Recreation Commission - Special Meeting

the amount of $7,399,999 to appropriate the funds necessary for the board of selection budget for the fiscal year 2025 2026 in the amount of 2,754,794 to appropriate the funds necessary for the capital projects budget for the fiscal year 2025 to 2026 in the amount of $245,000. Any nomination for monitor? Yes. Any second? Any other nominations? Everyone that approves Tracy serving as moderator. Any opposed? Tracy will serve as moderator. Thank you. Um, thank you everyone for attending this special town meeting to vote and discuss on the revised proposed budgets. This was a really tough year um for for us putting together the budget on both sides and we understand everyone's frustrations um with and um the last budget. Um, I just wanted to point out that we've had u some state mandates that been hit us hard this year and it's been false. These mandates have also been why other towns around Connecticut are having a hard time passing their budgets. Also, um, we had a state mandated veterans 100% disability exemption for for property taxes. We saw a decrease in the grant list of over $2 million um because of this exception and we're expected to

we still are getting applications for it and we're expecting another $2 million for the next budget. Um the state made this mandate and they did not put anything in place to um to give the towns any money to offset um this bandaid. and it's a it is a burden on that factor that I understand. Um the other thing is the motor vehicles are being assessed differently this year. They're going to be assessed at manufacturer sensitive detail price less depreciation. Um so this means that um everyone pretty much everyone um will see a reduction in their vehicle taxes and that's great and fabulous but the reduction the vehicle tax means that the money still has to come again from somewhere because the state put this different um assessment in place but they didn't put anything in place to reimburse tax. So it's just it's just moving the mining from the vehicles to the U property. So these are two things that we started talking as a problem right off bat. The other thing that everyone knows is the property revaluation. Um the state has mandated that we do um property revaluations every five years and they set a set schedule for each town I'm going to be in that five years. So unfortunately for us margins in four years because when they made the schedule for the that's how they put us um and we hadn't competed since around co and since then um everyone does my house value went up. So that was another um problem that we had with our employment this year. So, and all of those things that I just mentioned, they

will affect an individual's real estate tax bill um without even putting into effect what our budget is. So, all of us um the board of ed um we worked on our the budget that you have before for you um and there's a total we made cuts on all three budgets. So there's a total expense increase of $192,797. The board of selectment at our last meeting completed agreed to appropriate $210,000 [Music] um 210 yeah 51 to cover um both this overage and revenue. And the reason why that number doesn't match the numbers don't match is because we also lost other revenue from the state um that didn't luckily it wasn't that much but it was in adult education and um something else but that makes up for the loss approach. So from from doing that this means that um if we did not have the mill rate changes anyway because of the um it would have the the proposal would have stayed the same mill rate as last year. So there's no the budgets that we're proposing and by moving the money from the undesated fund it will um be a zero um increase. So that's um what we all worked on to propose and when we get to the lobby items um everyone will have um going the board of ed and the board of selection will be going over our budget and then that time is when people will be able to ask questions. Um one of the questions that have been asking is why

are we voting at the town meeting and not at another referendum. Um the town of Allentown does not believe we don't have a charter or anything that requires us to go to ref crime. Um in the past the board of selectment has decided to go to referendum when we had a increase in um that would affect people's taxes. So that's why we went to referendum last time and we've only had one referendum budgeted referendums are costly and also we have to have a budget pass by the end of June uh because the fiscal year starts on July 1st. So we can't we can't pay bills coming in from July 1st until we have the budget set. So that's why in order to do another referendum not only would it cost more but we would have we didn't have enough time. So, um that's why we're really and in order to have done um for residents who have have decided to do a town evening, that is possible. Um but it would have been done by petition. So, a petition would have had to have been submitted to the town clerk's office 24 hours before the meeting in order to reconnect to our referendum. and we did not receive a petition. So, um, now I would just like to go over a couple of rules. We do have a lot of people here and we have a lot to talk about. Um, so we just ask that you are going to speak. If you can please approach the microphone and state your name for the records and you will have three minutes to speak. Each person will be allowed to speak on issue and will not be recognized to speak again until everyone in the audience who wishes to speak has had a chance to speak. that

way that way we can make sure we hear um so um at this time I would like to ask for a motion to dispense with the reading um the following name and second um all in favor we will discuss the building so now We'll start with item one to appropriate the funds necessary for the board of education budget for the fiscal year 2025 2026 and the amount I was $7,399,999. So I just need a motion to accept item one. Who said that? All right. Second. And now it's open for I don't think Okay. Well, thank you very much for uh for joining us again tonight. I know this is um time away from from dinner and so forth and it's a very important time for us to gather the town and to um to listen and to participate our rights to to come forth. Um, as Tracy said, we um based on our last referendum, we um came together and um worked with this the select people to

um come up with a reduction of $50,000 out of our budget um to um to meet the reduction that this set forth. Um, as we as we explained in some of our presentations in the past or at least the last meeting, um, we do a very thorough budget that's been expanded out, but um, just um, for the purposes of this uh, $15,000 that we had to to come up with, we found a decrease in $17,000 um, in our construction services um, accounting for the um, lower base planning for services for our asbestous project. So ongoing we um allocate a certain amount of funds each summer. We can't get it all done and we've got it done through grants and different appropriations that we have saved for. Um so this is the last leg of um work that we're doing important work to remove some of the original in the building. Um but in terms of the the bids that came in, we're able to create $17,000 for that account. Um and then uh we took some about $20,000 out of our patient account for um work that is projected. We might aim for the maintenance of the school, but we have done a lot of work this year and you know this is an area that we feel confident that's 20,000 you know if we get an emergency situation yet for the town to do changes to to the school. But for now, we're willing to take out of that part of the budget to meet the needs of this reduction. And then there was a remainder of money to get us $50,000 um out of various amounts that we could send. But uh at this point, it's 1.3%

increase um versus the 2.03. Um it is one of the lowest increases in the state or the budget increase. Um and it really just um meets the needs of the children um and the productive costs for tuition for money schools. Um the cost of what the city that's been rising the cost of that's been rising. Um and just this is a funding that we work very far for about six months to to narrow down and enjoy the opportunity we can. But um as we just just to reiterate, we are in a senator only budget from the board of education. Uh we have turned every sent back to this we have. So with the grants and so forth, we've returned $46,398 to date just for this year back to the company. Um and lastly, um there is a if we get to a limit, if we go back and reduce our budget in any way, we can only go back to the existing budget that we have, but we actually use dollar for dollar. It's $2 for every $1 from the state that they cost us. So, we do kind of have a a baseline, you know, go to. So there's one nice factor um that it does the budget know and every everything gets anyone questions for the board. if you could wind up. I'm just have two questions for the food

service. We're going up 450%. It looks like um there's two big amounts there or three big amounts there. actually four big amounts there. I kind of listened to part of your guys's um eating, but I couldn't hear really good and um I wasn't there. Is that the give food for all children? Is that why it's higher or what is the reason it's hot? The uh the increase in the school lunch program is based on the recent fact that the federal government offered free breakfast and lunch for every student during the time of CO and we served 44,000 meals that year and it was basically paid for the grants that came in. those grants have gone away and the budget even though it says a 400% increase is very similar to some of the budgets we had a few years ago. So that was due to a loss in revenue from some of the federal uh federal grants. So we had to make up for that. So that's why that happened. So the food is for just under people that are under a certain percentage of the money that they need here. It covers our entire So every kid gets So next year my three kids will get free meals as much. Yes. I'm kind of I'm not personally inclined for that. Okay. you got a grant and then you no longer have that grant. So, it's

the money that you would have gotten. But what does the money actually go to? What people does that go to? Is it going to a person working? Is it going to somebody that only makes $20,000 a year so they get a free lunch? I don't That's what I don't understand. And then before my time's up, because I see it's running down, I'll let you guys answer that after I quickly put in for the buses. Is that um the amount that's higher because you guys want to do the buses? Is that like leasing buses? And it does it have to be four in one year and if you want it in one year, two in another year or is it like map where if you did get the last one for free type of thing? We actually need the four boxes that we pour that are we did that research and that is a good question. we researched going be a but hopefully kind of it's aging and we did the you know the research on what we needed next year started the school year um between advance and the full service buses and um the determination was necessary for this school and then we'll slowly and then we will slowly budget in the regular and then slow the goal for the piece study for what we needed for the rest of the time. But we're also doing a large communication study. So many different things to um make sure that you know if we need a question on the mic or something.

Okay. 910. Oh yeah. It's it's uh covers the cost of the the salaries. It can be um the food and um it covers the salaries. It covers the cost of um their benefits that they get in their um um it covers I don't know. the actual food that they're getting. Um, we have to cover lunch for the food that Okay. I understand that the school needs some type of a new fire panel and there was money supposedly designated for that and I would like to know I think it's been taken away and my question is how long will it be before it becomes a problem which you probably don't know and secondly it was do you know remember how much it was the money that you needed to do that Yeah, there's some um when we this is about the fire panel um and the it's related to you know all the fire alarm systems but it can also incorporate um the safety of the school the um the the doors the locks um it it becomes bigger and we've incrementally fixed all those links through grants that we've received over time and um obviously if anything's broken it has to be fixed immediately when we um did the fire panel um study. We brought in um people over fire

department and different um various groups to take a look at it and it wasn't an emergency situation where we got a few things fixed on them that are are working fine. It was working felt comfortable from that perspective. It it can be a big jump. So it can be like you know upwards of 200,000 to maybe 500,000. you want to get very very um high tech. I think that's something where we want to do more research on that because if it's going to help with security, it's going to help with something a lot larger than just, you know, the fire alarms. Uh we want to make sure we're doing all that. But I know we are trying to um work with within the town budget to save for that over time. So put away I do know and that's you know $40,000 here $50,000 here or here kind of in that if if we have an e situation we have to cover that but we know that that's all right well I know that the town has a undesated fund with over a million dollars in it and I was wondering would you be able to work with the selectman to maybe get some of the money to help you out to have that fixed we are working with that we're working yes absolutely we do have the money It's an undesated fund that I know Tracy can take out 90,000 a year without telling 90,000 without requesting a town meeting. That's not fair. That's not fair with this one. So I'd like to see that. Um so if you can work with them maybe might help us out. Hi Thomas. I have a question. This may be Hello, Lord Thomas. Can you hear me? Yes. All right. Great. Thank you. I want to question a little understanding please on

line 561. [Music] uh the 2324 approved in actual 12500s 24 to 25 and 543 and then we have a 25% increase 25% increase on the proposed budget. Can you please help explain what the reason for that dramatic increases in that category or a better understanding? Sorry, can you just repeat the the account? Okay. 561's a line item. 2324 approved and actual. I'm pretty static those numbers, right? Um the approved 2425 number went up a little bit, but the 25 26 number is 25% greater than the 24 to 25 number. Can you help us appreciate what the difference is to those numbers and where they came from, please? You're talking about the special ed tuition. Yeah. And these are required u based on special ed needs. And those students are tested and these funds these accounts fluctuate greatly. This account in February based on the needs of our students and the residents in town was actually going was actually $250,000

more than what's stated there. and that family moved out of town. So you can see that there's tremendous swings, but that family had stayed in town and we would have had to increase that account by over $200,000. So we were very fortunate because we would have had to cut in other areas. So people have a student and I was sitting in my office in January and the state court called me and they said you have a placement that we're putting in your town and the cost will be 225,000 a year. That's not in this budget. But I'm explaining that that sometimes we have no choice with meeting the needs of the students. And then they called me a week later and they said, "Oh, by the way, that tuition is retroactive until November 1st." So we had to pay the November 1st until, you know, January. But fortunately, two families moved out of town and we were able to have those savings. It is absolutely incredible. And I have to tell you, uh, you know, several years ago since September, and all of a sudden we had families moved in and the special ed tuition for that account increased the budget by $225,000 and we had to go through the whole budget. Now, we have a spending plan and the board of ed has the right to move

money around. So we had to come up with that unbudgeted money and take from other accounts. Oh by the way in the other town um I gave him a call and he said and I was expecting the call for you because his budget saved $220,000. Now this number is is going to change again. And if you look at past history, there are changes that that occur. Now, a very important thing for the citizens to understand is that we make every effort that we can to keep children here in this building. And up until 8th grade, we're meeting some of the special ed needs. for me some of the special ed needs here in the building when they move on to the high school. We wind up having to pay tuition at the high schools for the special ed. There's one other component of that. How long are we required to educate special ed students? And it goes from three to now age 22 and until the end of the year. And when I first got here, it was until age 21, the moment that the student turned 21, we were responsible. So, we have tuitions in here that are students that have completed 12th grade, but they're in special ed transition programs that we're required to accommodate them from the state. So, that that's some of the

variables that are in there. So, are we are we tracking with an increase of those individuals in our community? because I think everyone would agree we want them to receive services and the best attention possible. So are there any state programs that we can look look towards for support for these programs? Well, we we look for programs that are available for students and some of the high schools do offer programs and in some cases we have to um meet the needs of a special education need and we have one tuition right now for next year that will be $112,000 a year and that student is grade 12 plus. So these are some of the requirements that we face. So that that number went up. But you also have to look at uh some reductions in in other accounts and uh you might have seen some stable state stability because the high school tuition up in the upper bond the 561 for regular red has basically remained about flat. So, uh, regular red tuition, you know, we got a little bit of a break, but the special education, uh, tuitions are roller coaster ride. And, and I will tell you, uh, schools start and we could get some outside placements that are very, very expensive and then we have to move money around in the budget to accommodate those. You you've asked a very good question. Now, there was a piece of legislation that didn't pass. The superintendent proposed it because we wanted if a student turned

22, their special ed services ended at age 22. The state couldn't approve that. As a matter of fact, if we have a student who has those needs and turns 22 on July 1st, we're responsible for that child until they're age 22 and 264 days. So, uh, my last question would be, is the board of education working with other school systems to challenge the state on the impact that this could have and look for additional support from the states. When I first got here, when I first got here, that number includes the actual tuition. And the state has this program called excess cost. And they have a formula where they will reimburse the local town a certain amount of money, a percentage of the cost of the special education program. When I came to this town, I told them I will not base this budget on waiting for that grant to be sent back to the town. And I will tell you, I'm the exactly superintendent in another town and they changed the formula. And in March, I had to come up with an increase of $440,000, which was the state grant decrease. They just made the decision. They said, "Oh, we can't fully fund this." So, we're on the roller coaster ride. And uh certainly the superintendent asked if if students could be taken over by the

state at age 22 rather than age 22 and what the remainder of the year is. It's possible. to add on to what you were saying about the NPCs uh grant funds. Um the state uh at the time they just passed a two-year budget and every year for the past couple of years when the state budget comes up we're on the track to lose money from that ECS grant because according to the formula that the education uh department uses for the funding we are considered overfunded. Uh we're look we're looking at being cut um close to $800,000 in that grant which is gonna hit us drastically and we were looking at being hit over $100,000 this year and and double that next year. So we were looking at 1500 was looking at a full mill rate over the next two years. Um, Adam and I had fought the state bar for this. That was when I went to Hartford and testified at all of the night. I was the last person in the building uh to testify. Um, and the how this cut in um in the grant is going to affect our taxpayers. It's a it's a mill rate. And it didn't make sense to me how one state agency a distressed municipality um and then the next state agency determines us well being an overfund. So um we were lucky we had Austin and Senator Summer, Senator Austin and Senator Summer that are on the appropriations committee up there and they fought uh for the towns that were

to get cuts not to get cuts. But I just saw um Senator Osen at a state of breakfast last week and she said that we need to be prepared to rally the other towns that are getting cut for the next two years because she doesn't know if we're going to be held harmless that we're not getting cut, but um she doesn't know if they can hold holds again. So that's a battle that's going to be ongoing and we're going to have to work with other towns that are being cut and really go up. Thank you. [Music] Hello everyone. Matt Nancy, um just a question of how many students and there was there was a mention of the decline in in um how many students go to voluntary? Yes, the population has been declining. I believe it's at 216 next year. And please note that um we have been reducing faculty for the last few years. And we had actually five retirements this year. Uh I'm being replaced and u we replaced a classroom teacher but three teachers are reduced. So there are some savings there. For that that works out to be about $34,279 per student. That's twice what Yukon charges for instate for instate enrollment. Yeah, the fair people cost Connecticut, you know, is is high and let's but you can't just divide it that way because we

also have all the high school tuitions and we have the special ed tuitions and we have the transportation that we supply. So all of those things when you add them up, but you can't use 216 because you have to also include the high school students. Maybe another 126 for the Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Are there any more comments? If not, we have a motion to close discussion. Motion's been made and second discussion. All in favor? I [Music] hear none. I'm going to ask for a vote on item one. Yep. A motion's been motion paper. We have a second. All in favor, please say I. I. It sounded more like the eyes. from. All right, we all have a leg. You came in. You're going to tear it in a half. I'm going to bring the ball back up here. As you come through, you will put your ballot in there. Whatever you're doing, yes or no. And I'm going to hand you another ballot for the next budget in case it is well. Um, I'm going to

have this side of the room start first and then we'll have this side after. access. Yep. We're gonna pass. is by Simon H. That's my

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I'm just not doing those. Oh. Even say this even I'll need my mic. What's your person? I can feel it. All right. back to order please. The votes are 103 yes 180 no budget was not passed at this time I'm going to appropriate the funds necessary for the board selection budget for fiscal year 2025 2026 in the amount of 2,754,79 [Music] sorry at this time. Can I have a motion to accept item two?

Motion to make a second to accept item. Um, at this time we open it up for discussion. You have a question at the microphone. [Music] Give me one second. Where is it? Where is it? There it is. Is it here? Oh, where where is the presentation? I got it. Close it. Oh, no. No. It's right there. I got it. I got it now. Okay. Okay. Now I just need to share it. should be able to give you this back. So, okay. So, you've got arrows. All right. Sorry about that. All right. So, changes in the town budget. So, where we changed the town budget, the board of selectmen, we uh met and we decid we cut um $68,939

from the proposed budget. Um these cuts were in primarily in um wage and proposed wage and salary cuts. Um the selectman's um salary line was changed. The finance director's salary line was changed. Um and the revised budget does not include the additional um paid staff that was proposed in the um original one for recreation um for the public library and for the weekend fire and EMT services. Um so the board of selectmen um we stand we stand by our decision to um to incre to stay with our planned increases and salary and wages. Um these increases also um affect our fire department stipen that we um strongly believe is is deserved and needed and it also increases the pay in the um weekend not the weekend but the week paid staff. Um we've actually had not have not been able to fill a lot of the weak paid staff um slots because they the weak paid staff is actually um firefighters from other towns and they volunteer. they fill into um slots to cover our day staff and it's hard to get um people to sign up for our um day staff when other towns are paying more money and they're signing up there. So those are the changes. We also believed that the um the van this

getting the senior van up and running is a priority for our seniors. It's been a increased need in town. And the way that the senior transportation currently works is we contract out with dialeride for this service and we pay for half of it with a matching grant from the state. So um currently in our budget we have um 15,000 and we get a matching grant for 15,000. Um that money is used um where seniors can sign up through the um ectc which is what we contract for dialeride and they can get uh rides to doctor's appointments. Um those rides are costly and if the ride requires a wheelchair it's even more costly. Um we actually had a increase in the ride service that we weren't really prepared for in the transition to the van. So the money that we were planning on using towards uh the new to hire the driver for the van was being used by the increase in services through our contracted service. So, this proposed budget um increases we can get up to um 21,000 from the um from the the it's a DOT grant so we can get up to that money but we have to have it in our budget to show and then that's what they'll match. So that's where the increase is there. And with the money in the budget and with the match that we're getting um where that's what we're going to use to run the service with. And like I said, we we planned on switching earlier, but we didn't expect the um the increase in use that it took the money before we could switch over. We believe that it's a need um because like I said, the service has increased. our population is actually higher on the um

on the 60 and up spectrum. So, we're anticipating it to continue to be a need. Um so, that's where we're uh kept that in there. Um for the weekend fire and EMT staff, um that is totally not off the table. It is something that we do need. Uh we are not getting uh volunteers and we are not getting um trainings done. um the state mandates have required um more trainings and it's it's very difficult for people that uh work full-time jobs to get the time in for the training. So um we understand the need to figure out what we're going to do for the future for the fire department. Uh since we're not getting volunteers, we do have to still have uh rescue and and fire protection. So, we're looking at um the paid staff. Uh we're also going to be starting we're going to be looking for grants. We have uh two grants that we're ready to apply for. uh one that will cover um weekend staff and extra staff and one for PPE because the state has also um well federally OSHA has changed u requirements for uh P PPE and this grant will also help us cover that. So we're lucky that we have people on staff that can um write and help with these grants to get the money so that they won't be a burden on the taxpayers. Um, so just a couple of questions that we've had. Um, one of them, if the revised budget passes, will my property taxes go up? Um because as I mentioned earlier, we had it um that between the increase

in the board of ed and the board of selectman's budget that we would be able to appropriate money from the undesated fund to make it a zero increase because of the expenses because it evens the revenue and the spending evens out. But people um could still see an increase because of their um revaluations. If your house went up, um, you you're you're more likely to pay depending on how high it went up, you're more likely to pay taxes on that increase because the value of your real estate, what your investment of your real estate went up. The miller rate that we're looking at is 20.72. And the way to figure out the increase is to take your assessed real estate value and multiply it by.2072 the proposed mill rate. Oh 02. Sorry, as I said, don't forget the 0. [Music] Yeah, I um so let's see. Um some of the other questions we've had um where do we cut the budgets if the mill rate goes down enough to affect a lower mill rate? So people were asking why couldn't we lower the mill rate to 19.72 instead of 20.72. Um, the problem with this is in order to do that, we would have to cut over $300,000 from between the two budgets because the school budget by law has the um can't go below their last year's budget, they would cut they would be able to cut uh

less than $100,000. So that means that over $200,000 would have to be cut from the board of select men's budget, which we um we run a tight budget at the town. Um we we have very trained employees that know how to look for grants. Um we've gotten a lot done in the town because of the grants like the new playground, the updates to the town hall and library. Um, we've done a lot that the taxpayers aren't going to have to pay for because we've received these grants. So, we would have to cut $200,000 from somewhere that's not a mandated expense. Most of our expenses at the town hall are mandated. Um, our staff is by mandate has to um be there like the town clerk, um, the assessor. Um, we can't cut actual people. So, it's going to be tough to figure out where the $200,000 is going to have to go to. Approximately 75% of our town government is the mandated services. So, how much of the budget is taxpayer funded? Um, this chart explains it. um the town budget is at the top and then you minus the revenue that we get. So it leaves um the taxpayer funded number there which is 20 26% of our taxes and the board of ed budget and the total budget is there as well. So what do the taxes pay for? Um, this is based on a home that's assessed at $200,000 with a 20.72 mill rate. Um, the

recreation is um 28% of that tax that you pay, which would equal about $1142. Um, the senior services would be about $29.76. Um, the building and land use department would be about $40.74. The library is about $522. General government services are $100.78. Um the insurance that we're required to pay is $222.50. Um public safety um which was the fire fire and EMT services $230.72 and public works $42.97. and the board of ed uh $3,53 I mean 3,000 sorry sorry um so that kind of shows you how the um budget goes and what we would be looking at cutting would be the smaller amounts uh the recreation services the senior services and um things that aren't mandated it's going to be tough This is just a graph showing um where your where your tax money goes. This is our um unassigned bond our from our uh audited balance our last audit and um projected use of fund balance and that uh right now there's 9.5%. Uh some other questions that we've been asked is where is the water project in

the proposed revised budget? Um the water project is not in the revised budget or was in the old budget. It is um being done based on a grant that we received and it's just a study um to see if if a community wells in the area of Bennett Circle and the Main Street area are even possible. like we're finding especially with the Bennett Circle area where we are in the study right now, we can't even find a place to um to drill for water. So this, like I said, this is just a study. Um when the results are done, they'll be brought forward. Um whereas the BL ordinance in the proposed revised budget, the BL ordinance is not in anything. Um it's not in the capital projects. It's not uh in our budget. It was voted down and is gone. Uh where is the money in the proposed revised budget for the dead chickens? um that is based on the um aven flu uh composting site that the department of agriculture is very determined on putting in ball in town. Um this would be located by the transfer station. Um I've been fighting it and I have a team of residents that's been helping with this. Um if anyone else wants to help, feel free to join us. Um, that's there's no money anywhere going to that. We We don't want it here and we're trying to get rid of it. Um, where is the trash incinerator? Um, I don't have any clue where this one came from. Uh, there is no trash incinerator planned anywhere in Volunttown right now and will not be as far as I can help it. So, this brings us to the salary study.

So it will be when I go through it I will have questions after. So um the reason why we did the salary study we hired um we hired an outside consultant for this to be fair because we didn't want to be doing this ourselves obviously. Um the reason why we started the study um a federal uh minimum minimum wage requirement was passed and when we looked at what our specific case for salaries and when we looked at what our salaried staff was making we were not complying with the federal minimum wage requirement. So what this would mean could be that the salaried staff would have to go to hourly and the salaried staff is our full-time people who work over hours a lot. Um it would not be in the best interest of the town to have um these people these positions move to hourly because they would actually be paid more than what we've changed their back to. Um we also learned through the study that uh regional regional benchmarking um surrounding towns had already done the survey with the same consultant. So we were able to actually get a discount on our on our um study because Sterling had just done it and we used our study based on Sterling's numbers. Uh it was also for the competitive job market. We had a couple positions that we were trying to fill and we could not get anyone for what we were offering. So, we had to we had to hire people um competitively with other towns.

Um and that's with the recruitment challenge as well. And the last is the multi-roll responsibilities. Part of our study um included job descriptions because over the years um jobs changed. Uh the state got rid of positions on their end and shift responsibilities down to the town. So we had to assign more duties to certain positions and also like for example um the finance director that position at one time was um actually ring people. Um the town contracted out for two positions and we had one in the town hall and we actually um saved money by going to one person. So she was doing really people's jobs and we had this in a lot of places in the town hall where in order to save money and not hire a new person, we gave the job to someone already there. So all of the job descriptions were not matching what people actually did. and and also included in the salary study was an updating of our employee handbook because over the years um a lot of federal and state um payroll and employee guidelines changed. So we also don't have that um the whole study is on the town website. It's under the finance and human resource page so anyone can read it. This is just a comparison of other towns in our area. Um, it's based on the mill rates. So last year's mill rate is in blue and the

current proposed mill rates are in orange and volunt close to the lower bar. We also took a look at total town budgets to see like how much other towns were spending um and close to similar sizes and um ours is on the third end like Scotland and Franklin are less than us um but we're the third the third lowest um in the board of ed and in the town um spending of total budgets. Uh we it was really hard finding a town that's of our size um that spent uh less than we did on their on their full government budget. Um a vision for volunt. So this is something that um us at the town hall are going to be working on. Uh we realize through hearing what people think we don't do or do or aren't clear of grants or what we're working on or don't even realize that we are working on projects that we need to get more information out about things that we're doing. Um, so we're going to be starting like little um YouTube informational videos and putting them out on uh social media and on the website for people to see so that we can um talk and share more about what we're actually like what we're working on. Um so we're going to call that vision for volunteer. So, if anyone has any questions or anything they want to know more about, um, let us know at the town hall and we can put together a video about it. And we'll start with the public safety

committee. Like I mentioned, um, a lot of things are changing um, through the fire fire services and we need to come up with a plan for the town because it's going to be costly. Um we are looking at um we're doing plans right now for um we're hoping to find a fully grant to add bunk rooms onto the firehouse. I currently don't have them and if we can't have volunteers we're going to have to um pay for staff and we're going to have to figure out how to how to pay for this. So, this committee will need to look at options whether it's um regionalizing or fire tax or anything that'll help us. So, if anyone's interested on being on this, let me know. Um, also our vision is for senior transportation services to get our own van up and running, be more cost effective than what we're doing now, and it'll be a long-term benefit for the town. Pedestrian safety, uh, we're working on pedestrian safety on the state roads, uh, bring sidewalks up and grant projects. We're working on a lot of grants. So, um that being the Forge Hill Bridge, which is 100% paid for by state and federal, no tax money. Um the sidewalks I just mentioned. Um and walking. Oh, the walking path. We've got the um playground with a grant. So, we're we our our staff at the town hall is constantly looking for ways and even at the library and the recck department

and other departments. We're constantly looking at ways to get grants to pay for services, to pay for equipment, to fix our buildings. Even with the school, um we're constantly looking at grants so that the taxpayers aren't paying. And last is vision vision zero. This is a program that I've been working on with the NECOG and um the state and this is traffic safety. Vision zero means zero deaths. So um we're working I have then come out and look at 138. Um been working with the DOT on plans on how to make the road safer. And the last volunteers. Uh we always need volunteers. Um the fire department, boards and commissions, um town committees, the historical society, uh friends of the library and farmers market and recreation events. We'd love for people to come and help out with anything. You can contact Pam at the town hall and we can set you up with anything. And that's the end. So now we can take questions. Lamar, earlier this evening when I got here, I got a select budget. Earlier this evening when I got here, I

got the selected budget. It showed a 7% or so increase the first segment and then uh salary for public works was at like $230,000. Well, come to find out that was that one should have been printed. So, we got the new one show no increase for the first element. But how did public works go to 235,000? We did move some of the It was just in a few minutes. Oh, I told I No, it was already done. That budget was already presented. It was uh we had we had made a couple of different copies of the budget for the board selecting and finance when we were going through where to cut. So the budget that everyone got that was here earlier was a printed one of those budgets. It wasn't the budget that's on the website issue of So it went from what 216 to 235. The hurry budget goes when you're talking about public works. All right. So what we did there is the first Am I correct on the 216? No, you're correct. It's what we did. Um they increase the three guys. Well, it's that that amount is $90,000. Three guys.

Yeah. Oh, the last year of this year. Yeah, we had um we added more overtime in that last year of this year. That's what you're looking at is the changes. So, you've got more overtime scheduled already. No, we added more overtime from last year because our storms have been increasing. So, we added more The union contract says $19,000 increase. It goes 19. Yeah. to 235 today. So with the snow plowing, we do a lot of snow plowing and the overtime, it's kind of crazy. We have the budget for it. We have a contract, they get certain percentage increase, and that's what we have to budget for that. I don't know exactly what it is, so we'll do the best we can to get close to it. not being spent. Huh? Yeah. Well, I mean, we have to budget and hopefully, you know, get as close as we can, but they have they hourly, so we can't tell you exactly how many hours they're going to work that's illegal. point of order. You're not in line for a

question. If you have a question, please get in line. Thank you. Hi, my name is Cheryl. I'm a lifelong resident here. Uh first point was we're going to be voting on capital expenses. We have not received that handout, so maybe we can get a copy by the time we get around to discussing that. Right. Um, again, you know, I just lost my other point. Oh, um, I'm sorry your board of ed budget didn't go through. This was a very inconvenient way to hold a vote. Um, parents, what are they going to come sit for three hours with their kids and wait to vote? There are people that are shutins that couldn't vote. Um, so I hope next time we come to a vote, we can find a way where it's easier for all members of town to participate. But I do thank you all for being hard. I hope we get this all worked out because this is a great place to live. Thank you. Um so on the budget where it has public work salaries and kind of piggyback on what um the person was saying before. So on the original handout, you guys, we got the original meeting back when we went over the bright ordinance that had 23146 for the salaries for public works. Why did you guys update 235200 on the C1? Honey, the original be what right now would it be? How did you guys decide, oh, we need to take about $4,000 more and put it into salaries? Um, the $4,000

was actually moved from the first election to the public works because the first elect is also the director of public works. And the point that we're the point that we're going to be doing is the residents need to realize that for I was there's first elect we had a vote for between the vote for and the first elect that time they were being paid $100,000. So the town took a cut in everything by just paying the first elector a lower amount. Now, people need to realize that when someone is going to be running for first election, because I'm only running one more term and only to finish the projects that they're working on because it's hard to transition a new person in. And that we're not going to get anyone to run that's going to it's a full-time job because it requires managing public works and being in the office for everything. It's I don't you can't even plan your day because it's meetings with the state agencies to try to get money to try to get them to help with things to try to get them to not do things. It's meetings with um committees on the state level to make sure that they realize what burden everything that's going through is putting on our taxpayers. the first election, at least I do spend my time advocating for the residents so that the taxes don't go up. And that is what I do 247 on top of public works, managing public works, managing the money in public works, writing policies for public works. Um, it's a lot of the job is public works and people need to realize that if there's a first

selectman that comes in next that wants to be a part-time first elect, there's going to have to be someone hired for public works. It there needs to be someone there and finding someone to work part-time to manage public works is going to be really hard to do. So, we're trying to get money in there now so when the time comes, it's not going to be. I just want as being on the record that I that was deceiving how you guys basically painted as, oh, I'm not taking any more money. And I do see the wording on your thing where um talks about there's no line increase. You just moved it to another category. wasn't and and the amount that is put into the public works for that is not any even close to what the projected amount was for the position. I do see from the original you wanted way more. Um you wanted this is based on the salary study which everyone can look at on the website. It's not me wanting more. It's trying to bring the position up to pay for what it is. It is a full-time position and it is a 365 days 24hour job. When when your power is out and on the phone with Eversource trying to get them here. If anyone hasn't noticed, it used to take weeks to the Eversource here. I can get them here almost in a day or two. Um, this is happens on weekends, happens at night. It's not I can't wait until Monday if your power goes out on a Saturday. You know, I have the flu out of there getting your power out in my woods. So,

it's something that is you that's the job. It's 24 hours. And I do appreciate what you do. You work on the bevers all that stuff. Um, but I just feel that was deceiving how it was like, "Oh, I'm not giving a raise." The $9,000,000 that was accused of being was not towards what towards the first election's responsibility of overstanding work. And I actually wouldn't have even saw that probably if I didn't receive the wrong paperwork in the office yesterday. I went down to the town hall, decided to get the paperwork and I was given one and you could clearly see that the only two changes from the online to the paperwork was your spot and then the salary for public works and it was exact same amount of money moving from one spot to the other. And then also how much money was it for the study for wages for you guys? How much did you guys pay? 6,000. 6,000. So, we couldn't do like a referendum. Didn't you guys say it would be around $5,000 and you didn't want to pay capital $6,000? We had money in the budget under um contracting services that we used to pay for that. So, it was already money in the budget that they use. And in that going to It's just funny.

Yes. I just want to address a point that Darren just made there. And Karen, were you saying that you you think that the budget is showing that Tracy's raise as first element went away, but the increase in the Please come back after. You still got 56 seconds. So, as we go back Oh, let let me make my point. Okay. Um, are you is the point you're trying to make that the increase to public works is going to Tracy? So, that is not at all the case. And I'm not ashamed to say that. I'm saying that we should recognize that the first black probably works. But you're still taking a break. It's it's like I said, you can call it a raise. It is a raise, but it's based on the salary study to bring this position up for the next person too because someone has to take over and then it's a full-time job and this amount. If you look at other first selection and if you read our salary study that's all online, you will see that that is like actually way less than what's proposed out there. not working. All right. Is there any question

what he asks? I regardless of them. Um, so I have so many papers because you received the wrong ones, but um, yeah, I think it's still have 45 seconds. Thank you. Uh, the town clerk, so on the online one, it said 69767. The town one that we just received today said this online. The one I received in the town hall yesterday, the front office where they said, "Here are the new ones." Hold on. Seven seconds. Well, anyways, it was like about $5,000 difference. No, we can't change that one at all. Yes, you did. It's on here. You can look at it. Would you like to look at it? Am I allowed to bring it up? Hi, Debbie. Oh, Debbie. I noticed that a lot of the stuff that used to be right here in the county is no longer here. So we have a tax collector who's good and you have sent out tax bills for someone else to do instead of her and also to send payment to wherever. That's one. Now we have Yes. Yes. We have Julie has three tigers now. I guess that would be more money for that. I noticed that you're doing a lot of out of like you said you

had this survey thing done so you paid for that. I also found out that a lot of your machinery is being leased instead of bought in because that way it's under contract if something breaks which it always does. The other thing is we're supposed to you're wanting to get $1 million from Heather Summers for widening con road. Do you plan on still taking $250,000 of the taxpayers money to get that $1 million? And why are you wanting that $1 million when Congden Road is wonderful except for one little piece? And is it because you want to use that money on other roads in town or is it just Condan Road and you said tonight that you're against them bringing them bird food things in this town. Why wouldn't you tell I I want to know who put in for that grant? Why they put in for that grant? And why aren't you saying we don't want your money? Because we know you want to open that road up to trucks with bird flu and other animals to be brought to the town hall. Yes or no? Which question to answer first? You just threw like 10 at all theund the million dollars. All right. So the million dollars to the seat grant used to be $500,000. Um we had apply for it in the past. It's how we got the playground. Um it's how we fix school library in the town of hall. This year the state ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra raised the increase to a million dollars. Now we had other projects that we were looking at to use that million dollars for. However, our roads in town are significantly underfunded and the way that this grant went was you had to ask

for each road as a separate grant. So if any and the odds of getting more than one grant were like don't happen. So I met with public courts. I met with Beta who is our road uh management uh team that we work with and we looked at all of our roads and we tried to figure out which road we could do the most work on to save for our taxpayers in the future um to use a million dollars. And we looked at um the two biggest roads that you can work which are um Kenny Road and um Pon Road and those roads were going to cost more than a million dollars for what we to fix them. So um the other road we looked at that was um the higher cost to fix and had the highest traffic on it ended up being road. And I know controversy um except for there's there is a section that does seem to be majorly like repaved, but there's also drainage issues on that road that we need to work on and there's also a section of the road that isn't as wide as it's supposed to be to conform with the state's description of a road. So, this is something that we've known about for a long time that needs to be addressed. it it all it could affect um things in the future. So, we're going to use the money to do all of these things. It has absolutely nothing to do with um the grant didn't come from Heather Summers. It's it's called the small town economic assistant program. It's a grant that we applied to the state of Connecticut for. Heather advocated with us to get this grant. she didn't even come from her and it has absolutely nothing to do with the

chickens. um the estate's plan for the chickens um is on the town website and if you read it um the plan has them traveling on brass road not so um they're because they're coming from a I don't know a different direction but their plan that they presented to us was actually you're going to still try to fight for the no chicken thing oh yes why would I not I don't know I'm So where I live and this is where I live on Bond is at the bottom of the hill where my dead chickens are growing. Um in the past that used to be a composting mushroom composting place and it was the residents this happened before I lived there. It was the residents in that area that fought legally to to get that composting gone because it was polluting that area and it was a huge threat to our wells. So, it's it's not the like it's not a personal reason why I'm fighting this chicken. It's a part of it is because it's going to affect my water, but it's also an effect. I just don't the state's plans for it do not sound I like they're ready for it. Like if if there was a huge chicken epidemic right now and all these dead chickens are coming, they have not prepared that site at all. And that's what scares me because I don't feel like there are medical it's it's not gonna be feel. Right. Right. Right. But so the money that you're going to get is only going to conduit or can you fix some other motors too? Um it's only supposed to go to cond road but we are working these are all things we're working with on the the grand. So, it depends on how much it is and if we have any left. We're hoping that we can leave that on and that you

can be saying this morning. Okay. We did ask her a lot of questions and I doubt I I just noticed that today that there's been like Julie No. Julie's very smart, but the three positions that she holds, Pam holds two or three. Tracy, you have whatever you have. And I was concerned about with the tax bills, okay, when Jiselle does collect the taxes, but now Reval or whatever that is sends out the tax stuff. No, that's a whole totally different thing when we do. What we did before was the tax collector would um print and mail all of the stuff. So, which is actually very costly. When we did the study on how the costs were, it cost more to um do it inhouse because of the we had to have extra staff help out too. It actually came um to either cheaper or just a little bit more to outsource it, which just made it compared to the Sorry, I always microphone. Wait a minute. Jazelle, tax collector. Um, so to answer Deb's question, um, for years we stuffed them ourselves. I did like Cookie did. We always thought we were saving the town. And we ended up figuring out it was actually $1,000 more for us to spend 30 hours stuffing them to have them sent out because they do bulk mailing and it saves us $1,000. I'd be more than happy to stuff them, but it's ridiculous for me to stuff them when it saves us $1,000 to just have the software company. So, and I'm I don't even want to get involved with too much, but real quickly, I had like 20 people call me

this week to hand calculate what their taxes would be. And most people are either breaking even because the cars are going to go get way down or they're $20 up, $20 down. This is just facts, people. I've done it to 20 people that called me this week. Actually, my sister went up the most of anybody I calculated because her house investment went up 130,000, but they don't drive very fancy cars. So, they're not getting a they're not getting money back on their cars. So, um actually she's going up 200 and that's the most I've seen. If you've put a huge addition on your house or you have a new build, that's another story obviously. But most people, I'd say of the 15 of the 20 I hand calculated this week, it was a difference of 20 bucks up or down. So just to let people know, it's it's not as drastic as people think at the 20.72. So tell you Evening taxpayers. Can everybody hear me? Speak a little. My name is Arthur Ne Road, native of Valentine for 81 years. Experience in the town of Allentown government since I was 26 years old wetlands committee planning and zoning number is not a border selectman three different times. Let's take a pound bath. Taxpayers, can you hold the microphone up, please, so they can hear me? Let's take our town back. Taxpayers,

the SLman tell us what they want us to know. First, first we have lost our right to vote. We have young men and women fighting in our country to have this privilege. We cannot vote on town treasurer, town clerk, assessor, tax collector, and the right to set a mill rate, which I hope the town attorney would have been here, and we should have had in the call of a meeting any other business to take place. I think this grand [Music] Everything in the grant situation, far as I'm concerned, there's something attached to it. Just like we just talked about the chicken composted. Million dollars, the strings attached. 250,000. Nothing's free in this country. I want to bring to the attention of the taxpayers. I found out we have in the general fund $1,300,000. Nobody's told us that before. The Swagman went water company grant again. There's strings attached to it. We have to hire if we get it. Yes. The water company will be paid for, installed, new pumps. Penny is down the road. Maybe a pump breaks.

Maybe it's a $100,000. Who knows? We have to hire an employee, another town employee, benefits, insurance because water can't be paid for. I slush now. That's three minutes. What? That's three minutes. You're allocated three minutes before the next person gets to speak. Everybody else had more than three minutes. One not. I paused whenever an answer was being given by someone up here. So, everyone got their full three minutes to be able to talk. You would give your full three minutes to be able to talk. I reserved my time for art, please. Thank you. Can we talk again after everyone else had a chance to talk? After everyone else had a chance, this is this is how we decided to run this. Point of order. [Music] You cannot do that. He will get his time after everyone else has had a chance to speak. I there's someone else behind him. What do you want to do? Your time is up. 911. I am a taxpayer and we have rules that we stated at the beginning. Arthur We all did. They all set the rules. So you can wait till the last person talk and then continue and have three more. I'm not understanding you. A chicken weigh four pounds. So you want 24

the person behind you talking she was not in favor. I got a copy of the of the grant, the million dollar grant, and in there it states that some of money could be used for them. Cape Street Road, this is what the grant was written up, but they're only telling us what we want to hear. Now, on Brown Road, this is the last thing I call 911. Yeah, we did. And uh last road before that they paid it and they wasted $40,000 of taxpayer money. It was a tip seal over the payment which was good for eight more years. We have a road Williams road in town desperate repair. We got potholes 6 to 8 in deep three feet wide. If the school bus has to go down there, it would be expensive repairs on the front end or springs or airbags of the bus. They could have done this short piece of dead end road. We would like to vote for this and finish to hear. I wish the taxpayers would get a copy, go to town hall, get a copy of the million dollar grant and read what's in there. Suckling said she's not in favor, but she has had several papers signed and certified. You gave them to me Monday, Tracy. No, but none of them were for the chicken composting

for the condom grant. Yeah. for the music. Turn the microphone over to the person behind you so that we can continue with the meeting. Last but not least, but I told Harford I found out about 4:30 today. Chapter 104 and 106 will tell you how much the selectment can take out of the general fund without coming to the taxpayers and how much the town needs to keep there. Thank you. Good evening everyone. My name is Forest Grizz. I don't really have a question tonight, but what I want to do is I want to thank all our veterans for everything they've given up for our freedoms. I want to thank our firefighters, our EMS, and everybody else. [Music] companies that he to make them work for us. Do taxes going up suck? Yes, it does. My wages went up, but not as much as it cost to live, but I'm making do. Are my taxes going to go up? They probably are. Do I like it? No. It's a part of our life. Unfortunately, the town has stuff they're trying to do for us to make things better for us and we're just trying to make it harder on them for them to get there. So, please think about that when you're asking your questions and and coming up with your thoughts and definitions of how you all think things should be handled. Um,

we're a lot of us don't like what we have to do, but we have to do it to get what we got to get. So, thank you everyone for doing what you do and putting your hats out in college. Thank you. What the gentleman said because you guys work hard. I know it's hard for people and everything's going up. Prices are going up. It's hurting people. But as a town, we have to work together and we have to try to come to a common ground. Okay? It's not easy. I've been living in here for a few years. I love this town, but you have to be realistic what's happening nowadays and it's not easy for anybody. But excuse me. Oh, my name is Stacy McCarten. So my question is if none of the budget to pass, what's what's the next step? Uh the next step is we would all we'll have to go back and do some more cuts and come back again. But we didn't cut that's the question like what you cut. The thing is, if you don't realize this, your the mill rate would have to go down um I'm sorry, your budget would have to be cut tremendously for the mill rate to go down tremendously. So, it's like it's a no win. It really is. So, I don't know how much more you can do to cut it. I mean, I looked at the line items and some things and I understand what the salaries. I work in corporate America. I understand what that's all about. But you but whatever else you need to cut, you don't want to be cut. If you cut any services

to the town just so that your taxes are going to go down, then everything then those services are going to go up or you're not going to have those services. So it's it's not going to help the town at all. Everybody needs to work together. So I thank you very much. Thank you for everything you're doing. [Music] So I looked through the budget and if we cut the salaries are about 30 40,000 40 20,000 of that is the fire department. We do not want to cut the fire department. The last thing we want to do is cut the fire department. We don't want to cut the elderly services. We don't want to cut the the recreation. The biggest things out there are public safety and public works. Every day I see people coming in and asking for more roads, more stuff. We can't give it more if we have to cut. I understand it's terrible to have higher taxes. We've done everything we could to make sure that this budget doesn't raise your taxes. I can't help the assessments. We can't change the assessment. That's not part of what we can do. But we can make sure the middle rate is equivalent to what it was last year. We did the best we could. I don't know where we're going to get the cutest. So we we can ask to go back and it's going to hurt everybody. It's not hurting us. It's hurting all of you. The last thing we want to do is hurt you guys. So that's next. [Music] My name is And last week I found the help

and guess who came? The following department and they got me to the hospital in record time. So what would happen if we have to cut that? How long would I have waited? How long would I wait? That would have been another 20 minutes and I was lying. I couldn't move. I was in pain. Thankfully, I'm fine. But I want anybody to think about what can be help. Thank you. I'm glad to call discussion. I have a motion first. All in favor of discussion. motion ballot discussion [Music] and voter second. All in favor say hi. [Music] Any discussion on that? All right. So, we're gonna do

All right. We're gonna do the same thing as last go first. Put that next. Yeah. Thank you. Emily, they did call him up first. Another

one. Run. Have a great night. What? I thought of my video. You can focus.

I know Oh yeah. Yes. Good. No gas. No gas. Why not? I have fine.

Done. Hey. Hey. At least you don't have to get up in the morning. I may take the day off. I don't think we're done yet. The guy behind me said, "What are you going to do?

They should thank you for Wait for the snow to come out the house everybody because we don't want to take a direct none of us can afford it but we can't we can't afford to not either the two believe a child that was especially beyond 12th grade. Oh yeah. All the way up to the age of 22 for San Francisco. That's Now what? Sorry. decided even after one of these

next This is the small Okay. Go back. We don't see it around here. Where it's not needed to center.

Yes. BS and I have comment separate. probably I should have said you blame right there with this. We're not done.

freaking doesn't follow instructions, right? That's good. Okay. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you so much. Yes. She doesn't have her email open. Do you know her email? There's your email right there. It's not for the presentation. That's all. Byebye.

The votes are total. Sorry. 94 pass 100%. No, it does not pass. I didn't write that. for budget. All right. So now we are open for discussion on item three which is our pass budget. So, our proposed budget is the $200,000 that's the contribution towards the grant. Um, the board of selectman feels and that the $200 investment for a million dollars worth of work is an asset for taxpayers for the future to avoid the other costs. Um, the town hall computer upgrades is 20 grand. This is money that we need to update our um firewalls which is our cyber security which protects all of um everyone's information um through the computers in the office which include um the tax information and everything else. So this money is needed to upgrade the firewalls. Uh we did remove the money to go towards the ambulance and the money to go towards the fire alarm system, but these are things. This does not mean that we

won't get these things. Um we've already have money set aside for um the ambulance and we plan on uh putting money towards in the future. Um and the same with the school um fire alarm system as as Kate mentioned earlier, it's not an emergency need. It's something that we're planning on over the time, but the total cost of the system is even not really known yet. We were just putting money away toward um due to the um to the budget year, we're just going to hold off and um invest in those next year and follow. So, this is our proposed uh public works our proposed budget. Oh, and this is not this is not money that you're taxed on. Uh this is money that comes out of the unassigned fund. It's not money that's has anything to do with the current. Are there any questions? You can come up to the microphone say your name please. I Demi I couldn't hear what Demi Demi I couldn't hear what you said about the fire thing she said the ambulance okay that there there is a need for an ambulance coming up and the money is being saved um primarily from the fire department um and the town's been helping out by putting it lab it's a fost Are there any other questions? We have a motion. We have a second.

All in favor of closing discussion say I [Music] So now we have him starting to talk and someone else stopped when he started. So what was a motion by show? Yes, you did. You did have a second point of order. We had a motion made and second for um right to raise the hands. And so now um we're going to vote on it. So all in favor of voting by hand say I. All oppos. Let's discuss.

push. 78 guests. 41. 78. Yes, 41. voting by hand. So, all in favor of um approving the capital project budget for the amount of $220,000, um raise your hand. Yeah. She speech. Wait. No. [Music]

48. So 82 in favor, 48 opposed. I have encouraged pass. [Music] Okay. Go. Ask I hope you did a good job. I like that.