good evening and welcome to the March 18th 2024 select board meeting this is Select board chair Tom Lusa and I will be confirming that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me Members when I call your name please res respond in the affirmative Josh LaVine oh I'm sorry he's on his way ven amavi here marle here Dan WL here and staff when I call your name please respond Lyn Simmons here Mike barbier here okay this open meeting of the long medal select board is convened in person and Via Zoom webinar as posted on the agenda the town's website identifying how the public may join um give you every all the information you need there's no chat or Q&A function all the materials for this meeting are available on the agenda posted at Long Meadow ma.gov the public is encouraged to follow along using this posted agenda unless I note otherwise this meeting will feature resident comment for residents attending the meeting in person please raise your hand when I get to the comment section of the meeting and I will call on you to approach the microphone for residents participating in the meeting via Zoom webinar format please use the raiseed hand icon at the bottom of the screen the meeting moderator will promote you to panelist unmute you and give you per to speak if you join the webinar by phone dial star9 to raise your hand and and star six to mute unmute wish residents who wish to speak will identify their names and addresses only each individual is afforded three minutes for comment and please note that this meeting is being recorded and some attendees are participating by video conference please remember to mute your phone or your computer when you're not speaking if anyone is in attendance is recording please announce yourself now um no one here and then I don't know online I I assume that it would show if there was recording and I don't see anything there so Mike has just stepped out for a minute so let's begin our meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance if we all stand I pledge aliance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right we will start with announcements to celebrate long Meadow's Earth Day cleanup on Saturday we would hope you would volunteer this April 6th 2024 and for information about volunteering for the town cleanup you can get it at www. longm ma.gov SL Civic alerts and hopefully it'll be a nice day the 2020 for rain barrel program we've discussed this a couple of times Department of Public Work is is works as partnering with the Great American rail rain barrel to host a 2024 program barrels are available for purchase by residents at discounted prices the deadline to order is May 5th for additional information on the program please visit isit www longm ma.gov Civic alerts and those rain barrels would be for uh you using water to water your garden folks like that the annual Town report photo contest um is seeking your photos um every year when we put out our annual report we choose a photo um and we would like you to submit your original photo or drawing by March 22nd 2024 at noon submissions should highlight a historical significant aspect of the town this may be a building event location Etc creativity is encouraged but the work must be original for guidelines and information on how to submit your photo or drawing please visit www longm ma.gov Civic alerts citizen of the Year Awards the nomination for forms are now available for the citizen of Year Awards nominations are due no later than Friday March 29th 2024 citizens are encouraged to submit Award nominations for Citizen Community organizations or groups who deserve recognition for performance of a service beyond what is normally expected uh in service to the town the community um nominees must be a resident of Long Meadow current Town employees or elected officials not eligible for additional information or to fill out the form please visit www. longm ma.gov Civic alerts and please uh don't hesitate to to nominate someone we've had years where we didn't have nominations and it uh we should have someone every year um okay the next is resident comments is there anyone in the audience who would like to make a resident comment or anyone online no one on don't see any okay next is the interviews appointments um there the board committee appointment to the tree committee we we met with uh L cornette um couple weeks ago and can we have a motion to have him fill the expiring term for June 30th 2026 so go ahead goe U I moved we're very excited about losing tree committee um I have moved to appoint luk cornette to the tree committee to fill the vacant term vacant threeyear term expiring on June 30th 2026 second okay all those in favor all right all right and no we had another person who was interested in the committee and in session with Lynn I I asked about if we could have appoint someone as a u just a non- voting member do we find out um I still have to look in further to that some committees do have that uh ability but this one might be different because it might be in the statute or it might be in the in the bylaw so um we'll just have to look into that a little bit further but I did reach out to that individual letting them know that there will be additional vacancies come June in two months for three months for annual vacancies so yeah sometimes you know uh uh uh there are vacancies that that turn up but there are committees that we do have individuals who are non-voting members and they can get a feel for the committee and we encourage that also uh select board comments would any members like to make comments sure uh thank you um so I just wanted to uh you know first and foremost thank Lynn over the p and as well as Ian who's here uh over the past really couple of weeks we've had so much uh information just around budget numbers and uh clar clarifying um a lot of the information that we got so just I know you do a lot of work for the the town a lot of good work and I think it should be noted that um I certainly appreciate I'm I'm sure um my colleagues as well appreciate all the work that you put in to get us this information to to make things a little bit easier especially during a very difficult uh budget season um also um I did want to mention the groundbreaking that a lot of us attended uh you know as well attended by the long select board I think Lynn you said the the most uh we're the the best representative contingency of of all the town so um great project um you know I think one of the one of the speakers um mentioned really the people behind the scenes really like the unsung heroes are are really the people who are answering the calls um you know when individuals are in distress and you have someone at the other end of the the phone who's really trying to help um um help you talk through things and you know get get our um men and women in uniform um over as soon as possible to help out so I just thought overall was a great event and and Lynn you did a really good job as well um you know addressing the group and and the work that you've done with Westcom so that's really all that I I wanted to uh bring up but thank you okay any other for comments I I did get a request which is surprising but I guess I sure um someone suggested that the roads have gotten so bad in town that they wish we would put on a gas tax or some sort of local tax and just put the money towards road construction um and I'm starting to believe that you know the reason I see more trucks on the road is because the roads are gotten so bad uh and we haven't even really gotten to pothole season um but yeah you know I think people are I'm pretty unhappy with eversource and and what they're doing to our roads and and uh you know we I did hear from uh um Captain maero that he was very glad that select board stepped up to um address that and you know uh it looks like we have road work being done on one end of Long Meadow Street and another project at the other in Long meow Street and there's not that many exits from town so hopefully they'll go smoothly um all right if no other comments um we will move on to our town manager's report for March 18th 2024 thank you um so an update on the presidential primaries that were held on March 5th the town clerk's office mailed out 2763 early voting and absentee ballots and received over 1,855 early voting and absentee ballots back so that's a 67 uh% response rate uh the total ballots cast in person on March 5th were 3,347 uh with the fact that there's 12,716 registered voters in town that turnout equates to 26% of Voters a big thank you to Tim and Christa in the town clerk's office and the huge number of volunteers who helped make election day run smoothly and the leadup to it processing uh all the applications for ballots is tremendous and just to quickly explain the discrepancy between the number of ballots mailed out and the number that came back um sometimes people just don't return them um so it's it's uh not something that should draw any sort of concern there um as was mentioned in select board comments Westcom had a groundbreaking uh celebration on March 14th I joined with select board members elected officials State officials and representatives from the four um other communities for a groundbreaking C celebration uh at Westcom Regional Emergency Communication Center at shawinigan Drive in chiap uh the site is the former Salter College as you see from the Mass Pike it's an 18,000 ft facility sitting on 12 acres it offers adequate space to allow the district to grow the OPM on the project is soch the architect for the renovation is kba and the general contractor is Da Sullivan uh constructions expected to take 12 months to complete and I just want to call out um the fire department grant award um I had mentioned it a while ago but now that we're actually seeing the equipment come in as a result of that award it uh warrants to be called out again so they've now started to receive the equipment that was purchased through those three successful Grant applications as a reminder the applications um awarded over $175,000 in funds to be used to upgrade firefighting equipment the funds were provided by FEMA Mima and the Mass Department of fire Services uh to date the department has received firefighting hose supply hose firefighter turnout gear brush fire gear and Technical rescue helmets uh additional equipment has been ordered and should be delivered soon uh it's a huge effort by the long meow fire department grant writing team uh writing grants is is not as easy as it should be um and this is an extra task they've added on to their duties um and you know the biggest benefit we see in this is that it's eliminating the need of uh Town funds to buy these things because these are needed pieces of equipment that they um would have to be bought through their general fund or Capital fund or some other means so a big thank you to the department for making that happen that concludes my report I'm happy to answer any questions you have V yeah uh so I I don't have a question but I just wanted to also say thank you to Tim Christa the town clerk's office and all of our volunteers you know I am obviously very supportive of expanding ways to vote and you know expanding early voting hours as well as mail voting uh but there it is a giant undertaking that during that period totally consumes the town clerk's office basically and I and this is a plea to our Statewide officials that municipalities need more resources to be able to to continue this new way of voting that you know that we're offering our residents and this is not just an issue that is you know unique to Long Meadow people communities all over western Mass are feeling this um and so I I hope that you know as voters are adapting to these new ways to vote that our state government does as well and and allows us uh to you know keep offering this to folks while also be continuing um the rest of our town business so um you know and and this is only a you know small this is going to be very small compared to what they're going have to do in October and November so uh thank you to all our great volunteers to Tim and Christa um yeah just want to mention that all right yeah there was a few things in the reports and again I want to congratulate the fire department $175,000 in Grants I mean and and you see the photos of what we are getting it's it's really impressive um I also wanted to comment on on the good police work done to keep our community safe um and in the report it's it's very clear that um they're on top of what's going on and and um they did a great job with that they also did a nice job addressing a radio issue that emerged and um I know we were just at West comp but um you know our chief was stepping up and saying look you know we got to straighten this out which is great and then also we started uh a person by name of Jamie Frasier who's a mental health uh co-responder and they've actually started on a payroll and they'll be working with us in East Long Meadow and to have a mental health person um when we talk about police reform that's what we're talking about and so we're really lucky to have a progressive uh police department and town manager to to move forward on this um the other thing is there was work talk from the building department about uh Shaker Road Plaza has poured cement uh for the floor and some of the um uh for the structural um uh building you know rebuilding of that Plaza I know a lot of people were wondering you know what's going to happen with Sher Road Plaza and so that's good news that that's moving forward um since it was since it caught on fire um the other thing is there's 1446 Long Meadow Street there's four acres there and the house on that property caught on fire and so there's some question about uh that will be planned to demolish that and it'll be interesting to see what'll happen with that 4 Acres on Long Meadow Street it is zoned um um residence um and the other thing is it talked in the dpw's report it talked about uh King to move forward on a uh a redundant water tank and you know I I'm not quite sure because I I know that issue came up about having a second water tank but then it we talked about maybe being a sistern not a a tank up in the air but one on the ground and so I know you probably can't answer that question but um you know let the DPW know that I'd like to hear more about progress on that because um it would be a lot more expensive to put a a tank in the air versus a a tank on the ground next to our water tank and and and I'd like to know if that's being considered um so that's that's all I had with great reports any any other comments or yes Josh uh I just want to give kudos to Jersey miks for donating five grand to the library that's was pretty great um and I know was still get free sandwiches but still it's a lot of money so uh thank you to everyone who did that uh and I just had a question about the the mailin votes uh I know that the clerk is supposed to have a a ballot for everyone in case everyone shows up the vote what is the how does that factor in with um mailing do do you have to have a mailin vote for everyone or is that is that why there's a deadline to request them well everyone gets an application right yeah so if you send an application then you'll be mailed in you know yeah do you have to have one ready to go for every person or I guess my question is really if somebody requests it and then doesn't use it they can still show up at the polls so it's just a waste of money when you go to register Josh if somebody voted by mail and vote their names indicated that they already voted by no no I I don't mean I'm not worried about fraud or just people are it's annoying to have an extra thousand uh mailin ballots that get mailed out that don't get used it happens a lot where or people will hand deliver their mail and ballot to the precinct I was I was in the clerk when somebody was doing that I said do not yep it happens a lot or they selected vote by mail and they changed their mind and they want to go to the polls that day I mean 67% is a pretty good rate but wi's a thousand that is just going out to The Ether that's it's too bad and people need to remember that our ballots are are Precinct specific so it's not like well gee we got you know too many people showed up in this Precinct but we got extra balls for another Precinct you can't switch switch ballots from one Precinct to the other okay the same ballot the town report okay um so um next we have old business we have look for approval of the minutes for February 20th the select board we have a motion to approve those um we approve the February 20th minutes second second okay um all those in favor okay and next is the discussion and vote on the 2025 Capital Improvement plan um the board briefly discussed the capital Improvement plan and the recommendations for fiscal year 2025 at our previous meeting are there any comments or questions from the board about the capital plan that was submitted Mark yeah at at the last meeting we were discussing a letter that came from the permanent building committee and the question I thought at the time was the request there there was a recommendation to spend $700,000 of capital for wool Swamp Road School chillers and I thought the question we had for the town manager who appears to have subcontracted it to our CFO was if if we were to bond that instead what other capital projects could we spend it on the the the memo we got didn't answer that question other than to say maybe roads but but you know we didn't ask about how to bond it we didn't ask about the best way to bond it we just wanted to know were there other capital projects and I think the the reason for me was that we had Capital requests this year that were millions of dollars more than we were able to approve and so the question Still Remains you know is there anything on that list we could move up from 2026 to 2025 if we if we were to bond $700,000 and I'm not sure that other than spend more money on roads and maybe sidewalks we heard that answer and so I'm still asking that question the other thing is in terms of the letter we did get it's my opinion it's only my opinion that even if we were to bond this Capital project or Bond the chillers as a capital project because it's a capital project I would expect the bond payments interest in principle to go against the capital stabilization fund and not against the general bonding capability of the Town kind of defeats the purpose of having a capital stabilization Fund in my mind and I use as an example we built an entire Public Safety complex that we bonded and spent used Capital stabilization funds to pay the bond and principle for that but that's beside the point the question is is there a better use of that $700,000 and if the answer is no and all I saw was roads and so I'm assuming no I'm just going to go with let's use capital for the 7 $100,000 for the children okay so and and Mark you're referring to the new letter from the permanent building committee right because Ian's memo he outlines different ways we could use that $700,000 but only one of them was Capital no there I didn't see in his letter any of the what I'll call 2026 or rejected Capital items were not rejected but below the funding level Capital items that we said if we bonded that we could move those up and those that's that's what I was thinking would be the difference you're right you said there's a lot of ways to believe me we got a lot of ways to spend $700,000 I thought the request was how do we spend it on things that were on the capitalist okay good got okay so but the you know your premise of of taking things that we know like we're going to have to replace three of these chillers you know and maybe um bonding them out I don't know if that seemed appealing to other people um or Lynn did you have a comment on that or um I don't know I mean it it does make a lot of sense you know and I think that's why um you know remember who was appealing to was the building committee not necessarily yeah other other people it was just the question of if we and and that's I think all I mean I I was at that building committee meeting the question was you know since we couldn't fund all the things on the capital list for 2023 if we were to bond that what other items might we be able to bond that's all that was the only the the only request yeah I wouldn't 700 Grand would really cover almost everything that wasn't on here right that was the point me but other than roads obviously it's uh mower tabulator police trim uh project design there's a whole lot of stuff that we could fill in um I just I don't know I don't know if that's the route we want to take well yeah and the question is are those are those just Pipe Dreams by the people who submitted them or are they really Necessities that we'd really want to move up the list yeah and that was that was the question I had when we said that because I'm fine with saying we're going to nope we're going to bond we're going to use the 700,000 capital for the chillers I'm fine with saying that but I think we need to understand that you know the chillers are it's a major Capital item $700,000 it last long enough that to my mind it's kind of like a a roof for a parking lot or something like that that we could bond it but we don't have to so that was I think why the question was asked so since we have you here um I get one two questions one is do you think this is something we should be moving in the direction because we do sort of um Bond money and for like things like replacing ambulances was Mark's example um but the other thing is uh you know if if we bonded it if it was related to our C our stabilization Capital stabilization fund would that seem like a better idea than than some other way of of bonding it would be one thing I guess we'll start that sure so I guess to clarify your first question when you mean go forward with something do you mean go forward with um working with the chiller in any capacity whether that be buying it or bonding it so to that question first you know it is a primary need right now I think that we have established that the schools need it so you know I certainly don't see a problem with going forward with that project however we have the short-term debt capacity right now if we want to do other projects on top of the chiller where I tried to present an option where we could use these funds otherwise in order to fund road work which is really needed and has been represented to the select board by Town residents as well as the literacy program which has been presented by the school department um as well as debt service that could help us get in a more comfortable position with our current debt capacity but those aren't Capital with all due respect oh no I understand I mean there's a lot of things we can spend 700,000 the question was what capital items could we move up on the priority list and I apologize that that I didn't answer that question well we obviously weren't clear with the question that's why I'm I'm reiterating it now is you know what I mean frankly you know I don't I don't know what there is but I just know that there's this massive request for Capital that far exceeded our availability and like I said I I still believe that you know I I hear your comment about we have the borrowing capacity frankly if we're borrowing for Capital it ought to go get paid for out of the capital fund that's my personal opinion sure so that's that's neither here nor there the question is how badly do we need some of these other Capital items and I don't hear anybody rushing to say we need these I think oh sorry didn't mean to Jos I think the point that you and Josh made Mark is that we have the current capacity within the capital fund or the capital budget fund to do these other projects if we so chose and I can certainly write that up as a different memo if that's the path that you're looking to do we don't need that I you know Lynn maybe this goes back to you you know the the the original request was prioritized and things weren't funded because we didn't have enough money I'm I'm agreeable that the $700,000 that the excuse me that the purchase of a chiller is a high priority item and ought to be done so that's not what I'm questioning replacing the chiller with something else I'm saying fund the chiller $80,000 whatever it is a year for 10 years or you know twice that for for five years whatever it is and try to bring in a couple other projects that we can't otherwise do that's the only my only concern about this because I didn't go through the capital requests with the with the fine tooth home that that others did I mean for example election tabulators clearly I'm not sure we want to do that in an election year but it's on the list didn't get funded and that's the first thing I'm looking at Josh I I just I can't remember because I think the formula is too depressing to me how much 700 Grand how much Paving is that well it depends on what type of Paving you're talking about so pretty good yeah it crack ceiling um Mill in place uh Mill in overlay uh a full reclaim like it depends on the road depends on what it needs if you're asking me I think the the money goes towards roads you can never go wrong with putting more money towards fixing roads and yeah I mean there's a ton of different things we could do with it but to me that was the biggest area that could really benefit from additional funding I mean a $500,000 increase almost doubles what we're doing in capital right and that's that's really where where I'm leaning um it was 4 million I I know that our I can't remember what our recommended that we spend in our street study but it was probably more than 4 million four to five y um but I think this is another thing we're just going to keep falling behind on if we can if we can do it I think that we should put more money towards it now and I I understand that the sidewalk is uh I think there's a good reason not to do that this year um but the the roads any little piece we can do to get our ahead of ourselves and uh help this help us down the road I think we should do was there any supplemental Capital to roads or were we going to be all just chapter 90 no they're supplemental right so yeah it's uh what is it 7 25 for roads and then and then chapter 90 on top of it which is like n 960,000 or something like that or is it 460 I think it's 460 yeah it's 4 it's like 470 almost yeah right so I I think I've never heard more complaints about roads in all the years I've been on the board okay and um you know we're so it would make sense to do that plus we have several chillers we have to replace and so may I think we have to I I can't get around doing Glen Brook Glen Brook doesn't make any sense yeah that's what we know yes Mark well if if I'm going to make a motion that we increase the road paving capital from 747 250 by adding $500,000 which is would be 1 1,200 4 7,250 and take the other $200,000 and use that as a as the first year of a bond payment for bonding the the chiller for the Wolf Swamp Road School okay I I'd second that motion um we can discuss it yes uh yeah discuss where would that put us on a repayment for the chiller or for the short so we did a bond for 700 immediately put 200 towards it I mean it would depend on a couple of factors one it would depend on what the time frame is for how long we want to bond for say it's for 15 years I mean it I understand Mark that it's not you know it's not something that we want a bond for that long but on a normal time frame it would be about a 15-year payback so that would take off say a quarter of it okay all right so we'd be at 10 years let say not a normal that schedule question motion oh no sorry I I I would like to discuss this a little bit more I have a question for Ian so in your memo you at the second half of it you kind of talk more about the implications of bonding and I think I appreciate how you were also looking at some of the projects that we have coming up including our middle school project so could you just walk us through those parts of your memo a little bit where would you like me to start um um just the town's current capacity for debt and future capacity so um yeah I mean because I I know that bonding out for such a small amount of money quote unquote like 500,000 or 700,000 but there are implications of that it can make it more difficult to get a ban or Bond and you know in our position in the future so just interested in hearing that and also I know that you talk about the debt exclusions here and how we're kind of running up into some of those select board policies that we've set in place for the percentages for how much we can take on so would it be beneficial to go through the entire thing for the residents or do you want me to just go for a more summarized version I think go go for it all okay all right so ven is asked to go through the town's current capacity for debt as part of the memo that I've shared with the select board um regarding the current state of the debt for the town of La Meadow the town does have the debt capacity to fund the chiller as a bond sale if you go to the debt capacity allowed for the select board policy per the debt management policy of the long metal select board the town will endeavor to have the general fund Debt Service as a percent of general fund budgeted operating expenditures of no more than 12% if Enterprise fund debt is issued as general obligation debt then the ENT entprise fund Debt Service will be added to the general fund Debt Service when calculating the percent of debt service to the general fund budgeted operating expenditures for reference our current fy2 operating expenditures for the general fund is 76,1 38,900 as a dollar amount 12% Debt Service compared to the operating expenditures gives the town a maximum of $9 million1 36,6 668 annually with the most recent Enterprise fund Debt Service being General obligation debt this was the water sewer improvements project of 11.62 million in January 2024 this will be included in the calculation of Debt Service as of January 2024 our annual Debt Service for long-term debt will be 8,225 223 for FY 25 that puts us at 90% or gives us a excess Debt Service capacity of 91,000 for any remaining bonding this means that the town has the ability to bond if the select board would approve however doing so would limit our capacity for future borrowings unless the polic is increased I go on further to explain the town's future capacity for debt exclusion with the new Middle School on the horizon and other Capital needs I think it is critical to understand our entire debt picture another item of the select board debt management policy I want to highlight is the following in any fiscal year the proposition 2 and A2 excludable Debt Service will not exceed 10% of the total property tax revenue large capital projects are often voted on by Town residents for debt exclusion debt exclusion allows for Debt Service on a capital project to be excluded from the levy limit for the life of the debt based on the select board policy above the FY 25 budget would allow for a maximum of 6,378 of debt exclusion 10% of this would be at 63,800 will cost upwards of $100 million the massachusett school building authority the organization that is helping the town finance the project will provide a yet to be determined reimbursement rate on the project however for estimation purposes if we assume a reimbursement rate of 50% on an assumed project cost of1 120 million the town would need to roughly borrow about $60 million using a 30-year debt timeline and a 5.5% interest rate that could represent 3 4 million of debt service on a town on an annual basis however the municipal empowerment act increases the repayment timeline to 40 years so this is a potential option for the town with the current debt exclusion for FY 2025 at 5.9 million we have excess debt capacity debt exclusion capacity of 48,5 196 thus under the current policy the town would exceed the 10% excludable Debt Service with the passing of this middle School putting our debt our excludible debt service at an estimated 9,367 33 or 147% of the allowable Deb exclusion I bring this to the attention of the select board now because I would like to begin discussion soon on how we approach funding the middle school project or any other projects where borrowing is considered I caution that everything stated in the preceding paragraph is an estimate and there is room for variability after the time meeting I will have additional time to do research to determine if any changes should be made to these policies and I will share my findings with the select board to better shape our debt management for the changing needs of the town along Meadow okay thank you uh Mark go yeah I perhaps my motion needs some clarification because I my intent was that we would yes use $200,000 for a w Swamp Road School chillers now but more importantly that we would charge the the debt plus interest moving forward to the capital stabilization fund I think we ought to set a time duration for doing that I would like to suggest 10 years not 20 or 30 years to do that but more importantly I think people need to understand that on the long metal L project last spring we authorized $11 million in debt and we borrowed $1 million I understand the contract hasn't been finalized but the bids came in about half of that you know we have money that a town meeting we would need to reappropriate I think it's the is the phrase we have to if you will unappropriate it from the El project and reapo we don't have to borrow any more physical money we just have to move money that we appropriated for a iic we're not using into something like this so the whole question of do we have to borrow more is mov because we don't have to borrow more this is an ins and nor would I ever suggest we go out and bond $500,000 I that's an insignificant amount of money bonding costs are going to would overwhelm you you know Mark if I can offer some clarification um I spoke to our bond um financial advisor and I asked him if the bids happen to come in much lower than expected what can we do with this debt and he said as long as it's used towards sewer and water projects that would be in line with what we were doing previously there would be no issues correct but we also are allowed by law to go in as a town meeting and unappropriate money and therefore take the $1 million and take take it down to $7 million or two or or 5 a half or something in reappropriate because we've done that with other things that have run low so I understand our B he's saying what can we do with the 11 million bucks I get that we can we can spend that on Water and Sewer because that's all we told people we're spending but I'm saying it's spending on non-water and Sewer through actions of a town meeting but not actually go out to the bond market and borrow an additional amount of money that's that's because benath I thought that was your question about all this what does it cost us and how do we we don't have to B borrow more money what we have to do is reallocate or reappropriate is the actual phrase I believe reappropriate money we already borrowed to to do this so that's why I'm suggesting we do it through a through borrowing so to reappropriate the money that or to reappropriate that bond that of that a portion of the bond for the L project that would change the source of funding right because we are trying to pay for that through we would be paying that that for that through the Enterprise fund but but we would change that in the reapo ration but that's a that's a big deal no it isn't to I mean that would I mean that for the budget right if we're paying for the bond through the Enterprise fund versus the general fund but no but yeah but we're going to pay for it through the capital portion of the general fund that's correct but I it's it's not a big deal I mean it just needs to be it whether you borrow new whether it's a ban a bond or whatever or you reappropriate money you've already borrowed either way the general funds got to pay the cost of that new borrowing right I mean the it a a chiller that's that's purchased with borrowed money has to be repaid out of the general fund I'm suggesting on the general fund line that that be charged to the capital line item because it's a capital purchase yeah yeah no no I understand that so so I don't it's not to me you know what we're really doing frankly is lessening the burden on the Water and Sewer Enterprise funds who right now paying all that $1 million that we borrowed when they're not using all that $1 million quite yet and this would be a different a new warant article well I think you I my my memory is it takes a couple of warn articles one to unappropriate the money and another one to re reappropriate it for this purpose but the you know unused money from that Bond for the L project I mean we have plenty of water work to be done and instead of having to go to town meeting to unappropriate appropriate right we could be putting that money towards replacing water lines we don't have anything right now not $5 million wor I I think that we do have a lot I mean I think that the project was a priority I think that we have I mean from the just from the presentation we have we've replaced 7 miles of water lines the last 20 years and we're supposed to be replacing basically a so this is a case of we got the money burn a hole in our pocket let's go spend it well I I mean I don't think BPW can manage $1 million with the water projects frankly yeah I see see we just want to pay interest on them while we don't have something to actually do there the impression I got was that there is I I know we don't have the plan we don't have because we got to like pay for the the study and have a plan going forward right we we clearly saw there's lots to do we have to can't just decide to go rip up a street we have to plan yeah I I totally know what you're saying but um that's a lot of money to pay interest on if we don't need to and so if we another question is if we put $700,000 towards another $700,000 towards roads I know that there's a lot of construction a lot going on this year in Long Meadow is that something that you know DPW town has capacity for we're going to you know putting that much more money towards roads yeah the 700,000 won't have as big of an impact operationally sadly it doesn't go very far it's a couple of Miles 100 miles away all right so any other questions for Ian or we have yes I I had the same question I think that joshh did to to Lynn earlier today when we met how how far how much money you know we're talking 200 Grand what is that for roads like what does that mean you know um but I just I just wanted to make sure you know I'm on record as well and I appreciate Mark's uh uh motion here for the roads because this is something I mean I mean we're all feeling it um text messages calls emails um it's tangible like I said last week it's it's like driving from one end of town to the other it's like Frogger um so I'm I'm glad that we're uh certainly listening to the residents and this is a you know this is an issue where I I think we we need to to go down this direction you know this time around because the roads I mean I've been in Long Mill a very long time and I don't think I've seen the roads this bad um so I think it's going to be popular by the the residents and taxpayers um I wish we had more more funds to to do uh more exciting things but this is kind of you know what we deal with from like the calls and the the complaints so again I appreciate the uh the motion Mark and you know I'm happy to support it Josh okay Josh yeah I just said one more thing I I I I just want to thank you for doing the memo it didn't um I know it didn't necessarily answer Mark's question and we didn't uh but we did follow one of the recommendations uh mostly or maybe exactly but uh it was useful to see late out and I appreciate that I know it's it's probably a lot of work but the the more you can do this this is good for us this is good for the town people look at the agenda it's good to get an explanation Municipal Finance is uh not an easy thing so Lyn certainly helped out so I'd like to thank her as well for the efforts that she made all right thanks um and just to point out just to be the the depressing part of this conversation the capital thing is only a piece of it I don't I think for Ian preparing the memo you it it's exactly what you want your Finance director to do you you don't want to just look at this one project in this tiny little um picture you need to look at the whole picture and so that's what Ian's attempt is in this memo regardless of the capital conversation we definitely need a debt conversation um and I think that's something We should strive to put on our goals um or start that conversation in April is um I can't I know we talked about this at msbc but it we we only have to or we don't have to bond out the whole amount of the school it's what's after the reimbursement okay significant difference significant the high school we bonded 44 million not 76 okay yeah mhm and the the the money that we had borrowed for the high school where we at how much do we you know you know at some point we should find out how much we owe on that because I know it's dropping down not very Bast give me one second I thought it was coming off Fair soon what no there were we borrowed three slugs for this the school and we re refinanced at least two of them oh jeez yeah because the interest rates kept going down what that was great some coming off I can't yeah there there's stuff coming off in I it's a roof a roof or something like that a roof of a school we don't have anymore something like that and Greenwood Park roof too I think I just got the talent I don't know what you people well um because I know to 26 27 still some of the costs are going to drop on that so we're we've timed it pretty well um all right um you have a number um do you want to know the principal left on along met high school or is a total uh well let's start the principal uh 15.5 million 15 15.5 million 13 15.5 15.5 yeah that's great does that change your mind what to do with the chillers oh no that's that's that's that's out of an initial 44 buy a lot of chillers it's project did um pay down is in fiscal year 41 oh retired Long Way us yeah I'll be dead all right well thank you yeah um so we have a motion on the table it's been seconded um we've had plenty of discussion ready well yeah I I just want to say that I I had concerns about just borrowing in the way that you know was kind of first proposed but to borrow uh you know in the way that that makes sense or you know boring from you Capital stabilization fund um or using that sorry te payments um that makes sense because I you know looking at this looks like you know we're hitting you know almost our percentages our numbers here for how much debt we can take on so I I'm glad he can put that on our radar and I want to be mindful of that okay so we will vote on this motion and then we will vote on accepting the capital plan we need a motion for that but just State fully State the motion again for the sure I I move that we include the capital plan in this motion too I think we have to amend it first right yeah I think we have to amend it that's I I move that we amend the capital plan by adding $500,000 to the roads and removing the $700,000 for the Wolf Swamp Road School Chiller and but paying for the principal and interest from the wol Swamp Road School Chiller from current and future Capital fund funds not to exceed a 10-year period of time or can we accept the capital plan as a m te technically you accept the capital plan when we implement it into the warrant anyway so oh okay all right so so you know this amendment to the capital plan and we'll be voting to accept the capital plan as a Mana right can I we'll be ready to go we'll do one vote and all those in favor I I'll second yeah okay okay so good yeah I was second to two I I second the last time I second again um all right so now we move on to the exciting part Town manager's budget presentation um with Lynn and our finance director Ian codington and let's go we got our Power Point going you got pages and pages to review second one right yes thank you um yes at the long awaited fy2 budget uh so we followed the similar format here um and a huge thank you to Ian uh first first budget year here and he was a tremendous help in this process so um we're going to share a little bit on this presentation together tonight and so certainly feel free to ask us both questions um so the budget that is presented to you tonight is balanced without the use of reserves uh currently uses the full allowable Levy limit of 2 and a half% and um funds the capital plan um some Revenue highlights for us um although you know they're they're somewhat low lights because the revenue increases are uh fairly stagnant um we show the property tax increase 1.63 9 million um state aid which is our second largest source of Revenue um only increasing 1.15 if you recall in our uh budget kickoff in December we were projecting 4% because that's what we had been trending um so obviously we had to lower our budget estimates as a result of that so that took a hit um to the budget so we had to go trim trim some things back to fit into this uh local receipts are still holding pretty strong at um 6.44% water and sewer and storm water are also doing well um the note I have in the comment there is about weather impacts that's something we watch as it relates to water because obviously the more rain we get the less people are using um in their yards and that has an impact on the revenue that we bring in there so we are closely watching that next slide um so our expense highlight here um this um I think it was stated at the uh school department budget presentation and I thought it absolutely reflected what we're dealing with here on the town side this is a preservation budget uh we are not seeing anything um any new initiatives really there are no um unfortunately there's no attempt at funding the roads to the level that we need to the trees that we need to or the active Recreation conditions assessment um there is a moderate amount of money put in for that but not nearly enough that we need to really start making progress in these areas um and so there's also been a lot of talk about percentage changes and you know holding certain places holding certain departments to certain levels and as you can see here um in that percent change category a a 3% at the schools is not the same as a 3% in planning and Community Development or General government or Public Safety so it's really not quite a a fair thing to do is just look at percentage uh percentages you really need to dig into it more and look at um each department as a individual line um and that you you can see that it reflected in the column on the right where a 3% of the schools is 1.16 million whereas a 4.47 increase in planning and Community Development is $16,000 so um again just those percentages don't tell the full story next slide um so some notable items in the fy2 budget uh we have the water and sewer Enterprise debt service including that 11 million in general obligation bonds to service the water mains and Sewer improvements we just talked about that um in the prior conversation there is a very modest $75,000 allocation for Athletic Field receding this is in the DPW grounds department and then and is directly in response to the active Recreation Area conditions assessment um this is just the tip of the iceberg for what they would need this is fully funding the request that they made so I'm very happy about that um but I do think we we would need to see a lot more funding in order to start making some really serious progress um we were able to add a full-time equivalent sustainability coordinator this is a position that we've talked about for a while now um and we did actually have it posted last year uh to to partially fund um for last fiscal year we did not uh reach a successful negotiation with one candidate that we had and since we've reposted we have not received any candidates that meet minimum qualifications so we have the position here in the budget um I do think it's something we greatly need because so many of the grants that we're seeing right now have this focus and we could really benefit from somebody with this background and it's a townwide position it's not just DPW it's not just just um the police or fire department's you know sustainability initiatives it's townwide including schools so uh I'm hopeful that that um could come to fruition um another area that I'm actually really happy about is the full-time equivalent in the administrative uh in the administrative assistant capacity split between our purchasing department and our assessor's office um we're able to do this because there is a part-time position in the assessor's office that would no longer be funded those funds would then be put toward this full-time position um we have seen a massive increase in the amount of work in the procurement office and that's directly related to the work that DPW is doing so DPW cannot do their job without our procurement manager right there getting all the contracts together getting quotes going out to bid awarding the contracts um and that increase in work is incredibly timec consuming and um he they would greatly benefit from having some admin help there um and conveniently enough when we move to Greenwood the assessor's office is going to be sharing a space with the purchasing manager so this allows that clerk to sit in that office and staff the counter as well full-time um we also have the second year of Debt Service payment for the Middle School feasibility study and the high school Air Handlers uh one thing to note is we are not fully funding the OPB as called for in the select board policy this is somewhat turning into a trend year after year it's an area where we do have some flexibility in reducing funding to try to absorb um funding needs in operations and so we have we have done that um we have also historically come back at fall town meeting and funded um the remainder of opv with free cash uh we can have a conversation about whether we do that or not or whether we try to use that free cash to go after some other you know High needs items and then um one of the biggest uh impacts was the Westcom assessment as we've known we've that we went into Westcom knowing that the grant that we would receive would cover 100% of our assessment for three years 50% for one year and then 25% the last year and then the years out out years after that um the town is responsible for 100% of the assessment so we've been seeing that um that support Trend down and you will notice in the public safety line item they have a large percentage increase and that's mostly attributed to the Westcom assessment it's split 50/50 between fire and police okay so some challenges um certainly the state aid coming in a lot lower than we expected um is a it was a massive challenge given that it's our second largest funding source um um so that that is something we're going to continue to watch because the budget is still just preliminary at this point and it could suffer further Cuts uh once it fully passes so we're going to continue to keep an eye on that um an additional challenges are the the reports that you all received over this last fiscal year talking about the need for uh Road improvements and public shade tree funding to address both deferred maintenance and the deficit that we have in our tree canopy UNT fortunately uh those I was not able to fit those needs increased needs into um increase funding for those needs into this budget and those needs do remain um we continue to have maintenance uh challenges and the budget for M maintaining all of these buildings continues to grow uh and so that that is definitely a challenge especially as um repairs are not keeping up with need um cost can grow in that area very quickly we have aging infrastructure you know you've also received reports on that uh and the cost to maintain that is Outsource outpacing revenues um debt management in preparation for the middle school project as you just heard about you know we have to talk about debt in in much greater detail um The Limited Revenue sources that we have are are still a challenge and our operating costs are continuing to grow and just to uh put it somewhat into context here the um overall increase to the general fund operating budget is $1.35 million for fy2 the school increase is 1.16 million so that increase for the school department represents 86% of the fiscal 25 general fund operating increase so that that's a pretty staggering number when you start thinking about what else needs to be funded out of the general fund um it makes doing a budget much more challeng in where are we okay so some future challenges or I'm sorry future considerations that we have on the horizon um certainly we're going to continue to track the state budget whether it increases or decreases uh unrestricted General government Aid that's going to have an impact on our budget uh same with Chapter 70 we're also going to be watching that CU increases or decreases have an impact on us Implement implementation of the wage and classification study um this this will have an impact on FY 25 budget net metering agreement adjustment um this could be a very positive impact for us I have not built it fully into the fy2 budget because I don't want to get ahead of myself without um having those agreements fully in place and approved by you um but Ian and I have made a conscious effort in the the fy2 budget to start reducing some of those utility electric utility accounts down because we do believe that this is going to come to fruition early in the fiscal year um and provide us some relief on our electri electricity accounts um EV charging you'll see in the DPW uh line item detail they now have a line for EV charging the um that has not been budgeted before because the equipment was not lacked it is budgeted now and um it shows a pretty large percent increase because we didn't have it before but it's also costly to run these Chargers monthly um and so we're going to continue to monitor that to see if there's other ways of doing this while still providing EV charging that maybe are not so financially constraining to the town um we have the two studies here the payment management and the tree actually three studies the tree study and the active reconditions assessment um you know just because we don't have those uh funded to the level that we think we need to in the fy2 budget I do think they're important considerations to have moving forward especially as we look at Grants or as we look at changes to the budget you know per perhaps um the state comes back with a with a positive increase for us and then we can talk about you know where do we want to put those based on some of these studies that we've had done um so those are just some things that you know we still have on the horizon the budget is certainly a moving document and um these things all have impacts to it uh so I will kick it to Ian to talk just where we are with some of our Reserve uh funds and um and what's this last one here um and our fa available fund balances sure so as you can see over the last uh 9 to 10 years we have a different fluctuation in terms of free cash and operating stabilization the really big thing I want to highlight is is the operating stabilization fund we have continued to see a great increase in the fund which allows us to plan for um reserves in terms of unanticipated um issues in the future whether that be severe weather events or um major issues when it comes to emergencies within the town I think it's very important to be prudent and to realize that we have those funds available for emergencies and you know really have a conversation in terms of what we need to use those funds for if something like that were to arise in terms of free cash we have been very fortunate that we've had such a large free cash uh balance in the last 5 years especially with the last two years being I think the highest on record so it's been really helpful for us to um do projects in the fall and to plan for you know spending needs that we might not be able to um already the last slide looks at our available fund balances as of 1 one so the current free cash balance is $499,000 and I think Lynn and I have discussed current options with what we're going to do with that money available um operating stabilization fund I already touched on the capital stabilization fund is a small balance but that's a small piece of the capital budget as a whole um water and sewer pained earnings are at a healthy 73,000 and a 513,000 with storm water being at 573 th000 just as a note for the select board um per the policies um retained earnings are to stay at a minimum of $500,000 for each of the Enterprise funds and we will'll discuss this later but we have some articles talking about using some of the retained earnings for reducing the water weight and I think that's an important discussion that I want to have with you guys in terms of where that will put us in the future the last two items are ambulance Reserve fund which you're using to fund a new ambulance which is had a healthy rate and the last being our opep trust which is at 6.6 million okay so that wraps up our our formal presentation here uh we we are waiting for um a date for the finance committee to hold their public hearing on the budget uh the select board is scheduled to vote on the budget on April 1st and a copy of this PowerPoint along with all the supporting documents will be uploaded to the website tomorrow okay do we have any questions on presentation this point mark go I have a few uh I'm just going to start with the Target amounts for our our stabilization funds water sewer storm water particularly retained earnings funds have been set many years ago and there was a basis for it the basis was you know there was a significant outage and we defined what the outage was and what it would cost to repair that to make sure that we had the money to pay for that the question is and and this is a rhetorical question I'm not looking for answer should we not now given all that's been going on the last few years go back and take another look at what what the appropriate levels of those retained earnings funds should be because if we don't with a target of a maximum of $500,000 we're 50% over give or take or 40% over certainly on the on the water retained earnings fund and ought not be you know not not let that be there if we don't need it so for me just in what you prepared I think that's a something we need to look at and I think it rises to the level of letting the select board decide what are the appropriate targets for those for those funds or if the current funds are appropriate because if they are they they are good sources of revenue and and cost uh I guess the other thing is when you sent us a some detail budgets item at what point do you want any questions about the the either the detail line item but certainly sources and uses I have some questions about the sources and uses I'd like to try to get clarified like under sources of of and uses just that one piece one page AR you know what is the agreement with other towns in regard to our regional health system is their actual income from the other towns that comes to Long meow and we pay all the bills or do they pay because you know I guess I'm asking what category it show up with if there's that income um so it does not show up in a category it might does it show up in receipts at all no no um it is a grant it's purely a um a grant uh and so like the rest of our grants they don't necessarily show up um in our sources uh and so the way that works is we've structured it similar to actually the Westcom assessment where the total budget for the health department is developed and then the public health ex Excellence Grant is taken off the top and then what is remaining uh is then parsed out based on a structure set up in our um originating document by percentage of population so um I think wilam and Long Meadow pay the highest percentage and then mson and Hampton for % Mark um lawn meow is at 36.4% and Wilbraham is at 33.5% so we are the largest piece of the health department assessment so so when I look through this budget what shows up as expenses for the health department is actually 36.4% of the real cost of running the health department or it's or it's 100% of the cost of running the long metal Department even though it's only 36.4% of the overall cost of the you I think I understand what you're trying to say um unfortunately the budgeted amounts in the line detail do not reflect the entire cost of the health department this is the only the only piece that you see in the line item detail is what the general fund covers the rest of it is then covered by the Grant and then whatever shortfall remains is then picked up on the back end okay so this isn't I just want to clip so this isn't then a if you will an operating cost budget this is an expense budget if you willms it's what what it costs us not what it cost in terms of just the health department you could that could be an argument you could make I mean I'm not I'm not complaining about it it's not necessarily wrong I just try to understand what what we're looking at here and and right and so when of the things that Ian and I are working on for next budget year is to be more transparent with that so so this is a model that that's just been the way it is and we've been I mean because when when those grants go away exactly ex that's what we've been saying right so as of right now Mark um Finn has been working with Lyn and myself to develop a budget of shared services with all the communities that are involved so he's been tracking for the last 3 years and including what is proposed For fy2 What the full department will cost full boat everything included fine I I I just I I'm asking because I was under the impression absent this grant which I understand is there was that long metal was going to run it and other towns were going to reimburse us for a percentage of the cost because you know they they benefit they benefit from it so that's why I was looking for what their reimbursement was and have the to and I'm fine with saying look help Department cost three times give or take what it really takes to run the long medal department but there's this offsetting source of Revenue that says payment from other towns for the health department so that's why the purpose of of my question okay y That's fine and um just this year we we received commitment from the state that uh the public health Excellence Grant is funded through 2035 so that changes how we can account show this at least um and you're you're right um when the grant goes away we've got four people here that we've been paying out of this grant so the budget really should show you what the full cost to operate the health department is and so we that will be done next year in the FY 26 budget I was just thank you because I was suggesting that we show as a source of Revenue even if it says specifically health department grant yeah to to that's fine the other thing is that um I'm not clear and i' I've I'm having trouble with the revenue portion or the sources portion not the revenue Port the sources portion for water sewer and storm water driving with the expenses portion of water sewer and storm water and it may be me because there's a portion of General Revenue that goes toward the expenses of storm water correct that's correct and so theoretically the sources of water sewer and storm water should be lower than the expenses of those three the sum of those three by the amount of money transferred from our general fund so if I believe the the budget worksheet that you've been provided should show the storm water general fund subsidy of 552 th000 I believe that should be included in there now in terms of the sources you are correct that the water sewer and storm water reflects the entire piece of the revenues that the town would receive for 25 and the difference between the expense side of that would be the subsidy that is picked up for storm water in the general fund okay well I should go over this with you separately because I I'm I'm missing something cuz when I did the addition that 552 th000 which I agreed ought to be excess I I couldn't find it but but that's probably me and it's it's in there somewhere so I just want to know the final thing is the a concern about revenue from the L Bond okay that $1 million that we borrowed right we've now put it in a CD or whatever we we've got it m and I thought that we said that that Revenue would be go into the water and sewer funds but I don't see it here and so I just want to make sure that the revenue from the interest of that goes into the water and sewer because we know that the principal and interest payments are definitely coming out of the the water and sewer and that's one of the reasons I spoke earlier about trying to get more of that money out of the water and sewer Bond because it's it's just you know for people at home who don't know the state does not allow us to invest that $1 million in an interest rate greater than what we're paying for the bond even though we'd like to that would be Arbitrage which would not be allowed it's not allowed and so therefore we're we're it's C this borrowing this unfortunately borrowing this additional money is costing us the spread between what we pay for it and what we get as interest against the water and sewer and it's unfortunate so the more we can or the sooner we can get that excess out of the water and sewer utilities the sooner we can stop that excess money because it's got to be paid for out of the out of the Enterprise fund so I'm just looking to see where that source of Revenue is and Ian I don't need that answer now but at some point I can get back to you on that it would be helpful thank you okay well while we're on sources I just had one question line item 116 is says investment income um and what is that from Investments we've made in terms of Bank deposits and so that's Investments um Erica Brunell provides the corly investment report um and this number is reflective of that activity we historically have shown it on a very conservative basis because it is a free cash item for us if if actual receipts are greater than estimated receipts then that is turned back as free cash I wouldn't want to predict that fy2 would have higher investment income because we don't know where interest rates will be therefore I don't want to project too high even though interest um investment income this year has been very favorable to us okay but that represents um Bank deposits CDs and Investments that we currently have okay and we get reports on those frequently soly okay thank you does anyone else have any questions on yes um well certainly is a lot of work um you know and in going through this I could tell that you really you know it was great effort to to try to keep them keep the budget you know at a reasonable rate and and something we could um feel comfortable approving um so what is the next step so it's um it's to some extent up to the select board now in years past you have had Department budget hearings um where you've brought some key departments in and asked questions about their fy2 submission um in some years you haven't and you've you've kind of deferred to the public hearing uh for the finance committee um it's really up to you um if there were some really big initiatives here or drastic changes I would suggest holding those budget hearings but this is a fairly minuscule budget increase wise a few departments in last year right I believe so usually it's the big ones DPW police fire yeah what we'd have to think about is there because you know this hasn't changed significantly from we funded in the past because we haven't taken on many new initiatives so do we want to just you know see what the finance committee has to say or do you want to invite in some Department shares department heads I'll make I'll make I I don't know that we need department heads if we've got Lynn and Ian to answer the questions but I'd like to be able to go through the my it of budget with Lyn and Ian at some point I you know I've got half a dozen or more questions that I got going through them but I don't need the police chief or the parks and recck chief to sit here and justify what I'm sure Lynn can speak to Okay well Dan I was just I mean I I agree with Mark um I I thought it was helpful certainly last year um this year maybe not so much but I think uh Lynn if we could like just send maybe send I think last year we all gathered questions right and we sent them I found that to be helpful at least personally um but maybe we like CC you on it and and reach out to department heads if we have questions yeah absolutely okay Josh yeah there last year I there's a lot things that jumped out of me that I thought it would be helpful to hear from the Department is but I think everyone else is right I'm okay with uh the questions are a good idea if anything in particular but let people have their Monday nights all right good yeah no I agree I mean this is the same preservation budget there's nothing that jumps out um you know aside from getting clarification a couple things or wan to get a budget head's thoughts maybe or explanation maybe just couple things but I don't think it's worth calling people in all right question time is when do you want to go through that then through what well like I said I you know do we you want us to submit the questions in advance to Lyn and do it at the next meeting or you want to do it now we want to just wing it at the next I don't you know do we want to wait to the budget hearings or or maybe there may be clarifications that will help at the budget hearings if we go through them now I don't know did you have the budget calendar UPL I don't but I can pull it up yeah so I mean I don't know if you guys want to think about more questions and then have it discussed in another meeting or if you feel you want to deal with some more line items now I mean I I didn't have any more stuff don't on the second page already you know yeah right all right so yeah right now we're at the presentation on the 18th and tentatively March 19th through the 28th is uh you know scheduled dates that the finance committee could potentially hold a budget hearing and then it's really twofold because they would have to vote on uh warrant article recommendations around the same time period because it's with a final goal to send off a draft warrant with the budget insert and everything completed by you know the end of the week of April 1st MH pretty much where we're at right now I I feel comfortable going through the line items if there's any particular questions on April 1 but if you have something you think that you might need clarification on have further questions might as well do it now right okay do it now or send a question in advance of April 1st okay so we have two options so so um unless Mark you think there's things you should just you just want to sit down with Lynn and well I mean I'm more than happy to sit down with Lynn the point though I think is some of these need how to get public acknowledgement of you know it doesn't do any good for the people in town for me to know understand what's going on if they they may have questions that's the that's that's my concern is if I've got questions I presume maybe they do too all right well we could take a little more time tonight on this I mean we're going to go over the warrant that's kind of a barebones thing so if you want to ask some of these questions now would we do that for I don't want to we could also um uh consolidate all the questions that we receive if you send them by email we can consolidate them into one document and post it with the April 1 budget or April 1 um agenda so that that does have that public viewing to it and then we can certainly address them uh live at the meeting as as well that's fine with me okay you guys agree yeah okay all right good that's our I I Tom I I just don't want to give people the impression that you know we're railroading through a budget here I think people ought to know that there's a you Lyn scrutinize it y scrutinized it the finance committee scrutinized it more importantly the select board has that's all okay all right good so we'll move on to our next move item which is new business and it's the uh annual town meeting warrant review we have a first draft of the warrant um to look at there's currently 30 30 articles the first draft and U as you can see a lot of these are um familiar items that we would have uh in terms of you know paying off last year's debt and um appointing trustees and so forth I don't know if there's I guess first we'll start there any questions any specific questions on articles or do you want to go through them just quick review what do you want to I think we ought to go through them personally I think we ought to go through them I me this okay Warren is where we want to focus and I think last year the way we did this was at this this meeting we went through each article and you know made edits and you know pointed to places where maybe we needed to have you know additional information and then you know we were kind of more prepared at the meeting to actually know the next meeting to actually vote on it and go through it in a more efficient way all right so the first article is to vote three trustees and uh they have the names of of folks there um so that's pretty standard and then the second article is to transfer the sum of7 0.91 to uh paying off U prior bills from the year before pre standard um article three is to see if the town will vote to transfer the sum of $110,000 or greater or lesser from available funds of the treasury for the it Department purchase of new laptops uh desktops and monitors replace existing equipment that has reached the end of his life they're about 7 years old um or we you know they want replaced on a fiveyear refresh cycle um any questions on the yeah tell just because somebody called me today about this and and said that the explanation ought to better describe why we won't be in the St pickle five years from now needing to replace all the laptops and I because I understand it I understand what it's saying but I don't think it's as clear as other people might want it to be in terms of we're going to try to put it onto a a staggered cycle so that we don't end up every every five years coming up with a whole bunch of money it also ought to clarify General government or schools or both for the for the laptops just because I think it's I think it says Town departments it says Town departments and the description but we can I was conf that too because it is in the town or sorry the school it's a school yeah so this is just for the town right that's why School D the school impl implement this plan to they lease Apple computers okay and so that that's the warrant article that's come to town meeting in the recent past okay to renew the to enter into a new lease I think I've seen my only suggestion is the computers used in the town departments you always say the town General government departments sure only because schools are Town departments too and it's just it's just a claric town government retired okay that would make clear anything else um and then it and then it it talks about Capital Improvement plan contributions uh which will bring up to 183,000 so the um the 5year rest cycle is it and this is part of the it plan there going to be it's going to be budgeted so the fiveyear cycle that rather than like Mark said having this in five years we're going to BU 220,000 or have a warrant article there going to be 30,000 a year I'll need to talk to the IT director I don't know what he's thinking about why we say there's a 5year recession cycle so but I don't know how he's thinking yeah we should the way this reads is that one fifth of the people are going to get a new laptop a year ago a year from now and another fifth two years from now and another when in fact maybe it's a fifth of them will get it five years from now and a fifth will get it six years from now you know that's the I don't know what the cycle is but and it frankly doesn't I think that's micromanaging I think the fact is that just people understanding that it's there's a there's a cycle is more important than them getting the details of the cycle yeah I don't care how we do it I just so we're not it's clear that we're not doing this every five years or every year even so we could clarify it somehow but so it says a staggered schedule so it would be every every time they did it it would be about the same amount is that goes up by what laptops go up by a million million bucks every five years I IM 5 years ago right before I got here the laptops were all purchased so I don't know how it was done then and I don't know how much they paid but there hasn't been a consistent plan in place to turn over the townside computers um and I know the new director is working on that and realized that there wasn't anything in place for these pieces of equipment that are already aging out so the quickest way to fix it was the capital plan but in order to fund It All We there's a combination of capital and free cash um but I will send this to him I will make sure that he gives us um the detail that we're looking for for the explanation okay well again it it's it's agreeably I think the the explanation is pretty good it's just you know I guess it would make more sense for us to know what's going to happen in five years and so tagers so uh article four we'll continue discussion about the budget and Article Five the capital Improvement plan which we just approved earlier um this evening and so then article six to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum we don't have that to fund wage settlement account to cover the fire Collective fire department collective bargaining agreement and non-school non-union wage adjustments and so that's something we discussed earlier in executive session and the town manager is going to move forward on pulling those together is there anything in the write up that people think is uh so this is going to change um yeah yeah this will be changed from the next time it comes to you okay you have recommended by Finance in the twice one oh and the a lot of cutting and pasting that goes on okay and then uh so yes um yeah I mean the sources of in the sources of these revenues may also be changing yes correct from rais and appropriate to available funds and all that kind of stuff right okay yes this is truly a rough draft so we don't miss anything but we're as you can see we're editing on the fly as well and earlier we talked about maybe using the term competitive salary adjustments for some of these is that in this case that's not the applicable piece this was truly to fund colas um we' we've done them as separate warrant articles historically all right so then um if if there's no other questions on six we'll move to seven and then this is um raision appropriate funds um for the town's wage settlement account purpose of funding non-union positions cost of living and take action to on that so um not much and then the article 8 would be the compensation classification implementation which you've discussed in executive session article 9 would be to see if the town will vote to transfer $150,000 more or less to water retained earnings the account of for the purpose of funding the water enterprising fund operating budget is adopted at the Town annual meeting in 2024 um and so any chance that before we approve these we can kind of take a look at what a what a major water repair bill would be you know we we always used the get the the road we had but it's the road Richard Foster Liv on just Captain Captain Road just blew apart and it was like a five-day repair kind of thing and oh it's easy we just had it at Magnolia Circle T that off and fine but that that's kind of a two of those in a year is a worst case scenario we ought to we got to make sure we can cover those it's like our every year scenario well then it's an every year scenario whatever it is Sean tell us like a fairly minor repair for 75 grand I think yeah it's it's expensive right but we have $500,000 so you handle a lot of 75,000 repairs the problem is some of these big ones are like 300,000 not 75 75 is one day it's five days yeah yeah and there's also not to get into too much detail here but there's a a a changing way on how this is handled and before repaving the road as part of it was not covered under the Enterprise fund it really should be the water main blew apart part of fixing the road is actually fixing the road he said let's figure out yeah what the appropriate amount is in this retained earnings funds that's one and but in the last sentence uh it says the offset of 150,000 uh for for the water rate of $4 something per cubic feet uh or an increase of 7.9% but really what we're doing is we're saying we're using this money to reduce um from like a 13.3% increase somehow I'd like to see the word reduction in there somewhere do that if I may that doesn't um because we haven't set the rates yet there could be a potential that those rates would be higher than even what we have here so that's that's the risk we could run with so why are we even putting that in here well I I figured this would be a good discussion for that particular Point Martin I I think we ought to just say simply the the intent is to moderate the the water rate increase CU and leave it at that because we don't $150,000 is going to moderate the increase but I don't know if it's going to be 10 cents or one cent right I think we should also just say like where it says the proposed water rate was um that's fine but then down below where the with the offset the water rate is I think put would be no but but I don't think we should put anything I agree what the rate would be at all yeah just say this would the intention is to moderate the increase yeah the intent of using retained earnings is to moderate the increase but it is you know I mean you reduction we don't we don't we don't set the rate we haven't even established anything we are but if it goes if it works out like this we would be reducing what taxpayers pay what water what what water rate users pay water rate users would Beed not taxpayers water rate right water water users would be reduced by $150,000 well so it's it moderates the rate well the difference between 13 and you know we're reducing it by 7% no no you don't know that you don't know that you're reducing it by 7% well that's the goal of this though right no the the goal is to reduce it by the overall cost of of the goal is to reduce the amount of money we need to raise through water fees by $150,000 that's the only goal of this right as a as an additional caveat um there are proposed articles that would further reduce the water retained earnings account as proposed items so this run into the discussion I was alluding to earlier where we would be not in violation but we would be um underneath what the minimum retained earnings policy is for the water and potentially the sewer retains earnings account if we went forward with these articles well that's what I'm saying let's find out what we need to do you know it could be instead of $150,000 it's 100 but I'm not even sure why we need these articles in the past we voted to transfer money from retained earnings into the account as part of setting the rates I included these articles myself because I figured it would be a good discussion piece there's certainly no need for us discuss but we don't but we don't need these articles that was another question we V said it yeah where're the Commissioners I apologize I apologize explanation no but I I think we just delete these and say at the time we set the water rates in sewer rates we find out how much moneyy is available to to transfer if if there is any yeah this is your first budget season this no excuse I understand I understand thank you yeah we never make any mistakes we made any mistakes s years so so article nine and 10 we won't have to worry about those keep going keep cutting okay I'm just not going to I'm just going to suggest edits for now I'm a little tired from the race this week the language in the future well we try to make government more efficient and this is our our way we just we'll decide 4 hour meeting yeah we'll R do so uh article 11 to see if the town will vote to raise an appropriate 175,000 plus uh purpose of paying the district improving dist D the district Improvement financing Debt Service um relative to the statute so so as you know we when they built at the end of uh convers in Dwight they built the medical building there um we took out uh money to help with the the for the roads and and bring those up to date and it improved the district and so they they send us money every year and we use that to pay off is this the same language we always use yep y um so this is kind of formul to do it so it's it probably doesn't say that we get the money from well it's just whatever so we're good they send they increase their money to the general fund okay number 12 um see if we'll transfer funds to this um of to the operating budget for legal expenses um pretty straightforward a legal matter going on um and and I so yeah it talks about the it doesn't talk about the the legal manner in terms of the oh here it is site site mediation and should it say um because there was a a concern about ident domain I mean should it because we've combined those two cases should it say both eminent domain and Remediation I can add that in if you want I mean that case was Consolidated but I can add that in yeah because it's consol just so you know it's it's a consolidation of that it's still not resolved although we paid a fair price any other questions on comments on 12 okay um I yeah yeah so it's an additional so we already have some yes our budget yes we going in the Gap there's 43,000 reserved for this right now left remaining um the reason I have a a blank here is because we are estimating out the rest of fy2 24's legal budget and we believe we're going to have some savings that we want to be able to put towards this and so I don't think we're going to need the full amount that the attorneys have quoted me for going to trial okay so I'm I'm waiting to get that number and I'm just I'm thinking back to our pipeline vote have we I know for the pipeline we know when it's going to end unless we appeal is there have we been told and also as a lawyer I know that who the hell knows what's going to happen but have they said yeah this is this will get us through a trial and that's it that's all they've yeah that's all they said do theer good to be Jackie okay sounds good so Article 13 then to see if the talent will vote to transfer from available funds of the treasury $220,000 did we did we promise that we re re yes we did well as much as I can promise we're going to put this in in May and then July it's going to come back to us as as free cash I mean because they're not going to spend it it's just a waste of 5 minutes here and 10 minutes on town meeting Flor okay so was going to replenish the funding account for that it's comp to the fireart promise we' punish it and so so Mark you're saying we probably if I mean if we promised the find the finance committee we replenish the 20 grand we ought to do it but the fact is we're going to replenish it they're going to end the year with $50,000 now unused and that's going to come back as free cash so it's just like transferring this money into free cash but the fact is if we made the promise just do it I made the promise that I would put the warrant article forward okay okay oh did how about that weave put the Warr arle no I can't promise things for you guys I just I just think it's a it's it's ridiculous to do this it it was very helpful in this situation that we needed it with the ambulance repair I understand it they they they guard their $50,000 and never use it so all right it's not worth fighting over and then article 14 we'll see if we'll appropriate um we got 1,648 649 and to pay cost for the Bliss park playground project socalled for the purpose of renovating public playgrounds including the payment of all costs incidental and related to should be undertaken coordination of the reimbursement land of of a reimbursement Grant from the land and water conservation grant program and so um so this is we're and we have to wait and see if we get this grant right is that yes and how much is this grant we're trying to get 50 it covers 50% okay okay so unless we get half of this paid half of 1 Point 65 million y okay should we tell voters that it could cover up to 50% or close to 50% in the explanation yeah I thought that was in here is the wording is is the wording of this statutorily required so we have to authorize the whole amount even though re they're paying only 50% they'll reimburse us 50% y the the question is can we make this payment contingent upon receiving the grant cuz that's going to come up at town meeting you know fine I'll pay $824,000 but and I'll and I'll approve this based on we're our net payment is going to be 824 but I don't know if I want to pay the whole 1.65 million so I think let me talk with Karen when she's back in the office I think we can firm up the explanation to say that if we will not go out to borrow until we receive confirmation of the grant okay um because if we don't get the Grant I don't know that we're willing to I don't I don't believe this it say no amounts will be borrowed or expended hereunder until the select board is determined that the town has received the grant commitment for this project so it already says no down there the fourth line from the bottom sorry I was looking at the last sentence the the the issue is nowhere does it say that you know a grant will cover 50% of this y yeah so that would be if we could put that in that it's um expectations is the grant would cover 50% of this that'll make it easier for the voters any other comments the beginning of the explanation is just I know probably still switching to mic but that it's written like a motion so I could just yeah yeah I see you're saying just say explain what we're trying to do here and is it worth putting in the explanation why we want to do this yeah go to BL check it out you know like why now yeah because it because usually because they it should mention ADA compliance and right is that some of those it'll that and the active Rec study and the age of the playground and not finding components for it absolutely yeah so actually this part probably could that's the problem with all these old playgrounds right you can't which a certain point you can't get the parts anymore all right okay so some of that stuff I think it's the same language right there in the article and then we'll move to Article 15 to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $8,000 um for Community preservation local sear charge and trust fund for administrative costs for the community preservation committee so they incur costs and we want to cover that um so Article 15 through 19 are all CPA approved yeah but but 15 implies that and maybe it's me but raise and appropriate this is coming out of the community preservation funds and it doesn't say that in in the explanation it said you know these this is being paid out of the community preservation funds that are raised as a supplement to to tax revenue I have to check the language this was language gets submitted To Us by the committee and I believe it's consistent with years past but I can look into that like 16 because you think it's more of a transfer that raise appropriate well what says it raises and appropriates from the community preservation local SE charge trust fund and trust this that is this is just a fun their admin person it's not an application it's nobody's it's not fun a grant so I believe it's it's how they have to fund their admin staff okay there R are okay so we can look and see if there's any discrepancy on that um because then the next one just says the town will fund article 16 the same um the stores House Museum collections preservation application the amount of 7,000 and change U for the um so take act so this enable the Historical Society to improve the stores House Museum environment preservation of archives collection of objects replacing aging basement humidity control system by purchasing additional environment monitor environmental monitors and archive storage materials seems pretty straightforward any questions on that or comments okay and then 17 uh again the town will vote to fund the preservation of historical land use records application the amount of $60,000 and change to um from the community res preservation historic fund and take action so the goal of this project is to preserve historic land use records decisions currently reside in town hall archives in town 15 16 17 18 19 we've been told we don't get any say in we don't have to say we don't get we've been my hands have been slapped I know I don't know about everybody else's well okay you're trying to change it no just in terms of if there's any thing missing in terms of explaining it but it looks like they're all pretty clear that's they're doing so we can just move those quickly and if people see something they want to address it we could talk about it in a future meeting um and then count money for the Council of Aging um the 20 is a standard article that has to come forward to every annual town meeting right article 20 um you know so the you know the council revolving fund no this is is that the Fone we recent we increased recently yes we created it and then increased it twice yeah okay it's good that they got too much money coming as long as you spend it has to be the fund has to be established at every town meeting gotcha okay okay so that's 21's yours V your committees uh yeah Municipal life PL so yeah um we are moving forward I think next at our next meeting we're going to take a vote on which option to go with for fiber uh to bring fiber to Long Meadow we have so far rejected um the options that would not require a municipal life plan so that just another way to say that all the options left before us would require the creation of a municipal life plant and so this is you know I think as as is explained here this is just the first vote of two that's needed to establish it um and then kind of depending on where we are with you know agreements with potential um Partners in this you know they will be either present at town meeting or beforehand to help answer questions to talk about this more um whether you know at the May meeting or you know more likely at the fall meeting so I was just going to say so this is the first of two necessary votes do you anticipate the second one also being at this town meeting oh no no the second one will be at the fall town meeting if it this so why even have them there just going to add confusion to the town meeting why why even have outside organizations to answer questions about a m Municipal Light plant and what our plans are when we haven't even decided yet well no I'm saying in in in case we do get there before May unlikely that we do more likely that they'll be here in fall in the fall does this in itself do anything no we don't we're not bound to anything doesn't doesn't cost us anything we're just so kind of similar to the municipal aggregation this is moving very fast for a town thing are you okay so 21 will move us one step further in that process towards uh fiber optics 22 see if the town will resend vote for article 14 establishing the opard stabilization fund um why I don't know So speaking of not moving fast um the state promised that they were going to put forward regulations that allowed cities and towns to adopt um special Revenue funds to hold the opioid money and they dragged their feet with it for a very long time and finally after most communities had put the money in these operating um or into these stabilization funds the state now has authorized special Revenue accounts to be able to use the fund so we want to um transfer the moneyy out of the stabilization fund and into the special revenue account and then um dissolve the stabilization fund what's the benefit of a special revenue account versus a stabilization fund just how you move money in and out of it and you don't need Town Mee right right stabilization fund requires a town meeting you have to have it appropriated yeah okay and so we're really just following what the state is telling us to do anyways so okay so article 22 and then 23 do we um we change the number of people we that could apply for this but we don't have that's doesn't need to be in here this is just about the limit yeah so payment yeah they amended the state law um and uh it was brought to my attention that we need to adopt the amendment in order to uh effectuate it oh so we've already increased our limit and the amount of people but we have to do this yes okay so this is the senior workof abatement program to help people um decrease what they pay for their taxes if they uh do work for the town and so it would just change the increase the abatement amount from uh $1,500 to $2,000 and the S board we've already discussed this so not as a big surprise and then we start the zoning by uh changes and so we're looking at uh adopting some various things regard to sign regulations and so they have added and Del Deleted things um and trying to reduce redundancy um I believe there's a memo attached to the agenda from kin on this topic for the next article for 25 okay sorry no no we we can't do anything about zoning or planning board bs anyway right well if there's something that isn't doesn't seem correct I mean we can make comments now so 24 you you referred to the planning board already for their review they're going to have a public hearing on it okay um not to jump ahead but article 25 the memo that kren put forward that actually needs a vote to be referred to the pl planning board for a public hearing that didn't come to your previous meeting where 24 was referred so when you do get to article 25 you somebody just needs to make a motion to referred to the planning board and that's consistent with just how we handled zoning petition changes okay so the uh first day law we look at signs and the only thing that was in these in the discussion here was when they talk about signs um like political signs they they really didn't take into much account like if there's a right in candidate um and they write in candidate because they said that they the person the sign has to be the name of a person whose name is on the ballot but if you had a write in candidate their name wouldn't be on the ballot and they should have access to be able to put up signs just like any other candidate so you know I think that's the only thing I I would question you know is that something that was overlooked or they just don't like rins or um I'm not I'm not following I don't know where um I'm not sure it mentions anything that says that's not allowed in this yeah it's 241 2421 a b no B where are you temporary signs relating to candidates for office shall be limited to candidates for Town Offices or candidates for other offices who names will appear on a ballot for an election within the town it's um where are you guys seeing this page the top of page nine of the warrant we on 26 are we on article 26 oh oops Yeah that's talking page n temporary science permit okay I was looking at article 24 sorry well I was looking at 26 so limitate know just skipped over the vote on 25 to refer it yeah sorry but so I don't know why you would you know I can see you you should limit to candidates or write in candidates I this is that's on 26 so we're still on 24 yeah okay yeah but the other ones are I mean do we have anything to comment so you want to 24 we have to refer 24 is all set you did that at a previous meeting 25 okay I'll make a motion we refer article 25 to the planning board second okay all those in favor okay on 24 and 25 any of the planning board ones I I don't remember do they add on uh the explanation yes they have to go in and add the explanation they have to hold their public hearing not necessarily do they have to wait until the public hearing to add the explanation okay um K will be working on the explanation in our office this week okay um okay and then I could I could definitely put those questions forward to her this is all language that's already in the the the bylaw this is not adding additional language um the strikeouts are just taking out the language so if you were looking to add that additional language that would have to be obviously an amendment to the bylaw is what I'm understanding I think you're saying yeah if we're well we're changing the bylaw now so if we changed it we would could say you know write in candidates would be allowed to have signs posted you know temporary signs candidates I mean I don't know you guys have any opinion on right is I think you're right Tom yeah I think you're right I I think you are but I don't can we change a zoning by law um that is part of the process the planning board has the way I understand it is planning board has a public hearing and when it gets implemented into the war into the warrant they're voting on a recommendation for that article but I don't see why that recommendation couldn't be brought to them to review yeah I just don't know if we can if we can do it is that this point yeah yeah it does I I I honestly don't know so we can't vote on it and change it but we can make a request right yeah I wonder if we have to tell we have to ask the planning board to review your idea yeah sounds like that would be all we can do I think that's from what I know that's probably the right way to do it I know they haven't had the hearing on this yet so if you would like we could we could talk with Karan about that recommendation and then you know she could put a memo forward to them I mean there aren't that many right ends but you know the way I I I Can Only Imagine what the next set of elections are going to be like it was right in uh cidate got elected to school the committee last year oh okay oh that's okay um her signs were all is she in sign there we go um but I I think I don't think we need to refer you can just tell her in yeah as part of the public hearing process all right and then we move to article 27 right and this is uh the well looking at discharge for storm drains and illicit Connections in the town and trying to eliminate those and this is pretty standard we wouldn't have anything to say about that so you this one was already approved one at one point it got um kicked back or called out by the Attorney General's office because if you look at uh D the um sentence didn't make sense they didn't like that okay so we are um proposing to the the strike out there is what we want to remove okay good all right and then we go into citizen position petitions um Article 28 is to look at a feasibility report uh studying for uh to determine the viability of a grass field versus artificial turf and to renovate The Long Meadow Stadium um based on that yep so this doesn't this reminds me of the uh Emerson Street I think the crosswalks there's no funding in here right so what is it if this gets voted if this gets approved what happens I'm going to stand up I'm going to stand up and volunteer to do the study for for nothing they're going to get what they pay for and theoretically that that meets the requirement there' need to be a motion to amend from the floor of the meeting to add a funding source and an amount okay okay do we have any idea I'm sorry is there do we have any idea on an amount that has that information been given yeah we we actually ran this language through um uh our beta engineer beta engineering firm um while it's a citizen petition uh DPW and I both felt like this has a lot of value for us to to see what the study might say so we just asked them what it would cost they gave us a quote of 66,000 uh we're going to run it by a couple of other places to see if we could get a better price um and so I I would be happy to work with the petitioner to figure out how we could pay for this because we do see a lot of value in doing this stud at the at the parks and wre uh presentation I thought that this was really uh interesting there's a lot of good ideas with this it's great long term for the town yep okay so that's just looking for the I'm not gonna I'm not going to debate this I just think $66,000 is a lot of money but somebody's got to I mean if because if it's for example raise in appropriate blows the rest everything we've done before that in terms of the budget out of the you know apart right you know or there's no money left to if it was out of funds available in the treasury right um no I'm going to I'm going to look at that I mean because we we again we see a lot of value in this study being done so what we can do to try to help get that done um we will I I think you're right 66 is a lot so that's why we're going to send this around to a few other firms okay or Mark can do it for free yeah do fore travel all over the country you could go and do that um so article 29 is really looking at a a zoning change right is a petition to change the zoning regard to uh solar panels Zone setbacks they're ground ground mounted silar PS um is it this was two years right three it had to be three did it have to be three years be two okay but it has been three and it's article 30 is also on uh solar panels Z setbacks and so the planning board will also hold public hearings on these as well so so again if this was approved by the town then it just basically tells the zoning board that they have to approve this it amends our bylaws me of bylaws the problem is it's not in the format that appropriately fits into our bylaws and so I think after If This Were to be approved it then have to be approved by the Attorney General's office then somebody have to figure out how to where and how to put it into our bylaws right I it's not part of the it's not in the format of General code or how it would go in there or any of that stuff so should it the first sentence I mean I know it's just a suggestion it's a citizen's position but should it say to see if town will change it vote to change the bylaw I don't think we can we we can't change the what they would make be clearer is that uh our typo or there or Kurt's typo to uh vote to allow it says vote to all I'll check on I'll I'll I'll check let me see the next article to see it's it might be I might have copy and paste after vote to so yeah I think that's probably my type of I I think you you must take it off PDF so there's some weird formatting like the the one Z 10 ft under a there's a um it seems like the spacing there's a couple places where that might have happened yeah I'll I'll look at this this was directly copied off the PDF so yeah I'll have to look in make sure that it's I SP like an hour a day doing stuff like that so yeah okay 30 warant article so do we anticipate additional warrant 30 is pretty short annual Town Mee very short well we've already taken out too so right we're getting shorter but we'll see what shows up um all right I don't I'm not aware of others that are coming in mhm all right good all right so then we'll oh sorry I spoke too soon there will be one for the um revolving fund for the banner um Banner sponsorship we already did that uh we have to authorize a there's something we have to do with it maybe I'm misremembering revolving funds have to be authorized every year Lyn I'm also thinking um for the bond the general obligation Bond proceeds is there a article re required to approve the use of those funds to reduce the retained earnings is that a required article uh I don't know okay the other thing that we don't have in here which you seem to have every year something to do with vending machines in the schools we haven't done that in years we uh so the municipal modernization act uh you don't have to authorize the revolving funds annually you have to set the budget for it okay and um that could be I got to go check on that Banner Banner uh sponsorship one okay also based on the motion earlier for the capital plan do we need an additional article to reappropriate um those funds now I'd have to check I'm not sure yeah would or do we want to do we need to wait to unappropriate till we know what happens with that till the contract's finalized you got to do that well yeah because it could be four could be two or it could be 11 right sorry say that again I we can't unappropriate the water U the L project the L project until we know how much it actually is right I can confirm with our financial advisor what the rules are for unappropriate that cuz I'm not sure we also check with the AGS or somebody because it it we I know we've done it in the past mostly with project the the other thing is call I got today is is there's Capital left over from the from the adult center and is that also Bond money that's available to un appropriate from the adult you know or is there still there's still expenses coming in that we want to charge you in then I don't know yes and no any any bonds any bond items that have been or any projects that have been completed that still have Bond allow um allocated towards them can be used for other projects of the same length or shorter for those amounts so we can repurpose those funds as long as they're for another Bond purpose is my understanding right but but but we have to vote like I said before to reappropriate the money yes sorry I was just explaining the right mechanics of it we can use the the money m I we've got the money it's just a matter of how but we have to un because I know we've had votes in the past that said we're we're closing out such and such a bond with x amount of money left in it and we're putting that money somewhere else but that may be something we want to look at also okay so that could show up possibly y okay and um other than that we can um you know first review um we don't have have to open close or do anything just that's it okay so we can move on to our next agenda item which is to vote to adopt the new compensation and classification scale we discussed this thoroughly in executive session uh prior this to figure out how we're going to fund this um do we have a motion um uh I'll move we adopt the compensation and wage scale as uh presented by Town manager second okay all right all those any further discussion okay all those in favor I have a little a little bit of further discussion yeah yeah um now we're this is going to pay people more in town and uh I know that we just saw budget problems that we have uh we have a tight budget every year I I just want people to keep in mind that I think keeping we had salaries artificially low and I think that that is an artificial help in that budget um I I think in the end we got to make sure we have good people in town we have to hire good people make us this an attractive place to work so we get the best workers so they can do what our town residents want and expect and if we um if we don't pay people uh we we won't we won't get that we'll lose people we train uh people who leave so this is better for us long term um so I I hope people are happy with their pay increases and they're getting paid what they're worth okay yeah the other completely agree with Josh the other thought is too um we look at some of the the you know what DPW is doing with Outsourcing um so hopefully this will help you know minimize some of the Outsourcing uh saving the town um funds especially when we look at overtime as well so well said Josh good yeah so hopefully we'll have some happy workers and we'll just figure out um all right so we'll take a vote all those in favor okay all right so this will start to happen and now we have uh seasonal liquor license renewals frankonia Golf Course um the clubhouse Cafe renewal is asking for renewal for their um the golf course there are they up to date with all their payments point Y I was just about to say everything's up to date all um General billing and taxes are up to date um and pretty standard uh license application how move we re we renew the seasonal liquor license for pron Golf Course second second okay all those in favor all right and then we have application for a one-day liquor license by Oxana uh Salon and Spa they do a fundraiser for um autism doesn't say it on here but it says it on there so the event will be on April 21st from 12: to 4:00 p.m. at their location at 207 Bliss Road uh do we have a motion to accept this application I'm Mo we accept the uh April 21st one day liquor license application from aan Salan Spa second second okay all those in favor okay and then we have some correspondents I don't know if anyone has any comments on the no hearing none we will V for a motion to adjourn the meeting I'm move we adjourn second second okay all those in favor all right unanimous okay thank you very much have a good evening