Town Board - Regular Meeting

Look at that. The camera's working. Well, at least in here it is. We don't know if it's working. Well, I'm sure somebody on the outside. It's got to do. Okay.

There we go. There's a bit of delay.

All right. So, we're we're live now. Perfect. Open the meeting with the pledge to the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nationy and justice for all. Normally in a workshop it's the board works on issues which we will tonight here. Uh tonight though uh there was a weed and brush uh law that we had discussed during the last couple months. Uh we're going to open up tonight's meeting with a public comment period. So, anyone that would like to speak to that uh tonight, uh please take your time and stand up. And I guess I just wanted to clarify what I mean there was reasons in the in the proposal for safety and all that, but it's like what is actually what are you trying to accomplish? I can't believe it's a safety issue.

Sir, what is your name? John, do you want to address that? You did most of the research with Dan on It's It's pretty much just a law to keep things looking good in Shelby. Cosmetic. That's That's right. Cosmetic. And it was brought to our attention by code enforcer.

Well, it was code enforcer, but it was also uh there was in the past there was people looking to bring business to Madina in the in the park and stuff and they noticed that parts of Madina and coming in the village and whatnot look kind of shabby and part of it was the fact that the lawns weren't mowed and the grass was getting carried away in that and they suggested that we to keep businesses interested because a new business wouldn't want to come in, a bigger new business wouldn't want to come in and uh see all, let's put it this way, uh people's yards that they've got goats cutting the grass, you know, that you know, they they didn't want to get that get like that. So, that's what this law is. This kind of a guideline to keep keep things in line, though.

All right. Well, I I guess my just the way it seems to be written, it it can kind of be um interpreted by the town in any way they want. I mean, I'm not opposed to that. I I I prefer it was just a a local organs that said clean up your lot. You know, I I don't know how that goes over well with with certain people that have messy lots, but uh I'm not opposed to places being straightened out, but 150 ft off the road and we want we got to keep brush and grass cut and all that. I mean, what if you live in the we have a house in the middle of the woods? I'm not cutting the

Well, it's the guy this that's the guideline. That's all that is. I mean it's and it's up to the code enforcement guy to say okay well that's what I'm saying they could interpret it any way they want

any suggestions I mean this is a public commentary if you have any suggestions I mean part part of this was the code enforcement and we've had some complaints about certain properties that were in fact trees you know causing some issues that are not owned by the people that don't don't live here. They're owned by people out of the area who let the property go. And so the discussion really revolved to some degree about we need something so that we can find those individuals to see if we can put pressure on it because the code officer has sent letters and letters and letters. There's no teeth to it. the owners of the property in one case uh are why they even own it is a business out of town, a trucking business that has nothing to do with the area and they just it's a mess.

There's a house that's falling down. There's all these these issues with it. So I think the attempt with this was to try to give the code officers the teeth to be able to go after. Now, if any suggestions and the reason for the public comment period is certainly, you know, we this was something that was assembled a while ago by code. We've resurrected it. Any suggestions you want to I'm Doris Campbell and we live on Salt Works. We have like 900 foot along the road. We have woods in front of our house that we use as a

and and then we have a marsh in the southern end. Are we supposed to keep the weeds and tall grasses in the marsh that we can't even get down into? There's a stream with a bridge. Can't get down there. And the way this is written, it's like you have to clear that whole frontage. Yeah. Yeah. I think correct me if I'm wrong. It's more for a yard like right. It's it's for living space. I But it is there is a a specification how many feet back. Yeah. Oh, is that And it also says 150 ft from the sides Sure. of your lot. So that would cover like 4 acres of our six acres that we need to clear. That's what we're concerned about. Sure. You know, I I'm all on board with what you're trying to do.

Sure. I ju it just it's like like I said, somebody could come back to me and say, "Well, you know, you've got you've got weeds. Well, you cut like the first 20 feet, you know, more than that. probably 20 25 ft 30 feet maybe all along the 900 ft we we mow it right but then after that it's weeds and trees I mean we clear all the dead wood and keep it neat neat but it's a woods why every bush out of there every on the other side of that so so we maybe we need to reward some things that you're making a good point the

yeah I'm because like I said I mean we live in an area where there's humongous trees that are 50 ft off the road that have been down for 5 years and still there. Yeah. And then the other deal is the nom that's turned into no mo forever. Yeah. I agree with that. But if we have woodlands in a marsh, are we supposed to clear that? No. The intent was never to make it that way. So you bring up a good point. I think that we'll, you know, take notes here and I think that the whole idea of having a public hearing is for folks like you to bring that forward and then allow us to make changes to it because we don't want to create a situation for people like you that are taking care of your property. You know,

I wouldn't think it would be an issue on our property, but then, you know, I just want to have the day where somebody's sitting in my driveway going, you got to you got to clear all Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. Same thing. somebody that you know. Well, we've got a we got a code officer today that probably wouldn't bother with that. No, no, no. But if I live next door to somebody that he retires and we get somebody else, you know, so I think whatever the law says, we really need to to we'll revisit that. Thank you. Sure. Absolutely. Anybody else? Okay.

You live across the road and I have a whole bunch of leaves spread out. where the guy bloom there. It's along our woods and then we have brush on top of that. Do I have to clear that out? I was kind of making a habitat for wildlife. No, it's basically just for keeping your yard mode. That's all. Oh, well, along the edges that What about that neighbors over there? That Renelos house that's owned by the bank. Yeah, that's there's trees down galore over there. Yeah, there's that whole wooded that lot over there that's unmolded.

See, and that would allow the code officer then this law to go after and write the banks. I know, but then fines are something that might get their attention as opposed to a letter. You need to do something. So, they do come and mow the lawn. Mhm. But yeah, that lot next to their house and then you got Kazabal. I don't know who owns that in there. That's something again though could code would find. I think again this is the attempt to try to give the code officer something to at least apply a apply some kind of

penalty for for not following this thing. Not to penalize people that are trying to take care of their property or like you are trying to do something. Uh we certainly will revisit this and do some clarification uh on it I think and then we present it. I don't think uh we want to just it's been sitting on the books waiting for somebody to act on it for a couple of years. We don't need to rush through tonight. We wouldn't anyways. Uh this is not a session for us to vote on anything this evening. This isformational. So I'm glad you showed up. This is we need input. Yeah, that's why at first I thought because the way it was in the paper

Yeah. It looked like you guys were going to pick up trash and brush along the road like the village of Madina does. And I thought, well, I'm glad you came and brought these up. It's important for us as a board. We We certainly don't know everything. We do some research on it. we depend on others, most importantly that the public comes and and presents the things and we'll certainly go back and revisit this. You know, I'm all on board with it. Just seems to me there should there must be another town or city that's got an ordinance that says you got to do that and so keep it cleaned up. Yeah.

I mean, I'm I'm for if you got 12 cars in your front yard, that's another that's another whole issue. That's another one working

anyway. Yeah. Well, at least with issues like that, the code officer does have some ability to do citations. At this point, until we have something like this, he cannot give a citation. And this is where the whole point is not to penalize home owners that have property like yourself, but especially for for properties that either the bank owns or somebody owns it doesn't happen in the area that we can issue citations and put some kind of pressure because in many cases they don't they don't respond to a letter without something attached to it that says we certainly will revisit it. Um, we'll redo it and we'll see, you know, you'll get to see how we make a change. I think a lot of this was actually lifted from somebody else's

ridgeway. We try not to reinvent the wheel if there is something. We'll go back and we'll take a look at the 150 ft thing. Yeah, a little bit. I don't want something that's that's you. Sure. But I'm Yeah, I don't blame it. We certainly will take that into consideration. Anything else tonight in terms of comments? Okay, we'll close the public comment section. Well, we're going to keep it open just for a couple weeks.

We will we're going to have to put uh just like we do with the others. There'll be a uh two week period, put a notice in the paper for written comments. So, there's more more than ample opportunity for other people to to speak up on the issue. All right. I passed out an agenda uh to go through a number of items tonight. Um the one that we've been kicking around for. Again, we won't vote on this tonight, but I did want to have a discussion about how we proceed. We all got a spreadsheet uh with the work that uh John and Darlene have done in terms of contacting some of the other uh cemeteries in the area. And you can see Diana put together a spreadsheet for us little bit here to give you an idea of where we stand. Um my own I talked to Don Lan today who manages the uh Milville Cemetery. I had a discussion with him about the rates. Um I think he feels that as they are without raising them is fine. I mean we do about you can raise this by a hundred a couple hundred dollars. you're not going to make up. They only do about 10 to 15 a year, which isn't going to make much difference in a budget.

Um, and just open for comment, I'm going to offer my own personal opinion is that I think we leave them as they are and not raise them. I would like to do away with the Saturday extra cost for a Saturday. We we only do that at Mount Pleasant. We don't do it in Millville. So, um that's again that's my opinion on it. Again, we're not going to decide tonight, but I'm open I think certainly to any discussion that any other thoughts that you folks had. Now, these numbers here on uh Shelby and Milville or Milville and Mount Pleasant, were they uh the numbers before they were changed without a vote or are they uh are they existing numbers right now?

These were the ones darling prior prior to these were the ones we've had all along. Yeah, they're not the increased one. Okay. So, there was an increase like last summer, right? Yeah, that was the one that they charged 32 instead of 325. It was um was 375. Yeah, 425 for a cremation. And then they charged um for the Saturday burial of $175. So these are numbers are reflect before before before the right voted on writed the wrong by reimbursing Cooper with the right the money. He writed that wrong. Yeah. Hey. Yeah, I agree with it.

Can I ask we might have covered this? I just don't remember. Darlene, how long have these rates been in effect? Like when was the last time they were changed? 2013 is when we took it over. And I know that they they did go up a little bit. I I don't have that, Abby. I'm not sure. I'm just trying to understand roughly. Yeah. I don't know when the So you think 10 years? Oh, yeah. Mhm. I mean, they seem to be except for Kendall. Oh, wait a minute. Yeah, they're about middle middle of the road. Middle of the road. Yeah. Okay, I see. One other question. So, um,

how much do we get charged if we don't dig? Mount Pleasant. What was that, Larry? You got the number. $300. That's what our hill call charges us to go to dig. Okay. Yeah. He digs and then he comes back Saturday and fills it back in. Like if the funeral's on Friday, comes back that evening and doesn't charge anything extra for coming in. Okay. And in Mount Pleasant, uh they do the digging our MEOS do and then uh they go and they do the back fill. Um if it's a Saturday, um Dale will do the do the uh back fill on the uh so typically unless he's out of town. But again, we have so few of these.

I'm not numbers. I guess I'm still not understanding the purpose of the Saturday cost charge. That's why I said I felt No, I I didn't understand it. We're paying a stipen for somebody to be the whatever. That's if it's for if it's for if an hourly person went and did an ino cover his his cost for working Saturday like four hours but again in most cases Dale's been taking care of it unless according to every discussion I've had out back um he takes care of it and so and he doesn't get the extra money right

so the only thing it would be is if you did have an MEO that had to go on Saturday. But for these cemeteries doing 10 to 15 a year, it's not right. It's not a huge amount of money. I mean, it's it's the cemeteries are a service to the to the taxpayers to the community because um I mean, none of these any and even if you doubled the price, whatever pay for the the amount of mowing and upkeep and everything that we have on them. It's it's a it's part of what we do for the residents, you know. I just wanted to make I just want to make sure that the actual internment is covers the cost of the that it

an MEO might pay it would be about 3 hours you know for an MEO so that we're more than okay that's all I'm worried about. Okay. Now we discussed also about uh this is for our our residents. How about non-resident is there a different uh there isn't for us. I mean, that has been, you know, I I hit I asked Don Lan how he felt about that since he's he's been doing cemetery work a lot longer than I uh and he didn't feel that it was really they don't have that many out oftowners that

non-residents that utilize it. And they have so many plots. I mean, Milville alone uh has probably over 300 plots that are available, which at the rate of 10 to 15 a year would be a while before. And actually, if it ever got to that point, there's other land that Milville owns that hasn't been um been surveyed yet. Has not been surveyed yet. East of the driveway where the trees were planted that that hasn't been surveyed. Yeah. So,

yeah. Towards the field. Yeah. So, I don't know what he would, you know, by charging an out of town resident more um for burial. I again that this is a discussion. If somebody thinks that's something we should do, I don't know what purpose it really has other than Well, here's a non-resident. They got like eight. Mhm. They got $50 upcharge on all theirs, but Yeah. Well, Lyn Haven's a pretty it may be such because that isn't huge. Okay. You know, cemetery and maybe the reason the thought behind that is that saving the plots for for you know because it's not a huge cemetery

and they're kind of restricted how much more they can is that the across from the school. Yeah. on that and the p in the p and percentage of the people that are called non-residents are may have been residents in the past and they want to come back and be with a family and a lot. So it's kind of in my mind at point just leave it like it is and

it looks good to me. Well, we'll we'll we'll take a vote on this in the next meeting. Okay. So, Tuesday, we'll bring this up. And any other comments between now and then? Certainly. Let's get them in there and we'll we'll This has been This discussion's been going on for another one that's been going on for well over two years. I'd like to see us if we can't come to a decision on it. So, the administrators of the cemetery get a stipen yearly stipen. Yes, they do. How much? 1500,500. Uh, do you anticipate any issues with not agreeing to the weekend charge that the Saturday charge in regards to

I wouldn't physically doing the work or I I don't see why not the either first of all the Millville is done by Hill so there that's you know a moot point in terms of Milville in terms of Dale getting a stipen The extra charge does not go to Dale. It comes to the town, right? So it, you know, No, no, no. That that's not my Okay. You mean somebody that uh is going to like work on the Saturday, you mean? Or Yeah, because realize we're not That's right.

Well, again, the And let's just, you know, Dale is is getting the 1500. He, according to anybody I've talked to, he's almost always there on a Saturday to do this. The an extra $150 if we leave him there doesn't make any difference to him quite frankly because it doesn't go in his pocket. It comes to the board. The only reason I think as as Linda brought up that the discussion came up about that. What if Dale's on vacation? What if he's someplace? Then we have to pay an MEO to go in for three or four hours to uh wait for the service to get over and then for everybody to leave and then uh to complete the burial. um that would be the only time really that that there would be you know in the case of actual cost altogether you're talking maybe about eight hours uh of uh you know an MEO's time uh to dig and to backfill. Um that's max depending on what the conditions are of the soil and where it's located. Um, you know, we still don't have an MEO rate other than what we know the per hour rate is. Um, so I mean it's it's not as you use in business usually a fully burdened rate, but just straight MAO time is a little over $30 an hour. So,

well, and by Saturday that would certainly be overtime. Yeah. It would be time and a half. Yeah. So, I mean, I'm just saying the leadup to this whole thing was, you know, everybody else is doing it. So we should do it as well, you know, and I wasn't a fan of it to begin with at, you know, one of the most tragic time in a family's life to have to deal with that and then, you know, be charged extra on top of it to the point that, you know, okay, we'll have it on Monday then, you know, why uh, you know, why are we being charged this extra money? We we and typically the majority of them occur on the weekend. I mean, you know, people have jobs and lives and

I have I have to agree with you. I mean, as part of this whole thing, I I did talk to somebody who who was they had lost husband. They were separated but had lost and and nobody in his family was going to help and and she was responsible for the raising the money and she didn't have money. his kids and it was and I thought to myself, you're right, Larry. This is a vulnerable time to raise prices on this again. It's not going to make us any money. This is a service to the community. And I think of somebody like that and I go, why are we charging more? Yeah.

And I I'm fully with you on on on your take. I mean, she's was devastated and she's to the point that she probably can't even afford to have I'm barely going to have it earn in her living room or something. So, I think it's important that we understand that the community we live in. So, and I'm just curious, you know, what percentage of these I mean, it's not like they're not going to, you know, give me $500 or, you know, they're going to stay over there on the grass. I mean they're obviously they're going to complete the work

and you know for the people that can't afford it or maybe they can only you know pay $150 or something toward it. What vehicle is there to you know cover that difference? There is some help from little not much from the county and social services and and from social security but it's minimal. I don't know the exact numbers. I think it's 255 from social security is it? But

that's not much. you know, and the county does have some things set up, uh, I understand, to offer some help, and it's minimal again. Um, and I know this person is pursuing some assistance, you know, beyond that, I don't know what it Well, I guess at the end of the day, I mean, we're paying $47,000 a year to, you know, to have it mowed, maintained, plus the MEO's time and the fuel and the trucks and, you know, all these things. And not for nothing, u certainly never ever going to come near to even recouping that. And it is a line item in the budget that, you know, the taxpayers all contribute to.

U to me, it shouldn't even be that much, you know? I mean, it just uh it just doesn't make sense monetarily because as you say, I mean, you know, at 10 to 15 a year, what's what's that amount to?

Well, open to again, it's this is a workshop and discussion. I mean, I'd like to bring this to a vote next week, but you know, any I mean, the rates have been the same for the last 10 and 12 years, and we're about in the middle on everything else. I I I mean there's I I don't know maybe I didn't say it right but it just it feels like there's no you know end benefit other than you know being able to be interoured in your town you know that you know I lived here all my life I' you know probably be buried here um I don't know it just it well I think covering ing the cost of the actual of the MEOS to do the work and such as was part of the consideration. I mean you're right the mowing and it's not just mowing of these two cemeteries we cover mowing for

total of nine cemeteries the seven of the nine are uh inactive but we maintain them in terms of how they look. Um, so you're right. I mean, we never regain our costs, but I think to just cover the there has to be some some number to the town that covers the actual labor and the costs and the time. Um, without making it excessive, uh, they certainly opened it. It feels differently and wants to lower it or raise it.

Yeah. And I I think the other thing to remember is it isn't just the time of somebody going there that day to dig the grave and and cover it, right? It it's, you know, Darlene's time if she's the one selling plot or Dale's time or, you know, the MEOS, whoever. There's there is other time put in. So, I I agree. I don't think it should be a money maker, but let's just remember that it also should at least, like you said, cover the cost. And when I talked to Don, he felt

that's my opinion. When I talked to Don Lan who's been doing this and very close to the community and he I'm sure he knows just about everybody that's you know he's in here a couple times a week and looking and he felt that he felt the numbers were fine where they were that was his opinion you know so I mean they're in line with the like I said the other town so I mean Well, I think that we we've got a week before a little less than a week. Uh let's we'll bring it up at the meeting. We'll take a vote and if um anybody wants to propose something different at that time, uh please speak up and then we we can can vote vote on it at this point.

Do you have other numbers in mind? Well, not necessarily. I mean, to cover the time, it's artill $300. And then what other time? There's administrative costs obviously to go along with selling spot. So, there's filing of paperwork and going out there looking through, you know, and I'm just going by what hap what what we went through, right? You have to go there, pick a plot, decide on, you know. Yeah, but that's your time. That's not the town's time.

The town has to go there to determine if the spot is avail Well, at least for us, that's how it worked at St. Mary's. Like the church goes and they, you know, you have to review it with who? Like I don't know if they have jail or who? Well, Don Lennon, he come out out to uh Milville. So, yeah. And reviewed with you guys. What? Where? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So in the case of, you know, you're talking $300 a loan for for Art Hills time at Millville, um, so, you know, you're selling the plot and then the burial and I would imagine there's also records that have to be kept, you know, deeds and everything.

And documentation to, you know, because there must be some somebody's keeping track of where there's open plots and so Phil's got that in his office. He keeps track of the the Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Yeah. Okay. And then uh when he sells a plot, then he brings the paperwork to me and then I do up their deed and send them the deed um after they've given the money. And then after that person's buried, they're put in Docuare, which is our cloud for, you know, vital information. And then after that, they we put the paper copy into the vault for record also. So,

but he's getting $1,500 a year to do that. No, John at 10 to 15. That's That's how much per burial. So, I'm just trying to Yeah. Every every dollar counts right now. So, that's 10 to 15 for both cemeteries, right? That's it's 15. So, that's like you got to figure it's $3,000. That's correct. Yeah. I mean, somebody has to maintain the records and do the Oh, yeah. All of that. Yeah, like I said, Don's in here a couple times a week and going through things and he manages he sits down with Darlene and

you know, so there is is work that has to be done in terms of a management. They don't run themselves. All right. Well, if you come up with some numbers, Larry, seriously, I I please present them,

you know, either an email or or at the meeting or beforehand. Um I I think that any consideration uh that you may think of, let's put it in there, do the right thing. Okay. Next thing I had on the list was the MRB proposal. Um this the first stage. Um in this we took a vote to to pursue a grant. Uh we've had a couple of teams meetings uh on this subject with uh MRB uh one of them with Kathy attorney and with the municipal solutions um discussing the process. The first step of course is is getting a proposal from MRB which they put together. Uh after some discussion I asked MRB to make a slight change in that to include in their rate uh two proposal two visits to the town to bring them up to speed as opposing as opposed to being charged each time they walk in. Um so they did make that change. Uh, I also instigated a a call with MRB and uh Margaret, our accountant, uh, given all the work that she's done and we've had her do on water. uh I've asked her to put together a proposal also of what she sees

um in additional time because all of these things then can be charged to this water study and hopefully covered by the grant so that we're just not paying it out of out of our water budget. Now the same thing goes for the attorney. We are owed something from Kathy uh yet so that all of this goes to uh Jeff Smith at Mr at at Municipal Solutions so that that can be put together in a grant proposal. Now, if you remember, the grant proposal is for a non-competitive grant of which we should get 50%. We're looking to keep this uh in the $50,000 range in total. Um, and if that's the and we follow through with it with the recommendations of of the grant, uh, we get 90% of the of the I think it's important that that we pursue this and and again, no decision tonight or anything. I just wanted to review where we were with this so that you as the board all understand that progress is being made slowly. I'd like it to go a lot faster. One of the discussions I had with a Scott Madison MRB is because the data that we have for the existing water system for usage is less than a year's worth of of use which from an engineering standpoint they would prefer when coming up with a modified rate. So, I've pressed him on using the information that Margaret has with usage information that we have now and coming up with an interim rate so that it's something that that we can feel comfortable with that we're not going too low. Uh do a rate so that we can drop it for everybody because we are

getting this water from part of our supply at this lower cost. And then as this study gets done by then we should have a lot more data that we can can actually say this is the rate we need to go to. We want to make sure we don't go too low on the interim. So that's one of the things that we'll be looking at so that we can move this forward. Now um I think a lot of the information that Margaret has gathered will go a long ways towards that um getting that interim rate. So that will be the next thing on our on you know that I'll pursue with the group and I'll have to pursue Kathy. We'll see her on Tuesday and I'll ask her where her proposal is also so that we can uh get the grant application in. Um it's important is in talking to our highway department and to the MEOS about trying to track costs for maintaining the water system because of the 13 districts. It's going to be a major help if we can solidify this into a single district and and so we can get an interim rate, get a single district, get a final rate. Um, you know, I'll just keep the pressure on and keep this thing moving as fast as we we can. Now, it may be that and again, no vote tonight, but I want you to consider we have a fair amount of money that's sitting in the water accounts that we can't use for anything else. And I'd like us to consider pursuing this even prior to us getting the grant. Now, how that works, I'm not sure. I'll have to talk to Jeff Smith, but I'd like to the members of the board to think about

that, whether it's something that we may want to authorize. I haven't signed this thing from with MRB. You know, that's a decision that we have to make as a group, but I really want to get this thing moving. I think that that um we've been collecting we've been we've been selling this water from Royaltton at the regular rate. I think that it's time that we do something and if we can move it along sooner rather than later, even if it's not the final rate, I I really like to push that through and get going. have I think that the taxpayers especially not taxpayers but especially the people that get water and that from Shelby certainly would be uh it's something we need to pursue. So

so in this single district are we looking for a blended rate for just the cost of water and the debt service stays the same? Yes. Separate? Yes. The debt service would stay the same in those districts that that have debt. You can't transfer that debt, you know, to everybody. You can't consolidate that. What would happen though or the repair cost? I mean, looking at it, you've brought it up how many times, Larry? You know, that $25 charge and originally that was supposed to go into a maintenance fund. It's disappeared. You know, well, I'm hoping out of the not necessarily disappeared. Please be careful how you say that. Okay.

It is in the fund balance in all that cash that's sitting there. It's not been designated specifically specifically for

and I think part of the study certainly will look at okay the age of the lines anticipated repair costs anticipated replacement costs what has to be put in for some type of you know maintenance fee. We may be charging too much or not enough on that maintenance fee. You know we went through that asking when was this even decided and you know I went back and asked the people that used to work in the water department here. I said there used to be on the $25. It used to be in a separate fund. It's no longer. It's still being collected and as Linda said, it's not being spent on something else. It's still in the water fund. Um but in terms of the O andM charge, is it right? Is it wrong? That's stuff that we need to get from this study to say it's not enough, it's too much. Um, so, uh, I think

we've got conflicting, you know, data. I haven't seen the latest, you know, balance sheet or budget to actual, you know, but the last one I saw, you know, we were carrying a negative balance just in district one, which I I just beyond me.

It's she they found the errors and I and so get an update on that. It's not running a negative. There was some you part of the problem Larry is that we're dealing still with poor accounting in the past and numbers that got transferred over and I think that we're finally getting that and my understand talked to Margaret about this is that they have corrected that negative you know in those water districts. So, I've asked we'll get something by hopefully by the next meeting uh Tuesday, an update on those um and see where we are.

Well, I mean, we, you know, we agreed to pay them, you know, $5,000 more a month just to focus on straightening out the water billing and, you know, that whole that whole section of the accounting. And, you know, I'm with you, Jim. You know, obviously I wanted something done this for three years now. I know. You know, um the board has to extend some sort of olive branch to the people that have been double and triple charged for water

on top of this on&m charge. I mean, it's it's embarrassing, you know, that uh it got to this point, but all we could do these things are just, you know, they're just going to take forever and ever. And, you know, they're going to keep paying this money. Period of time. We weren't even keeping track of it. It wasn't held aside. I did all the homework. You know, I could tell you exactly when, who was supervisor then, how it all occurred. And um you know it's it's it's it's a mess obviously. Obviously and

it just feels that you know we could take some immediate action as a board to alleviate some of that and and show the you know show the consumer. That's what I'm saying. You know we're we're heading in the right direction. This is kind of what we feel is going to happen. Um you know and then we're all going to share in the savings you know when it's over with. But, you know, even talking with Jeff Smith, we haven't even, you know, submitted the grant yet. We have can't, you know, can't submit the grant without these proposals. Well, that's my point. Half the year is almost over with and, you know, it's just grinding along. So, are you okay with the proposal then?

I am okay with the proposal. Okay. Well, we'll take a vote on it Tuesday. Yeah. and then we can move you know I mean it's unfortunate because we only meet once a month regularly it becomes it takes longer to but I am it's okay with me it it's more than that it's getting it's getting the people to put the proposals together

and while it's I'm would like things to move faster quite frankly I can't be in here any more hours than I am pushing. It takes time to get on the phone. It takes time to write the emails. I'm sorry it isn't going faster. Um, no, this is this, you know, this is no reflection of

Well, my point is, if you bring up about the time frame, understand where we are and I and it's important that people listening understand and I hate to go and rehash old. The accounting has been wrong here since 2018. State came in here in 2021, told us your accounting is bad. They came back in several years later and said, "You haven't done anything about it. It's still bad." Unfortunately, the numbers that we're dealing with today are a result of built on bad accounting that went back years and bad recordeping

and bad bad recordkeeping. And so, fortunately, you know, we came in, we made promises, we're working on as fast as we can, but we're spending a lot of time still fixing mistakes. And the other thing that I don't know that I put on the list, we're going to see a uh audit report coming up that I believe that we're going to get roasted. Not for the work we're doing today, but for the work that's been done. And here we are trying to straighten it. It's just like anything. How do you create a new budget when you don't have good numbers about what was spent? That's when we did the last budget. And hopefully we do a better job this next time. We're still coming across bills that that are due from 2024. We're finding accounting errors that go back years. And for Margaret to try to reassemble some of this stuff has been a a gargantuan task. The auditors alone have consumed I I can't even tell you how many hours of time trying to get to the bottom of everything. And and they were going to come in next meeting to present the do the exit audit information. They're going they want to hold off till June. Um I'll Margaret myself and I've asked Linda to sit in. We'll meet with the auditors next Wednesday morning um to get the gentleman in dirty detail before we present it to the board. If there's any last things that we can correct or give to them, um that gives us a chance to do that and come up with any additional information that may be required. Um,

one of the questions I got asked today again in essence I had to tell them, well, go back to our other auditors because what you're asking me I can't find. There's no resolution. There's no information going back to early 2025 uh that I can answer your questions with. and Darlene will tell you they've been in here and it's been on and on and on and they're doing the job that should have been done for years. On top of this, we've had I'm the fourth supervisor in how many years?

In three or four years. Um, we're getting there. I wish it was going faster, Larry. I really do. I think this this water thing has been percolating and and you've brought it up for years and you're spot on. You really are. I'd like to be able to snap my fingers and get it done. We're stressing Margaret right to the max. Um I think that Diana can tell you tell you that she's on the phone with her every day. I'm hoping once we get past this audit, it frees up some more time. Linda has some ideas about how to bring more stuff in house to try to reduce our our our accounting costs. Diana is doing the best she can to becoming a quas accountant. Something that she never signed up for.

She's doing a good job. So, I'm on your side, Larry. I really am. This water thing and that's why I suggest let's let's move forward of this without whether we wait proposal or not. Let's get the damn thing going.

I would just like to say one thing though um in regards to getting like um the proposals done. I think the past we have seen it happen where the proposal wasn't really listing what we wanted done. So it does take time too to go back and forth and make sure that what we want is what we're actually going to get because clearly the the whole start of this this project shouldn't have started this way to begin with, right? We should have had a plan for the entire project and we just went went step by step. Instead, we did one piece and then we figured out now we got to do another piece and nobody really understood that the pieces should be fitting together and it does this just doesn't always

and that's longer and harder. I got this I spent time went through it and I went back to them had them make a change. So that takes another few days to get a you know get the changes get them here get them with everybody here and just like this have a meeting. Okay. Did I miss in here? Did they tell us how long? No. This would take I don't think they know yet. Well, I again I'm not looking for an exact, but are we talking two weeks or six months to do?

I think that the way I pressed it last time I talked to him, I want a blended I want an interim rate almost immediately once I get once I get the information. That's why I want to put Margaret together. We had that team call I did with the two of them to get them. I'm waiting for Margaret to come up with a little proposal. I want those two to work together on that interim rate ASAP. Once once I sign off on this, we're already paying Margaret. Yeah. Okay. And if we sign off on this next week, we'll be these guys will be on the payroll and I can tell them to work with Margaret and get this done.

As it sits today, I haven't signed the contract, so they're not on the payroll yet. I think once I sign this, if we if we and there's no more changes to this, I can pursue hopefully an interim rate within the next next 30 days, I would hope. All we're looking at is your 30,500 for MRB. Yes. And then we got to wait for uh Kathy with her off. Yes. And that's it then. Nobody No. Well, I want to try to get some. We're already paying Margaret. Yeah. All I'm hoping to do, and we would have to continue to pay Margaret,

but if she puts forth a proposal, it won't increase our cost, but hoping then to get it added on to the grant, right? So that we can take money out of the grant to pay her as opposed to taking it from something else. So we can reduce our hopefully our monthly bill a little bit by taking some of the grant money and paying that. So, what kind of money uh you figure in uh the west side of uh 63? Um I mean what kind of money districts uh are you know they got any kind of a number at all or for well for the water the cheaper water? I mean well I we don't know yet. I mean the the usage numbers they'll get uh uh from from water here. We've got those. Okay.

Uh the work that Margaret's done, she's been assigning costs based on usage. Um, I think that given just my opinion and after the team meeting that we had, I think that given the the work that Linda Margaret's already done associated with if we sign off of MRB, they now are on again like the payroll, I can tell them what I want, not continue because we pay them anything at this point. You know, we're asking for the grant, we're going to try to get Oh, sure. Yeah. So, and if we get 50, we get 25. If you remember during the budget process, we put money in each water district for legal engineering and engineering.

And so we have that money in a budget that doesn't affect taxpayers. It doesn't raise water rates because it's comes out of the water fund. The money is already there. Um, so there is money available in the in the water funds to put this forth and I think the the savings that we'll recognize from this will more than pay for for what we spent. As an aside, uh when I first started getting into this, there were people out on the edges and Barry and such that said that or on Shelby there was, you know, we need to buy our water from Elbian is so much cheaper. The water from Elbian now is over $7 per thousand. It's gone up. So, you know, I don't know. We're paying that to Madina. you'd have to pay that if we worked to Albian. Um the cost of of maintaining what happened in Albian is that they had to re their

uh processing or treatment plant and that cost passed right on down to the users. So when I talked to the uh Murray supervisor, he told me that their rates have jumped tremendously. So, it's important for us to see and I I think there's there's an interim rate that we can get and we can get it within the next 30 to 60 days. I'd be I'd be

I would just like if if we decide that we're going to move forward with with them and sign this. I'd like after we do that that they would give us some type of a timeline so that we can make sure that things keep moving. Yes. But also we have you know the public has some idea of when will we have an understanding of a new rate. I I'll see if I can get that from them. Yeah. Before our meeting Tuesday. Okay. Yeah. Well, I ste still feel that the function of service charge should be wrapped into the rate of the water. Oh, I I

shouldn't be an over and above because if these are supposed to be self-supporting and it's based on usage, you know, if I'm using 20,000 gallons, then I'm causing 20,000 gallons of wear. Yeah. On the system. I don't think that's a bad idea. My neighbor's only using 10,000, you know, that's half the liability. Mhm. Yet, it's still the same system. I think that should to me it's just a you know it's a sting on top of that to know you know it's it's just an over and above that you know let's face it was never properly taken care of

right and you know I don't know if you could account for it at this point or not it is moved into its own line in the districts now although it it's it appears that it's a tax but it's not so I'm sorry

you know the 13,900 or whatever it is per district. So if the rate ends up being you know whatever $7 a thousand and you know MRB determines that you know the rate of erosion and age of the pipes and so forth that uh we need to charge an additional 47 cents to cover the potential in repairs and cost or whatever then that becomes the rate. Mhm. It shouldn't be a separate, you know, it just feels like we're penalizing people for buying water from the town. It just doesn't make sense to me.

I I think I'm still missing that. Can you So, are you saying that every person still pays the same service charge rate? It just it like your water would be 752 or 742. If I'm your neighbor down the street but I use less or more than you, my rate would still be 742 or it's going to be different per well it's a function of going to a single district you know now all sharing in rightial cost repairs may be required unfortunately there are many districts that are still carrying debt service you know y x you know x amount of time are those districts that are currently you know uh paying a debt service also paying an O andm charge you know, is that a separate line on their bill?

Yes. So, is that a yes or no? Yes, it is a yes, it is. There's a rate for the water, a rate for your bond payment, and and then an on andm charge that everybody pays. And then, you know, the people that have the pipe run by their house, but they're not tapped into it are also paying. Yeah. So, everybody pays in the end. I'm just saying in the cause of trying to balance this out and keep it fair, I shouldn't be paying any more than my neighbor pays. So, you think it should

unless I use twice the amount of water? Yeah. Based on what you use. That's right. Yeah, that's a fair point. Got a note. I'll I'll I'll bring that up with MRB as they look at this. Yeah. Okay. Except for I would argue that if maybe I'm still not understanding. I'm I'm sorry. But he's I think he's talking about the $25. Yeah. The service charge service charge that he's got that everybody gets the same when he's saying all of the operation and maintenance cost should be calculated and just into just the water rate as their usage. They would pay more if they use more. Yeah.

And pay certainly in terms of towards the on&m for the operation and maintenance of a line. But aren't you isn't this kind of go back to similar to the ambulance? You're paying for a service that Well, I mean, I guess that's kind of where I'm thinking like you need that water line whether your neighbor uses water or not. You need, you know what I mean? So, I guess but if I'm causing twice the amount of wear on it, I should pay twice. I think a lot I don't know that wear is the real issue. It's the I I I think those are elements. We definitely have to look at how it's being done.

Put it on here. We'll bring it up. And I think that's part of whatever they come forward with. I'm hoping that they come forward able to answer these questions a hell of a lot better than I can.

That's what we're going to pay them for. and and I and I'm putting a lot of trust in MRB uh that they'll come back to us uh with solutions that make sense uh and that the board can get behind and that the you know the water users of of Shelby will be happy with. Um so we'll we'll press them and I'll press them to get some answers be you know before Tuesday and we'll take a vote on proceeding with that. If the board wishes to, I'll sign it at that point. And at that point, I have some leverage to push them to get things done. Okay. All right. I brought up in the last board meeting, uh, we need a printer for the key cards. um towards that end. Um I think and not to put you on the spot, but Linda did call um

convergent convergent about why a $1,700 printer or some of the other things we're looking at and what it costs so much to install. And so can you expound a little bit about what they

Yes. So, I sent Larry a a link to a printer that looked like the same printer. They were quoting us, but after speaking to the guy, uh there was no Ethernet connection that had to be there. So, when I searched, the model told me which was more in the description. Um the one I found online was like within $100 of what Convergent was going to charge. And so, um, they warranty it and they'll warranty the, you know, they'll do the installation. So, it did to me it didn't seem like $100 was a huge difference considering they're going to warranty the printer since they're getting it. The labor I was a little confused in the labor. They quoted that because he said that because these are standalone and you would probably understand this more than I do because it's a standalone. It can be more it's not a plug-andplay. You don't just plug the thing in and and you know load the software and you're done. Apparently there's a lot more to it than that because of the connection the internet getting internet or getting it. and he said it it it takes it can take like eight hours to for them to do. What I didn't ask him though is could we you know like if it takes them two hours

are they going to charge us less? Can they

I can Yeah. And I can tell you that when they came in here and installed this the new computer and CHPC was here who helped them to some degree um because it's a standalone system and not connected. uh he spent hours in here uh on the phone having to make a connection separately and then trying to get the information into the computer to get it set up to work for us. The same issue exists for the printer. We can't just download drivers to it for a printer. Uh there has to be a two-step process. Again, you probably understand it better than I do, but after watching him there, um I tell you Diana's pretty good with this stuff. She's not going to be capable of of taking care of this. I know I'm not. Uh

and it comes with training. And it comes with training and for that installation cost. So, uh that's kind of where we are on these. Well, the other thing too was, you know, do we need double-sided and and

Oh, yeah. I I I'll double I'll ask that and see if there's another model, but I I really wanted to point out that it's it's not something that self-installing is going to be very easy for us. That's all I we just don't have horsepower here for for that. Um and having sat through watching what they had to go through the last time, I recognized that it's not anything that we want to tackle. And I also know that every time we have a problem here, they are all for us and they're very responsive. Um the quote is for singlesided. So So that mean that's half the price almost.

Well, in the case of this, this is this is the quote that they gave us is for single-sided, right? And I think we could probably talk about the you know like could Yeah. Could the labor be a max? Could that be the max number? And if they use less time, then they could charge us like hourly versus the Sure. You know, that's a good I can take that approach with them

and then they would have it so so they would be able to talk people through it. You know, you want to make sure it gets set up right. Right. So that it works and then they could talk somebody through something on the phone if they know the way it was actually set up. Well, we did get, you know, comparable quotes um maybe not the exact same model. Yep. Through source well and again reaching back to them asking does this require professional installation? there any caveats that would y

preclude you know an office admin and you know they responded with full confidence that you know no it does not and uh there is free 1800 assistance getting it you know set up and you know what have you after I mean that's the devil's advocate of yep being at the mercy of you know these facilities that charge what I feel to extraordinarily high because they can't. Yeah, majority of the people don't understand what it is. Well, that's exactly it. I don't what it takes to actually hook it up and get it going. Well, I think that's the thing. None of us I'm sorry I'm going to put you in and I know you wouldn't

aren't capable of doing it. So, I guess if you know the the thought would be if we if we went with that and didn't have somebody else install it, that means you're going to be the one. Well, ultimately get us over a barrel because they're going to refuse to support it if if we don't go with, you know, um yeah, their product. So, again, yeah. Well, at the end of the day, it is what it is. I can tell you that they have I mean, their hourly rates 102 102 bucks, which I don't think is bad for an hourly rate for for the kind of work they do. Um, and I like your idea of saying if if the installation happens in two hours, can we make it an hourly rather than a y,

you know, full charge that you got on here? Um, you know, still get the support that Yeah, they're very responsive. I I you know, they've been good from that standpoint and um they're in and out of here. um when when we've had something um like this last glitch, you know, called them Monday, they were in here by noon. Um had it fixed and showed me what needed to be done if it happened again and out of here. And I think it cost us hundred and some dollars for them to drive out of Buffalo or Rochester and and fix it. Well, at least I I think we can say I did diligence and Yep. getting more than one quote and what options are out there and available. Yeah, I agree.

There they are. Um, you know, it's up to the board to decide. Yeah. Poll. I'll bring this up. Want to proceed? I'll bring this up at the next meeting. Again, we'll vote on it uh so that we can all take a look at it. Um. All right.

Okay. Thank you. Uh, next thing on the list, fuel monitoring discussion. It's one of the things we've talked about. It's another one that's been dragging on for a long time. Um, I think Linda, you brought this long ago when you were on the board. Um, we do have a second quote. The system that we have here now has is older um to replace it and apparently it does need to be replaced. It isn't just a simple fix. Uh they're talking a fair amount of money, what 17 over 17 grand total. Yeah. The way he descri Dale told me he thought it was one or the other.

It is both. The way I understood it, I called and talked to the guy. um from can't remember the name wherever we got it from and um the 17,000 is to update the equipment outside the um tower whatever that whatever that's called right so that 17 is to upgrade that it's actually 24,000 right and then another 7,000 roughly to upgrade the software now you can do one without the other but the problem is if well we can do the hardware out in the uh um the tower there, but or a pedestal, whatever they call it. Pedestal.

Yeah. But if we if we don't do it and something happens and that breaks, they don't support it. So we they would not be able to get So we could spend the 17. If we don't want to do the same with the software, if something happens and it stops working, they don't support it. So really to have it, you know, brought current would cost us like $24,000. So we got a second, you had called and you had pressed Dale. Yep.

Got a second quote that everybody has from an SW services and u and I called him today and spoke with this um gentleman there. I think his name was Jeff. this the guy who's put this quote together and we talked through some of the stuff and I asked him if he could give us the name of somebody that we could call for a reference that might be using it already and he gave me the name of a um a farm down in uh Avon Don Donan Farms.

Oh yeah. Okay. So I called and spoke with her today for about 15 minutes and um you know they've only had it I don't know four or six weeks something. They haven't had it very long. She said the service has been great. The product is easy to use. It's very intuitive. Um, you know, she said their old system was, you know, not of course theirs was old, too, like a 1990 whatever. Um, she didn't say what they were using. Um, but, um, she was very happy with it and said, you know, it's gives them everything they need. It can track, you know, everything. And it's cloud-based. The only thing is, I don't know if it was clear on that quote, that there's a n the $900 charge is a cloud-based charge that will happen every year. So, it it is going to be $900 a year for the support, but they because of that, they take care of all the software upgrades and, you know, any issues with the software.

And did the quote come from a company that's been in business for quite a while? I honestly I don't know that but they did tell me they also sell Gas Boy there which is what we have and he said they just don't like it as well as this system that they've quoted us. The nice thing about it being the cloud cheaper yeah quite a bit less nice thing about it is is being cloud-based we can keep track on a on a real time basis of of use. It isn't just having to go back and and ask for it or get a run. Um this can be found in an app on the phone and we can get the realtime usage as it happens. Yeah. Yeah. So one year software subscription 900. Mhm.

Annual. So that would be every year we'd have to have that. So how do we come up with this uh 15 quantity 15 on the proximity key? I I honestly I I didn't go into every specific line of the quote. I just asked him about, you know, well, did he say how many vehicles, how many youth, how many I think that's more questions to be asked.

Yeah, that's more detail for him. I just wanted to know if the system worked and did did they have really wanted to know from him, somebody I could talk to that has is using it and has worked with them and could say whether they support, you know, how was the installation? Did they support you well? Were there, you know, you called, did they respond? And she said yes, that the place was was great about it. I'd like to do is is maybe we'll see if they can come in. Um yeah, I don't know whether we can even we get it out of the budget at this point. Um or a call with them. Yeah. Or a call with them so that we can ask them questions. I just wanted to get it in front of you folks so we can start thinking about this. There are we know that

there's been two audits that have come out. Two audits that have been come out. one in Lockport and the other one in Norwich, uh, where the state came in and said, "You're not accounting for your fuel." Yeah. Well, here's a here's a question. Kind of a far reach, I think, but it's a question. One of the vehicles we put fuel into works for the water district. I mean, then we would know how to charge that to that. No, that's a good question. I think could we take a percentage of money from the water district? I think that's a good question towards I I I don't know why not if it's if it goes in service to to water it should be charged to

the water truck right the water truck although I don't know if the water truck how do you separate is it going out for other things I think there's some questions that need to be asked but it's certainly something that that uh is a consideration and and you stretch it a little further every piece of equipment when there's a water line break and there's this and this and it's it's Oh, well that's we're working we're working on that.

There's there's some we've had some discussions with um Margaret. We met with her um and we have a list of things that we want to see if we can't get out of QuickBooks uh to see if they can create something for us uh that the MEOS can utilize on their phone to sign in and sign out. Uh, so we're we're looking for some response from QuickBooks so that they if they go work on a water line that they can sign in, sign out. If we can't do that, either that or we're going to have set up something very similar that any manufacturing firm has and that is you're going to have a worksheet uh that you tell it how much time you spent on each of those whether a punch in punch out or sign in sign out so that we get a better idea because right now we're still not tracking the way that that I want to or that Margaret wants to or ensure that Linda will say the same thing

to everybody sitting here is tracking it well enough that we can speak to uh are we assigning cost to where it should be in budget. So there are a couple things that we're pursuing. Hopefully we've not heard back from QuickBooks yet. It's not QuickBooks though, is it? Isn't it EBC? It's EBC. Sorry. Thank you. No, it's okay. You can correct me as often as you like. ABC or EWC, whatever they are. ABC. Um, so we've asked for some help in this to see if we can't uh get some better way to track uh usage. And I think

the interesting thing is the talking to the guys today. They're still punching all the information into this gas boy. I think it does keep some records, but it's nothing that we've But we're not tracking it. No, we don't. M I mean they're putting license numbers in their their codes.

So So the other thing she told me was like so it's also I I don't know how this one works at this. It's like a code that they type in. Okay. Okay. So So this woman I spoke with said that she had they they did have a little bit of a problem with it, but they called in. It got fixed right away. But she gave her code out for the workers to use over the weekend to be able to get access to the pumps. and she said when she came back she changed her code but they found that somebody had still used it over the um after the when she came back right so somebody had used it but

because they were running reports and they could look at it daily real time they saw the code being used they went on the camera they saw who it was and then they made sure they got in touch with that person and said look you that's not the code oh okay I didn't know that so you can correct things like right in practically in real time.

I think that there I I'd like to get some more information on this and have it presented to the board. Um I think we have to find a solution whether we have it and can afford it this year or goes into the budget for next one of the two. We need to do something I think to address it. I mean I' I'd hate to have New York come in here do another audit on poor Shelby. Uh if if we think that we've got a situation we need to correct. The one thing I think we do need to determine, and I feel like it's not, that every piece of equipment does not have a GPS. There's something that doesn't. Uh, the loader. Loader. Yeah. Okay.

So, we should make sure because if we're going to start trying to track where things are used for what, we need to make sure that every single thing has um a GPS on it. I think one one of the new trucks, too. I don't think they were supposed to come in and put it on the new truck. Okay. I I don't know whether it's on there. Wasn't on last time I knew. No, but they were supposed to come in and install that. That was part of what had been So that that truck would get a new one because we kept Right. So we would have So all five of those trucks would have Yes. The four 10 wheelers and the one six wheeler. Yeah. And then the two like pickups or the water truck, the pickup, and then the mower, the

whatever. Whatever. The motor. Yes. Motor doesn't have it. No. And but the backhoe does. Yeah. Does it? Oh, the backhoe. I don't know. They don't use that much anyway, do they? No, very rarely. But I'll I'll put that on here. Yeah. We should just know whether we have Yeah. They had handed out this winter and pushing snow with it. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah.

All right. I'll get some more information. See if we can get this uh these folks and and uh to come to the board some questions on on something like this so that we have a better idea. Linda, thank you for doing looking at that one for us. Just so you know, a couple additional items, then I'm going to hand it over if there's anything that the board more would like to talk about. We are working on a new employee handbook, finding time to go through it. Um Diana has spent a fair amount of time in in her spare time uh to go through and make notes on it. It was took our handbook. Uh it's the HR folks that we had hired. Uh they've gone through it. Uh they've come back with a um just first run which is this. She's gone through made some notes. I'll go through it. We'll get them to make the changes. Then it's going to come to the board for review for you guys to make all the notes and changes that you want on it. Let me get through the simple things first to have everybody go through and spend their time uh on something that has some very glaring areas that need to be fixed. Uh we'll get that done and then get it to the board. Nothing's going to be passed without certainly. We did find uh one of the big issues with the current um handbook that we've had handing out for years. Uh there's an appendix uh in the back that lists all the forms. I went around the building and and anybody that has a handbook uh has that appendix and no forms.

So digging around between Diana found some we found the forms. So they will be part of the new handbook. So that is time off requests, uh meeting go to a meeting request, anything that that we've we we should be tracking, uh will all be part of of the new handbook. So we have those forms finally. I sent those off to the HR folks for any updating that might not need to be on there. Accident reporting form, they exist

or they did exist. Nobody had them. So, soon as we can get to that handbook, it'll be all out to you folks and we'll we'll get we'll get moving on that. All right, that's my list. I but open to anything that the rest of you have as long as we're here in a workshop. Yeah, you're wanting me to check regarding Porter John's at least in the middle of the cemetery. I didn't see any out there. They must have picked him up. Okay. It's on my list. Yeah. I mean, you asked about it last.

Is there last one? I thought there was a gray one there. Seen it from the road. I didn't see it. I went through there today. I didn't see it. Yeah. Well, maybe it's gone. Yeah, because this was yesterday or Monday. Monday by there. And I just looked from driving by. Yeah, you can see it back there. Okay. Well, let's let's make sure because that's on my list to have a discussion. Okay. I think the, you know, the next step is just not pay the bill before. I'll double check. Are there any in um I don't know about Mount Pleasant. I didn't go by. I can go over there. Do they normally have them? Both of them did. Yeah, I can check tomorrow on my way home from work. There was a old one there and they put the new one right.

I saw that one time I made the tour. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah. You know, the next step is to call the vendor and then then

pay the bill so they can either take it out. We'll take that out because we're in charge of the money. So, we can do that. If they're not there, that answers that problem for us. Okay? And that way when the bills come through, if there's a bill for we certainly won't sign off on it. Okay? Anything else, folks? Uh just a couple things. Uh the village has uh has has passed their budget. I know we had discussed uh the whole ambulance thing here. um separate occasions. Is it is it the intention to keep it at the 35,000

this point this year? That's all we put in the budget. I I'm sure that they'll be opening conversations with us. Um at this point, I haven't heard a word. Um I don't think Linda have they said anything because I know you attend the Madina meetings. No, their intention is most likely not to keep it at 35, but obviously that has to be conversations between them and this board,

but but we are only committed for 35 this year till the you know and then January it would be a different amount if if there was a negotiation about it. I think they they spent so much time I noticed that I quizzed the board um the Madina board about whether they were going to they needed the meeting room here. I think they they've only got one meeting scheduled in May right now. I think they're they're working through a lot of issues. I think we'll hear from them at some point once they um can get straightened around with a new board, new budget, all of that. and I expect that we'll be hearing from him to get together on that.

Uh the other thing I made note about is our our social media uh issues. Um I think what we're seeing there is, you know, Meta is always changing the rules and settings and things in the background. They don't, you know, typically inform you and maybe you stumble across it. I I don't think it's a direct misuse of the page. I think it's more an AI generated uh ad placement at the expense of the town because you know number one it wasn't set up correctly. It wasn't set up as an organization set up like as a person.

Yep. So, uh, to to try and address those things, uh, with meta is, I mean, somebody's going to be having a real bad day. And I didn't add that to the list, and it's a good thing you brought it up. Well, the example, the example I give you is is when our our company was absorbed, um, Empire Tractor had 11 12,000 followers on our page. uh to try and combine those pages together so that you know that one no longer existed you would think wouldn't be that big of a deal

but uh it took over a year of working back and forth with Meta. They're so you know they're such sticklers with you know privacy and determining you know are you you say you are and you know causing you to prove it. I mean, they'll they'll send out, you know, a postcard in the mail with a code on it and, you know, then you receive it, you call them, and it's it's pretty extreme. So,

there there's a couple avenues we can take here, and unfortunately, that's another element that, you know, got out of our control uh during the departure. Um, has anyone actually just tried to reach out and say, "Hey, look, we need the credentials right here. This is a property of the town."

So, it's funny. Again, I should have put it on the list. Um, a while ago we I contacted and and had somebody that I've worked with in the past on my political campaign who does these things and he was in here yesterday. Yeah, yesterday working with Diana on a new page. I'm going to let you Yay. Okay. tell where we stand at this point.

So, we do have a new page. Uh we had to because Meta is very specific on who can create a page. You have to have a personal account on Facebook um to make a page. So, we actually used this person's personal account because they do have uh enough credential time for him to make pages without a problem. Um and we have a kind of like Town of Shelby personal page profile. Uh, so I am a shared admin on the official or the new official town of Shelby government government page. It's a government page, not a personal page. Okay.

So, uh, but we have to still have some sort of personal profile, but we're trying to keep it all town of Shelby. And this personal profile will be kind of non-existent in how it acts. It's just there to kind of hold this government page so that I can eventually um or I can properly post uh what we need on the government page. Um, as for the other accounts, we are hoping that if we properly uh populate this government page and make it it's a bit more official, it's a bit more um how we want to present ourselves. We can go to Meta and say, "Hey, these other accounts, they are kind of uh not, you know, they're either copying us or they're not um proper pages and they're misrepresenting Shelby and hopefully they can be taken down." Yeah, that's where it gets a little sticky because we're

you know what do we have 1,100 followers 1300 in that range you know um those people are going to be immediately abandoned um unless that is controlled properly you know we use the proper channels to advise that you know this is now the official page you know migrate over at the same time we could ask that you know everybody just simply report the old page and eventually Meta will just take it That's kind that's kind of a number of reports. But at the end of the day,

where I was getting at with this example is we can meld the two together if we, you know, if we can demonstrate to them that it's our intellectual property. So at what cost of importance is that to us that we would actually legally challenge whoever has access to that old page to divulge that information.

I think first we get our page set up so that we have a government page that's functioning. One of the things is is to propagate it out to users. um you know if and my understanding is you know once we have that we can share that and if people start so you're a Facebook user and you pick up on the Shelby page it can be shared with all of your friends and family anybody that you're on Facebook with. I think that we know enough people that maybe we can propagate this out, propagate the fact that this is the new page, that this is official. Um, I think we can get a lot of those people switched over that way because you're right, dealing with meta on some of these things in terms of getting them to shut something down or to like you said to merge or to meld it. If the end of the day, we have to go that route. First, we'll get the site up. We have it. We've got to put some content in it. Um Diane and I talked about that this morning. Need to write up a little bit about Shelby to have about who we are. Um kind of thing to get that in the description. Uh then start populating with things like we're having a workshop tonight or this is this is happening. My understanding again Diana is that that adds to the credibility of the site. What do they call it? There's a something

uh they try to validate validate that you're real and that it's you know so it's a little bit of a process and I think the more we can put into it uh the better off we'll be. So that's in process. I can say it just got set up yesterday. So

Okay. Well, I'm just trying to avoid sending somebody down that road because I' i've been there myself. I understand how frustrating that could be. Um, you know, as part of the marketing group. Um, at the end of the day, obviously that prior site, let's call it the actual site is still active. Yeah. you know, that needs to be taken down because it may not have happened yet, but there are opportunities depending on, you know, things that this has upcoming uh that would give a vehicle to uh voice their opinions in a venue that they have no business Yeah. using. I think that I think you made a suggestion too that might it might and worth talking to the attorney is sending out a letter to the owner of the current Facebook page. Um doesn't need to be anything other than please try at first to be pleasant and can you John you made that suggestion to think that maybe we just send a letter and see if we can't get them to evaporate it.

Yeah. They need to realize that we're aware of it. Yeah. You know, number one, and you know, number two, that it's again, you're in possession of of No, is it town property? It's personal page. It's a personal page. And the problem is that's that becomes the difficulty. Don't close. Oh, you got stuff. Oh, you got a list. Are they using it the Town of Shelby name page? Yeah, it's called Town of Shelby. Send him a cease and assist. Well, I think first let's just let's we get a page. They might just do it. We'll send a letter so we got someplace for them to go.

You know, we get it set up and we'll be just give us a little time. Won't take us long to have this thing functional. We'll get out the the uh the uh contact or the the connection, you know, so that you can add it to your Facebook pages and to your uh friends and family or whatever. And hopefully we we get the word out there, get a functioning page. The meantime, we'll send a letter out and say, "Hey, we'd like you to uh remove this." And if it happens with a nice letter, great. If it doesn't, then we'll have to examine some other process. Okay. You have anything else? Hyper reach. We have Hyper Reach. Yes. Do we use it? Nope.

Because I I can It is on our website. So I I did manage to get because I did speak to the village of Madina um and I do have access to get the hyper reach um didn't get too much time to play around with it but I did have CHBC put it on our website so that it will let you know for alerts you have to agree to the alerts uh did you have anything yeah I'm thinking about pushing out like so the village does this which I think is a good idea they tell you um about meetings

right and and then obviously in the winter or we would probably want to start using it if there's road issues, you know, but I just didn't know. I know we pay for it, so I'd like us to try to start using it for our meetings and workshops and stuff at least for that to get um she's we're there's only so many hours in a day. Well, yeah, but it's just that we don't know what your work, right? So this is our opportunity brought up where you where we are with but I just want to let you know we're aware and okay I appreciate you bringing it up though and the ad valorum. Yep.

I I'd like to kind of I feel like that's another thing that lingers out. I it comes up at the village board meetings occasionally. Um you know I think I'd like to resolve it one way or the other with them so that we can all kind of put it to bed. So I don't know is that is Kathy working on something? Is she reach out to their attorney or remember she last time I asked her about it her feeling was that we didn't know it.

I think that as part of of this whole water thing we're doing, I'd like to resolve that myself. Um I mean I read through it. I have my own opinion about whether we owe it or not, but I think that uh um it is a substantial amount of money. It's a yearly fee. It's not a one time you're done with it. They've invoiced us for years. Not invoiced us, but they've been after the past boards for some going back years on this thing on and off. Of course, they've had their changes on the board and we've had ours. Uh I think Kathy will be here next Tuesday. Let's press her on the issue. I'd like to get it resolved, too. These are these are these are

tooth takes. They've been they've been hanging on forever. Let's resolve this thing. Either either we're going to pay it, we aren't going to pay it. And and I think that we it's only fair to the village that if we're not going to pay it, we tell them why. And if we owe it, then let's get it paid. Y so that we can budget because I'm just thinking if we're going to owe it and our budget's coming up, you know, we have an opportunity to put it in if we have to because we didn't put it in we didn't put it in before. Oh, yeah. I agree. Uh and and then that's it for me other than I would like to um I think I'd like to have an executive session to update the rest of the legal. Okay.

Issues. You want Sure. We Let's call. We have to come back into the meeting after. So if you want to retire I'm going to recuse myself. Yes. If you we'll go in there. Um so it won't take long as to recuse to take themselves into an executive session. I am going to recuse myself for motion by me and second for legal advice or legal update to the board regarding code of code of ethics. Okay.

The sabers are on. Come on. Oh, I see. What time do they start? Eight. One period's already gone. That's all right. Watch it. Sure. They're going to go They may go to seven. So, you'll have Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. No, this will be a little tough. Okay. Yeah. So, let's uh I have a motion. Do we have to reopen the meeting or anything? Close the executive meeting. Motion to close the executive session. I'll second my right. Just All in favor? I I.

Any opposed? I have a motion to co close the regular meeting. So moved. Second. All in favor? I I thank you so much tonight for everything. I think we got through a lot and so