Thank you, Jim. All right, we have everybody with us. I'm going to call to order the Town of Andover Board of Selectmen regular meeting for Monday, December 8th, 2025 at 7 o'clock. our first item on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Okay. Item two is public speak. Katherine Hutchinson.
Yes. For those of you who may not know me, I live on Bunker Hill Road. I'm the very closest house to Route 6. It's about 3/10en of a mile normally to get to Route 6 from my house. The last 8 months and 8 days has been extremely trying, particularly since my barn is on the other side of the road, which means at least two trips a day, taking five miles instead of half a mile, five miles each way instead of half a mile. I really want to thank the board of selectmen for their diligence in pursuing particularly when there were some
glitches in the construction from remaining steadfast and holding the contractor to the contract. the town administrators were also very handson and I appreciate that. the town crew participated and probably other people in the town that I don't know about. And I just wanted to say this afternoon when I drove across the bridge when the inspector said, "Okay, come on." and I drove across it couple minutes after 2:00, it was the greatest feeling in the world. And I wanted to thank everybody that participated and let you know how much I appreciate it. All right.
Thank you very much, Liz Latch. Sorry, trying to trying to unmute. I'm happy for you all and thank you. Thank you as well for getting that bridge opened. congratulations, Kathy. I'm I'm glad you have your your road back.
Thank you.
Okay, Haley Proto.
Nothing at this time. Thank you,
Joanne Heert.
Hello. I'm mainly here to listen because I don't know exactly what's going to be discussed on the items, but I only wanted to say a couple things since you are going to be discussing, you know, some town positions and salaries and I may not have a chance to say it after I learn, listen, and learn. you know with I guess I have strong feelings after serving on the board of finance for those that don't know me either for the past four years and had done a lot of research on some of the positions. So when I speak like this it's not without a lot of thought or preparation or research. So the only thing I wanted to bring up because I really don't know what you're going to propose. I don't think it was in the packet and it probably shouldn't be because it's personnel matters and and salaries of that nature. But you know
in the research that I had done especially involving the assistant to the community and senior center director position I know you know we started off in that position with one full-time employee. you know things were done. She was out of her job for a little while and we had the replacement person come in. So, I just want to remind, you know, I'll listen to all the discussions. I understand there needs to be a lot of coverage in there and everything. So, I'm anxious to see what everything is going to be proposed. I just want to bring up that in my research in, you know, checking into things like this. I did talk to the Marboro Senior Center director, who there is one person there for a town almost double our size. She was a lovely lady. spent a lot of time on the phone with me. she's actually also handles the the duties of the municipal agent and you know, social services person because as we all know, a lot of that stuff can be posted on websites and
things of that nature. So, I've always been advocating as the board of selectmen people know, board of finance people know, the many emails I've written through the year, you know, through my years of trying to get those duties, you know, now that we have the senior center director and community center put back there. Hopefully, that's part of the discussion. and like I said, I don't want to say too much because I really don't know what's going to be discussed, but I'm still advocating for that. So, thank you.
I am all set. Thank you.
Kimberly Person,
I'm all set. Thank you.
Tess Cross,
I am all set, sir. Thank you.
All right. Leanne Hutchinson.
Hi. Yes. I want to tell everyone how thrilled we are that the bridge was open as of today. It really makes a a huge difference in our daily lives and I've used the phrase peace of mind before about having access to, you know, easier for emergency services and just, you know, in addition to routine routine travel and I'm sure it's going to be easier for the town as far as road maintenance and plowing in the winter. So, thank you for your efforts and it's a big relief to have it open.
Okay. Diane Greer,
I'm all set. Thank you very much.
Okay. I have a Zoom login. I'm not sure who that is. If you identify yourself,
Jeff, I don't know if that's me. It's Elaine Bookart.
It is Elaine. How are you?
Thank you. Yeah, just it has a tendency to delete my name every time. I'm I'm basically listening in for when we come to the Vernon area cable advisory committee and the state video advisory committee that you I'm looking for an official appointment to that I've actually been doing since 2015, but I need an official appointment letter. So I'll hang on for that point. Thanks.
All right. And then I'm assuming that 2345 is attorney O'Brien.
Okay. And I got no response. I'm going to assume that's attorney O'Brien. Did I miss anyone?
Okay.
Yes, that is me. I just I just unmuted myself.
Okay,
that's me. Dennis O'Brien. Thank you.
All right. did I miss anyone in public speak? Anybody else like to say anything before we get started? Okay. item three, additions and changes to the agenda. Did any of the members have anything that they'd like to add or delete? Carol,
I do. First, I have a question though. Is Jim available just for a quick question? A couple of questions actually.
Sure. Do you want is it related to items to enter on the agenda or questions you want to ask him?
Well, it's it's for items I'd like to add.
Okay.
So, first off, Jim, for the 5310 grant where we have to schedule a special meeting for the town match portion,
how pressed are we for time on that? Should we add that to the agenda tonight for that to discuss setting that date?
I don't think we're approved. We have to have a special town meeting for the 5310 grant for the new bus because we have a 20% town match.
So, I'm just asking for the deadline on that. Do we have to set that? Should we be setting the meeting tonight is what I'm asking.
I don't think I don't think we're up against a deadline. I have some paperwork I have to file with Greater New Haven Transit that they're asking for on the bus and there's a question or two I don't have the answer to that I'm looking for basically where the the bus is coming from which of two vendors. so I I don't think it's critical that it goes on tonight.
Okay. So we don't have to
you know you know better your process and time frame for getting it on and then getting a town meeting to follow up. But short answer is no.
Okay. I just thought if we had to have it done in February, we'd need to set something now. Second one was we at last meeting we had voted to extend Haley's contract. Did you do anything with signing that or extending that? I have. No, I haven't. I I've seen Haley's contract. I've seen that.
Okay.
Yeah.
All right. So, what I would like to do
That's that's another discussion, too. I think
it is.
Yeah.
So, so what I would like to add to the agenda first, also last month, the chairman of the board of ed asked us to discuss and act on the corrective action plan. So, I'd like to for the Andover Elementary School in the town based on recommendations from our auditor. So, I'd like to add that to the agenda, please. And I would also like to add that we revisit and I don't know what the proper wording for this would be, but in light of the fact that the contract was not signed and extended, Jeff, your motion was to extend her current contract that expired on November 14th until the end of the year. she can no longer be interim director because we have a director and I think that we need to be responsible and send
over a salary amount to the board of finance. I know you went and asked for approval to be over by I believe it was $20,000 on that budget line, but I think we need to revisit the contract whether it's going to be an actual contract or a simple letter of employment. And so those were the two that I'm asking to add. Also the third was Tess had emailed us to ask ask for an executive session. I don't know if she's still asking for that. She had wanted to discuss. I forget what it was she wanted to discuss, but we did all receive an email and I don't see executive session for what she requested. Tess, do you still want to u get with us after this meeting?
Yes, I do.
Okay. All right. So,
so if we can do that, please. I know she sent it over Thursday at around 1:00, which was a couple hours before we got our agenda and our packet. So, so I would just like to add however we need to word it about revisiting the assistant to the community and senior center director and corrective action plan and the executive session for Tess's request. Please. we'll call this o 8 And and 80. So 8N we'll have a discussion regarding the town of Andover corrective action plan for the fiscal year ended June 20 June 30th 2025. Jeff, before you make a motion on that,
can I just say if I don't know how you handle executive sessions in the past, I'll have to knock everyone off and stop the recording. So, I don't know if you want to stop that to the end.
Yeah, we're going to put it after public speak. So, okay.
but let's just get them on the agenda. So, 8, the town of Andover corrective action plan June 30th, 2024. I heard I believe someone say that. All right. And then we'll go 80. discussion regarding the assistant community center.
so we have her on there as 8J. However, I was trying to ask you how we would go about undoing your motion from our meeting last month where you moved to extend till the end of the year with
e current rate.
I don't know.
But nothing was signed.
So let's then let's discuss it there. So we'll discuss
we don't need 80 then is what you're saying to undo.
Okay.
And then we'll put 14A as an executive session employee issue.
Okay. Thank you.
All right. Anybody else? Okay. we'll move on to item. sorry that's not what we need to do. I make a motion that we add 8N town of Andover Corrective action plan discussion regarding the town of Andover Correction Action Plan for fiscal year 2024 June 30th, 2024 ending and item 14A executive session regarding employee issue. we'll add that as 14A. Anybody want to make a second?
I'll second.
Carol Lee is seconding. anybody with further discussion? Okay. I'll go roll call. Any
I
Lee
I.
Jeff Murray.
Hi.
Scott Person.
I Jeff Magcguire. I 5 nothing. Okay. item four, boards and commission presentation. Do we have any boards and commission presentation? I don't believe I saw anything in the packet. No. Okay. item five, appointments. I don't believe there are any appointments for this meeting. Item six, resignation. there was a resignation letter in from Eric Becker from the board of education on page four of our packet. Any further discussion on that? Are we all set? and we'll move on to item seven, Todd administrators report. Jim,
good. Thanks, Jeff.
so you have the report there. on the the item on there, the job postings talk about seeing good responses. Just to give a little followup on that, the bulk of them and the most popular position being advertised is clearly the assistant assessor. We have about 45 applications there. About 17 for town administrator and about eight for treasurer. John Chaponus is kind of weeding through the the assistant assessors is you probably know how Indeed works. You get some people just splashing resumes on there with with or without intent to to actually being serious for it. So he's kind of compiling them into serious and and not serious. And Jeff you had mentioned about maybe John myself and maybe Robera being a committee to look at that. One of my my suggestion is that's that's you
know John has mentioned in emails about holding up the the grand list certification and we should move on that one first and possibly the treasurer the town administrator. we still have a committee to select and so of the three not that it's not important but it it can weight over the other two. So so those are moving along well on I I one of the things Eric didn't get a really a good chance to sit with me on and and go over our gun permits. I'm familiar with the process and the packet I have to give to somebody who comes in and give them the you know the road to to starting the process. As you know, we have a new new resident trooper there. there seems to be a gap and he's checking with Trooper Cook who's out on leave to see because there may be like a login or something with him on that on that site that checks people because he's not seeing the people pop up on his end. So, I'm going to sit with him this week. He wasn't around today to make sure we have this we have this nailed down because I've got some permits here. I've got some checks. he's not seeing those
people is coming back with background checks and fingerprints. So, we're gonna work on that this week. As mentioned, u Bunker Hill, you can forget what I wrote because it's it's now open. there is some items on a punch list or to-do items that have to still be done. mainly the paved swell on either side on the the Route Six side entering the bridge. they were worried they would have had to wait till spring on that. The contractor now tells me they may be able to get some asphalt. They thought most most if not all the asfield plants asphalt plants were closed, but they may be able to get
some hot asphalt and take care of those two swelles. striping. We'll certainly have to wait for the spring, but they're going to put some skids down, some tape down to to, you know, bifurcate the the road for for line striping, temporary line striping. Seating, of course, we'll have to wait until the spring and they'll be removing some stakes and signs that are there. So, that's that's the update on that. I was curious for the town council, were you interested in doing some type of event around this, a ribbon cutting? It's federal money. Do we want to get, you know, federal elected officials, state elected officials here and do something on that? So, I I didn't know how that board of selectment felt about that.
Anybody? you can think about it first or
No, we probably should to be really honest and announce it to the community in the River East. So, let's let's communicate by email or by text on dates that might work for everybody and we'll sit there and see what we can do.
We have to do it before it really snows. So,
yeah, maybe doing it in March, right? just on the veterans fields grant I've been in communication with kind of this intimate group that's familiar with the with the grant. couple decisions I think have to be made here. on the and and just for if everyone's up to speed, I'm not sure. So if I'm repeating myself, I apologize. There's two grants here. There's a steep grant for $500,000 that's going to cover most of the the work there. The second grant to kind of fill it out, and this is how DEECD wanted it, is $250,000 legislative appropriation. So, we're targeting that 250 for the for the playground and accessories around it. We're working with DEC. You have a a resolution you'll need to pass tonight. Actually, two of them related to this. And we have to get them a budget and a budget narrative and the resolution. They will then come back to us with a with a letter of intent and a financial assistance agreement. and then we can kind of move forward from there. just you know just my experience with this and I had mentioned this to Jeff that
you know in in the in the scheme of a of a grant and the grant process and grant administration this grant if you separate it from the steep grant if there's 10 stages to it this grant is about stage two or three so we are moving through going to try and move through it as as quickly as possible both the contractor Millennium and I heard from Gordian today who is the the COG contractor that kind of oversees this have have requested that we give them an additional purchase order. As you may be aware, in order to lock in the cost of the playground, we had to get them a purchase order quickly and we did that. Jeff signed off on that probably over a week ago. They're now saying that the other costs associated with this project come the new year are subject to increase as well. And so they're going to need an additional purchase order for that. I just want to prepare you all for that. I mean, you know, the money's in there for this project. The town has its contribution at least towards the steep grant that the the 250. There's no need for a town contribution. So, just be prepared for for that. And the, you know, the number seems high, but again, it's simply a purchase order of money that will be given to us by the by the state.
Can I just ask a quick question? I know you said grant money, but we're getting 500,000 from STEAP. We're getting 250,000 from the legislative. That's 750,000. The purchase order that Jeff signed is not only for the playground package. It's for the storage shed, the lighting poles, and the pickle ball post for a total of $24,848.95. So, we're up to $99,000 950. Right. And we have 750.
That's what I think is right. Well, there's about I think it's about a $100,000 contribution from the town on that steep grant,
right? I think it was $150 that was voted on February of 24, right?
Okay.
And then don't forget the $10,000 from
the Hartford.
So, you want to add all those up?
So, and
I'll add I'm not going to interrupt. Keep going, Jim. I'm sorry. So in in your mind, just separated, the purpose of the purchase orders, whatever those dollar amounts are, and they're kind of all over the place, are for locking in prices so we don't get hit and end up paying more than we have to. What DEC wants in in on these two grants for reporting is a different matter. So don't conflate the numbers together. The purchase orders are merely to lock in to lock in prices and not get and not get hit. any other questions on on the on the veterans for
all the procedures, all the paperwork that they need to fill out. Are we are you sure that you're going to fill them out, Jim?
Well, a after tonight, Jeff will be signing off on them, but I I did send around I think Scott, you may have been on it because you're you're involved in this. I sent a sample budget around. Did you see what I sent?
Isn't it in the back?
No. No. I was working on the budget.
I was working on the budget today for for DCD as one of the submissions. It's not ready to be looked at. We have to
What I'm What I'm getting at, Jim, it's all the follow-up paperwork that's going to be needed to be kept current. Are you going to be in that time p timetable to do all those that paperwork? Yes. I mean, at at some point, you're going to put in remember the the reimbursements, Scott, come quarterly. So, they'll be maybe at least the final quarter. Somebody else will have to we'll have to do that. But remember, we're two quarters in I wouldn't say in a rears, but we're two quarters behind. And as soon as we get from what they told me, the financial assistance agreement rolling, we can put in for those two. and the third one will be, you know, knocking at our door. So,
okay,
it should be around for the third.
So, just just so we're clear, let's
the $250,000, which is a legislative grant. It's being administered by this group, Jim, that you're dealing with, Susan. that is already approved by the state of Connecticut and needs to be spent during this fiscal year. Right.
Right. But it's already approved. So when you say we're at level two, we're at level two in moving this process forward, which has to move fairly quickly.
Yes.
Okay.
The dominoes will fall. We're tied up in this early stage paperwork.
Okay. And then Scott's question, Scott, the treasur's office is going to handle a significant amount of the paperwork related to the spending of the funds and what gets submitted to the various organizations to get reimbursement from the grants. So let me just on the steep grant. Yes. On the legislative once our paperwork is set, we should be able to put in immediately with a monthl from DCD they claim for half the money without showing them we did anything.
Okay. So we will have the money potentially before it's spent on the pieces of equipment.
Yes.
Okay. All right. Thank you. kind of what I'm saying, Jim, is there's a lot of pieces to this puzzle. And is there any way to put together some sort of order to it so that I, for one, can see the order as though we can keep track of it? You're you're on top of it. Christine's on top of it, but and I asked her the same question. I would like to be able to know what is coming up, what needs to be worked on and and get this progressing correctly. Okay. again, so we have two points. I I've also connected with the DEC person who's administering the state grant. It's not Sheila Hmel anymore. to a gentleman named David Treadwell. So on the two-prong approach, yes, you can know, but we we can start, you know, subject to and again, I'm catching up on this because I'm new to it. The town allocated money on the steep grant. It's it's sitting in an account somewhere because we can I mean, it's a winter now. I don't know how much you're going to get done on the pickle ball courts, but you're not under a time pressure there. I think the key is going to be getting the playground done in the first, you know, by and by May 31st to
be honest with you, not June 30th. And then you could, you have four years to deal with the pickle ball courts. Not that it'll take that long, but Steep is very generous in its time frame, whereas the
legis don't say four years. That'll set Scott off even more.
No, no. I'm I'm It doesn't have to be that long. The plan the plan is to get as much of this done in the next in the spring as possible to close something out. So what what Scott is asking for is some kind of timelines like if we hit these timelines we're okay. I'm more concerned about the money. You're you're basically telling us that the $250,000 once the budget and once you go through this process with DEC that we're going to get funded for that $250,000 in this fiscal year and we're going to spend it in this fiscal year related to the playground.
That's good. The rest of it, Scott, we have approval for all of the rest of the steep funding and the town match. So, if we can get Millennium to sit there and do the work starting in March or April, we can have this project hopefully done by June 30th.
Yes.
At work.
Yeah.
Okay. Another thing, Jim, about I noticed that from Millennium the municipal hub, the Andover Municipal Parking Hub, they they they titled it as something to do with Andover Senior Transportation or something. I know that these things need to have the same titles on every piece of paper. So Millennial has to change that to I think what the state calls it the Andover Municipal Parking Hub.
So those that has when you talk to them again
probably to change that. Yeah. So that it's all titled the same.
I think I used the term too in my report because that's how I was kind of told it was it was characterized. But yeah, the state has its own name for it. Well, a lot. Are we good on the the fields?
Anybody else have any questions?
Just what fund is the 150,000 town match coming from, please?
The general fund. It's not one of our capital accounts like multi-use building, contingency, building maintenance.
I don't think it was budgeted like that. I think it was a town meeting. We asked for approval to spend the money. I'll have to look at the the resolution, Carol, on the vote, but I don't think we sat there and pulled it from anything.
I don't think they determined what fund the night of the meeting. It was just to approve the $500,000 Steve grant and the $150 town match.
So, we're we don't know where that money is coming from, Jeff. what fund just so we can keep the board of finance advised as to what we're taking and where we're taking it from.
It would come out and that's fine and we'll sit there and get with the treasurer, but in my head it would come out of the general fund.
Okay.
Thank you.
Okay. And Scott mentioned the the municipal hub grant and I I again I'm assume you're kind of aware of this as Eric you know briefed me on it. and if you look down in the in the packet I'm going to go to the page on this. So you see you you had requested and they didn't scan did they scan completely I guess they did the these are the elevation drawings I think when I was sitting with Eric we had asked for renderings Millennium you know informed us that renderings are quite expensive and more time consuming threedimensional renderings so they've given us the elevations so on page 11 you can see that second floor there on the on the municipal hub and the side view and so on. So that's what they requested so you see what you're getting. Now along those
lines, and I just wanted to make sure you're aware of it. The original DEC budget for this comes in at 300 and about $390,000 and Millennium has advised me for this second floor there's an adjustment in the cost bringing that cost now to
it's another 83,000 880 right for something. So I I don't know if you had handled that in the past, not handled it. I wasn't briefed on that. So I I wanted
This is just This is justformational purposes. Jeff Murray, is that a reasonable amount of money for I mean because they were supposed to have basically a second floor anyway, but not garages, which they didn't do in the drawing, but for an extra $75,000 to pick up three or four feet of roof height.
They they were changing the the whole framing on the
It all depends. Like if they were just doing trusses before and now they're going to have to stick frame it. It's probably Yes. If we're going with, you know, with joist and rafters, then instead of just trusses.
Okay. Well, this is something that we're going to have to sit there and deal with. you know, I mean, I I honestly believe it's I've always thought it was a good idea to take that page 12 and not make a door of it, but actually garage doors and actually have storage for the rec commission, storage for the seniors, storage because right now everybody's putting anything that they have either in the community center or in the public works department building. So, but I just don't know. I mean, that's obviously another 75 or $80,000 that we'd have to sit there and deal with.
this board approved that, Jeff. And we we wanted it for the storage and to put the doors on coming in from the the other side.
I I agree. and I want to vote for it, but I also know it's it's an extra 70 or $80,000 that we'd have to take out of either one of the building funds or we'd have to sit there and go to public meeting and actually get the town to approve it.
Yeah, but Jeeoff, it was actually in the beginning it was just it was an unfinished space, right? It was just going to be an attic.
Yeah, it was going to be an attic. There was going to be a little bit of Eric was going to have a door on the right side of the or the left side of the building to enter into that attic area. And
yeah, I'd just be curious to see what the justification is because maybe they're going to you know, instead of putting trusses, like I said before, they're going to actually frame the floor for a load and then you know, put rafters up and that that way because if we're making it a space, they might have to be they may be doing the loads differently. I think Jeff I think they're putting just different trusses in to have the space up there.
Yeah. I mean it's I mean what they're laying out is a completely open space. What I would sit there and do is just maybe four garage doors or three garage doors and allow whoever the entity that we're giving access to. So the rec commission has one garage door and has one set of space and the seniors have another set of space and you know we we sit there and have one for the town because we always have stuff that popcorn makers or different things that need to be moved in different places. you know so I think it's a great idea. I just I'm going to tell you it's it's a $80,000 and we're going to have to get it approved and we're going to have to understand this is what we're asking for and why. I mean I I know it's better than running stuff down at public works
all the time.
I could do if you look at page 13 it's it's not really broken down. economy is broken down generally, but the items that Jeff had mentioned, Jeff Murray had mentioned really aren't in there. but there's your
What's the difference? Just so we understand, just so so when I sit there and I look at the page 14, I have $389,000,
right?
$275,000 is the is program one. What's the 114? That's the town of Andover's contribution.
Yes.
Well, we're going to have to go back and look at the whole motion related to this in the town meeting because I know we had
150.
Yeah. But then then that's on top of that. You need another $200,000 to do this the way that it's laid out. So we have to understand the where the money the sources of in of money are from. So
well it's as steep as a 275 for this product
and you're about 115. I don't know. I
mean I don't know where they're putting that from and and did we approve that because normally we would have approved 20 or 25%. So if we said 275
and normally around 20
% it would have been a $55,000 match. So now we're we're way out of joint to put that second floor on there. And
this was never funded after we talked about changing the trusses on the top. Nothing ever happened. No, I know the funding I know the funding is not I know the I know the additional costs, but we never really even had a we had an initial plan from Eric, but I don't necessarily know that Eric ever got us a call.
He did. He did. He called Millennia. They came out, you know, right before he left and had a meeting and they put together he told us they put together those plans.
Okay. let's put this off to our next meeting because we're gonna have to do Jim, we're gonna have to do some research on funding. We're gonna have to look at the resolution that was passed at town meeting and make sure that we're where we're lined up from the monetary side of this. Anybody Anybody have any other questions related to this?
Okay. Longill Road. So, I I mentioned that I have to get my head around it. So, I did speak to Tom Weldon from VHB who's the that's the states consultant on this. and he gave me a little more a little shed a little more light on it. So, I I had emailed them. I guess it had to be done officially from the town in writing. SLR who did the was the consulting firm for construction inspection on Bunker Hill was also the successful firm for for Long Hill Road. So they now have to get a fee proposal to the to the state. We put in in the Harford Current in the newspaper the legal notice for for bids back on November 25th. The return date on that and the bid opening is going to be now on January 8th. It it originally was I think December 23rd and VHB has asked us to extend that. we don't have to repost or anything. They just asked for the extension and u I was fine with that. He he thought around the holidays the c the u the bidding firms might be in a bit of a crush. So he
asked for the extension after the new year. after that it'll be another two and a half weeks he says for him to review. Then those bids will be analyzed by another designer of record hired by DOT which is Michael Baker and he will line them up for us to see which is the lowest responsible bidder for the award. and that has to be done all has to be done ahead of the March 4th deadline. So this project I know you were probably told by Eric it's going to happen in the spring. It's certainly going to happen in the spring. once that contractor is chosen, letters have to go back between
us and the state confirming the award. Then there's a notice to proceed and then the preconstruction meeting will probably happen sometime in April or early May. So, just so you know, just because Bunker Hill is done and we're moving on to Long Hill, we're not moving on till you know, the mid-spring on this just because of the process. Any questions I could fill in on that? I kind of gave you a lot of
No, no. Good. Okay. on I think the I think I have the contract in the report. Eric had said, you know, keep an eye on fuel for heating oil and diesel. When it dips below 260, it's a good time to do it. And it was hovering above $260 plus cents. there was a I think that whatever the date of the contract is, it went to 257 and 255 respectively. And so I did sign with Dime Oil for heating and diesel fuel. That contract is done. That's for next fiscal year.
Did you say that was for next fiscal year?
I'm sorry. It looks like it's
Yeah, calendar year. Sorry. Okay,
I'm looking at the next item for school year. the departments received their budgets for the upcoming budget season. They have till January 8th to return them. some may do it quicker or not, but they are out there. The departments have received all of them.
No question there, Jeeoff. Okay.
No, you're all good.
Yep. I had we were having some trouble with Mnt Bank especially with regard to AC payments which are large and important and apparently they still had Eric as the global administrator and I could not get on there to send those a payments and I think it came up last month too and Eric was still here and he ultimately had to do it. So I think we're all set now. They said we're all set. We'll find out obviously next month when the time comes, but I think I lost probably much of the morning on Monday dealing with three different offices at at Mnt, but I think they're I think we're good. I know I know as as much about cannon axles as I know about cannon, but I spoke to Scott Yman and he came in and said there was going to be remember there was going to be a need to cut that axle at public works for the cannon. There's no need to do that. The axle can be installed originally as anticipated. Whether that's the historic society's call on when to do it. I don't know if we want to do that in the winter or you want to do something in the spring. I assume they will they will kind of make that call.
isn't it dependent upon when they get the t the the wheels?
Oh, that's a good question. I thought I thought they had wheels. They wait for
that working on the wheels down there. They had the wheels down there.
The wheels are finished, Scott.
They look like finished wheels. Yeah. public works and plowing just to keep you Eric and I have are working closely. He he's always texting me if there if they have to go out there. you know, we had the scare last Tuesday with whether it was going to be rain or icy rain or snow, whether he's got the guys out and ready or he is you know, salting where he has to do it. So, that that relationship is good. And, you know, as we get to the winter, I think that that's important. He's very accessible and he keeps me in the loop on that. I probably should have mentioned this
back on the veteran on Long Hill. the public works did some tree cutting near the long hill project. That's going to be essential when it comes to utility relocation. My understanding was Bunker Hill got held up somewhere in the area of six weeks because Eversource was a little slow or maybe it was Frontier actually in doing that
Frontier
in doing those re utility relocations. So, we've done our part. Again, whether we're delayed on it or not, we'll we'll have to see. I met up with John Guskowski over at the CCM conference. I have I know John. I haven't met with him on his role here, and I'd like to do that. So, I'm setting up a meeting for next week with him. Some items that aren't in the report that I think I'll just add now. the Percy Cook Trail. Kevin Grindle from Barton and Logaduce will be at the BOE meeting on Wednesday night. You folks saw those elevations and those drawings last month. He's going to present them to board of education because they have some questions. I won't even say concerns yet, just questions because of the proximity to their their fields on that on that trail. So, Wednesday night, he'll be able to answer any of their questions and show them exactly what they're getting.
Jim, when when you talk to him again, can you ask him to field locate the
location of those where where it's going to come closest to the school so they don't worry about it?
Yes.
Just quickly, you know, they don't have to go out with survey equipment, but, you know, somehow staking. Maybe
anecdotally, I think I remember Eric saying something like, "Well, I won't I won't I won't I don't mash up his word." So, yes, I'll I'll do that, Scott. and we did purchase some this is with with Jeff taking a look at this. Our IT contractor came back with an offer on some refurbished computers. Apparently the computers in the the clerk's office were giving them some trouble. we're a bit behind the time and so u they gave us an estimate or gave us a price of a $100 each for refurbished computers and u they're going through town hall and giving us a number I think maybe as many as eight they're going to they're going to ultimately redo but for that cost it seemed to be a no no brainer and that's all I have on the report
okay anybody have any questions for Jim on any of the specific items?
I don't have questions, but Jim, I just wanted to let you know that as far as the pistol permits, you do have to have a login and you have to take annual training on that and then you take a test at the end of the training and you have to pass all that in order to get your login information. So,
is that for me or the trooper? So, if you want, anybody who is handling is supposed to do this training. if you go into the town clerk's email, have Roberta go in there and pull out the information. I I forget the lady's name. I'll probably remember it right after we sign off the meeting, but she'll email you the information. You have to take the test. So, anyone that's handling that, Jeff Maguire had to take it because he signs off as our chief of police on the temporary permits. And were you also informed too that the temporaries are $70 when the applicants come to pick up their temp?
this
I have a number of checks in the next. So I Jim. So yes, I am aware.
Okay. Because they have to go on and do everything that pay for the fingerprints themselves online.
Okay. Eric, Carol, because the state troopers are qualified and have already passed all that testing. Eric was working to get the troopers to sit there and do that because they're familiar with all of those background searches. And before our trooper ripped up his knee, he was doing those. So now what we're in is we're in a little state where we have a problem because the new trooper is not as up to speed and qualified. You know, he he is he has taken all those tests and he can do it. He just needs a little bit of training. So that's what's going on right now. Jim,
you're saying now that you've taken it right out of any town employee hands, you don't have to go through the training.
Correct.
Town admin doesn't even though he's taking the applications in.
Correct. Yep. Because the trooper is doing all the background work and dealing with that. U he's the one coming back and saying they're qualified and they've passed the background test.
So, I'll work with Jim. We have a little bit of an issue in that the our our resident state trip.
So, we will sit there and work on that. but yes, it's a little bit of a of a mess because the trooper blew out his knee playing I forgot what he was playing.
Okay. Can I go back to one more thing, Jeff, before
Sure, no problem. It's your report.
So, so and Apparently, River East made a bit of a mistake. We didn't want to put the ad or you folks at this, you know, didn't want to put the ad in Thanksgiving week because it was Thanksgiving week. So, we Kate gave it to them for the week after. They put in the job ads for the three positions and then said, "Go to the website for more information." And then Kate has the information. This is for the public portion of the selection committee. They did not put in the call for the public for this selection committee. so it's going to go in but we're we're going to harass them. We harassed them today. They didn't get back to us. We'll harass them tomorrow because it's got to go in by noon. Kate has received no responses from the website posting. We'll see what we get. I don't know if you folks have heard anything from individuals as a as a board people expressing interest in that but that's right now it's a gap that we have for that selection committee.
Well the the date on that was the 21st
19 to be
okay. So, I just recommend to anybody that's out there to sit there and and and let people know that might be interested and sit there and see what we can do. But get the River East to post it and let's sit there and see what we get back for the 19th.
That was it.
Okay. Anybody have any questions for Jim? All right, Jim. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. I'm sure we'll have more stuff for you, Jim, as we go through this. All right. old business. let's see. Jim went through the Bunker Hill. So, Jim went through a B.
I have one question on Bunker Hill, though. And I asked Jim today, maybe you know, Jeff, when we we were told that Bunker Hill Bridge was fully funded, fully reimbursed from the state and fed
federal government. Correct.
Okay. So, the town had put in we had $400 and some odd th,000 in that line under Capitol Bunker Hill Bridge and it was identified. Can you tell me where that 400 and some odd thousand was deposited?
It never gets deposited. It's sitting in the the bank account for the town. So, I think what was the plan was we were going to have to be spending money.
So, what would occur is we would spend money on the bridge, submit a request for reimbursement, and then that money would get reimbursed and it would just roll over. So, Eric's thought was we'd have to have some money available,
right? because I know we have to have the money. We have to put that money out. But I just was looking through the capital accounts and we have one that's titled bridge and culvert. And I would think that maybe
Oh, there's a separate thing, Carol. The culverts are a totally different thing. So bridge and culverts are
we know we have to put up money on all those culverts that we have potentially to do. So we were going to do biz road next year. We pushed it off so that we would do the long hill bridge and that's money that we've been saving to do the culverts. Now, if there was money that was put there specifically for Bunker Hill Bridge, that was just a holding place to be really honest.
Right. So then that 400 I was just saying if we had one just that was bridge fund the money could get deposited back in there and just change it to longill bridge because so we should not have to tax our residents again
to have that money in that account because the 400 and something that we had in Bunker Hill Bridge we've been reimbursed. I I don't think we taxed any resident for Bunker Hill Bridge ever.
Yes, we did. We We taxed them at 120,000 one year. I think it was 2223 and 2324. It was 160,000. I know.
Correct. And then we rolled all that money into the culvert and the bridge and culverts so that we could save money to do all of the culverts in town. And Carol, we may as well just talk about this at our next meeting. You can you can get all the details you want, submit it to all of the members of the board, and we'll go through it. But I can sit there and tell you I get I get accused of wanting to have higher taxes, but I know for a fact we never sat there and taxed.
I'm not accusing you of taxes. I'm just saying
it's a joke, Carol.
I'm just saying that we put that money in and that money should be available there to fund to have the money in the fund for Long Hill Road Bridge. That's all I'm asking.
That's fine. We'll have to Okay. We'll What we'll do is we'll ask we'll ask the finance department to give us a an accounting of all of the funds that are available and the money that is available. So, in this situation, that money is money that we have been putting aside on a year-to-year basis, saving money because we know we have to pay 50% of the covert costs. But I I know that we never sat there and taxed the residents on the Bunker Hill Bridge project.
because it has been 100% funded
since for three years. Yeah,
it was it was in the budget though. And when I did ask Eric about it before he left, he said that that seed money had to be in there because we have to pay the bill first and then get reimbursed. So yes, we did tax our residents 120,000 one year, 160 another, and it was at 400 and something at one point.
Okay. Well, let's look at it. And then, you know, if we were going to do it, then that money would just move over to the culvert fund because we're going to end up spending money on culverts. So,
all right, we'll look at that and we'll get some data for the next meeting. anything else on Jim? Well, let's just go. Anything on the status of the veteran field improvement because he discussed that
ghost.
Okay. We just actually no, we got to do resolutions. I'm sorry, Jim. Where are they?
They're down under new business. Okay. All right. We'll wait then. Niko Animal Control cancellation. what is the date on that? They're cancelling at the end of this current fiscal year.
I'm not even sure if it extends that far. I I thought it was more immediate, actually. So anyway, just what I've been doing is to try and and deal with it. So if it's end of the fiscal year, that actually gives us more time. But I've reached out to Hebrin and Hebrin's interested in helping us. However, they're in the middle of doing a new public works facility, which will include an animal control, a new animal control. So they're just not ready to absorb us. But I think once they do that, they'd be a possible interest. I reached out to Windham because Windham was doing an expansion, but I was advised that from the town that the town engineer actually that the expansion there is more office employee space and it's the facility really isn't in a condition to help us out. I've reached out to Mansfield. I haven't heard back yet. Somebody suggested Coventry might be another option too. So
I'm exploring options with that.
Okay. With Coventry, reach out to Eric Eric and sit there and see.
Not Anderson, but Eric from public works. Just sit there and have any context.
All right. 8 D. the review of the senior transportation garage status. So for everybody, let's just look at that together. on page 11 and 12 are those those drawings just everybody you know we need to sit there and all be on the same page if we think that is a good idea so for the next meeting once I can get the money side of it rectified or reconciled we'll come back and talk but just on page 12 if you actually believe that you know storage up there is is positive then I I know we've talked about it Scott I just want to make sure that everybody's on the same page as we move forward and I'll get the financial reconciliation of the the numbers done for the next meeting.
construction,
he changed it. He changed it so there would be bays coming in from one side of that. So the whole trust system had to be changed.
Okay.
And to put doors on one side otherwise you would have to come in from one end. It would just be roof line on the front and the back. Yeah. I mean,
so I mean you could keep it with, you know, walking in one end and, you know, divide it out in some way, but there certainly would be a lot more space and a lot easier to use if you came in from the side of it.
Yeah. If you had garage doors right there where he has one door laid out, you just had garage doors and the groups were had key and you you don't have to build walls. You just put chain link fence in there and that's space. Yeah. Okay. 8E construction inspection services for Long Hill. Jim went through that in his report. Are there any other questions on that? No. Okay. 8F AES RFP for bathroom renovations. Do we have any additional information on that, Jim?
I don't. I'm gonna have to kind of defer maybe to you on this because I really don't. Well, I don't have anything. Jeff Murray.
Yeah. Yeah. I haven't been updating this project in general.
I haven't heard anything from the superintendent or the board since our last meeting.
Okay.
We'll keep an ear open on for Wednesday, maybe.
Then we'll move on. HG, AES Transportation. there's been a request from the superintendent and the well I'll just say the superintendent regarding the transportation vehicle. the request has been that the town fill the gas up for the vehicle that they use to pick up the student and bring the student to and from school. that bus does not get used fairly significantly by the town. But what I have asked is I've asked
that anytime the town uses that bus, they fill the tank up with gas. if the bus is used solely by the school and the tank is empty, the school has to take the time to go fill up the gas tank. That's basically it. Any other issues related to AES transportation?
Did you get a response?
Oh, I haven't told the school this yet. I told Tess this. So basically the request the issue is if we use the bus anytime we use the bus even if there's three quarters of a tank of gas in the bus and we use the bus that we fill it up and if we don't use the bus and the school uses all the gas then the school needs to fill it up. It's I mean you're going past the gas station to pick up the child one way or the other. So you either plan to go early or you plan to go on your way back. It can't really be that hard. Okay. Anybody else? All right. 8H the NIP program request for expenditures. I did not get in touch
with Megan Lai, so I still have to do that. It's going to have to stay there. item 8 I Percy Cook Trail preliminary plan. The U engineer is going to the board of education meeting. So that will help move this potentially along and get us a a design that we may be able to go back and sit there and get funded. So anybody have any questions on 8 I? Okay 8J discussion and possible action to the assistant to the community and senior center director salary and job description. So we have not sat there and signed resigned that contract. That's something that I'll get with Jim on and we'll get that done. but no, that hasn't happened.
My question is the job description is going to be different because Tess is the director.
So, is the director Tess has been working on those job descriptions.
right.
Those
Tess, can you send those out to us also when you get a chance? Right. And I I know I've seen it, but
I do believe you all have those in your in what I sent to you. Okay. So, we all need to review those and then get those back. And so, what we'll do is by email, we'll all communicate and try to get this done, you know, within the next week so that we can sit there and have that documented.
I still think we should set an hourly rate for that. we don't have an hourly rate. I did call around different towns and the average for the assistant to the director is 20 to $28 per hour. I would like to suggest that we pay $24 an hour because right now the con well Haley doesn't even have a contract. though I don't know that the treasurer's office has been instructed as to what the hourly rate would be, but the assistant should not be making the same as the director. So, I would just like to suggest that we do that at 19 hours at 24 or $25 an hour because like I say, the range is 20 to 28 per hour. Coventry is somewhere around $21 an hour that they pay their assistant. and I know we're going to wait to look at the job description to go over that with Tess, make sure that everything works out to her approval. But I think we definitely have to set a dollar per hour
amount rather than just keep letting this go until our next meeting. And if we don't want to set it tonight, maybe we should set a meeting, special meeting for next week to set that hourly dollar rate after
something in the job description. Once we get an email, what I would like to do, what I would like to do is get with I will get with Jim and we will sit there and send out an email as to what the current compensation is and then we'll all discuss either by email or by text or by phone what we should set it at and we will have a u an email vote to sit there and get it approved. Is that acceptable to everybody?
Either way, the email vote would then constitute a special meeting. So either way, we have to hold a special meeting at a certain time to have that vote. And like I say, we we have our treasurer paying out the $34 an hour that we voted on back last I believe it was August in public session. No, it was before August because we extended I just think we should
let's like we're we're talking about something that we don't have all the documentation in front of us. So for me it's extremely difficult for the total dollars. I know that we sat there and had a meeting where we were going to sit there and compensate Haley at the same level. So what we're doing now is a little bit different. So, I'd like to have all the information in front of me, Carol, and then we can sit there and
I understand that, but we didn't have documentation when we voted to initially hire her as interim because the job description that went under the interim director was had a lot less responsibility. but yet still compensated at that $34 per hour. So I'm just saying we have the range. I called and asked it's 20 to 28 an hour. So
I just don't think in public session this is something we want to do right now.
We've done it before in public session. again and but
we we do everything. If we do it in public session, it's better because then our board of finance directly has that dollar amount. They know what they're working with. They know how much over.
If we had all of the information and all the documentation at our fingertips, I'd be sitting there saying, "Okay, if this was on that we were going to actually get this done at tonight's meeting, I would be okay with it. I I really would. But I don't have all the information. And so if we have to schedule a special meeting, we're going to end up having to sk a special meeting. I'm trying to
do that tonight for next Monday night. Schedule a special meeting. And this way it gives us all time to research. Talk to Tess. We can throw this out a little bit during our executive session too if you'd like.
but I think we really need to address this. I don't really want to do that in our executive session.
Okay, then we won't do that in executive session. We can hopefully have a special meeting on Monday and do it right out in public session.
No problem. Okay.
can we do that?
You can.
So, can you ask if everyone else is I mean, I don't want to just throw out Monday if it's not good for everyone else. Today is the 8th. What time does everyone have next week?
Monday and Wednesday. Jeff Hurry, are you available on Monday?
Yes. Okay. 7 o'clock on Monday.
Thank you.
For a a very quick meeting.
Okay. Okay. Discussion and possible action on the board clerk's payroll request. So, we had gotten a request from the board clerk. she currently gets paid as a subcont as a vendor because she meets all the vendor requirements. She doesn't really meet payroll requirements, employee requirements. She's not controlled by anyone within the town. She doesn't use town resources. She uses her own home computer so on. So she has a request that she come under the town's payroll. I spoke to the treasurer. The treasurer has already made her opinion that she doesn't believe that she qualifies as an employee. it's up to the board. I just we did it in the past when Jay came back just to sign off on bills. He was paid through payroll.
We had discussed paying him through 1099, but he went directly through payroll
board9 coming into our office and utilizing our space to sit there and deal with what he was doing. There's just little different rules for employees and then non-emp employees. So, and listen, the IRS is more concerned about people who are employees being paid as subcontractors than they are about people who are being paid as employees that may not qualify. What it does do is it does put us in some additional expenses related to social security, Medicare, and unemployment taxes. And I'm not sure if it makes us I don't believe she qualifies for any of the other benefits, you know, in her situation. So,
we can't even get board clerks. I
just not all of ours.
I just don't know how you pay them. You know, you're going to be given you're not going to be doing it on an hourly basis and you're not going to do it on a salaried basis. It's going to be a it's going to be something that comes just like a bill. She's going to present a bill and say put it through payroll. Well, with all the like even this this this meeting is being transcribed, right? I mean, I know. I saw that. it's being transcribed. So, well, let me talk to Marina. Let me sit there and see what what she really wants or what she's saying. I mean, she shouldn't be an employee to be really honest.
Just wants to be paid through payroll. So, so that all of the
which
taxes are taken out. That's all.
Yeah. Which qualifies as an employee, which has us pay social security, Medicare as a community and has us pay unemployment taxes as community. So, all right. maybe we can put that on our next on our special meeting as a quick item. let me talk
to talk to Marina prior to that.
Yep. And then we'll have a I mean it's it's you know reality is it's a no one controls the work of the board clerk. The board clerk does their job, submits a document, the document gets reviewed, they make changes. There's nothing. It's really not an employee position. But let me talk to Marina and we'll put it on the agenda for next Monday. Anybody else on that one? Okay. 8 L discussion and possible action on prior acting town clerk salary request.
Okay. So at our last meeting, Jeff, you said that you were going to check with the treasurer to get the dollar amount that was paid. Did you have a chance to talk with her on that?
I did not talk to her about that issue. No. Okay. So, I did talk with the prior not the last acting town clerk, but the one before and the she's just acting asking to be compensated the same as the acting town clerk that came in after her for 11 weeks was compensated. She was the acting town clerk from February 2nd until August 22nd. She was paid the assistant town clerk salary which was $20.50 per hour from February until I believe it was June. But what I did was I took the acting I took the town clerk salary which is what the one of the acting town clerks was paid. She was giving the given the town clerk salary and was not required to work the 34 hours a week. Could select their own hours and I was checking the website. It was basically no more than 30 hours every week. So the town clerk salary figures out to be $1,11058 per week. The assistant would have worked for 29 weeks from February 1st to August 22nd, which would have meant that she should have been compensated at $32,26.82. She was compensated at she was paid $19,322.95 If you take the difference of the two, she was shortch changed by $12,88387. So
last time you told us it was 57. I thought it was around 5,000 because what I did and 5,000 something 6,000 because what I did was I calculated the difference of the $6 per hour for the last couple of months because if you remember we discussed increasing from the $2050 an hour to 28. So yes, I had a very large miscalculation there, but these are actual figures. I asked for the actual gross that she was paid. and I honestly feel that we owe that to her. She was the acting town clerk. The argument before was that I was in the office training her. Well, I just looked on our last month's QuickBook report and there was another town clerk that was in there assisting the last acting town clerk, too. So, the situation is the same. There was someone in there working to help. I was only there the 19 hours a week because that's all that I could work once I retired. So I'm just acting asking that we are fair and that we pay her the amount that she is owed.
Okay. First thing is she wasn't appointed to the town clerk until like the last two weeks
when there is no town clerk. state law mandates that you have an acting town clerk.
Okay?
You might not have appointed her,
but one of the contracts or employment letters, I don't know what you'd like to call it, but in that packet that Eric had sent out after my request did say she was the acting town clerk from February 1st. So, state law said we might not have done that. We might not have physically said that we appoint her as acting, but she had to be because you can't not have an acting town clerk.
Okay. And what were you paid for the 19 hours that you worked from the
I was paid $60 per hour.
The clerk that the clerk that came in to assist with the second person was paid $50 per hour. So yes, I was I was that person from union 19 hours.
That doesn't even matter. That doesn't even matter.
We just got to sit there. We got to just sit there and go this way.
Previous one second, Scott. One second.
10 hours.
One second. The previous individual was hired as the assistant town clerk, was a member of the union and sat there and held that position.
It was a union position, but she was not a member of the union. The town employees cannot position that you as the previous town clerk hired. We as a board cannot hire an assistant town clerk. We can only hire a temporary town clerk to deal with the issue that we dealt with when this individual resigned. Right. So now you're coming back to us and you're telling us that we owe her somewhere between what? $13,000. You're trying to say
1288387.
Okay.
because the other forget the other forget the drama. Forget the drama related to the other's the other town clerk that we as a board had to appoint. Forget that. Let's deal with the
There's no drama. It's fact.
Did we ever vote? No. Did we ever vote on a secondary salary? For who? For the union individual from the the the person
for the acting
the person that we appointed that we had to appoint Lauren Persan that we had to appoint because we were in a situation where we had no one going into an election and who went in there and did that level of work. We can only appoint an acting town clerk. So she got the acting town clerk wage. But what is the acting town clerk wage? The town clerk's salary.
Isn't that what she got?
That is what she got. Yes.
Okay. Then that's her wage.
But so when we appointed the other as the acting town clerk,
I didn't appoint her. I didn't want to appoint her. I didn't want to appoint her. And we only appointed her, technically only appointed her for the last two weeks because we were forced by the Secretary of State's office.
It was the Department of Public Health and I believe it was a little bit more than two weeks, but I'm not sure. But you we did vote and set the hourly rate at $28 per hour for that acting town clerk. It was in our motion. $28 an hour.
That is exactly what we did. And there is an employment letter from Eric in that packet. Yes.
Well, if there's a disc there's two different issues here. One is the issue of of this $13,000 back pay which you're discussing and if you need to bring a different issue and we need to reconcile a different issue, we will go do that. But that's a separate issue. Two different issues. Let's deal with the first one,
okay?
That's on the agenda. And if and if you have another issue related to the town clerk's off office and that we have an overpayment to the previous acting town clerk, we'll sit there and deal with that. All right. But on a deal with this one for the prior individual, if you want to make a motion to pay back wages like that, you make that motion and go ahead. I would like to make the motion that we pay the prior acting town clerk $12,883
Anybody want to second that?
I'll second that.
Okay. Second.
We had this discussion last month and I said delta There was there was there was a discussion that there was times that Carol was in there where we were paying Carol as a consultant and then Britney was there. Now if Britney was there the period that Britney was there alone without anybody else in that office I would consider her the Octing Town clerk. So whatever though whatever that date is to the time she left is a number. I don't think I don't know if it's the 12,000 because I Carol I think you were there during that some of that period right or no?
So I was there until the end of June officially but I'm trying to I know
I think before we were talking like six weeks right there was like a six week thing. So there would have been seven weeks between July and August.
And then there were a couple of weeks too in there that I wasn't there. I was way on vacation.
Yeah, that happens all the time. I mean, if you go on vacation,
we don't pay the assistant that salary. But I'm just saying the time that she was there alone in that office is the time I would consider her acting town clerk. I don't know what the amount is because we're we've got two different amounts
now. You're down to six or seven weeks, Jeff Murray.
Well, that's that's what I thought we talked about.
And then you're talking about what she was paid versus what Carol thinks she's owed.
All right. So, so what we're seeing
she got a boost. She got a boost those last two weeks, right?
Yeah. Because she was she was the town clerk for two weeks.
28 an hour is what she was given.
Well, let's vote on this first one. So, what was what was she pay? What was she paid before we even do we
What was she paid
before she got the raise? before she Okay, so it was $20.50 per hour is was the union contracted hourly rate for the assistant town clerk. July 1, that hourly rate went up to 21 in change because there was a 3% increase in the hourly. Okay. So, I'm just trying to think the delta between what she the 28 and the 21 and then the time period. So, so she was getting the full 28 for two weeks. And so, if we're talking a six week period, she was getting the full 28 the last two weeks. And she didn't she never said anything bad like I wasn't getting paid enough or and then so then we'd have the
We had the meeting though, Jeff. There was
I tried to get her the hourly rate of the town clerk, but there was the argument that
other employees would, you know. Yeah. So,
so that was
And what's the town clerk's salary per hour now?
Yeah, it's 30 something per hour. I didn't figure out hourly. I just figured weekly because the town clerk's salary is based on a 34hour work week. So,
but actually that's even a good question. who sets that salary?
So, actually the board of selectman does. I know every year when we go forward for the raises, it's in that budget worksheet that we're given.
So, as a as a as an elected official, the board of selectmen sets that salary. You said all salaries. Yes.
Well, I know we set all salaries, but that's actually an interesting one. Let me look at that.
Okay. so what are we doing with the motion that's on the table?
I'm I'm trying to I was just trying I'm sorry, the hourly. so the 57750 is 326 66 an hour. Joe
32.66 and before she was making 21, right?
Yes. $20.50
$116.
I got $12.16. I put something in wrong. You said it was 32. It's all 32.
Hang on. Okay,
Write it down.
How many weeks are you doing?
So, divided by 34 hours, it's 3266. And I wrote it down.
Okay. She was m she was making 20
50
$20.50.
Okay,
So I got a difference of $12.16 an hour.
Okay.
So, and so what hour you said that was a 36-hour work week or 32?
34. 34. So if you time that difference times 34
work week and it times four weeks,
it would be seven weeks.
I mean I still come up with 28 89 32. There's the difference. So if you take the difference between what she was making and that times 7 weeks, 34 hours a week, 28.89 89. I just think she came in, she did the job, she did a good job for all that time.
I guess question, Carol, when you were there training her, who signed off as town clerk? When you had to have something that the town clerk officially had to do?
She signed off as a town clerk.
I could not sign off.
You did not. So
I could not legally I could not.
Right. So Carol was not the town clerk at that time. This other the other one was the acting town clerk since February. So I think she should be paid the amount from February.
Do we even know if she was working the hours?
You can shake your head an hour. He absolutely worked a minimum of 26 hours per week.
No, that's not what we're saying. Did she work 34 hours or or 20 hours or 12? Yes, she worked a minimum of 26 hours every week and then she bumped up to 30 hours per week, which was the same hours that the clerk's office was open for August through November. I just think it's only fair that we treat employees fairly.
I think it's inconsistent. I think it sets a bad precedent and I think she was a union employee that was hired as an assistant town clerk and un she understood that
she helped.
And I have a major problem. Carol, I'm sorry. One last thing. I have a major problem with how we got here. That's what I have a problem with. Carol, I just think we need to be clear with the employees. She worked. She earned that money. And I'm sorry. I hear what you're saying, Jeff, as far as the difference in the hours and when she was there alone. But being alone or having someone work with her, what is the difference? Because we had someone else working who had someone there in the office too. So
stop and deal with this separately. So if this is the issue, let's stop tying tying the issue that we had to address after Britney resigned. Stop address tying them together. Let's deal with them separately because they are honestly two different things. So what are we doing with the prior assistant town clerk? Do you want to vote on the the motion to pay her $12,800 or whatever the number was? Because I I'd like to call it for a vote. Let's go. Anybody further discussion on it or are we going to revise the motion? What do we want to do? I mean, the time that she was there, like I said, my 2889 number, that's the time she was working there alone as the town clerk. That's that's how I see it.
Jeff Murray,
you have didn't work.
Wait, just Carol, just wait a second, please. Let me talk. You You went back and checked somebody else's hours prior to this. So, this whole thing has to be done also and find out exactly how many hours Britney was paid for. Not just have seven weeks or since last February. It has to be an exact thing. We're working for the town. It's just taxpayers money.
Oh, I agree.
Yeah. Well, I mean, Scott, what I'm saying is the town clerk, acting town clerk is supposed to be there 34 hours a week. That's what just Carol just said. So, if there she's getting paid for I'm just saying just just to total up for seven weeks. The difference is that 2889 number.
But can I just ask you Jeff, why is it that when she was working alone when we already had the other person had an assistant working with them?
I don't but I I I'm just I just want to discuss this.
Not an assistant had a private.
She was the assistant town clerk and then you left in July and she was there. She was there alone. So I consider the day you left and she was there basically manning the office, she was the town clerk from there on. So she should have been getting the full town clerk salary,
which is the difference between 3266 and the 2050. But if we had another acting town clerk who also had someone in there as a consultant for $50 per hour, what is the difference? Why would there be a difference whether I was the person physically in there as the training consultant or the other individual from the union town clerk was in there as the training consultant.
That is all I'm saying. So to be fair across the board with the employees, this is only fair It's only fair to treat everyone the same. We had a law a lawsuit back in 22 because an employee wasn't treated fairly that cost us $11,000. So why would we not want to treat someone fairly? The situation is exactly the same. Well, the only difference was that after Britney left, that person was immediately appointed acting town clerk.
So, they were acting. So, but but the only time Britney was appointed acting town clerk, I would assume, would be those seven weeks,
but Jeff, we have to have an acting town clerk, regardless of whatever voting or whatever you want to call it. She was the acting town clerk. She acted in every capacity because there was no one else there to do so.
She was hired.
She was the acting.
She was hired by you in your capacity as the town clerk as the assistant town clerk.
That is correct.
That's right.
She held that position until she left our employment. I believe that state law says you have to have an acting town clerk and that is exactly what she did. She acted as the town clerk because
I could not sign. There's no one else that could sign as town clerk.
Okay. Are we are we voting on this issue? because I'd like to I'd either I'd either like to vote on this issue and move on or I would like to sit there and table it and get refined numbers and come back so that you guys can have something that you may agree to because I'm I mean I'm definitely not authorizing I'm not voting to pay an employee that resigned $12,000 for something for prior work where We no she's a union employee. It's a terrible precedent. It's terrible even be discussing.
She might have held a union position,
but she was not deemed a union. She did not join the union.
She may not have joined the union. She was hired in a position, the assistant town clerk's position. So, what would the board like to do?
Do you want to vote on it?
I just don't have enough information. I'm going to I just
You got to You have to go over her hours, her exact hours.
Okay.
Did she clock in? Was her time cards kept for that period of time?
I'm clocked in. Did Did anyone else clock in? I'm just curious. Well, I just didn't know. That's why I'm just asking a question.
No, no, but what I'm wondering is, you know, were hours were the hours
wondering if you're wondering if the individual that we appointed as the acting town clerk clocked in. Is that what you're worried about?
Yes. I'm not worried about it. I'm asking if we're going to compare ours. I would I would assume that the the the
I I'm won't assume anything. Let's let's sit there. Let's sit there and just vote on this. I I'm going to sit there and call it and then we can then bring it back up again. So, any further questions and creme?
What is that? Is that a yes or a no? the the yes that I think we should pay her.
That's fine. You voted yes. Thank you. Caroli,
I think we should pay her. It's only fair.
All right, Jeff Murray,
I'm gonna abstain because I don't have enough information to make a decision.
I don't I mean I'm get it. Scott Person
am an engineer. I want to see the
No. No.
Scott Persona. No. Jeff Magcguire. No. So, so, 221, we will sit there and, get more information and bring this up at our next meeting.
I will change my vote if I see the data. I want to see the data.
Okay. All right. Where are we? discussion 8mm discussion of possible action on rental policy and fees for the use of the community and senior center.
Carol
Tess had sent us over a rental agreement with suggested fees for that.
Listen, is Tess on? Why can't Tess talk on in regards to this? She can, but we really need to include it in our packet. But go ahead, Tess. How are you?
I'm good.
Perfect.
All right. the rental agreement. Tess, where are we with what you're thinking?
I did send over a draft. If you guys want to agree with that, that would be great. If not, if you have any edits, then we'll go with we need your approval.
You need our approval. Yep. Okay. since it's not in our packet, we need
It should It should have been in the packet. No, I sent it over.
I didn't see it. I didn't see it.
You did not see it?
No.
Can we add that to our Monday?
That's what that is going to recommend, Carol. Yeah.
Right.
Because then this way they can start charging for use of the facility.
Okay. All right. So, we'll talk about that later. we're going to go to 8 8N, which is, discussion and action on the town of Andover, corrective action plan for the fiscal year audit ended, June 30th, 2024. So, I had I had a call with the auditor last week
on
Wednesday and there is an issue there there are multiple issues and and and honestly most of this deals with the free flow of information between all departments within the community, specifically the board of education to the treasurer, which there is not an ex there's not a good relationship at that point within our community right now. So, the issue that's been up there, let me try to explain this as as simply as I can. So, on a monthly basis, we send money to the board of education. it's a a monthly amount that gets submitted, it gets remitted to the board of education and the board of education deposits it into its bank account. the board of education sits there and manages that money. And
what our treasurer was attempting to do was take the check registers and input that information into our records on the town side so that she could come up with a monthly number of what had been spent and not been spent about out of the money that had been remitted to the board of education. with the information that the treasurer had that reconciliation was a little bit of a mess and I spoke to the auditor and what I think we need to do is we need to not reconcile it exactly the way the prior treasurer was reconciling it but but take the documentation from the school board that they submit at their monthly meetings and post that information. So the information that comes from the school board is the for the people that understand it the budget to actual numbers that come monthly. And because
on the town side there's only one number, we should only have to post the bottom number. So, what that would do is on our books, if we if we submitted or remitted a million dollars to the board of education and the board of education only has $500,000 of expenses that they post on their monthly budget to actual expenditures, that would mean that there would be a $500,000 cash balance on the town side. and those expenses would be then sitting there. So, I spoke to Michael. I have to rewrite a little bit of what Eric wrote and I have to put in a new procedure for the treasurer so that we don't sit there and have these problems. But again, a lot of these issues are information and the free flow of information between the organizations and it's something that I need the board of finance to weigh in on and get engaged in because it's really on the board of finance. even this cap is on the board of finance. It gets handled through the town, but it's really a board of finance issue. So, I'm working on that. I have to get it done because there's obviously some issues that
there's there's some information that the grants are going to be held up, but that's not really the case. It's just the a check your box for the entity within the state side to get that capit done. So, it is on my plate. and Michael is the town auditor is understanding. So, he and I had a discussion as to how it could be done. and we're going to have to work with the next treasurer to sit there and make that happen correctly.
And I just asked about the corrective action plan. I had just asked for some information on it. And isn't it just like a letter
that you're supposed to work together with the school
and send that out to
So So we all understand our relationships, right? We all get it. So there was they worked on it. they didn't work on it the way that they should have worked on it. and a submission was made that the treas that the auditor approved. the superintendent then complained about it and now we're here because you know she was unhappy with the wording, maybe rightfully so, but she's unhappy with the wording. So now I'm dealing with auditor and the auditor is not happy because the auditor just wants to submit it so he can check the box and say he did it. He doesn't want to have to sit there and deal with complaining from both sides as to what has to happen and doesn't happen. But yes, it is a written document that one paragraph that sits there and says this is what we're going to do. This was identified by the auditor. This is what's going to change,
right? because I have the auditor's findings here and it just says the responses to our findings should be a collaborative effort and then they give recommendations as to what was going on within the
we weren't good at
I'm sorry
we were not good at collaborative
you okay? So are you going to be working with the school on this as the collaborative or are we going to h ask Jim to do that just so that
I will I will have the plan.
I will work with the school on that. I will I will rewrite it. I have I have met with Valerie on this as well. So, I have what Valerie would like to say and I have what Eric wrote. I have what Michael approved. And then we've got to make a little bit different. And so, what I had to do is I had to get with Michael, the auditor, and get an understanding of exactly what he was trying to say in his recommend in his finding. So, now I understand what he's saying.
I'll go in my office.
All right. does anybody have any other questions related to that?
Yeah, I'm on mute.
No, you're not.
Mute him, will you?
I was saying in talking to Valerie, the superintendent, she had hoped that this would have been a month done a month ago, and you had promised that it would be getting done. So, I'm hoping that you're doing it soon.
I will get it done. I would have hoped it never came up. So, okay. So, that was the end of that one. So, we're not in that section anymore. So, the only other item we added was later. So, new business, Hop River contracts. So in our packet
op river homes also that needs to be changed if we have to revisit this.
Okay. So
you need a recap
is that
page 1819.
Yeah it's 1819. So this had been in place. This this abatement had been in place. listen, we have no more use for that field. So we have no real use for the for the field that's over there. it really becomes a question and what we're going to have to do is get with the this group. Is that abatement really necessary to to keep the the rent? I mean, they're in stabilized rent homes. Everybody that lives there has some need. And I'm not sure that their rent's going to go up if this town doesn't have this tax abatement in place. And really, that's the key. I believe most of them have either section 8 supplementing the rent and the other I think there were 26 or something that were section 8 and then there were eight that were department of agriculture. and I think part of the abatement we're supposed to get their financial reports too to go over things.
Yeah. I mean
when we start thinking about this and have we talked with the assessor and the tax collector on this abatement to get their input.
Well then why don't we move this again to our next meeting and sit there and get that. I mean I've talked to the tax collector have not the assessor. it's just a question in my mind. If if the field if the softball field is no longer important to the community, then there's really no reason for the lease, honestly. and if there's no reason for the lease, then it's a question of is the abatement necessary or not? Is it are we giving an abatement to the management company or are we giving an abatement to the tenants? If we're given an abatement to the tenants, I got I have no problem. If we're given if we're given an abatement to the management company, I have a problem.
So, let's sit there and I'll go do enough work and we'll talk with Jim about what we might need and get some feedback from John Trapponus so that we get an understanding of what we're doing. So, all right. resolution to appoint Elaine Bukard to the Vernon area cable advisory committee and the state video advisory committee as the Andover representative. So, I'll make a motion that the Andover Board of Selectmen appoint Elaine Bukard to represent the town of Andover with the Vernon Area Cable Advisory Commission and the State Video Advisory Commission for an indefinite indefinite or for a two-year period of time. for a two-year period of time, the town served the town the town served in the Vernon area, Comcast region, and over Hein, Ellington, Bolton, Vernon, and Tolland. Elaine has represented the town on both commissions since 2015.
Actually, it's been I just looked it up. It's been since 2012 that I've been on the committees.
And you have been doing a phenomenal job taping.
I I just didn't know if people had a question about what they are.
There you go. anyway, somebody want to second that?
I'll second that, Jeff.
Scott, second that. Further discussion on this issue. Elaine has been doing it without approval. I I made it two years, Elaine, because I actually think we can only appoint for two years. I don't necessarily know we can we could probably roll it over, but we may as well just put this on the agenda every two years on a calendar.
Well, well, it's actually not a a town commission at all. Right.
I mean, it's a state and an and a region commission that I represent Andover for.
So, it really shouldn't be treated as a town commission where, like you said, you've got two-year appointments.
Oh, it's a it's a town appointment, right?
it's it's it's a actually a state in a Vernon area region commission board. that was set up by the state of Connecticut to go ahead and have these advisory boards as a complaint department. We directly represent all of the cable users in the state or in my area. So Vernon area is for the area, the state is for the whole state of Connecticut. and they look for people to represent the towns of which there's room for two Andover representatives, but nobody else has ever shown any interest in doing it.
so, so
that's why I say it's not like a two-year appointment. It's a basically I'm representing Okay. So, we're appointing you on behalf of the town of Andover. That's the only reason you could be coming to this board. that's what I've been told. I mean, I've been serving it.
So, you've been doing it. I get it. I get it. What this board can do is appoint you on behalf of the residents of the town of Andover. That's all we can do. We We don't have any other authority. Have no authority over that board. Nothing. We're just appointing you as a representative for the community, the the town of Andor. So,
correct.
Scott seconded. Anybody else? And I and and I hate doing an indefinite period of time. It has nothing to do with you, Elaine. It just has to do with this board will eventually not be here in two years and and it becomes problematic. So
yeah,
two years. anybody have any other issues? Annih. Carol Lee.
Hi.
Jeff Murray. Hi
Scott Person.
Hi
Jeff Magcguire. I 5 nothing Elaine. Thank you very much for everything you do. It's great.
Thank you Elaine.
Thank you.
Thankless job. Thank you very much.
It all is
discussion and possible action on a resolution to authorize Jeffrey Magcguire to execute all documents associated with the Andover Municipal Parking Hub grant.
Okay. so the purpose of C is a similar purpose as E with regard to this grant and the steep grant. So I'm not explaining it twice is that with the DEC financial assistance agreement and the resolution that was passed for those two grants. Eric Anderson is shown and was was approved and appointed as the and authorized to be the signatory for all documents. Obviously, that can't happen anymore. So, the suggestion is it might be an interim position that we make the first selectman the authorized signatory.
Anybody have any problem with me signing on behalf of the town on these grants?
No. Thank you very much for doing that, Jeff.
Well, no, we're gonna we're going to make a resolution. So,
I know
I make a resolution to authorize Jeffrey Magcguire to execute all documents associated with the Andover Municipal Parking Hub Grant.
Second.
And Crema seconded. She got her hand up first. further discussion. All right. Anni. Carol Lee,
hi.
Jeff Murray,
hi.
Scott Person,
hi.
Jeff Magcguire, I item 9D, a discussion and possible action on a resolution authorized Jeffrey McGuire to execute all documents assoc associated with the Andover Recreation Facility Enhancement Phase 2 Grant. the legislative appropriation. I'll make a motion I'll make a resolution I'll make a motion to authorize Jeffrey Magcguire to execute all documents associated with the Andover Recreation Facility Enhancement Phase 2 grant. Actually, I'm going to reward that. a phase 2 legislative appropriation grant.
Second that
Scott Persson seconded that. Further discussion Ann, how do you vote?
Hi.
Earl Lee,
hi
Jeff Murray.
Hi.
Scott Person.
Hi.
Jeff Magcguire. All right. 9E discuss discussion and possible action on a resolution to authorize Jeff Maguire Jeffrey Magcguire to execute all documents associated with the Andover Recreation Facility Enhancement Grant steep grant. I'm going to take care of the I'm going to get rid of the the phase two. It's supposed to be phase one. There's some phase program in there. So the motion is to authorize Jeffrey Magcguire to execute all documents associated with the Andover Recreation Facility Enhancement STE Grant. Who wants
Scott Pan seconded that further discussion? And Crara Lee.
Hi.
Jeff Murray.
Hi.
Scott Person.
Hi.
Jeff Maguire. Five nothing on that vote as well. 9F discussion and possible action regarding an agreement with LNC Park Consultants LLC for Veterans Field Management Services. this is an agreement that we've had in place and Scott is much more knowledgeable than I am with the prior Hebrrons Park and Recck director for management of the soil. Correct, Scott?
Yes.
Okay. And where is that document, Jim? Just so I'm not
page 29.
Page 29. So I had gone through this. So and the total dollars associated with this contract.
It's a little odd. The the term is for calendar year 26. The payments are made in fiscal years, but it's $2,000. $1,000 for the remainder of fiscal year 2526. I assume we haven't made any payments. on this yet and then for 2627.
So it's it's it's just it's an odd contract in that respect.
Okay. So it's $2,000.
Yeah.
Okay.
And to I could Could I add something that
Absolutely. Please.
The Ram Youth Lacrosse is interested in using the field, the facilities. They have I think 13 or 14 teams and there's like 20 20 per team. They're interested in using that RA. So, it's a Ram, you know, it's all the towns.
Okay.
It's a very good thing.
So, can you tell us what I forgot his name? I want I want to remember his name. I've got it there.
Rich. Rich Karco, what does just talk talk to the board about what Rich does. So you
Rich goes down there weekly and
walks the whole field, walks it completely over the whole field, checks the condition of the grass. He checks water samples. He checks how heavy how firm the soil is. I'm compaction. I think it is compaction. you know temperature of the soil all different kind of things he sends me reports sends them to he'll be sending them to Jim now also and he does that weekly and he does a great job you know I go down there constantly also and you know I got to reaffirm what he's finding but you know he's a very good consultant that you know does a good job down there
and and doesn't he sit there and and provide information for Hein Parks and Recreck as far as
all of their applications come through Rich Clark, right?
All right. Just so everybody understands what it's about and what he does for the community.
Yeah.
Hebrin takes care of everything, but Rich is the doctor.
Okay.
He still maintains our fields, but these this is the person who goes and checks it every week. Scott.
Yes.
He does the soil. He does the soil management. He gives them a plan as to what they're supposed to do to fertilize the field,
feed, fertilize, checks everything out down there. So, I'm going to make a motion that we approve the agreement the with LNC Park Consultants LLC for Veteran Field turf management services.
Second that.
further discussion. All right. Ann, how do you vote? And voted yes. Carol Lee,
hi. Jeff Murray.
Hi,
Scott Person.
Hi, Jeff.
Magguire. Okay. item 10, approval of minute meetings for our regular meeting held November 10th, 2025. Does everybody read it?
Yeah. Go ahead.
Yeah. Anybody got any changes? Anything they want to make? question
under correspondence when they re receiving the letter from RAM regarding the grant funding the town AES is receiving. has that seed money been released to AES at this point?
it hasn't.
Why not?
Because we haven't voted on it. I don't think we've gotten the information from the other communities. I know we've got a request from RAM.
Yeah. But it's gonna This is staying with AES, I believe.
So, it should be released to AES. Now,
the only correction I wanted was under public speak. had Caitlyn came in to ask us to address the corrective action plan. So, I don't I think that should be in there. What other other than adding that that's the only thing I saw under public speak because that's when she presented. So add Caitlyn Greenhouse I make a motion that we approve the board minutes for Monday, November 10th with the addition of adding to public speak that Caitlyn Greenhouse, the board of education chairperson, spoke regarding the need to submit the Kappa corrective action plan for fiscal school year ended June 30th, 2024.
Second.
Seconded by Carol Lee. Further discussion? Ann, how do you vote?
Stained. I wasn't there.
Okay. Carol Lee.
Hi.
Jeff Murray.
Hi. Scott Person.
Scott Person said yes. Jeff Magcguire. So 401 with an creme being the abstaining member. Okay. So we have the treasurer's report that spans page 42 through 46. Does anybody have any questions related to it? we have tax collectors reports that span page 45 through really 68. Any questions? Any issues? Anybody bringing up anything? The only question I have and I'm sorry on the treasurers. Did we actually get the check registry in this month's report?
It did not come in this
I didn't see it. So
there's not a lot of those items in there. There's not the town a road report. There's not I mean I know she's in the middle of the audit. She had the auditors in last week. but yeah, we didn't get anything other than item A. Okay. Anything on the tax collector side? So the tax collector received $193,000 in the month of November. she continues, Kate continues to work on back collections. She gives a list of the highest unpaid tax payers within the community. Always interesting reading. Always interesting to see who's on the list. And then she comes down to tax refunds. So, anybody have any other questions or anything that you want to discuss on the other documents? No. If not, I'm going to make a motion that we approve tax refunds totaling $2262 for the period ended 128 2025.
Second.
Seconded by Carol Lee. Further discussion, how do you vote? I she votes yes. Carol Lee.
Hi.
Jeff Murray.
Hi.
Scott Person.
Jeff Magcguire. I Okay. item 13, departmental reports. Anybody have any questions for any of the reports that were submitted?
Delight report.
Okay. and and you know on the the finest department reports. We used to get a very detailed town a road report monthly.
Yes, we need to start getting that.
We we don't get it at all anymore. Anything?
I have not seen that. No.
In years.
we're going to start getting that. So there's more information that we need to start getting. I would like to I I have to be seeing the check registers. So that has to be in the packet. any questions with any of the other reports? Okay. Building reports in there only $3,336 of permits.
Did you Did you look at the permits?
Yeah, I looked at some of them.
Look at more.
Some of them look real and other ones look not so real.
Real low. Okay,
I'm going to call the building official and find out if if he is going over those things or not. Jeff Murray, do you do you go over that?
What's that?
The the build the building permit reports and see
I just looked I just looked I just looked at it. I glanced over it today earlier. Yes.
You see some of the numbers in there were they seem very very low to me. I mean, I got a something done 10 years ago that was more money than what they reported. Now,
doesn't really matter because once the assessor comes in anyways, it gets assessed for whatever value.
It was a swimming pool deck or whatever, it's still going to get excessed for whatever square footage it is.
But we still won't get the permit money. We don't get the permit money accurate permit money.
Well, how do you how do you do that? How do you how do you
Well, we were supposed to have the building official go over every estimate.
I mean, you can use Well, he probably doesn't have access to means estimating like that would estimate all your construction costs.
The last time you saw a permit that had an exact number on it, you know.
Well, the problem is you're never going to get an exact number.
Doesn't happen. Well, I what what just as a side things because we don't want to get too far off, but how much would that means software cost
means?
Yeah,
you'd have to be trained. You'd have to learn learn how to use it, too. So,
okay.
So, I I don't know what kind of rabbit hole we would go down by doing that,
but you could just do a general thumb for like a deck. You could figure out, you know, x amount for per square foot. Well, that's what we've been talking about for years and trying
X amount per square foot, but it all depends what you know there's different conditions and tiers. So,
okay. all right. Anybody else have any other questions on any of the other reports that are in our packet? All right. I'm going to move on. There's no correspondence on item 14. We're going to move on to public speak.
I have nothing. Thank you.
All right. Thank you very much, Liz Latch.
Nothing from me. Thank you,
Joanne Heert.
Hi, Jeff. Yeah, I'm going to try to make it very very quick, but there were a couple points that I wanted to make. I know you have another executive session afterwards. just publicly, I want to let you all know that I did send you an email today to let you know that I would be interested. I mean, as a community member at large, that you're looking for to be part of the search committee for the next town administrator. you know, quickly I've been a resident for 20 years, been very involved in town matters for the last 8 years.
attending all the board of selectmen meetings, board of ed meetings, not all the board of ed, but you know, as a member of the board of finance for the past four years, I've been uniquely involved with with that. So, I don't want to go on and on. And then, my unique experience too is also, you know, vast experience in the human resource world. being an assistant to various leaders through the year. So I think I have a unique ability to know what good leadership looks like up close and what qualities and qualifications work well. Again, I don't want to take up a lot of time with that, but I just wanted to put it out there that I did send that to you. as far as tonight, just a couple quick things. I agree with Jeff Magcguire when he was talking about the board clerk situation with the 1099 employee because if you all remember a few years back, we had a board clerk that was also a town employee and it got
the town in a little bit of hot water and an additional payout from the taxpayer money of adding those hours onto whatever hours they were allowed to get. So, I love the idea of the board clerk being a 1099 employee. again, the if if you're going to be talking about building use functions, you know, as you all know, I work for a town, too. and in a school system where we do a lot of facility use, just be very, very careful about having either liability waiverss or make sure the person that's going to be renting the place has
insurance. I don't know what the town I don't pretend to know everything. I see Tess nodding. Great. None of the things are in the packet. So, if I hear this and I take the time to be involved, I just want to bring that up quickly. And then the other thing that I wanted to say is as you all know in the past there's been like a lot of human resource or union issues that I've either quietly said to the board of selectmen or you know sent emails about or been involved in. And so when it comes to whatever you're going to decide tonight about the senior center director and having an assistant I have no problem with two employees. you know, I mean, the town is growing, things are going well. I just kind of agree with what Carol was saying that, you know, Tess is back in her role as the director. You know, getting whatever salary is agreed upon. I don't pretend to know everything. And then whatever you're going to decide, hopefully now there's two employees to do all of the things that one person did at the very beginning, such as transportation and whatever you decide there. again, you know, I hope you make a decision that's, you know, benefits the town as it continues to grow that center. Thank you,
Kimberly Persona.
Yes. Hi, Jeff. Thank you. my battery is running a little bit low, so I'm going to talk quick. I would like to say that our community center or whatever we're calling it was a big deal to our town. Could we possibly have an item on the agenda next month for something positive that the community center is doing? I think Haley tests have done a great job and I I would just like to see the focus of this moved on to something a lot more positive than what we're currently doing. Thank you.
Leanne Hutchinson. Hi, I have a comment about the town administrator job description. I'm not at all sure about this. I just read it the other day, a couple of days ago for my own information, so I haven't had time to look into it. It seems to me within the last couple of years or so, that I'm not sure if it was part of a charter review or some other process that came up. It seems to me that the town voted, I'm not sure if it was at the polls or at a town meeting, that we would not require the town administrator to have a bachelor's degree. Again, I'm not sure about this, but my question is, just, you know, for immediate future reference for you, does that sound familiar to anybody else?
I haven't had time to go and look to the town clerk's office. It's not something that I I didn't read the charter since I read the job description. and you know, I don't know if it's something that that is correct. Did someone say that that is correct?
Carol did say that was correct.
Okay. I'm just wondering, it might sound a little counterintuitive because it is a really big job, but many of these job descriptions, not necessarily for this, but you know, it's common to say something like experience and education, a combination in lie of a degree of some sort. So, I just wanted to put that out to you as as you go forward with the you know the job description the way it is and then if it's anything that should be modified to reflect that I just wanted to bring it up. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Marcy Miner.
Hi. yeah. I don't really know what to say cuz it seems like there's always human resource issues and I guess you guys are doing the best you can. I just want to make sure you you know I've I've gone to the community center quite a few times recently and I noticed that it's pretty it's bustling quite a bit. So, there's a lot going on and I hope that you guys can come to some agreements that everybody's happy with. All right. Thanks.
did I miss anyone? test grass. Actually, I did miss you. I'm sorry. You're at the top.
I'm all set. Thank you.
All right. did I miss anyone else? Okay. everyone else, thank you. I'll make a motion that we move into executive session to discuss employee issues
and that we invite Tess Grouse and attorney Dennis O'Brien into the meeting. Oh, and assistant the town administrator Jim Balano.
Anybody want to second that?
Seconded.
Seconded by Jeff Murray. Ann, how do you vote? Ann votes yes. Caroli,
hi.
Jeff Murray,
hi.
Scott Person,
yes. And Jeff Mcgar 59.
I
thank you very much. Jim, if you could either remove everyone from the meeting or put them in the waiting room. is anyone not Dennis? You're 2345, right?
I am Dennis.
So I'm removing.
Yeah, that's me.
Was Zoom login is not a selectman, right?
No, that's me.
You're Zoom login?
I am.
Okay, so I'm getting rid of
Katherine Hutchinson. K. Hutchinson, Liz Loachch, and Leanne Hutchinson in the community voice channel.
All right, have to do this one at a time. Pardon the
Oh, there's in there now. They're just taking the people out.
One, two, three. You're four. There's Dennis.
So, we have Liz Lo catch and the community voice channel. So he said that no they had to release the seed money and they released what other towns are doing or something like that.
Two three four
I asked I tried
I'm gonna I'm gonna stop recording as well. We good?
Sure.