[Music] good evening everybody it is Wednesday April 24th 2024 5:32 p.m. and I'll will call to order the free time Bard select meeting this meeting will be recorded and will be available on the town's YouTube page um we will be going into executive session and then coming back into open session we are going into executive session for the following reason master and Law chapter 38 section 21 A5 to investigate charges of criminal misconduct or to consider the filing of criminal complaints so with that I will entertain a motion to go into executive session motion me I'll second all in favor I I select my Matthews yes yes right we are now in executive session uh we are now back in open session from executive session um moving on to agenda item two so this is executive session minutes for 4:16 2024 so with that I'll entertain a motion to approve but not release executive session minutes from 416 2024 motion me I'll second it all in favor I I item three this is open session minutes from the same day so with that I'll entertain a motion to approve the Open Session minutes from 4:16 2024 motion me I'll second it all in favor I I uh J item four this is the bid for the town hall uh bathroom Renovations um and it looks like Stark Architects did the uh evaluation of the bids and the low Bid And also the uh bid that was um uh not approved but selected by them suggested I guess would be cat Contracting Co and the bid came in at $142,450 any questions or concerns on that no no they did all the the leg work and everything there checks off okay great so with that I'll in a motion to uh award the bid for the town hall bathroom uh renovations to cat Contracting in Co motion me second all in favor I I all right moving on J item five this is just to um approve the Town Administrator to sign the contracts associated with the town bathroom uh Town Hall bathroom Renovations so any concerns or questions on that no all right um so without intend a motion to approve the Town Administrator to sign contracts for the town hall bathroom Renovations motion M second all in favor I I all right now we have Personnel um I mean car is out yeah you want me to do it yeah you can do it I'll give you a break thank you all right you're welcome uh agenda item number six discussion and vote on whether to approve the following appointments Robert CLA as veterans agent director and Veterans Grace officer effective 5124 through 43025 it's that should be grave should be grave yeah I'm sorry grave officer I apologize and then agenda item number uh B uh Maurice D moranville Senor as moth superintendent effective 42224 through 41 2027 anyone have any issues or concern what is Mo superintendent I'm assuming it's literally just a check on the tree Warden also this is a new title I have never I don't think I've come ACR this the moth superintendent that might be my new favorite one the measure of bark and woods is always a good one but yeah so so any issues or concerns with that no so all right so with that um Iain a motion to approve the following two appointments e right I'll make that MO I will second it all those in favor I I okay so we just have a couple minutes before uh six o'clock but I just wanted to say I don't know if you saw that the thank you letter I sent you today that came from Principal Ward about the work that uh Mr macumber and his team did at the school and he was very appreciative and thankful so just want to shout out to that yeah to them their team for getting whatever the drainage issues done so awesome that's great there was some drainage issues around the uh playground so now the kids can actually have dry feet that's huge I'm sure all the parents actually really uh appreciate that yes so should we just go to recess for the next nine minutes you want to do your signatures yeah we'll do signatures that's a great idea I'm gonna excuse myself and get my budget book out of my [Music] car de to sign the bathroom contract [Music] it says grave not gra that was like a Ron Burgundy moment but you just read exactly what's on the do the same thing to theate is it okay here where it says [Music] sign super F I'm sorry do I this do I a motion to go into recess okay so um I'll entertain a motion to go into a short recess until 6 PM when we have the joint commit with joint meeting with the finance committee motion me second all in favor I I all right so um I'll entertain a motion to come back from recess and to open session motion me second all in favor I I and now I'm going to kick it over to Margaret to open the finance committee meeting all right being 602 and having a quorum present I call the free to finance committee meeting to order all right so we're going to do this in order of on the agenda so it's Highway first then town clerk then health inspection services so sound good everybody I'll lock paper scissors for if you shuck you ready to rock and roll the numbers all right you have to come into the uh the Lion's Den up [Music] here highway is 420 yeah I went and got all that sorted out we I thought I gave you that before but I have I have it that's my cheat sheet omnius budget here's my Omnibus but I've written all over it I so Mar do you want to do the same kind of thing we did last meeting where we rather than going line by line we just kind highight the big stuff just take a minute and just look at everything and then any questions we have we come back you absolutely thanks so right now if everyone wants to go through so we're starting off with 420 which by the way is the is that that's the actual actual highways then we go into the related budgets mhm [Music] so it looks like flat except for the uh this uh Highway survey just the request that you're putting in for a 5% increase M we got a we got a a little bit of a bump last year in our operating and it's allowed it's freed us up to actually get some major projects done and you asked a level fund the budget so I'm fine with that perfect hopefully the uh inflation doesn't keep going the way it's going because the price of everything is through the roof right now so um we're trying to do smart things with what money that we have so it's uh you know no money no work yeah basically so you know this year we've been lucky we've uh we've done a ton of projects we've done you know like we normally do help every Department out we just did a pretty major project at the school yeah you know to help them out um so yeah I think we're in good shape great any questions or concerns my only question for you Chuck is Highway rentals and leases which is on page 91 you're already over just over $100 is that something that you're going to require more for and that we should have done something to year every year is different depends on what projects come up that that represents um you know if we get a big drainage project where my equipment can't handle it we have to you know rent somebody's escavator which usually involves the operator so we looking like two grand a day type stuff so that money can go pretty fast um that's also equipment that specialty equipment that we don't have that's really not worth buying you know why would you buy a $50,000 piece of equipment you can rent it for $500 a day M so you know we're just trying to be smart with what little bit of money we got so again it's a crapshoot you know that money may not get touched next year yeah okay you know or that line may not directly get touched so it's just you there it's hard to plan for it you know it's hard to plan thank you that was my own impr question yeah one other thing I see which I I think it makes sense but the um so last you level funded the repairs and Highway Maintenance it was a pretty decent increase from 2003 2004 and I see level funded it so I mean we expect that to I I see a lot of work out there so this doesn't surprise me but you just see kind of more work in the future that kind of in line with this year you know I'm assuming everything 98% of our work is surprise you know catch Basin collapse pipes collapse pipes get plugged up that type of stuff um you know we had a pretty mild winter this year so the roads didn't get tore up with snow plows and that's going to help us a lot yeah but that money that we got last year's town meeting that $500,000 that's huge that's that's actually freeing us up I think we're planning on doing a million one in Paving this year which is where we should be on an annual basis but you know a lot of work is going to get done this year you know we just put out $650,000 for the first round um chipa away Road Morton Road Pinewood Court C and Delane those are the first major roads we're going to be doing and then when chapter 90 kicks in in July that's another $400,000 kick so we plan on doing you know probably another almost $500,000 worth of Paving over the summer wow so that's huge yeah huge y it's awesome you know um so I think budget wise we're we're fine M you know but if I could find some employees that could work out for us you know our last employee lasted nine days oh jeez and then and he was overworked yeah which is fine you know but I just kind of caught me by surprise but so we're going to hold off on replacing him probably until September October so we can save that money over the course of the Summer where we don't maybe we don't need that one more guy um well we're going to need him in the winter time you know yeah because sooner or later it's going to snow yeah you know sooner or later we're going to have winters like we're accustomed to yeah so yeah we need all the hands we can get when that happens so but in the meantime I'm just going to hold off replacing him you want to talk about your um warrant articles since we're here and then looking for a truck uh truck I put in the capital budget so okay a truck is to replace a 2011 Ford F250 that's basically just rotting away um I'd like to get the money this year because chances are we won't see that truck for two years it's just in the way the world is right now um Ford hasn't even opened up uh the ordering Banks of Tim's F-150 so chances are you won't see that truck probably till late winter um we're looking for a truck we're looking for a backo to replace a 2005 with I think 5,500 hours on it the the the plan the grand master plan is and what we've always done is that machine will go to the transfer station replace the 198 7 loader that is become quite a maintenance um or if you would um you know we we just dumping stupid money into that machine and there's really no use for it thebco will benefit them better so they will get our backo which will stay on site and Crush dumpsters and turn over compost piles and whatever Vicki does up there and we'll get the new one um again that back served the town pretty well for the highway department it's 19 years old um and I Envision it going to the transfer station and probably going to be up there for another 15 years I have a question for you how how long will it take you to get a back ho is it the same lead time like other equipment or you be a I don't think it's as bad but it's you're probably looking at six months to a year okay I would guess well I you know the transfer station budget re budgeted to some money to repair the bucket on the loader so I'm just ask asking like if that's still necessary but sounds like it still might be probably I don't know what she's getting for quotes to to do that but um that ultimately what like I said whether we get it this year we'll ask for it again next year um like I said it's it served the town well um yeah and I mean it is a lot of money but and and the trailer you're proposing is to to move the backo it's to move all the equipment we have okay the trail we have now it's borderline you know it's one thing for us to to move a a machine from one side of town to the other but if we have to move that machine to the dealership for repairs or wherever it's pretty sketchy it's pretty sketchy so um I think the the trailer we have now is maybe 8 ton so we're looking for a 20 ton trailer so we could put Maybe the escavator and the skid steer on at the same time so when we go to a job instead of having every trailer we own we can gang up you know put multiple pieces of equipment on that one trailer and how good are these numbers because you know what happened a couple years ago with the truck by the time we actually as far as I know um they they're solid numbers okay um the trailer company they said you know you're going to be fine with that number okay um and again the pickup truck we can only hope any other big equipment you're going to need over the next couple years that you know of um street sweeper eventually Street sweep is a 2012 I feel like those are expensive never thought about how much a stre street sweeper is but it sounds expensive new street sweeper now was just north of three yeah um front end loader probably within five years that front and load is a 2012 problem with is it's rotting away because the quality of the equipment today isn't what it was 30 years ago MH and I just replaced two door panels on that front end loader and it was $2,200 for two panels smaller than combined smaller than half of this table it's just astronomical but just behind those door panels are all the electronics yeah so got to protect them I got to protect them I can't let the weather get in there you know and our front end loader is like all the sand is it gets washed every time you know in the winter time when we when we load Sanders with salt that loader it gets in the line up with all the other trucks and gets washed so it's not like we we do our best to keep it as clean as we can but the salt just reeks Havoc F and the calcium chor so again I'm five years I would say yeah for that that again that machine's a 2012 we usually get 20 years out of uh front end loader that's always been traditional that's what we've done for the last 25 30 years again the quality isn't there the ruggedness isn't there like it used to be so again I don't know if those turn into a 10 year turn around right yeah well the the our big trucks we always got 20 years out of the big truck and it's it's stretching that now because it's like buying a car it's you're rare to get 20 years out of a automobile or a pickup truck anymore but you know we we do what we can you know M um I mean we're we're pretty good shape for the shape we're in you know equipment wise and through the state chapter 90 B us equipment through the town bous equipment we're in good shape but it'd be a shame to let it just fall apart and go back to where we were 30 years ago I think we're you're probably going we don't want to take all the hits at once right either so you kind of want to spread out that's why I'm just asking the question because I need to know what no like I said eventually purposes like I said big dollar items you like I said you're going to looking at a street sweeper you're going to be looking at a front end loader said Street sweep is just North of 300,000 front un loaders probably about the same you know so yeah they big big ticket items so you know recently I think part of what's really brought this to light was we had the fire chief in and we had talked with him and ambulance the price increase now is like 40% more or 50% more than it what yeah in the past couple of years so Chuck do they will they lock us into a contract or no for any of this equipment the equipment that I'm asking for now I'm pretty sure we're going to be pretty safe the I know you said we're going be safe but I just get nervous because of how astronomical those numbers were fire TR is just that much more of a complex machine yeah specialized yeah you know if a valve is normally $200 and it's $400 well obviously you you know there's 32 valves on a fir truck so the price is going to just jump exponentially um you know not so many valves on a pickup truck yeah you know um yeah but it's a crapshoot who knows no I know no one in this room thought what this country would be in the shape it's in today compared to what it was you know nobody in this room would ever thought you know what a gallon of milk would cost you know we have no control over inflation yeah um I agree and it's tough and it's tough it's tough for my employees it's tough for everybody that works you know that dollar bill doesn't go near as far as it used to MH and that the highway budget is the same as your budget at home you've got so many dollars to play with and you do the best you can so I said I think budget wise I think we're in okay shape the equipment I have to ask for it that's my job cuz if I don't ask for it and Debbie wants another pickle ball C and I can't do it because my back my my my machine isn't there to run or God forbid we have a hurricane we have a snowstorm we have who who you going to hang when I don't have the equipment to roll out the door you're going to hang me my job is to ask your job is to say no so we can meet in the middle or we can't but either way it's it's ultimately well we definitely don't always want to say no Chuck no I gu but I mean ultimately I mean you always argue I don't want teasing you and we should be able to ask and then let the town's people decide ultimately they it's their coin and as we all know the last few years they haven't been shy so I guess um I'll bring up the salary line so all department heads we tried to keep them to 2 and a half% increase you're asking for 5% not sure that that will be recommended when we get to town meeting floor are you worri about that at all I'm pretty sure I'm more popular than the people doing the recommendation so again I think everybody should get 5% I know that you know we all live in the same world you know I got guys young guys making $21 an hour how are they ever going to live in this town you got a police department that make a lot of the police officers do pretty well and I think you only have three police officers that live in town because they can't afford to live in free Town that's that's a tough pill to swallow you know I got an employee who had to sell his house because he couldn't afford his house when he came to work for me that's that's hard to explain that's tough you know and again he made the choice to come to work for the town because he wanted security and he wanted you know and I get the choices that you make but it's not so much I look more at the the younger people that I got working for me my own kids they'll never be able to afford to live in the town they grew up in and that sucks you know and to me a 2% raise is a slap in the face and I understand insurance is going up and I understand all the Dynamics we've done doing this a long time probably longer than most but it it it's it's a kick in the teeth I'm just I know I know no I know I know I'm just no I'm GNA I'll stick with the two and a half% I mean the 5% people make the decision and if they decide no and I I'll take that chance because I could ask for 10% I'm pretty sure we get it I think Cheryl's in the same boat so no but but what I'm saying I think I'm pretty sure we're in we're in good positions and we do good work both of us and ultimately it's decided by the town's people so honestly I think if we ask for a 10% raise we get it so I don't think 5% is a whole bunch any other questions concerns on on that 420 actually one question the backo if it goes to the landfill is it do you think it's in good enough if you got 5,500 hours on it mhm think it's in good enough shape to last let's say a 5year period without major mhm yeah it's it's basically going to a retirement community yeah it's not going to be worked near as hard as it work is worked now it's not going to be digging dirt it's going to be crushing dumpsters and turning over mulch piles and pushing up brush so I'm sure it will yeah the last backro they had up there was a 1972 yeah I know I saw it it is I mean it's service it's completely serviceable right now oh yeah okay yeah we we're able to get pots and everything it's just it's getting tired and I mean we could spend $40 $50,000 on it and refurbish it redo all the pins rebuild the mo you know go right through it from stem to stem but then you still have a 20- year old backo um and you still have a the need at the transfer station for a piece of equipment so again it's not a it's not a life or death thing A and A yeah yeah I well I understand that I promise I won't leave sleep lose sleep and I just I just I'm at the point where how much money do I spend on a 20-y old piece of equipment it just doesn't doesn't make much sense it it doesn't I mean I'll do it because it's it's my job I need the equipment it still doesn't make any sense no it doesn't so you know it's the same thing with a with a pickup truck you know it's yeah I'm guessing we're probably at least a year and a half out two years out if we order it in June truck that's going to replace at 2011 it's lived its life have you done any has there anybody approached you to do the uh undercoding for the frame on the fors we we do that in house you do that in house yeah yeah yeah we uh what what do you use anyway it's not New Hampshire it's um it's not Black Max is it no it's not wool wax it's I I don't recall the company we get the stuff from it comes in a jug with a air bottle we do all the big trucks and all the pickup trucks yeah we do we do that in house you know as as needed but usually the big trucks will get totally pressure washed spotless as clean as we can get them and we do the frame rails of those trucks usually annually yeah just just you know yeah a new a new dump truck sander combination years what they quoted me the last truck that we got was 231 to replace it 275 so I don't want to replace it a new truck if I don't have to so a little bit of Maintenance goes a long way yeah so maintenance is everything it really is yeah I know but you can you can calcium cide tanks you got on there yep it's just on the big trucks right just the big trucks nothing on the smaller trucks each and it's not every one of my big trucks uh five of my trucks I believe have calcium and they each truck has 80 gallon tanks two 40 gallon tanks it mandatory on the road zone no h I only use calcium when the temperatures dictate if it's if we have ice and it's 15 degrees or lower I use calcium with the salt yeah it it makes the salt it makes the salt work if you put rock salt if it's 15 degrees the rock salt doesn't do anything doesn't do a damn thing so yeah by adding the calcium it just it it drops the temperature the working of the rock salt so this year we didn't use we didn't use calcium once this year I wouldn't think you'd have to I don't think we Ed calcium last year I don't think you did last year but I haven't bought calcium in three years so you know there's a savings there the less that's on the roads the better I oh I agree I agree all right any other questions no not for me so good good so we can move on to uh I mean the ice I mean I guess oh I'm no go ah snow and ice yeah snow and ice level funded just just mention that uh obviously we don't know again it's it's a stab in the dock this year we plowed three times and I think we spent $300,000 um materials overtime materials materials materials um rock salt I think we paid 7 5ish per ton um again next year it might be 100 it might be 65 who knows you know luckily in the Northeast where we had a relatively mild winter the stockpiles that are there from this year will be there next year so the price should still be in the ballpark M uh plow contractors um every year we have to come up with more money and we still can't get people it's a generational thing anybody under 30 that is somewhat intelligent wants nothing to do with it um because it stinks Kevin I hear them chuckling in the background it stinks and nobody wants to do it and there's no way to get around the insurance requirements that's the problem to it adds an extra level of and everybody that signed up this year everyone just like last year took it in the shorts they got to come up with $1,500 for insurance most of them didn't make $1,500 yeah you can only these are these aren't companies these are just local yals and and it's it's a gamble that some of them are getting to the point they don't want to take anymore you know they could make $10,000 or they could lose so um I'm guessing that she is PA contracted are going to we're probably going to have to bump it up again yeah just to try to entice them somehow um you know some towns little further north of us like are offering five $10,000 incentive bonuses just to sign on and that's before they plow one little bit I can't ever imagine we're going to get to that point I hope not hope not but you know we were 13 trucks short this year than what we should be at and again with no snow it's not critical and no one's figured out the insurance situation there's no way like something we should at least look into no I'm gonna I can look into if this is there a way we can buy a blanket policy that would cover on them but I I doubt it but I can ask the questions I mean it'd be huge if they could but you know sometimes just do it like we used to do just come on you know make sure trucks got gas let's go yeah and again I understand you're opening the town up to a great deal of liability yeah but in the same token we are spending so much money I say that you know we we're paying a subcontractor aund whatever $5 an hour you know that same subcontractor can go work for the state and make $300 an hour so and he's he'll make a whole lot more money with the state just because they call out way earlier they stay way later you know what we can do in three hours the state is is 15 hours it's just the way they are set up yeah and they've got they've got a lot deeper pockets in the town of Freetown yeah that's for sure that's no we we just keep it at that figure just we can't go back now anyhow and um it's just what I think we're at 150 yeah that's it's been like that I think since I've been on the board that Bailey paid I mean it was 40,000 for forever yeah like I said once you once you set that number you can't go back you can't you can't decide hey we're going to only go 75,000 but you can't do that I don't even think it's legal you can't once you set that number you're stuck at that number so but we can go over that oh yeah you can go over which is the same happened few years There's No Limit we've never I think there's only been one year in 25 that I've been here that we've gone under um probably 10 15 years ago uh we had absolutely nothing that winter but U again the demands of the people in town are much greater than they used to be you know we black and wet that's kind of our policy so that's what we do and that's what we do best so that's what we hang our hat on perfect and then the last one sorry you have a question nope I was going to ask don't think anybody's good questions all right and then just the last one here is the lighting was that street lighting Street lighting yeah it looks like level funded or one there's uh some street light repairs for an extra thousand that's um again I I hate to it makes me sound like an idiot even more than I usually do but um I really don't know crap about street lights we paid a bill yeah that was a Larry Ashley move from 20 years ago hey you pay the bill we can't fix the street lights we hire that out um we didn't have the equipment but because of this world that we live in you have to have a licensed electrician change a light bulb I know so I don't have too many of them working for me so um the number that we were're asking for level funded we we are saving a ton of money when they switched over all the lights to the new style you know you're not having near the issues and and the usage is minimal compared to what it used to be so um you know I could see I don't even know what we spent last year but I mean I could see that number if that number if you needed money you could take money out of that budget and I think you'd be all right yeah you know spent $1,928 but again the repairs you don't know that's a crap shoot so it's about $500 to repair one I mean if if you've got you know a couple thousand dollars or whatever you have sitting there it may not get used but if we got to replay fix one like Debbie said it's you're looking at $500 time you get somebody out there and up in a bucket and get it taken care of I'm not too keen on sending any of my guys up around power lines I don't blame you doesn't sound like it's not my gig all right any questions on that one good good all right Chuck thank you very much thank you sir thank you I hope everybody has a good night as well you too CH take right town clerk what's the next my book town clerk town clerk 161 16 yeah 161 is town clerk then elections then registration 123 that's it right Cher yes what would you say 1511 61 62 6 all right just give us a minute Cheryl we're going to review it and then uh [Music] we'll are we just doing it in order in in the order of the numbers yeah like what I'm seeing here [Music] that's not something you see every day the number going [Music] down of our budgets are pretty level funded with experience to we've been through that whole year of all changes with time and experience you get a better a handle on what your needs are yeah well thank you Cheryl the town clerk assistant additional gross overtime is that elections that is election based yes okay can you explain the salaries up above for to clerk assistant so my salary no the assistant the assistant so um that's based on the the um schedule that was out with the step increase are you talking about the senior clerk I'm sorry no the so it was budgeted at 563 last year it's now 53 at a decrease of 3,000 correct cuz we went up to um also 40 hours a week for an x x amount of time last year last year because of in participation with all the elections overflow and so now that we've gone through two elections with that M I know what my needs are a little bit more I won't need as much time okay and how many hours for the 53,000 for this year is budgeted how many hours per week so that's 36 hours a week and I have 8 weeks at 40 That's four weeks prior to each election oh okay so that makes sense you ramp it up before the elections because obviously yeah that's I just want to say it's way less expensive to pay somebody 40 hours a week than it is to bring in Industrial Staff yeah it's been a challenge it's been a challenge to take care of everything that we have that's on our plate with the the two people people that we have but we we're doing our best we're trying to keep our head above water but again like I said um we know now what our needs are and what we can handle MH cherl did you say for 2024 it was 40 hours a week the whole year or just for part of the year it's portion so um the time frame leading up to elections when we have vote by mail and we have all of those auditing reports and all the ballots coming back and all of that it's it's it goes into the 40 hours week prior right before and we have the two major elections September and November and then uh the annual Town election okay thank you you're [Music] welcome Alo when you say eight weeks before the election are you talking eight leagues before each one of those elections we to I broke out four and four I broke for September and then November and then um right so because uh the town election this year was a little weird because um the town election fell um in between those vote by mail postcards that everybody wanted and it was a major confusion because that's an additional cost to the town to do all those vote by mail ballots so as I stated to the board of selectman um earlier that my goal for next year is I would go in front of the board and not recommend that the town do vote by mail for the local elections cuz that's the only elections that we have a say in regards to vote by mail for state and federal elections we have no say it has to be done so it's hopefully with my recommendation of not not doing vote by mail as it's going to be an increase to the town it would be the four weeks prior to September and November yeah approximately how much did that cost oh I have I I would I would love to share the details with you we have it on spreadsheets and with graphs um but I'm not prepared today to give you that and I don't want to give you understood a wrong number interesting elections is a scary Beast I know we're not on elections yet but um you know it's with all the requirements it's difficult to do with two people in the office we had um meiling house you know when I called in four to five election workers and doing all those kids sending out all those ballots doing all the auditing and then the retrieving of the ballots everything you know whether it's hand delivered to my office whether it's delivered through the mail there's a lot of processes [Music] [Music] involved no Capital requests that's good the town's been good for the past three years they've given us you know um they've done a really good job answering the call for the needs for our department uh to bring us up to speed and up to par and run things the way they should be so I don't have any Capital requests this year and the clickers will be used right this so the clickers are another another battle I believe the bid was opened today all right the bids were open today and they were more than we they came in substantially more than what we allocated so we really don't have the funding for the clickers at this point so we just got the bids today we're going to have to go back to the drawing board and see what happened but we may need to supplement the money to get the clickers okay that's something maybe we could do with oper if we if that's something the board chose to do but we'll have that discussion once we figure out why we're so far off gotcha well we have the quotes so I don't know what's happened between then and now we do have the three quotes all right any other questions for 161 all right 162 elections everyone's favorite your favorite I don't I don't mind elections it's it's the it's the Beast that we love to hate but it it's it's good you have a you have a good feeling you got a good feeling [Music] this is probably a silly question but for the postage obviously we haven't expended any money yet this year so it's funny because I was explaining this to Margaret and to um Deb earlier so a bulk of my so my a bulk of my bills all come in in the spring I have an entire folder of bills from the two elections of everything that I've U have to pay or have been or amping these reports were run I believe in January so it didn't really gotcha capture that yeah if you look at the past years it all kind of it makes sense right so in elections it's funny too because and you've heard this story before um with all those RMV changes and the automatic voter registration every time there's a change we're sending acknowledgements and notifications out and then we're getting just as many phone calls back in why why I I've been a v registered vote for 20 years well did you happen to go to registry did you happen to go um Social Services for any reason Mass health um the Mass health Connector anytime there's a change we have to notify them because there could be potential fraud so it's um all that interesting believe me I again increase the workload in the department it's not the same Department as it was in the 80s and the 90s all the extra requirements [Music] they love to make new state laws and new state regulations but don't take yeah they don't take into consideration when it takes to actually achieve that is there any automated way to do that no any questions on elections no I don't have any no here good okay registration registration regist is kind of funny because regist there's a lot of things that kind of interweave with elections so certain things um so now we're coming up on [Music] um confirmation cards and so anyone who did not fill out a sentus I can't turn them off um or delete them as a voter CU many folks don't feel like answering the census and that's their prerogative even though it's state law um so you get a lot of folks who don't respond and um before we can remove them um we have to send them notifications so June 1st is the state deadline um where we kind of inactivate anybody who didn't respond and then we have to send them postcard mailing say hey you didn't respond are you still living here in addition to that we also have to pay the postage for them to return those cards saying yes I'm still here no I moved and you would think with all the new technologies and the different ways that folks can register to vote either online um through the website through the RMV through Social Services anything of that nature that it would be so automatic and that they would no there's a bottleneck Y and then of course um you know we're in we're in petition season right now with the state election coming up so you've got all the nomination papers coming through we have all of those to get done that's really a function of the registra office um that might be something you know it's difficult because they don't have um and it's funny because you you hear it across the state they don't have access to the state systems but they're the ones who are certifying those signatures um and we've always done it in house and not having to call them in but it might get to the point that we're going to start doing some things to alleviate the pressure off the office and start calling them in um when we get the big batches because yeah makes sense I feel like I got a better handle on it you know maybe from three years ago and seeing where we were and to where we are now yeah I'm grateful you know the town's been supportive of all the changes I'm I'm grateful the election workers have been um very wonderful you know we lost a lot you know it tends to be an older demographic who kind of gets scared with tech technology but we've got a great crew we've provided tons and tons of training um one of my election workers said in the past 20 years I've given them the most they've had the most training with me than they've ever had U which is nice because it's a you know we're under the microscope everyone when it comes to elections and you want to make sure that people are properly trained and they're doing what they're supposed to be doing um it's one of the things like I said it's that big beast that it's a challenge but you're proud of it you know that you've done the best that you can you've given the tools so that they understand and know um how to do their jobs because it's difficult when you come into work one election day once a year it could be a potential whole year Rhythm yeah so we've done you know great things with technology and um videos and tutorials and setting up um pages that they can access the information at any time um all that takes work work but I think we're pretty good I could only get a desk that the draws actually work that'd be great because every day it's a it's a struggle my drawers won't open but and the grand scheme things I you know I'll deal with [Music] that questions I'm good I'll be happy to share those totals perfect thank you you're welcome thank you Char you're welcome you thank you have a good night I hope you feel better this year it's been tough two days but we're good we're good um we did get a new budget for 510 for health services in the package we just given yep really doesn't have much different so either one you're looking at they're pretty close so I haven't got a 125 in this book um what's 125 administrator yeah you don't have it oh you have one cuz I he's looking I got one here but I don't have one in the book there's no 12 125 I got it I am one I where is mine in the beginning it should be I know I got a 122 but I have no 125 122 straight to 131 I didn't want you to see my budget I just was hiding it all right all right no I think he has the he has the budget he just doesn't have a he doesn't have t have the tab I I'll go over my budget all right Kevin same thing we're going to take a minute go through it we're starting off with 433 has everyone agree with that oh NO3 what's 4:33 433 Maybe I'm Wrong was it trash you mean yeah I just did it in order well the trash budget actually lean and I kind of put that together so if you have questions okay where do you guys want to start here okay what number so do you want to just do you want me to just go through trash yeah um you know the the trash curbside and recycling is the board's contract that we talked about at a s's meeting that's going to be the amount to pick up everybody's curbside trash um and the following is just uh trash fees um acceptance of crepo Hill what what we what we pay to them and then there's trash bags in here so we looked at the state bid list figured out what we could get trash bags for what we've got the averages for the past and what has been purchased and kind of kept it at the same and that's how we budgeted it so it's pretty level funded just what it cost to get rid of trash is very expensive almost at a million do when you think about it $834,000 to get rid of trash now that's offset by the trash bags um but that's it really any I mean I don't know that I can answer all your questions but that's basically the Crux of that budget did we just sign a three-year contract with them no we're working on it oh working on it yeah okay we Gores yeah feel like we did no I thought we awarded I know we approved it I'm working on for the um oh okay that's what it was all right I knew we approved something yeah the contract actually hasn't been signed I'm working on adding some stipulations for um in fact I just talked to them in crepo Hill is running out of room and they may not take our trash we have one more year contract with them um after that we may have to go to a different facility SE yeah SE and I wanted to have a contingency in the contract so that we wouldn't have to be coming back and redoing a contract so uh boes uh Trucking in and I have come up with the language for that stipulation that will go in the new contract I just haven't had a chance to draft it um yeah basically she said the you know the the fee is going to be similar it's just the the Cs happens to have a lot of waiting time and that's the concern so I thought it best to just put something in that if it's greater than a 15 minute waiting time it'd be so much per hour and that would That's How we'll handle Cass because they can wait 3 hours up there to dump the trash and that will be obviously a prevailing for them is very expensive and I remember too like when we looked at their bit it was significantly more expensive for a ton c c was yeah I meano Hill has been a good neighbor to us they've done I mean in terms of pricing I don't know what we're going to do I'm unsure the closer schedule the closing schedule I don't know when they're set to close um but I know in the past as we've approached that year mark we we often talk about starting that contract extension conversation with them with the be amenable to a one or twoe contract extension while we get some other ducks in a row yeah but it's not going to get any cheaper I can guarantee yeah no and and I don't want to drag this on as that but we we also talked about the issue of is if that place closes right where we're at right now and then everyone that's there is going to be trying to go to camass because there's no yeah this is a not a unique phenomenon to to free so so it's you know something about getting out ahead of it but also we don't want to spend the extra money right now that we don't you if we don't have to so that's a conversation for another day at this point but it's trash is not going to get any cheaper real concern no diesel fuel's not getting any cheaper trash isn't going to any cheaper the cost of making the plastic dies isn't going to any cheaper Ink's not going to get any cheap yeah out of curiosity do we know how much gets offset by the purchase of the bags yeah I was wondering the same thing I just I want to say it's $185,000 I'm going to message Matt tomorrow and ask him and I'll just send out yeah I calculated it I think we tried to get some numbers over to you and why that number sticks in my head I don't know but I think it was around $185,000 right so still very expensive Ed but it's still when you add the $834,000 for this budget and then the transfer station I mean there's there there's a budget there too if we try to raise the prices on those bags have a riot I'm sure oh yeah uh yeah yeah I don't know um I know we're we're going to try to get a little see if we can get better quality because they're rough limited manufacturers quality seems to be a hit or miss come and go uh you know who's working at the plant that day almost uh consistency in color the contract is is and and its costs are dependent on the availability of ink and how much it cost at the time it's it's a it's a a very volatile Market because most of the stuff is petroleum based right plastic ink that kind of stuff so um yeah we keep modeling along uh we've had good stretches of you know the bags are good and then you get some and you just ho these smokes it comes in waves right and so our policy just so anybody understands we try to get credit for those right so if you come and return them to us we will give you new bags and we try to offset that yeah um but it's not it's not as great a number it's going to be costing us any money right yeah um so the only way to increase Revenue would be to increase the cost of the banks yeah and at some point in T and just as a general recommendation while we like to keep our cost to our constituents or our taxpayers down if our cost for purchasing the bags keeps going up the idea that the bags are supposed to help offset you know another budget would probably need to be exam it should be tied right yeah and I agree and I know that the last time we did a budget or did a proposal we only got one this one company was the only company who came back so everyone complains about quality but there's only so much we can do about that at this point which is sad but true all right should move on to health 51 okay now we need a minute to actually I need a minute at least [Music] [Music] s [Music] good [Music] was [Music] so looks like yeah increases mostly tributed just some salary and wages increases uh brief description of the budget it's gone up just under $10,000 the bulk of that quite honestly all of it would be within uh in you know either contractual increases or the cola uh increases that we were told to put in our budget yep one of the things is you went from a parttime clerical to a full-time jump that a little bit right right there part time 5% increase but that's actually an increase in hours so correct uh additionally uh come January she would be do a step increase also because it would be her one-year anniversary so the first three years of a union employees employment they get steps each year and then after that you better so you'll notice in new employees and Highway Department be the same and any new employee what were um weekly hours previously and what are they budgeted so she's 36 hours now uh umberta was working about 27 what is health and professional tech for $55,000 that's the money that uh we utilize for outside Technical Services that's been allotted by the selectman to the Board of Health to use okay what's you you want to know specifically what we're using it's the same thing that we were using it for last year right so it's it's the bring in outside engineers and and Technical people to uh help us look at Excel and and and some of the oversight and compliance so you're talking about okay so you're talking about professional people just in those fields hiring somebody for a field yeah so an example yeah uh we have complaints about a business in this particular instance it would be Excel right in this instance yeah uh and so we don't have the means and methods and and the specialsts hiring an engineer that's that his job is that's what his job is exactly and they come in and they provide us with the you know reports and things and it only gets used if it needs to get used right so if we don't need somebody to come in then it would still be there yeah and while it goes back to the general funding right okay so there's a difference in the numbers the two one two budget sheets that I have there's a slight difference like a $300 difference I'm just curious what happened to that the education went down 900 to 600 health education incentives typ it was previously 900 and in the new version 600 it's [Music] okay wow [Applause] any other questions no looking up that that yeah that's it right and you don't have any other capital or no so yeah you're good no no just thank you for uh the town purchased a couple new vehicles I know for for the building department and the Board of Health so just want to thank you they arrived last week after a long wait it does take a long time to get those cars in I'll tell you so thank you very much way the vehicle maintenance line atam was removed I was curious yeah okay some of that some of that was removed because uh and I saved 35 bucks cuz I couldn't even get the last one inspected it was so bad so I saved 35 bucks that way this one out here is um Carl that's car oh that's car he par in t so it's the very same vehicle but it's the same vehicle so again thank you appreciate it right have a good night folks good to see you thank you are we done I said for administrator you want to do me my budget I don't even know where it is talk about that new one that you just gave us yes we do want to talk about them and and I made some changes to a couple of budgets today be an issue what yeah not on the agenda I think it says our other related I do believe it says other may be discussed as okay all right perfect yeah so I think we're okay we're all talking about the budget um I I don't know where my paperwork is give me a minute so I'll tell you what I put in my budget that I you know that I I I did today because I changed four of them for me I added $50,000 for HR human resources um lately with the culture and the change in in the town hall and in employees I'm spending a great deal of time on HR um which takes away from Grant Management reporting that I have to do my regular you know just preparing the budget preparing this warrant there's just there's only so many hours in the day and I'm finding I I it's just not a one time thing every week there's another issue with HR and it it it demands that I stop what I'm doing immediately and and intervene and go do interviews and do reporting and it's one of those things that you need to make sure you you cross your teas and Dot your eyes um there's a lot of employees and it's not just those issues there's a lot of health insurance questions there's a lot of issues that go with HR that I think we're at a point now with SE at least 75 full-time employees we're we're growing departments uh we need an independent HR person because the other part of this is I work hand inand with all these department heads and I need them to work with me and I need to work with them and now if I'm the one that also has to discipline them it becomes very like I one on the other I now do it but I just feel like it would be much more effective to have an independent outside person that doesn't isn't friendly with everybody and doesn't have to work every day with them side by side which is what I feel like I have to do with the department heads and I want to do that I so I thought it's time for us to somehow whether we we get um resource it out and get an outside firm that that does that or whether we hire somebody parttime we don't need somebody full-time but we definitely need to do something there needs to be a resolution and I don't think I can wait another year for this last year too I did you bring this up we brought it an article at um a fall town meeting asking for to be funded and it got turned down but it doesn't have to be it can be in the budget you know what I mean I'm like I said you can say no I just feel like at this at this juncture it employees is there about 75 full-time employees I believe in there 25 in the town hall with the Town Hall in the libraries and part of it also too is if depending on what they do and I if someone with experience and identifying where we lack right more than just disciplinary and stuff so it's moving us forward yeah I always think about too like with everyone being so litigious this day this days like we're going to get sued right we have we are being sued by a couple different former emplo having an HR firm or HR person resource who make make sure everything's documented properly and and and that could save money I think in the long term well there's these and that's why I say it's more than just disciplinary stuff it's just people work and the paperwork that we need to compile and keep on file for everybody's and you know um so that's right now the treasurers department does parts of that if there's an FMLA request that goes to Len and she does that part of it and I'm doing disciplinary parts of it and then we're very disjointed with it if you have an insurance question really nobody has the answer it's like I don't know you go downstairs and ask and they I don't really know I'm like okay well I'll call town we need somebody who has this information can can give it to the employees maybe set up an online data where the employees can get their own information or you know and it it will keep track of who's completed what paperwork you know we we want annual CDL checks and things like that there's are things that I think need to go through HR we're getting bombarded with it also Implement like different kinds of like trainings I I mean I know like I have to do a lot of that stuff myself which I don't love doing it but I think there is a benefit yeah just spent all day booking trainings mandatory trainings for our staff she did that today you first she going to find them and then she did it um we've been doing since the OSHA meeting we've done a ton and I mean we really Lan but she has put together a bunch of training packages and I'm not even sure that's the other thing is OSHA wasn't municipalities were never required to comply with oer probably five years ago they changed that and it never really got implemented in the town of Freetown so now I'm trying to catch up and I'm trying to just figure out every department has different ocean requirements so now I'm trying to H I'm trying to get the department heads and they're working on it like come up with a plan look at what your department needs and get your training so I know Chuck has done a lot Lan has done some more um and we're trying to coordinate but there's a lot to it you know every Department's different we need a certain one transfer station needs certain trainings the highway needs different TR a lot I want to say Highway needs like 15 different trainings yeah and how do I track whether they've done them or not it's hard it's just becoming to a point where I don't think I I definitely can do it it's just can I do it and manage the grants and apply for Grants and manage the day-to-day budgets and other things something's got to give right exact I think that's where I'm at you you can direct this anyway you want I can take on the HR but then I don't think I'll be getting the million dollars in Grants that I've been able to secure for the town and keep the pro it's not even the grants too it's the projects that come with the grants because I always I'm the one that's overseen yeah just think about like the construction projects we have now and the ones that are coming in the future right like I mean right now we got the fire station addition um I just met with them for three hours going through those other plans we've got the pods coming for the COA I'm just getting those plans and ready to finalize those but I also now have to get the site work done and I'm working with the engineer on that um the the tower the radio tower project um is coming just about to fruition but I had a meeting on that this week so all of these things take my time you know yeah a bunch of stuff yeah going on that's what it is if if like I said um I I I wouldn't put it in here if I didn't feel that we strongly need it I suspect the oh sorry I suspect the HR needs of municipality are pretty unique are there other towns that use like NH HR service I I don't know we have to look for it I I mean originally I was thinking of like lots of towns will share staff like they'll have a planner that goes between two towns that would be beneficial for us if we can find another town that's in the same situation where they they don't want to take on a full-time employee which we do not need a full-time employee it almost sounds like a full-time job though it's you I think once it got organized it wouldn't be as bad right and of course we've all been doing parts of it so we would get that person where they need to go but I definitely a part-time 20 hour week job I mean that's why the the budget is the budget I added $50,000 if you were looking at full-time hii you'd be probably $100,000 or better um or I they be responsible for I mean look at one way we don't need a fulltime but if you had a fulltime and she wasn't using up all of her time in HR problems what else could we could she handle is there some something else that she could handle I think we have lots with in our department we're quite busy well I'm saying that's what I'm saying if you have a full-time person that that handled all the HR problems it probably wouldn't take up all of her time and she could spend uh uh the extra time in helping you with other things not just HR I think I'm just a little reluctant because of our space constraints right now that's my next question is where would you put her where you know the roof is taken so the attic is taken too so um so that's kind of why I'm thinking and Outsource it you know um a little bit because to bring in another person into the town hall you know we have no parking you you know the concerns and so we are working um on moving some things around to get some space but I don't want to immediately I need the people within the town hall to have a little more space than what they have right now we need a lot more space so that's the that's the reluctancy you know when you look down when you look at budgets when you look down the road I mean eventually we going to have to do something with that town hall eventually yeah I mean it is to that particular point we we bulging at last is it going to last another uh 20 years I mean it possibly could but not with people in it because eventually people start the flo over there so you got to do something so what's the decision going to be you know are we going to come out here and construct a new building or we're going to rehab what we have and then the estimates 5 years ago was $14 million to rehab that time yeah I mean and then think I mean I and then it still would be big enough still wouldn't have parking it doesn't solve exactly that's the problem right it doesn't solve all of our problems exactly the point and even if you put a cway in between the old library which is now weather typ and in that building that addition alone is another 700 750 to 800,000 and these are 5-year-old Les I don't know what the hell today that probably yeah triple so is it worth it no uh we but on on the other hand I just I just like to say that you know having stick built buildings with the union labor in town is killing us and you know you can buy a steel building or whatever you see them I'll give you an example juniors in town I mean there's a building that's got tremendous amount of space you can make it look like anything you want on the outside and the inside and it was probably a fifth of what it's going to cost us for the addition on the fire station but you know what I mean I and I understand that there's there are concerns and that you have to start hiring opms and all of that stuff if it goes with a million dollars which is just as far as I'm concerned I don't understand it but you know it's costing us a lot of money for a little bit of square footage that's my point I think there there's something we should consider as far as the the space that we need to get people out of the Town Hall we're not going to be spreading them around to different places we need them all in one place we we've talked a lot about that right and this isn't anything new and and not putting a Band-Aid on the situation right that that's but at what at what cost you know a double SW but at some particular point we're going to have to wipe the bullet here do something about this and even if we did it in stages and have they had a building that we could put additions on every two years or every three years pressure I think that would probably be the way we've been talking about this uh as far as I know years doesn't seem I got a couple of other budgets that I adjusted that I want to run by you okay um it you see I I added and I don't know where mine went but I added some money to it because we are talking about annexing a space for the town hall and if I do that I'm going to need a server at that 155 yeah I gave you a new one did you guys put them in there yep it's 1172 I think is what I'm asking for now so that's what it's about is that if we do get another spot an Annex which we've talked about um I will need to set up a server over there and it's going to cost a little bit of money for equipment and a little bit of money for um you know to get it done so that's the change I made we're going to need that money it money goes like crazy um any questions look at it for a minute that makes sense sorry there other than that I was it was level funded before I added added to it perfect was the other one change in budget mean yeah um I took the community program director Communications is one Community program director she has a $6,000 budget for events I increase it to $10,000 because everything is just a lot of money and until her revolving account is taking in money that she can then we can allocate it at next town meeting for her to spend it I I she needs a little buffer money if that makes sense just so I understand and I saw that you went from six to 10 and whatever is coming in is that on top of that so if we get money money through the revolving fund or is that going to go in the revolving fund and to be spent in future years right because I can't okay I can't I have to get like a year to get it into the revolving fund and then she can at the you when you see our warrant right we have all the revolving funds where we say okay we'll allow you to spend $9,000 out of the revolving fund that's all they can spend even if there's $50,000 in the revolving fund all they can spend is $9,000 but right now she has no money in the revolving fund I can't alligate her to spend any because there isn't any so I'm just trying to get her so she can start collecting funds and then at next year's town meeting we'll spend some of it she's always going to have I think some budget for events because some things are going to be free she's gonna let us know what she's doing with money yeah just I just want to want to make yeah um any questions on that one and and the last one is the communications budget I added I think your paperwork says 246 but I got my numbers I added 19,600 to it and that's for the tower leases for the radio communications we have an article that we got a couple years ago at the town meeting that we've been using but it's going to run out and I need to fund those leases so those are for the towers that we're leasing for the new community the radio communications that the deadline or the the the up and running date is supposed to be uh June 28th so we're hoping by July 4th they're all up running and working so we just had a meeting a couple days ago we had anybody approach us to use space no we haven't but I if I had time and I have no idea when that will be I would like to put out an RFP to see if anybody would like to rent the space on the on the tower I have it drafted if we get somebody great also for cell phone service around here it'd be awesome you know again I would think somebody would step up yeah so that's and that was it so unless I mean if you have objections we can discuss them but um there was ample money in the budget to do those changes I don't know want to give everybody a weate is yeah as long as you don't mind charging them twice next year all right any other questions all right um we have our May 15th meeting got moved to May 9th Thursday night 6 o' here in the police station um where we'll go over all the we'll go through the Omnibus all the budgets and make a recommendations all right I will entertain an option an motion do J Mar try and do this you going to try and do the entire budget just on the 9th or we're going to have two meetings for this no we just have the one most of them I mean if if there's understand yep okay um I'll entertain a motion to adjourn make the motion second second Kati um all in favor hi all of us all right all right we are adjourning as of 719 am I good to adjourn as well I think we're good right so I'll motion to adjourn motion made second all in favor I I