good evening everyone nice to see you all here my name is Laura sh and I cheer the select board and I'm about to call our joint meeting together with the finance committee and it is 6:06 pm and if I
could have a roll call for select board Veronica Cal pres and would you all join to FL of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one
nation indivisible liy and justice for all thank all of our veterans and also all of our military that's serving right now and our emergency response families and I include the
families because they all sacrifice for us this meeting is being recorded and will be uploaded to YouTube there anyone else recording the record show the Sindy King is
recording I do not have any uh other additions or deletions except could could we just thank um troop 10 for joining know what TR number they were and hopefully um this meeting goes
smoothly so you can learn a lot of things while you're here um The Joint meeting between the select board and the finance is for the budget for the town might be one thing um I think the Board of Health would like to be one of
the first budgets to be discussed tonight so if that is at all possible yes that can be changed I was allowing John to do that actually and also um I don't know if guys not come so joh was also gonna
mention that oh um the only other thing I wanted to mention was that I received an email from a resident who was um listening to our meetings and found it difficult to
actually hear everything because we had a lot of papers moving around and sometimes we talk all each other so so um I just thought I would mention it so that we could be cognizant of the fact that we should not be talking over one another so if one person can talk at a time that would be great for the
audience as well come on in yeah there's a sec okay and I think that was all for my announcements done okay um this is the towns and finance committee and calling the meeting to order at 6:09 P.M
call attendance even though we're all here appreciate itas Carol H David Walker Sam Grant maryan and Don Hayes at six we have a quum so we are good to continue um this meeting is also being recorded
um and we'll continue with um item four on the agenda I haven't started sharing yet I will get there when I get lged in for the zo session um as far as additions of the we had an addition that was added to the
agenda um where Board of Health will be in and we we planning two slides and then item the item for tar and Fire EMS will not be reviewed tonight they had a last minute
commitment and we'll see them Saturday morning instead um and then the rest will continue we have Capital planning report and finance committee and the select board to to
review those would be the only changes at this this point nothing else we can move into the work session um the first item on the work session um is now Bo of
Health I see Carla on Zoom I thought it I'm here hi Carla hi good evening folks is a Christian um on he should be he should
be I see someone with the initial LS um I see I see Carla's iPhone and I see uh your other account Carla yes I'm the the microphone is really low on my
laptop so I've actually muted my laptop and I called in so I could actually he better then then I don't see Christian on zoom and he's not I don't either that concerns me so if it pleases the board
to continue to the next I will um release my phone to try and contact him I think it's very important that he's here and I know he wants to be okay and we'll move on to the next item on the agenda
thank you okay next item would be we're going to get a report um where it's only a report um there are members of the board here which would constitute
quum but we're not they're not going to have any votes they're just do the report so I think we we're covered but I would if anybody thinks there's an issue and one member may need to I think so okay then if I could have a volunteer to
um the wait out in the hallway will we have the capital planning discussion because this three Carol oh you Jerry and and Veronica would make a oh because there will be three so we
can say oh no okay I'm confused yeah one one needs to go two two is okay because it's not a COR three members you want me to leave
I let's make a decision no just tell on Capital plan so you can only have two people here from I'll go outside with you are you on Capital planning also no but I'm going to go keep her company that's fine okay
okay you can fill her thank you just trying to follow the open meeting really is what goes on okay you cannot have a quum without posting okay then you're gonna provide uh is anybody
able to screen share um let me see Nelson do you can you get into the SharePoint and pull up the file that I put there sure so the one that I want is fiveyear capital project harle uh or is it Tom that's
downstairs could you give me um sharing privileges yeah you should be able to right thank you Excel stretchy it it is an Excel stretchy it says fiveyear capital
projects is that the print that we got I don't know print did I get that too Christian is online so do you want to Pivot back or um i' probably like to continue when we
have a member oh you want to share the first I'm gonna be asking to switch screen so you want the fiveyear plan first so click on that should work yeah
there is little bit of a delay um so Capital met last night and we looked at the projects that were requested and if you look at that the First Column is fiscal year 20 uh 26 the capital plan committee recommendation is
the Y and N right next to it and we are um we are governed by the amount of funds the town has to spend for Capital so our decisions were to um for Highway to um fund the fourth Le fourth year of
a fiveyear lease for the loader which we have to do so that's a 31,100 um the next thing that we were going to fund was the $295,000 uh new dump truck with plow and
sander uh scrolling down to facilities the Memorial Hall fire suppression system and the um trim and painting on Memorial Hall we opted not to fund so I moved to the far right column the funds
for the exterior storm windows uh the um heating system and farther down scoll it up a little bit so we can see those ends down at the bottom the replacing the roof on Memorial Hall repointing the chimney and the
foundation and also um replacing the main roof of a library we uh just don't have the funds for that this year right so we did not vote on those at all um moving down further to um fire and
police uh the fire department requested um protective bunker gear that's turnout gear at 135,000 and we voted to fund that in the water department the water plan um
Master Plan update and the cyber security assessment for $122,000 and rolling down further I think we'll get to um lease the police it's the lease payment on four
Cruisers does say four proof it does okay so we're good um and so uh those are the I didn't put a y there that's what's missing a y on that line okay um so uh we could so if you look at the
total there at the bottom recap by Department um all comes to a total of $7,600 so where does the funding come from uh do you want to go to the funding page I don't know if it's better to talk there or otherwise so
um the protective bunker gear um we're thinking Capital stabilization that has about 87,000 in it right now so it would have to be either um supplemented by Red dirting
special articles that warrant articles that have not yet been expended or um free cash the Cat loader would come from free cash 31,100 um the two police um Cruisers we
put under raise in appropriate appropriate that is in the um budget that the police department has Master Plan update and the Cyber security assessment total
72,000 and if you either um shrink down all our faces um there are further columns if you can yeah hit that yeah uh the Water Enterprise fund is where the water department stuff would come out of
that's the 72,000 um the 65k can you move that to the left for the facilities um would come from am I missing it uh would come from uh Capital
stabilization or redirecting special articles so there's work that needs to be done with the board of Selectmen to decide what the best way what the best um place is to fund from but we do have that um you know the Articles identify
and things like that just deciding if this is a best way FR but that our recommendation and so all total $7,650 with the $295 did I skip over that for the uh dump truck with the plow
and sander um that would be borrowed so you say d six wheeler you're talking about six tires right yes I believe so in English it's it's the big one the
big one would be the tandem would be six sets of tires so you know that's why I'm trying to find out whether it's six sets of tires or six tires no it's six set six sets I think so two two yeah that's
a d two wheels on one axle is a duy okay a tandem is also six but it's a pair of on each of the two axles in the back of the truck that covers the kind of weight we may be hauling or not that's what that's what makes me think it's I think
it's that's what I'm trying to figure out 10 ton truck or basically or well they're actually heavier than that but um I don't a single axle with two sets of wheels on the back or a tandem which
is two axles with four sets of of tires uh we didn't quiz him on that he just told us what he needed right and we do have a way of funding that U because a truck like that is supposed to last
between 15 to 20 years so we can take funding for 5 10 15 spread it out make it you know make it more affordable for the town yeah well but have to keep in mind that when you take it out there's going to be another truck somewhere down the road that's going to have to replace
something else of course there's always something well last year I believe that there were two Sanders the smaller ones smaller trucks that they have that were purchased right and so this is the first of the big Sanders there are two other requests that are in go back to the
first page 28 I think 28 there was there's one for 27 and one for 28 correct and I don't know that we're going to be able to afford that so it might be that we do every other year if we can or depending on how things how
you buy out into the future has a lot to do with what's coming in correct two to five yeah so we met with the treasurer last night and she went over numbers with us she seemed to think that was the way to go yeah for that one um it's better than
having a lease with the vendor um because then that can't be borrowed and would have to come out through cash every year similar to that 31,100 right and so um we felt the the
committee felt it was better to un for that one we go down to the for the police department for a second oh sure very bottom line been for cruises for Cruisers yeah okay I thought it's all two Cruisers up there
somewhere well you know before she left the room JN had mentioned that it said two Cruisers somewhere maybe the in the funding source funding page so I I missed that you know when I edited but anyway yeah it's for Cru and that's
already been discussed in the police department budget how long for that's $25,000 a year you yeah for four cruises he usually does it for five years four five four five years I think it's I think it's four I think it's four
because of a mileage miles and it it's just a rolling thing that happens so it actually comes out of his budget yeah we do it out of the operating budget um and so when they
when the article is presented for for these all the different funding s sources will be mentioned right much like the water Enterprise fund will pay for the water ones um we're doing this out of the operating budget but where it is capital is a reporting element to
this when we report to the state that it's Capital versus just different from where the funding s is coming from so any other questions I did put in the SharePoint the um reports that the accountant provided to us for the
articles that are um not fully expended and so that's something that the Saturday com in on Saturday because I have some questions about his who rob the um I facilities I have no idea he's
not slated to to come in so if you have any question we can ask all right any other questions on no um I should mention that there's a a
possibility of applying for a grant that does have a 50 a 50% match it's 50/50 it's not that to do some of the Memorial Hall work that was requested so we decided to
hold off on those because of that reason plus funding I think there's 87,000 in capital stabilization right now there's some free cash that we're going to need to take and there are articles that can be forgiven so and they will need go on
the um annual town meeting warrant to repurpose March 1 March 1 so so we just need a placeholder for Warrant article yeah okay I didn't know if they would make it into the special that first so we would then know
whether the money was available well that's the case the special town meeting warrant is later I just want to make sure I didn't think about that yeah you guys have AAL meeting theual meeting and then we break
out into a special and so if we do those in special then we know [Applause] we there any other questions that's okay thank you any other
questions this is your you all sit yeah I think so okay we we still have time I mean you know I just not additional questions come up we can get answers just everybody I'm just gonna one hour
get did you put that I did thank you but I just saw that it was there I if you've already done it good to go you probably need to do it on
your I'm back on the island okay start we back on the agenda um and we'll go back to help good evening Mr chairman of the finance committee good evening Miss chairman of the bo of the board of Selectmen Miss
Vice chairman um and everybody who's present um I'm here representing the Board of Health um regarding the trash contract um earlier during the day Carla has sent over an email with a few documents um
which included um a letter from uh from Irene um let me see if I can get her name correctly um Irene Kong conden or
Municipal assistance coordinator from Mass deep and the chairman of the recycling committee uh we sent over um the two proposals that we have for the trash contract um separated from the municipal um trash um so we have we we
were in contact with sha today asking about the number of the tonish that he is that he's um that he is um projecting that that we're able to
um to that we're able to to how do you put this way um that that that he's in to collect based on the tonage and he gave us the number of
1,600 um tonage um and based on the contract that the Board of Health had approved and had presented to um to um um Town Council um the Board of Health um
continues on the firm position on endorsing the the contract with the pay as to throw not the old inclusive but since we have the numbers for um the four four four 400 478,000
have for Revenue up to now two 200 $12,750 as of right now and I think that um if we continue going that route I think there's a possibility that um the trash contract can be financed by the
purple bags if we continue on that expectation um it is the firm recommendation of of the Board of Health to approve our recommend recommended proposal um of
this contract and that will give us a possibility of even applying for Grants too that could supplement and correct me if I'm wrong Carla regarding to get more Revenue to cover the TR contract right
Carla Cara um can you hear me y y okay um hello Bo so if if we can get the tonnage down to less to to 1,000 tons your grant money
would be substantial and the numbers that the Board of Health is looking at Nene was looking at was approximately 1,200 right now and it will go down for another year and then it will cap out so so the
tonnage at 1,600 tons and an all-inclusive contract would mean that you would be paying six you would be paying for 1,600 tons when our records show along with Irene that it's going to
be at least at the most 1,200 and possibly less than a thousand so it doesn't make sense to pay for something that you're not going to be collecting and correct me if I'm wrong Christian it was also the board's recommendation that
the board of Selectmen include the number in their budget process for the allinclusive and then you have the number there and then as ATT tonage goes down you won't be expending that money by the end of the
year can I ask a question yes yes yep um so how is the difference between the um the 490k or whatever it is 480k for
collection and the tonnage paid for where do those dollars come from the the money anticipated to be collected for purple bags pay as you throw will only cover the collection given the
situation that we're in that the general fund doesn't cover the the 1600 or 1,000 or 1,00 how is the tonnage paid for how do you anticipate funding
that you mentioned grants but are those grants guaranteed and what are the amounts of the grants so how is the tonnage paid for and how quickly do we get so okay go ahead Christian no go ahead
go ahead okay so the the purple bags are not intended to pay for all of the contract you're going to have to come up with some money it's it's just not going to supplement but why would you pay for
something that you're not you're the tonnage is going down um for instance right now we're setting a contract for 2,000 tons and it's $68,500 a month and right now our tonnage is down to an
average of $1 130 so you're paying all that for something that you shouldn't be paying but the thing is you know what that amount is it is not open ended and
um and unless you have data from I would say the five previous years before pay is your you throw I wouldn't be comfortable um doing this unless we have a funding source for it in other words
if fees are going to be increased at the um at the recycling center uh so that every time you dispose of something you are charged a $5 fee for tonnage you know that would support this there there
needs to be some way to pay for the the Delta between collection and the tonnage well the recycling I'm sorry I'm sorry I some sort of fee that people who
use trash disposal in towns and um contribute to to help with this because with the school situation the increases that all staff gets by
contract and I mean if you followed what we've been doing with budget you can see that we are scraping and so I prefer to know what it's going to cost and say how are we going to pay for that um but we could I
mean who knows maybe the tonnage will go down to 500 tons and if that's the case sure if you do it and you have the money to pay for it you can do that but right now with what's projected to come in and pay your throw it will cover the
collection but it will not dis cover the disposal and that's where I have the issue with it and so is it better to know or to have something open-ended and I'm comfortable with open ended if we have a way to collect those
fees that is fair for everybody in town if I may go ahead thank you so I can't give you the numbers Veronica for the last five years because we had been well maybe for the
last five years because we've been uh We've we've decreased the tonnage at when when the town had the contract in 2008 you actually had six bags of trash that you were allowed out at the curb and we decreased it every year to 543
and then it was 264 so I could give you tonnage for the last probably three years for that but I don't really think that it's going to give you the numbers that you want so how so
so how do you propose paying for the tonnage I guess is my question uh Lori would you like to address that I don't think so okay how are we pay for the how are we gonna pay for the tonnage if you
don't make enough in the bags uh free cash was discussed oh well it you free C free cash is not always there and available it's kind of like you it's but we PA I
my I started to look at the numbers I got them late this afternoon start some things together I went the other way I took how much is the average pound of a bag to create how many bags would go to a ton pay your tonnage from your bag fee
and work backwards to how much you need to get to to pay for the collection right as as an example I mean that that's a backward you can go that way but you still need money we still need the money but and I also did the comparison I'm going to look over to the
spreadsheet um I put together right now this was we had January listed on the letter from Irene and it showed 134 um for January which is 44 tons less
than last January so I used that number and just said it's going to be 44 tons less that's a per month per month but do you also have the number of people that participate in the program
versus the number of people in the town and and that's the piece people come back on which is going to increase the there is there also inrease the bags right but exactly so you
know yep it's kind of yep I have a question all of this is based on facts not on facts it's all based on projections veronic has a really excellent point how are we going to pay
for the tenant have we talked about the possibility of telling the town's people that the trash thing is not working and let's just forget about it and everybody get their own trash open up the town to other competitive trash people besides
sha and let's just be honest with the town's people it's all a mess and this is going to be an alternative because otherwise you're just talking about numbers you have no idea of T you have no idea and what's it going to be you want fees on top of fees on top of fees that
are going to grow and grow let's just tell the people the truth and let them get their own trash and end this part of the budget that is one way to go but the difference is that it is less expensive for people to do the pay as you throw as
long as um we have a way to cover the tonnage for the town it's less expensive per person it will cost each person4 to $50 to pick up for a pickup more than likely that's what Shaw is charging now
um so so the reason um if it's a competitive market it could go down to 35 say do does anybody have any idea what others charge they'll St right pretty much
whatever is that household that's a household the audience has a comment okay showman lives in winon he pays $44 a month to get trash Pi up I was going to say it it all depends
on the size of your the size of your TOA that you get and and amount whether it's quantity whether it's one or two um generally I did the quotes I went out to three or four different sites depending on the vendor they're between 40 to
$505 for for what I would say is um a 64 64 gallon to how many bags do we get in a roll well depends on what you're buying what size bag the purple thing they come in two different sizes they so you have
which is 10 and the large size which is five 1750 for the for the five large ones for the five large ones a month it cost me to get rid of my trash or because more or less or less
right based on the number of bags you I mean if I buy a five bag thing we send the trash one bag out every other week it is very compacted it really holds everything we get because most of our stuff goes to recycling where it belongs in the first
place um and um we can get three kitchen bags into one purple bag I do go by horse bag it doesn't confute to me because I do a horse bag at a time I don't have any yeah I know it's a 50b bag and even
that burries inside bag I just want to say that I know everybody that knows me I've been against trash fees and this and that the next thing and I'm probably going to shock people to say that I'm I'm
actually in favor of going out of getting the town out of the trash business I after all the chaos that I've been listening to for the last year over trying to figure out who's on first who believes what how this budget is whether
we can do trash fees whether we can't do trash fees purple bags no purple bags and the town's people are f up and I am and I'm just watching this budget nightmare that you all are having and in a way I feel as much as I get mad at you guys I'm still feel bad about what
you're going through because this isn't getting anywhere and we're no farther along than we were a year ago and it's the same issues coming up on crunch time on town meeting in this budget and then you've got an override plan for the 10th of March and that includes issues on the trash so where you guys are I know
you're going to get to the sentence any minute now that in order to pay that difference that every you're up you're trying to figure out the difference between purple bags and the actual cost is you're going to talk override that sentence is coming up any minute now and rather when you're talk about how people
don't want to pay $40 or $50 ahe and I'll tell you I'm a five to six weeks on one purple bag person so it's 350 for six weeks for me but I'd rather pay 50 bucks a month than the than an override and listen to all of you go crazy every
week and spending hours of your volunteer time on this issue just get rid of it and I think overall each of us as a town will be understand as understanding as they've been but understanding to avoid the trash money
going to an override question it's going to cost less to just go with our own Contracting it's it's a change it's going to be difficult but as individual homeowners who would be dealing dealing with this overall I think it is actually
cheaper to just pay my 50 bucks a month and I don't have to worry about what you guys have going to do next you can do that now without a problem I mean you can contract your own now exactly um and the override the tonnage was paid for in
this current fiscal year through arpa funds that's how we paid for that difference and we don't have that next year I was G to say a piece of it there there were other things that we don't we were actions were taken in August that ended up paying for the additional for
trash yeah the stabilization station the extra 100,000 from the ambulance the closing out of some articles do do we go back through that August 20th we can list all the monies that we used
right to to cover the Gap that we had once the school budget passes but why go through all those gations and all that aggravation and no you don't have the money you do have the money you rob pay be your Paya why don't you just get rid of it and let people deal with it and
let's move on to other because there are people who can AF can't afford to pay the 40 to 50 a month and what will they do it you can control it better if you if you purchase
the purple bags and have it you know you can work it into your budget more easily than paying for your so you're saying that there's a social service element to this and it means trash aaable to everybody it's a problem for everybody
but it's a pro it's a difficulty that needs to be worked together everybody gets their own trash everybody's got the you know stuff left out who's responsible for that piece of respon uh you know trash left lying around when the trash truck dumps it who what did
you just say there were three people serving three companies there were three I was all I know har somebody else Harvey Republic I think Republic is in Pepper right now but they were willing to come over the Border especially if but even if you were to
double or go to $25 for a pack of five five bucks a bag it would be a heck of a slight cheaper for everybody individually let alone the exess the extra hassle if you use one
bag a week that's five weeks if you use the average of one and a quarter bag a week um then you're up to $25 versus 40 to $50 and you don't have to call the town has already worked out the problems with
the deal that's just one more person I've got a call to get a contract with I'm not paying the newspaper right now because he I don't have time to sit down and write a lousy check um well then let's go back to Veronica's question of where are we going to get the money to pay the tenant
if it's not in the purple bags then you're going to put a user fee on it I mean that's well fees aren't really going to work yeah no but we could increase fees at the recycling center and use that increase
to pay for the um for tonage that to drive mates out to the street again we we talked about it I I messed around with price per bag it's 3505 and
750 um and then down here the corresponding you know and again my numbers were 1542 just estimate of the tonnage so that gets you 1600 so the best if you go into 750 a bag um and
it's 30 pounds a bag you're getting per ton you're going to have an extra 69,000 so again these are estimates I don't know how much my bag weighs when I put it to the corner it was just about how much I felt I carried it out to the
corner some people may Lo it up the it's it's a start it's the money and compares prices without doing additional fees just doing bag fees and you're paying for what you put out there there is a TI there's a Tipping Point in terms of
price of the bags you know we're kind of middle of the road I know there are some communities nearby that are more than that but not much more once you start getting like above 4450 right um
the demand drops off and and and again this that I've done I've taken the Tipping fee out of this estimate and said the excess per T per bag is is this amount not the total if we want to do
different again it I hadn't seen anything else presented so I put something of paper um because um we can certainly do total of it um and see how it up so
Pepple for example um they have purple bags too I believe they do there there is theirs are $17 for a pack of five so that translates to 340 a bag but then you have the the other way in Ashby they
charge $7 a pack um seven is kind of steep and I think at that point more and more people are going to go drive private because it just makes sense for them it it does when you start doing the multiple bags and and that's the piece it's economical for me we're approaching
week 21 I've used eight bags so far nine bags Mr chairman yes um Carla has her hand raised um regarding um Veronica's um request about um the recycling center if if you can allow Carla to um to bring
her her thoughts okay yep sorry we we're going down a rabbit hole with that it's kind of like there are numbers in investig I guess it just comes to there numbers an investigation to be had on both sides so is your
Carl I think you're still muted so Carla has shared to me that uh that the recycling center is self-sufficient which what she wanted to bring um about that um Carla what they take in pce for they spend you
know the employes so that is true but creating extra not helping p no that can you hear me app can you hear me now yes we can oh
thank you okay so I'm a little confused about the recycling center because it is self-sufficient and the current contract that we had for Shaws gave us credits for disposing of the bulky and the wood
in the plastic um which is separate from the batteries and the electronics but um it's self-sufficient so I I don't understand how we can just charge more fees for that I'd like Veronica to give us a little more
information on that if she would please it would be I understand that it runs self-sufficiently and you have revolving account and that would remain as is but for anybody that uses it an additional fee that would be applied to tonage a $
five user fee or whatever how do you implement that what what what does that mean that means that when you go to the recycling center you pay what you would normally pay as if there were trash as
we always had it but we don't we don't just of trash at the recycling center it is only recycling understand that I understand that so it's illegal um well then I guess I would I would lay down on the side of no trash
in town everybody does their own the the well the other problem with this that you're going to have is if you go away with all the trash it's all going to go on the side of the road and then the highway department is going to have to pick it up and we're going to have to pay to dispose of it do you really
believe we have people in town who are the type of people that would do something like that no they would have done I would certain I certainly have it all the time it happens all the time I get calls from the highway department we've got a mattress over here we've got
some couches over here can you bring them down we've got tires here and we bring them to the recycling center and we dis them okay okay so then that's what we have here in town then I suppose if we're going to go with
no trash at all if if there is a way that um that uh you know Nelson said there's a Tipping Point on the bags we could increase the price of the bags I talked to Irene about that um on numerous accounts and she highly
suggests against it the bags worth $3 here she said um there's a in here that says if you come to the point where you don't think you can you could increase the bags I thought I read that in here um you
know if you have a way do you have a suggestion for how we cover this because our free cash pretty much goes to snow and ice and then um Capital at this point I understand that's pretty much
where it goes I understand okay so do you have a suggestion I I do have I well I don't have a suggestion as far as how to reach your Revenue but I do have suggestions with the recycling center because we're Regional I have reached
out to the town of lunenberg who actively have people who use our Recycling and I'm trying to enter into a municipal agreement with the town of lunenberg where they pay x amount of dollars and they have stickers on their
cars so when they come for recycling that used to be free at the recycling center um the new contract L will be charging us so I have to find a way how to alleviate the extra fee from the
residents of town and so those fees could be applied to the tonnage is that what you're saying the Lunenburg you know stick I I I actually it was it was I have to dispose at the recycling center so it would go to the
um revolving account for the recycling center to keep us operating we're also losing $10,000 a year in the purple overflow bag Revenue that we the town voted for in 2015 and when you went to the purple bag
um program we have lost that Revenue the committee assured the Board of Health that that will be a municipal transfer at the end of the year but I don't know if that's going to happen and that's another 10,000 that we've lost for the recycling center and then there's the
$6,000 that we lost through the contract so we're working now in a $116,000 deficit so increasing fees or anything at the recycling center is not useful for the residents but we can try to offset it for the other residents but
we'll have to go to the recycling center to remain open and be self-sufficient chairman if I may you have something yeah um so um from the numbers that we
have from from what people have paid for the purple BS and we are running through estimates estimates because we just started with the program right now with the numbers that we have and where the numbers are
regarding the purple bags I think I feel I think that that the purple bags could cover all that I mean I'm not a math mathematician or an accountant I'm a social worker but um that
is seeing seeing the numbers but the Border heal currently is against having the PE uh having set up a fee to the people of Townsen and and and and and with with the support of Irene as well
well um with the contract that theard had approved um I think that should be the best route to go um from our last going to recommend any other um any
other proposals other than it was approved okay good JN has if we go to the stickers with another those stickers are going to cost you something too some they're not free they
run between I'm going to say $75 to $90 a year so you have to take that in consideration and I also believe that forever you have to use their bags plus you also have to put it in your vehicle and and you have to get it in your car and drag it there so no I I I I think
everyone's misunderstanding the other towns coming in it's just for the recycling um Regional people come in and they pay the same price for all the fees that the towns and residents pay if you have a mattress you pay $50 whether you're a
towns and resident or not but recycling in paper and cardboard your recycling paper and cardboard and glass those things are free to drop off at the recycling center as of now and if we're going to be charged by
Shaws we are looking at entering into Municipal agreements with the towns lunenberg advertises that they can go bring their recycling for free to the towns and recycling center so and and lunenberg is very
they're very okay with entering into an agreement we talked about a flat fee we're looking at around $1,500 a year and and then they have a sticker so when they come into the and they start re putting in their recycling the res the employees will know that it's an outof
Town resident that's that has the right to use the recycling but it's very new we've never been charged for all the recycling and the trash at the recycling center and the only trash that's at the recycling center is the trash that the employees use and the general trash that
operating a business would use but it's not open for public residents so there is disposal cost Lunenburg whatever you do with Lunenburg doesn't benefit the town at all it only benefits the recycling center is what I'm
hearing which ultimately benefits the town of Townsen how it keeps the recycling center open at cost that they can afford but it does not help with the tonnage of the trash contract it does
not okay so what we're looking for is a way to cover the tonnage and the recycling center isn't going to work well thank you KLA for making that clear so what's the next
step um I think with the the school override unknown I don't think we're in a position to make a decision yeah I think we're have to um put it on hold for the minute we could
probably do a little bit more analysis in the coming weeks but without the school budget override did they take a vot vote last night they did um I think they ended up um reducing yeah they didn't you
um they didn't send you a letter yet no I I I I I reach s to the school Committee Member so I think um yeah so I think that uh would result than a $600,000 savings and if it is a
proportional amount coming back to Townsen you're looking at a reduction in about $240,000 in the assessment but that's still little well it's um the assessment is
still a little over a million dollars over from last year so the assessment is over so it's 1.1 million 1.2 million and you're saying that they took the 240,000 off that number is that the number no that's the total assessment amongst the three towns so you have you have to
proportionally divide it up so 240,000 in reduction to 10 but to yeah but you're still the budget the budget override is like 1.3 so you take that off and you're little over a million
dollars so that you need to we need to come up okay we have a translation number for that percentage I was gonna say before we jump to school finish so what are we putting um the budget for the for trash
my my vote would be zero I guess disappoints yeah I would I'm with you I'm with you I was gonna say I mean to I that makes our budget the budget
Target more maybe more attainable it's kind of like that's good news well I mean we're talking about between the total of that um but we we do have to look at other any other impacts on
doing it and getting out of it I know we have the folks for the municipal um Thumpers around each Place yeah we would have to still cover that right so but um but yeah I mean we'll put that in
somewhere but I think I don't know how we could fund I would love to fund the trash but if we don't have a plan to increase fees somewhere to get things into the general
fund or to free cash to have that extra amount to offset the difference between pay as your throw and what we actually pay I don't know how we do it so if there are suggestions for ways to collect
funds somewhere to build that I'm I'm in but if we can't come up with a way to cover the tonnage whether we do the The Collection only we still have tonnage or the full price contract if we don't have a way to pay for to cover those funds I
don't see how we can it's not that we continue but again we weat for chairman if I may uh in my conversation that I had with Lori she had mentioned
that um she had told us that we that that the other way to supplement that part would be through the free cash so I don't know why that is not that is I can't go to free C that's already going to other things
snow and ice that's already spent sure this stabiliz the stabilization is the capital items that we just we just went through Capital planning I have a question about this if we go to the pay you pay your own trash
we just say zero trash for this year on the budget and we Institute everybody get their own and we get ourselves Back Square on our budget for we're able to afford all our services in our school just say two years down the line just say can we go back to it if there's
enough so it's not like it's the end of um put out the Board of Health or whomever would put out an RFP and it would be a competitive fit process so it could be reinstated it could be and I just want to give you a a
tiny look it this is a big deal for me because actually my mother actually sat on the board when trash became part service for the town so I feel like I'm betraying my family so just want to make sure that we can come back to this we
can in two or three years so I get haunted you can bring it up but everything that we're doing is not sustainable right that's that's the there's no place to get the money from L believe me I'm I'm All About let's get our own I know it might be
we're gonna have to help those people we're going to have to come together as a community like you brought up and help the people that can't afford somehow some way we'll talk to someone but we don't have the money and we can't get it how do you get like trying to get water
from a stone I do think um we certainly don't need to make a decision tonight and I rather we don't you know sit on it we still have the school override and you know at the budget Summit we'll talk about the recap take a look at the numbers so I think making the decision
tonight is probably premature um because there's still a lot of questions have answer you know scenarios that we need to run to see if if we can make it work um it certainly helps that the school
um budget got reduced last night it helps it's it's if if what I expect um is going to happen does happen you know $240,000 less than now we're expected to
pay so I I I think if if the asks yeah the over I mean it is less than what we expect to pay but to pay it we will need the override if we don't have an override then we have to cut further Town Ser yeah so this is
ultimately going to be the decision of the town and this is all going to be put out for them to make the decision we can sit here and talk all night but they get the end right they get the end and other Mr chairman yeah here's the situation regarding if about the issue with the
purple B the thing is that when we started with a program um as my understanding carer you can correct me we we were given a grant for implementing the purple back program and and if if we just go on the route on
no trash or no nothing I mean we're going to we're going to lose any grant that we are possible to to be and I want to make clear for the record that that the Board of Health um is is is is affirm affirm
recommending this contract and um that and that um and that no fee should be placed on the people of Townsen I mean there are other things that the town has um has invested other monies but not but
for this I mean um and and I mean we can ask Nelson for example I mean how much money lose um with the with with the with the prop back contract I mean um but right
now um the Board of Health is is firmly on the decision on on staying with the with the recommended contract and um and and and we should continue with pay as you throw that is the board of Health's
position on this um and uh yeah that and that'll be yeah understood um and if we do put this into the budget we have to find find that way that method to fund it um so those are the pieces we did
talk about it takes a little more investigation now to see if there if there is something else we can do or put it on as an override I think there's a question um I think one thing that might be helpful to
time that there might be other lost to pay for trash right yeah I mean I think people don't understand like that was that's if the override doesn't
pass and even if it passes even if it passes on the 10th has to go to ballot correct I'm 28 so we still won't know right right right so we need two budgets one with the override and one without
the override and although we might not have it on March 10th because we don't have final numbers from the school yet or we won't have final numbers until the end of April because they don't really know the Chapter 70 money till then they have a possibility but it changes every
year the jelly sheets are so we need two budgets here's what it's GNA be here if an override and here's what it's gonna be that's wise that's a wise move I just had so if if we go away do away with the
trash we have to let people know to stop buying purple bags oh yeah because you're gonna have a ton of people very upset buying purple bags that they no longer can use can use use
it well I mean yeah but you you're spending I get it so I I don't want to wait till the till like you know the final day we need to let people know what a decision is so they don't I would probably start
spreading that message now we don't know if the purple bag program is going to be around on July 1 don't buy a bunch of bags just have them just just buy what you need there's plenty of bags at the
so it's not going to run out so there's does that affect now this is my other question the stores have these purple bags and they how how and they pay for them so do we let the stores know don't you know at some point don't don't
likef Mr chairman y uh and with all and with all du respect to the Town Administrator I think is not a wise decision to spread the W as of right now since the committee and the select board and even the the Board of Health haven't decided
on anything on on making those assumptions even in public and even if it is recorded So and with the with the purple bags we still lose re and the administrator knows that so I responsible to spread that type of word
I think that um we should um come up to an agreement with a contract that's reasonable that doesn't put any more more more money on more more weight on the people's pockets that's all I'm finding it extremely difficult
to listen to all this maybe and might be having to do with what leaves this town in tress truck I run a little horse farm a very little horse farm right down the road and I know pretty much every bag of
grain that's bought I know how to plan into the future I know how many grain bags we don't buy anymore because we don't have those horses anymore several of them and I have a way to prognosis approximately what is going to happen
this coming year what I have left out of the actually left in the um uh budgeting factor is that emergency the horse off to the hospital the horse to you know has to be put down whatever I have all those contingencies from the past built
into the budget if it doesn't happen great uh I don't understand why sh doesn't know how many times his trucks go and dump and pay that tipping fee every year from the past five years plus I've got five year records I got seven
years record but but it's car presented the multiple years back we had more barrels we could bring to the curb so there was more trash no it's not what we what he gives them but again it it decreased till we get to
the two barrels per so is the tonnage has come down is the tonnage has has come we you also have the last three years the five year the seven year the 10 year has a different tonage but he still knows how many times he paid his uh don't know if he don't know if he recorded it at the
time I I suspect he did because he gets filled by the time but but he might have mixed trucks differents that's possibility somehow we there should be a way to come up with a reasonably accurate information where
did you get 750 for the bags I mean was that just a you know pulling an apple off the tree and saying I think this will do um well again that that was it started with the Overflow bags we we the trash was in the budget and we said if
you have additional the 350 was enough to cover the I wasn't giving you any more back five years ago than I'm giving you now maybe you should ask the Board of Health they should be able to get that from him chairman to be able to look at a chart
yeah um right so to and you know look at a spreadsheet and figure out you know what we have done year after year with all the stuff put together the actual cost is and from there start making a decision as to whether you want to
charge me $5 a bag $7 a bag or keep it at the 350 a bag okay yeah hey uh yeah in the room yeah sh from last year to this year with the purple bag conundrum he's not picking up what he
was picking up last year or two years ago or five years ago people have got their own dumpsters now people have thrown him in the woods people I haven't talk away the same Trash Away two years ago so he can't I don't he can't give you a decisive number from where but he can give you what he's done for the last
year and you can balance that from the year before we can see that the load is coming down the load would have a little bit to do with the Tipping feed how many times you have to go off to the W right so
yes I want to ask because now now the now this is my impression and correct me if I'm wrong before there was a huge uh from the board of Selectmen wanted approve the allinclusive trash contract
and now out of the sudden now they're not aboard of anything so I'm kind of lost because I mean I'm kind of lost because where where are they going and and how should we go as poor because
we've been trying to figure this out and this trash contract has been taken away from the hands of the Board of Health and now the board of selectman is saying that they're not approving anything so I'm if they can give clarification out of this situation because I mean I'm
totally lost honestly there's no decision that's been made that has been stated we're not in a position to make a decision but thank you for your quotes that you got for
us right it it it will help for the comparison between the pickup with dipping fees for the Allin plan so if there is any comparison to be done you can compare those numbers
together and see which which one may work so and how to fund it yes so I just did a quick um back the mope calculation using the report that we got tonight mhm using the numbers from October November December and January which are actually
pretty consistent between 129 135 tons for trash so I just picked 130 and multiplied that by 12 to get 1560 tons for the year multiply that by the fee on the on the schedule and that comes out to
163,000 for the recycling I did the same thing and that came out to 93,000 so for the Tipping fees right that your concern on we don't know what the Tipping fees would be I think we can make a guess that we're looking at 260,000 for that and I think that's a I
think that's a reasonable estimate based on the trash activity that we've had since we moved to the purple bags I don't think we can use the numbers before the purple bags because like like has been said all of our trash um activities have changed from
that because of this but October November December and January when we've been doing the perfect back those are the numbers and are actually pretty consistent so I don't really see those changing too much now maybe I should say 135 instead of 130 I could see you know maybe bumping the average up a little
bit but I think we're looking at 260 260 275 yeah so in that range and I I will just throw up on the on the screen and highlight the yeah and I think I I think the problem with what you did here Don is is the numbers in October November
and December have gone way down because no no no but this this is the one where I took out the 44 tons per so if I if I look at my tonnage I'm right here with your number at 264,000 so we're in the ballpark you add that together with the
478 980 which is the curbside pickup you're running a contract is looking for $743,000 so that's slightly less than slightly less it's 26945 less than the all in and what the bag but you still have to pay that Delta
and we don't have a way to do it right and and that's again there have been no suggestions for ways to um collect funds in town to pay that Del table right now I bottom line there there isn't a way
right now to pay for the difference there isn't but there but suggestions and if there isn't a way then how do you go forward whether you do the open-ended or the fixed fee now which one of those numbers is the what
we're getting from the purple bags this does not include this is she said the Delta Del Delta is a difference between who and where we're assuming a 40,000 in Revenue 40,000 per month yeah
so 480 for the year which almost covers the colle that so so it's how do you pay for that pays for the Tipping fee no it it pays for the the base fee you could look at it D for here right right right and
we're not gonna solve it tonight yeah but but the the total col5 right so the fixed fee the fixed fee is 478 usually comes out of the tax base the other the bags are supposed to pay
the ti no it's the ratio can change from town to town as long I'm gonna I'm gonna try to really back in we have a lot of questions but it used to come out of the tax base the whole thing was covered this year we needed additional Revenue
to cover it the tax space didn't cover it and even with that additional revenue from the purple bags it did not cover it we had to come up with extra money to cover it about let's see two three four 400 500,000 had
to be found in in various places including taking it from our stabilization fund which um has decreased so it's kind of like we we really didn't have the money in the budget we had to scrape and and find
money in different places that's no longer available for next year so all of this money both have to have to be funded some by by purple bags or another which we haven't identified um can I say one more thing
on um you know not to piggy back off of um Carol's comment I don't want to sound the sounding the alarm that we're getting rid of trash but at the same time I really do want to educate everyone we're basically in the in of
February here some people may be buying bags or has a bunch of bags at home um I don't want if for whatever reason we don't do trash I don't want residents to be stuck with these bags at the end of June and they paid good money for it and
they're no longer getting you know the service that was they expected from the bag so again I'm not sounding the alarm here but I do want people to understand that this might happen so there's no reason to buy a bunch of bags that you
might not be able to use by the end of you also have to left the stores no too so they don't that both supply chain the manufacturer doesn't want to manufacture them so we have to stop so some point you got to make a decision and then
notify people well I think notifying the stores would be helpful because they're all local businesses I I don't want them to be saddled with cases that the bags that they they can sell so I will have the conversation with them sooner rather
than later not that I'm telling them that we're gonna get rid of the program but I want them to be cautious have the you know it might it might happen and for them to be ordered it may be not ordered as been
yeah to so for them to you know be a little bit more cautious on how much they end up ordering because uh I don't because if we were to make a decision it's not going to be today or tomorrow it's going to be like a month or two from now and
by then you know all this time would have passed and they people might not have sufficient no so I'd rather put the bug in their ear Now versus a month or two from now oh it's
watch tomor tomorrow tomorrow's Frid no Saturday Saturday oh yeah I'm th oh sat tomorrow I guess I'm a day just don't do it like it was dumped on us last year for the purple B that was horrible that was like a month yeah and
it's got be and and I think and to question that was brought up earlier I think if we had the grant we're supposed to repay it if we're not continuing that correct well we we haven't received it yet we actually haven't even touched it so we could simply just return the money
perect I just wanted to be we haven't received it no not yet nothing's been spent SP nothing's been spent it hasn't been received it's not in the cers and we haven't spent it on anything so doesn't exist when we receive it is that
something that we have to use this fiscal year or could that be applied to next fiscal year this fiscal um they actually um I believe were generous enough and they gave us a one-year extension so we have until the end of next fiscal year to expend the $62,000
that was given to us through the grant so that 62,000 could partially go towards this and then and then if we discontinue the program we basically have to give that 62,000 back correct or tell them not to send it if we have received it by
the time we decided to stop Mr chairman okay if I may yes go ahead I have a question then what would happen um if um if we go to waste waste zero
what's going to happen with the contract then because I'm kind of if someone can clarify me or clarify to the public about that probably the Town Administrator can clarify that um we I think that would be part of the investigation that we would have to
go through because wa zero is the manufacturer I don't know what the contract is or if we have a contract there's a process for payments back and forth and the revenue so we have to make sure that the revenue and payment money
going processes are all all buttoned up as a part of this too it's kind like it's not just just as as simple to say no more purple bags or anything there a lot of processes and things and links to
account numbers um that are in there so we have to and we have to make sure that it's all things are open long enough to do the final transfers if if people have purchased near the end it's it's it's bigger bigger than just budget so this
number uh 62,000 that was the grant correct yes correct Okay so we've been selling these bags since October how much money have we generated there was report
just it's about 40K month 4, I think is what we were using as number 4 month and the grant was what 62 62 so so we have the money to pay the gr we get it
yet and question we had it okay so the question the question about how much money do we have that the state allocated that we could have 390 revenue for the 9 month period so that's the number we have to
and that goes in line with the 40,000 a month in Revenue that we're getting so we had estimated that we were going to get 550,000 in that 9 month period and we're we were short of it um by that much money and the state when they came
in to validate it did not let us have more than the the 390 was it how much short did you say it that was taken up by oper money money in December so that short so in order to set the tax rate to
be set for this year in December some aror money was shifted around to match and cover the money that the the did not let us who's keeping track of that money where is it as far as the money that the revenue
that comes in well comes into the General Stores it it comes into the general fund the treasurer records it right now I did it again accountant accountant okay I'm sorry um we have who has the contract for the paper
bag The Paper Bag purple bag contract we have a contract with them I have something with them yeah I think the because what are the terms of the contract I think the only thing we actually signed at that point was [Music]
the we we need to know what the terms of that contract are before you before yeah because any kind of I mean yeah we on the hook for buying so many bags I need to have the I don't I think
the only thing we actually ended up signing with them was the custodial agreement which was that um the the banking agreement you know they collect all the money from the stores okay so the stores pay them just review it yeah
so I think that was the only thing we uh we had signed stores is what the supp to because the stores buy from them and so there's an invoice between who buys for
the store the they do their own the stores give that PO to waste zero waste zero will ship the bags to them and the stores will pay weight zero wa zero then transfers that Revenue to us into the account that is set up for is there like
a transfer fee or something no they take a fee they they take a fee for for manufacturing the bags yeah we pay you know oh they make the B oh they make the B but they're also doing this extra step
for us this accounting you know billing shipping um because otherwise I'm I'm not I don't know how we would do it ourselves so well they take a fee for that right yeah probably built into the fee that
they they paid for the bags it is it is let me ask Nelis how long is that contract for is if for a year over a year because if we breach that contract we that means that there's more money that we have to pay and that means that
um if we're still struggling to to to get a decision on what we're going to pick the trash on I mean how is there a is there a a violation stipulation about um about breaching that contract um ahead of
time I think the only thing I remember ass signing was actually that custodial banking agreement um we actually never um I'll need to check but I think there was a whole back and forth back in the day and I don't think we
actually officially signed um a you know um good news well I I remember for one of those meetings they were G to do something until you signed a contract they were and I think the
agreement was we would down the road work it out um really yeah but I I know for a fact I never signed any um okay long-term contract with them but I will talk with them to see what if we can get out of it you
know and if there's any implications but I'm almost certain that I I we never signed um a long-term agreement with way zero there were talks about doing it but it because I know one of those meetings it was like what we can't start till you
sign the contract right and if they change their mind then okay I wouldn't say they change their mind we were gonna revisit it down the road and that's done a good business practice the whole thing wasn't a good business
practice he' never be without a contract I guess I wouldn't be manufacturing Banks but that's me so sales so I think um yeah it's probably too soon to vote or decide anything I think it's
just no but I'm just saying we we haven't aged to you know we haven't agreed yeah we haven't agreed on any option at the moment there's no option suggestions we're hoping everyone in town is watching this and they're all going to be thinking about it and
calling us yep [Laughter] moving moving on in the next part of the budget 2.4 is the finance committee budget we have a budget so we have actually two
Department we have 131 which is our expense detail is we have one line and it's 750 like to keep it the same going and keep it Lev funded using it the MMA
and um training class training materials clothing allowance yeah we not and I will say doing this I think when I read the only do a so oh you brought that up
Carol put it in we can take it out can I oh can I put my okay, I think that's the siphon everybody get we can we can all increase our our PID next year by 100% zero zero so it's 131 and 132 is that
told so 130 131 is expensive 131 is the only is expenses we don't have Labor okay what's 132 13 we'll get to that um um again if
I we the BV so far would be 393 we printed the manuals this year plus the 200 roughly 200 I think it was $196 to the um Financial committee do
for okay yes would you like to increase it I would love to it's kind of like um and that's so that was increased like maybe two years ago or so three years ago it used to be like 25,000 and got
okay um so let's with 131 um um do in membership any questions keep it the same we're all good okay the bus goes okay 132 this not everybody seen yet because
we have our new members um The Reserve fund is $50,000 it is approximately 410 of 1% of the Town budget this Reserve fund is here in the event that anything un unplanned for comes up
and unplanned for does not usually in it it depends on interpretation but like when there was the S pumps failed last last year um that money came from the reserve fund when there were um
co-pays for um insurance they came out of this fund that actually those two are really unplanned they they have a maintenance and repair and facility so that was underfunded that really isn't what our
Reserve fund is for um but we used it for those things we we did have a lightning strike with the police last year so that that was covered on the um that probably hits it but um you know there's just different things this
Reserve is supposed to be unanticipated if you underfunded a budget like maintenance and repair that really isn't something that repair is funded on known averages
over a long period of time and sometimes that's all yeah goes really really wrong that no you know you can't plan for at all so so those are the kinds of things that it has been used for in the past
right we were probably stretching the um the use of it um there isn't a reason why you can't have a second Reserve fund so that if because if everybody put an extra $10,000 in their
repair fund you've now got $30,000 if you don't use it but there doesn't you could have an additional Reserve fund that is is for and budget of things that could be used to transfer and again a reserve fund can be used throughout the
entire year when we get to the last two months of a budget year you can you can do Municipal transfers and transfer from one budget to another and that's what you use there for no no this this Reserve fund is not used for that this
is for the entire year the the transfers are only available in the last two months of a of a fiscal year yeah so in this past fiscal year did you use any of the 50,000 we we were
down we we overextended it yes so we used all all but last year mean in this fiscal year year we have not had anything yet I'm talking about fiscal 25 correct nothing has been spent at FC in the
latest so we still have the $50,000 and in July or June or May we can transfer use it for transfer no no no that that if we don't use it that's more money that goes into the free cash certification that part freecast
certification it doesn't become available until December January that's probably why we have tried to keep this amount low if we Bud a huge number here okay so last year we
used we we we expended 42,000 out of it but we have request that were pending waiting if they didn't work there was another 13,000 so it would have been with drawn when we go back and look for what we did last year so what about like
for the past five years for example is it used every year it has been used every year okay um different different pieces we can go back and this is something maybe we want to have a discussion about right now there's a
form that gets filled out um for selectman have to sign it no sorry um no it just gets submitted but what I was thinking is maybe we should have the accountant
be and and cify process that it goes through the accountant so she can see it and then she issues it to the inbox for the finance committee to review so that she if the department head puts it and puts it in our mailbox we happen not to
be meeting for two weeks it it's going to sit there for two weeks if it goes to the accountant then maybe it should go to the select board no this is this is not a select board piece if you want to be the pass through it certainly can happen I'm just thinking as far as things getting
checked goes the select board is always here the finance committee isn't that is what you're saying it that's what I'm saying it and kind of but if if anybody is checking checking it and going to do the work it's the accountant so it seems
I I would disagree I think I think the select Bo can see that it's for the finance committee and put it in your box or give you a call or right I think I hate to add more work but it seems like it would be easy enough to do that and
what I have been doing is assigning numbers to them it was something that I learned through ISO 9000 and things is you number documents and so I keep a log um and each of the documents has a number assigned to it so that you can track it and if any has a question they have a reference go back you're not just
looking for single you would still be the person tracking that it would just be hey you have mail notification yep that's that's all we need it's kind of like just so that if anybody's waiting for it it's kind of like um that I don't
think anybody why wouldn't they contact you directly then they should have information but um don't don't know that I've do all department heads know to um that this These funds exist for unplanned
expenses um there's a question well it probably it probably would go to the Town Administrator and ask when they when they have issue but police um police fire facilities to Quirk um I can go over the L of who submitted them
before um yeah theoretically you know I think they work their own budgets until they find a hole they can't fill and then they got go to ham to do fill out this and it so and again we probably need to
update the form the form is referencing a Mass General law that has been superseded in a prior year to change the amounts and maybe that's the the transfer at the end of the year so there a form updates that are
needed so anyway back to reserve fund is is sitting at 50,000 um I think it's a it's a reasonable amount we did increase it but when you think of the increase in the town budget over over these years um
it's this is really a tiny amount if we do have any but it has come in handy it has come in handy I I looked at some of the other towns around and they're they're three times the size of this but you know and that that may make more sense if we were to expand the usage for
this to save the repairs they turn in the thing we already know how much money they have in that account they tell us we have this much and this much is now over that limit we have left it's certainly
outside the normal repair yeah you can't put in the budget for little building itself uh repair we'll have a budget for um over excessive repair of the elevator okay no there's there's an elevator thing in there or it's grouped in with
everybody else uh but so when it went down it went hard down well that was a safety issue yeah that was above and beyond they had a contract for normal repairs but it was a safety issue there right that's what I'm saying those things happen to almost everything I have a warranty on my car
for there what are we doing now um okay so no changes to no no no Chang down so they will be on Saturday wanted to do updat butur no no no um the fire chief had
commitments that he needed to get so if he had come in I expected there will be a lot more questions that time this 122 how many PES lab P don't
is on the [Applause] page where Rebecca headed I don't know Saina and Rebecca moris yeah but that position was ARA funds last year
but we don't have those funds so that position is gone not necessarily it's just un it was it's not funded by ARA anymore we had we had funded it at 20,000 last
year so there was a little bit of money there yeah yeah but we're talking about you want to do that I think we should at least for part time we should rework the I feel like we should rework the job description
because one of the main things of that position was to use the Archer funds for community services for each department fire police um Recreation Council on Aging etc etc everybody got a pot of
money from arpa and the person coordinating that pot was the um Community Services yeah the wellness cour Ator and then part of that job was also working with the senior center there were things there that it was Ken
Canfield Mo yeah that did the job description with us um so part of that because in the 10,000 a year came funding from COA for that position early on so and so that you could I mean we
had people that needed help with rent we had people that weren't getting paid because of covid this was all um covid related and she helped them get funds from other places she used the
money that we the town had for arpa to get the services that were needed anymore but we don't have arpa anymore but the position is still needed to help the people in the community so the job description needs to be reworked because
it is no longer to create a new job not a new job of part time job to update the um to reduce the hours on the position and update the uh job
prescription to what how what would you reduce it to we haven't made a decision yet but we have 30 and I don't know what's in a l money so I have to look at how we goings that
no that that's for a fulltime 40 hour I thought the arer funds were for one time only I we don't have any funds there's no more oper fund oh I get there's no more but I thought you went so how are we going to pay for these two positions well the first one is through ARA
funding and that was Revenue replacement because Personnel was in the budget for from I turned in the numbers 2018 2019 2020 so was she still get yes because we preserved those funds
okay so she salary another year so one more year one more year it from and so the idea is to build it within so we were when we put
these positions into place the idea was to build it up each year through the select board to so that it could be permanent at after the funds were done was that done we've done it twice I was going to say we really haven't put
together a substantial you haven't [Laughter] maybe was it was planned for the position but I don't know that we had the matching Omnibus budget that yeah we
did we last year and the year before uh there's money in here if you look at the BPA yes we started put money in there it started 10,000 went up to 20 and there should be two 20s in there now for in the bva under community services and
Human Resources is that arer money left over no that's where we're trying to build it it didn't get spent it got you know pulled into free cash this sort like the one where we told the highway department
we gave him 50,000 a year is it that kind of a thing to build up no no this is to build up know build up to her salary that's correct yeah we're weaning ourselves off
of ARA but you only have one more year Well in theory it would the Sal is that for both of them now they both have one year no no Community Wellness we removed completely
in December okay because we don't have arpa funds we didn't remove it from our budget but we removed it from ARA okay so how are we paying for that position okay so if she were to stay for next
year we have arpa funds for the um Human Resources we we have arpa funds for C how however we've also if we increase these two by 10,000 we have 60,000 here
and then we could take some Transportation money from the Council on Aging to to pay for the rest of the community Wellness salary for next year and then the following year we would probably be looking at fully part-time
for both of those positions unless we have some infusion of cash from the state to cover the schools okay so if they're both fulltime now they are both full-time now okay so if
if and they get another year basically one one one person gets another year okay Human Resources gets another year the community Wellness gets paid through the board of selectman budget in combination with the Council on Aging
budget but then after the year you they go to parttime then we would be at 40 ,000 the following year for boths here okay and if you look at what they make that is about half of each salary but then would they be told that they'd only
be part time yes they would have to be would they told that their position was fulltime when they first came they knew that they were Oran so they knew they knew that they could be coordinator originally was only part
time however Council on Aging wanted to add to it to make it a full-time position because of you if you watch the I don't know what day it was December of 2021 if you watch the bard of selectman meeting you can see where all of this
was discussed okay so know but in any event yeah so they knew no obligation to keep these positions after the aror funds are gone
um would be correct however the positions are an asset to the town well I understand that but need money well then you know there are a lot of positions that we could look at and say do we really need an assistant town
clerk do we really need a full-time Board of Health agent I mean I can rattle off on and on we may have to look at that I agree what they over that's not what I'm advocating for what I'm advocating for
is to build up the possibility of keeping those positions okay I mean if if you need help with food or housing or electricity the person you go to is the
community services coordinator and they help you to apply for that where did you go before you created that position probably nowh [Music] absolutely yeah I would have I probably would have been a Teo yeah not knowing
that the the I think Teo would have been my done at the senior center so who even knew about the quot unquote worthy funds prior to this being um I guess I wouldn't if I wouldn't have known that the town had it I would have gone to
like a te right but the town does have funds to help people that were donated to the town lots of years ago and those were disseminated only to people who knew about them and and they were not
advertised and people didn't know what to do so it it's and here we are in a pandemic you know that was where we were in 202 oh not now not not now no and we had
funds that could help people in town so we did because that was the intent of money right but we're talking about pH and so we have been attempting to build up that position so that we do have the funds
available in the general fund to keep those positions at some level at some level correct I have to yeah or full-time if we can do it I mean who knows now okay so just explain to me so when I made the rules you
should not use the money for sustain ARA didn't ever say oh they never made that they made a rule that you could not use it for retirement you couldn't use it to and then they changed the rules but you could never use it for retirement you couldn't use it to PVE the roads there
were certain uses there were four there are four categories that the monies are good for and so you had to fit everything within those four categories and you could only use for Revenue replacement the there was a formula for
it so there was a certain amount that you could only use for Revenue replacement about six months to a year in the treasury Department changed that rule and said oh you can use it for Revenue replacement but you can't use it
for Paving the roads for um you know of funding your retirement plan for paying for um unemployment expenses there were all these you know no you can't have it for that
category so you would have to read the documents that came out from the treasury Department and they're they're all they were on the website but they're not anymore who knows where they are but anyway they were all available for
people to look at prior if you're curious about what it needed to be used for so those are two positions there one one can go for another whole
year $73,000 position can go for another year correct and we could put that in here put off funds in the recap to um if you want to do it that way don't you think that's a good idea we need
to the the accountant um the town account not the assistant Town accountant told us that we can't put total the total in here if AR covering part of it that's what it was before you know that's why the Housing Trust wasn't
in the bva right um they were always zero for the first couple years they were zero so um right they were they were positions they were listed at zero um but as we do the recap and the revenue I think it's very important for us to show the additional things that
are oper funded and put the Opera funds in there with the revenue sources so we I think I think that was always done no because the oper funds the things that the lines would decrease it's kind of like the Lin the lines the lines was Zero for years on these two
positions so they weren't there so you didn't include arer because because you it was ARA right right right but in the recap you did reflect didn't you didn't one year is is all we did and
then in September yet that year they had to back everything out okay um so okay so and so you know so seeing it I think is good um keeping it here but when we do the Omnibus budget to town I think
we we have to decrease it to what the the town operating is because that's what they're going to validate the budget on that they have Bal isre how much is in on the bus we're paying out deliv and at the moment I just put in I
just increased both because um right now each of those positions is funded at 20,000 I just put it at 30,000 each just as a placeholder we have to decide amongst us how right what it's going to
look like for next year um yeah FY 26 is the full year the next year FY 27 is only half a year so it's done by December so it's the oper oper is
done right corre um so I don't understand why one person is still an oper and the other one isn't because we had to use some money for had balance he took the money away from that position to use it for trash last year
this DEC year it's funded through through the fiscal year till July 1 yes which is fy2 I get that I understand that that's that one position
because it Wellness coordinator she's funded through July one or June 30th correct correct and then that's it that's the end she doesn't get anymore well different for the what's she the human resource human resource the human
resource person she has another full year of Arta funds to run correct okay so they're not equal position the intent was to cover them for one more year and then let them
go no we would we would fund it at that point um with general fund dollars that's why um each position was increasing 10,000 per year which is what I was talking about earlier we're weaning ourselves off of our no yeah you said
that already so so that's how we would um make the the switch over from arpa to fully being funded through the general fund so should this budget though the budget right now says 73 for each yeah should it instead have the amount that's
being paid from the town general fund that's going to be in the amus budget we're going to take that into account these are just the the the raw cost of their expens this allows us to see the full full
impact if you take it out it's kind of like but so but for the for the wellness cordinator when we the arpa funding available to that for that 73,000 for this fiscal for 2026 is going to be zero so if the omnius only puts 20,000 in
there it's only going to be or 30 or whatever it's only going to be that amount and that person will cut back the hours to go to parttime but you also said that this individual left so this individual is not here anymore corre the position the position the person the
position is the position the person and and who knows what happens with the ARA funds that was GNA pay that person till July right oh she's leaving before July 1 yeah she put um her she put in her two we notice this past
Monday well that was probably wise because then she can control her life rather than waiting and see what's going to happen uh actually that was actually one of the reasons why she decided that was smart because all this uncertainty you know wants right right exactly very
stressful yeah good for her I really some of what she does and I know people that she's helped some of what she does there are many agencies that you can get rent assistance with many and so who were
before the pmic you know she's just a good um funnel Central Point you know she can tell you this is where you get fuel assistance this is where you can get some rental assistance do we not have that on the website so people can just kind of go there and I mean we do
and I I think could find it and I think maybe now it's gonna be some of the burden is more on the senior center staff potentially but you know but the wellness coordinator doesn't just focus on senior senior
citizens there's other demographics that help too so the wellness Corner does more than that you know um famili single mothers single dads you know run right right no I get it right so but this is
yeah so when we get back on our feet and we're making all kinds of money just have everything we be a few years the state comes through with our the school money that's here we need the
buses so what else is in here only like three people that work Sabrina Nelson oh so did we level fund everything else in here we did I think we can SC
by and the the different numbers in here does that cover like the whole building for say electricity or does the electric get split up between the different areas of the um well there's no electricity in the board I'm sorry okay you're right you're
right it's it's the standard form for all departments okay well so Information Technology that's the one so so is that what basically you're is paid just for the board of selected I um that that's a contract for maintaining the
website yep okay which one are you looking at the line Information Technology position for a while think this will be the second year that it's outsourced okay so the 6500 is to cover that to cover the website okay it's kind
of so are we on the expense sheet now yeah who's the $50,000 salary go to I'm sorry that 50,000 yeah ,500 salary is that am I on the right sub oh no I'm on the wrong e which one are we looking for expense
worksheet yeah and you see where it says Department that's the department department so what the other what is the 8,000 on other where are you at the bottom line bottom line last
line says 8,000 other um I believe no you have to do some memberships here it's 3,000 funded last year um where is the um where is the annual report I think
this is probably Town reports what's Professional Services that's not Town report no that's Town report Town reports is uh in the BV 5,000 right where is it here on the I think it's the
8,000 rolled up under no it's it's it's rolled up into it's report and what else other Char other charges so that makes up so the town report is 5,000 again this
year yes correct okay and then let's see other the three the other 3,000 who are you I'm taking 5,000 away from 8,000 on the last one well 8,000 the other so no saying in the other is
the town report for 5,000 is that what you're saying yes and then 3,000 okay okay all right all right if we need to do a townwide mailing for something okay that's fine or if we need to you
know get information out to the people somehow it's kind of a catch [Music] [Music] communic now those you know black and white a p page that out of that
other now what are the professional servic trying to think of some examples I was gonna say I think that we did on that top theary temporary help Ross is temporary he still on the roster for
getting paid yeah I'm sure he is he can Sal I think his last invoice is for like an hour yeah he's basically winding down yeah well he did the community aggregation for us yeah and that was what a lot of his hours were recently
but yeah the last was like hour so he's not in the budget for next week he is but it's not necessarily him it's temporary health it's the 10,000 temporary health which is where's that um
I'm not sure I see it in the in the BBA yeah in the BBA but I don't see it on this worksheet I don't either should yeah or is it under wages could be under
wages no I didn't see any temporary just have Sabrina call and Rebecca I do think I think we've always needed another
over and what was that called again temporary help temporary help is that an expense or a salary it's salary salary it's under personel it's be W sheet she
Sabrina cie and and then Rebecca putor and you said that was 10 you wanted that to be 10,000 yes level funded this year so it was 10,000 last year it's gonna be 10,000 and we don't know who it is it's whoever it could
also be like an intern I think there's been um in previous years in par okay an intern so it's temporary help it's just something for couple weeks couple months um it's very different than
Consulting yes correct but I think Ross was kind of on cus of yeah Consulting versus person because he was still on have to add that I think that the interim um ta got
paid out of that M I'm just looking at what we have there wasn't that Ross yes was WR we don't need him now for that because we have that is right but you never know I mean I would never have thought that
Eric was going to leave a year early so you know um heads up you never know you never know so I I guarantee you I won't be here in 20 years so promise
youing I might not be here 20 years yeah so we have 9,000 for Professional Services that we 9,000 or 10 10,000 no temporary he no expenses now we we're back to expenses Prof services for
$9,000 okay so what got rolled into there because they don't the the bva doesn't match no the lines don't match okay so which well I think they're both correct but I I think that the breakdown is
different so it's Professional Services as well as HR Consulting Services but I thought we had Celly for HR we do so what was this for it was it wasn't in the budget when I was previously a
selectman so um it was their last have I believe if it's rolled in we had from the property committee we had a $5,000 line for Professional Services added because properties doesn't have its own
budget uh select board put it in engineering anything that the properties May Comm oh yeah for if you needed to have a survey or but it says HR no no I think this one I remember Cali talking about it because it explicitly says HR
consult yes it does I believe it was for some software or or Services she she mentioned it would help with um tracking employees did we buy it um it hasn't
been spent this year it might have been spent the fiscal year before wasn't either I don't think we were able to get anything up off the ground so we have that money that's so free cash if it doesn't be the free cash or you transfer
yeah exactly okay so so we don't know we have no clue is that what we're saying here well I don't think we because we we haven't found I think the right service yeah so okay yeah it's an
interesting so did you roll the Professional Services and the HR Consulting into one line for Professional Services for this sheet yes but uh it's it's broken out in the BBA all
right what's the total 9,000 for we have the answer we just don't know the question okay well yeah what's the question we don't know we don't know who's in there who's in there
9,000 the 9,000 is a roll out of Professional Services a combination of Professional Services and HR Consulting Services HR Consulting so if you're looking at the bva and you take those two lines you got the 9,000 that's
profession how much was HR did it say in your 5,000 5,000 y so there 4,000 of Professional Services yes and that's we don't know what those are um it runs the gamut I'm trying to think of some
examples um it's been almost entirely spent this year um I'm trying to think Sabrina what are some examples I can't think there's like 100 get things weay just like
one find one I can probably give you like 20 I can't think of talk okay so $4,000 is so maybe we'll have that in free cash l no it's already been expended this year at
123% oh 123% so it's been overspent that oh so it's been overspent but we don't know who got it right well I'm sure we can look at everything gets spelled out in a warrant right and it's all yeah but we don't have that here in front of us
right no we don't but if the question is what it is you know you can find it in a warrant or you know better yet you can get an ACC point of this meeting of all the fcon people so that we know what's being
spent I mean that's what I thought we were supposed to do well it's fair enough I I don't know the top of my head what weed on so we can we can get this from one oh you got one oh good what is
itro Metro why wouldn't it come out of communications Communications is probably more of um the telephone bill no this that number 6500 was exactly what the Web Master was and it shouldn't
yeah and two places it should it should it moved [Music] from last year it moved from wages to right we had Web Master up in personnel and when it became a contractor as
opposed to an employee it moved down to expenses to communicate yes no it's information information technology so that's Metro right Sabrina okay it's information technology on the expense worksheet in the bva it's
called Communications well you know we should make these match we really should crazy that would make it less complicated it's the I think don't know what's going on we're not going to ever know how out
policy okay so the 6500 goes to Metro go so we still have $4,000 we really have no clue what yet Nelson knows but he should you find examples so maybe that's why it's over spent maybe it's coming out of the wrong
line yeah so if you look at the bottom power expenses I'll total it's like 41% so that's yeah 41% 4,000 which is about where it should be for this time I mean that's actually good because it's not
6y no this is the kind of thing I have done investigations before run account well isn't that the point of what I mean is that part of what we're
supposed to discover not not necessarily it's kind of like we we're not the Auditors on it well but it's ambiguous enough it's not like I'm paying for um it's a professional service had a
separate yeah you know so yeah exactly it's not like I'm paying um office supplies out of Mile tra you know Web Master that's a professional service it may be a very specific one but at that
point it's just it was paid out at the wrong account you know like that you think it was paid out of the wrong account or just that assigned to it no it was paid it was probably it was assigned to the wrong
account yeah and sometimes the way the accountant sees things is different from the way the bva seeing as long as it's within the expenses again yeah communication so like it
doesn't look like it goes in communication so is it or is it a professional service well yeah it's a professional service so you know so no like real coding it's consistent across the board for these
items we would need there should be but you know people Cod it you know in different spot at times so why don't we have consistent coding standard a standard well I said because it's it's
either ambiguous enough that it can belong in one category versus the other someone just simply did it wrong like maybe early in the year and just continue with it you know that type of thing but when we find it
we can always reclass it out and you know move it back around but but there's no but what I want to say is this makes it very difficult to follow when you don't have a standard that you that everybody follows when they're doing the
accounting I mean I've worked with budgets as a program manager and I had specific accounting lines that I could follow all the way through so then what you need here in town is another person to do the job to make sure that
consistency gets implemented because everybody is doing their job and there isn't the time or the staff to do that now yeah you could but you get a different accountant and they use different words for things but they
shouldn't there should be a seated the town should have a that everybody works to set that standard you've never had a standard I thought every government agency followed the standards but they
it on the big long number that we get yeah that big long number would what but Melissa said that everybody should use right which I would probably agree with right and I think the number see a lot of them are standard but when a new one's
created again it gets to the person creating it at the time but there should be a when creating it because if you look at it it's like something with the year and something something well the years are usually special meeting but usually you
could just have a very like a little standard when you're creating this number this these digits mean this these digits you know like but then it's subject for interpretation because someone thought Communications
was the web page and someone else thought commun uh the web page was a professional service so which is it and that's where if you look the numbers are standard here for the names that are used they don't match what's on these
expenses worksheet but hey this is the the policy so it in some respect it's subject to interpretation and and that could get to and the Omnibus should take care of that it has the account and the
account number on it so that right you can you can match it up and make sure that the right money get gets entered into the right right account I mean what's an office supply versus an other Supply you know um it
it's it's it's subject to interpretation but yeah um the expenses I'm asking for to L fund it okay so the $5,000 for do and subscriptions is that what you usually
use every year it's at 50% right now yeah this some of this is contractual um in that certain uh people can have um memberships in certain organizations
um so anyway and including the select board as well so this is not just the the staff membership right it's it's our MMA um memberships um
so just like you guys have yeah memberships so it's the same thing yeah we've just been asking that of everybody just to see if they used it last year and they still need to use it fine I have always used the memberships
otherwise how do you learn what you're supposed to I think in a couple places we found we found some places where they didn't they used a third of it and you know we looked at it maybe that would be an area that we could possibly pair back right I mean if if
someone if they're not if they're not using it then let's let's pay why or why put it in the budget I don't think we pay it but you know it's there if you need it
syst Enterprises that's probably for a a person who is um a prospective employee yeah doing the
um physical or whatever yeah might have been mine you could have been I did I did do it the town paid for it yeah Professional Service yeah transfer the metro to communication for
communications I don't know that so you're saying that it was part of the 9,000 the Metro grab 6,500 is part of that and at least one is it twice on the sheet I guess that's my question okay
it's kind of like the Professional Services line was there and instead of paying it to Information Technology they paid it out of that line okay they they just paid it out of a different line they paid it out of a different line they paid it out of Information Technology right and that's
why no no they paid it out of Professional Service is when it should have been so who got the 6500 out of Information Technology it's going to be transferred okay that's going to go to Metro go and anything that was mispost it will be reposted into the right
account okay um yeah um any anything else on the Flor oh so do we have enough budgeted for Metro go Solutions and the telephone gun
would be my question if it if uh the phone system wasn't um or is the Phone System supposed out Mis section is I don't know anymore I don't know
because Mis changed a lot in the past two years so I can't say right there is Mis Communications right I was going to say we don't have it's a short one um legal the other
things legal legal is yeah it's its own code it's its own code part of the it wouldn't be on no it's not on the EXP right they're separate um so we want to
do them onur um I mean I can talk about it now if you want um I'm sorry do a sheet um m i what is what those those initials
mean man management information systems so it's it oh it's it yeah y so it's everything related to it um and guardian is our provider um I've spoken to them and they agreed to level fund all the
services that provide to us it's it's $25,000 205,000 now I one of the things I would like to see if we can get a breakdown is separate the the Microsoft licenses that
we're ping from from the monthly um service that they do on that so the network and the computers that they support oh yeah is different from the software licenses yep um they they do break that down for me so I I can
provide that it it that I mean ideally I would have lik to seen it on separate lines because computer support is not sof licenses yeah they buy theof lies for Microsoft and they build us on a quarter so Microsoft likes annual soft license
Fe um so they purchase the annual software licenses and charge us back on a monthly basis so paying for them over the year correct and and that is how the Omnibus is and the D it's it's
everything is separated out and then I know there's another line for replacement equipment and I haven't seen a but we have to have a a PC replacement plan so you know so we should be every 5 six years
replacing keeping equipment current and um I since I've been here I've been very um let's just say stingy with replacing laptops so what I've actually been doing is I've sort of been playing musical chairs you know um I just have people
leave exactly you know so we we currently we currently have more computers than we do have staff not by a lot but oh that's good to know because HDC needs access to one no I I I I can I don't have like 10 extras no we just
need one so we can get email uh we need to talk talking about an address you need an address computer I thought we had no I need I can't use my personal computer well we'll talk about that later but my personal
I mean my only issue is if if if one if one commission or committee asks for a a dedicate computer everyone's gonna ask for one and I the town doesn't have money for a dedicated computer for every single border
Commission because if you ask for one and we give it to you what's to say another border commission is going do the same thing okay you know so once I set that precedence everyone's gonna potentially ask for one and where are we going to get the money for I mean so you have you
have some spares that people can use on I need a laptop today you can provide it to them they log in as a guest or something and then they give it back to you when they're done no it's actually more of um someone's laptop is just like crap the bed and you know I have a one
extra flowing around because I no longer have that staff member that position hasn't been filled so I just keep playing musical chairs I've been here just to like stay like one or two computers ahead of the game but that quickly falls apart when um someone um
laptop has died and I need to you know I either I buy completely a new one or I find one that is still in really good shape in fact I had a guardian um wipe you know freshly image and wipe it out so that really it's it's almost a brand
new computer at that point it might be a little processor might be a little bit slow but it's it's a fresh computer yeah I was going to say generally I don't think we use the computers to their full capacity it's it's more it interface to the software that they're running to do
their jobs Anda but you know so that's sort of the things I've been doing personally to like Save A Buck you know I mean a laptop is I think about $1 thousand dollar but you know I have a if I have a perfectly good one laying
around and no employees using it then I can then you know get that back into circulation when someone has complained about theirs either being really slow or just not working well so so those are the things do we do
we have a a contract that we use to buy a computer like So eventually you're going to have to buy a computer do we do that under a contract or we just go to Best Buy at that point and get and get a no we we go we go through
Guardian because they need to put all kinds of software and um okay you know things on it so it's better to just um buy through them and then they put all the software on there so that that's what we've been doing I've I think I've
only purchased maybe one laptop since I've been here and we just go to Guardian okay again we put it in you talk about the price of the computer but then there's the price of g and getting getting it loaded with all the software
the protected software software I think they do that under contract they do so yeah so we pay them so our monthly rate um that gives us 40 hours of their turn so and that 40 hours would be you know
and do they have a do they have a list of computers that you can buy from then uh actually when you said a laptop's about $1,000 you can get a laptop for 200 bucks that's perfectly serviceable yeah maybe but you have to think about um whether it's going to still be you
know usable in a couple years or it's already long in the two you know when you buy it $200 I've bought a laptop for $300 and use it for 10 years but it it all depends on what the use is and that's that's the piece with it they're not buying the engineering computers the
design computers it's kind of like it's kind of well those are the ones that usually get up to about $1,000 I mean I would think you could get something for four5 $100 that's going to last a good amount of time um what I've seen is you know staff laptops probably between five and seven
years that's when it starts like getting really long in the but we bought we made sure that everybody had computers when we had the CBRF and the and the co money the arpa money and so everybody's was replaced around 21 and 22 right which is
why you're getting ready for that cycle I'm just saying when the time comes to buy to get the computers do do they have like a list that you can choose from with different price ranges or is it not that I've seen we typically um they ask us you know what what what you need it
for it's just basic like um does the state have a um does the state have a site they they have a state contract so we can certainly look at it I'm sure Dell or someone is on it so I can s look into
that too but you know thousand is pretty standard I would say yes I know you can buy cheaper ones off the shelf so that's something I can certainly take a look at you might want to look at the state because they may have contracts that get the computers cheaper yeah and it
probably do like like a Dell or something so what about Mis replacement equipment is that where um the if new computers needed is that uh typically yes um there are times
where um if the if the department has a a budget then I would rather they pay for it I'm just looking at this mis replacement equipment all that's come
out of it this year is 78 8055 and that could be a lot I think that was probably a lot how much sorry $780 55 yeah that could easily be but you know the replacement equipment could
be servers for example for you know security system things you know and you know those things can be very expensive I mean 25,000 you can buy a lot of laptops for that and we
certainly don't need to buy that many so it's really it's anything that might go down M and those pie T to be very expensive so are we are we meeting on Saturday o' do we know who's coming in at what
time um as far as I know it it's 9 o' for sure 9 o' okay so who's coming I believe oh and is it like 930 9 9:30 or 9 10 what 15
[Music] minutes I think it's 9 it was 9 9:30 but um um the chief called um he has a commitment on Saturday
morning he can probably make make it first thing and then he would have to go but if if his budget is pretty solid then you know we can certainly ask him not to come in fire we haven't talked about at all so who who's who has a
commitment well we didn't see fire or police the police we had issues the police if I haven't sent that out I apologize he was here then he sent the letter and all the
he sent we had a lot mind never mind I get it totally get it I totally get it we had a lot of questions he answered them we we still when we see the Omnibus we'll look at it because one of the that we had questions with was um Lieutenant
Peach whether his whole line was salary or he spoke about that during the conversation so least now I think it's he said that I guess maybe in the past it was requested that that
particular position you just show exactly how much it cost instead of you know his base salary is in the in the line and then longevity and Quinn is all lumped into with all the other police
officers in the other lines so that was the reason why um Lieutenant peaches um his full amount was on one line versus splitting and so um so who's coming after after fire who's coming um 10
o'clock there might not be anyone right those two people now be it we can go no we the budget oh it was the second person was only fire and then police and then fire
police and fire yeah and I guess I don't know if that's in stone we'll see okay and then and then the OM discussion yeah and that's strictly that's just who selectman
nelon Sabrina be no Sabrina we still need the board of help on the agenda for Saturday um I don't know they came tonight so we didn't think they were coming tonight right yeah they
weren't late so we're not involved bu we are oh yeah said so um no I me to Saturday yeah um so do we want Chief SEL to to come on Saturday
morning um if he's got an appointment um can you zoom in we have a zoom link he had called me today I'm his leaon yeah he had engage or prior appointment or something so he's not
coming is that what you telling I think he can come at the very beginning but wouldn't he wouldn't be able to stay for an hour right so that's why I think the only request here made for me
wait he he requested that the energy budget be level funded because of the huge um gas bills that they're receiving now they are putting up the solar panels but they don't know what the return on
that will be and so what did he put for energy he said he had dropped at 4% yeah from the year I actually changed it right did you change it already okay so he called you and told you I told him to give you a call yeah the other
question we spoke and he sent me an email as well yeah okay good um I did ask him to call you or to let you know he's coming at 9ine for a brief brief yeah what are the questions that
are left for him I don't know the we don't know because we didn't see I yeah my fault I I thought I had copied everybody and I thought he quite off so okay get all right so he won't be there so come at 9:30
then at 9 is that in the the hall it's [Music] here okay was getting taken out time yeah was Sting at 9:00 and then
does have to come or no um I thought we were saying did you have questions for police we we had questions but they were answered in the in the email so they
weren't big they were you know what's what's in this like y i I still have that if even if he join us by Zoom um meeting the the committee members that are so let me just see what it looks like so we going through each the
budgets on Saturday even though people aren't here through their budgets I do have question Nelson has beening these individual budgets that we have in the book they won't be here we have to
ask so I think it's just fire at 9 and then as soon as we're done with fire we're GNA go straight to the OM budget I I thought police was coming in at [Music]
9 are we done posted you want to change what was posted because if it's posted people think that they're supposed to come no but I I think she's saying change it so that fire is showing at 9 o' then I
police was at 9 o' police isn't coming not coming at all yeah so Poli I mean fire would just be for half hour or an hour I don't to say the time just put that first and the
second is the onnibus budget yeah you've seen us sometimes we get into lots of questions so take the time off or leave it at 9 and 9:30 93 was I'm
come is your I don't think minutes yeah the 's always Tri me up like we need to follow that or bring it
we certainly wouldn't know the time ending right well that yeah that's my problem you know you put a time it runs if you run [Music] over so that means finance committee also needs to
revise everybody get posted I [Music] hope yeah but oh you want to just do revise because it's agenda yeah and then
is that that's our posting okay ition joint meeting first um so I'll entertain a motion toj The Joint meeting I need to CL
8:53 I make motion secondy Church yes yes car yes Walker yes Sam Grant yes thanks and then theour I'll take motion toj I'll make a motion to adjourn the
finance committee at 8:54 p.m. second roll call Mary Jane Churchville yes yes car H yes S Grant yes yes we are
unanimous okay um motion [Music] to [Music] um oh I don't know already Saturday I'll entertain a motion to adjourn the joint
meeting you to join the joint meeting so second yes floor shifing yes so we are adjourned we are
adjourned thank you TR