start the recording Eric you good you're recording now it does not say it's recording Eric am I missing it it is on my screen I can't hear you yes at least on my screen it says it's recording and I got the normal warning for am I recording I'm sorry say that again I had my volume down as far as I understand it's recording it says recording it does everybody else good on there I see that too Jeff yes okay I'm not seeing it online so that's fine so I'm going to call to order the town of Andover Board of Selectmen special meeting oh sorry one second I'll restart calling to order the town of Andover Board of Selectmen special meeting February 25th with our first call to order the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which we stand one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all before we get to public speak I had Eric and the reason why we're a little delayed I had Eric go check the community room because there's a little bit of a mixup on the website so there is no one in the community room so that we know of right
now public speak so I'm gonna start with Kate Caitlyn McIntosh green house hi I'm just here on behalf of the Board of Ed I know we sent you guys a letter but we are requesting a town meeting specifically for solar on the school and we are requesting as a board that that meeting be only about that and that you schedule a different town meeting to address the other concerns we think that the issue for the school is specific for the school thank you very much Valerie I'm all set right now thank you join I'm all set thank you Tess gr I'm all set thank you and Jesse I do not know your last name okay hello hi Jesse go ahead oh no I have nothing I'm just observing thank you yep no problem and I believe the phone number ending in 2345 is attorney O'Brien correct all right did I miss anyone oh I'm sorry Mr Becker Eric just speaking as a board member as an individual as well just want to comment on the solar project that kayn also commented on and bringing this to the board of Selectmen for a potential town boote as we see it's a good way to build community support it's a big visible project it's it's complexity and the duration of it so that's how the board brought this to your attention and hope to have your support with it okay thank you thank you very much did I miss anyone else sorry about that Eric I was gonna bypass Mr Becker I didn't mean to do that anyone else that I miss nope okay so let's move on to item three discuss scheduling a meet a public meeting to discuss an act the items that need to be addressed item
one the solar project for AES two the request from the fire department for an ordinance change to increase the tax batement three an ordinance requiring U regulating dogs on the recreational Fields four financing for the Fire Department Squad vehicle and five which is a potential to send to the town meeting a line of credit at Webster Bank this is for discussions purposes only so let's go go through the individual items the solar project for AES is anyone object to sending the solar project to town meeting I feel that they should have their own meeting a town meeting we can be going to we can attend it but I think the school should have their own the Board of Ed should have their own meeting and that's what was requested in the letter that we received from them okay anybody else have any issues related to a separate meeting I mean I think a good compromise at this point because they want they wanted their own separate meeting and I I I think it's would be difficult for for to arrange transportation for the seniors or people that want to use the buses to come to the public meetings so if they want separate I have no problem with it but if we could do it on the same night maybe just do it you know first and then close that meeting and then go through the rest of the Town issues because I think the board ads should be at the table to discuss this we should get the engineer back that Dennis had to answer any questions because he was very informative and he answered a lot of questions that I had and he would probably be able to answer a lot of the
questions that the public had regarding the project I was kind of 5050 on it but after I talked to him and saw that there's some Financial benefits to it I'm I'm supporting the project okay Kaitlyn I I would just like to ask you because I'm not really in favor of separate Town meetings I don't we don't schedule them very often we try not to schedule them very often and what we try to do is is to put various items that need to be addressed all in one meeting so we don't do this that often so would it be really that I mean honestly I I I don't see there being a problem related to the solar project if it is if it is what it is stated to be which is a no cost lease for the community so my question is if we just did one public meeting would it be that bad I think per the way that it was passed by our board that that that wouldn't be what we had asked for and then I would need to go back to my board to Reas them so if you guys could do a backtack meeting like Jeff has suggesting but have it be a separate meeting and then the other one start right after I that would I think meet the oaces of everything and I and I include you know I understand the issues in terms of transportation for people that that may need help with that to get to a town meeting but yes it was
specifically asked for that it be a separate meeting okay Eric just so I understand the logistics of this if we attempt to say we're having two Town meetings on the same night do we have to sit there and go out of the AUD out of the gymnasium and recheck in or no I don't think you would you would just close one town meeting and open another town meeting if that's what you want to do I think that's definitely possible and there's no reason you can't put both town meeting announcements on the same mailer so I think that's it's doable
okay then I I I will support the separate meetings but on the same day does anybody have any issues related to the solar project I mean obviously we're just scheduling the meeting so we don't have to discuss the solar project so you know hey I I need to say something about this go ahead I'm sorry I I'd like to I'd like to stay out of it but I can't I just want them to understand you can have two meetings Eric is right the same night but the meeting has to be run by you know the rules of the town meeting and that's a that's under the the charter okay it has to be opened by the first selectman and the moderator has to be elected and we've got to follow the procedures of a town meeting this is this is not
this is something that really needs to be okayed by the town of Andover in my view and I feel very strongly about that and and that's you know it's not my Dennis I don't have a vote on the board but that's that's what I'm I'm telling you I get it so I I would expect the town meeting to run in the appropriate manner the issue that I hope the Board of Education members understand is that there will be a vote on that solar project and I know Eric referenced it and I'm assuming Caitlyn you're your understanding of that I mean the reason for us to bring the solar project to a town meeting is specifically that there's there's a potential penalty Clause if something occurs we understand everybody says it won't happen the salesman says it won't happen the Board of Education says it won't happen but we need to put that forth to the town residents and give them they because of our form of
government it's not a different it's a town meeting form of government the town meeting is legislative body the town meeting has to sit there and understand it because I as one member of this board will not sit there and take the responsibility for saying yes on that type of project so there will be a vote can can I just so that that's just so that you guys understand as a board that's why we asked for you to have a town meeting because we understand how large of a project this is even though there's no Financial contribution to it so okay thank you all right so then so then we're all good to go on that did everybody have a chance so we'll move on from the AES solar project and and when we when we vote on this we'll vote to schedule a date and and I know that the
Board of Ed has a requirement to sit there and do this quickly Eric Eric When's the earliest date we can have a meeting March 10th March 10th and meet our legal notification requirements isn't that our meeting date so March 10th 11th and 13th is what the town clerk's office says are the three earliest dates we can do it or you could do the 12th but then you but up against the board of of Education meeting so we have a zba public hearing and special meeting on the 11th correct and what is that related to Scott the field New Field with the playround
pickle ball courts anyone have any recommendations as to what they'd like to sit there and see [Music] done can I ask a question is is the 13th Good Will that impact the the timing on this kitlin well we're gonna have to do it the 13th because everything else is scheduled anybody have a problem with scheduling you know the town meeting date to be the 13th okay so we'll sit there and use that as our holding date right now unless something else comes in so we have item two on three the request from the fire department for the increase in their abatement anybody have any issues moving that to town meeting okay I do not anyone have any issues with the ordinance regarding limiting dogs on recreational Fields
within the town of Andover no item four financing for the Fire Department Squad vehicle Eric in the in the packet and we have I'm I'm assuming that today we would have to determine which which term we're going to select for this so I would suggest that you set a 10-year term the problem is at this point we still really don't know when the delivery date for the fire Tru got pushed back again so right now now we're looking at a July date for getting the squad vehicle whereas I was under the impression that we were looking at a May date to get the vehicle so the exact terms are not going to be determined until we get closer to the date when we can sign a final because those agreements change we're not going to go I mean in my head you're not going to go with a 15-year because the way that this document is written they have the ability to change the rate after seven years right so you don't want to do that so you're looking at 10 years or seven
years and we don't have in the budget enough money to pay it off over seven years correct you would have to increase the annual allotment to the fire department to do that okay well I'm G to make a motion that we select 10 a 10-year term for the financing options for the Fire Department Squad vehicle I'll second that all right further discussion on this issue all those in favor I I four nothing item five the line of credit at Webster Bank so that we we had anticipated trying to secure a line of credit from one of the banks to to make
the payments for the time period between when we have to pay the contractors that are working on the bridge at Bunker Hill Road and when the time we get rebated because although this bridge is 100% funded between state and federal dollars we're still on the hook to run the project and pay the contractors and then get paid back but the Webster Bank kind of jerked us around for a while and then finally said we can't do it without hiring Bond counsel so I reached out to a couple of bond councils and had a discussion about this and both of the bond councils said we can't actually under state law receive a line of credit at as municipality the only thing we could do was go for What's called the grant anticipation Bond or Grant anticipation note the problem is is that takes the same amount of time and the same amount of paperwork and the same amount of money as actually bonding a major project so it just doesn't make sense for this we have money in both the Bunker Hill Bridge fund and the bridge and Culvert fund and if the board of Selectmen I asked Dennis to provide
me a legal opinion which I provided to the board which basically says as long as the board of Selectmen is okay with it and authorizes that we can spend money from both of those funds and then rebate both of those funds when we get rebated and so that should be enough to pay for the full out of pocket cost for the bridge as long as the federal government actually pays doesn't do something to jeopardize the actual payments that they promised so that's what I'm suggesting although we were talking about pursuing a line of credit I think that's at this point the cost basis for doing that that is too high for it to be worth it for the town it's slightly riskier floating it out of both funds and not you know not having some sort of line of credit but I talked it over with the town treasure and she's comfortable with it and she's not willing to pay a for a you know Bond Council just to just for this short term of a of an event have you have you had any discussions with kog or any of the other groups as to what the other towns are doing related to
these no I have not all right I mean in the end we do have enough available resources to to cover the you know sure you know what what you're saying is those funds have 50% of the cost of the total project almost What's the total project again that's still to be spent 3.2 million roughly so the million dollars will cover 33% of the over of the total cost and then we would submit those to the state assume we're going to get reimbursed for the million and then pay the next million and then submit to the state get reimbursed correct I mean we'll we'll be submitting invoices you know on a monthly basis basically once a month we should get two bills one from the contractor and one from the construction inspection firm okay I have no problem not submitting for well we can't submit for the line of credit and I have no problem not bonding or going to a bond councel for this project right and has this been discussed with Jay just to make sure that public this is not going to impact any Public Works projects going forward this spring or summer no the
bridge and Culver fund that we're talking about is basically the money that's being banked for next Summer's replacement of the bridge on on Lake Road at Bola okay so that that's the town's match towards a state local Bridge Project that we've already got State funding for but we're not going to get the project in till next construction season anyway and we should be far enough along that we don't need that money by then the next time we might get a crunch is when we replace the Long Hill Bridge because we'll need that same roughly million dollar swing when we only have about 450,000 in the you know what we'll do is we'll basically roll the Bunker Hill Bridge fund and just rename it the L Hill Bridge fund as soon as we're done with Bunker Hill so around 27 when we do Long Hill we will have already spent everything in the bridge and Culvert fund so we will need to revisit this then but that's three years down the road so okay and this is the board of Finance going to have to get engaged in this do we just do we suggest to the board of Finance to do a budget transfer to one account or is we just going to pull it out of both accounts I'm assuming we'll just pull it out of both accounts as needed we'll deplete the Bunker Hill Bridge fund first and then we'll deplete
the bridge and Culver fund second but we'll refund to the bridge and Culvert fund first that would be my my strategy on how to do it understood okay so I'm going to make a motion to schedule a public meeting for the 13th of March to discuss and act upon the AES solar project the meeting to start at 7M seconded all those in favor I I for nothing and I'll just make another motion to schedule a public meeting for March 13th to discuss and act upon the request for the fire department for an ordinance change for a increase to the fire department batement discussion to act upon an ordin ordinance not regarding an ordinance limiting access to Kines on all and over recreational fields and to act on financing approving financing for the Fire Department Squad vehicle this meeting will start 10 minutes after the end of the first the first town meeting scheduled for the 13th of March does anybody need any changes to that sounds good okay second that let's go second all right all those in favor I I or nothing okay item four in our agenda is discussion about what to do with a senior Transportation vehicle we've all gotten information from Eric and from
Jeff Murray regarding vehicles [Music] Jeff why don't you lead this because you're obviously much more familiar or Eric if you'd like to review your actually I just went down and took a look at the vehicle before this meeting we took a walk around and crawled underneath and took a look at it okay so as everybody's aware it's missing the side skirting on the driver and the passenger side this vehicle it's it rides very low so it's it's it's to me it's it's it's not really the fault of the drivers it's it's pretty with the roads that we have around here and the dips like Curbing and speed bumps it would be pretty easy to pull those skirts off of there so you know if those can be replaced that would be great I'm a little concerned about the corrosion looks like Public Works put some silicone in the holes that were into the cabin I would probably consider suggesting before we do a permanent fix that we use like a rust encapsulator like P 15 and then we use seam sealer on the holes to to tighten everything up because the silicone is just going to trap the water in there and make the rust worse in the long term so that would address that issue I know Jay noted that there was some paint bubbling I saw one little spot on the back passenger fender like right over the the right over the wheel well most of the bubbling seems to be on the Hood but if it gets significant enough we could
always get a a hood from a from a from a junkyard or or something to replace that I mean overall the body of the vehicle in pretty good shape it doesn't have a lot of dense dings in it it's just a skirting on the bottom I'm a little concerned about the transmission I know Eric quoted us $4,500 to as Max discussions with Eric that's that's maximum what we would hit for to replace that transmission but I've done some research and I really don't think we need to replace it I think it's that vehicle has 98,000 miles on it and going back through the service records and and from talking to people the transmission fluid has never been changed in that vehicle and so it's probably pretty likely that that filter and that transmission is clogged or it's just filled with Gunk and it's not it's not flowing properly it's either lad or there's a shift control module that's right in front of the driver's front passenger fender well and judging by the corrosion that we have on the rocker panels those do tend to corrode out and they get holes in them and then watering is in them and then we end up with a failure there so it's it's probably most likely one of those two things which would be a much lower cost than $4,500 and I know Jay noted that there was a significant coolant leak and the radiator was down quite a bit I
was suggest we do a leak down test on the cooling system to make sure that we should replace that one hose that he identified as a leak after that we should pressure test the system to make sure we haven't compromised the head gaskets on the on the engine so we should make sure that that's holding properly it's not it's not an expensive test it's something easily that a garage can do and if that checked I would probably do that first and then if the engine if the cooling system holds pressure and everything looks good then we could probably address the
transmission issues take a to a transmission shop and if that's not a major deal to fix then we get the corrosion issues fixed because the corrosion itself doesn't really affect the drivability of the vehicle it's just kind of more of a cosmetic type thing right now if we can get that sealed up and get that fixed and get the Mechanicals fixed there's some issues with the shocks that we need to have replaced it's it's it looked a lot worse when I saw it but it really doesn't appear that bad so if the engine that the head gaskets are good the cooling system's solid and we can get the transmission repaired for a reasonable rate I don't see any reason why we should shouldn't repair the vehicle and and keep it in service so originally kind of originally was thinking we should not keep the vehicle but you know just
judging at the condition of it now and and the replacement cost of it it probably makes sense to try to look at repairing it okay any of the other three members have any problems with that do you think that that rot could be cut out and a new piece in there Jeff what I think should probably happen is yeah we could probably it's not there's a couple holes in there that are rotten said I don't know what Public Works is doing now if they would be interested in doing that repair and and putting seam sealer on it and 4 15 and just you know 45 works really great it's a rust encapsulator it will encapsulate any of the rust and keeping any further corrosion from happening and then that seam sealer would keep the water out of the cabin or the the area where the passengers sit it's it's a pretty simple fix I don't know if they'd be interested in doing it but before we took it to have the rocker panels replaced that would definitely probably get that sealed up and get it fixed more permanently because with the silicone in there it's just going to hold the water and we're just going to get more corrosion and I would rather do it now that we can get after it but I don't I don't think it's significant enough right now that it would hamper the vehicle we could probably get another couple years out of it until we got another replacement okay that area is not compromised enough you to worry about you it seems like when they mod so they modify that whole pan in the in that
vehicle they it's basically the whole thing is lowered if you look at it it's it's not that far off the ground so you know like when you see those panels missing if somebody if they if they drive into a parking lot or something that's a raised bump or a raised curbing it's going to catch those panels it's going to rip them off so I mean the drivers maybe need to be a little bit more cognizant of that in the future if we do this repair but I think right now we don't have the funds to replace that vehicle so I mean I think
doing our due diligence and having the transmission inspected and and and having the cooling system inspected I mean even Public Works they can order they can get a pressure tester from Napa and just do a leakdown test on the cooling system we could probably get that hose and replace it and just verify that the engine's good and and if they're willing to do that I think it would probably we could probably take it to Terry's transmission or another transmission shop in the area and have them take a look at the transmission so right I AG do the coolant for run the motor make sure it's still good yeah there's no sense to replace getting the transmission repair if the motor if there's the head gaskets compromised so I mean if the head gasket was bad I mean there was one thing I don't know who was putting oil in it but it looked like it was overfilled by a couple quarts so I don't I don't know how that happened but if usually
you get a head gasal leak you'll get you know you have milky colored oil you get water in the oil so I'm probably pretty positive I'm pretty confident that the head gaskets are okay but we probably should do I mean the tester is $30 we should just put a tester on it and just check the leak down of it and just make sure it's it's it's fine they may even have a tester down there I don't I'm not I'm not sure all right Eric can we get my suggestion can we get that done in the next couple weeks so at our next meeting we can I mean or even du boys if we could take it to to boys they could probably they could probably do a test on it too they probably have the tester well listen you need that vehicle in circulation anyway Eric if is was my understanding so let's do the testing that Jeff is requesting and let's let's focus on trying to repair that vehicle so they can get back into service yeah let at a minimum right now let's get the cooling leak fixed let's get the transmission fixed and then let's try to scheduling the repair of the rocker panels because that's that's just a cosmetic fix at this point if we can get those holes sealed up properly it won't be really a big deal okay not a problem excellent U let's move on to item five decisions regarding the budget item one
Personnel cost discussion yep what issues so there were two decisions that as a board you did not make up to this point that I think the Board of Finance was looking for you to make and they were things that were in the budget item number one was question actually there there were kind of three things in terms of budgeted items Jeff Murray asked to increase the budgeted amount for senior Transportation maintenance by $3,500 specifically to allow annual undercoding as well as the subscription for the car wash so that I think is a reasonable request I would suggest that you as a board agree to that
and then the second thing were the two salary items one was increasing the line item for the senior center director which would go take that from a part-time to a full-time position I know no decision was ever made on that and the second thing was a proposal from Jay which I endorsed which was to promote one of the employee employees from maintainer one to maintainer 2 and those are really the three outstanding things that the board of Selectmen had you know regarding the budget well let's take the easiest one so I make a motion that we increase the senior Transportation line item by $3,500 to account for rust proofing and washing of the vehicles as necessary second that all right all those in favor all okay let's discuss the the the maintainer position sure so does anyone have a problem with promoting that individual to maintainer to so I'll just give you a quick synopsis on what that means as of the 2025 26 fiscal year a maintainer one would get an hourly wage of $256 an hour and a maintainer two is a jump to
$3.38 an hour so it is a relatively significant jump the employing question has been employed full-time in Andover for two and a half years prior to that he was employed part-time for the town for 16 years before that and he was also previously a full-time Town employee when he was much younger before he went into business for himself so in total the guy's had more than 20 years of employment with the town of Andover and he certainly has the skill set to handle any piece of heavy equipment or perform any task that Public Works does so in in my personal opinion he's well qualified to be a maintainer too and should be paid accordingly so you're talking a difference of $112,000 just over 11,000 does that include the contributions contributions to murf and everything that no that's just in salary yeah so we're going to have additional costs for murf and everything else correct that don't show up in your figures well it's baked into the budget now but into the murf and the indirect costs but it's not it was never a final decision was never made by
the board of Selectmen on that so all you're asking us to do is is give our approval to that line item so that the board of Finance can sit there and then evaluate and determine what they want to do correct I mean ultimately two things have to happen the board of Selectmen has to agree to that in concept and then the board of Finance has to decide whether they want a budget for it because obviously he can't get he can't get promoted if there's no money to do it and and because he's on a contract we cannot give him a stepped raise to move him closer to the maintainer to over two years three years whatever we chose not not this year I mean we could negotiate that or something similar to that potentially next year as part of a
con new contract but for the upcoming year no and Eric other than what's the value for the town to do it I'm just asking in a general question I mean I know it's a $1,000 raise for the employee and that's positive and great probably deserves it but are we gonna get anything extra out of it Eric if we approve it nope nope same employee doing the same job yeah and Jee I kind of look at this as a public works expenditure I mean the last couple years we've we've invested heavily in public works and we're going to have a challenge right now this budget season
so I'm I'm kind of on the fence with this one yeah it's it's kind of it's a stretch I mean I wish we had a way to step into it like so we could step into it over three years or two years yeah the bump is the bump is significant yeah well I I know we're going to have a problem with the board of Finance on this one anyway so are there any alternatives Eric it's either zero or or 11,000 per the Union contract is either a maintainer one or a maintainer two well what do we want to do do we want to sit there and and not push that forward or do we want to push it forward and then let the board of Finance decide what they want to
an I feel like he's it sounds like he's had a lot of years with us maybe not in this position is that correct that he hasn't always been in this position but he has had our years of experience with us I guess I feel bad if he's had a lot of years working for the town yet he doesn't have as much pay as somebody who has had less years with the town well there are no maintainer twos right now are there yes yes there who is maintain two others there are right now we have one maintainer three two maintainer twos and one maintainer one okay so we brought he so Tommy is the three Zach two Z a two yep and who's the other one that's a two Richard ban is a two Richard B okay oh based upon that I would sit there and say that you probably need to we need to sit there and deal with this at a different year and a different budget cycle okay all right all right and the last one was related to the full-time or the part-time on the senior center program correct currently per contract that individuals pay next year next budget season will be $47,000 as a part-time position working 26 hours week and the question
is is you know I I do not believe that's enough hours for that job to be done well you know I think that should be a full-time position but at the end of the day it's not my my job to make that decision okay so again so so it goes from a 26h hour position to a 34h hour week position we're talking eight additional hours corre okay [Music] are there any additional costs other than the the percentage increases that come with murf and all the rest of the stuff there's nothing large that we're going to deal with as Town related to those extra eight hours not that I know of no I I believe we built that building for a reason and that we should we should sit there and continue to move forward and I have no problem with the extra eight hours Jeff I just like to say one comment our assistant that we have hired we're not even utilizing her all her hours so if her hours were being maxed out and our our head you know our head person there was was if if Tess was doing 26 and Kim was doing her pull 10 I would say there was some justification there this is a new position we're still trying to figure out what the roles and responsibilities are and you know I just think it's kind of premature right now to kind of make a decision and that's that's my personal
opinion okay everybody else Eric is it true that Kim is not working her 10 hours I would have to look at this week's payroll to tell you exactly how many hours she's worked but remember the the job of of the assistant and the job of the director are very different different pay scale different expectations you know I can't tell you off the top of my head exactly how many hours the assistant is working yeah but if the director's overloaded she should offload some stuff on the assistant like scheduling the the transportation things like that and if she's booked like I said if the two of them are completely booked and they don't have enough time then I would be supportive of this but you know I've I've been told multiple times that she has not been working her full 10 hours a week so the justification to make this a full-time position when the assistant is not even doing the 10 hours is you know I I just kind of have to question it a little time yes but I mean you're asking me off the cuff to remember exactly what hours I approved for one of 30s something hour 30s something people I sign off on you know I'm just asking if you remember I'm not putting you on I I don't I
don't because I would think that any extra you know she would be working the 10 hours if T is already ma out that's what I would think but I think we're missing it's not just a transactional issue of working the hours it's what do you want to do with the program do we want to sit there and and move the program forward and and try to continue to build functions and and and events that our seniors and the rest of the community can use or do we want to curtail that or keep it right where it's at if we want to keep it right where it's at then that's fine every body can step up and say we're going to keep it at 26 hours I mean we're talking we're talking eight hours but that's keeping that building open eight hours longer yeah I mean I'd rather spend our money you know training four or five people that are local that would maybe want to open and close the building for special events if somebody has something they want to do on a Saturday you know and if test is not available somebody that would be able to go in and lock up and and check to make sure that the building was left in a
satisfactory condition because I know she can't keep all those hours and we're eventually going to have to get some coverage and if we had a if that that was my plan for Kim is you know for the system would be to kind of take up those those days and and times that you know our director is not available well isn't that what Kim could be doing right now then and we could expand the program like we had planned yeah we could but that's the director's decision so do you really but the the point is that the hard part is not somebody sitting there when a program takes place the hard part is somebody has to
organize schedule you know figure out the the food situation you know that's that's where we're lacking not on because honestly most board and commission meetings that occur there at night nobody's there I mean we can enable volunteers to open and close the facility the the question is can you run the facility and can you good do a good job of providing programs for the community and can you run senior transportation and deal with all the drivers issues and deal with all the scheduling in 26 hours and I do not believe so it's been my observation that Tess is working a lot more than 26 hours now she's just not getting paid for it and that you know in my head is a problem right Jeff Jeff Murray when we were at that direct committee meeting they all said that Tess's hours she couldn't do the job on the hours that she has that she would need and they all expounded on this that she needs more hour I remember that I'm saying that yeah I wish we had somebody from the r Commission on tonight you know I just I just want to make an example like if you look at glassary I've runed JB Williams Park multiple times and there's not a community center director doing that that's that's somebody hired
by the town of Glastonberry parttime that goes and opens up the gate for the event welcomes the people in and then closing time when you're when you're when your time is up at the at the Pavilion they come up and and make sure that everything's clean and put away and and they lock the they lock everything down and so you can get your deposit back that's that's kind of what I envisioned for some of these nightly events if if we want to start doing things like that is we really need to kind of look look more into the community for people that'd be willing to do that and just pay a stip in for that just like glenbury does it sounds like that's something that Kim would be doing yeah it could be Kim it could be anybody I mean that's the thing I mean test is not going to be available 247 so we I mean we really need to expand on people that we could you know trust
to open and close the community center and and make notes if it's in good shape or not like make sure the bathrooms aren't you know vandalized and that type of thing you know close the center up we're gon to we're going to have to get there but we're talking transactional things not right not what are we doing to improve the programs and improve the overall utilization of that building right and that's to my point Jeff if she's not going to be there at night we're still paying her for eight more hours and she won't she she will she'll expand her hours but they're mostly going to be in the daytime we're going to have a we're going to have requirements to use that building in the evenings and I don't see any coverage now for that and we need to we need to really look at that I mean when you rented the park didn't you pay a fee to
rent the park yes I paid a fee and I paid a deposit and they called a steward or or somebody that was in charge of the park to to open and close it for me right so if we if we chose the same model and we did something at the building not a town function but something that was outside the town function wouldn't we have some resources to pay the stien that you're talking about to the individual correct correct that would probably be in the use fees in a usage fee but we don't have that in place right I think I think the big gap right now is is is getting coverage in the evenings for that Center because right now we're only covered till about 2:30 in the afternoon well the issue that we're talking about with this EXT these extra hours is to grow the programs not the individual transactions that you're talking about gr the programs for the for the about what programs are we talking about shouldn't we be that's what we're trying to do if I know if I had a if I had a list of things that we could do with those extra hours I would be more acceptable to it I just I don't want to hear I want more hours I want to know what you're going to do with those
hours I don't because just to say I need more hours to do what I'm doing now I mean if we're not utilizing the assistant I have a hard time adding hours to a position that we're not even using the assistant Eric is Tess there a lot that a lot of the time that she's not getting paid for yeah I mean she works a lot more than 26 hours now I came out of the playing pickle ball the other day and she was there on Sunday yeah you think that's a job you can really get done in 26 hours a week that's I saying my job is 44 hours a week which is my my contract is yet here I sit yep and I do the same thing I'm
salary too and I bill out way more than 40 hours a week and I put it on my time because I charge my time to certain projects and it's over usually over it's usually over my alloted time okay so yep are we having a problem are we gonna have a problem so Jeff you're you're you would vote no an just vote no okay Joanne hour for right now Joanne just messaged she said she had an idea we'd like her to speak since she's on the board of Finance sure go ahead I appreciate it and I never asked to speak in your meetings but I've been
spending a lot of time this year on budget items and salary items and I know this was a Hot Topic item so I figured since you're you know digging deep here and deciding and ultimately I'm going to put my camera on ultimately it'll come to the board of Finance you know to see if it goes through or what happens and again being a little PR prelim preliminary last year at our meetings I know that this position was approved at a full-time position at and I'm gonna you know just say that out loud so we approved it at a salary that was in the budget for 50,000 I know that when the current person got hired she got hired at a salary that's also posted which is just a little south of that you know for the 26 hours we all know these kind of positions you know you have to be available you put a lot of time into it that kind of thing I had been kind of getting a little bit creative with knowing the different things that are at the Town Hall so I know in the past again I was going to speak to this tomorrow night at our meeting but this is you all have to hear it too I thought of a compromise of possibly having the position go up to 30 hours you know we can you all can decide on a salary I can send a separate email with the details that I had come up but we've also before we had the senior community center we had employees in the town hall that were nice enough to take on additional duties one of them
I'm not going to say a name or anything I don't believe in that but they get quite a sizable stipend to do what's called a municipal agent the municipal agent has to be available so for SE for you know I have my backup but it it is related to senior citizen duties being available so maybe we can think about it and move that as nice as the person at the Town Hall was for doing it and it goes up every year if we eliminate that expense in your town budget to the tune of 6,100 and then when you add in the murf we're paying out 7500 a year for that position we bring it over into the Senior Community Hall with our new person which makes sense to me you know I've gotten the the information on what they do they have to be you know give referrals in this give that a try so you're saving money in the town line of that nice employee that was
doing doing it we have a little wiggle room to work with to offer the senior center person you know director who I'm going to go down and meet I like to look into all of these things and I know I've been talking to this you know we have a little extra money to put there which maybe will make that position happy and you know so a compromise of like 30 hours a week we don't need to pay a person at the Town Hall A Staten anymore we can move that over to the the municipal the municipal agent for the elderly so that fits that AR there aren't there two different aren't there two different like totally two distinct different programs it's a Social Services Program I've done a lot of work since I never speak to something unless I've called about it we have 3,000 residents we've been nice enough to have this person do these duties when we didn't want to hire a full-time or part-time person I never want to take
work away from someone but it seems perfect that now that we're talking about a full-time person in the senior center why isn't that person the municipal agent in the point of contact for things that go with the elderly and senior citizens yes there's a few again I I couldn't not speak tonight Jeff I mean it's a nice compromise save5 I have no problem with you speaking I just trying to keep it like on the topic of what we're trying to accomplish well when you're getting so close to de deciding you know and it's going to go yay or nay I figured I'd let you guys all in on what I've been thinking about and research so so your your thought is a 30-hour position for the director as opposed to a 34-hour position okay so an and Jeff would you be willing to consider that with the stien going away Jeff you the whole thing is Jeff our Charter requ a municipal agent and so does the state I know yeah I looked into that so that would be our senior center director where it should be okay that's the only thing is it' be a modification to her contract and her duties so that would have to be a discussion with her in the town so so we're back to the issue that we've addressed that we have two no and and whatever so Eric we're going to end up keeping the position at $26 hour okay all right does anybody have any other issues they need to address okay we're gonna move on to item six public speak Valerie you're first I'm all set thank
you Joanne Hebert okay than you for the time I appreciate it I like to be transparent I like to put my face out there never behind any closed door it's there thank you trying to trying to save money for the town T grous I have nothing to add Jesse I'm good thank you Kimberly person nothing right now thank you Louise Goodwin yeah I do want to say something I've been over at the senior center quite a bit and I feel Tess is doing an excellent job and I think the extra hours would have been more beneficial for her that's that's my two cense because I I've seen what she does and that's all I want to say thank you slow catch I'm all set for now thank you okay item seven
adjournment motion to adjourn second that and second all those in favor I I thank you very much