TranscriptMay 5, 2020 ~ Select Board Meeting

What I Let's see. are you seeing one note right now? I'm seeing the spreadsheet. Okay. Let me um Yeah, because I just I'm going back to last week. um so what Ruth has on here is 54,550 in capital projects for and that's going to be more if we when we talk about that you know the the well and the septic came in higher than the 15,000 that was was budgeted for that.

Right. Okay. Okay. So, that was my question. That wasn't included in there. So, right now, um, so if not including the well and septic and if we if we spent the 41720 and the upcoming 54550 on capital projects, that leaves a balance of 174,979.

Yep. That doesn't include any reimbursement from the um the rescue funds that come in. And what was that last year that was on that sheet? Uh it was only about 32,000 last year, but I think it's going to be more this year because um we had some some issue

with Medicare and and so we should be getting some back payments this year. Well, that'll uh that'll pay for a well and septic 32 well. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um All right. So, you guys okay leaving that 41720 coming from from Capitol right now for that ambulance bond?

now. Um we Ruth, would we need to vote to change our recommendation on that because we're changing how it's funded? Um, so I think we would. Yeah, I'm going to mark it. Whoops, wrong one. Um, and then I also, so under the 2018 road bond, um, I had taken 50,000 out of the undesated fund to cover some of that

and and I don't know, it might be everybody okay with that? sometimes after we and revisit something if if uh something changes as we go. Um, okay. Um, Eureka Center. So, Mark brought this one up. Um, this is that was just an example, but

Yeah. Yeah. So, I looked at the budget that we went through and I don't really see anything that we could take out there. So, okay, I'm going through the individual sheets here on my computer. Okay, great. This is the fire department budget. This is um

should probably in fairness to the chief we I think we should if if we wanted to make a change here we should probably talk about that next week when he's here. Um did we lose Rich? Did we Yes. Oh, he is. Okay, good. All right. Um, my camera screen gets wiggy when I'm sharing. That's why I couldn't see everybody. So, okay. Uh, general assistance. I think that is what it is.

um planning board and appeals, they um they took a a significant decrease versus last year's budget, but it's still uh increased versus LY. Now, there was um there was money in here for marijuana ordinance work, right? And we're we're taking that or at least that's what we haven't voted on yet, but that's we we the discussion last week was we were only going to put um budget,

you know, in the business articles um on the warrant. Um we had 7500 for projects. I'm not sure what that that was in the budget. Was that was that is that what that was? I think I think that's that was the intent of that was to um pay someone um to help

us with the uh writing marijuana ordinances. But it feels like even if we um I don't know what do people think about that. I mean, of course, because we could conceivably put the, you know, depending on what happened, we could conceivably put the marijuana ordinance questions on the ballot in November, but we probably still wouldn't be spending that money in 2020.

Well, now I'm looking at that. Their budget request was 466 and we cut it to 35. And I think we may have already taken that out. Did we already take it? Yeah, I think so. Okay. So, they've already spent uh $2,762 of that money.

Oh. Oh. Oh, yeah. They've had to hire some um some environmental consultants on um resource protection lands. Um yeah. All right. I'm thinking we leave that one alone for now. Any any again we can come back to it. This is public works. So, this is the scenario with that we kind of just talked through with Calvin with doing a reduced um reduced maintenance paving.

Um we would we would definitely have to revote on that one. Um Um, that's all that's all funded from undesated. But I think somebody raised I don't know if it was you, Ruth, but if there's not going to be a softball and baseball season this year, do we

um what do we do 1500 to each organization or something like that? Uh, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. I don't I I might be premature on the softball. I can't speak for baseball, but I think softball has intentions in playing this year.

Yeah. from recreational fees. Um so it's funded with undesated. So taking the money out and taking money out isn't going to impact this year's taxes at all. Um, so it looks like it was 2500 to each organization. 2500 to each. Okay.

Why? Okay. Yeah. No, that's what it looked like. It was So I I guess Little League had the 1500 and Durham softball had the 3,000. And then so this year Little League asked for 2500 and Durham softball asked for 3,000. And so what you guys did is you

Yeah. Both of the 2500. We gave them both the same. Yeah. okay. I'm just going to keep going unless somebody stops me. Solid waste. Ruth, where does does this number change with the discussion we had with them last week?

Well, it it depends. So, you could put the ballot question on it and and you probably should if you want to do the three-year contract with them. Um, and so if we do that, then we would accept their their bid prices. And so that would be the same.

That that would be my sense is that we keep going with that plan because like you said, there's no I know the question came up during um meetings and um uh and oh, by the way, Milt, if if you're raising I can't see if anybody raises their hand right now. So, if somebody's got something to say, they got to speak up. So, um the uh um there's no benefit

to going to a one year or a two-year or three-year contract because of the way it's structured to fluctuate with the price of of um recycled materials. So, I know that was one of the questions that we thought, you know, that there might be something to that. Well, what if recycling prices go down? Um the contract accounts for that. Um

Uh telecommunications. This is again this is all money from franchise fees. Um and basically spending those um the raise pool. So again here you can see it's it's right now coming out of um undesated um but again it's what do people think? Do we want to keep that number at um regardless we're going to we'd be voting on changing it? Um we want to keep that 2% or do we want or are people thinking wage freeze for the year? You know where I'm at.

Yep. Yeah. I'm thinking wage freeze. Unfortunately, I would agree. Hey, if we go with zero, does it remove the question from the ballot? Um if yeah, if we're not recommending if we're not proposing a spending amount, then yeah, that there's no um the question doesn't go out. Yeah. I mean, I I guess my thought is I'd I'd at least like to see the town's people vote on it. I think, you know, it's up to them if they don't want to give raises out.

Well, yeah, I I hear that. I mean, I get it's up to us, but I think that they should be the ones to decide in this case. I wouldn't want to remove it off the ballot totally off the warrant, but that's my opinion. I'm not saying I'm opposed to a wage.

Yeah, Milt Milt's trying to say something here. Well, I just want to with regards to I mean, I'm just How many questions will appear on this voting warrant? Um, Ruth, do you have a do you have a count, Ruth? I I have a count of about 30.

30? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. down. For some reason, I was I I had the impression that maybe you were going to try to um condense it so there'd be fewer. Well, we can um so so the way that I had written it so far um and obviously it can change. There are separate questions for two capital um issues which are the the fire department capital well and and septic and the other stuff that the capital is going to pay for. There's a question about the fire the plow truck. Um and then there's you know the big budgets are separate the administrative the um fire department the public works.

Um I left what else did I leave separate? I may have left animal control separate and then I had combined a bunch of them into one question. But what takes up a lot of it is actually the business questions. Um, you know, if we wanted to, we could absolutely condense the questions further. Um, but I don't I don't know whether you want the the residents to vote on a one lump sum budget or whether you want them to have a better idea of where the funds are going.

It it feels like we should in terms of the questions we ask them that that we should keep it as normal as possible. Um because I don't know. I mean town meetings. Sorry. Go ahead Todd. Yep. As much like town meeting as it could be possible.

And in you know ironically the business articles which I those you know that kind of flurry that comes at the end the last several years there's been a motion to consider them all together and vote on them all in one thing. But I don't know if we can I don't know if we can actually do that on a uh

I asked the answer was was no. Yeah, that's what I figured. Yeah. So yeah, with 30 questions I think we're going to need to provide table and chairs. Well well mil the uh there it's likely this won't involve a polling place at all. It's likely to be um all absentee. But if we do have a um polling place then you're right. I think we will need to provide um seating for people. I think I think that I think you're absolutely right.

A quick question on the um on the fire department well and septic. If we posed that question, my guess is we would already have spent the money before it is posed to um to the to the to the citizens. What happens if they reject it? Well, that the plan is not to uh is not to put those questions on the ballot once.

Okay, I understood Ruth then. I apologize. Yeah, we don't we don't um capital expenditures um really except for bonds and stuff. Um don't don't don't have to have a warrant article once because the town has voted to put the money in capital for that purpose. Listen, as long as you're using it for that purpose, then then you you've already been approved by voters. So,

yeah, my fault. I I misunderstood what Ruth said. No, Rich, you didn't misunderstand, but we can take them off the ballot if you want to. Well, that's on the draft. Why would Why would that specifically be on the ballot?

What's the question again, Rich? Sorry. Why that would specifically be on the draft ballot if if we're going to pay for something before they have the chance to vote for it? Yeah, I think I think right and I think um it's been custom to oftentimes ask for um you know

to put some of these capital expenditures out to vote you know on big things like trucks especially. Sure. you know, um, but in this in this case, I think, you know, with a well and septic, which is a borderline urgent situation and the money's in the capital account and needs to be done, like you said before, people would actually probably get the chance to vote on it anyway, that, um, it would be part of it. No. Um,

wait. Actually, we'll go back and um do you want me to It sounds like there's right now we're at um moving that to zero and moving that to zero. Um but again, it's not going to change anything at the bottom line. So um funds for town manager search. So, um

I think we we said at our last meeting that I that that we were wanted to take, you know, this question and the marijuana and the ordinance stuff, you know, off at least this secret ballot and then um potentially um try to work through some of those things maybe in November if we had the opportunity to put um some of those things on the ballot. But but um are people still feeling that they don't want to put the town manager question out this year or how what are people thinking about that?

I don't think we need to do it this year. Yeah. Leave it on. I I think there's I need to do it. With that said, because of the time frame that when this is going to take place, I I I think the ship's kind of sailed by that time. So, it'd be probably best in our best interest to put it towards next year.

Yeah, I I I would agree. I think it's um the timing and the timing is just not right and I'm not sure we'd even be able to get the resources to do a search and who even knows what the process would be like. So, um I agree.

How will we even do it? Exact. Yeah. Well, so um for severance because because of the timing that was never going to be paid in 2020 anyway. And really the the way for us to address this as a board is um via a severance policy um to be adopted. We we should adopt a policy that kind of guides us and how what the town's um position is when you know if we run into a situation where there's a separation um because of an organizational structural change or something like that through no fault of the uh employee but that'll be a separate discussion for um for later. So, uh, transfer emergency fund. Um, again, this one was being funded from undesated. Um, I would personally like to leave this one in. Um, because again, there's no impact to the tax rate this year. All it simply does is make another $10,000 more

accessible via the emergency fund should something come up. So if we if we need to spend emergency fund money, it has to be approved by the budget committee and the selectman um in order to spend it. But if if there's if there's no funds in this account, which I think I think there's less than 10,000 in it now,

um then we we couldn't we wouldn't have it to spend. we would literally have to go call a special town meeting to um to get undesated funds to cover whatever the emergency was that we were talking about. So, um my feeling is to leave this one on on there.

Go ahead, Mil. What do you got? Yeah, just um if you do leave it on, if if one of you could participate in our budget committee meeting next week to give, you know, your point of view because the the the when the budget committee last met, there was there was there were questions that were left unanswered, which is why the budget committee voted against this line. So, I think it would help if if they heard it from, you know, one of you why it's, you know, why we would benefit from it.

I'm checking my calendar now. When are you meeting? The 11th, I believe. Is that right, Ruth? Yeah, I can probably do that, Mel. Okay. I mean, yeah, and you know, I'd be welcome to be there, too. But I think just being in the situation that we're all currently in and just I think there's time to recognize that that that needs to be funded and have funds available. Um, if if now's not a good

indication of why, then I don't know what would spark someone's interest into ever participating in it. Yeah. And again, it's just a shifting of money. It's taking money that's not not liquid and making it more liquid for us if we need it really is what it is.

It from from undesated. Okay. Yeah. All right. I was going to suggest that. Yeah, that that's the plan. Yep. Okay. Um Okay. And so that takes us through uh the operational stuff. Um any and then in capital the only thing because this is there's some difference between selectment and budget committee. So budget committee will have to have their own discussions but right now we were um spending uh

54,550 coming out of uh fire department capital reserves and um 188,600 uh for a plow truck and that was also all coming out of public works reserves. So cutting anything here is like some of the other stuff we've talked about um is not going to impact this year's um tax rate. So

So Kevin, if you're not going to put the capital expenses for the fire department on the warrant, then you know, you don't really have to vote on them. At least not tonight. Well, I was just Well, I think Yeah, actually we can cut we can And I actually expect

we can take get a few we can get a few questions off the warrant by Right. I don't know how do people feel. How do people feel about that? basically not putting basically just um well but if we don't if if we well what if and now I'm I'm I might go back on myself here but how do we then deal with um showing a selectman in a budget committee recommendation?

Well, if your recommendation is zero, then you don't have to put it on the right. No, I get that. But here our recommendation isn't zero. It's 54,550. You could just take it off the budget. I mean, it would be included. That's true. We We only have to provide a It's only if it's on the warrant.

Right. Right. Yeah. This is money we've partially already spent. Right. Most of it. Yeah. Screw. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. mean, it's out of capital, so Yeah. Do people feel the same way about the truck? Nope. I didn't think so.

I think that should be on the ballot. I think we'll get up against Yeah, I definitely think it should be on the ballot. Yeah. Yeah. But I I think the um Ruth, you had an opinion and and I don't know if Calvin is is still here, but that that was a pretty amazing price and that um unlike feeling was unlikely to

get that price next year or who knows could be better if things go really in the crapper. But yeah, you don't really know. I think I think there is a good chance he might be better. I mean, they're pretty aggressive right now on vehicles. Yeah. Also, we spent a lot of money on the two older trucks that we've only got a couple years out of a lot of money spent on them.

Yeah. But I I I hear that. But at that kind of a how money spent on two other trucks doesn't really Oh, I know. play into whether a third truck is reached the end of its life or not, right? Yeah. I have no problem putting the truck on the ballot, just to to clarify. I just don't feel comfortable spending that amount of money in capital if we had the the right to do so as a board without the people's

Yeah. No, on this one I I would agree. I I wouldn't I wouldn't buy a truck without putting it before the town. Yeah. If it was an e situation where something was expired like the breathing apparatus that the fire department needed, I can at least kind of make a rational argument with that, an easy argument with that of why we had to do so. Can't do that with this truck.

Yep. Yeah. I say leave it on. Okay. So leave it on. Leave our recommendation as is. I would. Yes. Be my vote. All right. So then going down through this, we didn't really we didn't really change anything that hadn't already been done like that that affected the tax rate. I mean, we pulled out the town manager fund um and

severance had already been pulled out. We pulled out the um assessing capital. Was that being raised? No. Uh, yeah, it was being raised. That was gonna be raised. Yeah. Um, so that one actually Well, if it's going to be zero, we don't have to we don't need to vote to we haven't voted to put the article on the warrant yet. So, we don't have to vote to take it off. So,

right. Um, maybe we see what the budget committee comes up with. Not if we're not going to put it on. That's our decision that we put on. That's right. That's right. Um. Uh. Okay. So, so what did was how much do we take off that was coming out of undesated funds that we eliminated?

Oh, geez. That was um let's see. Um well, from our original recommendation, um 80 8,600 there. Uh 8,000 there. So that So that's 166. That was it. I'm looking. Yeah, that was And um so where does this get us next impact?

Yeah. Uh so net if we go to the bottom line, net impact is on the municipal. Yeah. because we didn't, like I said, everything we changed was und designated fund stuff, so it didn't impact me. But it has us, it we're bringing a municipal budget

that's 2% less than last year. Yeah. Um, school right now is estimated at 1.7, but like I said, I think that might come down. Um, county is county. Uh, overlay is that's a pretty small overlay. Um and then which gives us this 0.5% total. But like I said, if I think the school reduction alone may get us um to flat at

for a total rate, but uh if the um town assessed total assessed value that we base taxes off, you know, goes up, it it only had it's literally it's it's a percentage percentage thing the way the math works. So if valuation goes up 0.5%

then this will go down 0.5% and we'll be at flat. So I'm I'm pretty confident that this these numbers right here are going to have us um much flat flat and probably actually down a little bit. I got my fingers crossed. Yeah. I mean it does depend on the valuation. um and what the school does.

Yeah, I think the valuation will go up. I don't know what percentage. Um and the other thing too is is um people who have a homestead exemption will see a bigger exemption this year. Um although it won't be the full 25% because we're at 87 25,000 because we're at 87%. Um it'll still be more than last year. So if they have the That's right.

their tax bill will actually go down simply because of the homestead exemption. Yep. Yep. So hey Kevin. Yeah. Um that doesn't mean if we're we're holding the rate at zero, but that doesn't mean the tax bill will be no increase, right? Because if the even if if we hold the rate, but valuation goes up, they'd still do see a slight increase in their taxes.

No. No. So the to the towns Well, if their individual valuation went up, yes. But the town valuation that I'm talking about that comes from the state, that's a different that's a different deal. That that often goes up where the and then that's the issue why we need a reassessment. That's that total number has been going up what the state estimates the total value of the property is and the um but our individual assessments have not been keeping up with that. So, um,

okay. Unless unless somebody's individual property gets a different assessed value, um, then if if the tax rate was the same, they'd have the same tax bill. Okay. Thank you. And no whispering on the set, Rich. My wife's upset because my kids were home all day, obviously, and they drained her computer dead, and this is her office, and she had to get her cord. Ah.

the revenue side? That's a great question. So, so the way that the town of Durham does our our budget is we balance base it off of last year's uh revenue. So, take excise tax. We have about $950,000 worth of excise tax last year. So that's what we put toward this year's budget. So when we come to the end of the year, depending on what the excise tax collected this year is, there would either be a surplus to the undesated fund or a negative to the un designated fund. So say we come to December, we've collected $900,000 worth of revenue for excise tax. That would mean that our undesated fund would take a hit of $50,000. So, I had sent you guys um some

dire predictions and I did try and make them pretty pretty um you know, sad um hoping that that they would be happier when we get the actual figures. Um but yeah, so so our undesated fund would take will take a hit in December depending on what the revenue ends up being this year. And um I think I know both Ruth and I have been sitting in on a lot of um Greater Portland Council of Government and MMA meetings with other you know managers and uh chairs and mayors and things of that sort talking about a lot of these issues. And at least right now, the state is holding firm saying that in 2020, what what they've estimated that school districts and towns will get in terms of school aid and local revenue sharing um is um is holding that they're

that that's going to come in. Um the the other big theme we talk about is like the big challenges and the big pain is probably next year's budget. Um because that's when we're going to see um the impacts of real revenue decreases. And

um it's also one of the reasons why I don't want to um I don't want to go too far uh cutting this year because if we cut too much this year, we know that we just know because of the challenges coming next year, it would just the year-over-year increase would be that much more magnified. Um it would be like um be a real shocker I think to people because I think um I think next year is going to be a very challenging budget year because of the revenue side

our board members is uh comfortable with amending our um uh budget recommendation to align with this scenario that we've just been going through. If if so, we can go back to the handful of items that we need to take votes on to adjust our recommendation. Um if not, we can uh keep talking.

with this at this point? Okay, I'm going to zip down through and we're going to uh take votes to uh adjust our recommendations um and then we'll um kind of have that on the record for um for the budget committee when they meet uh next week. So, I'm going to move that we adjust our um budget recommendation

for administration to uh $390,544 Rob seconds. Any discussion? And we got to do the roll call votes. So, we got we got a handful of these. So, if you're in favor of that, say yes. If not, say no. Rich, yes. Rob, yes. Todd,

yes. Mark, yes. And I'm a yes. Okay. Um, I'm going to move that we alter our recommendation for the payment of the ambulance bond and that we transfer $41,720 and raise zero. Is there a second to that? I'll second it. Todd seconds. Any discussion?

All right. If you're in favor, yes. Uh, Rich, yes. Rob, yes. Todd, yes. Mark, yes. And I'm a yes. recommendation for uh payment on the 2018 road bond uh for the the same amount but that we uh transfer $50,000 and raise 197,460.

Todd seconds. Any discussion? In favor, say yes. Rich, yes. Rob, yes. Todd, yes. Mark, yes. And myself, I'm a yes. recommendation on the public works budget to 1,38,693. raised. Rob seconds. Any discussion? yes. Rob, yes.

Todd, yes. Mark. Yes. And I'm a yes. the selection's recommendation for the raise pool um to zero. there a second? Rich. Second. Second. Yes. Um okay. If you're in favor, say yes. Rich, yes. Yes. Rob, no. Todd, yes. Mark,

yes. And Kevin is a yes. So, four to one on that one. But we will is we will um Is there anybody opposed to still putting that question on the warrant? Although, you know what, Rob? If if it's a secret, well, I guess the

if it's zero, then they can only vote it up or down. They can't change it, right? And if it's Yeah. There's no amendment. It's not like a normal town meeting where somebody could amend it from the floor. on the ballot. if they vote it well I guess if I guess if the budget committee had a different recommendation they could because what they're going to have is they're going to be able to choose um between the selectman or the budget committee recommendation. Um it's unclear what happens if there's if we have to put like none of the above or something like that on there. What happens? Um

I'm confused as to how the budget committee would have a recommendation if we're not putting that on the ballot for making it zero. What are they recommending on? Yeah, I think normally we wouldn't. Um, you know, Rob expressed an interest in having the question go before the town, which in a normal town meeting year, I guess I would get, but if it's a secret ballot, then there's no opportunity to

amend it, like, you know, have a discussion on the floor and somebody, you know, raise it, you know, to 8,600 or whatever. to decide tonight whether that um goes on the ballot. We can think about that one some more because even if the um even if the budget committee for the sake of argument came back and they wanted to fund the 2% say if the board

was at zero that we can still we still don't have to put the question out there um because we are in effect not it's not a money spending article at that point because we're not proposing any money be spent. Right. I guess you could could you could you word it as in terms of the um

you you pose the question the do you recommend do you um would you like the um to have a raise pool of up to 3% and the selectman's uh recommendation is no. Is that Yeah, I think we could do something. I was just thinking I think we could do something. I don't think we're limited to um number of choices. Like for instance, we could say we could put the question on there uh to see what some

the town wants to you know raise for raise pool. Um A could be selectman recommends zero. B could be budget committee recommends zero. C could be 2% which equals $8,600. and D could be, you know, something else. I think we could do a multiple choice um question like that. Would you agree with that, Ruth, based on what you've learned so far?

Uh it's not the suggestion of MMA. So MMA's suggestion is that um it's a closedended article so that Oh, okay. Uh so it's a yes or no, basically. But how do you do a closedended article with a selectman and a budget committee's recommendation? Well, I'm still working on that.

Okay. So, there are some towns uh that do, you know, put down the as as the options, the selectman's recommendation, the budget committee recommendation, and then basically none of the above. There has to be an option on the ballot that that to vote it down, unfortunately.

Yeah. So we we need to find out what happens if they do vote it down because does that mean well oh we talked about the article about putting at the beginning like to revert to Ly right and and there's no guarantee that would pass either but

I know right okay you would need to take another vote to get a um like if the school budgets voted down they would have to to go back and another vote. Oh that'll be fun. Okay. back to whether um like I said, we don't have to decide tonight. So, we've already here and um this one I think we just take this one off the town manager search.

Is that people good with that one? Taking it off. Yes. The budget committee recommended zero on this one anyway. So, um I think we don't put we don't have this we're not putting the town manager question on the ballot. So, we don't need this, you know, on the on the article. So, I don't and I don't think we need to vote to take it off because we never voted to put it on. So, okay. So, I think that I think that takes care of the necessary votes that we

actually the only change, Kevin, is the the truck is a lower amount because uh it came Oh, yes. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Um, so I'm going to move we change our recommendation on the um, uh, public works capital expense to $188,600

public works capital. There a second on that. Second. Okay, Rob. Second. Um, any discussion? if you were thinking that voting this down would bring it to zero, that's not what would happen. It would actually leave it at 216202.

If you are thinking you want to recommend zero, then we would that would have to be a separate motion and we would vote on that. So the the motion right now is to change the recommendation from 216202 to 188600, but the board would still be

um recommending the purchase of the truck. Okay. that? Okay. So, if you're in favor of changing the truck recommendation from 216202 to 188600, uh, say yes. Rich, that is that wise to do? Should we leave a little cushion in there like 192 or is this okay to roll with that?

we ended up having to spend extra on is getting the truck lettered town of Durham and that was an extra cost was under $1,000,000 that wouldn't hurt my feelings. That could just come out of regular budget though, right? Right. Right. Right.

Yeah. I'm in favor. Yes. Because this this is a contracted price, right, Calvin? If approved at town meeting. That wasn't a resounding yet. That wasn't a very good yet. The only hesitation I have is I think I think that those bids are good for a

certain amount of time and we haven't. So, I'm wondering if that was only good for 30 days and where we didn't accept it, I suppose someone could could could back out on the deal. I mean, I don't know how that I'm not I've never had this happen, so I'm not sure. Any suggestion, Rob?

Well, get something in writing from them that says they'll hold their bid until a referendum in July. Okay. And if that's the number, then that's what we'll use. Yeah. Okay. I I would think for um for tonight, I would think we could still change our recommendation um and and basically get that task done. And if for some reason something changes, we can always vote to change our recommendation again.

Good. Any other discussions or questions? Okay. So, if you're in favor of changing the recommendation to uh the 188600 number, uh say yes. If you're not, say no. Rich? Yes, Rob. Yes, Todd. Yes, Mark. Yes. And I am also a yes. Okay.

On on this subject? look at the draft warrant um what I did is I I uh because it's quite confusing in the way we do it with the transfer and the appropriations and everything. I I left everything raise and appropriate and at the very end uh there's a warrant article and many towns do this that actually just um transfers a certain number of dollars from the uh revenue fund.

Yeah, I saw some articles like that too. It just it's kind of uh they don't worry about it article by article. They just do like a lump sum and and that's really it. It's like it's the same end result. But yeah, I I hope it doesn't confuse people too much, but um doing it the other way would be very confusing. The only thing with that though is that we've kind of trained people if they see raise that means tax money. Whereas if they see transfer they say okay that's not coming out of taxes. So I I don't know. I again I hesitate to change things up too much when we're um when we're having such a big change in format and process.

I can I can try and write it the other direction. Um, and we'll we'll look at it both ways. Okay, you guys. That's good. Okay, I think that takes care of um 5C, discussion of the budget to be presented at town meeting. So, um, next is 5D, a discussion of the tax anticipation note. I'm going to stop sharing this screen here.

view now. All right. Ruth, what what would you brief us on with the regard to the tan? So, um I think we can wait till next week to take a vote on it. Uh the reason I did up two new cash forecasts, well not two but a new cash forecast for it was to show you the difference uh in the tan uh if we commit taxes the end of July or if for some reason and I don't know what the reason would be we had to commit taxes later in the year. So the tan just goes up.

I'm sorry. Oh, July Oh, July versus October commitment. Okay, I got you. Yeah. Hey, I don't know if I asked this before. If I did, I apologize, but why is the outflow number in August double what it is in the other months?

Uh, that's the month that we pay our uh county tax. Okay, there you go. I went I went in and I'm like, of talking to the county about their attacks? Um, doubtful. Yeah. Well, nominate you for that committee. They asked for somebody to participate.

They're looking for somebody. They're still looking for somebody to be on that budget committee. I vote zero. You're the man for the job, Todd. yeah. And that's hopefully by next uh week again, we'll have a more we'll be able to I'm hoping next week if we have firm direction from the governor, we'll be able to actually set dates of um meetings and votes and such. So, okay, we are on to uh department um

uh department head reports. The fire chief is not here tonight. So, Calvin, you're up. Okay, that's about all I've got. So, Great report. Good. Fair enough. Yeah. Um, so everything's going fine so far with what the state's doing with Route 9. No issues there so far.

Yep. Been down, checked on that. It all It's all going as planned. Okay. Very good. We've got some potholes that we keep reporting to do that some people have been complaining about on Route 9 at Cerosis Corner and a couple other places and we keep calling them and we get no response. I don't know whether to just go do it myself or I mean I don't know if I want to start that

I don't know if that's a I wouldn't establish that precedent. I know that's I wouldn't do that either. That one rose corner it's getting bad. Yeah. It just makes us look bad when it doesn't happen because it looks like we're not doing it. They most people don't realize the DOT does one thing and we do another. So, I'll have to put something out there.

What's the Do we have that speed enforcement sign yet? We do and we're working on that. Uh um I don't know if we we'll be getting that out hopefully completed for giving an update on that to the next meeting, but we have it and we've we've had to go buy a small trailer and retrofit it to meet what we're going to do. So

Okay. Ruth. Town administrator report. Uh we've we've been through everything. Um the only thing I I just wanted to talk about was uh you know the town office is looking at the possibility of of um opening uh for appointment only. Um I don't know whether it'll be next week or the week after. It depends on when we get um everything uh in place and and that will be for uh necessary um or what

people want to be necessary uh transactions and also for the higher risk uh population who may wish to come into the office uh when there's not a line. Um, and then right around June 1st, which is this the the date that most of the other town offices are are beginning to open completely, we'll have protocol in place um for uh social distancing and uh and we will have to reopen the office.

we need to wait so long. I don't either. Um, we why like on the soft opening, why wouldn't we like have a sign on the door says that limits, you know, two people at a time in the lobby and put some cones or something outside for six foot distancing for the line um and um

just let people queue up. There's there's a couple of issues. Um, you know, one is that that Becky didn't get a ton of counterwork yet. Um, and so Pam's going to be helping her a lot. And so it would be very difficult to have two windows going right away. I could help, but that would mean that I would spend most of my day at the window with Becky making sure that that everything went fine.

Okay, that's legit. Then just do one one customer at a time. one. Yeah. One open. And people can queue up outside and then people uh can make when people drive by and they see the line, they can make their own decision on whether they want to wait in that line or not.

Yeah. Yeah. I would agree. But the only thing I would add maybe have them exit out the back door. You go through the front and you go out the back and then that way nobody's ever crossed through the AV room. Through the AV room.

Looking at the other direction, but uh we're we're still working that out. coming in the back door and going out the front door. And that being because then um we don't need somebody to direct traffic out of the front door because you can see when you come in the back door where the mana man's bathroom is, you'd be able to see the windows and still be a sixoot distance and then you

and then you'd have people conjugating in the back room. Not conjugating. They would be lined up like the the Hannerford lines. Why wouldn't you just keep the majority of them outside and have them exit out the back? I don't I don't get that at all.

Yeah, I kind because you'd need somebody out front directing traffic and allowing people in when there was I don't think so. Not just one person only, right? And why do why would you need that in the front but not in the back?

I think you need it more in the back. I would I do too because from the back you can see the people standing at the windows. So you know when those people only if you're in the building, but you can keep everybody out of the building and they can see through the front door if you do it from the front door.

Yeah. The next step would be in the c in the uh al cove, right? No, just Yeah, you can have one person in the alco, but there's only one person allowed at the town office at the windows. And then once they're done, they'll exit and the next person can walk in.

I would Yeah, I would keep them back. Actually, I would keep them out of the alcohol because then you've got two people that have to get pretty close to each other to Yeah. No, not in the al cove. So, I think you you draw your line, you know, you know, back like if you're doing a straight shot right out the the doors straight ahead, your your first person in line is probably to the left, just to the left of that as you're coming out. And you there's a line there and don't cross that line until it's your time to go in. And then that gives plenty of space for the person exiting to get out. And you just do one at a time. Oh, to go out the same door.

You could go. That's what I mean. Go in and out the same door in the front and just set it up so that that's out the back door. Well, that Well, I mean, we could do that, too. But, um, you could you could still do that. I didn't know there was back door.

Yeah, Rob's got his Rob's got his hand up. Sorry. Yeah. Sorry. I just like we're trying to solve this uh complex problem here, but is it really that big a deal like to open next week versus just wait till June 1st and when the when there's further restrictions limited and I mean is there a big public outcry to open town office? We don't have to register anything still

and we won't have any support from the state because the state's still not working. Yeah. So why not just wait till June 1st and then we'll solve all these issues then? I don't know. All I hear I I hear I keep hearing anecdotally like the phone's ringing off the hook. We have so many people calling you. So I think I think there is

but all of those those people we can take care of over the phone, right? It's just direction as to how to do this or how to do that or you know that the governor has has allowed people to drive their vehicles without plates or on temp plates for 30 days after the emergencies lifted. So there's no emergency for everybody to come in um from May 15th until June 15th. And what we're trying to eliminate is the rush on town hall. I don't want to have these huge lines where everybody's waiting to get in and everybody's frustrated because there's this huge line.

You're still going to You don't think you're still going to have that June 1st? June 1st, we're still going to have all the social distancing things. You're still going to have to have all the precautions in the in the lobby that we're talking about now. People will probably still have to wear masks. So, that that that aspect of it is not going to change June 1. But if we take the most complicated uh transactions as appointment only then we can control things a little better and that would hopefully alleviate the the the most complicated and time consuming um transactions are new registrations.

Yep. And so if we took them by appointment only and we got rid of a number of them before the June 1 opening then that would decrease our lines. And then also, you know, with the trash tags, we're we're looking towards probably setting up somebody outside at least for the first couple days.

Well, that was part of my thing with the, you know, with the 30 minute appointment windows, like there's a lot of things people do that don't take anywhere near 30 minutes. So, in terms of the, you know, your productivity and the number of people that you could conceivably help, it's re you're really limiting yourself if you go to, you know, 30 minute uh intervals.

a time to do the most complicated transactions so that people don't back up on each other. Well, I mean, is this something that we have to vote on? Well, depends on what you want to do. I mean, you can vote on it and decide what to do or you can leave it up to me.

Well, I I think it's six and one half dozen of the other. I mean, I I don't you're not going to resolve the problem on I if if people feel comfortable enough. I mean, this is working in supermarkets where there are much higher risk. This is working in restaurants. This is why is the town hall so different? If the argument is because we need to get training for an individual, that's fine. We'll limit our we'll limit it to that one person at a time so we can you know make sure she's properly trained and also obviously limit the exposure inside at one particular time. But it I don't understand why we would wait till June 1st. I I just

I think we should go to May 11th. I would I would even I would throw out I would even be okay if you went to um if you're worried about being overwhelmed. Uh I would be okay with not not having all of the hours that the office is open be accessible to the public. Like maybe you start off with say, you know, we're um the town office will be open to the public from, I don't know, 10 to 2, you know, or whatever or or noon to 4 or or whatever, you know, just as a, you know, as a kind of ramping up strategy. So it would still give you some time to kind of um caught up on other stuff.

That's a good point. I don't know. What do you think? Well, so we are meeting again on Tuesday, which is the 12th. Um, Mill has his hand up, too. Oh, sorry. Yeah, Mill, sorry. Go ahead. My two sense I mean, if if they're only allowing one person into the office at a time, I I I don't understand why the

women behind the window will feel overwhelmed. I mean, yes. I mean, one transaction might take 20, 25 minutes. And people who are outside standing in line can choose whether or not they want to remain in line. Um, you know, other transactions will only take maybe 15 minutes. And but the the people at the window won't be overwhelmed because it's only going to be one customer at a time, right? I think the I think where I was coming from with that, what was in my head was that the um the line might never stop like that. It might just, you know, in a normal course of business when you've got a couple of windows open and um you're in normal periods, you have gaps during the day where there's nobody at the window. But I think at least for a time when we first open, there's likely to be a lot of people coming in for a lot of different reasons. And it might just be a constant line all day. And if with it with one

window open um it might make it tough for them to get some of the other work they need to get done done. So yeah that that makes sense to me. I also think you know whenever you that that office I think that they're going to face that scenario whatever the date is when the office opens.

I agree which is why I agree why I think it's good to open earlier and start working through some of that pent up demand. Yep. Or we just open two days a week out of the four that were open, you know. Yeah, that's another option.

You know, just a Monday and a and a a Friday or something just so people can get some maybe not Friday because that tends to be a busier day. Maybe a Monday and a Thursday just to give some people, you know, I I just had a text yesterday and I can I'll be more than happy to share it with anybody on the phone asking when the town office is going to open.

Yeah. Um so I do think there are people looking for the town office to open. Yep, I agree. think next steps are. Do we need maybe like does Ruth come back to us with an amended plan um on a for our meeting on Tuesday with and that we want the plan to be um well, if we meet on Tuesday, we

could say, you know, doesn't have to start on a Monday. we could put out there, you know, for a really soft opening, say communicated as best we can that, you know, town office will open for limited hours starting, you know, on on Thursday of next week.

start on May 11th. As long as we get everything in place, would be that would be Monday. So we wouldn't meet again before that. We would just have Ruth come up with a plan to um open responsibly on May 11th. Yeah. I think. Calendar in front of me.

Yeah, because that's the day the budget committee is meeting, right? Yeah. Well, why don't why don't we have a meeting on Tuesday and have a plan to reopen on the 14th? That way we can have a discussion on it before we do do that.

Yeah, that's what I was suggesting, too. was it? Sorry if I missed that. I just don't know what's going to change. Well, I think it's it's it's a matter of of Ruth being able to go back to the staff and say, "Okay, this is the goal. We need to" and we've talked about various ways it could happen. um uh to

send it back to them and say, "Okay, we want to we want a plan that uh opens town office at least for, you know, at least for starting half days um on Thursday the 14th." Um and see what that looks like. Ruth, do you feel you could get started on the 11th?

Um, I I wouldn't mind a couple extra days to make sure we have everything um you know, all the signs and everything up. office tomorrow, right? So, no, we're not in the office tomorrow. have other than one person in at a time and putting some cones out that we already have a sign up says mask on if you're in the office

and making sure that we have everything in order. I mean we were only planning on doing it for by appointment only. So, um, you know, we're going to have to go back and just make a plan, make sure that we go through the checklist that the governor has.

talked about here that you are concerned violates or or goes against what the that checklist is? Okay. a vote to reopen the town office on on Monday to the public? I I move we uh open the town office May 11th um with with Ruth doing her best with

her working with the state recommendations. Um are you are you moving for um full operational hours or are you um moving for uh continued uh limited hours? Uh limited hours maybe two days a week the starting point and go to go to a full week on the 18th.

we already had a lot of discussion, but I'll second it. Yeah, I think I'm gonna vote no on this simply because um I I would like to give them the opportunity to um go back and have the rest of this week to okay to actually, you know, lay out what they want their plan to be, bring it to us on Tuesday, and we can approve or disapprove it and um open on Thursday

And if we were going to do limited time anyway, we we're really not we're really not costing ourselves any time. But it I think it it's a little bit more of a deliberative process than just saying, "Hey, okay, we want the office open. Figure it out." So that's that's I'll be voting though on this one.

Would you just out of curiosity is that a is Are you voting I understand you're voting no, but um is there a chance that maybe it sounds like you're willing to amend Todd's because Todd wasn't really necessarily setting a specific.

You just said limited hours. I didn't know if you were amending Todd's or if that was possible. No, I wasn't amending but you know I was just going to I was going to do a separate motion um okay afterwards. Well, I will withdraw mine.

Okay, let's get on with it. Okay, we've talked about it. All right, I'm going to move that um that the board um have Ruth bring a uh opening plan to the board at our next meeting on uh May 12th uh with the goal of opening the town office at least for limited hours by Thursday, May 14th.

I'll second that. Any further discussion? All right. If you're in favor, say yes. If not, say no. Rich, yes. Rob, no. Todd, yes. Mark, yes. And I'm a yes. So, four to one on that one. Okay. All right. So, Ruth, I think that was that was all you had uh that we hadn't already talked about was the reopening uh plan.

That's fine. Yeah. Well, I thought that's what you said. If you have something else, that's fine. No, no, no. I think that's enough. Okay. All right. Uh I'm going to uh move we accept the consent agenda as presented. It only has the minutes for last week on it.

I any Oh, we don't have discussion on that. Um, if you're in favor, say yes. Rich, yes. Rob, Todd, yes. Mark, yes. And I'm a yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, our next meeting, uh, regular meet is, uh, Tuesday, May 12th at 6:30, uh, p.m., uh, same format,

Zoom. Oh, Milt's got something you want to say, Mel. Milt. Yes, thank you. Just a couple of questions. Um, either to you or to Ruth. Um, just in case I'm asked this at next week's meeting. So the way the questions will appear on the secret ballot so it could so the the question will be asked and then it'll be selectman's recommendation is so and so budget committee's recommendation is so and so should we have different different recommendations will there always be a third option meeting neither or just the two options

I believe it's required that you have a neither Yeah, we don't know for sure yet, Mill. We're still actually investigating um and trying to find out for sure how those questions have to be um structured. So, we don't know with certainty yet. Along that same line, if the budget committee and the selectman's recommendation are both the same, will there be a second? Do they then the the the the vote is whether to to approve or or not to approve the recommendation. Is that correct? If I've understood what Ruth said is is right, if that proves correct that even if the selectman and budget committee agree, there's still some other option where they could just say no or none of the above. Um but what we're what we plan to do if that's the case is put an article um early in the warrant that would basically say something like you know uh are you in favor in the event that uh on a budget article um neither the

selectman or the budget committee's recommendation uh passes that the budget for that article will revert to last year's figure. you know, something like that. Um, and if they say yes, then that kind of covers us. If they say no to that and then say no to a particular article, then uh, as I understand it, we would actually have to go through a rebudgeting process for that article and put it out to vote again. So,

okay, that well explained. I hope I can do just as well. Okay, last question to Ruth. Are you going to be sending out an invite and be hosting the budget committee's meeting next Monday? Yeah. Uh Thursday, I'll send out an invite and I'll I'll host it and I'll also send out um the information or a number of the information that I sent to the board. So you guys will have um a spreadsheet to work with and see what the board recommended.

That would be very helpful. And um do do we need to know in advance that we have a quorum or like any meeting we six will come along and if there's five people there we're good to go and if there's not why not. I think it's like any other meeting.

Yep. That's that's exactly it. Yeah. Yeah. Either there's a quorum or there's not. You still hold the meeting meeting. All right. Oh, we still hold the meeting even if there's not a quorum. Well, you hold the meeting. You just can't do anything. you might immediately adjourn,

right? Yeah. Because you can't because you can't vote on anything. Might be a short one. Um but yeah, you technically call the meeting to order and recognize that you don't have a quorum. And you can still have discussions without a quorum. You just can't vote on anything.

Is it possible, Ruth, that when you send out the invite that you could request that people reply whether or not they'll be participating? Sure. Thank you. And it might it might be worth calling out too for those um members that um may have think thought that their term expired that that to let them know that under the state of emergency that their terms are still in progress.

It still stuck with us. That's a that's a valid point, Kevin. So Ruth, if you could uh you know, if there's a way to word put that wording in your email, I think that would be helpful. I think I think there's probably at least a couple of members who, you know, mentally have tuned out of their participation in the budget committee.

Yeah. Okay, Rich. Um, just real quick, and I apologize. I didn't see it. Um, and it just as I was scrolling through my text and talking about the town office, um, I sent an email asking for a quick discussion, and I mean really quick, in regards to softball. Um, and I guess I'd wrap it up or to keep it brief, I would just say, is the town going to impose any further sanctions on the public that the above

and beyond what the governor has already imposed? And I asked that simply because softball, if given the chance by the governor and the state, they would eventually like to you to utilize the field that they lease from us to hold some softball games, but they wanted to make sure that it was um kosher with the town before even committing to anything like that, irregardless of what the governor said.

Yeah. I um any thoughts for members on on Rich's question? I don't think we po impose any other restrictions. Yeah, I wouldn't restrictive enough. Yeah. Yeah, that was my thought too, but I just wanted to get the boards.

But that actually I'm glad you brought that up because when you when you shared that uh text I um it also triggered my a question for Calvin. Calvin, are we still locking the outhouse at Runaround Pond? Yes. I think I think we need to consider opening that back up. Okay.

And um what I mean that's just my opinion. I mean because we are at the people are you know using that facility more and more you know and as the weather gets nicer and um I think when we shut it down before we were it was largely because people were stealing the toilet paper. Um and so I think you know we're somewhat past that. So um my feeling is we should open that back up again.

I would agree. Yeah. Yeah. Can you go ahead and and take the lock off that, please, Calvin, and just go do what you did last year as far as maintenance and whatever and Yep. Um Okay. Thanks. All right. Any other uh final business

items? plug. The budget committee will meet on Tuesday, I'm sorry, Monday, May 11th. Is that at 6:30? Bill. 6:30. Okay. Yep. And that'll be a Zoom meeting and that'll be uh how you can watch that will be publicized just like it has been for these uh selectman meetings. Uh Ruth, please send that Zoom invite to all the board of selectmen as well. Okay. Um and then uh and then May

12th and May 26 are our next regularly scheduled uh board meetings. All right. At this point, I'm going to move that we adjourn. Is there a second? Rich seconds. In favor of adjournment, Rich. Yes. Rob, yes. Todd, yes. Mark,

yes. And I am also a yes. We are adjourned. Thank you everybody. And Milt, thank you for joining us tonight. Happy to see you all looking healthy. Yeah. Good to see you, Mil. Stay safe. All right. Take care everybody. Take care.