TranscriptSelect Board Meeting ~ October 24, 2023

[Music] what is it it's not good I know when I rewatch it it's really really hard to hear us how about now can you hear me sound check I'm you know I know I'm on sound check sound talking I don't get going here rich is [Laughter] talking you are all right thank you uh everybody Welcome uh to the Durham Town select board meeting on 10:24 when we all rise uh say Pledge of

of the United States of America and to the stands na indiv liberty and justice for all I need a microphone that I can walk around with um let me see here um I'm going to Let's see we have a we have a u quorums established um and uh amendments

to the agenda I'm going to make one Amendment this evening uh which is we are not going to discuss the 12 Rabbit Road setback violation that is heading to the appeals board um and uh if we need to get involved we will but hopefully it'll be resolved there uh that meeting is uh TBD at this point for that to occur any other amendments no okay all right we're going to go uh public comments uh Neil certainly step right right up to the

name is Neil Barry I live on stacko road and I have a couple of ordinance suggestions for you guys to think about first is to create an emergency spending policy an ordinance we have an emergency fund but my understanding which I think is accurate is uh the select boy doesn't have permission to spend any money from it um so the last time it was mentioned was at a town meeting in 2020 that was I think the right in vote it was Article 7 we added money to it and the article said we could tap it with the budget committee and your vote but my understanding again is that needs to be any the warrant every year to allow access to it so I would suggest we we we write an ordinance allowing the SWAT board to access that fund uh the second one by far more important for me is uh an ordinance Banning commercial solar Farms outside of financial the motivation for these is to mitigate a phony climate crisis the

biggest and most costly scam in human history there is there is no climate crisis anthropogenic or otherwise solar Farms are ugly and a wasteful heavily subsidized by un need costly source of electricity the only people benefit benefiting from them are the farm owners and the solar pan solar panel manufacturers the largest being the Chinese Communist Party the town would benefit greatly by letting plan the planning board by letting the planning board and the CEO focus on other more important issues and would help maintain the RO character of Durham we have too many important issues to worry about rather than hassle with solar Farms if you want some scientific back based information on climate change I would refer you to especially the CO2 hoax I'd refer you to Professor William haer from Princeton and Professor Richard Lindon of Mi that's M thank you Neil is that fine can you leave that so that we can get a copy of

Josh thank you Neil have a good evening appreciate it anybody else for public [Music] comment okay seeing none we will move on um let's see we have uh reports from the road commission and fire chief I will leave it up to the two you to decide who goes first Calvin step right up talk

loud into that microphone your fan base is anxious to hear what you have to say oh happy birthday by the way yes or is that just the road commission is Facebook page it's a birthday oh that's my birthday that's your birthday well happy birthday I don't know how it found out but whoever it knew some whoever set it up must have know but I don't recall putting any of that in there so U so we've been out working on gravel roads um we've gone gotten them

tomorrow going to be working on them rest of this week so to keep them passible this year with all the rain we've had we' had a lot of potholes and a lot of uh uh had more difficulty keeping those uh in league over here with pulling off a bunch of material setting up all the barricades and the and the posts and all that to keep the motorcycles and other other motorized vehicles off the off the grass that grew in race so we'll leave that up there for a while until we can take those down in the grass as well rooted uh the uh uh we we called our

winter sand put that up for the winter that's all up and put away uh cooperation with the fire department we are now in possession of their old training cargo trailer something they got from a grant I'm sure he can probably tell you more about it than I can so we uh would like to we've always wanted a trail our sign trailer to have set up for for emergency events that we can just hook on and go and put up barricades cones and Detour signs and things like that so that will be all set up uh once we get done tearing them apart and working on some of the Interior stuff U we uh attended the snow and ice control MDOT class U main local roads

division with several other municipalities we learned to you always learned something new you watch the same movie five times you see something you didn't see last time so you can't go too many times but uh I think the crew learned a lot that's helps get Buy in from the team so they're not just doing what they're told they understand why we do it I think that that goes the long way and the uh We've added uh I posted on

the town website DPW looking for seasonal plow drivers like we do every year hope that we always get more and believe or not we're still mwing grass I I just never mind again a home and grew an inch we said normally grass isn't growing now so that's usually over quite a while ago so we've been putting head gear today we worked on head gear the trucks are ready to roll we get head gear Spinners all that yesterday and today getting them ready to roll in case we have a freeze and rain or snow event which could happen anytime now Halloween could show up and give us six inches like happened a few years ago so we're uh we're ready on that and that's all we got okay uh yeah the uh field came out really nice thank you for all your help on that and uh Ros are looking good

Kevin do you know if they plan on putting the fence back in the ground before went there y that's their plan I I guess I can't answer I mean that was the way I understood when we discussed it but whether that changes or whether they decide to wait till the spring or I can't answer that question I know that was the intention back when we talked so they're actually going to bring in more material they're going use this park cut across this

questions no okay thank you Calvin have a great night you got the good Chief how we doing we doing great I I'll just add to Calvin for the trailer um the fire department got a grant 20 years ago 19 it was a 2004 trailer it hasn't been used in a decade so that was for public education complete from FEMA had tables in it and whatnot and they used it uh and then parked it we haven't used it we don't have a use for it uh so collaboratively we decided to um deed it over to Public Works however uh they're going to fix it up and then we can still use it for road signs and um blockades and whatnot so common trailer hitch now that the utility is here we can just hook it up in case we had another you know um uh Newbrook Road or or something collapses or flooding we can help out so that's where that came from uh I looked into it that's okay through the municipality to gift it or deed it to the same municipality just different

department um so F doesn't have great um a week and a half ago Saturday the 14th the fire department held its annual open house to the public also public education day to coincide uh with the yearly pbed uh it was well attended in positive remarks online I appreciate the positivity on the Facebook um the union church project I see it's on the agenda as far as the fire department goes uh we're still updating deficiencies found in our inspection so that included exterior numbers have been added to the church uh from the public works and we have an appointment this Thursday I'll be there with the fire alarm company uh to certify it and check the fire alarm system side of the union church so it hasn't been checked according to them in five years it hasn't been certified checked uh they still monitor it but you

know smoke alarms need changing every 10 years uh that type of stuff we we'll see if it needs carbon monoxide added um so we have an appointment okay I've been going through the town manager for that uh the fire department the service license for the rescue has been approved and updated another year uh annually that has to be approved through State EMS um and that includes updated safety plans our medical control contract uh with our doctor uh and numerous policy and procedur major updates um again we mandated to contract with a physician for medical control ours is Dr Gerson from Mid Coast um and that comes with a fee that type of thing but we we're already up and running uh for next year and enclosed in

your packet I know everyone's been talking about it so I try to go go light is the latest Mutual Aid run numbers if you will so that's given and received for both the EMS side and the fire side uh there are a couple of outliers sort of so if you if you look at that first page where it says fire Mutual Aid received um those first six

it says Brunswick free cour Lisbon they're all the same that's six incidents really that's six fires uh but the math you know is adding those up to 18 you see how that is but in theory that's really six calls and then you can see all the other departments that we've used in the Meadow Street fire if you just start from the bottom took every one of those was at the Meadow Street fire so the the the Meadow Street really is an outlier because that brought in the north yth yth all those guys as far as to the scene um next to that you can see the EMS Mutual Aid received so that means calling for a mutual Aid rescue what you don't see in that is Durham having five simultaneous calls so recently we we had a double hit I call it but simultaneous calls so we take one and our mutual Aid Partners take the other uh and also three of those calls the rescue was out of service and I think it was all one day for maintenance

I think we had a motor vehicle accident that took two mutal Aid and another call it just statistics way Falls U but you can see how many times we've received from the local departments the next for is telling because it really States how many fire neutral Aid we give um and that's really we've been to 19 Mutual Aid fires so far and we've given nine station coverage so that's 28 times we've been called out of town um and that usually recalls most of the fire department because some go out of town myself or the deputy will go out and then the other half will stay in town to provide coverage always for Durham and then the EMS Mutual Aid given you can see how many times we go to the area departments I know Lisbon is high I've gone to Freeport a couple times Auburn now three pel a couple times and pel is actually contracted with free so it says going to pound but that's because free port's not available uh United is the

private company that's you know Leon so been there six times um so we we have provided 42 Mutual Aid rescues as compared to taking of mutual Aid and I I agree I'm just trying to understand if this disproportionate is being pointed out for us to have a bigger conversation about this because when we're doing Mutual Aid giving and receiving we're not charging and we're not being charged correct so are you pointing this stuff out because you want us to have that type of conversation around this okay no it's legitimate just what the numbers say it's not pinpointing a certain agency or somebody lacking it's just what we provide okay um so so I if I if I read this right it's they're about even in and out right well you know I

mean just just they are at a high level they're really close you have to for numbers neutral Aid receive so resting receive you really have to count the 12 ALS backups so what that means is we've call for a paramedic we didn't have one we need a paramedic that does take an ambulance a rescue out of service you know and they give us a paramedic so that's 12 we've called for 12 paramedics intercepts they call and we've called for 14 so if you add those that's 26 we've given 42 we have taken 26 so so they're getting more Mutual

more just going to respond to Heather because she was she wasn't here I had requested this information this has no this has been a thing probably going on a few years and what we're seeing um and you feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this what we're seeing you know throughout the state and so forth where towns have elected to hire out or

go subcontract their EMS service they sometimes get not always but sometimes they get left in the dark and they more heavily relying upon Mutual Aid in some of the towns that have done that you can see that especially in some of our local Neighbors they're more ring upon us than in the past because they don't have the chief staff Etc in terms of the pran people and things of that nature which my concern was just the burden on him and his staff making sure that we're covering other communities because they elected to go for contracted service versus an in-house service if that makes sense M so that was my concern

right okay we are as I've explained before we're building relationships and that just takes time as a new Chief I've been here a couple years it takes time uh when you burn Bridges so to speak uh or New Management either here or or across the bridge um so we are working closely with Lisbon EMS now they are telling me a quasi municipality that they're sort of getting more taken over by the town um their Service Chief if you will um is

over a lot we're sharing equipment staff training uh so we're now building relationships to to do that recently there was a high-profile call there we provided a rescue for transport myself and three members United provided paramedics and they had their own so when a high-profile or a larger call comes in that's when you want the mutual Aid to work seamlessly and it did for that um so we are holding our own I think this is really data important for you all to make decisions budgetarily down the road yep um I I just have to give you know adab boys and acknowledge that the troops across the street because they're the ones that do it in in Li of somebody not doing it that's me responding but nine out of 10 is them so you know night again is is difficult but um these are just the numbers they really don't lie and that's how many times you know we've had 24 fire departments are 24 times not including

station coverage in dur and we don't have that many fires but when we do you need your neighbors and you don't want them to hesitate or think twice uh we've given 19 and we've certainly had 24 their apparatus in town so that is certainly Mutual uh the rescue was always an ongoing discussion I think it's fair to say it they'll never be totally Equitable correct you just want it to be at least from from my stand must speak we just want it to be mutual sure it has to work for dur right is what it has to I'm not worried about the other municipality it has to work for us and you feel comfortable that it is right now yeah I I think with with building the relationships and being able to call on them uh it is it

is we have not in the two years but this year had a call that we didn't staff for dur we have said no to Mutual Aid so when they do call there is a question do you have a rescue available and there have been documented times that we've said no uh we either don't have the Staffing they're responding back from a call that type of stuff so we can say no and they just go to the next Mutual aid cover all right anybody else all right

uh so at the end of the year you you'll have our end of year stats and and it just helps with decision making budgets great um thank you oh can I just ask one question I I don't need you to it's for a future when we get to the budget stuff and we've changed the billing policy yes I I would just like to see some information and data based around that to see how things are pulled it already just in thought of that and we're almost double up okay thank you CH oh you're welcome what youall be looking for thank you all right move on to Old business uh Union Church update yes let me give you an update on that so um we did receive the grant to do the structural engineering report so I reached out to uh Eric duie and uh let him know that so that inspection and Report should be coming to us in a couple of weeks um I will say

the report is going to basically tell you that that that building is safe and sound it's structurally sound there's no safety from a structural standpoint wrong with that CH so the inspection already happened and we're just waiting on the report well well no we just got the grant so he was going to do the the inspection okay okay you can't do the inspection before you before you get I think it was because what you just stated right that's why I was confused is that your interpretation or your opinion what that the bu structurally sound no I would no I brought Eric over there so he knew where what it was and he pretty much said just by looking at it as without climbing around that this there's nothing wrong there's nothing wrong with this from a structural stand but he will have it in his okay okay that's why I was confused thank you that's true okay so there's that um as far as the Union Church committee

goes so met we're going to meet with the um District actually um members on Thursday okay to see what they want to do in in the event that there's a permit pulled in the district they got to meet they're under a legal obligation to move but without a chair can they move so I got to talk to them about that I got to show them their bylaws in the event that they don't want to do that Brad Miller on a main preservation that will moderate the meeting if they don't want to chair it it's going to be 100 bucks an hour and it's going to cost the town money if they don't want to do it but if they but if no one's going to step up and do it something has to happen that can permanent gets so if they don't want to run the meeting Brad will run it for so someone has to determine whatever that permit they're looking to do doesn't fit the historical nature of the district and the building okay so that's the district

commission right and that when you said we're meeting with them you don't mean I'm meeting with them because they need to meet they're under a legal obligation to I was confused because we started with society and then you said so so I thought that you meant the society was meeting when you said we I was just like I'm sorry I misspoke the district commission okay that needs to meet that a permit get poll so we got to work that out right one way or the other so if they don't want to chair it or they don't want to it I found somebody that will so I'm going to talk to them about that on on Thursday and is that at a meeting that's just right here um just me and the in the um commission hashing

that over okay would we have to Appo that person before they chair um you can but that's the only yeah you can do that but I got to find out if if if if they're willing to step up and share it then it's a move point we have to point but I have found someone to do it okay that you'll have to appoint that we will have have to app from what I've and hopefully I'm hopeful that that's not going to be the case I'm hoping I step up I'm hoping I can convince them that's in the event get pulled if one doesn't get ped and they don't want to meet don't meet we'll figure out where we go with that later so this is just so that's we have a plan there's a plan there's a plan okay absolutely can I ask a question about the society yeah I may not know a lot about okay so I just noticed that their last meeting was cancelled and I'm just curious are they just like kind of stalemate waiting for the structural engineer report I don't

believe so so there's a couple things going on that's a it is chiefest still so there's a there's an oin issue here so I'm not sure if if that building right now as far as I know is deemed Assembly Building yes MH so if it's a demon assem bill it needs a second means of egress so without that then they're putting the town at liability if they move there so but I mean are they meeting anywhere or are they just I'm not sure where they meet I know that they had a fundraiser at the ambats and how many people were there did does anybody know there was but they're meeting at the eure oh they're meeting at the Eureka oh so there you go the Union Church committee is meeting at eure Society you asked about the society I met sorry I we got three things going we got the talking about the committee that's doing the plan for coming up with the options us right so they meet right here and they're waiting on that report okay

that's what I wanted to know I it felt like I hadn't seen any movement forward and I was wondering if they're waiting on the report before they continue okay thank you that's what can I just ask a real quick question real quick am I allowed to not necessarily okay but I

just want to know what the definition between the difference between an assembly and the meeting was okay so the um Jerry you can answer that thank you I answer it's not the same language assembly use is the use of a structure having a meaning is something else so every structure building has a use for the permit of of what this is

actually another business the Union Church currently would be an assembly in with the square footage could be over 50 occupants it's but it's an assembly use building as it stands y so what's the difference between an assembly and meeting me a meeting is is not a building identification it's not a use so technically they could meet that no no well that'll be a discussion for another day until until until the assess until the assessment is completed and the committee comes back to us then we will we will decide from there who who will be able to use that okay if they're under 50 but yeah yeah we all right sorry okay we're gonna move on unless you're got anything else on the subject Jared no I I'll got some more stuff in my report that so new business uh Eureka rental fee per

come on up to the microphone introduce yourself you really need me at the microphone yeah sayate your name and address I'm jeie Costigan I am at rangdale Road and I have been a member of the eure committee Center since God made dirt and let me see it's actually the rental

fee um Pro slide on up here for a second it it covers a wide variety because you also have some additional paperwork about flooring information so it kind of spreads a little bit and um I'm I'm the chair and I live on 64 noral Ro thank

you bar so the rental fee we're talking about increasing the rental fee to we said 80 from 70 changed our mind yeah yeah we're thinking about we're thinking about going up to I would say the 100 yeah and we've taken a look around like the mvap I guess is getting about 350 um MTM doesn't publish what they

rent is it 150 and Freeport the only Hall that is available to rent is the Bradley room at the community center that's 50 bucks an hour $25 an hour for cleaning fee kitchen you can can use that as well that's about it um we did take a look at resident versus non-resident um we got into a little bit of semantics here so like let's say for an example you know Heather's cousin from out of town wants to hold a surprise party and calls us up and says I want to hold a birthday party but Libby is from Florida I'm not going to charge Libby an out of town residential because Heather lives here dur you know um so we were just like yeah no we're not getting into those semantics um so we're like you know 100 bucks is easy um but then you get into the whole thing about the insurance you got to tack that on um so

yeah 100 bucks do the other places require Insurance private insurance or yeah it depends on yes ma'am I have lots of questions oh I have lots of answers because I'm always looking for ways to generate Revenue y Donuts so I'm curious

if you don't have these answers tonight that's okay um do you know how many times the E is rented on an annual basis y it it's been increasing every year since we did it this year up to this year it was averaging about almost two uh two rents a month and this year

we have 31 well now total for the for the year to date 35 to date okay and um in terms of record keeping who keeps the record like who process the you keep record of who's rented it and are you um it sounds like you're not keeping

track right now of local versus not local or for profit versus is nonprofit yes yeah we are in a way because if someone says well I don't live in town I live in here and you know I'll have to ask them what their Association is or why and usually like you just said it's because somebody they're having it for or doing it with comes is from to so we've always made the delineation like if you're if you're Boy Scouts Girl Scouts brownies whatever and so forth it's no chart there's no charge for nonprofits currently okay um you know and we hold you to the stand you're going to leave it the way you found it you know and if you're a Girl Scout Boy Scout whatever Scout you're going to leave it better than you found it and how does that work for the nonprofits in terms of insurance are they still required to get insurance no okay um long as they you got to remember if you're a scout you carry the Scout

insurance so you automatically come with it so um and and and for others if they have to be to and again if you're a nonprofit your nonprofit status you're coming with your insurance anyway okay and applications are kept by you and processed by you or does that go through the to go through the to go the to okay thank you and the current fee includes Municipal insurance or people have the option they either get it themselves which is like an arm and a leg and uh pulling teeth to get three your own insurance you can do it um I've called my own insurance and she's like yeah I can do it it's going to take me about a week to add it ride it whatever um it's about the same cost um it's just easier to get it through us it's about 110 bucks what 110 19 now 11 19 more

expensive to get in your own insurance I I did that looked it the first theion and it was our insurance insurance company didn't want to handle it if they did handle $150 I went to the town insurance which went very well but

insurance companies do not want to be bother with that it's one day Rider one day rider that's what my insurance so I just want to understand the process so someone reaches out to you does the application process no not me well so so so hang on a second so what do you need from us on regards to you need to approve our bylaw says that's that's why I get to the they want a fee increase insurance and everything long as we're covering it without you telling us we can because the the town owns this building this is a I understand and our bylaws say that we cannot increase or do or buy something or what other without becoming in front of the board okay thank you for following process what thank you for following the process no um so people

apply people they don't apply they come in and say we'd like to use the and they go through Jessica for the application is there a problem with me asking questions yeah I don't think that we need to discuss their process here I think we just need to discuss the fee so well part of the fee is going to be a result of these numbers that I'm looking at and so I would like to be able to continue to ask my questions if that's okay relative to the feed yeah I'm not sure gettings a little yeah I'm not sure that the fee needs to cover staff time so what I'm trying to figure out is if it's the committee that's processing or if we're using staff time proc so then that's a question to Jerry Jerry is this a burden on us an additional burden that the fee needs to be more increased more can I just uh interject here it's going to become a problem okay you're going to want to know these answers so so how is that going to become a

problem because um and and uh this is going to be you're going to be seeing a lot more of us um and coming up um as I said I've been on the Eureka committee for quite some time and so forth since we've turned over the Eureka Center 202

2002 um we turned it over in lovely shape and over the years um it's gone downhill and she needs a little help M and um it it the floor needs to be redone the heat pumps need to be done the doors need to be replaced you know we need to sink some money into it and I'm not talking about improvements I'm talking about repairs and uh we need to uh get some money so that's what we're at is there an official plan here no that's what what we're asking for we're not asking for anything right now I'm saying I'm just saying we kind of need to stick to what we're supposed to be that's what I'm saying is I'm just saying she's she's asking questions and I'm I'm saying we need to increase the fee because some of the things that we're going to be looking at down the road rich is we're going to help try to offset some of these things but look to see my smiling face on a monthly basis go ahead I'd love to I'd love I

know I think what everybody's and I think it's important and I recognize I think you guys the work that goes on over there doesn't necessarily get recog as much as you should what I was getting at was this is a meeting about a fee it's you guys are there somewhat caretakers of this building yeah what is your proposed recommended fee I think for right now we are going from like what 80 bucks or whatever it is to 100 I think that's minimal um you know I'm looking at the MTM Center there 115 bucks they have eight staff members so by that rationale is that your official request to ra right now yeah okay yeah so can I say something about the rent is the rent is what was turned back

over into the town for the mainenance that's capital Improvement right yeah I have I get that we're just we just want to know what your number is and so that one we're asking for money from the town okay so so so right so you but you you've brought up other issues that probably need to be discussed it's not not on our agenda so you're looking for straight fee increase to match the market yes and going from 80 to 100 well I I get that I get that so that that's what we're here to talk about and and really nothing else correct $30 yeah and then if we need to have a discussion then I will act we will action out Jerry to have a future discussion on we need to get on there sooner on the Eureka Center which we do realize there are things that could be uh done to that facility oh yeah um actually probably before the first snow has to be okay yeah all right Heather we have one question in relation to the fee Jerry I

would like to consider not setting an amount until we look at what the expenses and the costs and the surrounding Town Fe structures and that that's the point that I was trying to get at is that I don't think that we should just shoot in the dark and pick a number I think that that there you guys are doing so much over there but there's also a lot to it that's not being considered like when we look at the amount that we spent last year it was 4,457 37 and the amount of rental fees collected $220 and so I would just like to do our due diligence and coming up with a number that makes sense versus with the amount of staff time that's put into it and that type of stuff and then set the

number in the very very near future this isn't a thing I want to put off like we have with all of the other fees but I don't think that this is a kind of thing that we should just pick a number out of the dark and assign that number to it that it really should be reflective of what the cost of a town is to be able to run that building okay and my argument would be on that Heather well I I greatly appreciate and respect your your point of view um the numbers that were spent last year and the numbers that will be spent going

repairs not Improv electricity that's what that $4,000 $457 represents exact is that type of stuff and so what I'm I think your number's too low I'm just saying I think your number's too low I agree but if we don't change that number if we don't agree on a number right now Heather because our bylaws stay the way that they are that number stays at 80 70 70 excuse me so if you you don't change it to 100 Sally May comes in for her party next month it's 70 bucks so and that and that that that and that fee is really to cover the I'll say the the cleaning of the facility after they're done and any electricity they might use it's not necessarily for the entire upkeep of the building up keep the building is a different issue well so the the the in the side note and I'm sorry and I yeah in the in the side note in the caveat that we're having a problem with that I'm trying to keep out of this is Sally May comes in for the

party we have to keep it warm no I get it the heat pumps aren't working so we have to jack it up to 75 just to get it to 62 and the doors aren't working yep so there's your $4,000 in heat so yeah no I I get it I get but that is a different problem but Heather so if we don't approve 100 bucks now Sally's getting a bargain so if we can get 100 bucks now turn around we can come back to you and ask some more hang on so I'm happy to do whatever the bll asked me to do in that regard okay so where this came when I got the request from Jessica I looked at it and it was like 70 right it is 70 now I Jess to get in touch with pearl and I said how about we bump it up to at least 100 for residents 150 for nonresidents just to throw it out there you can go higher than that if you want if you do something now to to to raise it we can always do our homework revisit it and raise it more if we need to but what

they're looking for right now is I just do you want do you want to go 125 that's up to you but that was just a minimum that I I mean I saw 80 I was like well why not 100 let's just round it up to 100 and that's where that 15 I just need to get the door open to get on the agenda going forward how there you got one more the So currently right now the way that you're saying it it would in this write up that you gave us you're saying it would be about $200 because you were thinking 80 and then the 120 for the insurance I would like for it to read whatever the amount is that we choose which I hope that we'll revisit with a little bit more data behind it um whatever the price is to rent it plus the cost of insurance that's what we do we do it's it's a line item it says this is what the cost of the thing is and then there's a separate line item that says Insurance optional because if they decide that they want to do their own

you eliminate that line item okay so do I hear a motion yeah the plan was to take yes the first of the into effect until the first of the year I would prefer that we get a data driven number if it's not going to take effect until the first of the year which I think is also based on what you were saying the other time about L they not just saying something and then have a change immediately I think I think it's fair but what what I would also ction everybody is% is not necessarily build

it's a community building um I don't know in that number let's say we're up to 36 cuz I think you said we're up to three times per month how many of that is for nonprofits that we going to charge of you so is it no that's that's not that is that's a fee a fee based a fe 36 fee based yeah so if you're you

know if we went to1 that's $3,600 and we still we're almost a Heather's Mark of covering quote unquote the expenses think what she trying to achieve ,000 what $4,000 so the 100 actually pretty much get you there because we got another two months left but of that expenses how much is potentially eliminated no I'm notag I'm not disagreeing with that but the fact of the matter is Heather has some points because you're you're coming asking us for a number but in the same token bre you're saying it's eliminated not eliminated but reduced I should say so I think from a your um committee's representation is in Jerry's in the towns per say is your recommendation as your Committee in the town to raise it are you asking the board to raise it to Simply $100 yes yes that's that's the mo that is so based on that do we have a motion raise it to $100 to start at the first of the year I I was was unaware

that it was the first year I thought it was yeah why would it be the first of the year because we already have people who have rented Tony well no their grandfathered as far as I'm concerned it's going forward 100 excuse me first of all we can't have all this no I get it that's a that keeps happening here we can't have that secondly it's not confusing people who have already rented and secured it with it their price is set moving forward the new fee proposed fee pardon me is

$100 I will make that motion right and I second that motion discussion any favor in the usual manner okay motion carries three to zip $100 fee starting immediately uh and anyone who's already got their fees in their grandfathered in according to the committee thank you very much okay we'll see you next week and then provide Jerry with any list of any you're welcome I'll be here anyway yeah thank you very much ladies thank you thank you yeah thank you for your hard work

okay skip cost when you're ready I just wanted to share this email with you that I got from J Conor about the oh really I'm assuming you read it but I got to we got to pay this bill excuse me ladies excuse me ladies ladies thank

here is um oh above Beyond and I think this really speaks to why we hire a financial fir because they spent so much time trying to uh prair our financial statements books and that they spend a lot of time so that's why I just want people to know when you see the budget line for the audit why it's that much money it's because they're taking aeit the budget what was the what was the original figure Jerry for the for the uh for that line item I guess that's all I was looking for when I read this is is you know what was the original number and how much is it going up um and that as long as you have the justification for that well there's 2,000 remaining and she wants to add 3,000 no I I I get what she wants to do but what I what it didn't appear to me is is where am I going from and to and then what I just in brief I know don't need a long list just what are the extra things that as long as you're justifying the

time time right okay so and I'd rely on you to figure out if that time's justifiable um so I I get I get that we have to approve the amount and we're going to ask you for that justification right that the town you don't have to approve the amount we have to pay this no I get that there's no approving I got I just I'm just trying to make you aware yep that our AIT cost are going through the roof because they spend so much time doing a lot more time as long as you think it's as long as it's justifiable and you feel as though it's justifiable then that's that's we need to keep our auditor because other towns are having a hard time so if they're asking for this thing she's still taking a

trust her I mean I see that first of all don't say that not that has nothing it's just that taking a $133,000 hit that's that's her PRI she's asking for whatever it is she's asking what percentage right per um as far as the audit and the audit complexities that's not necessarily um new right would you say

so you know I think in the last couple of years though exactly more than one right so it's not just this year is what I was getting at so what I'm saying is it's this year that we're saying that hey we're way above like this year was even worse than previous years is that what we're getting at last year we took a hit she they took a hit too it's really been the last couple years what was the extra charge for that time to do the uh to do the it's time no I get it what was the extra charge for it I'd have to go back and look at but I have the email is it build out as it time well they they well they build out as a bid is is really my only question yeah well they quote what they think they can do their audit for okay based on the number of transactions we do and all of that sort of stuff in the history right right in the history yeah well that's that was kind of my point like historically I I agree with

you you have to pay this I'm not arguing that but historically when you put a big ground number of like 13,000 and historically we know this has been an issue but you're bid on it at the same cost of the year and then come with an up charge no no they went 5,000 higher 5,000 higher for this now you're another 3,000 see what I'm saying you know we've kind of been in a a jam turmoil lack of better words yeah yeah so um by that rationale what I was

going with this not as far as the trust thing that got brought up what I was going with this is knowing that we'll have this cost this year do you perceive this cost going forward as a as as as a hard cost or do you think this will get better yes as a new Baseline that's fine that's a great way to put it as a new Baseline as their new normal fee or do you see this is or excuse me do you uh anticipate this getting better with our new system in place with our good question um I anticipate this going down because our new Financial person is going to hand the auditor all the financial statements already prepared all they're going to have to do is come in here for their three days pull those things and we should be better we should be in better shape my fear is they may be jaded a little bit but Jen knows Mark and they're actually talking so it should get better for us in this regard that's really all I was trying to find out and

we should know by the end of January of 2024 the audit should be done we're waiting now until August so you can see that time frame when you know an audit really shouldn't take a whole lot of time we should have a 2024 audit done by the end of January to help us developing the 2024 budget Heather so in 2022 the

number was 12,400 and it was proposed for 2023 at 155 which was the notation next to it says 25% based on new quote so I believe that the number was 155 for 2023 and then this is addition to that is that what number you were looking for we started and where we're going yeah so we're up to $20,000 that's a lot you know what I don't know from a Town St I know what we historically play that's why I'm not questioning whether that she had quote unquote extra work I don't question that at all it just seems that's been going on every year and we keep increasing the amount of the audit and when you see a number like Hey we're only going to charge three but really 13 it's kind of so what what do we next year yeah to a church right well no we shouldn't we won't get a quote from her to put in the budet and I think if you'll see it should not be this high and if it is I'm gonna so that's I will ask I will say why if Mark is handing if

Mark is doing all the because she has to do all the financial statements if Mark if that's already being done for you we'll have to see what the quote is but if it's four or $5,000 less I think that's going to we'll see Hello while we're on this subject

Yep they're the compy okay and Mark works at RKO but sub oh he's completely separate completely separate so that's not this point but I'll bring that up for our next agenda item okay yeah so and so in Ence I mean Jen is really is

auditing her own work from year after year after year so this is going to be that's what Mark had said when he came in one time and did the thing because he was an auditor so he says you know I just ended up auditing my own work so that's where he found the niche to do this and at the MMA conference I don't know Heather did you end up going to that I didn't you didn't so at the MMA conference in Augusta where it's the biggest conference for Municipal Employees that go at the Civic Center there was a session um how to prepare for the audit Mark taught it to all the other municipalities so he's going to have the audit all all done pretty much that we're already paying so I should limit rk's own R's time to she still has

to do an official audit independent the town already right absolutely but she shouldn't we shouldn't I think I think we should be cautious of using we're auditing our audit we're essentially auditing our saying he's it it gives an illusion like we hired somebody that's basically doing an auditor that's supposed to be an independent we don't really want that I don't want that no and I don't want to give that illusion that we're doing that that's what I'm trying to no but the town is really supposed to be the The Entity that puts the financial statements together and we are right I agree right well we last C gu we haven't been no but we're subcontracting but we are now we're paying for a service but it's another independent person that's that it's not anything to do with Mark auditing Mark or so so a so and so just want to make that clear all right okay I just got to pay it y yep I just want to share just so

you know that's when you see the line not much more than what it was budged you'll know why bunch of these in here Jerry want to yeah so the process um and I'm not 100% sure why when we have a CIP committee this these get fled through you guys this board first but here but here they are they're the uh the requests from Public Works fire and the administration um and I'm just sort of following what you've done in the past prior to I think having a town manager where these did go to the board um so you're just looking

to move on to the CIP committee which is meeting tomorrow yeah I I didn't see anything that didn't meet the criteria um we're certainly not going to read through all these here this evening so I mean these all need to just go to the CIP committee for there to their um to

go through that process to to rate and basically rate and rank them based on um the budget so I'm assuming that what I didn't see was I didn't see the spreadsheet as part of the package that will go to does Paul have that already well he will get that you don't get it because I don't think it's gonna add any no I'm just making sure I'm just making sure it's available to him yeah he's so that's going to be sent to him this is going to be sent to him um and he's be sent the 10 year replacement the 10 year replacement schedule yep the reserve amounts are going to be sent to him all right and then you vetted these with your department heads abely yes um but I

trust the department heads that to put together I don't I don't ask them a ton of questions their department heads they run their they run their departments and it's if it's legit I just put it through and go if it's not then we'll have a discussion and I had some of those this year but I don't want to get into that right now Heather um I just had a process question that I had sent in that email about if that spreadsheet that had

the extended plan on it if something comes in what's the process in determining that it skips the past so don't hold that okay it goes and gets vetted through the CIP committee CIP committee kicks back to a recommendation and then we put forth to the town what are what is the final recommendation so this is just really just the CIP betting and more importantly deciphering and determining what has the highest priority for the town's resources IE their capital and then we would base it upon that based upon that we would push forward in terms of what we want to submit moving forward to the time on this year's Mars okay so I just want to make sure that I understand correctly along with the budgets committees because obviously there's like things that come up that are an emergency right like if something happened in a building or you know something like that and it would it would be a more emergent type situation

but not to the point where we're going to vote here at this table to put that through right like a time sensitive thing but it wasn't necessarily on the extended plan but now it really needs to be and so I'm wondering is it the the CIP committee that determines that that would then become a higher priority is it the department head that determines it's become a higher priority is it in conjunction I'm just wondering like how that process plays out but any any any

emergent issue whatever it is would have to come before the board more than likely unless it was something small that Jerry could just handle under his budget but um that could yes that could make the board decide to not do something that was on the list and I think this this dialogue that would go along with that it wouldn't you know we we got an emerging issue you know the the ambulance you know gets in a crash and we got to buy a new one right you know forgetting the insurance for a second that would be an emerging issue we'd have to go replace it and that would be something that yeah that might come before what the chief has on this list here currently or is requested or maybe it doesn't maybe it gets added to it but that's a decision we'd have to make when that came up so you say we are you referring to this board this board would have to put it in front of the Town depending on the amount and say we

had this issue you know amulance got crashed Insurance didn't pay enough we've got to cover this amount and he we wanted this added to the fire department budget we think it all should be done we should think part should be done or we should think none should be done right that would be a decision that we'd make to present to the town so that's how that would work so the CIP just as rich said we rate and rank that independent independently of everything else that's going on just but based on need so the criteria in the CIP commission is like 20 criteria or more that you basically go down and put a a a a zero to 10 score

against each how do it help the the public how's it help the elderly how's it help there's a whole bunch of criteria there um disabled it goes through the whole gamut of possible questions of how does something help the most amount of people um in the town the goal is to put the things that help things the most or maybe are things that we're saving for like the fire truck that's coming or the public works the powerment truck that's coming in five years we need to go put that money away so that ranks a little higher Maybe compared to something else um that maybe you can put off a year so that's that's how the that's how that goes a specific thing to the question or why I'm asking is that because I know that we've had multiple discussions about the Ral and that you were saying that companies even if we were on their thing today they're two years out and so if we're only putting in a request for

$60,000 right we haven't even we haven't even reached the point where we can now go out to get under contract with them and so I'm I'm curious as because I feel like that is something that needs to get bumped and so if we're only if we're just going to keep putting money away which we could still do right because we're going to be two years out from the time that the town votes to do it but we need that upfront right and then we could replenish it as we come back so what I'm so that that's what I'm trying to figure out is by requesting it this way it appears as though we're still pushing it down the road to 2025 then we're only going to put them under contract in 2025 and then it's going to be two more years before it happens again no okay so no so let me explain so we have 60 already in the K re we put another 60 that's 120 so Don and I are going to get together and try to put the RFP out for

the rebound this fall okay so once and of course they're not going to want the money until they can get somebody lined up and they're ready to do it which we're thinking what we hear is that they are two years old so you put it out now get them on the schedule we'll know what their price is based on what they bid we've already got 120 in if it comes in at 180 we need you know then we know we need to add 60 or whatever it is we need to add the rest of it so when they do start it okay but that that's going to happen this year that's the process to start the RFP we should go out with the RFP I'm going to go out the RFP this year because I know where that far out with it okay and I got I got one ready to go I just got to work with Donna on it because Donna plays a role in the whole thing so when she's only here two days a month she gets busy or I'm on vacation things seem to you know just two days a month it's hard

sometimes okay that's in the plan okay I appreciate that explanation thank you and then the other thing that I'm wondering is how does it work with CIP if if say the long-term plan shows let's just say this is not real I don't want to say this because people are going to hear that one little sentence and be like oh my God we're going to buy another plow truck let's just say the thing says the replacement schedule is that a plow truck right and Calvin didn't put in the request for the plow truck he put in a request for something else are is the CIP committee only looking at what is here or could the CIP committee come back to us and say according to the replacement schedule this is what's supposed to take place this year they and yes and and they will ask I'll you will using Calvin as an example they will ask Calvin during that session as to Calvin why didn't you go plan for this truck in four years and instead you have this

reason on this sheet of paper that discussion will happen and and he can change it up at that point you know the how you know we're we're trying to clarify that that's what you really want to go get and if something's wrong with that schedule per se then that also somewhat gets flushed out or can get flushed out and then Jerry and Calvin can talk about you know maybe that schedule's not quite showing exactly how this is going to play out and I think it's a moving I mean I say it's a moving Target I mean it's a it's a fluid it's fluid it's it's it's an estimate of what you might need in five years maybe you can squeak an extra two years out of a vehicle maybe not because something happens you don't know but I mean that that's the best guess based on state and federal and other estimates of how long a plow truck lasts with that much salt on it right is really what it comes down to when's the body gonna fall off and

that's what you base those numbers on so that is a fluid right fluid schedule so that can get pushed in either direction depending on what the eem what the emergency issue is is and what the reality of what those vehicles are doing at the time I I use Vehicles because that's mostly what we what we purchase under the capital yeah see like Joe to earlier that's a very good question because because the schedule is so cool because for example like like he had mentioned earlier you know you crash a vehicle or something happens all of a sudden the schedule gets pushed back because something we BR something else so it's it's so fluid that in the years past there was so much complication what and you know we really just the fire department has always done a really good job on vehicle

um uh use in terms of not necessarily vehicle use but in terms of uh years of service Etc and when replacement schedules that's the word I was looking for um but you know things change like sometimes the town doesn't vote right for a new ambulance it gets pushed back two years and then other things sometimes get manipulated so I think it is fluid but I think that's one of the main reasons why I think that people recognize the need for the CIP committee because there's just so many hands in the pot for say trying to cook the dinner that if you just rely upon that one entity to say to bring it to the town and then it helps us make much better educated decisions rather than just making a decision yeah just just real quick and and so I mean this start is very you know basic early on five years ago I think we started CIP it was there was nothing there was no schedule or the schedule was was I need a truck like what do you

need a truck for and it so it's come a long way I mean this schedule I think is pretty good from a from a you know from a projection standpoint and you don't know what you don't know but it I think I think the the committee is has I'll say pushed the town uh departments into

thinking like this I think everybody wanted to think like this anyway so and and it's come a long way I it's it's been really nice to see this in the five years it's progressed so it's now getting into a more solid type um you know schedule to look at and something much easier to read um and be able to project the projection is the hard part it's a good plan yeah it is a good it's a plan it's a plan yeah it's it's just remember that fiscal policy is one year that's what it is and that's what we that's what we concentrate on and it's it's good to talk you know fiveyear plans 10 year plans and stuff like that but I like to just call it data or schedules so Mark is I'm going to try to get Mark to come in the second meeting with the CIP because he has programs where you plug in all your assets on based on those schedules and he'll tell and it'll it'll show you what you need to put away each year to meet those

schedules they're it's there there'll be big numbers I mean for example we've already done Calvin he's got his 10-year replacement schedule for all of his equipment in 10 years that's 1.9 million so call it 2 million that means to to to fund all that that's 200,000 each year just for that's not even including fire that's not even include our buildings so when all that gets plugged in depending on the length on how far you want to look out they're they're typically big numbers you know to to to keep the assets going but every year changes you know and so you got to just sort of you got to be careful with sticking with these telling people you got this plan because because as I've said to many many folks out there if you're gonna plan your work you got to work your plan so we have to be careful about saying oh we're definitely going to buy a truck cuz if you're 15 years old and like like in Calvin's case with

his equipment those that 1.9 main is today's cost right so in 10 years those costs go up I mean we didn't know what the pandemic was going to do with prices so things are as Rich says it's always fluid so it's good to have that data that we know we got a truck coming here we and we need to look at that but we really need to concentrate on what's our budget for 2024 and what can we afford yeah I would also note that you know that the CIP and the capital planning and so forth maybe in the last 10 15 years wasn't as important because you could borrow money for cheap um cheap but now that you're going to pay seven to 10 points to borrow some money it definitely could impact those numbers make them even more fluid for say in the past so the capital component is uh probably as important it's been in many many many many absolutely so it is a fiscal budget but we still are allowed to uh fund um capital projects knowing that

they're coming up you haven't seen maybe when Mark comes in I'll show you but he has this really cool program where it shows that depending on what you fund for 10 years either you'll be bankrupt or you can keep it aoat but just it's pretty awesome isn't it you sorry it's pretty cool so at least we're going to have that to kind of look at and have a conversation over the numbers don't lie it is what it is so that's that's a good thing so graduating to that LEL Capital

so while we're talking about the capital Improvement requests and I had brought up um in that email to you I was surprised that I didn't see Eureka on there um and when I I don't know if the I saw that it said um arpa for the reconfiguration and I think based on the email that Devon had sent in April with like what the cost would be to get done over there what needed to get done there's plenty of aror money to be able to do both and so I was just surprised that I didn't see Eureka in these

requests in terms of the technology upgrades not any of the stuff that was disced tonight I'm talking about just the technology upgrades because I feel like it's been the topic of conversations like since Co but that if this meeting space was going to be converted into something else that Eureka was going to get upgraded with technology upgrades to then become a meeting space and I and I think it's great that you're that you're looking at like the fire department space I think that's a great space I've been to a planning board meeting over there and I think it's great but I have concerns about if there's a call or something like that when one of our meetings is happening or if it's a a Hot Topic and the room is full of people that means the parking lot's full of people well you can't park in front of the babies that's for sure yeah I just I I have concerns around that and I so I I would just like to if it doesn't happen

tonight if you want to put it off until the next meeting I'm completely fine with that but I do think technology upgrades to Ure need to be part of the capital Improvement conversation we can have that conversation I as the manager don't think UK Center is the best place to public official meetings because they have other it's a community center they have parties there and this and that every time we have a meeting we have to go there and set up yep every single time I would love to have this conversation if we can it doesn't have to happen tonight I I don't like it and there's a lot of towns that meet at the fire station and talk to the chief the the Technologies are pretty much there we got to get a camera it's ADA Compliant it's lit it's all nine yards I mean you'd have to throw a ton of money into you can't even heat or right now on the one at time you can't there's a lot of money that has to be put into AR to make

it a meeting space so you can run the technology over there but I don't know what you're going to do with it in the meantime before you do all the other Renovations that has to happen to it to make it ABA compliant and lit and all that I think it's worth the conversation simply because in the past I I don't necessarily disagree with anything you just said but in the past has always been that we are going to start utilizing at a future date and we we had done quotes Etc I don't know if you were here for that but you know we did a lot of work and and and kind of lock of better words vetting out that building as far as the next potential spot knowing that we were coming to a again for lack of better words a capacity overload inside of this particular town hall right um so I do think if we're going to go whatever direction we're going to go that it should involve the S board in a decision being made moving

forward on which which direction I'm not saying and that's fine I mean you can overrule me but I'm going to that's not what I said no no I said I just I just think it I mean it is up to you folks but there absolutely no doubt about it but I am going to give you my opinion no I I agree that but it' be nice to have a conversation and some dialogue saying Jerry because the dialogue in the past has been that and other than receiving an email I think it was

of moving our meetings to the fire well if we if one of the cap requests comes in and and it has we need to if one of the capital requests comes to fruition well that's why I think it warrants a discussion not I'm not saying it's the again I'm not saying that's the wrong approach maybe we looked at it in the past but we did do some extensive work looking at that as a town um as I

believe the chief was involved in a few of those conversations and so forth um so it wasn't like we didn't we just picked the Eureka Center out of the Hat versus a fire station there was some there was a lot of dialogue in terms of why we're using utilizing we going to utilize the set on the board etc etc that's all but I agree with you from a standpoint of like conversation we just had Reynolds if somebody books it and all of a sudden you got a meeting and then you got a I can see how there would be issues but I can also see Heather's point of there could also be those same issues that would maybe take place at a00 so we got to kick Kevin we got to utilize his office it's bigger right his house I mean his office out of my house okay so anyway just so with the in

the past there's been an initial review of the select Board of these I guess it's just to get a blessing to send it to the CIP so that's why well I think it was also to brainstorm in case there was something Heather said like hey while we're at it we should also submit one for the Eureka Center because they need maybe a secondary form of heat or they're going to need insulation so it would be a capital request for that or perhaps hey we're going to need some AV equip the fire station so there'd be a request so it just I think these came before the board for that brainstorming component of it and and didn't always have a Time manager when we first set this believe so we were the ones who set it forth to the CIP we were kind of The Gatekeepers but now that we have

she might or he might or collectively might want something else added to it that's the other thing that's what my other question is is that if after we have this conversation that we're going to have at a future date about Eureka um or if something else like if that conversation happens and and it needs to go to the CIP is this a hard thing like these are in front of us today nothing else gets to go no no I no you have time and perhaps yeah it's just a right it's perhaps what we do in the you know like maybe next year is we have an agenda item where we discussed do you have any Capital requests that you want to submit I I don't know how you all feel as a board member submitting those requests I don't know no I don't want to do that I just want to have a conversation and then if something came up out of that conversation I just want to make sure we didn't miss the boat is is what I'm getting at So like um like when I

actually found the CIP policy and I read it um after I had sent that email um committees can submit requests and so I'm wondering do they know that they can in fact submit a CIP request to you and if they don't know that might be worthwhile having a conversation with them about so that they could submit a CIP request for the things that they're trying to talk about here and then that would go to the versus them coming to this board having this conversation that that isn't the process that's going to get them in there what I'm saying your process is the correct one you're 100% right like that whole the the laundry list that I heard tonight was what that's a separate meeting but that should have been sent to Jerry and Jerry should have said so that that that's where I'm going with my line of question you are the way the way I think it should go though is if they have a request that should be

fine then I can either if and as the manager if I'm going yeah we're not going to we're not going to do that otherwise if if you're going to do it all then you don't need me no right no yeah we're not saying but I think they don't know that they can make that request through you to the CIP I think they think they need to come to us and ask us to go do the floors over there it's probably in there but Char that way right yeah yeah I would only argue the only thing I wouldn't even argue I would say that they would on on a they should have like Kelvin I believe was appointed by you to be in charge of the building no that was or Mitch either way Calvin has been appointed at some level to be so what I was getting at is do these people know that their representative is Kelvin and therefore Kelvin they should be submitting to Kelvin therefore submitting to you so you can be so I don't think they are tying in that piece

so like quote unquote I think that's what Heather's concern is what she's trying to forgive me if I'm speaking to you they have concerns and they need Capital but they don't as a committee in in um and the Shepherds of that building again for a lack of better words they don't know how to do it and somebody hasn't really taken time to explain that to me somebody should be as with all apartments whether it's the historical component or the Eureka Center or Conservation Commission conservation all of them need to know how they should submit for capital projects right I think like when the request goes out to the department heads like hey I need all your stuff it also goes out to the committee to say if you need Capital if you need something then now get it to me by XD and and and I don't believe it's too late to do that I mean we even though we're having a CIP meeting tomorrow night it's not too late I mean we're the

committee is I'll say they're pretty easy it it's not a you know once we get these and read through them and then come up with our questions we can continue to do that on some extra things that come in I mean the other thing that's going to come in is the union church right we're going to get an idea of what we might need there which we don't know yet that's an emerging issue that's going to show up if it gets here in time CIP can V it if it doesn't then it just comes into this board directly and we vet it that way um you know because we'll all have questions about that of course so yeah and some things wen't a discussion oh absolutely you know I'm not I'm not here to go over this stuff tonight I mean it's nice and it's presented and all that stuff but you know I'm certainly in no position to ever challenge the fire chief on his or Calvin on his department but for example the one thing I would challenge is there

should be a discussion on how we're going to transfer the town time that shouldn't just be hey we got a bid I mean no nobody really knows anything about it really we just got to bit you know what I mean there should be a discussion on hey this is what what are intentions of what are we going to use this meeting room for is it going to be the new office for the town manager are we going to way we we look at this as as as as a whole rather than just some small facet of the of or the component of what you were we're trying so we get the total picture in the total thing achieved rather than just a Band-Aid that's probably going to carry us over for three

that the town committee can submit Capital Improvement requests that's oh that I'm not not paying attention I'm just trying to see where I read that today and it and if it does say that it should say to a department head it it should it should be the I mean you don't want every committee coming in here and and no I think I think the chair of the committee if they have a chair that let me put that out there um if they have a chair that they should they should annually look at their their uh what they are in charge of or what their charges as an organization and once a year they should State they need XY and present it in for it doesn't have to be in this form to you and said hey Jerry by the way we had a little quick meeting we'd like you to throw this at the board for us this is what the policy says applications will be submitted by department heads for Capital expenditures related to their respective

Department the Town Administrator may also submit CIP applications Town committees May submit CIP applications following a review of completeness by the Town Administrator so that would be the town manager right you need to rewrite that one and actually change the L so that's what it says right now right but it's deeper than that because oh absolutely because the they was there was administrative assistant to the board right managers different like I said that needs to be read that need need we need to look at all of those I'm not trying to do your job I'm just trying to follow the rules I get it right and and and I want us to follow the town manager form of government absolutely yep and and it is a transition I mean doing I think it just needs to be vetted through you and then that that but they need to just I agree know that they should submit those requests you and they need to be done in

September we did it September but they could do it now we can always move it off can move it yeah you could you could I think it's good as long as I think it's there's a Clear Channel right everybody knows the path in order to get something like our floor that's a big that's so like what happened last year at town meeting doesn't happen again meeting no like how

the capital Improvement request for it didn't go before the board and then so it didn't go to the CIP and then blah blah blah and then it got put in a different spot in the budget then like that whole thing right but just if that if it's all out in the open and above up here right from the GetGo then those decisions can be made and there isn't any weirdness thaten happens at the meeting so and that's why you see the that's why you see the request that this time because I mean let's face it and when I come in it was budget season when I started so was kind no no that wasn't anything about no no no I get it I get it so it's going to get better I guess what I'm my my point is when you change forms of government you got new people there's Growing Pains as we go and we're doing good it's just you know just kind of getting used to the change this one is for cheap on his Capital Improvement I know well I don't want you

to sit here this whole night for nothing and not make it worth your while to have a to ask I wasn't going to ask the question because I think I know the answer already but the thing that you've put in for is that like what they have at North Yarmouth that's like the screen that says like active call and like this person they're out is that what that is it that's truck based that is truck based this is truck based yes you have what your what okay to we have that this is truck based okay thank you aren glad St so do

we so you know I don't believe you need or anything I just Shar for these along and anything else that comes into the I think the biggest point being made during this ly conversation about CIP is that from a policy perspective we need to start looking at transfering to a town manager it's on my list maybe we can talk about that a little bit in my manag report just real quick real quick because I got an idea right yeah all right we want to go on we good with CIP CIP we have a bunch of projects they're going to move forward to the CIP thank you everyone for entertaining all my line of questioning I appreciate it very much no problem no get this out there um vacation policy you you had

updated vacation policy that looked so the rates so it looked pretty much in line so what I'm what I'm looking to do is take the yellow off and replace it with blue and basically the reason why I want to do a vacation policy is usually based on hours work not days so um it just when you do days and a matter of fact the days here the four days you talk about is 32 hours and the 5 day work is 40 well it happens to be that nobody 32 hours there are some that work 40 but we got a 34-hour employee and a 36 hour employee so the acur rates

are the same I just want to dis display it better and PR rate it to the 40 hours so if you work 36 hours um you can see in here how it works if you work 36 hours your time is based off 36 hours right yeah exactly exactly versus you don't get 40 if you work 32 or vice exactly 40 you don't get 32 just we just want to crew it by The Hours worked and not the days that's all that does it's just a that's all I'm looking to strike in that one your sick time is fine it's one day a month for everybody it's all good okay but there was some current that looks pretty straight forward I only do three what's that six time is 12 Days 12 days is a lot I I'm not a year yeah that's a lot I give

borrowing thing but I completely trust your judgment on that yeah I wouldn't yeah I would be if they're a decent employee or and you know they made it or because you don't is there a probationary window you don't know the circumstances of people's right so yeah like if you get hired in April but you already have a vacation planned in October or whatever I understand all of that I'm just is there like you don't want somebody to come in work here for two months and take a week off from work paid and then then they just leave right yeah and so that's where my concern is well it's I believe it's 90 days yeah there there is 90 they so they can't take any vacation up to 90 days but it's ractive acre from the day one if they make their 90 I trust your judgments much different front loing right so you know Chief and Calvin they handle their own thing I I handle my employees but this they they follow

this policy this is townwide tell one so it's just really um just changing it so it works and we okay so then this gets to my management we get to it why I wanted to talk about policy changes and that so so we're all set up you need this is a policy change so we need to vote just the ver just the verbiage so you got to like either give me the okay or I make a motion to approve the changes to the

what is it called v no proposed vacation acral okay proposed vacation acral is that you want okay second for discussion I okay all right I have a second Rich for discussion we're up for discussion now I I I just wanted have we looked into as a January one the new state mandates and so forth and does this align with I'm not sure the state as far as

PTO and things that I think you have to employ 50 people I I don't I'm not oh we do because the fire department I apologize you're right I you're talking about earn time yeah PT just there's a lot of there's a let me just go this way there's a lot of changes coming for 2024 all right we in 22 or 23 24 2024

and I just wanted to make sure that we at least looked at those changes that are upon us that whether or not they are applicable or not I don't know and I'm not saying any are I'm just asking if we are looking at the new Department of Labor requirements as of 2024 yeah I I think there there are some changes I'm not sure how it reflects in what a Town's or a state policy as far as what they I don't I don't but I know there's been some earned time right changes and Chief and I have talked with about Mark recently um about earn time right I think it's like mandatory pic leave I know but we need make sure this matches matches that at least the minimum matches I matches and we will We we'll

check it we'll check it this here doesn't follow the fail b as it's currently is 12 days of sick times normal is that one day a month for sick time one day yeah it's usually about right we wait I might have to revisit my policy I feel like w that's a lot I mean they they've lumped it for us lumped it all changing on the oh you're under but but they've lumped it in for us into one one big lump they've taken all that that sick time for us and and so don't separate it any longer yes that's what I do and and and so it's just but it is the 10 days or whatever it is a lot a lot of organizations are going into PTO that's where we are and that's that's why I wanted to see are we going to go in so 12 days of sick becomes 12 days is literally just not necessarily sick but just paid time off that you're recurring a week vacation plus 12 days paid time or a week de and then and then you roll over formula changes slightly due to it or it

doesn't have to I'm not saying this isn't no that's I'm just asking if we just looked at moving we can look at the at the PTO sure and then my last question for the discussion nobody else has anything when are we looking for is to take place ASAP because so as of tonight if

we vote okay yeah because we can you explain how that works so like if we did it effective tonight right because the so I'm going to be up front honest with you I hope so the acal rate since I've been here haven't even work for the new employees because they didn't get put into Trio correctly so they haven't even been ACW right so Mark took it over right so because the four and five days don't work we kept the same we've already we're already doing this folks yeah that's what I'm getting at just because it wasn't put in a trio doesn't mean it's not active it's based off the time of the day of employment right but you got to figure that out on pen and paper because the the program wasn't a gruan that's not pocket science but I hear you it's a little time but it's Rich it isn't but the four and five days doesn't work with our schedules that's what I'm saying so how does it how does this work

work so for example let's just say somebody was when does it if we make it active tonight versus the fiscal year or the calendar so it's only for the new employees so we only have to go back a couple years all of Calvin's employees was approving correctly but like let's just say this I think this is what you're asking you just went on vacation we're going to make this effective today does your vacation start over today because you just took vacation no okay is that what you're trying I don't understand the start stop like for example like let's just say your newest employee in office we don't need anything Nam newest employee in office do they automatically get as of this going into effect tonight front loaded 12 days no they got to earn it they don't get front loaded to they're not going to get right even or whatever are they getting front loaded or they getting are we bringing them up to whatever the

dollar per they should have been earning all along like it hasn't been acre so we went back to the star dat and used use the hours that you worked yeah and and calculate what you should have right now today we don't really need a date is what you're saying no we're already we're already doing this that's all that's all for clarification so I just want to get it in the policy so we're kind of like so given what riches said do you want us to do this tonight or do you want to verify with labor law that no cuz it's not going to change what this is already in I mean does matter it it may change but you just change PS on the purpose you're just looking to get up to date as it is now okay I'm fine with that because people like like just Jessica works like 36 hours so she gets 36 hours of vacation a year for the first year and second week second year she gets two weeks but it's 72 hours but Allen's 34 hours so he's different so

the only way to calculate it is based on the table to accept the vacation proposed V vacation acrs as presented by Jerry I had had the motion to do that rich second any further discussion all in favor all right that's unanimous three to Z that passes motion carries true up that vacation schedule I could use a day does more sense I it does yeah oh yeah when I read it I was like wow I think that I'm not even no no we're not going that way Town manager report all right so let's stick with this policy discussion and how our Poli and this is what I'm going to suggest to you is um just because we brought it out

I think there we need to do more workshops as a group to talk about these policies because it's very hard to do in like a regular business meeting because we're doing cons agendas or taking care of an issue here and I think we have to start looking at our meetings and which ones do we want to do workshops to talk about sick policy or vacation policy and not be as part of a regular selector meeting a lot of towns will do this they will just get they will not do the they'll take care of the regular business but then they go into Workshop mode and they hammer out these policies in a workshop so if it was Workshop mode are we allowed to discuss things that aren't necessarily on the agenda yes please sign me up because I wanted to talk about this but I can't because it's not on the agenda right the the the agenda will say we're going into Workshop to discuss whatever something specific exactly can't just have AE not

not a free for all and I can you know if you folks have a policy that you want to discuss we can do it that or I can just look in there and say we really need to update this I can put it on but those discussions policy discussions should be done in a workshop and not a regular business agree okay agree one caveat is

the policies that we have in place should be somewhat screen Ved or whatever by yourself or the attorney and before we even get to them they should be they should be revamped into a current form of government that we currently exact most of our policies of reading are being of the Town Administrator and I don't want to be the one that's writing policy to switch from a Town Administrator to a town manager there should be somebody whether it's uh MMA or somebody that can make that transition of those policies and then we can tweak policies whatever you choose liking but the actual framework of taking policy from Town Administrator to town manager should be somebody on the municipal side and not necessarily people at this board right right I'll take care of what that policy would be because I I can just beg Bor steel from other town so so that's what you so that's what you'd be presenting to us

some already in that format we we probably should have undesignated fund policy I was actually surprised didn't add that to his you know we should have some other ones just so we all are on the same page with that no question I would only be an advocate of getting the policies that we have in place up to par State up to par with the form of government that we are prior to taking on any new actions meaning get our policies up to par with us transferring over to it's been a few years now we need to get our policies to the form of government that we are which is a town manager not administrative right so those I think should take priority before we go on to revamping or rewriting or recreating new policy okay that's that's fine I agree you should my opinion no there's other but that that that should have already publicly taken place and I just don't think people really realize until you open up a

policy of how many of them saying or Town Administrator or this like we had tonight those really shouldn't exist in right and and some of those are going to be really easy absolutely that's what I'm saying let's knock those ones out approve them and then let's start going after let's take care of those yeah okay

perfect um so just I want to give you an update so uh Solid Waste committee met yesterday was a very good meeting it was really it was really the kickoff so um okay it went good it was it was a little longer meeting than I thought it was going to be but you know that's fine I'm not complaining which is good because it was good discussion and I think they fired up and um you know K Himi is your chair and so they pick the chair they pick the vice chair they got a secretary they got the contract that we've had they've got the extension they've got most of the information um and so we're we're pretty much ready to go it's going to be up to them on how much they want to meet when they meet the first order of business I believe and I told them that we need to go out to bid trash collection that's so here's here's what it is here's what our tages have been in the past just so they have the information and the data and uh

and get familiar with what those costs are I mean we have to do that anyway though right because we're going into budget season so that makes sense if that's the next step do you do we have to do anything or you just I'll take care of that and then I'll let you know so basically what they're going to do I can't remember the exact date that they're going to meet because I just said take this take this Paul uh the RFP

look at it if you think there needs to be edits which I don't think there needs to be many we're using the same way we always used um just get familiar with it and if there needs to be some medits or you think we can do that and I want to get that out uh just before Thanksgiving I'm going to give them three weeks to bid on it get it back in so we have the information that we need going into going into budget so that's where we're at and you know that as we get going and they get going I don't know how often they're going to have to meet I mean they're going to stop looking at other Alternatives whether it's one of the things they talked about was maybe comp a compost at the public wordss because the whole idea with the what's driving the cost is tonnage food is heavy that litter is much heavier when it's used when you buy it it's not as heavy as it is when it's if people are putting that in their garbage that's driving up

tonnage well there's a municipality that just went to no wet no wet garbage no wet like they have to compost and like all they have to compost you know how do you legislate that I know I don't want to I don't want to micromanage like that either but I'm just saying that's the way that they're keeping our tonnage down well well how you legislate it is okay fine but don't complain about the cost I have't no no not you not you but

that's what drives the C thank God Josh isn't here so it's interesting because uh with I looked at the what we paid in the last two years was shy 300,000 to not including yeah I know but I think the biggest component of that that people always leave out is the crash of the recycling market and that's usually one of the biggest things that they site for why our cost has increased so much when the recyclers is costing almost as much for us to get rid this household trash no they said more or if not more it was it was that's why I kept saying like it pains my soul to say that actually cost less to throw it in the regular trash than it does to recycle it I personally used to have a dumpster for like trash had some of my buildings and a dumpster for cardboard the cost now is not it doesn't work if you can really only have one dumpster unless you got like a shredding company R for something because it just it that recyclable

container will cost you more money than the trash container better off just adding another two yards to your trash container putting it all that I do think one thing that they need to talk about that and maybe you can pass this along through them though is and it's a valid point that was brought up and maybe it's the planning board that actually needs to address this to make sure that there's room when they do developments or whatever but if we're going to the automated system when they're designing subdivisions they're not obviously accounting for the fact that trash cans have to have three feet of space between every single trash can and so if we're going to that route because that's what if that happens we go with Cella and they're saying that's what coming next right we're going to do business with them there there's a whole another thing that needs to be considered in that conversation absolutely every

subdivision has a Corral trash in and a b and a dumpster every month I don't know I don't know what the answer is I'm just saying it needs to be talked about because we don't unless we start adopting every road that's built it's a t it's like you go to swamp I think you mentioned Ruby Lane I mean there's houses down there but if you go on there on trash day I mean they're all at the end they're all at the end they all lined up it's a it's a nightmare most people have two so you multiply two and if you get 15 houses in there yeah that's 30 and then 3 ft apart for each one of them they'll be all the way up the street I mean and maybe it's a thing where like with the planning board it has to be taken into consideration there has to be a spot designated for a dumpster that needs to be in a dumpster enclosure so it's not ugly and then that's where the the places are no not if my husband fces in I just had a so

part of what so part of their um you know and I try to give them as much like do some research there are other towns out there that have Solid Waste committees see what their agenda is see what they talking about some towns have Solid Waste ordinances print one off see what they're doing in their ordinance not that you're going to draft an ordinance but I think it will help guide conversation as you as we try to get our I know that I was referring to North Yarmouth a lot using three different things EC M cassella and I can't remember the G Garden the f I don't know whatever they do one of the trucks yeah they come and get all their compost and then they make they make bags of compost out of it whatever anyways um and I don't know what their how many residences they have versus how many we have but their cost to cassella is like a third of what we pay to cassella so I know I think that that's why I want that I don't have time

to do that but I want those people there's a lot there's a lot of people that want to do that composting I've heard from a couple people that are and the thing I was saying about the school can't get the grants through Eco Main and some people Durham isn't part of Ecco main but Freeport and pel are so like they do all kinds of stuff with the school and give grants and all of that but the rsu5 won't go after that grant money because they can't do it in all three towns has to be equal across the board but because we're not part of it they can't access that those grand dollars so it's that kind of stuff that I maybe I should just send you an email there's a really Kurt di who runs theair he's the chairman yeah he's going to be a really good [Music] resour he's he's been on the business a long time he has so it's he's pretty awesome actually so so that's been kicked off and there'll be more information as that

but the first order business is definitely get that RP getting some budget members back so we can and again it's hard with tipping fees in the commodity the recycle commodity it's going to be difficult to nail down exactly what that is but we can get a budget in to bid so we that shouldn't be a problem this year because last year was ni tuck there for a while because I didn't even know the contractor was running out tell I wonder when that contract runs out and I get some digging I'm like oh my God that runs out this year so yeah um another thing that I want you to be so 12:26 that's the day after Christmas that's a select board meeting day so

what I would like to do in that week if we if if you want to meet on that day that's fine I know it's the day after Christmas there's holidays if you want to to be flexible I'm okay with going you know the Wednesday or Thursday but that week I want to bring Mark in and go over the budget because there was a lot of questions from milk and Neil Berry about the undesignated funds and their understanding of it and it's it's complicated it's and I think they were kind of misunderstood on how it really works I mean Mark wrote what would been like three page email to him explaining it so Neil would like to to talk to Mark

I just think that we need so you're proposing that to be a workshop day that's a workshop okay one yes so it'll be solely to have Mark explain what the stuff is so there's a little bit better understanding going into budget season I think that is extremely important it was actually on my list of things to ask for was come and do is that something we could also invite the budget committee members to so that we can have an they can ask questions and get answers in real time okay yeah I'm absolutely an advocate of that on my list tonight M I'm big advocate of that a um my only thing would be that I can't remember last time but that week is usually t for a lot of people on that week whether it's him or whether it's people from the budget committee you know sometimes we

before that we moved up that maybe we had thisel meeting a week prior took the school vacation week off because so many people un available that week and then just transferred to the next meeting the next week and then fin another one because that you get low ter if you have that's that to me that's a very important U Workshop SL guest speaker the lack of better words to have to making sure people aren't afforded everybody's AFF be there do we need to wait that long I mean it doesn't have to be number specific it can really be like J like an under even if they used round numbers right it doesn't have to be like this is the number in our bank account it it's more like an understanding of how it all works together and given given the experience that I had last year with doing the budget I would like to do it as close to the budget season as possible so ex member oh so why not do it like early part of

2024 we could we could do what the we could we I just say I I I think it's warranted I think you should do it I just think I wouldn't do it during the week of Christmas why do we do the night okay that's fine we can we can do it the week like you said the week before the week before I just saw the I saw that that select board meeting was on the 26th and I didn't like it no we should move that well probably we can do that as a consensus as a group next time we'll probably end up my guesses will move that meeting it's not fair to the staff it's not fair to you we're not going to I'm I just will tell you right now that I will be available no matter what one you pick period Christmas okay I'm here let's talk about it when the whole board is here that's fine and that's fine agree I would say maybe the week is ahead but we can talk about it when everybody's here wee not the we and I do appreciate the

whole getting it close to the 24 period so I mean I feel like our normal budget meetings are the January meetings anyway yeah I'm thinking even stuff a meeting in January because I I the only thing I get nervous about when we go backwards and I which is what you're kind of getting at Jerry is you want to do it as close to budget season when we go back before Christmas everybody goes on 10 days of Christmas and New Year's and they forget so I do agree that that maybe maybe into January might even be better I I don't know rather than rather the Christmas week if we have to have a meeting that week it should be like what three select board members are here to come in and sign a war yeah hold a quick meeting we don't even need Jerry to be here you come in you turn the damn thing off you don't even have to turn that off you sign the warrants and you get out here the perhaps the next meeting all five I will bring in the

schedule to and we can go over that the schu of what what the dates are to get yeah stuck on because it's important because we run it we're tight it's tight that's why I'm it is tight but when first budget meeting it's I swear they're in January yeah they are but when it do you have an idea because really if we're including in making this we we want maximum participation yeah we should try to work within the two organizations so the two entities to say they try to what's a good day that works for every yep that's fair you know what I mean but I don't think the week of all I'm saying is I don't think the week of Christmas is the P to do it perfect I'm I'm all down with that I just you know I didn't know how you I would even want Mark to come in on that that I know it's just not yep so we you know when we just we'll discuss it we'll nail it down yep okay that's that's all I really yeah that's that's all I really got yet okay

um so we good all right uh let's see any agenda items for the next select board meeting Heather so on my list I had the Eureka discussion which we already talked out so if we can put that on or or not the Eureka discussion maybe we want to call that like the CIP urea technology upgrades or how that's playing out what are we calling that conversation how about just the to the town about um office space future town meeting um future town meeting place space space yeah do you do you

want a request going to CIP for upgrades technology upgrades to you because I can throw that together it's not necessarily that it's that it's it's to if we're going to change the idea that that narrative has been that that is going to become our meeting space and the reason for the upgrades right if that's no longer the

the plan I want to have a conversation about that and then establish what the new plan is that that's what I'm asking for yeah that's that that that's about right yeah that's that it's the plan what's the plan for the spaces and how does that fit into the budget okay and and and then your request comes out of that for monies and then my other things were policies and procedures which we touched on tonight I had a specific one that I wanted to address um about a remote participation policy yep we had talked about that during budget season when I was on vacation and I was able to participate remotely but void of a written policy per board we're kind of

flying by the seat of our pants they get I have the email the legal opinion all of that but I would like to get a policy on the record so that like for instance tonight Josh could have potentially participated remotely from where he is but we don't have that policy in existence so I wasn't even going to anyway so I there's one out there that's all drafted ready to go yeah so if we could do policies procedures and like set the workshop thing that we talked about this evening the schedule of when we're going to do them and then specifically the remote participation policy okay so let me just do that one um and then the fee schedule and I know I'm asking for a lot all in one meeting yeah plus I've already got it's a discussion fee schedule is just a discussion not like I want to change numbers I just I feel like we keep kicking that can down the road and I really want to get on it okay I can see

the Eureka taking some time yep y can see that one those are my requests do with them what you will okay anything else for agenda items doesn't mean you got to get them all next yeah oh right there are a couple that we got to do so well look I'll just kind of look at it I mean you can always look at the agenda and I mean you can amend it if you want before the meeting you know can you wait or whatever feel free to do that I mean that's that's partly why the 12 rabbit Ro s back up that's because folks

that I really to go to the go to the appeals so like yeah you're right so don't be afraid to reach out to me if there's something that you think all right okay move on to consent Agenda One thing that's different different than there though folks wardens for her Jessica's election did you see those yeah I did we need to uh you just need to Appo motion okay we have a motion to can I just ask a question so I wasn't at the October 10th meeting and typically when that happens we don't vote to approve the minutes if we weren't at the meeting but if I don't vote to approve the minutes we don't have three people so how would you like to that what what should we do I mean I will vote if you tell me that that's the right thing to do but typically if we're not at the meeting we don't vote to approve those

can can just wait on we can wait next meeting and just wait for the the right folks to be back I don't think there's anything wrong with the minutes but yeah I don't think this I don't know if there's any any I don't know if there's any legal thing that says you have to be there to say that you that you can't approve approve the minutes yeah that there was an argument that there was something wrong with them then yeah but we're just approving them so they can be published but it'd be nice to know going for because perhaps if Josh would say Josh next meeting is not here that means it's going to be another meeting because he more Joe were here that me neither so I think it's just a matter of approval for them to be released that's a good thing but just yeah if it's just a proof read then then that's not really a big deal right I mean meaning meaning if we're just doing it just make sure yeah

if it all it is ends up to be is a proof read then how could say hey it wasn't here but on these meetings could you describe this for me she's given it and she might feel good with that answer and okay me but no that's fine we can we can leave that out of the consent agenda for this meeting so we're going to take that Pro the ship approve the select board meeting minutes will be taken out of the consent agenda so do I have a motion to uh Point our two wardens for do we need to take we probably need to take these separately so uh do I have a a motion to appoint uh or I should say I'll make a motion to appoint our two wardens nany Nancy Swinton and Katherine Curtis um upcoming elections yep second all right

hether move Rich second any discussion all in favor all right motion passes for thank you to our wardens uh helping us out Str yeah now we need more wardens so um second thing will be uh consent agenda is to prove and uh the payroll the War an article I have a sub

motion which moves second sorry second all in favor okay excuse me motion carries all right consent agenda is upcoming meetings let's see CIP meeting tomorrow night 6: pm at Town Hall um so board meeting um 11:14 and 11:28 ual time 6:30 at the Town Hall and we have a planning board meeting on November 1st at 6:30 at the Town Hall we

have any reason for an executive session this evening no okay do I have a motion to adjourn second okay got rich and Heather second and all favor or adjourned thank you thank you this is the one I signed got all sign those I know this P ran out so did Jessica leave no I think off lights are still has nice

paper feel it he broke up the rese on yeah we're still