Okay. How's everybody doing?
Good. How are you?
I'm all right. Carol, do you have a 10?
I don't know.
Okay.
All right. So, let's get started. So, I'm going to call to order the town of Andover Board of Selectmen regular meeting for Monday, February 9th, 2026 at 7:01 p.m. Our first order of b business 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. All right. We're going to start with public speak.
Jeff.
Yeah, now you're now you're
Sorry, I had a weak connection. I was just wondering I'm would like to ask the board to make an addition to the agenda to under the new business to vote to change the protocol and remove my name as a co- signer on the general fund account.
Okay. Is that it? Okay. Is that it?
yes. I'd like that to be an addition to see if you guys could vote during additions and deletions to add that to I figured we could discuss it if it gets it added.
Okay.
All right. Can you put yourself on
mute?
All set. Thank you.
Okay. Kathy Palazi.
All set. Thank you.
Okay, Kimberly Person.
All set. Thank you.
Liz Lo catch.
Hi, sorry, I was trying to find a way to put my face on here. but things are locking up on me. I just wanted to mentioned that at our last board of finance meeting, we talked about the problem about there being a conflict on Wednesday night. a meeting conflict. I emailed you Jeff and the board of finance as well. Wednesday night was supposed to be our joint meeting, the board of selectman and the board of finance, but there's also a board of ed meeting that night. And so I just wanted to know if there is a possibility of moving that to a different night. if that's something you could just chat about. I don't know if it's too late, but I think it's kind of important for everyone that wants to to be able to attend both movies.
That's all.
Okay. Joanne Heert.
All set. Thank you.
Stephen King,
nothing at this time.
Leanne Hutchinson.
Hi. I wanted to thank you and the new public works director for the timely treatment and plowing of the roads. Obviously, we had a major storm and a couple of smaller storm events since your last meeting. So, from what I can see, including being on a particularly steep road, the roads were nicely done.
Okay. Thank you. did I miss anyone? Oh, test grass.
I'm all set, sir. Thank you. Okay. Did I miss anyone else? Okay. additions and changes to the agenda. I have a couple. I would like to move 8K to the start of the meeting right after the administrator's report if it possible and then I would like to add a an executive session to the end of the meeting. We'd call that one 15A. and that would be to discuss, employee issue. I want to say it a different way. want to discuss the town administrator, interviewing process.
I'll second that.
Okay. Oh, well, before we do it, Jeff, something I'd like to add to. Sorry.
Yeah. And and one last thing we do need to I I want to address Valerie's request. Well,
yeah, we can make that 9.
Yeah. Well, 9E
. check signers. We'll call it discussion and action upon check signers and check signers. And then we need to add 9F discussion and action upon joint meeting with the board of finance.
Okay, Jeff, what do you got?
You already took care of it. Okay. so we have move 8K add 15A executive session to discuss town administrator interview process. add 9E discussions regarding checking account signers and 9F discussion and action on joint board of finance board of selectment meeting.
I'll second that note.
Okay. All right. Sorry about that. before I go on, does anybody else have anything? Carol, you good? Ann, you good? Scott, anything else?
Good.
Okay. All right. So, so we have a motion on the floor to move 8K add 15A executive session, 9E on discussion on check signers, and 9F discussion on the joint board of finance and board of selectment meeting. so we're going to vote. I'm going to go around. So Ann Cr
I Okay. Carol Lee
I
Jeff
Murray.
Scott Person.
Jeff Magcguire I. So that was 50 Z on a vote. Okay. All right. Let's get to the top of this. So, appointments we have in our packet in our we have on page four library board directors reappointment request Kathleen D. Roer's chairperson, Linda Fish, Lisa Kurtz, Sharon Shashenko, Brandy Silowski, Jeff Ballard as the first al alternate, Doris Maldonado Mendes as the second order alternate, and Amy Ormaloski as a library director. Are we okay with reappointing all those members?
Okay. can we just sit there and say it is a five nothing vote.
Okay. So library board reappointing 50. we have this is really not that we have to approve it. ADC vet on Monday January 19th at 7 o'clock. Robera Dhy said she would like to join the EDC in the meeting in October. Robera was unanimously voted on as a member. Elaine Burkart swore her in. So Robera Dherty is a member of the EDC committee right now. So andor sustainable committee for 2025. So that is 5C. the members are for the sustainable committee are Elaine Bukart, Michael Burke, Michelle Laurren, Michael Palazi, and Kathy Palazi, chairman. Can we sit there and say that that is confirmed by a five nothing vote for those members?
Yes. Yes.
Okay. Five nothing vote on that. the old Andover burial ground committee, the reappointment of the members, the members wishing to continue are Mark Michael Kurdzo, Steven Fish, Maria Tolman, Bob Post, Jim Harlo. and does anyone have any issue with those members being appointed? And can we do that also by a five nothing vote?
Yes.
Okay. 5-0. Okay. So, that goes through all the appointments. I did not see or know of any resignations that we have and then we have the town administrator's report. I know that speaking to Jim, he was having some trouble with his new his location where he's currently at. So, I'll go through this and if you guys have any questions, you can sit there and and ask. the town administrator's position, we had second interviews, they were just completed. we had a delay in one of the candidates. we finished that up on Friday. and then we're going to discuss that in our executive session. So, all right. the veteran grant program. there was a meeting with Jim, myself, Scott, and Christine Reandazo related to the PL the program. There is the documentation for the initial grant funding supplied to us by
Senator Raman was is is in process and hopefully that gets done as quickly as possible so that we can sit there and make a payment on some of the playground equipment. senior transportation grant this needs to really go to the new project committee. and we need to discuss and have this vetted as to how we sit there and go about building this. So, this is on hold for right now. the senior community center grant the paperwork for the the funding on the federal earmark is in process. So, that one for 500,000. So, we're trying to get the application out for the new generator system to hook up all three buildings, fire, town, senior community center. So, that should be moving forward and getting done. Long Hill Bridge. the bid openings took place at the town hall on Thursday. I texted all of the members the bid documents and I just want to make sure that I have the right date. Oh, did I text? I texted you guys. Right there it is. Yep. so that was Tuesday of last week. We had we had 11. 1, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. We had 10 bids that came in for the project. We had nine bids. We had one rejected bid because they were missing some seals. the bid was attended by Jim Balano, members of the engineering firm, and myself and Kate Fuller. we had nine sealed bids. All the bids were opened in public. were reviewed by the engineering team. The low bid was for three thou 3,797,298.50 by a trademark contractor's LLC. it was a very interesting process the way
it should be done. RFP was conducted and all the bids were opened in public and I filmed some of it to share with some of the other boards so they can actually see what it really should look like. animal control, we're having some problems with animal control is something we're going to deal with in our budget. we had requested Nikko told us effectively they were going to terminate us at the end of this fiscal year coming up. they they were not terminating andor they were going to terminate their services. They had a lot of push back from their members. They wanted them to keep those services. So now there's an opportunity for us to keep it. But being a non member of that u unit our rate would increase by 50%
for animal control. So I have Jim looking at some other options. So, this is something that we have to pay attention to to make sure that we figure it out and don't try to let those costs increase too much. And when I we go 50%, it's a difference between 13 or $15,000 and $22,000. So, still less expensive than if we tried to do it ourselves, but more expensive than we want to pay. Mnt Bank, we're working on that. that is something that we were on the phone today with Mnt trying to sit there and get all of our our access lined up for the new treasurer. So we're working on that. Hopefully we get all of that rectified for tomorrow so that we have appropriate access for everything. public works
obviously as Leanne mentioned did a very good job plowing the roads. it really is a problem for me that all these storms hit on the weekends. You know, it would be nice if they hit on a Tuesday. but they're hitting on weekends and it's causing us to have some overtime issues that we'll have to sit there and work through. But, they've done a very good job. They had an issue with salt. They got their salt deliveries. Eric has a full set of shed of salt and he is sitting there working on, making sure that he has it filled in case we get a couple more storms at the end of the season. the town planner, we have we have a meeting we have a a meeting to an offer to participate with the planning and zoning committee on the February 17th to review the POCD and then there there's a public hearing on that on March 17th. So it's something everybody should take a look at. the Percy Cook Trail, I I have to talk to Jim about this one. this grant was approved. I'm sure that he's looking for us to I have to get
with him on this. So, I'm just going to hold off on the Percy Cook Trail preliminary plan. I got to understand what he's asking for. We'll come back to you next month. was there a real problem with the transportation, Scott, Jeff? The hydraulic on that?
No,
it was fixed. It was fixed.
I didn't hear anything. So, I wasn't there this weekend. I didn't go.
All right. Carol, any news on that or any update or you know anything about that?
All right. We'll get with him on that. And then obviously because of the snowstorm and specifically because of the large amount of snow, there were a lot of mailboxes that were knocked down and and I'll sit there and and I will apologize to the residents who who had that issue happen, but it's a it's something that happens within the process of plowing. If the your mailbox is knocked down by the snow that's that's that the plow pushes forward, that is on the resident to repair the mailbox. If it's a mailbox that is hit by the truck, then it is on
the town to repair that mailbox. I know that Jim fielded a significant number of of residents discussing that issue with them, but it's it's a it's something that we can't the town and the public works guys can't really control as to the amount of snow that's pushed off their plow and damages a mailbox. We know it's it's difficult, but there are protocols and precedents as to what has to happen and when. So again, if it's the snow that's shooting out and it knocks over your mailbox, that will fall on the resident's responsibility. And if it is the plow truck hitting your mailbox, then it falls on the town's responsibility. So, and we understand that we will have issues related to people complaining about that and we'll handle them as best we possibly can. that's the the town administrator's report for Jim. Anybody got any questions? All right. we're going to move to 8K. and that is on our agenda is discussion and possible action on schedule to review the 2026 2027 departmental budgets. on the call we have Lisa Jablonsky, our town treasurer. U I have to thank Lisa for all the work that she's putting in to try to get us to a point where we're we're comfortable with where we're at within the system. There's been a lot of the transition was not as smooth as we would like. there's a lot of access that needed to be granted. We
still have some IT issues that we're still trying to resolve. We have access to Mnt Bank that we're trying to resolve. we have access to the stiff account that we're we're trying to resolve. So there are things that she's working on and she's putting in extra time to get familiar with what we're doing. So I I want to personally thank her because I've been dealing with her on all those issues to make sure that we try to get those taken care of as quickly as possible. so, one of the things that Lisa's been working on, and I'll let her discuss, is she's been setting up a a, a new budget spreadsheet so that everybody can sit there and have the same data. she
and I are I'm also working with her to try to make sure that we present the same monthly data. And it's not in this package because we are having access, like I said, access issues. It will be in next month's package. it will actually be to the board of finance next first. So the goal is to have the board of finance at the end of the month see the information for the prior month. So at the end of the month the board of finance would see the information from January and then the board of selectman would see the exact same information that the board of finance sees at our February meeting or our next month's meeting so that we're all in alignment with the right information and how it lines up. So, that is hopefully the goal and where we can get. And then I'll let Lisa talk. And the reason I moved her up is because I don't want
her to have to sit on the on the entire meeting. I mean, she has to sit on the board of finance meeting and she's gracious enough to come and talk with us, but I when she does come and talk, I will plan on moving her up to the front of the line so that she can go and have dinner with her husband and do what she needs.
Potatoes are in the oven right now. And and I'll give you a little bit of feedback on on Lisa. She u she plays wreck basketball at Windham. So, you know, we we we might have to Carol, you might have to start the women's basketball back up. So, just letting you know that.
Okay. I mean, see me in plain sight. My coach says, she said, "Put your hands up." She pointed to the feet all the way up to the top and she goes, "You've been given a gift." she says. So, as, Jeff said, the, different budget than you're used to. I'm used to that format. I think it gives you a lot of information right there on one page. I think I sent it to all to all of you last Thursday. I don't know if you have any questions. It is a draft and I'm still getting information daily like we got the the amount for the state police for the resident trooper. We got that. So, we can add that in there. so I'm adding amounts daily that are more updated than what is in there. does anybody have any questions on the budget that that I sent last week so far?
No. as Jeff said, we've been having access problems and we're working to try and get to that. It took quite some time today to try and get through to the bank and we did get somewhere but we're not done yet and these things take hours honestly to get to it's been hard to access QuickBooks. we're getting there. We've got half of that. the previous treasure has not really been available to help with any of this. So it's been kind of like digging through it just to get to the bottom of it. And I'm just trying to organize what is there so that I can better present it to you. Anybody have any questions for the treasurer or you want to go through any of the information that is presented in here from pages 22 down to 40? So, this is a better presentation of the information that is in QuickBooks currently. it's not the right periods. It's it was I believe this was done by the assistant and provided to
Kate before she left.
Yeah.
All right. So, you know, we're also going to sit there and leave we're going to discuss the budget. we don't need Lisa here. unless and somebody Well, we do. we'll actually leave you here. So, the budget and and you know, as we go through this, we as a group need to sit there and determine if there are any departments that we want to sit there and and focus on and how we want to move forward with those departments. the one department that we really do have to discuss is going to be the senior center and the community center. We need to understand what our plan is related to that budget line item and what you know funding we want to sit there and make available for the community center whether we want to sit there and add staff whether we want to add software and how we want to sit there and go about that. So, we all have to prepare for that one because that is one of the departments that is still new and still growing and we have to figure out how we want to
position it for the rest of the town as we go forward. are there any issues that that we should ask Lisa to sit there and do work for us on so that we're we're prepared to sit there and come and deal with the board of finance as to what we want to sit there and move forward with? I know we can't forget to fund the Percy Cook Trail Engineering. We didn't fund it last year. We have to fund it this year. And I thought Eric said it was like $48,000.
I really I mean Scott, that one when that one's on this this thing I that grant was approved at town meeting
the engineering wasn't the the money for the engineering. Okay.
As I remember, but you know, I could be wrong. All right. We'll have to sit there and look at that one. All right. are there any other
Go ahead.
I did not really look closely at that what Lisa sent us last week because I didn't think those numbers were in there yet or they I mean, I didn't know how much of that was really going to be in the budget for next year. So, I just looked at the layout and nothing else. Those are are numbers that will be used or what?
Well, you know, you start from the prior year and then you add when you know you have additions or deletions.
Yeah.
So, we're really starting from our prior year and then we're going to go through with what we need to do. I mean, we all need to sit there and I mean, listen, our biggest issues are capital and making sure that we understand how we want to sit there and allocate the capital that town has available for its various projects. so that will be important and and listen, we've we've done a pretty good job of saving money. Most of what we've done from capital is not a one-time transaction really. We've been saving to do larger projects. and those are the things that we have to determine how much money we're looking to save and and and where we're looking at going. you know, but
we all as members need to look at that and Lisa will will fill it in as she has it and then as things adjust, she will adjust it. Now, it's more of a working document for the board of finance
than it truly is for us. we just have to sit there and go this is our direction that we want to go in and this is what we're going to recommend that the board of finance look at it.
okay.
You know, the question ends up being for us is are we going to you know, what is the increase, if any, that we're going to sit there and put forward to the board of finance? And that really has I will
sit there and tell you I you know the board of finance last year had
idn't have an enviable task but what they did is they cut the board they cut the town services and my hope is that we can sit there and and manage to provide some increases in specific areas and if we can find ways to sit there and reduce the overall budget by cutting in other areas we should try to do that but it's a working document for the board of finance and it's more of a the board of selectman wants to sit there and move in this direction and this is the recommendation from the board who who sets the priorities.
And just so you know the all columns are up to date and are the actual columns except for that last budget column. So the 23 24 25 those are actual figures that will stay.
Yeah.
Okay. And even this year and last year's budget and then to date, those are all those are all up to date. It's only that final column that's not completely filled in.
It looks like it's been, you know, erased and added to and that kind of thing. So, I didn't know how that worked. At least in my copy of it, it looks like that.
Oh, I don't like Yeah, my cop is not like that. There's no adding or
Did you Did you Did you send a PDF or you sent a PDF?
I sent a PDF. Yeah,
it's a PDF. Yeah.
So, it's just printing.
Yeah. Added.
Yeah.
No, that's
okay. Well, I'll go back and look at it some more.
Are Yeah, there's nothing erased or anything. It's shaded. It's
haded. That's what it was because it's
It looks different. That's what it was. I'll try to
see if I can print this. Okay.
I can't read it on the phone.
All right. Does anyone else have any questions for for Lisa before we let her go have dinner?
Okay, Lisa. If no one else has any questions, thank you very much for participating and thank you for putting in the extra time to get organized.
Thank you, Lisa. I pro
You're welcome. And I promise it will get better. It's like Jeff said, we're just trying to get our hands around it and without the previous person here we'll get there. We'll definitely get there.
Okay. All right. Thank you very much.
Yeah.
All right. We're going to move on to item eight. So, discuss and act upon 8A, review the status of the veteran field improvement. we it was discussed in the the town administrator's report. we're moving forward to sit there and make those adjustments. Christine Rendazzo, honestly, has been, you know, we're really lucky to have her engaged in this. She really cares. she's done a very good job along with Scott to sit there and move that program along. it's a question now of just making sure. So the funding the funding mechanism the steep grant is in place and that has multiple years. The the money that we were awarded related to the recreational project from Senator Ramen is is we need to just make sure that we're on top of that and Jim has been on top of that. So that should be all good to go. The garage 8B review the senior transportation garage status that was
also in the packet. That's something that Jeff Murray and I met with the engineering team from Jeff refresh me refresh the state program.
No, not Millennium. it escapes me. It's a state program that Eric sat there. It's a
Yeah, that one.
So, we talked to them. We we have to make some adjustments to that that whole project, sit there and make it more beneficial for the town. And we're probably going to have to sit there and go to a town meeting on that one to sit there and make sure that it gets done properly. but we'll sit there and get to it. Long ill project, the bids went out. You know, that one the status of the Percy Cook Trail preliminary plan. we have to get back on that one and understand where we're at. So Scott, you know, if you and I can sit there and do that, that would be great. Status of the animals control 8E, we talked about that. That is something that we're going to have to decide for this budget purposes. We're going to put in the money for Crag and sit there and see where that pushes us, but that's going to be an increase on that lineup. So, we're going to try to not do that. 8F, status of the corrective action plan for the audit ending June 30th, 2024. That has been submitted. I have a call with the auditor tomorrow, so I'll make sure that everything is good on that as well, but I think that can come off for next month. I think we're good. 8G discussion and possible action on the AAS RFP for the
bathroom renovation. I know that this is on the agenda for the school board tomorrow. I'm just saying it and this is me saying it out loud in public. If this does not go to RFP, I'm going to I'm not going to sit there and be supportive of this and I'm going to make sure that it's done in the best interests of the town and the community. So,
correction, Jeeoff, Wednesday.
Sorry, my bad. Wednesday. But it needs to go to an appropriate RFP, not the I'm going to bring in two vendors from a convention for the board of ed members and I'm going to have them give me numbers. That that's not acceptable from my end. So, and I'm one vote, so that's all I'm going to be. Anyway, anybody else have anything else they want to add to the ASRFP? No, I'm just frustrated. I'm very frustrated with the whole progress of the project.
Okay. discussion and 8H discussion and possible action on the Hop River Home contract. Kate is actually on vacation. we do have in our packet on page Oh. we really have meaning minutes. we need to review that. I want to sit there and review that with Kate. and get an understanding of what it's going to do to Kate and and number-wise, but it is something that we're going to have to decide if we renew or not. anyway, I don't think it's imperative that we do it right now, but it is imperative that we sit there and give them an answer. So, I actually think it's it's I got to look at the the agreement. I know we did a three-year number. I got to sit there and see exactly when it was put in place. And I know we have a document someplace that was signed between the town and the management group on the Hop River Homes. So I'll have to find that bring that to the next meeting and we can sit there and discuss that more at our next meeting. 8 I I'm a little disappointed in this one. the I know we probably had between seven and 10. And Jeff, do you know the number of people that applied for this? I know there were there were more than
I thought there was at least six, but I haven't seen any letters of interest or anything. I was hoping it would make the packet.
I was hoping it would make the packet and I did not look at the packet until early this morning, so it was not there. And Kate, I believe, got some of them. And we're going to have to sit there and see what Robera got. what I'll do and I will send out a text tomorrow with the names and what we're who has come on and and honestly on this this project review committee all the applicants can be there anyone that wants to be on that committee that has any kind of construction or engineering or any kind of trade related you know experience and they can add value to this will help the town run these projects in the most efficient manner. and in the best interest of the town. So, anybody who wants to participate, don't think that there's a deadline on applicants. at any point in time, someone can sit there and be added to this committee. but we'll get I'll get you the names. I'll get
them out to you tomorrow.
Yeah. Hey, Jeeoff, can you scan Can we get those scanned in and sent to us because if we're missing some skill sets like electric, electric electrical, mechanical, civil, I'd like to try to recruit some more people in those certain areas that we're going to be a little light in.
Yep. I'm all for that. I will sit there and get that done tomorrow if the only hesitation I have, Jeff, is that they're on Kate's emails.
Okay.
I don't know. I mean, I know Kate I know Kate put it on her email in the ad. So, it might have to wait until she gets back from vacation.
Yeah. Well, we're not going to we're not going to be able to appoint anybody, it sounds like, till next meeting anyway.
So, I but I I would like to have another 30 days to make sure that we fill that board with a good mix of people.
Yep. No problem. I'll make sure that gets done. 8J, discussion and possible action on the establishment of a town job description review committee. I want to push this to the next meeting. And the reason why is because if we do appoint a new town administrator, I want them on this committee running this committee to make sure that they understand what all the employees do within the the town and to manage the the creation or the updating of the job descriptions that are currently in hand because there is a folder that Heric has and Jim I reviewed with that has all job descriptions for a lot of the town positions and I'll also make sure that those all go out to all the members of the board so everybody can sit there and see what the current job descriptions are out there and then hopefully this committee can be established to assist the new a new town administrator when we can sit there and get someone appointed. So anybody have a problem with that? Okay. 8K we did that previously. so we're going to move on to item nine, new business. discuss act upon the following. 9A, discuss and possible action on professional assistance to the assessor's office. I spoke to the assessor today. So I'll tell you what we've done in the last couple weeks. Scott Person went and communicated to the Bolton assessor and and asked the
Bolton assessor if she might be able to assist in the issues related to the assessor's office. the Scott I went and communicated directly with QDS. QDS is the company that provides the software for the assessor's office and the tax collector's office. I sent to you earlier right before the meeting a proposal from the from QDS. that proposal so Scott had gotten a proposal from the assessor in Bolton at a $75 an hour rate. That rate subsequently increased to $110 an hour for the bolt assessor. the agreement with QDS started higher, but it ended up at $100 an hour. QDS had obviously understands all of the software issues and I spoke to John today and what John would like is John would rather have and believes that QDS will be able to sit there and input the necessary personal property tax returns. We have about 325 personal property tax returns that need to get input into the QDS software system so that we can
properly bill the personal property taxes and it needs to get done by the end of the month. we also need to update the the motor vehicle taxes. and that gets done by a file that is that is downloaded from the department of motor vehicle and there seems as of today to be a problem with that. Doesn't appear that we that the assessor's office downloaded that file and that file has been removed from the department of motor vehicle site. So, John is working to sit there and get a new file created, and once that's done, QDS can actually sit there and do that from their offices in Waterberry. John is going to work on all of the real estate adjustments that need to be made and hopefully we can get this whole thing wrapped up by the end of the month. So, what I would like to do is make a motion that we,
can I just say something? I know that you said that the Bolton assessor is 110 an hour, but QDS is 100 an hour plus $100 a day for travel. How many hours are they going to be working in the assessor's office? Because if they're not working 10 hours a day, they're more than 110 an hour. And if we had
I'm sure I'm sure it will end up being eight hours because, you know, the town hall is not open. So,
right, we're open seven and 10.
The issue the issue, Carol, ends up being that I want John to use all of the resources available to do this as quickly as possible. He wants to sit there and he wants to and listen, I would sit there. I sat there and said they could do all this from their facility in Waterberry. I would sit there and and if it was me, Carol, I would move all the personal property tax returns down there to Waterberry and let them do it and do it as quickly as possible so there's no excuses as to what we're dealing with here. So, if it's the question of, and this is the other part about it, I don't know the assessor and what her skill level is with the software, right? That's not what Scott and I were asking for. Scott and I were
trying to reduce the crazy fee that was being bandied about for the other individuals that were being initially proposed to us. Right.
Okay. So, so Scott's Scott doing his job went and tried to find somebody that would give us a better rate and I sat there and I went to the software company because I have some relationships with some of the management people there and those are the I mean the first proposal honestly from QDS was was higher and honestly they were higher because I would sit there and say they're higher I don't even want to get into it. So I requested that they reduce it and they reduced it by $25 an hour. I mean we can avoid all the travel if we'll allow the personal property taxes to go to their office in Waterberry.
Okay. And the only thing that is 125 an hour is the limited real estate assistance on the vision appraisal software
which is 125 an hour but it's $100 every day. Well, if they travel up here. So, here was here was the thing. QDS provides training and part of this was going to be that they were going to train the new staff person,
right? I saw that. But there it's limited training.
Well, at least it looks limited. two days on the QDS products onsite and then data entry one day for the vision.
Well, no, the they don't even know what they're walking into, honestly, the QDS people because they didn't they they knew that they had to do some data input on the motor vehicle side and they their focus was on anything that dealt with their software, what touched their software. So what touches their software is the the department of motor vehicle and the motor vehicle input and the personal property input. the the way that I understand that the real estate works is the real estate information needs to go into vision and then vision information gets dumped into QDS and the tax return the tax bills are prepared and then the information gets into the tax collector's software so that it can be collected. what they were saying is they're not experts in vision so they don't want to really do the vision work. That's the work that John should be doing between now and the end of the month so that the grand list can go out and all of the other work the the work that relates directly in the direct input into QDS is the QDS staff people can do it because they're they're trained on those softwares. So the question is and and I asked this question Carol because quite honestly I sat there and when I was talking to John I'm like John why can't we just take the personal property taxes to them and his concern was if they leave the office and something happens to them then it's another problem. I'm not the assessor. I'm only trying to sit there and manage this to the correct
solution.
Okay. And I have another question. Could you now you said the motor vehicle something happened and the motor vehicle from DMV was deleted from our system. Is that what you're saying?
Not from our system. We did not download it initially and then it you when John was going in to download it, it was now gone from the DMV site. So, he's been working with DMV to get the file recreated.
So, because we were late in going in to download that DMV file, we no longer can go in and download it in a nice and easy way is what? It just it just I'm not sure how the system works, Carol, but what I would envision is they send you an email, you have access into the into their site, you can download the file. If you don't go in and download it, you know, it should stay there. Like DMV should not be removing our listing of of of vehicles, you know,
so
they're all there. They have to re they have to recreate what I'm being told is they have to recreate the file so that we can download a new file the same information and go do the work. It's a question now of does he get it done timely but John is working on that.
And are we the only town that this happened to?
I have no idea.
Okay. Thank you.
Yeah. I mean, I asked him if it happened to Colchester and he said no. But then again, I think he downloaded the information from Colchester as soon as he got the email.
Okay,
that's that would be that was my take. That's how I took it. So, the question is John wants to use QDS, right? Out of the options, John wants to use QDS. Yes, there's an extra couple dollars an hour related to the travel costs if they come here. We can avoid that if we're willing to sit there and send the personal tax. It's one box personal property tax returns. We want to send them down to Waterberry. they'll do it on their site and bill us accordingly.
But if we use the Bolton assessor, they will come to our town hall.
She will come to our town hall. And again, I discussed that with him and that's something that the the that is not an that is not what he wants to see happen.
I'm just telling you,
okay, but I'm just saying we have a an assessor
a neighboring town will save money. and not only that, we contract with Bolton, other towns for a lot of, you know, well, for our building department services.
I just want I just want
hat would be the most cost effective.
I I I do understand what you're saying and yes, it would save us a couple bucks. the people from QDS, you know, have the experience in the input into the software. And I think in this situation, we are now at the 9th of February. We have until the 26th to get a grand list done. It's not like this is going to be a five day or 10day project. It's not going to be that. So, I just want to get this done as quickly as possible. And listen, I don't care if we approve both proposals. I don't I mean I actually told John I wanted him to use every resource he could to get it done as quickly as he could. He's sitting there saying that it'll be easier for him to manage this if QDS does it and you can take in and we can talk about this later but that's you understand what what I'm saying to you. I hope
it's QDS they would be would they be training the new person also
the assistant assessor. So I I found out that QDS offers free training
if we send them down to their Waterberry facility for training.
And also John has the individual for the new new the new assistant is not going to start until March 3rd.
You know, part of that is because of the timing of of him, but I I know what John did. I know he sat there and said, "I I don't have time to train with the limited hours that he has to sit there and and and he actually told me today he's not going to be we have to sit there and talk about training when the individual comes on. We're going to have another issue that we have to address." So, but QDS does the training for free if we send them down to Waterberry, which we would be doing as soon as they get enough information under their belt as to the appropriate questions.
Well, why are we waiting? Why can't we send the new assistant treasurer down to assistant assessor down to QDS?
Because she's not starting to the 3rd of March.
Well, that's only because John wants that that way. Why don't you know we don't want it that way? So, wait a minute. We approved hiring John's choice and he doesn't want her to start until March 3rd. Is that what you just said, Scott?
I I I don't know if it's totally on him or if it's on the applicant's timing to get out of the current job. I mean, it's a month, Carol, so I'm with you. It's a month. It's a long time. in the in in the interim, why why couldn't she, you know, start in two weeks, let's say, and go get some training from QDS and Waterberry?
she could start whenever, as far as I'm concerned. So, if we want to sit there and press back on him and tell him to get her to start as early as possible and send her down to QDS, I'm all for it. He and Listen, he needs to be on. He needs We need to sit there and have a meeting with him, the five of us.
so you can all hear it.
There's no online option either for training
for for training for QDS.
I'll ask that question.
I mean, this day and age, I mean, every almost everything I've been taking has been online.
Yeah. So, I'll ask that question. But I mean, John didn't even tell us QDS did it for free.
And when did we find out that the motor vehicle grand list information was deleted? Today.
I found out today. Yes.
And when was it originally sent out from DMV?
That' be a better question to ask, John.
Sounds like it wasn't sent out. It sounds like you have to download it. Well, you have to download it, but it's up there for downloading purposes,
right? Yeah.
So, there was a delay.
We never downloaded it. So, why didn't we download it?
Yeah. Why didn't John downloaded this if he did it in Colchester and he knew somebody wasn't there to download it?
Right. Right.
Why didn't he just download it and just have it there? It just that makes no sense to me at all.
Again, we need to we need to we need to as a group have a meeting with him. Yeah, I would like that because I would like to then answer why he didn't I mean if it was available in Colchester I mean common sense would tell you if you're the assessor say hey while I'm here I might as well download this and get it in the database
right
we should talk about this
we need to have a meeting and we need to talk
well not in our executive session but we will sit there and have another meeting and I will get it scheduled
we can't discuss it in executive session Scott because we didn't notify John that we would be discussing it. So, we need
So, we're not we're not going to. So, let's let's just keep moving on. Does anybody else have anything related to the I'm going to make a motion that we at least approve the QDS proposal?
Second. I'll make a motion. Can we just can we just amend it to just to just a blanket per hour not to exceed with an NTE number not to exceed ours and then just wherever we go with we go with
if I knew exactly Jeff everything that was involved in this I would tell you that I don't know what's involved.
Can we
wait another month? We we're not going to wait a month, but can we set up a meeting with the assessor to to talk with him and see and then like Jeff says just do a not to exceed amount because how much work
we can already do the one we can already do the not to exceed amount by Jeff told us it's 110.
Yeah. No. Well, you know,
but total amount, Scott, not $110 an hour, and it's more than that with the travel amount with the people coming from QD.
Even if you sat there, even if you sat there, it's $112 an hour. If you sat there and worked eight hours and you broke the $100 out over an eight hour timeline, I you know, be really honest. They're driving from Waterberry, it's it's 70 miles out, 70 miles back, whatever. I'm not really concerned about the $100. for travel. You know, it's a question of we we've been this is a bad situation. It wasn't resolved early enough. It needs to get resolved. We got like 14 days to sit there and get the
896 5day week. How many weeks did he say it's going to be?
It's only 350 property tax returns to input. I am telling you, I cannot believe. I'll I'll tell you what, I'll even call QDS and say if you got to input 350 returns, how long it would take. But
well, we need to make a motion tonight.
They're not they're not in the business of this is a group that's getting money from us each year. You know, they're not here to screw us on the hours that they use to put in our in that information, but we just need to sit there and get this done. So,
finalize something.
we can circle back to this one if I can get an an answer. input 350 personal property tax returns. Okay, I I sent I sent a request off for information on that. We're going to come back to this one. So, let's let's move on to 8C. Oh, no. 9B.
Yeah. discussion and possible action to schedule the town budget meeting on Thursday, April 9th. This this goes into the whole issue of us scheduling meetings that overlap with the board of education or the board of finance. We need to stop it. So, this is a request to move what we currently have on the calendar as a Wednesday, April 9th meeting for the the town budget meeting to Thursday, April 9th. So, I'll make a motion that we move the town budget meeting from Wednesday, April 8th to Thursday, April 9th. and creme seconded. All right, further discussion. All right, we're going to go around the horn on this one for vote and creme.
Hi.
Carol Lee,
hi.
Jeff Murray,
hi.
Scott Person. Scott Person, yes. Jeff Aguire, yes. Five, nothing.
Okay. item 9 C discussion and possible action on Hoppin Hodgeges. It's a road race that uses the trail. it's in our packet. did I delete did I close that? I should have closed that. Where is that in our packet? age 16.
I think
16 to 17, right?
Yeah.
they're going to rent a porta potty bottled water fundraiser hopping hopping Hodgeges. Jeff, what information or what do you know about this group?
He's done it he's been using that location now I think five or six years and he's always given us a donation afterwards.
Yeah. the only thing I'd be concerned about and that we may need to help him on is we have a large amount of snow on the rail trail and I don't know if it's going to melt by the time that race is going to happen.
April 5th. Come on, man.
Yeah.
But that's that whole area is that whole area where that hill is where the Percy Cook Trail is slated to go in is is always shaded and it's that's the last place to melt and it ices a lot. So, we may have to if if worst worst comes to worse, we may have to engage public works to run a plow down the rail trail and just to clean it off for them.
It's going to be 40 degrees next Monday.
We still have a lot of snow.
We do. We do.
We got so much snow. I got my snow my snowmobile keeps getting stuck.
There you go.
It's too much for a snowmobile.
Okay. Well, we can sit there and deal with that after. I mean,
I'm just saying that might be a that may be a possibility.
Okay. He's saying
the winner we're having
this is year 17 of him using the trail and doing this. So,
well, it's year 17 of the race. He used to be in Vernon, but they moved it to Andover.
Okay.
So, he's been doing about four about four years. He's the one that gave us the money for the picnic table down there. And so, he's always he's always written us a check for I think approximately $500 to $700 every year.
Okay. And I have no problem using that for the rec commission or you know for community center whatever.
Okay. So then I'll sit there and I'll make a motion to authorize or to approve the event permit for the Hoppen Hodgeges 5K to be run on April 9th. I believe that was April 5th.
Yeah, April 5th. Sorry.
Second.
All right. Carol Lee seconded that motion. Further discussion. is a yes. Carol Lee.
Hi.
Scott Person. Oh, sorry. Jeff Murray. Sorry. Alphabetical. Sorry. Murray. Yes. Scott Person. Yes. Jeff Magcguire. Yes. Okay. Five nothing on that. Okay. 9D discussion and possible action on a firewood proposal. Jeff,
yep. I spoke I actually spoke to the Marorrow town manager and he stated that Yep. the public public works or any contractor that's doing work in the town of Marorrow. They have an area over by Bush Park. They they drop it in this parking area and people residents go and cut it up. And he says it's been a significant cost savings for grinding and their for their drum. Yeah, I guess they do drum grinding of all their firewood and everything that the public works goes and cuts. he says it hasn't been a problem. He said people seem to be taking it and I said it's a cost savings. I I spoke to him about possibly putting it at the transfer station and he actually thought that was a good idea because if public works we have those if if if you've been down by the brush pile there's two concrete I guess you call them bunkers where we used to keep recyclables and other things that are pretty much unused at this point. And if we clean them out with the loader and public works when they cut a tree that falls down or do any tree clearing, just go down with a dump and just dump it into that bin. And then during transfer station hours, we let people come in, take what they want, and and they can go Wednesdays or Saturdays and grab as much wood as they would like to as long as
they have a dump sticker and they're a resident. I think it's a cost savings. I think it would be a benefit for the community. people that burn firewood be would help some of our residents out. And like I said, I when I was talking to him, I he said that transportation would be a great idea because pray people go and get rid of their garbage and then they just go down and pick up a load of firewood on their way through and bring it home. So I'd like to try it and see if see if we can see if we can make it work because we have a lot of firewood that goes in that brush pile that we're paying to chip up every year. And if we can have people take it and burn it and use it for heat, I think it's a win-win for everybody. did you did you have a chance to discuss that with Eric just the public works our guys just to sit there?
No, I didn't. I I haven't. I he just called me today. He got back to me today finally.
All right.
So, we had that discussion. I would if we made a motion on this, I would make it pending approval by public works.
Okay. Then just make a let's make a motion. I'd like to make motion that we create a firewood exchange area at the transfer station and one of the concrete bins down by the brush pile pending public works approval.
Second.
Carol Lee seconded. All right. Any further discussion on this?
We going to allow residents to use a chainsaw down on the town's property
if they if they need to. Yeah. I mean, most of the stuff that the town cuts up is in, you know, they usually cut up into small pieces or it's log length. I mean, the bar lets the guys cut it up with a chainsaw. And there's a state statute already in Connecticut that there's no liability for for proper municipalities.
Yep. Yep. For harvesting firewood. That's why we leave it on the side. Usually they leave it on the side of the road, but if there's an area, we get it with the excavator, throw it in the dump truck, and the guys just go down and dump it in the bin. And then if there's anything like you know split sections or something they don't get they could just go in with the loader out of periodic basics and just scoop it up and then throw it in the brush pile. The remnants that we have and even if town residents cut a tree down and they want to get rid of the wood, they can go down there and dump it. We recycle it.
That would be a good idea, too. Yeah.
So instead of I mean I go down to that brush pile all the time and I see good oak and and hickory and all kinds of stuff thrown into that pile. So,
I don't think putting it in that bin, the concrete bin is a good idea because you don't want to run to change the CH in
we can work with public area works and
on the side there someplace there's plenty of room area.
It's a good idea because they were get used to be getting rid of all that. The public works used to take it places and give it to people. I think that the town people should be able to have first dibs on it.
Yeah. And like I said, if there's extra stuff that's left over at the end, we just take the loader and we push it in the pile when we do the grinding.
Yeah. Chip it up.
Yep.
Big ugly pieces.
Yep.
Okay. so any further discussion on the issue?
All right, we'll vote on it. Any
I Carol
I.
Jeff Murray.
I.
Scott Person. Jeff Magcguire. I Scott Persona's eye. So that's 5 nothing as well.
And I will get together with Eric this week or early next week and discuss it with him.
Okay. we have 9E discussion and possible action on checking account signers. Valerie, what's your reasoning for requesting not to be a signer?
Yeah,
sorry. I've been uncomfortable for a couple of months with the fact that, there is a protocol that's in effect now. for people who don't know that probably when the town administrator began the protocol was put into place to have the general fund checks on the town side signed by the two non-elected people which was the superintendent and the town administrator. And then likewise they changed the protocol on the school side so that our general fund checks were also signed by the town administrator and by the superintendent. so I'm guessing that was 2017, maybe 2016. but in the last four months or so, it's the protocol just really has not been followed. and that makes me a bit uncomfortable at the end of the year swearing to the fact that, to the auditor that this is in fact the protocol that we follow. So you know, it's not being followed with Fidelity. And so I'd like us just to have the town take care of their checks and we'll take care of our checks. and I need your your change to that protocol.
so you're you're you need to put you need to put yourself on mute.
Well, I'm talking.
I'm talking for me. Thank you. Okay. So, you're asking because because and just for everybody's understanding, I'm a signer on the account. Caitlyn's assigner on the account, the town administrator's assigning on the account, and the and the superintendent is a signer on the account. So, Valerie, I'm just trying to understand you with fidelity, you're sitting there saying that because you because if if need be, I have to sign, that's not acceptable to you. part. It's the protocol that's been established for a number of years is that the town administrator and the superintendent sign one another's checks and in our absence on the school side, we would have the board chair andor the vice chair sign on behalf of me. And on the town side, in the absence of the town administrator, it would be the first selectman or the second selectman. Yes. But the protocol that's been in place was put in place and the auditor thought this was a really good series of checks and balances which it it is. but if it's not going to be with Fidelity, where it's just willy-nilly on either side, if if it wasillilly,
it's part of the protocol, for example, is that the checks, for example, on the town side are sent over to me and there's a cover sheet and it would say checks 100 to 200. And so I would sign that sheet and the town administrator would take a copy. I would take a copy. We would keep it filed. It's the check register. So it's 100 to 200. I sign 100 to 200. The town administrator signs 100 to 200. The same thing on the school side. They sign our checks. They keep a copy of that check register. And that's been the protocol.
So if I received, and this was, you know, put into effect with with audits years ago, Sally before me signed them. So it would be an understanding then that if the system of checks and balances if I sign checks today and they end in check number 200 that the next set of checks that I would be attesting to and signing my name on the bottom would start with 2011 and vice versa. And so it just has not been that it's been every time and it's not been because of the absence of the town administrator or because of the absence of the superintendent. so there were, you know, checks not in the run that were supposed to be in the run. there was an extra one in there, that wasn't on that sheet in the front. and there were I I found out about the fraudulent checks last month at your board of selectman meeting. that was concerning for me, not because there were fraudulent checks that does happen to businesses, but because I found out about it by looking in the packet and my name was on that check. And so, I I just think that if we aren't going to follow a protocol with fidelity, then then we we should change that protocol.
So, you're having your problem that someone and I'll sit there and I'll go myself
was requested to sign checks because they needed a second signature
and because I looked at the information and determined that you got to put yourself on mute. and that I looked at a a a check and a vendor document and I determined that I wouldn't sign that check till I got an answer on that that that's not following protocol and fidelity.
Fidelity.
No, that isn't I'm not referring to the bathroom check, Jeff. I'm referring to the fact that there were other checks that were not in there and then there were extra checks that were not on the check register. I'm not referring to the bathroom at all. This has nothing to do with the bathroom. This has to do with other checks not being in the check run. And listen, I'm not I'm not here to tell the board of selectmen what to do. That that's your side. But I'm not comfortable if I'm part of a protocol, my name is on there and and the protocol is established for a reason and the protocol is going to change. I'm not comfortable at the end of the year having the auditor assume that we've done it with fidelity when in fact we have not. So, the board of education does already have a policy from back in 2009 where our signer was the board chair and myself and that was changed when the town administrator was put into effect. And so, I I I just this is nothing to do with that one check that you're referring to. It has to do with the other times that protocol is constantly broken. Well, I'm not
comfortable with anyone other than the town administrator and the superintendent signing on a regular basis.
Ask then in the last couple of months why checks have been pulled from the roster from the run and I have not received every check to sign.
I don't know any other check. got to put yourself in.
I don't know of any other check other than the one check I pulled. And if that's the case, I'm going to have to get with the treasurer and the finance department to understand what checks have been pulled at what time. And if it were pulled, they should have let you know and they should have crossed them off the
list with you and and met with you and Jim in Jim's office. and I had asked about that check. I knew the check from that one run was pulled and and I was told it was pulled aside and it was TK elevator check. So again TK elevator and again you know you you did let me know that until you had a handle on what your accounts were over there with 2% non-lapsing. I did just get that check on Thursday as well. it's just I I don't understand why protocol is is an issue. that is a problem for me. If the protocol is it's all the checks, then it should be all the checks from the general fund. So, I'm that's why I'm asking for this to be considered because we we do have a policy already on our side that it's the chair and the superintendent, but I do know that per the auditor, it was suggested in 2017 18 when the town administrator position was created that it would changed. And all I'm saying, Jeeoff, is it makes me uncomfortable. Why why wasn't I I notified of the of the fraudulent checks? Cuz if the situation was reverse, I absolutely would have sent that over for somebody to be notified with their name signature on there. I did ask for a copy of those checks. So, so yeah, the board can decide, the board of selectment can decide what they would like to do, but you know, I I protocol has not been followed with fidelity. I'm not going to sit there and tell you that I think it's in the best interest of the town to change what the auditor
suggested.
Anybody want to make a motion? Move in a different direction.
I want it noted then. That's I
t'll be in the minutes.
Okay. We all good. Anybody on the board want to do anything? Okay, we're going to move on to 9F. discussion and action on the joint board of finance board of selectment meeting that is scheduled for Wednesday, this upcoming Wednesday, which is the 10th. I'm going to recommend that we speak to I will speak to the Robert England and sit there and get that meeting moved because I think it's important that the members of the board of finance and the members of the board of selectmen who attend the board of education meeting have the opportunity to go to that meeting and that is something that we have to do a better job. I have to do a better job of making sure meetings do not overlap because it's not appropriate. And I know we have a whole email chain that we're all on that members of the board of finance are asking that that meeting be moved. So,
time to change it at this point.
we're going to have to make it a special meeting. It's going to have to be moved to a different day. it could be moved to Thursday now. We would have time if we sat there and posted the agenda for Thursday. and and Carol, let me know if that's correct. Two days, right?
Or what? To send a mailer out. Is that what you're ask?
No, no, no, no, no, no. This is just this is just a a joint meeting of the board of finance and the board of selectment. It's not a town meeting. It's it's just to sit there and review initial review of the budget.
it's just 24 hours, the same as
Yes.
Okay. So, it's already posted on the on the town clerk's board right now. It's something that we're going to have to get with Robert England and just make sure that, you know, the day whatever day would be good for him. And, you know, we we just need to reschedule. We could either reschedule for Thursday or we could reschedule for another day. Yeah. Jeeoff. Jeff, there it looks like there I was just looking at the the calendar and it looks like there's a meet there's a joint meeting on the 11th that we we're talking about and then there's another one on the 18th.
Correct. There's a there's a requirement within the charter change that was done that two meetings be held.
Okay. I'm just trying to decide if we could trying to see what else what other dates we have. Yeah, because the board of finance regular meeting is on the 25th.
Yep.
So, not a lot going on the 12th. I just don't know if everybody can make it. That's all.
Well, that's the whole thing. And I
That's a lot of short It's a short not a short notice.
Yeah, it's not it's not the best. That definitely not the best. It's something that we need to look at. So, but I don't think that we should
Yeah, next Tuesday's P&Z. Yeah.
So that's
Well, listen. Let me let me sit there and get with Robert England and and find out if we can sit there and and if he what day he would Okay. So anyway, I I'm just going to make a recommend. I'm going to make a motion that we cancel we reschedule the meeting the joint board of finance board of selectment meeting for scheduled for Wednesday February 11th.
I'll second that. Okay. Any further discussions on that issue? All right. Ann, how do you vote?
Yes. Yes.
Was that yes or no?
Yes. Yes.
Okay. Caroli
says cancelling her.
Yeah. Reese.
Hi. Jeff Murray.
Hi.
Scott Person. Scott's an I. Jeff Magcguire. I five. Nothing. And I will reach out to Robert England. Jeeoff as a suggestion. We have to do two meetings now. Could we do that on the board of finance regular meeting night? Could we do a special meeting like an hour ahead of that their regular meeting or make it part of their make it part of their regular meeting? We just do our follow-up stuff from you know if we just do next week and then we meet with them at their regular meeting. Would that suffice? That would and and honestly, Jeeoff, that's really probably a very good idea because you can sit there and it will give Lisa some additional time and us some additional time to review it. So, I'll make that recommendation.
Yeah, because then that way we don't we don't have to reschedu anything. We could just use the existing meetings and just get the two get the two done in that time frame.
Okay. All right. Yeah. The only people that will be, you know, impacted would be us because they're going to meet anyway. So, When is their regular meeting?
Give me one second.
The 25th.
Yes. And they just have a schedule from 7 to Yeah. 7 to 9. Okay. All right. So, that was the end of new business. We're now moving on to approval of minutes. We have the minutes in there for 12:22. We do not have minutes for 112. I I have to get on to that with Maria and sit there and see where we're at. And we're going to have to find some alternatives, I would think, to sit there and get our minutes done in a more timely fair. I asked Jim. Jim had some people that he had an opportunity to he had some people that were that live in town that actually did some work for Windom for maintenance. So, I've asked him to reach out to them to sit there and see if maybe we need to make some adjustments on who who is taking the minutes. And that's if Marina really wants to do do them since we did not approve the employee versus subcontractors issue in her favor. So, we have the minutes there for 122. Does anybody have any issues with those? page 19 of the packet. I'll make a motion that we approve the minutes for 1222 2025.
any further discussion? Ann, how do you vote? Hi
Ann votes I Carol Lee
I
SC Jeff Murray
I
Scott Person
I Jeff Magcguire I so five nothing on the approval of the minutes and I will sit there and find out where we're at for the 112 meeting.
Jeeoff, I just want to get back to that real quick. As I was looking at the calendar, if you talk to Rob England, it looks like March 11th
ere's a board of finance budget meeting and a board of education regular meeting as well.
Okay. he actually he actually got to me. He said if we can get attendance and still comply with a schedule and a charter, he's open to it. So, let's sit there and and initially push for that and then if we have to do a special meeting and and take it on a different day, we will. But if we can get a if we can do that, that's a great idea because then the board of finance doesn't have to schedule another meeting.
Yeah. I just wanted to say about that conflict on the 11th. If there's board of finance members that want to go to the board education meeting, that's also going to happen on the 11th of March.
Okay. I'll let him know that.
well, actually his his people can Okay. anybody I know that we talked to the treasurer before, but does anybody have any information or anything that they want to address that I can bring to her related to the treasur's report that goes from 22 to to 40? No.
Okay. a tax collector report item 12. It goes from page 42. anybody have any questions related to the tax collectors report? So, we received in the month of January $1.6 million in taxes collected. We have from pages 44 through 61 the large the largest taxpayers who own money. same ones. Nothing's changed there.
Yeah. Okay. departmental reports. I know because Kate was leaving, I'm sure she did not get a lot of these accumulated. She did get one for the fire department. she did get the information for the permits and and really we've got to get a better better handle on these permits and the dollar fees because there's no costs on a lot of these things.
I called the town of Bolton, the building department up there, the building inspector, and talked to him about two of them that I had questions about. And he said he'll look into them. He said when he looked at him initially that he did think that there was something up with it. He was going to investigate those two.
Okay.
And he never got back to me yet. The ones this month seem right, seem fine. And then we had Department of Public Works, Eric gave us his report. you know, like I said, there's just way too many of these events happening on the weekends. It's killing us from an overtime perspective. just a lot of snow for but the the group seems to have done a good job. I see the smaller truck out there only over overtime by like $3800 I think. Right. Good. Which is a lot, I guess, but not for all that work that they did.
Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, has anyone had any complaints other than mailboxes? If they only got 12, this is something I could tell you from his historically. They only got 12. They did really good cuz I can remember plowing in the blizzard that there was like 20 or 25 just at the lake that got hit.
And what happens is a lot of the posts are rotten and they just get knocked down anyway.
Some of them are just they're on their way out and the snow does them in. And we have a policy. We have a mailbox policy. We do,
right?
We wrote it after the last that last big storm we had.
About 10 years ago, eight years ago.
Well, during our time. Yeah.
Some some sometime in there. We we did it.
Jeff Jeff Magguire, do you remember the town a road cash report? used we used to get that every month, didn't we? A detailed document I think I remember about all the money that was spent out of that account.
Yeah, we did. We got we have we had received more information Scott and I'm going to sit there and try to make sure that the information I'm going to work with the treasurer to make sure that the information that is made available to us is more consistent and more thorough.
It was scribbled on something, but I I can remember we got a document every every month about that. there were a lot of things that we we got different information on. We need to get back to
we don't we don't have enough information.
I mean, listen, we at least know what's moving out of the account. Like, if you sit there and you go to pages 37 through 40, that's actually a summary of the transactions and you can ask what they are and and what what they're for. I mean, Cassella Waste, we know that's transfer station. you know, you have you have all of these transactions that are in here that what I would like to get to is that the treasurer is online and has access into the information and if you have a question, she answers your question immediately with the access to it. so but a lot of these because of just historical information, we kind of know what they are. there's nothing like there's nothing that really jumps out at me in this cycle
that is off.
Maybe if we can get the information a little bit earlier too, rather than
Thursday, last hour of the day, and then if we have questions, if we don't have time on Monday to go in.
No. And that's the whole point, Carol, is if what I'm I want to get to and what I've asked is that the information that is prepared for the board of finance meeting, which would have been prepared for by the 25th would sit there and then be presented to us the following week, you know, so that we would have that information. we're going to get there. I I mean there's there's just some changes that have been made to staffing and people that are more willing to sit there and provide what you need. But to be really honest, Carol, the biggest thing within this town is lack of information on all fronts.
Yes, I agree.
All fronts. So, but yeah. Okay. the last section in this is the library has provided us an information for January as to the the transactions and and what they have accomplished at the library. So the librarian's report for January is included on page 84. So anybody have anything related to that? Okay. All right, we're going to move on to item 14, correspondence. There's none. And we're going to move on to item 15, public speak. So, we're going to go through our residents before we move to before we move to so we'll move on to people. So, Tess Grouse I'm all set, sir.
Okay, Diane Grineer.
Kimberly Prasad.
All set. Thank you.
Liz Latch.
I'm all set. Thanks for dealing with that issue. Appreciate you all.
Yep. Joan Joan Heert.
I'm all set. Thank you.
Stephen King,
just want to say that the the town crew I believe did a great job cleaning up. And that's about it. Thank you.
Okay. Lean Hutchinson.
I'm also all set.
All right. Louise Goodwin.
Yes. I got a question about the Andover's finest program. I haven't heard too much about that and I was just wondering if I I read on it and I think there's supposed to be a quarterly meeting from the board of selectmen and has there been any activity on that since last year?
We didn't have anyone that put in names for us to review in January. But last year though, I I actually did one last year, last quarter, and I I checked the meeting minutes and I didn't see any activity on it.
Right. We were supposed to get new submissions, so they're going to be confidential.
Louise, resubmit that, you know, to the town administrator's assistant and we'll sit there and look at it.
Okay. Thank you. Yep. Marcy Miner. No, thank you.
Okay. And then I believe that phone number is Luis is Leanne Hutchinson's. So, did I miss anyone test? Sorry. Did you say no?
That No, thank you, sir.
Okay, good. All right. So, did I miss anyone? Okay. thank you for everybody for attending. I'm going to sit there and put you in the waiting room so that we can move into executive session. So, I'm going to make a motion that we move into executive session to discuss the town administrator interview process. Somebody may second it. An seconded that. All right. all in favor can I say five nothing? Yeah. 5-0. Great. All right, everybody. Thank you. if you can drop off or I'll put you in the waiting room.
Are we in executive session?
yes. I need to Not yet. I'm trying to
move everybody around. So, let me
stop that. I'm gonna I'm gonna start the recording. So, we've exited executive session at 9:08 on Monday, February 9th. and our final item on the agenda is adjournment.
Motion to adjurnn.
Who's seconding that?
Scott Person seconded. So, Jeff Murray made the motion. Scott Person seconded.
all in favor I
5 nothing. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Okay. Good night.
See you guys. Yep.
Good night.