Town Board - Regular Meeting

Yeah. Watch test. You're good. Now you got to check every single one of them. Okay.

Good evening everybody. Uh we're going to start the meeting tonight with a pledge to the flag, please. United States of America to the republic for it stands nation for Thanks for everybody coming tonight. We have a pretty busy schedule.

Okay. You know, as you can see, part of the process of getting ourselves straightened out is getting the AV issues. Uh, we're working on that. They're getting better. Um, Kevin Smith tonight is going to talk a little bit about what he sees uh that we need to do here uh to further that process along so that when we have these meetings, you hear us, we don't get feedback, and that the YouTube works and people out in in in the public who can't make the meeting can watch it. I know we've struggled with that. Um, and hopefully over the next week or two we can get that straightened out. Uh, so let's hope I think if this will be the first one in a while, if it goes smoothly, other than that little feedback, we should be good. this point, I'd like to welcome anybody that has uh public comments relative to those items that are on the agenda. Okay, we'll go ahead and quite often we have the resolution to approve the claims further down uh on this. Unfortunately, Margaret is delayed a little bit. Uh we've changed the process here about how we gather the invoices, collect them, get them to Margaret, get the vouchers, get them approved, get them coded. Um so there are some bumps in it. I think this morning, this week, we uh stressed Margaret out immensely as uh we went through the process and the changes. Um, and hopefully over the next week or so we will and it's hopefully by

the next meeting especially get that straightened out. As part of that, I'd like to introduce you to my new assistant, Diana. If you would stand, please [applause] Diana is part-time. Uh, she's in the office with me and she'll be taking over a lot of the work with Margaret as well a lot of the communications. Um, and hopefully I don't have to be in here six days a week all day long and she'll be able to carry some of the load. So far, it's been very promising. And uh, I think that you'll find that if you have to work with her that you'll appreciate her abilities and her stickness to, uh, solve problems. And there are plenty of problems here. We're finding new ones every day. As a matter of fact, um [sighs] I think then because I know there going to be questions on those uh resolutions to approve on some of those claims. Uh there are, by the way, uh your warrant reports. There are two new vouchers that we or three new related that you didn't have a chance if you came in last night or the other day to look at the vouchers. uh they are for um water testing to couple and you should find those vouchers in your stack there. They uh they are for testing of water um that we have to have done and those are the only additions. Those are some of the things that we're finding that we had issues with. It's little things like we got late notices from the village of Madina regarding our water payment. Well, I immediately called. Turns out that the bills were of course we only it has to match up to when we have our meetings once a month.

We need to have them in here in plenty of time so we can get them prepared for the board to review. We received those automated notices because we were late. But turns out the bills were actually mailed on time. It took over two weeks for those bills to make it from the town hall in Madina to the town hall in Shelby. So consequently, there are no late fees. There are no shut off notices. And uh we've worked out a system now and we're as as we work through all of this at Diana and I they will be emailing us the bills. They can mail them too, but we'll get the bills on time and we won't be having to to to spend time on the phone getting things like that straightened out. So, at this point, any questions from those I guess that have had a chance to look at the vouchers uh about any of the claims against the town for Margaret when she gets here.

Okay. Anyone else on the board have any questions that hopefully I can answer for you? Well, in that case, if you got a question for Margaret, maybe we'll wait to uh do the motion to approve the bills when she arrives and that way then she can go and print the checks and actually train Diana on how to print the checks. some some other process here that we can bring in house. So the highway report, unfortunately Dale is not here tonight. I know that some of them on the board have some questions. I think later on um we will discuss in the board comments uh some of the liaison we have here between our board and other elements of the town or the village. I I believe there'll be some comments about some of the meetings and and the proc the you know at that point. So I will read at this point u Dale's we start tonight with the department status on overtime. Since the first of the year we have incurred 440 hours of overtime. Uh there's plenty of winter left not to mention November December later in the year. I would like to acknowledge and say thank you to the union. We have been down in MEO for three weeks. And with their okey dokie, I was allowed to drive and plow, saving the town 47 hours of OT valued at $3,240. The bulk of our time this past month have been plowing and pushing back

drifts. It has been a brutal cold period, as most would agree. Maintenance has been taking up plenty of time after plowing, wiring, loose bolts, plow shoes, shoes, etc. did have time to assist Madina school on cleaning up snow that they would have to place a stack to stack future accumulation. Lent the village a hall truck so they could also clean up in town. Hauled some scrap iron out. Finished inventory and flushing reports. I'm happy to say with Royalton Water we dropped total gallons from a high in 2021 of just under four million gallons to under just 1 million gallons this year of flushing. nice savings. Contrary to what we had thought, there was no water line break. It was a job core issue. For as cold as it was, we were very thankful. Just some background on that. I did come in here one morning. Uh they were dressed up and getting ready to go fix a water leak on East Shelby Road. Uh and at that point, they got a call before they could head out there uh from Ridgeway who had a massive leak. Uh they went and aided Ridgeway and then Ridgeway came back and helped Shelby, but in between they had to get in the trucks and plow and by the time they got out they found out that there really was no leak on East Shelby Road. There was a leak at the job core. So that saved them. And I have to say getting out there in temperatures that we've had in and digging is a is a tough call. Cut down some problem trees. Today we are plowing snow in Mount Pleasant for burial hopefully tomorrow. Uh I would like to say to some residents a giant thank you for cleaning fire hydrants near your homes. How nice you take the initiative and time for this civic duty. My department is appreciative. Please try and not to pile snow up in the leading edge of your driveway if

possible. When we come down with a plow, we inadvertently knock it back into your drive. Also, it is illegal to push snow across the road. to finish up the stakeouts and stacking of e-ways continues. Do we have anything from the planning board tonight? start out with uh we had a public hearing for Filamino favorites last Monday at 6:45 for a site plan review. They were looking at putting on a 12 by 30 foot front addition to the building for future use. Uh we had no public comment so we went on to our meeting. We brought up filming favorites to start out with. Uh they did need a variance for the setback, front setback. Uh the ZBA had a public hearing prior and they approved the variance for the setback. So all in all, we uh approved their site plan review for it. So they're hopefully June that they'll be able to start to see that. Uh the next thing we did, we had a preliminary review with Northshore Networks. What they are, they are the contractor for the county internet provider. And what they want to do is put a 150 foot tower on the corner of Barber and Town Line Road. And we had a lot of questions for him. and he's supposed to come back and we'll

look at the special use permit for that. And last but not least, we had a resident come in who was interested in putting storage units on their property. Unfortunately, we told them they can't do it because they're not zoned properly. So, they're going to look at other things that they can do with their property. That's it. Do we have any in terms of the tower that they're looking to put up? Do we have any rules around like zoning rules or any code that

you would follow the same regulations like with cell towers? That's what we've always done. So So those are in place. The cell towers now. Yes. Yes, there are some in place. Yes. Yes. All right. Thanks. All right.

Zoning. Do we have anything tonight? Just go along with uh what uh Kurt said on the approval of the uh variance. And uh we also would like to uh advertise for a alternate for the board. Um pursuant to that on town law 2671A it's an alternate can be used for conflict of interest um in the event somebody in the board or is involved with that. So, we would have to follow that guideline, but they could be elevated at a later date if we have an opening on the board. So, we'd like to get that advertising in. Think there's a problem with that? Just write it up and get it to uh myself or Diana and we'll get it forwarded for you.

Okay. Do you want you want

Yeah, we might as well. Since Kevin is serving double duty, he has written up um a little bit of a review of our current AV situation here. Uh I distributed that early via email to the board members. Uh he's making some recommendations first to address the audio issues that we have. Uh just some information for for people in the audience. These microphones work on a 9volt battery. The court uses them, the village of Badina uses them, and we use them. And so we get up here and quite often at least one of them is dead or dies to the point that we all have a 9volt battery sitting next to our microphone so we can make sure that they work through the evening. Unfortunately or fortunately, this desk here, this bench is already hardwired for hardwired mics. So, one of the things that we had him look at were a number of issues. But just for that information, little background, you'll understand why we've asked Kevin to take a look at it and he's made some recommendations. Um, and I'd like to open up the board for any questions or if you wanted to explain first what what you looked at.

Uh, with the hardwired mics, you know, your mixer board has the ability to do what they call phantom power. Um, and that would be on condenser mics. It's technical talk for they would power the microphones. Um, no, I did some research on the existing mixer down here and it's almost 20 years old, which puts it way out of date for reliability. So, anybody have any questions back as far as but that that would be the primary start would be to get these new microphones in place so that you could take this 9volt battery situation and the wireless interference potential out of there too because I think these are VHF high which is a frequency band that really shouldn't even be used. So, Any questions?

Um, I think we'll have to talk maybe in a workshop about the We hadn't planned on the expense, but if we take the low end of what you're talking about, it runs about $867. I think that we'd like to take a further look at that. Sure. Sure. I I know that of at least it's not in my wheelhouse. Larry, I think you probably know more about it than certainly than I do. Do you have any questions for him or any comments? [clears throat] Um, not right now.

I I I can say too, I've dealt with um government services for purchasing too. So, state contract pricing, if you do want to go to the next level, you know, I can look that up too, which takes that bidding process of getting more than one bid out of it. process if you and it all depends to budget wise what you want to spend. Yeah, we can see that. I said to go to the next level that you got in here is quite a step. Yes. All right. So, I think that we need to digest that and I think we'll have some further discussion and questions for you. Absolutely. But appreciate you putting the time forth. Not a problem. And volunteering to [clears throat] uh take that on. I got I got a quick question.

Uh if you put a a system in, can you upgrade it? I mean, you can add stuff to it. Uh oh. What part were we referring to? Well, the whole system. I mean, if you start out with the $800 Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Then you can you can keep adding to it. Doing it in steps. Yeah. You don't have to just lay out the whole thing, right? Go like that. No, no, no. You can add to this as you're going along. But the potential for the the microphone part, you know, it's first good step. So, the $800 is just what's kind of sectioned off here because there is an item on here, the mixer, right? Is that not coming? That would not be coming in this phase.

It could be. My My choice would be to go to save up and get the better mixer. Okay. Is that the $2,600 one? Yes. Okay. That's an allin-one piece of equipment. I was having a hard time finding 800 when I saw 2600. Okay. That that that would also do dual streaming, too. So, if you get a Facebook account down the road, you can stream Facebook and YouTube at the same time, which increases your viewership as well. Okay, thank you. Yep.

Yeah, the 8767 was the low. We could get by with that, you know, that's something that we wanted to pursue. Okay, question. Is that including these TV screens? Are they going to be operating them too also or no?

[clears throat] [laughter]

Yeah, you could uh you could use what you currently have, but it's wireless. Once again, I'm not a big fan of wireless in an environment that's being constantly bombarded. Um, using Cat 6 wire with what they call balance on each end and you use those to uh with a mixer do multiple outputs. So, you could do one showing presentation, one could be showing a a Zoom or any other input you wanted to put into that. Okay. One of the I can speak from having been one of the residents sitting out there and trying to watch presentations on these TVs behind us and the visibility of any kind of information or anybody that's on them is close to zero. Um, we are investigating, um, hopefully a possible donation of an LCD projector. And if we can get that at no cost, uh, it might be something we'd look at uh, that we could use and would provide better viewing for people uh, when we do any presentations, as we have two tonight, if they had information that they wanted to put on. So, it is something we're looking at. Okay, I skipped over code enforcement.

meant to go to that the the third. What was the disposition of those two? Did I miss it?

Comply. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thanks, Julie. You're up for the assessor's report.

Um, office has been uh still busy with um exemptions. We are still helping residents with the star letters that they received from New York State. Um they have started sending out second notices. Um we were told yesterday from New York State that they preprinted the second notices. So even if residents had completed the letter, they are getting second notices. Um and they had set this whole program up to save paper. So, if you know of a resident that had done the form online and have received the second notice, it's just because New York State preprinted them. Um, but they can always call my office or come in and see me. Um, the housing market has remained very quiet, very typical for this time of year. Um, next week I was asked to present with Don Allen. She was the real property director. um she's now the assessor for town of Berry um at the association of towns dinner meeting. So I'm going to present with her if any of you are interested in coming. We're going to talk about assessments, updates, all of that. And that's about it for the Association of Towns next Tuesday, February 7th at 6.

Public, right? I don't think so. Yeah, it's it's for town officials, I think. John, sorry. Oh, she meant us. [laughter] Sorry.

Any questions? Have uh Yeah, I got a question here. Reading through the the county legislator resolutions and stuff. There's a resolution about the pictometry. Have we got our bill for that yet from them? I see they're going to it's it's at the reading through this. It's 39,140 per year. That's for the Hall County. The county is going to pay 10 10,000 of it. Then they're going to divvy the rest of it up between us. So Jim, I talked to you about this, right? It's in the file for the budget for this.

Julie sent me the information on our share. uh that would come due I think mid year well next year actually but it's going to have to be for budgetary purposes. I believe the bill won't be due until 2027. That's right. So they would do it for the end of this year. They would probably do the flyovers and then that way then you can work it into next year's budget. Yeah.

But I already plan for it in my budget so it's already set. I don't know how Town of Shelby has always worked it. Ridgeway has always split it with departments and therefore when I took over I have just always kept it in my budget. So I have so much in my budget that I've already planned. I don't know how you guys split the rest of it up. Um but that's everything that I sent Jim. Yeah. And like I said that's that's on the docket for probably June when we start talking budget numbers how we want to handle that.

It is something that I use pretty much every day especially with the update. But if residents come in and have questions, if Dan comes in and has questions, I'm using it almost daily. Anything else? Thank you.

You Well, we have our clerk back and she has uh her report for this evening. Okay, my monthly report for January. Um, the town share, believe it or not, for hunting licenses or fishing licenses, the town made $1.38. The state takes the $23 uh 62. So, we only get a part of We don't get much for our decals. Anyways, um I did two games a chance licenses to the Shelby Fire Company. So, we got $20 for that. Um dog licenses, we brought in $150. Um that miscellaneous $100. I don't know what that is. Um I didn't think to look that over. And that's our share, but it's A2770. I I can't remember what it is. I will look it up. There is a registar fee on there for $10, but it was put in wrong. It should have been under um marriage certificates and not a registar fee. So that changed the code on that. And then building permits, uh we brought in $363. Um so a check was written to the supervisor for $644.38. Um, and then the uh hunting licenses and fishing licenses went to the state for $2362. The Doug uh for the animal population control, New York State egg and markets, $32 went to them. And then the state controller for the games of chance for the two licenses, they got $30. And that's it.

Hey Darlene, I'm sorry. What was the total that you gave to to the supervisor? $644.38. Why does that What What am I missing with our report? It says 363. Yeah, it's um Let me see. 363. I was No, it's it's up here. Um the supervisor for general fund was 27138 and the supervisor the part for his uh town fund was 373. I don't know normally I don't know if they do match Linda. I've never known them to to match the bottom with cuz that building permit is 363.

Oh. So that just that seems to be what that's just a breakdown of what we put in. Okay. Right. I see it. I thought that was a total just the the front page is just a breakdown of everything that the town gets for what we did and then the second page says what we had to give the supervisor and the hunting licenses and dog licenses and state controller. Okay. Yep. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh I see that Margaret is here. We delayed a little bit the so just so we could ask you questions. Oh wonderful. [laughter] Um so I know that Ed had one. We'll start with him and if anybody else has any questions for Margaret he they can follow. Oh yeah. We met with Dale the other day and he's got a bill there for uh oh that was fast and all. It's overdue. I was wondering if if we can pass that and get it paid tonight so I won't be uh late, but it's not working.

Is it better now? Oh, yes. I can hear myself. Anyway, um I did see that and that is a statement that's not an invoice that it's made up of several invoices that total whatever that amount was. We cannot pay off of a statement. We need to get the individual invoices. And Dale should have had them at some point, but I don't I never saw them, I don't think.

So, at the end of the our day before we we we got out of here, um, we did take a look at that again. Now, he did have a list of packing slips with it that do reference the invoices. So there is for each of the six items there and I think it totals about $1,300 some of them going back to October. Um so they are a packing slip but they are an itemized packing list that references the invoice. I don't know whether that's adequate or not.

Well I mean we would take you know there should be an invoice. The packing slip would be matched to the invoice and then that's what you use for payment. Um, as I wrote back in an email, I mean, I'm considering it to be approved by the board. So, as soon as we can get it in the system, we will pay it. Yep. Well, I might as well stay here in case in case. Any anybody else have any questions for Margaret? Not easy today. Just wait. We're saving them all for next next month. Okay. Okay. [laughter]

So if you if you wanted to take uh Diana with you and go and train her. Sure. Um why don't we just half a second? Let's so that they can get busy printing the checks. And if you want to bring that up, certainly you can. Uh do I have a motion to approve a resolution to approve um claims against the town? So moved. Do I have a second?

I'll second. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. So passed. I guess you're all set to go. Okay. And maybe we'll finally catch up on on the ones that we've missed from last year yet.

I know. Before we get to some of our um uh presentations tonight, uh look to have a resolution uh to approve the supervisor's report. So moved. Do we have a second?

Second it.

All in favor? I

I opposed. It's passed. And so I guess before one of the things that we have been looking at when we started here obviously is the review of all of our contracts, all of our situations uh that we have where taxpayer money is being spent. As part of that, um, Linda has asked, uh, the folks from Tomkins Insurance to review some stuff with us. And Linda, I'm going to let you introduce what you were looking for. And

I just I just we were since we're going to go out and quote the insurance and I don't believe anybody on this board we've ever had a presentation from our insurance. So, uh, when we spoke it, we just thought it might be a good idea for the town and the board to really have a better understanding what we're actually covered for. You're up. Good evening. My name is Kathleen Rapidati from Tomkins Insurance and this is my associate that works on me with a lot of municipalities. You can introduce yourself.

I'm Tyler H. So, we're with Tomkins Insurance. We are a division of Gallagher Insurance. They had purchased us in November of 2025, which was a very good thing because we have a lot more markets. So, in the pan in the folders I left you, on one side is the Nimer information just to explain what Nimer is and on the other side is the Tomkins current insurance. Your insurance renews April 16th. So this is just the insurance you currently have. Obviously we are out to market as well for the insurance right now. So if you look at the specialty in experienced municipalities of what Tomkins writes, this was a list from 2025. So I'm sure there's a lot more. Also, Gallagher has their own municipality division in Buffalo. So, we have a lot of experience there as well if we need it. But you should be good with me. Been in the business 30 years. Tyler's been here about eight. So, I don't know if you're familiar with what Nimmer is. It's a New York insurance municipality reciprocal. And they only specialize in insurance. That's all they do is insurance for municipalities. That's their bread and butter. Now, I've wanted to come in and present to the board for many years. Well, at least three years. I've always said to the former [clears throat] person, I always said, "I'd love to come in and talk to the board. There's got to be questions." "No, you don't need to." I said, "Okay." I said, "Well, I we you could have me on speed dial. I'm available when the meeting's going on if there's any questions." And I was told that no, we don't need you to. Okay? You know, I got to listen to what they tell me. But I'm always available for anyone, even the public, if they need me, you have a question, you're welcome to call.

We're very transparent in what we do. Um, I personally also write Shelby, Hartland, and obviously Ridgeway and some other ones as well. So, I write your neighbors as well. Okay. Most of most of them are with Nimmer. If I'm looking for So, my job and Tyler's job is to go and find new business. So, if we go and I see a municipality is with Nimmer, I won't compete against it because I don't think you're going to get the best coverages. So, I'm always like, "Well, you're with Nimer. Are you unhappy with your agent?" No, we really like them. Okay, then I'm going to decline to quote because I can't put you in another package that's not as good as Niner. I won't do that to somebody just to make a sale. That's not how I operate. So, as of right now, if you look, there's [clears throat] two pieces of paper in your we did the renewal, what it was last year, and then the pricing for 25 to 26. So, what we always do is we always send all of the accounts out to market internally. We do that. So we have a group, our marketing team gets together usually four months before any of our accounts renew and we will discuss internally where do we want it to go to market. So we always send everything to market with municipalities. There's not a lot of markets in New York unfortunately because it's New York. So we do we have a couple um some of them I don't feel provide the right coverages or they lack certain things. Some are very expensive. So, I feel you're where you should be, but obviously you're I know you went out to bid and that's fine. You know, um the renewal is 4:16, like I said. So, I'll try to be in here the first week um for your board meeting. I don't know. Do you meet every two weeks?

Tuesday of every month. So, next month it would be March 10th.

Okay. So, March 10th. So it wouldn't the the carriers are very slow sometimes of pricing. So it probably wouldn't be till April. Okay. For the renewal unfortunately I'll push them but I don't know. So right now we write all of the property. We write the crime coverage. We write inland marine which I've worked with Dale Root many uh on a lot of the equipment and the trucks just to confirm that everything was up where it should be. So the inland marine coverage what that means it's your equipment and it's a kind of an old term like everybody's like what does in the marine mean? So it's an old insurance term way back when insurance started with Lloyds of London way back with the boats when they would put their money together to get coverage for anything that fell off the boats and was destroyed. So that's where the term in the marine comes from. General liability is your third party coverage, your bodily injury and property damage. If someone comes, let's say on your property, slips and falls, anything like that. Um, the auto coverage, we cover all your autos. When we have an umbrella, so what an umbrella is, umbrella is a liability coverage. It goes over the general liability, the auto liability, and that's going to be which Ninber offers 20 million. So they offer 10 million occurrence, 20 million aggregate. So what that means is it lets if it one occurrence, it would pay out 10 million. The policy term for one year would pay out 20 million if needed. But hopefully you'd never have to touch the umbrella. The only way you go to the umbrella is if you pierce the limits with your general liability. And if you go through those limits and exhaust them, then you have to have the liability. We do have police professional in here, public officials, crime. We also have a separate crime policy with travelers and cyber. And we also have a separate cyber policy as well. Last year you were paying about well 2425 you were paying

about 38,000. Last year we got it to 42,000 but I think you 42,000. Yep. And we did quote the separate [clears throat] we did quote the cyber separate. So that would have been a little more money but yeah. So we did we we have a pretty good program. Um, it's a 9.5% increase last year. We are seeing a little bit of increases, but a lot of them are coming in flat. So, hopefully this year will be around the 4243,000 mark for the insurance. So, we have the build building and personal property. We have a blanket limit of 3.9 million. So, basically what that means is they take a blanket limit. So let's say one of the buildings there's a fire, it goes down, we have it insured for 500,000 say to rebuild it obviously to code and things like that it's 600,000. So now geez where are we going to get the other 100,000 the blanket limit of 3.9 million you have the bucket limit also for contents too. So that's that's very good. Your property deductible is $1,000 in the event of a loss. Um it's your buildings are based on replacement costs. So obviously today it's very expensive to replace anything as people know if you do anything with building materials anything like that today. So on replacement cost but like I said we have the blank and limit of 3.9. So that's really really good. Um business income is actual loss sustained which is 12 months. So it's an unlimited amount. So business income would be and like a manufacturing plant would probably be a little different for business income because if that goes down, we got to set them up at a new place, things like that. Where if the highway garage, let's say, goes down, we could set them up at another location.

That would be business income, things like that. Pay the key employees, things like that. Um, you do have flood and earthquake coverage for a million dollars. Nimer throws that in. You do have some coverage with crime with Dimemer, but we also have a separate crime policy. So, employee theft 25,000, forgery or alteration if someone alters a check, computer fraud 50,000, um theft inside of money and securities and outside, but also employee theft does not necessarily have to be money. It could be someone taking something out of, let's just say, the highway department out the back door. Okay? Okay. It doesn't always have to be money. It could be anything. Um the next page we have the marine. Like I explained, we have the contractor's equipment 489,000. It went down from last year because Dale and I went through the the equipment and some of the things were sold that were not taken off. So we went through all that. Um the autophysical damage. So what Nimmer does is kind of a good thing. So autophysical damage on the autos would be comp and collision. So if they when Nimmer quotes a policy and they put comp and collision on the vehicles under the auto policy, it's more expensive on some of them. So they take some of the physical damage and put it in the inland marine and it's cheaper rate. So that's why you're seeing the autophysical damage under there. Um miscellaneous equipment, it could be tools, things like that. Okay. Lease rented on scheduled equipment. If, let's say, someone from the highway department had to get something from Admar Supply because you didn't have it and they lease or rent it. $25,000 you have a limit for because they're always trying to get you to buy their insurance from them. Oh, here. Buy the insurance from

Admar Supply or wherever you're getting the equip you're leasing the equipment from. Um, if you needed to increase that for a job, you know, hey, we're renting a piece of equipment for a month for 100,000, we could endorse the policy on to do that for you. So, you didn't have to pay the extra insurance through the, you know, it would cost a little bit less. General liability limits is 1 million, 3 million, 1 million per occurrence, 3 million aggregate. So, the most the general liability is going to pay on this policy for the year term is 3 million. If you go through that limit, the 20 million umbrella is kicking over it. So really, you'd have 23 million under the general liability. Um cyber liability, they provide $250,000. Nimer does. Um we have a separate cyber policy for $1 million. The auto liability is a million. They also include the supplemental uninsured and uninsured underinsured motorists for a million. So what that is, that's coverage for employees in the vehicles. So let's say someone hits the employees in the vehicles in their vehicles and the person that hits doesn't have insurance or they bought low limits from Geico, state limits that are very low. Oh my god, how are you going to pay for bodily injury for somebody if you take, you know, you hurt somebody? So this insurance would kick in. Okay. On that the umbrella like I said is 10 million occurrence 20 million aggregate. Public officials would also be like employee practices liability. If if they basically come and say hey you guys did something wrong. We're going to sue you. We that's where the public officials liability is coming in for 1 million occurrence 2 million aggregate. law enforcement is a million, two million because you obviously use

another law police department. You don't have your own police department. Now, do you have a contract, a written contract, which I'm pretty sure I asked Scott this with the police department you're using?

Okay. State cover. Yeah. There's no there's no written contract that I'm aware of. Okay. But we still provide coverage. It's very cheap, but it's still there in case you you know, you never know. You just want And if the Madina police call get called, they would they would show up here also. So, I mean, we have three different agencies that would respond. And there's no contract, though.

Yep. Plus, it might cover the judges, too. So, you want to be sure we have that in there. Yep. Okay. Um, so that's basically your your coverage in a nutshell what you have. Um, like I said, Nimer is really good. They do a great job and they really are the place to be. I just moved um H Heartland from Trident Insurance. Keith was so happy. I love Keith. He was great. So he's like, "Oh my god." Because the trucks weren't covered properly. And I'm like, "This I took that over last year. It was a mess." And I fixed it. And he was very happy. And I saved him money, too. So yeah. So do you have any questions, concerns, or anything? Was this policy adjusted to cover the new trucks?

Yes, Dale. Dale, work with me on that. Yes. So, we I know you, Jim, you and I had talked about that the new trucks. So, Dale added them. He had one. They weren't ready to be put on the policy because they were still getting modified, but we did. Yes, we put them in. Yep. Okay. And this is uh something I saw in going through the bills and and just thinking in, you know, my own personal insurance. Uh we replaced a couple of windshields in in a Mac truck at 400 bucks a pop. Is that something that might have been covered by this insurance for the new trucks? You mean? No. A truck. One of the trucks. Yeah. Oh, yeah. They'd cover that. Yep. Mhm. Yeah.

Did you turn it in? It would be over the deductible. Deductible. Yeah, if it was over the deductible cuz the deductible on the auto I believe is a thousand. Yeah, a thousand. So, yeah, probably that's why they didn't turn in. So, unlike a, you know, vehicle glass coverage is not considered there's still a deductible on glass. So, in personal auto, full glass is always covered. So, if you if your windshield gets cracked, there isn't a deductible on your personal one, right? Commercial, it's different. Okay. You're welcome. But you can reach out to me anytime, anybody on the board, anything. So when you did the walkth through with Dale, I was last year or recently

the walk when you said you kind of went over everything with Dale or just on the phone. No, no, I went I came in and met him. We went through the equipment. Okay. That Dale's in charge of. Okay. So, there was the plow trucks and there's three um I'm going to call them pickup trucks if that's kind of right. Uh is the gas tank on Dale's company vehicle covered if there's something goes wrong? Cuz I don't believe the town owns that, but he's How big is that? 100 gallon auxiliary tank. Yeah. So, is that [clears throat] okay? Is that his own personal tank or is that Yeah, I don't think the town bought that.

Okay, then it probably wouldn't be town equipment. We could add it to the equipment, you know, that that would be covered. I'm not worried so much about the gas tank. I'm worried more about an issue with an accident and Oh, yeah. the gas blows up and Oh, yeah. And now we've got Yeah. His truck would be Yes. But but even though it's got equipment on it that doesn't belong to the town, I'm sure. Yes. You'd still have covered. Yes. Okay. Yep. If he wants to add that, you know, he can. That's Oh, no. I'm not Again, I'm not worried about the tank itself. I'm worried about us being covered. Yeah. Somebody having

Yes. And then in the auto, can people I say people can t town employees in um ride in vehicles in like snow plowing or can are they is that covered or is it only the people that drive? Well, [clears throat] no. So, anyone in the vehicle is covered once you get in the vehicle. You're covered obviously. Okay. Under your liability for bodily injury, anything like that. But only for employees or of the town.

Well, you really shouldn't be having other non-emp employees riding this employee trucks. I mean, like snow plows and stuff like that. I wouldn't put family members in them. I mean, they're going to the the carrier's going to come out. The adjusters going to come out and say, "Okay, who are these people in the truck?" Or but even the truck the the pickup trucks. I just want to clarify who can ride in a town vehicle. Well, probably anybody could. I mean, they're still going to be covered if an accident, but if it's on town business, they're going to say, "Why do you have other people riding in the truck other than employees?" I mean, who would you be referring to? Like, what type of situation?

I don't know. I'm just I'm just Yeah, I'm just kind of trying to understand what we're covered for. Okay. No, if somebody's in a vehicle, like I'm riding in Tyler's car and he gets in an accident with me, his insurance would cover. Yes. Okay. Oh, I know that for personal. I just didn't know if for for a town that Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't put a non-emp employee in the snow plows, you know what I mean? If you're out plowing. Yeah. Okay. Things like that. Mhm. I'm good.

Just any experience I've had with you at this point, Kathy. And just everybody knows, she's been very responsive with any questions that I've had. Um, and I think Linda, you got pretty good response from her, too, when you've had questions. So, we appreciate you coming here tonight. Oh, you're welcome. And appreciate your attendance to our insurance Absolutely. issues. Um, so, thank you. And I'm sure we'll have other questions for you. And I'm sure Linda as she looks through it, we'll be getting back to things.

I I like questions. At least I know people are looking. This is good. And like I said, if you have any questions, anything like that or if it's in the middle of the term because it renews, let's say June, you say, could you come and talk to the board? Absolutely. You don't, it doesn't have to be just for a meeting here like a renewal. If you guys have questions, anytime. Well, one more question. Sure. Anytime. Uh, this loss run report that you provided. Yep. Um, does this in any way affect our policy premium.

So, what the carrier does is they look So, I put the loss ones in there. All the losses are closed. Okay. I highlighted them. Um, no, they do look at the losses, but there weren't anything that stuck out like, oh, you know what I mean? Like, like one of my clients, not [clears throat] a municipal, it wasn't a municipality, they had a fatality. They had actually kind of the situation you were talking about. They let their employees son didn't have a ride, didn't have a car for work. It says was in the shop. He got it out of the he so they said the employee said, "Oh, my son doesn't have a vehicle. It was a contractor." Oh, he could take our car for a week. He on his way to work on Friday morning, it was dark out, kills a girl, she walks right in front of his car. Big loss. So, yeah. So, that that's always an issue. So that kind of loss where I'm going and be like, "Whoa, wait a minute." And the carrier's not renewing. Can you believe it? [laughter] The lawsuit's huge. But um so those are really things like fatalities, things like that. I mean, if you had like the town of West Senica, their highway department burned down. This was probably 21. They called me at Christmas morning at 6:00 in the morning. Our highway department burned down. Um, so I mean that was a $13 million loss. That's going to get attention, but the losses you have are not not bad. Not bad. And obviously if you have a loss, I mean, you do want to get reimbursed for it because that's why you have insurance. You have any other questions or anything? Okay. If you do, just let me know.

Thank you. And Jay will probably be with me. He goes out on all the min excuse me. You remind me of Jay, this other guy. Tyler will be with me because he goes out on a lot of the municipalities. Okay. Thank you. Nice to meet everyone. Thank you. Thank you.

So, we're going to kind of two two lines on the agenda here at once. Um, one of the dis at the workshop, one of the things that we had talked to the attorney about and thought about was creating a uh, citizens advisory committee uh, with the idea that for any kind of issue we could put that together. uh the the resolution to develop a local law wouldn't have been specific, but what we were looking for was something to help us, a committee to help us advise us on our water issues. As we all know, anybody that's been to these meetings, anybody that's been involved, uh water has been a huge topic of conversation uh for years. One of the elements that came up in that workshop was we had had um referrals of two groups that do nothing but or they do many things, but one of the things they do is rural water um advising and consultation. And toward that end, I contacted the two agencies that the engineering company of MRB gave us. And tonight, uh, we have Jeffrey Smith from, uh, president of the municipal solutions, uh, to talk to us a little bit about, uh, what he would propose. Uh Jeffrey has uh I've fed him a lot of information uh so that he was prepared for this as I did the other group. The other group is not here. We'll set that up at a

different time. Um but just as a little bit of background, we have done business for some time with the company of municipal solutions on some of the bonds we have for some of the water districts. So, we do have a longer term relationship with him. I became first not realizing when I got your the referral that I'd already been working with part of his company. Uh, we paid them some fees and actually made money on that as they applied for a tax uh rebate from the federal government. So, we got back more money than we paid them. So, I I was pretty pleased with that result. But anyways, uh Jeffrey, if you if you would please uh uh after you've digested some of the information, tell us what you see and what you think and where possibly we can go with this. after reviewing some of the uh background material that I was, you know, supplied with. And I I got to tell you, I've worked with Darlene over the years. The last time, Darlene, I think we did a refunding bond. And we spent a lot of time a lot of time in the back room going through boxes in order to get that done. And uh but um we've kind of been involved with most of the water districts the town has done over the years. Um one of the things um is that the town has quite a few smaller districts and there was a reason for some of that being done that way. back in the days when the districts were formed, um USDA rural development has

funded a lot of the those projects and they always um wanted to in order to maximize the financing package. Usually there'd be a loan and a grant. They were limited on how much money they had available for any single town. So they always recommended, well do these smaller districts because each year we get a new allocation of money and we can get you can get another loan and grant to help those those um get done. Now the a lot of those districts are quite mature and some of them are quite small. So that if a district has um a leak or you know a pipe break, it's only those people in that district are going to get uh have to pay that bill back. Um it's not unusual, especially if you're along like a state highway or something. A waterline break can cost you $55,000 because you're going to have to put that road back to state standards. So, if there's 12 people in that district, they're going to get a bill of 55,000 bucks to split between them. Now, that can be you can borrow to help spread that cost, but that's one of the problems with these more mature, smaller districts. One of the one of the things that we've been doing with a number of towns now is we've been consolidating those existing districts and forming a townwide district. And that's kind of what the presentation I've got in front of you tonight is kind of there is a state grant program that will cover a study to look at consolidating your districts and what the pros and cons of that would be and what the potential cost savings

would be here where you have two different water sources with two different water rates. There could be the possibility of um consolidating the districts and then being able to spread the two different rates across the whole body so that there could bring the overall rate down potentially down. There's could also be the possibility once this study is done, there's a local government efficiency grant where if there are two communities that that are working together for a project and you can show a cost savings to the um water users, you can go for um it'll be a grant of between 100 and 150,000 to help make corrections if this study finds that there's a problem with meter pits or there's a problem with inter the interconnections. You would have to do additional after this study was done. There would be that potential for um you know going out for a local government efficiency grant. There's also we work with very closely with um the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation which has the potential depending on the um how the school the um project ranks it could possibly be 0% interest financing or a one-third interest rate financing for uh subsidy on the interest rate for water projects. There are what they call WEIA grants which can pay 60% of a water project. Um there's also the ability of depending on the income survey community development block grants which can go up to if there's co- what they call co-unding could be up to two million in grants. So

there are there are ways of structuring if if this finds that there are deficiencies in the system, there are ways of um financing the um uh the improvements that u have to be made to bring it up to especially if there are pressure issues. Um if there are health any health hazards um water tremendous water line breaks uh you know if there's if there's a lot of water line breaks that might be also an opportunity for savings that we could show. So the first page talks about this New York State Department of State. It's called a Craig study grant. It's a um it's basically uh it's a community reorganization grant they call it and it's the consolidation of normally like a town in a village may look at consolidating. Well, special districts also fall under an eligibility for this type of a grant. So, the grant can be up to $50,000 and it will pay for both legal, engineering, and financial analysis. Looking at what a consolidation of all the districts would do. It also then determines if there's existing debt on any of the districts already. Many times these consolidation plans have found that those districts that have debt existing will continue to pay their debt out. So some districts won't have any debt on them. Some will be halfway through. Some will be rather newer and have a longer term to go. So those original people in the original district will continue to pay that old debt. going forward, any debt that's incurred

in a consolidated district, all everyone um contributes towards whatever improvements have to be made. So that gets around and it helps those very small districts that could have that $505,000 um expense and only 12 people that then gets spread against all users. Also, you can start setting up reserve funds where it would be very difficult for small some smaller districts to even come up with any kind of a reserve to put money away for those repairs. What can happen on a consolidated basis, you can actually set up a um, you know, a townwide repair and replacement reserve and start building up for whatever some of those circumstances may be. so you don't have to go out and borrow to fix them down the road. Um, so nice part about these grants is they're non-competitive. Um, you can apply every month uh for the funding. So it's an open funding round and basically you put in a uh an application and um you can u you can start up the grant within about four or five months you're ready to start the studies. So what you would do is you'd find your engineering firm. You would find a many times most times on these types of deals will work with both the town attorney and what bond council who they're a special attorney that only does the bond work. and they'll have a lot of the information on these districts in their files of how they were originally formed and um what kind of debt was out there and and uh and like we could because we have a lot of the records we we also would have a lot of that information. But the study

itself then um it um it basically all communities have to follow under the New York state uh um municipal finance law there's a way of how consolidations are done. So, it's set out for you and on the the pages um three through five, I went through all the steps of what you would do as part of this study, what the town does. And um there's um the town engineer will prepare a joint consolidation agreement and plan. And in there will be they'll have the history of all the districts when they were formed. There will be a map of each of the individual districts will be prepared. The uh bond council will verify um the how legally they were formed and that'll be in the study. And then there will be a plan put together of consolidating all the districts. Any of the existing debt is compiled. That's usually where the finance piece comes in. What the existing debt on each of the systems are. um what the future would be as far as what the savings could be by a blended water rate if you wanted to go that rout route. It's kind of nice to have two different water sources coming into your system because if there's a problem with one, you'll have a backup and the health department really does stress redundancy in your water systems. So, but that can all be looked at. one one other option might be moving to just one source. Um but again that that would be studied as part of that of the um of the study and it would come up with what potential costs there would be advantages and disadvantages.

Seeker is also done um as part of this because it is impacting the um an existing water system. It's not an indepth seeker but uh seeker has to be performed. Then a after the study is done the board reviews it and if they want to go forward there's an adoption of a resolution which um endorses the plan lays out a summary of the plan and calls for a public hearing and then there's a public hearing and if it makes sense to the public uh you know after you get u after you get feedback from the public a decision is made. if you want to go forward with the consolidation. And so we we actually get into implementation under this study grant. If you go and accept the study and actually do the consolidation, it turns from a 50% grant into a 90% grant with so the town only pays 10% if they are successful in going forward. also then that allows you to apply for imple that implementation grant. If there's things that have to be done for the consolidation, you can also get a grant up to $100,000 with an uh 90% of it paid. 90 9010 match um to implement um whatever is needed to make sure that that uh district consolidation goes smoothly. Um, I think what we'll probably and I' I've got we've done a a number of these. Um, we're actually working with the town of Bavia on consolidating all of its districts now. And that's been a tough one because they didn't do straight

districts all the time. They did additions to districts, overlays. It's been a lot of a lot of time on the legal side to unravel, you know, how how these were all formed and there was even a question of can you consolidate an overlay district. The laws kind of silent on that. So, it took a long time talking with the comprollers's office of what we could really do there. Um the an earlier example and I think one that might be like what we would see here is I've done the town of Corning example back in 2017. Um we the town consolidated uh four water districts in the town. They uh they moved forward with the consolidation in April of 2017. And then once the consolidation was approved, the town board authorized the uh applying for implementation grant funds through the uh New York State Department of State to um to make improvements to the to those um areas that they had to address as part of the consolidation. The consolidation would took effect in January of 2018 and they decided that existing debt people pay anything going forward is an expense of the of the consolidated district. That was done in 2018 and it's running very smoothly today. We're working with the town of Niagara on consolidating their um wastewater. Uh right now part of it goes to the Niagara County Sewer District and part of it goes to Niagara Falls. We're doing this study because first of

all Niagara Falls um wastewater plant is periodically over it just receives more uh sewage than the plant can treat. And there was an incident not too many years ago where the Niagara River turned black. Um so basically um they feel there's advantage to going to the county sewer district which will save them money on operation and maintenance and also relieve uh the Niagara the Niagara Falls uh sewer operation um from some of infiltration and uh being able to expand the capacity of the plant. So these studies have been quite successful. They don't take a tremendous amount of time unless you get into some legal problems that they can drag out for a year or so trying to get them resolved. And u so I kind I I am an advocate of trying to do this study and look at what uh potential savings we could be looking at. And also I I put in the final what happens if you don't consolidate and each district has to be self-sufficient right now. So just budgeting wise and water rate settingwise to have to do that for each of those individual districts is a pain. Um, and many times what you'll find is some districts are running deficits, some are doing pretty good. Um, and what happens is they kind of get blended and then what is this way? If you consolidated, [laughter] we don't have to worry about that. It's one district. So you it saves administratively it

saves a tremendous amount of time. Um, it also allows then for a a more dedicated asset management plan and that there is uh funding that's available for doing asset management plans where they actually an engineering firm will go in look at your system see where it's weak and then identify all the components of that system and identify on a decay curve when do those pumps going to have to be replaced. when, you know, what is our replacement cycle? Um how much should we put putting in reserves? If it's a big if it's going to be a big project, when should we borrow and what sources could we um obtain for in grant or loans to do that borrowing? So, that's longer term, but it is one thing that when you have a consolidated district, you can you can really plan ahead of time. And uh again this those costs are spread against everybody. So it's not each individual district trying to do this on their own. Um the costs associated with um with Corning study was um um basically it went down from 50,000 to 5,000 because they went to the implementation grant. If they didn't do the implementation grant, it would have been 25,000 from the state, 25,000 from them for the initial study. But that's I think probably would be worth as a first step utilizing this study grant program would probably be the way to go. And uh I think it'll give you a lot of valuable information and it'll also document whether there could be savings

by um consolidating and doing a blended water rate against all the districts. There could be potential water savings if as part of the implementation there was better metering or there was um um if pressure problems were corrected. You know, those types of things could all help the uh viability of the overall system for the town. If if we decide we wanted to move forward, how how long is the process from start to

um you apply for the grant and you it has to go through their committees about three months you would have have the grant and then you would do the study period would be no more than a year shouldn't be any more than a year.

Okay. So then my next question is right now we, you know, we have the two water sources and we're still charging the same rate even though we're buying water at $3 from one place and $6 from someplace else. So people we what about doing a cons a consolidated rate or a blended rate now if that's going to take another year and a quarter? You could do I think you could do the water it depends on how it how the system is set up and I'm not familiar with that

whether does ever can can we say that um Madina water could end up in this end of town and and Royaltton water could and in Madina. Um, we could come up with a blended rate. I think we could do a blended rate.

I think that u Margaret's been working on that would have some idea. I think though that we're still less quite a bit less than a year from a stable water system. We made those changes in uh October and uh you know from anything we heard from MRB and everybody else you need at least a year of data. So we might be able to start the study and then you know look at at the same time having a blended rate investigated as at the same time rather than waiting to get to the end. You could do the Yeah. Yeah. Mhm.

Your blended rate would be a percentage of each uh place we're getting there from, right? Yeah. You you you need and that's why they said a year. You need good data. Yeah. The G or how many gallons are going and and is it reliable data? That's the other thing. Um you know, you've got unaccounted for water and we would have to get a handle for how much. And do you have um master meters at every entry point where water would be coming in? There should master meters. I think from Royaltton Royaltton we should have

well they all they all have all master metered. That's good because what we can do is how much and this is where the cost savings can come in too. If it is identified that there are leaks or there there are areas with leaks. Um, you're buying water, but you're not selling the same amount of water. There's always some loss water. Yep. A tight system is anything that's losing 10% or less. It's considered a tight system. I've worked with some communities that are losing 75%. And they've got big leaks. They had big leaks.

We've had a lot of water loss in the past. I don't think as bad as it was, but certainly it's there. I think the bigger shifts are our um time of year and who's using the water with our agricultural districts and agricultural use can can shift things dramatically from one point to the other

and sometimes government facilities aren't metered and so you got lost water. And then we do um kind of ask the fire uh companies if they're doing hydrant flushing and stuff like that to try to give it an idea of how much they're using. Um that's not you know it's not going through a meter just to get a handle on how tight is the system.

Yeah. So it's possible then that if if we decided to go we have a lot of discussion here yet certainly no commitment certainly tonight but uh if we decide to go with a to get a you know this process uh you have the ability to help us with grant writing for this. Yeah, we're we're basically we're doing uh 97 different projects right now statewide uh using the the different programs that are available and we do write the grants and um we do water sewer rate studies. I'm working on rate studies uh right now for uh just finished up Mount Morris um doing climber and um u bath village of bath. And along with that grant writing in terms of the process uh helping us through the process, reminding us we're very limited in staff here obviously. Um so you know we need a lot of help on staying on track. Is that something that you also offer?

Yeah, we administer the grants and one of the things with state grants anymore is minority and women business enterprise compliance which gets quite complicated. Um and uh we we monitor the MWBE process with the contractors American Iron and Steel BABA by American by America where you have to certify anything that's going into a project is made in the United States. Anything from drywall to anything that going in the project you have to have certification. So we keep on the contractors to make sure that they're doing that. Davis Bacon prevailing wage rates for federal projects, making sure the wage surveys are done. Income, you have to go out and talk to the laborers. Uh we have to review the certified payrolls. Um those are all things that that we do. And so you help administer this, keep us on track, let us know when we Okay. And when any new requirements come up, that's something you maintain.

Yep. And I just got hit with one this afternoon that the New York State passed. You have to have a PRC code when you begin a project. Are you familiar with that? That came into being 1231. PRC code. Yeah, I'll stop.

No, [laughter] I ever since I sat in this seat, I can tell you I've become well aware that they never stop. whether it's state, fed, or county. Um, each one of the things certainly we've become painfully aware and Kathy, our attorney here, her laughing about this is she spent a couple of years trying to coach a previous administration on some of the ins and outs of water accounting. Uh, I know that we have also spent a lot of money with our current accountant trying to work out exactly how much usage each district is and trying to aortion cost by usage. It's been very painful and it certainly has cost us a fair amount of money above and beyond our agreement that goes beyond what we had origally agreed as as as uh um what her responsibilities were, what her company's responsibilities were. So that's something you're very well aware of and can guide us in terms of even as we go through this process if we um how we manage each of these districts in terms of by state [clears throat] rules and how we finance this project. All of those things are something that you would help us with

through all that. Yeah. I I um [clears throat] I've been in this business since 1979 and it's come a long ways. I mean when I started I started working for it was farmers home administration back then. Um it's called world development today. But I remember going to meetings when I started and people thought water should be free and uh it's you know and they just they were bulking at even paying anything for water. Now I think we've come to understand how valuable a resource water is and um there's you know we don't we don't hear that anymore. People know that it costs to get audible water delivered to your tap and they're willing to pay for it if you explain it to them why you're doing what you're doing and what you're, you know, the regulations you got to abide by. One thing that scares me is electric and especially if you got pumping, you're going to see those electric bills going up 20, 25, 30%. Um, and you have to keep up on these on your rates in order to be able to at least start meeting some of these demands. You've got to plan ahead. That's why we're doing a lot more water sewer rate studies and they're they're not easy because getting the data you need is the hardest part.

So, that brings up a a good question. I mean, we're talking about a a study for consolidation, but in this study, will we also be looking or will you be looking at other elements of our current billing and water situations? That's something that would be also part of the that can be part of the study. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But again it you know um it's starting you know the trip of a thousand miles begins with the first step and that's basically I think what this study would be would be the [clears throat] first step

in in terms of of uh us um finding the revenue for such a study to begin with even though there is a grant pays 50 and then hopefully 90 and we follow through with it. Um, this can be conceivably or is it by the rules can be funded out of what money we have in water today. And again, if we wanted to do it, we could do it on percentages against each of the individual districts. um you know, we can we can do it that way or um that's probably the that's the controller way.

Okay. But if you if you're like Betavia, they've been they've been doing a consolidated district for years. They just never consolidated. [laughter] They didn't split them all up. Yeah, ours are split. No doubt about that. Um, but that's probably what you would do is assign a percentage against each of the districts to pay for the local share of the stuff. Anybody else have any questions? Just so I know there's no guarantee, but you've been, like you said, you've got 97 projects. You've been doing this for years. What are the chances, knowing what you know about our situation, what are the chances we would get the grant? Oh, it's non-competitive.

Oh, okay. So, you'll get it. Okay. Does the next WEIA grant cycle open?

They're talking and and it's never a definite date, but WEA could be July around July. So, and the big time frame timeline if you're looking to do um any kind of a water or sewer project, you have to have an engineering report completed in their format by May so that you can get on the intended use plan so you can get that ranking going and they can review your project. So um May is a big date for having any studies done. I mentioned community development block grant. They're usually around August. Um and Rural development is it doesn't matter when you apply. The problem is Congress made so many congressional earmarks last year that they cut rural development's grants to almost nothing. So they've only got loans. So, but I mean if you can get a grant, I mean there's still a place for them because their loans are 38 years and depending on your income, the income, median household income of the area, uh the interest rate can be 2% or so. Um, so there's still a place for them, but it's not going to be the place to go for grants like they used to be because they just don't have the money. You mentioned some of the dates that are due for some of these other great this Craig study grant. That's something that's open all

the time. Yeah, every month you every month.

Larry, anything else? No, I'm good. Great. Jeeoff, thank you so much. Appreciate you coming out and spending some time with us. Should have said you had

No, I you asked a question. I had so those that watched or that attended or anything of the uh um workshop that we had some time ago, one of the things that we talked about was the wind overlay law. Uh [sighs] the attorney has worked on a um some modifications to the a wind overlay law that that we had discussed. Uh we had originally talked about having a public meeting here today for that. However, two things. um one never got a notification in five days in advance but also part of the discussion that we had there and I think that we will be discussing this as a board um is whether we actually do the wind overlay law or investigate making just a zoning change and I think that was discussed at the workshop. I'd like to at our next workshop take that up again and make a decision about whether we proceed with an overlay law or whether in fact we look to do um something else maybe with a zoning change along the wind energy systems. So I'd like to schedule that for another workshop so that we can talk about that. Um so at this point we we don't have we won't be bringing that before the board tonight. Um, one of the things that came up during some of the discussions about what's going on with the Hemlock Ridge project, uh, they are in fact beginning as, as someone noted to me, beginning the wind part of that project and that's already

started cutting trees in terms of the solar and the solar is the only thing that will be in the Shelby portion. uh that is scheduled to begin at this point March 2nd. Um they have been doing some soil testing here and there but nothing in terms of actually uh modifying property clearing anything until the second. Um I have a meeting that uh they'll be attending. I haven't decided whether to go personally or uh remotely where they will be discussing that shortly. um about what the next steps would be in that. Um they will be starting the solar project in the Shelby portion first and then working east. So starting March 2nd somewhere around in there. Um hasn't been confirmed but that's what we've been told so far. And actually I was contacted today by the company that's heading this up AES. They apparently will be at Barry tomorrow. If anybody wishes to go and ask any questions, they'll be there um to talk about that same project, the Hemlock Ridge solar project. in terms of our own solar project here closer. Um, uh, [snorts] for those that were here at the last meeting, New Leaf did stand up and and talk a little bit about having a public meeting in in January at the fire hall, uh, which they had. Uh, they had asked originally to be put on the agenda for this meeting. Uh, I was contacted this last week by them and asked to postpone until March. Um, so we'll see where that goes. Uh, at that point they'll be coming in in March. If they stick with that request, they'll be here to do a presentation.

This point I'm going to talk with board comments. We did have as we did in the organizational meeting for those of you that attended and watched, we did have set some liaison um responsibilities and I know that uh um Linda and Ed did meet with Dale and I'm going to turn that over as they are the liaison to the highway department. So, we were able to meet with Dale on Monday and we went through just a general overview of the highway department and some of the processes that he has that he um uses for um controlling his budget repairs on trucks and so on. Um, I think I think it's something we're going to have to do like monthly to kind of keep up. I did request with Dale that we do one monthly to go over his budget to make sure that we're staying on track with that. Um, I saw a couple things I would like to um maybe try to change there. Um, right now there everything is kept manually for the roads as far as when they're repaired. Um, whether they're chips eligible or not, they're all in files in paper files in in um Dale's office. I personally think we should probably get an electronic copy, you know, like a schedule of some kind with some updates. I don't I think after the last regime change it um it it would be prudent of us to get electronic and not have paper copies. So um I probably we'll sit down with Dale and see about getting that done. I don't know whether

that's something he'll be able to do or whether maybe we can get um Diana to help. I don't know how I don't know how she's not here. Yeah. I I don't I don't know whether she's um like knows Excel or not, but it might be something. She knows all of that. And I think that your your point is well taken. It would be good that if it was an electronic format, it would be easier for everyone to follow. And not all of us, and I know Dale is included, is is not um yeah, real good at that stuff. So, if if we want to get that from we'll have to try to give him a hand. Yeah. If I I'd like to see that, too. So,

yeah. I think it's just it's good practice for the town to have their stuff electronically. Um, and then the only other thing that I thought about tonight during our presentation was I think maybe at least quarterly we should we should get a water report that says, you know, total gallons purchased from both places, total gallons build out, what was flushed, and let's see whether we have any leakage or loss. That would be good to be in electronic format also. that anything that we could do like that helps. Y I mean with his schedule not necessarily matching everybody else as an electronic allows us to communicate better and I'd certainly like to see that. Yeah.

Yeah. Also would be uh helpful for anybody in the future, you know, future highway superintendent, they could Exactly. go right out and it won't be in a file. It'll be on electronics. Well, I would expect if we pursue some of the things we just talked about with Jeffrey Smith and and some of the consolidation study and such, those kinds of things would be have to be implemented for us to move forward any meaningful way with that kind of consultation. So,

I have to in a minute. Yeah. We have any other board updates for any meetings or any information? I think John, you did a little work on things.

Yeah, I touched base with uh Julie here and we got that kind of figured out. The only other thing that came from uh reading through the minutes of the uh county, which are were 32 pages long, uh they're proposing a well, it says here, Orleans County social media use policy. And that might I don't know that might be something we could look into. referring from what I'm reading it's referring to using so to speak company equipment for your own personal use. I mean, everybody does it and the way they're mentioning it here, if you've got an emergency, a doctor's appointment to change or something like that, that's problem. But, uh, way I'm reading it, Christmas shopping would probably be out on the computer on company time. So, it's something we might want to look into. I'll I'll follow up and get some try to get some more information on it. That's that's all I've got right now.

Along those lines, I know that any company typically has those rules in place. And um the last company I worked in was where they actually set up a monitoring system to watch that usage. So CHPC had actually put something together

for the town board to consider prior to the three board members. Um what CHPC put together was I reviewed and it was more complicated than what the town needed. Um, but clearly I do think that type of policy would be good to put in place. And so I can try and dig that up and recirculate it and maybe we can pair it down a little bit to uh to meet Shelby's needs. Y can do that. Let's take a look at it. Yeah. Okay. Because you're right, it can get pretty complicated. I mean, we had to buy extra equipment to have everybody watched,

right? I don't know that we want to go that far, but Um, a policy would be good to have. I got one more thing I forgot. I'm going to be meeting with Judge Gowski on Monday to go over his uh court numbers. So, I'll report that next meeting.

And along those lines, the accountants uh to do our audit uh we did switch this year. uh they are coming in uh tomorrow and they are starting with court [laughter] and they'll be here Wednesday and Thursday. Uh and then they'll turn attention to the clerk and I'm going to make sure I disappear for those weeks or what days. Just kidding.

Um we know that we're going to have a lot of questions that they're going to ask that we may or may not have answers. Uh hopefully the next time we go through this, we'll be better prepared, but uh we'll certainly there's nothing being hidden. We'll give them everything they need and hopefully we can get through this uh without too much torment. Um I'm pretty sure the court office is pretty buttoned down. I'm not too worried about them, but uh yeah, I look forward to hearing from you on that. Anybody else have anything on board comments? Um, we I would like to set up a a workshop in the next couple weeks. Um, I'd like to get two dates because I do we do have one other uh consultant that I did contact met briefly with. Uh, John uh sat in on that meeting. Um, I'd like us to have two presentations so we have a choice. uh if we decide to move ahead, we'll have hopefully uh make the right choice. Uh so I'd like to invite them to a workshop, but they had asked that I give them a couple of dates um for them. So are there a couple of dates in I would say [sighs] probably not this week with the auditors coming in anytime in the next next week would be good maybe. or uh 26 for me, Tuesday or Thursday.

Oh, next week. Anything between the the 17th and and uh the 20th of next week. Yeah. 19th Anybody else with the the 19th? Can we have one other date that I can talk to him about?

Go ahead. So, let me give them the uh what 18th and 19th or 19th and 20th. Any preference? 1819. Yeah, it's Friday, right? Yeah. 19th will work. About 18th. I'm getting an 18 on this side. Do I have a trying to get two days?

Uh, yeah, it'll work. Okay, I'll give them the 18th and the 19th and we'll see if we can pull them in for the workshop and have them make their presentation at the workshop. That'll be open to the public just as this was. Yeah, let me see and I'll get back to you as soon as I I'll get a hold of them tomorrow. Okay. Um, [sighs] any other board comments at this before are we going to do anything else at the workshop? Oh, I'm sure. Well, I [laughter] I'd like

We're going to talk the wind overlay thing certainly that or that part. So maybe for the next workshop that we'll have in March, I think um I think I sent out copies of the handbook. Oh, we definitely have to do that. So maybe we could all kind of take a stab at what we see that Perfect and then we'll be ready. Okay.

Yeah. The issue we've had here is not only is the the handbook need to be revised, we're trying to come up with standard and kind of seamless procedures for pay. And as as you know, Linda, we bought a new time clock. Well, along with that, and you've been part of the meetings, they're looking for parameters to put into it. What the old system we had a lot of problems with people punching in. They could do it remotely. There were fobs. Sometimes they work, sometimes they didn't. Handprints. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't. We were paying a monthly fee for that clock. Uh we turned around on after some research and bought a clock. It'll take us a year and a half to pay for it. After that, we'll save money. The other part though and has been requested by Margaret is that we can we completely automate the system so that people on their either on their app or and in that app or online can see how much vacation time they had request vacation. take everything out of the manual operation mode where it costs us either in time or money to have that make and make payroll or for time off requests or to give vacation or comp time. We're in the process of doing that. In fact, I do have a five-page document that I'm supposed to fill out for those parameters. However, we have been and I have been reluctant to add any parameters because there is a feeling here by the employees that the time clock doesn't work because

for years it hasn't. So, I insisted that we begin with just facial recognition, no other features, punch in, punch out. And once we can make sure that it punches in and punches out correctly, they gain confidence, then we can add those parameters and features in it that that we've all wanted to do and to automate the process. The problem is that in the two weeks, three weeks we've been doing it, I've had two failures. one one of the highway department guys punched in in the morning, could not punch out at night, and I'm the one who enrolled him in it. Um, so when I saw him, that was a Friday afternoon. When I saw him on Monday, he was not enrolled, and there's no way he could have unenrolled himself. I enrolled the court clerks. They started using it this week. And the first time one of the clerks went to use it, it said she wasn't enrolled and I enrolled her. So, I have some issues yet that we need to work out. And I immediately got on the phone. Um, but part of that also ties in and the only reason I digress into talking about the time clock from the um manual here or the uh is that they're intertwined and part of what we signed up for was HR help to rewrite the manual. So there's certainly some issues that we need to address that have occurred because of this new time clock like vacation acral um and some other issues that come up. I think that uh obviously we need to work into the uh

employment uh agreement that we have via our manual. So uh we can set that for March. That would be good for me. Also, I think I have copies I think I have electronic copies of all the policies we did a year and a half, two years ago, whenever we maybe I'll I can send those out and maybe that would be another workshop to review that and especially the code of ethics.

Absolutely. And I think that you know maybe the I don't know how much we'd have to review those. Some of those I think certainly the HR people that we're paying to come in and help us would be an assist. I'm not sure the ethics policy would be, you know, something they would get involved in, but certainly we should re-review that. Okay. Public comments. Uh, anything from the board? I don't want to shut anybody down here. Okay. Um, I got one on here to speak. Yanik, do you would you like to your name's on the list

after last meeting of all the questions for district 14 months when I used And where and which district was that? Because

district two. How many times? So, I was just thinking maybe that's another thing that should be electronic so that when somebody asks for it,

Darlene or Diana or anybody could pull it up and give a copy since you're meeting with Dale on a regular basis that might Why don't you add that one? I will. Okay.

Yeah. I Well, and I can look kind of we did have we just one of the bills that we we reviewed uh was for testing. I don't know whether that district and it would give us a date that it was supposedly, you know, drawn and tested. Right.

Yeah. That's Oh, you're not on the list. [laughter] [laughter]

Okay. I just want to say welcome back to Darlene. How nice it is to see her sitting up here. It's been a long road. Um I do know now that is she's recovering. She's still not fully back to what she should be, but it's getting there and just it seems so good to see her back to work. So, welcome back, Dar. [laughter] Yeah. [laughter] All right. Uh, anything else before I entertain a motion to close the meeting? Can I have a motion? You have one other thing.

I'm sorry, I do. I I just thought about it. So, at the previous meeting, there was discussion with a taxpayer about a water meter. Did you? That water meter is here back on the shelf. Since that residence, whoever was in there, owned a meter. Mhm. And it Oh, [clears throat] the other thing that we did speak with Dale about is um replacement of meters is done at the town's expense. I I think that money should be refunded. Yeah. For the the new meter that they were asked to purchase when that meter is here. Well, I I would make that in a resolution uh at our next meeting if you if you could with a justification and then get a a vote. Okay.

On it. Okay. Yep. one last time. Okay. Can I have a motion then to close the meeting? Move. Second. All in favor? I I All against [laughter] closed. Thank you all for coming and sitting with us for two hours tonight.