Okay good evening everyone uh welcome to the January 23rd 2024 Town council meeting I would ask that everyone stand to say the Pledge of Allegiance to flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for indivisible Liberty and for all it’s delay Kathy always gets [Laughter]
Me um I would ask at this time that we uh bow our heads and take a moment of silence to reflect on everything that’s been happening recently um I’d like to extend uh my prayers and a speedy recovery to the officer in wil Bram uh
That was shot and uh also to uh all the emergency Personnel that went out there the First Responders um we know it’s difficult on them also thank you at this time I need to announce uh per Mass General law that this meeting is being audio and video recorded Ed by
Elcat and I would have to ask if anyone in the audience is uh recording the meeting if so please state your name for the record okay seeing none we’re going to move right on um number three public comments you need did anyone sign up for public comments no no one signed up and
Don is nobody’s on no one’s on nobody’s on for public comments okay so what comments uh Council comments is there any counselor with any any comments so I would like to uh just extend condolences to the family of Larry LaVine um Larry was a wellknown in town an attorney past selectman past
School committee member um just a truly outstanding person I had uh I had the great pleasure of knowing him and calling him friend and um any passed away and uh it it’s really tough to see uh people that meant so much to us when uh when this happens any any other Council
Comments thanks I hope you guys are going to talk more later to um Town manager report we really didn’t uh have a town manager report this meeting I’m assuming or do you or I do not you’ll hear enough from me I’m sure yes we have quite a bit going on
Afterwards okay um Communications correspondence and announcements um annual assessment certification so we have from Diane Bishop um the annual certification um Genie should we read into the record the certification I would think so is there someone that would like to read it that’s the I I will are you talking about the assessment
Certification sure thank you so dated January 18th 2024 assessment certification I hereby certifi that the information contained here in is a true statement of the assessment records of the town of eon Meadow the information was taken from the fiscal year 2024 real estate records fiscal year 2024 assessment date January
1st 2023 land location 305 5 C Maple Street parcel ID 6-9 a land area 5.37 Acres land value 1, $80,100 building value $2,695 total value $3,699 600 number of parcels one parcel note 305 Maple Street 69-0 is included in the D District but is tax exempt I attest that I am the
Officer having legal custody of the records referenced above which are official records kept within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts signed Diane L Bishop the director of assessing thank you so for the members of public that uh don’t know the town of East Long Meadow along with Long Meadow had created the diff
District which was uh right on the border it uh entailed the property which used to be the East Long Meadow nursing home um the property on our side is tax exempt um the property on their side is uh taxable and the revenues and all generated from this went to uh redo that
Intersection a few years ago which improved tremendously um absolutely wonderful program and it worked out perfectly and we are required every year to um do an assessment certification based on that thank you public hearings um I do not believe we have a public hearing so orders of the day licensing matters
Um we technically have to wait till 6:15 I would wait till 615 since that’s on the agenda okay so I would entertain a motion to move out of order to 8 um A2 and then continue until such time is 6:15 I move to move out of order to 882
And continue until such time as it 6:15 to return to the order of the agenda second motion made and seconded we have to do everything with roll call tonight uh Mr torsa yes Matt yes I am a yes Marilyn yes Connor yes and Kathy yes
Thank you um so the next uh order of the day is Elm Crest Country Club um so if you guys remember at the last meeting um I had told you that um there were some issues with Elm Crest uh their liquor license not having inspections and so
This is just an update to let you know that myself uh Tammy um Spencer from the health department David Gardner from the building department um the fire department all met with Dave lry on site to discuss the situation and what steps they need to do and in what order to come back into
Compliance we felt as though this was the best time of year especially at the golf course with it being closed um it gives them multiple months before the season opens to get everything in order so just wanted to give you an update on it that it did happen the meeting did
Take place and they are moving forwards any questions I assume then that they’re like going to remain in business because it seemed like they closed corly did they not so from what I understand from that meeting from Dave is they would still like to go forwards with their liquor license and they’re
Hoping to continue on with a golf course um again they didn’t say 18 holes he didn’t say whether they were cutting it down in size um but he did did say that you would like to be moving forwards I have a question sir the license reads that it’s a on
Premises license correct that’s correct so he would have to identify what the premises are so the license entails the entire golf course and the reason it was done that way is because they have the cart that drives around to all the holes on the whole course so the license
Pretty much states the entire property so a premise could just be the parcel it’s the whole parcel exactly on the liquor license Marilyn the description of the premises is right on the license itself and it’s reflected from whatever application was last approved because the application that
Goes to the abcc has to have the premises description which is carried on over to the license and it does say 2016 there’s a change of management and then they included the pool area the golf course and the beverage cart that’s okay all right I just wanted to clarify that
Thank you it’s very well spelled out actually on the license so and uh um Mr flurry was very uh outgoing um was open to you know all the different comments and all so so we’ll see where we go from here here instead you think six minutes is enough
For you you’re having the ship tonight what what’s the thought of the board I really would like to give the school committee time and so would there be a motion to further move out of order skip over 8b1 and go to 8b2 probably how about we go to approving the
Minutes we can do thatc right right that’ll take 30 seconds but is there a motion to move out of order to uh consider 8C so moved second third again roll call vote John yes Matt yes I’m a yes Marilyn yes Conor yes and Kathy yes okay next up is January 9th
Open Session minutes is there a motion I make a motion to approve the January 9th 2024 Open Session minutes I’ll second that the motion made in seconded and needing an additional five minutes is there any comments hearing none this will be a roll call vote John yes Matt yes uh I am
A yes Marilyn yes Connor yes Kathy yes minutes are approved why don’t we do the sounding by well why don’t we go to 8D old business there is none it took a few seconds um the kenneling amendment that’s going to be referred to the planning board anyway right
Yes do we want to go to um the discussion of life insurance the kenneling should be straightforwards I would suggest we go to 8 E1 okay okay um that’s just a continuation so we should be able to discuss the proposed zoning bylaw amend Amendment regarding
P I move to move out of order to a until 6:15 second um roll call vote John yes Matt yes I yes Marilyn yes Connor yes and Kathy yes okay so we received um a request for a zone change see if there’s in the audience and is there anyone in
The audience here I thought so if you would like to come forwards I’m here on behalf of um Miss Lori Curley she’s gonna be present momentarily I’m happy to get started I think she’ll probably walk in maybe as I’m talking okay and could I have your name attorney Robert Ferris thank you um
So what we received was a petition um for a zone change to um change the table of view the land use classification um under commercial kennel to instead of no in um the industrial section to amend that to a special permit apologize oh that that’s okay we’re actually running fast today
That’s a good not usual um so being the petitioner I am going to open it up to you if you’d like to say a few words regard sure hopefully it’s a little bit of a fun topic I’m here on behalf of Miss Lori Curley tonight um she’s a manager of a Doggy Daycare
Currently owner and she has a manager um that’s been working with her for 25 years so I’m gonna stop you just one second um just for uh notice um that I know that the location and I am employed there I do plow the snow there so um of
Which I I have never met Laura but I do plow the snow there and I just wanted to clarify that well thanks you do a good job and I will not be voting on this okay so with that being said please continue um so she currently has her
Grooming business uh already in place it’s Doggy Daycare so my hope would be that it doesn’t uh change foot traffic too much that might be a planning board zoning board issue but he already has the you know equipment in place or at least a lot of the equipment in place
She has a location in place um and we’re not asking for uh a new law to be um issued into existence this is just an amendment to an already existing law that um has already been contemplated and we’re essentially we’re just asking that it be um change from a no in
Industrial Zone districts to a special permit giving you guys uh or giving the planning board zoning board oversight um of the location hash out the details again it shouldn’t affect traffic too much because it may stagger the pickup and drop off the dogs but there’s already pickup drop off going on um the
Case law that I’ve read um about kenneling seems to suggest that most issues in towns have been about noise complaints and barking but if it’s in an industrial Zone District I wouldn’t think that there’d be noise complaints um I would also just State real quick that there’s um already precedent for
This grandby has special permit uh requirements um there’s doggy daycares in plenty of the towns around here and I believe some of them also have special permits so again just uh an amendment not whole cloth new law or anything like that um and I’d certainly ask that you
Guys refer to the planning board for further evaluation so I am recusing myself and asking Marilyn the vice president to take over hi nice to meet you okay um we are in receipt of your documentation which is perfect um we I personally um look through and you know aside from
Changing that one piece um what you’re asking is relatively simple with the exception of the town in its wisdom years back um voted to not allow a kennel in any Zone in town not you know not just the industrial zone or the residential Zone in no Zone um
Historically the process here is to make the presentation to us and if we feel it’s it’s a valuable request then we refer refer to the planning board and they go through the the issue of what you’re asking to do as far as changing the zoning bylaws and they will make a
Recommendation and then based on their recommendation you come back to us and we and we have as a legislative body the authority to either approve or reject the zoning change so um I don’t know if anyone else has any comments regarding this particular application but that’s
Generally what we do we don’t get into the and bolts of why we should or shouldn’t have it or why wasn’t it voted on years ago that’s generally done at the planning board I figured as much okay all right so anyone else I I feel like I mean we’re not necessarily
Deciding tonight whether we want to change this it’s more so just allowing we’re deciding the we’re deciding the value of what’s being requested and I think it’s reasonable to send it to the planning board yeah I think it hits that bar pretty easily in my opinion M yeah I
Agree do we have a motion Connor sure I move to refer the planning board refer to the planning board for the recommendation to the council the proposed bylaw Amendment regarding kenneling a second second thank you Kathy uh roll call vote Jonathan yes Matt yes Ralph EST stains iused myself
Marilyn yes yes Connor Kathy yes okay we’re all set good thank you thank you very much thanks for the snow flowing yeah sounds like it’s good thank you very much didn’t realize until last minute that that I actually did that work um it is after
6:15 so I would look to um move back to 8 uh 8 A1 license in matters the 615 uh disciplinary hearing for uh newes DBA Zayn smoke shop is there anyone here from Zayn’s smoke shop proceed without I don did you say he was there
No he’s here oh right he’s there he’s in the audience hey guys oh there you are okay would you name for the record oh yes my name is Zay T how are you guys doing very good thank you thanks um so zanen um we’ve brought you here for h a
Hearing based on the fact that we received from you a bill of sale stating that you had sold the business um the current liquor license that you hold uh was never transferred you no longer own a business the abcc has said that um a new owner of the business who doesn’t
Hold a license cannot benefit from your license um it’s two separate entities there was no transfer of the license so what we are looking to do because we know that you’ve sold the facility we have the bill of sale is to revoke the current liquor license so
That way there it becomes available if the new owner chooses to apply for it correct do you have any questions absolutely not I don’t have any question that I just want to like I just sold out like I’m just going to help the guy out right now I’m just
Going to give him a my lawyer number and so he can just go ahead proceed with it I already provided him with the number I think um I haven’t got in contact I was over see I just got back like few days ago so I’m just going to get in contact
With him and then I’m just going to let him know about the lawyer and then after that he can proceed with the the application and all that so the rest is up to him good luck with him so okay that’s it so I would ask the council
Members if you have any questions for procedurally or anything like that I do have a comment or a question sure um and it was it based on some things that we sort of tossed out as possibilities um I understand from the clerk that we have that the new owner is is making um
Headway and trying to go forward with a new license is that correct yes he is okay um is it necessary to actually revoke um I’m just I’m just looking in terms of um we know it’s the ownership is under new manage there’s a new owner and we know that um he has intentions
To um buire the license properly so so it would either be that we revoke it Kathy sorry excuse me um to answer Marilyn’s question if I may I do believe that it is necessary to proceed with the revocation of the license because regardless of the fact that Mr
Um Ali is trying to uh proceed with the his new application and the business has been sold to him the purpose of uh Mr tala being here this evening is to answer uh the numerous uh repetitive violations of the health department and the um abcc so so I it’s
Incumbent upon the council to address those violations and to uh go forward with some action will have this action will have no bearing on Ali’s um ability to apply for a license all it does is revoke the license that was held by zay’s and to acknowledge the um the uh violations
Innumerable I I have to continue to say that because uh violations were incurred in spite of um their being in a period of um should have been uh closed and not selling and violations continued so I feel very strongly that the council needs to move forward uh with uh revoking that
License so I think think okay with that yeah I think the main question is there anything I’m so sorry can I add something in if I if I’m allowed to speak yes go ahead all right so the thing is that like as she mentioned right now too I sold the business and
Everything as being as a business owner I own multiple other businesses as well too that was like one of my first thing I started the stores with and everything now I’m completely done with the business and all that but as uh as you guys mentioned about revoking the
Lessons I just want to know like uh since he have all the inventory and everything and there’s a lot of wholesalers that don’t take the inventory back and everything so which means that this poor guy is going to go in the loss with the inventory and everything so that’s what
I was just like thinking about as well too like if I could proceed with the like since I’m not in the business anymore or any of that like since all the violations and happened and all that I’m well aware of all the violations and everything too I’ve been I’ve been
Followed up with all of them and there was a fine and all that thing I’ve been like I’ve been following of I’ve been paying and all that stuff so everything is I’m right on the track with on everything that she mentioned about the violations and all that but as concerned
As for the business wise I was just thinking about that I’m not running the business right now there’s a new owner that’s in the business right now and uh so let’s say if any of you guys own the business right now I sold it to you guys it’s your responsibility after that so
As you have the inventory and all that stuff and you cannot run the business and your license is invoked and what is he going to do with the inventory is he going to throw the inventory in trash that’s what was one of my concern was because there’s a lot of inventory
That’s there’s in the in the business right now regarding B wine and everything and as you know that like if he shut down the cooler the beer going to turn into poison so that’s another concern too what is he going to how is he goingon to dispose all the beer and
Everything because he’s not going to get the lessons for a whole month so if he doesn’t get the lessons for a whole month and everything he’s not going to be able like because he already like last time I got in contact with him he say he’s not able to sell anything like
No beer none none of that stuff so he been like you know everything like been off the shelves and all that stuff as far as I know a little bit but the thing is that like as that was like one of my concern was like you know like it should
Have been like as put yourself in the same Sho step like if you own a business you sell a business new owner comes in he have the inventory and all that stuff what is he going to do with something particularly like beer and wine so typically on um a restaurant or anything
That holds a liquor license the transfer of the license occurs before the sale of the business to make sure that it’s viable as a business but with that being said jeie if he just relinquishes the license and signs it over and says I relinquish the license back to the town
Is that faster than us revoking it I only know about the revocation I don’t know but the relinquishment I think we’d have to check with the abcc and maybe our town attorney on that so can we vote tonight to revoke it but if he brings it and gives us and
Then we can check with the abcc if he just relinquished it and said yep okay I’m good I’m done right but I don’t know I’m just trying to think of the fastest way the store I think the contents of the store were sold with the store with
The business yeah I’m not even talking about the cont I’m just trying to find the fastest way moving forwards um well our bylaws that we cited in the letter to Zayn cited the revocation and that’s what we’re going on the revocation so the relinquishment i’ have to look into that more and I
Think instead of that I mean it’s at most a 5-day appeal period And in the five days he can already be applying for for the license the new owner I spoke with Ali today and he’s ready to apply for the license I think that’s the best
Way to move forwards then if I think unless the council has a different thought process no I agree with moving forward with the so the whole thought is here is to try and move this process along as fast as we can so that he doesn’t lose out and stuff and that’s
What we’re attempting to do um so is everyone do you have anything else you want to add no thank you so much it was great working in the town and uh hopefully like you know if I come back in the town it’s not regarding tobacco business or
Any of that so that was it and uh hopefully good luck to the new business and I hope his lesson Citi revoked based on like you know my fault which I you know I like I acknowledge all my like whatever happened and everything it was
Like you know I wasn’t a peer in the business I was out of the country all the time so things happen when you never in the business you know it’s never run the same as it goes so right now I just don’t want the poor guy to lose a lot of
Money like because he have like thousands of dollars worth of inventory sitting so I just feel bad for him actually honestly because it was my fault and everything my mistake and I just don’t want him to pay for it that’s all like that was one of my concerns that’s it
Okay would someone like to make a motion then to Mo revoke the liquor license that was issued I move we revoke the wines and malt off presses off premises liquor license for new as doing business as zay’s smoke shop for violations second and Jeanie do we need to add
Anything in that we are allowing Ali 30 days app for this license that could be a separate motion I would make the yep let’s do it separately then so refer to the bylaws because this hearing is all following the bylaw for the revocation so pursuing to Town bylaws
Right correct that’s exactly what you were saying I heard you second I did too so we have a motion on the floor it has been seconded to revoke the liquor license um as spoken and as referenced under subsection yes Matt yes I am a yes Marilyn yes
Connor yes and Kathy yes okay um so we are moving forward um I thank you for being here I thank you for uh for letting us know uh everything that’s going on and um I wish you the best thank you thank you so much have a wonderful day guys bye Jenny thank you
Guys okay so at this time do we want to consider a motion to allow um the new owner of that facility 30 days to start the process to apply for what will be this available off premises liquor license Kathy I see your hand um I’m just questioning whether or not that’s in
Fact necessary this most recent action we just took revokes the license as it pertains to zay’s it has no bearing on what um Mr Ali Sher the new owner decides to do and if I I have to defer to Genie for a minute how many in for just one second
So the reason we’re doing this is just so that no one else can come in and apply for the license before this business owner knowing that he wanted to do it and the new owner it’s not his fault so we’re trying to give them like a grace period before someone else comes
In and Scoops it up because this is the only one that is available is that correct I mean I believe you Ral but that you’re confirming that jie that that’s the last one in that category right is Les beer and wine off premise so you could word
Your motion to say the available license the impend available license of that type or something because that license that he owns has a specific number identification with the state and that once it’s revoked I’m sure that’s just going to go away and also a letter has
To be written to Zayn to give him five days to appeal right do that too so and that that was my thought is basically to give the new owner a chance so that no one else is able to slip in um before he actually gets the paperwork filed
Well even if someone uh were to do that a new applicant came on the scene um that doesn’t mean that the um we have to issue that license to the new owner a a potentially new applicant typically I’m just concerned that doing it the way you’re suggesting makes it look
Preferential yes we don’t hold any ill will toward Mr Ali or um any um what’s the word I want you know he should not be held responsible for the Mis actions of the individual he just bought the business from but I don’t know if we can protect a license like that
Legally I’d be concerned about doing that because be then it looks preferential the other question I guess to Jeanie is do you have any knowledge of any other interested applicants that are um waiting for an opening yes I do have I do have names that um there were phone calls been
Inquired but the earliest one was probably two years ago so I would even know if they’re still interested or not okay to me this one’s already been in the motion I mean this new owner Ali came he got the application today so um it hasn’t been submitted and I if we got
Down to the wire I guess it would be the first one submitted if you wanted to be but he also knows Mr Al knows that um time is of the essence if you will that he should make haste to proceed yes I spoke with him today okay I think
Ultimately it would probably be just incumbent upon him to know hopefully he’s watching this meeting or or sees it the next day to know what he should does I I agree Kathy makes a very good point and U like I said it fits the wish of the board basically we’ve already
Voted to revoke leave it at that whoever comes in comes in we don’t want to shaft somebody that did make a mistake but at the same time we also I think it was good for us to address somebody who did make some mistakes absolutely got it and I think in addition that
It’s not only mistakes on the prior license holder but even on the newer if they wanted to do it correctly they could have filed for the transfer to begin with that’s not our mistake so with that being said I think we’re good we will move on
To um the next item in line which is 8B financial matters which is a joint meeting of the Town Council and school committee per the East Long meow Charter article 6 section one we have members of the school committee present if you’d like to come forwards happy joint meeting day everyone annual
Occurrence if you allow me to open a meeting absolutely sir uh call the meeting tour of the school committee this is January 23d third it is 6:35 uh for the record Gregory Thompson chair of the school committee Sarah trulio Vice chair Anella rilla and Kate Leiden and superintend superintendent
Gordon Smith joining us today welcome thank you so just for the record we also have our finance director um present tonight um so that if we need to refer actually Kim don’t do it come up to a comfortable [Laughter] seat take out all the so I believe this is the seventh
Time we’ve had a meeting like this I believe this is seven years since the former government has changed and so the charter uh mandates that the Town Council and the school committee get together at the beginning of the budget cycle to basically talk about the condition of the town where we stand in
The town and what our thoughts are financially going forwards so that both the town and the school committee can create a budget going forward I’m just going to ask him to give a quick overview um I mean the town’s in good Good Financial shape got some free cash which we’re going to talk
About uh later on um do we see any downfalls in revenue or anything like that coming forwards that would uh make us have to adjust uh accordingly um I don’t necessarily see downfalls I just don’t see large increases um I think you benefited last year from a pretty big increase in
Chapter 70 um you know I can’t imagine you’re going to see anything quite like that again it would be nice yeah um yeah I mean the only thing I would say is if you look at historically the budget um the percentage increases they were pretty low kind of before covid
Right after covid I think there was no increase to the budget the two years following they’ve been 6% increases so I would just say that’s not something that you’ll continue to be able to sustain right that’s true um I believe I’m going to refer to our
Town manager um I know you’ve been in talks a little bit with the school as far as on the town side I believe we were talking level services and cola increase uh yep we had actually Kim put out a our budget memo uh before Christmas and actually
Everybody our budgets went F came in Friday so yeah we we’re we’re our level level one budget submissions are at level services and the 2 and a half% cola um and we don’t uh you know the way that we’ll look at it is we’ll kind of pour through everybody’s level one budget
Sort of line by line uh Department by Department with those Department heads uh and if there’s any room from say coming down from a 6% if there’s any room excuse me for additional positions or additional Services then we’ll discuss them at that time as Kim said the trend does not look
Good for adding any new positions this year um and none have been submitted with level one as per our request um um and that those requests can come at the level two meeting um if we even get to that point of the conversation because we’ll sort
Of know a little bit better it’s kind of hard to give any numbers now there’s not enough information yet um but at some point when we meet with all the departments in February we’ll know sort of where we where the budget stands and if if any new positions will be will be even
Considered it’s not looking good so I know the budget process at least on the town side’s been adjusted because the Departments and all do it through munis now yeah I know from years ago um like Appropriations Committee used to say hey give us your budget and then give us a
List of uh secondary or supplemental items that you really would like but that may not go in the budget so that if we do have extra money we can look to those um again is I’m assuming that’s like level two that’s when so we meet with everybody to discuss everything so
That those discussions will all happen when we’re all sitting around the table when uh accounting’s had time to verify the initial um budget then we’ll go through it and see if there’s lines that don’t look right right or or why did this go up so much right there’s a spot at the
In munis where you can describe why this Changed by 7% or why it went down by four and so we talk about that similar to to further down the line in the process um and then yeah we’ll sort of go over anything else they may want or
Need in the event in the event that we have room for the wants or needs is sort of how we’re looking at it so Greg I’d like to open it up to the the school committee um I don’t know if you guys have already started into the
Budget process if you started looking at things have you seen things that are popping up that um we have started the process um as you know it’s January so it’s still it’s um and so we’re still working on level Services it’s hot for Pam who was unable
To come uh she certainly wanted to be here but was unable to be here tonight for Family Matters um so we’re still working through the process I know she’s spoken with Kim and and Tom a little bit about when we may um have a budget uh to
Propose we had talked the 19th perhaps of January uh maybe the week after because February February I’m sorry we’re already there the 19th but your is this yeah um and so uh you know we’ll continue to prepare that we would like it to go through the school committee
Before we send it along um and we meet on the 26th of February so potentially uh we would have a budget approved by this uh the school committee for submitt I don’t know Tom where that lines up with your level two uh if we just or if
You’d like that to be a level one I don’t know how you want that I know in the initial memo uh it sounded more like the level two that you’re requesting so do you want us to hold back how would you prefer that I guess or Kim yeah I
Guess it’s going to depend on how long it takes this information to sort of then we have to schedule these meetings with with all the Departments so does that seem yeah one thing I will say we can roll the town side um to level two prior to Rolling the school side so even
If you know we’re meeting with all the Departments and we want to move the town side so that you know town can make different recommendations for level two you can do that and then just wait until the end of February to get get your level one in and then we can just roll
It at that point so then when when would we submit level tot when specifically if we have any additional requests above level Services which I guess is the differentiation between level one and two sounds right I would just adjust once we roll two if you have those adjustments make them in level
Two once that happens but you’re going to do level two for the other departments before we submit one you want just start level two is my point is my question so it’s easier to have your budget in level one so that when we run reports we can see consistently what
Level one okay two level three looks like as a whole town okay now in terms of there’s some discussion I know thank the town uh funded the school and whatnot but of cuts to the school department is that something that this committee uh is looking to make uh in
Terms of Staffing I know we’re talking big picture right now in level services but we’re concerned some of that language um came came about so do we have a consensus of this Committee in terms of what we should be looking to do uh are we are we against that
So I think from the guidance it’s basically you look towards your level Services um you know and again I don’t know employees or anything like that what you have what you need um but you’re planning on level Services we’ve done a two and a half% cola increase um which I’m assuming the
School contracts and all is probably very similar to that we we are just beginning our our unit a negotiations which will Direct IR ly impact um this so we won’t actually have those um we can make some assumptions as we go through the budget process but those
Will come along further in the process it’s just it has to line up one out of three years it lines up oddly uh like it does here so um we don’t do a direct Cola as you say um but but um once we uh negotiate the contract then we’re able
To apply those changes and create the level Services a true level Services um at that point but I guess from my perspective what I’m what I’ve said to our town manager and all is um years ago it used to be putting anything you want
Into the budget get it as fat as you can if they cut a little hey great and then spend it all right before the end of the year whatever you need to because if you don’t you’re never going to get it again and I’d like the philosophy to be a
Little bit different to put in what you need look at the services you know if something if you had had something in that never use probably don’t need it you know and and give us a realistic budget if 3ars of the way through the year you come April whatever and all of
A sudden you realize that like the out of tuition is higher and you need additional funding at that point you come and say Hey listen we expected it to be this we need this you know we need additional and that way there it’s more realistic budgets and I I have to say I
Mean the last couple of years the budget process it’s just gotten better and better and better as we go along um I know on the town side I I wish we were able to give more money into capital projects we we held back on Capital so that we could fund expansions and stuff
Within the Departments and uh my concern is as you all known and I’ve made this clear BR you know clearly throughout there’s no no disguising that the finance subcommittee makes recommendations and um last year I sat through every meeting Marilyn you were there and one recommendation was made to
Cut the school budget and no other budget and I felt it was arbitrary and I made that clear to that meeting as well what I’m concerned about is rhetoric that we’ve heard already from members of that committee that just for a reminder and I know you all know this it’s not
Required by the charter to have that committee I believe that this is the board that should be discussing the budget as opposed to that board because it’s not an elected board it’s appointed by by one person um so these are my concerns I wanted to bring them to all
Of you so that if you had either agreement in terms of yes cut the school budget now so we could plan on that or based on uh preliminary information level Services look pretty safe so come with that and be ready because there are some things that we are in need of just
As the town is I’m sure that Tom you’ve heard of other departments that say we could really use this you know we’ll honor the request for level services but we could really use this and here’s the reason why we have several a couple of those things I appreciate and so does
The committee and uh the the administration that the town has acknowledged that school is a priority in this town and has funded by a mandate I would say uh by the vote for the school but I also realize that there’s a direct impact to the the taxes of this
Town so I would like to collectively um work with all of you to to come up with a budget that best represents the wants of the towns and maybe if if it it means Cuts then we look at it holistically but to put the cuts on the burden of
Education just because we got a uh uh funding from the high school which again was a mandate a two to three two to one vote um I don’t see that that’s that’s the way we should go about it I give you an example if we ever fund a u a public
Safety complex which I know there’s been discussion for that are you then proposing cuts to police and fire right and I would say probably not that would probably not be part of the conversation I’m only bring bringing this up because we’re here to talk about the budget and
As we were going through the process this came up from multiple members of that Finance subcommittee again an appointed board that filters our budget and Tom’s budget before you all I know you see it but before you get to vote on it finally so I would love that this group did that
Work and I know four out of seven of you already do right so most of you are there anyway um but we’re concerned that we’re going to go through the process and we’re going to get to that meeting with the finance subcommittee and multiple members of that board will say
We need to cut your budget because those five people believe that but you all don’t believe that so I’m asking you all to kind of think of that maybe not now maybe we need more information from Kim and Tom to to move forward but what I
Don’t want to do is get to that meeting and have to convince five people that I don’t even know who are going to be there yet I know a couple of them probably probably that this is really important right I’d rather convince all of you um and so that’s why I bring up
Up these points let’s do this together though I mean we’re we I I give all of you credit all of the people at this table credit because we volunteer our time mostly I mean we get paid for it too but we want to be here we want to do
What’s best for the town right so let’s do it collectively because we’re in good fin Financial shape I believe I’m going to stick around for the free cash and I think that’s pretty substantial right now probably higher than I’ve seen in a very long time so it’s quite an
Opportunity to move forward and maybe we make Capital Investments you know uh I mentioned to Tom and Kim as we went through our process of building and we met with lots of citizens it was great opportunity and people would come up after our forums and say here’s what we
Really need and the things that Rose to the top two things that Rose to the top well three schools number one but the other two things roads right we need roads money spent on roads desperately so if we have $10 million in free cash we should I think look to spend some
Substantial money on roads because it’s a direct quality of life issue people feel better about East Long Meadow if they’re not in potholes all the time it’s a reality right it’s a real thing yes would we like to spend it on you know different things computers uh you
Know furnitures in the school other Capital project yes but the roads are a direct impact the other thing is affordable housing much more difficult to work on and when I say affordable housing I mean reasonably priced housing it doesn’t have to fit into that criteria but the number of people that
Said we are in favor of Education in this town we are worri about increased taxes in this town we live in a large house and our perhaps our kids are left already big tax bill we have nowhere to go in East Long meow we want to move somewhere smaller it doesn’t exist I
Can’t move with my my significant other there’s no way for two people to go so that’s a bigger issue and I met talked with Tom a little bit about it but I just want to throw those two things that’s a long-term issue the Capital One
The roads maybe we can address it now or soon but the um affordable housing I think if we all collectively I’m in on it I’m I could I heard the passion in people’s voices it’s a real thing young people too just out of college want to
Come back to Isam meow where are they going to live right so zoning issues right John jonan you know zoning right you worked on it [Laughter] yourself but but there’s opportunities to do it but we have to put some effort to it and I know we get busy and we work
On budget and we worry about other things but those are things that are really affecting people and their taxes right so let’s work together I just don’t want to get to that meeting and be caught and say you got to cut your you know six people out of your
Budget because those people feel like that’s what we should do I want to know what you all feel like we should do so anyway thank you so you know last year uh we transitioned three employees from the Esser Grant to the school uh budget and I think the s grant that you
Received the last is supposed to be ending in sep December something like that September um so I think at that time you guys had like 1.6 million in it um I don’t have to tell you I don’t want you to lose any of it and I know it’s
Got to be allocated by then what’s the thought process going forwards are you I know last year you had mentioned that you were going to try and transition the other three paral leals into uh the regular budget this year um obviously if we’re doing level services not supposed to be
Increasing um so I’m I’m just trying to get a feel is there enough funding in order to carry them on is there not um yeah so these are like I said open questions as far as I know that was a high priority having them well so the
Con the discussion continues um but we are looking at not uh rolling those over those positions necessarily into the operating budget so as of now um we feel that there are other priorities uh and so yes Esser will go away and our goal with Esser originally was to not create
That financial cliff right so to not create something that all of a sudden esser’s gone and we have 10 employees like other towns have done they have done it more than not and create positions that have no longer have funding this committee and Gordon and Pam and and I have um specifically tried
To not create Cliffs at all at all possible so um to answer your question probably not the three pair professionals as I said we do have other needs other requests that would go above a level uh Services we had conversation about it last night we’re still working
On those um one thing that we had lengthy discussion on mostly was me um was differentiation so we have an so say we have an FTE a full-time employee already that’s funded through um at will at will okay an at will employee and they know that Year bye it’s subject to
Funding right um this specific employee we’re finding that we have a need for that employee and the need will not go away so part of the discussion was well transfer that over to operating budget now the money’s already in operating budget the money’s already in operating
Budget in the at will category but it’s never come through as a new FTE a new full-time employee right because new full-time employees we think of those that we add to the budget so the above level Services we add them in so how do we categorize that one specifically
Because there’s no additional costs they’re already um able to uh apply for benefits if so desired and so it’s not really a budget thing but it is a long-term commitment thing right and so do we call that level services do we call that a new FTE and I say that
Because I believe that we need to be as a whole have a better understanding of how many employees have because Ralph I know what you’re trying to do is how many employees we have and how many we keep adding each year 15 years on this school committee I’ve seen a lot of
Positions added to this town and I know we have issues funding their retirement right so we have to look at that holistically but we all need to do it similarly across the board so I don’t know if that requires more conversations perhaps with Kim and Tom and maybe Pam
And Gordon or and you know us involved a little bit to some extent but I’d like to have some better clarification on how we actually even present that to you because it’s a request that we have but is that a new is that level services do other departments I don’t think I don’t
Does the townside have um that will in place not any on I don’t think so St so so just issues like that like we open transparency we want to be out there on everything and we want to do what’s best for the taxpayer and the tax dollar
Right but how we do it collectively is yet is the question we have some at will employees don’t really like temporary employees and stuff on that idea where we hire as needed right yeah um not I mean I don’t think there’s a ton though so again I’m not sure even how those are
Classified are they classified as just temporary employees I believe I’ve seen that in the budget where it’s actually I think it sorry Ryan I’m G to put you on don’t you hire some like um help summer help um and again I don’t are interns though right are they interns are they
Little bit of All Temporary are they again election workers and stuff you have some that are funded by grants do you have Grant funded full-time employees no noted so Kim can I ask you do you know so take a snapshot in time maybe it’s January 1 the number of ftes employed by the
Town not off hand not even off hand is that an obtainable well yeah I mean data point I’m actually I’m in the process of creating kind of a classification of all the positions in the town because it’s been very difficult for me to get a handle on how many positions each
Department has how many are allocated when they add a new position like what is the process for that so I’m in the process of kind of preparing that um so I think it’ll be something I’ll be able to get so I think the the the big step
In here is like obviously right now we just don’t have enough information to paint a picture we all like Kim said we can’t keep doing 6% so when step three happens which is the manager and the superintendent meet whenever that is and we have more information we’ll have to make those
Decisions on the Fly we can’t submit a 6% budget again so if that means level Services yeah as a town level Services isn’t even good enough to achieve that then we’re kind not even going to be able to do level Services right but so as a strong town
Man manager right it’s it’s hard to answer your questions you don’t even know our percentage on level services and I know so we help you answer that question but I just want to get there collectively together because some departments will be above 6% yep fa and some will be well
Below yep um and so to say there’s a strict number is arbitrary but to say that you Tom as a town manager have a grasp of the whole picture and can say okay the school committee and superintendent came with this budget and I recommend this budget because I believe what they say
And I believe it fits into the big picture and I believe that that’s why it’s in the budget process in the charter so that we can have those conversations right I 100% but then after that it goes to a committee that’s not in the charter and they change it
Well we have these conversations all the time they they make a recommendation the time they have it with them changing right they make recommendations Fair but I can’t remember any prerogative to have an ad hoc committee if you want I mean like I I don’t it is and I’m not
Tom anybody can have a committee they want I am just saying the process I Fair that’s a fair point Tom it is a fair point and I’ll leave it at that I would just like to know how the number that that ad hoc committee comes
To how they get how do they arrive there because the last time we sat there it seemed just arbitrary that I’m going to cut this Department we’re going to make that versus here’s the because I believe how it should work is you and Kim come up with a number and that’ll happen
Later on right based on revenues and then from the number you work backwards so you put all the level services in then you see what you have left which is kind of what you’re probably going to do right and then you based on your experience and knowledge allocate what
You would recommend we use the rest of that number for fair the rest of the number it happens every year unless you say we’re not going to add anything new it happens right it’s there I just actually okay um one thing I want to point out right now it’s very early we
Don’t have State numbers we don’t have um really good Revenue numbers there’s there’s not a lot that we can really put into um kind of a recap right I think you’ve all seen the recap sheet that I do that goes it gives you all the years
So ultimately the goal is that once we know what your request is request is that goes into that recap so we can see how that’s going to affect EXs Levy we’re totally driven by excess Levy we can’t increase the budget as much as we want so if we put those numbers in there
We’re negative well then we know we can’t do that the problem with saying the school can only get a 3% or the town can only get a 3% or is that if you come in at 6 and we come in at three or vice versa the total percentage is going to
Be completely different and it’s still going to throw off that so without knowing whatever everybody’s requesting and putting it in seeing how it actually affects everything it’s it’s hard to give you any answers right now until we really know I appreciate that I understand that I appreciate it but at
Some point you will know what that Levy capacity or the desired Levy tapping into the bottom line number is right that number comes to fruition at some point right and so from there you your group collectively will will go and look at all departments and level one and then any additional level
Two requests and say I believe this one is valid the a high priority and this one is a lower priority these two additional request so I as Town manager will recommend to the council the legislative body this is the budget that I believe the town should fund and this is why I believe
It right and I believe then the legislature should take that and and collectively work through it as much as the finance oversight committee does because then you all understand it and four of you already do it anyway so it would just require three more to to go
Through the process I know it means a lot more meanings of the council but as the legislature you’re number one one of two budget and policy right and so to not go through that whole process it’s difficult for me to convince a non-elected official why our budget is so important because they have
Priorities that don’t necessarily reflect the voters you are all vote it in so you reflect the the wants of the voters and if you don’t do what they want you know what they can do they can vote you out right when you put in another committee who are all good
People with good intentions I believe that and knowledge but they don’t run for Town Council and they don’t know the whole picture and they don’t know the Back stories I sat through that last round multiple new members who know a lot less than the three that don’t sit
On that board or sit in that room with that Council and so all I am asking is Just For Thought on how we do this so that we don’t show up in the room on that one day and because it’s the priorities of one person who assigned
That whole committee to cut the school budget that we have to then make a fight and an argument to get back to level Services just because it’s the priority of that one person which is why I let off to say what is the priority of the council because I believe that’s what
This meeting should be but it needs time Kim to your point because we don’t know what the bottom line is but should we cut positions in the school just because we got a new high school because that was the point that was brought up and that’s what I’m
Afraid of and I don’t believe we need to cut positions in the school I don’t believe it’s necessary budget wise but maybe it is so I think one of the issues that that the state has created is the legislative body when it comes to the school we can’t go line item by line
Item and say jeez do you really need you know 238,000 for this how about we cut 38,000 out and do 200 we can give you x amount of dollars to fund the school that’s it how you choose to break it up and spend it is up to you when it comes to the
Town side we see every single Department in every Capital project and and I’ll be the first to say I’ve spoken up um I made a huge to-do at a meeting because I didn’t think certain capital projects were necessary and I said no we can’t that’s just a before they came to the
Council you said no don’t bring them is that what you’re saying actually the night of the budget hearing um at the public hearing I spoke up and said no these just aren’t right the numbers don’t work we shouldn’t be voting on this and the reason being is because I
Can look line item by line item item by item in the town budget and I can say say you know I don’t believe uh it needs this extra I don’t think this I can’t do that with the school all I can say is here’s a chunk of money for the school
And then it’s up to you to spend last year um I’ll be truthful I was at every Finance uh committee meeting subcommittee meeting and I looked at it and I thought hey with this amount of money left in Esser $100,000 off of the total that we give to you could be made
Up under the Esser it still leaves you plenty going forwards and I thought it was a reasonable request it didn’t seem like a lot it wasn’t that we were cutting uh your total funding or anything I believe you had asked 4.9% last year increase 3.9 3.9 and um the
100,000 was. 2% or something but it was arbitrary but again it it wasn’t arbitrary it was myself looking at it saying you still have a lot left in the grant that has to be spent by a certain time and again so I I know what you’re saying
Hey the subcommittee Is Not Elected but I am and I was sitting in that meeting and that was my thought process but shouldn’t this head committee have that discussion and not a the committee That’s Not Elected that’s my point had the final say and they said no you give
Them the whole amount do you go and so you said you you’ll look at the list and you’ll change it when do you change it before it even goes to level one so before Tom gets the budgets is that what you were just referring to you said you
Look at something you say it doesn’t need this don’t put it in before it goes to Tom is that what happens no okay typically it’s after Tom takes it looks at it submits it I go through line item by line item before this Council sees it um actually it’s usually when it’s sent
Out this Council so that we can have a discussion on it oh it’s not just me well but does that discussion happen in public cuz I don’t remember seeing it any of those before the finance oversight I I literally on capital projects I did it at no the budget we’re
Talking not Capital though well I mean capital is done at the same time as the budget and it just so happened that I didn’t think you just referred to it that I’m sorry go ahead I’m just saying that if it was it or capital or
Something um and I did I was the only one that voted no no no no no and everyone looked at me saying hey you’re there’s my point Ralph the committee was different than your thought but you’re the one because you’re the council president I’m not pointing you out
Specifically but now you are that specifically points at uh appoints all the members of the finance oversight committee so in theory they have similar thought process that you do right in theory right you want to hire like minent people but you just said that something you were so passionate
About the rest of the committee they all voted no against this committee right but they had a chance to do that what I’m fearful of is in that Finance oversight committee All Good intentioned People different objectives than these people at this table and and so a lot of times
I’ve seen that the finance oversight committee makes recommendation and the council takes them fair I want this Council to do the work and review all those and they make the decision because they’re elected they answer to the voters that’s all I’m asking and if they’re not able to because it is your
Subcommittee you can have any subcommittee you desire as a board right then what are the priorities of the board and what are you telling the finance oversight committee here is the objective here’s the bottom line number that we as a council feel you should get
To or is that even happening or are you just saying okay Finance oversight committee do your work with no objective and we because we’re not a priority of certain members have to make a an argument to them who aren’t elected that’s that’s that’s my whole point well
I think too the the piece that needs to kind of rise to the top is having been a part of the conversation for the last 6 years with the financial oversight committee this is the first year that I really feel like we’re going into those conversations not with um an erir of
Good faith there are public meetings where those comments were made that if the school passes then the schools should expect cuts and that does seem arbitrary in nature and that does seem like you’re casting that committee is casting a shadow on the schools and the development of our budget and I think to
Greg’s point we want to make sure that again we are in alignment with the other elected board in town and that we’re making decisions that are reflective of the voting population and not necessarily individuals who aren’t held to those same standards that’s where it becomes tricky because we’re asking administrators at buildings to
Prioritize the needs of students to prioritize the needs of teachers we’re asking Pam to do a great deal of work to go through and itemize employees that we can be transparent in our process and unfortunately this year out of all the years I’ve been a part of it it doesn’t
Seem like that has that we’re going into this with that same idea of um compromise and that same idea of negotiating in good faith around this and because it’s already been stated it’s been stated in this room and that’s really hard to go into conversations when that is in public
Record so I just uh I just want to put out there this Finance oversight committee is appointed each year M um it’s appointed by the president it’s they don’t roll over each year as you saw last year there was a couple new members that I had appointed to it I
Kept a couple from before I have not appointed a finance oversight committee yet um but you did have members present at the September meeting past members but they were cited in the notes as being members of the financial oversight committee and they were brought forward to offer their expert opinion on the
Term of the bond and at that time they did state that if the it is to rise to $25 then Cuts should be expected that is in your agenda meeting notes from that meeting and that’s where it’s really challenging to be doing this work and then knowing that we’re going to have to
Go into that meeting and we don’t want to face an argument we don’t want to put ourselves in the position to become adversarial which is why to Greg’s point we’re trying to figure out what is the will of this body so that we can match the will of our body and move forward
With good faith rather than facing something that you know is not necessarily appropriate especially because we don’t know that total figures so for that to have been stated in September already sets us up to be fighting an uphill battle and that’s where it’s not clear to us so the $25
Was because that’s the tax levy cap if I’m correct now granted uh the school I believe is a debt exclusion so that doesn’t be become part of it so I understand that but that’s not what we’re near the $25 Max so we understand that you’re stating that but that night
That was not what was stated and that’s public record if we go over to 25 there’s got to be Cuts because you can’t legally go over it so it’s it won’t be the school department that brings us over 25 though if that happens that’s all so R sorry no I’m
Opening it up to the council I’ve been hogging all the time um I just kind of want to give a few kind of I guess observations um being that this is the first time that I’ve done this process um and I can only speak for myself I think a minimum
Priority of like Do no harm I think in any type of budget is you don’t want to lay off anybody so that would be uh you know if our backs are completely against the wall I feel like that would be a last last last option um you know that
Being said I feel like we have to consider what’s going to happen between now and now that budget you know State got uh lower than expected Revenue Governor’s done ncat cuts on some uh grants not necessarily related to education so you know thinking of that it’s going to be important to see you
Know what we’re getting from the state and and making sure that we don’t have those type of cliffs you know we’re just coming off of all that sort of covid era you know which was great at the time all those grants and things and opportunities and making sure that you
Know suddenly we then find ourselves a you know over uh underbalanced because of those grants not leaving I think you know I I hear what you’re saying about the financial oversight committee I mean I think that you know in terms of process I think it makes a lot of sense to have
Some type of subcommittee it all depends on I think who’s in it and I think you know from my perspective you know it it is always a compromise it’s not like if it’s a compromise or maybe it’s not a compromise it always has to be a compromise we have to all work
Collectively as a team because you know we’re all you know we may disagree with this number should be there and that number should be there but we’re all trying to fight for the children uh of the community the taxpayers of the community you know everybody so like
That is the mindset I come into every single discussion every single meeting that I’ve been a part of now um between here and and and my other exper experience so um but yeah those are I think my thoughts I I would not want to cut a single position unless there was
Some dire absolute need and and we at that point I think we’d be having a discussion about the entire budget and and not just one budget two budgets um that’s just my opinion there’s six other folks here that have been elect it but yeah can I ask Jonathan a follow-up
Question do you mind if go right ahead do you believe in a the position of strong Town manager after the charter the new Charter was developed right yeah that Affair that we wanted a strong Town manager clearly and decisively want so if we hire a town manager and we put the
Faith of the the taxpayers money in the town manager’s hands and mind and that town manager in conjunction with all the other Professionals in the town come up with a budget that they endorse and that they want to send to the legislative body for review right historically because I’ve been
Through the process a lot what’s happened is it’s gone I it’s come here first and I appreciate that originally it wasn’t even going to do that we had to fight for that to happen but it goes to that Finance oversight committee who’s not an elected committee and only um relates to the the
The the um the wants of the the per the individual that appoints them if we take that Authority away from the strong Town manager and something goes wrong at the end of the year and it’s directly related to the budget then then who are
We to go back to with with that or if it’s excellent right and and and our tax rate has been cut and all services are made it’s not the town manager’s budet anymore that you approve so we’re not creating a strong Town manager we’re creating an Appropriations Committee
Which is what we got rid of because we were trying to take away the authority of another board and give it to you you all have the final say on the Bo on on it so I see it as the recommendation of the the the manager going going to this
Board for discussion because you all do it anyway you all bring forward each individual um if you want the department heads for questions that you have right so why is that not the discussion in the final say because inherently every year it’s changed from the town manager’s
Desk to your final discussion is a different budget most years it’s different well I think I think as you said it’s a recommendation I mean I I think we’ve you’ve seen like folks on this this body don’t always agree every time that a recommendation comes out of
Whether it’s a planning board or a bylaw committee or what what may have you um I just think that you know the financial oversight committee gives us the valuable ability to have that sort of breakout session to be able to discuss things further and then have those recommendations But ultimately we’re the
Final Arbiters so you know they could give us you know we want to cut 10% we want to raise 10% but we might just say well we don’t want to do either of those things um we want to go you know our own
Way so I I I mean at least the way I look at it is I weigh you know what do we get initially what ends up happening through that process what’s that recommendation and then you look at those two things well where did we start and then where did that recommendation
Come from because you know we all are thinking about I think different things and different factors at different times um so I don’t think it necessarily heavily weighs maybe it has more in the past perhaps um but I think you’re looking at I think a different Council than there might have been if
Historically four of the seven have been in that Finance oversight committee discussion so if four can do the work why can’t the seven do and I’m not calling out on people’s in not lack of interest but but why not the other three necessarily I think a lack of Interest I think it be
Word bring you know certain citizens into the fold that ideally should you know be hopefully representative of the community um I think that’s probably the hope but I think having you know that frequency of meetings it’s not a guarantee that every single council member can make that and you want a
Council you want a school committee that’s going to be representative representative of people that may you know are very interested very invested but may not be able to make a meeting every single you know week or every other week for such a long period of
Time you know some of us have you know job jobs that might not be flexible we might have children we might have other factors and you don’t necessarily want a body that is only compiled with people that can make all of those meetings um so I think it it it delivers that
Balance because you know we can watch the financial subcommittee matter meetings after the fact we can review them and be able to come to conclusions if we’re not there um so so I also I’m going to jump in I think we’re getting off subject sounds more like we’re
Debating whether or not we should have a subcommittee instead of where the budget’s going so at this time I would open it up to our other counselors um Conor mat Connor a few comments um just to wrap up on the oversight committee first though I would say that
I wholeheartedly agree with both of you I’ve been outspoken in the past multiple times about the financial oversight committee and it’s not a knock against the members on the committee itself it’s just I also disagree with the the process and I feel that that it should
Be all seven of us working through that line by line not other people that are appointed um and I agree with you in the sense that I am hardpressed I’m sure my memory is incorrect but I don’t think I’ve ever remembered a time from attending meetings just as a citizen up until now
Being on the council that the council is ever on the Fly changed what we voted on from what was recommended To Us by the subcommittee and I think that’s the problem from that though different points overall in the perspective of the budget process moving forward I think similarly I mean of
Course it’s hard to know when my opinion could change depending on what numbers ending coming in at but at this point I would not recommend or fore wanting to cut the school budget in any capacity so I mean unless something drastic Ally happens financially especially at the state level who knows
But at this point I don’t Conor can I just jump in real quick so cut the school budget so cut the funding as compared to what it was last year because we don’t know what they’re going to submit for a budget this year I mean if they come in with a 6%
Increase I’ll tell you I’ll probably be one of the first one sitting here going 6% is not acceptable so so that’s what we want to know what’s acceptable well no no no the number six is it is five from last year four no I I think level
Services yeah I know again I I just I wanted to clarify just to understand what you’re saying be so my clarification would be that I don’t want to see it Go anything less than mobile services whatever percent that happens to be whether it’s six or nine I mean of
Course we can debate about how high it should go depending on the overall Town budget in the future but at this point I don’t want to see it go less especially since I think once you actually get into a new high school building there’s going to be future
Needs and we can’t take a step back beyond what we’re already doing aside from all of that though I from our Capital meeting I wanted to raise a a thing that I think we could work on collectively is um one of the requests you had was the um replacement
Of the roof at Maple Shade that was like your number fifth priority for 2 point 9 million I believe and I had asked because I remember last year the mba’s like accelerated repair program was on hold and now it’s reopened if we should consider trying for that and I know
There was some original reservation because well if we’re not in the building for the 25 years or whatever we might have to give it back but in my naive assumption is that the time value of money of spending 2.9 now as opposed to giving 2. n back in the future is a
Much better value to do it sooner than later that’s a good point because we have had discussion on that specific issue um and an original intention was um to go after that those fundings and and perhaps we should the the thought is and we have no there’s no long-term
Plans for the elementaries right now we just pass the high school as you know yeah so but but are we going to be in Maple Shade for 25 years right and that’s the question but your point is well taken thank you what if I may Gordon it 15 years on accelerated
Repairs 25 25 years has it always been that yes I thought uh I thought metal Brook when we did the windows and doors was left 25 you have to commit to the building for 25 years okay heck a roof doesn’t even last 25 years and so however that that that’s
The threshold now is in order to put a roof in for Accelerated repair it has to be 25 years so at least it’s matching there and I uh I looked at the submission page on the the application page there and uh it was interesting to see the difference over the last like
Five years of like the original posted like ages had to be whether it was like 15 20 25 years what people accepted and then what they ultimately had to change the thresholds too based on who they accepted some of them ended up being 3035 right instead of 25 years
So we we have looked into we’ve looked into the portal if that’s something that uh the school committee certainly has discussed it and um Capital planning committee uh discussed it as well as we were going over the projects um that’s a statement of interest that we would have
To present to them by March 1st um doesn’t mean that you have to vote by March 1st because then they would go through their process of of reviewing however many statements of Interest they they’ve received and then ultimately in the um spring they would determine how many they’re going to
Accept it looked like last uh they weren’t open last year in accelerated repair two years ago I think they received somewhere of the neighborhood of 64 and they approve 33 so but I think we would have to work in conjunction because what we don’t want to do is apply for accelery repair
Without knowing that there’s funding from the town behind it and you know to get approved and then come forward and be denied so I guess collectively as we start to look as the big picture I know you’re just starting your work on that committee um we can work together yeah that’s why I
Wanted to bring it up yeah right yeah ultimately consensus if we were brought in then the similar to the other um projects that we’ve been in that the Town Council would have to vote to fund the full amount and then the msba would come in with a funding
Agreement I can’t imagine that we would be below 56.8% might be higher in terms of eligibility for reimbursement at that point but just substantial amount of money right it’s good value yeah yeah thank you for that Conor appreciate it other comments I think those are all
The ones that came to mind at the moment yeah um well I’m not going to jump into the uh FOC come on Matt he we kind of thank you ran that uh that horse dead last uh budget season um I was on the FOC last budget season and I do agree
With Greg at the time I agreed that I felt some of the um cuts discussed were arbitrary um as it was just the school department um I do recall us voting I believe it’s was four to one to accept the budget as presented
Um I do not know if I will be on the FC again this year um but I will say that I don’t personally plan to or hope to see any cuts to the school department budget but that also said I don’t really want to see it much higher than level Services um
Part of that because I am an elected official and I am up for election this year right just passed that big school I get we got the uh educational mandate but it’s also that’s a uh pretty big number so yeah other than that um that’s all I got this seems like
De one year went by quit right right um you know how I feel about the process that we choose to to use in terms of all of the issues that come before us that we have to take action on I am a supporter of subcommittees Simply because it never
Hurts to do a second scrutiny to have a second scrutiny of something as large as what we’re talking about now I’m at those meetings as you are and I go through the line items as Ralph does and but not all not all committee members function that way you know we’re all
Come from different walks of life some of us have time some of us have to work I mean I get it I get it but it doesn’t hurt to look at it now I know I know there are certain folks that have been on this the financial oversight
Committee that approach things a little differently than we as a council would in terms of looking into the weeds of the whole process what funding is out there that might impact your budget more than anyone else in town in terms of having you know dollars coming from other
Entities the state um you know the the the grants that you get that sort sort of thing you know that might be something that influences an individual’s opinion on where where they’re going through the process I don’t I don’t look at it that way personally I look at for me it’s a it’s
An education to sit in that meeting to hear the discussion to hear from the department heads and then when it comes time for us to vote I’m prepared I’m ready to make a decision because I’ve been there I’ve listened and I know what the concerns are um I you know finance
Committee may be a thing of the past going forward maybe we find as we go through this process because as Ralph says the budget has become more streamlined you know our town manager meets with all of the department heads and um discusses these things and it’s almost like repeating it all at the
Level of the financial oversight committee so I I don’t argue with that I agree with that but I have not heard from this body that we’re out to cut I’ve never been out to cut personally um I do feel that we’re a town we share resources and some of our budgets
Townside are extremely bare to begin with and we have no movement in terms unless we lay off people and your budget equally is heavy in in in salary we know that and so there’s not a really a whole lot of movement either because you’d have to be you know impacting your your
Personnel so I don’t want to go into this process with a real Negative black cloud hanging over our heads you know I think we all care about what happens here and yes we voted in a new school and I had a woman reach out to me just
Recently so are our taxes going to go up I mean that’s there are people that just don’t get it they’re not involved so okay you know yeah our taxes are going to go up it’s our job to make sure that they don’t go up substant higher than than what we’re
Dealing with now so I hope you understand that we are not of that nature to cut you know we want to understand and I would still vote for the financial oversight I’m done Kathy do you have any thoughts I don’t have anything um more eloquent to add to
The conversation I okay certainly excuse me you want to forget about you that’s okay I’m listening Patiently I um certainly want to acknowledge all of um Greg’s points um and his uh perseverance because he dutifully brings them up each budget year I I don’t mean that in a negative way thank
You um I excuse me just been sick I acknowledge what Sarah is uh Sarah has brought back into the record as well I think at this point listening to what Tom has said as well as what Kim has said it’s it’s to me a little premature to um talk about sitting seeding another
Finance committee until we have better better information in front of us and every year we’re in this same position asked to build a budget and not having a clue as to what’s coming at us from Beacon Hill so I would like to um suggest we revisit this um at a later time because
We don’t have enough information in front of us let the level one work that Tom and Kim need to do play out Gregs admitted that the school committee still needs another 30 days or so to get their level one um at a place where they’re comfortable with
It and at that point I’d be willing to listen to perhaps maybe managing the review of the the budget and the manager’s recommendation in a different format thank you that’s all I have to say because two things I’ve said it all and I’m losing my voice
Again so I unlike Connor have not seen capital projects Capital submissions yet um but I do know there was uh the classrooms from last year or whatever that we had approved and they came in like way over where we expected and and those are the things that I tend to look
At to say hey if we can keep our budgets as close to and tight as we can hopefully they gives us more money to be able to afford the additional what million dollars for yeah for stuff like that um BS yeah I just but needed they’re needed rooms as you know I know
You know that I understand that and just to to think hey all right we we approve this only to come back and go hey guess what we’re really short and and that’s that’s been the process especially with capital projects you order a truck by the time the truck comes in hey it’s
$440,000 more than than what you were expecting you order and it’s just I know right now it looks like we’re great on free cash but we really haven’t put a lot into OPB and this and that and it’s like that’s going to shrink real quick and um and again classrooms and stuff so
Um I know I had uh suggested to Tom that we look at a couple million dollars this year in capital projects or last year I think it was 1.2 that we did only because we’re falling behind on Capital the ARA funds you could spend $10 million on roads alone I believe that
Right in not that we’re ever going to is that what the number is 7 million that was three years it’s a real concern I’m heard sure you’ve all heard it but a real concern of the taxpayer a real concern yeah I I know Tom better you than
Me but again I like I said I’m reopening it for Last Words um I I think you have a general consensus I personally don’t want to see you know cuts to employees and stuff that’s not that’s not where I was coming from from what I’m hearing
From the rest of the council I’m hearing hey let’s keep it you know level Services I know there’s contractual obligations and all um like I said you know it’s one of those where we submit a good budget and hopefully we don’t have to argue about anything we approve everything I mean
Like I said the last budget season it was it was pretty amazing amazing actually I I don’t think the council’s ever gone through one that was that tight that accurate boom boom boom all done um and I think that’s the ultimate goal of everyone so I’ll just off for one final
No because I see Conor over here ah one final thought for myself um I I think like I I don’t think cuts are I think entertained by any of us I think the only thing that I was just I guess concerned about was you know the voters
Gave us such a mandate 70% of the vote um I’m looking at the other big ticket items and I’m very cautious about really doing any of those the the level budget or the um the the programs that we already have in place I don’t think just
Because the town gave us a 70% vote there should be suddenly then right automatically Cuts there only should ever be Cuts if suddenly the revenue significantly declined or something then we’d have a different conversation or the budget’s increasing every year at a rate that we can’t sustain that’s it yeah
So last word Connor I saw a lot of notes over there so I was very impressed uh my last thought is would it be helpful if we collectively have a joint meeting again say after your level one is prepared perhaps March or April way there rather than we’re happy to do that
Suris that Financial oversight committee we can hash it out directly certainly happy to do that be reasonable to ask if we sort of keep the the charter so so that the manager absolutely superintend AB absolutely and right so we can sort of hash out our level one is that reasonable yes yeah
The timing can be fluid I’m just okay all right beyond that time all right and and we’re trying to have transparency as we always do with FTE and so if the town continues to do that so that if we you know take that that snapshot in time and
Know maybe January 1 here’s how many FTE are across the town then as a taxpayer I know how many we’re adding year after a year right because sometimes We’ll add them like mid year we’ll add an FTE and so that kind of gets lost and so we’re
All in this together and I am so thankful for all of the work that you all do and all the folks at this table do um because we’re here for the right reasons and although we may have differing opinions and the finance subcommittee again I’ll reiterate you
Know no they give their time and I don’t want to diminish what they’ve contributed because because I feel like I’ve been bashing you know it’s it’s not a bash on them they’re smart people dedicated people want to contribute to the town so I I that’s the only point I
Wanted to make about that if we’re all done I’m going to adjourn this committee and let you guys get back to your meeting if that’s the will I think we are all set thank you so much okay thank you I’m going to take a motion to
Adjourn then if I may motion made by Sarah second by antel any other discussion all in favor please say I I I those oppos nay that motion carries rep to zero we are adjourned thank you all so much thank you much appreciate it continue okay um next item is uh
8b2 a discussion with regards to the free C cash cash I don’t know it was here somewhere Kim how are you good how are you I am wonderful so I don’t know where it is right now I believe it was uh 7.3 million if I uh cumbered certified free
Cash right so certified cash at July 1st was 7.6 million I’m rounding um and then it was up from 6.8 last year and then um any votes that have already been taken and any anticipated votes that I see Coming to Town Council in the next I guess couple weeks you’d be at
7.3 million a little over 7.3 okay so I asked for this to be put on because 7 million sounds like a ton of money um but I just wanted to point out as far as like the opab trust I mean we are still way behind from a full uh
Funding of that um know it’s been a couple years since two years ago or three years ago I believe we had put a million dollars into it because we had extra money in free cash the last couple of years we’ve cut way back on what we put in but
Something I think as a board we should think about um again whether it’s 500,000 or what that we should continue to move ahead and fund that appropriately because post-employment benefits they’re not going away um so it’s something I think we need to think about um also uh capital projects so I
Know from talking to our town manager it’ had been approved in the past for a tip grant for North Main Street yep um but what most people don’t remember is we had to put up a portion of the money up front I think that was a 8515 or 9010
Something like that we had to pay I believe it was for the engineering yeah 100% design so we’re going to be applying for the next section of North Main Street if we get it there’s a chance that we’re going to have to come up with I want to say it was 500,000 560
560 um so I mean these are things to keep in the back of our mind I don’t want to use all the free cash and then all of a sudden not be able to support you know an8 N1 million Grant because we don’t have a half a million dollars um
And again it’s just one of those I know our MLP we’re looking at and um just for the engineering and designing and all although we’re hoping to use some of the arpa money for it there’s going to be a shortfall um if we approve the buildout of the MLP
Um I had talked about stabilization funds I had asked about them um breaking out and doing a couple different stabilization funds for different things um obviously everyone knows like our municipal buildings we’re going to have to be looking ahead to do something with the police station um a lot of us took a
Tour of it and saw the condition it was in and whether it’s an addition or something um we have to think about that and it may be worth taking a small chunk of money putting it into a stabilization fund for that purpose down the road um
Like I said it’s something I want to talk about and again I used it as municipal buildings because I know our fire department needs something our DPW needs something the town hall needs stuff uh and you could go on and on with every Municipal Building um I I know the
Rec department would absolutely love a Rec Center um so my thought is maybe if we have a little extra to create a stabilization fund put it in so that down the road we can use it for that um that was most of my my thought with
Free cash um and again like I said in the past we haven’t had $7 million sitting there so sounds like we’ve got this huge bundle of money and all Connor’s on Capital I’m certain he can tell you that there’s quite a few needs for uh for money in this town different projects
And all um and again I I’m assuming some of the free cash will have to be used towards capital projects this year um than likely yeah but this was an open discussion on free cash and again I just I wanted to bring it up just to have a conversation
On it and I don’t know oh please correct you go ahead Conor I have nine different points in no particular order okay I might have the same nine um grab my pad I know you have Kim I know you had mentioned it at our Capital meeting but I forget what
The number was was so like even though we have like 7.3 at our disposal in free cash now we still had some from 382 North Main that’s kind of like committed that’s not part of that number correct well so I mean it’s not part of free cash because it’s already been
Appropriated for 382 nor main so there is that you know remaining amount of I don’t remember how much the amount was at this point 2.3 2.3 so there is that 2.3 it’s sitting in a revolving fund that could be used for the purchase of the building if you choose not to do
That then the money needs to be um released from that appropriation and then it wouldn’t flow to free cash until next year okay so I think that was one of my takeaways is I think we should at a future meeting have an executive session to rediscussed just sit in window though
Believe it’s interest bearing yes I believe uh we asked Don to invest that so so I don’t know if it’s 2.3 anymore may be a little bit more still but either way if it could put to a different purpose other than that the interest would go to the general fund
Though it wouldn’t specifically stay with the appropriation I didn’t like that idea the yes I I agree and I think that would be good to uh to do an ex itive session and see where we’re going again um we’ll have more discussion um second I think as Greg
Mentioned previously Paving roads is a number one priority for me and the amount of money that we have available to us wouldn’t even get us back on track from the pavement Improvement plan but it would be a a dent um another one of course is the capital project list there’s plenty of things
That we could put towards there um I’m sort of unsure about it but Heritage Park I know we’ve talked about it multiple times but perhaps there could be some traction there if nothing else in coordination with some of the park Brands stop stealing all my thunder um I had a similar thought on
Stabilization whether it’s different funds and I wasn’t even considering necessarily like separate building funds but even more St St Iz ation from a capital perspective because even in previous Capital years we’ve we’ve had this magic Target number that we’ve tried to hit but it’s hard to get the
Jigsaw puzzle of projects to line up with that number sometimes we’d be 20,000 over but other times we’d have like 40,000 left that we didn’t hit the number that we could have and if we could have saved that money for a future year project to that
Um for and I think even just generally saving some of it whether it’s leaving it in free cash or stabilization because who knows what’s going to happen at the state level with what they may you know even though they gave us increases last year maybe they’ll roll them all back next year who
Knows OPB a little bit I’m not super concerned about it because I don’t realistically see our town falling in the way of Detroit but it doesn’t hurt to contribute some but I don’t think that should be a significant portion of our money and then I think last would be
There’s a potential opportunity and of course it’s still like a couple years away but whatever might happen with the center Town district there may be some potential Town Investments and Redevelopment of that area that something could go towards but I would say need a job yeah yeah was one thing those are my
Thoughts on free cash Marilyn hi free cash um and again we have multiple discussions that’ll happen so part of me first of all with our free cash amount is there a certain percentage of free cash that we should just leave alone I mean is there a
Guideline should we I mean I don’t I’m not in favor of spending at all at all I mean I’m really not and um because we haven’t even gone through the budget yet we don’t even know what our immediate needs are they may be something out there that we might need to tap into
Some you know additional monies for um but is there like if we have 7 million would you keep 2 million in a we actually do have a reserve policy and free cash is included in there and I believe the target is 5% 5% of the total budget so obviously those numbers
Increase every year right so there is a target percentage in there for oped for stabilization for all the retained earnings and for free cash and I can forward you the policy when I first got here I started creating policies and Mary was approving them but I had I
Wasn’t planning to kind of put together the entire book until I had them all done and then you know other things happen so I haven’t completed it yet um but I can forward you the policies that have been um created at this point you can see what kind of those percentages
Are set to and we’re I think we’re pretty far above the majority of those percentages with the exception of I think one Enterprise fund that’s like very close okay I ask what those percentages could you give us what that number equates to percentage wise now just cuz I know what
5% so yeah I can um yeah I think we have kind of a I don’t have a phone it doesn’t have to do now now I can send you what all the percentages are and you know if my memory is correct we have around 10 million in opep is that right yeah okay
Almost 11 and what’s Our obligation oh 100% of I think I put the total obligation on there 60 million or something it’s ridiculous 69 million okay all right historically and the audit was just okay the audit was just recently completed and there will be a new um
Number there so I’ll forward that on as well okay lower all right um historically we before we’ve actually gone into the the budget session if there was extra free cash we always immediately put something in for opep um does and I believe our opep account in influences
Our bond rating it does so it’s important to keep it up you know and so I would you know I would like to suggest that we think about you know putting something in we’ve been doing 50,000 I believe did we do 50,000 during 100 yeah yeah last year
Last couple years y during Co we did 50 zero and then 50 yeah okay okay so anyway that’s that’s I feel that’s a priority that we should not lose sight of roads are absolutely on the top of my list um in terms of you know putting money here putting money there you know
When it comes to buildings unless we really get serious about a um study or a priority list of what our buildings need um I’m just not sure that and again I’m not saying multiple accounts what I was saying is one stabilization fund based on municipal buildings to say hey if if
A Project’s coming up at least there’s something going to that that was my thought and again that’s why I’m opening it up that’s just a thought it doesn’t Kim could look at it and go no this is dumb you don’t do it this way and again it’s a thought process and that’s
Why we talk about it yeah please don’t the stabilization fund that we currently have what’s is that three million I don’t I don’t even know what that amount is yeah three and Milli and a half and if I understand it correctly that fund is is primarily putting money aside for
Catastrophic stuff like if suddenly you lose you lose a building because of a fire or well the vision insurance I mean that but at least that was why what I was socialized to believe that stabilization was for catastrophic events it’s kind of your rainy day fund
You just leave it alone um know I three million I guess I wouldn’t suggest putting anything in there right now I would just be more concerned about opep which I think is a benefit to us so I mean in my opinion I would kind of aim towards increasing your stabilization
Fund more as opposed to OPB just because you haven’t reached the your target percentage for stabilization okay and what would that be well we’re going to get those them all right all right okay okay so you know where we’re thinking anyway right absolutely I mean there I I
Agree with putting money into all of them absolutely right like um and I also agree with creating a stabilization fund that would be specifically for capital projects I think that would be very helpful do we are we able to I I’m trying to remember a few years back when
We were talking about the OPB or before I was on can you borrow against the OPB fund if you need to I I don’t know the answer to that question I’d have to for some reason it sticks in the back of my mind that if you had to be able take a
Loan out against or a borrow against it that we could and that’s why it was good putting it in there because did you ever had to borrow against it I I haven’t encountered that so I’d have to look hopefully we never have to even think about that but any another thing
Yes up next okay prep I don’t know if if if there would be certainly it would be wonderful if we could somehow reduce the tax rate but you know we’re we’re sure we’re going to I’m not joking we’re going to because the projection for next year is that the appraisals are going up
Again so our tax rates defin no problems with the tax rate Maryland I’m serious no no no so I’m not joking so am I actually I I’m just thinking in terms of is facing in terms of you know the incredible vote that we just took and
Now um we know that um with you just you know with valuations going up the rate may go down but the taxes will go up so maybe it’s just something that we have to live with but I’d like to try to offset it that’s all so based on any SL matter
I just talked to a realtor and right now our medium price is 372,000 for the house and if we stay consistent going to next year it’ll jump to 428 so see my condo’s going up but again so the tax rate comes down right your assessed value goes up right but let’s
Face it at the end of the day your tax bills gonna go up because the cost of everything goes up and ultimately you have to bring in more money to cover the 2 and a half% increase for Cola the different costs and all so I’d love to
Tell everyone hey your tax rate’s going down your bill is going to drop by you know $400 a year it’s just not realistic I tried free cash discussion or do you want to go on to other stuff uh you know my uh comments generally I thought when
Thinking about this was sort of like three things I think like obviously keeping um a dedicated amount whatever that number may be just hold on to it don’t spend it I mean I the goal should not be we spend all of this and I don’t think the voters would want us necessar
Even you know with vote November I don’t think it was like spend every single dollar um I think the second thing is and this was already addressed but I think you know those type of Revolt those type of funds the retirement funds whatnot I think that’s a good priority
Even if it’s a little bit of money I think that should be a really important piece depending on what that number might be I think it’s very attractive because we don’t know what’s going to happen in five or 10 years and you know retirements are going to change and you
Know the needs of those you know that is going to probably significantly change in the coming years um I think capital projects I think diversifying the capital projects I think not just talking about roads but everything that sort of uh encompasses roads I think even potentially considering sidewalks
As a possibility um those type of needs that could make the town more attractive to um folks wanting to move in I think it was you know obviously addressed earlier you know whether it’s a four-wheel home or or maybe a new type of District in town but making it more
Attractive so that you know younger people some of the folks like on this council could be able to stay in the community that they grew up in or that they you know because of a job or something have the ability to move to trying to make I think keeping the town
Affordable I think what’s a big selling point for our community is we are a generally I think affordable community and then looking at those big ticket items like a Heritage Park and and maybe not necessarily funding the entirety of that project but maybe saying okay well
We can fund a phase of it perhaps so breaking up and and trying to diversify it not necessarily putting all of our eggs in so those were like the three kind of thoughts that I broke up the money keeping some of it funding those accounts and then looking at some of
Those diverse capital projects that have been out in the water for the last couple years okay I guess my primary concern is I don’t want to see this you know my initial you know you see the 7 point was it 7.3 after what’s coming up you know
My initial kind of feeling is it’s kind of like a security blanket you kind of want to keep x amount of it there whatever that is like John said but I don’t if we’re going to spend it presumably we are I don’t want to see it get cut up into ribbons until we’re
Going to put a little bit here and a little bit there and a little bit into this and that and and on one hand I understand it’s sort of responsible but that’s a good chunk of money you could make a sizable impact on something like Paving roads a noticeable difference to
Residents taxpayers whereas if you put a little bit in opab we’re going to put a little bit into the the uh stabilization stabilization fund and a little bit here and there it’s kind of going to just feel like it’s sort of floated away you know and I
Understand not really yeah I get it you know but um I I would really sort of like if we could somehow make a list of what the top priorities are course and either if it’s in the budget is part of that right so I don’t know if we want
And this is to speak to sort of the Greg’s point of about involving everyone in the budget process I found last year my involvement on the FOC I learned a lot about what the Departments needed what they were hearing from residents um and if you know if we could
Wait sort of as the budget process rolls along I’m certainly right now partial to I want to pave some roads but um I guess I kind of want to see us leave this discussion with a timeline of where we’re going with this if we’re going to if we have this free
Cash what is the timeline if we’re going to not that we have to say oh we got to spend it we got whole burning in our pocket but where are we going with it you know so this is the start of the budget process and the reason part for
This is for capital projects is to give them guidance on how much to put towards Capital so that is the express purpose of this discussion um it’s an overview of all the free cash okay so so I’ve gotten a general feel that wow we’ve got
So much money what do we do with all of that and I think well I think the point comes down to is once you start looking at all the different projects there’s not as much money as yeah what’s even close to being needed I mean the roads alone we have $27 million
In repairs for roads even if you took 3 million out of it and again sidewalks is a great one we allocated over a million dollars toward sidewalks which is still in capital um hasn’t been used completely yet there’s still six or 700,000 for the sidewalks Y and I’m
Sorry in what um we bonded for sidewalks to be repaired I believe Parker Street was done out of it for 300 and something th000 which should leave us somewhere in the 700,000 range to continue with sidewalks okay so again there’s still there’s money that’s already been allocated too Pleasant Street isant
Street yes but again I I I agree with your point you know if you’re going to do something and again that’s why we’ve asked Tom to look at Capital needs capital projects um and start putting together a scenario of and I think you’re right attack one project get it done move to the
Next that’s my thought anyways Kathy I haven’t forgotten about having a hard time talking anything with free cash that we didn’t hit or now um my priorities would certainly be OPB um and the roads but I also think uh when I look at the rest of this agenda um we are probably
Um our conversation is get would be best woven into listening to Tom tell us about the status of his goals and then in the general discussion with the manager about what comes next and awesome I my my uh experience working in the school department um and I’m going back now
Because I’ve been retired for some time um when building administrators had to get together to tackle the budget and I have no idea if they still do it this way but we would uh dedicate one full day so that we can um we would determine our priorities our goals and then we
Would apply our resources accordingly and I feel as though the magnitude of the budget uh preach availability stabilization the capital needs of the Town cannot be discussed in two-hour meetings you know twice a month um or even in a financial oversight committee meeting every week for nine weeks for two hours it it’s
It’s not impo it’s not possible and it’s not cohesive so I would like to plant the seed that we should be thinking about sooner than later a full day together and jump into this because then you can peel the onion and really get you know you use large boards and you
Start making out all of your priorities so that’s what I have to say I but I’m mostly interested at this point in hearing what Tom has to say and then um I’m certain with and I don’t have clue what he’s prepared so it’s not as though we’ve spoken but I bet you
That there going to be significant overlap in what he has to tell us and what his uh thoughts are at this point I tend to agree Connor anything right okay you you get the last word and then we’re gonna move on because I know the next
Portion is going to be very similar so it was just one quick point I just wanted to give you and your team Kim Kudos because this was a excellent like recap sheet for us of the current State of Affairs thank you um okay we’re GNA move on uh we’re in eight e
Two E2 is a discuss life insurance for Town Council Members so I ask this to be put on um so we’re at seven years and we haven’t um we haven’t looked into our pay increase or anything like that and I personally um have no appetite to I
Think we get compensated again I would open it up to anyone um but we have had a sitting member who had passed away before and it got me thinking that uh most employers offer some type of a life insurance so I did up some basic numbers um the town usually does a
$5,000 life insurance policy and this is if someone passes while an elected official it’s 60 cents per pay period or $31 for the year per person um I think that’s a small amount I wouldn’t look just for the counselors I would look for all elected
Officials um I came up with a number if we did a $10,000 policy which is a120 a pay period to give everyone $10,000 in life insurance if they passed would be $385 a year give or take again these are just rough numbers given to me um I think it’s something we should
Consider having the budget cycle coming up um I I think God forbid anyone passes while they’re in office it would be something that the town could go and say to the family you know meant a lot we have a life insurance policy and again it’s not
But I mean the last time we were running around trying to find out what budgets had enough money to send flowers and I think in this case um it’s something that I would like as a council to think about very small amount of money to do all the school committee members and the
Council numbers I’m not talking life insurance or anything like that I was only looking at health insurance sorry I’m not talking that I’m only talking a life insurance policy um but only for the duration of the service exctly I would have to die while I was in office well and that’s what I’m
Saying if God forbid anyone pass a while in office it’s okay and again I don’t know what the council thinks I haven’t talked to anyone about it um I had asked uh Joan to to get me the numbers months ago and our schedule really hasn’t uh given me
The opportunity to bring it up but I know during the budget cycle this would be something that we should consider and like I said it it’s completely open I don’t know what anyone’s thoughts are on it I guess the first thing I thought of was is this
Something that has been in place in other communities so prior to the change of government the of East long metal all elected officials received health insurance and life insurance um right before the change one of the Selectmen made a motion to do away with all insurances for El officials in town
Um we won’t get into the reasonings or anything but again health insurance is very expensive I can understand that life insurance is is very inexpensive and to me it’s just a nice way you know God forbid something does happen it’s just something there to say hey we
Did appreciate all the service that he did Connor thoughts Marilyn I have life insurance through the town um as a compensated retiree um I was in elected office when the when the rules were different and so um I have life insurance and health insurance I pay 22 cents a month for my health
Insurance I mean for my life insurance oh she wasal insur for life insurance and I I I hear what you’re saying um I hear what you’re saying I think it there is a a way that perhaps we can put it seems more complicated for people to have life
Insurance just for a short period of time while you’re in office um if we were to create some some kind of benevolent fund or something that would be there for that purpose if someone passed away in office or if someone were terminally ill I mean there are lots of
Things that happen in our lives um it it just seems complicated to me to have life insurance just for the three years or the six years that you serve 21 no and then you’re hopeful yeah exactly and then you lose it unless you can carry unless un you can continue it on
Unless there’s a a place where you can have it while you’re in office and then there’s the ability to continue to carry it on your own if you want it does that make any sense to people I mean it just you know I don’t know again
What I was looking for is a lowc cost benefit and I don’t think you can get much lower I I mean I agree with the cost I’m just looking at what you know whether you’re really going to I mean let’s hope that we’re all going to live
Let’s hope no one ever benefits from it except the the life insurance company a year um Connor I mean it’s not necessarily a bad idea but personally I would have no need for it because my employer sponsors life insurance being an active employee so it’s kind of the same sort
Of thing counil too though that I don’t think any of us will ever have a need for it because none of us will ever benefit from it but I think your F your focus is is good you know in terms of having something in place to assist
Someone in crisis I you know I have no problem with that and again like I said it’s more obviously it’s for who you’ve left behind um and that’s my thought process and like I said it’s not something we it’s something I wanted to bring out so that everyone heard it and
Can think about it and then at another meeting um you know we’ll look into it further H mat yeah I’m interested in uh discussing it further I need kind of more solid figures in front of me I’m not really I really don’t have an opinion either way I guess my major
Concern I just know nothing about how you know that would work how life insurance is provided by an employer what that would cost the town I guess would be my primary concern if any um but I you know I’m open to further discussion John yeah I think we definitely warrants another discussion I
I would I would want something that actually is not I don’t what I’m saying here not necessarily like big something that’s enough where it’s not like pennies or peanuts right something that you know could deliver side so that would just be my only concern I’d rather go with none or know something full-blown
Half Kathy any thoughts um nothing that hasn’t already been said okay but i’ like I’d like like as um Matt said let’s look at some actual numbers so we you know you you know what you’re talking about okay I will uh I’ll reach out through the town manager to
Joan and see if she can put something Together okay um next is uh the Westcom Bond we had talked about or I had asked you about this at the last meeting Tom um we had received a letter Y um I don’t think it’s necessary to read the whole thing into the record I know the the the the
Agreement for the district allows for the board of directors to make these kind of votes y as a body for some reason it says it in the same thing that we’re supposed to just let you know that we voted that way that that there’s no action need to be taken
So voted that way is a request in the amount of $3 million uh to increase the bond um for the new building uh our new Bond request will not exceed 16.3 million for the rehab of the building um and if I understand correctly um well we have been getting
Grants and stuff and hopefully some of the funding and all will be taken care of through the state that’s correct but this is more of a notification coming through us just because it’s required and okay Town manager goals we have set some Hefty goals um can I take them out of order so
Pleasure what I’m going to do is we had submitted four goals to you um first is health insurance analysis the second was uh a grant Rider uh third was Municipal Light plant and four was ongoing projects uh such as 70 Maple Street Heritage office space needs uh Town Hall
Usage and stuff like that um those were our four main goals so the point of this is we had said hey maybe quarterly or twice a year we’ll actually sit together see where we’re at with the goals see if there’s anything um that you need from us to help you
Achieve the goals that we had set for you and where we can go with it so I’m going to turn it over to you okay uh can I do you mind if I take them out of order only because there’s a couple gentlemen back there that may help me
With the Municipal Light plant should you have questions uh Andrew schz here from Westfield Gas and Electric and Ryan Quimby our illustrious IT director would you like them to come forward they don’t not necessarily in case the my explanation yeah hopefully not um so obviously we’ve been sort of we’ve
Been pouring uh through a agreement and negotiating with Westfield gas and electrics whip City fiber um I had forward you a sort of a estimate of what we’re calling sort of this phase one to get this off the ground uh the real issue with this project like all projects is
The construction cost so um throw in the initial work and coordinating with utility companies uh for spot on the pole um we’re we’re sort of no matter if we start right now we’re we’re a couple two three years out from putting any fiber on a utility poll
Now if we decide to do some underground areas we don’t need to go through the utility companies um you know we don’t need permission to be in our right of way for instance um so that um of course now I’m out of order um so basically what I’m looking at here is
This estimate for Designing of our entire system and the applications for polls in town to sort of get us rolling here and this will basically give us an act once we’re designed oh that’s and we know how much Make Ready work we’re going to have to do on these polls whatever our cost
Estimate is will actually become real right now it’s sort of this this much of foot and this much of pole and once we once we do this part um and for so for a total of we get this sort of phased approach where we have the system designed and
Figure out our actual costs and then we can Market which one of our favorite words from this process are M anyway fiber hoods uh so the the town’s chunked out into the areas called fiber hoods and we can sort of market and figure out which areas we’re going to get the best
Payback from so that when we do roll out money in a sort of a phased approach if we get something like 75 80% take back takeback from a fiber hood we will have Revenue coming into our new account that will be created duly um so just so happens we have about
6 21 21,000 in undesignated arpa funds uh which could get us most of the way to the school and the F4 mentioned free cash to sort of fill in this Gap so that that’s where we are on the MLP sort of play byplay so if you have any
Questions on where we’re at or where we’re going um I’d be happy to answer anything I can and if I cannot it’s got backup in the audience um so off this sheet that you sent us this afternoon these total dollar amounts is that just to get it designed or does that actually
Start any work no so this is the the bottom number is the design engineering design field services and then the top is uh full application fees which basically you’re you have to so there’s no construction whatsoever that’s to get the polls is that even that’s the permits for the polls corre
That any of the work on the poles to make space for us is in my understanding that that they they’re they’re telling us how much work they have to do to make space on that poll which then Westfield will go out and double check their numbers to make sure that’s actually how
Much we should be charged to for the utility company to do this work sound right yeah I think it’s very accurate um you want to come on up Andrew short you guys have been here all all night come on up good evening evening um Andrew short Westville Gas and Electric with City
Fiber ran qumy it I think everybody knows me did you spell that [Laughter] name uh yeah so I think Tom’s very accurate uh We’ve provided an estimate based on um what we can see in the town but uh to know exactly what the buildout would cost this phased approach doesn’t
Commit the town to building something today but it gives the town a real accurate idea of what would be the cost to build out the uh uh the fiber Network and as Tom mentions um time frame wise you you’re dealing with utilities and and different companies and in
Different agreements so it it is 2 to three years years away even if this work was done today you’re still looking two to three years before fiber starts getting strong but again if those areas of town that have conduit or something like that that we can access that could
Expedite things and then also using this um you can start getting an idea for which areas of the community want this now and maybe those areas become your targeted areas so so you break up once this report’s done you’ll break East Long Med up into what we call fsas so basically fiber
Hoods um so there’s smaller areas so you break up the town and and then we can start seeing which of those particular fiber hoods has the most interest and then perhaps that makes sense to start building there um and then you can start getting Revenue
Back one more Yep go ahead sorry um so under the the Make Ready work and stuff especially with all the poll applications does it make sense to necessarily spend all of it doing all of those applications up front if we may never move to some of those fiber hoods
For a long period of time because couldn’t the condition or what’s on those polls change from the utility company before we actually get to our actual work on them in the future and then wouldn’t we have to like redo that work all over again the uh we have to
Get our name on the list for to get even get started and then for like Verizon it can take up to two years for them to get out and actually check the polls for us to even let us know what’s on there what’s been nice is they’re replacing a
Lot of the polls in town now going all the way down uh uh portter road so it’s saving us money for having to do the Make Ready work and pay for those pole Replacements but there’s like so if we have a fiber service area that has next
To no interest we can withdraw those uh the poll applications I believe we’d still have to pay for but we can deprioritize those and take those off the list so then we don’t have to worry about doing many Make Ready work there for the applications we would have to
Cover up front just to even get started so if I can jump in the Make Ready work is going to be based on um the fiber hoods that we choose to go through in other words you’re not just going to make every single poll in town
Ready all at the same time you’re going to look and say hey this section be behind Heritage Park 80% take rate that they said that’s where we’re going to do the Make Ready work first so that way there we can get it up and
Going before on it’s G to be kind of a little bit of a dancing game as far as the Make Ready work goes uh so it’s going to be in parallel the make ready process and the engineering once the engineering is done and we have a better
Idea of what it’s going to cost to build it out and what our Fiber service areas are going to look like then uh whip City fiber has a map-based system where people can express their interest you know not really commit to anything but Express their interest so then we can
Decide okay Ryan and Tom’s neighborhood’s going to get first priority I’ve heard that way too many times but the coin is and then we prioritize the Make Ready work in that neighborhood to in order to get that moving along if we have some that have none then we let the utilities
Know Web City lets utilities know that and we’re not going to need those uh you can take them off the list so this is for Tom um 620,000 in arpa when does arpa have to be um committed by September of 24 so in in September yep and then spent by December of
25 so it made sense to me to to if we’re going to be going forwards with this internet servy and the contract and all to look to spend 620,000 and ARA funds that have to be spent pretty quickly and then supplement it with free cash again that’s not a vote for tonight or
Anything that’s just something to think about um and that way there the first process is taken care of because it’s it’s a multi-year process it’s not something I mean even if we said hey there’s $18 million let’s do this you’re not going to be to my house
Within three to five years probably and and the goal with having the engineering done is utilizing our existing fiber Network to help feed those Fiber service areas better to bring that estimate down from uh the original construction estimate bring that number down questions Connor I would just say I
Mean obviously we’re not deciding tonight but as we get closer to it in terms of deciding whether we use our something else to move forward with the project I think I would just like a better understanding of like more current numbers on what total cost might look like to actually start building
Some of these areas out because I know those original projections have long since changed and that might change our idea of whether we even want to proceed at this point sure yeah so those numbers have been provided um for the full like we we actually ran some numbers with some
Bonding you know put into the to the table so um I can forward those to you tonight you just have to keep in mind those construction numbers are based on just x amount of miles per Road x amount overhead x amount of underground not utilizing our existing Network or any uh
Real world type scenarios I think and one of the results you get from this is that design so you’ll know exactly well based on right economics today you’ll know exactly what it would cost and I think the main thing like you said doing doing it by fiber hoods is
That you get this section up and running so that you start bringing in funding to cover the cost of the Bond as you’re doing the next section I mean so this is really the theball in order to get this going this is sort of the sort of limited liability option we’re we’re
Going to find out if it’s too much if it’s too much money and we don’t want to do this well that we can check that off too if if we decide we don’t want to spend this kind of money on fiber then we can stop talking about fiber you know
What I mean so this will get us to a point where you know what this numbers look a lot better now that we’ve invested some money into an actual design and we know exactly what we’re going to build now right and so this $20 million or $18 million becomes $14
Million or maybe it doesn’t maybe it does become 26 and we say all right wait a minute let’s let’s maybe we got to rethink how we build this out how we roll this out but we got to you know we got to do some I mean this speaking of overwhelming votes right
This one was even more overwhelming than the school vat not numbers wise but percentage wise this is what the town wants yeah they want another option for internet and communication this is what they want um I’ve got a question for Kim so if MLP is not an Enterprise fund but like a separate
Entity can the town from its free cash loan that entity money so that once the MLP has made making money then it can pay the town back I I believe you can I want to double check on that yeah but yeah I believe you there’s no reason why you
Wouldn’t be able to use free cash with the you know the contingency that you would want it paid back 14% interest trying to make money for us yeah and I’m just me curiosity referring I mean are you refering referring to this 112 that you would need or you
Referring to kind of the whole thing if you chose well again I don’t think the town can afford without bonding or whatever or the MLP having to bond but I’m just thinking if we take 500,000 and say okay we’re loaning the MLP 500,000 along with whatever they’re getting for
Um the arpa funds to get it all going I just want to make sure that once MLP is making money that that can be ConEd back to our general fund I mean the other thing is that once you actually get into the construction you’re you’re actually bonding for those payments as well so
You’re capitalizing those interest payments you’re paying it from the bond so it’s not like you would need the money from the town to support it up until Revenue starts flowing in I just don’t want the MLP if it’s separate um like Westfield is pretty much completely separate to all of a
Sudden go now we’re going to buy eight new trucks instead of of uh and giving the town a million dollars back in Revenue it’s always a possibility how always think of the worst scenarios you know we’re still working on the that piece of it we haven’t even created that
Account yet so even if we haven’t voted on anything well that’s what I’m saying there was no reason for that language need to be there we had we have nowhere to put that money at this point or appropriated to so when would you be looking for a
Vote to move forwards uh at our next our February yeah I’d like to have it back on the agenda again in February I’ll get some more information about the the full roll out price and like Kim said what that Bond payment looks like with the new accounting um and the we’ll have
Those numbers for arpa and whatever the balance of free cash would be to to roll that out uh I want to say additionally a authorization to sign an agreement attached to this first invoice here for seven it’s a fiveyear like no compete or what we’ they’re not
Going to design it for us and then have us take off and go somewhere else so we gota we have to stick with them for it’s a fiveyear agreement it’s basically what it is and if I understand correctly any I’ll forward that as well years requires the council to vote on
Correct somewhere that’s stuck in the back of my I think that was with the trash contract cop your contract we did that too we’ll do that again and I’m assuming Ryan um obviously you’ve been intricately involved and um nothing’s jumped out at you as far as um no originally looked at doing like
Pilot areas uh and like one of my concerns with a lot of government projects is you do a pilot area we build that out and then we find out that it’s it’s not advantageous to do the rest of the town now you have to maintain the entire infrastructure for a small subset
Where if we can design the whole thing and hopefully it’s going to be much more affordable than the estimates are which I’m confident it will be then we can build out the whole project we know what we’re up against we can Target the ones that are going to be our highest return
On investment just you know Snowball that into to get in all of our Fiber service areas our fiber hoods lit up beautiful I just like to have it planned out and everything squared away first that was your first goal what’s your second thank you Andrew thank you Ryan thank you appreciate it hold
On get situated again thank you agreement cost estimate that was uh okay uh health insurance uh I’m well health insurance analysis was the original goal I think we had talked a while back that that was going to sort of spill into all of our insurances might as well take a look at everything
While we’re doing it uh um so I have one uh one vendor who has who has given me sort of an analysis for our health insurance going to the GIC um government insurance collaborative collaborative um which I we still have a few question questions on um and then
I’m waiting for uh another full analysis of health insurance as well as Property and Casualty from another party so um that that had started this when did we like three weeks ago so I think they said around three weeks or a month so I should be I should have an update on on
A full update I mean on probably in our February meeting um on where we stand um a little bit jumped out in the first analysis and and it seems like uh there’s some cost savings to be had uh again there I don’t want to get too far
Into it and that’s why I didn’t bring any of it tonight because I still had some questions on where some of the numbers came from and and uh I I just want to make sure it’s a polished product before I give it to you and I
Kind of wanted to give you all the whole thing at the same time so um that’s that’s sort of well underway um and hopefully I’ll have something for you soon on that that’s awesome yeah alysis is like I said yeah I think it’s something long overdue so
Um Grant ryer she’s sitting right over there um no in all honesty um she’s Rebecca found out on her first day that she was going to be the planning director in a week um which came with it uh about three or four grants that Bailey had in the work which uh she
Ushered to completion one of which was uh a Delta Grant with pvpc to uh figure out how to structure operationally her position which uh has been defined uh and there is a job description but um we’re trying to kind of figure out where that’s going to go operationally so that I think admittedly
Mary and I did a lot of uh sort of the same things or or you put out that fire I put out this fire without really any uh you know Tom you’re on planning and DPW and police and fire and I’ll do this stuff you know
Like so um we’re trying to figure out organizationally what that’s going to look like uh fortunately she has a skill set that uh not not that I missed it on a resume that she’s got experience writing grants and she’s quite good at it um but we we still want to figure out
If even though she has that Talent if her office is going to have more work than than or that she’s going to have to do more work than and not have time to sort of administer all of our grants which as you all know maybe you don’t uh
Grants take a lot of time to uh put together uh most of them require either monetary match from the community or more likely a um a match of Labor from the community which most people don’t have time for which is I suppose why the grant Rider is here uh so short short
Answer is we’re we we’re going to work on this grant to sort of identify her position and how much time uh she has to be the grant writer and sort of check this goal off for the town um or we’ll continue on a previous path which was um see what kind of consulting
Services are out there because adding a new employee um may may not be the best option so we’ve got this in the works we’re trying to figure out we’re still kind of molding what her position is going to be and this grant will help that um and in the
Interim I mean everybody’s whenever there’s a grant everybody’s just pitching in whenever they can we have seven people uh putting projects and applications together for the mass gaming commission sub submission that’s due in uh on January 31st so um we’re we’re still chugging along and and like
Like I said Rebecca uh deserves a lot of kudos for for most of our grants recently um and I’ll probably you know make her polish this one up that’s due the 31st as well um so that’s sort of where we kind of stand on the grant
Writer um and and hopefully and I don’t know if there’s even a schedule yet or if the Grant’s been offered for the Delta Grant but um she’s she’s al already started collecting information from surrounding communities um longal for instance as luck would have it their Deputy Town manager is also the planning and
Community Development director which ours isn’t by title uh only by necessity at this point um and so they’ve been chatting about what the demands of the job are when you’re when you sort of have that much to do and do you have time for an extra 10 hours a week on
Just grant writing and Grant Administration so um we’re we’re we’re Gathering the information uh to make uh sort of an informed decision on uh her position moving forward and if that includes grant writer or not so that’s where we’re at with with grant writer that was a lot of
Words I mean again we listed it number two because we we know there’s a lot of funding out there available and I think in years past we missed out on some because we weren’t able to apply because we didn’t didn’t have someone that we we using our department heads
And stuff trying to and uh and again they just didn’t have time to do it and that was our thought process and like I said if there’s something you need through us or whatever um Reach Out definitely okay um ongoing projects is your last one that’s probably the longest one
Isn’t it there are some ongoing issues uh projects uh all sorts of good stuff um well so I heard somebody mention it already and so I guess I’ll just cross it off the list I I I sort of second that to to get 382 back to the Forefront
And if that means an action item or whatever for executive session um next meeting I would uh support that um again much like the fiber project either yes or no because the pro the more projects that we have just kind of like hey what should we do
Um there’s sort of less time to think about the things that are the priorities so kind of like Kat said if we have our sort of priority list together um what we want to do um anyway we can talk about 382 more if if it’s I mean obviously it’s your
Pleasure but I I would like to obviously that is a large amount of money um you know I I’ll go as far as to say I think it still is a need for the town and a good uh investment for the town um but we can have a further uh discussion
About that um next time um uh it’s sort of the fun part about ongoing projects right like why are they still ongoing like why don’t we just finish them well it requires a certain certain amount of action from from for more more more than one party perhaps so um Heritage
Uh at some point the the design was at like 95% and there was one more meeting and I don’t really even remember who it was with or who was opining at the point but somehow there the the last design wasn’t the optimal design or the one that the most people wanted to see
So we we have to revisit what we want to see out of that site and then finish the design and the bad news is then we’re going to sit on it because now we’re only a year and a half to two years away from the construction of this whole
Corridor and the last thing we’re going to do is put nine or10 million doar into a park and have dot run right through it um I would I wish I could say that they won’t do that but it’s inevitable there’s a new shared use path over there on that side of and
Right in front of the park that is going with the project they’re not at a final design which means they’re not at a final layout which means we can’t do an entrance that we want because it’ll probably get ripped out because you know the the Stans in
For the traffic light has to move six inches because that’s the new design now all of a sudden it’s in our new construction so um again that’s obviously a conversation that can be had but by the time we you know bid out a Heritage or just decide to put that much
Money into a Heritage and construction starts both of those construction Crews will be on top of each other most likely um and so uh as much as certain scenarios that have come up recently and our need for more Fields uh I don’t know if the $9 million at Heritage now I know
If we take the building out we drop five and a half or something like that but uh you know by the time the timing just isn’t right anymore yeah um and maybe the timing was right because if we did it three years ago something might have happened to our new construction
Unforeseen by this new Corridor project meaning maybe the Culvert had to get replaced and elongated and the the the the pond had to get dropped six inches you know maybe it’s a blessing in disguise I don’t think we should bail because I think a lot of people put a
Lot of time and effort into coming up with a design that really does make sense I mean there was a community building uh there was there was a whole lot of amenities on that Park and uh but with a with another 10 million dollar project headed right by it in two years
It’s probably not uh the best the best investment at this point so do you think we should finalize what we’re looking for in the park I mean like you said the Design’s 95% done they do um so finalize that but just don’t start any construction or anything like that until such time as
The North Main Street Corridor is taken care of or at least we have a final design because I know we’ve been talking and part of it is if we’re going to do some type of a building in the front we have to subdivide the parcel correct because that’s a municipal building and
We can’t get a park Grant when there’s a municipal building within the park so so so th these are all things that we can be working on and doing because yes FY 27 which is I believe when the road is being done if I read the tip program
Correctly is going to be here before we know it oh yeah I mean yep so that that’s sort of the Heritage update I I guess um I don’t did you did you have a question I feel like I saw you said a comment I mean I think
It’s it will be incumbent upon us to to finish finish the design so I definitely agree with that I think the other thing that should be noted is that we’ve already invested money at the 10 Vis of V CPC funds to get to that point correct designing it so I think having something
Now it’s $9 million is it is it maybe only a third of it is it only 20% of it is it half of it you know whatever it is I think we should come up with something where we get the biggest needs I think it was mentioned I correct me if I’m
Wrong but I think it was um a small portion of it but there was place ground that that a resident came to us a few months back and had some concerns about you know so so you know maybe looking at fun right the repairs on the playground up
There I believe um I think so and the w got together ordered the parts and all okay but addressing you know maybe like the first needs of the design like what are like the five or 10 whatever most attractive things of the design and then maybe after things are completed in a
Couple years maybe revisiting it you I feel maybe breaking it up into did you say phase it out before I I feel like you did okay so something to that effect but doing phasing of it will allow us to apply for multiple Park grants correct just one so that we’re not necessarily
Losing that funding that CPC Visa the council already put into it and then we can get it off the accounting books as well um we did enjoy that moving along um how many lists I got going Chers um 70 Maple um I met with West Mass development a couple weeks ago and um we’ve put um we’re about to put an application in for targeted brownfields wonderful um to to see what they can do about fixing that up for us um I think originally we had thought of
Um you know I I don’t know if anybody I guess I haven’t heard anybody say anything good about the town acquiring this building which we didn’t really pay much for at all um but I think our thought was and I’ll sort of segue in a few minutes to the other thing I’m the
Most excited about um was to acquire the property to sort of control what goes in there at 70 Maple Street um it’s an industrial zoned parcel and um there was a time when when that railroad was going that that was the perfect uh use for that site uh if we’re serious about our
Center Town District which I hope that we are um having that parcel um was going to sort of be a key a key cog to to Maple Street for sure um also if we do get some help cleaning up the site now we’re sitting on a very
Valuable parcel of land on Maple Street with hopefully the center Town District over over a top of it um so that’s ongoing obviously there’s no guarantees on what that what’s going to happen I think we thought at minimum we just put out an RFP and have somebody take the
Land off our hands again perhaps after we create this zone or even change a Zone if if we see the need to do so um so that somebody else can have it and somebody else can clean it and somebody else can put what we want there um so
The options are are sort of good I think we got to get it cleaned up but again segue to um the center Town District um we have a grant for that uh creating that uh $45,000 to create that that’s that’s starting soon um and should by the timeline and assuming
The town’s appetite for it uh be in place uh at the end of this year um that includes the public Outreach and the public forums and the whatever which is aggressive and I I didn’t bother to let them know how how hard our bylaws are to change uh in particular they’re
Easy um no but I’m serious I I think think there there I’ve heard some people mention it and uh there the the center Town thing is uh really going to revitalize sort of what our community is downtown uh there just for an option uh for nothing else right you don’t have to
Do anything except for here’s another option if you want to do something else you can also do this right um I think we’re we’re ready to uh sort of ort of make this next step in what Esa Meadow is going to look like um and I think
That sort of the walkable and the affordable housing and the the whole bit um also I’m doing a lot of segueing uh I’ve been in conversations with the owners of the rail trail property from Maple Street to Westwood and they have uh sort of tentatively uh at least shown
Interest or agree of agreeing to donating the parcel of land to the town in exchange for certain um site plan requirement reductions on Center Village um they I think they had a couple of parking things and a uh an area thing when they the bulk requirement for area
When they put this whole thing in that they needed more land to so sort of satisfy that requirement so uh that’s something that uh you know if we’re serious about sort of mov moving that rail trail down too um you know that’s something we’ll have to work with
Planning board and uh uh you know the owners of the property uh to try to push that across the line but again all in the same sort of ilk of trying to revitalize this this Corridor downtown um and um sort of just keep Mo keep going with the bike the bike trail the
The uh like I said the shared roof Ro use path would uh go in front of Heritage cross at Harkness and then we just come right back down and meet up with the other one so we’re basically creating the loop um to walk um that’s
Going to go by the senior center uh so now we’re we’re sort of really interconnecting these places and points in town that will all of a sudden hopefully have a whole different um look because they’re allowed to build something that maybe they weren’t allowed to build before uh for these
Developers I I mean so um anyway that was like seven projects one but I think you can see how they all tie together in uh you know sort of planning uh and development really sort of can Revitalize your community um if if all the dominoes are to fall like they should so
Um and that real Trail uh we have a grant Mark Burman from DPW is working on a Trails Grant um to sort of set set up the design of that portion of the of the rail trail so um anything else what I miss nothing that’s an outstanding
Answer uh yeah I mean there’s obviously there’s a zillion more things and uh a million more uh shoutouts I want to make because obviously we have uh an amazing staff here uh um but that that’s I I guess I’ll I’ll close with that thank you thanks so that’s your goals that was
Only the goals that wasn’t the open discussion oh nobody else we Haven gotten nobody else talks combined that’s cuz nobody else is talk all right actually I think youve on a lot of stuff with open discussion um and you’re not going anywhere are you I have three
Qui quick questions for you no I just need to move stand up yeah I was thinking the same thing um actually dur on the the last paperwork that I just got the quarterly um Legal Services it looks like we’re just about out of money for Legal
Services um at some point are we going to be looking for a free cash transfer for to um at least put money in there so I mean I know the answer is yes we will be requesting that I think we can probably try to move some out of the reserve fund but
Um we’re already at 90% halfway through so and again these are just numbers I saw um dispatch um so I know we had said our share was going to be roughly 160,000 Y and it looked like we only had 90,000 in there that was already spent and this
Is account 299 does that mean we’re going to have to shuffle to get another 70,000 into it or was it 160 or was that the I thought it was 50% this year no 75 no 7525 oh that’s as low as you can go because the state does the 75%
Reimbursement oh okay so that’s not till it’s just something 25 oh so so the 60 so our assessment what we’ spent this year is is for the entire year then yeah it should be okay okay that’s why I was confused Mak sure that’s all I wasn’t
Sure if we like give all the money ahead of time um it it didn’t say that it was really encumbered so it looks like looks like we said here this is our share and we paid the whole thing yeah okay uh veteran services um same basic question it looks like um $
67,341 in salary did we have to does it go to another town to pay the veteran service agent our district assessment same as same so it doesn’t come out on a monthly basis that was one time and we had under budgeted that we had already done a
Transfer for 15 just to pay that bill yeah I wasn’t sure like I said if we just pay it all at once or if each month they come to us and go this your share for this month they’re just ass that’s a good thing then um questions you covered them all yeah any
Questions Kathy wake up open discussion questions anything uh I’m good I think we’ve covered all our tracks here how do I do Kath all right very nicely so um action items for the next meeting I know we had talked about the MLP and the bond payments uh cost and
Stuff like that yeah we’ll look to we’ve already talked about uh an executive session uh for the next meeting um for 382 North Main um I think there’s three but I don’t remember the other will come up with it there uh there there might be a health insurance update but I don’t want
To put that on there is a there’ll be a couple of financial thing that Trails Grant I think we have a match it’s 8500 that that might be ready to go it needs to be appropriated before the application okay okay and then our gift accounts you know
Just to sort of Y accept them as yeah and then um I personally just want to give a shout out to jeie and the girl in office I’ve seen what they had to do lately with um salad applications application email applications coming back on top of that the dog licens is
All coming through at the same time they all have they’re going through and um quite amazing watching them and she still gets us all the paperwork so thank you you’re welcome with that I would entertain a John’s question I would enter well I know you had mentioned um uh CPC
Applications from two weeks ago know if there was any movement on those I talked with Tony the chair and he’s got two applications coming forward so I told him I need them by the week before the meeting um and a letter of recommendation from the CPC so I think
We have to advertise because public hearings public hearings so and I think we have to do put it in the paper pretty quick in order to get it on to yeah February meeting and Connor and from Capital there may be a third one that might be proposed so
For CPC yeah for CPC okay proposed but not an approved application right now proposed application for the for the April first one okay but again that’s something we’ll look at pretty quick because even if we don’t get the exact paperwork from Tony can actually at least get that get the legal notice in
The paper yeah because I think that’s important because I know um if they’re going to demo the portion of the brown farm if we end up approving it it’s probably a lot easier to do in the winter did receive a one- sentence recommendation for both projects but I
Don’t know the amount what account they’re coming from so I’ll try to get more information from the CPC they’re both coming out of Recreation okay but you needed to hear it from him so okay anything else thank you John for that I would entertain a motion to adjourn Mo we adjourn
Second um roll call Vote Yes John Matt I’m a yes Marilyn Connor yes and Kathy yes thank you all very much I appreciate it thank you thank you
