##VIDEO ID:FQr99I2RQ3E## afternoon everyone today is Tuesday October 1st 2024 and this is the rate review committee meeting this meeting of the air rate Review Committee will be held in person at the location provided on this notice members of the public are welcome to attend this inperson meeting please note that while an option for remote attendance Andor participation via Zoom is being provided as a courtesy to the public the meeting hearing will not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast unless otherwise required by law members of the public with particular interest in a specific item on this agenda should make plans for inperson versus virtual attendance accordingly this meeting will be live on Zoom the public May access the proceedings by joining Zoom meeting ID number 828 8571 8742 or by calling 92925 6099 for additional information about remote participation please contact Carly antonellis assistant Town manager at ATM a.m. us or 978-772-4864 [Music] um subject being um member participation I that's not the right but it has to do with the rate Review Committee membership okay okay sorry however rate committee membership right okay okay all right has anybody um review the minutes from September 10th and any questions comments concerns I no issues okay I'll second all right all those in favor and chair says I those meeting minutes are approved all right so Dan I guess I'll turn this over to you for the transfer station operation studies tasks update okay yeah so I made a few bullet points here um one of the outstanding items we we're looking at where traffic counts for determining hours of operation and as of tomorrow I'll have I've had a device out there um from a company that'll be two weeks of data so I'll get that data after tomorrow we'll have some data to Crunch with so that U move forward the Devin transfer station sticker promotion um advertising is up on the website so that is taken care of and then the third item I'm still evaluating this one and that's the possibility of a one day pass having it electronically kind of on your phone day of let's do it yeah even know like a receipt or something you know yeah so I'm still working on that one with Pam um so more to come there okay um I think those were it yeah I think those were the outstand task my yeah okay and uh as far as the employees taking their trash and where they're taking it oh right yeah so that came up so um there has been a directive clearly made and I talked to the other department heads who frequent the station and it is and and it'll be en forced to to head into the in through the bays and go and drop the trash off near the Tipping um okay um yeah and then are you going to put like a sign saying this is employees only or something um not that I think anybody would be going in there but um I haven't no not yet I'll talk to Andrew and see how it's functioning okay and if we need to go that far okay great yeah because I mean like I said that that one day I was I was like there was a lot of bags and I was like we assuming they're employees but yeah so at least this way that that takes away that part of the conversation okay yes all right great thank you hold on let me I thought there was something I was going to ask about some of the meeting minutes but maybe that were good anybody else have any questions all right okay so we'll go forward to the discussion and recommendations and potential vote for the 2025 calendar year transer station rates and I'll turn it over again to Dan okay U through you madam chair so um everyone I think has a copy of the memo from previous reading I have one y um so this was the September 10th memo and we briefly touched on it last meeting but just to to get back on it um so using the the fee um fee model annual fee model looking at the solid waste budget the FY 25 budget is 569 676 um the revenue that's been authorized by town meeting in the spring for FY 25 that's the subsidy is 180,000 Revenue through retained earnings also authorized at the town meeting in April for FY 25 36,990 and then the final anticipated Revenue through our solar lease also recycling committee funds and and our recycling such as items such as Linens um and the metal salvaging turns out to be around 30,239 so based on that we know our expenses in the top of 569 and then known revenues that we have from the tax ly retained earnings and other so through the permit stickers and pisy throw bags we need to generate $322,450 on page two is a summary of the output from the model um based on our um Trends so basically we plug in the number of stickers we've been selling um over the past three years an average of that and also the number of bags we've been selling over the past three years and average of that and then we look toward the future for FY 25 based on those averages the current rates would generate about $39,000 425 and then you can see all other different options um increasing all the permits by $5 and what we mean by all permits are the regular permit a senior permit and then a second sticker permit those are the three um and then there's various scenarios of of doing permits back BS um very important notes down bottom the bag sale Trends were slightly down compared to previous years so it did lower the projection of the bag sale Revenue in the model so um so we sold slightly less bags in the past few years um number of permits sold are very similar so those projections were level um so that really impacts what we see out of our especially the current rates down a little bit from if we were selling more bags over the last few years would be up a little higher um the subsidy and retained earnings authorized by Town Meeting those are lower than they were in the previous in FY 24 so we don't have as much revenue coming from there and the um the FY 25 Solid Waste budget it is actually lower than FY 24s but we're still facing we're down about $113,000 the the sales revenue needed is the 322441 and the current rates are only generating about 309,000 so it's about a $1,000 um I think the I don't think we have to look at the rest of the memo yet but initially um that's what we've seen on the the model and what we're looking at so now we have to have a discussion to how we proceed um for what other committee and what's the best option um one thing I guess I I took doing a little bit deeper of thought on this the model that I'm using is projecting sticker sales and bag sales but there's another Revenue Source we're not talking about which is the bulk tags which we did up the rate on those and that does generate what I'm it's hard for me to nail down a number because it's it's it's within the the revenue we receive under our stickers line item so it's hidden in there it's hard for me to pull that actually out know exactly we getting making for our C tags but it's probably on the order of around $10,000 a year so when you consider that that gets us actually pretty close for the Sal Revenue needed I think I should just point that out that the 13k we were talking about if you're getting around 10K from both tags and that's not being really thought either kind of conservatively not including that um we're already kind of Clos [Music] what's the current senior pass yeah so that is 60 60 I'm sorry yeah um actually yeah I made these hand out we hand them out now so take one pass it down we can look at these while we're thinking about it this is just some Trends over time and I'll I'll walk through these to think about while we while we look at it this might be helpful all right hold on we have a question so whoever is iPhone you have a question hi J calling I'm sorry I'm barely hear you oh I'm trying to can you hear me now okay is that better better okay sorry let me talk into the microphone andbe it's calling and I'm sorry I can't do there I'm still at work so I need to just use my iPhone and not my phone guys I'm just curious about the orig and where I might find them on the website hold on we can hear you as volume wise but you're garble you're coming across garble so all right let me it's on our end but so oh um actually I'm asking about the documents you are reviewing and where I might find them on the website hold on is the September memor you know if you don't have an answer perfectly F could be at least be added tomorrow morning yes um so we're looking at a memo that had been handed out in September so right hopefully should have been posted um I will I'll go back to September I went through everything from January to today and I didn't see yeah but I wasn't expecting but if I don't find it may just put it up tomorrow that'd be fine as long as you don't make a decision tonight it it will it will definitely be no I think I think we're going to be still discussing okay thank you y okay um yes so Madam chair so through you um I prepared this and didn't know if we were going to use it or not but basically I I put together four graphs of of data over time um so the first one page one is basically our waste disposal and recycling costs over time and this is from fy17 through FY 24 these are actual costs so you can kind of see the trend upwards and maybe we should just jump right to page two because it's the same it's like the same exact data but just projected on a column graph and you can see the recycling cost is the orange and so that's relatively low over the past few years their commodities prices have been better for recycling that did jump up significantly you see from fy7 to fy20 but now it's sort of gone down a little bit and held steady from fy21 through 24 but our waste disposal costs have continued to increase um seems they've somewhat flattened over 23 and 24 I and I'd anticipate similar for 25 because we do have a contract that that should hold I remember one of the issues as we went through from fy21 onward where was the the Ukraine war and the hauling costs increased significantly we had fuel issues um which which increased our cost part of that but but just to show our you know costs have increased significantly when you look at a total cost from fy7 it used to be $98,000 in a year for our Recycling and waste disposal now in FY 24 we're up at about 173,000 so you know almost it's getting toward double so obviously that shows why we've increased rates um the third graphic and this was just for the I think helpful for the committee you know as the committee considered potentially raising any fees here's just um a you know a historic trend of the the fee raises over time um so you can see the this is way back to fy1 why I went back that far but but let's go like fym 18 so it's pretty flat all the way until about fy18 when Fe started to go up similarly coincides with our our cost for Waste and Recycling going up right um so most recently an FY 20 three the fee was raised $5 for the regular permit that's the blue line and we it held steady for 24 the senior rate has not been increased since fy20 and the second sticker has not been increased since fy9 then the final page is the bag price increases over time and the most recent increase cured in fy22 was actually might have been March of 2021 so slightly before F 22 um but I have to looked that up but you can see that's when they were raised the dollar at that time so just for the committee's knowledge just want to show this data and then recent Trends I mean the good news we had raised prices for a while and I can send this to you Robert they put on the web too yeah could you sorry looking at it today so right now though if we increased all the permits um we still have a shortfall of about six grand right so this is back to the memo on the right table permit increase all $5 yeah yes but then we generate approximately 316,000 no so that 10,000 is not factored into here at all that was something you know this is just permit stickers and bags I know you're going get be getting 50 bucks from me the next 30 days I got two Che I so I'm doing what I cleaning out my house so I mean there is right you know there is that they're both tags that aren't included in here do generate Revenue which and they generate more than what was it two years ago we raised the all prices yes yeah was it was it last year last year we kept everything steady so through the chair so Dan just for the sake of discussion as we look to the year ahead in terms of rates there's a $113,000 shortfall however there's this approximate 10,000 from the bolt tags that you estimate yeah so that brings it down to like a $3,000 Gap so the question becomes I mean ideally nobody wants to to raise rates and it would be even better if one could lower rates which which is even rarer but if we didn't if we didn't raise anything all things being equal yeah there would be a a slight shortfall on the order of about 3,000 right to 10,000 on the high end yeah yeah I mean I guess what I'm getting at it' be great if this if we didn't have to raise them but I'm also sensitive to the fact that does it doesn't do any well we don't raise them and then we have to make a a shortfall so it defeats the point the point yeah Curr so kind of I think one of the and we talk about this know it earlier was the subsidy and retain earnings they're lower than previous years then we can't use any more of that right now it's already even authorized by Town me yeah why did we not do our subsidy better last year and and the um I think from the Enterprise fund I know we've talked about it so why did we do that to ourselves is what I'm asking I mean I think you know the tax levy that competes with a lot I don't know if this for sure but I would think it competes with a lot of the other needs of the Town especially with the school increases last year well that's true but also but I mean been talking about you know our retained earnings why didn't we go for 50 why did we do 36 and I know you say you know because of a rainy day fun but there we honestly we use that excuse for everything and at some point we got to say today's raining you know um so what I'm saying is that I think that going into our next FY we should definitely look at that right I mean we're never we never gonna we never want to go over the one 1% for the on the uh subsidy you know and we always like to keep it just under but I think that you know maybe we should use a little more of the retained earning so I'm kind of saying to to us I think we screwed ourselves last year and I don't remember why we did that we wanted to stand under 1% we're at the9 and um the retained earnings if we don't need it it goes back into the retained earnings so I'd have to look at my resettled on that amount but I yeah but I I just think that maybe we could use a little bit more the next FY um you know it's like when we have with water and sewer every now and then we you you know a recommendation will be made I'm using numbers for example only we're going to use 50,000 this year and we we talk about it and we think well let's use 70,000 this year you know and then the following year you know we do something different so I'm just saying that maybe we should look at that a little bit better so that actually that wasn't our our meeting this to look at I was kind of thinking it be more in the future but I did take a brief look and kind of looking first at our water and sewer Enterprise funds and going back to what rap us sort of guided us with for um for Reserve funds and some of the key bullets they had were reserves help the utilities maintain financial self-sufficiency and sustainability true with this fund we already know we're subsidizing it so Water and Sewer yes that's certainly true our reserves can help prevent the need for rate hikes in response to emergency expenses Revenue shortfalls providing customers with great stability sorry using Reserve fund stop set rate increases in the short term can lead to Major rate Heights and potential great shock in long so this all makes sense for like the water sewer fund but we know that the transer station fund has the subsidy so it's really you know doesn't really apply there um and Industry best practices they recommend about a Year's worth of a budget within the water and store budgets um so you know these aren really Apples to Apples in my opinion the trans the solid waste because it's already subsidized it's essentially kind of part of the general fund so really having a a minimal amount in the reserve fund to me kind of makes sense um say like no lower than $50,000 I don't know what the number would be because if some does if there's a severe issue up there it's we're going to head back to the general fund say because right now we usually around what 150,000 in that fund under 30 it's usually yeah it's usually not a lot any it's not very high compar the other I think that would but say we you know you probably want to consider how you if you did blow your reserves um doing it gradually rather than right away what is the estimated R earing balance right now we don't know yeah I'm gonna say just over 128,000 memory though so it's it's low it's it's slow no higher than 150,000 correct yeah it's definitely under 150 um yeah so two thoughts just one is in my opinion for what that's worth I do not think we should raise the bags the bags are already inue agre and I think it would be the ideal would be if we didn't have to raise anything and if we had to use3 to 5,000 from retained earnings to make that happen I think that's a win-win I I agree with what you're saying we want to have some Reserve but if there is a way for this year to stabilize everything yeah I think we should attempt to do it and I think that's kind of initially I was trying to get there you know with that bullet too where we sort of are a little lower with the amount of subsidy and retained earnings we're using and those are already authorized like the only the only way you use more retained earnings are if you needed a reserve fund transfer point so if we didn't raise any rates and then at the end of the year there for some reason we foresaw there would be a deficit you to go yeah um and when we're like you said Robert you're talking maybe like $3,000 up to 10 right is it you know might be worth it because it when you look at our budget versus actual um funds like can look at that too how many days you know it's some years we're right on but somewhere under we Sor oh someone talking no I start too no no go ahead um that was all actuals but basically you know if we don't spend as much as we're budgeted that 569 if we spend 13 grand less I mean we're really kind skip Point put here you're really close real close right I mean that's how I see we're we're so close and I think it would go a long way to many folks especially seniors but everybody not if we didn't have to raise anything it was so close to the ballpark but I'm also sensitive to the fact that we want to you know we know that I think we have to do our due diligence but I think we could close that Gap with the retained earnings that's just my thought process if we do have to raise something again might I think staying away from the bags staying away from the senior permit and when did we last raise the the regular permit and buy what and I'm not yeah regular permit FY $235 two years ago seniors was last time wasal 20 yeah seniors haven't been raised for a while yeah yeah and the second permit has when I go buy a roll a bags how many are in the bag how many five five okay yeah these bag prices I sure that's that's one bag okay so all right so if everyone for those of us who buy like the large bags that's 25 no doesn't sound yeah 25 bucks um so if I use that every month I buy if I buy five bucks a month five bags a month that's $25 and the regular permit equates to $8 75 so you know plus some 40 bucks a month for somebody um of course not everybody likes to use those large bags I actually hate them because you have to put too much in them to fill them and I noticed that the material has changed the material seems thinner so now I don't even want to use the large bag cuz I'm like yeah that's all I need so I might I might start using the Maybe yeah it shouldn't have changed aot but the the material seems thin yeah and even more translucent so there not a weight limit for the bags is there no but it's you know you like those big bags because they're big and you go to fill it up and then you're like trying to get it you know into the vehicle and everything like that it's like that that becomes too hard it comes too hard for me because of my shoulder so what I'm just trying to figure out too is like you know for you know for an informational thing is you know it equates out to um but again you know somebody with a family you know depending on how many bags they might they might save themselves a trip in by two set two rolls you know and depending on how many people and how many how often they're going to the transfer station um but anyways that that's kind of like for the flyer you know that you'd send out um so what's everyone's got feeling at the moment oh Sor I just question regarding you see any changes in volume here I assume it's gone up because the number of resid um I'll let to look I mean I can look at that I don't know I know our permit sticker sales are relatively flat they're not going down or up significantly so I think maybe it's similar but yeah yeah the reason asking is I'm d recycling my wife is not so I have to go through the trash and find the recycling stuff and so are we taking advantage of Commodities and uh you know I mean that's the that's that's why I'm ask that's a good question I could take a look at that yeah because like I I have my little compost thing you know so I put a lot of waste in that so I'm not actually having to empty the trash can as often uh which is good you know so every little bit help but yeah but what are ways that we can cut cost just for this fiscal year that we're currently in we try you know in general you know I'm trying to think back to the study um C hours we're locked in in our our hauling agreement um I mean obviously we can look at that for future and see if there's a better deal next fiscal year our hollowing agreement something look at so really it's all as things come up we just look for better deals our biggest right our biggest line items are the recycling solid we disposal line items and our wages so those would you know if you could take a little bit without any of those you could make right aside from that you know we use most of our supply and services budget pretty thin um so i' have to put a little more thought but initial those are my initial thoughts so you um we you're receiving income for recycling and you said Commodities were not preserve um so for when we scrap metal we receive income the textile bins those yellow bins on the side we receive income for those but the recycling we do right now we're paying to recycle um it's much lower than we did a few years ago but we're still not we at one point we were actually getting paid years years ago when I was this like off with the chart around when I first started here recycling was very advantageous but and that was that the chin China was it was it was an issue of glass and yeah let me if I could just let me ask this question it's sort of Devil's Advocate so we've talked about if we were I mean ultimately our goal is to to appropriate fund and operate the transfer station with a minimal impact obviously to the user so we talked about how we're almost at a potential no increase situation right the Playing devil's advocate for anybody if we were as part of our due diligence to look at an increase to to to close that very small Gap what do people think I mean I I don't like the idea of raising on the bags bags are already um up there in an issue um but are there other thoughts so I mean I'm just thinking as we prepare we potentially have a level funded option if we had to do a a small increase what do people think it should be and on what if I may um the chair um I'm I'm definitely looking at this increasing regular permit only $5 is that being that's a steady number that we collect it's $5 and it's over an entire year $5 is not spread out over entire year $5 is is minimal um it also gets us to to 312 plus an illusional or not illusional but the potential $10,000 that gets us to 322 which gets us to where I feel like we need to be um so to me that's that's what makes sense5 on the regular correct just that okay oh so you saying just on the regular just on the regular oh that's just well I mean to be fair you know um maybe we should look at the senior uh permit also as far as $5 um we haven't changed that price since fy20 so it's been one two three four five I'm you know really been like five years this is its fifth year um I don't think it's unreasonable uh you know as far as you know $5 that makes it would equate you know like six bucks a mon yeah if if I may um I'm sure that we sell so like fewer seniors than we do regular permits actually the seniors are increasing oh the seniors are increasing yes so the senior people being able to get a senior P permit is increasing that's yeah um and and I think you know it's it's a reasonable um increase and the fact that it has not happened I mean we can see where we've done the regular permit pretty steadily over all these years but the seniors we have left alone um so it's not an unreasonable conversation I wouldn't necessarily change the day permit because how many how many of those do we usually sell in a year um give me a minute I'm trying to find the numbers for sales second permit as well too just if we have any numbers on how how much of the total permits out there those for it's probably a small pool but this was 2023 I don't know 2024 is number printed out but in 2023 there was uh 719 regular perm 496 senior and 129 Second stickers and that was in 2023 yeah I have always PA it how much is second sticker 30 30 since FY for some reason I was thinking that was the one day permit yeah and that hasn't changed since fy19 we can change the yeah I would think we can change the second permit too yeah so I could run more scenarios our next yeah this is what I was thinking but the scenarios is part of our due diligence so I think one of the scenarios is the no increase scenario and I think you bobber and I should take just a further detailed look at that but so one scenario would be to raise not raise anything and we know we have this this Gap this small Gap we have to take into account scenario two would be that Kimberly scenario I'm just saying is if we just raise the regular um permit by $5 so that'd be scenario two then there's the Livingston scenario scenario three let's in this scenario three is look at let's just look at the the senior if we were to raise the scor not saying that we're going to and as part of that scenario too and maybe it's a subset of it is as Janice and Andy brought up is that raising that second permit because there were 129 of those in 2023 and it was last adjusted in FY 2019 but does that make sense so we'll have the the no the no increase the $5 on the regular a look at the senior and then I'll look at the second permit and and there may be another scenario so quick question so on the Livington scenario so that would just be raising the senior $5 not the regular though no it would be an addition to the reg oh okay yeah that's what I yeah so in other words yeah that's yeah that's regular senior and so all all would be increased by yeah third my husband and I both have a sticker on our car so I don't have a problem with you know the second permit being raised oh I mean yeah that being said think about this right throwing it out there now again my husband and I we both have a permit in our car so one of us is the second permit what if we left the regular permit alone raiseed the senior five bucks and raised the second permit 10 a look at that left the regular the same ra I mean it wouldn't it still wouldn't pull in all the income that you needed but I mean the Reg permit is already $105 which just sounds F you know and when you balance it out it's 8 it's $8.75 a month but the the second permit which has not been raised since f19 um is that big as you know because I mean you never know there's there's there's a household today that you know is now going to have somebody else in the household that will have a second permit so that you know the second permit numbers could increase now it may not get us to where we need to be we might still end up having that shortfall you know but it may get us close that Gap a little bit more you know like that what is the age to be a senior 65 65 yeah um so just a couple considerations um overall we've got around 10,000 in this bulk Revenue bulk tag Revenue that we're sort of not even looking at so um if we did nothing and we take into account 10,000 in bulk tags we only have a $3,000 shortage deficit um and with that we've discussed or thrown thrown out the idea that maybe on Wednesdays we would cut the hours to from what we were 7 to 7 right and we would cut it to 11 to 7 that's one of the scenarios that's also um kind of a contra contractual thing so that would have to be negotiated right so so as far as making no changes um I think they keeping the bulk tag Revenue into account and saying we're going to hold things this this steady this year um if things and you know we as a town have tried to do the right thing and we we do a pretty good job with cost and revenue so we can hold steady um and we could look next year is if we do all a sudden things look bad we're not um making enough revenue or cost then we could circle around next year and say hey we do have this idea of cutting back the hours a little bit too so that's that um would uh add ammunition or add a plus to the idea of not changing anything um well the hours do have to be looked at as far as you know in negotiation due to the overtime so so that being said we have the potential I think what how much we figured out in the overtime we have the potential to see a savings with that yeah y so so my so there is already a a saving coming for unknown what the savings is going exactly so that's to me that sort of lead to the idea us holding rates so um then just one consideration on the idea of raising the fees on that second uh permit um there's only 129 um sometimes I what I'm thinking is is that people get the second permit because I mean every once in a while I'm out of town so and I my car has the tag so my wife can't take her car and we didn't have a second tag um I'm just wondering uh if we raise the price on that people would just say bag it when we still the one not not bag it but we won't get the second permit so then we sort of shoot ourselves in the foot just thinking of that I'll out on that because it's it's it's $30 right now so adding you know having the second permit and adding $10 to it that's not even my God was it $3 a month something I didn't so so no because I can I can tell you I'm not giving up my second perit no I mean it's yeah no I mean I'm you know my husband happens to be out or if God forbid his car was in the shop and everything no no I I I want to be able to go um so um you might have one or two but I'm betting it has nothing to do with the cost I think it have other things to do with like maybe their home war and they don't need the second car to have you know what I'm saying but no I I think that I think that that's something we can look at because we have not and it's reasonable to talk about raising the second permit because it has not been raised in like five years six years four five six interesting to see if we do raise the rates if the numbers do go down this be for second permit yeah be interesting I think like I said I think you might see two or three but I think I I don't think it would have anything to do with the price you're right I know I think it would have to do with other scenarios like you know somebody's retired so everybody's home and they don't need to have the second permit but if you get somebody still working and once one person's still home you know I need to go you know pupp's at work and I need to go to the transfer station on Wednesday he's got struck I'm going to go so yeah and even if it did I don't think it would be you know I don't think it would be um it would really affect anything as far as the second permit because we have such low numbers for second permit anyway so yeah yeah question electronics disposal is that a revenue generat that one y I don't double check that getting rid of two TVs and getting disposal that goes in the bulk items the TVs do okay but we have light buold and stuff like that yeah um this is just a thought so stay with me here um I don't want to increase bag prices let's let's just start that before I even go down this this thought process I just I got make that clear because I know I know what right hot button that is yeah but I almost wish we could almost wish we had the room to do it uh and the reason is just because you know I'm looking at the cost over time and thinking about how we could potentially impact costs through rates um and it's pretty clear that recycling is holding steady uh the growth in disposal costs is from waste disposal and if we could discourage waste disposal in some way it would be great to be able to do that I don't think we we can't with bag rates that high but you know in an Ideal World if if we could you know I I just feel like that I wasn't here but I'm guessing that was probably part of the logic last time I got ra too yeah I see what you're saying yeah is the most significant cost yeah but I mean we yeah it would be Mutiny um so I'm just thinking in terms of what we can do to shape your costs through rates El so I was just thinking that if we ran if we prepared those various scenarios in in advance of the next meeting then we would sort of have if you will the full spectrum of potential options which I think will show that we've done the due diligence and you know whatever the committee ends up um recommending at least as part of that hearing we'll have looked at all of these you know different scenarios for next time and and if somebody thinks of another scenario or something after this meeting you let us know in advance we could run it you know if you come up with an idea after the fact but I I think that we have a bunch of potential options I'm just going to throw out real quick I would be happy at this point to just say increase all permits $5 but why don't we put that as one too the the FR house maximum all right but then there still living atend of yes the second permit up to 10 um I think $40 for permit that get you in there all years OB Playing devil's yeah so okay all right um okay so all right we're move we we good with the conversation at the moment all right so moving on as far as the scheduling of the public hearing tonight as you know um the next Tuesday what is it November 4th no 5th November 5th is election day the select board will not be meeting that night okay tonight the select board will choose what alternate night um they're going to do right now uh in the packet it's that Monday night or that Wednesday night so stay tuned to this page for um that update that being said we do need to meet one more time prior to even going forward to the public he hearing um so when would everyone when's good for everyone to meet in about you want to do it on the 19th oh no NOP sorry sorry I'm looking at November let me try again do you want to do the 15 at 4 that works for me just to where I have um an offsite offet T if I get back I will try to get back any time like I was able to today no guarantee yeah just in case you can't make it which we will miss you I'm just going to add that could you send whatever information you have sure and also um could you send that day like any thing that you'd be handing out to us um can you least bring it on the thumb drive so we can plug it in and we can share it on the screen that'd be great okay all right so we're going to do four o'clock on the 15th yep okay all right okay and then like I said just you know stay tuned this page but keep either maybe the fourth or the six available for the public hearing for those who want to be a part of it okay um all right so the next thing I brought up was the membership so we're down we're down a resident and we're down what was the other one the significant user so signicant the committee supposed to have a representative from one of the large water sewer users so we need to find someone on that for that and then there's a there is a residency vacancy okay let me ask Pauline I wanted to share some information not about this particular topic when you're finished okay I'll get back then okay thanks um all right so you're the fincom representative yes okay and you always like to attend but you're also a resident yes I yeah yes and Senor okay um why don't unless there's an objection why don't we have you be the formal resident representative two bir yeah would that would there be can't believe I'm saying this conflict of interest why would there be a conflict um um because I think strange sometimes no because he's the fincom rep but he's also a resident which is why he's on fincom you're on the fincom you're already here so why don't would just formally make you a part of the committee so if everything's everyone's okay for that then I have a motion I hope not was there actual motion or just everybody mumbling I nothing uh motion to Second a motion to I don't know what the word is so I'll make a motion that Kurt be formally uh appointed to this committee is the resident to fill the resident slot okay all right all those in favor okay I don't know how that went so downhill uh yes Paulie thank you Janice real quick um as I was listening in at work and you know now that I'm home because I'm on the iPad I went through your last fall meeting minutes about the subsidy question and while there was discussion about the amount of the subsidy the minutes do not reflect any decis sorry decision making about what to do with the subsidy so I think you're on pretty clean ground there but um and I remember mentioning at one of the meetings last fall that you know the subsidy should should apply to keep the rates as low as possible so I'll leave that with you that's further discussion but as far as the changing of the hours of the transfer station um I'm encouraged to hear you say that because I think it's a waste of money to have it open 12 hours however I think you left that in the contract negotiation that you did not have to reopen negotiations to do that that you had the right or the selectman had the right to change the hours um if you decided it wasn't working so you might want to look at that I remember at that a few months ago but I don't think you have to go through contract negotiations again true but I and I you're absolutely right but it just happens that's going to be coming up at the same time so that's kind of what my line of thinking but thank you for the reminder no worries thank you so much have a good evening see you all in an hour okay Madam chair yeah oh I sorry it's Carly in my office was like a disembodied voice I just wanted to um point out for the appointment of Kurt as a regular member of the committee we'll have to have the select board approve that yeah I I was actually kind of talking that to Robert and I'll bring it up tonight but it's really just kind of ridiculous um because he here all the time so that's kind of why we went with it but I'll bring it up tonight and say that this committee approved okay great thank you feel like I can reach out to the significant users to see if anybody would like to join the committee have anybody okay yeah and in the through the chair in the past what we told them is we looked it's just a it's a one-year um commitment obviously sometimes they want to stay longer but we want to get them at the table so if they ask what's the commitment it's basically a one-year initial one-year commitment and we generally meet quarterly but we meet as you know Kimberly Mo on the Water and Sewer in the January February so that'd be great if you could find someone bless thanks all right is there anything else make a motion to adjourn second all those in favor and chair says I all right thank you guys see you on the 15th