##VIDEO ID:0CatpdJo9Mc## do you have your record Shan you got recorder meeting is open and we are being recorded recorded twice okay um all right so first we have meeting minutes from October 21st uh motion to approve meeting minutes of October 21st 2024 second any discuss all in favor all right I got a red pen like you're teacher you're supposed to have red pen I know no you're they're actually like you're not allowed to use them now it's like you my red pen sorry [Laughter] we're um all right any audience participation all right um so we have nothing from Rainey ry's here here yeah Ry um all right go ahead Christina what do you got for us um let's see okay so Kelly hon our new accounting um person she I have a meeting set with her Eric um and Sarah for Thursday great um so we're going to go over her transition again Eric's going to stay on till the end of January um I sent them over the certified minutes from the special town meeting so that should be all set he wanted um Eric wanted Kelly involved in that whole process of the stuff with the spent the town meeting so that was good um we did sign the contract extension for the murf um which is that's where we take our recycling right so that was good um we signed the RDP contract and the swap shop grant paperwork and we sent that all to D um I don't know if you remember a while ago putting Hills um host Community agreement needed to be updated so I did reach out to our attorneys they wrote a new host Community agreement that would fall in line with the ccc's regulations but also protect the town I know that putting Hill is a smaller operation but it's something that we can use in the future it's just like a generalized thing I had submitted it to the CCC um but they kicked it back to us and said you need to make changes so I've sent that to the attorneys again to say what needs to be done as far as that goes um the animal inspector has started doing inspections she borrowed the truck a couple of times so that's going forward good no she did oh did she okay she's G to pick it up again on Friday and he's got someone else doing AAR you said yeah there's something that you need to sign for that though um okay I don't know where it is though I'm not sure if it's in there it I don't think I saw in here we got meeting minutes and um several warrants so we can look at it though it's um it's just so that she's allowed to do the inspection I think I saw that email yeah it was it a digital sign thing uh you can I think um but either way I can get it to you it's not a big deal okay um I signed up for the office of Inspector General class for the public Contracting for the um Municipal procurement officer training so that's you have to take three classes this is the first one so this one's in February um oh there's been an issue with checks not being deposited uh that departments are collecting from residents um that's exctly what I said not again there was something like in the area of around 60 checks were recently turned into the treasurer some dating back to August and there have been several phone calls from residents upset that their checks haven't been cash so um I believe you know there's it should be no more than two weeks absolutely yeah so that's what the treasurer say well as well preferably one week but two weeks at the very most so we should probably um send something out to um Department departments who received checks to let them know that it's um a two we Max tell them one week one week two week Max well thew is one week okay Sarah said at least do it in two weeks okay all right I can send just an email from perfect to any Department that receives checks um I think it's oh here's a question uh I did talk to about this I don't I don't personally haven't seen anything about it but when the snow when the truck accident happened with the snow plow last January this most recent January we did get paid for the repairs to the truck the insurance company um Progressive is asking if the town intends to present any demands for loss of use or outof pocket expenses I don't have any documentation saying that we were seeking any of that I didn't know if that's doesn't know anything about it I didn't know if the board was aware if we intended to I don't think so I don't think so okay I'll just reply to that email then okay thank you and then we re I mentioned too that that bill from Noble hospital it was turned over to predic or something like that because it was being treated as a workers's complim and it is not a workers's complim okay so that's all part of that too and I've been trying to work with no to get a copy of the bill which is okay a lot of fun so that's supposed to come out of our insurance then I haven't got that far okay I thought they were supposed to send it to Matt did they not send the bill to mat uh I can ask him I don't think so because I told him I was looking for it and he wasn't offered it but they're gonna stop in Tom supposed to pay for no no no but we needed a copy of it and I thought they I'll keep working on that um we got a notification from the state that they are looking for um property to build a new Springfield Regional Justice Center for Massachusetts trial courts I think that they're just sending it to every every yeah they're not GNA put it up here yeah they got lots of land they can have have no no no no purchase and pay taxes on shout out to Jimmy Martin make income on God can you imagine if people were like I got to drive out the Blan well then we sure get an exit there you go and I think for me that's it okay um I what was your hire date Christina how many months July 8th it's my first day okay so we um Joanne can you help us um we need to do a six-month uh review for Christina so that because she's eligible for that raise we just need the review you know the the packets that we did I don't know where they are I think you have them we do we have them on the computer um so if we can just get copies of those then we can put it on the agenda for like maybe two weeks out so that we can just fill them out and then we'll do it we have to do it at the open meeting anyway Mar did you have a question for um no word on the highway superintendent position we uh just got two more applications today it's still posted um I think we're just going to wait and see until everything rules in go there thank you okay um and nothing else for that other open Highway position huh there there was one and I gave it to Rainey and he did reach out to the person because they seemed like a viable candidate and when I spoke to him today he said he hasn't heard back yet but he'll give another call okay good all right we don't have board to health Jennifer all right Gordon come on down I found that form Christina and I just tried to print it so we'll see if it prints for inspector of so I'm here about what's going on with us with our skater project the uh the loan we have going through and what we've been trying to uh get taken care of we about 18 months ago we all sat down remember the when sat down back then it was Chris done it was you you guys I was the water board top of me Trio and everybody's here um we went went through the whole thing and that was the start of the the project we had checked with Chris we were good to go so we started our project since then we've gone through four other kind of Administrators until we got Christina um a lot of the stuff that was supposed to get done didn't get done in a timely manner and it bumped us out it pushed us it pushed us out we didn't get stuff that um the treasure was supposed to take care of the accountant was supposed to take care of in a time of manner um stuff that should have been pushed down from and Christina's helped out a lot with us getting it going because like I said because we need you know it's part of the whole thing is we need them to work with us to do this and you know with the rotation through it just it all got kicked to a curve and forgot I mean and I think a lot of a lot of the town has had that problem over the last several months um so where we are now is we're to the point where our green light letter just got submitted about three weeks ago um Karen also didn't come in today and I I ended up stepping in and taking over and doing um a lot of the stuff and I actually got the answers I needed and we got Christine and I got ass signed and I got all of our um reimbursements submitted well up to number five anyways submitted in today problem is there ain't been nobody in the damn D for the last week and a half so I keep getting you know Kickback messages from them guys so where we are now is um we're hoping this is going to be in in the next month or so but um we don't have the funding and basically the vendors want their money they're 90 days out we talked with Sarah and she said they could the town can do something it's what what does she call that she calls it an internal borrowing yeah um because they know we have the money it's like a temporary temporary payment and when the money comes in it goes back it pays that back off instead CU right now um when bills six and seven come in we will be in in the in the in in debt up to 599,000 is what they want we have already over the last year and a half put over 120,000 on our budget and we've also paid out an additional um roughly $70,000 out of our funding for this this project this all gets reimbursed it back to us when the loan comes through as of right now the well is dry they want their money and they looking to stop payment I don't I don't blame them I don't blame them well what's the contract say Gordon for payment terms yeah we were supposed to pay them no no I I know you're supposed to pay but was it like it's so much done and you pay a yeah 30 then 70 it's like when the bills that's what they are okay I'm just asking that's why we're up to five five and six and seven are coming we've only paid one and two and we made out of money the bottom line is how much do you ow when seven comes in $599,800 so why did we start with the services before because Chris told us we were good to go we had the green light to go but we didn't have the money we had the grant we I mean we had the we were approved by D but we didn't actually have the money in our no we didn't but like I said we've never done us before we're relying on him being that he you know he took it that he you know being that he was in that position he knew what he was doing and you know like I said we we we got everything we were doing we were working with our engineer things were going forward and all of a sudden he's gone and then we had like I said then we had iron temporarily and I was it was just you know he was just keeping things going then Mike came that that was just a that was a waste m problem is Chris really didn't have the authority it should have come before the board it did come before the board well if he said go yeah who we all sat down and we all sat down here as a group with the engineering firm and everything who signed a contract I never saw one I signed the contract for you guys your name is on it the work yep that's all I need to know yeah I don't know when we're going to come up with $600,000 is there a provision in that cont do you have the contracts I don't have the these are the bills I don't have the contract because usually our contracts will say that these contract terms are contingent upon us having the funding so they would sort of just kind of have to wait it out I mean they know I understand the position that they're in but we are getting the funding we don't have I mean we don't have it it would be a borrowing Sarah would have to speak more educated about this I'm not 100% sure but we would have to take like an actual borrowing it's not money that the town necessarily has right now so the the thing is theoretically too now that everything's all said and done and and Lord and lock and lord lock and Lord they yeah I mean they're the bonding council did the green light letter so so they've had that now for I talked with Sarah they've had that now about three weeks so they should be good once they have that and the state gets it the money should be released I mean because it's it's there we've done everything we I mean we've been back and I mean one last little piece that was a stickler I mean I brought my wife and she looked over the thing and basically she figured it out made a couple phone calls boom we got it cleared up so I mean everything is in there everything's sitting at this particular point I can't do anything else I mean so what does that mean for the project like is there elm is still running and running Elm is still going right now and doing what they're doing I mean pulling wires and they probably got now couple weeks El electric El yeah yeah can they call me back yeah oh it's like a space shuttle in it's it's crazy so what is overdue amount is this 5.99 all over ow as of right now where where what I have right in front of me I have that is 362,552 that's what so now that's what I had current that's current that's bills three four and five we've paid one and too I mean it sounds like we're going have to put a pause on the work so what will happen if we do pause until we get the payments is that like it'll just stop it'll just stop Nothing's Gonna like fall apart I just don't know no no no no no no no we we're we we've got the new the the the valves and the meters are in they're they're nothing's leaking or going nothing's going to go to hell we're just going to continue to run a manual um so I think that needs to happen first of all is that need to pause any work um it's just it seems it feels like a pretty scary spot to be in yeah yeah well the thing is the work is being done right now has already been kind of it's they've already it's already been purchased and done you know what I mean they're just materials and all yeah they're just finishing up this B what's going to happen is like so when it comes time to do the chemical room they're not going to start the chemical room yeah right okay so um get that but and like like I said we got the valving and everything else so that's that's the big stickler it's just I don't know honestly what the process would be to do this borrowing it may take us about the amount of time that that's what I'm think but I'm I'm letting you guys know I'm I'm honestly I'm thinking if if it goes the way it goes and you guys did what you gotta did did what you got to do they might actually I think they're probably going to hit at the same time I think so too um but like I said let let you guys know you know what we're doing with that because it's like you know and like I said Christine's been helping a lot and you know Sarah's finally got on board and I mean this other one over here forget it I forgot what they're called er something or other yeah we we're just switching over to a new right now I mean did did he get back to you today no no that's another thing a rate study I've only waiting since September to get an answer um so yeah it's and that's the thing too is get you know getting getting all the information back and it squared up getting everything from everybody it's it's it's insane and like I I said a lot of it didn't get really rolling until probably July August I mean when we sat down with with um uh Greg Divine and the whole thing there so um and like I said Chris should have there was a lot that he should have jumped in to help us out with because you know he should have been there like stuff that she's been doing you know that's that was the role and he kind of just you know and it is what it is Dam exactly exactly clean up as quick as quick as we can I think going forward you know we just have to make sure that we're learning from these situation just like you know hopefully learning from the truck situation with the the last Grant um yeah don't join with chester that's no we can't spend the money before we have it I think is the lesson learned we're not supposed to we're supposed to have it the accountant should have it correct supposed to again that was like that was again with the communication with with them and with us right here and you know we really got to kind of when we put stuff out and we need an answer I don't need it in two months you know because you know like I said this was basically a summer program and it's it's a third of my time is gone so I really you know they gotta kind of click on it and stuff like that get back to the numbers so it's 600,000 or 300,000 that you need when bills six and seven come through which the well when is that supposed to come through it's November and December bill so they already came through it's just the engineering firm hasn't processed it what I have in my hand is 382,000 when the engineering firm processes bills six and seven it'll be$ 5.99 okay so 183 183 close enough to 600 just call us $600 ex so when that bill comes in you got 90 days to pay we're already we're already over yeah we're already over over 90 days on on some of on the 300 on the 300 you're right now current you said it um there's there's one the one is where that one's paid that one's so but what's going to happen is as a municipality we can't scw interest yeah they will stop work which is correct fine correct and he already we already we already we already said that we already said that but they're a great firm to work with a great contractor they're very good very very good I mean personally I think it makes more sense to to wait for the loan then to start a process of trying to do some sort of interent borro well right now I really can't honestly this week is shot because no Nobody's around nobody answers nobody saying anything so I mean it wouldn't be until like January what's the 1 5th something like that sixth seventh I don't know well the third is Friday this Friday so hopefully we can hear something back from them by then um and we'll have a good idea so the email I'm sorry not to get off topic but the email today that doesn't have anything to do with this project right which which email I sent like n the one that you had forwarded to Eric again and said hey is that is the rate study which so that's different that's a different one six so we got the rate study that that we've been waiting forever for to get that finalized so we can basically meter um you know and again that got to the point because back in 04 when when you guys with the USDA loan and you did everything part of the stipulation for that loan was you were going to meter the water well previous people just kicked it down the road I'm not going to say who but it it came to roost and it it it it became a consent order so we have to do the rate it's 10 grand for the rate study so we're in the process of doing and that's only for five years I wanted to do 20 years but I couldn't afford all that so I ended up doing the smaller mey we can hear you Rainey sorry I was looking at something else sorry no worries so we have that rate study go that's that's in process to do we have to we have to finish up um then we have the the uh the consent order with the ozone luckily we're looking into possibly getting um funding for that so that won't cost us anything that's 350 Grand the new service line is 375 ,000 we're looking at a grant for that we got please don't start any of that work until we have the money well the grants the grants they award us and give us that so well we already got the 350,000 for the pump house and the the I thought that was for the storage tank or something storage tank pump house it's all one combo so you got the email from Christina about grants going forward and how we're handling them I haven't sent it yet we're doing that when we do the so just I don't know if you want to explain with Grant oh so uh moving forward the grant stuff we are going to have everybody's going to have just a form that they have to fill out that says who uh you're getting like who the granting agency is what kind of Grant it is what you're going to do with the grant money and who's in charge of the grant so anytime you apply for a grant each department will have we'll have that information on record so that we're not looking it's just because I ran into so many out there I can guarantee it yeah yeah and I didn't know who even the granting agency was or what we were doing with it so just moving forward just for better bookkeeping and so that everybody's on the same page it's wasn't specific to so we we're looking at 700 from hopefully EPA if that goes through that's a last minute thing that e called us to help us out with we got the 350,000 for the engineering and some infrastructure work over by the plaza I've been in contact with this with this dot that's easier said than done because there's three different Departments of dot depending on if you're outside the fence inside the fence or in the building m um the uh the CR didn't I don't think the CR got passed with the federal government but I once it passes if it passes we're getting 1.15 million to replace Russell stage in Maybelline waterm and that's a grant that's a that's Federal uh earmark funding yeah that's that's a grant so that would replace this not to change the subject but I want to change it a little now all the curve boxes on Route 23 for all those houses they're over correct so going west they're in the yards going east some are in on the edge of the road but a lot of them are are paved over so can't we get some do picked us up made me cuz if my house breaks you know you were over at my house it's out in the road somewhere your is we we've well we we working with Western M Water basically we've GPS about 90 95% of the Town um yours yours is one of yours in the town the Old Town Halls like they're ones we just church churches across the street they they that's right by the sidewalk we we kind of know that is it's buried fire station is buried fire station is not and the thing is too that's the other thing too is if we replace if we replace main street half the people don't have the right kind of water supply line coming in and it's held on with hose clamps if we increase that and the pressure increases to where it is they're going to blow their water lines right off their house they're going to flood their basements so I didn't mean to make it longer but I yeah yours is the black plastic sorry but it's the wrong one so um other the house now here so you'll get an email from Christina with information what to do for each of that's easy to do I mean we've been working with wri and Pierce um and they've been great because they have um a department that helps us find all these grants to work with them like that um and they actually have a grant guide basically the whole idea is they work with Jin and hope they can get the the work from it so um he actually wants to sit down with you Hogan Oak Hogan that what you just said no Hogan his last name is Hogan your eyes right up yeah that was like a big Christmas so the thing is the 600,000 yeah we're just going have to wait and so we're paying forward for six and seven the work for six and seven is done you're saying works for six and seven is done the engineering firm hasn't processed the bill we're just waiting on it's sitting in his email box because the the contractor also about it and and how long before the reimbursement comes he doesn't know well I mean you're asking the town to put their neck out and she said the thing we're taking if we're taking money from one to help the town already put their neck out that's the problem trying not to get it cut off thanks for listening I I'm I'm I'm serious here we take money out of free cash or whatever toay pay this bill and then something happens all right now we have to go out and borrow money so I think it's important that we know when this money is going to get paid if it's going to get paid it's it's going to get paid when if I had that I wouldn't be here asking for money's about a month yeah hopefully a month or so but the thing is if it takes that long for you guys to process then it's a mo point but we don't have enough free cash to do this anyway we're why don't we do this um Sarah knows more about it than we do anyway so we're kind of only giving you half of what we know can we touch base you don't have to come necessarily next week but can we just have an update next week as to if we receiv received any money if you've been able to speak with someone and gotten a date um and then we'll have a better idea a time and where this money's coming from we know where it's coming coming from the loan his own loan yeah the water department water department loan they're just waiting for it to be processed we got part of it processed but we're put we're not going we're going to wait and see we're going to wait and see that's what we're going to do right now because we were saying that're going to do anything it's don't have it it would bankrupt us and we I know like I said on that on that money too um when we got this they they instead of doing one of the rounds of arpa funding what they did is they went to everybody that got a loan and they divided it up however they do it and we ended up getting 450 back 450 or 350 I forgot 350 or 450 so what it is it's like loan forgiveness so even though it's like a 1.1 million loan they're going to be taking three or 400 plus, off the loan so yeah the principal so it won't be as much so you know which I hope it's the 450 I don't remember um I think it is 450 yeah so there was there's a loan that they applied for over a million dollars they started the project they're trying to get the documents in order so that they can start getting payments from that loan we're hoping that all the documents are in order and the payment reimbursements will start so that he can pay those bills so but for now we're going to put a pain in it with the work moving forward y until we start getting that money in y so elm's going to probably just finish up and then hopefully it comes in can you seriously if you want to talk to Elms we please get them to Christina's calls we've been trying to call um mat Benjamin Haynes um for project project manager for what do you want to do here um oh for this building we have the generator switch that needs to be installed she called Ripley do you know a Pete wak no okay that was helpful thank you I'll just call I'll just call Matt tomorrow and haven't give you I'm going to give you a call because he does he does all the all the pump house and the um everything we do okay he's a local switch and relay was engineered by somebody else foret that was some well I I said he's the guy that we usually use for everything here like I said it's the local contact we use so you know I mean if he doesn't know them he can and and he got you know salt marsh up there too he works he works down there okay and um he might be able to do to something there too all right we'll just wait to hear from you yes that's the gist of it and just make sure you relate to any of the contractors that we're we're going to pause on work well I talked to Bob and technically I'm supposed to go through Jim because of the whole thing but I've been talking to Bob because Jim is like out of commission right now so and he's from Bay State or no Bob is Bob Watson is Bay State a regional contract yeah so we just talked to Bob and then Bob related to him because we're we're you know that's fine as long as they know that yeah yeah yeah we the town is he already talked to him this afternoon so he's kind of he's kind of aware what's going on so if if you pause the project and then the money comes in and everything how how long does it take to restart to finish everything's pretty much all there yeah um chem chem the chem system we're using we're not doing like they did last time where everything's custom built we're getting like uh ABC skid systems you know what I mean yeah oh I like that let's buy that one it work yeah great it's cheaper too yeah okay because it's all preab pre-made they bring it it's they bring it in actually already made and just just hit it together yeah hit it together mount it to the wall turn it on and go so I mean we and a lot of the stuff we've we've prepped the rooms we we we we basically um had all the floors all done out of our our budgets we had everything cleaned up we got it all ready we moved everything out um so we save a little bit of money and time on that and it's just ready to go okay so yeah all right well just let us know next week where we're at okay yeah so yeah that's like six are you guys having a meeting on the six we'll meet so that's it yeah when that long pipe hook up to our house and probably to everybody else we put in we didn't pay for that the water department did that and they did it because they had to change where the water came into the house from the driveway side to the parsonage side so going to be replaced by you or am I going to have to do it I have no idea that's that your Road's a long way down the road I mean Russell's Russell stage is a 4in rotten line okay um this will be done first so we also had the LCR let you know the lead and copper line inventory which we just that was a whole another thing that took us a couple years and what what is your you know asking for pictures and going every's houses all that stuff so that got done we're hoping that they're going to have some funding come available for that um because what we want to do is um a lot of these houses that have older water lines we want to kind of try to get some extra funding to pay to have like those replaced out at the same time um and for some people who have like older rotten lines we can't do the whole thing at least do half of it and hopefully you know and cut the cost down for other people so I don't have to worry about this we don't have no you're you're you're a little down the road okay I mean there's a fire down here on Lower Russel how many times is that broken come on we all know a week a year yeah once a year the last 18 years so all right thank you Gordon all right Gord talk to you later I'll let you know next week or I'll let her know okay I'm sure I'll talk to you y all right um I just had a question on warrant number 13 is that the retro pay in there for Highway no because it says got it's got like $99,000 in there for Highway pay they worked overtime I think didn't they okay I think seems like a big chunk 9,562 I thought it would have been cuz nor like a normal pay period we've got did it sell it I mean there was some stuff wages high oh never mind wages highway is 9,000 okay I guess that's normal never mind it's normal to the extent that there was a couple conditions that the crews had to be called out and it was overtime and plus holidays okay thank you um so motion to approve um warrants uh 14 payroll 14 um select board accounts and 13 uh payable for approval uh is there a second second uh any discussion all in favor I I all right um and then we have the you signed wait you signed this one already he needs to sign that one um we have the contract y with the the Union contract yep um so everyone is on the same page finally there so motion to approve the union um United Public Services employees union local 424m contract second any discussion all in favor hi hi um my my only question was it talks about the um the goal of being established and it says by Highway super and by um the select board so when are those goals do we want rainy work can the gools are we going to wait for a new highway um I think rainy should until K we can make up some kind of a chart yeah we can follow it and then you can pass it on they already have them they have their individual goals rainy you have individual goals for all the guys uh well yeah actually uh okay we've been expanding upon it within the last two weeks quite a bit okay all right and then so you so in the contract it says that you are um or the superintendent is evaluating them quarterly and then that will be um go into their Merit based pay uh correct but I'm also I was going to talk to Christine I have not talked to her yet um but I do want to revamp that um the the oh my God can't think of the proper words but anyways the paperwork that's the supposedly reviewing them is not really that good for the town of blanford you mean you want like a new form I haven't seen it we can I can it's it's so it's so generic it really doesn't apply to all the circumstances that's due in the highway department especially being that you have Volunteer Fire people yeah um and there's there's a number of things that I think are supposed to be a little bit more specialized for the town of blanford yeah we can do that that's not a problem yeah I I and again I I I just started reviewing it and I wanted to bring it to Christine to make some suggestions okay thank you all right new business we have the furog collective Highway bids yeah this just came in I you guys don't have to sign I wanted to give it to you so you have a week to look it over I don't know what it normally looks like for you guys so I wanted you to see it we have until January 17th to sign it and submit it uh Rainey has it too okay um so if you guys just want to take the week and we can talk about it next Monday did you um email me a copy or do you want me to I think you have a copy you don't have a copy we didn't get okay excuse me oh jeez I put it in an email for you and didn't send that's okay no it's that okay how do you get your work done if I don't send you the email that's all right I got it right here here you go I advocate for myself um all right the IRS calendar year 2025 gas reimbursement rate 70 cents okay that's what we in um all right I think we're good Mary um what is probably the most significant change in the contact Department not really you I would say probably that we're going to a merit based P system right yeah I really didn't see any major changes no honestly there's not it's a merit based pay system and um they have like goals that they have to meet in order to progress in a different pay structure based on your licensing what you have for license and we weren't Merit based before no ma'am okay I will send an email out about the rate increase to all the thank you I appreciate all right um we are going to go ahead and adjourn that at 6:40 one thank you Mary I signed um Jackie Curry is gonna come to the um conference in Boston with me yeah so I signed as close up for the Women's Dinner are you doing lunch din oh you're not going okay that's okay I just wanted to see if I would see you there so we will um I can't find women's the women's the women's dinner and then we're GNA stay and do the