Board of Finance - Regular Meeting

819, calling the meeting to order at 819. So we are missing David Kelsey, Andy Russell, and Maria Marchand. Maria is an alternate. So we have two other alternates here. I request a... A motion to appoint one of the alternatives for David Kelsey.

I move to appoint Fred Ferringer to sit on David Kelsey's seat.

Is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed say nay. Any abstentions? Okay, Fred is sitting for David. And now a motion for somebody to sit in Andy's place.

I now need Tom to sit in Andy Russell's.

Is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. Any abstentions? Okay. So if these folks do appear, then we can substitute. So now the meeting is called to order the first order of businesses, the approval of Jasmine's excellent minutes of the 16th of June. Does everybody have them? They were not included in the mailing. Does everybody have them? Are there copies here?

If you don't. I looked at them online.

That's okay. Does anybody need a copy? I've got a copy. Let's take a quick look at it and give it back to me.

I make a motion to approve the minutes.

Sure.

All right. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of June 16, 2026. I will second that motion.

Thank you, Fred. Okay, the motion has been made and seconded to approve the minutes. Is there any discussion, comments, changes? Hearing none, call for a vote. All in favor of approving the minutes as drafted, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Any abstentions? Minutes are approved.

Can I just ask, Jasmine, do you know everybody's names? I forgot the name tags. I just wanted to make sure. So that if she knows who's making the motion. Fair enough. She hasn't sat here for 20 years.

Okay. Let's now turn to Anita's financial reports. And before I ask if folks have comments, let me ask Anita if you have comments.

One comment.

A couple comments. One comment is the America 250 Committee. In last year's budget, there's going to be money left. That money, a very small amount of it, will be able to be carried over. All the services were done in July, so we're going to have to do an appropriation after the fact at the end of next year because it's under the selections because that money will go over. I can't use last year's money for a service that is done this year. If she ordered it in last year, I think that's the gray area. But if you have workers that work on July 5th, that's New Year money. Certain things happened on July that I can't. I did approve it with the auditors. I called them up. We had a team's meeting, and they said no.

And the no is they wouldn't let you carry over.

Not that much.

Right.

If there's any bills in last year's that are dated in June or were ordered in June, yes. But anything as of July.

Not for services performed in the new fiscal year.

Right. How much money are you anticipating? It's probably, I would think maybe $500 or $600. That was for this year because she had a band. She had workers. Then she said she wants to do a book. She has $1,000 in the budget. She wants to do a book in...

I thought we talked about this when we did the budget, that we were debating whether or not more money needed to be put into this year's budget.

She thought she... I think she... She also misunderstood about carryover. She didn't send any mail and said, I'm sorry, I didn't realize I couldn't carry it over. And we should have... I should have, or Anita should have, we should have thought more about the fact, I didn't realize there were workers being paid. So, I didn't know that.

But it's a fixable problem.

Yeah, it's minor. It would be a minor in the scheme. Hey, Michael, you may not have to go for a probation because if I stay under, then we'll be good. I'll just make that my goal.

The other thing you will notice, and I put it in the budget so that You would see it now instead of seeing it at the end. It's going to be shown as a carryover, but under debt services. In debt services, we did have money left over because the interest was paid out of Fund 33 for the one for the senior center. So there was money, but we're going to be closing the clean water, clean water funds. And because it was postponed, the state of Connecticut is asking for one year that it was postponed in debt and one year, a little over one year of interest. So with the auditor's approval, I could book it into last year. which does not put that account over. Puts one line over, but the other one under. So it's not gonna, it's not material. It came to about $40,000. And we're having closing on the Clean Water Fund July 31st. And we'll be making payments, which is already in the budget for this year.

So could, if I just could add a comment. About a week after I took office in 23, Matt Ward and I were told to come be available to sign for the clean water funds by Steve Sinami, Michael Botello, our bonding agent. Vicki was called in because she had to notarize everything and Anita as well. And we weren't really, you were surprised too. Tim had arranged this funding and we, I think had asked for 561 but we only used 461 of it. So that was what they call the preliminary loan obligation. And they don't close it out until they know you're done with the project. But because in our referendum in December, we voted not to proceed at this time, we are not. So now it's a closed out. So now we have to go to a permanent loan obligation. So they're coming on Friday to have us signed.

the permanent which will only be 461. so right and this yeah this is something that went back and the reason why was the later year was because of the referendum and all that passing for the additional funding so we had to postpone the the clean water fund that was postponed due to we didn't have votes we didn't know what was going to go on

So I'm just not...

It's not just us. Right, no, it's everybody in general. Where do we see this stuff in the paperwork? Yeah, which page, which one? Under the debt service.

On the... We don't have these numbered. Which fund first? The Clean Water Fund? I don't find it.

No, it's called debt service. Debt service. Hold on. I thought it was in your notes. No, I didn't. Debt service is 01-215. Can you just tell them what page it's on? 14 or what? The big pack.

Big pack. Okay.

Big pack, page 14. Page 14.

Big pack, page 14. That's good.

That helps. Page 14. Okay. And it's in the middle of the page.

Got it.

Got it.

All right. So we're $40,000 left over on this? Is that what you were saying?

No, I had to use $40,000 of it. Oh, okay. For the back interest and principal.

That's the 19 plus the 21? Yes. Got it. 40 of 26.

But you're saying that these numbers reflect that allocation? Yes. They're taken into account. So even after that, there's still a balance remaining of 115.7.

So I do not need any appropriations or anything for it. Okay.

And you use that for the clean water funds? debt service. Correct. Okay.

Anything else you want to mention?

Currently the estimate for additional everything will approximately about 1.2 to 1.3 million.

And what you mean is the undersigned bond balance may go up by $1.2 to $3 million?

That was without taking the $836 that we had an additional $36 change in appropriations and the $800 that we put down in the budget.

So the reason you left that out is because we didn't need it? Right.

Correct.

We didn't need it.

We just put it right back. We put it right back. Yes. So you don't take it unless you need it.

And the 1.2 is exclusive of that 800. So whatever the undersigned balance was at the end of the last fiscal year, June 30, 2025, the projection is at the end of – Oh, I'm sorry, June 30, 2024. At the end of June 30, 2025, the unassigned... No, that was June.

Last year was June 2025. This is June 2026. June 30, 2025, the unassigned balance was $595,873.

Okay. And then one year later, as of June 30, 2026, we expect that will go up by $1.2 to $1.3 million.

Plus... Yeah. Okay.

and just earning interest on that.

All right. Do you want to go to?

Yeah.

Let's take a look next at the actual and anticipated revenues. And I want to show you where that number comes from, kind of. So the revenues are all better than budget. The property tax revenues are $307,000 over budget. Do you have off the top of your head a percentage of collections with that additional $301,000? In other words, of the total taxes, what percentage do we collect with this $41,127?

We do not have those numbers yet because it hasn't The final numbers haven't been.

Fair enough. But the budget probably assumed like 98.5 or something. And so we did obviously better than the 98.5.

I'd like to ask you to remember this next time we budget, because we always go with that conservative number. And since I've been on the board, it's always been 99 or more.

One of them was in the rares, like an extra 200 was for one product.

Well, exactly right. The property tax arrears was budgeted for $225,000, and $350,000 were collected $125,700. So Suzanne's doing a pretty good job.

It was this one property that was a very, very large amount. It was two, I think. And that was collected out. So that was helped sell it. Suzanne is doing a great job.

Yes, she did. And she did point out when she was here that at a certain point, she will have caught up on all of those things that were outstanding. And that will not be as exceeded by as much as, yeah.

And if you look down the bottom of that page, services had an excess over budget of $429,000. About half of that from the building department. We must have had a lot of building permits issued this past year.

Yes. And everyone is telling folks she did very well.

Right. And then on the next page, Anita was able to grab another $372,789 of interest. So it's adding up.

And the other thing was in the FEMA, the grant that we got for the EOC, we had to take it out of last year and move it to this year. So that was an additional $315,000 we did not have registered for this year's budget.

And you're talking about the FEMA grant?

Yes.

And would you repeat that? Because I forgot what the mission was with this.

It was on the EOC. Last year, we went to book it. And due to the percentage of what was spent, And under GAAP, we had to take this out and move it to this year. So it was the auditors moving it to this first year. And that came, of course, after we did our budget.

Okay. So if you look at intergovernmental being over by 316 and you want to ignore the 347, then intergovernmental is kind of close to budget with disregarding that.

There will be another entry in there. I think that you can find them. Right. For the AOC? For the AOC, yeah. Yeah, I have to get more money for the emergency management.

So we make it another $120,000 for emergency management?

No, they only spent, I think it was about like $28,000 of some of the money. So that's why I have a meeting with emergency management on the 23rd, and we're going to go over everything and make sure everything has been submitted and what. Is that for the AOC bills? It was for the additional money for the mills.

Has a positive number for us?

Yes.

Well, he didn't spend any. He didn't spend any of it.

So that's why. $120,000. Right. It will be the reimbursement for his millstone that now shows under his account in emergency management. Okay.

Oh, okay. Because I made a note about that later on. So that's why.

Yes.

Okay. So that's the one that I'm going over with that mom, the 23rd we have the meeting.

So, oh, I see transfer from surplus is a negative. And that's why you get down to total revenue excess of about 600,000 rather than kind of on a common sense basis, we've got 300 plus 400, 700. We've got about 1.1 million in excess revenue. Yeah. Any questions about revenue? And we want to look at capital project funds and special revenue funds.

So I have a question about the capital project funds, the senior center expansion project funds.

Yes.

Are we getting close to Are we done with that?

We're not done. That will pay the interest. We got approval to pay the interest. That was with the surplus money because we got a premium. So we have approval to pay three years of interest on. That's how come we have the extra money in the budget.

Oh, we're keeping it there for that?

We have to. Yeah, I'm paying it out of that fine. Three years and that will use up all the money.

I have a question on here. I assume this is just captured maybe in the wrong spot. Under the Senior Center Expansion Project line, so Fund 33, in the expenditure detail, there's an expense of $2,300 for Haynes Park Playground.

Oh, did I do that wrong?

So I just wanted to make sure that I was reading it correctly, because sometimes I read this wrong.

Can you tell what page it's on? It doesn't have a coach number.

I'm sorry, that is French.

These two.

Interest, yeah, because they have the only interest. I will let you know.

Okay.

Which one is it?

It is under fund number 33. So if you find the red fund 33, if you go down, there's a $2,300 expense. And if you go across, it says Haynes Park Playground.

And either it belongs in Haynes Park or It was for another expense. Yes.

Anita will find. I'll send you an email.

Probably another expense.

So in 2020.

These are all just mainly type these reports.

Yeah, that's fine. 26, parking equipment and facility. Is that project complete? Because their meeting said that they were going to spend a lot more than that.

You're talking about $37,000 for the playground wasn't going to be more than that.

They had seven in their meeting.

It has $630,000. Okay. And they're spending it in July.

The bill may not have come yet.

They might not have gotten the bill yet.

I saw a bill go through.

That was that. Two weeks ago. Yeah, that was that. Two weeks ago. Because there were kind of two halves to it. Each half was in that 35 to 37 range. So one was for site work and the other was for funding. So maybe the other half is about to drop. I was just curious if we could track this project.

Well, maybe this is – there's another question I had on the other page from this one under Fund 27, which is the Senior Center Board – The detail says programs, and the cost is $36,834. So I thought either that's like a one-time, like we pay all of the program fees, or that was missed.

No, that was year-to-date, $36,000 for year-to-date senior center.

So that's, so senior center board is like, The activities that the Senior Center does.

The whole of the Senior Center. It's 127. It's everything that. They take in from revenue. All their revenue.

Okay. Programming. Yeah. Okay. And also any donations that they get, that goes to there. And the Friends of Senior Center provides a yearly donation to them for programming.

Right. That's where they have 45,000 in contribution.

Right. Okay, the Friends of the Senior Center down below is listed as 25.5.

Yeah, that one's a different one. They have the Friends, and this is a holistic. This one was given to them for a certain purpose, and they can only spend it on that purpose. Is the $25,500.

The $25,500 was a special purpose thing? Right.

It's for old friends. It was for workshop. And the other one was for class and holistic.

But the $45,000, is the $45,000 just a contribution or a transfer from the friends, from the contributions that they've received from the public?

Yes. The friends wrote them a check for that, and it's just for use. It doesn't have a purpose.

No, no, no, but it indicates a successful, reasonably successful fundraising.

Yeah, it does, especially because... 25 and 20,000 came, somebody left a donation in memory of.

And then they also get, it looks like, fees of 33,000. So they're well in the... That's the membership fees.

Yeah. And they get service and schemes for if people want a bus trip or whatnot. It's all included. Yep.

Okay. Do those run through this account also? Correct. Okay.

I feel like, should that be in a capital fund?

It's not capital. Okay. Because it's other people's money. It's not ours.

Okay.

We have other times.

Anita, every month I ask you this and then forget. What's miscellaneous revenue?

Miscellaneous is all the grant and the ARPA money. It's all the grants that go through.

It's ARPA money. Is it when somebody writes their check for over 50 cents and tells you to keep it? Or they don't have proper change.

Are we back to the revenue report?

No, it's just that on here, so if you look at Fund 9 and then it says see below in the cell below the 163, and then if you go over one column or two columns, I guess, to the left, it says expenditures and revenues.

And don't mind the 43, that's nothing. That's me typing something in. Column. It doesn't add into the bottom.

And then there was an expense of 163, a miscellaneous expense.

Remember what that was? Like I said, the miscellaneous, if you want to see, if you look on the bottom corner of the page. Down here. Right here. Here. This is going to break down.

Oh, whatever that is. That's a pretty precise answer.

Mm-hmm. It's easier to do that. That's probably the way it works.

Perfect. Okay. So the balance in the fund is 625, and is that largely ARPA money?

It's a lot of ARPA money.

And does the ARPA money still have strings attached that it has to be spent for specific purposes?

By December. By December and the rest of Anything that is unspent as of December, we'll transfer to social services.

So $145,000 of that is in the affordable housing grant. And we are closing on McCulloch properties. I mean, Habitat is taking them. And we just finalized the paperwork with lawyers today as far as the last piece because we had to get the A-24 through planning, which we covered. So that's all done. And they're setting up the closing date. Once that does, then Habitat will start sending bills to Anita for that $145 for surveying, for septic, and all those types of things. And that $145 will go out pretty quickly, according to the construction manager at Habitat. So they know that they have to spend that by December. So that'll leave you with just under...

500,000 left to spend.

And then 100,000 that is in that fund is coming to the general fund for interest approved on that part of the money. And we put it in the budget. We're going to take the 100,000 of the interest that we rolled out to transfer it to the general fund. What's left in there is, you'll see other things. It's right now, the fire department, they got an insurance payment. The check is there. They're buying equipment against that money. It's the town clerk. She has a fund in there. So there are different things, the banner poll. So there is money that gets carried over from every year because that is a revolving fund.

But you're saying that any unspent funds by 1231 have to be transferred to social services of the ARPA money? Yes, it can be. transportation, social services.

So that was per the ARPA committee. The ARPA committee, when they funded it, we anticipated that some would not spend their full amount. So I was on that committee. So the recommendation, we had to put it in so we didn't lose the money. We didn't want to return money to the federal government. So we said that any unspent funds would be a donation to the social services account.

So nothing against social services. But if we put a couple hundred thousand dollars at the rate we're spending it, it's going to sit there. So hopefully we'll find other uses for it by 1231.

Not other uses. We have to use the ARPA funds have to be used for their specific individual one. Other legal uses. You can't change that.

No, I understand. We can't change what?

The ARPA funds that were granted. Each one has a specific pigeonhole of what they're doing.

You mean based on the ARPA committee? Yes. We have to follow what they, how they allocate.

So who hasn't spent their money? Well, one is affordable. What are the other big ones? Affordable sewers are going to give us back. WBCA is going to give it back because we're not done. The Halls Road one. Halls Road is going to give back some money because we're not doing the walking bridge. That was all for For design.

But are we locked into the decisions of the ARPA committee?

Yes, we are. It's under federal law.

So we can't reconstitute the committee and rethink it?

No, you have everything expended by a certain date, and that was like two years ago.

The rules were very exact when we did the ARPA committee of what we had to write.

And that runs to what date? Of 2027.

But then after that,

If I don't transfer it to social services in December, that money goes back to the state.

Federal government.

Okay. So it's setting social services up to function for a long time.

Yes. So when you look at next year's budget, there'll be less in social services. Less for social services. It's a tough year. Yes. oil prices and things like that, we might actually really need it for some of our people.

Yes. Thanks.

All right.

Do you want to look at carryovers?

Everybody, until the end of this month, Then I will go to the Board of Slugman and then bring you the report next month.

Yep. Does anybody know going to expenditures and encumbrances?

Well, I have a couple of questions on carryovers. We have some stuff that's been sitting out here for a very long time. So the one where you're waiting to hear back from the state in the first...

In sidewalks.

You're talking about sidewalks? Yeah, sidewalks. So what is that?

Okay, I keep on sending my emails because this was one of the first projects I got when I got here that we had to submit everything. And I got the guy, the person that stayed I talked to is William. And so I sent him and he finally got back to me and said he was very happy to tell me that they finally submitted my paperwork and they're processing it now. And that was approximately a week ago. So that money that's sitting there. We do owe them. Do we owe that to the state? We owe it to the state. Okay. They paid us up front for the grant. We didn't spend it all. And so we have to turn it back. We showed it was, I want to say it was like $13,000 to turn back. but we rather had the little extra there just in case they say something's disqualified. So it was there, so we were leaving there. So I'm hoping they might do it quickly because it's so old.

Yeah. The high school project is still not done, so you know. But no promises might have to go another year. Sorry.

But once that's resolved, I think, if I interpret your question correctly, Maybe we can terminate the other carryovers. I mean, the property survey from 21-22, the H2O inventory from 22-23.

Yeah, I mean, we say kill it.

And then if you need more something for water, we'll appropriate it again.

That one's not mine. The sidewalk one is mine, the 21. That's mine, the 72-80. That was Soundview. That is Frank Capilardo.

Yeah, that was the survey. Mary Jo and Bonnie and whoever else was there.

But this is four years later, so my question is, is that still alive?

Are you talking about Siamview Sidewalks?

No, I'm talking about the 7280 for property survey.

I want to say Frank spent something last year.

He did. He asked for it again. And they did have someone come in to do the survey, and We went out for a request for a proposal. The company came in. They were so excited and they did a crappy job. So they never billed them. I think they did such a terrible job that Michaela and Frank met with them and said, this is not what you're supposed to do. And they handed this company all their information. So it wasn't like, you know, they had to do a lot of digging, but they just had to make sense of it all. And they did because they were trying to get the exact lines for like the fire roads and the parking lot and things. So some of the information I guess was valid, but don't think that they spent nearly as much. And Frank has been a little out of commission this year, so we haven't had an update.

Okay. Okay.

And then I have a question on The third one down, 254, Ferry Road Wildlife Refuge. Because there's also, if you go to our actual encumbrances, it's somewhere in here, too. And so I was wondering why we, if that means this is done. Because there's only $110 left, so clearly somebody did something. Let's see if I can find it in here. They marked it off.

Under urban space, Anna.

Yeah. Yeah. So are we done with that now, that wildlife refuge? I would say so, yes. Okay, well, 110.

You know, what's happening there is they're controlling for the Phragmites. Yeah, I know. And so it was a couple-year project. And the issue is it keeps on coming back, so it requires successive treatments.

But should we... If it does, then that sounds like it's a maintenance thing and we don't need to be doing carryover for it anymore because it's not like a one-time.

It was for Phragmites. Phragmites? Yeah, the treatments for the Phragmites.

Because you never kill the Phragmites to go off, right?

Going forward, the expense for that should be much less, if at all.

And the same thing with this hydrographic survey, 271, which is a little earlier, it was only in Last year, 24, 25. But that's also.

Harbor management.

Yeah. Harbor management. Right. That's for the dredging. Dredging of what?

The rivers. I want to say. I'm going to say the wrong river. So I won't say. It's one of the rivers. And they. But they also got a grant. So I'm going to say this. They also had a grant from Port Authority that was covering some of it. So it may be they had asked us for money, and then they got the grant on top of it. Now, whether it's combined, that's what the survey will be. But that would be a question for Mike Presti. Okay. And we can ask him.

Okay. So it was similar... thing going on on 280 for the police for a paint job for $5,000 that we're carrying over. We talked in an earlier meeting about maybe painting projects shouldn't be capital and to carry over $5,000 for a paint job that didn't get done, maybe there's a more efficient way to manage that.

Which one is that? 280. No, they did it. They're doing it. That's the outside of the building. They had to wait until they did some installation. Okay. But it says paint, police, paint, right? Right, yes. So then we keep doing that.

But why is it capital in the first place?

Because it's an improvement to the building.

And the reason why it's not inside, it's outside. And the reason why it was showing really with capital there for the other buildings is by showing it this way to Eric, takes care of facilities, not the departments. So that is why it is showing this way. I know it's the dollar amount isn't that much, but when Eric does it, it's easier for him to track it in that area instead of if it's in the police department budget, they think they could spend it.

This is a bigger conversation for another day, I don't think.

Yeah, I agree with you. We've been over it so many times, and it was another day. Okay. That's all I had for that part, for carryover.

Any other carryover questions? You can carry them over to next meeting. And we will.

The list has gotten shorter over time, though.

It's good. Making progress.

Any comments or questions on the expenditure page?

I think just as an overview, because we do this budget and we work really hard on it, I think we need to pull this out again next year and just note how much doesn't get spent. And really, really, really look at what people... are asking for. And I think that we don't like saying no to people for a lot of reasons, but there's a lot of money here that is just... A lot of departments have like 10% that they didn't spend much more.

Well, I mean, that's not an inappropriate comment. I mean, that's why we run surpluses every year, right? Because we're... I call it conservative... We want to make sure that everybody has enough money, but we over-allocate. And so either we have to have a finer pencil or we have to play with Candace's limitation on using the surplus every year to reduce the mill rate. Because if we keep doing this, we have to keep doing that.

Exactly. You know what I mean? Exactly.

Yeah, that percent column, as we review it against what they bring in, that average percent they bring every year should be sort of a benchmark to us.

So when Anita and I meet with them this year for our initial conversations, we will tell them, really and truly look at those lines.

And I would tell them to look at last year's. Like, look at this piece of paper and be like, oh, wow, I really did only spend 20%. of what I thought I was going to do, like, why was that? And is it really, truly realistic to plan some of this stuff?

But we do that. When we approve, look at expenditures, and it gives us the history of expenditures on that line item. And if somebody says, well, I want another $10,000 this year, But for the past five years, they've only spent three. We do.

But I'm just saying, I think it's helpful if they're looking at it with that eye themselves. Because when you're developing your own budget, sometimes you're like, well, I might get to that. I should ask for it. But I can't tell them whether or not they're going to get to this permitting thing that was $10,000 that they didn't spend a single dollar of. You know what I mean? And then you look at your bottom line. You're like, wow, I have 41% of my budget left. That's significant.

Right. I don't think this is a major problem, but I do think we can do a better job of budgeting to actual... Across the board and commissions, it adds up to $130,000.

So there's, I think, if you just look at the percentages, there's some bad actors that have very small budgets, like flood and erosion. They didn't spend anything, but they're only talking about $630. Whereas there are other...

commissions where they have real money like you know tree commission still has 80 percent left and they had you know 11 that's 11 000 and we cut their budget like they were bent about us cutting their budget and we were like you guys don't spend it and they didn't spend it again well joanne did spend it when she was trying to remove yeah she didn't

I will say that one of the biggest issues right now with the Treat Commission is they haven't had a forum for their meetings. Therefore, they can't vote on anything but expenditures. So it's been slowing them down.

In any event, this is kind of a good problem to have, but it's just a little sloppy. And sort of a little silver lining is that it's just, from the taxpayer's standpoint, it's a timing question. Because in essence... We're overcharging them sort of in year one and then giving it back to them in year two. But in the meanwhile, Anita earns interest on that excess. So we're sort of taking the taxpayers' money and investing it for them without their consent.

That's a tough sell.

No, but it's better than if interest were zero, right? Anyway. Okay. Anita, I have asked this before too. The Rogers Lake Authority docking fee, remind me what that's for.

So that's confusing because the Rogers Lake Authority used to dock their boat at a personal property and they were charged rent. And they changed that arrangement this year and they now dock at Haynes Park. And they had to pay $2,500 for the new dock. But now they have no rental fees.

But this is called the docking fee.

So they took the money to purchase their share of the new dock out of their docking fee budget. So it looks like it's overdrawn, I believe. Let me get there.

This arrangement changed in the middle of last year.

The price of that dock was shared between...

school paid half and then rogers lake authority picked up a part of it okay but the line item says roger lake authority docking fee and so that it's a it's an expenditure that they're paying for the permission to dock is what the words say but you're saying it's not that it's the 4 000 was spent for the dock itself

The dock approximately cost $5,000.

So it's just a characterization problem, and that's probably a capital item rather than an expense. It would be, yes.

And then $2,500 of the dock was paid by regional school districts.

Yeah, yeah. No, I'm not following with the substance of it, just the characterization of it.

The docking fee has been in the budget for years because of the fact that they rented space from the dock this year to circumvent. And Mark Hastings... I believe came to Board of Finance. So the verbiage on the left is just a holdover. And that's where the money was. That's where the money was. But we granted them permission to use it to buy the dock, to grant a dock. So it was okay. So in the verbiage, you don't even need that line anymore because they'll never have another line.

Well, no, if Anita doesn't care, I don't care. In other words, we have it in as an expenditure, it's really a capital expense.

Well, the capital I'll do separately. In capital, I do go through everything, and if it's capital...

So you may want to move it.

It doesn't matter.

It's not material.

Right.

Okay.

So my only other questions then go to page 14, halfway down the page, starting at capital outlay general government. Because there's a lot of stuff there that's... Has 100% left.

This is where you're going to probably get a bunch of carryovers from.

Well, that's my question. Because some of the stuff that I just mentioned on carryovers, such as the wildlife refuge, the hydrographic survey, those are all on here as well. So...

I think that'll be a question when I bring you the carryover. We're going to have everybody come and talk to you. Okay. And I think that's going to be the best thing. We'll have everybody come and talk. So then I... They can answer for them.

I thought that somebody had to come and talk to us about replacing the town hall rear deck and stairs.

I thought that was happening. Did that not happen? Well, we've had a lot of other projects for our facilities director, and so I think he has a quote on it. It has not been done yet. Eric has definitely a schedule, and if you go downstairs, you'll see his beautiful board with all of his projects and where they stand. um but he's been a little busy um on some other projects and so and i don't have a problem with him being busy on other projects i just have a problem with us putting this in the budget well you realize too sometimes contractors give you a quote and say they'll be here but then you get pushed off so i don't know what the standard is but i'll find out okay because i would just like

I really am offended by this number. Like this is a huge number that we're charging people and we're not doing this.

60% of the capital we said was going to get done and didn't get done. So like the 56,000 that's in there, that is, we went to a town meeting and that was for the grant for Harbor Management. So that will definitely have to go to a carrier. We went to a town meeting and said we'd give it to them. So that will be it. So when they use that grant money, we have to do that. That's fine. So $56,000 will definitely be... Okay, so we're still at $130,000. That's over.

So, I mean, it's just a lot of money. Like, I just think that to have all of these projects at 0% complete is just like, to be honest, as a taxpayer, offensive. And I don't think that we're doing... what we should be doing. All right.

Well, so I, I just, I'm going to bring this up again next year. I think it goes back to that whole, similar to the boards and commissions and looking at it and saying, okay, this all sounds great and all this needs to be done, but what can we actually do in 12 months?

And yeah, Well, but to the extent it's a timing issue, it just may reflect people's optimism about when shrugging can get started.

The bill just went out today. Remember, this is only as of June 30th, and we've got some bills that went out today that are written for fiscal year 2025. But you're not seeing them reflected on this yet. This is as of June 30th. Okay.

And also, in terms of the timing question, somebody comes to us and we have a $100,000 project and wonderful project. You've got to know when you're going to start. And I'm not talking in July. We had this conversation. And they say, well, we can start it in August. But a year later, it hasn't been started. Shame on them. Right. On the other hand, if they say, no, I can't start it until next May, well, then that's still in this year's budget, and we have to provide for it. And then it's only a month late if they haven't spent it by June 30th.

Yeah, I just don't think that's all this. I had this big project. Well, if you talk to a contractor, do you have a date? Do you have any scope? And, you know, if we had a requirement that you had something

Well, sometimes they can't go out to talk to a contractor until they have appropriation costs. Or, you know, sometimes let the contractor talk to them unless they know the money's coming.

But we've asked for all of these.

Yeah, all of these have a budget of some variety. Like, that's how they got this money. So I think most of the time they have gone to a contractor and asked. I think... It's just, we have to be, you know, if somebody says, I'm not sure, but I want $30,000, I think we have to say, well, once you're sure, we can either go to town meeting for it and people can decide, or you wait till next year. Like, I just think this is a lot of money to be taking from people and investing ourselves for the town when you could be holding this yourself and investing it yourself.

to be continued when we do the budget for next year. Any other comments or questions on the expenses?

Anita, are there, do we have to go to town meeting for departments that go over by 20,000? Correct. Departments. Are there any waste and recycling?

No, they are actually the only thing that we're close on and I'm following it very close. Public Works, we talked about them doing the maintenance on the equipment, the backup. Currently, he has like 13 change. And if you take away the 32.9, he's at 19,500 and something. So he better not have another bill. Okay. I watched very, very closely and I ran the numbers today to have that number because I did this on the other reports. And after we paid bills today, I did run it. And he's super close.

Super close. But not over.

But we're under and there should, from what I saw, there was no town meeting as a meeting. Yes. Knock on wood.

All right. I just have a scheduling question. So on page 8, on the top page 8, road repairs, blacktop, coal, how are the road repairs in general going in the schedule? Those 32% left and 66% left, is that all on schedule? Just in general?

Anything going on, but it started in July.

Right, yeah, just started, yeah.

Right, so that is... the paving for 26, 27.

Yes, 26, 27.

And that, as far as road repairs go, that's all, anything he does now would be in this year's fiscal budget, not last.

I was just trying to get a sense of when it started. Okay, thank you.

They start because that's when he has the money.

Yeah.

Right, because he already did last year and he actually, when they got the bid, it was a lot less than what we approved when we transferred into the fund. for the roads.

What was the general number? You talked about we had to increase that.

We increased it to a million dollars. That's the road account. But that's anticipation to build it up because a couple years are going to be like a couple million.

Yeah, gotcha. Okay, thank you. So, Anita, your net bottom line is an under budget by $1,168,000. And, you know, that overstates reality because it doesn't take into account carryovers and stuff. Do you have any kind of gut guess as to what the actual under-expenditures are?

Well, yeah, I came up with the 1.2, 1.3 for that. I ran after we did checks.

Well, but 1.1 of that is from the revenue side.

No, the revenue side is approximately 600.

Oh, I thought it was over by one point.

Oh, it's 600 up to 800. Plus I was guessing maybe about another 50,000. So that's on the revenue side. And then the expenditures as of today, we had a balance remaining of one, a million, about a million. And I'm projecting... maybe over 300. I was guessing carryover. If I did all the capital, that's 300 by itself. And then I figured another 100 would be the 30,000 for public works and 70 and miscellaneous stuff.

Okay. Any other questions, comments?

Did you know why that was 600 instead of one point? It's because we didn't, that 836. The carryover? No, it's that $836,000 that we voted last year to take out of surplus, we never used. Right.

$800,000 was last year's budget. $36,000 was the couple appropriations you made throughout the year.

Just so you know, Eric just texted me. Finding a contractor who is interested in doing the back stairs has been an issue. Finally has someone who actually wants to do the project. So if this carryover is approved, the project will be done in September. Okay. I don't know what's wrong with our stairs. I think it's pretty nice. Woodwork? Stone? Paint? We're still asking.

So are we done with this, kids? Then the next item on the agenda is the proposed policy regarding the unassigned funds. And I think the most useful document to look at is the one that Candace shared. emailed to everybody a few weeks ago. It wasn't included in the board package in the hard copy.

On July 7th, I sent a clean copy and a track change copy.

Yeah. And I find it most useful to look at the copy that shows the changes because we talked about the first draft last month and had some thoughts about it. And so I focused on the document showing changes.

Candace, do you know if you sent it to Anita? I don't remember seeing it. I think I just sent out a word. I'm sorry. It's okay. She just really shouldn't pay attention. Can we forward it to you now? Can we forward it to Anita? I don't get myself my town email from this.

So my question is... whether everybody has reviewed a copy of this and whether it's appropriate to talk about it tonight. And it's appropriate only if you're informed.

You haven't? Yeah. Any discussion tonight, you're saying, or do we table it to the next time?

Well, if folks here I haven't read it tonight. I wouldn't think you ought to just start reading it now. So let me just ask, would folks like to table it for next month or want to go ahead and talk about it now? I will comment that Andy and David are not present tonight, and they have an opinion regarding the surplus that is sometimes at odds with some of others' opinions. So it might be more productive to wait.

I agree. I think they were absent for the last discussion.

The last one, too.

I would agree. Okay. All right. I have that email up. Can I forward that to Anita? Yes, Anita, I'll read it tomorrow. Thank you.

Okay. So we'll table this until next month. And then next on the agenda is the other business agenda. Anybody have any other business? Hearing none. Selections report. Select woman.

I don't have a full select woman's report. Sorry, because I was getting busy for this town meeting, which we've changed how we were running it six times in six days. Anyway... I'll just give you the White Sands Beach, which we've always done. Eric will have a closeout of that for Florida Select, and he'll share that with us next week on the 27th. So we'll have that report next month. I've also asked for the EOC report twice now. I'm hoping that that also will be provided to me in the next week or two so that we get final numbers on the EOC. project and get those numbers to you next month. There is a TRIPS grant that I requested for additional road paving. The numbers were supposed to come out in early July. Now I've been told by Rivercock they won't come out until the end of July. The grant was to do Rogers Lake Trail and Townwood Road. We would have to do some funding, but I think Anita and I figured our percentage of what we would have to contribute would be able to be covered by the fund. But that would allow those two major roads to be done this year and before the plans close if we get the grant. That'd be great.

What qualifies talents for those?

A good grant writer. So if we don't get it, it's my fault. No. It is needed. I mean, we, we got, um, letters from Senator Marks. Uh, we got them from representative Carney. We, um, had, um, fire department and the EMS department both put in that their recommendations that these roads be done. And another big issue is the safety because Rogers Lake trail is the only evacuation route for the lake. And it is in bad shape. And, um, Anita and Katie and Ed and I are going to sit down because the paving schedule got a little, that's true, this year there were two copies of it going around and Ed read off one that was not up. So the areas that got paved on this year may have been really next year's and Rogers Lake Trail should have been this year, so. We're trying to, we're going to correct that. And there's only going to be one copy and all other copies are going to be disposed of. And we need to make people aware that even holding on to something on your hard drive, I mean, on your Z drive, it can confuse people that it, but it's not the most updated copy. And there should only be one keeper of that and updating it. And it really should be Anita once she pays the bills so that we all know what it cost us, when it was done, et cetera. So we'll get to that. I know I shared the TRC report for 102-1 Mile Creek with both Fred and Ana, that phase one environmental study. They've seen it. Rob McCarthy's also looking it over. for me just to see what he thinks. I did have a meeting with Ryan Bartos to talk about some next steps. And those also I shared with Rob to say, what do you think about? And I also put a phone call into DECD to see if I could talk to them about possible grants for the next two days if we decide to go forward. And that hasn't been decided yet, but Jim and John and I have not discussed that, and that will be on our agenda.

So I want to thank you for being cautious about that before you make decisions.

What we're going to get is...

I just have the opinion that it may not be a problem that we think it is. The report also is just a lot of conjecture in the report, you know, saying there may be a problem, there may be a problem, which there may be, but...

I think they have to cover their...

Well, that's the point of a phase one. And so, you know, if you really think it's a brownfield site and it needed a phase one, I get it. But, you know, I just think that he didn't come up with very much conclusive information whatsoever. I was actually really disappointed in the report in general. But that's I mean, if the point of a phase one is to do a phase two. In fact, a lot of times you do a phase one and a phase two at the same time because the phase one really doesn't tell you anything. serious information the phase two gives you the information so like there's really no point in doing a phase one if you're not going to do a phase two because you pay for it you know what i mean and it comes out with you might have problems in all these areas so um you know i would expect that we would be hearing from you about doing a phase two and and what you think you're going to find and um you know what mitigation will cost for those things so But I didn't find that to be a super well done phase one. It just, it was fine. It met all the criteria. It just was.

$4,000 for a home.

Just wasn't great. There wasn't a whole lot of, I don't know. I was surprised that he didn't dig a little deeper. And like, there was a lot of like, well, the client didn't give me this and the client didn't give us that. like to put that back on you and the town I thought was, was pretty unprofessional just in that, that is the job of the person doing the phase one is to go seek out that information. So not being like, Hey Tom, can you give me the survey? Nope. It's my job to go find the survey if I'm getting paid to do that. So like those kinds of comments that were found throughout it, I was like, well, okay. I mean, I'm not going to argue with them. That's how they do their phase ones, but does it give you a ton of information?

Not really. So some of those were historical documents, though, that we just didn't have. So, I mean, we didn't give them to them because they're not here. Right. But then then he would.

But there's other places he could have tried to look for those. All I'm saying is it's fine. Like, I just, you know, I know.

And you want to come to board finding would be helpful if you want to say that board of selectmen and then all selectmen would hear. So feel feel free. So what's the next step on this? I mean, I know Anna's suggesting a board of selectmen have not reviewed it together. So we will be discussing it on the 27th to see how we want to proceed. At the moment, though, that property is now adjacent to a new home site. So someone will be able to see it very visibly from their front door. So we will...

we're going to discuss it but i can tell you alan todd who owns that property has has no concerns about the hazardous event site but i don't want to make a big deal out of it it's a small amount of money and we got to move on but it's these little things we get trapped into and i think they add up and i don't know i just feel like we get the state kind of guides us into these decisions we have to make and

I don't think the state got into that. It was the selectmen who asked and requested it.

But they provided money to make the decision. Oh, well, it's there. Let's just do it. Anything else?

Do you have any questions other than that for me?

Anybody? Okay. There's no public here from public comments.

Thank you all for coming.

We're out of here. It Fred and and