welcome to the town of Deerfield select board Board of Health sewer commissioner meeting of April 9th 2024 at 416 p.m. this meeting will be held in a hybrid fashion with opportunity for in both in-person attendance in the main meeting room of the Deerfield municipal offices and remote participation please note that while an option for remote attendance and participation is being provided as a courtesy to the public the meeting will not be suspended or determinated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast unless otherwise required by law members of the public with particular interest in any specific item on this agenda should plan to for an inperson versus virtual attendance accordingly pursuant to general laws chapter 30A anyone intending to record this meeting must identify themselves to the clerk Trevor McDaniel and provide their name and address for the record thank you uh so I'm calling the meeting to order public comment is there any public comment nope okay first item on the agenda we are skipping over the Deerfield Elementary School um entry project it's not ready for us to um sign yet it will be on our next agenda fuel storage certificate fee uh increase in review and Cassie can you introduce yourself and uh sure explain why we're the $5 just isn't adequate anymore it is not uh my name is Cassie Sandell I'm the town clerk um and in preparing this year's um fuel storage certificates um I realized that the fee of $5 for preparing the certificates mailing them return getting them returned um processing um and filing $5 did not cover um the cost so I took the survey um from 2023 um and I took 23 communities um who uh represent uh communities closest to our population um 23 of them and um took the average and the average was actually pretty much exactly $25 so um the uh fees ranged predominantly from 10 to 50 um some 75 and even some 500 um so 25 seem to fair to me do you think that does in fact cover the cost I mean wonder if we be back at it in like three years because everybody else adjusted right um I well like how just for an example when you say um you mail it out you um expect it back and I mean are you spending 15 20 minutes on a per certificate or how much of your time not quite probably um I have uh letters that I amend each year um to prepare and the certificate um so but I guess with the time um when the certificates are returned to process the payment and to record the certificates probably a total of 15 maybe 20 minutes so 25 sounds reasonable then that's good you you feel comfortable 25 not can always again no okay why don't you just keep an eye on it and if you feel that the 25 is not covering your time and the postage and everything else um just I mean you've been pretty good about coming and updating our fees so good just kind of keep an eye on this kind of stuff we' appreciate it so I'll take a motion it's there's no other discussion make a motion to approve the fee uh change to $25 for uh fuel storage uh certificate fee second uh is there any more discussion hearing none all those in favor Tim El I Trevor McDaniel I Carin S I thank you thank you thank you for paying attention to this get out and enjoy that weather yes rain for 5 days um you got to pay for it some way or another and and we have uh Christopher here who is probably going to talk to us about the Elm Street complete streets application so excited to see this on the agenda yes this is moving forward thank you Christopher thank you and I I've actually got a couple other items as well um so I don't know if we want to start with uh the shared streets and spaces and the sidewalk project on North Maine sure so we'll let me just share this really quick um so everyone can see kind of the project areas we're talking about here you know what Christopher can you just introduce yourself and can you speak into the m just to dash more because we want to make sure people can hear you this is pretty exciting actually great yeah Christopher Dunn uh planning and economic development coordinator for the town of deer field uh and let me share my screen here so everyone can take a look at this all right then uh put that in slideshow okay all right great and then let me hide that that's about as good as I can get it for the moment um so real quick background here so uh for the sidewalk project this came up at the last CCI meeting um so I know uh Kevin had gotten believe about $250,000 for sidewalk improvements on North Main Street uh over the last few few years right I think it it got to a certain point in the planning process last year and then kind of needed to be revised and then he went back to GZA the consultant who's been doing the design work uh and they came up with a revised design um and we're positioned now to to use that design and go for an invitation for bids uh this spring and furog has been helping us pull together those procurement documents so real quick uh what you see on the left there I think you can see it okay yep M yeah so that is that's North Main from Pleasant to Jackson Street uh so on the east side of the road that's the side of the road with the the bloody Brook Monument uh you know the idea would be to go as far as we can essentially and redoing the sidewalks um so the bid is structured uh to maximize linear feet repaved um I'll it'll a few slides down I'll show you what the the basic specs look like uh so you can get a sense of that great and then on the other side on the West Side Uh Kevin was looking to just do from Pleasant Street basically up to the uh Frontier Regional School there um so a much shorter distance um and that's that's the biggest part of the project area and then I would just real quick zoom in on a separate but very related project uh the shared streets and spaces grant that uh we received last year we were looking to use that to do some uh rectangular rapid flashing beacons at some of our crosswalks around the schools M um so that zoomed in area you can see that's right in front of uh Frontier Regional there's uh three crosswalks there that would be restriped uh we would be adding some Ada ramps as well and then also those rectangular flashing beacons there um there are also plans to do uh restriping and an additional couple beacons at the crosswalk at Pleasant Street um so that's currently we have a a crossing guard there um and was out there with Kevin and the chief the other day and we determined that you know it could be done and with a little bit little bit of grass added here and there there would be space for those uh rapid flashing beacons and signs so okay so we'll I'll mention that a little bit later as well more grass the better yeah are they um are they activated by hand can you press a button that's the idea you you come up to them and you press a button and then they start flashing and good to cross the that's great y yeah cuz you can't a lot of times you just can't see especially at night so helpful to have it visual aid that somebody's there yep yeah they're great yeah I I know I just stopped the other day for a gentleman on 5 and 10 here because he pressed the button and they started flashing and otherwise never would have seen him right um I did want to mention beyond the work on North Main uh the ifb includes this stretch in front of the Polish Club as well yeah um so I I'm not sure the history there but it sounds like there's been a need to to improve That Sidewalk we've been getting requests quite a bit because it it kind of just seems like the street and kids travel and walk there and eventually love to get downtown done but one step at a time yeah know this has been has been brought to our attention for several years to address that a lot of times snow gets built up at the end as well in the winter so it's really a safety issue yeah um for kids uh and especially the smaller kids because you can't it I mean this year we had no real snow but sometimes the snow banks are very high and the kids you can't see them can't see the kids yep that be great so it'd be wonderful thank you great yeah so other than uh those sections of North Main this is the only other section of sidewalk contemplated in this ifb okay um I'll just real quick just show you what I was talking about on North Main and pleasant so imagine those triangles are not just triangles they're actually um you know those flashing beacons um so that's the location we'd be looking at and you can see kind of behind on the right there that orange strip that's the the start of the sidewalk project at that location uh and then on the other side there's a bit of purple as well so I had a question I know that's the entrance for the farmers quite a bit of big equipment coming in and out of that area is there enough room to put a post there so that is that's actually precisely why we went out there with Kevin and the chief um so John glinsky was there just to check and see hey can I make my way around this right those beacons can be installed about 5T off of the crosswalk um so with that he said yeah a right turn shouldn't be a problem that should be perfectly fine okay yep just want to make sure he was all set thank you thank you for um talking to John ginsky oh happy to do it yeah yeah and I think it was uh I believe it was Chief jerk who pointed out hey we better check in with John for sure well I just you know we want to be supportive of galinsky's farm as much as possible stand right there so so it is it's good to to know that great thank you Christopher for making sure happy to do it and then just real quick here's up at uh North Main and and or it should it should just say North Main and um uh Frontier Regional there not pleasant um but those are the locations of the proposed uh flashing beacons and then that crosswalk there is also what would be improved and you can see the on the uh right hand side that kind of those orange strips they're a little bit tough to see that's where the the sidewalk would be improved as well that's great um so that's the basic um project area um and again you know Kevin had kind of structured the bid so we'll see how far we can go north on North Main um but it'll certainly overlap with the shared streets project so we're hoping there's going to be an opportunity for some cost savings and some we coordination between the two projects I think if we have to prioritize TI I really want us to do some on South Main in front of the Polish Club up to the cross crossing I mean we have seriously had complaints for years and it is in my mind it is dangerous we'll see when the bids come back I guess yeah what we need to do so the um the the Polish Club area that's in the bid right it is yes and the other one we just you know if we get lucky and they want to go a lot further we're going to have to limit the distance they go on the North Main Street side because when we get down to the center of town you know we may have different goals with cement rather than asphalt correct yep correct yeah so so as it's structured currently they're just starting at Pleasant Street and going north they're not touching anything south of that um in front of the Town campus or anything obviously that needs a very serious intervention but that's a project for another day yep yep that sounds really good thank you and just real quick here the the for the sidewalk um so you can see most of it's going to be uh I'm never never sure how to say it so I'll just call it Portland concrete um you know going up to uh basically the um concrete sidewalk right before the Ada ramp so most of this will be uh Portland cement and then you'll have um you know actual concrete right where the it meets the street or the driveway yeah um and that's that's good news and that uh I know Kevin was also pointing out the price of concrete has just skyrocketed so for the last couple months unfortunately so we're still planning to do asphalt but when we come to Road intersections and exactly when we transition of concrete exactly so asphalt up until uh you have this uh concrete here right right before the um Ada ramp okay yep yep that sounds good yeah concrete I I think is now from like 163 bucks to almost $500 y it doesn't just jump cuz they can it's terrible have fun I mean it's literally not that I don't know just seems just all building costs went up so figured they could do it too I guess sure so anyway that's the the sidewalk and the shared streets projects any questions at this point no no okay great so I'll be I'll be working with Kevin and Andre Woods at furog just to get that bit out the door great and uh you know hopefully we'll be able to get do a pretty good stretch in North Main yeah that' be that'd be great um and then real quick uh in terms of so we talked about the things we're already doing uh something that's been talked about for a long time complete streets project on Elm Street um I just wanted to give a little kind of reminder because there's a long history to this stuff um so back in 2013 I think I think they first started convening conversations and I'm sure someone will tell me no we really started 20 years before that yeah I'm sure but uh you know a after that I know that the town really got serious about going through this complete streets process we got a policy adopted we had a prioritization plan created um and then things kind of came to a halt with the pandemic um and so one of my pet projects has been hey let's revive this and try to start moving forward particularly given that the L lot is poised for completion this summer that'll really allow us to do more in our our streets because we'll make sure there's plenty of parking for everyone right um and I know kind of back of the napkin analysis we did was uh you know it shows about 100 public parking spots downtown and after the L lot even if the state takes away their parking on Sugarloaf and park we'll still have hundred so we're good there y um so Elm Street is kind of the the third project on the that list of priori the other two have to do with the town common which obviously we're continuing to work with Jeff Squire from Brookshire Design Group on this is kind of the area um that we're looking at uh so it's Elm Street from Maine to the to Railroad Street um so on the map there you can see that triangle there is the common and uh at the end there is hamshaws so I reached out to Ty and bond they had completed our prioritization plan back in 2020 so they were kind of most familiar and they're also um pre-qualified with mass do for this work so that's that's an important consideration with complete streets applications um they put together a couple very highlevel uh crosssections of Elm Street um this is the existing conditions on Elm Street so you can see the angled parking that we have on the north side of the street yep and then narrow sidewalks on either side and so prioritization project is not uh you know it didn't outline exactly what to do here but it just said hey let's reuse some of that right away for pedestrians trees bikes or something other than angled parking yeah so they had a handful of Alternatives here um and I won't get too deep into any of these CU they're just you know crosssections for illustrative purposes but um you know you have one option where you're just widening the sidewalk substantially restaurants might like that for having some some dining space etc for sure um another option with some kind of a more of a tree belt on the north side of Elm Street like that too and then they had some options um with bike Lanes um I will say I don't think in our prioritization plan it actually considered bike lanes for Elm Street right no typically going on the other way one one interesting point to consider though um is uh Elm Street's going to be need repaving at some point soon very soon if you do put bike Lanes on there complete streets could potentially cover some of that so that's something to think about y um and then they had another design with um you know that kind of center turning lane yeah um so personally you know I'm I certainly tend towards these first two with the wider sidewalk and uh tree alternate two looks good to me so we were talking with tyan Bond about you know well what's the next step here there are opportunities for construction funding Grant applications coming up May 1st which is right around the corner um but also October 1st um and the nice thing about October 1st is we can have you know take these have a conversation with our business owners our residents and say hey here's what we're thinking don't worry about the parking we've thought that through and you know what do you like and what should we be thinking about when we um move forward with these so yeah so I wanted to just kind of put that out there um great and then uh here's kind of an overall proposed approach uh so you know spend some time engaging with these businesses this summer to make sure they're aware of this plan um you know one other way to defr some of these costs is to look at and and Tim will smile because he I've mentioned this grant program a couple times uh the municipal Ada Improvement uh fund um so that includes anything that was in our Ada transition plan which we completed back in 2020 big part of that plan was improving our sidewalks so that they're more accessible y um so that could could take a chunk out of sidewalk improvements potentially um and then you know another important aspect of this is survey work um so I know with the L lot project um for a little bit Jeff was looking at you know including some improvements to sidewalks on Elm Street in that right there just is very little in terms of survey work that's already been completed and it's up to date for that area right um so we have to consider you know can we complete some of that work while we're still finalizing you know what our design is going to be y the town appropriated $40,000 for complete streets a few years ago um that sat untouched to this point um I would suggest that's probably a good place to start yeah um and I can reach out to the cipc or whoever you know to make sure everyone's on board with that approach yeah um that was that 40 was originally to start the design of the common and then we ended up realizing we couldn't use it cuz it was State stuff but yeah there is there's places to use that for sure that's the whole intent it's great I I think it's really important to engage people again because we've had too much time exactly um and so we need public input again so if you want to do the Outreach I'm thrilled to death for that love the love the idea of Greening in a tree belt and like I just bunch of old it'd be nice if we could find a way to actually get the stuff built so we don't until the summer of 2025 to have it done um I know we always want things done tomorrow but um yeah that's just my two cents faster is better agreed I think uh you know the timeline I'm laying out here would have construction spring summer 2025 um but uh you know that's that's just what I'm looking at given that the grant funding opportuni is October 1st I know but I I hear you Tim I get you sounds good um so anyway that's that's all I had any other questions from the S board at this point no thank you thank you for your work on that we keep you updated beyond that perfect Christopher thank you for staying late oh it's not late at all it's like 9 minutes past when I normally leave so wow you're efficient you're thank you yeah so uh we can slide out now let the finance come in oh we hey I think this is just um with this one of your that's mine all the know up this one definitely it's going to rain like after that's to encourage people to want to leave early work efficiently well tonight we have a Personnel committee at 6 so we are going to be done by 6 regardless of whether we're done um so let's open the finance committee meeting for April 9th 2024 at 4:40 p.m. um very sadly Jim cambias is not here today um mean somebody needs to take minutes any volunteers I'm going to be away we all right see David can't hear you I can does David want to do it did you volte I'm not hearing you very well but um oh sorry is this better that's all right yeah and my apologies for not being there I just I'm on that Personnel at 6 and that's always remote so ah I didn't want to be delaying that one running back home got it okay um so we have minutes from April 1st does anybody like to make a motion to recommend the minute or pass whatever we do with I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of April 1st meeting all right do we have a second second that okay any discussion no we will need to do a roll call vote since we're hybrid so let's start down here with John I approve uh Mark Bren and I uh be Brown Julie chal and I if sharain so that's 302 I can do the I can do I'll type you you run okay um all right I got that for start I'm start from right there because that's what I did okay yeah okay perfect um okay so the minutes are approved so next on the agenda is reviewing individual line items this is a reminder where we left at last meeting is that we asked that we leave at least $200,000 in free cash um and we asked the accountant and administrator and select board to go off and look at that I don't think we're quite to that point yet but we have a couple that we want to look at now and then we'll look at the rest of them next week unless yep okay um I did not print new sheets though okay so um sorry Julie I thought when you and I we were just going to go through the um warrant so I apologize oh um sorry I might have messed you up there there there was a um suggested reduction in select board staff salaries and I can print these for you for next week um but uh Casey and I were looking at the part-time assistant in their office and by going down to 16 hours a week from 18 that saved us uh Casey you want confirm I think it was $2,569 right sound yeah I'm not you my computer's coughing a cball up did yeah it's right around there what was that Casey i' missed it it's about $2,600 I don't have the I don't have my sheet in front of me I'm sorry y it's select board staff salaries so going from I do not have a sheet do you have the account number uh it's 122 5110 thank you so if you take 2569 from that a number it gives us 378 497 and that was like I said that was just going from 18 hours a week to 16 hours a week for the part-time admin support do you feel ready for us to vote on that this evening yeah I do are you okay with that yeah we we already actually voted on it you did oh good okay do you have a copy of it then on our third yeah we we have voted to go down they talked about it at the last meeting oh we didn't vote okay we agreed to go down though I know that you did agree to go down yeah yeah so that ends up at 378 497 When anybody like to make a motion to reduce select board staff salaries to 378 497 I'll make a motion to approve select P staff salaries account 122 5110 for 381,000 66 uh it's three it's a new number 37 7847 okay I withdraw that motion I'll make a motion that we uh recommend select board staff salaries uh account number 122 5110 at 37849 second all right any discussion um it was 38166 yeah correct okay and that would all come the the intent is that would come out of the part-time admin support yep that that lower the lowest line item there on that okay and what were the hours again uh going from 16 down to uh excuse me going from 18 down to 16 18 to 16 thank you any discussion no let's do a roll to vote starting with John I Mark Bren and I Beth Brown I Julie CH and I H Shar I all right that passes 500 I would entertain a motion for the staff board select board staff salary reduction make a motion to approve select board staff salary uh um count 122 5110 at $378,900 second all those in favor Caroline I Tim HG I Trevor McDaniel I okay uh the next one is the select board Administration expense and that was reduced by $2,200 down to 19,000 even and sounds like Casey's printing some things um we had we looked at a few line items and felt that there were a few that could be reduced um I believe we reduced training oh good you did you print thank you I'm so sorry I did not um oh great so uh meetings we went down to 9500 you know that that makes it pretty tight um particularly if we end up going to a pum um uh reimbursement and everyone submits but I think it is doable and then we went down to 3,000 for training and 1,000 for postage and we were mainly looking at history as well as what we spent so far this year and uh dues went down to 3,000 so so that that brings us down to 19,000 total and that felt like a very comfortable number right do we have a motion I'll make a motion to approve select board and administrative expense count 122 5400 for $119,000 do we need to end to retract the prior approval do you need to say something like that no no I don't think so okay we haven't been doing that so do we have a second second oh good you already did that but I just didn't hear you any discussion on that all right uh roll call vote John would you like to start hi Mark Bren and I Beth Brown I Julie Chalan I a sharp I that passes five Z Z make a motion to approve the revised select Board of administration expense account 225400 in the amount of $19,000 second second all those in favor Carolyn ASI Tim Hil Chev mcel I so for the minutes the the sheet says select board and administrator expense but we're calling it select board Administration expense yeah that's been changed uh so when we print it the next time you'll be able to see that Administration expense okay then the last one that the select board um had uh control over um that they that they actually submitted was Council on Aging and that was 541 5400 um the suggestion for that was to go down to 250 we haven't been spending it but um felt that that was that was reasonable I 100 oh where'd you get that put Casey provided it last week but I don't know that we voted on it I think we just had it for consideration so well the the finance committee had voted it at 400 uh the request was for 500 and you know that was just because we've been requesting 500 thinking that uh the Council on aing was going to do some things um but when Casey I were looking at it we decided that we could go down to 250 and that still gives them a little bit of money in case they do spend it for dues or whatever I I would be supportive of 250 I I I think we have to leave some in there for mailings or you know I mean just we don't we can't anticipate how active they are going to be and and that was why we raised it originally from to 500 because there was some discussion of more activity um but the senior center truthfully has been so active that the Council on Aging hasn't really kicked in but on the other hand um I'm still optimistic that there is going to be some activity maybe so I I'm feel comfortable with 250 do you guys want to vote it and make sure you're okay with it first and then we'll I'll make go ahead Kev I'll make make a motion to approve the Council on Aging um 541 5400 at $250 second all those in favor Carolyn Ness I Tim HG I Chev McDaniel I all right do we have a motion from fun income I'll make a motion to uh recommend $250 for the Council on Aging count 5401 15400 second any discussion uh let's do a roll call vote b m John I Mark Bren and I Beth r i Julie Chalan I if sh I that passes 500 so out of all of those budgets that uh brought us down $491 and we're shooting for something in the neighbor neighborhood of 30,000 GRE reduction is that there a discussion about skims or no what we were going to do was move the capital project for the school flooring to next to the fiscal year 26 from fiscal year 25 so that would reduce the bottom line by what was it Mark it's 27 it was it was at 127,00 for those four Capital items and if you take that one out um that one was 26400 so that brings us down to capital projects of 10,500 yeah right I I believe that's yeah okay 264 and what what have we saved so far uh $4 4,919 um Casey and I had some recommendations for some of the U miscellaneous budget to be reduced but didn't feel like we should do that until we had a chance to talk with those uh committees like you know Conservation Commission historical commission energy comme you know those um and that might save us another couple thousand um but that is as far as we were able to go thank you so much Cas um um um didn't that roughly get us to the 200,000 in it it did oh yes and and we have a little bit to spare there now now with those changes and especially if scms has gone down some um Josh this was trying to call me uh was trying to confirm that number but um we'll deal with it um uh I did make a request um to our police chief to see if he could find 5,000 in his payroll budget but um you know the chief doesn't budget for full-time Academy expenses and there's a lot of payroll involved with somebody that goes to training for for um for that kind of work and he's down two people and and not only does he send that person to training for 5 months but then he also has to have somebody has him shadow that person another uh policeman for another couple of months so he was not comfortable giving up any of his money he he just felt like that that wasn't doable um we've already discussed a lot of the other budgets Casey and I you know were just putting our heads together trying to figure out where else we could find money if we were to um I don't know Casey you if you wanted to address it or you want me to but um couple of suggestions you want me to go ahead there's more than one way you can address it um Casey we can't really hear you the budget Casey we can't hear you your mic your mic isn't working well for some reason I'm so there's more than one thing you can address but there isn't a lot of fluff in the budget one thing that I heard a member of the select board mentioned before is to reduce the number of days the transfer station is open um if we reduced it by one day that saves about seven Grand oh that's not a savings yeah we're that's not a savings Casey well we were I mean we're looking at anything Carolyn just to try to get us you know so so that would save us about $7,000 right we be quite the Uproar though um I think that still cutting feel like we're at the number we need to yeah I think that the um concern concern was how much free cash we're using for the Omnibus budget and and I know umix there's only so much we can we uh there's so much blood you can get out of a turnup I get it um but we were just shooting for other ideas because at one point in time we were talking about $330,000 so we were trying to figure out where else we could SP you know the other thought was snow and ice you know do do we need to be plowing in the middle of the night can we start plowing at 6:00 a.m. instead of you know I know just just grasping it straws really how much is money are we looking for 20,000 30 30 yeah but we we have come up with 30 well by by asking the school to foro the um project classroom work uh of the 400 until the next next fcal year Trevor did speak to Darius about that right and he was okay with it yeah yeah can I can I ask sorry to be the dead horse and sorry to not have been present but um when you talked about the school budget previously did was did anybody do a sort of school choice um analysis of that account and see where it's ending up well when you were here last David uh it was at about a mil 54,000 and and that's where it's at right now but my recollection was that Darius was actually going to be spending more that this spring taking on some of those some of those things for the year that that was my recollection is that it would be in the latter half or the latter quarter of this year so I don't think he's actually gotten around to spending what he was intending to spend so I'm I'm guessing by the end of June he's going to be down some from from that number um but I all I can contribute to that I'm sorry that's not all I can contribute to that that's that's my recollection I don't know if anybody else has that recollection but that's that's what I remember him saying um uh David I I think it sometime after town meetings sometime during the summer I think it would be very important for us to have um a discussion about school choice and how um because I worry um we're on the hook for 50% of the opep for Frontier and when you get 40ish percent school choice we're running a lot of the school for you know the county and and I there is a balance because you want kids to participate in programs and you want to offer programs and that also keeps kids in school and and but that's why I feel like we have to have separate discussion and not just talk about school choice What what is the ramifications of continued trends of the high school choice coming in from weight Ley and Conway and and how do we adjust um the bills for you know like the regional school and stuff like that not not a a critical one but just let's put on the the the the ideas that are on the table and let's talk about them and then let's try to figure out an optal percentage what's the optal percentage for us as school choice for Deerfield I think there's only one or two spots this coming year so they're not I mean our our school choice enrollment is dropping quite a bit a lot of people a lot of kids well at Frontier moving on to tech school so um but I know the Deerfield Elementary is like we're down to two classrooms for all the grades after I think a year from now well I think when I was last there we don't have one that we and then it's just progressively this coming year they're going to be down to two two classes per grade Y and they came in you know pretty little budget this year to help and help us out but I I just think there's a lot I think so and I think that I mean I've I talked to finance committee people but I've talked to finance committee people in some of the other towns and they are concerned about the school choice um numbers in their in their elementary schools and then that propagates on to the high school so I think is worth having that discussion and maybe like a joint discussion among all the yeah I I and and I don't mean it as you know we got to find criticism or you know but I think we should look at the pros and cons of the whole system and then what is optimal you know what what is what are we shooting for so my my point in raising this was not to have a debate about whether or not to have school choice or not or what kind of numbers we should have it was more to bring attention that there is a school choice account that has a million dollars in it that is getting carried over year to year and not being used for the benefit of the kids or the town and that account is much greater than it has been historically so it's just a fund that it seems to me if we're looking for 20 or $330,000 um and last year we were told that they oh we're going to spend more of it this year so it won't be you know over a million maybe we're going to you know if we're going to cut into it a lot because of the budget and the needs Etc but it's not really clear that that's been done it so it seems like the real discussion is what's an appropriate amount of money to have socked away for emergencies um and right now you're looking at about that's probably 20% of the whole school budget which I would highly doubt any other town has that much in their school choice account year to year being carried over David I I would recommend just touching base with Darius that he he does have planned to use a lot of that and we're using quite a bit to you know try to get this school budget into uh a decent rate for the town um there's a you know there's a lot of projects that he's looking to spend that money on at the later half of the year so I think you're going to notice I mean I think we're all going to look back longingly on these years and in a little bit with when that money just is starting to dwindle really fast just looking at the trends and what he has planned to spend this year I'm happy to have that conversation if I'm allowed to um I will certainly do that because part of what you're saying Trevor is what we were told last year as well yeah well that's why that's the only reason I'm raising and then to I guess in defense of that is that yes that was the plan and then it turned out there's a lot of money that came in over the last last year that nobody was expecting like the interest rates and the money on investments and you know the finishing up of the Esra and all these other things just kind of came in it cuz we were looking at 4 and 1 12% increase and we're at like one something now so a lot of that a lot of that is going to get used up but yeah I do I encourage you to talk to him about it because we I have had those same conversations and um just talking with Shelly and Darius about it there a lot of that is going to get spent pretty quick and it would seem like if there is a million dollars in there that they should be able to come up with 26 fla to stay on track with the uh flooring and um and still not have it drop into our budget so that's another place where they can spend some of that money It is Well then why delay the flooring which it's only going to be more expensive if you put it off to the year exactly if they've got the money in the bank why don't they spend it yeah yeah all right any more discussion on that so one thing that's crossing my mind as although I think we just resolved this is that if we cut Capital now so that we have $200,000 in free cash when we get to fall town meeting there's going to be some Capital item that comes up that everybody's going to say that we want to spend money on um and do we this is just like a philosophy discussion right I don't know what it'll be but if we do it at annual town meeting then we have this big deliberation and we look at the capital compared to the operating expenses and we have this whole big discussion in the capital committee goes through and does it drinking and all that stuff and then we have the big discussion if we go to it in the fall and so so what I'm thinking is like say that the school committee actually has spent money out of that that account and they don't have the 26,000 they don't do the FL when we get to the fall there's going to be some I don't know what it's going to be that we're going to buy um CT say CT replacement okay so in the fall we replace a culvert um is it should we say something like let's make sure we go back and look at the capital listing that we already had um from cuz we're there's a bunch of stuff on it that we're not doing right that that we've decided to wait so might have thoughts on this I that's what I would recommend Julie I I I think we kick stuff to the next year because we knew we didn't have very much money so I based on what we would generate in free cash for once it gets certified and then we have our towards our town meeting in the fall I would like to revisit the capital I think that's always what we do it's kind of a and stuff comes up so I was actually arguing the opposite I think that we should the barrier should be really high to do anything in the fall and that if we've kicked it we've kicked it and next spring we visit it with the full amount of free cash not having spent it in the fall but what you're what what I feel like you're asking I'm not sure but is that if we we're making these decisions now but something we don't know about comes to us we don't say oh okay we'll do that and then all the stuff that we deliberate the people like who went through the appropriate hoops and did what they were supposed to didn't get approval right that go ahead Brenda you were going to say something well I was just going to say um I know that uh there was a uh energy rebate that the school got that had to go into the town's coffers into the general fund so I had suggested to them that if they needed to use that in the fall that they might want to come to the town then and and and get it because it's about $22,000 now with that said I don't know that the school does any projects unless it's summertime so they might just wait wait with everything till till the following spring anyway but um that is out there okay I'm not suggesting we make a motion or anything I'm just like talking Philosophy for philosophy I agree that um you know the annual town meeting is the place to do these things and if we decide not to do them then we should wait a year and you know have a good reason uh unless you know like this the ceiling of this building fell in you know oh gosh um I'm just saying yeah do do the capital stuff at the big annual town meeting and there's got to be good reason why we revisit this I mean we'd be in a lot better shape if we didn't have an $800,000 road damage thing that we have to deal with this year so we've been Doom and Gloom about a lot of things but actually with the tragedy the the catastrophe that happened last year we're not in bad shape in this particular budget good well Trends that's a different story right but if we didn't have that 800,000 we're trying to make make up because the state didn't give us enough money I think we'd be okay right now I mean yeah for one year the well the I don't know if we're just talking philosophy we I mean generally I think that's the practice is like you do your stuff in the annual town meeting and then every town goes okay we get free cash certified in the fall that's when we tackle stuff and that's when you spend free cash on onetime items but I mean you can hold to the next year but a lot of times the year has happened and you're you're at fall and you've you've had some time to kind of figure out but I agree we should go back and like fund the things that are on the list and not just make up a new project that we want to tackle unless it's an emergency but I feel like fall is usually where we I mean just from history that's where we've done that but I think in the fall that's when we have a lot of projects that have different funding sources than free cash you know we'll have like CPC or um CPA funds you know like a we we'll buy a property from someone who passed away you know stuff like that so um I I don't I don't know that we do a lot of spending out of free cash or Capital stabilization in the fall so I think that what you're proposing is very reasonable and something we can do the the grant Cycles are either in the spring tend to be in the spring or they tend to be in the fall so sometimes is appropriate to support something in the fall because it's an opportunity to get a grant for like a match for a culvert I mean if if we have a CT out here on Bloody Brook that we can replace for 20% of the cost it makes sense to match that 20% of for the grant because we've identified the downtown here as a severe risk for flooding so that is a good investment but I I think it's it's you have to evaluate every situation to see what and and you don't know I mean by the Fall you started your fiscal year look what happened this year we started the fiscal year and we had more than $20 million worth of damage to our roads and so we've been still working to try to fix what we can fix and um stabilize what we can stabilize and and so I mean you really don't know what's going to happen for the to I mean in general I'm agreeing that we should keep our purchases and go through the process for the spring but you honestly don't know what's happening through the year and one final thing to David's Point um if if Darius has a plan for this money he should share it with us um at least give us broad indications of oh it's going to be 200,000 that I'm going to spend or it's going to be 300,000 so this this will be reduced to you know 15% of the school budget um and we'll have this 15% aside um I don't yeah so I he doesn't at at the meetings yeah but I mean he he needs to share that with the finance committee and and us I mean because if ien only had a million dollars and we're talking about 264 for for flooring well you have the money to pay for that so you know pay for it yeah I think there's some confusion on all that but yeah yeah I I understand yeah he should yeah I think we're all confused about what what Darius has got planned I mean does anybody here know what Darius has planned you do but you you can you articulate it yeah generally yeah well I mean again a school doesn't have a a capital capital um Reserve fund they don't have a you know they don't have any of these other tools that we have as a town to hang on to some money and plan for it and then sure yes and and and I'm not criticizing anyone I'm just saying each year each year we take money from from school choice to either help fund um some sort of teacher or AIDS or something to be able to fund that um this year I we've been waiting for this axe to drop as David said for years and this last year was just unknown that all this extra money was going to come from from different places to help to help you know relieve um the issues that we've been under with this budget but yeah there's there's a lot of things that are coming up and again I don't have it on the top of my plate but this was a request not a demand I'll fill them in yeah I mean it would be nice if you shared the information yeah in a written form well he typically you know the idea is to come to the school committee meetings that's really where it should be happening is that the town should come the leader should come the finance committee should come to a school committee meeting and have those conversations or get invited to come here let's invite them or they should invite us yeah yeah we should invite them so when they gave us the budget they pretty clearly lay out in the budget where everything's coming from so you can see what's being spent from the different sources and everything and that's very very clear when they give that to you I think the one piece that they probably gave us but I don't remember seeing is the balance in those accounts and um sort of the you know the expect balance at some point at the end of the year or whatever um so that may be just the the one piece that we're missing because I've been wondering like s funds go away and they've been spending eser funds and I've I think they they're they're pretty disciplined so I think they have a plan and they know what they're going to do and the asra funds are going to end and they're going to move on but I can't articulate a dollar value in any of the funds or anything so maybe that's the the piece of information that we feel like we're missing I have a problem with we're trying to squeeze dollars out of the budget Capital Improvements and there's hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting there being unused I think we need to use it it's like a stabilization fund that's not being used well we we're not using all of ours either pardon we're not using all of ours either right so I mean we have millions of dollars sitting that we're not spending and we're trying to pull from 26,000 from an operating budget that's true so I mean it's it's similar but it's it's a little different on a school department because they don't have as many accounts to do that but I think I'll talk to Darius tonight I'll relay this and I'll say come lay out you know this this concern that the finance committee has well it's not just a finance committee I mean I I did I did intend you I attended two um f FRS meetings and there was mentions of million three um in in funds that they had set aside um then they reduce that so I'm just looking for a picture of overall because the F FRS budget and the dees budget are part of the Omnibus budget that we're dealing with and if they've got $2 million set aside between the two schools you know to understand what the philosophy is for that is is a valuable thing I think we as a finance committee we should know that I think it's incumbent on us to know that yes and and I'm not even questioning that they probably have very valid plans right you know that's it's not even an issue of that well that that is um a source or a pot of money that continually gets reduced for them as well um every year the state gives less and less and less for school Joys which I guess is indicative of our reduction of students um I did just get information from from um Joshua that there was just a little problem with the spreadsheet but the $188,000 reduction that he presented to us last week is correct so uh we will vote that next week uh a reduction to this budget I have a question can I just make one last comment about all that go ahead David and then Mark yeah I just I just want to say that the the budgeting from the school committee is very good and that in fact every year they do try to predict for whoever's reading the budget what's going to be used at a school choice what's going to be put into school choice and then what the prediction is for the school choice account balance at the end of the next year and and I think my my only not my only point but the point that I'm also trying to raise here is that there were there have been predic I think in the past couple of cycles that indeed we're spending it down so we have to be careful you know instead of a million at the end of the year we're going to have you know 800 or something and so getting back to the point made earlier it's still high yes maybe over the next 3 months before the end of the year they're somehow going to spend a lot of that money but I don't want to leave the impression that they not they're not you know as Trevor said the information is there in in the budget um it's just that it's not uh really Jing at the end of the year with what they said at the beginning of the year in other words the trend wasn't as they said and so my point is just well why is that uh and do we really need to keep it that high every year so thanks Mark um dat is that from I had a question about a completely different budget and I'm not sure if we're done with the school stuff but once we're done with the school stuff could we talk another one David do you want to reach out directly to probably Shelly Pera and um ask the question and get the answer and maybe report back next week and we'll figure out what we need to do I'd love to yeah dor take beautiful thanks all right go more could we revisit Town Building Maintenance account number 192 5400 um there was 13,000 that we actually recommended to increase in this budget yes because there was some money that was left over um and I I think the concern uh was that we didn't want to have like this massive shortfall that was you know where the budget would have to be increased again later but I'm wondering if we can get either the the full 13k back or a portion of it from this budget it was originally um 93,00 and then it increased to 106 800 we uh brought the miscellaneous repair line item back up to 25,000 which is what we had been building it up to so that things would get done um and Kevin had reduced it thinking he could use some of that capital of that $52,000 Capital item for some of that work which um I think that that request was pretty specific about certain things that he could use it on like the sofits and the painting and around the windows things like that but um the committee brought it back up to the 25,000 um just giving you a little synopsis so I don't I I don't know if anyone has any appetite for potentially uh I guessing him up on his what's that well yeah yeah I I'll say for just for the purposes of discussion I'd like to make a motion to recommend um for the um budget item Town Building Maintenance account number 192 5400 um in the amount of 93,00 I'll second for purposes of discussion and where is the reduction coming from in that motion I'm sorry it would be coming from well um I don't think we need a motion to do it but um it would be coming from the miscellaneous repairs line item in that budget okay I see it yeah so you have both budgets right the the old one yeah so the the old one was for 93,00 as presented by the department head and then the finance committee recommended to raise that to 106,000 and what was the miscellaneous repair line item in that final one that was approved in the old one it was 12,000 in the new one it's 25,000 okay we did yeah did we're rediscussed the increase so I'm wondering if we should maybe go back down knowing full well that this is going to have a huge swing the next year but it might be good for us to have a little bit more free cash so I just want to ask you question if we Margaret was looking to have 200,000 in free cash as as a minimum as a minimum we've reached that or we creating a point where we're going to change that number now and we're going to shoot for 250,000 I mean I'm trying to figure out where the discussion is going have we reached the 200 I thought we were still short I think we had 31,000 including the flooring so that it was at 169 so we should be at 200,000 unless my Math's wrong yeah and especially if schm comes down again then we'll be in in even a better position and that might come down some more and that might come down some more based on you know other other discussions I don't know okay I mean it has to go through three towns right right I know he met with weightly today yeah y or not their finance committee with Trish yeah I so so can I ask a question so if this stays where it is at the 1068 can he still spend that other money and just not spend this full 25,000 and then it would go into free cash and then yeah it would just roll over to free cash so we can encourage him to go ahead and spend that other money rather than this as long as it's for the items for the I mean for the proper corre thing yeah yeah also assuming that he's here but yeah what's that also assuming that he's here I mean there could be someone else that may want to change it right right um and you know I I bring this up because I'm sure there will be other budgets that are going to go over you know so I think it may not be a bad idea for us to try and get a little bit extra and then also you know it would allow us to maybe split the difference with the school if we uh you know can't get them to pay for it out of school choice the floors out of the school choice money entirely you know maybe but that was agreed that they would either put it off right that's possibly yeah right I'm just saying it gives us a little bit more wiggle room maybe not necessarily for the school it could be another budget but um yeah I I just don't feel like maintenance is again a good place to cut because uh things happen on anticipated during the year and 25,000 is not that much for miscellaneous repairs really when you think about it I mean there's you you got we're going to be acquiring uh you know St James now and and the parsonage um we're moving forward with that hopefully but we are going to own it for a little bit I just a check for it yeah and and it so it better be B I mean you so we're picking up more buildings and older ones in somewhat condition you know you don't 25,000 just goes pretty fast for a municipality that has the amount of buildings that we have and if he doesn't use it it just rolls over into free cash so I just feel like this is more realistic than and US arbitrarily cutting it because we never have enough I I think yeah any finance committee folks have thoughts on it I know for many years we were uh admonishing ourselves for not doing enough maintenance so that went on for a number of years it's only recently we've said let's spend the money on maintenance instead of fixing up things later yep I I agree John David do you have anything um no just that now that I'm I was sort of thinking it was all about the building you guys are sitting in but you know Caroline has mentioned all the buildings that this covers I guess it does sound like it could get eaten up pretty quickly over the course of a year so his argument wasn't that he would spend less on maintenance his argument was that he had another pot of funds that he could use to fund specific maintenance items because it's allocated only for specific things so he could spend part of this could come from a different account that is not within the budget so the budget so what would happen is this year the budget would drop 13,000 next year he would have spent that other money and the budget would be popping back up so we'll see the 13,000 increase next year rather than this year I see so in other words there's there's $38,000 in this lineup really no there's 25 in it if you look at the old budget he had it cut down to 12 okay so I I guess what I'm what I'm proposing isn't actually a cut it's just proposing what he had originally budgeted um but yeah go ahead Sor yeah or maybe something in between but the we AG we had talked about just leaving it steady so that kind of so that it wasn't bouncing around from year to year yeah right and I think when we're talking about new buildings and repairs we should not include the Catholic church because I think anything that's done there would be Capital it's not going to it's not being used so it's not going to break yeah but there could be little things that cost I don't know I suppose a pipe could freeze something like that maybe yeah it's possible well some stuff will be something like that would be covered by insurance but I mean you could have the cost of securing the building cost of draining the building whatever I I I don't even know John but the door could not open and we have to water electricity okay all right yeah I mean there you're right you're right yeah it doesn't take I mean if you think of your own home and then kind kind of what what you would do in your repairs during the course of a year I mean I don't know any other thoughts on this or discussion I'm kind of I don't I don't know what I think yet yeah I I mean I I didn't initially really see it as a or when I made the motion I mean I not not as a cut but just taking them up on his offer you know if there's another pot there then I mean and it does help with the operational the the issue with having so much of free cash go to support the operational because this takes money out of operational um go ahead John what happens to the I guess Brenda what happens to the capital that he could tap into if he doesn't use it well if if it if it's eventually determine that we're not going to spend that money we just it go into free cash not not the you're talking about the other we're talking about the 52,000 that's it's a capital line item that was done a couple years ago we haven't spent any money out of it yet but it was for some pretty specific things I don't know if Casey would remember what they are but I thought I thought it was like painting and sofits and you know things like that so there was some stuff that's rotting that you know there was a we don't want to invest a huge amount of money into this building if we're going to eventually take it down if that's a plan so when would that Capital fund revert back to free cash when we decide that it needs to I mean it it basically stays there as long as well that's collectively people think that it's going to be spent does it have to happen at town meeting or no no it's it's something it's a year- end process usually Casey and I go through all those num numbers and make a decision and it's usually based on conversations with the select board conversations with Kevin you know various people that are involved well then for like transparency wouldn't it be better to leave the 25,000 here and revert that account back to free cash so that you have the this in the operating budget if if we go forward with the 1888 building and that plan is solid then then that makesense then Brenda would roll it over yep but you know that plan isn't as far along as we want it to so in the meantime this building is falling apart there's rotting happening and you have to replace things and heating you can't you know it's 82 degrees in Brenda's office today and you know I mean we have stuff that this building isn't worth really investing but on the other hand Brenda can't work when it's you know 100° a little hard I get I I mean so there are some things that have to get fixed so um did that so now did that just he that there's an account with $50,000 for sort of capital related to town buildings that hasn't been spent that was budgeted a year or maybe more than a year ago cor it's budgeted for the municipal offices David yeah and it's specific things related to the office right and when was that done I want to say it was 22 Brenda that's what I'm thinking I think it was two years ago but maybe it could have been three years ago and so things I guess I'm now jumping on what Beth says and sort of supporting that idea that if if something was budgeted to get done in a year and it didn't get done for what reason then then for S of transparency why aren't we starting again because it's not budgeted to get done in a year David it was budgeted these were Capital items that were identified when they were evaluating the building they were things that they noticed needed to be repaired and when we did appropriate this money this was money left over from the sale of the Oldtown hall right Brenda yeah correct this was money sitting in an account that when we looked at this information at the time we need we knew we needed to do repairs to the building there were repairs that were identified by a company that came in and assessed the buildings and maybe I don't know all of the background on that assessment actually jully might but essentially they came in and they assessed the buildings and they said okay each building has certain repairs it needs to have one thing that we were concerned about was municipal offices because we use the municipal offices all the time um so we asked town meeting to approve this $52,000 to start doing some of those repairs a couple of things happened that kept us from starting that work and then the 1888 building came up and at one point it became a question of do we move ahead with anything or do we wait to see what's going to happen with the 1888 building because some of these rep years are pretty significant um so there there's a a background in how how and when to get them done based on other goals that were in front of us it sounds like now we're in question again whether or not we're going to go ahead with those original things that we thought we were putting that money aside for so I guess I'm and there's a natural tension here I get it like the managers of the town you want to um get money is ready you want to take care of things you w to you know plan ahead which totally makes sense and then we've got this oversight body of the finance committee which is just trying to kind of uh make things as I guess transparent and clear as possible so and just struck by again we have another account that's sitting there uh that hasn't been used for its intended purposes why wouldn't it at a certain point go back into where back into free cash and then when we want to do these maintenance projects come back and do them cuz right now it's clear they're not scheduled and they're not planned no that's and it's another anyway that's just what I think I heard but Trevor has his hand so uh there's a lot of things like John is working on getting the front painted you know we were looking at the windows in the front to try and cool that side of the building down there's a lot of things that are planned but I think what I think what the public doesn't realize is that there is not enough staff to do all this stuff and everything gets flown in it's a hot potato one day and then a hot potato the next day it's hard to manage all the stuff that happens dayto day for this staff in this in these offices so we have good intention to get started on that stuff but without a without a general maintenance person from DPW or something like that to to like champing this our chief of police does it so you know he lines up to get painting done and all that stuff because we just don't don't have enough staff to really sit down with a with a yellow pad of paper and go these are the five things that are going to happen and and we're working on them we've got them listed but then you know weather's miserable and you know you're trying to get a sub in and and then you know you have your day job to do and so it's really it's uh this money was put into this account to use up when we needed it and it will go pretty quick but you know we use it when that we have Plumbing issues going on we need bring in a plumber to do something in the bathrooms or so things are starting to happen and we do have a plan for it but it's really comes down to capacity and everybody is just especially after this summer just totally burnt out you know to kind of okay let's tackle this again but to roll that back into free cash and then to go and pull it back out again that's staff time too of like writing the warrant article and doing all that stuff instead of just having it sit there for a little bit till we can catch our breath and get it done I that's the way I see it a little bit no I get that and I'm not and nobody I don't think nobody's faltering like or criticizing saying why isn't it done or it should have been done y but I guess it's just that concept of if it wasn't done um as it was budgeted to be done in a certain time period Then shouldn't we you know throw it back in and and start again no let's just ask let's get it on the calendar and get it done let's let's fund that would be great too again but I wasn't it wasn't really hearing that all the 52 Grand of projects are still the projects that are being planned yeah but maybe I Mard that no they are there are projects planned there's probably not 52,000 plan but I think it's just it again it takes a lot of work to put it back into free cash then to pull it back out write those articles it's just it's just part of it is dependent on the decision of what happens to the people who are working in this building whether we come up with another place for them to go and this building comes down or we decide we're staying here and and dig into those repairs and that process is taking a long time yeah to get through let's go back to um talking about the the motion that we have on the table which is to take Town Building Maintenance down to 93800 um I think it's not a um it's not a decision of not doing the maintenance it's a decision of where the funding for that maintenance comes from and whether we want this this budget to dip down this year and then deal with that next year um does anybody else have thoughts on just that part of it go ahead Mark I think that we can probably do both I don't know that the two are mutually mutually exclusive I think we have an opportunity where we can self- select and do some of that maintenance both out of the budget but with money that we're pulling to put into that budget um it may not work out that way but it could work out that way um that's kind of part of what uh Kevin had pitched so um that's the last thing I wanted to say about that so normally if we were changing somebody's budget we would go back to that person and make sure that they were cool with it um he proposed this when we first started um do we think we need to reach back out to him to check can I ask a one more question yeah go ahead what other um for this line item what other I know this has been asked and answered before but what other buildings does it support the miscellaneous uh maintenance the 1888 building the library here the police station Church well the church and EMS come out of their own separate line items but the new church the new church you're right would come out of this unless we set up a separate line item for that parage um that's quite a build it is Town Highway comes out of its own the town Highway garage right not out of this corre what about I mean this says buildings but so like what about the maintenance of like the like the shed or any of the out buildings around here so that includes that too one needs a paint job and and okay so so for example a paint job on an one of those out buildings is that money the other money able to be used for it you guys are disagreeing what other what other money what are you talking 54,000 that's only for this building so nothing nothing else which is why he didn't take it down to zero he took down to 12,000 thinking some of that would be other and you know and there's there's things in this line item that I don't know that would necessarily call miscellaneous repairs but there's no other place to put it like um we pay a monthly bill to get rid of the mice and other rodents in the library um you know that comes out of this line item so it it gets used um question yes can you give us a ballpark of how much has been spent this year on I was just thinking about that you know what I I have to say I did do the month end reports I haven't sent them to you yet because I have um Sarah reconciled cash early and I can get you a better number for skims so I was waiting to send it all to you at the same time but I can go grab that report and I can tell you how much has been spent so far this year okay and Brenda just before you leave I just wanted to well maybe the finance committee can tell me as well I understood Kevin to say that he basically went in and decimated his budget because he thought we needed money and he wouldn't have done that if he had been thinking a different way and so I just want to remind folks that that he wasn't necessarily doing what was best for the town he was doing what he thought he was asked to do well it does sound to me like the other I don't know what you call it the other the other the other fund of money sounds more like almost like a capital kind of thing like it's it's for specific repairs and this is the operating budget for miscellaneous repairs I I guess I'm hesitant to reduce it to like that's how I feel about this one can I comment go ahead isn't it basically for two buildings the 1888 or 81 building in here and the library well yeah but we going to have well the library library St James and the personage yeah but they're not going to be used I mean there might be some maintenance but it's not going to be very much I have trouble fathoming it's going to spend a lot of money on maintenance vac yeah so we've had you know we've had some other costs this year like I think there was a urinal that had to be fixed here in the building um the bathroom locks didn't work the bathroom never locks that still needs to be fixed um but we've spent $177,000 so far okay a lot of miscellaneous stuff plus plus the urinal I think was maybe a little bit more expensive that's pretty much on track for 25,000 if it continues like that rough roughly and what was that that what was that electrical thing that they were working on a month ago uh fire suppression or it was right this this panel out here there were guys here in three or four days yes yes they were I don't know that I've seen a bill for that yet and it was the fire alarm system yeah that's what I was the entire panel needed to be replaced right so I'd like to go ahead and like let's let's move along is anybody else other than what the repairs are for as anybody else have comments on where the money should come from David any thoughts it sounds like um you guys ready to vote or do you want to talk about it more you ready to vote okay let's do a roll call vote John why don't you start um I approve Mark's motion to reduce it uh Mark Bren and I Beth round no Julie chant no you go [Laughter] da um well I was not privy I don't think to the initial presentation um and I'm somewhat dropped Now by um what Tim said about that and this money is still going to be available so I'm sorry it's my thought process so I'm actually going to go no day Shar no okay so that vote is 230 that does not pass so for clarity it stays at 1068 right right um the assessors came to me and said that they were willing to um release of of the carry forward that we carry every year they were willing to release about 6,000 of that this year and not carry that over but your comment during the meeting that they were here which made perfect sense is to leave your budget as it is at the 22,000 and we'll let that 6,000 at the end of the year roll into free cash but then keep their certification line item the same that's that's that's for the Quin queno certification which keeps the budget from doing this right keeps the budget so I I told them that I would accept the lower amount to carry forward so that rolls into free cash the end of the year but to leave that budget as it is okay so that was another thought but um I just wanted to throw it out kind of the same thought process exactly yes y any other specific budget line items I had hoped to get to the warrant but we've got 12 minutes left so um next week's going to be doozy maybe we need two meetings oh we're going to have two meetings anyway aren't we yeah yeah yeah so is the um when is the review the 18th the 18 the 18th the whatever the information session yeah the 18th the 18th at 6 yes that is correct okay um we meet Tuesday next week right what's that we meet Tuesday next week is that correct we meet Tuesday next week at 5 p.m yep um I don't know that we have time to do any can I ask a question Julie go for it um Brenda and um should should I should are we presented with data and I'm sure we are because you present us all kinds of great data um that shows us all of these pots of money that the town has so for instance this $552,000 that we're hearing was allocated for the town you know maintenance which maybe was Capital yes is that in some line item or is it part of a bigger line item for Capital approved um it it is on a uh the report that you get for the expenditures groups it all together so it's included with the sidewalks and I'm well I'm not sure if it's included with sidewalks but um um there's a few accounts that are all yes the no the church building repairs the uh scams exhaust system the municipal office repairs and the senior needs uh Senior Center needs assessment feasibility study and the church feasibility study are all capital line items within the um the same category so on your report it would combine all of those together and is that on the statement of change in fund to balance report no no that's that's on your um general fund expenditure report because those were all those were all U Capital items that came out of free cash um when they were voted like the church feasibility study was done in 2019 uh that would have been um at the April 2018 meeting um and then you have several of these are from 2022 which would have been from the April 21 meeting and then uh the police police HVAC is in there also so anything having to do with buildings um is is uh Capital items are are lumped into that one item for you okay I have a detailed report that I do for my own purposes and for Casey um and I know Trevor likes to look at it but it's a lot of detail that isn't real easy to understand what part what is part of what appropriation I can start to add that to your your uh reports um but it might be kind of confusing for you yeah I guess I was just trying to figure out so there are monies that are carried over year to year that don't automatically go back into free cash absolutely there's always just trying to figure out how to isolate those in a they are separate articles and those separate articles can be carried forward and that is a decision that's not taken lightly it's something that um that uh Casey and I go through in detail at the end of the year and there are certain departments that will say I intend to spend this please keep this going forward and so um all of those things are are taken into account when I close the books for the year okay thanks so if F it's in the all dep Department's expenditure report is that where it is yeah and if I so I'm looking at 192 public buildings 5800 Capital expenses total is that that the right that's correct okay mhm but that's a whole bunch of things you said yes it's like five or six of them right now what number is that Brenda um 192 5400 5800 5800 yeah so it's not a it's not like a budget there's no budget sheet for it it was a capital item for four right this separately voted line item from um each of these uh from town meetings but if you look at the monthly report that she gives us um of expenditures it's going to be in there on your monthly report John I don't happen yeah you would the last one you had was from February okay yeah okay um now we're really out of time I did have it successfully used up our last few minutes um anything else does everybody have a copy of the warrant is it the one I just I don't know we got so many I don't know if I I have one like there was one handed out last week at the meeting and then didn't go through it I I don't have that one oh you don't have that well I probably have something here for you too Mark okay I can fix that one I probably have it in my stack one thing that would be helpful on these and maybe it's there uh it probably is like on page three of 14 um the one I most recent one I have is 43224 um is it only on the secondary Pages like it's not on the first page than Mine mine's 326 oh mine says 322 yeah mine says 4324 on the second page so that must be the one that Casey gave us last week mine say 322 mine's 3:22 if I it with you I actually haveed that I can make C for you with you do you guys want it tonight want oh that'd be great yes please yeah I think that's a great idea okay so we're going to take it we're all going to promise to read it before next week and next week we're going to motor through the warrant and we're going to votee skims because that number is going to change and we're going to look at a summary of where we are which I'll draw up with like where we think we are with free cash and all that that's the plan for next week we're going to start at 5:00 on Tuesday whatever Tuesday is 16th and then the 18th will be a public information session we are not scheduled to meet on the 22nd because that's Passover so if we don't get through the whole warrant next Tuesday we will be scheduling another meeting sometime if we can ever find a day that at least a quum of us are available everybody good with that anybody want to adjourn motion to adjourn second call I don't know I John pesy I Mark Bren and I Beth Brown I Julie CH and I da Shar all right we adjourned at 5:55 p.m. David are you coming here for personnel or are you doing that remote I was I think that almost always remote everybody's remote okay because I I have a pile of papers for you that's why I was wondering oh uh you could if Julie would be so kind you could um I can give it to Julie yeah okay um are we do we have to do anything um before we do that I just want to thank the finance committee I you guys work incredibly hardart on this stuff and uh every year I learn something so every meeting I learn something so thank you and I'll make a motion to adjourn second all those in favor Caroline GI last meeting reporting stopped