this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers okay very good all right good evening everyone I'm calling to order the meeting of the Southampton select for for April 16th and we are at about 6:15 sorry for the lateness we've had a couple of technical glitches here but we should be able to be functional mtito so while we're getting all that ready uh if we could please stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and stand One Nation indivisible good thank you all right so we have a quorum here in inhouse and uh I'm not sure if Joy's joining us tonight uh John is remoting in we're trying to get him connected and we have both Reggie and Doug here from Finance but we don't have a quorum on finance so you don't need to call your your your meeting to order so uh we are up and running so with that um time for citizen speak which is uh whoever is up so Robert come ahead reporting in progress okay there we go hi yes Robert Floyd College Highway um I'm back um speaking as to moderator I looked at all the select board meetings um recordings and various committee meetings that involve Town meetings so I believe um uh caught up and and addressed and a lot of lot of fine work good to be on the same page date wise the 23rd is your next meeting and you may plan to sign the warrant then but you could sign it that Thursday and still post it in time the 25th uh yes the latest technically M you can post it on the 29th okay I would invite that I'd like to have the citizens have as much advanced notice as possible but technically if you had pushed on the Shelf you could um post it on the 29th Monday not sign it but post it yeah cuz the the the one week would get us next week it appears you have enough time yeah the one week would get April would be May 2nd which is Thursday right yeah May 2nd is the town moderator annual town meeting information session right here y okay so that'll be televised or live stream y recording in progress I'll be here through the rest of meeting yeah okay thank cheers thank you I think you have to you mute us thank you hang on whatever yeah okay boy uh turn the volume all the way down yeah speaker volume there we go there we go all the way down I think hopefully our mic's from E ston media will pick us up okay okay I think we're we're here now you just got to admit John and we'll be all set maybe oops hello there we go perfect wow can you hear us Johan uh he's muted now yes I can you can hear us all good thank you for joining in all right so with that uh thank you Robert for that I appreciate your following all our our discussions while you were out of town so we will do our best to meet these deadlines and we're getting close I think so all right next up good evening my name is Richard lir I live at 55 strong Road Southampton I'm the past commander of the American Legion in town and it's that time of year again when I come up and ask permission for the legion to put on a Memorial Day Parade M it will be the 27th okay W all right and I need permission to make sure to ask the police department the fire department the highway department okay all to help put on this parade right without their help it can't get going no that's true and what time was were you planning on having it you see assembl between 8:30 and 9 nor School kick off about 9:30 okay and head for the cemetery all right that sounds good but you people are all invited m without your participation and bring your families indeed okay myself yes turn that around EO R okay the PR from the message either our microphones are collectively too high or there new one um maybe just all right I'm going to continue um point of clarification there it is thank you very there we go thanks for that is that better hopefully somebody's would title commander commander Claire yes yeah so good thank you yeah well go ahead sorry yeah I wasn't sure if he was finished so yes go ahead Oh I thought I had been go ahead cleared for the question um you mentioned the 27th is this the 27th annual or is this may 27th on which you want to hold the parade this is the 27th of May this is where uh it the holiday falls this year yes sir it floats yes that's the role of the dice isn't it actually 30th is the bet it's more than the 27th annual parade Monday so congratulations it's been many many many decades of parades read7 yeah yeah yeah it's the last Monday of the month yeah it's always the last Monday so so the idea would be to it floats yeah to start Gathering it about 8:30 up at Norah school but the kickoff would be about 9:30 to actually start the parade even if National ASP far day also falls on that day so maybe we can have asparagus float have to endure that there we go well the parade won't last all day long so we'll have time to enjoy both I think how that now my request also is for all the people who who can help with putting this parade on my main Sidekicks right here right ex she keeps me on the straight and narrow there we go perfect but I thank you very much for this opportunity to request this I don't know if we do we normally take a vote on this or do we just agree to it we take a vote for your pleasure there all right so how about could we have a motion Steve you want to make the motion yeah I move that we Grant um license or uh permission to the American Legion to spearhead the organization of the town's Memorial Day Parade on May 27th in the AM and Dan second all right just to mention Richard didn't mention that it starts off at the Norah school but it does stop at the cemetery there is a ceremony at the cemetery and then it leads on to the town green where there is another ceremony and a wreath laying so just so people know that that that's where it starts and that's where it ends and there is singing at the Town green and um so traffic does get a little stopped yeah that's why our police right Chief are always in charge of managing the the traffic Flo they have fire trucks involved yes it's true it will it will end here in front of town hall essentially and it usually ends around between 11 and 12 so and the Lions Club um provide well last few years they have provided popcorn there for donations so okay all right good all right we'll send out reminders as well okay we have a motion on the floor and could we have a vote please all those in favor I I I all right and John lumber I okay thank you thank you very much all right I believe that passes so thank you thank thank you very much that's granted looking forward to it again this year uh it was quite a quite an event last year we had a big crowd I think last year so I'm going to be sitting on the sidelines he's going to be in the antique jeap you you'll get a r I'm recating all right good thank you much thank you very much can I just speak um really quick spe or something else something else I just wanted to yeah open time um I just wanted to uh just talk about the caucus it was Thursday and we had uh last Thursday and it was um attended by 27 um attendees we did have a quorum thankful the fire department was having training um we did have I think nine people that were nominated thank you uh hopefully they all got their letters that I sent out and all of them will accept um most a lot of them were for finance so that was good um we did get select board we did get um Park I mean planning so I sent the letters out on Friday for acceptance or decline so yeah and if you have a chance I don't know whether you prefer to wait till people accept but I mean we should put results of the caucus up I did send a message to Scott earlier because I didn't think I was going to be here cuz I wasn't here today had a funeral up on the website rich I forgot about him announcing the Memorial Day right that's fine so I will be putting the caucus up results tomorrow so all right perfect thank you much all right thank you thanks okay very good all right so I think we're ready to jump jump in here uh let's uh do the budget review first and see where we are with this um given that we've got our finance folks with us you may or may not decide if you want to stay for the entire meeting which will also include the warrant you're certainly welcome to but at least to do the fin part while you're here and I know John is jumping in from from uh further south and we appreciate everybody trying to jump in and then in case those are listening at home um much appreciate that as well so now I'm not sure how much you're going to be able to see John with the screen are you able to yeah okay perfect yeah I can see it okay good all righty so Scott where where would you like to take us here this is the one that's the most recent version that got updated in our in our boxes so it may not have gone oops so I guess the best way to start is from the end and work our way up okay um so essentially um with the final budget the revenues uh there was a difference of 24,6 968 yeah um and then you closing that Gap as I mentioned before is going to be a little bit difficult without finding some other Revenue um so it leaves us with a deficit surplus of just under $55,000 um two things that just were added in the last 10 minutes um was uh $300 for the greenway expenses and request from the bylaw committee legal for 2,000 um actually that wasn't going to be a I'll speak for that because I was part of that with with Fran that was more just noting um okay it was to try and show how legal would be needed by our committee um so we were estimating if there were future bylaws it would be that but I think we are pretty much done so whatever we're reviewing right now I mean there may be one or two bylaws in the future coming up maybe for for a special town meeting but it it wouldn't be that amount of money I don't think so it wasn't intended to be a budget line for the committee it was intended to go into that overall whatever $25 $30,000 for legal fees and just show that out of what we put out for the legal budget a couple thousand usually is used by bylaws for review B of Health would use some concom might use some it was trying to look at sort of building their legal budget from the ground up rather than just dumping a figure in there so so I'm going to be and Francine may may kill me but I think I'm correct on this so I think I'm good um I think I think we're good we didn't intend for it to be its own budget line so I think we're mam we okay there yeah are you saying that the line under discussion and the bylaw request for legal fees doesn't several other they requests for legal fees roll up under other people I don't think I I doubt that other people put in a budget a legal fee budget line in their budget CU they wer we never have so all of that kind of goes into the full figure that we have for legal fees which I don't think we've actually we increased it maybe a little bit I don't remember full figure for Legal Services which falls in which department it comes under under General government I believe I it so it's in the it's in um let me find it um hold on somewhere in the1 that's the original yeah it's under General government uh we've got 26 250 budgeted this year so that's where we are 26 so that would that would Encompass anybody that needs legal fees that go through Scott to be able to ask cap you law okay great um so we were just trying to you know we'd had a discussion with it about trying to break that out a little bit but that wasn't part of the instructions to committees so it didn't really get done but I think as we go forward it'll be something to look at as we go forward um I don't think we need five different legal lines the intent would be no matter what it would all roll into one but um it was just a estimate of how we might use the legal services so okay so I think we might breathe a little bit easier on that one so thanks for that but the greenway one is a new one new request then okay yeah so we have um the $155,000 for the wage adjustments um which originally start off at 25 um might be something we fund later on the year once we get um the actual final report from the Callin Center um we Revis the um collection expenses by $100 Lucy had given us a updated budget M um we calculated the additional custodial wages that was an addition and this is to maybe have a few more hours of of Dave's service right and a little bit more like a facilities manager rather than custodial just you know things like uh like the HVAC um like doing the concrete pad finally getting a vendor out there to do it things like that so so some things where we might over time we might look at how that could impact our contract cost for some of those Building Maintenance okay than uhhuh um we reduced uh Emergency Management by $500 um we reduced uh expenses Police Department by 2500 you did input the uh building inspector salary to reflect what the guidelines were supposed to be uh we did reduce the uh expenses in Highway by $2,500 and the tree Warden expenses by 3,000 uh right now they're only at a 30% expenditure for the tree Warden um that's fairly unusual and I guess because we've had a light winter because that that's a line that usually gets you know chomped on quite a bit could you make that just a little bit bigger Scott sorry there you go thank you um so yeah so we're we're kind of kind of there you you put in John's uh most recent calculation on the uh the voke tuition right we're we're good on that figure the 141 mhm yeah then just one addition to the Council on Aging expenses they requested that $600 for their uh expenses yep that wasn't see in there okay and other than that there where we are wasn't that many other changes M so is it still 2,900 over just 900 over um 2 3,000 Oh I thought you took you took 2,000 because we added the legal expenses for 2,000 to yeah Okay cool so not 900 okay thank you yeah so you you'd had that at 49 so now you took that back okay all right oh yeah okay so so we're still got to do a little bit of Shaving here and there um anybody have any comments thoughts questions um John I'll look to you for a second since you're hanging in there from the outside you have a question why are we adding $10,000 to the it line item that's for the um the shared managed services for the new contract so it's a contractual obligation mhm that's right that's for the new contract you know it's just a one-year contract mhm yeah I just go back to I'm generally opposed to using the $200,000 for the operation stabilization because we're going to have to use that year over year over year as a funding source and I don't think that's sustainable now I understand we may have to use some of it but some of the requests that are in there um specifically uh the Board of Health and the council and aging are above and beyond previous year's budgets have those been level seted or are we still automatically assuming we're going to Grant those enhancements we put in just now you just mentioned 600 on the the um uh expenses for Council on Aging because they run out of their exp I don't just huh sorry right and Chris I don't disagree with this but specifically the the council and agen asking us to absorb 100% of the COA director's wages and the um right CLI they'd also ask for is it the program coordinator they'd also ask for that that has not been included the the director looks like the director's been included but not the program coordinator okay so one step forward y yeah I'm I'm just worried about using $200,000 of reserves I understand without offset for next year but we need to find we're going to have to continue to use those 200,000 every year yeah finding places to cut is is the challenge though for that amount of money I don't know agree chair yeah yeah on this on this point exactly there was concern or there was perhaps a desire to show all the salary costs on the budget and then in these two cases I thought we were going to show uh offsetting Revenue in from whatever dedicated funds uh State funds what have you uh but given that they're contractual Andor Civil Service employees I I I may have dreamt this but I thought we wanted to show all of that on the budget with offsetting income where that was available um is such just hope thinking we um not totally incorrect I think if I follow you I mean we had done that with the Board of Health contracted expenses for example by creating the revolving fund which is going to be an article in the town warrant is that what you mean it's almost the opposite because that would be that was a good Financial Innovation and documented so there's some seed money in there to start that going I was thinking about the director's salary or I lose track of the titles uh J okay I don't know where we at I can't see that sorry well to the extent that some of the salaries are offset by the state formula whatever I would love to see that as an income line even if it is restricted uh and matches up with whatever it matches up with well the only formula grant applies to the COA at this point in time and I think the request so there were two requests right one was for making the director's salary fully funded by the town there you go and also and that's that 2900 right there and then making the program coordinator also funded by the town that is not included that's level funded and they did um sent I got a note today from from the COA they had asked around other communities about how many communities around nearby or a couple communities nearby that they were got answers from about how they funded their director yeah so they got answers from Hatfield and Hadley and all of them are 100% paid out of the Town budget um so for example Hatfield uh the director's salaries uh and the town budget alone for the COA much much L was like 120,000 that they put in toward the town of Hatfield which isn't bigger a town than we are where do they recognize the formula Aid that comes from the state that goes in from some of their their other prog um from for building expenses I gather I don't know where they charge it maybe for other salaries well but no this is no sorry this says her staff salaries are paid 100% out of the Town budget same with Hadley um staff are paid out of the 100% out of the Town budget so Hadley for example that's a director at 40 hours one employee at 35 and three at 25 hours so it must go into building cost or something I'm not sure um I strongly support reflecting the entire cost of our employees on the town budget yeah I and whatever offsetting or opportunistic income we're able to generate um also show that but that's from that's from a NE my first time through for guess so I understand what you're saying so you're saying that really we're not pulling 200k from our reserves because there's you've got to be talking to the mik really we're not pulling 200k from our reserves we have other funds that are coming in from the state for these salar these employee salaries is that what we're saying it may already be an element somewhere else rolled up in the cherry sheet reimbursement or whatever it is okay but we'll leave it to the experts at the end of the table to tell us where yeah so I don't know we'll have to let Scott Bradley speak to to that I don't I don't know John do you have other ideas I mean for $200,000 I'm not sure what else is going to get us uh you know a th000 here and there is not going to get us where we need to be so no but I thought it was 40,000 from our state formula for COA it I it's a it's a figure per senior which okay I don't have it off the top of my head uh right memory serves it's like $43,000 like4 I'm sorry this is random access memory but that's what I had in my mind so we've got 13,000 for this year so that's expected income already reflected it's reflected in the in the expected Revenue so but that that right now now is paying some of those salaries and and expenses so the town is putting in 1,000 bucks or whatever toward expenses right now special Revenue funds that signals that they're restricted for some particular use I'm good this is exactly that question okay yeah so yes and so right now I think what has been put in in the past on that one if I find the right line here uh so the the the conso aaging expenses the town is putting in $1,229 for the year how much $1,229 and so they've asked for 600 more so they've asked for $1,800 never question whether it's a good value just whether we had the income and the expense all on the same page yes thank you okay it's it's in the revenue part it is Chris if I could go ahead John to one of your other questions about where do we find the the difference on the 200,000 uh one of the reports that just was just up there showed ambulance receipts were 29 209,000 and I think our budget shows we're only drawing 175 of that to carry over we know that the am to run the ambulance service in town is at least 425,000 so even if we pull 200 over instead of the 175 that's another 25 ,000 that we pull out of receipts therefore we only hit stabilization for 175 instead of 200 mhm so to take a little bit more we're not going to find 200,000 in our budget to cut without sacrificing Services yeah I'd rather drain the ambulance receipts and I know there's an argument to be made about we got to build it the reserves when we have to buy an ambulance and we need all that but at that point in time we can do a Deb a debt override if we needed to but right now we should not hold those monies and reserves and continue to draw from our from our internal reserves so if we utilize 100% or 90% of our ambulance receipt funds which the report that was just on screen showed a 209 right as of whenever those Revenue numbers are which yeah January 31st 209 313 I believe our Revenue uh notes for next year we only had 175 in there so I would argue that we should move that to 200 because we have more than that in receipts already put that back in and then maybe we only go to our to our stabilization for everything else for 175 200 if that makes sense so to take maybe 25,000 out of ambulance receipts is what I'm thinking I'm hearing you say is that right an additional yeah cuz we're already planning on taking 175 I'm trying to think memory serves I think we have 175 in our Revenue numbers there it is uh that was uh am I right or is my memory BL Special Reserve fund uh AQ 668 at 175 for the ambulance fund that was all we were expecting for right that's all we're pulling and we have two 209 available yeah so I would argue we should pull 200 makes sense right because and and I say we should do that because we know at a minimum ambulance service for the town is $425,000 a year and it should be you know in theory it should pay for itself it's not going to but it's so much higher than last year mhm I just calculated the current balance of ambulance receipts goe sorry so there was 235,000 at the end of fiscal year 23 and in fiscal year 24 all activity adds up to let me just check one more time uh 36988 th $36,988 so it's $272,500 but revenues are only accurate those of January 31st right so we've got more revenues that are you know know we're behind schedule which is part of our issue right but 236,000 or there abouts 272,000 27 272,000 exists right now in ambulance receipts okay and I think so why wouldn't we make that 250 say that again John 250 over instead of the 175 250 is that what he said right if I heard Bradley saying as of right now as of January it's 272,000 is available right why would we not pull 250 over Which is less than what's available and then the difference take from the capital stabilization account mhm or operational mhm okay seems like a great idea to me John um I would ask a question just because I'm I'm new to this um just educate me and maybe some people at home you said that we would have to pull from this fund this Reserve funds every year going forward how does that work and what does what does that mean if we pull say we pulled just the 200k as it was that number does that mean every year you're stock pulling 200k from there well in theory if you're pulling from the operational stabilization fund it's because your underlying tax base cannot support what you're doing and right our taxes go up by 2 and half% and then on top of that we have the uh the new growth or business so event it'll catch up but until it catches up if we pull this 200 now or whatever the number is the X we pulled the X from operational we have to plan on pulling it year after year after year until the tax base catches up with it right thank you very much now it makes sense to me yeah and I think do we not usually most of our warrants I'm trying to think we've usually taken something out of ambulance receipts for agreed huh sorry yeah cuz Chris to your point we should be the ambulance program in theory although not in practice should be a self-sufficient fund mhm so it goes out it does the calls the bills the private insurance companies the money comes in goes into the ambulance receipt funds and sits there until appropriation by the select so in theory every year if we say hey this cost $425 and I'm just using that as a number yeah then we should have 425 available in receipts to offset this in a perfect world it should not cost us anything to operate the ambulance service yeah in a perfect world we are using it to uh pay for any interceptions of ambulance activities from other towns and cities that are helping us so we do pay out of that account so for that in the current warrant we have a $3,000 invoice so when East stampton has to intercept for us yeah okay yeah so so I guess that would be a question to Bradley if there's 272 available and we take 250 is he comfortable with us leaving what's that number 27,000 in there to pay for the intercepts from the neighboring communities I think was it last year we asked 12,000 from the ambulance receipts to fund the budget and now we're asking well hypothetically asking more than double 250,000 and yeah I I think that's a little high that maybe 200,000 would be okay but 250 is a little too much the opportunity cost if we don't just leave this acred balance in place on our balance sheet uh but we use it um what are we missing the opportunity to pay an unusually large annual bill for other towns to pick up our ambulance if that's all it is again our revenues aren't accurate as of today so I'm sure we have more than 272,000 we more coming in for sure I mean you know we're we're four months behind against expenses that are needing to be accounted for for sure but they seem modest in comparison yeah right yeah go ahead go ahead I would also say to to John's Point um to to leave the draw down from the ambulance receipts lower than to just on a warrant later in the year ship that over to the stabilization fund it just seems like you're delaying the application to more fully fund the ambulance program I'm in favor of what John is suggesting to you know further allocate those revenues we also do have an ambulance stabilization account that I believe we should be I guess put we need to put money into it it doesn't just receive money money goes to this ambulance fees account and I believe Ed suggested before he left to place 100,000 into that ambulance stabilization account for possible later purchasing ambulances is there what is the is there a current balance in that stabilization ambulance stabilization let me check it seems to reinforce a premise that we're not doing damage by using these for operating if there's still some provision for Capital expenditures I think it's a new I think it's a new account though new account at the end of fiscal year 23 there was $946 94023 okay in that stabilization account the ambulance okay so for example last year so we're not talking about accessing that that would be you that would stay stay alone the um last year's warrant for last May's annual meeting for example we took out 32,000 from ambulance receipts for the Fire EMS operating budget so we' we've used used it to balance the Fire part of the budget much much of the time um um that was just that one example but most annual meetings we've used something from from the um ambulance receipts for sure to help us balance but if I may yeah go ahead we're doing the same thing now in advance rather than waiting until the end of the year right it's it's still moving towards the you know the wage and other expenses of fire atems department mhm yeah yeah I think also in terms of flexibility I think that application and leaving more in the general stabilization fund just provides the select boort more flexibility down the road I mean I think aren't they really just the same thing it's just a different bucket uh you still you haven't really solved anything you just have more than one stabilization fund rather than the other MH and so and I agree with Doug that it's you'd have more flexibility if you had more money on the overall State Mission fund y okay Madam chair another question do we um do we have any policies or do we have an argument why we would use like to the voters why we would take a chunk out of the stabilization fund is there any reason other than we really need the money um that you can just ify it cuz people are going to ask well you know why why are you taking 200,000 out of this how much is in there how much should be in there right and why yeah I think those are usually the the two questions that we might get asked would be how much is in there now and you know is that a recommended level or are we high or low compared to what should be in there I'm not aware of any policies or anything from DLS about how much could be should be what how much how much is in there in the general stabilization fund braing stabilization y brother those numbers that up so uh that was that was one of the original ones that Scott presented right 412,000 in the capital stabilization or operating stabilization fund I think yes with the 350,000 due from free cash to replenish what we use last fisal year for the last F year okay all right so with what John is suggesting and and fincom is agreeing to what is that does that help us with our numbers or are you being able to manipulate the budget there a little bit or no on the spreadsheet we would increase our Revenue estimates of receiving 250,000 from ambulance receipts mhm so that would increase it what is it currently 100 what was what's the current Revenue estimate we don't have the revenue tab linked to that do we have the revenue file open I can find one you just had that Revenue file open so I guess another question for me is does money go into that stabilization fund during the year for many sorts or or we at 600,000 we're going to use a third of it this year I get asked to use a third of it the next year so we're at roughly 400,000 right now and then the town owes itself 350,000 from last last year so once we had the free cash certified that's going to move into that fund so uh if we don't touch any other free cash it should be right about 750,000 I think what my that's my other question 750,000 is that is that good or bad or appropriate or that's one of the things I was yeah um establishing a Target based on what our our budget should be so that's where would be right now mhm and and I had heard the five was recommended or you said that five might be recommended uh at least 5% 5% yeah I think that's usually well kind of a not a rule of thumb but it's a recommendation I think yeah to aim for that at least I think yeah so we have a ways to go but at least if we put that money from the school back in we're closer to that so we're getting better at that maybe but but then in terms of shifting around the money from the ambulance receipts I mean does that on on your spreadsheet that we're looking at tonight I mean we may still need you to still come down to another you know $1,900 or whatever to figure out where to take it from but um I just wanted to 75,000 to the revenue estimates so it would be 21,4 21, 49,3 62 49 Chris if I may yes go ahead John I'd like to make a motion that we increase the anticipated revenue from ambulance receipts from 175 to 2 250,000 250 okay so to increase I'll just repeat it so you were a little soft there to repeat the the uh Revenue projection from ambulance receipts from 175 to 250,000 right for next year's budget okay and could we have a second on that second second second all right any other discussion on that is that work just doing the math right now finish okay all right well let's take a v then all those in favor I want to wait until they finish the math part of our discussion final until our numbers guys are happy numbers guys are happy understand that I'm not liking that okay a clean zero so I'm not happy got a couple pennies in there so in theory this makes the ask on the stabilization account 175,000 or 125,000 right yes down from 200 all F right yep oh Bradley you getting rid of your pennies is that what you're doing all right what's the is the change only 25k I thought it was more than that 755k from 175 to 250 right yeah so wouldn't that drop our pull from that uh fund by 75k correct okay down to 125 that screwed it up yep okay cool got it so you to ask a question but at the end of what this time next year are we going to have more in the stabilization account or less cuz we're going to use we're going to use some we're going to use 125 MH but then there should be it sounds like I if it comes from free cash flow or whatever that's called out of the ambulance stabilization fund is that what we're talking about you talking about next year for Capital about the general out of the general St we take some out I assume some goes in during the year I don't quite understand it but it just more we've got to be building it every year exactly right so more should be going in payment of the loan from last year is a interesting concept anybody explain that I couldn't a school first the school you said want to say it again yeah oh perfect oh I was going to say it again but go ahead say it again or John can say so the the concept of repaying the school we took it out last year the to theol procedurally procedurally did we vote on the change no I'm waiting for them to give us the math here are we at zero okay okay all right thank you let's let's take a vote then all those in favor Lumber ey Johns and I L Valle ey BS eye okay so it looks like that puts our revenues at 2,49 our total budget is 21177 3304 so that takes $17,900 thereabouts out of stabilization rather than so to the question about uh repaying the loan from last year yeah just to clarify that again so so just to clarify so last year Hampshire Regional school committee put forward a budget statutorily the select board is not authorized to change that number the only thing the select board can do is Advocate to vote it down which we did and we voted it down by 300 and some odd thousand whatever that number was which we thought was our share of the above and beyond 5% efficiency or uh deficiencies e and uh certification which Southampton took the course of statutorily you have to return that money to us the Hampshire Regional school committee took a different opinion so we said okay we have to vote on your budget law says we have to so we're going to vote on it and we urged our taxpayers to vote it down which they did but we're only one of five communities so in the event that all the other communities voted in favor of it we had to be able to fund it so as a placeholder we said to all the other communities past this we're going to take this extra money this 300 and some OD thousand out of our operating stabilization fund to to balance the budget to move everything forward the other four communities ultimately did end up voting in favor of that budget so we were on the hook for it even though we voted it down even though we represent 56% of that body we were outweighed by the minority communities and had to pay the bill so the agreement was when free cash got certified we didn't want to hold the har the town harm or penalize the town for this so we wanted to put the money back into that account which is why this is a one-time opportunity to repay that loan so to speak does that make sense Stephen thank you yeah thanks John so so my next thing Chris is I guess I would ask the chair um is there anything available in arpa that we could allocate to this budget to further reduce the $125,000 asked now on our stabilization accounts um let's see there might I know there's um well I know there's at least 5,000 maybe 6,000 I'm I'm aware of that's back around but there's probably a little bit more than that it's probably not a lot um I mean there might be maybe 15,000 handy right now I'm not sure I'd have to go back and check the latest reports that are coming in on that um so many of the big ones I mean the ones that finished their projects have used their money um very few have got a left over balance to give back to us and then the big ones that are out there are related to the highway and the water department that are still being drawn down on so and also the public safety um uh feasibility study so there might be a little bit of money out of there because we did get some State funds for for that feasibility study there might be you know maybe 10,000 or something out of that just to be conservative um so I think we we've probably got 15ish I would say comfortably uh maybe up as much as 25 that we could play with not a lot right now that I'm seeing though but and how do you feel how do you feel about the two the two projects where we had to front the money Y in order to get the reimbursements do you think those reimbursements are going to come in between now and July 1st where we could allate the money to the budget we'd have to check with Randall on that one of those is that storm water or the covert study that I know Ty and bond is working on um they are actively out there surveying culs now so I'm assuming that they would be putting in invoices and once they put in invoices then we start to get reimbursed so there may be something that we can start to pull from there uh we can check with Randall on that just to get a sense of where those guys are that's maybe a possibility um yeah that's the main one that I think of right now but but I guess I I would go along with um you know if we don't have finan numbers on that that's okay but the um what we do if if everybody if yourself and Bradley feel comfortable that there's 10 15 or 20,000 I think we identify that as a funding source and further reduce the stabilization draw mhm it's just my recommendation yeah that's not a bad idea no I think we can we can uh spend some time and take a look at that and see what's coming in because a lot of the reports the financial side of arpa is probably more up to date than the the general budget is I think right Bradley I mean those are you know pretty much through through March anyway that you've got expenses on arpa so we know which ones are finishing up and who might have you know a few dollars left here and there I know for example on the the Rehab on the renovation on the Old Town Hall there was about 5,000 or something left on that one so there's there's a few you know small pots of money um from different projects but a lot of them spent pretty much exactly what they planned on because that's how they came into us with with um estimates in the first place but yeah Dan um John to your to your original comment that we didn't want to pull from the reserves because this would be a recurring cost that hits US every year because these are these are our our our our charges for our services in town by pulling from arpa that doesn't really accomplish the goal of reducing the overall the cost for this year right it's just technically it's like another Reserve fund that we're pulling from right yeah the only thing Dan with the arpa money is if we don't specifically allocate it to a project by December it's lost Revenue it'll go away yeah we'll have to we'll have to cut check back to the federal government yeah I to I totally agree with you I want to spend it I just want to point out that the original purpose of what you said that we don't kind of Meet the intend to that so yeah and we'd have to find which line using money is just kicking the can down the road for one year yeah and we'd have to find out which line item John we'd be you know able to use that would be best I mean right now for example in the budget we've got the concom agent in here and some of the school uh the three teachers in there right the par U par professional and the um behavioral specialist and the special ed teacher I believe um those are all budgeted out of arpa now so um well no for no for next year we changed the Norris budget and I I gave Scott and Bradley those updated numbers we took out that $85,000 ask and we funded it internally through grant money oh okay oh well then in that case we may very well have some money then okay so for fy2 there would be nothing nothing for the teachers in fy2 then is that what you're telling me uh well just the original 6 months yeah okay yes all right the we'll definitely check it with you before we pull any money but I yeah I wasn't aware of that okay okay so that might be something that we could have a little bit more money but then we'd have to figure out which of these things would lend themselves to being an arpa project I guess that's the challenge yeah Stephen um this past year two years ago but ongoing um we authorized arpa funds for it upgrades here at Town Hall and I'm wondering if this new contract uh might be a logical extension of that prior commitment whether they're unexpended funds or not it's furthering that and correct me if I'm wrong and maybe we shouldn't say this in open meeting this new contract is the first to provide town with reliable backup Services M yes yeah yeah it's been it's been very ad hoc up until now sure so now there's one one entity that would be our it service provider for the year anyway a lot of good employees doing their own thing right and then they retire right and now with all the systems all tied in with Microsoft and all the upgrades we've done and everything else we've got to have the same the same people who know how to come and fix a bug be the consistent entity to do that requires a level of sophistication beyond what we want to pay for on full-time staff no I'm thinking tied into the it though there may be some ideas there with um something maybe with the Wi-Fi um you know the town townwide Wi-Fi CU right I townwide Town Hall wide because right now we're not on a secured Wi-Fi so that's already in the budget too so they might be something like that or even any of the small equipment items for it I don't know if there was something there that would maybe lend itself to some arpa money because it's clearly one time yeah it's a yeah it's not necessarily A continual recurring cost I'm not yeah that might be an idea so we can we can take a look and see what would be more appropriate there okay okay not a bad idea all right well I think we're getting closer so this is tonight's temporary balanced budget but let's let's say that we're not done done done that there's still going to be another you know set of eyes and and look through it again just to be sure that we haven't missed something and um you know all of our formulas track and we haven't you know you know as we do things on the fly like this sometimes we want to be sure that we get get all the Cs in and we haven't you know conflicted anything here um but then I'll um I'll find some time and get with Bradley and we can take a look at ARA stuff and see what's what's possible as well and then we can maybe reduce that stabilization request down from the 127 John Chris just um I'm I'm not sure I caught the answer earlier uhhuh but specifically related to let's start with the Council on Aging right so they they asked for an extra right they they want us to fund 100% of the director out of the general fund which I'm not opposed to but is is that currently in what we're looking at right now in our numbers it is that we're assuming 100% of that funding I think that's the other 2900 am I right Scott yes yeah that's it just that one position not the not the volunteer no that's just the director so the W line they had also asked for the pro program coordinator that has been level funded that one did not get that's still being funded out of the part of it being funded out of the um formula grant okay fair enough and On The Board of Health the director there um requested um additional hours that were previously only available through an alternative source of funding not through the general fund what is in the budget right now that we're looking at I'm assuming it's still the 32 hours we haven't haven't approved extra hours formally at all she agreed to yeah the I'm not certain on what's what's in that number though so she Bradley sorry she's agreeing to uh same thing as this fiscal year partially well mostly out of general fund but also pulling from the wpat interest account to fund her additional hours but in terms of our our calculations it's a 32-hour position is that right yes okay as far as I understand John yeah okay all right thank you so that but that increase there the 7,000 increase reflects that no it's 4,967 decrease what's the um yeah but four hold on though 4,000 that's almost a 10% increase decrease she asked to be fully funded out of the general fund we discussed with her and she agreed to use the interest account so we were removing $496 so now we're only paying the 32 hours so the 32 hours is being paid out of general fund period additional hours out of the interest account yeah cuz we've done nothing to formalize that as a full-time position to my knowledge right so it's at 54 now instead of 52 as of last year correct yeah does that answer your question John oh so all right so we're budgeting 54 the full ask is 59 right and we're saying 54 will come from General receipts and the difference would come out of the uh the abatement trust yeah any any other hours she may be working she's choosing to do that but it's being paid out of the wpat septic betterment from us we're we're still considering this a 32-hour position as far as I know mhm all right and then my only other question since Su vote is that are we confident that we are going to meet the calculations for the library for the library in order for them to get their state funding um probably something we ought to just double check uh that one trips us up more than once so we probably ought to double check that math just to be sure and check it with Johanna yeah um I still have a you know a question on on a couple things there with that the lighting scenario but I think Scott checked that out with her I was I was afraid that they were looking also for some money in the budget for their lighting issue that was going to be duplicative of the green communities Grant which has been floating out there forever so we'll we'll still just triple check that just to be sure CU that could be a little bit of savings if we didn't need to use that right okay all right so I think we're pretty good with this F right now but we've got you know still some fine tuning just to double check and you know there's there's always something that escapes you know in spite of doing it like this I think we we sometimes run things that we don't recognize okay so is that okay Scott and Bradley are you good with this so far good okay and how about you guys good enough for night yesk yeah Doug yeah sort of question yeah I just wanted to look again um I have to do this on my own time but year-to dat FY 24 expenses and I guess my one question is do we have budgeted increases in unfilled positions right now where we're talking about moving from stabilization where we haven't yet been able to fill the RO plus we're we're kind of Faking in some increase and I think that's fine we really need for example the highway department to fill those positions right but I what I've seen in the past is we fund at an anticipated Staffing level the Staffing does not come in and then we're moving things around we're borrowing from it we're say not I'm not even talking about borrowing from for example the stabilization fund but later at town meeting we're asking for wage increases because it was already budgeted right but it was budgeted for unfilled positions not for spreading across the the remaining positions so I guess that's my one concern MH is you know we already have I'm going to call this a shortfall because we're borrowing from the stabilization fund um should we potentially be adjusting wages that you know we don't think is realistic to actually fill those bodies well the only thing we've been able to do so far and Scott you can fill us in more but that wage adjustment line is a new line this year where we've just put in 15,000 as something in there to get started whenever we get the final figures on the Collins report so it's maybe not the magic number but it's at least something to get us started cuz I think it's going to be I'd be surprised depending on what the Collins report tells us that we're going to be able to do everything it wants us to do or we think we should do or want to do within one one year it's probably a couple year process I would think but this was the intent was to get it started but Scott feel free to add more about Collins and whatever you think about that I mean I don't know so I think one of the U the things for a little bit more transparency is to have that additional wage adjustment line item um so we we built in the step increases or or the colas into all the salaries already um but this would be the additional above that I I think your your concern is if we have vacant positions are we why are we still funding them not so much why I actually want them to be funded right but but are they is that level employment realistic you know when we've had multiple years of unfilled positions for example in the highway department and we just continue to roll that forward um you know it it almost seems like we're looking at you know partially unrealistic budget in that expense because we you know I guess the questions do we like how many positions right are we short at the highway department for example and you know are we going to actually you know anticipate filling those this year right if we if we are then maybe we should reflect you know the the you know the yeah the expected Staffing and then if we find that position we could go before the town um I think that we should also have like a FTE count a full-time employee part-time employee count so that you can actually see which in each department what's being funded and how many I think that might be I think if you look at right year to date right we should be at um through a the beginning of April um most of the wage line should be 75% all right give or take and we have some that are running you know some are you know explainable right at 65% right versus a 75% and some I think are at like 45% right yeah I would like to comment on that I think you're bring up a good point if we have open wrecks that are open for more than I don't know 3 months four months we should close them I think that encourages the manager of that department to get the role filled it also makes us reevaluate what we're trying to do with that position if we can't fill it at that with those that job description so I I don't I don't believe in just leaving lingering uh job Rex open so I I I would ask the question what what do we have for open rex and let's see how long they've been open and close the ones that have been open for too long well and and you know if if part of the issue is you know we've been aiming to fill these at certain level and we know we aren't able to attract people because the salary do doesn't match what expectations are then are we just carrying that if I'm hearing you are we just simply carrying that same thought process through or are we intending to bump up some of these unfilled positions so that we can attract new people and I don't know if you were expecting that I don't know I don't want because we're negotiating I don't want speak public about that right I know we've got we've got you need negotiations to do but I don't know if that would come out of the that temporary wage adjustment line or or it would come that would be where some of that would come from I would assume uh for the union employees probably we'd have to do another appropriation at special time meeting all right for like a regular department head say would they need to be increased by $1,000 would we just pull it out of that account or would we have to go to a town meeting to transfer that we would be able to pull it out of that account we would yeah so yeah okay can I just clarify what doug was saying is a concern because in my history in my experience as well you do budget as if all the positions are filled and you know they're not because you have turn over or you're not going to get somebody so in a way you're padding it a little bit I mean I I would always look to excess wage yeah wage costs uh that that hadn't come through as a way to kind of fill a budget mhm MH y so would you could you assume a certain amount of uh vacancy with than the yeah I don't know if that's a good way I don't know if that's a good way to do it either I mean we we've been vacant on some of these positions for so long both in Highway and Bradley's assistant in particular um that those are ones that really do need to get filled um so but then during the year do we always use that excess to plug other holes that's kind of what it sounds like the practice has been it has been it has been I think in the past it's sort of often in the same Department hiring overtime yeah yeah that which makes total sense yeah yeah when that's all you can do so I think we to your point need to fund the whole position right yeah okay all right well let's um let you guys work it a little bit more just double check on things and see where we go okay all right so with that uh let us move off to the um uh draft warrant review I guess and see what we have in there and John let us know when you need to leave just give me a high five if you have to go we have no executive session we don't have an executive session tonight no so I'm hoping we can be done like in a half hour is again second we had thought we had thought we might be thanks Reggie um and Doug too um we thought we might be close enough to be almost ready to sign this tonight we're not obviously cuz there's a a big gaping pole in in one particular article that we won't have any figures for right yet plus now that we've got to make these these changes based on tonight's budget so but I think in general just to look at the articles that are there um and see if anybody has any any questions about them knowing that we will try to sign this on our next meeting on the 23rd is the goal okay um you want to make that just a tad bigger sorry there you go perfect I did rumber or reorganize them okay to put the um the $350,000 uh stabilization first um the other thing is I did um for the Hampshire Regional stabilization fund I know we wanted to put a limit on it and I think mgl does have a a limit so I I just copy and pasted the um the 5% into that yeah so John in case I don't know how well you can see that but it um the aggregate amount of the fund and any time shall not exceed 5% of the combined equalized valuations of the member municipality so that's pretty much the straight mgl language but we thought it wouldn't hurt to put it right in there no I'm good with that yeah yep rather than putting in a dollar figure cuz that was you know how do you know really yeah yeah so we have the uh the capital request updated and each one will have a motion under the article great I just want to mention that the current balance for the capital stabilization account is 95,000 so if we don't receive free cash for whatever reason that's the balance that's before taking these out or after taking these out right now nothing touching 95,000 okay uh so I do need to update the uh budget amount um we're going to stick with the same amount for indirect cost in the water budget this year I talked to uh talked to the water department uh and we're going to kind of go a little bit more in depth than it next year to kind of sort that out we'll be calculating the actual indirect cost so if it's lower we'll charge them lower right and that was like and the same with um did you have a highway there too or sorry transfer station same thing okay so those are those indirect costs are fine with Randall so with the uh the transfer station we talked about taking out the monitoring cost and I think we'll be able to do that next year um Jerry was able to find some old language from 1991 about how the costs were supposed to be set up separately um I think probably over the 30 or 40 years they kind of just gotten yeah thrown in together because the landfill and the transfer station was there but there's actually supposed to be a separate account um for the monitoring account uh cost that would be under the town budget normally so that should have been set up somewhere back when we converted this to from the landfill to a transfer station okay so that that might boost our argument then so that's something that we'll have to research and get done and probably have to get various approvals on doing that too from d and whomever else that we have to report to on monitoring I'm sure all right so then we have the the land Acquisitions as well um so we're in negotiations and that's the big question mark that you had mentioned um Financial transfers were updated and should be just slow down just a so be you had some from the police right before that sorry sorry right there okay okay all right yeah and this I guess this is the best way to phrase this one this is you know again it's contingent upon receiving these grants so this could be one okay here's a thought back on arpal land I see John's got his finger up for a minute but let me finish my thought this might be one if if we needed well well it's not in the budget anywhere right now but this would be something that could lend itself to an arpa one but go ahead John John go ahead so my question on Article 13 is we're taking EMT wages as an offset to um the tanker in the SCBA which in my view the Anor is clearly fire suppression SCBA self-contained breeding apparatus I would say is firefighter suppression right right I'm just not sure that you can use EMT wages right cuz remember what the ambulance receipt funds can support 100% of wages of EMT and EMT money can be spent on that but when you use EMT money or ambulance wages for fire suppression it's a violation I think we're okay here because if we're truly spending this would be a question from Bradley if we're in my mind if we're truly spending $425,000 for EMT wages collectively includes the ambulance and all that and if we're only pulling 175 then that means the general funds picking up the difference as long as somebody can tell me that 43,00 ,500 of this is clearly coming from the general fund and we're just using EMT wages as a placeholder I'm okay with that otherwise we're going to get in trouble mhm with spending ambulance receipt money on um fire suppression if that makes sense okay me the the SCBA definitely would be em EMT more related more so than the tanker would be well CBA is self-contained breathing apparat you're only putting on a a tank if you're going in to suppress the fire yeah you're not you're not going in to pull somebody out and perform C cut act arrest right yeah I suppose is that tanker I'm I I I you know to cut to the chase I think we're okay because I think we're spending more on general fund money yeah to support the ambulance service and we are getting in receipts I would just want to make sure that we're spending more than $43,500 on the ambulance service to justify the reallocation of ambulance money to pay for fire take that out of that line yeah yeah yeah question Scott you may want to check she should that R tank I think there's air tanks not tanker no that is a tanker truck it is a tanker truck yeah the SCBA are the air tanks put the truck in there yeah you can put a tanker tanker truck yeah maybe it's clear than that way sure yeah right that's the 5% total in the event we get okay so is that we were pulling from the Mt wages because there was a big uh available balance from it because we budgeted for two full-time EMTs yeah we have that excess right now because of that that they haven't yet engaged anyone um so that's why you chose to take it from there right so so last year's budget again I'm going off but I'm pretty sure we pulled 175 out of ambulance receipts money last year so as long as 175 plus 4350 whatever that number is 43,500 if we spent more than that then we're good right because we we're showing that we've used general fund money of 43,500 but if we can't demonstrate that we spent that a general fund then we can't reallocate that right now for next year okay in my mind yeah so you're thinking last last annual meeting I'm pretty sure we pulled 175 we pulled 125,000 out of ambulance receipts for fiscally 24 okay so 125 + 435 is 165 168 170 call even round numbers so have we spent more than 170,00 ,000 on ambulance services this year if the answer is yes then I'm okay with that 435 if the answer is no then that means we're using ambulance receipt funds to subate the fire suppression which we're not allowed to do okay so something we need to double check on then okay so let's highlight that one or something Scott so we know we've got to come back to that one thank you John for those points all right as a as a NE I or someone outside I would say what's an SCBA so maybe just spell SCBA self-contained breathing apparatus I know what it is from sitting here many times from the it'll be it'll be in the in the summary so this is just the actual article so there'll be a motion and a summary written in for the residents and all of that will be all the rationale will be there and explained English good stuff yeah yeah okay so Town Hall maintenance okay all right trying to find this nothing has changed for um three out of the four so far so we um got approval for two of the bylaws uh one change we're still waiting for the the nuisance um we did get the feedback from I think you got nuisance back that one didn't have any changes oh I might we s yeah tag sales I think yeah tag sales right sorry um so we did get um the feedback from the uh Board of registers from uh Town Council and they wrote some changes so I know that they're going to be meeting um registers meet tomorrow right tomorrow um so they should be able to review it accept it and then this this reflects the uh prop language but I can change that as needed MH and it was mostly just putting in more references to the Mass General Law chapter is all that they wanted in there the basic principle and changes were were approved by Town Council it's just they want to enforce a few things right okay uh Motor Vehicles did not change uh I included the uh zoning articles right after the uh the bylaws right before the CPA and for the revolving funds um the first article is the uh Health inspections um that we've added this year and I added if approved and I said a limit of 60,000 I know that we had um estimated about 55,000 for Revenue so I we can do less than that but yeah just a question on the revolving accounts yep go ahead uh regarding the uh first time that we're creating the Board of Health should we put it in language that creates that seed funding that initial funding of 10,000 or I think we I think we said 10,000 right yeah we put it in the budget but you asking whether we should put it in the article um it's in the budget yes I was but if it's in the never mind mute point I'm good okay it's wait why we why are we putting a bylaw about tax sales why do we care about that well how does that help our town there are various bylaws that that need to be updated there's others that residents ask us to draft noise and nuisance is one that so this came from the bylaws committee is that who these are drafted from the bylaws review review advisory advisory Review Committee so town people came to the bylaws committee and suggested they've come on the they've come on the nuisance one they've come on the um unregistered Vehicles one I don't recall if anybody came on the tag sale one no that's I think regarding the taag sales there used to be a procedure in place you had the reg Police Department yeah and then it kind of like just fell off the radar and disappeared right right and this is just putting it back on yeah I don't know I question the benefit to the town's people so I I I want to ensure that the bylaws committee has thought this through by adding this well it it it ask it asks for a permit to be taken from the uh town clerk's office and then a small fee to be paid to have a tag sale yeah but do we have problems with tax sales is like adding an extra law that official well ITW if people don't agree with it they can vote it down I mean that's but why were the select board why are we suggesting things we'd already gone through this we we've approved the drafts of these bylaws at one point in time okay because they wouldn't have gone to KP law first well okay so you say I can't bring it up they can be I mean they can certainly be voted down at town meeting do I as a select board member have the ability to not approve these are any of these items I think we're past that point now because we we our next step will be approving the warrant itself you've had a vote on each of these articles right these came before the select board at various times at different meetings yes not all in one meeting but over over several meetings yes we can go back and figure out which day that was if you want yeah that'd be good would have been within the last two months for sure okay would you like it removed is that if I can't say anything I can't say anything it's fine well no I I would have liked to have been involved with the discussion but if discussion's already occurred and we've already as a board made deliberated back check that it's all good okay we can go back and double check it but I know it came before the uh select board yeah all right so that gets us down to how many articles 27 is thereabouts so that with the combination of putting the the um 2720 so what about this the spending limit one we should I think put in the spending limit on this sport of Health one now right and and so Scott you've put that in basically to make that um a self recurring whatever uh cost covering cost of the inspection service that we currently have essentially right so just Sor said which ones haven't we approved that we're still talking about I was looking at the the that one I'm just looking at the board of health inspection services the amount of whether that that amount on that one we're creating this new revolving s uh revolving fund now yeah yeah with the article right before it kind of going back to the previous statement that we've already approved these right so which ones are we still looking at cuz I I mentioned the tag sell one we still it's already reviewed and approved and so we're not talking about it so we'd gone through that one as an individual one so it has to go through us first to get it to KP law all of them have then or KP law reviews all the bylaw ones and then at some point Scott will send the the full draft of this but our our overall goal is to at this point in time is to sign off on the entire warrant and say this is what we're bringing to the town so we're I mean if people have questions on articles now is the time to do it yeah but we had taken a discussion on all of the bylaws as individual bylaws over the various meetings Okay so to find the dates for you but anything with bylaw you're saying we've already approved those ones we not it canot have gone to K law without it having come to select board first from the bylaw committee so that helps me understand which ones we're addressing here so but just back on this last one are we comfortable enough with this 60,000 figure for the inspection services it's a lot bigger than anybody else is revolving fund so but it has a rationale behind it I think um John anything I think I saw your hand or yeah I I would just say um well two points one first on Dan's point about the tax sale bylaw is yes the bylaws came before us and we were not unanimous in supporting all the bylaws that were on there and to his point if he feels you know that he doesn't want support tag sale then he can certainly vote against that individual article right now yeah I guess I was asking if the trains already left the station I don't want to go back and read no no you you we don't have to be unanimous right I mean oh yeah yeah yeah but it's already I believe you know counsel select remember Piper was against it when it came before us when yeah I think she did not she was you're right she was not in favor of it but just a question when we come back to vote on this on the 23rd cuz we are not making a vote on this tonight tonight's a discussion meeting when we come back to vote on this on the 23rd we could take each article one by one rather than taking the warrant as a lump okay well we're not I guess my question was are we having discussions on these and they kind of went back and said no we're not having discussions on these we've already sent these offers we had had a discussion on this you were not there for the meeting so that's why we're hearing you now to have you say that you don't seem to think we need the tag sale B yeah but my Pointon is are we are you bringing up further discussion or is it closed if it's closed it's closed you know I wasn't planning to bring it up for further discussion on one particular article yeah so that the question was which ones are open for discussion you said anything that's not a b anything that's not a bylaw right those ones have already those ones we had to bring off for the other ones we want to talk about and I mean any of these that we're not agreeing with the language are this is the discussion time tonight so that we can sign these hopefully on the 23rd when we get back together usually I think I'd have to go back and check last year's meeting but I think we've done we've read out the warrant and and basically approved it and done one lump vote on it I don't think we've gone down as a select board and voted each of the 27 articles in order to put the warrant out for posting so when we get together on the 23rd we would go back through these and make sure that they all say what we want them to say and then take a vote on approving the warrant for the town meeting is my recollection of how we've done it in the past so uh two things yep uh one uh Dan I thought the tax sale was a kind of simple thing but I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on why we shouldn't have it and the second thing is the Board of Health $60,000 if they're only averaging $122,000 a quarter that's $48,000 a year I'm not sure that 60,000 is an appropriate level however that's what we're paying now for contracted Services I think well so that's where I was going with this as long as it's understood and if there's a memo of understanding between us and our contractor that they're only entitled to bill for services that we actually collect I don't want to create a situation where they perform services and the indiv and the individual taxpayers have failed to pay and we end up on the hook I'm not sure how to resolve that particular issue maybe it's just part of the contractual service they have as a 1099 employee with the town that they understand that we only pay when we get paid um and that may already be in place um and a formality but I would just want to clarify I'm okay with the higher limit of 60,000 as long as we're not on the hook if the service is provided and the resident doesn't pay the bill it's not up to us to make up the difference when we get paid the contractor gets paid uh I mean I think that might be in general a good idea but you know we have certain instances where we have property that that's significantly I I guess you know The Condemned property right now on Cold Spring Road um you know we probably won't see that money for a while if we see the money but it looks like we probably will but that's one of those things where we need to address it whether or not we do or don't receive the the money back for the services M currently right and I'm good with that Scott because I I understand that according to our health director 10 to 15% of the the services rendered would never be recuperated anyways and and the town has to make up for that difference so I'm okay with that but but in general or the 8020 rule right 80% of the time they're going out to perform a septic system test it's because somebody wants to build a house they're going to pay the bill I get it if it's in tax title or uh delinquency or someone's filed a complaint that we may be on the hook for that to provide the service but I'm just saying in general I I don't want all of a sudden to have a We Run The Bill all the way up to $60,000 and we only have $30,000 in receipts that means the general fund is on the hook for the other 30,000 yeah no I think the intent is not to do that right but yeah there may need to be something I don't know we don't we ourselves at select board level don't have the contract it's between the Board of Health and and the health agent so um I don't know we would make that clear but we have electrical inspections and plumbing inspections as revolving funds and every time we pay the plumbing inspector or electrical inspector I check the turnovers to make sure that we actually received the money from their services before we PID them okay so I don't know if we can set up something similar with the health agent sounds like if you've got a practice to do that then that should be able to be translated to cover also for the health agent Services I would right and and I would just reiterate you know uh what was it 10 years ago this was the norm there was a revolving account and for whatever reason our predecessors former select board members decide to do away with that we're bringing it back I just want to set the uh playing field equal to start with here are the rules of engagement and the expectations okay well I think it would have to be something like what Bradley has just said in terms of his his review of receipts and so forth and and looking at that versus the invoices and if you've got a system already in place then that just needs to be made known I think to the Board of Health and the health director as well no agreed and I would go one step further get the contractor to sign off on it yeah as a contractor as the independent 1099 employee yeah you understand these are the rules of engagement okay y we can certainly try to make that happen again the contract is with you know not signed by us on this one so okay all right so that's the bulk of it so Dan yes we' thoughts about the tag sales while while it's on your mind yeah I thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts on the tax sales um I guess my first thought is avoiding over constraining our Our Town residents I see for a fee of $5 we're going to be using our police force to enfor to enforce something that I I don't really understand the benefit of um I look I Look to it as as a as over regulating ourselves um in terms of you know I look at as some communities that have home ownership associations and what they can and can't do in their own property I to me I I don't think that it's it's our right or our ability to say what those people are doing and for to collect $5 I don't think that's really worth it well so I guess I apprciate love and appreciate to hear what the what the purpose of it is like to me just it seems like a waste of time Madam chair y go ahead um I'm sorry that our colleague was not present for the discussion and vote on these bylaws um I'm confident that the work done by the bylaw committee was thorough and responsive to um ual input from town residents in approving the warrant with these bylaws included I'm voting in support of the process not necessarily every decimal point on every line item or even I reserve the right to vote against the bylaw at town meeting M but we're at a point of uh moving the process yeah and I have total confidence the process has been uh appropriate um though I'm not enthusiastic about some of the bylaws myself yeah okay well and and to say the bylaws committee so the like with the assess I'm sorry with the regist one that's there so those have got comments now back from KP law so that's going to go back to the um Board of registar to take a look at and should they have any you know reservations then you know we'll get back back in touch with Scott about those that may or may not end up back at the bylaw committee okay the one that we have not yet heard from on tag sales is sorry from KB law is on tag sales we don't have their comments on tag sales at all yet so depending on when that comes in we could be at a point where if it doesn't come in in time we might not be able to get it on this warrant if we don't have their comments it could be pulled off and put on if decided for a special town meeting or maybe you know not at all yeah so but this is the one bylaw where we do not have comments yet from KP law that's good to know so one would assume we'd get them in time they're usually you know KP is pretty good about that but um that could be one but also bylaws is having a meeting I think on the 20 25th if I'm not mistaken so it's something too that we could you know bring back to the bylaws committee and just raise concerns and just ask for more I I I I appreciate you know especially what you said St you know you bring up a good philosophy are we are we the conduit from the the say the the bylaws committee to the town's people to pull the to pull the uh the warrant together such that what what the bylaws committee suggests is a basical pass through for us where is it our is it our right or our role to uh I guess critique the work of of committees yeah yeah I mean they're you know they're they're an appointed Committee of of the board I mean so they work you know in concert that way and a few of them I will say there's not been um in a couple of like the I think it was the one on Humane care of animals if I'm not mistaken um the nuisance one um and uh the soliciting and canvasing ones again most of these had been asked for by residents at one point or a resident by one point that makes sense those we felt the B and I'm part of the biolog committee so I we felt we're going to be probably very controversial so we offered a time frame for a public meeting nice for Town's people to you know join in on a zoom meeting or come in person and I think we had maybe three people come um so we haven't had a lot of um input from town we did not have a town information session on on um we did on the um registered vehic unregistered Vehicles we did not do it on the tag sales but that the roote is the root of that one from suggestion from the town people were from the the B laws committee itself someone at some point in time had asked yeah I'm not saying there was a ground swell of people no but at some point in time there would have been a request about looking at a bylaw and you know why don't we have a bylaw for tag sales kind of thing okay so but it wasn't it wasn't because it's necessarily causing um traffic jams or anything else although there are a couple locations in town when large Tech sales happen I think that might be possible problem traffic wise but um it's not because of a traffic concern that got raised or anything like that I my my other concern around is I I don't want people pushing the tax sales too far where we have a lot of people who have small agricultural businesses where they sell eggs or fetch Farm stands and that's not t people misconstruing what a tag sale is so I I I kind of want that to be stated you know that's not a tag sell so we're not in ING with their agricultural small business that certainly would not be the intent so if yeah so maybe there needs you know if there needed to be another definition that could be looked at but again I think I'd rather just say let's let's wait until we see some comments back from KP law which we should have before Tuesday um and depending on those we can you know decide at that point in time if we want to hold that one back we can take it off the warrant on next Tuesday bring it back to the bylaws committee um you know if that's the uh decision of the board at that point in time okay all right I think that's good enough for the warrant for tonight we'll come back on it on Tuesday yes Robert please thank you Robert Floyd College High speaking as Town moderator if the if we need a second night do we have a second night proposed the following evening or the next Tuesday at the school for the town meeting oh yeah if if if it's adjourned or it runs over to a second evening what what evening yeah do we have did you reserve to reserve the eth the next night okay great yeah and I'd like to make a recommendation on the CPA articles I like to see that fourth one to be the first one for the CPA articles because generally the overall because generally there's a lot of questions anyway how much is in this fund how much is in that fund and having that first article um historically first answers a lot of questions that I think would come up and might save us some time good point yeah yeah that is true that is the usual order in those that's correct usually the same questions every you know every year yeah how much is in the the various you know various pots of uh funding that's available there yeah that's and it's a good entree to uh explaining the purpose of of the CPA right and to prove that I was paying attention I'm watching all the meetings on the recordings there was a discussion about changing the format of the budget yeah and I thought about that quite a bit many many days and I went back and forth I can't support it because I believe it detracts information from the voters and it's their money it's their budget and I believe they need to see all the line items but I am moved by the discussion that John had with Ian about and then not picking on Ian but he gave that as an example of if he has a particular need he may have to come back to a special town meeting I'm sensitive to that is there a way that the town can see the line items weigh in on them but when we actually vote we're only voting on the lines for department and not all the line items I think that would does that make sense I yeah a lot of towns will actually have that big General bucket but then they'll actually list you know advertisement for employment medical expenses uh pre-employment physicals that's how we used to do um most budgets like we'll talk we'll sit down I'm just sensitive about taking away transparency especially when you're going to be asking them for votes from Big projects well and I think at this point in time I think you and I have talked about wanting to do that but probably not getting it for this town meeting right I mean I think it takes more more preparation on doing that but I I think we're on the same wavelength to try and get that done and make it much easier for department heads to manage their own our budget discussions and votes have been extremely smooth more so than 90% of the towns I know about for whatever reason and I believe it's because we put all the information out there they can see it yeah I think when you take it back they're wondering and it sets up a a mistrust if you will well I think at least to get us through May we probably have to do this the way we usually do yeah but it doesn't mean that we can't work toward changing that and making it more Consolidated so that everybody understands you know here's the main categories of the budget but underneath I we vote on that that's fine but I I think they knew need to have the ability to sink their teeth in and giving that ability they sometimes don't take the the the move forward to do that so I think okay no valid point thank you all right cheers thank you all right I think we're done with the warrant part so I think we just have two other items here um last meeting we had um uh two ex and an executive session we had two um two discussions and came out of that uh with some decisions I think we took a vote and so I think and Scott correct me if I'm wrong but I have here um just to announce that we have offered a contract to Chief Richard foli to be the permanent fire chief uh this would take effect from the day that we agreed on the appointment which goes back a few weeks I think um y two or three 3 weeks maybe there abouts where we offered him the appointment um and it would go it's a threee contract until 20 20 June June 30th 2027 um and it would start off uh annual salary for the three years starting at 112,500 going to 105,000 and then going to 107,5 and as usual our typical um Clauses in his contract I believe it was 20 days vacation time 5 personal time uh regular sick leave as per the Personnel manual um I think those are the the highlights of it but just to say uh we hope to get that signed soon and he would be starting as of uh April 22nd April 22nd okay so he will be our full-time permanent fire chief so again congratulations to Chief fi here uh Chris yes Chris I would just clarify that he would also be the Emergency Management director no he's also the Emergency Management director that is correct thank you John so that takes that off of Scott's head he was the temporary EMD yeah so actually the fire chief is the fire chief and the Emergency Services uh manager if you will and the uh Emergency Management director as well so all of that together so fire EMT Etc uh and the second one was uh about land acquisition uh where we've been looking at um property at that has been known as zeroc College Highway now being known as 117 to 125 College Highway and again this is the property the open land that you see as you drive toward East Hampton uh right across from Dow in Parker ogrady Cumberland Farms area um and had been looking at that for a smaller uh a portion of about 4 Acres that might be donated and a portion of it to be purchased for the public safety building come Le uh and then in our discussions um and also came out at the public forum the other night that um there are many potential uses for that land the land owners are willing to sell us the entire property and not just the four or five acres that we had originally been envisioning so as a select board we have um taken the vote to try to go for the entire purchase and Scott is in negotiations at the present time and hopefully we'll conclude that before we need to sign the warrant okay so that's where we are on that so we are going to be trying to go for the larger parcel which is around 54 56 acres for future uh use in town uh knowing that there's many many uses that uh have been identified already and more that would be have to be you know really thought out and planned but the essential thing is to be able to acquire some land that is available right now and U see if we can make that work for us so that's the goal and SC will let us know when he's finished with some negotiations hopefully in the next few days or by our next meeting with a little bit of luck okay all right and then other than that uh any other business before our next meeting which is going to be Tuesday nothing off hand anybody all right well if not I think I will ask to have an adjournment move to adjourn second Stephen and Dan I all those in favor I all right John is left so I guess I'll be the I all right and uh thank you everybody for hanging in there and uh we will call ourselves a Jour right at 8:00 here we go hi as promise how about that e