Budget Committee - Regular Meeting

I'll call the meeting to order and now we'll do the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

So start this meeting up at 6:00 on Tuesday, December 9th. um and the pledge of allegiance. So we our new business for tonight is to review and approve four section of the budget and we'll start with section 4200 public safety building. And so I will make a motion to consider and approve the budget for the public safety building section 4200 in the select board recommended amount of $30,900.

Second. Second motion by Paul, second of ls. Um that's kind of a shared thing for you guys. Are you It is. I have it. You're the You're the lead on this one, right? Step. So move around. Before we start asking questions, is there anything you want to point out to us or or or uh ask for any changes or

No, I think the high the big highlights right are this is a budget line that last year was new and we knew going into it I had a pretty big number in there. Um that was largely based on the information we got from Farmington. We had a few months in the building. uh we started to realize those numbers were probably uh a bit too high and we made some adjustments. So um it's further it's further fine-tuning everything. Um the standout really is the electrical line. You know, we knew that um we weren't spending a lot in electricity. That remains the case. Um that number is probably still a little bit high, but I think uh it's it's much better than than where it was at. So, um, heating's kind of the same way. It's not as significant of a decrease, obviously, but, um, you know, we had that's really based on we have three 1,000galon tanks. And so, there it's we're not going to see like we used to see at the old buildings where, you know, you're getting 300 or 600 gallons of heating fuel every month or every couple of weeks. Um, and so even though we've spent 50 roughly $5,400 this year, that last fill up was like the Octoberish time frame. And so my anticipation is we're not going to make it through the entire heating season before another big fillup. So, um, I feel pretty good about that 8,000 number. Again, it's a reduction from last year. The big increase is the building maintenance. And building maintenance was the same thing. We didn't have firm numbers for some of the maintenance contracts. we didn't know, you know, exactly what some of the heating stuff would be um as far as the maintenance and preventative maintenance goes. So, that takes kind of we've throughout the year been able to to fine-tune all of that. You know, it's a bigger building. There's more extinguishers. That contract's higher,

the pest end contracts a little bit higher because there's more entries and and more traps that they set or baits that they set out or however that magic works. Um, but we don't have any critters, so that's good. Um, so yeah, and then I would just point to what the spending on the the materials line has been. So last year, um, kind of this time last year we made a big purchase and that materials line is largely like paper, toiletry goods. Um, we made a big purchase going into the year. The plan is when the administrative assistant's back from vacation, she's going to do the same thing this year. So, we'll have spent that line by the end of the year. Um, it just it works out really well to do it that way. So, um, yep, that's about it. I think it's it's a pretty big reduction, you know, now that we're a little bit, you know, more settled into the building.

Okay. But it's still, if you had to say, it's still a little on the conservative side because we're still getting some more data and we'll see what things look like after another year in the building. Is that a fair statement? Yeah, a little bit. I mean, maybe, you know, depending on what, you know, propane prices do. Every year is always a thing. Maybe electricity is a little bit lower next year. Probably not a lot, but um yeah, I think it's a lot has anything to say about it. Well, there there is that too. So, yeah, that's the public safety building. Okay, I don't have any questions. Go ahead, Scott.

Uh, just for the public watching, uh, might be new to town. Also, um, Chief, do you happen to have the number? remember what we used to pay between the two buildings and what we are actually saving now cuz we're talking you know about decline settling in but we are seeing huge efficiencies in the overall budget from say two years ago when we had budgeted both buildings. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, just the just the fire station alone, we were I want to say the last year we were in there, we had 26,000, maybe a little bit more than that budgeted for heating and electric. Um, so I meant to bring those numbers with me.

I think when I when I first, you know, kind of when we were pitching the building and talking about it, I went with like a 60%, right? we would be at 60% of our energy um costs and we're probably closer to 40%. I think we're even down into the 30s% of what we were spending between the two buildings. So I I think that it's good that you pointed out I would I don't particularly want to, but if you insist if you go if we want to, this will be the last year. The those numbers are still in the police and fire. They're zeroed out this year, but there's still the 23 actual spend in the in the sheet if you wanted the exact number. Yeah.

But to your point to your to your point, we expected to save money, but we're doing even 2023. You can't go by though because they were not in their building the whole building for a couple of months. We were charging them for years. I know, but if the fire would be Yeah. the fire would be. So 2022 they had we'd have to go and do some research. That's not on any of our documents that we currently have. But that information is but you I just wanted to be clear. You're not looking for an exact number. You want to make sure that everyone is aware that right it looks like we got this one right.

All right. Anyone else have any questions? motions to amend and seeing we're hearing anything. So, I think we're ready to go ahead and vote on final approval for this section. The original amount of $30,900. So, we'll make a final vote on approving section 4200 public safety building in the original amount of $30,900. All in favor? I I

opposed and abstained. So, we have 6 0. So, we'll move to the next section of the budget, which is police 4,100. I'll make a motion to consider and approve the budget for section 4210. I said the wrong number the first time. It is 4210. Police in the select board recommend an amount of 1,597,116. Motion by Paul, seconded by Joe. So same thing Chris before we start asking questions or is there any things you want to point out to us or

Yeah. Um so the first line uh is the crossing guard. There was some more money added into that. Um the reason for that is um there's been some concerns about um excuse me before could you give us the line number makes it easy for us to 126. Thank you. Well maybe I shouldn't say makes it easy for me to find it.

126. Go ahead. There's some um the the goal is to try to maybe find somebody to employ during the summertime on the busy weekends to kind of do some crossing there. Um there's been some complaints of of people not being able to get across the road. Um some traffic issues as well as in front of the middle school um going over to Bristol House of Pizza um that c that crosswalk. Um, so there's a little extra money there to try and find uh an employee or our current um uh crossing guard to do some stuff during the summertime in there. Um,

so right now we do the crosswalk, excuse me, on between South Main to North Main. Yeah. But only when school. Yeah. Summer and then the

and then the other one across between in front of the middle school. the uh the big one that was brought up, the uh lady's been very vocal on the um uh yard sale day. The downtown was very congested and wasn't able to cross the street um during that day. So like there there's certain Saturdays and Sundays that um they're looking for some more coverage down there. So you I'm just looking at the you you had anticipated quite a lot of more said no that's too much money. So

yeah and and I don't dis I don't disagree with it that there's been a lot of people who are wanting um somebody directing traffic downtown wanting somebody over at the middle school um helping with traffic. Then there's been a lot of complaints about parking issues. people parking too long in the summertime in front of businesses. So, talk about changing those to two-hour parking, but then who enforces it? Um, so that was kind of the discussion there. We're not at that point uh to start start looking there. Um, so the select board uh reduced it from what I had said, but increased it a little bit um with the first step of trying to find somebody to to help with the the crossing and a little bit of traffic on the on the busy weekends.

Okay. So, you're explaining this. You're not asking for any any change? No, I'm not asking for any change. I I I'm good with it. Do do you anticipate that the change from the this year's 6700 to the proposed 8,000 for next year? What what does that give us or the would that would that allow for a couple of hours in the summer that crossing where the where the school guard is now? Just make it a 12 month job instead of a 10-month job.

Yeah, that would give for some of that. And then I think possibly two if if we it's hard finding somebody to fill those positions because it's only an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. So finding somebody for move over to the middle school is a harder find. You got to find that right person who's willing to come in for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon for little money. Um, but the goal there would be is if we did find somebody to do it, then maybe maybe that but I think the more goal is for that crosswalk downtown to be I I I don't know any of the details. I think you know and other people know that I do a fair amount of walking. I I do see I thought it was like a teacher or a school administrator. the school is sending someone out there to

so they've asked for an officer there for years and we've kind of pushed it back on them that honestly the reason why that's an issue is because they got a grant for safe routes to school which redesigned the whole area and what it did is it moved the busy yard into what used to be a parking lot where parents would pick their kids up. Now they have to go down into the parking lot and it gets congested and it takes a long time. So instead of doing that, they go to Bristol House of Pizza and their kid has to across the road there. So the safe routes to school isn't made it less ahead. Yeah. So we've kind of pushed it back on the school that

um if you want somebody there, which I don't disagree, it's it's an issue, you should you put somebody in a vest and stop traffic there. So they go through time spells of having somebody and then whoever does it either doesn't work there anymore or doesn't want to or whatever. Um so for the most part they have somebody there. Um I think it's on voluntary basis though they said okay. Um so I've always kind of felt that that is more of a school district thing than a town of Bristol thing. It's I agree. I would like I want everyone to be safe, but yeah,

spending another $30,000 to do that. I agree with the select voice decision. Yeah. Um All right. Does anyone else have a question on the crossing guard before chief moves to the next line? He wants to talk about Okay. The next big one is our overtime. Um this is always This is 140, right? This is 140. Sorry.

That's okay. This has always been underfunded. Um really haven't gotten a good idea of how much it's underfunded because of not having employees. Um we've been fully staffed this year. Um and we're still way over on overtime. Um we have an older group of officers, which is great. They've got tons of experience, but when you get older group, older uh people families, they spend every minute of their time off. and all of our guys pretty much take every minute. And this dollar amount really doesn't even necessarily cover filling all of their shifts, but it at least gets us to a better spot. We we try to cover we try to do some adjustments anyways to not have to spend as much overtime. So, I think this is a safer number for actually covering everything. Um the the other part with overtime, we've got additional training hours that we have to do. Um some of it can be done on shift online um on the academy website, but some of it requires us to go to um another facility. So either that officer ends up with some overtime or we back fill their shift with overtime. Um so that's another part of the increase is the hours of training that we have to do is every year just getting more and more and more uh use of force is getting more and more. Um so that's the big uh that's the big increases on the on the overtime. So my but I'm also hearing you say that going up from 80 to 105 is needed but you still don't you can't you can't you you're not willing to guarantee that we won't be over budget next year.

Yeah I think 105 this year we're we're set for about 100 I've been working three shifts a week from eight to eight to like three to not have to spend overtime. Um, but it's because we've got guys that have to use vacation before the end of the year. So, they've been taking two to three days off and we don't have the overtime. Um, I I think the 105 is a a pretty good number, but it also takes two major incidents in town to really jack that up, too. Like, right now, if we have a major incident, we're we're going to be hurt more.

Yeah. Don't curse yourself. I I guess at this point I'm not looking to make a motion to amend, but I and again I'm not but it's probably more of a select board thing. When I when I start to see a number that high, I'm like, gee, are we better off paying the existing people all this overtime? Are we better off increasing staff and having another person to handle all that workload? I don't think that's something we as a budget committee get to decide. I'm really I'm just saying it out loud to share the thought and put a put a bug in Scott's ear to to work with you. And

I've thought of that before, too. But I'd say I mean the number that the academy has is like 125,000, but that's an old number. You're probably talking to hire. Oh, yeah. By the time you figure with the salary and benefits and insurance and that, it's not. But it's starting to get I wanted to make that comment. Yeah. I I don't disagree, but that might not even solve the problem. Right. Right. We would still have overtime that we needed to to Okay. Yeah. I mean, you're probably stopped talking. Did I seem like I was cutting? No, you didn't. I want to cut myself off cuz I think I said more than I needed to.

I switched to the select board. Anyone else have anything they want to say on the overtime line before we move to the next one? All right. Sorry to interrupt. Go ahead. That's all I get for the overtime. Um, the next one is court prosecution. Um, this number I asked for 175. We 143. Oh, yeah. Thank you for your 142.

It's okay. I was going to ask about that one, so that's good. 11 143. Yep. Um so this is a service that we um we pay for an attorney to handle any major cases that are going to trial. We handle all minor stuff but all major cases. Um we got into it year before I started. Um and our number was lower because we didn't we we pay as an association we pay a percentage based on a three-year average. So we had low numbers coming into it. So, we were paying less. Now, our numbers, we now we have a 5-year period where our numbers have increased. So, the cost of that increases. Um, that being said, our number, we are far busier now. We're we're starting to get back the court has shifted over the last year, year and a half back to precoid stuff. Um, where they're holding people a little bit more accountable. They found that over the last five years, everybody's just been able to do whatever they wanted. Therefore, once that happens, those court numbers start rising. Once they start issuing bench warrants for people where they weren't issuing bench warrants before for missing court. Um, the other part of it is we've taken an approach to because it's nothing was working that we started to do warrants for people for missing court and charging them on our own stuff instead of court charging them. um because we just had repeat people that were knew that if we don't go to court nothing will happen to us. Um so our numbers are higher um because we are we are out doing more work. Therefore that number um that number has increased um and the the significant increase is more because of our average. Our average is now an

average of three years with higher numbers compared to an average of lower numbers. So when we get a case, uh Chris Carter looks at it. If it's something that's going to be a plea deal that we know is just going to go to court and there's going to be very little time, he handles that and then it doesn't count towards us. If we have a case that's going to be um possibly going to trial or have a bunch of motions or something, then that goes off to the attorney. Um, so that's the increase on that. Um, the budget or the select board reduced it to 15,000, but I don't know what I wasn't here for for that. So, I don't know what the reduction from 175 to 15 was.

So, I I I have a clarifying question. So, is this a we I I think you've answered it, but I want to be clear. Is this a service where we basically get the lawyer to the the person to represent us and then we get a bill for their hours and we could potentially use less of their hours or is this is something I thought what you said is basically I thought it was one but you said it's based on the last three years how much time have you used and then they say here's the bill for the service for next year. Yes.

So this is kind of in my mind like an HMA. either pay the bill and get the services or you don't pay the bill and you don't get the services but you can't pay 80% of the bill right am I correct yeah we get build quarterly on it um and I don't have it whatever the 175 divided by 4 is we get build quarterly for for this service if we don't have the ability to negotiate with the association it's either we're in the association or we're not in the association for sure. Is it 175 regardless of how many times you use

Yeah, there is there is like I I think it's like $800 or $1,000 in there for officers going to court, but this number will be 175 if not a little bit higher for officers going to court. Christine, were you going to say something? I was just going to say I don't think that I think when the sector discussed it they won't use the past history. I don't think they understood that it was an association and um when they introduce it. So yeah so we should raise that back up.

I was going to say I don't want to step on we need to bring it back up. Yeah, we with the information we had, we didn't I from what I recall, we just trimmed back, you know, met not halfway in the middle, but we lowered it not knowing it was a full fee. Okay. So, what is the name of the association? It's the Plymouth area. Uh, it's Plymouth Area Prosecutor Association, but I think their technical name is something a little bit different. Yeah. BG BJ Ca. Um, it used to be Are they professional prosecutors or lawyers that are that are

It's one attorney. She used to be actually working for the county attorney's office. She's left there and it is hired by this group which it's like Campton, Thornton. Um there's a ton of towns a part of it's essentially a way for small towns to get an attorney instead of having to pay for the attorney. And there's a minimum fee. So some of the smaller towns they have to pay you have to pay a minimum amount and so some people pay like five grand a year for her to handle three cases but otherwise you would have they would have to handle it all on their own. So we end up we've got enough cases that I think it's breaks down like $350 per case you get paid. Um, and then so that's where all the average from all the towns. They have a budget and then they average it out based on call number across all the towns. So next year I would anticipate probably another $2,500 increase and then we will probably maintain kind of from there. The big jump is mainly because of the

the three-year average. Yeah. So the only other question

it's PCGA PCGA but I can't tell you for sure what that stands for. It's run but it's like a board. All the chiefs are a member of the board for for voting that then Alexandria um their administrative assistant um they get a they did get a discounted rate because she does work towards the association. Um we had the ability to hire the attorney as a Bristol employee. Um but we were going to get very minimal for a discount and it was going to be way bigger of a headache. And then if everybody decided to pull out of it as our employee um cuz they has to be she has to be a town employee. So right now she's actually a Haveril town employee contracted by this association. So we we pay the association pays Hil back the money.

I was going to say I can tell you no it's Plymouth Court Jurisdictional Association. You would never know that. Yeah, I wouldn't either. So, the only the I think we're going to end up making a motion, but before we do, I just wanted to check. Do you do you think that I'm just looking for for this year we're budgeted for $12,858 and it says we've spent a little less than 9,000. Uh, we haven't paid there's some more posting coming. We're going to be we're Yeah, I just asked that to our um we have the fourth quarter bill. Um, I think it might be sitting waiting for approval to be to be sent this week. So,

Gotcha. I just wanted to say we're not going to be drastically underspending this year's budget. I thought you would tell me that, but I wanted to be sure. Yeah, I I double checked that this uh before I got here. Okay. Do you want to make a motion? You want me to? What do you want to do? No. Um, make a motion to move line 143 to back to the department request level of 17,500. Seconded.

It's a motion by Scott, seconded by Joe to amend line 143 from the current 15,000 to a new amount, which is the original department request of 17,500. Um, it's your motion. Did you want to say anything? I think we're ready to vote, right? No, we just got more information. So, I think it makes sense. Anyone else have a comment before we call a vote? Okay. So, we're going to vote on the motion to amend line 143 from the current 15,000 to a new amount of 17,500. All in favor? I You didn't. Thank you. I just want to be sure. Yeah.

Uh, opposed, abstain. 6. That passes. The next line is 190, which is the certified special officers. Um, this is our part-time 190. Go ahead.

This is our part-time. Um, I had asked for 5,000. I don't disagree with the 2500. I believe the discussion was, um, we hired a part-time person. uh they had tons of intentions on working a bunch of shifts, got a new job, doesn't work nearly what they thought they were going to do. So, he right now he's currently the only one. That being said, literally about an hour ago. Two people have reached out to our guys that want to come on part-time now. So, now we might be having two part- timerrs. I still think the 2500's good. And then hopefully we can offset the shift open shifts out of overtime with part-time people. That's that's the goal behind it. It's never really worked out that way. Um and I just told um our officer that brought up these two people that are they they're full-time certified, so their training gets paid by their department. So Bristol doesn't end up paying anything. Our one current part-time person, we are paying them for their um for their training hours, which is now significant amount. So, we have now adopted a new rule that you have to work a minimum of four hours a month because it's costing us money to have you as an employee. That being said, literally when we did that, he tore his Key's tenant and has been out for the last 5 months. Um, so it's our intentions of if we are going to be paying for training stuff that we are going to require them to work a certain amount to try and offset filling some shifts. Um,

okay. But you're but you're okay with the 2500 that's okay. Yeah. I think that if if we end up it might end up being that we overspend that one and we hopefully underspend the overtime if we can hire some more people is the goal. But problem to have. Yeah. I'm not going to promise that though. Okay. Before we move on, anyone have any questions on that line 190 certified uh part- timerrs? Nope. Okay. Anything else? Uh Um, the other line that uh had an increase was our vest replacement. The cost of vest uh bulletproof vests have gone up over the years. 294. Yeah. 294. Yep.

They've gone up over the years and we haven't really increased that over the years. And we're at a point now that this year we purchased one less vest. We're actually over spent in that line now, too. But we also purchased one less vest this year than what we really should have. So, we know going into next year we're going to need to buy an additional one. Um, so that's the increase on on that one. Hopefully that will could be decreased next year, but probably not with the cost of everything. Okay. Um, so I get on that one. Uh, the do the is that a recurring expense? Do they have

shelf life? Three every three years they need to be replaced. I mean, they're could almost say that they're still good, but if we don't replace them and something happens, then it's going to be on the town. But they're stamped for every 3 years to be replaced. I can tell you, we brought old ones out to train with them and uh they appear to work pretty good still. But good thing. Yeah.

Okay. Um the next increase is our is our training. Um again our our training hours have have gone up significantly. The cost to go to uh 391. It's on the same page. Um, to go to specialty trainings, which is really what you want to send at least an officer a year to a specialy training, you're talking about $1,000 to send anybody to any decent training.

Um, so that's the other cost. Uh, that's the other increase. Um, so that's why we went up uh $1,000. That line is under under budget right this second. will probably stay that way, but it's only because we canceled a bunch of trainings because our overtime is so messed up right now. So, we ended up not letting anybody go to any specialty trainings within the last four months. You're working to underspend some lines to compensate over time. We've in the past had open positions to help us with that, but Gotcha.

Um, that's the only re that's the only reason for the increase on the training. dispatch fee. They uh they haven't really increased that uh too much over the last couple years. Um this year they they put a fairly significant increant increase. They've got a new Franklin's got a new city manager. They're trying to redo a bunch of things. Um, we actually don't have any contracts with them, which they've is something that we kind of unraveled. So, we're talking with their chief about actually getting into a contract about maybe what the increases will be over the years and vice versa. We could pull out at any point. Um, and then that would leave them kind of high and dry, too. They just invested over a million dollars in our radio, our tower system, not just for us, but it would benefit everybody, but benefits us significantly. and he's like, "Tomorrow you guys can just leave us and we have nothing to get back." So, um, so we are talking about something like that just so that we don't randomly have a eight or 10% increase and hopefully keep it to a

Okay. to a minor one. So, if I stand in your lobby and pick up the red phone, I'm talking to someone in Franklin. Franklin. Okay. Yeah. That's why sometimes it can be a little rougher, too. We've had some your lady that we spoke to wasn't very pleasant and that's a Franklin employee. They deal with a little bit more aggravating things over their shift. If you pick up the phone, there still is a phone here. We decided not to move it um outside the building here. Same thing. If you pick that up, it goes to dispatch. Okay.

We paid to which wasn't much, but we paid to install it. And then when we left, we didn't want somebody to come here thinking that we were still here and needing to get the police. So then we just decided we might as well just keep it here. It's snow. Okay. Gas is the next thing. Um I increased that just because gas is so unpredictable. The 635 635. Yeah.

The selectman um cut it from what we had last year. Um, that is definitely one that I don't overly agree with because I think fuel prices are so unpredictable. I'm not saying it's going to go back to the 26, but I would like to see it back to the 23. Um, this last year we averaged about 592 gallons a month. Um, which that at $3 a gallon, which is less than what we're paying right now, uh, equals out to roughly the 22,000. And that's if we were at $3 a gallon. I hope gas goes down, but um I don't I don't know if it's going to trend down that much.

What are your expenditures at right now? So, as of November 11th,

yeah, we haven't paid our last on that. I think it was like 175, but we haven't paid November. X too. There's two or three months left of being paid in that. Yeah, my my estimate is we're going to be right around 22,000 this year. Maybe a little bit more than 22,000 this year. So, we don't um we pay through two different two different accounts. We have WEX that gives us a discounted price. Um, and it's a cart that goes in each vehicle and we when we use it at the regular pumps, WEX gives us a discounted price. And then the other one is the New Hampshire DOT.

We use the WEX primarily. It actually, I don't know, probably 5 years ago, it was cheaper than going through the state and it's way easier than having to find the state pump. You can just go to any any place. Yep. Um, so my opinion is I hope it's only $20,000, but I don't gas is very unpredictable. We haven't paid anything beyond November. Yeah. And there's a mistake, I'll fix it. We were at 175 or

you're at 154 right now, but nothing's been paid for um November, but something's booked here that shouldn't be. Maybe we're So, what I'm hearing is that you asked for 26, the select board cut you in 20. You didn't say it quite as bluntly as I would, but you're you said you'd like us to go back to the 23 to at least level fund you. Yeah, I am slightly worried that if it doesn't go down. I'm just going to actually do you have anything you can share from the select board discussion? Do you know why the the the cut was made from 26 to 20 or why a cut was made at all or why that number was good?

I think when this is just me from my memory, but I think when they talked about it, they felt that the rates weren't as high as they've been so that there could be some adjustment made down. Um I correct me if either you remember I think that's along those lines. We thought fuel costs were going to be probably coming down. Yeah, it when when he made the motion and cut it, it was that fuel prices are going are trending down. We had we had spent a portion of this year paying at a much higher rate as as prices were falling through the through the year and that was the discussion that we

and we're not going to overspend this year's 23 and if prices are falling we should spend next less next year. So that was the discussion. Yeah. Does that program tell us what we pay? I don't know what we pay per gallon front through wax. Does it tell you what? I can Yeah, let me just look up because I didn't think about it that manner that if it was significantly higher at the beginning of the year. I don't know what gas price was.

I I don't know what the other committee members are thinking. I I don't want to put the police department in a tough position where you have to overspend the line and then find other lines that you're going to underspend. But the logic that gas prices are going down is true right now. Now, you know, we blow up Ukrainians blow up some more Russia. So certainly you get I mean there's some volatility out there conflict within

I guess but I guess my where I was going with this is I I'm open to this to the thought of making a change. I just don't feel like I have enough information to be sure it's the right thing to do. I'd like to ask you to go back and work with Christine and come back. We have a meeting later in the cycle where we're going to reopen and reconsider sections and if you come to us with more information then I'd be more comfortable considering it. But right now right now it's kind of a swag. I don't know what the right answer is and so given a choice between putting more money in the budget and less money in the budget, it's easy to put less money in the budget.

So I didn't think about going back to see what we were paying at the beginning of the year. I I typed in on Google national average for this year and what national average for next year is. The national average this year was 306 and next year is predicted to be around $3 to 310. So I felt that it's about the same national average of 24 or 25 that they're expecting for 26. But

I don't know. I don't know if we can really I don't think this is the line we're going to ask to go back and come up like I I appreciate the sentiment, but I just that's going to be a really hard number to do beyond the information we already have today. Um I just think there's so much volatility geopolitically that this could change. Correct. I agree with you. Yeah. Okay.

Um I mean I would personally I'd feel comfortable bumping it back to the 23,000 knowing that we'll likely finish this year around 23,000. That's at least a benchmark of current state that we can work off of. From what I look at, you were paying more at the beginning of the year. You're paying less now, but not a lot less. It's these bill those are fun to read. Yeah, there's way bigger than that. You have to go through and like every single thing look at we had to count every gallon of gas and multiff

I was going to say you want to go ahead and make a motion. I'll make a motion to amend line uh 4210 635 from the select board amount of 20,000 to uh 23,000. Second. So a motion by Joe, seconded by Buzz to amend line 635 in this section of the budget which is police gasoline from the current 20,000 to a new amount of 23,000. I think this is similar. um don't want to cut things off, but I don't think there's a lot of discussion yet to be done. Does anyone have anything they want to say before we call a vote? Okay. All in favor? I.

That's I. So, uh opposed abstain. That's 6. That passes. So, let me just make 635. Okay. Any other line you wanted to uh bring to our attention? No, I think that's it for uh for so you're open to questions now if you don't mind. I have I will start with a question simply that I don't completely understand. So line 139 which is highway safety overtime grant that's um that is can you explain that because me to me a grant is income so I don't know why we're

going to spend the grant A lot of grants are cost reimburseed. So you got to pay for and you got to do gross appropriation. I understand. So this is spending a grant. So this this one that I have in here for this year is just for the cost of uh speed patrols and actual um uh like going I think we have like um speed ones, DWI ones and maybe a seat belt one. So, this is reimbursing the town for the officer's expense. Now, we didn't budget for that last year. So, in my budget right now, it looks like we're like

I don't know what the number it's. It's like $6,000 in the red, but we've been reimbursed that money cuz it didn't get ended. We only did an equipment line last year. Um, no, I see I see in the 24 budget and the 25 budget, there's no money on this line. So, this is Yes. So that that is why um in the years past it hasn't been booked. Yeah, it's been booked differently. So I didn't want it to look like we were in the red another $6,000. So I put the money into there. Oh, I think this makes sense. I just was not clear and I'm asking for So So the followup question I have is

does this grant require us to have officers work overtime to get the grant? They can't use the grant to pay their regular salaries. It has to So, we were getting rid of this for this year. Um, the equipment grants, the way that our budget works with the town meeting, we get approved on our budget in March. The state the state budget ends in July. So, we have to purchase, have in hand, and install whatever equipment it is that we buy. those new radar signs and that type of stuff because Yeah.

And those radar signs don't come in anywhere near in time. And then this last one we got came with all the wrong parts and they came up in August, saw that we didn't have them installed. We showed them all the emails with all the correspondence with the company and they said, "If you don't have that installed, you guys are paying all of it." So, we installed it on the telephone pole with the wrong sign on it and everything. And I got called all day every day about it and like we either pay it. So, because of that disaster, um, we're looking for for 2027 to do something different. And what I think we're going to do is we're going to apply for the grant for the following year, get approved in March, apply for 2028,

get the money applied in March, and then get the grant for the year the state capital and then we can order at any point. Yes. Yes. That's what we're looking to do. There are two different grant lines in your budget. The one Chris is talking about right now is that's down lower 8891, right? the grant related is the other one the highway safety OT grants are the ones he's telling you about um speed DUI and seat belts um I do have to check I did not know why there's nothing booked to to this it's showing to 89 I think they're being charged to the wrong I think so

um so we'll double check that they have done they have done these OT yes already we've gotten reimbursements and you'll also see in the revenue and offsetting reimbursement for these OT grants. So with the all of that since we weren't getting equipment if you get equipment you're required to do the enforcement piece and it has to be overtime. It can't be back filling a shift. It it can't be so many different things. We got rid of those two like we're taking the year off. Uh we're going to get a better plan. They okay

they called this money they have to spend the money or else they lose it. So and they don't and departments cuz it's such a pain in the neck don't want to do it. So they essentially told us if you don't take these speed one these enforcement ones you'll never get grants ever again for this. So we're doing the speed the enforcement grants so in the future we can look at uh still getting further grants. Um, our radar trailer that we got through a grant, they came in December. It was in the Sallyport and we got murdered on having it inside in the garage and not out on the road. And I said, well, one, DOT does not allow us to put anything on the side of the road during the winter time. And two, we didn't want to get destroyed with salt or hit by a car or hit by a plow shrub. And they said, "Well, you're required to have that out there whenever we want you to." I'm like, "All right, well, if you want us to, we'll go put it out there." They settled on, "Wait till the snow goes away." And then made us report to them for a month's worth of data from that speed sign to prove that we put the speed sign out after snow ended. It's been a nightmare. It would have been better off buying them.

Classic. And it's a state with one thing, but literally another state department yelling at us about the other thing. Like the sign the signs we have hanging up. We can't just move those anywhere. DOT is like you have to have these GPSed to the exact spot. You cannot move them. Um so yeah, and just to move there's one that we want to move that's permanent. It was supposed to be permanently installed on pole and we want to move it and we have to jump through hoops to get it moved

and they haven't come out the one by old mill. They've asked they want us to move it and I try get in touch with this guy numerous times. He's got to come back out and give us permission to take it off and move it one pull down and he has to mark the GPS coordinate on it or that's why we also put this one on me. We were planning on putting it somewhere between the community center and the school anyways, but Town Road, I don't have to do any of that stuff. So you the one by Milstream, you're talking about moving it a little bit closer to downtown. I forget which poll she wants. That's either there or we talked about we move talked about South Main cuz uh there's been some complaints over there. It's hard to tough over there. Yeah.

Right. Okay. And the other one that I get a million questions on, the one on 104 on Summer Street that gets you long before you get in the 30. I've asked the same time, can we try and get that one repositioned to a different spot so that's not flashing that you're speeding when you're not speeding, but it's waiting for them. All right. Well, thank you. That I open that can. Does anyone else have any comment or question before we move on? Does anyone else have a line that they wanted to ask or think about? So, I'll go to the next one. I have 431.

Police Department building maintenance. I don't understand why this is in you group and not in I put $300 in there mainly because there's especially this year being new and built. There's been a couple things that we've wanted to we we needed to fix or we've wanted to buy or something that just to make it easier just to go to the valleys and get uh some mud or something to fix in the building. That way we know that we have enough money just to do something some minor fixes um in the building. That's the reason behind that instead of checking with Ben to see if we have any more money in it.

Yeah, it is kind of a pain in the backside the way it's budgeted. But it would make more sense potentially to move forward down, you know, whether it's this year or down the road, having some little bit of, you know, a line within your own department budget that allows you to kind of look back and say, you know, not specifically super building related stuff, but like our building maintenance line covered, right, a lot of little expenses when we had just the fire station. And now you're like, well, that's where we would um, you know, build a new set of lockers, right? It's like $200 worth of materials from the valley. That's where it would get charged to before. And now you're like, well, how you know what I mean? It's just kind of it's kind of odd to charge it to a a combined line. Well, I don't want to spend a time ton of time here because $300 is not worth a lot of time, but it just surprised me to see a building when we have a whole separate public safety building.

It's for those little things. There's there's been numerous times throughout the and we put things towards like equipment. Like we bought 2x4s under equipment for for doing something. I mean, there's there's a little bit of work on some sheetrock. that's not the greatest that needs to be remed. Um, it's just for that stuff. It's for some minor building maintenance stuff instead of I do think that the the combined building maintenance they they kind of come up with a number, but it's got some specific things done to it. So, there wasn't much wiggle room if something came up during the year. So,

it's more for like your fire extinguisher, the sprinkler system. Yep. sprinkler system, HVAC system, fertilization. Like I said, I don't want to spend a lot of time on this. I guess my closing comment would be maybe in next year's budget we could come up with a better label for that line cuz it's that was one of certainly caught my eye. Not that it's 300 at all. It's just that why is building maintenance still in the police budget is the question I had. Is there a comparable catch all in the fire budget? No, I didn't see it. Well, there it probably still shows because we have the same line the old building. I just don't have anything in there, right?

Maybe even a materials and supplies line or something like that. So, I'm ready to move on. I just And I think that's all I have. So, anyone else have anything? I don't think so. Let me do some math real quick. I'm going to give you your number. So, we added 55 1602 696. Okay.

Yep. That's the number I got. So, I think we're ready to vote on the bottom line for the police department. Anyone else have comments? Speak up now. Not hearing anything. So, we're going to take a a vote, a final vote on the police budget for section 4210 in the amended amount of 1,62,616. All in favor? I opposed and abstain. 6 0. That passes. Thank you, Chris.

Thank you, guys. And now we will do the fire department budget. I made a motion to excuse me uh consider and approve the budget for the fire department section 4220 in the select board recommended amount of 2,78,551. Second motion by Paul, seconded by Scott. I can stop talking now because

I don't really want to. Um, yeah. So, I I'm certainly happy and there's a couple of of lines that I'll highlight, but I guess the important one to start with is the elephant in the room, and that's the $2 million budget. Um, so I think you broke a barrier.

What's important? Well, what's important to remember and you know and most everybody sitting here knows and and anybody new probably knows anyway, but is the big impact, right, is the four new positions that were approved by warrant last year and that was 6 months. So you take the 1.575 roughly budget that we approved and then you add $254,000 in the special warrant and you're up to, you know, roughly $1.8 million. That's still a $278,000 increase, right? Um, but what's important to remember is that those positions are 100% funded by the EMS contract. So, um, I, you know, I, numbers to me are simple. They, you know, they add up and they subtract and that's what it is, right? So I think for us it's you we've never really looked at it and said well the fire department brings in a bunch of revenue and we do even before the changes in the contracts and the town's picking up the cost. We've never really looked at it and said okay well it's a million dollar budget and there's a few hundred,000 in revenue so it's really only 700,000 or whatever the number is. Um, but it's pretty important this year when you're looking at a 14 15 whatever the number is percent increase. Um, so when you add all that together, to me, the best way to look at it is say what's the tax impact? Obviously, we have a giant chunk of revenue um that comes in against this $2 million budget. And so what's left over after that? Um, and that increase is about $37,000 in this year's correct uh request. For comparison, um, whether you agree with the 4% increase to salaries or not, that 4% increase would be about just shy of

$40,000, right? So ultimately, we've trimmed in other spots to make this as palatable as possible and at the same time increase those revenues um, kind of naturally through the contract. Right? they're picking up 100% of those position costs and then um just naturally based on call volume increases or what have you, the other side of the the formula um adds to that revenue. So it really is about a 3 and 12% increase um you know when you really compare apples to apples a full year of funding versus a full year of funding. So I can delve into that more. I had a whole thing worked up, but I forgot there was some payroll lines that were kind of screwed up, the tax lines, and so that doesn't make any sense. But it's roughly a it's like $37,546 would be the real impact to there's there's some pennies involved. Um is like the real impact to the increase in spending, which is less than um what we would what we would see just in raises. So that's where I would like to start. Uh the rest of it, obviously the payroll lines are the payroll lines. There's a couple of lines that are that are more than that roughly 4% number. They largely have to do with, you know, we have an employee that'll obtain his paramedic certification partway through the year. It accounts for that adjustment in his pay rate. um we promoted an employee to a lieutenants position um in this year that allows him for another step for that promotion. Um the rest of everything kind of aligns with that. Obviously some of these positions are roughly 100% increase which makes sense cuz it went from 6 months to one full year of funding. Um,

so really a bunch of other lines then get impacted. So overtime's the first big one. Um, the thing I would point out with overtime is again a chunk of that money is is being paid for from that revenue directly and then a portion under the old EMS contract. Um, that number right now it's 11 employees, not seven that are overtime eligible. it's 11 employees and not seven that that start out day one with roughly three weeks off that they can take a year. They don't necessarily take it. They might bank a little bit and and save for the future. Um but it's also then 11 employees that are going to be sick throughout the year and miss a shift. And a shift isn't 8 hours, it's 24 hours at a whack. So um that number this year that I'm using is 335 hours per employee. So, historically, it's gotten up to 350. We made a hiring, we got it back down to 325. The last couple years we've budgeted overtime at 350 hours per employee. Um, and now, at least with the new hires, between a bunch of people that, you know, aren't on the upper end of earning, say, another the third week or fourth week of vacation, um, they're all down at 2 weeks or 3 weeks, right? you know, when they walk through the door. It gets it down to 335 hours per employee and we'll probably stay pretty close to that um for, you know, the next couple of years, which is good. Um, you know, just kind of to that point, right? When do you get to that point where you can offset this with a position? You really can't. That 335 hours, it's like just shy 3,700 hours in a year. And that sounds like a lot. Um, but we have a ton of second calls, we have a ton of third calls. The staffing right now still requires somebody to come in overnight

for those second and third calls. Um, the call company, what we have left for a call company is great. It's a bunch of people that have been here for a long time. Um, but that number is dwindled. The benefit we have right now is with those 11 employees, most everybody's living, if they're not in town, they're in a contiguous town. and they're happy to come back for calls, particularly those second med calls. Not a lot of people on the call roster don't want to come in for second medical calls. Um, for any number of reasons, you know, not the least of which is it's 3:00 in the morning and they've got to be to work at 6:00 or 6:30 at their normal job. Um, we have full-time members that are happy to come in and assist on those calls. That's in addition to their normal, so it's it's overtime. um just covering shifts, you'd be at like about 2,000 hours is probably what that number is. Just shy of 2,000 hours. But that's now that relies on coming up with some, you know, if you hired somebody, let's say, to come up, you know, and what would you say 10 15% really uh of that number. Now, you've got to go to a system and say, "Okay, we currently have a system that says no more than two employees on vacation in a week, right? To just make sure you're not burning everybody else out." Now, you got to come up with a system that says at a minimum no more than one person on vacation. Oh, and well, that person's on vacation, nobody can get sick, right? It just it would never never work out fully. Um, if you had some other, you know, emerging thing and you get a grant to fund 20 hours a week to do a program, could you combine it with something like that? Sure. But that's not even anything we're talking about. So, um, that's overtime. I can really detail it more if needed, but uh, that's the cost of of maintaining that three on 24/7,

uh, 365 days a year. So holiday, same thing. It's affected by the the increase in employees. Call payroll, call payroll is not up very much. Most of that, it's a little bit of reduction of hours and then the call members would get the same uh 4% COLA adjustment. So that's roughly where that comes from. Part-time shift coverage is down. So last year, as a function of of, you know, anticipating the Warren article going through, we reduced part-time spending because we didn't have um we weren't going to post July, we wouldn't have two extra positions on every weekend day, we'd drop to one. Um so this is kind of just the net impact, get that the rest of the way down and then fund it for the whole year. So that's why there's a 7% decrease there. Disability life again affected by the change in the number of employees um which makes about sense four more is roughly half of you know 50% more employees like I'm still confused about but that's what the math says so that's what it is. um retirements that increase. Uniforms is down by that more than that 3% number. So when we hired the four positions and built that $254,000 number, it frontloaded to right we've got new employees. So you're going to buy them the couple of pairs of pants, the couple of pairs of polos, plus the jackets, plus the winter wear. And then now this year it'll just go to kind of that more maintenance of a couple polos and a sweatshirt when it wears out type of thing. Um I'm keeping ambulance billing flat for the first year in a long time. Um which is

not great. Um it's largely, you know, we anticipate I anticipate a decrease based on the state's um kind of setting of a new uh statewide rate at 325% for a couple years until they get done a study. More information is available offline. Um so that said, that number got us to kind of a projection that was probably a little bit unrealistic and we didn't meet it this year. I think we're going to be fine there. Um, it depends on on kind of which fire chief is doing the numbers whether it'll be it won't be an increase, but hopefully we'll lose say 5% in building revenue as opposed to the 15% that I think it'll be. Uh, cell phones up. So, um, one keeping a third ambulance mean meant we really needed to have a tablet on that ambulance. And then the just the way dispatch is going, we're not that far from from basically not dispatching ourselves. That's an unfair word. They're still going to do a ton of work. But being able to kind of decrease some of the time and and uh noise on the airwaves by using tablets. So we added a tablet. Then we added another tablet for engine 2. And that's the cost of the data plans. Did allow us to get rid of some old flip phones. So, it was only it's like $32 more a month or something like that. Um, but that's the increase there. Training is another big one that's up. So, the the board uh agreed to enter into a training agreement with one of our employees um which provides that we will cover the cost of that tuition for the paramedic program which was significantly reduced by um grant funds. So, there's about it's just shy of $5,700

will be due next year towards his uh tuition. So, you know, instead of asking for a $5,700 increase, we could balance it out and get to that 125. Um I when I first looked at it, I thought maybe we could, you know, not have such a big increase, but ultimately we've got two employees that are required to get through AMT training next year. and then the normal refresher requirements. So, we'll we'll make do with the 125, but just barely. Lakes region, I would love to have you guys decrease that. Um, but I got to find that number cuz I almost just said the wrong number. So, that number can actually be $54,6. Um the initial request was based on the worst case scenario. They had proposed some positions and some stuff that didn't make it through the board of directors. And so our actual assessment this year is $54,6

or you can leave it. Sorry. 395.

Well, that's easy. I'll make a motion to amend line 395 for uh fire department lakes region fire dispatch from the current amount of 50 thou $57,000 to a new amount of $54,6 motion by Paul seconded by Joe endorsed by the chief. This should be easy. Uh any other comments or questions? We're ready to vote. Should I stall until Scott comes back? I think it's going to pass. We'll just pass it on. All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. 500 missing. Missing. I can tell. All right. 50 51

and then you're going to have to he'll have to explain why did you abstain while um All right. Work it down. So, equipment maintenance and repairs. Uh this is to cover just the maintenance agreements on equipment. If you look at into CIP stuff we're coming up one of the big ones the hydraulic tools right the rescue tools extrication for auto accidents.

Previously we're you know we had a cycle where and I think it was every 3 years right one or two of the pieces of equipment got serviced and then not for three years and then one or two pieces of equipment got serviced. Those are coming up on their replacement just based on wear and tear. They really need to be PMD every single year. So, um the board did reduce it. We'll be fine at the $2,500 number. Um but it is an increase from the $1,500 that it's been for a number of years. Uh def maintenance is up quite a bit. This is kind of like a poorly worded line ultimately. It's just always been that for 22 years. I read your

explanation and I'm like it doesn't quite match. So, we cover really kind of all the the maintenance and PMS on EMS equipment uh in this line,

which is good and it's good that we have it because it makes my job easier when it comes contract building time and I can just slide all the costs over. But um between the stretcher maintenance, the ventilator maintenance, now the defib maintenance, that's um that's where that cost is. And uh it's all the most important stuff that you can't, you know, there's always kind of a joke when you're uh getting into EMS that really like almost everything on the truck has three different uses. Um, and you can make do with 90% of the without 90% of the stuff on the truck because if you have something else, you can make it work. You can't get by without your stretcher working or your defib working. You can maybe get by without your bed working, but it it really be better to have it working. So, um, that's why the increase there.

That makes sense. Just on the 431, is this also impacted by the fact that instead of having equipment for two ambulances, we now have equipment for three ambulances?

Uh, slightly, but not really. And I say not really because the current um the stretcher that's in A1 because that was a we bought it um refer. It's not eligible for the PM program. So, we don't have that PM. We can do in-house maintenance to it and and that's fine. Um the same thing the monitor the monitor is effective but it's a it's a smaller rate because it's just a slightly different monitor. Um so a small portion yes is having three ambulances now but um so it's a it contributes but it's not the answer. No, it's definitely not.

And when you buy those or even when you do the service contracts on those, can you access like group purchasing for those or is that all kind of you have to buy and negotiate on your own for what? Sorry. Any of the equipment that's on the trucks? Um, so like statewide contracts and access or anything? No. Okay. No, just curious. Yeah. No.

Okay. We do some stuff and and I I know Matt's it may be in there to be honest with you. Like so when NETS comes up, I don't know what it stands for. They're the company that does our ladder testing and certify the aerial and then all the ground ladders. So we end up um you know whatever that cost is. We probably pay about 85% of what we could um based on we work with basically everybody in the area to kind of coordinate a 2 or 3 day span that they can come up here. Alexandria brings their equipment over, Hill brings their equipment over, uses our space. Um so it it you know decreases like the travel cost and and all that stuff. So um but yeah, purchasing wise and some of that's just it'd be the cycles that you're on. you know, we're ready to buy defibs this year and Laconia or Franklin's not until two years down the road or they're running different equipment, but yeah, there's no state bid, which is kind of weird, but um there isn't. Okay, what's the next one? Supplies. So supplies is one that um you know we made a a pretty significant reduction to that based on kind of sharing the paper products cost over in the public safety building line. And I guess to that discussion that you were having with Chris, this is probably partly that too where there's about a $300 increase. Some of it's just supplies, right? We we kind of ballparked what the cost, you know, taking out toilet paper and tissues and paper towels would be. We probably didn't nail it quite on the head and then have that, you know, extra $150 or so when you run into, you know, you got to get a key made for something or or whatever the case may be. That would be kind of building related, building maintenance related, but um more of a an US thing than a building

thing. So, this kind of handle your some of your mis small miscellaneous things is what I'm hearing you say. Is that fair?

Yeah, very little. The other side of it too is you can't it's kind of hard to guess when you go from cleaning 2400, right? This is the majority of our like cleaning supplies are out of the supply line. So for for us and for our side cuz we have people on staff and we can clean and and that's fine. But the point is right we went from roughly 2400 square ft, you know, the administrative section in the old building to like 4,000. or is it just simply going to be an increase, right? The offsetting increase or is it a little bit different? So, um that's really where the where the increase the majority of the increase is is it's more places to clean. Uh it's a bigger facility. It's still relatively inexpensive, I think. Um what is this one? Vehicle maintenance. So, vehicle maintenance is up. A portion of this is keeping a third ambulance. um a portion of this is really there's just a bunch of maintenance to take care of. So last year was the first year where we combined uh the maintenance lines and we kind of straightlined this is what we had and so this is what we'll have collectively. Um there's some springwork still on engine 4 that we are not going to be able to accomplish this year nor are we going to have the funds. We'll be probably just overexpended in that line by the end of the year. Um, we got a lot done, but there's stuff coming up. The generator needs to be repaired on engine 2, the springs on engine 4, the ladder needs new tires. Those are not cheap. Um, and then kind of the continuous rotation of everything else. So, that 45,000 number puts us into a much better position when you consider the amount of fleet and the age, especially of the fire apparatus that it's taken care of.

Um, and even though at some point maybe we'll be having a discussion about replacing engine 2, even if that's purchased today, we're not going to see it for 3 to 4 years minimum. So, uh, we still have to maintain that truck that's now 20 21 years old. Uh, 20 years old. The next big one's medical supplies. Um again, you know, that number goes up every year and it's really consistent with the increase in call volumes um and kind of the acuity of the patients we're seeing. Um we still get really great pricing uh through Conquer Hospital in that group on the majority of our supplies. Then there's other supplies where, you know, between boundary or more medical or or whatever, um, Shai, Henry, Shai, and somebody, we're constantly trying to price out and and keep that number as low as possible. Um, and Matt does a great job handling that, but that's where that number needs to be moving forward. I think those are the big ones. tools and equipment fire is a I guess it's 8.7% increase. That's really it's just the cost of everything. So that number doesn't do a whole lot. It allows us to hopefully keep up on things. If a saw breaks to the point where we can't repair it, we can replace a saw. And a vent saw isn't $900 anymore. It's $15 $1,600. um fans that used to be $200 or $4 and $500 to replace. Um we've been trying to do some stuff looking at, you know, kind of long-term planning on those smaller, they're not really capital cuz they're not 10,000 bucks, you know, whack, but they're still um bigger items. And you know, I used to have like a 3%

multiplier in there. And we're not seeing less than 5% on any of that equipment. And we haven't even really precoid we were seeing bigger increases than that. So um that's where that is. I tried to offset it with that rediction in the next line. So that's 810 812 uh with 7500 last year. We've knocked that back to 6250 uh for EMS equipment purchasing. It balances out I think. Um 750. That was down 750.

Yeah. So, uh, protective clothing, protective clothing is another one that, right, the structural gear for firefighting, it just continues and continues and continues to rise. Um, we're in about the cheapest gear we can be in, but still feel comfortable going into thousand degree environments. Um, so that number is the number where we need to be to continue the four sets of gear that we've been buying the last number of years. um along with you're going to find a helmet that's out of service or it's going to go out of service or boots are going to get holes in them or or whatever the case may be. So, you're probably it's like I did the math ear. It's like $17,000 and change just to replace those four sets of gear. And then that gives you about $2,500 for $600 helmets out of whack, $525 pair of boots at a whack. So it's not a whole lot of extra in there. Um, but it's a good number. The program's worked for a couple years now and so hopefully we can fund it at that level. Uh, radio equipment's a fairly big reduction. Most of that was um A3 coming last year. We knew A3 was coming. We knew that we were keeping A1 so that we would have at least a reserve piece if not really frequently lately. Um we're getting that truck out on emergencies pretty frequently. Um so we needed to buy those radios. It still keeps it a little bit higher than maybe a number of years ago prior to the radio lease when it was $1,000. Um, but it's time to start replacing pagers. They're starting to go out. The newer version, um, is in place. We bought a few this year. Uh, we'll probably have to replace about halfish of the department's pagers next year.

Um, and to me, that's just a better way to do it than, you know, whether it's next year, this year, or next year, having a $12,000 warrant article to replace pagers. we're in a good position that they're still working well that we can kind of knock off a handful or 15 this year and then a handful out of whack every couple years. That's what I have. Okay. have any Brian B. Uh Chief just to clarify, have you had any difficulty on the positions that are supported by contract revenue collecting the revenue? No.

And just a second question if I may. As you pointed out earlier, they were for half a year. Now they'll be for a full year. They're all sucked by revenue. So effectively the bottom line in your budget is a rather modest adjustment. Yes. Thank you. Yeah.

Yeah. To your point, Brian, we we talk about the budget and we're required to do gross appropriations. So that's there, but really it's the tax effort that affects the taxpayers that we need to think about and is offsetting revenue. So it's not shouldn't be a a big push on additional money. Um I will let you um we did collect all this year already.

Um and then um with the increase with their increase this year and then there's another increase for next year. So I was going to ask because I'd like to know what's going on and I don't understand line 200 you got called shift differential. So it was budgeted this year for zero but the actual spend is $54,000. But you mentioned I'll take your word for it. That doesn't make any sense. But you but you told me the workers work 24 hours. So how can there be a difference in a shift? I don't understand. So I'm talking about

um I don't think that's correct. Line two line 200 is what I'm asking.

Yeah. So the shift differential it's never been a budgeted thing. I don't when we went to this program what it is the shift differential is if so we have firefighters that have been whether it's with Bristol right they have to meet a minimum requirement. They've been with Bristol a certain amount of time. They've been in the fire service a certain amount of time, right? And then they test as if they were going to promote to lieutenant or whatever. And provided that they pass that test, they now become eligible to act out of grade, right? So, there's a shift officer assigned to every shift. We want a shift officer on every shift. Um, but if a shift officer isn't available, right? If the captain today, you know, calls out sick, let's say, if we have somebody that's eligible to act out of grade and act in that shift officer's capacity for the day, they get an extra dollar25 cents an hour. It's not a lot. Um, but it's something to say, hey, you've got some responsibility today, and we recognize that that's there.

Okay, that's um the report is wrong. You have not spent any money. Um there's something I will find out why. All right. So for those

so there's two things. One is that there's a error in the report and it's not right. And the other is that when I think of shift differential I think about you get more money because you're working second shift you work third year. This is about you get more money because you're acting in a higher management capacity because the person who needs the job is not available. You're stepping into that breach. Gotcha. So quite honestly, I think that number is probably actually zero because we don't there currently there's nobody eligible to act out of grade. There should be soon, but there's nobody eligible to act out of grade and we haven't the person that was you just promoted. Yeah. Right.

Well, they were one and then we've had there was some turnover around the same time. So, um, for whatever reason, from a booking standpoint, in my head, this was just going to get booked to overtime cuz it's to me it's extra money. And previous finance, couple of previous finance officers ago, the decision was it should really be booked in a separate line. I just account for it, you know, in my own spreadsheet as a as a part of the overtime money. So, but yeah, where 54 312 came from, who knows? I have no idea. Honestly, I have no idea where that number is coming from. Okay, I will let it go. I will let it go. You put it on your list of things to look into. My budget says that. Okay. Um

I'm screenshotting it and sending it to him now. Okay. Um I say I don't know why I have that highlighted. So I'll skip that. My question would have been That's weird.

All right. do that. Okay, I don't think I have any more. Anyone else have anything they want to bring up or ask about? Think we're ready to vote on the bottom line number. So, we're now going to vote on the bottom line number for the fire department. So, we're going to vote on section 4220, which is the fire department, and we've amended it. The new amount is $2,75,557 which is a almost $3,000 reduction due to the change we made to the dispatch line. Can you confirm I said the number right? Yeah.

Okay. Um all in favor? I opposed and abstain to zero. 6 0 that passes. So I think we're done with fire, right? And now we just have the fourth section which is emergency management. So I'll make a motion to consider and approve section 4290 for emergency management in the select board recommended amount of $1,2 management. Surprise me. Tell me you have something to say about this. I know. It's just important, right, to look at it and say, "Well, we didn't spend anything in 2025."

Y

So 2025, I my plan was to go to EMI and take at least one class down at EMI, which would probably not be quite $1,000, but it' be a pretty big portion of that. Obviously, we shut the fire academy down for a number of months and then we didn't fund the federal budget for a number of and ultimately that never worked out. So, um, that's why there's nothing spent out of there this year, and we would hope to be able to to do that. I've got my eye on like three classes that I would really like to take over the next two years. Um, and hopefully things can stay open to actually do that. Um, and that's just the Emergency Management Institute, which is attached to the National Fire Academy down in Maryland. But that's it. That's what I got. Okay. Anyone I don't have any. Anyone else have any questions, comments, suggestions for changes? No. Ready to vote on the section? I think we are. Okay. So, we'll vote on approving the final approval on section 4290 for emergency management in the original amount of $1,2. All in favor? I

I post abstain 6 0 that passes. Thank you chief. Thank you. Um for those who've been here before forestry we did eliminate it completely this year. So right. So our next item on the agenda is to consider the minutes for our previous meeting on November 25th. So, I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of the November 25th meeting. Second.

Motion by Paul, seconded by Joe. And I will jump in and make the first comment. If you look at the minutes and I have proof read these, I think you all know that I proof to read these before you go out to you. So, I have to apologize for not catching this, but in the zoning board section, it says that we approved a budget of $210,000, which is doesn't make any sense. The correct number is $2,450. That was the motion that was made. That's what we voted on. That's what we approved. These minutes are not right. So, that number needs to be changed

in both in two places. Yep. Yep. In two places. both the original motion and the final approval. And I know that there are other probably things Christina caught one when I was talking to her about it like a grammar problem, but I don't do that very well. So, I'll leave that to other people who are better at it. Do you want to do yours next? Yeah, I probably have it. The first one is just in the present thing. Um, and I Oh, the line of who's present in the meeting. Yeah, I don't know. We have to be pointing out people that for whatever reason come in a few minutes late. I just So you'd like to start you'd like to strike tart targeted. I don't think that's appropriate.

If you disagree, speak up. Otherwise, we'll just say that we're instructing the minutes to be amended as such. We usually say what time they arrived, but because the vote if the votes are different from the beginning to the end, so we could change it to arrived if it was 6:15, something like that. doesn't I don't know when she did though. So I She came in about 5 minutes after she came in she she was she was there for the first she participated in all the votes. I couldn't tell you what time she came in but a little bit actual time is factual but tie has a negative ramification to it.

So I I I would say strike it too. Yeah. And then we'll make sure going forward that we'll put in arrived 6:05 or 6:15 whatever time. Okay, the next one is under new business and um this is a departure. We haven't done this before, but um the female um whatever has always been miss and we're some we that's so 1960. So Christine and I talked about it before the meeting and we I decided I didn't want to bring it up in the meeting and make a motion. We were just going to handle that administratively and change all of

we're gonna change all the misses to miss because it just should be miss can be either or. So, right. So, yes, we're going to do that. And then let's see about halfway down in that section, the line begins with the words property changes flagged. Yep. Um after the word property changes flag for assessor assessor review comma you should insert the word that that increase due to okay um and in 14 4191

can I um can I just add one in that same paragraph um there's a misspel the heading is spelled different than word spelled in in later in the same paragraph. So I just it shouldn't have two e reevaluation. I never read the headings, but go ahead. Um just the the um the last comments I have are under 4191 planning board. Um fourth line down be encumbered to revise chapter 5. Um after the word services at the end of the line you should insert the word which

which was reacted. Yeah. And then in the final line um the the last pause and addressing it should be and addresses which was reactivated and addresses. Actually it refers to solar too doesn't it? It doesn't say that here. Yeah. Was it that was that the discussion at all? It says discussion clarified the ordinance because the ordinance isn't just is that the yeah there was there was um there was a brief I don't know it was a discussion it was I I had asked a question it was and it was about solar right

yeah I asked the question it was solar residential only or business or commercial so do you want to say discussion clarified that the solar ordinance is residential only not commercial and addresses issues like impervious Well, it says solar ordinance in the in the preceding I didn't know if you wanted us I know you want addressing change to address as I didn't know if you wanted solar in there I think I think it's just addressing to address Y that's the only ordinance it's mentioned in okay and that's all other than the dollar amount I picked that up too good cash but um that's all I think that's all

okay did anyone else have anything that they would like to change, amend or questions? Not hearing any, we'll take a vote. We'll make a vote. We'll vote to final approve the minutes as amended. All in favor?

Six. Uh against abstain. None. 600. That passes. Thank you. Uh correspondence I don't think I've had any correspondence. Does anyone else have any correspondence they want to share? Not hearing any. We'll go through comments. We'll start as usual with our select board member. Anything you want to share with us about It doesn't have to be, but we had a meeting Thursday. I was ill, so I

glad. So, uh, is there I can't recall anything that was there's always something. Um, we they've been working on draft warrant art. Oh, yeah. So, they're reviewing those. Um, okay.

Draft warrant articles. We talked about revenues. There was a discussion about revenues and and the fund balance. Um I'm um I've talked to which I will share with this board as well but um I've talked to the auditor um and had asked them to come in and do a presentation to the select board. It's very hard to explain the fund balance um and so um the auditor is going to draw up a document to see if that helps first. So I'll make sure I share that with this this committee as well. Um because it is hard to explain fund balance isn't money. It's not a given that you have that amount of money in in on hand. So, um I wanted to make sure we shared that. Um and the um tax rate is not set yet. Um we we did talk with the department of revenue yesterday. The school has submitted their documents, but there was an error, so they have to fix them and resubmit. I was hoping we'd have them done today, but um we're still waiting. So, the good news is we don't have our tax bill. The bad news is the town's going to run out of cash.

So, I can't think of anything else from that meeting right now. Ben was there. Oh, Ben was there for a big substantial piece of it because we were talking about War. Oh, we did make a purchase. Yeah, we did approve Ben to do a purchase on the air compressor replacement. Um, It's a It's a big purchase of about not big. I say big. $53,000. It's not as big as an engine, right? But it is a substantial purchase. Um the air compressor does have to be replaced. And so we chose to replace it out of the equipment.

And interesting fact, we do have re that piece of equipment does generate revenues from surrounding communities that also use it. Okay. State and fishing game. We also talked about adjusting their costs for the areas that right now what they pay um they pay an annual fee. So we've um talked about increasing it and Ben's going to um work on increasing their annual fee for using it. So and part of that was because the prior piece we got from a grant so we couldn't charge them. We we just do like a maintenance fee. And now we're actually purchasing a piece on our own.

We want to advertise the cost of the equipment and get some of that back. Yep. Okay. All right. How about committee members? Joe, anything you want to comment on, Brian? Good. That's Buzz, anything. I I will take the opportunity just to share with you guys that when this is just for your information. When we had the review with the nonmunicipal people, we had the visiting nurse association in and they told us they were selling the building.

And then at a later date, they contacted they sent me an email and said, "Hey, we know that the school is looking for new office space and we're looking to sell a building. We want to be good community members. you know, does the town want to buy the building for school offices? And I wrote back to him and I said, we're part of a regional school district. The town and the schools are not the same. So, I can tell you the town does not want to buy the building for school offices, but I don't I don't think that the school district would be interested, but I will pass on the information so that they know about it. So when I saw Paul Harice at the meeting they held to to correct the procedural defect, I told him and I was in their office maybe about 10 days ago to deliver a check from one of the trust funds and I talked to him and he said they are interested in the building and he is talking to the folks at the visiting nurse association.

So I don't know any details. I don't really understand how that building would work for them, but I'm just letting you know that part of the discussions that we have with people do ripple through the town and might actually end up doing some something good. So, they better be careful. So, I'm not sure they have a contract. Who has a contract? The school has a contract right now. So, they have to be careful about how much information shared. Yeah. Oh, so you're telling me I shouldn't be saying this in a public meeting? A little bit of it, maybe. I messed up again. Sorry. Um,

but let me rephrase that. They were asked to look into all options and they are, we've met with the school about um properties the town might own and about this building and I took them up and showed them the space. Um, and there's just there's not going to be enough room upstairs, but but we did meet with them. We walked them through um because they've been asked to review all options. So, when they come to town voting, they will have looked at everything that they can. Okay. Is my understand.

I I don't know all the details and I wasn't trying to give you a final answer. I just was trying to share what I thought was good news that in sharing information we might have hooked up some people that that will have a both benefit. So what's the impetus for new space the the SAU office the there's two things the the the staff is saying that they don't have enough space. So I think they say they have at least one I think it's two but they have at least one staff member who is has an office in one of the schools because they can't fit him in the room. They don't have any real meeting space. They can't have any meetings there. The other thing is that

they're in a building that they're leasing from TD Bank and they know that situation is going to change. Sure. So, they're nervous and they're not sure what the future holds even if they wanted to stay. There's a third reason, too, because the building the building they're in is going to need quite a bit of maintenance and renovations to it. So, okay. Okay. Thank you. Sure. So, that's it, I think, for members, staff. Any Christine, any comments you wanted to make that you haven't already? You jumped in on select board, so thank you for that.

I um mine technically do not have a lot. Um, I just thought I'd let you know for uh information purposes that the one of the towns has set their tax rate from three that withdrew. That's mine. Um, and it went up $5.54 per thousand. What was the increase? The percent the whole increase is attributed to the new school district period. So I mean our wage did it did it go up from 6 to 11 and it go from 20 to 25 or it went from $9 and something cents to $1520. So it went up

still a good tax rate mind you but it went up 50%. It went up a huge increase. So I'm sorry just for the school. It's just the school. Nothing else increased. No, but they were probably something went down two cents because it saved me two cents. But it it's technically the school went up $5.56. On the bright side, it looked like county went down. Yeah, that's what state county went down and the state school rate

the state. Yeah, I think um I already know I think our state schools gone down not tax rate but total bill and the county is in is very minor increase. So um but our valuation will help probably offset that um because our valuation is substantial. Um the rate has to go down because the valuation went up. So it's just we just don't know what the school's going to be. Okay.

But this is a brand new school district that can't apply also for the same discounts that they can't get all of the grants or or I think they can't my understanding is they can't get all of those in the first year. So, um that this school can get. So, yeah, my first my bill was a little painful. Yeah, my bill went up over $1,000 just just and just for anyone watching and you live in That's just my bill, by the way. And it's not Bristol. I'm saying it again so people know. I was going to say your name of your town so that they know. Okay. Um

we do not know what the other two have done yet. We've heard you up. Um they didn't post anything yet. Uh there's information out there. Someone a friend shared a snip from a page. It was significant, wasn't it? Was hers. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, so Bridgewater also went up. Is that what I've been told? But there's nothing posted anywhere yet. So, and if the rumor Bridgewwateraters went up more than did if the rumor is accurate. Okay. Well, thank you for letting us know.

Yep. It's painful for me, but Bristol's a great town. I know. I know. I've been up there for so long.

So, so I think we're about ready before we adjourn. I had one more thing I wanted to do and it's basically to talk about the next meeting. I want I want to let you know about the situation and make sure that somebody else doesn't have a better idea or any there's there's some there's going to be some issues with the library budget and the library is trying to get all of their trustees and some other people to come to the meeting. So they said to me, "We don't really want to show up at 6:00 and sit around for an hour till you get to the library. Can you arrange the agenda so that we have a better idea of when to show up? So, what I'd like to do, what we normally do is start with with the town clerk tax collector section and eventually get to the library. What I'd like to do is tell the library people to say, "Show up at 7:00." I don't think the town clerk tax collector will take a whole 45 minutes, but then what we'll do is we'll go back and do some of the sections with Christina that we can to fill the time from whenever we're done with Cheryl to 7:00. and then Karen Boyd who's the chair of the library trustees and Patty um who's the library director and you all know that I am a library trustee so I'm kind of included in that too will show up and we'll do the library starting around 7 that work for everybody so I'll I'll ask excuse me Shannon to put it in the agenda and I'll let the folks at the library know that that's what we're planning to do next week. So, just to clarify, just to go again, our next meeting is in a week, week from today on Tuesday 16th here at 6:00 as normal. And we've got quite a list of things to go through. So, that's normal. That's that's normally one of our big events. So, that's it for me. Does anyone else have anything else before we adjourn?

Someone want to make a motion? Make a motion to adjourn at 7:45. Second, right? 7:46 motion by less seconded by Scott. All in favor? We're ajourned. Thank you very much.