Amilia my daughter must have logged in I'll figure out how to change it some point Sorry I could resist okay thank you everybody for joining tonight this is the May 22nd Board of Finance regular meeting we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order and recite the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands nation under God indivisible Liberty and and justice for all okay thank you we'll move on to the first item on the agenda after opening which is the public speak Eric do you want to go around and check looks like we have celest is and Linda sure first up on my screen is Linda fish all set okay item number two Celeste Willard I'm all said thank you okay phone number ending in 2020 that's Louise that's me okay Sor then that is everybody I have on my screen okay we'll go ahead and go on to item three which is changes to additions to the agenda does anybody have any changes or additions to the agenda to propose Mark I do I knew we were going to discuss the letter that Celeste had sent to us right requesting the change of how they wanted to I believe I don't
sorry expenditure policy the well I know we're talking about that but I mean there was also the letter that she sent right before the town meeting asking and I'm sorry I meant to print it out but asking how they wanted the money to be at more towards I think you know the the more pressing item now than than the parking lot and I see Celeste is nodding an agreement we probably should have had that on the agenda but can we add that somewhere I'm not sure if we did we have to take action on it or are we just just I knew she submitted it to us she's here tonight I knew we just wanted to kind of talk about it I'm sorry my head sideways because the letter is scanned sideways and I've
open up on my email and I don't have an easy way to right click you should be able to rotate it but so well this is this is within the this is within the Outlook thing so it's Miss clar it's it's the request to put their their leftover 103k into the capital account that's correct thank you thanks Joan you're welcome just so that we acknowledge it tonight wherever we want to put it at the beginning maybe or something I'm actually pretty good at adob AC right Rob I didn't know that right click shortcuts that's good so I think Joan what you would want to do then is make a
motion to add to the agenda the request from the board of Ed to move the Surplus into the Capital fund sure we I guess we did yeah I guess we didn't discuss this at the last meeting go no I think we I think it arrived yeah after same day or after yeah that's right I apologize repeat the beginning of am I I'm just adding so I think what we would need is a motion to add to the agenda right the request from the Board of Education to move the Surplus into the AES Capital fund all right can we act on what you I'll make a motion to act to add to the agenda do I have to pick where I'm adding it under it would be under new business so it would be 5B okay under 5B the letter from the Board of Education acting on the ability to move the surplus funds into the AES Capital fund okay do we have a second on that motion I'll second that thank you rob anybody we have any discussion did everyone receive that email I think we all did yes I found it right away okay so if there's no discussion we'll call for a vote all those in favor say I I I I hi okay all those opposed any extensions no okay we'll go ahead and add that to the agenda as item 5B okay any other additions or changes to the agenda Eric Mark I have one I would like to request the board of Finance consider an additional appropriation in the amount of 2 for the fiscal year ending June 30 2024 and the account that would be funded would be 4214 Community Center
318-0155 220 electricity and when we get to that I'll explain why we're doing it that way and what we're accomplishing so what I would suggest is that we have a motion potentially to add an agenda item under 5C which is new business which to discuss the account for electricity for which which what are what sub area is it the community center 4214 Community Center okay away with saying I say I so move so all that anybody want to second that I'll second it I'll second it I heard bill first thank you very much any discussion all those in favor say I I any opposed any extensions okay thank you very much we'll add that to the agenda as item five C okay and we'll get to the details then any other changes or additions to the agenda okay hearing them we'll move on to Old business so the first item is the review of the policy for the AES capital expenditure I sent earlier to you today and I apologize for not sending it earlier Rob had sent it to me Monday but this is the draft of a proposed policy that came out of the Board of Education I have not had a lot of time to review it and I'm sure that you haven't had a lot of time to review it many of you also so we can certainly discuss it at this point I think that the first section of that policy and I don't have it in front of me right now I do but it's without referring to it it's probably mot because huh would you like me to share
it I have it up too it doesn't matter you can I mean you certainly can I can too yeah the first part of it does lead off with what we're going to discuss later which is the moving of the 103k yeah well section B so Section 1 a is moved because that was already passed through the bo through the through the agenda or through the through the budget well there is a second piece to it it it talks because it says thereafter so you could redraft it but it it accounts for not just the the original 100,000 and thereafter may choose to so we already know we can do that we already know we can do that that's the power invested in the yeah I know I know it's really a formality yeah keep it simple it's simple as we can so I you know I honestly you know the first my first thought reviewing this is that a section A can be removed and it's entirely assuming we approve the the second part of that which is section B tonight which is the removal or the transfer of the excess funds to the yes capital F if we do that then this whole section can go right more or less I mean I I mean I still think we want to have some sentence in there about how the the Board of Ed can choose to deposit money in future but you know into this specific fund but again it can be it could be substantially redrafted you're right it just simplifies and I think the simpler the better you we all know that
they can request that at any point right so I yeah and I think they just wanted to formalize it but that's yeah yeah it's not a bad idea actually thinking about probably the other thing you guys might Noti you know is the change of name I think this came out of the Board of Ed discussions and I think the concern as I understand it was that they feel respon they're responsible for the building and the grounds and they feel like naming a 35 School Road makes it clear that the fund is for the building and the grounds not you know not just maybe the school building itself so that's the reason for the name change Rob that thank you for addressing that
that just stuck right out at me and I I I was puzzled too but Shannon explained it and I was like okay that makes a certain amount of sense so we we won't refer to it as the AES Capital it's just easier the AES Capital rather than I agree with you and there's another way to do this obviously I mean I took Shannon's draft and stuck it in front of you guys because you know it's not like I sat down and redrafted this thing she spent a lot of time on it and I then I was having massive car trouble late last week week so I was all up in that and didn't really have the time to sit down and say here let me Redline this and change it the other way you could do it is still call it the ASAS Capital fund and just Define ASAS Capital Fund in a way that makes it very very clear that it applies to building grounds Etc everything you can do I I just think it looks cleaner it looks better it lets everyone know what it you know but I appreciate all the time and effort both of you have put into it so I'm not criticizing I just think it's easier for the community at large to understand too how we're trying to transition in for them to have this and I would always support it you know including the grounds too you know the whole but that's yeah I think that's the intent I it was just a question of clarity yeah thank you no and I agree I agree with Joanne just the fact that some people be like 35 School Road what is that because people are used to
hearing AES yeah so exactly really trying to push the you know the togetherness and and it's it's just feedback we can give to Shannon or you can provide to Shannon on why we felt yeah thank you yeah yeah so I'm sorry what what are what are people suggesting there I they to to name it as they like to name the as capital fund rather than 35 School Road what I was saying is in order to address the board of Ed's concern the other way to do it is you you call it the as capital fund and then you drop a definition and you you have that definition ASAS Capital fund means blah blah blah blah blah and and in that you make it very very clear that it applies to building grounds you know everything that the Boe is responsible for upkeep of yeah I I would suggest that that would make sense for you know
Shannon's an attorney right so she's wants to make sure that the details are are there so first of all this is not a binding agreement you know this is a an agreement that is you know just a policy and principle that you know any of the three boards could in theory you know decide not to follow at any given time but that being said I do think that it makes sense to be be clear in our language now one of the things if you look at the plot lines I'm not sure that it is it is wise for us to restrict us so much to the 35 School Road survey lines because I may be wrong but just looking at it in the quick look that I took it looked like it may actually some of the playing fields and some of the other areas out back behind the school may actually not be part of the 35 School Road property so I'd be a little concerned about limiting that fact because I think then that potentially limits the board
of vet about the things that they would do I I doubt that it's going to make that much difference but I think that we would be better served by a little broader definition of what 35 School Road actually or the AES Capital fund is and by defining it as you know Capital Improvements to the AES to the AES properties including 35 School Road would probably be better served for both the scho the school district and the town so that would kind of be my thought and and I'm going to suggest we don't necessarily vote on this whole thing today we could but that would be one my one proposed I don't think we want to box ourselves into a corner by limiting it to 835 School Road than having somebody challenge it in the future I I hear what you're saying and no I mean I I wasn't thinking we'd vote on this tonight because I don't think a lot of people had enough time to look at it and think through everything that they could come up with that they might have an issue with there's also there's very much an idore choice at the end of this thing because shann and I were debating back and forth she came up with this idea of this kind of advisory committee that would administer this fund and if it was two from each of the main boards you know Board of Finance Board of Ed Board of Selectmen this obviously sets up a tie scenario so we had a difference of opinion not a strong one necessarily on how to break a tie
my preference was to go to a seven member committee by grabbing somebody from CIP that wasn't an overlap she came up with a different mechanism so everybody should kind of look at that at the end of this and chew on it and think what think if if you have a brilliant idea that we didn't think of by all means and then you know other than that just come up with what you might prefer what you think would work more smoothly you know just so that we don't end up in three three ties and then I mean what good does that do anything y Mark just one point to what you've already said the elementary school's entire septic system is not on 30 on the property that's designated Wheeling that's That's a classic example that's kind of what I was concerned
about and I didn't know exactly where the aseptic system was but I knew there was an issue because it kind of comes to this you know there's an angle associated with that okay good to know so something to consider good you know and I think we should we'll definitely want to get that in the definition well I think we have to broaden the definition definitely definitely because I think we all have the same intent but you know we just don't want to I think you're absolutely right we don't want to accidentally draw a boundary around this thing that that somebody else play hard ball with the definitions yeah for no good reason right right okay do we have other comments on the proposed policy it just doesn't seem that logical to create another board when you already have CIP whose mission it is to do that I think I had that I had I had the same concern about setting up another a whole another group people me too I did I did okay and I was one over by the idea and maybe in future it won't be necessary but I came around to the idea based on kind of a trust building you know a feeling of like okay we want to get from where we are to where we want to go and maybe this is the mechanism to do it even if it's not the most efficient possible so that's I isn't a board it's a committee right a committee it's not a board right just a bunch of group of people getting together it's people it would all be populated by people who are already on boards but and you know that' be extra time for people and I get it
and I I was initially but I think it might be worth doing at least at first so that that's my take but I I completely understand the concern yeah again not to Echo that's exactly my thought I was just thinking the time element involved too sometimes these projects you know might be emergency well obviously they'll get together quickly if it's an emergency I just wondered if this was going to slow everything down you know and creating another layer of two two and two and that that that's my initial thought I'm not I'm GNA take time to digest it I just was hoping that with all the meetings we've had and the coming together and the trying to pacify everyone that we you know and creating the account in the first place yep is enough of a olive branch to just put out
there that everybody would make reasonable decisions but I'll sit back and and listen to you know other feedback it just sort of makes a whole another layer and yeah I mean I think I think what we we should all do is mold this some more I asked you know Shannon can be available maybe I can ask she be available for our next meeting we can all come back to this issue after having chewed on it for a bit yeah you know everybody kind of their ideas out I'm actually in the meeting oh you did show up look at you okay I did I just stepped out of the charter revision commission sorry I'll mute myself again well we we're talking about our initial thoughts we you know nothing no no big deal things have been decided we're just kind of kicking this around great I heard Jan's comment and I yep okay let's continue Board of board of Finance members other comments questions or thoughts my hand up go ahead Bill okay thank you
I guess my one concern in part C is it starts to clearly Define what a major or a capital expenditure is and then it says the last sentence though that the Boe will make up what is and what isn't and I I just think it should be defined what is a capital project okay and it should be defined and it should be adhered to it shouldn't be like well this time we're to call it a capital expenditure but next time we're not maybe the next time we will but the next time we won't we're going to make mind it just seems like we should have a definition of what a capital project is in there and it should be adhered to and agree to yeah yeah I mean in i i in principle I would agree with you 100 per. the problem seems to be that there in terms of Municipal spending there does not seem to be the same concept of what a capital expenditure might be as opposed to what you and I might have WR run into in the private sector you know is is the repairs to the you know septic system or to the Sewer lines or to the seats in the auditorium are those a capital expenditure you know in as anybody who's dealt with this in the private sector will know it's often
as much of an art as a science it's a judgment call on their part of the finance department they do their best to apply the generally agreed upon accounting principles which I know there are set of those for the municipalities and governments Etc I'm not familiar with them I'm not an accountant especially with the municipalities but I I think that there is a it seems to be a lot looser you know so I mean any of the three projects that I mentioned I would think would be things that we would need to fund out of this type of Capital
Improvement or Capital account but they wouldn't necessarily pass what I would consider for a private Enterprise that you know a capital Improvement they might they might not it kind of depends on on the on the sure I I see where I could speak to this some more you know Shannon and I went round around on this because there's there's always fuzziness around the edges of the of these definitions and she she and I think the Board of Ed in their discussions came up with some thoughts about hey wait a minute you know let's say we we want to do X is that going to suddenly be a capital expense where whereas we don't really see it that way you know I think the example that we talked about at one point was what if we wanted to buy the kids a bunch of computers is that a capital expenditure you know or is that something that we would normally have funded out of our Ops budget so and all of a sudden now we're in into this so in the end she came around to the idea of Crea this committee and then letting the committee call it as they see it rather than or or how she drafted it here rather than
trying to to really put it in a box I preferred initially came into this like okay we got to Define it and I still would I think in a perfect world I'd like a definition but every time I sat down to try and write one and especially you know pouring over Connecticut state statutes as to what Boards of Ed are empowered to do and what their responsibilities are I had real trouble coming up with a good definition yeah problematic and I yeah I think again that we would be generally and this applies to the entire town government budget too we should be very careful about boxing ourselves into too much of a corner now I know this is a policy it's not the charter something we have to legally follow necessarily but I think we should use it as our
guiding principle so I think it's important that we get it right and think that's right the computer is actually a really really good example Rob because you know historically private companies would capitalize things like personal computers and laptops because they cost a lot of money and they had a three to five year lifespan if not longer now they don't cost so much right so companies actually lease them they expense them you know we do that all the time so things change it's a tough call but I think we and we would I think we need to be we need to probably reserve the ability of the board of AD and the board of finance and the board of Selectmen to agree that hey buying computers for the kids or for a classroom or specific thing or or repairing the Subic system is a capital expense you know paying the school nurse is not that's an expense it's an ongoing expense it clearly is an ongoing thing so we probably need to give them the attitude you know this can always be turned down right so Bill your hand still up is it oh no sorry okay I'm good thank you I'm touching the wrong screen I'm looking at two screens trying to close the wrong one Mark I think actually the the town's definition of what capital should be should be less than that because it's clear that the Board of Ed if it's related to operations of the school I would say computers would be an operation you know it may be a capital
item because it's over a threshold but that is not something either CIP or any tribe board should be weighing in on why do you think that be because it's clear that the the town is the owner of the building the structure in the ground so you're talking about terms of a length of service then potentially right right well in but but we're not that that would be the personal property of the school not the that's not a building or it's not a ground so I don't think the town has any or should have any oversight over that whatsoever either Board of Finance or a tribe that's a school boards where the town has a dog in the fight is building
and grounds and made projects that affect either of those only everything else is the school board's discretion Eric I don't want well this wouldn't prevent the school board from ordering laptops if they have it in their budget to purchase for the for the for the kids but it would what if they did not have that in their budget and they needed to replace that you know would they wanted to tap the capital fund then you know needs to be in there I just want to make a comment that I feel like we're open sorry I just been waiting a couple minutes to get my thought and Eric kind of said it I can't agree with him more I feel like then we're opening the whole AES budget process to just changing which isn't a bad thing but we definitely did this to make sure that we could fund or start a fund for like Eric said the buildings the grounds the big projects I feel and I hope I'm not making a decision tonight that we definitely can Define it in some way I understand in the business world and and out there there's different things that can be added but I felt like this was building structure
things you know they've somehow found a way to plan nicely for all of those other kinds of things that are in the operational you know budget every year and computers have been there they've brought in you know from way back when I moved moved here they had brought out their plan they've done that nicely they've replaced them they have all of that that scares me if we I really don't want to go in that direction I'm 100% Eric with this thought right and that that was exactly what Shannon was getting at when she was saying if we Define it in kind of a clunky way then you somehow in that somehow gets included when it shouldn't be you know that's that's instructional right that's that's for the for the kids that's the that's absolutely the board of EDS call not we shouldn't be monking around with that so that was the I that was why she she ultimately pulled a definition out of here if we can come up with one
that doesn't cause these kinds of problems great but I I kind of see her point in that no matter how we Define it it at least when I was trying to draft you know there were these potential issues that arise and so it may be more that we need to have discretion available within the policy that's all and Marx made it clear too that it is a policy and if there is going to be a subcommittee or a committee it doesn't mean people can't bring an idea forward we just probably should have a clear idea of what we think should go forward yeah and and I remember being at a meeting too where Ann CR had made a point that before they had this policy somehow they had to save money or you know they used to take care of a few Capital things out of the operational maybe what was left over or because you know the business manager had done a good job getting discounts so this is freeing for that you know they can now use the whole operational instructional for those kind of things it's just my thought and then clearly have a different kind of idea in mind for the capital projects in capital account that's the way I see it I wouldn't want to see
computers in there at all other other comments so one of the concerns I would have with this is if you do a literal reading of this it says the Board of Ed may choose to deposit money into the account and I don't think that's really technically correct I mean per the chart they can ask the board of Finance yeah they may request transfer so so that third line probably ought to be May the Board of Ed May request transfer of unspent money from the Board of Education she at the term request right address what you're concerned about Eric you finish sorry y I don't know oh sorry go ahead Kimberly I don't want to dominate this go ahead I I think for me I looked at this as a revised draft but there was another draft of this correct that happened before this this is a revision yeah this is this is a complete rewrite okay so I personally need to take a look at that first copy and then I'm going to want to sit and look back at some of the meetings that were held on how this all originated so I can get a feel for for the changes and you know what the purpose of this is so I right now I can't make a decision about any of this I'm gonna want to do some research and maybe think about this in June yeah I think it's not urgent and I would agree that just in general we all have time to think about it a little bit yeah I don't know if you're going to glean that much Insight from going back and and looking at it because the the original draft the original policy was
very very different in orientation lot more detailed frankly but you know we had a lot of the same concerns how do you how do you is there find a Capital project who gets to approve it you know who who controls the money kind of that so is there a way to have taken the first policy and put this into track changes so you can actually compare I think it's complete reite they're not this ised this complete rewrite however Kimberly I I mean I if you want me to dig up the last draft I had before this and email it to you I could do that but it's it's wildly different this really kind of conceptually is a different policy at this point okay you know than the original draft we've been kicking this around a while right so the other thing I would mention by the way these of the section 1B and I don't I I may be garbling this and I I'll defer to others to explain it better but
you know how that the the board ofet has that 2% non-aps account and they can put money in there but you know at our they come and they can request it from us apparently the state legislature just passed a new Omnibus education bill that comes down over top of that and says that it's entirely their call what to do with the Surplus what's entirely in whose call the Board of Ed in know in the past if they had money left over right oh right right right right right they have to come to us and ask for permission or or they'd have to return it to the town apparently the new Ed Bill changes that and so that's something to consider when we look when we think about 1B I think these are two different funds we're not talking about is trueing account yeah yeah that's a good
point yeah that's true yeah and in fact the school you could take money with the AES school board's permission because they control that fund if their school board decided to spend that money on a capital project per auditor that would be legal as long as it's a school related Capital project so my assumption is given if the governor does sign that in law then more than likely in the future the school is going to max out their 2% non-aps account every year because why wouldn't they that gives them the most flexibility and then the question becomes what happens with any additional money that the school board wants to deposit into the straight Capital account which they don't control comments All right so I would suggest that we spend some time reviewing this thinking about it take it up at our next meeting and pursue it then agreed okay move on to item 5B which is the review of budget actual are you g to share your screen Mark or no I don't have anything in
there I have we have to check register I know Eric if you want to you want me to share my screen the budget actual you know it's almost you we're not going to sit here and go through it line by line I guess the question would be does anybody have any concerns over the package that submitted no Eric looking at property tax revenue we're about 235k short do we feel pretty comfortable on that yeah actually I think this has been a fairly good collections month so I think we're going to be okay overall we should have gotten the quarters taxes most of the receipts by now right yeah we're not we're not going to hit the rest of them by the end of the you know well maybe thought of them but no I think we're okay but we will see okay any areas of concern from Eric I don't see anything else personally but no I I spent last week I spent you know three or four hours with Cheryl going over the budget line by line I think we're well under overall obviously there's a whole bunch of line items that are over and I think Cheryl should be prepared to discuss that with you at the next board meeting that will be our last meeting in this fiscal year so we need to be prepared to do the transfers that are required to manage that
right you should do them by the end of the year if you don't it's not the end of the world that you do them in July but yeah because I mean technically you know per the auditor you're not going to have every single bill for every single line item by July one anyway even if you request them but you might have a good idea at least if we don't have the transfers next month then we would have a good idea I would think Eric right of yeah okay well it's it's probably true that it really doesn't have much impact on the closing of the accounts or anything right so that's correct that's really probably something Cheryl should address in the next meeting let us know what she needs us to do to make sure she can close efficiently and effectively actual okay take a look at it when you get a chance and we can always re refer to at the next meeting check register is also there any questions on comments on the check register I guess just one quick question Eric how many time I should remember this
I've asked it before but how many times a year does the murf payment get made that could be a cherl question too I just that's a sheral question yeah do I every month guess it's every month monthly that's what I was thinking it's I know it's not bi-weekly it's not with every paid period but I think it's it's monthly okay thank questions okay oh hearing none we will go ahead and move on to the next agenda item which is the new business new business item 5A is to set the mill rate so do we have in front of us if I can ask sorry Mark that last you know from the budget meeting that one page that shows the mill rate and the calculations and all of that Eric if you want to let me share my screen I'll pop it up there or if you have it up there I can do either so now what's that I said you should be able to share your screen now if you don't want to I all right you should be seeing this right are you seeing it yes yes y so this was the spreadsheet that we shared at the town meeting nothing changed in that interim so with calcul ated mill rate was was 31 3 31.4659
six for the year 2425 okay and I heard Rob second any discussion thankfully I'm hearing none take a vote all those in favor say I I any opposed any abstentions just on a personal note thank you to the board of finance and everyone else who did the hard work to get this through but fortunately it was not very controversial this year and we got it through when the town seemed to agree okay look like motion passes can you do me a favor yeah and can you send me your copy of that document document I have with the same date has it as I have it as 31 48 so we seem to be off about $4,000 between your copy and my copy but since you guys approved your copy we'll go with that and I'll just delete mine okay wait are we sure wait which one's right I'm gonna I'm gonna Rie I'm gonna review the presentation yeah I mean I remember it being the one you put up Mark but you know just a couple weeks ago my computer's getting slow it's time for a new one and an
email from Microsoft your computer is not for Windows it's it's always got a lag when you're in the middle of trying to show somebody something of course it's actually pretty good but it's could be thing is this thing is like nine years old and it's served me very well it's another Capital expense for your company Mark I don't think my company's going to be pay paying for this one though oh they this is not this is my personal computer are you guys seeing the seeing the file no no go there it is yep that's from the PowerPoint yeah okay that's the one that was approved so I'll send it to you I wanted
to verify it against the PowerPoint but we just ended up doing it so I will send that you as soon as the meeting's over yeah and we only differ by 4,000 so I don't really care either way must be a rounding error rounding differential I won't call it an error because rounding happens okay now we have item 5B this is to address the email from Celeste about the request to move transfer the 103,000 into the actually I should say request of the Board of Education to transfer the 103,000 into the non-aps account actually wait not noning account no into the capital fund yes Capital oh I'm sorry capital F yeah thank you I was trying to pull this up I'm just going to go ahead and share this since I have the while you're doing that I I mean I can make the motion so we have it on the table are you guys seeing the letter from all right so this is the letter we all received from the Board of Ed requesting the allocation of the Surplus $13,000 to the OV Elementary School Capital fund which we established earlier in this case they happen to call out specifically for their concerns about upgrading them or I shouldn't say upgrad Plumbing actually repairing the plumbing at the school does anybody have any discussion or do you want to make a
motion I think Rob's gonna make a motion yeah I'm gonna I'm gonna move that we approve this request and move the 103,000 into the newly established Capital fund as per the board of EDS request you have a second I'll second it he Bill any further discussion opposed any abstentions okay the motion passes thank you very much thank you everyone appreciate it thank you Celeste coming thanks thank you very much have a great evening everyone and happy happy Memorial Day weekend thank you You by foret okay and now we will move on to item five C which is help me out here folks we added it I think air was it Eric oh yeah yeah the electrical expenditures sorry go ahead Eric you want to discuss or tell us what this is all about sure so last year when we set the budget for the current fiscal year we didn't have a community center and we didn't need to pay electricity
for the community center but we've had the meter on the building now for about a month and a half or two months and so now we are paying and because it's an electrically heated and cooled building there will be some expenditures this spring for electrical usage as well as for all the contractors that are in there for so the first thing would be a motion to create the account 4214 community center line item 3-8 318-6059 so basically you have to create the fund but you can't just transfer money in like you would at the end of the year because that fund doesn't actually exist yet so you have to create that line item in the budget in this year's budget and because it's not in the approved budget you have to do that as an additional appropriation per the treasurer so that would be the request Eric so two things first of all you said fun but I think you mean just the account number right right okay and can you read the account number again I mean we have I'm looking at the budget wonder if I want to make sure it lines up sure it should be 4214 yeah 31861 56220 correct okay that lines up with the 2024 2025 fiscal budget so good we're good there so what I would it
sounds like what we need to do is create the account in the budget and it's are we actually going to do a quote appropriation or are we going to just do a transfer right to cover yeah so Cheryl seems to think that should be done with an appropriation not a transfer and remember up to about $25,000 a year you're free to make or actually even a little bit more than that until you break the it's either 0.25% or 05% the budget you can do Appropriations without any other you know on your own authority so or you could wait until next week or next month and ask Cheryl why she thinks it should be an appropriation and not a transfer Rob I have a potentially dumb
question but it where is the appropriation coming from right it's just a supplemental appropriation it basically would come from the Taxation and any excess or general fund right so okay that how that's how we would f it okay question are we adding to the budget then we can't just this year I dumb question from me too Rob I I want to understand it it for $2,000 it seems like I wish we could just do a transfer because Eric had already said we're going to be well under with the expenses this year so we can't just have additional we know we're going to SP it out in the future and it's going to be the community center when we have all of those line items active and you know the building opens to me it's not running as is there something some reason we can't just include it in the town halls electric you know bill for now I personally would be in favor of creating the account and recording the expenditures in there because sooner we do the sooner we get a history of kind of what it is every month in June what it is every month in May what it is every month in August so we so we clearly understand kind of what the operating expenses the community center are but to do an additional appropriation I'm not sure that really you know that I'm not comfortable with that personally at this point unless we have good reason we have to fund it there's no question oh yeah I mean I just if we can't do it with a transfer i' like to understand why right might as well get
educated now this is perfect opportunity no Eric you were saying this was Cheryl's thought that we should do an appropriation yes I mean to be honest Cheryl would prefer Appropriations for everything that's over so that the budget lines up with what the actual expenses are at the end of the year and then let everything that's unexpended just flow into fund balance you know as opposed to doing transfers for everything but you know we've gone back and forth about it historically we've already always done them as transfers you know but she felt because this was something that wasn't created you know already you know it has to be a supplemental appropriation because it's a line item that doesn't exist I I hear you I guess I don't see why we couldn't create it then it exists transfers something get but I tell tell you what I don't think there's any disagreement that we have to create the the line item so why don't we do
that I don't remember all the numbers but I'm happy to make the motion yeah I mean I move that we create the Lineum in the budget for the electrical for the the Community Center as per Eric's request so that was the account number 4214 318 60156 220 Electric any seconds I'll second it okay Kimberly thank you any discussion okay all those in favor say I I any opposed I'm gonna just abstain I I think it should have we should have expected that there was going to be some El yeah I'm I'm just whatever I'm abstaining thank you okay so Joan abstains no opposed okay the motion passes okay so now the question comes before us do we want to make an appropriation so if we don't want to make appropriation that's fine we just do not make a motion can I can I be very stupid here bill go ahead I just wonder I'm sorry to be so dumb but can somebody Define appropriation versus well it basically means the board of Finance for the charter has a certain authority to appropriate additional monies as needed for the town
business as Eric set up until a certain percentage is fairly small oh I see so it just gives us a little bit of flexibility if we're tight on the on the budgetary spending through the end of the year if some you know un unforeseen circumstance comes up that we can't delay then we would you know we could in theory just appropriate that money and it just you know would come out of the whatever revenues we have with tax or the general fund okay but again if we're already under it just seems like it make more sense just to as far as we know right so it's comfortable but as everyone
understands Eric seems just comfortable just seems to make more sense we just make a transfer but and I I think it's an accounting you know it makes sense that Cheryl's the accounting side it this may thank you for explaining Eric Cheryl would like it to line up accounting wise so of course when you have an appropriation which it just opens us up to doing this every year and having this be my third year for such a small amount and we have the money I agree with you know kind of Bill's thought my thought of and everybody just let's transfer it in we'll create the account if that needs to be but I feel like of course the accounting side would want it to all line up exactly perfect and I get that whereas to me we're the town organization and I don't I mean or whatever we are the authority too I just don't want to have to face this every I don't think it's good for the town to have to face it you know when we are over and we have the money to transfer I don't mind appropriating if we were there's some catastrophe and we have to spend $20,000 to fix the sewer whatever you know so my thoughts I think it's accounting versus Logistics how much money do we need again Eric two 2000 2,000 bucks and that gets us how far hopefully the end of the year we don't do this that's it that's the whole year great okay and then and then
presumably in the next budget cycle we just funded it that whatever the level we did we we had that we had a budget for this year of $8,000 year for the annual for the fiscal year was in the budget so oh this is just that's where that number comes from it comes from the accounts that were created for next year's budget this is just this is last year's budget because we're not done with it yet and we've got the meter running so would we just pull this from contingency why wouldn't we just pull it from contingency yeah so you can see the community center accounts right there yeah okay we did budget it okay so we covered it for next year we just haven't covered it for this year because we didn't stop gap for the last couple months right okay right so that I mean to me that's contingency but or if we have the money available we just transfer but everybody has yeah and so
it sounds like there's not if nobody's going to make a motion then I would say that it sounds like we don't don't have a clear Direction on what to move unless somebody chooses to make a motion and you're of course free to do that but it sounds like maybe the wisest choice is for the board to wait to hear from Cheryl next month and then we can make the decision but don't we owe the money don't we need to pay the money look we're gonna pay the bill it's not a question of that you know regardless of what you do we're still gonna pay our electric bill okay want to make sure okay I can see they I want us to electricity right because we're dithering over 2,000 bucks and we're to pull it from I me it just seems silly okay so if that's not the issue we have the money that's why I have my thought yeah I I know you know okay so I think we'll have more than that yeah so the real question in and it's more an accounting question is that instead of at the end of the year you know there there's two potential ways to do it it's to S to look at the budget and say oh we were short on these following line items in the budget therefore we were going to increase the appropriation for that line item to match what we already expended that way all those line items are in the black and then everything else just flows back to fund balance at the end of the year so the final budget at the end of the year shows all expenditures versus transferring the money from one
line to the other at the end of of the year that's that's really what you're talking about so there's pluses and minuses to both things so I'll I'll say what I think are the are the you know the positives to doing the approach that Cheryl's kind of recommended by adding an appropriation is that you you're basically making very clear what budgets were slightly overspent and what budget line items are slightly under spent and you can it help may help you provide it may provide guidance for next year's fiscal year budgeting because you have a good historical record the downside for me of appropriation is we're adding to the budget we literally are adding to the budget and and I think Joan asked the question or Bill and you know asked
the question what the difference is but we're actually adding to the budget and I'm not very comfortable doing that on a routine basis you know if it's if it's needed by by all means I would say yeah you know what we're tight we going to go to that I personally like person who likes data I like to see the history I like the history to be accurate but for a practical purposes U from a philosophical standpoint I don't like the board of Finance routinely just adding to the budget to cover something we didn't for see you know unless it really is required that's just my personal take on it and I don't see any reason we can't wait for a month to to discuss it and talk with Cheryl and get her perspective because you know maybe I've got something wrong Maybe all do it so so I think those are the kind of the pluses and the minuses Eric said they get you to the same place essentially but when you're adding to the budget that money is going to flow into the funds you know as opposed to well I guess it all ends up ultimately Top Line ends up bottom line ends up being the same so then Mark every year you know historically watching the board of vet operate I'll go to their meetings they're going to do some transfers and moving around you know we're used to
this a lot yeah you know it's it's you're never going to hit it 100% spot on so that's the nice part you know every year we've been able to I have historically watched the town be able to Port purchase things because luckily there has been money left over last year we were able to get the SUV or and this year the trailer was bought you know so there was that's all I agree with you I don't want to add to the budget at all I don't think it's necessary if it was a big catastrophe and we needed you know an appropriation that's where we come into play to to do that and or we had to move a lot of money and that would skew things from a historical record perspective you know if it was five grand or seven Grand I'd say yeah let's seriously consider it I'm not comfortable doing it right now personally yeah we two grand that's all I agree we'll do it as old business next time say that again Rob so we'll revisit as new BU as old business next time yeah we just put it on I would say put it as old business next time if we don't take action discussion all right well I mean hearing no more discussion about this we can move on to agenda item six which is a approval of the meeting minutes for March 27th April 3rd April 10th April 17th and April 24th not sure if all of us were on that of course even if you weren't at the
meetings you could have participated bya or at least reviewed them bya Zoom to validate the minutes it's looking it's all there yeah well anybody want to make a motion to approve the meeting minutes either individually or as a whole I'll make the motion to approve all the minutes okay Louise makes a motion to approve them anybody a second second Kimberly that's not Kimberly's hand okay any discussion okay all those in favor say I I any opposed and I'm going to abstain because I was not there on April 17th nor did I review them so okay motion passes thank you very much item seven is administrator's report Eric okay the report is in my packet ises any in the packet so I won't go over everything relative to the board of Finance there are a couple Grant
submissions that are in currently I think I already announced it but we did get the lsip grant for the route 316 connectivity project that's a $2.85 million award [Music] construction so that's good the other thing I did submit is I submitted for a congressional appropriation through Senators Murphy and blumenthal's office for about $410,000 that money would be spent to complete the community center as well as install the backup generator for the municipal campus so if we do get that that Grant it will be three quarters funded by the federal government and we'll have to pick up the last quarter
of it which is is $105,000 roughly but since we already have money that has already been earmarked for finishing the community center town meeting or anything right yeah is spend the same amount of money we've already agreed to spend but also get the generator completed at the same time if that comes through so I'm you know cautiously optimistic for that a track work on the town hall is mostly complete although when I sit in my office it's still about 85 degrees because they haven't got the duckus split for the upstairs working yet which is unfortunate but the rest of it's all working propane tanks are installed the other thing we are working we did meet at the ele school last week with a MEP which is an engineer that's specializes mechanical electrical and plumbing systems and I'm hoping by the end of the week back to have a initial proposal for cost estimate for doing the design for the for the repair work necessary for the AES Plumbing issues
that we have any idea whether that's budgetarily in scope of what we've already got in that Capital fund I mean is it do you have an idea of the you know scale of it is it you know even is it 50,000 200,000 500,000 can't be cheap I'm sure it's over a 100,000 because basically what what's gonna have to happen is there's a long cast iron pipe that runs the length of the old Wing that has rotted out in several places so it'll need to be dug up well that part is run in a Chase so that is accessible but the laterals which are the parts that run to the urinals and the bathrooms themselves those are in the slab and the they you know what they are is pretty unclear if we're going to do this so
so the long and the short of it is we're going to end up jackhammering out part of the slab in three separate bathrooms so that's not going to be inexpensive you know because this building has looks like most of it's the original tile you might as well commit to retiling the bathrooms one of the bathrooms can be fairly easily made Ada accessible two of them cannot just because of their layout there's nothing they're not Ada accessible now and when we get done renovating them they're still not going to be Ada accessible without moving walls and and reconfiguring the adjacent rooms to them there's not really any way to make it so the MEP also has an architect that will be helping with it because wherever we can be Ada accessible and compliant we should be so that's basically the scope of the project are we required to become ADA
Compliant with the renovation or does this not meet the standard of that type level of renovation no we shouldn't be required to schools have some minimum requirements for Ada accessibility but because the other Wings have that every single bathroom does not need to be Ada accessible there are minimum ADA requirements that the building already meets if it were a new bathroom it would have to be Ada accessible but for renovation no and it makes sense if it were simple to do we should do it but it's not simple to do we don't want to go down that path okay right yes Rob got a question quick quick question for you Eric just to clarify make sure I understand what you're expecting at the end of the week is the proposal for the amount of money it'll take to do the engineering work to to to do the plan design and Engineering Services to come up with a plan to do it not to actually yeah we're not going to know the price tag for the whole thing we're going to know what it'll cost us to get the price we ought to have a budgetary quote out
of it I would think at least yeah we we can get a real ballpark but we're not going to really know well until we go to RFB and actually get bids back on this okay that's what I wanted to make clear because you know we're not getting the full project price here we're getting what it's going to take us to get there right we're St still trying to make sure we know what the actual full scope of work we have to do is and as we went over the project I mean one of my concerns was that there's you know I I want them to look not all we know the the waste the drain waste end of the plumbing has severe problems they haven't had any problems on the supply in but I also
want an evaluation of that because you know at the point where we we're busting through concrete and we're committing to redoing the flooring you know I don't want to I want this to be whatever we do I want this to be one and done and I don't want to be revisiting this in 10 years and doing something more I'm I'm trying to keep scope yeah as controlled as I possibly can and not get any more scope creep than is necessary but I also want to make sure we get our hands around the whole problem and fix it now even if we just have a plan like hey in the next five years you're going to need to replace some of these Supply components we can plan for that we can start funding the the capital fund for that okay so that is something that that I've been in discussion with that engineering firm and it's a discussion we've had Fairly extensively at CIP because unlike most of the Town buildings we don't really have a full full-blown Capital plan for the buildings and ultimately we're going to need somebody to evaluate kind of that building comprehensively and all the Building Systems so we can really understand what our expenses are going to be going forward so my goal is to get a contractor or an engineer assign them this project and if this works well and we get a good product out of them to consider starting to do over the next say five years take each mechanical systems one year electrical systems the next and just review the whole building so we have kind of the capital Improvement plan we've been talking about for that
makes a lot of sense how else are we going to do with a capital Improvement plan if we don't actually understand the existing infrastructure yeah it' be good to have that yeah but remember that is not cheap and we're not going to want to do that all at once right well that's why you have a plan right the multi-year plan correct okay hey other questions for Eric or Eric you have anything else most of the other stuff looks pretty straightforward okay well I guess we can move on then to item eight which is the liaison reports CIP was pretty straightforward recently we we the thing we talked about was a library project which doesn't take any money from the town they have it all funded through donation but there was extensive discussion nonetheless Eric can speak to this a lot more intelligently than I can but
they've got a bathroom they want to redo a bit and involves a window they want to close up and there was a bunch discussion about how best to do that Eric raised some I think good concerns about their initial plan so there was a a substantial I think revision going to be made to that plan I don't know Eric if if in the intervening time there's been any further developments but that there was a little window and and the issue was if you put a file cabinet up against what used to be a window and they wanted to just kind of claster over it or something like that and he there was some concern about it getting condensation and creating a mold problem
Eric is there anything that's come up since then on that sure I walked and talked that with Martin of mg masonary to look at it you know and he basically said you know his preference would be exactly what we talked about which is Brick it up and then plaster it on the inside and the outside so you make that a permanent fix and and you you just basic essentially remove the existing window brick in the opening and then do whatever you want on the inside the library board was going to go back to golden Hammer which was the contractor they had picked for the project and asked them with it whether that was something they wanted to tackle or whether they wanted Martin to handle that I have not is there an
agress issue what is there a means of agress issue there in that situation I that's not an openable window anyway oh okay it's like one of these probably not a living area probably doesn't come into play right I don't know the code that well no okay but the other thing that they're with they're going to be within budget right like we talked about it at CIP we gave them we approved some money and I mean it's their money anyway was sort of pointless but they're not going to go over are they no no they they should be okay and the board of Finance did you know Jeff McGuire s around a vote of the board of Direction Board of Selectmen and the board of
Selectmen did agree to give the green light to that Pro that project so I did notify them tomorrow they should be sending me documents to review so okay we'll go from there but that was the only thing really I don't think there was anything that impacts the town budget that we talked about correct me if I'm wrong okay any other leaz on reports I don't think we have any other direct Le currently actually yeah I had a a meeting last night with with the Norton commission and we were thinking about trying to make a more of a presence in town because a lot of people don't are not aware of the Norton commission and what and how effective they are so we were thinking possibly of doing something at when and if there will be a dedication at this the new senior community center and I just kind of curious Eric if you happen to know if anything's planned or a dedication well we kind of did that already with was or
was that groundbreaking I'm thinking of Eric a ground yeah that was a ground we did a groundbreaking I made a suggestion to the board that they consider around basically the week after the 4th of July for a dedication for the building but they did not pass anything or make any specific dates or recommendations at their last meeting so there is nothing nothing definite at this point okay if there is something going to be definite is that something that we can share I mean is there someone that we have to discuss to allow us to go ahead and do something like have a table there would I be talking to that committee I would talk to Jeff Maguire on that one I don't think it should be an issue but it's not that wouldn't necessarily I don't think that would be my call all right so Jeff would be the person okay thank you other comments questions or Lea arm reports okay any board open discussion anything else we need to bring before the board Mark I just wanted to say one thing I I will not be at the next Board of Finance meeting Cheryl said she will fill in with me I'm going to be on vacation for a couple weeks at the end of June I should be available again around July 1st okay thank you well since you brought that up I will say the
exactly the same thing I will not 26 me too no kitty sorry sorry Mar I apologize the 26 that we're talking about I'd have to look at the calendar I thought it's the 19th and I might not be available at night either that's why I could I had it in my phone is the 26 but I I had a doubt that's why I asked it's the third week it's the third week that should be the 19th then I've got it in the wrong place thank you yeah no so it's on the calendar is the 26th the reason 18th is that is juneth that is holiday and you can't hold a meeting per fo hour on that perfect good I can go I can go to New Hampshire
riding snowmobiles or quads if you're riding snowmobiles it's going to be a very interesting weather experience I'll be in Norway I'll be in Norway at that time I have a much better chance of riding snowmobiles than you will enjoy that that sounds cool nice yeah Wonder okay well that's going to be interesting then so we'll have to determine whether we have a quorum hopefully we will 26 we will I will be there okay yeah good good okay any other board open discussion okay I don't have any correspondence other than the two items we already took up today one of which was the proposed policy and the other was the request to transfer the $113,000 into the capital fund anybody else have any correspondence that they should present before the board I no okay last it next item is public speak I don't see anybody from the community out there the public okay and the next item is a German I will say if I thank you for I'm not sure if you guys are hearing me while I was at the dentist earlier right before this this meeting so my my words are a little thick I can blame allergies in the dentist but great it wasn't too egregious but never the favorite thing to do right fun okay so the next item be what's that I moved to a journ okay Rob moves to second I see Bill rais his hand in second any discussion okay hear me none all those in favor I I all those opposed hearing none any extensions okay the meeting is you Jour thank you very much like I said I won't be at the next meeting but you know so if you're available you can