TranscriptCapital Improvement Policy Committee Meeting ~ December 20, 2022

good do you think oh that's great excellent I'll try it out okay just so you know all right welcome everyone uh to this third meeting of the CIP that's the capital Improvement program meeting and this is for financial year 23 2023

if we could just kick it off as usual with a round robin uh where everyone can introduce themselves that'd be great maybe Michelle would like to serve sure Del Rulo David Lewis Drive Joe Tom 1180 Drive Paul first Chesley Hill Road Peter bow mossfield Jerry Douglas Town manager all right thank you um so typically at this point in the process the third meeting is a pretty short meeting because at this point we've already reviewed the department the department replacement schedules provided by the department heads and the town manager we've reviewed the 10-year plan from the manager we've also reviewed the application requests for projects and for Reserves

and then of course we have also reviewed the applications themselves right sorry I mentioned that and um we've met with the department heads to get any outstanding questions that we may have answered so that was the last meeting we met with both the fire chief and the Public Works director and uh they did a I have to say I thought they did a a great a very thorough job of explaining their applications I thought both of them did it was very helpful um and we met over at the fire station so then we at since this last meeting we

went off on our own and we individually scored each of the applications uh in accordance with the criteria in the policy and then we sent our scores over to Michelle who was kind enough to collate them for us and put them into rankings so that's where we are this evening um tonight we're going to look at those rankings and see if they're in line with what our general expectation was and see if they they make sense to us and then we'll decide if we're ready to make a recommendation to the selectment and then finally I thought

we'd also talk a little bit about the conveyance memo I know last year we did I put together a short conveyance memo for the selectman and I think there might be some value there because that memo can carry on from the selectment to the budget committee and to others to give them some context with regard to um really why we feel the scores landed as they did and any outstanding things that we think are important to share so um I thought we might take a few just a few minutes and look at the the notes uh Michelle had included in her

um her score sheet a section for notes and I looked over those briefly and I saw that I think everyone included a few notes for each application and so I thought it might be worth talking about briefly you know which notes we feel kind of rise to the top and might be important to share in that conveyance memo so that's pretty much all I've got here at the outset I wonder if we could start by asking Michelle if she'd be willing to present the rankings for us yep do

you want the scores too or just where everything landed so the first one was the stream Crossing 400 Quint rehab was third at 485 and then the fourth was uh Public Works truck fifth one was assessing at 4 54. we had the Chiefs car for the sixth one at 443. uh fire department generator 7th at 433

Public Works Reserve eight at 4 30 and then town office generator 9th at 409. the stream Crossing application and order again stream Crossing exhaust removal Clint rehab Public Works truck assessing fire department Chief's car fire department generator Public Works Reserve town office generator

um I had a chance to look briefly at the individual scores from everybody that everyone submitted and um you know it looked like there was some variance with regard to for example what people selected first or second or third but um it seemed to me to come out generally in a fairly reasonable way of course stream Crossing I think it gets elevated because of course it gets those extra points related to the grant and so every year that helps to elevate it and um I guess that's rightfully so especially in this case where you have a situation where currently we have culverts and at some point those cohorts are going to need to be replaced and I'm assuming that when they do need to be replaced that that's an in-stream job and that we would have to get I don't know exactly what the permitting process would be if it'd be Army Corps probably probably an Army Corps equipment they'll be involved yeah and

so when that happens at some point in the future when those culverts have to be replaced they are probably going to be required require that that Crossing have a natural bottom and that'd be a box covert regular than than regular culverts I am assuming

so it is a little bit of pay me now or pay me later um I'm not sure if they would you know let's say 10 years we don't do this and 10 years down the road that issue has to be addressed uh because we're having major washouts or for whatever reasons or those cohorts get undermined and fail then um you know we would probably have to go the whole the full distance and put in a box score right at that time I'm assuming so I know for me that was kind of a a big point I don't know what others thought but uh yeah I'll just throw it out there stream Crossing where for um for my lens going through this for the first time I tried to rank kind of agnostic of maybe what I thought you know where things should land okay first as you guys yeah yeah you predicted that did kind of work out um you know where where I thought things might have fall but tried to keep my thoughts away from that I do think just looking at my scores

um certainly the having the grant funding um as well as addressing state law and regulation those two components um you know weighted heavily to the overall you know where it placed in My overall ranking which did come in first okay yeah that's that's great thank you Pete yeah so Joe

I had the opportunity to look at it from quite a bit of different Slants here on what might be Opera related and what might be reserved and so I didn't take that into account when I graded sure or afterwards I looked at it and I said all right well which ones would we do Opera and which ones would we do raising the funds and I was just quickly trying to

tally it up here because I didn't have a chance ahead of time and it actually looks like a pretty good deal for the town at this point when we go and recommend that you know we can utilize Opera funds for a number of the projects and put um you know some of the some of the thing about Opera is that you can't combine it with funds we've already raised for a project or are going to raise for a project so you you you have to you have to have to be a um a brand new project that's going to be a one-time deal or we're going to raise all the money this time around that's that's what offers for us so um so it was interesting going through it when I went through it and then I went back through it again about four or five times and the locked wasn't locked up shoes yeah but um definitely exhaust is an important one coincidence and important um important item on the list um you know all of them are very

important for the town and I think it's a good breakup of how this all ends in the end tell yeah yeah yeah I think so good I'll say good deal for the town for the different projects so yeah I actually have the stream Crossing one ranking one in mine actually it was fourth I ended up with

the exhaust removal the Quint rehab and truck almost the exact same scores that's about what I got too I didn't have it one either but yeah I mean I think it's still important and with the the funds available I think it's that's kind of what puts it to the top of the list for me but I didn't have it at the very top

um okay yeah so I I mean I look at these rankings they make sense to me um I it was you know walking out of that meeting last week I really I really felt like gosh this is going to be really tough because all of these are really compelling projects and I'm not sure where they're gonna land but then when I really got down to it I certainly thinks like the exhaust removal ranked High also when I reflected on that visit you know to the uh to the base to the fire station and um and saw the current system how the the ventilation currently operates you know and the fact of course that you know it exchanges all the air um which isn't certainly isn't great from an Energy Efficiency perspective you lose all your heat you know when you open those doors but I think for me the bigger point was you know I just kind of felt that space and that space was not cavernous like many fire department bays are it's a fairly small

space and and I kind of looked at the walls and it seemed to me like you could almost kind of see a little you know you a little bit of kind of a tinge of you know diesel of smoke on the walls they didn't look like you know they didn't look freshly painted anymore I guess that's the point they didn't look freshly painted anymore given the no and given the number of vehicles in those bays and the small space and the fact that we really need to do all we can to support these townspeople who serve on the fire department in my opinion because um you know this is a huge commitment and we rely on them and we you know we need

to make sure we're doing ever everything we can to of course ensure their safety but towns is going to kind of a higher and higher level of professional Department and uh that's also very expensive and so that's why I really think we need to support what we've got I think you know we have a department that seems to work really well and and um it makes sense for us to invest in that so uh anyway um I was a little disappointed that reserves didn't rank higher but they didn't rank higher on my list either and I struggled with this but one of the places I landed was well you know we're in this tough situation we have been for the last two years where we haven't had a clear Reserve balance and so you know are we going to moving forward through the budget committee and the selectman you know are we going to be able to defend a large request I don't know if we can this year until we get some of these other things

uh corrected that need to be corrected with regard to the reserve accounts so um anyway that's where I see him I think it's kind of it's unfortunate because that they're not higher I think especially for public works it needs to be higher because there's in there is a need there those trucks are coming up but um but this is where we are

comments I guess I'm just wondering why that isn't sort of a given it's just something that's done why does it is that normal's the right word yeah because I think there should always be some savings going on if you can obviously I mean there's always going to be things that we need to pay for yeah and I don't know the history of the town and and where we've been and where we're headed well I think I think the challenge is often that um you know these these schedules they

represent um what the department heads feel that they need and those things are generally real needs [Music] um however the town has limited you know still has limited resources and so and we have to think about that balance with regard to the tax rate

each year and so um generally most towns our size don't just put a specific you know number don't just like fully fund the reserves each year they they automate or they don't automatically fund the reserves each year they don't automatically fund them they do it like we're doing it at least that's been my experience because there's just uh more need than there are resources generally in a small community so but maybe we'll go further that direction and then of course the other challenge for us specifically is we haven't had really had significant reserves in the past so we bonded everything so we're still paying uh Bond payments you know where we have a significant um uh debt that we're servicing and my recollection is that we're somewhere around at least last year I thought we're somewhere close to a million I believe in bond payments yeah so you know it's very hard to save while you're making large loan payments so that's

kind of the position we're in so we kind of have to thread that needle a little bit now that said my hope would be that this reserve request still makes it onto the warrant because I think it's really important so um but you know it's also kind of like

when you're rating reservist versus projects they're very different things right well that's where I struggle a little bit seem to equate like I wonder almost whether we should think about like you know handling them separately well and I guess like in relation to this because if you look at that Public Works Reserve in order to pay for you know the new plow truck five years from now yeah funding the reserve this year is kind of needed yeah um so I feel like there's a little bit a bit of a disconnect and if we're if would it be appropriate for that plow truck five years from now to be a request that then if the town approves of it then the reserve is a given because we've said that that's which I mean would entirely change the budget budgeting process but at the same time it kind of because otherwise if we don't fund that this year then I mean Calvin's whole schedule is then going to be thrown off

so don't don't request once we approve it don't request it every year just put it in the budget right basically and the fire department is kind of the same way you know you go because I mean they're long-term assets and it's not I mean you've got to plan a ways out on some of that stuff so like going through this each year is effective like oh well the reserve didn't get funded and so you know potentially you're the purchase of that vehicle is going to be another year down the road assuming that you know the reserve gets funded next year uh yeah but at the same time if we don't I think it's important for us to at a bare minimum review those Reserve requests because um you know we want to make sure that for example the supporting documentation is there for what's being requested and that it seems reasonable right I mean it's important to part of this process is also um answering questions and

queuing up these requests for the subsequent meetings you know the budget committee meetings and the selectment so I I you know I really don't think I I think it's important that the reserves be a part of the process should think about ranking them separately or not I mean there may be I mean

you only do have one uh you know kind of uh well you have multiple sources of funds but in terms of reserve of course it's just it's pretty much just taxation and um it has you know we have to we have to address it somehow so in some ways you could be in a situation some years where you know it's just really compelling and it is important to rank it is important that you know you say that look this is number one because we've got this big purchase it's coming up next year or the year after I think you could look at it too both ways

yeah I think it's hard when you're looking at items where you feel like you need them now and then to your point yeah this is five years down the road and I mean I'm a saver at heart so I love to put money in reserves and have it planned out but it's so hard when you see these items that you feel like okay we need these today yeah and they score higher because of that because there's a more compelling safety yeah I think that's true

Town need to think about a little bit you know because we you know it's like it's like voting every year on whether you're gonna pay your mortgage or not right you've got a commitment to a public works department a commit to a commitment to a fire department

fire department requests are additions to that but the reserves and say the Quint for instance which I I'd almost consider another kind of Reserve type thing something you that's the the cost of doing business in the fire department um you know the reserve for the public works and the queen it's just something you have to do the rest of them are for the most part in the assessing something you have to do although that's not a regular item that's a huge ticket

item I'll say but it's just something that has to be done on a regular basis do you just put it in the budget and set that aside every year and not have it come to this committee because just set what the budget is and just go there and just have that reserved for those particular items because I mean every year I'm going to have a public works truck come up every X number of years right well there's always this question of whether you can push it out a little further well I get that but but if you level load the budget then everybody's tax base stays the same otherwise it's

continuously fluctuating and everybody gets all unnerved about it so you know you've got to do these things um you know you got to save for a car you got to save for for certain things um and yeah I don't know so that's the ideal and I think we would like to move in that more in that direction but I think it is also important that we reflect on where we are with regard to for example those uh Bond payments that million dollars of bond payments annually that we're making so maybe we can't get there all the way now yeah but no I agree yeah

talked about um you know at some point in the spring kind of regrouping to revisit this process for next year recognizing that we we have limitations this year just given Reserve accounts and and all that and wondering if maybe the process and what gets reviewed and how would whether that would be part of that conversation I don't know sure you know yeah I guess my suggestion this year might be that we point this out in the conveyance memo with regard to the reserve and um that we point that out that it didn't really uh that there is that conundrum

with regard to projects work versus Reserves and that um you know we also need to make sure we know we know what's being maintained in reserve which certainly in my mind speaks to having reserves in a separate account and I guess the other reason I think that's important is because if you just have those funds if you're just keeping track of those funds on paper and it's all maintained in the undesignated fund it also makes it very difficult for you to get an undes and accurate undesignated fund balance over time which is uh really important for the town so um anyway I think you know both of those things are worth mentioning with regard to those reserves and then the other thing just a you know reminder again so you know reserves are things for future years and project money is money that's going to be spent in that in that upcoming fiscal year in that upcoming upcoming year so maybe we address it in the conveyance

memo does that make sense to you guys okay about maybe reevaluating some of these criteria Joe did you mentioned yeah two scoring seems to do the categories need to assess categories on a future date foreign Works Reserve scoring seems skewed due to categories need to assess categories at a future date

yeah I mean it's one of those things where you can't really check all the boxes for Public Works it doesn't quite fit well I mean I think that gets back to the point of when we're doing a reserve request these categories don't quite fit

what it is that worry you know the the reasoning behind so General there's not a specific in general there's not yeah for the reserves is not a good way to you know I mean does it help all these categories absolutely but it's it's an indirect way

it's kind of hard because you're not thinking about one vehicle or one project yeah I mean you're thinking about a group of projects at some point in the future I know folks would say well does it directly produce in common does it indirectly produce income you know irate is a one no it doesn't directly do that or indirectly do that but somebody might say well no it absolutely does because we clear the roads and we do all this stuff and everybody can get to work and moving all the get and go and every you know I mean so you can argue it the other way pretty easily right right but but when you look at the project myopically just by itself it's like well no um

you have to go back to the all the other categories and I I a lot of it didn't directly on a lot of my sheets didn't directly affect income in the town and I think I kind of purposefully did that to make it all an even level feel you know but just subcategories and I've said this before that some some I mean this is a great tool to utilize at this point but we we may want to break out the like you say the projects from uh so we may want to we may want to have a few really simple different criteria for reserves for the reserves right yeah I think I think it's that's a good way that's a good idea to describe it yeah a simple way to do the reserves you know the

you know even if they have to go to a town meeting every year like we're doing to do that to say all right well these are really important would be a plow truck in two years we need a a fire truck working or a lot of truck working on five years let's say and you've got to just section that out as a separate entity

project wise I think this is a good already covered some of the comments about the street Crossing you know like why that ranked high I would think that would be good to include include in the conveyance memo yeah I think the stream Crossing is kind of a note-brainer with the amount of money the state's throwing into it a lot of the project stays within its bounds that was the problem we had last time around is the cost of the project

circumstances circumstances that's what the Cape Town do okay so uh getting back to the conveyance memo are there other notes here that we want to include other points that we want to emphasize just looking through the notes Here

self-explanatory um do we want to say anything about with the drugs or is that do you guys feel like that's kind of outside of our our wheelhouse talking about the public work truck well the fire department and the Public Works trucks pickups so you know the sharing of pickups so you know do we do we want it do we want to offer some kind of support in One Direction or the other with regard to um Chiefs Converses public works well not really a verse it's more like is there a way what's the most efficient way to like kind of share and pass down these trucks so we can get the most efficient use out of them and uh of the fleet so for example I think I heard someone mentioned it may have been Jerry this idea that um it really kind of makes sense to have uh

a Chiefs truck which then after you know what do I know six or seven years of Duty it's reassigned to public works because it won't get that many miles as the chief's truck it won't get nearly the level the intensity of use that it would get us a public works truck so after six or seven years this truck is still going to be in really good shape and ready to have its Second Life as a public works drunk so I thought that was a great idea yeah

yeah so yeah okay more iteration to do that yeah exactly exactly but ideas are called yes yeah yeah yeah yeah exactly better than later I can't wait for that Evolution to go through um well that's kind of the challenge is if we did go ahead and buy a Chief's vehicle now then in six or seven years would go to public works exactly right that would be the part of the point there is is it does need to need to get done sooner than later

Calvin's truck is up next year no I know that's right and that's pretty beat as it is I don't know so it's kind of like we really need to at least add one in the mix well that's that's why this time around if that truck was available to become the chief's truck temporarily is no temporarily a goal and then swap it up Kelvin strike yeah I

mean it's unfortunate that it's kind of like it's going to take you a little bit right now right it doesn't which is unfortunate does he come out with that truck does he plow intersections and stuff with that truck I don't believe so yeah okay and and keep in mind that both of those trucks are used for very different reasons oh yeah yeah absolutely the fire truck you know thank you he's he wants to haul more people and he wants to set it up a specific way right yeah yeah he talked about that right which you know probably wouldn't be appropriate for Calvin to be using it set up the way the chief wants it no no no uh yeah that's another cost yeah that you have to figure into that yeah so you're saying you don't think it would work to pass it down or to you you could but it's more than what Calvin would need for for a truck because because the chief would wanted like a crew cab right so he could haul the guys

and you know a service body to so service body Calvin doesn't need that for his everyday type that's right that's the other thing too is that yeah the needs are a little different different um yes proof of thought it's a good point but it doesn't mean that standardizing wouldn't help no

all right I you know that Public Works truck had scored pretty high for me just because you know I know that that truck the Public Works pick up and you know this time around I think I had a third or something like that that's a plow truck right that's the one ton that's not stop yeah yeah sorry not Calvin's but exactly it's the one time yes so the one time though scored high for me and it's because I see a lot of community benefit from that truck because it's in service every day you know it's out there every day putting in culverts uh you know

uh whatever the job is you know um doing on a ditch job it's out there you know carrying guys and Equipment the flaggers the cones all that stuff culverts so it scored high for me I do have some concern about the fact that on

the where did it end up here it ended up pretty low didn't it yeah okay fourth yeah yeah okay well you know but they were all fair fair that's hard yeah yeah but you know this it's kind of hard because for the fire and rescue equipment you know there is this public safety aspect that's related to a situation that is immediate might be an accident um or something like that immediate need where is whereas road maintenance it's more like preventive uh safety it's more like preventive safety but it's every day and all the time the thing and very critical

anyway yeah I guess they are pretty close so getting back to our notes Here um let me give that some thought with regard to how to frame the pickups I think it is important that we say something with regard to the need there that we you know Clearly say that we see the need there for both of these vehicles for the public works truck and the chief struck well but they didn't but they didn't rank as high I mean that's just that simple yeah but it still isn't there you know there are a lot of needs this year that's the bottom line

Chiefs vehicle on the Public Works truck are two separate subjects yep it's just the chief's vehicle against what might be coming up in the future might be the discussion comment that needs to be taken up yep probably pretty clear as to what one ton of what it's going to be used for

public works truck is you know they have a truck now that they're gonna I'll say retire but they're going to utilize a little bit you know that's I think we talked about that a little added expense um to keep that going I guess the question is you know how far do you keep that going before you let it go and doesn't need to be replaced right and how do you replace it yeah yeah exactly

you all set with what you have and that's just kind of an added extra because you're gonna quote unquote just Sunset it and really Sunset I'd not come back and look for it later maybe the point is that Clarity is needed yeah that if

um the old truck is to be retained yeah that at some point in the future it doesn't become a request for a new truck that's correct yeah yeah I think that's important people will not like that very much you know if that became a new truck or a new need um but it it needs to be I'll say more

Justified than just you know it's it's not worth getting rid of but we're going to keep using it it's a I think it'll probably scare a few folks in that oh we should be again back to the pickup truck plan for the town how's that that's that's kind of what we have to the town needs to figure out put in the right order so that you get the hand down appropriately again it's not easy but it does I think

it's a smart idea I think it's a doable idea and it just needs to be put in place and laid out on paper to say okay we're gonna do this on year one and this on year five and this on year 10 and this is how we get the progression and we got the savings out of it because they're expensive I think the viability and

be further vetted yeah because I think Jerry also had a really good point which is okay you make all this investment for example this Chiefs truck you get the utility body right and you get the crew cab and I work it's even called there were some other features I can't recall exactly what they were that he was looking for there but you know probably a few other bells and whistles that make it um make it set up for the kind of service the chief needs so then if you turn it over to public works and then the chief gets a new vehicle you're paying for all that stuff again right that's the loss so for example that utility body is really expensive right no so or utility cabinet is that what they called a utility service body service body thank you that's it yeah that service body is really expensive so you know that needs I think some and the best in my mind kind of the best place for that is with the manager and

the department heads um hopefully they can uh take a harder look at this in the months ahead and come up with some come up with some options so yeah maybe we're just not quite there yet no I agree I think that's where it belongs to yes to come up with the whole the whole overall plan I think yep one point I just want to remind you of because I think I heard it when we were over at the fire station is that as in regard to the chief's truck I think he negotiated when coming on as

Chief as part of that of coming on well yeah I mean there is a savings I mean I'll say savings is it there's a there's a trade-off because then you're not paying his stipend right I think is what you're talking about no I think just just to take the job he negotiated taking the job as part of getting the truck so he wouldn't have to use his own so he negotiated yeah getting his own oh I didn't know that yeah okay I think he that was part of that negotiation and of course that's not something so he negotiated in good faith right so yeah yeah yeah I just throw that throw that out yeah yeah it's important isn't it it well it is because I mean it's clear to me that that was the case before when about it what was that it was not clear that that

was the case in the original hiring process I think that's what it is I'm pretty sure he said there's the impression that I got right here whether it was explicitly like saying within two years we're going to get a vehicle or it's like at some point we want to get a vehicle soon enough to use your own I don't know whether whether it was that's a different committed or yeah well I mean I say it's a different problem but it yeah I guess that wasn't clear that that was what the

the commitment to the of the town was to that position yeah or what the timing is then that's a different discussion on what we do with this request yeah well it's a good point it's a totally different discussion Point that's not actually necessary CIP discussion well I just I don't know the process but I mean was there like an official job offer extended time in which case that would lay out that was that part of it I don't I don't know I wasn't here yeah I was so here for that either I just thought that's what I heard him say at the last time somebody needs to clarify that yeah [Laughter] it's not but part of this it's like yeah it's all part of this process at all so but if that was the point of it then it probably should have been maybe clearer I don't think he's going to be too awfully upset because he was gonna he was willing to take even the Public Works truck as long as she didn't use

his own so that way I get that but but there's two yeah I mean there's a couple different ways to approach it I think it probably needs a different discussion a different form yeah yeah I think so too but I mean it's it's on here it's a

reasonable request as it is yeah and yeah and the rest of it how it works out on how we stagger trucks in general you know utility trucks in general whether it be fire or or Public Works that that quilts a different discussion let me ask this question did we find the chief's request reasonable yeah I think okay I think it's as it's presented it's completely reasonable and I I think it's a it's a it's a it's a good way to go

um could that truck be repurposed eventually I think so might not be an exact fit but it it would you know you know could become something as a runner truck for the public works later yeah it's retired right right but and I think that I think the chief makes a really good request that he does put his vehicle In Harm's Way continuously I mean I I approached the scene yesterday at Newbrook and swamp again when somebody apparently maybe going the wrong way down the wrong side of the road um that you know there are personal vehicles out there stopping traffic before the rigs get there well the chief's car being one of them I'm not sure if he was actually there I think he was so his was probably one of the vehicles there you know it is that's the first vehicle sitting at the top of the hill he came up you know you're coming in at 40 50 miles an hour exactly do or

faster and it's his vehicle that's sitting there blocking him and anyone else down below from getting hit it's that simple of a problem you know if his truck gets hit and it gets disabled then what does he use to get to the next fire that's a really good you know great thing that can happen with a public truck um but I would say well public truck just got hit his truck's the backup right you hate to put it that way but that's the reality of it right and then we have to deal with a public truck that just got hit at a accident and not to mention you probably have an unhappy insurance company you have an unhappy Chief yes and I would think it might not end well you know but stuff doesn't always end up he's going to just end up the way he ends up on the policy pays for right I mean that's just the way it is and everybody's going to feel bad about it but that's just gonna unfortunately be the end of it right

um there's a lot of volunteers that do the same thing I'm not sure how that would all yeah yeah I'm sure I mean towns there's a lot of towns I agree and I think the Chiefs kind of towered this as not necessarily his vehicle it could be the command vehicle so maybe it's not his continuously depending on what's going on you know he goes on vacation maybe he leaves the vehicle for assistant chief or somebody else oh I think that's definitely I think that's exactly yeah he would not use this person yeah no it's not a personal vehicle yeah I think so too yeah and again that wasn't necessarily um yeah and clear but I believe that's the intention um and and yeah so I mean I think this is a overall good thing to go do um and whether it's in his contract or not I have no idea I don't think it was in his country I think they just sort of negotiate and just good faith I'd like yeah yeah yeah that's not the kind of

thing and to just sort of like you know thinking out loud and looking at the fire truck and the Public Works trucks that they use every day I I See Fire as the truck Maybe maybe lasting almost twice as long yes the Public Works truck so why not just use it twice as long right right that's where you get the most efficiency you just use it twice you might be buying two Public Works trucks to the fire as well right right they're gonna wash it wax and take care of it yeah exactly I think so I think you know I think you're on to something yeah yeah right which is basically there is no magic plan yeah [Laughter] personality right yeah I also about you know scanners are going in my house this past weekend during the the storm event is when I heard you know Calvin being called out personally to get them down here and here and here but that doesn't happen that often you know Chiefs on scene at every incident that's

going on for the most part right you know him and the assistant chief are on scene at everything yeah I did also appreciate from him that what he was talking about was a very utilitarian vehicle um rather than a command vehicle right and typically this command vehicles are SUVs and they're set up with a Command Center in the back that pulls out yeah to the tailgate right and that's where the scene command happens right and they're very expensive oh yeah um but that's not what he's looking for he's just looking for a utilitarian vehicle right it will also pull trailer right it's basically a Big Tool Box on Wheels yeah yeah it's another toolbox yeah yeah putting the squat packs on the back after right used or right more of the scene whatever the case may be yeah yeah I agree I think that's the exactly so do we feel the that that project ranked about where it should we have the Public Works vehicle and

then we have assessing and then we have the chiefs vehicle and I just you know I want to look at that just because you know this is the time where if we felt that adjustments were in order they would get made am I right I have the chief's car above the Public Works truck yeah it was not from an opinion but the way that the number is just right right but if you pull the public work truck just out of the mix because that's one of uh actually that's that one's not no I'm sorry no I'm getting confused with the reserve

alternative where I mean I guess the the chief's personal truck is an alternative as well it just doesn't seem as viable Calvin's truck uh one ton yep I believe I believe it is just pick up yeah yeah I think so that let me go away oh yeah I I see the utility in both of them yeah you know again well you know the other part of this is is that this isn't a really a normal Year and that these arpa funds are out there it is so some of these issues may get resolved regardless of their rank they are here uh by the Selectmen yeah you know in their wisdom looking at their different options yeah you know like I said I think we're in a good position to uh yeah and then it's kind of like the assessing well do you bump the chief's vehicle above the assessing and I think

you know it's that's kind of that's a challenge too I mean when you look at where we are with regard to our assessment that we're at 80 percent and that we can't fall below 70 and also that we may not be you fully utilizing things like the homestead exemption because of where we are um with the 80 percent uh and that's you know that's coming down the road it may be 2025 but that's only a few years away it's going to be a big cost we need to be saving for it it's important a couple years every couple years out of getting the assessment done yeah yeah yeah exactly what happens the next right exactly so does it make sense do we have enough wiggle room there to bump it up I don't know I think that's kind of that's you know that's a tough one that's a tough one but you know everything the is the this uh reval is

important to everything we do it's you know it's important and it's important to the whole town with regard to equity so opportunity here and set us up in the right way relation to the Opera yeah it's the selectman's going to happen there's definitely some so again not this committee is necessary yeah so I don't I don't hear any job here eager to make any changes to the ranking so I think we leave it where it is I would say just leave it where it is okay and we just point this out that we feel his request is reasonable yeah but there are many compelling projects this year that's the challenge yeah yeah I I mean I yeah I I would I would say that both the Chiefs vehicle and the Public Works truck would be candidates for offer and that's going to be a decision that needs to be made outside this committee and then depending on the ranking of the rest of them in regards to that is is you know Chief's comedy

Bubble Up on Top yeah yeah and the select men they do have the ability through the policy to you know picking and choosing isn't a uh isn't really uh you know an enviable path or a path we want to promote but you know there can be times when when it's necessary and the selectman asked when we wrote the policy to be able to preserve that right and the town's got the final say with the vote yeah the town's got the final say with all the aquifies exactly voted in so um you know it's a matter of bringing the best mix forward is really what it comes down to the most appropriate mix based on the rating and ranking of these projects in general and then what how it how it really works out in the long-term plan come up with yeah

whether range opera or other do we want to say anything about the fire department generator and the ply movement so of course you know here we are we're ranking by movement number two um and the uh jet current generator isn't big enough to service the ply moment okay but the chief said at the

last meeting they could get a yeah they could work with it for a few years didn't have to all be done right this year I mean I think so generally is important but I also think the health of the firefighters is probably more important uh yeah right you can still keep the place warm with what you have yeah um maybe oh it needs to be replaced but the exhaust is I think about health

thing in general people being out long-term care the whole nine yards of health benefit of the exhaust system there is a health benefit to the fire department generator because that's you know a warming station right right exactly you know we just had a storm this weekend you know half of Oxford County's been out in Western Cumberland for you know four or five days so they they certainly had their share of issues and opened up their warming stations in the last couple days so I mean it's important as well yeah yeah

conveyance letter Quint yes thank you yeah we should so when we bought it right was that no well when we first started the committee I thought there was something that came apart well or did we just the quit you know it's interesting because uh the Quint was in some ways part of the Genesis of uh forming the committee because um there were a lot of people in town who were unhappy with the Quinn you know a lot of people the town was very split over the Quinn and so um uh the question was asked well you know what are we doing to plan for our Capital expenditures versus just saying let's let the townspeople decide and put it on the warrant right

um I you know the Quint has gone from being a 750 000 placeholder on the replacement schedule for an out year For an upcoming out year which probably which wasn't even sufficient Tobi acquaint the real number was never I don't think put on there I mean a new quint's got to be like over a million dollars yeah it's gonna be up there yeah so um that it wasn't even sufficient and and that was on there we were kind of kicking that can down the road for a number of years well you know what about the Quint and everybody's been kind of chewing on it and trying to figure out well what are the different opportunities and we've had a few different Fire Chiefs um and a few different perspectives on the Quinn and then finally last year Kathy and um Chief Tripp got together

and chief Tripp I think made the suggestion of look why don't we just invest in the current Quint which is still in really good shape and see if we can get another 10 years out of service out of it and that made a lot of sense I think to a lot of people because the Clinton does have you know as we learned at the last meeting it really does have a lot of utility especially in terms of safety of our fire department members yeah no it was great to hear more about it yeah yeah and I like the idea of rehabbing yeah yeah exactly yeah reinvesting into that it seems like the smart should we say just maybe we should but

should we we want to point out that we support um that reinvestment application or something say some kind of positive words about that um versus purchasing a new Quinn right okay yeah cost prohibitive was what I wrote down

yeah truck you'll good it would be good and you you'd almost have a travel and Museum and how many towns can say that right [Laughter] probably a lot right laughs no it is very versatile yeah okay um know the assessing is I think is obvious it's pretty much obvious um did we are we saying anything about the exhaust removal did we cover that in our notes Here

removal okay and the town office generator is important that is probably the one that you could actually say that that directly affects income having that up and running having the town operate having that that's definitely important thing where it really comes in is if the power is off for five days oh yeah absolutely that's where it really comes in you'd be down and out yeah so I think kind of the implicit in the score I think is the question can the current generator with with some maintenance can we get you know can we reliably get some more life out of it well that's a good question because we thought that the last time it was supposed to kick on and it didn't yeah so where it has had work hopefully it will kick on the next time maybe we'll know this Friday gone recently after you had the work done and we haven't lost power for it okay at least you guys didn't lose it I know yeah we didn't lose it here last time we

made Friday might be a good test though because I guess this is there a way to with that I mean I know the newer ones have automatic um you know maintenance yeah I mean is there a way to fire it up just to see if yeah I mean I don't know where the I don't know if there's an emergency switch that you can I don't really know a lot whose responsibility is it that generator uh Chiefs he works on it okay

yeah I mean when I went off last time he was the one that got everything going he made the emergency call yeah I see it doesn't matter like is it the contacts that he had or yeah he's just been taking care of it because he that was just assigned to him it was news to me he was on it like real real fast you know when it when it went down he he called the service guy and that's awesome yeah yeah it's great I think it probably came under emergency yeah services so um

only lost it that one time since I've been here yeah know a couple hours before they got it back up and running um we've been fortunate I think the last probably five six years with regard to longer term outages but I think the longest one I can remember like recently I don't know seven eight years ago it's like they're five or six days it's pretty significant yeah yeah it does yeah we we get our share that's for sure

again I think the score also reflects the fact that we have a lot of competing priorities where I see the town hall generator is um it it's important and uh it's critically important for the operation of town hall and my hope is that we're able to keep this this one going for a few for a few more years if the power goes out and the generator doesn't start the worst thing that can happen is you have to close town hall right right and you have to send people home and it's an inconvenience versus say I think we talked about this last time the fire department where um it is like an emergency warming Center and it's a is the key part of the town's

Emergency Operations so that's you know that's where it ends up um but it doesn't surely doesn't change the fact that at some point here in the near future the issue is going to have to be addressed um public works so they do their own uh maintenance they have a full-time like a full-time mechanic they do have a mechanic over there yeah and just that I mean curiosity wondering I mean would like somebody in the town generator fall more under the public works purview I don't know I I don't know how much the mechanic over there knows about the generator yeah I'm just saying it's probably is it it's a propane engine

engine so I mean it's a similar type of not necessarily from an electric electrical standpoint but just from like the uh from the engine um just to curiosity thinking about okay so like we get the ice storm when you're out for a period of time generator doesn't start of course getting a generator mechanic at that point is going to be of it impossible but but if you have Public Works full-time mechanic that they're probably easier to to get a hold of but maybe but keep in mind over at Public Works you've got five guys over there braking equipment and one guy yeah yeah exactly that guy's all uh you're low on the totium of the total you know if it's a if it's a winter storm I I bet you that mechanics working on something not always but there's always a good chance that something has gone yeah you know where they need his help yeah not always and you know we I mean we can still do an emergency as long as

we can get up and running and then it runs after it doesn't start I mean right we'll be okay I mean it wouldn't be okay if they couldn't get it to Ron and we was in a prolonged power power outage with the heat and whatnot you guys are on the road okay I'm concerned I think they're bigger yeah and more pressing needs yeah okay thank you Jerry I mean not that I didn't think it was important you know everything we've talked about but you have to first lose power and then it doesn't work so when you think about just some of the other items and two keep in mind this was a latecomer and the reason why it was a late Comer to the list was because it didn't start so it wouldn't have even been on the list if that had to happen yeah and you said you know you might want to think about getting a new generator that didn't mean immediately but it was certainly worth yeah yeah you know I'll certainly I'll never forget

my days as a planner with the town of New Gloucester and I'd be working on some like you know like uh ordinance or a vision and I'd have it like you know I would have been working for the last 40 minutes and forgotten to hit that save button you know and then of course that's when the power would go out you know you'd have that and you'd have that drop right yeah exactly right or or a tax payment going on yeah

at the same time and then all of a sudden you're in the process of it power goes out and it's like okay did it hit the system or did it not did it not that kind of happened the other day it was just it was just a glitch someone they were in a transaction when they went to hit print it froze and they're like okay what happened what happened and it's not a big deal I mean that stuff happens but it's it's actually a matter of calling Trio to get it resolved yeah we get through it okay so I think at this point in the process we have uh pretty much covered the you know we've gone through the rankings it sounds like the committee feels that the rankings are reasonable how they came out and we've also gone through the notes and identified some of the notes that we think would be important to wrap into a conveyance memo and my plan is kind of like we did last year is to draft something after this meeting now I know

kind of where we're at and to put it together to shoot it off to the committee okay and I'll see see uh Jerry on that and just say look this is draft please do not respond to the group because of foaa but this is my plan to

submit this you know if you have any concerns please contact me directly to let me know otherwise I will be going ahead and submitting this to Jerry with this course perfect does that sound reasonable to you guys okay so then I think the next question is um the scores uh what we've done in the past and this is my recollection and Michelle maybe help me if if I'm not thinking about this correctly but of my recollection is

that in the past we've only sent the sheep with the rankings to the Selectmen together with a conveyance memo and then the individual Committee Member scores we have provided that to Jerry for the file is that your recollection too okay

so that's just and um the those individual sheets for the individual committee members those are just intended as documentation for if a selectman wanted to see them or if a department had wanted to see you know have more detail on why for example if their project didn't rank higher so and then for the select one we keep it fairly simple we do the rankings and

that one page that we do or is it more than that I was thinking we had two but I don't think it's just the one probably and maybe I'm thinking of the memo yeah that might be what I'm thinking of as true okay all they need unless they have any questions yeah so and you also present

to them right Paul don't you actually present that to them in a meeting uh I certainly can I don't know I think in the past I have I have some uh there have been years where I've missed it right right um but I believe last year I did um I try to make that conveyance memo pretty self-explanatory so that it carries you know because it's really not just the selectment it's the budget committee it's the you know the townspeople so the idea is to kind of uh

memorialize the what's behind those scores why things like you know landed where they landed so so and so that you know also so that the Selectmen can reference it later in this long budget process because um sometimes the same question gets asked over and over and over and so you know gives them a way to look back

missing is I recommend is the emotion a recommendation that the rankings be forwarded to the selected together with a conveyance memo or something like that can you make that motion okay so so four zero [Music] um any other business that we need to cover

know that um there's been some discussion about trying to further refine the process which I think um has been really good discussion we want to make sure we act on that and we do that at some point generally at this point though like I'm really cognizant of the fact that both uh Jerry and Joe are going to be very busy with regard to the budget process and all that so we'll you know we'll look at doing that um crazy probably you know in the either in the fall or the late summer maybe yeah okay certainly after town meeting after town meeting exactly yeah okay very good yeah

we can look at some of this stuff see what breaking up the project versus the um that's something you know maybe the selectman will have some input into ahead of time as to what they they're thinking out loud yeah yeah excellent excellent well it thank you Jerry so it's been a good it's been a good year this year I think yeah yeah it's gone well the apartment has as well because everybody you're really a good job pulling it together everybody did a really good job very very thorough and very quick yeah it gets better and better every year it does it does it does exactly yeah yeah

exactly and it's been wonderful having Pete this year too yeah for me thank you all right great so uh do I have a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn ing I'm good Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everybody yeah Jerry did you want a paper copy sure I know you're good is this extra or yeah