okay welcome everyone I would like to call to order our Board of selectman meeting for a Thursday December 12th at 701 and our first order of business is the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance flag liberty okay one second item number two on the agenda is public speak so I'm going to start with anarie [Music] dagel hi Jeff thank you I'm amarie dagel I am Vice chair of the Andover Recreation Commission thanks for giving me a chance to speak mainly I'd like to express the rec commission's disagreement with statements made by Our Town Administrator during last month's Board of selectman meeting on November 12th one of the comments made was that quote it's going to have to be directed by the board because the rec commission is not going to play with anybody unless they are forced so so I take offense to that as do many members of the rec commission I've been on the commission for over 10 years and we have welcomed and interacted with many individuals in the community who have all come out to help us with our events and programs so to us that comment kind of came out of left field if I'm being blunt earlier this summer we were told that the new Senior Center Director would would be a lays on to the recommission and that we'd all be working together you know for the benefit of our residents of all ages and as you know the recognition is comprised of
volunteers such as myself I mean many of us have full-time jobs during the day so we host our events on nights on weekends on holidays we do it because we truly care about the town we care about the residents we do it because we want to do it but we need to do that we need to work together right so like most boards and commissions we hold our meetings at night we're here on the second Tuesday of each month at 6 PM so anybody is welcome to attend and work with us including our new senior center director who I also know works you know part-time during the day so but regardless we would still love the opportunity to meet with her and work together and I just want to say that I know the board of selectman has always been supportive of the recommission and we thank you for that but again we are volunteers we have given much of our time to the town many of us for many many years so if there's something that we're doing that you don't like or that you would like changed just come to us you know for a town leader to make statements like that on a public forum that's disrespectful to us you know implying some sort of wrongdoing like with a credit card policy whatever that it's very disheartening to be honest and it comes across as being very div divisive so we're just okay let's see if the internet glitch comes back okay I'll come back to her when she recom when she gets back on Kathy plazy hi I just have a couple of things I wanted to let the board of Selectmen
know our final fundraiser was well received by the residents on November 16 and Carol Lee my co-chair deserves a huge thank you for the many years that she's helped me with this program and Lisa CTS as well because she's always there for us and Emily timri actually we put a letter into the paper into the bulletin thanking all of our staff they've just been wonderful and such great workers and we wanted to thank everyone for the for the well-received that the town really received us well this time and we really appreciate that thank you and also I wanted to let the board of slman know that our last senior luncheon meal for 2024 will be held on Friday December 20th at the community and senior
building at noon time and we welcome any and all of you to this last meal and we thank you for your kindness and your Awesome Reach support for the for the many years that we've been doing this and also I wanted to personally thank everyone on the board of Selectmen for all the support they've given me for the 20 plus years that I've served our seniors and volunteered for the town everyone should take a turn at some type of volunteering for the community it's a great feeling it leaves you with a nice warm fuzzy feeling and lastly not on personal but on a from the art Republican Town committee I wanted to gentle remind the board of Selectmen that the Republican Town committee endorsed Alicia Lee to represent the town to replace Paula King's position and to I would like to wish the board of Selectmen a merry Christmas and a happy New Year thank you thank you Diane Grenier there we go all these buttons hello good evening everybody and I also wish everybody a Merry Christmas and happy New Year this will be our last meeting for the year yippe I just wanted to to mention that this week I I rode by the Oldtown Hall and noticed it's in great need of some power washing and I was wondering if that's going to be on somebody's agenda budgeted I don't know if that's a historical society beautification committee or something that Willie takes care of but it it's looking poorly and should needs a power washing badly so I just throw that out to you so thank you very much that's it thank you very much Scott soet sorry I couldn't find the mute I I'm just listening
okay Shannon lden thanks Jeff once again I'm just here to encourage the board of Selectmen to choose Alicia Lee as your newest member I want to say I know B and Dave are terrific people but I think that Alicia is the best candidate for the board of Selectmen she grew up in Andover she's lived here all her life and she chose to buy a home here and she knows quite a lot about Andover having grown up as her mother's daughter and knows a lot about the administration of the town but I also want to note that a lot of people said oh it's just like having Carol Lee on the board of Selectmen anybody who knows Alicia knows she is her own person she is Carol's
daughter and has that she is like Carol in that regard has her own opinions and has her own way of doing things and would be a terrific Choice and finally I I just want to note again she was the one chosen by the Republican Town committee after a contested election there were a number of candidates who went forward with the RTC and as the co-chair of the DTC if that were me I would like our choice to be honored that's all I have Merry Christmas and happy New Year everyone thank you Elaine bot cart yeah I I I do like I like Alicia Lee I know Alicia Lee but I did want to put in a message in in favor of Bata I I've met Bata from being on our Economic
Development commission and she is high energy she knows a lot of what's going on with marketing she's a real estate agent so she knows a lot about properties and she's just been a delight to have on the economic development commission and so when I heard that she was looking for the board of Selectmen I was excited about that you know so I would definitely put in a a plug for Bata she's she hasn't been in town long but the amount of time she has been in town she's been very much involved in wanting to make sure that our our town is is moving forward so that's it just wanted to put in my two cents thanks okay Liz lat no nothing tonight just listening and Merry Christmas to all Chris Hamilton Jeff Chris is the rep from my senior center he'll be presenting later no problem thank you oh I think this is Wally Barton but I don't know Wally owner yes it's me Jeff Wally I am waving to you on screen thank you Jeff we wave every day that's right just a comment Linda and I sent a letter to the board of selectman last month about an issue we had in the town build office building and our early voting and same day registration and we haven't really gotten anything back formally from the board and just a reminder that come November again we're looking at 14 days
of early voting and same day registration for the municipal election so we'd like the consideration of the use of the community room for that in the fall and that's about it okay carolly hi on behalf of the Recreation Commission item 10e on your agenda credit card usage discussion the Recreation Commission doesn't have a problem with the credit card policy because it basically errors the one that we currently have in effect it just more clearly defines some of the rules however we do have an issue with page five of Eric's credit card presentation that designates test grous as the supervisor of our commission who oversees our budget again it was explained to us that we are advisory to her not vice versa and I did just want to point out that we are not in favor of that at all designa who test as being in charge of our budget thank you okay Emily timri I'll wait to the end to make some comments thank you okay Joanne Eber I'm here to listen thank you all set Kimberly psan just listening thank you though Leanne Hutchinson yes hi I want to wish everybody merry Christmas as well I I wanted to quickly say thank you for two things one is I believe it was a week ago Tuesday before we had the several
inches of snow we had a week ago we did have some snow and bunker Hill Road was icy and your trucks were out so even though there was it didn't look like very much snow at the time it was quite icy so I'm glad that the town chose to plow and treat the roads that day and I see that some sort of materials are being implemented to try to improve the Acoustics in the community room which is a topic that I've mentioned here on public speak so I'm not sure what the plan is but I'm glad that an attempt sounds like it's being made no pun intended to improve the Acoustics and the the ability to communicate in that room okay thank you I have a phone number that ends in 4294 that's Kim hws I'm just listening thank you okay did I miss anyone okay if I did Miss anyone I would like to participate in public speak for two quick seconds oh wait a second before I get started anarie dagel is back anarie I can't see you where you're at but if you would like to finish public speak she's still connecting sorry and Marie if you would like we'll give you the opportunity to finish your comments I'm not sure when my screen froze so I apologize I didn't even
realize that it froze again I just wanted to say that I know the board of selectman has always been supportive of the rec commission and we appreciate that but again we're volunteers we've given much of our time time to the town of Andover some of us you know many many years even before you know I came on board but if there's something that we're doing that you don't like or you want to see changed come and talk to us you know to have Town leadership make statements on a public forum really isn't the way to do it I mean it's disheartening it comes across as very divisive again if we're going to continue to do these things we need to do them together so we're just asking you as a board to please consider that thank you all right did I miss anyone
else anybody want to put their hand no okay I have a couple quick questions I comments I'm holding up the River East anybody wants to take a picture of me in the River East and put it in there I'd be fine this issue of the River East there was a nice letter in and I usually I do not write to the River East I do not engage in the banter back and forth I want to thank the River East first and foremost for eliminating all national issue editorials I think it's been very beneficial to the town of Handover to not have all of the discourse that has been laundered in the editorial sections done and I hope that the River East will continue that moving forward but I did want to bring to the attention and I'm sure a lot of you read it that on page five of this issue in a and a note from one of our residents
I was it was it was made plain that I attempted a coup on the government of the town of Andover and if if I have done that I apologize I thought we were all voting in a a referendum on issues that were brought up by a charter revision commission and I kind of chuckled at that that someone like Bob Hamburg a graduate of mit's board School of Engineering and Jeff Maguire a graduate of the University of Connecticut from with an accounting degree or the School of Business were attempting a coup on the town of Andover and that is how it is by definition a coup is a violent a throw overthrow of a duly elected government which would mean I'd have to kill myself so I just like to sit there and bring that out that that the discourse that we have in local politics or politics in general doesn't need to be that way I think it just needs to be that we will disagree sometimes and hopefully if we disagree we can come to a resolution that everybody works for so I just wanted to bring that out that those types of those types of of rants to the public do nothing to try to get people of quality ification to come and do these jobs and try to work for the benefit of
the community so if people out there think I attempted a c I apologize I didn't I don't even have a gun license so I figured I'd just bring that out because this is my forum and this is where I choose to do the good work of the community so anyway now we can move on I'm done with public speak for my part so we are moving moving on to item three additions and changes to the agenda does anybody want to add or delete anything from the current agenda Jeff Murray I'd like to add 11c Community Center staff programs and reviews staff reviews we can actually call Community Center staff reviews staff and program reviews and I'd like to add 11d Public Works auctions else anybody want to Second those two items I'll second okay all those in favor I okay item four board and commission presentations do we have any I didn't see any in the pack we do not okay item five appointments do we have any there are none okay item six resignations the resident state trooper Sebastian Nishi has resigned he will be leaving his post as the resident state trooper ofand over at the end of this month I believe Eric correct okay
there is oh sorry no go ahead I was going to say there is one additional one the assistant town clerk has submitted her esignation okay theres terz is resigned okay so back to Sebastian I'd like to publicly thank Sebastian for his years of service he has been very interactive and has represented the the state police incredibly well in the town and Andover and has done a very good job and and on top of that he has a pretty good singing voice so I'd like to thank Sebastian publicly for his time spent in Andover and wish him well in the future all right on the other issue on the other resignation we'll deal with that later I don't think it needs to be dealt with right now so item seven does anybody else have any other issues related to the resignations any other issues no item seven presentation from my active Senator Chris Hamilton floor is yours well thank you for having my name is Chris Hamilton I'm from the organization my senior center we provide software to communities and Senior and community centers around the country we're based in Massachusetts but we're fortunate enough to work with over 2,000 communities across the country including 70 in Connecticut I had an opportunity to present the the my senior senators and my active senator system to Eric and Tess a couple of months ago and thought it would be a good opportunity to give everybody an overview here at this organization at
this forum rather I am going to share my screen hopefully this works out the way that it's that I'm planning just to give you a more of an overview of who we are this is we're we're actually officially in December now so it's our 20th anniversary so we've been doing this for 20 years you don't have to applaud that's all right thank you but this is this is all we do is work with communities around the country to implement software based system to help with automating check-in better data collection online registration give people a way to leverage their community-based resources in a a more efficient way so that the staff at Community Center doesn't have to worry about keeping track of things on paper I heard credit cards mentioned a couple of times we do have credit card processing built into our our system so that if anyone is signing up for a class or a program that has a fee associated with it they can even pay for those things right through the my active Center system I I have about 20 minutes is that right Jeff 20 20 20 minutes if you can do it shorter that would be appreciated I can I can so the only reason I asked
that is because I want to show you a couple of pictures first before I give you a quick overview of what it does part of the my senior center system system is that there's a touchscreen check-in system that can be in the senior center itself this is where people will scan the card touch the screen for the things that they want to do that eliminates the need for signin sheets for paper based processes so that test now has all that information and access to who is doing what sort of programs to be able to supply reports we also Supply as I mentioned earlier an online registration system the online registration is there's a public facing website my active Center that people can go to from their their own home computers their smartphones their tablets see all the different activities that are going on and sign up for those activities right from the comfort of their own device and then when they walk into the center or if it's something happening at the gymnasium they go there they're already signed up if it's has a fee associated with it they could have already paid online and it takes care of all that management of those types of things by using the software system if there are offsite events things like you know an activity in a parking lot or something like that there is the opportunity to check in at other locations as well the credit card
processing I this is a little I can see that it's a little staggered as it pops up on the screen but credit card processing we also have even integration with virtual programs so if you wanted if if the center the community center wanted to have a a zoom class open to the public they can actually manage that all through our software send out invitations automatically and people can just click on the link and sign check in for those things right through their Zoom interface from their own computer and then the program programming can continue and really this is about eliminating a lot of paper based processes streamlining the backend management of keeping track of scheduling keeping track of who's coming to these different activities and then ultimately the reporting being able to get nice clean data out of the the system to be able to say here's how many people used our great Community Center here's how many people signed up for adult basketball here's how many people are doing these types of things and then even slicing and dicing it to drill down to the demographic level information to see you know how many people between the ages of 70 and 79 participated in these programs versus those who are in their 60s so it gives you access to all that sort of information so I wanted to to leave the floor open for people to ask questions about the my senior center and my active Center system or anything about how it could be used so the system is going to allow us to coordinate all of our different
Assets in the scheduling related to those assets so that we have it in one place that is the basic just a it yes and and not knowing the full roster of those assets to which you refer I hesitate to jump into that fully but most likely yes we have the center we have the center we have a gymnasium and we have a field perfect am I missing anything from anybody else okay it okay anybody else with any other questions is there anything else you're you're you're bringing to us Chris or is this was that the last page that well I mean I I have lots more but I wanted to be sensitive to the amount of time I wanted to even show you some things about what it does one of those is of course the touchscreen check-in system but before I go into that one of the other things I wanted to mention is part of this system also gives the community center the ability to send out broadcast Communications just on their own sort of a reverse 911 system so they can say show me all the people that are interested in these programs and I have to let them know that due to the snowstorm we're we're postponing that program they can just with 30 seconds pull up the list of people record a message using their own phone and then it my senior center sends it out for them so that can be done in voice text or email communication to really help streamline Communications with people who are participating in the different programs so at the center I want to show you this touchscreen Acton is where
I live in Acton Massachusetts if you see in my little camera view I've got a key tag so each participant at the center will have a key tag that's been assigned to them they'll walk into the center wave that tag in front of the screen information anything that's relevant to them for perhaps their their annual membership fee is about to expire pops up on the screen and then they touch the activities on the screen for whatever it is that they're going to be doing that day yes I'm not going to sue the center I can even sign so it can pop up an exercise waiver or anything
like that on the screen they're also going to be doing yoga they hit finish and then they're off and into the center now on that screen you might have noticed this is this is a senior specific application so this is large font bright blue on the white background so we worked with the American Society on Aging when we were designing this 20 years ago to give us guidance on the right font size and color palet so the people with limited visibility would have the best opportunity to be able to use the screen so we've we've had that built in there from the beginning the online registration system is something that can be used by everybody regardless of age for the different programs that are going on this is something that I again I mentioned it can be used from a computer from a tablet from a smartphone they can log in here see all the different things that are going on within your community all the different assets that you have the gymnasium the field and the community center and they can sign up for those things right from here so if if this is a free program great I just add it to my cart doesn't actually cost me anything we've got a little proximity algorithm going on over there so you can see what else might be interesting and then I can go ahead and add that in so I also have to renew my annual membership fee so I can do that right here on the screen if I want to and pay for that thing or because I happen to have Wallet balance avail available to me so I've got money
on my account in the community center or within the town whoever actually is using this thing so I can decide to leverage my existing credit balance that I have on my wallet and pay for those things that way otherwise I would have put in my credit card information or if if you don't take credit cards you don't want to yet you could say yep I'll pay that later when I get to the center or I'll write a check but this is really nice way to do it you can print out your own receipt you can email this receip to yourself and again the
idea is to streamline a lot of paper based processes and things that normally would take a lot of human involvement to take care of and manage all of that stuff can be done within the software system so that's what I wanted to show you again being sensitive to the time I didn't want to overstay my welcome but to give you an idea of what it looks like okay do any of the other members of the board have any questions for for Chris and and the product that he's showing us Eric and test did you go to you must have had a meeting with Chris did it seem like a good system that everyone is going to be able to use I'll say from my part we had a demonstration here an hour an hour and a half long demonstration which went a lot more in depth into its features we also visited another Senior Center that had this system and watched how the people both on the administration and as well as the public interacted with it and I was very impressed with how seamless the experience was for people coming into the center and then also on the administrative end you know how the person in charge you know was able to change programming put programming and kind of administer the system so I I overall I think it's a pretty good fit for us but you know
obviously it comes with some cost right I was wondering what the cost is we're just starting out so I was than how much it's going to cost sure so the the pricing information that I gave to Eric and I think that you included that in your packet information Eric it's it's $4,800 in year one and then ,700 a year annually after that so starting in year two and that includes the touchscreen computer and all the software elements that I've just shown you plus access to our tech support team who are available from 8:30 in the morning till 8:30 at night 5 days a week it also includes the webbased training initial import of any client data that you might have in electronic format like a spreadsheet worst case we can get information from town clerk about the census level information and import that in there so lots of different ways to get that data in there but all that cost is wrapped up in that initial $4,800 is that the Advertising based platform or that is yes that is the sponsor based platform the other one is I think it's I'm forgetting what my Connecticut price is we have a lower price for Connecticut than other states well than other non- New England states I believe it's $8500 for the non sponsor based version else what if somebody forgets their check-in tag still get in still get in Scott I was hoping someone would ask me that that's the sign in I don't have my tag button right up here so they can access it with their first name and their phone number it and I'm just sometimes I have difficulty
with figuring out stuff on the computer is this a pretty simple program for test or wherever else is in the community center managing this how much computer knowledge do you have to have Pro to utilize the touchscreen you know no computer knowledge at all most people tell us it's easier to use than the ATM and and nobody showed me how to use that on the staff side of things we like to tell people that in order to make the the best use of the staff function to do the scheduling to run the reports to manage the client database if you've ever had experience with Microsoft Excel and have a relative proficiency of that you don't have to be an Excel Guru but relative proficiency with Excel then you're going to handle this just fine we do have a full training team that works with people to get you off the ground so working with test from the very beginning to show her how to do everything how to build the activities build the scheduling how to run reports so that that's all part of the initial package and you know fortunately for us we've been doing this for a while we work with over 2,000 different communities around the country we've got nearly three million seniors interacting with our touch screens on a daily basis and somewhere on the magnitude of 50 to 60,000 staff members logged in every single day okay anyone else have any other questions for Chris thank you very much for your time we appreciate it thank you Chris getting back through Eric and and Tess to you
regarding what we what we can get done excellent thank you enjoy the rest of your evening y thank you Chris appreciate it all right thank you guys byebye okay we're going to move on to item eight appointment of a new board of selectman member candidate interviews I had reached out to all of the prospective candidates on the list I spoke to Dave ganian he is he's withdrawing from consideration so he is not we will not be hearing from Dave so unless anyone else has any other issues I'm going to move on to bata bata as I had spoken to you before an Alicia five minutes for presentation and then field some questions from the members of the board okay all right you're up all right good evening everyone my name is biata gdowski most of you know me some of you don't but I am a dedicated business owner Community Advocate and proud resident of Andover with a background in business administration and over a decade of experience in business management Financial Planning
and operational leadership I am passionate about using my skills to support the growth and well-being of our town from leading my own real estate business to my time managing teams at Enterprise I've developed a strong foundation in strategic planning negotiation and problem solving that I believe would benefit the board of Selectmen I am genuinely committed to making Andover an even better place to live ensuring we maintain our community's character while embracing opportunities for sustainable growth since moving to Andover I've become more involved in town activities because I would like to see the younger demographic represented on our town boards and committees a little bit more I'm not someone who sits back and waits for things to change when I see opportunities for improvement I take action and that's why I'm here to be a proactive voice and to contribute to andover's progress recently I did join the economic development commission as you heard alen say as both a business owner and a strong supporter of local small businesses my goal there is to help current local businesses succeed and to attract more businesses to Andover this not only boosts our local economy but also helps reduce the tax burd on residents making our town more
sustainable and financially balanced I bring a unique perspective because I actually live in a multigen generational household my mother who lives with me and participates in many senior activities has provided me with a deeper understanding of the senior community's needs especially since I have been attending senior lunches and events with her over the past six months at the same time I am a parent with kids in Andover elementary school so I see firsthand what's important for families and young children in Andover over my years I've gained sub substantial experience working in diverse Dynamic groups to set and Achieve goals and solve complex problems I work well under pressure and always approach challenges with an open mind
listening to different perspectives to find the best solutions for everyone involved above all I'm genuinely invested in andover's future on many levels I want to see our town continue to grow and flourish as a place where people of all ages can Thrive I am committed to supporting initiatives that help Andover remain a w welcoming vibrant and prosperous community and I thank you all for your consideration and your time all right thank you thank you any members of the board have any questions for Bata okay beata that was easy oh I like to keep it Jeff that's it thank you for your for your time and for putting your name in the Hat it's greatly appreciated I I definitely appreciate people that will sit there and put their name forward to sit there and take these roles because they're all a volunteer and they're they're they're not really paid so thank you for putting your your name out there it's appreciated right Alicia Lee you hello Hi how are you good how are you I just wanted to thank everyone for their consideration and giving me this opportunity the reason why I wanted to come forward and and volunteer and be considered for this position I've been a lifelong resident of vover born and raised here I love the town that's why I chose to buy a house here I don't have children but I have niece and nephews that are active in the school system that I love and they're everything to me I have a background in I went to school so I have my bachelor in nursing but I switched
careers and I have my m master's degree in Mis business management and public health I run a a business I'm a managing partner so I run a restaurant so I am very time I'm very detail oriented I have a good use of time management people skills customer service communication and cash management I bring 10 years experience handling budgeting inventory profit and loss HR and Staffing of 40 plus employees and I would really like this you je you're muted I apologize for that I'm sorry Alicia thank you very much for that do any other members have any questions for Alicia okay Alicia that was easy thank you very much for coming forward it's greatly appreciated I like to keep it short and sweet I appreciate that so we don't have any anything for Dave any of the other members have anything for either one of the candidates okay Eric I think I am the co-host so what was what am I required to do to move to Executive session for candidate discussions you have to motion to go into executive session and then you have to remove everybody or you can let me remove everybody and then at the end you can remove me okay well you're not removing them you're just putting everybody in the waiting waiting room all right I please put everyone into the
waiting room I'll make a motion that we move to Executive session for candidate discussions okay got a second anybody second a second all right okay Eric you've rejoined the meeting yes correct okay we are on to item 8 C nomination and appointment of board of selectman candidate to replace Paula King Bata I'm gonna mess up this Bata gamsky that right I'm I'd like to nominate Bata I'll second that all in favor I I all opposed okay 22 I'd like to nominate Alicia Lee for a select position second that all those in opposed 2 two we're going to move on from this apologize to the candidates hopefully that you know we could have done this a little differently but again I apologize thank you for coming forth and again I apologize we're g to move on to item nine the town administrator's creen so I'm mostly gonna talk about the things that have occurred since I gave you the original report which is just a couple days ago again just the note that the assistant town clerk has resigned as far as the resident state trooper goes the troop should be assigning us a temporary resident state trooper in the next week so Sebastian has a chance to show them around the town before they transition I would really like to thank Sebastian for the last three years of service to the town as a resident state trooper he was a pleasure to work with I did pull the board earlier in the week about locking in for both the heating oil and diesel fuel we did lock in today we use a lot more diesel fuel than heating oil so
that's the one I focus on we locked in this year at 257 a gallon which was down from 290 a gallon last year so that's good happy with that and interrupt me if you have any questions the fire department was able to sell that second fir Tru they had as you remember the board of Selectmen gave them P permission to broker both their vehicles because the dealer was only going to give them a $115,000 credit for both vehicles for turning them in so they've now managed to sell both the vehicles for considerably more than that so I think that worked out pretty well it's looking like the new Squad vehicle will be delivered in the march to May T time frame that that's all the information we have about that all the department heads and committees have gotten their budget worksheets for the year and they're du back to around
January 1 so the Bunker Hill bridge I did submit an 8-24 statutory referral on behalf of the board of Selectmen that's a regulatory thing where they have to weigh in on any major Municipal Improvement and so I did send that they did reply in the affirmative and I do have the letter to that as I talked last month we are working with Webster Bank on coming up with the exact terms and conditions for a line of credit for the town to be used for the Bunker Hill Bridge Project the town's attorney says that we'll need to go to town meeting so we need to probably plan on that in the January or February time frame again that is to pay that is to essentially provide swing financing from between the time we get build by the contractors and the time we get reimbursed by the state and federal government this is fully funded between state and federal dollars but we are on the hook to pay the contractors so so barring anything major that's you know one month to two months or so between the time we get charged and we can get refunded now we do have about a half million dollars in the Bunker Hill
Bridge fund so the smaller months we can pay inhouse but there's going to be at least one or two big months when they're delivering the main Bridge members where we're going to be out of pocket somewhere between $700,000 million so the treasur is recommending that we go for a line of credit as opposed to taking it all out of unexpended fund balance okay let let's let's Circle back to that because isn't the issue that we're going for a line of credit because our general fund Monies are in the stiff account earning interest well that in some ways makes it smarter to finance through a line of credit because even if we end up paying 7% interest or 8% interest we're getting 5% interest on the money that's in the account so it is a net benefit but it's also a question of what happens when we put out a million dollars you know and we get hit with a natural disaster we've chewed up a pretty significant portion of our unexpended fund balance so that's her rationale for thinking that that's a smarter way to approach it okay we before we draw on that we really need to have a conversation and understand because to me there's zero reason to pay interest any any extra interest on monies that we have available that are in the general fund they're just in the stiff account and
they may be earning 5% and the line of credit might charge us 7% so I want to make sure that the town is not incurring any additional interest cost because of the choice of using this I get it if there's money that's not available but that's not the position that this town is in so if up I agree with setting it up I I really want to understand the usage okay so how do you wanna what it what is it that you want what's my deliver you're all you're all so Eric what you're doing is you're going through and you're setting up the line of credit I'm okay with that what I want to make sure we're clear of is why we're using it and when we're using it right and what I'm saying is we're just going through and getting the bank information for what the terms of that line of credit will be we're not I don't think I'm not authorized to sign for a line of credit on behalf of the town that would be something the board of Selectmen and finance would have to agree to but we don't even have the basic the outline of the agreement yet so I'm just saying we're working through getting that information to you understood Y and I'm going to the next
step we put it in place it's already in place why are we using the money and that's that's the question that's going to be my question like I don't want to sit there and see the town incur additional interest costs when we have money that's sitting in an account earning less money than the potential interest rate on the line of credit that that's where I'm at so we'll sit there and get to that point put the line Credit in place I've signed the paperwork to sit there and try to get the to give the information they needed related to my position so move forward but understand that we really got to work on why we're going to use the money understood understood okay so just a reminder that there will be a refling ceremony for wreaths Across America Saturday at the veterans Monument Park Joe Courtney you know representative Courtney will be there as will Steve Weir MD Ramen has not said back yet one way or the other whether he will or will not be able to make it what it is at noon okay okay there are two things related to AES one I just got it today so it's not in the packet I will send to the board of Selectmen what I received from the the Board of Education for their proposal for hiring an MEP for the bathroom renovation project and I also got a request to sign documentation for the solar project I'm going to forward that to the board
that's another one where I don't really think I have the authorization to sign that that's got to be a board of Selectmen review and iscussion community center updates aren't really changed if anybody on the board of Selectmen or anybody else wants to be part of a decision-making project of figuring out what furniture would be appropriate for the community room to reconfigure that as a full-time meeting space I'd love to help on that and long or the Bunker Hill bridge is still tentatively scheduled or more close to more realistically scheduled for work to start in the beginning of February with the utility relocation and then about April 1 the road being en closed in major construction occurring the school has been notified of that because that will affect the bus routes so but but that's that is moving around we should be getting to the tree cutting that will be the town's responsibility hopefully by the middle of next week that is the plan for that that's it those are them kind of changes to my report and I'm happy to take any questions relative to that the one question on the assistant Tom clerk did she take another job yes she did okay in another town clerk's office
yes Eric Where is the the Hutcherson Road the talks with the do in Hutcherson Road has any talk about it lately not lately I did bring that up actually yesterday with the town engineer you know and reminded them that I needed him to make progress on that because I don't want to be stuck with a road closure there if that Culvert does fail fully that he needed to to line that up with the do and start working on that again anybody down to check on that cover I looked at it about a month ago I haven't looked at it you know kind of since then we had a lot of rain yesterday yeah all right any other questions for the Town Administrator and Jeff anything I was I was wondering where the welcome the endover sign installation is going well the contractor has said he has it built the Public Works Foreman has dug the holes and flattened off the area as he requested so hopefully he will get in and put the sign in at some point but I don't have a firm date for them the man who built the sign who's going to put it in now is that it yes Eric all right we're going to move on to item 10 old business discuss and act upon the community center signage discussion this one's kind of on me I still need to sit there and get the the drawing we were talking about a backlit sign and some different options and I
need to sit there and and work on that and get that done so that one is more on me than anybody else okay any other issues on that 10B discussion will light and level of involvement Eric that is on page eight of this package are there any issues that you want to address with us or anything that we need to deal with I don't think there's anything at this point that needs the board of selectman involvement I'm just you you would ask for a monthly updated schedule so I got that from the zoning enforcement officer who's working well and and we're we're in the middle of transitioning that from Jim Hy to Wayne the new who will be the new CEO sometime in the next month or two okay any of the members of the board
have any issues they want to address related to the the list Jee can I back up real quick I just had to step out for a minute Eric's administrative report I just wanted an update on the fans in the gym and where we're sitting on the garage for the buses on Center Street because I didn't see that in your report no so as far as the fans go I finally this week gave up on C Ward so I had gotten two bids one complete bid from Lenco one bid from C Ward that didn't include any of the controls and I've been trying for a couple of months to get him to give me a full proposal for that that included the controls but he's just not gotten it so I told Leno today that they would I would give him the the job for that and I
left it on the finance assistant Finance directors to order the dstp fans so my goal is to order the DRP fans next week you know so we can schedule so we can get that ready to roll okay I just yeah if you need any help link needs any technical assistance or help I'm sure I could help or I could even probably get Bob Herberger to pitch a pitch in sure he's a controls guy so he could probably help us too yeah understood understood frankly the Center Street project I have not put any effort into that in the last month or month and a half I know that project needs to get done but right now I have more projects than I can practically administer I'm trying not to let that one slip by but I also haven't made any progress on it I'll be the first to admit that so do you need some help from the board to kind of prioritize things or do you need like just give us a list of your projects and we kind of got prioritize things the way we want to do it or I don't know how what the rest of the board thinks about that I mean that that garage has been kind of sitting on our radar for a while now and yeah and and I mean it was stalled for a long time because I couldn't get the I couldn't get it through shipo but I finally got shipo approval you know so yeah okay what's the timing on the grant we got quite a while before we have to worry about coming up on the end of that and we can always ask for an extension it's not a question of that
it's really just a question of approach and the other thing just being realistic about that one is that Grant is because we had assumed that was not a prevailing weage project once the the Department of Labor made it clear that was a prevailing wage project that is going to bump the costs up pretty considerably now part of what I'm trying to do is with the the field project and the project for the playgrounds and pickle ball courts and kind of the phase two of the Riverside Drive project is be able to use the majority of the town's contribution as labor in kind by Public Works if I can do that then the money that was allocated for that project should be enough to complete the other so you know so that that's kind of what I have in my head but there's also
there's a committee that's working on the field so I don't have anywhere near as much administrative responsibility for that as I do to the other one the other one at this point is is pretty much all me so yeah well I think going back to what Jeff requested is can you get a list of the projects you're working on and then what we can do is we can prioritize as a board where we want you to sit there and focus sure happy to do that I mean it really the overall project list hasn't changed since we had the meeting in the fall and I gave you the project schedule I or the project list I can certainly resend that to the board and resend it to us sure yeah and if you could just add if just like a thumbnail like sure where we are complet completion percentage like if you're 10% done 50% done 70% done or not started that way we can kind of see where we're at with everything sure yep try to get some of the stuff done prioritize things for you yep not a problem okay thank you anything else no okay so we were on 10c burnup clock discussion correct where are we with this I mean the last time I know I I go ahead man the I'm waiting for Dennis to write up a an agreement or a contract between the owner of the clock and us in the town two months ago I sent all the information to him and he has not sent done anything on it I guess I emailed
him again today I haven't heard from him yeah he's in New Orleans at the moment so I don't think you you'll get a response back from him for a few days but he should be back at the end of this week or early next week so I will make it a point to call him and ask him where he's at with that and then have we found a spot for this clock have we finalized it I mean I think the last time we talked we talked about the the the I probably say it wrong but the community room in the town hall that we were talking about being a a meeting space of putting it there because we talked about the senior center being in the community Senior Center not being appropriate so have we found have we I know we haven't agreed to a space so anyway I'll I'll contact Dennis and sit there and see where he is with your contract Dan and we'll move on from there and then we'll decide where it's gonna go and Eric I'm assuming that that clock could go into the layout that
you're talking about wanting help with for that room about how it's set up yes you could accom accommodate the clock in there on one of the three not probably not the wall that the TV screen is on but the other three walls you know you could probably accommodate the clock if that was what the board wanted okay so if we you know do it as a layout as a potential location not a final location but a potential location that we would vote on it would be in the design of the layout of that potential meeting space which is just another option and nothing and final just just a talking through it so let's let's sit there and think about that Eric in that space if we're going to set it up for a permanent meeting room and then it would have a permanent spot that could be protected in the space so okay 10 D solar at AES I know that you got something Eric but have we have we gotten back
from the Board of Education any information on that far roof as to we know that that far roof and that that school would need is the oldest and it's going to end up needing replacing before the other areas but have they have there been any communication on this there has not I thought you were going to have a conversation with Celeste regarding that but have not gotten any information back from did but not not on the details related to the issues that Jeff Murray brought up at the last meeting about and forgive me I'm not an electrical engineer where the the wiring is is trending down that one small roof Jeff was recommending it be moved but I don't know if that's been addressed either yeah I mean I still have some concerns about whether that should go to public meeting because that agreement does confer some obligations on the town I realize it's a little questionable reading the charter it kind of comes down to the definition of what a PPA is and and how you define it but you know there's definitely some some negative terms well let let's let's I mean let's try to help this Shepherd this project through the issues from my end really end up being the age of the far roof and the issue that Jeff Murray brought up sure so I just personally the more I think about it it's just and I kind of agree with Eric it's it's right at the point of being a viable solar project because it's single phase I mean down the road it would be you know more more
efficient as getting it connected into a three-phase system so if we put something you know maybe at The Old Firehouse or you know the garage project down the road or you know even at the there was an article lately about there was a town in Connecticut that just put solar farm on their transfer station or their old their old landfill it was very successful and if we do any Industrial Development down the road we're probably going to have to put three phase in that area so like somewhere about you know where our T where our current landfill is now we don't have three-phase power we have have compactors up there I mean if we put three-phase power up in that area I know it' be a sizable project but it would open all that whole area for development so especially if we wanted to get into some commercial development we would definitely need three-phase power so it's just something we should look at in the future because I I don't think this is probably the best project for solar so that's just my personal personal feeling where where is their three-phase follow at the is actually at The Old
Firehouse it's three phase because it comes up it can't go it couldn't go along Route Six it used to go up Center Street and then it used to go because of the Trestle I believe am I correct Eric so there is three-phase power available to a portion of Center Street it does run down Center Street and then go back down 316 in and I think it's an issue in the sense that it reduces the optimal size of the solar array going on the roof but looking at the the town's cost per kilowatt hour for electricity it's still in my mind a really good deal I mean it still ultimately saves the town about 25,000 bucks a year to execute that solar project if we can and I also look at it and say you know even if we did have to remove part of the system in five years you know we're still $125,000 ahead at that point and our
cost of removing it off of that one roof I suspect is less than that so I suspect even if we do have a problem in that roof as long as we don't have it on year one you know or year two were probably ahead of the game so that's one thought that now the the point that Adrien brought up I had a discussion with him about that because I know he was involved in the re-roofing project and he reminded me that the town spent extra money to get a much longer warrantee you know on the roof of that school but that was also predicated on them installing walk panels for Access up there and because they had very minimal HVAC and things on the roof they're not many walk panels on there and you really don't want to be having lots of people treading across a EPDM roof on a regular basis so I do think when we get something more like a
final design back from the company we need to be reviewing that and making sure that you know that is done as part of the project so we don't buy into problems but I we just haven't seen a final project back from them yet or in any kind of engineering design so while I'm optimistic at this point I you know we'd have to see a you know essentially a fleshed out proposal I think from the Board of Ed meeting last night they are having some final inspections done on the roof and it's condition during Christmas break the structural engineers from the Solar Company are going to be there at the school and do a inspection and if it passes those inspections then they will be coming to the town for the necessary permits so you should know all the details after and I do agree that we should be we should be looking at solar on other Town buildings and other locations but I don't think it's an either or you know yeah I just think because we have a school roof it's we don't I mean we are going to be getting some revenue from it but if efficiency wise like you were saying it's just not the most ideal setup that we we'd be having on there what would it what would it cost us to bring three phase to the town office complex the school as well I don't know
when we looked at it from the doing it at the transfer station a couple years ago two or three years ago well actually when I first got here so probably more like five years ago eversource quoted me basically a million bucks a mile so it's probably a quarter mile to get it up to the school so and then but it's not just the cost of bringing in the power it's also the cost of US turning around because three-phase does go up 316 to you know so it's not that far from the school but we would also be talking about changing out the main electrical service in the building to three-phase switch gear and that would not be an inexpensive I mean Jeff probably knows better than me but seems to me that's $150,000 project in and of itself by the time you really convert the whole school over to that well we wouldn't have to convert the whole school at the one point we would just have the solar array and we'd have the three-phase power available and then that way if we had upgrades in the future we could do that at that time or if we had a residential project that happened in the back on
that property we would have necessary we I mean three-phase power is just a lot more bang for the buck than a singlephase line so and you and it you offers commercial development as well because a lot of commercial machines anything that does Machining baking anything like that usually is a three-phase unit so okay we should be thinking about that we should be looking at putting that in our plan of conservation and development to bring fre three phase different spots and time I know there's three phase at the bottom of Lake Road and upwards to Lake Road to the intersection I don't know what that Meritt Valley I think it might be Meritt Valley is right there but those are things that we should put in our plan of conservation and development to sit there and try to make the town more appealing for development of certain kinds this one is a Time issue so we're not going to get free Phase to that school before this solar roof would get put on
and so let's see what they end up saying about the roof condition that will be interesting and then we can sit there and go back because I am I personally think that if Eric's numbers are correct I'm in favor of the solar on the roof with the anticipated understanding that we got a portion of that roof that will need to be the panels would need to be removed and then a roof replaced at some point in time in the next 10 to 15 years hopefully but let's sit there and see what the roofs condition assessment comes in at we'll come back to it the other part of it is we better understand if there needs to be a town meeting on this Eric because if there needs to be a town meeting on this we need to schedule it and and since we're talking about town meetings one thing I thought was interesting in the editorial that said I was going to do a coup is there was 1800 voters that came to vote in our town election which I think is great but as a board where would we ever put 1,00 people if they came for a town meeting I mean I know I've thought about
it but have we all thought about what we' do because we can never fit 1,800 people in an indoors situation for a town meeting and that's our form of government currently so anyway food for thought 1,00 people indoor setting and over Connecticut where are we doing it town meeting form of govern outside outside there you go hopefully in the summer not in the winter solar panels need to get put up we got to do it now so all right what else anything else on that issue nope okay 10e credit card uses discussion approv policy and forms right now Eric what are you doing with the credit cards you're on emergency use only yeah so so the treasurer asked me to just restrict it to emergency use only until a policy is established or a better policy is established well does anyone have a problem with policy as addressed I know the the I know that the rec commission has a problem with the issue of who's in control of the rec commission line items you you could simply if you wanted to do that scratch out that statement under designated supervisors and scratch out Rec commission or put somebody else in charge of that that was just based on what's actually in her contract she would be the signing Authority for that but that's obviously pretty controversial what page is this on it's and really what I was trying to do is make this clear to Chris because she's
constantly asking me when things who's supposed to be approving of various different things so I just tried to make it as simple as possible so we knew who the approvers were for each type of expense or if there's other ones you want to change we can change those too I'm not wed to any of those Eric could you put up the language that's in controversy sure think you should be viewing right now and all that is is on the back of the form for credit card usage and designed to be so it automatically prints on the back of the form so when somebody turns it in on the same time Chris can roll it over and say okay this is an expense from X the supervisor is here the supervisor signed it we're good that was the intention of this so so what was Carol bringing up tonight what was she said 5e page 5e or something she's yes am I wrong can you show us what what was in question there so what she is unhappy with is the way that this is because that mirrors what's in the employment contract for Tess grous that the original concept was one
of Tess's Three Hats was number one director of the senior center number two director of the community center number three overall director of the recreation so everything that was Community related mostly came under her Bailey Wick which would put her as the signer for that but the rec commission does not feel that's appropriate and doesn't feel she should be the signer on that I just and I'm sorry I know I'm out of line here but we are advisory to the senior community center director not vice versa and if that is something that you put in the contract so that's in Tessa's contract and that's available we'd be able to see that I'm sure you could see her contract we will we will give you access to the contract just just go just one second before everybody goes off Eric for this purpose for today change the Recreation Commission designated supervisor to Carol Lee and to the as a Carol all right just change the Recreation Commission design to Caroline done done and so the rest of the there's nothing else that is an issue that I read in this credit card policy and I understand this is a a a a financial control issue that is trying to be addressed so use of the cards appropriately for the the
corresponding accounts that we have and we can move on anybody else on the board have an issue I I went through and looked I went through and looked at the form from 2019 and this one and the only change I saw besides that thing about the Recreation Commission being under test was that they wanted the slips back in three days in I mean one day instead of three and so how are deing how yes that was correct I'm sorry Eric go ahead so I do want to say in from my perspective the critical difference between this form and the last form is that before the you know essentially the people who are using the credit card you know turned this in you know and then I got it after the purchases were made and the problem with that is that kind of conflicts with my responsibility that's put on me from the charter which is to approve all expenses and it doesn't make a lot of sense to have me approving EXP expenses after the fact the expenses ideally should be approved before the fact unless it's an emergency that is the shift in this that that that that all sounds great but in the reality but I
didn't see where the difference where the change was in this form see where I put something that says all signatures required prior to purchase that's what that is for so whoever is Technic techically in charge of that entity be it a commission or a board or a department it has to be signed by the supervisor it has to be signed by the administrator boom now you purchase it no problem that sounds great Eric and I I I'm I'm sure that we're trying to get there in practice but that's reality is are you are we doing that in all cases when when director of Public Works goes out and buys supplies are you signing off beforehand because I'm just trying to get a lay of the land because I always had a problem with the credit card as it's used because my issue is do
the people that are using those those especially the credit card understanding their budget line items and not going over budget on certain items or getting close to those items you know that's always in my mind I don't think what you're saying is done all the way through every every practical transaction within the town I think it's a good you you try to get there but that's a real cumbersome thing and I'm not sure that you're going to do it all the way in practice so I want to be clear to everybody that it's not totally the way it's done in practice what I have a problem with and what I look at credit cards about is especially within a town if a group is not
understanding of what their budget line items are and they go and start spending there's overspending on the credit card and it becomes then it becomes problematic that's the biggest issue so while I agree with the credit card policy I I hesitate and I look at you Eric and I go you're not doing that across every transaction it's just not it's just not possible within the organization that you're managing to do that and I would ask you you can tell me I'm wrong I'll listen to you I don't see why the vast majority of things can't be done correctly and the the reason is because I control the credit card so if I don't give somebody the credit card they don't have the option to make the purchase so the goal is if you don't show up to me with a form filled out then I'm not going to sign it and I'm not going to hand over the credit card that's kind of the positive control as part of this okay I can understand that I'm I'm with you there now what happens with a normal course transaction that
goes somebody places an order that's going to be paid by check by the treasurer's office so if somebody orderers something for the treasurer's office it comes to me and I sign every single requisition before checks are cut and then I give the pile of signed Rex the checks come back to me I sign them we have a second signer they get paid okay much better much better and I'll I'll resend my thought because you're you're not wrong because you're worried about the payment on a transaction and the credit card is instantaneous so I I sit there I'm corrected I I I agree with with the with the whole thing with the credit mostly what I'm trying to cut down on is the frustration the assistant Treasurer has running around when the credit card statement comes in because people have purchased stuff not filled out the forms and trying to track down receipts and payments against the credit card that she doesn't have information for so my goal is that anytime a purchase is made she's got a complete paper trail so we're clear all the way up through the audit and everybody knows who did what okay I'll make a motion that we approve the credit card policy as presented at our meeting on 1212 2024 with with the changes that you asked Eric to make with with the change requested to to the designated supervisor for the Recreation Commission to be Carol Lee second that any further discussion all those in favor I I I okay more
nothing let's move on to item 10f a community center update purchase of kitchen equipment and Leading Edge change order okay so let's deal with kitchen equipment first currently we have roughly $110,000 avail able in a specific Senior Center arpa Grant and that money was designated to finish or was designated towards the kitchen when I submitted the grant paperwork in the beginning additionally we have approximately $133,000 unspent money from the town's arpag Grant and so my suggestion is to essentially spend encumber and spend both of those dollars on the kitchen to get us to the point where you know we're clean with Eastern Highlands health district for our food service license that's that's kind of my objective but that amount of money is not going to complete the kitchen because we're going to have a large expense when we go to put in that hood system you know so I'm not proposing doing that now and I'm not proposing you know we may push the stove
in place but we are not going to be actually turning that stove on until such time as we have a hood you know a commercially usable Hood system in place and the Ansel fire fire suppression system and all of that but that gets us using all our money and gets us most of the functionality we need other than being you know able to cook and use an oven we at least have places for Secure Storage we have prep spaces you know we can reheat stuff we can use crockpots we can use stuff like that we just you know we're not going to be baking or you know using the range and that's kind of what we're going for so there are kind of longer term I think two issues the first issue is that we are
already basically maxed out on our electrical panel in the basement so as we put in the dishwasher we are going to have to put in a sub panel to accommodate that because we just don't have the breaker space to to put it into the panel so we're going to run up and and I don't have a firm quote for the electrical work for that so I I can't give you what that estimate is you know but I think Without Really tapping the multi-use building fund you know we can get the majority of the functionality of the kitchen now you know and it it makes sense to me to to purchase the stuff and do it well we have to spend our arpa funds by the end of the month correct how much are they so total between the two there's just under $23,000 available between those two no you said two I'm much sure are funds and how much are the other funds tell me which exactly say it say it so we understand what it is so I don't have it down to the penny it's just under $10,000 that's available for the arpa grant for the the senior center specific arpa Grant it's 9,800 and something I could get you an exact number but I would have to dig a little bit and in unspent funds in the town's arer Grant there's approximately $133,000 plus or minus a 100 bucks as Cheryl gone over that number that's a good number yes those are the numbers I got from Cheryl and and what about the Leading Edge bill is that paid it is not paid Leading Edge bill will pay out of
building maintenance or multi-use building fund one of those two so you're recommending we could take it out of here and we could just not buy you know leave some things out of the out of this that's okay too okay so there's no money on the Paradise number what is what is is the paradise total the paradise total is oh why is it not on this form it's 22,000 and change right I added it up too why is it not on this quote and so Ann you came up to 22,000 yeah okay $2,483 personally I would rather sit there and see the kitchen furnished and that we move along faster to sit there and
get the oven in place and the hood in place so that the kitchen can be used appropriately so but we have to spend at least the $113,000 of the arpa funds like the other $10,000 you're saying it's arpa but what is that it is arpa funds so it's just different arpa funds so when arpa came out they put funds in a whole bunch of different buckets some of the money they gave to the state of Connecticut so the state of Connecticut divvied out and they said these are all the programs we want to support one of those programs was senior centers so I wrote a arpa grant for our senior center stuff which was granted which gives us you know right around $9,800 that's what they gave me for that Grant so that money too I I don't have to spend but I have to encumber by January first December 31st either one all right so [Music] there was no an an you're a kitchen person was there anything in the list of kitchen equipment that you thought was on a line I mean I looked at it I thought it was all fine but it was what do you have a problem with any of the equipment for the kitchen no I wish I knew what the hood estimated me estimated cost was because I know those are very expensive okay I'm Inna Ballpark and say
we're going to be out you know 20 plus thousand to put that hood system in you know and probably 30,000 total with the Ansel system something in that ball park there's a go it cost us 35,000 to put one in a class room in Manchester a little bit bigger than the one we're going to have here but it was 35,000 and in the 2002 well whatever it is we need to spend it to make the best use of that facility in that kitchen so we're gonna figure out how to do it so if you don't and have any problems with any of the equipment does any of the other members have any problems with any of the other equipment for the kitchen no I'm good je so what about the panel though there's Jeff Murray there's plenty of power going in into the panel they just need new breaker space is that it yeah usually there's enough capacity on the main breaker and so you can I don't know what are you talking Eric 100 amp some panel yeah probably not even a hundred yeah i' probably do 100 standard just to come off with a 100 and you'd be fine yeah I mean I I don't see it as an issue I I mean you know when we when we were back in the design phase both Adrian and I pushed for a sub panel so we had plenty of breaker space in there that was one of those things that got cut for budgetary reasons so I think we've kind of all known you know that it was going to be
we're basically going to end up filling the last available spot in the next couple weeks because Lenco is installing the automatic door openers the handicapped accessible automatic door openers in the building that should hopefully be in in the next couple of weeks so that's going to take the breaker spot we do have you know so basically we're going to need to put in a sub panel so that's just we know we have to do it so you know even if we didn't do the kitchen I think we end up doing it at some point because there's no power to where the fire alarm systems coming in for instance so we're going to need to add a you know a electrical connection for that at some point and there there are still other things we're going to end up doing so so
you going to put the sub in the kitchen area you going to put it down in the where the main panel is you know I would be tempted to put it in the basement not upstairs but I could I don't have any I'd rather see in the kitchen area because if you have a problem with a piece of equipment it's easier to reset than go have and go downstairs and try to find it and then it just cuts your wire it cuts your wire cost down because if you run IND individual brand brand circuits it's almost cheaper just to run your 100 amp service up there and just be done with it and then anything you need to bring off of that panel and you're probably going to end up with another one down in the basement because if we ever finish that space we're going to need we're going to need extra power so you're probably going to end up with two panels eventually because you're probably going to have to move some of those Breakers that you have on the main panel right now onto the sub anyways to accommodate the the breakers for the sub panels
so because if you're going to fill it you're going to have to take some of those circuits off of there and put it on the sub correct yeah I know that yeah so okay you're probably gonna be looking at two you're probably gonna be looking at two panels eventually all right so we know we know we have the hood and electrical upgrades that need to be made to the building in total but those are not today's issues am I correct Eric we know we're gonna not today's in terms of what we have to do to spend the money we have that's use it or lose it you know this takes care of pretty much all the use it or lose it money that we have from those two so and then really the question comes in on timing and the timing for spending the other money part of it is if we get the Federal funding for the community center and the generator install you know our our money worries for that go away because we have the money to do basically everything if we don't get that then we're kind of picking and choosing and then full disclosure I I have asked both our State Rep and our state senator for a legislative appropriation to help us out with funding the community center which I think those are the kind of projects that you know are potentially fundable at state level but the again I wouldn't know whether that got in or not till May
or June of this year and I don't know whether I'll know one way the other whether we got the federal appropriation so the the problem comes in is that in terms of other expenditure like the hood do we do that now or do we wait and see whether we're getting funded or not because we could do it now we have the money it's just a question of do we do that or do we you know do we try to fund it via grants because if we put it in now we can't apply the grant towards that all right well sorry that's kind of a long-winded explanation any any grant money you have we're going to sit there and move appropriately to do what's the most beneficial to the to the overall
Community Center and what we need to do right now we have to decide if we're making a motion to spend a $23,000 that's available and used toward the kitchen equipment am I is that not right I mean that's what we need to do correct yeah let's make a motion I make a motion that we use the $23,000 oh I'll I'll let me rephrase that I make a motion that we use all the remaining arpa funds to outfit the community center kitchen appropriately we spend or encumber the 20 remaining $23,000 of arpa funds to outfit the community Senior Center kitchen I'll second that we'll say an seconded that okay all right further discussion on that all right all those in favor I I okay 40 all right the Leading Edge change order what information do you have on that what do you want us to know about so I don't want to share my screen and show you the information I would be happy to send the board you know our time accounting for that project I did
submit that directly to Todd lard from Leading Edge and said you know I don't think your back order is appropriate I don't think he's convinced I still need to sit down and have a a conversation with him but my suspicion is he is not going to agree to us not paying that okay so you're still you're still in negotiation with Leading Edge you're going to come to us with either a final resolution or no resolution next meeting right yep so e if so I guess my question is what I don't want to talk about that openly it's it's not this is a negotiation issue you're going to deal with it in your position to to finalize yeah the value that the town should deal with related to this last work order or however it is phrased so the change order so if there's anybody else here that wants to ask Eric any specific questions on that this issue go ahead but as far as I'm concerned it's you're still negotiating it come to us when you're finalized fair enough what are we gonna do we might tell you you're wrong when you come to us with the final answer but that's our prerogative at that point in time but right now we're just throwing around nothing from our end understood okay copy or contract renewal okay okay so after the last go around you had asked me to go back and also investigate what it would cost us if we chose to our next contract
being a lease to purchase so I did that I sent you all the Excel spreadsheet which had all the options I'll pop that up on the screen right now the contractor is getting a little antsy but I told him he was going to have to to wait till after this meeting to get so there is the summarized version about the options that we have relative to that if that makes sense the top one is our cost now which is 232 a month if we continue and sign another buyout lease it goes down to 175 a month and then on the very bottom you know we have the option to purchase the existing contractors or what do you call it we could pay for our current machine $194.99 a month for how long so as I'm looking at this I think this form is wrong so the the bottom line is that if we do the buyout lease on the state bid our costs go to basically $175 a month same quick charges as we go now so it drops about $45 a month if we want it to be a buyout not a buyout lease yeah a buyout lease our copies go down our our cost goes up to essentially 200 bucks a month actually I think it's 197 a month so those are the two differences and I put those if we stop share on this oh no go back to that spreadsheet because you sheet I think the spreadsheets actually wrong though which is why I know I know I know the spreadsheets wrong but we gotta talk about it so back to the spreadsheet got it there's your spreadsheet okay all right so let's just start with your column e those those
black and white charges have to have a zero in them in yeah E6 E7 E8 you need to put an extra zero in there it's yep half a half a penny for black correct okay and so you're going the monthly lease and and so our current contract current copier contracts 23232 can you can you put the extra zero in there now so that's what we're looking at like just go edit the cell just F2 yeah right there good perfect zero enter nine okay all right so in that column that you're on a nine that's basically keeping the current copier we have paying $4,250 and those are our charges per copy
correct okay and the one in row seven is the state contract $175 a month down from 232 brand new machine half a penny for black yeah half a penny for black and five cents a page for color yes so ballpark it's the identical machines we have now other than five plus years newer at a cost that's considerably less now if we do the other type of lease so that at the end of the contract we own the machine everything else stays the same but our monthly lease payments go up to just under $200 a month so and that that is what you asked me to get the last time was what that cost is which is why I was trying to go back to the the contract because that has okay and that's fine so go back to your spreadsheet it's $248 if and at the end of the fiveyear period we own it so those are really the two options okay so if you go back to that and everybody so increase the size of your spreadsheet so everybody can see
it okay so the difference between row7 and what Eric has presented at the $200 a month ends up being $1,500 over the course of the five years and we own the piece of equipment as opposed to currently what they're doing with the leases as written if we wanted to keep that equipment and and it was running well and we only wanted to get a repair contract which is row N it would cost us $4,250 so the additional $25 a month comes out to be $1,500 over the course of five years the choice is do we think we just want to continue with the $175 a month lease and save or or yeah save $1,500 and then turn the piece of equipment in in five years that's the question in front of us so not hearing any noise on that I would sit there just questioning like what's what's the repair what's the repair contract on the lease like The copier breaks well there's nothing that's that's they pay the the per page fee right that's all rolled into the click charge okay I'm I'm against especially copers like this have a shelf life of three to five years I'm I'm against purchasing I think it's better to lease to be honest
with you yeah too that's fine I mean it's you always got the you always get the latest and greatest I mean every couple years we get the latest and greatest yeah so in five years we'll get a new copier and Y that's fine so because if we own it then we have after five years we're gonna have to buy a new one anyway so well what you do is you you roll it out until the click charge goes out of control and you sit there and deal with it now I'm okay with monthly I'm okay with at the end of five years redoing the contract and getting new one do we have to go to town meeting for this I don't believe so no okay so then I will make a motion to move forward with the office work Office Works copier or contract for $175 48 per month buyout lease in accordance with the state PID seconded all right further discussion all those in favor I for nothing okay 11 new business discuss and act upon a baa in [Music] response okay that's you all give me a second sure so the ba submitted a letter to us on November 22 after our last meeting they raised some concerns about how the baa was addressed during our meeting in relation to the taxes and the tax reduction ctions that were granted by the baa so everybody's had this letter Eric sent a response I am going to let Eric talk about it but I am going to sit
there and say before we talk about that I have always had a problem with the tax reductions in the town I've always voted against these when I first got here simply because of the nature of how tax reductions are given not only from the ba a but from the the assessor's office I realize that some of them are are legitimate and reasonable and I understand the ba has a hard job but I am going to sit there and put that out in front of everybody for for more than four years I voted no and the only reason I had to start voting yes is because I had to sign them all so I'm just saying it's it's a very difficult thing and I'm going to let Eric explain himself but I also know that in our last meeting when Eric spoke up I did sit there and let everybody know that I was I was assuming that all of the ba members that were voting on something that related to their their their themselves or someone close to them recused themselves from the vote and they all did so Eric I will let you
sit there and go with your response I felt I needed to say that from a standpoint of when that response came in and that not that letter came in but go ahead Eric sure so first of all I apolog oliz to the baa for any incorrect statements on a monthly basis the tax collector presents the tax refunds due to the board of Selectmen who need to approve them prior to refunds being issued it is on the monthly agenda and has been for at least five years so that was one of the concerns raised by the chair of the baa was why they weren't notified they're on the agenda every month the Board of Selectmen frequently asks me what the refunds are for her the baa minutes dated 9:16 2024 in 920 2124 there was a reduction to Linda Armstrong's bills for two vehicles where she appealed her tax bill and recused herself and then there was a separate appeal where a member of Emily timri's
household appealed and Mrs timri recused herself so that as far as I know is a completely correct statement I it was not my intention to question the Integrity of the chair of the baa he felt that I challenged his Integrity but I have long had a problem with the process of Taxation and appeal not particular individuals I do have a significant issue with the system that's in place here but I recognize that that's beyond the scope of my or the town's authority to really do anything about I am hopeful that the the fact that we're switching to MSRP plus a set depreciation will make the motor vehicle assessments a lot more transparent to everybody as far as I can tell the only appealable fact now will be what the original vehicle MSRP was I also believe that property
assessment should be done regionally you know by trained and paid staff you know when I've reached that conclusion from talking to a number of people that wear the same shoes that I wear and they' all had issues with the baa process again I don't think this is an issue with individuals I think it's a process issues I was also asked why I didn't speak directly to the baa the baa is elected they don't work for me I have no authority to while I have strong opinions obviously I don't influence the baa decisions you know or opinions I did however one year when we didn't have a clerk which was a couple of years ago spent three or four meetings taking minutes for the baa
you know and that's kind of when I formed an opinion that the baa should be regionalized and there should be more training you know and ability to eliminate any conflict there so where I think my role in this is is just to make sure the board of Selectmen understands that this is the first year in a while because of the change in motor vehicle regulations as well as the change in state law regarding exemptions for disabled veterans that we may very well have a flat or negative Grand list and the reality is the board of assessment appeals decisions you know have to be accounted for because that is going to to take a significant amount of money from the ultimate Grand list and you as a board should be aware of that so that's all I wanted to say on that okay do any of the other members have issue with anything that Eric said or the baa has addressed okay 11b pickle ball and playground [Music] discussion okay so there should be at least one person left from the playground or the committee that that's here from from that commission I put in the packet the latest Scot Che what Scot Che yeah Scott is here sorry it's tired it's late I'm tired so I put the latest engineer drawings for the pickle ball court in the packet so you as a board could see the commission has
been hard at work beta is also here she's also on the committee so that's there in case you had any questions this is before the wetlands commission now it will be going for Planning and Zoning in December 17th to be go to public hearing sometime in January so just kind of letting you know where that committee is right now if you want any input at this point this is what they're kind of proposing and I'm sure Scott and beta can answer any questions that you have bata bata sorry so I Scott I would ask a question is that one playground and it's just two different potential locations oh it's two different playgrounds one for younger children I think three to five and then you know
five to 12 correct okay it looks like looks very similar with the elements in there so I was wondering if it was just two different locations so that's where the Rocks go A New Path put in from the parking lot to get down to the pickle ball courts and is there a drop there Scott from the parking lot down to the pickle ball courts or is that there is like there's like three feet three feet Dr okay going to be there it's going to be done in stone there's going to be a drain at the bottom to drain the water [Music] away it looks before it hits the pickup allall courtz it looks very nice I can't wait to see it completed yeah we can get engineering work done quicker we could have it done quicker but very slow on the engineering side are we going to take out some of the the drainage issues that happen along the walking Track in that corner closest to
the playground no no that will not be addressed as part of that I don't even know how you would address that I mean the the big problem is is that there's a drainage pipe you know that acts in some conditions to drain the field towards the river but when the river comes up the flow goes the opposite direction and flows onto the field through the existing pipe you know from the outlet on the river so I don't know that you could correct that unless I don't know maybe you could pursue some kind of one-way valve or something but it would be hard to keep it from getting stuck with debris right even when even when we were building that field Jeff you probably
remember that when I think that it rained and it filled in there and the guys told us the company told us that they wouldn't change that the grades are the grades it would change a lot if they changed those grades in there where they really could have just filled that corner well what I was in I was thinking about is if you're putting a drain in where the pickle ball courts are MH is it possible to tie in that area of the edge of the field to allow it to go into the same drainage and and I don't know where
you're you're evacuating the water to but I'm just sitting there thinking is there a way to tie that in to eliminate that problem that currently exists when it rains heavy in that corner of the walking trick and if you can't do it it hasn't stopped people from using a walking Track and no right we we all realize it's in a wetland I mean it's right next to the river flood plane flood plane flood plane not Wetland hopefully so hopefully hopefully when we actually do the bridge we eliminate a certain amount of the water back flow that get exactly tie it all together maybe it'll improve exactly it'll be a it'll be a different scenario when the bridge gets done we open it up another 40 feet right yeah the reason Jeff I don't think you could go back from that corner to the drain where the pickle ball fields are is be because the way this is we're going to be able to get this through the wetlands is we're essentially we're adding when the when we put the pickle ball Quartz in we add some impervious surface but then we drain it in such a way that the surface water runs to the wetlands and everything that's now coming off the hill is captured by an Interceptor
trench and also goes to the wetlands so essentially all we're doing is we're not increasing the amount of flow to the wetlands and we're not decreasing the amount of flow to the wetlands because what we really can't do is just you know dump a pipe that makes the wetlands no longer a Wetlands it's an existing Wetlands it has to stay Wetlands but we don't want to inundate it and we don't want to dry it out that makes sense understood okay looks good and and this is all going in front of the wetlands Authority and then planning and zoning and what's the timeline on potentially getting this done well the it's we're going to go back before the wetlands we went I guess a week ago to the wetlands and and they're just in the end I think I'm not going to say what they're going to do but it's going to go through the wetlands I didn't think that they had a lot of problems with it couple of things that they had questions about and it's going to go through Planning and Zoning Planning and Zoning it's going to have a couple questions and hopefully we have the answers to those questions before it
goes before planning and zoning and those questions will be addressed the rest of it I don't think the Planning and Zoning is going to have a lot of problems with it okay and then once we get that done in the interim we're going to be making our fees for all of it with Eric's help so that's going to be on their priority list yep okay I just have one question I know it's just a well casing right where the swing set is going to be yeah we're because that well is well and truly abandoned and not powered anymore anyway we technically really should be filling that in so as part of this Our intention is to you know have dck or one of the services pull the casing and fill in that well do a slurry fill yeah yep okay just there was just a question it said well there I just didn't know if we had a swing set right with a well casing sticking up no we gotta get rid of all that okay just just quick thanks okay anybody else on the pickle ball in the playground discussion anything else okay all right thank you we're going to move on to 11c Community Center Staffing review yeah I just want to add this I
think is with new employees right we usually do a three-month review and During the promissary period I'm just wondering Eric have you done that yet Tess and I I mean have we done a formal review no have we sat down and talked on an almost daily basis about where we are and where we're going yes but have I sat down and done a formal review no I have not okay can we please do that and I would like to try to find out what we've done as far as when she's been employed the type of additions we've added courses classes things that she's done sure I think it would be important for the people in town to know what she's
doing and this also brings back to the programming I I went to I went to Columbia Hein Bolton and centry and they don't seem to be using any software seems to be a phone sign up or come down and fill out a form and they also seem to be doing newsletters with all the programs and things online and I didn't really see that in our website the only thing I saw was click for these classes or click for the additions and it gives me a username and password it says it's restricted so just looking at the other towns like they've got a you know a 10 or 12 page newsletters with what's going on in town and the available classes and
I just I mean our our website is there but we really don't have something that somebody can put together and print out and who to contact and and what the what the programs are so it's just something I mean she's been there four months now I'd like to see what's what's been added and you know what we put together as far as programs and a newsletter sure I mean I suppose you could swing by the community center and get a copy of the newsletter here's my copy of it well is it posted on the website that's a question I can't answer okay because I didn't see it I didn't see it that's why I was questioning it and because I was researching this program and trying to figure out if it was something that was really necessary or not and just I mean he's such a much bigger town and they seem to be having a lot of programs and they don't seem to be using an app so I just was just investigating that yeah the only town I've personally looked at it that has it is Colombia we went and got a demo of it at their
facility and they're CLE I went to their website and I didn't see anything it just says call Senior coordinator for these these these things so I just it's just I want to I'd like to see you know before the six-month period the value added and and and what and I think it'd be good for the community to see what what her accomplishments are have been in to dat since since Inception when she was hired fair enough okay so is that something we could do in the next couple weeks and and just send us a copy or just you know what what programs and things we've done to this point sure if she's on this year you could ask her directly if you wanted yeah but part of the personel I think it's part of the Personnel but we usually do reviews so I just want to make sure that we're doing that review and we have it we have it in file so it will be better if you sit there and accumulate that and get it off to us sure be best any other questions related to 11c nope that's all I had okay 11d Public Work Public Works activities yeah you oh that was the sale activities you saw my email that I sent out a couple weeks about a week ago I was on the gov deal site and I happen to see our whacker for sale it was listed needing a carburetor and a fuel shut off valve and the documentation that we got sent on February 15th from Jay listed a whole Litany of issues with
that whacker as far as the shoe was bad it had an oil leak it had all kinds of issues but what it's shown on gub deal saying it starts and runs needs some carburetor work and a fuel shut off valve and the truck is about the same there's a detail list on the truck showing all this rust cracked windshield all these issues in the in the document that we have but on gov deals it doesn't list any of those issues so were those issues repaired or are they not listed on the site so what we given for issues does
not match what is on the gov deal site is the listing for the items well if you're selling something do you point out every single flaw in what you're selling yes you should I mean I mean if those flaws if those flaws were significant for us to get rid of this equipment they should be listed on the auctions the auction site as issues if it does have a major oil leak like Jay told us it did the whacker it should be listed on there that has an oil leak but it's not so it just big I'm just I'm just questioning it because I started to see these these items listed online and they don't have nearly the issues that we were told that they had we were going to get rid of them so I'm just trying to find out if those issues were repaired or if the listing just doesn't list all the issues that are wrong with the items well if I was listing it I certainly wouldn't list every flaw in a car I own if I was putting it up for sale I would keep my MTH shut figure that's the next guy's problem okay really the question ends up being the question ends up being do they does it really have the issues that we were led to believe it had when we had when we right yeah because we we decided to
disperse it to get rid of this equipment because it had all these issues and it was all this money to fix it but then I see it listed on go deals it says it needs a shut off valve and a carburetor rebuild kit so no I'll I'll sit there and I'll go I understand Jeff I do I like said both sides of it there's there's two sides to this and I understand my question really ends up being did the machine really have all the issues that we were told when we authorized the Public Works to get new equipment right the truck absolutely I mean that is the reason why so we have three primary TR plow trucks we typically keep one spare we made a decision that our 97 Ford was in way better condition than our 2004 International that is the sole reason why we got rid of that one even though it's also been even though it's a newer machine because that has been a very problematic machine okay is that the one that you fixed the fuel pump on when you got rid of no I don't think that one had the fuel pump issue it's got a steering pump
the steering pump's blown yeah that's that's not even listed on the go deal site this the bad steering pump so I mean that should be something significant that you should put on there you know so well I think it's more important and and maybe this is something that we as a board I mean this was this was the reason Adrien was such a good member because he had such detailed knowledge of of the mechanical issues related to equipment like that well I have pretty good knowledge too that's why I'm asking the question welle on what what what Our Town Administrator is saying is to get the most money off of that you don't put every issue they come and inspect the equipment and they inspect the equipment and they identify the issues themselves they're going to offer up what they offer up anyway but Jeff issues were bad enough for us to get rid of
it those issues should be listed on the description of the item well if it was that bad to get rid of the item those if I was an I would have sat there and said to you Jeff yes they did some maintenance on it to try to make it better for the sale that's what I would have said to you that I would have sat there and said Public Works sat there and did some maintenance on it to try to Gussy it up to make it sell for more money that's not what Our Town Administrator said to you so the issue comes back on me and I sit there and ask the same question that all four of us are probably asking did it have these problems when we authorized a new unit
to be purchased and that's something we probably should discuss directly with the Town Administrator individually and sit there and discuss with our our Public Works director individually I would like to do that and as we go through and try to upgrade our equipment which as a town we need to upgrade the equipment there's no doubt that what Eric has done over the last few years has been to improve our equipment inventory and the Aging of the inventory of our equipment and and listen it's it's it's it's been positive but we're going to get it to a point where money is a little tighter and we got to make sure that we're doing a little bit better job under understanding the problems when Public Works asks us for additional equipment yeah I'm not I'm not making any accusations I just was asking which description is and if it was repaired and it was that's fine that's fine but I just want to find out I mean which description is accurate the one we were given on February 15 or the one that's on gub deals totally totally understand okay right Jeff I think you have to assume if you're buying a 20 plus year old plow truck it is going to be a piece of junk right now as far as I know on gub deals it's you know the highest bid is
around five grand for that yeah and we offered 10,000 as a tradein and we turned it down yeah but we put it on gov deals because that's what you that was not neily how never said no Eric that is not true that was Jay's decision and it says that right in the the document that I have dated February 15 it says he could get $20,000 for a private party or through through at auction state that was Jay's decision not mine the Wacker was I asked about the Wacker last month or a couple months ago but I did not say anything about the truck that was Jay's decision that is something we'll sit there and see what happens when the bids come out I mean we can pull this back correct if if it closes on I think the 15th or 16th guessing based on other units that are on sale at gub deals right now it's probably going to get 567,000 will be the final bid would be my guess well that's not a win for the [Music] town okay so was that a no Reserve auction that they take it there's no Reserve as I understand it there's no reserve price on it but the town has to accept or reject the bid
when the auction closes so you don't have to say yes okay and if you want to go down and inspect it at Public Works and go over it with Jay I'm sure he would be happy to do that with you I certainly don't have any issue with that okay any other issues related to the public works activities Jeff no that's do those are the only two I can see I I I mean I don't know what happened with the roadside mower or any of those other items but those are the only two that I really have documentation on that were listed publicly and I don't know what was sent to auction like I said I don't I have not privy to any of those those documents okay all right if we're done with that item I think we're moving on to item 12 approval of a minute meetings for 107 regular meeting 1021 special meeting and the 11 12 regular meeting minutes anybody have any issues with the minutes as posted so I just have one thing an CR sent around a thing of things she wanted added to the October 7th Board of Selectmen meeting did that get added or do you want to append that to the approval to add I honestly didn't review the the minutes that are posted there I didn't see anything come in from Marina that they were revised though and did you amend up do that minute well I wasn't sure how to amend I wrote up what I wanted to add and I emailed it to all of you and Marina and I don't know what what
what has happened with it at this point I remember when yeah there it is remember when that happened Jeff said for you to go amend the meeting minutes well why don't we sit there and approve the meeting minutes with an's Amendment right I can't get into the packet and change it there so I had to just send it in this way right and yeah and you sent that to me I think yesterday but I don't think you cced me when you originally sent it around so I never knew orig you sent it to Marina so I would have Mar yeah checked on that if I had known but that's okay you know we can we can have it added okay so does
anybody have a problem with any of the other minutes okay so and an that was the 10 s minutes correct yeah so I'll make a motion that we approve the 107 2024 regular meeting minutes with the denum provided by select person and cre I'll second that all right all those in favor I I and then I'll make a motion that we approve the 1021 TW 2024 special meeting minutes and the 1112 2024 regular meeting minutes as presented anybody second that second Scott person second all was in favor I I or nothing okay the treasurer's report was included any questions anybody want to make any comments okay the tax collector's report she gave us a report in a an idea about tax sales she have had a long letter and gave some suggestions about you know upcoming tax sales I don't know if anybody read that but yeah it was a very good letter and doing a very good job with that he's reduced the taxes from the previous five years down since she's been on there by $200,000 yeah amount of owed taxes and then she made some some suggestions about the tax sales you know any anybody that's hasn't paid in 10 years we should have a tax over or over $20,000 so you can look at it I have I mean I have it up I mean you can put it up to show the public but no it you know all of those issues appear to be reasonable I mean the biggest issue with tax collections for me is always the personal property taxes business small business personal property taxes because they
they up and move or they go out of business and we never see that money what I'm saying is Kate's digging her digging into this job and she doing a really good job I think that we you know need to look into this and make some decision I don't think I think 10 years is a little much myself but let's sit there and ask Kate to tell us the procedures or the policies that she'd like to put in place and the application of the procedures and I know she put it in the letter but if she sits there and breaks them down in a really small format we can sit there and prove them she yeah well she did hear did maybe we could have her come on Eric next month and talk about this well if you want to do that i' I'd be happy to have her come here and have that discussion with you directly put it on huh we'll we'll put her on early early in the meeting we'll ask her to come the next meeting which should be on a Monday she should be in the off well she probably doesn't have that let's let's put it on the agenda for next month Eric to sit there and look at the policies that the tax collector would like to implement so that we can get them approved okay I think that would that would be good okay anything else under the tax collector's reports okay we have in front of us a refund request for the tax collector total refunds of $4,200 426 $ 42165 most related to certificate of changes through the the assessor's office or I mean that's not
from the tax collector's office that's those are changes in the assessor's office then an overpayment for one taxpayer and two baa adjustments of $1 12763 and $16.32 so my favorite thing I'll make a motion that we approve the tax refunds of $4,200 $ 42165 Jeff anybody gonna second it I'll second it I'll second it okay Scott seconded all those in favor I or nothing okay departmental reports we had a report from the Assessor's Office know the same thing they used to give us the permits who had the permits in town and what what what they were doing I I don't see that again and then and I always wanted to see how much you know this is not Department of reports being in the treasur report how much money we made in this account I can probably get you how much money we made in the stiff account but Eric we made there's a report from the building department at $8,400 52 in permits is that with the new policy in place or we have have we implemented it I have not checked to see that he's filling out the paperwork but I've gone over it with the building official and he is supposed to be implementing it already Okay I would I would greatly appreciate if You' look at that and verify that he is implementing
it he's going over the the number that the applicants are telling us that the project is costing we approved a whole process of yeah we did how it was gonna happen in the hopes that it would increase for the period July through October so how many months is that so July August September October four months we have earned 73,000 58763 in the stiff account so approximately month so these next months should be good and that that was on how much money I'm not sure they included the balance sheet for me so that goes up and down you know on a monthly basis because we basically we move money back and forth so we maintain a minimum cushion so we can pay bills yeah there there it is there is a balance at the end of October come so let's sit there and say 3,700 th000 812 times 055 Eric somewhere in that b part we say five yeah I think we're getting the best we've gotten is around 5% okay so if we're at 5% Scott on that
balance if we could keep that balance in long term it' be $185,000 in the course of a year so we're actually a little bit ahead of that number so and I was pretty conservative I think I only budgeted it as 140,00 ,000 in income I thought you budgeted it for a lot less to be really honest no you did 140,000 so five and a half's better than than zero that we were getting better than nothing so it's but it's not it's not what the market is it's working for us yes okay okay so we were through the assessor's office we were through the tax collectors we did the tax refunds the assessor's office the building department the register of Voters 79 voters processed 90% turnout oh let's look at that 870 early voters and 26 same day re registrants so you know Wally and and Linda do a tremendous job in that office you know we're really lucky to have the two of them they're both very good they're very good and they care so we should look at what they requested from us as far as giving them some additional space moving forward especially related to these un funded
mandates by the state to sit there and do this and hopefully they make some adjustments to it I think early voting is great I just think maybe they could make some adjustments to it especially if small towns like ours it would help and we could make them a little bit more comfortable yeah I will say straight out that was a mistake on my part because I didn't want to tie up the community room and we didn't really have internet capability at that point in the community center because we had had essentially zero people come to early voting the previous three times we've been forced to I was expecting a much lower turn turnout and that they would be essentially sitting there with nobody showing up so I totally missed you know how popular early voting turned out to be and I definitely made the wrong decision and leaving them where they were as opposed to moving them into the the community room that is definitely a hit on me well let's there let's sit there and rectify it next time around and and do better on it and give them a little bit more space to conduct that business and hopefully everybody sits there and goes and does you know the absentee valot way of moving forward but we'll see right but okay Department of Public Works Jay provided what they're doing I know they did some work around the lake scraping the side of the road to try to make it better for flow any questions for public works for Eric okay and that's our last report that we received from the other
departments so anybody have any question for any of the Departments for Eric transfer station I was there Saturday I'm I'm assuming our cardboard dumpster has been replaced that's a good question I don't know it is full and is there a way we can make sure that we have two people staff there on Saturdays we were only at I think it was just Dominic for time on Saturday and he was overwhelmed the cardboard was closed and people were dumping huge boxes in the recycling and it was jamming it up he was trying to clear it and it was just he was overwhelmed and it's just we need two people there on the weekends Jeff one of the problems is there used to be a size on the cardboard everybody's supposed to cut it I think it was 18 by but the problem is when there's one guy and he's over there at the I know doing other stuff they just you can't watch everything and these I I was trying to help them clear the compactors because it was so backed up and he was overwhelmed there used to be
a sign up there that it was 18 I think it was 18 by 24 everybody would cut their stuff down size it's supposed to be it would go somebody put a fullsize TV box in there uncut right ridiculous it was ridiculous but problem is if there's two guys there one guy could be watching the trash and the recyclables the other guy could be so it's just we just if we could make sure somehow by you know I know people do get sick at last minute and things do happen but if we know somebody going to be out if we could get it staffed it would be be probably helpful we got to address that size thing Eric I asked Dom about that every time because everybody comes up just like Jeff Murray is saying you know these huge boxes they just stuff them in there and they just walk away we have the cardboard dumpster back and everybody flattens their stuff that's not an issue but that was right well and he was just overwhel I mean
there was it was full it was it was really busy on Saturday and he was trying to run all the compactors and and trying to see what people were doing with bulky and the oil and everything everything and it was just it was kind of a it was kind of chaos up there for a little bit so yeah and speaking of that I did have a conversation with Dominic I am planning to have the the transfer station open the day after Christmas Wednesday is the 25th but when in the past when we've not had a day between then and the first Saturday the first Saturday is a complete you know cluster so in the past couple of years we've been trying to open the the dump one time during the week so we're going to do it Thursday the day after Christmas and publicize that you know normally we don't get overwhelmed that weekday but it takes a lot of the pressure off of the Saturday and I think it's appropriate to do you know we do obviously have to pay time and a half because it is technically a town holiday so but that's my intention to do that unless you have a different idea I guess everybody's going to be off and
we'll be busy so oh if you're concerned about it we can staff it with two I was planning on only Staffing it with one but because in the past that's worked out okay it's just we get so much card if we have a cardboard dumpster it probably won't be a problem but yeah we probably need to get that tipped make sure it's make sure it's empty for the 26th or Christmas yeah no doubt no doubt I I would think before Christmas we need to have everything dumped you know it probably wouldn't hurt to have two people there because with the wrapping paper and people just dumping things where they're not supposed to go probably make sense okay yeah I don't have a problem with that all right any other questions for any other departments okay item 16 correspondence Anything Eric nope one thing so to the board of Selectmen from Jed Larson subject Connecticut General statutes 824 referral reference the town letter I sent them requesting it in
reference to a the town of Andover requested the Planning and Zoning Commission review the upcoming replacement of the bridge on Bunker Hill Road as required under Connecticut General statutes the Planning and Zoning commission has reviewed the proposed Bridge replacement and has voted that this is consistent with maintaining a safe high quality life for the people as discussed and the current plan of conservation and development okay thank you by the way J lson is chair person of the planning zone but he also moderated the tri board meeting he did a wonderful job Jed is Jed is very good at those types of situations so I'd like to thank him publicly right and now we're g to move on to public speak unless somebody wants to stop me before I go there okay I'm gonna start with Emily
timri hi can you hear me yes we have a letter from the baa signed by Al Roy Linda Armstrong and myself and Al is at of state and Linda went to the bushill tonight so they asked me to present this the letter is to address the inaccurate and inappropriate letter submitted by Eric Anderson in the packet in the board of Select meeting dated today in response to a ba letter that we submitted November 22nd since this letter is in the packet published online and in the meeting agenda this letter is necessary the letter is under agenda item 11a and information on page 3637 in the packet once against one once again there is false information comment one then a separate appeal where a member of Emily timri's household Richard Tim Tim appealed and Emily timri recused herself this information is false Richard timri is not part of Emily timri's household the legal definition of a household is any individual or group of individuals living together in the same address as one economic unit the false information challenges the Integrity of the baa comment
two I was incorrect and I should have stated that a baa member as well as a family family member of a different baa member was granted a reduction this is false information no family member of a different baa member was granted a reduction again this false information challenges the Integrity of the baa comment three my issues have been with the process of Taxation and appeal I believe Reliance on property tax and Motor Vehicle Tax is inherent unfair method of Taxation leads to a lot of problems what is being called a process is actually Connecticut statutes which is the law it amazes us that the Town Administrator does not support or believe in Connecticut statutes this lack of support demoralizes the Integrity of the baa the baa is a
voluntary elected position which is unpaid the elected position becomes more difficult job when the town of Andover administ administrator publicly disagrees with Connecticut statutes comment four I am hopeful that switching to an MSRP with a set depreciation basis for assessment will make the motor vehicle assessments more transparent to everyone in my mind the only applicable fact will now be with the MSRP there should be no more peels based on condition or mileage with the changes in motor vehicle for next year the Connecticut statutes will still allow the taxpayer to appeal and be heard by the baa if they are agreed the Town Administrator should not be providing information to the taxpayers of this town that eliminates their rights comment five my opinion that the role of ba needs to be regionalized to increase professionalism and eliminate any inherent conflict this comment demoralizes the Integrity of the baa comment six my role is simply to appraise the board of Selectmen so they can understand the budget impacts of decisions made by other boards Board of assessment appeal decisions have the right direct impact on the grand list the baa reductions from the motor vehicle September reductions were $869 the recent COC corrections made by the assessor's office was 4,000 $74 there is more of an issue with the
budget impacts with the assessor's office Corrections than what was done by the ba once again false comments and opinions made by the Town Administrator can create false assumptions and Discord among Andover citizens and duly elected baa Town officials should strive for fair and honest information and not public Discord this behavior shown by the Town Administrator Eric Anderson is destructive and decisive and should not be allowed in a Andover public meeting the Town Administrator should respect and enforce the Connecticut statutes and the baa and not and should not use the B Board of Select meeting as a means to criticize elected officials in a complete disregard of rules of basic civility this letter is not a true apology rather an excuse to blame the Connecticut statutes that he does not
agree with so we're submitting this letter we would like to include it in the minute okay Diane grer there we go hello I just want to thank Bata and Alicia for coming forward here to want to serve on the board of Selectmen along with I was surprised with many people had thrown their hats in the ring we had John godman and Steve King a couple weeks ago a month ago or so Dave ganian who withdrew tonight and at the RTC meeting last month we had Kathy der roer and Leanne Hutchinson had thrown thrown their names up and again I'm surprised that's a lot of people that have come forward to wanted to serve on the board of Selectmen and I applaud all of them I think that's great but I I
can't help but express my disappointment with the board of Selectmen for not being able to decide two tie votes here these are all great candidates any any one of these would would have been a a great addition to the board of Selectmen and I don't know how you guys are going to solve this two to two all the time how many more people do you think are out there that are going to want to serve on the board of Selectmen like I said there there were several here and I I don't know how you guys going to do it but again disappointed that you can't come to some decision here so that's my two cents thank you very much Carol Le I just would like to add that the members of the Recreation Commission will be formally logging a written complaint regarding statements made by the Town Administrator during the November 12th Board of Select me meeting his statements were unprofessional and untrue even though he stated he wasn't trying to pick on the rec commission his accusations proved to the contrary we believe that the statements made by Our Town Administrator on a public platform were disrespectful and an attempt to cause undue influence on the board of Selectmen and negatively bias any Andover resident who was logged into the meeting we will be sending each member of the board of Selectmen our letter of complaint next week M and we would like our complaint addressed at the January Board of selecting meeting I would also like to add on behalf of the registar voters this was the first time that we had early voting you received several thousand dollar in grant money to cover that we were told to anticipate a very
large turnout so that was not anything that was a surprise and they were forced to work in the basement of the town office building in cramped conditions and they had set up the polling booth in the lower Vault and when a ballast blew out in the lower Vault there was I went down and changed all eight of the light bulbs hoping that it was a light bulb but it ended up being a ballast so the people in those pulling booths were having difficulties seen and I just wanted to add that being denied use of a community room that nobody used during that two week period was just not hi sorry trying to find my mute I I so many so many thoughts one thing about the voting I would like to thank our registers for how they handled that situation I I also felt that the location of the of the early voting was not great especially considering the the charter vote in that room it was so small and trying to read all those questions with all the noise it was so hard to concentrate but you know they did the best with what they had at the
time so I just want to thank them for a job well done with you know the resources that they had and want to wish everybody a happy holiday and you know get on to next year all right Shannon Len nothing to say except thanks for spending all this time and doing what you do for the town Merry Christmas and happy New Year right is Jerry CR on with you Shannon should he no I tried to change that but I wasn't able to thanks for asking okay Joanne Eber I just wanted to Echo what Diane grennier had said earlier about thanking the two you know seemingly qualified candidates for putting their hat in the ring to join you all on the board of Selectmen you know I too am disappointed that with all of the good candidates that have come forward you know we all have our favorites but I just think it's important for the town that we get another person in there and just you know disappointed that we can't do that yet but more a little bit disappointed that we waited tonight and I I felt like they deserved a little bit more of an explanation
of I understand the vote went on and it was two to two but then we dropped it I we didn't hear what was going to happen next or what your plans were and it just kind of abruptly switched and went to the next agenda item and I just think they you do a good job it's just I thought they deserve just a little more of an explanation of what's coming next so thank you Leanne Hutchinson I'm all I'm all set thanks okay Alicia Lee I'm all set thank hamburger I'm fine thanks okay and then I have a phone number I'm not sure I think it's ends in 4294 I'm all set thank you okay did I miss anyone anybody want to add to the their comments or no okay I'd like to wish everyone a happy holiday enjoy and happy New Year so enjoy the rest of the this season and I'm looking forward to next year so anybody else no then I'll make a motion to adjourn second that and second that all in favor I all right thank you very much everyone Merry Christmas Mer Merry
Christmas Merry Christmas to everyone wait okay and meeting