fin committe order 9:03 a.m Saturday this is the last review of Department budgets and then going into the bus review
um the call attendance for the finance committee please David walk is pres Carol is pres J mque is present Mary Jane Churchville present is present with that we have a quum we are ready to
continue uh Sam was not able to be with us this morning so the meeting is being recorded um it will be published the YouTube channel and played on Channel 9 are there any
other people recording the meeting point and being heard no additional reportings being and preliminaries the last item addition deletions there are no additions or deletions of this to the
agenda brings us to the work session we have the morning everyone my name is Laura shiffrin and I will call the meeting to order of the joint meeting with Finance of the board
of Selectmen here at 905 am would you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance please toag of the United States of America and to the for stands
Nation indivisible with liy and justice for all to thank all of our veterans and all of currently serving as well as all of our oopss I don't want families and we thank our all of the
families now because they all sacrifice for us uh the meeting is being recorded and we be uploaded to YouTube is anyone else recording the meeting hearing none have a roll call pres Lord she pres there's no
additions or deletions to our agenda so take it over Don oh what what I miss from the posting I what was
deleted and trash okay we did receive documents last night did you get documents got any Trash got
okay there was an email that Irene sent last night but that was just time I have copies if people want to see them but it was just her analysis of you know bags and fees but
not sure that's I think we decided we can't make any decision on that now anyway but thank you for the information okay I just don't want $1.9 million to be the option of that the residents have to pay so you know $800,000 option or
1.9 million would not be appropriate so I just want to give you those options that there are ways to pay for it completely out of a fee pay as you throw bags or complete fee so I just wanted the board to have all ailable so it's all written out I have 20 years
experience thank you of doing the contract did you send it to me I send it the Board of Health and the Board of Health distributed I did not receive it so if you want to have a copy of um sure if you have hard coffee I'll take yes
supposed to look at this it just isn't anything just a minute it just isn't anything that we can decide on now but thank you for the information I think it was made very clear that we still have
March 10 and then even April 28 to go through make another copies you say think it would be good if we don't talk over each other we've already had this discussion at the last meeting so at any rate we have March 10th and then
we have April 28th and we have no idea until after those dates what we're doing right we had discussed at the last meeting potential two budget okay um with this um next item on
the agenda well Chief Shephard is here um there were two budgets uh for the review on the tea and then the prior EMS what number IE 291 we look at the what's on the Omni
buus or in the book um they should match at this point so Don are you looking for a presentation from the fire chief or do you want to take questions because I have a question on this budget we um we can start um
just this this is our normal departmental review so start question you want to start it's a small budget I just chief shepher ask you a question on
the tee of budget the new equipment line and the replacement equipment line are those things that you expect to um recur from year to year um typically what's in the the um budget or the things that you expect to
happen from year to year so my question is is this a year to year or is this something that we could um do a warrant article and take out of free cash because I think it's necessary are you talking about the $330,000 increase um yes the new equipment line and the
replacement equipment line so um and and I appreciate firstly I'll begin with um after seven years on finance I appreciate the the effort you almost put in especially this time of the year and the pain St make so we may not always
agree but I understand it and thank you for your the 30,000 and I appreciate the the approach to with questions first rather than beat around the bush so the 30,000 um Emergency Management has been grossly under underfunded for years I
put it there as we identified some low hanging fruit that needs to be adjusted so that in the event that we ever have something like that has happen in other communities nearby we have some of the resources so that 30,000 it could be a
one time that just kind of gets us a little bit closer to having some equipment or it could be reoccurring I don't see it re occurring at 30,000 however okay um so how are we doing this are we just making suggestions or are we doing
motions in this meeting because typically we left this meeting knowing what budget we were presenting right so um of of the budget that is here of the
20,000,000 what would be the continuing value that you see in there so right now it says 20,000 and you said it be a one time that that may be a one time but would be reduced in future so we I don't believe there's
been any increase in the equipment uh resources to the Emergency Management in probably 20 years that's that's not I mean I mean if if you hand the equipment how much how much would this
yeah yeah it could be back to zero or consider 2 really you know I'd like to have an interactive conversation the the reality of it is you will all be part of our ability to be prepared yeah we we're trying to get back to
Veronica's first statement of is it a one time or is it recurring to know how to present it on a warrant to meeting it sounds like the majority could be one time warrant and and not anything so is it
best to do the whole thing as a warrant article moving with zero now and adjusting next year if you see the there will be some reoccurring but I don't believe it'll be at 30,000 okay so so Veronica we are go we
I have been propelled into emergency man somewhat long it was there was no ramp up we're just kind of dissecting what we've got and moving that direction so we I would say of the 30 next year instead of 20 and 10 it could be 10 and
five difficult to know okay so what I think is given the budget situation that we're in um I would um put these as a warrant article taken from free cash because I do think we need need this you know if there's a hurricane coming
through and we need CS we need to have the Cs we have CS we don't have generators so we need that whatever we need whatever this is meant for um then I would say this is a a warrant article taken from free cash at the um special
town meeting and the annual town meeting within the annual and that we either zero those lines keep the lines there and zero them or um do some variation of what was just suggested cut this amount
within the budget you just tell me what line that can you just tell it it's 360 it's the team of budget I don't have the BBA up to give you a code but it's I'm looking at the Omnibus it's line 360 right below that
the lines actually aren't numbered for these two items okay I see okay now I see what you're talking about thank you you're welcome in previously no I mean tea is yeah te
is but these two lines were not part of the bva I don't think they've been in here they they don't have accounting numbers if they were in there they would have account tell me the acronym on BBA because I've got a question on that from
your um experience analysis monthly report produced by the town accountant assistant account so do you want a motion um well we haven't done motions
on any of the at what point are we deciding I believe when we hit the Omnibus budget today today later when we when we start hitting it this has all been questions and making adjustments to
update change this budget to 5,000 $714 that's what I would do that would be my recommendation make it zeros for this but put numbers in there for next year and know for FY 27 know that for 26 we're putting these as a warrant article
the the problem with that is what if the warrant article doesn't pass a tell meaning um in which case it might be good to have at least half of what is here in this number for FY 26 what did you say for number I'm sorry
I missed it 30 okay so the reality is we've been running with nothing I know yeah so if you don't give us anything we're no worse than we were you're no better than then we were either yeah and and there have been a couple times within the past five years where
we have had to you know put this forward oh I know we had that fire right and there was a hurricane that was maybe five years ago four or five years ago that never hit but that we had to be prepared for so so I think these things
are needed it's just how do we pay for them right um and and we do have free cash it's getting sucked up really quickly you know between h capital and
snow and ice um but uh so whether we want to put in the on the bus here I guess it's a question what do you think I'm not ambivalent but it's irrelevant to me uh okay I know where
the town is budget wise um the fire and EMS side is is probably very much uh restricted and non-negotiable if you want to level fund it zero fund it not fund it I will uh I will fall in
line okay okay then I I would suggest putting those to zeros and making this a warrant article taken from free cash for this year but leaving those lines in the budget as as we have we'll leave them in the budget zero this year we have talk
that we want to put together a plan for multiple years looking forward and see how that app see what it looks like when we add numbers in there for next year when we're doing those projections I'm good we get there project out it's kind
of like if you know they're in here know we want something so so G I have a question so you mentioned that you're not really sure of course what the recurring would be next year if we spend the 30,000 this year and you acquire the items that you need that you believe you
need to acquire with that money you're not sure how much would be recurring for next year when do you think you'd start to figure that out so I have um been responsible for this for a year okay so I don't have a seasoned experience to
that I don't anticipate it being big um there's really limited payroll it's mostly just resources on equip and it's very possible that we could get up to speed and let it sit okay be had press me to believe that
this would be 30 30 30 30 right right I just think think when do you think you'd be able to figure out okay it's going to be five for the replacement equipment ongoing or three or 10 or whatever what I've learned in the municipal Arena it takes a couple years to be able to
really get a feel for where it sits okay and one year isn't doing it all right so next year we're still trying to identify what we have right what's so next year at this time you'll come back with a number that's saying okay this year I need this
for recurring so okay expand on that with what we have in the fire and EMS side some of that stuff is some redundancy so we don't need to duplicate it we can utilize stuff that the town's already bought within the Emergency
Services we don't need to buy radios we don't need to buy all that okay um that um on the labor side it was just believe one two so sorry go ahead no I'm I'm trying to
look at it I was we don't have director there no detail just the director's salary listed yeah and it's listed at 20
2331 2378 is the is the Deputy then just part of the fire department or is they get they get paid if they go to a program they get paid and we utilize that 2378 okay the 2378 covers correct okay all right
um so I think my last question all right so line 357 in the Omnibus is a repair and maintenance equipment line is that different from your replacement equip at 10,000 that you put in so this is the beautiful thing with a
little bit experience we've got our budget we got the omous budget we got the one can I look at what you've got absolutely because our lines don't always line up sure so I'm talking about this one here yes says repair and maintenance and you've got a budget in
there for 17.5 and then this one here for your replacement equipment you've got 10,000 so U this repair maintenance would be um fixing what we have for equipment that needs to be replaced right okay and I'm
just curious how that's different from the 10,000 is all um so the 10,000 would be some of the larger items okay and the smaller the 1700 it doesn't take very much to burn through 1700 sure and repairing a generator since we're using
that example sure I just so why didn't we just put this in the 10,000 in that line item and make that 11 we could have it's semantics okay fair enough or I could say to you the 1700 is absolutely necessary the 10,000 is Mo
fallowing things bringing them up so they don't become trash okay are there any other questions on CH EXP linesin budget start with labor sheet
I only have one question on the on the label sheet the paramedics it went from 502 to 549 I'm just wondering what the so it's actually part of a threeyear increase um part of collective
bargaining that is a complicated and I got your questions here I wasn't ignoring them um but it's not it's not a one word answer so between collective bargaining um added expenses as a result of things beyond our control uh we've
had to put that number in so I believe in the three years we'll have a 12% increase to get Folks up into the range that we can and that was all down a year ago did bring the U the union of the labor contract wouldn't they put it's
all out of Labor contract this is just for future reference I think it would be helpful if people looked at the collective bargaining agreements before we started the budget talks because it might eliminate a lot of questions and those are available
online um under Town Administrator contracts and then Union contracts if you go there you can see everything okay okay so it it's just helpful to know that um and it could eliminate questions you know things like the clothing bances
and how the um salaries increase and overtime things and all of that it's all spelled out in there and we're required to follow them and I believe it's not a 45,000 over Inc I think it's closer to 97 okay because last year it said last
year the line was at 502 and this year the line's at 549 okay look at this would the other one so once again a budget you what you're looking at different ultimately the increase in labor should be around
97,000 overall yes yeah yeah with exception to mine and and the assistant and they've just for um on the bva that came out at the end of January so first of February it's a month back now but we won't have those numbers for
another week or two right it's at 50% which is a little bit lower than what it would be you know seven months into the year so so it is expended and it's expended at the expected r that one line and for different some of the
different positions they're not broken out by um individual person in here is everything is every I'll take the full-time officer staff we have one line um how many people is
that you usually broken down by individual so i' got that here but once again we don't know so what do you have for a number um in here is written for 31551 how many how many people make 315
yeah that's what's in file submitted um can you tell me what line that is uh hang on yeah that's I'm looking at okay I'm looking at the okay so operation staff um it says
operational officer staff and my understanding is this is similar to the library the library doesn't break out each person that's um because it's varying hours other than the text yes
right they don't break out the text is the only one they don't break out well the the people that have specific positions are there but the text and there's very many and and that's what I'm asking on operation is it is it a group of people that are making
that I was bu or is it individual people that have a salary that that is fixed andree these are all appointed at the end of um June correct for the year and so if you want to see the count you can
typically go there and see how many people there are because it does vary we appoint and take resignations back if I go to that particular location and look at the pointed for this year would I see
a position that says full-time operational officer staff and be able to identify probably not probably not no but if you look off to the side um on the list it tells who they are do we have titles that match into each of
these categories so you would have one for fire prevention Captain you would have one for ALS coordinator Captain uh um it would have a lieutenant for ambulance
maintenance so you could okay that that might be good I mean if if each of those has a position in the salary associated with it if we do have turn when you go out to post the job you know how much the salary is that is allocated for the
year and what you make for the for an offer offer for replacement if we posted that which is fine yeah we would go internally to the job description with that with that line so 60 61 62 people on our Rost to 55 active about 50 that
we can count on this is a moving Target on a very regular basis this is not like the police department uh where each person is hired and they and you know what time what hours what they work so we've got full-time we got per DM we got
paid called and we have salary so there's really a handful of buckets and it's constantly moving right difficult even during the payroll whereas Town Hall's payroll now is that everyone will sign in online or some of the other I was we can't do that it just
doesn't work so if you go to the town clerk page on the left side bar it says 2024 appointed officials and I have the list right here right yeah I I've dump it I'll put it in one Exel spreadsheet so it's easy to
P okay I thought you didn't know where they were no I knew where they were I was just asking if I would see and be able to group and know which positions are going into into here so I would be able to do a count of how many people are in those groups so do you want us to
appoint in groups when this is what I'm asking if you want that we can appoint in groups in June so that when the town clerk posts this she has those groups so that you can see exactly who it is but if I look at this see operations Captain
EMT firefighter paramedic photographer social media manager I see all these positions listed on the website they they are and and they're not group together they it it's just as the names go
um so do you want us to appoint them in a different manner when we appoint should we be appointing in groups so that that this list spells that out is what I'm asking more
um well if it's if it's if it's active the main thing is to look at this maybe maybe it's an organization chart that needs to be presented with this like the police chief did so that we see what the staff is and see what the organization you ask
that this it's a flow chat but um I will tell you what you what you make for a case for me Dawn is an admin we don't have an admin we run pretty lean and you're making the you're you're
galvanizing the uh the case that at some point we will need an admin to do more of the clerical stuff to keep folks outside of the internal operations on how we flow and how we move but quite frankly right now without
that person we do all of our state federal reportings each person that's responsible for it each officer that oversees the group has to sign into it uh this just is going to add another layer that will put another chip in the camel's back um okay I'm not sure
whether does not we got the information here um that's really what we're looking for um trying to and M like you said there's differences between one form and another and and you are so how they're appointed
and listed in the appointments doesn't necessarily match to how they were they were appointed in here so you in the budget you can't tell how many people are are in each of these organ each of these groups does it
matter um I I think it does um much like the other the other departments we we have a breakdown by employee what their salaries are um and and what the position entails here it's it's really a
guess how many how many people make up this 315,000 but there's there's no way to tell right now it's kind of like that's put together but we now we're changing the program we're really not it's kind of
like we've never done that has' never done so you want to change it's is it's a change for you but it matches where everybody else is um in in here we we don't see without seeing
the building block how you got these numbers we don't have any any IDE how the number is is develop how much do we pay the admin for at the police department
two and so uh we add that to his budget so that somebody do that we could do I mean they're fulltime for years how many hours would you need for an ad well based on your questions we'll
get into that but it will be all the fulltime if we as I begin to answer these questions that were sent to me uh you'll have a full time so at the police station for two staff it's
99326 that's for two for two um one is full-time every day I think um the other person's number um hours are fewer so one has a more hours one less but they're both fulltime and fully benefited and how many people are in the
police department versus what there are a lot more in Fire EMS than there are in police um because a lot of the positions are on call or portum it's a different animal than the police state you know
than the police completely different um so and if you want to count on that I mean we can't always be sure I don't think um how many people you're going to have in the um on call or the pum at any
given time but when you get to replacing the position how do you know what was budgeted and what the offer could be for somebody coming in to match that and meet into the budget it you don't necessarily go and you can correct me if
I'm wrong on a total amount you go on a per call or a per hour basis when you do that um so it isn't it isn't oh well this person at 30 hours a week is being replaced by this person at 30 hours a
week because this person may only come in you know five times over the course of the year you don't know you just just need enough people to cover and you have a a total amount that you expect to
need more difficult there's four Bas there's really four groups you've got you know full-time salaries like myself you got full-time employees that are part of the Union you've got your per DMS you got your paid call and they can move back and
forth between baskets and there will be a fifth one and the fifth one is going to be driven by what's happening in the medical world that's impacting the entire country as well as where we are this a little more of a global
conversation but we're going there go there um the uh the hospitals the uh medical transports the First Responders it's all shrinking and the ability to cover that is shrinking too so right now if we bring a paid call person in and we
need to cover a shift we got to pay them overtime and that overtime if we call it a $30 an hour position now they're at 45 and the heading towards $50 we can't afford that so what we're attempting to do is figure out how we can offer a
stien for someone to come in either for 12 or 24 so instead of it being 50 by 10 hours at 500 or $600 maybe we say to them if you take a shift and we do it on a stien and in in it can work through the collective bargaining and it can
work through the legal side of it maybe it's $40 per hour per shift and it saves 10 but it is unsustainable the way it's going and to say that you've got three people at 3155 five years ago we had one
person with their over time was the highest paid person in the town of Townsen at $180,000 yeah and so we've eliminated that and we continue to try to eliminate that but to try to say uh don Hayes is going to have this position as a
paramedic on the nighttime shift and you're only going to get $78,000 almost impossible right I mean I would think that's similar to the fire the police department where they I don't know that
they have people to cover the ARs to but they don't but it's all paid staff and so it's more clearly defined they are all fulltime people on the um police station on the fire station it's
different I have a question sure on the shifts you know when they come in for DM or whatever yeah are they guaranteed so let's say that um they guaranteed so many hours like a per DM no they for whatever hours they were I didn't know if they were guaranteed a three hour
shift or no we want I'd prefer 12 no I meant that's not what I meant no you're asking are they guaranteed a three hour shift right no no okay you're not you have no guarantee if you if you're a paid call guy and you call us
for a smoke detector failure in your house and within 15 minutes get paid an hour that's the best bargain in town by the way paid call guys paid call people per G is just paid per the hour they actually work so they are probably full-time in another community and they
are probably at the medic level and so they'll have both a medic qualification as well as a firefighter one two minimum so we can have them fill dual roles and uh they're probably full-time in another Community nearby and then they'll come in here that they've already been vetted they've been through our process and
then we can put them in a shift any other questions app make copies oh you can have it I don't know I just grabbed that the other day and put my file I don't know if that's false fall at 24 Spring at 24
Spring at 24 that's close enough we can have it thank so I guess one last question so so are the union positions are those clearly defined like okay that's this individual this is his salary and so on
and then you're saying the operation staff all the n un positions are the ones that fluctuate and it's hard to to say no there's only two non-union positions mine and the assistant chief and the other staff the officers they
are union positions after they move above the rank of Captain into a Chiefs role then they become a salary position so a captain in that 315 is part of that okay I guess so for like this it says Nu on these F
items are those Union or does that mean something else there yeah a zero we don't have that position okay what about okay so like this on call fire it says and you and you've got a number there and I understand that's that's kind of one of those that that you say I can so
that is non yeah okay but those are the ones also that are that fluctuate and hard and are hard to put solid if we knew who was going to have a house buy that be
how many people going to show up who going to be on vacation weany that right right so right now even though we may be Veronica at 53% 55% whatever our number is right if we had a major fire right
that's GNA could change that number right up until June 30th right sure so how does it work when um you call another towns for assistance I know that happens a lot where multiple towns respond I know we
respond to other towns when they need assistance or whatever so it is uh 9:44 and I want to be respectful everyone else's time that's a very good and big question mutually Aid we don't pay them when they come here for building fire on
whatever Road it is if we call for tankers and it's called run cards we know inside the water district what approximately will'll need for a first alarm second alarm third alarm fourth alarm Fifth Alarm General alarm fire that's all set up by runat it's all set up internally in the station and a
dispatches not so when the officer whether it be a non-union or Union officer arrives on the scene he does a site assessment sure he says okay this level of fire will require a third alarm so he calls in for a third alarm and that is four tankers so four tankers
outside the water district whatever four towns those are whichever P of town it is they do not get paid when we get called mutually to another Community similarly we don't get paid by that Community towns and pays the staff to go
to go okay now with that little bit of background right now we are responding incredibly heavy to three other communities outside of towns and because they have a labor
issue and it is lopsided and it's not equal so it is not what we would qualify as Mutual Aid if you go once in a while and you come here once in a while then that's mutually beneficial right now what we're seeing in the deterioration
of Emergency Services is that it's very volatile some towns are strong for a while and then they fall back towns right now seems to be very strong and we are out of our community out of our catchment area a lot and that's having a
very dramatic impact on our salary and on a Stafford and so you ask the long range I can tell you the long range isn't pretty it's ugly question to him I a question on
that yeah is there a possibility that if a town is light in another community could they then I have this in trash to do an intermunicipal agreement that our town you know pick a town around of thing is there only have one one truck
or something like that they need two because of more fires could we do an inter Municipal agreement and say we're going to help you more than Municipal Mutual Aid and start an agreement and you're going to now you don't have the St you're GNA pass a p can I answer that
Mr chair y short answer is yes intermediate answer is we're in negotiations right now on that um as much as it's complicated here to understand our resources and our equipment under Emergency Management and
under the fire they have the same problem so finding what that balance is is extremely complicated throwing in the legal piece of it different animal police departments I believe every police officer in towns and is also a special
officer in all the surrounding communities we would have to do similarly it becomes a multiplier instead of 10 or 12 people they 50 people here so the answer is yes and we're working that through and I will scare you all right now that if it keeps
going the way it's going we'll get another million dollars in the next two years I think we also all have to understand that these are trained people they're trained to help us and you're talking about a paramedic is a minimum of 2,000
hours before they can become a paramedic so who you know who do you want to come to your rescue I don't get what your point is what's your point on that of the hours involved in becoming
the people that he needs to help okay my son was a paramedic so I understand it and respect it to that Lori is that U communities there are fewer of them now or of us now
um there are less people going into this as like many other trades if you will we are paying approximately 30 entry for paramedic the area communities that are beginning the program or readjusting
their payroll at 44 and 45 we're going to keep them we got to compete do most of the people in your department live in town everybody there is a mileage restriction that says that if you're going to be a paid call person
you have to live within x amount of minutes to depending upon your station assignment okay the full-time staff if you're living in the station that requirement does not per to the full-time stat for the union
positions correct correct this for all emergency like even the police have a to to to work in towns and for the police you have a distance as well right you have to PE with him so they don't necessarily have to
live in town but they just have to be we don't do call backs but they have to be within a half an hour to give you an idea of just how ugly it is we have a lad of truck which is great Peter bro is the only one north of us that has a lad truck they put us on
first run card for sounds as far away asip Swit and now we've moved into a first place in Jaffrey it's too far for us we don't really it's not comfortable for us so the problem is big and wide and it shouldn't be towns and's
responsibility to fund that so to your opponent expense have the list that would you like it I got right here you like it and I can hit down through it if you want yeah uh repair and maintenance of building
repairs you want detailed cost of Maintenance versus repairs um the main thing with that is and we've been hitting on it every Department um we're looking to make sure that there's money in there for the repairs um because
we've had in the past um is a repairs loan budget here people have been coming looking for the reserve fund money because there wasn't enough money for repairs so that's the basis of why well if that's the driver you can rest assured that's not the case we gave
$115,000 from our maintenance budget to facilities and we have now taken over all of our facilities right we are managing all of that right so we'd like that back but we've been unsuccessful in getting that so you you're comfortable with what
your budgeted how much how much you you have your regular main which I'm sure my guess is cleaning and things like that we are comfortable with it although we like every we like everyone else are witnessing a 15 to 18% increase in inflation m
so we've got good buildings every person in our operation is assigned to a task so you don't just come and doze for dolls sit around and wait for a call to come in if you're in the building you might be assigned to building maintenance you might be assigned to equipment you might be assigned to
technology and so when you are not doing that medical emergency response make sure the chainsaws are shot make sure the trucks around make sure the oil grease is up to speed make sure the building the trim whatever all else is done make sure the the computers the software and all that is up to speed so
yes we do okay but I don't have a crystal ball of the Future No and nobody does and that's why I just want to make sure there's there's money in there for the repairs professional and Technical Services
um our cost of billing goes up based on the percentage of calls that we have with us doing calls outside of our community is uh part of the inter Municipal agreement Mutual Aid what do
we get so if we do an intercept we get $350 if we do a transport at an ALS level could be two three $3500 and so that all that billing which is determined internally with someone that's assigned to billing goes to Coastal a third party they do the
billing and they take a percentage of it that percentage of it when the money comes in has to be written back out so that's why that's a variable number does that number stay the same like the 350 you just mentioned that for above and beyond people's Insurance are they
no it's all part of it it's all part of it so if you lived in ABC town right they called us for an ALS Advanced support intercept we would show up in ABC town would have you on the back of the ambulance right medic staff will up in with whatever we thought we needed
correct with our fly car or our medic right and that cost would only be 350 it's that's unsustainable to so so that's if you have ALS which is explain ALS ALS
Advanced life support so here in towns we have the ability to innovate we have the ability to vent we have the ability to do ultrasound we can do iOS with drill into leg we have external TR compression we have a whole lot of stuff that basic level Serv
can't do okay so if you call for that level of service and we show up whether you have insurance or you don't the town is responsible through that intermunicipal agreement to provide the town of towns and $350 for that inet okay so your insurance company let's say
your insurance company pays let's say I live in town and I have to have the ambulance and my insurance company pays you $1800 true do I does the 350 is that included in the 1800 or above and beyond you live in town or out of
town I'm living in town so the 350 is not P of that equation the 350 only happens if you lived in another town well I think I should call you Bill company no no no no no no because it's very very complicated okay the billing so you have to understand the billing if
you live in town and you're transported right so that's different okay an an intercept is not a transport The Intercept is hopping into the transport ambulance from another town but you live in town so you're being transported by
our ambulance that's correct so if the bill for your whatever issue you've got going on whether we had to use IV whe all that becomes $3,000 and the insurance company pays $1,800 right the balance they will
charge you now we don't chase that no I know but that's just how it works right okay I'm just curious no that's because that's what I got and I just wanted to know you only get 350 you're good yeah if you don't pay it you're still good
okay has this waste that's easy Irene's here goes to devans and we'll leave it at that so we just that's an out of pocket we pay for that it takes the responsibility own us from towns in and it ships it out of town and we send somebody over there a couple times a year to manand the gate and we pay that
staff for that limited amount they handle the rest uh equipment m maintenance um description of it and fall account why the 100% increase I don't know where you saw the 100% increase but if it went from $500 to $1,000 is that what you're talking about
yeah that's again I was I was described piing not so I wasn't necessarily paying so rest assured $1,000 does very little 500 does even less um can I say something about that sure we are now on that line in the bva halfway um more
than halfway through the year at 146% expended so I expect that's why the doubling so I have to sit and look at where we are on a daily weekly monthly basis and we track that all the time
well Katie's always getting a request from us get a readout as to where we are and I have one sitting right here from Recently um and it does change it changes with the market that's out there in goods and services provided by the state are not always the best
deal uniform allowance it is true yeah um good and so we chase that because it's in our best interest it's so we've been incentified to make sure that we can do the best that we can so that we can make sure we get the right monitors that are
already in our program we get the the right equipment that keep us at a level that we feel makes us a stronger organization and that also Al feeds into the ambulance Reserve receipt account which I think should be a topic of today's conversation um but the uniform
allowance it's uh it's the same as clothing and some towns they use it as an expense some put it in salaries um we happen to use as an expense trainings and conferences I think it's only $6,000 that's um biof fight Medics when have
they go on for either expanded training or expanded certifications that's used to to do that and I believe uh do and memberships is level funded patient care reporting um the new budget for item 25 is over the budget amount when we were
steart it was Zero uh we knew a year more than a year ago that there was some trouble over there we began a conversation with heal Alliance and we fortunate we were able to get into line with them and they charged us 600,000 that's our Med control so if you
remember uh emergency Squad 51 back in the 70s you know they're always calling somebody hey what can we do before we give somebody an injection before we go to a very high level of care Med control has to be advised to that we have to have a dock on the other end that says look at this is what we're about to do
and this is where we're at and uh and that cost a 6,000 bucks okay I I'm I'm sorry I thought you just said patient care reporting on that but 6,000 6,000 he did he did he
did but the patient care reporting is at 20 20,000 yeah that's Coastal that's a that's percentage based but the 20 for 26 is 26 811 so it's 6,000 more it should be a $6,000
fee for the hospital um well that's that's sort of why it's kind of like um that should have been broken out is that what you're saying no I we put it in there last year as the first time item it came in with this um it
um I did speak to Katie and I got a print out and trying to make sure of what's what's in here um and what should who who are we paying for what purpose in that account so what's the question um the
question I think the question was is it month quarterly annual reporting that we're doing and who's doing doing the reporting for us so which reporting I'm not trying to you know spin you around which reporting so we
come back from a call we go to your house we pick you up we deliver you we come back we do a report well what is this reporting was new there one second yeah so that report goes in to Coastal Coastal does a billing and a reporting on that another report will go into the
state as to what we did how we trans report it and if it's fire it's the same thing and so though and all that change is changing effective January of 26 so this year we have to have a new software program to get our reporting so there's reporting to for billing there's
reporting for the state and if there's something over and above that'll go to different agencies so there's a variety of reporting that's going on right okay so then we would see what invoices for what companies in here every month you'll see a billing for Coastal
which is part of our billing software program for the medical side and I think it's quarterly or or semiannually for um the reporting that goes in for our Med control okay so we should have additional charges that are coming in
here and it's it's already over budget for this year uh could be because after we cast the budget then the hospital collapsed and we had to shift and we're doing more calls in it's percentage based okay
than um what I I was going to say one of the invoices that I saw in there was from Jo medical is that somebody is doing reporting first um so Z provides us with our monitors which are $3 $40,000 so some of that will be for
maintenance some of that will be the reporting because when you tie someone into that device that device will report to the hospitals that device will it everything is wed okay so not a simple answer for that one done
no I'm just trying to trying to get in there soul soul is soul is mostly a hardware piece that is a tool that we use right but it has to be maintained it has to be to service and it has to be able to communicate okay so do we have
other invoices for so that would show up in other places like maintenance every year they get recertified so that would be a different bill right Cali I think that for fy2
we should expect to add a line for an administrator for the fire department do that put it into the fiveyear plan whether it's three or five I hope you do it for in the neighborhood of 50,000 we don't need a
uh person that we have to bring longer educate that's why we've stayed where we are training someone to do this that entry level is not going to work it's uh it's fast-paced there's a fair amount of pressure and there's a lot at stake so they have to come in with some skill you're not going to attract them at 35
or 40 you're going to S attract them 50 I think you need to put in 100K into the I mean tot not for paying that person but when you include benefit so you're looking at you know 60 to 80 benefits
put it in there and see what it looks looks like not for this fiscal year not for FY 26 but FY 27 so don I'm p i in my mind I'm pass the um reporting frequency vendors I'm at new equipment do you want
to dive into that yeah the so um there a hot potato new equipment we knew um three or four years ago that our equipment and and once again if you say to me we're not going to give you any equipment you
got to use a wheelbarrow garden hose and a uh and a step ladder that you get at the hi wheel store that's what we're going to do however everyone's insurance is tied to the iso the insurance safety organization and we have to provide at a minimum where we've been at our response
time to deliver so the insurance company doesn't come back and say to each person you a fire department can't deliver you don't have the equipment you don't have the knowledge you don't da da da da you're insurance rates all go up conversely if we have all that which
we're trying to do and we ask for reevaluation it should drive everyone's insurance down very involved once again it goes to the person that you may be a full-time person on on a sap we maybe per DM a paid call you have an expertise
in that in that or skill set in that we ask you to work for that so we knew years ago that our equipment was coming up we had 2,000 with 2000 2 pieces of equipment that had expired we had other trucks it's just a constant piece of the
capital plan but we had some that had expired we put in for two engines we got one one year we got one the second year they thought that they'd be 800 days they were closer to 1100 days uh we got them at um 700 and change and we got one
at 800 in change we got one at 73445 51 we got another one $839,000 today both of those are $1.1 million there have been a request as a
re as a reports back to line nine of the contract that says they are entitled to um gather any overages they've asked for an 11% increase on the first engine of 734 that brings us to
8815 um still below the second engine at 839 um we have fought for over a year to beat these numbers down I think we've been successful in not allowing the second engine to go up that's moving into its third year now uh we have not
been successful on the first one and I've agreed to that conceptually U but right now today at 1.1 a piece that puts them.2 with an 11% escalation Clause built in that's a $786,000 Delta so for those that are
pushing to see that there is no uh um $80,000 increase that puts you in the back of the bus you'll go to a more inferior quality in my opinion since it's my opinion I can offer it that way um piece of equipment we think instead of a 20 year lifespan on these we can
get 30 years and and I hope that um we find a way to agree that that should be funded out of free cash or um or something else now sa know it or not last year we had been told that we would
see 70,000 out of capital planning we weren't given that so we took a $100,000 out of our reserve and we funded it then the town was short again in August and said they needed more money to balance the budget we gave an additional 100,000
from our Reserve so uh last year we gave back $900,000 and um I don't know how you'd like to fund this but I know that there's a a little bit of chatter in the background that folks don't think that it should be responsible the time should be responsible for it I think it's a bad
move not to fund it and and I hope they can find a way to fund it out of free cash what the free cash balance is I I haven't seen I know what the free cash number is but I haven't seen all the articles that are coming out of there we we aren't done with the with
the winter season yet so we don't know what that number is going to be and the town meeting warrant I believe reads it you're going to take it out of my ambulance res I believe it said borrow and then it said urance trans transfers but again not knowing what the balances
are in those accounts I think uh I think we've been inspired to generate as much cash as we can through billing through a number of practices that we do internally we've increased our Revenue stream by at least 200 to $300,000 and um we certainly want to get
back we want to be able to use that funds to support us but last year we gave back more than um I think we we should have can I ask question yeah so you just said that there were two trucks that you had purchased in 2022 and
2023 and did you see the letter for the increase on both trucks and you negotiated down or did you just receive the letter on one truck no it was all verbal and then we get a letter on one truck we had select I had meetings last year with the selectman the Le on the
corporation she Graves Corporation and that we were they were attempting to go with both we use arguments of the business practice and a variety of other things and at the end of the day we thought we had it held down to a 0% increase until December and then in
December it was very clear that the cost of stainless their cost of aluminum their cost of Transmissions changes in Emissions on trucks in the past three years it changed that they were going to take an 11% increase so they were going to bump us up so we agreed to the 11% increase so that we wouldn't have to buy
a million truck because quite frankly I don't think towns and can afford a million dollar truck okay so getting back to negotiation so when you negotiated with them you didn't see this as a breach of contract or a bait and switch at all you never that you didn't okay did I was I happy with it no but it
was made very clear to me underline item nine and I know you've read the contract it uh it shows that as a result of cost material increases tariffs and other things I didn't see that though line nine section nine look it up I saw the tariffs and I saw the taxes
but I didn't see the materials saying the materials oh number eight2 in the event that any Apple Federal state regulation do EPA Etc National Fire Protection Association standard import tariffs which enact during the course of this
contract and which requires a change in the contract specifications and the purchase price in order for the apparatus and equipment to comply with such regulation the party will execute a change order describing the change in specifications and increases the purchase price in the amount equal to
the increase in cost of producing the apparatus and the equipment for the compliance that's right so we had EPA challenges on engines okay deps so you got different tiers whether you're at tier two tier three tier four I think we're on tier five now transmission
changes the same so instead of a five-speed transmission you got 12-speed transmission for compliance they had to be in comp so in order even in the state of Massachusetts effective now you cannot buy a diesel engine according to
the Commonwealth Massachusetts okay so a state compliance requirement came in between 2022 and 2025 that's what you're saying so it's a state compliance it's a variety of things that we have flocked them through got one the other day it cost them $700 it's a zero increase to
us they know unfortunately when they call towns in fire they're going to get an unruly person on the other end of the phone that's just going to say no well that's a comfort because that's comforting to me because I um I thought there was an athlete that you were aing to the
company well I do I no most towns understand that most towns have given in we have not they have given in and and there are two that haven't and they've filed um lawsuits against them and I didn't see that towns and went that step but so here's the
risk okay you fight them they put you on hold they take you out a second engine someone did that so we moved our second engine in the place we'll receive them both the same time so instead of our second engine being a year from now if they're both going to come in July and I
responded back on an email yesterday that said this is what should be looking at so because someone fought that they got pulled out of line if they lose they're not in at 800 they're in at 1.1 okay I get so you you ran the risk you
you you we calcul we calculated you calculated okay all right I I'm just saying for the town I just think that we all should know that because that's that bait and switch thing with those corporations is very popular right now with fire departments and I just wanted
to have some kind of a assurance that either you or the town would be fighting for the town so there's a $786,000 benefit to the town to continue to move in this direction um I take
nothing uh my salary is what it is any reviews any trips to the plant I pay for myself there is no cost of the town to make sure that stuff is delivered appropriately and I believe whether we agree on the functionality of it or not not I believe
I understand contracts enough that I can push back where I can push back and I also can understand where we could lose and we could lose here so we've agreed to it unfortunately on one but in addition to
giving up that we've added two more years of of warranty on it which is valued at $40,000 so that $8,000 increase we get $440,000 more on warranty that won't have to go against the budget lines from maintenance and then we've got a couple of other little
things so it's really going to cost us around 20 $25,000 and I spelled that out in a selectman's meeting a couple weeks ago so what would happen just just say if you said no we don't want the truck that's uncomon what would that do to the deal
no problem done are both or just that one if we say we don't want the truck that doesn't that is in TI together so what would what would that's fine what would probably happen okay you're out on that one you're not working with
there's no economy to scale here you're not getting two you're only getting one yeah so you're out on the first one the second one's going to stay on track so as I said to my go look at you want an $80,000 piece you want an $80,000 increase I don't agree with it the contract's the contract we have an
agreement companies go broke over contracts companies have gone broke Ashby paid all of the money for a fire truck the company went broke they got no fire truck they were out hundreds of thousands of dollars on the fire truck I'm not going to allow that to happen
during our negotiation we pay nothing until the truck is delivered we're not looking for incentiv to incentify the deal to say we'll give you a couple hundred thousand up front you hold the price down we're not doing that so what I say to them okay you get the $80,000 increase it's been going on for a year
if you take my second truck and make it sequential meaning you got truck TR one truck two one is following the other one so the serial number is a year from now so the second truck is coming in the place now if I said to them I don't want the first truck it would make complete
sense for them to say to me your second truck if I don't want the first truck your second truck stays in line so another year from now we'll have this conversation again in the year okay I see what you're saying wouldn't it make wouldn't it make more sense to sell two cookies than it
would to sell one cookie well you're giving them away well I guess if I well to answer that honestly I didn't want my answer my real answer I've heard the answer coming through the back door but go ahead I answer have you
not been to town hall a number of times not happy that the town is paying $80,000 increase not that I know have I yeah certainly in meanings that we have anyhow go ahead I guess that's it
for me go ahead oh no I'm happy to answer it but I I you know we come into these trying to understand where people are coming from and if anyone thinks that I am not banging the drum of the town of towns whether it be under the Fire EMS or
emergency manager or anything else I do to get the most mileage we possibly can then call me out I don't want to call you out but what I want to say is I have the same passion for the town that you have Mr shepher and I am on the finance
committee which I think I was told was a watchdog committee and I think I have every right to ask the question and to ask those questions and then be accused of not having the best interest of the Town doesn't work for me as
a coming together I didn't say I don't think I suggest you don't have the best interest of the town I was aware coming in that you had concerns I wanted to make sure I had them answer I did have concerns come call me come right down any call me write down anytime I'm always available this thing rides with
me as long as I'm in the town I'm always available all right so that's the ambulance that's the two fir trucks we have an ambulance that's coming too the um the first ambulance we agreed upon was 350,000 but uh and we approved that uh with a bond for the town for 350 they
put it in at 403 which included a $25,000 escalation uh they're going to exercise that escalation and another one that puts the at 400 we have the money for that Delta in and it was proposed not only in the ambulance Reserve receipt account but we got
$250,000 as a result of the closure of MOBA hospital this year by Stewart uh that money has already been transferred to the town was supposed to be used for capital of that 250,000 150,000 will be used to upgrade that ambulance from a BLS basic life support ambulance to a
ALS Advanced life support ambulance uh so there's $150,000 worth of equipment that will go in there there will be $25,000 of that that will be used for the first Delta and another $25,000 of that that will be used for
the second Delta of the ambulance so when we have an ambulance that arrives on the fourth quarter of this year the town will be bonded at 350,000 we will pick up $50,000 difference we will do the upgrade with the money that came from the state at
150,000 there were some maintenance issues on our two ambulances that will be able to be utilized in the last 50,000 and so we've got about 34,000 right now that's unencumbered and I'm concerned about what prices may do between now and then so we've left that
alone so the third ambulance um is not going to cost the town any more money than it agreed to three years ago so and the new ambulances now base prices on the new ambulances are not 350 but they're 47500
and when are we getting that one fourth quarter so let me ask you something um you know when we get rid of these fire trucks and the ambulances like what happens to them do we get any any money back from them or we trade them in I
thought you wanted to lead by two um so so I have all day gear I don't um but I will so that another another question that you know begs a longer answer that's the short answer is the value of
them decreases until they until they've been rebuilt okay so we have a we paid 850,000 for a ladder truck to buy a new ladder truck today entry price 1.5 to 2.2 so our ladder truck used to respond
to all motor vehicle accidents the footprint is huge the exposure to that vehicle is even bigger so what we did is we went to a used rescue truck from another community in Pennsylvania we bought that we brought that in I think it cost us $50,000 to buy it and it's a
$450,000 truck so when we turn that around and say we want to sell that I don't recommend trading those in for $115,000 don't take the $115,000 trade in value all right for that I would recommend to the board
of selectman or the finance committee that you either sell that to like the fire Association or because I'm not sure the town can do this rehab that truck to and then get 50 to 100,000 out of how
much would it cost to rehab a truck what needs to be done needs to be done 25 to 30 double the amount of money that you put into it you should be able to get back you put $ 35,000 into it you'll get a $70,000 return okay however
remember what I just said that buying goods and services the way the state tells you to buy it be the best way right and because of the threeyear lag time if you got a truck that's ready to go on the front line it will
sell I question so you just talked about Stuart you we got money with towns received money because of the Stuart episode are we still part of that collaboration of the towns talking to the state to get extra money for
ambulance yes I'm as the chief of the department I am on that group and where does that stand out with the state we've already got the 250 it's already been paid and deposited there's another 350,000 that we're working on not for one year for for two which will be
700,000 Pepper's got an issue Ashby's got an issue between the two of us it's 1,50,000 towns has been doing a fair amount of heavy lifting my position is and it's unfortunately coming out right here is that it is unsustainable for us to go to Ashby 100 times it is unsustainable for
us to go to peil 30% of our runs some portion of that should come this way to support us so when I say to you you should expect to see if this continues to fragment and fail the way it's failing the additional
cost of a million dollars is probably real but there's $700,000 at play for the town of towns over the next two years as well as for the others there 2.1 million doll at play that's part of our conversation so so you want a little bit of ashp and a
little bit of cple to come to town listen it's we can't we can't solve problems without contributions right understood thanks next okay not seeing
any I question can we talk about ambulance receipts is this the place or not what is what I want to know is what's a fair contribution to the town given that we do have these um trucks coming in that we're going to have to
they're rolled into I assume the death service for the town correct and are they both R in so what is the amount that you think is reasonable to contribute um the
recap so I used to think that I didn't want to tell someone to do their job but I've also learned past year that in good faith we've given back $700,000 to contribute to our budget and if you look at our budget at least since
I've been in the driver's seat I've attempted to maintain the contributions of the town to less than a million dollars so last year we gave back $700,000 at the first pass and we gave back another $100,000 for Capital which technically really should have come out
of uh Capital planning and then we gave another $100,000 back to balance the budget so we gave back $900,000 last year we brought in $983,000 last year pretty remarkable if I must say our department has done a
nice job of paying attention to those calls that uh Jerry spoke about and to make sure that we're fair to the other folks but the insurance company doesn't necessarily care how well we do we can make the case to be able to generate the money that's entitled to come back into
that Enterprise account which was set up 30 years ago and utilize it to um uh supplement not supplant our budget it has become part of supplanting our budget I think if we maintain to your
question uh the same level of contributions to the town relatively the same level of expense we should get back 700,000 I will say that having used your service of the ambulance it was very good it was
excellent they take pride they all was actually knew to oh so my projections right now um it always runs a little bit behind and
um um J middle January we had um 332,000 in that account uh November we had collected 62,000 hadn't been credited December for whatever reason being a short month the end of the year we've only collected
33 um January this year we collected an additional uh 58 February and March soon we'll be able to post so right now we stand at 486 I'd like to think that we're going to hit 8 to 900,000 again we've got two fire
engines that are coming in that need $120,000 worth of equipment on them to be able to do their job I've had the conversation um with the previous three time administrators that is this something that we should be responsible for is this something that Capital
planning and the town should be responsible for and part of the uh the sales pitch was help us balance the budget for 25 and we'll make sure that the town does its part to make sure those engines are up to speed so we've
given back an additional 130 that really didn't go where towards the benefit of the department that generated it to the benefit of the community so I think we're going to need $120,000 to put hoses and and appliances
on those trucks so that will be in the difference between the 700 to the town and whatever the service brings in I have a question going back to the fire tracks that I have concerned about so when we
sign that contract when you sign that contract with craves craves LLC fire appus LLC which is a Canadian Dy are we 100% sure that in July we're not going to be hit for any
kind of a tariff if they go through can you assure me that the uh that there' be no more snow between now and Jan J June we we don't know that's the short I'm to be sarcastic So based on the open
hard conversations that we've been having they have told us you will not see another increase this is it but if you put it in print it's only worth the paper that it's printed on so as of right now Mary J and they're telling us a president I have a cell phone direct
connect to the president of SE Graves that's how far this conversation has gone with the push backs gone from the regional New England manager to the national manager into the corporation and now the president so the president and I are now the ones that are communicating he said Gary this is where
it stops I hope that to be the case but I can't say until those trucks are delivered in the check is written that that's true okay so that being the fact and if the tariffs at 25% that have been proposed by the current president of the United States where does that put us in terms of getting the truck so the good
thing is part of our conversation is that I have suggested to him that since these trucks in now in production that he Hedges his cost based on a guaranteed sale and buy all the product relative to these trucks now except for labor and put it in inventory and he said now the
trucks are in production they can do that they can't buy all the uh the supplies and material needed trucks that are going to be in production two years they don't have big enough warehouse space so as of last month all of the uh all of the aluminum all of those parts
are now in sequence to go in over the next three months so it is my hope that that product is in place in the factories okay so hope in a prayer trust the r what if it's not tell you when it
happens and will we have the money to pay for the fire tracks coming in don't think it won't be a fight but will we have it I'm not I'm not worrying about what I can't tell right now thanks I mean that helps no guarantees
is the the issue going on that is we have not signed yet for the increase we're waiting for town meeting on the 10th so we haven't signed that so there is no we still aren't going to know right yeah we
will we approach everything thinking someone's gonna Jam us up what we'll never get you won't know no but I mean I thought you were saying we won't know whether we can pay or not I want to no we want to know if it's going to be tffs
and we won't know that but we have not signed the adk over yet I'm not talking about I get I get where you are on that and I'm good with that what I'm worried not worried about what I'm questioning is is it potential that the tariffs
which has nothing to do with you negotiating with the President right I mean the tariffs are the terrorist it's the country it's coming across the bo 60 or 90day hold right now I I think goes into effect March 4th didn't he just he just changed it just change it I thought it I'm
saying is it's absolutely open for a higher rate because we have not signed that contract for the 8 signed that that's what I'm saying that we be in a better position if we had already signed my contention yeah is that this
didn't need to go to the town meeting this is an agreed upon contract that we've entered into it should have been signed should have been delivered but that's outside of my level of persuasion I think that this did not have to go to town
meeting okay so I get your $80,000 request I get it but I'm saying two trucks 700 and 800 equal what a million something times 25% for the Tariff okay
times 25% I'm not good at math no no no no no no can't be no no because it's 25% of that piece that goes into the product not 25% of the aggregate oh okay so if the um product is say $100,000 that' be
25,000 25 for two trucks right so be 50 so so we we have the money to pay that in the event it comes okay just one off so my question now is why didn't we sign the contracts and how did this end up being in the
warrant article if it didn't need to be you tell me well I think it had to do with the funding the funding was taken out at the value of his PR by at town meeting at town meeting based on that Capital plan so this is above and beyond
what was signed in and and what borrowing had been done because I guess I would I'm confused if we sign a contract any contract or don't sign a contract but say we had signed the
contract cont this wouldn't go before the town as there were an article to be voted on we signed the contract there was a discrepancy on whether or not the um additional fee we've had this discussion whether or not the additional
fees were um part of the contract I maintained that they were however others felt that it was not and that's why it's going before the town on March only because of that additional we signed a contract we that had an escalation
Clause to me it was a done deal okay that would have been yes I agree it was a done deal but we didn't have funding that would cover it so but how can we sign a contract if we don't have the funding because whenever I've done
Contracting you had to have the funding before you saw the borrowing thing that Melissa did yes that's that's how you know she went out and borrowed for the first truck immediately that has been borrowed since 2020 okay and and those dollars are in some account correct okay
so so then you could sign a legitimate contract because you have the funds so so you make sure that just like we did the other day you know trying to find out where are the funds going to come from can the town sustain it so it's a little bit okay different in
that okay all right we've gone I expect thank you any any last questions for chief shepher anytime anyone wants just go to the station ask a question we're there
we're not on a call 247 back as quickly we can something too go take aour of the fire station I had I had a lovely tour the other day really and it's worth seeing the trucks and the capabilities
that we have in this town it's really pretty amazing good yes we could do a filter yes and to to our team which is dedicated takes great pride you have a very strong program in
the community right now thank you thank you chief it's on the bus the next thing is on the before we get started minute minut or 10 minute yeah
10 minute 10:45 all right sounds good to me okay we're back we are on to second item on the agenda today which is the the budget it's okay now what are we on
now on one of the we we've been doing and revie all the individual budget the Omnibus budget is compilation of all of those individual budgets into into a single
worksheet soed from this into the town report and town meeting presented from budget so all the work that we've done the building BL to this point requested budget and this
is now in one place so if we have changes we can think of look at it here um we we get that opportunity to see the totality so don is our goal to at the
end of this review to have an exact number for what we're going to go forward with a town meeting for the override um that would be Michael I want I want to know the number that because we put a number in the warrant but um I would
hope that at the end of this review we have a number of what we actually need for the override and that makes a difference in how we review this and then are we going what are we going to say as far as if the override does not
pass either to be put on the B Ballot or at The Ballot Box what is going to be the consequence for the town I I would like that to be our goal by the end that's what I want to know by the end of today otherwise we're in this
Quagmire where we're just going to be talking around and around for weeks on end so we could probably end up with a with a column or um do do we want to already have or
identify those lines that um we would be removing like your mine one of a couple things is you know number different for the schools or say the the 250,000 that we put in for the
paving plan identify them with it in and then it out so so that we go through it so I have a question about that so
obviously the board of Select know their part they know what they is but we as the Watchdog committee for the town finances do we make recommendations and then at the end of today those
recommendations gel with the board of Selectmen or is this a mutual admiration thing or is this is has generally been a mutual generation we we have not had a separate colum where it says b of Select recommended and and and finance commit
recommended um that's something that that's what we we can do yeah yeah I I think because I think we take a I'm sorry to but I think if we take a vote at the end of the whatever at the end of the um day um
should say where select when yes no for any voted yes who voted not who but how many same with Finance say there's three that go along with it and there's four that don't it should be listed that way
well yeah because I mean what otherwise what's the point of having the finance committee if we just been a whole month and then we don't get any kind of an input I I don't understand the role I guess the role has always always been to re to review question and then make a
recommendation sheet that goes to to town meeting but is it supposed to be sanctioned by and approved by Boardman it be no with the fin committee says yeah well that's what I'm trying to find out for I'm trying to get that
information no this finance committee is is independent we make our okay so we're an independent board right okay I'm gonna have another cookie on this we're indep I don't know but I think many times at um all the town meetings that we have whether they're
special or annual meetings or fall spring whatever um finance committee is always sitting at the table up front and many times are asked for their opinion so you you may State whatever you have on the document that you give to the people but I've heard comments come from
Finance or even questions go to finance so yeah you are an independent body okay good okay just clarification start okay we start want to start at the
top yes if we just go work our way through the numbers then it's easy to follow there's only 800 likes well some of them should go pretty quick corre all right so are we starting at
the top s which is the Town Administrator salary right how much you giv us back what is the thought is there just going to be like an overall theme of we
need this much money and we're g to cut a percent from everyone if we have to go if the override does so the first pass scenario second pass um because we have collected bargaining Maybe talk this instead of me
oh some things we won't be able to touch well we have to B things and it's apparently easier to bargain uh an overall cut you know so 20% cut in services and um so I well I let's talk
through the first thing and figure out what we're going to do the override it it maybe and you know um the Amun budget feeds into the tax recap which is basically everything all the expenses and various sources of revenue and
literally the last number on that recap sheet is whether you're below you know at budget below or above and if it's in the negative that means it's a shortfall which means you need to cut uh or come up with that amount so if you're
$200,000 in the red you have to it's a combination of cutting expenses or finding new sources of um Revenue just for worst case scenario say you had to let go people just worst case scenario
can you are the union folks immune from being um yeah they're in the union so it maybe we need to come to the table with them to okay to negotiate what that would look like
and I don't know if cutting staff is that easy I think the easiest thing well it's never easy well the easier thing to do is negotiate a um a reduction in the hours hours hours yeah that that is typically
done okay like a number per thing here I is it like total number of what we need at the end adding go to the recap and start with
the recap just just I as an explanation yeah or a question as we cut hours do we also cut benefits is there a savings not just
to the salary portion but also insurance or no if we're reducing ours we are still providing benefits as far as um medical and all that goes I a question sorry about to bring on that topic the school district just offered an option
that I thought was kind of interesting on that point is if your spouse or somebody has health insurance maybe you can get taken off of the tamping the health insurance if your spouse is already having your that was
there just offered that as an option to help I think that's I think that's every every every company that I've ever work yeah I think that's just a whatever to cut any positions but that's on the
next budget we have to first all right so on this one we need 29 m564 n49 is that are we on the recap which one that's that's the recap
sheet it's not it's the second file it's the second sheet yeah the one that's the shot shot version okay so but before we do we can go through the recap we should go through the Omnibus because are we including the highway management are we
going for broke on the no I think everything was answered in yeah I didn't interrupt and I know there might have more than happy to answer do appr going question
but while you're in the room we do have new members on the finance committee so just to do the introduction this pleas to meet you good to see so yeah very I very much appreciate it I do try and um submit a budget
narrative that kind of provides a macro view of my budget um the way we build it from the ground up at the police station if there's any suggestions on what I can do better on as far as that memo is concerned please feel free to email me I'd love to incorporate that my goal is to try and answer questions before they manifest themselves I know this time of
year for you folks is all scrunched up and there's not a lot of time to go through the budget as much as and thoroughly as you'd like to so if I could make that process Easier by all means reach out any work that comes of it I'm more than happy to help Nelson kind of put ours to bed as best we can make efficient as process as we can so I
do appreciate you and your Force question sorry y as a resident I think that a couple things there's no there's nothing for notes here and I just think people are going to ask the question so if you can have it as a note
you probably add town meeting relax is that there's a number that says police officer stien certification it was 80,000 80,000 70,000 80,000 80,000 and 117 18,000 is there a reason sure a
realignment I believe of what actually gets taken out of that line what gets taken out of that line is there qu payments and depending on the age of the force of their educational level that number can change significantly as we onboard and vboard people so there's that and I think there was a complete
realignment and we started to add more to that so it's that it's their annual certifications when post started to provide um certification on a tri-annual basis we have that that comes out of there once a year annually as well so that's what that figure is just kind of
a reshuffling making it better and easier to kind of see where the money is spent in the past and it may come up in another discussion as well in the past there was this desire on behalf of the boards and I don't remember which one it emanated from but there was a desire on the board's behalf to have all the
expenses for an employee tracked on a specific line that that goal really could never happen because it doesn't incorporate the health insurance in there and things that are paid for on the town side either so sometimes you'll see that like the police Lieutenant line is a good example of that it's just all
concentrated in there with the intent that if you ever did want to make a cut or determine how much that particular position or person depending on the political clment uh made you could you could easily see it never really worked that way because there are costs in that
in that employees employ that are not reflected in that line but that's why that was done and and again I think if we look at the line right now Lieutenant Peach is is back down at just a sary on that line right which may be why the stiens which is why that stip is going to go off the amount that was taken out
of that line so we shuffling I think responsible and pragmatic way to handle it and track it to be very Frank so I think it's a better it's a better way of doing it but it will show like almost a false rise in that y yeah yeah so there'll be a NE it's negative yeah if
you work at the Lieutenant's salary it's down but that's because we moved it to the stiens L in in this version of on the bus that could change that's one look like it increase 7% it yeah in in the initial FS it looked like there was
a big increase and in the Omnibus it's been realigned and so look different in the Omnibus that we have today didn't thank you very I thank you for stopping in um I would like to go before we go to
the recap I want to make sure that we have what we need in all the places in the Omnibus in particular I want to look at the town cler because I think the salary that's reflected is the salary that our retiring town is getting and we
have a a new oneyear person coming in and I think that needs to be adjusted okay and in the [Music] Tok okay that's the whole part of so
before we go to the recap then can can we go through the Omnibus so that we agree with everything that's here we let's do that at one and go down we we'll start at one we won't necessarily I don't know that we get into the details of I don't
think there are a lot of changes to make but if we're going Pie in the Sky we should make sure we have things in and we have things correct so and then do we want to also um because we're in the first area put
in the actual salary and then show an offset of arer funds on the recap cheap no I thought you told me that we couldn't show arer funds on the recap we can't but this this no for for us okay we just leave
are you talking about the community services and the human resources yeah no we just leave that as is on this one okay the next one the if no override then we I would change these numbers around so much but okay but but
for now if we're going P in the scy we stay with what we have but I thought yeah so I thought Community Services was done okay can we just go through and then we could discuss it when we get that line item okay so okay
to administrator the line looks like a small increase but just because last year in in the August time frame it is money transferred for the interim uh Town Administrator to be paid that's wasn't are you
talking contract contract it's contractual but what I'm saying is it looks like a 1.7% increase but okay it it's all a matter of the generations we went through last year of paying red
reducing um to to Nelson's current salary so that but he wasn't making 129 less yeah in in the in the in the first year contract so so he has a contract for 131,000 for this year don't don't get hung up that it's
not a 4% we're not looking at that though we we do that we've already done this we've already done the percent are we just going down and just verifying that the numbers are correct so is if the numbers are correct let's just right yeah a good
point care and then you got your for your executive account nothing's changing there what's this next Auto allowance the 2000 is the auto allowance Auto auto is that contractual too
yes the contract is nothing we can do about temporary help we had discussed this and I can't remember but but but know we had discuss it was Community aggregation yes so so we
didn't have a problem with we just did this Thursday just did the community service person okay that's where Veronica wants to keep it in and then we'll deal with it later okay got it she's gone right
but the position it's kind of like so if if we don't put money in here you won't be able to hire anybody yeah this is the conversation we had the other day contract cont that's my question is is
there ARA money in FY 26 or do we need to pay the full salary for this position there's ARA money in 26 but we want to keep it within the budget so that commun for community services and human
resources in order to build to um fill the to keep the position for next year yes there there's only enough ARA money for one full position they're both the same salary so you can just say it's you know
two people and however you want to yeah this is the one we were adding the dollars to build up to right so part time that's what we trying to do but if we only have enough salary for one full-time position I don't think putting 60,000
in in the budget is the right number but aren we gonna do that at the end when we cut contribution that's in here now we don't we haven't paid any more than what is there right now from the so we're going down this sheet and we're going to come to the fact the end of the line
we're going to want x amount of money and if it's more than the override or less than the override then we're going to decide we're gonna decide what what the override is the end of this process this process will go through make sure we have all the numbers here make sure
that 29 o it's not the recap up there anymore that 29 general you know the the the 29 563 operating budget is okay and and make sure that that number is right so that we make sure that we ask for the
correct amount in the override on the 10 so as we go down okay let's just keep expenses that hasn't changed from Thursday correct how we know um we had this 5,000
for land transfer that just not coming into we zeroed it correct so nothing for properties committee if we take anything in to do anywhere right now no I thought we love offended it I didn't
think it was taken out which line are you talking about it's gone um 14 14 14 um okay we could put that back in why not we're going for an
override well but I think the point was to level fund it so that it would be there just in case the reason we put that in was because of the war Road um property the one that we were going to cut off the back and sell it to fish and wildlife because of the butts Hickory
Hills Wildlife Management Area and then we were going to sell the front or give it to Habitat for Humanity that's not what happened right the um the piece got I believe it it was just put out to auction is that true or has nothing happened I don't think anything happened
yet okay not to my knowledge it's it's going to be in the next group to go out for auction um it was held back because of the working with Wildlife and Fisheries it's kind of like they did they turn down the the land and so now it's just going
to be sold as the whole then and then the the money was for a survey it was but that doesn't mean that the seven properties that we're going to require won't need that there's seven properties in in the course right now um so if we
do that if we take it away and we don't have anything we if okay we never had anything in there in 20 to 23 there was nothing there we put that in specifically because of that Warren Road property and we never used
it before it was never needed by the town not the discussion at properties committee right it it was not just for 182 was a place we were going to use it right but it wasn't the then let's put it back in if you
guys think you to put it back put it back in okay and web master500 that's going to add 5,000 to the board of Select it's going to add 5,000 to the bo select expenses because properties doesn't have
a budget on their own they don't it's kind of like just put in for that the right because once properties are recommended to the board of Selectmen that's when you would use it if you needed it if you need that if you need an environmental study if if is
multi multiple reasons why we putting potentially even sign up there was no place to get that money that's why it's in the budget for select do so that that brings the
total up to 33500 for the expenses which is level funded which is level yep what are other charges, oh if we have to do a mailing if we you know whatever else comes up
how much of that have we used in this last are $2,900 pardon me we're at $2,900 for year okay okay any anything else for V of
Select nothing being heard finance committee we have two lines we have the 750 for dues and memberships and the 50,000 Reserve fund same no change no change
not Town accountant budget starting Aline 36 for the header the first line is 37 I have no changes on accounting contracts where are we at of accessors um I just um just in case people hadn't seen it um
there was an increase from our discussions um anniversary in the office the assistant is is March of this year so there's that will bump her up to 1,000
instead of the five 500 okay so um yeah going down Markham C didn't Katie say that was going to be 25k she already had umot remember yeah was between
25 so it leaves a 30 days yeah just just INE I in this budget in the in the cut down budget we can change it it doesn't change that's a that's a placeholder for that now gotta get the quote
from company yeah we should have anticipate that it will be because our our current contract ends with FY 25 so for for the auditing a contract it's a threee
contract so we expect an increase yeah they had been doing, year over year sorry it was 500 so supplies went up quite a
bit well it's repair and maintenance of equipment and she explained that okay and how my papers out so the expenses budget went down by 18.7% the to budget forting
up okay yeah and you mentioned repair and maintenance but I don't okay was it was a separate she had repair and maintenance is a separate line it looks like it's been added in here office supplies
right yeah it was and it may help because you guys have all the binders because that's where all the detail is you might have to sort of go back and forth between the Omnibus and the actual um the departments because you probably have notes and things like that so there
may be times where you might need to flip back and forth okay so counting is done um I think so unless anybody has anything else question Board of assessors Board of assessors
[Music] yeah inrees funded on everything pretty much everything stayed the same right almost well yeah looks like maintenance the repair maintenance went down a little bit went down 440 [Music]
go to [Music] Treasurer contract yeah just renegotiated in January believe that was that was updated it's reflected here
sound then again all the individual details of what's in each of these is um it's where are we at Treasure no that's Melissa and Anthony that's contract Treasurer but
Rea and yeah it would be both so any any questions treasure I know we were just going over staff members um the tech services is that also
contracted it's the um payroll system what is it har they they use outside software and since we're in here um I have a question for just I think I have the is going to be in the budget they stien for Anthony
I believe that's correct okay Department yep it's uh it's coming up com y um anybody additional question questions with tax tax collector expenses
legal talk about this one specifically but it's going up 5,000 this this year this a new contract new price I'm sorry last line tax collector other
services 10,000 what's that okay h u okay hang on let me is it multiple things or it's multiple but she she's got the details see let me see
read this what color is that one but Melissa's submitt was uh bank account fees and um shredding services yeah that's 10,000 other is training how much has that been
used she has been working on her certification bank account theing services coming okay thank you Le also a threeyear contract um or is that yearly no that's
not yearly no it's not so I I don't know how it was procured when before you know right before MTC took over but after that it's um it's uh it's
a a once in a while increase in their fees so it's not like an annual thing in fact I think since 2018 this is only the second time they've increased their fees okay and um this July will be the the
second increase we're looking for okay and is it a monthly fee umed hours or uh it is a monthly fee and that that um it's unlimited hours teally um there are certain things that they do charge
for like a labor or any special litigation that happens but if it's General Municipal um questions it's it's um it's just a base fee and there's no limit on how many hours question on their uh services are there Services
only for the board of Selectmen or are they for all the boards that um are part of the municipality all of the boards my experience that I had to speak with Adam and as we were doing in a conflict of interest I ran it by him to make sure we
were doing the right things and making sure yes Department I tell you that I had office hours at the end of the month uh the last Tuesday of the month Adam holds office hours they're available to
anybody and you have to sign up through Saina okay she sends department heads information about that every month and and so you sign up and you go and talk to him other times the policy is you
have to um coordinate through Nelson okay so I as the um HTC went to meet with him you schedule an appointment for me I met with him he told me that he only deals with the board select when he represents only the
board of Select and not the other mun uh but he will answer your questions he's correct when you use the word represent that is correct he us that but if um were you asking for him to I don't know what you don't answer that question just
know that you can ask him questions and he will meet with you on a monthly basis now if you're asking for representation in court or something that's a different story he does represent um so any
question we have as a board chair or member yeah you can go and ask him uh at the open Office hours it's not a problem but once a month right Sabrina had her hand up yeah I just want to say that the
chair has to know about going rightest so there request comes through the chair okay just want to know that it's a case that legal okay um set one legal
questions okay now we did talk about it the other day but for people that are new um we have a town employee that is um that steps up to be our front line it before we escalate
Guardian guardian being the support that Way's that it's Anthony and in in the treasurer's office oh so he will get a stien for doing the doing the it work and being their first
first line how much is the St that's so the town isn't incurring extra expenses for someone to reboot their system pull the plug and plug it back in
Anthony he doubles as it he he he's our first level and if it's something cheaper and the building and he he addresses it so now we have um the
professional and purchase Services um for for it the the 165,000 is the guardian so when we were talking the other night Nelson about acquiring needing to acquire computers you're doing that under this
budget y okay and we had dropped the N communication um $10,000 in at the at the August meeting last year um that was to do with the firewalls and the equipment because we put in the fiber
optic we didn't need fire and other facilities anymore so we able to take take it down take down the support for those equipment I haven't looked at the BBA see where it
is but again that's where we see the change half through like 25 at the beginning of 25 Dr $10,000 okay any other question on the
it yes change that needs to be updated the town clerk's salary is set by the town um it is you know so it's a non-union
position um and so seeing as how this has been a longterm employee um 82451 is not what we will be using on that line so the question is um the board of selectman hasn't real I know I
sent one to you what I thought yeah um but it's not reflected here yeah I didn't know forgot and it needs to be reflected here so what does the finance committee think is the right salary that's that's an eled position
right it is the only elected position that is paid and it's the salary for the town in other words by Charter no elected official in Townson is paid any money um the town sets the town clerk's
salary at town meeting at the annual town meeting so if you look it's always the question right after the budget then it sets the town clerk salary um and so because we have a brand new and
inexperienced town clerk where are we putting this yeah how do we know who the new town clerk is isn't it elected it is elected so we don't know for one year we don't know if it's going to be an in experience we don't know we
don't know and quite honestly the $82,000 is a bargain with we don't get overtime for elections um a presidential election goes on for three weeks a primary is two
weeks they took it from and the state has done this they took it from a one- day event to a much longer event um and between that and the public records requests that come through my office I have seven of them this week
and not small as Nelson can attests to so why feel that this should be dropped down in fact it should be higher than that should be more like 995,000 an elected official you have no idea if
they have any experience whatsoever I mean what's that do my recommendation was grade F step one but it's not on the Matrix it well you are on the Matrix we yeah you are we
put you on the matx I'm not I'm an elected official I not on that I don't get benefits I get health insurance but I don't get vacation time I don't get sick time or any of that it's not part of that scale it's what is voted at Town
meeting and only voted at toe that is correct but um but we did put your position on the Colin scale as as a based on what it was at the time that we put that into effect and then the
increases that were scheduled here were based on the increases that the rest of the Town got so although you're not a official you know Town employee as such that is what was done with the salary so
that we would have somewhere to go from year to year given the I mean at town meeting someone could come up and say we want it to be $10,000 and make an amendment I mean that's what could happen but to be fair
we took wherever you were and put it on the the highest um level so my recommendation to Nelson was to go with that grade which is grade F and and make it step one is that the highest level um
as far as grades go yeah and then steps go from 1 to 15 I believe it is so what what amount is that it's around 62 on 40 hour week too low you have no idea what my job what the town clerk's
jobs and sales but it has to be something that the town can sustain and there needs to be a reason for it it can't just be you want me to make do you want that position to make less than all the other directors in
town well the direct the people that are the supervisors in the supervisors Union are on grade app and so we put it at the same place as that you really start anybody at step one we've started a lot
of people at step one I disagree um so I I just think that that is fair coordinator was just well if you talking 6,000 uh step one grade
F go to FY 26 is it on there is it the top one I mean I can just add 4% to it I mean a step a step one grade F right now um that's a just under
$68,000 so that so that's area step one so there's no so so 60 ,000 is I mean that's not even part well I'm not I'm not suggesting one way I'm just telling you that step one
is that oh so you're saying the town CLK should start at $68,000 no I'm not sugges but we have those two AR funds were funded at 73 right and they started at the grade F step one they have been
here for now four years so that's why people do start at the first step depending you know someone who's been in town remember you're bringing in Insurance yeah and then insurance is
over on top of that that's included you know talk at a time all right I have a question okay okay so do we have a clue what the competitive salaries are across the five towns I
mean what's pepp make what's Ash what what the the thing that is the Wild Card bear is some are elected Town clerks and some are appointed Town clerks so it is not a one to one from town to town but we could know what but we could find out
what towns are elected and know what they're yes we're working on those oh you're working on that right now right right now I have asked me because I have it in the Google grp has done oh well
would you get us that information that appointed versus elected and years of experience right I mean I I would want to know appointed versus elected so is their salary set by the town or is it set by the town's
people and then year of experience because to me that makes a difference as well but you're not going to find even if it was appointed you're not going to find anybody with a town clerk degree but there no because it's a certification and and experience you
can't you cannot be certified until you've been a town CL for three years correct okay so yeah so so we're going to have a real this is I will it's an elected position though it's not an appointed position at this point if it
were an appointed position that would be a different story and and is experienced in a town clerk's office you you still think they should make L I started out
making Dan Murphy started out making what he made with the last fler me suoli I did and now all of a sudden it's changing yes yeah if you want to look at it that way the answer is
yes who set a Sal town are you or the board of select the board of selectman puts it in the warrant the town can change it on the floor they choose so essentially the town gets to make the decision in the end yes the end that is correct that is correct it's voted okay
so that's can they increase it on the FL they can make any amendment that they want incre if they increase it it makes a change in the budget and so if they increase it there something else would have to be decreased because we're going
in with the budget that um you know that the town can afford given the tax levy so and all the other things that go into you know the recap but um so that's why you were told that I'm sure you know
it's just that if you increase here something has to decrease so we could decrease the you know amount somewhere else in within that budget that's what it is don't agree at all I
I should keep it and let's just keep it where it is and if we have to cut we cut when we do the cuts yeah we can do that yeah you you want to keep it at the 8 or the 79 longevity needs to change as well I
believe that should be um just should be 600 600 although I'm not real sure of the 500 for her
actually 500 for Jessica she'll be his six year 600 that's it's five 10 years it's only only a 10 years that you okay so that should be 600 500 or 600 she's in's
super okay 800 so it was 600 800 that doesn't sound right yeah it should be sorry yeah the assistant okay okay so that's now at 500 and her's Union
contract yes for the assistant okay um any anything else um expenses or fund except postage which has gone up as we know postage rates have gone up other questions again this is this is down this year
because number of Elections is that it's only the annual next April 26 no other elections in the fall cover the repair and maintenance of equipment has R up
that's Li that's because it was the PS were covered by op to this Y no longer covered by oper so you still um print the street
listings yeah so that's the printing expense um no that's on the separate budget yeah that's elction that's elction there is the printing of the of the rolls that have to be done um Street
listings is another I was looking streets okay so sorry you looking at Street listing yeah Street listings which one is that 15 have to register oh okay so oh okay see it yes
we do still and but that also includes the sensus the mailing of the census the printing of the census and then they um we send off the file for the street lists I it would have been higher but I started go last year I went with uh
impress to do the street listings so it was a little bit cheaper um we just get the file from the company that we used to go with and then we send it to keep the cost yeah is that the one at
devans or no it's in oh thank you okay so we did think no questions with reg we sort of jumped from the
to register and Street listing Conservation Commission do we have an agent yes yes is that kobby is that kobby yes any questions on conservation agent senses funded from last
year membership what is that um mrpc Mass Regal Planning Commission membership it's like 23 cities and towns that are in the region
and we get that far more and membership grants oh yeah a lot of Grants planning M grants yeah the town benefits a great
deal from that are there towns that are not in that commission every it's a state a quasi State organization and the state is set into regions yeah so every town is assigned to a region okay now if the
town chooses not to pay the membership then they would not receive the services that that plan I just curious if you know of any towns that do not I don't know if any there might be a couple because I don't think it's every single City and town in the region but it
is I'm going to say 90% of it y I've been very involved mrpc planning board board is that a parttime position or a full-time or multi which one the wag there's a number of hours per week
and she's planning board so and something else land use ad so she holds three positions part of her salar is paid out of the planning board part of her salar is paid out of land use and part of her salaries paid out of CBA
wages so that is one position so if you look at planning board wages zba wages and land use land use Administrative Assistant wages those three make up a one
position and I can't tell you exactly how many related well the most goes to planning think uh nine for zoning I saw it the other day five yep five one of them was nine
then uh that was probably the housing coordinator and yeah the housing Grant she was also our land use coordinator for the months that we didn't have
one which has happened several times several five years so she always yeah it's interesting that the Landes the conservation and the what's that other one the agent that office seems to
be they leave yeah we don't pay we know we don't pay comparable to other towns and yes they leave when they get a better offer I mean we had just hired Aaron who was our grant writer and she was all excited and
then she got scooped up by a friend who got a TA position someplace else right and took her so the land use is the land use wage is
52995 and we add that to the 3168 [Music] the administrator the assistant the third 3 Administrative Assistant 3604 right lines 187
2011 and 210 are the three that get added together right yeah Min what was the other 182 oh 671 right we
don't FY 26 is 6337 you do not have a land use coordinator at the moment just last week Wednesday this past Wednesday she only been there few months but she had been our grand coordinator in our housing been before
so she moved from a town position to a different town position she was very good she was she presented to us and then the next day was last day I believe 26 us on the 25th right I wonder how much actually she
made I don't know I didn't ask she was worth more yeah she really was that becomes the thing if if the salaries aren't high enough people get some experience that belt and move on just the grants
that she got her she got for the town were worth more than her salary huge amount of grants that she brought in in her what eight months here right prior to being land questions with ping Birds on board
the field facilities so so we don't have a land use coordinator but and we're budgeting 52995 for that position and is it expected that the housing and Grant administrator will be the same person so that that the total salary for those two
no no no no the housing and Grant administrator is typically a different person and I believe we have someone starting next week hopefully correct um so she she had been in the housing and
Grant administrative position in January she stepped away from the housing in Grant although she was still doing the job okay I don't she was just being paid to be the land use coordinator okay beginning in January they they weren't
coupled right and then she and she moved on yes okay and that's posted now the L use foror yeah correct any applications um I haven't heard [Music]
anything landuse expenses is level funded facility they all brn together seems like I think it was Tuesday or was that um yeah and then Wednesday
Capital all right so our government total do we have that um I government total I can we read it 1,921 7951 okay
795 795 yeah oh was that wrong why do I have a different number because we adjusted we had a few adjustments I may not have adjusted I did adjust on as I went long but I might have missed one okay I have 1922 695 I have the same
amount as Dawn you do so I made a mistake was did you miss maybe the the change in the stien the longevity the longevity was 900 for the was reduced by 900 number
now what is the number again please 1,920 1,795 thank you yeah that's what I missed that's what you miss General government so you put that in now you how you match I didn't hit return that's
why oh computer yeah really they want to hit now I've got it we're all agreed in general okay well we're the number right
yeah right we all match all match okay okay next section start this is called safy this is this next section safy police Communications is in there
Communications te Building Department building department building department and safety because of all the inspectors all the inspect be down towards the [Music] ending so we did police right so we're
done with the police we done with the fire so the only thing that's not in the fire is that 880,000 that's not in this budget right that's a special it's a a purchase like a Capital One Time purchase those don't typically go
here okay yeah okay so and to recap in team we took out the uh those two those two equ line items so that got reduced by 30,000 all right because we're going to do that through a special article as well
corre so it was that reason that I wanted it taken out I mean if we were going to buy those things every year it should definitely go in here right but it's not so no other adjustments the
police sorry fire lab expenses team communications center that was done Communication Center that that's because we're because we're in that regional thing that's the
280,000 line and everything else most everything else get zeroed out right well we don't have any wages right right they give us pretty much the amount that needs for our town to cover that
[Music] yeah and they did a pretty good job of keeping the increase down what what what does the regional what what towns does that Regional communication cover for um I think it's five
towns yeah D pepp Townson asach oh Ash not a a is the other one and Lun I don't think lber so we're Ashby Townson pepper dunable and gr I assume that's that central place is
in peil somewhere it is in PE and right next to Dunkin Donuts right yeah in in the old police station yet to tour I really should get tour that good used to be a school used to be a school
back police station no okay uh building inspector yeah didn't we have some questions with him he question um I thought he had take something out um he did take
something out let me see what it was um or he did take it out um that amount that you see there the 22650 that is a slight reduction than his original asked at the meeting trying to uh one the
uh see what was that he reduced I what about that $155,000 that he found he didn't know where it went make that no that's the permaline software I think you're talking perit link um I think he uh I
think he replied back to Dawn or Kati how the fees and how that um it was the fees come in the the fees will go into the general fund and
the invoices come in and but the invoices aren't in anybody's budget and so it's a wash BAS on the fees but it there is an income and outfall so so my question is where is it reflected in the
recap I think it's under the other revenues so we we we need a breakdown of all you know are we getting all of the other revenues in in that recap but that's that's where the revenue the revenues come in
so as long as it because then it's a wash with the additional amount on that $166,000 going it it's actually yeah it it's an ex the 16,000 will be a watch and this is only an estimate based on
history of how many permits could be higher could be lower but the number is not actually going to change because the revenue comes in from the permits purchase um and the invoice will come in and was so
it it has a number and it is an expense but it's all cover so all those gas people the gas gas INSP right those are all inspectors they they are stien positions and inspectors yes
so gas Inspector pluming Inspector which wages wages 12 is it 125 which one wages for the gas
inspector um stien yeah so the gas says it says $129 yes oh so okay that's the alternate inspector um right then there's the next
line almost opposite he gets $129 for the year he's the alternate the first guy can't it what if he get call twice where do you see that that's down down we we haven't finished the building inspector
expense herea oh sorry okay so I see him so where are you so wa it's back in the building inspector expenses L 397
402 yeah just if there's any other questions yeah right so I do have a question under office supplies and Professional Services the note says increase to accommodate printer lease
fy4 but is that different from The copier expenses in office supplies um I guess that's the and I think this has to do with the printer that just got purchased or some such thing it doesn't he explained that
well they yeah they have a separate one but I thought it was purchased recently as well um a couple years ago so they still have a lease on that so is that different from copier expenses in office supplies
because that went from 600 to 4332 and then Professional Services went from 4170 to 16k so uh the so the 16,000 that's mainly due to
the permit link um expenses the 4332 that is um the the expenses related to The copier and it was um paid for through Opera funds the last couple years and that has gone away so they
have to they have to account for the how did it get paid the only thing that ARA allowed we we permanent 60 k for the permalite software and then for maybe they used that 60k part of it for buying a printer
yeah it was supposed to be for the um you know the kiosks that were going to go in the hallway so you could just come in the building and do it at the kiosk and not interact with the yeah so those those copier expenses were being fun funded out of I'm not I'm going to leave
it exactly as it is but I think it's interesting that we went from the four 170 which I thought was copier and then adding the 12K or so through the peral link um permit link and then down on
office supplies we went from 600 to 4332 so I'm wondering if that $4,000 is being reflected twice into items that's all I'm asking um but we can leave it it's fine I think
he covered that I don't remember the answers but I think he covered that in our meeting explaining why it was why did he move the the 4332 the 40 4170 into into that office supplies line leave the 16,000 yeah
that's what I'm wondering think I think that's how would yeah so yeah anyway I think there's some play in that budget but that's okay building instructor okay so he had
permit Link at 15K in his what he gave us and that was a new separate line separ line and then he under Professional Services he had the 4170 for the um other you know for the
printer thing um I think there's a $4,000 play in that budget but I think we should leave it as it is for now and fix it on the other one that's what I think okay so continuing on from building inspector to gas inspector two
L the gas inspector the alate Lev funded all all of the other departments that in the building department have been Lev funded no increase in the S and no increase in any
expenses did we did we decide that the 1200 was right for the animal inspector um not necessarily so I'm good with it there but going to go with coming Seer and
electrical inspector of the building department now we have the animal inspector and this was the position posted nobody discuss has reement mention to maybe is the Animal
control officer may do it but it did not seem that the 1200 on its own was enough for for somebody to right this was this was the guy who used to drive out my my driveway and asked me how many animals I had
yes yeah um so but now that I don't have any he doesn't have to do that anymore and we don't have someone you want you want to do it is that is that like the requirement by the state that we have that position I
think it is yeah it is and it because I did they do that in Boston well we're actually we're a um agricultural Community yeah we're farming a right to F why it's requ probably well it's
required because we have farms and animals yeah somebody somebody I don't know that the 1,200 is is enough but I don't know that we the the other possibilities long whatever that do we
have any idea how many hours this might take how many places do they have to go how many [Music] farms lot Little Farms but then there's people that have a pile of animals in the yard so
well that's somebody that has to get countered does it counts all the animals are non even if you had five dogs so they have to record do we have records of when we did have a person oh yeah there are records so we know we can find
out how many at least a start yeah if you want to you can go and get those records there how many there are yeah the B is I'm curious just many obviously people don't know what it's about maybe that's why they're not they're not doing it because they have
to get rabies vaccinated oh the people do the the yes the person who does IT person does I know wonder I have 4 each tomorrow I wonder if our club here in town could be kind of take that on I don't know if that's
something it's the r thing that that changed it that people the people that were doing it said yeah I'm not doing that you can't requirement doation somewhere you know someone and they bu you know that's kind
of nuts because that's how all those that's how those things I know but it's because I mean when the person came to count our animals he never even looked at him he came up the driveway I walked out the front door he said how many animals you got I told him he got back in his car he left that's it he was in
no danger of getting bit but there might be some people who take their job seriously and physically go count every animal and the 1200 maybe you make it that it's it's not the animal control person is
the one that's touching animals or going near the animal but maybe this is just account that we can now do by phone or email we'll check with the state because when at this five years ago it was a requirement that it was a specific
thing there's an office in Boston that you have to send your stuff into when you um take on this position so yeah and I'm sure there's but I want to know why verica why was the RAB shot is I can't
answer why you is it just a shot shot or it is horrible I almost had to have the rabies vaccine because years ago and I mean it's a series of shots it's not it's it was it was something that was
added you leave it leave it as it is yes I mean thing to know and then we have animal control which is different thanu which one is the dog officer the animal control Animal
Control just the two ones um Warden increase in the s for the 4% did we decide that we had a warden or not we do yeah do we know who it
is oh B didn't no it's been D masuka for at least the last 10 years maybe it was right back yeah I don't know maybe okay no questions on is that the fire chief
family agent that's a town clerk right a town clerk yeah that was yeah it's kind of like but it's in the safety this is this is function she performed so it's not part of General it's it's in the safy section so she gets how much does
that say $151 $151 and then Parking Clerk s for I always thought that was fun The Parking Clerk of the town clerk another $70 whoa whoa whoa
wow yep no no increase for this year we have parking meters no we don't have parking meters no no we don't parking tickets and things speeding well if you put Park in a handicap
spot in the street or if you park in the street where you're not supposed to you know clip I know I hate I hate talk to the town administr about that before May should talk to you about it right here
uh actually noticed I can see outside my window and I spoke it makes it plus when there's three or four times it makes it hard for that intersection because I can see right right outside my window of car par and you know what Nelson it's always been that way it's
not always the best answer I know thank you I know but I noticed it too but it is a safety thing that FR of mcnabs you shouldn't be parking anywhere on the state highway that's what I thought I thought the state highway was prohibited but who's going to police that
right not our police the St through parking that's the end of public safy okay so our Public Safety total is I have 4,369 311 4,
369,000 69,000 what was the rest of that three uh so 44369 311 311 yeah left taking out the 30,000 from that
yeah so you can see how when we're doing these changes like you know everything the totals end up changing so it's it's a very fluid y document if you will okay now we're into
schools match up to everything that just came out like yesterday it did not and and it goes to show you how quickly things change I sent the Omnibus to you and Dawn around 8:30 on Friday and then half hour later I got um the new numbers
from the business manager um from the school district and so I'll I'll let you know what those numbers are so we can um plug it in can we put them in now yeah of course oh good good good I didn't know if you meant now or
later put in yeah so the number for the nor sex assessment is now 14037 426 didn't make all that big difference 14,37 14 million 14 14,
37426 and I would have hoped that now is that the full thing or is that just share $4 million right it's there were 66 million budget how many kids are in the school from is the de
changing but that is about a what a $250,000 decrease which is great from what from the original P yeah like back in like early February feary 6 the Deb is
decreasing the years go on they hang off the school you know is that what a large part of that is yes well it's a separate line sear line that's true the exemp anyway go ahead the exempt debt is the second line so you add the two lines
together and you come up with the 15 15, 29353 is our total for no and is the is the tech number different or is that that number hasn't changed hasn't
changed hasn't changed so the total NOA is 1, 47133 her number Chang because she knows what she's doing um yeah and it's based on kind
different it's a different deal yeah it's a tech school it's only a high school transportation of the high school versus the elementary andad if and and we only have 120 about 114 students this
year on that number no but I mean the template is is very impressive versus what we get from the templ completely different again there's a lot of Grants that the technical schools can get that the Regional High School
can't so what is the a defic that the state is not giving us that would go towards this $14 million it's the per pupil cost that we don't get at the same rate as Gateway cities or people or the
school districts that are subject to whatever thec the student Opportunity Act whatever so it's it's um it's a percentage that we're not getting that the other school districts are getting we're not getting enough Transportation
money and transport no there's even more than that um mandates that are unfunded right we have to do them we have to pay for it but there's no isn't there a law that says if they don't fund it you don't have to do it
only you know what the town of Middleton is suing State for the stuff yeah for the Mandate I think every town should every town in the common wealth should should sue the state for mandates that are
uned of federal I I don't know the nuances but it could be FAL as well a lot of them are are State mandates that are not funded in every single town that has been state funded State mandated fund that's an excellent point because
if they're saying You must do this and we will give you acts and then you have to do it and they don't give you act that breaches the contract because I went on Scott Steel's website about the schools one day and she's got a line in there about the the school mandate I
forget exactly but it says the state's legally bind if the funds are appropriated but if the funds are never appropriated then they're not bound to give us the money and that's the problem they're not appropriating at the state level not putting that money
into yeah yeah I mean we all can agree it's really the the state level that's why we're it's the pavement management plan deal you know we'll give it to you if we have it but oh we don't have total
for that total 14 million for the total million um so if we didn't do3 beever consequence 426 and for you to do it as so when happens we don't get the
federal money next year well it's all state money that comes from the federal government it's a big mess yeah it okay just to jump back um okay so we have the
numbers for everybody upate so what if what was the total just the total for North M sex so it's you want all four lines yeah yeah give them one at a time okay okay North middlex okay so the
assessment from North middlex is 14, 37426 okay the North Middle sex exempt debt is 1,256 104 okay anybody good
the tech assessment is 1,300 I'm sorry 1, 39294 and then the exempt debt from M Valley is 79,81 didn't change all that much there the total qu million yeah the total
education line is going to be 16 m765 463 how does that um compute to a per per Cub number you know right off the top uh I don't know the total population
of students off the top of my head so I can't it's about 3,000 give or take in school yeah in the total school yeah total I mean for North M yeah oh yeah but and I think towns is about 38 to
40% so about 1,600 from CH and go to m sex M sex oh so we divide 16 yeah I I'm just curious number the school district has
that all on their website if you look at their budget Pages they spell all that out they just give us the final number say here you goine for your budget okay um and they only count students that are
enrolled right like if there are students that live in town but don't gos on it whether they're private school or Charter School it makes a difference in home school um I'm not
sure categories of students that aren't in the building and it's different depending so the the money that the town follows a kid to the Charter School right but if they go to a private school that money
doesn't follow and if in other words yeah School District keeps the that number would still get counted into townsman Town's assessment of how many of what percent yes yes but when they give money away go ahead I just wanted
just the number I just did a quick calculation so for every student in town we pay each year 13,37 per student which I think is average private or pre school I feel
like I that for preschool forid a year it was crazy okay um we good to move on education the highway so we don't put Highway into safety no that was my mistake
is on it highway is on it own reason for that or is it just the way another DP yeah it's kind of like um so it wouldn't be on DPW if we had a DPW if we
had a DPW probably be under there with other departments but it is on a no not the way not the way historically it's been broken down it's its own separate category yeah see I I
think it's a safety issue I do to but I mean it's just on it own I mean you know you have a car accident you gotta call fire right don't call highway right you don't call highway but cleaned up that M who clean up the M but that's the police
calling Highway that is not the well what's the difference are the people people if if you call 911 they do not call the highway no I know they don't but the highway department comes like the they respond to the police
department right I understand that but if the roads aren't safe the accidents occur like Pooles Etc low curbs right you know snow snow and ice I guess doesn't matter because eventually goes into the big
number the only question on this is do we include the pment management plan or do we not well if we're asking for an override if we're asking for an override want some some in then yes we should if we start when we have those other
cutting points when we have the multiple columns do we do it as a partial fund half of it or fund none it's kind of like um got to give something we put this in the capital plan for for three
years down the road for not next year but you know like FY 2829 and and 30 I think we put it in for three years just to have it somewhere um as opposed to part of the budget but um but really if if you know
the way the article was written it should be right here this is where it should be right this is where it should be supposed to be part of the operating bud so we putting it in we put it now I think so yeah unless our override gets so huge if the
override ask is that huge we can back it out but but I think you know I think we really need to inform the public of you know what else is going into this override I mean so much of the public thinks it's just one thing so I think you know you say well you know we want
to put 50,000 into this and you know 25,000 into that to make your your town run smoothly right and everybody always complains about because they don't because they don't they don't they don't but the roads are huge everybody uses the road roads and trash the kids in
school EXA trash I don't get that much but Ro I sure do so let's leave it in we for now that's the highway then we're into snow and ice well we don't have
any what we don't have any choice on we don't know what it's going to do no we don't we we don't but we we budget it and one of the things that we have to I would say we need to consider is if we get tighter on the budget there may not
be enough free cash to cover this I think we have to cover that well we have we have to cover it no matter what but we don't have it because we don't have enough in free C which is certified unspent money then if we
budget too tight you're not going to have free cash to pay this line is so you think we should go up on that no I I well it's a possibility I where are we where are we this year on it now um I think we were I last when Highway was
here I think they said was 160,000 another it was over already so I thought last year it was under because last year wasn't that it just wasn't over very much no it was pretty
over it was 241,000 or something last year so it's at least here in Townsen it's primarly underfunded and if if if I have any say in this I would actually keep increasing that amount each year
because I know it's six of one half a dozen the other whether you budget for it or it comes out of free cash you know in the end to to balance it but if it's if that number if the this number the base number is so out of whack um you
know you really should be I mean I would even I would be happy if you increased it about like $5,000 even though it's a drop in the bucket in the $200,000 right now it's it's not a realistic number it might as well be zero to tell you the
truth um and the the reason is because it's the only way we've been able to balance the budget I think we did increase it a couple years ago a couple years ago we increased it we increased it but it the
town has always had an easier time balancing the budget with the you know without that in there and then dealing with the free cash you know the snow and ice later that's how it's yeah always been done here but you know just from a
you know even a $5,000 increase year-over-year um is is better than keeping it the same amount year after year I mean the salt prices have gone up hugely yeah that's where it is if I'm going to flip over to
my December bva and his salt at the end of December was already 16,000 overdrawn it's kind of and and the budget for snow and ice was already
minus 159 159,000 at this point um 169 sorry at the end of December at the end of December yeah this year this year yes so and at the time Jim was in he said he's already another
60,000 over there so it's 20 it's it's it's in the 210 range already 220 range and we don't budget for that why because we don't know what it's going to be we don't have to we don't have to we don't we don't have to and it goes this
is the only area of your budget you're really allowed to go negative but if you if you then would go in and put 300,000 in here if we had a s year you can't ever change it down you can't so it's a it's a balance and advance of trying to
have money there so it's not too big but you don't want it so much money in there that you can't you don't want money in there that you don't use because you can't use it somewhere else you can't use it somewhere else and you can't go less than that the following year in the following year oh so it's kind of like
so you can't you know so it's it's a best it's a best estimate without without going I'm sorry
16,000 over and the repair and maintenance was also over so um but it but again we you know these These are these are the places we can go negative so um if right so we let it go negative because that's the only place we can
right it's kind of like in but we do wanna really as Nelson said maybe bump it up you know maybe that maybe it's time to increase the Sol but we're going to do it now Now's the Time to do it do we
go just round numbers you want to go up to 100,000 for the salt for the salt yeah I think we should leave it as is that's what I balance balance the budget on on the
same okay Highway snow and ice covered yeah street lights one line level funded year over year for the 177,000 that that is the end of Highways and streets and that is
1,126 730 1 million say that again 1,126 730 anybody get their numbers okay Solid Waste is on its own the
landfill and so this is this is expenses on this on a landfill that we have that's that we're that's closed and we're not using anymore but we have to basically pay to maintain that's the engineering side this this looking at this this is the solid
was sign the fact that energy I think this is the recycling center I'm I pick up engineer 642
jumping around so you're saying the landfill lines 566 through 569 are not for the old landfill that it's not for the old land the closing of that DP let's separates between land and dump that's the old dump that covered that's
the engineering this this is this paying for the landfill that our stuff winds up in right now yeah the active this is just for the active recycling center yeah yeah and well and pick up okay I'm just wondering why
those lines don't say recycling center then instead of landfill because the landfill implies this is where where the garbage gets put and and and that's not what it's for say you see what I'm saying they're in
the same location so I I cuz the recycling center is it's right before go further in to get to the they have it under landfill engineering I see what you're saying it's um would be clear same word it's
not clear recycling I mean if this is for the recycling center which is fine to say Recycling and that would make it very clear um we're down to 566 okay sorry
so yeah some of these things make it very confusing really confusing yeah really really confus is there to change that at sometime in the future to recycling or is that take a whole like a I I can ask to see if we can rename that
maybe not for this time but maybe for like the next time yeah but if we get to the point well it's not entirely self-sufficient yeah it's kind of like see if the accountant without without redoing all all new
accounting members but Lori just asked me a question she said I thought the recycling center was self-sufficient so why do we have these numbers here so what my understanding is the fees that come in from recycling pay the wages for
the people at the center and I believe the disposal of goods um is that true uh we have Irene here so she might be able to answer that I know say your question again so what
does the um the fees that we pay at the recycling center what do they cover because here we have energy for the it says landfill but it's a recycling center repair and maintain the landfill building that's the Recycling Center
buildings um Professional Services I I'm assuming that that's the attendance that's there that's just twice a month yeah the Professional Services then what do what happens to the fees cuz Carla the other day said oh it's it's
self-sufficient and they have a revolving account that I know of and you have money that people the fees come in there that people pay yeah and then you also have grant money that comes in through RDP that I help recycling
dividend program that also can help and in the pass uh the solid waste contract had lines in there that Sha's in included collections which I think has also changed at the trans at the recycling Rec so those funds are
reflected in the budget in the recap similar to the permit link funds that come in correct um I don't think so because we're not paying labor out of here the labor I believe roling what Irene said
is the Professional Services is my knowledge I mean it could be um someplace else the of profession of yeah so the board of heal revolving um is for
temporary help um and other services which is you know for pickups mattresses and other things like that Kathy has the revolving account believe for the Board of Health that this is how it
used to be what is covered out of there is fing fees to get rid of all the stuff that comes in yeah so that's yeah and also work the wages I look at
iest when the account was in I mentioned that we be looking at evolving the accounts I have all of the detail I have not I thought I wanted to get to it but it's too much too much information I wanted
to get to them after budg so search for but I guess the key question that that we seem to have is are these four line items which are in our town budget are they funded by
money coming into as revenues into the town from the Board of Health I would say no so if that's the case then right then you're kind of saying well that means the recycling center is not really self-sufficient if the town has to cover the these items in
their in the town budget that is exactly what I'm saying I'm not sure what has happened recently because of changes in the contract from the last time you know I think that they were more covered and I I don't know the current so which then
would support increasing the fees to cover this right you know so that it actually was self-sufficient and then we would have to take the revolving account and increase their amount that they
have the allowable amount right so because it's only what like 14,000 or something over yeah 14,000 yeah I think that's the total is 14,000 so you don't see the money coming in it's probably on
another line it the so this is this is the cost you don't see the revenue we don't see the Reven right we don't see well but and that's what I'm asking is does the does that Revenue come into the town coffers and and the answer I got was it does not it doesn't come into the general fund it stays within it stays
within theol fund but we should account for that in the recap do there's only a few um Revenue sources in the revolving fund that comes back to the coford everything
else is kind of like just um self you know like Rex doesn't come back in um well it a part at $10,000 from yes but for the programming it doesn't so what's the split between the recycling
center and what we're looking at here I guess is a question yeah but we can take I don't think it's in the recap because it's I don't think we transferred money from yeah you you can only transfer money into the the coffers if you um you
take more than you expend you know like ambulance sheets and things like that so I I don't think that's uh a revolving account that really um generates a surplus that's word we want to use but I don't see it in the recap
anywhere so I don't think it's what about the permit like stuff do you see that in the recap so [Music] then we can we can talk about it when get to the [Music]
um and then the last big item on here is the c Rec Rec and is this 780 number is that based on one of the contracts we were we were shown the other night I think inclusive yeah and I
think it was a little bit more I I just used a nice round number but I can find it's pretty much there she a yeah either way it's exactly the same if it's all included as one contract or it's broken down 99% of all curbside collections are
broken out have like three that I've ever heard of that is all included so so I model B what is the amount looking at your paper oh did you give it to me I've
written all over it that's fine no I gave it to everybody what is the bottom line that we should have in the budget it for this um curbside pickup and trash so the cost of the program and by
contract of what has been given to us is $877 $220 220 that's the whole that's the whole cost that includes for Bay pay you throw that includes that oh that actually includes the recycling stuff
ahead of that so you could pretty much take out the 23 you can take out 20 [Music] 3,000 out of that because you already have the recycling center is above that line item and she has education in the
and I saw it someplace so come down it 854 220 yeah so but that's the current don't we have to go no that is the proposed number oh okay so the current column is the proposed number right but
that's including with paisy row that's including the you throw bags in there okay so we should take out the the 20,000 for the recycling center and the 3,000 for Education correct if you want to be more technical the bags of our
current contract is absorbed in our Revenue if you wanted to take that out you could I mean down down down dirty the contract with Shaws of just collection disposal recycling collection is the s
70460 that is the collection cost and I think that includes all municipal buildings at the present time in that um no it's separate but it's only another 10 10,000 right okay so we're good with the 780 that we have in the budget yeah
I just used a kind of a nice round number um I think bottom line is you know we're expecting probably around 40,000 a month in the pays you throw Revenue so you know if you net it out
that's the net cost to the taxpayers is or the town is 300,000 is $300,000 that we yeah that that's that we short okay so if the override passes we can pay this if the override doesn't
pass we're looking at model B which would be a $100 fee for the people who are using the service from the town so if you're using the service people would be charged $100 in addition to
purchasing the purple bag $100 a month year year year so $100 a year and you buy your purple bags correct and that's cheap other places that's cheap private if it's only 100 a year if that can
legally be done well if that can legally be done it can be done as long as it's paid only by the people that are using it and so we would need a way for the people that are using it to identify to identify so Shaw knows who they're
picking up from you just be a list like they almost have now they have the list of people that have opted out you have that same kind of thing as the people that have opted out the the difference the people that have opted out they're being picked up on Wednesdays they still put stuff out on on Thursdays um or
Tuesdays depending on your pickup day in town because we the town are covering the entire town right now so there's no need to identify because even if you've contracted privately from Shaws you can still put stuff out because they just
pick up whoever has trash out on Tuesdays and Thursdays until July 1st until July 1 they know their people for Wednesdays so you're saying the $100 a year is going to make the budget balance I
mean we're going to be able to pay $800,000 or whatever it is 700 and that's not going to increase it's over say 3,000 Parcels right I mean you know it's still a a big assumption that
um we can get enough household to do we don't really we actually don't know how many we don't know the true number of households that have gone private I know some have gone with SH some have gone elsewhere so yeah I have neighbors that have gone to somebody called Ken because
they Barrel say Ken they Barrel say unless so unless you do a top people go to other places we're gonna have less money so unless you do a top unless you do a top to down audit of every single household we just it's
just you know a number that we're assuming and um you're right that's exactly right and that's we've been doing for the past year is the Assumption and it's been not accurate so we as a taxpayer we don't know right so so you're saying the bag
so if you buy two $10 or what how 17 38 40 bucks a month plus yeah I mean com out to about 10 month eight no no no plus the bags you're buying bags too so that so you're
buying your 10 bags a month at $5 a bag is $50 350 350 a bag okay so it's three five bags 1775 so let's say 20 so $20 a month for
bags if you're putting bags throwing out five bags a month I mean right you can do that in two or three months well I I guess it depends on what your household is I mean you can't you can't make it I know because my neighbor puts out trash
once a month I put out trash every other week put it out twice a week so but if you did buy one one set of bags a month 20 bucks say and then you were paying eight or 10 a month for the fee for
pickup that is still less than paying the per month for private pickup so the $100 would not be on your tax bill or you wouldn't be obligated to the tax to if you got private pickup right if you
got private pickup you would be paying 50 or 60 whatever you be paying but you would not be paid the $100 fee right right and the $100 fee is a per year it's not a understand
that there like minimum amount of people you need town to have that rate that's a good question yeah like two3 of the Town decided not to do it well I mean it's just it's just simple math you know
we're $300,000 short um and we need to raise that number wouldn't change even if less people were using it um well correct the the amount that we would have to pay Shaws the 480 collection
stays the same the tonnage might drop because but that 480 does not change so that $100 is assuming that most people pop in yeah because well $100 sounds like it's it sounds like the intent of
the $100 is kind of to pay the per make up the I was trying to get them to say how do we pay the now this is the other question so what's going to be the cost of monitoring the $100 per house I
estimated 20,000 on there 20,000 for the admin the admin to do in today's society it should be easier like it should just be like QR code just pay that like it just like we
just did with the dog licenses or something like that just have something it is going to be an uptick in the administrative hours that are needed um you know because some people can um opt
out and then opt back in maybe you know you're talking but that's not a daily fee no no but cost it's a cost for the trash right right so but it's an additional cost to the trash you have to
somebody monitor who's in who's out this is the whole reason why we didn't go with the that's the whole reason of going with the pay as you throw so you didn't have the software the the admin cost can that be up to Shaws to do no
and don't do that because that's what killed Ashby Ash decided they went paisy go curbside then they said to the to Murray you do it you do everything and they're like if I'm gonna do everything then it's $600 my year but I think that if we're going to
talk about trash again after that horrible last year we have to tell the town's people every single thing like you're talking about it's a great question and I think the town should know that we shouldn't just say $100 cheaper so you should do it that's very demeaning to the people who think for
themselves we should give them every single solitary number and let them make decision well well they will they will we had to pull it out of you today you know Carol asked her a question you asked your question I think it should be
presented not well ask we won't tell Irene has the numbers here and the $100 fee includes the administrative cost oh does it okay it's up it's one of the 20,000 and said you weren't G trash so
they all left right so we did have two people from sh and the Board of Health were here and they said oh it was taken off so well as a separate item yes but I I mentioned that we would most
certainly be talking about it when we're going on the OM buus which we are but you know we start at the very top now work so it's what do we include for the number for the override that we ask for if the override passes there is no
fee you have to do pay as you throw bags but there is no fee because we're going to incorporate it into the overd and I still think the 300,000 we've only had a couple months in I mean we've only done October to think so I still think I have
not been cvy of all the revenue coming in so I think I heard 214,000 the other day thing so if that's from October to January because we're in February right now I don't think we have February's data then we're going to do
that again and and next year we're gonna have a whole year not just mons no I understand where's the where's the administrative fee in the $100 I guess I'm not seeing it right here 20,000 flat
fee cost oh that's so the flat fee cost is the admin that's the administrative fee is the flat fee cost yeah to admin oh maybe that's why I didn't recognize it exactly you have that sheet for
everybody on a 10th I don't know how it's up to you I am I have two different hats on I'm technical assistance from the town to look in this as well as the recycling committee chair but it's it's up to you and how you want to disperse
this I mean I mean I appreciate the the analysis but it's if we were to present that you're really digging into the Leeds yeah we this yeah high level just really basic summarizing I think we need
what which doesn't get to Mary Jane's point that you don't tell everybody every single thing you know we aren't telling every little thing but if we tell every thing everybody goes BL blah blah blah out we got to tell them is I think we have we have to tell them transparency I
guess that's a word we don't but we need to tell them okay about I think very transparent trash anybody can watch if we're going to go to the $100 fee just explain why we're going to do
it's it would be if the override doesn't pass we just need that Delta that's plan b or $300,000 in there and that would be we have to explain even at $100 per household I I think you I don't know
what the percentage is of people who have defected or may defect if you implement this fee um I took it at 2800 so that's my numbers that I use there 2800 households versus the 30 so you fig
we already lost about 10% to 2 so 2800 households is you lost 28 what 10% 10% oh so right now 32 house 3200 households
my knowledge of 3,200 households in town and I think we lost about 200 so we've been saying 3,000 have been participating I was saying if we went to the $100 put it on here the little number of uh so I said would be a 2900 is the
numbers I played around here um that and it could be a so these so all these numbers are based on 2900 households that this particular number of for the $100 fee yeah and actually more I did 90
so that little more okay but to round it up just one so Peppo you can get the $90 sticker and their bag is about the same and it's all one place so people I'm R the peppol line a lot of people have been talking about they'll probably just
because they won't have to go to the recycling center here peil they can make one stop it'll be the same price it would be $90 same relative bag price and they'll be able to bring everything to one K well we
have so say say I have a dishwasher I want to bring to the Cycle Center I'd be able to go to all one place that's what they're saying I won't have to go to towns and recycling center if I have a peil sticker I can do it all there I can bring I can we my car if I have a construction project so they're
saying by getting that sticker they'll have all access in one place but on a weekly basis you can just take it to the end of your dve for the same amount I just that's what I'm hearing on that side so you can if you live in towns you can
go to pepper and buy a $90 sticker for your car and take all your trash there you still have to buy the bags but you have to buy the peil bags you'll have to buyu no just saying the convenience is huge because you're going one I'm not
saying it's just I heard people been to that yeah weing in we're gonna leave trash 780 now work work with it it's kind of like theun sources are be there okay so that's the end
Solid Waste one Department 79464 what what did you change it to no change was there 77460 794 66 6
664 I'm sorry 66 I got four numbers just getting this Human Services is the next session cemeterian Parks cemeterian Park starts it yeah cemeterian Park starts I'm I'm going see the black line above
that says Solid Waste total yeah that's why I say the next section is the um what did I say Human Services it's kind of like yeah human services so really I know that's what I was thinking myself
that weird but okay wait a minute where's the black line for that or did you not cemeter and parks there there's no black line this this this is the section that starts human services so cemeter
depart did this no he was um increases for longevity longevity we have we went over this we went over this
before so this was it there L one line um dou funded on expenses questions on the Housing Authority
health is [Music] just had a question on illegally DED items and this is just a general question not the budget say like Can a citizen call to Board of Health and say
I see mattresses and all kinds of that's what you know who they call the high highway department to go pick it up what if it's not on the highway she's talking about stuff in the woods right like like if I take a walk in the woods
that's and I see refrigerators and couches my David said she'll never find that spot again but um but I've heard other the places that I could call if I found stuff like that that's what this was intended for the things that were
illegally dumped we added this in I was still on the board so maybe three years ago yeah it wasn't Longo we added it in so it was cut 50% because they said they didn't we asked about
this I mean I was just curious as a CI as a CI if I was so you call the Board of Health but they're probably going to call the highway department and but I just didn't know what the pro I just curious thank you
yeah um we are set with health no okay moving to we cont and no questions there we're W 642 the
Landfield engineering this is where the monitoring of the Clos landfill is by that engineering service and who who oversees that is that overseen by the Board of Health it is yeah
yeah so that's like a an outside contract an outside contract [Music] um no questions here Council on agj community outreach um we have been
funding within the CC on Aging um and s but it's good to see the history have it have it it used to be that they would put 10,000 a year in they stopped doing that two years ago so
funding places and just easier together so so they're up [Music] 12% [Music]
um all the staff at the senior center is Union staff none of the staff at the library is UN staff and and I think the the increase on the union staff was
iter money went away position um positions of the library I'm sorry Council and aging Council and aging no they should be 4% I don't know
if they hired new people or there I thought it's longevity went up a bit on the line for the operating staff You' have to look at the way it um yeah uh you know her sheet where
she I they might have added position I don't know I didn't see anything there but if we look at FY 24 the number is down from FY 24 so FY 25
I think they did some um had to do with the the head cook type check was going to retire very soon so they were gonna change how that was going to be how that
would work in the future so I think it was it was gone over when we when we talk yeah and it that number is is the number we have yeah yeah right that is that's the same number that we have when
we talked yeah and there were no changes that difference is that longevity amount correct um the longevity it was um it's a $600 increase that's the only reason I'm
asking it might be a different different different amount I think um one of the staff members finally hit their fiveyear Mark and they must be in a union that does 600 longevity instead of 500
correct I think oh the fractional the fractional we did talk about we did talk about fral employees or whether they were U subject subject to the longevity did we ever find that
out so well you said we were talking about it the it it wasn't the correct whatever wasn't on the web yeah that fraction I don't think that was under Council no that was under
library but that was yeah not was sat night whatever wherever whoever had fractual employees in general because I think they said they might have been one employee that could have had Longevity if fral employees
yeah no there is one um it's the Assistant Program Coordinator is a 600 instead of a 500 as far as longevity goes so that's why what do we ever find out about the fractional
people numbers agree what we so put on agent what ask man me I would those are my not I was to ask what what dues she had so um I haven't had a chance to ask
her yet regarding that but yeah some of those are my notes 15 it's same but right but if we look at in the BPA maybe uh she's not much at all
is only 461 so I think that's just make sure that something what what's the 75,000 other services what what are those would you go over those um those are veteran
benefits and I think we get reimbursed by the state we get yeah some there's a certain amount for veteran that they get um so it's reared the 75,000 I believe it comes in from the state based on the
number take advantage yes at the breakdown it comes back to the town that that'll be part of is that like the tax deferment that the same thing it's like it's the same number no
it's a benefit that you get on a monthly basis or quarterly I don't know what the thing is but it's a benefit that a veteran gets and Natalie manages that she you know she works with the veterans and then the I think it is on the cherry sheet you'll see a veterans thing it's
based on the numbers for the each town you get a reimbursement from the state and that's what funds say so it's not a deferment on it's not a tax thing it's not a tax thing it's just funny that's the same EX in the uh Assessor's overlay
that's a question we can ask her right what is that what is it what is it we should know question on that sorry is there a way to like put like a different if you can't include it in that line in that section could there like be an asteris
next to it to say Grant reimbursed or has fees attached to it that pays it off you know just so people know that yes it's a high number but but it's it's not really we're not paying for it like you looked at the trash number and you're like oh my goodness that's so much but
really we've already put money in so the pay you have it on the line item but if there was something before that like a little as fees are offsetting this cost to look at the recap because that's where it's reflected typically the not on the expense I get
it it's kind of like you're looking an expense you're not going to jump to recap to figure out that right the town people aren't going to do that that's of yeah I believe the veteran services officer membership and dues is for a um
training conference once a year for ,000 and membership and veteran services officers which is the training the training training okay so it's not the other no do in training it
says it depend and I think the PBA oh so now's 7500 do we pay it and we get it back well you look at the cherry sheet number the state cherry sheet has a veterans benefit line I don't know if it's 100% I
I don't know the percentage but I know we get funds back exactly right now the FY 26 cherry sheet which is preliminary saying 20 269 or 296 and this is a you know it depends on
how many veterans are in town so I this is kind of the number that we've used for a while now and it it you know we might not pay it all out it depends on usage on that for last year you
say I know a few years back they came to um bcom and asked for some extra money yeah that that could happen so it they used just under 27,000 last year in the entire year yes yeah so we got anyway I
didn't let's not go into last year's cherry sheet to see what we got back but they're probably using the fact that we spent 28,000 last year or just under is probably what drove the cherry sheet number for this year is my
guess okay so we still have a cou questions but for now the the numbers look quite so this section Human Services total is going to be 58022 was [Music]
added servic officer so could be more than 500 now I come to B man um no we it's in this section but we we start with the library oh Library culture culture okay culture and recreation is good we had no wish
Library remember right qualification yeah yeah we're real happy with that I good to move okay very similar to the note we we see here in the notes the 10,000 is
funded from the rec resolving account to the assistant director position which is not filled right it is not filled it is open right now but we need to budget that budget part so that it's there if
somebody can say you know sometimes I I get um confused on budget we're talking about Recreation okay because um I'm not sure what she does
totally I mean I don't know I've asked for the last three or four years I've asked how many people this involves what are her programs how much should they pay for a child or and I just don't seem to get these answers and I'm not sure what her hours are and other things like
that I don't seem to be able to get answers and I know that it could vary from month to month to how many kids show up well there's a preschool a before school and after school program and so there are hours for that I think it's 6 or 6:30 6:30 till something and
then afternoon what happens in between that is she there in the AL no not usually during the day unless she has planning to do um but the hours are such that she's usually there 4 hours in the
morning four in the afternoon so it's not a matter of all day right she's there for the before school program the after school program and sometimes there are evening things like if there's the um or weekend things or weekend things
so it depends on what's going on well that's what I think is part of the problem we don't know I we don't know what's going on I have you ever been over to the I have you have I have we all have we've all been there but have you been there when the kids are there
yes we've all been there when the kids are there and do you think nothing not what I'm asking I'm asking about numbers about how many are coming in and how many are going out and you know is the was is the um know the
summer program would it be beneficial you know to have the summer program as the major program rather than the afternoon and people in town that that count on the before and after school care that I know do they pay for that
yes they pay for that yeah as opposed to using the North Middle sex one correct yeah there there m has one also and so do dayc carees anding has their own yeah so um and do
you know the ins and outs of that one I mean I don't know but um as far as the summer program goes that's well attended too not it's just important as the other but what other programs does she do during the year I guess is what there
babysitter courses usually I find them on Facebook she has a Facebook page that you can look at there's a website that you can look at so I I don't know what's so what's all the revenue that she takes in it's a
revolving same as the landfill okay it's a revolving account so the revenue she takes in pay for the programming that she has but the town pays her salary corrects okay other than that so but that was the question we had so if there
was no Recreation PR what happens to her position does it stay because she's a town employee and you find something else for her to do or is she hired as the recreation director as Town Town she's
hired as the recreation director for the town of towns and she's a union employee okay so if there was no Recreation she would still be hired is she'd still be there not necessarily if away with a recreation program yeah
if it wasn't a recreation program this would be a town position if we didn't have a dump and we didn't have trash would the Board of Health position go away well can't you just say yes or no
oh okay so I guess that's a it's it's a it's a what if I don't think we're planning to get rid of the recreation program no we're not planning no but we're just asking questions aren't we allowed to ask questions absolutely there must be I mean she must have an accounting of like
each program and how many that's what I whatever maybe Nelson can answer that question I don't so you're you're talking about enrollment numbers right I don't have that I'm sure we get it but what I guessing at is is towns
and Recreation I know they the summer program my grandchildren used to go to it was wonderful so what I'm asking is is she basically a daycare and rather than a real Recreation Department it
depends on for before and after school then probably yes basically a daycare how many active before and after school programs are there the high school's doing one and Spalding's doing one and she's doing one and there's probably one at Rainbow
and I'm sure there are a lot of private homes but if the schools are doing them is there some way to consolidate it I think her I don't know the the pricing but I'm almost certain that the Recreations is much more affordable so
then like the school like Spalding at the high school I think anything's more affordable and I know people use it I can I see the line of kids getting what I'm saying according to valy it is a financial
situation because it's much cheaper no that would help information I know I just always think of recreation as programs maybe should we could do that I suppose if we put money
into the library does a lot of programs for the kids and I wonder and that's I guess where I'm coming from because when I think of recreation I think of all those things that the library is doing that do they do that for free yes
moste yeah and I think historically those were part of town recreation activities but in our town they have been kind of moved to the library and they are free and so okay but they're not totally free because there are the friends of the library who does
fundraising for those programs the library has an endowment to fund these things the recreation department doesn't have the advantage of those of that sort of funding because the recreation department is more
self-funding than the others so what she can do is based on what she can afford to raise through the people that use those programming so and from what I can tell it's a needed service but she there
is babysitting classes I'm trying to think what else I see there was a cooking class that was in has them all the time they're not all the time it varies depending on what she's able to fund she might put a feeler out and then see if
she gets response and if she doesn't then she can't fund it um there were programs that were funded through ARA because she knew she had the funding to bring in the um the people to do the programs gone so yeah I I wasn't when I
was talking about free I meant free to the taxpayer in terms of having to pay to go to the event not like getting grants and things like that just like the dancing stuff we went to it's
free I understand it's not free in your concept but if you're not paying for it to go to the event it's free well we could set up a friends of recreation then you know and the recreation endowment fund and then I'm sure there
would be more Recreation programs it it sounds like you're trying to find a way to remove that no that's not true and that department questions we have right to ask those question you do but that's just the way it sounds so I'm trying to figure
out that's not okay where are we are we good with the recreation department good okay going to
band so first two first three year Memorial Day Betty Tenny wants to keep that she told us yeah I wonder if a way to save a little money I like the Band Stand By the way I
think it's very nice I tried to work on it and all that happy stuff so but so my question is watch it okay she starts like in the first week in June after Memorial Day after Memorial
Day it's it's cold at night it gets dark earlier at night I mean I know we're in daylight sa but wouldn't you be better off to start in July and August and then there'd be a little money to save there because it's about $1,500
per and I just think the kids are still in school they shouldn't be out that late at night9 it doesn't start till 7:30 they don't get home to 9:30 I mean I wonder if that's a consideration Betty May would might take you trying to get rid of it I'm not trying to get rid of
it she's not here this week but um I can talk to her I'm not sure if it's the first Thursday oh she told us it was did she say it was the first Thursday when's the last one in August but I go every Thursday night so I like there
nothing to do with mosquito I pretty much go all the time we use it as a fundraiser for different things when I had more Girl Scouts and boy scouts we'd have events before kids went away so it actually helped in early June to help us but
because of covid our programs have been decimated I used to have we used to have my husband was the um Boy Scout Cub leader we had 70 kids in the Cub Scout program we have two Boy Scout Troops currently towns in and a we have no cup
Scouts we have 15 Boy Scouts my last my oldest son just got his Eagle um last um January last year so actually last time the year ago today he just he got his eagle and that's the last one we've haded towns in and we actually don't
even have a planned Eagle soon we're working with peil to have kids for cup Scouts that way for Girl Scouts we have two troops in town and one troop in Ash we working with peil as combined I have
three girls that are over sixth grade in all of Two Towns there's four of us if you count Ash being in towns and four girls over fourth grade sixth grade and then we have my little one who's in first grade that group there's 20 and I
think there's 25 30 30 between town and Ash we are still decimating I can't have them plan what I used to do when we had 70 Boy Scouts to run the food concession and another 20 girls do a thing I don't
have them at that age we will in about another two years but that's why we love the band concert one thing that has always been brought up is if it's raining or if it's bad weather we lose money the Boy Scouts lost a lot of money last time of you know putting getting
all food together it downpours it's over we always talked about could we move here could we go to one of the churches someplace indoors so that we could still have a great event without losing so much money still
TR long going the completely Point terms we're in a crunch crisis oh can we just move I questions we're never gonna be able to make good decisions that's all I have to
say about it okay and last item in culture and recreation is the flight committee level funded year over year actually they took a cut from 3,000 in 2020
too um I I yeah I asked them if they would cut it down what did they spend last year I don't think they spent much at all repl Flags maybe before we did the cut they replaced all the flags and then
we cut them in half okay because they had just replaced the flag right we have to budget for it in case they need abely if that goes back into the general fund when they don't spend it right that's I know buy one flat because the one across street from my
house is completely ripped okay so what's our culture and recreation PL culture and recreation total 5769 okay next what they are B I don't know that
terminology B is the b b anticip oh the acronym it's acony yeah yes remember she was talking about the shortterm Lo longterm Lo these are all yeah yeah it's an
acronym time we run across so you can't do anything about your debt right no other than pay schedules we saw that's that I mean that's I found
her very very very yeah I made sure she um spoke at langage right she did a very us she was the most helpful and the guy from The Board of Health I thought was in the library and the senior citizen
people were very I mean for new people I mean those of you who know everything you know you don't need it but those of us just trying to learn so that we can serve the town if they were the most helpful everybody yeah and then so the total
debt is 45,400 then we're insurances does that include the fire trucks and the um Highway Department trucks or just when we get to yeah when you get to the The General insurance is it General
Insurance yeah Vehicles no Mary but the two fire truck was talking about aren't in there yet because that actually they are the first one has already been borrowed for we're not
paying on it yet but it's already borrowed so is it in this debt department but it's not but we're not paying we're not paying payment so we have that money but we're not paying on it we get the Dru
okay I get what we can do sure so that's that when we start paying for here on the longterm and then right so then that payment will get added into
these numbers okay okay insurance yeah so the count yeah County retirem what oh retirement retirement and that is that assessment is that an assessment we get from the
yeah the Retirement Board retir for calculated based on the amount of how is that like is that based on the people who work for Town and now are retired and they get paid that's going to be paid when they
retire I think these are the uh the pension payments oh okay pension is the contributions that we make on and so we get a statement from the middle sex Retirement Board and you know this is what they figured out you know retirees
and this is what we we pay to them okay and when are we can convert all the employees to 401ks and get retirement like every other company I I don't think how they do that because it keeps the state going yeah so we pay in do we know how how the
monies are accounted for at the state level or here well I mean this is this is this is a County Retirement Board so um I think they have their own checks and balances and you know we're just we're just one Community um in in that county so I I think
there's checks and balances things are on behalf of our employees employes yeah unless we're unless we're going to remove ourselves from the retirement system which I don't think I don't think we can
do this this is something that comes to us we don't we can't change that is what I'm saying yeah I mean they tell us the only way we can change is say yeah we're not paying anybody
retirement we're not participating in retirement and I but that's a said I don't think that's an option that's a negotiated contract thing the retirement no no these retirees are it's a calculation
based off of years of service their age what they used to make so it's oh it's a municipal state requirements if you work for State you get retirement and I think it's also I could be wrong about this but I think it's also the percentage that we have to pay into the retirement I mean employees pay in some too but so
does the town it's matching funds like oh it's a matching fun thing I don't know if it's matching Notch it's requirement by the state that if you work in the state you get the retir that is correct but um yeah so please put in so much we don't get to
opt out of this yeah yes so this is all employees then like was saying police fire yeah yeah yeah okay yeah unemployment compensation level funded year over
year health insurance that would be welcome do you V for that is that like something you go out and bid on health insurance once in a while we may go out to bid and
you essentially start the whole process over again um meaning um providers change and then um and then that's has a negative do you have one provider or do you have like oneon-one provider that people can pick from Al so
um uh I think we have Blue Cross Blue Shield and it's through Maya which is a quasi state agency is that okay that was like going to be my next question is if you went through like the states have multiple plans that you
can piggy back off of we could do a Consortium with other towns there's that that is an option but my are big one I believe over a hundred cities and towns are with Maya so they have extremely big
purchasing power okay um so if you went out alone but I I didn't know if like the state had had like like the federal government they have a they the federal at the federal level they contract with a bunch of
carriers yeah and then you as an employee depending on your state you can go and then look at the benefits that you can get how much you want to pay I didn't know if the state had the same kind of thing it's called the mass
GIC um that's another big one it's through the state and that's the probably the second big biggest group that cities and towns use and I think that's also over 100 cities and towns use that so when you have big groups like this you know you get I would say
well yeah you're G get you're gonna get better better rates right um I just didn't know if if the town like looks at these different things to see which how often do they look at them because they change all the time um it's very disruptive to keep going out you know we
we have Maya they're they're big group so you know I'm not saying so does that mean so you don't take a so you don't take a look each year to see no I'm only going to go on the what I know from the federal government because the federal
government goes out every year and Rec contracts with all these carriers it's by it's by not every carrier is available to every state but they do renegotiate their contracts and then me as an employee I can look at the state
of M Massachusetts and see which carriers the federal government has contracted with and then look at and then I they have compar the charts you know your benefits the cost what you get for your dollars you know for the person
for the person so you know I go out and say you know etner Blue Cross whatever whatever the carriers are in okay does Blue Cross have the benefits I need or do I go to etner and then they all have
different prices and different levels um so when you say the process is disruptive what do you actually mean by that well for example um you know I think we have Blue Cross Blue Shield if we went to a different carrier they might not do Blue Cross Bo Shield maybe
they do Harvard Pilgrim or some other but but so in the employee you know maybe their doctor only takes or you know currently takes Blue Cross Blue Shield so you only for one carrier so BL
no he's saying they only go through one Consortium they go through Maya they could go through what is it m but Maya does Maya have more than one carrier um I okay what you just described when you
were picking you're like second tier down the government decided who they were going to go with right we're deciding who we're going to pck to go with to get to the person okay but see okay that's why I was ask you if the FED if the
state works the same way the federal government I don't think so okay I don't think so I know how you so so even though we have a choice as an individual person I have a choice of maybe five or six Carri because you because the uh
country or the federal government chose those five people this mgis will choose who they only choose one Maya has only has one and you know they only offer Blue Cross Blue Shield and what about
the mgis is that only the nas GIC um I'm actually looking at their website they offer a few more plans see I but but Blue Cross and Blue Shield is not one of them so um you know so do do we do we as
a town look at those offerings every so many years to choose every so every so often we do but certainly not every year because you you it's impractical to switch back and forth between groups like that um I I wish it was that simple
it's not like shopping for I don't know I don't know a car or something it's not that do that don't they do it every town every three years or something like that isn't it don't we go into contract like for so many
years uh there's no once you sign with the the carrier or it doesn't expire it doesn't just it does and this year in particular as you can see the number is um pretty substantial I've spoken the PE
roll they're they're also in Maya and they're about the same 15.5% um it's it's a big number um you know 15 and a half% when we can only go up by two and a half 3% so um last year went up by uh
you know about 10% as well okay so all right and is that the same as like retirement you have to offer all those health insurance it's it's part of the I'm looking at the collective it's part of most the union contracts Town PID is
that different than retirement is retirement contracted I'm just trying to understand didn't you just say that the retirement was mandated or told told the state tells you how much the county or the
county those are just retirement Ben that nothing to do with health insurance yeah we don't offer health insurance State tells them for the retirement that's just their pension okay the the Union contract no what I'm saying is the state
requires you to have retirement benefits for Municipal Employees correct the C retirement do we didn't have retirement benefits I'm not saying that we want to get rid of them I'm saying I'm just trying to
understand it nobody would here no questions yeah no questions okay do they have to be with us a certain amount of time before they get put into all these benefits or it immediate upon higher uh the health insurance is
immediately upon higher um what other benefits are you referring to retirement well usually you have to work so many well you not us that's the state that determines
that have to years to be okay so yeah you need 10 years by state I think it health insurance I believe if you have so many employees no matter if you're a municipality or Pro have to offer have to offer so that
becomes the negotiation for a contract as opposed to the retirement money which is not negotiated by your contract so what I'm going here is I'm trying to find out what is negotiated by the people who negotiate for us to make sure we get the best
negotiation M of retirement I no but the health insurance but the health insurance and the collective bargaining agreements determine what percentage the town pays versus what percentage the employee pays tricky okay Carol okay gotta leave it
too yeah me too Insurance level funded is $500 again this year [Music] Medicare that town share and that's that number will certainly go up and down depending on
how many um employees uh we uh are are they currently have and how much they make because it's medic this is a it's a pre predescribed pre-prescribed number from the federal government so you know
if you what 0.029% yeah or4 five% so depending on Town employees Municipal Employees assum are not part of Social Security is that is that true correct y but you still have to pay
the Medicare yeah yeah no I understand correct your employees or does that come out of their paycheck was question match is medic both yeah it's split yeah the employee and employee employer employee are it's 5050
split just like Social Security we don't do that for the Municipal Employee pay into the into the retirements correct yeah yeah just like federal employees don't pay we pay Medicare but non Social Security benefits
insurance generality car insurance property is that property insurance too so it's all Insurance um and that 10% is the number that I was provided by
the and just of curiosity because we had the um it was an item um where the work the workers cost evaluation was there was no money in here to pay for it when it came up this
year yeah so uh yeah so that was a town meeting article so they'll do an audit once a year and then depending on um how many workers comp cases were from the previous year they'll take a look at that and if they find that you know it
was above and beyond what they were expecting then they they'll hit you with a additional assessment or premium for that so so unless we so we have noidea I didn't know if they were three different
invoices should they be on individual L the property oh yeah I think you had that question I don't know if it's if they separate or was just one like one bill one bill or something that I don't know yeah the numbers here we can we can use
it but that if if they did have three different kind of it' be nice to see the individual c okay so that insurance is the 2741
[Music] 747 to the back which is the total thing is total 29,000 282,000 sorry 29 m282 36 and so that's the so that's the new
bu that's the number that we're going to base that's the number we're trying to base and then we have to determine what the other revenues are that tells us how much tax money we need to bring in to match correct yes but if you're leaving now does that mean we're not going to be able to go
over the the tax inputs if you guys have to leave because I have to leave my daughter's performing my granddaughter's performing tonight so I need to I sorry can we plug the number recap and come up with the bottom line not change
any of the recap numbers do you w to take open chair or do you want me to um no you can do it uh so you would go into the the second tab what ifs so you'll have to go to the very
top um oh actually know I think I need to drive because should be Nelson screening okay so that's a two one yep so you can see it here and you know it's broken down by general
fund General operating as well as the schools so yeah so still adds up to that number there um the number we yeah that's the number so no we were 282
316 right there right um so to make that number we have to do an over uh if you if you scroll down yeah and you know we'll get to that in a couple seconds um so
now we [Music] have this blue section here or the other amounts that um we need to raise there's a current overlay which I believe that's really driven by the
assessor's office um and 120 that's a good estimate to to use at the moment um snow and ice deficit I think we're talking like 250 in all the meetings
we've been in is that to cover the deficit for this year yes yeah okay um there's a those cherry sheet off offsets which are um I believe those are
mainly driven by yeah for yeah it's just offset it it's like charges back on the cherry sheet they they have the money they're going to give us and then on the ma sheet or some charges
for different I can't think of the we can tell the state we're not paying a net St assessments that's part of the Cherry sheets as well it's just that it's things that the charges for and it's it's all on the DLS
website so they come over preliminary estimate and you just sort of plug that in and typically it just goes up by about 2% every year which is pretty even the charry sheets are about 2% every there um this one is an interesting one
and it's going to be at the um at the town it's a Warren article yeah so the hero act um is for it's geared for veterans because currently veterans get
a $400 real estate tax exemption yeah on their tax bill so uh there is I so the new I don't know if it's a clause or something in the hero act town cities and towns have an option of um providing
more than that $400 uh it yeah you can double it to 800 as well as have a inflation Rider attached to it so that 400 is static you
know right right right right right so um but in order to keep up the time you can also add an inflation Rider to it okay so this is going to be a warrant article at the annual town meeting and um if it passes
um uh the town has to pay whatever that benefit is and you won't get reimbursed for currently that $400 exemption um the state will will match or is it does it is it% given back in uh the state the
state pays 8 5% of the 400 that you out okay so overlay pays for the rest of it from the Assessor's budget if you and I mean this is a great
thing to do but if the town decides to do it and right now according to Vicki's estimate they give out around 70,000 out of our overlay the Assessor's overlay a year and and 85% of that then comes back
comes back from the state if we double it which we're allowed to do yeah or give a cost of living increase there is nothing coming back to the town so we'd still get reimburse on the 85% of the 400 correct but the rest of
it to be cover okay so if we wanted to go up to 800 not coming back we'll get 85% of 400 and then the rest of that difference has to be covered by just going to down and I'm not saying they don't deserve it you know and that it's not a
um wonderful thing to do but have to have and this is different from the 75,000 line that we had in the veterans department yes this is not and so so if this passes with this this
amount get budgeted in the veterans department in the future then no this stays in the assessor overlay because this this comes from the assessing so it have to become a budget item in the assessor's office then no it will just
see it here but the overlay is here the overlay will go up correct but this is not the general government uh it's not the budget for the assessor's office it's part of the recap the monies that we need to spend yeah
you don't put it okay so you never you don't put it in the you don't put it in the general budget correct but the assessors have like when we talked about this in the assessors um meeting where we might
you okay you see where it was 135 at one time and this has to do with uh abatements when abatements happen it comes out of our overlay and then it went down in 24 and then in 25 it went up again if
this 75,000 gets approved that has to up that get overlay okay if that gets approved it doesn't stay separate it goes into the overlay because you have to be able to give it out and and but then doesn't it
also come back so that the town sees it the next year I mean they can see what what happened yeah or what you did the year before sure is what you did the year before accounted in the overlay or in the hero act in other words will that hero act be
there every year or is it just this year and after that it's only reflected in the overlay um it's not just for one year I know it's an act that will stay does stay in that line I don't know but all I know is it comes out of the overlay in
the assessment department so the overlay if it's voted positively at town meeting we won't see hero act again we'll only see the overlay close to 200,000 yeah okay I mean if that's as long as everybody understands that that's what happened that would be the
history if you wanted to keep it separate I guess you could but it comes from the overlay that's the only place it comes from and I only put it on here because it's it's a potentially new item and I want to make sure it's it's spelled out clearly instead of lumping
it in to the overlay of right right but then it probably should be explained that you're not going to see it here again it's telling you that it's something new but it comes out of the assessment overlay and that number of 75,000 is not necessarily exact that
number depends on the number of veterans that are living in town oh yeah and what that they' close to 70 before so if they double that and you do yeah yeah yeah any cost of living it's right no I understand that I understand that I'm just saying over time that number's
going that number and down yeah people pass away whatever just like the just like the overlay amount obviously changes you know it's a very weird number it's very exact um so the bottom
line 29 838 740 that's how much uh our expenses are want call that because at the end of the day it's expenses versus revenue and pay all your
expenses where's the green area here this is all the revenue uh Cherry sheets that's what we get from the state um they need to give us more Che bastards um they usually only go up
about 2% a year you know it only went up 3.64 because of I think some um so their mandated spending goes up 10% they give thanks bu and again these These are
prary numbers y uh the second one is Enterprise indir cost that's basically the water department um giving us some money because they are a town Department so there are costs associated with running um the water department that the
rest of the Town occurs so it is a there's a formula involved and it depends on you know how much uh our expenses are but I'm estimating about 410,000 coming from
them um and then local receipts that's basically everything from meal taxes excise taxes Hotel lodging does that include like the dog licenses
the the other like the the health the um it would I think I think it includes us building permits things like that it includes all that correct so what about the revolving funds down lower uh yeah
we can get to that in a second keep going yeah just um I thought it was like food receipts yeah it is meal taxes excise taxes it's it's a whole bunch of stuff that and are the
funds no more more um that's just a note on FY 25 um I thought that the estimated receipts did not include any fees that came in from the T from fees that are incurred by Town
departments but I could be wrong I receipts is really act it's just money it's just um money that the town receiv excise tax things like that yeah versus the dog fee or the amount that you pay
at the dump to get rid of something of so it's a tax not a fee would a quick question would that also be like Fire EMS when they get reimbursed would that be coming into that that's ambulance
farther down so anything that's a fee that the town charges for things would come down which would include like next year if we do the trash fee that's what it would be so included a line for
trash that's that is a right that's the bag that's the bag income and then if we added the $100 fee that would go down in the fee in a in a fee line down below is what you're saying that's what I believe okay correct okay and then uh this is
where the uh ambulance receipts right that's where he asked us to stay at 700 yep and that's what I budget that's what you put in wasn't it actually 900 last year gave yeah it
was uh Peg access um I don't know what that number is but it's almost it's almost a a wash because it's up top right is for tcam that's Peg access right here it it's the amount up there and the one
down there are the same so it's it's it's just neutral okay so shouldn't we put a number down below then oh I didn't put it up there you didn't put the number that's fine y so it's a wash I mean I can put a number there but it's zero
comes in and it goes out not Title Five those are the fees that the Board of Health um takes in for inspections so so it's a revenue source that we actually get a little bit of
money from yeah uh the towns and reading room we get some revenue from the rentals um I estimate it a little bit low we can always bump that up but I don't have too
much there so I I can certain bump it up a little bit what was the actual for this past year like how much have you received so far versus 24 um I'll need to take a look at that I
don't have that um Recreation revolving so looks like give us a little bit of money here this one other it's been
pretty okay the last few years but apparently there was nothing last year so I don't know the the history behind that I need to look into a little bit further and so that's where you put the page you throw grant money into this correct and um that hasn't
come and there are talks about using some of that money to you know do some educational materials things like that so I'm not sure if that 62,000 is really going to be that amount
what all those expenses are taken consideration who's having talks about making those exp that expenses we decided the Board of Health yeah the Board of Health would like to you know put out some educational materials okay
the grant can be split over two years so it could be we can use it all in this year or it can be between this year fiscal year and next fiscal year it depends on the receipts it's a it's you have to have the receipts to show so we don't have enough receip for certain
purpose yeah if you don't have the receipts for by July then we can get it in the next um free cash I I just um you know thought 200,000 how is that gonna
work because I I don't see a um the the warrant articles there was a warrant article um up somewhere up top and we had zero up there correct usually that number covers things that are part of
Warrant articles um so I need to add that in and so if there are no warrant articles that should be a zero did you make that a hand out this this sheet or not do we just have to
follow it no there's a oh it's that so I'll need to add that in um that that's what the free it's not just free cash to to supplement the budget is what I'm saying so if that's
zero same as so what happened so we we just got certified some free cash in January you're saying we can only use that on warrant on specific warrant articles typically yeah and so what happens if we don't
don't have a waren article for using it then we have money okay but if we can't use it in the general typically we would move it to stabilization or to Capital you know either the regular stabilization account or the capital stabilization okay it's not
used as general income for the operating budget correct okay and usually we have some warrant articles that are asking for free cash I know there are going to be Capital planning articles that are asking for three cash right we haven't worked that out yet because we haven't
had a meeting to talk about it so should I be taking this out then if you put that there put 200 up top or yeah I was G to say the other thing you could have another sheet with the with free cash on it and yes yeah you
can do it that way as well bring bring in the number after you have each of your articles LED down at the bottom on the recap we usually have free cash piece there it's not in this one but if in that allows you to track the full
amount of the free and as you have your you'll see what the is have one number top for what the cross right um so for the purpose of this what should I
what I would either make it a c or I would add 200 up top either way [Music] um and I would call that school and general government override add
another down I think that 200k that we just popped out we might have to take 200k out of the pay management to make this reasonable pavement program how is that
an income well it's not it's just to to change the numbers at the top because we're at three point we're over the two I know two and A50 well it's well this is fun so it's the same thing I just put it in here
just to to show because it's a it's a I'm saying it's a f the same thing but but that but that 2 50 is in the is in the operating budget right now correct yeah and I just I put it in here just to
for me to do some scenario analysis um I I'm I have no problem taking it off it's gonna really adding it in there is almost like taking it out of the general government exactly I just did I did that just to do some analysis but it's really gonna
croak the numbers at the bottom like really bad um so when you uh add that all up um you have all these funding sources as well as money from the state and everything else um so if
you so you add that up and then you subtract it from the top number which is where all the expenses were you need to this is the amount here the 22646 487 that's how much you need to
raise in taxes and as you know uh there's only you can only raise taxes by 2 and a half% um and so shouldn't the override number go
up so that that number the total amount to be raised is at two and a half% I I think this is that's what needs to be raised then there going to be the tax levy considerations how much
can we yeah let him finish that's sort of a sub total okay now now we get into so two and a yeah so this amount here was how much we uh were allowed to
raise last year you uh add two and a half% to it and then you account for some new growth um you know which is new homes being built is that
what thats things yeah so anything yep so this is the maximum amount that you can that you can uh Levy and then when you and then you can take
off some debt from the schools that's that's part of how you uh make the calculations then this number here as you can see it's uh in the red
right $370,000 so that we either need to increase our ask for the override or we need to cut that much from our budget or you can do a combination or a combination um so right off the bat that
250,000 for the payment you know if you got rid of it that amount would have immediately Dro by that amount we still need 100,000 with is the school already included it
is included that was produced by the 250,000 yes so if we don't get the override we have to go up for the 200 no if we don't get the override we got to come up with a lot more than that we have to we have to change the numbers to get that number to zero that's what
we that's that gives us the number the override number so we would have to cut a million something that is oh that's not too bad okay I get it no it's actually B no well not really given what we've went over for the past
month I mean this placees um and and it's not a happy thought but it's it's doable I don't think it's well there certain things you're cutting 1.5 about 1.5 million out of the town's
budget that's less than 13 million I'll I'll show you to pay for the school that's almost 16 million not I can show you uh what what that those cuts would look like so let see I don't want to
keep us here too much long just a minute right um so this is like the the total of everything uh we it it's changed a little bit but it's just to illustrate to you you know these are all the buckets that we've
talked about yeah there are certain buckets that you can't touch or that we're not going to uh can't or or we can if we want to well debt you can't Insurance you can't okay uh Public Safety
uh that's that's yeah you can't uh education we're not doing that so when you get down to it the budget of over 29 million this is all you can uh
cut so you can't cut Insurance you can't cut debt you can't cut what else you so you can't cut Public Safety or education what it's against the law to do that well or you just it's a policy that we don't do in the town no I'm just trying to this is just a
budgeting exercise developing here so this number here 4.5 million as far as I can tell that is the number that you need to work with to cut the 1
point five million that's like 30% of the it's it means closing of a building one day a week it means that we're not we're open three and a half days a week essentially is what it comes down to but
we wouldn't be forever it would just be until we can budget ourselves well it depends on really when the state decides to up more funding to the schools that would be where it would happen that we would have more funds other than that we
don't so um you know we we've left trash in we could take trash out and everybody it's more expensive for everybody it's more expensive for everybody though to go out and do their
own um and so um what we don't have in here is a fee for trash we haven't put that in yet so there's a lot of playing that could happen if we put 300,000 for fees in trash we might not have to cut
the TR trash um but you know but on the other hand if you cut the trash you cut out $800,000 of this money that you need I'm just saying I'm not I'm not telling you that that's what I think we should do I'm asking the question I
would like the answer it's a net you're going to lose some Revenue because you're not sell of purple Banks anymore and so you you cut 780 but you you're cutting off what do we have to make 48 you're saving
380 300,000 it's 300,000 is 300,000 yeah okay got it okay I just want to understand yep so um there's only so many places you can cut and and and they're really painful I understand that but what what's going on
federally it's going to be really painful sometimes you have to do what you have to do I'm not suggesting Elon must come here but want to give an example of like what happens when you start to likeing you actually start to
lose money so if we cut more than 15,000 from the library budget we lose all our state aid that's good know so we actually lose about $50,000 and then but so then and then we lose all our inter Library loan which the schools use to get that's important
so this is like these are the things are just important like it's you might cut this much but you're actually gonna lose this much so that would be a library thing it's just I'm just giving that example that that's huge to know if we keep the library open 40
hours a week it's not as drastic is that true it's the state aid calculation so Stacy just did the state a calculation the maximum amount we could cut is 15,000 to to retain our state aid okay so and and our in library loan and our certification there's no Library mess
system not certified right now so we would lose like if you want to book out you can't get it from another account what would happen if we had to close the library two days a week so that would have to be decided by the library trustees and have to be this group would
have to come with a number and then the library juses and the director would decide how to spend that money right but if we would we would lose certification so then You' lose all your stud certific we don't want to make it so that we lose certification in the library that would be so then $15,000 is the maxim amount
you can cut from just that one so that's good to know good I'm giv like I don't know the other departments how the ramifications roll down but I'm sure other departments have a similar thing where you cut a certain amount you don't get your state funding your gr my
position on this board is I don't feel that we're being told everything like that information is huge so if we didn't know that we can't make good decisions unless we know that kind of information I don't believe we're getting that complete information so
that we have a big picture on what we can do it it almost seems like we're being told we can't do that but we can do it but we can't do it to the you know whatever level we can do it to Stacy did talk about
or she didn't say 15,000 she said 40 something hours it was 40 hours a week and I don't know how I'm sure the Council of Aging I could have to talk to you know sure they have some state grants that would be jeopardized if there were cets and I think that's
information that we should have you know in situation so I'm not saying Happ I'm just saying it's it's like that say you cut one point something it winds up being more because we're not getting as much
right that information we can't make good decisions but there are things like um the town clerk salary we can change that it doesn't have to be 82,000 there's a lot of things I think we can do there are and
um but a million two to a million five is drastic and it probably means town hall closed uh several days a week it probably means the senior center in the library not having as many hours um but you know that's that's the
way it goes but if for a town that can't afford things why are we kidding ourselves if by having things if we can close two days and operate why would we stay open two days well what happens is because we have to Collective bargain
for all the employees that are um Union employees so it means that we lose our long-term staff we lose the people who have been here for a while and know what's going on that's why the override
is important I think um you know sure you can cut them but you're going to lose people and you're going to be operating on a wing in a prayer no I understand that and I just I guess as a person I just don't like
things to be forced down because that's the way it always was or that you're you're choosing not to give us all the information what information I don't know like I think you have to go through every single little thing and I don't know if like we
can't we don't have you know what I mean no this has to be done ahead of time we have to come in with a budet that if it doesn't pass this is what's going to happen but you said you wanted to do that you wanted to do a and b yeah yeah
so why time where we gonna find no I get that but if that's a reality and you really want that I have some suggestions for that um and we can put the fees in for the trash we don't have the 300K in fees in here there are things that are
missing because the budget we have here and we still need to cut some don't we or at least put in what I would put in the in the recap is the 300K for fees um we can add that for the trash because we
put the trash in fully and so we should plan to charge the fees um but what if what if people say no what if people say no to the charging of the Fe or you saying no they aren't going to
be asked it's just to Happ going to do it yeah it's just going to happen because that's what I mean we're going to tell people it's going to happen but this is contingent on fees being charged for trash in addition to the payas you throw otherwise it goes away and every
it's more expensive it goes away and people have to contract their own right but I mean that's not the end of the world it's bad but it's not the end of the world it's it's not the end of the world no it's not just so you know I have 75 communities in just Central Mass
17 of them a private subscription they all want a town contract because their residents are paying triple the cost and what we have right now is only doubling if you go to peil brot they are playing triple for for private subscription and
St it has no program they have no option they can't go to a neighboring Community they can't go anywhere it's $800 to ,000 for trash pickup a year no matter if you're senior no I'm just saying is that if you
go to hubberston they have the same thing in hubberston they have no program I assume you'll be making a presentation on March 10th I don't know if you wanted a presentation I could talk I you can talk it would be nice to
have a cut down slide like this that takes out all the details even though you say that's not transparent but if someone looks at this their eyes will cross it needs to be if we you know here's what the trash costs us with the
override we don't pay any additional funds beyond our taxes and throwt right and P not do you're private anyway so and this is what private will cost you and if we um don't get the override we
need to charge a fee and this is what the fee will be in addition you said we need the fee even if we do have the override because we're still 300 okay we and that's why we need the fee right we're because we're 350 off right now
and if we add well you might able to take that though from other places the three you had 250 and one spot for that hasn't been used and there was a couple others that you said we're placing it there but
[Music] so there are things that we can take out in the budget I think what we really have to look at right now and I'm going to be dead honest with this group last year when the trash issue came up this was presented to us the override the
school the trash it was thrown down our throat we weren't given all the information and the board of selectman lost all credibility with a a lot of town people I think that if you're going to be the representation which you are
The credibility has to be rebuilt in the town and I think the only way that that can be done is by not saying this is what you have to do you're going to have to be a bit more transparent because your credibility is not what would make it
more transparent well I guess I would have to talk to people and find out what how they feel about it but I can tell you sitting here at this board being a new person the the interaction is not
welcoming it's not um it's education it's frustrating for us to learn and you every single time the meeting comes you ask people for volunteer they're not going to come and be treated the way we have been treated we we want to learn so
that we can help the town we don't want to be accused of doing ABCDE we want to co operate and be on both sides of the table and I think that the credibility of the board of Select has to be rebuilt and that's in your hands but the numbers
are there we can change the numbers if you want the override you GNA have to get a delivery that's a little bit less to the town because that's what we were given last year why don't you teach us then how to do that I because it's very frustrating
to try to present this information that is not I'm sorry that I gave I'm sorry that I gave any kind of criticism because I I'm not trying to criticize I'm just trying to help the board and I'm trying to help the town and if it's going to be interpreted we spend a lot
of time trying to do that we do in many levels and you know we do need a presentation that says okay here it is this is why we're asking for an override this is what we need the this is the services for the most it won't be
100% that you've come to expect from the town this is what you'll get and we need the overall to do it thing is I shared this and Nelson showed me a great slide in presentation that Arlington has of their budget and
it's very visual this is always just very hard for people to go and to understand that I just wonder if we can have that kind of this kind of breakdown in a more visual way to show to the board and just to show you know
15% goes up we have no control over that the T the state only gives us 3% we have no control over that all of our bills go up 10% we have no control over that and we have to go up we can only go up two and a half percent so it can be a graphic design that's more visually to
show these numbers and graphs that's a good idea that just hearing somebody talk talk talk that example like in Arlington's case you can see the whole budget in visual graphics and then you can put in your number I pay $10,000 in taxes okay
that equates to and just give an example of whatever the average is in towns and and use the example of like okay that means you're paying the library a 100 bucks you're paying the school $8,000 you're paying a th000 bucks okay Town
Hall gets 500 bucks you know just to kind of understand where you BR you into it and um so we talked about that when he first started he has that in Arlington so I think we try to use that just as a couple slides not I mean
it's Arlington thing is a really big in dep if we go to Excel and we pull up um can we do Graphics from Excel with the data that we have so we might be able to generate it pretty quickly yeah just cides like that this is the budget this
is what was the changes is you know and you realize the state has given less to the school district and we have more mandates we have everything else has gone up with inflation and now to understand here it is if you just did
10,000 this is your cost right if you pay 2,000 we can pay everything and nobody goes up you know if everybody goes up that little but people just don't want they want to be involved in it they want to be involved they don't want to
be has provided um the sheets that used at their town meeting last week last year had a override so do we still need to go back to the recap and get that yeah Levy
capacity back to zero for town meeting annual town meeting we would correct okay I mean certainly even before then so so if you want to we we
need to we need to work on um what we need to do to to get it um at you know either at zero or just above right so do you want to go back to that sheet can you go back to the yeah the
recap question we talked about that it's just uh it's it doesn't um add to the levy because it's it's a plus it's a come in come out but from a but we probably from a transparency point of view do want to
put in whatever the number is even though we subtracted that at the bottom as opposed to putting a c I don't know what it be but I'll just put it use 130 that's usually about what it comes in but fewer people are are taking Comcast
these days so it's been and and just so you know this recap sheet it's it's just for our internal budgeting purposes the Omnibus is the only thing that really gets published in this one here correct um this is how we this is the tool that
we use to incorporate everything to to figure out what but would I mean it seems like this would good to show the talent too it would be but I I don't have a problem sharing it but I would then have to spend we have to spend the time to talk through it to talk through
every single line which I don't have a problem doing but right you know that's tough at town meeting yeah it's really the omnius that that's presented and shown and even then that's 800 lines that I can't imagine a lot of people are going through fine too comb I know we
did today but you can't do that at town meeting yes so okay so let's so we're GNA we need to go to the Omnibus to remove things correct or are you just doing the recap well I'm just looking at the recap we
wanted to you wanted to add in the fee the the $100 the $300 Fe and see and and what about the 250 take [Music] of it and play on another one um yeah
I'll call this I'll call this version oh no no no I just another tab copy the tab make an additional sheet new sheet yeahor it's a long day if you do do that you should tell them
that 250 was taken out of the paving allowance for the town so that they know that too right changing yeah so under the other available funds I guess is where I think
I was saying it be 20 2900 versus yeah even even that I'm very I feel like our trash numbers have been inflated in it's been off like
you know your numbers are only as good as your assumptions and I mean the page you throw that I want the Allin contract that is why I for budgeting purposes it's easier to have the all-in contract he makes it either if both of them are the same
amount they're exactly the same we don't get the benefit we didn't get the benefit for us reducing our trash by 30% what is Oh you mean we wouldn't get we paid an allinclusive number it was trash recycling collection disposal and
recycling processing all inone so he had to give you the biggest number he can give you right and now we reduce 30% we're going to still reduce another we're going to go down to 50% because that's the way the program works after you have a year a year and a half two years you go down 50% of your that's
what you've seen yes communities that you're like that's not going to happen here it happens and um okay but we're not we haven't received that benefit because because we flat feet we have the flat feet if you break it up I say even if you just do it for two years you can
go back to the all-inclusive but take it separate it out so we do get that benefit of R of that reduction so this 290 I I I really don't think we're gonna realize that um I would how much do you
think we're going to realize on I mean I would say 20 I would say 250 250 250 number it's kind of like that says 2500 out of the 32 yeah yeah okay so gives us
some more erion y so I think that we're down to 118,000 for a deficit okay and so one way we could cover that deficit is we could add 118,000 to the
override amount but then we would be publish we would be asking for more than what we published oh oh is that what we published a number saying this is the override amount that we're I believe the number you had on the over what's the number we published so so this is the
budget so I wanted to discuss this this is the budget this is the amount right now the 13341 198 that's what's published in the warrant article special town meeting um but this was
based off of the earlier number from the school department as we talked about earlier today they reduced the assessment by about $250,000 So in theory I could yeah take the 250 I could drop this by 250 yeah do
it well no because that's then we have to go back the on then we got another 250 we got to take out right that's right right I I have places that I can take out but I don't have 250 one is the town clerk salary I really do have an
issue with paying 82,000 for a brand new town clerk I am good with step one I I am that's 15,000 in savings I mean it's not it's it's it's certainly it's 20 it's about 20 okay so let's so so we
leave that at 1334 because that's what that's what we published that is what we published but we can change that on the floor just politically you don't want to go higher especially when the school has cut at 250k yeah that's fine so so basically we
we've added in the fee for the we've added in $100 a yearly fee for the trash yeah and that and at this point we're still um if you go back down to the red line we're 118 short yeah right okay so okay
so we we still have 250 for the pavement program in correct yes so if we took a 100 out of that and left it at 150 so we're not zeroing it out but we're we're lower lowering I would put in 100 take out
150 well but no but that that puts us I I'm trying to get the 118 down to zero it shouldn't be always exactly at zero so I would you know just use like a nice round number to you get it to 120 get it to like take try to take off like 125
okay that's fine so but if we take 100 from if we take 100 from from the payment so we leave 150 there yeah we've got to come up with 25 yeah we can take 20 out of town clerk I know that Kathy you know thinks that that's
disrespecting what she does but she's been doing that over many years and I I just think that's starting somebody at the top of something on the first page we had that there's nobody in the communications and Human Service
management we talking about making that 155 versus 3030 I would make it zero so go to BOS um I can get 20K out of there for sure I would zero the community services
person and so bring up the budget and and make the hum um Human Resources 40 yes I mean yeah we can certainly make uh that change so I think so right there I
would make the keep the community services but put it at zero and then make the human resources manager 40 and that level funds it over what it was last year okay
um and then we can bring that back when we can bring it back but without the arer funds available it's not reasonable now go to um the uh town clerk um before sorry before you go that far is there a
way we had it before that maybe under accounting professional you said maybe there was room in there drop it to there was 48 and it went up to 30,000 but maybe you said you could get 5,000 out of that that's the um Markham make that
25 only because c um Katie said that that's what their estimate was she the library could give money too um it would be nice if that were here because she knows better the library you mean yeah she said 15,000 but maybe you just take
5,000 um so this this assumes that um the override passes that's correct this is right right right we're trying to get show them exct we're trying to get a budget that that that we can say if the override passes this is the
budget and if the override doesn't pass we're looking at cutting you know the town hall Services the Council on Aging Services to be bones basically Highway it means that in the winter you better be prepared to stay at home a little bit
longer so they can get things right instead of instead of plowing during the storm they to wait until the storm ends yeah something like that I mean there are there are there are towns I know there a lot of places in New Hampshire do that they they don't plow until the
storm's over I don't know if that's why so well I'm not arguing thatan that's not necessarily but make that but that's a way to that's a way to I don't and then go to town clerk and more accident
and you get 65 let's just put 65 and there I think I think the math was like 60 step one was like 68 that's just I thought I sent number yeah you said 68,000 was the first so make that
68,000 um update see what that puts us on the recap oh didn't you say something about the building Department's copying machine that you said there but let's see where we are
that would get us good well that's that's a big that's a big what F if if override doesn't pass then uh well if the over doesn't pass we have to kind of we have to do a second one with this we have to talk to the library and see what they
where they can cut we have to talk to COA we have to say if we're closing all buildings you know for all buildings open four days a week as opposed to five days so the big assumption is you know
override passes and we we truly get 250 from the trash fees I I would think I mean so so I just want to say it's it's a it's going to be an administrative burden to to get it up
and running oh so this is with fees with a trash fee with a trash with the $100 trash fee I mean we could if we I I I I think you can get rid of the trash fees but you have to make Cuts elsewhere obviously right and let me see
where you put all the off all the paving then well if we take off all the paving then were take 50 more out of the paving well but if we so you that's well
but we've if we've got the TR I I think people may complain but I think they're going to pay the trash fee I mean so even it's a nominal it's a minimal amount right even when I had even when I had my two kids at home which I don't have now we were basically
putting out one bag a week uh one you know one barrel a week and so to me that would translate okay I'd be putting out one of the pay you Throwbacks now that they're gone I'm
putting one pay you throwback every you know every other week or every three weeks I'm putting out one bag and if I'm doing that certainly paying the $100 month or the $100 year fee plus the bag fee like
you said is still a lot cheaper than than privately contract we do need to make the contract that you reap that benefit of less trash because you're putting out less trash we don't want to pay him assuming that everybody's putting out two bags a week that's what it is right now is it
stup well yeah I mean I I think with the p you you've said that with the pay as you throw that the numbers have already dropped absolutely so I mean we're not changing that part so I think the number are are going to are going to stay down it's just depend we haven't signed the
contract yet the town has yet to sign the contract with SH and we're not going to until we know whether or not there's an override right that means after the April vote yeah sure sure and if there if the vote
doesn't pass we don't have a choice we have to wait until the people have spoken yeah I'm just saying I think people I mean they're going to moan but they people going to moan no matter what we do no matter what happens that's yeah
everybody knows all the bills I mean unel has gone up like 30% so before just taxes are gonna go up 3% I just think it's it's it's gonna be a tough pill to swallow override has to pass which means
increase in tax your tax bill and now we're adding a fee on top of it um we have to we obviously have to be transparent and and explain that this might happen right so when when you
frame it that way I don't think you're going to get the support because the override is the most important part of this you know I think if the override pass we can probably do away with the trash fee and find other ways to
but what if we reduce the trash fee what if it's it's better if we can just if the override passes no fee and then if it doesn't pass you're going to get a fee okay so one way to do that is to take the fee out here drop the pavement plan all the way and then we only have
to find another 100,000 so take the trash fee out this is playing if we take the flat trash fee out and we say it will just be paid as you throw back so that's a zero go back into the
Omnibus and drop that um 150 because we left I'm just gonna do it here it's the same thing yeah [Music] so where we at need 80 I think we can we
can we can take 40 out we can zero the human resources we can make it work I think and then the other 39 where do we we get it from uh the 4,000 from the I'm reaching here but the building department the 4,000 it looks
like they have 4,000 twice dropped the 16k peral link to 12,000 printer yeah it was align with a printer on it okay this is a more re reasonable amount that we can nip and Tuck and get to that but it has to be zero when
we send it to the state no I understand that but I'm just saying in terms of a story to to to tell the town you know um if you um you here a little there if you if you
vote for the override you know we could um you will we will keep trash we will not charge you a flat fee um and you know we can balance the rest of the budget um but you know all bets are off we're
not going to PVE any roads though right there you haven't taken off the 250 for the school thing no we're not going no we're not we took it out in the Omnibus but we're keeping it in here to cover the the 300K
for trash you know you don't get you don't get trash fees okay you know you just do pay as you throw no fees and who know knows maybe everybody if that's the case maybe the people that went away but they probably went away because they didn't want to buy the purple bags I
guess I don't know that was part of it when you saw the ring on Facebook that was part of it I'm not buying bag but then a lot of people sh did come back too you know after they do the numbers you're not spending 50 thou $50 a month right they have to p no matter what even
if they're on vacation they gotta pay $50 right exactly and that's the cheap one other of towns other haulers are not like shot so you're saying yeah you're saying we may get people we may actually increase the the bag Revenue as people
come back because they realize it's it's more economical to buy bags and they realize over the summer they're not even but we're not we're not GNA put that we're not putting that we're leaving that number as it is well it's
unknown we're just no we're not going to we're not going to next year we can look at what we did LA this this year and so on and we better Pro for now we can only put the to CL down to
50 uh would say 60 I think 50s I mean there's no benefits there's no benefits that person has to Great have their own health insurance and no they the town play pays for the health insurance for
oh no Pion or anything what because they're voted in they have no pension they do have a there's still a they are still benefited I don't know why she said they weren't the town clerk is still benefited we don't throw the town
clerk to the wind um she's in the the County Retirement System she can purchase the life insurance if she chooses um we really talk about hiring too and then it's not then it's on the Collins thing
and when we the new scale into play five years ago four years ago now we took whatever her salary was and we fit it to the next higher and it fit on the grade app and and then she's just been getting
the same increases every year as the rest of the employees right right it seemed fair you're not she's not great but you're treating her as great and that's I think that's what I she wasn't I don't think she necessarily understood that what you were saying and
we never looked at the other towns because by Charter we set we have the towns people set all charters aren't like that right so it I mean in some towns select board members and finance committee members get paid we don't so
our Charter is such that the only one that we set for pay is as far as the elected or appointed goes is hers however the election workers do get paid that's part of the election thing so if
you're an election worker you are not a volunteer you are paid you're you're not a huge pay but you get a pay a separate question I just didn't know if it got taken out there was discussion with the chief on taking out that new equipment
rep I didn't know if that was that was for the team up yeah be a one a one it's a onetime purchase unless he fought oh that 30,000 yeah that was 30,000 right we took that out yeah but I we were discussing it I didn't know if yeah we already we
already took that out um you know it's every year the Cher sheet numbers come out as um drafts and then usually we get a tiny bit more actually happens it wouldn't go
down so the estimate that we put in is pretty safe pretty safe but it sometimes it goes most years it's gone up maybe 10K or you know so there's play there it's never gone down so you were changing the pavement
thing that take that 50 off of there and he already did it's right here yeah just added that back in to zero out the expense yeah yeah as a so but we probably ought to do it in the omnius budget yeah no I will I I just did it
quickly so that we can just quickly see remove that line from the Omnibus budget um I think it's it's in the has it been there it's in the bva I think so it's it's I mean we could I did put it
in to Capital planning for not next year but for three years out because we should be doing that yeah actually it's not on here anymore so because he doesn't get enough if you lost somebody right now because of that position can is there savings now that
you can kind of save for next year it'll be in free cash for next year so any Gap that we have land juice we don't have anybody in land juice right now there's a you know we don't Wellness um well the wellness is going to has gone away in
this budget we wey wrot it but we have well so do we want to do the work now of in the budget in the Omni buus budget of getting that red 79 back up to Green yes
okay yes I think we should okay said yes or now yes go down to town clerk no accounting we'll hit accounting first I already did the we did that okay so going down next is town
[Music] clerk what did you want to zero out that item other item in the board of Selectmen too did you say you want 5,000 for the properties committee um 40,000 the 40,000 in the we could do that I I
hesitate to do that because it means that that I would keep that there as long as we possibly can that becomes a no override cut you know if we don't get the overide um so go down to uh counting
was it or building we're going to pass Town Clark first did you take out the 5K for the um go up to the uh land use the land transfer take out that
5K right there okay um we already did the accounting thing 25 12 is so what number do you want in there so that number the 68 is the great
F step one that's what you had said earlier yeah that was what I thought I said we could move it to e if we wanted what's E step one I mean the only reason it was at F is because I don't have that
yeah yeah I was GNA say Kathy did send us the E is down here it's a pretty significant in decrease it's uh it's almost 40% unless you started them maybe in the
middle of e instead yeah I'm I'm looking for because look Step One is a 3254 yeah um I would go to the Step 13 20 this is a one-year position yeah it's going to be because it's a term you know
Kathy's retiring before the end of her term she has and then we have to have another yes or or we're working on appointment or we're working to change it from we're taking that up now to see
we can do that so that we have a chance to hire somebody you know right go out for um if we do that we're then we're gonna have to pay more probably we may yeah yeah we may but
we're going to get somebody who's qualified right away right versus a trainee right I just makes good business sense in that position to have somebody that knows what they're doing and as far as public records requests go we should be charging for
those Absolut because we have been getting too many crazy I mean it's not just in towns it's in other towns too if you see it but it's such a waste of time and money it really is unless there's a issue but people have nothing else to do
but just complain about what they didn't like at a meeting it it just it's too much because you're dealing with [Music] volunteers so what do we want to do it should be let's go to the
2950 and see what that works out [Music] to so instead of 68,000 it's like 61 it's like 61 in chain so what is it put it at 58
wherever that is the restroom well um let's just can we see what other places where we can nip and Tuck first maybe that's not going to be 68 so go to the rec department take out
7,400 the town's part of that um assistant actually yeah take out the town's part of the assistant that's down because there's nobody in that position right now anyway p and
right there just make it 10,000 what are we taking out now the see the 17142 okay just make it 10,000 okay so that saves us 7,000 so it says out of this 177,000 10,000 was from
the revolving account and it's reflected in the recap you have it in there now so just so just leave it at 10 make that 10,000 okay get these away from pass these up
[Laughter] to I gota go back up the [Music] highway Z right which is a shame what did we zero good job now go to building and let's take and let's make the permal
link line 12K come down I think you have to hold have hold we took it down in hours already yeah okay so what are we yeah make that which budget was that that's
building building inspector but it I mean that's a place because it's just a net to zero with the revenues right um okay so see where we are now
separate MP brought it up with others already agreement that that maybe can bring in some extra money I already brought it up the Board of Health but lunenberg gets credit for using the town
Zone recycling center as their place where they tell people to go because we're Rec CER that we can have an intermunicipal agreement with them as well what we were told at the meeting on Thursday night by Carla was that if they
take money from for that it cannot be used by the town it will be used only by the Board of Health for the recycling center so it's a point it still impacts the whole budget well it just means it
um it doesn't help to reduce that number the excess capacity number that's all we got yeah that's what I'm thinking how is that um did we do anything on the town Clark building no uh it's still at 68 and then you have that other position
that nobody's in right now I know you said you didn't want to move the 40 but I think we have to move that 40 no she kept it I kept for human resources funded at where it was last year the one out okay I don't want to
take that out I do not want to take that out can it be lowered I don't think we can on that one it's like a full-time job now part time and what I W to if we don't get the override that's something that can be
zeroed um go down to town clerk I mean you could do 35,000 and then the rest is from arpa uh do it at 30 drop at 10 what is that that's the human
resources you work with other like another town as well on to helping with that no it's a full-time position so if it was like a part-time you might be able to share it okay
um so that's 10,000 out of 63 so we're like at 53 that we need keep in mind we haven't even touched free cash or stabilization but but free cash we need
about 120k for for um Capital expenses well stabilization I mean last year uh it was was 136 and it was it's not linked to the other spreadsh he TP number I
think um they didn't link there two different spreadsheets I correct um so where are we at what's our bottom line we haven't changed that town clerk number have we no no
um what number did you come up with originally for what I was doing about that but we could make that a flat 60 that's what I make it a flat 60 but that's even that's
even less than the 2950 an hour and if get these things away from me it's a elected position the fact that you're paid is at all is great in in a sense I mean no I I understand that the job is the job but
by our Charter we do not have to pay it and we don't um it doesn't say all but the town CL it says all elected positions are unpaid right so let's
let's say that we do this and lower lower the amount that is in the pay and the person that gets elected gets the most votes looks at it and says that's not what I saw in the budget I don't want the job anymore I'm
not well it's the budget we what what happens if somebody wins an election and then just says I don't want the and we have an assistant town clerk yeah we do we do but and we have senior workof people who are in that office all the
time and they'll have to pick up the slack I all the more reason to have to cut anything an appointed town clerk as opposed to an elected town clerk if that's the case well yeah it's you know
that's the thing if we too much don't make it an attractive position then and again I get it if if we don't have a trained person coming in it's not the right thing either and
you know how do we know that things AR what are the pays in the other towns I mean I have no idea she had the paper she took yeah she did she she mailed it to to us um do you have it did she mail to me
what was emailed the list of all the town clerk that are uh appointed for a there is a column appointed versus elected elected that you can you can filter and look at at different things
you can I mean I'm not I don't want us to belabor the point over like5 to $10,000 um but I yeah and again if if it's not there you
and we have to hire somebody to do certain things Ashby okay Ashby pays their town clerk 51 small is a smaller town I agree maybe they could do combined they probably have less time
there have an assistant in age and just a town CL oh who's about the same size as us well there's a column for I saw for population and if you just the that call
is I haven't gotten gron is appointed correct yes what did they P um 95 oh yeah so if you column f is I'm looking I
don't it's what no oh wait a minute appointed is appointed and they make 799 you get to hire somebody you're going to pay for their credentials yeah right um well she's been there quite a
while too the person in Pepper has been she has been yeah okay so looking for towns that have about the same as us oh I didn't get
it it was sent to you it was sent to the selectman's email address which includes you I'm in what does nck pay 137,000 get that nck is that like that's
what it cost to live there they probably have a little tiny house about this big if they have a house those tiny that's their budget to get back onto the mainland right there's a lot of appointed ones there are it's see then
you can hire Len is elected 70 9 so there's 243 on this list 101 are appointed so slightly less than half are appointed well look at Hall they pay
26,000 so it's not a unique idea they have 9,200 people 26 split 26,000 I wonder how many hours it is yeah I have to work we have an assistant too know yeah so
C 30 40,000 we could cut the hours um yeah I did the filter elected and um number um the population between 9,000 and 11,000
okay oh you did and what do you get the the average is 79,000 oh sorry yeah 79,80 what's the median can you can you show me the median here's one that's I'm just wondering or the range you know it
goes from where to where like there's a 55 um goes from 26 to at least 108 unapp appointed the same size I mean I'm looking at one that say
8,570 for 11,000 people close to 12,000 people in Weston Weston W is very expensive yes but how many how many people and how much work is there
11,851 is the population and it says 8,570 and it's an appointed position when is this W yeah minut where are we what is the it's 120 that's
120 I was in the wrong say Weston is thing but again as pointed yeah so right right now because we we had to change in in the filter I have between um I have a filter I'm looking at
between 9,000 and 11,000 I switched over to appointed when I highlight the line with the salary [Music] um it comes up and tells me that the average salary is 8788 the same size Town elected is okay
so now I switch to elected and that's 11 yeah 11 and the average is 7988 who gets paid 26,000 or 28,000 whatever that is a position that's H and do they have two people in their
offices yeah that's the other question how many of these are because together and that is no assistance no assistance assist yeah no what is what is the total budget for the town clerk for the two
salaries and the second person makes around 46 the second person 46 she's 80 so it's 125 or 130,000 128 I'm good with 50 we're paying 40 something so that's
almost 100,000 for the town clerk's office okay why are we come in between between the two let's go with yeah let's go 60 and if we have to if we don't get the override we have to cut it down cut it
down so we don't offer the job until we know what it is and the and the dollars don't come out until annual town meeting anyway because it's a warant know we didn't cut the library she said 15 maybe go with like eight you know like kind
go we don't want to um but she said safely they already thought that they could take 15 but we haven't talked you haven't talked to them directly but maybe try what an eight would be there's a we have what this looks different the
library it is because Nelson stopped sharing so I okay okay so good because they have their book you know of $70,000 and I'm just wondering that was just subtract by eight as being a
way yeah that's that's part of that calculation I think for 67 I think we're down to 45 now we haven't free C well we could turn off the street lights and then everybody
would be really pissed I don't [Laughter] I I you know so I think it is possible to to get it down to a manageable amount I don't I mean do we need to accomplish that today
I I don't think so because these are all what ifs and yeah correct it's kind like you're you're in a ballpark you only need 45 yeah and I think we can shap get the over right if we get the we can shake the couch cushions and
come cut the other thing I've done is cut all the um office supplies in half or by 25% well I think there a lot that doesn't get spent there well I think that if and I don't know if um and it's
pennies but it gets you when you're down to 45 it can get you you know 10,000 and people are not using as much paper as they were before a lot of St but do you think if we do we all order at the same time I think that makes sense I think
that makes sense I Doo I mean a lot of these places have free delivery so you know I'm not sure how you would I know it's a cost to the vendor you know coming out to deliver you know four
boxes of pens versus well I don't think You' ordered that well but you know it's just as an example um it it was something that either Ross or Eric hired Harrison to look at and I
know I never saw a result from that study um but it was to um centralized all supplies all the pens all the paper all the you know folders all of that and
to just do an order for all of town hall or you know for the building um and uh you know you could put R Highway into that I don't know where where fire or police gets their stuff like that from but just have a
central repository and order everything quarterly so they come out and they do a drop right you know and that makes more sense and it might be a place that's another place that we''ve gone office
supplies on the fire they have 1,700 for that the police office supplies he's got 4,000 he has to do a lot of public records yeah oh I mean I'm not saying
those numbers aren't justifi I'm just saying yeah I mean so you can it's nickel and dying but you can get it down and and usually it fits within your you're not going to over have to do a Cillian Municipal relief transfer CU you
cut $400 off of supplies but I think you we could charge for when they ask for all these files that these people want public records why couldn't we charge we um maybe Nelson could talk to this but we did we do have the public request
records requests coming up for a reading to where if it's more than two hours we should be charging a $25 per hour for the time that sure because a lot of them are like there's a public records
request for all the files that we looked at for um at Capital planning on whatever day we met Wednesday someone wants all the files we looked at um all
the fire the files the files that were shared for Capital planning yes um and and I'm not chasing those anymore it takes me too long to respond to public request requests that want all the
conflict of interests that I've ever taken all the um uh all the open meeting law trainings that I've ever taken all the positions that I've ever held in town committees elected appointed and
the dates well that should not be public record should have that some of it but not all of it um because she'll send me emails saying where is this um so
anyway these come in and it's time consuming happy volunte I mean even for Cathy it's time consuming and it should be charged yeah because it's anything that isn't just a simple hey where where
are the where's the agenda or where's the file that you looked at you know if it's one thing that you're looking for specific that's one thing but if it's a fishing Expedition that's a whole different SC do you want to adjourn uh I move that we adjourn the
select board meeting at 327 and I second roll callon tell yes Laura shiff yes which also includes the joint which is not a full committee at this point we had we had members that had to
leave because we went so long so I we can still I think take a motion to put your in yeah I move that we adjourn the finance committee join and current meeting we to spend all this time with you