do you deal with it so we do have a report in the annual report we did get that right
Sabrina yeah so um but we do have a budget um which we haven't extended totally every year so the fir we um when we first did this and it's in our fiveyear plan when we first did this we
mirrored what the um what the Housing Authority did and then added other things that we knew we would need so should I keep talking Aon or do you want to talk go ahead you're doing
great Okay jump in anytime all right so the first one the amount I just um that should match exactly what's in the Housing Authority I just did 4% over what was there before and made it 47.84
I think it's pretty close to what the Housing Authority has for um in the Omnibus for next year but anyway that's the because it's the same administrator um we don't eventually the
hope is that we have enough housing and the Housing Authority is is in place that we hire a housing director but we're not there yet so poof out of the out of the way office supplies um we
started at 500 two years ago and I just increased it by $25 to 550 uh we do use some of that I think um registry fees that's different from the Housing Authority because all resignations
appointments uh pretty much anything that the trust does by bylaw has to be um reported at the registry so every year we do a filing at the registry and so because you're trust correct so I
have to get together all the appointments and the resignations like I resigned from my regular but now I'm appointed as the um person for the select board so that needs to be filed
so we try to do an annual filing at the registry um and there are a few other things that need to be done so I put 2,000 there for registry fees um because uh we have an easement with the water department that hasn't been
registered few other things like that so anyway evaluation and development we haven't used those funds the past two years because we haven't had a housing concept we now have a housing concept so we are
planning to hire a um a land use attorney and perhaps a consultant to help us with the process of bringing that concept to fruition so that's why the 50k is there it wasn't expended prior um training we
have at a th at travel at 150 and we did use the training last year for um the conference there's a Mass Housing Partnership conference Every Spring that's excellent so um
anyway so that's where we are so the funds right now um are from what was obligated by the town from arpa funds and future funding comes from from any forestry that we do um any
inclusionary sending bylaw funds should that become um a bylaw for the town and any CPA funds once that's in place if in fact that's a project that the town wants so and even that 50,000 that's
there in the budget it's actually money you already have it's not money that's going to be that is correct it's nothing that needs to be raised by the town at at this point in time so so it doesn't really show in our budget as needing
funds that's why if you look at the bva or you look at the um omnus budget that was in last year's annual report you won't see the houseing trust however if you look at two years ago like our first
reporting was FY 2024 and Eric did put that in but then he zeroed it out which and so last year he decided yeah no don't do that just don't put it in because we're not operating as we really
are a separate entity from the town our funds will never come out of the general budget so you know and we have to find a way to raise funds that are other than so whether that's selling land or doing
forestry on the land or whatever we have to find another way to raise funds so um trying to think you does the um Housing Trust also need to be
audited on an annual basis it's done through the regular audit through the town yes so it's not part of the town but it's an expense the town pays for the audit to it's part of the town's audit I mean obviously it's not a big
part no it's not a big part but it it I would think we should have at least a separate indicator in it in the in the report from the auditor perhaps I don't know yeah take a look at it I don't recall seeing it in
the AUD if they end up charging um additional for that particular item then I suppose it could come out of your budget but right could be it may already be included in
it but I it's not something that bubbles right up to the top as as a memory that's it any questions and I guess a decision has to be made that we just handle it the way it's always been handled not you know it's
been handled two different ways and two different years so you know I think it's fine not in the budget it should not be um put in there that it looks like it's part of the general bug because it's not
and it should never be so it is a trust not any more than the Amanda DWI fund or any of those get put in they don't so they're separate right know are we look at the schedule
for Saturday yeah I think that'll be great all right so are we all set then with land juice agend thank you Aon thank you thank you than you
we have a meeting on Thursday at 6:m right yes correct we have a meeting [Music] tomorrow yeah for Capital right yeah 4:30 4:30 and it's uming
[Music] said yeah um certain people I believe weren't able to make it okay um but whoever was um okay part of that previous team
they've all been invited okay so all right so Saturday yes you have those rating sheets um they're in policy I don't know if I have them one can we can't we just where are
we going to put Board of Health for couple have what they they're across a couple different sections they're under now when we had y yes great question did you get um any of the budget revisions
that you requested from the depart um I I didn't get them I didn't know if they were responded to a um I Know Chief satel had provided updates to them I don't know I I didn't look at the
CC list to see who who else was copied on it but I'll get them um Carla had sent some changes in for Board of Health um and I think everybody was so we going over there Thursday night um we can go over
it but um I sort of put I put together the list we can't see it up here but I took all the all the lists of of all the Departments um and I put names beside them um to identify who
might be the responsible board the animal inspector had come up during the Board of Health so I have a question behind if that's going to be a Board of Health thing I know it's sort of an open question there wasn't a lot that we did with it but um is are we going to leave
that with Board of Health right now the the light on them that we needed to increase so we could get somebody to do the yeah that was that was the thought you know it's kind of like was it going to be but if if it's remaining
with Board of Health I'll take my question mark out and leave it assigned to them I think it for now yeah um so so our times are 9 o' is fire police correct so fire is n let me pull
up my uh yeah we had fire fire police they under so I put it up on the screen so um I didn't know we had okay good please 930 what's 10 I can't see that
here yes General government not including the treasure has anybody did you do changes to the town CL salary no I was still trying to I I saw your um notes on it so I will
change it I still haven't gotten Clarity on what that would actually look like like that's not Union no it's not because it's an elected it's an elect position it's not Union at all but I I don't know we have a new person coming
and I don't know how much leeway we have that I you couldn't pay the person like $220,000 so maybe people wouldn't wouldn't run for it at that point but you know so I don't know where what greater step um it would be so that's what I've been trying
to find out we did when we adopted Collins who took everybody's salary and to clerk was put on step F but there's not even a job description for it right because it is a
um it is the only elected position that we set the town sets the salary and it can be whatever we want the salary to be um because no no elected position in towns and is
salaried by Charter unless it's set up unless it's voted at town meeting annual town meeting so there is nothing that says it has to be dis grade this anything and
what we did when Collins came in is we just took where the what the salary was and put it on the scale that's what we did it doesn't mean that we have to stay like that right I think we need a job description and from the job description
we look around to what town CLS are actually paid well does isn't town clerk something that's bylaw like mgl it no not necessarily it it's how you set it in your town I have seen towns around
that have appoint appointed Town clerks but no I mean as far as a job that they do they have require yeah they have the requirements Statewide municipally you should be able to get a job description of what they
doily I don't think we have a to because it it wasn't a I can look um because I've got all that but um anyways um so for General
government um that's the 10:00 slot I I just had some notes on what general government actually entails so it's um select board accounting assessors
Treasurer legal Mis town clerk all the various um land use um land use all the ones we just went through yeah so um I think we were talking this morning if most of these
budgets have pretty there's not too much further discussion um there might not be too much right yeah like if we look at the town clerk there's probably discussion on the town clerk but not around what was presented around right
the future yeah um elections registers listings um were all set um the other piece the town Clark is also Park and CLK and burial CLK um necessarily those are appointed position
those are appointed positioned to the town FL right now but they are they're being level funded too they're being level funded by again the town CLK had submitted the budgets for them as they were signed so if that's something that is going to go
to the police in the future if it's because it seems um kind of um parking cour seems like it would would be associated with the police I'm not sure what burial agent would par yeah I was just just gonna say
that parks and Cemetery it sound yeah it could be um I think the current barel agent is actually the town clerk correct right now it's kind right now what do they do well they get certificates like from The
Undertakers yeah yeah so but but what does that got to do with burial well it has to do I mean death certificates that's under the town clerk correct so they don't want to call them the death
agent they're calling them the barrial agent well trying to figure this out they have to be able to call something it was a title that was appropriate but if you give that t to somebody else why does it have to be an
agent I I think it's just a term is that think it's anything um I think if you look at mgl towns need to have you call it I wouldn't call it anything I wouldn't have an agent you would say it's just
their part of their duties yeah just let me backing up to the question about whether or not we have a town clerk job description we do not we have one for the assistant town clerk but not one for the town clerk unless one has been written in the past two years that I
don't know about which is possible well Municipal somewhere has a um I was going to say uh tasks that are performed by a town clerk and also has certifications that
are required for a town clerk that's the state that is a state certification so let me go um so Mass J law part one title 7 chapter 41 section the town clerk
shall and it's town clerk's powers and duties and it goes all through there so I think that rather than writing a job description I think you have to refer to what the requirements are by Mass
General law problem and that's what they do right okay so I don't nobody's looking to reinvent a wheel right um sh Mr of office uh you know
um I'm sure there's pluses and minuses after every annual election of town offic Serv is transmit to the state Secretary on blanks to be furnished a complete list of all Town officers elected and qualified and Sh I would start with all of that and this is all
right here um been anyway blah blah blah just what you have to do so so that's a job description yeah I mean I I'm looking online there are um cities and towns do have a job
description so we can um I'm not saying we requ I mean that could be something that c puts together yeah um it's just that you when you do something like that you um you take the chance that you miss
something right um and then someone says oh but it wasn't in my job description so although you do have that catch all at the end and anything else El need to be done so but anyway um so for under General government for
um the the budget Summit are all these people coming in or I don't think they have like the town Cork's budget we only there was only the only thing I recall is there was a number in the
f29 fy2 call she put the FY 26 number right uh so there was an update and there's the certification that was specific to cathol so that can be there there were a few other things that
I there corre that right that would be gone right I I I do have a question about and I mean if you can find another town that is similar in size to
us and see what their temp work is paid use a couple yeah just to give us an idea yeah because there isn't it's not like it has to be this or it has to be
that I just went I just went with F step one because I think Kathy was up there but it certainly begs a question you know obviously you're running to to be an elected official but you don't even
know what you're what you're get paid that's right yeah you don't know you don't because it's the will of it's only one year yeah it is one year you know and if it works
out that we do get um to hire somebody versus having elected it then that person can apply for the job and basically already has a fo a door actually what what is we can't take
the the voting privilege away from the the citizens they have a right to vote right it's got to be the CH has to be up you have to work on it's it's part of the March 10th warrant isn't it to discuss whether or not appointment or
elected is on there after 27 right so have lot of background to get March 10 let me just [Music] externaly I just want
to button up the schedule so I think uh under General government at the 10:00 slot um I can't can't think of a department that we would need to bring in can you think of anything done the only the only
thing I would say we have the brief conversation um with the board of assessors and the treasurer collector to see if there's any changes that are needed to their budgets because of the
CPA extra work that they'll have to do uh software that they'll have to buy did you um ask Vicky about that not when she was in it's kind of like um we I missed her presentation yeah we we didn't ask
at that point I think um I had the conversation and it didn't sound like we had started any work or investigation into it at that point there's software regarding CPA that Patriot or whoever the vendor is does
Supply because there's many communities now that have CPA so they have the software it pretty much the softare that we were going to probably need for last year what the so is that a new person we're going to have to hire or is
no no no no no no no no additional work it it could be additional work it's gonna how um my understanding is it's not going to be that bad because the software takes care of it you become a community and
the software does all of the um data that you need M to send out the tax bills to have that already in it yeah but it's a question for her I mean I shoot her an email and ask her about that and I was supposed to ask her that
today um after we got I got the phone down but and again we've got tomorrow we've got you know or Thursday this is only Tuesday um and but I think if we can get the information from yeah then then you
know than not Vicki had sent in the change with her to hers and I don't think there was minor things Melissa on theer there wasn't a lot she had a lot of detail behind every
every description of every line she had in there and Lego and Mis were doing Thursday um probably probably not news we just went over I thought we were doing fire on
Thursday at 6:15 we are doing fire first correct okay and then finance committee are to out and then this all stuff as which I I have listed I have
Board of Health legal Finance my chicken scratch on my calendar that's what I have too exactly what you have L I have Board of selectman Finance legal Mis yep and we have fire we fire
at 615 so do we have Board of Health to no no no no no was bard of selectman of Health Bo of health will be on Saturday we have already done we had done um cway
had come in with everything um we had a couple of changes um there was when do we talk about trash right we well we can add it as as an item because
that's an important thing um if there's nothing actually in general government we I we could add a trash as it's own at 10 yeah it's up there or if you want to do that at the end and move the
other side his trash could be open-ended and delayed okay [Laughter] yes just put it on here trash talk I do think we should talk about
take that long hash culture and recreation is uh Library um Recreation Memorial Day and flag so yeah I I don't think there's Council and aging is part of that that's actually
Human Services it is Human Services is which is a different what the landfill well that's the thing it's kind of um yeah it's kind of it's as I went through the public safety has has a lot more
things um Public Safety is also the building inspector um and the other pieces are do we want to look at the budgets we hadn't seen yet seen yet like we we talked with the building department but if we didn't see
gas Inspector pling Inspector she weights electrical we just kept those all in the building um commissioner he said they were all just going to be so um do we have a a warrant yet when does
a warrant for annual town meeting close I think you had it as March 1st March 1 yeah for anyone to submit article okay um but we have for the annual for the annual right so I want to make sure that the Articles like the
5,000 for the 350th or 300th whatever it is celebration um gets in there we always move that every year so that we have funds available when that time comes 2032 is something like that it's
not that far away when you think about it um and we've been putting 5K away every year so I want to make sure of that is that the 250 250th maybe it's the 250th I thought it was 300 but yes we have a if you look at the bva it's in
there and has what is it called is 250th or 27 250 250 the 300 we're having 250 this year yeah doing his thing oh well that's
peppero no the 250 multiple cities in town it's a 300th committee so I'd say it's the 300s oh okay it's the town incorporation oh right it's different from um we're
talking like the actual country itself yeah no we're not no this is for the town okay the 250th is a separate thing and it's um right was in here that is it was all town it's town meeting
warrants right um that were all put together okay um but I can't but it's not an Omnibus budget right um no no but it is an article we'll make sure we includ that
so um we're meeting tomorrow right I'll give you all my stuff tomorrow all right uh all right so let's see if we can finalize the the schedule for Saturday it's um trash solid
waste because it's it own yeah we caning that goes [Music] so is there anything in general government highways and streets or Human Services culture and recreation or the
treasure that we want folks to come in to I wanted you to check the treasur salary because what I saw in the omnus didn't match what was in the contract um um I think it was
I I think it was just a the uh typo in in the BB section or or the addition the in the omnus budget what was 2025 what was in the Omnibus
2026 did not match what was in the contract okay okay yeah I'll I I corrected it but I'll triple check on that one okay I haven't looked at it since I said yeah no I I I haven't uploaded the the new one yet
okay um um so I haven't looked but so that was um in the Treasure and I don't know whether it matched what you guys looked at or not I don't know but I just know what was in the not what was right that was a new contract maybe that was negotiated she said she was going to be
negotiating the contract that is correct did and it started in January so yes because of submitted the budget I bet it wasn't it so look at that because there was some fun with fiscal year too
because she starts in the middle of a fiscal year yeah um so I I just got a note have helped St firm with collecting only contract n do please supports this
what does that mean yeah it means they're not going to go with the full budget in other words um I mean I met with them before that and it seemed to me that with the increase and there has been an increase in the purple bag
sales and this is after she said well it looks like they're going to go down in the tonnage because first said it looks like they're going to go down in the tonnage because people
are going to get mad about the about if we add a househ each a charge for each household and then so the Tage will go down and so I like then after we were
talking for a bit she said well the purple bag sales did increase he said well that tells me the T just going to up right because I was trying to make a point of I prefer to see the whole everything
together and then we don't have to go with the charge of each household and I said by you telling me that the purple bag sales are up that the Tage will go up so why would we want
P The Tipping fee so that was my discussion before I came up here and then they met and and their determination is that they're going to stick with the contract that they negotiated well here's the thing do they
have a suggestion for how the Tipping fee is going to be paid I guess we'll talk to them on Saturday and let them disclose it to everyone that would be great I tried to make a wi and it didn't work so let them have it because the
other option is everybody privately contracts right that's contract out totally trash is done I mean everybody does their own if if we can't we're not the first
community that has to do their own no Community it's just we're spoiled exactly because it's been forever that we had it right and uh it looks like it's not going to be so I mean that's the other option unless
we have a way to pay for right everything and I mean there could be some downsides that we the number if it's everybody goes to private pick up the the trucks on the road at different times multiple companies coming in being it's kind of
like um little bit of a mad house yeah it could be uh you know how many how many trucks are going in and what are the you know is the damage to the roads rather than just one one trck coming in and doing doing the pick up I don't think it matters yeah it does it kind of
but they are I'm just not sure how you would quantify that wouldn't pay them you wouldn't have them pay a tollers yeah you know some no just um just looking at it it's kind of like if you have multiple people being picked up
even if it's on the same day by say three different vendors it's kind of like this wor about it but that could be happening right now because people have already started started um you know people that if everybody was
participating in the purple bags it might be different might only might yes that's certainly you know I'll say it you know in front very that doing way with trash wouldn't be suggestion I certainly would want to
come to a compromise and you have to find a way to where does the money come from you know as we talked about earlier um before this meeting um the flat fees wouldn't work for multiple reasons so
the um you know I I think we would have to we'd have to have an opt out we had a conversation with the attorney about this right correct so so now how do you come up with rest of the the money then so you we would have to
be creative you know looking at free cash um you know stabilization which I know the finance Community doesn't like that so those are just you know those are just suggestions that is possible but
because you know I want to preserve some of those services that we've been providing to residents for a while um but I know times are tough and if this is on The Chopping ball then yeah I I think it's kind of like this no override
no trash with the override we might with we might be able to find funds in the in the budget somewhere I mean I I really but if there's no override there's no
trash um and and there's probably you know a town operating 5 days 4 days a week instead of five because where else do we get the money yeah how are you going to cut the school cut hours except
the school right and firing police um everybody else there has to be a cut and it's probably going to be an across the board one because collective bargaining agreements won't allow
otherwise not ideal but that's where we are so [Music] um so we can put it in there the trash yeah oh you P you made it
earlier earlier no it's the end make it at the end because that is say that's gonna be that will push everybody out if we if we did it um so no I apologize for there um that's okay what what needs to go
before that then that realistically we need to discuss further right I I can't really think of another police where's Highway say Highway think highway is yeah they did a
really good pres I mean all the depart all departments did a great presentation so I I don't I I think that the important thing is for the Departments to understand that without an override we're looking at Cuts it's not just trash right but I we
won't we wouldn't be able we're not going to be able to figure out at the budget sum no the but but I think everybody should leave the summit knowing that this this budget what we talk about on Saturday is contingent on
an overd it's not real otherwise yeah I need to look at the the the Omnibus and the the rec app because I think even according to my calculations um we're we may fall short
unless we get a little creative which is why we have to go to those expense budgets cut them all in half see what that does um you know uh and we we just had everybody running through um the
team of stuff I think I sent that to you the the 20,000 and the 10,000 I think that has to go to free cas I don't think that should be in the budget because it's not a recurring expense every year I hope um you know I
thought the budget was supposed to be for recurring things that happen every year and so to put the 20,000 and the 10,000 in for replacement equipment Etc which I agree that we need I think that
should be a warrant article for free cash take it out of the general government um um fire you know tomorrow can I mean th Thursday can talk about it little B more
um those those items I think had been in there but never at that level so I I so 12 about 12:30 for trash or anytime I think it's going to be I think it's going to be much sooner than that yeah
really it's kind of like B of health is coming in for that cemetarian Parks I don't think we had anything with Rogers he didn't ask for anything no no he didn't um I have a question this is a capital
planning question should we be including the payments for the fire trucks um in the capital plan or I mean that they are 100% covered in fy22 and FY 23 in
the capital plan where do those payments come from um they're in the they're in the Deb's um section which is the treasure but I think there needs to be really a running list in the Capital Equipment that shows how many
years yeah how many years you have left because if you as you go to approve new capital equipment are you going to be able to do it with that are you going to or is there nowhere else to squeeze any money from that's because of the plow I was trying to figure out are we going to
borrow all the money for plow if I thought we're going to go into a lease we are going to do a lease but we have a lease for the fire trucks too we have to pay PS right um well it's payment on debt so are we going to if we
do a lease then we are committing to five years of this 60 however k um and that has to be reflected um yeah and I was thinking about that too the the other day because
um Melissa does have a 10 to 15 year um debt schedule you know some projects do end end up dropping off in a few years because everything's paid for so that kind of um
frees up well it that that service that debt service is is um much less that year compared to other years and then obviously you're adding more projects over time so it just you just keep
moving along year after year um typically probably The Debt Service isly level because once you uh get above a certain like threshold you know your bond rating
May right may may be jeopardized um but that's that is something that uh the treasurer could look at that she should be able to run some numbers you know she has a general idea of what the the the markets are
looking like for rates and depending on what piece of equipment it is it could be 15 20 year 25 year um life on it that means you can borrow for that long so that kind of spreads out
the payments a little bit I know You' be paying more interest over the life of the the loan but it kind of spreads out the yeah the payments over time I'm just going through the list and like top to bottom I
think but I don't know we necessarily need to see anybody else or um it's kind of like going through General government it's kind of like we're going to have select board finance committee in Thursday I don't for
finance committee I know this not it's kind of like it's going to be our same two lines funded for now um accounting Board of assessor treasur legal Mis
um Town collections reg Street listing conservation Mr mrpc dos the planning board board of appeals which we just saw facilities so most the general government General government was in
public safety um police um fire sorry defin definitely police I know we're going to have fire on Thursday we need to have them follow up on Saturday T
right and communication building department we just talked about and animal inspector Animal Control um that was two different deals though was yeah animal inspectors one Board of Health um and the police
did that the Animal control officer that was part of the police re he submitted that bu what was the the books that they were talking about that were supposed to be keeping that's the barn that's that's the animal inspector Barn yeah you have to count all the
animals in town well could somebody call coordinate it and do it on senior work work off well there's a the issue is there's a rabies require that's the that's the issue but
isn't that a state thing that we're supposed to be doing so so we can't really get around nobody wants to do it for $600 well so that was the discussion have to and it was already in the BB
1200 so it was talk on that um so we can we'll continue the Animo inspector um other towns probably have to have one so you know um I've actually been talking to some of my colleagues in the area um to
see if they're if we up our rates if their animal inspector might want to add town that would be good peil actually pays a lot more but Ashby does not so
get well I I I kind of asked that but if if I can if we can increase the the uh the rate we might be able to just have the annual control officer take it on okay but yeah um might are we talking
1200 or 1500 um 12 12 is what's budgeted I that that could be a little bit low so I I feel like I think you have to know like how many places they've got to go with that
type of thing which would make a difference maybe I mean would you go in 10 places or you going 45 you know exactly so it really yeah it would depend on the workload is I would think correct so because I think uh if you can
believe it I think peppol is 4,900 really they have a lot of they got a lot of horses over there they do they have a lot so it's the animal count right yeah yeah I was kind of surprised when I
heard they paid their inspector ,000 and again it would be interesting to see how many they're inspecting and see how many Me comparison see where it is who has heard of how many animals we have in town
There's a barn book somewhere they used to have an animal counter how long ago was that do I think the last one was probably five years ago I don't think we had one I don't
ever remember oh no we did um up until maybe 2020 oh well the um dog officer animal officer used to do it no no I oh I've heard from the Board of Health that that's who did it until
they started the babies thing and that's why that's why everybody said so it sounds like somebody is doing it in another town the best um so Highway highways and streets
is Highway snow nice and street lights that's was pretty um then Solid Waste really didn't have oh solid waste with water health is going to be the big conversation um the rest of Board of Health
um the Board of Health and show board Health landfill engineering was all fine to one AJ um veterans agent we probably have a question um but we can probably get
that that I think uh who was it that spoke you you said you spoke to Natalie um it was level funding but I think we had questions on what some of those Services might be right yeah like the the veterans benefits other service
right much is that 75 75,000 I think some of it is supplied by the state when you get the breakdown of all that money we're getting so I feel like maybe the budget
Summit might not be more might not be meeting with department heads again but maybe it's um we go through the Omnibus as a group and um take a look at the recap sheet um to see what that might look like
right um I I know I know in the recap sheet there are items that um we don't have information for um because I it a lot of it some of it
involves money coming back to us I think like uh reading room Title Five a bunch of other um fees that that sort of gets put back into the general fund right um and
and that's what those are some of the variables I've been playing around with to figure out um whether we're you know um whether we are um under budget over budget so so I
think maybe that might be the general framework of how Bud my work yeah that makes makes good sense it's kind of like the the recap be good because being able to see how where where there may be a gap part of that do we bring in what we
did this year to in order to balance the budget and get it where we where we are where we are yes can you just read down who is coming when and um
schu um it's on the screen it's on the screen 9 o' is fire 9:30 is police 10:00 a.m. General government not including Treasurer town clerk 11:00 a.m. Highway
and streets Human Services plus landfill noon says culture and recreation and treasure and trash and solid waste is after yeah that's what I have but I wanted yeah I think we were which departments because left them out
now department but I thought we were just actually talking about bringing everybody in and doing the on the bus or are you talking still doing them in their in their groups um like that so that everybody's not seeing the hole on the bus so we bring in all General
government no I I was thinking as a as select board and finance yeah and then the others can come because you're going to be asking people to be there all morning right that's that's what I was everybody to be there all
morning do there I don't know I yeah I don't even think they're gonna have to sit through all that at the to I don't think like I said I don't think they even need to be at this budget Summit because everything's except trash bard of house should be right that's that's
the big one fire although we're talking to fire Highway yeah Highway and Highway want Highway okay well to me highway is just as important as fire and police I mean they're they're you know flowing and
fixing roads and an accident they're out there cleaning up after everybody of course yeah but we Jim came in with the he yeah right but the other two haven't been in in front of us yet that's great police have not well police has no they
sent um they sent files and a little more there was a little more um detail this they they had they actually they were the only Department that did the budget introduction letter um police police yeah um and so there
were a few questions on on a few of the um lines to for detail but that about it and we had the m one of the major questions on the labor side was um the special education stifen for lieutenant
Peach whe in what do you meet with the school again are we meeting with them again no tomorrow is their vote tomorrow tomorrow night at 7 it's the school committee vote on the budget
okay so I'm thinking it's the police and fire do we do Board of Health for trash and then visit the Omnibus yeah I so put it back up there you move it
down should I do it at 10 o' what the onnibus no the trash and solid waste then 11:00 so you're going to sign the to everybody yes at this R there's only a
few people on on the list then all the questions with are answered on Thursday then that that's we can drop in from
Scot 30 correct and we're taking out the highway and yeah so everything on the bottom here I'm I'm just keeping it here but it's not gonna be no no not not is coming in okay yeah
we should start the Omnibus starts with General government correct yes so let's move um General government up from where you have it at the bottom there if if we're doing the ONN best budget and review B General government Highway and streets Human Services
culture and recreation well I just said omnius we're just going to go in order and so it's just a catch all I'm not looking we're like start from the very top of just work way down right I I would are you leaving that 11:00 a.m. no
there's all this stuff in the bottom here you're going to go take that out okay okay and then I guess on the bottom of the on Theus um and the last things the that in the insurance is you
think we need colle to talk about the debt or any of the insurances that she covers or do you have all the insurances um I have them all covered we're we're still trying to work on a few angles there but I think the the increase that
we've seen is is it's it's a right now the health insurance is going to increase by 15.4% we're looking we're actually working with the agent right now to uh
May tweak some things here and there maybe get the that 15 point or down a couple percent um I think we were talking about we weren't looking to increase co-pays or anything like that but more for like certain specialized
Services things like that um just the if we're if we nip and Tuck a few things we might save a one or two percent grand scheme of things it's not a ton but that would anything helps at this point
right yeah 1% is maybe like you know 12 and a half thousand I'm I'm budgeting one you know 12,500 that's all yeah yeah because that's at 1%
yeah because I'm I'm budgeting um almost a million and and a quarter for health insurance that that's a lot that's a lot it is I mean it was over a million this fiscal year
1.08 so that's a big percentage who do they who do we have for health insurance yeah we use Maya which is a so I think like 100 somebody's making big money
yeah health insurance company I I Maya I think I'm well over 150 cities and towns so just out of curiosity what is I I know that from my own insurance if I see a specialist is more money if I see just a regular
doctor co- yeah so how are how are co-pays running I mean is it are we paying so much that we're you know killing ourselves well the copays is one area that we might be able to like if copay is currently like $25 if we up at
to 30 or 35 I a special I pay $40 I say regular direct pay 10 yeah so if we up those co-pays that could save us on premiums it should in theory so those are some of the things that Lally I mean it's nice
to think that nobody has co-pays but it's not a realistic no no co-pays then you know also there's deductibles exactly you pay BAS in full until you finish your deductible that's correct y
so those are sort of the areas we're looking at um to you know manage these expenses I think every little bit helps so those are the areas we're trying to get creative to save a little bit of money
it's honestly not going to be you know it's 154% we can get to like 10% get it to 12 and a half that would be helpful yeah and and that's what we're
currently working with um M to to potentially do I just think those tens and 20s and 30 thousands they add up you know if we find them here you know like the team of money moving that the you
know the you know maybe finding 10 or 20 in salary savings because of the switch town clerk um you know all of those they add up and you know and and that's why I think when we we start looking at the Omnibus top
to bottom we can start really making some of those changes that um when you look at the just big spreadsheet and see how that will translate into the the recap I I sent this to you too on the
um it was Harrison that did work we um the board of Selectmen maybe three years ago we hired Harrison to do a special project as an intern and his job was to look at the purchasing for all those uh
office supplies and to centralize that so that we buy office paper for everybody and we buy pens for everybody and we buy clippies for everybody and instead of
having each um just having supplies and have it managed by someone I don't know the town clerk's office the assistant town clerk is The Keeper of the supplies I don't know but we had a project to to
look at that was there anything ever done with that I'm sure he completed it Haron I would think but where is the yeah a few months
ago we had a meeting at mrpc and I'm sure I passed this along to the selectman because they had done a study and they saved more than a third so that information was forwarded
to the selectman for yeah yeah I don't I don't know if I ever saw that but um well you weren't a select I wasn't a selectman but but that was something
that you know there were certain cost-saving things that we were trying to put [Music] energy all the you know solar panels on buildings that we could have solar panels on um etc etc and one of them was
the supplies put that all together find out what came yeah I'll I'll uh either talk to Harrison they have to send it all at once you know they can send it in waters yeah yeah and I'll try to find that meeting that email that I sent and
I think it was under Eric I can't remember I think it was under Eric y that we did that and we were trying to it had to be under Eric because he was the one that hired Harrison Harrison was in ER I guess it was yeah yeah so
um yeah um so at the moment I'm GNA just ping Chief as well as the Board of Health that they should come to the budget Summit right um but if we might
be able to handle fire on Thursday right you know if we get that done one less yeah right yeah like I say it could be a nice 9:30 start but if you post it we got to start at 9: anyway start it and then go take a recess until
[Applause] 9:30 is there anything else that we have oh we we have to do a motion to uh do payroll out of session or whatever the warrant so we're done
with session our next meeting is February 272 at 6m you are posted we are posted y review and sign payroll and bills
payable warrants up OB session is your motion I move that we review and sign payroll and build payable warrants out session I second call please Veronica k i and motion to adjourn
at 93 2 p.m second we agree you got it thank you that's the way it [Music]
is everybody I don't have those sheets so um I I think they're in the policy I'll see if I have any soft copy from prior years and I was gonna put together um
Sabrina sent me the 5 year plan okay I was going to update that for tomorrow and type everything in and we have facilities coming has the meeting been adjourned yes it has yes it has thank you Harley
thank you you um because