Meeting transcript
Board of Finance- Regular Meeting
September 23, 2026 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
Machine-generated transcript — check the video if in doubt.
Sorry. To hear. Hopefully, you didn't have Yeah. Too much trouble. Bad bad timing. Alright.
We'll get it going. This is the board of finance, 09/23/2026 regular meeting. We'll go ahead and start with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation One nation. Under God. Indivisible. Will. With liberty and justice for all. Just for all. Alright. As I was just mentioning, Kim's gonna be late, but the rest of us, I think, are here. K. We have a fair bit on our agenda, and we might need to make in addition to what I saw some emails going around about that charitable fund. So we'll talk about that in a bit. But first, let's do public speak. Go around real quick. I see Diane Greinier. We'll start with you, Diane.
Hi. Thank thank you for for all you do, actually. I just want a a comment. I looked at the what do you call it? The attachment that you have to on the website there of your packet. That's what it's called. And on page 98, okay, there's a it looks like it came from the treasurer's office, and it's called nonmajor permanent funds. Mhmm.
And on there, the that list the Diane Greiner scholarship fund, which I know a little bit about. And it lists at a at a thousand dollars, and that account really should have something like $2,333. That number is not right. And I just if somebody could look into that and
just Yeah. We I saw some emails flying around about that. We will we will look into that, Diane.
Okay. Thank you. Somebody from the the Norton Commission knows about that, Charlotte Nelson, and that's they can give you an update if you need. But if you could just look into that for me, I'd appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Let's see if we can track it down. Thanks. Okay. K. Joanne?
Sorry about that. Yep. Just here to listen. Thank you. Very good.
Okay. I think that's, it for members of the public. So we'll move on. Let me get my which tab I want here. Hang on a moment. I just have to scroll back up to the top. Yeah. Changes additions to agenda. Under new business, I would propose we add maybe a seven c to talk about that particular fund that Diane just asked about. So that'll be my motion. Anybody wanna second that? Second. Thank you. Okay. All in favor, Liz? Yep. Yep. Hello? Yep. Heather? Yes.
Nick? Yep. I'm a yes. So we'll add that as seven c. Help me remember when we get there. I'm gonna write it down to fund. Okay. Does anybody have any other suggested changes or additions before we move on? Yeah. I I don't yep.
I don't know why it says six old business. It should be finance reports. I don't know why that came about. O six should be
financed. I guess. Okay. I I I've never been calling with this before.
We Okay. We didn't we didn't update any of these files. Right. Okay. Well, the substance is there. Calling me old, Rob.
That'd be I think that'd be pretty hypocritical on my part. Okay. So I duly noted. So without further ado, what I'd really like to do is get our director of public works, Eric, to be able to give us a little presentation here, talk about where we're at, and then move it along so he doesn't have to spend his night with us. You're muted, Eric.
There you go. Can you hear me, board? Yep. Yes. Good evening, board. Thank you for having me tonight. Before I get going on my presentation, do you guys have any questions on the packet that you got? Mm-mm. If you've had a chance to look it over.
Questions about sorry. I I you cut out there for me a little bit. Questions about regarding what?
The packet that you guys received from me. If you've had a chance to look it over.
Yeah. I mean, just very quickly. So I you know, I'll appreciate you you going through, you know, and giving us a little detail and stuff. And before I forget, and this maybe you're gonna address this anyway. You know, you and I had talked briefly at town hall about the chip sealing process and how there was kind of a new process we were thinking about using. So, hopefully, we'll get into that a little bit. I'm very curious about it. So but that's it.
This is Matt here. Do do you want me to share this get us share the screen so you can see? Because there are pictures on his report regarding that.
There are pictures on his packet too. I mean Yeah. Go ahead. Okay. That sounds good.
Well, if you could just tell us what from what page to start at with the packet. Is this page three? Three. Page three. Alright. Let me know when you're ready, Matt.
I requested sharing. Let's see here. Multiple presenters. Let's see here. Where is that? Right. K. Did it come up? I think it did.
Yep. If you could maximize that to the extent possible, it'd be helpful. Sure. But, yeah, it's up. That's
No. It looks like it might already be. Yeah. There you already probably, let me see if I That helps a little.
Alright. Let me know when you guys There it goes. Let me know when you guys are ready. Go for it. Okay.
This is the 2026 road projects update. As you guys see what the balance was last year, allocated funds, the total budget, budget spent as of 09/1126, and what's in the remainder. Rob, you were wondering about the rubber chips, so I'll go right into that. Rubber chipped Oak Farms Road, Townsend Road, and Wales Road. You see the cost on the side. It was approximately $5.75 a square yard. We did have an escalation cost of $7,000 due to the fact that, as you guys all know, diesel is through the roof. When these are all quoted to me, they're all quoted to me in the middle of winter. Diesel was about $3 a gallon at the time. The reason why I'm going with the rubber chip roads, get a longer life out of it as long as we prep the roads correctly. That's the way everybody is going now. You get a longer life out of it, seven to twelve years than you do with the standard chip. It looks like we paved it. There's no mess. That's what people love the most out of it. Long as we crack seal it and shim it correctly, it should last. There's no sweeping involved afterwards. The standard chip we have to constantly go out and sweep, as you guys all know, it's very dusty.
Again, there's more maintenance on that end of it. And again, holds up a lot better. One of the roads I did was a dead end, which is Oak Farms. From what I'm told, dead ends aren't a great option for this. The reason why I chose Oak Farms, I'm kind of doing an experimental with it. The road needed something, it wasn't in bad shape, so I figured I would do that road to see how the rest of our dead ends, if this works out, the rest of our dead ends will will do. Any questions on the rubber chip?
Just, Eric, it looks great. I love it. But I noticed that quite a few roads in town just got the standard old fashioned chip. And I'm just wondering, you know, why did like, Shawty Mill is a heavily used road. Why not rubber
chip that one? Okay. I'll get into my standard chip next, and that's kind of my part the other part of my presentation about why I standard chip some of the roads and why I did it. The standard chip roads, as you guys saw, Aspinall, Bailey, East Street, Hickory Hill Drive, Shotty Mill from Wales to the town line and Webster Lane. That was $3.59 a square yard. The reason why I did the majority of those roads in standard chip because they're all gonna need to be reclaimed at some point. I didn't want to put the rubber chip money into that because, again, like I stated, we're going to need to work on those roads at some point. And instead of grinding up $5 a square, I'd rather grind up $3 a square.
This way it gives us a little time to do the work. The roads, again, are in are in weren't in great shape, but it'll give us time to work on those roads. The reason why I did Shoddy and, what was the other road I didn't really East Street is because in order what they were gonna charge us just for the the other roads and not those, and to do that, it actually brought the square yardage down. So we essentially for a dollar more square, we got those roads done for that. So for about another $10, we got two more roads done where we would have been paying more to do the rest. Because they go by the square yard and there's like a minimum you have to do. Once you meet the minimum, after you get over that, the price actually comes down.
So that's
that's why I chose to do those two like that. I would have loved the Dunshotti and East Street in rubber, but again, it was everything's close by, and I needed I needed a couple more roads to do that. So that's the the two pictures that you see. I believe the one on the top for the rubber chip is Oak Farms. Excuse me. Yeah. The one on the bottom is Oak Farms, and the one on the top is Wales Road. No. Townsend. Excuse me. The standard chip, two roads. One is Asplenal, and I don't know what the other road is. I apologize. I did a few dead end roads with with that with the standard chip. But, again, in the future, we're gonna probably have to reclaim those because those roads are getting really they're gonna need some work, so I didn't wanna pour a ton of money into them. Sure. Any questions with that?
I have a question on that, Luis. Yes. How long do those last versus the other type of chipping?
So the standard chip, you get anywhere from five to eight years out of it. The rubber chip, you get anywhere from seven to twelve. There's a road in Coventry from that's where my previous job was that called Daly Road. I'm sure you guys are familiar with that. We did that road eleven years ago, and they didn't touch it. The road is the the road is is very bumpy, but it is held up with the rubber chip very well. That is a heavily, heavily traveled road. They did that, like I said, about eleven years ago, and they haven't gone back to crack seal it, anything.
That's great. Thank you. Excuse me one second, Rob. So someone's waiting to get in. Oh. Sorry to interrupt. I don't have the power.
Matt, can you let Somebody has the power. Yeah. Matt has Matt should have it because I stopped logging in as the host. Sorry. I I didn't mean to stop you. No. Please go. I don't wanna leave somebody in the waiting room, but by all means, I didn't see it pop up. Yep. Okay.
So, hopefully, we can get Matt's attention. He might have stepped away for a second, and we'll get him in there. I can I'm sorry. I can text him too. No. They're in. They're in. Oh, there he It was Marcy Meyer. Oh, they're in. Oh, it Marcy. Okay. Very good. And, Eric, I'm sorry. Since we're talking about the cost and everything, can you remind me the differential between the upfront cost? Do you say it was, like, $3 and change per yard for the standard chip and how much for the rubber? $5.75. Versus like $3.60 or something like that?
Versus, excuse me, $3.59. Yep. Is what is what we paid. Okay.
Eric, Jeff Maguire. Is there an asphalt upcharge on the rubber chip seal?
There was an asphalt upcharge on the rubber chip. It was upcharged to $7,000 So initially it was $192 and change and because of the liquid escalation with the rubber, we got charged more, but we didn't get charged more for the standard chip.
Correct. So what I'm just saying is that extra 21¢ per square yard, something that we can expect and the Board of Finance should be aware of? Should it be $5.96, not $5.75?
Again, the problem is it goes with the price of oil. If oil comes down, then we don't get we don't get that escalation charge. Goes up. It's
a crapshoot, unfortunately. It's it's like buying home heating oil.
It's it's no different. Okay. So so Understood. Reality is for this cycle, it was $5.96. Right. Nice. K.
So, you know, a little over one and a half times, So 60 some odd percent more upfront, but then you get that seven to twelve years instead of the shorter time frame. Yep. And it does look great right off right off the bat. You don't have that Yep. All the your your car being pelted every time you drive over.
I've had I've had people actually call the garage and say, I can't believe you paved these roads. And I said, no. We didn't pave the road. So Townsend I mean, Townsend looks great. I drive Townsend and Wales all the time. Right. The reclaim. We're gonna reclaim Ridge Road. That road has never had any attention, I believe, since it was put in. The basins that were installed in that road were installed incorrectly. Every time our trucks go up there to plow it, it rattles them something fierce the way the basins were put in. The road is beyond any chip seal or chip sealing or crack sealing methods. So we went in there this summer, removed all the basin tops, fixed the insides of the basins, put new tops on, inspected the pipes. We did 14 of them altogether on that road alone. If you're looking at that picture, to the left of that picture, we installed a basin on Burnout Brook. There was a kind of a piping system over there that was half clogged and really didn't do much to it. So we installed we got rid of that. We installed the catch basin that enters the basin that you're looking at in the picture to the left. The bay the the cement pipe goes across the street to the other basin, and then that goes out to the right into the woods.
So we cleaned up that whole mess for a better drainage effect for that road. The road within the next two to three weeks, the road will be ground up. It'll then be regraded out. A two inch binder course will be put down. It will then be curved. They will then put an inch and a half top course on that, and then we're gonna go in and backfill the curbing, seat it, and any driveway aprons that need to match the new road, we're going to do that as well. If we were to have the contractor do it, it'd be anywhere from 1,000 to $1,200 an apron. We can do it for a quarter of that cost,
Even even renting a roller to do it. The reclaiming that says it's an ongoing project, I'll have some final numbers. I can give you guys some rough numbers right now. To reclaim it's it's gonna be 18,762. To do a two inch binder on it, it's 61,627. To curb it, it's gonna be 21,859. And to put a top coat is $48,564 Again, was quoted to me back in March. We do have an escalation cost in there and I won't know how much higher that's going to go after that. I'm thinking about 5 to $6 more for the blacktop and curbing. I always, when I prepare my budgets, I always prepare them a little higher to make sure that, there's extra money in the
the road improvement fund to cover those costs. Because, you never know what you're gonna run into with that. Do you guys have any questions on that one?
I have a kind of an not unrelated, but, as far as the different types of, roads, in the wintertime when you're ready to, treat them, are there any different types of treatments needed for that, or is it the same treatment?
It's the same treatment that we use. We use a salt. It doesn't hurt it. It's not concrete where you have to be careful and treat it and things of that nature. You can just go right in and salt it. Okay. And it's as as effective? Yes. Okay. Yes. It is. The treated salt new road, old road, it it it doesn't discriminate. Just like your car. New car, old car, the salt doesn't discriminate rotting it out. Okay. Thanks.
Yep. The crack sealing was done prior to the chip the chip, roads being done. That was a $627.48. We shimmed we shimmed all the roads prior to chip sealing as well. We used 279 tons of asphalt. Our contractor, Abby Construction, put all the asphalt all the asphalt down for us at a cost of $74,225. Do you guys have any questions on that? Typically, the asphalt for tonnage is about 91 to $92 a ton is what we pay. We get a better rate than if you yourself are going to go pick it up because we're on like a state bid type deal. It does change, I don't want to say daily, but again, it does change with the again, with the cost of the diesel because everything's made out of or oil, I should say.
So it does our price per ton will change here and there. Way back when I used to pave twenty something years ago, it was like $50 a ton for years, and then it just all of a sudden, diesel went through the roof and then it's the sky's been the limit for this stuff. I've actually when when diesel went up last time, we were paying over a $105 a ton, so it it it it's crazy. The catch basin cleaning, we so far to date, did 478 catch basins. We have another 200 more to do. Still, I usually wait until we chip seal the roads to go and clean the basins out after that's done. We started around the lake this year. It was nice to Guy. I got in early because as you guys know, I had to run a sand salt mix this this year because we were running very low on salt. So we made sure we got the lake done first and then worked our way out from there. The catch basin crew will be back, I wanna say within the next week or two to finish the finish cleaning out the remaining basins. So so far, we've paid $16,491. I think it comes out to like $35 a basin or something like that. Which is crazy because if we to go out and buy a truck to do it ourselves, the truck alone is anywhere from 500 to $600,000
So we can't even do it for that cost. Let me see.
We did also did some guardrail replacement this year at the, we re as you guy we replaced 1,237 feet of existing rope guardrail. As you guys see driving around town, the old rope guardrail is falling apart. Some of the existing cable isn't there. We've actually hit it with our roadside mower here and there, but a lot of the a lot of the posts are rotting. My predecessor started replacing it little by little instead of doing it all at once, so I'm gonna continue doing that. We did a section on Lake Road by 03:16, and then we did a section on Bunker Hill Road closer to the Coventry line. That came out to be $39,547. Every year I'm going to continue doing some. There's a lot more out there than I thought. We replace it with a metal flex beam, which is crash rated way better than even if we were to put the rope stuff back up. You guys have any questions on that? Line striping. We had to do the library parking lot. The OSHA came in last year and said on the lower
parking lot where the lower doors to get into the basement of the library, you needed a walkway. Well, there's the concrete step, concrete curbs there, and the OSHA inspector actually tripped over the one of the concrete curbs. So we took that out of there. We had them in order to do a walkway, we had to restrike the whole parking lot. We ended up moving one of the handicapped spots down below, and we put that kind of right next to the doorway going in, so that kind of helped us as well for handicap accessibility. One of the things I noticed when I got there is if somebody needed to come down, if they were handicapped and parked up top and had to go in below, they would probably wheel right down to our garage. So I felt it was a necessity to at least have put one of the handicap spots there. We had to do line removal on some of the roads that we chipped. Reason being is if we didn't, the emulsion will not stick to the epoxy line. If we left it down, we you probably see this in some other towns. They won't they won't remove it. The minute you in the wintertime, the minute you plow it, you'll see that yellow line come right back like it was brand new. So that has to come out before we chip seal. I'm going to have lines and stop bars put back in on the roads that were chip sealed last year. Reason why I wait a year or two on top of that is just any unevenness in the road. We'll take care of that this winter when we're plowing it. Any loose stone, any, like I said, unevenness,
we'll take that out this winter and then we can can stripe it next year. Again, if you look in some other towns, what they'll do is they'll stripe it right away, and then all of a sudden you'll see like little pieces of the center line or the stop bar missing. So, I don't I think that looks horrible, so I I'll I'll wait a year to make sure it's done properly and right. We're gonna have to put handicap. We're going to to have the handicap area strike down at the new park. We're actually we brought the machine down today. We're going to start digging that area out for a handicap spot because you have to have a solid base for any handicap to get in and out of their vehicles. So we're gonna have to mark that as well. I do all this with a an epoxy high reflective paint. It lasts two to three times longer than the traditional paint. As you guys know, you get what you pay for. We can paint. So with the epoxy paint, you can probably paint every five to six years depending on, again, the winters and how many times we go scraping it off with a plow, or we can paint it every two to three, and we'll be paying the same same price, but we're getting a better product. Any questions on the line painting? The materials we use to date, we used processed stone and topsoil at the tune of $8,600 Catch basin products, pipes, cement, etcetera. It was $6,500 That's basically so when we did Ridge Road, there wasn't a there were, as you guys probably saw, there were structures up there ready to be put in. Well, as we get into these basins, we find out that, they need a little more attention and some more,
some more structures in there. So, again, on a job like that, I don't wanna I don't wanna have to come back and cut up a new road. If it's gonna be $300 more for that we gotta put a structure in there, and I don't have to come back for twenty years. Great. It's worth the money all day long. We we made out pretty good with that because most of all that product was bought either last year or the year before. It should have been installed last year, but there was some staffing changes as you guys know, so it never got it never got put in. Pending projects. We have to we're gonna,
again, pave the walkway down down pave the area in a walkway down the new park. Our salt shed, we're gonna have to repair that. As you see in the pictures, the there was cracks in the wall at some point, and salt got behind there and started rusting the rebar. And when the rebar starts rusting, it'll actually push the cement out. It's a lot worse than what I thought it was, only because when I started, the salt shed was full. As we went to almost nothing this winter, it revealed a lot of problems. What we're going to do is, we didn't fill the salt shed this spring, it's about two thirds full. So we're going to pull one half out, repair it, move the other over, repair that side, and then fill it. This salt shed, We're lucky to have the guy we just hired is an actual Mason. He worked for Manafort Brothers. He is a true Mason. He got in here and actually I'm going to probably send you guys some pictures. It's probably three times as bad as what you're looking at right now. He started pulling stuff off almost with his hand. He seemed to think what's a bonding agent and, this this high strength cement that we can put it on there and and it'll be a temporary fix until we have to until we we're probably going to have to tear that down and put a new one up. Only because, like I said, the salt is in the rebar and it's just going to continue to get in there. We can't stop that.
There's nothing to spray on it because what'll happen is if we spray something on it, the new cement will not stick to it. So again, long term project that I'm going to get some more information on to get to you guys to figure out what we're going to have to do. We have Chamberlain Pond parking area regrade. I'm waiting on the board of selectmen to approve that. As you guys know, you've driven by it, it's basically a hole. So it needs to be regraded. We have to, again, same thing, we'd have to put a paved parking area in for handicap. We also have to put a paved apron up front because it's matching three sixteen. What's nice about that project is we can sit there and pitch everything to the center and then off to the side to a silt area where the water can come out come out and kind of leachate out. We already have a permit from the from the inland wetlands. The only thing is they will not let us use millings. So that being the case, we're gonna have to use a process stone. This probably won't be done unless we have a warm winter, which hopefully we do. This probably won't be done till late spring of next year because we have to start kind of getting in once we reclaim Ridge Road and we have to fix our salt shed, we're going to be getting into winter getting our vehicles and stuff prepped. Our fuel system, that's installed now. I don't know if you guys heard about that. Fuel system management is in. We are the public works is in it, the buses are in it, and I'm working with the fire chief now to get him and his crew into it.
Our existing system was from the early two thousands. What had happened was when CLMP cut the power to move the wires for the Long Hill Bridge, they turned it back on and it fried the system. I actually found out today, and I talked to Matt that we have this Vetterroot system. What it is, it's a tank monitoring system. So what it does is it monitors our tank, tells us the condition of it, tells us how much we have in there, what the temperature is, because that thing is was put in in the two thousands. It will not talk to the new system that we have. So I'm in the works of getting a quote from from service station on that as well. We can still use it. Basically, what you can do is you can print out, it'll print out a ticket, but it won't read with the new fuel management system. Again, they looked at it the last Friday, the tech messed with it for, want to say a good four hours, and then they found out there's a board in there that burned out, so it can't talk. They can't talk to each other. Can can you one thing on that, Eric, just because I wanna hear this correctly. Did you say there was a surge or some issue related to the power flip?
So when the power so when they when CLMP cut the power, and they turned it back to move the wires for the bridge, when they turned it back on, something shorted out in that in our old system. That's why the fuel the that's why I couldn't get into the I couldn't print reports, anything like that.
And and is that also impacted the the tank gauge also? Not just
Yes. Okay. And they didn't and they didn't know this until until they went to go hook it up to the new system.
Okay. Let's get with Matt on this after this meeting. We need to deal with that as far as a potential insurance claim.
Matt Matt's aware of it. Matt knows what's going on. I explained to him today what happened. So he's he's he's he's he's aware of what's going on. I'm gonna get a quote. About the same thing. That's why I was waiting to get a quote. So Yeah. No problem. Good. Once we can document what it's going to cost us, can seek reimbursement. I'm going to turn that. Right now that system is still in the override mode. What we're doing right now is if you come up to that, you write down your mileage and you write down the gallons on a piece of paper so we can track it. But as of October 1, I'm gonna put it in the mode where it needs to be, and everything is gonna be tracked through a key fob system. So what you're every vehicle is gonna have a key fob. You're gonna go up to it. You're gonna wave it in front of it. You're gonna put your personal code in it so we know who's pumping, and then you're going to put the vehicle mileage in. All the reports and everything can be generated right through town hall. So if you want to see day to day, if you just want to see the person, if you just want to do just see what the board of ed's doing for the week, you can see all that now. It's a
simple, easy system. I was shocked on how simple it was to even do input to it. Any questions on that? Future projects that I have, the AES town hall and fire department parking lots. As you know, the AES parking lot is shot. That needs the biggest attention. I'm gonna start getting quotes for that. I wanna do the same thing kind of what we're gonna do on Ridge Road, reclaim it. So at least we know we have some decent material to put back down. There's a couple catch basins there that we can't do. They're too deep. We just don't have the equipment to do it, so I'm gonna have to get some prices for that. But again, they'll do the same thing. They'll reclaim it, curb it, and pave it. We can save some money by backfilling like we're gonna backfilling the curb, like we're doing up in Ridge, and there's a couple catch basins too that we can that are small enough that we can
replace as well. The striping will be the last part of that project because that again, the the lines in that parking lot are getting real real bad as well. Yeah. DPC useless at this point. Yeah. Can't see. Yeah. I know I had to replace some curbing in there this summer or in the spring, and I really didn't wanna do it. But if I didn't do it, the way that parking lot is, it would have washed out all sorts of material, and we would have had a bigger mess than we wanted. So not that I want to put money into it, but same thing also. We had a catch basin fail in there. So we went in there and we did replace a catch basin in there as well. Our DPW generator is basically from the Vietnam War. It's very unreliable. One of the things I'm having done right now is because it's what they call dirty electric, the thing surges. We just spent $30,000 on a brand new pump. I want to make sure that this doesn't happen again. I'm having Lenco install a generator plug for the pump itself. We have a small generator down there that we use like out on the road for our power tools.
I'm going to have it so that we can just plug that into it and we don't have to worry about burning out that new system, if the power does fail. I am getting some quotes from some outside vendors on what it's gonna cost for a new generator. It's some of the I'm trying to pick at these guys a little bit. Some of the numbers I'm getting is anywhere from 40 to $60. It it'd be an outside generator, more likely diesel because the put to sit there and put a you know, liquid propane in would just for what we have down there, would just be it wouldn't be efficient for what we're doing. Again, a lot of times when we turn this generator on, I have to shut my computer off. We have to shut down the we have to shut down the that Vetteroute system, just things of that nature. Otherwise, we're going to be spending thousands of dollars. The other thing that I'm having done by Linco is I'm going to have them put surge protectors in. So on our new fuel system, there'll be a surge protector put in there, and there's gonna be a new surge protector put in on the fire alarm side. I don't know if Matt has said anything, but the fire alarm panel on in our building, something happened and it burned the it burned the circuit board out.
So we Matt and I have talked about it and we've gotten prices anywhere from like 5 to $8,000. To put this surge these two surge protectors in is gonna run run us about $4,500. So 2,200 each. To me, that's an investment because again, we're spending stupid money on these on these systems that we can't afford not to have down. Those systems should be installed within the next few weeks. Additional, I'd like to I'd like to buy a pickup truck. This summer, we did a lot of work, and with the crew that we have now, we're driving around in big our big dump trucks. These trucks are are north of $300,000
and they're not made to put around in. These trucks are made to work. They have emission systems on them that if you don't work these things, they get clogged up, and then you're spending thousands of dollars to have these systems cleaned out. One of the some of my numbers that that I got range anywhere from 75 to $80 totally outfitted. I talked to Matt, and I believe there's enough money in tar that we could take that out of. So it wouldn't be any cost to the town or the taxpayers really. The numbers that I got, I'd I'd I'd hate to give you guys like solid numbers right now because they were all got they're all gotten in excuse me, gotten in December. But just for some rough math purposes for the 2026 f three fifty truck, you're looking at $51,000 for the truck. You're looking at for a sander and plow for that another 15,000. We want to put a flatbed body on it. That's another $5,600 and then to put a radio in it through J and S radio is about $1,700. The radio itself for this is almost $500 itself. So they don't give those things away. I'd like to move quicker on that. What that'll do is too, I will use that truck in the wintertime. We can actually cut time down because now I have a sander on it. If I'm plowing the library, the church, and I go up to the, town hall, start plowing that, I can plow it and sand it. And we could probably cut at least
fifteen, twenty minutes off a guy coming in to have the sand out. Times out by 10 or 12 storms at the end of especially if it's on overtime, that's a good chunk of money. On our on my capital, I believe we have oh, I'm sorry. Do you guys you guys have any questions on that? Yeah. Just with that, you see, wanna use Towne Maid Road.
If memory serves, it was, like, 117,000 in that account in that fund rather. Yep. If memory serves the state allocation yearly for Town Aid Road, it's, like, 185,000 or so, but we wouldn't have received this year's amount yet. Right? Oh, but there is money in that account right now because Yeah. I remember when they bought it, I think there was $1.17 in there. That's my recollection.
I think I believe there's more than that, but I I'm not a 100% sure. 333.
Let me I I go ahead. Hang on. Let me maybe maybe it was it maybe it was that the figure I had was before we got a tranche of Town Aid Road in, so I could be I could be behind.
I'll double check. Thanks. I was I just saw it tonight. It looked like 330,000. Oh, nice. Okay.
All the roadwork I did this year was left over was left over from, money from last year. You guys didn't do too much roadwork. Again, there were some staffing changes, some moving pieces, so not as much got done. Between what I had last year and what you guys gave me this year, that's what I've been using to do all the roadwork and maintenance. And so that's why there's a lot of money in that in that town Aid Road. Also too, when I got here, they wanted to reconcile it to make sure it was it was where it needed to be. So, again, I didn't I didn't touch any of that money at all this year.
As for the debt service, I should Great. Is there any questions? What do you yeah. What do you have now for a pickup? I thought how old is the pickup that that you're using now?
So the pickup I have right now is a 2019. It's got 87,000 miles on it. This would be in addition to that pickup. We have a crew again, we have a crew of four guys and myself. Let's say this weekend we have an event and we have to get called in. What would happen is we have a we have a f five fifty dump truck, and then we have my pickup. I would have to send the guys out to go two guys in one truck, two guys in another to go out and do do that. Now I'm stuck at the shop if something happens or if I have to go somewhere. Same thing in the when we go out and roadside mow. This summer, we did a lot of work up on Ridge Road. That F-five 50 pickup was used to put house all our tools in every day to help fix the catch basins. Well, we did roadside mowing, we did other projects, guys had to take a big truck out just for transportation alone. The guy, the one employee that was doing
the weed whacking was actually using a big truck and putting a weed whacker in the bed of the truck. Those trucks are not designed for that anymore. Those days are long gone. To put a whole new emission system on that thing, you're looking anywhere at 10 to $15,000. To get these systems cleaned out, they're anywhere from $5,000 and up. Again, unless you're working these trucks and really using them, they're not they're not designed to putt around like that. We're running good parts. Right. Thank you.
Yeah. Yep. Couple of questions. That's so you guys were using the Freightliner
because you didn't have enough pickups. That's basically what you're telling us? Yeah. Basically, so that what you're see yeah. We're using the Freightliner or we have we have two Peterbilts, and then we have an an old Ford truck as well. An old Ford, l 9,000, they call it. Okay. And that one, we can't even get parts for. So we kinda leave that in case we really need it. Got it.
Can I ask a couple of questions too? I just wanted I don't know why Go for it, Nick. My newer my newness. The first is, is the is the Church Of Town building I'm wondering why we're plowing for the church. We
have for a hundred years. I got here. You're you're what? Yes.
Okay. Alrighty. I just was it was just a clarifying question. Are they at a subcontracted thing, or is that, something that we're doing?
No. We we plow and sand the church or salt the church. Excuse me. Yes. Okay. I think it goes back to is there, like, a shared
septic or well or something? I I forget. There was some reason why we started doing that a long time ago. Are you I I
have no idea, Bill. I I got here and I I thought the guys were messing with me when they said I had to do it first.
I don't know sometimes you can get the library that the town uses the church parking, like, when they have their book sale or other events, it's just as a spillover. So I'm not saying it's right, wrong. I'm just saying it's kind of a long term It's a thing that's been done as long as I've been in town, they plowed that road, that parking lot. It's the it's the
right thing to do as a community because they actually house our food pantry for the town. And there's a lot of shared services. And I don't think that's something we should. I understand politically and like personally, church, state, all that stuff. But it's not a big deal. Keep clawing the driveway. No. It makes sense. It was just something that
popped up in my mind. Makes complete sense to me. The second thing is as far as the truck is concerned, I can understand the need, and I could understand I could understand the need. I could understand why we're doing it. Is it possible to find a used vehicle, like, little more used that was been outfitted with some of the customizations we're looking for? Just a thought that I kinda am thinking about. I mean, it I could understand why we need the outfitted vehicle the way we do with the plow and everything. I just wonder if you could find a slightly used one if that would help offset some of the cost for you.
So a used vehicle on what we need it for, we would probably be paying anywhere from 40,000 and up. The prices that we get because we're on state bid or through Sourcewell or through Croag, you couldn't go and buy this truck for $80,000 It would probably cost you over 100. Easy. If you're going to look for a decent used truck, again, you want the mileage to be down because we're gonna keep this thing for a good twenty years. I've seen this before. What happens is sometimes you're buying somebody else's problems. We want a plow with a truck, excuse me, truck with a plow on And if you're you don't know who took care of it, you don't know what you know, were they an animal when they plowed with it, so forth and so on. We're very lucky to have Zach Zito as a mechanic here. This kid's a crackerjack on stuff like this. He takes care of our stuff. He's very meticulous. I mean, all my guys are, but we're very lucky to have him maintaining our stuff. I was a mechanic in my prior job as well. And again, we catch a lot of stuff before it breaks. And I'd hate to buy something used, And then all of a sudden, we're putting $10.15 grand into it because it needs a transmission or it needs it needs something like that. I Yeah. I completely understand that. I just wanted hey. Someone ever asked me. I wanted to make sure I understood the answer to all the above. But, yeah, that makes sense on both fronts. Yeah. I mean, if I can find, like, let's say, I'm gonna go to we'll probably get it through Ford because they they're the Yep. One, that's what we have. So you try to keep everything standard as much as possible. And two, I believe they still have the bid.
If I can get like a 25 that they didn't sell or let's say, it's got a thousand miles on it, I'll definitely take that. But to do anything else, it's really not worth it. Nick, I'll give you a case of point. I get things through Freightliner that says, hey, look at our used trucks. The state every ten years, officer vehicles now, they don't care anymore. So they're starting to get an influx of all these big trucks. Well, these trucks that they're getting are like 170, 180,000 miles on them. Well, they've been beat, they've been plowed. We don't roll trucks over every ten years, we roll them over about every 20. Let's be honest, because our oldest truck is a '98. So again, we're going to buy a ten year old truck and it's going to be 30 years old by the time we get rid of it. We'll be lucky to even get parts with it when it's 20 years old. Per the manufacturers now and it's crazy.
Most parts, they only have to be made for anywhere from ten to twelve years now. So you're at the mercy of, and if it was a one off truck, let's say it was a half year truck, now you're running into all sorts of problems. So at the end of the day, you're you're we're better off paying a little more. We get a better warranty, and it's just it's just better all around.
Yep. Makes complete sense. Figured it's probably a good question to ask in a public forum, but it makes sense to me. Excellent. And that completely tracks the beta root system as well. That makes sense to me. I used to work on those things, and they Oh, there you go. They are a little finicky. So, Ard probably is not happy. If we don't have, like, a clean power to it, we could put in a power protector or something, and that might help it in the future. I don't know how it's fucked up currently, but that could sometimes help from my old beetle root support days.
I am hap like I said, I am having a surge protector put in in for that system. So Oh. Again, just I I asked if there's a surge protector built in, and I couldn't get a I couldn't get a straight answer out of anybody. So I said, you know what? Let's just do it, and now we know we have it because I don't wanna spend another $30,000.
Yeah. The, power here is finicky. So that makes a lot of sense. The APS systems kinda can help with that too. Sorry. I just wanted to ask those clarifying questions. No. No. It's excellent. Excellent questions.
We have two more payments left on our John Deere roadside mower and we have one payment left on our Freightliner. So after we pay off the John Deere, I'm probably gonna come to you guys, start looking for some more equipment.
What's your what are you thinking in terms of priorities there? What's what's the biggest need aside from this pickup truck you you were talking about?
Our next one, our backhoe is a 2003, I wanna say. The transmission has been rebuilt in it a couple times. So it's going to be it's getting there. It's starting to get a little tougher to get parts for. And then our next one is going to be another big truck. I'd like to go a 10 wheeler if at all possible. Reason being is we're starting to get whack some big money on delivery fees from our vendors for going to get stone.
This way we could go get it ourselves? We can go get it ourselves. Got it. Because
at the end of the day, we're we're gonna buy a six wheel dump truck anyway. If we're gonna spend another $50.60 grand, we'll make that back just in hauling and capabilities. The guy that the the route I'm gonna put that on instead of him coming in twice to get salt and fuel up, he can just stay right out there. When we're hauling wood instead of making multiple trips, we can make one. So just overall, it'll pay for itself alone just with the hauling capability.
Alright. So, I mean, I guess what we'll we'll need to do going forward, you know, is is tighten up and, you know, have a have a capital plan prioritize, you know, list of needs, put them rank them in in order of of need, and and we'll go from there. We'll work on our capital budget. Awesome.
Eric, we also have the, the roof project that you just got, quotes for. The originally we I know we didn't talk about the select board meeting, but since it came up this week, the quote for 27,000 for the roofer project at the DPW. We budgeted like 28,000 for that job. Yeah. So that sounds good. But but it also that that we don't know how many sheets apply what it may need at $55 a sheet. So I'm still thinking that somewhere in, you we're gonna go out for an RFP but hoping that, you know, keep it in that 28,000, but it may, you know, depending on how much plywood. And if it's if maybe it's something we can pay out the current fiscal year budget, but just something that we were gonna mention that hopefully. Is that gonna be done this year or?
We don't know yet. Oh. We're gonna try. I think that Eric, did you think that this was gonna be the springtime?
It depends what we get back for the bids. I've seen guys I mean, it's not like a roof like AES. This is a a pitched and flat roof. So, again, we if if it's nice going into December, you you could do it then. It's not it's it's not a bad I've seen guys do roofs in the middle of winter if you get you get a nice day. The biggest time you don't wanna do it is when it's a 100 degrees out because you step on the shingles, and they'll actually pull it away from the the the shingles will actually pull away from the nails. So
Now, there also there's a in the packet, there was a budget to date. I don't know if any of the finance committee had a chance to look at those if they had any questions.
There's a couple big purchases on there. One of them was a loader tire, to have a spare loader tire. And then Easel. My pickup truck needed tires. That was another perch. So I purchased four tires and had them mounted at and done at Dubois. We purchased a backup, a 100 gallon gasoline tank for our garage. Like I explained to the the board of selectmen, last winter when we had a couple big storms, the two stations in town ran out. So we were kind of in a little bit they they did end up getting some, but we got in a little bit of trouble. So what I propose is because we only have we only have diesel, not gasoline. I went out and bought a 100 gallon gas tank. So we have it for, again, have it. This weekend, power could be out for a week if we get the storm they're talking about. Those gas stations go down, at least we have gas to put in my truck and the or, you know, a small generator or chainsaws, things of that nature. I guess at one point before they put the new diesel tank in years ago, they did have two gas and diesel. And then because there wasn't hardly any gas vehicles, they just said they went to diesel only. So it's just good to have a backup. That's all. But I think that's pretty much it with my budget to actual for, like, any big numbers that you guys are gonna see. The only other ones you're gonna see is for, on the on the capital side, all the roadwork that was done through Abbey Construction, Hanes,
what and what the the treasurer and assistant treasurer have been doing. And I've been trying very hard myself as every time I give a bill and I try to explain what it is. So in the memo, they can put that in there so you guys know exactly what it is. So you look at Haynes and like, what the heck is Haynes? That's I put on their asphalt. So you're like, so you guys know what it is or, you know, what's a washer? Oh, it's a washer for a plow we put on, you know, needed.
Eric, I also see you had a line for tree work. I did spend quite a bit of time talking to Zach, who's our warden, our tree warden. Yes. And I guess he told me that they're gonna be looking for an increase. We've been putting $50,000 a year there, but we have this lantern moth, I guess, coming along in addition to a lot of trees that already dead from ash borer, beetle, and, you know, other insects we've had problems with, and we're still trying to get some of the tree canopy cleared back. So he did kind of explain some of the needs there that probably that line item is gonna need to be looked at as well.
Yes. We just had some canopy work done on School School Road beyond the school. It was very heavily, like, shaded. So we hired tenant tree, as you guys see in the in the in the budget, in the notes.
To have them come in for a week to do that cost us $9,300. We can do them we can pay per day as well. Zach does the same thing I do. He tries to get the best bang for the buck. He tries to work with Eversource. A lot of times if these trees are encroaching in the lines, we have a contact with Eversource where they'll come in and say, oh, yeah. That's ours, and they'll cut it down, and it's no cost to to us or the taxpayers. But like everything else, as you guys know, everything's going up. I I can tell you this. I got here in November, and I've gotten called twice for for a tree coming down. My last job, they were getting two calls a week for for to remove a tree off a road. So I wanna just give a shout out to Jay. He did very well thinning out a lot of the trees in this town and getting rid of a lot of stuff. So I'm very and I'd like to keep that going if at all possible.
Yeah. And I think the canopy works important from the standpoint that you can it's safer because the roads stay clearer and you use less salt, especially around lakes, marshes, rivers. Yep. So it's the right thing to do, but all the money seems to be going towards tree removal instead of canopy. So it's something that's gotta be like that.
Alright. Well What what you know, Bill, what happened? Oh, sorry. What happens is you get into it, you're like, oh, let's remove the canopy. Oh, there's a dead one here. Oh, this is this this limb is hanging over and you you then you start fighting with some residents and, you know, it it gets real weedy. The tree is on their property, but the limb is in our right away or over our roadway. So we cut that. And then sometimes we don't want to do whatever source does and you guys have all seen it. You go down the road and go, why didn't they just take that tree down when they cut 90% of it out? Go around the lines. We're not going to do that. We're going to either leave it up or take it down. There's gonna be no in between. So
Thanks, Eric. Alright. So so we'll have to have a conversation about, you know, if fifty k is not gonna cut it anymore, what it needs to be.
He does leave again, he he doesn't blow at all. He's very, very, you know, fiscal and frugal with it. And I told him too. I said, make sure you leave, like, $5,000 buffer in there. Cause if we get to like May or June, all of a sudden we get an emergency where this happened in my last job. On a Saturday, a tree out of a right away came down and landed on a house and the town was on the hook for it. So we had to pay for that. And it was very costly to get a tree service out on a Saturday to take that tree off the house. So I always tell them leave a little extra money in there for that. That way we're not scrambling around looking for money to do that.
Makes sense. K. Alright. Well, does anybody else have any further questions before we let Eric go so we don't spend his whole night? I mean, I appreciated this update. Thank you very much. I think going forward, yeah, a formal capital plan would be great. You know, those those equipment thoughts you have. And yeah, and at some point, maybe next year, once we're maybe either into the budget cycle or past it, we can talk about the overall road plan again. I I know your predecessor had a road map with color coding and everything like that, and I don't know if you've had a chance to I mean, you've done a lot of work. So, obviously, it's out of date. It would be out of date. So, and you've caught up a lot. I think, you know, this year has been interesting. You've been able to do a lot because in, you know, in part because we didn't do some of our budgeted stuff because we had to turn over and everything like that. Next year will be interesting
to talk about, like, what the tempo is going forward. But thank you very much for this. This is really helpful. Okay. If you guys have any questions, concerns, please feel free to get in contact with me. Thank you, Eric. Awesome. Thank you. Thanks. K.
Well, that's leads us into the town administrator's report from Matt, who went down a ram with me recently. And that's To have the living daylight scared out of us.
We started off by, back on, September 14. Rob and I, I think everybody was invited, but, we we attended on behalf of on behalf of our town to get the news of their capital plan. They have a plan. If you go to page 66, there's about about just under $40,000,000 I think in projects. And if you go out 10, you're talking upwards of $60,000,000 They rated up on different pressing needs and also whether they get reimbursable or not. And it it was quite a present presentation, but they were I have not followed up to see what they've discussed since then. I know they I think they've had two meetings since then, and they were you know, I think it was a big a hard to swallow for some of the school committee members from the, RAM District. So I don't know if there's some things that are all gonna come flush out, but I think that some of the higher priority things that they're looking at includes, some roofing and some side insulation and dealing with sidewalks and stairwells and getting rid of the few stairwells. They have a a a I think their WiFi is a capital need as well as, there's a divider in their gymnasium that's, separated so that they can have multiple, things going on at the same time. And I guess that's an original, 25 year old that is no longer able to do as well as it's supposed to. It's, guess, it's a I think Rob can probably explain it better than I. But, they're looking for It sounds like it sounds like that's failing. Yeah. And but the the other big one is HVAC.
And then Roof roof and HVAC, there's some really core stuff here. I I went in pretty skeptical thinking there's gonna be a lot of wish, want, not need, and there was a little more need than I was anticipating. Gotta leave the roof. You got Yeah. You know? The the the one thing that blew my mind was the on the HVAC where they explained they can't heat or cool individual rooms. They the building is either on or off. That's a huge building. Like, that's just madness. So there's a lot here. But, I mean, if you were to fund it all, it's it's it's a staggering amount of money. So there's gonna have to be some prioritization and some things kinda come off this list at least for now. And They're lucky see what they they do, what the Ram board does with it, and then they wanna go and do a roadshow. Little dog and pony show across the towns, try to try to convince people that we should pony up for this and bond it out, which will be another thing. I mean, the the spreadsheet gives you the cost, the raw cost. I mean, that's not inclusive of of interest or anything like that. So
so that's the the first thing. Today, I gotta talking about actually, I didn't talk to this you know, regarding the select board, but we did get quotes on our the generator project for the town hall fire department community center front here. And we'd asked to refresh the quote because when I talked to Rich from that the cost have been going through the roof because copper prices have been going up. So we asked for a new quote because the, the one that was given to us prior was, no longer valid. So we gave him a quote of, right now, it looks like, $322,000. So it's a we're getting a federal it's a USDA congressional grant funds for $250,000. So that means that we did have to find 73,073 thousand from, you know, either other grants or or have the town fund a part of it. So for roughly about 20%, which I guess would still be a good deal for getting a a quality generator. But it looks like the the they can do some prep work, but it'd probably take thirty weeks from from signing the notice to go forward that we accept the bid, and they're only holding the bid for thirty days. So I'm gonna be taking this to the select board, but I'm also letting the
finance committee know that I will be bringing it to the select boards for their for their discussion. I also this week had it or this between last week and this week had some meetings on other grants. Important ones were the Percy Cook Trail project and then the sidewalk project on Route 316. Percy Cook Trail, the design is fully funded, but the construction phase is not secured at this point. They're ready to go from their 30% to 60% design phase, But there would help us to look for, you know, opportunity grants. I think that they say that the rec trails program could apply for up to 500,000 and there's all the other alphabet soup of grants, the LOTSIP or DOT or strip or steep, some of the other ones that we might be able to find other opportunities. But, Eric is was the chief advocate for that, and pardon the guidance isn't wasn't sure if the what the sentiment of the town was moved for. So I'm bringing that back to the select board. And the other project is the sidewalk project on Route 316, which is fully funded for
construction by through Prague and DOT, but they have to make you know, there's a shortfall, a gap in funding for design, about a $150,000 for the municipality to complete and decide. And likewise, they've got information back from DOT regarding comments and the the where the plan may originally you know, where where it was originally gonna go or whether it's gonna go to 316. So there's some decisions that need to be made, and it'll be going to the back to the cycle. But at some point, it'll be something that whether we're gonna have to come up with a $150,000 if we wanna finish the design and go forward. It's just the construction costs that we're looking at from the state that is paid will be paid for is about $2,800,000, And we're not it's not guaranteed that we can, you know, move this to another pro project in town if these funds are are given back to Cron.
So and Matt? Yes. The Percy Crook Percy Cook, that was we voted to allow, you know, the design phase, whatever. Would we need to have a town meeting to approve actually going forward with the construction? That was my understanding.
Well, I think that well, I would have to check into that. I don't know how that I when I talked to Bartleguitis, they were talking that right now it's it's not funded, but there would be some grant opportunities. So I don't know if there's a matching, as far as what the town would have to put up as far as, what the cost would be. But as far as, whether there needs to be a town meeting vote or something, I can look into that for you.
Alright. It probably depends how much it is. I'm guessing. Right? I don't have the
Yeah. I don't have I don't know if I have an estimate of the cost because it depends where the the trail is gonna go. They had a couple different plans. Originally, they're gonna go over the mountain, I guess, and then now they're gonna go around because I guess in the backside on our side, I think there's like a 18% grade, which is they also wanna make it it's I think it was discussed earlier that it's a dual purpose. They're gonna have a it's like eight foot of page and six foot of gravel and it could be used for a pedestrian or horse riding and those type of things. So multipurpose pedestrian multiuse trail. That's what it's called. Thanks.
So most of the other things that were in my report to the select board were really not finance committee related, but I am here to answer any questions. I know we had Eric gave a great report and we'll be hearing from Lisa soon, so I don't know if I want to take up more of their time other than answering your questions for me, if you have any.
Well, great. Thank you. Alright. Thank you. Alright. So treasurer stuff. Review of budget to actual check register donation requests are on our the donation request thing, I think we're past. We need to get that off our agenda. Just get that off. Yeah. My my fault. I should have taken that off.
Lisa, do you wanna chime in at this point? Yeah. Did you all get the email I sent this morning to replace the the the reports that were sent to you? Yes. Yeah. I wasn't in the office, and I just wanted to give you updated ones, so I sent those out this morning. And I did add those to the packet on the on the website as well. Yep. Okay. Yeah. I will say there were just something in the clerk's office, it looks like. And I talked to Roberta. It looked like she was way over on one of her lines, but it's not. It's just a misallocation. And that line is now only 18% Sprint, and the other line above it is 15%. It was just it was in the wrong line. It should have been a line above it. So so that's fine. She's not 231 spent over on her maps and filming. She's not. So she's fine. Any other questions on the budget to actual? It's early in the year, so there's not, you know, there's not a lot really. Everything looks Yeah. Yeah. Just normal.
Like normal. Yep. Good to hear.
And then the operating account, you know, the the checking account, are there any questions on the checks?
No. How are we doing? I I didn't have a chance to go through every line here. I just looked at it very quickly. But how are we doing with our work on those, you know, fraud problems? It doesn't look like I'm seeing as much here as last time. No. You
haven't seen it, but it's we still have to be vigilant. And we did start and Matt helps with this too. We did start a program with M and T that we have to run our check batches through them. And if the checks aren't in that check batch, they should be rejected. And Matt and myself and Brenda all get a notice saying this looks this looks off. So we have to let them know by the next day if this is our check or not. So that's could be why you're not seeing as much because we're running that program now. Great. I mean, we still watch because there's still you just can't tell with fraud. There's just so much going on with fraud. So but I that's probably a help.
Indeed. K. Anybody else have any questions? I'm just looking at it quickly here. You know? The I I like the the memos are are really helpful. You know, we're get we're really coming along on that. We needed to desperately.
Yeah. When I first came, I was totally lost because there was nothing there for me, and I had to go pull the invoice. And now at least you see. Yeah. Yeah. I just have one comment. Good.
This afternoon, I've got some information. I shared it. Sent an Email to Jeff and to Lisa that the supplemental municipal assistance grant that we heard about back in May that the town was gonna get the $17,751 that actually hit the bank account on Monday And we found out yeah. Well, I found out. I saw it. It came in yesterday, but I when I checked the status because I I didn't check it yesterday, but I knew that it's it it takes a day for M and T to show up, but it looks like that's the I know we considered that when we did the budget and we just have to report on it by how we use those funds by 01/01/2027. So in a few months. But I'm sure there's I think we appropriate we use that to offset any expenses then
Refresh us for the supplemental on what it relates to and why it was given to us?
If you remember the OPM at the gave about a I think it was like a I don't know it's a 100,000,000, but there was monies that were going to both the board of education for theirs and then for the town. And our town share was the 17,000.
I don't I think the BOE share was like 80. Yeah. So I don't know if they're you know? That that was that last minute thing the legislature did, you know, right as we were trying to finalize our budget.
So I don't know if if if typically all if their grant funds go directly to their funds, and I I wouldn't see that in in our accounts. So I don't know what they were planning on. They were putting it through the tag or I can check and check for you, Rob, if, if the,
the education ones were also I mean, just the the immediate thought that I have is, you know, something like, you know, the 2,000,000 we get from the state annually for education that does come through us. Right? So I wondered if they were just gonna do it the same way. So we'll see. TBD.
I have a question. No. So back to that, we don't know if the other 86 has been received.
I did did not get any inform emails. I Jeff and I both got the email about a week and a half ago saying that, you know, these were, you know, coming down the pike about the reporting requirements. So that they were gonna be released. You know, the the payments will be authorized September 16 and that they you know, obviously, they took a few days for them to go through the process. Maybe we can ask OPM about the 80, the other chunk, the other tranche,
what the what the process is there. Yeah. I can check on that. That'd be great. Sorry. Somebody had a question. I didn't mean to cut anyone off. Yeah. Think it Yeah. I do. I I was just going through the transactions.
Is this the check registered, the transactions by accounts? Is that Monthly transactions
operating yeah. Monthly transactions on the top of the report? It's, page 96. 96?
I don't You can't you can't use that one. That is that the old one, Liz? Yeah. Not the one this morning? It's dated September 10. There's nothing in the packet for the for the September 20 package that you got this morning. So do you have what you got this morning, Liz? It says September 20 on it. I guess I'm not Well
Go ahead. So you it's just a simple question. I don't think it matters if it's actually up to date. I'm trying to understand. So I'm looking at the capital reserve funds. Oh, you so you're not on monthly transactions? No. It's online transactions by account transactions by I'm
on page 96 in the packet if that helps. I don't have the packet in front of me. I just have I'm the Is it is it page So I'm going by the titles. It is this. Does the top say capital reserve funds? It says well, the Yeah. It says town advantage of our transaction. Transactions by account.
Yeah. Just go ahead. Transactions by account. Mhmm. I'm sorry. Yep. 90 6. I got it in the packet. Yep. I I'm looking at it from Lisa's email. Yep.
I'm just curious about there's AES Capital Fund, then it says AES Reserve Fund, and then there's building maintenance fund. Is that, that's probably something separate, why is there different titles? Are they different things?
You're looking on page 96? Yeah, and it starts with FP mailing solutions. Ton of annual transactions by account 28,000 Capital Reserve funds. Is that what the top of That's
what I'm getting confused about. I'm thinking you're looking at the checkbook register, but it sounds like you're looking at the capital reserve report. Yeah. You're looking at the detail you're looking at the details from the capital reserve. That's what you're looking at. Okay. So let's get this right. Okay. That's what I'm looking for. At the check register details.
Okay. Okay. So those are those those just so everybody understands, that's the transactions that are applied to that account in the month of August. Right.
Right. I guess I'm trying to understand why it says AES Capital Fund, and then it says AES Reserve Fund. Is the reserve the 2%? Yes. Yeah. That's what I thought.
Oh, that's the 2% non lapsing account. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Oh. It should be it should be labeled differently to be really honest. Yeah. Can we do that? That that was my that was my question. Would be helpful. Yeah. I agree.
Okay. So that reserve fund you want labeled, how do you want that labeled? 2% nonlapsing account or 2% nonlapsing fund?
Yeah. AES 2% nonlapsing. Something like that. Yep. Because everybody knows what that means at this point. Yep. Exactly. Thank you.
Sorry for the confusion, guys. No. It's It's okay. Good it's good to get on the same page, literally. Mhmm.
Okay. We have to have the right data in the packet, and then we have to go through it in the correct order. Mhmm. Yeah. You just fly through this. Oh, because once you guys get familiar with reports, this should be easier. Yep. Yes. Agree. That that report that you're seeing, we will change the title is to call it transaction or trend transactions for capital reserve funds, because that is the only one that really has significant transactions that you guys should see. They're in the check register. But you guys should sit there and see these. These are bills that are put into the system and what they're going to deduct. And so when they get paid might be a different thing. But you should at least be able to see that this is what was spent out of those
in the month of August.
Cool. Thank you. Yeah, so I'm sorry if I jumped ahead, guess. That's okay. I wasn't really sure. Wasn't sure what I was looking at actually. Yeah. I'm not as with it tonight as I normally am. No. It's a lot of reports. It's traveling. Yeah. Yeah. Traveling stuff. Yeah. Oh, good stuff. Yep. Yeah.
Let's see, I didn't know as far as the Norton Funds that we were talking about, I am in contact with Charlotte and ever since I came in February and there's so many of these, accounts between the scholarship and the Norton accounts and everything, I am reviewing it with her to make sure that we're depositing and checking out from the right accounts. So I am in touch with Charlotte, and we are working on that. I was just out of state for a little bit. So but Charlotte and I have touched base, and we're gonna work on that. K. Any questions on the other three, the cash balances, the special revenue, or the capital projects funds?
No. I look. I mean, I appreciate the way this is being presented now. Fantastic the way it's being presented. So much better. There is a lot of But
It was looking at something, and I've lost it. There's so many pages, but there was one fund I feel like we still have to clean up where we have a negative number in it. But now I've lost it. Where the hell was it? They're the bridge funds? Yeah. There was yeah. There was one that was there was one of the bridge funds. You know? That's not a
that's not a cleanup thing. That's receive the money thing. Oh, receive the reimbursement from the state. Right. Or events.
Yeah. Yep. Fair enough. We have to wait for the checks to clear that we've expended and submit them, and then it could be sixty days or more to get that money back. Matt knows well. So Okay. Yep. Sounds good.
And that that's is that it? Any other questions? And if you have a question email me I'm not always in the office because I'm trying to I'm trying to work what I'm supposed to be working but send me an email and I'll get you know back to you as soon as I can.
All right can I ask one quick kind of question Mhmm? So I'm looking at the non major special refund or revenue funds. Mhmm. Yeah. The economic and community funds, those are negative. Fund? Yeah. Yeah.
I'm getting to that. Let's take a look. What page is that? Is that 98? What wait. Non major funds. Yes. It's 9099. No.
99. You're right. Yep. Okay. Non major permanent funds? Yep. Yeah. Or special sorry. Not special revenue. Sorry. All all Non major special revenue funds. Yes. It's the last it's the last page I'll answer. Of all of this.
Yep. So Of this section. Economic and community fund is related to the town clerk. And it has to do with the town clerk. Town clerk collects fees portion of those fees go to state a portion of those fees are kept by the town of Andover. And it's something that needs to be reconciled as to where it's going live. So there'll be a transaction. These are all the outs, so the ins have to be put in the right bucket. So it'll get,
Listen, there are a lot of things that need to get. But this is a tremendous start, as far as I'm concerned, what the treasurer's office is doing. Oh, it's a long ways. Yeah. And Lisa and I have been communicating on the balance sheet items, and that's one of them. So the Economic and Community Fund needs to be there, the school grant fund, that's just the balance from the prior audit. So again, that would have been something where the school was expecting to collect money, and at the end of the cycle, it's just a negative. Okay. That was That was my next question. Yeah. That was that's just an audit
balance. Okay. And then we have the historic preservation fund, which is negative $133.
That's Same same thing. Yeah. It's another it's another town clerk related. Okay.
So we'll clean that up. But this is all looking we're moving in right direction here. Yeah. Yeah.
It's a lot a lot of good work here. Yeah.
Appreciate it. So that's the I think that's the last page. Does anybody have anything else before we move on? Let me get my tabs right so I can get back to my packet. Okay. There we go. Okay. Donation request, we're just that's not relevant. We we should've taken it off. Just taken it off. Yeah. So that moves us to new business, AS Capital account request. So as you guys probably know, I think I sent it around. Caitlin and her board, they have an overage from the past fiscal year that's over and above what they can put in the 2% nonlapsing account. It's 40 hang on. 40,000. Yep. I I've got the email up. Yep. And, of course, I went and I moved it because I was looking at Lisa's email, but it'll I'm gonna pull it up so I get the exact right number here. It's $48,386.59. Thank you, sir. Okay.
So I'm confused. That can't go in the 2%. That needs to either, you know, come back and go back to the fund. They what their request is, okay. But can we then put it into the capital you know, their capital fund? I'm sort of agnostic at exactly how we do this or whether we do it at this time because I'm hoping for a completed capital plan from them soon. I know Val's been working on it. We we are gonna need to get, you know, receive said capital plan and really think about what their needs are just like we Matt and I were going down a ram and and looking at their stuff. And then we have to look at that that fund and figure out what needs to be in there. So that's their request. I said we'd take it up. So let's talk about it. You know, whether we want to in my opinion, probably the way to do this if we were to agree to this to their request would be we would accept the money back and then approve a transfer. So accept the money back to the general fund, and then approve a transfer into capital fund, the AES capital fund. There's the other option is just say, no. Put it in the cap put it in the general fund, and we'll work it out later. I again, I'm kind of agnostic as to those two approaches. I don't have a strong opinion on this one. So
sorry. Heather, did you have a question? What is the what is this money from? I'm confused. So they had a budget, like Surplus. The year the fiscal year that goes back to the last audit, they had a surplus and they they underspent their budget. Oh, okay. They are, by law, allowed to take an overage an underspend of up to 2% of their budget. So just roughly speaking, $90,000, and put that into their 2% nonlapsing account. It's like their little special savings account that they Yep. Any money over and atop that that they've underspent, you know, any any residual surplus, they they they get they they have to return it to town. So the 48 saying is, you know, we have $48,000
come back to town. What we'd like the town to do with that is stick it in our capital account for upcoming capital needs. So the 48 is over the 2% that they could have taken. Yes. Alright. Thank you. And what they said too in their letter, Rob, is that there are still some
there's still some outstanding numbers, I guess, from the project that they're waiting to come in, and they're hoping to pay for with this. So that's, I guess Right. I think they had some some
minor overage. I forget the I remember getting the explanation from Caitlin, but I've now I've forgotten the exact details, and I don't wanna speak out of hand. So The overage was mostly for an asbestos thing. Asbestos. Yeah. I remember the asbestos thing. Yeah. I just couldn't remember if it was all related to that if there was something else. But There were some hidden pipes that they had to move or something. Right. Couple of little things. So that would be we that request will be different. That request will be, hey, board of finance. Can you approve the transfer us to spend out of the capital account x dollars because we had this overrun.
Alright. I can I chime in? Sure. So when I emailed about this and emailed back to the group because I I misunderstood what the request was, I thought they wanted to take half of the 2% non lapsing and put it into the capital fund. I totally misunderstood that. My feeling is, and I believe by law, that money has to come back to the town. This should be talked about at budget time and this should have been talked about at budget time. I think that's where we went wrong last year when we made that vote to send that overage to their capital fund. I don't think we had the legal right to do it. I am of the opinion that we didn't have the legal right to do it. So my feeling is it should not go to the capital account and actually I would like to even
wait on voting for this till the full board is here because I think this is an important decision,
and I don't know what where Kim is. Can I can I well, I would say I would say, you know, step one Can I? Again, it could it should go back to the town. One way or the other. K? After that, like, the there's two there's two pathways that I see here. Right? Path one is, nope. Just put it in general fund. Thanks. Done. And then we'll talk about capital later during the budget process. That's option one. Option two and what I what I which would satisfy that what they want us to do would be we vote to receive it into the general fund and then, you know, a two, you know, two part motion or two two separate motions, whatever, and then say, okay. But then transfer it back out to capital. Again, I am not coming down hard on either side of that line. I see I could see doing either way. I don't really have a big strong opinion here. I think number one, step one is receive it back. Yes. It it goes back to the general fund. That's step one. And I think that happens. I don't think we don't have to take further action right now. This happens, doesn't it? Right. I think that's exactly what should happen. No. Doesn't. No. It doesn't. The
That's the point, Bill. Do you realize? And and honestly, this is something that just, I just realized that 135,000 has sat in this school account. They're over under budget has sat in a school account since let's sit there and say sixty days after the June 30 end of the year. So since 08/31/2025, it has sat in the school's account hadn't been returned to the town. And even when they returned the the money, they returned just the amount of money that they want to go into the nonlapsing fund. So they still have this $47,000 or $48,000 sitting in their bank account.
Why did they not send that back? Well, we we should just vote that they should send that back, and then we can further discuss My question my question is why didn't they why didn't they send the whole $13,510.08 back? You have to ask them.
So I think I think because they wanted to make this request. I think that's the reason. Regardless, I'll
sit there and then I'll sit there and I'll say the exact same things that I was trying to say during the process when this original amount of money was moved over to the capital fund, that the Board of Finance does not have that authority. The Board of Selectmen does not have that authority. The only authority that can do this is at a town meeting and a vote on referendum. So the technical way for you guys to do this is to sit there in the next budget cycle determine how much you're going to fund the school improvement fund capital fund, which currently has $342,928 in it. Right. So that's technically the authority that you have.
You have Right. Because we'd be asking in town You don't have any authority to to make to make a take money out. It'd be like me coming to you guys and going, hey, the Boris Lechman is gonna suggest that you take out of the general fund a $100,000 and use it for the let's even go for the town truck. That is not appropriate. Like, that going to that level to ask the general fund and then going to you guys to sit there and get approval to move it is not what we should be doing.
Right. We need to ask the get permission from the town to spend basically spend that to transport it. So, yeah, we would need a town meeting.
Well, you don't need we do it in as their I mean, as Part of the budget budget cycle. Part of cycle. Part. During during the budget cycle. 100%. You know, we do our we do our discussions about their capital needs, etcetera, etcetera, and we go to the town and we say, okay. We wanna load this much money into that fund. 100%. Correct. Just to your point earlier, Rob, you have to have their
list of projects, their priority, what they cost. Yeah. And then we sit there and figure out how we're gonna fund them. I think you talked about Jeff yourself at one of our triboard meetings. Tell us what you need. We'll determine how we're going to fund those. We need the priority. We need how much money is going cost. So in the budget cycle, we can decide how much of that money, if any, we would put into their capital fund. Period. Yeah. Now it'd be voted on at that point by the town at the referendum.
It's pretty You guys would direct you guys would direct where it initially goes on the budget presentation, and the town meeting has the ability to make adjustments. And then it goes to referendum, and it gets voted up. Yes or no. Exactly right. Okay. That all works.
Fine by me. So then I guess what we really ought to do is communicate to the board of Ed, and maybe we just have a little quick vote on this, that, you know, we want that 48,000 returned to town, which is the appropriate procedure. And we will discuss their capital needs. And, oh, by the way, what would help with that is a capital plan. Right. I mean, would I'm okay with that. I
mean, if the expense expenses are increasing so drastically, I'd like to see a detailed list of what what they're spending it on, you know, for this capital stuff.
I mean Yeah. I mean, it's it's like need to we need a we need a good five year something along the lines of what Ram what what Ram produced. Yep. And, you know, I can quibble. I have all sorts of quibbles with with what RAM produced, but it is a good starting point. So something like that. Oh, yeah. That's crazy. I mean, it's a lot. Yeah. It's a lot to swallow. Like the Ram one where they built in a four and a half percent per annum increase. You know, the as you kick the can, it gets worse by four and a half a year. Is that the right assumption? You change that assumption a little bit. It changes them. So there's lots of things in there, lots of moving parts to discuss, and we'll get to that. But we need something we need something motion. I I would I think we should just
move that We need a motion to to go ahead. Need a we need a motion to
I would make the motion that we have the school board return $48,366.59 overage, and I'm not sure if that's from 2025.
What year that's 2025. I don't know why It's just the year '25. What about return the money. Like, to do we vote to have them return what they should No. Be returning? Listen, Liz. I think it's just helpful to do it. Liz, you need to do it. You need to do it. No. I do. Because they don't they don't listen to anything other than you guys.
Okay. Alright. Well, then let's let's do it. Both. I would beg you. I
I think do it. Balance This just the the easiest and cleanest way to do it. Is that we, the owner of finance, think this is the way you should do things. Here's finish it. You to do. That $48,392.59 will be returned to the town general fund. Seconded. Okay. Anybody else seconded? Yep. All in favor? I'll vote yes. Second.
There was a second. Oh. Oh, Liz seconded. Liz seconded.
I'm in favor. Wait a Liz is in favor. Luis? Yep. Heather? Yep. Nick? Yes. Struggled to mute. Sorry. No worries. So that's six o, because we're still down, Kim. Yeah. And I I can I'll communicate with Caitlin, and ask you know, just the way I'm gonna put it is, look. This is the way we think the the proper process is. We'll absolutely talk about your capital needs in the budget cycle. And, you know, oh, by the way, a capital plan would really help with that. And we'll go from there. Yep. Thank you. You're welcome. Appreciate you.
So that deals with that. That's seven a. Seven b, we have on here still from last time, AES operating budget funding. One thing I wanted to ask about here is it's my understanding based on apparently, Caitlin had a conversation with the stiff folks at the state that they can open a stiff account if we approve it. So maybe the maybe the way to do this is we're looking for interest income is to have them set up a stiff account, and then we can just do the the transfers, you know, give them their temp their 10% of their budget a month, whatever, and they put it in a stiff account, and then they'll be earning the proper interest like we are. Maybe that's a way around this fight.
I thought that was already discussed. And I think Jeff had said that they not they're not supposed to open an account. All that money is supposed to be going through the town.
Well, listen. Listen. It it it it it it is a this is town money. It's on the town financial statements. The account for the school, the operating account is on the town side. And the interest should fall back should fall back to the residents to offset potential taxes moving forward. That's listen, we cannot continue to make accommodations because to be quite honest, you guys get no information. I get no information. We get nothing. Rob, you can sit there and make every face you want. But when have you seen a check register from that school?
What I'm what I'm the reason I'm making a face, Jeff, is this is so clearly not about interest income. It oh. It's about this.
Okay. Then whatever. I'm I'm gonna sit there and and make the point that the way that this was run and has been run-in the past is that it was a town account, and it should be a town account. There is nothing that happens that's positive. And if and if transparency is is a a piece of getting interest income for the town, then so be it, Rob.
Okay. I mean, it just seems to me that that's that's the ultimate that's what's really going on here. It's not it's not really about making interest income. It's about getting information. Well, on my side on my side, yes, it's transparency, and on their side, it's control. So which one do you wanna give into?
Well, make it make a choice, Rob. Go ahead. Well, you know, this is
this is an ongoing as as you well know, this is ongoing dispute. Yeah. They're working with their attorneys and talking to the state department of They're wasting they're wasting money where they could be all talking to us. And and, Rob, I agreed I agreed to a meeting with the state. We have a meeting scheduled for October 6 Good. To to have a a third party arbitrator of the state department of education sit there and at least allow us to come to the table and have a rational communication and a rational discussion.
That would be great. And I I eagerly await to hear what comes out of that because this is all spinning our wheels, fighting each other over this is not good. And I know
The only reason there's a fight over this the only reason there's a fight over this is because we get a brick wall anytime we ask for anything. And I'm, in my opinion, I haven't even talked to anybody in detail about this, I'm just kind of waiting to see how things come about, but in my opinion, separate from the interest issue, I feel like we'll finally have some clarity as to what's going on. Me as a taxpayer, I should be able to send an email and ask for certain information without being stonewalled. And when I get stonewalled asking detailed information because it doesn't have anything to do with the budget, I'm sorry. It's just wrong. You're forcing people to go through and make FOIA requests for public information. That's just that's impossible. That's ridiculous. And you know the fact that we tolerate that,
and we as a Board of Finance tolerate that, we should be ashamed of ourselves. You guys are the one group. You honestly are. The reason why I asked you to vote on the last issue, you are the one group at in the end that has the control over getting the information to evaluate what the budget is. I don't, as a Board of Selective member, I don't have that authority to sit there and just demand things from a from a governmental perspective. Yes, I can do a Freedom of Information request, but you, the Board of Finance, have every right to see the transactions. And just like you do with, the treasurer, ask what is going on. It's just cannot you're you're doing the budget reactively or or, you know, you're you know, you did the budget for this year before we even had the numbers for this year completed. So if you're not looking at the information that's coming out of this year, you can't see what the trends are. You can't see where the financial needs are. You can't sit there and see what they're doing. So you have to see something. If you don't see something for two years, and I said this before, for two years, you guys haven't seen a lot of information.
If you guys don't see information, making a budget is you're just throwing a dart at a board and saying, Let's do it. Anyway, I that that's me. And so, Rob, if you think the issue of and and I'll tell you exactly how it happened. I did not know that this was a problem until June when I sat there and finally got information from the treasurer's office as to the bank reconciliations, which are not bank reconciliations, and the bank statements that for for the school, because that is what the town does see. And I will put all that together and send it to all the members of the board of finance so you can see the transactions, not in detail, no information, but checks. I mean, there's not that many transactions. I mean, I think in the month of June, there were 60 or 70 transactions. They can't give you a check register to look at it. I mean, there's a $374,000 wire out of the the bank account. I would sure like to know what that wire is. It's almost surely gonna be payroll, I see what you're I'm sorry. You would it's payroll, but it's not PrimePay, which is their payroll service. So makes me wonder. I like I'd like to know what that $374,000 check is too. It it could
absolutely, Rob. My first thing is it's the payroll for the summer. That's what I'm thinking. Right? But that's a huge transaction to come out of the operating account from the school in one lump sum. Did you ask what that was for, Chuck? No. I just saw it today, Liz. Okay. No. I'm just curious. I I was given I was given the the bank statements for May and June by the treasurer because oh, that's another thing. The treasurer gave me the bank statements for May and June. She hasn't received the bank statements for July or August.
K? Has received them? Has not received them. That's peculiar.
It's not peculiar. It's it's it's the it's the way it's operating. So and and I am begging you. You are the only board that has the control and the authority over this. You are the only board. Cause you you are supposed to control the purse strings. So if somebody doesn't give you the the information, then you have to be more difficult on the budget. If if the town doesn't give you the right information, you should hammer our budget, and you do. You you hammer our budget, even when we give you the information, which is fine, because that's how you guys are supposed to operate. That's your job. But if somebody doesn't give you their information, and then you just give them their budget, and you say, Oh, well, we don't want to cut you, we're just going to give you a $25,000 reduction. That's not doing your job to me. I mean so I'm begging you. I'm begging you guys to go get the information. Begging you. Anyway, let's go. Can
I ask you, Jeff? You said you got bank statements from May and June, but not July and August. Where do the bank statements come?
I was saying the bank? Yeah. Do you under yeah. They don't yeah. They come from the bank, but they don't come to me. They get sent to me by Jody, by the business manager. Jody. Yeah. Yep. And you're saying Jody hasn't gotten them, or you're saying I haven't received the last ones I received were May and June at the same time. And
can I just ask what your process is for that? Do you reach out to them? Do they do you just expect it? I don't know how that works.
I would expect to see it in July and August. I mean, she sent May and June and July. Why wouldn't she spend send the rest of them? I can ask for them.
Okay. But I don't think I should have to if that's part of You shouldn't. No. You absolutely shouldn't have to. But then again Just But then again, Liz, we we as a town shouldn't ask for a $135,000 back eighteen months after it should Right. Fell to the
It should have come yeah. Agree. Okay. I think that's interesting that they sent it the the 86,000 whatever to go to the 2% non lip sync. Well, that's Without being asked. That's easy. Without being asked? That's
statutorily required by the time. Yeah. That's not a question. That's not something that anyone at the town office would sit there and say no to. Fine. Right. It's just that it's you know? But the cash that cash should have come into the bank account to earn 3.75%. But for eighteen months, it sat there and and didn't. So take a 135,000
and multiply it by Wasn't of that related to finishing an audit to know what the numbers are?
I mean, I agree with you that it should already it should be there now. But Okay. I I I Rob, I can sit there, and I can agree with that. Now think about it this way. If all the cash was in the town account, we'd never be having this question this conversation. Right? Never. Right. Because the only thing that would go out of their accounts is what's clearing. That's how it should be. It should be it should be a zero balance account where they they write all the checks they want, and the town funds it as they write it. And if there's money there, there's money there. Because, you know, I sent you guys six months. Right? So I sent you I sent you the six months when I wanted to make the change, and there was 1,300,000 in one month. And then the next month in in May, there was 800,000. And in the end of June, there was 470 some odd thousand. And then they got another payment in July. What were they spending in July? So what's the balance now? I don't know. I don't I don't know. I I am not privy to information. I need you guys to ask for it, or I need to go file other freedom of information requests on really specific sets of information that we should all get. So let's go. We're not we're not gonna waste a lot of time. I mean, you guys did what you needed to. You requested the money back, the $47,000,
$48,000. So that's a good thing. Let's get that back as soon as possible, and we'll move to the October 6 meeting. I will give you a full report on what is is discussed and talked about, and, hopefully, we can get to a resolution. Is that is that gonna be you and Caitlin and the board of education?
I mean, and it's sorry. This the department? It's the town it's it's the
it's the Department of Education attorney. And this is not a hearing. This is a No. As he put it, he wanted to sit there and he didn't rule on what their complaint is. He just sat there and said, it seems like we need to sit down and he wanted to be the arbiter of that, which I appreciated. So it's it's the lawyer for the state. And what I'm understanding is the board of education's attorney, the superintendent, and Caitlin. And so it'll be the town attorney and me. Okay.
That's good to know. Yeah. Alright. Seven c, which we added, is just this this issue that just cropped up with the Diane Grainier donation. The you know, we're seeing a thousand dollar balance, and, you know, apparently, that's off.
Lisa, do you have anything on that, or is that a t is that just something you're gonna have to take some time to look into? That's the part that I was talking about with Charlotte. Because there's, like, five accounts that all that always get referred to as the school account, the Norton account, the scholarship account. And so I've gotta get with Charlotte on that and get that straight. But, yeah,
we're looking into it. Yep. Alright. We'll have to get back to that. Diane, we'll work on it.
Okay. Listen. Listen. On that kind of stuff, just so you guys understand, that fund that Diane wanted to set up, you know, needs. And I I've I was texting Diane after this happened, we need to sit there and get together and set the fund up correctly. Because that deposit was originally posted to the Norton Children's Fund. So it's in the bank, it's there, it's earning interest, the interest got applied to that other fund. It's just the way that information moves into the treasurer's office has to be extremely clear. And these are like the Norton funds, they're old. They're like hundred years They're they're old. Diane's setting up a new fund. The previous treasurer's group, because this is when that first deposit came in, didn't have any information related to the Grignard Fund and didn't set it up. This was just set up by Lisa and I to sit there and identify that that there's money that's on something different. I am not even sure if the background
and the the setup is done correctly from the town side. So I requested from Diane that we meet and we meet with Lisa so we get this set up correctly. Okay.
Do you need anything from us? Any help from us at all?
I don't think so. I mean, listen, it's it's you know, there's things that should be just accounted for in a very simple way. Like like, you need to sit there and see that. So if you looked at this thing, there's now the bridge funds. It's not the Bunker Hill Bridge Fund. There's the bridge funds because you guys have two bridges going on. We have the Bunker Hill Bridge and the Long Hill Bridge. So they need to be accounted for separately and looked at separately. So there's certain things that are being done for clarity, just like we'll sit there and put the 2% non lapsing fund on the AES line, so that it can be seen, and everybody has visibility to it, and it's it's easier to understand. And there are things, like you guys look you should look through that data, because there are funds that need to go away, and we need to identify. Like, we need to we're gonna have to put
we're gonna have to do a transaction to close the transfer station shed one. You know, that that needs to go. There's about four or five others that simply we need to make a decision what to do, and we need to do it at the next budget cycle to say this is what we're doing. This is where we're moving, and we need to put in front of the public so they get to vote on it. All of it is how it should happen. So if you look at those funds, there are a lot of funds that we wanna I wanna get rid of, and I will bring them to you and say, I don't wanna get rid of these. You know? Just like the The more we can consolidate, I mean, the I think we're completely aligned on this. The more we consolidate, the better. Yeah. Oh, and and one thing, just it's not on your agenda, but I had a meeting with the fire department, and I have a meeting coming up with the library about separate bank accounts, town bank accounts, because the library is in the same situation, and the fire commission is in the same situation as the school. They operate their own checking accounts, and their library is really small and tiny. But those accounts should be visible to the treasurer. And even if just the bank statements are visible to the treasurer, it will help us and be allowing us to get information to the auditor quickly. So we're working at trying to set that up. So that was on the board of selectman meeting this last meeting.
Okay. Alright. Getting late. So let's Liaison. I believe liaison well, we didn't have I I don't have any CIP to report. Matt and I already kinda gave you the rundown of Ram. I would encourage you guys. It's a lot of material to go through. It made the packet really unwieldy this time. But to their credit, even if you don't agree with, like, everything that's in here, there's there's this thing, this big packet. It each page of this thing gives you you know, there's a whole page for the HVAC. There's a whole page for the roof. There's, you know, and this and that and gives you their breakdown of what they're doing. They are this is still pretty preliminary, but I think given the the sheer magnitude of the numbers here, it would be good if, you know, when you have some time to to to look at it and start to mull it, you know, and and make your own get your own thoughts together as to you know, if you think of it this way, we're like 13% in terms of our RAM levy. Right? So if if they ultimately if if a RAM board event goes through this, works through this and says, you know, you know, we need to let's let's go to the towns and ask them for $15,000,000. Well, I'll do the math. It's significant amount of money. So, you know, have a look at it when you have a chance. But it was it was one of those meetings where
there's there's a lot here, And it's it's not gonna be a short process, but they are really they were targeting next year for some you know, to try to get this project off try to get this bonding idea off the ground. I I don't know if they're gonna be able to do that, but they're gonna try. So TBD. That's all I have. Anybody else have anything, Liaz, on the last?
Oh, yeah. I have a question, yeah, for Bill. Last month, you did, like, a, like, quick little update on the bathroom project and there wasn't really any documentation or anything. Do you have updated pictures to share? Like I was hoping we would see the pictures of these nice new bathrooms.
There was pictures available. I don't have them in my possession now, but I did see a bunch of pictures. It looks beautiful. I guess no. I don't have pictures, but it would be nice. I think it'd be great. And I think I think, Liz, that Val would welcome us to go in here and look at it. I'd be glad to go in here and take pictures if you want and make them available for next
meeting. Yeah. Or yeah. I think that'd be great. I'll do that. That'd be good. Thanks. I was just I was just over there the other night. I should ask. They had they had a little pizza truck thing. And Yeah. I I brought my eighth grader back so she could see some of her old teachers and everything and didn't even it just anyway. Okay. So that's it for liaison, of course, I believe. So all we have left, I believe, are minutes approval. Yep.
They look good. You look good to me, but we gotta ask Liz. Yeah. Yeah. But it's you and I read right over stuff. So Yeah. I if anybody wants to make a motion, you know, I'm I'm okay. I didn't to be honest, didn't really
this was not my best prepped meeting. So I'll just You were you were on a plane or something. Yeah. I'll make the motion to accept the minutes as Yeah. Taylor's okay.
I'll second that. Might have picked up on the Heather might have picked up a few things. No? I didn't. I read them, but I didn't see anything. Okay. Well, then then that's that's good enough for me. If if we've got Heather's stamp of approval, I'm good.
Alright. So I second Bill's motion. We'll just go ahead and vote then. I'm I'm an aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. I
can't because I wasn't there. You weren't there. I'm sorry. That's right. Heather's a yes. Nick, you're good? Yep. Okay. So it's five o then. Me, Bill, Liz, Heather, Nick with Louise abstaining because she wasn't there. Okay.
And we can always look at them again and, you know, if anybody sees anything, we can always talk about it another time. Yeah. I mean, a quick scan, it it looks right. But Yeah. I mean, I just kind of bruised through it a little bit, and nothing really stood out. Okay.
Open discussion slash correspondence. I'd like to speed through this unless somebody has something big. There was one email that Nick had reminded me of, and it's really it's it's really from, I think, more of a board of selectman thing than a board of finance thing, but it's it's us too, I guess. You know, Joanne had sent her around something about some research she had done vis a vis about the payments in lieu of for health insurance. I know we were doing some union negotiations recently. Liz, you were involved in that, I believe. Right? Yeah. Jeff and I are working
on that. Okay. It's still in progress. Right? Ongoing. Still in try it's a work in progress. So I don't know. I know she sent that around everybody. You know, have a look at it. I I can't vouch for it one way or the other. But Yeah. It's being considered, but, you know, there's a lot of factors. Absolutely. It's a negotiation. You know? But I I thought it was somebody she did some legwork. So that was good. She did. She did, and I appreciated that. Yep. So okay. So that's what I had. Anybody else have anything else, or we can move on to public comment and wrap this up? Okay. Alright. So public comment. Let's see. Well, speak the devil. Hi, Joanne.
Hello, Rob. I'll make it quick, but I think it's important because it is a public forum, and you guys bring up so many important things in your meetings. So just, you know, as you first of all, I wanna give Eric Johansson a really big just as a person in the audience, he really comes prepared. I think he really makes a lot of good sense even for people that don't understand it, all the projects that are going on. So kudos to him for explaining where the payments go. Seems like he's doing a great job. So now on the flip side of that, I think when you guys are considering a big expense like a a new truck that he brought up and that will be used for plowing too, I think it's good that you ask for the inventory of current trucks that maybe the town has just so that you all know what's there. I know the town and the board of ed maintenance crew that works together where I work. They might hop in a truck together to go do a project,
or they might, you know, get some gas. I brought this up before. It just depends where you are in the budget season. So instead of rubber stamping it, just make sure you know what the fleet is, you know what you know, it's a lot cheaper to pay someone gas mileage to use their own vehicle to get to a job versus, you know, something that's not budgeted for, unless you're gonna budget next year. The other thing is that I hope that the town goes ahead and finishes all the projects that are outstanding. I mean, before you take on, you know, bringing on new grant projects. I know that our former town administrator was very involved in trails and, you know, would go for any kind of grants like that. We have a whole fleet of e bikes, I think, now because that was one of the things that he loves. I don't know. I think they're probably great, but I don't know how much they get used. So just before that $3.16 thing with the, you know, like Matt was saying, with the sidewalks and everything,
I really hope that the town weighs in that that's what they truly want. I know that that was something in his heart that he loved. And if everybody in the town wants it, fine. But there's gonna be a lot of money. Like they said, the design phase for, I think, Percy Cook for definitely the three sixteen project, the connectivity thing. So there's a lot of legwork and a lot of money the town and taxpayers would have to put into it just to make sure that's what they really want and where they want their dollars to go. I think our town is looking kinda nice right now when you drive through the middle of it. You know, it's kinda small. We're very tiny. So, anyways, thank you. Thank you, Joanne. Lot of, you know, background before you rubber stamp.
Understood. I don't think anybody's looking to rubber stamp. No one rubber stamps. Yep. Know? But and, you know, that with the trail stuff, I mean, the the the issue there is we got this huge grant to do the actual work. Mhmm. It's the design that's not funded, and it sort of leaves you in an awkward spot. But Yeah. We'll we'll And I just wanna do it. I wanna say it on a meeting, like, for the public. Now I I know you guys aren't rubber stamping. I know that you're all thoughtful. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks, Joanne. Appreciate it. Ben, I don't think you were here at the beginning, but have you say now, sir? Yeah. I've had, a couple quick questions.
Page 92, the Hop River Trading, company. It just says $284 for a cannon. Did we buy a cannon or fire a cannon?
I I can answer that. That was a wreck commission expenditure for fourth of July, and I think it had to do with a firing again. Oh, okay. It But that that the I think that the cannon was donated as long as the town paid for whatever it cost for the gunpowder. That's why I For the two k. Two fifty celebration. Two hundred fiftieth, celebration of fourth of July.
My other question is page 91. We have, three fraud risks for $2,500. Are we gonna get that money back in the future? It just says a debt. It doesn't say anything about
I I'll defer to Lisa and and and Jeff on this, but my understanding is we continue to work with our bank to get our money back. Right?
That money all that money has been received back as of now. So what you're seeing there, Ben, is I actually think you're seeing the deposits that came back in because the month before the checks cleared. Oh. Okay. Alright.
And that's it for me. So is there a way that we could do, like, a PSA to tell people that if you guys are cutting them checks to take them back to town hall after they deposit them to shred them so that we don't keep doing this?
I don't know if that's if that's where the weakness is. I'd I'd have to defer to the financial professionals on that. I don't know. I don't know where these people are lifting our information from
to do this fraud. They're lifting it from checks cut. So they're just taking the banking information and and photoshopping a new check and then trying to get the check to go through and clear. So so it's listen. What, what, what Matt and Lisa are doing on a daily basis is submitting all the checks that the town is cutting and giving them to the bank and the bank only cashes what's been provided.
Yeah. I think that procedure is really gonna Yeah. Tighten this up. I think, hopefully, we're gonna see this drop off to to just about nil with that process in place.
Awesome. This meeting seemed to go a lot better than the last one. Awesome job.
Appreciate your commentary, and and just glad to have people involved. Oh, I'm sorry. Marcy, you're here too. I I I see nature escape, and I forget.
Go ahead. I yeah. No. No worries. I still haven't figured out how to change that, so sorry. Nope. Good meeting. You guys are doing doing fine. Thank you. Alright. Thanks.
Alright. I think, ladies and gentlemen, that gets us to adjournment. Motion to adjourn. I second that.
Okay. So bill motions and Louise seconds. Liz was muted. Otherwise, I think she might have had it. Alright. I'm gonna call for a vote then, Bill. Yes. Yes. Yes. Liz? Yep. Heather? Yes. Luis? Yes. Nick? Nick? Yes. And I'm a yes. Liz, enjoy the rest of your vacay and your grandkids. Thank you. We'll see you next time. We'll be back. See you next time. Take care. Meeting adjourned. Thank you all. Thanks, Matt. Thanks, Eric. Thanks, Jeff. Thanks, everybody. Yeah. Thanks, everybody. Bye. Bye bye.
This transcript was generated by Deepgram from the meeting recording. Names, numbers, and other details may be inaccurate; the video is authoritative.