TranscriptMarch 16, 2021 ~ Public Hearing

those of you that are joining us tonight. Uh obviously we would all be rather doing this type of thing in person, but that is uh just not possible this year. Um so we're doing uh our best to make do with uh with what we have. And if you've tuned in to any selectman or committee meetings in this Zoom format, um overall it's been pretty good. there's a good opportunity for people uh to still ask questions or make comments. Um we do have a uh a presentation tonight uh that Ruth will be leading. Um we also have all the department heads here tonight to help answer questions as they arise as well as representatives from the planning board and the budget committee and the board of selectsmen. Um, if we happen to get a question tonight uh that we uh don't have the answer to uh right here while we're while we're in the meeting uh and we think the information is available to us, then we will uh I'll be recording questions as

we go and we'll do a little research and and post something on the website, you know, like questions from the public hearing or something like that and follow up with answers uh as best we can. Um, we it's certainly not required, but we do ask that if if you do want to ask a question or make a comment um that you uh turn your camera on. Um, you don't have to leave it on the whole time. You don't have to turn it on at all. It's not a requirement. Um, but we ask that you do. It helps in the recording to kind of know who's who's speaking. Um, and just like as if we were in an inerson meeting, uh, please state your name and where you live before you ask your question or make a comment. So, the presentation tonight, um, Ruth will start with kind of a highlevel view, a little bit of process stuff, and then, um, kind of we'll start off with like we usually do at town meeting, what's the bottom line? you know, if you

went with the selectman's um recommendation, we're estimating X and if you go with the budget committee, we're estimating Y. Um and those will um those will be presented um as we go. Um after that introduction, then we'll go into article by article uh just like we do at town meeting. uh Ruth will will talk about the article a little bit and show the slide and and offer um you know context and background and then after each article um that's when we'll entertain questions or comments you know on that article just like if if we were in an in-person meeting. Um and then we'll we're not actually voting on anything tonight obviously but then we'll move on to the next article and uh click through them in order. Sometimes we'll do them as a group um as and ask because they're kind of miscellaneous articles or deal with multiple topics but um that is how we will uh go through it. Okay. Um we should confirm uh while

we're on the air here um I'm going to go around to the department heads and board members um and also the committee chairs. Uh, I'm gonna when I call your name, just turn your mic on and say something just so we can confirm uh that we can uh hear you. All right, Bob, I'm

starting with you. All right, Chief Moore. Hello, Calvin. Hello, Ruth. Yeah, George, good evening. Mark Farren, good evening. Rob Hanto here. Mitch George here. Uh, budget committee chair Milt Simon. Good evening. Planning board chair and Tor Grosa.

Hi there. Okay. Feel like we should have like a band or cheerleaders on this. Um, I think I got all the department heads and the and the folks that are here. Uh, okay. Uh Ruth, I'm gonna turn it over to you and you can uh share your screen for your presentation and and take it from here.

Okay, I am going to share my screen and Oh Lord, I was hoping I'm sharing the right screen. What are you guys seeing? Durham town meeting referendum? Okay, I am going to turn off my camera because otherwise I will be completely fixated on myself and that's not good if I can

stop video. Okay. All right. Well, I would like to welcome everybody who is here. Um, as this slide says, this is a public hearing for the town of Durham town meeting referendum public hearing. If you're in the wrong place, um, you're welcome to stay. I don't know how thrilling it's going to be. Um there we go. Okay. Uh so first a couple of housekeeping. Um your Zoom screen, if

you hover down the bottom of your Zoom screen, you should see this um uh line where it has different options where you can raise your hand. You can also um type into the question and answer section and we will try and keep track of that as best we can. I did get a message in uh the question and answer already that they are having they can't turn on their video. I think that will change once we give them permission to speak. Um but we'll have to kind of uh see how that works. Um so if you wanted

to to speak just raise your virtual hand we will get to you. um or you can type in as a question and answer. secret ballot referendum town meeting this year? So, unfortunately due to co um the indoor gatherings uh that are allowed um won't be uh enough for a typical town meeting. Uh I believe in 2020 uh 2019. Wow, that's a long time ago. 2019 we had about 150 people. Uh 2018 we had about 175. And the limit for in-person indoor meetings is uh at 50. Um and even if we could meet in person, there are many residents that might not want to come out and be in that situation um for some time. Um and yet we need to continue with our town business and uh we need to pass a municipal budget. Um on the other hand, uh doing it this way allows for absentee and early voting. Well, early voting is really absentee, but um absentee voting. You can request absentee ballots um in person here at the town office or you

can u call the town office. Uh we do need to speak to the actual person who is the voter. If you call um if you come in, you can pick up uh ballots for an immediate family member. um the online request that we had last November is is not a possibility because that's a state um system and we don't have access to that for municipal uh election. Um so we

also are able to have more people participate and vote. We actually have had as of this morning 72 um absentee ballot requests. 6 at the Ambits Hall, there will be voting. Uh, you'll get an actual ballot, um, like you did last July. Um, we ask that you wear the mask and practice social distancing. We will be there from, well, Becky will be there from 8:00 in the morning until 8:00 at night. Um, absentee ballots again are available. They are not available after uh Thursday, April 1st at 6:30 p.m. which is when the office closes, which gives us enough time to process all the ballots before the election. Um we did uh send out a mailer to all of the households in Durham. Um we can print up extra copies for anybody who did not receive one and you can pick them up at the town office. We will also have some available um at the polls and it's also available on our town website. Um we also have we've made a specific

page for the referendum and on the bottom of the specific page there are actual um links to the select board and budget committee meetings which uh occurred last January. Uh we did kind of run through those meetings pretty quickly this year because of the deadlines having to do with printing ballots. So, as Kevin said, what's the bottom line? What are we looking at this year if everything on the ballot passes? And here it is. So, these are estimated tax impacts. And the reason they're estimated is because there's uh there are u numbers that are

included in this that uh are not known at this time and they may change. So you can see that in 2020 we had a municipal budget of $3,499,48 Then there's transferred funds. So what's included in the transferred funds are funds from the capital accounts and also funds from revenue accounts. So, we specifically match certain revenue accounts to different budgets. Um, for instance, the telecommunications Well, that's a capital. Well, yeah. Anyways, sorry. Um, going offline. Um, like the telecommunications budget, uh, all of the funds for that budget are transferred from, uh, the franchise fees, which is a revenue. Um, and so

that has gone down this year. Most of that has gone down because um last year we purchased a truck and all of the funds for uh the new plow truck came out of capital funds and so there was an increase of the transferred funds. Then the third line is state sourced deductions. So that includes um homestead Betty uh exemptions and uh

revenue sharing which I will touch on a little bit uh further on. Um so the assumptions that we're making is the valuation uh of the town as of April 1st because April 1st has not happened yet. Uh, and it also takes us a couple months in order to process all of the the transfers of all of the property um, and put all of the additions or new uh, buildings into the system in order to calculate our valuation and then our corresponding reimbursements change according to our valuation. Um, and then also we're making the assumption that the state projection of revenue sharing is accurate. I took the the newest one from the state website. Uh but that one was last uh August and so it's not a guaranteed figure. Uh it goes up and down with the collections of sales tax and income tax from the state. Timmy, do you see any questions or anything yet? Because I really can't see any of it. All right, so this is what we're looking

at. We're looking at uh a 1.14 increase in the mill rate uh for the municipal budget, which is an impact to the entire mill rate of 5.7%. Now, that's with the select board recommendation. So, if the budget committee recommendation was the one that was voted in, then you'd be looking at a mill impact of 1.1 uh and 5.4% 4% increase in uh the total mill rate.

assessment, you add on the school assessment and the county assessment and what's called an overlay. So the school budget number here is an assumption that what is put forth in their website on RSU5's website is what will be passed uh in June. Um the town of Durham works on a calendar year. Um and the the school works on a fiscal year. So half of the number is already known because it's their 2021 budget. Um and half of the number is not known. Uh so taking those two numbers and doing the figures, it looks like we'll have an increase of 122,000 for 593 this year. And then uh

the next uh section is the county assessment. We actually have received our county assessment this year already. So that is a known number now. Um and they increased our county assessment by only $335 this year. Um the overlay is a

completely variable number. Uh it is set by the select board when we do uh commitment. Um the law allows that you uh raise up to 5% of your commitment for an overlay. And the overlay is used primarily to pay abatements, tax abatements. Um the town of Durham's overlay in the past couple of years has been a little over 1%. So we do not uh as a rule put a lot of money into the overlay.

increase in the municipal budget this year? Um the first thing that's driving it is uh the transition from a town administrator to a town manager. Um so there's an overlap and also the town manager is is um paid more than a town

administrator. Um and so there's an additional 61,000 um associated with the the transition over to a town manager. There's also a fairly large increase in the solid waste expense due to a contract with Pineree Waste. Uh it's a new contract that was started last July. Uh we'll talk more about that in a little bit. Um there's a restoration of half of the maintenance paving cut from the COVID 2020 budget. So last year when COVID hit, uh the the select board and the budget committee got together and reworked the budget and cut uh half out of the paving line. the maintenance paving line um in the public works budget in order to keep taxes uh

even despite the fact we did bring on a new bond payment last year. So that's an increase on itself by of $130,000 almost 131,000. Um this year our workers compensation insurance increased due to uh an accident. So, uh, it looks back on the last three years and and the fees that are associated with it, uh, are based off of the the number of of incidents that you have. So, that did increase this year, uh, by over $30,000. Um, in 2020, we did not ask for any capital reserves again because of the COVID 2020. Um we were trying to be uh fiscally responsible not knowing what the economy was going to do. Um and so uh there were no capital reserve requests. This year there are two capital reserve requests. One is for 30,000 for fire and one is for 30,000 for public works. Uh also last year because of COVID there was a pay freeze. Um and nobody who is employed with the town of Durham uh received a raise. Uh this year there is

a 3% raise pool um and that is included in the ballot and that will also be discussed more. So why is this number an estimate? So there are certain things that are impossible to predict at this point. One is the valuation uh which will be measured as of April 1st. Over the last five years, we've had an increase of valuation of I think it's over between 1 and 2%

every year. And so that is one thing that we won't know until the valuation has gone through. Um we won't know the final amount of the state reimbures reimbursements and we won't know the final amount of the school budget. So the bottom line commitment is dependent upon all these numbers which makes it very hard to predict with any certainty. All right. So we are going to get into the questions that are on the ballot. Does anybody have any questions at this point on anything that we've talked about so far?

anything. You don't see any hands? Is there anything in the the question and answer box? No. No. Okay. All right. We'll keep going. All right. So, the first thing you need to understand is that uh all the questions that are on the ballot are based on the original warrant. Um but there are two questions at the beginning of the original warrant that um won't appear on the ballot and those are just uh business of the town meeting. It's uh it's getting a moderator uh and then um determining what the rules you're going to go by. Oh, no, no, I take that back. The second one is for uh the select board and budget committee and the other one and that will be on a separate ballot in this one. Um so we're going to go by the article numbers for this for purposes of this. So, article three, which will I know this is going to be a little confusing, but it's going to be question one on the ballot, is to appropriate funds for the 2020

solid waste budget overage. So, in 2020, we overspent the solid waste budget by $2,91.65. And the reason we overspent it was because we had to um estimate the the tonnage. So in our previous contract with Pineree um we did not pay per ton.

Uh and in the new contract we do pay per ton. Uh and it was based on previous years tonnage but unfortunately partially probably due to the the co um people were home and throwing out all of their things. uh we went over the estimated uh tonnage and you can see in the chart down in the the right that the solid waste we had estimated at 317 tons and we actually collected 381 uh and the recycling we were supposed to collect 150 that was the estimate and the actual collection was 160. Um, and so these these funds would be appropriated from the undesated fund and they don't affect taxes.

two on the ballot, is to see if the town will authorize spending up to last year's budget. So, uh, if a budget question fails and legally we required to allow that option on the ballot, um, then this the budget that fails would revert to last year's budget. Uh, if this doesn't pass and if one of the budgets fails, then we would need to uh vote on a new budget question at a special town meeting uh because we would we wouldn't at that point have a budget in that category. And many of the budgets that are presented this year are equal to or less than last year. And we'll look at them all.

going to be capital budget requests. There are three separate questions. Uh one is for an expenditure for self-contained breathing apparatus. The funds for that are $60,000. that comes out of um the capital uh fund, fire department capital fund uh to purchase 10 SCBAs and uh that's going to be necessary because uh the ones that we have are nearing the end of their useful life. Um and then in addition to that there are reserve requests for both fired and public works uh reserve capital fund reserve for 30,000 each and those funds are raised through taxes.

the changes to land use ordinance. There are four questions on the ballot um that uh if passed would change uh parts of our land use ordinance and they are um based on uh roads homebased business appeals processes and then there's a couple of miscellaneous administrative policies that are changed as well. Um there is a synopsis of all of the changes that are available online. You can also come into the office during regular office hours and we would have a copy here. Uh there was a public hearing held on this on February 8th and there is a recording of that public hearing available um on our town's website. Okay. So something popped up at the top of my screen. So we do have a question. Okay. So, somebody wants has questions on the changes. Okay. So, Tammy, you might have to help me with this. How do I

Tammy? Did you want to speak? Tammy, can you hear me? Tammy, So, can can you allow Tammy to speak? I just I just did that. Oh, thank you. All right, Kevin. Good. All right. So, Tammy, you should be able to speak now. Hear me?

Yes. Okay, cool. Um, I am specifically my questions are regarding the road changes. Could you identify yourself, please? Sorry. I'm sorry. Yes. I'm Tammy Thatcher from Harmony Acres which is off of Swamp Road. Thank you.

And so I'm looking for clarification on ex on what those road changes on the road changes. So unfortunately the changes that happened in 2019 I was unaware were happening. I was one of the people who worked very hard to get the family back ordinance created. That was

um apparently um they got away with it. They g got away with it in 2019. So these road changes could affect my family. So I'm looking for some clarification on on that. planner here. If he can um address are you is your question about like

will you is there something different about what you can do with a road versus what you thought you can do with a road? Is that is that what your question is or is it regarding the number of lots you can have or so so right now kind of I guess a little bit of everything here. Um, so they apparently they got rid of the backlaw, family backlog ordinance. Is that correct?

No. No, that's not correct. Um, the land use ordinance was revised in 2019 and the backlog provisions that were in prior to the overhaul of the land use ordinance are the same as they were before 2019. The planning board uh in preparation for last year's town meeting which was cancelled because of the COVID had prepared a set of draft amendments and those reviewed and recommended by the planning board are what is on the ballot for this goround and the particular changes that are being proposed for the backlot. Um provisions include limiting the creation of backlots to a single uh

back lot and a single single backlot access and a single back lot. And that is a tradeoff because right now people can put in a back lot access and then do multiple lots over time and that creates problems for the public safety and and there have been some issues with the fire chief being concerned about driveways serving multiple lots not really being adequate. So the planning board has recommended that it be limited to a single house on a single back lot. Someone can do more than that in terms of development but they would have to go through the planning board process where they would look at a lot of issues including the public safety access. The backlog provisions proposed are similar but there are some more limitations on them and there's some more asurances for the public safety that they will be able to access the homes that are built as much as 300 feet back from the road if you go by the standards.

Okay. So it all right. So, the family backlot ordinance has not been eliminated. That's correct. Um, currently, what is the width of the road? It's 20 ft is my understanding. Yes. And that's the tradeoff is that by limiting it to a single uh single family home on that back lot. Uh, the fire department has agreed that it doesn't need to be a 20 foot wide road. It can be a 16ft gravel uh driveway. And there will be specific standards that they have to meet in terms of engineering and drainage to make sure that it's uh going to hold up. And another protection is that before the code officer issues a building permit under the draft amendments, the fire chief, they'd have to build the road and the fire chief has to approve it in terms of him being assured that they can get their vehicles in there.

So before I built um we did have to go to the planning board. Apparently, our land on Swamp Road used to be a subdivision like years and years and years ago. So, we did go through the planning board um and got that all approved, but my brother two years ago when he went to build, I'm not sure. I think he just went through the through the town.

Yeah. uh for a single lot and even for a backlot provision that meets the limitations of the ordinance, there's no planning board process other than the current ordinance. And this is part of what the planning board has asked to really clean up some of these conflicting provisions. So for a multiple lot back lot currently, you don't have to get planning board approval to build it. You just have to get planning board approval of the maintenance agreement. And so this kind of cleans that process all up. So if you're really if you're building a road that's going to serve multiple lots, you go through the planning board just like every developer doing a subdivision. If you're just doing a single back lot, the code officer can handle it.

Okay. So it's not eliminating anything. No. Okay, then I'm good then. Thank you for clarifying. You're so welcome. Todd, I had seen your hand up, but it seems to have disappeared. Is that Todd Bolier? Yeah, Todd Bolier was involved in the changes that I made.

No, no, no. Yeah. No, he had a question separately like on on this. Yeah, his name was here, Ruth. I wonder if he dropped off. He might have lost his All right. Um, so we also have Jane Rice who wants to ask a question. Yeah. Can you tell me on the um on the town website where I can see the changes that are going to be voted on because I'm on there, but I don't find it.

Um, okay. So, if you go onto our town website, let me see. I'm doing it as I speak to you because um Huh. All right. Try the planning board page. Well, another way you can get there, um, Jane, is uh, if you if you click on home and you're on the homepage

on the left hand side at the top it says COVID 19 town manager search and then one down it says town meeting referendum. I don't see that but I'm searching on my phone so because I'm on my link in the chat if it's helpful.

Oh, thanks Ann. Yeah, man. Well, I'll try and get uh something on the left hand side of the town page, but if you go into the town meeting referendum page, which does have a link on the left hand of the homepage of our town of Durham website, uh there is also a link to uh the land use ordinances there.

I'm on my phone trying to search that way. so that people can see that. If if you have problems finding it, Jane, give us a call at the office. Um, we'll be here. You know, obviously not till Thursday now, but uh we can walk you through it if you can't find it.

Okay, I appreciate that. But, but for me, that's okay for me, but what about for all the other people that are trying to make an educated decision? Well, I'll try and make it a little bit more front and center. Um there are u

it's definitely there. I was looking at it earlier and there's links in the the town news ones. So if you go to municipal departments and the bottom to planning board and go over you'll find proposed amendments. Okay. I'm on municipal departments and I don't

No, it's it's on boards and committees. He's he's a little he's off. Okay. Planning board. Got it. All right. So, I'm on there. Proposed land use ordinance amendments. Is that it? Yes. Y Okay. All right. Thank you. Yep. There's a whole web page there.

Okay. Thank you. I was looking for that, too. so Jane, you're all set. Does anybody else have any questions on the land use amendments? Not that you can't ask them later. Just if anybody has them now, we can There's Todd. Wait, Todd disappeared again.

Todd, what's there? You are. There you are. Hi. How are you? I I'm good. I don't know why you're the attendee and not a panelist, but go ahead if you have a question. I can be an attendee. That's all right. Yeah. Um my question is about road classification. Um what uh all these artial collector subcolctor are we going to take uh

previously accepted roads and designated them designate them as local roads that can't handle any more than 10 25 dwelling units thereby uh negating any development on that road anymore. free to jump in as well. Um, the subdivision regulations only apply to proposed development. Uh, and those road standards only apply to the construction of new roads.

So, they they do not affect existing roads. So, we're not going to take existing roads and take a traffic survey and decide that they're not up to standards and then designate them. There is an analysis that's done as part of the subdivision review process of whether the roads that are that are going to be serving the subdivision have adequate capacity and or if there are safety issues related to those. So, but those standards that are in the ordinance, you would the planning board could not deny use of an existing road because it didn't have the uh specified road base or something like that. It would just simply be any those standards apply to new construction of new roads.

Okay. I wanted to make that perfectly clear because it seems to me like it could be it could be used on a accepted road. Well, it's no different than it is now in terms of the subdivision road standards. Oh, believe me, I know, George. Yeah, I went through it. I'm sure. Well, what I'm saying is the the proposed changes don't affect the approval of subdivisions on existing roads. It only affects the construction of new roads and subdivisions.

wants to put another phase on a development? Well, the the standards that are in the current ordinance are almost identical to the ones that are proposed. What's changing is that under the current the the current provisions of the ordinance, it's still based on that growth cap ordinance that the uh town repealed and it said the town would only accept roads outside of the growth district. And so it was ba the road standards currently are uh are are classified according to whether it's going to be a public road or a private road. this changes it to say it should be designed uh according to how it's going to be used, how many lots are going to be on it. So again, if you look if you compare the standards of the current private road, public road, you'll see that they're virtually the same as uh local road and minor local road.

Well, we've added a subcollector standard in the event that the town sees a much larger development that would carry more traffic. Um, most towns around nobody's going to build a collector or an arterial road. Well, the biggest reason I ask is because three roads in Durham are named as artillio roads.

Yes, those are state state roads. Yeah. But so that leads me to believe that others could be designated as subcollector local minor local because it's right there. That's the intent is that when somebody's proposing a subdivision, if they have five lots, it's going to be a minor local road and they'd have to build to that standard. If it's 15 lots, it's going to be a local road and they have to build to that standard.

Yes. But I'm talking about accepted roads, accepted public roads. The planning board doesn't approve or disapprove existing roads. It only approves or disapproves proposed roads. Yeah, this this ordinance doesn't change anything about whether a road um has

been accepted by the town as a town road. Um the that at some point we're going to have to revisit what is the process for considering accepting a road as a town road. Um, but right now we actually don't even have a process with doing that because the growth ordinance

down. Yeah. So, so we it's it's right now there's no change to what is a town road and what isn't a town road. Yep. Um, I don't see any other questions. the end, if anybody has thought of questions, um, feel free. So, I'm going to start sharing my screen again.

Uh, so we got through the changes to land use ordinance. Those are going to be on it. All right. So, did I pass one? warrant articles. second. Um so, the town of Durham has many different funds. Um and some of them have uh been in existence for many, many years. um and some of them are kind of old and uh redundant or dormant or whatever. So, these questions ask to reorganize um three different funds and we'll get to the other ones uh on the next page, but uh the first one is to discontinue old home day's fund. There's $39 in that and uh we have not held an old homes fund uh hold home days for many many years. Um, and so th those funds would go into our undesated fund and we would no longer have the old home days fund. Um, which doesn't mean at some point in the future if if the town wanted to start it up again, um, they they could, but at this point, um, it's kind of old and and, uh, doesn't really need to be

there. Um, the second one asks to consolidate. We have four different funds. One called municipal building account. Uh one's called title searches, one's called town office reserve. Um I believe that one was started when when uh the town was discussing um renovation of the town office. Uh and one's called paramulation funds uh which is an interesting fund walking around the the uh borders of town and determining where those are. So, we take all of those four funds and we would uh consolidate them into one fund that's called the municipal capital fund. Uh, which would give the town a little bit more of a leeway. Um, and that would be used for uh capital expenses for um any part of the municipality. It doesn't have to be one particular, it doesn't have to be the town office. It doesn't have to be the Eureka. It doesn't have to be um any particular building. It could be any any municipal um capital expense that's in

town. And then article 17, we have two accounts. We have a bridge account and we have a public works capital fund account. Um and this question would merge both the bridge account into the public works capital fund. and then the bridge account or bridges in town would would be uh put into the capital or operating fund of the public works uh and be dealt with that way, not have a separate account. Um we've had about $98,000 in that account that has been sitting there since um I got here about five or six years ago. Um and so if we could access that money and put the bridges into the actual um capital schedule, I think that work might work better. So there's two other questions, three other questions and these questions are a little bit more um involved.

So the practice of the town right now is that any excess funds uh in the operating counts budgets for public works and fire actually um roll into their capital reserve funds at the end of the year. Um and this question there's actually two questions one specifically for public works and one specifically for fire department um would end the practice of rolling those funds in. So that would mean that the operating funds that are left at the end of the year would go into the undesated fund. Um and then capital reserve funds would be voted on at town meeting uh and determined through uh the capital um sorry things are going crazy here. Um voted on through the capital process. Uh the other article on this one uh right now the town has the practice of any EMS revenue. So when uh the ambulance goes out and we bill people for well Freeport bills people for uh taking them to the hospital then um those funds go into the

the capital reserve fund the fire department capital reserve fund at the end of every year. So this would uh discontinue the practice of doing that. Um again, any funds that would be required for the filer department capital reserve fund would actually be voted on at town meeting and go through the capital um process. Um and then that would free up those funds for um any other thing that the town wanted to do with them. Um

the last year um the fire department last year was kind of a a strange year because of everything that was going on. Uh but last year the the fire department had 29,000 um public works had 39,000 and then um in their in their operating funds at the end of the year which rolled into their capital funds. Um and then the EMS revenue was about 54,000 uh and that rolled into the capital reserve fund as well.

I think I had a couple questions. Yeah, there we say um uh Phyllis, there was a question in the chat from Phyllis Brandon about the old home days fund says her copy shows 509 in the old home days fund. Is that correct? Or maybe do we have a typo on the slide maybe? Or

uh I'm pretty sure it's 309. I may have done it. Well, I it okay. I'm trying to do this while sharing. Hold on. Uh, let's see here. Old home days fund. Oh, it is 509. I was incorrect on the slide. I apologize for that. Okay. And I don't know if you're seeing the chat. Um Rick Emmens want was asking

um about asking a question and Rick should just uh hit the raise your hand Rick and then we'll on our end we press an allow to talk and then you should be you should be good. Um and Jane I see your hand up Jane Rice. Is that a new question or is that from before?

That's new because I she put her hand down before. Okay. All right. All right. It looks like Rick's all set. Uh Jane, go ahead. Yeah. Okay. So, um I guess on this, who is who is proposing that we do this? Where did this information come from that we don't roll it into the capital reserve? We end up bringing it back to undesated funds.

Yeah. since it's it's really kind of an offshoot of the new capital improvement uh process that we put in oh a year or two ago. And part of that process is planning uh capital uh reserve expenditures, you know, several years out. And because with having the um operational funds roll into public reserves that there's that varies from year to year on how much that is. So it makes it tough to do longer range planning. So the idea is not to contribute less to public uh reserve funds for either one of these departments. The idea is um kind of in accordance with a more normal appropriate uh practice is that unspent funds go back into undesated and then they're allocated to reserve funds um as

the capital improvement plan would dictate. So, this is something that the capital improvement committee is is uh very much in favor of um and uh would like to see. Okay. So, I'm not saying that I'm against that, but I've been around long enough to know that those funds that

came from the um ambulance, actually us taking that on and and billing rather than always um asking for help from other towns. Um that was supposed to be able to pay for the ambulance. we would never have to pay for the ambulance because those things were going to offset it. So that's kind of going back on that. Um so I just think people people should know the history of that.

We're still collecting the same amount of revenue. It's just a matter of where the revenue goes. So, it's it's it's really it's just it's a it's an accounting procedure, if you will, to just more appropriately track capital reserve funds.

Okay. Well, I mean, I have to say that Chief St. Michelle did a fabulous job at trying to I mean, I think he was the first one in town that actually had a five-year lookout capital plan. And I think it was really pushed on the other parts of the town to try to get like public works to do that. Um, which I think is a great thing. Um, but now it sounds like um I don't know. I mean, if it was a household budget, I'd say it makes sense, but I just don't want to reig on what the town voted on many years ago to to bring the ambulance service to our town.

Yeah. This isn't going to change in any way. I know that. But it's going to make it um now we're going to have to fight to get the the money to be able to to keep that going versus because those funds were automatically going in there. Um

well the funds were never so clarification the the funds from EMS they were going and are today going into capital reserve but those funds were not dedicated to pay for um EMS um services or the cost of EMS. You know the revenue from the ambulance has never paid fully for that service. It certainly helps but it it is never fully paid for that um for that service. So that we're we have been all along um just budgeting and and appropriating funds uh like we do for any other department uh for that EMS service.

Okay. I'm not saying I'm not saying that I'm against it. I'm just saying that this kind of goes against what was set up in the very beginning when we got that ambulance that was going to never cost us anything. Yeah. Can I try me out for a second, Ke?

Yeah, sure. I'll say one thing and then I'll kick you. It is a change. Uh you're right, Jane, to something that was voted on in the past. That's why we're voting on it now. We're asking the town to make a change and that's why we have to vote on it. So, Chief,

so just to clarify because I've done I've done a lot of research and historical digging through here to to get my head around this around this process and how it's done here. Uh, first of all, there's nothing was ever said about the about the billing for the ambulance service paying for operational costs for the ambulance. Everything that Chief St. Michelle set up in the past that I've found, uh, it was his intent that that money would be put away in the capital fund.

Correct. Right. To right to replace the ambulance itself. It's never been about Okay. But that's what I meant about the ambulance being not a charge to the town. upgraded at any given time, whatever the plan is. Right. And ju just the way you were wording that, it came across as as this was to this was to fund um operational costs and that's just that's just not how

that was not what I meant. I meant that it was supposed to be funding the capital reserve continuously going on to replenish that ambulance or whatever truck needed to be to be offset instead of taking it out of tax dollars. So with that said though because we are going to end up this is information that's going out to the public so that we can make an educated decision when we vote. How many people are actually participating tonight? Um I think we have right right now attendees and panelists we have 48.

And how many panelists are there? 14. Okay. So we have 34 people that are getting information in order to make their decision on April 6th. Well, there's 34 people here right now in this public hearing, but again, a mailer was mailed to every house in town. This this meeting is being recorded so somebody may watch it later. Um so um but as far as here right now

live it's uh it's you. from uh Newberg Road and I just want to kind of tail in on uh what um what Jane was saying and um especi especially on the EMS revenue um you were talking it was 54,000 and I think that's roughly where it's been plus or minus a few thousand for each year and so So, um, having it go directly into the capital reserve was actually was I

feel was quite handy. And, um, for what because, um, you look at it this year, the fire department's asking for $30,000 to go into the capital reserve. you know, um it's always like pulling teeth to get that to get the town to pull to put money into the capital reserves because it it's it's not something that's happening this year. Uh we had fights on the town floor over 25,000 going into it. So if you So now you're talking to keep up with things for the fire department, you'd be ask needing to ask for 85 like $85,000 per year. And it's very difficult

to get that that to pass. And so as time goes on, we would be getting further and further and further behind. Um, I I I I just especially with the EMS, I I don't care for uh the other two either discontinuing it, but um I'm I'm especially thinking of the EMS revenues stuff. I think that it makes sense that that could go towards capital.

disincentive or incentive factor regarding how the public works and fire department may be um you know inclined to try and be more conservative spending money so that their money goes back into their capital fund. Uh to answer your question, uh yes. Um Chief, I'll let you go. He asked about the select board. So, but

that um yes, those conversations have been had and you could really frame it up either way. You could frame it up that there's a there's a disincentive um to spend all the money if um so that you can get it or to over to fluff your budget up so that you can get more money into reserves. You could also argue on the other hand that you know uh oh and if if this were adopted that it might create an incentive that oh I better spend every last dollar I get because you know operationally because it's not going to be dedicated to reserves. Um so you could go either way but I think one thing to keep in mind here is in the past when when these uh procedures were set up it was we didn't have the capital improvement uh process that we have now. So, um I think I think you know Jeff makes a good point that it's always tougher to ask for more money than less. Uh but you know the vision is with the

documentation coming out of the capital improvement process. Um that you can see the schedule and you can see um how much money in reserves you need in order to be able to fund something, you know, five or 10 years out. and that if those uh presentations are made well and people understand it that um that we would be successful getting um you know dedicated uh votes for capital reserve funds but you know it may not be that way. I mean that's that's a point that people could have an honest disagreement on but Chief you wanted to chime in on that as well.

Yes. First of all, I want I want to reassure everybody that at no point am I designing a budget or tailoring my spending to focus on what I might be able to save at the end of the year because that goes into account specifically dedicated for me. An operational account is for the operations. Um if there's leftover, there's leftover and that's the way that year worked. But that's that's never my focus. it's never going to be my focus and I don't believe any of the other department heads operate that way either. Um I will say for my own perspective right now, I'm not in favor of either one of these at this point. I know long-term planning, there are other communities that do it that have a have a more substantial and vetted process. Uh the capital improvement committee has done a great job over the last couple of years uh starting to develop this process and getting us into using it. Um, but until we have a little bit more

information specifically for the fire department with the um with the evaluation requests that I put out and information like that, I think it's a bit premature to close out this type of plan and move to a simply an undesated fund. Thank you.

question and answer um as to whether uh Calvin and Chief supported this. Um and so we've gotten Chief's answer. So Calvin uh do you support rolling the public works operating funds in in or stopping that? it uh as Jeff Wakeakeman said, it may be harder to get people to uh uh commit to raising that more money and but I I understand the other the other u side of the coin that people perception might be that we're tailoring our spending to uh accommodate our our capital fund. So, I'm fine either way.

Jill has her hand up. Jill, you can unmute yourself. Stack Pole Road. My question is, why are we electing to try and merge these funds into undesated? And the reason why I asked that question is twofold. one, we're then going to have to down the road vote to move it from undesated into

capital reserve or capital improvement. Um, and two, being on the budget committee, Ruth has done a really good job at teaching us that the undesated funds needs to be held at a pretty good balance in order to help us with loan interest rates and things like that for the town. So, I'm a little concerned that these funds are going to now be

used more towards that goal instead of being easily transferred into capital reserve. We're asking for money to be transferred into capital improvement down the road if we do this versus right now the money is already there.

want me to? Um, go ahead. So, so one of the issues that we've run into, Jill, is that um now that we have the capital plan in place, and this uh came into effect really last fall, uh when we go through the process of determining what what the reserve maybe should be, um we're trying to take into account what might be left over in operating expenses. So you come to the end of the year, I don't really know whether it's going to be $5,000 or whether it's going to be $50,000 at the end of the year and that's going to be transferred in. So say we need to put $100,000 into the capital fund in order to be able to afford a firetruck in five years and we want to put away $100,000 every year in order to to afford this firetruck. But I don't know at the end of the year whether in the operating fund there's going to be 5,000 or 50,000. And here I am trying to figure out with our capital planning how much money we should put

into reserves and put on the ballot and stuff. So what this does is it makes it to it it's more of a a um thoughtful and and it's it's it's like thinking to yourself, okay, well we don't have to worry about that money. We need $100,000. This is what should be on the on the ballot and we don't have to take into account this. So that money would roll into the undesated fund and then um in in a a really direct and and thoughtful way you would determine how much money really should be in your capital reserve account and and that's the theory behind it.

never be transferred from undesated into capital fund that we're just quote unquote forgetting about it not worrying about that amount? Well, the time well it wouldn't be specifically that amount that would be transferred. So what would what would be on the ballot in the following year would be a specific amount, the $100,000. So um so you would so say you had $50,000 left over in your operating fund. That number would never appear again. Okay? It would just go into the undesated fund. And then in kind of a separate process, we would determine how much money needs to go in the capital fund regardless of what was left over in the operate operating fund. Does that kind of make sense? Still,

you still haven't answered my question. Do you plan on transferring funds from undesated into capital funds only through town meeting vote? fine line of people trying to dip too far into undesated to avoid raising taxes.

Well, yeah, and it might I I I think I know where you're going with that question now. It it it could be a mix. Like for instance, if if um $20,000 say rolls from fire operational into um in the future if this passed um un uh undesated, but let's say the um warrant

article as Ruth was the example she was using was going to be a hundred. we might ask for a h 100red but we might say you know 20,000 to be appropriated out of undesated but the other 80 to be raised um via taxation. So it's not a um

it's it's not to say that every time we want to put a um capital reserve question on the warrant that it would be coming out of undesated. Um, some of it may um or it might in some years it might be um might be worded to all be raised. Um, it just it just depends on what's going on that year. Does that does that answer your question? It does, but I think a better compromise or or at least another consideration would be in the sense of how we look at our car registration, you know, that gets transferred into the um administrative fund. So, I think if we looked at it more as this is automatically being transferred into the capital improvement fund, it's not designated fire, it's not designated public works. Um, I think that would alleviate some people's worries that, hey, we fought really hard to make sure this money went towards capital reserve and now it's just going into undesated.

Okay. So currently what happens is the money that is left over in the budget goes to the capital reserve in that particular department say the fire department. Correct? Yeah. Okay. Is that the same in public works or no?

Yes. Okay. All right. So, I know in years past it has been very hard um when the fire chief had a five-year rolling plan. Um and he would tell us like what apparatus was going to, you know, be at at its end and we needed to replace. Um and I'm probably one of the the biggest ones that votes against it just because. Um and so having that capital reserve

money kind of float over to that kind of offset that just what you're saying um without having to vote where um if it goes to undesated. I don't understand why you would have a solid number and undes undesated versus whether it just floated over to capital reserve. What the time frame is there? Because right now you could say I need 100,000 minus whatever flows over

but you don't know what's going to flow over until after. But then how do you know it's going to flow over from un designated funds? you wouldn't be able to vote the way Kevin's saying. Like sometimes when you're on the budget committee, you decide, all right, we need this much money. We're gonna take 20,000 from undesated and we'll raise 30. Um, so

and always being always being thoughtful that you never want that undesated to go below a certain amount. That was always in the thought process. Yeah. So, so Jane, the timing is a little different on that. So, in the fall,

the way this works now is the capital um improvement committee um goes through and they determine, well, they don't really determine they look at the reserve requests um and rank them, determine um how much is going to be needed for the reserve request,

but the um the determination of whether the funds come from the undesated fund or the the uh or taxes would not be made until January or February. February during the budget meetings. And so we would know by that point how much of the funds from the operating uh budget had uh not been spent,

doing now. We're when you're on the budget committee, you're making those decisions to say we're taking this much from undesated and we're raising this much. But if it's already in their capital and they need a h 100,000 but there's 57 in there, you just need the difference.

unattainable at the time they're doing the budget versus when the budget committee is saying, "Okay, we have this much in undesated funds." Does that not get determined until the town meeting? Well, the the reserve amount that's

requested. So, so say for instance um I want and and don't quote me on this anybody. I want to put a brand new addition on this town um town office and it's going to cost $100,000 and I want to do it next year. So, I want to say

a hell of a lot more than 100,000. Yeah. Well, sorry. I'm running running in big in you know round numbers. So, so I need to put $50,000 in reserve this year and I have to put 50,000 well and then $50,000 next year. So, correct.

Say I don't know, say my operating funds, excess operating funds get put in. So, so I don't know now um this year whether or not I'm going to have $5,000 or $30,000 worth of operating funds. So, I don't know whether I have to ask for uh $45,000 or $20,000 in my for my reserve for this year because I want it to equal 50,000, but I don't know how much is going to roll over. Um, and so now this fall, I have to ask for a certain amount of money, but I don't know how much money I have to ask for. Um, and I won't know that much money, how much money I need to ask for until the CIP process has ended,

which is when which is in November or December. Um but before that's be before uh the budget does budget committee and the select board do their work determining what to put on uh the the warrant for budget. Okay. So so I don't know how much to ask for. So I asked for $50,000 um and they approve the $50,000 and then I roll over I don't know $50,000. That's

not going to happen. But but so now I have 100,000. I guess it's great, but but it's not within my planning, you know. I I don't know. I don't know how to I don't think so. Couldn't it couldn't it be just worded that you would like to have $50,000 what minus whatever rolls over from your budget to the capital reserve?

I mean, I guess I guess you could that could be a pretty substantial amount though from year to year just with with my own operations, let alone what Calvin looks at. That could be a huge difference depending on what we're looking at actually purchasing in the following year.

There's no question. But if you're on a five-year rolling plan, you already know what you want to purchase. I mean, you know what truck is coming up. So, what's the difference if it's just a matter of timing? But truthfully, capital expenditures are more than just trucks, though in the in the long in the long term with the plan that they're looking at. If we're if we're looking at anything, you know, of a significant cost, multiple thermal imaging cameras, new radios in addition to the station, um you know, repairs to to to apparatus, different, you know, there there are multiple things that that come into that that capital line that need to be considered that that sometimes don't fit into that rolling five-year plan.

I didn't know that repairs went into the capital line. Well, that was that was that was an example, but some something unforeseen that that comes up. It's it's a it's a vehicle that that needs a needs a repair or needs uh an upgrade that isn't that isn't, you know, covered under our regular maintenance budget that we'd have that we would have to that money would have to come from somewhere.

All right. So, um I'd like to get there's a couple more hands up. Um hey, uh Jeff Wakeakeman is next. him to unmute. Okay. Um I'm just again all along the same line as Jane, but um I think we're making it a lot more complicated. When you

when you go through the when you go through the uh the capital improvement plan stuff and so on, you know how much you need. when you get to putting out for the town, asking for the money and so on, you'd already know how much would have lapsed over into your capital, right? Then, just like you'd know how much lapsed into your undesated fund. So, um it's it it's kind of the

kind of the same thing either way. Um I I think we're make it you're you're not trying to guess how much you're going to have out of next year's budget left over. You're when you go through the budget process, you already know how much was left how much was had left.

again, one question I did want to clarify. Are we continuing to keep um a municipal capital fund, a fire department capital fund, and a public works capital fund? We're not talking about merging those. We're just talking about where unspent money is going to go. Correct.

Correct. Okay. Thank you, Michelle. I'm sorry. your last name. Hi, this is Michelle Wylin. Um, I'm just I wanted to thank Jane for her questions because I'm trying to become more involved locally and trying to understand how all these processes work and um, this has been really helpful. My question is in regard to some of these changes and how this is going to apply to the town manager. Will these changes make their job to allocate um or make decisions easier by reconfiguring things in this way?

Um I I think you know I think Jeff makes a good point. I mean it can be managed either way quite honestly. you know, this um it does streamline things a bit and you can be a little bit more uh deliberative in your planning if if the funds don't automatically roll into those um accounts, but it can be managed

either way. I I don't think a a town manager would find it um overly burdensome one way or the other. Some of the other earlier accounts though that Ruth was talking about like the old home days and some of those dormant accounts, there would definitely be a benefit into cleaning those up and consolidating those um and and having like one uh municipal uh buildings capital improvement account versus bits and pieces of three or four accounts that we have now. And just a quick followup, um the amount that was posted for the old home days, for example, um would it be helpful to have have amounts for these other accounts also listed? And will those be available to see what the rollovers will be if this these changes are happening? and it just automatically goes into that other um

what I'm asking. No, I think I know what you're talking about. Um so the on the on the mailer I know that the different accounts that would be uh consolidated into a municipal capital account were specified. Um, and I know I specified on the public

works one where the bridge account, the 98,000 goes into the public works account on the mailer. I I don't think it appears on the ballot. Yeah, the old home days would on the mailer says it lap that 509 lapses into undesated, but I think in every other case it goes it's being consolidated into another dedicated account.

Yes. Yep. Thank you. All right. Uh any other questions? We have something in the chat. article state that any capital purchase will be voted on by the town? So wouldn't that mean that we would transfer the funds necessary? So, what what what has to be voted on by the town is to um put money into the capital

reserves. Um and on the rollover from public works and fire department that happens now, the the town voted on that in the past to have that happen. So, that happens according to that vote. If additional monies get put in or to be put into capital reserve, um that has to be voted on by the town as well. And there are two questions on the ballot this year that do that. The the it's not

um it's not required that voters vote on spending the capital reserves. We customarily do that and we'll continue to to do that. But there are cases where if it's not a major expense and it's something like a maybe a repair to you know Eureka Center or or um we got a grant and we need to take $10,000 out of uh capital for our matching piece of it to replace a culvert. You know, the board can just vote to spend capital reserve money out of the capital reserve account because the town has already voted to put that money in. And as long as it's used for that purpose, um, then it then it doesn't require a townwide vote. However, it it's always been the custom and and as long as I'm around will continue to be the custom as far as I'm concerned. You know, when we have something like, you know, a truck or, you know, a big capital expense, then um, we will ask the town to actually vote on on those things.

she she wanted us to make it clear that um because of the way we're doing town meeting this year um none of these questions will change because of this meeting. Um on the town floor generally uh you can you can um amend uh warrant articles on the floor up or down. Um that won't be the case. It's either an up or down vote or in in a couple cases as we'll get to in a couple minutes um it'll be uh the select board recommendation, the budget committee recommendation or or neither recommendation.

back to my sharing screen. hold on. Takes me a second. one. Um, so then after the the um fund articles uh come uh the budget articles. So, these are the budget the articles that actually uh set the budget for 2021. um and decreasing or flat from

last year. Uh budgets are assessing general assistance, cemeteries, planning, the Eureka Community Center, um our debt service, and the conservation recreation um budget. Um increases from last year are in administrative, uh a little bit in animal control, fire department, public works, solid waste, and the telecommunications budget, which is also a small increase. Um so the select board and the budget committee um the the recommendations that were voted on in their meetings in January uh will be printed on the ballot. Um all of their recommendations agree uh except for in three departments. Um and those departments are the fire department, telecommunications uh and planning.

you too much, but is going to be question 16 on the ballot, uh is for the fire department. And here you can see um what the 2020 budget was, uh what the actual amount spent was. Um and then in 2021, uh the select board recommendation that will appear on the ballot is 485,000 and the budget committee recommendation is the same as last year, which is the 472753. um because of the workers comp uh increase uh 17,657 of that uh is allocated to the fire department. Um so that is uh an expense that that chief cannot control um and is is set to his uh to increase his budget.

Um so here you know some of the comments that the budget committee had made and they are here to represent themselves as well. um was that uh the labor line had been underspent for several years. Um and the the select board recommendation kind of sees that the 2020 actual uh for the payroll was an outlier due due to the pandemic. Um if you factor in or out the

workers comp increase um the department uh the department's budget for the select board will be 5,410 less than last year. um in there and then with the budget committee it would be 17,657 which is the amount of the workers comp um than last year. Uh are there any

questions on this one before we go on? Actually I think I saw Joe Lamont's hand up. It was the previous article that I had a question about. Trying to get it before you went in depth of this one. The animal control contract that we have, is that still with Lisbon currently?

It is. Is that going to continue that way? And is there a copy of that contract publicly? Uh, if you wanted to see it, you're welcome to ask me for it. I can get it to you. Um, is that more or less of an expense than having our own?

It's it's a little bit more. Um, but we several years ago, we contracted with Lisbon and then oh, five or six years ago, we we tried to go on our own and went through about four of them. Yeah, it's really really difficult and service was terrible. I mean, you would see stuff on the Facebook pages all the time about, you know, animals running all over the place and um so yeah, it's it's it's probably a little bit more that it's more than we were paying when we had our own, but when we had our own, we weren't really getting any service. So, um so this is where it's u and the

service by all accounts has been excellent um under this contract. Um, so that's uh that's that's where we are. this slide. Um, the budget committee is not recommending $17,657 recommending that the budget stays the same as what the fire department requested last year, which is actually

um more than what they spent. And I understand last year, you know, is a a unique year because of COVID. Um, but the $472,753 also uh $22,000 more than what they spent in 2019. Yeah. The the wording of that third bullet is it's not saying that that they're getting that much less in their budget. It's saying that they they'll have in both both the case of the selectman and the budget committee that's how much less money they will have to spend on operations. So it's kind of like you know in our own budget if our if our cost of oil goes up but our income hasn't gone up then I have that much less money to spend on everything else. And that's that's what that is saying is that due because of the increase in uh workers comp um that's eating up a bigger piece of the pie, if you will, so there's less money left over to do all the other operational stuff. So that's that's the point that's being made there.

out that, you know, in what the budget committee did is they looked at how much has actually been spent yeartoear um and felt that we were still giving the fire department more. We gave them even more than the $17,657. there, I I appreciate what the once again, as I said in my public post, I I appreciate what the what the budget committee was looking at. uh the issue that I that I had to deal with that I presented to both the select board and the budget committee uh

in the last two in the two years prior to this I I've instituted some operational changes that did decrease our did decrease some of our labor spending uh and I was hoping to have in 2020 I was hoping would be a year to kind of prove um operationally that those had taken hold and that we that we could possibly put less into those lines except for the fact that suspending you know four months of trainings and meetings as I as I posted um that cut you know,00 manh hours uh in the year

out of out of the budget and looking at what my average pay is per member uh that that's $17,000 right there that that wouldn't have been spent um simply because we weren't doing trainings and meetings. So, when I presented the budget for this coming year, as I said, I I had presented a flat budget uh right until I had spoke with Ruth uh and we got the the workman's comp forecast, and that's that's $17,000 on top of a flat budget. Uh that that I I can't eat otherwise. We'll we'll I would be sure that we'd have an overrun. Um and like I said, I understand what the budget committee is trying to do in looking at that. I just don't think trying to come off such an outlier of a year that it's that that we can do that. As we do get back to um once again, as I alluded to in my in my post, we're back to we we've been doing normal operations since August of last year. We're just breaking it up as much as we can um for the for

the requirements and dealing with CO. Heather Roy in the question section and Ruth this might be more for you. Uh does workman's comp in the public sector worked the same as in the private sector? Is it audited on an annual or triannual basis? Is it based on payroll?

It is based on payroll. Um, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure how it works in the private sector, but uh, in the public center sector, they they base it off of the last three years experience. You get an experience rating, um, depending on how many claims that you have. Um, it's based on an estimation of payroll, um, which I do every single year. Uh and then the following um spring, usually about February, we do get audited uh and they reimburse us if uh they charge us too much and they charge us if they charge us too little based on what we actually paid on payroll. Um usually I'm uh within a plus or minus $5,000 for the the workers comp. Um so we're we're pretty close generally, but they do they do audit us every year. Um, and they do uh reimburse us or charge us more depending on what our payroll was.

All right, we'll go back to sharing. Okay, so done with the fire department for now. Uh, moving on to public works. So uh again last year uh we cut in half uh the m the maintenance paving line in the operating budget of public works. Um we were looking to cut a significant out of the budget uh after COVID hit. Uh, and that was really um the only place where a significant amount of money could could be cut out um to compensate for the added road bond uh which we knew was going to come, but then COVID hit and kind of messed everything up. Uh so this year we um reinstated uh the the level

up to 75% of the prepandemic level for the maintenance paving line. uh they have a workers comp increase of 12,284. Um and then uh if you compare it to the 2019 actual spent um it's a this budget is a decrease of $45,000 from what we actually spent in 2019. Uh does anybody have any questions on the public works budget?

See anything Kevin? Not yet. Okay, moving on. Yeah. No, I think come back to it if we get one. Yes. Uh, so the next uh one is the administration budget and and that's my budget. Um, this year it is an 11% increase over last year and that's due to a transition uh from the town administrator to the town manager. Um some of that expense was offset this year by decreases in election expenses because um obviously last year was a very expensive election year. Um and uh

certain certain benefits al also decreased. Um any questions on what's included the administrative budget? Somebody keeps texting me. Not seeing anything. Oh, Joe Lamont has raised his hand again. Oh, no. I think that's from before. Sorry, I don't think I'm paying close enough attention to my phone.

I'm not seeing I'm not seeing any hands or anything. Oh, what is the actual cost for town manager? Um, we don't know that yet. Uh I think we I think the estimate um we had in the presentation was somewhere around you know an $80,000 per year salary plus benefits. Uh some of the transition costs here uh it's really two components. One is um when we hire a town manager if if it's not our current town administrator then we would have an overlap uh for you a month or so of those two positions. So be paying them both. Um and then there's um if it again

if it's not our town administrator then there's a severance package uh built into that um for a couple of months uh of pay and benefits um if that if that's how this turns out. So the uh I think we said the uh the estimated I'm going off memory here so forgive me if I don't get it quite right but I believe we said the estimated once everything is up and running additional annual expense versus for town manager versus town administrator was around I want to say around $35,000 somewhere in that uh ballpark.

Jean raised her hand. Yep. Oh, did I work? Yep. Here we go. So, quick question. Um, the town manager, please identify yourself because all we see is your first name. I'm sorry, Jeannie Costigan. Sorry. Um, the town manager is salary. Was that a suggestion from um the scouting group that we used or is that based on comparable town management salaries?

Yep. near us. It's based on it. Uh it's based on comparable uh town managers in similarsized towns. Um but we will and one of the things our consultant has been telling us is that you know we will have to factor in the part of the state that we're in a little bit and um he told us just last week

that it is a pretty competitive market out there right now. There are um a fair number of positions open around the state and um there's competition for candidates. So um it's uh it's possible that we uh could be looking at a bit more than the 80,000, but we don't know uh what that is yet. Where so far with we where we are with town manager search is that we uh we received uh about 40 applications for the position. We um the consultants sent us like the top 15 applicants from the pool. The board members have reviewed those. Uh we reviewed them separately and each came up with our top six. Then we got together and compared notes and determined who we wanted to invite for the first round of interviews. And those interviews will take place this week and next week. And coming out of that, we um should have two or three finalists to then move on to the uh the second round of interviews. So until we get to who

the candidate is and and what the offer uh looks like it needs to be, uh we don't have a concrete number on that yet. Thank you. can't see. Oh, that's it. Okay. Onward. Uh, so the next question is going to be on Oh, we got another question in the question and answer thing.

or the overall budget percent. Can we go back to work from miss comp? This is a substantial increase if we are audited annually where a significant amount of claims filed to increase the rating substantially or was it a payroll increase that led to much of an increase? It was the claims that um made the increase uh so drastic. Um

this year we um had well in 2019 we had a fairly significant claim uh and that just came into our rating this year and so that created a pretty large uh increase in our experience mod. Um we can at the end I think we can go back to the mill rate uh um slide and

take a look at that again. Um and I think that covers that for now. Okay, back to solid waste. Um, one of my f Oh, Kevin, can you read the questions? From the question, there's nothing. It's just Heather saying thank you. We're good.

Oh, okay. Um, so, so in 2020, again, we we entered into a brand new contract with Pineree Cassella. We did go out for RFP. We got two quotes, two bids. um Cassella was the the lower bid. Um but they structured the bid differently um than we have had in the past in that there's a base fee and then we are charged per ton of of uh waste. Um there

was a significant increase from the last budget to this budget because uh over the last 3 years or so there's been a collapse in the worldwide recyclables market which has uh affected costs quite a bit. Um and so this is the first year that we're feeling the uh additional um costs

uh totally for an entire year. Um we have adjusted the tonnage um because of of the increase in tonnage that we felt the end of last year. Um and so there is a significant 21.24% increase uh which translates to about $54,000 a little more than that.

Um so are there any questions on this one? Uh so this is an outline of our debt service. Uh we have uh four no three three municipal bond bank um to our road bond only the 216 and the 218. Uh and the third one the 219 is the road bond uh ambulance combination. Uh we also have a a fire truck bond outstanding. Uh and we have the original um bonds for the equipment and building for the public works uh that are still outstanding as well. Um so if you add all of those up, so last year it was 9 and 91,693. Um you'll notice that's a couple dollars off and that's because of rounding. Uh in this year we're looking at 980,863. It's a slightly lower figure. And the reason that that's slightly lower is because every year the the amount that we owe in interest to the municipal bond bank uh decreases slightly. Um and so it it decreases the payment. So does anybody have any questions about the debt service?

Uh so article 23 which again for confusing purposes is going to be question 21 on the ballot uh consolidates a number of different uh budgets the animal control assessing cemeteries our conservation parks and wreck gure community center and general assistance. Um last year was the first year uh we had entire year we had with

Lisbon as animal control uh and they're kind of adjusting uh the fee um according to their expenses and so this year it did go up significantly well somewhat significantly uh in percentage- wise uh dollar-wise you're looking I don't know about $1,500 increase. Uh assessing went down a little bit. uh cemeteries stayed the same, conservation and parks went down a little bit. Uh that that budget is paid for completely out of um a a designated fund so that no taxes are raised for the conservation parks and wreck line. Uh the Eureka Community Center went down a touch as we

figured out what it was going to cost um for the heat pumps uh in regard to electricity versus propane is which is what we used to heat the Eureka Community Center uh with. And then general assistance uh we did decrease general assistance. Uh we consistently don't have a ton of general assistance requests. Um, and even if we did, uh, we could overspend that budget line. In fact, we're required to. Any questions on that one?

Uh, article 24, question 22 is going to be for an employee raise pool. So this amount of money, the 12,363 represents an overall increase in salaries for the town employees of 3%. Uh last year there were no G raises given. We we froze all of uh the pay due to the pandemic. Um and then uh this these funds are are raised and then they are distributed between uh six departments. Um, and the the pay ba pay rates are set by the select board. Um, and raises are based off of uh off of

performance. Uh, and so some people can get less than three or more than three depending on on the performance of the individual employee. Not seeing any. All right. All right. Article 25 telecommunications. So this again is an article that is uh funded solely by uh a dedicated revenue stream which is uh franchise fees. Uh last year we had budgeted for 55,000 and our actual was 43,000 um 500. Uh this year um the select board recommendation and the budget committee recommendation are are different. One's 55,767 and one's 50,000. uh the select board. Some of the expenses that are going to be increased this year uh is going to be email. Uh we had the email breach last year um and we are transitioning our emails over to a.gov. Um and so we we need to to pay for the transition and the IT that goes along with that. Uh this this budget does include it, which is um the people who help us with all of our technology.

Uh and it's very hard to determine from year to year how much you're going to need that uh because obviously if you have a big issue like a a hacking or or something fails then you need a lot more work from the IT company um and if you don't then you don't. So any of the funds that are not spent at the end of this year in this budget uh do revert back into the revenue stream. Uh so the

difference between the budget and the actual last year those funds uh have gone back into the the franchise fee fund. Um and then the budget committee um was concerned and and I understand their concern that uh we have consistently budgeted more than the finance fees um every year uh franchise

fees. And so at some point if we pay uh the entire amount of the budget we will um run out of the the funds from the franchise fees. Um so so that's the difference between the 55. We did uh bring in about 43,000 in franchise fees last year. Um as a rule that's about what we get per year at this point. We have a contract from 2016 that will expire in 2026 and it still remains to be seen whether or not uh any municipalities are going to be able to to collect this type of fund after that. Um any questions on this one or comments

from anybody? Not seeing anything. the planning board, appeals board, and the historic district commission. Um, there is a mistake on the mailing. It's not on the ballot, but it is on the mailing. Um, on the mailing, I have the funding source as everything being raised. Um, but we do have two funding sources for this budget and one is conditional use revenue and the other is appeals revenue. Um it it's not a ton, but it does offset this budget a little bit. Um so the difference between the select board recommendation and the budget committee recommendation um reflects uh that the difference in

well that there's still a lot of work to be done to allow the TAD ordinances with state requirements in the Durham comprehensive plan. Um and so the select board uh funded this work totally. um in the budget that was requested. And then um the budget committee wanted to have more information as to the projects um that are actually going on. And uh so their their budget um increased 2% over

last year's actual budget. Both of these uh recommendations are less than last year's budget. I don't know if that that kind of got a little crazy, but um any questions on that one? this is a difficult one. Article 27, which will be question 25, is something called LD1. So, in 2005, the legislature passed what is now referred to as LD1. And it was an act to increase the state share of education costs and reduce government spending at all levels. And basically what it's supposed to do is it limits the tax increase that any town can place on its residents unless the legislative body votes to increase the the levy limit. Uh if all of the budget articles pass this year, uh the town will exceed the LD11 limit by uh $380,331.

because we we decreased the budget, uh we didn't have to vote on LD1 because the budget in 2020 was less than uh in 2019. Hold on a second. I got to look up my numbers here. of the LD1. Uh, if it Go ahead. I hear somebody.

Thought I heard I think somebody's mic was just on, but nobody's raised their hand or anything. Okay. Um, this is a question that that generally is on the warrant every year at town meeting. It requires a written vote in any case at town meeting um and has passed um with substantial um difference o over the last uh I don't know five or six 10 years, however long uh we've been doing this

since 2005. 2005. Well, I can only think back as long as I've been here. Um, so if anybody has any questions on this, Okay. there are a number of articles that are actual business articles. Um, what they do is they set the due dates for the taxes, the interest, um, and they allow for the overlay. Uh, there's nothing new on these questions. They give the select board an authority to conduct the business for the town um and continue operations uh until the following town meeting next year uh which hopefully will be in person. Um and then they also allow the town to borrow money uh if we run out of uh cash in the short term. Um

the election. Um, again, practicing social distancing and wearing a mask. We will be well, again, Becky will be at the Anvets Hall from 8 to 8. Uh, absentee ballots are available. Um, if you have any questions, just call the office. We can we can answer most of your questions. Um, and we have a page on the website that uh outlines this and has links to the the budget meetings which were held uh last January. So you can you can watch those uh thrilling meetings um if you're so inclined.

will work towards I don't know how to do this exactly. I got to back up. Yeah, go back the question or recap the kind of allin. Yeah, I'm trying to I'm not very good at this. Okay, there we go. presentation? That slide. Does that How'd that come out?

Good. Okay. Uh so we've backed up to the estimated tax impact of allin. Uh so the municipal assessment uh which is the this municipal budget that we're discussing today. Um you can see in 2020 uh it was the the amount of the budget minus the funds that are are uh gotten

elsewhere uh transferred or state sourced income. Uh the amount raised in taxes in 2020 for the municipal budget was $1,276 and 1,276,895. 1,684,746. number could could go up or down. It generally goes down a little bit um every year. Um then the school assessment which includes half of the budget which has already been passed from the 2021 school year and half of the budget which will be passed in June uh from the 2122 school budget um which we don't have a an exact figure on yet. The county assessment is an exact figure. Um again we do have the county assessment and uh they did raise the assessment uh for Durham only by $335 this year. Uh and then the overlay is a completely variable amount um that the the select board sets when we commit taxes. Um it it's allowed to be 5%.

Traditionally, it's been between 1 and 2% um over the years and that those funds are there uh to pay for any abatements that uh the town receives. So I am at the end of my presentation. Um, if anybody has questions for any of us, now's now's the time to ask.

We do have one question in the question and answer box. Um, and the question is, are there any residents that submitted nomination papers to serve on any board committees that we will be voting on? Uh, the answer to that is yes. Um, I believe Ruth, check me if I get any of these wrong. Uh I believe there there's one open select board seat and I believe uh Rich George is uh running unopposed for that.

Yes. And on the school committee uh similar story, one seat open. Candy Decipus is running for reelection unopposed I believe. And on the budget committee there are three open slots like there are every year. Um, but I believe only two turned in nomination papers. Uh, Neil Barry and and Lee Fischer. Is that correct?

Yes, that is correct. There'd be a one there'd be an open uh write in possibility for the budget committee. Um, and and write in for the others too, but um if people want, but that's that's who's turned in nomination papers.

Anything in the chat? Oh, wait. Another question. Oh, just a thank you. Just a thank you. questions? available now if if you're interested and you can absentee vote in person, uh, as well during normal town office, uh, hours. And if you think of a question later and, you know, meant to ask it, certainly reach out to, um, you know, a board member or the town office and we will do our best to um, get an answer for you. Other than that, I will consider this public hearing closed and wish everyone a pleasant rest of your evening.