Call the, uh, No, it's Finance Budget Committee review Meeting to order. Today's Monday, June 9th, 30 pm 2 0 1. City Hall roll call. Councilor Solvent. Here. Councilor Be here. Councilor Piggy. We're all here. Engineering Adam, city Engineer. How are you today? I'm good. How are you? Would there be any objection to taking flood control first and engineering second since that's the way they appear in my book? No, anything that is easier for you, sir. Some will. Okay. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Aye.
Start with flood control. Okay. Um, so the only real line item in here is the purchase of services account, which has generally, um, been level funded except for the, um, next phase of the Little River Levy Tree Clearing Project, um, that has been put out to bid. And there is currently a request sitting, um, for the remainder of the bid from what we have currently, um, to fund that this fiscal year. Um, 'cause we have some money available right now.
So, um, that has been cut from this next fiscal year's budget. Um, everything else has generally remained the same. They're, um, regular mowing and grooming, um, our regular inspections of the dams, um, and engineering services that may be required for any of our flood control structures. Um, as well as our, um, permanent and land acquisition for Brook Dam. Um, that's currently in design. The only other line item is supplies, which is, um, a flood control pump station at Williams Riding Way Fuel.
Um, other than that, it's, it's generally a level funded budget. Yeah, only three, three items. That's it. Yep. Okay. My only question, I'll save someone else asking, there's no provision in here for funding the flood commission? No, there is not. Thank you. Thoughts will be my might want to know. Any other questions? No. Okay. Moving on to engineering. Um, so just kind of going down the list, the salaries are all actually the same. We've reached our top step, um, so that stayed the same from last fiscal year.
Um, longevity has increased because our two engineers have reached five years. So they each per the contract, get $500, um, for, for their years of service. Um, purchase of services is generally the same. There is a 6.4% decrease and that is because of, um, new initiatives that shift costs away from the city for our, um, DPS and recording for street acceptances, um, that was, that was cut by the administration.
Um, the remainder is generally for, um, miscellaneous services from our engineering consultants, such as traffic studies, um, or other miscellaneous tasks that we get, um, as well as pushing projects through the design phases. Um, additionally in that line there's, um, rentals and leases, um, software maintenance, you know, purchases such as, um, like AutoCAD or there's, you know, valley bike is included in there.
There's also, uh, software engineering services. There's also near maps. So these are just generally services that we have every single year. Um, additionally with our repairs and maintenances of our vehicles, we do have an additional vehicle now. So that's been, um, included as well. But generally the only, the only significant item in there is the shifting away of de fees and recordings of the street acceptances. Um, next item is applied. Can, Oh, just if you don't mean my just interrupted. So can we just talk about that for a second? So this been on the council for quite some time
and it seems like these processes have been shifting for a lot of different years. And I know I did have a brief conversation with the mayor about fees and he gave me an explanation on the 75,000 that got cut. Obviously it helps with the budget balancing and stuff like that, but can you just talk about the fee structure itself and where that sits? And it sounds like we're, it's saving us money, right? $125, is that what the Number was? Yeah, it's 125 per house that we have to record at the registry of deeds. Okay. Um, right now, Yes. Okay.
So additionally, if there is not a layout plan of the street, we have to have it surveyed because we need to know, we have to have that plan attached to every single de recording. So we need to, you know, we need to have a plan basically saying like, we're taking this kind of piece of land from your house. So if, you know, if there's not that already surveyed, we have to have it surveyed. So that includes the surveying of the street as well. And that is, if that's changing how for the current, like the next year Where we would be pushing it to the property owners. And so it is a,
but it's still a cost of like a $125 for the acceptance, but then whatever still per house and they're paying for that, Not us, right? Correct. Yeah. And then the surveying would have to be divided among the property owners as well. That's entirely separate. The 125 is specifically just recorded at the registry. And in the past when you were fronting all of that, can you gimme an example of what we read with these? Um, so there are railroad leases,
there's shredding services, railroad. Yeah. So that's just something that I think with the right of way, we have to have a lease with it. It's just something that we pay every year with CSX, um, which is, we have in our budget $3,000 for that. Um, and that being said, there's also g and e for lights and cameras at the Esplanade. Um, so those are also included. Okay. Thank you. Anything else? Yeah. Can we go down to the capital outlay?
Are you there yet? I I don't want to jump ahead on you. No, I've not gotten there Yet. Okay. Go ahead. I'm, I'm wait, capital la Um, so I'm, I think I'm, so up until now you're through the general expenses or are you through everything except I have Supplies right now. Oh, okay. Alright. I, I don't have any questions on That. Okay. Yeah, supplies just generally that's the same every year. Off supplies, printing services, gasoline, um, the continuing ed career incentive, this is a a little bit concerning to me because per our contract we all have $2,500 per person.
The mayor's cut it, so now we only have 6,000. So this might be an issue in the future if our engineers use it. I know that I do. But that being said, we are short on that line item per our contract. Um, but that's, that's where that has seen that decrease, um, from 7,500 to 6,000. Okay. Um, in state travel and out of state travel, this is extremely difficult in what our department sees. Um, we have, there is a significant decrease from 12,000 to 4,000.
Um, that being said, we are all engineers and we all have licenses we have to renew, um, and we need CEUs. So, um, these were cut and that's, you know, that's a little bit troublesome and, and you know, just from our, our perspective, but they, this was not something that we did. Um, this was by the administration. Um, so those are just kind of for CEUs and, um, continuing it in
That sense. Just on that point, just in general where it says requested change on our sheets, that's the mayor's budget, those are the mayor's cuts, correct? Yes. Okay. So you've given us the revised 25. So the existing current budget you've given us, I'm assuming 2026 department is what you requested? I requested, I don't, I just mean in general. I don't mean on that specific line Item. Just I, I don't see that from you. I see. Oh, Okay. Alright. The mayor's just Line. Okay. So then the requested change, I'm assuming is the mayor's cuts. Is it, does it say 4,000 on your for instate travel?
Uh, in state travel is a eight. Yeah. There was $8,000 cut. Yes. Yeah. So all the cuts are the mayor's cuts. Yes. Okay. Those are all the mayor's cuts. Gotcha. Um, so I mean this, just to kind of giving you an example, we learned about new, new laws, permits, everything like that coming out. Um, you know, I was also at a conference where we were the driving force kind of to DOT basically to reallocate chapter nine money based on road miles versus their current.
So I mean, we do see a lot of value in these, which is why we're kind of just a little bit, just those weren't archives essentially. Um, moving down the line, general expense, those are for our license fees. Those aren't for the CEOs, those are for the fees. Um, the additional small equipment and the replacement equipment, we don't really need anything in our office right now. So that's, those have been cut. Um, we do wanna replace the tabletop and the engineering office. Those, I dunno if you've been in there, it's kind of gross. Somebody sprayed something on it and there's like green marks on it.
So we do wanna replace it. Just kind of, it's just not, it's not great. So that's in the budget right now. Um, and then the construction. So was there something that you wanted to talk About? No, go ahead. Yeah, no, go ahead. Okay. So, um, this was cut as well, um, because this was kind of, I guess labeled as discretionary. And these are projects that I guess weren't specifically allocated. Um, we do have a list of roads of what we're planning on doing, but that being said, um, it was just kind of one
of those, one of those lines that, you know, it was discretionary. So, um, it was also cut by a million dollars because we received a million dollars of free cash and encumbered that money right now. So rather than the sidewalks next fiscal year, we just did it in June or May. Um, there's also a line in there for police details, um, or flaggers because the city pays for those themselves. Is that separate from the million dollars in addition to, or is that included in the million? Uh, no. So that's not included.
That's an entirely different line item. Okay. So how much, how much was that? We have in there a hundred thousand And that got cut. It's not cut, No. Okay. Could, can we maybe go through you, you took a cut of 1,000,300 24 375. Yes. And I, I get a million dollars of that is the sidewalks. So what's the other 300 and, uh, 24. 24,000. So, okay, so I'll just go kind of go through it. So the mayor cut the full amount of free cash. It was 1.072. Um, he also cut our grant matches. So basically we accepted the grants.
So all of those grant matches will have to come out of the, the money that we are anticipating for paving. Okay. And how much is that? So there's 50,000 for the grant match and then, um, 250 for the shared streets and spaces. Um, I don't anticipate it being two 50, but because we are now gonna cut the project a little bit shorter because, um, we don't have to be going our paving budget. Alright. So that's the entire amount of the cut? Uh, it should be. Okay. Yeah. So then what's left for projects that you're doing for
some 3.7 million? Well, right now all we have is roadway paving, preventative maintenance, police details. And then we are gonna try to do the Franklin Street Safety improvements project. Okay. Can I, can I get the numbers associated with those? What's the roadway payment? So that is gonna be the delta of pretty much what we have left, so, Okay. You want to go the other way? What's, what's the preventative maintenance? So we, we have 800,000 for preventative maintenance.
Okay. And police detail, A hundred thousand And the Franklin Street project 150,000. Okay. I can do the math later. So 9 million. So you're talking well over $2 million for roadway improvements. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions from around city engineer? No. If I can make one request, can you, can you just gimme a one pager on this, the new process for street acceptance Stuff? Can you give that to all of us? Because it's a, I was told that it's not gonna cost the residents anything.
It was just a $125. Once it's all said and done, It would be file, Not per house. Oh no, it's per house. Yeah. So there, the mayor, there's a little bit of miscommunication. Okay. So the process, so we get the request from the city councilors, DPW board planning, um, they all put in their kind of their recommendation. And once we get the final approval, we have to do a layout order that is associated with all of the recordings. So we're basically what we're doing is we're taking a parcel or piece of their parcel. Um, because usually what we see is that the,
um, the home parcel goes to the center of the road. So we have to take from the center of the road to where we want our right outside. Yeah, I understand the process. I, I'm, I'm more, I'm more on the finance side because Yeah. So to be honest, not to get too dramatic on it, but we're, we're hitting residents a lot. A lot of things right now. Yeah. We're finding streets that we were normally paving with free cash or chapter nine, probably more free cash. And now all of a sudden we can't Yeah. Nothing's changed on the state side. It's just all of a sudden the way we interpret something, I'll, I'll give you my street.
It's been paved four times probably in the last 30, 40 years. Mm-hmm. Last maybe 15, 20 years. It's been paid the last time. Free cash had done that. All of a sudden we find out it's not a city street. Yeah. Ridgecrest Drive is not a city street, but Ridgecrest Circle is a city street. So I'm, I'm trying to get my arms around that a little bit. I don't want to take budget time up here. Right. But to charge residents $125 per house that always had never had to deal with that. They all get the road paved is a little bit to take it back, I guess. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not sure what happened back then. Yeah. Um, yeah, and I'm not looking for that.
I, I'm just looking for the, I mean, where we are, where we are, where we're going forward, what, what the purpose Is. So why we have to record each, I guess Yep. Each, per Each person's house is because we have to attach that we're, we're changing basically the layout of their parcel because now from the middle of the road to our right of way, it's no longer included in that deed. So, but is it the city's fault that it's not a city street to begin with? It's, I mean, it's probably either one the developer's fault if it's a new development, But we didn't, but we didn't get the bond and we didn't hold 'em accountable. Yeah. So, I mean, I, I don't,
And that's why I don't, I don't care about that. I guess it's all a kind of a, because a lot of, some of the streets aren't actually like a development. It's, Yeah. Know, there's a lot of ones that have never been city streets, so I can appreciate the Ridgecrest drive's not one of them. So I can just speak to that because it's been on the list for years and Yeah. And now the complaints are coming. So, uh, of course, you Know, and I know that a lot of streets they didn't want to be. Yeah. You know, they wanted it to be their own little private, um, road. Yep. Until it gets to the point where it's like, all right, well we can't afford it now to this point. So I think that moving forward we need a little bit better
of a plan for when there's new developments. Like, no, we want this street. So we're not, you Know, but again, I don't want to take bunch of time out. This is, this is gonna be long enough media, but if I can just get me to where, like why, why is it all also not a city street? What kind of monies are we spending? And you know, I understand the $125 I'd like to see what we spend on a given year is, you know, is that something that we can absorb? I know it's balancing the budget today. I can appreciate that. 'cause it's a tough year. Yeah. But moving forward, it's gonna be a big pill
to swallow for residents get 125. It's, um, but think That I've always seen Stuff done. I think that, um, yeah, it could be a big, you know, a big pill to swallow for $125, but it's better than paying $400,000 shared for the road. I mean, yeah. Yeah. So, I mean Yeah. But, but half the roads you're talking about are ones that should have been accepted at the planning board back when those were Oh yeah. So that is not on the residence that, that happened. And I would guarantee you that almost a hundred percent of the people that bought onto those streets didn't even assumed it was a public way.
'cause it comes off of a major road and it goes into a major road and there's a lot of people living there. So to kind of make it sound like all of a sudden this problem got created by the residents, I think is a total misnomer and unfair 'cause that's on the city, in my Humble opinion. I agree. Um, but I, I mean, I, I don't disagree with you at all. Um, you know, this was again, an initiative that kind of got pulled from the budget. Um, but, And if it's just $75,000 to do it for the year, which I'm assuming is probably more than that, um, depends on how many Streets you do. But I just also don't wanna open the can of worms.
We're just this year we're, you know, we're not gonna fund it in the next year. We're gonna fund it. I feel like this needs to be this universal decision because this is now a, a big push. So, um, you know, I think that we need to decide either way and then just stick with it. So, um, 'cause I think every counselor has some in their ward. There's a lot. There's lot. There's, they're everywhere. And there's a lot of streets that you'd think would be Public private wise. Is there are public wise, yeah. It's almost 50 50 in the city. Oh yeah. And but again, I think that is definitely, I get that. I just, the ones
that have always been thought of as a public road or whatever you want call it all of a sudden is not, that's not sitting right with me. So, uh, we can talk more About that. Yeah. I mean also just to think twist street, which we have a city asset on, is a private road is, uh, a little weird too. So it's, it's definitely an issue that we see in The city. Yeah. I always thought that you could use chapter 90 on private ways. It's could use city money. You can, if it meets the city ordinance because we would do temporary repair. It's a, it's, it's, it's A lot another time. So Yeah. Okay. I have no other questions. No, no.
Thank you very much. Moving on to D Okay. Welcome and enhance. Okay. Thank you Alice. Appreciate it. Thank You. Thank You. Thank you so much. You dropped your, I think if you got A 1 48 for instance, it starts, DPW starts there. Yeah. I start, paper starts one, paper starts someplace else. 1 48, 1 51 Starts the actual pledge. Yeah. No, I'm on PPW. What number is that? 1 52? Well that's 1 52, but 1 48 letter page off.
Okay. Let's do administration first. Seems, is it? Yeah, it says Department of Public Works. Um, oh, well I'm stand corrected. I mean, I have it, but it's not the, It's not, I dunno why, how that was admitted, but, okay. Moving on to, uh, highway. Would there be a way to do that? Or if it's not, Well, I think we could classify it under Department of Public Works, but I mean, I have no problem doing it. Do you guys, how's the committee? Sure, let's do it.
Okay. That's a one pager. Um, Three items. I think the best way that I was planning on doing this tonight, that I would just, we would just go over the percentage, um, percent of changes like, you know, plus or minus. Mm-hmm. And uh, 'cause we kind of, you know, obviously did level fund things. So on this one you've uh, got, uh, three salaries, the director, the assistant director, and budget analyst. Um, the director is not filled. Maybe tonight it will be, but as we speak it's not.
That's right. So I've been in that acting role. And, um, then we have the budgeting. So that, that percentage change is probably from raise, isn't correct on that one. That one I believe last year, city council cut the director position by six months. Yes. Mm-hmm. So this fiscal year for 26, we're looking to fully fund it. So percentage is just the, yeah. Extra Six months. Right. Does that make sense to you guys? Yep. Anything on that? Well, just for quick, what did the extra, What did these six months go? Do we have any idea at this point? I mean, obviously, well these would be general funds, so
that money would just be back In. Okay. So next Is I would actually be Highway. Highway. Okay. The same thing here. Um, we'll do the percent of change if that works. And we certainly can delve into the, you know, details or questions or weeds or whatever you might have. But, so, um, highway we have, um, on full-time salary, you are showing, um, um, 2.51% decrease and that was due to a retirement.
Then we go down to, and if it's all right, just feel free to jump in if there's additional edification clarification needed. So, um, then go down to, um, the next line, the full-time, the 40 hour group. Um, that percent, um, of change is due to we fully funded all vacant positions as they were cut, um, by three months last year. So that's what that shows up. Does that make sense to you? Yeah, it makes, it makes sense. It Are they now filled?
We have been filling 'em. We've probably had more six. Definitely. We are, we are in the process of filling. We've had a really good success in the last, um, I don't know, maybe six months or so where we we're. I think we've hired five or six, um, in the, in the 40 hour route. So that's really been good. And we have, in fact, we lost one last Friday. So there we do play that game, no point. But we've definitely been taking in more than we've been losing For sure. Okay. How do you know how many at this point as we sit here tonight, are unfilled? It's good to hear that you're filling them by the way. Yeah.
Uh, at least from my point of view, I believe I'm seeing three. Three Three. And you've got those fully funded in this budget? Yes. Yes. Okay. Which, on which, which item is that on? I don't want to, I don't want to talk about the wrong one or cut the wrong one. Uh, The full-time hourly employees. Um, we don't have those. Yeah. So I've got 'em actually by classification, motor equipment operator for Him. Okay. So there is an MEO vacant What? Yeah. MEO Motor operator. Motor equipment operator. Okay. Um, a special heavy motor equipment operator. Yep. And then I have a,
was filled another end, uh, motor equipment Operator. So two. Yep. Two of those. Yep. Okay. And I know you don't have a perfect crystal ball, any likelihood that those are gonna be filled anytime soon? Uh, We would hope so. Um, I believe we interviewed, um, last Thursday, and if that person passes a physical, he'd be coming on board. So that might be, um, one that will come off of this three positions we're talking. But then we also, oh, you Had the one that walked Left. And that happens pretty Okay.
Happens a lot to be honest with you. Okay. More Often than like, But as of right now, all those positions are fully funded in this proposal. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. And I, I don't know really how problematic, even though it was cut, if we really got a influx of people and all of a sudden we could, we got three good candidates, if we could petition, you know, city council to say, Hey, we've got these people, could we get money to fund it? So I mean, that, that might be a possibility if that, but I think having the money in place works best. Okay. Um, so
that was first page, page two. That's pretty much, you know, level funding on all of those. You get down to, um, uh, purchase of services, which is a lot of, um, you know, um, vehicle maintenance comes out of that. So, um, we have a newer fleet. We've replaced a lot. We've actually, there's a whole line of vehicles down at the water department down at the highway garage that will be auctioned off shortly. Um, I think I say seven feet. I think it's close to 10 vehicles, um, that we will,
um, be getting rid of. Some of those. Were not direct replacements, we're just, uh, um, we didn't, uh, budget for any vehicles, but, um, there's just no need to continue to pour money into vehicles that are, you know, costly to maintain. So that's where that percent of change comes from. A lot of it is, but having a newer fleet and maintain a newer fleet. 'cause a lot of the associated cost with, um, higher mileage vehicles, older vehicles has gone away. And a lot of vehicles, um, you know, we have warranties on 'em, so we're able to warranty. Um, we do by extended warranties
depending on the vehicle at times. But that's, it's like a, not a standard Way of thinking. I mean, so you don't always do, it could be something in the field rather than a car that Like buy an extended warranty? Yeah, well they're, I mean, extended warranty in a trash truck is like $10,000. Right. So there it is costly to buy extended warranties and, um, trash truck's probably not a good example 'cause we, we do rent those, but we will, we will sometimes build that into the cost of the overall vehicle, um, to, to get an extended warranty. Um, and you know, emissions on diesels, uh,
systems is quite expensive and transmissions and all that kind of stuff. So there's times where it's worth it and other times, yeah, like you said, a a more fleet type, garrison type vehicle, we don't bother. Um, okay. Onto to the next page. Um, same thing here. Um, you get down to in a level funded kind of way, and then you get down to out-of-state travel. I mean that was, uh, per premier's request. We, we, um, we just took that away. So that's a hundred percent.
Um, what was that used for out of state travel would be? Um, well it depends like, so out of, um, conferences, uh, and things like that is what it would be for. You'll find once we go through this like water department 'cause of, uh, license, uh, recertifications and conferences, that, that might, um, I don't believe that's as, as, um, I think we just took a percentage of that off. Yeah. Highway, specifically the, a PWA conference at Frank Lewis store every year, um, is paid outta the highway budget. So next year he just won't go to this. So,
Um, but interesting to note here is some of this we brought in-house, uh, training as well. So I, last week we did a 10 hour OSHA class for about 20 guys. And, um, that actually didn't cost anything 'cause of the arrangement that we made with one of our vendors. So there was no cost to that at all and it was all in state. But had you had something like that, you would've to pay for people to drive and whatnot. So thank you. Um, and then down to capital equipment, um, nothing needed right now that, you know, must be purchased.
So we felt that we, you know, we had a comfort level with cutting that because one, um, and then onto the final page for highway, um, might ask you, and I think we, we definitely did talk about this, but, um, like that 37% for additional small equipment, um, how do we come with that 37%? I think, uh, in the past fiscal years that account, it's more for incidentals. Like, um, recently case needed to purchase a shoring box that had to come out of capital equipment.
So we like to keep a little bit of money in there for incidentals. Mm-hmm. Um, the past couple years we haven't spent the $4,000, so we just decreased it down to 2,500. Um, I think there'll be enough wiggle room that if something does end up happening, we can move some money around. Okay. And we had, um, the 11% for, um, but didn't miss my notes on every one Of these. Looks like the only thing you got left on this page is construction. Yeah. So you took a $75,000 cut. So you know specifically what that is or let me, let me work it the same
way I worked with the engineer. Do you know what 75 grand did you cut out or what's left in for construction projects? No, so the mayor did a second round of cuts and he cut 50,000. It is really just for the pavement and improvement. It's very similar to the engineering department. We work hand in hand with them with the pavement project. So it could be line painting, it could be, you know, getting a second set of hands to do some more streets to help with engineering assist. Right. I I, I think in particular to that one, we, we've been asking for it for a while to pave Potter's Hollow. That's the highway garage parking lot. So we illuminated that on this one.
Uh, it definitely needs it, but if, you know, that's kind of priorities. If this, you know, something in the city seems more, um, you know, we can live with it. If not pay it. It's not ideal, but we can live with it if it's a matter of, you know, it's not an ideal budget by any means. Exactly. So that's what I have for highway. Are there any other specific questions to Highway, uh, I could help answer? Um, Fred 250,000 for vehicles. Is that leases or?
Yeah, so the way, so there are no vehicles. We did have a vehicle in there, um, and I think it will be problematic cutting it in the long term, but, uh, I know, you know, cuts need to be made where they need to make, and that was for a plow truck. We did have it in there. It was 312,000, 315,000. That's kind of a going price for a non CDL um, plow truck. Probably the, any specialized vehicle that takes close to three years to get. So we're just kind of kicking the can. So, you know, and just for, you know, uh,
clarification of that. So we did take that vehicle out, but we took out 1, 2, 3 plow trucks, which one of those would've replaced? And two, we didn't even have the budget, but we're just not, we're just gonna work without 'em. 'cause one needs a, it's, oh my God, I don't even how old that thing is, but it needs a $25,000 body. But the truck has other issues, but it's main problems with body. So we're not gonna spend $25,000 on that's the right way to do it, um, to be honest with you, is to have a economic repair criteria of your vehicles. And that's what we try to do.
Um, so there, when you see where it says vehicles, there's a number there. Yes. PRI that is leases, um, that we currently have open. Um, and I don't, do you, do we have it exactly what that's for now? Or would you want that? I mean, no General idea because the mayor stated there's no new trucks, no new vehicles. Yeah. There 250,000. That's a big number. Yeah. People might think, well, they're trying to trunk It or something. No. And two 50 is more than likely, I don't know if you ever broken it down there unit, but it's probably, I'm gonna guess two
leases, maybe three leases. There's, Yeah, there's two. One of the leases alone is $103,000. So it's, I think it's a bigger plow truck That we've purchased. And we do have two trucks currently in the pipeline right now that we're waiting and we've been waiting for two years. One is a plow truck, another non CDL, which those have been great 'cause it's, you can hire drivers that don't have CDL licenses. They're just, um, they're, they really work out well. And then the other, um, well that's not this budget anyways, but, um, yeah. So you're just talk, Talk to me about the process for paying
for these particular, are they looking for a deposit? Are they Looking for Yeah, so typically we say we're gonna buy a new vehicle. We get a quote, we give it to TM a, we say, um, 'cause it's rare. It has been rare. And, and certainly the last however many years that we don't buy 'em outright, we have done it with, um, undesignated from wastewater and water. We've bought them outright, we an excavator, whatnot. But, um, we'll get the price, we'll give it to TM e she'll run it through two or three vendors. TD Bank, I'm thinking one of 'em, there's a couple of people
that just specialize in, um, in, uh, leases or rentals, if you will. However you wanna look at it. For municipal vehicles, she gives us that number back. It's typically for a plot truck, say it's 55, $60,000. And then, but they want that first payment up front. So we put that first payment down and then that starts the buying process of the vehicle, which usually includes a, a dealer that we buy the truck from Freightliner, um, for one. And then they're, but they're gonna cover the whole cost and it's a state contract that we're purchasing that from. And um, and then there'll be a body component to that.
But that's built into the price that we get from the dealer, even though it's, it's provided by a separate vendor that the dealer works with. And so that's how that works. And then when the vehicle is ready for delivery, then we'll go ahead and, um, we'll make another payment. And that's, and then continue to make payments for, you know, however many years, three years, four years, five years until We get the truck. Yeah. Yes. Sometimes the truck will be paid off before we get it. Uh, that's happened with trash trucks. Mm-hmm. Yeah, we had trash trucks that were almost four years that we, we got them. So, and the trucks were, yeah. And then there is a escrow payback sometimes
because that we waited so long for the vehicle that we'll get money back, um, from the, the leasing company. I, what's that usually run? Sometimes that's in the thousands, right? Yeah. Yeah. I haven't seen it in a while, But yeah. Yeah, that happens once, especially with these long lead times. It does happen. Um, last year we budgeted for a small garbage truck, uh, to go down the narrow roads. Is That used? Yeah. Um, it, that's not in this budget, but yes. So that is currently, I'm expecting that any day now. Okay. It, it hasn't arrived yet. It's a rear loader. It's actually a split body.
Um, and so you have in the S area, that kind of stuff? Yeah, exactly. And you can do XI don't know what the split is, but um, say I think it's four four, um, four yards on the recycles or you could call it whatever you want, but we'll just say four yards on the recycle side and five yards on the trash side. And that's a non CBL truck as well. So that gives, is that manual load for the, it's manual. It's rear loader, but it's cart tipper. So, um, and all the carts that we have, we do the grab arm. That's primarily how we do it, but they're all configured to be able to take a cart tipper
so that they're not having to lift any weight. So that's how that works. Thank you. Good. Have you ever thought of instituting a CDL training program? Yes, We driver, yes. Actually the personnel director and myself, we, um, did a a, a virtual seminar on that, um, to look at the possibilities to that. And I've also, you know, our counterparts, um, that have that as well. And there, there's, it's not quite as easy it sounds. It's, it, it is a, it is an option, but uh, typically then you're gonna have to find,
have a trainer within the department and pay them and all that. And honestly it hasn't happened yet because we haven't instituted. But most of the places that have done it, chicken bean one, that's where it fell short, is the getting a person that they paid, uh, as the trainer to do it on, you know, additional monies. And then do you do the training oncoming time? Do you do it on a Saturday? But there is some, that is something to look at. I, I think personally what they should have is a municipal, um, license that's granted you, it's only good as long as you're a municipal employee,
much like the military used to have. You could drive down, you know, CDL trucks as long as you had your military driver's license, which you already vetted through the military, you could have the same vetting process, municipality, and it would really save a lot of money. That's a good idea. That's not for me. How is the, uh, all trained vehicle working out That's worked out great. They were just doing um, uh, uh, weed control with that the other day. Yeah. That's worked out. And it worked out fine this winter. I know, I don't know if it was you or cons, someone was looking for a map. There was some concern
that we were plowing too much sidewalk. No, Wasn't me, but okay. We, we do Have, you're a downtown guy. You like downtown? I was looking more for the helmets. Yeah. Uh, and how's the uh, dry ice graffiti removal Working the dry ice graffiti? That, that has been a, a little bit slow to, um, to implement, but I'm hoping this year that we can do that. It's, there is a little bit more logistics that, 'cause we do need to buy the dry ice in advance and not only has a certain shelf flight. So my hope is to have that up and running within the next couple months, to be honest with
You. Perfect. Yeah. So, but we've owned it for quite some time now. Right? How long have we owned it? A year? Yeah, we just got, we haven't used it it yet. We've used it, but we haven't put it into the kind of use that, that we probably should have to be quite frankly. And some of that now, uh, parking rec is fully staffed, which has really helped. So that's our, our hope. Perfect. Thank you. Any other questions? No, for dp, the highway for highway. Thank you. Next is land and natural resources. Just so you know, for you, we don't have the total breakdown
of your budget, we just have the total sum so we don't know what's in each, so we might ask you Yeah, no problem. Some of those questions. So, Okay. So that's a, you know, kind of the common theme here. Um, lemme these smaller one parking, No, no Land, I'm sorry. Land and natural, Which I mean quite honestly, they're, they do cross many times. Um, so full-time salary, you've got an increase or the foreman that's more of a contractual, um, type thing. Um, and then again the, you know, we're fully funding the,
the vacant positions that was cut by three months last year. But now where are we with the numbers? I'm not in, is that, So currently vacant in pretty full-time. Hourly are just our tree trimmers. So we've got two vacant tree trim positions. Two. Yes. Um, and then everything else is currently filled. Excellent. One of the issues with the tree triers position is 'cause the way the job description is written and really a lot of DPW 40 R positions are all circled around A CDL. Um, but sometimes the skillset that you really need is a guy
that can cut a tree and understands that which, you know, typical CDL driver's not gonna have that, but it is one of the requirements that they have a CDL. So that makes it a little bit difficult. So I mean, maybe at some point we can figure out a way to, but that, Is that our, is that our thing or is that more of a Statewide Well no, it's exactly equipment. So they're gonna drive a log truck, they're gonna drive a boom truck, all which requires CDL. So you basically, you'd be bringing a guy in that you'd be like a tree surgeon, he'd get out and all the equipment would already be there. So that would be kind of, so that's really it.
Sometimes that's the problem is, um, almost all the vehicles they use are CDL vehicles. There's some smaller ones, but that, the chip truck and whatnot. But, um, I think we, if we put our heads together, maybe we can come up with something that works with the, with the Finding that other towns in the area are having problems finding people with C Oh yeah. Everyone is, yeah. You're competing with, you know, anyone. But it seems like We've been fighting this fight for a long time. Shouldn't we change some Process? I'll pay more. Yeah. Quite frankly. Yeah.
I mean you're asking them to do, they come to do a job at which fact? The guy we just hired last Thursday, he's actually taking a cut. He's been driving a cement truck forever and he's taking a cut and pay. There's, 'cause there's, there is benefits to being a city employee for sure, but at the end of the week you'll need to pay their bills. No one cares about the five benefit plans. Yeah. And so it's either check and they go, wow. Plus what gets taken out, you know, your city retirement, which is great when you retire 'cause a lot of people are gonna have their retirement. But then, you know, you're taking, you know, nine, 10, 11%, whatever it is, your city retirement takes a chunk outta your check.
For sure. So Same question as before. Any looking at the crystal ball, either one of those open positions got anybody on the horizon in a time? Well, real realistically, Yeah. Yes. Realistically we do. If we, um, basically, and this would be something that would work with personnel. We'd hire a person that doesn't have the CDL and then they, we give them six months conditionally to get the CDL or, or something like that. Yes, that's, but their tree, their tree skills would be really good. And that's what we essentially hiring 'em for. And then we really push to get the CDL. Yeah.
Do you have one or two of those Individuals? I think there's lined up at least one. At least one now that I know of. And that's the same problem now. Okay. While they're waiting. If we were gonna hire 'em, they should be proactive and go get it. Yeah. Um, that would be great. But thank you. And I don't know what it is. It's thousands of your CEOs take a class. It's thousands of dollars. Five, I think it's thousand for No, we do, we'll pay them for their license though. But we don't pay for Yeah, that's maybe you could have that initiative. You know, Hey, if you come here with a cbo we'll give you 3000.
Oh, pay for the program. Yep. That's And do sometimes do, do that. And we do it with fire police. Yep. Yeah. So that was page one, page two, A similar thing here. Um, I don't the overtime on that, that's just how that shook out or Yeah. And then historically, I don't think it was just a thousand dollars they cut. I don't think we've ever really gone over 30,000 for overtime that division. So, Uh, purchase of services. Yeah. That was another, that's uh, like 5%. Did we delete item on that? Yep. We cut 10,000 for the mower repair and maintenance.
Okay. Which, you know, that's, you might, you could ask some major break with a mower that then you're gonna need to do it. You might, you know, it, it might work and it, we'll make it work. We just, if we gotta cut money, we gotta cut money. And then, um, supplies, we cut, uh, yeah that was a 20% part of the um, we cut the 20,000 from trees and shrubs as far as uh, you know, having money, the ability to buy trees and shrubs. So it's not like we don't stock trees and shrubs,
but just ability to go to here, wherever and pick them up. Have you been utilizing the uh, DCR program, the Green Gateway cities at all? Yeah, he's been doing a a lot with that. Yeah. I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Yeah. 'cause I know they've been, they got a lot of trees they want to plant in town, so, um, those are free. Yeah, those are free. Yeah. Uh, the state, um, on the next page, um, why is that? Why did that one go up? Is that just a cost of I think so. So, um, it's only 2% but it did go up Our, our tree warden for some of his licensure.
There's at least one of the conferences is out of state that's required for his certification. Um, so I think they just, they left that money there for him. And then we've got, uh, 12% on the next one for um, general expenses. Yeah, I think the cost on, um, I think we got rid of some of the vehicles and natural resources so the insurance costs went down on those so we were able to cut on that account. Perfect. Nice to able to cut insurance. We've got additional capital equipment that was just, uh, effort to level fund that. And I think that's it.
Gotta again, your vehicles are The lease Yes. Of a big truck. Yep. And I, we've got, so is there one payment for a plow truck there? One of 'em, the log loader. Is it the plow truck? No, that's it. That's the, um, that must be just isn't gotta be the last Year That one. Fiscal 26 is its last payment for the lease. And then we have the Freightliner, which is the plow truck that would occur in FY 27. We've got two more payments on that one. Getting there. Getting there. Okay. Any other questions on land and natural reasons?
No, Next is park and rec. Okay. Park and rec. Same deal on the top page. Here's just kind of um, um, contractual arrangements, agreements, um, full-time hourly that's up by 7%. But um, no that's part-time hourly. So those are the playground staff, spray park staff. And it was, I the best of my knowledge or recall, that is one where we didn't fund it enough
and we always had to keep going back. You know, we kind of underfunded it and then had to go back. Which gets problematic, you know, especially, um, I spoke to um, the playground coordinator this past summer in 25 or 24. There was an influx of interest in monitoring the spray park. Um, it's a sign of the part-time employees can sign up however they want to. And so last summer there was a large amount of people who wanted to have the opportunity to go work at the spray park. So the intention here is to make sure we have enough money to, if it does happen again this year, we've got money to cover that. And, and that kind of goes, which is huge that
the next, um, for the um, custodial services, which we paid the school department, that was another one that was underfunded. Yep. So that, um, how, how's the quality of work there? Um, I think it's very cumbersome to how the whole billing of that comes. These handwritten time sheets we get. It's very, um, it's kind of, it's not what I would call modern day as far as how the times account and work being done is getting done. Um, so basically be honest, it could be getting,
it could be getting done, but that's, we're basically just paying a number. Another department. They're not our employees. Right. I don't believe we so, um, I I personally have not. I Yeah, I know. I'm just trying to Yeah, it's okay. Funky, funky system. Yeah. It's just Not, we can't control them. That's, that's big problem. And there's never been any conversations about the time of my life and they've had a lot of summer help summer workers, especially back when they get back from college or high school Break, um, school Break. So, well for like I'm talking downtown cleanup stuff,
putting the mulch in. That has happened in the past. We we haven't done any of that In a long time. No. And I, variety of reasons not getting people or by the time you've got them. Um, yeah, I'm not to say that that's not, not a possibility. I just think it's short money. That's why for something that No, I'd agree. I'd agree. But not nothing in this budget that would speak to that at this Point. No. 'cause we're calling this custodial staff, that school staff and then you have your playground staff that are basically they're cleaning the bathrooms. You know, our guys will go in occasion, well they'll help out if they need to, if they needed to
or restock with supplies. But your face asking that staff to clean The Bathrooms, that cetera. So are they getting, are they getting a desire, are they getting additional monies for working for the city? So they're working for the school department full time and are they doing overtime for us? I believe this is all overtime. But you're, you're just paying the school Department? Yes. Yes. We're saying that, that The school and the school department's billing you for their overtime. Correct. And that's clearly a cost savings. Um, I think it's probably the school's. I think it might even be the custo staffs contract that if you use, I'm assigned to this building,
you use this building at night or off hours or whatever. Yeah. I can appreciate that one of their staff needs to work. Is This mostly like the basketball program they gotta open up and Suburban Adventure Zone? Yes. Those programs. I'm just thinking like middle of the day at the spray park in the bathroom, it gets messy. That would be whoever's that would be a, that'd be a summer help kid doing that. Yeah. Okay. I think the, the school reimbursement one is mostly just the gym. Gym work, like the basketball program you just said Suburban, all those. Yep. The trash for the adventure zone. Again, they make a, like those kids make a lot
of trash throughout those weeks or there. So they usually Jan on site who comes and mps the trash and stuff like that and make sure the bathrooms are clean. So that's really what we're paying for. Good. That is our background. Okay. Any other questions for Parker Rec? No. Alright. Moving on to Snow and Ice. Okay. It's new one. Can You just not have it snow next year? Right. Actually the snow's not bad. The ice killed us, Which it really killed us this year to be honest with you. Um, so on this, this is, you know, one that we deficit spend on however we maintain, you know, a $400,000
or so, um, account if you will. And that's kind of gets us through to start. Um, 'cause it ends in April and it starts at the end of November. So this would allows us to, you know, have monies to be able to engage as necessary. And there also at times there are payments that we make, um, for equipment and stuff like that, that falls under stone ice. So that's kind of what that budget is. And do we have what our spend was on? So I don't have the number I want say we just did it.
Oh, okay. 1.2. Okay. So, which is a good number but, Um, and usually actually we just had this conversation with the counselor. Matthew came down chit chat about it. So what, what was last year's number? Do you remember? Million? Oh yeah, it was at Least a million. Yeah, well I think we had a million free your cash plus 4,000. So was it similar nature in the same cost? Four. It was always, I always thought we had just, it was always a million. Around a million, but this year seemed to be a little bit of spike and it was curious on why the spike 'cause of the lack of Um, well snow.
Well yeah, but so you get, there's any event if this, this Too, Right? Yeah. You get ice events, you get called in, um, by the police 'cause you know you had a warm day now snow covered the road and it's now eight o'clock at night. So we'll send a crew out to, to have to treat that. It's all those little events add up. Yeah. Okay. I think this is the same number I used to budget. Mm-hmm Well I was just gonna say says you got a budget no less than the year before, which is why it's always the same to be able to deficit spend. Okay. So we are at the mercy
of Mother Nature for that one. Okay. The last one under here is solid waste. Oh. So, okay. So waste collection, solid waste. That's, you know, our, our curbside uh, pickup. Um, and that first page is not a whole lot there over time. Um, yeah, that is down a little bit. And that could, we had some driver changes there maybe. Um, and we changed our, um, where we take um, some of our stuff so we kind of get some options sometimes. So they might not have to drive as far, I know we went to Agawam.
It's currently Agawam, we made an arrangement and it wasn't in the contract before, but we met with uh, USA to which is our recycling folks that we, and um, we were taking it to East Windsor and now they're letting us take it to Agawam, which is a pretty big savings, especially when you're driving trucks that get six miles to a gallon. So With the Granby mask here a little bit, I Think we for a little bit. So primarily it's now it's Agawam and then Holyoke for the trash. Okay, perfect. And with all the, uh,
we only have one vacant position in this department. So with all these positions filled, there's less opportunity for overtime. So, Right. And I think that if that person, once we vet 'em out, that will be fully, because that was really a problem for us that not being staffed than it is now. Um, so we're in good shapes now, but So if that one pans out, you're fully staffed. Yeah. Yes, we would Be. Thank you Ash. Yep. But there is, We really need to, there is some room for improvement here to be honest with you, with the route efficiency and that just, that really needs to happen
and I'm gonna try to do my best to make something like that ha happen. The first thing is the cart inventory. Absolutely have to do that and then do some root efficiency. 'cause if you do some comparisons to other towns that I, we are at six trucks. Now, I don't what that breaks down to. Probably doesn't really matter. But, so we're doing the whole city of Westco with six trucks and the town of Agawam similar population. The area size is doing the whole town with three trucks. So that's, they're not, they're Not similar populations? Well, not similar, uh, geographics. Uh, well, I, I take that back, um, carts.
So we're say 11,000. They're in the nine thousands. So it's, it's similar in that regard as far as, um, in, I think we do have a over overpopulation and you know, people have way more cans, just one step. So there's definitely room for efficiency there. Absolutely. Is There, have there, just on efficiency, and I haven't seen anybody around here do it. Is there any thought of having everybody pull their carts to one side or the other of the street? Um, that's certainly that talk has, is come up. Um, it, it does have some cha I think
there's roads that, that would work on. I think roads that, that wouldn't be, you'd put people in harm's way, but there's definitely, um, I'll use, uh, Clark Street for example, that's a down by, um, off of Horn Street by Whitney Field. It's a dead end, maybe 12 houses on it. So he goes down one way, then he backs all the way down the street, turns around in Orange Street backs all the way down Clark Street so he can, 'cause he can load from one side. Yeah. Right. Right. That's a be a prime example that we, in my opinion, excellent opportunity. If I'm not sure to be honest with, if we can just say, okay,
you gotta put him 'em on the side, we'll pick 'em up. Um, that's how we pick them. Or would there be some type of, you know, Other, you know, I mean, I mean I've seen other towns do it that everybody has to put it on the right hand side of the street. Mm-hmm. There's that, you know, to line up with the loader. Yep. And now you're only going down the one street one time. Absolutely. As opposed to having to turn around and go back. Yeah. I think some streets that feel a little on the dangerous side, maybe Western app for example, but I think Okay. Yeah. Your Thorough fairs definitely. But I, In your neighborhoods Like mine, like our street of that, you know, once our street is locked, two blocks
Long West Avenue Court Street. Absolutely. Yeah. That's where we want. Other than that, Yeah, no, I think there would be No, but when you get into the residential sections and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So just seems like it. I'm saying you're cut your travel in half, but, But the efficiency is, is much better. But the arm is the same cycle time no matter what. So a car is, I don't know what it turns out to be, you know, it's less than a minute, let's say, but that's every one of those, that's like when someone puts out seven barrels in front of their house, that's like, we stopped at seven houses. Right. It's the same exact thing there. I mean there, yes. There would be some math for the drive time that he moves.
Uh, just cut down mileage. Yeah. Yeah. So cut that in half. Yeah. So that barrels that nasty. I would hope that, that's a, Certainly The card inventory done this year, that's, I would really like to have that done and um, in the Rod study for Sure. Well, I think the card inventory's really important because of the, the way the new fee came in mm-hmm. That if you have double barrels, you pay double fee. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a lot of money we're gonna leave on the table if we don't have an inventory. Yeah. And the guys are really good, but there's a time they'll pull up
and they go, wait a second, that's says city, the Springfield on it. Or that one says rubber made. That's from they would, 'cause you can just go to Home Depot, you just buy one. You could go on the one. So Yeah, that's, And it's obviously helped. I mean I know we've taken away of a lot of organizations that we used to do Trash. Yeah. So we did, um, the churches start in July 1st. We sent them a letter. There was only one that complained about it. Um, housing Authority. There's a handful, Right? Yeah. Housing Authority. That was in a while ago. That was like, oh, that'd be equivalent to 400 stops. Yeah. We stopped doing that along.
Okay. But the churches, what happened with the church is they had totes and um, same deal. You go to a church, it's got eight barrels, it's like going to eight houses. Okay. So then we said, okay, let's, even if we kept paying for it, it'd be advantage to be doing it in a dumpster format because it's just quicker. Right. So, um, we got, Republic provided dumpsters at our cost to those locations and it just kept going on. No one really wanted to pull the plug and say, Hey you guys, you know, you're gonna have to take care of your own. And finally we just said,
because that was, that's in the thousands at that cost. Sure. Yeah. And then other churches, St. Mary's or whatever, they were paying for their dumpsters all long so it wasn't faired to another church that, so Yeah. And I think the other big one was the schools. Yeah, the schools. So that's their own budget. Yeah, exactly. Yep. Okay. I got nothing else. I got nothing. Good. You're Good with that? Okay. Now we're here. Before we go into enterprise funds, I'd like to take a five minute break. The chair, you can Do whatever you want. Okay. Five minute recess. Thank you
for your understanding. First enterprise fund is sewer 180 8. Uh, 180 180 9 Is the, Okay, so we're one off From May I guess. Alright, wait. So, um, as you know, so we, this 4 49 sewer, which, um, is the collection part part of, um, the sewer division, meaning your pipes and all that type of stuff. Um, and those individuals work out of the highway garage.
They're paid, um, just to set the tone. Um, they're paid, uh, out of sewer. They work down, um, at the, the highway garage. But the, the budget really falls, you know, it, the money comes from the sewer fees. I guess what I'm trying to say. So what do we got here? We look at, um, you know, some contractual stuff with the, the 4%, um, increase up above. Um, I think, well, we're really good people wise. Um, there's one special heavy, um, equipment operator, um,
that's left unfilled. So that's really, that was the bulk of a lot of people. We, we hired a, a significant amount of folks in there. So we're in good shape there. Um, same question. Likelihood that person's gonna get Hired. That is a tougher one. Um, I mean you could get, you know, we could put that out there 'cause we'll get 'em where people come in and they just applied to be, you know, an NEOA truck driver and then you find out that guy's got a hoisting license and all this other stuff. And did we cut that? There were provisions in the contract that they got bumped into the next step. If they had a Class A
or they had that we, we have the ability that we could pay them. We, Yes, the 40 hour contract now has language that if they're hired with specific licenses, they can be put into those certain positions. Um, I see a lot of times, especially with the special heavy, it's a promotion within. So somebody who's really worked towards getting more licensure and more certifications. Mm-hmm. So an MEL will come in as an MEL and then at some point they'll get promoted. I believe we have two down there working on that track right now that are getting their hoisting licenses. And, um, so there's No, isn't saying it's just no communication when someone
applies, you don't, when the resume doesn't say that, their information on their application doesn't Say that. Uh, it's pretty if that online application. I know it is crazy to read that thing. It, it's like it's done in Crayon It way. It's, but it is, it's it truncated. I I love it when they, because not all of 'em do. When the individual fills out the, the base application's real simple and then a resume that's way better than the online thing. It's crazy. That online thing. Yeah. I think there is an area for, you can, you can put your license but sometimes, you know it is there. Yeah. So when they usually come in for
after they've been, um, offered the position, they'll come with the licensure and you take copies of it and that's when we kind of figure out what do you have and what you don't have. So, Okay, Good. Thank you. And sometimes just the ability to do that kind of work, the license would be kind of the simple part. The guy grew up on a farm and he knows how to run equipment that Yeah. That hoisting license is really just a safety test. It's not a hard thing to get to be honest with you, But You look like you requested one less MEO. It might have been one of those situations where it,
we filled the MEO position, but it was in like a promotion. They ended up having the licensure. So they're HMEO? Yes. Which we tried to get just to have just the one, basically the Two. Oh, okay. That wouldn't make sense. That number doesn't match year. A little pay you pay more for the ME anyway. Yes. Okay. Yep. Alright. Thank you. And I don't think there's anything different in those two there. I Think it just, I think You just have to be heavier for the other one. Yeah. Uh, next page.
That's kind of all, I mean the, the health insurance, those kind of numbers working in this compensation, those numbers are given to us, um, By Others. Um, and then you go down to supplies, that's, um, again, that's a new fleet, lower repair cost kind of thing. Um, for the most part, we, at some point we're gonna need to, to, obviously we don't have any, but we will need a new factor truck. That is, that's a real key piece of Swiss army knife kind of piece of equipment. We are gonna need to buy a new one of those for sure.
I think we just spent a significant amount of money on that 20 or 30 grand. It's a, it's a $500,000 vehicle, but we definitely gonna need to buy one of those for sure. Um, do you have any questions? Anything else on that? That's, I will when we get to the rest of the sewer and wastewater to Treat the whole. Okay. But in this one, are we good with sewer or? Yep. I And, and the, the sewer fees cover this. That was my Questions. Oh, that's just, I was gonna Wait until the next one all We'll wait, the next one you can Hold it Know it's coming.
Okay. Sew waste water department. That's where you want to go. Well, no, that's next. That's next. Any other questions that Yeah, no. Okay. Sew waste water department. Okay. This is, um, so you see a reduction there that, um, it was a resignation, uh, by the, um, deputy superintendent of water. Um, and that still remains unfilled. So I think we've had Yet, we have not been successful with that at all. The first group of people we got that, um, it
didn't, no, we didn't go any further with the applications there. Then we did the second round of app, you know, advertising and got one individual and he did have the, um, the license. But, you know, in my research it looked like he'd only, he had never really worked in wastewater. He might've went to school for it or not, but I think he worked maybe for Target or TJ Maxx or something like that. But he did have the grade six license. But, um, and he was currently working for wastewater. I think it was an athol, but I did the math and it looked like he'd only been there three
weeks or four weeks. So, um, I, I did try to contact him by phone to just kind of get, um, you know, just talk to him over the phone, kind of get a little, um, intel on him and, um, I wasn't successful to reach him. So we are still on that. Um, we are, I don't know if this won't be reflective of that, that 6%, but it's gonna happen in the next few days. So then our head treatment at plan operator, he retires next week. So, um, we will be down a head treatment at plan operator. We're not, we're not destitute that we won't have anybody
'cause we had, um, uh, we have two internal folks that have those licenses and one, one of the operators stepped up, went, got all his license. In fact, he's actually been, um, uh, working, uh, out of grade, um, as the, uh, head treatment plant operator's position. So we're, we're okay there. Um, it's not the best scenario, but I, I think we'll be okay until we can get some, and those are not easy jobs to fill you. Those people aren't just walking up the street. So, um, we're down.
We do have the next one down for the full-time hourly. We are looking to, um, we don't have this position. We're looking to hire someone for, to create it and hire someone. And that's for a SCADA technician. We spend a significant amount of money on SCADA and SCADA is how we control our, all our treatment plants. Um, we do have a full, which is a lot of this is electrician type stuff, but there's certain scada uh, programming matter logic and all that that you, you know, kind of need to have a skill set. We have a SCADA company that, um, provides a set service.
It's currently, uh, Aaron Associates between the two divisions. We spend, uh, a lot of money on SCADA. And um, it's complicated. It's uh, uh, you know, all the plants are just loaded with it, but it's definitely something we need. And, um, we saved significant money with the electrician and I believe with a SCADA technician, we'll, um, be able to cut our SCADA bill and our Aaron Associates bill down significantly. So that's what we're looking to do. Um, with that position. How hard is it gonna be to find somebody?
Uh, I think we could, um, well, yeah, I think we could find someone. There's people that have approached us that are interested in that. Um, it's similar how we did when we did a, I'm not saying someone's preselected, but that's there, there's interest out there. Okay. Um, and, uh, yeah, I think we, I think we would be successful in, in, in getting that, um, we're allowed to. And I think that we could come back to you and show you the savings once that person was, was hired. And especially, um, one of the qualifications for that obviously would be, uh, an electrician as well.
So essentially you'd have, um, two electricians, one having more, um, you know, more skill than the other, um, with programming. Yeah. So as it is now, so say we had to change out, you know, a particular component, say an ultrasonic sensor, we change it out, which is what the scada, uh, person would do. But then there's a programming element to that. And then that's, even if we change out the sensor ourself, you have to have Aaron Associates come in, program it and do all that so that, you know, I dunno what their current rate is, it's up there. So I think each water and wastewater have their own contract
that doesn't exceed 50,000. So collectively we could pay Aaron's a hundred thousand dollars for SC to work easily Where we Could pay an electrician. I think we put it here, 85,000, which is on the high end. So if there is a, a cost savings there. So yeah, So, and you have him right there, there would be some, um, you could have, you know, on call, that type of stuff. So there's, there's definite advantages to that. So, um, so that's that page. Uh, next one. So we had a cut out a grade here. And is that alright? I think historically because, um, the out
of grade specifically for this division is really just meant for when someone's on vacation or on a leave. Um, I anticipate with having the deputy position vacant, we might at some point need more money in there, but, um, usually there's no problem finding money in other accounts to backfill that one. So I think we were comfortable leaving it at, um, what we asked for. And then if you go down to, um, well we're gonna have Ken, we've got, I I have a retirement currently on that or is that gonna be Ken's retirement? Is that projected that 50%? So the, that number comes from Liam
directly, uh, for retirement. He looks at, he said I had an email from him. He, he pulled a report each fall that provides him with the figures of what was paid out salary for each department over the prior 12 months. So if it's a fully filled department, the retirement's going to seem higher. So we have been able to hire a couple positions in this division. So for next fiscal year, there's an anticipation attack. It's gonna be higher, But you're covering social security, retirement, workers' comp and health insurance. Life insurance. You're covering all those expenses in here.
Mm-hmm. Yep. So the general fund is not paying those, correct? No, Um, severance. So again, with our, Well Ken, it is On, Um, with our foreman retiring as of next week, we have an actual severance figure. So we were able to actually to the 12,606, $6 and 60 cents Payment. And, and if this was a severance from a general fund, that would actually be, uh, personnel providing that we'd have that number. So, but on these, it's, So just, just on technical, you said next week, so, So That is, are you not paying him
until the next fiscal year? I Think it's a three year payment. Oh, they took that. Okay. Yep. So this is gonna be his next year payment. They're able to pull back their retirement at any point, right? They what? When they announced their retirement, they can pull that back at any Point? Yes. Typically you give a, a year in advance and then that allows retirement board and the city to prepare for that. Um, but yet people do that all time until you walk out the door. We've had people that say they're gonna retire and it's like, it's always seems like it's, oh yeah, you're retiring this and it's like, okay, then that comes up some good. Yeah, that thing happens a lot.
Yeah, I think with Ken, I think we've been putting that severance in there the past couple years. Situation Where it makes it difficult is you, you know, you're gonna, at some point can have a loss there and you can, let's fill it, let's get that person in there, but that can't, can't hire another person while you employee. Um, and then on the next page, you know, that's all the, the, um, you know, gas and electric and that type stuff. Um, the only percentage change there is on supplies and that's 15%. And, um, we just made that just to as a,
I mean, because A reduction measure or just to, um, I think the purchase orders were looked at Reflected To. Correct. Um, let's see, is Aaron on that one? It's just for Point of reference Purchase services. Yes. So that's included under purchase services we budgeted for electrical and technical, which was the SCADA system, generator service. And the hvac uh, was 79,700. For Aaron. Yeah. Alright. Yeah. Aaron's and, um, the generator. So the, yep. Yep.
And is the gas electric under purchases services? Yes. That one is. Oh, there was one more Page on there. $600,000. Was that on page four? Three. Okay. It was page Four. So you, you guys good with page three? We would go to four As. Yep. Um, dramatic there. And then, So I know what INI is, but why is it, what, what are you actually paying out of that? Historically that would've gone to engineering and it would've sat there till it built up
and then a project would've been done. Yep. Um, what we've been doing now for the last several years is really doing, getting there and doing projects that need, you know, that need to be done Cut down, that are specifically the only real purpose of them is I, and I, I mean, I'm not, I'm not questioning that IIE no, I no in flow. I know, I know it's always been, IIE Though historically it was always used to, um, install sewer services on the streets. Oh, okay. Um, I think that has shifted just with,
um, the current mayor. Yes. And The city engineer. Yeah, the city engineer. And I think at one point Jeff Elli had said, you know, if we continue to add the sewer lines, the treatment plant's not gonna be able to take in the waste. So, well Some of the, um, permitted exchange for us too. So, um, the, the maintenance of uh, like our stipends and that type of stuff, um, that we do have issues with. That's, so do you have projects identified under I and I for the half million Dollars? Yes. Yes. I do not have that in front of me, but Okay. Yes. So, so, so I don't need it tomorrow or anything, but before take the left 30th.
Yeah, that'd be good. If you could, that would be under the capital. That was Always a concern I had is you got the money and I we're not using it. We're putting in the source and we haven't fixed the problem With the, but we've definitely been fixing things. The, that was real hard film to swallow. Not been, I think Jeff always wanted to use that money to also use on the booster stations too. 'cause that's also, you know, the same idea. So, Which those are in really good shape. Yeah. He did a good job of those. So built buildings and plant capital improvement, those are pretty drastic declines As of right now. There's no projects on Horizon for the building.
They just finished, they're finishing up a new operation building. Mm-hmm. Um, so as of right now, there's no projects. Okay. Um, they're un designated and very, very healthy. So I think if, you know, happy fiscal year something needs to, something comes up or we have another project, we can take it out Because that's almost a little over 700,000 that you're cut. Yeah, that's A lot. Okay. Jeff had a lot of things that he was able to start before he left. Um, and a lot of 700 coming, I don't think, I think we voted for most of them. And just the additional capital equipment, you've got an increase of 137,000.
Oh, that's the towable generator. Okay. Yeah. So that's a, we have the towables, but yet, um, he had, he actually has one that water department, paid division paid for. He's, they've been using it. Um, but they really, um, with the new two new treatment plants that came online, it's kind of vital for those wells to have. We had got, that's what we bought them for, to be honest with you. And then, um, we had the ability, some of that stuff was online to lend them that one. So that was, that's what this is for, to buy one that sewer will have for their own, you know, say
To deploy. But, and you're not paying for the waters at this point? We're not, or at least as of fiscal 26, you're not paying for waters piece of equipment? Well, it's already paid for. We're it's on a loan to them. We're not billing them for it, but, um, that's what you're asking. Okay. Kind of. But you know, I take that, so the police station, their generator is down. They currently have one of water department's, generators. Um, we freed one up that was, I think the health department owned it.
We're gonna switch it out. But you're looking at, that's like six grand a month if you were to rent one from a generator company. Mm-hmm. We have it. Um, we're allowing them to use it. You know, we made arrangements that we can, you know, work around, um, if, if, um, if the need aro arose. And then the tech center, they just replaced their generator. They had one of our towables for, I don't know, two months now. There again, that would've been another $20,000 worth of rental cost if, you know, we had, so there's a benefit to allowing, um, others to use it. As far as I'm concerned.
Yeah. I just wanna make sure the right people are paying for it. I got no problem with everybody letting everybody borrow things. That's great. Saves money. I'm all in. I just wanna make sure the right people are paying This. Oh, if, if we go through with this, this will just help us where the wastewaters gonna have our, their, that one at their, you know, disposal. And then we're gonna have those, um, the critical ones, larger ones for, uh, wells, uh, seven and eight and, uh, one and two. Those do not have permanently cell generators and the plant can't run without water that's flowing. So we bring one down that's needed. So.
Okay. Any other questions? So now ask a question. Go ahead. You do it. You'll do it. So you got, if I, if my math is reasonably close, you got about a $6.8 million budget for sewer. Mm-hmm. What's your income? Um, I think for fiscal 25, brought in I think a little over 7 million. Okay. What's your undesignated? 3 million. I think that's what I heard last. Okay. I mean, I know we get that report every, every month anyway, so Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thanks.
Moving on. Storm water, Storm water. Um, So yeah, on that first page, what really jumps out there is that 28%, um, change. And that is in, for the only employee that's paid out of this budget is won't, this is for a full year, uh, 12 months, um, of having that new employee. So that's that, you know, she'll be a, a full year employee now. She, we hired her midway through the last time, so
I believe I have that correct team. Yep. And health insurance one update. Yes, that's Covered. Yeah. So you've got a reduction in supplies. 13 grand seems like a lot. Um, page one, I think there was, again, we, we, the purchase orders, um, closer this round and there was just some money that was not needed required. Well, for one, you have a sweeper, the city own a sweeper. It's basically, it's up for sale on the next auction.
So that's, we've been contracting out the sweeping so that, that significant, um, dollar amounts, not having to, um, buy parts for that thing. It's, yep. So that's Okay. But then you've got a vehicle increase of 40 grand. That's because, and That's what, that was The 40 on the other end. Yeah. So, but how is that showing here? That's interesting. So if we go back to four 40, Uh, 4 49 4 4 9, cran had mentioned earlier the v truck that we really needed to purchase. Um, the idea is that we would split the payment of
that's exactly what that is. The, uh, the v truck between the sewer and the storm water. Just because it's gonna be used for both divisions. Okay. So is that only showing 40 there? It's only showing 40 on stormwater. 40 On stormwater and 40 on sewer. So we're looking Yes, That's, so It's an $80,000 a year. We split it between the two. That's a, that's a lease. Yes, it would be. Yep. Okay. And then you've got a $50,000 increase in construction. Is that, do you have projects for that or is this just placeholder or, Um, I know we have it listed here, the Park River Circle upgrade, I think because, um, I know that one's been going back
and forth between the commission and the city. Um, I think it was just in anticipation that if there is some work that needs to be done, So that whole project is $200,000. No. So there's also, there's A request change, but it Kind of looks, 'cause it's 30% Increase it looks like. Yeah, yeah. They, this year, one 50, this year was only one 50. Oh, I didn't even look there. That's right. No, no, no. Yeah, you're right. It's 33% of yours. So that, so Park River is 200? No. So we have Park River Circle, um, Culver Repairs and upgrades at four 20 Union Street, Bates Road
and Northwest Road, KA, CHASA Street and West Road and Northwest Road drainage. So there's a list of projects that we'd like to cover, um, for stormwater. And What, how much, how much income did you take in on that? No, This one's the special account. So it depends on what you bring in. I think the prior year, Um, We did, I don't think we break, to be honest. I'm not quite sure. Okay. I can get that number for you. That Would be helpful I think. Yeah.
Um, but I, you know, with working with the audit department, um, this number wouldn't be presented if the um, revenues couldn't support it. That's what we did last Year. Yeah, last year I think we did ask for like $400,000 in construction and she came back and said, you have to cut that. You're not gonna be able to support that. But your overall budget is 8 82. Yes. So you're raising that much. And I don't wanna put you on the spot if you don't know, we'll get, I'll get that number either from Vicky or we do get um, report. We do get a report. Yep. I can Is it, is there an un undesignated fund balance? There Is. Do
You know where it is? Off? Okay, I'll get that. I'll get that number as well. Okay. Thank you. Something. Any additional questions for storm water? No. Okay. Water. Okay. So, uh, first page on that, you see if those, that's kind of contractual stuff. That 1.5 then, um, you go down to that 10.42 on the hourly employees. That's, we moved, some people moved around. Um, we had a guy in distribution that took on, um,
Uh, a Uh, treatment plant job. So just salary wise there was some differences in, in pay the way that worked out. I Mean That's it kind of in a nutshell really. Yeah. Um, him in particular, did we do that with one other guy? I think it was The Most recent, um, transfer we had for, 'cause they, the jobs, when a job comes out, it goes internally and people, um, can bid on it. This individual individual worked in distribution.
Actually it was cross connection. He had moved into cross connection for a while and, but he's been really good about getting his licenses and he actually had treatment plant license. So when the treatment plant job, um, opened up, he went up there and he currently is there. So that's, that's what that number is. Um, there's nothing really on page two that's jumping out. Um, do, are all these positions filled? No. There are some vacant positions in This division on the distribution side of things. Okay. Uh, can you tell me how many, um,
we've got one long-term disability that's just jumping right up there. Uh, maintenance craftsmen, he's been out. We're trying to work on that. Uh, as far as, um, we're gonna have to pay workman's comp anyways, but to just retire him, you know, voluntary involuntary retirement. Um, you know, those are kind of, kind of hard, hard conversations to have. But I think that will be happening in the, in, in the coming months. So that's essentially, that's the person we don't have that we've been paying for. And what else have we got there? So we have, uh, a vacant data reader and then I've got 1, 2, 3, 3
Vacant, um, maintenance craftsmen, Which is problem. And where that becomes a problem is, and it's, it's a problem being able to hire people, but a lot of that work water main breaks, that means that's all contracted out. And this is where when people talk about increasing money, where would you get the money? We're already spending the money. 'cause that's all prevailing wage. So you get a contractor come in, you're paying all those guys a prevailing wage wage. And I'm not saying we would necessarily have to pay to that rate, but if you paid close to that rate, you probably could get those folks that work for the contractor come work for us.
And we'd be better off that. We have the employees, they, that situational awareness, they, everything would just flow so much better. But we're just super dependent on contractors and thank God we have them and some of the contracts that we have in place, but we spend an awful lot of money on contracts. You think salary. That's the reason why we're not able to hire. Yeah. 'cause and they'll even, especially you, the young guy, he's working for a contractor and he's making, I don't know what the going rate is for a a, a labor I think is $50, $60, you know,
so I mean the, the the craftsman, if you got five of 'em, you're only paying 50 grand. Yeah. That's what it's paying. Yeah. So even if you yeah, if you do the, do that math and go, my God, you could increase all their salaries dramatically. You know, and um, yeah. And when I say that, I'm saying that and, and not to anything against the current employees because that might benefit in some ways, but that you would hire to that level and bring that level that, do you have to drag those salaries up as well? Uh, you probably would, but if you're gonna do it the
best time is when you're low. Not if you were high in, in numbers. So We're still playing catch up though. That's the problem. Yeah. So I, it's really something that should be, and it has been looked at before, but it's how do you, how do you make that happen? I know, I think there's a, and then of course that would go, you know, into the, the general fund type positions as well. You would have to do that would only be in these. But there's definitely, um, something to be said to, to get those kind of people on staff. We have the equipment, we certainly have the equipment and to just get that level of, um, Expertise. Yeah. Okay.
Um, page three. I mean those kind of numbers again, that's, I don't wanna say it's out of our control, but I guess it's just numbers that are presented to us over time. You see a 30% reduction on that. And I mean just 'cause over time is always a hot topic. Um, When You say a reduction, we're actually not seeing a reduction. Did you ask your, did you cut it yourself? So I'm not, did we just cut that Again historically because you know, if we budgeted 115,000, we've only spent 80,000, we're really gonna budget 80,000. So, okay.
So historically, historically the 80 grand is what you've spent. Yes. Okay. And that's all you've asked for here. So just so you know. Yeah. Okay, perfect. Are we anticipating anything here that six months down the road should be coming across for free cash? No, that hasn't been discussed at all. I mean, I would say any of these departments, I probably should ask across the board because we had a lot of that last year right there a lot. But that would really impact this budget. Right. So I mean, I guess within that, this particular one, right. But what about the ones passed? Do we just have conversations with, is there anything at the top of your mind that, because all of a sudden, you know,
you gotta replace a vehicle in six months, but we did it because the mayor's saying that we'll have free cash. Yeah, actually, um, well, and I, you know, if there's The factor truck comes to mind for sure. Something like that. Um, that'd be great if you paid for that free cash. Just freed it up. Yeah. Increase in supplies that, you know, could come down the road. Like any contracts being, You know, Done. So you, You know one. Yeah, that's a good point. One thing that happens all the time and yeah, I think we have this conversation internally a lot. Um, stockpile all our, um, all the stuff we need
to raise structures. It's basically steel, uh, catch basins, manual covers, that type of stuff. Stock it. 'cause happens if I'm, I'm hoping it doesn't have to just go around, but we've got a certain amount in on hand. You're gonna pay X amount of streets. They're gonna go and raise, you know, 200 structures, that's exaggeration. But they're gonna go raise those and we're not gonna have the steel and we don't have the money to buy it. And then we're scrambling around moving money from accounts, which that happens. But that would be nice to have a good solid number
to be able to keep that stuff in stock. And just so it goes, you know, It Goes much smoother. Um, I Think we're gonna be okay, but that, that happened, I think we can Yeah. But it's hard to, hard to answer. I know. Yeah. But I think we can do looking for like 130 grand or something like that. 140 last year. Yep. And that's literally they're ready to pay. But we don't have the, The So is that in supplies, the steel you're Talking about? That would under under supplies. It would be under supplies, yeah. Okay. 'cause you're looking at about a 25% increase year over year on that. Is that for those structures? Um, and some of that is on the water side, but um,
But mis budget it has on the water side. So the supplies specifically for water also covers chemicals and testing or uh, just the chemicals. Yeah. Um, so we see, you know, sometimes three to 5% increase on the chemicals alone. So, So I'm a little surprised to see almost a corresponding decrease on purchase of services. So how in the world were those going down? So again, because of revenues for the water department, we had to shift around. Oh, okay. And look at what we could cut. We couldn't cut. Um, so I believe we cut, we don't,
because we're low on the employee side, we're not using vehicles as much. So we cut on some of those services. Um, So if you, we just go to the elephant in the room. So you've got a total cut of $353,000 year over year. Mm-hmm. So what are the revenues that you, and I realize we still got one month left here, but that you've collected. Are You, so for water, we have collected as of last Friday about 8.1 million.
So again, if the next couple weeks we've seen another a hundred thousand, which is generous, we're looking at about 8.2. 8.3. So you covered this budget, but just barely. Okay. And there's obviously no reserves. There is gonna be some reserves. That's what we brought into revenues. We've only spent a little over 7 million. So, um, So your last year's budget was 8.5. We're not gonna even spend close to that. And you, you're only gonna spend seven of that? Yeah, about seven And a half. I mean, I realize we're talking ballpark here. Yes. I anticipate having money left over. Okay.
I spoke, I had to, I had a conversation with, uh, the audit department this morning about a specific project for the water department and I had her look at the numbers that I had looked at and she's also agreed that there's gonna be a little bit left over. So we should have some and to cover the deficit for the end designated and then leave a little extra for un designated for next year. Okay. Um, I think when we voted the free cash to pay there was supposed to be, does that include paying back the general fund? I'll have to check with Vicky. Okay. Um, she, when she had responded to my email this morning, she said there was one other calculation she needed to do
and I don't know if it's that or if it was something else Because when we voted for the appropriation to mm-hmm. For the, the, the, yep. The stipulation was that those monies would go back to pay reimburse the general fund. So, okay. I anticipate. And we can also ask her too. She, yeah, she's not been in yet obviously. No. But I anticipate that there'll be enough un designated to cover that as well. Okay. So have you seen increased revenues as a result of the rate increase? Yes. Is that all out so you can track at least, what is it? The last quarter? Yeah. So as of January was the increase
and we have seen a, an increase to that, so. Okay. A lot of rain out there. Well, and a lot of people still think well, and a lot of people still think you got a ban on too. Right. So Give off and then the letters, I mean I know I'll just go off my neighborhood. There's significant less water being used. I mean, they sent out the letter saying you can only do it once a week and then that went away. But, and I'm not saying send out another corresponding letter. No, no, we're not gonna have to do that. But we weren't, we were obligated by that. No, no, no.
Yeah, the state required. No, no, no. We know why it happened. Yeah, no, no, no, no. I, yeah. Nothing to do with you. You followed the rules and it's kind of an antiquated way of doing it. Not letter, but, but the letter went out so everybody got it. So I'm just gauging off my neighborhood. Yeah, yeah. Significantly less watering going on. So that's gonna obviously impact the revenues. Yes. Which is the only thing, you got to hit these numbers. That's why I was wondering if you've seen it because this last quarter has not exactly been a dry period of time. Yep. Okay. We set? No, I think it's less. I'm good. Yeah.
Any other questions? No, she just, you'll get me those numbers, whatever. Yep, that's Fine. Thank you. Thanks. And then you're good. Rest Everybody that Yeah. I wanna thank the engineer and Brian and Hannah for coming in tonight. Appreciate your candidness and the work that you put into this budget. Thank you very much. Nice job. Appreciate And our, and our public participation. Yeah. We don't have public Participation here. I Know. Was here. We have a public hearing. I understand. I expect a lot of comments on, so. Alright. Alright,
Motion. Motion second. All in favor? Aye. Meeting as adjourned. Seven 14.