good evening and welcome to this March 14 2024 meeting of the finance committee like to call this meeting to order uh tonight will'll be following the published and posted agenda and first on our agenda this evening is approval of minutes we have two sets one from September 28th and one from February 15th do I have a motion on the September 28th motion to approve the SE the September 28th minutes second it discussion none all those in favor I I Kathy are you voting I'm abstaining I wasn't there at the September 28th meeting September oh February 28th I'm voting yes September voting abstained uh there's a February 15th and September 28th so on on the motion on the table September 28th abstain okay thank you all right do I have a motion on February 15th motion to approve the February 15th uh minutes second any discussion all those in favor I I I I I abstain for me abstain David David abstained all right moving right along we have a review of the fiscal year 25 budget for the Cemetary commission and with us this evening we have our Cemetary superintendent David Bole evening David good evening everybody nice to see you all once again um as far as my fy2 budget this year um basically there's not a not not a lot of change um the change you do see is uh in the in the salary end of things is basically a little bit of an increase $3,000 for um for overtime and what I'm seeing in and what we're running into um regularly now is later funeral they're coming in later and also also in part uh due to the newspaper being closed sat you know they close Friday afternoon they don't reopen until Monday morning so a lot of stuff gets pushed off so that that's the reason for that there um other than that on the expense side um gasoline maintenance of uh those vehicle maintenance and then the other would be ground maintenance um what I ran into this year was uh starting back in September when right at Labor Day weekend we had that we had kind of that I'd call like straight line storms and stuff and Pine Ridge fourfathers harond this area here we all got hit hard we get all those cemetaries got hit hard so between September 1st and the end of the year I spent about $112,000 in tree work that needed to be done um so just a slight increase on that but and and the only other thing would be um in the outlay uh $55,000 and that's an increase for the continuance of the rod iron fence project and the reason for that is that the company that was doing it he's retied and I now have um I have mass core uh that's going to step in and take over the project and they're a little bit more money but but other than that you know it's just the it's the usual steps um on the Personnel side and so forth okay um we did as of SE as of March 1st we've increased pricing slightly we do it every couple of years it's $50 $25 but we did increase uh increase the fees and also with the late um with the late funerals coming in I I increased the uh the overtime the overtime fees coming in to to make up for that difference so any questions none all right David thank you very much thank you Dave all right moving right along we review the fiscal year 25 budget for the Council on Aging and Senior Center and with this this evening we have the Human Services director Deborah serani hello everybody nice to see you thanks for having me thanks for we don't have anything very oh thanks so um we don't have anything to remarkable for our increases we just have uh some longevity we have some folks who've been with us for longer so our longevity line uh on the personnel has gone up I think that's a wonderful thing though because I great people so we're happy to keep them we also um switched our transportation manager coordinator to the general fund and moved the full-time driver position off of the general fund because of the transportation coordinator is the the supervisor and so it it was made more sense to have the supervisor able to get step increases where our grant funded folks don't um necessarily only if I can make more money so um that's why we have the transportation coordinator on instead of the full-time driver now and we're paying for the both well hopefully fulltime driver out of there um the for Grant or a few part-time drivers so that's the Personnel side and then the expenses we just we had some significant redu reductions in um electricity and gas cost thank goodness we have our solar panels really working hard for us and that's been great some um some Energy Efficiency planning I think helped with that on the town side so we've seen some decreases on that side so we were able to use the money saved uh on those line items to help us with our building maintenance our water bills that went up and our vehicle maintenance because of older vehicles um so nothing really remarkable only uh 3,500 more for the whole year in expenses so um that's good thank you any questions I did um I talked to Darlene just because a lot of the money that flows through the senior center is um doesn't go through this budget but goes through various uh other funding mechanism and she tracks them all and they're all doing well except for we put a little more money in the budget for Meals on Wheels is that correct because there you're graciously I guess Paul let you put a little extra money in there yes and that that's everybody knows how much uh uh grocery bills go up and our packaging in our um mileage reimbursements and stuff so um yes that that's very helpful you're also funding a partial um maintenance person as well in the budget but that's com we finally did get an increase in the formula grant from the state money which is grant money that every Council on Aging gets depending on how many what the population of their town is it's over 60 and so because they finally caught up with the 2020 census numbers we got an increase in our formula grant and because we were getting it according to the 2010 census numbers from from the last uh let's see 13 years so uh we finally that finally caught up and so I was able to switch um hire a part-time maintenance person that I've been asking for for quite a while from the town I said well I can pay for it now out of my formula grant so that's a 19-hour position and we're able to help support the DPW and Facilities uh Pro um departments so that's something different you know most of your support comes from B DPW right and Facilities yes okay yeah they they take care of the bigger things like uh like plumbing and electricity and and larger items and now I can have someone take care of smaller uh maintenance items around the building under the formula grant so that's that takes some pressure off of them good all right anybody El other questions all right thanks Deb appreciate it thank you so much for your time and your support nice job Dave thanks for all you do all right moving right right along in our agenda we have a review of the fisc Year 25 budget for the DBW storm water sewer Solid Waste Recycling and facilities and with us this evening we have the director Christine Clancy good evening I do have some handouts of this presentation I can pass it along going make it easy what she doesn't know is I don't have a shower I'll wait till everyone has a copy of it and there might be some extra for the audence too I think 10 or 15 of them um we'll get one down to you too P I say does Kathy have it online um everybody get one Kathy you should have a copy of this emailed that earlier anybody out there da da is anyone else want toop hold on hold on Sam needs one everyone all right I thought you wanted to look on with me I do have I do have copies of what you sent me excellent thanks Kathy no that's okay thank you uh so I did meet a little almost two weeks ago with Cindy and Sam and thank you for coming down to the DPW to review the DPW budget um and the dpws comprised of many uh departments and divisions can you hear me okay is that good we better okay um there there it's perfect now uh so I do I did I felt it necessary to put together a presentation just because there's so many uh divisions or areas in the budget um and just to show we do have some increases but we have very good reasons for some of those increases um next slide please so this is when we prepare the budget we really look at these categories here admitted engineering Highway snow and ice public trees waste and recycling collections facilities public buildings and Parks uh Street lighting sewer Enterprise and so sewer and storm water are their own Enterprises um this is how the budget has been prepared in previous years so I think it's really helpful to see how uh you know going moving forward each year um the changes that take place next slide please uh with this budget we do maintain a level of service um there are are increases needed to maintain that level of service uh just to go over some quick numbers so in terms of just the DPW that's really made up of the um admin engineering solid waste recycling $9.2 million it's about a five just under a 5% increase from last year uh facilities is 2.6 million and that's actually 18% increase but we will go over the reasons for these increases um because part of it is there's been shifting um shifting between divisions or even in other departments in the town and then we'll talk about the sewer and stormwater Enterprise fund so sewer Enterprise is $6.1 million at 8 8.7 increase um and then storm water 1.9 million a 2 point just under 2.6 um% increase so in total even though there we have two Enterprises total we're looking at night just under a $20 million budget a 7.35% increase from last year and I will in the following slides go over in detail all of those increased needs next slide please perfect thank you uh so the first category is admin and Engineering this division um what we have here is to Total increased 20% increase which seems like uh it is it is a large number but the reasons for that really is in the um in the Personnel uh the salaries what we did is we reallocated a salary from the sewer Enterprise fund into engineering uh we have historically we have a trench inspector that I think was established when we were building out the town for sewer um now we you know we do a well beyond we don't we're not installing as much sewer right now we're at sewer capacity but we still have a a trench uh trench and permits that come through the the town so we do a lot of anyone that's digging in the in you know whether it be a water service or electrical anything that requires a trench we're out there doing inspections um so we really felt it necessary to reallocate that into the engineering budget so it doesn't really so when you see the increase at 20% it's really reallocation from the sewer into the engineering um also there is a CH a change worth noting is we did add a line on line item under expenses Professional Services for $115,000 and this really is to uh help assist with some of the Professional Services needs really for surveying assistance um especially when we have have to do some Street acceptances going looking at our Paving plan there are times where we have streets that weren't uh weren't accepted for various reasons one that we're actually looking at this year we're Paving parkur this year and parkur is surprisingly not accepted so we want to move forward with that and that is a requires a um really rigorous surveying effort that is beyond um beyond the ability or they don't have the time um are there any questions with I guess I'll if there any questions I can wait till questions at the end but I could also go division by division all set thank you um so highway now Highway this is snow and ice is a separate budget but all of our Highway um you know very busy uh with this is Department of about 18 staff members uh 6.5 6.45% overall increase um I would say there's minor Staffing adjustments and this speaks really the overall salary adjustments um I know our town manager Cohen spoke um at a recent select board meeting how there was overall salary assessment and so there were some minor adjustments so really minor um adjustments really across all categories uh but in highway there were a couple um changes that were proposing to make not I wouldn't call it reorganization it was just some adjustments um and then really the other large adjustment in this highway division for next year's budget is uh we have the annual um operating expens for 54 Richardson Road the P remediation system um this year I know we had you know we had we have a lot more work going on right now because we have to do an more exploratory work but moving forward for next year the anticipated operating expenses $170,000 and that really is to kind of keep them system we have to do quarterly sampling we have to do monthly reports to D um we have to do weekly check-ins on the on the system as well as there sometimes some of the media has to be has to be uh swapped out out so that is um that will be carried moving forward in the highway expense or Highway budget are there any questions on Highway any questions no uh director Clancy do we do the REM remediation annual um you know the $170,000 annual operating expense do we do it ourselves or do we hire out for that so right now we're hiring a consultant and we really have to have it under the direction of LSP so we hire a consultant we're Contracting Weston and S um we did talk about maybe moving forward uh we could maybe get some training to have the weekly check-in so we still would always have some number in here um but potentially having some of that offloaded from consultant as we moved down line right now the system is still new there're still you know we're still kind of in a and it's new we want to make sure we work out um everything that's and it has been working well um but I think at in the following Year's budget I am going to propose potentially having some internal training okay thank you so snow and ice um that is level funded fortunately we didn't need as much as this year we're um but we so but I you never know what type of winter you're going to have um so you know previously we've carried a $1.15 million budget so I'm Pro proposing that moving forward um we have I guess in because we've had some um lighter uh Seasons we have been able to really expand the brining system so just last winter we just we pil piloted it this year we had now four trucks um we're having a truck that we've now we I think it was in the capital budget two years ago but we're finally receiving it this month um so we'll be able to use it next winter that will be ready for brining and then we're just one more truck that we're purchasing or really a tank for a truck so we'll be by next winter we should be ready ready to do the entire town uh this year we did about 75% of the Town including uh parking lots and that's really ahead of it's really a pre-treatment option we are seeing some savings um and really just it's efficient um and you know using less salt questions all right the next category category that we track is public trees um so in previous years you know if you look at the annual amount spent um 75 actually I just realized and here the uh fiscal year but the 75,000 was it what was uh spent last year and what was budgeted last year um we're actually right now this year projecting to have a little bit of overrun so uh we are looking at moving forward carrying $9,000 part of that has you know we I have a picture here from that Micro Burst that happened in September so sometimes we have when we have storms that's a larger effort that was part of the reason why we're we're running um over budget this year um we do have an annual contract now mayor tree services was last year they're just recently awarded the contract moving forward um and so we're able to use them as needed uh you know we do have assistance from the highway department but we really do need the assistance of an on call um tree contractor and we also use these funds for um an arborist to assess some trees as needed um trees within the right of way or town property um and then also if we have an opportunity for tree planting fortunately we've looked at some other ways to do tree planting National Grid um and or um maybe incorporating into projects but also we look to see if we can incorporate trees uh this last fall we did 10 trees in town and then last uh spring and this a picture here uh 18 trees at the Town common so we're looking to do maybe another 10 or 15 and that's planted by DPW in coordination with the tree committee any questions solid waste and recycling collection overall is just under a 5% increase we are now in our seconde contract with EO harvy of a 5-year contract um as part of that 5-year contract we see a 1.93% increase of $46,000 increase we also in terms of the actual disposal um we see a 2.5% or $150,000 increase and that's really the Tipping fees at covanta um go from 97.3 a ton to9 9.77 a ton um I mean this is a category that you know other municipalities are struggling with I think we're fortunate right now that we're in a five-year contract um just as a reminder we do have now a Cher recycle app I really encourage everyone to have it if you don't it is a great way to receive um notifications about this program can you just I'm sorry can you just explain what the Tipping fee is so that's the so the the contract that we have at EO Harvey is is to collect all the trash and recycling even they have you know B bulk items that they get the the one a month the Tipping fee is the cost to actual actually dispose it so eel Harvey brings it to cavant the cost for cavant to to Really they burn it is is that tipping fee okay thank you other questions just a comment I mean the the contract for five years is very you know I think done a real good job whoever whoever did that contract you were fortunate to have a five-year contract right now the prices are today's environment definitely all right moving on Municipal facilities uh what we're showing here is the overall 18% increase and really this is uh mostly associated with staff I call I do call it mini reorganization um working with the library that Mike herodan recently retired he was the facilities um coordinator at the library he recently retired um that need has come over to the DPW um and so that is part of the reason we're we're still um finding we still working on his exact replacement but that is worked into the budget for next year uh also in that we did some minor reorganization in the facilities group where there was a foreman um really um doing a lot between the operating part of the the job and also capital projects so we made him an operations manager and then this other position that we're moving over from the library really becomes focused on procurement of projects and in that we took another position within and um made it a summon of form and so there was some internal promotion and then bringing that person over uh from uh really from the library uh so in total there isn't really a too much of an townwide there is an ad but you see I guess an add into facilities um and then it's also some adjustments in the part-time expenses or or seasonal um just because based on um on previous needs and uh the needs at the parks uh and also overtime overtime just because of all the festivals and needs that and and other uh work order needs that has also gone up a little bit um some other uh more under the expenses um this some noteworthy increase Ines vehicle repair repairs um we a lot of the vehicles that the facilities department has are aged or aging very you know they they were kind of hand-me-downs from other divisions um so we're seeing an increase in in uh some of the vehicle repair repairs uh fortunately there is at least one that's going before for Capital replacement um Grounds Maintenance increase so for Fields maintenance when we put out those contracts we are seeing a bit of an increase and I think that's just typical to Industry standards increases that we're seeing uh solar maintenance increase so this is the year we're starting to see uptick in our cost to maintain solar we're in basically going to year 10 so estimated lifespan of 20 years we're halfway through so this is when we start to see an uptick in expenses um and then just there wasn't a training budget item I don't know but you know we we do promote training at DPW and just wanted to make sure we have that carried in this budget in this division itself are there any questions what was the contract Service the new item uh oh Contract Services oh 40 sorry sorry I did not put so that we put in there to sorry I did not highlight that Contract Services similar to The Professional Services that we have in the engineering budget we added that line item in here as well we didn't really have a line item for Contract Services a lot of that is to do with abatement um when we do any type of abatement as part of a project that's where we have to have hire that out so most of that goes to a batement and that's based on uh we we projected that number based on what we're using each year really for those Contract Services where was that land and carried previously previously that was uh carried between um Building Maintenance typically and sometimes it was also carried in projects itself as well okay where is the um overtime tracking this year we're budgeted for 31,000 38,000 we're budgeted for no no for fiscal year 20 oh no FIS year 24 we budgeted 31 according to this chart and then you're the the ask for fiscal year 25 is 38 and that's the increases you explained for more festivals and stuff like that I'm just wondering where that where the actual is tracking right now the previous year was 427 780 so the 30 right so 42 we're we're going to probably track closer to the 38,000 okay okay so that that number is based upon anticipation of actual okay any other questions so public buildings is really within um within facilities but it has been carried before in previous budgets this just to show really minor increases 2.7 2.74% um really the changes are in the expenses category just some copier fee increases very minor um and then cleaning contract we you know this building DPW we have a cleaning contract annually that we push out um and we anticip so we have seen some increases and we anticipate that moving forward so I think what you can see here is yeah 42,000 so we had budgeted FY 23 uh 42 and that's based on what the current contract is not much of a difference no no any questions so for Parks it looks like there was a significant decrease but this is really part I guess I so I should have clarified in the parks that 18% for the um facilities that Park person was reallocated into the facilities budget so that's one more staff so again a net there's really no change in the number of staff at DPW it's just the way reorganize and where categories fall so here it looks like a 66% decrease but it's really because that we put that person so they really truly we we started aligning it last year but we wanted to really make this switch here this year in the budget um and that really is the change there's it there's I mean it Parks is really one person but it's really not it's really part of facility so we wanted to combine them as it's not just one person it's it's an effort um but our one person Brian scas does do a lot um Town common and then our facilities they maintain a lot of the you know the the fields so um combining them was made sense would you consider moving this these expenses into facilities over you always keep them separate you think I'm just uh so we probably should show it I think it just as a we can continue in category um we yeah we can do that we just focus on the salary but we can definitely do that in next year's because I think they that's the thing as far as like diesel fuel we don't track for that one vehicle it would all go should all go under facilities it's just the way that they've been tagged for pre for previous years that make sense yes we don't have a true parks department in our town yeah form the facilities combin school they wanted to track what was the allocated historically so that's why it was why is facilities outside of dpw's budget it was because of that sensitivity was that kind of work the combined facility but so far now that we should probably do yes yes yeah so we that's a good comment because we were so focused on the salary but they're all track and so like example uh equip vehicle maintenance that really to carry and track $33,000 that could be folded into the facilities line item yeah just save some time from like an allocation and worrying about what goes where sure and it all rolls up to our facilities manager Matt uh swier so he's the one that manages it any other questions Street lighting is tracked annually um level funded uh estimated budget 92,000 uh if you look at the actuals for FY 23 82,000 we did put a little bit more just because we're starting to see a little bit more needs um also there's um some of this work you know because facilities is so busy some of this work is done in overtime so that's where some of the overtime could potentially also fall under this line line item um we are tracking this because we you know within the next 5 to 10 years we're looking at led townwide up Replacements and the ones that were installed in 2014 only last so long so we're waiting to see that more significant uptick we're we're not seeing it yet um we're we probably have five or 10 years left but we want to we don't want to say oh next year we have to replace it we want to plan for it so I'm just waiting for a slight uptick and then we'll start program programming that out whether it be three four five or five years will there be a phase introduction and and switching out yes yeah we I I don't think we'll do everything one year we'll phase it I I haven't planned out the phasing but my guess is it will be phasing and I mean from suppliers I guess there'll also be a look as to whether or not this a cost Savings of doing more rather than less yeah that all has to be [Applause] evaluated so that concludes everything but the two Enterprise funds um so SE division you know they self uh funded um overall 8.76% increase in terms of salaries there's really um actually a dedu deduction in salary that's B and that's partial because of that sewer um trench inspector employee that we moved into engineering there were also there a retirement there were some changes there um but really minor changes in terms of the Personnel Services um in terms of expenses is that's where the increases come into play and so uh I had presented last year a 10-year uh Capital Improvement plan for both our pump stations how we're you know finalizing the last of our pump stations and also doing some forc main assessments we have had you know with I know going back a few years the southwell Force main break we actually just this year had a progress a wasn't a significant but progress a so we have to really even though our forest means aren't that old they're only 35 years old they should last 70 plus years or 50 plus at least but 70 I hope um we're seeing areas where we need to have them inspected and plan for potentially replacement um so that Contract Services line item uh is you know is quite a big number for next year $649,000 um and that's based on that 10-year plan um also we just received our bill from L um you know we had a very um our sewer Capac capacity from last year is up I think it's just under 15% we're at Capac you know we're and it's and that is indicative of the um the rainy season we're seeing infiltration inflow on our system we have the inflow program we are finding we have a program to remove some infiltration or just have arpa approval for smoke testing in the Littleton Road area so we're going to find it but our as our rates are up also low has a lot of work going on so their rates went up um so that we're anticipating a $200,000 increase for next year if we look at the same capacity and the rates um and then Debt Service also adjustments there that is uh next we have already we're working on the design for Kensington that's partially funded through the aror program um the balance of that would be the $655,000 for Kensington and then also the purchase of a flush truck for $350,000 the old flush truck is actually going to go to and I'll talk to storm water um they don't have one we need one for storm water um and they don't have one that's really sufficient for what they need and so we would get a new INF for sewer which they're they're due for one as well are there any questions I'm trying to think if I missed uh yes grinder pump maintenance also sorry okay yeah that uh thank you director Clancy that was going to be my question does the grinder pump line item does that include pump replacement when they fail yes uh so well uh yes so we're we are seeing some more pumps needed to be replaced annually so I think we and I want to say was we had put in for another like 5 to 10 Replacements we're starting to see a small uptick in Replacements and and approximately how many do you replace annually just rough I have to check that number but if it was I can do the rough rough guess is fine 150 probably 25 to 30 a year I'd say 20 to 30 and we're seeing like five five plus more okay so that line item includes ongoing maintenance and replac thank you was there any any Buy in or some Buy in to the uh to the program regarding uh infiltration we're just actually starting and so we did a whole pre-inspection program so we sent out many mailings um we had 180 people call some people called and weren't really they just say I don't know what this is but I want to be on the list so we went through that list and we're down to about 70 people where we're going through and doing the INSP CS um so we're we're in we'll probably have an update in the next month and that's part of that infiltration program that you discussed that's part of the inflow removal floor removal yeah um but yes that I think I think we'll find some infiltration um but it's going to take we there's I think we have to look at the smoke testing the other things we're looking at as well when is the smoke testing set to begin uh sometime this summer we don't have a contract out yet uh let's see and then the only other is outlay that's we carry $100,000 and that's really for another truck replacement okay but it's not it's not we actually carried that last year we're carrying it this year as well any other questions on sewer so storm water is our newest division that is Enterprise division uh overall two and a half or just over two and a half % increase um the reasons for increasing I mean the really the equipment repair uh that SL slight increase increase in Contract Services for increased catch basing cleaning disposals we have a we still have a volume of um catch Bas and debris removal at Swain Road so we're trying to make just clean that up and have a lot of that um even from previous years disposed of um and we're also just we're our fre our n the amount of volume we're taking out of uh catch Basin has increased and the cost of disposal has increased um so that's projected um 990,000 last year looking at $150,000 for this coming year there is overall increase in maintenance and drainage project needs um so that's why we are also carrying you know in terms of major projects we had $100,000 last year estimating 160 this year it could honestly this is one of our busiest divisions right now because of the you know the unfortunate the the weather that we're experiencing we're very fortunate that the arper program has funded a lot of drainage projects um but beyond that there's still a lot of needs and so that's why we we kept we actually inflated the number from 100,000 to 160,000 um and then Debt Service so Debt Service does come down um but it actually we did the reason why I guess it still went up a little bit or from last year it was uh 294 it goes up to yeah sorry Debt Service was 318 it goes down to 230 have actually been lower but what we're looking to purchase is a camera truck so the flush truck will come from sewer they'll they'll use that it'll be their own storm water flush truck um and then the camera truck will be a new truck and that's really again needed based on the needing to inspect um some of the infrastructure is that the sole purpose of the truck can it be repurposed to do other things for you or it's really just going to be a camera truck I would say um I mean there is some Flushing it's really a camera truck uh right now actually we have a an area Hugo Lane where we're trying to investigate a pipe and we actually contracted the services out so if you contract it out just to inspect a section can cost $3 $5,000 or rental for a day there's so many times where we need it so they'll they'll use that truck for the next you know 15 years it will get well used thank you a lot of the funding for arpa was for one time projects on this correct m is there a concern that there'll be additional projects that aren't going to be covered once our funds dry up so we're I guess we potentially but also I think a lot of that will come through the II program so I think sometimes the so there are some drainage flooding Pro flooding needs we can look at grant opportunities so I guess we have we'll have to explore how we fund some of those projects but I think some of the drainage infrastructure some of the needs that we have if we are doing inflow removal programs and we find okay we have to catch pick up these five some pumps it might make sense for us to install the drain line on that street to be able to re to get that capacity that could potentially be tapped into sewer because you're taking you're going to it's actually very valuable to reallocate that flow from the sewer to the storm drain so between res you know any reserves that we have for storm water or potentially sewer there has to be a inflow or INF inflow reduction really so um we're right now we're so we're just so inundated with the current projects that we're just focused on that we have a master plan we have 325 coverts so there's so many needs so there's always needs we just have to prioritize it look for grant opportunities um and potentially you know for sewer if there's a value to removing that in inflow from the system which I think there is other questions any other questions well thank you thank you for taking the time to the budget thank you very much all right moving right along we have a review of the fiscal year 25 budget for public education government access television Sam sir I know Peter talked about uh presenting I don't know if he's actually no um ah he indicated that uh unless we felt that we wanted him he would rather not oh okay so that's fine let me pull the budget I know you met with him I did and it's very straightforward um have you got it up there yep okay um I did me I did meet with Pete and we went over the uh uh particulars of the budget uh for those who don't know Peg stands for public education government okay so this is the local cable TV access um recently they have been uh broadcasting uh or they have been uploading all of their uh programs to YouTube so if you don't have access over your uh TV set you can watch these things on YouTube just by Googling them so that's very convenient and the quality is very good um the uh actual budget is not a function of funding from the town tax levy the budget is funded based on a fee or a charge that is on your cable bill and depending upon your actual cable bill the percentage charge varies between 2 and a half to 3% that's what you would see and it should be a line item on your bill you ought to be able to look at that and validate it so that's where the funding comes from the budget itself I mean there are no showstoppers here um the only thing I uh would call out to people who um have I used to looking at these budgets from a historical standpoint and it's true of all the budgets that you're seeing the paid time offline item starting in fiscal uh 24 has been uh discontinued and and that allocation is moved up to the salary line item so that's why those numbers appear uh substantially larger if you look at fiscal 23 to 24 and then ongoing you'll see quite a jump so that's just a shift uh of the uh presentation from an accounting standpoint they still have to uh make keep those as separate entries but for a b budget presentation standpoint that's what you see um uh there are no uh um changes in the Personnel at all so these are fairly uh normal um increases that you see in the salary line items due to step and and so forth um on the expenses um really again uh actually uh you're looking at a a decrease year over-ear so you really don't have to be terribly concerned about that um one of the things that uh Pete likes to point out is that uh he budgets very conservatively and I think you can see that year-over-year and he and uh they have accumulated a uh a surplus fund similar to our free cash and that is now running close to uh $500 million uh that he has excuse me did I say 500 500 million that's quite the budget I was I was looking at the federal budget earlier so get confused uh let me correct myself I'm I'm sorry five 500,000 if Pete if Pete's watching he just had a heart attack maybe you should have been here Pete I don't know I I almost had a heart attack last time you was that that's it that's it that's it I can't do this um so anyway five uh 500,000 and uh he just would like to note that he will be making a request for transfer of funds out of free cash at some point uh they have to replace uh some uh equipment uh computer equipment servers and stuff uh but other than that there are no showstoppers and uh if you have any questions I'll be happy to answer them if I can't answer them I will uh reach out to Pete reach out to Pete and get the answer pretty good budget yes I don't have any questions on it no questions all right thank you Sam you're welcome good job thank you well except for the 500 million so close I know all right next on our next on our agenda this evening we have a review of the fiscal year 25 budget uh actually um Regina wasn't able to be here this evening she'll be here uh next week so we move right along to the fisc year 25 budget for the library with us this evening director Leslie Kimble good evening good evening everybody pull up your presentation pres is one book hey thank you thank you so we hope thank you thank you Cathy you're not getting your book because you're not here in person I want the book I want the book I'm going to swing back by the library save me a copy don't worry I got a copy for you no problems at all our resident our resident book person doesn't get her book I no I should have given one to you the other day I didn't realize you weren't going to be here um so absolutely thank you to Cindy and Kathy for coming by the library we had a great conversation um and being able to go through the budget um so as you can see as I said um one book 20124 is here Peter Swanson is a um connected to chelsford uh his family lives here and uh we're really excited that he's going to be able to come this is a mystery thriller um I was talking to one person in the library the other day and and he said he said my wife told me I had to read it and it was the best book I read all year so we're very very excited about it um and the author is coming on April 28th and we have lots of other great programming happening um about mystery writing and uh all that stuff coming up so we hope to see you at the library for some of those those events next slide I'm going to start with all the fun stuff so um we've had a great year uh at the library it's really been a very exciting year lots of new things happening um we started to do these Fixit clinics where people come and volunteers from the town who are really really good at stuff um teach other people how to become really really good at that stuff you can see there was some bike repair going on um we had people learning how to solder everything that that you could imagine so this is the example an example of a lot of the community programming that we're trying to do really bringing people together uh to learn things together to discover things to have conversations I think you know over the past few years we all know uh how isolating uh the situation has been for a lot of people and the library is just a great place for people to start to come together again and make those connections with uh neighbors friends um and people they just don't know uh we also finished up our um we had an AARP grant for the tals tales and trails project um and we put up uh several little free libraries around town this one um is at croll pasture being visited by a dinosaur uh as dinosaurs love little free libraries um but these are exciting they're filled with indigenous um books by indigenous authors um about indigenous uh life here in our particular area uh one interesting thing you may have seen on the rail trail over by uh Gristmill we had put a a little Free Library there and unfortunately got vandalized uh which can happen a wonderful local um man Mel shillo who is a welder retired welder uh called us up and said what would you think about me replacing it with a steel library and so he made us a steel Library um to put there believe me it has not been vandalized um and it got painted by one of our very talented staff members so that you would not know that it was made of steel um but it's great so we're excited about those and really really big news we're thrilled that um the McKay Branch reopened this uh past year it's been really fun doing a refresh inside of course it got its entire new air filtration system which was uh what it needed in order to get those doors back open huge thanks to the DPW um for everything they did to get that project done um and we got through our 21 week lead time on the equipment that was fun uh and it we got it reopened the numbers for visits um are already where they were before uh the pandemic and we're not quite open as many hours as we were before the pandemic so we're really really pleased at um how the neighborhood has come back out uh of course we'll have summer concerts as usual July and August so uh again this is a place where we're looking to bring that neighborhood really together a nice Central spot where people can uh just enjoy it's such a beautiful old house and makes just such a uh Charming Charming Library so we're doing some programming there and we're going to have outdoor movies again this fall so September and October we'll see you outside at M and of course the popup Library um we had just saw a huge increase um in the popup usage we were able to increase our stops uh as well as serve just a lot more people um we we were up 80% for borrowed items with the popup this past year um and served uh 2,000 people which was a 60% increase over what what we did the year before so we feel like people are really looking forward to it looking for it to come we're actually getting more requests now than we can fill um people who get in touch with us and say hey can you come um we are going to be at the touch of truck I don't I think Christine's gone the touch of truck that DPW is doing um on May 18th I believe so uh we were excited to be invited to that so we'll be over there for Touch a Truck which will be great uh so you can see I mean as I said we just really had just a wonderful year we have so much support in the community um and it's just been so active we see people coming through our doors our numbers are up I know a lot of libraries and a lot of other organizations you know going through those um deep pandemic years have not seen that kind of recovery yet coming out of it but we really are um and and just seeing going Beyond where we were before so we feel like we're on a really good good track um we're adding a lot of value to the community's services um and it's really fun it's great so we actually have a budget after all that fun stuff um the things that uh impact our budget are the the same things as you would probably expect two of the things are our very direct Patron service which is our programs and events um and our books and other circulating items programs and events um costs for for programs um we've had the same uh budget for programs for a couple of years costs um fiscal year 23 over fiscal year 22 we're up 40% that's for people coming um and presenting as well as the other connections we are doing some Partnerships with three other local libraries so that we're doing cost sharing with them which is working out very very well for us and then we're so grateful to our friends of the library you may have heard that they raised about $30,000 just at their Book Sales in this past year um and this year in FY 24 they'll be giving us about $40,000 that we don't need to come to the town to ask for um we do have a couple of uh requirements that we need to meet in order to receive the state aid grant so our books and materials other circulating items is one of those things that we always make sure that we're coming in in order to be able to meet that and uh our request for that does meet that we do meet that in part with outside funding sources so um the money we receive from the town we supplement that in order to reach um the level we need to to get state aid um and so the another requirement that we do need to meet is that uh we take the last the average of the last three years Municipal Appropriations and our budget needs to increase 2 and a half% over that three-year average which this budget that we are presenting does do so our level service um request is a 2.4 4% increase which falls into line um with inflation which is truly the biggest budget driver I think for for everybody um yeah I'm happy to answer any questions thank you any questions no questions I don't think so Leslie thank you very much thank you to the trustees uh and the audience a nice job moving right along we have a review of the fiscal year 25 budget for the finance department which includes accounting assessors Information Technology Treasury and collection with us this evening is our finance director John soua this is this one we got a rip [Laughter] a be right take a look I will I will yeah good evening Mr chairman finance committee members um so this evening I like to walk you through the finance uh Department budget for the four divisions that make up the finance department um I will say last week I had an opportunity to meet virtually with Anita and Cindy and we went through the budget in detail so in the the first page the introductory it gives you the um some of the main some of the main functions that we with that each of these divisions handles and then the next page has some goals coming up for the upcoming fiscal year and then the next page shows you a staffing summary by each division and um just to highlight so for the upcoming year fiscal year 25 uh the this budget is um proposed to operate with the same level U of of full-time equivalent employees you see that we've had for the past several years 14.4 FTE and then from there we get right into the line item budget so we'll just start we'll go through each of these offices so for the treasurer collector's office uh you'll see that the um the Personnel budget is increasing uh just under 24,000 that's just under about a 6% increase the um that covers steps and um cost of living increase with the uh overall town uh Personnel uh plan and and uh upgrade to the classification system for that has occurred for all departments and um I will say that um we've had a little bit of transition in the office um our longtime assistant collector departed to uh become a treasur collector in another nearby community uh we're pleased that um we a longtime employee in the office Lauren howerin has been promoted to assistant collector and we just hired a new treasury clerk Cassandra Merill to um to fill that vacancy so uh we have some new staff I'm very confident in what their abilities um in the expense budget uh you see the expense budget increases about 5,600 the main reasons for that are in the contract Services line there's an increase there to cover the um we have an a um support contract from for munus for our financial software and then also in the post line uh an increase of 2,000 as many of you know uh the Postal Service inflation has even affected the postal service so a lot of our material by state law still has to be mailed out so um that's that will be to cover those increases in in postage fees and and that's just a covered regular postage correct John right that covers um mailing of the four quarterly bills um under state law we're still required to mail them out physically however if a resident we do have a program with our online system a resident can choose or any taxpayer can choose to opt out and and receive electronic billing but they have to make that decision to opt out and how would they do that they would go through um the city H we have a online system through the on the on the um to website it's called City Hall systems and they can select electronic um Bill you know Bill delivery um and I and also I believe they have to do that in conjunction with they pay their bills online as well so it works better that way in conjunction okay so John so if we didn't approve the postage you wouldn't be able to knew yeah I I can see you scheming over there yeah just a thought well that took the room to a yes and actually I should say this actually covers um in addition this covers a lot of department mealing so it would not only affect me but it affect some other departments as well so they wouldn't be too happy with me but that is a good thought well in Italy they don't send out your tax bill the individual's responsible to go and pay it and if you forget then they charge you penalties really yeah so that's how they save on tax dollar actually a scheme to get more money money maker yeah and I'm sure they're looking for cash too right yep so maybe we were on to [Laughter] something so then our next office is information technology so you may recall this is a two twers Department um you'll see the the Personnel budget increases a little over 10,000 or just under 4% um and in the expense area it uh there's a small increase of like $500 I will say that you'll see a new line item budget uh that's broken out so we can track it a little better um it says fber line for 10,000 I just wanted to explain so what that is is whenever new utility polls are either replaced or if there's an accident and poles are taken down and wires have to be transferred this covers Contract Services to move the town's uh fiberoptic network cables it also allows is also to provide work to remove the fire department's old hardwired fire alarm system uh and it's being done on an as needed basis throughout the throughout the town that's really um the information technology department pays for a number of um you know service contracts and software programs that support a number of departments that's mainly what makes up their budget uh moving on the next office is the assessor's office and so in this area area uh I wanted to just preface this by saying that so we're we're anticipating the possible retirement of two employees during the next fiscal year in this office and so to prepare for that we actually what we did is we've upgraded the position for the assistant assessor so that that person can be very closely aligned and learn many of the responsibilities of our chief assessor uh and so with that position upgrade and the normal increases that you see for the you know steps and cost of living adjustments that's the reason for the um the increase there that you see uh it's a little over 55,000 or 177% if you would exclude the upgrade for the assistant assessor position the the Personnel Services budget will be going up close to 5% and John is a part of the general succession planning that's being done throughout Town yes that's yes that's that's a great part of that uh because the the the assessor's office is really it's a four-person office and so uh one of the things you know that the town manager and I looked at is that we you know when you have um the possible retirement of two of those people you want to try to plan for the future and I will say that this is sort of a mun Municipal specialty area it's very difficult right now for communities to try to recruit Chief assessors assistant assessors and I will say we we recently hired a new assistant assessor uh she came to us from from the Comm uh from nearby city of LOL uh has a lot of experience we're very excited to have her she just joined about a week ago joined the Department um and in the expense side of the assessa budget um that you'll see an a significant increase in the revaluation update and I can explain that it's about 63,000 so in fiscal year 26 is a recertification townwide valuation year that we have to collect all of this data and do a total townwide revaluation of all real and personal property and submit it to the Mass Department of Revenue and it's done on a certain schedule and so because of that the assessor's office needs to work with contractors and accomplish all of this work really during fiscal year 25 so that it's all set to go for fiscal year 26 and so that's the reason for that increase um also there's a um there's a small increase a 2,000 the tax tax bill expense line that you see about halfway down now this will Peak David's interest um this is this is the line item right here that pays for the printing and mailing of all of the um the quarterly real estate and personal property tax bills and so in recent years we've seen a increase in printing costs and also postage so that would be the uh that would be the line item if um someone didn't want their bill that they would strike that line but we wouldn't be able to operate yeah so that's the so the re the the townwide revaluation is the real reason for the um you know higher than usual um expense increase that you see in the assessor's office budget this year for fiscal year 25 John just a question you mentioned that there's a way to opt out for the other bills is there any way to opt out for the tax bills the printing of the tax bills and having them delivered quarterly because the reason why I ask is because a lot of people pay their through their mortgage their tax bills and so they're getting a copy of their tax bill but it's being paid through rest growth in their mortgage and so getting a piece of paper quarterly may not be necessary as opposed to getting it by by email the issue we have with that is so we have to we have to create the the real estate and personal property tax bills kind of in pairs if you will so the first two of the account the of the fiscal year are preliminary are estimated the last two are actual some communities in the state have gone to mailing the first and second quarter together and the third and fourth I after this many years in the office I would say I would I'm not totally sold on you you would save a little postage but I can tell you people do a lot of us work in this line work and people get confused as to which quarter to pay whether they should pay both or they send the wrong some people's quarterly bills vary between the third and fourth quarter so and just talking with other treasurers and other communities it might save you a little postage but I think oper operationally it will create confusion if we're absolutely back to the wall it's something we could look at but I think it would create a lot of just just curious yeah thank you some some have done that and then um so then from there we move on to the accounting office and in the accounting office uh you'll see the Personnel Services budget increases about $440,000 or 10% uh for the for the coming year um that is due to a contract settlement as well as steps and normal steps and cost of living increase for the employees in that office um under the expense area uh the accounting office has a pretty lean expense budget there are two notable items I'll just highlight first you'll see the um audit Services line that's increasing $3,000 that's for the townwide financial audit and this is the this will be fy2 is the third and final year of the current contract that we have with Clifton Larson Allen and then the next line below that that's increasing small amount $200 Gaz b45 that's to fund the annual OPB update that's required for our OPB liability and so that's really the two notable accounts in that office in that in that budget so that kind of brings you through and then the final sheet is just the backup um listing salary detail for all the employees and that brings us through the finance department any [Applause] questions what's that that's it questions thank you everyone thank you thanks John all right moving right along we have a review of the I'm sorry a reorganization and discussion vote discussion and vote so this was moved from our previous meeting back in February uh and I'll take as we do every year nominations for first chair and then Vice chair I will nominate Jim Clancy to be chair for the ensuing year second I'll third it any other nominations I'll move to close nominations second okay nominations are closed I guess take a vote all those in favor I I I'll abstain all right now I'll take a a vote on the vice chair uh nominations I'll nominate Anita Anita tanini for vice chair for the ensuing term I second any other nominations I move to I move to close nominations second all right nominations are closed I suppose we should ask if you want the job right you didn't ask me oh no we were not going to give you the option yeah thank you okay all right all those in favor I I I Ian okay all right all right next we have a review and discussion of the status of the liaison assignments for fiscal year 25 budget review and the warrant let me pull up the current okay so this evening we we went through a bunch of our departments uh next week currently we have slated uh veteran services and the NAA Valley School District uh I am meeting with uh fire department and um Police Department tomorrow and I'm guessing either next week or the week after after they'll want to meet uh has so that leaves the chel Public Public Schools I don't know what they we're meeting on the 18th okay and um I think he was open to either of the following meetings I don't know did can you remember Dave I think he said he'd be fine I don't remember next I don't remember Kathy um but I would think he'd want to get done yeah does anybody need any help on any other are they all done or well we have Community preservation fund so Kathy are you gonna I I I've spoken to I've been in communication with Linda and she said she'd be available to come March 28th are we still meeting on March 28th or should oh yes okay okay so Linda would like to come on the 28th okay so we'll say 328 for that and then we'll see what I think the school the this can we CH if we put the school down for the 21st we can and then we can adjust if necessary right all right and then I'll just check with the Chiefs tomorrow when they prefer either the 21st or the 28th and I'll check with the Board of Health yeah that was my next question yep all right any preference 21st to 28th uh probably 21st and the reason why I say that is because if we have the 28th for well that's the the two articles we have here we have uh MBTA zoning plane board I know evans's coming to give a presentation and maybe other members not that are not you um is there a debate that night I don't know what's the date 28th I don't think so okay plan given that that's so close to the election yeah um there might be one next week that the 21st yeah um for MBTA zoning they're going to be there uh on the 28th that's been the request I've reached out to the proponents for article 27 um by email uh just today to see if they want to come either the 21st the 28th and we do have the availability of the April 11th I'd like to avoid that if possible but um that's available um if we don't have a a lot of presentations on the 28th we could go straight into vote on the 28th I if we can do that that would be great that way we don't have to worry about being in April the second week and making that vote and having a tight timeline for the book um because as you know we don't meet the first Thursday to avoid conflict with the zoning board um so let's yeah so if we can do the 21st that's great if not not the end not the end of the world but we'll we'll go from there and I'll talk to both Chiefs and see what's best for them uh usually their presentations are pretty pretty quick so I expect that being an issue if we have to do on the 28th all right [Music] okay agenda let's discuss the budget hearing in springtime meeting Warner call schedules we sort of touched upon that just recently um well if if we can vote on the 28th uh then we'll have plenty of time to get the together the last possible day we could vote would be the 11th so that the the letter in the book can be circulated but if we can give Pam some wiggle rum I'm sure yeah 28th is much better yeah I figured I figured you'd like that yeah and it gives me time to wait till the last second get the the letter done too so I'm not promising that I'll have it before the 11th but um yeah now so uh if we can do the 28th that's that's fantastic um we're required to have the book out the week before if we get out sooner it's easier for the printing it's also easier to get it over to the pre-own meeting uh is that going to be held at the senior center again this year this 24 yeah I think that worked well uh a little bit more uh space and it's where we meet for town meeting anyway um the planning board to that meeting too oh yeah then we definitely want to have the senior senate for that um perfect okay so next on the agenda item is uh public comment I'm not seeing any in the in the in the zoom room and not none here no press so I'll take a motion to adjourn so moved all in favor I I see you guys next week