Meeting transcript
Board of Finance - Special Meeting
October 13, 2021 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
Thank you. We'll call the meeting to order. First order of business is to say the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the Republic with different stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice fraught.
Thank you. First next agenda item is public speak. Do we have any public speak? Anyone? Okay, none, we'll move on to our main agenda item, which is the RAM multi use turf field project. I obviously wasn't at the last meeting nor did I have an opportunity to watch the video. I did read the minutes and had some discussions with Diane outside the meeting to kind of understand a little bit about what went on and kind of where the board seemed to be on this project. I think that I can say that I'm aligned with the board on this. Obviously, everybody discussed this and Joanne volunteered to put together the draft letter, which she distributed to everybody. And I have that in front of me. So I guess the question is, do we need to have any further discussion over this topic, or should we review the letter and discuss it that as it stands now?
I think if you're in agreement that we should do this, then it's really just the drafting the letter, you know, how the letter reads. I think the rest of us were already on board. We just didn't want to, I think, call off and do it while you were in Germany without your agreement.
Well, better to be unanimous, right? I guess the only thing I would be concerned about is, I suppose we can do it without a unanimous vote. We know that Kurt is in favor of the letter because he responded. We don't really have Linda's input, know, I don't think. I did skim through the board, but I haven't had a chance to read it directly completely. So what I'd like to do is maybe share it, and we can go through and kind of just review it and discuss it. I'm going to apologize in advance because I was an English major and spent a lot of time as a technical editor, may offer some suggestions that are just not in content, but in terms of form.
Can I say one thing before we get started? I Yeah, go ahead, John. Thank you so much, Mark. I want you to know that we weren't overstepping or trying to, but because we had that other meeting, we knew we were gonna have this meeting. We had to have something concrete, you know, at the time to decide. And please feel free to critique, edit, slash things out. I just wanted to get something out there that I thought was, what's the word? It's been a long week at work but Representative of the boards yeah yeah and not critical
you know I didn't think it was critical kind of tried to offer support in some ways and whatever so yeah so there you go that's all I wanted to say thank you Yeah, no, I think it's good. You know what I read, so I don't have any real issues with what I've read so far in terms of the content, but I do think we should review it. I
made some comments on that as well. I'm not sure if everybody saw it. Yep. It's kind of last night with me.
Oh, good. No, I didn't see any comments except for Kurt earlier.
Oh, yeah. I sent that maybe about an hour ago. Oh, I'm not sure. You. So,
what Louise has suggested is maybe adding some of the text that Eric had. Amanda, can you let me share my screen?
I mean, I have a letter up anyway from the email. My my commentary, know, since you're going to hit the other bit, the only thing I'm kind of noodling around about in terms of the content and you know, the one part of the that is critical and this is something I've banged on about myself because I think it's true is the bit about the timing and the way this is set up. That is pretty critical and I think maybe deservedly so, but if you're trying to soft pedal it a little bit, maybe that's the part We could revise, but the rest of it, I agree, and I think the more context, we can put into the numbers, the better. You know, maybe, and the only other thought I had was whether we wanted to specify the the precise hit to Andover, You know the letter as drafted has the the the total cost project cost, which is obviously the bigger number. But in terms of like what it does to our budget, which if memory serves you know it's over ten years and it's about 70 a year. But I forget the exact number to be fair. All
right, yeah, it's a good point. Think if we had the actual numbers to the, you know, the impact of the time of Andover, that does have some, it carries some additional weight.
There is more information on that email, not email, but from Eric. He went on to the next paragraph. He went on to say about the 70,000. But I wanted to make sure that, you know, that last paragraph, the last sentence, this works out to be 40% of the budget. I think that speaks for itself. And I'm not sure whether putting too much information might be too much and just keeping it simple.
Yeah, we don't want to bog down too much, I agree. Yeah.
But there is additional information on there that Eric wrote on it. It was
very interesting as well. I don't know if anyone saw it, but in the River East last week, there was a letter to the editor from one of the Hebron Selectmen. Yes. His points were interesting.
What did it, well, I didn't see that, Diane. What was the gist of it? Do you remember? Was he Yes, so was the injuries
and citing, you know, more injuries on artificial turf, which is one thing that Adrian has been harping about. And there was a thing out there that he talked about city of Holyoke suing several companies because they had a turf field installed and they're having problems with it. Excuse me. So, and he also talked about that there's really not lower maintenance costs and it's still not recyclable because he talked about the company that they hired saying these claims, but nothing. It's from their perspective. Do you know what I mean? It's from the company's it's a sales pitch. We don't know. It's fact.
I thought in our, you know, reaching out to the public or the voters that since we are the board of finance, we should first focus on that. You know? Like like you guys said, I didn't wanna put I tend to in my work, things are, like, so involved. So I tend to put a lot of information and I get that, that it's hard to get through. So I thought just putting the big number out there, know, and letting people see how much it's going to cost and then it's going to be a ten year debt. Who knows what's gonna happen in a couple years? But I mean, I've been trying to navigate, I'm new to Facebook. I didn't want to have it when my kids were growing up and I wanted, I trusted them and they had their forum. So I'm getting into it now. So I've been trying to go on this Andover support thing, but I never can find, you know, it's always the last thing. I haven't been able to see the discussion. I'll try it again later. Someone told me there's quite a bit of discussion on there, which I think is good. So has there been? Do you think the townspeople are jumping in on Facebook and reacting?
There was one thing on the Andover Support Network with Jeff Murray talking about the cost and how it's not a real coming out on his personal saying no, and another gentleman in town supporting it, going back and forth tit for tat. It was kind of Yeah, I think. Sorry yeah
I haven't seen it frankly I'm not particularly interested in it I guess it is a you know it does it is a gauge but it's a gauge only of the people who are really involved in Facebook you know, and personally, I've kind of spent time on it occasionally, but often not just because I don't have the time. You know, I'm not sure how useful it would be, But, you know, if there's anything that is new brought up there I think that that's a value but I think, I think that I think, you know, think that way Diana's kind of crafted this is Joanna's crafted this. Multiple threads of thought here. It doesn't always work. Think it's sensible. Don't know that we want to get. Yeah, I don't know that we want to necessarily get into the positives and negatives of a turf field versus a grass field. Think we leave that up to the administration, you know, assuming that they're doing some due diligence. But I think that just highlighting that, you know, a, we do not feel it's necessary and B, we just can't, we can't support that given the financial cost involved, know, and is there, you know, is this really a necessary spend? You know, think we keep it simple like that, and I do think maybe adding some of the impact of the dollar, the actual dollar impact would would make sense.
That puts some real information in front of the voter, but I think that we need to kind of have that.
The townspeople need to know how much it's going to cost us and for how long. So they can.
Think about it from the perspective of what we do. If it's 70,000 a year, we're in a $70,000 hole day one. Right. We start our budget process, right? It just tax it off. And you know, that's it's a decade where we have to deal with that. And, you know, whatever the number exactly the number is, but 72 or whatever, it's, you know, that's something that's concrete that can be explained. And I think that's our, our, our core complaint here is that we, and I think this was articulated well in the draft that we just struggled mightily to pass a budget and was ultimately zeroed out to get it passed. And then we get hit with this. That's the core complaint. In a perfect world where we had unlimited funds, maybe doing something like this is fine, but it's it's all about the context. Yeah.
I mean I'm largely fine with it, I mean I could speaking it here or there but it's basically good and my only thoughts were a if you wanted to. Talk about the. Timing or not. And again, I've banged on about that myself. That's absolutely in sticks in my craw. So I understand it being in there, but whether we want to go there. And then the other one would just be the breakout of the cost to Andover. Those are my only real comments. I'm
not sure what you mean there, Rob. The bit she talks about how we just got through the budget. I mean, this something I've said before too. We just got through the regular budget process, right? This wasn't part of it. The moment we pass the budget and the temperature drops and people stop paying attention, up this comes. And to me, that's just all sorts of fishy. Ram it through in a low turnout referendum. Now how accusatory we wanna be on that in this letter is the thing I'm questioning. I think it's true. You know what I mean? But that's the one bit that isn't just the facts. Right? That's us, I think, reasonably speculating. But think that's my take on it, and I gotta I really gotta burn my butt of bonnet about that. It really irritates me. But, you know, it's a question of whether it goes in this letter. That's all. That's what I'm saying.
And I'm just I'm not sure. I'm waffling all over the place on it.
Yep. The only thing I wanna bring forward is we, you know, we talk a good game in the meetings and, I mean, I put things in the paper and stuff, and I I totally get what Rob just said. But it's gonna continue to happen if we don't at least put a sentence in. And maybe I'm too new and I'm used to just being very direct and upfront. And so I'm okay with taking it out, but I feel like this is going to keep happening. If so maybe we could say something like the timing and bringing this issue forward. You know, I didn't need to put is suspect at best. Like, I agree that's a little much.
But But that feel that's the only part I would tweak during the year. I hear you. I'm not even saying take I'm not even saying take the rest of it out. I just suspect at best that struck me as like. The second paragraph here. First
pair first paragraph. It's the last sentence in the first paragraph. Yeah, first paragraph. I see what you're saying. Yeah, Hey, no, okay.
The rest of his factual, you know, completely factual. That's the that's the sort of the accusation. I think it's true though. So, know, I'm not saying we've taken out. I'm saying we should think about it. Right. Right. It was shocking to me when we just took a sigh,
got the zero or whatever. And it was painful. Like we all dedicated a lot of time. You know, I wasn't even So on the board I just feel like it. But again, it doesn't have to be this letter. Right. And it doesn't have to be from us. Know, I I get it. And I always wanna be respectable and those are the words I was searching for professional. Yeah. But I'm also not afraid to stand behind my points, but I don't expect the whole board to jump into that right now. I respect all of your opinions.
Okay. Thanks. So yeah, that's literally that sentence was the only thing that struck me as, you know, more of a combative tone. Again, I don't think it's wrong. So if everybody thinks we should go there, let's go there. I'm with you. I just wanted to raise it because when I read it, that's the part that peaked. I cocked an eyebrow. That's all. And then my only other non stylistic comment is a bit about adding in the 70 k to Andover. And that's it. That's the rest of it's great. Does what it needs to do.
I personally would be in favor of removing that sentence that Sila highlighted on the screen. It's, you know, while it may, you know, it's it's yeah, it's it's, I guess you're not going to say it's factually true. I think that the tone of the letter is very reasonable and professional until you kind of get to that point. So I would suggest we remove that.
We could soften it a little bit instead of putting it in is the suspect at best we could say is unfortunate. Or is problematic. Yeah that's a nice weasel word. Right? Well, it's
Right? I mean, it is a problem. You know? Yeah. Yeah. We're not necessarily pointing fingers and saying that somebody chose it even if we think that might have been the case. You know?
You know, if you think of if you read the letter without it, just pretend it's not there. The next paragraph goes into why it's problematic. Why it's problematic. It it may be you're saying you can say it without saying it in a sense. Right. Right. And I think it does say that. Yeah. Yeah. A reasonable reason is good to it. Right
there when most of the tax paying public is busier vacationing.
Yeah. And that part is true. So it's not that either one is true or false. It's less speculative. So, you know, I think it works, but I also am open to if there's a way of saying something like that, but softening it. I'm also okay with that. Again, I'm not taking a, a real strong position here on this. Just my, just my thoughts. So I write a lot of letters for on behalf of the company, and we we all we pull our punches a lot. Let's put it that way. And maybe that's coming through here since I'm the face of the big red umbrella at times. I have to be, you know, not say certain things.
Yeah. I think the letter would be just fine without it. I mean, I it just I was just adding it because I believe it. That it Oh, I hear you. I'm with Like, like we all do because we were pretty shocked. Like, I'm like, what are we talking about? What what are you You just got through. Right. We couldn't even get, and again, I I love the education too, but I mean, how could we even think about this when we just, you know, had the bleeding on all sides? So that's all. I think the letter's just fine without it. It doesn't, I mean, I don't know if you've written letters as a board anyway,
to so the letter. Not since I've been on, but yeah. So yeah. Yeah. I
don't seem to be able to make, make edits here. I guess my my Microsoft license seems to have expired or something like that. But But what I would what I would suggest is that we may be, you know this sentence is good if this item were to pass the town referendums and Andover Hebron and Marble three towns would divide this debt. And then we could there add a sentence that Andover portion will be approximately x thousand per year we don't know that number, but we can get it, I mean is that the is that what you're kind of suggesting rob we have something specific like that. And then, and then we the members of the Edvard Board of Finance, I don't think we need to say publicly state because that's going in the newspaper I just clean that up that that we, although, although we support high school athletics and the benefits to suit population we're not in favor of this resolution. We have to pick up at this times. Then I would take out this sentence too.
There was a word limit anyways. I think this is probably over their word limit.
Oh, there is? Okay. Oh, Well, then that's good. Oh, there we go. Yeah, there is, I think we probably need to trim it down to try to match that because otherwise we don't want to have do not want the the editor there editing this if if at all possible. Just, you know, we would like it to be what we're saying, you know, I mean, I'm sure they would do it reasonably. It's just it puts the onus on them. I think that we try to keep it down and maybe this way to do that.
I just Googled that and if this is correct it says 300 words for a letter to the editor. Oh, it is 300. Yeah, yeah.
So you don't know what this is. Right? I don't know what that is, but can word tell us? It's three seventy five. It's on the bottom. It's on the bottom. Oh, yeah. 375. Yeah.
I'll get rid of that sentence and you're all set.
They print letters that are longer for sure. Yeah, but I think it's just in the interest of protecting the communication we probably want to trim that down again. There's a couple things we could do. I think I think we should vote on the final letter as a a Board of Finance, so we can edit try to edit the letter and either have another meeting or we could try to do it here, or we could. Mike We could authorize one or more of us to revise this down, but in the same spirit, and then you know take it down to the to the word limit and then submit it on behalf of the Board of Finance if everybody's comfortable with that. Know the doing so would basically retain the message here without misstating anybody's position, but everyone would need to be in favor of that, I think. I'm okay with that. Can
I say that I would edit it since I start, I definitely will do everything you said? I mean, I have the draft here. I have a copy here that I'm writing on as we speak. Send it all to you again. Make sure you all sign off on it. And then I don't have to be the one submitting it to the editor. I don't mind who does that. Whoever I mean, I will, though.
I think that gets into some great territory, though, with public access, because when you do anything like that, Joanne, it technically becomes a meeting. If you're including all the board members and something like that, it has the if you're discussing something it, it ends up becoming potentially a meeting per se, so we have to be a little careful about that about about changing content or whatever. So, so I think. I'm not an expert I did go through a seminar to on this when I joined the board, and I do think, though, that that's that's a little tricky if everyone's involved, we might deputize. One or more of us to revise this and then and then send that out, I think, would be okay, especially for not really changing the content for any intense all intensive purposes we're just editing it down to. To meet a word limit that makes sense, I think that that's probably okay, but I think that we would we're stepping into dangerous territory if we. We send it around and agree on content and then send it out. Of course. I'd be happy to volunteer to help you, Joanne, if you want.
I go to the Google Docs document, it's letting me edit it. I don't know if you would see it then though.
Would have done. Would I have stop sharing, you could do it.
No, I mean, don't have it up. I have it up out of my email. Oh, I see. And I went in and it said Google Docs edit. And I mean, I haven't worked with Google Docs all that much, but it seems to be taking, and I'm editing it in suggestion mode. So it basically red lines it, although it's green in Google Docs, I guess. And I'm just doing what we've talked about so far and trying to pull out just a couple of maybe extraneous words to get the word count down, but otherwise leaving it alone. If this takes, maybe I can share my screen and you can see right now. Are you seeing my? You guys keep discussing, give me a minute.
So I had thought about doing Google Docs because I work in that all the time and I love it. And then we could have just done it. I just didn't know for the board's purposes, if that would have worked when you present, because that part, don't know. So yeah, whatever we needed to do. If this works, I like it.
Not because I'm actually able to edit it online. That might be more in my Office three sixty five thing. Are you guys seeing it here? Yes. Okay.
Yes. So you don't want I'm down to three fifty six words. We're good.
What is it, 300? Pretty wordy. We could just take out all the extras there.
Could probably take out that sentence in the last paragraph. We're willing to listen to less expensive proposals. Isn't that kind of understood? Yeah.
That's suggestion. A three twenty three, how about we do not support this plan? Is that simpler? Yeah. Should
probably leave some other thing I saw. I mean, I could hit one word, but Andover has many items. So it says so many items. You could just do many items and you could say instead of be supported financially, just say funded. Yep.
Yeah, I saw that too. Where is that? That's right. Oh, you were right there. One
sentence up. Andover has so many items that need to be supported financially and funded that are already stretched the limit. So you could just say Andover has many items that need to be funded. But yeah, don't know about that are already stretched the limit, like more along the lines of, or maybe we could just say there's so many items that need to be funded. And we are stretched the limit. That need funding. Wait, wait a minute. Andover has many items.
Need to be funded. We are stretched the limit. It's not the items that Or are stretched the
we could say we have many other items, you know, budgeted, you know, might have a higher priority or something like that. Don't know. That's the limit. The problem is this is unaffordable for us. Again, we couldn't even pass a modest increase to the school budget, to our own school budget.
What about the parentheses at the end as currently proposed, those three words? Do you feel we need that? Like, it is our hope that this item is Yeah. Just wrote it down. Yeah. We don't necessarily Get rid of that. What am I doing? Yeah. What are we doing? There we go. 316. 313.
Alright. Wait. Recently. I think it's important to give them info at the beginning. So if you know what I mean? Because a lot of people didn't go, so that paragraph gives them what it's about.
The last three words of the first paragraph too at this time? Oh, right. That was supposed to be Yeah. That's I noticed that before. I forgot about it. Yep. Let's go back. Oh, it looks so tiny now. No. Mhmm.
And, of course, I had talked about adding something. So I know. What are you guys thinking? Never mind.
Maybe that second paragraph went a little overboard on Andover. I have to read it again. We could we could just finish
a long and grueling budget season. Like get rid of hand. Andover just. We don't do have to do budget season. And finally got a budget pass. Sorry.
I'm working too much. I'm laughing. All right, here we go. Got not get. Thought it was suboxone finally passed. And yes. And finally passed a budget.
Real work. After Andover Andover Just, not Andover Had Just.
Right? I do know grammar. I think it's our changes. Let's see. Andover No.
The grammar, it made more sense with the the the stuff you took out in. How about how about it saying immediately after Andover underwent a long and grueling budget press suffered
a long and. I think we just take out had. Yeah, we had perfect. Andover just finished 300 words. We're done.
But the only thing is just remember that you all thought you wanted to mention something about this. Is it 70,000 a year or are we just gonna?
I'm backpedaling now. Have 300 words. There you go. You know.
We could just say this proposal was announced. I think anything we get, whoops, anything we get to. And proposal was announced. Anything we keep it to a concise message is probably better. If we get to the point where you can say the impact is X, then we can do that. I think publicly.
I mean, the one way to do it that would be short would be in the in the sentence that in the first paragraph where you say, you know, the three towns would divide this debt. You could just throw a parenthetical in, you know, and overshare would be x for ten years. That's not a ton of words. To me, I personally
like the 3,000,000 sitting out there. To me, you see the smaller seven you know, as I'm thinking this through, Rob, and everyone Yeah. I know. It gives an opening to say oh that's not that much money. Right 70,000 oh if we split that up that you go to those meetings they talk it's $50 a taxpayer they make it as small as can be if you're throwing out 3,000,005 I kind of like the impact of that. I'm I think that number is impactful, that $3,500,000. That's just a lot of money. And that's right at the beginning.
You know? Okay. For something that we only have, what, a little over 200 kids at the high school right now. So, it's not even money that benefits the majority of the town.
We can probably take that out too. It's not really date they'll they'll put it in there.
Oh, yeah. For sure. Oh, yeah. Probably the proof. I'm a big proofreader. Like, if this is gonna be our letter, I'm just gonna I'll listen, but I'm gonna proofread it again just to make sure.
I was on the board of select a meeting last night, and they opted not to come out on any public declaration about the turf field. They're not in favor of it, but they didn't wanna do anything formally. Sure. You're to date on it.
Diane, can I ask didn't they ask us to move our meeting because they wanted the '14 I I missed the meeting because I thought it was the '14? I think what happened is
they needed Adrian's on the board of ed. So the board of ed meeting is also today at 07:00. Right. Right. So he I think they needed to move it so agent could go to the board of ed meeting and not have the board of select meeting on the same day as the board of Ed. Okay. That's why I thought it was.
Yeah, I I just totally missed it. I'm gonna watch it, but okay, thanks.
I thought they were going to move it to Thursday is really bright. That's what I thought. What
do you guys think about removing the this phrase at this time. If voters and or is he wanted to wanted to approve spending more money, it would certainly be to address more pressing safety needs bridging culprit repairs. Oh, I think it's a point. Yes,
at this time can go out, I think it's just more concise. Because bottom line is nobody wanted to spend a nickel more in this town. Right. Right.
For things, as she will articulate here, for things that are kind of, you know, critical infrastructure needs, not in a field.
After the storm Nice to have. With the bridge, repairs and everything. Everybody's really kind of little
about still at the back of the tree the amount requested either, do we?
How about is this a little more stronger since we do not support this plan, which will stretch our financial debt for the next ten years?
Yeah. Or I I don't even know if I would phrase financial debt. I might just say, you know, strain our budget or something like that. I'm not sure financial debt, like Strain our finances? Yeah. What do you guys on our fine burden. Strain our for the next ten years.
Now, sentence oh, that's the other editorial comment. We also believe the amount will likely be much higher. I don't really have a basis for saying that. Yeah.
How about it? It is our concern that the amount will be much higher due to required maintenance. So it says something like that. Yeah, we're also concerned
that that softens it. So we're not just sort of definitively stating that the board believes that it's going to go in over budget. It might, but I don't really personally feel like I can say that. And maybe higher instead of much, but could be. You could say could be instead of would be will be. You could say could be.
You know, actual or final Something like that. Is that what do you guys we are also concerned that the actual the actual cost will be much higher due to the required maintenance and machinery needed to take care of the new field.
And I we can say something about I thought they said in the presentation after ten years they have to do something with it is I don't know if it's replaced or something It the life it doesn't have a twenty year life.
I'd also like to. It's my recommendation that we change it is our hope to is our recommendation that this item be defeated at the referendum is that it's a little more longer.
Think yeah there you go that we're strengthen something instead of softening. Yes,
can I ask a question my power just went on my computer Did you edit the part in the middle? I was like running off the house getting my power cord. You were talking, I'm sorry, but about the you left it in, it looks like, you know, pointing out what we wanted to spend money on. Was that what the discussion was? Oh, no. No. No. That that part's great.
Nobody was I don't think any of us wanna do anything with that. There was an earlier little piece to that sentence we just shortened. Okay.
So that's I think that's the most the the key part of the letter actually really is is that look at all these other things that we're not funding. Yeah. Because we can't get it passed. We're behind our ten year plan.
Yeah. Right? And I wanted to take anything we can give them to throw a tree work, for instance. We
want to support everything. If I left out any funding thing that you all know from all the years, yeah, thank you. There's
tons of, yeah, I think this is, I think it's great. Yeah, you've got, yeah, bridge and Culvert Road and tree work, community center, Andover School budget. I mean, that's that hits all the high points. There's it's not that there's nothing else in the budget I could think of, but that's Right. You know? Okay. This is fine. This hits all the the key things, I think. I think it's good. And I think we agreed that we'll just stay with the top line number. So I mean, to me, this is good to go. I'm good with it.
I'm good with it too. I think we just say we the members of the Board of Fire. I'm
it to Mark Brinker first. He's editing away. I love that. I'm sorry. I hate to do this, but it's just No, no. Tell me what your background is. You did you say you're an English major.
Yeah, I was an English major and I spent a lot of time technical writing and editing and no that's fine it's part of my job but no no and I'm usually a good proofreader too so I'm watching snips. Well, the problem is you can't proofread your own stuff. Exactly.
I was just having this conversation at work the other day. I'm catching, I was doing a settlement agreement draft today that I got from a coworker and repurposing it for my case. And I caught like two or three little typos or screw ups. And I had mentioned it, I'm like, if this was my own document, I would read right over it. But because it's not mine, I see it.
Correct. I just think it's funny. It took me down like four pegs, which is good. Did a good job and we needed No, something when I in was front of for that, I just thought, you know, it is good to have everybody collaborate on it and we needed a starting point, which was good. So yeah. Yeah. And it's, you just, it's very hard to zero to, to, to rework your own stuff, especially if you don't, if you're busy, which obviously you run around. Oh my God. To the max. So this was a thank God, Rob knows I said this, I need a deadline and that's why I did. And I took every last minute of the deadline just because it's crazy. Yep. Okay. Do
we want to read through this real quick just just to make sure there aren't any other sometimes reading you come up with something and then and then we have any last minute edits or suggestions. We're at two eighty eight words right now. So it says to the editor recently the RAM Board of Education and regional school district number eight passed a resolution to appropriate $3,560,000 for the installation of a new turf field track and lighting at ram high school Put it in the Oxford comma here. And to authorize the issuance of bonds and notes not to exceed that same amount. If this were to pass since November 2, Tom referendums in Andover Hebron and Marlboro the three towns would divide this debt. We the members of the Andover Board of Finance would like to publicly
state that although we support high school athletics and the benefits of the student population, we are not in favor of this resolution. Andover just finished a long and grueling budget season and finally passed a budget with a zero increase for the fiscal year. Immediately following that this ramp proposal was announced during the summer months when most of the taxpaying public is busier vacationing has stated in multiple town meetings and over has many items that need to be funded, and our budget is stretched to the limit. If the voters of Andover had wanted or approve spending more money, it would certainly be to address more pressing safety needs bridge and culvert repairs necessary road and tree work, supporting a town community center for its residents and certainly any Andover elementary school needs that are currently not funded. We do not support this plan which will strain our finances for the next ten years. We are also concerned the actual costs will be much higher due to the required maintenance and the machinery needed to take care of the new feet. It is our recommendation that this item be defeated at the referendum on Tuesday, November 2, Andover Board of Finance. I like it. Yep. Good. Alright.
I had a thought while we were going through this, it was in the first paragraph. I'm now trying to remember it. Oh, so if this were to pass the town referendums in Andover, Hebron, and Marlborough, just so that we don't confuse anybody, It's, you know, Andover could vote it down and it could still pass. And because I I just had to explain this to somebody who was asking me about it. It wasn't a town resident, but somebody I was just explaining the issue to. Was complaining to a friend and they said, well, okay, well, what if Andover votes it down? That, you know, is it veto? I said, no, no, no, no. Hebron and, you know, Hebron could just completely outvote us and we lose. And I don't know if it could be phrased in such a way to make that clear. That's that's the only thought I had when we went through this.
Good point.
Of just To say, you know, if majority of the voters the referee voting in the if the majority of votes in the. We could write here. If a majority of the voters in the referendums, you know, vote in favor or something like that. It just makes it clear that the coal key here is we have to have a, you know, a surge in end overturned voting no. You know? This is really nitpicky by the way. I, it's maybe unnecessary, but.
My first thought when you said that was it's, I feel like we're taking ownership for the other towns too, but for explaining the process so I think it does need to be explained because I agree with you that everybody it's total votes right of the three now. Yeah yeah
Yeah. Just like my understanding, unless unless I'm wildly off base, but I mean, I'm pretty sure that's how all RAM referendums work. Yep. And I was shocked that the other one passed so easily,
like, during our voting process, you know, our budget process and. Oh yeah welcome to the Andover Board of Finance. The RAM budget basically always sails through. I know. It
it happens early in the process compared to the rest and it's always a done deal by the time we're sitting down trying to make ends meet. It's shocking to me. Perpetual frustration. A majority of the voters in the three towns. Yeah,
right. I was gonna say in the majority of voters in the three. We haven't mentioned we haven't mentioned the three towns. I think what we do out there so
yeah maybe just yeah put it right there like she like Diane said that's a good idea That spells it out. Mhmm. But then this might I don't wanna I also and I'm saying this out in the public that people can watch this, but Mhmm. We also don't wanna rally the other side.
Well they've already got know what yeah they're already out there. Oh I know
I do. I see them I drive around I see them so they've they're not to be to be fair you know it's not like you know they're trying to do this on the down low and in that sense, they are, they've got their signs up and trying to rally the yes votes. So. Gotcha. True. True. True. Good point. So, I think there's no shame in us trying to. We're doing our job. You know, do it the other way. Yeah, we're doing our job. That's exactly right. Our whole purpose here is to look out for Andover's finances. Yeah.
I saw one no sign in Hebron. That's all I've seen.
Everything else is yes. Oh yes. Well, they obviously coordinated a sign buying thing. I wonder who paid for all those signs. Must be built into the Donations, I assume. Let's hope it's private. Right? Trying to remember the last time I saw a big sign thing was in Andover was the when they wanted to do the natural gas project. Somebody coordinated a massive purchase of, you know, bought signs for $20 or whatever it was, and overnight it seemed there was a sign on practically every yard to vote no. So it can be organized on social media. It's you know, it's I'm sure that the I know when I was I had my kids in in the little league in Hebron for a while and you know you get you get I think there was an email that came out months ago urging a yes vote.
They they kind of the sports people in the in Hebron kind of stick together on stuff. So to speak. Anyway, I think this is a great letter. If
the majority of voters in Andover, Hebron and Marble vote to pass this measure at the November second referendum, the measurable pass. Oh,
the measure of the measure. Yeah. We've got two measures in there. Probably don't need them both. Will pass. Say it will pass, yeah.
That's why I read it out loud. I don't really like that either, honestly. No, it's not great, but it works. Well,
you could just take they vote for this measure. The three towns would divide this debt.
How about if they vote yes? And then I can Yes. Let's Yeah. Vote yes. What's the measure? They might. Yeah. Yeah. The majority of voters, Mandeva Hebron and Marlborough, vote yes. That's perfect. At the November 2 referendum, the measure will pass in the three tenths to divide this debt. Should we call it something else? The project will pass? I don't know. I don't know. I would prefer to legally.
Okay. I think it's fine the way it is. Okay.
Either members of the university would like to publicly state that.
We're not in favor of this resolution. We should probably have this appropriation in our project.
I used a lot of wording from the RAM, you know, website. Yeah. They passed the resolution which took it to referendum. Gotcha.
Yep. So what are we voting on? I'm not sure the exact terminology would use. Yeah. I think this project or this expenditure gets done. Expenditure is probably better. Yeah. There you go. Do it right now. Oh, around. Thanks. I have them occasionally. Not very often.
Was that it for the year though? No. Just kidding.
For the record, it's right there. It's on it's in the it's in the minutes now. I'm happy with it.
I'm trying to read through the first paragraph one more time and then.
Yeah, that's good. Little passive language in the very last sentence is it is how about if we say instead of that this measure that this item be defeated. How about is our recommendation that voters? The vote no.
Voters vote that the residents vote no at the referendum on Tuesday, something like that. It's a little strong. I'm taking a stand here. Yeah. Right.
Yes. Direct. Yeah. It's our recommendation that the voters will take all voters that vote no. Residents vote no
capital. Yes. Yes. There you go. At the referendum on Tuesday, November 2. Bold underline anybody anybody? No. I don't know if it'll come out on the I'm kidding.
Right. So And we're still under 300 words. We're good here. Two ninety I
have one more suggestion where it says would divide this debt. Should we put I know we have to we might go over in proportion to the town each town.
I had that thought too. You know? And this is this is similar to the 70 k discussion. Yeah. I mean, to me it's precise.
I'm not sure. It's more precise, but I don't know that it adds any any real to it. You know?
That's because the Andover's is the smallest percent. Smallest. Yeah. So Yeah. Or proportionally,
maybe? We'll divide this If they assessed this debt, assessed. I like an assessment.
I see where Louise is coming from, but I think the emphasis is still on the big, big number.
Yeah. I mean, I I totally had that same thought. It's exactly in line with my thought my thinking before when I suggested the adding the raw dollar value. It's it's saying the same thing and does draw attention to, you know, that we are the smallest of the three. I forget what our share is, whether it's, you know, 20% or something. 17 or something like, I have no idea. 17, I think that's right. Yeah, something like that.
But the public is gonna be seeing this. Does the public understand that it's not in proportion?
Not equating in three ways. It's not equal shares. Yeah.
We can't share this debt. But I feel like that's educating them and that's not really our point right now I get I totally understand where she's coming from that's like telling them more information than they need to know right now they need to know this is not a good idea well yeah, I mean I could go either way on this but I like giving people lots of information and not trying to hide the ball or anything like that. Clearly I do too with my big letter. Yeah, I hear you.
If you talk about the RAM formula I think we're just going to confuse the issue more.
You could say the three towns would be responsible for this debt.
Because they take on yeah fortunately be responsible for this debt or something like that. Yeah we wouldn't we could take the whole divide part out. Yeah that might be better.
You could say share. Three towns would share this debt.
There you go. I like the idea of being responsible for this debt. Responsible. Yes. Yes. Colloquially on the hook for. You can say that. I think responsible for is good.
And the residents would be responsible for this debt also, we could say. Don't know. Let's make it clear. Could use the president- Yeah, it's going to the evergreen word taxpayers. Yes, we like that taxpayer word. We're at 300 words now. Bing, it's a sign. All I've done, is that what you're saying? Recently That sounds better for taxpayer word.
Issuing the bonds and notes not to exceed it. It's a majority vote. Tomorrow, but yes, it's the number of second referendum. The measure will pass or you just say vote yes on November 2. Yep.
Oh, God. I hate even putting the word yes in there, though. It's superscripted the comma. Oh. Thank you.
As we're saying vote no down here, vote yes up there. Just it's the majority of voters. Yeah. Word can't defeat me. I've been doing this too. You'll have your comma.
You'll have it. Passing the taxpayers three talents will be responsible for this debt. I'll say will be.
Yep. I think we're getting an A on this project.
It's definitely, you know, showing some collaborative skills, you know?
Well, I don't think we're done yet. We still have two more words we can add so I'm sorry.
About You could go down to the no bar and put two more no's in. No. Too much. Just, you know, to be clear.
About thank you I'm good with it. Here it All right. I'm happy too. I'm good.
How about thank you at the end? Or is that too? That's two words. It's genius. I know. I'm not How about respectfully? Yeah. I'm
pissed. You're respectfully pissed, Diane. Respectfully pissed. Oh, in fact, that would be two words. Respectfully pissed. Board of interest. Board of finance. It's out of interest. Oh my god.
I'm good. And you know, in that vein, you think it's time to entertain a motion mark to, you know, I'm happy to make that motion.
Oh, you could make a motion at any time. I think it's be a fine time to. Alright, let's why don't we do that? I move that we
present this letter as drafted to the River East for publishing in their next issue in their next issue. Second that.
Okay, Rob made the motion, Louise seconds. Do we have any more discussion?
I have a quick question. Their deadline for submissions are to be in the Friday paper are Tuesdays at noon. So I mean, you probably already know that, but is who's gonna do that and who's taking that on?
Oh, I'll do it if you know, just Yeah. Okay. As chair, I guess that's fine. Hi, everyone. I wanted to just
sorry to interrupt. I wanted to find the right time to ask, but are you only submitting this to the River East or were you expecting? You know for it to be posted anywhere else on our town pages? Just wanted to know my role.
It's a good question. I think it would be good to post it as part with the meeting minutes maybe, or I don't know that we need to have it in many particular. Don't think it needs its own page or something like that. Or you could on the there is, you had put a link up at somewhere to the, to the referendum on the RAM Region 8. You know that you had a page on there we could put a I guess I just switched to it. Could put a link to it there to link to the letter from the Board of Finance. Well, I posted on the town Facebook page. I like that idea.
Should we wait for our official, I mean, we had this whole meeting, this whole setup for it to go to the you know, River East and then, are you saying once that's done, do all these secondary things? I agree.
Yeah, I'm just saying we have, you know, this website page, we have the Facebook page, we have the town notification system. So, I'm just asking which mediums you would want it shared on? Oh no, I understand. I'm asking. Get it out there. The board members,
timing. Did we take the time to do this for the River East or are we just going to go ahead and just blast it everywhere first?
I I'm just trying to understand your. Think we probably want it to hit the River East and then that's what I thought that point blast it wherever we can. Perfect thank you for clarification. My take thanks Amanda for asking that by the way I didn't even think of that stuff Amanda yeah.
Yeah, of course. So just let me know when I when and where I should post. It won't hit the River East. Friday.
Yeah. So yeah, what I would say is maybe next maybe next Friday we post it and the version we post when maybe else I can send a version to Amanda that it says instead of it says to the editor, could say we could change that to to the residents of the town of Andover. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. So it's a little clear that we're addressing them directly. Yep. And that version could go on the website. And then this version could go to the River East. Does that make sense? All right, let's do it.
Any more discussion. Okay, hearing none I guess let's go to vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye.
Any opposed? Any abstentions? Hearing none, the motion passes. Thank you, Rob. Thank you, Luis. Okay. I will attempt to save this so we don't have it. That would be good. Copy. Nothing else. I'll be looking at the video trying to type it, you know, be fine. Okay. Back to our agenda. Do we have any more discussion on the RAM multiuse turf field project? Hearing Pop
up of Lindy. Did you guys see that? Linda fish is talking and then it disappeared. Did you see that? Yeah, you sir. Okay. I didn't know. Okay, if you had a comment.
Next item agenda item is public speak we have any more public speak. Okay, seeing none, I guess we move to adjournment anybody like to make a motion to adjourn. Make a motion.
Saw Diane. Diane makes a motion to adjourn. Does anybody want to second that motion? Second.
Rob seconds. Any discussion? Hearing none, we'll take a vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay, the meeting is adjourned Thank you everybody, I will put the letter save this.