Meeting transcript
Board of Selectmen- Regular Meeting
October 5, 2026 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
Machine-generated transcript — check the video if in doubt.
Okay. We are going to get started. As I said, Scott Persong is is not feeling well, he won't be joining us tonight. I'm gonna call to order the town of Andover board a selectman regular meeting for Monday, October 5. We're gonna get started at 07:05. And our first item is the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States America to the Republic for which it stands one nation nation under God Indivisible. With liberty and justice. Justice for all. K. Alright. Our second item is public speak, and we're gonna start with Diane Greiner. I'm all set. Thank you very much. Good Joanne Hebert.
I'm just here to listen. Just looking forward to, of course, an update on the Long Hill Bridge project. And just a quick note, maybe it can be addressed. Nothing has really changed with that Hendi stoplight yet on the Route 6 part. I don't know how we can get the word out that people need to just move up. There's like, you know, when you're coming from Manchester and then you wanna turn left onto Hendi, you're just held up for like three or four lights if people are not aware. So, hopefully that'll change.
Okay. So, have noticed they did eliminate the stop bar for the left hand turn signal, because the stop bar was holding you before it would trip the detector and I've now noticed that the stop bar is, they put black paint over it, so there's only a stop bar on the right lane not the left, so if you do pull up to where the double yellow is, all the way up to the very end past the stop bar, it trips the light very quickly. Christine,
thank you so much. You've been helpful. I just don't think the word is out. I pull I pull way the heck up. I... It doesn't... You know, if I'm in the front, you know, thank you for giving us that clue. It's the people that are first. Yeah. You know, are very courteous and they're way back. The rest of us are like 10 cars back going, come on. Come Yeah, exactly. Elaine Bookard.
Hi, I just wanted to talk about the little EDC project that we had going on this summer. Marci Minor had come up with the idea to go ahead and promote Andover's Future So Bright You Have to Wear Shades. And Diane Greiner and Marci went and ran with it. Diane put in a lot of hours taking pictures of residents with sunglasses on, going around town, taking pictures of the town employees, and then posting them on Facebook on a regular basis. It turned out to be a positive thing and people were happy to do it, excited to do it, and so we will hopefully do something similar next summer, and also point out different positive things that are happening and then completed around Andover. And then we were talking to Diane about her idea of possibly making the Black Eyed Susan's the Andover
official flower. So we'll be working on that, maybe get flowers out to residents to go ahead and put around their property, maybe their mailboxes so that it's just something that's very visible. But just, you know, some feel good kind of visual things. Of course, our second Andover... Welcome to Andover sign is up, and we await the beautification committee to go ahead and get that taken care of there by Shawnee Mill. But so far we had fun this summer and did some light, really inexpensive things that seem to be promoting positive vibes. Thank you. Megan Liley? Okay. We'll come back to Meg. Ben? Nothing at this time. Thank you. Okay.
We'll move over to a phone number that ends in 23445. That's me, the town attorney.
Alright. Thank you. And then another phone number that ends in 0264. That's Ron Mike, fire chief. Chief? Yep. Okay. That's me, Matt. All right.
And we'll go back to Megan Lally. Okay. Let's move on. We'll go to item three, additions and changes to the agenda. Does anybody have anything that they want to add or delete? Jeff?
Yeah? I'd like to... In my report, was gonna get to that this October 16 is when we have to file with the DECD for the Raman funds. And I guess it says in there that they need... They require a resolution from the select board authorizing, say, myself to sign the contract. But it sounds like it's only once the contract is... I don't think I need to have that prior to the application, but I think it might be good just to get that out of the way. So I think that we've done that in the past where I think the last one, you were the one that was authorized to sign. But since I'm trying to get this in by October 16, I'd rather if we can have that on the agenda to have the authorization for that to apply for the DCD funds for $250,000 for FY '27.
So we can't... So Matt, can we not proceed with Jeff as being the signator at this point in time? Because I think that's why we chose him because we weren't sure if we were going to have someone in place and we didn't want the person who was temporary to we just didn't want to have to stall anything. Absolutely.
But I I know that Eric can use... It it... It's fine. It's a new one, Christine. This is the second this is the second tranche on this funding. So we just need we just need to sit there and give authority to pass a resolution. Like, we're gonna pass a resolution or sign a resolution. Okay. You know? And and, Matt, it's for the application of these funds. Correct?
I'm doing the application for... Before October 16. The regulations seem to say that it needs to be done prior to signing a contract, but I'd prefer to just get it done before the application in case you have to submit that with Okay.
Okay. So I I just... Anybody else have anything? We'll do it all at once. I I have a a quick item I'd like to add to old business. 10 k discussion and possible action regarding the town of Andover Boy Scout sponsorship. And then we'll do Matt's item, would be our numbering is off a little bit. 11 d. 11D, discussion and possible action on approving a resolution for the DECD funding for the... No, we'll just say resolution... Action and discussion of possible action regarding a resolution for DECD funds for fiscal year twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven. Make a motion. Dave
Gastanian has seconded. Is there any other items that we want to sit there and get on this? No. So Dave seconded. We'll go through it. Any discussion? No discussion. Anne, how do you vote? Yes. Dave Gustanian? Yes. Christine Randazzo? Yes. Jeff Maguire? Yes. Okay. So 40. Okay. We're gonna move on to board and commission presentations. Matt, I'm assuming we have none. We do not. Okay.
Item five, departmental presentations. I'm just letting everyone know that Kathy DeRoziers is going to come for this, and she has a library board meeting, so she'll be slightly late. When she does arrive, I'm going to move her into the agenda, as long as no one has any problems. We're going to move on to item 5B, which is the fire department and Chief Ron Mike is on the line on his phone. He also has a fire commission meeting. So we kind of overloaded everybody in town with meetings today. So chief, thank you for joining us. What I'm really after is just letting everybody get a flavor for the departments and how you're doing and the department is doing and what help you need from the Board of Selectmen?
Well, we're doing. We're still providing the services that we've been providing for quite a while, but we are getting very, very stretched. Some members of the board were on the board a couple of years ago and we had an informal meet and greet about things and things have not improved much since then as far as recruitment. Our retention is good. We're keeping a lot of the older members that we have, but unfortunately older is the key word. We're going to try after the first of the year, try another big recruitment drive in town again to see if after the holidays because everybody's got too much in their place right now. It's hard. People can't juggle the amount of training and stuff that's involved with this with volunteering in the fire department and their day to day lifestyle of making a living and paying their bills with with
The United States and the shape it's in and the cost of fuel and food and everything else. So, I mean, it's very, very hard to get new people interested and to put the time and effort into what it takes to actually be trained and certified to do something. EMT classes running almost two hundred hours, firefighter classes one hundred and eighty hours. And the cost of it is quite substantial for both of those two. So it's very tough right now recruiting. We're not the only ones with a problem. I mean, is a nationwide problem, not just the man over Connecticut problem. But other than that, the fire department is doing fairly good with what we have. Equipment wise, we're in good shape. As the fire commission has their ten year plan in the works with CIP and the Board of Finance. There's really no major purchases coming for the next couple of years. Our next big purchase would be the refurbishment of ET115 or the replacement of that truck. Right now, it's at the twenty six year mark and the NFPA recommends twenty five years as we did with ET215 and we were able to get another twelve years out of that truck when we refurbished that truck. So, I mean, at some point we that will come to light as to whether or not the value of refurbishing it is worth just going out and replacing the truck, depending on the cost and that cost never goes down either. It just goes up and up and up.
But as far as like the members we have, they're getting out, they're doing the job. Sometimes we're a little shorthanded for sure. But we got a good group of people that are getting things done for us. Other than that, I don't really know what the board can actually do to help unless you got a bunch of people that you can rope into volunteering and send them our way. It's it's like I said, it's a it's a national problem right now and we're doing our best we can to try to get people. If we get five people a year that join at one last in a whole year's time and actually does some training, it's a miracle. Last year we got one guy that joined and he went through the firefighter class to get certified as firefighter. But he's, now that he's done that work, he's also, he's got a young family and he's struggling with balancing work his family life in the fire department. So, it's not an easy task, that's for sure. Well, any just. Do have any questions? I mean, pertaining to anything in particular because like I said, I really don't have a lot other than the fact that, know, we're getting the job done still.
Well, just from the from my end, I greatly appreciate everything you and the members of the fire department do for the town. It is greatly appreciated. And we're going to have to start thinking outside of the box as to what we can do to try to help improve your recruitment.
So... Yeah, like, you know, like I said, Jeff, mean, that's a national problem recruitment and stuff like that. And, you know, like, I hate to say it because it's an ugly word, but a lot of departments are around the country, not just Connecticut area are starting to go to combination departments, where they have paid staff certain hours of the day or only a couple of paid staff and then they require volunteers to show up the rest of the time. I mean, it's something that's coming down road here. Unfortunately, it may be coming sooner than later if we can't find younger people to take the spots of the older people we have. Like I said, we're doing our best to try to get people in the door, but it's just tough for people to juggle families, economy and the amount of time that it takes to do what you got to do here. So it's one of those things that I wish there was an easier way and an easy solution to it, but there really isn't.
Okay. Any of the other members of the board have any questions that you'd like to ask Chief? Well, Chief, that was kind of easy. Thank you very much for the time. We really appreciate it.
Like I said, don't have a lot. I mean, the last couple of years we've been averaging 400 calls a year. This year, I want to say we're at two eighty something right now. So I think we're going be a little below average this year, which is a good thing when we're short on help. I mean, obviously better be slower than busy. I don't think we're going to get another 300 call or another 100 calls in two months' time. This time of the year, averaged roughly around thirty, forty calls a month. So, I mean, and then of that 80% of them are aimed those calls. So that's, that's what's keeping us really busy, keeping us going.
Okay. Anyone else? Any questions? All right, Chief, thank you very much. Appreciate the time.
Very good. I'll sneak back to the other meeting. Good night.
All right. We're going to move on to or circle back to 5A. Kathy Derocher has joined us from the library board. Kathy, thank you very much for taking the time. You can, again, we get both of the volunteer organizations that do a lot for our town in tonight's meeting. So any information that you can give us related to where the library stands and anything that we can do to help improve what you guys offer. It's your your time.
So thank you for the time, Jeff, board of select, and we appreciate it. First of all, I'd like to preface the meeting by saying the library has 600 people monthly coming into the library. So it's well used. We also do a lot with other libraries as far as interlibrary loan for other patrons that aren't able to come into the library, but they're able to get the same resources. The library hosts many cultural events. We don't have any type of, you know, cultural historical society in town that does that, so we try to host those as well. The library did just receive from the state another grant for 10 laptops that we have received for use. And there are some provisions on that which we're working through, but basically they are for families in need and our librarian worked on that. We ended up getting that grant. We will be able to keep one to two live... Two computers, laptops for the library, so that saves the taxpayer money. We, you know, we're very happy with this grant. And then the other eight, we will set up the criteria that is needed to get these laptops going forward. So that's a a win win for the library and the town of Andover.
The one thing the library did do back last year is we had Eversource out. They updated our lighting. That's when Eric Anderson was here, so it's all new lighting in there. It ended up costing, like, $800 for all the new lighting upstairs and downstairs. And then on top of that, we went to them because we have a heating issue. OSHA snagged the library with space heaters and extension cords and a few other things, but they wanted us to eliminate those. This is not allowed. So, okay, we got rid of the space heaters and the extension cords, but it's cold. It's cold downstairs. And the reason why it's cold is when we had Eversource in to do an energy report, our furnace is... It still works. We're gonna keep the furnace. That's our goal. It's not dire that it be replaced. It's not dead, but it's old, and it really wasn't made to heat the two levels. Okay? And right now, we are... The children's library is all downstairs. So it's it's cold down there, and we have a lot of groups that meet down there throughout the year. Anyways, we'd like to address that issue. So we wanna put in a mini split. We'd like the board of... All as we may need from the board of selectmen is approval. We don't need money. We've had a patron... A few patrons come forward that will fund it and pay for it. We'd like to put a mini split downstairs in the basement for additional heat
and air conditioning when we need it. So that's one thing we would like the board to consider. We did go out and get three bids. We would... We plan on using Homestead because Homestead does our air conditioning and heating now. They clean the furnace and what have you. And so that's what we would like to do with your blessing. And other than that, we think... We hope everyone's happy with the library. We're open for suggestions. We do have somebody that is leaving us. So, we are looking for a new person to step forward and serve on the board. But that's, that's it. Any questions for me?
Well, from my standpoint, the library looks great. It always has. Thank you. We really do. And I will let the community know that a lot of that is done through the Friends of the Library. It is not as if the taxpayers are supporting the library in any tremendous manner. Probably should do better, but trying to reduce all costs at Every turn has always been Andover's issue. But you guys and the friends of the library do an excellent job. The building looks great on Main Street. I think the work that was done during the connectivity grant really did a nice job on the exterior sidewalk and what it looks like. But the library really is a
jewel for the town. So thank you very much for everything you guys do. Thank
you. Anybody else that needs anything, who wants to ask any questions of Kathy? Okay.
Jeff, there are two things I'd like to bring up if I can, Blauer. Absolutely. The library has no storage. We are receiving a lot of materials for our children's program and upcoming programs that we're planning, and we'd like to know if temporarily we can have somewhere to put these in the community senior space basement that I know eventually something's gonna happen there, but we need space. And that's an ask. So if that could be looked at, we're not looking to store it there forever, but just if we could, put that somewhere, we would appreciate it. And the other thing is, I know we lost William Bell. He was our janitor and our maintenance man. Right now, four lights are out on the back, the gooseneck lights. William Bell would have had that done, you know, in a day. So that's another thing I think the board of selectman needs to address.
And I just wanna throw this out there. Steve Campbell, who worked at AES, he's highly thought of a maintenance and a cleaning person, might be somebody the board of selectmen should or could reach out to.
As far as the community center, Matt, if you could sit there and and see if that is... It should be available. I think it's a very easy ask. There's nothing going in... Right... Going on right now down there. So, Kathy, I think we could sit there and get that done. Mhmm. If and when we get to the garage at the old firehouse, the goal is to have dry storage above the parking area. So that is something that we could also eventually offer to the library for some extra storage because as one of the organizations in town and probably be something that you could take advantage of. But on a short term basis, Matt, if you could find out if the space... If there'd be a problem. Kath, get with Matt, let him know how much you're talking about putting there. Sure. That would be easy. And then I guess just approval to install that
We'll we'll do that. Yeah. Please get... I know I read your email where you talked about Amy's email about Steve Campbell. So please get that information to Matt. And if he does have some time, maybe it is something that we can work out that he could he could take some of the cleaning responsibilities at the library and even at the town hall, depending upon the program that has put in place. Perfect. Thank you. Anyone
have any questions or anything for Kathy? Okay. I'd like to make a motion to allow the library to install a mini split in the basement level, funded from the Friends of the Library. Second. Second of that.
Anne Creme put her hand up first. So we'll go Anne Creme is seconding that. Further discussion on the installation of the mini split in the children's section of the library? Okay, we'll vote on it. Anne, how do you vote? You're on mute, just letting you know. Dave Gustavian? Yes. Yes. Christine Randazzo? Yes.
Jeff Maguire. Yes. So four nothing. Kathy, thank you very much for everything you do. Let the friends of the library know that they're greatly appreciated, and thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your time, everyone. Appreciate it. Alright. We're gonna move on to items... Item six resignations. Matt, do we have any? No. We do not. Item seven appointments. We have none, we're going move on. And we're going to move on to the town administrator's report, item eight.
Yes, good evening. Matt Streeter here. Included a report in the packet. Just hit, hit on that. So, I had a meeting, last week with the, town managers of Marlborough and Hebron. It was nice to meet them. They have the new, Mark, Strange is the new account manager in Hebron. He's probably about two weeks in, and Dave Porter's been in Marlborough for, I think, three or four years. Just was good to meet them and talk a little bit about regionalization, about the regional school, other collaborations that, you know, if anything comes down the pike through either CCM, which is the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, the Capital Regional Council of Governments, or other type of grant opportunities. Right now, we don't have anything set up with them, but we we... All all the communities are facing the same type of issues where there's not a lot of assessors, departments, and building inspectors. So another issue is finance directors. We're we're fortunate that we have somebody here, but in several other towns, it's tough to get people because nobody really wants to, you know, go to school and become a tax collector or assessor.
So it was good to meet them. Hopefully, we can have some good talks with them. I spoke with the first selectman that we had this Department of Public Works roof project coming up. We've gotten a quote for 27,000. Drafted a RFP, but before I brought it to them, I was suggested that I... Which is a good suggestion that I get with Eric Sanderson perhaps to put his eyes on it because he has some experience in that prior to issuing it. I'm planning to, you know, if that's amenable to the rest of the board, I will make contact with him this week. I've been working on the those requirements for the DECD FY '27. We briefly touched on that and added it to the agenda later. We did the FY '26 funds were used for the Veterans Memorial Field project. These spent, as I mentioned earlier, the FY '27 funds will need to be spent by June 30 and the plan is to earmark these for the enhancements of the projects at the community center including the kitchen completion, the generator,
and even to look at, you know, if we get to that point about things in the basement as well, which we just talked about for possible storage area. We had an updated quote which I received from Kinsley Sourcewell and Lenco Electric on September 22 for a generator project. The project quote is about $323,000. It is good for one month, so that's why it's on the agenda further down the agenda to give approval. We have different funding mechanisms for this, including some from either the... What we just talked about, the enhancements at the... With the... What we call the Ramen Funds. There's also other funds from the USDA, Department of Agriculture, that has about a $283,000 for that. We're hoping that, you know, we can... If we get that approved today, I can sign the contract tomorrow. It's about a thirty week lead time, so we're looking in the springtime, but Rich from Lentco had mentioned that they could start doing some of the site work beforehand to prepare for the generator. The generator would be used for the town hall, the community center, and the firehouse. So it's basically the municipal complex here. We've been working with our IT tech from South Windsor. He... Steven is his name, and as we're working to get a quote, we're also trying to, you know, wrap up the... I guess, the contract with South Windsor is ending. He's working out a list of not only what our assets are in a list of what what our upgrades possibly should be. We're looking at some something that I have to go to the finance committee and discuss, you know, upgrading. We have some... Couple of servers, and both of them are pretty aged. One is twenty thirteen,
and the... And they're they're they're at, like, 9099% capacity. There really is not a lot of storage left on these machines. So he's getting together with me. We've drafted a RFP, which we'd like to... So we'd like to have him continue with us as a sort of our IT tech for approximately two months continuing on. Well, he's no longer gonna be with South Windsor, but we could have him work a few of the similar hours to what we currently have and then put the RFP up. So RFP, we hope we can have something in place by beginning of January. Let's see here. I'm also this evening asking for a one year extension for Civic Plus for our website hosting and also to do the conversion migration to .gov. The timing is that Civic Plus is coming up on... In January, and the migration for .gov would need to be done by June 30. We've got some quotes from Civic Plus, so the intent would be that we would have Civic Plus who currently does it and does a lot of other municipalities to do the migration for us, and then we'll be free next year to, like, give the website committee time to decide what they want the website to be moving forward from that. So we'll have a, you know, clean site. We'll have already been migrated to the new .gov system, and then at that point, we can decide whether we're gonna leave Civic Plus, stay with Civic Plus or find a different vendor for that.
I did meet with Karma, well it's about two weeks ago, and I had a meeting with Health Coalition, so just looking ahead to the FY '28. We did sign up last year a three year agreement to keep our rates relatively flat. As a reminder, voting will be starting October 19. The early voting will be happening. So that'll run for the Monday through Thursday, the days the town halls open over the last two weeks of October. Election day will be on November 3. The Department of Public Works, if you remember last meeting, they discussed... Discussed possibility of getting a a plow pickup in Sander using tar funds. He's gotten a quote for... It's basically just under $80,000... $79,000 in change to purchase and equip a pickup truck with a plow and sander and lights and radio. We'd like to see if, I don't know if that needs to go through the select board and the finance committee or just the finance committee. We wanna bring it to, obviously, we're bringing it back to you because we discussed it, at the last meeting and hear what your thoughts would be on that if, but we'd like to move forward because, you know, there is a bit of lag time on ordering that. I don't have the exact numbers. I didn't get that from Eric. But I'm hoping that if if this were to be greenlighted by the select board, then go to... Just to get the green light from the finance committee that we can use these tar funds
for the purchase of this. As we remember last last meeting, he discussed how they don't have enough... They don't have a lot of vehicles, so the gentleman that work for us are either using the large plow trucks for running around for parts or there's just not the... There's not enough vehicles to go around when they're running in different parts of town. So it'll be a great help for that, and we do have funds in the the TAR account. The next thing I have. Oh, the AES bathroom project, that's about 98% complete. There's just a few minor punch list items. I did get some pictures. I can forward them on to you. I'd
have to try and get them up on the if I were to share the screen. But, there's just a few that, they have to do some paint touch up or replacements, some crack tiles. They do need some security shields which are between the bathroom stalls and the doors because this... The gap is a little bit too wide so you can kinda see through there. It's... It it it looks nice. It's not... No. Yeah. It's kinda no frills. It's a... It's... It was done for, you know, economic state. I think that there's a... You know, they didn't really do much on the windows, the light fixtures, the ceiling tiles are all the... Previously. But below that, it looks it looks really smart, and it looks like something that should last for a number of years. We talked about the project. Other quotes that the DPW had talked about last week, we talked about their their Vita Root System, which is what monitors the temperature and how much fuel is in those tanks. Was... Quote was given about $15,242 We'd like to, you know, move forward with that because it... That way, communicate with the new system that we have. We'll probably talk about going to the finance meeting and seeing where they might want to have funds unless the select board has other ideas, perhaps something from a capital point of view. We do need... There's the control panel. We talked about a circuit board there that's got a new quote on that for just $4,343.10 to have that replaced. They did install a surge suppression system. We talked about that. It was $4,600
to prevent the the different... Obviously, the alarm system for the fire as well as the fuel pumps that would protect them. And as I mentioned, the roof estimate about $27,000, and I'm gonna try and get together with Eric Sanderson with the select board's approval to review that RFP.
It would be helpful, Matt, if you provided the board with all of the quotes. You know? Yep. You telling us is one thing, but us seeing the tangible written information is a totally different item. So please provide us with the the quotes so that we can understand and and make a reasonable decision. Honestly, from my end, I'm not going to approve anything just because you tell me. I'm going to see the piece of paper and understand who else you quoted it with and what we need it for. A couple things on some of the things you said is on the IT side, could you share the hardware list with the board of selectmen so we can understand and look at the ages of the pieces of equipment that we're discussing. And then when you get quotes for that, we can sit there and evaluate that as well. Yep. You met with Kerma. Did you provide the fire department secondary policy to Kerma so that they could get a review on that and we can understand if we have any crossovers?
Yeah, Ron Mike got me that information. I'm forwarding it on to... I haven't forwarded it yet, but I will be forwarding that on to Kerma. Okay. So when you get that information, if you can, you know,
provide it to us at a future meeting so we can understand if there's a way that we can save some money because the additional fire department policy was somewhere in the 25,000 to $30,000 range, which is significantly higher than it had been in prior years. So I'd like to make sure that we're not, paying for things twice if at all possible. And then the other thing is with the truck that the public works is trying to pay out of tar. It would be helpful if we could get a vehicle list, like a list of all of the vehicles for the Department of Public Works so we can understand what we have in inventory and then trying to understand what we want to sit there and swap out and move forward with. You will absolutely have to get... We will have to get the board of finance approval on this type of transaction. It's not something that I wanna just do with the board of Selectman. We may recommend that it happens, but we want the board of of finance to understand it because the board of finance, a normal situation, would put that into next year's budget
and sit there and say, is how we're gonna fund it. It still might be something that I would rather see happen than us just say we're gonna get them a new truck. And I know that at our meeting last month, Eric Johansson, the director of Polar Vert, said that we've been driving around the plow trucks to take people to different places. I would ask that you get with Tess and sit there and see what vehicles the town has that may not be used that might be available for public works. If they're going to a conference at UConn and they all can't fit into a given f one fifty or the f... I don't think they have any f two fifties, but the f one fifty, if they can't fit four people into that, then take the van from the transportation department to UConn. Sit there and be creative as to how we use other assets within the town. Anybody else have anything for Matt on any of the issues that he brought up?
Thank you, everyone. Okay.
Before we move on, let's just have the board. Just Matt, explain Civic Plus for the board members so we all understand what it is.
So Civic Plus is who we run our website through. They're a vendor that that creates our website. That backs up. So when we when we do go into make changes and things like that to the website, if somebody has meetings or... It's it's their system that, we're going through. So Civic Plus is just one of the many vendors that, municipalities use for their website. We've had them for a number of years. They go on a year to year contract or sometimes it's a three year contract. We currently are at the end of... The contract is ending January '27, and we're gonna do with select boards, I guess, approval. My... And just my... I would recommend that we do a one year extension, which is what they're quoting us, so that we can do... Stay with Civic Plus. We were hoping that we would get the, website committee to get together and kinda decide what... How they would like the future website for the town of Andover to look like. But we also have this upcoming, requirement to transfer our email addresses, which are the andover c t dot org to a dot gov. That's a requirement for, all the municipalities that we now go under a.gov so that Civic Plus, who's done this for many of the towns that they use, would do the migration
as part of their their fees for the next year. So what we would do is have Civic Plus agree with one year contract. They would do the migration. That gives us time for the, website committee to decide if we wanna stay with Civic Plus beginning in January '28 or do it go in a different group.
Matt, was there was there some type of limitation? Kate told me there were there was some type of limitation with the version that we're using now that does not receive updates because we scaled it back? Civic Plus?
You know, I I I would have to check with her. I I do not... I'm not aware of anything that I had, I use Civic Plus in the the last two towns that I was in. So I it works the same for me. So I don't know if there's different, modules that, that are different, but, I'm not aware of anything different. You said that But I can check. We we scaled back the license on it
and that because that she was not able to update links and things, the website seems to be broken in part?
I am unaware of that. I can check into that. Get back. Thank you. You're welcome.
And and so when do you need us to approve this, and what's the cost?
The cost for the next year, I think, is is similar to what it is. It's $5,600. That's our annual, I think, that we have in the... It's in the budget that we have for our cost. So... I mean, I... We would like to try and get this because, they're setting up their schedules for migration. They would... They were hoping that we could have signed up in, September. I told them I have to go to the select board, that our next meeting is not till October. I think it's just so we have a green light. This is something that, you know, falls under town administrator duties that if we can just... If you follow my lead, then we can go ahead and move forward with that. Matt, can I ask a question? Yes. Absolutely. Does Civic Plus also manage the,
text alerts and the voice mail alerts that we get when there's, like, road shutdowns? Is it all that all the same program?
They that we used... That was a component of Civic Plus. It's called something different like Kronos now or something like that, but it was under Civic Plus. Okay.
So last year, it appears that we paid $4,500 for website maintenance plan. In the year before, it was $2,300. Maybe those were two different... Two combined ones. Let's see. There's not very much information in there. Well, it would be good if in the future and in all these situations you provide us information on these, like the quote so that we could read on it and make sure that we're comfortable with what we're authorizing you to do. But if you sit there and, you know I will I will be better about that. I will I will I will honestly be telling you I'm a I'm a trust but verify. I don't... I I need to see it, then I need to understand it. I I believe you. Just like any organization in town, I might believe the person leading that group, but I really need to see the tangible information behind it so that I can feel my decision is most appropriate. So prospect verify, if you could sit there and send that out, maybe what we can do as a board is we can sit there and read it after we get it this week, and then sit there and and give Matt authorization
verbally, each one of us, sit there and move forward with Civic Plus if that is not a problem. Because it does appear... I mean, this is this is what I'm seeing, like, in... And it is something we have to look at. Like, it looks like in 2024, we spent somewhere in the range of $8,000 with Civic Plus. And in 2025, we spent almost $7,000. And so far this year, it it was a June transaction. It was $4,500. So I would really like to understand what we're spending and what components they have because maybe Christine is correct that they're charging us $2,500 for the text alerts and 4,005 thousand dollars for the website. And I'd like to understand what we're really getting for those dollars other than... I'm assuming they're hosting our website, and they're giving us the software to build our website. So they're kind of almost like a WordPress kinda software for municipalities.
That's what they are. Yeah. Yeah. And... Okay. It's a it's a website management, or it's a municipal environment. It would be helpful, Matt, if you... If stuff like this and even the the quotes for the truck, we could get that before the packet's available so that we have time to look at it.
Yeah. I... If I remember it... So... I apologize for that because, when I had talked to the first electorate before, I was assuming that the meeting was gonna be on the thirteenth. So all of a sudden, last week, we realized that it was suddenly the fifth, and we're sort of rushing to get that in. Kate was at class for most of that. So I was trying to get as much as I could in the short amount of time that it was. Came in and worked several hours on on Friday, and we came back in on Sunday. So I'm I'm trying... I'll I'll do better for the next meeting. I promise. Matt is Matt is not wrong there that the
the thought was that the meeting was the Tuesday after the holiday and not, but the board, and I don't remember doing it, approved the meeting list last year. So we do the meeting list on a calendar basis, and we approved that in January. So apologies
for the meeting being tonight. It was all I should have looked ahead. So it's my fault.
But any of this information that we can get in advance, especially if you're going to put it in your, report, you got to send us something so that we are comfortable with what you're asking us to do. So we're not just making motions based upon hearsay.
Yeah, I've had, and just sort of the rest of the slide where I had a private conversation with the first slide, but I'm gonna try and at least give a sort of a weekly update what I'm doing, and I hope to... That I can put some of that stuff in there. And then the the administrative report would basically be a combination of the four reports that I would give you at the end of the week. I'm trying to find time to do that, but I should be able to start that. And if it... And if it works, then we'll keep doing it. If it doesn't, then, you know, adjust and go on the on the fly. So my intent is to try and give you as much information as you can make the decisions that that you can weigh the weigh the pros and cons, and we'll go from there.
And so the other board members understand what I talked about, Matt, is... With this last week was that it would be helpful if he sent us emails on a more regular basis so we could understand what's going on. If there's problems or issues or something that we need to weigh in on, we can at least be more... It's it's difficult, especially... I mean, you know, not all of us are in the town hall as much as everybody, but it's helpful if we can
hear from Matt more on a more regular cadence. So that's what I asked for. And and if I could just add one that a lot of times, I'm not... You you are the ears of the communities. People will call you. So there's times when, Jeff called me and asked me if I know something, and I... They went and talked to Jeff first before they talked. So a lot of times if you hear, so there's something going on just to make me aware of it so it's on my radars because I don't wanna, you know, a, I don't want you guys to be blindsided but I also don't wanna, you know, be working behind the scenes and not knowing that something's going on in town. So it would just help me at my job if we kinda both have that communication back and forth. So I look forward to trying that out too.
And so, the one member of our board that is not here tonight, Scott Personda, I honestly think this is the first meeting that Scott has ever missed since I've been involved. And Scott is honestly the, the eyes and the ears. He he hears everything. Everybody goes to Scott. So all of the, of the residents that have lived here for their lives, you know, go to Scott. Scott knows everything that's going on in town. So if anybody on the board wants to know what's going on, you go to Scott. You don't come to me, you go to Scott. So anyway, I... And and, you know, I hope Scott feels better. So he has to be sick to miss a meeting. Alright. Does anybody else have any other questions for Matt?
Matt, actually, you and I had spoken, I think, last week about the the opioid fund. Were you ever able to find out more information? Because I think there's a resident on one of the boards that's been telling people that they just have to come to the fire department, and we're gonna hand out money. And, that's... I wanted to make sure that was corrected because we don't have.
Yeah. No. I've been in touch with the, I guess the administrator for the accounts. It's Brown and Greer. And I don't know the treasurer may give some other information, but I'm trying to get work with the State Department of Mental Health and Services. They're sort of like people that we report the spending to. And so between the two, we are trying to get ourselves set up so that we can start getting some funds. Thank you.
Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Matt, thank you. We're gonna move on to item nine, the treasurer's report. Lisa?
Yep. You should have received all of your reports in your packets. The most recent one should be dated September 20. These were also given out at the Board of Finance report meeting. I will say for the budget to actual is the first one that I'm looking at. I just wanted to make a note that the town clerk's office looks like it has on your maps and filming and indexing, it looks like they're over by 231%. They are not. There was something in the next line that needed to be moved up. So they're at 18% for that and 15% for the line above land records. So they're fine. So I don't want anybody to think they're way overspending their line item because they're not. Does anybody have any other questions on the budget to actual? Okay, that's a no.
Yep, the budget to actual for the funds and then... Actually, this is capital. I'm sorry. For any... The next page is the... Yeah. It's the next group. It's the next report. Next report is the cash balance. Yeah.
Oh, sorry. Minor inverted. Okay. These are your cash accounts that that have been reconciled. This is a new report that we've been working on to try and get you balance figures. So we're aware what's in your cash accounts. Any questions on those? Is... What is next? Is that the transfer account? It's monthly monthly transactions.
For the capital, though. Correct? Yeah. That's what you have in there? Yeah. It's just the... Nope. It's just the Oh, wait a minute. You know what? My page for... This must be my last page for budget to actual because it's the capital related. Alright.
So we're just moving from cash to Yeah. The operating the operating account monthly transactions.
Yep. And these are all the checks that we've written throughout the month? Mhmm. I don't know if anybody had a chance to look at that, see if they had any questions.
So if everybody sits there and looks at their report, there's a cleared column. Anything that isn't an x has been reconciled, and anything that does not have an x has not yet cleared the bank, just from informational standpoint. And then the debits are deposits and the credits are checked, are outgoing. So any questions related to that? I mean, there's a lot of information in the memo, so it's appreciated to understand what's going on.
Yeah. A lot of times it was less blank in the past, but we just find it even... Not even just for meetings and such, but we need to go back and look at something or the auditors do it's easier for them to understand what that transaction is. The next report, believe, is the capital reserve funds listing to see what's in your capital accounts? Correct.
And then there's the transactions by account are for capital transactions so you know what's going through for capital movement. There are a lot more than there used to be reports, but we think that you'll get much more information from these.
So your biggest transaction that's coming out of the fire engine reserve fund is the payment on the fire truck to M and T equipment lease. And then you have under road improvement. You have all the transactions that Eric sat there and spoke to us about last week related to the road work that was being done. So, some of the money was coming out of the line item that has been that would be expensed and the other portion of it is coming out of the road improvement fund that we have on our fund balances.
Then there's the non major capital project funds. These are pretty much the culverts and bridges. These balances might look a little different because what you have to remember about these is we have to file for reimbursement and it can take sixty to ninety days to get those funds back. It's money we've spent and now we're waiting for the state to reimburse us. So those are you might see some negative numbers there, but we're waiting for reimbursement.
And you can sit there and see in the Culvert Fund. Well, two things on this. The Culvert Fund is a bank account that we've saved money and primarily looking at the Bisola Road culvert, the Cheen Brook Culvert that's supposed to get done in 2027. So that one has a fund balance that we've built up. The pedestrian bridge fund, $5,820 Go, go, go.
That is related to the bridge over Route 316. That is something that we need to do a little bit of work on, but I would like to sit there and recommend that it's related to the the Hop River Trail. And I believe that what we should do related to that is look at a piece of equipment to sit there and extend the time and the use of that trail in the winter. I do believe that it would be something that we could sit there and do related to either what we're dealing with now on that trail is a blower to sit there and blow the trail or a snowblower because like last winter, because of the two large snowstorms that we had, the trail didn't get used for two to three weeks because the snow was not cleared from the trail. So it's something that we as a board should look at. That fund has been there since the bridge went up probably fifteen years ago. So we should look at doing something with those funds.
Non major permanent funds. There was discussion last week on the Graniard scholarship fund. I've met with Charlotte on this and we figured out what the difference was. So this report is just... I didn't wanna give you a different updated report because these are all September 20 and they could change you know as we do work every day but there was there was a default because there's so many of these reports myself and the assistant treasurer were working to get familiar with them so there was a grant that came through and should be in this account so we've resolved what that is and we just become and we met with charlotte this week both the assistant treasurer and myself so we could better understand these funds and what they're used for and where items should be placed for deposits. So we're getting there, but we're a lot closer than we were in the past.
So what you're really saying is that something that should have been increasing the Diane Granier Scholarship Fund was in the Norton's Children Fund.
Correct. Yep. And then there was also a thousand dollar scholarship that went out that I thought was from scholarship fund because it said scholarship but it it comes from the children Norton's fund this is a whole separate fund whole separate fund from Norton's children And non you've got something Jeff or no you're good? No let's go to the next. Yep the non major special revenue funds or what we used to call the liability funds that everybody has been asking for their balances. And we've worked really hard to get to that point. We're still working on a couple of them, but at least now people such as basketball or seniors, we at least know where they're at, where they're they're much closer to where the funds are at. I've been communicating with the basketball folks. We're trying to get that resolved to see how that's gonna continue to work out. And then Norton, worked with the scholarship I worked on too, but this is definitely still needs some polishing, but at least we have a lot better idea of these funds. Any questions on that? The other thing is too, and I've got to get to the departments, have people going and asking for grants, particularly from greater Hartford and not running it through Matt or myself. So when these monies come in, we don't even know anything about them. So we're trying to straighten that out. We're trying to work with some of the departments on processing deposits like the building department and the dog fund and such for the clerks.
Brenda, the assistant treasurer is giving out reports every time now that we run a check run so that people can stay on top of their budgets. They've never done that before. Brenda is still training the assistant treasurer. There's a lot for her to learn, but it's going good. I'm keeping up with reports and the audit. We're working on that. So we're real busy in the treasurer's office, but anybody have any questions?
Lisa, it's not a question, but I just I did want to give you a heads up. Know the veteran, field improvement that just finished this spring, we received the 10,000 grant from the Hartford Foundation last year and we have just applied for this round. I don't know if we're going to receive it. Okay. Because there's a couple more things we wanted to do at the field that would the money would be super helpful, but we did just submit the application. So I just wanted to give you a heads up. I'll let you know. I will make sure you know if we do receive it. That would be great. Is it another 10,000 or... That's... We're hoping. Yeah. Okay.
Alright. Alright. That'd be great. If... And and anybody can just send us an email so that when we get funds, we know what it's for. Because we'll get it, you know, online, and we'll say, I don't know who's this is or what it's for. So if someone hasn't run it through Matt or myself, that'd be great. Thank you.
Okay. Anybody else have any other questions for Lisa? I will sit there and let you know that Lisa and Brenda are doing a great job. There's a lot of work that still needs to be done. They continue to work through the issues, and Lisa is putting in a lot more time than she initially signed up for. So it is going to be something that this board is going to have to come back, and we're probably going to have to come back and make an additional increase to her compensation. I'm just letting you know that right now. I'll sit there, and I'll get you the information
as you know, Matt, Lisa, and I sit down and talk about it. But it's something that for at least this cycle that we have to deal with to get set up. It's really important that we compensate Lisa properly. So just letting you know. The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving grants. One of those grants went into the basketball fund. It's something that we have to make sure, Lisa, that those dollars are used appropriately because it's not operational Funds.
Correct. For Right. You know, basketball really has probably $4,933 left in their account for operational funding. So what they've charged... And we're probably going to make some adjustments as to how that is accounted for. But I'll deal with Megan on that and Lisa later. But that $5,000, we need to make sure because it was granted to the town for the use for basketball. And I believe that it was for the use of the community center to sit there and purchase the software to do scheduling. It's something that we need to work to make sure that that money gets used for something to... Whether it's that software or whether it is something to... I don't care if it's something that gets done in the gym to sit there and improve the gym. It needs to be used for something than that rather than for the payment of travel basketball or referees or other kind of services related to that. So I just wanna make sure it gets used properly. Anything else for Lisa? Okay. Lisa, thank you very much. Thank you. All right. We're gonna go to item 10, old business. 10 a is the status of the senior transportation garage. So, Matt, where are we? Anything updated on that?
Sorry about that. Was trying to get off mute. I think we're at the stage now where I think we want to try and get a group together to discuss that. I think that now that we're closing off some of the other grants, we haven't really done much on that. But as we've talked about it a couple times tonight, that's one of the upcoming projects that we'd like to move forward with. I think that we have some grant funds that are already available. It's just starting to get the traction to move forward. So I would love to hear your thoughts on that. That's a select board thought so we can move this one forward. It's the same with a few of the other grants that we have coming up too.
So that one had been funded at a certain level. I believe it was somewhere in the range of $2.90 that we had grant funding for, but it's gonna be slightly higher than that. So it's something that we have to deal with the board of finance and potentially a town meeting to make sure that everybody is in alignment with using the extra funds to sit there and do the 2nd Floor. But it is something that we have to get done because the buses have been sitting outside, and it would be a lot easier for the senior transportation group if we had this building. The library just told us we don't have a lot of dry storage in town and it would be something that would be beneficial. But it is something that we have to get the dollars lined up and make sure everybody understands what what is going on. Any other questions related to that? Okay. We'll move on to item 10 b, the status of Long Hill Bridge project.
So there was going to be a meeting of the first. It got postponed to the eighth. Currently, we're about time schedule, we're about 70% of the way through the project. From what I've heard from the SLRs, our project managers that we're still anticipating that it will be completed on time. They're expecting it to be the... They had told us the middle of December. They think it should be done the first week of December, but a lot of it has to do with the weather as far as with the time for paving. But even even so, the span should be open for the winter. And if there's any small things that need to be done in the springtime, that'll be carried over. But...
So we do have a meeting, I guess, as I mentioned, this Wednesday... I'm sorry, this Thursday at 10AM, so we'll get an update at that point. But things are starting to progress. They're pulling a lot of the the fill out of there, giving a... It's for disposal. A lot of it, I think, than a... I think it was more than a 100 loads that it got... They they signed out because It's technically wasn't clean fill because they had residual of bituminous and asphalt oils But in it's moving forward. I think that they have gotten the micro pilings done in the next few, in the next few weeks or so with... They're hoping that, we'll start seeing more frame going up and that, you know, the beams going up. So it'll look like,
an actual moving light towards a bridge now than the way it has been, just a gap between the two river banks.
I went down there last week. It really does. I was a little concerned that they weren't moving fast enough, but they have the support structure on the side closest to the library completed, and the side toward Long Hill and up the road there pouring significantly long footings to rest the beams on. I can just tell you what I took away from it was that the opening for the bridge will be so much more substantial than the prior bridge, that the water flow underneath that bridge will have a lot more room to move. So I would like them to move faster, but at least you can sit there and see that it is progressing. I mean, my biggest problem is driving by all the time. I don't really see a lot of activity as I drive by, but they're... They must be out earlier than I am. So looks good. Alright. Any other questions on Long Hill Bridge? K. Status of the Percy Cook Trail, Matt?
Excuse me, I just have to tell you guys I have to exit the meeting. Okay. No problem. Okay.
So we had a discussion this last week about the Perseco Trail. I know we're at a point where the project has been fully designed and the next step would be to get funds if we're agree with where we are. So, I think we're at the stage where we just wanna go through with where they've currently got the plan and bring that back for public, public comments so that we can see if we wanna move forward with it the way it is. I don't know if there's any neighbors that have concerns or not, but it's a it's a project that, you know, we we should be able to get some grant funds either through through the rec trails program or other grants to help fund that project. It's a. The thought was initially it's going to be was going to go over the mountain right now. They got to go around. It's going to be multi use. It's so that, you know, it's pedestrian as well as for horse riding. So we're at a at a... Another point where we can just, you know, get back with Barton the guide us and go over the plans and perhaps at the next meeting up, we'll, we can talk about perhaps if it's required not to have some sort of public a public hearing or just a public information session so that we can go over that and then strategize where we can get the funds to build this.
The understanding of that project was that the entity that funded the engineering side would also fund the build. So what we need to do is we need to get the engineering drawings approved, and we should bring it back for public hearing and get all of the stakeholders to understand what's going on. And then we need to move forward so that we can sit there and attempt to to get lined up to get the grant funding we were under the understanding that they funded the engineering work, that they were gonna fund the project once it was engineered out. So let's sit there and do that. This... The attempt on this is to have it be a no cost project for the taxpayer.
So let's sit there and see what the engineering group has for our next meeting so you can present where it's currently at and get moved. Alright. Anybody else on 10 c status of the Percy Cook Trail? Okay. 10 d, the status of the AES bathroom renovation. Matt went over that in his his report. So unless somebody has any questions related to that, we're gonna move on to the next item. K. 10 e, discussion and possible action on appointment of cleaning contract for the town office buildings. Matt, where are we at with this?
Well, we currently have the person that we've hired to do it twice twice a month actively. She came in this past weekend. I think it's out of time that I can review it to see if we're happy with their services. We're continue with that. They also did the... Do the community center. So we'll... I have nothing new to report there other than that. So there are other options that we can move forward with if we wanna try and... At the the the thought was, as I mentioned at the previous meeting, that, you know, we're trying not to... You know, we had gone so many weeks without it that we were gonna try and do it, like, twice a twice a twice a month. I think that, we've been reasonably happy, but it it... You know, it's not to the... I guess I've gotten a lot of complaints from, Scott Persol that, you know, he would like it to be much cleaner. So perhaps we have to try something else. But right now, it's it's a work in progress.
Okay. I know that, we did receive an email from Amy Ormolowski. If we can sit there and review the, Steve Clark, I believe. Campbell. Campbell. Steve Campbell prior, you know, I know he was the custodian for the school. So if it's something that, you know, might work and, you know, that might be an option. So let's look at that as well. Okay. Anyone else? Any questions? Okay. Discussion on ten and a half. Discussion on possible action on appointment of the maintenance person. That goes into what Matt just talked to us about. So let's sit there and Matt keep pushing this along
so that we can maybe find... I mean listen, we're never going to find someone that worked as hard or cared as much as our prior person. But let's sit there and do our best efforts to try to do it the best we possibly can for both those issues. And also remember that for what we paid them, they also did the library. So we've got to bring this in together. So it was the library, the town hall, and the community center that they were all... They were doing in the past. So let's look at that. 10 g discussion and possible action on the Cheney Brook Culvert over Brazola Road or Brazola Road, Cheney Brook Culvert. The engineering firm... I'll speak to this one because this is... You know, the engineering firm came and and
plotted out the the temporary and the permanent easements last week. I actually have a meeting with the McNeil family tomorrow to sit there and talk to them because they are the most impacted resident related to the temporary easements. So just trying to get this moving. Then attorney O'Brien and Matt, if we could, if we can get attorney O'Brien to meet with Howard Frommer from the engineering firm as soon as possible so that we can schedule that meeting and then get the easements completed because that's gonna be the key. I know the engineering firm would like to go out for an RFP in January. So we need to get the easements completed so that we can move on and get that done. So that's where we're at related to the Cheney Brook Culvert.
Ten h, discussion of possible action. There's old business on the Doors E Chamberlain Pond parking lot. So Matt, just quick update as to where we're at with that.
As you remember, last meeting, we approved the signage funding. Well, we didn't say where it was coming, but we approved that we're... To move forward with the sign as well as the the DPW plan for grading the parking lot and putting in, I guess, would be called handicap parking. There was a a cost for the DPW to do that. I think it would... I'd have to look back. I think it was about $30,000. It '20 was $530,000. We haven't discussed where that is coming from, but the plan is to to move forward once we, can identify those funds and have DPW take care of that. Other than that, I I I know that it's been a a project for Diane Greiner. She's been spearheading this, so we'd like to try and move this along if we can find where... If we're just gonna have DPW taken out of some of the funds. We'll just... I I think that we can work with Lisa and and the first electorate to come back to the select board to find out where we want to come up with the funds for that parking lot. But we did get approval from the inland wetlands for for the the repairs that we talked about. Alright. So so two different things.
Please, for the next meeting, get us, like, financial costs related to the parking lot, and we may as well get financial costs to the issue that Diane was after, which is the signage. And so we can sit there and understand what the two impacts would be for us. And then we'll figure out as a board where we either do it this year and find the money within one of the funds, or we sit there and put it back for next year and put it through the budgetary process. Because, you know, with the with the parking area, we could sit there and do that out of, you know, road maintenance or a town aid road fund because it bleeds into 3 16, and it would be appropriate to have a better parking area there. It's also an area where the fire department has a hydrant access.
So it would be... You know, there's many reasons why we'd wanna do it. But Matt, if you could sit there and get us the financial cost of it so we can know what we're talking about and, you know, figure out ways to get that done. Okay. Anybody else have any questions related to the Chamberlain Pond work? 10 I, discussion and possible action regarding town bank accounts. Well, I'll just sit there and we had closed. We transferred the funds that were in separate accounts, the 21 accounts. We sat there and moved those funds into interest bearing accounts. Matt, I'd asked to establish or take of those 21 accounts, three accounts. One for the fire department, one for the library, and one for an AES, all for operating accounts, just to establish the accounts so that if we could move forward in an appropriate level, we have those accounts without having to go back and reestablish. I also asked for a fourth account to be for... And or youth basketball so that we could go back to how we were previously with an account handled for that entity and organization. So has M and T Bank been receptive and working on what we have to get done?
So we had... I think you were on the email that we had. I talked to Rob about that. We decided which account numbers that we're doing, and then we had to just issue a new a letter for each of those accounts that... And as far as who the signatories are. So that has been, sent along, and he's usually pretty quick. I should be hearing sometime this week from him. The next step would be the... As we've, guess, Jeff and I have discussed, is the closing of the other, 17 accounts. So once we get these set up and close off the ones that we're no longer using, they're just sort of paper accounts right now.
K. Zero balance accounts. Okay. Alright. Anybody have any other questions related to the town bank accounts? Okay. 10 j discussion regarding the AES town AES Town banking transactions. I'll sit there and deal with this item. Right now, we are committed to making the weekly disbursements to the AES operating account. So we are making those transactions. Those those will hit each Wednesday. I believe it's $93,000. We have a meeting scheduled or no, we don't have a meeting scheduled. We had a meeting scheduled for October 6 with the State Department of Education. The State Department of Education could not... Did not have the ability to make that meeting. So we're working on trying to get a different date set for the meeting. That will be at the state department of education. And
the hope is that it will happen in the month of October. So I gave attorney O'Brien multiple dates today to sit there and try to get that appointment and meeting scheduled. I wanna be clear to the public that I'm trying to keep Matt and Lisa out of this issue. It is a matter of policy, not of execution. I really don't want Matt or Lisa involved in this because my intention is that they have a good working relationship, the best possible working relationship they can have with the Board of Education and the Superintendent as they move forward. If there's going to be any negativity toward this, I have no problem with it hitting me. More than willing to accept that, but I really don't think it is beneficial to have Matt or Lisa engaged in a matter of policy. And I want the public to know that. So I know that the Board of Education is asking for Matt to attend this meeting. And I have been very consistent with attorney O'Brien that I don't want Matt to attend this meeting because I don't want anyone to be thinking negatively of the town administrator related to this issue. I'm just letting everybody know that.
And as soon as that happens and it gets scheduled, I will let the board of selectmen know. Alright? Anybody have any questions related to that item? Okay. We're gonna move on to item 11 of new business, and we're gonna go to eleven a discussion of possible action. Yeah. Go ahead. 10 k. Oh, yes. And I am so sorry. You're right. 10 k. Discussion and possible action on the Boy Scouts sponsorship request. Attorney O'Brien has been working with the troop internally here. He's looking to discuss with the Boy Scouts, the Connecticut organization of the Boy Scouts, he will have that in place in time for the troop to sit there and go. We have a little bit of a hiccup, and we're gonna work through it, but there's a need for a committee. It's not an issue. It's gonna get done. He has some more work to do related to the Boy Scouts, the state organization,
and making sure that we do this correctly. But it will get done in time for the troop to carry on with their certification. And just wanted to let everybody know that because it was on our last meeting, and we sat there and said that the attorney was gonna go back and deal with it, but we didn't include it on our agenda. So I wanted to add that. Thank you for making sure I didn't miss that. Eleven a, discussion and possible action on awarding temporary IT service contract. Matt, do you need us to authorize that? I mean, for... Well, I guess my question is, what are you doing related to any liability insurance or anything related to, god, I forgot his name. I'm... I apologize. Steven at Steven. Yeah. Ambrose. Yes. Why
don't you draft a quick contract and get with attorney O'Brien and get that done? And then we'll sit there and come back to you once that's completed and get that approved. Alright. Alright. 11 B, discussion and possible action on awarding contract for municipal complex grant funded generator. Please get that information to us so we can get it done. I'm I'm going to sit there and make a motion on this. I'm gonna let everybody know. Lenco, who will be awarded this contract, has done all of the pre wiring for this this contract. He did all of the rewiring on the basement of the of the town hall. So this generator is going to this generator is going to go and cover all three buildings in the public complex. So it's going to cover the fire department. It's going to cover the town hall, and it's going to cover the community center. And all of the conduit and everything has been laid by LENCO and they know where it's all to go. So it was something that it only seems appropriate. And LENCO has done a significant amount of work related to the town
and at a very significant discount. So this project and Matt, I know it's a $130,000 potential cost. How much of that is the generator just so everybody gets it? The the quote that we have is for $323,000. Okay. $3.23. And what's the cost of the generator? Well, that was the cost of the generator.
Well, that's the cost of the generator and installation. It's not the cost of the generator. So can you send Let me look at That's okay. Can you send out the entire quote to the board? And so I'm gonna make a motion that we we provide preliminary approval for the quote to do the generator project with the understanding that the town administrator provide us the appropriate financial documentation and that each one of the members of the board communicate their approval or disapproval with the town administrator prior to authorizing the town administrator to sign the contract. K. Someone would second that. We can vote on that. So Anne is gonna second that. K.
How soon will you need to answer from each of us then?
It's getting sent to us. What was the timeline on They they gave us a... On September 22, they gave us a a quote that's good for thirty days. So we're talking the... I guess, October twenty first, twenty second. So So we have sixteen days Maybe a a week we should plan on probably. Okay. Okay. Well, I guess I'll have to go back to them because they they listed everything that they're doing and what the total sale price is. So the only quote... The the cost on this six pages is the total sale price. So you wanna know what the actual generator itself is and all that information. I'll have to get back to Rich from LENCO then.
Yep. I mean, that's, of course, being that difficult. I mean, he's got it in his number. He knows. I just wanna know what the cost of the equipment is versus the cost of the installation, just so the community is aware. Right. Any other questions or comments related to this? All right. And how do you vote? Dave, how do you vote? Dave, did we lose you? Dave, he was... Yes.
He's on mute. Jeff, I vote yes. So three zero. Alright. So if you can get us that information, Matt, as soon as possible, then we'll sit there and I'll communicate back to you directly. Okay. Eleven to see discussion of possible action on a renewing contract for website migration with Civic Plus. So this isn't website migration. It's really just renewing hosting contract with them. K. So I'm gonna do the same thing. I'm gonna make a motion that we authorize the town administrator to provide us the financial information with the renewal of the website hosting contract with Civic Plus. And that once we receive that each member of the board will communicate directly back to the town administrator a yes or no as to moving forward with the renewal for a twelve month period
with civic plus. Okay. And that Anne seconded that as well. Further discussion on this item? Oh, Anne, how do you vote? Yes.
Dave, how do you vote? Yes. I vote yes. Three nothing. We have another item. I'll make a motion that we approve a resolution to authorize the town administrator to apply for the DECD funds for fiscal year twenty twenty six. And I'll sit there and I'll go make a motion to approve a resolution authorizing the TON administrator to apply for the $250,000 of DECD funds to be applied to the various programs that are out to be funded, the generator project, the field project, and the outfitting of the community center kitchen for fiscal year twenty six, twenty seven. Okay.
Dave Gustanian seconded that These funds, just so everybody aware, and Matt, make sure I'm saying this correctly. These are the funds from the state of Connecticut that were
legislative funds from that our state rep rep and state senator put out for us, I guess, senator Robin. The 250,000, we got the same thing for '2... Fiscal twenty twenty six. So now, we're just applying for these, separate part of the government that, oversees this is DECD, Department of Economic Development and Community Development. So, it is it's really just for I guess for the town has been good about getting these grants. It's it's been a shot in the arm for some of these projects to get get funded. So it's we're definitely grateful to the our legislators in the state of Connecticut for these funds. Yep. So it's the state
funding that we had totaled $500,000 in two tranches, one for last fiscal year, one for this fiscal year. And just so everybody else is aware, we also have federal legislative funds for the total, I believe $273,000 Matt? $283,000
$283,000 that we also need to sit there and allocate toward toward the various projects that we also have gone going that we're trying to pay as much as possible with these these funding. Those ones are really for the
generator, it's to the community center. Really flexible. Those USDA funds cannot go towards the fields, but they can do pretty much anything for the community center for renovations. Initially, when it was applied for, there was a match. They've gotten rid of the match. So these funds are... You know, there's no matching requirement for the town.
Okay. Alright. So we're going back to the the DECD motion for the 250,000 legislative funding. And Dave had seconded that. So Anne, how do you vote? Yes. Dave, how do you vote? Yes. Jeff votes. So three nothing. So Matt, we can get that resolution. Yeah. We'll get that to you. It's a good sign. Yep. Okay. I don't believe that we have any or... Any more items under new business. So we're gonna move on to item 11, approval of minute meetings for the 09:14 regular meeting. Anyone have any comments on the minutes? Okay. So I'm just gonna move to vote. Anne, how do you vote? Yes.
Dave, how do you vote? Yes. I vote yes. Three, nothing. Item 12 is a tax collector's report that starts on page 36, goes through her information, provides what she's collected to date, what was collected in the month of September, which was a $186,000. We're missing some information there as far as the collected by period, but when we can get that done, move that forward. This month coming up is a heavy collection period for the tax collector, so it'll be one of the quarterly cycles in October. Anybody have any questions on any of the tax collector's information that she provided? K. I'm gonna make a motion that we approve tax refunds for the month of... For the month... Well, tax refunds dated 10/05/2026 in the total of a $180.35. Second.
Dave Kustanean seconded the tax refund motion. Any questions? Anne, how do you vote? Yes. Dave, how do vote? Yes. I vote yes. Three, nothing. K. Departmental reports. There's nothing in the assessor's report, Matt. So I know we have the COC summary for the month. That is there. Nothing's in the main report. We also have a departmental report for the building department. Starts on page 42. Total fees for the month, $7,800 for the building department. On page 50, the blight report is included, which is appreciated. So thank the zoning officer for that, Matt. What is the difference, Matt, between the $7,800 that the building department shows us on page on page 47, and then the building department shows us a different number on page 53. So if we could sit there and get a little bit of coordination between those two pages, it would be helpful.
So that's September. You said 53. Yeah. Let me see what I can find out for you. Appreciate it. Okay. So
it looks like the building department really was more along the lines of $12,000 for the month. Just to let everybody know, there's a lot of pages in the billing department report, so we need to make sure that we have...
It could be that those are only the building department on the on the page 47, and then these include the other ones. Could be, but let's get those. It shows electrical mechanical plumbing here too.
Let me work on that. Just look at that for next month. Yep. All right. So also we have the Department of Public Works report. One thing that you did say previously that I'd like some feedback, I'd like some information on, we got the new pump at Public Works for diesel. And you said that they needed another component to this process to deal with the heat in the tank.
So there was a set... It's a separate system that was not part of the GIR system that's used to keep track of the levels of the how much fuel is in there and then the temperature of the fuel and all the... And that was a different system And that would usually talk to the new system that's the... Keeps track of what goes that... It goes out for the different vehicles.
The system that we bought doesn't track what's in the tank. That is correct. That's the pump. Okay. Can you get with Eric and just provide us a little bit more information, maybe in your next email related to this, so we understand why that is the case that we're paying for the pump, which looks great. And then we're having to add another 15,000 or $12,000 on related to a component that I would have thought would have been included. So just, in your next email, that would be great. Yep. Alright.
Matt, that... In that report, it said something about a 100 gallon gasoline tank. What was that That
was, so that the, PPW could have, some gas on-site. If you remember at the last meeting, Eric had mentioned that, sometimes during the storms, they're using... They go to the local gas stations and they're either out of out of fuel or they had no electricity or something like that. So that... This way, they would have some gasoline on hand at the the DPW if they needed to, refill gasoline.
Is that being serviced by the new pump or no? No. It's an emergency,
Dave. It's an emergency second. It's a backup system in case they're out of power or in case they have other emergency. They at least have some fuel so that they can get out there and deal with their issues. Just a question on DPW, because I was not... During the nor'easter, he only received two calls. Okay. Okay. That's pretty good. And what that tells you is that the tree work that's being done in town is really paying off for us. So, that's good.
Anybody else have any other questions related to, Department of Public Works? Okay. Correspondence. That is a letter that went out to the state. Have you gotten any response, Matt, to any I I have not yet, but
as I mentioned, that went out, I guess, it's two weeks ago now, so we should hope to hear something. Okay.
And then one other thing, why don't you reach out and communicate with them and get with, I would think Christine has an Anne, both have very firsthand information because of where they live as to that light. Let's sit there and see if there's any ability to make any current adjustments to that light to how they... It sets up for the turn. Where the sensors are. Where the sensors are. Yep. So if you could sit there and do that, that would be great. Alright. Anything else? There's any other supplemental assistance that's related to the Andover component of a $100,000 basically for the $180,000,000 that the state provided to all the other municipalities. So we got a $100,000.17000 for the town, and then 80 some odd thousand dollars for education. Okay. All right. Anybody have any questions or comments about the correspondence? Okay. Let's move on to item four... Fifth... I'm sorry. Also, we were out of sequence number wise. So the approval of the minute meetings is eleven a, and then we'll just keep following the same number in sequence down. So we're gonna move on to item 15, public speak, and we're gonna start with Diane Greiner. Yes, How is your shoulder? Excuse me? How's your arm?
Oh, not good. It got dislocated and I have to have the surgery redone. It's called rinse and repeat. So I'm back in the hospital on Thursday. Sorry about that.
Don't go there. K. But no pain. It hasn't been painful, so that's okay. But I just wanted to mention, I I said last month, and again, about the department presentations. I think that's a great idea. I enjoy having those and the updates from there, and I think that's good. I'd like to thank you all for your support and the work on the Doris Chamberlain parking lot and other little things, the sign and things like that that we're doing. I think we're gonna make that a a thing of beauty that the town residents can be proud of. It's a wonderful little location, and there's a lot of people taking part in little pieces of that, and it's gonna be a great thing. So I thank you for your work on that. Thank Lisa for meeting with Charlotte Nelson to understand
the Norton Commissions and all their little funds. That's not as simple as you think it should be. They've done a great job, I think they understand that, and that's moving forward. And that's a good thing. And basically, it looks like another good meeting. A lot of information out there. And thank you all for all you do. Okay. Joanne Hebert.
I'll be super quick too. I appreciate the department presentations also. I wanted to say that, you know, as a former member of the Board of Finance, when we were checking on things, I did tour the fire department, and it's a beautiful building. We've put a lot of money into that building and the equipment, and it's spotless. I was in shock of how how nice that building is. I hope all taxpayers can go see it. The other thing kind of that I wanna bring up is the truck came up again. I'm kind of old school too that I believe in budgeting for an item, you know, so it's a little surprising to be asked to get a, you know, a truck that probably will be well used, but I wish they would go through the proper budgeting procedure, present all of you with the inventory that they have presently
and, you know, properly present it and then, you know, present maybe an $80,000 purchase for next budget season because I know, you know, in all my learning experiences that the roads in town are a big deal to people and they really do look good in Andover compared to other towns that I drive through. They're looking very, very good and to take that money out of town aid roads just because it's there is a little bit bothersome to me. And I get that there might be a surplus there right now, but I'd rather see it budgeted for properly. Thank you. Megan Lately.
Hi, Jeff. No no comment for me tonight. Thank you. K. You got it. And 2345, which I believe is attorney O'Brien.
Oh, great meeting. Got it over pretty quick. It's not even 09:00 yet.
Alright. Do you have anything that you wanna comment on, sir?
Yeah. I wanna comment on the on the the scout... Scouting and, veterans group, project you gave me to do. It's complicated. Both both parties, both entities have complicated regulations. The contract that was given to me to look at is very complicated. It's not well done. It is going... It is taking a lot of time. I've talked to representative, from the, town of veterans and also, the scout leader, and they're great. I got a lot of background information, pages and pages of notes. I'm deep into it, but it is not gonna be easy. Although, I think it can be done if in fact it's it's legal for, you know, the, town to be involved, with the stouts in the way that has been proposed. But I'm gonna try to make it work however I can possibly do it. But like everybody else who speaks about these things, I wanna do it right. And it is not gonna be... It is not easy. That's all I wanna say.
Okay. Alright. I I don't think we have any other members of the public that are left. So, we're going move on to item 16 adjournment. I'll make a motion to adjourn. Second.
Dave Gestani has seconded. Anne, how do you vote? Yes. Dave, yes. Jeff, yes. Three nothing. Everybody, you. Matt, thank you for your time. I appreciate it. And everybody else, thank you very much. You'll all be hearing from me. I'll get some emails out to you. Thank you. All right. Bye. Bye.
This transcript was generated by Deepgram from the meeting recording. Names, numbers, and other details may be inaccurate; the video is authoritative.