I'm going to call um the mayard um finance committee meeting to order at 7:02 p.m and I'm going to go through the zoom script here so as a preliminary matter this is Jillian Prendergast I am the chair of the finance committee please permit me to confirm that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me Members when I call your name please respond in the affirmative Linda yes and Katie I can do notes tonight until Calin gets here you did last time sure thanks Linda thank you uh Nathan yes Katie yes Peter yes Kadija yes thanks all right and C is not here so um we'll continue on with the script here for the zoom meeting so um good morning this is an open meeting of the finance committee it is being conducted via Zoom speakers on the agenda will be participating remotely and the chair may allow for public to provide comment um please note that while an option for remote attendance and or participation is being provided as a courtesy to the public the meeting will not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt up the virtual broadcast to individual attendees unless otherwise required by law accordingly Please be aware that other folks may be able to see you and hear you so please take care not to screen share your computer anything that you broadcast may be captured by the recording this meeting is being recorded uh for meeting materials please see board dos uh you can find a link on the town of mayored um finance committee website um all of the meeting materials for this meeting uh will be available on that board dos website we recommend the members and the public to follow the agenda I've posted on board dos unless I note otherwise um and now uh we will turn to the agenda because I don't think any of the other Zoom meeting comments apply tonight so the agenda so our big objective tonight is to talk about all of these annual town meeting or ATM articles there are a lot um and we have gotten I think we're up to ah or AF now um so there there's quite a few new ones that have also been added since the last time we spoke um I can pull up the draft so um thanks for the members who have sent some draft uh comments um and I know was hard because some of the articles are not were not shared until I received them which was uh Friday or today so uh so and before we jump into the ATM stuff um because I think that'll be the majority of the meeting perhaps we would like to also talk about some of our other uh posted items such as past meeting minutes and maybe just vote on those quick um and maybe just do a quick update it sounds like a lot happened at the budget meeting and stuff too so before we get super deep into the articles that that is what I would suggest we go a little bit of out of order because last time we got kind of stuck doing not doing those um so I have minutes for let's see February 26th and also March 11th so I'll bring up the February 26th one first so we can vote on those so thanks all for switching back and forth on the minutes uh it is much appreciated so the 26th meeting was when we talked to Chris the chair of the planning board um about the different articles there Jillian the only thing I wasn't 100% positive on is if I got the reserve fund balance right but I looked back and I don't think any motions were made sense then for transfers we've only had one so far okay good all right so we do have another one um but we're going to talk about it after the ATM okay because we're a little slamber now yeah I move to approve and I will second the minutes for February 26 all right so Linda has moved and Katie has seconded is there any further discussions comments or questions um I just to quibble on on point number two uh the line about with new where we're talking about the BTA communities law with new zoning regulations regarding by right DSE zoning and Manor being adjacent to it um like I know what that means because I was here but like maybe if we call it like being in an adjacent Community or something it just seems a little unclear to me an adjacent uh what the what the term yeah that makes sense Nathan um is that in the article it's actually the old Stratus property instead of Strat ah yes adjacent Community is the term so ad Manor being an adjacent community that yeah was it sorry adjacent Community yeah okay yeah I believe so yeah was trying to bring up the other NBTA see I should just keep it simple and say discussion regarding zoning bylaws were had you learn as you go okay all right so uh the minutes have been amended do we have to make another motion for approving minutes as amended Peter do you know that M I don't think so no all right are there any other further comments or suggestions on this no all right so I will take a roll call vote um Kitty baby Nathan yes FIA yes Peter yes Linda yes Kavin uh I will abstain okay so Cavin will abstain uh I am a yes so that is six yeses and one abstain as amended to approve the minutes of February 26 all right uh so I will save these 26 all right so uh the next one is March March 11th all right um so this is when Justin was attending do talk about the DPW articles um and the golf force and the trash task force I am not entirely sure if this new program is 100% offset I think that's the goal but I don't remember hearing that myself maybe this new program will strive to have a or [Music] um I don't know I would say one of the options one of the options that the task force is considering will have 100% offset okay because they have I mean they I I know they probably issued the recommendation but at the time disc microphone is up and not down Kevin you found far away oh there we go yeah oh and yeah so when we discussed this the the uh com the commission had not issued their recommendation yet um but Justin said and this is something I asked about because he had previously presented on this um one of the options they were considering would possibly have a 100% offset of solid waste disposal costs okay so should I just should I change this to say something like several programs are under consideration some of which we'll have yeah I think that would be acceptable e wasn't this the meeting that we discussed the tree committee bylaw with Justin I do believe we also asked about that as well that's why I'm sort of scrolling down to see if that was in there but we did ask him about it and he said it was he was the tree Warden and that he he was had worked with the tree committee um and I believe he expressed support for the language something like that all right this looks good to me I'll make a motion to approve these minutes as amended I will I will second all right so Nathan has moved and Cavin has second to approve the meeting minutes of March 11th as amended any further discussion or comments all right hearing then I will take a roll call vote uh Katie yes Linda yes yes Nathan yes Gavin yes uhia yes Peter yes uh I am also yes I think that was everyone right it's hard when I'm sharing my screen um okay so that is seven yeses um for approving the meeting minutes of March 11th so I can send these as amended uh over to the clerk approved great all right um okay so for today there's a lot of ATM articles um before we jump into those are there any uh updates that people want to talk about I know it sounded like there was a pretty big budget meeting earlier in the week or last week yeah I was on the budget subcommittee um and I wrote down some highlights of it I think the biggest conversation between them was just understanding assets numbers which yeah I know they're just at our meeting so we got you know a lot of the same information um already but they just kind of dove into that a little bit more because it hadn't been presented to them yet um or for many people on that committee um but they talked about fy2 24 revenue and how investment income is up which is great because rates are up you know that might not continue for a whole lot longer after this year but but that's been a plus um Capital planning committee would like a line item in the budget so they were on there to to put through that request um and I know that was discussed at the tri board or the joint budget meeting so so we knew that was a topic on their mind just in order to apply for Grants um free cash um police they tend to be spending a little bit more in because of turnover um free cash concerns was that personal contracts we are spending money on in free cash and that's more of an oper ational thing but it seems to not be a onetime only it seems to be an occurring thing um and so that was brought up um net local Aid was less um and than anticipated uh we need to lessen our Reliance on paig and then aset um and it was just a a big you know we and we already went through this but it was you know it based on Manards um income and home values and and other factors determined our rate so we're paying more even though our attendees dropped and if there was room for negotiation and um that that took up most of the discussion which I I feel we were already on page that everyone else was on just because we had them in our last meeting um yeah so those are my takeaways awesome thank you for sharing yeah Peter did you have anything you want to talk about for the budget subcommittee meeting uh no I had to miss that meeting so uh Katie was the only one who can report yay okay um excellent thanks for that do any of the other members have updates that you would like to talk about or concerns before we jump into ATM stuff uh talked to the vice chair of the tree committee about the bylaw but that might be better to talk about in the context of that sure thanks for reaching out to them yeah Danny actually lives next door to me so I just like I don't know I just asked him like what the deal was and got a pretty I feel like I understand a lot better now okay neat um I did have one update so it actually turns out next week I have a work obligation um so I'm actually not going to be able to make the meeting next week so is that something Katie you would feel comfortable running if I make sure you can get the zoom login and stuff sure I mean I it probably will just do we have any guests or will it mainly just be finishing up our comments and voting on The Articles um well that's I guess we can jump to Future planning yeah I think it would probably just be finishing up the Articles so we do I do have an update for committee that we now have graciously been given until April 19th to give in our recommendations and vote I don't know if that's enough time but we do in instead of the ninth we have been given 10 additional days um to make the printing of the warrant so you know we could do we'll see if we can get it all done but if we don't it's not the end of the world um we will do the best in in the past we've had some articles where we just don't have enough time to vote on everything and make all our comments um so that will give us an additional couple of meetings so well will I'm sorry but I'm looking at April 19th is we don't have a meeting right so that'll only give us another meeting if we meet on the 15th which will be like fourth four times we've met in a row three times it'll be a lot in a row and that's President's Day so that's not sure I guess we could meet but it is a holiday I don't think wasn't at other times the town clerk has heavily discouraged meeting on state holidays they I don't know they wouldn't give me a firm answer that it was prohibited but um okay I didn't know definitely discouraged it I believe yeah it's Patriots Day yeah sorry Patriots Day not President's Day yep well then we don't actually have any additional meetings unless we meet on a day other than a Monday um yeah it didn't even um at least it gives us time behind the scenes if we need to be drafting things I'm sorry set cut out what did you say oh just that at least it gives us time behind the scenes to if we have to draft comments during that period of time yeah it it makes it tricky though because of open meeting law so we can't send comments around to everyone on the committee without having I see an open yeah so I don't know if we want to set another meeting on the eth I think is Linda on the eth is that are you also not going to be able to attend is that the one no I just the eth I'm attending the one I can't attend is in June the tri board meeting but a I can attend y okay there some reason I had that stuck in my brain thanks for the clarifying um yeah because it's important to also make sure you're going to have a quorum so um yeah so if we want to set another meeting currently our next meeting would be on the eth and uh what are we the second are we the second so be the 8th and the 22nd is our meeting c um yeah not sure why the 19th is the deadline now but one option would be to push back to Greg and say we'll give him comments on the 23rd which would be the day after our next meeting yeah and then you know depending on whether that's successful or not we could decide about a future meeting on the eth maybe see if we need it y okay I'm taking notes I'm kind of thinking we should H plan to have the meeting on the 8th next week and then see if we need to do anything before the 19th yeah I'm sorry I thought we were definitely meeting on the eth my understanding is we're definitely meeting on the eth Jill as one person cannot make that meeting oh right and is so is a Katie all set up to chair that meeting next week yeah she can pass me all the stuff okay cool to be able to do that yeah so the only thing you might need to do is you might need to log into the zoom account before in case you get need a code to get in and then Greg Wilson will be able to give you help with help with that right okay I remember that from last time all right okay um yeah so those that was my uh my my updates for this time so I think hearing no other updates or comments we can probably jump right into the article um all right let me pull them up all right so we are now we now on version number four of our draft comments so so I highlighted in yellow the ones that we have not yet voted on um and we have gotten some of these articles in um I also got um so from Linda you had I didn't get um new versions of these articles but you did note that some of the numbers were slightly off and I believe in his emails Justin was saying that that is cor correct they are off or at least for one of these um so that's something we can also talk and there are quite a few of these I got AG ah and the rooster law today at like 4:30 or something so I forwarded those to everyone as well um and we did get clarification that what I was calling last time in our meeting I2 is actually uh ad so that was the amendment to the community preservation fund and we voted on that one last time so I just wanted to update everyone on that that it now is called ad uh because when we were looking at it it didn't have uh a number so to speak um so we can jump into these I don't know if we want to do them in a certain order or just do them alphabetically but I can bring all these up um should we start with the meaty ones first maybe like some of the ones at the at the beginning like the free cash and the general fund before we get articled out sure oh yeah sorry we have those now we have those now so we have article C and then in article c um so I can bring that up I did want to let you know that um this this is sort of what Greg was saying about it so um this is not our comments but he was saying at the budget subc commune meeting it was talked about and looking at some of the freecash for different contracts and things like that so I can only share one of these at time but uh maybe it'll make more sense if I show you what they're saying to do the free cash with and we can look back at this comment if we need to um so this is control C so this is the amount of available free cash and this is the proposal spending of it so they're saying that this is they're also submitting some uh Capital planning articles here or um things here for proposal of one-time Capital items for these um here I don't know how to make this but um there's quite there's there's uh several Pages here of comments I don't know if making this bigger as helpful but Jillian who decides the priorities for free cash who basically is it Greg Johnson who does this yes yes okay I mean I'll just say from being on the senior center committee it's kind of sad that we didn't get like at least 50,000 to you know they're working to find a place an FY 25 that maybe you get a half a year lease or something on a place um and I don't know that would there was any any opportunity to put that idea for I'm sure all of these are worthy projects but so am I understanding correctly Linda that um you feel like there should be some money for the senior center lease to get them out of the golf the golf club it would you know it would be yeah would be it's not sure if it should be here or in the budget but some you know we had talked about having them have a line item in the budget um even a zero align item um but they had asked at town meeting in it was in the fall right they had asked to have money from free [Music] cash to do a short-term lease yeah so and I'm not sure I I don't know if this is the place to talk about well we'd rather spend free cash on something else or do we just up or down I mean these all look like worthy projects too I can't say that yeah none of these are not worthy yeah so there was issues with the wording the last time we came around with that at annual um that it was not up to Snuff um but that was not not that proposal was was done by citizen petition it wasn't done through a Town based committee um it wasn't done through a town a town government committee that was um and I believe they were asking the money from Capital planning at that point well they were asking from I thought the article Warr was from free cash but I that's what I thought because it was they were they were anticipating a lease not a capital expense but um I think it was for free cash over several years they wanted a am yeah that's right I know I know I know it's just it's too bad we don't have an input into but it was it was my understanding that they wanted to do the study first to figure out yeah 2,000 square feet or 3,000 square feet and to be more spe specific about what they want for the lease then they ask for the money for the lease yeah and and you're right Kad maybe it's premature at I mean they still are they still are working we're visiting senior centers and yeah right and and there's also oh go ahead Pete I'm sorry to cut you off okay just uh my recollection is the they had asked for a five-year funding from free cash in the citizens petition at town meeting and that was supposed to be the interim solution which I think was then a lease at clock cow place or whatever we call it now yeah um that and that was kind so it didn't really need to wait on the study but I mean I think the ruling from Town Council was it wasn't a binding thing or um there was some issue with it so it passed asked but you know was an advisory kind of thing um that said I mean this is the Forum if you want to push back Linda I me this is as much Forum as you're G to get to say wait a minute um there's nothing in here for the senior center yeah I mean I would definitely say that there's nothing in here for fy2 it's one opportunity for the senior center for some temporary lease cost at least you know they don't know might even be a half a half a year by the time they do an RFP um Katie maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe one of the changes to the free cash plan which there had been earlier versions of this floated at budget subcommittee um was they went from one Cruiser to two Cruisers yes yes so at one point Greg was thinking you know given the limit to free cash we would only do one Cruiser for I assume 55,000 right and they switched it to two Cruisers the initial estimate for free cash I believe was about 1.25 million uh was what they were working with and now it is 1.37 million um so I mean at this point I don't know if it's the finance committee that would Lobby back to say hey wait a minute what about the senior center but you as a fincom member Linda could certainly go to Greg and say hey wait a minute what about the senior center um or to the select board um so you know I mean this this is Greg proposing the spending to the select board that then has to approve it and then put it on the warrant as article um so it's really their plan for how to spend it but that would be the push back and I mean it still can be changed [Music] um so you know if you want to wait to vote on this because you want to do some lobbying or get some other seniors to do some lobbying for it that seems perfectly fine uh but this is as much chance as we're going to get to weigh in on this is right now and then that would come our because this is going to be printed in the warrant so our lobbying would just be to say we would we would recommend these amendments to it or is it too late now this it it is not too late to change the article okay so we would have you know until April 19th really okay um to get the article changed okay so what I'm hearing is that we might have some recommendations or additional questions to Greg on this article Y and so let can I have a little a week to do my lobbying I'll I'll ask um uh the senior center [Music] committee there is a capital stabilization fund item in here which is nice yeah which is also one of my favorites but I mean there's nothing there's nothing here that isn't you know that's the problem there's nothing not worthy right I go through that conquered Street intersection every day it's like but like I mean at the special town meeting it was like a clear majority of Voters like there there was political like will behind having something for the budget to the to a new Senior Center yeah I think that's like a worthy thing to push back on yeah are there any additional questions about any of these other proposed items based on comments um because we can also ask about those too at the same time uh I'm curious about the police cruisers as well like Peter pointed out that it was originally one now it's to um it does say that it's intended to meet sustainability initiative so I don't know how that ties into other goals of the Town um yeah so I'd like to know a little bit more about that I think they were electric or hybrids but I don't remember I don't want to miss Jillian for the sake of spe could we could we draft a a quick email to Greg in the select board asking for more I guess it would just be Greg right now because uh I don't know if the select if the or if the select board has already seen this could we draft a letter to Greg and the select board asking for their rationale um for two police cruisers instead of one well I think the history has always been that we try to do two every year okay um but that is I don't know if we're replacing him every four years or whatever the you know standard timeline is would be that we would do two every year now we've sacrificed that in some years because of limited funds um so I guess we could revise it what would the tradeoff be if we were to free up free cash for something like the senior center what would the consequences be um for only doing one police cruiser instead of two are we looking at like increased maintenance costs you know let's just ask you know what's the rationale for doing two a year I know it's historically we've done it two um but what I'm always wary of is like asking you know why are we doing this process or why are we making this decision and the answer is like well we've always done it like I I want to know you know what the financial slash um goals of our town are that we're trying to satisfy with two um instead of one I imagine there's probably a good reason because as you said we've we do it every year but I just want to know what that reason is y okay no other questions about any of the other proposed items on this list all right so I'm making a list of all the questions we have as things come up so my understanding is we're not going to vote on this tonight um I'm going to ask for more information about the Cruisers and also the senior center okay so our next one who many windows open um I did want to note for article C that we just talked about he is recommending to put more money back in the capital stabilization fund because it was withdrawn for the fer school um agac replacement so that's one of the reasons it's a line item there this year which I I don't think was in the sponsor comments maybe it was and I missed it um so the next one we can talk about is e so that is the general fund budget so I will bring that up oh boy St sharing share this one okay so this is how uh it is currently being proposed to split out by the major line items here um so appendix a is not is not something I have I don't actually have sponsor comments for this this is this is a hot off the press here um appendix a is the listing that uh shows the general fund budget by department so you know assessors town clerk Etc within each of these categories and shows generally just salaries and expense totals um is that always what their comments say isn't it more comment I mean yeah I mean usually there's a run through on changes [Music] um you know uh what does the fire one look like yeah that's what I was trying to go find all right this is no that's all the comments there were last year too yep so see last year we actually made our recommendation at town meeting question can I find the um the presentation to at the ltown meeting um at board dos from last year yes I found it Cadia I was fishing around today and it's posted um oh where did I see it posted it I no it I didn't put it on bardocks I found it here yeah on the town website okay all right I was looking on thank you you yeah if you type it in um you can just type in annual town meeting and it comes up with all the ones from the past so ah okay and all the comments and yeah okay I was looking at I wonder if the finance committee additional comments did we was that our after would that include maybe yeah this is our additional comments so that's the free cash comments this is the budget this is what we said last year so I think last year our main concern was how much um the increase was for the school MH so the schools are going from well I'm trying to open Excel but my computer might crash so um it's going from 222 to 228 39 yeah so the big jump yeah let's see I think I can stop sharing and screen share my whole screen just to show this one part um this is the lineup for the last time you can see General government PS here here the big one of the big jumps potentially is uh the employee benefits The Debt Service looks like it goes up a lot but that's because um the green um the Green Meadow School is coming on and that will be offset by the tax increase so The Debt Service that's what this debt service number is encompassing there are there any like does anybody have any strong objections to this um so I do think we should have a note in our comments um that to that the schools are going to be cutting doing some minor cuts to services this year um but in order to make the cuts minor instead of major they had to draw they have to essentially draw on their um various funding sources uh by activity fees and government funding um more than they're taking in and I think we really need to I think we really need to emphasize and we need to have a a forward-looking statement in our comments that says you know one of the consequences of this budget is that next year we're going to have to have a really difficult discussion of whether to do an override or um face some major service cuts okay um yeah because I mean on the face of it voter the residents are going to look at that and say oh everything's fine no it's it's not our costs have been rising faster than our revenues we're just drawing on one-time funds to or we're we're drawing down essentially um our Lauder that we've that the school has Set uh stowed away um and that's not going to last forever so this is what we're doing right now is not sustainable um I believe the schools estimate they have like a year left um before they're goingon to have to do drastic service cuss uh so Kevin I I think I agree with what you're saying but just to clarify um when we're talking about drawing down accounts that's like town meeting come or there's a budget that's voted on a town meeting that the superintendent gets and then the superintendent's deciding to draw down those reserves rather than making Cuts in other places right yes so this is a superintendent decision there there are funds in in the schools uh that are not controlled by town meeting um they are kind of like and I think one of them is a special education fund is what they mentioned um I believe it's like the special education circuit breaker funds am I am I getting that correct or um but there was there are a bunch of funds that they're drawing on um that is not appropriated by town meeting but it's instead funded by other sources um I believe one of them is the state and federal government uh there are also funds for example by activity fees that people pay to like participate in sports or participate in clubs yeah this superintendent called them the revolvers kept calling them the various revolving funds yeah revolving funds those are the those are the words we want to use um but we're drawing on the revolving funds faster than they're being replenished and by the school's estimate they have a year left of this um I don't I I think I would phrase it as by the school's estimate this is the last year that they'll be able to do such substantial withdrawals I don't want to imply they'd be able to do it in 26 also yeah I'm not sure what you meant by the but I think they were saying this is the last year they can withdraw at that level yeah oh um I I was just going to say that I think that if we're going to make a comment about this we should be specific about the type of service cuts that um the superintendent was talking about um if that was to special education or you know to the having like the that athletic trainer I I don't remember the specifics um but I don't I I think that should be included well we won't really know the service Cuts though yeah I mean it yeah that's that's true yeah it it'll be next year when they will have to evaluate and decide um you know how to cover whatever deficit there is yeah yeah I guess I'm just thinking that like if I weren't you know going to these meetings um and I was just like opening up the uh like the Articles and trying to figure out what was going on service level Cuts doesn't really mean a lot to me [Music] y I would just recommend that whatever language you use revolving fund or or service Cuts you double check with the school department 100% yeah because revolving funds I'm not sure that that's true that they'll that'll be the last year they can use revolving funds they always schools School departments always find revolving funds you know different different accounts become available through the federal government so I don't know if I would want to say this is the last year they'll use revolving funds um it's not really I don't think they were saying that as I recall I it was the way C was saying it that they are withdrawing from the revolving funds at a higher level than they have in the past and faster than they're being replenished so I mean the typical thing would be the circuit breaker money which is the special ed money so they would like to keep usually they would keep one year of that in reserve and you know they'd be argu uing that if somebody moves into the district in the middle of the year that then has an out of District $200,000 placement they would be able to cover that from those funds that's why they like to keep it in reserve but they are spending those reserves down this year um so as to not have to do cuts it would be for fy2 right uh FY 26 so they can meet it in 26 no I think FY 25 there and then do the services in fy20 and FY 26 GNA have a situation I think that's right to meet services in fy2 they're going to draw on the funds yeah and then FY 26 in the next sentence yeah sorry Jillian I didn't see your question in relation to what you were editing right there that's okay it uh as written it says to meet services in fy2 the department has drawn on reserve and revolving funds should that say plans to yeah [Music] yeah something like that and I can send this so I don't know if we're going to vote to recommend this but this is what we said last year I just copy pasted that in so um yeah this this is how it's broken outop sorry I mean I I support the rationale I mean what I my impression of what Greg and the select board are trying to do with this and what everyone's and in cooperation with the schools is they're trying to push out as far as possible the tough decision with the idea that either we have a new source of Revenue that hits or state aid goes up but they're trying to you know push out the co the severe consequences uh until we can you know as long as we can um it's kind of like they're trying to triage this um the fact that we're taking less Revenue than than our costs are currently um but I I overall support it because I think you know it's delaying a painful consequence which is either like people's taxes are going to go up or you know services are going to be cut and you know if something can come and save us that would be great um but we have to you know they're trying to create that opportunity I think the consequence is is that we are taking on some risk um as he said like if a family were to move into town um and they have a uh and they have a a mandated requirement for special education um that's very heavy um we would we may have to do like a rever reverse reverse sorry Reserve fund transfer or some some other some other way of taking into account that unexpected expense because we would not have the circuit funds circuit breaker funds in place to accommodate a high demand um Family moving in so that's why I think the tradeoff is but uh ultimately I support it um because I think we're in a tough position and this is the best we can do for now but I think people need to be aware that things are not hunky dory that you know we're putting this off we're trying to triage as best we can but the big decision is coming all right thank you for that um do I'll make a motion to recommend this article article e article e oh sorry go ahead Linda okay so uh Nathan has made and Peter has seconded is there any further discussion uh I just want to make sure that that people agree that we should have this caveat in there um no not least the formal but we we need to you know let people know that the big decision's coming in our comments I'm fine recommending I just want to make sure we're aligned that we want to you know have these comments you know have that comment in there are you referring to the comment that Jill wrote or you want to say something the comment to meet Ser the the to meet services in fy2 the school department plans to draw on various Reserve involving funds to supplement the town provided budget by school department estimates may not replenish Supply in fy6 in the same order that one yeah I agree totally yeah I think that sounds great yeah then I will I will I will vote Yes to recommend okay so we'll we'll get there so we are not voting on our comments we are voting on the article itself yep yeah so um okay so uh I heard uh a first and a second are there any additional comments on the article all right I'm not hearing any so um let's see me stop sharing for a second like I'm having trouble doing roll call vote when I can't see people um all right so we'll take a roll call vote to recommend article e um so Linda yes Nathan yes Katie yes ad yes Peter yes kin yes all right so I am also a yes um so thanks everyone for that so that is um let me share the comments so um recommend 70 um so and since am I sharing the right thing can you see the comments hold on yep stop sharing um okay um great so I updated the numbers in here so I would recommend or I am I plan to send this to the school committee just to make sure that we are describing these Reserve resolve revolving funds in the correct way I want to use the right language um but I think we're sort of all aligned on the intention is what I'm hearing on this call today that we would like something in there about these funds and the school is supplementing the budget to meet needs but might not be able to do that in the future yep that sounds good to me okay are there any other comments or pressing things we would like in our comments for this this is sort of like one of the big media articles so I just want to make sure I give everyone enough space if if there's anything else all right so we have successfully voted on E uh excellent so I will send this to um I will send this to Natasha so um just to double check our word in there all right great so uh F we now have two articles about the ambulance um we have article F which we can go over first and then there's another article called a f so we got F and AF um so one of them is routine about El leasing an ambulance and then this one is about transferring the receipts so I'll open up F first and I think the rest of the Articles will be pretty routine now not routine but they're not going to be the biggest one was was uh the journal fund budget so I appreciate going over that mle F ACD oh boy where is it Jan was Article F in one of your emails article f it just came through like today okay okay uh it's it's in the zip file in the zip um but it's draft control F is why it's not showing up for me in the yeah that's why I was having trouble finding it Nam weird so this is to transfer 300K from the ambulance receipts to pay for a fourth year of the 5year lease and the third year of a seven-year lease of a pumper and the first year of a 5year lease for the purchase of an ambulance so this is where article AF comes in because the first year of a 5-year lease to appropriate for purchase of an ambulance so that AF is talking about that being able to do that which is why he was like we need an article to actually approve that too so would the funds be so that 300,000 is still going to all of that would that does the Artic other article request extra money or is it under this same appropriation I should have read it um or does it have not have to do with money just the lease yeah I think it's just the right of the lease so I can yes the other article is just the lease okay that makes sense so this can't pass unless the lease one passes it can still well yeah that that that would be a complication so um this is an article from um the last time we passed this so probably four four years ago so obviously it has our comments in there from the last time but this is not th this can be our comments for this time but we can also update them um so this it's usually a fiveyear lease to purchase um so the last time we did this it was to replace an ambulance in 2013 so I think it was almost 10 years old or something and understand correctly in the other article that they're appropriating the money now because there's like a lead time of a couple years to get one so it will have been like 12 or 13 years by the time we get a new ambulance um wait is this did I share the oh two to three years to get a new one yeah I think they build them I'm not really sure unless that was a fire truck I've also been on some firet Tru articles too I'm not sure that you can just go and be like I want that one on the lot but is is this article F or AF you this one is article F it's article F okay so the third year and this is just moving funds from they they build for the ambulance and we're just moving to pay for the lease is that what we're doing we've already build we have the money yeah I don't think they can take the money out of the ambulance receipt fund without a town vote so that's usually there's always an article about that in the ATM so one of the ambulances was approved in June 2020 and then this other in May 2022 they approved the EU typhoon pumper pump and then they're also now proposing to do a first year of a fiveyear lease for another ambulance so this this would be for three different items so the balance will be 320 by June 2024 by the the end of the fiscal year so they're proposing to take almost all of it to do this is there anything else that ambulance receipts are used for my understanding is that they're supposed to be used for ambulance like buying new ambulances or or maintaining them in in that case um can I move to uh recommend this uh article F okay I recomend I will second recommending article F okay um sorry I just had one comment on Nathan's question about what else we could use this for um you know what Jullian said is cor correct is what we've done in the past we could use this money to fund positions at the fire department though because they're the ones who crew the ambulance I don't think we get enough money to really buy an ambulance and fund part of the fire department but just you know in terms of what we could use the money for doesn't have to be a new ambulance but apparently we need a new ambulance so okay should this article say can I ask it this is the fourth payment in a five-year plan to lease an ambulance to purchase an ambulance so it's the it's so we're going to purchase an ambulance okay so now we'll have a a new one well relatively new but this is the 300 grand for a lease purchase okay yeah but we're not getting rid of the 2013 ambulance because we're this is just paying for something that we already have we're in the fourth year of the ambulance but this article appropriates FS towards a new ambulance in two to three years and it's also to pay the third payment in a seven-year lease in any case they got the they got a cover yep and the first year okay the the actually the top is easier yeah thank you sorry no oh please this is important for us if you have questions this this article reading it was a little bit like who's on first it was a little confusing I had to read it out loud to myself I'm not going to lie all right so as it currently stands there was a vote to recommend and a second um are there any additional questions concerns or comments all right I'm not hearing any um so for article F so I will take a roll call vote Linda yes Nathan yes Katie yes fij yes Peter yes kin yes um I am also a yes uh all right so that is AR 7 to zero it's recommended all right uh since we're on the topic of ambulances um I might recommend we we skip down to a AF the leasing of a new ambulance so that was also related to this um my understanding is that Greg is going to use the similar wording from the last time when we uh when they asked for this ambulance the prior one but I think this he's going to re he's going to do the same comments here so this is from literally copy pasted from what did the other article say four years ago so this will be for a new ambulance um so we have not yet recommended this is old nomenclature but if there's any other questions or comments on this article so they're typically replaced every six years or less based on the condition and how often they're getting used and how many calls they go out on so and this is funded by article F right I don't know if we should mention that but that's where the money is coming from is from the it's no cost to the town it's from the ambulance reserves I think that's a good point to mention that in the comments Linda I agree all right so we have to vote on this one right Jill yes so I'll will make a motion to recommend article is it AF F some second okay um all right any further questions or discussions on article AF all right I'll stop sharing um so I'll take a roll call vote Linda yes Nathan yes Katie yes FIA yes Peter yes Gavin yes all right I am also a yes um all right uh so basically I wrote in um passage of the art this is basically from what had been passed for for five years ago um and to Rel lease to purchase a new ambulance it would be funded by the passage of relatar article uh for the appr ration of ambulant receipts reserves in article F so I'm not entirely sure what they're going to be usually they're numbered I think in other draft warrants but I don't remember off the top of my head so I'll just double check with Greg that if it's still going to be called article F in the final printed warrant um right cool so we're going to ask questions about the free cash [Music] one um we got this one uh revolving funds article G all right so this is generally pretty routine let's see so I'm pulling up last year's Peter do you know what they're doing here I I couldn't figure this one out yes um so the town takes in fees in order to pay for various services so you know collects money for plumbing and gas inspections and then pay the plumbing and gas inspector um this article we we have to authorize an upper limit for how much the fund is allowed to take in and spend on these Services okay thank you yep so yeah these are the exact same numbers as in last year's article so all of the funds and the the limits are the same they've not changed and I don't think that's it that's there so um so if we look at last year's there they're still the they're the same as well so so all of the categories um and the numbers are the same so this is a oops it's a procedural article I'm ready to vote on it okay you ready to make a motion on it I I'll move to uh recommend I'll second it who second in I did Cav Stone all right so we have vote recommend uh we have a motion and a second uh any further discussion questions or comments all right hearing none I will take a roll call vote to recommend uh Linda yes Nathan yes Katie yes tadia yes Peter yes Kevin yes I am also a yes all right so that is article G all right uh okay so I did want to bring so thanks Linda for double-checking K and L so those are the Enterprise fund budgets I did not get updated articles for them um yeah I just didn't think we wanted this the sponsor comments had one percentage and mine was a different percentage so I I don't know we don't want to contradict each other um and I'm not sure if anyone knows I I I mean I I said what numbers I used was from last year's warrant and then this year's warrant article and I'm not sure if they do something different like actuals versus what was in last year's budget I'm not sure right let's pull it up let's stop share yeah so they like you said they they just say that this is an increase of 3.9% and your number came closer to four or yeah it came to four and I believe this was the article that Jason said he was going to change that number that number is wrong it should be the 3816 459 and it should say the total fy2 budget so I don't know if we got a new copy of this I'm not sure we did not we did not okay yeah so it shouldn't be this 3668 number it should be no those numbers should match right the revenues and the budget should Ma and it should say fy2 budget and he agree he agreed he agreed with that when we emailed him but um hopefully it'll change and I think what I did was take this year's budget minus last year's budget would be the 3.6 and I came out with a different percentage increase than the select board had and I wasn't sure if they did actual versus um budgeted or they did to change minus divided by the new which isn't standard that's what I thought they might have divided the current year divided what did I think they did [Music] um I divided by the old number and I think they might have divided by the new number but I'm not sure because I I came out with an error on the next one that I did it's only a question of what we want to say in the language so Linda do we not have the updated article I believe that's what Jillian just said that we don't and we we corresponded with Justin and he agreed I highlighted those numbers and I and um he agreed but I don't think we got the updated language from what Jillian said okay but he agreed he said those were our understanding was correct it's the fy2 five and those two numbers should match all right I will send a request then for that get updated K and same thing with L I just came up with different comparing to the select boards language and they might have had an earlier version I'm not too sure I would just got a different [Music] percentage and this one had a typo fy22 yeah all right um yeah so you had 11.3% and then the article I forget what they had I should have noted it but they had in their sponsor comments yeah they had a different number okay and then you can check my math I mean I wrote out what I did and I I I'm not quite sure and I'm ass I'm assuming they just had it's different as we go through the process it's must be different numbers or they did some like we're seeing a I was comparing to the budget and they had actual numbers I'm not sure how they did that yeah I got 4% when I just did it too I couldn't find the number for that second one yeah I yeah I mean I did it like I was like kind of going crazy like okay so I'll also send uh K andl okay all right we we did get article M I'll share that I got to open it first all right so this is transferring msba reimbursements to General stabilization for this amount e there's another one that seems pretty straightforward um like unless we wanted it to transfer into a different account I guess right think and Katie you yeah I didn't have like a um there wasn't like a copy paste one for this one from last year so um but I left it very general hopefully I mean this seems like a good thing we put more money back into General stabilization that we had taken out a million for we're getting back 325,000 right should I ask Greg if we're expecting it more wa I'm sorry I don't think we took out a million where's that from that's what I'm trying to look in our past article last year this is here I'm meeting on 2020 that right that we took a million from stabilization and this is giving back a third of it or close to a third of it but but that's all we've gotten back from the m msba so far so I think they're just taking what has been reimbursed by the MB msba and putting it back into the fund I believe I mean that's the way I understand it Katie yeah that's the way I'm reading it so they're going to reimburse the town for quite a bit of money but this will go to the stabilization fund this particular payment and the rest will go towards cover the cost of building the school the design phase yeah yeah the design phase yeah well um this is the reimbursement for the feasibility study yeah which is what the a million was for which I kind of think the state the visibility study would have only been about 650,000 then I mean I I forget we're getting reimbursed I don't know 52 53% on Green Meadow and so it would be the same percentage for the feasibility study so we may have authorized a million but we I don't think we took all of that out I think we probably took out 650,000 or so yeah all right I have any additional questions or moment I will make a motion to recommend um control m i will second okay any further questions comments for discussion no all right I'm going to take a roll call vote who recommend uh Linda yes Nathan yes yes yes Peter yes gin I think it was muted when you said you're uh yes okay thank you I am also yes um so that is 70 okay all right um the next article up is public shade trees um open up that one so uh we do have an updated article here my understanding is the only thing that's updated is that sponsor comments have been added because we did not have those in the last version we were also given a link to a uh tree Resource Management plan so it's a study from July 2020 um that's quite extensive that's on the town of mayard website um and this goes over the potential costs of maintaining these trees and what what is a town tree and it sort of it takes an inventory of all the trees so my understanding is that the proposed bylaw doesn't really change what public trees are it mostly follows the definitions um that are already in Mass General law the main changes it makes is that one it um make it gives the tree Warden Justin a little bit more power like he can like he has to like sign off um and like approve before like a utility company comes through and just has people like chopping down uh tree branches that are owned by the town if they're like servicing power lines or something and the other thing it does is it makes the volunteer tree committee um like an official body and the point of that is so that we can apply for funds from the state because right now tree plantings are funded through like applying for funds from the um what's that thing called from like the the pot tax like the the Cannabis community so that that's what it is right now but you need to have an official body in order to apply for um funds from the state um so this is just setting that all up part of uh ongoing conversations with um like the state body for that so it would not require any additional funding from the town but it would allow us to bring additional Revenue in to pay for planting Nutri so I think it's also important to sh so this is in that tree plan the 2020 um management plan and it has a fiveyear plan so obviously this is this is out of date but it sort of goes over when they took inventory of all the trees and what they would recommend to do back in 20120 these were the costs back then each year so it's like about 250k a year and I think they said the current the current funding of this through the town is like seven or eight% so they're hoping to fund the rest through grants is my understanding does that sound correct Nathan that was my understanding as well um so this includes you know removals um prunings planting new trees and things like that in this report that's from 2020 it's it's quite um extensive it also goes over um the benefits the cost benefits you know runoff produ pollution all these other things to sort of quote unquote offset those costs um so this is It's a pretty it's like an 80 page report um about all the tree stuff so being on the finance committee the first thing I looked at was funny but it is also a very nice extensive report otherwise [Music] so Jillian did I hear you say 7% of the requested or the estimated 250 or so is paid for by the town and the rest is Grants right now I don't think we have grants so I think it's just not not funded um I want to see if I can double there was an email from Justin you do I did I make up the 7% double check um I see 8% 8% was that in the email from Justin yes I think my Outlook is deed uh all right let's see you see this is the email here the chain here it is so from Justin operating budget supplements 8% of the recommended yearly funding the tree management plan wow thank you so that's yep that's low I mean $250,000 for M maintaining trees is is uh pretty high cost given all the other Town costs too so um but so like Nathan said our understanding of this um or my understanding of this bylaw is that it'll help them get some of those the DFCS the department Department of forest are forest and conservation I think or something like that um to be able to get some funding there DCR DCR okay so I can share the article [Music] again so my understanding is that that they've worked together on this for like four four years or so to make sure that it meets um massachus the state law and doesn't like overreach the bounds um it will empower the community and the tree committee uh and most of it is already Massachusetts state law but if we don't have this and a a official bylaw um to make a tree committee we can't apply for some of these grants I move to recommend all right weend we had a is it Linda first and kadia second okay um any further comments discussions questions yeah actually jilan I have a question um so so just for like full disclosure my wife has joined the tree committee so I I don't think that's a conflict for me but I just wanted to flag that um if that's something that I should abstain from a vote on I'm not really sure um that's a good question do you know Peter if there's any usually it has to do with like monetary if like you're a buding like so like for example I didn't vote for the fire station because my property that I own a buts not a buts directly but is very close to the fire station um so I abstained from that vote I think um but I'm not sure like if usually I think it has to do with financial obligations or other nepotism and I'm not sure her being on the committee poses either of those things I would think I'd agree with that um I mean yeah I you could push this to some ridiculous limit where any of us with kids in the school system have a conflict right but so I I mean it's a small town um you're not in any contractor as Jillian said there's no Financial thing so and if anything get more information to bring to the committee and you get your own you know say in it so cool that that was sort of how that was my understanding but I wanted to know just ask no it never hurts to ask I think it's always it's always good to be transparent and it is much appreciated so you know always if you feel concerned about it you we can also reach out to um to Greg and he can put us in touch with the council the Town Council so that's sort of who I talk to about the fire station and some other things um in the past so um that's always an option too so I as one member of the committee I don't see it as a potential conflict of interest personally um but you can always abstain if you feel weirdness about it and get more clarity okay thank you all right so for article n we have a to we have a motion to recommend um any further questions discussions nope hearing none um I'll take a roll call vote Linda yes um Katie oh sorry about that yes yes Peter yes Kavin yes Nathan yes I am also a yes so that is 70 okay um and are you writing the comments for that later Nathan I think I missed I might have missed it if you sent it to me already uh yes I I I'm going to write them okay um great so next up is the roer draft article control which I just got today um that is O all [Music] right all right so this is being brought forward by the Board of Health um so they would like to amend the bylaw by adding it is also unlawful to keep Roosters on residential property So currently it says it's unlawful to keep these types of other farm animals um if the proper is if the property is less than one acre in size um and these are the comments so I guess the Board of Health has been getting complaints um from citizens um who abut properties where the owners own roosters uh and that they're being very noisy quite early in the morning um and they're getting a lot of calls to the Animal control officer about it um so this article would this proposed article would also add that in mayard it would not be lawful to keep Roosters on a residential property and I got the email for the Board of Health person if we have any other questions or if you want me to see if they'll come to your meeting on the 8th um do we know how many people in town keep roosters I do not this article says a rooster so I wonder if it is a sing Le property um my so my neighbor had a rooster um and it always made noises at like 10:00 a.m. and and but but still someone randomly complained she had to get rid of it um but I I think it was by accident like she didn't know it was a rooster she thought it was one of her chickens so maybe instances like that could happen um but we have any option to say this has no Financial impact one way or the other do we have to recommend or not recommend I mean I don't see any Financial up or down do we have it a way to say that we have to recommend or not recommend every single we don't okay okay we have to say yes or no okay thanks for asking Linda I was also wondering about that I mean if it could have potentially an impact if the Animal control officer has to keep reporting out to noise complaints it could be financially impacting their daily activities I don't know does the Board of Health that's where I was going Ethan I don't really know how it's a health issue it's more of a they're just annoyed maybe their mental sanity or they like the hours of sleep they get yeah I'm assuming bard of house because it's a farm animal but I can add I mean I think this is more appropriate for zoning quite honestly this is I mean if they're operating a farm I think this would be has the zoning board weighed in on this at all Yes uh let me find it all right um gu this one so this is the Board of Health is supporting the roosters they ran it by the bylaw committee okay um so Bill Bill is on the bylaw committee but the Board of Health is sponsoring it all right can we go back to the article a sec no not it so if I have a residential property more than an acre in size it would still be unlawful to keep a rooster correct as I understand it yeah it would be any any residential property but if you had a farm or do we have any farms it says because it says the right to farm do we have any except for Right to Farm except for the right to farm laws laws so our Farms protected I don't I don't even know if we have any farms in m in mayard I mean ultimately it comes down to that this is a single resident that we're talking about here like even the comments say it's like it's a single owner and I would I would stress that it's residential property I I would assume that a farm is not a residence yeah I mean we we have I I would like to you know because if I if I'm GNA buy an acre right and you should be able to mitigate the noise of the rooster if you have an acre of land I mean I I think we need more questions on this like why are they why are they recommending a rooster I would say like okay are there anything are there any way are there is there anything that could m mitigate the noise from a rooster without having a blanket ban on on you know telling people what they can can and cannot do with their own property I mean I understand if like the noise from the rooster is propagating and waking people up at 5:00 am or 6: am. but and it would make a lot more sense to me if it was like okay if you have a property less than an acre in size that has a bunch of neighbors yeah but if it's like any residential property okay like I know it's like mayor and there this lot probably doesn't exist but what if I have like a 40 acre residential lot you mean you tell me I can't keep a rooster you know the the noise of the roosters traveling more than 40 acres I mean that's why I'm kind of hung up on this is It's a blanket ban on any residential property as opposed to like any residential property less than one acre in size or distance from Neighbors or yeah yeah which is why I think this is like more of a zoning issue like I think this should be a this should probably be a zoning law that you know because zoning zoning deals with like noise from industry and and they have a zoning board that you can appeal to and you could get a variance on like that's the thing like I would rather have it be like okay like instead of a blanket band like okay you know you need to go to zoning board and get approval to host a rooster on your property as opposed to just like a blanket ban yeah I'm kind of wondering why they didn't say like goats comma rooster sheeps in property less than one acre but so now they're trying to ban Roosters from large properties properties of more than one acre in manard it's I don't even feel qualified to say one way or the other yeah I'm right now I'm I'm not inclined to recommend this article I think this article needs to be thought out a little bit more um than what the Board of Health is proposing Okay so so I took some notes and I will uh don't we don't we have a noise ordinance in town I do not know I off my head all right that's another question do we have an think we do but 5 in the morning is before it I I think I I don't know if it's like seven or eight I think there is but 5 in the morning I'm sure is before the no noise ordinance all right so I I guess here's here's what I would say um I think the first question is is ask the Board of Health why they're doing a blanket ban across all residential property because this just doesn't seem very thought out to me like there are certainly cases where someone could maintain a rooster on a large plot of land and not be a nuisance to their neighbors uh the second question I have is um for Greg SL Town Council in that is there another law does this does this already fall under the co is there another law that would cover this case that we're trying to address like a noise ordinance or something else is there another yeah is there another law that covers this because I suspect there is because if you're making no if you're causing noise at 500 am and 6: am that should be that should be covered by a different law that that should be covered by another law it shouldn't be just like roosters like if I play loud music at 5:00 am and 6: am like that should probably run a foul of what we have in our bylaws yeah so that's that's my other question is this case cover could we enfor could we H could we provide a legal remedy without having to Pro to Institute a new bylaw and that would be a question for gregt Council and just right now unless I hear like more or compelling reason I'm actually disinclined to recommend this okay Kae do you have any feelings about this having been a neighbor to a rooster so she was really sad it was like one of her favorite oh my video is St sorry about that um it did not bother any of us like it it really crowed I don't know the words cocka dude like 10: and sometimes at noon and I've been told they don't always have a morning schedule that it's very rooster by rooster um but it was someone outside of the neighborhood that complained so we're not sure what happened but I I felt it was fine and well- loved it was it was a sad loss for her at least but she found a farm to take it and I'm sure it has a great life now um but but yeah it didn't it didn't bother me as a neighbor this particular rooster and maybe this one is is not a um afternoon rooster so you know I I don't know but um yeah if there are morning roosters and afternoon roosters and a rooster only lives like maybe like five years or something it seems a shame to try to ban all roosters I I I agree I think it's a it's Kavin said a very blanket um article on a singular instance perhaps all right okay um so I will send those questions my understanding cin is that you volunteered to write the comments on that one so I can also CCU on that but not the whole committee to keep compliant with open meeting bylaw yep um so awesome all right U let's see so article p and Q are removed so there is no p and there's no Q uh article R is the asbit valley votek um so this um let me open it up so we got some sponsor comments now which is great so this is the stabilization fund uh let me share this here we go uh so they're asking to make a stabilization fund for Capital expenses um for the votex school um I actually have additional information from Ernie who literally emailed me two minutes ago um because there's no dollar amount right in the article no there is [Music] not in his comments that he just emailed so this uh word for word is the article itself so this is his uh additional information here so this is letting us know that the out of District students there's less of them now so that's what they usually use to do the stop fund Gap um last we last time when we talked to him in the budget there was a line item for this let me see if I can find it they're looking to establish a stabilization fund and allocate $250,000 into the fund but how come that's not in the war what's the deadline for the waren article language it's not it's not they could still change the language right right but they this article is just to establish the fund it's not how much they're going to put in the fund okay so they're proposing [Music] in trying to find it because all I have right now is here it is uh stop sharing share screen so this is the FY 25 so the capital Improvement fund is what they're calling that plug right now and it be $250,000 so our share of that is going to be $166,000 or so which if I remember right is somewhere around the cost of a single student okay so we don't have to pay all 250,000 and if I remember right too this is like one of the only line items that we can opt not to pay yes so if we wanted to say we do not accept the fy2 proposed budget from asbit the only thing that we can change from our discussion last week at least is this money for this this Improvement fund um it sounded like everything else was State mandated potentially so we we still have the option to say no because I I do have some concerns about the governance of the stabilization fund I mean I mean you may recall the last time we had the the marijuana bill I had a lot of concerns about having Town meetings sign away a lot of its rights because our job is to advocate of course for town meeting voters um so this would surrender some of the financing well this wouldn't surrender it because we we could always refuse so they could ask so am I understanding correctly like um asabe can ask for this money in the stabilization fund but we can decline to um fund that amount is that am I understanding that correctly the article is only proposing to establish the fund it is not saying how much has to be put into it okay but we have to vote on that like if if there was a dollar amount that we did put on put in it would we that would have to be voted we voted on this we voted on this already because it was a line item in the general stabilization fund which was Article G gotcha I mean we can always go back and unvote on it and open it up again my understanding was that it takes the 250 from an operating budget and let them put that 250 in a stabilization fund that they can then over fiscal years so that they can address some of the bigger needs that they have they don't have to Li limit themselves to 250 a year they can put that 250 into a stabilization fund build it up and buy equipment as needed okay all right I'm I'm so my understanding was it was a fiscally prudent thing to do that it's not going to increase and would have to evaluate it every year but it wouldn't necessarily increase the cost to mayard of what we're paying for aset Valley but it would give them another Financial tool to do some of the bigger equipment purchases that they need and not have to worry about oh we got to spend everything down an FY 25 and do you know have a little bit more sustainability in the capital capital expenses for some of the equip that they needed for some of the trades that's also my understanding okay I'm satisfied with this so I'm all right um okay so are there any additional questions or comments about article R which is just to make the capital stabilization or what do they call it sorry let me make sure I use the right words a stabilization fund I move to recommend I'll second it all right so we had a who moved to recommend sorry Linda okay stop sharing um any further questions discussions comments no all right so I will take a roll call vote to recommend uh Linda yes Nathan yes Katie yes FIA yes Peter yes Kevin yes yes uh I am also a yes so uh kin I had you down for this to write the comment yes um so I can give you this is the comment from aset um so this is not the sponsor comment but this is giving some more context so this might be helpful um um in building our comment um but I'll I'll leave that to you to do for um for next time unless we feel like we need to write this live together all right sounds like a sounds like a plant all right excellent thank you um all right [Music] and is of course um so for article s uh I did not oops shoot what did I do I didn't get the updated draft with um mayard in the title um so Linda you sent me this comment here yeah I drafted them I don't think we voted on it because we had some questions about as my recollection is we had some questions about is it more prudent to put this $50,000 in a year when it's going to take us longer than the roof it's going to hold up to get to the 770 right or should we just do something just do it put the 50,000 into something else and move on and I thought Justin said this was he basically approved he like this plan of socking away the $50,000 a year I muted myself um yeah I mean this is this is what he recommended so we we can discuss I can pull the article up too um so uh but I need like three minutes and I'll be right back I have to use the restroom so please feel free to continue discussing article s or a different topic uh so I found a document that I don't know maybe it's it it's the mayard country club reuse analysis it is from 2013 and it was done you know a year after the town purchased the uh the country club and um discussed like several plans for what could be done with it and did like a uh like a a poll of people who showed up most of whom were golfers um and so it's skewed towards let's maintain it as a golf course but the presentation said that assumed that it would be a net profitable Venture for the town which you know so far it's barely been paying for its own roof repairs and we need to pay near like three qus of a million dollars to actually like fix that up um I I I I don't know like we we can keep paying like $50,000 for this like every year but um after talking to Justin about it I don't really want to recommend continuing to throw money at something that's like losing the town money and it's just a sync that just like deferring on plans to do something else with it so my understanding is this is appropriation but I thought we get this money I thought this is money we get it does say appropriation but I thought we're actually receiving this money I think we are but what we use it for is up to us yeah and we're using it for to kind of set aside for a big [Music] Improvement um I mean I guess the question is if the roof never happens if it becomes a tear down and building yeah you know so do do those funds get to um get to be used in whatever new capacity that building becomes well something to bear in mind is that this Clubhouse is currently housing our senior center I'm with Linda that I would love to you know get the seeders in a in a much more um respectable situation but right now we don't have any funding to get them out um and to to stop not recommend this funding if this were not to pass town meeting um then there'd be a leaky roof over our senior heads in the senior center it's not an ideal situation but uh but I don't know that they're actually going to fix it I think this money is going towards being able to fix it in like the fiveyear seveny year future right which the seniors will probably have already found hopefully a new location at that point yeah so I I'm with Nathan that I think this is a net drag on our town finances and I really think we should start looking for and start planning for the future of the golf course with it not being a golf course yeah it was interesting because Justin's presentation was he had models from other towns saying that if if we fixed up that facility we would get a lot of Revenue and so we use self bro as an example where now mayor they're they're they're constrained in doing events there and getting more Revenue because nobody would book an event there because of the roof um but if we did invest in it we would actually it would be a a net revenue gain for the town I mean I would have to see I mean we'd have to really dig in those ca those claims I'm personally very skeptical of our town government's ability by virtue simply of its size to adequately manage a golf course now we do have Sterling but we are a town of 10,000 we have you know at most like 20 20 staff in or you know we have a small staff this is a big business decision that I don't think we are we don't have the expertise to really you know run a business this way or make a c make a decision whether this is a viable business or not I think the the market systems are better able to judge what is a net revenue generator than then our town government is able to now there's some complications in that this is this was funded the purchase of the golf course was funded with Community preservation funds so there's some legal finesse we'd have to do to make it something other than Open landg golf course like it could be a playground it could be a park uh there may be some way we could you know with with the cooperation of the state government you know do an exchange where we exchange the golf course for some other type of open land um but this the complication is the CPA and the CPA funds we used to purchase this I mean also when you bear in mind that this golf course was sold for a reason like this was not I do not believe this was a thriving business when it was sold to the town I believe it was going under I wasn't around when the decision was made but from what I understand this golf course was going under and the T and the town was afraid of it becoming a development and so they bought it up and they kept it as a golf course even though it its private embodiment it was a failing business so I think well K just um sorry to interrupt you I just wonder whether this is the place to decide the future of the golf course it's not it's not our it's not our call so well I I would I would encourage us to continue to put the money back into the clubhouse so we can keep the roof from leaking or or at least um Justin has money to make repairs yeah if he's not completely replacing the roof right now at least he has some money set aside and make continue to make repairs I I agree kadesia I think there there may be some residual value in the structure at the very least we can't have things get neglected especially with the seniors in there um but I also do think it is somewhat within our wheelhouse we are we we we function a separation of powers so it's not just a select board that makes the decision regarding the future of the town it's town meeting um where with our recommendations and our our thoughts going to town meeting that also decides the future um and I think Town meaning voters and our residents in general need to hear that this is you know yeah it's providing golf Recreation um but it is it is draining it is a drain on our funds um nor do I have high confidence that this could be a successful business uh if it if it failed when it was being run by a private by a private sector with people who supposedly have like expertise and have run golf courses before um I don't know if any of us you know on any any scene in government could really run a golf course better than the private sector but it is being run by a private company correct we we have a contract out with with Sterling golf management we do oh I'm sorry to I'm sorry to interrupt you CIA sure no problem go ahead yeah so it is being run by Sterling Gulf um however their their incentive is to keep it as a golf course so the decision as to what function this land should be should serve um that has to be decided by our town government previously it was in private hands and the fear just go back I back this up a little so this article is not about repurposing the golf course yes so this is a routine article so last year we transferred 56,000 this year it's it's 55 390 uh so I I don't want to get too off track tonight so we still have a lot more articles um yep I agree I I I think as I as I said I think we should just recommend this um just to keep the roof over the senior's heads uh just to prevent any damage to whatever residual value is located in that Clubhouse uh but I think long term I think we as a town need to have a discussion as to the future of this I agree but I would I would move to recommend this article I'll second all right so C firsted and Linda uh seconded a recommendation uh any further discussions uh questions or comments all right hearing none I will do a roll call vote Linda yes Nathan no okay um uh Katie yes Pia yes Peter yes kin yes all right so I am also yes so that is um six yeses and one no um all right Nathan does your no do you feel like you want to write a sponsor uh a comment for the no that work do we do on the I know on past articles where we've been split we've written like yes and no um I would be happy if there were just like a line kind of to the effect of what Cav was saying that like we want us you know the senior center is still there but like this is losing US money in the long term and something needs to be done about it okay um lendy you're writing the com you here I can share my screen I'm not sharing the right screen I'm not sharing anything um so yes one no so this would transfer this money that the sponsor comments um so you're you're not okay yeah if you if you feel there's an additional sentence that you would like on there um I would recommend maybe you draft it and then at the next meeting um we talk about it how does that sound sounds good to me okay um oh it looks like T andu are T andu still not updated shoot this was I um I I'm not sure where we find the retained earnings and I thought it was going to be in the free cash but I'm I'm a newbie so I don't know where we find that number so that number I just copied from the last year um but I don't know where to find the balance and that's in tnu h okay so this is a you just want to know what that is to write it in our com I just we just need to know what those numbers are and I'm not sure where to find them and I thought it was going to be when we certified the free cash I thought thought it would be there but I could not find it there um I think it is there as I recall the freecash document is a six-page PDF the first two pages are the general fund uh okay let me go maybe I didn't go far enough like page three and four is the water Enterprise and then for the sewer okay so maybe I didn't go far enough because Julian sent again the free cash so that is just what the article is for the transfers it's not [Music] all that's what they would like to use the free cash for but it's not the certified free cash um I couldn't find it I it I'm sure it's probably there somewhere and I thought it would be um sorry are you looking at the free cash certification that would have come from Jillian yeah on March 11th yeah no not this okay not what jilan is showing um there's a separate email which is the notification from the state on March 11th for pay yes okay yep okay got it so sorry we looking at sewer or water well it was both one was T there's T and U okay so at the bottom of page do you want me to give you aing I'm trying to find it and I'm not cck yeah no it's on it's on March 11th you sent it so I see one is like is going to be 728 9914 and the other one's going to be thank you Peter is going to be 133 431 yeah okay thank you I I just missed that sorry I'm muted I'm talking and I'm like nobody's answering me um is this is this the uh the document you're talking about yes y so retain so I think retained earnings less accounts receivable is the 1334 31 and that's the sewer number the 7289 728 914 yes the sewer number thank you right so let's see and the water one this number oh man okay I'm G to stop sharing because I'm giving myself a migraine um this is oh so that's weird that's the same number this one is T that's weird 728 914 I get that right did I did I number correctly okay I saw a different I'm gonna look I saw a different [Music] number all right so I can um double check this we can send this to uh Justus and Greg make make sure that's the number um but we did vote on these last time all right okay thank you uh no problem all right uh the W all right so I'm doing a time check here it's 9:44 do you want to try to do a couple more articles and end around 10 we have one two 3 four five seven eight nine we got 10 left so yeah I say we go to 10 okay all right um W sory dwelling units oops that's not the right one my my recollection from the talk with Chris is that this modernizes the existing language it removes the the language about only allowed for like blood relatives um and that it wouldn't make significant there's not like an expectation that this will make major change to town people aren't going to be building these all of a sudden but there are people there's like some small number of these units that have already been built in town that are kind of like underground because they're not technically legal under the current bylaws and this would kind of bring it up to date and actually doing um new grow excuse me it would also account for New Growth too so and it could make taxes go up on that so that that would be the new growth so is that considered the sponsor comments these are the sponsor comments right here they kind of split up weirdly so it's hard for me to get it all in one page okay okay that's mine I'll do it so yeah so I'm I'm looking back at the notes I took when Chris came on uh February 26th so yeah so they want to modify the existing one to address Master planning goals to make more accessible use and all the Crossed Out Lines in this article are the old version so everything that's stricken out would be removed um and some of these new things would be uh written in over this you know five-page article um um I think the biggest one is changing it like um was it Nathan that was saying it doesn't have to be a blood [Music] relative and it's a special permit that's renewed every couple years um I don't want to like cut off discussion but in the interest of time I I'll move to recommend this article I'll second all right so it's made and Cadia seconded um do we have further discussion questions comments I can't see anybody no all right so I will take a roll call vote to recommend uh article control W uh Linda yes Nathan yes hey yes kadia yes Peter yes Kevin yes all right so I am also a yes so that has been recommended and so moved um and Cadia you're you'll you'll write a comment for next time yes all right um know we're feeling ambitious we could end 10 minutes early uh the next one is the zoning bylaw about the Firearms so that was one that I wrote the comment for um but if we would like to call it I can also entertain emotion to adjourn I can to do you want to skip to the one um I think it's um oh gez I forgot uh the one about Summer Street it's a pretty simple straightforward making the it's a w z z okay um yeah it's um just making um it excess property and then um just like the I was looking for the um vote for the fire department building the old um fire station would be the same verbage okay it looks like we don't have sponsor comments for that either unless I missed them somewhere I'm pretty familiar with the the property and everything if anybody has any questions I mean I guess I have a question and I hope this isn't way too broad um I I don't I'm not super familiar with the history here uh I know I've been to like art space and there were a lot of people who are upset with what had happened happened in the last few years I went to see a play and Acy theater was like very upset about um how what happened with them what's what what's the deal with the property is it just it's like falling apart and something has to be done with it um yeah what's the story uh so what I've been told around 99 or 2000 the property was leased to Art Space and artpace was supposed to take care of it and didn't put any money into really upgrading the building so there's no sprinkler system or adequate fire alarm for occupation today so um and they started to do some Renovations but they didn't do it completely and like I said didn't put the sprinkler system in so um it is um it needs a lot of work uh there was an estimate done probably 10 years ago for about $3 million worth of work but needs a lot more work than that and so Art Space wasn't willing to plunk down the money well wasn't able really um to keep it going so um they had to leave um and the same with um Acme theater they only occupied a small amount of the property but there's no way you could occupy that small amount of property and then still have you know run the boiler for the whole building because the boiler wasn't sized to um or zoned to do just the that small space so um the committee that I've been um uh monitoring sitting with um everybody wants to see it uh an RFP go out to uh renovate it um for different uses and there's going to be a final report we've got a consult uh that's going to do a final report in May but this is to get started on um accessing the building so that um the RFP can be written and um the building won't just be sitting there decomposing and uh what's the cost to the town of like a decomposing building there's some sort of like does it like increase our insurance or something there's a cost right we we actually don't have insurance on the building it's way way too expensive for a town to Ure abandoned buildings um and we don't obviously have a need for it as an educational space because we're doing the Green Meadow and it would it would cost quite a bit to um to renovate it and make it educationally appropriate for today's usage uh so H yeah there's no insurance on it and so it's just going to um deteriorate in place which you're building that old as an architect I can tell you building that old could last quite a while um if somebody wanted to put some money into it it's it's got good bones it could be redone but um it won't fall down in the next 10 years but it it could catch fire in the next 10 years but not in the next you know it it's it's not going to immediately de compose um is there any interest from like uh CPC or like the historical committee I know I sat in like a couple um meetings of the historical commission and uh Brian Bergh house was really interested in that property um but I'm sure yeah Brian was on the committee and um he he had to leave yeah there's a lot of um historical um interest in the building and and of the recommend ations that the group's going to make most of them will be about renovating it as is you know um and not and not tearing it down so that's hopefully what we'll get too now kadisha is in your committee's report did you say to the town these are some of the things we should do to preserve the the historical nature of the building or what it seems like this article is just like the town can do whatever it wants it can just sell it to anybody and they could level it or well um no this just makes the building um um the town this vote allows the town to put out an RFP for a reuse the way the RFP is written is going to control how it's renovated so there's a possibility we could put in the RFP we want a senior center in the building and the you know so um there are lots of ways you can um keep a developer from destroying the um historical value of the building and would your committee continue to oversee the development of the RFP I don't think so um I'm not sure how the town does that um we would like to be involved but um I'm not sure I would imagine the town goes out and has a consultant right the RFP but that's a bill nemser um planning board uh decision this might be like a um you know a governmental or like architectural type term but like plain language it you know when I read it says to see if you're going to change the use from General municiple to property for sale um which sounds like we're selling it we're gonna give it to like I know private developers are G to knock it down or something does does that is changing from General Municipal to property for sale like a legal requirement for the RFB um I I guess the the RF the recommendation for disposition will be an RFP um it it won't just be oh we're selling it for $3 million or something it will be an RFP no matter what um so people have to come up with um a proposal and a um and the town reviews it so it won't just be anybody buying it did I answer your question I think so um I'm not sure and that's why I wanted to look for the verbage on the um old fire station um whether it says anything about an RFP will be put out um uh I I don't see that in here I've been trying to look for it while you all have been talking I don't remember what year that was in but it sounds like the first step is to just make it so the town can do an R they've got to say yes we don't we don't want to lease it to somebody we're gonna sell it and then someone else will take take care of it we're not going to lease it to artpace or whoever we don't want to be in the landlords who want to be yes I I I think that's we don't want to be the landlords um um because it it it really is going to require way too much money to renovate it for for any municipal use or educational use or art use do you have like a ballpark figure handy of like what that cost might be no not not in today's market that is you know uh 10 years from now I I mean 10 years ago I would have been able to tell you definitely but nowadays the price of building is just crazy so last five years it's just we had a $3 million recommendation and I think that recommendation was um 10 years ago but it it's more than that needs a new uh boiler system U it needs much you know a green um energy related boiler heating system might need air conditioning considering the climate plans um most older buildings like that air conditioning was not thought of needs um new roof needs uh definitely a great sprinkler system which it doesn't have and um needs more than one elevator just has one barely working elevator now so all right um do we still want to discuss this next time or do we feel comfortable about this so recommend what is your you would recommend this overall from the sounds of yes okay yes but I can write something up to vote for uh next week we we can vote today to to recommend it and then the comment can come next week yeah okay we can that's what we've done for several articles tonight so basically what will have to happen um sry I'll stop sharing we'll have to happen at the next meeting is there will be I don't know I think eight or so articles that haven't yet been voted on so it'll probably be priority to vote on those first and then go through all of the different comments because I don't think as a committee we've necessarily reviewed all the comments um but you don't have to like move and motion and recommend and actually vote on the actual comments your like it's just the article itself if that makes sense yeah um okay Miss really how it works so the draft comments I'll try to clean them up a little bit so they'll be a little nicer um but uh and I'll highlight where the comments are like missing or they don't we don't have comments yet maybe we do have comments so um they're just not in the right order for me but um and then you can review them as a committee and just be like like is this what we want to say um and I have a list of things that I need to send out to Greg or other people that we have questions about like the rooster article so I'm going to send send those out and CC the person who's writing the comment um I think basically the ones we haven't voted on are mainly at the back so X through ah and we voted on AF already and there's one at the beginning uh certified free cash that we did not yet vote on because we had a question about um the priority that that is being spent on so I'll try to write it out like this where it'll be the finance committee it'll say recommends um and then uh the comment after and that'll be the draft so I think um Peter there might be a couple that you are on I'll try to highlight who who's where um and if there's already a comment there I'll delete the person's name yes I think I do have a couple to do yeah not too many so uh and then no one has been assigned two comments for these ones a a a b a c a e a g a uh I'll volunteer to do the AA and ab those seem pretty procedural I can look into what it looked like last year year before um AC I don't want to volunteer you but I know Linda you wrote the other water sewer ones all right I'm in for AC okay I don't think AE is my road so I could Pro right do we know what road it's the same roads it's a same Fletch oh it's the same ones it's the same ones and it was like a looked like there was a typo it was we had to As I understood it was like one word had to change oh like I probably can't do yeah but I could do Ag and ah okay um all right I'm not going to be here so I don't know if I should volunteer for any of them um I mean I can write it if you want and then if you want to change it you'll have to change it without me next week so if you want me to do that I can do that just copy P paste from last year yeah all right um okay sounds good all right do we have any other uh I sent out a a request for Zoom go ahead Peter sorry uh so if you're not here next time will you clarify with Katie just what the deadline is for getting the comments and stuff to Greg which I guess we know it's the 19th I just think it see if you can extend it yeah um be better it's the 23rd um and then you're okay if we decide somehow I I would hope not but coming out of next Monday's meeting that we need to do another meeting we're just going to set it among [Music] ourselves yeah so as long as the meeting isn't the week of the 8th like if it's the week of the 15th then that's fine for me okay um because you need if you want to do it the week of the eth like I there needs to be at least um right yeah the notice stuff three three days 24 48 hours to post it or something um so let me know when you can I guess and I'll I'll send a request uh to get the the zoom posted and things like that so we can make a posting a zoom link okay so uh yeah so I have some marching orders here I'll send out some emails all right do we have any additional topics tonight or things that need to be discussed or clarified no all right do we want to vote on Z the this the Summer Street or or wait we're gonna wait on voting I think we're gonna wait on that one wait on that okay defer the vote okay yeah I wasn't getting a strong feeling so that's why I jumped top yeah so Jillian I'll make a motion to adjourn um our meeting tonight all right so Ka has made a motion has seconded all right any further question discussion NOP all right I will take a roll call vote to adjourn Linda yes uh Nathan yes Katie yes FIA yes Peter yes Kevin yes all right and I am also a yes um so we are adjourned uh I hope you all have a good meeting on the E sorry that I will miss it