##VIDEO ID:_XXpLxEH6OI## good evening this is a meeting of the hamton board of Selectmen being held in the townhouse Auditorium on September no on October 16 2024 at 6 PM please stand for the Pledge of [Music] Allegiance leaders to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God invisible with liberty and justice for all we'll get you help on it'll be all right drump can get away with it well don't start dancing is any uh this meeting is being conducted in person and uh remotely using video conferencing technology is anyone else uh recording the meeting other than ourselves seeing none we'll continue uh first we have the minutes of our September 30th 2024 meeting in which we discussed the health IMA which will probably be signing tonight uh we're talking about the special town meeting warrant a we drafted a letter to the uh ham the wilham Regional School District regarding the uh the lease uh relocate some food permits UL talk about the amance over we appointed a member to the ambulance oversight committee issued some one day liquor permits uh for the event was it was this Saturday was it this Saturday yeah and uh we know we some correspondents from the ham wam Regional School District uh regarding the uh resignation of Aaron Osborne and they want to point someone to the committee to find a new replacement motion to approve second all in favor one thing on those minutes U who's looking into what we talked about with the possible child care for the town meeting that was mentioned in those minutes yeah we're looking into that right now I talked to parks and Ruck and he might know some people to reach out to so we got to talk about that October 7 2024 uh we we approved the hard Springs contract which has been successful for the friends of the senior center more discussion about this uh special town meeting warrant uh we discuss Bill house 4885 the health IM Ima to sign the election warrant more food permits without samples without samples without samples I might add good thank you and uh that's it motion to approve second oh favor I all right next item on the agenda is a meeting with everybody to talk about the town meeting warrant let's say you well thank you for having us [Music] joh you guys need to call the order or anything like that first or you're I know you are posted for tonight if you'd like us to yeah we call ourselves order you're on TV now cuz you're always in order yeah we try to keep things in order all the time John call H the advisory committee to uh to order what six um want to go right to the money articles well why how about how about status first you know where we stand stabilization amount we have a free cash amount and then that's what we're starting with b we can start with start with free cash and stabilization was what was the Free Cash N 21 something like something like that um stabilization right now is 1.89 million um high yield it's actually yeah U well at the last town meeting was only 1.81 so yeah um the interest rates have been favoring us quite a bit um okay I don't know what more you want what order you want to do this and we have a new growth number from the assessors that's a rough estimate that's very encouraging um so I believe I believe we're talking about $438,500 of new tax money on the new grow that was 28 million no yes a preliminary estimate is 28 million and what and one solar was how much about 17 million so I think typically with something like this we talk about a Target we've had these meetings in the past where we and Doug you've always had your feeling and dick same thing about what's to be expected for an increase in the tax bill or the tax rate the town meeting increase the budget by x% without any application Etc it's going to go up by that than we have other things we want to put some money away what does the consensus of what this group is that the tax rate should go up I'm not talking the tax rate because we all talk about the tax bill as well right but the the percentage increase exactly so I me 10 so can you guys share you know if you were I didn't know if you were going to go through article by article um well I thought maybe if you know a goal at the beginning would be where we this is where I think this is where I think we stand based on these assumptions um figuring about $300,000 from the numbers that Brian gave me at at the fall town meeting depending on the last article you were winging it on 75 to 100 for for a town hall move mhm so figure worst case scenario 300,000 there um Kelly was able to give me the new growth number if you applied all the free cash to the tax rate and none of the water project that we authorized at a million a half uh was applied for 2025 the tax increase would be 2.3% 1602 net of any valuation changes obviously values are going up so the tax rate goes down but we were talking about a 23 2.3% um every $140,000 we put on the tax rate is 1% very 140 in spending we put on is is 1% if we applied onethird of the approved Water Project half a million the rate would go up to the tax increase would be 5.8% or 1657 uh um my personal opinion is we have to let the taxes go up we've got too much coming down the line at this point um I would like to see that million and a half that we've already authorized I'd suggest we split it three ways that we put a third of it on the tax rate a third of it out of stabilization and a third of it for borrowing going back to where we started though how much did the budget increase year toe at the annual to meeting 743 th000 thank you so and we before we had the new growth number I was looking at already a 6% increase you know the new growth number saved us on that and gave us some breathing room last year was New Growth was like 150 maybe yeah so that was able to absorb quite a bit of that that budget increase thankfully right the operating the operating budget went up it was 743 th000 in round figures which is about 4.7% that's just the operating budget that's independent of all the Articles the other articles um so I mean my view is that we're that's what we're looking at in terms of the the regular operational cost of the town 4.7% it's it's difficult to talk about inflation numbers with any specificity given how fungible those seem to be but seems to me that we we can't keep our rate down in the the 2 and a half or 3% range when we're spending 4.7% increase but I'd like to see some of less than 4.7% also I think I think the town deserves to be rewarded for the the reasonable fiscal management that's it's displayed well there's a reward to be had from that I just did the U the annual survey that I have to do based on on September 30th for hand County Retirement on our full-time salaries and we're 177% over last year on our full-time salaries um now that that means that's because we have some new positions we also have um obviously an increase in wages and we had an increase in hours so and that's going to so next year's H County Retirement is going to be up 17% Plus compound times 5% that they get anyway and not so people think it's like so the previous ta wasn't applied towards our retirement number but Brian now is so so yeah that you know difference we had like five different people at town meeting who got more extra hours and we did we add a park and wreck too yes yeah so as Doug says the cost this year was 77 right so we're going to be 850 so so you fig probably low 20 in terms of percentage increase so that'd be like a 150,000 increase maybe yeah so you know I appreciate the goal of of being down around that 4.7 but we've got again we've got the Water Project we've got um um we've got the potential for a number of override projects um you know the senior son of the firehouse and whatever is going to happen here um so I'm just I hate to see us I mean I'm as cheap as anybody but cheaper than most but um I'm afraid that we don't build a little bit of cushion in there suddenly we're going to walk in here and have to do a 133% increase when one of those override kicks in and our heck's going to break loose dick perhaps you could just explain that I mean we know but anybody's watching where we talked before it's important to keep that up because you need to keep close to where your Levy is otherwise you have to spend like you said so much catchup to it you turn into an override situation and that's what you're talking about here that you have to keep the pace of there so that you allow yourself the capacity to do something later well the other thing is if we can get like take this water project leaving out the Grant in the second phase at this point here if we can get that paid off in two or three years that would be about when some of the bonds might be kicking in on some of the larger capital projects having that half million come off when we start paying that is going to level things out a little bit you know it's it's the spikes that uh that kill us you know um people can expect prices to go up a couple of three four 5% we've been certainly trained to deal with that in the last three years there was one point probably about 12 years ago that our debt load was about 10% of the budget yeah and we brought it down to the four to five range you know which if you look at the state that's better than they figure in most communities yeah well right you I mean right now the um with the exclusion of the school debt um you know we paid 200 216,000 this year for the police police station so we've we've we've had no short-term borrowing at all and um fortunately when the rates interest rates have been High we've been positioned to be to have cash in the bank and not have to do borrowing right and but that's going to reverse within probably two years I'm guessing my crystal balls a little lazy you remember when the police station comes off so we are in year six of a 20 20 so we've got no really only been six years or we have or we were Banning for a couple years yeah okay and anything that we do whether it be the firehouse C Center or anything like that it's going to be 2 or 3 years and from what I'm hearing I want to push that B that bond out as far as possible um oh you've got a lock you've got a good rate on the police station police station but right right now if we were to bond for another for something it would be over twice that M um we were at a County Association meeting today and we had a financial adviser there talking to us his name was Flynn I don't know how to trust him from New Rochelle but um you know he was talking about if you've got any short-term borrowing this year wait till June because he's expecting four more Cuts before the end of the fiscal year and anything that you have push out three years you have a choice on bonding on so all the small stuff you do internal borrowing anyhow with the small stuff right I haven't had to in a few years but you can't but well what'll happen I'll have to borrow this year probably on the water Pro I can't do an internal borrowing and keep it off the tax rate so if you were to say do what we said and then borrow a half a million then I'd be looking at May or June to get the least the um lowest possible rate but I have to borrow before the fiscal year in order for it not to go on the tax rate or against the free cash I guess at that point so the number four the town meeting articles at this point and Brian you talked Al about the fact that the kwb article is if you want to say w a wild ask I guess at this point right yeah I mean the amount of money the funds that we'll need between now and let's say the annual town meeting we don't really have a good sense of that at this point right well it's actually between now and July 1st you'd be thinking suppose yeah we don't have a sense of the scope of the move is it Rehabilitation of offices is it hiring a moving company is it doing cosmetic before July 1st sure uh yeah starting January 1 right Don yeah January 1 yeah they they they'll pay everything up until July 1st and but we have access to the building if you want to do something you know in terms of actually that brings up a good point that uh don part of that money will cover utility costs Etc then as well which we'll assume at that point well in July 1st right no I'm saying January 1 right no they're going to maintain even though we're moving in they're going to pay the we're not we're not moving in no we own the building as we own the build the building we don't own the building back until July 1 okay but we can but they're going to give us access so that we can plan for J for July 1st right and make upgrades and you know if we have to upgrade something you know those any major expense is going to be July 1st going to be July 1st we the annual mhm honestly you know usually my it's only 100,000 of this you know it's 34 of a perc of the taxes so who cares right but again that's a number I want say pulled out of thin air but it's not it's not a hard number no none of the 300,000 is honestly well quite a bit is I mean the two fire the fire department the uh subject to the voters no no but I mean the rest are good estimates they're solid numbers ready to be voted on yeah so so the water district project if that got pushed off till next fiscal year because at this point I don't think we're going to be any breaking ground until very close to then anyway if anything would that Here's my thought the thought that kind of came to me on this though and Brian did did some spreadsheets on four different scenarios on on the two different grants the AR of money and all that so right now we're budgeting something like $100,000 to do testing MH we think that number will probably go up because they're going to lower the standards Poss and all that if I had to borrow for the entire project it's only 160,000 a year it wouldn't take long for the lack of testing to pay off the borrowing now it doesn't pay back the principal right but given that interest cost versus that testing cost I'd say let's get the water project done as soon as possible and get out from under the testing I guess my my question is even if we do get the funds for it we're probably not doing anything constructionwise until next fiscal year my understanding is the only reason we haven't started phase one is we don't want to hurt our grant applications right and that was supposed to be pending notification fairly soon pending yeah right um I don't see any reason why you couldn't at least start phase one um by the first of the year you think well my my question is would contractors do that type of work in the winter so that's what my thought I might push it off I don't know I don't know the qu answer to that but you got an RFB process you're have to go through take some time anyway I would say honestly I think I asked for I asked for part two with the borrowing authorization where at this fall town meeting I think it's on the warrant right yeah yeah and so then then your options are open I mean we know that you're not going to put you know $2 million on the tax rate right away we're going to find some way to pay for it and the borrowing authorization means that the selectman and the treasurer have pretty full reain over over the time period and and and the method of borrowing here's well here's my other question we talked before about the arpa and the fact that we have a drop dead date on that money now it has to be encumbered or spent by the end of the year Brian obligated by the of this year so if we hear back from the grant it all depends on the level the grant is giving us say we get the good Grant and now the arpa money is available for any other use at that point right because the good Grant you're hoping for gets Us close to with the borrowing close to 100% or you could just borrow less you know and spend less tax money we could too but again we can't do anything until we get that answer from whatever agency two agencies that owe us an answer I understand but the other thing could you say forget the AR forget the arpa thing and use the arpa money to cover the uh twb move but what what what what do they mean by obligated so the the federal definition of of obligated in this instance is there's an order for supplies or services or there's an actual contract in place for supplies or services so let's say hypothetically we went out to bid in November for the water project and we got bids back you know early December we could enter into an agreement with the low bidder to and that agreement would would would satisfy that obligation requirement so we would have to that I would be a political statement can we use the a money for the RFQ then because I mean that's no matter what you're doing even if the Grant's paying for it you need an RFQ the political state is going to make is I would you've already told people that we're going to apply the arbor money to the water district unless that comes through and fully funds the whole darn thing M and you don't allow people to vote on appropriation for the town hall move I don't think I'd want to be sitting up there if that was the case MH I think that would come back and splash it no pun intended was being talking about water Wow saving that one so that was kind of the thing basically so now we're into AR so so the question would be is would be for the finance committee and for the Selectmen is where do they how what do they want the tax rate to do I go along my opinion I go along what Doug and I think you have said before there has to be some the word may not be consequence but when you vote a bigger budget there's a bigger Bill to be paid with it if it can be offset which you've done a great job in the past by using free cash or savings that that's great but you can't expect to buy a more expensive car and have smaller payments for it you're going to have it it is what it is um so if you're saying the budget we voted was 5% higher than last year's budget then you would expect the bill to be 5% higher if we can m miate that somehow by applying free cash and the fact that new growth is better because you guys are out hunting for everything that's great personally I'd like to see it between two and three that may not be used you're saying yes it could happen but that may hamstring us in the future in taking on bigger things down the road so maybe the compromise is four but I think over five when you look at the tax bill in the way people are right now a five plus % increase in your tax bill I think is a lot to ask I think that's too much it's going to happen down the road the 2.3% is without you taking any responsibility on the tax rate for the water project at all M the 5.8 is what the 5.8 is um is the um is putting a half a million on of the water project and using the 900,000 in free cash for oh that was written in that's all that's all against the tax rate we don't we never save our free cash we're now overhand see that gets back into when you say the budget when you say the budget went up 700 plus the Articles and people going to say well you had 900 free cash doesn't that take care of the increase in the bud in the tax rate goes up 0% and that's the you know a lot of moving Parts I know there's a lot of moving parts and you really have to sit with somebody with a you know with a pad of paper and scratch out these numbers to fully understand it you know the bottom line is that the town is is in very good shape you know largely as as a result of the good management of the town I mean we have a a stabilization that's more than 10% of our operating budget the re the state recommends 5 to 10% mhm we have we have the new growth figure which is the largest that I've ever seen we have the free cash number that's close to the largest free cash number that I've ever seen we also have some significant expenses that are staring Us in the face that work just a question of when they go on the rate and it sounds as though you know the water the Water Project we're going to be able to spread and we'll be able to absorb that it's the other it's the other ones that are going to be larger MH um so I mean I think in terms of of where we are today if if we project out a couple of years I think that that's the best we can do given all the uncertainties and and it seems premature to to put 500,000 of the water project on the tax rate when we still have a couple of big questions outstanding um with regards to the Grant and what funding might come through on that uh I mean I I've given my view I mean I don't want to we advise you we have not discussed this these are my personal views these are not necessarily advisories view John I want to answer your question if we applied $900,000 how come the tax rate is is not zero this isn't my question this is a my the question you posed yeah the reason is because we we applied $700,000 to free cash last year to bring the tax rate down to that or 600 ever it was and the year before and every year but that's I'm and that's what the explanation I'm looking for for anybody who watches us both people if you will right um so the difference is only a couple $1,000 spread in the fact that we have a little better free cash this year and it's a c you know it's 20 two M $270,000 more in free cash than we had last year something like that but cuz we're not starting from zero mhm you know if we had zero free cash we would be hurting puppies cuz we're just addicted to using that at the end of the year you know un fortunately cliff goes and prints up all that free cash in the basement if if I could just ask Cliff um does this free cash include that was about a $300,000 rant for the bridge or or is that still outstanding well we now we have a new grant for the bridge some of it's outstanding I believe right it was outstanding yeah um pardon me through Brian's forensic work um we able to get the state to give us that money now it came in after July 1st but Jim padok went in and looked to see that we were getting that money and he allowed it against free cash yes so that was $300,000 right there nice he cannot retire huh he cannot retire October 1st um but a new era exactly uh so that's what the deceiving part about is the deceiving part about the free cash is that number MH it's an old number that we kept getting hit with but now it's cleared up so we don't get hit with it this year m we don't have that same thing carrying forward it's a one time yeah one it's a one one time hit you know so so don what do you think do we want to get a couple of scenarios like if you did this the jump is this much if you do that again without that answer from the grant program really still a little bit up in the air here because that's you could say that's $500,000 right there if they fund that grant that changes everything you're talking about on the Water Project mhm so best case scenario we still got a shortfall didn't we no best case scenario was both grants came through and we were actually more than we needed right if we used arpa we without arpa assuming we were using arpa if we used arpa right yeah okay but we got make sure that AR obligated by the end of the year so if I could just just I did reach out to the mallerie Sven at the rural Affairs office and we should expect Answers by the end of this week on both of those grants okay um you had no more details other than that but um so we should know for a public hearing next week yeah that would be timely if they're able to come through with actually I'm sorry we'll know the answer on the onstop grant the the e emerging contaminants Grant is on a different timeline that's the $1 million Grant um I'm optimistic about that I can't guarantee it but um we're on to the the second phase of the application how much is the One Stop gr for 500 uh 2.2 million I think it's on the pH right yeah it would include the entire project but it would not include uh vertical construction costs so it would would include essentially the pump house but it would include everything else but we have the pump house covered under Appropriations what what are vertical construction C buildings so they won't pay for buildings so if we keep it keep it underground what what I thought if you got both no no go back to your your thing if we got both grants you don't need the arpa if we if we had both grants that would be 3 you look like you're no according to your thing if you got both grants you'd be well over the 3.8 you're looking at for the program are we counting in the appropriation from spring or is that yes yes no that's including the the debt authorization then yes right you would not technically need you but go back to point you said you were going to so you should right hard I mean the best case scenario is what was that fun that was funding for four that was his funding scenario 4 so that's the so even that one even that one we using some of the appropriation money nothing covers everything right I'm just pulling it up 359 229 275 we more because it's only the 1 million plus the the grants will not cover the entire project period if that's the question well we're going to use some of the appropriation but I guess the question was do we use all of it and as John said the the grants plus the appropriation would cover the project right is that's what you're saying John right but if or or do we or do the borrowing authorization from spring or do we use the arpa to minimize the obligation yeah if you used all three if you used both grants in the arpa you'd still have a little bit you'd have to put on the tax rate but not that much right um I mean you know got less than $100,000 which would be kind of nice but it sounded like what we're saying that if we don't Target that ARA money in the next two months it goes away so what else you're going to use it for what I'm saying right now the RFQ would be because that's no matter what we do you're going to need that yeah why not and why should that hurt us with a grant even if we got a grant they're going to require you to get that RFQ sounds like we should at least start on that yeah and is does it make sense to authorize the second part do an RFQ for both and have them B them separately seem like it' be a cough saving because they would use a lot of the same data to develop it yeah yeah I would think so I think you would bit about the same time and have phase a as the as the the base bit and then phase b as the the the ad alternate alternate sure and so we can only enter into that contract once we have we could only accept at alternate the alternate bid as but we need an appropriation or an authorization that's funding which is why we would need to if if the if the voters trust you there's no risk in appropriating um you know an authorizing borrowing at this meeting for phase two now you got if you know if the money comes streaming In from from the state of the feds then we can also adjust that Corporation amount in next week hopefully when we have that one stop information right yeah until the uh yeah the the the amount will be set by the motion that's made at to meeting but in terms of clarity for advisory next week basically they're reading it and still as you said more information allows us to finetune the answer and just anything nothing on the Water Project affects this year's tax rate except how much you decide you want to put on this year's tax rate you know none of nothing we do a town meeting affect with the water district affects this year's tax rate like nothing with the senior center affects this year unless we choose to unless we say but 500,000 you don't do that at the town meeting no we do that in a smoke fi room have a cookie been there before any smoke fi ropes so is it too early for us to actually have a Target figure then for for what the tax increase would look like I mean I we're only talking in a matter of days public hearing but sounds like we may actually have more information well I think you'll go back to Brian saying the special time meeting is looking at $300,000 right Brian between in the warrant articles yep that could come out of free cash leaving you $620,000 to do something with this is a mechanical exercise M personally I would prefer if we raised an appropriate anything and then just apply all the free cash of the tax rate sadly nobody likes what I what I say on that case no no that's that's that allows you to Levy that I like that no so in the end it makes no difference historically we like to do transfers because it sounds like we're not spending money you know oh we're just taking out this avilable P pile but in the end of the day all it is is a math problem we have exactly the same tax rate I agree but it also your Levy looks different because you did raise an appropriate percent instead of transfer how do you portray that to the public though to get them to understand that it's very very difficult um I don't think it is but I I think it's very simple that we're going to take this pile of money and use it to reduce the tax rate at the end and it it makes no difference which method you use I don't think that's that hard a concept but new math new Math versus old math new Math versus old math okay well the details the details can get a bit Yeah consuming but the concept is to use the money as efficiently as possible minimize any any spikes in the rate in coming years I that's essentially what we've always tried to do um this year it seems like we have a few more considerations than than we typically do but we also have more available than we typically do so you gave us a spreadsheet well you gave us an option sheet if you will just like you said if we took the 300,000 for the fall town meeting the new growth the 900 didn't talk about the Water Project you had roughly 2.3% increase that is correct if we took said 500,000 from the on the Water Project but used arpa at the first 500,000 that instead of the 500 you talk about bringing it up to 5.8 would that get us into the four because the Project's more than a million and a half I understand so we we we we've appropriated a million and a half I'm assuming that we going you need to spend that because you already took the arpa money off the top no we didn't yeah you did the total project cost no no not for phase a we didn't phase a the 1.5 was worst case if we use no arpa but we planned on using arpa in that 1.5 right we had talked about lowering it down to like 9 something at one point but then we we can't get sens to but we said look if the arpa wasn't available we got to make sure we cover our basis but it could be lower this document says 1.67 225 right is what phase one is going to cost us it's G up yeah okay so we appropriated a million and a half so obviously in my mind well it's 171 in change MH out of the 275 in oura there's only 100,000 in slush there no I don't know where the I want to say project creep but I mean we were at5 last spring so if you look at the breakdown from time Bond on phase a and phase B they separate Out Construction phase engineering cost so Construction Administration costs so that that total project cost it's a a crude way to do it but I split that 4 68450 in construction Administration costs and added half to phase a and phase B because we'll need to pay those they had two contingencies too I think and they had there's contingencies within phase a and phase B and then they had this agreement 174 and 40 but those that's mostly paid already so I I took that out but there are that construction Administration costs that are on top of that phase a and phase B that weren't included so that's let's make this simple okay um if you're not comfortable with the 58 that I'm that I projected here and remember these are all estimates you know we get swings here and I don't want Don coming back and yell at me because his tax bill went up 5.9% instead of 5.8% well he's got that new Paving coming so I mean the value should be right new road coming we we're working with 2.3 if we do nothing other than spend the 3 ,000 a town meeting in a play every 140 is 1% how much you want to spend that's the simple question what's your Target and we'll just plug the numbers to get as close as we can what would the advisory like to advise we as a group haven't discussed it I mean tonight is our first meeting on this war um you know and I I wouldn't be comfortable saying advisor is recommending X without having a little bit more disc on that good but I think this has been a good form to explore our option at this point I don't think we need to and Don you know call this to say let's get all the ideas out on the table well you know as long as we have a number by 6 o' in town meeting well I think the Assessor's going back they're going to get that new actually that's all I need does the board does the board have a a figure in mind I mean have you a number we haven't kicking around no we haven't we haven't discussed it either you're in the same we're hearing the same thing you know this is really the first time everybody's really seen numbers yeah based on what we're hearing you probably throw out say well 2.3 is probably a little too low 5.8 obviously too high I mean are we looking at four four and a half obviously well that's why I was throwing out the four I think the four based on what you passed at town meeting you can't not expect the budget to go up you spent more money the tax rate has to go up to compensate that we can mitigate that increase by good use of what we've done here all right more to come next week Article 1 two 3 and four we can skip no money there although we'll have to stip in for the for we go up up two more we just divide by five oh they all be working with same money now Don's voting against it right now he needs that um five is the five isn't costing any money right that's that's a n six isn't bring money in seven Insurance account what are we talking there 90,000 uh is 90,000 yeah5 there in health insurance cost that was that was additional health benefit stick is that what that wasth life insurance Health life insurance change yeah I can send you out a breakdown of that it's based on the current rates and our current enrollment numbers and expenses from recap when all the number that one there plans have many but we have seen increases in that apparently the ACT loaded a lot more prescription cost onto the insurance companies so they're averaging like a $50 a month for the medic plus a little bit hit but we've only got about four people on each other PL that kick in this go up more then [Music] the police department contractual education incentive $7,500 article 9 is the cemetery commission M they need EXT they need money for tree and erosion control $7,500 keeping we're keeping that as a warrant article Brian not adding it to their budget line right um it's written as it's adding it to their budget line currently we want to increase that do we want to make it a permanent increase I thought it was a onetime thing okay so what you're saying is I thought it was a I thought he added I thought he asked inrease it if you keep it as a warrant article they don't have to spend it by July 1st either but are they going to keep it as a maintenance for maintenance it's going to add to their line for maintenance yeah but I think they should discuss that the annual that's a that whole thing is a little confusing they got two different Perpetual care accounts and a revolving fund and an expense account and I'm not sure if anybody's got a full grasp on what's available for them why wouldn't it go into the expense account well it's the only place it could maintenance unless it's an our Standalone article right say they a maintenance account for lawn care that is that's that is an expense account that's as expens but I would think if they're doing erosion control they're not doing it every year we're going to fix the problem and then we're done right did ceter come in and speak with you yeah yeah you did okay because we had a rather abbreviated discussion with them this year because of their membership issues yeah um I mean my only reservation is you know is building in a $7,500 increase into an operating budget without having discussed it I think it's a one time thing because they're talking about erosion control doing something andion control and then next year if they need to make a more update as Craig said to their they make that case for that with everybody with advisory well they have enough money in their Perpetual care account to handle it yeah yeah but is is does the Perpetual care account allow that or is it just or is it just for certain gradation is it interest only from the Perpetual care is for use of the cemetery commission and we have two of those we have the Perpetual care account and then we have the old bumpstead account for 2,000 that we've had since I've been here and those all have generated at least $7,500 right now but are those you leave the principal alone and you can interest okay clipse accounting there's two separate Expendable Expendable numbers okay any my my point was just I think that should be a separate warrant article not a change their operating to their line I agree with that they don't have the money already that's what I'm saying Senior Center how much make their case I think it's at six was 5.9 62 was the presentation number that's going to go on bands anyway right rounding it up it was 5 three years at least 2000 what do you want I would try to push it that long yes John was around that right 5.96 something like that what what number do you want in the motion 5.9 yeah I think Gary might Gary or John's got that number not to exceed okay water district we got this we're going to do 2 million I think at this point I think that's the best path forward would be to seek a borrowing authorization for 2 million but we may hear by the at least that one stock Grant by the end of the week so we might amend that before advisory next week she may have lied to you too could have let's follow up with there tomorrow just to so the does that need a warrant I mean you already we did the 1.5 which we said we could fit inside the levy we didn't need to get a vote for it if we do this too on top of that is that going to require a that depends on how long we take to pay it off okay just ask him yeah so it's what we put on the tax rate not what we what we authorize like I said if we if we borrow the whole 1.5 nothing goes on the tax rate doesn't affect the levy limit right but if we borrow the full 3.5 nothing goes on the tax rate you pay that off the interest goes back on a recap that's it and like I said I'd love to have that 100,000 Plus in testing money go away that's a 2third vote yeah because it's borrowing so we're going to have two articles in a row asking him to borrow $8 million yeah 8 million oh two total total sorry okay 10,000 for the fire station best this 10,000 10 10 Article 13 the generator Don I looked into this for $4,000 you can get a real long extension cord and tie it to the generator over here be Town Hall can we just dig that can we really do that though just dig it and technically you could yeah I mean although you're worri about the drop I mean you're talking probably at least two outwire all as I know is this in August of 2021 they came to us and said we need a generator we approved it m we spent $35,000 in arpa money in March of 22 they said it was going to be delivered in October 23 it was delivered the blank thing has been sitting there since October I have 80 emails asking when are we going to get it done and I've got 81 different answers about we need a we need a we need an engineering study so we spend 6,200 bucks a that for some guy to tell us that you needed a schematic well no freaking kidding right now we have now we have a stamped schematic the electrical inspector doesn't know what to do the building inspector doesn't want know what to do the Fire Commission the fire chief doesn't know what to do so my quot my thing is I say we sawell the goddamn thing and say good luck we because we have we've been water for three years anyhow so what difference does it make let's say 50,000 bucks you should see the emails I ask a question I ask a question what's the status I don't know oh I talked to building inspector what did he say he says talk to the electrical guy I talk to the electrical guy I don't know we need a schematic no we don't need a schem didn't didn't we have a plan that they were going to pull the wire in the in the highway that was going to pay cement what happened to that this 50,000 is Will so we went out to bid for this project right yeah $48,900 yep just for the electrical work well that I'm sorry that include the electrical work and the excavation and the pad workor so now we take the padwork out the excavation work out but now we need to put it out the bid because it's over $10,000 well guess what I'm we may have electronic voting but I'm a no vote on that one there goes there goes the mystery now what number are we looking at that's yeah 50 I I don't think it will be that much but cost 35,000 for the thing it's costing us 50,000 to install it plus we paid 6,200 for a guy to tell us we need a 50,000 actually done that is tell you the wire of the this one isn't the that is the price that that was returned was the 48,000 for that money we could buy an F-150 with the generator built into it that's right they just plug it in we need it get long extension all right buy a garage door that you could open by hand that's my story I'll be at the advisory committee to speak on that issue all right uh this is the guest article 5050 that's oh you I'm joking that's article 14 20,000 for is why 20,000 oh cuz we want to get 400 of them yep it's 18 and some change and then and then we rent them to other grounds just a question but why are we buying them before we test them we we're going to test them at this meeting yeah but we got to vote for we're renting them at this meeting yeah no I know yeah but you're renting them and we're still using them and we're voting on what to buy them yeah but what if we don't like them we don't have the ex this article we can just you know okay just renting we just renting it for one meeting right no I know thate he's asking why are we just a dumb question why are we purchasing them if we haven't finished the meeting yet that we oh yeah I see what you're say yeah but we don't have to we're just authorizing the purchas how many get back when they walk out the door well that's they're GPS tracking well we've already voted buy 400 we don't have to do it though right but we don't have to do it to our public hearing for right no I'm serious just me cuz I had the same question fact that all right all right more to come U let's see Article 15 that's shot in the dark one quick point and probably on 14 look the other option would be to say okay we'll rent them again in the spring and put the article on the spring and say we've got some experience there to do it which is always a fallback for the board at that point because the rental cost was 10 two two rentals is going to equal the purchase I know that but if people aren't comfortable with it we rent again no the rental wasn't 10 was it no 4500 the rental was 4500 right although we may need more for the spring but either way so we always have that option 20 20K yeah 18 and some change I think I know in the whole budget it's a a little piece of dust yeah don't just say yeah yeah 20,000 here 20,000 there adds up to real money thank you Senator diction Direction whatever Article 15 I guess at this point yeah I mean what do we need to do there uh well the biggest thing will be whether the spring cors are needed or not but this really won't cover that um um but but well this isn't going to this this is just going to from here to there here to July to the town actually to the town meeting because at the town meeting in annual town meeting we'll know what moving costs are what Renovations and everything that got to be done right y so I don't know if 100,000 if we need 100,000 cuz I'm trying to figure out what we're doing we can look at the space we can y well aren't there the two bathrooms on the southern side are not 8 correct so we the ones on the to the left of the school so this could potentially upgrade those and get that work done before people move in yeah um um it could do painting it could do ceiling tiles it could do any furniture modifications that are needed that's assuming that we have access and then you know access to the access to the building it's assuming we can have access to the building to make those M modifications after January 1st the security in the door key is going to be significant right we don't know if any of the internet infrastructure staying behind the Wi-Fi right Brian and I talked about potential for more internal doors to allow sectionalization for different use different hours of use so yeah Library wanted to have night hours we could like close off office par you got Library you got Park and wck and you got town hall or all different schedules right plus apparently that performance space the cafeteria will sometimes be used for other things yes right so we need to have be able to do that but there are a lot of internal doors they just may need you know locks maybe we need some right exactly what about janitor we've got the whole fire escape problem respons Oh this is to get yeah uh we need we need compliant uh exit lights mhm there's a number of things we just need to finalize that you're comfortable with that I I think this is going to be low okay but low is overall I think I think it's 100,000 M well is good we're going to we're going to get 50,000 from the generator to go over there later on what's going to cost us we have a generator we just bring no we'll move this one over my gosh yeah well you got to decide what you're doing this building too at some point at some point Y okay um Community preservation that's for the scoreboards right 20,000 mhm the next 17 is no no money article so 17 you almost could have gone with the other two articles it's all related to the EV EV right uh this was a moratorium on the uh battery storage the this is in zoning or general this is zoning so 2/3 2/3 on that one it's just proposal coming from the zoning board of appeals or or planning board planning board um we then we got the transfers right unappropriate available cash 20 General stabilization and putting in and taking out right easy in in and out can I complicate it for a second yes thank you um so for 78 and9 I'd be disappointed if you didn't so for 78 and9 for example is that rais in appropriate or is that available funds yes I don't remember how the discussion ended we didn't we didn't the end it doesn't matter right but for the motion it does because it needs to come from somewhere understand I like raising appropriate traditionally we have done transfer from unappropriate available funds that was a good down answer so I guess you not my decision we're not there yet we're not there yet customarily it's out of free cash okay for for the special meeting which is neither for any additional amounts thank you for any additional amounts typically available funds unappropriate available funds okay it just means we're doing more the table Yeah Yeah there okay what you got that's it all right not complicated thank you everyone see you Monday night one time we're meeting we're gonna meet thee of that 630 if I remember correctly y we're going to meet at 6 6:30 for he's talking about the advisory next Monday yeah we have a regular 600 our meeting's closed busy busy people thank guys thank you all for coming thank you take a cookie H your server cie excessive deficiency oh that's Steve got think all right next item is the tww lease update tww we all set on that yeah I sent out the the uh edited version that the school committee had agreed to and with your approval I will send that to the district for signing I think we talked about at their next school committee meeting they're going to be at the school they're going to be a Thor and burgers on the 24th so that would be nice to get that done there do you want to sign it at that are you planning on attending that as well or do you want to sign it before you want to sign it after I think we should sign it there I think we should sign it there we canst we can post meeting and then we can go sign it there it'll be there in 10 minutes and they'll give you the keys and you'll be fine ke out our building security so I'll send that and this and this incorporates what we talked about last week um it took out all those things that we didn't like yep like they can take back the building anytime they want yeah yeah that that's gone okay they're pretty amiable to that so I said I I felt the uh you know the interaction with the school committee last week went very well you know for the most part they heard what we had to say they agreed with it and K kicked us out surely and thank you very much okay so we good with that y uh the health IMA so uh the comments from Town Council were were forwarded to the board really the only uh substantive comment that I think needs to be addressed is that the notice section needs to be filled and so a motion that would approve the IMA with that Amendment identifying either the Board of Health chair or the Town Administrator as the person to reive notice under the agreement uh other than that I think it was it's ready to go okay so moved second all in favor do we sign this now uh we got to make that we need to make that change and actually all three of the towns need to make make that change oh um cuz they need to add the filling that all right so we're not saying we will not physically sign it until it's till they change it but you can sign it it'll be in the office don't need to vote on it separate vote on it okay Colman reports uh basically we have another building committee meeting coming up Monday looking forward to that and planning board obviously we know what's uh what the meeting was last week and the vote for that yeah and uh pretty much it for that we may have of some report on housing later now the meeting uh the committee for this assistant superintend search is meeting next week to go over a basic training before the actual the master plan committee met today with the consultant we had a long discussion about the uh we've got seven or eight draft chapters done we we talked about the introduction and we next week we're meeting we're meeting for the next three Wednesdays to uh make changes edits and the chapters get it to them they'll do it and by the way they've got H how many 50 beautiful pictures of the town from the Drone did a nice job with them yeah so we're going to get those who's draw not M no BHB yeah BHB did them yeah so all right a couple good events over the weekend I want to say safety was excellent event yeah and then they had that I can't remember the name of it clean for clean clean up for the Cure cure good attendance good weather yeah administrat report as I mentioned earlier we expect an answer on the stop Grant by the end of the week that's for the water hopefully um excuse me I did a walk through at twb with the library staff the library trustees and the parks Rec director um it went very well I think I think it helped for people to see the space and start having discussions about how things might actually fit in when the move is made so it was pretty positive pretty positive um we'll be implementing the two- Factor authorization on the emails very shortly uh to improve the security on those and I'll be finishing up a a memo to the staff about sort of laying out the next steps for the move to twb um and last week the plan board issued the special permit for 16 Summers Road the Garvey ESS the Garvey case right 16 Summers Road they issued this special permit that two two summers Road um issued the special permit that was ordered by the judge so now there's a 21-day appeal period for that special permit it's been five with the town Kirk today so or yesterday um that's about it ministra of assistance report got nothing anybody want a babysit anything else to before the board Mo second all in favor got it have a pumpkin cookie now not on camera keep the camera going keep the camera going that's it want scker