I'm not gonna start AI companion. No, I'm thinking.
All right, everyone. Thank you for joining the board of finance August 27th, 2025 meeting. We'll call that to order. and we will go ahead and cite the the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag the flag of the United States of America
nd to the to the republic for it for it stands.
One nation one nation
under God
indivisible
with liberty
andice for all
.
Okay, great. Moving on to item number two on the agenda is public speak. So, I see that we have Diane Grenier here who I knew was going to join us. So, you're all set, Diane.
Thank you. my question for you to start with, I I have an issue that I want to discuss about residents making donations to a border commission. And I spoke to Bill D. Roger and he was going to ask to see if that could be put on the agenda, an addition. do you want me to speak now or wait until you bring it up with the meeting?
I think she should probably speak now, Bill. Right.
We can add under new business, but we could hear from her now, I suppose.
Yeah. I mean, it's not a big crowd. So, I' I'd like to hear from you now, Diane, because then I know I'm following protocol and then we will add it at the proper time.
Okay. it it it's a a basic question. has come up before and I've spoke to a couple of you already about it and the the issue is how after after the budget is already done July has come and gone if a border commission has a a project or something or residents want to donate to that how do they do that? We just had an an incident where the community garden they made a a a garden an extra garden bed in July and Jeff Ballard who was chairman of the garden committee organized up the the lumber, the screws, the brackets, the the dirt and whatever came to about $250, a small amount of money. we went online and asked people if they would like to donate for that and we were told that we cannot send that to the town office building to the treasur's office. they can't handle it. It has to be done outside. So, he is collecting the receipts and stuff. He puts them in a coffee can in his garage. that doesn't seem to be the right way to do this. I mean, it is a a town function, a town entity, and
there should be some mechanism where residents can donate. We've had that issue before. in the coming this spring, I talked to Andover Country Gardens. They would like to donate some black eyed susans to the community garden to use as a fundraiser. We would sell them. We would get money. And I don't think the money should be going in a coffee can in Jeff Ballard's garage. not that I have a problem with Jeff, but just that's not the way that we should be doing business in the town. I understand that for some reason or other there's no way that this can be done. This is way too hard. This is and I know in the past I was chairman of the Norton Commission and every year residents make a check out to the Norton Commission for an unspecific unific
reason.
Yeah. An item and they use it as they will. It could be for backpacks. It could be a scholarship. Nobody knows what they're using it for. It just goes into their general line item. Have you the library did a the mural project. It was several thousand dollars. We had resident no tax dollars. It was all done by residents. They sent checks to the town hall. They put it in some account. When we needed to pay the electrician, we presented the bill. The the treasurer wrote a check, paid him. I've also heard things like the board of finance only does the budget. That's your job. you make the budget and that's all you do. and it's like, okay, except I know last month or the month before you were able to manage to get a line item for the Diane Grineer scholarship with the Norton Commission. I don't know what you did, how you did it, but it it happened. So, that's not a budget item, but you were able to reach beyond just
making the budget. also on that that point, let me just say this. I made a donation of $1,000. I wrote a check to the town of Andover for the Diane Grineer scholarship. It was made in May. That check still has not been cashed. I I know you now have a line item. I don't know where the the check has not been cashed and this is now almost September. But anyways, so what what I'm asking you is to review this and basically find a way that residents can donate to the town. I mean, this is just it's good for the town. Residents feel good. There were lots of residents that wanted to donate to this black eyed susan thing and we had to say, you know, stop. You know, we've got enough money. We don't know what to do with any extra money. We can't take it. that doesn't seem like the right thing, you know, and somehow, and I don't know what the the rules are. I'm glad the treasurer is here. she can explain why you can't do it and I'm hoping that you or the board of selectmen or somehow some group of people can get together and fix it. It doesn't require a charter review committee. I don't know what it is. It shouldn't be that hard. It shouldn't be that hard to let residents make a donation. I talked to Carol Lee this morning and she says that they've had the same problem in the past where people want to donate to the rec commission and you know the town can't take the money. So that that's my issue. I don't know if you have any
question be happy to answer them but it's basically people making donations to the town for a town thing through a board or commission should not be in a coffee can in somebody's garage. that's just seems like there's an auditing that's just not right. So that that's that's my issue. So I appreciate you taking the time to address that and see h how we can make that happen. So thank you Diane. Thanks so much for taking the time to explain it. And like you said, we'll we'll add it to the agenda at the proper time. Rob's in now. So I don't know what happened, Rob. They had to I
know what happened. I my mistake. There were two agendas
and I was going off the the first one
and when I finally got to the second one and meanwhile my computer then decided it had to update Zoom. So it just it was like error after error but I'm here now.
Well, welcome. Yeah, we we played it safe this time with the passwords and the login so that I could definitely get in. I didn't want to take any chances, so we went with a different their backup Zoom or whatever. So, okay. So, Rob has joined us. So, I know that Well, Wall-E, you're a resident. Would you like to do any public speak?
No, I'm just here to answer questions later. Thank you.
And Cheryl, did you have any public speak? I know you're here in the role of treasurer.
All right. Thank you. No, I don't. I'm sorry. No, I don't.
No, you're fine. You're fine. Thank you. I just No procedure I should ask everyone. All right. So, now we're going to move down to item three on the agenda, which is changes or additions to our agenda. Bill, I know you have one. Go ahead.
As you all know, Diane would like me to add this item to the agenda concerning making donations specifically this time for the community garden to do some work on the garden. next spring they want to have a spring fundraiser. plants will be donated from the Andover Garden Center. I think that's the name of it. On route 6 and we just want to figure out a way that donations can be handled in the town. so whenever the appropriate time is I'll speak more on that as well.
Okay, sounds good. So I'm going to add that under new business item C. we'll call it I don't know discussion on donations to the town because it can be a wideopen process and Cheryl is here and Cheryl can you know we can ask a couple questions of Cheryl at the time too. I know it's come up in the past. So that'll be item 5C. yes. Okay. Anyone else with any agenda additions or subtraction changes? Okay, moving on. We're going to go right into old business, which is review of budget to actual. I know we had that included in our packet. I don't know if anyone has any questions on that. I don't at this moment.
No.
All right. We're new, you know, in the new year. So, seeing none or not seeing anybody's hands raised or anything, then we'll go into
Wait, what one thing I did notice there was no check register this time. Does that mean there was
Yeah.
Yeah, there was no check register. So, that that was my only comment. I don't know why. Maybe it was an oversight. Maybe no checks were written. I don't know.
Yeah, I was thinking maybe it was too too early or because I don't know. Maybe.
Yeah,
cuz Eric's not here. Somehow another didn't get added.
Duly Yeah, Dulie noted. I know that they put the agenda together a little bit early this time. They send it to Mark and myself very early.
They'll probably
Yeah, they'll probably just add it to next month maybe. Sure.
No, but it's good that you brought it up. It's of record that we brought it up. So hopefully, right, it would come next next month. Okay. So, moving on to item 4B, old business, the for the year ending fiscal year ending 2025, the year-end budget transfers discussion that we had been provided in our packet. And then, I know Cheryl's here. I know that this has this is a lot less than we used to see now with the new rule to the transfers as far as they can transfer without us approving them within departments. So say if public works had some kind of overage they can take care of that without getting our approval. I hope I'm Cheryl Am I saying that?
Absolutely. Absolutely no.
There are no transfers between departments without board of finance approval.
No, I said within the same department. I'm sorry.
No, no,
no.
Even if it's with I thought we had passed a change that say the town clerk's office under like supplies and mailings or something of that nature. We didn't have to approve within the same department. I, you know, if it came out or if it sounded wrong. I meant I know that we have to have them approved, you know, if it's town clerk in tax collector or town clerk and public works. Under the charter, it states that line item transfers at the end of the fiscal year only need to be done in the event that the department is over budget. Specific line items within the budget can be over and specific line items within the budget can be under. The net effect has to be under budget if so on the items that I have presented in requesting transfers those particular departments are over which is why I've grouped them town office building old firehouse actuary auditor the departments are over not not we don't take one thing from one line item and move it to another line item whatever it comes in for coding if it says it's
office supplies That's where it goes. If this has electricity, that's where it goes. We don't move them in between departments. But these are all the items for the departments that are over budget.
Yeah,
thank you for correcting me, Cheryl. I knew Yeah,
you said it in the accounting correct language. I think my mind was thinking the same thing, so I apologize for the way I presented it, but thank you for your correction. duly noted. Does anyone have any questions on
what we were presented with?
I can try.
Go ahead.
Do you want to bring it up again?
Got it. I can try.
I was just going I was just going to say I I find it a little surprising that they were over some of the items that were over were salaries because I mean obviously public works it was $36. Not a big deal but I I find like you can expect oil because you can't you can't always properly predict that. So I was a little surprised to see that. I mean just really a comment I guess. I don't know if what would any comment Liz, I think possibly you have overtime, right? So, that could be where that comes in. You know, PL when they do stuff like that.
Other than that one $36 thing that was salary.
What
was there any other salary stuff besides I'm looking at the document now. It's just really small. There was 36 bucks for public works salary. Was there any other salary stuff or was that the only one?
Yeah, zoning agent salary $6,200.
Oh. under the building.
Oh god. Yeah, the first thing. Sorry, I saw building department and wasn't reading it properly.
Huh?
Yeah.
I find that a little curious.
The Cheryl the salary amount that came in when they the contract that's that's what it came out to. I double check every single every single line prior to presenting and the way the contracts come in, the way the payroll comes in. We have new people coming in, we have old people going out. Public works, we had some large acrewed payrolls that had to be paid as staff left. They're allowed to hold over PTO and vacation and sick time. They're under the contracts. They need to be paid. So, I had to pay them. The zoning, the engineering, we have a lawsuit that's going on. So, that's part of what's going in over there.
The ground care, we had extra mowing for that. The clerk wages, you're going to see every single clerk wage for the most part. We have not been budgeting sufficient funds for any of the clerk salaries. They spend time at the meetings andor doing the recording and then doing up the minutes and things of that nature. So we are continuing constantly to go over that election salaries. Now, you'll notice that really and truly the only two are the for salaries is the zoning agent which was over by $6,200 and then public works $36.
And then it's the clerk wages, another clerk wages. And then that's that's that was all there is for for wages that were over. If you're looking on when on elections, those aren't over. That's where I want to take the money. I want to reduce the line item to fund the other budget items that have been overspent. There's only in essence two.
Cheryl, I only want to interrupt just for one minute to remind everyone. I think during the year Eric had told us that there was a changeover with the zoning agent and they were bringing on the new man
d so I think there was a time when they were paying two people.
That's exactly right.
I think is one that's exactly right.
Yeah. And I think I remember I know the old gentle gentleman but I think Wayne is the new one. So I think there was a time they were so that's probably why it's a big chunk. we'll have to look into
that makes sense.
Yep. And then and Cheryl was just getting to it with the where she took the money from. It makes sense because we had a little of overage in the employee benefits. So we were able to move that. You had money left over, Cheryl, is what you're saying.
Correct.
Right.
Yes. And all the credits, those are monies that we had left over. So if you look at the second tab,
I when I sent it over, hopefully you got it. There was the the Excel spreadsheet
and then there was the the actual transfer. If you click over to the budget to actual, it shows you exactly where all the numbers came from, who's under, who's over. I gave the exact detail so the board would have the availability to review it.
Thank you. I was able to review the Excel sheet. I did not look at the tab below, but I will do that after the meeting. because truthfully I thought this was a pretty short list. I don't know how anyone else feels with the big budget that we have. does anyone have questions for Cheryl on anything specific that they're looking at or seeing? Cheryl, were we and I will look at it. I apologize for not doing that ahead. I thought I was clicking around on everything. Was the election salaries did we have I don't know if you have it in front of you right now. How much did we overfund that or how much did we have left over that we were able to move the
9,000 from there?
Yeah, I can get that.
Thank you. because that's always one that we're not sure of and we try we're trying to
correct. We budgeted 22,000 for election salaries. It only came in at $12,4874. that was available for other departments and I like even numbers so I'm transferring the nine. But you never know how many I mean how many budget meetings there's going to be, how many other special elections there's going to be, how many town meetings there's going to be. It's
right.
A budget is a guess.
Yeah. And then the custodian line at the bottom there, the 4199B, we were over we had the 10,000 like you said with your even numbers.
Okay.
Yes. When you go down to the custodian, we had budgeted 27,291.38. We spent or what was spent on custodial $16,57828 If no one has any further questions for Cheryl. Cheryl, we would have to make a motion to accept the transfers as presented.
Yes, please. And then vote that I can make the transfers.
I'll make the motion to accept the transfers as presented by our assistant treasurer.
And I will second it.
Okay. The only thing I'll change is by the treasurer.
Oh, I'm sorry. By the treasurer. He's the official.
I'm sorry.
Yeah. All right. So, the motion is on the table to assist, you know, to accept the transfers as presented by our treasurer. we'll call it. Is there any further discussion?
No.
Okay. Then I'll call for a vote if everyone
I'm an I. Joanne Hbert.
Hi.
Bob's an I. Liz Liz Lok is an I. Bill D. Rogers is an I. Louise Goodwin and Kimberly Persan is an I. So the motion passes 6 to zero with those present tonight at the meeting. Okay, Cheryl. So we're set with that. Cheryl, are you able to stay with us for the further discussion? I mean, there are a couple financial things coming up in the next part.
Yes, I'll stay for a while. Yes.
Thank you. I think we can get through it. pretty quickly because I know we've touched on it before. I'm just glad Wallally's here. I was trying to figure out what we needed to do precisely at the meeting. Okay, so that has passed. So, we're moving on to the section five of new business. so, in our packet, as you saw, and I know we've discussed before, they sent us information. I think the first item that I'll talk to the way it goes is that SCBA and I apologize for not knowing the term if there is one. I know it's been on the table that they wanted to purchase these new items for the fire department or fire commission. and Eric had asked for final estimates and we received it. you know, we received the final quote from this MEES company, I believe. So, we also got the information
that the current account balance in the fire department equipment fund is $567,673. this year we added into the capital fund 137,000. oh, am I okay? There's two things on one paper. I I then it went right into the truck purchase. So, I panicked thinking I was talking right. So, let's talk to that first. Wally, do you mind joining us in the meeting? We really appreciate you being here. I know they talked about it at the board of selectman meeting and I thought that they finally passed it. So, what do you need from the board of finance tonight on the SCBA?
Okay, before I get into that, just one comment. You talked about the overage on the registars's budget. We had a surplus. We had an unanticipated receipt of $13,000 from the state of Connecticut to help with early voting that we had not anticipated. That's part of what offset the voting line item why there was money returned. This year, we're hoping for another 4,000, but again, when you create the budget,
we don't know that the state's going to have these grants available.
So, we have to budget in case the state decides to cut the money off.
Of course. Thank you for Yeah. Thank you for clarification on that. I know you're Yep. in the know.
Okay. As far as the air packs, we're looking to replace air packs that were purchased in the 1990s. We're have run in in the past couple years of extensive repairs. They're not to the point of being unreliable, but we don't ever want to get to that point because these are lifesaving pieces of equipment for the firefighters. We went out and originally we talked about purchasing 20 air packs. Because the truck purchase is coming in the same year, we decided to cut that back to just replace the number of units we currently have at 16 with the purchase of 32 masks because some of the firefighters that are Scott qualified are actually issued a personal mask. So, they have their own mask that's fit to
them when they go to put on an air pack. The others that are on the trucks are a standard size and the total package is $163,20. It was approved much earlier this year through CIP and we had hoped that it would move from CIP to the board of selectmen and to the board of finance, but for whatever reason that never happened. So, now we're into August and into the new budget year, and we'd like authorization to make the purchase. And I can answer any questions you want. SCBA stands for self-contained breathing apparatus.
Thank you.
Not to be confused with scuba, which is self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. Different animal.
Go ahead, Rob.
Yeah. So, I just I'm going back from my memories of when we talked about this at CIP. We had talked about buying the 20. You've backed off to 16. what was the price tag that we thought we were going to spend versus what we're spending now? We're spending 163 now. were we looking at a similar number or was it a little higher because we've cut four out.
It was over $220,000. Rob,
that's what I thought that we had approved. I remembered it being 200ish. Okay. So, this is actually less money because we didn't get the four extras. You you wanted to originally wanted to have those four spares if memory serves in case some piece of equipment needed to be tinkered with you wouldn't be down one.
That's correct.
Right. So did board of selectman bless this or where are we at with them?
Did approve it.
Oh our package. It's in a package that has selectman passing it.
I have a question on that. Wally.
Yeah. I don't see any verbiage about any warranties on these items. Should they should that be noted on the quote?
Most of these items have at least a one-year minimum. Most of the time it's two to three, but they just quoted the actual cost and the type units that we're purchasing in this quote.
Okay. And to be honest, these air packs, like I said, we purchased the original ones in 1990 and we're still using them.
So, they are reliable and they do last, but they have pieces and parts that do wear out over 30 years of lifespan. Wally, from what I remember, because there was a day that Liz and I were out in the field and we did, the town people can know this too since this is a meeting that we did stop into the fire department on a various things that we went to check in and see. And so the person that we did visit with when we were talking about this said that all of the and and I'm not all of the current ones that you have. How many would you have in there now are still working?
All 16 y
are still functional,
right? What what will we do? Understand that this has been a long time coming. It's been approved. Is there tradeins? Is there anything that goes back with the ones that you currently have that are still working and that the town has repaired? Is there any kind of
most part? No one wants
Yeah.
30-y old equipment.
Okay.
The only option is donating to the Eastern Connecticut Fireman's Training School that would assume any liability with any issues with them. But there's really no trade in value because of the age of the units. [Music]
Okay. I just didn't. So, thank you so much for all of this. Does everyone feel I know other people have listened to the board of selectman meetings too. I just didn't get a directive on what to do with this for tonight. I don't know like usually Eric would say, you know, I reached out for it today, you know, and and you know, Mark and I and Cheryl was involved in the email. I just wanted to make sure we knew what we were doing. Are you expecting I I has anyone heard? Are we expected to approve this tonight or are we It's already really been approved and the board of finances just saying they agree. I just want to do the right thing.
What I got from Eric the last time I spoke to him before he went on vacation was that it's gone through the selectman. It's up to the board of finance to make the final approval to spend the money and we can order the units.
Kim, go ahead. I would like to make a motion to approve the purchase of the units.
Second.
Okay. And there's a motion on the table to approve the purchase of the units according to the quote that we have in our packet.
Correct.
From MEES. Is that the right company? Wall-E
Municipal Emergency Services in Waterford, Connecticut. Yes.
Okay. to the total amount of the $163,120 per the quote. any further discussion? Did I say that? All right, we're up for a vote. All in favor say I.
I.
Okay, so the person doing the minutes, you have a six to zero approval of this. so everyone present has voted yes to this motion. So the motion passes six to zero.
Before we move on, actually just something occurred to me. Can I ask you Wally? are you thinking going forward of supplementing with four more in another year
to get to your 20?
Not within the next year. Possibly within the next two we'd be looking possibly to purchase one or two more. If we have money within our operating budget to be able to accomplish this out of firefighting equipment, we might do it under that rather than coming back and asking since it would only be one or two.
Okay. Thanks.
Yep.
I have one one more question and I know it's after that point, but
it it's on the quote. I just noticed that it said expires July 31st. Are we okay?
They're holding it for us.
Okay. We can't wait forever basically.
Okay. Thank you.
Pass tonight. Thank you, Wally, on that. And then moving down to our next agenda item, which is I know it's about the truck. I just want to read it though. Update on the fire department squad purchase. we know we've all heard about this as well. The truck's been on order. We'll let you speak to it in a minute, Wall-E, but we got the the resolution from the town in our packet where it was approved. I know we have a page showing the financing from Mnt I believe the leasing information. so go ahead, Wally. Can you further comment on that? Is this just an update for us?
Okay. The truck
normally Eric would provide it. So, I want to make sure
truck is sitting in North Haven right now,
waiting to be delivered.
We're just waiting to have it paid for. At the board of selectman's meeting, if you listen to
Dennis O'Brien, there were some questions about the contract for the financing
that he was supposed to work with the bank to straighten out. But the truck is in North Haven. It's ready to be delivered, but until they get a check, we don't get the fire truck. So, hopefully if they can work out the details with the financing of this, we can get them to issue a check and we can get the truck.
Thank you for that update.
Cheryl, do you have anything further to add on the financing part of it or are you
The financing is ready to go. We are waiting for the town attorney to approve the lease, which we are still waiting. Everything's set. The financing is ready. We have sufficient money in the fire department's cash reserves. We're we're ready to go. We're just waiting on the attorney's approval for the lease and then for the first selectman to sign off. I I'm I know that the firehouse is waiting, but there's there's nothing else that I can do until the attorney provides the document. And I've I've reiterated that to the bank. They are aware that that's what we're waiting for.
Okay. Thank you for that. That pretty much gave us the update that we need. does anyone have any questions for Wall-E while he's there? I think he summed it up. Cheryl did a good job letting us know where it's at. Thank you all for the update on that. Okay. now we're going to move on to new business item C. the way to collect donations you know for the town you know when
so on behalf of Diane I guess in my mind I was sitting here after we talked and thinking if I died tomorrow and I left my will 10 acres of land that I own in town can I donate that 10 acres of land or if I died and left a million dollars to the town of the town say no you can't we don't accept donations I mean it just sounds silly that we don't accept donations. I mean, I think people have donated town land, money, things in the past. Why can't this be done, I guess, is my question for Cheryl. Why can't we create a a line item?
A fund, right? It would have to be
a fund that goes under that department. It's a line item that says donations to community garden.
so I guess, like I say, I was sitting there thinking, does the town really not, if I want to leave a million dollars to the town, I couldn't do it? I think we do accept those. I think the question is what you're donating it for. Like does the town run the community garden?
It's got a line item in the budget, doesn't it?
Does it? Oh, I I can't remember off the top of my head. Sorry.
If we if we are funding it anyway, then I Yeah, I kind of agree with you. the only the only question I had about this was whether or not it's a town function. Other than that, like I don't have any objection. Whatever. Yeah,
I mean I agree with Rob, but there's some questions about it.
So, Cheryl, do you mind enlightening us? I know that it's not we can't add it on the budget side, but are we allowed to have an open fund? You know, that if donations came into the town and we already have an existing fund, are we able to have money collected? So the funds within a budget. So don't get confused the budget with funds that are outside. They're they're outside of our budget. So with the budget process,
yeah,
we anticipate revenue. We anticipate expenditures, right? So the revenue coming in normally is from services. We collect fees. We collect taxes. We receive fines, penalties, things of that nature for the building. We we get state grants. Those funds are all coming in and they're all for a purpose. Then we have our expenditures. And basically, if you we budgeted $22,000 for a line item, but we only spent $10,000 on the line item, that $12,000 does not get carried forward to the next fiscal year. It returns to fund balance. It's not available for to be used for something else. So, in order to try to even attempt to put donations within the budget, which I don't believe that the auditors would ever bless, what happens if they don't get spent? They're gone within the budget function. I have no mechanism in which to hang on to funds that are under spent. I I have no way to do it. So, let's say you anticipate $1,000 of donations. In order for it to be a zero impact to the citizens, meaning we don't want to say we're going to give the community garden outside of their normal budget, which
they had for the fiscal year, we're anticipating $1,000 in donations. So, we need to increase the expenditure line by $1,000. I need a mechanism in which to use those funds. So we say we're going to collect a th00and we're going to let them spend a th000. That means it's a zero effect the fund balance. We're not charging the citizen. We're not increasing their mill rate. We're not increasing their taxes. It's zero. So but let's say we only collect $500 and they still spend a th000. Well, now I have affected fund balance. I've reduced what's available for future years because I said I was
going to collect a thousand and I didn't and they spent the thousand. What'sever in that expenditure line is available to be spent. I have no way to say no, you can't spend that. So that's the budget. If we go over to a fund, the auditor has already repeatedly stated to us that we have too many funds. We have too many little funds within our non- major special revenue. That's where these are kept. We have four main funds. We have the Norton fund, and I'll get to that after, which is the permanent fund. Those are trust monies. Those are funds that were specifically bequeafded or given to the town for specific purposes that are driven by the trust document. How they can be spent? Can corpus be spent? Can some can only interest be spent? There's specific documents. They're permanent. When you look at the financial statement, it clearly says unspendable or restricted. that original contribution or donation, however you want to say, bequath,
however it came in, can't be spent without prior permission. And in some cases, you have to go to the probate court in order to get permission to spend the money. So that's the Norton funds. Then we have capital reserves. We have non- major capital projects. And then we have non- major special revenue funds which comprises five pages of the audit report. We have some of them there that's only $116. There's no activity. There's a penny a month in interest income, but I can't get rid of it because it's something that came in from previous years.
So, someone's going to donate money. How do I What is it for? How are we going to use it? What can it be used for? Who's going to approve the use of the funds? Do who do I have to account to for the use of the funds? Do I have to ask permission to use the funds? All of those things within a grant. Most of our funds, we get a a lot of money comes in from grants. Well, the grant says how I spend the money, how it can be spent. With donations, h what am I going to do with the money? How am I going to The town is not set up to take donations? It's just not. There's too many requirements potentially for the use of donations. If the board wants me to go out and talk to the auditors again and ask them their feelings or their position on the town accepting donations for items of this nature, I'm happy to do it. I'll send out a note to Mahoney Sable and I'll ask Mike and ask him what how he feels. But other than that, I don't have the means in which to accept donations.
Cheryl, I really appreciate your in-depth knowledge because then you spell it out for us. It's not just a simple no that there are requirements and having worked with grants before, I understand you get a document where you follow it. You're allowed to spend it a certain way. You have to have approval for the spending. And I imagine in these memorialized scholarships or types of things like that, you're right. If we collect a pot of donations, there has to be people that are going to authorize the funds being spent and all of that. I'm not saying I'm an expert on what Cheryl just told us. I think Cheryl just laid out a very, you know, that's why she's the treasurer. she understands that it's not. It seems simple, but there's so many things that you have to follow in the town revenue. I'd be okay with Cheryl going ahead and asking, you know, our auditors again. and I wonder if all of us want to open it up to Diane because I know that these these things are so important when people want to donate money for something. And I know this one was a specific cause. I think I'm thinking more in memorial scholarships or things like that. There's usually a committee that takes care of those things. comments, I don't want to monopolize. What does everybody else think?
Well, I guess it's a lot more complicated than I thought it was. So, I'll leave it Cheryl's hands to to make the decision. I I just when I talked to Diane, it seemed like we won't take donations really, but I understand there's more to it. So, I'm just going to leave it in Cheryl's hands at this point myself.
Okay.
If if I could please
I'm sorry.
Go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah.
I wanted to answer the comment that was made concerning the check that's presented. we have repeatedly responded to the person about the check that we received. I'm aware of the check. The check is locked in the safe. The reason that the check has yet to be deposited was because I had to first get permission to set up another non- major permanent fund which I came to the board of finance and it got lost in the shuffle. The board has finally made a determination that yes, another fund can be set up. when we've been meeting the finance department was meeting with the bank and discussing our accounts and the fact that we are not receiving a good rate of return on our town funds. I brought up to them the five accounts that comprise the Norton or the permanent funds and that it's roughly about 54 52 54,000 and I com presented it to Mnt and asked them that if I was able to have the Norton fund agree instead of having five separate bank accounts to combine them to one. Still separate it out. It's not a hard thing. Still keep it separate. I could get them 2% interest instead of 0.1% interest. I can't get anybody to respond. I can't get anybody to answer or anybody to say that they'll take it
under advisement. That's why the check hasn't been deposited. Because if I'm going to combine the funds, if I'm going to combine those five accounts, I don't want to set up a brand new account, account number six, where I potentially have it open for a month, and then close it in. I want a decision by the Norton Commission that no, they don't want to combine the funds. No, they don't want to go to 2% interest, and then I'll open up another fund. But until then, I thought it was prudent to just keep the check locked in the safe until a determination was made. It's locked. I've told people why it's in there and they're aware that it's in there. I don't know what else to do.
Thank you, Cheryl. No, that explains it.
That would make sense.
Yeah, Cheryl. Cheryl,
go ahead. I'm on the Norton committee and I will I know there was some discussion
all of us regarding that. So I'm going to make sure that I kind of bring that back up again and make sure we get some sort of an answer for you.
That would be lovely.
You're welcome. And thanks for your your explanation. That was very informative.
Thank you.
It makes sense.
Yes. I I just wanted to say it sounds to me like maybe the group, whatever the group is, the garden club or whatever, that they have to have almost have their own little miniature board with their own treasurer. does does that make sense, Cheryl? Something that they need to manage on their own, assuming that it can't be done the way you said, and it makes perfect sense to me now when you explain it. Does does that kind of sound like what needs to happen?
They they did come a gentleman that was running the the garden came up and said that they were receiving some some donations and he wanted to present them and I said I can't take them because first off we're not set up for donations. I said so why don't you set up a bank account? Set up somebody who's going to be in charge of them. This is what they can be spent on. this is what I'm donating for. I said, instead of trying to give me $5 or $10 or $50 that then I have to set up a whole new fund
for it. I have to make an accounting for it. I have to set up a QuickBooks file for it. I have to tell the auditors. I have to set it into the audited financial statements. Don't get me wrong, if I have to do it, I'll do it. If the auditors bless it, I'll do it. but for for however much it's going to be and they can't get them checks whenever they want them. There's a mechanism, you know, reimbursements have a mechanism. You pay for the stuff, you come back, you bring in the slips. How am I going to get the money back to you? Was it approved purchases? Were they not approved purchases? There there are checks and balances on when things get purchased within the town, which is why I suggested maybe they set up their own bank account,
right?
Friends, you know, the friends of the library have their own bank account. It doesn't come within the town hall. They have the library has their own bank account. Friends of the library, maybe ours doesn't, but many towns do where they receive donations. They have their own board and they take care of it because it's outside of the town. It's something that benefits the town, but it's outside of the town's control. We gift we've given money for the community garden just like we do senior lunch or senior trips or or things of that nature. There are other commissions or committees within the town that receive funds. This is how much you can spend. Period. this is how much you can spend. They had other things outside of that. That was my suggestion, but I will send a note to Mike. I'll ask him his opinion and I as soon as I hear back from them, I will bring it to the board and the board can make a decision on how they would like us to proceed.
Thank you, Cheryl. It makes sense. I mean Diane presented her argument earlier saying that she wishes we could take the donations. To me it see it does kind of seem a little simpler to just have a small committee that would receive the donations and be able to approve. I I have gotten questions in the past about the community garden being part of the budget and what it is and I know that some board members had looked into it and brought it, you know, brought it up before. So, it it could be a time for something like that. Well, I think we've addressed it. I think we've heard both sides of it. I'm ready to table it for now. I think we gave it some good discussion
and then we'll just come back to it in the future. Hopefully Diane will give us her opinions at the end in public speak, but I'm ready to move on unless I see a board member that has something else to say.
So, we'll just keep it on the agenda for a future meeting.
is that what you want to do, Rob?
Well, I don't know how long it'll take to circle back on this. That's all I'm saying is I don't want it to fall through the cracks again and like six months pass and nobody remembers what we talked about. You know what I mean? That's all.
No, sounds perfect. like
Go ahead.
I will contact the auditors tomorrow and as soon as I I mean he's in audit season now. He's normally pretty quick about responding and as soon as I get a response I will send it out to the board.
Thanks Cheryl.
Thank you Cheryl.
Sounds good. Thank you for everything tonight Cheryl.
It's been helpful.
I'm going to move on to item six on our agenda. Approval of meeting minutes. I don't know if you know we have quite a quite a large stack. I don't know if we want to go through them one at a time or maybe you know, you know, does anyone I read them
and I I mean they look fine to me. There was one one word that need that's a typo that should be corrected on the July 23rd meeting under number five board open discussion. Just one, as a matter of fact, it's about the Mnt Bank. there's just a a simple little typo in the word give. needs to be corrected, but I don't know if anybody else analyzed these.
What What month was that, Liz? But
his was March 20, I'm sorry, July 23rd. July 23rd.
Yeah. The third line in item 5A, the Norton fund, 123, the word give is there was a typo there. There's a B and it should be a V. But in terms
Yes, I definitely went through them myself, too. I didn't see anything that stuck out. I thought that we were getting a little bit more detail in them. So, I think that's good.
Yeah, I think it's great. I read through them myself. They're fine.
Yeah, me, too.
Good. All right, then. If someone wants to make a motion to approve all of them, maybe we should approve all of them except the last one, and we'll make a separate motion to that one, approving it with the correction that Liz brought up.
That would be fine. Yeah.
I mean, I'll go ahead and make a motion to accept and approve the minutes as presented for, let's say, March 26, 2025, the April 23rd, 2025, the May 7th, 2025 special meeting minutes, the June 11th, 2025 special meeting minutes, and the June 25th, 2025 regular meeting minutes as presented to the board.
Second.
I'll second that. Okay. So, Kim Persan will second the motion. Any further direction discussion?
Well, I only have one problem with that is I was at all the meetings except for the June 25th meeting. So, I would have to abstain on that one set of minutes. So, if we
I guess if we did each set of minutes individually, I can go on each set of minutes as opposed to having to abstain from all of the minutes.
Thank you, Bill. Sorry.
That's the only one I wasn't available to be at. So,
I mean, I can cut it down to the do the first four and do the last two separate.
Yeah. Yeah. If you could just approve the first
25th.
All right. So, that motion's off the table. Wipe that one out. So, we're going to go ahead and make a motion to approve the meeting minutes for the March 26, 2025 regular meeting. the April 23rd, 2025 regular meeting minutes, the May 7th, 2025 special meeting minutes, and the June 11th, 2025 special meeting minutes. I I second that motion.
All right. This time, Bill seconds that motion. Bill D. Rogers. And then discussion.
Calling for a vote. and are we approving the motion to accept the minutes?
All in favor say I. I.
All in favor say I. I'm not a little tired. Okay.
Thank you. So that that motion passes by a vote of six to nothing. All members present voted in favor of it.
So now you should carry just this the June ones separately because I can't on June.
So now we're moving on to approval of the June 25th, 2025 regular meeting minutes. Oh, I guess I'll make a motion to approve.
Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead.
Yeah, you guys go ahead.
Okay. I'll make a motion to approve the June 25th, 2025 regular meeting minutes.
Okay. Loc has a has made the motion and Rob England seconds that motion. Further discussion?
Seeing none calling for a vote on that.
All in favor say I.
Okay. So that one is
you have to say all opposed and all abstain.
Bill D. Rogers will abstain because he was not there. Sorry.
All right. So that one will also pass five to nothing or will pass five to nothing. Now we're going for
5 to one, right? 501.
Sorry, I thought I mentioned
and we need a motion to approve the July minutes with the typo correction.
Yes.
Yeah.
Okay. So, I will I will make a motion to approve the July 23rd, 2025 regular meeting minutes with a word corrected in item 5A under the Norton fund. Mnt Bank would give a higher interest rate. The word give to be corrected to GIV. Perfect.
We have a second.
Okay. Rob England has seconded Liz Locach's motion. And now any discussion on that?
Okay, we're going to take a vote. All in favor say I.
Okay, that motion also passes by a vote of six to nothing with all members present. Thank you very much. So, we will we have done our business there. Let's move on to item seven on our agenda. Board open discussion. Did anyone have anything they wanted to bring up tonight?
CIP was canceled, so nothing to discuss there.
Okay, great.
We didn't have anything on our agenda, so
thank you, Rob. Seeing nothing else, we will move on to item number eight, which is correspondence. I don't know any that was brought forward. so we're all set there. Moving on to item number nine on our agenda. That would be public speak again. So Diane, go go go ahead. You're up.
If you have any
Thank you very much. first I'd like to thank Cheryl for contacting the auditor and I I must confess that I am not a a bean counter finance guru and I didn't understand most of what she said. But, I think as long as the the board of finance understands it and is good with it, that that'll be fine with me. I also like to thank, Louise for bringing that up to the Norton Commission to find out like what's going on. Yeah, we would like, you know, I 2% versus 0.01 or whatever. That seems like an easy vote. I did want to mention, Cheryl had talked about the, the friends of the library, you know, a separate account from the the, from the library. And
yes, the the friends of the library is a 5013 C corporation, totally separate from the from the town, from the libraries. It's its own entity and their only purpose is to provide funds and services to the library, but it has nothing to do with the town's finances or it's a it's a separate corporation. So, that's how that works. And to have the garden club or some other group in town have their own 5013C or you know, that ain't going to happen. to just the the the the legal fees to to have that set up would be not going to happen. To have an individual open up their own bank account, you know, first it's going to require somebody's social security. It ain't going to be mine. and the way boards and commissions are, you know, they they move around a lot. Who who's got the account access to it? I think it'd be a little loosey goosey. there'd be no real oversight and I personally wouldn't want to have anything to do with something like that. and the the other point was the
Norton Commission again I was chairman of the Norton Commission for several years so I have some understanding of how that works and I agree with Cheryl that we have all those bequests and stuff like that where people have left us money and it's very defined as to how you can spend it. you can only spend the interest and things like that. but there's also there's I don't know three, four, five people every year make a donation through the town treasurer to the Norton Commission for no specific reason. It's just here's a $100 donation to the Norton Commission and it could be spent on scholarships. It can be spent on backpacks. The Norton Commission decides what they're going to do with it. So, it's not donated to any specific thing, just to the Norton Commission to use as they want. And that's the kind of thing that I was looking for for other boards and commissions. And let there be no mistake that the community garden, the beautifification committee are boards and commissions of the town of Vandover. They are a town entity with a budget line item. So, other than that, I I think that just covers all everything that I need to say. but I do appreciate you taking it up. And thank you, Cheryl, for going to the auditor and getting his take on it. And like I say, I'm sure that board members here seem to understand what's going on. And, that's good enough for me. So, thank you very much.
Thanks so much, Diane, for your input and bringing it to our attention. And we all learned something more tonight, too, because of it. So, thanks for bringing it up. and it'll, like Rob said, it'll move on to another future agenda item and we'll get some kind of answers and take it from there. My only suggestion just real quick while we cl Oh yeah, I'm through with the the public speak part is I mean if it is people that are coming together working on the garden, I wonder if people would just donate items, you know, instead of money because they all work together on it. I don't pretend. Just a thought, you know, instead of money having to be funneled, if they just go purchase it and bring the items and work together on it, but that's a discussion for another day. Just a thought I had while you were talking.
I want to mention it's more for people outside of the community garden who help out the volunteers and all that. I think that's that's where most of the the money is coming from and the donations and all that other as well.
Yeah. Not from committee members.
Yeah. Not from Yeah. Not from people using it though.
But I'm saying well that's even people could find out what's needed and they could purchase the item and give it to the member is what I'm thinking. I don't know. That's more what I was thinking. So clearly I you have a lot more knowledge on it than I do. So it'll be brought up on another you know once we get some information on it. seeing no more people available for public speak. Would someone like to make an motion to adjourn the meeting? Louise, go ahead. Louise Goodwin makes a motion to adjourn the meeting. I'm going to I'm not sure if I have to stay state the time at 8:07. Rob, are you
second it
seconding the motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:07. I will stop the recording and you have to vote first. You have to Oh, I do this every time. All right. let's go to vote to adjourn the meeting.
All in favor say I.
That is a six to nothing I think. Kim, are you in favor? Yes. So six to nothing. Thank you to adjourn the meeting at 8:07 still. good night everyone. I will recording. Take care.
Thank you.
Pause recording.