TranscriptSelect Board Meeting ~ December 13, 2016

We have four of the five selectmen are present. We have a quorum. The chair is out of town, so I am having to step into his place tonight. If everyone could please rise for the pledge of allegiance America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Yes. So, there is an amendment to the agenda that we are going to remove C1 from the consent agenda, which is a letter from Comcast. And do you want to move that as an action item? No, I just want to get rid of it because I

Okay. Um, agenda? I I'd like to uh we set aside u a to payable warrants. I got to ask a question to the chief about some of the spending. Okay. So limiting the consent the consent agenda just to the November 29th minutes

as well as the correspondence listed in C. Is there a motion? I move we accept the consent agenda as uh amended. Second. All in favor going to start with recognizing Joe Donovic for his contributions to the historical commission historical society.

We want to thank you for everything that you've done with with the historical society and and thank you very much. Recognize your years of service. Thank you. I'll put in a place of honor. You got a good commission. Keep Candace as your chair and keep Paul running and legally you'll be in good shape.

Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Joe. Good night. Merry Christmas. with the budget committee. So, I'm not that's a little vague. I'm not entirely sure. well to answer questions. I think everybody's been given a a copy of of the yeartoate budget and just to kind of check in and see if anybody has any questions about where things are. Go ahead,

Terry. Would somebody explain to me improvement. town meeting and it appears that you over $3,200. Explain that to me. It says grant and general purpose. Terry, that's another one of those um kind of strange light line light line items that gets um written off every year. So, what ends up happening with this one is we pay out grant money during the year and we also get money in during the year revenue and we have a grant fund. So, at the end of the year, what our auditors will do is they'll take the amount of money that we paid off and they'll um they'll reconcile the grant account. So, we take what was in the grant account, we add what we got from the grants and we subtract the money that we've spent out of the grants and then we come up with a figure that's in the grant account. And we do this every year um until we run out of grant money. And then when we run out of grant money, the select board

chooses to put it back into um the warrant as line item and then we we replenish the grant line. Well, I guess my question is if it's coming out of the grant or it's for a grant, the reason that grant fund was set up was so that the monies would be taken out of that fund as needed. Why is there all of a sudden another line item here to cover that? I I guess I that I don't understand that

it's always been there and because I I didn't I didn't make that line item so it's always been there or as long as as I know and when Janet was here I know it was there. Um and and that's just the way the accountants account for that those figures

the money and then whatever we've gotten the grant for we have to purchase it and then submit receipts. So we have to to to pay the money upfront out of that grant account and then it gets paid back to us. But it doesn't say that this is coming out of the grant account. That's what puzzles me is why doesn't it come immediately out of the grant

grants general purpose? It says capital improvement. That's what it's on. Yeah. About 38 it says grants and general purpose. Just a line item. Right. So there is no other line item that that has anything to do with grants.

Right. That is the grant line. I don't know why it's under the subheading capital improvements. That's just where the account placed it. the general the grants that fund covers all grants I believe and the chief isn't here but I believe most of these were were uh fire department related grants

I I think most of them were fire department grants. I don't I think there may have been one public works. I think I hear there was some safety equipment for the public works department. I think that was also um from a grant. Yep.

it? Hey, Bill. Yes. Yep. One of them. I'm not sure if they both were. One of them was for that. Well, it might be. labor? Is is the um we've only spent 70% the the fiscal year goes through the calendar year. It does, but we've only spent 70% just for my education. Is it because we had a the snowfall was lighter than we expected last winter or

uh I think that's part of it. Um the other part is our our new um road commissioner is dealing with overtime in a different manner. So he's trying to cut down on overtime. So, we had been going with um with copious amounts of overtime and we didn't have that last winter because of the way he's redone the way he he schedules and also because we didn't have a very strong winter

because I I along public works I have like three uh quick questions. one on facility maintenance. You're you appear to be spending um significantly more than you budgeted. So facility maintenance is is significantly higher because of the roof at the public works. So we took most of the money for the roof out of the public works um building bond which we still had some money left in.

Um and then there was a shortfall. I think it was about $9,000 was the shortfall. Um and so we took that out of the facilities maintenance. Okay. and the surface treatment that you'd probably have to ask Calvin cuz I'm I don't really know.

And then winter equipment maintenance, the same person. Ask Calvin. Uh yeah, we had some some maintenance that we had to do on the equipment this year. Um it's gotten to the point where it's surface treatment the Albert Power Road. Yeah,

that's could be some hope for any treatment. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I would ask Calvin. It looks impressive to be 80%. We've only spent 80% of the public works budget, but we're 11 through the year. That's That's impressive.

Well, when I can eat that up real quick. Yeah. We're just starting here, right? But we only have three more weeks. Does not include anything for December, right? Correct. Correct. December, February. Well, right. our budget December 31st.

Before we go too far, can we get Terry's question answered if Bill can come back before we forget Bill? She walks away again. Kind of jump and pace a little kind of jumped ahead there just to when Bill comes back. Uh I just had a question on maintenance and repairs again that appeared to be uh significantly overexpended from your original bud budget line

for for this for the town hall for no this is for fire department. Okay. Yeah. Ask ask Bill that one too. Bill. Hey Bill. The first question was the grants. How many grants have you applied for? What grants have I applied for? Yeah. How many?

Yeah. Um at this point we applied for the fire act grant and we've applied for the forestry grant. Those are the two that would require uh I think the discussion was based on the grant match account when it comes two that require grant matches. Right now we have a homeland security grant that uh we'd have to pay for up front but it's complete reimbursement. Um so we've already been awarded but those are the two the fire act grant. We're ballpocketed. So 5% becomes ends up becoming the local share and I think that was somewhere around uh I'm guessing I think it was 80,000. Um the forestry grant the request there was um for five or 6,000 and it's a 50/50 deal. uh

we have to pay up front, but they reimburse 50% of it up to whatever is awarded. So that's at this point it the other grant I was going to apply for once it uh opens up is uh they have a staffing one that uh through the federal government that should be coming up soon. Um

the initial first year I don't think there's any any cost match even if we did end up getting it but that's very competitive. So, I'd say the odds are pretty slim with getting that. And then the the ones that have the Homeland Security and the other grants that we've already gotten the I think Terry's original question was because we had looks like we've paid out about $3,252 in funds out of the grant account. So, would those be costs that we've advanced on grants that have been already granted that we will then be reimbured? going back to the records and looking to see I know there was a forest grant but that's 50/50 we end up owning 50% of that so there would have been 50% that was left been left behind from that I think the other one that we actually paid for fire department out of there last year was the uh homeland security grant which I'm I'd have to look at the files to tell you if the check came back in for that

one or not that only comes out the grant line is what we're trying to say right yeah it uh well actually what it was created for was that when the account was originally created, it was created I think back in the day right in the vicinity of when we got awarded the engine was when it was and I think we got some grants for um the community

grants and stuff like that and uh it it was actually created so that there would be an area where you could come up with a fund so you wouldn't have to turn like in the case of the engine that was a $250,000 grant. At that time we had to pay 10% which meant our share in the end was 25,000. Um that one there went to town meeting to be approved. However, if it came in the middle of the year and and the grant was going to lapse before it was actually created so that you wouldn't have to give up say that 225,000 towards the purchase of an engine for lack of having authorization.

And that was the time that the grant fund was funded at that time. So we would not have to go back to town meeting. But getting back to what you're saying, Billy, is if I understand the figures that you just threw out there.

Okay. It doesn't even come close to the figure that's on this page. Yeah. I'd have to look for sure, but I'm pretty fire after that. It was it was for our SCBAs are approaching three cycles old and according to standards the department of labor doesn't really press it but if we get somebody hurt we're going to be held accountable to that after two cycles they have to be replaced and FPA cycles which is about 10 years to to so anyways that grant and I'm ballparking I said I I think it was 80,000 it might have been a little more but 5% is our share so let's just use 100,000 5% of it would mean we'd have to come up with um $10,000 to for the local match in order to but we haven't done that yet right

the grant submitted but we haven't and it Durham is a community that the fire ed grant as of late we were very successful at it with it initially but as of late we we come right at that threshold where if there was more funding at the federal level we'd probably get awarded it. Um, yeah, we you have to be up around the 90 percentile to get funded and we tend to end up just a hair under every year. We get a letter about October saying, "Sorry, we ran out of money before we got to you."

Didn't we have some for the for the tower over there? Wasn't there some We got We got two figures here. 1444, right? Um, and one's 1808. And I was thinking at least one of those was I thought they were both something that you did but I can't remember which one was which

of the I don't have papers. The 14 ones I remember of the forestry grant. Yeah. Um which the forestry grant would have been 50/50. I think the we would have spent probably about uh I think our reimbursement was and I think that reimbursement did come in was 7 or 900. The one that I'm not certain if it's come in or not without looking is the homeland security one which that's actually fully reimbured. Any any of the homeland security ones uh that are administrated through MEM and Androsan EMA are full reimbursement.

However, you have to pay up front. All of these grants you have to pay upfront. That's a um with the exclusion of the fire act grant for the live per purchases. the fire at grant, you create the invoice and you can do a drawing off your grant.

So, so the these two items that have been paid and I'm very confused at the moment, but I'm sure by the time we get to budget committee meetings, maybe it'll be straight out. In May, we paid 1,400 plus dollars and in September, we paid $1,800 plus dollars. This is monies that's been taken out of the account,

right? The monies that Billy's talking about have not been taken out yet. new grants that he's applied for, but we on on the flip side of those expenses that you're looking at, we also have revenues. So when they send me a check

from these different organizations to reimburse us for the grant, it goes into a revenue account and then at the end of the year the the auditors take the that account. I know some of these grant monies and I just don't have the figures right in front of me, but I do know public works did a couple of safety grants and I I would anticipate that they might have come out of of this funding as well.

Can we can you just look up under those two months and see what those expenditures were? Yeah. Well, I I have one for Jordan Lumber which was for pump hose and miscellaneous. Okay. And then I have one that was just done on the business card.

Yeah, it that would actually be the homeland security. The homeland security forestry I believe is being re has been reimbursed. So 50% of whatever you show for Jordan Lumber should have been reimbursed. We did get a check

and um the Homeland Security one that one sometimes that drags sometimes that two or three months before reimbursement happens. I'm I'm not really interested in what we're going to get coming in. I'm just interested in what we have paid for.

Right. There should be a there should be, you know, because like Ruth says, at the end of the year, we're going to get reimbursed in this account. But right now, we spent 3252 and that's what we're trying to find out what that money was for. That's the question.

That's that's the question. And if that is the case, how much money is in the grant account to begin with? somewhere? That that that figure shows up on on something called the assigned balance fund. Let me look it up. budget packets every year that shows the different funds and how much their balances are there. Let me see if I can pick it up.

that we're in debt the 3252. That's what it shows here. That's what it shows that we've spent that. But this really only shows spending. It doesn't show revenue. So, it wouldn't show that this particular spreadsheet wouldn't show the money's back in.

But there's money in that account. You should not have that negative balance. I don't know how it's what gives anybody the authority to spend that much money. Now you can speak. Go ahead. Well, so so according to the fund balance, we started the year with $3,940, right?

How much? $3,940. the grants $11,6912. which is the $3,5252.69. something changes in December, we would have $12,37852 in the grant account. So when the auditors come in and they do my audit, they take this fund balance and they audit it. And that's how they know how much money is in the fund balance and it shows up in our in our audit every year.

So the double the triple zeros we say here ain't exactly correct. And in a way you way way it's it it's not it's not a warranted expense. It's not something that's on the warrant every year because we've created a fund that is replenished. Right. And there is a there is a warrant article every year that authorizes us to seek grants. So to answer Terry Terry

to answer your question about what authority there is a warrant article every year at town meeting that grants the town the right to to seek grants and to pay matching funds. So that's the authority that that those matching funds are paid out of.

Okay, I understand that. But You're looking at the negative 3252 and change when and what you're thinking is it should actually say 12 378 change is what should be in that spot. Is that what you're asking? Cuz that's if that's what if that's what's left in the grant fund what we've already paid out correct

from the numbers you just gave us. So that that red number that's showing up there right now would actually be 12378 and change to the good to the good to the good. Right. Right. That's what's going to be in the fund at the end of the year.

Black. So why why is that in the red if we've actually got money in that account? It it's what she just said was they just don't know what that number is going to be just yet. So they wait till the end of the year and they're going to lump it all together. So that number will

when they do my audit is when they audit. I I understand the confusion because to be honest when I first got here and I saw that I was like what what is that and what do you do with that account? Um but when I spoke with the auditors and we figured it all out she explained to me that this is how the auditors and the accounting goes in the municipality is because we have this fund account. We need some place to keep track of the expenses and the revenues that we get that correspond with this fund account and then that's all put together at the end of the year and comes out in our audit which shows the end fund balance. So, for the purpose of this disc discussion, those really should have been blank, but the program Excel went ahead and calculated that and stuck the numbers in there, and that's what we're seeing.

Well, I stuck them in there cuz they're in my TRIO program. Well, it's just like looking at this spreadsheet. We don't see the revenues coming in. We don't see any revenues here, right? We to only see expense, right? So,

and because there's no specific warrant amount assigned to the grant, everything else is offset by whatever amount was was allocated in the warrant. And since there is no specific warrant amount allocated to that grant line, it becomes a negative number because the it zeros out on the on the balance sheet. So Ruth, when the budget committee meets, you'll you'll show us what the revenue picture looks like as you just

you'll see the assigned balance fund sheet which you guys receive every year. All right. I have a number of questions about expenditures. Can I get my questions over Could be. Uh Kelvin, there are three lines I looked at. One is facility maintenance. Uh the other is surface treatment. The other is winter equipment maintenance. Uh they're all overextended. Could you kind of briefly walk through?

Oh, sorry, Calvin. Let me find your page. Yeah, the facility maintenance one is the roof. Yeah. I just going to ask you about that eventually. up the roof. Silly maintenance line is the roof. Y the surface treatments. I don't

surface treatments. Um what I did I just I just put that in the wrong uh that's over but uh that should have come out of uh that should have come out of Okay. Where surf? No, that was chip seal. Where what number is it? Is it the Auburn panel road?

47 uh 457 17 17. So that is surface treatment crack filling and single stone seal is what I have. Oh yeah, that's the used for crack sealing. Chip seal. Chip seal. Yeah. And what did So it's over. What did we pay for on that? Well, well, there's a a bill for Coastal Road Repair, which was the crack filling, and then there's a bill from All State Asphalt for single stone seal,

chip seal. Okay, that one was 70,000. The chip ceiling, and that's over. But I How much did I have budgeted for that one? 60,000. 60 and I spent 75. I think the the thought was there's more that's why there's money left in the paving. Um, I I just I I can answer that for you once I get it laid out. But it was I knew I had 225. I took that number 225 for the paving and the surface treatment, put it together.

Yep. And then it was just how I knew I had enough money between the paving and the but instead of instead of paving some of it went it didn't go exactly the way it was allotted, but that's where it went. So, so instead of having uh like $39,000 left in the paving, it's really only um um

So, you're saying some of this could have been allocated to the paving, right? Instead of you can do the one, you can either do a surplus there, right? You can either do an overlay with pavement or you can do a chips kind of a tradeoff. And so,

that's just the way it was done. So, there's still a surplus. So there's actually between the two there's actually around 24,000 is what really should that number should be. Yeah. Treatment of the time. That's helpful. Thanks.

Yeah. The last one was um the winter equipment maintenance. Yeah. That's over. That's over. And I actually 4533. Yeah. Yeah. That's over. But I fig I had enough left in the summer. But rather than stop, rather than when I get to the negative, rather than putting it somewhere else, I'd rather put it there so I know my true numbers so that moving forward, I can say, well, here's what I really spent, what I really need for this column and I can adjust it. So where this is really last year was kind of a guess and this year starting to get some feel for what we're actually spending it on. I can

And you have a fairly fairly new department so you have a better read for next year, right? So that's kind of why I put it in the instead of moving it over and say, "Well, I don't want to do that thinking that I really have extra money or I really don't need it." And so it's just kind of a way for a checks and balance for me to look at how to set up next year's budget.

Calvin. I have a couple questions. Um, so with regards to liquid deicer, we we appropriated 18 grand. I mean, we can say that, you know, it's it's still December, but I mean, we had winter last January, February, March. So, can we just not do we not need that deicer? Why is

Well, deicer has come in. And so, we really don't have that there. We've already just had one shipment and the second one's going to be coming. We haven't paid the bill yet. Okay. That's fun. You'll see some Did we get that? No, we haven't. I have the slip, but we don't have the bill yet. So,

okay. And there'll be another one coming. Yep. Um and then commissioner salary that you've been paid more than what the amount than than the warrant amount. How does that happen? I can answer that one. That's a rough question.

That's a brief question. I actually thought I had put that in the email but um that is because we split with panel. So um we do a 4060 split with panel. So they had not at that point reimbursed us. So now they have reimbursed us and in the end of December it will come out correctly.

other items that just I mean the they're you know 40% 2% anything that's like a 2% or 4% or are they at this late late probably going to stay that way? They were just they were the things that were budgeted for that either weren't needed or time ran out or I can see like professional services only 2.4% were spent.

Yeah. And a lot of that has been spent or some that's been spent. There is work that's ongoing for engineering and stuff. And so there'll be a couple of those bills in the next meeting. So are not current with their bills?

Oh, no. I just haven't got yet. Oh, you haven't gotten the billies yet? Okay. We're always current. Good to hear. All right. Um, speaking of bills, so I'm noticing that uh throughout the department uh both for this building fire department and public works are our our propane expenses are quite a bit lower than what was budgeted. Did we get a lower contract or how did that happen?

We did get a contract. It's very low contract, but it was also very warm last winter, so I think we probably didn't use as much propane as we usually do. So, this is all reflecting le less use because of the warmer temperatures last year.

Yeah. But we did get a contract. I think it's I want to say it's a$113 or dollar somewhere. Did this year's Did the up did the contract for the upcoming year go down because I don't I don't I don't think so. I think we just kept the amount in there because we were trying to guess how cold it was going to be and we no one knows. So, we didn't want to short change ourselves either.

When when does when do we go when does that go out to already went out? it it's gone out and the the contract is for three years now the propane contract. So how how much different is that from the last three-year contract?

We well last year we didn't have a contract so it was just the cash price and the year before I don't remember what it was because that's the one that Janet did $129 maybe. So, what's maybe maybe you just can't answer these questions, but I would I would ask this question at the budget meeting is, you know, how did we benefit from entering into a three-year contract versus if last year we were paying just the cash price? I'd like to know what the savings was granted to us.

And it was and it was combined with um diesel and not diesel, just um heating oil. Heating oil and propane. I think we did it with the heating oil too. They gave us a better price on heating oil if we took the propane something like that. Was I can we go out to bid on that or did we get

I'll I'll combine we called the different we called different companies and ask for bids. Yes. So I'm sure you'll have a report about that at the meeting. Um dump truck with the the the half ton with the plow came came um about 9,000 almost $10,000 less than what we had budget for. Did that did you get a better deal on that or how did

how did that come out? We also got a um a trade in allowance trade in that we hadn't anticipated Yeah, I guess we didn't have any idea what the value was. It just we got 10,000 10 or 11,000 or something like that. Yeah, that's what it looks like.

Okay. So, I think that's the difference. And I really couldn't put a number on it because I didn't know if it had much of any value. So, y I just have a quick question for Bill. on your uh maintenance repair budget. Bill is

building maintenance equipment building maintenance. Where you're headed with this is it that line shows that it's substantially over spent. We actually had an unplanned expense in the repair of the gear washer gear extractor. Uh which again I'm I'm picking numbers out of the top of my head. I want to say was around $3,3500. So, um that's the primary reason for that launch.

So, kind of a one time. Yep. Well, I hope at least for this year, I hope so. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. You mean it's you guys' choice? I think Oh, that's we haven't gone through it yet, have we? January. Got to go through it. Well, we we have asked the department heads to get the select in the budget, their budgets by I believe the first week in in January.

I wrote it down right here. um with the idea that that we'd be able to get to get through pretty quickly and try to get it to you guys a bit earlier this year than than last year. We were mindful of the fact that that a lot of people mentioned meetings during the February school vacation as being problematic. So, we're we're trying to avoid that this year.

Do you want to give us anything? He always comes up. Give us a heads up. I I know my my company, my wife's company, some I'm just hearing it. You know, people are getting just killed with health insurance costs going up.

Have you already had to address it? Is it being addressed? What's is there a plan? Do we have a Can you able to tell us where we're at at this stage? Well, like we did get the the renewed figures and they they have gone up um about 10% our the administration budget. I mean, do do you want me to go out and do the whole farming out again thing? I mean, I can I can do it if you want. You know, all the comparisons that we did last year or if do you want to talk about um you know, different plans? I I don't know what you guys want to discuss. Um

I I don't really think it's up to us to tell or All right. What do you guys want to discuss? Tell you people what to do. I mean, good. We haven't even seen the the new renewal figures yet. So, so I don't know that we are in a position to to tell you our plan as of this moment because

costs have gone up for everybody. The select haven't looked at it yet. So, I don't know that we're going to be in much different boat, but we can look around and just, you know, I just caution about taking the easy route is you just stick with your your current vendor, but with the way rates are, you know, bouncing around. I don't know why.

The thing about the current vendor is that they pull all municipalities that are members together and we get a bigger risk pool. Whereas if we go it alone, we're in our own risk pool. That's the big difference. We could self-insure, but there's only about 10 people in the town that are insured.

You are right. Historically, the going through the MMA, we've gotten much better rates. I don't think any That's what the strength is there is that they pull all the municipalities together. January, February, right? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, as I said, the selectman haven't even seen those renewal numbers yet. So in terms of what our plan is,

you should be doing don't all policies renew for the first of the year. Yeah. So may be talking about it pretty quick. Yeah. Next we get out of January 3rd and we're going to get our they got to get the numbers to us. So,

what did we look at last year? Are you able to pull that together again or Yeah. Yeah. We looked at Well, we looked at doing a an HSA or HA instead of doing the kind that we do and um I mean, yeah, we can we can look at that again.

No, that's what that's what I my my company which is a 400 400 employee company. um you know that's that's what they started doing is you know as an they they started throwing in benefits to to the employees if they would switch to an HSA if they wanted to stick with um you know the lower risk then the company turned more of the more payment to you know on on our behalf you know for us. So the the company was willing to pay what it had been paying even a little bit more if employers employees were willing to change to a different type of coverage i.e. an HSA. If they weren't willing to change then uh they changed that 8020

to a different formula. I know when we looked at that last year it seems like there was it was going to cost us more in the long run for part of that. we were going to switch over to an HR funded by the the town. Um, and because we have so few employees, it doesn't have a real big turnaround as far as savings are concerned,

right? I know Jeff had more information on that. So, but yes, we'll we'll take a peek at that soon as we get our stuff. And I know the company I work for, luckily ours isn't going to change, but I mean their end might be, but our end ain't.

You are lucky. Maybe next year we'll be all in a better spot. Hopefully. Don't hold your breath. budget's going to be available? Well, we've asked the department heads, as I said, to get them to the selectmen the first week in January, and then the selectman will will go through all of the budgets line by line with the department heads

and, you know, we'll take our our initial crack at it, so to speak, and then pass the budget along to you, and hopefully we'll be able to to have our meetings a little bit earlier than we did last year, so that there's a little bit more time When is the vacation in February? Is it the first second week? Second week. Second week.

Second week. That's the week we're trying to stay away from. I think somebody on the budget committee had vacation that week and they not that they didn't want to spend all their time looking at this, but I can't blame them for not wanting to.

I'm excited about it. I always do. Was it your was it your desire that um budget discussion or would you no that you just do things your you know the way you've always done it and you'll present us with a budget in February.

Sounds good to me. That's what you have on it just you have I just noticed it on the agenda. So I didn't know if that's that just us for us to discuss amongst ourselves and once we get everything then bring it to you guys like we always have. Yeah. Then we'll dump dump together and we'll go. That works good for me. I don't know about you guys. Yeah. I mean, if I mean it's it's public, so I mean guess if you want to come and listen.

Oh yeah, anybody. It ain't going to hurt you. It'll be that I guess the only thing is I probably wouldn't spend a lot of time question and answering during that time. So we figured it out. That's all. Right. But yeah, I don't So if you guys want to show up, show up. I mean that only makes sense. Maybe the questions will be answered during ours and you won't have to ask them on yours.

Oh, you'll have different ones. That's fine. But the ones who do who want there? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I would say yeah, come on down. budget for the time being? Thank you. Uh the website RFP You know we looked at at your recommendations at the last meeting but you know frankly most of us didn't know enough to

to know anything. So I don't think you you must not have been here. I wasn't at the last meeting. No. No, it was the meeting before. Meeting before. Okay. When we I did the PowerPoint and we talked about I can't hear. There was one that uh

Do you remember the PowerPoint and we talked about the two different companies that we were I seem to have recall that I I had Yeah, you were here cuz you had a couple questions. So anyways, Shannon's here to answer our questions.

Happy to. I don't remember the question. Yes, I hear to take the minutes. Terry, I can't hear take the minutes. Your mouth is overlapping yours. I can't hear things. I like it. We looked at a comparison and there was one that I remember I liked because of uh we were talking about the storage and I think that was the questions we had was uh storage. Um

I think it was about I think it was two questions cuz I watched the video were um about the streaming um and the other was about the yearly cost. Yes. Right. I'm correct. I um so yeah I the local company that does the streaming they do live streaming. It's $1,000 less than what we're paying and they come in and set it up. Right. They brings

I seem to recall there was one that I I thought looked good out of the three of them. But uh can you put the presentation back up on Are you able to put that back up there? Yeah. If we Oh, somebody has to turn that on for me because I'm not tall enough.

come back in. You've been all set. Oh yeah, it does. Seem to recall one that had a lot of storage space, too. And that was kind of nice to think that it was going to be on their server, you know. Yeah. Unlimited storage. And um

the reason I really like the virtual towns and schools after 4 years, they completely redo the website at no cost. So, we won't have that added cost. And I did call um the owner and just talk through a little bit of the yearly cost because it, you know, it was kind of like, whoa, what what do we pay now just for for um

and and it's and it's more than just hosting, right? So that cost really is I mean um he just really impressed upon the importance of safety and his company like the safety it's just not they're just not kind of hosting you somewhere. It's and updating. So optimization is

really important and the reason we're kind of in the boat we're in I feel is that there hasn't been consistent updating on on you know their end. So that's why we're kind of like hitting a wall with maxing out on things aren't working. You know, it's not optimized for device. And then whenever we call them, we have to pay an hourly fee. And they it's 247 they're available. And they will do things like if we if we want, you know, like recently someone wanted to do a survey and um they our

company currently wanted to charge us to do that. they we they would just do that for us. They would create it create the whole system and and tailor it for us. So that was kind of nice. So cuz I just brought that up. I was like, "So what if we need something that's not included in our initial setup?" And he was like, "We've done it for towns because we've actually done that for a town. We'll just openly share that with you." So um

that that's that's that price. We're kind of paying for that consistent help and which I know I'm going to need especially in the first year just because there's going to be so much right transition and I'm going to be using that 24/7 phone call

quite a bit virtual towns and schools. So I like I like the whole presentation on that one more than I did the other one. Remember that thought too when we talk about IT support the uh the continuous support because I've got some ideas too. So uh

yeah. Yeah. That's nice. Was there another slide that had the side by side too and talked more about? Yeah, right there. Okay. So, it was the uh I think we have actually a That's okay. So, it was I think the virtual towns and schools that we were uh

Yep. That's the one we were leaning on. That was the one that I was and I actually called and leaned on them a little bit about the fire and rescue. I you know he said that they would do that for way under what that cuz what they quoted it in here for the to add in the um

1500. Yeah. He said that he would do that for way under that because I I really described to him what we needed in this site and then you know yeah he just was very nice about it. So trying just trying to get that cost down. So he said way under 15 I think even like I think he quoted me something like nine.

Why would the why is the fire department a separate website as opposed to just a a part of the I know a part of the town. I'm not sure why it was set up like that but I really want to incorporate it back in and it's just

now would be the time to do it for sure. Yeah. I never understood why they were two separate entities either. And it's double the work because you really have to Yeah, it's it's just kind of so um to take everything and put it back into our

Well, and I think it creates a little bit more continuity and more continuity of community and that it is all part of the same town. It's not a separate entity. Exactly. Awesome. Yeah. So, and this is uh telecommunications, right? This comes out of telecommunications. Yeah. Yes. And they've agreed to break down um the cost over three years if we want that the initial cost. So because they work with so many towns, they know that it's hard to come up with that um big chunk in the beginning. So we can talk about if that makes sense to do it over three years or whatever the budget, you know, if it's if you decide that this is the way you want to go. But I I I personally really like the idea of having someone that's kind of New England and a company that's in Maine that I can call up and they're actually here and I don't wait on hold for

that's the virtual town school. Yeah. And the the video streaming services in gardener actually they partner with in Maine. So I just think that's he was just like I'll come right over and I was like wait let me ask let me get approval first. But um

well and I think having the the live streaming of the video I think will engage more people in watching the meetings. It's one thing to go back and watch them after everything has sort of already happened but I think more people

Yeah. I really I really like that and so many people you know use their phones use their phones and it's more I just I know that the channel is very important. I just feel like more people are to do it. I don't even have cable anymore. Um, is there a fee or a penalty or is there going to be any kind of a cost when we separate from the current vendor?

Um, I don't I don't know if there's not a fee. We're just the vibe bit site is a very large cost and you know we're going to we're going to cut that. So, we're just going to sever our relationship with them and and whichever company we choose, we're starting fresh.

We're starting fresh with for the streaming. See, um, Latronics, they they have things, we have other things that are related, like we have a, um, it's like total info where we get our weather like on the channel. It's just this kind of little thing that comes up. And I think we pay like $1,200 a year for just to get the weather and current news that runs for like eight or 10 minutes out of the before the slides. Um, and we can decide whether we want to keep that service because that's extra that's that's different from the streaming or the the video site.

Will there be I would assume that there would have be a period of time where we would essentially have to pay both because we we would bring these people on board and and pay the implementation fee, but until that was up and ready to go live, we would still be continuing to pay the hosting. Yes. On our existing site.

Yeah, exactly. there would be an overlap, but I'm going to try my hardest to get I'd like to get away from the vibe site soon because that's a large it's a large cost. And is this has you just said V what the company that we use in Lewon? What? What? I can't remember what their role.

Trees. Yeah, they they built the um they built the current website and they host. Okay. So, we're going to we this that we would be establishing a new relationship as well. Yep. It's just we would have to keep that while our other sites under construction and then we just move everything over. Well, a lot of it's going to be rewritten and redone.

Did you get a sense of a timeline of of what the transition would take? I mean, what's the worst case scenario if we just cut the cord and start new and then there is no overlap, you know? I mean, we can't watch videos online construction.

People can people could still come in the office and get them on a CD. You know what I mean? It's true. I don't know. I feel like I would get a lot of kickback by the um most of the expenses that we incur don't um come up until summer. So, you know, if we could conceivably transfer most of the stuff over by summertime and go live, then we would be able to cut out those expenses, I would assume.

Yeah. I think they gave a timeline of four months. That's every like, you know, from start to finish. So, if you guys approve it tonight, Yeah. I can get going. I think the largest like we design takes quite a while because we really want to get that

right. Absolutely. Navigation is very important. for So, do we need to make a motion on which company? And you're recommending obviously the virtual schools and towns. So, that's my motion. I'll second it. All those in favor?

Virtual schools and towns. It is. I understood most all of that. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Shannon. Shannon, can you turn it off? Yes. Sorry. All right. Tax foreclosure sale. One. Keep it going. At a previous meeting, we talked about moving forward with a tax foreclosure sale and and we have the draft documents to do that in our packet. Anybody have any questions or concerns about

moving forward as presented in those documents? Looks good to me. Yeah. When when you send this out, are you sending all the same stuff that you gave us like the calendar to or are you just going to date? Let's get the letters first. the letter

explaining what what's going to happen. Um, and then if I don't get anything from them regarding the letter, then I'm going to advertise it in the newspaper and we'll go through the same steps we did for all the other pieces of property that we've we've done.

Okay. Basically, a carbon copy of what we have here. Yes. Yeah. Those are my timelines and and the minimum price and and all that other kind of stuff. No, that's fine. Anybody make a motion? We need a motion. We need a motion.

I move that we uh approve rules to send out the letter of the tax property as presented. Second. All those in favor? Any discussion? You look like you had a question. Who had a question? Oh, look. You look like you had a question. No, actually my my thought in the back of my head was I have to remember to tell you guys about the properties that are But don't worry, we we'll get to that with my section.

All right. You did read my mind though. I did I was thinking uh Coastal Humane Society contract. It's the same as last year. Is it? So it didn't go up. Yeah, it didn't go up. Humane Society agreement for services? So moved. Second.

Any discussion? All those in favor? Passes. I would turn that over to you. So, I had um one of our insurance people come by to see me and she wanted to look at the audit recommendation, the recommendations by our auditor last year. Uh there were several recommendations that the auditor had. Hold on, I'm losing

entries, credit cards, and the last one was municipal value churn. Those were all issues that they felt we should address perhaps. Um the credit card one we have addressed. Um, we are have a credit card policy. I just received the new credit cards. Um, so we're good to go with that one. Um, the segregation of duties

contradict the whole crossraining thing that we've been trying to do. Well, the problem is is such a small office, so it's very hard to separate Yeah. duties so distinctly. Um my biggest concern quite frankly um is my journal entries. Um I I make manual journal entries mostly at the end of the month for um purposes of reconciling direct deposits that are put into our bank in our interest. Um and sometimes I'll do manual journal entries to um shuffle expenses from one column if they've been misplaced. Um, so because I'm doing these manually, most of the entries are done through cash receiping or through payroll or through accounts payable. And so they are journals that are specifically made through the computer. But the ones that I do manually, I think perhaps um I need to get a select person to sit down with me um so that I can explain what the manual entry is for and then have their signature um actually on

the the the journal entry so that um there's somebody else who's overseeing my entries. Um you know, and I just thought because Mark stops by every Friday anyways that that he would uh be the logical candidate. I'll second that.

do that you said or once a week? I usually do it once once a month. I mean that's not not a problem. I just trying to keep it straight. But anytime I I have a couple actually that I put on a clipboard in my office um that we can go over Friday um and you can initial for me. Um,

motion or or a policy on or is that just kind of a for the purposes of the auditors or I I think I'll probably end up writing a policy and have you guys do that. Um, journal entries. The only other manual journal entries processed are return checks. PAM processes the return check. So I could actually check those and um initial for the NSF uh credit cards. We took care of the municipal valuation return that was in regard to the the error that um the transposal of numbers occurred that last year. Um, and maybe somebody should when the,

you know, I I submit to you every year the numbers, but maybe we should have a specific representative of the select board sit down with me before we do the commitment and go over the numbers with me just so that we make sure that we're

I'm doing them right and and that they're not something's not just slipping through. I think Jeff because of Yeah, he's going to say Jeff is a numbers guy. Okay, that would be fine. But he's also not here, so it's easy to

That's what happens when you don't show. And and that was it. So, you know, I'll just I'll write up a policy and bring it to you guys next time and we'll take care of that. Thank you. And we have an application for appointment to the scholarship committee. Jonathan Pollock. Is there a motion?

or or I guess that we appoint Jonathan Pollock to the uh scholarship committee. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? And just to put it out there, they're still looking for two more members. All right. enforcement

report. Thanks. Um, couple of things. The first paragraph's just general interest about some of the permits and stuff that are kind of going on around town. You guys can look at that and just if you want to ask me later some of that. Um there is there is quite a bit of the subdivision lots in town that have been absorbed this year and that that seems to be becoming a trend. So I'm expecting that to have some influence going forward on uh development and land use and stuff. There's going to be some pressure coming up that is Durham's becoming a pretty opportunistic place for that type of application and I think we're going to see that soon. Um, I did the the signage for Runaround Pond Park is getting kind of it's needing a little work. Um, so I put in uh paragraph 2 there's a proposal that I put together. I think that we should approach some of the community uh businesses that utilize the park on a regular basis and would like

to see more happen there. I know LL Beans uses that park as a principal application and not a backup. I know that the Royal River Land Trust that has purchased some land adjacent to there wants to do some future development for recreational purposes there. Um, and I'd like to see a nice sign in there and I'm um so I'd like to try to see if I can't solicit some additional donation funds for that particular purpose. Uh, and then I was offering to do some carving on the sign. I can carve it or make the sign blank and carve it. I I I won't put any money in materials, but as far as the carving and the labor, I'd be happy to donate that. So, if we can get some some financial donations from some of the other folks to cover the painting and the public works can do the install, we might be able to get a new sign for the park there that would,

you know, it's looking better with the privy now. You know, it' be nice to keep sort of putting and a lot of people use the park. I'm amazed at how many people utilize it. So, I think I think it's a good place to put a little

Yep. dress it up a little bit. getting sounds great and it's getting utilized. So, um I hope they don't use it too much so the ice gets froze, but you'll be impressed. Yeah. Um moose this year though through the ice. Yeah.

So, we working with a lot of the builders around town. Um I've had some interesting experiences over the last month or so. Uh we did some training on the new 2015 codes that are expected to come and there's a couple of publications that we got that are sort of they're more of an abbreviated version of the building code. They're um they're more visually oriented. They're pretty easy to read, pretty easy to get to really quickly and it covers a lot of the stuff that I usually inspect for on the job site. So, I've been introducing this to the builders and several of them have embraced this really quickly and bought multiple copies of the book for themselves and their their site crews. Um, I I've actually had an opportunity to sit down with one uh one of the builders here that works in town um with their design team to work on understanding a lot of the application of that particular publication and how

to better produce plans for uh buildings that are, you know, a little more in line. and there's stuff they need to understand that most of them don't and they've been really responsive in that. It's actually been pretty interesting. Um, so I know that Jeffrey at least had talked to me earlier on, not long after I had started about working towards some of this and it looks like we're finally getting to that place where um, it's a really rewarding thing from my side of the table to have folks want to know what the code is. My biggest problem with most of the builders in town is they don't know the code. They haven't looked at the code. They haven't read the code. what they just expect is me to tell them what to do. And I want them to know the book. I want them to know what it is they're supposed to do. And this is a book that's a lot easier to understand and read. It's been very helpful for them. They can get to the

information quick and there's no if ends or buts about it. So, that part's been pretty good. Um, I do think that I'd like the board to consider making my position a department. I know in the um comprehensive plan that was produced when it was produced 14 years ago mentioned that codes would eventually and fairly soon at that time would become a code/planning department that the town of Durham was going to need to have that type of application and that type of personnel taking care of that. Um, it's a little difficult for Ruth because there's a lot of what I do that

know, you know, shouldn't be expected to know. Uh, so I don't know what it takes if it's a formal thing that has to be done through town meeting or if it's something that the board has control over, but um I'm I'm I'm doing all of the stuff that a department does for the town and I think it would be prudent to move that into its own

into its own space. I agree. had to check with someone or do we need to go out of town? I'm sure it's time meeting the town meeting or can we Yeah, we're forming even though the smaller town were forming a new department. It would be just like the public works forming a new department. They'd have to prove that. Okay.

Right. It might be a mere technicality, but they still I believe they do. mind for me in regards to um, performance in and in particular for my position and not necessarily my person, I think it would be a advisable for the board to put out questionnaires to the committees and stuff that I sit on to find out and whoever the CEO is to find out how their performance is being managed in the in the areas that they're asked to work in town. Um, there's a lot that I do that's not very visual. Most of what you guys hear are complaints. Um, you know, which makes sense. People that don't like what you're doing have a tendency to squeak louder than the people that are happy you showed up. Um, but it would give you a better idea, one of what it is that I do and how well the position is being managed and you have some really high quality committees in town. You got some really good people. Uh, it'd be good to have their input

whether it's positive or negative. It'd be really good to have their input and I would encourage that. Um, did you ask for it? conservation fund grants that had been given to the town of Durham. Um, one was, I believe, in 1996 for a playground structure before the school present school building was built. The other one was for improvements on uh, the river park. these properties under this grant um agreement with the state need to have a an assessment done every five years and it's been neglected for a considerable amount of time. Uh Doug Beck got got to me and asked about having this done and uh Ruth and I did a little bit of research to find out that the playground property had been um kind of reworked when they did the school and that the RSU was now in charge of the portion of the property that was granted. So, with the discussions with Doug, we we went to speak with um with Becky, the

superintendent of schools for the RSU, and we transferred that responsibility for that portion of the that particular grant over to the school. So, we won't have that now. And then I updated and finalized this this inspection report for the 5-year classification for River Park. So, we're kind of back on track with that.

Thank you. So I think um for the most part I think that's all I have. You have anything for me. Any questions? Thanks Paul. Thanks Paul. Pardon? You're not running away though. Did you want to talk about the Durham Leisure Center piece of property under a year? probably be good

under your office or under Ruth's office or we can just do it. Let's do it now. Yeah, let's do it now. Interrupting anybody else. So, in the process Durham Leisure Campground one as in the process of of upgrading the campground and and adding camping sites and in in doing so, they came to the planning board for an extend an expansion of their conditional use permit. In the expansion paperwork that they brought forward from the survey that was done by Brian Smith previous to their ownership, it it showed up that there's a small parcel of land adjacent to their property along the old road uh that belonged belongs to the town. It was initially given to the school district at the time in the 1880s. Um, and when that school district

was dissolved, I'm I'm of the understanding that the properties that the school district owned in town came to town ownership. Um, it doesn't belong to the present school system. It belongs to the town. The property's location on their site interfered with the setback requirements for two of their campgrounds for their campsites that they wanted in their expansion. So, they weren't allowed by the planning board to cont to add those two particular campsites into their expansion. However, they would like to, I understand that they've come to the board and asked the board about that particular piece of property. Short of what was deed to the town by the road being abandoned legally, there was only about 3,800 square ft of land. So with the additional u excuse me probably 18

or 20 feet by 100 feet or so it's a it's probably doubled that size. So we're less than a quarter of an acre. The only value that land is to anybody is to those two properties that have but that property. Um so there's no structure on it anymore. There's been some material has been dumped there. It looks like it was dumped there purposefully and on that particular spot. I don't know what. There's a little bit of trash in there and so on, but not anything significant that I saw when I visited the site. Um, I think it's probably a really good idea to turn it over to the folks that are running the campground to put it kind of back in track with what it needs to do, but I don't feel that it's necessary for the town to incur any costs in contributing to their business. I don't think that the property has any monetary value. So, it wouldn't I wouldn't consider it out of line to just if they were to bear all

of the cost incurred by transferring it over to them that they have it as long as it doesn't cost the taxpayers anything. Right. And when they came to our meeting, our last meeting, we had indicated that that in in theory we had no problem with it, but we just had to make sure that it was something that we were legally had the right to do that that there were no other entanglements on the property or any anything on the deed or any requirements.

You want to pay for the the fees? Yeah, I think it's it's as long as it's done the way he says. Yeah. And and you've done some research. Are you waiting for an answer on that or something? Well, I I had I gave Sarah two different um ideas as far as contracts with the Durham Leisure um holdings that I was thinking that we could do. Basically, it's just um promising that um provided nothing's found that would be an issue that we would we would give them or sell them a property for a dollar um and then they would cover all of the closing costs and any costs that the town incurred, which would mean lawyer fees um and things like that. I I hesitated and and Paul kind of made this clear to me, hesitated to call the lawyer be before,

right, we got anything in writing so that um you know we would be reimbursed for that cost. Um and actually you tell me if I'm wrong, Sarah, but my assumption is he's probably going to want a lawyer, too. And so his lawyer is probably going to do the due diligence of of of doing the research. And

I can't speak to whether or not they would use a lawyer or not. They may just figure here's the deed. It's a piece of land. Nobody is using it. So, I have no idea what what their approach would be. An informative call to the town attorney would cost the town money.

Right. Right. And I just didn't seem to think that the town should incur any cost in this if that's we talked about that I at the last meeting. I'd have to look at the minutes, but I thought we kind of said to him, as long as it doesn't cost the town any, you know, we're not going to pay to to do the research and do the

give you the land, the due diligence. It also seemed prudent to get something a little more concrete than a handshake that if we make a phone call to find out if the deed's transferable, you need to cover the cost of that,

right? So, I think you haven't. I have not called the lawyer yet. Um, it probably I know you and I talked about that a little bit after I talked with Paul, but and I know we did talk to this the gentleman and his wife about incurring the cost, but probably that's a good idea if we get them to put it right that they will incur the cost. It could be 500, it could be 2,000, who knows? But,

right. And and under state law, all land transactions have to be in writing anyway, right? So, as long as they're willing to incur whatever the costs are. I mean, if he spent 2,000, I don't know what it would cost. Maybe he spent five of the the amount of return he's going to get on the extra lots for camping for what I know camping sites cost, he's going to get his money back the first year anyways. But,

well, and it's be his decision to make, but it my only concern is that that's, you know, if the only person getting an advantage out of this is him, the taxpayers shouldn't be involved in in occurring anything from it. It's a landlocked piece of land that's not big enough to do anything under ordinance regardless of its age. There's no way to get to it. There's no there's no legal access to it anymore or anything at all. So, um, and I do think it'd be good a good gesture on the town's part that, you know, they have an opportunity to make it a use, you know, add to their usability of their own property. I seems prudent.

Yeah. I mean, over time we get a little more tax dollars. According to um according to the assessor, I think it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 53 cents. Well, see, it might take and I think that was a three-year assessment.

So, I that that would be my suggestion is to call and make sure he's aware of that and have him come in and sign a slip. Yes, he will care of those costs and then we can move forward and ask him if he wants to get his lawyer take care of it or or however we want to handle,

right? He can if he wants to engage a a private lawyer to do it or if he wants to to pay the town's attorney to do it. Calvin, the question really is, do we have a policy? Does the town have a policy about conveying land? Does it have to go out to bed?

Yeah, we do. So, in this case, it would be kind of odd because you don't want to release any interest we have. We're releasing or quickly without but the policy is only that the board has at their own discretion how to disper how to dis disperse of what's current called surplus property. There is no actual format for that. You just guys get to make prudent decision and

it's actually I just read that it's in the it's in the something just recently I read it comes through every year on the warrant. Yeah. Yes, it does come. But I just just last week I read it here somewhere the same thing and maybe it was on maybe it was on that other piece that we just talked about.

Okay. So I my sense of the the consensus is to to give them a call and as long as they're willing to to sign that agreement saying that they'll incur any costs that we move forward to. Yep. Okay. Am I free to go? You are now free to go. Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks, Paul. Chief, can go back to the um available warrant. I ask some questions on that for you. Oh, okay. Yep. Um I see we spent some money at Northeast Emergency apparatus. Engine 21. What do we do to that? That cost $2,100.

Engine 21. Yeah, it says engine 21. 21. Oh, valves. valves. It was the result of the pump test. We had to have work done on the valves, the intakes. Yeah. On the pumps and truck 29. Yeah. Tank 29. Yeah. The there were two of them that we had without work done on and stuff. So, it was a result of the pump test.

I take 20 truck 24. That was the the wiring harness. Yeah. The it was the exploratory for the wiring harness. So, it wasn't actually the That's not the big one. That's just to nail us the That's just Yeah, that Yeah, that's just Hey, this is what it is. We need to take it into the shop. Um I can show you the big one is uh I'm not sure where it's going to end up labor or what else they use, but I know right up front the pot, the wiring harness was 2,750 bucks or something like that. So,

Yep. No, no problem. Just a couple questions. So, I guess payable warrants is consent for that. Do I have a motion to approve the warrant? I make a motion to to accept the bill the warrants as stated. Second. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor?

Okay. Well, now we're ready. Now my turn. Okay. Good. We'll start this around. This is our result of our shape inspection, the report. Um, it's when it gets to Ruth, it's for the final copy here at the town office and stuff. Um, Mike's flooring was in today. We We have floor tiles on the floor again. So, everybody that's worked on it seems to think that hope that it more than likely has cured it. So, I hope that is correct that it has cured it. Um, I do need to strip and wax that floor area with the new tiles and stuff and and try to blend it with the old and seal it with the old. So, part of it, what I actually had him give me was a proposal to strip and wax all the floors, tile floors in the station. Um, and it it was $1,000 is what they gave me for a proposal. They figure it's going to take them about 4 days to to break it down into reasonable blocks so they can get in there, strip it, and put on the layers of wax and

buff it and stuff. It's a,000 bucks for the 4 days. What I'd actually like to do is I'd like to put it I'd like to get authorization to move forward with it one way or the other. We need to protect the floors. But the other side of it is is I'd actually elect to use some of the revenues that are left from the capital projects aspect of it at least on the meeting room floor hopefully on the other the rest of the floors because I think all those projects were there. I think you had money left over from the whole thing, right?

Yeah, it should be right around 12,000 I think off the top of my head. That that sound right, Ruth? I should have it right in front of me because I think it's around $12,825.32 have enough in the painting line to do the extra painting. And actually, I've addressed that. I got a couple of guys that are coming in and doing a little little bit of time on the inside painting and stuff. They've actually got most of the red taken care of in the bays. Actually, if you read my report at the report that I issued to the department and stuff like that, it's actually in there. Gary and Curtis have been doing a lot of the uh wall painting in the station. So, the red's been done out in the bays. Not the white up above, but the red's been done. And they're working on the meeting room areas now. So, so for the most part, it everything that was planned has been accomplished at the at least at what was anticipated,

if not beyond what was anticipated. So, yeah. So, I don't there's no other expense. The only other expense that's outstanding is Mike's flooring bill which was authorized at the last meeting. Um 879 I think off the top of my head.

Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. That would be the only other item that come out of there. All the rest of the bills have been submitted for that project. So you've made money. Yeah. So to speak. Yep. Was already in the savings account. It just stays in the savings account, I guess, this way. Uh, but anyways, I'd like to if the board would consider authorizing me to do that, I want to do it out of the operating budget. Even if you guys aren't good with doing it out of the capital budget, I need to do it on the meeting room floor, but it'll help save the We haven't done it on the rest of the floors for quite some time.

And do you have the money in the operating budget to do it? most of the time because like I I think I you ask me about those that uh yeah this time of year it tends to a bunch of my inspections tend to come due and stuff like that. So it tends to yeah the northeast one and stuff. So um I may have I'm not positive. I'm not Yeah,

I've looked at it a couple of times and I've got payroll. I've got the Northeast one. Um, I've got a little bit of a um, you gear stuff out there besides my standard expenses and stuff. I don't think there's anything really major in any of the other lines. So, yeah, it uh, going to be close.

That's just through November. So, not Yeah. So, it doesn't incorporate what's on there for tonight? No. No. cuz tonight was probably 2,000. Yeah. Well, it was US Healthworks alone was 38.50, I believe, for the the December 3rd thing. So, um yeah, then the equipment maintenance repair. So, I'm I'm assuming on this warrant here there was probably 8,000 to 10,000 somewhere in that vicinity. I have at least one more payroll, part-time, pay to do. Um yeah, quick one more fun. Okay, there it is. Might have might have. It's definitely going to drive building maintenance higher off the charts, but uh

might have if that's the the board's preference to take it out of there rather than capital. If I got the money there, I'm fine with doing it that way. It's going to end up in the capital. If you don't spend it here, it'll end up in the capital. That's why I was going to ask if you had a concern or not.

Oh, no. I just But I I don't have any problem. Yeah, I'm fine with taking it. It's just going to drive the the building maintenance line a little higher, but that really doesn't matter that on that end. It uh serves the same purp.

I think ultimately I misheard you. I thought you said you'd prefer to take it out of operating, which is why I Well, no. I was my my thoughts were is I got to do the meeting room floor as part of the capital, so why not do the whole thing simultaneously? But as we're sitting here discussing it, in all honesty, it probably makes more sense to take it out of the operating budget, even though it's going to drive that building maintenance line further off the charts if there's enough money in the the uh overall budget because I'm I'm held to the bottom line each count line. So, probably makes more sense to take it out of there in the first place. Okay,

makes sense. Are you trying to talk yourself out of this already? Well, no, I still want to get you to approve the expenditure if you would. Oh, no. Go do it. So moved. But you guys did talk me out of the other one. Second.

Is your motion specific to which account you I would assume operating possible operating. Does that make sense to put it in the motion if possible operating which I think based on the bottom line it it probably will fit. It's just going to drive that.

Make a motion to take it out of the operation budget. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor? It's got to get done one way or another. Thanks. Hydrant on Beaver Woods that's actually been repaired. It uh Calvin public works guys did a great job uh down there working on it and stuff. It uh was actually a kind of a raw cold nasty day, but it was still an enjoyable project. But most of the growth has been cleaned up in the pond. talked to Calvin some about it and to the homeowners and think maybe when things dry up we can go back and get the rest of the impounded water supplies. Cat ninetailed build up in them bad and what they eventually do is every all the foliage coming down and stuff collects in them and you lose you don't necessarily lose your volume you use lose some of your volume but it tends to clog everything up. It slows things down. Um yeah so you really need to anything that's impounded we really need

to stay after. So, but for right now, it's good. I haven't been back down there in a couple of days to see how it's filling up, but it was over the intake when there actually that day it was over the intake. So, I'm assuming that uh we'll fill back up. So, that one's done and Rabbit Road is done. Shape inspection. There was a packet I passed around that uh the shape inspection that they came in on the 28th. They wanted to come back, take a look at a couple of things. In all honesty, I think they wanted to check and make sure we were having them do the flow test on our SCBAs, which was scheduled for Thursday. And they came back in on Thursday, and a report came out that we had no labor hazards. And therefore, what that makes us eligible for where we've already we did initial and we renewed once. If on your third time around, you come up with no hazards, you end up being eligible for four-year renewal. Um, so ours will be a

4-year renewal. It will not expire until November of 2020 before they are scheduled to I mean, if we can always do something wrong, but if before they're scheduled to come back for an inspection. Uh, I actually think that some of that may assist both with risk services and perhaps workers comp where we've managed to achieve that. Maybe we can keep that in mind whenever we're negotiating the department insurance rates and the workers comp insurance rates.

Okay. It uh truck 24, we talked about that. That was the exploratory. You have it. Uh it had been completed, but I don't have the invoice for it yet. It uh it's all that's all squared around. The SCBA flow tests, as I alluded to, they were completed that Thursday, December 1st. So, that's done. Um, I don't think I have the invoice for that. I don't think the invoice is on that yet. So, that's one I didn't mention. Um, annual medical evaluations, they were done on December 3rd. Actually, it we're in pretty good shape. We only have maybe a couple of people outstanding to still get done, which that's pretty rare. Usually, it takes me a month or two to get them taken care of. Fit testing started. We're probably halfway done fit testing. Um, and we have it the annual mandatories are scheduled for December 29th. And at that time, I I think we'll probably be in the same boat with the fit testing down to

just a handful of people to get fit tested and that'll be done. Um, kitchen hoods, those were inspected uh about a week ago both at the station and at the community center. And that invoice is on the warrant for both of them. So, that's it.

Terrific. Thank you. Any questions for the chief? Thank you. Thanks, chief. Thank you. Merry Christmas. Yeah, you good, too. Good evening. All you. going Well, all but one. All but one. Working on that one stuck in Yeah, if you ain't doing that, you'll be doing something else.

I wanted to sleep. what I wanted to do. I stayed out for the Cowboys game till midnight and they called me in at 1:30. Wow. Oh, yeah. That's nice. I called my guys at 12:30. So, you got an hour. Notice someone wasn't coming in, so that's when they called me.

All right. Where we started? Uh start with the report here. So, all right. Well, if you want to, we can just look at this real quick. The uh the panel to Durm uh and the Durham to panel. Yeah. Uh this is where we're at with the collaboration between the two with the departments. Uh

you don't need a truck or nothing or anything, right? Nope. We owe them 155741. Uh so you can see there's a breakdown of when it occurred, how it occurred, and what happens is we were we were within, you know, 300 bucks and then done the grading. Just once we do the grading, it

once they make a round, it's like 1,500 bucks. So if we can fatten it up next year and get a little bit more so you know the grading's coming then you'll be there. Yeah. Do we I thought you guys were going to discuss this Jeff

check with panel to see if they want to settle this up before the end of the fiscal year or if they want to carry it into next year. Just write my IOU. Yeah, that sounds good to me. Yeah, make it up next year however they want to. I mean, if you give me time, I can I can balance it out, but uh just

Well, I just I know our book's closed in a couple of weeks. So, just right. So, as long as we have what the plan moving forward, so where we at where we at as far as time because isn't there like an agreement that it's like every quarter or something like that, we would square up with

Oh, they want to do fine with us. Fine with me anyways. I Yeah, same. I just want to make sure that when Ruth closes out the book, she knows what to do with all of these things and isn't left tearing her hair out on. It's already started, Sarah.

entrance application. I I put this together so that we didn't have one and I just have been trying to get this uh finally found the time to well I didn't find it but I made the time to get it done. So now I mean we just have so many of them out there. seems all of a sudden we're issuing a lot of there's a lot of houses being built um and so and I would caution you while we're on that topic uh that the town may want to consider before I I think that we're on the verge of another building boom and I think you might want to consider the difference between Durham and Panel is tremendous in the amount of they have a lot less roads they don't have the responsibility financial responsibility I mean, all these small subdivision roads, they're all due to be rebuilt and they're going to cost us a fortune. So, Pel just has a policy. They don't accept public routes. Build it in any way you want, but they just we're not going to

take it. And so, I don't know if you guys want to consider that, but that's why we're in the boat we're in. It's going to cost that was already done by I think we do accept I don't think we accept anymore. Okay. There was a time when when we was forcing the builders to build them at at Townspec Road at a certain thing and we it was kind of a spoken unspoken rule that if they did what we asked you

we would accept it. Now I didn't really necessarily think and I mean I wasn't on the board then but I as a public person or taxpayer I didn't really necessarily always agree with that but what I did agree with was if you tell them that you're going to then I feel that you should and that's kind of what we've done but I think we've stopped that now.

Stop that. Okay. they can bring up the specs, then we allow them to build up the give them the permits, but we don't take the road over. I think we've we've wanted to build the road up to the specs it should because who knows what'll happen down the road so that at least the base and all that stuff's there, but they're under their own they got to take care of their own plow and all that. I believe that's the way it has been in the last three or four years. with the driveway application. Is there any requirement whether it's DOT or or planning our existing land use ordinances about sightelines or anything so that that driveways are going in in places that have reasonable visibility and and those kinds of

Well, I took the ordinance that was passed last summer at town meeting and I wrote this according to that ordinance. Um so I made this align with that. Um but yes, there is in fact in the ordinance there is a provision that DOT has a standard and ours is pretty much the same. Uh okay, you have to have it so many feet. Uh our ordinance does say that if the lot was in existence prior to this ordinance that it's grandfathered then at that point I just say you know take the best we can possibly get. I mean if you can put it right away from the curb I want it as far as you can get it. and I have that authority. But so that's where if it's a new lot you're creating, it has to have um it's for every 10 miles an hour, it has to have 100 ft of sight distance. So if it's 35, they got to be able to see 350 ft.

Okay. So DOT does their own. We don't issue those. We're not allowed to. So no, I just didn't know if there was some standard as far as Yeah. visibility for it because it's a minimum of 300 right now, isn't it? It's just whatever the

I think that's what it's been 300. But I mean, this makes sense. Yeah, it's what DOT uses the same standard that if you're going 25 miles hour, then you don't need to see 350 ft. You know, 250 ft would be sufficient, right?

Um, so that's that's how that how that works. But this aligns with the ordinance. So now it's uh I've been just kind of letting them put them in and tell them I want to inspect it before I get there. And you know just it's been it's getting out of hand. There's just too many of them. I don't know what's going on all of a sudden, but there's seems like a lot of builders are coming in from seems like they're picking up these lots and I mean I just talked to somebody up on Auburn Palro. She had to pay $100,000 for two lots because there are no lots for sale there just to build houses on to sell them. So this sounds like the building boom all over again. So Durham is in high demand.

Maybe they know something we don't. Yeah, my house has come up and say so that's what that is together. And hopefully this will make things a lot easier moving forward that um I probably will change that front box to say return to and I'll probably put uh code enforcement so that it comes from them with the building permit application that they fill it out. They return it to him. He puts it in my box

and I take it and go out and then I put in this box that says for town use only. I fill in what I want there. I sign it off. I sign off that top line as a approved permit and then when it's under the final inspection at the bottom I'll sign off that it's been finally inspected and then it's done because what we've had all over town is we got coets with that much cover over them and then they're all heaved with the driveways and

now we got the little permit if they cut wood off the land a temporary it's a it would be called a temporary get a permit for it you know they're going to leave it there ain't like they're going to take the call out when they leave.

No, they should they should put the calls in temporary. It should be a temporary permit and that's why it says here it says explain what it's for and you know if it's uh you know what what it's if it's commercial or um so temporary covers when they put them in they take them back out when they're done. Is that what that means?

Yeah, that's what it Okay. I just wonder I see one I see one really across my driveway so that's why I'm asking. Yeah. And they have that much cover on top of it. Yeah. And then somebody will use that for a driveway. And then I go, "Oh, that's a time, you know, that we don't want to do." So that's that. Uh the um we did that.

So number one, wrapped up ditching. We gave up. We thought for sure we'd get I thought we'd get through December of ditching and it became apparent that uh that's not going to happen. So cold weather going? No, we you know we're told we went to the class in Portland for the snow and ice control and we were told that that's next year is not coming back. It's going to be a non elino year. The jetream is coming up. It's going to be cold, a lot of snow.

Merlin was there. He says winter starts next Thursday, which was this past this which was this this past Thursday. So they can tell all that stuff. And so there was we gave up on the idea that we were going to be ditching into January and February, but

um entire crew been working on equipment for the last season, getting the trucks ready, out and going. We've we've had them all out and going except for one. We've it'll take about two two and a half days to get that one finished up. Um we've had a second salt delivery. Uh and uh got that we got that in the in the shed. Um, we got our first liquid deicing. That was what uh the budget committee was asking about. And and there'll be another one coming right off next week. And so we've been mixing our salt, treating our salt with that. Um, that's the ice beon made of molasses and beet juice and smells like cookies. And

uh the number six uh be submitting the D smart stream crossing grant application this week. Those will be the next round is picked. They got to be in by January. So that's next week. We'll be putting that in. Find out in the spring I guess if we were successful. Um

the winter. Anybody knows anybody that wants to get in a blow truck and drive? What? You have a new hire? We have a new hire person, but we don't have any new temporaries. We don't have any new on people. No. How's How long you had the new guy yet?

The new guy has uh been there for three weeks. Three three weeks. Yeah, maybe three weeks. Two or three weeks. Yeah. So, that all went pretty quick then. Yeah. Good. It's all working good. Uh getting the hang of plowing and

Oh, yeah. Well, he'll be plowing your road next. So, first. You'll be the first to let me know, I'm sure. just got to put a a heavier mailbox up. Yes. Uh so the uh I decided to in the first couple of storms there could see that we're having trouble with that hill on 125 going off when you cross the bridge going up the hill on both sides

hill. It's just well the the hill of 125 125. Oh yeah. Cars you know cuz seeing as the driver hits it hits it with the ice be gone and the salt and then it slimes up and greases up and then you know it's an hour before he gets an hour and a half before he gets back there again. So in an hour and a half you've got greasy slimy. So so well this isn't I don't like this. So we've had a couple of calls people would call in and say hey the road is slippery and the hill is slippery. They can't get up over it. So what I did is I came

I've slid off there twice. Not this year, but I mean, you know, I think last year and the year before I slid off there twice under the guard rail. That's scary. Right next to the river. Yeah. So I came up with a plan and we tried it this last time and it works. Is overlapping. So the truck on this side instead of going across the bridge and turning around the truck on route 9 side comes down, crosses over, goes up 125, turns around at day road and the truck on 125 side crosses over and goes up and turns around at uh Cedar Pond Road. So you're hitting those hills twice as often. Two different trucks hitting it at different So and that seemed to work. So I think we're going to stay with that. And the drivers liked that the hills stayed bare and blue.

Yeah, that's it. is that there's certain spots in town where it's just that that's the one where you got those two hills to get into Durham. You got those two hills either way, right? Once you're in, you're all set. But it's getting in here. So hopefully that is going to alleviate some issues with that. Um

the local roads manual they give you a statute and they tell you that you have to that that you can use to say you can't put snow in the road. Well, I read the statute and that's not what it says. The statute simply says if there's snow in the road that the town is obligated to remove it and that there's penalties if they don't. The town is obligated to remove snow from the road. And it's an old antiquated law from back when they were rolling snow and you know that that it's one of those old

sto my time. Yeah. So So it I think it was uh I I don't think that it was the right statute either. They got the wrong one. But at any rate, I couldn't use that one. But what soon as we get done plowing, it never fails like yesterday. And along comes 5:00 4:00. And now all of a sudden everybody is we've got our roads all cleaned up. we're getting ready to go home. We're thinking we're getting them and then everybody comes home and starts pushing the snow across the road and or they just come home and starts snowb blowing it right into the road because they assume that we're just going to but what they don't understand is we've got salt on the road and that's all treated and it's all working in sync with timing. And now that snow now dilutes the salts. And now we're going to hit one spot with ice. And you know, now we got to come back to hit that spot. And uh uh it it the drivers get very frustrated. And uh

I thought there was a Well, I can take a quick look at the statutes. Well, that statue didn't match. So, I need a statute. I need something I can actually site that says you can't put snow in because the one that Main Local Roads puts out is

doesn't say that. No, they they give us the statute, but you read it and you'll agree that all it says is if there's snow in a road, town's got to remove it. So, I don't know if I'll take a look at that. Uh, so if you can find something, I need uh something that actually I'm sure there must be something that you can't block a town road, but I just don't know how to find it. So,

I always thought there was, but Well, I based on the statute I'm seeing, there is nothing uh in that particular statute. Not saying there isn't one, but I would think it's probably something broader than more than just snow. It probably just says you can't block it. There must be something that said you can't block a town road or MG to or put the hazard or so.

So is is that something you're going to check with or you want roof to check with MMA? Well, I think I could maybe call them and get a free or I think that's something they would provide for you can get a legal opinion for free from them. Yeah, I can send you their uh their email address.

Yeah, but if anybody else has any if you know where they're Yeah, I mean I can just take a one. I just want to put a form letter together that when I see it happen, I can just put it in the mail. Do the road commissioners have a like a list serve where you ask all the other road commissioners

question. You could try that. Yep. Try it. Just uh um we aim to please we put double back. Yeah. I just don't you know do you I have you ever have you guys seen the I've always I've always I and I thought I heard this from road commissioner in the past that that's not it's illegal to do that

right I'd always heard that you because sometimes they don't just spread it out there I've even on my some guys come out there and there's big round balls of snow it's all hard they just leave it they leave them in you can't do you shouldn't do

well I'm thinking what they're thinking is that we're going to come back through and get it and that's just but even Still, they shouldn't do that. Yeah, because somebody could anybody could come in the meantime. It's like I saw one yesterday. I just old Brunswick road. I just don't understand. I mean, push it across the road and just leaves these big burns. Don't even clean it up. I mean, if you clean it up, I almost could almost see it. But I mean, to just leave it there with total disregard to traveling public and u so I pushed mine out to I pushed a little bit out to the end of my driveway the other day. just getting ready to push tuck it back in around the corner where I used to do and town blow guy came by and pushed it back in the driveway for me. I was sitting there I knew he was going to cuz I didn't have a chance quite to get it and I said I knew he was going to but it was no big deal.

I I knew it was coming. He must not have known it was a selectman. I must have been the new guy. No, he knew me. He waved. I knew I knew it was coming. It was my fault. I thought I was quicker than that. Oh yeah. So we got to deal with that this year. I want to deal with that. that's been on my board since last year to get that letter, but you know, I need the statute to uh to send to him. So,

um then this crew, we attended a snow ice control class and we learned uh or we were reminded of the same thing that we had a new guy train. I had a new guy from PA, we had a train, so worked out pretty good. So, that's that's that's all. Overall, it went pretty smoothly for the first big snow event of the year.

Yeah, went uh fine. Now, we just, you know, down one truck, but we'll get that one going here in the next two days. It'll be done this week. So, you have a driver for it? Well, we got the driver that drove it last year, Ron. And when they don't have him, I will find someone to uh

Oh, no. I mean, I I knew that you were down a part-time driver, so I didn't know if you if you Well, worst case scenario, enough bodies to put in the trucks. Well, I have some options. I'm looking at some people I'm talking to and some people that work for Croo that are getting laid off for the winter. And so, I got a meeting Thursday to try to nail that down. They said, "Well, we got to have them back." You know, I said, "Well, that's we won't keep them. Doesn't snow in June. You can have them."

I'm still waiting on the spreadsheet you can have for me for the man hours and stuff building those roads. I know you said you were working on it, but I can see since you said you're done ditching, you should be able to wrap that up then.

Yep, we'll get on that and uh I'll get that for you. Okay. I know you have to probably talk to Ruth about the the correct amount for the hours. Yeah, we pay with all the pennies we give them. Yeah, I like to have that so I can see how much it cost us.

I can tell you we just finished two roads. In fact, I just had a meeting to give them some final payments on Poundland and that my god, I'll tell you just I it's so much easier with our own crew was just you have to babysit every move and then stuff isn't done right and you got to

it's incredible. I'm just thinking there's one thing to be easy, another thing to be costwise to the town. Yeah. Yeah. But if you get that to me, great. Yeah, I will. Anything else? Thank you very much. Where's Jeff? Where's Jeff at?

He's in Arizona. Oh, okay. All right. I didn't see that one in there. That's all right. Thank you very much. Okay. Have a good Christmas, Calvin. Merry Christmas. You, too, Jeff. It's a lovely week to be in Phoenix. I've noticed this car has been in the air. I've been going to ask what's uh what's going on, so I know he's not moving his car.

Administrator, short, sweet. I'm going to be really short and really sweet. Um this is just Foreclosure is Friday. Um these are the last five properties. One's in bankruptcy, so we can't foreclose on it. Uh one we wave every year. That's the the dump. Um two of them have mortgages, so we're expecting payment for those on Thursday. And the third one we're assuming that we'll get paid for. the the notice of notices have all been delivered. Um, so that's where we are.

Okay. Okay. Well, thank you very much. Thanks. That's it. Anybody got any questions for me? You were you were going to get some you were uh going to get some comparative quotes on that uh stuff that I sent you? Yeah, I'll work on that.

And uh so like who you sent to? Uh well, I asked the different managers in the different towns to tell me who they used. Um, John Buckman is one. There's a couple other people that people use. Um, you want me to name them all?

No, no, that's fine. Okay. Um, but whether or not they're actually on TV anyway, but but whether or not they be I think I think you and I need to sit down and talk about what we want, right, to do like ask all these people for for some sort of a quote cuz I think we need to get one person.

Yeah. I mean, obviously, we'd have our system, but uh but that's that's why, you know, I lean towards this one company because I worked for them before. I saw what they did and they supported municipalities and the quote we have is a good quote for a server that could last a town up to 10 years. And yes, up front there would be some cost about 105 the first year, but then after that it would be an additional whatever to the to the line. I mean, what's the line right now? was like a,000 bucks.

Yeah. It would cost about another four on top of that for ongoing support, you know, for somebody that's right there. Anytime they have something, they call help desk and they're right there. Bam. You know, they know the system. They set it up. You know,

have been incredibly slow. Um, you know, we have to sit there and wait for I don't have the time for it. You know, I I've done what I can and I come in when I can. I don't have the time. So, uh, for the support they actually need and and as things keep growing, you know, they

Oh, I agree. We need to update that. So, just that's why I was just that's why I called cuz I knew that you done some and that's why I was just trying to see if we could help them get them through this until we and I I like that company. It's not that I'm trying to sell them anything. It's not that I'm like some it's that I've seen what they do. I've been the guy that's going to be monitoring the system and I know what happens when you miss something. So, the boss is going to be right on you. So, uh, you know, I know what they I know what they do. So,

work it, right? Huh? No, you don't know. No, I don't work for them. It's been years. So, anything else, Ruth? Uh, no. But I did have one note about your um announcements. Regular selection meeting will be held on December 27th at 6:30. On Tuesday,

January 3rd at 6:30, there will be a budget workshop. On Tuesday, January 10th at 6:30, there will be a regular selectman meeting. Additionally, the RSU5 referendum election on the track and field project is January 10th, 2016. Absentee 2017, excuse me. Absentee ballots are available at the town office. And I believe there's an upcoming is there a public hearing on that as well or actually

the one thing I want to mention so we don't forget some of those reviews that I wanted to re look at not tonight but when Jeff's here and then when we're all here in the future but I don't want that to be forgotten. I want to make sure we do it sooner than later.

Right. Do you want to do that board that I just want to make sure we was the December 27th meeting? We'll try to put that up. Sure. Do you want review reviews? We review the reviews. Yeah, I can I can give you the the two I give you two or three names of ones that I remember that I think we may want to look at and or we can do them all. I don't care. I don't think we need to do, but I think there's two or three that maybe we just got

Well, we got sign tonight. Uh just those two the I have a motion to Sorry. I have a motion to journ. All those in favor?