TranscriptSelect Board Meeting ~ January 26, 2016

here. Could we please rise for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

yellow items are have been added. Um, are there any other amendments that we know of that we need? Right. Public comment. Um, if anyone has public comment, I'll just ask that they come up to the table so that they we can be heard.

Yes, please. Phyllis Brandon. Um, live on Brookside Drive. You speak up, please. Yes. Um, just go ahead. Just go right ahead. Well, I had submitted a uh complaint concern um form in regards to uh the Plumber Mill Road and Brookside Drive road. I don't know if you've received that or have had the time to look at it. Um I really had some questions around how um roads are what the determining

factor for repairing were roads, maintenance on the roads or completely redoing the roads. Um at a basic level and I can also let the our road commissioner answer but at a basic level we take in to account the condition of the road and the um priority of the road um whether it's a a main throughway or um a back back

road type thing. Um, we also look at factors. Um, can we you do spend uh is this a road that we want to try to keep good that's still good and we want to try to keep good at a much lower cost or is it a road that is going to have to, you know, really bad and needs needs a total rebuild. And we kind of plug all that in to try to get priorities of what we're going to do. Uh we in the past several years we have not had a lot of money to rebuild roads with. and so on. And we're working on a plan now. But that's the basic idea. But if you want to add anything more, Kelvin,

and one of the things also that I spoke um I spoke with you yesterday on the telephone and we talked a little bit about the fact that the public works department is working very hard on ditching all the roads initially first to get the drainage issues solved so that we're not just

bandating bandating and creating more problems, spending money without solving the underlying issues. And I've spoken with um the road commissioner and um which is why he suggested that I you know bring this forward. Um the plumbing mill road I I think it was paved in 2003. Um and I

don't know about the specifics of the roads or you know how much taring is put down but um it's in pretty bad condition. I know that there's probably a lot of roads in Durham that are. So really kind of what I wanted to know was what you know what's the determining factor out you know of all the roads that are here um you know what kind of information does the road commissioner need I know that he travels the roads um to look at the roads but what other than that what else is needed in order to determine what roads get fixed and when

all I need is money know, 40 41 miles of road and I've got to to they're they're they're not very good and so we've got to make up for lost time. A lot of time went by in the past where things hadn't gotten done and now we're trying to catch up. But priority of the roads is is got to do with uh from the fire department and different town departments to figure out what the which roads are important to connecting other parts of town and which ones have the highest traffic count and which ones affects taxpayers and all those things are taken into consideration. But uh bottom line is to get all of the roads done. I I don't believe that that road would make this year's cut on priority because of it's a it's a northwest route that connects two secondary roads where we're probably going to concentrate more this year on roads that are connecting highways like 9 and 136 and going east west where the traffic most traffic

goes. So, and short of when we get into discussions with this in the next month or two with the board will be about maybe perhaps getting a bond and trying to get more of them done and pick up the pace. Those are items we'll be discussing over the next couple of months through the budget cycle.

Okay. And so when that happens, um, is is there something if I wanted to attend those meetings, could I attend those meetings? Mhm. Um so is the is the plan for every year when we go to you know to the town meeting um that we try to do something with a road at least a road or are there years that we don't do anything?

Well the last several years there's been years that we have we haven't done a whole lot um other than trying to maintain the good roads that we have. Um, but I'm our our hope is that we will get a plan out there that you know that this is where where we want to move to and then it's at that point it's up to the selectman to put the put put it out to the town meeting and they then the voters whether they want to do the work and for the cost. So

as Jeff said, I should have also mentioned it. You'll see us doing work on roads that maybe aren't as bad as yours. And the intent of that is to make sure that we preserve them. We'd rather do preventive uh maintenance and pavement preservation than get let roads get into a condition where we're so for every dollar we spend here, we're saving 10 down the road. And so sometimes you'll see us working on a road, you know, mine's worse than theirs. So that's one of the old mindsets that gets the town into trouble is when they go for worst first. And you really don't want to do that because you the cost compounds as roads worsen. So we want to try to save them. So there's a balance balance. We'll take so much of this money and put towards preserving roads and then and then a certain amount to rebuildings.

Well, I noticed that it was I don't know how you can even file some of these roads because then the maintenance that is needed required money for your equipment. Um, so I don't know how you do it, but you did a good job for so far.

It costs more in salt to bare the roads off to get them to pavement. It costs more in maintenance, but we are and we're not saying we won't do nothing. I mean, uh, if we have some money left over, and certainly he did it last year, um, they just went with a grater and put down talk and rolled it off just to make it smoother. I mean, they didn't do nothing but that and it helped out on rabbit road. And we're not saying that that won't be done to your road, but we're saying if we have some we it all depends how much money we get and what the town says that we can spend what they wanted to spend. But so we're not saying we're not going to get nothing done, but it might not. But hopefully maybe band-aid for now, but it's awful expensive when you start rebuilding roads. And we got a ton of them in Durham.

Oh yeah. Yeah. But I think it's good for the, you know, all the ditching um to be done first just to prepare the roads for when maintenance and such stuff. Yeah. Okay. the uh meetings will be um the selectman in fact starting tonight are starting starting to look at the budget and so uh we'll probably have some special meetings but they can be found on the website if you can get to the website and uh the selectman will look at it first and then uh sometime in the middle of February we'll be meeting with the budget committee to go over the numbers and then our the final vote will be on at town meeting on I believe April 1st or is it April? April 2nd, which is uh Saturday. And

so once we put together the budget and so on, we'll be presenting the budget at that meeting and that's where the town gets to vote on on it. Right. But all of those meetings are public and you're welcome to attend any of them.

Right. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Hi. How are you? Good. How are you doing? Good, thanks. Uh George Book, 411 runner on Pond Road. And uh I'm here for the same reason. And most of these people are here with me. And we we could have probably bought 30 more if we needed to. Uh that road's a disaster and it's actually becoming dangerous. Uh walk it sometime. Try walking on pond road just to take a walk. You can't. Uh it's we've had

people uh well it's just dangerous. I guess that's the only way I could describe it. And it's from what I understand it's probably if not the heaviest one of the heaviest roads traveled in the town. It's the main thoroughare. And I guess we're frustrated because uh it's costing us money as well as our tax dollars because it's it beats the heck out of your vehicle. Uh, I mean, granted, the town does what it can, throwing filling the potholes, but as soon as you get a rain or a snow and you plow it, it's gone. And the holes get deeper and deeper and deeper. And I know there's no simple fix. Uh, that's going to be a major a major overhaul. And where uh I mean, that thing's going to have to be dug up from beginning to end and probably um a

whole new bed put down and ditching and culpits and the whole nine yards. So, uh my my my my question is, you know, if I came to a meeting a couple of years ago over at the school, uh about a month prior to town meeting about some of those things and one of the things at that point, I think the the chairman of the budget committee was there at that time and one of the things he talked about was the possibility of floating a bond to see if that could be taken care of. Well, obviously nothing was done and now it's here it is two years two or two two years later and uh it hasn't gotten any better as you well know. So, uh my concern I think in the people here is that um we're I listen to everything that you said and I listen to what you said about the public works doing the ditching and the culit and so forth. Um, and uh I guess we would like to have some idea of what your thoughts are as uh uh are you

thinking about trying to uh float a bond to take care of not just that road but maybe some of the other ones because I don't know but I mean uh I do have we're looking for some I guess we're looking for looking for some hope.

Yeah. I mean, you know, that that that road's going to get done sooner or later because right now, I mean, if you if you live on that road, which you have to be on it every single day off and on, it's like nobody cares. It seems like no one cares. It's so

it's not that we don't care and you don't have to convince us, we know. Uh, you know, and that that popped into my mind when they said when we were talking about road priorities, which one that that's the first one I can think of that is

probably going to be the next road. Right. We haven't floated a bond yet because we were trying to get our public works under, you know, get their feet underneath them first. I understand. And that was one of the things that I remember when the former road commissioner Sean Bennett when he talked about it he said one of the because he did it in Pel on the Poland range road and the Allen road he said one of the things the public works can do is ditch the roads do the culpits do all the basic work and then have the company that you hire come in and tear the bed up put a new bed down put a base coat and then the following year put a finish coat on it. So, you know, and it was like, okay, great. There's some hope, but you know, it doesn't seem like we'd be seeing any hope. So,

we're definitely we're definitely going to be talking about it. And it's it's just to get, you know, you're talking a million dollar bond to do one road. I understand. Yeah. To get the rather taxpayers that live on the other side of town say, "Yeah, I want I want to do that to this town. I want to put my tax dollars towards that one around pond for you guys." You got to get everybody else on board, too. And I understand what you're saying. It is terrible.

It's not just for us. It's for anybody that uses that road. Heavily used pretty heavily used road. It's heavy. It's used by everybody. Anybody that goes to work from one side of town to the other uses that road. So, I mean, we're not trying to be uh saying it's just for us. I think it's for everybody. I mean, if you ride a motorcycle in the summer,

you know, you you got to be careful when you ride over that road because you could end up, you know, going down and going over the handlebars and getting hurt. I mean, like I said, if you try to walk on it right now, you can't, you know, and we have a lot of people out, you know, that we see out walking and you have to be very careful. Basically, you have to walk on the dirt because the side is so busted up and there's hunks of tar that keep breaking off. It gets to be, it gets to be frustrating. So that's the reason we're here just to you know to let you know that we're concerned and we're hoping that you'll listen hear our concerns and do something you know really look at it in know such a way that yes I agree with you sir it's going to cost money but there's no shortcuts.

No you know and if if you're going to do it you got to do it right or it's going to come back and we're going to be right back to square one. I'm just going to keep patching it and patching it and patching it and we we haven't seen the numbers yet, but I'm I'm that's I mean I'm it's definitely one of the top things on my list at looking at and seeing what what we can do because

I'm I mean I know I've known we've known for many years that that road has been bad and it's uh it's been a process to get where we are now with the uh with the public works and I hope I hope that this is the year that we can start moving forward with with some of these really bad roads and and I I

I would put that one as far as I'm concerned that one was at the top. Um I'm not sure what your what your road things survey says but that's what the survey says and I just met with Krooker paving today to look at the construction methods and two or three different options. So we that's how

we could take Kenny Scriven's idea and we'll turn all the roads into dirt and we just grade them. Well, you know, don't go too far. You know what? If that was that was dirty, at least you could grade it. You know, every time I proposed that to Sean Kennedy, he told me it was more expensive to make dirt,

but anything I think, you know, you're seeing people that are concerned and anything that we could do to help expedite this or support town meeting. You Well, we will. We will. You know, we'll make sure that we're at town meeting. And um I would encourage you to show up at u the budget process um espe

you've you've mentioned it you've talked to us so we know when we're going through it and so on but even when the budget committee meets and so on if if some people are here to actually show support that this is where they want

right this and so on that that would be good as well. Yeah. So this is what we why we're here just to voice our concerns and hopefully see if we can get something done with that road. So I think we're on the same page. Okay.

Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. I appreciate your time. F it. And so you know you go along you're going along F and it's all nice and smooth the intersection. Yeah. All of a sudden it's like not a hazard fan. You're not a hazard fan.

Anybody else wants to talk? It's fine. Thank you very much. Thank you. No, I'm leaving. Okay. Anyone else? Can I ask a question about it? Um, I'm just curious. You mentioned that you're talking with Krooker. I'm just curious when it goes to a public forum. Are we going to have options like to fix it in this way, it'll cost this much. To fix it in this way, it'll cost this much. Well, or or what have you done to to look at different options of fixing it? Because I I I feel like most people would think if it we're just going to do a cheap way of just just laying down new asphalt, it might not be worth spending any money unless, you know, I'd rather spend more money late.

We looking at a rebuild on this area. Is that is that completely that's the only thing on the table is a rebuild? Well, part of the issue, too, is uh the trees in that area. I know that that's been talked about is that it doesn't allow for a lot of sunlight to get to the road in certain spots. So that that causes some problems too. So

I I would Are there are there any other options on the table for that other than complete rebuild? Well, there's there's there's there's rehabilitate and there's reconstruct, right? So it's there there's an option of just grinding it all up and reshaping it, adding a minimum amount of gravel and paving it. But it wouldn't be just paving by anyways.

Yeah. And when you say reshape, like there's some little dangerous little curves, you know, would you when you say reshaped, you mean like make them make those straighter? I don't know how much that infringes on personal property on the sides, but and and there's also, you know, there's a hill that could get minimized. I don't know how that works, but

have an engineer go out and do a topo and do some surveying and do profiles so we could look at Okay. So those are the type of estimates that we're getting because I don't know how it works if you ask if you ask for you know a million dollar bond but

or do you get the estimate first or do you get the bond first? We we wouldn't ask for a million if it was only 500,000 that would be kind of unfair to base but I mean if it's really a million then that's what we have to ask for. Yeah. So we need to get the estimates of course before and

and I to your point about the hills sometimes I've thought the same thing over the past but we have to be careful we start lowering a hill that changes somebody's driveway that can change a lot of things and and cost more in the end too. So if we raise it up it could change the driveway and the way the water flows. So there's a lot of things there just sometimes it has to stay the way it has to stay but it just has to be repaid.

Right. Yeah I agree. I just want I just want to make sure that it's all angles are being looked at and yeah, we would have a engineering profile done and show the drainage and how the transitions into the driveways. All that would be done ahead of time so you can look at the plans.

Okay. Now, why not pick like the five or six worst roads in a town and get a $5 million bond to do them all? That's that will be up for discussion. Stand up at town meeting. Yeah, that would be up to the town. That's that's come to tell me, you know,

I mean, we we can put that stuff out there, but it's ultimate that the town's people are going to say yay and right, I'm not going to speak for everybody in town, but I'd be willing to bet if you threw that out there, you won't get it. You'd be better off to try to start small.

Get the normal 45, 50 people show up to town meeting. Agreed. You probably get it through. Yeah, I mean, we got a new fire truck with the roads, guaranteed it'll go through. When I first started, there was 300 people showing up. Now you're lucky if you get 100 and then half of them leave after their special interest part goes away. So it's not much we can do about it. We put it out there every year. They know it's the same time. It's just a matter of it's a priority for

you know I wish more would show up. You know conversation spots questions which get better answers and we get further ahead. But yeah, you know. Yeah. Robert Smith 31 Rangel I second what my neighbor Jeff says. Uh I I've lived up there for 16 years. Been hoping for this conversation. I'm glad it's happening. Okay. I think in fairness to our neighbors to the south, the other parts of town, if we had a list, we're going to do this road and then next year we're going to do this road. Give them hope. Hope brings people together. It'll make your job easy passing with bondage. If people have to say, "My turn's coming." That's all.

I think that's a good idea. We just got to be careful when we do that cuz if we put that out there that we're going to do that road next and for whatever reason because of mother nature things change and then we backtrack that kind of causes more headaches than it helps. So I think it's a good idea to put that program out there and this is what we intend to do but I wouldn't be very firm on this is the role we're going to do next just in case that happened. You know how mother nature is. Last year we had foot and a half of stone October. this year. Look at the weather, you know, you just never know. Which makes it tough on the plowing cuz the roads are all soft that every time you try to wing it back in case you get a big storm now, you breaking up what's already broke up or you're making it worse. It's it's a pretty fine balance. So,

yeah, they had the conversation, right? Agreed. Yeah. I have a general question. It might be for the budget committee, but I'll start here. Has the percentage of um taxpayers money that's used to maintain the roads changed over the last 10 years? Is it a percentage? How did how is it determined? What percentage of the pie goes to taking care of the roads

because our taxes have gone up over the last 76% of that is the RSU RSU. I can't answer the uh I don't have the numbers. It's something that we could get an answer for. We could look and see what percentage of our our tax

our tax levy went to roads um for the last it's it's it's easily calculated. It's I just don't have it in front of me. The reason I ask is the perception is that the roads over the last 10 years have gotten worse, but our taxes have gone up. So something's changed.

So, so the answer to that, both of those, is yes, the roads have gotten worse because we haven't done much to them in the last 10 years, and yes, the taxes have gone up, but it's not necessarily that the uh the it's possible the roads haven't stayed

the percentage spent on roads hasn't stayed level. Or it's also possible that just because the costs have gone up. um about 10 years ago the cost of pavement um almost doubled or tripled and so it doesn't didn't go as far.

So it would be good to have an answer to that and maybe that's something the budget committee needs to um understand or well I mean we could we could present that to the budget committee as well but that would be something that uh

as our administrator could get because the cost of of oil is so low. We're hoping I hope so. Oh yeah. Until DOD comes out with a number like like the cost of food has come down. Yeah. Yeah. In past years, we we haven't been able to do a lot to the roads because we until we've had our public works to get them to do some of the ditching and start working into that because we've had to sub that all out and it hasn't always been that money there till sometimes towards the end of the year and then that's not the not always the best time to try to do it because we have to pay a lot of money we have to pay to the RSU has to be paid first and that's it's quite a chunk of change every month.

So close to 400,000. So the next step for us who are concerned about the roads would be to go to the budget meeting in the middle of February. Yep. Um that I are we I hope that that like other years that we kind of earmark which night is for roads and which night is for

I haven't been but I can and and get that on the website when we know when they're going to meet. Um and we will also be having a discussion about the select will be having a discussion about the public works budget. We just we don't have it yet. Yeah.

So, there will be some public meetings before it goes to the budget committee where we're in the select and we'll discuss it as well. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Any anyone else have any I just have a quick question. How come um we're combined with PO public works?

How does that work? Um budget and everything else. So, we have a combined road commissioner and that was um to give us a full-time road commissioner between the two towns but be able to share the costs. We have also done some uh labor sharing and some equipment sharing which we keep track of and um by dollar amounts and um try to

keep it as equal as possible. Um, sometimes it will go uh several thousand dollars in favor of pal and then it will and then we'll do some more over here in Durham and it will and so on. But they are totally separate separate department totally separate budgets.

But is it taken away from our manpower for Durham? Not at all. No, not at all. We're combined. We have our own crew. They have their own crew. We only share the road commissioner. No. No. Uh, that's not absolutely correct. Uh we do share we do share some of the labor and we keep track of it. Um so that between labor and equipment the dollar amounts that are spent in panel with durm labor or equipment is matched with the dollar amounts spent in Durham with panel labor and equipment or very close to it. And then we settle up every every six months if there's if there's a more than like a $1,000 balance we'll settle settle it up. Um so so that if one town has owes the other town uh we'll we'll cut a check

like panel owns a grater. We don't own a grater and rather when we were setting up our department rather than spending huge sums of money buying a grater when we don't have that many dirt roads we use panels greater for a certain then we keep track of the operator hours and the equipment hours and that goes into a column and then panel may you know we may send a piece of equipment and an operator over to panel for a day and and just trade it off. So I mean this year the durm crew w did go over to panel for

several days to help out on the thicket road project. And later several weeks later in the uh in the year they the uh panel crew actually came over to help out with some of the ditching projects, some of the uh grading and I'm not sure if there were other things that they helped out with too, but um the the labor spent and the equipment hours uh we matched out pretty close. I don't remember what the actual difference was. I guess what I'm asking is would it make more sense to keep them together or separate them and give us the manpower to get our roads fixed? Cuz if we're sharing and obviously there's not enough people to get both towns done.

What what you got? You got a window in the summertime. They only get so much done in the in the good weather, right? And our guys went over the pound roll and helped out over there on their road project. Hopefully we have a road project this year. I'd love to see the pound guys come over and help us. I mean, I think they always want

and come over and blow our road out and get one done. Hopefully it's running around. Hope it's a bad road cuz that's what happened last summer and because you only got so much good weather to put paper down and rebuild. I mean everybody knows you can't do it in the spring, you can't do it in the fall. So you only got so much time to do it.

So So Durm has four four crew members and Panel has three. And so if you're doing a major a major road project, four people isn't enough to do a major road project and neither is three. So if you can combine them and then and then you you share back and forth, it it it can it can help. This year we didn't have them that major road project in the budget even. We we had a we did something on Quaker meeting house road um but it wasn't like a complete rebuild and but this year I'm I'm hoping we'll have something in the budget and that we could we can share some of that.

the by sharing by by sharing we're able to get together and and to build a road at at $45 a foot instead of instead of $125 a foot. So it it will help us in the long term be able to get the roads built. We get a lot more miles of road built for the for the money. So that's over in Pal we built a road this year for $45 a foot and the going rate is I mean the latest I just heard from the engineers of $135 a foot. So so with those numbers we were able to get a lot more done for the money by sharing because more trucks more manpower together we can do it. Otherwise, we'd have to have a 10-man crew, seven or eight man crew if we would cost us a lot more.

Or you'd hire Crooker to come in and do it all. 135. All right. Any any other uh comments, public comments? Yes. Yeah. Yes, sir. Um John Peterson, 382 went around Pond Road. My wife and I have been in town for a little over a year and a half, enjoying it very much. Um, when you're talking about possibly rebuilding a road such as Runaround Pond Road, you wouldn't be talking about using the town crew to rebuild that road if you were going to do it right. Part of the contract would be you would hire a professional outfit to come in and do the job. So, these guys could do their summer. We would do as much of it as we can such as the ditching the um the culverts and what else did they do?

We built the whole other than the paving we built the whole entire road. Thanks guys. Thank you. And it cuts the house in half. So I just I just wondered for the sake of time because you talk about only so much time in the summer. These fellas have to do their ditching and mowing or whatever else they might be doing.

It's a balance. We're trying to keep the mil rate from going combination. Oh, I got you. Yeah, I got you. That's that's why things haven't happened over the last few years is cuz the mill rate has been taking big hits every year and it's out of our control and so the little bit we can control that's that's been it. You know,

um I understand completely. We came from the town of Boilston in Massachusetts. And I love it here because the ruralness of this town is like Boilston in 1950. And you wouldn't believe Boilston today. And you wouldn't believe their budget,

right? Um and the way they handle the roads is altogether different. We completely understand what the situation is. Sure. what we saw of your crew last summer right in front of our house with a grater and a roller and bricks going

back and forth trying to fill in some of those spots and they're holding up this winter but just up the street just before you start up the hill come over that road today we did and I went whoa because they weren't there two days ago those holes

I always refer to a landmine and we both drive standard shift cars and I don't out of third gear. I'll pull over and let somebody pass me. Right. You know, it's I it's it's just amazing. We'd totally be in support of of rebuilding any portion of that whenever that

Okay. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Thank you. on the roads? On the roads or or or any public comment? uh if if you have any public comment that it's not on the agenda. I'm just here for some permits. Okay. Okay. Um so next up is the consent agenda. Um

please note that on the consent agenda there are uh two by permits uh at the duranvets. One is from the duranvets and one is from uh someone else. But the um so if we vote for this that would approve those or we can pull them out and vote on them separately.

I move we accept the consent agenda as presented. I'll second it. Um you had a question. One question on the warrant recap. Um and it was a refund of auto excise money. Yes. Um there was a woman who came in and uh last year she registered her vehicle and the vehicle was put in at um

it was like $105,000 is the MSRP. So when she came back this year and we looked at what we had done last year um we had overcharged her for excise tax and so that's what that refund is for. And nobody noticed this $600 over

Nobody she paid it. Well, she she's from out of state, so $105,000 MSRP. Is that what you said? Yeah, like $105,000 MSRP. Yeah. Okay. Any other any other things on the consent agenda? All in favor? Motion carries. Um were you here for the Bob permits? Uh do you have them so that we can sign?

I do have them. going to take care of the don't want him to get a quicker than I can. He's older than me. Thank you. All right. Uh on to action and discussion items. And first up is uh recognition. Um we'd like to recognize uh firefighter uh Ken Scribner. Um he

was awarded the let me make sure I get the name of it correctly. The uh 2015 Andrew Scoggin firefighter of the year award. Um uh and we would just like to recognize him for that. Um he joined the department in 1970. Um he was promoted to deputy chief in 1974 and remained active as deputy until 1990. Um he always he's also been on uh

committees that have uh researched and helped to purchase uh the fire equipment for the town. He rejoined the department in 2011. Um he was elected as corporation president this past year uh in February of 2015 and is part of the safety committee and the apparatus committee. He was very integral in um helping us to

acquire our Clint, our ladder truck. Um and he uh he's done many other um items for the department as well. He's also uh been a member of the Army Reserves. He's been a past president of the Derm Rod and Gun Club. um a hunter safety instructor and he's a lifetime member of the Durham and Vets Post and he's been a budget committee member here for the town of Durm as well. And so we'd like to recognize him for all his service and for the fact uh that he did get the 2015 Anderson County Firefighter of the Year. Thank you.

Jeff get up there. All right. Here we go again. Another phone. I'm going to start charging, you know. Thank you. Thanks, Ken. Have a good night. for archiving of the vital records. And we have 40 here. Yeah. Yeah. If you could come up

Go back to the second place. Okay. Right above that. Right here. Yeah. This that's part of it. Oh, this is Yeah. And then it should say that. Gotcha. Is that an extra one? Take that one. You need one of the book came from my other job, so I didn't bring it with me.

me? I guess uh kind of fill us in on what your request is, what you're asking for. Well, um I've been really involved with genealogy and historic records for quite a while, for the past 10 years. I do have a degree in from the USM um arts and humanities and French North American studies that's consisted of a lot of archiving, um the Franco American collection, things like that. And I'm been working on genealogy for so long and I'm seeing all these records going south real quick. Um I've been looking at the books here for years and they're falling apart. Acid from people's hands. Um just the normal wear and tear of them opening. They're on the original paper, original bindings. If we don't save them, a lot of those records don't exist anywhere else. You know, you can go to the state of Maine, but they have ones that they've filled in, per se, because there was a big fire. So, they have ones

that maybe have the name, maybe the date, but there's no other information on them. So, these are like original records. This is like our town, our history, who made our town. And if we don't save them by eliminating people touching them and digitizing them, um I want to photocopy, not photocopy, scan all the originals and make them accessible online for people. And then it's up to the town whether or not you want to charge if they want to print one off or whatnot. You know, if they want a certified copy, then obviously they're going to have to come here to get it. You know, there are stipulations now with the state. You have to have so many years. um you either have to have a genealogy ID or you have to have so many years in between someone dying before you can have access to records or you have to show proof of lineage. Okay. Um so I know all the guidelines and the rules that follow along with it. Um but

if we don't save them pretty soon we're not going to have them. And a lot of people use these not just to find out where your ancestors came from, but medical history. You know, somebody comes down with something, it's hereditary. Well, where did it come from? You know, I've had to do that a lot with our family and our health issues and I've gone back to 1600 and realized, okay, you know, it skipped a few generations, but it's there, you know. So, it's for different reasons that people want them, but it's important, I think, to get them scanned, get them on digital format so people can access them anywhere. They can access them from home. We can either link them to ancestry.com or we can link them to there's a whole bunch of sites out there. Um, main genealogology.net is a good place that you can do and it's run by the state of Maine. So there's so many different things that we can do with these, but it would eliminate

people touching them and and destroying them is what's the initial goal is. Do you, assuming that this goes forward, do do you have a plan or some thoughts on how to preserve the Yes, they sell acidfree um genealogy, not genealogy, archival boxes, and they have them for whatever size you want, whether they're maps or the big binder books or documents or whatever. You can buy them. They're fairly cheap. Um because we're going through it at the historical society right now. We've got um acidfree boxes being ordered and stuff so we can scan everything and get the originals stored someplace. They're temperature controlled. Um like I said, they're acidfree and they can withhold for up to 30 years. So they're really good, sturdy, strong boxes. Um and they'll protect them. And then you you know obviously you got to put it in someplace. You can't put it in freezing cold weather. You can't put it in really

humid weather. So, right. So, it would have to be in a somewhat air conditioned, you know, steady steady temperature for the long haul, but it would preserve them, you know. So, I mean, I noticed when I looked at down through the total costs were in 11,000 something

and that's I mean, that's um up for discussion as well. you know, the stuff that I found. I mean, I don't know if you guys have a computer here that can be used, then obviously we don't have to buy a new one. You know, scanners, same thing.

These are just what I put down that I know that I'm going to need to do the job the right way. So, you know, I mean, one question I had because as as you could see by the number of people that showed up here, we're we're likely going to be adding some money into the budget this year anyway and so on. Is it possible that the parts of these could be split up over rather than trying to do them all in one year, do the like the scanning part so we get them archived onto digital first and then maybe another year? Yes, it is possible to break it up, but I think um doing the digitizing of the records itself and all the information would be more important than actually scanning the documents just because if you get the information in a database where people can access it,

that would be like a transcription kind of. Yeah. But I mean you can put it even in an Excel worksheet, you know, and you can put a hyperlink to it. So it would it would decrease the amount of people still touching the originals. because you have the information.

Okay? Like the town of Green did that. They put it in just one big Excel worksheet. Yeah. Didn't have the original documents there, but you have the information, you know, and then people don't have to touch the books. So, yeah. I mean, it can be definitely split up,

right? I'm just trying to Yeah. If we can, you know, do it over one a two to three year span rather than all at once, you know, it it helps. Um Yeah. I I did know. You didn't have anything in there for those archival boxes, did you?

No. And I figured that could be something that I would bring back when I was all done, you know. So, I figured it would be that's why I put down two different phases, possibly a third one. And that's the appropriate storage for these archival

this archival material. So, okay. Um, and genealogy is a big thing now. It's a very popular These are actual town records that you're doing, not not records that are owned by the historical society. Correct. No, these are the

Yeah. Okay. Just wanted to make sure. 11 by 17 back there. The big leather bindings that Shannon has in the safe is like 8 to 10 books. So, you need a large format scanner presumably 11 by 17. or you know a lot of those books though like if you have a big piece of paper here you figure it's 11 by7 they're kind of split in half. So even a regular size scanner would do the job because the way the books are it's split down the middle anyway in the page. So one side you have one thing happening the other side you have something else. So a lot of the books are like that. So even a regular scanner would work you know. Oh.

Um, would you be able to use, excuse me, something like a copier uh or a uh a copier type scanner, a flatbed copier scanner, or would they would they not fit on it? Cuz cuz we already do have something here like that. And

so, yeah, you can use a regular scanner. I mean, and it's not anything that I'm going to be making copies of. The scanner has to be able to scan it to a computer. Yeah. So, yeah, you'd have to be able Can you Can you scan to an email address on that or not?

I'm sure. I'm sure. So, yeah, but why would you want to do it to an email address? Well, I mean, or I mean cuz if we can get it to a computer, you could simply email it to the computer. You can grab it from So, we could we could actually scan it to though we could scan it to the network drive here, right?

So, so we probably have everything we as far as the scanner and computers we can access it from. The only issue we may run into is storage. Oh, you have to have when you're scanning things, it takes a lot of storage. And often times the have to go look at that particular but sometimes they have a slot for a

USB drive. USB drive or a micro. Yeah. And you can buy a good USB drive with like 32 gigabytes and that would take care of the whole the whole thing. It wouldn't have to be set on So do do you know how much we have available on the on the

I don't because it's also backed up and we pay for it, right? It's backed up off. We could we could scan it to the server, too, and then download it onto the computer. I mean, because the the copier is set up to to scan to the server.

The reason why it would be nice to keep it on the server if you can, is then you can access it from any computer here, right? And not only that, towns people could you could put a link on the town page. Well, that's I'm I'm I'm hoping that we could once you get things entered in that the town the town website would be able to have access to the records that are

Exactly. Well, see, and we're going through that with the historical society right now, too. Tia and I are going through and we're scanning everything there. All the picture, the photo albums, the newspaper, we're scanning everything so that the these things last for a long time. Because right now the way everything is

technology changes, right? They're just they're going to be done for. Are you gonna be putting them online anywhere that we could have a link at our Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And if that's something that you guys would want on your town and we can definitely

thing and stuff. Have you ever looked into um restoring the books themselves? I haven't just because it's very pricey. It is. I know it. It's very pricey. So, I haven't actually I can look into that. Okay. Um, but as far as saving the originals, it would be a very

You're looking for the least expensive. Well, that cuz I know the town doesn't have a lot of money, but I also know the importance to me and maybe I'm one in a thousand in town. I don't know. It's but it's what I do. Well, by statute, we have to take care of the records in any case,

right? And there is an appropriate way to store them to make them last longer. Um, and we can look into that as we progress along here and get the right things for them so they last. But by Yeah. By reducing the amount they're touched that that'll extend the life and by absolutely things like that that that'll extend the life and then that gives us a maybe gives us longer to look at

what we can do. Have found things here that I haven't been able to find at the main state archives or the main state library or any other place. So there's a lot of originals here that nobody else would be able to get anywhere else.

So my goal is for it to be voted for on the town and I can split it up. I want to do the digitalizing first though, get the people's names and things into the database and then we can scan everything and get them. Okay. So what what would you be thinking of is you were t thinking of possibly using a uh the family tree software or something like that.

Um well only because that's what I work with. I have like six or seven families right now that I'm working on for various people. So I use ancestry.com familytree maker. I have a whole slew of different places that I can go to use it. Um it's just something that I'm comfortable with. I know how to use it. I'm very fluent with it. So that's why I put that on there.

Yeah. Okay. Well, I mean, this will have to come up for discussion during our budget talks obviously and um so I'm not sure exactly when we'll be talking about it, but we can we can get back to you with what our recommendation is anyway. What our recommendation will be

and if I can come to the budget meeting and I'll definitely for the town meeting. So y okay. Excellent. Thank you. So, we all for it then or we just got to kind of break it up? Um, I'm I'll put it this I'm for it in concept.

Um, moneywise, not so much. The moneywise, you got to Yeah, you got to weigh things and Right. and No. And I understand that. I understand that. But definitely if we can break it up and get it done a little by little, you know, I'd love to volunteer my time and do it, but can't do that and quit my job at the same.

Thank you. Thanks very much. Okay. uh act on dispatched contract with Lisbon. We have a new contract here. Um if I'm not mistaken, the price has gone up. Oh, yeah. And uh was it from 250 to three or 2 to three? I forget which which it was originally, but

yeah, it was the going back in time it was 250, but then they did a percentage increase uh last year. But we weren't actually we were kind of about two if you did a per capita it was probably about uh 275 somewhere around there because it actually if you look at the budget I think it was a little less than $10,000 that we paid them last year. This year will end up being 11 something 115

544. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, it uh it's about a 30 35 increase compared to what we were paying when we started with them. We were at $2.50. offering at just just so we can recollect was it I actually think county was the original price of Lisbon which was 250 per capita. We still under this we still pay county just so people don't get confused when you see yeah county's PAP Lisbon's dispatch.

So yeah I think it was 250 per capita going I don't think they actually made an offer to us to move up there this year but when they were talking about it and it was coming out in the papers and everything it was going to be 250 per capita.

I think Satis moved over to them. They they went with Lisbon Sabatis agreed they didn't like the price and they moved. But um I mean there there are other costs involved with moving to setup cost. No major costs. Not as long as with the sheriff's department. I got to be honest with you, it uh um I have asked for names for contact information for different dispatch centers. Um just cuz I'm not just the price but the service. I'm not I try to get things addressed and fixed and they're not always received very warmly. how it uh it's not constructive criticism or anything like that. It's basically yeah it it's a criminal investigation that it starts and stuff. So we can't fix things easily. So I'm not overly satisfied with that aspect of it. Um I do want to talk to the chief over there about that part. Um yeah, but

I'm not beyond looking into other places. Bottom line is is I don't know how long they'll honor it without a contract. But I'm not against looking at other places and I don't want to look just from a financial perspective though. I want to look from a service perspective because part of the reason we moved to Lisbon and part of the reason I'm unhappy is because they they said, "Hey, we're going to do this, this, and this." And it's we've stayed the same, pretty much the same since we've been there. It's really nothing has changed. uh you know and

personnel and staffing in the department if we actually had a dispatch center that was going to tone out apparatus do things that would be beneficial to the town's people right now if you live in say district 5 in the town of Durham u with the sheriff's department I had a paper book they wouldn't put it in the computer system I guess it's in the computer system I'm not yeah I don't I mean to insult them, but I'm not always sure it's actually looked at in the computer system, but it uh um it's in the computer system for district 5, but that controls whose second do or who's actually automatic to cover some of that five mile things we've talked about and stuff, who's automatic. So if you don't do that right away and the insurance companies are looking at it, well that defeats the purpose of having an automatic response from another jurisdiction to that area if you're just toning out Durham or you're

toning out below the response level. And the other side of it is if I live on one end of a district and you live on the other end of a district, well it makes perfect sense on the first due response that yeah, it's probably going to be the same for both of us. But when we start talking second do, well, Freeport might be closer to me, but it's definitely probably not the second closest to you. And so it it it needs to be broken down further, which we've had that breakdown, and that's part of where we were supposed to progress to. And it we're having a hard time maintaining what we have. So, I don't know if they'll keep us on without us signing the contract. They will. I'm not totally against that. It is an increase. That's the only major change in it. A little bit in the structure and or the uh process for making changes. It's a little to me it was a little bit more restrictive than the previous contract.

How happy were you with with county before we went to Louis? Uh county was actually beyond the fact that we weren't getting the um many of the same problems we have in Lisbon were about the same. I guess it's not a case of of half. We're getting about the same

many of the same things about the only thing we've really gained with being Lisbon is we don't do simult like I'm in a district where Lisbon's an automatic so two units are supposed to be coming from Lisbon so part of the whole purpose of having a central dispatch facility is you do simulted

it doesn't happen so really the only thing we've gained is a little bit better of a computer system and hopefully dispatch is utilizing the computer system when they're tone us toning us out and stuff. That's the only thing with

the county is at 250 and Lisbon's at 350 now. I don't know. Couldn't I'm not going to I don't want to say that here. I know that's what they put out, but I don't know if that's what they're the same service. Yeah. So, um,

it's about $1,700 is what the difference would be if they're at 250 versus three cuz our population's 3872 or something by the last census or something like 3848. Yeah. But I know um before when we were with our county dispatch, we had to have a dedicated phone line there. Is that would that be a requirement?

Yeah. Well, let's going back in time when we talked about some of the dispatch stuff. Some of the stuff with us moving are actually what it's going to cost for us to move it. If we can just do a radio frequency thing and uh there's no major changes except for maybe moving getting the radios programmed or something like that. Most anywhere we move is not going to be a big expense. But yes, if we have to do that line, we actually with county before we had two options because of interference from other frequencies. We had the option of even either doing the phone line or the uh yeah

UHF link. The UHF link was going to be questionable. So we ended up doing the dedicated phone line which I'd have to look back to tell you what it was costing us. So it's not just a setup charge. It was considerable. It was several hundred a month I think.

Yeah, it's a certain base fee plus a monthly charge. But I I guess my recommendation it would be that we consider staying. Whether you want to sign the contract or see if they'll do an extension, that's up to you guys. But my recommendation for now would be to stay with Lisbon. And if you want me to do research, I'm perfectly fine with doing research.

I can see how much cost county before we sign with Lisbon. Lisbon's hurting for money, so they're they're gouging everywhere. I I work there. I know. Though I mean, we are, if I'm if I'm not mistaken, we're off contract right now. So start January one

was when the contract started. But when we did have our dispatch meeting, they got it right to us. They did talk about extensions and just carrying communities. The other side of it is I don't get the bill. I don't know if you've got a bill, but we should have actually got a bill for the first quarter.

Sure. So I don't even know if they build us for the first quarter. I don't think we should consider moving just because of money though. I will say that. I say but it sounds like you're saying the service is about the same. Yeah, the service is not.

Well, the services are saying I'd love to be sitting here. I thought I was going to be sitting here saying the service was light years better. But he's sitting behind me. If he wants to chime in, he's welcome to chime in. But I don't feel the service is light years better.

The services are the same. We're paying money in Lisbon. Why would we? However, I I don't think if if we had to go back to a dedicated line that would chew up any savings, find out what we got, how much that cost. Cost could be prohibitive.

But uh but bottom line is I think if we I don't think we should do it because of money. I think we should we should do it because of the quality of the dispatching service, not necessar I guess what I'm sitting here saying is

if you want me to check into it, I'd like to check into Brunswick, Lewon, and Auburn and the sheriff's department and come back making a recommendation based on service and obviously what the cost would be for that service.

Absolutely. So, was some of these things that you were expecting, were they built into the contract or the bylaws or anything like that? No, we don't we don't regularly meet as a committee. We haven't really made any changes to how we do it. I'm not sure without looking how long we've been there, but I'd say it's about three or four years.

Three years. And we're dispatched pretty much the same as we were when we initially went there as far as the IMC system, how it's handled. Uh yeah, text messaging and everything. The text messaging, that's an improvement over counties. It's still not perfect, but it's an improvement over what we were getting at county.

I was just wondering if it would be worth having them come over having someone a representative from their dispatch um coming over here so we can I mean, and discussing some of the the things that uh you were kind of expecting or things like that. And is that is that some of is is that something that can be worked on to

you just go with Dr. Sean? You going to go with talk to Sean ask him what's going on? Well, actually at my most recently some of my communications about some of the things we have to work on and stuff have not been received very well. But Sean is supposed to be my point of contact for the fire side of dispatch. Um, most recently I actually sent an email reg in regards to a couple of calls and stuff and how they were handled. Um, yeah, and I actually talked to Sean first and then was his advice was to send an email to him, Chief Brooks, and to Sergeant Harry Moore who's in charge of dispatch. And I sent the email and it was not

Yeah, it was not very well received. It took like a week or better to get a response and it was handled more like a criminal investigation. The result is there's no changes. I know what we can change to make it better for them, but I don't know what they're going to change to make it better for us.

So, there is problems there. Well, I mean, and that's I guess why I was wondering if we're going to sign up with them again, wouldn't we wouldn't we expect some improve shouldn't we expect some improvement? That's why I especially especially if they're going to increase the cost.

I would support the comparison. Shop around. Shop around. Yeah. I I really think the answer is not a meeting here. It's rather to to shop around. And bottom line is is there's been three to four years to make changes and make improvements.

How long do you think it'll take you? Do you you ask around? Not long. that uh most of them most of them have given us prices before or or we've been dispatched before at ask around I got a few more things I got to finish up the board will tell you but I got classes going on besides the budget

you talking a month two yeah I no not two months I'm assuming that if I make the calls that I'll have prices within a couple of weeks ballpark so we ask Lisbon to extend it for a month we or or ask for that we do an extension for a quarter.

Y and um with the option of picking it up for the rest of the year or we may go with something else, but that would you asked me for an extension for a quarter. It uh like you'd ask Lisbon. I mean to me that's going to send a message way better than any meeting that I'm going to have with you. It uh you know that's going to send the message to so looking other places and trying to decide what's in the best interest of the community and stuff. So if I was going to make changes, the changes would be coming to the forefront right away.

So you that's a good plan. Okay. So table this until next meeting when we can see some other numbers and routines for next meeting. So a month. Okay. Table for a month. Two meet. See see if we can see if they'll be willing to sign an extension of of the contract through uh March first quarter.

Okay. I and and that could be brought to us at the next meeting if they're willing. If they're not, I don't know what. I was trying to see cuz I read somewhere in here about breaking the agreement, but it uh we haven't yet

kind of one-sided. Well, right now we we don't have an agreement. Our agreements has expired. But I mean, if if we was to go now? Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Um I'd like to uh table D until we're done with the uh departments and committees, the budget discussions.

Okay. So, chief. All right. Back up. Yeah. wrong one. You don't have the one with the Gotcha. Gotcha. on your list. Um, first thing I wanted to do is just you recognize Kenny one. I wanted to thank you on behalf of the town and stuff for recognizing two. I don't know how many of you actually look at your main townsman, but I was rather shocked, but main townsman contacted me and the people and places that's in the back of your main townsman. There's a picture of Kenny and a little brief article in there. So,

one that just came. Yep. The one that just came out. A couple of I have a So he's a statewide celebrity now, not just a local or county celebrity. reporting on the well. We finally got the results back probably two weeks ago, two and a half weeks ago. And the the bleaching and everything, took care of the bacteria or it uh we came back with a really good test. So, um, right now it's posted by all the sinks and stuff because for a while there I had the signs up there saying don't use the water and stuff like that. So, it's been posted by all the by the all the sinks and stuff. So, our water's all set. Annual mandatories that uh we've got the makeup class I've been talking about scheduled for February 8th and I think after that we'll just have a few more to take care of. So, we're actually in pretty good shape for our annual training, hazmat training. Um

yeah, I uh we have the hazmat awareness fresh refresher this Thursday night at uh and then hazmat ops refresher scheduled for April 21st. We usually do the awareness refresher. I'm an instructor for that one. Hazmat ops, we usually bring u and somebody through the state emergency response commission usually pays for it. So um have the mad scientist come down and teach it. It's actually pretty enjoyable class. um structure, the department structure. We've been actually one of the things we've been doing for the last probably 3 months, four months over there is discussing how we do business as a department, not the services we provide, but how we're organized and structured and uh there's some fairly substantial changes in the work. I should be able works I should be have them fine-tuned so we're starting to uh move on them in your next meeting. I should be able to give you a more in-depth report of where

we're going. We're trying to I think I told you this going back in time. We're trying to put it so that it fits better with the people and is more enjoyable. Their participation is more enjoyable cuz doesn't matter what we pay them. We're not going to pay them enough to make it so it's my second income. I got to told them. So, they got to be enjoying it. Um, Rescue 25. It uh I know I was emailing about that, but Rescue 25 a couple of weeks ago. I'd had to go out at first. I thought it was a blown head gasket. Um, ended up being a core and then uh bunch of fuel lines in the back cuz we were getting in the backside of the engine which is not an easy repair. None of it's easy access. But in the end, I don't know think they had to pull the engine like they originally thought they were going to have to. But anyways, went out, we were down for a week. We actually had seven EMS calls over the weekend. Really hammered on the area EMS

services that uh we do first response and Lisbon and Freeport both transported for us at Monday morning. They both called me and offered up rescues for a loan. It uh we didn't you know when we get their rescues we don't just strap a rescue. We strap their personnel as well even if they have the the depth with the rescue. So they offer the loan of a rescue. So, we did borrow Freeport's Rescue for the remainder of that week because we actually had all the previous paperwork in place. Some of it may be outdated, but insurance companies had been advised. We reviewed all that. All the paperwork was in place. So, we actually took free port up. But anyways, it's back in service. All the odors and leaks seem to be taken care of. Um, fire inspector. I'd let you

know about fire inspector. I'm finally down to one more class on the final exam. So awesome. Hopefully a couple of weeks. I Well, I don't know about a couple weeks. The exam's not scheduled yet, but hopefully pretty quick. I'll lose that. Fire ground ops. I started on that class. It's Wednesday evenings. It uh it goes through May 11th. It uh pretty sure by the time I get done that one, I'm going to be ready to take a break from classes for a while. it. Uh, the other thing I wanted to the dispatch contract we discussed, the other thing that I wanted to talk about, we got to put it on the list when I get back from class this afternoon is um, one of the things I've been trying to do over at the station is give people different duties and uh, make them responsible for different things so that we have a little more depth and so I kind of uh, yeah, prepare them to tackle

different aspects and hopefully grow them as Well, but anyway, that Diana put in for the forestry grant this year and it uh we did end up getting notified that we were selected for the forestry grant. I'll pass the paperwork around it. Uh it was for a uh lightweight

portable fire pump and suction. Total purchase price was $15.95. Uh for three grand, if you guys choose to accept it, it's a uh 50/50 split. We have to pay upfront. Then they reimburse us for 50% of the purchase up to half of that$ 15.95.

What is that pump going on? Is it is that How big is that pump? Is it going to go on? What's Do you remember? Is it like a It go on the forestry unit? It's a small lightweight unit to carry into the the woods. I want to say it's like 100 gallons a minute or something like that.

Yeah, I think it's 90 actually. So, it's a pump. We had a floating pump that was in disrepair and we were looking at replacing it. end up getting it fixed, but it'll complement that system. You got any money in your budget to pay for that?

No, I'm hoping you guys actually we have a grant match fun. Yeah, he knows that. He knows that. This is a test, which we're going to have to put money in. Yeah, we're going to uh we haven't put money in that grant match fund for many years and we're pro we probably need to bring it back up. I don't know. Do you know what's in it right now or not? Yeah. So, um, I think it's a good idea,

huh? I think it's a good idea. $469. $46.99 is all that's left in the grant match. Wow. Yeah. Although I think I think we're Are we still owed some monies? I think we must be cuz I I I I think last time we were talking about it, there was several thousand more than what we

I'll have to check records. Um, yeah. Um, check the records. Does I have a station? Is there is there a uh a time limit when it has to be accepted by it? Uh I'd have to read it and tell you that for sure. It uh usually it's uh let's see uh let's see. Please return the forums to my attention by no later than March 15th.

March 15. So this was this her first grant that she had had done and she had said this is actually the first grant this year. And the the cool part about this is and Diana actually I've been having her work on she's done a couple of others as well and so this is the first one she worked on and stuff. Jeez, I think good confidence it uh um

but anyways it uh actually you mentioned I yeah we can talk on Thursday but I actually think we maybe I actually now that you said that I'm not certain that we've ever received the uh reimbursement from the state on the final homeland security grant that I submitted.

Yeah. So, is it is it possible or um is it ever done where to request an extension on the uh time frame there? I'm just thinking cuz right now and unless we can figure out that we do have money coming back. We don't have enough money to cover this in our in our grant match fund and if they could grant us an extension until after town meeting so we know whether we'll have

go till after town meeting. It would have to be right after the town meeting because the other side of it is unless I request two extensions, the purchase, this is supposed to be made by June 30th of 2016. So, well, is it could it come out of the capital account since it's equipment?

But we we don't we we we can't approp we haven't appropriated anything until after town meeting. Got it. Yeah, we're talking we got to come up with what 750. But if if we have Yeah. Yeah. But but if we have money that's supposed to be coming back still supposed to be coming back, then we know that there's still some that should be in that fund at some point. But

I will check and see. But I actually unless it's unless you guys got it and didn't send me a record. I'll have to check the folder, but I I'm not certain. Just seemed that we only got $4,700 and we spent like 22. I thought

the homeland security grant. potentially one of them was I think we got the bigger one. I think it' be the smaller one, but I'm not positive. I don't want to quote on it. So, could we have this put on our agenda for next week? So, uh or two weeks so that we can have some time to look into that cuz um I I wouldn't feel comfortable um approving it if we don't if if unless I know the funds are the funds are there and stuff. And even though I mean I I would like to be able to approve it. It's nice to get something at half price, but

the bottle drive. Oh, that's all I had. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Code enforcement. Those are yours. I have one uh runaround pond uh to continue to pursue the um the privy at runaround pond. I got the information I needed from uh Bonnie Cobb in regards to the plumbing permit which is something that um doesn't have to go to the state. It's an alternative toilet permit can be done in house. So there'll be a minimum fee for that. Um, we need to get a site development plan put together. It's a few hundred bucks. Uh, somewhere in the three to if it's more than 500, I'd be dumbfounded. Uh, I'd like to get started on that if you guys want us to move forward on this project um with the money from the state for putting in the privy this spring and then we're going to start to need to look at um getting the permit then getting it out for proposal. So, who who's going to do the work for us? So, I'd like to get moving on more of that

to get it solidified. Any objection for all um Evidently, my spelling is not very good. The uh ordinance, the final review and public hearings at February 3rd at the regular planning board meeting, uh we had one person that showed up last time Mark was there. Um the only addition this time was some language that um and Tara Grosa had put in in regards to appeals. It was felt by the board that anything that wants to be appealed in town needs to go through our board of appeals first uh before it moves forward to any other option with a what an ADB or an ADK ruling uh headed for district or superior court. Ann seemed to think it was important and I agree with her that the the community be the first one to review any decisions that are going to move past their particular or my particular um department. Uh, so a

little bit of language changing there, but no, so far everybody seems to be pretty positive about what's going on with it because there is really isn't a lot to get your teeth into fighting on. Uh, so hopefully we'll get a, you know, they'll they'll it'll move fast through this process. I've talked to the Department of A and getting it certified there. It may not need to go yet. I'm not sure yet. Uh, because we haven't really made any changes. They might just give us a nod and say, "Don't worry about it. Go ahead." Um, I have had some conversations with the folks at Egg about that and I'm waiting to hear back on a final determination of that. So, that probably come this week or next week. We'll get that one done. Uh, Jack Conway has submitted um his representative council documentation in regards to the Kimberly Allen appeal on behalf of the town. Um, so that the paperwork on all that's in order.

We'll see where it goes next. we they have to file um I'm not exactly sure of the terminology and the process, but there's a there's a process where they fi they have to file some paperwork in regards to their side of the situation and then we get to review it and file an autle and various other things before there's actually ever posted to be a hearing. So it may be February or March before that actually gets into into court. I did have I last meeting I had a question on this is uh where are you in getting the certifications you need to be able to uh represent us?

I can't I can't represent the town in an ADB ruling. I can only represent the town in an ADK ruling and those um those are coming up. They're going to be I think in May are the next two rounds of trainings. I've been through them before. I just thought I'd wait and go through the next one before I did the test. So you there's there's no certification to represent us in ADB. That's that or

that's correct. Okay. Okay. AD ADB is a is a superior court uh file. Okay. ADK is a district court file and ADK is an actual state ruling that allows municipalities sort of a shortcircuited legal process with which to deal with uh a lot of issues and that way there the towns don't get bogged down and gets handled pretty quickly. What determines which which what cases go where?

Um who files it where? Oh, if it's filed in district court, it's an ADK filing. If it's filed in superior court, it's an ADB filing. As far as I know, and I may not know, it may not be that simple. I'm not sure. Yeah. I mean, people make decisions about whether or not there used to be a a financial distinction between that that matters above a certain dollar value, civil matters above a certain dollar value and damages were automatically in superior court that was abolished. But people make strategic decisions because depending on which county one the district the superior court docket may move more quickly than the district court docket. So there's just it's a it's a choice of of venue.

So that's where that one is. Um Rita Chase I don't know if any of you have seen the new Chase Hill drive sign down on Route 9 by the Lisbon Bridge. Um, there's been some ongoing issues uh that Rita had voiced early on in the way that her driveway access into Route 9 had been reconstructed. And I've been pretty much on a one-sided email train with with Mandot um trying to get those guys to do something about fixing her driveway entrance. They can't make a fire department can't make a turn onto her driveway coming from town going towards that direction. They'd have to turn around and come back the other way. So, um I have been in contact with uh

the gentleman who's in charge of the prog the project there who moved me to his superior. He and I've sort of chased some emails around and Calvin tells me that they've decided they're going to do some work on that in the spring. I haven't got anything definite from them and I've been trying to pin them down. It's a little risky business with these guys because sooner or later this is probably I'm I'm going to pay for this one. My dad's got a long memory and at some point in the time when the the roles will get reversed. I'm sure I'll pay for it. But Rita's worth it. She's she's been pretty sweet. Um it's a worthwhile endeavor to to try to get that one thing straightened out. And it's not asking a lot. And that's pretty much what I'm

what I'm trying to go for on that. Uh so I'll I'll keep you posted on that. The town won't pay for it. I personally will will pay for it when it comes back around, but it always does. You want to be careful going after Mandot for much of anything. Um, the permits are up.

button. Um, but I'm not sure how to explain it in any other way. Last last January, we had two permits this so far January already, we've got 20. I know I've got three more in the wings that are coming before the end of the week.

Are these um new construction or renovation or all of it? I've got two houses that came in. Uh there's a bunch of of fairly substantial additions. The real estate agents are going like crazy. The pent up demand for um for moving in the housing market. The banks are freeing up money. The foreclosure market is finally getting absorbed and disappearing. Um

it's if it keeps going like this even for another month or two this year is going to be an absolute slam. So um and I had put this question to Mark. I mean the hard the hardest part for me and I understand the difficulty in trying to put together funds to support what somebody feels is a necessary um expansion of their services.

the it took me a little bit of working through this one to try to figure out what my real issue is. And my real issue is is that I like to do a good job and I like to do a thorough job. And if the time constraints of the job don't allow for that because the demands of the job are overtaking me, it gets very stressful. It gets difficult to do. It's likely at this point I have to decide at some point in this process what gets done and what doesn't because there isn't enough time. And it's not good going home at the end of the week feeling like you haven't got your week's work done or that people aren't getting what they should from you because of the matter of time. So I'm not really sure how to present it in any other way. Um I do think that if it's if it's looked at objectively the demands of the job are going to require something here has to change pretty significantly and pretty soon. I'm expecting

um this is going to probably be the best building year in Durham since in at least the last 10 to 15 years guys put me to the task and I think over the last close to two years now you've realized how much the requirement of the job is that you didn't realize before. Um, so you know, I hope I just encourage you to do the best you can with it and understand that it's I don't know how I don't know how else to present it. It's going to need to be done. So, I appreciate your patience. That's all I got. If you guys done anything

any questions? Thank you. Thank you. Oh, one more thing if I could in regards to Currin's uh thing about the documentation in town. If nothing else, at least early on, there's some of those documents should be looked at. They shouldn't be being handled without supervision. I don't know if you guys you guys probably know this, but I just found out today that the original charter for Durham was signed by John Hancock. Indeed, John Hancock. That signature is worth money, and it'd be terrible to see that go missing. Um, so there is some historical value, financial value in in some of those documents and I think it would be a really good policy for the town when people are going through those documents that it be done with supervision and they don't just get handed the books to sit out here and do what they want because that's where

people should be wearing gloves and there should be a whole number. Yeah, there's a there's a significant I was appalled that those were available for people that just sit down and read without proper like you say the proper title or proper stuff. I would also say if you can do the documentation instead of scanning it, do it with a a cell phone. The cameras and cell phones are so much better than the visual responses out of scanners. The light, the UV light is not as damaging to the paper. And you can take the cell phone photographs and blow them up. The pixelation is so clear. These are very fuzzy documents. They're not easy to read. It's old English. They're, you know, there's a lot of foxing and there's a lot of layover of print. So, they're a little difficult to read, but you can pull that one word right up into the viewer and see.

Oh, my cell phone. You can't. I'm still chis. I didn't say flip phone. I said cell phone. But anyway, so I would encourage that. So, thanks. Thank you. Thank you. I'm I'm fine. commission. Unless you guys have any questions.

don't know if you guys went over that when I wasn't here or so I I I I have copies of that again if you don't already have it. Uh copies of the uh roof estimate. Uh I have one Did we actually see the estimate? No, I haven't seen the estimate.

I I Yeah, if you can Yeah. Uh, as a as a note, please don't actually mention any of the numbers on the next commitment. Uh, just to make the uh if we can put it out to bid process fair. Did we ever think about going metal and not asphalt?

I haven't I just I just got this. What do you think about that? Um, I I don't think it will make a huge difference on price from my past experience. Longevity. Uh, well, everybody thinks metal is forever. It's not. There are certain types standing seam as opposed to corrugated would will last longer. You want to ask the insurance company because I know that they're not crazy about metal roofs because if I have to get on it, there's an issue there.

Yeah, you have some pros and cons. Snow coming off and then big slides. Send Jeffrey out. You don't have to get metal costs a little more but goes on faster. Singles cost a little less. Takes a lot of fraud. So it's kind of one of the depending if the market for either oil or metal is up or down really weighs it if they're both about even it's not a huge difference. So I guess more I want to talk about the process of of uh it's something that definitely needs to be done. Do we want to get uh another opinion or do we want to do you want to I mean I was horrified when I went out back and looked at the roof. I just looked up. I was on the back deck and I looked up and I I thought this was a new building and I looked up and saw what appeared to be to me 30-y old shingles. And so I had someone else go up and look at it and he came up with the same conclusion. So

I I think I think that is establish that it that it needs to be done. Um I understand we still have some money in the building bond which I think would be very appropriate to use for this cuz it's extending the life of the building. We expected it was a good roof when we got it, but um and I'm surprised that it wasn't caught on inspection, but you have said that these go quick sometimes.

Sometimes that's Yeah, I've been privy to a couple. You recall that there were some issues when we had sent our prior code person to do the inspection. There were some time sensitivities, but we had some insurance inspectors in there, too. I think

state inspector state inspector. So, so um I mean I I I think it needs to be done. Um I don't know if what the other selectman think about the using the the rest using the bond towards it. This is uh See, I'm trying to see how many square this was.

And does this this is the is this the main bond and the and the L off it or it's everything except for my office area. That little addition that's like what two years old that was fine. Yeah. Everything else is and from what I can see the the amount of years of these shingles though other ones that I've privy to it seems to be that time frame has been when there was a problem with the shingles and it everyone that I've dealt with or talked to people about is between the 8 and 12 a.m. just there was something defective and like I said, sometimes you might get

$300, $600, but obviously that's nowhere near what it cost to redo it, but that's all they'll do, you know, unless you want to get on a class action lawsuit. And I know there was one out there. Uh the guy was actually trying to get not just the shingles, but labor paid for. And that may may or may not happen. And if it does happen, it might be by the time you reuse them twice.

That's one of them deals. if if the board is okay with using what we have in the uh bond, we could probably put this out for put out an RFP for this. Um I don't know if you What's the alternative? I mean, right. Well, that's the only alternative is that we have to put it in the budget and we wait until April to put it out for

What's the uh what's the uh percent rate? What's the rate on the bond? the interest rate. Uh I think that's a 2.95% one or something like that. We have some money that has not been withdrawn from the bond and this year we should either use it or we should withdraw it and put it back into the the bond so that

we're paying interest on it. Right. Anyway, so um so it it makes sense to use the money and I think it would cover most of it if not all of it. And it's a 15-year bond and with architectural shingles, those should last 30 years. So

they have some 30, some 50. The new ones are lifetime. Like Yeah. What what do they what what does the lifetime guarantee mean? Yeah. They wear 30 and they went to 40 and now they just call them lifime. So the price of architecturals compared to three tabs now there's minimal difference and you're better off to go with architecturals. It's

guaranteed that none of us will be probably remember what this conversation was. Hopefully not. So, uh, you think you could write up an RFP for this for next meeting? Um, I don't know if you want to put it out there with both, um, architectural and metal and and just to see what the difference in price is or not, but um,

Paul, will you weigh the permit fee for this? The permit fee will be weighed, but the permit will not. this roof, I would go with asphalt. But okay, you know, I think I that the metal the problems you get with that is you got to put the brakes on. The snow slides off in big sheets causes damage.

I think you got to want a combination of both. I think you got to want metal on I asked Mike and Mike said which he should have done, That little port should have been metal. He said, "I never did." The only problem with that is

Well, it's not It isn't any problem. It's one of the things where you just have to stay right at it cuz when it comes off, it all drops right there. And on the the back the back garage, the back barn, it's metal. And I watched today, I saw a huge sheet come off and fill the driveway. And now we got to go.

And that's basically a cold storage building. So I I don't know. I got I got my theories on metal. I mean, if metal conducts cold, cold falls. The myth is that uh hot air rises. Well, the only reason hot air rises cuz the cold air falls and it pushes hot air out. you open up your freezer, if you got a top freezer and you what's the air do? Soon as you open up, it falls to the floor. So that's why I pushed it up. So if cold air is falling around your building, it seems to me like you're working a little hard to keep it warm. But you know, a lot of people disagree with that. But

if if the if the insurance companies are don't care either way, then that might be different. But I've heard tell I haven't asked I've never asked to put it on my house that you know that that's one of the concerns is because of firemen have to get on a roof. It's a little more dangerous and stuff and obviously if you ever have to get up there and do something. It's going to be more cost.

We got a quint now. More costly. We got a quint. You got a metal roof on the fire department, I believe. Yes, we do. Yeah. And they ain't getting up on Well, they got a fire ladder truck now. Quint. Yeah. But I would personally I would go with asphalt. I think it

I I think I think the lifetime Yeah. architectural would be the Yeah. And I and you might I mean I I was I was just thinking why not why not put it out both ways. Why not put it out both ways and see what see what it comes back?

Do that. I I would uh I would probably go with more than 3 ft of is water shield. I'd go up at least six feet. Six feet. Yeah. At least. Okay. So put that in the RFP. Uh as long as it's vented, right? A lot of times it's you can do the whole roof. That is quite costly. But so

you're going to have to ask him to redo his since you added 3 ft. This person. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, this is not this is just an estimate. Uh this he's going to do an RFP. They would have to they would have he would have to put a proposal in for it. Yeah.

So So there's that. Um and at some point talk to you about that another day, but at some point we're going to have to look at paving the parking lot. That's a 19 mm binder coat down there and the aggregate starting to come out of it and some of that's going to start turning into potholes if we don't get that covered a little with a with a 95 or 125 top coat. So just throwing that off together that that's something that's going to be need to be done over the next

two three years I would think. we'll get right on that. Yep. All right. I'll get you some numbers on that. Um so at the uh grant we've been establishing the employees roles when on call and that has resulted in some cut in overtime. I guess last year the way it was done was that every week somebody was on call and they were here to check the roads and they were here and they were often getting paid you know for uh

there was people being paid 24 hours a day to be here. So, I do it differently. The way I've done it where I come from is I'm basically watching the weather and the on call person is the person I will call to uh if I need someone to come check out what's happening on the ground, I'll send them over to check and they'll they'll be the first person to respond to a storm. And so, more or less just communicating with that person. And there really no need for someone to be here 24 hours a day. So that uh something that somewhat of a change from last year that guys are getting accustomed to. Um there is a an issue with some concern

with the employees about the um um overtime pay. They feel that last year they were paid for uh overtime anything over 40 when there was a holiday in the week. And so I have here our policy would assume you guys put this together. I assume you guys put this together.

Yes. And we we specifically put this hours worked in there. Um it's okay. And that I I think there's some confusion. I think last year um I'm told and I don't know if this is I don't mean I don't even know if this is true, but maybe you could look, but we've talked about it and we don't really know. So perhaps they were getting paid last year. It's possible if it wasn't if it wasn't clearly understood um if you want to check into it just check a couple of weeks that had holidays during the winter and see

last year they had to plow every weekend seeused see what the overtime paid was and whether it matched up to 40 hours worked or if they included the holiday but because I know when the committee met to to put this together it was contemplated that that holiday time wasn't going to count towards boards,

hours work, holiday, vacation, and sick time don't count as hours worked. And that just is, you know, clarification that I told them I had to I would bring it up. And I mean, it's possible that we should go whatever our policy.

We want to change our policy. It's possible. It's possible we we made a mistake last year in the way we did it. Um, and I just my question is this is what you intend to do is what this policy says. There is if you don't are you able to go back and look at that

change it. Okay. This is what we got. I can but I'd have to go physically check the cards. When Sean was here we weren't getting the cards for a while. We were just getting his spreadsheet. Now every week Calvin brings the cards with the spreadsheet. Um and

so you wouldn't even have those. Yeah. We have them now, but we didn't have them at the time. But I can go back and I can I can look. Um but it would take some time. You could you could you could you should be able to look at the pay stub and see that there was uh 8 hours of holiday pay uh x number of regular pay and x number of overtime, right?

But I have to go look at the the cards. I think I may have the cards in a box down. That's not say that information isn't saved on in Trio. You couldn't just go look at the uh pay information in TRIO. But but but it in the spreadsheet, Sean would have put it under overtime, not holiday. I'm assuming that they weren't paid time and a half for holiday. But but I would have to physically go and look at the spreadsheets and everything in order to determine if the spreadsheets matched what I would get with the card.

I mean, because it says very clearly. Yeah. I say they're asking for clarification. All you need to I think all you'd need to look at in Trio is cuz you you you uh you show what the hours paid are for. It would show eight eight hours of holiday.

If it's under holiday time, then it's not paid at time and a half. However, if Sean took the hours from the card and put it under overtime on the spreadsheet, it would just be under overtime. So, you'd have to actually compare the cards with the what's on the spreadsheet.

They would they would just pay. I guess I guess what I was thinking you would be able to see there'd be 8 hours of holiday, 40 hours of regular time and x number of overtime hours or it would say 8 hours of holiday, 32 hours of regular time and x number of overtime.

I could try and see if that'll work. I don't think that there's any ambiguity. I mean, what makes a difference what happened last year? I don't know that it's relevant. I don't know that it's would do a lot for him to go back and say that's for clarification. This is what it is. But it's okay. I don't have a problem going back and looking because they said, "Hey, last year we did." Okay. Well, yeah, we did.

If they could prove they're they're wrong, he can go back and say, "That's not how it happened." You know, this our policy says this is what we very clear that sickly vacation time, holidays, jury duty, readment, and other personal time off from work shall not be considered hours worked for purposes of calculating or agreed.

So, I I will straight forward bring them down, bring it back, and say, you know, this is what it is. That's what you guys intended. just wanted to clarify that that's if there was anything else. That's what it was. Okay. So, we'll move along and

um so we've uh got the most recent uh storm update. Uh I update this sheet every storm and every event. And my goal is to be able to calculate um try to balance out try to uh balance out what we're using in comparison to what's going out and who's using what. And we're trying to get a handle on the salt usage on how many miles of how many lane miles each route has and what they should be using in comparison to what they are. And we're we've we've made some good progress in uh

bringing it around bringing those numbers into Yeah. So that's Do those trucks have some kind of cover or anything that like when they're with the sand? cuz I have my car has been hit by huge chunks of aggregate when I've been behind one of those trucks coming around a corner and I've seen and other people have complained about it and the sand is

is not beach sand. Let's put it that way. It was it's gravel, you know, it's big aggregate coming out of maybe they were hauling gravel that day. Okay. But then they don't have they don't have covers on. It was in it was in a storm and I came around the corner and the wind gust and all of a sudden it was like I was in a hail storm. salt systems

fell coming out of the truck. Do we got a wet system on all those trucks? No, we have on the two new ones, the old ones. What we're doing is we're premixing the salt, but the speed we think you can get him come down and and talk to you guys. Um I went I plow for Lisbon now, so I sat through one of his courses and it was really good talking about how to mixture and what to use and he said he knows you pretty good.

Yeah, this is the guy we use. So, yep. He says he'll come down pre-training, sit down with the guys, talk about it. That's what we we use. We're just We're mixing eight gallons per ton. Uh pre-training. Are we doing the molasses mix? Are we doing

Yep. Ice Beon and magnesium both? Yep. And molasses. Yeah, it's molasses. Well, we mix we mix it and bring the trucks all in the garage and walk in, it smells like molasses in there. Yeah. No, but he said he'll come down and they do he does a pretty informal set. If you guys have any problems out there, what they've been using all over the place and like I said, Lisbon's using the same stuff. So,

yeah, I could tell I came down and looked at the roads I saw was all brown stained. things getting getting a norm built and I know last year there was some confusion where there was kind of everybody was in charge depending on what day it was and so uh you know ongoing road patching as as you heard the people say here two days ago there was no hole in the road now there is you know the frost starts moving it rain and when the pavement has no integrity left it just falls apart whenever it decides it's had enough. Somebody asked me about that once. I said, "Well, you're kind of patching the patch, right?" I mean, that's what we're doing. And they know that, but they were just asking.

We're putting a patch in a patch and it's just so patches you put in like on day for instance, those have lasted a lot longer than whatever they were putting in previously. You know, well, what I've done is I'm trying to experiment trying to use hot mix. Uh trying to use a cold mix instead of patch trying two or three different options. We're trying to do patching in the summer with hot mix cuz it's a lot cheaper and we're trying to see if it'll stay longer,

right? And then uh we used cold mix, which is different than cold patch. Patch is just not going to last very long. And so we're trying. It is. I never saw those holes. I mean, after like a couple months, they were wide open again, you know, and whatever you put down this last time, they stayed. Well, I've I've I've had them keeping track of where they're putting the different products. So, I I don't have that map with me, but we'll we're going to compare and see which ones are lasting because patch is very expensive. So, for something that's only going to last two or three weeks, they're doing it again. So, so we've been working on the um the trucks. We've had some issues with the wet systems on the liquid systems on the newer trucks on the new trucks, the two new trucks. I get quite upset, frustrated that we didn't have we have two new trucks with the equipment to apply the liquid to the product at the

spreader and we haven't been able to use it. So, finally got them over here to uh from the from from HP Fairfield to get it fixed. He's got it under control now. So, there were just some issues that we had to get straightened out and as you know, we're still working on the budget. and I'm making progress on that and uh on in the in the um capital plan for the roads and trying to come up with a five-year plan. That's about the best you can really do with a five-year plan. And after that, you really because even in the five-year plan, you're going to end up changing some stuff by the time you get there, you're going to end up saying, well, like like Mark was saying, make promises you really can't keep. So, it's often has to get redone and those things that are out there three, four years will often switch. this road will start deteriorating faster than that one and you've got to switch your plan to

save that road. That's what we're working on. Okay. Do you have a idea when we when you'll have that so we can cuz we need to really get on these budgets soon and so so we can schedule a meeting to start looking at those ones too.

Um parts of it will have done within a week and the road will take a little bit longer by the next meeting. Okay. So, so you should have the operation operating budget done by by for like if we scheduled a meeting next Tuesday, we you should have you would have that done.

Yep. Okay. Is there uh another subject? Is there any plans for those guys doing anything with the ice on top of the hill there where they doing the reconstruction by the bridge? You know that ice keeps on coming out? Yeah. I called the OT and told them that they had a problem and they tried telling me it was the guy's driveway and he wasn't plowing it. So I went up talked to the guy with the driveway and said, you know, I I said, "Will you just, you know, do me a favor and plow the side of your driveway so the water will go in the ditch so that I can at least prove that that's not it." I said, "I know that there's another problem." So the the new home lines, he's only been there since October. He said, "Sure, we'll do that." So he plowed it off and sure enough, the water's still pouring back around. So it's a spring by the U mailbox. And we I called him and

they said they're going to take care of it. But okay, that's not in the short term. It's not helping us any right now. But right come through and there's a pile of slush and ice and so next spring they're going to plan up on a catch basin hopefully or something before they repave that put the next coat on it.

Well, there's another problem up on 136 by the say there's one up there too. There's a catch basin they put in and the water comes out of the bank and it freezes before it goes in the catch basin. And I've had to go out there a couple of times already this year and the evening myself and fix it and sand it and because sheriff

river Yeah, it's growing out there again cuz I coming down through tonight I actually hit the edge of it. D went down with a grater and took care of it a week or so ago. So we'll stay on that. Anything else? All right. Um, thank you.

So, we've got upcoming meetings here. Uh, Tuesday, February 9th at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, February 23rd at 6:30 p.m. Do we want to schedule a budget meeting for next Tuesday at 6? Yeah. Love to. Yeah, we I think we do. Yeah,

probably need to. Yeah. So, so we'll schedule a budget meeting for February 2nd, I believe it is. Um, here at 6, um, nomination papers are available for two selectman positions, three budget committee positions, and one school board member position, and they're available at the town office. The uh deadline for turning those in is February 16th um at 4:30 p.m.

Um before we get into the budget workshop stuff, I would like to introduce our new public information technician, uh Shannon Brown. And um if she welcome aboard. Hello. Anything you'd like to say? Um, I appreciate people's patience while I get up to speed and John has been really great. So, it's really nice to meet everyone. I'm glad to be here.

We're happy to have you on board. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, to the uh budget. Um, I don't know where you want to start, but I need a couple break. Couple minute break. Yes. need to run. Every person that sat at that table tonight said cha-ing cha-ching.

They don't quite understand, do I? They don't quite understand. I understand what they're saying. Agree with them, but they don't quite understand what they're trying to say. All right. All right. Well, good. Thanks. I kind of got a