[Music] all right I see it's 6 o'clock and we have everyone here from the committee so um I'll go ahead and call the Halifax finance committee meeting to order today is uh Monday April 88 it is 6:01 uh p.m. in attendance from the Halifax finance committee is Frank Johnston Michael Bennett Jim Walters Cheryl zerella Burke Bill Smith EJ Brian and myself Todd dargy this meeting is uh being conducted remotely and recorded by area 58 uh first order of business as usual is the minutes um so there was two sets of minutes uh first one was March 18th has everyone had a chance to take a look at that any questions comments concerns on those I'm fine okay and then this next one was April 1 um likewise any questions comments concerns on anything documented there I'm good okay hearing none I guess then would somebody like to make a motion to approve both um sets of minutes to March 18th and April 1st 2024 so move second thank you Michael thank you Cheryl uh roll call call vote Frank uh yes for the minutes for March 18th and April 1st thank you Frank uh Jim yes on the minutes Bill yes EJ yes Cheryl yes Michael yes and I am a yes as well motion carries 7even to zero all right um so then next up on the agenda for tonight was the uh the and the vote on the dis 25 budget um so I guess Cody if you want to pull up the the screen I guess to share that um the document I guess but before we kick into the actual line item so just as quick recap as to where we are right so we reviewed and big largely were comfortable with um you know the initial Town budgets we really waiting on the school we had the meeting last week uh where the school committee um you know we had asked them to reduce the budget by 700 um and they came up with 500,000 in Cuts uh which left a gap of roughly around 200,000 uh during the meeting we discovered or or more sorry I should say Cody discovered the um the vocational Transportation cost were being over over um budgeted and so that um we were able to confirm can be reduced and that was a $93,000 savings which really left then um a divide if you will of 110,000 which um you know we had I had made a motion to um you know split that cost with them you know between the town and and the school so the town um you know taking on a you know 60,000 of that which I think comes to I think Cody while like 62 and some change to be exact and then the school um would be taking on the additional 50 so so their total um reduction would be would be 550 so the 500 that they already agreed to and voted on in their meeting uh and then the additional 50,000 in cuts that we' be requesting that that was communicated out to them as well so they were aware of that um so I guess any questions on what makes up the 62 or or maybe we can start with that Cody you sent off like a little summary there I can just talk through that if anyone on the committee has any questions are you able to see the uh sheet here yes so um what we did I can go through each of these and just give you a brief explanation so what we did here was the first one is we we had initially planned to use $112,000 out of the uh Wetlands revolving fund to fund part of the uh conservation Agent salary so that is money that we take in uh for applications permits for the uh conservation department and it goes into that revolving fund and it basically just needs to be utilized to support conservation uh we haven't used it in a number of years so we have 34,000 in one account and then another another eight or 9,000 actually in another account to be utilized for that so um the thought was up that to 17,000 uh to utilize out of that revolving fund and the idea with the 17 was even just based on the 34 we could sustain that without any additional revenue for two years um so we we felt comfortable doing that and as a matter of fact it's probably good to to utilize that anyways uh the second one is I know you although you guys are voting to not recommend the school resource officer we still need to um you know the school committee is proposing it so we still have to present a way to fund it if it were to pass because we don't know if it's going to pass or not so we typically would do that out of raising and appropriating so taking it out of that kind of the operating revenues the thought here was is free cash came in a little bit higher than we had anticipated so uh if it were to pass fund it with free cash and that frees up that amount uh for us to to allocate towards the op opting budget and then the other one was the fixed cost for the insurance so since the water department is an Enterprise fund they pay their share of insurance so liability property insurance workers comp um that's a little this past year was 20 something thousand so we 18 did it conservatively and rather than budgeting the full amount and then just basically billing them and then them providing us the money back back and that ultimately would hit free cash we just um are going to fund that directly out of their water uh water Enterprise fund so that frees up that additional 18,000 so with those three things you get the total of 62,1 140 and that Cody just one question before I uh turn it over to the rest of the folks if there any questions just on the fixed cost for the insurance there is that something we plan on doing then on an annual basis going forward to have it just come out of there or is this just for this year I guess just want to have the clarity on that yeah we can it's really so one of the things that we've done in the past is we've budgeted with some Financial flexibility I guess you would call it where um you know we do certain things in certain ways recognizing that it's going to close out to free cash at the end of the year so by doing it this way it it it just it frees up more money so we we certainly can do it this way um there's we do um for instance we do the audit this way um where it's the you see we pay so the audit's 33,000 I think we budgeted 335 for this year 8,500 comes out of water Enterprise and 8500 comes out of solid waste Enterprise so we do that that way and that frees up that money so we can certainly can look to continue doing it this way okay yeah sounds good um all right so I'll turn it over does anyone else have any questions or no everybody comfortable yeah no I I still personally believe the school should be responsible for all of it I think it's unusual that they came up with $93,000 in Savings in 30 minutes at a town meeting when we talked to them for 5 months and they couldn't find it so I just want that to be stated pretty clearly that you know it was quite miraculous how they came up with that money at town meeting thank you Jim anyone else have any questions comments concerns I just want to agree with Jim's statement there that in a matter of a few minutes they had the $93,000 there you know which was to me was a little bit shocking but um so like I say Tod as we go forward this next year um they need we need to really engage them and they need to engage with with the different boards going forward here you know on the on the budget to have a little bit tigh of controls going forward so we're not blindsided at the last minute you know no yeah you're exactly right and so like once we get through the town meeting um and you know everything kind of quiets down a bit you know my suggestion would be that you know we work with them to uh to engage like over the summer and or early fall um get ahead start and just have some discussions because we know next year is going to be even more challenging so we really need to um I think go through things with the fine com with them and uh and have some candid discussions up front we certainly can't have this as the process going forward to be um you know having these meetings like you know the day or or two days before we go to print with the warrant that's just not a process so but definitely um I think a lot of improvements to to come and um you know further engagement with them to continue to to work with them and um you know find the the process as best possible going forward and also uh understanding of these Transportation cost yeah and contracts associated with them yeah that's always been the achillis heill here which you know it's in their assessment now so they have the you know hopefully more incentive to uh to drive that down and and you know we've tried in the past and you know Jim and I have you know specifically spent a lot of time kind of going through the fine details there and definitely seems like an opportunity to uh to have some cost savings so hopefully that will be uh something we can directly engage with them on to uh to reduce those a bit Yeah so but anyways yeah so if we wanna go through the um Todd I have a I have a quick quick clarification question um so when we were going through the budget um there was a lot of focus that was spent a lot of discussion around the um safety officer at the school and um I I think it was specifically around the rate that that officer was being paid have have there been any follow-up discussions on that just to get clarification there was okay yeah so we got we got confirmation that um it is um duty pay and I think it's around like $70 an hour so it's um you know which is what we thought and was the basis of the re the rationale for us to um you know not recommend the position like it's definitely being we're being overcharged you know I think we we all collectively feel um so you know this seems like a more cost-effective way like you know certainly you know safety is a priority in the schools right I think we all agree with that but at the same token we want to make sure that we're um you know providing that that resource officer at a at an effective cost right and not being overcharged uh to do so which doesn't make sense for it to be a detail uh pay so um so that that was the concern but yeah so we did get that confirmation that that that rate is the case so I guess where where it leads me to go with it is assuming is there a way to get that rate readjusted or reestablished like could could it turn into an an fto so that we're paying a a full-time person versus an overtime detail rate yeah so I mean it's a loaded question I guess um and Cody know feel free to chime in here but I think you know putting the awareness on the on the cost I think is maybe the first step in getting them to uh to recognize it and and work you know with us in the towns to um you know in the Kingston Police Department to reduce those those costs or find a more effective solution um but I I don't know if Cody if you had any other thoughts or yeah no it's um it's one of the things that I had brought up initially with the school admin team like that's this is this is kind of crazy to expect you know us to to put that bill and even before I realized it was at 70 I think it's $72 an hour in change um it we my push was put it in their budget you know put all of it in the budget in their operating budget it's an operating cost you know they want they look to have this position every year put it in the operating budget so Kingston is then paying for part of it and then you may see a change because now Kingston's actually footing the bill rather than an in-kind service you know right now Kingston provides the high school officer um as an in-kind service right so there's no they're not they're not seeing a bill come in uh for that officer it's just they provide that right and then we are paying them for the middle school officer along with Clinton so if you put it in the budget all of it in the budget um there may be incentive for Kingston to look to uh other options to make sure it's more cost effective because now they're actually paying for it rather than just providing the in kind service so I mean yeah I I I completely agree it's and they know this the school is well aware of this we've brought this up several times and Plimpton is actually feeling the same way I was on an email Cham with their Town Administrator um and their uh a member of their school committee where I expressed the kind of displeasure of this finance committee and just the overall kind of it's It's hard to believe that you know to pay an off a resource officer $72 an hour As a detail rate it's I've I've never heard of it as a detail anywhere that this is someone's making money somewhere on this $72 an hour was very very high and having us a detail that's wrong it's the whole defeats the whole purpose yeah we had we had done it out um and if you worked you know fulltime at that rate year round it was something like $178,000 a year yeah wow so we had said there's no I don't know of any patrolman that make you know Works 40 hours a week and and makes that and you know cheap shobs and I joked it if that's the case you know he wants to know because he wants to go over there exactly all right so any other questions from anyone before we dive into the actual um review the line item so we'll want to go through now um you know our approval so we we've kind of like loosely approved items you know through our discussions and meeting with the uh department heads and all that kind of good stuff right so we should be in a comfortable spot now it's just really the formality of actually going through and uh you know conduct conducting our formal votes so any questions comments concerns before we dive into that aspect no everybody good okay um so so how do you want to bucket these I guess Cody what's the most effective way so maybe most effective if you want to we can just go so start general government and then just go kind of Public Safety and then if someone has questions about anything in that particular segment you know let us know we'll go to that segment provide hopefully you know answers to it and then I would I would recommend as long as there's nothing glaring that you guys are dis in disagreement about just vote each each kind of segment of it so vote you know General government vote Public Safety unless like I said there's a particular spot where you're in question or disagreement okay yeah no I think that makes sense um so in the first section for the town government I guess any anyone have does anyone have any questions on any of the figures here and so one thing just that I want to note we highlighted anything that has changed in the past couple week like past two weeks in yellow so if it's not highlighted in in this bright yellow here it hasn't changed in the past couple of weeks so I will I will note that and we haven't changed anything beyond what we sent on uh Wednesday night nothing else has changed since then um just those those reductions that we or reallocations I should say that we mentioned yeah maybe Cody it'd be helpful just because there's a lot of numbers here I guess can we just in a in a is this a edit editable sheet that you're in it is y could we just add a quick column in there between like maybe K and L that just has like the the percentage difference from uh the current to the prior so folks already it's actually already right over here okay all right perfect so maybe we could just take a quick look at some of the M Cody why don't you hide l through R yeah yeah there you go there you go can you all see this on the right side perfect perfect yeah is that zoomed in enough or do you want it more less more a little more there you go that works that's good yeah leave it there that's good get your eclipse glasses on there Jim so the major drivers here largest increases uh the first one is Town Administrator salary that was a contract negotiation um the next one is this is just a clerical expense that's step in Cola the I mean it's 475 but it is a 12% increase this has been the selectman expense um we did this because there MMA dues and meeting costs uh weren't enough in there um Our Town Hall electricity we increased that uh by 3500 just based on what we're experiencing now we're also adding some heat pumps so we anticipate electricity cost going up but the fuel cost to go down Cody real quick before we go much further down on um the law got a redu 4500 yep um even with all that we're doing on a couple of the other committees that 135 is going to be good so the zoning bylaw stuff Frank town meeting actually allocated an article for that so that's not coming out of the general legal budget um and you know we've we've really been um a lot of the day-to-day General legal things have really come down significantly like our general legal matters are are averaging like 3,000 a month right now just for General legal questions and then you have some ongoing litigation that can R increase that cost but I'm I'm pretty confident in that number um and then we I felt like decreasing it was fine because we had budgeted um I think it was 10,000 last year for our cable contract renegotiation that contract has been settled and that's not for another 10 years uh and and if you look at the trend right now we're we're going to come in below the what we budgeted last year and below the 135 that uh recommending for 25 okay that sounds good thank you the item 20 uh or Sandy this is the this is the postage machine ad oh yeah yeah yes item 20 that's the office machines we added the postage into that so that's why that's so high and you'll see some of the other accounts have gone down because of it after that yeah so it's a net zero increase it just shows in that line item as a huge increase yeah and then we took the same amount from all the other departments um to increase it by that amount so if you see treasure expense and collector expense expense both of those went down there's a few other accounts in there that are the same way let's see this one I believe we had touched upon it but um this is forour uh payroll we have a a third party payroll company they are revising their fees I really don't anticipate it costing us 13 but it's it's tough because they they don't TR it's not like like an annual fee it's on a a contract where they say hey we we provide you this and you pay us 13,000 a year it's um the way the contract works is every task that they do for us has an Associated fee and they give us a fee schedule so they revise their fee schedule and so we anticipate uh an increase but also a lot of it has to do with volume uh because it's you know for every check right they cut there's a a dollar amount associated with it and then some of the uh reporting they do with uh like taxes and and different things like that there's a fee Associated so we wanted to be on the safe side uh to incre you can see Linda had requested 16 when we sat down and reviewed the fee schedule I I I did definitely wasn't going to double but I thought 13 was a good place um to evaluate it and again this is um the long-term goal is that we start doing payroll inhouse in the next few years once we have our new Financial software in place yeah realistically $113,000 for doing the town payroll on an annualized basis isn't really bad no no definitely not nope yeah um conservation wages again this is one of those ones where you're seeing a big line item increase but you actually we decreased the regulatory clerical because we just we centralized it so um we we had previously budgeted 135 for an admin assistant in the conservation department and then had budgeted 3,550 for a u conservation agent we're recruiting for that right now um I don't know what that looks like I don't know if we're going to have an agent that works you know 30 hours and then they just do everything because it's really hard to find a admin staff that will only work 10 hours a week um but we may so the idea was to just consolidate all of that into one line item for conservation wages and that's where you'll see we have that 177,000 coming out uh and being funded by the oh I I hit it but uh being funded by the wetlands revolving fund so that it again it looks like it's a huge increase but it's it's net uh Net Zero um and then the same here with the building maintenance that was a little switch so they increased by that amount decreased by that amount uh Town building wages this is uh Union negotiated uh contract and then we added a little bit more overtime um in their budget just to make sure we recovered so we're not uh get in the negative at the end of the year all right any questions for Cody on the um General government government no um would somebody then hearing none I guess would somebody like to make a motion to uh recommend the uh expenditures for the total government moved second thank you Bill thank you Michael uh roll call vote Frank uh yes on the uh total government expenses of 1,949 1227 you Frank EJ yes Jim yes on General government cherl yes Michael Yes Bill yes I a yes as well motion carry 7 z uh next one with the police um you see this this is a major increase but that's because the this includes the deputy chief salary now so the deputy chief had been funded out of just these wages we moved that because that's more um uh professional staff so that's included in there now and then you see a similar decrease uh in here I will note the only the only difference from what the what was requested to what my recommendation is has to do with um the chief had budgeted a uh around $20,000 payout of um sick in vacation time to an officer that's retiring so uh and you see later on in the budget we Consolidated it and made a a line item to just for sick and vacation uh payouts rather than having an in in individual Department budget so I just wanted to make note of that um and yeah everything out I mean level Chief level funded um expense station maintenance and the cruiser maintenance and um that's that for the police um Cody why aren't we breaking out the two salaries of the chief and the deputy chief um we don't typically break out by position per se we usually just do professional staff and then uh like support staff so in this case we have two professional staff members in the department so we just we're we're doing it as one line item for both professional staff a lot of departments it looks like it's broken out because you only have one department head or one you know professional staff level individual so it it can look like it's being broken out broken out but um that's it's typically we just break it out by professional and not nonprofessional staff any other questions on the police budget is that an error in column J Cody is that a note the red oh that's that's just a note so uh the chief had requested some there were two uh as part of the clerical request the chief had requested a um a $110,000 a year part-time uh administrative support and or 5,000 in overtime for the clerical we this is just a note that in this number here we did not includes the 5,000 overtime and then in this number we did not include the 10,000 in clerical we um we have reallocated some resources um in my office and we're actually sending uh the offices assistant in my office to the police department one day a week now um which we've already budgeted for to assist the police uh Department without an increase in the overall budget all right thanks all right any any other questions so for fire um you can see you know it's pretty much the same thing all uh relatively uh flat increases you can the um vehicle and equipment maintenance this was just with the rising cost the need to increase that and then the same with the um ambulance billing this is just a it's it's a percentage of the billing that they do so uh we basically just estimate what the um what the anticipated billing will be and we increase that annually [Music] um let's see yeah the training budget is primarily wages so that's why you see that uh increase there um the expense budget is just a result of the expense but then you can see the overall increase is a 2.4% increase and so and you well know you know sheap with them and I met several times and we you know did pair down his uh request significantly um from what he was first pring any questions on the fire and the next is uh Emergency Management this is again under Chief withams uh payview in reviewing the budget as a whole it we've we've never come close to spending this amount and frankly if we had a situation where we needed to fund um you know fire staff for Emergency Management likely would you know come out of fire overtime if needed uh so we felt comfortable reducing this for more just Supply based um and then this is just the the wages of the Building Commissioner um we did have an uh we added in the assistant inspector I think I touched upon this previously but um right now there's no coverage if if our current commissioner were to be out for an extended period of time so I don't anticipate we'll have to use the full thousand but it's good to have something budgeted if we needed to um you know pay the Steve salari is our uh assistant from Bridgewater so if we had to pay him in to come do a couple inspections for us that money is there for that um yeah and so that's that dispatch Services The Rock sent over their uh contract for fiscal 25 I anticipate the select board approving it to uh tomorrow actually and they're intending to level um the cost being level so the 200,000 uh again and then there is actually another community that may be uh joining The Rock and if that's the case we may actually see a reduction next year so if other communities join that Cody there they are um extending cost reductions um proportionally to all the different towns yes yeah so there's yep there's one Community right now in TOS of joining and um one of the reasons we're only doing a one-year agreement this year is because there's anticipated changes for next year and they anticipate the costs being reduced if if that Community does join and so that gives you uh the total Public Safety figure here any other questions on the toal public safety nope heing none I guess then with somebody just just real quick um regarding um spreadsheet line 85 um item 67 the animal control did we get a contract are they going to um continue to provide that service for us that gentleman out of um what's he out of East Bridgewater or one of the bridge Waters uh that is the expected course of action at this point Frank um he has agreed to keep his cost level for fiscal 25 um if we choose to continue with his Services which I you know I think at this point we do um so yeah at the very least we know that he is offering his services at the level uh price of that amount right there yes so we'll we'll have an animal control uh person again for the next year yes yep absolutely we will definitely have a service Animal Control service well that's all I had on that Todd okay no problem any other questions um on the public safety no okay uh hearing none I guess then would somebody like to make a motion to recommend uh the approval of the public safety budget in the amount of 3,916 591 so move thank you Michael thank you Cheryl uh roll call vote Frank yes on Public Safety at 3,916 591 EJ yes Jim yes on Public Safety Bill yes Cheryl yes Michael yes and I am a yes as well motion carry 70 to recommend the public safety yeah very good it's good uh to see the Departments uh um you know all diving in there and looking for ways to minimize cost this next next year here it's good to see those 2% reductions is pretty much what it's looking like all the way down the line here so the next one is the schools and this is just reflective of everything that we have discussed um and matches the number of you know what we everything that we can afford um one thing to knowe is different this year is we've been notified by the um administrative team over at the schools that we can no longer vote separate uh line items for special needs so um we basically just are voting two two educational line items this year one being the elementary school cost and the other one being the um server Lake assessment why is that yeah why is that the state has come down and said that you can no longer do that because it could be discriminatory towards special uh needs General law or just a recommendation uh Sandy correct me if I'm wrong but Jill or Dr puit said it was a requirement by the state that we could no longer do that that's what she told us okay can we get the general law because if it's just a recommendation then that is specifically that I can definitely can ask sure yeah yeah that's like we're hiding stuff it feels like you're hiding stuff right that's a little troubling to me hey I don't shoot the messenger I'm I'm just doing what our administrative team is telling me Cody I'm not shooting The Messer I'm just voicing my opinion it's just you know as a as a taxpayer that's troubling to me you know one of the things if that is the case one of the things we could look to do again if if it's allowable is we could put some sort of note um that th this is made up of you know uh this much an elementary school cost this much vocational cost this much special needs tuitions this much transportations if I recall correctly what the superintendent said was that you just could not vote them separately you could still you could still demonstrate the cost but you could not vote them separately yeah and I think that's fair I think that's fair and fine it's just we just really need the transparency around those costs specifically right given that they are um you know have usually we put the school budgets within the front pages of um of the the warrant we do not have those budgets this year but hopefully they'll be provided for town meeting and in those budgets it's all broken down yeah yeah I think it's like I said you know start too it's something I think we want to dive into a bit more with them anyways in the upcoming months so we we should have you know as much transparency as possible to those cost for going forward and and hopefully you know collectively we to drive them down right which is the goal so and not to be discriminatory right just it's just to you know get our arms around the budget which is uh just exploding on us so yeah it's just good management of numbers exactly of cost specifically yeah yeah yeah um okay all right so I mean this is in line with um you know what was distributed numbers match up so I think everything's good there so this does the schools represent you know 53% of our overall budget uh and it is an increase as you can see to the side there of uh you know basically you know just under 3.6% increase year-over-year so um any questions I think we're every is good here right would somebody like to make a motion to recommend the uh the school budget of 15,437 356 Mo thank you Michael is there a second thank you Bill thank you Bill uh roll call vote Frank uh yes on the school budget at 15,437 356 thank you Frank EJ EJ you still there uh EJ you're on mute yeah I know it's frozen on mute sorry I'm a yes thank you EJ um Jim yes on the schools Cheryl yes Bill yes Michael yes and I am a yes as well to recommend motion carries 7 to zero I did just shoot off an email to um to the superintendent so we can get you that information Jim thank you soon uh next is Public Works the highway department so um uh primarily driven by wages um and then street lights because of electricity uh we wanted to budget for that okay yeah we already went through this in detail guess any other any questions though any other thoughts before we move to a vote hearing none would somebody like to make a motion to recommend the uh the highway budget of uh 989 981 move second thank you Michael thank you Cheryl uh roll call vote Frank is on highway at $989,900 so Cody why aren't we including the cemetery supervisor salary in the in the highway pay or salary since both jobs yeah so we um this is a little bit uh weird so Highway surveyor is elected so we that's provided for you can see there but then we vote that in the warrant as the elected um wage uh Cemetery superintendent is technically an appointed role there that that we've the town has historically always appointed the highway surveyor as SE superintendent but technically they two roles um and so they're they're just because you were to be the highway surveyor does not necessarily mean that you would be the cemetery superintendent okay are the same people are the same people who are collecting Cemetery wages collecting Highway wages no no we have a full-time staff member who they are just they all they do is cemeter and what does that entail just I'm curious so so they do uh they'll do all the burials uh they will do the prep work over there uh they assist with um if people are buying the um the plots and things like that um and then if there isn't work over there they will help out over at Highway um and then the same with if if Cemetery if there's like a burial and they need multiple guys Highway will jump in sometimes help out over in Cemetery the cemetery um full-time worker also does a lot of the grounds keeping he does the grounds keeping on the um on the cemetery he cuts the grass yeah picks up all the brush that falls um keeps the graves okay in order takes care of all that extra stuff people bring to the grave sites that kind of stuff but also if if those things are done he he does help out over in Highway yeah thank you all right um somebody like to make a motion to recommend the cemetery um budget of 88543 don't move second thank you Michael thank you Cheryl uh R call vote Frank uh yes Cemetery at 88543 yes thank you Frank EJ yes Jim uh yes on the cemetery Bill yes Cheryl yes Michael yes and I yes to recommend as well motion carry seven to zero next is the water Enterprise fund um you can see here primarily driven by wages um they budgeted and under the clerical um high amount of overtime they never use usually use that much overtime but they they budget for it um and then the supplies Bill had come through we went through all of this the only change is you can see here this has been reduced by that 60,000 because there we put that I mean by that 18,000 we put the funding note in at the end of the warrant you'll see that the 18,000 will be directly build to them out of their um retained earnings for the insurance um so that's the reason for the reduction there and then the other uh change is the legal fees um I'm not sure where the disconnect was Bill had said that they wanted to take that out but Sandy and speaking with them further um they asked to put that back in so they put the, 1500 back in for legal fees all right great thank you Cody any questions on the water budget hearing none I guess would somebody then like to make a motion to recommend the budget at 889 uh043 so move thank uh who who second sorry Bill Bill thank you Bill uh roll call vote uh yes on the water Enterprise fund at 88943 thank you Frank uh EJ yes Jim I yes on the water department is that a yes Jim yes on the Water Department thank you Jim Cheryl yes Bill yes Michael yes and I a yes as well motion carries 7 Z one thing I just I want to note the I don't I don't think this calculation I just need to adjust this this isn't as much of an increase as it looks like this is us using the voted uh figures it really I need to adjust it so it's using the adjusted wages because this doesn't take into account the wage adjustment right now it did in the in the in the higher up uh budgets I just don't know why I didn't transfer over to this so this isn't actually a 10.6% increase this is a [Music] so I think it was just that one column okay so uh this is the solid waste Enterprise fund um we were Bas so when we did the um estimates for last year we were still buttoning up the contract for our new trash huler that's been buttoned up now so we were able to reduce the cost there a little bit um the Hazardous Waste um that's pretty much level with the $50 decrease the weight the expense uh some of our costs have gone down as a result of the contract because they provide some hauling services for us at a cheaper rate so that helps the expenses uh and then you can see the other things uh in here I mean just a again this percentage wise is a lot um but it's a $1,400 increase Cody are we in a multi-year deal with the um Pauling company yeah three-year contract okay so we we have those increases for the next three years set in stone from them so uh fiscal 25 will be year two so we all know we know next year and then we know fiscal 26 um and sometime in fiscal 26 toward the beginning of the year we'll we'll begin to talk with them about an extension they've actually done they've been doing a phenomenal job and their rates are um incredible compared to kind of what the competition is yeah I I only asked because I wanted to make sure that we had our rate locked in with them for fy2 and they weren't there wasn't going to be anything hidden that jumped up on us mid year no so we there is increases built into the contract so we have a $5 per ton increase in the disposal costs we pay $105 a ton that'll go up to 110 and then our um collection charge is I I can't recall the exact number I think it's around a 3% increase for the actual collection fee okay but that but this number is reflective of that okay great thank you all right any other questions hearing none would somebody like to make a motion then to approve the uh or recommend I should say the solid waste management budget of uh 5662 moved second thank you Michael thank you Bill uh roll call vote Frank uh yes on the um Solid Waste at 550,000 662 EJ yes Jim yes on Solid Waste Cheryl yes Bill yes Michael yes and I am a yes as well motion carry 70 to recommend all right the next set here is our health and human services so made up of our Board of Health um our Council on Aging and our veterans not sure if there's anything uh in particular um this is again primarily being driven by wage increases um level funded veteran benefits uh the only difference here in the health expense is we took out the beaver uh the beavers in the budget all right any questions Health and Human Services hearing none I guess then would somebody like to make a motion to recommend the Health and Human Service budget of 610 273 no move thank you Michael there a second second second thank you EJ uh roll call vote uh Frank yes on health and human services at $61,200 thank you Frank uh Jim uh yes on HS Cheryl yes Bill yes EJ yes Michael yes and I am a yes as well motion carries to recommend 70 all right next we have culture and recreation which is our library uh Youth and wreck parks and then some of this miscellaneous things we took out the uh well we I should say we Consolidated music rights and website expense as part of just the it budget uh this year so we have no figures in there um and yet kind of see everything else is pretty close to level funded other than wages Cody we have a little money in there for the parking lot attendant is that correct so that's this line right here Frank Park wages 4264 which we uh um took the uh hourly rate for the position and the hours that they are looking to fill um and we came up with that amount right okay and these four% increases are the um are the ones reflected in the bylaw that we did not increase um during the current fiscal year so we're basically doing a two and a two that's how the 4% came about all right any other questions on the culture and recreation hearing none then would somebody like to make a motion to recommend the culture and recreation budget of uh 637 188 so move thank you Michael thank you uh Bill roll call vote uh Frank uh yes on uh total culture in Recreation at 6371 188 thank you Frank um EJ yes Jim yes Cheryl yes Bill yes Michael yes and I yes as well motion carries 70 to recommend the next is our debt service so these are the amounts that um best Sandy has provided based on our debt schedule for the these two and then we always um this is for the the WPA2 wpat 2 and then we always budget $5,000 for interest on temporary loans okay uh would somebody like to make a motion to recommend the uh Debt Service budget of 473 700 move second thank you Michael thank you Bill thank you still there we Ling oh you break you're breaking up Todd I didn't hear you I'm sorry um so we're taking a vote on the recommendation for the uh Debt Service of 473 700 Michael um made the motion and Bill second okay uh yes on debt services is for $473,500 thank you Frank uh EJ yes Jim yes Cheryl yes Bill yes Michael yes and I am a yes as well motion carries to recommend 70 all right next is our fixed costs um you mean I've touched upon these before um yeah I mean the only thing we decreased heating oil just a couple thousand dollars and this is attributable to the uh heat pumps so we kind of that's that reallocation I talked about with the town hall electricity um we're continuing our financial policy of adding an additional ,000 the goal is five but we want to definitely at least do a th000 increase for opep so that's 45,000 um our insurance is that uh 345 here and um you can see I mean primarily being driven by our retirement and our um our insurance health insurance we if it was requested $122,000 in sick and vacation buyouts oh y sorry about that why is that 32,000 so that was the 12,000 gym was reflective of our general government buyouts that I anticipate and then we anticipated another 20 from the police so in the requested budget the the police budget's 20,000 higher but I took that 20,000 out and I'm recommending just put it all in one line item okay all right so it just Consolidated the two requests yeah that's fair that's yeah that's where the 32 comes from and this is something I recommend we just do going forward because you I mean this comes up even if we don't know about retirements if somebody you know resigns midy year any acrude vacation time we have to pay them out um so it's good to have to fund a line item like this anyways very good thank you Cody on the insurance on um sheet line uh spreadsheet 207 item 154 we're pretty solid on what that insurance number is this year 345 yes absolutely yeah so um we when I looked the other day at what our premium was for the current year we were um 30 305,000 I think is is what it was in some change and then we have changes throughout the year you know you add new vehicles take them off or you know differences um and then in speaking with our rep um he said we're looking at about a 4% increase but then we also use that for if there is a deductible so if uh like we have a $5,000 deductible for a building damage so we always budget you know for about 20,000 in deductibles um in case you know worst case scenario so that 345 is a solid number okay yeah because I know my insurances have gone up quite a bit this year so I just want to make sure that we we have enough money there for the uh premium yeah one of the good things we we've had a pretty good claim year uh knock on wood so um that it definitely helps us when when they look at our claims and they you know review what our increase is going to be last year well I should say fiscal 23 uh um we had quite a few claims so we saw a bigger increase last year but in speaking with our rep our claims have been really good this year so that 4% is uh we anticipated being right at the 4 per. okay thank you yeah this is like a a major pain point right so the the six costs are up you know 9 over 9% year-over-year this uh represents 13% of overall budget uh you know being up 9% is almost three times our uh Revenue increase year-over-year so the the fixed costs have greatly outpacing our our revenue revenue increases so definitely a major challenge uh this year and U likely you know next as well so um not a whole lot we can obviously do here so other than just bite the bullet but um any other questions comments concerns on the fixed cost figures here no okay but somebody then like to make a motion to approve the fixed cost of uh 3 million 909278 mve thank you m thank you Cheryl uh roll call vote Frank uh yes on fixed cost of 3,992 78 EJ yes Jim yes bill yes Carl yes Michael yes and I am a yes as well motion carries 70 to recommend so that is the operating budget y so next up on the agenda was the uh the capital planning review I guess maybe makes sense Cody just to maybe we can start with the oper which I you know is outside of this but I think some of it kind of leads into some of the discussion so I know some folks had some raised some concerns around the potential usage of um the Opera funds for the um for the chipper so I know that you had received a write up um on that so maybe it makes sense just to talk about that first the Opera funds uh as a precursor into the uh the capital planning review and recommen recommendation or not recommendation from the committee so I guess while he's pulling that up just to set the context right so the for the financial planning the financial plan itself um you know there's a a committee that reviews that and makes those approvals so really what we're voting on as a finance committee is uh to either you know recommend or not recommend the capital planning committee's recommendation um you know as part of the uh Capital planning committee uh what transpired was um each of the department hads submit their request um you know what Cody did this year what should have been done years ago was asked for a fiveyear you know uh forward looking uh you know kept plan so each department head came in and presented the details of each of those uh those requests the capital planning committee in conjunction with the Cody you know um narrowed down the list of of priority and then uh based on the lack of funds which this year was down to um you know around 600,000 which was roughly around half of what we've seen in years past so we would definitely um you know challenged with what was available so um you know some of the recommendations which I'll just continue on I guess see on the screen here is the um you know the continuation of our you know um ongoing um police vehicle purchase so every year we purchase the two police vehicles we've done that for several years and uh plan to do so uh for future years as well so that's um was in the plan for the 120 the road maintenance again is another annual item that we've done uh historically and it would also um you know plan to do so in the future so that that alone right there is 420 of the 600k that was available through the free cash so as you can see I mean that really took up the lon share of the availability of funds uh the next you know key priority was on the the mold remediation given that uh you know it exists in the bathroom at the at the firehouse and certainly we don't want anyone to be exposed to mold so it's a it's a health concern so obviously we prioritize that as really our our number one for the year outside of our annual uh two items as I as I just mentioned um and then the second priority you know resided with the fire department as well just in relation to the structural um gear just doing just due to the um you know the quality um in in the state of of the uh the equipment that the fire department's working with um we did think it was a priority to uh to fund um some a few sets there which essentially is 12 sets but as the the chief um eloquently pointed out it's not necessarily does necessarily mean that um you know 12 people will have a full set because of the whole Miss match uh situation where uh you know pants and and jackets and such uh don't directly uh you know align with um expiration dates and things of that nature so it's bit of a hodg Podge at the moment which I think is a major problem that we need to uh to work on uh correcting over time uh this year will will be a good step in the right direction uh it's much less as you can see was requested was 173 um you know which is was more than we had available for cash so um it was agreed to do the 74 so I guess any questions on on that and then if not I guess then the other piece was the opera funds right so the Opera funds are separate from the capital planning committee doesn't uh it's not and also the finance committee it's not something we have direct oversight or um you know vote on I guess if you will so um it's all done through the board of Selectmen which it sound it seems like I don't know Cody if they even like had a chance to review it from the meeting when the questions came up but uh there were two recommendations that right I think that you had put forth for the Opera fund usage which was the financial man management system implementation which I think everybody is uh comfortable with and understands the one that uh drew some contention and um um concern was the usage of the funds for the wood chipper 84,000 I I I still don't understand the argument for the chipper I really don't so I understand the write up right and it sounds like we need to order some parts to fix it and we have delayed doing that for whatever reason 3600 hours over 16 years is 225 hours a year 18 hours a month less than an hour a day one engine hour is an engine running at 18800 RPM for 60 minutes that's what it is it's not equivalent to 126,000 miles on a car that's a bit of hyperbole in my opinion because the math doesn't work um and he didn't get one last year or they didn't get one last year and we want to give him one this year I I don't see the need for it personally I'd rather use arpa funds to buy the gear for the fire department than buy a chipper for the highway department and they used they used arpa funds in Portsmouth to buy fire department equipment so it's obviously possible to do that so Todd can understanding that the arpa funds are are decided on by the Selectmen um and you know they they don't really have to listen to anyone about that but can we can we make a formal recommendation to them on how we would Envision that or how we feel that money can be best spent to serve the town um yeah vote well so we won't be voting on The oper but yeah that's exactly what we're we're doing here now is just discussing it um you know we can come to a consensus we can take like an informal vote as well just to show um what the overall opinion is I guess of folks but um but yeah at the end of the day it's just us you know voicing some concern on it and then you know the idea would be hopefully Cody takes that back to them in their meeting tomorrow um and expresses um you know what our thoughts or concerns were um in relation to that I guess one thing just wanted to clarify with you though Cody is like as far as the usage of of Opera funds does that is that expiring this year is it a use it or lose it for this year or or can you just kind of give us a background on the uh yep so we have to have it committed um all pretty much all of our money at this point is remaining through the county um and we have to have it committed with the county by September which you know won't be an issue where I'm planning to submit the applications um in the coming weeks it's not on the selman's meeting agenda for tomorrow but I anticipate we'll put it on for the 26th and if you guys take a vote um you know informal in a sense to recommend you know using the remaining arpa funding to to allocate towards um you know the the fire gear uh instead of the wood shipper I can I'll certainly you know bring that to the board and and just say the these are the request you know the sance committee made this recommendation do you know do what you will and one last question I guess before we open it up to some discussion here is um do you have the total figure of the upper funds I thought it was like close to like 200 right so if we we take out the 75,000 which I think everybody agrees with the financial management system what's the do you have the exact figure of what's remaining I guess once you deduct the 75 yeah so um it's about a little over 20,000 it's 20 in change and we um we use that right now for our HR services so our labor Council provides HR Services um it's $5,000 per quarter in order to try to supplement the operating budget this year my thought was continue my recommendation is going to be to continue using the armor for that so that's where that remaining is and then there's I think it's like 8,000 remaining after that uh if this were all to be approved and the the thought is we didn't uh identify a funding source recommendation for the blacksmith shop repairs just because there's the as we finish up some of these projects being funded with arpa we anticipate some of it coming in under budget so we may be able to scrape together enough from each project to to present a plan that could fund those repairs um again it's up to the select what they're going to do but just based off the feedback I've received that's one of the things we've been looking at okay so the 84,000 is really the the accurate balance that's available to kind of you know play with if you will that's not give or take you know give or take 8,000 10,000 yeah okay okay all right so I just wanted to CL clarify some points I guess but yeah I'll open it up I guess for folks to uh raise concerns and we could certainly take a vote as well like an informal vote to uh for Cody to pass along to the um to the Selectmen I mean you know I would voice I can voice my opinion I guess if folks want as well which is um you know I totally do agree I I do think you know I understand that the wood chipper is certainly needed and and is a valuable asset to the to the town but um I do also feel that um you know the you know the fire department's in rough shape with their gear and I would I would definitely like to see that extra money be allocated to help Rectify that that um issue um so that would be my thought that would be my preference if I had a choice um you know I don't know what others think or if folks have other ideas or what so I'd like to open it up to folks to kind of try them in I guess I agree with that yeah I agree also Tod as I've mentioned in a couple of meetings in again the other night at The Joint meeting that I'm against that money for the wood chipper and in favor of that for the structural gear um for the fact is we've got to get the gear we need for the firefighters up there and that's a good opportunity to use that money for that and I understand you know the department with like a new wood chipper but you know with a repair bill um to get machine up in operational to where it's supposed to be at is like $133,000 um that's a heck of a lot less than $84,000 for a new machine um as tight as things are right now it's important that we get the the best for our money at this point in time with the way the bud budgets are and that is for me in my opinion is um as I've stated in two or three meetings is you know move it up and use it in the structural gear for the fire department um and not as buying a wood chipper for $84,000 yeah I think that makes sense Frank any other alternative views though or any other points from anyone Todd I will I do have a question on the financial manag system but I can wait until we're done with wood chipper first uh yeah maybe just wait for a second EJ any other comments on the the wood Cher that folks seem to be in line with the structural gear is there some other area that folks think are maybe even more important than the structural gear or just any other General thoughts no no okay all right so yeah go ahead D EJ if you would if You' like so um Cody just a a quick question for you on the the finance from management software is that a is that a license system that we're looking to go online with where it's where you're paying um on a license base versus uh you don't we're not owning the software correct yeah correct and so we already budgeted that's in our uh it operating expense EJ this the 75,000 here is for the Professional Services for the migration the training of staff so on and so forth okay perfect and so that that that answers the first question the second was where is um support being budgeted from is that on the it budget as well specific for this ongoing support yeah yeah well uh it's part of our contract with them they provide support um so once we're implemented it we part of that part of our contract of the annual cost is they provide support uh as needed uh you know once the migration is complete that's just part of the contract so once they turn it over to us if if there was a change that needed to happen to the implementation work that had taken place is that change covered underneath the support contract or is there additional fees work to physically make the change to the system it would be covered under the uh ongoing contract we have it even now with our existing system there's things we'll call and ask them to change um generate new reports for us or workflows and that's just part of the ongoing annual contract okay great thank you all right so then I guess just to close out the chiper I guess Cody so I mean it seems like the committee's you know unanimous in the the thought process there so I don't think it warrants like a vote I guess or not but if you could just you know carry that message forward um I think we'd really like to see the uh the fire department taken care of in that regard to uh get them the equipment that they need uh over the wood Cher and then recommend maybe that the wood Cher comes back uh for next year and hopefully we can satisfy that through the availability of free cash next year absolutely thank you Tod thanks ch um okay so then So the plan itself though we have so that's the next up so um so I walked you guys through this on uh what was it last Monday I guess but I'll just do it again quickly so at the bottom so if we just start the bottom up I guess right is the water retained earnings and that's the 525,000 so that's coming directly from their um their fund right which is going to fund the the water treatment plan upgrade which is the Lion Share the 500k and then the the remaining 25k is the purchase of the mini ex excavator from the highway department which um you know was recommended a few months back I think by Jim which was a excellent suggestion and so that's just uh com to fruition here so that that makes up to 525k um any questions at all on that piece think everybody good there right all right so then the rest of it is like I mentioned so the the 594 uh was available so um the 300K and the road maintenance the 120 police and then the um for the police vehicles and then the 100K for the uh mold remediation as well as the the two sets uh as mentioned so um again depending on how the the selectman ask um act you know they may get additional funding to the Opera for the sets but what we're recommending or or I did recommend um from the capital planning committee is to fund the uh the 12 sets that cost is $6,200 per set so that's a 744 and then there's an additional two sets um air mark through the uh through the public safety air mark there so um so that was the recommendation I guess any questions on that at all I just want to make sure though if the uh wood chipper money does move up to the fire department it is used for the structural gear so I again I think Frank this is I I anticipate the board will follow your recommendation because this is the whole funding of the arpa with the wood chipper was again me just throwing things out to try to fund as much as the capital plan as we could um so I anticipate they the board will follow your recommendation but you you're just voting on the capital plan um the finance committee doesn't really have the ability to say if the arpa funding is reality at it has to be reallocated for the structural gear so that that's certainly a recommendation that I will pass along to the board but it's independent of your recommendation of the capital plan if that Mak then what are we voting so you're voting on all the items that we'd be funding as part of the capital plan with our free cash so 744 for structural gear 100,000 for World remediation 120 for the police vehicles 300 for Road mainten and then these two items 500 for the treatment plan upgrades and 25 for the mini excavator because those are the items that require town meeting approval the arpa items don't go to town meeting that is just a a vote of the select board that number um is $1,194 is that correct that is correct yeah and and just to add a little more clarity the reason why this is in in there which caused all this kind of confusion um is because this is this sheet that we're looking at this is the request that came in for this year so Cody just leveraged that sheet and then outside of the capital planning committee you know try to allocate some Opera funds to take care of some of the additional requests so that was the intention uh with the sheet but it kind of made it a little convoluted and and opened up a lot of the questions so um so Todd just for just a clarification question before we go to a vote on this um I noticed that there was a request for a server Refresh on the it side that came in originally um is is the is the town comfortable that without that refresh our it infrastructure will support our needs for the next fiscal year yes we had an IT consultant in on Friday and he finished up today he did tons of work and uh in my conversation with him this afternoon there is absolutely no need for us to do a server refresh based on the work that he completed awesome great so the new management system then will work with the existing servers that correct yeah so yeah he uh he did tons of work uh updating kind of the um the backend policies and different things uh and worked within our servers to uh make the updates and a lot of things were expired and so on and so forth so he brought it all up to speed and U yeah he he said there is absolutely no no need for this at this point in time very good all right any other questions on the capital plan hearing none then would somebody like to make somebody like to make a motion to recommend the uh Capital plan as presented move second thank you Michael Frank you there yeah I just Todd you're cutting out it's only when we vote though so so we're in a roll call vote uh Michael made a motion and Bill second and then Frank we're doing a roll call roll call vote starting with you yes on the capital funding for 1,119 400 thank you Frank EJ yes on Capital planning Jim yes on the capital plan Cheryl yes Bill yes Michael yes and I am a yes as well to recommend motion carries seven to zero all right great so that takes care of the capital plan uh next up on the agenda was the um review and vote on the town articles so you have the left Cody right what I sent where we're at there I guess yeah give me one moment okay so we while c p pulling that up we voted on articles 1 3 5 6 10 11 12 13 and 14 in the last session so so that means 2789 and 15 and I think you there was an additional one added though right Cody yes there was okay so I I before we move on to the Articles themselves I have a question about the letter in the front so under under the tax rate paragraph you can stop right there y um it says that We the finance committee are recommending this T rate when we have not discussed nor presented nor voted on this it was done by another Committee in and of itself which was accepted by the board of Selectmen when they had a town meeting at the fire department um you know this isn't a finance committee recommendation or are we just arbitrarily saying it is because if and maybe I missed the meeting apologies if I did but we didn't vote on this so how can it be our recommendation oh good are you're talking about it says tax rate then based on finance committee's recommendation right so your recommendations are the budget that's what you just voted on so that tax rate is based on the budget the product yeah it's a product of the budget so it's not something we toao you it's not something we directly you know vote I guess or even really see we so the reason why they're in red as well obviously is they haven't been updated so typically this just a placeholder in the in the Chairman's letter and then it just gets updated based on uh you know the factors that uh that go into it being you know the budget itself so right as far as the the average single family home value like certainly like the finance committee has no um role in that or anything so um you know we just defer to the to the you know the assessors come up with that yeah yeah exactly they just did that that's ridiculous it reads funny to me yeah it's a valid point I guess I mean if we want to be more involved and see like the assessment we could potentially have a meeting with the assessor to to get those figures and you know have some role in that I guess if you will you know if we want to pursue that something we can think about for next year I guess but historically it's just uh you know we just leave it in there as a placeholder in the letter and then the rest is kind of taken care of outside of you know the I it should based on the tax rate given to the finance committee so the tax rate isn't determined that's just an estimate so it right now we're basing it on last year's um value but we don't know what the value will be in August or September when we're setting this tax rate so then we can't tell you what the tax rate will actually be but just to give people an idea of how it's changing that's why we put that in it's really all just estimates I I just don't like how it reads yeah I will say if you read Down Below in the town budget section it does become a little bit more I hear your point Jim I don't disagree with it but it does become a little bit more clear that the the budget is not recommended the like it's not ideal the way it is I would I would just say if you were to do anything I would take it out completely that would be the only thing because if you because like Sandy said it is it's all an estimate and we have the assessor is still working on the the values right and and you all know tax rate is really driven by values more than anything the tax in the tax rate itself I mean I hate to say this but the really isn't isn't super meaningful because your taxes continue to go up your rate may drop $2 per thousand but if values go up significantly right you're still seeing an increase in your overall tax bill so a problem if we take it out Cody I would just be hesitant to take it out though because it's been in there for many years and I don't know you know who like if the citizens like kind of expected in there and they're like you know like to refer to it as a as an estimate you know I'm just not sure so I wouldn't I'm kind of hesitant to just to take it out given that it's been in there for uh could we probably should leave it in there too so that the senior citizens realize what's going to happen next for them what if it wasn't the lead in yeah just as we can we can change the the leading so this is this is the Chairman's letter so this is largely something that I draft that language for this section you know wasn't drafted by me it's just has been in there historically um so if folks have recommendations on you know on the language that we want to change certainly it'd be um all for um you know refining the language in it but I would just be a little hesitant to take it out because I don't know like who's looking at it or referring to it and I wouldn't want to just strip it out on them if they're expecting it to be in there you know what I mean I would recomend we move down to the bottom where it's so basically I would agree with EJ move it between wage and personnel and capital planning so I I um there's a few things I'm going to work on Todd and I'll send this back to you a few edits that I have recommended one of them is um just the this just cleaning this up a little so this is just a little bit confusing with the so you talk about wage and personnel and then we go into uh Capital request and items so I have a few things um and I if you want I will work on that tonight tomorrow morning and I can send you back kind of a revised version and I'll I'll move the tax rate down to uh to the bottom where the committee would like it to and if there's any other recommendations if you guys discuss them tonight I can Implement those and um I'll send it back to Todd and can actually circulate it to the whole group I mean I don't see why not okay yeah just direct to the whole group I guess Cody um and then yeah if you guys want just take a read through it if you have any other comments um you know don't be shy and um you know raising your opinions and we can we can tweak it as needed uh we don't have a lot of time though with that being said obviously so uh please I guess just um act with urgency I guess because we really need to get this printed so uh if you do have comments then um you know please make them ASAP yeah okay all right awesome um all right so we want to jump into the articles I guess so it's number two is the next one first one up so two um I wasn't at the last meeting but you guys had mentioned you wanted to see exactly what it was um so I did send that out it's exactly what we had what you guys had voted what we had discussed um for the wage and Personnel uh amendments yeah so I think the comment here was just um you know there was a lot of changes I guess so we wanted to kind of just see them so what's going to be presented in the article we going to give the list of changes I guess detailed out or what's that going to look like I guess in the actual print uh the anticipation is to provide it as an attachment okay um and we'll label an attachment a and we will provide it at town meeting and we will um we will sorry I'm just looking I'm just making I had a question regarding this for Council so I think he actually just responded so I just want to make sure I'm providing the accurate information do we have a dra did you send the draft of the attachment a I guess that we could just take a peak ad before or uh so I sent the updated bylaw to everyone yep okay and that will be we're just going to relabel that as attachment a and show um what's you know what's been struck out and what's been added uh okay everybody comfortable with that any questions comments concerns no okay would somebody like to make a motion then to recommend article two moved second thank you Michael thank you Bill uh roll call vote Frank yes on article two EJ yes Jim yes on article two thank you Jim Cheryl yes Bill yes Michael yes and I am a yes as well motion carries 70 to recommend article two so then article seven Cody was next the one thing I want to note in the warrant a little bit well that's different is in Sandy mentioned this but we don't have the schools figures so usually we sub we put in um their their budget um so usually we put in there but budget but obviously we don't have their figures so we're just putting a note that the Figures were not available at the time of print uh the goal is we'll have them and as soon as we have them we will post them to our website under the warrant and we'll also uh have printed ones for as attachments at town meeting but we didn't want to take it out completely because it's always been in there so we just wanted to recognize that we didn't have them available okay seven um the pilot is is has not been settled yet so this one I would say your best bet is to stick with recommendation at town meeting if we have a pilot in the next week or so uh that will circulate and if we do not we'll end up skipping over this article anyways right okay good article eight was the capital plan which you just recommended um you can see this is just the the article in in that version it's exactly what you just voted so do we need to wrot vote it again the second time as the article itself or no I think you just voted to recommend the capital plan so that's that's sufficient yeah okay perfect um the community yeah the community preservation act one I I my recommendation to you would be to provide your recommendation at town meeting because the board of Selectmen are still waiting I'm still waiting to for them to determine what percentage they want to propose for the um the search charge so with that they're going to decide that tomorrow and then I would say it makes sense for you guys to provide your recommendation um after that you know after that's been determined okay so just thinking that forward I guess usually at the town meeting there's two separate meetings right like the select men and then our finance committee we'll probably just need a structure the meetings then that's so somebody can come in and speak to this so we can ask some questions and that kind of thing I yes yeah we can even do it before town meeting Todd and then you guys take it so we could do it anytime between really tomorrow in town meeting um I just I don't have the they haven't voted the figure yet so they're going to do that tomorrow so I think if we just put recommendation at town meeting you guys take a vote at some point prior to that and then when the moderator asks you can provide that vote all right yeah makes sense okay all right so that was nine and then next up was the 15 ah had uh 15 Yep this is the that transfer from the stabilization fund for the uh H work um we some questions on this money What's that show did we have didn't we have money left over from something yeah so this so This was um we'll have the exact figures but basically a number of years ago Silver Lake could turn back some money to the town um we put that in our stabilization fund with the idea that it was specifically to be utilized for projects at Silver Lake this project came up initially last year we allocated 100,000 for this um the in speaking with the administration they um the project has come in more than they had budgeted uh so we need to come up with our portion um so this is where that comes from this is to supplement 100,000 that we already appropriated but they never did that work last year right they did not uh my understanding is is their um their facilities director moved on to a new position there was a transitionary uh period and um it's a we've expressed Our concern that we want to make sure this is a priority for them and it it it is now because unlike um our situation Plimpton in Kingston you utiliz ARA funding for part of this and that so it has to get done because the county is going to come and say we you know you have to use the money or we're going to take it back U where we use the stabilization fund here um so that's why we have to go to the town meeting um where they do not because they use our AR so they now need another 25,000 on top of the 100,000 yeah the total Pro because because they the school or whoever didn't act on it right in in a in a year um yeah that's that's a general synopsis in speaking with them part of it had to do with um the they Sandy correct me if I'm wrong here but um they had moved forward in a way that may not have been compliant with procurement laws so when their procurement officer reviewed the uh proposed plan she identified some concerns and had requested that they go back and follow the proper procurement Avenues and they have since done that and and hence the um this is the the number that we're working off of and so it's it's I understand I understand I I just don't understand why the taxpayers of Halifax need to be penalized for for for their errors and how do we have the insurance that that's this is the right figure and final figure as well right too yeah I I hope so I feel the same trust me I feel the same way that you guys do it's one of you know Sandy and I have had these conversations with them that you know this is I mean it needs it needs to get done a and it needs to be done you know this needs to be accurate um but you know we're our level of involvement particularly at this at Silver Lake I mean we have no involvement over there and even at the elementary school I mean I have some we have some involvement but uh yeah it's their operation that we rely on them to to provide us with the accurate information okay so the 25 is still in flux at the moment right or so we this town meeting I guess or it yeah you can recommend this at town meeting that that that 25 um I guess to be very blunt with you the 25 is the number that I came up with in reviewing their cost estimates they have not come back with a figure yet but I recognize that we need we got to get this on the warrant because we know that it's going to go over budget so um I was I was forwarded a new proposal for the total cost and then I just did some basic math where you know we're 32 and a half% of Silver Lake so we'd be 32 and a half% of the project cost we've already allocated 100,000 the difference was around uh 18 or ,000 and I threw in a couple extra thousand just to you know to to have a little bit of a buffer there um that's where the number comes from okay yeah I think we need a firm number for them before we vote and also um some more details and explanation of why the money wasn't used and in Insurance to the town's people that it you know they'll use the funds this time right to get it it sounds like they have to because of the the contingencies on the Opera fund from the other towns but nonetheless just um getting that insurance I think is important um okay so yeah let's do this one at the town meeting I guess then as well hopefully they'll um so I guess do they owe you anything further I guess Cody at this time or uh they owe us everything still for that project okay so I guess once I mean if you could share whatever you have now and then as more comes in I guess you know you could share it and then we can um maybe take a vote I guess before the meeting as well but potentially even maybe have some discussion with them if possible just to get a better understanding of the details yeah we can definitely look to have them in um maybe the end of April yeah okay it'll be good too honestly hopefully they will have their line item budget that they've actually voted by then because I do think it's it's prudent that you guys are able to review that and ask questions on it I mean you're making a recommendation on a figure as a whole but you know there are yeah 50% of our budget um and it would be good for you guys to be able to really know um and identify what their budgets made up of rather than just two large figures yeah so maybe we can go can we go back to them Cody and see if we can get them on the books for like the the 29th of April there like that last Monday maybe I will absolutely see if ask available yeah yeah as a starting point and then if we need to do the week earlier or week later or something like that um you know we can move it around I guess but at least as an initial suggestion to get something on the books okay I will send them an email and I will let you know okay thank you all right and then so I think that so we'll do that one a town meeting and then article 16 is the new one right but weren't we going to do 100,000 for this one yeah I re uh rework the calculations in 75 will be uh more than more than enough uh considering we have 33 in there right now we anticipate getting another 7,000 back for um a fraudulent claim so between the two of those you know that brings us um of 115,000 and um based on the information that the schools has provided at this point of what they actually anticipate having to lay off even if everyone laid off collected for the full period of time it would not go over the 115,000 just because there's um there was there's there's some turnover that's going to occur my initial calculation uh accounted for every position that they are uh eliminating or reducing I should say as being an unemployment cost but the reality is is some of it they're funding in a different way a different mechanism so one or two positions they're going to fund with a grant um they have one or two retirements and then they're paraprofessionals they um they have an average turnover of I think it was five or six a year so the idea would be they just wouldn't look to fill those rather than lay people off um so I took that into consideration um in the the 75 it will be more than sufficient all right any questions on that from anyone no sure chery's got a question will um Clinton and Kingston also be putting something in no because this isn't for Silver Lake this is just for the elementary school okay okay yeah unfortunately the Halifax Elementary School took the brunt of the um the funding reductions so one thing to note too I should have mentioned this earlier um I was told over the weekend that Silver Lake is going to be considering further cuts to their budget but not till tomorrow um if they do that we could then it would have to be an amendment at town meeting at this point basically reduce silver Lake's budget and you could reallocate that money to the elementary school so there their Cuts would be less uh significant I had asked them what they um were estimating the cuts to be if they did approve them in hopes that I was going to present you with two figures and basically have you vote if they do vote if they do approve the cuts this would be the figure to vote Unfortunately they didn't get that information over um so I I wasn't able to present it to you but just so you're aware there may be a four amendment to make that adjustment at town meeting because they are looking to make further reductions in Silver Lake which would free up some funding for the elementary school okay but so we voted on the total I guess the total would just be it' be no net change to that total rate it's just yeah so the total cost yeah yeah to yep total cost of Education would remain the same you uh the amendment would be the line items um a reduction likely in the Silver Lake line item and a increase by the same amount to the elementary school line if they vot it and I don't even know the number that they're looking at like said I asked for it but unfortunately I wasn't um I didn't get it okay yeah I mean if they if they can somehow um free up some money and you know definitely would be in favored I'm sure everyone else here as well to um you know pass those savings back down to the school to lessen to the Halifax Elementary School to lessen the burden on them so I think that um sounds great and hopefully that uh comes to coition um okay all would somebody then like to make a um motion to approve article 16 moved thank you Michael there a second second Q Bill uh roll call vote Frank uh yes on article 16 you Frank EJ yes Jim yes on article 16 Cheryl yes Bill yes Michael yes yes and I am a yes as well to recommend article 16 uh motion carries 7 to zero uh and then the only other one is we we do have a placeholder for a special town meeting um and again the reason for this is uh I've gotten conflicting reports of whether we will need it or not so I would rather have it um if we do need it the school and gym can kind of to this but we were we've been told that there will not be a need and that they anticipate being able to cover the deficit within their own budget U but then in speaking with the administrative team I think it was late last week they basically said well we're not 100% sure yet can you put something on as a placeholder right um so you'll notice it's it's incredibly vague because we're using it as a placeholder but really it is um a sum of money for fiscal 20 to supplement the current year operating budget um and the result because of a deficit in Special Needs tuition Transportation I don't I I have no clue if if it'll be needed if it will be what the amount would be and depending on what that amount would be would then dictate where we would get that funding from um so you know if it's not a a super significant amount we would be able to utilize some of our um some of our line items like snow and ice is you know will come in a lot less this year so we could use things like that uh but again it I I can't give you that information because I don't a I don't even know if it's going to be needed and B if it is I just don't know to what extent that amount will be so this is purely a placeholder item in case that we need it uh and that's why I have here that you know I I my recommendation would be you provide a recommendation at town meeting because there's no information to really recommend yeah I think that's right Cody I think that needs to be a decision at the town meeting you know we have a little more information available you know just again just furthers the um the necessity right to get our arms around this um whole special needs tuition and transportation which is just you know really gotten out of control so yeah hopefully um it's coverable for this year and then we can work with the schools to uh hopefully move the needle a bit on this to reduce some cost um so yeah I think we should just unless anyone else has any other thoughts I think we should just move to um recommend this during town meeting yeah I agree I agree okay all right so yeah let's do that right yeah that's that that's the uh that's the warrant awesome okay great so then moving on on the agenda I just had the uh so finom 2024 term expirations so there's two um for this year with Michael and Cheryl both of you are up uh this year uh so first just wanted to get confirmation from you that you're going to be seeking reappointment on the committee I am I am Michael is well okay fantastic so um you know it's certainly been a great pleasure to have you on the uh committee or the two Elder Statesmen I guess if you will in the committee so appreciate your service uh to the community and um you know you do fantastic job and very happy to hear that you'll um continue to help us uh particularly for next year right where we have some major challenges um you know ahead so we really need uh all hands on deck I think to get through next year um so appreciate your commitment I guess and then Cody as far as I also wanted to just get this on the Forefront as well just for like scheduling and that kind of stuff right because I think it says the byw is like within 30 days of the town meeting they they go to the appointment so just wanted to draw the awareness to there so um so Michael and Cheryl need to be reappointed I guess through that uh so so you'll um maybe on the next finance committee agenda you can have you guys will need to decide who you want your representative to be on the finance committee appointing committee yeah so I'll just I'll just take it I the only reason why I didn't do it last year because you know I was being appointed so um but I think otherwise I'll just plan to uh to you know um sure do it on behalf of the committee what I would recommend though is and also what we did you know starting with me which I think should be a best practice is we just take a vote so that way when I go to the committee I'm speaking on behalf of the committee and just not my own personal opinion so uh what I would S suggest that for next meeting uh we put on the agenda just um to take a vote for Michael and Cheryl's um you know reappointment um and just formalize it in that manner um so we can look to do that next week we'll have to just get it on the agenda to to do so so we can't do it tonight but um so we can plan for that uh next week I guess Cheryl and Mike I'm glad you're both uh kind of come on again so appreciate that thank you thank you Frank awesome um all right so then just moving along on the agenda was uh Reserve fund transfers there were none so I think we're good there uh Sandy any wind of any coming or anything do are expecting any of at all we should be good okay good uh Community uh next up was uh community aison updates anything to share from anyone on the uh s's replacement or the bylaw review or anything anything material to share no okay uh correspondence I didn't see or receive anything has anyone else received anything to be discussed no okay as may arise any other ad hoc topics for this evening no fantastic uh I don't see anyone on from the public so I guess we can skip the public participation uh next so then the last and final item was the uh next meeting planning uh so I think we're it's today the 8th right so I think so actually next uh Monday is Patriots Day right so I think when we drafted the schedule we had planned to meet on Tuesday the 16th uh um do we still want to do that I guess do we see a need to meet next week doesn't sound like it you can't you can't on the 16th it's the last day of taxes yeah I can't fun times right um so yeah I would recommend maybe we just skip next week it doesn't sound like we have any like trans Reserve fund transfers or anything coming or anything to that effect so I would suggest we just take the week off enjoy the holiday and then regroup on uh would be the what the 2 22 Yeah so the 22nd so the 22nd will be available to us Cody as well too if the school for some reason is you know ready earlier and wants to meet earlier instead of the 29th we could do that as well but I think we should look to meet the 22nd the 29th um probably May 6th I think we have tenative so we should probably keep that for now uh and then May 13th will be the the town meeting right um excuse me uh outside of that I guess Cody 2 will we going to schedule something for um like a town meeting preparation meeting with selectman and stuff we did that last year I think that was pretty well done so yeah definitely we can look to do that y okay awesome yeah I probably do the uh last week of April first week of May yeah I'm out of the office next week but you'll hear from me the week after okay all right great uh okay all right I think that's it I guess then um somebody like to make a motion to adjourn so move second thank you Michael thank you Cheryl uh roll call vote Frank yes to adjourn please EJ yes Jim yes Bill yes Cheryl yes Michael yes and I am a yes as well uh meeting is adjourned at 7:52 pm and just a quick congratulations to Sandy on her last operating budget Finance commit you miss you Sandy right we know where she lives so have a good night [Music]