Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

a little bit. So, good evening everyone. Welcome to our March 18th workshop. Our agenda is almost entirely budget. Um, so we'll begin with a roll call. Trusty Bis is absent. Tasty Boosezie is absent. Trusty Hall. Trusty Woods, I'm also here. Mayor Foley,

I am here. Thank you very much. Um, just a reminder that uh a public hearing is scheduled on the budget for next year. It's next Wednesday, I'm sorry, it's on Wednesday, April 8th, uh, at 7 p.m. right here. Find us. We'll be here. You can be there or here with us. Um, and Lillian, just to let you know, under opportunity to add or modify agenda, I I am tableabling the Clearwater request, um, Clearwater has has requested docking and camping. Um, but the dates are the dates aren't right on the letter, so I asked them to resubmit. So, you are welcome to stay, but you don't need to stay to sit through budget conversation as the event coordinator if you would like to go.

Okay. Thank you for letting me know. You're welcome. Bye, Olivia. Um and and then I'd like to add uh just a quick update from from me and Andrew about a a film possibility. Second favor. Okay. First is a resolution accepting our audit for the fiscal year. It's number 12. Number one resolution. Six. I make a motion to accept resolution 122026 accepting the village of Cold Spring financial audit for the fiscal year ending May 2025. Uh and you do have a a resolution to read this one. Is that

okay? Um a full-on read draft resolution or resolution number is it still a draft or resolution number 12 2026 accepting the results of the fiscal year 2425 audit. The following resolution was offered by trustee hall for adoption and second seconded by me

uh deputy mayor tweets to wit whereas the village has engaged EFR group LLP certified public accountants to conduct an independent audit of the vill's accounting practices policies and estimates and whereas EFPR group presented its findings for the fiscal year ending May 31st 2025 to the village board of trustees on March 12th 2026 and whereas EFPR group found that the village's financial statements present fairly in all material respects the respective financial position of governmental activities at each major fund of the village. And whereas EFPR group found that there were applicable cash flows that were applicable cash flows thereof for the year ended in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. And whereas EFPR conducted the audit in accordance with standards applicable to financial audits contained in government auditing standards issued by the comproller general of the United States. And whereas there were no significant changes made to process or assumptions used to develop accounting estimates and that financial statement disclosures were neutral, consistent, and clear. Now therefore, it is hereby resolved that the village board accepts the findings of EFPR group for the fiscal year ending May 31st, 2025. The roll call vote. Trusty Boosezie is absent. Trustee Bardis is absent. Trustee Hall.

Hi, Debbie. Mayor Woods. Hi, Mayor Foley. Hi. And the resolution passes by a vote of 3002. You

tableling do it's it's in July. It's not a a rush. Um, okay. Next item is a rush. Um, I don't know that I could explain to you exactly what a flooring contact chamber repair is, but it needs to be done. Um, and the water treatment plant, I'm sorry, wastewater treatment plant. Um, Matt was able to get bids. Um, so we it's moving forward on on an emergency basis. Um, but we do have we do have two bids. So it's it's fewer fewer bids than we would hope for, but it's something we need to do. And so Matt has recommended that we accept the bid of I think it's pronounced Alon Ind industries um for 34,327. discussion.

Is any of this part of the scope of capital replacement under review? I I I'm not positive. We can Michelle is in the other room. We can grab this is repair. It's repair, but it's but it's not part of the bar the the larger one that we're bothered for the larger group. I think this one additional repair. Okay. So, I I've made a motion to accept the the bid from Alon Industries.

Um, I'm looking at the agenda. Clerk, you had laid out two votes. One to accept the recommendation of the water and wastewater department superintendent. I kind of smooshed them together. So would you like us to revote on the wastewater emerging accepting Matt's recommendation? It was uh Han engineering's recommendation. So it's really I think it's fine the way you read it except I would uh amend it to say it was Han engineering's uh recommendation. So is

okay you have you have on the agenda approve vote to approve the recommendation of water and wastewater department superintendent Matt Kroo to move forward with the emergency repairs. Ah that's what I did not say in my in my motion. Okay happy to so the record is clear. So I make a motion to approve the recommendation that we treat the chlorine contact chamber chamber as an emergency repair at the wastewater treatment plant. Second favor. I I and now I vote to accept the recommendation of Han Engineering for by Alon Industries in the amount of 34,327. Second. All in favor?

I Andrew. Okay. Sorry about that. I should just follow my agenda more closely. Uh minutes. I didn't know. Okay. Um to give you a quick uh update. Did you did I copy them? Did not know. So, uh, the town is hosting a film crew next week. Um, all of the filming is happening outside of the village, but they have asked to divert traffic. They're closing the bridge over Indian Brook Falls. Oh, and I see Matt Matt Jackson has joined us. Matt, do you have audio?

Connecting to audio. Okay, I'll just keep chatting for a second. So, we I just got the um a letter today from the company. They would like to divert traffic through the village of Cold Spring. Um they'll be filming on Indian Brook Falls. Um and so we'll make we'll be making a very large diversion through the village out to Nine and down Snake Road. Snake Hill Road open for local traffic, but imagine there's only one bridge there, so there will be slowdowns. Um what they're asking for from us is um support from our police officers to move that diverted traffic through the village. It is a 6 a 6 pm to 6 a.m. shoot. Um and I are talking with the producers about relevant fees.

Wait, I'm sorry. It says 8:00 p.m. to 6 a.m. 6 a.m. indicated. Did I say it backwards? Yeah. 6 p. It's 6 pm. It was starting at 6:00 in the evening going until 6 in the morning. This says eight, but from the conversation it was six. Matt, do you want to hop in? Can I don't know if you know. Yeah. Can you hear me? Yeah. Yeah. The latest email I got indicates one Cold Spring police officer, not two. Did that shift? No, it's always been three. There's three locations in the village. We need three officers.

Okay. We need to make sure they update the map then. I copied you on what they sent. Um the map looks as if there is one location for CSPD. I think what they did was they stuck it looks like they just stuck a um like a marker in the village because I told them the boundaries of the village and where we would be at that meeting. So, um, and they said the more the marrier. Um, unfortunately, I can't get everybody to come, but I have enough to staff it for the three. So, two, six officers or three officers because

No, it's going to be three. It's going to be three officers that day, but then I also have three officers on standby for the rain dates. Okay. For So, the the the each officer will stay for the 12-h hour shift. It's a 14-hour shift. They need to be there an hour before and an hour after. Okay, that's what that's what they had requested in that meeting. They said that they they would like them there an hour before um and then an hour after in case they run over. So, we just made it the 14th. So, anything after the 12, they'll be build hourly.

We're we're not approving tonight because we just got um an agreement from them and I sent it to the build attorney. I just wanted to make you situationally aware that Andrew and I are having this conversation. Um, and we'll be coming back. Um, it we may need a we may need a business meeting early in the week. Um, it's the 26th. It's next Thursday. So, the conversation the It's the 27th. The 26th is a rain day and the 28th is a rain day.

That is correct. That's correct. Um, so the town and the DOT have been looking at this project for a very long time. The DOT has already approved the diversion of traffic. We got brought in later. So this is we're scrambling a bit now. Um, so as we work out these details and we get um numbers together for both the cost of our officers and impact fee. Andrew Andrew points out a couple of things. the the early morning diversion um could impact school buses. Um

well yeah and the evening would impact and both of them are going to commute going to impact commuting times. specific. So, um Gash um just and you um may just to clarify a couple things on the timing because I've heard a couple of different things that they were thinking of starting around 4, but they'll be around that's the note that I have from the conversation. They were set stage starting beginning to stage at 4 and being out by 7. And so, Matt, your 14 hours is from 5:00 p.m. to 7 a.m., right? That make sense? Correct. Yeah. And that's three officers.

Correct. Because they Yeah. They originally told me that they were going to they were going to be filming Well, they were going to be starting um at 6 shooting whatever whatever they're doing is from 6 a.m. uh 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. They wanted somebody there an hour before and if they needed them an hour after. So, they may not need them at 7 o'clock, but they're available. So approved the road closure from or the road diversion from 6:00 to 6. I think the 400 p.m. was the time they're staging at Bosel. Yeah. Which is outside of the village.

The earlier my my understanding from the conversation we had was that the earlier time was to accommodate the staging at Bosabel. It doesn't impact the village until later. Yes. So that's what they said that they had to set up their generators, their crane and all that stuff. Um, and I think that's why they requested us only an hour before they actually were going to start. Um, and they even said like that's their starting time is 6:00 p.m. They may not necessarily be shooting at 6 p.m. They may not shoot till 7 or 8. Yeah.

And then there'll be like a window at some point at night where they're not going to be shooting and then they'll pick up shooting again at dusk. Well, other than other than slow slow traffic through the village and maybe heavier traffic overnight, um the most most of the impact is outside of the village. Okay. Um Matt, where are the three officers going to be stationed? And are they are they using their cars or any other equipment? Yeah, we're going to be using cars. We're going to be at Cedar and Maine. We're going to be at 301 and 90D. Main and 90D. and then at Bank Street and 9D. Okay.

So, pretty much the extents of the village. Yep. Okay. So, Matt, we're going to be talking to you over the next few days and making sure we hammer this out in accordance with what your needs are. Okay. And and I will follow up with you. That's it. Okay. For the moment. Thank you. Thanks, Matt. Okay. Um, so we're going to

I would like to make a motion to enter executive session to discuss employment of particular persons. Um, I have a second in favor.

It is now seven. I can't see the clock. 75. So, we're going to do just trustees and then Okay. Um, it is 9:11. At 9:10, I made a motion to exit executive session to discuss personnel. Deputy mayor seconders, and we all voted in favor to come out. Um there are two people waiting to come in and I want to prioritize our discussion around the people who are waiting. Uh and Jeff needs to be allowed to unmute. Hi guys. Thank you for being patient as we got through personnel. Um, Matt, there are a couple of uh couple things we want to ask you about. Um, I'm gonna I'm gonna grab Jeff on a discussion of um building department proposals and then we'll come back to police because I think the police's going to be a little bit more involved. So, if Jeff is are you able to unmute yourself, Jeff?

Just It looks like it's still muted. I don't think so. Oh, he he was unmuted just a minute ago. You're okay. Can you hear me now? Yes, you can.

That's a familiar voice. Thank you very much for putting together the proposal and the samples. Sorry. Oh, uh, Jeff Jeff Bodakovich, who is the who is one of the building clerks for the town of Philipstown with whom we have a um a shared services agreement that the town provides our building inspection services and Jeff is the clerk who deals directly with the villages as applications make their way through. So um he has proposed that we in our um that we have a look at our fee table related to buildings construction etc and come in line with the method that the town uses. Um currently we we charge for a building permit and we charge um per by by the square foot. Um, Philipstown is char does not charge a per a permit fee and they charge per dollar amount of the project the cost a percent of construction 1% of construction. So Jeff,

yes. Can you talk us through I have questions about particular items but can you talk us through the big concept first of why why and particularly with the examples you gave us why this is a good thing

right it's it brings everything kind of into it's a fairness issue the way Cold Spring does it now everything is charged the same based on the size of a house. The analogy I used early and discussed this with somebody is if you're going to buy a car, all right, and you have a Toyota Corolla and you have a Porsche Carrera, basically the same size car, but you don't pay the same for the cars because the materials are different. Your sales tax is different based on the price of the car. And this is the same concept. Um, construction and people building houses varies. The materials they use, especially the material use and fixtures, it it just varies so much from house to house, from project to project.

Yeah.

That instead of, you know, treating everybody the same, you know, we're charging you 40 cents per per square foot, it's it brings, you know, it's based on the cost. And how do you how do you ensure I I think you explained that you have tables that you work from to get to estimates of project. How often do you I mean the market's all over the place right now. How do you how do you keep up with knowing that your your project estimation is accurate? Um, that's Greg's responsibility, quite frankly. Um, there there's a couple of when someone submits an application, we ask for an estimate from a contractor or whoever's doing the work, we request an estimate. We kind of know based on looking at something whether somebody's being realistic or whether they're trying to cheat the system. Greg has a monthly meeting of regional building inspectors and it's an information sharing purpose for these meetings. So these are things they discuss as construction prices change, material prices change, they bounce things off each other, they see what each other is doing. So it keeps it current and we um can gather information from other municipalities in the region. And presumably that chart that you all work from is a public document, right?

It's it's it's No, it's it's not a chart. It's just it's knowledge. So it's not like Greg's looking at a chart saying, "Okay, you know, if someone's building a new house, he starts at in this market a cost of $400 per square foot for construction. And then you look at what kind of materials are being used. So that price could go up. it could go down. And then if an estimate's not provided, he comes up with an estimate, meets with the applicant or whoever the project manager is, and they discuss it. Permits don't get released until everybody is satisfied, and then we're comfortable that what's being presented is accurate or as close to accurate as you can be. Hi guys. Um, has there been situations where, you know, they say one thing and then do something radically different? Um, the kind goes to a bigger picture. People submit plans. They submit something to get a permit and then when it comes time to do the final inspection and close it out, if what was done does not match what was the permit was issued for, then they don't get a co and they have to do what needs to be done to to bring it up to compliance

and that could include an adjustment on the fees. It could. Sure. It's rare that it happens because all the negotiating stuff happens up front. We're never going to get it to the to an exact penny. Sure. But, you know, closer than than what we're doing now with

Yeah. I'll give you a perfect example. I mean, earlier on Monday, somebody was in meeting with Greg about building a new house. This was in Garrison, but Greg started with looked at the plan, started at the $400 per square foot as a baseline. Looked at the materials they were using and some really high-end fixtures and okay, this is closer to $550, $600. Brought in the architect and sat down and he showed what he was doing. and the architect agreed that um you know they were working on a cost of $650 per square foot for construction and that's what they base the permit fee on. So it's it's there's discussions, there's negotiations, but you know at the end of the day it's um it's realistic and what's realistic for what they're trying to do now in the village right now. There aren't there's not a lot of room for new households to be built. There are some there are some areas I think where there there might be some subdivisions coming up, but it really has to do more with renovations and additions.

Well, but even then going to going to a cost estimate is more accurate. Yes. Even within changes in the district. Yeah. And it looks as if you're proposing for for minor changes a flat fee, right? Like windows, fences, the things that you see commonly, right? I know we you and I had talked about this a few years back. Yep. One of the concerns is that you don't want people um saying that, you know, the HGB is requesting different materials to try to to uh increase right permit fees. you know, 80 probably 90% of what the HDRB does is window, sidings, doors.

Yeah. So, you you leave that as a flat fee. Same with mechanical HVAC. You have, you know, flat fee. That's how Philipstown does it. Nelsonville um December of 24 adopted the similar uh fee schedule to what this is. And as many other municipalities in the region, Putnham Valley does it b is uh based on cost of construction as is Fishkill.

I I mean to to me it it makes sense and understanding how you get I was worried about I was a little worried about subjectivity, but when you describe how he's getting to the numbers and how there is negotiation with the applicant, I feel better about that. Yeah. Do others have thoughts on the concept?

Oh, I think um I think it makes sense to be more in line with the town. Um I'm I think that since there is there are ways to um I I don't I don't know. I don't want to say like um charge additional fees but functionally if if the fact that there is a negotiation but there is also at the end if people don't do the right thing that there is a way to to

make yeah make that full makes sense and is makes me feel a bit better about that the process overall um just not knowing the process myself but um I think it'll also be easier on the staff because right Now they're doing different calculations for us, right? Um, can I ask you a couple particular questions, Jeff? Sure. Um, the village has, as long as I can remember, had a period of time that the the permit is good and then it expires and you have to get go through review again. And that's two years. Yeah.

Um, I don't see that the town has maybe I'm just reading it wrong. I see a renewal is good for two years, but does your does the building permit time out in the same way that ours does? Yes, they have they have a two-year limit on their permits and the renewal fee is the cost of the original permit. So, it's very straightforward. Yep. And that should be on here. Go ahead. I may just be I may just be reading it wrong. Let me get my ruler.

Yeah, it's in there under permit renewals. Well, where I have Oh, this is work work over public rideway. So, there's there are some there are some some differences. The town doesn't charge for work of the over the public right away. We do. I town doesn't have sidewalks. Huh. The town doesn't really have sidewalks. Town doesn't have sidewalks. Yeah. And I think in that case, it's good to retain that from from the village perspective. Um Uh Okay. So, you're saying the two-year does The two-year does hold for the lifetime. That's that's the initial lifetime of the permit and then you renew for two years. Correct.

Okay. Um I'm noting that your stun solar solar panels no fee that's the same as us. That's more more carrot approach. How would you Why would we ever I think this is just a town thing, but maybe not. Septic tank permits. The only septic tanks I know of in the village are actually not I mean they're it looks like they're in the village, but they're actually beyond the town line. Yeah. And that's on Fair Street. Would we ever be in a position to be issuing a septic tank permit or that's entirely health department, right?

That's entirely health department. This is currently on your fee schedule. Yeah, that's it. Confused me. Yeah. All right. So, we probably haven't charged it in 70 years, but Yeah. Okay. Um, and then we have fixtures for plumbing, $50 for every three fixtures. You have $100. Is that for all fixtures or Yeah, just straight $100 for all fixtures. So, if I'm putting in four bathrooms, I'm paying $100, correct? The town. But if I were in the village, I'd pay $50. Say there are three three in each bathroom. I'd pay $50 per bathroom. Yeah.

I mean, it's not it's not a giant the big difference is going to be the makeup in um bathroom

estimate rather than crazy. Um the you have no fee for submitting a demolition application. We have $150 and a two-year limit. And I I think that the the genesis of that is not not reducing the options for someone to let a building rot into the ground, right? You get a demo permit, but then you never actually do the demolition. So on that one, I think I would want to keep the the year marker on that and obviously you're going to have to in most of the village you'd have to go through an HDRB process as well. Um temporary certificate of occupancy you do not charge for. What are the conditions under which we are currently issuing temporary occupancy? I'm trying to think of specific examples, recent examples.

I couldn't think of any either. Um, but presumably you don't want to encourage temporary occupancy. Correct. Um it's well the old uh Lorettto rest home we issued a you know uh was a temporary co was issued on that because the house was habitable. Most of the work had been done. There were some things that still needed to be completed for the right

for a final. So Greg did issue them a temporary CO so they could move in occupy the first floor only which was indicated on the temporary CO until they until what was done was completed what was needed was completed. So you does the town the town issue them but just not an additional fee. Correct. Okay. So it's not that you don't it's not that you don't issue them. Correct. It's not like we would charge somebody the co fee twice. Got it. And I think that you're really on on target with the record searches. Um,

okay. Uh, you know, example. I really just called stuff from Nelsonville when I sent you the document that had some examples of revenue impact. Yeah, it's really helpful. Yeah. Yeah, I mean for the most part they could be significant. Some of them aren't. I mean, but there's still more. Does the fire the fire inspection schedule coincide with it's three three years for residential that coincide with the state schedule?

Yes, that is the state schedule. And just as a reminder, I think in the IMA with Phillips Town that the village turned over all fire inspections and fees to the town. That's right. So, we're we are already level with you on that. You mean Okay. Any any other I I am really grateful for this. Um do any other trustees have questions or comments for Jeff? Yeah, I do. Um I I like in general the idea of rationalizing y

the uh pricing um and standardizing it especially when there's generally more activity going on I think the is always in the position of playing catchup in terms of um you know capturing revenue that it deserves and if this whole exercise is revenue profitable that's that's helpful. Um so just in terms of um two or three specific questions on the background section um you're saying 1% of construction costs versus the square footage. So for instance if someone was doing $250,000 worth of renovations in a in a small space or a small building under the current structure, we would the village would lose revenue on that situation. Okay. Um, and then in terms of trowing up the construction costs, do you think it's reasonable to request like a a final accounting of costs to see if there's a difference between what was submitted and what was actual?

Do you do that now? No. I mean, it's an interesting idea. I think about when I've done construction on my house. Yeah. Like I don't even know where I would begin. I mean, everything was in boxes. Yeah. And I'm not I'm not sure that I could produce a full record of all the costs of that construction. I know in my head roughly what we spent. But also, do we have staffing to go through people's receipts? Well, that would be Well, I mean, it would you could maybe do a submission of a a summary of costs. Um, and then that would be the other part of the next step would be to have the right to to inspect or audit. Yeah.

It's probably getting a little too I mean in in if we had endless numbers of bodies to do that work, I'd be all in favor of but I don't see how we practically carry it out. Yeah. Just thought. And then um final question Jeff I think you've kind of covered this really Kathleen but are there any differences between the two PE structures that that that haven't been aligned where there are material there would still be exceptions and material differences. Um there are some things excuse me that the town does not require permits for.

Yeah. So, you know, windows, doors, and siding, the town does not require permits. Roofing, the town does not require permits, but they don't have a district either. So, correct. So, I left those costs in on Yeah. something that the village could still collect a permit fee for, just as a flat rate. Yeah. And and you got the logic. He was saying to avoid the the perception that the historic district review board is requiring more costly materials to drive. That's why he's banging do flat. And that makes sense to me.

Um I think this once we plug numbers in, I think this is going to make a difference. Anything else we need to review with Jeff or can we let him go for the evening? Yep. Thank you for being patient. Thank you. Very helpful. Right. Thank you. That's great. Okay. Um, one last comment. The way this Sorry, Jeff, hang on a second. It's okay. The way that these schedules structure, just so that like we're clear for the public

right now in Cold Spring, you pay an application fee and then your CO is included on the back end. So, here you're not paying the application, you're paying the permit and then you pay the CO at the end. So it it just flips when the revenue comes, but it does increase from 75 on average to 90. Yeah. Just to be clear while talking. Yeah. Yeah.

And it's it's also I mean it helps to offset the cost. We have Jeff in the town and we have Abigail here who are moving these things through. We have costs. Okay. Now I think we're Is that what you did? Did you do anything else? Have a good night, Jeff. Thank you so much. We'll send back drafts. Okay. Now, Matt has been waiting so patiently, I thought we could jump to um police portion of the budget. Are you with us, Matt? I am. Can you hear me?

Yes. My general um Talk to us about tasers.

The the the expense in tasers is not the equipment, it's the licensing. It's just like the body cameras, right?

Yeah. The licensing is uh you know, it's it's it's part of it and the the licenses. So um all everything is tied to that license. So the training when you're training you're certified on the taser it's registered through that license through uh the criminal justice institute. Um anytime that taser is deployed it's uh registered to you so they know when you deploy it um and all that stuff. But we're only just help me understand because

I'm not following one piece of this. We we're not buying 15 tasers. We're buying two tasers and 15 licenses. Is that the proposal? Yes.

So then how does how does just for in a on a very baseline question, how does Axon know that it was Bill who fired the laser and not Joe? Okay. So, when you obviously every day when when they log in, they have to log into their Axon account to activate their body cameras. They would have to do the same thing for the tasers. Also, um there was a question about the number of cartridges um that is uh issued with uh with this package. So each officer gets their own cartridge and that's tied to that officer also.

And when we say cartridge, do we mean I don't know if I'm using the right word, but the the barb the the the actual thing that shoots out of the taser? Yeah. So basically what you're we're getting two handles and then enough cartridges to equip all the officers. Do do we need do we have an option on that? No, there's no option on that because each right now each officer is issued two cartridges and but each cartridge has X number of loaded I don't know how to describe this. Do you describe them as far? Yeah, individual probes.

Probes. So, they're getting two packs of how many? No, no, no. Right now, currently, each officer is issued two cartridges for that taser. So, they have one to fire if need be and then they have a spare. So, it's not like I'm sorry to ask these stupid questions, but it's not like I have a barrel that has six six bullets in it. It's that I have a cartridge

with a shot and then I have a backup with a shot. That's how it is currently with these. I was imagining it differently. I was imagining that it was a a cartridge of All right. Let me Okay. Okay. Currently, we have two handles and each officer is issued two cartridges. One is a primary, one is a backup. Okay. Yep. With the new tasers, each cartridge holds 10 probes. That's in one cartridge. Okay. So, they have 10 in one cartridge. Okay.

Yeah. Now, if they deploy one, they deploy two, they deploy 10, they also have a backup cartridge that contains another 10. Now, you don't have to replace the entire cartridge. You can replace them individually, but each officer will have that cartridge of 10. Does Axon offer the option of buying buying one cartridge of 10 for each officer?

Yes. But then the individual cartridges would cost more in the end. You're you're saying Matt that you would sign out so like I'm not just take it as as 10 officers would have each have a cartridge but can then could you have a backup pool rather than having a backup call of one cartridge per officer i.e. 10 backups could you have a pool of five that's what I was wondering it I don't know if it saves the problem the problem we're dealing with just for the there's no public on right now other than Mr. E but um okay so does go back and watch this thing

and um I uh wait I lost my train of thought when we went that way thinking hang on a second because it was important it was important an important clarification sorry it's gone I got distracted by looking at the name it'll come back keep on that. Are you are you asking are you saying there wasn't so much of a cost saving in that?

So the the what's in that quote is an initial supply of live live cartridges so that each officer can certify for the year and have a supply of live cartridges available for field use. So they're giving us enough cartridges for each officer and then enough to replenish them. Um, so that is in the quote somewhere. The individual number of

is do we need to I'm not trying to deny you equipment you need but I I'm mindful this is what I was going to say. I'm mindful that Axon mostly has a monopoly on this market and so we're kind like the body cameras were kind of at their mercy. Do we have any flexibility? So you you have plenty of flexibility, but the thing is is that if you take away from one spot, it's going to increase in another. That's just that's what I'm getting out of this. It's you mean after axon to reduce the number of cartridges, they'll put the cost elsewhere.

The cost is going to end up somewhere else. So, what's going to go on is it say you order X number of cartridges, right? Uh, everybody gets one set and then we go and certify. Now, we need to go buy more cartridges, right? That price of those new cartridges is going to be increased between five, what' they say? between five and 8% every year.

And we should also as background say that the tasers we have are quite old and outdated and a previous iteration of the board like quite previous um didn't look at upgrade path so they bought like the second level that was cheaper. Mhm. But they quick they went out of licensing faster. So what we're looking at now, the proposal we're looking at now is a newer generation. The what we have is no longer supported by Axon. It's planned obsolescence, right? Um

and so we have this we have a it's a liability to have an unsupported taser. We need to we need to update them. I was just trying to think if there was any way to save on cartridges, but it sounds like they're packing they're packing for packing that the the number higher for a reason. But what what's the So what's how long is does the certification last? How long is the cartridge good for? The cartridge is good. The cartridge has a self a shelf life of five years. So we could be very well holding on to those cartridges for five years. Well, I mean, they're not it's not like our the tasers are getting discharged all the time. Um,

right. At all by any stretch. And we want our officers to have a non-lethal option on their hips. Um, Michelle, can you can you point us out in the lines where this lands? It would be in A 312200 equipment. It'll verify that British square this it's also um on the same line with Lurango. Yes. Say the number again. A3120200 police equipment.

I got it. Okay. So, how much of the So, like 75 of that is the Durango, right? How much How much is the Durango and how much is the How much are the taser? Um, the Durango I have 78,000 in for Okay. And then, um, and the balance of that is the tasers and then the tasers are 10 10,000 and change. And then there's a little bit of equipment for dayto day. Okay. What did you say, Matt?

The the the the taser payment is spread out over the the period of the contract. So, most departments do a 10-year contract because they um they uh you know, they they take these out of service after 5 years. Um so, in five years, we would have to do this all over again. Now, with a 10-year contract, obviously you would extend that for the 10 years. Um, but anytime in between that 10 years, if there is an upgrade to what they're using, we automatically get that upgrade. So, we don't have to redo everything. Five year option.

Yeah. Yeah. the five-year option is, you know, it'll it'll still happen if it's within that five years, but in five years, we're going to have to do this all over again because they're not going to have they're not going to back these particular tasers. Whether or not they're still using these tasers or not, the handle is only good for five years. So once that five years is up, done, they're not going to back that that handle anymore. So that's that's back to planned that's back to planned obsolescence. Yeah. Is there is there any

and with that what they also said was after that five years and you revisit that quote it's going to go up. So every year it's going to go up 5 to 8%. Um they're anticipating by that time yeah about a five to 5 to 8% increase each year. um with the current bundle they're knocking off about four 12 to 14%. But in 5 years then you got to that and that 5 to 8% compounds every year. So if it's 5 to 8% next year, the following year it's going to be five 5 to 8% on top of whatever it was the previous year.

I assume you've been through the exercise of looking at whether it's whether it's cost effective to do five or 10. Matt just sent the tenure. He talked verbally about it. Just got it. Oh, literally just sent five minutes ago. Um, but he explained and I was going to bring it up at the meeting tonight and he now has the competition. And there's also in in there was a difference.

There was like a huge difference in price from last year to this year. Um, last year they had some options options at the time that they offered that I had opted out of because I didn't think it was necessary at the time. This year, all those options that we had a chance to opt out of are included in that package now. So, you can't really opt out of them. They're just a part of the package. This is what you get for this price. Everything's included, said and done. You know, before we were able to pick and choose what we wanted, what we didn't want. Now it's like this is the package. This is what you get. You know, with two handles and you want 15 licenses, this is what comes with those 15 licenses. It's not like you can say, well, we don't need all that. Well, it, you know, this is what comes with it. So whether you need it or not, you're still getting it. coming in

the trustees. I'm sorry that I didn't follow that it had you had just gotten the numbers but I thought I thought I had forgotten or overlooked feel a little bit better. the numbers the numbers I just got were for the extended quote because I didn't know that that was available at the time and then when I made some phone calls I was told like they said uh the the one of the heads of the company was like you know what what what's with the five years and I was like well I thought after five years they expire and you got to redo it and he's like no most places don't do five years knowing that they extend it to 10 or more because they know they're going to have phases or know they they're going to be using the tasers and that automatically will get you those upgrades, but it gets you in at the price of the quote now, not what the quote will be in five years or 10 years down the road. So, that's why they, you know, opted to do that. But, I didn't know that was offered at first and when I inquired about it, I just got the email

uh probably like couple hours ago, three hours ago when we were still in our meeting. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. um questions from

um sorry just for the last time of asking we we can't get a pool of backups. We have to have two cartridges for each officer that one for actual use and one for backup. And there there's no way that we can have one for use for all officers and then a a pool for a backup of five or six. So that's I don't see that here. So, all it all they're telling me is that the bundle includes a large initial supply of live cartridges so that each user can certify for one year and then have a a supply of live cartridges available for field use.

So, we may not even be getting that many that many cartridges. We're just getting enough to train and certify and then have a supply of cartridges. So, we may get one cartridge per officer and then maybe get a handful of backups that are going to be registered because that that cartridge has 10 probes in it and you don't replace the whole cartridge. The officer gets the cartridge, you replace the probes. They will be replacing the probes depending on how many probes are used during an incident. Does that make sense? Oh, so you could I could have a a cartridge or an officer could have a cartridge with 10 probes in it. They use four of them and then they can get get it refilled. They get those four replaced, not the entire 10

out of out of out of the backup supply that we have that comes with the package or the company sends us four more that I'm not sure because at the one one on this email here it says that we have enough to supply them for field use but there was another email that I remember getting that if we deploy um a taser cartridge they will send a replacement replacement probes to refill that cartridge, but I don't that's not in the email that I have open right now. Um, it is 10 of 10. Yeah.

Um, I I mean I don't I don't really see a lot of give on this. We want our officers to have a non non-lethal option. We have a a market Yeah. dominance in one company. Mhm. They basically said that when I called, you know what I mean? They basically were, they broke it down to me. They weren't, you know, trying to hide anything. They were completely honest. They're like, "Listen, with the technology, we got to pay software developers. We got to pay designers. We got to pay this. We got to pay that." You know, we're not paying that out of our pocket. We're transferring those costs to the customer, you know, and every year that goes up. we have to raise our prices in order to accommodate all this stuff to, you know, with all our products.

And I was like, you know, it's understandable. Yes. And that's why they tried to lock into these five and 10 year plans. You know, the the highest plan that they did uh within the last couple years was a 17-year plan because it locked those departments in at the price that they're getting them now over that period of time. Instead of knowing that in five years you're going to have to revisit this again. Oh, now it just went up, you know, 25 30%. Let's get how how does that look from a numbers perspective? The five versus 10. It's the same price. Oh, it just This isn't even a question.

The five-year plan, for round number sake, it was 50,000, but they did it on a sliding scale. So, my math's not going to work. It's too late. 9,939 like so that it would it would go up up the 10-year plan. 100,000 divided by 10 10,000 a year. Um it's just different ways of doing it. Um the body cameras were like that too. They took the amount and it was like instead of a perfect it was like 23% in the first year, 25% 28% like it went up.

So there isn't a budgetary. We're all tired. It's not just you. There isn't a budgetary uh benefit. No, there isn't a detriment if we opt into the 10-year. Yeah. And but it but what that does buy us is an upgrade path on the handles. Right. If one is offered within that 10-year period. Yeah. Yeah. You know what's going to not happen? Listen, I don't know. We got lucky with the other stuff. Sorry.

I said, "Well, you know, we got lucky with the body cameras. We got the body cameras." And then all of a sudden they redid their technology. They came out with it. They were like, "We got this new body camera. We're going to take your old ones. We're going to send you the new ones. Awesome. This is great. Oh, surprise. You can't use everything on the new body cameras unless you get licenses to use the new features." So, I was like, "Oh, okay." You know, so if they if they do come out with new carers in 10 years, we can say, "Okay, well, give us the same ones that we have. We'll keep those, keep the same licenses we have, or we'll get the new upgrade, but then with that new upgrade, it's probably going to be, you know, I don't know. They they didn't tell me this, but I'm just assuming that these things are going to happen." But, you know,

got a silly question. The handles are ambidextrous, right? There's not a right-hand version, left hand version. Correct. They're ambidextrous. Um, the only thing that would be uh right hand and left hand would be holsters, which they include some holsters. If somebody didn't like that holster, they are more than welcome to purchase their own, you know. Okay. Okay. Thanks. Questions. All right. So, let's talk car. We have builtin. Talk to us about what you've built in on on the Durango. Um, it's 78,000 built in from fund balance with upping. We talked about that last week. Just making sure that it is. We're buying it outright.

It's in this iteration to pay for it outright out of fund balance. Gas powered Durango with upfitting. You did have a question, I think, about outfitting the EV though, right? I didn't have a question about upfitting EV. We just haven't had the discussion about in between our meetings. Yeah. Um there we have new information on the EVs. There are a a hybrid does qualify. If it's a plugin plug-in hybrid be a plug-in hybrid

be a plug-in hybrid. And there is Officer Kelly who's the fleet manager now has been able to to find some availability for the bolt lightning. What's it called? Lightning. the Lightning. Well, Ford the F-150 Lightning. I mean, that's from one that's from one. We would still have to bid it obviously.

Yeah. But they don't they don't make those anymore and he the our upfitter found one. So, if we were able to find one and that's what the village was looking for, then you know, it is what it is. I did talk to them about I sent him an email. I'm still waiting to hear back. There's some equipment in there that I didn't really understand if it was necessary or not. That's what I'm trying to figure out. We still we still have to we'd still have to bid it regardless of that. If that guy tells us there's one, we still have to do a mini bid, right? Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

And the decision that needs to be made by the board is this is the this is the moving the moving goalpost of the NAERTA grant. Started out heat for this building. We recently all decided to do okay solar because there were reasons that the electric vehicles were not weren't could not wouldn't work as regular patrol cars. proposal came from the police department to read into the um rotation

an electric vehicle. My thought was that we get a truck before we I knew they weren't being done anymore so that it could get passed on to another department. So, we would have to decide as a board that we if we if we want to to pursue that creative idea to extend the fleet life a bit, we'd need to decide not to do solar panels because it's we have the one grant. I mean, there'd be a little bit left, but it wouldn't be it wouldn't be the impact that the panels would not be big enough to have the impact that they would have had. I thought we also had an issue with not locations for the panels. We hadn't resolved it yet.

We were looking at I mean Laura's not here to to give her full report, but we were looking at water plant and wastewater plant. The water plant being the sort of the largest spam to really know pricing. We'd have to do the RFP which Laura and I had worked on and then if the board was forward with solar, we would need help from Will. It's it's complicated. Well, my back of the hand, thumb, matchbox, whatever costbenefit analysis would be that you'll probably get better returns out of extending the life of the the

police vehicle fleet than you would from savings, energy savings um on electricity at the either of those.

I think so too. And Matt, we had you had talked about may um maybe well like correct me if I'm wrong that this would be a minimally upfit vehicle with lights that were programmable so that when it shifts to highway or water, it goes from being red and blue lights to being yellow lights, right? It's not a It's not a physical light change like like other police vehicles are. This is like an LED, right?

Um so it would be that the seal whatever whatever you're wanting the wrap to be. What else?

Yeah, I'm trying to get I'm trying to figure that out. Uh because I don't want to we we you know minimal is minimal. So it's going to be bare minimum. It's going to be a transport vehicle for getting that extra officer around and using that thing when we need it um for basically anything other than patrol. So, lights, sirens, minimal graphics, like the graphics, I'm okay with just black letters on the truck that say police, old spring police. um just so that it's easily identified and not just a truck driving around with red and blue lights on it. But really, that's that's it. I can't think of anything else that that vehicle is going to need. It's not going to need a mobile data terminal. Um it's not going to need a mount for the radio. We can use a portable radio in it, you know. Uh other than that, I mean, light lights and sirens is what I was thinking. no case, you know,

and and it can use the it can be charged on the charger if if we were to end up with a lightning. If we were lucky enough to end up with one of the remaining lightnings, it could be charged at the wastewater plant, right? Correct. Yes. Okay.

Now, that's where we started getting into all the other stuff with the plug-in hybrid because you have less infrastructure. You could plug it in at the highway garage. Um, but you know, the idea was mine. We were trying to figure out what we could do to extend the life of the cars that we have and try to get back on this track of replacement replacement vehicles. Um, so we're not running into the issue we've had these last couple of years with dumping money into these things like crazy. Um, and as far as what we get, if we get something as far as an EV is concerned, that really is the decision for you guys. If the plan was to turn it over to either high a highway or wastewater, um, you guys are looking for a pickup truck. We're okay with that. If you were looking for something else, we're okay with that. this is a a an additional vehicle, you know, it's not even like a supplement vehicle because I can't say that we're just going to be using it to supplement things here and there. It's going to be a vehicle that we're are going to use for the things we're doing now with our gas vehicles to take the miles and the hours off of those gas vehicles to extend the life of those. So, if you told us we were getting a, you know, a Chevy Volt hatchback for these guys to drive around and that's what we're going for. It, you know, it you guys are going to have to make that decision. You say, "Well, then maybe you should get a plug-in hybrid." Okay, then we'll go with a plug-in hybrid. You know what I mean? That part of the whole thing that is pretty much up to you guys to decide. We made the suggestion. And I made the suggestion to put one of those EVs into the fleet, you know, one to see how it would do, two, to take the miles and hours off of another vehicle. You know, it's not going to be it may be running as long as

a patrol vehicle and that's going to be the telltale thing to, you know, let us know if this is going to be suitable for something in the future. It's also it's a good experiment in that in question of of electric vehicles and and the department. So the the I think the decisions before the board are or going ahead going ahead with a Durango out of fund balance and redirecting potentially redirecting the nicer grant to an electric vehicle potentially meaning that' be subject to a full board um or or that is budget neutral

doing that. So, we don't have to make that decision tonight if you would prefer to. I wanted to have the conversation while we had Matt here to explain, but we can hold off that decision until everyone's back. What were you thinking of? What does this decision actually mean at this particular point that we are going to do it or that it's in for the purposes? Well, it's budget neutral. Right. It's budget neutral. Right. Right. I while Matt was here, I wanted to talk about it, but we don't have to make a decision tonight. There's nothing about that decision that impacts this budget. the the car comes out of fund balance that also is not and for the nera grant I would put the revenue and the expense in on a NAERTA grant

expense and revenue line so that through the year when it's decided and the contracts are modified to whatever the project's going to be it's there but it's not going to say nicerta certain amount here it's just naerta with the grant total reasonable okay Are we good with that option? Yeah. Okay. Is there anything else in particular that we need to talk about with Matt while he's here? I mean, most of most of the police department lines are are um contractual.

Have we addressed the questions that you had if you had any on those in those lines? Um I guess the only other area that may impact the budget um OIC had requested weekend details. Oh, right. Let's talk about that.

Um for six to eight hours during the main chunk of the time for let's call it the new busy season, April to November. We talked about different data points and things like that. So, April to November is roughly 35 weekends on average. Um, the request was Saturdays and Sundays. It started at 8. It's in the budget for 6 hours Saturdays and Sundays. Started at 35 weekends down to 30. Realistically, it's going to rain a couple weekends. Um, you may have scheduling conflicts. So although the thought is there that you may need an officer every Saturday and Sunday for 35 weekends, in reality that probably won't happen. So I dropped the budget by

five weekends, which is 10 details. How many hours? Six hours per Saturday, six hours per Sunday. What's six hours? That was originally the sea streak. Matt, that's where it came from. had done 8 hours. He said that it was a request at one point from the board to go up to 8 hours, but budgetary wise if we could come back down to six to be able to spread the officers over a longer period of time, it would work better.

I mean, I'd I'd love to do eight hours, but I think if we're wanting to get weekend presence. Go ahead. No, it was I was more just thinking about what hours that would actually be taking place that that Yeah. So that that was Yeah. So that was going to align up with you know the typical sea streak hours which was um you know 10:00 what was it 10 to 4 um and then that additional eight the the eight hour block was obviously till 6:00. So that would have been from 10 to 6 instead of from 10 to 4, you know,

during that heightened time. You know, we really do need it, you know, I mean, people are usually tapering off around five or six, but as it gets nicer out, as the days get longer, they may stick around a little bit longer, but, you know, I think that's a I think that's a good time. You know, judging by what I've seen, 10 o'clock, I don't think that's a terrible start time. Let's say in the in the public record that we are needing to make a decision about adding additional officers because of heavy visitation that Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Not get we do not get our full share of of our taxes back to help offset this cost. So, we're making a decision for public safety to add an additional officer for these hours on these weekends. Yeah. And originally I had put in for, you know, I use that range April to November. Um, you know, we're coming up on April very shortly. Is it going to explode in the beginning of April? Don't know. If it does, we'll be prepared for it. And as it tapers off like we saw

it tapered off towards October, you know, we could lessen that at that time. It's like on a, you know, as needed basis, but during that peak season, it's really something that we're going to have to we're going to have to do budget for it and be and have the option than not. Exactly. And that's that's what I did with that with everything. You know what I mean? I whether whatever you needed to do with it, I always put everything in as like, you know, I always plan for the worst and hope for the best. So, you know, I do that with everything. So, if I went a little overboard with it, you know, I did. Um, just so that way there's no surprises later on down the road.

Matt, are you those those extra weekend shifts, are you planning to overlap them so that one officer would go say from 10 till 4 and the second one would go from 12 till 6? Would that help? No, no, no, no, no. So, you would have your standard tours A, B, and C. You'd have you'd have 12 12 to 8, then you'd have 8 to 4, and then you'd have 4 to 12. In between during that beline, that 8 to 8 to 8 to 4 shift, we would have a second officer coming in at 10:00 and working till 4 or 6, whatever you preferred to do. Okay. So that way we would have two officers on during the day day tour where it's needed the most.

Understood. Thank you. Okay. 10 after 10 and we still have the rest of the general fund that we did not hit last week. Um are we we've gotten what we needed? Yeah. Okay. Thank you for hanging out so late. Matt, you're welcome. You won't be offended if I leave, will you? No, we will not be. We'll be lonely. Have a good night. Thank you. You You all have a good night. Thank you. You probably have good night 45 minutes, right? What What do we How do we get through it all, do you think? Max 45 minutes.

Are there items in particular that you that you want focused attention on in the general fund? Um

let's start with um do you want to give a quick update on the back ho? Oh yeah. Um the backhoe two things happened with the backhoe. Um Bugsy and I met with the town supervisor and the highway superintendent. The work the IMA is structured for periodic help, not regular help. Yeah. And for liability, when you borrow a piece of equipment, it comes with an operator. Y So that would mean pulling someone off their crew every time Bugsy needed a backho. I just don't think it's realistic. I did want to make sure that those the estimates for cost of for repair were accurate and they're they're actually

more than accurate. They're more than accurate. Yeah. Um, I had another uh Riverview Industries came in today and looked at the machine and he opened the door and said lifted up the the mat and said, "Somebody's going to fall right through this." So, um, I our options are to to buy or not buy. I'm I would not myself be interested in leasing. The town does lease their vehicles, but it's lease to own. Mhm. Um, if we can avoid spending money on interest by doing that, I'd rather buy it outright,

but I don't I I think we can't continue to use that vehicle and the condition it's in. And oh, and the other feedback was that both from Adam hoteling at the town and from the Riverview gent the gentleman who came from Riverview today is that price is a really good price. Yeah. Yeah. So, looks like on the new purchase. Yeah. On the new purchase, the 119 is a really good price. Okay. So, it's currently in the budget as a a fund balance item to be paid in one shot.

And he also, the Riverview guy also said you'll probably we probably get 10,000 bucks for the one we have auction the one we have. So, that offsets some Because right now I think we only have the dump trucks in there, right? And a few miscellaneous things. The garbage trucks. I'm sorry. Garbage trucks. That helps a little bit. What else?

So then, um, we got through like snow removal. We didn't have much left on the general front. um and just run through it. Uh but we need to go through in detail, not tonight, but we need to go through the the the fees set getting numbers for the fee changes, building permit, building out the building out the building permit modifications. And you've included I've included title search changes already.

Okay. Title search already. model search changes dumpster escrow escro doesn't and HDRB changes I've already included okay those are easy easier to quantify the number we don't have yet and we won't have until the attorney is finished with his draft is parking these uh waiverss

so so we're keeping currently to pass this budget we know we want to have a discussion about I think we want to have a discussion about docking and and benches but we don't have it we don't have the numbers we need to make other decisions so we're leaving those as they are right now right and you did fix dumpsters and pods so I think we've squeezed what we can out of the scheduling

recreation as uh the department as a whole Um they are not requesting much. They do a lot of fundraising on their own. Um minimal repairs, minimal Christmas um decorations. They like to replace a couple light strings. Um the big item there would be um the wasp control. We've done it a couple times. I think we should include it in the budget. Um, and the Wreck is still actively working for a treatment plan at Mayor Park for the lawn. So, that's been in the budget that hasn't been spent in the past year or two, but they are working on trying to get that going.

I don't know if it's comes out of budget. I did ask Bud Bugsy to change the lights on the reads to all one bulb because some of them are blue white, some of them are a yellow white. It's a minor. It's a minor. I don't know what the number would be, but would that come out of bre? Yeah, it usually comes out of celebrations, which would be the next line as yellow. I asked him for warm for warm. We can he can we can get samples and test them. They should be warm. They should be warm for sure. And all the same. Right now it's right be a little bit crazy. Yeah. Every day.

VBA and planning board. There's personal services for you know the board secretary and the work that goes into that and contractual for their training. Um garbage and recycling that is a the garbage line is a contract with Royal. Um it's based off of the bottom line number in the new Royal contract. Recycling is food scraps program. Laura did suggest that the food scraps be updated a little bit um or increased I should say. So that update for an increased hauling frequency is included in the budget.

Um the gu the pizza I did talk to the pizza place. They're thrilled to have the option of re pizza box recycling good bins. Um I I have a call that I need to return. They may want also another garbage bin there. So, we need to work that out um for additional pickup. That would be need to shift. But um that they're like $500 those recycling bins. They would be in there under a fund balance purchase or Okay. One, two, three.

I think on the busy weekends we could fill two easily. Yeah. I'm just trying to picture what where they would go though is the thing. And it's kind of like that would be a lot of garbage can. Start with one and see how we do.

Wondering Tab tab is requesting their normal allocation which is 10,500 to be used and then

due to heavy winter they weren't able to do the preventative pruning um during the dormant season for to help prevent damaged limbs and storms. Last year from a lot of the wind storms limbs were just coming down. So, the board thought, let's give them 15,000 at a fund balance to do a big bid for preventative pruning. Jen and the TAB are asking if that can be pushed. They're not. They can't do it now. Dormant season is practically over, if not over. They want to reallocate that 15,000 towards next year. I have a thought on that which is that the central Hudson just came through and and and cut back trees. Um, I don't know. Do they do we still need I mean it's I guess it's budget neutral because it's coming out of general fund.

It's coming out of the fund balance, but I mean I'm sorry. We're talking a lot about spending fund balance. So, it's prudent to have the conversations if there are places where it's not going to get I mean, I don't know if that's what Tab would say, but I feel like there's the potential to reduce that line given that they just spent the grant money on Main Street and we will call it pruning that Central Hudson did on side streets. Should I take it out? Yeah. Well, if they're Yeah. Especially if they're not asking for it, then yeah, I would say they're asking for

they're asking for it to carry over to carry over. Is it an all or nothing thing? It has to be 15,000. I mean, we'll leave five. Yeah. I mean, I don't want to not prune and and be in a dangerous situation. But if we're looking at being squeezed, it's a spot. Five or or 75 7500 to have it. Yeah.

Then the after the departments the next quote department on the budget which is second to last one is benefits. So in the benefits includes pensions. It's employees. It's called police and fire even though it's only police and then LOAP which would be the volunteer firefighters. on retirement. We've talked about that LOAP has gone up a little bit. We we haven't talked about that ERS and PFRS, the two state pensions have also gone up. And they've gone up for different two different reasons. One is that each year or every two years, the state sets an employer's contribution rate based on a tier. So depending on what tier the member is in depends on how much the municipality needs to contribute. On the ERS side, um the contribution rates went up about 1% for some tiers, 2% for other tiers. On the police side, it went up 3 and a half% for a specific tier. And because of turnover and staffing, um it went up over 10% in another because someone that had left and now someone that was hired, they're in different tiers and the difference is 10%.

So So um age, your a your your longevity in the program is one factor. Yeah. And in the police and fire, there are several different plans within that tier. Okay?

And it's a very complex schedule um depending on if it's a 20-year plan, 25 things like that. So everything went up from anywhere from 1 to 3% and then 10% on that one particular person. Also, the pensions are on a lag. So the pension year is April 1st to March 31st, which covers one of our fiscal years. And then for all those earnings, the payment contribution is due the following February. We pay it in December to get a slight discount. So it's on a lag. So when the village is adding staff, full-time staff, you feel the personnel in wages in the first year and then you feel the pension in the following year. Um so we're going through that. We added

um a 50-50 laborer. Um there was significant staffing changes through the years. Um and now we have more steady field positions. Um, so those increases, these pension contribution rates have increased significantly from years past and it's due to changes in staffing and having more staffing and contribution rates. Um, it's not negotiable. It is what it is. It is what it is. We're in the pension part of that cycle right now on the back end, the back end cost as opposed to the front end cost. You were saying they've been in their positions and earned their

Yeah. And then so the rest of the benefits, um, FICA is 7.65% of all wages paid. Workers comp insurance, um, I estimated a 10% increase. We got news from Kieran that they are projecting a 0% increase. Y, um, and that for workers comp, um, it's not locked in yet. They have, but, um, it's a good indicator that it will be at zero. It may even be a little less. um two years ago it did go down a little bit. What does that buy us costwise?

40. One second and I'll come back to that. Okay. So also which we did last week is the liability insurance. I also projected a 10%. Karen said it's more likely to be fiveish. So I put 6% in. So I dropped it by four. So if we add in the savings from those three workers comp, there's two workers comp lines and one liability line. It's 6868. Okay, that's not nothing.

Workers comp is, you know, usually at least 50,000 for the year and liability is even higher among the three funds. Um so it's helpful. Um the ban is so debt is the last department based on the advice of financial advisor unisat they should assume a 4.25% 25% rate for the ban renewal of interest due to the uncertainty of the timeline for FEMA reimbursements and projecting that we rebarorrow the entire fair street project until because if we only borrow the non FEMA portion not exactly sure when FEMA's reimbursements will come through. I don't want to have problems with cash flow. Let's just make clear that the the money for fair street is now with dishes. It has been

the FEMA portion of Fair Street. Yes. The federal portion of Fair Street is in New York State hands. So, I'm not now ftting about not getting it from the feds. We have to do the draw down and the process and timeline and and Dishes has contracted a bit too. So, I anticipate that it's it timelines are going to be long. That's probably smart. Um will we also get a portion of that interest back to um on the FEMA portion that we're borrowing for? So I understand FEMA repays the interest, right? To apply for it, but it has been told to us that it is an eligible expense. It's as hopeful as you get with FEMA.

Okay. Yeah, it's tough enough to get feel good inside. Yeah, that's general fund. So now what the feedback we gave you becomes the next round that's ready for the 20th, right? Because we're not going to see we're not going to be in session again before the 20th.

So March 20th is a deadline for the state to have a taxative balanced budget. Um which is Friday. the iteration of the budget that we've been talking about over the past three weeks, even through the changes. Um before we started tonight, it was a 12,000 uh $13,000 difference um expenses over revenue. based on feedback in different sessions and you know some savings we had to add in things to the budget which made the gap 26,000 for round numbers if we add in the streak for some days the net revenue there plus the insurance savings it has not been passed in state's budget yet, but it is from Nikcom and on the house, I think both houses, I'm not sure, an extra 2,300 in AIM TMA funding. So, I'm going to add that in.

Yeah. Um, so that comes up to 21,000. So, 26US 21, we're over by five. If we add in something for the backhoe, if we sell it at the same time as the garbage trucks, um close that would close the gap.

Great. I do want to have one other revenue conversation to make sure. Um, the iteration of the budget has metering fees for West Street of about $17,000. That so that is that's an assumption. I Google mapped it. There's 21 spaces. Um, so I did 20 spaces in case the board has the wiggle room to do something 15, whatever. um $2 an hour. I did it at four hours instead of the whole eight for the busy season on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And that's where I got the 17 from. So, it's a cautious but still significant.

That's not that one isn't a hard it won't it's not as hard a lift as the upper village because the enabling legislation is already in place. The resident parking is already in place. We need signs down there. There are no resident parking signs. We need signs and um I don't I see doing it all app based from what we're the way we're seeing the money come in as opposed to putting a meter down there. I mean our meter technology is is old anyway and we are seeing people increasingly use app. So that just seems like an easy spot. Yep. Andrew, are you okay with keeping that in? Yeah.

Okay. Okay. So then it's balanced for Friday. We can still make changes, just every change we make, revenue and expense. Um, and we'll have to have probably another conversation about some of the capital project and grants, fund balance, things like that, but they should be mostly budget neutral. Okay, well done you. Did we come out around 400 out of fund balance on that bit more, right? 415. Okay. Yeah.

I'm going to add in 416. Not keeping with recent years. Okay. Water is here. Could be a little less because we're taking 7500 off

water and waste water right now as the budgets are they are both balanced. I think let's start with the conversation about the revenue. If it's okay, can we talk about water and sew together? Sometimes I think it's easier. Even though they are separate funds, a lot of the stuff overlaps. Yeah.

So, in the budget for the revenues um is a five to six% increase on both flat rates and both usage rates. If you have a one meter one unit household that uses on average 5,000 gallons a month. Um, individual uses varies, but um I've looked at a couple sample houses and 15,000 seems to be a middle of the range. Um, you're looking at a $5 a month increase. So between the water flat, the sewer flat, water usage, sewer usage, it becomes an estimated $5 per month to

Yeah. I um I feel pretty strongly. We had a conversation when we last looked at rates about um whether flat rates were regressive. My feeling is it cost the same to deliver clean portable water to every every faucet. Um that the the the usage rate is where you capture you incentivize people to use less, but we have to pay to get water to the household no matter how much anybody uses.

Yeah. I mean, I think the the usage the flat rate is potentially progressive, but the usage rate is progressive. Right. Right. So, I'm not exactly sure how many gallons have, but Well, I mean, it just from a from a from a cost perspective, it's all the same. Whether you use Mhm. 100 gallons a day or you use 500 gallons a day, we it's our cost is still the same for producing that water. Yeah.

Okay. using those increases without any changes to the budget. It's balanced for water and sewer. Um the fund balance there's a small fund balance allocation of 29,000 22,000. The water fund fund balance is I should I didn't print it. It's over 600,000 right now. The sewer fund balance is a little under 200,000. So the sewer fund balance has been going down.

I'm sorry. Could you say the number for waste water again?

Um a little under 200. I can I'll have better numbers. That number has gone up a little bit and then it's been going down because of the costs of the plants. So that's why we're starting to borrow um to be able to do more projects, but down the road we'll have to have more conversations about the sewer rate. Right now we're focusing on the water rates to be able to afford the bond payment, but we can't totally neglect sewer. Um, right now using about 22,000 in fund balance balances the budget for sewer. Um, I just wanted to point that out that that fund balance keeps going down. The water is, as I said, hovering about the same and we've been using a little bit of it to help front some of the dam engineering costs. So, our the the bond that we just authorized is also there's the 200,000 in the fund balance and then we authorized 250,000 via bond lasting.

Right. So I mean it's we have we will have more than just the 200 to spend on repairs and capital project at the at the planning to just spend mostly the 250 that's being borrowed. Right. You've got the payment maybe I'm not asking the question well at 10:30 but we've got the payments for the bonds. Yes. included in in the budget right now. Start paying them down.

Um, okay. Sorry. Water funds as a whole. It's mostly operating expenses. Um, there are some large expenses other than operating. The large expense here is for dam engineering. Um I'm waiting um the remark to we talked about this last week. He got back to me. I have to get back to him again. How much really the damn engineering is going to be in fiscal year 2627. Um the timelines have shifted because of the grant a little bit. Um so right now I have $24,000. Um that includes work that didn't get done in 2526 what Mark had projected for 2627 and every 10 years there is a report that needs to be done and in October that is up and so that assessment is $36,000 for the lower dam report

just did that so that's why that number is so high yep I don't depending waiting for Mark to firm up that number. If it goes up or stay even stays the same, we might want to consider doing a a bond resolution to ban for design um instead of having to pay it all out of fund balance. Right now I have a bunch of it balanced out of the budget itself because of the rates, but if that number for whatever reason jumps to 253, it starts to get too high. We might have to have that conversation.

Um, and this is strictly for design work. Um, we have to remember there's permitting and other things and that's why I removed the Catskill aqueduct pump house. Um, I don't see that moving forward anytime soon. A new line in the budget is water mane repairs. Over the past two years, we've had to do emergency repairs and have a contractor come in. Um, so we added that line. So, it's not always an expense without a budget.

And then $42,000 increased for ban interest pending um the grant application for the other part of the DA. And we should have by next week we should have an update on the property acquisition. The attorneys are are talking feverishly. Depending on how the property acquisition goes, um there may be additional resolutions necess could impact sale sale price.

I don't think so. Stop me if you think it is. Well, I'm I'm I'm just nervous because it's a it's a delicate situation that if you want to talk about the purchase, we should probably do that in executive session. So, I would make a motion at uh 38 38 to enter executive session to discuss real property acquisition. the discussion of which which in public might impact pricing. That's that's roughly how the wording goes. Second. All in favor? I.

It is 10:50. I made a motion to exit exit executive session about a minute ago. Andrew Hall seconded it. We voted unanimously to come out and now I make a motion to adjurnn. Oh. Oh, we got sewer. Five minutes. Oh, sewer waste water. Five minutes. I was so hopeful for a moment. We've got 10 minutes on the clock. The fund itself is balance. Large expenses andor changes year-over-year. Um sledge hauling

is increasing. Um it had decreased a little bit due to restrictions on truck size with the fair street project. Um so it's catching up. Um, and to keep the plant happy, Matt thinks that 8,000 an 8,000galon tank per week, every week is the best way to go. So, that's why sledge hauling has increased. Um, it makes it more the plant more efficient by doing that. It's also just gross to have it down there. Yeah.

Um, pension contributions, the same conversation we had in the general fund rolls over here. Um the bond one of the bonds went away so there's 35,000 left less in principal but we upped some of the interest for the new Raz pump project. The rest of wastewater is salaries and operating that they say is the rest of the story. Who is that? Oh,

I'm off on my own lane right at the moment. Paul Harvey rest the rest of the story. You are talking about you're old enough to know. They're not. They're not. Are we adjourned? Are we done? Can we are we done? You have to make a motion. Okay. Motion to return. All in favor? tonight.