TranscriptSelect Board Meeting ~ February 5, 2015

but this time you guys are going to be the ones changing it. I think we have keys to that door. I don't know. I don't I don't have keys for the sliding thing. I'm pretty sure we have keys for that actually. So that's still something I need to I want to get on the uh agenda.

Yeah. Um because it should be more than one. I mean I would think I would think one of the selectments should have a full set of keys to all the buildings. Agreed. Agreed. And because I I can't I mean the selectman can't get into any other building if they even if they if they needed to if there was a alarm or anything.

All we've got is for this building. Yeah. Really? You ain't got enough rest of it? No, it's and I can't we can't even get into the um should have a master set right in here. So any select man with the keys to get in, you go and get the master set.

Well, that's right now that's the problem. anybody that has the has the key to get in would be able to get to that whether it's an office of I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying. Yeah. But so I I do want to bring that up on a on an agenda sometime to have at least one selectman with a full set of keys

or a box in the edit just to select have a code too. Yeah, that would work too. The master is this replace a couple of pages. That's to replace the whole administration one. Um changed. It's been changed. She put the kabash to it already. You added more to it already.

I didn't add I I did add some and I some I did both. Did you subtract 85,000 or [laughter] [clears throat] Well, that those people don't like you. So, these first three first three are the ones we're swapping out, I'm assuming.

Yeah, I I'm keeping them in just for reference, but yes, that's what we're Yeah. Is Josh going to get the um I'm not sure. He called me, but I didn't answer. And I called back and he hasn't called back. So, I'm guessing he's going to be a little late.

Why can't that piece of file? minutes to get something up. It's okay. I was just I I have annual report quotes, but I I can't find them. I mean, I I have them. I just open them. That'll be a bit before we get to it to that.

So, it doesn't mean I'm going to be able to open them then either. [laughter] Yeah, I know. But it was a good try. Uh anytime, John. All right. We'll call this workshop to order. And uh this is our second workshop on the budget. Let's see. So tonight, should we just start going straight through?

Yep. Yeah. See what we scope. All righty. So So um I'm just going to kind of step down through each each of the line items. So starting with administration. Uh starting on administration. Yeah. Selectman uh chairman selectman salary. Um I'm not going to ask for any increase on that. We'll just keep that where that one is. Uh tax collector salary zero. That's going to fall off in a year or two. Same with the treasurer salary. Yeah. Deputy tax collector um clerk and so on. We've

got a we've got a decrease but with a rate. And how does that work? Oh, no. I get paid less. That's is that the No, that's yours. It decreases my salary. No, I'm looking at line nine. Uh, we actually have an increase of $469. I was looking at it wrong.

Oh, yeah. [snorts] And that was with a three. That's thinking of a with a 3% raise. Yep. town clerk, same 3% raise increase of $500. these s do we want to look at the salaries now or do we want to wait till the end and kind of put everything together like we did last year and try to figure something out

that's what I think we should talk about one time yeah yep um the one that there is one that stands out and that this one is kind of a uh it's [snorts] not going to go by the same formula I don't think that we and we need to discuss and that's code enforcement [snorts]

right and that would be increasing the hours Yeah. So, so line 13, this is a change from our initial one. So, the initial request was um 24 hours a week plus two hours extra per week for meetings, etc. And a $25 per hour. You

still have the 25 in the comments. So, this one that you put together with us was with 2175. Uh, yep. $21.76. Okay. 21.75. The same hour. same same number of hours and uh Paul would like to just kind of speak I think some on this right a

little bit. Yeah. You okay speaking open meeting because this this does fall under personnel so we could go executive if you No public knowledge here so I'm not I'm not concerned about get lost but it ain't going to be after that [laughter]

the truth. Yeah, you know, a couple of things is with um Ruth had pulled some information off of the MMA website as far as code salaries and stuff and it there isn't a really broad range of towns that are part of MMA and it's a little difficult to tell from their exactly what their fee structures are coming in. A lot of the towns use their um augment their salary requirements for codes with fees from permits and it's hard kind of hard to know where their figures are. Most of the stuff over 4,000 is paying more than the stuff under 3,000 because they were under Mubck. Um so

Ruth and I just took the sort of average between 4,000 and 5,000. uh and it came in a little on the lower end, but that's where the 2175 or so came from in that regard. Uh in looking back through the paperwork of what I can find, um we got it appears that the

permit fees coming in from June forward since I started have increased the re the the fee revenue by 66%. over what was coming in. Um, yeah. So, it looks like the time that you guys have that I have put in for you guys is paying off.

I think with a modest fee increase in the um ordinances that we had talked about because it's been so long since that fee structure's been really touched at all. uh as well as some increases for violations, people who don't get permits or fail to get inspections and various things that would sort of encourage people to want to pay attention because you start hitting them in the wallet and they start doing what they're supposed to do. It wouldn't be difficult for me to be self-supporting even at the new salary rate

and the new hours. Um, so it's it's one of the few opportunities that we have as well as the fact that should I do my job properly and and do my job with the assessor's agent properly that people start getting taxed who should be getting taxed for what they're doing and people who aren't don't. If I don't do that part of my job and the assessor doesn't get the information for four or five years, the entire town collectively pays the taxes for the new people's evaluations that don't pay the taxes. And it's just it's not right. If you you evaluate your property higher, you want to upgrade it, you should pay the tax on the upgrade and not your neighbor who didn't do anything. So So it looks like we're on track. It may take a year or two for all of that to come completely around, but hopefully it's encouraging enough to give you um some ideas about why we need more time in the office for one. Uh and I think it does warrant a

little better pay rate. So hopefully my um I I had been looking at this too because I saw the initial one in the increase and I had was I had actually wondered about coming back and proposing 22 and and so on. So the proposal that uh she came back was close and I actually wouldn't mind giving if if the board is is okay with it. I would wouldn't mind going with 22. I think we're getting our monies. I dealt with the old caller force officer and he's definitely doing more above and beyond and getting the revenue in for us that we belong and making it more. I agree with that too. 22 was is round. Could you calculate?

And I think that at least from from what my sense is that historically perhaps there's been a disconnect between code enforcement and assessing. And so I think closing that loop is also going to help as far as we need to we need every bit of revenue we can generate.

They can now they they're now in whenever Donna is in the office um Paul is usually here as well. So that Yeah. I've so far have given her two two full reports on uh permits and close closeout permits as well as open permits and what the work is doing. So her and I are working pretty close on most of that stuff which is good and and in some ways it seems a little crass to say well you know it's the only way that we can get revenue. It's more important to me to understand that the revenue is getting taken from where it should be taken and not from where it shouldn't be taken. And that's in the past, you know, especially after last year's tax increase when folks on fixed income come in here and have to take the hit.

That's that's hard. It's hard to see people suffer in those ways. And folks, you know, the ones who should pay should pay and the ones who shouldn't shouldn't. And that's just the way the system's built. So anyway, well, I appreciate your patience and and um I I do want to say that I feel really well supported by you guys and it makes my job a lot easier and I really appreciate it. Well, I I think that since I've been here, time that has changed from what it was,

which was interesting, I guess, to say the least, but it's definitely, I mean, just getting reports and stuff that we never had before, never actually never had even before I was there, it's just made quite a difference. So, I'm I'm very happy with what's been going on. And I think one of the potential areas of of concern when with this transition was the people had gotten used to

the way as usual business being done a particular way and I at least from from the sounds of things it sounds like you have been able to to handle that pretty gracefully with a minimum amount of of conflict and push back which I think is is a real credit to you and and your ability to deal with people because it really is a change in in how businesses has historically been conducted in in the codes.

So, we're going to 22. That's Yeah. Do do you have that? Um, with the 22, it's 26,496. 2649. That'll change FICA and Medicare a little bit too. Well, money on 13 26 26 490 26496. Yeah, I wouldn't worry about FICA and all that cuz that's going to change as we when we actually meet when we actually decide on the others. So rather than change them three or four times.

Okay. Yeah. No, this way. Thank you very much. Um actually we'll uh I'll mention line 14 too because that one is um going to be different I believe as well because we did just give the 90day assessment raise on that. So that won't be pulled in with all the others either. Uh

thanks Paul. Thank you. Right. Um the benefits, the health, I see there's actually a pretty hefty increase on the health insurance this year, huh? Uh there was, but um because I only um get health insurance for myself, uh there was also a large decrease in my

That's true. There's So the overall on that, the overall in there is actually a decrease, but Right. Um Okay. And that won't change. Yeah. um FICA, Medicare, that's all based on the other uh general insurance uh includes property and for the vehicles.

Okay. And that's from MMA. Okay. So, and so the increase is due to the increase in the number of vehicles basically or uh part of it the increase in the number of vehicles, part of it is a 10% increase um okay MMA. So that makes sense. was 10% for the thing and then the other 3% is basically the four months that we didn't have the V equipment,

right? So, yeah, stuff like that. Okay. Workers comp. Um, that's cuz you took right a bunch out and put it other places. Yep. And, um, where did it all where did it end up? I know. Well, some of it's in public works and some of it's in the fire department.

Okay. So, so as a whole, you know, it's gone up and I well, we did public works already, but when I did the public works when I also added another $1,100 uh because we went over payroll for last year and so when they audit us, I I suspect that they're going to charge us another $1,100.

Okay. computers, networking, computer hardware. Um the 927 was basically I think that we spent last year was for the laptop and we bought a printer I think maybe I'm not sure on I think we I think we replaced the printer on uh on the desk out there, but

yeah, the 1500 we're basically on a schedule of trying to replace two stations every year. Um, I know Donna's computer is is wolffully and so is inadequate and so is Shannon's. So, do you think is 15 going to cover two? Um, we put 15 in last year for one and we we

desktops have come back. So, we delayed it. So, we What do you go through for those? Uh, you know, I don't really know. Is John involved? John does it. Yeah. Okay, great. So, like the laptop, we actually went and got it for Staples. Um, before we bought everything from was it Harris or who? I forget who, but we before we bought it from a company uh that comes in and will set everything up for you. But, uh, the laptop we actually bought through Staples.

So, that's why that was probably considerably less. Good deals on Newegg, too. Action computers. Action. Thank you. He would love to sell us some more. I'm sure you probably Yeah, you're probably capable of going online and finding them cheaper. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah.

Do you think 15 is enough for two stations to set and with setup with software? Yeah. Software and and monitors too or not? Uh, we don't need monitors. Okay. What we got for monitors are fine. As far as trio, would you is that something you can install?

Yes. Okay, good. So, yep. If not, I call you. I did I did want to go with uh start going with two because we missed the one last year and for two computers. Two workstations. Yeah. Two workstations. And [snorts] um I think two over the long period, as long as we keep doing two, we'll be okay.

Yeah. Um we didn't spend anything last year. We're asking for 500 this year. Not entirely sure what that would cover. Um because it doesn't cover Harris. No, it doesn't cover the trio stuff. Um I believe it was at one point some if we had to buy more antivirus or

we could get antivirus. We're doing that free. Um we haven't you know we we allocated 500 in 2013 and didn't spend any. Right. We haven't spent anything since 2012. The the only other thing is if the state has anything that they're going to send down to us, but you haven't heard any rumblings on any changes to Moses or anything that

it's all online anyways. It's not Okay. So, has there been any talk about connecting the fire department in the public works building to the network or Yeah, that's in um the I think that's in your budget, isn't it, John?

Is he still there? I'm not sure if he left yet. I think that's in John's budget when we get there. Okay. Yeah. So, can we get rid of that? Um, now we get rid of it or cut it back 200 or is it Did we have to just buy something here just recently? It was like $250 or something for the one of the computers that PM uses something something crapped out or something. Not just not too long ago, a couple months ago, didn't we have to buy

hardware or software? To me, they're the same. I don't know the difference. I know it was some plug or switch or something that went and John B got one put in but I thought oh our network switch network switch just went out. Yeah. And and he replaced it. So

I would say too that you know the the 1500 sure we have enough to cover for that if that happens again. The 1500 for the two stations doesn't include any kind of backup in case one of the printers decides not to work anymore.

Right. And so most of the printers are are bit new. We've replaced most of the printers except for the dot matrix ones, but those dotas are the ones that I would be worried about mostly because even if we had to, I mean, we could probably share the other printers.

So, you want in half? Um, I was thinking two cuz the last time we spent anything was 2012 and it was about 200. Do you know is there a backup any kind of a backup solution here as far as to to back up the data files and data?

The the on trio. So that goes to we we back I thought we backed everything up um overnight gets backed up to offsite. Okay, great. Is it offsite? I thought we had offsite storage. I'm not sure. I'd have to ask John. Yeah, John's the one to ask.

Remember those for when there was like a drop box or there was some kind of Yeah. want to lower that to 200? Yeah. Is everybody okay going 200 on that? Does anybody want to go zero? No, I'll leave some in there. I just I know that was around 250, you know.

So 200. Yeah, that'll work. Okay. We found a good deal on that. So, Trio, that's that's a contract price, right? It is what it is. Yeah. And for just for you, uh I don't know if you know, Trio is our Okay, you have it. Okay, good. Um equipment lease. That's the copier.

Copier. Yep. And did it go up or um No. Okay. It's $144 a month. So, we might be able to lower that a little bit if we wanted to. Yeah. Well, we had it all last year. We spent$,746, so probably$,750 would cover it. And not that not that quibbling over $50, but we switched to that um was it last year that we switched to the rental from the one that we owned.

Um 2013, we I think we had the whole year last year on it. So, right, because it included our lease includes the toner and all of that. So, it actually turned out to be a No, John's still here. I just saw him go back in.

Okay. If we need if he's we have questions. So, he may have he may be able to speak to why, but I wonder if that's just the way it was. I mean, I see it's been carried over the past couple years. It looks like 2013 you spent more then.

No, that was on a different uh lease. 20. Um, so 1750 or do you just I as long as long as we think that'll cover it. I mean, I don't want to cut this. How much How much did you say at least? I think it's $144 $145 a month.

Yeah. So, yeah, that would beundred $150 a month would be uh 1,800. So, 1728 with no hiccups. So, 1750. It looks like a pretty fair 1750. I'm good with that. I was going I was just dropping it down to 1750 just to Yeah, that's that's okay. I just don't want

1750. No. If we know what the price is, then Yeah. 1750. Yep. 1750 equipment repairs. We don't have anything. We haven't for a while. We should be okay. I mean, we just that that network switch is the Yeah, that's the backbone of the network, so it should go a while.

Okay. Operating expenses, publications. I actually lowered that quite a bit. Um, last year a lot of that expense was for a plumbing book and electrical book. Um, most of our our manuals we can get online um and even print if we wanted to. Um,

you say you lowered it, but you actually went from 100 to 850. I'm sorry. My original figure was quite a bit higher than that. [laughter] Now, this publication, is that for the town? Does that do with the It has to do with the books that we need.

Um, the There's $750 in that for a code manual for Paul that he gets from the state. That's nothing to do with town reports, right? No. No, that's completely Did you get the elected officials manual yet? Uh, there is there is an elected officials manual. Barry, turn his back in.

I don't know. No, I never got it. So, I'm winging it. They said they said that uh it should be turned back. If he doesn't turn it in, I mean, we could print them and do one offline. Okay. Just nudge me if I'm out of bounds. M quiet.

line is sometimes. includes the 750 for code manuals. Yeah. Okay. the furnishings and equipment. Uh, that's for a possible rearrange of the front counter. Mark was helping me to try and figure that one out. What's your vision on it?

Ours. I need to make it needs to be lowered. Needs to be lowered and a little bit less. When when I reach cross counter and somewhat [clears throat] too, I can't reach the customers. No, it's Well, at least one station has to be lowered, right?

Yeah. Well, or should be. I I think the whole thing should be I've been watching as even when Janet was here, she's always on her tiptoes. And even Pam, even though she's a little taller, she's on her tiptoes someday. It's it's too deep and it's too high. If it could be dropped down at least four to six inches and 6 in off the depth of it, it would be

If we if we make changes, do we have like that? Do we have to make one of them handicapped accessessible? if we actually start making changes. I mean, if you got to make a change to the counter top, you do because um what you can do is you put like a drawer there that that the handicap person

right now if you have someone comes in a wheelchair, what do we do? I've never experienced it. I would assume that we'd come around the corner or or invite them in or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I wasn't I mean we can handle

somebody get in the door with a with a wheelchair, you know. Huh. Well, that should be off. You've got buttons. Other buttons. Okay. I guess if not they should be able to come up and yeah at one point my understanding is that there was discussion about removing the plexiglass and then just having a pull down thing at night when you know on a rolling pull down and I don't know

I don't like that plexiglass thing because I was trying to line the whole point I'm way up above it the cost I think they looked at the cost of the like a rollup thing and I think that was a little bit rather expensive but I think we do need to look at something.

Yeah. I mean, they have those little things you can put in there so when you're talking out the hollow, but even those ain't a ain't very good. And it's it's And to be quite honest with you, I I was looking at the cabinets and trying to see if they were individual or all one or if you could just take the base out. The base is hooked to the cabinets. So, you can't just take the base out and drop them down. That would be ideal. But, um, and and I really don't think $1,500 is going to cover it. I think you're going to be for material, you're going to be another $1,000 above that. to do it somewhat air right without even adding any labor. But I think we can manage something with that. It just may not be perfect. We like it. I don't really care for the glass either. But part of my thing even when Janet was here was safety. You know, it's a strange world we live in these days. And we've had some interesting characters in

here while I was here. So, one of the things I want to make sure is if we take that glass out, we have something there so that somehow they could be safer. So, here's a here's a thought. What if we take this out of here? Um, if it's over 3,000, I think you can call it a capital project. And we do have that we have the uh building fund with 35,000 in it. Fig figure out how much it would cost to do it, right? Um, with with with a way to close it off and things like that and put it out there as a capital on

that would be that would be probably better. Yeah. I mean, I hate to spend 1,500 or 25 and it's only half two years working half. So, we drop the counter a couple inches and then what? We just have a bigger gap in the plexiglass or we replace the plexiglass.

I talked with um Gary cuz he actually put that in and he's pretty sure that that's just set in there with this trim that's around holding that. So, that whole thing could come out rather easily. There may be a little cocking across the bottom, but it wouldn't be nothing to separate the two because that other 3/4 in that was separately put on there to take care of I guess those gaps before. Yes.

So, do you think you could with within the next few days you could come up with an idea of what it would cost to lower it, right? And to come up with something other than the plexiglass to close it off and stuff like that.

Yeah. I'll see if I can and because I I'd like to see it put out as a capital project. Yep. If we did that, maybe we could put the uh right handicap thing in the middle so that wouldn't be an issue down the road. That would be really good.

Yep. So then we're accommodating everybody. We're not ideally what you ideally want, but you don't want to know that is having separate tables that can be raised and lowered because [laughter] it may not always be Ruth. It may not always be Pome. You know what I mean? But you know, we can find a happy medium.

They just did that in our work. See, there is there is an industry standard. Yes, there is. What about the water fountain? Was that ever going to get fixed? Can that be a capital project? Well, I don't even know what's wrong with it.

I don't know. I don't know what's wrong with I just heard that it it leaks all over the place and people slip on the floor and that's why it's off. I see. That's what I've heard here. So, it might be a simple easy fix and really

maybe you're asking the wrong person. [laughter] Maybe maybe it's worth at least asking a plumber to look at it. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. Yeah, I'll see. That's not secondary. It's there. I've seen people. If we did that, can we get rid of that?

Take rid of get rid of that. Yeah. Go back to 125. Yep. Yep. I can do that. All right. Okay. So, that's coming. 15's coming out. One back to 125, right? Okay. Thank you. Okay. Next one. Office supplies. Uh this may seem a little high. It actually includes um copies. Half of that's just for copies. Um because we do get a certain number of copies that come with the the contract. Um but beyond that, we have to pay a certain amount per copy. And looking at last year's expenses, that doesn't look high at all compared to last year's expenses.

No. Yes, it is what it is. Sorry. Do Do we have an idea why it increased? Uh cuz we went up we went up 900 bucks. I don't know whether we did more copying. I looked at the different paper. I mean, the prices are going down. It shouldn't be so so bad this year, but I don't know why.

I didn't know. You know, is codes doing more copying? But it does indicate a $100 spurt site evaluation equipment. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, but I was looking at our expenses. Our expenses increased last year by 900. Yeah.

And I didn't know what might have actually triggered that, but someday we'll be getting rid of all this paper and we'll have all the surfaces in front of us and we'll be able to flip through it and just do our minutes just right off the be uploaded and that's the way to do it, but get rid of all the paperwork. Well, so

let's talk in future. Are you going to add a line for iPads? [laughter] I think that can come out of the technology budget. [laughter] What? The iPads for the selectment can come out of your So we can get rid all the paperwork.

No, no, no. [laughter] I'm still kind of technology stipen that has to go in, right? All right. Uh, next one. Selectman's discretionary. Uh we I see you put an increase in it and we've already spent spent 100 of it. We've already spent 100 of it. It's that's

it typically goes for flowers for funerals. We've we had two funerals this year. So Yep. Um we've also done I think we've given uh like a student uh sometime once or twice a little little bit of an award for some project they did.

We use that money also for the the logo logo. The Yeah, that's right. We did that too. Yeah. All right. that's with a 3% increase. That's with a 3% increase. Um putting in the hours we had budgeted for last year or Nope. We did.

Okay. We just kind of It looks like maybe we did a round rounded up budget. Okay. Um, FICA Medicare supplies, that's the same. Looks good. Looks like you're hitting it right on the money. Security, same. So, you haven't heard that they're going to increase anything?

Nope. I haven't heard anything. John said that that he thought they were going to do the same. Blame it on John. General maintenance. What? We didn't General maintenance includes generator maintenance. Generator. There it is.

I think you got something wrong in that comment. Which one? Under generator. I'm I'm looking around. Cell phone. Yeah. Yeah. So 250. So we didn't do anything with the generator last year, I guess. So we probably definitely need to do it this year.

See, there's been nothing last year. So [laughter] and uh I'm sure we're going to come to that line or maybe faster, but I've heard talk that we haven't really looked at the furnace system here very often and we should have that at least every year cleaned. Well, and it was we did just do it.

They just fixed the one on this side um because it broke down. So, they had to go up and they repaired it. I don't know if they cleaned it. They didn't ser You don't know if they serviced? I don't think so. I think they just

checked out because what I understand it hasn't been serviced since before Janet came and it wasn't serviced while she was here. Yeah, that would be down under probably 69. Is an HVAC. What's that? Is it an HVAC? I don't know. I I don't really know what I believe. I've never really looked at it. We can't just have people come over and do it. Probably

Semens or something like that come and do it. That's what we got. All right. Down east is the one who came and serviced it for us or prepared it for us. So telephone uh we basically we were very close on spending on that and you put it the same. So that makes

propane I I lowered that. Um we had had a contract for 2.009 009 and we hadn't renewed the contract for this year because I I think with Janet leaving it just didn't get done. Yeah. Um and I I think we can probably do the same again right back in that last year. Yeah.

So, okay. Um grounds 4,800. That's the That's the mowing, isn't it? That's the mowing. Um the contract is up this year. Um, what do you know when the the last part was for 2014? So, I I don't know if we have to go out to bid or if we can renew the contract.

That's just what the buildings. That's not including the parks or the cemeteries. Those are those are separate those are in separate lines in those, but we need to we got to go out to uh if we don't go out to bid the town will beat us up for

RFP. Okay. Well, and then the other issue then as we talked about a little bit with public works is if we've got right almost five grand in mowing here and then we see what it is in cemeteries going to be around 15 20 grand.

That's that's actually if if we can if I just buy a can we add all those up? Um so that we can see the actual whole number. Um the only thing I'd keep separate I'd keep um the cemetery. I'd like to see the cemetery number two, but I'd keep that separate from the others

because some of that we can offset with the with the perpetual care fund. Um, possibly. Yeah, but this the other thing with the cemeteries, it's cemeteries are very labor intensive. Yep. And all the weed whacking. Yeah. Been there, done it.

Most of them. Yeah. Unless you like baseballst cemetery. So, um, next one is plowing. We're not doing that now. The uh so um when we when we look at our um our uh public works figure, we should take that into consideration because that was something we were doing before and we're not doing now. So,

yep. Now, this maintenance and repair, this next one here, I know I'm a little ahead of you guys. paint for town hall. Is that something we can add in with the countertop and put it as a capital improvement job? Um, is this for the

It's inside, right? It's for this one for interior. Yeah, we we probably I don't see why we couldn't do that. Uh cuz that would be you. It's in call it interior repairs and stuff like that. You can don't call it maintenance because then it's no not uh

okay not capital. So, we're going to cut that line all together. made it for quite a long time and it is looking kind of it's tough. If we can do the counter top and paint it. Yeah. So, we I I see we spent 1,100 here this last year. I don't know what what it was all on.

Is that the furnace repair? Some of it was, although it wasn't that much. So, if we went with 800 in this, would that give us enough to to maybe do do the uh um at least have the furnaces serviced and have enough? I I would think so. I don't know what kind of furnace this is, but I would think 800 would

and and and then small things around that. Oh, yeah. I would think so. Yeah. Drop it down to eight. I would think so. probably don't know. Is it air and I believe so. I We have air and we have heat here. So, it must be an HV.

Must be. Yeah. So, quit being an HVAC. So, yeah, I think you'd be fairly safe for that. Okay. I believe there's one for each side. I could be wrong about that. Okay. Could be. Uh you got two thermostats right there. So, but one I don't know that one works. I I I didn't want

electric one does not. I was going to say one of them looks like it was electric at one point. That's probably been taken out. Yeah. Well, this the re the heat is still there, but it probably not connected. Yeah. Um so, we're on to electricity town buildings. Um, I assume this is it. It's going down. And

theoretically, it's supposed to the newest information is that the electric rates are supposed to go down by 13%, but I'm, you know, not sold. So, you're just keeping it flat of what we spent last year. Yeah. That makes sense.

Yeah. Gas was going down too until it went up 14 cents the next day. Well, last year electricity was supposed to go up by, I don't know, some phenomenal like 15 or 20%. But the newest information is it's going down. So, so street lights, same thing. We're just budgeting flat on it.

Yep. Yep. Traffic control that got moved out. Traffic control repairs got moved out. And all all that is is the light the blinking light over at uh Quaker meeting house. We spent we spent an hour and a half or more on on just this line one year with the budget committee. [laughter]

Been a lot of accidents over there. Yeah. So, uh, Union Church, uh, security is flat from what we paid last year. Mhm. Electricity is flat and telephone's flat from what we paid. So, yeah. Okay. And we have to maintain the telephone line for the security. Correct.

Right. And then, in fact, that's all it's there for, right? Yeah. Um, election payroll. I had it uh it went over last year. I see it went over last year. This year should be a very I would think would be a very small year.

There's three elections. There's uh the town meeting and the budget advisory. Yeah. When they have to go and do that. The the town meeting, the um we'll have one in June for the school. But the school if if it's only the school, the school covers costs for that.

Does it cover the payroll as well? I believe so. Um did you want to run and check ask Shannon? She probably would know. referendum. Do they cover payroll and all the stuff or is it just all move that they do [laughter] even though I know it's still out of our pocket. I mean, if if I look back at the last off year, we expended 27. If we put it at 31 or 32 or something like that,

I see. Yeah. 27. Yeah. 31. You want to click. Okay. Uh that would give that would give a little bit of of uh wiggle room in case we have a uh a special election for something or whatever. Okay. 31. 3100. Everybody okay with that?

Comparing that for what now? back. Um, comparing it back to 2013, we spent 2739. That was the last off year. year. That's That was the presidential election. Governor, governor, I mean, sorry, governor election. Next year is the presidential election.

Yeah. In presidential election, we spent almost 6,000 that year. Yeah. which is why I would anticipate is why you're including the the $2,000 for upgrading the voting booths in anticipation of Yes, it's actually half of the upgrade. Um we're 12 voting booths short according to the state in the number of voters that we have. Um so that's a replacement of eight voting booths.

That's replacement or addition. Oh, addition, sorry. Addition of eight. At some point we got to replace two, but yeah. Well, we'll get there sometime. But uh so kept that line moving a lot quicker. Is is everyone okay with 31?

Yeah. Yep. Yep. Okay. Um, FICA, Medicare, you can adjust those as needed with the new numbers. Voting machine, hopefully the state won't push another one down on us this year. Not this year, but next year we're going to want to look at that.

Okay. Um, election expenses. Um, okay. That includes the 2,000. So, that that's the difference. Yep. Mhm. And you said that's for eight. Are they similar in style to what we have or are they completely different? Well, the if you if Well, I'm looking at different things. If you do the eight the way I was looking at with the full $2,000, they'd be in similar in style. You can also get the round ones, you know, where there's one on each side. The other option, if we really want to go inexpensive, what they have is um they're like privacy booths. They have plastic privacy booths. So, what you would do is you would put tables down um and then you

obviously put them on top of the table. Yeah, tabletop. That's that's that looks to me it would look cheesy. I was going to say that's not inexpensive. That's cheap. [laughter] $25 per screen. So, let's get the blue tarp. Well, I mean, I suppose it would labor putting on the table.

I suppose it wouldn't wouldn't be bad to have a a couple of that type of thing on hand if you need if if you need extra. Yeah. Yeah. But I wouldn't but not for not for a regular. Okay. So, we'll go with the expense. Yeah.

Nothing but the best for our taxes. [laughter] All right. On to legal expenses. And I see it says includes 2,000 for CEO legal fees, the codes enforcement officer. So that that comes to about 68 to 70 hours worth of legal fees for the year.

Um which I don't think is extraordinarily right. Um I had wondered I I mean so two years ago we spent 10,000 something. Three years ago we spent 18,000. Last year we had a pretty small year. Um, we had a couple of extraordinary things going on the previous two years,

right? And my understanding is that those are all now resolved, that those are remote enough in time that that those are resolved. I had been wondering if we could go with just the 10,000 that we had in last year and whether that could cover it. But I know you never know you on the legal. It's a it's a gamble. [laughter]

Yeah. If you want to go on 10, I'm fine with But if you want to keep the way it is, I'm fine. How many hours do we get from MMA with our with our dues? Or do you have to pay for that? You don't you don't pay for it. But it's it's

so they they'll give you the It's um qualified legal advice is the best way I can they give a more general answer rather than addressing the the specifics of the probably yes, but maybe no. Yeah. [laughter] It's not quite magic.

Well, that's pretty similar to what you get sometimes from your own attorney, too. Yeah. Yeah. For the [laughter] guy that gets 150 bucks an hour 175. [snorts] But so what's the what's the thought? Do you want to go with the 12? You want to put it back to 10?

Well, it sounds I know I don't know how much we've already used. I know that that codes has used the town attorney a little bit already this year. So I don't know how how deep we are into that number. and not very deep, but I can check for sure.

He's still got some situations to deal with. It does sound like we may be spending a little bit more on the codes end than we have historically. Yeah. And the thing is is as he actually does the job, he may uncover more needs to to reach out.

And I'm okay with leaving that 200 in he's going to get it back. We can I mean at least for this for this year and we can see how it goes. Um the legal fees for CEO if you have to check take something to court and town wins you get

party gets their their attorney's fees paid assuming the assuming the other party can pay it but [snorts] absolutely yeah okay so yeah we're only 8750 this year so far yeah audit audit expenses uh you put in 1,100 have you found out exactly what the bill

I talked to Jen she said 000. Sorry. Thank you. 11,000. It shouldn't go over 11,000, [clears throat] you know, but there's never a guarantee. Okay. So, I mean, and if we find out if we get the actual number, we can plug the actual number in because this is one of the things that we'll pay it now and we'll be done with it. So,

right. Y MMA do MMA dues is looks like it went up some. It did. And AFCOG or GPCOG? We've moved. It's GPCOG now. We moved to GP Cog. lowered the price. It's a dollar per capita instead of a $150 per capita or something like that. And we're getting actually getting more out of it. Um uh they they offer more services especially on like office supplies and things like that.

They offer a lot more bulk purchase options than than ABCOG does. Uh particularly I think in the public works end. I was going to say seems like that was one of the bigger selling points because they the public work Yeah. you get culverts and many others. U both ACCOG and GPCOG did salt um and their prices were similar.

Um office expenses tax billing 25. Um I had a question. Does any do we know why it went down so much last year? Uh we were down what six almost 600. I I think and you guys can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that there wasn't an insert last year,

right? We did two years ago, we did an insert explaining just sort of a short comment on on the rise the significant rise in property taxes. Do do we foresee having to do one this one this year? I know I mean we're going to have an increase this year, I'm sure, with with every with everything that's going to going to be transpiring, but

Right. I don't know that we need to do another that that first one was the first time we had that big an increase. And well, it's Did everybody get the email that I sent out today? Get your tax bill if you read it. Yeah.

Did you guys all get the email I threw out to you today? Did I check? I I Yeah, I saw it. But I It's something we're going to have to chew on. And um you know, I to be honest, I don't think I mean, we'll we have to keep an eye on it. I don't think a lot of this stuff is going to make it through the legislature, a legislature with a split legislature. It's

it's premature to start planning one way or the other, but be and we're in a good situation because we don't pre-spend our money. We we have our money that we brought in from last year and and anything else that we we take in up through June, I think, is what how we do it. And we don't pre-spend base uh basing it on what we expect to get. So we have a we we have a year to respond to whatever happens usually.

I haven't seen it yet. So I just it was you know the idea is he wants to eliminate revenue sharing over time. So, I mean, this morning I I I listen to Ken and Mike in the morning a lot and they were talking with the mayor of Auburn who is is works closely with the governor and uh they use Durham as an example and he he said, you know, look at Durham, they get about 134 grand said they're going to eliminate that, but with the income tax savings collectively, the town will save $1.4 million. So, you're it's a 10 to1 tradeoff. You know what I mean? So, and I realize that's not in our budget and that's not going to be the same for every person because some people aren't tax I mean some people aren't making an income, you know what I mean? So, they it would hurt them. But he's also talking about tripling the tax property fairness credit. So, for the people that it would it would hurt, you know, I

mean, so so so that's what I'm saying is we we would have to present that is yes, we had to increase your property taxes. You're probably paying $ 20 $30 more, but you probably have $200 or $300 more in your pocket. At this point, I don't think that we need to address that in this budget because I I think it's all

Okay. undecided in Augusta at this point. Sure. Right. They're kicking the can around. Yeah. Do we want to do anything on the tax billing? Um, kick it down to 2,000. That's where I was thinking, but two grand. All right. Um I would go maybe 21 because two two years or

say we was two years ago we was 2150 over 21. Well the 2372 was the year that we sent out the insert and so without the insert you're 21. Yeah. Okay. I can probably live with that. So So 22 you're saying or 21? 21 was what I was thinking.

Yeah. Yeah. That's fine. Okay. Uh wans and discharges. I see that's going up, but that's because we're actually doing them, right? Imagine [laughter] that. Huh. Um, town reports and printing. I did some research and my my computer just Okay, computer just died. Um, and I've gotten several different quotes. The difference between Well, we were looking between doing 600 or 700. I guess you guys did 600 last year and you ran out. I didn't I I wasn't aware that we did, but okay.

That's what I've told. Um so if we do 84 pages, which is without the commitment part, um the lowest bid I got for 600 is $1842. $1,842. If you do the 116 pages for the 600, it's 258. So it's only a difference about $216. But that's $216. And that's

the lowest bid, right? in where we've just didn't we just vote to put all the commitment stuff online online online as a searchable PDF is is the lowest one from who we've typically done it with no it's from quality copy in August

and that includes a uh a glossy card stock type cover and that was what 21 uh it it's 208 if you do 116 of page 600 and do they know how the the method that we because I know I'm I'm pretty sure uh Janet had to kind of do it peace meal like one a page at a time or something.

No, I'm going to take it and I'm going to put it into a PDF. Okay. I have experience with that and I have a page plus program which is a free program that's a publishing program. I just whatever Shannon comes up with, I'll just throw it into the and make it a PDF.

So, so that makes it cheaper. And I do kind of vaguely remember hearing a couple spots that we ran out and I'm not really sure what what they meant when they we can go up to run out of them. If we if we actually ran out last year with 600, I think we need to go to 700.

Right. The cheapest I get for the 84 pages for 700 is 21.95 and that's with Lincoln County Printing I always thought we had plenty and if you if 300 of them got taken, you was lucky. But when I heard that last year, it won't really.

Well, they we put them out at the get and go and and other places and and people they may not show up to town meeting, but a lot of them will take their town report. Probably partially because they want to see what their neighbors propertyy's valued at. [laughter]

Take it. That's true. We may [snorts] not need to go to 700 if we're not putting that in and we're [laughter] on the website. Well, that's the town report is available right on the website. whole report. So the whole report is

so if we go up to the 700 but we keep the 84 pages and leave the commitment out, we can stay under what we had last year for the the bill, the 2500. And that was a issue that came up actually with the budget committee last year. They they specifically noted that that that was

and we we they wanted us to have them they suggested that we look into having them copied at Kinkos rather than the glossy cover and what have you, which Janet did do and found that it was substantially more expensive to have them copied at Kinkos.

So, how much was it for the uh 700 copies and the full keeping everything in 116 pages? Yeah. The lowest bid I have on that is 25.40. Okay. And it's and it's 20 21.95 for if you didn't 784. If if you wanted 784 pages at 21.95 is the lowest bid I have.

Okay. And my understanding when we just had this discussion a couple weeks ago about putting the commitments on the as a searchable PDF on the website, one of the things that came up was that it would save us some printing costs on the

Yeah. So, so 300 we can Yeah. Do you want So, we can put that at 2200. I think so. Okay. Yeah. What's their lead time? Did they give you a lead time? Two um two weeks. Two weeks. Okay. So, make that 2200. I'm willing to bet there's still some people in town that don't have a computer.

Yep. But that's that's why I say we make it a if they want if they want that, they can pick it up here. We'll make a copy for them and pick it up here. Right. Well, and that was my only other thing is are people going to be angry when they go and get their annual report and not have

all that information? There are some people that will be maybe we can put a note right in it somewhere u pro in a prominent place that said uh the commitment can is now online available here or you can pick pick one up at the town office.

Yep. Okay. Um, speaking while we're on the town reports, um, got to be thinking cover. Yes. And I know that Russ had sent out a email to the selectman with a recommendation for who did to to do this for the dedication. Yeah. Um, I my suggestion going with PR past practice would be the uh public works building.

I was just going to say for the cover. I was going to say that' be a good cover. Um that's of the year we had you know past practice is when you when they built a new building or added on that that building makes it on. Absolutely. Yeah.

It's a nice looking building. Yeah, it is a nice building. And the other um we do have to think about the um dedication. There was a suggestion for Mr. Acriman and [clears throat] um I don't know if we've had a chance to look through all the uh deaths to make sure we didn't to make sure there's nobody that would significantly contributed to town that we have that we

I can ask Shannon to do that cuz she would be a good person. She was supposed to be looking at it at some point. She hasn't said anything to me. All right, next line. Maybe we can get through this. Um no. Huh? [laughter] dues, training, and mileage. A fairly hefty increase.

Yep. [laughter] Um I includes 1,500 for CEO and 400 for reertification training. Um but I see we did we only expended 33 and that 19 33 and 19 would only be 52. Well, um Janet left before one of the conventions last year, so she wouldn't have gone to one of the conventions.

Okay. And I assume you're going to want to be starting to go to those. I I put enough for I used her figures from last year for the conventions and quite frankly my my thinking at this point is um when I run out of money I stop going. [laughter]

Well her and double check that because when Janet did them before the way that she put them in because she worked for two towns y is we paid for a portion. We paid half and the other town she worked for paid half. So, here's my

It actually said, well, it said that a third was from Bowdenham and a third was from the county. I don't know how she got the county to pay for a third of it. Well, um, as far as for like hotel, she would go in with one or two other people for a room, right?

And so, and I would probably be able to. So, that was but but as far as the actual um dues or fees for the training, I think it was I think it was between Bowden and Durham. I I don't know how the county would have Well, some of it because she was a county bail bondsman and so she [clears throat]

Oh, that could be I think that's why she got some of that. Okay. And I It seems like there was some of that cut last year. I know the the budgetary about that, but I'll tell you right now what I've seen. You can't cut training.

You got to have some of this training. Yes, you can't cut it. I mean, with you, this is your first time in this type of position. You need to get all the training you can get to to learn how to how to do what you need to do. keep your certifications up.

I think I did give you guys a sheet. I don't know if I actually handed it to you that had a list of the trainings that I wanted to go to um that Shannon wanted to go to. And um isn't there a budgeting training like today or this?

Yes. Went yesterday up. It don't take long to add up. I mean, I got I got one training I got to go to. It's 800 bucks. I mean, I got to go one day. Not usually that. It's Yes, I I see it here. All right. So, um postage I asking for the same. He spent pretty close to that last year. So,

we have to [clears throat] do certified mailings and postage increasing again this year. Not that I know of. I haven't heard. Advertising. We went over um I'd actually suggest that we put in an extra 600 maybe because we're going to be

advertising for the uh road commissioner and I think we're going to want to do an a bit of extra advertising for that over what we typically do. But we had done a a tremendous amount of advertising this past year as we advertised for all the public works positions

and we spent 2400 position. So we're not actually doing as I don't anticipate that we will be doing as much hiring in the upcoming years as we did this. No, but we spent 2400 last year. So I was cutting 600 out of what we spent.

Oh, I thought you were talking about adding an additional 600. Oh, well I was I was adding additional to the 1,200, but it's it's it's still adding 600 to the 24 we spent. And I [laughter] was like, no, no, no. Let's not go crazy.

You want to bump that up up to 18? I think to be on the safe side, I think I agree. I don't like it, but the panel will be reimbursing us for a portion of the um Have you been adding these into the uh sheet? So, can you like and give us a bottom number where we're at right now on administrator?

some places I think you know to be responsible for your town you don't have much choice training defin is going to pay for half yeah there or 40% 40% of that increase over for that for that position for that one position

I do like the fact that you added the abatements line in I I find that useful so that we can that has not historically been in and I think that's a useful thing to add so thank you where uh in line 119 is is taxes that we've abated

and sort of factoring that into the budget. Factor that in well yes and no because that's why you do an overlay too. The overlay is to cover abatements as well. But just so we have in our own mind sort of a sense of of where we are with that.

Yeah. Not that that's subject right now, but what folks about what abatements and uh uh yeah um one's not going to make it. Oh um I don't know. We can talk about that. Sure. Sure. Another time soon cuz the meeting is supposed to be next Tuesday.

Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. Um no most of them are pretty but we might it might it might have some discussion. So So that was administration. Yeah. I'm just waiting for the bottom line number. we're going to talk more about No, no, we'll come back to those cuz cuz we we really didn't we we tal we had a basically a presentation.

Yeah. So, we we got to do a capital project or we're going to be strong. That's different than the roads budget. Capital project is is is a whole different line. I just wondered if we could look at the paving budget and absorb a bond payment into that somehow.

You can't it has to be separate. A capital project cannot be part of your cannot be part of your operating budget. It has to be separate. So if you want to do something like that then you have to you you can cut some from paving or something but um when you do that you also cut the maintenance on the good roads.

Good roads. We won't want to do that. But [snorts] we had talked about being trying to be try to absorb, you know, a bond payment into Well, what we need to look at is the total that we were spending on roads to see where we're at contract versus what we're spending now and look at

is there wiggle room in between those two numbers to say that we could be spending the same amount of money that we were spending before and getting all this other stuff done. And there isn't. I've already looked at that.

You have. Exactly. And that's but we can when we get there we can look at that. But do you have a number? Uh I got 331 522 3 down a little bit. 331 331 522 522. So it went down almost 5,000. So and that gives a decrease of how much?

7145. 7145. And percentage uh percentage is negative 2.11%. 2.11. Okay. Administration. that's getting closer because I I I know one thing that that's going to come up and they say, "Well, you moved you moved this much workers compensation out to these other budgets and it was uh one one of it was 11,000 and I don't know what the other was." And they're going to they're going to want to see something like that out of this. So,

well, the seven the the difference between the two is pretty much the increases in the salaries. And you know we've if you look at historical total administration we've come down every year total administration which I think is is

okay animal control. Yeah. So, um what we have presented here is um almost almost flat from last year except for figuring in a uh increase in the in the salary line. Um coast uh going back up from the bottom, Coastal Humane, we know that's going to be the contracted price. Um services, I'm not sure what that was.

Uh oh, that was the that was the tank the tank of gas f and Medicare. So as far as if we stay status quo, this is basic there's not much you can you can do with this if we and there was some discussion at a previous meeting about possibly going back to hiring.

I just had mentioned about having on our next next discussion on our next meeting if we're going to do something and we're going to in the April 15th tell Lisbon we're going to go elsewhere. We need to put in an ad MMA that we're looking for, you know, and get a price. I'm I'm just taking a li 4,500 because I know they pay 36 over in Po a little bit bigger. Um, and put an ad out there saying, you know, 4,500 and a stipen for gas and see what we get for people that might want to hit the

So, you've not found anybody that's interested. Oh, yeah. You have. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We just got to get the ad out there so he can come apply for it. Right. And that's the conceal officer. I mean, the animal control officer, Ray Po. So

he gets paid 36 over there a year. We bump it up to 45. I think he he'd be very interested. So do you know if he gets mileage? Is that Jeff Cooper? Yes, he does. No, Jeff Cooper, I think. Oh, what did you say? Pound you said. Okay. Sorry. So just for I I did some comparisons too so we know what we're looking at. Um the town of Durm is approximately two and a half times the size of the town of Panel. And I looked at the um calls for in Panel compared to the calls in Durham and it's almost double. Durham has almost double the call the calls.

And so the population and the call rate appear to be about double about double. So uh I don't want to set it too high like it would if I was any employee hiring someone. I mean I want to bring them in this then later on give him a little more. I mean, if we said 45 or five, whatever we agreed to on

it cuz he he he if he says, "Hey, I'm up for it," then we're we're in for the we're in for this for the half the year. Yep. And um I guess my suggestion for this year is we keep it the way it is. Um gives us the option to go either way.

Yep. And um look like heroes if we do cut it and we don't look a zero if we don't have to. Well, exactly. We don't have the money in it, right? Yep. Cuz if Yeah. If we if we cut the we cut this and we don't we don't do it, then we're in trouble.

Yeah, absolutely. I agree with that. No one can say the same. Yeah. uh we have a decrease of $200 over everything because the of tax mapping. I'm not truly very familiar, but you know, we didn't spend that much last year, so

and I was looking at transfers and deeds, but if you go back and look at historically, 400's probably pretty close. Mhm. Um, postage. Interesting. We didn't use any postage last year. You know, I don't think that we separated postage out for them. Um,

okay. So, I don't know if we want to take the postage out of there since really it's not separate anyways. Well, it had been separate for the two previous years. So, 13 we spent 191 and then 108 the year before. So, uh and it really should be if if we c if we have an a way of separating it, then we probably should.

You'd have to count. Yeah. It's not We don't have a machine that's going to tell you that you code in what department. And yes, I I don't know how Janet did it, but she I know she split it out for every department so that we knew each department what they were spending in postage.

Okay. Yeah. Cemeteries. Um, that you want to be separate the flags and the mowing contract. Correct. 3500 in mowing right there. Yeah. Um if but that's the one that's going to be labor intensive and yeah whether that would mowing for that is going to save us anything.

Right. Right. I would say does the same person mow the cemeteries that mows the other town? Believe so. Is it? Yeah. It's it's uh what is it? Riverside and it's $7,800. Riverside. No. No. Riverside's not the same one. This one the one that was doing was talking.

Dami does the buildings better. Yankee. That's the one I was trying to think of. Yeah. Yankee Edwards, which is boy. So Yankee does the the town ones in Right. Riverside does the Riverbend. Riverside River. Riverbend. Riverbend.

Okay. So, um, pretty sure when when Janet was talking, those cemetery perpetual care money can't be used for the mowing and that type of thing. It has to be capital projects type things. And so that's so last year this 4,000 of this I think was offset.

Well, they took 2,000 from the cemetery. Yeah. Some of it was offset from that. Yeah. This year I don't think we there's nothing in here that I I don't believe that we can offset with that. And they didn't request anything.

And they didn't. Yeah, that's right. So that's right. All right. So we all set with that one for now. Uh, conservation. Oh, I thought we were on county tax. Uh, county would cons county would conservation would come before county, right?

Yep. That's what I got. My alphabetization. Okay. Um, [laughter] so conservation, this is the same that's been asked. Um there are I forget what the dues are for what they go to, but the big big part is is the $200 $2,000 they every year they give a scholarship to a fifth grader to go to a camp.

recreation fund. So this isn't even this doesn't come out of actual taxes, county tax, anything else that recreation tax funds really can be applied to. So, well, that and the parks and stuff. Yeah. Did I Did I correct your county ones?

I I do not have the corrected one. Okay. So, the correct amount is 383,8 75. And let's see what happens if we don't pay the stat. Yeah. No, actually, this doesn't even go starting [clears throat] last year. We didn't even put this on the warrant because it's an assessment. We don't have to vote on it. It's it's assessed to us. Right.

Um, so the what's the percentage increase? 3.82%. 3.82 and the dollar if you have it right. 14,25. Okay. Question. Yes. Is I know that there has been a fair amount of discussion among the various towns in Andrew County about pursuing some legal action against the the county commissioners for voting in their raises or or rejecting the budget committee's position. Do we need to factor that into our legal expense line if we are going to participate in that action or do we

you've heard anything? I I think by keeping the 12,000 or whatever I think that kind may cover help. Okay. I I just want to that 2,000 extra we might left in there might be that yeah to make sure um so a little update on that. Uh we we received by email a letter which we'll put into the next uh packet [snorts] and uh from the county commissioners a four-page letter um and they're basically saying you don't you don't understand us. This is what this is what what's happening. So uh we can go ahead and look at that. Um I still would like to have our commissioner come here. I know the city of Lewon and some of the other ones are pursuing options through their legislature um because the legislature can request

uh an investigation into it and um we can't but a state official can request investigations and is that something that we may want to perhaps have Paul Chase in to to talk about the Yeah, Paul Chase and Garrett Mason. I would think both. Yeah. I I would like to have them show up anyway. So, and but we could request I'll I'll have to look at kind of what the wording of what they're what the other towns have been doing. But,

uh but I guess because you are part of the budget committee, so you probably have a a much more hands-on sense of of what's been going on. And it may be useful for them to just um and I I look at it both ways. I have a more hands-on, but I also have a more biased view of what happened. [laughter] So

I guess that's good. So the the dollar amount increase Jeff is 14125. Okay. Thank you. All right. So county tax, we can't do much. Donations and um this is just the requests that we've got and she you just put in exactly what they requested.

Yep. Um, for the past couple of years, we've been doing uh $3,000 um in donations spread over six different I thought it was five and we added a six last year, wasn't it? Um, I think it's been No, it's been 3,000 for the for 2013 and 2014. 2012

was with with And so last year we did have quite a debate on this. Um I I personally would like to see us give the same amount but I think we should re-evaluate who gets it where they go. Right. We always give to the same debate.

Mike, just for your background with the budget committee was pretty extensive and and the feeling from a lot of the members of the budget committee was charitable giving is something that individuals can choose or not or choose not to do. And when they do choose to do it, they decide which are the organizations that they feel like they should be giving their money to help. And several people on the budget committee felt that using taxpayers money to give to charities based on what the board of selectmen chose or what who asked the board of selectmen was an inappropriate use of taxpayer money. And we look at or we have historically looked at what these groups do for residents of the town of

the community itself. Exactly. Absolutely. And LEGO, it seems like a no-brainer, you know. So, I know I know one one member of the budget committee, and I don't know what what the issue was, had an issue with the Red Cross. Um, Waco, I think out of all of these, uh, Waco and Seniors Plus are the two that

affect most do the most for residents in this town. Um, and and I would say Community Concepts as well. Oh, yeah. um a fair amount. Home care and hospice, Andersken homeare and hospice do a great job and I I know that there are pe our town's people that have benefited from their um care. I'm

not sure how much western transportation comes down into our town. I know they have a regular route in Lisbon, but I don't know about here. There are handouts. I believe I gave them all last time. Yeah, I got them. And they each talk about what they do for the town.

Oh, yes. So, that's good. Uh, so community concepts. Uh, do they list what they've done for Durham? They do talk about uh fuel assistance. There's a page there it is. 40 residents were fuel assisted. 19 transportation, three child abuse intervention, one slow closure counseling, and four central heating improvement. So between 65 and 70 different or 65 and and maybe some of them may be overlap but they've done 65 to 70 different things. Uh Red Cross

um they served 148 people from Anders Gogggin County. Um but they I don't see that they actually in Durham break it down to Durham unless somebody else sees it. The one that surprised me and I don't have it but I think it came last year was that Lifeflight had done as much work

individuals in the I was thinking of them as as a very big how close we are to various hospitals but the fact that they've stepped in and done what and one of the things that they've done because of all because of the demand for it is um this they have purchased another helicopter within the last uh within the last few months or are in the process of purchasing another helicopter.

And right there would be 3,000. That would be pretty close to if you guys wanted to stay 3,000 right there. You know, just those five. So, uh which which one? Leo, Leo, Indospice, uh Community Concept, Senior Plus, and Lifelight. Do we want to do a six sixth one and to to uh or do we want to increase like to 600 for each of the five? Um Tri County that was a new that was the one we added uh in 2013.

That was added at after referenced or and the person that recommended adding that referenced the school shootings in in New Town, Connecticut. So, um, and Tri County says they've, um, served 20 individuals from town over the past year. Um,

Main Transportation provided 195 trips to six Durham residents for a total of 12,587 miles. you know, those agencies have ways of of making money. You know, if if we were going to cut one out, I would feel okay cutting them out. I mean, they they bid on certain clients. They they get paid by the state x amount of dollars. I've worked for these companies before, and that's how they make their money is they they bid and they they only pay so much in staffing to keep the houses staffed. And I don't think that it's going to kill them if we don't give them 500 bucks.

Let's see. So, do we want to go do we want to go back with five of 500, five of 600? Do we want to add one? Um, I I was noticing uh Western Maine did I mean they only serviced six residents, but they did 195 trips um with with those six residents. It's

a lot of trips. That is long. Um, so yeah, I guess you could leave that one in. Western transportation. Add Western and drop uh So, we'd add Western and Lifelight and drop Red Cross and Tri County. Yeah. 500 for each. Yeah.

Well, you're not going to you're not adding Andersh American Societ Not even bringing them in, right? So, it's Community Concepts. Yeah. Leo. Yeah. Uh Hill. Okay. and senior plus. Yeah. Okay. And then the western main and lifellight. Okay.

And we're going to do the 500. Five each. Yeah. Five. 500 each. Is everyone okay with that list? Anyone have any suggestions for changes to it? I'm thinking they'll come from another area [laughter] probably. I have to say we've seen firsthand with I work with Community Concepts practically every day doing foreclosure mediation and the work that they do for people to keep them in their homes and it's entirely you know the people that are are coming to them. You don't pay anything for it entirely free of charge to the homeowners and they do some some pretty amazing things as far as as you know working with the banks and getting people All right. Uh, Eureka. Um, electricity [clears throat and laughter] looks like is basically flat.

Yep. Propane I see we uh we decreased from last year's budget increase from what we spent. Yeah. The only question I have with that is they're thinking of replacing um the gas stove. And I don't know. I'm not really familiar with how much gas a gas stove uses.

I would hope it wouldn't use much. Use less. Should it should use less. I mean, new new ones don't even have pilots, right? They're pilot blow bars for the oven and they have electronic ignite for the but I you you've cut that down $500.

Yep. So, yeah, I think that would be pretty fair. Yep. Repairs. um That's uh partially for um having them come in and you know we've talked with chief about servicing the Okay. Never they never spent 750 yet? Yes. But um do

but that's something they haven't done yet, right? So we haven't done that yet. No. So we've spent 400 500 450 550 450. So, uh, if we think it's going to be a couple hundred to come in and look at that, we're in the ballpark. Yeah.

But it sounds like they need to be doing some things that haven't been done, right? Yeah. In here, too. Cleaning and um I see we increased it quite a bit this year. The the the budget. I think that last year's number was

partial year. She didn't start until April. start till after that was and that's exactly 33%. Yeah, 30. Okay, so that makes sense. So it's before full year, right? Yeah, I had kind of given her a little bit of a raise on the administrative side and and I didn't on this one.

Um I don't know if we want to look at that. Two. So uh what how much you said 3% 3% which was $1210. $1210. So it's 35 uh.7 cents a week. So, call it $50. Okay, that's close. So, make it 1272. Okay. F. So, FICA is going to have to change very little, but

Right. Yeah. F and Medicare. We'll let you take care of that and come back with us. Call it 80 bucks. Um supplies same. added to cleaning out of supplies because we haven't spent we haven't youund4 117. I mean yeah. So cut cut it to 150. Yep.

And that way we're that way we don't not adding anything. Okay. And that means we're down 125 overall still. And capital projects be a replacement stove. Yes. Do they have either replacement stove? They found the paperwork on the other one. um they're thinking either they want to have somebody come in and look at the stove um and then determine whether they want to keep the stove or whether they want to get a new one.

Are they thinking commercial stove replacement? They are. But they Why? Uh [laughter] cuz I mean we've tal we've talked about this already, but I don't know why they need a commercial. Their feeling is that at some point down the road there's going to be a commercial need for that building. And

they rather than replacing a $500 stove every so many years, they they did find some ads for um commercial grade propane stoves for 750 or wasn't good. I was going to say there I know we bought some some stuff in the lodge from a commercial and I can ask Warren where it was.

So the price is right. They they sell new and used. So if there if they say they're finding commercial grade at 750, why are they asking 3,000 for for that? Do they have another plan? Well, I think that that part of that money is is for trying to get somebody to come in and take a look at the stove that exists. Um, and possibly

that can't come out of capital. I don't think that would have to be that would have to go into uh the other the repairs. The repairs into their operating budget. Are they still looking at the floor? I don't uh they are. There's some question as to um whether Home Depot would donate stuff or not. That's what they're hoping for.

But even if they were looking at a floor, the 2,000 extra, if you're looking at a thousand stove, the 2,000 extra wouldn't cover No, it wouldn't. We didn't know what to do with the heating, right? They were just hoping to get stoves with the pilot wise. How about the heating? There was problem with

uh I thought we were that I thought we were okay. They they they checked it out. Um there's thermostats on the on the pole and they put notes not to open the furnace pot. Leave it alone. Yeah. And I I I was in there the other day and the notes are there.

And they were also talking about wanting to buy a commercial dishwasher. That was that they they tossed that out. It's been table. Yeah. Um but one thing that we we need we have to have before budget before the budget committee. We have to have what their plan is because um tell them

I can't I can't justify to the budget committee why we're asking for something if we don't have plans and don't have at least preliminary numbers. Okay. And they know this. They've been [clears throat] through this a few times. [laughter]

Are you uses going up? Do we know? I know part of the the doing the like the fibage and all that was to kind of try to generate some interest. people see the building being used and sort of get it in the Well, it was rented.

Remind people that it's available. It was rented last weekend for a uh for a funeral uh reception after a funeral. Um I don't think the rental's that much. 50 bucks or something for the rental. Well, it's 50 bucks for the rental. There's $50 deposit that they get back if they leave it. But the kicker is that you have to get a writer on your homeowner's insurance or you have to go through a program called the tulip, which is insurance. The tulip cost $72.

Um, and a lot of insurance companies don't put a $400,000 writer on your homeowner insurance for one day. They just don't do it anymore. So, a buck and a quarter to rent it then. Yeah. Which is pretty pretty cheap to rent. I mean, you can't you can only have 45 people, but a buck and a quarter is not

that much to rent a place. The tulup did that. Did that also cover if they wanted to serve alcohol and stuff? That's got nothing to do with they that in fact they have to go through their homeowners for that. They there's nothing they can do through us.

I see. And they have to to get permits from the state. Right. It's very right. We did pass the policy though to allow Bob events there. They have to do their place burns to the ground. It we're covered through the tool. Right. Right. Right.

Right. I mean what it is. Somebody gets hurt there. Right. Yeah. Covers us. All right. Uh shall we skip over fire and rescue right now? Yep. Okay. assistance. General assistance, you fire and rescue. Yep. We we we we went over we didn't really

Okay. We didn't really go back down through and go line by line, but I'm comfortable with it. Just the other night. Yeah. Okay. So, we've got in here for 5,000 again. Um, as far as I know, as far back as I've I've seen, we've done 5,000. This is statemandated. um we get half of what we spend back right now. That could change. Um right now, smaller towns make out better on general assistance re reimbursements. Large uh larger cities don't get 50%. They get some other they they they get a different percentage. I know that they've been looking at trying to balance that again. So that could change the amount that we get back change. But most of what I've seen is really just about um citizenship requirements and if you don't meet jump through all of those confirmations.

I don't I mean we haven't run into that issue here and so I don't believe we've addressed it. I think that's but I don't I haven't heard anything else as far as not getting a percentage. Okay. Historic district commission. Um that's right. We wanted this. Can we go do that? Uh we were going to just pull this put this maps back in the administration budget with kind of a star on it for the budget committee that um we're picking up. We're purchasing a couple of maps, but it's actually not even for the historic district district really. It's for the the in here so people can look at where things are.

Talking about that. Yeah, I I think I can cover their $200 in my office supplies. Uh 400. Well, oh two 200 for the office supplies and 200 posted. I I can put the 200 for the maps. I'll put that in publish. No, what's it called?

Communicate. Uh yeah, publications or something. Yeah, well the one where Paul has his manuals publications. Yeah, he talked about that actually. Can you put the 200 for that there? And maybe we put the 200 for postage and stuff in planning board and and change it to to planning board uh appeals and historic district commission or something like that.

Okay. I don't know. That's that's a question too because when is the planning board who would enforce the historic actually the histo uh no the historic district commission well I think the planning board does have a final say but you can't get your project to the planning board without going through the historic district commission

which has been in obeyance for the last few years. Luckily, nobody's been doing major ch doing changes to their place in the historic district. Maybe or they just haven't been following the ordinance. They will and he catches them.

Yeah. Um is is everybody I just don't want to have another Yeah. Um could could we uh call change the title of um planning board to because it's they they operate under the same type of rules and everything else and land use.

Yeah. and just tack this on to the end of the title and and we can uh make note of that both to the budget committee and at town meeting restoration. Um it's been do they have a plan this year? Well, we have a note. We the historical society is applying for consideration of the sum of $10,000 from the Durham town of Durham. Um the historical society's charged with the preservation and repair of the Union church and the west and the Methodist church and Ben Love owner of a

of Karen building and renovation performed a site visit this year. Uh he he also had an engineer at the meeting and the consensus is that the left side of the building has foundation drainage issues that must be addressed in the near future before other any other interior work. and they've met with

another they were able to assess the outside of the Union church and the outside of the Methodist church. No formal assessments 7 to 10 years for roofing, right? And tell us [clears throat] what they're going to what they want the 10 to spend the $10,000.

No, they they still have Well, I I'm I'm pretty sure that the 10,000 is for that uh the left side of the building with the foundation and drainage issues because that's the most important thing. I don't think I mean from what I 10,000 isn't going to

No, but they already have like 50 60,000 set aside. Yeah, they just need they want a little more. They They're asking for more. I'd still like to know how much they think that that repair is going to cost. I hope they at least if they're going to spend that money and ask for taxpay money, they give the guys in town chance to bid on it, too.

Um there is some issues with that as far as being on the historical society. You actually I mean being a historical uh what is it? Landmark register you have to have somebody that is licensed through that. I'm not sure if the contract it has to be or just the person overseeing

to work on that specific type of building. I just try to keep dur money in Durham D. I agree. But um my understanding is that this money is I mean according to this spreadsheet the money church capital fund which is the money we've already appropriated to them. So it's not an additional 10,000. It's can can they spend 10,000 of the money we've already appropriated. But that's why my question is what are they?

I I thought so that's a good question. We need to know whether they're asking for the to spend the money or are they asking for additional additional set aside. Yeah. My assumption was that they were spending the money out of the capital fund. But you know, now you're talking Jeeoff maybe.

And I'm I'm going on historical when they've come for us for 10,000. It's been to set it aside. I've they've never actually come to take it out historic. We need more. And so they haven't spent anything on it. No, because because they needed to set they the project that was they were going to do was so big they wanted to they had kept setting money aside

and we stopped appropriating funds until they had a plan a ballpark idea of what it might cost some sense of of what we just kept squirreing away money and squirreing away money but that's yeah they got 56,821 is it I see how much

is that 56821 Okay. Can you cl Can you get clarification from them whether they're asking for additional monies in or if they're asking for monies out? And either way, we kind of need to know how much this this particular part of the restoration they how much they think it's going to cost.

Yeah. And it would have to go out to to competitive bid. Yes. Right. on that. Oh, that's where you found the number. Thank you. [laughter] I pulled that one out. Yes. Made myself look smiling. All right. [laughter] um salary that's now pulled out into public works. Um at so for your knowledge um when we came in when we

started the public works we kept um Pat Morse on as a as a part-timer and he does things like run for parts or goes he also cleans the different uh parks and things like that. Yep. Plows section. Yeah. He he's also on the plowing crew but

Yep. All right. So Fer and Medicare is also nothing. Damn parkour. That sounds bad. [laughter] And dues are nothing. Sanitation. That's our portaotty. Porter potty. And I see we spend a little over what we put in last year. So we're asking for a bit more.

Our biggest issue over there is tipping over and we have to pay for them to come out and re. Yeah. One year we quite a while ago. Yeah, we'll talk to the new the new commissioner about you putting balls somehow getting that secured to the ground so we stop that.

Well, we looked at the we got a the plans and and the specs from the state department of parks or or what have you about putting in a a permanent facility of the nature that they put in state and it was more it was prohibitively expensive.

Oh yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know how much it would be to anchor it. And if you anchor it, do you encourage more more demolition on it? Yep. See, cars on it and everything. That's why if you put ball so they can't run into it. I mean, I was a kid, too.

Oh, yeah. That's put something in. But um what about somebody smashing and stuff? But yeah, we'll keep building in all the fields, all the party spots being taken, you know. So, light up there. Actually, it's it's falling off now. Yeah, it is. It's getting more more and more people using it. And um and that is actually a required our contract with the state for for doing that. We have to have facilities.

I got one completely done. Is that a handicap one over there? I had facilities there when I was growing up too. I think it might be now. I think we upgraded it to a handicap one a couple years ago. Okay. Park a lot more room.

Park maintenance. Um so emergency. We spent a little bit more on that last year. And so we're asking for a bit more. And what's what was the maintenance? What's what's that? Dirt, gravel, keeping the trash and that kind of stuff, right?

Well, that that would be labor, but there's other I'm trying to think. Uh we we did do we had something come. Was it the little building over at the uh River Park? There's a little building. I think they did something painted or did stuff with it.

Isn't there a flag pole there, too? There could be in covered by surround by rocks in the middle of the field. Yeah, actually they deal with that here and there too. Yeah. Okay. That's part of the mowing. Yeah, there's some there's

a mowing 650 for mowing there. Um park plowing is gone and so that's another thousand to add over to what we did for public works. River Park salaries. Same thing with the runaround park, right? Sanitation, none. Um, one year we had we had a porta potty out there for a short period of time for something and so that's going to fall off next year.

Okay. Maintenance. Um, that's that little building again you were talking about over there. Oh, so this is River Park. So I wonder what the maintenance was over at Runaround Pond. Graveling or something? Maybe right or it's always you're always getting Yeah, you're always getting that potholes and stuff over there. They always going to be graded. And

the only thing I have is why we why did we increase it to 200 when we didn't spend anything last year and 60 the year before? That's a good question. So, well, I was feeling generous that moment. Yeah, we'll say 100 again.

100 park mowing. So, there's another mowing 1300 there. the electricity basically what we're spending on it. man this year. War memorial uh mowing again. There's another 750 for Pat's really going to like us. Yeah. And flag upkeep and maintenance. And this is where

that flag pole you're talking. This is where I was wanting to add more in there um to make what we have there better. Uh actually just talked to the Eagle Scout tonight. Uh he was in here and um he may do some fundraising because as part of his project that's part of it. So he may do some fundraising on that as well. Um but I'd like to see us have enough in there to actually

Is that that that's why it's 500 or No. No. I think it's going to need considerably more than that. Um, do we have a Has he got some price in his project to have a ballpark of what it would? No, but I think the chief has an idea of how much because the chief has looked into that.

I know Jana had looked into it once too cuz she was throwing some numbers at me one day because we talked about it. I'm thinking two to three grand or something, but I don't know. Two grand sounds familiar, but I can't remember for sure.

And so I I'd like to find out what that how much that is before we go in front of a budget. Yeah. Uh, parade. Um, we didn't have the painting that was done. I know she had a work crew down from the county jail to paint the

the gazebo. The gazebo last year. Does that do we we paid for the paint and the materials or I believe we paid for the paint actually two years ago when we spent actually $482. We had it on hand. They were supposed to come then. couldn't uh that was when Liz Lewon had those three fires and so on and so the work crews ended up spending all their time in Lewon.

Um yeah actually I got the paint through my through him and actually I I think I mentioned that as I don't know I don't know if the new facilities group down there has a lot companies but they should do that because it'll save you more money.

Yeah. even than what I could commit. Right. So, taxes. So, parade um they're asking for 750 again. They some of the money that comes in um for some of the events I think help kind of goes towards some of it, but I don't know exactly.

They never contacted me. That That's my figure. The 750 750. Um I I [snorts] know their meeting basis. They started meeting at the end of January. Yep. Um, we probably I'll see if I can get a number from that'd be nice uh to make to see whether they are planning on any expansion or whether they we can cut back and

that. I have to step aside for a bit but you continue going if you want. step aside on it? I see how I see how he rolls with that one. Notice that. Can I run now too? Uh this is another one that I really didn't get any um

feedback feedback from. So Paul and I discussed it. Uh so we put in for 16 meetings with the thought that there would be one meeting every single month and then four meetings for the possibility of a beginning of a a comp plan.

But I don't know. So they went up a little bit on that one. Yeah, they they went way over on their payroll last, right? Because do they have they elected a new chair? No. I mean, I think it makes sense. I think we do whether it's planning board or I mean I think we have to work on it but I think that a new comprehensive plan is definitely something that we need to push to the the front burner. We're we're overdue. We're four years four or five years old overdue on the complaint.

the board secretary. Yeah, it's Jill again. And that reflects the the raise that she requested. It it does, but you know, we haven't really talked about personnel yet. is, right? I mean, I mean, we'll we'll talk about that.

It's the same thing as as as us. I mean, they all get their stipen, right? It's just so nothing be able to do there. It's on 19 then, right? On office expense. That's flat. Advertising's flat. mileage. I don't see that we can

I mean all that's all zeros. Look at them. We can look at them go. Impressed. All zeros. all. Nothing you can do. Roads. We already did that. Yeah, we're getting close to the end now. Skip by that one. We're on uh solid waste

trash. Yes. And that's a contract. You guys didn't finish. Oh, [laughter] that was his game. Yeah, we got through planning. Um, no changes or no changes, right? Solid waste. It's all zeros. Yeah, I see we had a proposal in here for solid waste. Didn't we already approve a contract? I mean, okay,

these are the contract amounts. And have we heard any more about a possibility of them being able to do the automated pickup? No. Because that's something they're working toward. Yeah. And I I well, yes, but I I've heard that there's a I mean, I've heard a con several people concerned about that and how that would work.

Would there be an additional fee for the specific business? I'm not That's the thing. How it it would be the way they presented us. We might be able to do it as a wash and still have 52- week pickup, you know, but but there was the question was cuz we're a tag system and how does that actual cuz a lot of places are are different and but we're a tag system and when you go to this um how do you how do you do things

the way she presented it? I mean Janet said we had made like 115 or something like that on tags that year and and I forget the woman's name that presented it to us. I've met her a couple times. Carol Karen Karen. So she said that basically that would it would doing so would decrease their costs and it may look like about a wash and so that we would be able to still provide 52 week pickup. People wouldn't have to buy tags and it would

yeah that that's there there were a lot of gray areas when they presented I that I was the big thing is you're you know you've got you've got a limited space. you know, you get one bin for trash, one bin for and and that's where if you need more, then you pay extra, you know.

Well, the problem was right now you get 26 week pick basically 26 tags and you pay for more, right? And this goes to 52 weeks and it's it's there's a lot of things that would have to be ironed out and basically I'm waiting for them to come back to us.

I mean, if it could work as a wash, then it would be great. the cost of the bins and who covers the cost of the bins and say your bin gets destroyed destroyed at snowplow takes it over the bank. Yeah, like you know I think everybody gets a bin if you need a replacement and I I think right now they're working out the kinks in it in like Auburn or some some other town cuz uh there's specific ways you have to put the bins out. Oh, it's it's a big savings for them. So, they can just grab it,

right? Had to do with with how it rolled out in Auburn and whether or not there was a possibility that a one of these trucks might become available in a day. So, they're still they still because they thought they could do the whole town in one day.

Yeah. Right. If if they were doing that, right? They I know they did that once or twice because the holidays, but I think they had more than It probably would be tough for some people just because we don't have sidewalks. We don't have nice level roads like Auburn does and stuff like that, but it could be interesting. But

so on to the budget. Looking at [laughter] So this is a contractual price. Say, Jeff. Yeah. On to the budget. Yes. Um so we're on the first half of the first We're on the the second half of the first year and the first half of the second year,

right? Because it's a July to July. And um our our price contract actually went down to start with and over the three-year contract it basically was level with where we were. Why do we pay FICA and Medicare on that? Uh we for special pick for our over here when we have our laborers

weekend. Yeah. Okay. Gotcha. I I wonder if this should be pulled into at some point the labor expense FICA Medicare should be pulled into public works because basically it's the public works that are Well, we did have public works man big trash last Yeah. this past spring

and that's what I'm wondering if we just whether we should just pull this number into there at some point. Do you want to just get rid of it and just have public works deal with it this year? I mean it's not a lot of money and that's what the public works for. Absolutely is. And they did do it last year,

right? And so just pull these numbers basically put it plug it into there. Yeah. Yep. I think it was their first full week that they've [laughter] been hired pretty much. Some of them. Yeah. Yeah. But I've made it in the last two years. I got to get there this year.

I go down to say I don't I I just took mine to free. I go mudding. I I like to go mudding that day. It was raining so I figured the the people at the Eureka were saying that um they would they have people that come and pick up

large items and it's like a a donation type of thing. True. So I mean I'll call them up. Yeah. No, I I I I'll be able to do it. I had reasons I couldn't do it in the past two years, but I'll I'll be I'll be good this year.

So we're good on trash. I see we don't we didn't put in for trash tags. We're still good on those. Yes. Okay. What's the septage? Um for contractors to be able to dump the s if when they pump to be able to dump we have we we have to pay a facility for them to dump at basically. So that's that's uh that's the cost there is uh we used to do thousand gallons. You guys must do a thousand gallons then.

It's it's not it's it's it's just to allow somebody to dump. It's you still they still have to pay but it's to allow them to dump septage from it's a contractual we used to do it somebody else to get money we used to do it to two places uh if you look back at one point it was 500 um and we decided to go down to one

who we who we have it with it's up in Louis I think but I I don't own huh you guys own Elizabeth no I think it's up in Lewon because if we don't have somebody we don't contract somebody and they come and pump your septic They won't come in public because they got no place to get rid.

I'll I'll check on that. I'm super I'm super That's what I was with my job. I'll check on that. See if we can get a some kind of deal. [laughter] I'm looking $250. All right. I'll check on that. See what I can do. And that's just so you can say, "Yeah, you can dump here."

That's Yeah, that's all I did. All right. We got a river that runs through town. What the hell? No, [laughter] something. Okay, I can't remember now, but something changed with the hazard waste facility. Um, we used to allow a certain

amount of [clears throat] toxic material. We each town's person could could do could dispose of a certain amount, paint, whatever. And I think we stopped paying for that. No, it wasn't we'd stopped paying. They stopped the way they did it. Uh the Janet brought this to us this last year and the place that was doing it stopped the way they were doing it and they weren't accepting it from the they the individual had to now pay somehow and we could reimburse the individual or something. And the discussion at that time was do we continue doing this cuz it's it's like two or three typically like two or three residents or four residents a year and whether we just cut this out and have and they have to pay for it themselves or do we keep keep this in they come here for a reimbursement or something like that. it I I I forget when

we decided that we would just let people so few people took advantage of it anyway that we would just let people but that's what this uh line 15 and we still we have a thousand in it that's why I'm asking but we spent 684

well the part way we for part of the year anyway um you might want to either you might want to look uh either look through stuff or call Janet because Janet probably remembers what's going on with this. My nose, I think.

Yeah, cuz I I know there's something back there, but I can't piece it all together. [laughter] And you've got too many cookies in your computer. That's right. Just just to on the septics again. That's just so when the septic holler pumps in Durham, they can go dump up in Lewon. So you're paying Lewon, those guys 250 cuz I'm A+ coming over to us all the time and dumping from Durm. We don't say nothing because it's they pay their fee,

right? You know what I mean? So, right, it's like a retainer fee for No, I I don't know who's charging that, but I I definitely want to find out who's charging that cuz we take it from Lisbon and like I said, I get A+ coming at us all the time with thousands of gallons of septage and they're paying their fee. We don't care where they get it from,

right? We got I got Lewis hauling to me. I got I got Dave Jones on Toppo hauling to me. Ari Weber hauling to me. I think what it I think what it might be is there are some that t that typically go to Lewon and if there and if they do we have to pay Lewon. So may I wonder

yeah if and we're cheaper than Lewon Louis for for per gallon is cheaper than we're the cheapest around. So yeah maybe that's something that we can eliminate. It doesn't matter. We take everybody. That's good to know. So I know that that last time we had he commented about that.

It's a good thing that we had a place that Darham had a contractor else he wouldn't even be able. No. Well, we take anybody. So well that's pretty crappy this place. [laughter] That's right. All right. That one, weren't you?

Telecommunications. So uh John's not here. Huh? I don't have one. Uh, you don't have telecommunications. Yeah, unless I cut it out. Either one. Where is that one? I know. 4% rate or 3.95 reduction on and it all comes out of the

Yeah, it all gets paid by the last. It is the last one. Yeah, I'll take one mistake. Probably a saying I didn't. I've been known to do that. I bet we should get you another one. I don't see anything in here about connecting the buildings over.

That would there either. So, it may not be that important. I don't know. At some point, I think it it would be good. We could do it very easily. It would only cost us, you know, 600 bucks, maybe. I mean, as long as they each I assume they each have an internet connection to each building,

I would guess so. And so we buy two more sonic walls, put one in each location, and we do a sight to sightVPN right back here. And it's just like just like they're doing, you know, [laughter] I just I think we'd maybe talk to John.

Yeah. I mean, that's it. If he didn't put in the budget, they must not be that concerned about it. So we're ready to rock and roll. Yeah. What was I? Okay. So, um I see we got a decrease in the secretary, but that's because we haven't

That's cuz they never meet. They never meet. Um I don't expect they're going to meet much at all this year cuz they're going to have the uh the uh cable franchise thing done shortly. John's been doing all the work on that.

Um personally, I would suggest cutting this back considerably more like to five five or $600. Yeah, we haven't spent more than No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Most 20 21. So So if we go 600, that's almost double. And that in case they have a couple meetings.

Uh so that's just for the secretary. Yeah. At 15, that would be 40 hours of basically 40 hours of work for uh 600. Yeah. So 2600 to say. All right. Um, channel master, uh, we don't do anymore. That's going to drop off in the next year. Public, uh, information technician, I assume the increase is, uh, well, it's only $100 increase, but

puts a lot of hours in, but I assume there is that an increase in in salary. I I believe it is. Okay. Um, FICA and Medicare, that's going to adjust with what we did up above. Good. Uh, access channel expenses, peg central, so 4,000. So that's pretty close. Nothing for the newsletter. Website expense down. However, he also wanted to look into doing something different with the website too, I think. So,

yeah. But this all comes directly from Joe. Yeah. And, uh, postage and supplies is down. So John, put this budget together then. Yes. Okay. I mean, he should. So we haven't spent anything conservative. We haven't spent anything in the postage and supplies. Um, and I see cut it back to 500, but just in case he needs something and legal, we're cutting cuz uh the franchise is going to be done this year and we probably next year we'll probably be able to cut that back a little bit more. But the this whole budget is covered by the franchise fees. And one thing I've been concerned about uh over the past couple of years, we've been spending almost as much as we're taking in on franchise fees. So we haven't been able we we haven't been able to save any aside for um upgrades and so on. And this is consider this is probably four or $5,000 less than we took in last year's. So that's I I think we're going in the

right direction there too. Do you know if another company's ever expressed interest and they nobody is at all interested in doing it unless they buy out a company because you have to tear out the whole infrastructure and put in your brand new infrastructure. The way the the way the franchises worked is the the company came in and put in the infrastructure and written into that was if you ever go with anybody else, they can't use that infrastructure. You have to tear

all over again. Yeah. Right. The big only big increase it looks like in this is really just adding those email addresses and that came out of the meeting with the town attorney who talked about the use of personal email.

Do we do we think it's overkill for all to for the 35 addresses or do we think it's so it's the right thing to do? Well, my understanding of of what Jack said at that meeting was that there could just be one email address. It could be planning board at town of Durham dot

whatever it goes on and on of all the members and that and everybody would could get that and that could come you know and everybody would have the password so that one email would go to or you could probably actually set that one email up to forward to every so nobody actually logs into that email. It just forwards to their their personal accounts.

Right. But then the the confusion I had about that is the notion that what if it's not discovered. One member of the planning board wanted to communicate with another member of the planning board. They can't just send it.

That's right. You have to log on to send the email, right? But I know that Jack was essentially discouraging that that they're that individual is better or well that that conversation between two shouldn't be the two of them shouldn't be having a side discussion about some planning board issue. It it if somebody has a question, it should go to everybody

at the meeting or it should be at the meeting or it should on email all everybody. Well, actually, you got to be careful because if you're doing something to everybody on email, if you're actually doing discussion, you're now having a meeting and it's it's an illegal meeting.

Yeah. He just he was not he was discouraging the notion that planning board member A, planning board member B have a series of emails back and forth about somebody's application or about whatever that that was right really not

though it it's not terrific but is it is actually allowable by law. um you you and I could actually have a conversation about something going on in town and not and not break the law. Once you brought in one more person, then you've got then you're doing a meeting,

right? But I mean, he was talking about specifically about if there's an application in or if somebody is getting is putting together an application of the planning board shouldn't be helping them put their application. No, absolutely not. That's definitely you you should the planning board should not be communicating with the applicant outside of the meeting,

right? Or with each other about a pending application, right? And he was specific about that by number at that meeting. Yeah. That would be like the that would kind of be like a jury um talking outside of outside the jury room. Two jurors.

That's why they have to sequester. Yep. We don't want the plan to be sequester. So I don't know. So, back to the original question is does every member of every town committee have to have their own town email address? I say no.

And if I think and part of that seems like I remember part of that was too same as what [clears throat] ours is. If there was ever any question of liability or something, they could come and take your computer. Exactly. So, that was the issue about that.

Yeah. But if you have the one town address like planning board durham.com or something like that and that forwarded to all the others because it comes into that account, it's now saved on our servers and then it can go out to the other members and they don't have to worry about discovery on their computer because it's already come into the central.

But to the extent that they reply to it from their personal email address, then I think it it does changes reopen that that potential can. Well, you just But if you're replying back through the you'd have to reply back through the other one. I'm not sure how that would work. That's true.

We need more clarification, but we change that. Right. So, I guess from for now, we just go with the everybody gets an email address. I don't remember all the details, but the number did come up from a lengthy conversation, I believe.

Put anybody in jeopardy, right? you know, I mean, I don't want to spend $1,200 either, but and I don't think that that means that everybody that's on, you know, a a shortterm advisory to be So, do we want to continue tonight or would you like to go Monday night and revisit

I'd like to revisit fire and roads just Yeah. just cuz cuz we really didn't dig deep into them and invite I'd like to invite both uh Sean and the chief to be there when we do it. Um and then come back to any of the other ones we have questions on because we have a few and hopefully be out of here somewhere around 8 on Monday too.

Will Monday work for both of them. Do you want to talk about salaries now or do you want to do that on Monday? We should probably tackle it tonight. Um, the only reason that I would say Monday is if you could [laughter] if you could pull it together a side sheet with all the salaries so we could see it all in one sheet, right? Because right now we've got to pull from all over the place.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind. I had to kick my door in. So, I have no door frame right now. So, uh, I would like some time to squeeze the window, huh? I got to go through the door. Well, my freaking girls have ruined six door knobs now.

This is Careful. This is going This is being recorded. [laughter] I'm going to tell him to watch. I I live on the opposite side of town. [laughter] No, no. But yeah, I uh so if I could go home [snorts] and and get that and we're somewhat

Monday 6 again or 6:30. Yeah. Um I tried for 600. The only reason I was late is because I had to go get the door open for them. So I would I would say six to try to get out of here. Um, and if we Yeah, if we could have all the all the salaries on one page so we can kind of

actually have that, but I'll get everything and make sure. And the reviews. And the reviews. Okay. Because we'll we can we can go into discuss some of it in executive session so we can see what we actually rated people because I can't remember exactly what we rated them.

Um, and do you want when you say all the salaries together, do you mean you want chief and all of his people or um, so we're not really going to chief um road commissioner, you can leave off um town clerk and um and the uh the deputy

treasurer. Yep. Um what about public works staff? Yeah, I was thinking everybody in this this office, public works staff. Yeah, public works staff would be good. And then um I would deal with the secretary separate. U you can put them on there but put them in a different kind of leave some space. But the secretary cuz she's asked for a specific raise. Um and the janitor so we can just see that. Um but basically

all the ones that aren't except the ones that aren't settled and uh the fire department if you uh we don't the labor for fire department that's kind of separate. Yeah. I don't really have any concept of that. Well, neither do we. If you look back at our budget, you the years that we target high, we it comes in low. The years we target low, it comes in high. [laughter]

A lot of it's dependent on calls. The cemetery. Yeah, that's about what we came up with the other night. And so you could purchase a machine for that. 810. Yeah. And part time or it'd be interesting to figure out how much time it would actually cost to

So you need the big machine and you probably need a little you need a weed whip and a little push mower. I think the big 48 or 60 I don't know. I guess you want to be careful about bought a 60inch one. Depends on what they want.

Well trailer, you know. cuz our probably our backho is probably too big to to put a to get an attachment for m Yeah, I think you'd want you'd probably want a separate regular 48 or 60 or 54 whatever. 54. Yeah, something that would

power bagger on it. Yeah. Where would you get something like that? Chad Little Chad Little John Deere Hammond Hammond's a good guys we work with. Yeah. Cub Cadet has a good M. You know, you want to pick a good machine. Yeah.

You know, buy a nice one. That way there it's going to last. I mean, we do I I'd suggest we do the same thing we did with all the other public works equipment. Put together the specs that we want, what we want out of it, what we want to be able to do, and put it out to bid

cuz I just I did it for my place already. Do we want to try and do that this year or um that's that's the question. Or do we go into a one-year contract? Yeah. Um, and let the new let the new road commissioner figure things out because

cuz that's going to include that's not going to include just that. It's going to include that at least that part time person. Yep. Yeah. That's what you want your parttime guy doing. Yeah. You don't you don't want to pay your uh

you don't want to pay that mechanic or your foreman. You want the part guy out there. He's going to need small trailer or something to haul with the pickup. Um Yeah. Um, we're all set. I'll take a motion. I move. All in favor?

Let me know when you're off. [music] Watch her for a second. See how she's shut off Oh, that's good. Always better show you the right way. I I'd rather be shown the wrong way and have to figure out