let's bring tonight's meeting to order of the finance committee you need to bring the board Jo okay I'd like to call the meeting of the select board to order and start us off with the finance committee's
agenda thank you okay um as our agenda first of all review and vote to approve the meeting minutes from February 18th 2025 do I have a motion I
was you were not here okay accept minutes written okay JD you were not I can okay um okay so we will go around those people who were here yes PA yes yes yes yes okay
and sure you um I don't think I vote on their minutes no this is have we been doing do it separately we'll do our okay
um okay the next piece of business for the finance committee and the select V is to um discuss the submitted operating budgets for Frontier Regional and wle Elementary School presented at the last meeting I asked uh Pete to put this in
because I felt that there was um there was a lot of information that came out that evening there was discussion and we may need some clarification or um some thought as
to what's being requested and U the the impact of those requests so would anyone like to open that up regarding let's start with the wly elementary school because
that is obviously nearest and nearest to our hearts and through our wallets um yes I did I did have a question about that the principal
s um increased 36% and I was wondering what the reason for that was okay one of the things that we're going to do here this evening as these questions arise Jess you make sure you
capture them um in case you want to put them in another U document to send to whomever needs to answer this it's gone up 36.4% that it's they were all at 100K previous years and
there was a dip last year for some reason may was said a new principal no same princip I think last year they funded out two different Mone yeah they might have used the contract that's what they did yeah
yeah because they were able to utilize the like the relief fund as salary supplemental so it helps reduce operating budgets while the person still right salary okay all right my
other question on that uh is the par professionals just to step back that do you still have the question or no I'm that's fine I canot that's fine if you go through the items something that strikes you 233 the par
of professionals um instructional assem 233 z um it's increase 97% now is that because he did say that they needed
two more that's the reason yeah okay there two more one to one yeah for one one sub students okay that's fine and then in in custodial
Services 4110 which is 41 there's an inrease 31 s and I'm just wondering did they increase in numbers at the
school or what happened there don't have any answer um so we will pass that along I don't believe the custodial staff um operates on uni contracts the question was why is there more repair professionals no oh we took care of that
the question custodial custodial Services yeah in salaries there's an increase in salaries of 31.3% no Dam's retiring this year well have they increased the number of cust
custodians or cleaning people but there was also a $112,000 dip the year before right right yeah same thing with with funding that's coming in okay fine see there something in travel why
do they need to travel when did they travel they have travel expenses it's not very much butel anys sta or even
principal most all right okay maybe these the same um oh does anyone else have questions for wait weight everyone anyone have another question regarding the weightly line
item budget I have a couple question you finish yes uh 3300 why did that welcome the dropping $33,000 over the year more in line with previous years but something must have
happened year that's not to happen this year the state is coming yeah you can see that 35,000 being cover the on the 4220 maintenance of
buildings is that enough to take care of the elementary school I've heard it's pretty 773 right you have well more the $33,000 it's in for General repairs
well actually General repairs and supplies it's 25k enough to keep that school to be I don't have any inside with the jar you could certainly told for the school like we did a year ago but it was me and Jim
kall and Tom Mah that went there and meeting with Bill who's director of facilities for all of the schools his budget that he gets from us is the bare minimum just to have the fire Ser alarms inspected and the bare
minimum things that he has to get done there's not much extra dollars for not just Capital Improvements but any kind of repairs right there yeah it seems like it's a small amount thing yeah I don't know how it would compare to other schools I think that's School
of similar size and other J but JD correct me don't we doesn't the town tend to try to do the work itself as opposed to hire out for repair work no hires everything out oh he does hire everything out yeah it's
it's assist when they need the building the building oh it's just JD did your group come up with any ideas about how much more it would take to
bring the school up to a more satisfactory operating condition like wall park no we did not but the there's been so much turn over to the board maybe we should have another
meeting over there so you guys can your eyes there's a lot going on and it's an old building it's a 34 35 year old building right things are falling apart it's going to need a roof soon yes roof is bad the
yeah they're getting the many split is good I didn't agree with it but those those will be Capital issues not there's dents there's dents in the stuck all over the building where water leaking in they were fixing some doors I
don't know if all doors got fixed some doors were getting done he was slowly as money came in he was replacing the carpets with Brazilian flooring we we've done that yet yeah as capital yeah items that that doesn't cover ongoing
maintenance ongoing repairs right yeah so the I'm not sure can they just they just buy walking cooler or something for we did one there a couple years back everything else is original isn't it yeah yeah I know we did a dishwasher I
think one or two other appliances the school has a plan Bill Hills are they have a plan on what needs to be done everything but I have yet to see that riew the roof is 34 years old no it was a shingle roof then they put a metal
roof on it they didn't put a very good one on and it's some the nails are popping up and everything so they were talking about putting another fund but for the lifespan the shingle roof would be a quarter of the price and that's about a 25 year life right
right maybe that's a general question we can ask what are the plans for building itself regarding um upkeep and any kind of capital needs
there's there's there's also accessibility issues at the school I could go on in that but they use the Fire Light preschool dropped off and kindergarten dropped off it's gravel there's no sidewalk for handicapped kids to get into the school through that
access there it's not they through the main entrance we get some black top and make a black top sidewalk excuse me but isn't there a a fund that sort of set aside for
maintenance at these buildings that M's put into it every year to build up no no there's no C I mean I'm thinking of this about town buildings too and is this something that should be considered
that like a station could be no F but shouldn't we be thinking about doing something well I think there's two different questions here there's maintenance and repairs versus
Capital Improvements stabilization typically more Capital Improvements in order to help offset like a large Capital request the question that was started was is 25,000 an appropriate amount to properly maintain and repair the building and I think that's where we
really should get at is is that finite of budget appropriate yes but also I mean shouldn't we be putting money into some kind of fund every year so that we don't next year have a
capital you know request for a large sum of money and we year we put something into some kind of fund to maintain the building we have separate stabilization funds for most of things I think that's an excellent question but I think it's a
question that needs to come when we talk about capital and and also there's a there's a thing between what is is a a repair and a capital issue what is the rule I don't to speak what is the rule something's the capital
Improvement versus repair am depends on the dollar amount and expected lifespan of the oh yeah yeah like the 10 year expect and those have to go through C approv right yeah which we could fund out of free cash when we get to the end of the of
our process here we can f opt to fund some of those things that are free cash so so a Capal Improvement would be I think we should have I think we should have a list of what they're plan for Capital before before we start any funds
for they have we don't they should have their own Capital planning we should have that so I think that's what we're asking for essentially in addition we should be funding them out of of money in reserve
if we don't know what they're planning on getting right and we don't want it sprung on us head right and money for maintenance should be on a yearly basis it shouldn't be set aside for maintenance maintenance should be done
we in the operating budget right right yeah I have a general question just U could we find out what they mean by building security and I see we've had a we have a rubber stamp 7 it's not a lot of money
$7,500 it was $ 88,200 now 75 what2 422 next to that might be the fire alarm system probably probably is there an an sprinkler system location yeah
that it makees sense it would be good to know obviously what that expense item is for but also it would be good to know what is the security in the building for the inhabitants of the
building yeah I don't know that my guess best must be Bu you're talking more like video security monitoring yeah yeah there's cameras yeah well it says here that it's expenses for testing so I guess that's
testing fire alarms and other things right and then inspection and and then inspection generator we've had trouble with that all along that leaky Place troubles with it it's a dry cyst but it was a went system
for a while all the way through jez we just went through the major on it we spend a lot of money on that going through put in the new heads and right y I have a general question on the
budget that is there similar to the Regional High School is there an excess and efficiency account for the elementary school no it's CED through the town budget Frontier has its own separate
budget which their excess and deficiency is equivalent to the town's free cash that's yeah but now the school is really under to um any others any other
thoughts all good good okay um doesn't for wely um unless we want to throw something else on the list can always come come back or something jobs remembering the
um Frontier budget Now understand that we have obviously we have the right to ask any question we want when they're because they're asking for money strong this town uh but also
understand that our impact on the budget um is um this does not meet the level of from Impact so um so what we can we
cannot do is um pretty limied but that said you have a question their line items well I have a question I'm sure you all can answer because this is my first time um circuit
breaker I know what the circuit breaker is for individuals when they're applying with you know IRS but the circuit breaker in this instance is that does that mean it's a reimbursement for Disabilities when you look at the budget
there's a line that says C break what number you well for example let's just let's just take testing I see yeah let's just take 2720 testing and assessment
under is circuit breaker reimbursement yes that's where that's getting paid yeah and I have another question and I'm sure you can answer this they're spending three over
$300,000 and they've been spending that down every year on testing an assessment 2720 over $300,000 are the testing and assessment
is this a state mandate I mean this seems like a huge amount of money to me to be spending on tast testing primarily primarily yes but it also the majority of that 343
salaries for guidance right yeah what do they what do they the guidance counselors and then 242,000 for guidance counselors how many
did they I think they three know then there's something about District tuition is that let See's that at the very end
um tuition for nonu schools what number you want 9100 tuition to non out of District I if it's out of District I
guess that's like school choice and right whatnot but to nonu school school my guess is proba related to special ed yes would be correct yeah
out special students cannot be properly taken care of within the school okay they have to go to a facility that needs okay we have any idea how many of those kids there
are that's we do not there's nothing we can do about I know child enters the district they have an IEP or they don't or there nothing you can do about it the same thing the viia is coming in next year quickly I'll mention yeah you can bring a school choice kid in because
there's an opening for fifth grade and you find out that they're severe disability you don't know until they show up on day one yeah that's so I think a general question's what's collaboratives mean
expens tuition to collaboratives what does that mean collaborative in that same right I see it um and it is $70,000 come down quite a bit um it
looks like there was a oneye bump for some yeah the collaborative it has to be a collaborative education group um but let's ask that question so what are the 9100 to 9400 out of District
Commission and what what sorry it's expenses two collaboratives are c p i mean it's not a lot of well it's
not School of Choice as we no a tuition to a Massachusetts school is that school choice that is yes and then I assume the other ones and
are other places where the with disabilities well they can be Charter or they can be facilities for special yeah that's what I said I go back to my question on go ahead excess and efficiency fund I
noticed in the report what's the not um I don't see it in the budget but the report speaks to using 200,000 out of the excess of deficiency fund so that the burden to the three towns the
multiple town sorry will not be as extreme I'd be interested in understanding how much money is in that excess and deficiency fund and maybe knowing what it is over a period of a couple of years right going I tell you what it is okay
um because they do have to report the ad in general they use it the yeah largely pay for Capital there's no Capital assessment this year B what they're doing out of excess efficiency and school choice got it I'm just
wondering if they could subsidize or dip into that more so that to the town well there's a there's a a question of you should operate that way right same on the town side right it's not considered fiscally prudent to
go into free cash for the town or access efficiency from schools to pay for current operating expenses those right generally are treated as stabilization type funds more Capital we have had a tradition here
recently Us in 200,000 from fre cash for that it's not the best accounting practice that there is right I understand that the question is how high is the level of free cash my question to the percentage of the budget so in the
case of w with a million dollars in free cash you against a $7 million $8 million operative budget that's a pretty high value compared to problem get when you start when you do that is you do it one year and then
if you don't have that level of free cash the next year right you suddenly have a big big bum year 24 money came out in 25 the amount think was a couple hundred grand um actually
increased the money that was left for cash so I believe it's been the increase well this past Year's free cash it's at a million mostly because of two or three onetime shots that Bo it it usually
comes in around 600,000 or second and usually we take tradition who've taken it down to about 150 175 get pretty low okay at at the beginning of
each each this year and then it will build up again for the next cycle this year is an unusually large amount cash but it's not something to be expected right to answer your question and it will not be repeated next year
because those things are not there to do very helpful thank you for for the color on it I'm always thinking back to the discussion we're having on the schools you're trying to find something to help improve the operation but the the big
is uh balance we have to make here is between operating and capital and trying to treat them SE separately as much as possible because capitals are one one shot long term and operating is going to
be this year next year year after and if you using one shot to fund them and down the road you have Tren what I understand it sounds like schools are going to be in the position they are in now for at least another year or two
72 what is 72 they're accessing and they're going to use 200k of it for this year's all right let's move on are we good any other questions talk about this all night accomplish it well that's
true okay so we we are now at the uh we going to view the uh operating budgets for full deposits so turn that over to tell us where you're doing we'll
start historical commission which is crs8 it's in Tab S it's the last sheet in t have the bud request for the historical commission they they're asking for level funding
which is has been 200,000 the past uh an appropriation of 200 200,000 sorry building housing historic housing $200 $200
to lay all Fe they just ask for a level funding right they just want to be level funded yeah and it's for minor things if they are doing any mailings um if they
have to hold a hearing um 2024 they did not need to use any money 2023 they used $37 um so um small amounts but yeah it's just and we should not this is not Historical Society corre they are
Historical Society is not we good questions if not we will go to tab six sheet gg9 [Music] the housing committee is charged with
making recommendations providing guidance on housing but also providing recommendations to the CDC when it comes to the use of uh the community preservation fund for housing because you can use for three categories um one
of them being housing um so they do provide recommendations to that a number actually a majority of the committee also serves on the Housing Trust which is charged with overseeing the Housing Trust F the Housing Trust by and the
housing committee has been has not been meeting regularly it's been very small three four five people of which two of the most active people one moved out of town and the other simply didn't have time to
continue being chair so we hav has Le on to it there hasn't been a chair for the last six months and no one willing to take it on so we just of sat there right we're trying to we're working right now to to resuscitate it but it doesn't look
as so they expect not no there's been no one there to spend it the the committee did request level F so any question yeah makes me think about affordable housing which is something
that the CBC has to deal with and has there been any movement on affordable housing or any numbers of or any planning for increasing affordable hous uh there been all kinds of thoughts about
it there's it's very tough in this community where we don't have the planning board is done things involving around those accessory housing
units um we had the housing committee is sort of exists to be on the lookout for properties that might be used for Habitat type housing and thus far there has been nothing that's come out to the market there are a couple of properties
that we looked at that either turned out not to be suitable or the owner of the property didn't want to sell so what would be a a good metric to uh assess the amount of housing affordable housing
in the town the official way that it's done in Massachusetts is um there's a subsidized housing inventory which is the the inventory that it's used to determine whether or not your community complies with the 10% requirement there's a requirement that every
Community has for B it's housing stock dedicated and it's the keyw is dedicated as affordable housing dedication means that the either the um property sale or the property rental must be restricted
to Affordable it cannot simply be priced affordable one year and then the rent raise the next year because that's fluctuating is not dedicated so it does require either a deed restriction or uh a a lease limitation
based on the income of the the family or the theor so affordability is based on income yes y there have been suggestions in the past hous committee considered
involving um rent or other affordable hous subsidies the problem there is Administration we don't have we have no staff to administer so if someone sends in an application that need that needs checking background checking or income checking we don't St have to do it it's
going to cost more than we're going to be giving out just to do the administrative work all right you can Outsource that it will still cost more probably more money then it will we' be
giving out Subs right so do we do we risk incurring any penalties for not having if do not penalize what you are is you're subject to what's uh called 40b development meaning that a developer could go and propose a project within
the community that um goes beyond the limitations of the zoning bylaw because of the fact that we don't meet the requirement um the reality is we still when when you are a non Seward
Community the the potential is minimized because they just it's much more difficult to develop multiple all on septic and still have the availability of land for that septic as well it doesn't mean that it can't happen it just the the development cost
which is also a reason why we have right exactly oh I had it's very very difficult for small towns okay thank you very much uh next budget is Town moderator in in the same tab just go back a few
sheets the 11 don't missing for this um this extra do the when the cola was applied it only raised it a dollar um so this budget is
simply stien um which is based on the what we will be recommending as the S compensation for all elected officials so this this budget has no expenses the anual right sorry
Joyce if we're okay that questions sound moderator okay we are Al that we'll now move on to all of the ones that fall under select board Administration so we'll start
with um tab seven which is the CRS tabs we're going to start with the crs1 I presenting this this does not mean that we operate it it's just that we are assessed this Fe this is the trown beach assessment okay on CRS
okay beach has requested um the assessment for weightly at 11,300 And1 which is an increase of $893 okay so what did they what to they have they operate the TR toown Beach right so they have Live cards yeah it's
their Staffing it's they own that property it's not property any longer it was sold to the district so the trown Beach District owns it so they have to do all that property P um and they want to put a dock in that's their read that that Capital Improvement they didn't
come before us right they're not coming before that's what they're doing the question last year and prior was how many weight residents utilize the we never got that answer no I don't know okay do you want me to
ask them we've asked them before they just ask if they can find that out I because they have day passes right how many people don't you have to show an
IDE we had 1500 weightly visitors this summer okay what if there was five okay 11,000 I also don't know if they break it down by discreet you know different individuals or number
of total the person at the gate house must know how many well no one person going 60 times during the summer understand do a Power 10 also I'm concerned about the water quality is that part of the regular
maintenance yeah that was my question okay go yeah they do test the water they do test the water yes they have must have and I will say on both for General Tri town and their Capital Joyce I believe you were there with me when we
did the walk around yeah yeah the TR Beach commission is doing really an excellent job in trying to revitalize the facility um they start taking great care with it and paying
much more attention than formally where was paid yeah it was in the dumps for a long time it was and it is much better now and you with a new Dock and other they're doing to making arrangements with Lo camps and the like [Music]
for to get Revenue that way it's a good facility it's a good facility that had gone well downhill and but the people who were working it now are doing a good job great I have a question is there
handicap assess areas I've never been there yes so it's all at ground ground level kept accessible so to maintain good quality water they either have to shock it with Florine or they have to
aate it with air which I don't think they do either do they um but they have maintain it it's a Sprint fit yeah I don't know that they're but it doesn't have an inlet or an
outlet it just it evaporates evaporates fills up I guess what a coincidence right fres water all the time you know how how they built it you
know right for cut F exactly okay any questions on Tron Beach remaining okay we'll move on to CRS B actually this one we're not going to
review only because um the senior center is being presented on April 1 no I'm kidding but it's not tonight I like the
18th like or the yeah the 18th because it was the other board for so it's next week that you'll see that's PE smoking nervous would it be out of border for me to say something about the new building
that they're hoping to I would wait until we talk with the senior center when they come next week well I'd be into a presentation we were presentation and they're talking about 15 million 16 16 15 or 16 which building
you're talking about $16 million look I'm a senior you are not I would I would like to say that I think this kind of thing and I know there that the select board are working with the
senior center um I think this is a luxury to see this it's not something that's essential it really is a luxury I mean it's true they they have a they have an office and
a building which is too small for their programs but there are other facilities in the three towns where they can have their programs true and I just think it really would be to spend 16 million just to have a building where seniors can go
and have their exercises and have programs here yeah I would I would suest like the conversation wait until we have that because that's where we're also talk about Capital request they're not planning to I I would focus on the ones that we're going
to they're not planning to raise the money until the following cor so they're not going to ask for money in this we will have many questions when they come in front of this group so and there will
make no mistake about it when they have a proposal there will be many public hearings as well yes will there have something on future Highway garage uh we're waiting to hear back from the Consulting engineer on they
gave us say revise they gave us a plan we said please give us a realistic one we're not waiting for that and we're going to get to that yeah when we get in the capital so see what happens when you don't have
meeting all right stage on task the next sheet is zs7 so just a couple sheets forward this is veteran services these are also essentially
assessments that we pay to um the upper Upper Valley um um there is a slight increase to the regional veterans agent of $16 a reduction in the allowance that they requested for veterans benefit
based on how many they believe that they needed and then a slight increase on the gra marker uh through the cost for grade marker so in total it's actually a slight reduction over last year at 10,000 any
question do you recall what the bump was 24 to 25 it looks like we started doing the allowance for veterans benefits in uh 25 okay because you see that that one was a zero it had been a zero until 25 yeah
right right right right okay see that what is the allowance board anybody these are veterans from White yeah so your um veterans agent provides services uh for any veteran
within your community when it comes to like like planning or um getting benefits veteran benefits they put that type of things recogition of veterans in the community they they provide a wide range of services for the veterans but yes it's
specifically their service the veterans agent supporting weightly better the agent used to come and present what they did but over time it was a no- great eff I mean can't question they do everything for the town all their parades or military and all that they're there
everyone they do some great stuff all on their own time you I just wonder what's G to happen that situation what situation well cut the government cut back
okay we'll go to tab we're GNA go to tab six tab six and we're going to do gg1 six gg1 gg1 is the select board and administration y budget um this budget
the Personnel like all other ones we did not adjust yet until we go through Personnel committee but General expenses there's a slight increase here um the primary I made a number of adj adjustments here
um the increasing the dues in meetings but also decreasing the mileage in meetings essentially we had two meetings line items um so the idea was mileage in meetings is supposed to be strict L for mileage reimbursements and meeting
meetings that are related to that whereas dues and meetings are dues for memberships any conferences things like that that are more professional related as opposed to just day-to-day operation um so I corrected those so that we can track them
better um advertising recording last year it did I the recommendation here is a slight increase only because when we look at 2024 we spent quite a bit it's very difficult for the board to know definitively how many public hearings they're going to
have because it's based on actions that happened during the year um so just as a caution a slight increase there to 1,000 um newspaper subscription we are not the 250 that we were appropriated
this year is not enough to cover so thankfully we just move within the line items but the 325 is an accurate subscription require uh cost and that is our subscription reporter no change to Memorial Day
ban um the town meetings we are zeroing out that cost there is no cost uh for us to do town meeting so that needs to be zeroed out um the annual Town report is a significant
increase the reason being that some of this was actually paid out of the Town building operating which it shouldn't have been it should have been paid out of the select board the select board one that uses it uh however 750 does not cover the cost of those nice books we do
nice annual Town reports um so this 3000 is a an estimate based on a quantity of 125 with our previous um provider however we are looking at using mass for the correctional offit uh
correction facilities they do printing they do report they do Bing it would be a significant reduction we don't have a number until we're finalized however although I would like that we do a 3,000 we most likely are not going to have to
use that much but just in case um okay but that's why it it is simply a recordkeeping correction because you will see we do a correction in the to building fund I we build right here got you got you
okay any questions regarding select oh registration okay we'll move to the next Fe gg2 legal legal and financial advisors um KP law is our legal council
uh keeping that at level funding we can see in 2024 we expended about 7,000 um we don't really get up to the cap but it's always good to have the money there in case we have other legal
challenges that come up um keeping the legal and recording fees at 500 financial advisors this one goes back and forth U but 1300 it's actually a this is with two Financial workquest I
forget 675 yeah 675 so this is anticipating two of those so at 1300 um but zeroing out the bond Council um needed for this year so what's the purpose of the financial adviser
consultation um I used the financial advisor before when we went out to bid for our water department projects um they kind of oversee it they do the procurement part of it um and they put the bids together um for the office and
they just kind of keep track of basically the like the financial procurement part that was really um important but with that it's a reduction of 2200 on this which
is next sheet we'll go to as gg4 so skip to we go to the town um this is an updated one that was handed out to you tonight um so just to give you a background the town has been
utilizing the fog's accounting services if that was an assessment the fhog is canceling that program at the end of this fiscal year so we have to shift into uh hiring a part-time count so it does you're going to see a
couple of increases here the first was when we were under the furog we were getting a free licensing for the accounting software we're losing that um they used to get a very a very reduced
group licensing fee but now that that is no longer under group licensing each town that is now exiting from the program has to do the accounting software themselves and that cost is 12,7 33 for next
year um then um I asked Dara who is our town accountant through fog um to give me some estimates on Department expenses um things like printing the all of her like expenses in the office
similar to Department um that was estimated at or requested at 3265 and then this dollar amount for the salary has not gone through Personnel committee yet but it is based on a if we were were to increase the town
accountant to 15 hours at 43 and change it would be a $338,000 um salary essentially um at 15 hours it was not benefited and why it's $43 are currently anticipated again it
will go through Personnel committee benefit doesn't get those added benefits um which is why it's a slightly higher dollar amount for hour that's account at no this is a proposal to fund a
part-time accountant which would be it would now be a town employee we would no longer be in the for there is no there is no yeah what's the timing of all that
the end of the fiscal year so as of July one we have to have it the part- time yeah is there somebody waiting Dar darra is very open to she would she's also
open to joining the other town that she Services through F so but yeah she and we have so many years with her that she knows our accounting she knows our books that um do you have any particular
questions on this particular on this one I'm curious if the accounting software is an annual expense or one an annual it's subscrition yes it's not even if we can buy it and then use it for five years software
compan going to annual [Music] life yeah that's why I have a really old version quick okay thank you okay we will now move to the next sheet gg5 Financial
audit this is there a new sheet no nope it's the existing one um this one we always just appropriate 5,000 put it in for when the audit does happen we just roll over so it's continuing the $5,000
request since the third part AIT y canit ourselves anyway it's gg9 Community Development is a sub budget under the select board and why there are asterisks under the account number um it's just so that we can get
greater clarity as to some specific line items for that Community Development um you will see that there is no increase here primarily due to the fact that on an in operating expense or the general expenses we don't really need to increase these advertising or programs
and trainings the 1500 well supports that previous staff haven't necessarily utilized it but the intention with the current staff is to start utilizing this the the programming and training and start using that money for our convs that were're holding for community
events um but then again also the salary will go through personel and just what's the RO they hand hold the grant Administration for the town as well as essentially that they act as the planner providing technical support to the
planning forward and the reason for the fluctuation in the extended is at various points the position's been vacant so but that money was was appropriate if not
expensive you said they off support Bo on board of appeals oh is this like the technical technical so they're the one that reviews the bylaw provide recommendation on whether what being
requested is or not assist secret research state for what other may have done what is assist revision
any questions on gg9 so it's it's more accounting than legal the function is more accounting function than a legal function no no they're sourcing grants they're they're
sourcing grants they're applying for Grant but they're also providing technical support to our land use boards all right hopefully more than 55k yes our experience is substantially more through this
okay gg1 is the next thank you so this is the town building operations budget Town building operations uh funds some cross department but uh it also funds specifically the properties
of the Town Off Town Hall um under Personnel it you see a line item for custodian which is the custodian that we use for the two buildings as well as plowing of the Town Lots which we utilize the water department the water department has a plow and so we offset
they use their plow in order to plow our lots and we have a line item to cover that cost um as far as expenses are concerned under Town building we um funnel all of the cost for our gas the natural gas the
propane the vehicle fuel electricity telephone winter maintenance is you're going to see a line item correction here so this winter maintenance I have an aster there because we are moving winter maintenance the highway department
budget so that ,000 is being removed here it was difficult to manage where essentially the Town Administrator oversees this budget but the highway department handles the staff
to go or the contractors to go and Mak those calls so um we move we want to move it just clean it up so zeroing out wa for maintenance um also just to go back natural gas fuel
uh uh last year you had appropriated 14,000 but based on our usage the request is 12,000 so reducing that down a little bit um the electricity costs seem like we're okay um we are under
Community aggregation so thankfully um our electric supply is locked in at a locked in rate doesn't um fluctuate at the whim of eversource and the h vac contract um
that is handled separately we we don't really have a contract we instead use um do its on repair require requests and regarding electricity what happen solar
panels are they it's underway um the solar panels will be installed on this building we just got the revised plans today okay um that project was already approved and funded but um right now it had to be redesigned
because we are doing a generator on the property which means we didn't me the batteries and so it means that we were able to add even more panels and larger like larger producing panels which we got the in all within budget um we just needed to get a revised design that now
ever source needs to re-review and re-approve um but we're we're good on that budget it was Grant funded um that Grant we just are keep having the state move the Monies to the next fiscal year thankfully we're not the only Town
that's on a delay because there's been some solar panel rev you delays in a lot of So eventually that will go down that be interesting well yes and know it depends on the so
the you your electric production does not go directly on C you are simply producing and sending it into the grid your building is still utilizing electricity that's coming from the grid so you don't use it here so we don't
offset it though you do get a credit so we're going to own our solar panels and so essentially yes but we will also spend we'll spend but then the electric will offset it and give us a credit on the account with the additional panels hopefully we're producing more than
we're actually demanding um pet I have a question about the uh the grade school and they have a mixture of heat pumps and I believe it's natural gas PE right could be I couldn't tell
you that detail but that's that they P put that out of their own operating budget not out of Bor budget I was just curious like if anybody's keeping track of how much the heat pump supply and how much the other fuel supply what it but
but that would be the the school department that would be track yeah um so moving on miscellaneous repairs last year budgeted 4,000 but in
24 we only expended 1,700 so suggesting a slight reduction there um fire safety keep keeping that level Town Hall lift inspections uh the cost for inspections is going up so just needed to increase
that to 2,000 we do have to do annual inspection of that L um let's see water keeping that stable all other line items so the next one that's a change
is The copier or maintenance agreement and supplies um there's this is for when we are using and printing um you can see there was a significant use in 20124 6600 only appropriated 3,000 we need to
increase that we're we're kind of eating into it with other line items Peter um if I may what do we use 750 water for there's no showers there's no laundry there's no sprinklers what do we what you supp the
toilet 10 times a day saw this building what that question again we have a $750 budget for water what are we use the water for here yeah and and oh that's true this it covers both
building but my water well I know the water department the Enterprise from a couple years ago came to the realization that all the town buildings the water being used to
all the town buildings was not being re reimbursed so that's what we have now so there is a charge same thing happened with Frontier u t of Deerfield finally realized that you know Frontier was using the water and the water was
being donated okay God bless you so that's what so but I think that leads to another question um this budget includes all Town buildings
correct not school um fire water fire police Highway some of them have their own line items for some of these items such as like um we'll get to them but for the most
part like a lot of these are specifically just for the town hall and the town offices okay okay like these copier leases they're only for the two buildings actually one building
um the postage only handled here um but we could get to a point would you we do we know what each building costs on their own to to the town well have we not broken it down to
that not broken it down we do have the separated electric bills yeah if you want to look at those or the gas bills to see them separate they are separated by property do we pay a flat rate for water or just Lan like read the meter and be like okay this is what it
is I think it's based on actual meter reviews and there is also a flat being implemented to every town building a flat from the water department yes in addition to the water use right yes so like an um yeah they don't really they don't
call it an it's more like a service fee okay um but you know I think if I remember correctly like the highway department I think they might have a flat fee of $200 you semi anually um just I would need to I can get back to and let you know what the town office is and town hall is but yeah there is a
flat fee that they and I and I I I I think it would be good to put it black and white what these buildings are course us especially the old elementary school that we still maintain that we have not even though it's on the market
we some way shape form Center School Center School right you know what does that school cost us on a yearly basis for to maintain right now it's just insurance insurance insurance there's no heat in
there there's obviously it's not being used there's no water so it's just the insurance insurance the insurance on that want to say I just did the Revol like 40 not 40 4,000
something yeah just under five or yeah it is at a higher because it's a bacon building BAC buildings are considered more costly on an insurance basis because you don't have natural you don't have people there to actively see something happen and stop a NE a
negative uh so vacant buildings typically are higher insurance cost so for sale it's not for sale it's not for sale any idea how large it is I
forgot back to the question on affordable housing oh it was only it was looked at for Housing Development I think two or three units yeah yeah they were um we had bids in for someone who would buy
the building for a dollar and put in two apartments and that got voted down um and a group of because a group of citizens wanted to go look into other possible uses there's a kind of a
timeline on that that's coming up soon and so we may we may very well end up depends on how that that work goes um they have a feasibility study that's going to be starting um we need to pay people money
apparently to tell us uh what we can and can't do with the building I mean I think it's just some people think that a lot of things can be done there that I think are unrealistic but until we pay someone who knows what they're doing to
say it's either realistic or unrealistic then we won't really know when's that when's that report to you well we're are currently in RFP right now to we're soliciting bids to find a consultant um with the intention that the report would
be finished by the end of the year and I stud been partially funded by a grant right half by a grant half by, so we spent $19,000 on that building I know I know yep I you're
talking to the person who voted to let it become two apartments Okay so different sub put it back in the tax R yeah so um back to the town building operations um there are otherwise each
of these other line items in the expenses just slight adjustments all of the adjustments are simply based on looking at what the actual expenditure was in 24 and that it may not have been properly or not we might not have appropriated enough in 25 so just trying
to correct that in 26 ready any questions thank you um gg13 the very next be this one has a slate reduction of 750
the reductions here are looking at um a reduction in the ongoing website hosting um which if the capital request is approved grou this will help because we would be moving to a different hosting service that has a reduced
cost um also email hosting and software subscriptions I've been working with our IT company to correct our subscriptions and the anticipation with fixing what they've done um we could actually reduce
that by 500 and then keep the other ones after okay any questions information technology thank you we'll go to gg9 VI sheets ahead we already did that
one IGN y um all right the IDS are Insurance Ben first one is ib1 so property and liability insurance this comes from
Maya um so a slight increase of 4% 4.2% um with the request thatting 1,000 Maya is our insurance provider id7 this is the assessment that we pay to the Franklin Regional retirement
system the assessment uh request is 262,000 um an increase of 7% this relates to the number of employees that go into the system and employees that are retiring it's just always going to be a
study increase how many years does a town employee have to work before they yeah that well well there's 10 years [Music]
yeah you pay into the the retirement system that you have money in the system once you're starting to pay but then once you hit 10 year you then become eligible for the health insurance right um that's my yeah so then it's yeah you
then become I forur yeah essentially invested ib1 right now this is blank uh only because we
don't fully we don't have an estimate yet for the retirement payout for Keith right no and that is the only it's the only anticipated retirement for FY 26 rate only eligible one yes the only eligible yeah uh just
ke is this a you might have to like Flo a bom unused sick time and stuff like that or vacation vacation yeah go comp time vacation time does that just get accumulated forever certain ones do not
like personal is a US it or lose it sick yeah I want to say it's Capp um sick is Capp and vacation is also Capp because you can only roll over a certain amount yeah comp time we're trying to amend that but it
is capped but um we're trying toit for so we don't have this down the row so half time if you are a 40-hour week employee you can accumulate up to 150 hours per FAL year so that could potentially be a very large liability for the town if you keep approving that
amount um for six time you can approve 720 hours I want to say um and then vacation as Pete said we roll over um two weeks those negotiated with the contract be is a general
Town yeah person and that position also is not cont okay so right now clear it out um not zero out blank we just need to come up with that number right we'll move on to ps7 which is
Public Safety which I is eight the S7 is the Franklin County inspection services so um the town utilizes the first to in
order to handle our building department and inspectional Tes so wiring plumbing and Building Inspections as well as both permits the assessment is a slight increase over last year um at 7873 so a
3.59% increase I'm rep for weightly to that ADV record and we made Bing and they track of the permit fees up majority this BR the last grouping that we're going to do are the
unclassified uh so that is tab 12 we're going to go through all five of these you w this is reserve fund historically we've been appropriating 20,000 to this Reserve fund
so up to the fincom really if we want to continue to do 20,000 um we you can see the expenses over 22 23 24 um generally it's not going over 13,000 we have not we have not utilized
1,000 out of the reserve fund each year what what comes out of that unanticipated um cost so if something happens during the year where one of the Departments have let's say there was um an E A Plumbing
emergency in their their budget for the building for Paris had already been counted out they would come to the finom and say can we get a a reserve fund transfer of xll amount into our budget so that we can pay for this PL it has to
be an unanticipated cost what's that access this believe it at 20 yeah absolutely gets rolled back into I think so right wouldn't weit yeah weightly Elementary does have access to this because that's what we did um
recently it's one of the few that you don't have to go to town floor yeah right yeah Town essentially the town meeting agreed to give the finance committee with this amount of money that then the finance committee has the sole discretion whether or not to agree
removing from it so this could be used for the school and there was some unexpected like a flood bance fund gets emptied out every year thank you okay any other questions Reserve fund okay you
to this is the furog assessment um so as a member of the fog we have the assessment which is the very first line item that one is a very minor increase of $61 so
1588 um and then the second line item we participate in the Cooperative purchasing agreement where the furog handles some larger primarily Highway Supply and service um bit processes it's great for us and a lot of the small
towns because then we don't have to manage those contracts also when it's the fog and they can show a much larger quantity being purchased they get a better rate so we pay an assessment fee in order to be part of that program and that program has a slight increase for
26 where it's $2,990 so an increase of $140 it's well worth any questions on the for assment u3 this is the fiscals and tests for employment
um in 25 it was appropriated at500 requesting 3,000 you can see in 24 we been quite a bit this is primarily we have the fiscals being done for our Public Safety and public service so like
the highway department um poli police fire for new people coming in employees um yeah um the fire department um presented their budget yet so my understanding is that the fire
department was supposed to be the one um having a lie item for those physicals um because their physicals can get very costly and I remember this being maybe why you saw an increase last year is because certain um full physical Sur
fire um fighter is much more expensive than just I'm not sure if there's maybe a vis yeah there's some physical um that they have to take that is like a full physical which I want to say cost us maybe around $650 $700 and it was very
expensive um which our previous Chief um maybe didn't do the full physical and I don't know why that is I don't know if a requirement changed anything but I just you might also see this in our new Chief's budget just in case we
do $700 jeez so maybe something changed or maybe he's doing something differently now than what was in the previous fiscal year do we can we reimburse for DOT physicals for the highway guys or
no I've never seen that okay you have to have it every two years so you have to have a DOT physical every two years the commercial d s license I think Keith is talk about that so um back on you3 though the
request is simply just to in case again we don't know how many new employees we might have to bring in that would require testing um but increasing it to 3,000 just as aost again after discuss it's there if it's not used it
goes goes back that's fine okay u4 Town Vehicles so this is the fuel that's used for all the town Vehicles the gasoline diesel um
the in 24 we spent about just under 39,000 on fuel we appropriated 37,500 in the current fiscal year based on Rising gas prices um right now it's uh the request is for 40,000 so a slight
increase last year 6. impacted by all the new Hy Vehicles well we only have a cruiser and then one pickup truck um so they just
went into service the pickup truck a couple months ago on the cruiser those are the only hybrids that I rate did you get the cruiser we authorized last year sorry did did didn't get the new police criser last
year that one state we we li yeah and the final one is you five educational incentives um there is no request right now for any educational incentives so it's uh similar to last year zero
bud I thought when Tom cler was here she was looking to have some training in budg she but that was that was the cost to do the training as opposed to being incentivized to get train this is an incentive it where you're paying the
person to go and get training as opposed to the cost for the train so you pay them the salary pay for the training and then give bonus on to that that's what this is addition training above and beyond what required I give you an
example of it the town clerk position receives an educational incentive if they become certified through the massachusett town clerk Association um so they would receive $1,000 um every fiscal year for that certification um that would be an example
L but also to be clear is not to cover the cost for that so it's for [Music] CER more qualified yeah Y and thereby aice okay do we have any questions on
select board Administration before we put that away no sir pet are you done I am okay okay um the next piece on our agenda review discuss Capital project
recommendations for FIS schal year um again you're going to turn it over the be because it is the last stapled item in your packet with the title fiscal year 2026 capital projects
board this report comes from the capital Improvement planning committee um the intention of that committee is to go and review all of the capital projects for the fiscal year and then prioritize those requests and make
that report back to the finance committee the way that they prioritize they set three different criteria or three different rankings priority a are projects that are considered urgent high priority that need to be done that should be done if at all
possible um special efforts be made to find funding for all the projects these projects typically address safety concerns or compliance issues priority B are projects that are considered a high priority that should be done as funding becomes available
typically addressing deteriorating facilities or scheduled replacement for facility or equipment then priority C projects are those that are considered worthwhile projects if funding is available or that may be deferred to a
subsequent year projects are worthwhile these projects are worthwhile projects that do not meet either of the other two categories there were a dozen yeah there were a dozen Capal projects that were presented to the
cipc the second sheet shows you those projects that were um where they landed in the prioritization there were four projects that were rated as a priority a the first one is environmental monine
in Wells at the old landfill this is a IAL project only because DP has told us that we need to do it it is to install water and uh gas testing and monitoring at that old
landfill on Long PL Road um the estimate in order to do the drilling the monitoring in the sampling is 20,000 that is a capital request there will then be ongoing um costs in the future for monitoring Services which will come
through the Board of Health but not that 20,000 but just anticipate that this Capital would require ongoing because we wouldn't need further monitoring in the future simply going to those Wells pulling samples and evaluating whether or not there is any
environmental impediments the second item of priority a is the air pack replacement request for the fire department you may require remember this from last year or the year before uh the fire Chief wants to and is
requesting funding to replace 15 rechargeable air pths 20 face pieces and 30 cylinders um at a cost of 183,000 he has been able to confirm that he can still get these at this price
possibly less and possibly less yep um L is good depending on but right now it still looks okay um the the fire chief will be able to answer more questions when he is here
presenting his Budget on the first I been in's been in we talked about the air packs and talked about what happened with the with the grants and the grant kind of
fell through so so it's on our back to uh you know to provide these the third project in priority a are the mini split key pumps at the elementary school this is phase two of two so the Final Phase um it's a request of
65,00 that would install five mini split heat units we then will receive a rebate um and that rebate goes back into the general fund and I believe it's anticipated 20,000 that would come back
but we do have to approa and if this is if this goes through which I imagine it will we what's the time frame for doing it it would be it would be done in the next year so they would be they would be approved to start as July one
whether they get it done during the summer I'm not positive but yeah there system is all screwed up don't know not that I'm aware of I know I mean for the most part the these heat pumps
are providing both accommodation or conditioning and environmental Improvement for those occupants but yeah they could there might be an offset on the heating and the cooling or there is no cooling except pleas um but the heating but I'm not positive if they did
a most likely they were given that as part of their proposal when they were getting the they were getting the proposal for the installation I don't have that answer all the last item is the storm window
storm window installation at the Town Hall at $7,000 this would be to remove the existing storm windows and install the new storm windows this does not include the cost of the windows because that is being covered by the manufacturer so this is simply to cover the manpower to remove and reinstall
these are storm windows that we've had significant issues with since they were first uh purchased and installed for the film that was being used on them became problematic um we've removed them once before and reinstalled them the
manufacturer canot determine whether or not there is an actual problem with the item but they did agree to at least continue the warranty and replace the windows themselves they will not cover the cost as time to remove and install so this is simply to manow to remove and
install but not cover the the windows we will not we the recommendation is not to use that film any longer so that we do not continue issue and also falls under urgent because even that $7,000 or the money
from the manufacturer to replace window is questionable and we want to make sure we get it lock them in lock them in while we can gotcha priority B these are high priorities um but not as critical as priority a we just say just just excuse
me this grouping um it's a there's an interesting story about the uh the elementary school air ducks for 10 15 years we sat here and we
looked at the cleaning of those Ducks coming under priority C priority D we always pushed it off always push it off and no one stood up and said hey this is a problem finally this year JD went over
to the school with Tommy and uh Jim and um lo and behold they had never been cleaned since day one that's horrific so it was low on the priority list we kind of felt good because we just kept it there it was kind of expensive uh but if
no one had raised the flag on this then we those kids would still be breathing recre that kind of air and the employees and and the emplo employees exactly how many kids got sick yeah yeah so it's an
important point in that you need to look at them all that's my point okay peace sorry go ahead that's okay uh so the first item on priority p is the redesign and new hosting for we.org uh this would this is $10,000 it
would cover the cost to redesign redevelop and redevelop the town website update not only its look but also um uh put it on a different host and content management platform also meet accessibility standards that we do not currently fully meet and improve the
navigation or organization on the website U when I come when I refer to accessibility standards I mean uh standards for those that are visually challenged not necessarily blind but challenged um where if you don't not have proper color differentiation it's
very difficult to read or see certain things um we it also does provide for improvement so that those that are blind can still get auditory or uh text readout um and that then gets verbally
uh translated for by computer but there are a number of accessibility standards that are are required especially when it comes to public websites um but we're we're not quite there so this would help us get to that so that 10 grand
is shot the do or that's actually what it's going to be nope I already have a confirmed and this is the lowest there there were other dollar amounts at like 50,000 but I found a great provider that could do it for the 10,000 and they've done a lot
of the websites in Massachusetts got you okay so one one problem I have with the town website isn't really the town website it's unipay website you know when we're paying that website drives we no longer use unipay um I use a payment
platform called point and pay now so when you go on to the home page of the town's website you can click on a link that says online tax payments and it's going to lead you to A8 Point Inay website which I hope youly as with please let me know please let me know
Wonder thank you the next project is the repainting of the lower level interior of the library at 14,000 the this would repaint the downstairs level the Library part of which had been damaged um by water
infiltration three years ago the reason why it's at 14,000 is there um this is scoped with the anticipation that it's likely lead pain and so the remediation that has to the protocols that have to be instituted for
that associated with probably we're gonna get to that I T that with Bob Clinger and he was telling me that they need to do the survey the analysis before they can do the painting have to they should have to
that was a suggestion but they do not have to um you can do them um this was part of the discussion with cipc and the library okay an acknowledgement that you can do oneoff testing for each project or do you want to pay out now and do a full
assessment um and find out all the problems that we then have Noti formal notice that we have these problems and have to correct but no you do not have to do that um but
I it was recommended that if they are approved for this um repainting the the contractor that they're using will sample the paint first before just assuming and if there is a determination that there is no lead
then they will reduce the actual cost but this is because they haven't pay for the testing yet um this is just a worst case scenario can you for lead paint like on our own do we need to have someone specializing in that to do that can can
we find that out and I'm just I I'm just a little shocked by the 14,000 but once you said Le paint um it doesn't make sense I just wonder how we can streamline some of these things that you can but I don't the state would accept your results yeah you can buy the little
swabber stick to do a Qui you don't know sure but you can do that on your own yeah I think also the main cost here is remediation if there's lead it's not not the test itself that's costing
that this includes the painting and the test is this on the ceiling or the the walls the ceiling the floor no no the floor cuz that's yeah it's building a high water table and the water's oozing through the
walls are we set with the library painting yeah Okay the third one is repainting the building exterior of the Town Hall um this would cover the cost to scrape Prime paint the exterior of the
building that is at 30,000 um if you haven't been at the Town Hall you'll see that the north side which the side the post office is and it was not repainted when it was renovat did they for fame
when did they for Le paint when they did that renovation well he just said that they didn't repaint it right they did not repaint they wouldn't have done soes this 30 include assuming paint how old um that is a great question that we
can ask uh ke when he is here on the first you're going to scrape that's you got to be hot the architect house the municipal building committee they their whole system for doing it they no answers and like the pain off that building and I
got shut down they just the last project in priority B is the new swimming Dock at the TR toown Beach 16,000 this is uh weight Le portion it would be adding a 100 foot dock to the beach to improve access and safety it would be a floating
dock made of the same material that was used for the 2023 raft that they now use um just to note this is anticipated to be a CPC CPA funded that it went through CPA CC
so priority C first one is purchasing the trash compactor unit at the transfer station currently we rent that uh unit so the Board of Health has requested a capital requ or Capital money at 16,000 estimate
in order to purchase either that current one or another uh refurbished model what's the benefit of purchase fiveyear payback yeah you don't have the monthly fee you don't have the monthly fee responsible
for how old is we have now old 15 18 years something like that life of 25 years we add with capital whatever box would buy is it going to be
compatible with the Next Generation or or if we do we're going to fall behind on the compactor unit itself the other question we do the highway department garage is the what is there now this unit compatible or
something we want to fit in or would we want new yeah at that point in whatever however many years that is use the whole thing whole compactor unit itself in order to right
so okay and we really really didn't get a good number on what the annual maintenance would be I don't brand didn't have a firm he said it was minimal but yeah it did not
only because the Board of Health doesn't have to pay for the maintenance it's the company that they're renting it from that handles all Contra but we would buy it responsible have
contract and then the other project in the priority C is the survey and Analysis of the of the library environment at 6,900 so what this would do would evaluate wait both the interior and exterior to understand what kind of
environmental impacts are there such as like paint asce and B um but as we mentioned the reason why this was put out a priority C yes it' be great to have that information but once you have that information are you now required to
now act it there are two other projects that the committee took no action on primarily due to the fact that they were essentially pulled back the Christian Lane culbert replacement this is to finalize that design the only reason why that was pulled back was not because that project won't move forward but
because uh Highway and Community Development are looking at grant money instead of using uh Town Capital money to finish that design and then the new Senior Center building was brought to the cipc but
acknowledgement was they likely won't need to they're not ready to request money in this FY 26 um but we discussed what that project could pretty I don't think we're ready to
hear those kind of numbers scar you so those are the capital projects those are the priority levels we will be able to also talk through those Capital requests at the next finance and you'll be able to vote on those as well um a note to
when it comes to capital projects you're not just voting on which ones you want to move forward you're also voting on how you want suggest apply okay whether it be from Appropriations raising or you're going use free cash right or if
you want the town Bond or borrow um or CDC we will know the Personnel numbers at that here's than you nice job um any general questions no okay I have a motion to
adjourn I make a motion to wej Second all those in favor Contin okay back we're gonna mute for just a few okay e
e e e all right we're gonna get j a second to situate she's just holding us up conversations continue in the
hall take care all right first item on the agenda for the select board is to review and vote to approve the meeting minutes from February 25th 2025 I'm so moved and
seconded right Joyce how do you vote I FR hi Julie I set to review and discuss spender pay and payroll warn War any
comments none none from me all right public comment are there any residents who would like to provide public comment just a reminder for those watching from home public comment uh the
public comment section you may appear and provide comments for up to three minutes on items that are not on the agenda so if there's something you really feel is important show up and talk to us about it um new business
personnel first item is to review discuss and vote to post the opening of the highway and building superintendent position take it away um so we did go through a review of the superintendent um job
description at the request and recommendation of Keith we made a number of uh modifications that was brought to the Personnel committee the Personnel committee has reviewed that and approved the updated job description um it was really just to capture a few items that
have fallen on or have expanded on that department or that that role um just so that we are fully transparent for the next person there is one item you will notice in your print out um a red line
edit um that came in after the update it is within the desired minimum qualifications the education experience this is really just an updating of the phrasing um we had it as class 2A hydraulic license it's now referred to
as a class 2A hting license so this doesn't have to go back to personel committee to correct that wording um so if the board agrees to post I would just if you would agree to correcting that one phrasing um I would use that
revised version for the job hting there's two other questions though before we agree to post for the job the first is um my recommendation that we post the opening with a deadline of
April 4th so I would post tomorrow with applying by April 4th and setting the salary as up to the current budgeted item not confirming that it would definitely be that because we haven't gone through Personnel but we at least know what our budget is so if the board
agrees we would simply say up to and what that dollar amount is right now um and then also we would should determine who we would like to be on the selection committee um a couple recommendations would be to include Keith Keith has
agreed to be on the selection committee he doesn't want to necessarily make a recommendation on the individual but does want to evaluate and provide some guidance on those that are applying um there was also a suggestion um that uh we look at a town resident who has
building experience since this job is not just highway it's also building superintendent one of them happens to have been at this meeting tonight JD who serves on a number of other committees including the finance committee it would be great if you if we could ask him to
serve on that Committee in order to provide some that building experience um but then we would also like we want a s board member and um probably one of the Chiefs my suggestion would be JP because we've used uh Jim previously so maybe we
switch it up but um just some thoughts it sound good I will volunteer for the select Force since I need Highway Department Fred fabulous with your consent of course it all sounds good it all sounds great
sounds logical that I did yes I would agree uh Joyce do you have any questions or comments about any of this um I think what Pete proposes is is reasonable and I'm happy to have Fred represent the select board on that uh uh
uh search committee I see that in the job s of formally Incorporated the building superintendent positions in in with Highway they had sort of been separate
or yeah slammed together slam together yeah formally Incorporated rather than slammed sounds good all right do I have a question policy yes well I would move that the board approve the job opening for the highway
and building superintendent position as amended second uh hey Joyce how do you vote I FR I Julie I recommendation post tomation that Pete posted
tomorrow fingers crossed that that's some very good applicants uh to review discuss and vote to post the opening of the treasure Collective
position excuse me so um somewhat similar though there a slight adjustment on the process uh the treasure collector job description it has not gone to Personnel committee
there are are some minor edits that I'm going to request to the Personnel committee primarily in the work schedule the existing job description states that it is approximately 20 hours per week I want to strike that and make and have it
set at full just saying fulltime work we won't say the number of hours just in case we do an adjustment but we say it's a full-time position and then also making the selection guidelines consistent with our other job descriptions which is that the hiring procedures would be set forth in the
town Personnel policies and procedures um and um that just make it inconsistent then there is one correction grammatical correction on page two at the top of page two which should be insures rather than insures um but otherwise um Amy didn't
have it not to call you out no that's okay no other recommended edits was this updated when you took the job from then so this is not particularly old job description anyway and I would bring this to the Personnel committee next week on the 20th but if
the board agrees for posting I can hold off obviously until that and that way once the personal committee finalizes the revision I can post the very next day let me clarify you're asking us to vote on this description with the
Amendments and if they are approved by to agree to post the job pending personel commit I I would lose that we uh oh and um similar to the other one I would also suggest
that we simply say that the the pay is up to the current budgeted I am right um again not not committing ourselves to that but just acknowledging what the budget is um the deadline because I won't be posting it until a week later I
would actually make it at app by April 11th but okay so you're going to change that deadline to okay um I would move that the board approve the job opening for treasurer collector position pending review by Personnel
committee second okay Fred how do you vote hi Joyce hi Julie hi you want on the selection committee
for this Amy would you want to if oh no no the deadline is your last day so Amy can't be part of this one unless you want to volunteer your committee as a citizen
employ um I I can't commit to anything like that right now um probably yeah that would be could also ask and see if L is interested yeah that's was my thought too
yeah and I will service yeah gonna say I think are we allowed to have two of us I've never been oh you want to do it oh because then You' be making a quum oh only one you can do it in my place in
your stad yeah are you willing to give that up okay so we'll do Julie I'll ask Lynn I'm sure she'll be open to it myself and then is there somebody else that you think we
could or think should somebody from Finance well I'm not sure I mean finan is about figuring out the budget and the treasure collector is about just making sure the bills get paid making sure the taxes get collected it's not really
about they're they're not setting policy about what we're going to spend the money on it's like what and then how do we pay that and stay within the law and do all the stuff we're supposed to do so I don't know that finance committee is necessarily needed to be called on for
that yeah what about our town accountant I know I was thinking that the problem is is that Dara is allotted only a certain number of hours through fog and then when she becomes an employee it' probably be easier for us to do that but
yeah I hate that I could ask her but yeah three people is probably adequate for yeah [Music] and okay okay
uh next item to review discuss and vote on the request to adjust the assistant Treasurer collector hours so the requests came in um from our treasure collector to increase the number of hours per week for Moren who
is our assistant treasure collector currently Moren Works 10 hours per week by increasing the hours only until uh the time that Amy um leaves it will allow for greater CR or more cross training so that morine is brought up on
some of those tasks in order to cover that role in that department um after the time that Amy leaves and before we got a new treasure collector with an increase of six hours per week that would be an additional
cost of 17184 per week and if we started this on March 12 March 17th um until April 11th it essentially would be just under $700 of an added cost if the bo degrees I have a question
about that um where not expecting that on April 12th we're going to have a new treasure collector right I mean it's going to take some time for the committee to interview people and so on so why are we stopping this at April 12th are we not expecting
that we might need our assistant treasure collector for a few more hours a week after Amy's gone and before the new person's hired that's a good point I um I think it is crucial to have someone in that office at least 30 hours
a week um we have some big things coming up um we have we have four quarter taxes do May 1st we have open enrollment for insurance coming up on April 17th um we have another motor vehicle batch coming out with which is a significantly large batch on uh March 14th um give or take a
few weeks after that it we go out but um I mean we need to get the a new treasure collector in there as quickly as possible but I don't understand having a have go back to 10 hours a week during the time while we're still trying to hire somebody it makes no sense I would
say uh increase the role until the new treasur collector is hired yeah the reason why I positioned it this way was simply because we know that we're paying two employees up till April 11 after that we're paying one employee and the the
savings that we have in not paying the other role can certainly compensate hours it was more of a for a period of five weeks six weeks there will be an added cost on those two line item or that one line against the other line item but it doesn't mean that we would
have to go back the problem that we do have to acknowledge though is that Moren has limited hour availabilities we could not increase her to 30 hours okay yeah because she works also for Su yeah yeah I I don't see any reason why we should
have to revisit this oh yeah have another folks after it will I just say collector hired and we work out that yeah get paid for exactly you think that she would be open to the added hour
beyond the 11 I do with um with the support and expectation that she's not going to know it all and I think that's a concern of hers um that there's an understanding that she's not not gonna
go all do the best she can and just as long as she has that support I think she'd be okay with the additional hours that fit within her schedule as a brother Lyn still working hours Lynn yeah is she working in the building at
all Lynn um has suggested um that she could come back in very short for a short period of time Limited hours but that she would be I know ly's limited I think to 18 hours yes you're right and but she um has shown interest in wanting
to help keep the town Al float and um for a limited time she said so but she did say she'd be more than willing to help out if needed okay it sounds like then that that period from April 12 to whenever the new person's hired we have
a couple of options that you guys are going to sort out the best way to do that you guys mainly being Pete um and uh uh you'll figure you'll sort that out and and it's probably going to fit within the the budget that we've got
more or less um it maybe be uh $171 a week more for the next few weeks it could be of that order later on as well I don't know discussed before that can be a reserve fund transfer as well yeah
okay okay suggest either hire Lyn for that period or work at a Consulting contract or something because ly knows the system obviously mean doesn't know everything yeah is that something we should take up at a
next meeting or if you talk to Lynn about interviewing that's another thing to talk to her that is like s of formalizing her being available for Consulting
yeah is there a motion I move we approve the increase of hours for the assistant treasury collector for the period between now and at Le New Treasure collectors
hired second Joyce how do you vote I Fred I Julie I excellent and last on Personnel to review discuss and
vote on the recommendation of the appointment of planning board CBA Administrative Assistant we have a recommendation awesome yeah we had yeah we had 30
applications um we short listed to six interviewed four um oh no we interviewed three because one didn't show up we were ping to have four one didn't show up two had accepted other roles just before we got to the
interviews um in the end uh we're recommending John Jensen um stood out as a top candidate based on the interview and the resume he has experience in educational position but is currently working in administration for a health
center where he organizes and scheduled employees handles payroll in marketing does outa Communications and works with school districts he has experiencing experience reading through and D seting city regulations and rules and is excited to help organize the files for the boards
and his position at his current job being hours be increased within six weeks of taking his position at which point we will need to well thankfully that even if that happened it is a 9 to-5 type of facility
or that role if there was to be increased that the needs should be impacted by this position as red stop stop this sounds good and we hope it sticks do I have a
motion I move at the board appoint John Jensen as the part-time planning board zba Administrative Assistant second Fred how do you vote hi Julie I Joyce I voke uh town meeting to review and
discuss current drafts of warrants for both the annual and the special Town meetings so the drafts are provided to you um look at the special real quick it is a single article it's simply for the
prior fiscal years it's two um invoices with a total of 1345 68 one of them being for KP law weirdly enough it's an invoice from 2023 that they never sent never sent us until
this past December I think it was and we were like well that's very old and then we did have some Plumbing work that was done at the Town Hall it was done during May and June um although and then
unfortunately didn't bill us until late into the current fiscal year and um because the work was done in the previous fiscal year we do have to do it as a prior fiscal year bill um and that was $1,200 so those are those two line items
it's just that one article for that special moving on to the annual um I don't know if you want me to go through all of them no okay I will I'll just quickly summarize
then currently there are 21 articles um articles 1 through n are your standard articles board reports borrowing approval contract approval whatnot um establishing revolving fund
limits and operating budgets both for the water department and the town budget so those nine are your very standard um year-to-year articles articles 10 11 and 12 these are potential Financial
transfers using free cash to reduce the tax levy a fund the vehicle stabilization fund as well as capital stabilization fund tax levy I believe has to come as a recommendation of the board of assessors is that correct you have the board of assessors tell you how
much money to they would recommend to use in order to reduce the tax levy uh no that's oh come out of the finance committee oh okay and then the finance committee will also determine the vehicle and capital stabilization for dat
class um or any other state of yeah or [Music] yeah Article 13 um my proposal is to handle capital projects in one article
rather than um what 10 separate articles article you can do this um each line item can be taken up as a separate item you just can combine them and then we don't have multiple Pages um but Article 13 would be the capital Pro whatever
comes out of the recommendation um should you split out ones that going to be coming out of free cash from those that come as CPA you can you can do that however CPA will be put
in at Article 15 so it is already being separated out okay but um when it comes to the capital projects that are non CPA we will stipulate if it is each line night may not have fre cash or borrow whatever
you not cash but but you would stipulate when you do combine them you do say the funding source for each one the column that is currently blank will be corre it would have to be filled we have to wait for fin com okay for
recommendation um so that's 13 articles 14 and 15 are CPA so 14 is the standard one setting essentially the community preservation budget for their their fiscal year here and then the currently there is one project first TPA funding
which is Article 15 articles 16 and 17 are um tied together the first article 16 is amending the general bylaw by creating a revolving fund for the fire department remember we tried to do this at the special town meeting and then
Town Council said you cannot do that it has to only be done at an annual town meeting so guess what we're doing at annual Town meting so this is to amend the bylaw create that revolving fund essentially any fees that are collected from the fire department based on inspections and whatnot go into that
revolving fund and then they can use it for trainings um and Equipment they could not use it for salary I seem to remember and maybe I'm incorrect about this that this was a three part of at special at one point that was true because it was creating the revolving
fund it was dissolving the previous fund and then it was moving those funds to the other one the disolving already happened that is a matter of town accountant they already vacated that fund so that leaves us to article 17
that money was moved to free cash that 3900 I think it was was moved to free cash and so article 17 is saying hey this wasn't the previous one it moved to free cash will you agree to move that now into revolving F so that the fire department essentially May thank
you article 18 is to um amend the flood plane overlay District um and get us in line with state requirements it also includes updating and uh approving the
FEMA firm map the flood insurance rap which we need to adopt in order for property owners to be eligible for flood insurance um this is a whole sale Redevelopment of that chapter because our current chapter is will fully out of
uh compliance um so it does get us up to p and then Article 19 is the zoning bylaw amendment that essentially is creating a new use called marijuana product plate manufacturer it's considered an industrial use a light industrial use so it creates that use it
defines the use and then establishes where that can be done which would be in the commercial the commercial industrial and the industrial district by special permit uh it is's a very limited uh allowance as to what can be done there
um but what it would mean is that this use would then become uh allowable by special permit in any of the commercial commercial zones primary driving element is DMC own uh property at the
Sugarloaf um shops thing I was going to say l sugar Lo shops um where they do want to do some of this Manufacturing um so it would allow for that building to then go from vacant to actually being
operational um so that is that Amendment there and then the last two articles um the first one article 20 the fog is doing an amendment to their Charter essentially it's simply a lot of house cleaning doing uh to the Charter the
charter hasn't been amended since the original creation of the perog in the 90s 97 I think it was um and so it's getting rid of some of the Antiquated phrases like B of selectman um as well as getting rid of
some other older positions that the furog doesn't utilize any longer um it more clearly identifies how you can be part of the furk hog as well as how you can leave the fhog um and then the the Franklin
Regional planning board is amended to be a advisory planning board because that's all they are is advisory they have no functional um um or uh regulatory rights like our community planning boards do
and so it's simply to make sure that people understand that that planning board is simply advisory so it's really a title change and then it pies up some of the language of that chapter um there is a good PowerPoint that they had put together that I'm happy to walk through a town meeting that really just kind of
summarizes these edits um but that's all that article 20 is um it does require whenever there's a charter Amendment to the fog or any of the Council of government it requires a 2third approval of all of members in that Council so
2third of the Franklin Regional communities need to agree to the Charter change until they're all being taken up at this spring and then the last article is the adoption of the hero act optional tax exemptions you'll remember the board agreed to the veteran tax exemptions it
does require a legislative action though so it does mean that a town meeting has to be the final ones to say so because the Ford agreed with it we're putting it on as an article for Angel count
cool any question no no question um I was talk in the the resident who indicated that there might be at Le one citizen initiated article
okay do we know it I think deals with appointments to various boards who makes the appointments moderator appointments
versus board or whatever okay no other discussion uh select board Lea on updates go for it choice I got nothing today I know all right Fred uh all I
have is St County EMS meeting the chief presented um his the goals and priorities for the coming year technically we don't really have anything to say about that it would be approved by the nearfield Town board
because they are the supervisory body for but they we talked about it the Deerfield Representatives when it's finalized by the chief he's going to send it to Deerfield and then they will
send it to sundland and us for comments so you can see what emsg is looking to do where setting priorities if we have any comments we can send them the deer field so Bo cool
so we're getting that doc we yeah we should be the the preliminary came was what came through last week or the week before no they didn't give us a document they simply at least what I was just told that there's it's coming but I
never right okay so it's still coming presumably okay all right thank you uh let's see Library I am meeting with Cindy on Thursday uh I've been catching up with folks in the front office I'll be
meeting just later this week uh met with Amy today um really fun to find out what she's doing and um the the kinds of courses that she's taking to become registered um certified as a town clerk in Massachusetts it's going to take a
while to get there but she's really excited about it and one thing that I took away from that meeting was she said I just love the people of this County so all of you she loves you and the water committee uh met this morning and they
they are tight on their budget uh as expected but they're actually doing pretty well um they are required by the EPA to do a hang on I've got the word uh digital security uh ass
assessment they got like a 20page print out that they have to answer questions uh the risk in a town is small is really quite minimal it's something that's aimed at larger cities um but that's something they've got on their plate otherwise everything is good over there
swimmingly flowingly Etc uh Town Administrator updates just a few um the first one is with regards to the fire department um and the window project that was approved for arpa
funding when I printed this it was that it was still being worked on as of this morning I found out it is now done and the windows are great cool so all set there the future looks like weightly pollinator project the second community
community meeting was held last week 14 attendees the meeting included a presentation and breakout sessions it ended with a survey of her attendees that's been least for the public as well both online and paper versions are available and the project web page on the town website has the presentation
files uh file photos from the event link to the survey and eventually we'll also have um the video from that um posted so that people can watch the video cool I went online and took the survey I encourage everybody to do the
same um let see Governor Healey was holding trans transportation in infrastructured Round Table uh it was a Transportation road show that happened and a little over a week ago uh she came to Franklin County where we actually met
at Conway the library in Conway we met with uh Governor Healey it was 20 or over 20 Town administrators that were there along with bur hog uh providing um bringing us all together we focused on
talking about our issues dealing with and maintaining infrastructure and transportation within the region as well as commitments that the administration is making such as the8 billion transportation funding plan and reforms chapter
90 uh we talked about issues with infrastructure and limitations on that chapter 90 funding need to change that formula which by the way the change in the formula is that originally it used to be based on not just the road mileage
in the road miles in a community but also the population so if you had a lot of road miles but a low population you got limited chapter 90 money reality is the cost to maintain those roads is essentially the same so they're getting rid of the population element which will
help to kind of even the plane field now that's good um also the significant amount of time that can happen when a project becomes tip funded because now it has to go through more regulation more process more engineering costs more
reviews what does tip stand for transportation Improvement program it's a federal funding that's done and the monies go to the state and the states de it out but and we'll see have that yeah that's one of the
yes another area that could have yeah some problems in the end it was a very positive meeting um what was really great was the governor really intended to be there to listen she wanted to hear all the the feedback from the
communities really wanted to get an understanding where Franklin County was and the concerns here a point was brought up that uh in Franklin County we have um a significant visitor
um what was the phrase he used uh essentially load a visitor load um in the area that exceeds what Martha's Vineyard sees and yet Martha's Vineyard gets significantly more money um but we
have although we don't have the population we actually get a significant amount of visitors through the year especially during Le peeping season that we still have the the wear and tear um which kind of spoke to like the change
in the calculation since that meeting we did receive a letter confirming that in FY 2026 the town will receive 246,000 246 294
what allocation for fisc year 25 yeah um yeah same question yeah I don't have three um and finally um town hall on Friday afternoon
February 28 we had an issue at the Town Hall where the septic system did back up um there was a clog in the septic line we don't know if it had been an old clog or whatnot but unfortunately it did back up the line was then cleared on Sunday
it did mean that we had a cancel events on Sunday and Monday um the bathrooms were then cleaned on Monday and the building went back into full operation on Tuesday and that is it all right any items not
anticipated and is there a motion move to a turn second to our next meeting in two weeks on point no next week next next week joint meeting joint meting joint meeting do and we don't follow up with no all right uh Joyce how do you
vote hi hi I thank you this meeting is now adjourned