##VIDEO ID:HzRoB_wKQfI## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e pretty good how are you Gail I am all right how's the guarden doing at this late stage in the dryness it's not very good um I I have you heard of Asian jumping worms yeah I've seen them they're disgusting they're disgusting and they're in my garden they're in everybody's garden they're in the forest they're they're they're they've invaded and that's um kind of sap the Vitality of the soil from what I gather I mean I'm still got a few vegetables here and there but I try to you know dig up a lot of the garden and and um uh and pull them out you know one by one but you know that's a feudal effort because they're just all over the place so so Ive I've got a few things you know that are growing peppers this is a great year for peppers I don't know why peppers are so outstanding this year but the peppers are wonderful and and everything else is sort of mediocre so it goes you know but um is there anything that that uh takes care of those jumping worms like chickens or or something no no not really I don't the only thing there there really isn't much of a solution I mean you could you could dig up the entire garden and pull them out they do the the frost does kill them but they but they lay eggs of course and they come back up um in the spr you know they start to hatch in the spring which means that this is why the garden looks so good up until about mid July why and then the and then the jumping worms seem to sort of take over after that so but um unless there is for example the only way that you could probably get rid of them uh would be after they hatched in the spring if there was a really suddenly an unexpected deep Frost which of course you wouldn't want for a variety of reason but if you but that would kill them again and um and then they might and then that might clear the Jets so to speak but I think that they're just one of those things that sort of like the Asian you the um all of the all of the pestilence is afflicting our ash trees you know the the um as the ashor the ashore and then the hemlocks with the it just goes on and on and out we're being in invaded by pest from all over the world well so it goes and Steve to answer your question um my question well you sent me an email um having to do with whether I had see when you looked at at the at the minutes uh Gail's suggestions and changes had already been sort of that's why you didn't see Gail you know all of Gail's um changes that that that that she made but I've Incorporated yours as well okay okay so we're we're sort of all set in that department well I know Craig isn't coming tonight but I but Graham didn't say that he wasn't so I think he's just he's probably just running a little late so we'll we'll give them a couple more minutes here okay um yeah where are you living you're on the Eastern side of the lake right yeah yeah yeah I I moved into my rental about a week and a half ago ah Y is it towards the southern end or in the middle or you know is it off of um what's um the name of it it's on The Laurels on the Laurel yes yeah South Laurel South Laurel yeah well you had nice weather to move back into I think it was probably the nicest weather of the whole week this past week you know like up until today it was just like spectacular yeah and I don't know if either of you have been over to Brightwater bog to see the work that they've done yep you you know a the ANS old place oh no it's it's it's unbelievable really nice it's it's I I went over there several times while they were working on it and you know to talk to the guys who were doing doing the work and in the way in the back of my mind was saying who is paying for this because it is so they they drilled you know the the the galvanized supports that you know with screw augers that went into the ground they drilled those down to where it hit bedrock and they it did that how many times over with I mean it I it's unbelievable I mean and it took them a year year and a half to do it or even more from what I gather but it's it's beautiful workmanship yeah yeah they did it well my friend Walker Corby his his company uh did it and I as when I when I came back I saw it and sent him a thank you note just because it's he did such a great yeah you know a great job Steve you and Janet would really enjoy it I think really really good like photography um opport last time I was over there um you know I was still getting even in a dry season I was still getting my feet pretty wet so I thought let's so all it's all changed now it's um it's a spectacular um installation I mean it'll last it'll Outlast all of us by I it'll it'll be it'll be there for years and years and years um it's beautifully done well at Le at least you and I Jim a younger person with yeah I don't know it'll probably Outlast me too when when before before they did it sometimes and it was really bad I would um I would run with plastic bags in my pocket and then when I got there I would put them over my feet and like waddle through the water and then on the other side take them off and keep going um yeah it it was so sorry you know just like always in the yeah o over uh overflowed so Graham we're talking about how great uh Ames Haven and Brightwater bog has become with the new Boardwalk it's really nice yeah they did I was just there I was just there today um yeah it's delightful yeah and uh um yeah a few people complained that it wasn't named after Julian and uh and my wife said well you know gastrol is being sensitive to not naming everything after uh uh dead white men so you know it's true and bright Brightwater bog is a good name and there's still signs up to honor him and yeah you know yeah yeah so I I I was a few minutes late because I I I'd been procrastinating on getting the on Q thing into the phone and of course it yet always you know registering it always takes five minutes longer than you have a hope it would so every time I log into something I feel like I'm trying to hack into my own account yeah I know yeah yeah our lives are so secure now they're almost impos possibly secure aren't they yeah yeah they are so what gram is referencing is that our uh generator system um for Coler has a brand new app that so they discontinue the old app for the new app for and uh for getting notifications and such so it required a whole new setup um on phones or your your web app um all right well let's um let's officially get started let me I'll start with my little Spiel here uh welcome to the September 18th meeting of the MLP board and Broadband committee I am Gail hundis MLP manager facilitating the meeting this meeting is fully remote participating remotely we have MLP board members Jim Hemingway Graham sefon and stevenh Schmidt and uh absent tonight is broadband Committee Member Craig Martin uh so first order of business is to approve the meeting minutes from August 21st um motion to approve as amended second so move thank you all in favor Hemingway I Steve I and Graham I'll vote pres I read them but I wasn't there someone told me I should but I I would approve them pres excellent all right uh first item is Hut report um anything to report on that Graham uh no but I do do remember that um uh so yeah as you as you g would know the temperature hasn't changed as far as we haven't got any emails so therefore um the heat pumps must be both working um or at least the one the one that's leading is continues to work but I did ask when I was there when um with the um technicians I I I I I said so we were told by someone installing them that or you were told maybe that um that um that a surge can make them just shut off in in their effort to protect they could blow like a circuit breaker and you know I I um I said I've never come across a search protector that is supposed to work like that and and the guy said no no the light will change um the it can destroy the surge protection um thing but they'll continue to be connected so uh um unless you know the wall is blown up so uh so yeah so therefore it's not a surge protector that'll dump it um um you know in in in setting so so that's that's good because it would be unfortunate if a a surge um then didn't leave it running um so is designed to fail on is that yeah they fail on exactly right yeah but they change the color of their light so that you do know that you need to replace the protective element um in the thing so that's what that's what one examines it for it has a green light when it's totally functional and um it changes to an orange or red light if it's if it has suffered a surge and been um destroy and its protection invalidated so so anyhow good to know yeah so if any of us are at the hut it's a great practice just to pick a little peek at the at the Sur protectors make sure both of them have have green lights yeah um let's see um Maintenance and Service report in August we had 44 tickets so pretty normal you know we always want to see somewhere between 35 45 um cases um so you know nothing nothing's really standing out there um we um uh are working on putting a temporary connection to the library site um right now um to just an an aerial connection ultimately it will go underground but just to um wire up the construction trailers that that are there um so that's that's in progress um and um yeah I saw them I saw them on one morning at that at the pole across the road from the construction did they not do it in one shot just because they needed a a far Pole or something I I they had to go out and investigate the MST there um yeah apparently the cut sheets weren't exactly accurate and they didn't know if there was an open port on it and so and and and it was uh so they they had actually had to go and and and run a little test in see so they did um they did find an open port there uh so so that's that's fine um and um uh yeah and I I I don't know if it's been done yet but I do know that there is that problem with the port yeah cool so this is to provide s currently is is providing service to the uh contractor's trailer correct so are we selling them that service correct okay yeah yeah they'll they'll have to sign on as a regular customer I assume the town or the library budget will take on that customer the old library at some point will get shut off I would assume so ultimately they should only have one service unless they keep the old library building going for some reason in which in which case they need to pay for two on connections probably the construction um firm is paying for the uh at least they're used to typically a construction firm would pay you know the whole thing including the electricity because they also you know they also have to hook up their side electricity for the Construction trail so yeah oh really I didn't I didn't know that so dur during we probably knew we probably have a new customer yeah in the interesting but but usually it's the it's not like the it's not the entity or the the ultimate owner that pays for it it's the construction company that pays for all the stuff during construction yeah the con Construction contract will say that the construction contractor has to pay for you know the pter John and the electricity and okay yeah yeah the connection and because um they're so whizbang um you know AutoCAD drawings and stuff like that they really do need a you know a good a good connection um for data so well we can definitely we can at least give them that H yeah I don't know why my hand is up there that where did that come oh sorry okay all right um budget stuff um so right now at this point about three months into our fiscal year uh we're at a uh Break Even point in our budget we're with about um 1,8 $899 in in the black and positive so so that's good um I I'm sad to say that I'm still working with Gail Weiss on the town finances um uh we have exchanged so many reports um over the last month and a half um and the latest report says that we should be getting certified for 7,753 uh for fiscal year 2024 um interestingly uh there's a shortfall of 10,500 for that year as well so um it's not that we don't have the money it's the way that the reserve fund that we voted in was applied I still don't understand how that all works I went in and met with Gail on Thursday to try to understand it um we had a long conversation about how that is and it was a shortfall of 40,000 and after talking about it for a long time she said well I could apply the June payment from um the MLP fees and apply it to fiscal year 2024 and so that's uh what she did in the latest reports but she just sent them to me yesterday so um I have not had a time to go through them thoroughly I've also sent them to Steve to be a second pair eyes so the two of us will will take a look at that um and um even with that though that still leaves the shortfall of 10,500 luckily we have um the state grant that or sorry the Federal grant that we got for that CF 2 funding for 44,000 which can applied again I I just cannot understand and I don't know if it's just Municipal financing rules of of how and when money gets applied because we have like the thing I don't get is like how can we have a excess funds of 70,000 and yet a shortfall of of 10,500 last year it's like we have the money but for some reason Gail can't apply apply it in the way that does every penny we spend have to have been encumbered in a town meeting is that one of the reasons why no I I I would say no because um there's two totally separate budgets or accounting systems that we're using one is the appropriation at town meeting that says you know so much for broad for back call so much for utilities so much for the for Gail stip and da da that totals up and so that's what's appropriated but it's not really appropriate because it's not coming out of tax revenue we actually fund our budget through our actual revenues so at the end of the year um the accountant tallies up which Gail has done throughout the year all of our actual income the actual Revenue we get from the MLP fees which is not that big a job because it's 12 checks a year from sheld to the town um and then Tes up the actual expenses which of course this year were way more than we had budgeted for because of the um the pole transfers uh du due to the National Grid work um so you know there's a whole lot of lines on forms but you can break it down into here's what we took in and here's what we spent and then the one little or not little but the one tweak to that is we had the previous years's retained earnings of 130 got it right here $136,400 at special town meeting in January we appropriated the full amount of that that to our um Reserve fund for for the FY 24 because we knew we had those big bills coming in for the transfer but there's not that many real moving Parts here so yeah get it's like four numbers how can how how can this be um there's a couple minor things like Gail price is carrying over the $850 um appropriation we had for um the auditor to next fiscal year now the current fiscal year when it's actually going to be needed well there okay there's $850 goes from this to this and because of the payroll system the town uses there's a slight a few hundred doll encumbrance of the um manager's salary that is paid in one fiscal year but it's appropriate from the other but these are a few hundred doll in a few hundred, operation uh Gail I've been working on this this afternoon I got kind of bugy looking at it there was so Steve Steve I've spent I've spent probably close to 12 to 15 hours over the last month getting report after report and and trying to trying to like put the numbers together of of and and in in my mind it's also not complicated it's like here's the money we spent and here's the money we took in and and actually those num my numbers that I've been tracking all year and Gail's numbers agree down to the penny which I'm pretty proud of but then there's these you know like the um the the reserve funds and and and things that just do not make sense to me and I don't understand if it's a misunderstanding on my part of how the Gen you know every you know she kept saying like it has to be done through general ledger and I'm like yeah but it's isn't it just um accounting of like money in and money out so um I'm glad you're back because I feel like I'm going crazy and um and and and need another pair of eyes so what I would love Steve is um uh connect with you maybe on Thursday or Friday and go over understanding and I think also it's a great idea you I know you emailed me and said like we need to make sure the Gail does not submit anything to the state until we all are agreement of like what's happening here um because the rolling back anything that gets kind of we're still in the um you know various reporting stages but anything that gets submitted um I don't want to have to do complicated roll backs if there's a mistake in there um so and I may need you to resend me some of the figures because somehow my email seems to have lost the attachments on one of the emails but you know we can talk about this uh you know tomorrow or Friday I I have time so you got it I have I I have time on on both days let me um after the meet tonight's meeting I'm going to resend you the uh the reports um and I'll give you some time Windows of when I'm available um and you can you can choose what's convenient for you probably on on Friday would be best um so that we both have time to to look at look at them again I just I just got them yesterday and um after spending all those hours with the original reports to get a new set it's sad that they should make that it should be so complicated you know I I it like you say you know it's income it's expenditures it should be but yeah yeah Jim did you did you get all those notes no I'm gonna have yeah so so yeah sorry sorry Jim this is um I I think the note should say simply that um Steve and Gail will continue to work with Gail Weiss yeah on our um fiscal year 24 revenue and final uh Financial reports for the year um excellent that's because that's that that's where that's where we are right know yeah all right I'll try to figure this out okay yeah I mean a simp I think it it's a simple statement of where it stands right now be yeah yeah you don't have to capture any of that like that background Jam or the the numbers at this point um because um okay yeah we don't we don't have kind of the final picture still um I have another um Financial question um that I wanted to pose to all of you and that is about our you know we're offering this $15 shoots Berry subsidy per month for people who qualify for Lifeline so this is this is how we're trying to fund the gap between people who are getting the um affordable connectivity plan that the federal government ended and you know trying to make it as affordable as possible to those in need so what we had decided as a group um which still stands and should stand back um in the spring was that anyone who qualifies for Lifeline that's our qualifier that we were going to use for this our our own subsidy program um would would automatically get the Sho Berry subsidy so the the $15 that that we would give off their bill so right now what sheld is doing is giving me the uh spreadsheet reports that are very uh clear in that they list every single subscriber they list what their charges are are they getting phone what the taxes that they're charged on and then there's there's two extra columns one for lifeline and one for the shoot SP subsidy and so right now they just take that out of the the money that they provide to us and in the ml P fees you know it's just in this nice clear spreadsheet here's the discount and so we don't we don't get that money from them my question is if this is a line item in our budget do I should I just track it financially of like this many subscribers got it this month you know for this much so that we as a committee can know how many beneficiaries we have every month and every year for this line item or should we actually have sheld be charging us for this so that there can be an invoice let's let's think about this that's a that's a very good question and I'm looking up our budget right now uh was 5,000 yeah but I'm I'm looking the way because we had that question about how to lay things out in our budget regarding the um in the budget it was multiplied by the average expected number for the year so that was a that was a a you know a flexible number in itself because we don't we didn't know how many people correct would average in the year yeah so it already has Wile room I'm thinking how you know on our when we're putting the budget together earlier we stumbled over the the way to report show the CF 2 funding and the fiber rental to New Salem and how uh and so we had change the way that was done so I think okay this is another you know non-standard item we've got here so it's a very good question let's just think a little more about how how to handle that yeah how how about if we think of it like um every every customer gets a different Bill anyhow depending on whether they have a phone and a and a ethernet um so you know there's already um two there's already a variety of bills that get I'm looking at the budget and realizing yeah again this isn't being handled quite correctly in the budget because we have this as a $5,000 expense in the budget but the way it's being um handled by sheld right now is it'll be a $5,000 reduction in our income instead of an expense so um if instead sheld paid us the full amount and invoiced us for that then it would work this way but that that may not be the best way to do it we may want to again show this as a um you let's think about this a little more more okay um yeah so all right so so the the let's yeah so my thoughts are the advantage of them actually billing us for it is that it becomes a line item in our budget we're actually paying for it there's receipts for it we can show we spent this much the drawback of that is that it is an extra complication of of billing right of that you know we're just we're passing money back in and forth instead of it just being reducted from the one check that they give us um so that's that's true but you know when we first started an operation with with uh Crocker was like gee we're getting a check from Crocker and then we send a check to Crocker to pay him for the um for the back hall couldn't we just simplify this and just have have them deduct the back from the amount they uh uh reimbursed us for the fees said no better to keep each item separate so you can tell um when you look at your fin annual Financial reports here's what you took in here's what you spent Steve that's a real bill that they get isn't it I mean the back hole bill goes to Crocker or goes to someone so that's a little bit different to adjusting uh an income with with um with invoices backwards and forwards I I kind of I kind of think that that we're creating an invoice here yeah but that could well be that's true and maybe we should continue having sheld handle it the way they do but in that case we should take that $5,000 line item out of our budget we're showing a $5,000 expense in our budget here for subscriber support and it's and it's explained as reduced subscriber fees for low-income households that should just be taken out and then the bottom line where we show MLP fees we should reduce the expected revenue for MLP fees by that amount clean and tidy that's a very that just seems clean and tidy um used to do that with the reduced fees for the vacation um what did we call what do we call that yeah the seasonal seasonal season rates which is still happening we just don't really account for it yeah we just figured it's a small amount small number of people in a small amount so we'll just um we'll just all you need to do is reduce your total number of subscri expected subscribers by a few and and it works out um I like that model yeah yeah we didn't we didn't we didn't charge yeah we didn't pass things backwards and forwards invoicing money that we didn't that they didn't charge and we didn't get so yeah let's do it the same way okay so I mean it's already in our our budget this year but I can make an I can make a note and I I I think you're right this is that is a better way to do it is just make our budget to match reality so that the subscriber fees collected are reduced by that amount yeah okay and we can have a note in the in the line item for the budget MLP fees it's calculated so much with a reduction based on a certain number of subscribers getting this you know we can note that that's included in the budget yeah yeah and after all and I I have uh started a new uh spreadsheet on our profit and loss tracking which shows every month exactly how much our MLP fees are being reduced by so that it will inform our budget next year it's still in flux we don't know how many people are going to qualify for Lifeline how many people are going to apply um so we'll uh hopefully have an we will have a more accurate estimate than we did this year and so okay we'll do that I I will make a note of that but every yeah and every budget we take to the town meeting is just a a a reasonable guess on what these things are in a way isn't it so um you know we can we can be wrong I mean it's not it's that's not a that's you're not going to be on a onto the penny on that one because you don't know ahead of time yeah yeah it's it's one of it's one ofns in our budgets not a fixed it's called a budget yeah that's why it's called a budget yeah this is um topic is very difficult for me to put down so you you'll you'll have to yeah so so yeah it's okay very complicated oh no there's I don't like how the way we don't you can't chat can you chat no you can't chat no I'm not allowed on Town you're not allowed you're not all allowed to chat um uh Jim leave just leave a space for that and say insert stuff about subsidy and I will send you a paragraph to put in there okay all right yeah all right um one quick question just a quick question were there like 20s something Lifeline people I can't remember from yeah yeah so so we had uh 21 through July and that was the last month that we were giving the subsidy to Prior ACP customers that Dr dropped pretty dramatically in August um to 11.29 and that partial thing is because people could if they signed up or uh for you know month of service that that's that's where that comes from um so that's not like 2.2 children per family exactly exactly two point exactly 2.5 children yeah so the transition month is August um and then by septe you know September we're going to get the get get the Baseline although more you know I I also think that people although we warned them multiple times they got letters saying the ACP is ending you need to apply for Lifeline that the rubber is going to hit the road now this month and they're gonna say wait where's my discount and then you know and I hope that they will apply because um you know we uh you know we did budget for all of the people getting ACP to also apply for Lifeline like you know we we anticipated that they would all at least try for it um so but a lot of us procrastinate things like that so oh especially this I mean you know this this horrible application process which is daunting yeah yeah okay thank you yeah um let's see okay some manager report stuff on Steve uh you had asked at the last meeting about um the ability to support outage text notification oh yeah yeah yeah yeah so I ended up having a long conversation um with uh the sheld folks about this and they went back and talked in Integrity about it because I think it's a great idea it would be really helpful in our town to be able to do this you know to send texts because when the internet goes out some people can squeeze a text out they can't make a phone call um so um unfortunately the answer that came back was no and here's why um the liability that could come with texting of that type of information could be pretty substantial um especially if it has to do with kind of a life-saving communication and integrity won't take that on uh so they just don't want to get involved with that additionally even with the with like a quick support call there's too much information that would be difficult in a text conversation to have to exchange back and forth um and then they would have to have a whole another system for receiving the texts and communicating with a customer and a ticket tracking system for it because right now you know the phone call comes in it goes to the tree of text um uh the the technician who answers it put you know gathers all the right information puts it into a ticket and so they have to deal with things like well you know where would that text go and how would it be put into a queue and if we're lots of them what do they do if the person doesn't respond right away right like the abandoned text they trying to do two things at once um uh it's more complicated than chat help which is offered by a lot of companies you know like you go to their website and then you you get a little chat window um that's relative L simple to do but Tex it's a whole different thing so um it's basically a whole another system um so no this no it doesn't exist they're not planning on doing it because of the liability and the cost and the complication of it um if it's something that we think is is really important and worth pursuing we could find another third party that would do it but they're not going to touch it okay so that's a really long answer but there it is um so let's see yeah just you know yeah asking I think I I you know I think as more cell coverage is is eventually going to come to town that's probably our best bet for a secondary communication system um and it'll it'll come eventually I think um but it's going to be a while um all right um this next thing I have is um I'm sorry to say that we need to talk about the library audit problem again um we uh had a vote as at with you guys had a vote as the MLP board to not support the request uh for the uh $4,000 per year for the library audit and um for the current bition to our current fiscal year right right yeah um I got a bill in my mailbox for the 3500 that is going to cost this year for that audit a from here I'll show it to you it's from scanland the so it's it's the auditing company and I don't know if you can really get it I don't know if there it is and see how it has the town's portion for 14,000 and then underneath it our portion is highlighted for 3500 wait a minute we never contracted with scandin the town contracted with scanland and um this strikes me is is very uh irregular um you know we we've we finally asked um the town attorney to send bills directly to the MLP so that we would pay our portion of them that was um that was our request on that yep yes and I I'm I'm not happy about that that bill showing showing up either it's uh especially without you know discussion but um uh let me tell you where we are with it I called Donna and had a conversation with her about it and she said um in cases of the MLP in a town well actually an Enterprise fund I mean that that's what we are in in a Town disagreeing about this um in this case she cannot give us legal advice wait somebody is yeah can can can maybe you guys um some of you mute maybe there's a there's an echo happening my volume down okay um sorry Graham I just accidentally muted you I didn't I didn't mean to do that uh if you if you go to your Zoom window in the lower left corner uh there should be a little slash over the audio button oh you're good now you did it it's fixed yeah is there less buzz from we're getting some gar sound coming through from somewhere but let's see how it is now okay I think I don't hear it now sounds good okay maybe I had my volume on too loud giving a feedback um so anyway Donna can't officially give us legal advice because she represents both the town and us right so it's it's a conflict um so um she had a conversation with me about it though of of uh just kind of like overall advice not legal advice about it um and I think that um her observations were right on that um we don't want this to end up on town meeting floor because that's where we're headed of having to put our budget out there and then only putting in the a portion 2,000 for a budget and then somebody else in the town um I don't know who exactly if it would be the finance committee or Becky or the select board saying um uh this amount isn't enough and here's why and we have to vote to override the proposed budget that the MLP has presented and vote on this different budget there is enough dissension and with with the town but Gail that will be talking about next year's budget correct about that would be that would be next year's budget because already voted on this year's budget yes yeah yeah yep um so that that could happen in in you know next year's budget for this year's budget um one thing that I noticed is that our um auditor amount that we appropriated is only $435 was that well and and that's was that from the previous year was that what is that what our auditing usually costs no I mean our original cost was was 850 and I think what happened this year was that we said oh nobody's ever used that 850 because it's that's the cost every year so we're going to reduce that by half again this is before any of these this audit stuff happened because we audit every second year is that the reason why normal normally we audit every second year again understand the Wii is not the MLP it's the town the town has an audit of all of its books and typically down size of shsb da da da is done every other year and the town contracts with an auditor Scandal and Associates I've worked with scandin for years I have very high regard for them they do the entire audit of the town's books including the Enterprise fund the MLP because that's a depart Town Department um the town contracts with them they do the audit the town gets a bill f for it and the town has a line item in the town budget that was voted in uh last year I could [Music] even we received a bill from scanland in previous years on the second year thing or it always goes to the town okay we've never gotten a bill directly from Stan yeah okay got it so um did we ever did did the town of rascus to transfer the 400 and whatever dollars or any year or 800 in any year we have turned the money over to the town at the end of the year just as we do for um the treasurer portion of the treasurer and the accountant and the electricity for the uh hot that goes to the town which of course just goes into the town's general fund it doesn't actually go to pay for that the town pays these bills yeah um so this extra um accounting this extra auditing thing is totally an everye thing for the library project is that everyone's understanding it is it is and I want to make sure that we we talk about these issues as two separate things right there's the the first issue is that just for regular auditing the money in our budget is not the right amount it's way too low okay regardless there there was uh and I think it is on like nobody on on in the town ever told us of like this it's too low um so that was was was an oversight you know we can point all sorts of fingers but just a lot of stuff happens on the financial side of towns no one told us we you know if they had told us back in um you know last April or whatever before our budget was set we probably would have said oh okay we'll increase that second that's why that's why budgets get reviewed before they get put to the town meeting yeah yeah the second issue is that the Cadence of these audits is happening as a uh in in an irregular way because of because of the library and I think we're you know you've all already voted on this I don't expect us to take another vote that no it's not appropriate for the MLP to pay um per your vote for that right and so um uh I and the other piece of this is that um Rita select word Rita Ferell called called me on Monday because she had heard from Donna that there is this Enterprise fund issue and Donna said why don't you call Gail and see if you can work this out because we don't want this to turn into yet another shoot very legal problem and we don't want it to end up on town meeting floor and and so had a very nice conversation with reita about this and um although she cannot speak for the board um she agrees with all of you about the fact that this should not be an MLP expense that it should just be the 2,000 every year because this this is spurned by a town thing not an MLP thing and so um she'll you know she thinks the select board will will support that and so we're all in agreement and ultimately they they are the decid so I you know I feel like we have no conflict there um but we do have this bill for 3,500 for this year um that um is way more than than what we you know was in was in our budget um I want to propose that we pay half of it we pay half of the uh the 3500 um and that the town pays the rest um it is somebody's fault that nobody let us know that the amount we budgeted for was incorrect um um but there's a lot of moving Parts in our town and it was an oversight by everybody so well by everybody it wasn't it we aren't part of the oversight let me just I was looking for something I have the town budget here's the yellow sheet from annual town meeting right here this is what was voted for this is the town budget this is not the MLP budget and it is ly 17 independent audit and there was budgeted for fy2 was $99,000 um and our budget as Gil points out used to be 850 but now this year we had 435 in there um however Gail Weiss carried forward last year's $850 FY 24 uh the mlp's $850 appropriation for the audit which we never we didn't pay last year so she carried it forward so they've got that $850 but I mean the $9,000 shows the town did not appropriate enough money even for their share of the audit let alone the total cost of the audit that's interesting yeah I mean that bill from scandin shows what's the town portion 14,000 for the town $3500 for the MLP yeah and yep you know oops appropriated 9,000 so it looks like okay trying to scrape this together yeah Gail I hear your suggestion it's not you can turn you it is a suggestion you you are the board you can turn this down my suggestion would be to mail this bill back to scandin associ and tell them we did not contract with you the the MLP did not contract with you to perform an audit the town of shuberry contract with you perform an audit this this bill is a bill of the towns and Gail you could still go to the select board with your suggestion that we split it right I mean that I I don't well I don't want to take that unless unless you guys think that I don't want to say like let's split it and then nope sorry we won't I only want to take that I figure I fig we figure we as individuals pay this bill whether we're doing it as uh on our Broadband bill or whether we're doing it in our tax bill so in a way um each of us sitting here you know it's it's um you know whatever whatever seems like a an acceptable negotiated uh but not a ripoff sort of a Ram down our throat um if if if I don't know I'd go with 5050 um if that's um you know if other other people um St Steve Jim 5050 well i' I've said no I mean obviously if we're we could you know if we want to sit down with the select board and negotiate it and they say how about 50/50 okay you know you can you can compromise um I would say Rita Rita seemed to think that they they would be very open open to that uh solution and um that she agreed that ultimately it is the town's responsibility to cover cover the shortfall here just like if the MLP had like if our if we were un know under budget and and losing money the town would have to cover that you know if we were on the verge of bankruptcy the town would they'd have to raise taxes or we would have to raise rates to make up that that shortfall that there the town is the back stop um because of the format of the of the Enterprise fund that that we have um so um yeah that we can't be I think for to pay here that ultimately it is it is the town I am trying to um avoid uh this becoming a huge problem for the MLP and a uh some kind of dissension between the town and the MLP um because I I think it's important to you know kind of like maintain at least the illusion of Goodwill for the town's people I really don't want to want to have this to end up on on town meeting floor of of having this have to go to some kind of vote and explain to the town's people why this is happening and and everything it's just like we have enough problems to not um worry about $3,500 um and again this is this is me as the as the manager trying to like move things forward and smooth things you guys are the board you get to make the final call on this could we authorize you to negotiate with the with the select board um for a compromise whatever whatever you I mean I'm comfortable with that um I can but i' I'd like some direction about what would be an acceptable thing there it you know like a um it seems like Steve feels pretty strongly that that a a split isn't isn't quite the right thing here um well it's okay it's the way it was done to get a bill from them I mean I don't think scandin decided on his own to send this bill to us well bet he didn't no I I I I don't either I uh it some somebody in the town put it in our mailbox there's there's no envelope with it yeah and somebody told him to split it out like that you know uh it's I don't like that yeah I'm not I'm not wild about it either especially because it was not it was not discussed ahead of time Jim you have any input Steve I agree with you on this one um I'm trying to keep track of all this is impossible to figure out what to what to write down here but I I I agree I think uh I think going Rita's suggestion that that uh that 2,000 a year is is the right way to go and we should just simply maintain that um I I think that that's that's that's what's acceptable to me at least um because we know that it's costing us 4,000 every two years um that's been pretty much documented because leverett's doing that we're doing that so we should we should stick with um um a uh in our budget to to allocate 2,000 a year for the service perod and none of these little compromises I think I mean it seems like Rita farell is is is willing thinks that that's a fair solution so I I think that would be true for me too yeah I I that's I I I think going forward that's uh where we're headed and and sounds like that works for everyone and that's great um I the only point of negotiation right now is so what do we do for this year because we only have 435 and we have a bill for 3500 but actually Gil we've got the 435 in this year's budget but we've got the $850 from last year's budget that Gail wise carried over good yep good point we've got $1,285 there yep and and we can argue that that's what the Town approved and that went through the whole budgeting process and that it's reasonable therefore to spend exactly that amount because the town said it was a good idea so and you know and it had gone to the it had been reviewed by the fincom and all the other so um yeah so that's the way it is you know so the audit is coming in higher this year than the town appropriated they need to go to the um fincom for a reserve fund transfer to cover the difference but the town not for us right yeah okay all right I will I will uh communicate with the selectboard then that um as a group um uh we're glad to pay the I should I shouldn't say we the MLP would like to pay $2,000 every year per usual to go forward and that for this year uh the town should use the $850 that would encumbered from fiscal year 2024 the 435 that was budgeted per the vote in town meeting for a total of 1,285 to go towards this bill and the town just needs to cover the shortfall this year yeah sounds good uh and any disent on that sound sounded right okay all right I will take care of that all right um that is it on my list I'm looking at everything else here um does anybody else have anything um quick question just a quick question did the hum go away or the buzz or feedback when I turn down my volume okay sometimes that'll do thinking at some point will need to discuss our um ISP contract yep and Gail you can figure out when we should start discussion of that and maybe we should uh schedule uh some uh executive session time in a meeting for discussion in an upcoming yeah definitely um I want to get through the the budget and then and as soon as that that's done um you know by uh October November start start speaking to sheld the way that I'm going to go about that is I'm just going to uh call up Sean Fitzgerald and say we're interested in extending instead of going out to bid are you interested in also extending our contract relationship um and start you know kind of start the negotiations there two year or three years Tom is is it two or three um I honestly I can't remember what I know I know that a bidded contract is is a three-year I don't know if it's an extension if it's a year or three years or two years I I don't know it's not going to be longer than three years because if you if we do that it's a town vote I do know that the current um cont contract um or intergovernmental agreement is is three years and we're coming up on the end of or at I guess the end of the second okay yeah right now so the current agreement runs through September 2025 is that rough um I'll have to check check when it was signed it was a little bit um uh flaky in the way that like we signed but then they didn't take over the actual Services until this certain date but our our contract actually did kick in on signing so I will figure all that out um so but it's approximately another year left in the current agreement yeah yeah it's around July or August of of of next year that that uh will hit the three-year Mark with sheld um anything else okay all right Jim I owe you a paragraph about uh the subsidy Steve I'm going to send you an email with u um it's just the re forward of all those documents again and G would send it in a fresh email I think the problem was it got in a queue somewhere and it you got it I'll be there and I can't yeah yeah I'll I'll change a subject line for you um my my minutes are going to be very I don't know what to what to write here this is it's all right Jim what whatever you yeah capture can put it put it up for us and we'll we'll we'll we'll sort out the details all right all right I'll do my best all right well if that's it then um let's see next meeting date is uh October 16 October 16th that's it okay motion to adjourn second hi hi okay yeah good see all right sounds great thanks thanks guys and thanks for talking about those those uh those those tough things it was it was a good good discussion bye bye