Board of Selectmen - Regular Meeting

defends one nation with liberty and justice for all. I start with let's start with the board of health. So can I get a motion from select to board of health? I will make a motion to enter into board of health. Second. All those in favor?

I even everyone uh my name is Jason Rodu and I'm one of the designers with Designs McGford. Uh I'm here tonight on behalf of the at 173 Cell Road. We are looking to request relief for two of the town's um ordinances. Um they currently have a septic system that has failed in some need replacement. Um based on some of the lock conditions, there will be um substantial costs uh that would be required in order to meet the town's requirements. Um, so your first uh ordinance that we're looking to seek the lead for is the Kensington zoning ordinance article 7 section 71D 3A6 that requires a work with separation distance from the bottom of the septic system to the seasonal high water table. And the second one that we are looking to request is article 7 section 71D3C requiring a 35 ft property lane setback. Um so as I mentioned the current septic is failed. Um it's also not a property line setback. The current septic system is an old drywill that predates any sort of septic permitting. So the the property has a high water table. Based on that, the dry well is currently in the water table and pollutium and ground water. So we're looking to put in new septic system um to to bring it up to today's code and improve existing conditions. Um see here we have a system positioned as far down slope as we can while still making the system more traffic fed. Uh if we were to use the

town's requirements for the 4T separation distance from the water table to the bottom of the septic system, it would require a pump um based on the poor soil conditions on site. The septic would end up having to be mounted 4 ft above the grade um the finished grade from what the new system will be to what it is now. there would be a significant mound that would end up uh causing some runoff issues with the road at neighboring properties. So, um keeping it at 2 ft to the water table, which is what the safe requires, will allow us to kind of blend it in a little bit better and also not need a pump. The issue with this property is that there is a subtle grade change from the right side to the left, but there isn't really enough to get it to work gravity with that fourth water table. Um, another issue is that there isn't great access to get to the back of the property where the plumbing is. So, we need to use plastic septic tank. Um, when you are doing a pump system with a plastic septic tank, you end up needing to need a second septic tank because that pump can't go within the first plastic tank. It's just the way that the the plastic manufacturers make their systems. They don't really know why. Um, but keeping it at that 2T separation distance will save cost on on fill, but also would uh negate the the need to have a second septic tank and the pump. Um, so these are things that are just adding additional expenses to the pro uh to the project um that are, you know, due to the town requirements and so conditions that are out of my client's control. Um, so with where the septic is positioned, um, we can't bring it any more up slope without, um, requiring a pump. Um, and so that also forces us to have to encroach on either

the side property line setback or the front property line setback. Um, so we are requesting relief. We allow that leech field to be 15 from the property line. So, we would either have to go the side and based on how the lot gets configured. We feel that it makes the most sense to approach towards the the road. Um, it's going to decrease the amount of fill that's needed to build up the system and it's also just going to keep the septic system further away from the green property. I think it's uh 169 road is the neighbor to the left. Um, but you know, we're just looking to try and keep that system um as as far away from the neighboring property as possible. Um, and also just trying to make it work gravity for them. So, does anybody have any questions or want me to explain anything further? Are you going to have to go onto the neighbor's property or is it

not for to install it or no? Like truck access to run you No. No. I'm coming. Sarah, I think this is one of some of the other ones that we've seen where it meets the state requirements such as ours.

Right. Yeah. We have the the reserve area. There's also some pretty large trees that we're trying to avoid. I mean, he's going to end up having to take down some trees anyways, but um pushing it towards it it just would cause a a lot more material to be needed to have to meet that 35T setback and 4T separation distance, which you know, the runoff going to the neighbor on the side and out back of the property. There could even be some issues with like the driveway going towards the barn itself. Um, so I mean it's it's positioned in a pretty good spot, I think. Um, we also wouldn't be able to replace it in the location of the current dry well just because there's so little space to work with doesn't meet the current town's requirements. of anything.

Does this uh positioning of this protect the neighbors properties in case of an overrun of the tank?

Yeah. So they I mean there's they the the tank is so far away that there don't really be any issue with the with that. And they also have a natural like there's like a rock wall um on that side of the property as well. So, and I also have the it's kind of just on the it's on the 75T well radius. Uh so we're we're far enough away from the neighbor's well um there there wouldn't be any sort of issue with contaminating in the event of of failure. And we're also you know that current septic is is failed and is in the in the water table. So it's proving existing conditions. Is this system going to run well? Is it going to

Yeah, I mean we we always recommend stone and pipe systems. The the downside to stone pipe systems that they are larger, but you know, whenever we tell people why we design what we do, we feel that the stone pipes, they've been around the longest. You know, the very first plans that were permitted in the state were sewing pipe leech fields. they just have such a a greater shelf life compared to some of the other newer smaller systems. Um I tr with my parents and they always say they don't need them like they used to type of thing and that kind of is like septic system. So um it's just the downside of having a more rugged septic system. It has to be bigger. Um, and it's just it wouldn't be feasible to fit a stolen bike given the conditions on his law meeting the the town's requirements, given the amount of fiddle and some of the other issues that could happen if we were to meet all the requirements.

Your question seems it seems straightforward. Um, don't know. I just want the slopes and all that stuff, but I'm just wondering if there's going to be some underground runoffs that could pop up that could get fed by this this uh installation. the the finished grade mods that are on the plan are are more or less what the state wants to see on their plans. The installer is going to have the freedom to kind of do additional grading work to make sure that you know some of the where the finished grade of the new material ties into the existing grade isn't as sharp. So they're able to divert water away from you know maybe the neighboring properties. Um

the thing my concern is is uh the neighbors make sure they're they're protected that they don't get Yeah. that anticipated. I know there's a fence I think there's a fence in a in a rock wall that's in the tree line between 173 and 169. So that that would help a little bit as well. Um,

when you mentioned that the alternative was building a big island and and that that would create some runoff issues. Yep. This placement though alleviates that potential runoff issue.

Yeah. Yeah, cuz I mean if you're going to be mounting that system up an extra 2 ft, there's going to be even more of a slope that's that's coming on that septic system going towards every direction basically because right now with design system for the 2T water table, it's able to connect to the as I said is in the 230 ft contour line, which is the solid line that kind of runs in between the leaf shield and the barn. So when this is all said and done, that yard is just going to basically look like a big leveled out area versus if it needed if it met the town requirements of the Portland separation, it would have to come up an extra 2 ft where you would end up having more of that mounded, you know, pump in the yard. Um, which will just not help with the runoff situation. Anyone want to make a motion?

Make a motion to approve the two variance uh ordinance waiverss for 173 South Road. I'll second. All those in favor? I I Thank you very much. Make a motion to exit. Second. All those in favor. I put that to business. Nothing.

Uh just on the fly side. Um, we had the new base station radio installed and they did a check to make sure we all working and come to find out we need a new antenna on the building for that base station. So, truthfully, I'm not surprised that antenna has been reoccurring. Yeah, you got a new antenna. Somehow it never had done.

Yep. tried the local dice and didn't didn't come up right. I ordered one hopefully about 10 minutes sooner. Um that's it for fire. Um just EOC wise um we're getting our first storm tomorrow. So please drive carefully. That's it. Are you activating the EOC or just play? Okay.

Uh, speaking of the impending storm, I've spoken to um to crews. All the plow trucks are ready to go. Fueled up, plowed on, saw pushed from the shed. So, we're ready for our version snowman from the uh something to look out for. Remember that with the solar panels, you know, we need to look out what happens here. Okay.

Uh if it's an issue, the solar panel company is ready for them to mitigate it. So if you think that it's a danger, they can come and they already put in a couple thousand dollar to put in the the guards all over the place that will prevent the snow sliding. Yeah. Act shingles. Okay. Okay. So this will be a test.

Yeah. Both the contracts are signed today. All right. Guess we should move on to our energy committee. Uh first the warrant. Are we talking about that or would you just like an update before we do that? Uh

let's do an update first. See, so we have been um continuing to work on the geothermal project. Um the last energy meeting was a little heated. Uh it was contested again in person. uh we did our best with explaining everything from our end but of course that conversation should happen here since it's the board that's approving this forward of course we advise that we're running everything but um we are going to try and defer those questions to these meetings if possible um in the meantime we have been doing uh on research on the tax side of things so we lend cap. We're going to try to talk to a professional CPA about this somehow, but then on on my end, I'm also trying to find a CPA that even if it's just, you know, guidance, it's not a typical process. It's just nuanced. Um, and we should be just like we said in the very beginning, there's there are no issues and we are still on on track to qualify for the 40%. Uh, but we just want to have as much documentation as possible. Um, I did talk to the drilling company, so they are back on schedule. Uh, mid January is when they expect to be able to start drilling. Uh, so after the rush of the dry wells, they're finishing up their December with the residential geo before the rebates go away and mid January, they they'll start doing all the rest of the project. So, mid January, I want to get a definitive date and then we can start back up assuming nothing changes with with the uh the

funding. Um yeah, I think that's that's all the we have. Um Kathy has been receiving emails now for the solar panel system. So there are weekly alert uh summaries just in case there's anything wrong with the system. She'll get a weekly report and also monthly generation reports. Uh that was another thing that was brought up in our energy committee uh meeting by one of the residents. So being able to show how much we're generating. So yeah, so that's what it looks like. Uh so if you scroll to the right it shows the monthly the you'll get a monthly generation and which they're not really that residents may be interested in. So right there it says per month 1300 kilwatt hours. So we are going into the winter which that's why it's been going lower right so last month it was 2200 the one before was like 3,000 um and then overall we're at 10.2 megawatt hours. So, we're still on track. Exactly like the simulation has been shown. So, that's good news. Uh, so unless unless the sun goes away for the next 200 days, everything is exactly what no change. I think that was it for the radio dates beyond the war article that Charlie question with drilling not happening until January. Does that change any of the rebates or taxes for potentially eligible for?

No. No. So, the uh it's the residential rebates that go away at the end of this month. Okay. The commercial rebates are they were kept as is until 2032. So, no problem there. It's also another reason why they're prioritizing us the way they are because they they told us that this could be something that was happening with the the rush of residential projects that they had closing up here uh you know come January we should be good and for the air quality I don't think this is like for the air quality right now until we get this new system in are we how is that going

it's been okay so the humidity is case where it's low but low humidity in the winter is not that uncommon. Um I will run the radon. So the radon humidity is still going into the not it's not bad but it's not the best that we can make it. Um I imagine it's and I'm just speculating because I don't have total numbers but in the winter the because it's so oversized which is common with boilers it's short cycling. So it's turning on for 10 minutes and then shutting off for 20 minutes. So we see the the radon kind of does this. Um it's very likely that that's why the the system that's in place is very susceptible to the changes of the Hback system. um we shouldn't see this problem unless we hope once we put on the the new system and then if we need to do something after the HI systems in place I think now we have enough data to go to a company and explain exactly what we need to uh but the HRV has been running so that's that's good news for the filtration has been exchanging air many times the day so I would say until until the AC would have to come on I things should be exactly how they've been following, right? There's no change in the winter, obviously.

Anything else? Okay, by the way, we move on to the uh war.

Good evening. 21 I was on an energy committee and I wanted to bring um two things that had come to our attention recently to travel to the board because you can see one of them requires that we weren't able to be adopted by the board to create a uh commercial property assessed energy and resiliency district. So, we went to a conference uh clean energy New Hampshire conference, the local energy solutions conference up in Manchester in um in September and we've got a this uh sepaser or commercial property assessed clean energy and resiliency loan program and we're kind of excited about it. It funds all kinds of clean energy upgrades and construction. And um so we were talking about it at one of our meetings and we realized that there were probably some properties in town that could benefit from this this program and I'll tell you more about the details of the program. We indeed did did uh receive a contact from the center of the nurture um child care program and uh they are looking at significant improvements in order to bring that building up to code and and uh do some significant energy upgrades and so on. and they would be a prime candidate for the C pacer loan program which is sort of a secondary loan program on um terms that can run for up to 30 years and it is it can fund 100% of a project um and it uh can fund up to 35% of the assessment value of those property. So it's really a very generous

very useful one. Um it's a state legislative uh initiative. CPACE is actually or CPACE and it's been around for many many years but it was very burdensome the way it was originally written for the towns. They've got a lot of administrative uh burden in terms of recording the the the acts as a loan but the loan is recorded as a special assessment by the town. Uh it travels with the property. So there were a lot of administrative things that the the town was involved more in um negotiating of the loans and um and that has all been turned over to another entity, the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority. That's quasi public state agency. So basically now the the town is relieved of much of that responsibility while its residents within this clean energy district now might have access to some very good um financing to do to do the projects. So it's um it's includes residential u it's commercial property nonprofit or for or forprofit but not municipal. Um it includes residential properties with five unawward dwelling units. Otherwise, residential properties are not included in this program. Uh it gives them access to affordable long-term financing from the private sector. This is all private funds for energy efficiency, renewable energy, water conservation, and resilience upgrades. Projects can be retrofit or new construction. And I'll read out a list of the many many projects that would come into play. And retrofitting an old building, turning a restaurant into a daycare, I think is going to

require um that fit this program in many many ways. So again, no funding comes from governmental sources uh for CPAC pros and there's no cost to the town. If the channel runs into any incidental costs in recording the leans or leasing the lean or any legal advice about there's an agreement you have to enter into with the um business finance authority. All of those are reinous and you know no charge to the tenant. Uh the loans are secured by the special assessment lean on the property itself and it's junior only to municipal leans on the property. So tax leans and that kind of thing are senior to to this loan. So it's a very it's a very secure kind of loan. And interestingly because it travels with the property the return on investment which in many developers minds makes them make sort of shortsighted decisions about um installing energy systems which have a payback of a long time as we found out. So this long being able to have a transfer with the property, the newborn takes over takes over all the benefits and takes over the loan. Um that makes these uh projects much more uh attractive to to the developers and to the retrofits. Uh let's see. So here's a list of the projects. Solar tech systems and battery storage, energy efficient lighting and controls, high performance insulation, windows, doors and roofing, efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning, HVAC systems, geothermal and air source heat pumps, water conservation technologies, building automation systems for energy management, flood, wildfire and storm resilience operated such as backup

generators, flood barriers, fire suppression, systems, etc. Electric vehicle charging infrastructure for commercials. Other improvements that increased energy efficiency, use renewable energy or enhanced building results. These are being very broadly considered. So, a project I could carry would be looking to to have a number of those kinds of systems involved. And you can think of a lot of other properties in town that might be looking at um some resiliency um sibling to the floods or creating water systems uh storm resilience that kind of as the climate changes. So it's a it's a real win for everybody that a community benefits the tax base grows as as more properties either are built here or are are upgraded. uh it reduces energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions, improves public safety and the resilience of buildings. Uh no cost or financial risk to the town uh budget and for the property owner uh the financing and that includes because the property owner gets lower operating cost increases the asset value and increase net operating income the property. So the town the responsibility is you have to uh create this district um which basically says if you live in this in the town they suggest it encompass the entire town um then commercial properties as defined in here can access a caser. Then the property owner goes and negotiates with a lender and all of this is coordinated with the business and financing. they would reach an agreement um and come to the town and once the once the loan is secured and um it was have a

special assessment recorded payments are made over the time that the property the town that it's it's all paid off and then the town does a release of the of the lean and that's basically what the town has to do. the one over an agreement with the BFA recording of the lean and release of um questions is kind of a complicated program to explain real quick. I I have a couple. Um do you know if the taxes have to be paid in full before they can apply for these?

Yes. Um there's parameters.

Yes, there is a lang language there that taxes be paid in full and I think there's a $40,000 I the exact language but it serves the incent. Okay. And then who would track this? So the bureau would track this in that RSA it says the town does everything. So I'm just nervous about having another entity involved in that if it said the town responsible for it all. Oh yes. Now did you have the updated version of the RSA? I looked at that that older version last week and I thought, "Oh, he's not." But well, even though Warren article said the town's responses that yes, um the town in the in the revised language is able to uh enter into agreements with the BFA those responsibilities. The intent certainly of the revised law was to take the burden off the town, put it on the BFA and Yes. So there is not a lot of that language that in the form of law which just it didn't attract anybody. Any other questions? So you're proposing this as a warrant article for next year's?

Yes. And in the warrant article then we have to have a public hearing just to weigh the benefits to the public and ensure that they are indeed benefits to the public and not approve to any private citizen. So that comes after the warrant article is a warrant article. What the public hearering counties for the barred? Wouldn't the public hearing happen once the board decides that we want to put the warrant out and the public hearing and then the voting? Is that the process the order? Well, it's it's interesting the way this is worded that the suggestion that if if the ward article passes, the board of select show notice and hold a single hearing a but there's only there's only you know people here you can have it and that's out there information out before you actually make a decision tonight um to just let people know you're thinking about it. Um there still is time especially um if it is something the board has to do. It can't be a petitional from what I was looking at. So the board would have to put it forward.

Yes, it is a board the board has to put it forward. Yeah. But I don't think there would be any issue having the public hearing coming first. I don't Okay. can provide you with more information that's on the New Hampshire FA website. Is there enough commercial property in Kensington to justify this?

Well, it's interesting. I mean, I I think even one property would be would be if we help out one property get starting and starting to put money back into the tax rules rather than sitting handy. I believe the church would probably uh qualify. I I was looking at some other properties. The private school I think would would um qualify. This these can also be retroactive to projects that have been completed within 3 years of applying for the loan. So there may be maybe some way that that will benefit people, give them more money to to operate frozen grants. I mean, we do have we do have some commercial properties that might be looking at doing some longer term energy projects, but just can't um can't see the getting the financing. Yeah, I think it'd be helpful to get some more details on what that agreement with the New Hampshire, the BFA, like what that how that works and what that puts on the town in terms of responsibility and management.

Yeah. Um, you want that now?

I mean, if it's easy to explain or if there's a document you want to point us to, I certainly want a couple of PowerPoint. um whether you're executive director sounds basically and there's the all the agreements there's an agreement with the town with the BFA that you would have to look at and review who does what the bottom line is they try to make it as simple for the town as possible right they they go out and deal with the lenders on the property make sure the thing is qualified and um do a risk assessment and all of that kind of thing before before saying yeah to go

well I question does this um is there any impact for commercial operation on residential property you're allowed or

it's a little bit of a case by case I think um so one of the examples they gave was an agricult ultural piece of property with a commercial um or with a resident residence. Um it would it would really depend on how much of the property was residential and how much of it was really an agricultural which would be considered a commercial operation. So I think it would be a little bit case by case. They talked about um if you are working from home that would not qualify as a commercial if I think condos don't qualify but but actual five five unit apartments qualify and we don't have any of those in so there's a fall size for larger enterprises but not small uh could be Small as small

I mean as small as if it's a part of profit is you should allow so it's debt based no no it's based on oh government grants no it's part of I heard a lot about government grants or funding this whole thing you heard public private partnerships No public, no private, no middle no small scale. I didn't I didn't say small. I'm just I'm just trying to figure out what really is going on here in terms where is the money coming from ultimately comes from from lenders. Who are lenders?

There's a list on the website, right? Private lenders. And and who is receiving those loans? Commercial entities. Right. So this is a commercial enterprise only on commercial land in Kensington. Okay, got that straight. But so the town of Kensington does not need to concern itself with this because it's a commercial lander on commercial land. That's my view is how are people going to how are we going to get people interested in this?

Why do we have to get them interested in it? It's they will get interested in it. It's a particular kind of loan that is of interest to people who are wanting to do long-term energy with it on the property and it improves the tax base. If you if you have a a building currently sitting empty and this loan is going to enable that building to get into business, then you're getting more into your tax coffers and it's a benefit to the town. We have one one building sitting empty which is the grand job. Just being specific. Is there any other buildings sitting empty that we have to concern oursel with at this time? There may be. We don't know. Well, they're not now. Who would come forward? They're not now. But there are existing building that may be occupied that might like to do some energy retrofits and installation.

Yeah. But but you just said it's the private to private. Now you're talking about personal homes, private homes. Okay. So what commercial buildings exist now in Kensington that might benefit from this that are unoccupied nurturing nature. Okay. Yeah. So you're talking about two specific examples in this town. Why would we get ourselves involved in government grants to solve this problem about two two places in this town? It's sort of like imagine if you're right if you're the involvement of the town is strange because we're talking about

No, not being strange. I'm asking you to document why taxpayer money should go towards solving a problem that only exists for one maybe two properties in this town. Yeah. You're going for a government grant. No. Okay. Oh, well then why does he not have to That's what I'm saying. It's kind of strange, right? Just send it out and set up the facts right from the beginning. Otherwise, the board of selecting does not need to be involved legally. Yes. Why? Why? I'm sorry.

All right. So, tell me that right now. As a citizen of this, I would like to know why the board of select men needs to be involved in this private matter. If we want this loan program to operate in Kansas, we need to have a careful property assessed clean energy and resiliency district which means that I think the town needs to involve itself in regulations that operate above this town. That's my personal opinion. My my understanding is that this simply gives businesses who want to apply for this type of loan the opportunity to. The state just requires that we agree to allow them to apply for these and the state requires it. State always requires it.

Please continue. This is a learning opportunity for me. So it may it may have been a bit of a hold over from the original language where the talent It's not regulated or anything that they wanted a town to have this district. It's still in the law. It's still something we have to do. So until that exchange starts by and yes I agree it just give people opportunity to alone maybe nobody will know on our our backs if they don't but we really mission is to bring energy conservation and and opportunities for efficiencies uh to the town and also save people money and perhaps put some money back on the tax dollars. Are you absolutely sure that there is no implication for the taxpayers of this town? You're absolutely sure. Can you uh campaign, can you please note that for the record that whatever decision the town makes on this, there will never be an implication for the taxpayer because they're both nodding. There will never be an implication. Even though this is a mandate that's coming from the state and probably a welfare state, there's no mandate this. No, I know it is not. I know it is not. Good. Any other questions before? I'm going to send in um the the website with all the documents that how how people apply a little more technical description than I've given you.

Is that the website here? Two lost. There you go. Wonderful. The guide book is really is the next the next motion for you would be to uh put together a warm article. Yes. And you have that sample there. I can um check with BFA tomorrow and say you know the question was raised about the timing of the public hearing and is it possible that we do the public hearing before we go back to that that's what I was hearing I think you can have a public hearing that you want I think that would be fine I think getting information out to people if that's what you want to do

and what what is the time for a war article um if you guys are doing the war article And what's the deadline for these? Well, they're going to have their public hearing over it's not not money related, but um the 14th I was looking at January. Okay. So, we got Thank you very much. Did you want to do that? I'm not sure.

I was I was just going to ask you what he has. I'm here to the Ridge Road which can also be okay. I didn't know if it was the floor or not, but if it's on the agenda, we're going to have to next week. I'm just um request.

Yeah, we can jump to the if you want to jump to the the road. Karen might have something to

Okay, Karen, can you have something else? Yes, I do. Sorry. So, I'm speaking for many people who are not at this point um because the uh property tax increases over the last 5 years are outrageous. And so many people feel the way that I do even though I'm the only one here. And most of the reason people feel that way is not because they don't love this town. I love this town. I've invested a lot in this town. Most of you who know me, you know how much I have invested in this town. So when I say that it is outrageous and killing, you can take all of my statements for the record. I know it's being videotaped, but also people complain that they can't still hear the slapman's responses or they can't hear whoever's in this meeting. So when I say it's outrageous, I choose those words, that word very carefully. 20% increases, 10% increases, 5% increases compound to something that is absolutely unaffordable to the people who have lived here for year after year after year. This is a town that is being unaffordable for young people, older people, artists, farmers, anyone who does not have a gazillion dollars at their disposal. And I'm going

to give you a very practical example from my life. My property taxes are now $39,000 a year. Okay. What do you think the gross is on a successful farm? We've been building our farm. We feel that we're very successful. We know that we have to invest in building a farm. We're investing in our community. Do you know what that costs? It costs a hell of a lot more than $39,000 a year. It costs a million dollars a year to put a state in the ground for community. Okay? We knew what we were doing. We knew the value of our investment. The problem is that town does not understand the value of someone who cares about community. So now, and sorry, my voice I'm coming off of. So now here I am having made this huge investment in Kensington. So someone can say, "Well, you have rental property there." Yes, we have three rental properties there. the three rental properties being $74,000 a year after I pay the property taxes and I pay the insurance and I pay one person to

help Peter and me to manage your farm. There is nothing left. You guys need to know how to run numbers. Not a government grant coming down here. Not, oh, we need this cuz the police need it. Oh, we need this because the fire department needs it. You need to know that you need your town. You need your town. Otherwise, there's nothing left. This is going to become a gig community of wealthy people. who want protection and I never want protection. I just want to grow things. I am growing things. I cannot afford to live in this town. In fact, I don't want to live in a town that only wealthy people can afford to live in. So you can say well the school board cited this but I tell you now the town budget doubled in 5 years. Did you ask any towns person if they were agreeable? No you didn't ask. You said show up to the town meeting. Show up to the budget meeting. You know what? We're working hard. We're living our lives. We're working hard to pay our taxes. But you should you should reverse your understanding of the town. You should go to the town and ask them, "Please show up because we're about to double your tax in 5 years." And if you don't do that, then people like me are going to leave. I'm serious. I am so serious.

You can't just rely on the institutional understanding of everything you think that we can afford because we cannot afford it anymore. I can't afford it. I've been here for 15 years. and anyone who's investing And I'm just Is there a few more point about we I assume we do ask the town everybody has the opportunity to vote on the budget which is where the tax increase comes from. But I know you know at one point we were talking about the the texting system but other ways to get that message out because they do feel like there is this misconception in terms of how the property tax how the tax rate is decided and the opportunity that people have to weigh in on that. And I can understand the frustration if you think that that's just being put upon you and you didn't exercise their right to voice your opinion. I don't know what other opportunities we have to educate folks and encourage them to come

out and vote so that they at least feel like they have that opportunity to engage. I don't know if there's another way that we can share that more. We do town meetings talk about the taxes and stuff like that, you know, and there's opportunities for people to to speak up there. Lately, there hasn't been a lot of feedback to us other than people saying taxes are too high. And we know that we don't want to keep raising taxes. We do get into a situations where we're mandated by school budgets. are mandated by, you know, the rising costs of of taking care of the the roads and and, you know, the snow plowing of the the winter stuff, which is something that has to get done. And so, uh, you know, it's one of those situations where it's a spiraling effect. And uh if there's no other alternative methods of income, then it's everything still relies on the taxation. So I mean we could all we always look to try to be as frugal as possible about spending the bad. But yeah, there's certain things that have to get mandatory.

Yeah. Control. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. But to to Sarah's point too, there is there is like a advisory budget committee. I mean we could actively start asking people if if like you said everybody's busy and they don't have the time for that. So finding people to come to the budget meetings is hard. Um and that's what you have to do. You have a timet to get things done.

Yeah. We're in the process now of doing budget numbers. I mean, do we post do we post the proposed budget? Mhm. We don't usually do that until it's finalized. Um Yeah. You guys aren't done with the budget yet. Yeah. Um,

I just feel like the the bits and pieces I've picked up on in conversations are maybe folks not connecting the fact that the tax bill that just came had to do with the March election votes that that town meeting that the town voted in favor

of the budgets that were put forward. That is people do miss that. I mean they we discussed it at town meetings. We discuss the budgets. We say this is why we're doing what we're doing. You know, it's their community's ability to respond at the time. And you know, we we got to look at it from the perspective of the as managers of town, we have to take and be responsible about what's required to keep the infrastructure going and and that sort of thing. That mandates a certain amount of activity. Just like any other large plant type thing, you have an infrastructure that has to have to function, has to keep going. We got the police, we got the fire, we got the road management, we got, you know, all this stuff. Any of these any of those break down and you we'll hear it from the from the masses instantly. So when you try to explain to them that this is where their tax money is going to keep these institutions in place and functioning staffed appropriately, equipment appropriate and that sort of thing to help protect their lifestyle in the community. They don't always get it. So sometimes you just have to smile and move on. Not easy sometimes. No. And a lot of times too, I think people when the board says that they're for something, they know that they need it.

So maybe if we take a serious look at what we put on more articles to see and maybe I'll put more articles up there. Well, we we Yeah, we should be responsible about what are the important ones that need to go on for good just good justifiable reasons. go through the model and we do that. We have a lot of discussion about it and all that. You know, I don't feel that we do anything further in this town at all. But it doesn't mean that the the general public doesn't see it differently. You know, it's human nature. Hard to get that that tax bill in December when it's Yeah.

a dollar or it's it's a good increase for some people. And what they're seeing as well is some of them aren't even feeling it right now. We're going to get calls again in February and March about this tax bill because it doesn't hit their estro. Mhm. Um so we'll we'll be dealing with that then and then they're going to think it's the voting they just did. Um it's hard it's hard to explain but this is a year ago.

Yeah. I almost feel the opposite. should we should give lots of warrant articles and give people the opportunity to have impact. That's what the war article is supposed to allows people to say no

does a little bit of control. I think that's funny too because put out a war article and people turn it down whether it was the Warren article was specifically addressing something that was that's a problem and then few months go by and people start complaining about hey this is broken and need is fixed. Well that was the war article was supposed to address the funding so we get that flex. People don't always make that connection until it's after the fact. Yeah. What you're seeing right now too is I've had a few people come in. The July was half of last year's and you're hitting the increase. So you're getting the difference between last year's and your December bill. So you're being the increase from July to December. And that's a whole year increase in one hit. Mhm. Can we both from like a what's allowed perspective and I guess capacity but you know the conversations that happened at the deliberative session are really helpful to understand why we put forward what we put forward. I get not everybody can sit there and the ones last year went I don't know how many hours at a certain point you can't stay for four hours. Um, can we put together almost like a I don't want to call it a vocabert guide, but you know, something that says like beyond the language of the war article, but very brief plain language, this is what this means and why we think it's important.

They have some very strict laws and they have this here. Yeah. And a lot of the information that you put out there can be considered electionary. So, we have to have a review before you put anything else. Mhm. Um just to make sure that right it's doesn't appear to be sharing. I know you know I'm trying to make it an election year and we have done the voter guides before. Yeah. Um they seem to be very helpful. Yeah. And we do know that a lot of times the public thinks that we're being fake with them and stuff like that and we're not trying to

Yeah. There's nothing saying we couldn't craft a voter's guide and then see if it the information that we have in there is is okay might be helpful,

you know, and we're up to deliberate section. People ask us questions, we don't we give them the answers. So, yeah. But, you know, things do change. If you you get, you know, you get in a, you know, an emergency at the firehouse where the firehouse they have to spend few thousand to fix something or get a new truck or, you know, the the police chief needs to need new cruisers and new updates and stuff, you know, I mean, these things happen. Sometimes they're not on the, you know, on the cycle of the budget. Sometimes they happen in between and we have to do some emergency funding and stuff, you know, and of course there's always the wonderful storms that hit and all of a sudden it blows the the existing budget because now you got, you know, 10 times, you know, 100 times more snow than you had. You got to get more trucks in. you're going to bring in some kind contractors with with back holes and everything to get rid of the snow and all that. If you don't do that and you y you don't have to be any confidence for not taking care of the roads. So it's you know it's a catch 22 all the way around. No matter what you do, somebody's going to be dead. So I mean we from our perspective we have to do what we think is a responsible position for the town to be maintained and and functioning properly and you know just take the blows when they're thrown at us you know that kind of thing. think we're going to solve this right now. So,

no, but I can I can start like a I have something fast. Yeah. I can I can there are a lot of people coming forward saying that They can't afford.

Yeah, I anticipated that exactly it was before. Yeah. So this budget would take another 4.98. Yeah. I mean if we if we think we could legitimately cut back some some places and still have functional Yeah. on the mosquito program. He gave us a different vote. So that's going to be someone who's having a meeting,

you know. Well, it's it's the pro 23. You need to be sensitive to the issue, but at the same time, you need to have the money to run the town appropriately. And sometimes they are two different different things. And you know, I feel as long as we're not spending money foolishly or, you know, unwanted and stuff, we're being responsible for what the town really needs and we just have to deal with it and to otherwise, you know, may have to cut services or something to save money. But then there'll be complaints about, well, how am I even doing this anymore? You know, that sort of thing. So, it's it's a, you know, we're we're caught in a catch22 situation. So, I think we just have to we have to push on and do what we feel is responsible for for the community to run as as successfully as possible. I had a refund request. There was a home that burned and the house was built on it. It's 36 $376 um with the difference in the taxes. to be refunded back to the homeowner because they paid the July bill and when they paid the July bill.

We need a motion.

That'd be great. Thank you. Motion to approve the uh overpayment property taxes 183 to uh Neil O'Brien 183 roadington map 6 lot 31 they requested to refund Neil O'Brien $376 for overpayment of the July taxes for the year 2025. This was due to the fact that the home was removed after the July billing, but the fire at the house was before April 1st, 2025. This resulted in an overpayment for the December attached billing and corrected value for the property on map 6 lot 31 is $269,300, which is the valuation of the land. An abatement could not be done because the taxes for July were paid in full totaling $4,222. With the new assessment on the property, total taxes due for 2025 at 38, $3,846, leaving a $376 overpayment to be to be re refunded to Mr. O'Brien. Was that a motion? Um, yeah, we can make that a motion. Second in

favor. All right. ignore me on the floor. Um I well I guess I'm getting used to this feel I got a couple things and they're on the agenda and I I don't know what they normally went through and I saw the agenda talking about the right away and when I was on the board Dave Rox was the um the road in Paul and we talked about what the town's right was and David always said it was one broad from the edge of the road as the town's right away and it also would probably encompass three rods the total road plus the right way so it could be anywhere from 10 ft to 80 ft if you take take a ride down Long Mon Road and take a look at my property. At the very edge of my property, there's a telephone pace. There's 15 ft off the um edge of your road. So, I'm assuming Rachel,

you're right about um so yes, the old roads they were designing products with 16 beaten weather. So um some narrow roads like Padra um 32 ft is the actual ride away. So, so with the hot top get to and um yeah. So, and then so it's a very complicated subject and um I highly suggest and read um an municipal association without a book called a hard road to travel and it and it's pretty much um these old court cases going back to ports and buggies day. Yeah. So the town right away is just that it's an easement for public traffic. An easement does not imply ownership. It's it's held to common belief that the two abuing land owners own the free soil underneath the road two. We we we as the town merely for public use for biotic use travel the right way. But and I don't want this to my understanding the purpose of the right way is to for utilities for sidewalks for snow removal and actually the town does not own the property but it has the right to it. So, um, in the, um, subdivision, um, ordinance, it talks about 66 feet with the road and and and that is not a road that we need all the titles. It's been needed. It's been

needed to get done. Okay. So, so it could vary anyways from 10 ft to 15 ft. the town's right away which is the the I'm talking about the show which saw on the side we can look at so this kind of delvales into a problem that happened over on the M ridge road now Molton Ridge Road is a scenic road in Hilly it's a scenic road and we had a developer come in and if anybody has taken a ride over He's basically slave to property from at least on old rage. He took from the edge of the road all the way back um I would say a good 100 ft took out all the trees. So there's three issues that I would like to raise to the board and the first issue is um the honest day that deals with scenic roads. Now I came to the town on Tuesday morning. They started cutting them on Monday. came to the town Tuesday wanted and said he needs a permit because doesn't have a I was told that he didn't need a permit and did not have well if you go to the town ordinance and page 40 it basically says and I'll summarize you can't use the excuse for construction or any activity to cut trees basically ordinance says you need to come to a planning board. You need to apply for a permit and you need full public hearing. That was never done on mid.

What I was told from the time is that we could not stop an individual from cutting trees on their own property. And I'll address now on the third item I would like to talk about. But this the second item is first he needed to command and the second item is that he could not cut trees on the right away and basically take that out of state and he did cut trees on the rightway. He cut trees as close as four to 5 ft from the road on mobile edge. And then also it says that you cannot remove a stone wall off of it. What he did on the form of Hill and um mobile ridge, he removed the stone wall. He just drove all over it, pushed some rods and then drove the stone into the ground. So he's in violation of the the ISA. He got on the right and he removed the Stonewall, but I still received the argument that he could do what he wanted to do because it was his property and I think that is not correct. I think the town attorney, I did not see the opinion from the town attorney, basically said that we can't stop him from cutting trees on his own property, but he can't cut trees on the right away without permitting. So, he didn't have to permit and he cut trees on the rightway. This the third item is everybody was

relying on a section 4 in the RSA saying that we cannot stop an individual from cutting tree on his property. But if you read the text, it says work. It does not say trees. It says that the county cannot stop an individual from working on a working on So what was what was the intent of the legislative at that time when they put the word work? They implement trees in Hawaii. There was a court case that went to be for the interest of Florida that um deals with um cutting on um a scenic road and it's the town of the of um here's West and basically to the Supreme Court and then basically in summarizing of the court case The individuals were going for a subdivision and they wanted to cut trees on their property and the subdivision was on a scenic road. They went to apply for a permit to the planning. The planning board denied them saying that you can't cut the trees on scenic road because it will hold affect the aesthetic value of of the of the property in in the area. went to the Supreme Court at once. So when we go back to the RSA and say they can't we can't stop them from cutting trees on their property. That's not always true and we could rely on this court case show that.

So in summary, unless someone can provide me something different, the individual was in violation of the town, the town should have stopped them. And if they stopped them on Tuesday, the K1 would have would have stopped. Mo Bridge was down. He used Mo Bridge as standing. He wanted to clear everything out of him there so he could bring his trucks, his all his equipment in off the road. It It's a sad situation over there. And you know, I live up on the hill and I I still overlook some trees and stuff and I I'll be looking at a house, but we have a neighbor that sits dead in the center of it and he just claim him. So going back and running, I respect everybody here. You have a job. It's a tough job. Believe me, I sat there and I and I did it. But there's sometimes when somebody comes into a town office and poses a question or an issue that they should be taken seriously and not taken like you're a bar. You I do have a great personality. I fought too. But it's it's it was an issue. I knew it was an issue. I I felt I was right. We could have start something. We made him go give a permit and in planning board could have

said, "Yeah, we'll go commit or we need to hold the public we need." In fact, start what happened or transpired last week should never happen to a citizen that comes in. And if we want to go back to the taxes, then the neighborhood around that area probably brings in $60,000 a year in real estate taxes. And what some of the neighbors feel is that contractor got more of a priority than the residents of this town. And if we go back and take a look, if we if we vote for a position and sit in a position or be a paid position within the town, we have a fiduciary responsibility to the to the residents of this town to protect their interests and and take them seriously when they bring something because that that thing mobile ridge was done. until he could have been saved. And if we don't do something about the scenic grows and we talk about the the rural character of this town, we have now taken what I call low ridge and made it into a development that you could put in Lawrence, Massachusetts or bars. And I think that's what the ordinance was trying to protect and trying to protect the scenic value of this town.

Mhm. So what I think should happen is that if the the town should enforce the RSA and talk to the developer and ask them what he's going to do about those trees or the right and I don't think any permit should be issued to him until that is resolved and I think the the resident should have somewhat of an input on what should transpire with him. No one's trying to stop him. No one is trying to stop him from from building houses. And he went through the process. He went through the planning, but he just forgot one aspect of what an ignorance of the law is not. defensive block in the neutral facility. So that's what I would have to say and there's I'm representing several people that are in the neighborhood and if you were all intending to connect there was a back and forth going back and forth that eventually got to there are some people need to go there. So, I hope you address this seriously and I hope that we the planning board was talking about redoing the um the ordinance which I don't think is a good idea. I think the ordinance itself gives the claim board what it needs by basically saying that you have to come to us for a permit to cut on a scenic road and then this then the public will know and then a decision will be made and what the decision is is up to the

planning board with the info with the resident. That's all I have to say. Thank you.

You want to talk about the the policy you were conducting? Yeah, I mean it's sort of in in the drawing upon drawing, right? And there was a few towns uh policies and those some some towns went more of the right away which I don't really feel you know is standard with all the research that I've been

like like I said the um and uh an answer municipal association with like I'm looking at one paragraph here. It says trees, plants and stone walls along the roadside and we just talked about the so the free soil we don't hold on title to it. ownership of trees within the wife right away pretty much always go to the abing land owners not the not the municipality right

so um and I do have the say that Norman's just you know number four designation of of a road as road shall not affect the rights of any land owner with respect to work on his own property which we just went over the property goes to land

yes um except when the trees have been acquired by the town being able to acquire from his trees and then this is the town. It was a basically a question and answer what what do I need to know about tree cutting on my property and they responded a property owner with a general right trees on their property as this is true whether the trees are located in or out of the road right away unless the town or state holds title the the deed to the right away and this would also true even if a road has been designated to be a scenic road. I was a town of one of them. I had something similar from the town of Anders. So I it's just one of those things where the more I delve into it, it's you know pretty controversial. So I I understand the name of a change, you know, but even even uh even the um designation of a scenic roadway, they don't even consider a tree anything with a circumference under 15 in. So under 5 in diameter, they don't even they consider that brush. So it was half the guy cut down. So and that's 4 ft off the ground. So it is it is like old horse and buggy language and state um cases court cases. So it was just a discussion I want to start. Can I say one thing? Everybody divides when they read that I

was saying they rely on section four. I don't even but if you go back and read section five and this is what we all my prior history I was I was trained in law. I wrote legal briefs that went to the bomb of justice. I I sat across attorneys that were making $1,000 an hour. The the biggest mistake we can make is not read the whole regulation. And I think that's what's happening in this is if you go section five and that's at um RSA, they basically says they're giving town free reign. They're basically saying you can follow this RSA or you can set provisions by yourself contrary to what the RSA said. And this is what this town did. basically in Tom Woodness, they basically said no cutting on scenic roads without a permit and public hearing. And that's the issue here. No one's saying the guy can't talk data. Basically, it was a commit process. And what what Matt's saying is it basically true. It it that's why we have court cases. But there's a court case that went to the Supreme Court in Cambia that basically they denied the guy cutting 25 trees and they basically won that case. And that wasn't even on the right away. It was on his property because it affected the scenic values. I'm going to set the

stage for you. That's the way you live. Go down road, left hand side. I walk that road if you want it. You let someone come in and clear cut that property without a permit process. That would be the biggest mistake this town has ever made because now you're taking a scenic road and have destroyed it. And that's why we need to protect these things. That that's that's why we we have the town council. Well, that's why we we we have a a planning board. it to protect the town's interest and to hear the citizens part and just not and I'm not saying you did it but we just can't assume anymore that well this says this says that slow down just stop the work over there and let's see how this works out that that's that's all I'm saying because this town's going to go through a tremendous this pressure on development and in the future and you could see you could see it already the property values have gone up so high that lands now take a look at that and say wow you know I can make a good buck on that and we're not saying you can't develop it but we should have some of control over what is I believe.

Okay. So, this they went to the planning board and had approval to do whatever they're doing with the the land. It made a lot sense to me and the conversation around taking down trees just didn't come up or the plague board didn't raise the question or do we know why not do you know did the trees come up at all I don't think the subject of the trees came up at all and even if it had the planning board's view was very much um how can we possibly We stop people from cutting trees on their property.

That's not the issue. The issue is a permit. The permit process, public public hearing. Why Why do we give into this? This is, you know, I'm I'm going to get a little frustrated here. This is why that lady got up here to talk to you guys about the tax rate. It just seems like it goes over your head. There is a permit process in town that needs to be followed and nobody's seeing you cut, but there are court cases that say you the town says you can't cut on this property. I don't know why we don't protect the residents of this town and we protect the the interest of a developer that comes in here and rapes the land and then sells his property and gets on the town and then the town is sitting there with a development that looks like it's out of Lawrence. I'm sorry. I'm frustrated. But you guys have a fiduciary responsibility to to protect the interest of this town, not to protect the interest of the development. And then when someone comes into this the the town hall, they should be taken seriously because they're the taxpayers of this town. They're the voters of this town. And I feel that in this case, everybody's trying to walked over this thing and let this thing what's done is done. But it's the future of this car and how are you going to protect the future? And if we're going to sit there and say, um, we can't stop anybody from cutting trees on their own property, then we're doomed. We're doomed. There's a commit process. he needed to follow. He didn't follow.

There's there's penalties to pay for that. And if we're not going to enforce it, anybody down the road that would walk into the court will go, "Well, XYZ wasn't enforced. Why are they putting it on me now?" So that's all I can say. I know you guys have your That's all I had to do. And we also have Timber S. Nobody cuts timber on their property. It's tackled. So that's not the import issue there.

Yeah. None of this was was brought up during the the uh permitting process.

Right. Right. And that's sometimes done issue period. They don't work. The zone ordinance kind of states the planning board can approve or provide their approval for certain activities. But the word permit does not exist in the RSA. It does not exist in the ordinance. Okay. So this thing about the language purpose they they don't do that as part of subdivision plot plan review which you heard from the previous song year and a year ago I don't I wasn't there that much so I don't know I got from the boy when I went through this plan that showed the three lights being stood up they went through their plot plan review. They agreed on the first two plots, they could be worked and only if they were to if they were to incur more than 15,000 board of wood from coming down quite a he estimated that it would only get about 10,000. The permit comes I believe stream I don't think it comes from the gum I think it comes from that permit so

we we actually do issue the intense cut and that's this is what he was talking about too I think is that he had to go this is where the planning board comes in right as the building that's what he wants the uh intent to cut and do that yeah when the board does sign off on that um when somebody applies for the intented cut we just have to make sure that their taxes are paid in full and then the board signs off.

Process or or cutting process whatever the the issue is while he's going through the the subdivision per process, you have an opening. you have an opportunity to push back in certain areas. Whatever you call it, the plan board has the opportunity,

right? And the opportunity to show where the trees were and what it looked like and what the intent was for him to do. And he was not even showing that suggested uh that he needed he didn't intend to cut thing. It was everything was falling within the normal boundaries of a subdivision formation. The only thing that came up on the third lot was the delitioning of the home in the subway and what he was not allowed to do near the weapons. What he could not cut down near the weapons

and he stayed away from that and he had someone come out an engineer come out. I don't know from where, but he tagged all the trees that could be cut and the ones that couldn't be cut. So, we had all that and I don't know what the percentage is, but I was told a large percentage were brushed and stabling type and there were some rottenage that were removed in the rightway. There were definitely tire tracks all over the rocks or the wall which they had the intention once that everything is cleared out that that would get placed where they were. uh you know and I think I don't know I I don't know I don't have really and I think just because I didn't I don't have any pictures of before to I can only see what happened and I tried to go through Google to get over the last 10 years what it like and it's very difficult to see

the death of the issue you If the site plan required that it showed what tree like where he would leave trees or where he was taking them down, did he adhere to that site plan or is it did he ignore that and do something different? I don't think the site plan showed what trees were left I I don't recall that being

the trees were big discussion. There was one there was one point where the plan broke up the trees and said that we had a tree ordinance to follow not even in the scenic there's so many percentage I think it's like 20% of the lot of that 20% comes into I'm pretty sure there's like a 20 20% was brought up and that was put on the the plan I think that was it couldn't take more than 20% of the trees on the lots the lots are big and they go out and on the other side of the ravine So this side of the green I believe is where he catches his tree up. 11%.

Okay. Okay. So my 23 acres on the road. Yep. If I want to be flickered at that and make it all hayfield cornbro you would have to according depends who you listen to but then the planning board was I think it was 5 to1 or something on the voting from planning board on this but most of the planning board felt that yes, he can put down whatever he wants, right?

Norm feels the opposite. He, you know, makes a compelling case, right? The other thing too is you want to clear cut because you want to go agricultural. Yeah, but I mean if you were to say well I want to clear cut this but I want I want to be compassive so I can

it's just at what point at what point would these ordinances stipulation be done or you know department of the guidelines that following or taking so right and you have to get per year oh yeah so you and so much setbacks and everything else guidance that that fall outside of the town is really able to allow you to do so more feed that gets involved with this then you know the gating certain amount to do ahead of

going off of our RS our ordinance here like if that's going to clear it for a hayfield that's not repair maintenance construction or paving. So, that seems like you would be allowed to do that with someone building a new development, putting an addition on their home, anything like that that requires the written approval by the planning board after a public hearing. And it seems like the planning board disagreed with that aspect. That's correct. Randy Boy did not see any way, correct me if I'm wrong, but there they were saying there's no way that we can prevent somebody from cutting down trees on their own property says New Hampshire,

right? Right. We have if we have a town ordinance, it's not really the planning board's place to make that decision, right? I think they have to say that this is the ordinance that the town's put in place and therefore well that's that's correct.

I would be surprised didn't follow al.

Yeah. part of the ones that I've signed that they have had any kind of stuff division discussion communities are always almost part of a discussion about what can be done based on what they see on the drawing and you know I guess my my concern is that to Norman's point in terms of like setting an expectation for going forward forward. You know, it's been done has been done. But did we was this something that the planning board

I don't think I don't think they were aware of the planning board people were even aware of it. That would be my guess. Sure. I was wondering if the developer thinks that he had written permission or if he doesn't if he ignored something or didn't think it was an issue if we were to go to like does go where's Gino he's got huge ownership with this

he was if he was in agreement with the the there was discussion amongst the town um employees and departments about it. Um and he was in the framework in that but but here and again that was a discussion when not you know that's why I'm just starting a discussion about some sort of policy that be implemented that you know we just feel like you know here it is crime um roadside trees. Yeah,

that and it actually has a single policy in view with uh removable tender public rights away. And so just something something be mindful of. Where are we in this meeting? Cath. Um, well, as far as if we wanted to make any kind of

do you want to do anything with what Norman said or do we want to just go ahead and what it is is what it is. Do a policy going forward and we've end that decision. That's all we can do is okay and the planning board I think has already taken that action to try to clear this off and straight this out because there's conf there's a conflict between 4.3.2 and and five I guess was but this isn't the RSA right this is the Kensington town

yes um the discussion they would have is that they would take the ordinance and start do it in the next workshop to see if it needs to be clarified or expanded to specific information on there to take out the opinion part of this. Instead of everyone having a different opinion, try to nail it down to specifics where this is what this is what you're allowed and that's allowing specifically.

Yeah. Be very specific about it. the president in the workshop, come up with the language and then have a public hearing take the public through this is what the proposed change to the ordinance would be then you can go through that process without

and that would be for the senior folks not the right or they as well I believe it's for oh yeah definitely All right. Next on the agenda is the birth n policy. So there's been a recent change. Get back to work. uh there's a nursing mother's policy that they have to adopt and page related to the policy. Um these are both recommended and by council town council. Um this was the one that was just enacted um this year. This And the nursing mothers was one that was put into place through legislation a little bit ago. Um, but we shared it before that as well.

So, I can go through with your I just wanted to show you guys. They used to have it in an open form. We would have to have a public hearing to add it to the um personnel policy and then it would be part of policy or handbook we send a state to law uh yes they both we just don't have them anymore they should be in there all right but do we need can we just say that face because these out of state law. These have to go on our handbook or do we have to have the whole town meeting thing about it?

We just have to have a public hearing. So, I just have to send the paper, put it on the put it on the agenda as a public hearing and then have these Okay. We need a motion and put it in. No motion. Just as long as you guys are okay with me starting off, that's I'll get them on get them on for a meeting probably in December or January. Um, and we'll go from there. Okay, perfect. Thank you.

Do you have any questions about those? Right. Perfect. Uh, the next one is the town hall water filtration. So, we have access in our water. There is a water filtration quote in your packets and this is what it is producer for iron remediation.

So this is what he is suggesting $9500 addition to the tank that we have now. But he got back to me recently cuz I asked he wanted to do more testing to make sure that this was actually what we needed. Um he said it could be because the water got low. They don't know. Um but in talking to him he stated that you know it could be a flu thing because they don't know but um we do have access to sign. But this is this is

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We have we have no teaching. So, in going back, we don't have any records that you can find. I've been trying to town people, too. So, if anybody knows, please let me know. But, um, the well is in the driveway here. The tiles going down to it. So, it was originally a dove well, then they put the adhesion well into it in the 80s or 90s. The state has no record of that. They had a record of the dove well at one time because it was considered a public water supply. Yeah.

Um, but when they put the art on it, I guess they took that away from it. So, they had to have more information about it at home. So, in order to get information on the well, you have to open it and have a company pull the pump out and put something down to measure how deep the well is. Yeah. And they then they got to pull those samples and all the way through the the well to make sure that they knew what they're doing when they uh then they they would we had this last year but not as bad as this year.

But they would then treat the well so that it would remove any of the basically get the well in balance. I mean, I had to have it done to my wall. I had to have it remediated. So, I had a lot of extra stuff in there that wasn't needed. They company I was working at the time. They were able to to go and basically bleach the well and they killed off a lot of the bad stuff and got rid of it and then the water was fine after that. And the quick the quick testing that they did downstairs, they just found the excess. Everything else was great. It was the iron shining things yellow and stain for the iron. Um

it anyway. We are drinking. Yeah, it it comes from we have a filter system through Stony Brook. So it's got osmosis and like super filtration facility. Yeah. Yep. And the PD has one that's the same downstairs. So it goes through all of the filtrations. Um and they just came from service from test water even because the brand load this year

this year it just seems to be wor. Yeah. More than likely it is because we quadr last year but part of it was the salt and then we had we had them come back to look at the filtration system twice cuz it's just a soft filtration system. Um and the first time we have to like reset it cuz it wasn't doing what we supposed to do. Um and he says now it's working fine. It's just not getting enough of the the iron pad. I don't think it's harmful to us. It's just it's just color. It just water stains things in toilets, stuff like that.

But you can you can buy stuff to put in. Yeah. That will you scatter in the in the in the filter top of the filter and it sits in with the salt as it runs through the system. it'll take the rust out and stuff like that. So yeah, he did not suggest that. This is what was suggested, but he's saying he's not even sure if this would definitely we have showers.

So they they use it, you know, we we have lock rooms and showers down there that they they using that's not going through the the drinking filter. It's going through the regular water. So again, you know, it is staining our showers and staining our toilets and sh but it's you know the faucets at some point you know the

so I don't know where the drilling company is coming in do they do well too they test the well they do that's what I was going to suggest so if it's happen if it's happening seasonally it does sound like it's probably the water's too low. Um the simple solution is down fracking. I didn't do that and they confirmed that it's an issue with the flow. Um did you get to talk to the company about what you talk to? No, I didn't cuz I didn't know where the is honestly. Yeah. I didn't realize was going to come back at $10,000,000. Yeah. 90 plus

95. And that's to add in system after after the one that we have because the one that we have isn't taking out it's not made to really take out iron, right? It takes out some of it but for the extent of the iron we have the those are the tests right there.

Yeah. Like it would be great public record also to do a test on the water regeneration properties of the well, right? Because if it comes back and they're like, "Yeah, you know, every fall you're going to have this issue and drought from only getting orders. At some point the well going to go dry, then it's a preventative preventative measure to try again." Uh you may also find that the well is only like 50 ft deep and it needs to be deeper. I mean there's a lot of Yeah. How many problems, you know, in the 80s? How dare you in the era? Yeah, I mean the 80s. Yeah, that that's not I probably Yeah, I have

But it's We don't know. Maybe they have to maybe they found sometimes they just find water early and they stop. Okay. uh if if if we can find someone that can do a proper assessment and it doesn't cost America. I don't know if we will need to do that. Um and then if it comes to fracking then yes uh the drilling this drilling company can definitely at the very least tell you what it will cost. I don't like catching things. We pull that pump out. There's a chance that you can break it or also Yes.

Yeah. It's you don't know how deep it is. You have to leave it. I mean, we pull the pump off before depending on how deep it is. You have to leave it all the stuff out of the ground. Yeah. I mean, water isn't part of the energy piece, but we can we can definitely start looking maybe at some point like the CPA program does concern itself with water quality. Uh, who knows? Maybe we'll start doing research. Maybe we could help. Yeah, I I'll look around too, but like um

I feel like figuring out why it's happening before spending $10,000 on something that may not fix it, right? That's what I'm thinking. So, it's probably going to get somebody to go into the well, figure out what's going on. Well, it actually has marine stone from the seats. It could be the pipes. It's in the well. It's probably in the water on the inside. There's a lot in this part of the country. Yeah. So,

okay. So, I'll look and see if I can get some quotes. Um, we meet again in two weeks, so that should be fine. I'll see what I can find. Okay, thank you. Um, number So, we can either encumber this now or we can encumber it at the end of the month with everything else, but we need to encumber it at 105p 30 that we haven't paid out yet in order to be able to spend that in 2026. It will last December 31st. So, income right now isn't a bad thing. It's just a motion to encumber um the amount for the um HVAC systems for the two vendors.

I'll make a motion to encumber the funds for the Hback system. Second. All those in favor? I thank you. Related to that, Kathy, so next week we have another interview meeting. Okay. Would we have helped at the meeting? Just one person would be enough to help us. What day? Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at 1:30.

Yeah. Hopefully it doesn't happen again, but it was a very We weren't used to it. It never happened to us. Uh and we don't have much protocol beyond the normal protocol. So, we didn't know any very difficult. Yeah. I have a lot of work. I'm going to have to be at an event in Boston. Yeah. If not, it's okay. I think now we'll be a little more prepared and expected, but we had no idea. I have to be available for week that day, Tuesday at

Okay. Everybody can sit in if you want. Mhm. Do you think we need Yeah, if you if you have the time that would help. Okay. Yeah. And I mean, maybe it doesn't happen again. That's totally possible, but yeah, we also need framing. I don't know personally. Well, we'll figure out kind of better handling these situations. I think we'll watch and talk to other engine committee, see how they handle it. We're just amazing. Yeah, I think we should understand what to do when

someone rowdy comes to like I've seen it here, but it's there's just I think that would be the start honestly to set up like you're having a meeting so that you're not having people right on top of you. I know. I know you want more of an intimate setting because there is there's a few of you but I'm not sure that that kind of work. That was definitely one of the problems. The other one is just what do you do when you're being spoken in it and they won't stop. Yeah.

You can't say we're done here, right? That's not the correct place which you kind of weave in. Yeah, I don't know what else you can say. We have facts and we just talk about them or not. Uh but okay. Yeah, that's that's

okay. Is the policies of the right way that the end of year employee going into chief wants to talk about that? you want you do that with the incumbent funds are looking to do too or what do you want to do with that? Um you have your funds already if you want to do if you want to do both that's

that's fine. So, a couple things I guess working on anticipating the year budget working on pretty hard. Um, this year I guess I'll start with the bonuses. Uh, we had we had one of our offices as well for about 6 months. So, we have a full-time salary that wasn't used because he was on workers comp. Feeling like what we heard tonight. Uh personally, I'm not too confident that this project's going to balance yet. Uh looking, you know, for me looking at this, looking at with that that money I had left over for this full-time officer, giving the offices a bonus as understanding and we did this last year. Understanding that we don't get a budget, there's no pay. So, this could be your pay increase uh more or less call it like the longevity bonus. something like that with the understanding,

you know, that this is this potentially do get intervention. You know, again, it shows if we were trying to do something to to to stay competitive with these electronics, just like anything else, this job getting ridiculous, you know, at just they just did 15,000 bonuses for each officer. It's it's this is what you're up against. Lebanon's doing 40,000. You know, we're looking at just a pay increase. We're not there nothing more. It's what we broke what was broken down in the pay scales of what I have for the increase for next year. Uh again, we're not we're not digging in the money that's uh money that was already allocated for a full-time salary. So, we're not taking it from anywhere else. You know, I look at this, you know, probably the last pay period of EFS, which is what the 20 20.

Yeah. Um, right now it's the Yeah, the 20th the 20th period for the week of the 20th. So the week of the 20th is the last one that will be on there on everyone's

the one is it is the rate the the pay increases that I I predicted for next year. I'm not too confident this bud pass. There's a lot of you know increases with the school and everything else. So you know it worked in the past and we've done this. We again we don't have revolving door. We're not having that. This is one of the reasons kind of what happened. They lost three guys in about a week on different agencies. We're not having that right now. Again, I don't want to say competitive. This is my way of thinking to stay competitive, which is short with that. Want to go to the entire department? Sure.

Okay. So, a couple things with the uh with me breaking down my budget for the end of the year with even with these bonuses and covered funds, I'm still looking at a pause of about $16,000. And that's anticipating pretty much everything. Sometimes you might got something sneak in here or there, but uh try to bring it all around with everything, you know, watering everything. Um no, credit card bills and stuff like that. I think I'm pretty going to be. So there's a couple things with encumbering funds and this is only because of building. One is one is what we're running into is uh we changed our water camp systems this year. went from watch guy to accent. Catch 22 with watch guy is everything we we we've had six years going into the cloud system. So to cancel the cloud system, if we do it, we lose everything. We can't access it. We can't get it. Uh now they do a monthly payment period that we can keep it and it's like $300 a month, 3 cents a day open. and and so we got about 6,000 videos and you know and you're paying by the gigabyte which I think like a 7 minute video is about 300 megabytes. So you're going to eat up that the the payment becomes almost more than what we're paying right now. By law you only have to keep the video for up to 180 days unless you have something that's needs to be litigated or use right. So, we're trying to weed that out. I need some time is what I'm looking at to get rid of. So, we we possibly got some litigation stuff that's going to come up that I want to make sure we have covered. Um, we got work with my IT guy. We did a test today that we we downloaded opening videos, put them on a hard drive, and we can still access them. So, the problem is

you get 6,000 videos. So, it's going to take a little bit of time to weed some of the stuff out. Like some of the motor vehicle stuff that that doesn't have any litigation or anything, we got to weed out. We don't have to keep it. So, it might take that much. My my goal is right now the payment is $7,200 a year for the for the uh for the cloud system. Now, that's going back in August. So, we pay it August to August. That's how it's done. So, that's why it's got to be numbered every year. You know, potentially I'm looking at like hopefully 3500, but I want them to come cover the full amount just in case I need to save those videos. Am I making sense?

Right. So if that cover probably will be 7231 uh and that's about to keep the cloud that's just the cloud service eventually we will get rid of it but with us changing over this year I just not confident we're going to get it all done by do you pay in advance or act like pay so every every time just is the way we're washing for August 25 to August 26.

Yes. Okay. So we've already paid already paid unfil right now. We need to pay annually, but you know, I break it down to $62 comes out to be. So again, if I get three, four months to get all the videos put in place and just make sure we don't miss anything. Um, you know, I may not need it for the full year and then go back to a bunch of whatever we don't use. We just need Okay, perfect.

All right. Thank you. Um so two other things which they both are connected and I said this before our reporting system has changed how we do our reporting systems for our county. So uh we gone from IMC which was owned by Central Square to Pro Sweetite. The Pro Sweetite build is 58.9971 which right now the build's due but I'm trying to work on a couple things because they're they're trying to map our cars for $1,000 a year. I don't need them in our cars. We have GPS systems in my car so I don't need to pay for that but they're trying some kind of so I'm working with that. So, I don't know if I can get that if it's going to if that price is going to work out before the end of the year. So, that's what I'm looking to recover that one for. Um, and the other part of this which was not disclosed when they went to Pro Sweden is to do the motor vehicle accidents. It needs a whole another program that wasn't included. So, it's called extend which is how we do our accident reports, our diagrams and everything else. So that licensing for that and the software is 31541. Now with with everything in my budget I talked about I already worked that like I said the about the $16,000 surpluses everything that I'm just looking cover those could be a chance I get that worked out to get paid before the end of the year.

How much was the pro sweep the 3154 November. What was the other one? Uh pro sweep is 58.9971 and then extend it's XME um and that's 315401.

Do you guys have those numbers because you would have to leave a motion to encounter those? Uh the watch card was 7231. Yeah. Proite was 58.9971. Correct. and extend for the licensing agreement for the motor vehicle program was 315401. Yeah. Total of 16,284. I'll make a motion to fumble those funds. Second. Second. All those in favor? All right. Welcome.

Okay. Um, okay. We can jump down to the engagement request and have just the um appointment that you guys made last meeting. You just give us respond

yeah. Yeah, we don't need a motion. We've already made a motion. Okay, so there's two abated requests. one. The first one is for $10,196. This is for the um deferral that we know at the beginning of the year. Um it's yearly and there's documentation here for you. It's $10,196 and then the interest would have to be 12 or $158 on a 28%. Uh, the second one is for a trailer that registered. I didn't

I didn't take it off rolls. I left the I left the trailer on it. So, it charged her December bill and that's $271 that needs to be evaded because she registered the the um the trailer and registration is behind the um to show you what happened with that. So there's two places two motions that are needed and I wrote the one down for you. That's how number one motion is to abate the taxes from M1 14 lot 30 due to defer request in the amount of $10,196 plus interest. 128 28. I'll second that. All those in favor.

All right. All right. I'm going to bring over here so I can see it. Here I am. We could amend that. It should be Bob or Motion Bob. Okay. It should be Bob the chairman. Okay. So amen. So I'll make a motion to sign. Thank you.

Sarah seconded it. Yeah. Okay. And then we do the second one then. So, uh, motion to evade taxes for a registered camper on map 170 10-109 in the amount of $270. I'll second that. All those in favor? I I thank you. I was thought it was optional one. Chair if if there's two of you. Yes. to put

but I've always thought that it's really up to you at the moment whether or not you all We still thank you very much. the end of your department request. Do you guys have I'm going to send it out again. Do you have an ordinance that you're going to need to do? Okay. Do you want to do at the next meeting or do you have the invoice and stuff?

I don't have to get an invoice. Okay. I just want to take the um pump in the budget. I have a 94 pump. Yep.

I just want to take that $1,466 and use that for pump testing. We have two gly estimate of pump testing was going to be $379 per truck. Um she said plan on the high end, but it's probably going to be 350. We only have three trucks to do this year because we have one to Utah. So I just wanted to take that in mind and move it so I can do test. Okay. We need again. Okay. Yeah. In order to encounter perfect

next meeting. Okay. So as far as budget programs, you have your budget in front of you. The drastic here 4.98. Um, these are some of the more articles that I have. Um, so far, were we leaving you about 200, right?

Yeah.

Okay. Um, so it's 599 has been allocated for um unsigned balance and fire services. It's going to take that. But these here are all ours that have been submitted so far. Um, this one is is the only different one that the additional officer that the chief was talking about put on the word articles. Um but those those all go into your figure at the end of the year. Uh is there anything any department you want to go over first? Do you want to go back to the beginning and just see where we are? I updated the actuals today from what's on the sheets on your um expenditure detail. Um, so this will expend expended to date. There might be a payroll or two that's not in that. I believe it's only one payroll, but this would be the default. And this would be the the ending for department. I did the I did the percentages. So that would be 18%. This is 11 because she's got an extra election in there.

This one is four. up the uh but I got up all of 8% that's not anything we have too much and that 150 in that other article would part that would go towards any health and retirement for that officer too that's all figured out is zoning at 14 because we need here certifies at 17. I don't know if you know she want to take it back down 12. I don't know if they can do that or not because I know she wanted to put money aside. That's what she was planning is putting it in that and then possibly not spending it and having it go to her fun at the end of the year. So, I'm not sure if they would want to do that or not. Um, but students write I mean that's that's the difference. Um

this is not something we can help. It's 15% is insuranceances. 23% is we took some out for the energy for the mining and stuff. Uh because of the solar the electric 7 uh the salary for the fire chief from emergency management up to here. that increase and then a decrease in the building. Your emergency management down because that doesn't have here streets is 2%. We decrease the thousand 3% 20% increase for drift and 7.5. Is there anything else you want to take a deeper look at? Is there any requests you want to make to anybody or

what are they five? Great.

I mean, I think all things considered with increasing cost of healthcare and things like everything's going up to be under 5%. I think that's pretty good. Okay. And I think like you said, I mean the cemetery went up, but $5,000 on our budget is not the make or break point and it's money that's I think there's good intention behind putting that aside.

What if we split the difference? 48 I do my whole mind.

No need just 3.96 30,000. You need to get Yeah. get it down percentage of having a bigger bottle. And I mean the first pass of this you were at like seven points something, right? Yeah. So yeah, whatever.

Yeah, there was there was quite a few changes made. Mhm. 45,000 This includes a long that doesn't go down here. I got to make sure I just did this again. I got to make sure the numbers right. Um, I got to adjust that to evaluations. I'm not ready to say what the impacts are. I just put a lot of information, but it look like I did have a request to today for when articles were due. So expecting a petition where I don't know if he's got any money. get that I order with the slave. I know I increased my it which is again another year maybe like you know cut the $7,000 increase that I was looking at for my hypes and stuff and you know just let it remain at the 20,000 but it's going to make a difference but I probably put this here I can I can work with what I have which is

the 70020 that's 474 that way. Do you want to do that this year? And that would be standing with Tim at least the budget made things work for

I'll make a determination next year. to to your break after. Well, and if you don't end up needing the the cloud storage for the full year, that could be some funds that you could leave reallocate over that line, right? And I mean, well, here, you know, if everything works, maybe I can make that work. Yeah. I don't have any. Yeah. If he does encumber the 7,000 for something, he can't use those funds for everything. Okay. Specifically, that's categories specific purpose.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I think as long as it doesn't have a huge impact on like that, he can still do what you need him to do. for us. So

at that point, if we've got the 7,000 back there, does a a change or reduction in the cemetery make more of a a meaningful difference? Like to Bob's point, I mean, if we split the difference, if they're asking for 5,000, if we did 2500 or Yeah. 4637 500 and the 5,000 be also learn was we had another discussion, right? Um there's also 3,000 years here that was

incorrect. Yeah. The big their big uh increase there is just paying um uh police details. I think that's like a big part of their budget. So, I don't know. There's a lot that they

Okay. They took the 65. That's already there. That's not too much. I would like to like

Yeah. I don't know. Thank you. But that's actually That's We could take out

we have that down there. This is for the we've been putting into 450.

What did you take out? the 4,000 for the minutes because we had in the part table we do which is the minute for the general subject at the top. Mhm. There's 4,000 on there and that's for the select board minutes. I just think that it's been long with the planning board. Okay. Um and then that's still leaving a little bit of an increase there too.

Mhm. Yeah, the only thing. Okay, just play over a little bit. Do you know what the increase was two years ago when we got the default budget, the proposed amount? Two years ago. I'm just curious what the question

percentage was that was voted down. Yeah. I say was 24 That's what I think too.

I think that that vote was only four votes. It was four. You always

thought the school was hiding that but I guess but is it cool as you you know January public hearing you've been getting in January. I guess depends on if people are just upset.

Yeah. Yeah. The difference between four and a half and five just isn't worth doing.

Oh, but it's like Yeah. Oh, it shows that you took 41,000 and it shows that it did. So, you made 1.43 is a pretty good number. I agree. down.

We had to enjoy that cemeteries. So the cemeteries he Okay.

And then yeah, I think that's to fund the fund. If there's leftover that's great, but like if the chief does he doesn't um it's not leftover. His is from fairness, but if there's if there's leftovers, fine. But put in your budget that you need

and then if the leftover is great and not you put more beet here. Yeah. I'm going to go with this 12:43.

Sounds good.

Okay, I will get that out to you. I'll make sure more articles if that's everything that's in there. If the department has seen something that I was looking down to the end next and the new department request. I'll leave that on there in case you have another one like Jack if you can get that invoice that would be great. Uh did you get the mail over there if you Thank you. Um and then we have approval of the board. the ones on maybe not I don't know the last meeting

the 17th was that the 17th it seems like it should be later in the month but maybe I'm just the Peter sent them I think earlier today and I sent a couple of notes back on in but I didn't send them until like 5:30 today so you may not have seen them okay we can wait I'm good with wait November 3rd but Okay, we um we lost all video for the November 17th, so there's no video and there's no recording. So, thank you. Okay, technical difficulties.

Perfect. Does anybody want to make a motion? Did you guys get a chance to read the third and the 13th? Did you have a chance? Okay, that's fine. We can wait till next time. Just I'll just keep that on the bottom. Do you guys want copies of them so you can take them and read them copies? Next meeting. Yeah, next meeting is going to be the 15th. It's on the bottom of the agenda.

And then 29th and that'll be the the last one of the year to handle all the end of year stuff. Hopefully, it'll be just a a quick public hearing to accept any funds and be done. the town hall range discussion. Um I don't have any more information on that hall trustees are working on that. There are still planning and zoning board members needed. So anybody that feels inclined to help out on those awards would be great to have. We posted it on the Kington connects and Facebook and the town there. We have Have you had everybody contacting? We need members. The boards won't be able to hold effective meetings if they're not in the full board. Pretty important. Um the I'm working on the calendar for January. January very busy public hearings for the board. Um so I'll give you a tentative list once I hear back from the bonds council because you have to have your bonds your library bond meeting has to be separate from your articles in your um budget meeting. So you'll have two meetings that week. I was thinking it'll be the 12th. So the 12th for the library and the 14th for the budget Wednesday. So

that that week we'll be busy. Um and then the 26th is the last day to post the warrant. So, if I have the work before then, we can sign it and have it before then, but I think I'm going to have to post it that night. So, I'll have everything to you after we get it and then Okay.

It will just be posted cuz I think the planning board is planning on doing arts. I'm not sure. If they don't do one, I'll definitely have it probably by the second week. Okay. Yeah, at least goes by 14 the deadline for and the reasoning for 14 is the deadline 13 for one plus see what's coming because I did have a call from one today expecting one I think and then looking at this list it looks like the is it the delivery sessions the February summit Uh, it's going to be February 3rd, correct? Okay. Yeah. Yes, it'll be February 3rd. Um, that's already been set at the school. Yeah, February 3rd. I believe 6:00. Not sure what time of the school. Then Tuesday, March 10th is the meeting day. Tuesday, March 10th. Yep. And then you'd all have to be available that day. And then in January is when you put in your It' be the 21st to the 31st is the final offices in January.

Was it February what?

January 21st to January 31st. Uh 30th, sorry. is the final and Sarah will have all of the students talk on she usually post them online and I think that's Um, just just so you're aware too, I did send that CPACer. I don't know how many other towns have done that or not yet. Um, I did send it up to legal and look at it. They haven't heard of it any committee wants to do.

It has implications for the town. I know that they said that we can have an agreement with this other entity, but essentially it's the town. Okay. It's going to fall on us. Um we've got to get these agreements and we've got to jingle all the stuff with them,

which is fine. Um but I don't know the ins and out of it, but I'm going to read that information and I'll send you the link to that site that has that book on it. I did print one out. copies of but I will send all right we're doing we're doing very well with the budget quite a lot 87% of the budget has been effect and we only had one more month.

Um the funds were low though, just so you know, I'm holding these checks until the next meeting. Okay. Um if we get the funding before that, I can send it out next week.

Um but we had to pay the county which was 400,000 and that's in your bills to see that. So there's what? 600,000. I don't know. We had 800 balance 640 87 here is almost have a great night. If you have a contract, Okay,

that's for her for the lean. We have Yeah, we have to have a contract with you and this lady here and it's either something that I can sign up for the board or you just motion to have sign. I'll make a motion for the path of this. Okay. Second LLC and he just made a motion to sign and Bob. Yeah, Bob. That's I second it. I second it. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Um on the back of your information, there's going to be a little spreadsheet like this.

Um that is the spreadsheet for the public hearing for the bond articles. So, this will tell you the dates that we just discussed about that I was talking about for January 12th. And then it tells you when I've got to add it to the paper. I sent this to the legal representative that's helped with the bond. Um, so that she can just approve the dates and make sure that we're all set different things to do with the bond. Um, and then I just want to make sure everything is done right. Um, I did have a request. Um, so the the chief got me thinking with the bonuses and not having budget next to you possibly. Um, where there is money left in the budget, it wouldn't be would be um for myself, Sarah, the chief already took care of carries. the MS can come out there. Um, uh, Sam, Linda, Carline, Peter, uh, Chief Jeff, uh, Matt and J. Um, for the town hall employees, it would be a a small a small amount for some um because it's based on the overall of the percentage. So, it's about 14,000 everybody to have um a small um I would call it a performance bonus. Everybody has gone over and above for their drugs and has dealt

have a little bit of appreciation from the board. Those are the amounts if you if you I just need a motion or sign on that. Um if you're okay with this appointment just in case they're all in case they don't get their visas. from I'll make that motion the um proposed TRM performance bonuses for 10 employees. Thank you. I'll second them. All those in favor I

I thank you. So what is this? So that's a spreadsheet. That's a spreadsheet of the bonuses that she's talking about. Yeah. Four weeks. Okay. Making money out in there and this amount so everybody gets a little bit. Yeah. Okay. Do we need your own? Yeah. in honor of their own bless.

Oh, good morning. I think Eric took care of us. different options, huh? Yeah, I think that's Well, you just passed those down to just need to go back down to Cathy. Oh, did you just go down to Cathy? Yeah, you already did those. Oh, yeah. Okay, perfect. Thank you. And that that money was left. Yeah, I think it was up at the bonus.

I wonder if it was I appreciate it. Every every dollar, I'm telling you. It's enough for coffee. Mr. No, thank you guys. This is great. Perfect. And that that actually is it. We need to sign this. Oh, no. Yeah. Can you discuss that letter, please? and and um not have the in specific terms, I guess.

Mhm. Um but if you're okay with it and sign off on it for it to be sent um do you have an original for them to sign or just one? I haven't seen that. Yeah, I don't think this is an older one for you guys in there. So, if you go a couple pages in, they're exciting new letter. That one is from planning board. Yep.

Yep. And this one will be from you as a um

I don't know if you knew too much about it was by council assignment but simulations for this. Yes. You can keep that pocket just if you don't mind signing a phone number. Perfect. Thank you.

Thank you. I think you didn't have a copy of the package. Yeah. Can I keep that one? Mine. Can I keep mine? I think you have your version in your packet that you had. You should in the stuff that was in front of you. There should be another. Yeah. If not, I

Yeah, it's the only one. That's the only Did you find N? It's weird. You should have been on there. Yeah, it's just agenda.

I have here. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, that the letter on top. this everything that goes with it. So, the letter is going to go out with all the supporting documents. So, do you want the documents? No. Okay.

All right. I think that's it. Uh motion to journ. Thank you. Second favor. I