Budget Committee - Regular Meeting

Budget Committee meeting to order on Tuesday, November 25th, 601. Uh, first order of business, pledge of allegiance. Joan, would you like to lead us, please? Absolutely.

Pledge allegiance 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. Thank you. So this is the second of our five. You can have the seat. Second of our five meetings where we're going to go through detail of specific sections of the budget. So our first section I need to do different order but I'm got them basically in numerical order on the agenda is uh revital property section 4152. So I will make a motion to advance the budget for section 4152 which is reval property. Something just popped up on my screen and now I can't see the number in the select recommended amount of $171,960.

Second that. Second. So motion by Paul, seconded by Buzz. Um, I don't need to talk about it. I'm going to turn it over to Joanne if you could take us through some things and and then if we have any questions or uh requests, we will

Absolutely. Um, well, I'll just start off by um saying that I think tonight I talk about quite a few different of the groups. Um, 4152, the assessing side of things, it pretty much stayed flat. um in regards to all of the expenses with the exception of the contract services which is 4152 312. Uh I brought it back from last year we were at 26 uh,000 and I raised it to 30,000 and the reason being uh this was a new year for our contracting um services for the assessing company and they had not adjusted their rates in several years. Uh so this year or in starting in 2026 we'll see a rate increase um in regards to their general assessing as well as their reval um which is covered under a different accounting line item. Um but so that was the difference in years past. I think even when I started it had remained at 30,000 and that was because we had some assistance from Denise Dphano um who helped um with the land use team and and so forth but again that's really the only significant change um we stayed I think within the the parameters that we were asked uh to stay Okay.

So, I don't know if there's any questions in regards to the assessing side of thing. Obviously, this is a revalier. Uh, which has been interesting. I'm just going to add for Joey under contract services. Normally too, our Sean Shawn is our forester who's contracted, but because he's select board member, he doesn't charge us. So, while he's a select board member, we wouldn't have that fee in there, but we may have to adjust that back up when if he leaves the board, which he's not. is going to be chained there permanently, right? So, and that would be under this same 312 line, correct? Contracting services.

So, I I got through the meeting you had with the select board. So, I heard a lot about that. The only question that I was So, is this this is a these new rates, which seem to make sense. This is now basically a done deal. The town the sort authorized that you're we're signing contracts and doing these We signed a 5-year contract with our existing assessing company, Cumberford, Neer, and Perkins. Uh, in 2026, their rates um adjusted

and in 2027, their rates will adjust a little bit more. And likewise, each year for the 5-year contract to really get them to where they should have been a few years ago. Um, so rather than making it such a big leap, um, they staggered it. I think I had heard you say that. So rather than having a 15% increase once every couple of years, we're going to see a small increase every year going forward.

Yeah. And so um, we're char on the general assessing side of things. were charged for obviously the assessor's assistance and questions and handling of different um assessing activities, but also we what I've learned in my role is we call them pickups. So, anytime a property has any kind of change to their property, such as we've issued a permit, um a feature or something has been removed, they've demoed something. Um we typically that property is flagged and the assessor will go out there and make sure that their property card is accurate. Um and that's where this fee um comes into play. So since I came on board three years ago and our team has really been solid for the last three years, we have seen a significant increase in number of pickups because of the increase in permits that we're issuing. Um I think on average prior to my coming on board or it we were averaging about 180 pickups a year. Last year, um, we we had over 300 pickups. Um, I foresee because we've we've changed some of our criteria around permits, I see that dropping back down a little bit. Um, so I'm averaging about 200 pickups for 2026. Okay.

The only other thing that I'll add for Julian in the changes is that you know the administrative assistant job um we aren't reducing her but because she's split with another department the board um we we split her position between that and highway. Um, so the note does say, yeah, it doesn't say what percentage, but I was trying to remember it was like 8020 or 7525, but um you'll see that when we go to highway, you'll see her added in there. And we did the same thing with um another shared position.

Okay. So, you're saying line 120 went down because in a different department, that same person will go up there. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for bringing that to our attention. Does anyone else have any questions or go ahead Joanne? When you refer to pickups, you mean like putting a deck on or an addition garage, something like that?

Anytime a permit is issued, um it automatically that property automatically gets flagged in the assessing software system. And typically we'll go through and scrub that list before we actually have the assessors come out because there's a lot of things we already know that it's either neutral doesn't change anything. So I'm not going to pay for an assessor to go out there and check it. Um the installation of a sign would flag that commercial property. I'm not sending an assessor out there because I know there's a sign. So we will actually scrub that. So, in actuality, that list is probably closer to 500. Um, and we end up scrubbing that list down to where we physically need to have eyes out there looking at what took place.

On the other side of the permitting, has the new house permit um trend, is that stabilized, increasing, or starting to decrease? Um, I think from a housing market perspective, um, it it depends. I don't think we've really seen a lot of new builds, per se. Um, we've seen some subdivisions come into play. We'll probably in 2026 see some activity there. We've seen a lot of especially in the Lake District, we've seen a lot of demolition and rebuilding um on existing footprints or higher um but you know nothing I have to on a on a monthly basis report to the Census Bureau and it's really I think one month and I can't tell you which month it was but I think one month I might have reported three new builds. But typically, you know, it's been zero new builds. I report the value of the build. Um but and then with the furlow that just was taking place, they just reopened it up, so I had to report on October. But um so

yeah. Anyone else? I'll just comment that for all of Joan sections, I'll be abstaining because she's my mother-in-law. Okay. And he's a fantastic son. He already hopefully he already knows that. All right. So, not hearing any other comments. I think we're ready to move on to a vote. There's no speak up if I'm mistaken. So, we haven't made any motions to amend. So, we're going to vote on approving section 4152, re-evaluation of property in the original amount of $171,960. All in favor?

I I uh against abstain. Abstain. So 601 section 4152 is approved. All right, we'll go to the next one. Uh, 40. Did you want to do them in a certain different order or I was just going to do them? Yep. You're you need all

Okay. So, we're going to do 4191, which is the planning board. Um, I'll make a motion to uh move forward with the planning board budget. 4191 in the select board recommended amount of $10,31. Second. So motion by Paul, seconded by Sue for 4191. Again, is there anything you want to bring to our attention or share with us before we start asking questions?

I think the only thing I'll point out here is under 4191730, the master plan. I mean you'll you'll see that all the other line items there's really there's no change over historical data. Um the master plan the planning board did complete their section of the master plan in 2025 um and that was adopted um the rather than create a separate GL under conservation commission. We felt it prudent to keep it under the master plan, but the conservation commission wants to revisit working chapter five, which is um land resources,

natural resources, natural resources. So, we have we have some funds that we can encumber that the planning board didn't fully use in 2025. So, those will be encumbered. And I initially had had put a placeholder of 10 grand for the master plan and the select board shaved it down to the six. So that's what I'll share for the master plan. Does your copy show profession? Does your copy doesn't show professional services? So that sorry. Oh, it yes it does.

Yeah. I yeah, there's some line items that I don't I'm not visible to yet, but um another area for the planning board um David Shirley, who is the vice chair of the planning board, had asked for a line item to be, I guess, reactivated um for professional services because the planning board is working on a solar ordinance and he really wanted to have different expertise outside of the planning board. Take a look at that. Uh so we put a placeholder for uh professional services and I think it's 310 41 91 310 for $1,000 um to help the planning board establish a solar ordinance.

Would that ordinance be specific to homeowners or solar farms?

Uh homeowners um is it's not a commercial. It' be residential. Um, and some of the specific questions that Mr. Shirley had was about um, ground coverage, impervious coverage, steep slopes, you know, that type of thing where we just don't have that expertise in house. And so I had reached out to someone that has talked to the conservation commission in the past, Cindy Bas who runs she has her own company called Stone Ridge Environmentals something but she has a background in this where she may be able to assist the planning board. So

anyone else? No, I think the percentage I mean it looks high 10% but going from 9,000 to $10,000 is not worth getting our knickers in twist about. So So the the line 730 for the master plan is primarily for you said it was section or chapter 5 for land use for the conservation for the conservation commission.

Okay. Anyone else before we vote? Okay. So, let's go ahead and vote on approving section 4191 for planning in the original un amended amount of $10,31. All in favor? I opposed abstain.

So, we have 601 section 4191 for planning is approved. Uh, next will be zoning. So section 4192 zoning. I'll make a motion to move that budget section forward uh in the amount select board recommended amount uh $2,450. A second

motion by Paul, seconded by Sue to move section the zoning section 41 I'm trying to make it big enough that I can see it. That still fit on one screen. 4192 in the amount of worth $2,450. So sorry that I stumbled there. Go ahead and anything you want to share with us? No, it it is what it is. Pretty pretty lean. All right. Although out of all the boards, it's the most active. Okay. Oh, sorry.

Go ahead. I was going to say no. I was going to say is there anyone will there be more expenses coming out of there before the end? I don't really think so. um just lean you. Yeah, I think we've administratively I think we've really honed um I mean certainly there's some house bills that have recently passed with ADUs and other things that I think we're going to see an increase in 2026 but I don't think I mean if if you look at our ex our actual year to date we're still below what we had forecasted. So,

um, FYI, I learned last night there's 176 land use bills proposed for the next session of legislation. Thank you so much for that. Yeah. So, I just want to follow up on Les's question. When you ask that, I are you are you asking we we budgeted $2,450 last year and I mean for this year and we're only spending less than $700. Are you asking if there's an opportunity to make reductions or are you just pointing out the fact that we're significantly under spending?

I was just curious because a lot of times this time of year we still have bills coming in that we're paying. So, I think there was some outstanding ones there. Sorry, I was I think we should look into the postage because as active as they've been, it doesn't look right. Yeah. I think the only thing the only line item that we're not um is is postage and I think that's how how it's being captured internally. Oh, you know, no, there are three quarters worth of postage not or at least two quarters not booked here. Yeah, I could put that on our list. So, I think the postage will certainly catch up to for the amount of work they do having $61 in postage doesn't seem enough.

Yeah. No, they there are two quarters missing at at least two quarters missing and the third quarter we would run at the end at the end of December. Um or excuse me, two quarters counting the end of December are missing. Okay, so we'll fix that. 2024 numbers probably more representative. Yeah, good point. I don't have any desire to make a motion to amend, but I just wanted to follow up because I wasn't sure where you were going with that.

Nowhere to anyone else have any comments, questions, motions? Not here. Andy, let's go ahead and vote. So, we're going to make a vote on a final approval for section 4192, which is zoning in the original amount of $2,450. All in favor? I opposed abstain. 61. The zoning section is approved. And the next is land use and health administration. So, I'll make a motion to move mapping. Yeah.

Thank you. 4193. Yes. Let's try this again. All right. I'll make a I'll make a motion to move section 4193 from mapping in the select board recommended amount of $19,375. Second. Motion by Paul, seconded by Les for mapping 4193. Uh Joanne. Yeah. I do you want to do this? I we we broke this out into two. one section the 41. Okay, I now can see I thought she's missing the ability to be able to print something.

Yeah. 41933 394. So the first section 4193390 is our annual tax maintenance. This is our GIS system that we use um for the town. The public has access to it. Um these are our annual fees um to maintain our mapping software um and any advanced queries that type of thing. So you'll see it dropped a little bit from last year um to this year only because of what I'm proposing under 4193394 which is some um add-ons to our software program which will give us a lot more visibility into what we have in the town from a mapping and GIS perspective. Um, one of the things that we've been charged or challen charged and challenged with is being able to visually see, you know, our our housing inventory on a map. Um, and one of the things that this will do, so I guess the 4193390 you you see a decrease. The 4193394 is a line item where it was opted for us to capture the one-time fees to add the um software upgrades for us to be able to do some pretty darn cool things with our mapping software. Um, for example, one of the things that the select board has um asked the land use team to

consider is short-term rental program. and without me policing VBO or Verbbo or Airbnb or realtor sites and those types of things which I still need to do to be able to kind of capture the data but once the data is captured we'll be able to code our assessing software like and from a visual perspective be able to pull up a layer on our mapping software ware that will say, "Show me all the short-term rentals in the town." And you'll be able to see where they are, where the density is. Same for any other type of criteria criteria we might try to establish such as, you know, where is our single family population or our multif family or our commercial. So, it it gives us a lot more insight into our data without just looking at numbers all the time. Um, so yes, the one time is $11,250, but that goes away after we get it. Um, and then the annual maintenance drops down by the, you know, $500 um, on an annual basis until we decide to do more cool stuff

and I'm here next year. Will this update also include getting like I know we've talked for years about you need to download Jeff Chardier and like it used to be Mark Buckland's brains about all of the assets. Yeah. Where the water lines are, sewer lines. Y will bullet also include all of that?

It it has that capability. Um, so there's different there's advanced queries that we'll be able to do um for public works um for our manage our asset management um that type of thing. Right now Ashley Bureau who's on my team, she was under the assessing line and covered partly under uh Victor's line item. She has been adding the assets to the software program. It is really manual um to do but um you know it's it's something that we want to build on on an annual basis. Next year even like current use we'll be able to if we decide to go that route you know understand what our current use um inventory is in this town. So,

I just will add for doing too. Um, so with Jeff's systems, we did get an asset management grant last year. Um, and they just finished the project on the water side. Um, and it was very extensive. They've got an ARGIS program that this was put into, but it will be able to communicate with this system. Um, so we will be able to hopefully enter that too. We also have received an asset management grant this year for the sewer side and we will pro most likely depending what the board decides putting a warrant article for a loan through dees for this. It's a $60,000 project $30,000 grant and we're going to be putting a warrant article for a $30,000 loan through dees to do the whole sewer side project. But it will all interlin is what we're with this new upgrades. Um the road working group which Paul is a member of is been um is also doing that's what Ashley's been entering manually is a lot of that data and it's really cumbersome in the system that she's entering now which is um assets for the highway like roads drainage and then I was trying to think what else whether they're paved or dirt or culverts so

right type and the and the status are they in great condition or fair condition or condition. Yeah. Yeah. And then to also turn it into a plan for the future for the for the roads. So

So I I have one question just my I'm an engineer by training and so I I look at this and I say, okay, we're going to make a one-time investment in significantly increase increasing our capability. I would I would expect that now we also need to provide some time and money to send some people to go get some training to make sure we know how to use all these new tools. Is that is it is that correct? And if it is, is that in this budget or do you expect it would that be till next year's budget? I I it's it's cap I mean we have in each of these line items we have training. Um okay. So you just existing trainings but a lot of these

will do sorry

yeah CI um the cardioraphics the mapping company like he came in a month two months or so ago and now that we have some intelligence behind our rules a little bit um not a lot just a little bit um you know he was showing us some pretty pretty What? What did you say? I said, "Hey, wait a minute." No, I'm talking about myself. Um, you know, he was showing us some of the things that we could do and it was just the manh hours that it's taking us to do it without this.

Oh, no. I wasn't I wasn't questioning the spend on the on the equipment. I was just going to say if you're going to if we're going to buy all these new capabilities, let's make sure we know how to use them and get the value out. That's provide the training actually. So we actually have had them come in for group trainings with Highway. Um we'll book this room and they'll be on TV and walking us through steps in the programs. You made me very happy. Not only you giving me an answer, you gave me the answer I wanted. Yes, we'll do training and no, we don't have to add money to the budget. Thank you very much. I'm glad I did make you happy. Just remember that when I present mine. No kidding. All right. Didn't mean to cut you off. Did No.

Anyone else have anything else they want to bring up? Are we ready to go ahead and vote on the mapping section? I think we are. So, we'll vote on final approval for section 4193 mapping in the We didn't make any changes. So, it's the current amount of $19,375. Can I keep this? All in favor? I oppos. So we're 601 again. Mapping is approved. All right. Now I can go to 40. I'll make what's that? No, I'm trying to figure out how to fix you. Go ahead.

So we're going to go to section 4411 land use and health administration. And I'll make a motion to consider the budget for section 4411 land use and health administration in the select board recommended amount of $163,615. A second. Seconded. Motion by Paul, seconded by Sue. All right. And I will try to keep up because this is over more than one page. So, but I think I can do that. Joanne, what do you want to tell us before we start asking? I think we we stayed flat. um in this in this group. Okay.

Um not to have that um mislead you in thinking that we're not active or or but I think um land use we were able to stay stay pretty plat. Okay. So I mean I just it seems kind of I don't quite understand not that it's a big deal but people's salaries are going up by 4% but FICO went up by 28% and retirement went down. What what's

there's a new rate and retire um for both of those retirement percentage went down but FICO went up a little bit. You'll see that theme across the board. Okay. And all budget lines contain and it may we're using a different spreadsheet to calculate these now. So it may have been an error. I won't say that that's true in the past, but it could have been. So all right.

But yeah, retirement rate went down one or one and a half% if I can remember correctly. So, no. I guess the only other comment I'll make is simply looking at line 625. Again, postage seems really low. Is that something you want to check on? I don't think we need to do anything. Just kind of comment that might be another line you want to check on. It's going to be postage across the board. So, postage, we have to run a special report from the machine. We have the new finance person. Um, I don't She's been busy doing other things, right? So, she's gonna probably run that and book it.

All right. Anyone else have a question or a comment or a desire to make a motion to change something? I don't either. So, I think we'll go ahead and vote to approve this section. We're going to vote on a final approval for section 4411, Land Use and Health Administration. We didn't make any changes. So, it's the original amount of $163,615. Every All those in favor? I post abstain.

601 land use is approved. And now, so I just want to think about is there anything else here? So, parks and parks and wrecks are next, but should we do anything else? Joanne needs to do. I'm 40. I'm conservation and historic district. So, why don't why don't we skip down to conservation and historic and then Joanne can be done and get out of here. You're here all you're here all night late anyway. Well, I got I was doing

all right. So, I'll make a motion to uh consider to move forward with the budget for 4611, which is the conservation commission and the select board recommended amount of $2,500. Second. Motion by Paul, seconded by Scott.

The only change to point out here is that um the conservation commission uh this will be the second year that they've they've opted to send um a young person to camp Barry camp 4 camp. Um, and we've had two other members, private members of the Conservation Commission opt to send two others. So, there'll be a total of three, but the Conservation Commission will will um is asking to send one of the three campers. And there was an increase in the sponsorship or the tuition to Barry from 700 from last year to 800 in 2026. So that that is the $100 difference between last year versus this year.

So that's the only thing I saw in here. I'll just comment is is I had never heard of this until I was it last year or maybe the year before last year that we used to do it years ago and they wanted to do it and I but it seems to have gotten and then I just saw in the paper that Slim Baker is also sponsoring something. So So this seems to be very popular. Yeah. Positive. It's a very high demand program. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't It takes minutes to book. No, it does. Almost like TTCC summer.

They hold slots. They hold number slots for pre like it something like this 10 to 11 gives you a little I was going to say where did they get the 800? I didn't say All right. Anyone else have a anything they want to say? Another quick one. Good. We'll go ahead and now vote for final approval on section 4611 conservation commission in the final amount of $2,500. All in favor?

I post abstain. 601 conservation commission is approved. And then you said historic district. Mhm. 4612. Yeah. Just make that bigger so I can read it. I'll make a motion to advance uh to consider section 4612 historic district commission in the select board recommended amount of $650. A second. Motion by Paul, seconded by Sue. Anything you want to talk? All zero changes. So there's nothing. No changes. This is my PR plug for volunteers for the HDC. That is we're

there are commission. It's supposed to be a five member commission. How many are currently on? We currently have three. And one of them is a board rep. Correct. Okay.

So, I've been working on one individual. Um hopefully I can convince her um that this would be they're only by by statute they're only required to meet four times a year from October to September. Um and unfortunately in 2025 they didn't meet that requirement even um they only met three times. So, you know, the the commitment for somebody um you know, isn't significant, but it's really important. So, well, I don't know how many people are watching us on the stream, but good plug. Thank you.

I don't have any questions. Does anyone else want to make a comment or ask a question? I I will add to the we can eliminate the historic district. It's part of zoning and because we're certified local government center, we're required to have. Okay. Not hearing any other questions or comments, let's go ahead and vote on final approval. section 4612 Historic District Commission and we're voting on the original amount of $650. All in favor? I abstain.

601. Joanne, thank you for taking time out of your Did you have something else you wanted to Can I just put a plug in for our revenues?

Sure, go ahead. um year to date the revenues for each of the groups that we support and again obviously we've gone through all the line items so you know but um in 2025 we had budgeted for land use change tax. So any property that comes out of current use where as long as we identify it and we capture it, we have an 18-month window for um identifi or discovery of a property coming out of current use. And so that means any property that has 10 acres or more contiguous acres, it could be separate parcels or whatever. It doesn't need to be one parcel, but they have to be um same property owner names exactly. Any change to that property where it's now considered to be developed um a driveway goes in, they start construction that triggers something, an activity. So we had budgeted in 2025 um and it's 10% of the current market value of that land that's coming out of current use which is determined by our assessing company. Um, in 2025, we had budgeted $5,000 because the activity prior to was really very very little was coming out of current use or being captured coming out of current use. In 2025, we have built and collected over 27,000 um in land use change tax of which 50% of that gets applied to a fund for the conservation commission for them to use to secure um property or whatever. So, I think that's a good news story. And then

just so you know, you won't see that $27,000 in revenue reporting. You'll only see half of that because we we don't we put in the film. We're not going to use that to offset taxes. Um, another area, land use permits. We now we no long call them land use permits. We call them certificates of zoning compliance or COC's or COCC's. Um I said don't call them that.

Yeah. Yeah. We have our own internal acronyms. Um for 2025 we had budgeted 12,000. In 2024 we had realized 33,000. Um but because of the change in how what we were kind of the the trigger to determine whether or not a land use permit um was required increased. It used to be $2,000 for um any interior work or remodeling. The planning board made the decision to change that because it hadn't been changed forever to $15,000 in materials only. So, you know, one could argue, you know, we're not in that we're not in the policing business. We're not asking people to produce receipts of materials or any of that type of thing. But even with that significant change, um, we have realized year to date almost tw,000 in land use permits. Um, and I think through end of October, I want to say we've issued about 168 permits, which is about 40 less than what we did in 2024. So, it's still we're still quite busy. And another area that we've I I think this is a good news story. We also implemented in on September 1st of 2023 three an after the fact penalty. So if somebody did work without, you know, first coming to the town to see if they even needed a permit. There was no sting factor. Not that we're in the business of stinging people, but we needed to have it hurt a little bit because otherwise they were saying,

"I'll just pay what you're going to charge me anyway now that I've done the work." So, we implemented an after the fact penalty of two times what it would have cost them to come before. Um, last year was the first year of full implementation. We saw a significant amount of after the-act penalties. This year we've seen a significant decrease in it which is good. Um but we will hit what we forecasted for revenue with one property is going to get stung pretty bad but um so that's my story and I'm sticking to it. All righty.

Well, thank you. Anyone else have anything they want to ask or Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you. Same to you. Same to you. All right. Are you moving over? Is Rick moving in or how do you want to do this? You want that? You want I said does I said does Les want to move over or does Rick want to move in? How he doesn't handle it? I was asking less. She's got the she

So, so before you start talking, let me just make the motion. So, we have a motion on the table. I'll make a motion to advance the budget section 4520 parks and recreation in the select board recommended amount of $133,325.

Second. Motion by Paul, seconded, excuse me, by Joe. Um, there's just the one line, but why don't we I'll shut up. Go ahead. Paul, thanks for having us tonight. We appreciate it. Um, just wanted to, you know, talk real quick about the community center as as it states, the community center, and I know you're all aware, but is sort of the de facto recreation department for the community for the a communities that make up the nonprofit, right? So eight communities paying to comprise, you know, comprise together to to form the Catholic Thompson Community Center. Um and so what you see here is a 6% increase over last year. Um we'll be transparent and open. We're, you know, we're still, you know, postcoid inflation. Um really 10, 12, 15 years of really flat no increases. Uh we're still trying to catch up a little bit to be honest with you where, you know, we came flying out of CO and the cost of doing business rose significantly for us, you know, paying part-time employees, attracting youth and part-time employees. Um and so that is sort of part of that there. It's been a couple it's been a busy couple of years for us obviously. Uh Paul, you were in recently saw the renovation that's finally been completed for the most part. 99.9% I would say is completed and it is uh it's a wonderful uh addition to the center and sort of uh that building deserved the love that it got over the last two years to give it back sort of a a shot in the arm of life um because it's just so used uh it's used uh you know 7 days a week and so we have that happening uh but what you see here in the budget increase really comes down to just operationally ensuring that you know we're uh we are prepared to uh rece receive sort of record numbers of kids, you know, for the after school program, for the for the uh for the uh the summer

the summer camp, which is, as Scott alluded to, it sells out in seconds. Over 200 kids, I think this summer, 245

245 kids between two camps essentially, one at the center and one at the elementary school, uh able to divide and conquer a little bit and spread them out. And so, uh, the demand is there. The demand for adult programming is there. Uh, you know, we we had a meeting, you know, last, uh, Thursday night and, you know, adult basketball's happening upstairs and there's a couple of adults playing in the brand new music room we just opened up for youth and adults. And so, uh, it it seems to be pretty constant and, um, you know, we survive, uh, through a fee structure. Uh but the communities, believe it or not, of the eight communities, they pay about 28% of our budget. Uh and so it's fairly low compared to So we survive off donations. So my shameless plug tonight beyond the taxation conversation we're having here is we if you would love to learn how to be a donor to the Tap Thompson Community Center, we'd love to talk to you outside this meeting. So um because that's how we live. That's our bloodline is really is fundraising, is grant writing, uh to make sure that we're there for the kids, for the for the community every single day. When you think about like another important service that we offer, we talk about sort of food insecurity. Um you know, pre this whole federal government shutdown, you know, maybe we were averaging 120 130 bags a week on Fridays to kids across the district. And that still includes Bridgewater, Hebrin, and Graten. those those communities in Hill pay into the community center. Uh we're averaging just shy of 190 bags a week, right? So that service and operation warm that the that the team leans down there making sure that uh you know this this time of year there's more Amazon and Walmart boxes being being dropped off with with snow gear and winter jackets and mittens and hats to make sure that you know these kids have the proper attire to be outside for the next really six months. So, those are just two very successful programs that really

hit right at the core of what we do, the need of the community on top of being your recreation department, which is just uh I think another fun stat is I think Dan this last baseball softball season he he scheduled 24 teams from T-ball to Babe Ruth. Uh that's wild to coordinate 24 teams and I don't think there was really a mistake to be honest with you. everything was typically no accounted for. You know, there wasn't you didn't get to a game and a team didn't show up, right? Uh so the the growth is there, the demand is there. Um and that's what's Did I miss anything that

I don't think so? No. The other thing that we're doing that we partnered with New Farm Country Store, but it's under our umbrella is the turkey trot. So all the funds raised from the turkey trot, we give back out to the community for people that might need gas cards, Walmart cards, Hanford cards, eyeglasses. Today we paid for two kids to go on the ski program because their family couldn't afford it. So um it's kind of a go-to, especially this time of year during the holidays is when people are really reaching out to to get some help.

And the years of just flat budgets are are behind us. Unfortunately, and we've kind of explained that to all eight communities, budget committees, select boards, been really transparent with with our with our our members about look, it's just we can't sustain to be flatline like that for forever and we're obviously still paying for it. You know, when the center when the eight towns came together, the towns were paying about 50 some odd percent. Today, last year it was as low as 23% and now it's at 28%. And so we've got to find that happy medium where the town's, you know, this the skin in the game for everyone is sort of equal. I'm not saying we're trying to drive towards 50 or 75%. That's not the intent, but we're trying to find that balance where, you know, everyone sort of pays their fair share uh within the communities and it is based on average daily population use. And

Bristol is the lion share just like for the school district. itself. The only other thing I'd add is we did give $40,489 in scholarships and 20,000 plus of that was to Bristol residents. So if a child can't a parent can't afford a program, they're not turned away. We give them Just to clarify, when you say scholarship, you're not talking about you're sending them to to uh you're giving that they can go to the summer camp, go to the basketball program and not pay their fee. Okay. Right. And how much percent went to Bristol? 20,000. So to half of it. Okay.

Yeah. I mean this in my mind this is the the part of the town government that the community engages with the most. Right. I mean all of us engage in public service and I think we're a lot more exposed to the town. The town departments. The community center is is the organization that I would say almost every family in this community is connected with at some point. Um, and so to me, like I hear your point about trying to balance, but I actually think this is where like I think the town should be putting some of its money. So, um, living in this community for 35 years, maybe I'm a little bit biased, but we appreciate Scott.

Um, with the other some of three other towns leaving the school district, are they still very committed to the center? Yes. It's the first phone call they made. Mhm. was to ensure that they could still obviously never say no. Yeah. No, but as long as their funding is still I mean that's you know Oh, it has to be fair. No. And uh if they weren't No, like if they were to pull out and they wouldn't be able to participate, right? Correct. Would not be

I did a year when when I when I was just for people's benefit because I wasn't sure when I got involved in this and I didn't grow up here. I and I said the less I said is this, you know, what's the policy? Is this negotiable? You know, if we're not happy with the number and she said, well, I'm I hope that's not the case, but that's not it's it's a policy set by the TTTC directors. We have a formula. This is the fair share. You either pay it or you don't. And if you don't pay it, you can't participate. But you can't really say, I want to pay you $3 less than what you're asking for. It's it's kind of a yes or no question. And and part of that concern over the years when they did the formula was that if a town said, "No, we're not going to pay it. We'll just let our people pay a higher fee to come." Well, that would have destroyed the whole formula because no town would have wanted to pay at that point,

right? So, they're paying for a recreation department full service. I just didn't know if everyone knew that. I I have asked you I just was sharing so that people know that is that we don't have the option to to change this by$100 or $200. It's it's kind of like the NHMA. It's a yes or no question. Yeah, we're an anomaly in the state and we know that I don't believe there's maybe the Colonel Town back in the day in Lancaster had some nonprofit side to it, but other than that we're we're Tilton Northfield

Tilton Northfield the pines you know it's it's not common. you know, most rec departments live in their local government structure. Um, and we are a true nonprofit and sometimes we really feel it. Um, yes, you know, for for I've said it time and time again. I, you know, I've talked with Sean like you about it as member of the board of sle. If Bristol was to start their own rec department tomorrow, it would be expensive. It would be pricey to, you know, craft up an operating budget and then you'd have to find a facility to recreate in. and so hard to do. So this is kind of a neat situation where the eight towns have the ability to buy their recreational services from us. Yeah, there's still a fee to playing youth sports and stuff like that, but that's really nominal compared to what you know what this covers is really the operations of the center that is able to deliver those services that need to be delivered.

And as less pointed out, if some community member doesn't have the resources to pay the fee, you guys look for a way to compensate for that. We do. I don't think there's any question that DTC is a very major asset to the town and the area. Well, we appreciate that. Yeah.

And, you know, obviously this budget doesn't really affect I know there's a lot of talk about the the future of of the the community center where we're heading. I thought we would take a pause or a break after the renovation, but we were writing into a potential uh growth opportunity for the center and it's public knowledge at this point that we do have a purchase sales agreement on Kathleen's Cottage. Um, and so, you know, this budget here doesn't reflect maybe just a little bit of keeping the heat on this winter and items like that, securing it, making sure it's ours utility wise. Um, but going forward when it people have asked, what are you going to do about with that building going forward? Yeah, we're going to have to add some some lines in there to make sure that we're paying the utilities. Uh, that probably change locks and things like that. Um, but for now the building's going to stand. You know, if the the Seattle goes through next month, which we hope is the is the is what's going to happen, the building will just stay what it looks like right now. Uh, we can actually use it from a summer once it's cleaned out and it's um safe. Uh, we can program in it from a summer standpoint. It's adjacent to the park. It really doesn't get easier or better than that. Um, you think about that that room they had called the Mullins room, which is right off the restaurant. They had a little stage in there. has a perfect room to program in for less and her staff has

a batting cage. Has a batting in the batting cage. We're going to get there. And um pet project. Um so you you are the coach, right? I'm one of them. There's one. So you know people have asked what's the deal? That's the deal with the with the with the project. And right now this budget really doesn't reflect a lot of expenses over there. It's kind of status quo. You know, going into there'll be some line items that will be added. The whole building, right? Not not just I mean Cathy's College was here originally. Was there in my mind I call it the Parkers building. The whole me too. That's what I'm thinking. And I was actually talking to her the other day. So, yeah. It's the whole building. Yeah. The whole property. Yeah. Yeah.

The whole she right on the park. But I heard you say this the other day. Just want to and I think you've kind of already said it, but just to be completely blunt, this money is to go to the TTTC operating budget. Anything that's like a major capital project is not funded through this. That's fundraising. That's grants. That's other things. So, if that's a shortcoming of ours, we've never had a capital line with the eight eight towns on anything that we do in that building or even what we're going to do in the future. It's crossed my mind, you know, but we just haven't gotten there yet. But if we have a shortcoming, Paul, you just pointed it out big time, which is

Well, I didn't mean to encourage you to change, but but I also wanted to let people know that we're not we're not paying for a new building. We're not paying for the renovation on the building. We're paying to operate the TTC and provide the services. Nothing has to do with building that building is completely fundraised for. Mhm. And um the seed money that we'll have, you know, we we just received really two grants um from the federal government and that money will be used to start the project. So to continue fundraising. I'm glad you're closing next week. We expended before they take it back away.

It just got pushed a few days, but we're trying. We're trying. All right. Anyone else comments, questions? Go ahead. I just one question. Uh when your when your accounting year ends for the operating budget, do you find yourself in a deficit or surplus position? I can. Oh, yeah. Go ahead.

When I started, there were many years that we were in a deficit. I I always use the example that I'd be rolling quarters from a Coke machine to try to get it make make it look better than it was. And then for very a lot of years now we've ended with a surplus which we put into our capital project account for any projects that we're doing on the building which we used up when we did this building. Um so the la last year we would have ended at a small deficit just because of the cost of construction on that building but typically we end up break even or a little bit to the good.

Okay. So unlike say the school system or a a county or or town, the fund balance is, you know, fairly insignificant, right? Correct. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think we just had to sort of get that horse off our shoulders up there and and get the get the project done because that's what was sort of drying up some resources. And now that this budget here should operations should normalize and we should go back to being in the black. Not by a lot, right? It's never by a lot. We had a couple of good years during co right obviously because we weren't

money was coming in but we weren't expending a whole lot because we weren't hiring staff and convening kids and we were able to take those good years and put them into the capital reserves which therefore allowed us to really meet the overages that we faced on on the uh which we've been transparent about the overages on this on this project. So, so it would be fair to say that the the budget is constructed for the eight towns in a way to to cover it with the revenues and that's how you and not to have excess at the end. Sure. Not that excess isn't nice to have at the end. That's a surprise sometimes. Yeah. As you said here. Yeah.

Hopefully CO never happens again though, right? I hope not. Anyone else? Okay, let's go ahead and vote. So, we'll make a final vote on section 4520, Parks and Recreation. We didn't make any changes, so it's the original amount of 133,325. All in favor? I uh opposed, abstained. Thank you. So it's 61 again. I didn't look to I didn't look to you because have a good Thanksgiving. You too.

So we have one more section which is patriotic purposes. So I will make a motion to advance consideration of the budget for section 4583 patriotic purposes in the select board recommended amount of $31,900. Second. Seconded. Motion by Paul. Seconded by Sue. Um Christina are you are we missing somebody or are you gonna talk against this? I can actually we both will because yeah some portions not that any of them

because it covers multiple things. So go ahead. So you will see um under the special events coordinator we did increase that um this year not by a a lot but what's happened is we had the same person doing that job for probably 15 plus years and she didn't increase a lot over those years. So, she really wasn't making much money, but she was devoted and committed to the town. And now we've hired a new person and we've added now they're looking at all the things that were being done and saying there's no way you can do all that for this kind of money. So, which typically happens. So, that's why we have made an increase to offset some of the additional duties that we're adding in. with the decorating committee getting out of some of their activities. We've picked up more activities than what we had before

and some of the duties for that person's been adjusted. Some of the committee members are taking on more roles as well. So that was the question I was going to ask. So basically with you saying this, you're saying this in your role as a member of the community events committee. I just want to Is that correct? Yes. Okay. And so the job's gotten bigger, the salary hasn't been increasing, and now the new person is saying, "I'm happy to help, but it's doesn't work." So is it is is this increase enough that they're or is it a is it a blend of taking some things off the plate and increasing both? Both you're doing both.

And then the actual community events budget has not changed. Oh. I like the number of actual stuff probably. So, yes, that and that covers all of the concerts. Um, Fourth of July, not the fireworks, not the fireworks, um, dances, the brochures, Halloween. I was going to say you've got lighting and things like that that goes on community night out, old home day. It goes on and on.

I'll just I talked to the downtown decorating committee chair. She didn't request any increase. It um she kept theirs the same um which is Lucille. They're doing a great job and um they've already started decorating for Friday's event. Um so, okay. And then the last one, the patriotic purposes. Yeah, these are Is it Is this the fireworks committee or is this something?

No, this is um these are patriotic purposes. They're the flags. Um so um the reason that these this went up um from 1500 to 2500 is because next year is the 250th anniversary. So we're going to be looking at banner flags. Um and I have no idea how much they're going to cost at this point, but we're going to look at banner flags. The banner flags are pretty much added, too. So, um, regardless of what we do, even if we don't do something special for the 250th, we have to replace the banner flags that are downtown. So, um, not not American flags, but the banners themselves. This also

the pole above and below that it stretches between. Okay. Yeah. These this so this budget pays for the banners, but also pays for the the flags as well. So and the buding on buildings if we have to replace it it comes out of here as well. So okay is the is the actual spent year to date do you think that's correct? No. Okay. That's the answer I thought you might get but I don't know.

Okay. Sorry. Something else on your plate? I think um I might have to research the whole budget because I'm wondering if we just did flags. That was a big purchase. I'll find out right now. I bet they came out of the events budget.

I already looked at that one. Um I will double check, but but I don't um it I don't believe that is accurate at all. So, um, if for some reason it is accurate, um, I might go to the I might get a quote for flags and come back to you to adjust. We'll encumber what's left and come back to you to adjust that line down for next year. Um, I just have to find out for sure if that is correct or not. Okay.

I'm going to present to you anyway when whatever and I'll make sure to get you an answer for that meeting. So, if I can adjust it down, I will. Okay. Anyone else have any other comments or questions? The the one followup I had just is reading the the the note under patriotic purposes line 890 points out again as you you already said it verbally that it's the 250th anniversary. This line 890 is for is for flags and bunting and things like that. But does it impact the community events at all or we just do more celebrations because it's a bigger event? We're not doing more events. Is that a correct?

The only I'm assuming. So I'm asking for confirmation. Is that a good assumption? The only thing the 250th may affect would be the fireworks. So okay. Um and that's a discussion. Um it'll be on the article and that's a discussion for the stock board. Um, we've had some issues with the fireworks vendor being able to book because it's the 250th. So, um, we haven't gotten final determination yet. So, um, we're hoping that we still have an event. Um, uh, but we're having a little difficulty with it being the anniversary. So, okay.

Okay. Not hearing any other comments or questions. I think we're ready to vote on final approval for section 4583 patriotic prop patriotic purposes. We didn't make any changes. So, it's the original amount of $31,900. We're voting on final approval for this section. All in favor?

I opposed and abstained. We got seven eyes. So, 70 that's approved. All right, guess I close my agenda. So, that's the sections that were on our agenda for tonight. We're through with detailed budget uh section reviews and approvals. Let's try to go through the rest of the agenda relatively quickly. The next thing on our item on our list is uh going over the minutes of our meeting, most recent meeting which was last Tuesday on November 18th. Um I make a motion to approve the minutes of the November 18th meeting.

Second. Motion by Paul, seconded by Brian. Um, we had a little bit of a kurfuffle, I guess I will say. Paul Paul messed up. I forgot that we had a week. So, we get to the end of last week and I forgot I had to turn them around quickly. So, you're seeing what you got was normally they go through me and I amend them. So, my comments aren't here. So, I'm actually going to have a comment or two to to change things here. So, do we want to does before we get into the detail of the grammar and I know we are going to go there. Does anyone No, we're not.

Oh, does anyone does anyone else I have at least one. Does anyone else have any other uh motions or suggestions for changes? Um there's nothing grammatical, but Okay. On the last page where it's the the information for the the new meeting. Yep. It's just all run together. There needs to be some punctuation in there. Bristol Town office meeting room a review and approved today. Okay. Well, we can fix that. That's the only comment I have. Okay. So the the the one comment that I know I have is in

our meeting last week we amended the amount for the Lakes Region Mental Health Association I think. Yep.

Um and that passed. There's not a doubt but the minutes say that the vote was 601 as the one I know I voted against not to abstain. So the correct is 610, not 61. Doesn't change anything, but um that might have been one of two little things, but that was the one they wanted. I guess that was it. Anyone else have any other things they would like to see changed in this in these minutes? Okay. So, we'll make a motion to approve the minutes as amended. All in favor?

I. That's seven. So, against and abstain zero. Back to the agenda. Correspondence. Christine, any correspondence? No. There was something and I didn't write it down and now I'm not going to remember it. It wasn't important, but I was going to share something with you and I don't know what it is. Anyone else have any correspondence? Okay. Um, member comments. Scott, anything going on with the select board or any I mean, you could have something personal, but in particular, anything with the select board you want to share with us? Uh, nothing to share. Okay.

Buzz, anything? No. Less? Nope. Okay. Uh Christina, anything you want to share with us? Happy Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. So, our next meeting is in two weeks. Tuesday, December 9th. Normal time and place, Tuesday night at 6:00. Looks like we've got the whole safety section. So, you know, the building, the police, the fire, emergency management. Um, anyone else or would someone like to make a motion to adjurnn? Buzz makes a motion to adjourn. Seconded by Joe.

It is 7:13. All in favor? Just close your computers and you can