e sh e e e e George how about those se's I can't hear you you're muted yeah looking good you know we've been lucky because the other teams have you know Johnny what is his name Jimmy Butler was out in the Miami series and then who did Cleveland have out in their series oh Jared Allen was out in the Cleveland series and then they lost Damon Lillard no um oh they lost the other guy right Mitchell but look they've been playing clutch yes which is not what they did when they were younger you know and being healthy is part of winning the championship in the NBA except they don't have por Singas they don't have the big skinny white guy that's right well you know we're gonna need because he blocks shots and he gets rebounds and be really helpful but I like the way they're playing and it makes me feel more confident than I did in the past yeah me too they seem to be more seasoned now yeah stay healthy as long as Tatum and brown stay healthy remember what happened to Tatum last year yep yeah it like he turned into a pumpkin at midnight yeah yeah hopefully Minnesota will win a couple games and uh you know beat up Dallas a little before they make it to us that' be nice man hey with Dy luck one of The Dallas Players will get hurt yeah well that would be Don I mean he's their MVP he's the whole team I mean did you see have you watched any of these games oh yeah they're great that three-point shot he hit with two seconds left yeah but Kyrie Irving is playing way above what I've used to see him play yes yeah so yeah no they look good surprisingly donic is amazing isn't he I don't know how he does it I really don't know and he just seems like you'd be able to stop him but he's Unstoppable yeah he is everybody knows what he's gonna do everybody knows he's GNA get the ball and he still just does it y yeah that's impressive he Jim howy how are you good Becky Becky I have a question for you about the Celtics no it's about the it's about the Kestrel land trust and the work that they're doing on um um down near the lake on um Julian janis's um walkway across the swamp is the kro lands trust paying for this or it does it come out of their own funding or are we contributing to it it's a they're doing beautiful work but it must be costing somebody a fortune because of the quality of the work and the materials and everything else I was just curious about that because I've been over to see it several times I think that at this point it's beyond the grant money but I I would have to verify that I mean because PC Grant that help fund it that was part of it so but it was only a piece of it yeah I see okay I was just curious hi so um I'll have to look into it Jim I'm not certain yeah you could check in with kral Jim I I I could conversation sure I I could I just it just just occurred to me to ask ask you about it I thought you might know just off off hand not that it's that important but um yeah with the CPC grants I sometimes they take longer to complete just not sure the full extent what was involved but well it's a formidable job that they're doing and beautifully done I mean I could go into details it's just extraordinary um replacing that that that walkway across the wetlands and the Very swampy area and the equipment that they're using and the quality of the construction is uh is is exceptional it's going to be a real treat walking you know for anybody who wants to go down and you know and walk through that area now it it'll be quite a treat great yeah that's always been so beautiful there yeah well it's just 6:30 now sorry to interrupt your discussion on on the Celtics but I'm sure it'll return I'm with Force once they get into the finals yes we'll see how many how many days it'll be yeah is the game's gonna be on the sixth yeah so the first game is the six no matter what oh that's that's when they okay SCH ABC all right yeah so we have to wait well we can watch these other games hopefully hopefully there will be more than one yeah and this gives Pingas more time to to heal too so yeah I just I hope he's not too rusty he's a delicate he's a delicate guy he's not he's like Robert Williams in a way that way he's like fragile I was thinking about and had a conversation with a friend about that you know we're more tolerant of him because he's not as bad as Robert Williams was he wasn't out as often as Robert Williams or for as long this is the longest stretch of the year for him I just think I think they made a calculation to to let it to let him rest as long as they could and so far they need to use him so yeah Saturday night my son was arguing why you why would you play him in game four you're up three games to none just let him rest makes sense and don't take chances yeah I think you're right that seems to be the right thing to do so uh Becky yeah is uh is the community garden going this year is that what's is that happening or the community no that that'll be after the because they decided to move to the library site I see so they won't um actually wait all the stuff to finish up right right so they can't do that until after the libraryies complete okay curious hi AJ hey guys sorry I'm running a little late no worries no problem and uh I think they didn't want to talk about the Celtics in front of you anyway yes I'm in I'm in morning but I have the the Rangers to root for after our meeting tonight so yeah they look good still alive yeah uh let's see I I saw there was a message from April uh that she couldn't make it tonight but I don't see anything from Jim when's his technically has he had his last meeting or is he no he'd have to be here till July one right right yeah I think he mentioned in the last meeting he didn't think he'd make this meeting oh that may be and I'm just not remembering okay all right well I'll call the meeting to order at 6:33 and I'm just pull up the agenda well I hope everybody had a good long weekend uh okay I guess we can start with minutes um from May 14th let's see all right uh Susie sent them on May 20th anybody have any questions or suggestions um I had a comment on um um top of page two um under current state Regional budget and assessment agreement B the um the S the the last sentence says that um emmer budget um is still in process and they rais um they have to figure out how to raise their initial allocation to the regional budget from 4 to 6% their initial allocation was actually 3% and then they went to four in February so this is not quite accurate so I'll say their February allocation instead of initial yeah that yeah or most recent yeah um and on the in on C the next sentence just a minor uh grammatical um the Regional School District agreement needs all four towns uh the word Town needs an S yep and then under miscellaneous I had one other thing the uh a where we're talking about the second sentence Steve marglin I'm wondering if we really need to reference a specific person's name or the possibility of us considering changing our time we've talked about other candidates as well um I I thought it was in the finance commun we talked about um the treasurer for the Library trustees would be a good candidate and I just it's not really up to us to decide who is and we're certainly not at a point where we're thinking we really should you know consider changing our night so I really didn't know that this was necessary in the minutes maybe a reference you know to the fact that there are some candidates out there but his name mentioning his name specifically and the fact that we're considering changing at night I kind of didn't feel comfortable with I think that makes sense actually yeah uh I mean it was a brief conversation and I'm not sure what obviously didn't happen well I was gonna say it didn't happen in the context of a fincom meeting but I guess it was annual town meeting but it was like during a break any yeah I don't think it's necessary to put his his name there maybe oh what was that that town meeting in during break uh so so he walked up to our table oh I see during annual town that's when this conversation had happened oh I see do we want to have anything in the minutes that we're looking for a volunteer to replace Jim yeah just say that yeah yeah that makes sense and that Paul Lions will be managing the process okay that's all I had all right anybody else have any suggestions I make a motion we approve them as amended I'll second great George you want to start the vo i r m i casu i moer i m you're muted but Walton I right okay [Music] okay uh next on our agenda is an update on the regional school budget so um maybe I'll just open it up is um I hav a catch a little bit of um ammer fincom meeting that is happening today um this was on the agenda my uh I I I was sort of I had it on in the background while I was doing some some busy work in my office so I didn't like get uh I didn't kind of hear all the details but I think uh the gist that I got from that meeting at least was that they you know they're moving very slowly they're not like taking uh they're not making clear like what their ultimate position is going to be they're certainly taking their time um uh discussing the matter I think they may be looking at um sources of kind of one-time Reserve kinds of funds I heard some discussion of arpa money um that they might be utilizing I think there was some discussion about Jones Library construction funds maybe being um available in a way that you know wasn't anticipated let's say you know back in February but I don't it didn't seem to go very far but anyway uh so I think I'm still feeling like it's likely they're going to approve are they going to find a way to to provide a 6% increase but I'm a little concerned that it's they're they're certainly talking about it um well they're going to be in the same position I think a lot of community a lot maybe all of our towns will be which is how how how can we make this sust a sustainable long-term budget that's going to work for towns and how is this going to impact next year and uh given that they're kind of looking at sort of temporary one-year sources as opposed to like you know ongoing operating budget to fund this I think they're understandably concerned about what this is going to mean for next year uh Bob yeah um just from what I I don't know where I learned this but I maybe from Reading Gazette maybe the the amist in Indie but or talking to John tricky but they seem to the finance people seem to be looking at ways to not be forced to into the as we called it a box last meeting where they had to provide the 6% that they had but and one of the things that they brought up was that if they don't approve the assessment method then the budget becomes mood because the whole thing then goes back to the state and that we had talked about that as a possible scenario I think in our last meeting yeah one of the things that that they're that they're dealing with also is is the financial stress uh providing this these resources to the school when there's a half a million of Esser money in there now if they go to 6% and next year they don't have the Esser I don't know where this arper is coming from if they have still money left in their arpa fund but it's definitely going to create a financial problem next year when everything goes up again and uh these these sources are not available so if they did something like reject the assessment method uh I guess they got have a lawyer figure out whether that would what that would do to the whole process but they definitely were talking about that so that's one option that they seem to be considering AJ yeah no I think you're right that like for for all intents and purposes they're gonna they're going to have to what all four communities are going to have to agree on a budget number and assessment method and otherwise it's going a 112 budget I mean I think that's yeah I think that's Pro I think that's probably right uh Becky so if if they don't approve the assessment method doesn't it default to the statutory I think what'll happen I at least the way Doug has been talking about it at these meetings is that it will it will go to this 112 um budget scenario which is uh you know which will be the statutory method but using last year Year's budget number and it will require some negotiation with desie about how to split the funds is it going to be equal 12 payments I think there might be some flexibility in how that gets divied up but um but I I think he's certainly talking about this as this is not going to be a situation where like three communities are going to outvote a fourth that we're all going to have to agree on a budget and the assessment method that corresponds to it at least that that's the impression that uh he gives this is Doug you're talking about yeah correct but he's not on the finance committee of the town of amor no of course yeah of course not but I think you know in in responding to what is the process going to look like if if they don't that's uh that his his language based I guess on discussions he's had with desie is that they GNA Force us to agree on to achieve a consensus on budget and and assessment yeah Susie and then thought I saw George's hand up Susie on a slightly different note on the region is the track was back in the news discussion about what the options are and and one aspect of it was if they go ahead and reorient it and do a grass middle um that will cost more than the funds they think they have in hand and so they were thinking of going to ammer and asking for an extra 750,000 and in the news this week which anytime you read the news you have to take it with a grain of salt um there was some push back on the council about why aren't the other three towns being asked to cough up some of this money how come they always come to ammer wah wah wah so that is still in the mix it's not um I don't think they have a particular timeline yet when they want to have a final decision because for the money that they do have in hand it would be this just redoing the drainage and the middle area and it seems to me really wrong not to reorient it when you go through all this you should reorient it and I don't know if we will be asked um and I don't really need to spend a lot of time speculating on it I just want to say that's still on the horizon and that is part of the moving pieces Susie just to add I I have a just a slightly different understanding um at least from the meeting I watched is that they they have boiled this down to two project ideas they have a new um consultant that's kind of redid their cost estimates and um and the two options are neither of the options involve a reorientation they both involve using the existing um orientation and um literally the existing um dimensions of the track there um one of the project ideas is there there's just like a version of them basically doing like a light replanting and I don't know what the terminology is of of the grass interior field they have enough funds right now secured basically from the previous debt authorization and I think some funds that were not restricted that Amur gave to do that project there's a second project they're considering which is the same orientation the same redoing of the track new lights um but U like a reconstruction of a grass interior field that I think would actually involve like redoing the drainage system um as well and that project they only have enough funds to do that project if the ammer CPA removes a couple of restrictions that they placed on funds that they had previously allocated for this project and one of those sources had a restriction that said that they would provide this These funds for a reoriented track okay so that's one restriction that would have to be lifted because they're not con I think the the lowest price tag for any of the projects that involved the reorientation was like four point something million yeah um the second source of I think it's arpa funds but I might be wrong about that I mean sorry CPA funds I might be wrong about the second or has a res had a restriction which was that it was funds allocated for a reconstructed track with a turf field so they I think they're trying to get those um whatever the relevant boards are to remove those restrictions and my understanding is if they're successful there um they I think they have enough funds to do the more expensive of those two projects but I'm sorry to say Susie I don't think they're considering any project that's going to reorient the the track at least my understanding uh George yeah the finance it's just so expensive Amy space and all these big capital projects um where was I oh I was glad you mentioned that Doug had been talking to desie about the assessment versus the budget because I guess by not approving the assessment in essence they're not approving the budget um I also wanted to mention to everybody who was in the paper today what something we've all been reading about The Gazette is Northampton announced the cuts in their High School um and I read in an article a couple weeks ago I just want to bring it to everybody's attention because I thought it was really interesting ammer um Northampton is considering having a DED having an override vote um two and a half Levy increase at November's election so that all members of the town can vote whether to increase their Levy limit in anticipation of the budgets that they're going to be faced with when they're putting together the FY 26 budget I thought that was really interesting and I I bring this up only as an educational point if you don't mind um you know we always towns typically come up with a budget it surpasses the two and a half by some amount and there's a two and a half override to raise to that amount what Northampton is saying is how much are we willing to pay in the future and it's really driven by the regional school and they're actually going to put on a ballot vote because they know everybody in their town you know a highest percentage of Voters will be voting on November whatever that first Tuesday is I thought that was really interesting uh Susie in nitz's uh editorial he said the two previous um overrides that they passed they passed a suffi it was a two .5 million and that's sufficient to create a longer range picture that they it put them in good stead for multiple years and he also went on to say that the school was one of the biggest beneficiaries and he cited the number of people that were added so um it it sounds and so when this started to boil in Northampton some people said we're you know we got to have another override so it sounds like that framework is how they're going to approach it um but they might just um have a tough time in FY 25 and then be prepared for 26 and on and on he in their in his government they created a special sense of what that money was to to the override how it would be used into future years uh Bob I just want to make a point that as far as I understand that I've looked at some numbers uh over the years uh comparing the cost per student in the Northampton school system and the Regional High School and uh Middle School versus amest and amest much much higher significantly higher cost per student so I think that has to also be you know just acknowledged as part of this picture I don't know what the hoc cost break down in the Northampton uh District the school system uh you know whether or not pay scales are comparable or not or whatever but certainly the cper student is a lot lower at this point and has been historically the last decade or so uh compared to am Susie might be able to speak to this but but i' I think I've heard the response to a similar questions maybe at prior for towns meeting that emmer has a greater responsibility for um special education services is than some other communities which sound like they want to be comparable um but I I I I might I don't know all the details but that that was an important factor as to why our cost per student number was larger than than other communities anybody else remember hearing something similar I don't know if it was out of four towns metor I do know that in South Hadley they're having a major trouble and they had to hire an assistant principal to manage students that are having big difficulties and when an incident happens it takes the principal a lot of hours to fill out the reports and and so South Hadley had to vote for another um administrator to come in for that and some some of the discussion around that was those kids are being serviced in the school um and they're not being sent out of district and when you do that you might um call it less expensive except for now they have another administrator to help manage it and the quality of programming is um being it's discussed in the paper right now uh the only other update I thought be worth sharing on this is I I I I did hear during today's Amorous fincom meeting Andy Steinberg made a pretty emphatic Point um which is which was that this process for the region the way the budget is formulated every year is is not working anymore in other words like this process where you know the the finance director look takes a level Services budget um Compares what that the budget requirements for for that um that budget are relative to What towns have agreed to pay and then based on the difference between those two things you know a series of cuts are proposed that he made a pretty strong point that just that that that just the kind of way that's done on a kind of oneyear snapshot basis as opposed to taking like presenting a kind of three-year budget for example and say you know here's here's here's what we're moving towards um kind of a sustainable a budget that's sustainable in three years or whatever and this is you know so so I'm I'm interested to see if there's actually a different methodology used next year um based on some of that feedback I think I think that would be um and I'm not I don't think he didn't have a specific proposal other than maybe some maybe this approach ought to look at um kind of not a single year but multiple years but what that looks like I George yeah I was just going to reiterate what you just said it's it's not only at the regional level we should be doing it too long range planning is really important I mean we already saw that Doug talking about fiscal 26 if we go with the 6% the towns are going to have to come up with another what was it 88.8% in fiscal 26 and we all know that's not sustainable and I'm sure that's driving a lot of the the um um consternation in ammer so it's I I hope they do move to something like that and look at it but I don't know you know the towns have to do the same thing you just can't look at the regional budget we also got to look at what the towns can afford in the next three years and it's that's going to be tricky also AJ I appreciate you're um paying attention to those meetings and giving us this information that's great yeah of course um okay I think that's probably it unless anybody has anything else on Regional School budget so uh we'll see I think if I'm not mistaken right there there's a public hearing and then a vote in the next couple weeks um so I think we might have an answer what's what amoris is going to be doing uh at our next meeting are we still waiting for one more budget out of Boston the house Ways and Means okay The Joint one right we haven't had the joint one no hope somebody said the Senate voted today but I don't know that just voting now we haven't added them in yet right I think we got the Senate I thought it was the house WS means one in the last um Cherry means is always first first yeah Ways and Means is first oh I mean the house is first then the Senate and then they go into conference at the end of June and then it's the conference we you're right you're right I don't think we've seen the Senate have we did I forget oh yeah we got an estimate of the Senate that was the last one we got and it was not it was better than what we have in our budget by by 6,500 BL is that that is that the line that that's better or is it you're trying that the the bottom line on the state aid because I I plop them into our budget and I compare them to make sure that we had enough we're we're estimating more than what the governor has by 1,700 but the house ways and means we're over by, 1500 and I'm sorry house Ways and Means has more than what we were anticipating by, 1500 and the Senate has 65 100 more than we were anticipating 6,472 so there is one more coming though yeah well the final they all together in agreement right yeah and that's when the number between those two numbers the reconciliation yeah so based on that we we we think maybe there's somewhere between an extra $1,500 to 65 yeah between 15 65005 just based on what we have right here unless you know unless um they all decide that they're getting enough noise from all the towns and decide to do more what have they ever listen to us George I don't know why they don't listen to us aren't we pretty we're important aren't we we're a little town in western Mass we have legislators that are doing a good job advocating for us in Joe comford but Aaron's still wet behind the ears all right um let's see should we talk about some bencom transfers that we need to discuss tonight I think are there four Becky sorry a there's five I miss that's right the extra one was the fifth okay got it [Music] um all right maybe I'll share my screen uh Becky you want to give me priv and I'll I'll just flash them do you care what order we do them in or no all right all right so can you make that larger AJ yeah so this is office supplies all right and I think Becky you you you cheed this up for us last meeting right uh yeah we're I've had to I have a pile of bills unfortunately I've been holding for a couple weeks um so we can't we can't pay these office supply and other bills till these unless these transfers are appr all right and so I see two different numbers but the one that you think you're recommending the 1300 that's a type of I'll it's 1380 I'm sorry thank you all right all right any questions or comments about this so we're contemplating a transfer of fincom Reserve funds 1,380 for office supplies all right uh I guess I'll make a motion to approv transfer of $1,380 from fincom reserves to the is it the office supplies line yes the office supplies is the accounts are in bold here and I'm GNA have to White out under number seven for all of them I just it's so helpful to put them up on a big screen I can read things that I couldn't read so this is this is a copy paste thing right yeah yeah so should I get rid of that okay so the budget was $2,000 and we're basically making it and we're spending 3380 MH so part of the battle this year has been that the cost of paper went up about from $30 to $80 a case um we've been searching for lower prices wherever we can um but that was that's been what we've been fighting all year and and I have found um and when we after the admin secretary left um I ended up having to do some of the orders and I did do some price you know I compared prices as best I could and we paid with um we're no longer using Staples we've moved to WB Mason trying to bring cost down it's just this year is a lot um it's just costly to get office supplies questions uh let's go to sus and then Bob so um if we do it out of the fincom reserve it moves it immediately right that's and that's part of the logic in trying to meet these bills yes because last year we had oh my God with all the legal bills and the fuel bills getting backed up it was it was really tough trying to um you know getting behind on bills and people getting frustrated it was not good yeah I'm trying to you know we could wait another 30 days um but this vendors already been waiting over thir I think 45 days and since Staples no longer um they've changed how they operate and they don't do delivery in shutesbury um uh keeping a relationship with WB Mason is important uh Bob yeah uh Becky I'm not sure that I understand looking at the uh expense report I see um office equipment uh 5K in that line and it's only been 14 percent has been spent this is about office equipment Bob I know that I'm just wondering what you can't dip dip into that line is that is that why we're providing this money correct okay by the way I just want to make a point I read in the newspaper the New York Times And The Washington Post they tell us there's no inflation should just be relax and knock it off people don't understand that the econom is doing great and there is no inflation but you're telling me otherwise so why don't you read the New York Times and straighten this up if it'll solve my problem I'm on it sounds like a perfect solution we're in session too by the way right exactly but we're not George no we're not but people think we are stop being a big cry baby hey for everything you'll be fine yks all right any other questions I think I made a motion but I didn't hear a second I'll second it sorry any other questions for Becky before we vote all right George aret I cashew ey Mo Walton I okay next up all right elect electricity uh 2000 I don't remember hearing about this one Becky do you want to fill us in um well when I went through the balance today I found when I was checking everything the electricity um had an ending balance last month of um minus $831 35 cents and I'm hoping I'm hoping the 2,000 will cover us through through the month of June and this deficit of $831,000 $831 right $831,000 yes all right any questions for Becky uh Bob Becky just a question uh I'm not sure if you'll be able to answer it but I see we've got heat pumps that we put in which is now uh creating more demand for electricity from our buildings uh and also uh this is supposed to be greener and more more efficient I I understand but it would would it would be responsible for the raise in electric beyond what we had anticipated and the other thing is just to mention that people always talk about the great uh increase in efficiency to go to heat pumps what they don't ever mention is that people don't usually use these air air conditioners in the summer the way they do when they have heat pumps so yeah I understand that but are we getting a concominant uh reduction in oil that goes along with the increase in electricity is that happening well this is um normally but this year I'm a live I'm a little I'm short on heating oil too this year 95% right yeah right you got to measure it non pric putting gallons used G I also be asking you guys uh for another $900 for heating fuel uh to close out the year right but Bob to Bob's question it's it's not about you know is it more expensive or less expensive because we know fuel has been so volatile but has the number of gallons that we need gone down since we've gone to heat pump yes it has a little bit um last year you could really see it last year's numbers were very clear even with the because the electricity came in under as well I think part of the problem this year is in the January storm a number of our heat pumps got hit and had to get repaired and while they were out of order we used up more um fuel well they when they weren't working and then had a was it this year that the price increase on electrical rates hit I think it started last year but this was the First full winter of the increase in electrical rates um I did get a contract to maintain them but uh I kept it pretty low but it still went up I think it was five cents or more so it so it's a combination of the pricing and uh getting the the electric rates down in the annual contracts and that was a challenge with those rates going up this year too Becky uh for followup would you say they got hit what do you mean it wasn't wasn't power surge power surge power surge yeah I talked them out it it fried them it it it was not it took out different components it wasn't a clear like took them all the way down like different boards were impacted in different ways um but almost I I think the library was the only place where we didn't have trouble oh so is there way we could protect those circuits Jim Hemingway from that kind of thing in the future or what um that I was going to mention um has have you Becky and the town ditched jamrog as the as the repair folks on on this because because we as you know we've had enormous amount of trouble with our with our heat pumps that you in the Hut and we're we're no longer with them because they they were they were hopeless when it came to well not hopeless but they didn't do a very good job they kept on not being able to fix the problem um but Pioneer Valley um who is doing our service now they have they have something new they have a surge protector um specifically designed for for these heat pumps that may solve the problem or any future problems because the the heat pumps just seem to be just not very well designed to be able to handle surges just because the technology is sort of new in some ways and they just don't have it quite together yet but um U there there is a solution to that I I wonder if if you're planning on putting those surge protectors or having whoever you do the service right now putting in those surge protectors because that that would help solve a lot of problems we will look into that um the project that the building Committee just completed is we had all the insulation on our heat pumps um degraded and stop working I mean they didn't stop work the the the insulation just disappeared it disappeared well it just yeah it had to be fully replaced and it was it was impacting the lines in a negative way and they were going to charge us like $3,600 for a repair and then uh two members of the building committee got all the found all the appropriate stuff and have replaced all that um insulation and so now I we'll work on the surge protectors next thank you Jim yeah um bringing that up okay George uh yeah concerned about the FY 25 electric bills then um do we think we have enough um budgeted for that based on what you see Becky in you know Bob's observation about the heat pumps oh was my first question and my second question is last year at town meeting we approved um a representative in our town to be looking at a new electric I I forget exactly what it was but an agreement with a u um joining a collective so that we could get lower rates is that in the works um there's going to be a presentation on the 4th of June I think um by eak at the select board meeting regarding that um I'm not there there's a lot of issues around it I'm not sure how much that's going to help oh okay um if if it was to move forward and it was to lower our rates the town would benefit as much as the citizens right just like the citizens I mean we'd have to accept those rates I mean I've been going through constellation and different um uh um you know Municipal type vendors to get the lower rates so I don't know if they'll get any than I've been getting or not okay thank you okay um Bob a motion to approve this uh request for $2,000 to supplement the electricity line I'll second Jim seconds all right any other discussion George I I say Ro ey Heming way I cashew I moer I Walton I thank you only three to go yeah let's do um that's electricity we just did cheating okay heating fuel $900 anything you wanted to share Becky um I think a lot of the energy we just went over a lot of the energy issues this is for propane uh which is um our main source of heating at a number of buildings um at the fire station and the library um Town Hall uses I think that was it was it propane yeah I think it was have it in your generator and the generator yeah generators so we have um I think the fire station this was probably at the fire for the fire station and the library all right so the I see the most recent expense report has $652 left but I imagine there's some bills that have been paid and so okay all right I'll make a motion to uh transfer $900 to the heating uh fuel line from fincom reserves okay any other discussion all right emphasize that there's no inflation okay H George Ro way I cashew I moer I wton I [Music] equipment maintenance I got to step away for a moment okay all right we've been looking at a request for $1,500 for equipment maintenance uh Becky can you tell us about this um this I I'm afraid well I always struggle and almost every year with equipment maintenance especially when it's a big elevator year um to to keep things within budget I think for next year we went up a little bit um I think I added a little bit more for next year so I should be able to make it next year but the the elevator problem the mystery opening up uh whenever it feels like it I've um they're working on that um and I only a few hundred dolls um is going towards that but it's just the all the rest of maintaining all the different um the elevators especially but then you know if I have a plumbing issue I've had um I am failing to give you all my equipment issues and there's a lot of them they keep coming maybe I need to sorry I didn't print out the whole list to to share with you um but this is an area where I get in a pickle when things don't when I call in a repair person like I we have a number of issues in town hall we have different electrical issues that have had to be resolved um we've had some fixtures that have had to be removed and that was out of this year's budget too um so in the so so we had we we increased our budget from 9,000 to 11,500 for next year is that right yeah okay should be able to make it through without this annual not having enough to fix all my equipment right because because right now you're basically over spent the line is overspent by like 43 and I'm sure you have outstanding bills okay so this would this would put us basically in line with what we've allocated for FY 25 correct okay any questions for Becky okay um Jim Walton yeah you Becky I think you mention that the uh the elevator issue is is ongoing it's not resolved yet so is there a chance there could be more expenditure um we're waiting to see what happens happens after the repair that was well basically both the Fire Equipment people the alarm people and the elevator people came back in and did everything they could to prove it wasn't their fault and it's kind of at a stalemate right now and if if it happens again it's the contention of the fire alarm people that it's the elevator doing it because there's nothing that he sees that should provoke what's been happening and we're in week two um two and a half now if nothing nothing it might be solved my prayer is it's solved and we won't have the mystery um elevator doors opening whenever they feel like it anymore but um that's what we're waiting to find out Jim no G sightings or anything like like that no no AJ Bob has a question oh sorry Bob yeah uh you know when we discussed the budget for this line um somewhat needed some explanation from me and you provided explanation one of the things that we talked about was the um the alarm system the lift in the front and the elevator which are things that what this line rep is for right y require regular maintenance and inspections which is what this line represents the cost of that on an annual basis so why is it gone up you said was only a couple hundred bucks for the elevator so why is this going up to, 1500 that's how I way that's that's the most recent work is only a few hundred dollar so far but if when they finish their finger pointing it could be more um but other issues have happened in between like having to get the electrical fixed and the door fixed and the um doors are not equipment um but we've been I I'll get it printed out for you it's it's just this is where we're at I have a bill that I'm holding for 520 5 I'm expecting another $1,000 worth of bills from I think it was the plumber um I can't remember what it was but um so I'm hoping to make it through um with the equipment but I'm potentially the elevator thing could still be open and there could be more billing there too well pres presumably it's now the last month of the fiscal year so if you get a bill next week it'll be do in 30 days so uh it'll still be a June bill and I have to pay it with June money yeah we can get a bill in July that could would still go to the June budget right right I can get bills through I'm just curious about that's a substantial increase that we have to cover and we don't have I don't really understand what it's for yet we because we do the regular maintenance on those machines every year presumably the people that do the work more this year Bob because they didn't work so we went through the full inspection and the vent didn't open so we had to get reinspected and when you get reinspected it's basically another two grand and to prepare for the reinspection we had to have the elevator guy and the Fire Equipment guy so we already this issue though at this point is only a couple hundred more during the year has C is irregular and has caused like 3,000 more than normal because we've already already had those two come in and try to fix it and um and we're where we're at now okay Susie um also although I still feel like it's new that we have an elevator in the town hall it is not new and as things age they can do unpredictable um things like electrical faulting out and causing problems okay um all right not seeing any other hands I'll make a motion to transfer $1,500 to the equipment maintenance line from pcom reserves I'll second okay any other discussion no George aretes I Hemingway I cashew i moer i walon i CD c did you get Bob's vote I I couldn't quite hear but that might have been my audio oh no Bob's muted I oh your audio broke up a little on my computer I didn't hear your vote I I okay I think one more right gasoline gasoline and Diesel okay vehicle fuels the line right yes all right uh so right now I have uh over ,000 doll in Hand of unpaid bills and I often get $2,000 worth of bills a month we paid half of May with the balance of what we had um and I'm holding the other half so I estimated another $2,000 for the month of June because the highway department is active um through June they're more active than you doing Road repair which uses more diesel so that's why what I estimated well let me ask you Becky because I think if I'm maybe I'm not thinking about this correctly but I see on from the expense report that we have our annual allocation for FY 24 was 39,9 so that's about 3300 $0000 a month but um every and you've said you you we we're going to need funds for June and half of May is that right well I know the H the second half of May was just over it was over ,000 so like $1,200 there and I um estimate because yeah some months are $5,000 but we didn't you know I wanted to be able to at least pay a bill when it came in but if we have an additional bills during the month they would have to be cleaned up in the yearend closing okay got it I didn't want to push for every dime of it um not knowing for sure what it'll be okay yeah got it all right so this is this is this may be one that we've got to address later but yeah in the reconciliation okay uh any other questions or comments about this uh Bob yeah Becky do you know have we been putting more miles on our vehicles or is this a product of the increase in fuel prices um CH I'm I think it's I don't know how to figure out if we've been putting more miles on yeah putting more miles because we've added another full-timer to the highway department well what about is is it a function of increased usage of gallons have we burn you know have we purchased more gallons year to date than we did in the previous year or is it a fun if it if the answer is no then it's price I think we were over last here I mean as as for what Becky was saying if we if we've got an extra employee on the highway department one would assume that we're we're driving more miles I would think and uh we have really stabilized with a second full time I mean a a third full-time police officer which would talk to more as well um because we have there have been you know we went part of a year without have well more than part of a year without having the full-time police officer the second full-time police officer and they're on the road constantly so I think it could be more miles but let me try to figure out a better way to analyze it I know there's a lot of variables including like for example with the highway department we didn't do a lot of plowing this winter so that would that would reduce the amount of driving um but when we didn't do much plowing we sand Uh I that was the crazy part about the the winter we didn't use as much winter materials but we still had um mud and yeah other things they had to deal with but you're right we did we had a much lighter winter yeah so if they had if they Ed less sand and salt that means they did less sanding so anyway the point is there's a lot of variables it's hard to to pinpoint one variable as being the cause or or whether it's fuel prices miles on the road or what have you but it isn't is an inter question you know because if you want to control cost you want to be able to get a handle on what's going on so I don't know who who would monitor this I guess the highway department would monitor it Police Department would monitor it separately uh be kind of useful for us like I'm the highway department lion person I'm going to talk to Steve about this and see if we can do if he has a log for the amount of uh you know they have a log with the amount of gallons and I think we could we could know more about this NE you know as we go along through the year building our budget to get more of an understanding of what's happening in a given year Bob I think you'll recall that we do it manually and there was a dis you know I used to pull these numbers together manually because they wanted $20,000 to replace the little um computer at the gasoline pump that would give us a print out because they put in a different code for every department but it was going to cost $20,000 to have that data and they was a decision not to spend the $20,000 for that data so how do you keep it then B I mean we can go there I I stopped Computing every you know I didn't take their 500 sheets of handwritten data I have doing that we've just been you know estimating by the number of of gallons that you know we purchase every year yeah log is fine but you got to do it every day you got to log in on a spreadsheet every day or you're going to fall behind and that's but we have that George we have the data of all the bills and what was purchased recorded in the mass energy Insight system I'm talking about usage by Department yeah usage by department they no I mean they keep it all you can go there and you can see all these hand papers and you can and then they put it they have the data we decided that that data was not worth my spending you know a day calculating what it was at some point I can't remember exactly but I think it came from this the finance committee that you know we could do other kind of estimates and then we had the backup of the mass energy Insight or we can spend $20,000 and get the data log yeah Jim have me way um just out of curiosity Becky is all our gas and Diesel consumption is is that um locally delivered and stored or do they have or does or do everyone have to like drive out to fill their tanks we have um a diesel and gasoline UNL gas at the highway department oh two pumps right there okay so so you so we buy it sort of um and store it there and then it's distributed to all the all the town Vehicles yeah okay just wondering yeah um okay I'll make a motion then uh seeing no hands up uh to transfer $3,000 to the vehicle fuel line from fincom reserves second um any other comments George or i s i m y i casu I moer I Walton I right all right Becky do we need to sign these or um if you get them if Susie gets them into the minute I'll I'll put them all in um and the white plastic in the fincom if you would come in and sign them but if Susie can get it into the minutes as soon as we get the minutes to Gail she'll release the money and I can get the bills paid okay but it'd be nice to have everybody come in and sign them so when will they be ready to sign they're ready now oh okay all right uh just to give you I think actually George if you get a chance to look at this I think I've got an upto-date log right now that's exactly what I have yeah you have the same 40 40, 31478 yep okay got it all right um one more question about transfers did you guys see the email from Steve Sullivan I think he needs Auto um um money for repairs I thought we already gave him a big chunk for repairs that's on here that's 4,000 I think he needs more do you know when he said that or yeah I don't remember seeing I didn't see that I saw an email it might have been over the weekend or last week because I think the the greater repair came in higher and there's another and he's got another vehicle um in in the shop in monague I can't remember that guy's name but I there's an email and so they'll at the next meeting I I'm pretty sure'll need some assistance too all right let's uh yeah let's because the 4,000 was not enough I'm I'm just while we're talking I'm checking the uh I I just checked mine there's my box I didn't see I didn't see anything okay so I'm Dreaming well he those are nightmares I was thinking the same thing okay so all yeah I don't see anything in the fincom okay so I better follow up either sorry but I think we have one more issue coming okay all right and roughly Becky what would that be am do you know an amount on that roughly I remember he put a lot of data in and not a total so I was I have to ask him okay well we we'll deal with it next meeting then h okay let's see what's next lost my agenda hang on a second okay um so the only other items I have on the agenda are an expense report review we just got a new one today so we can talk about that one I don't know if folks have had a chance to review it um but we can look at it together since we've got decent amount of time and then any other updates that uh members wanted to share so maybe I'll pull up the latest expense report now that's from today AJ yes yeah this came earlier today um Becky did you want to flag any particular items for discussion I mean obviously they're all the ones that were related to fcom transfers that we already talked about don't know if there was anything else um I think there was yeah the training salaries are over again despite I think that's even after the transfer no it's not it's not over uh um yeah it is but I'm not positive that transfers got in there does it look like it is yeah if you look at the fincom reserve fund there's $110,000 of transfers that haven't been moved right and that's because she didn't Grace didn't get the minutes up because of the she's her whole family got covid so so minutes weren't put up and that's why Gail didn't flag them all right so that doesn't like it's an issue then H Bob I see your hand up can let's ask Becky a couple questions with the registar expenses on page two um what what what is that that's a pretty big number regist is usually not a big number that's the those are the election workers oh yeah so that's 88,200 bucks for we pay the election workers I thought they were about no that's the expense line it's in the expense lines um is where the um town clerk takes out the um payments for the elction workers and we had um the March um primary right and then we had town meeting or town election and that's the two and then there's also special Town meetings they pay those people to come in and do that work too are they PA they were paid out that's so that's that's my question the are they paid as consultants consultant rates are styp stiens without payroll impact they're paid Min minimum wage right but they're on the payroll yeah they have to be payroll I'm surprised they use the term expenses and not salary okay the other line that I wanted to ask about maybe Becky can answer this it support uh it's down on 199 5344 $766 what we discussed this I think when we put this budget together last year what what are we what are we paying for we have a consultant uh no it's mostly like all our Zoom fees okay right Gmail we pay like what is it $300 month for that accounting system maintenance uh no they pay most of the accounting systems are within the account oh that's right budgets but it's a it's amazing it's a lot of money just all the all the and all the because then all the internet accounts there's two other accounts we have to pay monthly for the internet service right yeah that's part of there being no inflation right right exactly so all these labor saving devices yeah thank you you're welcome I had a question about the gis um web hosting what page are you on um I'm looking I actually wrote in my notes um it's on page page one yes um under the assessors actually yeah under the it's it's group three assessors and I just notic in that they spent we spent 2,000 in that 2900 but the budget for next year is 4,000 so I'm wondering what's going on right right I remember that I don't remember the conversation but they're budgeting more next year but they're not even spending what was budgeted this year unless there's another bill coming or we're going to there's a story on this one I'm trying to it might be in minutes maybe I can't move it could you move it over to the left a little or I just it probably doesn't matter what does it say before web GIS web hosting sorry say that what was the question it's GIS web hosting I just wanted to see what was over to the left um the account number budgeted 2900 spent 2000 so far she had yeah so in the in the budget that um Leslie brought us it talked about um GIS web hosting and maintenance together would be um $4,000 up from 2900 the web hosting is 2500 and the maintenance is 1,500 they've CH okay so this is now I'm starting to remember this was part of the vision software and they do the map hosting and they had been a company took over Vision a couple of years ago and they have discovered that they can't do what were doing for that amount of money so that's why um they split a bill and I think that's and I'll have to ask lesle about why it went down to 2000 but there was a bill split and then they said but the coming year was going to be more so it all has to do with their change in um in management and the resulting increase in fees which have gone up so I will get Leslie to give me the the letter from them that tells the story of why this year we only paid 2,000 but we knew we were the P She was trying to budget to make sure we cover the increased price next year yeah and she wrote a lot on her um form that she submitted to us and that talks about Cai has kept previous providers rates for two years which is not profitable for them so she has it explained on the yeah I'm looking at it she sent yeah which should be on the Google Docs place I think he was anticipating spend in the whole 2900 this year probably hasn't she probably spend it by the time the year's out yeah you're right build in two separate because one's maintenance one's hosting yeah but didn't you say that the cost was going down overall between those two lines no no no I think vison was yeah they're not profitable they're not going down in price but we did go down in um the four 504 utilities and she projected it in FY 26 it'll be up to 5,000 instead of 4,000 right but we've gone down and the utilities what to 4,000 from six or three might be three I'm sorry I don't have that budget in front of me David is doing the that work for us as part of his service um doing which work no we also valuations the the utility valuations are being done by by Roy Bishop um a consultant that has worked with David for years um and he came down on the pricing for that yes that was a savings of 2,000 yep but David's doing most of our other valuations and um the personal property is being handled by Roy Bishop to some extent line 700 sessor valuation is only spent 8.56 is that part of David's impact on the B on their spending I'm not sure what you just read did you the assessor reevaluation we've got 8.6% spent to date uh and that's a pretty damn nice number if that represents our cost for the year I'm not could you show me on what it's this line I've got highlighted assessor reevaluation that that rolls over your for yeah when we do a revalue oh it does we build that up right uh yes yeah so that means it'll be there for for next time we do a revamp right yeah so we just add to it a little bit every year or a bit y fine it's every three years or two five or five it used to be three it went to five okay okay what else um and the health insurance is still looking good that we will be all right uh with our 9% increase even though we haven't um we did not make an adjustment on health insurance not sure how that's happening but we must have had you know families move off and single people come on and inflation killed right yeah and no inflation on this one Bob not Health not Healthcare I did also I did want Becky I was wondering if you could um on in the page Above This one is The Debt Service and we had thatb we had budgeted principal and interest for the highway truck but of course that debt is not going to be started till next year are we going to have interest charges though this year yes he went out to borrow and got what did he get four and a half% on the ban so we'll have to figure out if we're going to have enough yeah that's what I was wondering yeah well we must have used the high rate though when we calculated this yeah for sure one year yeah right well I forget the highway truck was like 225,000 so 225 [Music] well yeah and the highway truck took it we had you know usually you get them with in a year the next year you should get the highway truck after you order it but that Highway truck took 18 months to get so it's and then the decision was made by the Treasurer in consultation with our loan officer that they didn't want to go commit to borrowing full right now when they believe interest rates at some point will come down so they just went out for with a ban to pay the interest on the on the loan I mean for the thing but we will see something there by the end of the year yeah Becky the the legal expense line is still running well behind budget are you expecting that Gap to close up pretty much or um I'm waiting to see it's all dependent on the workings of the lawsuit and the timing of their procedures because we had to budget for um professional um professional testimony in for the lawsuit was part of this and we're so it's all dependent on timing but do you think you also have outstanding invoices or are we C it I'm gonna plead confidential on this one sure before I say something I wasn't supposed to talk about sure but that's a good thing because we've been um processing the legal bills as they come in and I've got you know I've got another few thousand that'll hit there and then if um yeah depending what happens we might need to roll that over because of the timing of the activity is that a decision that's can be made uh year to year about holding something over yes in consultation with the accountant she has to approve it hey anything else anything else I think we're looking pretty good looks like we might generate some free cash this year from snow and ice for sure Elementary School is I know it's I know they have bills that come in late but they're looking good oh no that won't end up that way yeah okay oh it's such a big item it's just I'm hopeful yeah no they've been um they and I don't think they didn't con have a conversation maybe Susie you had the conversation with the school but typically in the past when they've been hit with a new sped situ ation they have come straight to the town for full funding of it um they did work with the town to fund for next year but they absorbed all of the extra cost internally this year so that's why they're you know I think their funding will be exume you know fully used Susie do do you anticipate that there might be a lower principal expense with the new school principal or is it is it impossible to know at this point I haven't heard anything I would think that this um Jackie's 10 years um I'm not sure this other woman is experienced but I don't I don't know and I don't know let's see I don't I didn't hear the decision process whether that got a final appointment and now are they negotiating the contract I don't know that they are now negotiating a contract yeah well that'll be interesting to know okay anything else on the expense report all right what about any other updates from committees or member updates Susie I just want to mention that Aaron Saunders will be at the Town Hall on Monday the 10th of June he gets there at 10:30 last month he his Aid came Maddie um so in those in that situation you're not having a dialogue so if you have things you want to have her take note of you should have um notes on that um I can see in the paper there's more jibber jabber um about Quabbin um uh Senator Joe cumerford wrote a letter to the to the Gazette and it's now part of the dialogue about getting a different pilot organ um agreement for the quab and water so we'll be paying attention to that but I guess I want more information from um Aaron about the school funding because the form does not serve us at all right and he's hearing from a lot of the towns I know he heard it from belter town it's across the state so and the last time I talked to Maddie because I went the last meeting I went to she was saying that the legislature is still talking about the Quin bill it's not closed right so there is I I I hate to be optimistic because it never works out but you know they are still talking about it and and one other component about it it's really interesting is that they are familiar with the fact that you know in Wendell New Salem school and here in shutesbury there's a past problem and they're talking about utilizing some of the quaven for our towns and I know that sounds crazy pumping the water up the hill I don't know maybe it isn't crazy but they're definitely considering that as well they're not just considering that there's a fonal uh feasibility study that's in process um the MW is behind it um they contacted eight towns including shutesbury they reached out primarily to the Board of Health um and there was an initial opening presentation by them and they didn't ask a single question they did not um they've asked for a little bit of information but it really does not feel like they're engaging with us at all um it it it feels much more like uh proforma they want to get this study done to prove it's going to cost them too much money to help us um but it is what it is so Becky from that perspective so what should we be saying to Aon we should be saying this matters and having an a water supply from the quaven to our center of town could be an you know I huge service to our community I mean it's bypassing wellwater um it's right now is it safe to say that it cost us $150,000 a year to mitigate the effective pasas at least yep and we're not even dealing with you know any residents that are Outside the Fire Station area and I'm hearing of more and more um people who are have the guts to get tested are coming up positive and random parts of town um well R random Parts like where for example over um by what is that road the intersection of uh Baker and West pum in that area along West pelum Road why what's triggered that I don't know um we've got a couple random ones on pelum Hill we've got um over were you know the Old Orchard area that was all every home in Old Orchard tested positive for peass and nobody you know fertilizer in the orchard but is that it I don't know you say it does not take a lot of past to make a large contamination so so the so so we don't know about Old Orchard Road because that's fairly close to me and and Lake wyola I was just wondering whether there was any any any resolution of where it came from none not DP um they nailed us with a responsibility for the fire station and they that was it they couldn't figure anything out in the other areas well if they do decide or we they think about running water from Quin up to shutesbury that's gonna I mean putting in that line that will cost Fortune because it's it's a a long long distance and Uphill it's the uphill long distance they're shipping it to Boston now yeah I know but but that's Boston you know they spread out you know you know over a lot of people I it's just it just would be prohibitive I think to get quab and water up this way but who knows Aaron Saunders is he was very positive on that idea he thinks feasible he the way he presented it to us he was very optimistic well what I read was that the Quin whatever they call it now the MDC or the Metropolitan water district MW they're calling it they're actually contemplating providing water to different communities in the East quiny Southshore some of those other towns they're not thinking about us well well they took they took Quin from us thing was addressed by the feds or by the state government but that's what Joe and Aaron are doing they're advocating Joe is advoca advocating for the our communities yeah but I I just don't see that practical George you ever walk up from the quab to my house and you'll see how much I know you don't have to tell me I'm aware it's it's a ridiculous long lift it's it's really expensive but we could drill Wells up here we got Wells and find out that just P fast in the water Maybe a water tank at the top of the hill they can fill it we don't need a water tank so we have a mountain we have a mountain fill of contaminated water really full of contaminated water is your house positive now mine mine is and George's is and we weren't be I wasn't before I got tested in 21 and I was negative all my neighbors around me Becky that it's actually starting to ease up that it's it's being watered down or it lasts a long time and it doesn't take much to C contamination yeah does it wash downhill to lever to some other place I mean get there but we're gonna go through all of shoot SP to get there yeah and um yeah it it moves but it You' think that would be a good thing because like when gasoline moves it goes it kind of leaves one place and goes to another this stuff it just spreads it feels like it's measure of parts per trillion that makes any kind of movement shows up again but they are the MW is doing the study and it'll be interesting to see what it say does lake does Lake wyola turn up at with any problems just because there's so many people there they're not testing or people have people tested down there we haven't tested anybody down there we're not supposed to think any of the people that signed up for the UMass free testing were around the lake I think the Old Orchard was the farthest from the C okay was that still available free testing no but I'll keep an ear out you Mass it's like $300 like the I got them down to 260 a piece wow but now with the Dual filters we have to test three times every time we test so that's $900 to 750 how much does it cost for a case a bottle water half the bottle of water has peass in it let alone plastic right did we did you get anywhere with the idea of saying this this logic um we served as a test program for UMass and now UMass can serve Us by doing the test for free um if we find that UMass is doing I don't know if they're doing past testing the lab I don't think they used I don't know what lab they used but I don't think they did their own testing down there a bummer any other yeah I wonder if anybody heard any more about the school I see they're still in contract teachers are still in contract negotiations do we know anything about that if it's moving along two more dates set up two more dates set up to negotiate and they're concern they might not finish before the summer starts but they're trying so anyone else no not much happening with Personnel Board okay uh let's see next meeting [Music] um 11th I [Music] something do you need to meet before the there's an all boards meeting that night yeah that's an all boards meeting Susie oh yeah so please all be there what time is that that's an inperson meeting right yes it is and it's at six o'clock all right and will be oh that's what we didn't do there will be food and I we were supposed oh shoot we had this great idea to have H A Bake Off with each committee would you guys be interested I'll bring something that would be awesome somebody else can bring something too though yeah I I'll ask somebody to make something fake that's me my wife likes to bake she bakes for things she'll bake something that'd be awesome what are you gonna make Bob uh I think I'll make the meeting so will I don't forget it's in person 6 pm on the 11th yep at Town Hall it's up on top of the hill for those of you who haven't been here in 5 years and don't drink the water all right I'll uh make a motion to a j I'll second that George aring I Ashu I moer I Walton I hey AJ yeah work I'm rooting for the Rangers here because I want to beat the Panthers maners good we're allies then okay for a change the season on opposite sides whatever game York Boston it's a big rivalry there is every sport yeah for the Nick um for the Nick for you too thank you they're they're a likable team but uh not quite talented enough but they're fun to watch but they play hard yeah yeah who we talking are we talking the Knicks yeah yes yeah they're they're a good team when they have their players yeah exactly they'll be strong they'll be they'll be they'll be tough next year we'll see if they Heap everybody but you know right my friend Larry if he grew up be hating the Red Sox says what the Red Sox ever do to me good night everyone see you in a couple weeks okay you all have a good one yep yeah good night