Budget Committee - Regular Meeting

Tuesday, October 14th of the budget committee for the town of Bristol. Did I get that right? You you'll correct me if I do anything. I'm really, for those of you who haven't met me before, uh, we'll all introduce ourselves, but I'm pretty informal, so if I say something that doesn't make sense, I should really say it to my committee members. You guys all know, speak up. Um, so before we get into that, the first thing we're going to do is stand up and do the pledge of allegiance. I'm going to ask Walter Wearing to uh lead us in the pledge.

I pledge algiance 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. Thank you very much. I don't think I have.

So, I usually try to adjust the budget to take kind of the group with the most people early so people can get out of here and not have to spend a lot of time. But I'm not I think I recognized a lot of you from previous years, but I'm not clear on account. So, we'll just go through the list if that makes sense. If someone wants something different. So, alphabetically, I don't think we have anyone here from Bridge House or from Katie. If I'm wrong, please speak up. So, alphabetically, Casa, that's us. If you guys could one of at least one of you or both of you on the chair could sit at the table.

You got that because there's a microphone there. Sure. As a first order of business, I'm going to ask you to both state your names so that we get it in our records so we can put it in the minutes. Go ahead. Um, my name is Stacy Lopes. L O P. Okay. Um, Sue Chadwick, I recognize you from last year. Yes. Yeah.

So, so before you get going, let me just for everyone's benefit, we're not we're not at this point making any formal motions. I'm not anticipating we're doing any votes. We're not approving anything tonight. This is the first meeting of the budget cycle for this year. And this is basically anformational session where we've invited all of the what I call the outside agencies, the non-governmental agencies that are asking the town for support. What do you do to benefit the town of Bristol to justify why we should be sharing tax dollars with you? So, for the most part, I'm asking you to sell your organization to us. So, so what I'd like to do is just start open-ended with you guys telling us whatever you think it is that you want to share and then when you finish with that, we'll we'll see if any of the committee members have any questions where they want more information or any clarification. So, go ahead.

Okay, great. I'll start. Yep.

Okay. Um well, thank you for having us tonight and also thank you for um 15 years of support for CASA. If you don't know what CASA is, we are um courtappointed special advocates and we're a statewide organization of volunteers that um stand up for children who are abused and neglected in the court system. And right now we have about over 600 volunteers in the whole state and we represent um each year we have about 1,500 children that we represent throughout the year and that's only about 85% of the all abuse and neglect cases that are in the state. So we're constantly looking for more advocates and more volunteers for our program. And right here in Bristol we currently have four advocates. One right here with me who will tell you a little bit more. and we have nine cases currently in Bristol specifically and in Grafton County right now we have about 80 cases

okay

that we're working on so um I've been here before I'm just I'm an advocate I'm a volunteer for the CASA organization uh coming up on maybe five years with the the group um and I've had u four cases I have currently have like two um we don't usually have more than one or two cases that we focus specifically on that child. Um, and they're referred to us from DCYF when uh the case comes to their attention and children are removed from most often removed from their parents because of abuse or neglect. Um there are a lot of uh drugrelated cases uh children born substance positive. There are also uh cases where the the living conditions are terrible or there's domestic violence or or other things. Every case is very different. Um I have a a case right now where a young man um and usually it's hard to every case the goal is reunification with the parents and over a 12 month cycle and and and when that works that's great and I think about 40% of the cases it it happens successfully. Um other cases uh my case right now the the child um bo both parents have are deceased and the foster family wants to adopt him which is wonderful. He wants that it's like the first loving um nondysfunctional family he's ever been part of. And usually for someone to adopt a 16-year-old boy is not that frequent. and it's just so it's just a case that

started with all sorts of not good things and ended, you know, beautifully. And so I've been with that uh young man for a little over two years right now and it moving towards adoption. Um, and so there are other cases, you know, where that I've had with uh babies that were born substance positive that recover enough, they're not seriously damaged, but then uh move to adoption. Um, and some to reunification. Um, everything I do, I think the first time I was here, someone asked you, "How much do I get paid?" I remember you getting nasty.

No, I get nothing. It's it's totally voluntary. So my hours, my mileage, my printer cartridge usage, you know, everything is on a volunteer basis as as are all the CASAs. And the current four CASAs within um Bristol are all wonderful, wonderful people that we often get together for support and and other things. I don't know if there's anything else I can to clarify.

Okay. Um, anyone on the committee have any questions that they have or want additional information or clarification on anything? Go ahead. Do you uh when you're helping the children, is it at the circuit court level or is the jury court level or It's a family court. Family court.

Yeah. And so they're are family court judges. Um, and I'll tell you the family court judges in this state are amazingly wonderful, kind people who are on the the side of the child and the parents are working very hard to to reunite and and um reunify a a family, a good functional family. And when that h doesn't happen, they're still, you know, very helpful. And the cases, my my role is just the advocacy of the child because in the court process, the parents who have been cited by DCYF have courtappointed lawyers.

Sure. But um the children do not. And so the CASA advocates represents the child and so it's always the best interest of the child. That's my focus. Thank you. Anything else? No. It was great to see you again this year. Thank you for coming and thank you for all you do for for the people in the in the community who need help. Yeah. And thank you. Yeah. Thank you very much for having us. All right.

Move the chair. You're welcome to stay, but I would expect you're not going to. Um, so on the list, the next would be KOA, and I'm expecting there's no one here. Okay, just want to make sure if I'm wrong, some of you. So, next on the list is Grafton County senior citizens. So again, at least one of you, multiple can come up, but at least one of you come up to sit at the table with the microphone, introduce yourself, and everyone else in the room who is here to support your organization. And I need to just say to the rest of the committee so that you're aware that from past years when this organization came, they invited anyone who was interested to go there. There's a one in Bristol in the Newfound area there's a Tuesday once a week there's a community lunch. I have started going I have gotten involved and at the meeting last month I was elected president of the advisory council. So I just want to let you know that uh I am not completely neutral and so you guys can know that.

Well, we're happy to be here too. Thank you for that. Um, so my name is Kathleen Vascanelis. I'm the executive director of the Grafton County Senior Citizens Council. With me is Gail Emman Shaw, the director of the Plymouth Senior Center and the Senior Center right here in Bristol. Donna Fletcher, her second in command, first officer. And we brought uh other advisory council members. So, do you want to go down the line and introduce? Starting from the right is Rosa, then Kathy, Lillian, not Lillian, Louise, excuse me, Lillian's not here, and Rose. all with us from the advisory council. That Shannon, if you need last names, you're all set. Um, we need last names. Yeah. Rosa Akerly.

Why don't you go ahead with your own names? That way you'll pronounce it correctly. Go ahead, Kathy. Uh, Katherine Gilpath, Luis Lass, Rose Williams. We just want to list everyone in our minutes who's here from the public. That's why we're asking for your name. Thank you. So, same same thing. Why don't you go ahead and give us your your point of view and then if we have any questions, we'll we'll ask them.

Okay. So, our um funding request this year is $10,000 from the town of Bristol and that's the same as we requested last year. Um so, thank you for considering that and for your past generosity. I'll give you an overview of the organization and then hand it off to Gail to talk about the local senior center and what's happening there. So, um we've um been around for more than 50 years. We operate out of 10 locations and the Bristol Senior Center is one of eight senior centers that we operate around Grafton County. As of November 1st, we will have seven senior centers and not eight. uh we we are merging our Orford and Haveril locations and that is due to funding challenges. So we're facing those challenges and uncertainty like probably every other nonprofit in the Rome. So that's one of the things that we've decided to do uh to address that and to keep our services going. Our mission is to enrich the lives of older adults and individuals with disabilities by creating opportunities for engagement, fostering healthy aging, and delivering compassionate support. We offer services such as meals on wheels, congregate meals at the senior center. If you haven't, please go. Uh thank you, Paul, for going, but we hope to see everyone there for a meal and activities and social interaction. Uh we also have transportation. Our buses um drive people door to door from their home to the senior center to medical appointments, wherever they need to go. We have volunteer opportunities and assistance from outreach workers. I'll get into all of that. So, um our services, we serve 215 from the community and another 18 through our aging and disability resource center. Uh the $10,000 we're requesting represents 7% of the cost for us to

provide services just for Bristol residents. And as probably everyone knows because I probably say it every year, but New Hampshire has the second largest proportion of older adults in the country compared to other states. And we're the most rapidly aging state. So, we know that the services we provide, they're much needed and they're only going to become more in demand as that trend um continues. So, thank you again for your support and I'll hand it over to Gail. And as always, I want to thank you all for being here and supporting us and for you guys to be all here too. It means a lot to all of us. We've we've attended here many years now and your past and present generosity is always appreciated. So, I also want to say that Grafton County Senior Citizens Council with Kathleen's leadership, we're facing a lot of change and funding issues headon and making tough decisions and good choices. And I want to thank her for that. Thank you. And I admire the determination of our administrative team who are based in Lebanon, but are always within reach for us. So, the Bristol United Church of Christ is our landlord and they're gracious landlords and they recognize these financial challenges and they're working with us to help us transition out of the downstairs office that will merge in with Plymouth. So, the paperwork for New Found will be in Plymouth. The phones will ring in Plymouth for us, but we're here on Tuesdays running the buses, having an outreach worker in the in the space. um lots of volunteer activities. We have our meetings with our advisory board. There's all kinds of things going on. So to we had a congregate lunchon today and we have arts and crafts. We're making holiday earrings. We're doing all kinds of fun things. We also introduced today a program that I heard about, excuse me, that I heard about on a TED talk and

it's called Before I Die. And so in that case in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, a woman named Candy Chang, who is a community artist, was depressed. And so she painted the side of a building and said, "Before I die, I want to." And people overnight filled it up with their hopes and dreams. And so she's created this whole project now which has gone, there are 5,000 walls and in 75 countries. So, we put one up in Bristol today. So, it's at the senior center. Um, and we got about, what do you think, maybe 20 responses? Um, everybody wants to go to Alaska. I want to go to Martha's Vineyard. There's all kinds of places that things want to do. Seeing your family, being with loved ones was a big a prominent um theme. So, I think it was it was fun and it's nice to engage our community that way. We get all kinds of interesting responses. Um, last Friday my husband and I delivered about 20 homed delivered meals to the community and we got a late start and when we got to every door they asked if we were okay cuz we were late and that kind of compassion just trickles down throughout this community and I love it. So I want to encourage you Paul too if you want to ride around on a home delivered meal route Donnais you're a woman. So um this is the October newsletter. It has lots of things that are going on. Um, you're welcome to check it out, ask any questions any time. We want to thank you again. And as always, Newfound is mighty and pretty darn fierce. So, do you have any questions or concerns?

No. Thank you so much. Good to see you. I like that. So, thank you very much. So, I I was just going to I I I get the newsletter and saw that I called it lime and the other one Orford Orford. It's in that mistake

because because I thought I was I was a little bit pleased because to me looking at the currently new found is one of the smaller ones. We knew that the that the council was having financial issues. They're giving up some space. They're reducing rent. I know someone in one in a leadership position at the BUCC. He explained to me that they recognize what the senior citizen council is doing considers it part of the service to the they they basically have agreed to really drop the cost. They're, in my opinion, they're subsidizing because they see the value of what these folks are doing. So, I'm glad that we you guys found a way. I was afraid that when you had to close a place that it was going to be newfound. So, I always wanted to reach out and say thank you for

I think we do enough stuff that I'm glad you guys recognize that and found a way to keep us open. Yeah. The church, the leadership there, they've been fantastic to work with. So understanding. So, yeah, we appreciate that. We do. So, I told you I was in neutral. So, that's neutral. Thank you, Paul. Very nice. Anyone else? Any any comments or questions?

I just I just have a question. So, how do you get the word out, you know, to other um elderly people in the area, older people in the area and stuff like that, if they don't like attend the church or they don't um go to the, you know, center or anything like that, how do you get the word out? Do you do Facebook? I mean, how did how is that in the paper? What do you do? Yeah, I mean, we we do use Facebook. A lot of it's word of mouth. That's what I was going to say. Yeah. I mean, so much of it and referrals. Referral for home delivered meals especially. Yeah. From the doctors are very busy. So, I was going to say we we hooked them up that they they do send notes to Kade to go into the Bristol Buzz. Y

we've got them together with Patty so that their library supports correct the senior citizens and the senior citizens tell the seniors what's going on at the library. So I'm more about the communal meal. So I don't know much about the home delivery. Word of mouth is a nice it's works very well and just continuing to do good work as we all do awesome. Thanks. Anyone else? Thank you so much for coming. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Have a good evening.

All right. You too. So, and there I don't think there's anyone here from Health First. Correct. Okay. So, next is Lakes Region Mental Health. Is there anyone? That's me. Okay, good. I'm just going to move my bag closer since the room cleared.

Hello, I'm Beth Bashon. Maybe you recognize me from prior years. I'm the chief development and public relations officer at Lakes Region Mental Health Center. Uh we are a private nonprofit corporation celebrating our 60th anniversary this year. uh and one of 10 of the New Hampshire's uh New Hampshire designated community mental health centers. Our catchment area is all of Bellnap County and Southern Grafton including Bristol. In addition to the comprehensive integrated behavioral and physical health care services, which I included links in our application, I probably gave in case you wanted to look them up and really had a lot of questions. I I tend to give too much information, but I'll still have forgotten something. Um, we're a committed leader in the effort to achieve mission zero, which is to eliminate emergency room boarding in our state. Last the last fiscal year, we opened a place to go in Plymouth, which is a short-term uh crisis stabilization center that is an alternative to emergency room mental health care um and boarding. And our adult services team collaborated with the Bellnap County Court to establish the Bellnap County Behavioral Health Court. Um, and you have one in in Grafton, uh, which is lovely, but we've been long waiting for for one in Bellnap. And our adult services team now manages that program and provides the services that diverts low-risk individuals from the court system into appropriate treatment. We also opened our doors in Laconia two mornings a week for open access intake assessments for adults 18 years and older. And we hope this year that we're going to be able to expand that to our Plymouth office and to our child and family program. And all of those things were

accomplished last year despite some workforce challenges that continue and a reduction in for in our workforce from 205 employees to 165. And that's of today, so I know that number's right. Um, we provide services per our contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to anyone seeking health care regard regardless of their ability to pay or whether they become a patient in the future. For example, if a patient accesses um services through rapid response or mobile crisis and our team goes to them wherever they are, they may or may not become a patient of Lakes Region Mental Health Center. And that is a community mental health cent's purpose. Um, and the terms of the contract with the state are to serve the most vulnerable, highest acuity, highest in need patients who need the highest levels of care. And those people um are the furthest often from socioeconomic opportunity. They're of low income or disabled and therefore eligible for Medicaid and dependent on Medicaid to access uh vital care services including transportation to and from their appointments. Um so our annual budget is comprised of about 70% give or take each year Medicaid reimbursements. Usually it's on the higher end and the other 30% is dependent on private insurance, patient co-pays, self-pay, rare, um, and other sources of revenue, including town and county support, grants, donations, and fundraising. All of those are my job, that 30%. Um, and there are high costs associated with staffing our two office locations and providing staffing 24 hours for our emergency services. Um, a place to go in

rapid response and per our contract with the state, our services require oversight of our chief medical officer and child psychiatrists. Both are licensed medical doctors who can diagnose, provide therapy and prescribe medication. We have several um psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners and adv advanced practice registered nurses who have advanced um degrees in psychiatry and often pharmarmacology and they can also prescribe medications. I I'm answer I'm telling you this because we've had some questions that we don't have real medical doctors but we are required to because we prescribe medications. Um and master's degree level therapists are required for many of our evidence-based treatments. And these are all pro proactive preventative mental health services that in the end um save taxp payer dollars compared to costly alternatives. We also have we're in the third year um and thankfully we've received confirmation although much of the federal government is on hold. We're in the third year of a grant through um the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration that provides street outreach including in in Bristol to people experiencing homelessness with co-occurring mental illness and substance misuse disorders. Um, and we've been able to reach over 300 people in our entire catchment area through since the beginning of Acronote. Um, and pro and get them into engage them in treatment or they're in some stage of hopefully engaging into treatment. Uh, this year's request to Bristol is for is a little more um, but we've done a recalculation based on need and the cost of the program. Um, and

it's for $8,716 to be exact. No round numbers. And it's based on the percentage of Bristol residents in um our catchment area, which is about 3.5% and our this year's budget for access to care or open access, which is a little over $249,000. Last year, we served 3,088 patients and provided over $826,000 in charity or uncompensated care to people who couldn't afford to pay for services. And that included 106 residents of Bristol and we provided a little over $25,000 in charity care to Bristol residents that they couldn't afford to pay for. And now that we have a better system to collect data, from this point on, we will report patients served and also service hours because that can give you some kind of clue um as to the duration and complexity of services because you know, for example, if one child received one hour of services, that would could indicate they um accessed emergency services. Um but this year's numbers we saw almost a 50% increase in the number of children Bristol children who access services at Lakes Region Mental Health Center. So that was that's up to 37. Last year it was 19. Um adults is kind of the same. It was 56 adults 18 to 61 years old and last year it was 61. and the exact same number for 62 years and over. U 13 elders access services. Um that's about it. Do you have questions?

I I have two questions. So sure, I'll go first. Um you mentioned that your staff has shrunk. I think I remember hearing an ad on the radio where you were basically advertising looking for professionals who were would want to work there. Is the is the shrinkage due to the fact that your budget is so tight you can't afford them or is the is the shrinkage due to the fact that you can't find people to hire to fill the empty positions? It's a good question.

I am glad you asked it. Both is the answer. Okay. Um last year's legislative session and this year's executive orders have caused a lot of uncertainty in the field and unfortunately a lot of not just probably mental health and but other nonprofits as well have you know they can't afford to have that kind of financial instability in their lives. So they um resigned and took jobs um which they could always get in the private sector that pay more. Um so there's that and there's been a historical uh workforce shortage in mental health um which we are working diligently uh to rectify as a system. Um and then a operating budget. I'm probably speaking for all the nonprofits, but is very difficult to predict this year. Um, rising costs sort of hitting us. Um, and our contracted service providers are having to pass their costs on and raise their rates and utilities and uh the cost of doing business and goods and services is just more in general. So we, those of us in leadership, we're kind of doing three or four jobs, sometimes more. Our our chief operating officer uh resigned late last year in the spring and the uh CEO took that responsibility over. Um we're currently looking for some key program positions and our CEO is also doing those, but she's only one human and we're spread a little thin, but um I think we've achieved a lot and we're we're chugging along, filling the gaps. So,

okay. So, my my other question on a different subject is you I think I'm not going to get numbers, so I'll just say but you talked about that there it sounded like there was a good number of people you talked about from Bristol who have access services and then you talked about that there's more children and I I I guess I'm just curious. I'm blessed. I don't use your services. I don't have any real experience with them. Is most of that I'm going to say self-referral. I know I need help. Or is that like the guidance counselor at the school is contacting you to say this kid needs help. Or I don't know, our welfare office is contacting you to say someone came in and is homeless and needs help and they get referred. How how do the people get into the system that you know they need help is kind of what I'm asking. Well, with for children, some of that is through the court system, through CASA, for example, or DCYF or some of it is mandated. Some of it is referred through schools. We do have on-site clinicians in some of the schools in our catchment area, which um reduces barriers to care um being right there in house. Um and incidentally we don't get paid for a lot of that time and we can't bill for a lot of that time for meetings and you know services are reimburseable but not that kind of time but we know it's the best thing for kids. So um we do a lot of that. Uh and Bristol isn't unique. We are seeing an increase in the number of children treated pretty much across the board. Um there is a lot of there's a lot of trauma um that you know has come out in recent years and some of that is postcoid um and I think people are becoming more aware of mental health services and it's it's okay the stigma

is reducing and knowing that early treatment is best and for long-term positive outcomes. I'm laughing myself. I'm old enough. I remember Boys Don't Cry. That was a song back in the day, right? Um and incidentally, Bristol uh of the Grafton County towns has the highest utilization just behind Plymouth. That was a question in my last um budget meeting. So, I thought you might be interested. Okay.

All right. Let me stop. Just have a question. So, of these all Medicaid patients, I mean, or patients without insurance, or is a lot of this build to the patients insurance?

A lot is built to patients insurance. Um, if you're interested in that exact breakdown, you can go to our website and look at our annual report and we have a new one and I know cuz I'm creating it coming out very soon. Um, and it it gives you the exact numbers in the breakout, but that $826,000 number from last fiscal year is though that indicates people who didn't have insurance, um, whose insurance didn't cover mental health services, uh, people who can afford their co-pays. Um, I think I covered the list there of

So, if you broke it down, you'd be able to see what Bristol themselves whether how many, like you said, you you serviced and some odd for Bristol. Yes. I And I could tell you exactly how much charity care was provided for each age group, right? Okay. But it was a little all altogether it was over $25,000. Okay. Gotcha. Which was an increase, but honestly from last year, but honestly the data wasn't that good last year. by trust this year's data we were changing systems so it's it's better this year

Brian go ahead when you talk about the children patient system what age group is that that's zero up through 18 and sometimes um children with disabilities up to 21 can be served in our child and family program just one other question after they're receiving your services and you're assisting them. Um, generally, how long are they sort of in your program? Depends on the treatment. Um, average treatment just is around 12 weeks, but it depends again on each individual patient and their needs. Um,

so it's not it's not years, it's it's some some we do see for years. Okay. Um but again that service hour the service hours number can provide you with more clues about the duration of treatment. So uh children 0 to 17 last year it was about 8.5 hours average per patient but of course that's just a flat average. Yeah. getting a sense of how long your services are directed towards that population.

It seems like children have more short-term services, but that is because too, um, we're fortunate to receive a lot of grant funding for training for evidence-based practices for our child and family team. Um, and by combining them, it t we have seen the proof that it's shortening their treatment duration, which is a really good thing to say. Yeah. Go ahead. Um you mentioned that you identify and try and steer into treatment um homeless substance abusers. Yes.

Um assuming they are successful in the treatment. How do you how do you address the homelessness?

That is a very good question. We have some residential programs. Um we also have the we operate the Belnap County um warming center. Um unfortunately, you know, we we get people signed up once they're able in the list for available housing, but that list can go from two to five years because there just isn't any. Um we we were partnering with uh Lakes Region Community Developers. we to increase housing for people who need 24-hour support, the the chronically homeless who need some mental um or behavioral health supports. So, we operated we opened Bay Street Housing um a little over a year ago. That is 12 unit building. Um we operate Passage House in Laconia. uh that is a 24-hour supported living facility, but that's more for um severe mental illness and less for homelessness. I wish we had more options, but we do provide resources and get people into treatment.

Anyone else? Thank you very much. Did you Did you Are you okay? Do you want to add it? Did you want to look it up? Did you want to ask her to email? Oh, yeah. Could Yeah. So, yeah, I do want to look it up. I just wasn't going to look it up. I thought she said instead of sending her to your website to search around to look for that. Is that something sending an email to the same send it to the same email that you got the request from and Shannon will distribute it to the

send that breakout. I have to do it anyway for my annual report. So, yeah. Thanks so much. Have a good night. Thank you. Okay. So, next is Lakes Region Planning Commission. Not at this time. Okay, we'll skip them and see if we can come back. Lakes Region Visiting Nurse. Yes, sir. To go back with Lakes Region Planning Commission. I think he might be here closer to I understand. because he's at least one of those people is also in another group. I understand that. But I'm sorry, I'm going down the list there. Yeah. No, I just wanted to let you know.

Pull up a chair. Okay, let's see. Okay, I'll I'm delighted to stand for wonderful. Um, hello everyone. I'm Dr. Erin Josby. I have the privilege of serving as the chief executive officer at the Lakes Region VNA and my colleague. Yeah. Hi, Jim Harnett. I'm a CFO um for the Lakes Region. Been there over 7 months. It's wonderful place. Very lucky to have since he's here with you. If you could just get him into the record, we all know Walter.

I'm Walter. I think most of you know me. I can't think of a better way to say how much I appreciate Dr. Aaron, Meredith, and Casey for the services they provide for my wife. They make my life a lot easier. I want to tell you there's other people in this neighborhood who receive services from Lakes Region that push me on daily to stand up for them. There's a couple who are treated by Lakes Region and you've known and I've spoken for them.

I know. I just want I just want to mention please be careful not to mention any names in public meeting. Thank you. They they're in their late 90s and his wife is in his her mid 90s and life wouldn't be possible for either one of them without Dr. Aaron and Casey and Meredith. The needs of the seniors and the children in this community cannot be looked upon as an expense. The money you pay for these services saves the town money. Cuz if you don't handle those needs in an intelligent, organized, capable manner, then you're going to have it handled by emergency services. That's inefficient, destructive, and it does none of us any good. Let's handle it well. It hurts. It hurts when you see the needs that some people go through. It also feels awful good when you see little three little children that you've seen beaten in the past and their mother marched their way to school. and I don't mind standing up anywhere to represent them. Please support the needs of the children and the seniors in this community. It's a savings for the town to do so. And I want to thank you for giving me the chance to speak. I do have one more thing I want to say tonight before it's over. But I want to say that after

only partially pertains to this. Okay, that's a really tough act to follow.

Thank you very much for for your kind words. Um it's a privilege to work for Lakes Region VNA and the way that it has been a part of the Lakes Region communities for now more than a hundred years. Um the services that we provide um range uh from patients that are newborns all the way through the very elderly. Um we provide rehab, speech, um we provide occupational therapy. We provide home care in both skilled nursing and private duty. Uh and of course our hospice services as well. Um our commitment is always to provide care regardless of a patient's ability to pay. Um and so when we ask you for funding, it is that extension of our services regardless of our reimbursement that you are committing to. Um we also use those funds for education. It's really important that we provide the very finest of care that we can and as we all know the pace of medicine uh is beyond accelerated. uh and so we always want to be continuing to invest in the professional development of our staff so that we can continue to provide the very highest uh of quality of care. Likewise, we provide scholarships to graduating high school seniors who are looking to pursue careers in the clinical sciences uh which is another way that we hope to give back into the community. And our friends at the senior center um goodness knows we really are committed to community wellness and the idea of how we can help people successfully age in place. Um certainly health outcomes time and time again are proven to be superior when people are granted the dignity and respect to receive treatment in their homes. That is our philosophy and it is incredibly rewarding to see it come to fruition day in and day out uh and to help our staff be able to provide those services. Um the other thing I'll say is with all humility is unfortunately there are more

than enough uh sick patients to go around. Um as people struggle um to age successfully in place as people struggle with their health insurance um the challenges of receiving care within the brick and mortar of a health system. going into the home um is really where we see people be most successful and that is something that we remain again incredibly committed to. We all have things that will uh be differentiators for us as organizations that look to provide those cares. Whether it's AASA, whether it's my colleagues at Pemmy Baker or Franklin, um we're all committed in much the same way. And though again, I believe there are things that differentiate us and in our case, we are the only five-star rated CMS uh organization that provides hospice care in this area. We're very proud of that. But that doesn't mean that all of these agencies are not doing tremendously good work and we're very humbled to be considered for the receipt of funding support. Um I'll hand it over to you Jim um to speak to some of the financial uh details.

Thank you much. Thank you. Thank you everyone here. Um yes. So Lake Lakes Region Visiting Nurse Association, we respectfully request a town appropriation of 33,400 for the 26 uh calendar year to support our essential homebased health care services for Bristol residents. This represents uh 1 half of 1% of our total operating budget and is uh uh equal value to our request from prior year. Your continued support enables us to meet the growing need for homebased care even as federal Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements will continue to decline. We are deeply grateful for your past generosity and respectfully ask for your partnership once again in 2026 so that every resident regardless of financial means can access compassionate and professional care in the comfort of their home. We're proud to have Bristol in our service area, not only because of the families that we serve, but because we have seven of our very dedicated staff of members that reside in this community. Uh over the past year, LRVNA, we've made almost 2100 home visits uh to 104 individual Bristol residents. In addition to home care, LRVNA continues to offer free wellness events at the Bristol uh Senior Center, including our popular weekly chair yoga class and our monthly blood pressure clinics. This fall, we are pleased to host a community flu clinic on October 21st, also at the senior center. Looking ahead into November, we will offer a free bereavement support group at the Minad Sleeper Library open to all who are currently experiencing loss. We remain steadfast in our mission to provide compassionate highquality help home care and hospice services to all individuals

again regardless of their financial circumstances. Your continued support helps make this possible and we are deeply grateful for the trust you place in us to care for your community. Thank you. Thank you. Do you folks have any questions? That's what I was just looking around. Go ahead, Scott. Uh, so I've heard that the Bristol office is closing. I didn't know if you could share some reasoning on why and what the uh plans are moving forward. Staff will check in.

Yeah. So, um, the beauty of home care is that it's truly a distributed workforce. So, our main office building in Meredith um of course continues to go on and is sort of the main supply hub and it's where our administrative offices are focused. Our office in Bristol has been used um by those staff that are serving this area for supply check-ins and we're committed to making sure that we do whatever it takes to make sure patients get all the supplies that they need at no extra effort on the part of our staff. Um, our commitment is to continue to use the building until such time that it's that it's sold. Um, so we don't we're not looking to create an eyesore. Um, we're very much there, but again, because the staff are in the homes and they're not really coming into the office. Um, we don't feel that it's it is um a cost that is giving much back to the staff. And because patients don't come into those facilities anymore, um it's not it's not hurting the the community that way either. Um so we have really enjoyed the opportunity to work with folks like the senior center, the library, think about where people are already congregating to come and bring our wellness activities there. Um as Jim alluded to, our movement class at the senior center is super popular. Um where else can we continue to explore that? But we remain very receptive to, you know, where is it that our community members want us to be and how can we continue to fulfill that need that way.

Jim, was there anything else that you No, again, it's, you know, the space is a resource that um we don't feel is being utilized to its full capabilities. um we feel a sale that will provide some extra funding that we quite frankly could use that will help um you know contribute to the wellness uh events that we do have planned and and to create more um and have our folks you know spread out further and in our whole catchment area.

Um but again our commitment to the Bristol area is not incumbent on any one physical space. Um we serve over 44 towns. Correct. 44 towns and it is independent of a of a physical space. Uh but again I it is important to us that you know that we are committed to making sure that it stays uh nice that we continue to use it um to bring what traffic we can to the area and hopefully find a buyer that can uh level that that experience.

Sure. And and to your point um this has been a very deliberative process. Uh I think we probably talked about it talked about it in March. Um and by the time we had a firm sort of strategy, you know, it was three months. Uh and it's been on the market now I want to say about 2 or 3 months. Um and we're being very deliberative on who gets to look at it and what kind of offers we're going to uh accept. So um you know, we we certainly have the town in mind uh you know, as we're going through it. How many offices are located in the building roughly like rooms or office space?

Oh gosh. Um I think it could be pretty flexible, but if I'm counting one, two, three, four. There's a kitchen. There's a a conference room. I want to say there are four to five. Four to five office spaces. And then there's a large room probably I don't maybe a waiting area. Yeah. a large sort of break room that could be broken out into some other cubicle space and a basement that could use some loft. [Music] We look at the space and it it would be perfect professional space for an accountant and an attorney to split or you know a dental office uh daycare SAU office.

Yes. Um but there's no um is not exam room space right now. Yes. Interesting. Come on, Bob. Thank you for the question. Did I go ahead? Um I noticed in your letter that you list um 18 chaplain visits. Is that done on a contract basis or volunteer?

No. So, we have a chaplain who works for us. Um David P. He's wonderful. Um, and we're we're real lucky to to have him. Um, he's new to this area and he's already just becoming a a real presence. Uh, and we appreciate the compassionate uh care that he has provided. His main um his main go-to is of course the support of the hospice uh patients, but he's he's been out and about in the community. He writes a call. Yeah. Wonderful representative for what we do. Yep.

Uh we do have volunteers. However, um so an interesting fact around the compliance of having a hospice agency is that 5% of your hospice costs must be provided essentially by volunteer activity. Um, so that kind of people turned a blind eye to it during the height of the COVID years, but we have now reattained that level and we're really grateful for the types of volunteers that this attracts. It's it's hard work for even the most seasoned of people. Um, and yet I I think they're incredibly special. Um we have a lot of retired healthcare workers who come um to provide volunteer services and they go into both facilities as well as people's homes.

Just to go back to follow is the property on the market with a realtor. Yes. Right now with Lake Life is that Lake Life realtor out of uh Molton Bar. Okay. Thank you. Yes. So um we we purposely asked for no shango. It's all online. Uh the listings and such, um realtors, uh and anyone looking for commercial space will have easy access to find our listing, but we didn't want to put out a shingle. Um

and you know, we respect the fact that our agency has evolved over time. Um Nana was very much a presence here in the Bristol area. Um and I want to say it was four years ago that Nana,

correct? um merged with LRVNA. Um I like to think that we're greater than the sum of our parts um and we've taken the very best parts like the scholarship program was something that absolutely traces its heritage back to Nana. And so we know that the building people have affection for it, but please know that we continue to evolve and ensure that all of those services um will continue to be provided just in different ways. Um, I have a couple questions. I didn't get this out to you in time for when you sent the paperwork in, but um, it says here you've seen a total of 294 home visits for Bristol residents.

Um, there could be multiple visits for like one individual or two individuals. All those they're not separate patients. No, we have one I didn't have break in your letter, but I I mentioned it, so it'll be in the minutes. We have uh 104 uh Bristol residents that we have seen. 104. So 104 unique patients have generated over 2,000 visits. Okay. Gotcha. And so out of those 104, how many of those patients did you see that did not have any insurance or just Medicare?

So we do 10% of our I think our annual spend would be uh I want for Bristol. I know we did $60,000 in charity as an organization. Um I I would say from a percentage standpoint, easy to say 6 or $7,000 uh was from this area just based on the percentages. Six or 7,000. Correct. Okay. And so um the rest all had insurance, secondary insurance or whatever it is.

Correct. Yes. We don't calculate out where insurance falls short. So um which is becoming a bigger issue because the reimbursement rates continue to go down. Um your your quick uh dive into reimburseable home care is that um currently CMS has the power to reduce home care reimbursement by approximately 30% according to what the New Hampshire Alliance um has relayed to us.

You're just talking about just Medicare though, not not their secondary insuranceances. Cor cor correct just from CMS but the majority of our patients are Medicare or Medicare advantage% advantage that's what I was asking so yeah so you can put that into writing or whatever it is so I can see the numbers could you say like what's the yeah what's the breakdown yeah absolutely get that for you but we are dealing with reimbursement rates like everybody is experienced they're they're just going down um and

but usually what Medicare doesn't cover your secondary advantage will usually cover the rest Oh, we can get you those numbers. There's a big there is a big shortfall. There's a there's a substantive shortfall uh for home care and I'm sure that our colleagues will also relay the same kind of experience. Um so it takes some creativity. Um it also creates a real impetus to ensure that for your valuebased purchasing which has to do with your the reimbursement rate that you can achieve by meeting certain quality goals that we are all focused on always already ensuring that we are meeting those goals every which way we can. Right. Okay. Yeah.

I just will take the opportunity to point out that usually we lean on Joe who is the C. He was a committee member who's not here. He's out sick tonight, but if you know him, he's the actually the CFO at Spear. So, he's our expert. But just from regular um general news, we know that a bunch of company are stopping to offer the Medicare advantage. They're they're abandoning the market because the rates have dropped, reimbursement rates have dropped so much that they no longer think that it that it's profitable for them. So, but to the same point, I think this is a big industry-wide problem.

Bristol doesn't have enough muscle to solve that. We appreciate the efforts. Uh, but no, I think it's it's going to take creativity and it's why aging in place and those kind of investments in making sure that people have the the resources, the access that they need, that they feel supported by the home care that they have. um and working in partnership with their providers to keep people as healthy and well as we can is really the collective commitment that we all have. If we can keep them healthy and then they're happier and it costs less money. Yes. Yeah. That's exactly right.

Well, preventative, right? Prevent preventing I mean I'm a primary care doctor. That's that's what we that's what we try and do. Okay. Anyone else question or comment? So before I let you leave, did you want to come back later in the night or do you have something else you wanted to say right now?

I heard it start a minute ago and I don't mind continuing it right now. I don't know how Nana got that building. I know I've been contributing to Nana as long as I can remember it. I know my father and mother contributed to it. I know my uncle Chick and my aunt Claire contributed to it. That building was important to us then and it's important to us now that know what it was. Don't quietly allow it to be taken away from us. Keep it. We lost the fire station. I thank Scott for fighting for it. But I'll tell you what, we lost the fire station to a business after we bought and paid for it. We paid for that building. We maintained it. We took care of it. We supported it because it was important to us. I've been around and I paid it a long time. Don't lose that building to some accounting office. Keep it for the people in this town that have paid for it, need it. Thank you. Okay.

Did you want to say anything after that or are you all done? No, I I understand where Walter's coming from and and respect his opinion. Okay. Thank you. I think that's great. Thank you for coming tonight. Thank you. And I'll get those stats to you tomorrow. Great. Y thank you. Thank Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you guys. I My life would be miserable if it weren't for Casey and Aaron. Thank you. All righty. I I was worried that we were ahead of schedule, but it's 7:00, so we're ready to go from the 6:00 group of people to the 7:00 group of people.

So next up is N So I think you came in after I So what we want you to do is state your name and so that we have it in the record for our minutes and then we basically want you to have an opportunity to explain you know basically sell to us and then if we have any questions or want to make comments or clarifications we'll ask.

Thanks both. Uh my name is Audrey West. I'm the development director for the New Found Lake Region Association. Um, this year we are asking the town of Bristol for $2,250, which is the same as our request last year. Our, um, our mission is to protect New Found Lake and its watershed. Um, New Found Lake is an economic driver for the town of Bristol as well as the region. Um, and it also, um, has incredible benefits for the well-being of the people who live here, who work here, who play here. Um and and it what we do is try to protect that. Um so the the funding from the town of Bristol goes to our invasive species management and protection initiatives. It goes to storm water management projects throughout the watershed including in the town of Bristol. Um it goes to education programs. We strongly believe that uh connecting people with the natural resources that we're trying to protect is the best way um to ensure that New Found Lake remains clean and clear into the future. Um because when people connect with with the environment, they see the importance of protecting it and their connections to it. Uh we work in the local schools, we work with the Taffy Thompson Community Center. Um and we now have a beautiful conservation center located in Hebrin. The programs held there are open and free to anyone within the watershed or visiting the watershed. Um and I hope you all come and join us at some of our programs now that now that we have this beautiful space um which will only expand and increase um our ability to to run programs from the water quality lab to more education space um to being being able to do more interpretive um education. Um it's it's going to benefit all the all of the region. Um, love to take questions.

So, I'm just Scott, did you get the answer already? Just the use of what the mic specifically. It came It came up in a select board discussion earlier today and Scott and I said we would follow up and get that information, but you gave it to us before we even asked for it. So, thank you. Yeah, it goes to our general general operations. All of our programs benefit from the support from the town. Okay. Anyone else have a question, Brian? No. Oh, all set. Congratulations on the new building. Awesome.

Yeah, we we're already seeing um increased field trips, increased visitors. Our water quality lab has we have new volunteers working in our water quality lab. And all of this means that the future of Newfound is is cleaner and clearer. So, um it was a community-driven project. It was community supported. So, thank you to everyone who who was a part of that process. I think you guys are an important part of the community. We enjoy working with you and thank you for all your efforts. Thank you for all you do. All right. Have a good night.

So, next up would be the Pasquani Garden Club. Thank you very much for this opportunity. My name is Barbara Carpenter. I'm the president of the Paswani Garden Club and we've been here a number of times and we have just about the same information to repeat. Uh we are a 501c3 nonprofit and we um are requesting the same amount that we requested since n 2023 which is $2,760 which goes to uh the plants um that we provide in the barrels around town for the hanging baskets that um we deliver to the town for maintenance for plants. at the intersections of Route 104 and 3A and for some sidewalk area in in the bank area which the DDC takes care of. Um we have in the past requested $760 for removal of notweed. We're having quite a time with that. I've put in several calls um but we have not been the been having any action on that but we've trimmed back as much as we can because it invades very quickly.

Nasty plant.

Yeah. And um we don't have to annually purchase uh wood chips for the pathway and then mulch for the garden area, but when we do it costs about $760. And um some of our deliverers have been very generous about that and some not. Um we are a volunteer group that um we purchase the plants, we plan what we're going to plant to and where we're going to plant them. And our volunteer hours can exceed a thousand hours. And that's a lot of weeding and traveling around just to pick up wreaths and pick up plants. And um we have work days as well as meetings. Um the benefits to the town I think have been really obvious. I think Bristol looks wonderful these days. The plantings are so key. Um and we even had an adjacent town. I don't know if I reported this, but we had a lot we in this town had a lot to do with Hebrin taking a look at their common and they've done a lot of planting and a lot of landscape work. um may know it's a pristine New England setting, but they've added they've added some plantings to it. Um so this this that we provide as a service to enhance the beauty of the town. It's positive for visitors and residents. It's positive for the businesses in this area. Um and we promote um interaction between organizations, the school and the town and community uh engagement as well. There's one project that um I would like to thank a number of people that work for the town that have been so beneficial to a new project we've taken on which is the intersection of um Mayu turnpike route 3A and the westshore road

that was an area which was very flat that was owned by the state DOT and the town owned the signage there and I have to say I really never paid attention to the sign or that spot and it we I would I was approached because we have our logo up there on that sign um to try to beautify the area. Would I be interested in I was so all over that. Um we we all came together within two weeks. We had the town DOT, we had the state DOT, we had the town of Bristol. Um, and I have to mention some people here to thank. Christina Goodwin, who was Are you Christina?

You talked plenty of times.

Well, Christina, I was all ready to get someone to design a sign. Christina was already on it. It was so wonderful. She ran a competition. The artist did a beautiful job and captured welcome to New Found Lake with a sunset view and a lon. And when I saw that sign about to be um installed, she was there and it was just happen stance. We were driving by and I just couldn't wait to tell her what we were going to do. We were going to do a design which took away the flatness of that area. We did two BMS and planted them. But it's to be maintenance-free as much as we can. Um, they are New England, not not New England, but New New England and New Hampshire native plants that we have planted and we will continue planting in the spring. But if you've not seen that area, I think you will see it quite improved. We're very thankful for Christina's help in that, for Victor Greenwood,

for Ashley Burl, for Patty Haywood. These people all help Arc Garden Art and Club in many ways that maybe you don't even know. So, thank you very much for this opportunity to speak. And if you have any questions, I I would be happy to answer them. I was just going to say thank you back to you because you do a lot of work. You and your organization do a lot of work to help Bristol look even better. So, but does anyone else want to ask a question or share some phrases? Seeing that I live up off of Hobart and seeing what you did down there by the sign is incredible. It's just beautiful and everything you do for the town. We're so lucky. Thank you so much.

That way. It's a gift to everybody. All right. Any other comments, questions? Uh the only comment is it's just kind of an odd number. I like pick brown, but you know is that enough? Is that really truly enough? It what we do is we have a plant sale and we we dig up plants from our own gardens and from that garden and we have been gifted um we were gifted some funds to do this project at the intersection and it was a local LLC. It was so marvelous. We met for an hour. We were just, you know, excited and chattering. So the the fact is it is enough. Okay.

Thank you very much to the garden club. There's nothing makes anybody from this town any prouder than the job you've done. Thank you so much. That's wonderful. Thank you, Christina. I just wanted to say we were so very excited that the state let them do this because we've been complaining about that intersection forever.

Can I tell you a funny thing? We were told that this was to be given to another group that was just in here, I believe. And they said, "No, no, no. It's too big. It's too much to take care of." And they had provided some limitations of what could happen there. And the limitation was nothing above 12 in. I asked if I could meet to the superintendent of the state of DOT and when I went there earlier I cuz it's all about safety you know it's a huge intersection but you know to explain to him that we were so far back from any visual impact and when he first came there I said excuse me sir but do you see this dead dandelion I said that is 12 in I want everything I Thank you so much.

Thank you for coming. Have a great day. Okay, good. So, go back to that garden club. So, Emmy Baker, Hospice and Home Health. Is anyone here? She's on Zoom. Oh, we got a Zoom. Okay. Yep. Go ahead. Let's wait a second. Do you Do you want to uh you want to leave the thing? Okay. Yep, we're good. So again, if you would introduce yourself and anyone else if if there's some more than one person calling in and then go ahead and start talking.

It's just me today from Jimmy Baker Hospice and Home Health. I'm Aubrey Engel. I'm the executive director for the agency and we are this year requesting $8,044 to help um fund our free community programming that we the Bristol residents or the Bristol residents have access to as well as um our caregiver support groups and bereavement support groups. We also offer Penny Baker Ask a nurse at four senior centers in Grassen County as well as advanced directive workshops. And the funds also go to help um pay for um wound care supplies and other medical supplies as well as meat costs for our uninsured and underinsured residents of of Bristol. We've been providing care in Grafton County since 1967. We provide both hospice and home health services. Um very much like Lakes Region BNA. Um whether a patient is returning from the hospital, whether they've had a stay at a skilled nursing facility or their um doctor is requesting that we provide services um we take them regardless of their ability to pay. We provide care for patients from birth until end of life. Um we have on staff um licensed nurses, nursing assistants, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, as well as a chaplain, a um hospice medical director, and social workers to help meet the needs of um of the patients that we provide care for. In 2024, we provided care to 32 residents of um of Bristol. Four of those were hospice patients and 28 of those were home care patients. Um we supplied a total of 574 visits to

those 32 patients and drove our clinicians drove over 7,000 miles um providing that care. Um just this year we started um doing a greater effort of um doing more community education educating um patients about patients um and doctor's offices um folks at the senior center senior center um about um aging well. Um we've educated about um our home health and hospice services and um you know we're just looking forward to continuing to provide care. We find that we're providing care to a larger number of patients in Bristol every year.

Okay. Thank you. Anyone on the committee have a comment or a question? Thank you for all you do. I don't Mother, you want to make a comment? I'll go ahead and let you do that. On behalf of a woman who lost her son, she asked me to thank you for Chaplain Guy and his grief care class. And I want you to know there are are those of us in this town that know what Kevin Baker can do to help. Thank you. Appreciate it. guy is wonderful.

Okay, thank you very much. If we don't have any questions, we'll let you uh go on and enjoy the rest of your evening. Thank you for calling in. Thank you. All right, so next on the list is Lakes Region Planning Commission or PRAC. Oh, you chair. You want to come up? Sure. Sure. Yeah. Drag another chair up. Plug out while Mr. Chair while they're getting comfortable. Yeah. Go ahead.

We have open seats. Um, anybody interested in serving on the Pebb River Local Advisory Committee? Um, I believe there are three open seats for the town of Bristol. Um, we've been advertising it if anybody's interested. You stole our [Music] So, if any member of the public is watching this, please contact the town office and uh let us know you're interested. Yes, please. Thank you. Thank you. And I also brought some information that you can pass out to people or among yourselves about I'm not certain what information.

Yeah. Well, this is actually about an article about Max Stamp. Okay.

My wrote the region. Thank you. Advisory Committee. So before you start again, if I could get you to introduce yourselves so that we get your name spelled correctly in our minutes. We want to get all the members of the public here tonight into the minutes so that we recognize you are taking the time to come talk to us. All right. I'm Bill Bolton, um long-term PRLAC member, but not as long as this guy. also past. Yeah. Past chair, past vice chair.

I don't think I don't think of anything now. And I'm Barry Draper. I'm from New Hampton and I'm just a long time Pemmy member. I've been fighting for the river for a long time. I have a cohort who isn't really on the Pemmy committee, but I should be. She does an awful lot. We we worked very hard to fight northern pass and we put an awful lot of time into that and we're very happy that it worked. But now we're into trying to staple water quality. Okay. So before you start your spiel while you get your name.

Yeah. My name is Gretchen Gretchen Draper. Okay. Also from New Hampton and I consider myself a consultant caretaker. Caretaker. Yeah. Okay. So, so before we ask any questions, I always want to pull it up and give you guys an opportunity to explain kind of what you can throw out, but it looks like you got

I was just going to say that we've been we are the Pemma River Local Advisory Committee and we work very hard on keeping the water quality right up to standard. We've been doing it since 1992. was actually uh 91 was actually claimed uh designated a designated river and um it I wasn't on it back then but almost on it and it's just been I don't know if people remember how bad it was. I mean the pe was really a sad state of affairs

and it's just gone up. We're trying to keep the quality there. development up north is getting more and more and the amount of water that's being taken from the pemmy is another problem. So we're we do the water testing to test for the turbidity, the pH, um dissolve oxygen, anything else, ecoli. Yeah.

And um we also have we do site visits when the department of uh environmental services calls on us. They have questions. They have I'm trying to think of a positive way of saying they don't have as many people working for them as they used to. So they rely on you to carry some of that load. We do. Yep. Where the boots on the ground, right? And what else do we do besides that? We water testing that. Well, we have a management plan. That's the be

and the management plan has been updated in 2024 and that sets the goals and you may have received a survey because we survey all the towns that are involved in this. Um, and the we're just the let's see we we cover from like Thornton and Captain down to Franklin. That's our that's ours. And there's looking at the size of communities. Bristol is actually like the third largest community out of everybody that we that we cover. Um the p the the whole river corridor from Frank Franconia down to Franklin is covered by different areas. So it's a big operation run by volunteers. Uh we work with the uh lakes region planning commission planning commission and of course the state uh um New Hampshire de um department of environmental services overseas and they're the ones that when someone wants to do something on the river that's outside of the sort of the legal rules, they'll ask for a permit, an exception, and that immediately comes down to to us and that's we we make recommendations. We don't say EA or NA. They do that.

Okay. I was going to ask that. Do you guys make the decision or do you make a recommendation? Recommendation. We're the experts but not the decision makers. And did did you mention it? We have it's a quarter mile on each side of the river.

You know, any project that goes on within a quarter mile. Um we are called in to take a look. And there are some crazy questions that are whether or not we can put a a large dock that goes perpendicular to the flow of the river is when it goes out too far, it's not going to stay there very long, right? But there are lots of questions and we try to answer them in a positive way and then dees comes out and inspects after our and then you follow through too. follow through on projects.

Um there's two two other ones. There's there's a big grant coming through that's going to be part of us which is the um you can talk about that. It's an in inflow. Do you want to do it?

Yeah. No, you mentioned it before I so uh well dees is very uh interested in establishing um the inflow of the stream of the river but their their focus is primarily on like trout and um you know animals in the in the water and what they do is they're going to define a baseline of uh what is taken out of the river all the way down the line and and just um at that point we'll know if uh someone like perhaps the golf course would want to take a lot more water out. There would be a rationale of saying, well, down river, you know, we're going to lose a trout stream or something. So, um, but that they started to think last July

and it's going to be completed sometime maybe in the next year. So at that point um it'll be another tool to be able to it also establishes that baseline as to whether or not you know the water is warming or there the the flow has decreased so much that the cold water fish can't live there anymore. And it's it's but it's it's a this man I forget I don't remember his name. It's the man who walked the whole length

of the penny. And he is first he looked it all over, figured out what he was going to need to do to decide and then he did all this testing. We he has students and um hired a bunch of other people. But he that's one. And then there's another new program that I can't wait to see. It's a GIS story map of the of the Pem. It's done with I mean the technology is I it's way over my head. I can't even explain. But I the gentleman who's doing is named Jeff Delaney. It's his senior senior project up at um Plymouth State and it's just like I mean you you'll be able to drag your cursor over the river and it will have um dates so you can see how that section of the river has changed in 20 years. It's just like

and it has water temperature. What else does it have? It's just He said he'll put anything in there. You describe it. He'll put it on and I mean it's going to make watching the changes of the Pemmy and seeing the past. I mean, I want him to put up I've got a great picture of Heir's Island Dam being built. Oh, really? And it's to see it's all it's all these men with wood shovels. I don't know. Did that come out in there? It is in there. Yeah. Is it in here?

I don't know. Did you say you that actually what we come to ask for is $350? Yeah, we we weren't here just to tell you story $1,350 goes towards um it's it's an all volunteer group, but we we pay for consultants like from the Lakes Region Planning and supplies for water testing and that and that cover I mean each of the towns along the Pebby are asked for the same amount. I think we started out at 200 like years ago and finally crept up now we're at 350 but

but 350 is also what we asked for last year and so we're trying to be as you know careful as we can do you have any questions look around go ahead boss how do you interact with the farm engineers never will I'm sorry I'm so Our most recent one was we tried working very hard trying to get um when you point no or agent what's the Roundup from not being used they're spraying around the edges of it and

they say that's just what we do. So it's but they I mean basically they they're great that we could talk with them. So that's that is good. But I wish we could um I wish we could be a little bit more environmental. they're more involved in um keeping it's good that they want to keep it the way it is, but they also want to harvest a lot of timber and and I I we're doing okay with them. I weren't they um kind of like difficult with the river path?

I think the Army Corps had um an influence on that and that's why it's you know has really kind of I think that's why Buzz asked he's I might have thought that was I'm chairman of the committee. So, how are you viewing? Well, no, I was more concerned just because you mentioned that you were involved. You cited the the dock, but you said you were involved in anything that went along the banks. But they I I'm gathering you don't have that kind of wield that kind of review. Not on the land they own and control. No. No.

Well, I I recall actually walking the the distance there with a bunch of legislators and u and I guess the army corp was still like beginning to be known as the issue. Um but yeah, that has changed. That has changed for the better, I hope. Yes, the entry the entry changed too. I mean, when we went um years ago, the entry was kind of like problematic and now it's like beautiful. Now, I have a question for you. Um, we were doing water testing just it was like not the last one, the one before in August. It was August and there were two PE uh biologists

walking from uh profile falls and they were from the Army Corps of Engineers and I they were trying to figure out I don't know if something to do with uh I think it was crossings. Did anything come of that? Were they that may be um that may be associated with the NEPA but I'm not sure the core is if we've entered we're about to enter into an agreement with them after 20 years or whatever for land for a right to get use the trail which will allow us to start construction. But because it's a project on federal land,

we need a National Environmental Policy Act phase 2 study and they're picking up the tab for that. So that's and that's probably could well I I don't know. I also know that they are working to update their master plan. So it could have been that also. Good. Excellent. I I thought it was positive. They I said, "So where are you from?" They said Boston. I didn't I didn't mean to get a cell phone. I know that's but that's a big huge part of it. I mean that's the penny is so beautiful. The more people that get to see it and make it work, it's good.

So I just have a I I do have a question. So you're you're focused on the penny, but to me the rivers and streams that feed the penny are important, too. So do you focus on things like the Smith River and the Newfound River that are major contributors that are in Bristol? Would you just look at what's coming out of the end or do you also work up a little bit or how does that work? We can only look at the pemmy. The pe has been established river but we we went to the east branch of the pe up in Lincoln, you know. So occasionally de dees might want us to look at something else, but primarily

you're focused on just the that's your uh yeah woman in Plymouth that does uh the Baker River, you know, the whole Baker River. I don't know how many sites you like 24 sites or something like that she does and has a many years of history. She's the Yeah. Yeah. And you know that we blame everything on the Baker. We have down below what you guys do. But we do water testing on the Smith and we do it on the New Found River Mooney Point.

Yeah. But we also I we looking of all of the um towns that we cover. You have four sites that we do water testing. So, you're getting a bang, good bang for your buck. And the water has been quite Yeah. And people are really into the little bit that's coming through right now. Yeah. It's It's a good time to do in flow. Mean low. Oh, yeah. The drought. Oh, okay. Yeah, it was. We noticed that, too. So, okay. Yeah. All right. So, is it consistently clean throughout or any issues throughout the river or does it have sections that are

It's changes. What's really interesting, it changes with the drought because there's a less dilution. Yeah. But it also changes when there's huge downpours and we have these major flooding events where it washes an awful lot of stuff in there. Shouldn't be close to the river. So, let's get back to the baker when If there's a dam, it might, you know, rupture. And uh yeah, it's although we have had portaotties floating down and they didn't come from the baker,

but it has been it it's a class B and that that's like the kind of designation that makes sure that people can swim and use it for all kinds of recreation, but also if they treat the water, it it would be drinkable. And so that that's why there's there's the committees that do all the testing, right? And the trouble is like every river in New Hampshire has mercury in it. And that's that's just a given right now. And now we're also looking at pifas. What's that? Those are the little um plastic

plastic. Oh wow. And that's not a huge problem yet, but it's Well, it's because we don't know how to test. So, I I I I'm enjoying this, but I also wonder something. So, I don't want to shut it down yet, but I'm just letting you know I'm getting ready. Ju just a quick question. Bill, you had mentioned that a golf course possibly has access for drawing water off of the river, correct? Are there other permitted uses for commercial or residential entities for drawing water out of the river? Right. There there are and they they apply to dees, you know, for their ability to do that and ski areas, right?

And it's the amazing thing though is we've watched it in the last 20 years has gone very high. I mean, we I think in the beginning we I was surprised how many there were. I think it was like 30 and 20 years ago, but now it's it's up in the 80s and close it was really high. And the sad part is many like the golf courses um just to name a couple owls. Yeah, I'm going to name it owl's nest is has put in a a small lake and they've drained it all from the pen. Is that how Lake Harold got filled? Lake Harold up at Nest. Is that how is that what it's called? I I don't know what the lake is, but

yeah, they drilled it with a pemmy and and and you know, so a lot of like water is just like evaporating too. So they have to recapture water. They have like they have a lot of wells too. Would a residential permit use be someone that maybe wants to irrigate their property? Is that what a residential use of the water would be? I think yeah, I think they they'd have to apply a dees um and I think had to have controls over it and also agreed to not irrigate when the water level gets below a certain flow.

Yeah. Yeah. But again, there's not a whole lot of um data on flow rates like for the for the whole year, how long and now our flow rates are changing so rapidly because of flooding, these huge rains that we come over short periods of time that it is uh it's very good to have this inflow study going on right now. Yeah, thank you for the information because I wondered how Lake Harold up at Al Nest sustained itself, especially with the drought. So, that's that's interesting where the war is coming from. Yeah. Yep. Anyone else? I don't know if it's appropriate. Can I just ask a quick question? Have you um heard from Max at all? Do you keep in contact?

So, I saw him I think like the day before he took off. Yeah. And um he was indicated I should go out and visit him. I think Yeah. He's in Utah, right? Correct. Yeah. So he's out in uh Utah at Salt Lake City. I had an email from from Helga and she was saying that it it sometimes they feel like they're still in a hotel and they're going to go back home, but they enjoy it. And of course their daughter is out in the area and they have a beautiful view massive. I wanted to say Helga wasn't all up for it, but Max wanted one up high, which means they have to go

and I think they have an elevator, but he is they're on the second or third floor with a wonderful view. He said he thinks he can see a river. I I don't I don't normally let people that aren't on the committee talk, but Walter, so make it quick, please. Make this short and sweet. Thank you for your service to that river. I remember when it turned white houses brown. Yeah. Yeah. It was called the big stinky. The only quick thing I was going to say, I don't want to date myself, but I remember you hold your nose as you drove down summer street because the smell was so bad from coming

and the paint was peeling off of the houses. Yep. Yep. It was awful. So, thank thank you for all you do. Well, thank you all for keeping working. Thank you. So, I assume you guys are going to go down, but we're going to do transport central next. So, yeah. Stay in support over 60, right? I think that's I think it's most efficient to do central.

Okay. I think is Yeah, Brenda is still on Brenda from um Gap and we're kind of one of their agents because um you we're a transportation. We provide non-emergency medical transportation to people over 60 or disabled. Uh so that's basically whoever needs a ride that can't get it elsewhere can call us up and we will provide them a ride to a hospital or you know any kind of doctor's appointment, dental appointment. So um we are in RCC1 which is the regional coordinating council one which is the transport for transportation and tri county cap uh oversees us for our purposes of non-emergency medical transportation and the funds that we get from DOT. So, uh, we have a service area. We have, uh, 19 towns, and we basically parrot, um, what, uh, Sphere Hospital has for their service area. And, um, oh, and do you want me to go down the list or you just I'll be rapid. Um, as far as the rationale of the funding request, um, I hope you have I don't know how much paper you've got or

they should have the whole pack. I think we have the whole pack. Okay. So, um, you have our service area. And you have our basically the 2025 totals by town and it indicates that um Bristol has overtaken Plymouth and that bothers me greatly but um cuz I'm a P guy. But um so yeah, you're you're a select board member. I mean you're a bunch of things but you you're still on the select board, right? I stepped down. Oh, I didn't know that. Okay.

Yeah. No, I figured that was enough. Well, I just I just got on there. Um yeah, economic development board and I'm really looking forward to that actually. But um so it was historically Bristol was relatively low. No, you were down like third or fourth or something like that. Now you've succeeded in passing um you know our highest thing. So, u based on both the total trips, the total miles, um unique passengers don't mean that much because you could have one passenger is going to make 30 trips, you know, um because of their progressing disease or something. So, um that's pretty much what we come up with as far as like um an ask. And for for Bristol, it was $3,000. And oh, and it also indicated all you know gave you all the gross revenues and how we figure out you know what we can afford. Um we've had some increase in our funding because um we are taking advantage now of um casino monies for nonprofits.

Oh, you got on that list. Good for you. Yep. And um the first year we got like 15,000 14,000 something like that. The second year we got 40 46ow

and that I mean that's great um but it also offset a loss that we just um have because we used to be Medicaid we used to provide Medicaid trips for you know um people that are getting off of drugs and we um basically was like gravy because uh Medicaid pays a higher rate and we would transport people to appointments down in uh Laconia conquered uh Lebanon and um we'd have like you know someone goes to these clinics like three times a week or so maybe up to five and the uh the provider for Medicaid changed and they did not bring us on board.

Oh

so thankfully we have you know this money that we got from uh you know casinos that you know kind of carrying us. I'm also in the legislature and what I'd like to see with that money is that for it for it to go to I'm sure education is going to eat up a lion share of that once everything's like done which will probably be out of uh you know that amount of money next year which is fine with me because we live in Plymouth so you pay property taxes. Um and as as far as like um you know we're not asking for any kind of like enhancement for our business. It's just the the routine. Um, you know, recruit drivers, get them, you know, get the cars inspected, get them certified. We're DL DOT certified, you know, drivers. Um, in fact, I just got back from um uh getting a alcohol test. They they require that you also do alcohol testing in addition to drugs. an alcohol test or, you know, you go down to, you know, it was like some lab and it's a breathalyzer and um, you know, you don't go down there when you're drunk. I was thinking I was thinking the same thing. Why did you go down there if you weren't sure?

The technician said, "Well, why are you doing this?" And I'm thinking, "Because DOT requires it." You know, it's like, well, it was cheap. It was like a $35 test, but I'm thinking this is stupid, you know, but I don't know. Well, you mentioned you're in the legislature, so you can fix that. No, I am. Cuz it's it's also going to get worse. It's going to start to do hair and maybe nails to see if you're ever exposed to some drug,

you know. Okay. Well, you're still on the road. Those guys are still driving around. But so, um, in any event, um, you know, we're doing okay. We're hanging in there. Um, and we're also because Brenda's on on board. I don't know if she's live or not, but um mic's off, but but we're also looking at trying to establish a bus in in Plymouth. The best we can do currently is working with DOT to do like a 5310 bus, which is the non-emergency medical transportation for over 60. Um but ultimately, we're going to be like starting more of a regional hopefully we're going to start like a regional transportation thing, but it's been a few years been trying. though,

but maybe it'll work eventually. Okay, go ahead. Uh, what do you use for vehicles? Do you have everyone's own vehicles? Their own. All right. So, they get reimbured. All right. They we don't pay them, but we give them.7 cents a mile, right? So, okay. And that's the IRS rate for and people think that that's great. Some people other people like my sister uh thinks it's like uh killing her car which it is you know but um if you you know the reason why it's not reportable is because it's a wash. So but okay any other questions?

Thank you for coming. All right. Thank you. That's the problem with being at the end of the

All right. Well, we'll keep going down the list. I'm sorry, but so, uh, Tri County Cap, which I think is remote, right? Yes. So, if you would introduce yourself and anyone else who's on Zoom with you from your organization and then go ahead and uh give us your pitch. Hi, good evening. Can everybody hear me well? Yes. All right. My name is Janice Smallwood. I am the municipal funds coordinator for Tri County Cap. I see Miss Brenda is on. Hi, Miss Brenda. Thank you for being here with me. Um,

sorry. What? Unstoppable. What? What's Miss Brenda's last name? Gagman. Thank you. Yes. Did you get that? Yeah. Cuz it's right there. All right. Thank you. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

Okay. So, I would like to take my gratitude to the board for having me speak and also to the TA. This year we are requesting $6,488 in aotted funding. This amount remains the same every year in last year as we calculate our requests using the per cap of the formula based on the 2020 census. This will never change until the formula does which is in 2030 census uh census census excuse me. In 2021 Tri County CAP has streamlined our request to submit uh one application to municipality covering all the services that we offer in the town of Wistol. These services are fuel assistance and energy assistance, housing stability. We also have 211, homeless, call response services, USDA, TFAP, food dispiration, transportation services, head start, and we have our Asian disability resources, which some of you might know as um service link, weatherization, guardianship services. and this year and started in July. We also have our free diaper program um that is an additional to the community. We also have our community action resource coordinators which are called CARC's which we have in every town. We have it in Carol County, we have one in KOA and we also have one in Grafton. These ladies what they do they talk they go

out and speak to the town if they have if the town has concerns if they need help they give them the right direction for try family cataps programs. Um, last year we served 237 individuals in Bristol and 113 households with 35 235 services in the town of Bristol, which was equaling [Music] 97,223. The town of Bristol is historic and been very supportive to us to try county cap and we are deeply grateful for the continued partnership that we have with you. I am happy to answer any questions but however if I don't have that answer I can get everyone's email and I can take send it to the person that does have that question and they can email you back. Thank you.

Great. Questions or comments. I I am sure that I remember that you were here last year. It sounds like you're continuing to do great work. So, I don't Thank you. I appreciate it. So, I don't think we have a lot of questions. You guys, we know you do good work and you're continuing to do good work. So, I'll wait a second while you look through that to see you come up with anything. I'm trying to write this. I can't.

So, I think we're fine. If something comes up in the future, we have your contact information and we'll get back to you. But I I appreciate what you do. I don't want to make you upset that we didn't take a lot of your time, but I think we're all good. Thank you again to the town of Bristol select men. Thank you. Have a good evening. All right. You have a good evening, too. Bye now. All right. So, Voices Against Violence, that must be you, right? Because All right.

My name is Heather. I'm an advocate with Voices Against Violence. Um, and this is one of our wonderful board members. Yes. My name is Marcy and I'm also a me or a owner of property here in Bristol. So before you go, I know that for lots of people privacy is important. And I know for an organization like it's really important, but for our records, unless you really object, I'd like to get your last names. That's fine. I actually grew up in Bristol. A lot of you know me. It's Heather Hawkins. Okay. And I'm Marcy Gowenovi. We just don't use last I don't use last names during my day. I'm sorry. So

I So I don't want to cut you off, but I just found So I have a niece who is like 21. She's a student at Northeastern and she has a co-op where she's working. And I was talking to my brother and he's like, "Yeah, we we she's working in a place where people who've been abused are sheltered. We don't know where she actually works. We know where their their headquarters office is, but she's not allowed to tell us where she works because that's not public information. Yep. So, I understand privacy is important. Appreciate that. We have a confidential shelter as well that we won't ask you about. No one knows.

I would like to say, you know, I'm sorry that our executive director, um, Tina Molivi could not be here tonight because she speaks way better than I do. She knows all the answers and I don't. Um, so but unfortunately, you know, I'm feeling things come up. Yep. So, thank you for having us. Um, I would I believe we asked for $10,571. Feel free to make it a round number. As long as Scott, that's always round up.

I don't think I have written down 10,250. were two different numbers on the document um that came in and so we put the lower of the two but if you need to change that if you look there's two different numbers there's one on the cover that's one number I don't have them in front of me sorry the number one the letter there's that in the letter there's one number you know everything so no not really now I can't find So, this says 10,256, but the other one says a different number. So,

I'm going to go with whatever you want to know. We did not know which number to put in. So, the 10,256 is is what's in the system. Okay. Um well, I I will leave that with Tina. Um Okay. I don't know anything about that.

I'm sorry. Um so I know that um Tina had shared so there's a kind of a a cover letter that talks in general um about what Voices does. Um we're one of the 10 crisis centers in the state of New Hampshire. Uh we have an our office is out of Plymouth um primarily someone asked me in Alexandria um I think so the courts there. One of the things that we do with is we respond to court. Um they call us and say we have somebody down here and so we can get there within four minutes um to help somebody with a protective order or whatever it happens to be. But we do serve um 21 towns all the way from Benton and East um and actually Bristol we think is the kind of the bottom of our catchment area. would go to Warren Wetworth and um you know to the other side Holderness. Um we um so we also had so Bristol is our second highest um utility use. Um thank you. I do very service language. Um, so I believe so Tina provided that as far as the breakdown of of all of the towns, but Bristol certainly is a is a very important part of our catchment area. Um, a little information. I when I first started, I was what's called a roving advocate. So I had the I had the pleasure of of being stationed at Midstate in their offices one day a week. Um, so I would I I could be there. Um, and certainly and there were there were occasions when, you know, somebody one of the providers would say, I have somebody in my office, you know, can she come and talk to you? I'm like,

absolutely. Um, it continues to be um a safe and confidential place. Um, we work domestic violence is is a hard it's a hard thing. Um people get isolated, don't have transportation. People, the abuser will like give enough gas money um just so that they can go pick the kids up at school, go to the grocery store, whatever it is, get receipts on the way back. They can't can't go anywhere by themselves. Um so Midstate has been great because we we will work with them and I can go meet somebody. I'll be in a room. They'll come in for their doctor's appointment and that way they can come and actually talk to me and we can help them through again whatever they want to do uh whether it's safety or planning to leave. So um you know strong connections uh which is which is wonderful. Um so I would go and visit you know the PD um and you know it's great. Um, I have Chief Bean's cell phone number, which is, you know, it's just kind of nice if if he has something that he's he's concerned about. Um, if I have something that I'm concerned about because we will also I'll go to the PD and sit with somebody if they want to report. Um, Detective Shaner, you know, one day, you know, he had somebody who came in and wanted to report something. Um and and and he called and said, "I've got I've got somebody here um Sergeant Henry uh work with." So it's it's nice to have that that good relationship where I can also call up and say, "Hey, I'm working with somebody, you know, and they wanted me to to ask you um this." So the relationships are are are very important. Um,

so we also do, you know, like I'm also the person who answers the crisis line calls. Um, so we we are continuing to try to um save money. So we have instead of giving money to an outside crisis line um to answer the calls for us, call us and then we call back. Um, we implemented a a new technology where the crisis line basically comes to whoever's on call.

Um, so it's kind of so that it has saved us money. Um, we can still get back to people as quickly. Uh, we will also accompany um people to the hospital whether it's for u a domestic violence um and so they're there to get um medical support. Uh I also um one of the places that I cover is Florida State University and unfortunately a number of sexual assaults and so will actually go to the hospital and and work with the same nurse like they're amazing um in Spear

and be with them during the entire time and just support through that and after and if they want to report we work with the local prosecutors, the Grafton County Attorney's office um sit in on on meetings and interviews. Um we also do we had somebody call this week. They were fleeing a domestic violence situation and we don't have a lot of money but we had enough we were able to put her up in a hotel until she could get to a safer place. Um you know we will also do things like if somebody wants to get out of state um we bought bus tickets to way far away um you know we'll do car repairs you know if we can um you know help out people with you know like kids like somebody right they flee they take their kids and their dogs like we you know we buy dog food and and all all of those things. Um so that's kind of what goes into you know the money the money that we spend. Uh you know one thing domestic violence is hard sexual violence is is very hard. Uh you know one of the things that you know so we will we will help people get out of their situation if they want to. But what's sometimes hard is sometimes it's safer for them to actually stay in the situation. Just talking with somebody this week. um you know left, but now animals are being tortured.

Um you know, which is just terrible to try to try to get them to come back. But we will work with them on on what's safest for them and what they want. Um this is not it's not something else to talk about. It's not glorious. Um, but I'm so glad that we are able to be a confidential place that we believe people. Um, somebody else I I just talked to today said no one you were the first people to believe us. You were the you were the first one. And now she's in a working through the court system and a you know trying to keep her children safe uh when the children have not been safe with their with their dad. Um, so it's so it's it's hard stuff. Um, so we appreciate, you know, all of the support that that Bristol has given to us in the past, whatever you can give to us. Um, and we're we're glad that we can support the community and, you know, with the safety and a and a place for people to come. So, thank you for having us.

Questions? No, I just I think it was great and that's all. No, I I think it's great. That's about it. I like that one. Um I'm not looking at the letter. I'm looking at another document that was provided. And um it's um talks about rational for how the funding request is calculated. And it says um that uh all towns get a base contribution of $2,000 and then a small additional amount that reflects the two-year average number of residents served. And our small additional amount is is $8,500. Does that mean that we're a hot spot?

Yep. You're number two behind corner like by far. Well, unfortunately. Yeah. Yeah.

Uh do you have or is there safe to assume it's probably one demographic that's using your services? Is there or is it multi-age, multi- gender? multi-age, multi-gender, we it's it's not as many males. Um just because if you look at the national average, you know, when you're when you're talking domestic violence, um it's just predominantly, you know, men are abusing against women. Uh we have worked with men like I have I have worked with um a man who is being abused by by his wife. Um but it's just not that many. Um, I think we also get under reported sexual assault from males. Um, but we have, you know, I worked with a couple. Um, so I think they're starting to maybe

speak out a little bit and reach out a little bit more. And then second question. Oh, go ahead.

But we like the like income distribution doesn't really matter. Like I have I have worked with some wealthy people, you know, um and we're talking, you know, multiple houses and this and that and some people who leave when they're younger. Um, and I have worked with ladies in their 70s and 80s that have been married 40, 50 something years. It's all over the It's all over the place. Thank you.

Um, and then part two is, uh, do you have other contributions coming in or do you fund raise? Yes. Um, actually, so I um work I sit on the development committee for Voice Against Violence. So, we obviously we have grant funds that come in. Um, as you know from everyone else who has talked today, all of our funding is cutting short. Um, so we do Dancing Under the Stars here in Bristol, which raises a little over $10,000. That's awesome.

Um, this will be we've done it for four years now. Um, and that has not only brought the money in for fundraising, but also awareness. I think that when I first moved here 10 years ago, I don't think as many people might have known about it. So, I think that us holding the event here has definitely brought education to people. Um, we do that. We do an annual ball um every year that raises over $20,000 there. Um, we've started to do cornhole fundraisers. Um, so we've done those. Um, and then lastly, um, we just like someone had talked, we just got the casino. We got chosen for one of them. So, November 17th to I think the 26th, if you're over in Lebanon, drop some money there. Um, so this will be our first year doing that. So,

Okay. Is Right. Are there other chapters in the state? Right. Correct. Okay. Correct. All right. My company is involved down in Manchester. So, uh, with Voice Against Violence, so just a different chapter, I'm assuming. Yeah, we are. They all we all have different names. Um, I think REACH, um, is now in Manchester. Used to be the YW.CA, which is which is where they were at. So, they cover Manchester, and so there were 10 crisis centers that cover the state. Okay. Do you cooperate to hide victims?

Oh, yeah. Yep. Um, and so one of those, not everyone has a shelter. Um, we have a shelter. Ours is a is a highly confidential shelter. Um, some are a little bit more open. Um, but for example, um, if we were to shelter somebody from our area and they were to go grocery shopping at Hannerford and they were to go to Walmart, you know, they're more likely to to see their abuser in those places. So, we generally are going to shelter, you know, our clients someplace else and we're more likely to get clients from other areas to come into our shelter.

Yeah. So, we all we cooperate a lot. I have somebody going to court, you know, in Lebanon and we we work together. Do you share resources from your fundraising or is it your fundraising just strictly for the this would be the voices against just strictly for voices? Yep. And then the grant funds, depending on how they come in, it might be state funded and then they distribute based off of how much our how many victims we might see or how many we've served, right?

Um, and I know that Heather kind of talked about the hard part. Um, we do a lot of education. Um, and it can be I will say that I had to talk to Voices Against Violence about my daughter. She's only six and we had to have a hard conversation. Um, and it was just the conversation like how do you actually talk to a six-year-old about something that might have happened? And it's just amazing as a parent just having that conversation cuz I had no idea how do I actually talk about it. So, I will say that that's one of the things that I think Voices Against Violence is a part of is just educating people as to how to have those hard conversations and how to have them with a small child, with any age, right?

And that's what we're here for. And I think that's one of the reasons Dancing Under the Stars, being involved in Bristol has allowed people to really reach out to us. So, thank you, Marcy. We do have a um training and outreach coordinator. And so, she actually will um she'll be training at at police departments. Um um she does judges training. She also, you know, will will go to does a at schools. She'll go into the schools like to talk to the like the little kids, you know, and she's very good like she differentiates exactly

the language between who she's who she's talking to. But that gets that also gets that awareness out there, you know, why do we have bigger numbers, you know, maybe people feel like, okay, there is somebody out there who will listen to me and I met this person and said, oh yeah, like that's happening to me and I have someplace to go.

Yeah. And it's something as little as um they taught me just respect like me saying like if Heather says Marcy can attend and I say no well you have to respect my decision because I said no and that's how we start that process. So I definitely think that voices being involved is helping. Go ahead, Brian. In your work, have you been able to identify the causes that abusers are propelled to to do this kind of activity?

No. I wish I could. Here is here's what I frequently say when I'm working with someone like if we knew why people did this, it would stop,

right? We could they could be stopped. There's there are um there's a batterers intervention program um that's run by I think it's run by Grafton County um but it's voluntary and somebody has to you know it's a it's a long it's like a 32 week I don't I don't know it's it's long because um I was a little surprised when I I went to a conference because you think like you were abused as a child and so then you grow up and then you abuse somebody which is not surprisingly the the numbers don't bear it out.

Um you know sometimes what'll happen is you know adolesccents will kind of you know have somebody take a change in how they approach you know and you know again usually become more like a sexual predator um something like that. So, I often think I want to like I'm going to go back to school and I'm going to do my thesis on, you know, why do people abuse these are I I was just talking to one of the one of the state troopers the other day and he said, "Oh my god, Heather, like we have this guy who does so much wonderful stuff for his community. He is like the best and he's like your dad and all." And we find out, you know, somebody finally called. He got arrested. He has been, you know, he's like one of the worst abusers. I'm like, like, who knew?

You know, these are these are pillars in our community that you think, no way, like they're the nicest person in the universe. And, you know, they can also be people who are, you know, hard on their luck, um, or whatever, but there's, you know, you think you can Thank Thank you for the question. Right. Anyone else? Okay. Well, thank you very much for coming and for everything you do. Thank you.

Next year, next year have the river. first. It all worked out cuz Alexandria was tonight, too. So, oh, you got to go there first. All right. I'm glad that worked.

All right. So, one of the things before we move on to the next, I just want to put some of your thoughts. Um, so we sent out basically invitations to all of the groups that had contacted us last year, including some people that contacted us and basically said we're we don't need any money or in the case of data away, I think they even told us that they've stopped their program. So, we've got a couple of people right now that have not asked for funding for now at least two years in a row. I want to put a bug in your ear. think at some point doesn't make sense to keep sending them requests. So, I'm not making a motion, but I think that when we get in mid November when we go through this and actually approve the money, I think I'm intending to just see if the committee agrees that if you've gone two years without responding or asking for some funding, we'll take you off the list. If later on you want to get then you have to take the initiative to come to us, right? Just want to share that thought with you so that you can think about it and think about whether you agree or not so when we do discuss you don't get caught by surprise.

Okay. Um next on our agenda is to approve the minutes from our last meeting which was back on April 15th. So everyone crank up their memory and um I know I had to and through reading the first draft of the minutes. Um, so have has anyone who's had an opportunity to review them have any changes they'd like to propose? Hallelujah. I I read them. I Wait a minute. There are no changes, no edits, no nothing. I I went through it with my usual

anyone else. I worked really hard at them. What happened on the other side twice? I don't know. I was working hard with those two, but I think I dropped my keys. Yes. No. I see some newspaper.

Maybe I left them in my car. Uhoh. So, we'll go if we have a code. You have a way to get in your car. Do I have a way? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Okay. We'll come back. I have a phone and my husband can use All right. Well, if you need some help, come back in, please. All right. Thank you so much. All right. Not hearing any uh suggested requests. Someone want to make a motion to approve the minutes. Second. Motion by less, seconded by Buzz. Any discussion? Not hearing any discussion. All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Abstain. Right. Yeah. over here.

Okay. So, uh 501 minutes are approved. Um the next item on our agenda is correspondence. Excuse me. Oh, not making a notion. Does anyone have any correspondence they want to share with I mean obviously all of the correspondence with the outside agencies, but I was thinking anything else going on? I think you have a Thank you. I forget to bring it. I'll bring it to your next meeting. Okay. Question on the obstinance. Yeah, someone obstaining. Everybody was there. I was not. Yes. No, he wasn't the rep, was he? I was not the rep. This is my first budget committee. Oh, he wasn't. So, you were not.

It doesn't matter. Even if he was here, he is allowed to abstain. So, he No, I was just accurate.

I wasn't going to worry about whether you were here or not. You abstained. Move on. All right. That's me. Um, I'm trying to think. I don't Well, I guess I should admit because I talked to Sue. So, Sue had sent me a correspondence and asked some questions about I think it was primarily about funding models and in particular with the home health agencies. And I completely dropped the ball. I think I draft I think I drafted a response and then stuck it in my draft folder and never sent it. And I also had a request from Walter to let him know when the meeting was going to be. I found that in my draft folder, too. So, that kind of correspondence, but

I've already apologized to Sue for dropping the ball on her request, but I don't think it was a crisis, so I still feel bad about it. Um, I think that was it. So, not hearing any other correspondents. Let's go around the room. Uh, typically we start from the select board. Anything going on with the select board that you think we need to know about or just ask? We were I've been in this room since 9:00 a.m. [Music]

And uh so we got through all our department heads today and made notes and we will approve our budget on Thursday. Correct. Thursday. We should be passing on our budget to this committee next next Tuesday.

Right. That's what I had. That's what we built into our schedule and that's what I showed up to earlier in the year that the select board asked them to commit to meeting the October 21st deadline which they agreed to and they're on track for So, heads up though, um, I will probably not be able to get either or I will not be able to get that budget out to you until late Friday afternoon because I have to turn it around in two days to the board Thursday night and then I have to turn it around again by Friday afternoon. So, um, it won't be coming to you until late Friday. So, so for your Tuesday's meeting,

so earlier today, Shannon did resend the meeting schedule. So, if for some reason I thought everyone had it, but that wasn't clear, so we resent it. I'll just share with with my point of view.

I was not expecting to do a ton of study on the budget before next Tuesday. So, the fact that it's not going to get to us is not to me a problem because what our schedule in my mind says is we're meeting on next next week on the 21st where the select boards are going to present their budget and the CIP committee is going to present their plan. Then we're going to meet again on the 28th, which is a general meeting to talk about the budget and what are our goals and what are our procedures and what are our so we all need to look at the budget before that meeting on the 28th, but we're not going to vote on anything. I don't think we're going to hold anyone speak to the fire about what's the detail in the budget next Tuesday. So,

as far as the budget goes, we it's pretty lean. I mean it's generally across the board we decided to go with the 4% cola and all the department head all the budgets are pretty close to that except for one. So uh other than that there are no major projects per se to speak of. CIP is a little higher. Uh making adjustments for um inflation and cost of goods increases down the road.

But other than that, there's no surprises, nothing. I hopefully this year I think will be pretty easy process. No major projects in the budget. Of course, we haven't started war. But there's some warrants, but will be later, but nothing major. Nothing major. But any known losses of revenue? Losses of revenue? No. So, we put anticipating anything, aren't we? I don't think so. Uh, the only 12 only if the SAU buys the bank, but that's got pushed off until March. So, they're not having a special meeting. The only other Oh, and then

go ahead. Yes, the county courthouse. Well, no, that's not a loss of revenue, but that is a major project that could affect us down this year. Um loss in revenue. The only thing that we're um not sure how it's going to affect us yet is going to be ambulance um and um Medicare reimbursements. There's a law that went before um statute that changed and that could affect how our ambulance building will be. We just don't know the impact and how how it will affect us yet, but that wouldn't be until next year. So,

but our new finance officer is working diligently on getting revenues out. Um there's been a illness going through the office. So

um but last year it was un unanticipated the difficulty the school system that's caused the tax rate from being set in a timely manner. Is that as far as you know is that all sort of leveled itself off? So, we will be late tax rate, but um but right now that is being attributed to the town revaluation because that's in process and that isn't going to be closing until um November, mid November most likely. So, we won't be setting the tax rate mainly right now because of the town. Um our understanding and Paul Harice will be here Thursday. Our understanding is that they are um they've had their audits done. They filed one of their missing years and they're working on the next one and they're anticipating to be able to go with their side of the documents in time once we're ready for them once we're ready to go forward with the reval with the with the tax rate setting. So, we're the one that's holding it up this year.

Okay. Yep. That's it. Okay. Thank you, Scott. anything you wanted to I just would note that I thought that the quality of the of the submissions this year from the nonprofits and whatever that they seem to be getting better at it just my I didn't go back and look at prior years but it just seemed there was more detail a little bit more explanation

I would agree with you I think we made some effort over the past two years to tighten up our not just let us know if you want money, but we told them, "We want specific information. We want to be confident that you're doing good things for the town and deserve it." So, we've asked them for more detail, and I they've done a good job following through and providing that detail. Right. And also the the the Bristol part of this, too. Oh, we made it clear. We didn't just want to know about Graphen. We wanted to know specifically about Bristol. What are you doing not just for the world, but what are you doing for Bristol and community?

One more thing. Reiterate that. next year. Put those Don't put those people last. It's just so depressing. I know. We We'll make a note to flip the order. Okay. Less anything? Ryan? No. Nope. I got nothing. All right. Um Christine, anything from you? I don't think so. Shannon, anything you wanted to say? No. Good job on the

Okay. So we will that's going to be interesting. So we have a meeting we have a meet I'm just thinking out loud which you guys know I do. We have a meeting in a week. So we have a fairly turn turnaround. I don't want to get into details. I I actually have a bit of a family thing going on and I will be leaving Thursday afternoon to go to get together with family to try to deal with a problem that has come up. Um, so do you want to do you want to give a try on handling the the reviewing the first draft of minutes?

I'm just concerned that I'm going to be out of town. I don't know if I you might if if I'm not sure that we'll get them out if if I'm the one who's proofreading them. I'm not sure we'll get them out by Friday. Certainly can do it over the weekend and come out on Monday. Do you When would you do it when Probably you'll send them out on Thursday. more than likely I'm going to try to do them within the next 24 hours. Okay. If you don't want to do it, you don't have to, but if you're willing to,

she sends the she sends the typically she sends the first draft and I read them and I don't do it as well as Buzz, but I'm looking for more radical errors, but I'm also looking more importantly, I'm looking for are there any information that either is misstated or missing. And then after you give that feed if after I give that feedback or you give that feedback then that that's updated and then it gets sent to the whole committee so we discuss it at the next meeting. Yeah. No, I could do it. Sure. She could send it to me. Okay. So send it to Sue and send it to me. Okay.

Great. Um anything else or are we ready for a motion to motion to? Anyone want to second le I'll take so motion by less seconded by Sue to adjurnn. All in favor? I