Meeting transcript
Board of Selectmen - Special Meeting Budget Workshop
January 25, 2022 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
Thank you, Amanda. Or was that you, Paula? That was Amanda.
Amanda. All right. Okay. So I am going to call the order of the Town of Andover Board of Selectmen special meeting for budget workshop for 01/25/2022. We'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States and of America and to the republic, which stands one nation under God, indivisible, liberty, justice, all of them. All right, thank you very much. Let's get on to public speak. Diane Choquette. I'm good, thanks. All right. And Kimberly Persson. I'm all set. Thank you.
I think that's everybody we have still we're going to move on to item three budget workshop for fiscal year twenty twenty two twenty twenty three proposed on budget.
I make a proposal for the purposes of all of us keeping our sanity? Maybe we can keep these to like an hour and a half or something? I owe me. Anyone else have any issues at No?
Okay. Before we get started and we go into this line by line, let's just have a basic conversation between the five of us. If there's anything specific that we should really be focusing on or anybody wants to see to try to get into the budget, and then we can maybe work ourselves around to that. So Does anybody have anything specific that they would like to see accomplished or that we should try to fit into this budget? Adrian, why don't you go first?
I thought I'd let everybody else. No, heck no. All right, I have a couple different things actually. To start with. I would like us to as a group make a decision if the numbers come back favorably from the architect. That we. Push forward with the Community building project. For. You know, for this year I'd like us to use the money that we got from the American cares act, especially considering the limitations that have been put on it, I don't think we want to be crossing the Gray areas that we talked about maybe looking at before. Given what happened. On the other part of the state, the state has notified the towns that we're going to be audited every town will be audited on how they use the money so there's no more Gray area on this it's either it is or it isn't so
and given that the Community Center project fits that. You know I think that's the correct use of that funds. It fits all the other guidelines that we'd like to use the funding for, and this is, this was the number one ask. You know from people when the Community surveys went out a couple years ago, and this has been on the radar for the town since 1969 they asked for one before and unfortunately because of the. What was going on the town at the time when they got lots of money for Community Center they ended up using it for something else, so I think this is the right time to do that, we do it correctly, using those funds. It literally should be a zero impact to the town, you know, and I think that's the correct use. Do you guys want me to them one at a time or you want me to just go through everything. You just keep going. Would also like us to look at. Our staffing and our pay scale, I think that we, as a Community,
you know, have been kind of heading around this for a while. But I think, given where inflation is doing right now, we are going to have to increase our dollar value that we pay some of our town employees. I don't know that we can get comparable to other towns around us, I still think that's a stretch, but I think we need to get a little closer. In a couple of different positions. I think that we can do that fairly inexpensively. It's so minimal. I mean, we're literally talking a couple thousand dollars per year for each position. And we could phase that in by doing it, you know $1 at the turnover in the budget and then $1 say in January of next year, that gets us a little closer to where we should be in some of those positions and. It doesn't affect the town quite as much this year. I would like us as a whole to be looking at public works. We have so much work going on down there, and I think the residents have seen the positive things that we've done from the transfer stations to the tree work to the you know. You know, to the to the catching up on some of the road maintenance and we still have a lot more that to do, we have a bridge that's coming into play.
We've got a lot of culverts coming into play and in order to do that effectively we we need more staff there. And if we do it now the timing works, because a couple of staff members that we have down there, you know one of them is going to be coming up for retirement here in the next five to seven years another one is actually technically retired but came back out of the workforce to work for us. So I think we probably lose him in the next four years or so, bringing someone in now teaching them the ropes investing in that personnel will mean that when the time is comes for those people to leave the department will be right sized on its own without letting go of somebody or without also losing the institutional knowledge that we have there.
So I think that's the right thing to do too. And beyond that, I think that we're in a pretty good place to do some of these things the grid list has some pretty strong adjustments. But it also means that our you know our if we do this correctly, and we work with the Board of Finance that we'll be looking at our mill rate coming down substantially and will be much more competitive with surrounding towns. You know lot prices have gone up, but I think overall if we do the changes correctly, given the the shift that we're going see with the rim budget a little bit because of the the offset from the bond being caught up. I think we can really do some some good here and, last but not least, I sent out an email and still don't have an answer for it, but we're going to probably be looking at in the next you know, four to five years looking at a repaving over the school. It's going to probably be more of a board of finance question, but I think we need to try to establish a fund for
you know, paying for paving the parking lot at the school. And up you know the upper area and the lower area and that's 150 to a $200,000 project. And I'm hoping actually maybe we could combine that with when we do the Community building doing the town parking lot as well, because that's going have to get redone when that's all done. Maybe something we can combine together and get a better price for everybody, but more importantly, if we put this money aside now. We're saving for something so it hits instead of it, the town coming back or the school coming back and saying hey I need $200,000 for this capital works project which actually is also really a town project because.
That although excuse me, although that parking lot is attached to the school, the town owns the building and the land. And you know we use that facility for a bunch of things too so it's the overflow parking area, you know, so I think long term, we need to probably look at. You know, talking to the Board of Finance about how to put money away for that and a simple solution, maybe that we asked the Board of Finance to use the money that's currently going to the bond, which is no longer coming up to put that aside for the next two years. And that would pay for the paving of the parking lots and again. You know the money's there already spending it it's going away it's phasing out because that bonds paid for so it's just long term planning, I really think this budget really needs to be us looking at long term, you know and stop being so shortsighted we've been really. Good about moving things forward in the past, I don't want us to stop now, I think we probably have a couple more years of that, and you know, but not
growing the budget in a big way doing it very, very modestly. So that the town can you know can can see the projects, the process that we're going through, but also see the things we're doing good for them, you know so there's my speech.
All right, thank you I'll go to. I'll go to Scott.
Okay, second the Community Center with Adrian. And the town hall the salaries and with the DPW and you know I went to that meeting the other day about the bridge and they're telling us it's going to be 200 more So I just want to let everybody know that. And I also would like a pickleball court.
Okay. So did you say the bridge will cost us 200,000 more than has been budgeted? Is it 200,000
of our contribution or 200,000? 200 more for our contribution, right? Wow.
The bridge went up dramatically. Yeah. Yeah. Because our contribution is what? Is it 15% or twenty five? Six hundred, 20%.
Yep. Yeah. So, it's going go up to, you know, $5.05 or 600, I think. Wow.
Well, it has to be more than that if our contribution is going up 200.
So they're saying that bridge is going to cost $3,000,000 Yeah.
Yep. Wow. Was it was there some sort of change that that they're worried about or is it? No, Justin. They
said that that price may come down. They're they're only speculating. Don't know for sure. Are
they trying to say it's because of the steel? What are they saying?
No, everything went up. Everything went up so much. All
right, well, let's sit there and get an answer on that one. Paula?
I like the idea of thinking long term and I want to have a little more discussion about what Adrian brought up about the public works. Don't want to be in a pickle where we're adding somebody and then we don't need them so I'm interested in having a conversation about that And then always big picture thinking. I like to think about what the residents have said in the past, what they're looking for, and trying to stay with that as well. Mr. Murray.
Agreed on the community center, public works and the salaries. One thing that going forward and that I've kind of been getting some rumblings about is the, I hope that we're going to see, I don't know, Sherry's camera's off now, but hopefully we will get detailed budgets for all entities, including the school. You know, the discussion we had the other day when I questioned with Eric about the contracts during this budget session, I don't know what other people think, but I think it's a good idea that we get most of our major contracts and our budget on the website so people can actually see what we're spending for all our contracted services and be transparent as possible. I don't want to avoid, I want to avoid a repeat of last year. And I'm hoping that all our entities will get the contracts and the budgets out and as transparent as possible. Okay. I
can just chime in and say, I don't know how they're going to handle contracts per se, but the school board at this point has had a lot of presentation and a lot of detail on the current budget. There's still a couple more workshops to go. And there's definitely going to be a much more detailed budget than we've had in the past, and I think they're going to put into things that we're looking to see as as residents, you know and as board members to alleviate some of the concerns. Think this the school as a whole is very much aware of. What they need to show to get the budgets, you know past without the you know, without the the issues that have maybe been in there in the past, so I think I think the schools. Trying to do a really good job at this point, and you know let's let's wait and see I haven't seen an actual 100% put together budget but. From what we've seen so far and what the numbers look like I think it's you know I think what they're asking for at this point so far from what we've seen is. Literally exactly what they need and not a lot of fluff so if that continues, don't think we have any issues, I think that they're they're doing what they need to do so let's give them a chance to do it. Okay. Yeah, my issue is not fluff. My issue is transparency. I just want everything out there so people can actually
see things because when it's not out there, there's always rumor mongering going around on social media and everything.
Yeah that's the budget. Just want to make sure that it's out there to say look it's out here on this website, you can see it, you know. Yeah that the budget presentation is a lot different than it's been in the past, Jerry put together a much more detailed budget that breaks things down, you know before we used to have like one supply closet line that everything just got piled into that's now literally broken down by grade. Good evening also I think the details are there. Good. I don't think we have an issue with that so. Yeah, just like our Econ contracts, all that stuff that they have, it'd be nice to see all that stuff right out in the I'm not sure what their policy is gonna be on that. Sherry may be able to speak to that. I can't,
Today we were discussing of how we could put this together and how it would look to make sure that we are as transparent as we can be. So Val and I have been working on that kind of thing. There is going to be a ton more detail, and it just has to be, and there will be. What we've done thus far has been a lot of presentation, lot of details, and a lot of going over the figures and what each account makes it up, that dollar figure. And so I think a lot of residents will like that and to know what, when they look at a particular account, what is in that account. We've tried to keep everything online on our website so you can go back in to each presentation and take a look at it, PowerPoint presentation. We are putting together a draft of grants, a list of grants, what they pay for. That's been a big ask, so that's awesome. Yeah. That's good. Glad to hear that. And I'm not quite sure how we're going to do the contracts. I think that's the last piece that we have to go over and see what we can do about that. Yeah, if you're
kind of going back and forth on what to do, I would look into the Glastonbury education, their website. They have a really good layout of all their contracts down to the custodians' contracts. Yeah, know It's really well laid out and it's
very easy to navigate. And if we could do something similar to that, would be, I think beneficial to the residents just so they could go in and see. Because what's exactly spent, we can be 100% transparent so we know, so everybody knows where their dollars are going. Sure.
I know the business manager over there, so I can just give her a call. Yeah, mean, did an excellent job,
both their town budget and the school. It's an excellent job. I would use that as a model if you're going benchmark somebody. Sure, I'll do that. Thank you. No problem.
Okay. Well, I'm going to stick with the transparency side and even know I believe we need to be as transparent as possible on the budget. I also believe we need to be as transparent as possible on the revenue side, which is really related to the reval. And I am going to make some requests of Eric to provide information to the residents as to how the reval was completed in detail because it's very apparent to me and to the communication that I've had with the residents relating to the reval that it's very difficult to obtain information and to get questions answered in an appropriate manner. If transparency is the call for this year, which I am all for, I want it to be the revaluation to be as transparent as it possibly can be.
As far as one thing, since we're talking about things that we would like to see related to the community building, I definitely believe that the town needs to consider consolidating the senior and the recreational coordinator's position. The COOL program in totality should sit there and be considered as a town program. And we should sit there and have an employee that is dedicated to that, that runs the senior programs, the recreational programs, and we should find a way to fund that, because I think it would be valuable for the community, not only short term, but long term, as Adrian has addressed. And we need to find ways to pay for that, and one of the ways to pay for that is really after school programming. We should use the assets that we have in the gym and fields as much as possible to sit there and generate some money to pay for that position. But I
just need to point out something maybe you're not aware of, Jeff. Although cool program you know does use town assets,
it is not a town program it's run by nonprofit. I know it's not a town program I'm saying it should be a town. They
just need to change the Charter, I think. Well, but there's a whole board over there that needs So to agree to I think it's preemptive of us to even have that discussion. I've had this discussion with Amy and other individuals
before, and I'm just bringing it out in public. But it's not even up to Amy. It's up to the board that's there. Adrian,
it's up to the town. It's up to this board. It's not because it's a nonprofit. It's not a town. Adrian, just listen to me for a second. It's a nonprofit that utilizes town assets. If the town decides it doesn't want to allow that board to use the town asset and puts a town function in there, the town can sit there and have its own program just like Glastonbury, just like West Hartford, just like all of the other communities around here. And that's the issue. I'm not trying to be mean about it. I'm just sitting there saying very simply that that program, if it's run correctly and it's great, I love Amy. I'm not sitting there saying anything about it. I've talked to Amy about this. It should be a town program and it should sit there and allow the town to use whatever potential revenue can be generated from that to support a full time employee for the town, whether that's someone that's currently working for the COOL or not, that's great. That is my recommendation. I'm behind Jeff on this, Adrian, also,
just to let you know. No, it's not that I'm just to be clear, I'm not saying I'm against it or I'm for it. I'm simply saying that that's a conversation that should that that should that should be a conversation that the board at Cool is having and coming to Austin saying not us going to them and saying. You know, because it just feels a little it feels a little heavy handed when we have a program that's in town that a lot of people love and a lot of people are supportive of myself included. You know, we have the rec Commission working with them for summer program we have the after school program which is super successful and then all of a sudden we start talking about quote unquote taking it over it just doesn't feel right to me that's all. Adrian, I've had this conversation with all my So, members Jeff. I know what you're saying. It just feels a little weird. I don't want you to have it. If you've had that conversation, then why haven't they come to us and ask for this? Just keep in mind everyone, not it's its own run entity, they hire
and terminate their own employees, they offer whatever benefits they offer. When they become town employees, full time, town benefits. Only
one person would end up being full time, Jeff, because those individuals, if I'm understanding the timeline, there's groups that come in. Well, anyway, I'm It's just just that I even if we don't do COOL. I am just looking at that going, that's a revenue source that the town should be potentially taking advantage of to pay for a full time employee. I don't care if we just have a full time employee.
Think I should keep saying revenue source. It shouldn't be a revenue source. It shouldn't be at zero.
It's a service that COOL provides to the town and cost us basically nothing. Yes. Adrian,
If I sat there and generated money from the from from, care and I could use that to pay for the full time employee, just like they're oh, forget it. I I don't even have to sit there. I shouldn't have to explain it. So anyway,
A disagreement of perspective. That's all, Jeff. It's not personal. It's,
I'm not worried about it being personal. I mean, you're not making
it personal. Trying to explain to you from a business perspective how I would do it. But the problem is, I'll explain it to you from a business perspective then, you're talking about a corporate takeover of another company. I am not. Are renting them There's your an business perspective, Sally.
If you don't like it and you don't sit there and think it's a good idea, fine, I'm one vote. I've thought that this should happen for the last seven years.
Your opinion comes out when your vote is cast. Yep.
Anyway, we should sit there and still fund some type of employee more than Roberta to sit there and deal with not only senior programs, but also recreation programs. Recreation, right, exactly. Someone that
helps run the registration for the parents for soccer and baseball.
I I think we definitely do all of that when we got a building up to to house them in, you know, and to and to do more of those things, you know.
I think what we're doing is broaching this subject Adrian.
Yeah I just think it's a little premature, you know, and again I would love it if you guys went to the cool board, talk to them about what you are suggesting and they, they wrote us a letter back and said, yeah, we really would like to do this. Let's try to work with the town, you know. Okay, I'll sit there and do that. Please do. And then I will be 100% supportive.
Oh, I'm sure you will. So let's move on. Where would we like to go to sit there and get through some of these departments? Or is there anything specific someone likes to talk to you about tonight?
I I I at some point it unfortunately can't do it tonight but I'd like to get it on the agenda moving forward I'd like a really an in house explanation from I sent an email out regarding this today an in house explanation regarding the ram services from you know that are they're provided to all the you know and over Marlborough you know Hebron so. I would like to get them on the agenda, but other than that, I'm open to start wherever you want to, Jeff.
Well, mean, are we going to run through this and try to check off each department?
Well, you want start working your way through Eric's summation? Do you want to start with the big changes? Me sherry do you have do you have anything. From Eric or do you like to highlight the high level changes and maybe we can just start picking some of those off. Now. Or Jeff, do you want to start with Eric's summation and just work our way through it? Yeah. Let's go through Eric's stuff. I mean, you know,
I don't have anything that really sticks out, you know, basically. Him and I just went through the entire budget and did the best we could in what we knew. What's the easiest ones to do? Maybe capital? Yeah. Let's go through the capital. Probably.
Can we do that? Is that alright, Sherry? That's fine. I mean, I don't have a problem with that. Does everybody The word, though? Excuse
me. One second. There's still a a few areas that we have to fine tune, which is, you know, like, mostly in the the insurance piece of it. Okay. The health insurance, we did get word that it'll be the same rate as last year, but then now they're going to take a minus 4% off of what we put down as an expenditure. So I have to do those numbers now on both sides of the town and the board. Explain that minus 4%.
In the consortium, it looks that our fund balance is looking really healthy. And they've decided that what they can do is not only a zero percent increase over last year on the rates, but they want to take a negative 4% off of what the town owns and the board each separately in entity. So we have to figure out how much it is that we're going to budget and take 4% of that and deduct it. And that's the amount that we will be paying
to them. So the consortium has never has the consortium ever sat there and refunded us any any money yet? Never. No. It's fairly new. We this is the first time we've got to that point. I mean, how much of a insurance? This consortium has been in place for almost five years. Yeah. That's for
insurance for us. I don't know how long it's been, but, know, because I'm new here, obviously, but we're we're doing quite well. And I do attend the meetings on a regular basis and things are looking good as far as that goes.
So we could see a 4% decrease in our premiums?
Yeah, in our total that we set up for the health insurance expenditure, health and dental. Okay.
And do you know the total dollars on that? I don't. That's why I have to get you that number. It just it just occurred the other day when they had a meeting that they made this decision. K. That's good news. And I will
as soon as I calculate that out, I will send it to all the board members.
Okay. Eric, you sent out a word document on capital funds. Everybody got that? I will in a second.
He's really not talking about significant increases in anything. Public works capital is up $10,000 The fire engine fund he's proposing.
He sent it out on Tuesday the eighteenth, if anyone is looking for it. Sherry, did you work with Eric on this, the the Capital Works Fund? Capital Works now.
Okay. I mean, he did tell me about it. You know, went over it and
I just didn't know if this, the 115, is that including the money that they're asking for for the skid steer? Asking for the what? They're asking for a skid steer, the 115 that's in the proposed 2,223. Is that inclusive of that? Yeah, I don't know. Have to, I have to find that out. Okay. And I apologize to the I just want to apologize to selectman Jay unfortunately got called in pretty late last night, he had already been up since you know. Eleven or so yesterday evening, so he was not he was going to be on the meeting tonight, but given that we also have a major storm coming Friday, Saturday, he was hoping to try to get some sleep tonight so that's why he's not on the meeting.
It does not appear to be the skid steer in this number. It appears to be rust repair for the truck, $8,000 an excavator for I mean, I'm reading this wrong. That was last year, wasn't it? An excavator? And a plate compactor. Didn't we buy all those last year? They were, yeah. That's last year. So this information is not updated. Maybe we should skip this one. Yeah, he didn't update it. So
he updated what he wants to put in for this, but he didn't give us any of the details. Yeah, okay.
It looks like he's sitting there looking for $115,000 for public works, but didn't provide us the details. The fire engine fund is still at 100, the building maintenance at 60, nothing changed from the request from the prior year except the roadwork fund for $30,000
Yeah. It's also not in the, it's not in the Bunker Hill stuff's not in there either. No. Well, Bunker Hill is at 120.
No, it's 120 into the fund, but it's, it's saying contribute only around 400,000 and that's gonna be up to what, 600. So that's not updated. Okay. So let's find another piece of information. Okay.
Do we want to go through the budget book? Does that make sense to anyone?
No, because it's really just that, I mean, you can, we can go through it, but it's gonna- And that's just the layout. I mean, it's- yeah it's really just about telling residents what the schedule is how each each entity does their budget from RAM to the school, you know. From what I saw. Didn't, it talks about talent fees, know, where some of our revenues come in. Yeah,
well let's talk about, and I'm not sure, you know, Let's talk about his personnel changes because this falls into the request of PayScale. So Okay. Eric is looking to increase staff and public works from three to four. We already did this. All right, so all of the information that was provided to us in this email is going to be questionable. Yes,
unfortunately that looks like it. Yeah, so I don't really want to continue to go through that and sit there. Sherry, what information do you have for us from the finance department that we should start considering related to our budget? In what way?
Well, this spreadsheet that we received, this twenty twenty two-twenty twenty three town budget document, you and Eric adjusted this, updated this? Yes. Okay. I updated all the departments along with Eric.
Are we talking about the spreadsheet or the budget book? The spreadsheet. Spreadsheet. All right. When did what's the most updated one? When did you send that one out?
Have I have I'm sorry. You actually got it up the other day by Eric.
Okay. Sent it out. All right. So that one is current. Yes. Alright. That is.
I mean, we also, I guess the other question is do we want to, if some of this stuff, if we get into talks about personnel costs, and that's really an area that's conversation we kind of need Eric for.
Well can we go over which one of those very or all of them that we're going to want to do?
Well, we well might just go down to the details and at least get through a few of these things and talk about what we need to do. You get on to row 71, it starts the Selectmen budget.
I kind of feel like we're just kind of hopping around here. Well,
that's what we're going to do. So in that section in row 71 it just goes through the expenses that are related to us. See, And this is just the spreadsheet's not updated. To be really honest, you're going to have to wait until Eric updates this with Sherry. Assuming that I'm assuming that the other selectmen have not sat there and said they're not going to take compensation, so that would need to go in there. Well, anyone have any recommendations as to what they'd like to talk about related to the overall budget? I mean, we can sit there and give Eric our summary of the request that we had because, you know, we didn't get into it. I have no problem with the community building going through that. Payscale is a little bit more difficult. You're going to have to figure out what you're asking the people to do and for what money, but Well, I understand let's start there then. Let's open That
would be a good place to start right there. He did give us,
if you go back, he gave us an Excel spreadsheet. I think it was maybe on the, it would have been on the January 4. He sent us out an Excel spreadsheet with current pay scale, hours per week, current salary, and what increases would look like. Yeah.
So can we look at that. Sure start there we'll just go through the individual positions and figure out what we want to do. It was the fourth. Yeah, January 4 year.
I mean, basically he sat there and the majority of these people are per contract. Unless I'm missing something, which is quite possible. Why this doesn't work?
Well, mean, all the non union employees are listed as well. And we're to have to make some decisions where we want to move these people to, so.
And the non union, we need to know as far as what increase.
Right. And does an average has that in their current increases or potential new salaries, you know, and what they're talking about? 101%, 2%, 3%. That's all in there. So let's pull that up. Do we want to start with the easy ones first? Sure, go ahead. Which one would you like to talk about? All right, so line 21 would be Abby Winter, land use clerk. She just got hired and her pay rate I think is, once she gets her regular, you know, whatever we decide for an increase. And I'm going to be honest, I know given what inflation is doing, I really do think we probably need to be on the higher end of this increase scale. Eric gave us a 1% to 3%. But as all of you know, gas is it, you know $3.03 $43.50 everything's getting more expensive, so I think we have to recognize that. Honestly, if we don't we risk these people just joining a Union and then the Union forcing it on us, so I think we need to be aware of that too,
in some cases.
Well then why not just sit there and take the high end of the space scale and just say this is what we're going to do across the board? I think we can do that for some and others it's not going to quite get us there. So like for
3%, if we gave 3% to library clerks, they're still under minimum wage on August, if you look at the spreadsheet. Yeah. So I would say my proposal would be that we look at the library clerks moving them to the minimum wage of $14 an hour. At the very least. Mean they are all part time and they all work varying hours, but you know we actually have to be at least there. Question is do we need, do we want to be more than there? Feedback? I'm trying to determine what the increase is.
7% if you go from $13.13 to $14.13, you'd be about 7 percent.
6.6. And it really doesn't matter. I mean, listen, they should all get paid more money. It's a question of if we can afford it. It's minimal. No,
I mean they have to get. I think I think what we do is, we can work our way through this whole sheet figure out where we want to be and then and then from there we'll have an we'll have a number to see how this impacts our budget next week when Eric gets it all tied in with Jerry. So my first proposal would be that the library clerks we give them $1 raise get them at $14.13. Okay.
Anyone second that? Yeah, I think that's a good idea.
Jeff, you're shaking your head. Do have a better idea?
Oh, no. No. No. I I'm shaking my head because I'm I'm calculating out the total amount of the 3% increases across everyone, and it's $9,305.
I yeah. But we're I don't think we can do that in this particular case. Some of these have to be adjusted more than that.
No. Give everyone that is a library clerk $14 an hour at a minimum. Yeah. So my dollar would get them to $14.13.
Fine. $1. I'll I'll agree to that. You wanna call a vote? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Do you wanna call a vote on that one? Any further discussion? I was discussing it with myself. I'm sorry. Further discussion? No? Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay.
All right. That's a block off. So that $14 Yeah. We're gonna add a dollar. So there'll be a $14
then, you know, you just go from the top. Mean
Well, let's go with some of the easier ones. I'd like to see us take Dominic and Steve. Need to get them pay rates right now, you can go to Home Depot and make $16.50 an hour to start. So I'd like to see Dominic get and Steve get $1 raise in July 1 and they get another dollar in January. That'd be my proposal that gets them closer, you know get some off that baseline pay and especially when minimum wage is going be up to 14 for crying out loud. That would get them closer to what other towns are making in those positions you know it's $19 an hour down the street so. That would get us to, that would get us to $18.32
going into next year's budget.
I mean, how many hours do they totally work? They don't work very many hours, do they? Nope. Nope. Steve works eight hours a week and Dominic works seventeen. 17. Yep.
And why not just give them the whole raise up front? I'm okay with that. I was trying to make it more palatable for folks. Will amend my proposal to giving them the $2 an hour now. You want to second it Jeff? Sure, I'll second it further discussion.
So what's the advantage? I'm just trying to follow your train of thought. What was the advantage of doing a dollar?
Because our town has been ridiculously frugal in the past. I didn't know if you guys would be okay with it. I'm just being honest. But was getting them to that point by
next spring. Yeah, mean to get them to that point by next spring so that they're closer to comparable towns, you know, But I'd like to get them there sooner I just didn't know if people would be supportive of it, although it's not a lot of money it's it's so it's all minuscule it's not funny you know. Well, why don't we.
I mean, the case of Steve, for instance, it's we giving him $2 more an hour, it's gonna be a grand total of, you know, what $16 a week, you know? But to him, it may mean something, you know? Yeah,
in 2023, we're going up to $15 anyway. Right? By June 2023. Right. So. Well, does anyone have a problem with it? Well, call it, No, I
I don't have any problem with it. Okay, so let's call a question. All those in favor? Aye. Aye.
Aye. That takes care of transfer station. Library director, I think we can just put that in with our regular pay scale increases. Custodian, it was recently hired and that's a fair rate for what he's doing. So I don't think we need to address that. We can just do the regular percentage increase we're doing. Senior transportation for the drivers. I think I would like to hold off that conversation until Eric gets back, but I think we're probably going to have to raise the pay scale there as well. Just don't know what that needs to be. Eric, I believe, had some sort of survey of surrounding towns with that. Yeah, he has some information to share Okay. On that do you remember what the number was he was looking for? Because that's the one thing that's not in this
The number he was looking for? Yeah. To increase their pay too? No. He just left it blank because he had information that he wanted to present. Okay.
So we can hold off on that one. And then talk about what it would look like. Okay.
I would ask, Sherri, that you put in a 3% increase for all their other positions All other positions? Show us what the numbers come out at, and then we can all discuss it at our next meeting.
Okay. That's fair enough. Yep. For everything else, didn't address directly. Okay.
And then we don't have to vote on anything else until Eric comes back if he wants to discuss something with us because he deals with it on a daily basis.
Well, talked about a town planner was part of our meeting last week. Do we wanna talk about putting money in there for a town planner? I thought we voted no on the town planner.
I thought we didn't vote on it yet. We did. Yeah. We didn't do a vote. We didn't vote. We just kind of had questions and And so one of the things that's
come up as part of this conversation is that the one thing that we should actually at the very least be looking at is that we're currently paying an attorney $180 an hour to address updating the regulations where we may be able to pay a planner something closer to $35 or $40 an hour. So at the very least, we should have somebody on staff addressing those issues, you know.
Do, does any, Sherri, do you know how much we paid the attorney for any of this $180 an hour work?
I'd have to look that up. I don't know off the top of my head. Okay.
So if at the next meeting we can have that so we can sit there and say, here's an offset for the one hundred and eighty nine hours.
Yeah. Well, I mean, it addresses a bunch of issues. It's also, it's an offset to that, but it's also, this is something that, you know, our planning board and our zoning board and our, you know, all of them have been asking us to address because it puts a lot of onerous on those organization heads, you know, as the chair to deal with a lot of this stuff that really may be out of their day to day purview, you know. Okay.
We need to talk about increasing the hours also. Well, we just did that. We already agreed to that. One, for one person. Yes. One person.
If and look to put this in perspective, if we put in a town planner at $40 an hour for four hours a week, the grand total for the year is $8,332 I would say we asked Eric to at least put that in the budget so we can see what it looks like. Would be my motion. Anyone want to second that? I'll second.
Further discussion on that topic, I do think it's necessary. I just sit there and I struggle with the fact that he can come up with any or she can come up with any great ideas. Again, those executed is a different issue.
And again, they're not done changing the zoning regulations. Don't know if you get the capital report, but one of the things that they're going to try to force down everybody's throat is a density. A change in density regulations so they changed a bunch last year, we know they're going to change some more coming this year. So we address those issues we address some of the other things that we have and we do have some things that in our future that look bright coming to town. I think it would be good to maybe try to capitalize on that. At the very least, if there was ever an opportunity to move it forward, maybe now's the time and for $8 I think I can live with that.
Adrian, you need a town planner that can change zoning regulations.
So what do we need to make that happen, Scott? Usually the attorneys take care of that stuff.
Well, I think he was talking about the gentleman think of the guy used to work in Milltown do you remember his name is it. Bill Warner. Bill Warner. I mean, so they can put that together and and and so that the zoning regulations meet and then we just have to have an attorney look through it rather than build it. Know you usually have to have both of them. Yeah that's what I'm saying so, but we have one person write the script and the other person's reviewing it basically. You'll still save us money there, but more importantly, will be addressing something that the communities, we get a presentation every single year on this, I got it on the board of finance we've got it on the board of slack bin every year that I've been. Adrian,
I'm all for town planner, but it's not specific enough yet. It's not specific. I don't know what I'm agreeing to.
You're agreeing to $40 an hour, four hours a week,
fifty two weeks a year. What's his job or her job?
Talent planner. What you define that as is up to you between you and Eric. Don't really care. I just know I keep getting asked for one so I'm kind of getting sick of asked and and I know we do need one to some extent,
you know. Do it would be good, but we have to find out more about what we're going to have this person do.
Well, my conversation with Eric he thought four hours a week would be a good start. That's why I'm proposing it.
Well, don't we see what the numbers are and then pick Eric's brain and see what he thinks the person would do?
I think the reason I'm asking for it in this manner is that this way when they come back to us with this sheet will have a will have a number plugged in and line plugged in that we currently don't have. Because I don't think I don't think in this budget cycle, you know sherry's not in a position to build this sheet out as we go forward. You know she I think she'd like to be able come into the meeting with the stuff kind of plugged in and then make a modification rather than build it out.
So. So we're sitting here. I'll sit there and I'll give you eric's Since he's not here, I'll give you this. Eric says, A talent planner, five to ten hours per week would take on a lot of the planning aspects from the PZC chair. We do a lot of the plan review that the ZEO has to do now. Ideally this position, combined with EDC responsibilities and made bigger, would carry some of the burden of the Plan of Conservation and Development. Most planners will share some of the grant writing for the town. For instance, a grant for the Route 316 Multi Use Path, that would be a planner responsibility usually. Expect to pay $75 per hour for a part time planner without benefits. This year the legislature changed large sections of the state land use regulations. That happens every few years, and towns have to adapt regulations to match. Right now we pay the town zoning attorney to do that. He charges $185 per hour. The last time we had a planner was 2008. Someone named Stuart Popper, when he left, was not replaced for cost reasons. The town used to combine planner and ZEO into one position. This is really a good fit because they are different skill sets, and a good planner is paid too much per hour to go knocking heads, as Eric likes to say.
So that's basically what he sat there and said. All right, so I'll modify my proposal
to, you know, to include the, was it 75 an hour, four hours per week? That's, it's 15,000, Adrian. 75, yeah. Yep.
I know he wants five to 10. I just don't know that. I want to see what that person does before we increase that number. I believe it's
a good idea and I believe that they need that help down there. I just want to make sure that they're doing. So why don't we let
Derek come back to us on this one because it will be a significant line item increase. It's going to go from zero to X.
Can we ask Jerry to at least put a line in the budget with I would say that that's a good idea, Adrian. Put it in there so we don't forget it. Right. Yeah. And then you want me to cost it out at 75?
75 an hour and. Yep. Eric cost it out for it. What Eric believes it will will take. He wants five to 10, but I don't think, you know, I feel I'll we'll settle on something. Why don't we settle on 5 to start with and see what that looks like? Okay. That's the low end of what he asked for. So Right. Any objection?
No. We can always take it out. We don't need to vote on it. We haven't approved it. We've just added, asked for a line to be there to show us what happened. Okay.
I think that and the other changes we've made, everybody else gets hit with the 3%, we're fine. The only question, the bigger issue on the table was whether or not we want to look at moving Amanda to a more long, a bigger position, which is one of things Eric was asking on. For.
Why don't we let Eric sit there and give us the pitch on that so we understand exactly Eric has given us the pitch extensively I more than understand, but we're going to put it into the budget and if we all agree on it, let's have the conversation, not us five here without him. Let's have the conversation with him and we'll do it next week. So you wanna put that in as a modification? Not yet.
I'm not modifying anything. I mean, I'm gonna sit there and let Eric modify it and then we'll agree to it or not agree to it. Okay. Is there anybody else on here that we need to discuss besides Eric and Jay? That's it.
Also would like us to talk about, Sheri, what's our minimum number of hours now to get insurance? I think it's, thirty. It's thirty for anything or thirty for family? Thirty for anything. Thirty hours. Okay. Period. Okay. So That's the rule of thumb.
So that's that's a rule of thumb, but it used to be twenty hours for individual for an individual. And Right. It used to be, but,
we have, we have employees that have, you know, and they hit that thirty hour, mark and they have health insurance.
Okay. I'm just saying. So who is hitting the thirty hour mark? Who do we have that's actually at thirty? I didn't know we had really anybody. Not on the town side. Okay.
Jeff, are we gonna talk about the the changes at public works? Changes at public works, Scott? Yeah. Seasonal worker, changing Well,
I mean, I can talk to some of that if you want. Yeah, go ahead. So
one of the issues right now is we used to have, you know, we used to have someone that worked part time that was doing the cutting and things like that. But now that position that person is now working for us full time so he's part of the regular crew. So what Eric is looking for is somebody part time for a summer employment position. I know in Eric's proposal, and I'm sorry that's not on this page unfortunately, Eric's proposal was to, you know have that person come in and work, have that person come in and work for the summer. I think he has it like $16 an hour or something that's never going to fly. You're not going to get anybody for $16. He doesn't have it at sixteen. He has it eighteen and twenty, eighteen to twenty. Is that what he had it Hebron's Hebron's part time work. Can you tell me what day that what that sheet is? That's on the. Which one? I think it's No. What sheet is it on? Personnel changes, version three.
Okay. Version three. Let me see if can search for that.
Hebron's seasonal workers are 20 and they work through October, I think. Why couldn't we just get college students,
I mean, and pay them $15 an hour. Cause college students don't work for $15 an hour anymore. They don't? No. How much do they work for?
$20 an hour. They don't? Okay. Try hiring one. Have you had any success? I can tell you I haven't unless I'm up closer to 20. And keep in mind this is an outside job. It's hot. It's grimy. It's not like they're sitting in air conditioning at Target. You know what I mean? What do they make at Target? 13, right? $16.50
an hour for Target in Manchester. That's the starting pay. Keep in mind, Scott, as a reminder that minimum wage is going to, as we just talked about, is going to be 14 next year and then 15 by June. That's minimum wage, not like working your butt off running a weed whacker wage.
Well, let's sit there and say you you charged $16 an hour. You paid $16 an hour for that position. Dollars $6.40 times eight weeks is $5,120 So you're basically talking between 10,000 and $15,000
depending upon your hourly rate. I think if we want to get people consistently and we want them to stay for the summer, we need to be closer to 20. So and that's really what we're looking for, right? And maybe we could get a teacher. That's going to leave us in August and then we've in the busiest rainiest month of the summer. We're not going to have cut be cutting. I mean look, we're literally we're hemming and hawing over you know what $3 here?
Just put it in the budget and see where it all comes out. Can we put it in the budget at 20? I would say 18. Are you doing two employed? 18 would be fair.
Jeff Murray, Paula? Paula, you're shaking your head. Not saying anything. I
don't have experience in this, so I'm kind of leaning towards what Adrian says because he's got experience, but I don't know.
I understand where Paula's coming from. She's just going, there's just additional money that's being added to this budget. So, okay. So you're basically looking at $6,400 an employee plus benefits.
And we're asking for one we're asking for one employee for the summer, there are no benefits because it's a seasonal position. I understand. I misspoke. There's Oh, yeah. Yeah. You're big and taxes.
Yeah. So there's other taxes. So even if I just give you the $800 times eight weeks is $6,400 there's probably another 500 to $1,000 more Gotcha. Yeah. Let's sit there and say, are you looking for one or two? One. He's sucking for seventeen weeks, Jeff.
Yeah, one person, right? I still can't find that sheet. I yeah. I don't see it either. Yeah. Seventeen weeks. It's part of the email that he sent that we were all looking at before. Right. What's the what is the It's a word doc. It's a word document. It says personnel change.
Right. Apologies. It was in the last email that he sent you before he left.
It's the one that Adrian referred to, the eighteenth at 04:12. Right. There's a It's in that one? There's a nine, there's now nine files in there. Personal change options version three. Right.
Just don't look at the spelling. Oh yeah. It's cutting it off. That's my problem. Thank you. Yeah. I hate the way this they it condenses everything. Personnel change options. Is that it? Yes. Yeah. Thank you. Yep. Thank you.
That that's not all that he's asking for. He's asking to change a maintainer's level. He also really wants another person.
Yes. And I agree basically to all of it. Think that all this stuff needs to be done. Especially if we're gonna we're gonna start, you know, keep ramping up and doing more and more work. You know, between Jay running around doing the tree stuff and keeping an eye on the other job sites, you know and then you'll keep an eye on what's going on over the bridge, you know he's basically he's not part of the crew anymore so we're right back to where we were you know. Adrian if you were if you were going to guess
long term, how long do you think a lot of these projects that were I mean, paving is gonna be for a long time, obviously, but the bridge and other things that
I think we're basically doing this stuff for at least the next ten years. I think we'll work a lot of this, know, as we once we get done with pavement preservation, we're going to then start actually looking at repaving projects more of it right. And by that time in the next you know, three years we're going be ramping up our drainage stuff so between now and that third year. We need to be doing more drainage in house to prep the roads for those types of changes right so even if we talk about paving, we want to be putting in drainage basins ourselves because that's cheaper than solving that workout before they come and pave. We're saving substantially by doing our own basins. So, do the basins. You know how when you go down the street, they raise the basins and they prep them and get them ready for paving. It's that type of prep work where we're putting in a new basin, putting in a new cap, getting it to the right height.
The more of that we can do in house to prep for paving and those types of things, the more we save. Right. But where is this document? And we need Eric to tell us. I know they're doing shoddy mill, but where's the next one, Adrian? I want something to validate what you're saying.
Well this is I mean this has been the conversation for the last three years as we start we know we've got give or or take well over 100 culverts in town that have to be addressed. I want to see what the next paving
job is. I think Skinner Hill. Right. You know, is kind of on the right track here because you know what down the road where is where is our personnel needs going to be? Well, it's it's not. I mean, so as we get caught up with paving, that's really we're going to see us ramp up and culverts right.
We've we've been talking on and on about how much coverts is our next it's sort of the silent but deadly that's sitting behind us that we're going to have issues with. And I'm not talking about like the big culvert like over in Basala, I'm talking about a bunch of these small ones that are going to be issues we're going to have to be proactive about. Understood.
But what I believe Paula and Scott are asking is, where is the list of the projects that are going to be undertaken if we add $113,000 to the public works per se. It's
not about adding to those projects or adding projects. It's about keeping up with the projects that we What is the list and where is it?
Eric had given us a paperwork. Like literally given us a laundry list last year. I don't know if he's updated it for this year. Because I know the tree work Adrian is coming is slowly
coming to an end. It's I mean it's going to be less work. It's going be less work. Right. Done a really good job over the last But
again, a perfect example of what what happened this year, and this is why it's it's about keeping up it's not about adding so the tree work was a big issue this year, the bridge being out was an issue this year. And so we didn't get to do the stuff we were supposed to do over on Shotty Right? So now we're literally behind on Shotty. Yeah. And that's my point is that because we don't have the staffing, we're going to end up keeping falling behind. We don't have enough staff to do in in no matter what we plan for, there's always going to be a bridge that's an issue or a culvert that's an issue or a big storm that comes through. And we don't have the we don't have the capacity to buffer for that at all right now. And that's really what we're talking about it's not just about. It's about being able to adapt the guys that we have to be able to keep up instead of falling behind. We have all these great ideas, but these great ideas are formed in a vacuum before the reality of a bridge and a storm and a snowstorm and a culvert collapsing and you know.
We're going be working on Bunker Hill anymore until they tear it out of there. And the next thing we're going be doing is working on Shottie Mill. Right. And then then I want to know where were you going after that because they have enough guys to work on Shottie Mill right now.
Where's the next thing? Think it's And Eric's going to be here to tell us that. I think it's important that what Adrian is saying is keeping up, and I think it's important to let the community know that if we're asking for this money, these are the projects that we should be taking care of in the next year, three years.
You know, just keep going. And we can, and we can have Jay address that directly when he comes in and say, you know, look, this, this is our whole list of things that we have, but again, our, it isn't just about what's on the list, it's about the day to day function. And a part of it is our fault too, because we grabbed them this year, it was for to get over there and do a bunch of work on Monument Park, on the Veterans Park. And that didn't seem like a little thing, but that was a week plus out of their schedule between the digging and running over and helping move stuff and dropping stuff off all of a sudden, we took a week out of their summer schedule. You know. Two weeks out of mine to Adrian.
Right and so I'll get you an assistant to put it in the budget my point is that, as we talking about this we're acting like we don't know these things are there when they're literally right in front of us. Listen,
we know that, I don't know about you, AJ, but we have all been on this board. We all know the issues are there. The issue is really addressing it to the rest of the community and getting them to support whatever increase we sit there and try to put forward. Okay. That's the issue. Yeah,
would just like to ask Eric, what's the plan? Because if we add a person and we start catching up- Exactly.
I, we're never gonna, we're never gonna catch up. Just so we're clear.
Okay. I I'm, I just wanna that make we're, we're justifying
this. Paula, I would sit there and tell you that if you add an extra person, the hope is that they're managed properly and that the town keeps doing better and better things. An aesthetic appeal that starts to happen across the community. And
when we start talking about this, though, we start talking about, it's little things that we don't even realize. I'll give you a perfect example. We all know that Townsend got paved right a couple years ago. Took them five months to get back over to do the shoring on the side of the paving that keeps the paving from collapsing on the edges. They literally couldn't, they didn't have the time to get back over there and do the completion of the project, which is one of the most important parts of it is literally protecting the edges of the pavement.
Think they're babysitting the tree crews. Right. Adrian a lot. And so if we get this seasonal guy which I'm all for but is he gonna check Richard Bacon's mowing job? It doesn't say that.
He is. Well, it doesn't say that in here. Well, we're still going to have Richard doing some stuff but you know we may Adrian,
what what you were trying to sell us was that
they're going to be two men crew and they're going to be doing But Scott, you're asking for literally, I mean I'm getting a little frustrated because literally you're asking for a day to day schedule so I'll give you a perfect example right so. Big and comes in tomorrow right and it's summer and, by the way, we don't have a project for him at this moment. But we've got somebody else working in town, so now we have our part time guy go over and do go do go over and do traffic for that You know, for our for our paving guys and maybe that day Richard ends up on the mower there literally is always something for the other guy. Yeah you know So yes, there may be days that Richard most certain areas because he's quicker and he's more efficient on or more complicated area. But in general, Richard would then be would be moving forward on other bigger projects that require a different skill set, right? And when on days where we maybe need that guy mowing on, providing traffic, which again saves us money because now instead of us paying $40 something an hour to the crew that's in town doing some you know, some sub work. We provide them with trap and we provide them with We don't. You're
100% right, Adrian, but we don't need to micromanage the I know, but that's what it sounds like. I understand. I'm talking in a general sense. We don't need if we believe that and Eric is asking us for additional resources and we believe those resources can be used properly, then we try to push it forward. Right. Whether it gets approved or not is a different issue. But to get it approved, Scott and So we'll have Eric, Eric, and Jay put something together. Right. Just, yeah, just listen.
Yeah, there needs to be a real tangible list that people can sit there and relate to because not everybody is like you Adrian, not everybody understands all the details of everything that's going on and how it's supposed to work and where it's supposed to go. We want to know. Mean and listen, to be really honest, in the last three years there's more that's been done in this town than the previous twelve years beforehand and if people can't see it then I can't help them but
that's what's happened. I mean, and listen, our crew is still adapting to some of those changes. One of the biggest ones is the one we just put in and like the last three, you know, four months of the year, where we hired that person to come in and start doing some maintenance because otherwise that was literally public works, we would pull public works people to go and change a light bulb. Right so that's why we need a high level. Yeah no we're gonna do that we're definitely gonna Eric and Jay will do that for you Scott, you said to just listen, what did you want to add to that. Well, listen to what we're saying also Adrian that's all I'm saying. Is there anything else, though, that you're looking for, besides an evaluation on road projects going forward? I
would say I'd like to know what their skill sets are going to be.
Basically, Eric has a box here. If this is updated, he's basically saying we should consider up to $230,000 of total staffing increases. That's not a small amount of money. Did you see that, Jeff?
It's on network down. Very last page. There's a box with a list of things that he's looking for.
Yeah. And and listen. Eric Eric knows he's not going to get it all, but he's sitting there telling us that
Matter of fact, I kind of laughed about it because I didn't think that we should do it, but that requires
Well, listen, and I'm going to very honest with you guys. They weren't even considering the other person down at Public Works because they thought there was not a snowball's chance in hell that we as a group or you know would would would let this pass by. I told them very clearly I think they should put it in if they thought they needed it because we need to get past this point where we don't ask for things because we're afraid someone's going to say no. I think the Community can look at the work that we've done in the last three years here and say wow, the transfer station looks like a whole new place. The roads are getting done. The tree work is getting done. You know, we're looking at building a new building as a possibility.
We're renovating the town hall to function more correctly, whether it's the you know, now looking at the air conditioning, the heating, we're doing all the things that should have been being done in the first place. And so now I think if we go back to them and we go to the town and honestly say, we need X, Y and Z, and here's why. Hopefully we have built enough trust with all the things that we've done that they give us give it to us. And so I suggested that they put this stuff in there if they want, if they really felt they needed it and that we could have this discussion. So I'm glad we're having it and we'll let them support the arguments when they come back.
He wants to increase the public works this year, dollars 113,000. That's just personnel staff. Right, right. But
last year the Board of Finance took what they take $10,000 out of the overtime for the public works so.
And then a bridge went underwater, so that went out the window, didn't it? That money's all gone already. If
you do not ask and you do not support it, well, if you don't support it properly, asking for it, you'll get nothing. Right.
And so I think they can support it, let's let them do that. What's the next thing on our agenda list?
That's it. We were going through these, I mean, you want to go through all the rest of, I mean, I don't believe this cost thing is totally updated, but I mean
No, we're almost at our hour and a half anyways. We got ten minutes. What about the custodian?
He just got hired so he'll get the regular he'll get the regular 3%. That's it. He he's he's happy with what he's got. I gotta say that I've never seen the town hall so clean. I know. Isn't it? Like. And what did he, and look at what he Look did at the at what he did with the gazebo too. Yeah. It's amazing. It's amazing.
Yep. So absolutely. He's got a list of things that he wants to improve too.
So There's the guy we wanna keep. It's a good thing. Hebron absolutely loves him. So Yep. You know, good things. K.
So I guess for my purpose, am I adding any of these positions and costing them out? Then so you're asking you to add a
line, cost it out, and then we they if if Eric can. I mean it won't always can be deleted, but at least there.
So we're asking you to do the pre work so that we can see what it really looks like in the budget. Right.
Adrian, you were talking about earlier. Yes. They're giving a presentation tomorrow at the Board of Finance meeting, so I don't know if you wanna jump on and ask questions there or watch the meeting, or do you want them to come and present something at our next workshop?
I don't know that's the one time I'm going to be stuck is we have a budget workshop tomorrow night on the school side. Yeah
Well, maybe you can watch the meeting back. And if you don't have your questions answered, can ask them to present at the next one or something.
I'll talk I'll talk to board of finance and see if they can move that to the beginning so that I can maybe see that and, and, and ask any question that might be appropriate. That way they don't have to present twice. Right, right. Unless anyone else on the board wants to see them present here as well. That's up to you guys. Does anyone else have questions on that budget change? I
think you brought up some good points in your email. And thank you, Amanda, for pointing that out about tomorrow night. Oh, that came from Amanda. Thank you. Didn't You're welcome. They're actually first up on the agenda tomorrow, Adrian. So maybe that would help. Yeah, that would help.
All right. So we're going to sit there and share it. Please ask Eric to, when you put those lines in, we'll all talk to Eric. I mean, we just need that support.
Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, we're looking for support from him. So I
think Eric wanted to change the hours for the building official to seven.
And they're at five, right? Yeah. And I'm okay with that too. I mean, one of the things we got going on right now is, you know, we've got some things we gotta, he needs more time definitely to come into town and look at some of the projects because, you know, I mean, I personally found three job sites in town that didn't have dumpsters. So, very frustrating. Oh, speaking of, and we'll have to address this. I'll send an email out, but we had someone that had one of those temporary passes that we give out to people literally backing up to a dumpster six times last weekend and dumping a dump trunk fall into a dumpster. We need to work. Yeah transfer station I went through twice, know because I couldn't fit all my garbage in my in my in my car and I went through down the second time with you know cardboard did all my garbage and did cardboard and they were back there again. Where was that debris coming from? So supposedly they're cleaning out a house it's a residence house here in Andover, but what the guy did is he went and got a. He got went and got a thing from Carol
and then he paid someone to clean out the House and they literally just took everything down and dumped it in the thing. So we need to we need to we can't be doing that anymore, apparently, this is kind of common when these guys get these temporary you know. Passes, this is what they're doing and they're not even doing it themselves they're hiring a commercial crew to do it that's not cool so. Oh, they should have got their own dumpster.
Right. Right. I mean, they single handedly filled up a 30 yard. A whole dumpster. Yeah. 30 yards. $600. So.
Okay. Item four, correspondence, we have none. Unless anyone else wants to have any more discussion on any other items? No.
I'm good. Okay. Public speak. So we'll go through it. Marci Miner.
Hi. I was wondering what you were talking about the seasonal job because I do have experience hiring people to mow and I wasn't quite following what you guys were looking for. I agree with Adrian that that I think that we all have noticed that the town has been doing a lot more in the last few years. And I think that's fantastic. And I'm sure that the town has more support than they would have had five years ago. But as far as the seasonal job and hiring a person to mow grass, is that what it's for? Weed whacking, traffic control.
Roadside mowing is probably the biggest portion of it though. Running the roadside mower.
But in my experience, most of the mowing happens in the spring, in the fall, in summertime it drops off a little bit.
So we would we would shift that person to traffic control for the paving guys in the in the summer,
as when the mowing drops off yeah. It sounds like you could almost add another person, you know, a low level person full time.
Yeah, unfortunately with the union contracts that it would be cost prohibitive. That's why we were trying to look at seasonal, you know. I mean, Marcy, you hire guys in this kind of area, sounds like. I mean, when we start talking about, you know, dollars 18 or $20 an hour, are we in the ballpark or can we get away with 16?
You can get away with 16. I think 18 is is easier, especially with, know, being a town job, you know, might look a little more appealing than, you know, someone like us with a small company. But, you know, I don't I don't think you have to go to 20. Okay, thank you for the feedback. Thank you, Marcy. Okay, Diane Schokette. I'm all set. Thank you. Kim Persson. I'm all set. Thank you. Thank you. Joanne Eber? Not at this point. Thank you. Liz,
I know you told me how to say it before. Come on. Catching the ball low. Okay. Low Low catch. There you go.
So I just had a question. I'm not real familiar with the cool program. Seeing so I'm an elder and I don't have children in the school. Can you know with the discussion about whether or not it should become part of the town or kept separate? Can anybody tell me if any of our our town taxes pays for any of that, or do they pay rent for all the whatever they use?
How does that work? There are no taxes used to support cool. The only thing that COOL does is get utilization of the facility, but the use of the facility for parents who need the service. It is a great service. I used it my entire time with my two children.
Okay. So what you were proposing was to try and get it to be some way of making money for the town? Not
making money. I mean, not understanding. I just believe it should be a town program and then the individual that runs it should be a full time employee for the town running all of the programs should town. That's my thought. That's always been my thought.
Addition to other things that we could add to that. Oh, I see. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you. No problem. Mike W. I'm all set right now.
Okay. Thank you very much. Amanda, would you like to say anything because you are always extra special and we greatly appreciate everything you do.
You know, I actually wanted to jump in and ask if you'd like to see anything in particular on the next agenda or just kind of keep it general every time for the workshops.
I personally would say, I think we're probably gonna end up reaching out to Eric and then very specifically, we need to map this out a little bit. Think sort of drifting through is not gonna work. Having a game plan for each workshop? Yeah, I think workshop where it's we do maybe next time we finish up this employee stuff the time after that maybe we look at capital time after that we look at you know. Extraneous stuff or other effects.
We'll sit there and get to Eric so that he can hear from each of us regarding what we want to do. But I don't disagree with where Adrian is headed at. I mean, I don't necessarily think we'll spend we have to really
map it out, and you're going to have to leave some general items there so that we can sit there and expand upon what we're doing. Well, and everybody can be ready with the having looked at the documents instead of saying, look at the whole budget, we can look at very specific things and, you know, not be digging through for all this as we go. Good.
All right. Sherry, do you have anything you wanna add? Yeah, I just want a quick question.
Just because it's my first time going around, are you going to be asking for individual departments to come forward and present their budget and be available for any questions that you may have? Usually that's how it goes.
Okay. But I think what we should do is we should sit there and see where their budget is going. At the end, in the last few budget meetings, we should ask specific departments if we have problems with them. But any of the departments that want to present to us, we should put them on a list, like Adrian said, and go through individually. Well, can I
mildly disagree with that? I think that our time is most wisely spent looking at looking at the changes we feel we need to make. If we're making a change, a drastic change to a budget, specifically in the downside, then I think we have to bring in that entity and talk to them. But if we're accepting their budget as is and it's easily understood, I don't feel like we should be taking time away from this process to listen to someone supportive, you know, give us all the details of a budget we already are supportive of. Yeah, I agree. You know? Yeah. Jeff,
you okay with that? I think that's wonderful. Yes. Okay.
I just don't want every single person coming through and giving a presentation. Just,
we have enough of these workshops already. I was more concerned with the people that, you know, you make changes to and if it's drastic enough, you know. Absolutely, if we're making a change. There's only a few
departments that want to present to us anyway. We all know those departments, if they want to present to us, then let them present to us. Okay, Thank you.
Anyway, anything else that anyone else wants to discuss before we adjourn?
Nope. Thanks for putting the time alone on folks. I appreciate it.
Right. So we want to make a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. All
All those in favor. Aye. See you guys later. Good night.