Meeting transcript
BOS Budget Workshop
February 22, 2024 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
One second. It's on. Alright. We're going to get started with the town of Andover Board of Selectmen, special meeting budget workshop for Tuesday, 02/20/2024 at 07:22. First order of business is, 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. Public speak, Joanne Ebert.
I'm all set. Just listening. Thank you. Okay. You got it.
We'll move on to item three, budget workshop for fiscal year twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five. Eric? Is our first section.
So at the last meeting, you asked to talk about two things. You asked to bring Jay back to talk about DPW and further flesh out DPW budget, number one, and then you wanted to talk about personnel costs. And so my suggestion is we start with Jay Tuttle. And then I know you had said you wanted to consider an executive session to talk about salary information, and you got the note from Dennis on what you could or couldn't do for that. K.
So let's get started with Jay. Do you wanna put up so that everybody can see what we're gonna look at? AJ, I think you can share your screen now.
Oh, I'm doing that? What I sent you guys? Is that what
Yeah. I think that would be the easiest way to do it.
Okay. I didn't realize I had to do that. Can I share the email and the attachments? Do it that way?
I would say download, yeah, download the attachment and open it up and Hang on. Let's see. Yeah. Let
me bring up my equipment first. Okay. I'm gonna bring up one packet at a time. How about we do that? So if I open this up, now I gotta go back to the Zoom meeting, share my screen. Does everybody see that? Yep. Okay. Alright. Okay. So last some of the last conversations that we had wanted me to explain a little more of why we're looking for some of this equipment. And just I did attend the CIP meeting the other night and they moved to accept the proposals as presented and go the course through the other approval processes. So here we are. So the first item I had on here was would be new to our department, that little snowblower that I told you about, little sidewalk machine. And we pretty much talked about we'd be just buying it out of some leftover funds that we, you know, have from this year's operations. It is it's only $810. Second item is the jumping jack compactor replacing a twenty three year old unit. Recommended no more spending no more than $3,700 by CIP. That's an added tool carrier for the unit, so you can walk it around the site because there's no way to transport it other than drag it or carry it. Not quite so easy.
So this is the reason why we need to get rid of our old one. So 2,004, 20 years old, multiple leaks. As you can see through the pictures that we got that we're gonna show. If you have any questions along the way, chime in. This is a little showing of the foot, the compacting area that hits the ground. So these are wear points, broken corner. Some of these parts are no longer available through the manufacturer. They say we could get some aftermarket parts. Maybe, maybe not they would fit. The biggest problem with this unit is the carburetor. We can't get a replacement carburetor. Not sure if we can get a rebuilding kit. Everything you look up online looks like it might work. We don't know if it would really work until it gets here, and then we've already spent the money. This is a picture of the fuel valve. This fuel valve leaks that needs to be replaced as well. Engine idles, but will not run. Jay?
Yep. Is any other board member interested in understanding the exact details of the equipment that he wants to place other than it's twenty years old? Okay, Jay, you're good then. Move on to the next item. Eric, if at all possible, do you have a balance of CIP, like what CIP is approved? Do you just have a total for us in our head so we can do you know the total? I do not.
K. If you can get us that information and then that would be helpful. So, Jay, go ahead. You can go through anything else you need. I I don't necessarily know. Jay, that level of detail is awesome. To me, that is the level of detail for Eric to sit there and say. And then honestly, Eric, you should be, I'm assuming, Eric, assuming that you're in in a lockstep with Jay that all of this equipment is vital and needed, and you approve of it.
It's all stuff we need. I'm not questioning Jay on that one iota. My only concern, and I've expressed this before, that we're basically spending down 100% of what's in our equipment fund, which leaves us no reserve if something we're not thinking about breaks. That is my concern. Okay. That's my sole concern.
And I'll express to everybody else, my total concern is how much total money we're gonna ask the residents for at this budget. So that's why I'm interested in understanding all of the items that CIP approved, because eventually we, as a board are going to have to get together and sit there and say, even if we listen to Jay tell us everything he needs and we all shake our heads and say, yeah, we need them. Eventually we're going to have to come back and say, do we really have the money to afford all of this? So just letting everybody know where I think we're gonna end up having to go. So what's next, Jay?
So the next, the biggest ticket items for this year, and let me get into sharing the screen again, which we had talked about. Is it letting me share? There we go. Seeing that? Yep. Okay. Is the roadside mower and a 20 ton equipment trailer? Previous meeting, with you guys, I talked about purchasing a used trailer. When we initially looked at that earlier in the year, it was off-site in an area not exactly the greatest to view it. We did crawl under it as best we could, and it looked pretty good. I asked the owner to bring the trailer to our shop.
We put it out in the back, and we really went underneath it, took a good look at it. It's not something we're interested in. There's too much too much work needs to be done. It's not gonna be a long lasting trailer, not worth the money. So I went back to Square 1 and priced out a new equipment trailer. And I did present to you guys through the packet that I sent to you the source well contract through government NCL Government Capital. It's a leasing company. And both the tractor and the trailers are sourced well approved vendors. They're sourced well priced. And through lease purchasing, we could afford it if we're staying with the $125,000 drop that you guys make annually. If that's, you know, what I know that's what the town's been trying to keep up with. If that's something you're going to continue to do. I did provide you, for the next seven years, how that would all play out as far as the cost. If you recall looking through the packet, I can show that in a little bit. But just to give you an idea with this tractor, this is the company giving us a quote. The cost of the tractor is the roadside mower is $240,000 in change. The equipment trailer is or for both of them, I'm sorry. For both of them is $240,000.
It's 50 present What did to us last month? Because you presented the mower. And I presented the
the You presented the mower and the trailer Snow mower and the used equipment trailer. No. That's not what I'm asking. I'm asking what was the value of the mower without the trailer because you were doing the used trailer last month? I'm just asking you, what's the part, what's the portion of this that's the mower and what's the portion that's the trailer? The portion of this, the mower is 203,874.41 for an in for an in stock unit.
Okay. And slide up. Go up. Alright. Go up further to the to the full. I want I wanna now see the full lease, the full amount, which is $2.50 something. Oh, $2.40. That's here. Alright. So $2.40. So you're talking $37,000 for the trailer? Yes. K.
Yeah. And and do you remember what the lee the lee well, whatever. So we're we're looking at $56,000 per year if we do this.
Yeah. And this use of going through this lease company, we can take possession of, if everything is approved, we can take advantage of in stock units now, take possession of them, and not have to put any payments down until after the first of the year. So July 20, call it. So that's how they help municipalities. If that makes all sense, if you read the if you read this and you read the documentation that they sent and plus I had an email in here, copy of an email to the tax exempt. Anyway, I've got it here somewhere. But so this is the roadside mower is an in stock unit.
If we if that becomes unavailable. And we have to. Wait for one to be built. There's an increase in payment or increase in price and it's three hundred plus days for delivery. And that's for this unit. Source well approved. And the only thing I'm adding on is axe head knives to because this is the cost, the actual cost of the machine for the unit that would have to be built. And again, this is explanation of why we're looking to replace it. If people want to read, you provide the packet to the town. And resale on this, we're looking 10,000 to $20,000 depending on the auction and who's looking to buy. So here's the equipment trailer here, One of them. At the time, I only had one bit. Currently, have three. But this is the this is the unit, although it'd only be two axle, not three axle. This is showing a picture of a 25 ton trailer. This is our current trailer. Right now, we're restrict this trailer. We're restricted to in town use only. We can't take it out of town. And it needs work. It's a 45 year old trailer.
Yep. There's a lot. It doesn't it doesn't meet any DOT specs, so we're pushing the limits and we're only just using it in town.
Okay, Jay. So capital equipment, am I right to believe with this number, it's $57,000 manual payment for the trailer and the the mower and the other unit was $3,700 37,000. 37,000?
Yeah, for the trailer? No, no, no, no, The whacker. Oh, the whacker, yeah, 3,700.
Okay, because if you go all the way up to the lease and we did this five year lease, it's $57,000
Yeah, the five year lease for this is only for the mower and the trailer. So currently, we already have a lease for the freightliner that's coming in this March. You recall that, right? Yeah. That's 55 and change, Eric. No, no, 58,859 thousand dollars a year. And we will be making, this will be second lease payment coming this July, and then you're approving another one will be a third payment. So we're already going to be three payments into that.
What's the total annual payments that you're asking us for? Okay.
So let me just get back out of this. We've shared this in a So are there so, Eric, if I understand this, I'm just trying to get this. So there's the $3,700. If he slides all the way up to the top, at the page on this this Right. Right there? Yep. That's that's $56,000. That's the mower and the trailer. Correct? Yep. For five years. For five years. I get it. And then you have the Freightliner that's five years. 115,000 a year.
Correct. Okay. So for And our current budget's a $100,000. Right, Eric? Current budget's $1.25. 01/25. Okay. Yeah.
So f y f y twenty two twenty three, I had a balance of $25,004.88. That was confirmed with discussions with Cheryl. With the 2324 approved funding of a hundred and twenty five, gave us a total of $1.54 88. We purchased the Steiner tractor for a little over 31,000. The Freightliner plow truck, which I didn't realize that first payment that we made last year or the the deposit payment. And and I'm still don't quite understand it. But even though we made the payment, we never physically received it. According to Cheryl, we didn't physically receive the the truck. The payment isn't shown. So the payment will be shown in this year's budget. So I assuming I'm I'm showing two lease payments this year for FY 2324 totaling 117,762 and change, which basically we will end up with a balance starting July 1 or at June 30 with $1,003.58. So if we carry that over to the 2425 request of a hundred and twenty five, we'll start with a $126,000. In that $126,000, we got the assuming the, roadside mower and the trailer of 56,000 and change. Let's throw out the commercial snowblower of 810 because I was already told to do that. The
third lease payment for the Freightliner truck of 58,000. And the new jumping jack up to $3,700 We will have. Spent $119,003.72, leaving us a balance of $6,009.85 at the end of 2425. And then if you continue with that, and that's and I showed you that with all those spreadsheets that I sent. So you start the '24 the beginning of '25, '26 with a balance of 6, call it $7,000, an additional 125. And then you pay your lease payments again. Now we're just concentrating on lease payments. 56,058 thousand and change. 2526, you'll end up with a balance of $16,009.62.
2620 So leaving you a lot of not leaving you a lot of room. I understand that.
And but if if the if the town if you're limiting yourselves to a 100 and I I I'm just trying to make it work. I mean, if you're limiting yourselves to $125,000 a year and we have these bigger pieces of equipment that we need to replace. It is affordable by using the lease a lease purchase program. You have some finance financing costs that could go along with it, of course. But over time, because, come '26 oh, let's see. Hang on. 2728.
Do you have anywhere a list, like a depreciation schedule or a list of all of your assets? Eric, do you have it? Like, that says the last year it was purchased. And I do not have a current one.
Working on that as well. Because come, year 2829, we're gonna be bringing in the next plow truck to be purchased. If you're going to stay on a five year, so you're rotating trucks out every twenty years, give or take, you got to start bringing in the next trucks. So at year 2829, you will have completed the previous truck payment the year before, and the last lease payment of the roadside mower and the 20 ton equipment trailer is that year as well. And then year thirty, twenty nine, thirty, you would end up with just having a lease paint, the trucks at that point in time. Most at that point in time, most of your major equipment and I'm working on a schedule to give to you guys, you know, kind of a rotation. You know, there's there's no There's no doubt that the town is has really invested into this department to rebuild. And if we can sell off some of these pieces of equipment, the the truck seven that we want to get rid of the, roadside mower. So we're thinking between ten and twenty on the roadside mower and 15 ish could be a little less, could be a little more on the plow truck. They're relatively operational. We're we're going to start dumping money into them. They're old, hard to get parts for. Now's a good time to sell them when there's still some value. And if the town agrees, you could take that money and put it into your capital equipment fund, and that'll elevate that for any major repairs along the way and, you know, not look to spend that money until you because we did a lot of small stuff the past few years. You know, we bought a used piece of equipment.
We got the skid steer. We got the Steiner. You know, there's a lot of things that help us. The excavator, the loaders and the excavator a lot more than the the backhoe. The backhoe come 2,000, you know, 2,030. That's gonna be kind of coming into play that that might be the year that we, purchase that.
So You also you also bought the loader. Right, Gay?
Yeah. Well, yeah, that was before, excuse me. That was before me, and that's supposedly paid off now.
Yep. Wasn't there a long range plan for that the tractor? When was that supposed to be replaced? Say that again, Scott. I'm sorry. The long range plan to replace the tractor.
A year ago. Year two years ago. I don't know, Eric. You I kinda messed up your plan. So so but, yeah, the the tractor the tractor's that was already on the list to be replaced.
So the question ends up being if we're, you know, Jay is laying out a plan that spends the $125,000 that we put into that account, leaving us leaving himself and us with no room when something happens. That's correct. So
the question ends up being, are we okay with that and we're gonna ride? Or is it something that we are looking at ourselves and going, we're gonna have to either move these to different years or put more money
Myself, I was playing around with things and just the way the continuation of the lease purchases for the trucks And with those programs, you know, the backhoe is going to come into play. I don't know, I couldn't find it, you know, in with this company, with the lease purchase for these two units. I thought it it looked pretty good to me. It just depending on how you want to you wanna sit, how the town wants to be with understandably, we would put some money back with whatever we can sell off, but that that kind of like, yes, it limits you for a while. You would be a few years with doing nothing but paying lease payments,
period. You'd have two years if I understood your your timing. The Freightliner payments, we've made one payment. I understand there's an accounting function that's gotta be dealt with. So we had we had we paid a down payment. That you took that, Eric, out of his his Capital account.
Correct. There was a payment made last year. There will be a payment made this year. In fact, it's due pretty much right now. Okay. There'll be an annual payment each budget year. So in three more years Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait.
That's two payments made before this budget cycle that we're working on. So this budget cycle, the third payment's made. Right? So there's two additional years left on that Freightliner. Correct. Right? The crossover on the trailer is only two years. So you have two years where you're really tight. And that's the question the board has to answer you. Two years that were extremely tight and we're giving ourselves no flexibility on department and public works. And prices of equipment keep going up.
Right. So that means if they blow up a plow truck or the F-five 50, they're going without that for the next two years, period. That's what we're talking about. So if a major piece of equipment blows up, they're just not going to happen. Okay. Will they take that tractor and trade, Jay?
No. They're not interested in the trade. The dealer the for the plow truck will buy our truck for a flat $10,000 But I think we can get more out it at auction. How much that's gonna be? I don't know. But they have told us they'll give us a straight $10,000 and pay us for it. And that's another decision that you guys might want do we just send it to auction like we've done the other things and hopefully we get more or we just let them take it for $10. And not with the plow that's on the truck right now because it's practically brand new. One of our older plows that we don't use anymore. Is going with that truck and they know that.
Well, does anybody have a position on what they would like to sit there and do?
If means anything from my perspective, I mean, you can never tell about anything. But as we sit right now, we've got a pretty good stock of equipment. It's all in pretty good shape except with, you know, some of these older things that we're trying to so if we gotta play it tight for a couple of years,
I don't know. I Yeah. So so Jay Just listen. Be honest. You're you're sweet. You're gonna roll the dice. I think You're roll the dice. Roll the dice. That's that's what you're We're
going to have some money from the resale of these pieces of equipment. What does the town want to have for a balance in those budgets each year? I mean, we've been playing pretty tight on those budget budgets for a while already.
Well, what happens is we're not playing tight on the budgets. You're giving us examples of things that you want to buy. We funded the $125,000 annually and you've spent to the 125. Yeah. This one is, one is what you're doing is you're committing, you, you have no flexibility. Like we had a, about a year ago, we had a problem with one of the vehicles and you had the money in that fund to pay for that vehicle and one of the trucks, and this is leaving us no room. So then you're gonna come to us and you're gonna say, Hey, listen, I can't operate without the F-five 50. And you're gonna sit there and say, it's broken down and we gotta do something about it. And then we're just in a position to go, where are those funds coming from? We can do it, but as a board, we all have to be on the same page. So it's tight, it's tight. It
looks like the average he spent about $10,000 a year on maintaining the trucks, as long as you don't consider the really old ones ready to get rid of. So that's what the maintenance has been.
Well, lot of that maintenance, we've got our routine maintenance is covered in our operational funds. Oh, yeah. But it's when
we But have a major when I got with CIP, you gave all the amounts and I added them up. Correct. Yep.
Right. Well, we don't have to so Jay, these are your your your requests. So you want the mower in the trailer, the the wacker, and we already have approval on the Freightliner. So the Freightliner is there. We know you're going to take 50 some odd thousand out of the budget to pay for the Freightliner. So it's a question of, we as a board, so forget the WACR, the WACR is $3,700 Can you pay for the WACR and something else this year? Possibly. Possibly. I'm not done there yet, but yes.
I would ask you to take the whacker out and find some money this year to pay for that. Yep. All right. We
didn't have a lot of snowstorms, so where does that lead us with?
I don't know what line item that is, but Well, we never even got to talk about that. You were actually really close on the plowing overtime. And well, well, we'll talk about this at the other meeting because it has to do with the the Yeah. And as far as as far as salt,
I purchased some salt. I have I have to buy some more. So we're not done with the salt yet, but and I'm waiting for statements to come in because I haven't even charged anything to the salt budget yet because I used up everything I had in stock. And I have just a little bit of that left over, maybe half a truckload. So I've been starting to restock and salt.
Okay. The question is, are you gonna be able to you're asking us to run tight, Jay. So we're asking you I know. Come up with $3,700 in your budget line items for this this fiscal year to pay for the WACR. I think so.
Okay. I can't you know, I it's there. I know it's there. It's just I
yep. So then we're talking about a $110,000. That's left for the lease payments or thereabouts, something like that. The two the truck and the other one. And so the question is now, am I in the ballpark with those numbers? Figure 115
is a more accurate number between that. Okay, one and fifteen. So it's leaving us $10,000 Okay, board, are we comfortable recommending the trailer purchase for this year and leaving that budget line item with $10,000 for a problem? For two years. Yeah. For two years. Yep. Scott, it's a 100% right. For two years.
Right. What if what if we stripped the trailer out and paid for it in a different way?
How are you paying for it? Are you doing? Don't know. Don't We gotta budget the money. I mean, the only other way to sit there, I mean, and listen, I understand what you're saying, Scott, like we, at least I'm gonna extrapolate to where I would go is, can we use fund balance to pay for some of these things? And that's a different conversation later in the budget. Question is really, we, I mean, Jay does need the equipment. If we're all good with it, we just know that for two years, we're gonna be extremely tight on that line item. We could overfund the line item, we could overfund the line item, but then we're going back to the town residents and asking for more money.
So were you expecting this new tractor to last twenty years then? Oh, yeah. Yeah.
I mean, you know, Scott, with all this pollution control on everything that they have and the environmental stuff controls, you know, everything is just so much more expensive. I, you know, I can't exactly say, but yeah, we're expecting a 20 year old tractor.
Because that tractor was only used one hundred and fifty hours a year. Yep.
JT- And it's all out, you know, high idle, high RPM the whole time. Not high idle, high you know, full RPM when that thing is running.
And Jay, do you feel, well, of course you're gonna say yes, but I'm trying to think of how to word this question. So do you feel that if you get new equipment or the equipment that you have now, do you think that you're doing a better job, you and your crew, with maintaining things now compared to what was done in the past?
Oh, definitely. Definitely. Our service, you know, especially with the addition of the excavator, we're starting to use the skid steer a little more, you know, with more and more applications with that. It just, You know, having the loader has been huge, just being able to, you know, we're we're saving money and material because we're starting to reuse our materials that we take off the roads. We bring it to our pit. We're separating loam from fill area. We got gravel, you know, so there's a lot of things that we've been able to do. And accomplish having these tools. The that large compactor we bought last year has been a huge benefit. You know, instead of dialing in with some little, you know, you've got a big area and you're using that little compactor that we had before or we still have still use, you know, that that bigger one tremendous. So, it's been it's been a we've been able to do a much better job. Is this mower going to be mowing quicker and quicker? I wouldn't say it's any quicker, Scott, because you only can go so fast and keep things under control more efficiently because it's a new machine, it's not worn out, we don't have pins and bushings we're replacing or welding all the time. Mean, someday it'll get to where our mower is right now.
The town's gonna look better when we buy this, right? Nicer, it's gonna be taken care of.
And we would only have to use one mower head. We don't have to have multiple mower heads. We can utilize the same knives that we're using right now, and we can have axe head knives as well for beating some of the bigger brush in the wintertime.
Oh, you'll be able to use it in the wintertime also?
Yeah, well, we can. If we can go out roadside mower in the wintertime as long as there's no snow and it's the best time of year to do our beat backs Because during the spring and summer, it's just keeping the vegetation because it grows so fast just away from the road edge. We want to push things back when we can see our see our rocks and fence lines and hazards that we don't want to hit when everything is green.
Okay, so it comes down to the same question. Are we willing to run tight?
Remember, you gotta go to town meeting on this anyway
because The of the the issue on on this whole thing is we've got to get it through the budget, which is town meeting. Correct?
Yes. Yes. I mean so what Jay is asking is to go ahead basically and purchase put the agreement in now for those two pieces of equipment. That will take a town meeting if you want to do it now.
Because those pieces of equipment are available now and they may not be tomorrow.
And just so we all understand, just tell us what's the two pieces of equipment again, just so we all are on the same page.
The roadside mower. Yeah. And the trailer. And the equipment trailer. Those are the two pieces that are available right now. The roadside mower, if somebody came along and bought it, it would be three hundred plus days before we would see another one and the price would go up close to $20. And on the trailers, well, there's two trailers. One is available right now, and and then the other one is would only be about eight weeks out. But if it you know, the other trailer companies, they're they're six to eight months out before a trailer would come in their lead time. So that's the problem with a lot of with all this stuff is availability cost. That roadside mower that's available is a show unit. It hasn't been used anywhere. It's it's it was one that they built this year. And and it's, you know, it's been going around to the different equipment shows.
Okay, let me ask the not so nice question. If we say no or it gets turned down, Jay, and we have to keep the old mower, something breaks on that. Do you have, I know you said some of these sites either don't have the parts or you're not sure if they're gonna fit. What's what's the plan? Let's say that happens. What's the plan? Right now.
Damn it. Flying that damn cold. So right now, the biggest things that's been happened to our more now is pins and bushings. So we have a couple of companies that we've been buying pins and bushings pins and bushings from for the arms. And so we have access to that. Some other things are, you know, we're having difficulty locating parts. I can't tell you what those parts are off the top of my head. But, you know, sometimes just because of the age of machine, you call up John Deere and, you know, they don't have it here locally, but they got it under the other. Somebody's got it on the other side of the country. Not everything is not available to just it depends on the particular item. We've had a few little electrical problems. We haven't really run into anything that we couldn't fix yet. We had the hydraulic pump rebuilt last year on the road, on the mower head itself. That's an aftermarket aftermarket hydraulic pump. Hydraulics are noisy. It's getting old. You know, the main pump could be getting worn. Don't know exactly without pulling it apart. So so these parts working right now. They're so these parts are available, you're saying?
Yes. We haven't run into anything that it's we haven't been able to get yet. It's just sometimes we it's been hard to locate. Difficult. Little research numbers superseded. You know, like I say, a park could be somewhere else in the country on somebody else's shelf somewhere. Okay.
John Deere is pretty good generally. It just, you know, eventually things start dropping off and they become aftermarket stuff. But that's one of the things John Deere, you know, they're pretty good about parts aren't too bad, but it does get more difficult. And the, you know, just the frame of the tractor, of the hydraulics for that for that mower. You know, there's a lot of stress in that. We're welding on it, putting in, gussets, welding cracks, you know, and things like that. It's a lot of twisting going on with that machine. So they're high maintenance machines.
The parts are available, just it's a matter of you gotta find them through the dealer and it might take a little longer than we would like to get them, but they're available. Is there another town that has, have we, have we thought about any other ways of getting parts or, or anything for maintenance that maybe other towns are doing? Or have we, does Hebron have machines this old or anybody else that if they're Their, going
they're machine is, I believe, don't quote me. I think it's a twenty seventeen, eighteen similar to the one that we're looking at right now. They bought that there's at the off the state bid. Theirs is a four wheel drive machine.
Okay. Yeah. I'm just I'm just thinking if we run into a problem with any any of our equipment and maybe we can ask other towns and then put our heads together if there's a there's other places out there or resources that we haven't looked into. We have a lot of those resources available.
I got a I can go on the public works listserv and just type in a couple of things and it goes throughout the whole state. So, you know, that's how we traded pipe for. Shadi Lane drainage work a couple of years ago.
I I must either I misunderstood or I read wrong, I thought you were saying that you couldn't find parts for this. Was it the other piece of equipment, the jumping jack that you said? Yes. The jumping jack.
The the tractor, it's it's harder to find parts. Okay. And the the other piece of equipment They're just not they're just not sitting on somewhere on the shelf all the time. And that's not the case with the with the jumping jack. The No. Jumping jack. It's yeah. You can't find something like that. Okay.
There's some aftermarket stuff out there, but looking at a picture, it looks like it fits, but it's got something else on the side that doesn't match up with you have. Unless you spend the $350, $200 to see if it works or not. And then can you turn it back? I don't know. And the thing's leaking oil all over the place anyway.
So so we haven't looked into it. So we don't know if we can re if if we can return it or we're just we're just thinking that it might not fit and we don't wanna look into that? Both.
So the other thing is, you know, it's not just one thing that's broken on that. The foot is broken, it leaks oil from a couple of spots, it's got a carburetor issue. I mean, you can keep chasing the issues, but you have a very high stress piece of equipment that's job is to rotate as fast and aggressively as possible. It's been in there for twenty years. So
Yeah, I'm just, I'm playing the resident that may not understand this because I am the resident that does not have this expertise. So that's why I'm not trying to ask these questions to be, you know, argumentative. I'm trying to understand, but I understand the John Deere because we have a tractor and when we're looking for parts, I understand that can take some time. But I'm asking these as somebody who doesn't understand ordering the parts and maybe other people listening or watching this might have the same question. So
Yep. And then, you know, and bottom line, you're always going to have some kind of downtime with something. But if something's down, you can't find parts, you're spending time researching and you're calling, you know, everybody to see if they can find something for you. You know, that's we're a small crew and there comes a point in time that it takes so much time to look for this. We're not doing something else that's important. And if we can. You know, have a little more efficiency. Then we can produce more. We can get more done and we're not spending so much time, you know, because rainy days, cold days, you know, we're in we're in here tinkering with stuff all the time. The guys are great. They they love tinkering and just service and stuff. Put a little oil something here and there to lube it, you know, make things work, tighten up whatever, you know. And, so we we want to perform too. And it just gets to a point sometimes we throw our hands up that speaking of that whacker, the only thing the way that thing will work right now is on full choke, even if it can get it to run. So and it's working like it half pace. So, we've tried just about everything truly on that WACR.
The WACR is the least of our problems. Yeah. Right. I mean Sorry. It's $3,700. Let's let's I mean, we can find we should be we should be able to find that money in this year's budget to to buy the WACR. The question is, are we going to lease two pieces two large pieces of equipment that are gonna cost the town a 115,000 on a budget that we normally fund at a 125.
If we do that, that's a two point equipment two pieces of equipment are 56,000, not a 115.
No. No, Jay. Well, I missed something. You you you know, you you got you you got what you're coming out of that line item. Yes. 56 on the mower and the trailer that you're bringing to us this year. Yeah. But last year, you brought the Freightliner to us. Oh, yeah. Okay. The 58. Yeah. Alright. Okay. So we have to take them in into account because that's what's gonna come out of that budget. And we have to think about it. And and you're not buying anything for two more years. Correct. No. He's not.
He's what we're doing, Scott, is crossing our fingers and we'll still have the brakes. Then he's then he saw three more years after that of payments for the mower.
Correct. But once he gets through two years and the plow truck is paid, he's gonna come back to the board and he's gonna ask for another plow truck. Is there an overlap on that? Like the year after that plow truck is done, Eric, you and Jay have on a cycle to buy another one. Is that accurate? Yep.
The goal is to buy a plow truck basically every five years. So you got three primary trucks that are fifteen years or less and a backup that's less than twenty years old. That's the goal. So in essence,
we're never gonna Jay's never gonna be able to buy anything else for another five years reality because he's gonna he's he's gonna get another truck, which is great, but you're not gonna have any room to do anything else.
What kind of warranties are on the that John Deere tractor in the mower? Doesn't come out. 200,000.
Tractor is a two year factory warranty or two thousand hours, and Tiger Mower is a one year factory warranty. So one year on the mower attachment and two years factory warranty on the tractor. If you're looking to for an extension, which that's in the packet, you know, you're talking to add one year to Tiger, it's $5,700 You want to add two years, it's $10,000 You want to add three years, it's $12,000 And that's on the mower attachment. You know, and obviously that excludes if you damage something yourself. That's only in the machine. You know, and that's one thing. Another thing that's good about the crew, the guys are very conscientious about taking care of the equipment, and they do a phenomenal job making sure, especially our main guy that does the 99% of the roadside mowing, He takes care of that machine like it's his own.
Alright. Let's not waste a lot more time A lot more time. Or Jay's time. Are we willing to do it and present it? Well, to be really I mean, we understand where Jay wants to go. I mean, there are a lot of things that we have to put in total. Eric's gotta come back to us. So I just sit there and say, let's prove it for now, because Eric's got to come back to us with the completed budget, and we got to understand how much we're asking for an increase. And all of us have to sit there and say, okay, if this is outside of the scope, then we've got to reduce that, and we're gonna have to go back to, the larger items like Jay's asking for. So to be really honest, we may as well approve it. And if we have to sit there and make an adjustment to it, we make it at our next meeting. K. K. And and, Eric, just so I'm I'm you are not you are not in favor of this because it leaves you short if there's a problem. Correct. That's my worry.
K. And I'm with you. So All right. I have a question. Sure.
I know with my, you know, for personal budgets at my house, if we have something that we need to buy that's a large item, we will save money each year towards that item instead of paying a lot of interest by buying it immediately. What if they, instead of spending $56,000 a year for five years, maybe put away $20,000 a year for the next two years, and then that gets you past some of the really tight budgeting things here. And then you'll have 40,000 towards this and then the lease payment will be less for a five year lease. Or can't you do it that way with a town budget? I don't know that much about the town budget yet.
Well, Anne, we do do that a lot. The board has been attempting to save money and Eric could go through the various funds that we're trying to do that on. In this situation, let's sit there and say the town wanted to pay for this outright and avoid interest. And we could, but we'd have to go to the taxpayers and say, we're gonna reduce our reserve. And then the question is, are we reducing our reserve too low? We have done a better job over the last, let's say six, seven years, well, let's say five, of trying to save money. So what your thought is, is not wrong. It's just in this situation, we have a budget line item that we funded at $125,000 over the last few years. Right. We're willing to spend $125,000 to benefit public works. But what Jay's coming to us is going, he has two huge numbers that are gonna eat up that 125 and leave us with very little left. So we are, that 125 is the number that Eric presented to us. And Eric, I don't know how many years we've been doing that number.
Yeah, and pickup trucks were, you know, dollars 20,000 back then when you initiated this, and now they're $75,000 So it's just that's where equipment and everything is just everything's gonna get more expensive. So that's the best way I could present it.
We're we're try we're our attempt is to sit there and fund your equipment needs, Jay. Yep. Are we gonna be able to do everything that you want? The answer you know is no. As fast as you want, the answer is no. It's just listen, you know, we can bounce this around for days. It's the only issue that we're doing here and what Eric is really after is we're committing to sign a contract for another piece of equipment. And that contract is going to obligate us for multiple years of pulling money out of this line item. Yep. That's simple as it gets. I mean, and we could fund this more money because Eric has it in the preliminary budget at 125. We could fund 150 and give Jay a buffer, but our total increase is, you know, gonna go up higher. And that's what we're gonna fight when we go to the budget meeting. Right. Understood. I have no problem listen, I have no problem making a motion to fund to well, I do have a problem, Jay, just so we're clear. I do not really wanna go to town meeting. And Eric, if we go to town meeting, can we go to town meeting the same time we do the other thing?
Yeah. We'd go to town meeting for this at the same time. Same time. We just add this in as a purchase as a as a as another item on the town meeting when we you know, because we got a whole bunch of things we've gotta go to town meeting for anyway. Alright.
Do all the board members have an appetite for that? Well, listen. Not for nothing. Jay's group has been doing a very good job, or I'll go Jay a pretty good job of making us look better, except the area across the street from the post office. It's a state property that still pisses me off all the time. Sorry I said that. I'll put a tip, I'll give $1 But is, you have done a good job. The roads are better. Things look nicer. They can always be better. You could always do a better job, Jay. But if we give them the piece of equipment, it's gonna help their department.
What about that bush on that bank on the other? It's not, Scott, it's on the list.
Why has that been there for four years? I can't understand that. I'm gonna go down there with a big change on, cut it down.
Because because it just we've been working at it. There's not much left. What bush are we talking about? Oh. Down by the butterfly Garden. Yep. That's that's one that's left.
K. Me and Jeff talk about that bush all the time. Why is it still there? It's an invasive bush too.
Yeah. And it was a lot bigger before. So Okay.
We'll get it. We'll get it. Are we are we willing to sit there and and run tight for two years? Yes or no?
Yeah. We won't have to do this. Two years. Okay.
Alright. And then we gotta sit there and go to town meeting. So we vote yes. We're we're committing ourselves to taking this one item to town meeting, and we're committing the town to run tight for two years on this budget line item. And so that means when Jake comes to us and says, this broke down, and Eric sits there and brings it to us, he'll sit there and say, I told you so.
But I'll say that in a nice way. No, you won't. You
will never say it in a nice way. But when do I get to say I told you so? That's what that's what's gonna happen. Eric is gonna say I told you so. So No. Look, I get the problems. And I get Jay is trying to do a good job of managing the funds he has and front loading equipment as much as he can so they can get work done. You know? I'll
make a motion that we authorize, the acquisition of the mower and the trailer for a total of 200 and what? It's $244.76 72.
$2.45, not to exceed $245,000 to be at least over a five year term. And we will be required to bring this to town meeting for approval. Scott, you still second it? I'm still seconding. All right. Discussion on this issue? All right. All those in favor, aye. Aye. All those opposed? Opposed. Okay. Excellent. Let's sit there and see what we got. Okay. What else you got, Jay? Anything else? Oh, I'm sorry. Alright.
To our roadwork. So little bit about just a as a follow-up to our last discussions regarding road work. We have approximately 1,200 feet left of, flex beam that could be done on, Long Hill Road because we, it 13 about $13.75 we did this year at a cost of just shy of $40,000. So if in the breakdown of things that I sent to you in my earlier request, I had it at, $40,000 be dedicated to, guardrail replacement flex beam. So, if if that is still on the table, we'd I'd like to continue that. Our roads that are chip sealed this year,
Which would be consisting of the roads that we didn't finish last year, which is Wheeling Road, Pine Ridge Road, Shad Blow, Dogwood, Woodfern, Hutchinson, Times Farm, and Old Coventry. Current
Jay, one second. Eric, can you put up the spreadsheet for these line items so that we can understand what we're we're we're looking at and what he's discussing? Spreadsheet for which line item? The budget the budget the budget spreadsheet that includes these line items that Jay is discussing.
So all of this is coming out of the transfers, just the Public Works Road Improvement Fund and Townade Road. I mean, I can give you what we're
planning on putting in those, but I don't know. That would be great. Is Jay exceeding that number, or is he just telling us what he's going to use it for?
He's just telling us what he's going to use it for. Number itself is not going up. Okay. And has he okay. Have you approved these?
So there is one item that Jay and I still disagree on, and that is the contractor to do the chip seal.
Okay. But it's not gonna change the budget line item? Correct.
Okay. No. So we have a current chip seal contract or current chip seal contract for those roads for a $152,000 and 9 $152.94. That contractor Gorman, they're the ones that didn't get the job done last year is holding that number for this year. And they will will be here in June, they say, or can be. And the other contractor, Cormark Contracting, I had them come in and and, look at their quote just to verify whether they were gonna hold their bid. Their bid last year was just a little over. This year, they're coming in at $186.04 69. So they're roughly, a little over $30,000 or a little on, yeah, a little over $30,000 more.
So, Jeff, don't maybe we should take care of this little bit of business right now so we don't have talk about it again. Now who's gonna do the contracting? If you wanna make a motion on which one you wanna sit there and approve, go to it. Yeah. I'd like the motion that allow Jay to decide if he wants to do the chip ceiling.
Yeah. I'll second it I'll second it to discuss. To discuss. Basically, you're sitting there saying you're willing and and and To save up $30,000. Yeah.
Only if Jay makes sure that if they bring in substandard materials and there's a dust issue, I'd rather not hear from residents about dust issues.
I will do my best to make sure there's little to no dust. There's no matter what in this type of chip seal process, you're always going to have dust. Last year or the year before, we had some problems with the with the material. And we also our sweeper broke down and we were not able to pick up that material in a timely manner. And it just compacted. You know, the more it sat there, the worse it got. And it was a lot of things that happened. And I agree it wasn't it was not good. And then last year, they just Whether it's they pulled the company out of Connecticut for two months, they were here first thing in the in the beginning of the season. And even though we were ready to go, they pulled out before they came here and they concentrated in New York. And this year I'm told that they're coming in number one here, get this done. And the other thing, I don't know if everybody's been informed or not, they're no longer Gorman. Allstate bought them out. They're owned by Allstate now.
Is that Can you check the chip material? What's that? Can you check the chip material when they bring it and make sure that Oh, yeah. Yep. Fine. Yep.
Is that a good thing they got bought out? Do they have a better reputation than other company? They're they're a good company. They're a much bigger company.
So, you know, they're they're all of New England. So and they and with their with this company, there's a lot other processes that they offer besides just doing the stuff that Gorman did for us?
Personally, I think they do shoddy substandard work. They pissed me off two years in a row. I wouldn't give them the time of day. I agree with Eric a $100
cheaper. So They do crappy work, and I would rather not see them in this town ever again.
Even though they were bought out and maybe they're running their business differently?
Doesn't matter. We were left with a mess. It's inexcusable.
And giving them price and the new company now, I go with them.
That was tough for me because I don't like the fact, and Jay, I'd asked the question, did you evaluate the materials they brought in last year?
I invent I saw it after the fact that they were already in here. I didn't see it before they came in. Unlike the years previous. Because the most Becker's, the stone comes from Becker's in Willington, and they had a problem, I guess, at their plant, and I was not aware.
And so the stone's gonna come from the same place regardless of which one we bring it.
No. No. I think Gorman brings it I mean, Comer brings it in for from elsewhere. Okay. That's
a good, but that's a good point. If it's coming from the same area, is, is it, do they, it, will we have the same problem or is No.
No. Whatever happened last year has been resolved as far as their process. Either something happened with their equipment, didn't get washed properly. It didn't go through the wash cycles like it was supposed to, to get those fines out.
Well, here's one of those situations where, you know, a tragedy happens and then they figure it out and, and then they put the measures in place and then it's the safest time to, you know, use that service. So I understand where Jeff Murray and Eric say, have a nice day, but I don't know. I'm on the fence about giving them a second try and hopefully they fix the issue. And if Jay can make sure we look at the, you know, get a sample and figure it out from there, I don't know. Can we put something in writing that if there's an issue, we get refunded? I don't know.
Well, we wouldn't prepay for this, would we? No. No. No. So the issue the issue is if they brought in material that Jay inspects and Jay determines that it's poor, he rejects it, but then we don't get anything chip sealed
during the cycle. Well, they go and get stone elsewhere or they rewash their stone. That's and with this chip seal, anything like that, you can do a little sieve on the stuff and figure out the fines. You're only taking a sample out of a pile, but you're, you know, you're good. You're taking some shovelfuls as you go into the pile. That doesn't say what ends up happening as they continually dump more material on and they're washing when you drive away. You know, that's so something in totality happened and last year and it was not a good. Or the year before, sorry.
Well, the first thing that happened is we didn't inspect the materials. I mean, even if it was just the first few shovelfuls, no one inspected the materials. So then we got into a situation where we had problems with the whole, you know, installation, and it's caused a significant amount of problems. So I I do understand where Eric and Jeff Murray are coming from. It's a question of, is it worth the $30,000 savings to give them a second shot?
Company did we use previously? I know we had done it like 2020 or 2021, no big complaints then. Was that the same company? Yes. We did have some complaints. Will always have
complaints on that type of installation. No doubt. Everybody's gonna sit there and complain that you're going from a nice smooth road to you know, it's just how it is. It's I mean, now the people on Lake Road are just we're used to the the texture. It's what it is.
But how do you justify So I guess I'm looking at it. How do you say to the public, we could have saved you $30,000 going over here?
You get you know, it's gonna be somebody well, I'll use Eric again. He he's gonna sit there and and and say, if the if the installation is poor and the materials are poor, you got what you paid for, and you deserved what you got. That's what he's gonna say. And he rightfully should say that because if they screw up again, he and Jeff Murray said don't do it. You're not you're not it's not worth the money for the for the performance that they've put out. So it's better to pay $30,000 for somebody that will do a better job. So that's
the other side of this. It's yes. Especially since this is all gonna be neighborhoods and there's gonna be people out in the summers enjoying their pools and everything else, and they're gonna have dust flying by their properties. Mean, like I said, that was a mess two years ago, absolute mess. And they should have given us some money back, I'm sorry, but that was just, there was no excuse for that.
Well, again, so did we pay them? So that's where I'm confused. So we got bad service and we paid them anyway, or did we try and fight that? Because we just, we just identified that we're not prepaying them. So that's where I'm, I mean, it's past the situation now, but we didn't ask them for a break on the bill?
No, the only break we got was a discount for some added sweeping because I did have to sweep it more. But, again, our sweeper was broke down, and I was not able to get the stuff swept up in a timely manner. So that compounded the issue too. You know? Yeah. There's a lot going on. Yeah. And So so if we understand this I understand everybody's concern.
You didn't get any so so when Eric says it's a it's a two time issue, the first year was the dust and the second year was they didn't perform what they said they were gonna do and we got we got nothing done. Is that accurate, Eric? That's accurate in my Same company. Right? Same company. So Eric's going two strikes. And really, he's got three strikes because he's got three strikes. So
I mean, I just I look at what I see, you know, I'm far from a road expert, but I look at the work Gorman does crack sealing. And then I look at the work Indus does crack sealing. And I say Indus does a hell of a lot better job crack sealing than Gorman, you know, and when I hear Gorman tell me, you know, at 03:00 in the afternoon, oh, we'll be done and out of town when they got two miles of roadwork left to do, you know, and sure enough, they do it and get out, but it's not great work. You get more out of them, but you don't get the same quality. I mean, if it were strictly my choice, I would use Comer. And honestly, if you were comparing apples to apples, which is Comer bidding a job for this year and Gorman bidding a job for this year, Comer would be competitive. It's just a question of the fact that another year has gone by, Gorman's willing to hold last year's prices and Comer's bidding it as a new job. So, I mean, but I had a lot less problems with Cormark when, you know, Comer was the town's contract. That's my take up. And Jay Comer for you.
Comer and Gorman are neck and neck. I've dealt with them both. They both have issues. They both have dust. I mean, there was, some years ago where there was an issue in a cul de sac where all the stone was peeling up and left on somebody's lawn. And, you know, we had to do a lot of cleanup, because the stone didn't stick and that wasn't gone. And, you know, so there's issues. This process is not a perfect system. I say that all the time. It's all in, it's all in preparation and in how you do it and hopefully everything works out all along the way. You have one little breakdown or something, you know, it can go either way. These two companies, I've worked with them both over the years, and they both do a good job.
What I like about Gorman is there's a couple of processes that they do that Comer doesn't. They use a rubber steel wheel, compactor. So they have the the steel wheel in the front and the rubber wheels in the back. So the stone gets pressed in and laid down a little flatter. And on the double chip seal, they, they will run a, screed over their first course, which will kind of move the stone into the some lower areas if they're small imperfections and locks things in a little bit better before they put the second layer over. Comer does not do that.
And what's the advantage of of Gorman doing that? It's a bit it lasts longer. I'm not following it. Yeah. With the the the screen that they use,
yeah, it it does a it does a better job. So, for example, we, was it what's the road off of off of Hendi? The one that I did the double chip seal. Old Farm? Not Old Farms. Is it Old Farms? Was all busted. So that road was busted up. That thing, that road is horrendous.
And Didn't we just pave that road like five years ago, six years ago?
No. We did some we chip sealed it. Is that yours? Is that your road fault? You did you did some repairs to it.
You pulled the Which road which road comes down to yours? Oak is yours? Oak. I'm old. Oak. Oh. You're speaking old is is by Hendi. I'm Oak Farms. You're Oak Farms. I thought he said Oak Farms. So Old Farms. Yeah.
So that road's busted up bad. A lot of crack in the basins and everything else. So basically I did a double chip seal to hold that road together for a while till some years that where you can do a reconstruction on that road. But when you initially put a layer of chip seal, it fills in those minor cracks and crevices and the stone falls in, you roll it in. But then when you go by with the screed, it moves things around and shifts it back into areas and then you put on your second course. Comer doesn't do that.
Eric, what is in the current budget? Comer or the other one?
So we're talking about this year's budget, not the budget we're pushing forward for next year. This is money we don't we have. So we budgeted last year for Gorman. So it means something else doesn't get done if we use Comer versus Gorman. But, you know, in a $410,000 budget, you have the ability to move some stuff around
to get stuff done. Would we be able to get on their schedule?
Currently, we have 159 if my calculations are correct, excuse me, we currently in Capitol Road Improvements have 159,322.
So in essence, for everybody here, we're not asking a budget question. We're asking the town administrator and the director of public works are in a debate over what contractor to use and they want us to settle it. Come on.
Alright. Um- And if it's my decision, the decision is, is covert a 100 times out of a 100. And, and, and I'm okay with whatever you guys decide. I, I not
look at it as 30,000. We're not increasing the $30,000.
I look at it as $30,000 difference, and I it doesn't matter what company we're gonna go with. We're gonna have something. You're always going to have dust. Something's going to happen. It's just the nature of this of chip seal. It is what it is. And if we change gears, if we change vendors,
can we get it on everybody's schedule, both places? Or is that gonna be an issue if we if we change do that.
I mean, can't speak for Jay, but I wouldn't wanna do that, Paula. So I'm holding out both the guys. They're putting me on the schedule. And then you go back to one of them and you say, sorry. I already got the other guy to do it. I'm sure they're not gonna treat you nicely the next time you ask for a quote.
Well, that's that's what I mean. I so if if we switch gears now, it's Well- It doesn't-
And I guess Paul is accurate. Can Comer get us on the schedule? Yes. Spoke to him two days ago. So Comer can get us on the schedule and currently we're on the schedule for the other company for Yes. No. Okay. Alright. So we weren't really we're really not talking a budget item. We're talking which which contractor to pick.
Homer must have had dirty chips down at the cul de sac, right, on old farms, right? That's why it didn't stick.
No. I I don't think it's possible. Front yards. Right? It's the that's the that's the cul de sac on the other side. That job
came out well. The difference is they did not fog seal over the chip right in the cul de sac. But I mean, if you look at that job, that job was done three years ago. There's still not a lot of stone loss on that job. That job held up well. So there was nothing wrong with that job, at least not from my concern. Were some residents pest? Sure. But it doesn't matter who we use for chip seal, we're gonna have a lot of pissed off residents. It's just a spectrum,
right? Okay, so we're picking a winner or we're picking a vendor. So in my mind, while I would rather save $30,000, I'd rather get a good product. So I make a motion that for the chip seal and I know we haven't voted on the other motion, Scott, but we're gonna I think we thought it was a budget item at that point in time. So I make a motion that we go forward with Comer for the chip sealing project for this quarter before we go forward with Comer for the chip ceiling to be performed before 06/30/2024. Okay. So any further discussion? No. All those in favor, aye.
Jeff Murray, are you gonna say aye
or no? What was the discussion? I had to step away for a minute. We're gonna vote to use Comer for the chip ceiling. You're voting to use Comer? Yeah. Aye.
Okay. All those opposed? Okay. Dan is opposed. Scott, are you abstaining? Just say yes. You're abstaining. Yes. I'll
vote for Comer. I don't care. It doesn't matter. I just wanted to, I didn't even want to have this discussion. I just wanted Jay to have it. Yeah. You know? I get you. I get you. Okay. So it wasn't a budget issue.
But Jay and I both thought we're we're disagreeing over $30. That's Which was a lot of money.
Which is a of money. Lot of money. Mhmm. $30,000
that he could've do he could've done something else with. Yeah. Could've cut the bush down. Thousand dollars. Finally. So alright. What's next? That's all I have. That's it for public works.
Yep. Okay. Jay, thank you very much. I'm trying keep you up this late. Thank you, Jay. No
problem. Alright. Thank you for your time. Yep. Have a good night. Bye. You too.
So the second object or item you wanted to discuss now was the question of salaries. That's the next big, thing to tackle. Okay.
Oh, where is that? I'm so sorry. I'm find it. Dennis, Eric Anderson, Dennis. You sent us an email on this going into Okay, Eric, I can't find the email, but is the email that we can't go into executive session, is that accurate?
No, that's not accurate. Okay. And then can we go into executive session? You can go into executive session. There's just a limit on what things you can talk about in the session.
Understood. So if everyone's and this is the last thing that we're gonna discuss tonight, correct? It's already 09:00. Correct. Okay. Presumably. Presumably. Alright. So then I make a motion that we go into executive session to discuss the go ahead, Paula.
Do we have public speak before we do that so that we can Yeah,
can have public speak. Great. Well, we'll have public speak now before we vote on it. So if we do vote to go into it. I mean, but that's the whole point. If we vote not to go into it, then we're gonna have this meet here, and we've just shooed Joanne away. Or Joanne is on the board of finance. We could invite her into the to it to listen, not to participate, to listen. That's probably wrong. We can't do that. But we could do that. But Legally, you can do that if you so choose.
Does anybody have an issue with that? Okay. Then I just make a motion that we go into executive session to discuss the compensation issues before the board. I'll second.
Alright. Oh, and I'm sorry. And invite Joanne Ebert and town administrator, Eric Anderson into the discussion. Alright. You still second that, Paula? You okay? Alright. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Alright. So let's go into