Budget Committee - Regular Meeting

5 on uh Tuesday, February 3rd. Thank you all for coming. Um we'll start with our pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. So, we'll start off. Our first order of business is the public hearing. What we'll do is we'll review the proposed budget for 2026, the proposed revenues for 2026, and the proposed warrant article uh list of warrant articles for 2026. And then the public hearing will end and we will continue to have the meeting. Members of the public, it's an open public meeting. You're welcome to stay if you want to, but you don't have to. And we'll go over uh a few things. A final approval of the bottom line budget and revenues and our recommendations on the war and then some administrative things with minutes. So I I don't know. We I'm happy that we have at least one person here in the public. Thank you for coming. Even even even if not, we have I think that there might be people watching us on live stream. So, we will hold the meeting. Um, but you're the only one here to ask questions. So, feel free. I tend to be fairly uh informal, so if you have a question or if I'm going too fast or too slow, please speak up and we'll try to adjust to get you the stuff you need. you you're the primary person because you're the only person.

Can I ask a question? Sure. Go ahead. Right off the bat. Yeah. Yeah, please. So, I just came because it's a good we have these public hearings and I don't have any big questions, but I thought, well, it' be a good chance to know what's going on with the budget before the town meeting, but if there's nobody else on Zoom and I'm the only one here and you could suspend all of this, I would be happy to. Well, I hear what you're saying. I don't think we can suspend it. By state law, we have to hold the public hearing and no longer hold and can and I will add some people watch the video after. Okay. So, um to try and get their answers before they go to town meeting. So,

so typically what we do and what I'm planning to do is we'll go through the budget basically section by section. So, you have that. I don't know if you've ever if you've had a chance to look at it ahead of time. No. But um before we do that, I guess and I I want to kind of say in the past it tends to be Paul doing a lot of talking. If the other budget committee members have a comment, if you think that I'm not saying something that needs to be said or saying something you don't agree with, um please get my attention and I'll stop. If somebody wants to take a section or two to give me a rest, I'm happy with that. Also, before we start, I'll just say so big big picture on where things go is that the um the warrant article that'll be on the ballot at the March town meeting is for 10,489,158, which is roughly a 5.8% increase over the number that was approved at last year's meeting. Um, in general, we see the select board made a decision that our town employees should get a 4% raise instead of a 3% raise to keep up with the cost of living and be competitive with other towns so that we don't lose people hopefully. Um, we we've seen a significant increase that affects a lot of different lines with uh health insurance for some reason. We've also seen that the FICA and the Medicare numbers have gone up.

The percentage the percentages have gone up. So that affects a number of lines. Um and that's a fedally

and that's a federal thing. And it's not just the town. As you said, Joe, you you you help run a business. You see that in other places, too. Um like everyone else, I think the town is seeing that the cost of uh materials are c are going up, the cost of training classes are going up. Uh the state and the federal government are changing rules to require more training and more certification for our employees. So we have to send them off to do some training. I think more maybe not certainly not double, but what I'm hearing for certain for a couple of departments in particular that that load keeps it it's not just more expensive because the classes are more expensive. It's also more expensive because we're having to have more pay for more hours of training because the state I think it's mostly the state, but it could be that I don't know. Um I think that's kind of the big picture as I think about it. Am I missing anything? Anyone else on the committee think of anything else that should be added? Go ahead, Brian.

I just want to add a couple general parameters. Yeah, please. That's what I want to do before we get into details.

Um, you know, generally budget committees and select boards are conservative in nature and putting out a plan for spending and revenues. So for for folks ladies that's here and folks that might be listening uh a budget even though it may be up percentage-wise a budget is never 100% spent. Um so that the budget that you see even though it's a little bit higher than last year every dollar in the budget does not get spent during the budget cycle. the the other side of the coin, the budget is offset by revenues and it's prudent in revenue forecasting to be somewhat conservative in nature. And when one looks back at the actuals versus the revenues that are estimated, generally the actuals are somewhat higher than what's being estimated. So I just want to point out that the gap between the budget and the revenues is realistically closer than they appear on the papers before us tonight.

I think maybe just to add to that too, a important note especially in in kind of government finance is um like the municipality can't overspend its budget in total at least. Um and so kind of to your point of being conservative in our approaches to budget, it's really important if they do have, you know, needs above and beyond what's appropriated by town meeting, it will require a special town meeting and there's all kinds of additional things that have to happen. So again, just emphasizing the conservative nature of the municipal budget is really important.

Okay, thank you. That all that all makes sense. That's normal. So, I guess what what you kind of said, but I I I want to say it specifically. When you see that the number you're voting on is $10 million, it doesn't mean that the town it definitely does not mean that the town is going to set a tax rate to raise $10 million. That's not the case. So, part of there's two reasons. One is, as Brian said, there's also revenues. So you raise taxes to to fund the difference between the revenues you can bring in and the money that you're spending out. The other point is that the this budget also includes the water and sewer department. And the water and sewer department are what's called enterprise funds. So they they're kept separate. They're they're accounted for separately. They're required to be run on a uh break even basis and they're funded strictly through their well they might get some grants but primarily they're funded through user fees. So the cost to run the water in the sewer department you pay through your water and your sewer bill if you have one and not through your property taxes. Christina, did I miss anything? Is there anything you would want to add to that?

And I'll say the same thing for the department heads again. If you think that there's something that that we're not saying that should be shared with the public, please grab my attention and we'll stop and give you a chance to to share that. So now we've got a number of sections to go through and I'm going to try to do them relatively quick but still handled them all. So um starting on the first page, the first section is what we call the executive department. It's got a number of 43 I'm sorry 4130. The the proposed budget for 2026 is $250,763. It's up about 2% over last year. I don't think that there's any significant changes or any um significant increases on any of the lines in there. So, I don't really I didn't really prepare any comments. Um did you have any questions or we want to we can go on to the next section?

Go ahead.

Okay. Thank you. So the next section is it it's labeled election registration and vital statistics. Years ago it used to be called uh tax collector town clerk. Section 4140. It is proposed for the 26th fiscal year to have a budget of $214,756. Um it's actually down from the 25 budget by a little less than uh a percentage 1 and a half%. Um I don't think there's again there's no major changes. I don't have any comments. I do later on in this section. The other thing I will say is actually we do see a raise of a raise in expenses because for 2025 we only had one election which was the municipal election in March and in 2026 we'll have three elections. We'll have the town election in March, we'll have the state primary in September and we'll have the state general election in November and follow every election class money. I I will just add that in this budget for the public that are listening there are new people in these roles. So that's why those those adjustments in their pay helped reduce the budget as a whole because they are new people in those positions. So

right, new people with less experience don't make as much money as the people who they replaced. Right.

Thank you. Not hearing any questions. We'll move on to the next section which is financial administration. That's uh number 4150. So this is basically the finance uh department. Uh and the proposed budget is $219,492. It's up a little over 7%. And I will comment I I'll take some questions, but I the comments I'll make is that we see there's a pretty good increase in the salary for the um human resource welfare position. So that's that's something that the town has reorganized. That used to be two different uh two years ago that was two different people. We're trying to combine those. The position actually is empty at the moment, but the the position has been posted. I don't know the exact details, but I know the town is preparing to do some interviews and hoping expecting to get that filled relatively quickly.

We have a meeting with the select board Thursday. Okay. Um there's also an increase on So that was line 120. On line 301, there's it's a pretty good increase for the audit. Um, I don't have the notes in front of me, but evidently there was there's an additional audit requirement. Go ahead. I just add there is a one-time audit required because of the central street project that we're doing with water and sewer. So, part of the increase is in this budget and the other part is in the sewer budget. Um, but that costs us more money to do the audit. So,

so for the members of the public, basically the a significant portion of the central street pumping station and the replacement of the forced main is being funded through a federal grant. And Joe, you know more about this than I do, but my understanding is when you when you exceed a certain amount of money with federal dollars, you've got additional requirements which include

Yeah. So, if you receive more than $750,000 in federal grant funds in a given year, you have to complete what's called a single audit. Um, and that's just a a requirement of the federal government for anybody who receives funds of that natur. So, it's a extra audit step on top of your traditional annual financial audit to do some additional work um solely for the purpose of the federal government. Right? So, the fact that we have to spend more and know how to do bad, but the fact that we have to do it because we got over $750,000 in federal grant is good. Yeah.

Um, and then there's also line 396 went up a good amount and that's for training. And I think the idea again is that with with uh welfare and human resources coming under here that there's going to be some more opportunities to to train people for some more expertise to to continue to close services. Did I get that right? Yes, we did zero out if you remember the welfare admin that we moved that into this line though.

Okay. So, did that make sense? Any any questions? Any Nope. Okay. Um the next section is re-evaluation of property. So that's section 4152. Um that is a proposed budget of $171,960 and it is pretty close to level funded slight slightly down by $1,000 or less than $1,000. Um so there's no real change there. Um, I don't have any other comments. Anyone comments or questions? Okay, we'll keep moving. Uh, the next section is legal expenses. That's section 4153. That's level funded. That's $80,000 in the 26 proposed 26 budget. It's $80,000 in the current budget. I will comment that we talked about that when you're planning this now, you don't know what other people are going to do and what courses this is going to take and what lawyer requirements are going to be. So, this is always a bit of a swag, but we're hopeful that no one is going to surprise us and that this is enough money.

I spent over in 2025, but it's the first time. Darn it. By $126. So, so well done. The first time since you That's it. First time I've been the town ministry much higher than years past. I know the board made comments saying, "Oh my god, I've never seen it that low." I'm like, "We still have bills coming in." So, that's one of those things again where we we do what we have to do. Yeah.

And we budget hopefully for the right amount, but the town will have to spend what it has to spend. Um, the next section is called personal administration. It's section 4155 and this is this is basically where the majority of the costs for health care benefits for our employees is and that's why this section has a big increase. So proposed amounts for 2026 is $837,287 and it is not quite but close to a 10% increase and that is almost all due to the fact that the it's what is it? It's not health services but whatever the whatever the company whatever the health trust

health trust um the quoting now for insurance has gone up and I think all of us see that in our own personal affairs so not not worth me trying to explain because um but that's it line 210 which is health insurance for our employees the great majority of the increase in this budget section and again Um, I I will say we we asked I think also the but I think I heard that the select board is interested in this. We Is this the one where we said we probably next year we'll think about going out for rotations. Am I remembering right?

Yeah, I think we we run So we run July 1st to June 30th. So um we we would probably go out next year but we won't be able to change it if we're going to make a change. I just want the people to know that we think we've got the best supplier for our needs, but like any good business every few years, even if you think you've got the best, you want to put together a bid package and go see what other people have just to see make sure there's not something better out there. So, that is on the list of the things that the town is planning to do. Actually, sorry. We would go out this year. 26.

We would go out this year. Yes. to see if we can lower the costs because of the way the year runs if we so I I didn't I didn't want to get into promising anything because I don't know what's going to happen. I just want people to know that we are looking to see if there's any opportunities to make further reductions in this class. I think it's really important to just say too that um like a 10% increase in our health insurance is actually pretty good this year all things considered compared to a lot of employers. So that's only half. Yeah, it was it is a higher increase but we we do the budget for half because our doesn't change the halfway through the year.

But it also last year compared to that the first half of the year was the previous year. So okay, not hearing any additional questions and feeling I'm starting to beat this to death. I will move on.

I told you I'm So the next section is the planning board which is section 4191. The recommended amount for the 26 budget is $10,31 and this is a significant increase of uh about 10 a little more than 10%. And my notes say that in particular if you look on line 310 there's that's basically there's a thou I think it's $1,000 which is which is pretty which is the whole increase. Um the planning board wants to create a ordinance for solar power and they want some money to hire a to help them get that right. I think did I say that good enough Joanne?

You sure did. Okay. So, uh, and I think again we try to look for places to cut, but that kind of makes sense. So, one one of the other things to just not get too distracted. One of the things that is a little bit challenging from at least for me when I go through this is like a lot of people I use the column that talks about percent changes to try to flag what's worth looking into. But sometimes when you're some of these departments you're looking at even if it's a big percentage change, you know, when it goes from $200 to $300, it's a 50% change and you so you say, "Oh, that's a crisis." And then you look and you're like, "Oh, it's $100. That's not worth a whole lot of time and equity." So you also have to look at the dollar amounts, not just the percentage changes to see where the where the challenges and the opportunities are. All right. Thank you for putting up with the book for me. Um, not hearing any questions, we'll go to the next section, which is the zoning board. So, that's section 4192, and they've asked for level funding. So, their proposed budget for 2026 is $2,450, which is the exact same amount there will budget for 2025. So, I don't think there are any questions, and I don't have any comments. The next section actually is going to be interesting. So, that's the tax map. That's section 4193. So the recommended amount is n somebody say sorry my my lines here don't seem to be line up $19,375 is the recommended amount for 2026 and that is a significant increase over last year so that last year was like uh 8750

So the budget more than doubled and so that certainly is something as a member of the public would catch my eye. So if you look on line 394 there's a line there for upgra updates and upgrades and I think the thing to point here is what we heard from the department was that two things. One is that we've we've bought software which we use to do a number of things and this is going to add significant capability to the system to be able to do more things and maybe even as important to note is that this is not expected this is not going to be an ongoing fee. this uh roughly $10,000 is a one-time fee to add all these additional capabilities to the system to allow us to to do more things and provide more information to t taxpayers. So, it's a significant amount of money, but I think that it's a significant benefit. So, we we have agreed to it. Anyone else want to comment on that? Okay. Not hearing anymore. I will move to the next section which is general government section 4194 and that is a pro uh proposed amount of $445,147. It's about 1.3%age increase over last year. And I think that's primarily due to general inflation things. There's no big there's nothing added. There's no new line. There's no huge change on any line. There's just a bunch of small changes on a bunch of lines. Anything you wanted to add to that? Anyone else have anything?

Janet, if I'm going too fast, tell me about our medication. No, but I do have a question. Go ahead. The what what did 4194815 the second of the LA? Well, the last item y move on to area access. What does that mean? Please proceed. New area access is actually our media manager position. We so cave um but we do get offsetting funds from a cable franchise fee currently that helps offset it. It doesn't offset it fully anymore. Um but it does offset part of it. Okay.

And as a municipal a lot of our meetings have to be publicly available, broadcasted, etc. So Okay. also so the website the um he also handles um when we need him for other special events as well and training for um employees as well. So okay does that answer your question? Yeah. Okay. Thank you for doing that. Yep. All right. So that's for general government. We'll go to the next section. That's cemeteries section number is 4195 and that has been requested to be level funded. So, the proposed amount for 2026 budget year is $800.

Um, we have a library trust, I'm sorry, we have a cemetery trustee here in the room if anyone has any questions, but I don't expect we don't. Okay. Um, the next section is insurance for property liability, which is 4196. The proposed amount is $80,779. That is about a 4 and a.5% increase. And that's insurance. So 4 and 12% increase. That's basically the equivalent of your house insurance is the way I think about it. Somebody else thinks different, feel free to speak up. But I guess car insurance, too. Car insurance on our vehicles, insurance on our buildings, insurance on our our property, on our our material possessions. No, no questions. Okay. So, the next one is advertising and regional associations which is $4197. That is uh proposed of $8,19. It is a fair increase. It's about a 7 12% increase. This is basically not basically this is uh I'm sure this is the right way to say it. The way I think about it is this is basically membership fees for two organizations. The Lake Region Planning Group. No, that's not what it is. Lake Region Planning Something

Commission.

Commission. Thank you. And the uh New Hampshire Municipal Association. And this is not something that we really negotiate on. They tell us what the annual dues are. And we have a choice of paying it and being a member or not paying it and dropping out. we get service from both of those groups. So we continue to be wanting to be does that make sense? Okay. Um so those sections where they all start with 4100 is basically could be grouped into what we call our general government section. And now we move the next section is going to be focusing on public safety. So our next uh department is from the public safety building which is 4200. Just for background uh say 5 years ago when we had a police department and a police headquarters and a fire department and a fire headquarters the cost to run each of those buildings were part of the department. Now that we have a a new public safety building that works for both departments, we've created this new department to run that run that building. So, um the proposed amount for the 20 26th year is $30,900. This is actually a roughly 17% decrease from last year. And it's primarily due to the fact that we we the first year when we put the budget together, we didn't have any real experience with the building. So, we were a bit conservative. It's turned out that the uh the energy efficiency and the energy savings have been uh maybe even more than we originally anticipated. So, there's been cuts in the the amount of propane we have to buy, electricity we have to buy, and a few other things. So, Chief, if I got something wrong there or

if I'm missing something, please speak up. But I think that's a fair uh recap of where we are on this one. Um, make sense, Janet? Yeah. Okay. Impressive. I'm not trying to pick on you. You're the only one here. No. Yes. That's good.

All right. So, the next section is the police department, which is 4210. The recommended amount is 1,62,616 and that is a 7 and a4% increase over last year. And in my notes, I have three lines that I would bring to your attention. to line 143, which is pro uh services for doing prosecution work at the county courthouse, the Grafton County Courthouse in Hil. And the way it was described to us is it's a it's a cooperative where a number of towns work to pay somebody to be there in Haveril at the courthouse to do the work that we need done. Um the billing is based on uh our history. So the amount of services we used at 25 impacts the amount they want us to pay in 26. And we had more services I think one of the things and I'm speaking on a turn. Please shut me down. One of the one of the things I heard the chief the chief say because we asked about this is he said during during the crisis the health crisis and the pandemic five four five years ago um things kind of relaxed and he was the the department was seeing that when they brought complaints against people if they they had gotten to the point where they were starting to be comfortable just not showing up for their court date and thinking they could get away with it. So, the town has been more aggressive about saying, "I need you to you to issue a bench warrant because this person was supposed to show up and they didn't." And that this service provides that work. Is that

That's correct. That's what I What's the line item on that? It's It's line um sorry, it's line 143. Well, okay, I got it. Yeah, it's a three-year average. Um so, it's not just 25. It was the past three years on. Yeah. We had a bunch of years that we were really low, so we were paying less. Now those years have caught up. So now it's a it should the increase moving forward. There'll probably be an increase, but it shouldn't be significant the way it was. Yeah. Hopefully.

But I think the thing from the budget committee point of view, we I certainly don't feel comfortable telling the chief that we don't want you to do those services and we're taking the money away from you. So if you're doing good services, I feel we have to provide the resources needed to allow you to do those services. Yeah, I appreciate that.

All right. So that was one of the lines. I had two more. So line 391, which is training again, I think that comes back to my general comment. It's both that the training cost of the training courses I think have gone up and more importantly I think you had said that uh state requirements for the training that that officers have to take to keep their certification has increased. So even more than they that the courses are expensive they now need to go to more courses every year.

Correct. We have I think 16 more hours per officer this year that we have to do. Um, plus last year we had some budget issues, so we canled a bunch of trainings for people. So now I'm trying to make up, right? We can specialty trainings. They still got the training hours, but it was they're still certified, but you felt behind on some of the things that we want to do to have a high functioning force. Yeah. So speak up if you have a question. And then the third one I had was line 395. And that's a that's basically the fee we pay for the dispatch services. I do have a question. Go ahead.

190 certified special police. That's up 66%. What is that? That's part-time officers. Um, so that that line used to be like in the $10,000 range, but over the years we've had less and less part-time officers working because there's less people willing to do it at a part-time. Um, we've hired we've hired two people now, so they're starting to work a little bit more. So, um, we try to get them to work more because then it's just it's part-time pay instead of overtime pay. Um, so we're hope we're hoping we can fill some shifts with a part-time person.

Is the police department voting staff now? Yes, we've been fully staffed for big% but it's not a big dollar increase. Like

that was the point I was going to make, Janet. The reason I didn't put it on my list is I saw that it was a 66% increase and then I looked it went from 1,500 to 2500 and kind of my threshold was a thousand. So it was right on the border on whether I would put it on my list or not. And I already had three things. I think we got down to like 500 like 3 years ago and it was because we had nobody but we left 500 in case we hired somebody. We've hired somebody who works here and there is out on injury right now but then we've had somebody else express that they're interested as well. Um so it's hopeful that we don't pay overtime for some stuff. Yeah. It it just it's an unclear item.

Yeah, that name has been it's been called that forever. I don't know why. What? Barry Windgate was a chief here. That is forever. Should probably just say part-time officer. It's a fancy name. Okay. Did that answer your question? Yes, it does. Thank you.

All right. So, that's what I have for for for the police department. Anyone else have anything they wanted to uh bring up for the public to uh be aware of? Okay. So, we'll move to the next department, which is the fire department. That's section 4220. So we have a recommended budget for 2026 of 2,75,557 and that is roughly a 15% increase over last year and there there are a number of things going and I'll chief if I misspe please speak up quickly but I think the biggest one to start with is lines 120 through 123. three. So, at last year's town meeting, there was a separate warrant article where we approved expanding the size of the or the staffing level of the fire department to increase our ability to respond to uh ambulance calls. And those four people have my understanding of those four people have been hired but in the 2025 budget they were basically hired halfway through the year. So you only see 6 months worth of salary. So now in 2026 when we're paying them 12 months of salary there's a big increase on a percentage basis. So all four of those lines show big increases and that's because they're new people and they didn't exist.

But it's entirely offset by revenue from the other towns, right? Yes. Correct. Make sure I put that up there. Definitely. Yep. That was part of the that was part of the presentation that we heard from the chief at the town meeting last year is that the other three towns are uh have agreed to pay. So, so that's a big part of it and thank you Joe. Um, the other the other two that I flagged were uh line 211 disability insurance. I don't know why that went up, but we saw that in a couple of places that somehow whoever's providing us insurance has re-evaluated and changed rates and

Well, that that will go up because you have four new positions. Oh, that's also because we have four new people, right? And it's the same thing with so my third one. And it's the same thing with line 391. The training went up quite a bit. And that's again a combination. What we heard is that the department is bigger, so there's more people. And then there's I don't I didn't take all notes, but there's I mean people are going for higher levels of certification. So that all that all takes time and money. Chief, did I anything you wanted to add to my rambling?

No, you certainly hit the the big parts of it and uh it is right important to note. So that's why when we look at revenues, revenues last year for the member fees or the subsidies that the towns, the contract towns pay us was uh 481,000 last year, which included that six months with the new positions and it's $74,300 this year. So, um, that's all being paid for, uh, as planned and promised by the contract towns. And then kind of also building revenues gone up really in the contract towns cuz ours was probably even a slightly down for Bristol Calls. Um, and so when you look at the overall impact, yes, it's a it's a big increase to the budget and it's far bigger than we than we've seen a department budget. Um but overall kind of when you take out all those revenues and approximate it's about a $37,000 increase. Um and then if you look at it realistically that impact of the 4% raises that you already brought up is about $39,000. So throughout the rest of the operational budget, which is small compared to payroll, there's actually really a net decrease there to to offset as much as we could. But yeah, revenue is good. Just the contracts alone, it's about a 940 $950,000 worth of revenue that comes in to offset our ambulance service, which is huge.

It is huge. All right. Anyone else, Janet? Any any other lines you wanted us to provide more information on? Okay. So uh the last line in the public safety the last department in the public safety section is emergency management which is 4290 and the that department is being level funded. The 2026 recommended budget is $1,02 which is the same in the that was budgeted in 2025. Um this is a it is a separate position but it's basically uh Chief Lar Ro does this job also not a position just to clarify.

Okay. Thank you. Yes. It's not there's not there's not a salary in here. There's just work that needs to be done and some money for training and Yes. It's managed by the fire chief still though. Okay.

Um All right. So now we're going to go into the next section which is the highway department and the next the four basically are what we would call public works. So the highway department which is 4311 is uh proposed budget of $767,278 and it's just under a 2 and 12% increase and I can flag anything that there's no blue lines there's no huge increases on any one specific line. Uh so I didn't have anything to to call out to share with you and Victor's not here. Um,

right. But um, if he had anything he wanted to add. So, did any of the other committee members have anything they wanted to This is almost just entirely the payroll increase. Yeah. Yeah. Well, for Right. Right. For a 4% payroll increase for the whole department. Only went up two and a half. Yeah. I think you're spot on there, Joe. Fully staffed. No. Highway department. Yes. I'm always hesitant to answer because things could have changed since the last time I asked that question. As of today, yes, we're not through winter yet.

All right. So, the next section is highway projects, which is 4312. And again, this is funded. This is uh the proposed budget for 2026 is $335,01, which is the same. And this is the great majority of this money is basically uh we have in past budgets called it paving and we've changed the name of that. It's I think now called road road maintenance road maintenance and construction

road maintenance and construction. So this is this is money to I think it's so keep our roads drivable and safe. Um, not hearing any questions. I'll move on to the next section which is uh street lighting and bridges which is section 4319 and again that is level funded. So the proposed budget for 2026 is $35,01 which is the same. So, um, this is, I like you said, we paying a bill for the for the for the we're still paying a contract because we upgraded the the light fixtures a few years ago that we're paying off and we're paying the the bill for the electricity to run the lights and then there's some money here for bridges and right? No, there's a No,

there's a different one for that. We took I should be careful not to speak off the top of my head without looking at a piece of paper. And really, it's basically just street lighting. Um it's the cost for the street lighting throughout town, but also we have a lease payment for the street lighting that we've updated and we have um this year and one more year after this and then the lease will be paid off. So,

all right. I will Well, we'll get to that. I'm going to jump in on B Street, but we'll get to that when we get to the war article. I think I shouldn't talk about that yet. Uh let me see where I'm going. And then the last section in uh the last department within the public works section is solid waste disposal, which is 4324. And that is a proposed budget of $445,425. And that is a roughly just under 5.5% increase. And we talked about this when we reviewed this section. So the line that I would bring your attention to was line 120 which is the attendance. So we have a a department head who's managing things and then under him there's a number of attendants and what we heard was that there's a chuck if I get this line please direct me. What I heard is there's a little bit of a turnover. What we're doing is we're going to we're going to see some change in 25. We're going to get somebody new on staff there who uh will be new to this waste treatment who thinks brings some good uh capabilities and will do a great job, but we're going to pay him a little more money. So, the line had to go up.

I'm going to add to that. So, if you you look the 2025, we also believe that it hadn't been budgeted correctly. Um, so we've adjusted the budget based on the current hours of the four attendants. There are not new there are no additional attendants. It's the same attendance, but you can see we went over on 2025. So, it did need an adjustment um to make sure we were paying for the current staff at the current hours. Okay. Right.

Correct. Okay, I hear what you're saying. We budgeted about 77,000 and as of the last time we were had a report. Now, the 20 just to let the public know, I I've been told that we need to be careful. The 20 the the books for 2025 have not been closed. So, the numbers in all of our reports are current as of when the report was was run, but there still could be things that are going to get booked in through the accounting system and these numbers can change. We anticipate at least one more maybe two manifests just to close out 2025.

But at this point, I wouldn't expect that we're going to see that uh employee costs are going to get changed. It's more of materials and bills and services that we buy unless we find a mistake. But so I wouldn't want to say absolutely that you wouldn't see anything there, but yes, you shouldn't see anything on employer lines. So,

but your but your point what I heard you say was if you look at the 25 budget which was just under 77,000 and you look at what we've spent in 25 which was 82 a little over 82,000 and proposed for net 26 is 88,000 of that total increase half of it was an overspend in 25 and half of it is some additional money for 26

4% addition Okay. Um, anything else, Chuck, that you wanted to you want to talk about the new the new compactor or anything or is that not something to do in this meeting? I'm good. We paid for that of 2025.

I just thought maybe the the vote would let the taxpayers like to know that that's happened and we found it. Um I do want to make sure that the voters know there are no new positions here. Um the transfer station lead attendant was broken out and that's an existing position and then the attendants are there and then the supervisor and then the administrative assistant is the same position but we broke it out and shared it with um executive. It's a position shared with the executive department. So it looks like the new staff is in here. There is not though. These are just broken up to be more defined,

right? We had a we had a person providing administrative support who was actually part of the planning and land use department and we weren't moving some of those costs into the department. Now, another person is doing it, but we didn't hire it. We're not giving more hours, but we did transfer those costs into this department's budget. Correct. Correct. Okay. Question. Go ahead. Are we getting a new contractor? We did. We did. I have a sort of a personal investment to make. So, uh, something happened to the old one or the old one was almost 40 years old. It was old. So, Oh, this is the way the

not the car, not the No, no. This is the waste comp. Okay. So, a couple weeks ago, I put a new one in and uh it's done. It's being paid for out of the transfer station revolving fund. So, okay.

But we were So, when we when we talked about this during the review, one of the things that I heard Chuck say was that the the old there's two compactors for general waste, right? And one of them had failed and the company came in to service it and they basically said, "We can fix it for you, but you're kind of throwing money away. This thing is going to die. if you want it, we'll keep fixing it for you, but you're you're probably want to think about and so we we were anticipating that there was going to be need to be money put in the 26 budget to fund that. And because of urgency and because of a I don't know all the details, I'll say because there was an opportunity that the management people figured out, they figured out a way to find money in the 2025 system and went ahead and made it happen. So, we didn't have to fund it 26.

Okay. Am I saying it wrong? Yes. That's okay. Um, we did actually get an unanticipated revenue of about $38,000 that came from the conquered regional solid waste group. They sold a piece of property that we were incorporated on and that money goes into the transfer station revolving fund as well as recycling of aluminum and cardboard. So, we were able to use that money from the revolving fund, which was the intent um to pay for the contractor. So, we didn't find it in the budget. Just wanted to clarify that. Okay. I said it wrong. Thank you for correcting me.

But the but the the big thing for me was I thought we were going to have to find a chunk of money to put in the 26 budget to make this happen. So, I was very I didn't know I don't know all the details, but I was very happy to find out that we didn't have to add money to the 26th budget. Thank you. Does that answer your question? Yes. Um, and then, uh, there's one more. I missed it. So, there's a section that's called fire betterment, which is 4339. That's level funded, and it's $10,000 for the 26 budget year. And this is basically um this is basically to operate and maintain the fire hydrant. Correct.

It's it's our half of the cost. So ideally the plan is that the town pays for part of the cost and the water department pays for part of the cost and this line is the town's portion of that expense. Okay. So we'll move on to the next section. So the next these next se this the fourth parts and this is all so we started with the 41 series then we did the 42 series we just finished the 43 series. The 44 series is basically the theme is public services. So the first one is 4411 which is land use and health office and they have a proposed budget for 2026 of 163,615 and it is about a 3 and a4% increase. And I didn't see any lines in here to flag as new or drastically different or a big change um with a 4% increase for all of the employees and general inflation for other things. Um I'd love to I'd love for the number to be smaller, but I think a three and a three and a quarter% increase is not is not a problem. Is not unreasonable. Jan, Joanne, is there anything you wanted to say or No.

No. Okay. Um, the next section is animal control, which is 4414, and that is level funded. So, the proposed amount for 2026 is $200, the same as last year. It's been the same for years and years, and we dropped it. It was 400. Okay. But the the only comment I would make is I think Facebook has really helped us keep this line down because animals posted is being loose. It's all over Facebook and the people come get it. So they have Yeah, cuz really one dog is going to cost way more than $200. So

well just the initial is 250, but then it adds up how long they keep them for for a dog. And then cat is 150 or something like that. So, I'm not on Facebook. So, you tell me if I ever get a pet, I'll have to get a Facebook. But you aren't back. Yeah. Or you just have to have friends that will say, "Oh, your dog is

You can put a dog on Facebook and 40,000 people will see it within no time." But you put a one person that you're looking for. Okay. So, the next se the next section is health agencies and hospitals. It's $4415. The um budgeted amount is $33,394. It's basically level funded from last year. This is this is community support for outside agencies. So, this is for the uh well, you can see it there. That's for the Lakes Region Visiting Nurse Association and the Tummy Baker Hospice and Hope Home Health Agency. I don't remember off the top of my head. Um, and it's the same amount that we gave them last year.

They just asked for slightly different amount.

Yes, for some for some reason it's $6 different, but that's because they they asked for $6 less than someone suggested and I said, "No, it's $6. Let's just give them what they asked for. I'll I'll I'll admit to being an idiot sometimes. Okay. Um the next section will be very quick because this is welfare administration 4441. It basically needs to be in the budget because we show things from previous years and in previous years there was money spent here. So administering the welfare so the recommended amount for the 26 budget is zero. The reason for that is that it used to be a separate person kind of a separate department and now it's been folded into the executive department and those functions are done and that person exists and gets paid for out of the executive section. So the so the 4441 which is the cost to pay someone to administer the welfare program doesn't exist as a separate department anymore. Zero. If you go to the next line which is welfare services which is 4445 that is still that's basically the cost of providing services and aid to people who who requested and the recommended amount is $24,650. This is actually a decrease. Um this is this is what the select board recommended and we didn't change it. I don't have anything else specific. Any question? Not hearing any. We'll move on to the next section which is recreation. This is 4520 and recommended the proposed budget is 133,325. Uh I think everyone knows, but I'll point out the town of Bristol doesn't

actually have a parks and recreation department. We provide those services by um I don't know if the correct word joining or participating in the regional uh TL Thompson Community Center. So this money is basically what we pay the Tapley Thompson Community Center to provide the services that they provide to the residents of Bristol.

And it's based on uh participation, right? There's a fair share formula um that hasn't really changed a whole lot over the years that was the beginning of it and now it's whatever percentage we go up goes to all the towns the same unless numbers should change drastically in one of the towns it would be adjusted. Okay. Uh the next section in the budget is beaches. That's 4521. And the 2026 recommended budget for this section is $46,4343. It is roughly a 4.5% decrease. And I didn't have anything flagged to bring to your attention. So if you have any questions, let us know. But Okay, we'll move on to the next section which is Kelly Park. That's section 4522. And the um recommended budget amount is 56,376. That's a considerable increase. It's about a 40% increase over last year. And I'll bring your I bring your attention to two lines. line 120, which is a seasonal laborer. And so, basically what we what we were told was that we in 2025, we hired someone to work part-time to provide services in Kelly Park. So, I can't list them. I don't know if anyone else can. I think they cut the grass, but they did way more than that. They did a lot of things. And what we were told was that it was really helpful, but that setting up the park in the spring coming out of the winter when things are wet and in the and later in

the year in the fall getting ready that that would be really helpful to have that person. So what they proposed is extending the amount so they'll work not more hours per week but more weeks per year to provide more services. Um, and just so everyone knows the I don't know less if I get this wrong please. But I I think that what we what we see is that the Kelly the Kelly Park we get a lot of support from the Tapley Townsa Community Center that help manage that. But that the actual work is primarily done through the road department. So we've kind of starting this year have asked Victor Greenwood who's our department head for the road department to take ownership of this in the budget uh discussion and the budget cycle. So he came in and told us about all of that.

Uh the the second line I told you I had two. The second line is line 820 which is projects that went up quite a bit. Um and I what I what I remember hearing and this is from memory so if I get it wrong please someone speak up but two things he talked about um basically uh drainage and water control and the need to do some maintenance on uh the area behind a back stop on I think the softball field. And the other thing he said that that really caught my attention is he said that the the really big tree on the on the edge of the park along North Main Street has has started dropping branches and it could be widow makers and they've already gone in and chopped some things down. So I believe there's some money in here under projects to go in and plant some new trees because the anticipation is in when they within a couple of years that tree is going to come down. So rather than waiting to take it down and have a fully open space, I think he wants to get a couple of trees planted so they'll start growing so they'll be in a little better shape when that big tree does come down.

Did I Did I kind of get that right? Yeah, pretty much. And we also planning to do a path behind the back stop so connects both sides of the path similar to what we did from the tennis court to the playground. And we're hoping to plant a couple of shade trees there as well. We um this year they did get to plant two trees um and they were a little bit more money than anticipated to but they replaced two fallen trees and that we to remove from the park and will be maintained. Yeah. Under contract they're Yeah. They're under the three-year guarantee I believe.

Okay. So that's what I have for Kelly Park. Does anyone else have a comment or does any other question? Okay, moving to the next section which is the library section 45 4550. The recommended budget for 2026 is 304,789 and that is a 9.5% increase over last year. Um I have one line that I would bring to your attention. uh one line 194. You can see that that has a pretty significant increase in it. And basically what happened is that the the library the person doing that job uh has changed and the person who was doing it at the beginning of 2025 was budgeted for 20 hours a week and the new person they want to work 30 hours a week. So, so they are working 30 hours a week. So, that's that's why that line went up significantly.

I don't know if any you have a question about any of the other lines or if anyone else has a has a comment they'd like to make, but that's what I have for the library. I will just point out same thing on this one as the transfer station. These are all positions that existed, but they were all paid under the part-time except for one. Sorry. Youth services existed and part-time assistance substitutes existed, but those the other librarian titles were broken out of the part-time line. Correct. Okay.

Okay. So, the next section is patriotic purposes, which is 453. It is the uh recommended amount for 2026 is $31,900 which is about a six and 23 or six and 2/3% increase. Um the two lines I have flagged here is line 120 which is the coordinator. So you can see I'm not consistent. That went up by $1,000 and I did flag that one and earlier you asked about it and I said yeah it's only a thousand. I didn't flag it. So but when the whole when the whole section went up by 6.7%. I was looking for lines to flag and that was one of the two I found. The other one, the other line I would I would bring to your attention is line 890 and that and that is uh for

patriotic purposes. But basically what we were told is that the that uh we need new flags, new like banner

banners flags, especially with the 250th celebration that our old our current ones are boring. We were going to replace them anyway. And now with the big celebration coming, it's even more important to replace them. So there's some money in there to buy some more materials to help us celebrate our our country's uh anniversary and support. Okay. The next section is conservation commission which is 4611. The uh recommended budget is $2,500. It's a 4% increase, but the total amount of increase is $100. So, that's an example again where the percentage looks significant, but the dollar amount is is not um significant. There's no new lines in there. There's no really good things. There's just some something increased in cost a little bit. The next section is historic district commission which is 4612 and the recommended budget is $650 which is the same as what was or what yeah what was in the last year's budget the 2025 budget. So those are pretty easy. Now this next one we'll spend a little time talking about is uh what is now called the economic committees section 4651. The recommended amount is $70,580, which is uh not even worth talking about a percentage. It's a huge It's a tremendous increase. So So before I get into that, well 5,000% increase.

It says 329%. But no, 5,329. Okay. Um so in the past, this section was called economic development committee. So this was the EDC's

which had existed for a number of years and um basically a couple of things happened. One is the person who was the prime was the chair and the prime driver left the town community and so the committee is working the select board is working to reconstitute it. I think they're going to be the new name is going to be economic opportunities committee. Um the energy committee which didn't have a section is now part of this. So they have some money in the budget and they're they're one of the economic committees that make up the plural committees. And then the third one which is where the budget increase came in is for the PMI path which in the past was a subcommittee of the economic development committee and is now not a subcommittee. It's its own committee. And Buzz, you want me to keep talking or do you want to take over?

You're doing fine. All right. I ask cuz Buzz is the chair of the Penny Path Committee. But basically, what what what came to get happen is that we're I think we're at the point now where the Pemmy path looks like the plane is getting ready to finally take off. It's the wheels are still on the ground, but it's really close to taking off. So the committee has been the committee on the on the behalf of the town with the involvement of town leadership has been talking to the Army Corps of Engineer. They have a draft contract which is I think still getting a little bit polished but

it got a lot more polished today. I got an email this afternoon. I didn't know that we're almost there.

We're optimistic that we're very close to being at a point where we can sign the contract. um construction can't happen because there's also requirement for a NEPA which is a national environmental protection act policy act. Thank you. It's a federal an acronym and so don't worry about getting it exactly right. I'm sorry. Um it's basically a a a basic environmental uh check to make sure that there's no things that would be disturbed with any work done. um the federal government is going to do it, but they're working to figure out how they're going to pay for it and get it done. But the big thing is that once the contract is signed, then the project becomes official and the committee is planning to go out and do fundraising. The goal is that the town's people will not be asked to pay any taxes to do this project, that it'll be funded through fundraising. But we're in kind of a chicken and an egg problem is that you can't go to people and say,"I want you to contribute to helping us do this project if you can't show them what the project is." So the committee came back to us and said, "We we need money to do the detailed design work to know how much to to know exactly what the path is going to be, how much it's going to cost, and how long it's going to take to do." So, one of the things we asked is we said, "Well, we understand that the committee, you don't you haven't done any fundraising yet. You don't have any money, so you can't pay for it. So, you're asking us to put money in the budget to pay for this." And what I said, I think a number of us said this, but but what's the long-term? I know there's no guarantees, but what's the long term? And what we got the answer is the one I wanted which is if everything goes well and as anticipated

eventually we would raise they will raise funds and pay the town back for the design services. But there is there is a chance if something happens and the and the act never gets built we will end up paying for the design work is what's this doing? Am I being correct and fair so far? Yeah. one just one thing I want to be careful. It's not the town that will be doing the fundraising. It will be a private private um effort and then the money will be donated to the town. Right. Right.

Except the engineering fees in the budget will be a town expenditure that hopefully the private entity can raise funds to reimburse. Right. And when you say private entity, we're talking about a charitable nonprofit. Yes. So, just to clarify. Yep. So, I'm going to stop for a second, Janet. Does that make sense? It does. I'm actually on the PMI pass committee, so I do know some of this information. It's going to be a big flag at the meeting.

Well, and that's why I wanted to get into detail here so that the people who are not on the committee and don't know what's going on kind of get some more information. So my question is um this $69,000 is just for the design study. It doesn't cover anything else. Um correct. It's because it would cost that much to do the design study. The engineers cost. Yeah. The engineer and the design study. Yes, we um we actually are bringing it to the select board Thursday night. They're not supporting it.

No, we're bring they haven't seen it. Um, it came to the budget committee first because we didn't have it before now, but we're bringing it Thursday to the select board, the agreement with the engineer so we can make sure that they see it and are will are ready to approve it um in anticipation of town meeting passing. So,

so I I I will go ahead and just share a my own personal thoughts is that I mean I'm not if we if we end up not getting reimbursed I'll be disappointed. I don't really want to spend taxpayer money on designing this. But I think that the path is going to improve the town. I think not only is going to make it a better place, it's also going to make the downtown more vibrant. We're going to see more traffic. Hopefully, it's going to help the businesses down there, which will help help property values and and and all of that. So, as much as I don't like to spend money, I I personally think that it's a reasonable investment, especially with the the I'll say hope because there's no guarantee, but the hope that when if the project goes as hoped, the fundraising will raise enough money to not only build the project, but to reimburse the town for the design piece.

Go ahead. I just wanted to add something. I understand what you're saying about you didn't want the taxpayers to have to pay any this, but if we had done a grant, which is where we were going originally, there would still be a percentage that would have had to been paid off of a grant for the town's portion of this. So, do I want it to be fundraised? Yes. But, but there is normally a portion that has to be offset grants or any kind of funds that you get from other opportunities. So, so my point is I voted I voted for this. I think it's it's the right thing for the town to do, but we'll see what what everyone says at town. Yeah. Paul, can I uh Yeah, please go ahead.

I would say that there's been years worth of volunteer work that has gone into trying to make this happen, which it's unbelievable that we've been able to get together with the Army Corps and actually come to agreement on doing it. I would hate to see all those hours wasted and not support this because so far we've had very little skin in the game, but this is an investment in my feeling in the future. Thank you. Anyone else want to comment?

Okay, I think I need that one. Okay. So that was economic committees and now we'll go to outside agencies which is $4652. So um the recommended budget amount for 2026 is $40,814. This is roughly a 6 12% increase over last year. And I think most of that is on line 575, which is the Lakes Region Mental Health uh group. They asked for more money and the committee as a whole uh supported that request. So this just while you're looking at that, Jen, I'll say so outside agencies, this is basically the section of the budget where we are providing financial support for outside agencies, non-municipal entities that are providing uh benefits and services to the town. Pull it out. I can read you the whole list, but it's also available in your town report, but it's things.

They're all listed in in the budget line by line. It is in the It is in the budget. So, Transport Central, Senior Citizen Council, the uh Tri County uh CAP Voices Against Violence Mental Health Center, the uh Penny River Local Advisory Committee, um the CASA Court appointed special advocates, the Pasquani Garden Club, NLR, and then potentially there's a line in here for uh a garden group, but that would be certified a grant. So that's not something we No. Yeah, we won't spend it unless the unless we get a grant,

right?

So no question. Okay. So that that's that finishes that and to that point. So you take all of this so far and that's what we would call our general fund operations, the cost of operating the town. And I didn't say it before, but I didn't learn this until I got on the budget committee. One of the things that maybe I want to say just to make sure that everyone in the public hearing is this is that we're required to do something that's called gross appropriation. So this is not the net amount that we're going to spend over revenues. This is the total amount we're spending. So again, if you've got money coming in, either you've earned it through fees or you've got a grant coming in, you can't say, "I want I want to buy these pieces of equipment for $50,000 and I'm getting a grant for 40, I'll just put $10,000 in the budget because that's all the taxpayers have to pay. You have to put the if you're spending $50,000, you have to put $50,000 in the budget." And then you put in the revenue that you're getting 40. in this example. And then the folks that do the tax calculations with the state's assistance say, "Okay, you're going to spend 50, but you got 40, so you need to raise $10,000 in taxes."

Thank you.

Okay. Um the next section is basically debt service. So, we've got principal payments, interest payments, and tan payments. And we'll go through this. I guess before we go through here, I'll answer try to answer any questions. actually probably involved in the Christina, but this is this is basically paying off debts that we've entered into. So, this is not something that we spent a lot of time looking at because if we've got a bond out there, we don't really have an option to not make the payments that we got to pay. So, the first section is the principal payments on long-term debt, which is 4711, and the budgeted amount is $365,167. And sorry,

you okay? Yep. Um, you're not so funny. And if you look through here, you can see what's what's in here. This we're still paying off the central square. We're still paying off the uh chlorination at the wastewater plant. We So, there's a number of things. The public safety building, the the town office building, um the equipment that uh takes care of the sidewalks when it snows, the Okay. Um there's just one key thing to add. The the No, I was just going to say the dump body and plow equipment will be p this is the last payment this year. Okay. So,

so that should come along for this. And then um handled separately is section is the next section which is interest payments on the long-term debt which is 4721. And go ahead.

Okay. I thought you had a question. Um, so the interest payment, the budget proposal for 2026 is $189,151. And it should be mostly this. Well, I'll say it. Um, normally it's the same list of projects. In this year, it's a little different because the central street sewer, I call it the pumping station. I don't know if that's collection something what I don't know what Jeff calls it but the the central street sewer project which is being done now we we don't have to make any principal payments until the project is completed. So in 2026 there are no principal payments but we are taking out some loans to fund the construction. So there is a line. So the zero on the principal payment for this project for 2026. There is money for principal payment on this project in 2026. Interest

interest. Thank you for

correcting my misstatement. And then the last one is debt service on TAN. TAN is tax anticipation note. That's 4723. That's proposed amount of $18,000. That's the same amount that was in the budget in 2025. This is basically if we get to the point where we run into another problem where the school district stops us from getting tax bills sent out and we run out of cash. We have to borrow money in order we have a cash flow crisis. We have to borrow money to keep keep operations happening. This is the cost of doing that loan. I know from talking with the select board that um there is an intent to be more intentional on cash flow control and try to minimize this cost. But again, I think this goes back to what Joe said. We're hoping we're not going to spend this money, but if we don't put it in the budget and then we need it, we're in a very bad place. So, we put it in the budget. Well, we're we are going to spend some of it already because we have an existing TAN that carried over from 2025 into 2026. We'll be paying interest on that this year.

Correct.

To Christina's point. Yes, that reminds me that the the interest we pay on the loan in 20 in 2026 is really on the loan from the end of 2025. It's really the end of 2026. We're hoping to minimize or reduce the need for additional loan. The 2025 alone has happened already. Okay. So that section is those three together is the total amount for debt service. And then we move on to the last section which is the sewer and the water department which are our enterprise funds which by state law have to be included in this budget for the voters to vote on. So the first one is the operations of the sewer department which is for uh so it's 4326. I'll just say it's a little confusing because some of these numbers when you just use the four-digit number get reused. The difference is that all the ones we've done so far are in general town. So they actually have a 01 in front of them. Sewer has a 05 in front of it and the waters all have a 07 in front of those. Uh the proposed budget for the sewer operations is $587,887. It's roughly 4.8% increase. And I flagged a bunch of lines here to bring to your attention. I looked at line 260 and I'm not sure why, but the cost for the unemployment insurance went way up. I don't know if we got reclassified or something happened, but um line 292, the cost of uniforms went up a fair amount. Uh line 301, audit. Again, this comes back to we talked about that path. Some of the audit is paid for out of financial administration and part of the audit is paid for out of the sewer department because it's an audit on the sewer project because we're spending a significant amount of federal misdeed.

No, I just wanted to clarify there are audit costs in both water and sewer. Um they pay a portion of the regular audit but the increase in the audit and sewer is for the one time. Okay. Thank you. Um also line 390 lab services and supplies went up. I think that's

just the cost of services and inflation on services and supplies. I also would flag line 430. What we heard what we heard is that because running the sewer department down there, you use a lot of chemicals. There's a situation where if someone had chemicals spilled on them, they're supposed to be able to run into a room and pull a cord and get showered to get it all washed off of them. And in order not to shock them, you don't want to shock just shower them with cold water. You want to shower them with warm water. The water heater that supplies the warm water has failed. So there's money in this line to replace the water heater.

No, that's in capital projects. Oh, the wide is 430. All right. I'm sorry. Mine is 430. So capital project. Yeah, he put the note here, but we ended up putting it in capital projects. So 430 did go up, but not just because it it the water heater is $18,000. Okay. So there may have been some adjustment here in case it fails before or in case we have to do something before we replace the water heater. Um but it got moved. So sorry about the note. All right.

And then I I also thought that line 637 the disinfection chemicals went up. I don't know what that is other than that something got more expense. Chemicals got more expensive. Yes, that's pretty much it. the chemicals got more expensive. He does say that it's for sodium body sulfate and sodium hypocchlorite. I didn't but that to me is just general inflation. But I wanted to you know if you said why is it costing us that much more to run the sewer department. I wanted to flag those lines so you can take a look at it. Go ahead.

Can I just ask a question though? So where do they get their chemicals? where where can they is that something they can shop around with that would be cheaper like you you know shopping for mitigation or is there a contract for that? What is I I can double check with Jeff. Jeff wasn't able to be here tonight but I believe they do shop around. They use um they use a couple of different companies if I remember correctly. But you also have to have a company that can ship certain things like that to you too safely. Um, so I think that they sometimes use the same vendor because they have a confidence in that vendor, but I can double check with Jeff. Yeah.

Okay. Any questions on sewer operations or any comments from other committee members? Fully staff. Um, no, down one position still. It's the chief water operator still. still, but they but they were down three positions la last year at this time. So, um it's exciting that they're only down one. Yeah. So, I was I knew I was going to say I know the chief operator water operator, but that again is a shared position. So, it's also included some does some things in the sewer also. Yeah. Okay. Just double checking.

Okay. So the next section is sewer capital which is 4327 and that is a recommended amount of $15,000 and as Christine just corrected me that basically is the cost of putting in new water heaters for the safety system. Um that's actually down from last year. Last year's budget had money in it to do something else for $20,000. this year is is he's proposing $18,000. Um, next section is sewer surplus which is 4328. So this is this is a line basically that estimates the the difference between the revenues and the expenses. So it's a line we use to make the whole thing balanced because it needs to be run on a break even basis. So using the current estimate for 26 expenses and subtracting the current estimate for 26 revenue, you end up with a surplus of $46,53 which is there in the budget. It's actually a significant amount less than last year. Um but I did ask at this point it's not a problem. We're still running a surplus and not anticipated that anything major is going to change. Not certainly 26th.

Did the board not have those figures, the final figures? They did not. Um we we did the when Jeff did the revenues, we were able to calculate the final figures, so we were able to bring it to the budget committee to cut. Is it does it mean that there was no surplus last year? That's why it was at zero. No, no. What it mean what it means is that the that the final number I don't think has been calculated yet. So the amount budgeted for can we just the transfer wasn't if it hasn't been done.

So it was budgeted at $104,884. The actual amount transferred so far is zero because I don't think they've closed the books and got to a final number yet. Okay. Am I on the wrong line? I'm on. I'm sorry. But that's so yeah, we haven't my logic works just my numbers. The answer is the same. Okay. Interesting. Um and then sewer also has principal.

I was just going to clarify too this number could change. So what so when we do the transfer it's potential that it could be less or it could be more on the transfer because it depends if we got more revenues than we anticipated or not. So so that number is a is sort of a placeholder but it could change. It doesn't reflect that there's less people on the sewer no line or anything? No. No. Thank you.

Okay. So, the next So, we did sewer surplus. The next line is sewer debt principal payments. So, that's line 4711 and that's uh budgeted for 2026 is $9,237. And then the next line is the interest payment on sewer debt, which is 4721, and that's budgeted for $30,388. And that um interest payment that line for the interest has gone up because we're going to in 2026 pay some interest on the uh basically the construction loan we've taken up to do the central street project.

The bond anticipation I know but it's basically construction and we have taken money we did start to take money down. Um, yes. So, yep.

So, that's the sewer department. So, if you want to go back and double check when we finish the whole budget, we'll also do revenues. If you go back and get the revenue number out of the uh for the sewer department out of the revenue report and you look at all the other expense numbers here for 26 for the sewer department and you subtract one from the other you should get that surplus you not should you will get that surplus line and now we're going to do the same thing for the water department. So the first line in the water section is water the operations cost of running the water department which is 4331 and the proposed budget for 2026 is $546,347 and that is roughly a 4 12% increase and I get kind of the same things flagged. The unemployment went up which is line 260. The cost of uniforms look like they've gone up on line 292 and line 610 for material and supplies have gone up. I don't know about our unemployment. That's to me probably someone has changed cap classification in some way but uniforms and materials and supplies I expect is normal inflation. Everything's classed in just a I think there might be a typo on the this version and just make sure we fix it. Right above the water department it says warrant article 13C.

Yeah, they have to. Sorry. So, it has to say warrant article 13 C because that it won't print in order. So, this is warrant article I'll double check and make sure it's the right war. I think the general stuff is 13A. The debt service is 13B and the sewer and water sewer is 13 C. Otherwise, it sorts it differently. Okay. But, okay. It is right. Warren articles. So, A B they have to go in order or they won't print. Right. So, okay.

Okay. So, that's water operations. Any other questions or comments? Okay. Next section is water capital which is 4332 and that is uh the budget proposal is $10,500. I don't I don't have any notes here. don't have any um comments to make. So it looks like it's yeah it's the the the the scatter system upgrade and then getting the epoxy fluid done which was proposed for last year but not done. Okay. So the next line is water surplus 4333. This is the same thing. It's uh it's an estimated number. It's a number that's uh that that balances revenues and expenses. The proposed for 2026 is 53,895. The actual year end number will certainly be different. It'll be whatever it is when they close the books when we finalized all the expenses and all the revenues. Um the last two sections of debt. So, principal payment on water department debt 4711 is $57,22 and that's two projects. We're still paying off Central Square and then it just says water bond which is 23431. And then we also have interest payment on those same debts which is section 4221 and that is $4,136. So you add the operating general operating costs with the debt service with the water and sewer. You get to the bottom line which is what the voters will vote on at town meeting of 10,489,158.

As I said, that's a 5 and 3/4% increase over the warrant article from 2025. I think we're done with the bud expense budget part of the meeting. Anyone else like to comment or anything they want to share? Okay. So, now we will go on to revenues. And I didn't pick those up. So, I'm going to have to do those on the computer.

No, that's okay. that you but I guess I got to go back to I think it was Brian's convent. I mean, it's not just municipal, it's anything. I know I'm the treasurer for my condominium association. I did the same thing the beginning of the year. you you try to be fair and correct, but you if you're not sure, you under you you aim low on revenues, and if you're not sure, you aim high on expenses because you want to make sure you don't get to the end of the year in a really bad place. So, I think you can see here from if you look if you look at the the columns from 25 budget, 25 actual, you can see the end of the year numbers uh not always, but typically exceed the beginning of the year estimate. So, we're back to a beginning year estimate for 2026, and all these numbers are in here. Um, I think I think that it's important, but I think in some respects it's not something I spend a lot of time worrying about because I feel like I have very little control over this. We we are required to review them and approve them, but it's not that we're going to go and say, "Hey, Chuck, we want more money, so let's just guess that you're going to deliver more." That would be reasonable.

I think I think maybe a way to phrase it too is a lot of these revenues and and rate and so forth are set not necessarily under the purview of the budget committee. These are correct. you know, fees that are established through ordinances and things of that nature. So, it's not something we have a whole lot of authority to to change um the underlying policies that actually generate these revenues. Thank you, John.

Can I just add to that the revenues um when we go to set the tax rate are adjusted at that time. We have to submit um estimated revenues first and then we review and get as close as we can to where where we think the year is going to finish and use that number to offset the tax. Your your October or whatever month it is numbers are more accurate than the number we are here in the beginning of the year. And just to help the public out, Joanne, has history shown that the actual revenues received are equal to or higher than what was estimated? Are sorry, you talking to me?

Yes. Has has history shown that the actual revenues that are received in a year Yeah. are equal to or higher than what was estimated?

History is higher. So than what is estimated always. Yeah, we're getting closer to the number as you see. We're getting closer what we estimate because I mean it's 200 roughly roughly 277,000 for on 2025. Usually it's a bigger difference. So okay. Um so I'm trying to remember I don't remember what we've done in past years. Do I just go through this line by line? I don't know if that's

good. I'm hoping I was hoping I didn't have to do that. I was say I would point out there is one change since you saw the draft. Um we that the board voted on these at their last meeting. So the draft that was presented to you under uh 350100 which is on page five. We did reduce um we're not anticipating that if we sell a there's a property that we are potentially going to be selling, it's not going to bring in $200,000. Um so it was reduced to $50,000 um is the thought if we if we do get to sell the property that we're planning. So but that's the only change since you saw the drafts at your last meeting. So, I think what I'd like to do is obviously if you have any questions, we will address them, but I think what I'm going to do is jump down to the bottom and talk about the bottom line. But for the people who might be looking at this remotely, Christina, can we can we post this on the budget committee web page or somewhere on the town's web page so people who are not here tonight have access to these numbers if they want to go and look at them? If you go to the homepage, there's a button that's 2026 election and town meeting information. Um, it will be posted there. I forgot to post revenues. Everything else is posted there. The budget's there. The Warren articles are there. Um, so I can I'll make sure I get the revenues added.

Okay. So, we'll add the revenue so that it won't be on our budget committee subpage. It'll be on when you go to the main page. when you go to the main page, click on the information about the 26 elections and it's in there. So, that is linked to your page as well. Um, if it isn't, we'll make sure it is, but if you click on the button, it has information on voting. Um, the warrant elections and town meeting is the next section. If you roll down, and I'll link the budget up at the top now, but if you roll down, it's more. I just want to make sure that anybody in the room that is watching this if they want details and look at it that they have it available

and I'll make sure I post the revenues ASAP. Thank you. So I'm just going to jump down to the bottom. I have I have one question. Go ahead. Go ahead. Uh Newfound Winter Maintenance SAU is that Can you give us a line number? I'm sorry. It is 3503-200 rentals of property. I got I got to change the title on that. Yeah, but is that coming in or um we we're going to have it right now? We have it as a liability. Um we did not build them because we were behind on paying the school payment,

right? Um, we are caught up for 2025 paying the school payments. So, we'll build them and we'll be able to book it. Awesome. Y, I do have a question as well. Go ahead. Um, on the first page, Joanna, is it uh I'm sorry, Christina. Christina, I'm sorry. Uh, 3210 the cable franchise fee is the it's showing a zero actual receipt. So, is that accounts receivable? You just haven't received the funds for 50,000.

It's booked as liability right now, but there may be a delay on this because we um are in the process of renewing the franchise fee. So, they haven't paid yet. So, yes, we anticipate we're going to get it. Um we just don't know what the amount will be for sure yet. So, it's a receivable, not a liability. Um yeah, I sorry. Yes. I call it a liability because I'm expecting it to come in, but you're right. Sorry. And do you expect it to come in about what it's being portrayed as? I think it's going to be a little lower

cuz the users um are dropping as part of the cable franchise fee. um it's based on the users and um so it the number of users is reducing for with the franchise fee that we have. So thank you.

Okay. So just for the record, I'll go through the fact that the um estimated or I guess budgeted revenues, the proposed budgeted revenues for the 2026 uh year are 4,185,97. that compares I'll say the record compares back to a year ago at this meeting the estimate for the 2025 revenues was4,100,264 and the I think this again the 25 books are not completely closed so it's subject to change but this should be pretty accurate the actual 2025 revenues are currently 4,37 $77,771. So 4.1 was the estimate last year. 4 roughly is the actual number for last year and 4 a little less than 4.2 is the uh estimate for 26 at this time. Is that a fair recap of where we are? So that's where revenues go and I think the point to be made is the the revenues really become it becomes important to have the correct revenue number in the fall when the tax rate gets set and that's what Christina and with the help of the state and working with the select board will make sure happen. Any other questions on revenues? Okay, we'll move on to the proposed line. So,

I am I got to be careful because I had looked at this and I was surprised when I read this today and saw article 12. Yeah, you probably didn't I will explain. You probably didn't see the article 12 before because um article 12 was previously article 2. Um when we were discussing this, article 2 was for social was social districts. We were told that it needed to be on the official ballot, but that is for cities. Um towns apparently have to have it on the ballot, but as a ballot vote at town meeting is sufficient. So we were told to move it. So article one through article 11 those are your officers and your um zoning amendments and then yes you'll begin with

so one through 11 the voters will vote on that on the Tuesday election and starting with article 12 will vote on these at the town meeting on Saturday at the auditorium. So article 12 is to see if the town will allow the operation of social districts within the town of Bristol. Vot required. This is what does this mean?

So this is the idea that basically I heard Laconia is doing this. I didn't know first of all looking at it. They're basically going to say that you can set up a district that now you can go into an establishment and get yourself an alcoholic beverage. Right now you can't leave the premise with that alcohol. If you set up a district, you can walk around in the district with a beverage in your hand is the way I understand it. Did I get that right?

Correct. Um there are really strict guidelines that will be set. Um, so there will be regulations, there will be boundaries set. Um, the town is currently looking at two districts potentially downtown, um, and out near the shore drive on the beach. So, um, we have to have a public hearing. We'll be holding a public hearing on February 19th. Um, and then if it passes with the voters, this just gives the the the voter v um voters voting yes just gives the board permission to set those districts up and set the regulations on them. So,

so I wasn't going to spend a lot of time on this because it doesn't spend any money and therefore we don't get to vote on our recommendations for it, but it's part of the warrant. So I brought you explain what it is. I need to explain it because it's part of the warrant and we have to go through the warrant.

So article 13 is the big one for us to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate the budget committee recommended sum of 10,489,158 for general municipal operations. The select work recommends $10,495,768 $68. This article does not include appropriations containing special individual articles addressed separately. A majority vote required. So later tonight before we all get to go home, we will have to vote on our recommendation on whether this should be the voters should approve this or not. And then on Thursday evening, the select board will vote on their recommendation. This is the only one where we go first. all the ones coming up later, the select board, I believe, have already recommended and we will we will recommend that after them. Uh, so we just spent a bunch of time talking about how we got to that 10,489,000. I don't think there's a need to discuss this further, but I say that if you disagree, speak up is what I'm trying to say. Article 14 to see if the town will vote to expend, I'm sorry, vote to establish a contingency fund for the current year for unanticipated expenses that may arise and further to raise and appropriate $30,000 to put in the fund. This sum to come from unassigned fund balance. Any appropriation left in the fund at the end of the year will lapse to the general fund. Majority vote required. So, we will have to vote on this. I think this is a standard article that is done every year. Although in past years it's been 25. So the recommended amount has been increased from 25 to $30,000 this year. Any questions? Not hearing any. We'll go on to article 15 to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of

$30,000 to be added to the patriotic recreation and special events expendable trust fund established in 2020. Majority vote required. So this is basically fireworks. Yes. Go ahead. Uh just one little side note on this. Uh the board did decide that we move forward with trying to pick a later date which I'm negotiating now.

So So this what I was going to say I'll just this is fairly standard I think because the the fireworks cost money and some people have strong opinions of it. We have now for a number of years not put this money in the budget. They'll put out a separate barn article so that it has good visibility and the voters know that they get to vote on it. I think the ch what I've heard of the challenge now and I don't off the top of my head remember I think 30,000 is a little higher but again where it's 250th year it was potentially going to be a bigger show. The problem is that we haven't found a vendor. We haven't signed a contract. We haven't signed a contract and at this point everyone who wants fireworks on Independence Day has booked it.

I will I'm saying I will stop. I will clarify. Um the fireworks is going to cost more next year no matter what. I mean this year. Sorry. No matter what because it's the 250th anniversary.

So that's part of the increase that you see there. Um we have a vendor. We've been um we're back with Pyro Techchnico. Um, we will not be having it on the 4th of July, though. Um, but the board felt very strongly about still having a show even if it couldn't be on the 4th of July because people plan and anticipate that. So, that's why we're leaving the Warren Aral in. Um, I should, knock on wood, have a contract um with the current vendor. Um, it will be obviously pending town meeting vote. Um, but I should have that. I think in the next couple of weeks. So, well, I think to

I think to Scott's point, this is not really a budget committee driven thing. The select board will probably be the ones talking at the meeting about it. And so, I I'm reading it into the record because I have to, but we have to vote and we will. Yes, we we'll do our recommendation vote after the public meeting. Anything else, Scott, on the fireworks one? I think that was so we don't have a date yet, but we know it's not going to be July the defendants day. No, Christina, I think as soon as we finalize it, we need to get it out to the public so that they can plan ahead.

He did and he's responded. Um um so hopefully I'll have something more for the board Thursday. Jan had a question. I just wanted to say I'm gonna go and I but I just want to say I really appreciate all the work that you guys are doing and I will look for explanations on the warned articles. Hopefully people will be discussing them. I know we're not going to discuss them here. So I'm going to just go home and view them myself. All right. Thank you for coming out. I really so much appreciate all the work you guys are doing.

I am working on a Donna inspired me. I'm working on a voters's guide um for the Warren articles. Um Donna did one for the zoning amendments, but I'm going to have the board look at it Thursday first before I put that out to the public, but I should have voters. Thank you. Can I just add one thing about Yes, please go ahead. They're almost never on the fourth. Yeah, we've never been able to afford what it would cost to do them on the fourth. So, they could be on the third, they could be on the fifth. It's a crapshoot. So, I think I don't think people will care that it's not on a fourth. I think they just appreciate

I I understand what you're saying. I just thought it was the point that now it's not just going to be plus or minus a day or two. It's probably going to be weeks different. I think it's going to be the following weekend currently. But don't write that down if you're listening until I know for sure.

More information to come and we'll move on. Article 16 to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $166,895 for the Beach Street Culver Replacement Project including permitting, site preparation, roadway construction associated with the Culbert work, drainage improvements, materials, and construction services, and authorize the board of selectment to take any and all actions necessary to carry out this project. This will be a non-lapsing appropriation per RSA 32 col 7A numeral 6 and will not lapse until the project is completed or by December 31st 3031 whichever is sooner. Majority vote required you. So this wording is different from the draft that you saw. This is um the department of revenue recommended a change on the wording and that's why you see the the non-lapsing. Um the anticipation is if this passes it will be done but if something delayed it um they recommended that we put this wording in just to be safe.

Okay. So again we'll have to vote on this uh later in the meeting tonight. Um, Victor's not here, but we did spend time talking to him and he um explained the details and why this is not a nice to have, but a mustave and I'm sure I'm expecting he will be in town meeting to advocate for this. So, I don't think we could spend a lot of time. Go ahead, Joe. Can I just ask Paul because I know in prior years when we've had no attendance, like at this point, we have nobody from the public attending. Um, do we have to go through everything because we've already reviewed the warrant, right? We already know it.

So, the we did get feedback at a meeting that we didn't touch base on everything. Okay. Um, in the public hearing, do you have to go in with great detail? I don't think you have to, but we do have to touch base on it during your hearing in case somebody's watching the live or Yeah, that's what happened last year. So that's my understanding, Joe. We don't have to discuss this, but I think I have to read each of the warrant articles or somebody has to read them, unfortunately. Okay. Thank you. I'll try to go quicker then. All right.

Okay. Article 17. to see if the town will vote to amend the existing ambulance replacement revolving fund established by the town meeting vote of 2014 such that the purpose of the fund shall be to replace ambulances and motorized firefighting apparatus and that up to the first $500,000 of ambulance patient proceeds shall be placed in the fund each year. The money shall still accumulate from year to year and shall not be considered part of the town's unreserved fund balance. The town treasurer shall still have custody of all money in the fund and shall pay out the same only upon order of the select board and no further approval is required by the legislative body to expend. The balance of the fund shall still be included in the town report each year. Such funds may be expended only for the purpose for which the fund was created. A majority vote is required. Chief, I don't know if you stayed here to talk about this. Do you want to talk about it now or do you want to just do it at town meeting? You want to take a few minutes to talk?

No, I would just real quick hit um a couple of things. So, the first isn't a little bit later than I hope to. Um I got some stuff to Cade that hopefully will get out soon, but I never make his life easy. So, of course, it's in some format that's not really working out. um kind of similar to last year where it's really just a PowerPoint that's that's narrated. So even though it is about 20 minutes of me droning on um I would certainly encourage people that want and need more information on this to look at it. Um and hopefully that'll be out soon and certainly before town meeting

we'll figure it out. So the um I just would hit in this uh particular meeting not as kind of long as as during the the budget discussion but um it starts with fire trucks are a million dollars. Um and that's just a reality that every municipality and every fire department is dealing with really across the country. Um, I would just like to say once again, this is not the fire chief wanting all the bells and whistles and some fancy high-end fire truck. This is low bid. The the replacement for engine 2, which is upon us, um, and will hopefully get ordered soon and be here in a couple of years. Um, will look very identical to the current truck that we have. Uh, and that truck has served the town very well for the last 20 years and should continue to serve it very well for the next couple of years up to a handful of years until we actually take delivery of it. So, um, that's the tough reality that we're in. That's probably the bigger reason that we're behind in savings is that really over the last 5 to 6 years um, you know, we've seen from our pricing about a 78% increase in the cost. That's a ton. Um, but that's what everybody uh is seeing. So, one, our plan never called to see a million-doll firet truck when it came time to replace it. It called for $500 to $600,000 firet truck when it came time to replace it. Um, the other thing is that through the current savings plan with the capital reserve fund, we've kind of always treated that as such a long-term thing, it was an opportunity to cut some costs over the years. So, we'd defer a payment one year uh with a plan to maybe double pay the next year, or we'd look at a $100,000 number and say, "Well, it's still 13 years out or whatever from the the truck being purchased. Let's do 75

this year and and save a few dollars." Um, and so you combine those two things together and we're just not in a position where we have $800 to a million dollar $800,000 to a million dollars in the bank and and can purchase that truck uh now, which is what needs to happen. So, it really puts us into a position longterm, not only with engine 2's replacement upon us, but the ladder's coming up shortly thereafter in engine 4 to start saving about $400 to $500,000 more uh than what we're currently saving, maybe a little bit less than that, but um so the idea behind this is that where we're so far behind and we're upon that purchase, the town's really left with two options to take care of this, which which is one to finance it. Um, and if we finance it, then we're probably in a position where we're financing all three of those pieces over the next 12, 15, 20 years. Um, or to really look at what the savings need to be and say that's the better use of the money um where we're not going to incur those finance charges. Um, but we got to be realistic and we have to have a plan and stick to it. Um and so the idea is to look at the ambulance revolving fund which has been super successful. That was also started in 2014. So in that 12 years we've replaced two ambulances. Um we still go through a process. We go out to bid and we look at multiple manufacturers and we take the best prices and we work with them uh as far as customization and and how we can get the price uh to its lowest point possible and then go to the board request the purchase order be signed. Um the ambulance gets ordered and now kind of like firet trucks it takes forever to get one. So 2 3 years later we see the ambulance. Um that revolving fund is set up such that it's like direct deposit. We're going to vote on it. Hopefully the

voters agree that this is the best way to move forward. We'll make that deposit of $500,000 and then we won't have to look at this again really probably for about another 9 years until that fund might need to be adjusted upward. Um, and so we can as a town, the board, and the fire department say there's $500,000 going into that fund every year that we're going to be able to order the ambulances on time, uh, order the fire trucks on time, and have the funds available for when they arrive. So, um, it's a good revenue stream. We've been over that $500,000 for a number of years now. We don't really anticipate even with some uh stuff going on in conquered that we'll drop below that 500,000. We'll have that money there. Um I guess that's that's the big highlights. I one will explain it better at at town meeting, but I think that video explains it fairly well. Uh but certainly to get your recommendation, I'm happy to answer any questions or explain it better.

I'm going to go home and watch TV tonight. I I'll send it to you. It's all chalky and doesn't make any sense.

Very good. So, that's article 17. Article 18 is to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $395,000 to be added to the following capital reserve funds previously established with a majority vote required. Crude wages capital reserve fund $15,000. Assessment reval capital reserve fund 45,000 fire equipment capital reserve fund 50,000 highway equipment capital reserve fund 180,000 police vehicle capital reserve fund 80,000 town building maintenance capital reserve fund 25,000 should I didn't check I assume those add up right okay double check yeah that got corrected right

yeah I thought I think so it was 39 yeah it was 395 It was 3.95. You had like four 10 or something like that. Yep. Okay. You guys are making me second guess. Yes, I corrected.

Okay, moving on. Article 19. Shall the town adopt the provisions of RSA7235 for an optional tax credit of $2,500 for a service connected, permanent, and total disability and residential property. Majority vote required. Um, this is not something we get to vote our recommendation on, I don't believe. Um, article 20, shall the town modify its elderly tax exemption consistent with provisions of RSA 7239- A from a property tax assessment in the town of Bristol based on assessed value for qualified taxpayers to be as follows. For a person 65 years of age up to 75 years, $35,000. For a person 75 years of age up to 80 years, $55,000. For a person 80 years of age or older, $75,000. To qualify, the person must have been a New Hampshire resident for at least a three consecutive years, own the real estate individually or jointly, or if the real estate is owned by such person's spouse, they must have been married to each other for at least five consecutive years. In addition, the taxpayer must have a net income of not more than $25,000 or if married, a combined net income of less than $45,000 and own net assets not in excess of $70,000 excluding the value of the person's primary residence. And again, we don't vote a recommendation on this.

Instead of you having to read um article 21 and article 23, they are the same information. It's just article 21 is the tax exemption for the disabled. Um, so it's the same information as you just read. And then the article 23 is a tax exemption for the deaf or severely hearing impaired persons.

Okay. So, article 21 is the same information, but instead of being for elderly people, it's for disabled people. And article 23 is the same information for deaf or severely hearing impaired persons. So I'll go back to article 22. Shall the town modify its tax exemption for the blind consistent with the provisions of RSA 72 col 37 to allow an inhabitant who is legally blind as determined by the blind services program to be exempt each year on the excessed value for property tax purposes of his or her residential real estate to the value of $45,000. Okay. And then we got just one more vote, right? And again, we're not going to vote on that recommendation. Article 24 to see if the town will vote to adopt RSA chapter 53-f and establish a commercial property assessed clean energy and resilience district which shall encompass the entire area within the boundaries of the town of Bristol whereby properties within the boundaries of the district may fund qualifying improvements to real property through private lenders as a result of an assessment agreement between the property owner and the town of Bristol and further Further to authorize the select board to execute all documents and perform all municipal functions in accordance with RSA chapter 53F and further to authorize the select board to enter into special assessment agreements with qualifying property owners. Somebody else will show up at meeting to explain that and we don't vote on it so I'm not going to spend any more time on it.

It's um the energy committee asked the board to put this on the more so they're just speaking to that. So um if you have questions I can I just want to know what it what it what what it exactly means. What does it mean? Anybody who is going to install um like solar panels

it could be solar panels. There's a list of them. Um there were different things that they were allowed to you could apply for consideration for a reduction on your assessed value. Correct me because you helped with this. um your assessed value, but it becomes a lean on the property. It's not a lean held by the town. It's a lean held in agreement with we're putting you on the spot. Contractor. Um it's no, it's um there's a finance finance authority. Thank you.

So the um they're going to do the majority of the work for this. There will be some tracking that the town would have to do. It's supposed to be a minimal impact on the assessing department, but um we we don't know what that impact will truly be until we see what happens with this. Um Paul Beis will be speaking to this article at town meeting. Um he has gone out and talked to businesses that are very interested in pursuing this. Um um but it will be what the board agreed to do was set it the whole boundary of the town. So it could be anywhere. it's not just downtown um that people could look into this and potentially make improvements that they could save save some um value or taxes on their property. So,

did I miss anything? Scott, are you still on the committee? Yes, but this is Paul. Okay. Okay. So I I don't know if I did anything beginning. So as far as I'm concern that's basically the end of the public hearing. Thank you all of you for attending and now we'll go on to finishing the business that we need to do.

So thank you. Thank you for uh department heads for being here. If you want to stay, you're certainly welcome to but not required. So I think she did already. Motion to close the public. I was just going to ask Christina that exact question. Okay. Do you want to do that Jo? So move. Second. Okay. So we have a motion to close the public meeting by Scott. Second by I'm sorry by Joe. Seconded by Scott. All in favor? I opposed 70. Okay. So we're done with the public. Thank you guys.

Thank you. Have a good night. You too. Have a good night. Um, we need to have at this point now a motion to approve the bottom. Well, no, it's a article, so you just do it as the article. We do have to do a motion

to recommend also general. Okay. You understand where I'm coming at? So, you want to do it last year? Make make a motion. I'll make I'm making a motion that the select board recommend acceptance of the 2026 revenue estimate. That sound right? Well, your recommendation is from the budget committee. So, you're recommending to the select board? To the select board. Yeah, you said this. Yeah. Okay, I got it. You're tired.

Yeah, I guess I am. Okay. So, we're recommending to we're making we're voting to recommend to the select board that they accept the revenue estimate. We don't have to do a motion to recommend on the revenue. It's just You have to approve them. Yes. Right. I'm sorry. I confused that for everybody. That's my bad. So, I know we have to go through the barn articles and vote on some of those for our recommendation, but I know we also have to do something with the revenue. So, I was going to punch that out first. So, I think it's just vote to approve.

So, we're going to So, we're going to vote to approve the revenue estimate. The budget committee is going is voting whether or not or voting to approve the revenue estimate. It does um it does say you should put the accept the amount in. So from what I found here so for budget committee that's the budget. Where's my You want me to make a motion? Yeah. Go ahead. You got here. I make a motion to uh approve the bottom line revenues for 2026 in an amount of 4,185,97. I'll second.

Motion by Joe, seconded by Sue to approve the revenue estimate of 1,185,97. Not hearing any comments. We will now have a vote. All in favor? I.

Uh against or abstain? None. 70. That passes. Okay. So, we're done with revenues. We don't have to vote again on the budget. We've done all that and now what we need to do is go through the warrants and vote on the our recommendations and things that the voters want or that we're allowed to vote a recommendation on. So, we start at the top with article 13, which is our warrant article for the budget for the $10 million. So, we're going to vote on our recommendation to the voters at town meeting to re to recommending approval of article 13 for the 10,489,158. Can I get a second to that?

Second. Buzz. Uh, I guess Buzz. Motion by Paul, second by Buzz to recommend approval of article 13. Anyone any comments? Not hearing any. We'll vote. All in favor I any neg against or abstaining? No. Passes 70 zero. Okay. So now we'll go to the next one. The next one is article 14 which is the contingency fund for $30,000. I'll make a a motion that the the budget committee recommend the voters approve article 14 to create a contingency fund for $30,000. Second

motion by Paul, seconded by Les. Not hearing any comments with a vote. All in favor? Uh against or abstain? None. 70. passes. Article 15. I'll make a motion that the budget committee recommend to the voters that they approve article 15, which is to raise an appropriate $30,000 to be added to patriotic recreation and special events, which is typically referred to as fireworks. Second.

Motion by Paul, seconded by Sue. Yeah, I guess I'm tired. I didn't realize it was. Um, does anyone potentially someone could have a comment? Does anyone have a comment? Anyone want to say anything? Everyone ready to vote? Okay. All in favor? I

against abstaining. Passes 70. Okay. Article 16. I'll make a motion that the budget committee recommends to the voters at town meeting that they approve article 16 which is to raise and appropriate the sum of $166,895 for the beat street culvert replacement. I don't think I need to read the whole article. That's second. I'm trying Joe. Motion by Paul, seconded by Joe to recommend approval of article 16. Not hearing any comments, we'll go ahead and vote. All in favor? I

against none. Abstain. None. Passes 700. Okay. Now we'll get to the big one.

The big one. Then she can go home after this. Article 17. I'll make a motion to re that I'll make a motion for the budget committee to recommend to the voters at town meeting that they approve article 17 which is to amend the existing ambulance replacement revolving fund and to change the purpose for not just ambulances but to include motorized firefighting apparatuses and that up to the first $500,000 of ambulance proceeds shall be placed in the fund each year without further vote by the voters produced by the select board. Um

I second motion by Paul, seconded by Sue. Thank you. I'll show you. I I'm I'm going to slow us down a second and make a comment.

I'm I'm really conflicted on this myself. I really understand that if we want to buy all this equipment, I don't want to see it bonded and pay interest on debt and that doing this makes sense. But we keep talking about that we can afford a $2 million fire department because we have all this revenue to offset the operation and we're basically going to take that revenue away and put it into this. I I asked I'm not asking you to get I hope you're not going to get upset. I asked the chief a number of years ago, probably as part of the CIP, I don't think it was a budget committee one, but for example, the ladder truck is really expensive and you know, could we get by without one? And I can't give you all the answer the detail he gave me. But he basically said, "No, we really need a ladder truck." So, I kind of think we need to do this. I just I'm probably going to vote for it, but I'm just not as enthusiastic as I It's not as easy as a vote as it was on the other ones. So, I'll stop rambling now. Anyone else want to make a comment before I call a vote?

I think this is really dependent like to the chief's point, the cost is the cost, right? we don't really get to set what the cost of a firetruck is anymore. Um, so I think that's the part that we all struggle with and probably don't like, but it's the reality. And so if we don't do this, it's putting us on a path to essentially not have a functional fire department anymore, right? And so the voters, I think, have for decades supported the notion that they want a fully capable functional fire department. And so that's really where I feel like I do support this because this is either we have one or we don't, right? You can't have a fire department with no trucks. It just doesn't work. So

I will also add that this is trying to eliminate paying interest on a loan on a truck. Yes. Oh yeah. So that that that definitely moves me towards the Y. Okay. Any any other comments from members before we call a vote? Okay. Uh so we're voting to recommend approval of article 17. All in favor? I opposed abstain. Passes 70. See for all that motive across I still you just wanted to make him squirm more. Yeah.

No, I don't want to make him squirm. But I wanted 20 minutes. All right, I'll try to be faster. So, we we we get to vote on 18. So, I'll make a motion that the budget committee recommends to the vote this town meeting that they approve article 18, which is to raise and appropriate the sum of $395,000 to be added to the six uh specified uh capital reserve funds. Second. Are you commenting? Second. Second. I have comment. Oh, okay. Okay. So, motion by Paul, seconded by Scott, and now Scott by Sue and Scott.

So, I would just like to point out that normally we do set aside more money on the fire equipment line traditionally in years past, but with the previous warrant article, this line is now lower, right? And it's being moved into the separate fund. Right. article 18 has been reduced because it's anticipating that 17 will right but that's another talking point also that how much do we traditionally put in there in the past maybe it was 100 last year and it was scheduled for the CIP to be 180,000 this year

and I would just say I I cover that kind of in that presentation and I covered it the other day when I was in here but um that fund is still very important to fund on the big projects that are that are also coming that are not vehicles being the hydraulic tools jaws alike that are coming up in in like two years I think. Um and then really in about well 9 years from now we'll have to replace all the departments SCBA and that's going to be like $450 to $600,000. So, um, as much as it seems like if we've shifted, uh, if if we do shift the fire truck purchasing to the other revenue account, um, we could stop funding. That's not the only purpose for that capital reserve fund. So, it's still important to to maintain that for those purchases, but it is lower than than initially recommended.

Okay. Any other comments? We'll go ahead and vote. So voting to recommend the voters approve article 18. All in favor? I opposed or stayain 970.

No, we don't. Okay. So we're done with our recommendations. We approve revenue. Uh try to do this quickly. Minute. Thank you. Thank you. Uh minutes of the previous meeting on January 20th. Has anyone Has everyone had a chance to look? Does anyone have any Wait, I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of the January 20th, 2026 meeting of the Bristol Select Board. Second. Motion by Paul, seconded by Les. Let's do Bristol Select Board now, not budget committee.

I say on this Yes. budget committee. Thank you for the end. Put it down budget committee, please. No, sorry. Okay. Um, you are any I didn't realize I Wow. He's had to do a lot of reading. All right. Any any um corrections? Buzz. Buzz. He's a since I had this meeting down for next Tuesday, which is why I wasn't here. I haven't read it. Slacker.

So, what I what I'd like to do since this is the last meeting, the next meeting will be the organizational meeting probably in April of the new the new committee. I I would like to approve them now. And if somebody in the meantime sees something significant they want changed, we'll reopen them in April and do them now. But I wouldn't want to leave them unapproved. If you disagree, you can vote against, but that's my my suggestion at this point.

So, not hearing any changes, we will vote on approving the budget committee minutes for the January 20th 26 meeting as currently written. All in favor? I I opposed abstain none 70 correspondence I have not anyone have any correspondence didn't think so comments uh we start as usual select board anything else you do you want or need us to show up Thursday night what no okay I'm sure you'll be there just they they just have to yeah it's it's uh

you know I've been keeping them up to date as we've made changes weekly anyways Uh I don't think I have anything to put out to you that I hadn't already mentioned the fireworks. That was the biggest thing. So we had in prior meetings we had mentioned like yes talked about that. So we'll move forward down the other path and uh hopefully the voters pass it. So I don't think there's anything else. All right. If you think of something, raise your hand. We'll come back. We'll come down the table. Less anything? I have No, I don't have anything. Okay, Brian. Nothing. Christina, anything?

Okay. Um, so we're done. We had a backup meeting for tomorrow, which obviously we don't need. So, our next time we need to get together is for town meeting on Saturday at the high school. Um, March 11th, 14th. March 14th. Um, I will say just if I don't know if everyone knows, so I want to make sure you know, we do have two candidates that registered to run for positions on the budget committee. So Buzz is one of our two candidates. The other one, and I keep forgetting his last name. I've only met him once,

Mark Barasa. He's not currently, I don't believe, involved, but he's looking to get involved in a number of different things. Uh, I pulled him up. He was in the planning meeting on what Wednesday and I was here for something else. So I came down and pulled him out. Invited him come. I thought he'd be here tonight. Uh I told him that we would be having a candidates forum and he said great. And so we'll see what the voters say, but I'm assuming he will join our committee next year. Um, as usual or as we've done for the past year or two, I will uh schedule an organizational meeting probably in April, probably the second half after tax season ends to get us organized and talk. So, it would be helpful for those of you who are planning to be continuing on the committee, bring your planning calendar. So, we'll probably when the meeting ends and the new people get sworn in, try to grab a minute or two and just see if we can pick a date that works for everybody or at least the majority of people rather than me just picking a date. Uh, I think that's it for me.

I just want to add March 10th is vote for your voting on officers and zoning amendments. It is at the high school in the gymnasium from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and then March 14th is at the high school but in the auditorium. So, okay. So, I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Second. Motion by Paul, seconded by Joe to adjurnn. All in favor? I. We are adjourned at 8:32. Thank you.