start this meeting we'll call the meeting to order this is the town of Andover Board of Finance meeting for Wednesday August 28th we'll go ahead and recite the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to The Republic which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all for all okay very good next order businesses public speak we have Shannon and Linda both with us from the public Linda you have anything to all set okay shanon just here to Shepherd along the tri board policy Mark thanks okay very good we'll go ahead and move on any changes or additions to the agenda I don't have hearing none we'll go ahead and go on to Old business review of budget to actual I mean I took a quick look we're in the first you know month of the year so there's not much really that could get hopefully too out of whack at this point so I don't know if anybody has any questions or Eric if you have anything to to comment on no oh sorry I do have a question once
Eric's done yeah Joan sorry Eric when looking at this the budget to actual is this a Contin tion of well is this the new budget inputed or is this the old budget you know because it's so this is the should be the new budget not be the new budget yeah okay that's I'm just making sure because everything you know you have it input and then everything's a negative in the percent over budget you know what I mean so I guess it sorry it could be just me forgetting what they look like as long as it's a new one input that's fine thank you yeah it's the dollars over so you know as long as we're not you know you haven't spent anything it'll be it'll generally be negative unless we're over
the line item so of course thank you yeah other questions or comments I did I guess I could ask a question at this point Eric did we I know that we voted in the project manager position for the 15,000 I believe right correct have we been able to think about filling that or anything yet nope okay just checking thank you I mean I know you have a lot on your plate and it's just the beginning of the year so thanks yeah yep okay if anybody has any questions on these I guess there's a check register also looks like most of the standard stuff going in and out some of the stuff from the state of Connecticut obviously and the payroll is big numbers moving in and out you know if anybody has any specific questions on that okay have none we go ahead and move on to the tri board committee discussion I I know that Shannon had sent the draft to Dennis O'Brien were you all copied on that no okay so she just copied me and Eric I don't think so I hope I hope I'm I checked no it doesn't look like it okay okay well it's good that it's moving can I ask were you yeah all right I I'll sit back sorry I'll just listen well I guess the you know I don't know Shannon you want do you you want to kind of explain you just sent that on to to Dennis for comment kind of PR some of the discussion that happened at the last board meeting sorry as I can tell you didn't respond to you but sometimes maybe you didn't copy he you had heard from yet then I have not so
just so everybody knows I apologize if I should have sent it to the whole board I I apologize just real quickly I made the the two major changes or Rob and I made the two major changes to change the word managed to the word supervised to address what Eric had commented on with regard to really what the tri board would be responsible for as far as capital projects and then based on the concern about whether or not there was any contradiction with the charter I added the the charter prevailing subsection e into the into the policy and then as Louise had asked and the the board had asked I forwarded it on to Dennis for his comments and called him this afternoon and haven't heard back so hopefully he will comment on that okay thanks I did forward that to everybody you could just see kind of a lot of a little more detail that basically what Shannon just said you know as she summarized some of the changes and what the point of the policy was Etc and asked Dennis for for the view so you can take a look at that Mark I have a comment if I can yep no I really appreciate all the time and effort you've put into it Shannon and coming to all of our meetings and trying to simplify it or appease everyone with the comments that were made I like that it's a one-page document very easy to read now because I printed everything out today so that I could kind of read over you know and you know I hope that you hear back from our town attorney soon I don't know how busy he
is or how long he normally takes to you know answer things so hopefully that will be you know forthcoming for you again I'm really in favor of this I think that it's nice that we're all making efforts to have things come together the only question I had for Shannon if I may is were we going to Dennis first and then to the board of Selectmen or have they been sent anything yet no Joanne I thought it was best to go board by board yeah so what I did was Board of Education acted on it first then I put it forward to you it was initially supposed to be a joint policy between our two boards but then we wanted to add in the board of Selectmen so I guess after your approval hopefully with the approval of two boards will address whatever concerns the board of selectman have which hopefully won't be many if any especially after dentist chimes in so that's been my the only reason I haven't done it I just didn't want to do to deal with two boards questions at the same time no I think you're simply you know you're streamlining it in the best possible way you know having because if
you get opinions from all sides you know then it's hard to kind of yeah I like this I like going one board by board again I'm not sure what the rest of the board is feeling but I'm I'm totally in favor of it I know that we're trying work well together so I I can't see where any harm would come to having a joint agreement like this and I'm I'm pleased with it so thank you okay any other questions or comments I mean my general thinking is we probably should wait to hear back see what Dennis has any comments and obviously before we take any action I I think it'd be a good idea to have more of the board present just because of vacations and illnesses and everything having recently recovered from pretty severe B of Co myself I I know how that can take you out so I think we should wait till we we have some more input from the board and of course the input from the attorney okay if there's no more discussion there we'll move on to item 4D which is the education mandate relief and Eric from the legislative point of view Mark did did we lose somebody did we lose because there's only three of us now Kim oh Kim yeah we lost Kim somewhere oh thanks y while we're waiting to see oh while we're make any motions yeah we just can't we just can't vote on any
substantive business really so she's back quick question while we're waiting for her to return hopefully so are is that what I know we had heard from bill is Rob on am I allow you know I'm sorry if I missed he's away on vacation is that why he's no Rob wasn't feeling M said he miss today okay understood totally okay thank you okay Eric did you want to comment on the education mandate relief legislative activities anything new I do not I I actually thought I had taken that off the agenda before it got to you okay and the next item then is Town match for the the trails Grant that's also from last week I don't know if you have anything new to add for that yeah I don't I mean other than the public did approve it so so that was good y okay good okay we'll go ahead and move on to five Mark can I ask I apologize maybe it's not what will the town match be for this particular Grant if I may I think 21,000 okay this is the one just remind me which one this is I should be better at this there's a lot of them which which Trails is this is this the one near the school well it's the one that goes from basically behind the community center directly to the rail trail alongside the path that is now the Percy cook Trail it's basically a design study to modify the Percy cook Trail to make the whole thing accessible or whole thing usable okay so we're getting the funding from the state and then the town has
to match about the 21,000 for the for correct okay thank you the majority of of state grants these days require a 20% match oh yeah definitely all right that's all I have on that okay moving on to item 5A Town Treasurer so if you look we have a chance to look through your packet there is an email from the treasurer in there offering to continue to work part time or work work remotely because she will be mo going to Florida as she I think she did last year quite some time from from November or middle of December until middle of April and she said she's willing to provide the services remotely if we're comfortable with that otherwise she would tender her resignation at the end of November so I guess the question ends up being what's the board's thinking about that I mean I'm I'm comfortable with it I mean she's a good working relationship it seems like with with well with us but with Eric and just getting the job done obviously taken us a long way from where we were previously Eric what are your thoughts on that I'm fine with it she and I had a long discussion the other day you know my real concern was support during budget season you know and I think we can work that out so I think we would be okay with her working room I don't have any and Char already understands the town so I'm I certainly have no incentive to change yeah has G oh sorry this gone before the board of SL yet it has not
it'll be in their packet the next time but okay I'm highly in favor of keeping her I think we're so lucky that she came in to fix everything that she did her and Christina and Chris I guess she calls herself there have such a good relationship that I have witnessed and just know I know how highly each of them thinks of each other so that's huge with Christina holding down the fort here also think that in this kind of job it's okay to work remote I mean she's not doing all the bill paying and everything that's Christina's task so being remote is actually okay it's something you know I think she maybe like if Eric is concerned about budget season and the spreadsheet and all of that hopefully she can take a closer
look so we don't have a big mistake like we did this year and just you know but you can do those kind of things remote so yeah I'm in favor 100% I hope we keep her as long as she's willing there's an element of kicking a can down the road which I get but you know at some point we'll probably have to find a replacement but I you know General I would agree I think we can make it work Lise or Kim any comment on that I'm good with it I mean everybody's doing it from home now so if it works and and and Eric is fine with it it's fine with me as well Kimberly any comment or yeah mute well we'll come back and we can always come back to that if we need to she's still muted but okay well do you need anything further from us Eric other than you want
a motion or anything just to knowledge that we're in general fa in favor of it you could make a motion that would be great you know just I would make a motion to recommend to the board of Selectmen that you continue you know Cheryl Miller Services I think that would be appropriate yeah I would agree I go ahead and make the motion to continue with Cheryl Miller accounting services for the town of Andover as the treasurer yeah to working remotely yeah and we approve her working remote because she will always check in and you know we have confidence that she'll still continue well in that manner okay and second I'll second it Louise see Kimberly you looks like you're on twice sorry there you are yeah no I'm completely in favor of it I think it's too important a position to you know lose her just work with her okay any further discussion we go and take a vote all those in favor say I I I any opposed any extensions hearing none motion passes thank you very much okay the next agenda item is 5B which is entitled letter of interest I think really what this is is these are
the interested candidates for the open position on the board of Finance I believe we have four at this point and once again I'm I'm made an assumption where I shouldn't have did you guys all get the email from the town clerk yeah you did it looks like looks like it went to your to your Andover email only I feel like I know of two candidates only somehow I don't know the had was the first and then we had another one that she forwarded on the 21st of August and that was from Heather vanara which is also in the packet and then this morning she sent a list in a Word document that had Heather vanera Liz loic and Marcy Miner so those so those there were three listed there but Stephen wasn't I did reply at her just wanted to confirm that something hadn't changed with Stephen that he was still on the list I assumed it was just kind of an updated list so we have those four candidates at this point I haven't heard of any more can I just ask you when the town clerk sent that to you because I asked her for that information to put it in the packet and she gave me nothing it was like 11:55 this morning all right oh I didn't it yet okay can you forward that to me just did thank you and Mark you said we all did receive it I didn't check that email today because yeah it looks like it went
to your just the just the town email and you know in both of those one was sent on the 21st and also the one that was sent on the this morning okay are we thinking we would have the candidates appear at the next meeting when maybe our full board is present is that our thought know that would be probably the next step whether it happens at the next meeting or the one after that okay the good thing about the timing here is you know we're not immersed in the depths of the budget season so I don't think that there's any huge rush to fill the position I I had sent Carol an email asking her to put it in the river's bulletin and and post it and you know I think through like you know requested letters of interest you know by the end of September so I don't think we necessarily need to make a decision but I didn't want to have a you know short time I want to give people an opportunity to come back on vacation and get kids do all the things they wanted
you know need to do it's a busy time of year but yeah I think really one of the things though that I would like to see is I would probably it' be my intention and I wanted to talk about this tonight in this agenda item would be to reach out to all of these people who have expressed interest and then ask them to kind of provide either kind of a personal statement Andor like a resume so that we have a little bit more information on their background with which to make some preliminary evaluations give us some context text for their their interest their and their qualifications so that when we do speak to them we have an opportunity to do so you know with some you know preliminary information some context agreed that's a great idea yeah it doesn't have to be anything fancy but I think just you know a little I feel like Stephen did that the first time and probably Kim did too so we had kind of information when we had to fill the thing the last time at the open and it's just helpful that no okay hearing none I guess we'll move on
to the approval of the meeting minutes from July 24 yeah Louise I have one the new person would they start fresh or would they just continue on with what's his name you you you would continue you continue you serve out the remainder of the term of the term so yeah so the term the terms are staggered by Design so there's three members that will end in one year which is 2025 or maybe it's four and then you know three and then four you know three and one year and then four and two years later and then the other three and two years after that for fouryear terms so by running you know having somebody fill the remaining of the term it keeps us on that staggered schedule okay Mark I have a since you had moved on to the next item if everyone else is done with filling the position I have a
comment on the minutes if I okay Eric I had a question and then a comment is there a I remember in the past is there a set amount that the town grants whoever takes the minutes types up the minutes per meeting yeah yes okay and I think as an overview most of the time they get it right and we have enough detail and comments but since they are they get the video of the meeting and they get to hear it and slow it or go back and forth to get detail I just want to make sure that detail is provided especially if there's a couple I don't want to say negative but we need to bring forth all of the comments because on these minutes as you guys probably remember item D under new business when we talked about the error in the Excel budget sheet I mean in case people aren't able to see the the meetings or
to hear the comments I would have liked a little more detail on you know some of the things that I said about the error yeah I I'm not sure I agree with that Joe because what what can become problematic there if we if we have just the general observations and comments is that if you if you get too much detail it can really get bogged down and I it's it's a fine line you got to be I mean and and I don't I don't want by by saying that by any means I don't mean to say that we they shouldn't include the negative and the positive or both sides of any issu that's a little more even Mark I mean there was a lot of discussion and it's like just boom boom that's it we need to let the taxpayers know what had happened what we caught as the board of Finance how we felt about it there's no problem with that that that lets our taxpayers know that we are here for a reason and we take our job seriously so with a big mistake like
that we just want to make sure it doesn't happen again it wasn't $4 it was $40,000 so that's all yeah I guess I guess from that standpoint we could have had a little more detail about what the was and the scope of it that's fair yeah yeah just giving a little I mean they made it seem cut and dry well we fixed it we're doing this you know just we don't mind you know just let them know what our board is doing if these are the minutes of our meetings then this is the comments that we had not I'm never about negativity I'm about making sure that we fix it and just doesn't happen again so that's all for the most well we certainly in this case is you know this is if if you like we can we can request that we have a little more detail there yeah I would like that then I don't want to approve them I'd like to just have a I'm sure the person that does the minutes and I don't want to call them out I think they do a great job for the most part so just a little
more detail I would I would like it maybe the rest of the board doesn't agree but if they do we just want to be transparent with our meetings yeah so so just a reference this is under item 4D which is four 5D new business error and Excel budget street so there's a note that says shared screen with budget sheet reviewed error offset offset error by drawing down less from fund balance so what I think Joanne you're suggesting is that we probably could have a little more detail behind this one that says you know error was discovered in the Excel budget sheet the amount is you know whatever the number is something yeah Board of Finance reviewed the error and discussed how to avoid in the future the you know the the amount will
be offset by drawing down less from the from the fund balance than planned something like that yeah I would be fine with that I just want to to give the town a little bit more if they look at minutes they probably can't listen to the whole meeting you know people yeah yeah that's fair enough I think I think that's a fair that's a fair suggestion thank you on that one because it is it is you know it's an unusual a little more context is good right it did cause the mill rate to be higher than it needed to be again when people are you know trying to set a budget and trying to approve certain things and less so that's just unfortunate in the year when the spending increased tremendously that we had that error so that's all I appreciate that Mark sure yeah no it's it's a fair it's a good observation anybody else have any comments on the meeting minutes okay so kind of given Joanne's suggestion you know we can still make a motion to approve the meeting minutes or we can just skip on to the next agenda item if nobody's going to make a motion to approve at this time I would like to ask and then the board can say if they're you know not in
favor I would like to ask if we could have them revise like you just said Mark and then try to approve them next month yeah Eric do you think we need a motion on that or just you have enough information or we could just have that whoever reviews this could take it no I think you're fine okay we don't need a motion if you don't want to approve the minutes don't approve the minutes thank you all right next item is the administrator's report Eric so this and I I just want to mention so we were looking at one of the reasons we wanted to have today's meeting is we thought we'd have last minute transfers to do approve the transfers I guess we don't have those available yet huh yeah no Cheryl hasn't finished those as most of you know the books officially I mean July 1's the end of the fiscal year any expense that comes in after August 15th is automatically assigned to the next fiscal year regardless of when but Cheryl hasn't gotten the final Corrections yet whatever Corrections
there are that you haven't gotten or are are very minimal anyway but it will probably be next month that that will be presented to you okay I have a question to budget related to Eric I know when I listen to the board of Selectmen meeting we had said that the and I so I was wondering the amount I know that the resident trooper bill came in less than what we budgeted can I ask what it was what the bill came in as you can I give me a second 12,702 120 thanks and we budgeted was it 140 I think so I will look back to I think it's 140 in this new budget that's what I noticed today so all right thanks got yeah I mean the the real problem with that budget is that the state doesn't tell you ahead of time what their overhead is going to be so even if you know who your Trooper is and what his raw salary is going to be you don't have any way to to Really accurately predict the final bill so kay and so we also don't have a ballpark idea of what we'll have left over then because we want to wait for the transfers and the rest of the bills is that what we're thinking I don't I mean I know we're in the black but exactly how much I can't tell you okay I mean remember
because we hadn't anticipated having a stiff account we're gonna have about $120,000 back just from just from transition to a stiff account that we hadn't anticipated so we should have a relatively good Surplus this year okay all right sounds good thank you Eric more for from an administrator's report standpoint no it's so early in the budget we don't have a lot I mean obviously we finally completed the community center which is good we're pretty close to finally paying off that it looks like when we fully pay that off we're going to have somewhere around $99,000 left of arpa funds from the original arpa account so we'll be talking I want to pay the final bills off of that before I make that statement there's a couple different possibilities one is looking at whether we can reclassify some of the
expenses we paid out of the multi-use building fund in the past that went towards the community center whether we could reclassify that is arpa funding but that's gets a little more questionable because it stretches back to a previous FIS school year so Cheryl is checking in on that or whether we look at it we do have to by around December of this year have encumbered that money for something we don't have to have spent it we and it's certainly the majority of that money of the $960,000 or $980,000 all but $10,000 has been you know encumbered and spent so far actually it's even a little less than 10,000 so I think that will probably be a discussion for next month but only after we've paid the last of the Leading Edge bills and we know exactly where we stand for that there are some extra things we can buy for the community center without getting ourselves in hot water so we may propose that or we may propose to use that to spend down money that was already expended for the multi-use building fund and then just refund the multi-use building fund I don't know where we're going with that yet but hopefully we will fairly else can I ask Eric a question it's since there isn't I hope that I'm allowed at this part of the meeting but of course I know that we hired a new Community Senior Community Center Director I heard you say that at the
meeting of the Selectmen do you mind can I ask the person's name and you know are they on the job now or that yes they started two days after the open oh so yes her name is Tess gruss and Y you can go down to the community center and introduce yourself no definitely I can't I missed again being ill you know kind of multiple things in a row you know not good luck I had to miss that opening which I was really disappointed so I want to go down and see that see the community center in person yeah I can't wait to come in and then I would love to meet her yeah so thank you I'm glad that you got a person and that they're on the job already that's great thank you yep I I met her during the senior luncheon and we had a nice long conversation I think she's a very good person for that type of job very outgoing and she's really excited about it that's awesome that's what we need right that's great yeah Eric okay I guess we'll move on to liad reports typically this is Rob for either the the tri board committee Andor the CIP he's not on today does anybody else have anything all right hearing none I guess we go on to nine or board open discussion anybody have anything to
bring before the board we haven't discussed already I have a question I hope it can slide in here too again pop thank you popping onto the meeting and then hearing that we had a resignation of a board of selectman member yeah I I I noticed I just happened to catch it in the River East bulletin that there was a posting for an vacancy in the board of selectman I asked Eric and he said that Paula King had resigned from the board of selectman oh I almost caught my myself there I'm like was I not supposed to say okay so that was able to oh oh that's too bad I mean yeah yes Paula was great on the board and you
know someone good to work and collaborate with so she will be missed that's too bad well thank I mean she has to do what she has to do but well thank you for the clarification yeah currently we have a position open on board of Finance Board of selectman and Board of Education oh really have had to oh wow okay do weot of volunteer opportunities do we replace Paula the same way as we replacing on the board of Finance or is there something different about a board of selectman I think it would be the same I mean most of those for the charter are basically done the same way right okay any prospects no yet not that I'm aware of but then again if you asked me 20 minutes ago I would have told you I only knew of one person who applied from the board of Finance position so I'm often the last person to know I'll be I'll be sure to check anything further that comes across in an email and to make sure a that everyone's copying on they should be so board okay hearing none we'll move on to 10 which is correspondence the only thing that I have was was the email that I already forwarded to you that Shannon sent to the attorney sent the proposed policy with the explanation I don't have anything else other than the you know the people expressed interest for the position which we already discussed anybody else have any correspondence okay hearing none we'll move on to 11 which is public speak again we have Shannon and Linda looks like anything to add or comment on so
three things I just got off the phone with Dennis he just had surgery so that's why he hadn't reviewed the policy and he also commented which is what I was concerned about that he has been spending tremendous amount of time with the questions for the ballot which has been his primary goal because they're due to the Secretary of the State so hearing that it wasn't an emergency and that he just had surgery he'll get back to us asap on the tri board policy okay second thing because you don't have Robert here there hasen't been a CIP meeting in a couple months so there's nothing to report from there and third thing is there is a matter of timing mark As far as
replacing Brian in that if you don't act within 60 days the board of Selectmen then gets to choose his replacement so I don't know remember exactly when Brian put his letter into the clerk but by waiting another till your meeting after the next meeting it you might run a foul of that thanks yeah that's a good point yeah we probably would I'd have to go back and check but yeah it's kind of a quirky thing in the thing it says that it says that the border of Selectmen May do it so that would certainly be within their purview per the thing so it looks like Brian sent his resignation announcement on August 7th so in theory then we would need to replace him and I guess that would roughly be like August 5th or August 3rd some or I'm sorry October 3rd somewhere around there so truthfully don't we we really should make it a point to do it at the next
meeting if we could IDE I think yeah I mean you know I think as long as we've had an opportunity to generate fair amount of Interest which we have we have you know we have four candidates already so that's great I would think we probably could it would goodidea I feel like we've done it quicker before so even this will give us longer time than we have I just you know I like our board to be able to make our decisions and if we are if we're able to and that would give us plenty of time like you said we have four candidates already so yep hopeful that we can request resumés or whatever from them however the appropriate thing whether Carol has to ask them or the town clerk or whoever do we've got their contact information we don't need her to do that yeah I'm just ask you guys are so much better at the charter than I so I just want to follow the proper procedure yeah nope sounds good and and I would also note that the board of Selectmen is not going to choose somebody for another board you know if the board of Finance refused to pick somebody they might but they're not going to go out of their way to choose your they don't want to open that can of worms either yeah so yes the charter allows them to do it after a set
period of time but as long as you're acting in good faith there's no reason you know yeah especially when there's nothing pressing in terms of the budget but you know there if there's no compelling reason for us to wait it you know I also agree we probably should get on it so yeah fair fair Fairly stated con okay Linda do you have anything all set Linda it's an opportunity to come back on you have yeah yeah miss you I like I can tune out whenever I want there you go okay well the next agenda item is adjournment would anybody like to make a motion to adjourn I'll make the motion
to adjourn okay Louise do I have a second I'll second okay Kimberly seconds discussion hearing none all those in favor say I I any opposed okay the meeting is adjourned thank you everybody enjoy your next few weeks enjoy