Board of Finance - Regular Meeting

last time if anyone wants them. So it looks so let me call the meeting to order at 7:04 and it looks to me like we have a full house in terms of the regular members. Um Fred Bearinger is is not here um as an as an alternate but otherwise two of the three alternates is pretty good. Welcome everybody. on this.

Let the the the first item on the agenda is wages for social services and live senior center. But I see that there are Anita there are new uh handouts or the new sheets and are the are there changes on these sheets other than the addition of salaries? Salaries, insurance, um anything we've updated? Yeah, the benefits. There's a couple there are some other ones. Yeah, there's a couple other everything that you've approved though. It's not like we threw stuff in. No, no. I just I went through the old ones and so I'm just trying to

There's a couple I I could tell you which ones were, but there's there are a couple minor changes. Okay. So, let's start with the wages for social services and L senior center not approved at the February 4 meeting. Where do we see those wages? I have them here. The wages um for social services department was 25263 and that she did not update the social services because Martha still has to go through the other ones when you have that chance. I did it's on the agenda for tonight. Oh, okay. Okay. When go through them then make

right. It's on. It's the last thing. Special service agencies. So, where where do we find social services? And it's in your book. What number do you know? It's uh 206.

You just were adding that to the wages line. Okay. So social services budget for 256 uh the current year is 23958 and the proposal if it goes up to 25263 what $13400 any any comments about that or discussion questions what you're doing well we approved that line without the 125 and their wages are will be now 25263 for a total of 2648.

Well, we we we approved everything but the wages. So, tonight we just need to approve the wages. You just have to do the 25263. Correct. Any questions or discussions about that? I'll make a motion for the wages for social services 25,263. I forgot I forgot. Um Andy Andy made the motion. Kim seconded. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay. Any abstensions. That's approved.

Then the next one will be the wages for the line senior center. You approved 91550. Their wages are 116463 for a total of 208013 for the department. And where what number is that? That's all right. Same page. Same page.

Could you just give that number again? Okay. So, we did 16463. We already approved 91550 for a total of 2080 break. And what so that that's the aggregate wages. What what the the wages on this sheet are broken down? Oh yeah. It's Can you tell us what what's the comparison between this number and last year's number? Do you have one?

Uh the budget is 66576, right? Well, that was just this is the clerk, the assistant, and the senior clerk. All so it's 66 + 16 + 42. This 66, 102, 103, 104. So it looks like maybe 105 total last year and up to 116. I got it. I'm working on it.

No, no, I'm sorry. Uh, it would have been 108, 109, 110. So, it's up 5%. So, you're saying 110 in fiscal year 2026, and 116 in fiscal year 2027. Is that right? Okay. I wanted and and is is the increase because everybody got a cost of living increase or somebody got a step raise or Stephanie got a significant raise. We voted on this at salary 2.5 plus step if you could get a step if you were eligible for step

and that's that's all that is in all that's that is it and um for clerks we left it the same. Okay. Any questions on this number and it was 110 254 election.

Okay. A motion, please. I'll make a motion to approve 116463 for senior center wages.

There a second on the seconds. Any discussion? All in favor say I. Any oppose say nay. Any abstensions? That's approved. Okay. Selectman's office was I was going to say Jen Datam's here from the registars there various people are dialing in for oh okay

it's all part of general government So, were there any increases uh due to increase in hours generally? Martha?

Well, we went down from 419 to 401. We took out the intern. So that was that basically. Anything else was an increase. Um but we do have some down at the bottom for um sustainable old lime and a decrease in Shoreline Gateway and an increase as well. We talked about the budget for um Cheryl's for America 250, but I thought that was supposed to be 5,000 for next year. No, it got moved to me because

we took it all as we moved the appropriation. Okay,

got it. Okay, that's good. So, the sustainable old lime we just talked about it salary because um we really need to have someone who's the writer. Pay someone to be the writer. Um this is an important um we're we're currently a silver I don't know if Cheryl's on. We're sorely silver, but we're going to lose our silver status because uh we need 500 points and when we went to apply it was we only had 450. So, we have to reapply and get those extra 50 points back up and then we'd really like to go for the gold. Um this will help us with grants going forward. Um, and basically we're paying want to pay someone $3,000 to do the writing, do all the data gathering, and put it all together. And because Cheryl just does not have time to put it all, do it all continuously. We've worked her to the bone. Now she's on America 250. She's online if she wants to say anything more. But basically, we feel this is a worthwhile position for $3,000. And um of course Cheryl will do a a sneak peek at the writing, but she'd meet with this person. Um but we feel it's really important for the town. Uh other towns are continuing to get noticed for their um applications for this sustainable line sustainable CT. Sorry. Um on this

anybody have have questions about what this what this means and why does it benefit the town of O line because Cheryl can answer those. Well, we've done it for years. I repeat my question, Martha. Okay. Does anybody want to know more about this? Yeah, I'd like to know a little more if Cheryl would share.

Sure. It's an accreditation process with the state. Um and it looks holistically at what makes a town or a municipality sustainable um and resilient. So it is not just recycling and green activities. It's having healthy uh economic development activities, arts and culture. Um a lot of the things that we're doing now, flood and erosion containment. Um, it's looking at the whole town communications, municipal communications. It's looking at the municipality. It's not the nonprofits. It's the municipality and what it is doing to be a sustainable and resilient municipality. Um, and it does help with grant writing. Uh, it is noted on our annual data profile from the state. uh you know when organ or businesses look at various towns or cities on where they might relocate, they look at a lot of the statistics about the town, the data profile, and right on top it says what your ranking is uh with the sustainability thing. And my when when Cheryl made this presentation to the board of selectman, my takeaway wasn't that it's just a report card, but rather it's an encouragement to do things that are good for the town. Um, and uh,

absolutely making sure your POC is written in such a way, your affordable housing plan, um, your open space plan. In addition, organizations within the municipality are the beneficiaries of matching grants that sustainable Connecticut will do um if you are involved. So things like our food share garden at Townwoods.

Um Jim Ward went for a matching grant and that was a big part of how they launched was having a good sizable matching grant from Sustainable Connecticut and we were able to do that because we were part of the process. We were uh accredited. So my question is um that's all really great and I'm supportive of that, but the next line down we see that the shoreline gateway were cutting from 13,000 down to 500. And that doesn't seem like that's consistent with the values that Cheryl just pointed out that we would cut the gateway at the same time we're investing in sustain sustainable CT because Michaela

spend any money. Yeah, you you raised an interesting question in terms of the budget, but the actuals they never spent the money. So there Okay. What were you going to say about Michaela?

Michaela because of the pro sewer project and things that are going to be going on around 156 and in the shoreline area, she feels that next year is just going to be a quiet year. So her committee is sitting still and they are continuing to do work. They still continue to meet but they've asked for some money. They wanted a survey. Was that sound view commission? Hold on. She is on too many things. They they had done some looked for some um to put out for a consultant and they didn't get any offers. So they just decided to put it aside for right now. and that will get them through a year and see what happens.

Sounds good. I mean, I I love the idea. Here is the good news is this doesn't mean the the project is more abundant or they're not doing anything. Just they don't have a specific expense and if they come up with one, they should come to us. And I la them for uh acknowledging that they're going to have a quiet year and and not taking the money. Yeah, that's great. I got a question. Tom has a question

on the uh on the sustainable. So, is that a one-time investment? We bring somebody in, they improve our our certification standing hopefully. The cost benefit of that is eventually when you're applying for other grants, you get them and you get the money. So, is that a one-time investment or is that how do you see that going forward? Cheryl,

the accreditation has to be renewed every 3 years uh to to keep up and it seems like as soon as you kind of rest on that, it's time to start moving again on accreditation, reacredititation. Um so I the question is catching me off guard a tiny bit, but I I see the coming year being a very busy year getting the accreditation and then it would likely be less active just as I have been less active last year on it um because the accreditation was in place.

So it it may or may not be something you're looking for every year. That's my question. I would say I wouldn't say that we're going to bring it down to zero every year. It's just the heavier years when you're going for accreditation or reacredititation, we're going to need to fund it. But you may have, you know, to there's still things to do. You can't it's better to do a little bit at a time than to throw it into full bush for one year. So we would hope

if if you look at the history you can see that three or two and a half years ago there was more spending in that category. In the last two years we haven't spent anything. Right. So okay. Yeah. I'm not questioning this year. I'm just saying it it sounds like it's certainly every three years and and there's something has to be spent each year. I'm just raising the issue because once you once you add a body it's it sometimes it's difficult not to have that body in the future. I'm just looking at overall cost looking forward. That's all.

Right. And the way we've spent the money in the past is sometimes we've need to have needed to uh create initiatives to get our accreditation over the finish line. So we had to start a teen arts program with the town of line to partner on teen arts um things like that summer programming. Okay. Good. Okay. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Well, there there are a couple of line items that seem low to me. The the minor one is postage that um is is down from prior years. Is that intentional?

I we don't mail much from the um we don't mail beach passes anymore. Okay. Because it's only $72 as of uh you know the six month mark. So I I'm you're good with that. I don't send send that much out. Okay. I mean, everything now is done through GANs, emails, docuign. Not like we get a lot of um we just mail those packages to the board of finance. That's in our budget. That's in our budget. That's finance. That's I bet your postage is higher than mine.

It is. The other one that that is down from prior years is engineering. And is S&P because you've talked to Eric and you you can't think of a lot of money, a lot of ways to hire an engineer. No, we moved it down to $1,000 in my budget last year because Ed's budget is higher. And if I'm to call a town, that's we moved Ed's budget up last year in engineering because that's the budget I use. If I have to call an engineer in for a town project, so this is more a little like consultation. If he comes to a meeting with me, I pay for it. If it's a big project, Ed pays for it. When Ed's not looking, I bill it to Ed.

Okay. I mean, that's fine. There's not a lot of money with $635 as at the six month mark, but if you run over, you run over, right? Anybody else have any questions? Can I can I just ask for clarification on America 250? I want to make sure there was a $1,000 left in that. Okay. Thank you. It's there. Okay. I'll move the 405913 for the selectman's budget and I'll second that.

I got a question. Are we are we doing the board of selectmen approved or what's in the blue column? Well, the that's the blue column. Selectman's office. I have 401913. 401913 new sheets that came today. Isn't that what just said? I'm looking at it online. The brown column is different column. Okay, then I will amend that to be 401913. There a second. Second.

And just seconds. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I say what? We do public works next so Ed can go home. Yeah. Well, let's let's have a vote on this. Uh, so it's a 401913. Um, all in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay. Any abstensions? That's approved. I'll make a motion to move public works up on the agenda. I'll second that.

Can I just also make you aware we do have a guest online tonight, too. Anna is here from homeless the homeless hospitality center in New London. So I just want her to also so maybe we could do her quickly be so she could explain any questions you had about that from social services. We don't have to vote on it at that time but it would be nice if you had questions for us. She could fill you in. Okay. Ed,

you want a copy of this? Do you want to sit here next to me? I have a a question. Um, there are docks at Hannes Park which belong to the town and one of the sections is beyond repair and delivery and purchase of a new section would be about $3,500. I don't know if that would fall into the public works or harbor management or park and wreck

didn't or maybe Rogers Rogers Lake. I It's the the town's docks. No, it's one of the wider it's one of the wider ones. Anna, the we approved the dock for the uh chase boat and the patrol boat for Rogers Lake. Previously, we purchased a a smaller dock for the for the three motorboats. This is a section that's all handled, I think, through Rogers Lake. Well, Rogers Lake Authority has the authority to govern them. But, but Ro, I don't know. This has just never been It hasn't been in my budget what they bought. No, because Candace originally you were given those documents.

It was a gift from the from the growing family. And historically when repair or maintenance had to be done, old line rowing association pays for it all on their own. Yeah. But a purchase like that going to capital. It's not under this budget. It's not under this section of your budget. Right. Okay. So, we'll talk about it when we get to capital. Yeah. Great. Perfect. Thank you. Anybody have any questions for Ed? other than me.

All right. Well, here here are mine. Ed, um, just going down the list. Uh, crack steel. We haven't spent anything for the past couple of years, but have you run out and so you need some the coming year? No, I'm I'm going to need some. Uh, we used to be able to carry over your regular budget money. Now it's only capital. So, I was planning on you from last year and doubling up with this year, but I couldn't. So, I lost it. I sold on and and the weather and I got busy. Didn't do it. But I'm going to spend that this year and that's low. That's what I'm saying. You've got 20,000 and you think you're going to spend that? Yeah. Yes, I am.

And then you've got another 20 for next year, right? and equipment leasing. You have online who has their could please mute yourself. We're getting background noises. That might be me. Let me try to find it. Thank you. Um $5,000 for truck equipment leasing. You've you've never spent more than like 1,700? Well, that because it depends on what comes up and it's it's it's But you think you might you might need to spend that.

You don't know. I mean, there's things sometimes that I need and I have to have that that account. It's really, like I said, my budget's like Russian roulette, you know, weather and everything else. So, I guess the qu you can move line items and you're very careful about the budget. I'm not

questioning or criticizing you at all. And you can move money around from one line item in the budget to subsidize another. The question, and really for Martha as much as anybody, is whether we want to, you know, leave $5,000 on a line item that's never been over two as a just in case number. Well, I will tell you right now that if we have a hurricane that will be wiped out in about two and a half minutes because last year Ed got and the guys got the greatest idea to rent a lift and they went around and did the tree trimming that we could have paid thousands for, but they rented a lift and then they just went and did the ones that were um being obnoxious and jumping into stop signs or bus hitting the buses.

But they didn't lease anything. Yeah, they did. They at least a least a lift and it was it was a home run. Oh, that was within the 1,600 you mean? Yes. So that was just one item for one week. So you're happy with that? I'm very happy with it. Me a lot of money. Jump. I mean the real increase here is adding another position. Okay. Go to the top line or second line down is going from 413 414,000 to 491. Mhm. Um, was that your request?

Yeah, we we've always been down a man because uh when I when I took over, I used to have a foreman. I was a foreman. When I took over, they did that position away and they gave me the whole enchilada. And uh I do need another man basically, especially in the winter. But the question I I don't know is that going to be a maintainer two or is it going to become a maintainer? It depends on what their CDLs are. That's the way it's maintainer too in their contract. It would have to be we put it out there for a maintainer one or two. Yeah. Yes. We could use another man. Absolutely.

Because that's where the big you go to the bottom line. That's where you know as with most most departments it's in the salaries. Sure. and adding a position. It's, you know, gonna be more than the 70 when you add benefits and, you know, it's going to be Yeah, I know. Yeah. I mean, all as long as we could. We can't. I know. No, no. I I just wanted to hear from you. Yeah. All past years you standard budget, Anita, I think in 22 23 actuals there's a formula error. Um, but it it says it was 2 million something in as a total. Oh, yeah. way down at the bottom.

Um, but other other than that, like every year you're below your budget. Um, you know, and as Andy said, we and BJ, you can move things around between line items. So, thank you. Yeah, we we gave Ed a big bonus that year. Really? You must have put in the wrong check. Supposed to cash him. There's a new line item for $5,000 for public work. other projects contracts. I was like that's a formula. I hit it and three columns and three columns. Got it.

We've been very fortunate but sometimes something will come up that'll either take too much time or too many manpower and I can we with the crew we can't tie up three men for four days. That comes in handy. Is it used a lot? Well, no. We've been lucky. But I've got a I've got something this year that's got to have to be done. And it's going to have to be done by a contractor because it's got to get in and get done. What is that? It's a drain. I want to put a catch bacon drain on the left hand side of Rogers Lake Trail when you drive in and pipe it over across the road because there's a puddle there all the time and it freezes and that road will be another year or so will be up for paving repaving and

Yeah. Didn't we do something a while back like on Rogers Lake or turning into Town Woods like there was some sort of thing a few years ago that we did and you're turning into Town Woods like sort of right behind the boat house? I think I think on the right hand side there was a drainage problem there on the right hand side there was um

didn't we have some um constituent who was constantly calling making a little nutty? He had a drainage problem where the drainage went into the in the Rogers like by the building and I took ahead and I and I put a pipe in a catch basin. Well, I had a company put pipe and catch basin in there and then we diverted it down so it runs behind the building because the water used to always pull from from the state because state drains a lot of water on that thing. They've got the right they've got a Yeah, we don't need to go down this rabbit hole right now, right? No, why not? I'm just saying. But I'm not sure that I'm not sure that the problem that Maria's highlighting is the same one. It's something different.

It's where the island is. When you come in and you go into Rogers Lake Association,

there's it's a catch basin. If you come in, there's you can't even really see it, but if you're on the other side of it, you can see it. And it's sort of built into the grassy area, but it needs some attention. And Jay Bevers and um what's his name? David, he lives right on the corn. Pendleton, Brian Pendleton, they've all been working on this for for the association. And so they don't want to do anything. They were thinking about putting a smart fil. They don't want to do anything until Ed fixes what he wants to fix. Then they're going to fix and try to level it out a little so it won't be freezing and it won't be

right now with two inch two feet of snow on it, you can't see it. Well, I've never seen that flood in there, Martha. And what they're complaining about, but that's their worries. You don't have to worry. They just want they want didn't want to do anything until you did what you needed to do because they had one plan. Remember, they want they're going to work with you. They wanted to come straight out with the with the with the road. They did. Yeah. But I think they've changed their minds on that. So, that would be moved. Did we talk about the public's work engineer that in the 2526 budget is 20,000 and now is 376. There's a note in the information column.

So we approved that previously or this selection approved. So 1760

approved by it. We approved it, board of selectments, because the every year this mysterious bills start showing up on MS4 storm water. And I'm like, so I finally called them and said, why don't you tell me what it's going to cost me next year for MS4 storm water? This is something that gets cycled every year. And the bills just start coming in. They do the report. After three years, it gets posted. It's about ready to be posted. It's mandated by the state and we're about ready to go forward. Jacobson does all the work. They contact Ed if they have any questions. There's another project coming from the state. All the culverts in town have to be located GIS and um that's all going to be part of more work.

Basically, this is something that went from capital to operating budget, right? I don't know why it was in capital because it's it's been in our budget. It just makes Ed's budget his operating budget look a little out of whack, but it's not. That's engineering. So should be that's where it should be. So it's well I guess it would depend. I don't want to have an accounting discussion right now, but if it's engineering in connection with the capital project may be appropriate to you know capitalize it. But regardless, it's not you're not building anything. It's just paper. It's just a pro. It's a report.

Then it makes sense. It's not going to decrease in value. Okay. So, uh the 5,000 for uh other projects, contractors, you you have a use for it and you want to have it there in case you need it. Then the only other thing is the um stone gravel and supplies $5,000 line item. Um you've never spent much $1,000 maybe. So again, is that just a placeholder or you think you have a particular need this year?

Again, I have some stockpile. If we have a we have a hurricane or a wash out or something, I need material. I have to have it on hand. So, so that's there to replen the stockpile. It's like it's like my salt budget that I kept replanting. Uh, everybody else was running out. We still had a stockpile and we're going to be well over in the salt. That's why that budget's I keep on saying leave the salt and sand alone because it's money in the bank and it's paid off for the town of Lime because East Slime ran out. We still have 200 ton on hand. Maybe a little more. So, can we sell it to East Lime at a plot?

No, we're not. That's why I have salt ordered today. Salt will be over a lot this year. You'll see that talking to Martha and Anita. We went up on the cell because it's had increase our rate this year and we know it's not going to go down. Yep. And I want to I want to punish that pile again. So, we have reserve in case this happens again. BJ might just on the gravel line. Um, if you recall, we recommended to Harbor Management. We took money out of their budget and told them to go see Ed. They had I think they had $2,000 in their budget for gravel somewhere. And right, we said, "Wait a minute. They're going to hire somebody that maybe Ed could help them."

And Ed has helped them. So you know he's gone as much as the increases here it's for Pilgrim's Landing and brought it down and so that they you know even though it shows we don't spend it I I hold my No, I understand. So it's it's there in case and there's a reasonable just in case item and if you don't spend it you don't spend it. Yeah. And and the problem is if you like you said if we we can end up moving it at the bottom line it keeps and I and uh Andy knows that I my budget's been in the black a lot of years most years for reasons like this which is reasonable you know you have a safety

you have a safety valve and if you don't use it that's good y not going to spoil right and any any other questions for I'd make a motion for the 1.175101. Correct. Second beat you to it. Any any further discussion? Can you give me the number again, please? 1,175,11.

All in favor say I. I. I. Say what? I think it was a delayed eye. It was a late I. Any any oppose? Say nay. Any abstensions? Motion passes. Thank you. No, thank you. You're welcome to stick around for the rest of the meeting. You want to stick for municipal refues for transfers? I know. Transfer station. Yeah, we can. But otherwise, maybe we could just Well, no, it's all included. Explanatory, too, with the way everything's gone up. there. But we increased the

we increase your recycling all items and that was because of the brush as needed once recycling. As we all know, recycling and we know trash and recycling is going to be is become kind of becoming a big problem moneywise is worse. It's as bad as trash. And unfortunately, the fellas in Harford have got all over the town right where they want them because we're stuck. Where's the brush that we're talking about?

It's in right in the middle of the um all items under recycling. Well, any Yeah, we're already over, right? Let me mention that Fred Behinger, who obviously isn't here tonight, uh, sent me an email and sent a couple of things, but one of them is he he says, "I think I believe it would be reasonable to keep single stream recycling at 105,000 as opposed to bringing it up to 12750." Do you have any thoughts about that, Ed?

Well, you don't do that. That's not That's not Edge. That's not Edge. That's That's from DWPM. That's trash. Pick up. Okay. That's the green buckets in front of your house. Mhm. Single stream. What are we voting on? Recycling. Right now, we're just recycling. We're just doing recycling. Okay. Recycling and transfer, which the bulk of that increases the brush. The brush. Yes. Well, let's take them one at a time. So, the the recycling um has a total budget of what? 50,000 74.

I'll make a motion for the recycling for 74,500. I'll second. Do we have a new page for recycling? It's on the Yeah, it's on the one that was handed out. Oh, okay. So, that's different. Okay. 74500 for recycling. Motion has been made and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. All right. Any opposed say nay. Any abstensions? That passes. So shall we shall we continue with the other items on this page?

Transfer station. Transfer station and that went up because of um contract. That's one that goes over. Is this the brush? No, this is the um contracting service. Yes. This is the one that each year we go um CWPM. Yes. The dumpsters.

You know, one item that caught my eye is this telephone internet at $400 per month. I at home have Frontier with fiber optic internet and and telephone for about $125 a month. Does anybody else have any input as to the reasonleness of $400 for internet and telephone? I don't actually that is Tom is working on fixing that currently but is not was that still a frontier line? Believe that was the one that was still working.

We're working on it. We're working on it. it will come down, but I can't tell you what it'll come down to now. And we we've had conversations about other phone comp to go with a different phone vendor. Um because we've had some we've had some problems where we're on our phones talking and all of a sudden it just drops the call. We're like, "Hello." In fact, you and I were on one day and you thought it was you, but I think it was the phones here at town hall. Well, it's it's possible that Frontier has made rates for commercial and municipalities and individuals, but it just seems to me pretty aggravating that they'd be charging us three times as much as they charge me.

Well, I will say that one of the things that we did is as far as the internet, we had um uh what was he paying for? He was paying for um television service. What is it? Cable. Cable. We took that out and we got them Roku TV instead so that they can still watch the weather channel and everything that they need to do, but um that we were paying a huge amount of money to have cable TV there and I said we don't need cable TV. So we fixed changed it at the police station yours yours and we went to Roku TV. But did it go through yet? That's what he was still working on last month.

No, the TV's taking care. My TV's taken care of. Love it. Yeah. I mean, unfortunately, BJ, you look at the actuals and it was 4750. It was 4826. I just don't understand, right? Um, and I there are different rates for businesses than there are for individuals because I think businesses need a higher bandwidth and um even though the transition may not I know, but that doesn't matter. I mean, well, so board of select is looking into it. Like I said, we're getting screwed. We're continuing to change. There's other other options in town now, which five years ago there wasn't. That's right. It was just Exfinity. So,

okay. Any other questions on transfer station? Then a motion for 385286. Kim makes a motion, a second. I'll second Andis. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay. Any abstensions? That passes. Do you think we can move on our purchase item up front?

Well, do you want to finish just really quickly CWPM and and how's that then that page will be done? Yep. All right, Ed, you can I think you can go. Okay. Thank you very much. Thanks. Great job. Good luck tomorrow morning. Lucky sound very lucky we had the crew we have. They are lucky to have you, too. Our town road looks great. Thank you. By the way, I did and I got somebody from Colt Lane who sent me a very nice compliment and said, "You guys did an absolutely amazing job on our road." They do. Colt looks looks great. Thank you. Thanks.

Thank you. All right. So, we going up to municipal refues. So, the first line that that's a contract

664. the spread wants to bring the second one down to 105. Well, that to me would be a little concerning to do considering we're already at 60 352 halfway through the year. Well, it's 7 months because that's as of the 31st. So, basically, if you look over um did you the actual

gave me the spreadsheet? She misunderstood the vol giving number. So she gave me a spreadsheet, the average of the spreadsheet and the 9569 per month. I took that the average and I multiplied it by 12 and put a 5% increase in it for next year and that's how I got the number. But Ed, but Brad is following this very closely as well. So if he feels I mean it's we haven't gone over any year. So if he feels we can keep it at 105

switch it 10560 or 105 flat. It just says 105 flat from this year. Seven times. What? They're doing the arithmetic. 103. What? 103. 103. So that's on target for the 105. It's up to It's up to you, Martha. That's That's I'm fine with 105. Let's take it out. So that's reducing that by 15.

That's 15750. Great. Say what? The next line are we keep it at three. Um, yes. Tonnage. Yes. So, the total amount for recycling is 1 million 70,500 69750. That's what I got. Okay. Oh, that's right. This I forgot about the 750. I'm I'm sorry. Where are you for recycling? It's it's at the top that single stream recycling B first three lines. Got it.

And and the number rather than 1085 is what? 1069750. Okay. 1,69750. Any further questions? I'll make a motion. Kim makes a motion for for that number. A second. Have it. Andy seconds it. What is the number? 1 million69,750.

750. Okay. Okay. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? Who was the second on that? No further discussion. All in favor say I. I right. Any oppose? Say nay. Any abstensions? That passes. Now you just have to do the hazardous waste facility in the middle of the page. And we're Yeah, that's that's the What's the reason we're estimating a 30% increase? It was per their Okay. Yeah.

It's in your book. Pretty sure it's in your book and as backup documentation. Thank you. It's not a lot of money. So the the number is 22722. Mhm. So any question? Say what? She moved it. Okay. Anna moves it. Second. I'll second. Candice. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Nay. and dispensings approved.

I'll make a motion to move social services ahead of the rest of the general government. Second, it's not a new we just going back to old.

Okay. I just wanted to make sure. So, you had some homeworks for me to do on social services. I just got to find my page. Sorry. I think it's 206, right? 20620. Yep. Okay. So, as you know, we had a lot of requests and I'm just going to ask because Anna is online. on a purchase online for um the um homeless hospitality center in um that they had requested that we move our up to $5,000 from the $3,000 that we gave them last year. Um so I was just wondering if you had any specific questions to Anna. Anna and I had a conversation earlier, well last week, and she offered to sit in tonight. So, if you wanted to know anything about the center and what they do, um, as far as I think one of the questions was, have they hosted perhaps a homeless family from Old Lime? They may not have hosted them at the center, but they have worked with families who have had to get temporary housing

um who were perhaps from this area. One of the things they can't do is they can't really ask people, and Anna, you can stop me if I'm wrong, but they can't ask people where they're from. Um, but some people do offer the information. Um so Anna is here and if you have any questions please feel free to ask away. Thank you. Can I and I'll just say um can you hear me? Yes.

Yes. Great. Um the we we do ask people when they come um where their last place of residence was. Um they're not required to answer it. Um most of them do. Um and in a lot to a large extent they are from um their last place that they called home was in New London. Um very much less than that people didn't originally they're not New Londoners. They didn't start out living in New London. It's people who slowly found their way to the lower income housing areas and to the lower income areas as their lives were unraveling. Um and in a lot of cases in New London we have we have the the detoxes. um we have the mental health um facilities and all of that where people who are in who are you know who are starting to their lives are starting to fall apart end up gravitating toward there. So then you it will show a disproportionate amount of people from New London. Um but if you really track back their their their home is somewhere else um for you know for the most part and a lot of times when people are those types of folks want to get go home they want to go somewhere else besides they don't want to stay in London they want to go to very often it's Niantic or East Lime or Waterford um or Rotten and then you know there's the occasional time they want to go even further away and we try to help them get back to wherever we think that they'll have the greatest um you know support network that will help them be successful in their lives. So, it's hard to have an AC a real accurate description of where exactly we serve u you know where people are from who we serve but um the people who there's usually about 350 people overall in the whole year who um lay ex use the service of the homeless hospitality center that is laying their head on a pillow and a bed that we offer them for at least one night. Um, outside of that, there are a dozen other programs that we offer. Um,

you know, there's the the street outreach program, which is when anybody is concerned. It's it's very often the police who call us and say they're concerned about somebody living in the woods or living in an abandoned building or living in their car. And we have two people who um go out and are constantly um you know parrolling the areas all the way up to um Pockatuck up to Norwich um and definitely to Niantic. We were just really trying to find somebody the other uh for last month who showed up at the McDonald's at East at at in East Lime and Flanders um every Saturday or something like that. and the staff were getting really they felt for him and they were getting concerned because they they were walking him like they were watching him walk out of the woods um and going back into the woods. And so um our our outreach people were there constantly trying to trying to track this guy and and and find this guy. Um I'm not sure what I'm not sure what the outcome of that one was. Um but that's the type of thing that we have people doing, you know, all day all long, you know, all night and all day. Um so and we also have you know diversion programs so that people who are facing the possibility of of um eviction are we're able to help stop homelessness for them before it even um comes. And you know, the thing I was thinking was the other big thing that that I think we do is is we're we're really trying to um increase affordable housing options um in everywhere else. But please, New London and Graten and Norwich because we're the three we're the three places that meet and exceed the state threshold for for um offering affordable housing in like the 23% 28% um types of of figures. uh whereas the the smaller towns around us, there's nobody, you know, there's nobody else that meets that that threshold that's sort of requested by the government. Um and if I look

correctly, I think Old Lime has something like 82 affordable housing units um out of all out of over 500 uh 5,000. So um that's a place that could really use our help in in trying to um figure, you know, help figure out some of those those problems. We do do a um we work very closely with the um Rocky Neck Village right on Route 156. We have support we have uh staff who are support who are like staff supporters for the people uh who we have housed there uh in order to help keep them be keep them good tenants um make sure that they have the supports that they need to to be successful in their housing and that that that they are good neighbors and good tenants. So th so you know those are the just a little picture of the types of different things that we offer besides just those ma those um pillows and mattresses. The other thing we do do is is right now especially we are having the um during these cold snaps we are the only um winter warming center. So, anybody with no zoning requirements, with no questions asked, anybody who wants to come and who we can convince to come often to um the 7:30 State Pier Road in New London will um have a at least a warm it probably won't be comfortable, but it'll be a warm place to um to stay during these these types of cold snaps whenever there's a governor's emergency. Um so, are there any questions after after that? And I just might add as with my conversation with Anna, we also realize that you know federal funds are being cut for many of these programs and they are not um alone. And this is also one of the things that sustainable CT looks at is our contribution and Fred Behinger was um mentioned this last year that we had

upped our I think we upped our contribution a little bit. Well, I was going to ask I don't know about that. I mean, there's no no doubt that it's a a wonderful organization and the work that you do is um just terrific. But on the on the dollars, last year we went up to 3,000. Previously for a number of years, it was at 2500 and this year the ask is for 5,000. Can you explain just the reasons for the the increase to follow?

Yeah. Well, the reason is because I mean we're sort of um uh praying on the already uh the choir that we already um you know that already sings for us and it's a the the few towns that have been supportive and we want and um you know we get I think it's it was in the letter but $60,000 in total from all of the towns in in New London County. Um and so that's does isn't even a you know a drop in the bucket for our four $4 million budget. Um, so we're it so we were kind of using you guys as examples to con and showing that even for the other ones that don't give at all that we want we're trying to sort of put a little bit of pressure on everyone to give a little bit in order to start to truly be a regional service center because right now we we we operate as a regional service center because we're open and available to anybody who needs us especially in the small towns that don't have these resources. resources um of their own. Um but we are, you know, we're bearing the the brunt of the burden of the of the expenses, particularly New London. Um, so it's more of a this was the year that where our our finances are are have completely turned um because we're facing the the the real possibility of losing 50% of our federal of our total budget um from federal funding as um there's a a at least a a inkling that we that they may want to be shutting down HUD um and that would just you know so and it's also taught us a lesson that we really do need to make sure that we're prepared for for rainy days. Um so and the cost of living has really increased significantly. The cost of helping each one of our of our guests has increased significantly. Um you know we do at the shelter we do have a fund

where we that that we raise money for where we try to um meet a person's direct financial need. um if it's something as low as a um needing to pay for a duplicate driver's license for $30, we'll help them with that. Or sometimes it's as big as helping them pay for their first month's rent so that they have that month to try to catch up so that they're able to pay, you know, the following month's rent. Um, so, you know, with all of those things going way way up, this is just seemed to be the time that we we didn't want to be we wanted to at least try to be a little bit more um aggressive in in pushing for that real regional and continuing to build that regional um aspect of the of the shelter. But completely under I I know I was saying to earlier that um completely understanding that Old Lime um in and of itself and its residents are some of the most generous supporters that we have and um some of the best friends that we have and you know the Old Lime um First Congregational Church of Old Lime is our is our right hand and between volunteers and fundraisers that they do for us since our since our inception um 20 years ago this year, they've they've raised and donated o almost a million dollars um which is far exceeds any other um certainly any other uh faith-based institution that we have um and we're starting to develop a really great relationship with St. An's and just a whole lot of people. So some of our closest friends and biggest supporters are from Old Line. So um don't ever think that if you didn't raise your contribution that we that we would be um that we would you know we would completely understand if that happened. We realize for sure that times are tough for everybody.

Um, thank you, Anna. It it sounds based on what you said like part of the goal of the homeless h hospitality um center is in doing outreach and developing affordable housing solutions in the surrounding towns. Um would you be a resource that our affordable housing commission could reach out to as they're developing plans moving forward?

Sure. I mean I certainly my boss Kathy Zaul would be the would be the right person to start with. Um and we can because she she develops affordable housing in New in New London still for our guests all the time. And I and um you know there are other people at the top of these organizations that have some real um some real thoughts and would really love to

to um offer some some help. So, um, a frequent question for for people ask asking for grants is what percentage of your, um, board are contributors? And I'll turn that question around and say, what percentage of the towns in the county of old of New London are contributors? I have a list, and I should know better right off the top of my head, and I should have pulled it up. Um, I would say percentage-wise it's probably 40 I would say 40 to 45%. Um, you know, we've it's and it's usually in the amount like um East Lime for example, your neighbor, they used to give $3,000 a year based on a request and they just last year they made the um over due to budget reasons. Um, and I'm also a part-time employee of the town of East Lime, so I um felt their pain, but they they cut every every nonprofit that they gave to, they cut their uh request by 40%. So, right now we're receiving $1,300 from from East Line. Um, but we're receiving $25,000 from Grten and we asked them actually for 35,000 this year. Um, and we received 15,000 from Waterford and we asked them for 20 I think it was $20,000 this year. Um, but there are there are plenty that that we that we get nothing from and I can certainly follow up with you with an exact um listing tomorrow by tomorrow morning you can have it in your inbox.

Anna, so a question for me. You mentioned the towns and what you asked. Um, was the increase this year, the increase ask to the other towns similar to what you're asking us percentage-wise or 66%.

Yes. No. I mean, if it's a sorry, if it's a if it, let's see, like um let's say old Stonington for example, last year they gave us 3500. This year we asked for 5,000. Um it just is from looking at the at the history of the of the organizations and or of the towns and what they've given. We just sort of made a a wiggle room and also in some cases some sort some relationship um with their human resources people and stuff like that who who work with us closely and un really do understand the value of what we're giving to them to them. Um so it wasn't formulaic per se. I will say that there's no partic there's just it seems impossible to have a formula with such dramatic differences between people who don't give at all and um and people who do. So um e like that's why I said let's see if it was 3,000 if it was 2500 last year then you know 3,000 or 3500 would also be wonderful and and a real example of of of towns really taking the initiative to try and and become more of a regional partner in this area. About how much of you said your budget's about $4 million and about how much of that comes from municipal grants or contributions as opposed to government loans?

Last year it was $60,000. 60,000 and then the rest of the fundraising is I do fundraising, individual fundraising um you know annual appeals all year long and um private foundation grant writing uh writing to you know all of the clubs that that are around the Lions clubs and um every small big and small um you know private foundation that I can that I can find. That's what that's really what makes up uh a good other 50% of our or I would say 40% of our budget. Any other questions for Anna? David, go ahead.

Just just one quick question. Anna, um how many other organizations, whether they're local, state, or nonprofits, provide similar services? In other words, how do you distinguish what you do from others? I'm hearing about helping with affordable housing in the future and that sort of thing. There's a lot of people talking about a lot of different things. I give to Covenant House, for example. So, that's another example of of uh a provider of services uh to needy families and that sort of thing. So if there's 20 of them in the new L London Grten area, that's one thing. If you guys are unique, that kind of has a different calculus in terms of my own personal thinking about philanthropy.

Um, yes, there's there's maybe four at the most. New London Homeless Hospitality Center is the largest and we only serve well actually uh the largest of this kind where we only serve adult men and women. We don't serve children. So Safe Futures is the other organization that's quite big and doing really developing some housing right now that's really impressive. Um and they are women and children or fa in some cases families with children but they're basically from the domestic violence um track. So that's they are mostly treating and and inviting people who are victims of domestic violence and their childrens and helping children and helping them get on track. Um the Covenant House is is similar, but it's much much smaller. Um and does have a niche also of the people that that that they serve. Um we're one of the only ones also that has a um a set aside for veterans. So, we have special programs specifically for veterans, including um two houses in new multif family houses in New London that we um run specifically for veterans um with a manager who helps sort of um mentor them and get them to where they're on their feet hopefully within a year and and can move out and be successful. So the state the state doesn't provide any services whatsoever. Nor do Grten or um or New London that are similar to yours or Waterford for that that matter.

We do have some programs through the state uh um for sure department of housing and things like that. A lot of that is connected to the HUD funding also. So um all of the government funding is sometimes goes a little bit beyond me but we definitely do get some of that. some of that has started to to need to be um you know rethought even though um I feel like at this point Connecticut is still really um is really committed to helping um you know the the homeless cause altogether. Um but but yes 40% of our funding is from um is from private private foundations and individuals private people.

Thank you. you. And also I always say that if some if it's in people's heart to really help the the families with children, we totally get it and and we really want um Safe Futures. They're a good partner of ours and we really want them to to be successful also as as they are being um you know there's other there's other programs like um Always Home and Mystic. They're fantastic, but they they don't actually um provide housing of their own. They h they just work really hard to make sure that families with children are not in a hotel for long and that they get housed in a permanent home very quickly. So there's not many of us.

Any other questions, discussions, comments? I have a question. um when you find someone who um needs shelter and would be using your services, what is the average cost for a person for one night

to them is nothing obviously, but um for us I think it I would say when we break it down um I feel like it's about $100 a night is somewhere where we're at. um it, you know, the minute somebody checks in, they get connected with a staff member the next day and they get started on a whole housing plan. So, there's that. Um and then there's obviously the cost of of lights and um lights and heat and all of that. Um we don't provide food. Um they go to the um New London Community Meal Center for for food, but we do have a bus that drives them over there. Um and we have a it's a it's a huge amount of staff for for what we do. Um I I think staff is makes up the you know the a huge bulk of our of our operating expenses. Um but that's that's because we are the place that we're not just going to give you a bed and expect you in that moment of trauma to be able to figure out how to solve your problem. So we have all the you know all sorts of people who are there to stand side by side with you and make sure that you end up getting getting house including including our friend uh Fred Behringer who was there for years as a volunteer help helping doing the same thing. So, um, we do have some volunteers who help out, but but a lot more staff than we would than, you know, we wish we had. Even I wish we could have, you know, mostly volunteers doing that work. But, um, the only way folks are going to in that type of situation are going to be able to for the most part get on their feet is if is if they have is if they have a relationship with somebody who's going to help them and and um and walk side by side with them to help solve those problems and things like that. So, that's the most expensive. Everything else at the shelter is really bare bones and we really invite people to come and visit it at any time because it's um it's a really special place.

Thank you. Thank you. So, we would normally vote on the social services uh agencies as a whole and we we didn't do that and we have questions on a couple of others and Martha may have answers on a couple of others, but let's let's kind of take a a straw poll right now whether we have to take a formal vote on um uh on this agency. How do folks feel about the $5,000? Let me have a show of hands for those who support the $5,000.

Okay. And and others not not so much. We get it. I mean, we totally get it. You know, we're we're we're trying every which way to build our, you know, to build our budget and and um and really, you know, do understand and really appreciate it. Well, I and and I appreciate your cander and um your graciousness. Okay. Thank you. I'll let you know tomorrow on what we come up with. Yeah. We recommend. Okay. Okay. Thank you guys. Thanks for even taking the time. Thank you so much. Sure. Have a good night. Bye. Bye.

Well, let let's um let's stay with the social service education for there. you had some other um questions for me to look into. So there were two SERA SERA and the um also the child and family agency of southeastern Connecticut and I did have conversations um that's a new what is

child and family was new basically they're just reaching out it's a again trying a new way of raising money um I did talk to um LISB and they said that in that case. Um they do refer sometimes to child and family agency for counseling and some things like that, but it's also build they they do charge for some of their services. So if you're on um aid, then it's a reduced rate, but it is build through insurance. So where are they located with the

in New London? And when when you when you talk to uh our folks, did you get any sense for how many referrals how often is it that we make referrals to them? Occasionally, but um I would say they were surprised that they were reaching out in this way and Mary was, you know, helpful. Yeah. You know, I'm sure it's a wonderful agency, but I think everybody's asking the question of, you know, how far geographically

it's a new way for developing development people to look for financial assistance for their organizations and we know that there are cuts coming from the federal side. But um the other option was uh Sierra and um they do provide some technical assistance. Um they do have worked with Mary on um vaping and nicotine programs. Um they meet every other month with all of the LPCs, local um agencies to learn from each other. They do set that up. Um they do have the yellow bags with the Narcan that they hand out. Um Mary said she does not get those from them because she has another source but she believes that um EMS may and um take that and Ledge Light may also use Sierra as their um resource for that um for the

Narc who's which one's that sexual assault the sexual assault but it's they do Oh sexual assault CC. Yeah, but they do more than that. Um, they also do all the things with liquor store, retail, education, awareness, um, L LSB program called 21 for a reason. Um, they have decals that go on the liquor stores that talk about age of 21. Um,

and they also May may I offer as well child and f and um that they have a unique funding structure where they're kind of an umbrella investment vehicle if you will for a lot of nonprofits. Um and so they take a they take a vig on anything that they invest as well. So, it's a a little bit opaque their their finances, but I trust Mary Sidner's judgment on this um explicitly. So, that's that's my two cents on it.

So, those are the two agencies whose um who whose request this year has gone up significantly. Well, they they've never requested for at all. Yeah. It went up from zero to 5,000 and um sexual assault, social services sexual assault went up from this year's budget of 1411 to 34.86. I mean, how they're so specific in their answers, right? In their request. So, what? Well, their their letter outlines say what that they can attribute costs to families from old lime. It's It's in the notes column here.

Oh, interesting. That's that you interpret the four families as old lime families, huh? Yeah.

They were Yeah. I mean, I'd like I just think first of all, I think everyone does an amazing job and they're all worthwhile causes and it's hard to pick and choose. But I think what's sort of jogging my brain here is just the percentage increase. you know, three to five or even someone coming in hot at 5,000. You know, I I just think it's percentage-wise it's a lot. Like we're scrutinizing other aspects of the budget for less. And I just think it says a lot if we all of a sudden go from 3 to 5,000 or like if you look at the soup kitchen for example, we've been giving a flat 1,000 year over year over year. And maybe it's because they don't always ask, but we know directly who's who's servicing, you know, where that money is going. We know it's going to Oline. We know it's going to line. We know some folks from out of area are coming in as well. But I just I just have a hard time going from, you know, 3,000 to 5,000 or all of a sudden jumping in and saying, "Hey, your ask is great. We're going to give you 5,000." Um maybe in the case of the that 1411 going up to 3466. In that case, they seem to have some sort of substantiation there. Like they can substantiate these four families maybe. But I just think again the percentage is is a huge jump. Does anyone else think that?

I mean that's the biggest jump on here. That's the biggest jump on there, but they have some documentation. I think what's hard is to go from, you know, 3,000 to 5,000 after a history of $500 increments year-over-year and a bunch of years where it was 2500 and and I mean, even though they they they've given us the documentation in terms of how they got to the number unless we're unless we're migrating to a system where we're going to reimburse them every year for the old on families that get cared for, that's a different methodology.

And really to put it sort of in a more balanced perspective, you'd have to ask, well, what's the history for the past three years, five years, 10 years, right? And if the answer is, well, no families for the past five years. Yeah.

Blah blah. So, I'm not persuaded by that, which doesn't mean I'm opposed to increasing their uh grant. I just don't buy that methodology. Since we have um newcomers to the group, um I wonder if we could think of it like we have a a certain set amount of money that we're willing to allocate towards nonprofit social services and then from there determine how we want to allocate it across the organizations that we're willing to support. And then uh so instead of thinking about homeless hospitality as increasing we would say okay we have this pot and what portion of that pot is homeless hospitality is a good organization we've we've supported it for a long time so we trust them so they get something but they have to share that what we're willing to spend with the other participants. Well, that you raised an interesting question. The the budget for the current year uh is $84.90, right?

And the ask for the next year is 18,435. So, that's a pretty big jump. That's a big jump. Um TVCCA, their request doubled. Um, and I'm just I'm reading their letter and other than it being 1% of budget, I it feels a little bit like this is just what Martha was saying that a lot of these organizations have figured out that like this is sort of an untapped resource. I mean, if she has a bunch of towns that aren't giving her anything,

you know, she's got to ask and see what happens. I mean, we're wealthier towns, so 3,000 to 5,000 for her doesn't sound like a ton of money. I it sort of just feels like a bunch of them were like, "Let's try this out and see what happens." And um that's great, but I didn't feel her presentation enlightened me as to why we were being asked to give an extra $2,000 and up our donation. And I feel the same way about all the other ones there. Um Martha, does our social services department have any recommendations on these? Like I would feel great if if she came to to you guys and you and was like, "Hey, listen. I I really think the homeless hospitality center deserves more money this year because I direct, you know, people to this or I work with them for these sorts of services or whoever whichever one of these organizations because I don't I I think all of us sitting here tonight can't really identify which one needs more money, but they're all asking for more money. So to Candace's point, you know, how would we choose? We have no data points for this.

Well, there's first of all, these letters come in periodically. Not even I mean, I think I've gotten one since then, but the budget's already been done. Um, I personally think that, um, those that we've given to in the past certainly deserve their $500 or whatever they've asked for over the years. Um and um I think that um child and family agency could probably have maybe perhaps come back to us next year with a better presentation of why we as the new old line what we received from them. I didn't get that in their my discussion. So, I wouldn't have a problem eliminating that. Um, hospitality, homeless hospitality center. I know that Fred feels it's a worthwhile entity. I would see perhaps see an possible increase, maybe not to the full five. Um, and um I I don't have a real strong feeling about some of the ask. If you I like uh TVCCA I mean they just consistently ask for 1% of their budget. So last year it was 829 next this year it's 1619 but I think that's because their federal funding has disappeared. So now all of a sudden what they're trying to make up um and and I mean for a long time this sexual assault CC got 300.

Mhm. And then it looked like we went more to some sort of costbased because I don't know why we do 1332 as a number. Um that's based on it um before on one family on one family now it's3. So you can reduce it to 1733. It's based on instead of um because they get a match. It says a match. So that's why they do four families, they only move up the two, but you just do the one because that's what we approved before.

So going back to Candace's point of looking at it as a pool of money and how do we split it up? Um I just did a I think I got it right calculation that literacy volunteers leave it at 500, safe futures 500. Um, TVCCA 2000. Uh, no, I'm sorry. 1,500. I think this is where I'm I lost something. Anyway, I came up with a total of $10,850, which would um

are you reducing C child family? Hm. Are you reducing child and family uh to a thousand from five or five? I mean, we haven't given them anything before. So, $1,000 is found money to them. Um and um homeless hospitality to 3,500. Okay. Again, and then everybody else basically. Um what do you think for uh the sexual assaults you see? um 2000.

I think it's easier to keep these solid numbers than to let me I like that better than these dick. Let me read add that up and make sure. Um I mean it sounds to me like Mary didn't understand child and family's ask. Yes, I agree with that because you you just said that also that she was surprised. She was very surprised that I had gotten a letter. I read it to her over the phone. The note also indicates their locations as Graten, Waterford, Westbrook, New London, and Stonington. So, they're kind of scattered, but not all line or or line or lime and they they

I think it's nice of Andy, not nice of Andy. I understand Andy's wanting to give them $1,000, but I'm not persuaded that we should give them anything without a a presentation, a convincing presentation. Okay. By this week's book, you did what? 500 500 15 2 1,000 850 35 I get 10,350. That's what I got. But that's what the children child. Oh, that's with a,000 to child and family. I would get 11 that way. So, really? What did I do?

You did. It's 55,500. That gives you 2500. 2,000 CCAC00 5500 then you do 35 but that's to 3500. I might sell personally up to 4,000, but and I strike the 5,000 for a child and family. Yeah. I mean, I'm looking at their letter. It looks like a foreign letter. Yeah. I think it's a lot of money for no one to come. you know, no one's here to explain why or sort of

I will say I didn't Anna and I just got into a lengthy discussion and she was telling me so many things and I said, you know, talking about this Tuesday night if you want to get online and she said, I've gone to other towns to to be at and she'd been to Waterford. So, well, it sounds to me like if the town develops a relationship with her, they might be helpful um or some other things. Or some other things. So, she just wants somebody I know like homeless hospitality has a relationship with Old Lime through Fred and through the church. And so, what what they're going to do with there is they're going to try and find another Fred or another church that can they've

already established St. Ans has already jumped in to help out as well. homeless hospitality. Yes, I understood that. But I'm talking about this um child and family is trying to get a towhold in Old Lime. They need those same types of ties. So, in this discussion, you know, I want you to realize that there are children from Old Lime that do use their counseling services, but it's but it's not free.

I'm sure I'm sure I understand that. and their form letter. Just because their form letter doesn't call out Old Lime, that's because it's a form letter and they can't call out every single town in New London County. So, I don't necessarily hold that against them. I'm not a development person. You know, maybe if you were a scrupulous development person, you'd write a separate letter for each town. You know, it might take you all afternoon, but might be worth your trouble. Maybe you just got on a Zoom call and we're discussing it and just make a plea, you know, like, you know, I don't know. Dave and Anna, what do you guys think?

I'm good with whatever everybody wants. I mean, um the the overall number is important to me. And if it's not going from, you know, 10 grand to 40 grand, I'm I'm in agreement with uh with what's already been outlaid or laid out, rather. So, let's try to bring this to a close and let's just go down let's go down one by one. Is and indeed the numbers are not enormous, right? I mean, getting to or $12,000 to our neighboring towns for this kind of service

uh isn't going to break our bank, but um the the proposals for um sexual assault uh sexual well go up to TCA. Do you want to start at the top? Start with literacy. Yeah, we got the 500 and 500. Those are the same. I assume we have no with that and going for the TVCCA uh up to uh 1619. Anyone have a quarrel with that? No. Andy, let's go. I like 1500y 1500 for that. Yeah.

Okay. So, rounder number and then the next one uh going to 2,000 for um sexual assault from 1411 to 2000. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay. The next one stays at 1,000 for soup kitchen. Uh the next one goes from 750 to 850 for art. And the next one for the homeless hospitality center goes from 3,000 to an ask of 5,000. Uh Andy had proposed 3500. I had suggested 4,000, but I'll just think

I like 3500. That's just my two cents. That was more than 10%. 3500. 3500. Okay. Um then the next one stays at 5,000 for hope. 500. I'm sorry. 500 for hope. And then the child and family agency. Does anyone I say we eliminate that one. Yeah. I think that that's probably the majority of you. Does anybody feel strong that we should give them something? No.

Okay, then let's strike that 5,000. That will come up to 10,350. 10,350. It'll be an increase of 1,860. I'll make a motion for social service agencies for 10,550 350. I can't read my own writing. And I'll second that. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. Nay.

Any abstensions? There we go. Okay. So, let's let's go back to our agenda. We got other people, general people here that have Yeah. Can we please take my my government people? They have to go back to work tomorrow. Real time. Although we've all been working from home. I'll make a motion to move town.

Well, if this is within general government, I don't think we have to make a motion. Let's just do it in the order we want. Okay. Oh, I think I see a tax collector in the audience. Oh, we got human resources, which is that looks just page one. Human resources. No, human. No, Jamie's not here. She's in Florida. She's on vacation. So, can we just do the ones that are here online? I mean, here. First one in is our um is Vicki online? Yes.

Yes, Vickiy's online. She's first. She's first up. Hi. Hello. contracted services is the biggest increase and well wages wages are the biggest increase. Well,

because we're increasing from 30 to 35 hours. No, we're not. Okay. Is that because that's according to Courtney, right? If she wants to stay at 30 for next year and then the year after when she has one in middle school, she'll feel more comfortable with 35. I thought she said 35. You're on mute. You're muted, Vicki. But I can read her lips. She said I thought she said 35 as well. She said 35. I thought she said 35. Okay. I could have sworn that day we went around and she said she No, she already has already benefits at 30. She has 30.

She I thought she said the year after next she could do 35 because she would be able to handle the buses at that point in time. I went in and asked her specifically, but I could be So, but does that play into because this is looking at 26 27 Yeah. I don't know. She's supposed Okay, that's fine. You don't have to say anymore. That's it. Good. She's already, right? So, it's just the hours. Okay. But we're talking about her her want. Vicki, do you would you like to increase her to 35 hours? Do you need her?

I I would. Um most a lot of the time she's been working the 35 hours. Um, and also if I'm out, she we don't close our office. We advertise that we close it from 12 to 1. We've never closed it since I've been there and prior to Eileen being there. Um, we just want to be open for the public. Um, but I Yes, I definitely could use her. she has been working extra hours. Um, and um, it I think it's going to benefit the public as well.

And Martha, it's okay with the board of selectman. Oh, yes. Everything on this page is okay with the board of selectman. Okay, that's helpful. I'll make a motion for 1914. Second. Let let me just I had a question for Vicki. Sure.

Oh, it was postage. Your your postage has gone it well it's it's significantly higher than you've spent historically, but is that it's only $1,000 high really? So that's fine with me. It makes sense. the 2500. I I believe that the register of voters shifted some of the postage to us out of their budget and um that would um pay for a lot of the postage for the absentee ballots which seem to be more and more each year.

Okay. Okay. So, um, for whatever reason, I'm looking at $300 for postage as of December. Does that make sense? Or is something hasn't been coded properly? Um, these numbers are as of January. So, the postage is one of the things that happens is the dog licenses go out in June and that's that's a hu that's a huge mailing. So, that's where a lot of postage is eaten up in June. Yes.

All righty. So, um the uh the the motion locus puts the number that we've moved 191 191474 has been made and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor say I. All right. Any oppose say nay. Any abstensions? That's approved. Thank you. Thanks, Vicki. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is our tax collector.

She's also asking that we um and we've approved that Tom Corer, who is our part-time assistant, would go to full-time. I want to thank you for the laptops which have made it possible for me from the last couple of days since we got them six months ago. I rang through $30,000 of online payments of car payments and real estate and released some people with the DMV all from home. So, it works. You know, we were able to take care of taxpayers. Was a little sticky on VPN yesterday morning, but we got there, right?

Yeah. Yeah. It was working at 8:30 this morning and 3:00 yesterday afternoon. You just have to pick your time zone, you know, not 11 o'clock on a Monday. It did not work on that.

So, the real increase is moving somebody from part-time to full-time.

Yeah. And it that is necessary for the department. I did a survey of the other towns around us, especially with elected tax collectors. They all have full-time assistants and those people are expected to become certified the CCMC certification and that would be expected at this position. But right now, we're cobbling it together and Tom's only there four hours a day except for January and July, the peak months. We could be more aggressive in our rebuildings and collections. You can you've seen the results. It was an Indiana report this year. We cleaned up a lot of stuff, but there are still leans and motor vehicle collections to be done

and that takes repeated mailings. We have to legally send a demand to somebody before we turn them over to a collection agency or in the case of real estate, bring in town attorney to do a court foreclosure. So, it's it's it's time.

Mhm. And I'm not asking to increase over 30 hours for me. I would rather say keep the tax collector. It's a 30-hour position, even though I work a lot more than that because I'm trying to bring things up to snuff. But I would rather have two 30hour full-time positions. So then you have some continuity if you know the tax collector doesn't get reelected. So you have to have somebody in the office that knows what they're doing. You think that $500 $500 for legal fees doesn't buy you a lot of time and that's a little less than it hasn't it's been small in the past but more than 500.

Well, we have an interesting situation where I ran up a legal bill because no the the um what can I say the heirs of the person who hadn't paid taxes for 15 well 10 years on this piece of property didn't want to buy it. So, the town has become the owner of a piece of property that we will turn around and resell it um at some point. So, you're going to see that most of the time it is the taxpayer who ends up paying the legal fees, but nobody wanted this odd little lot. Uh we'll get it back on the tax roles. So, yeah, 500 is probably on the low side. Want to bring it up to a thousand?

That would probably be appropriate. Yeah. But they say I'm not trying to run up legal fees. We But we um most of the time it comes in through the collection. No, I I understand that. And certainly most of the legal activity is going to be significant, but it's paid by the taxpayer, but to the extent that it isn't, $500 will get you a phone call. No, two at least two. At least two,

maybe three. But no, Assessment Apparel has been effective in working with us and we have, as you can see, we we brought in a number of old leans that were 2015, 2016 up to current years. Those are now off the books. Um, we're still dealing with some 2020 and 2021. And what's what's mileage for? that is to go to Watertown to take tax collector training classes for education, right? So, education. Okay.

Those numbers were high this past year because I booked it that Tom and I both would be doing training, but until he becomes full-time, there's not an incentive for him for that. So, I overestimated last year. Um, this year's is a little more is more realistic. I hope to pass my certification in June. Anybody else have any questions?

I will move,444,120 for you. You increased the legal budget by 500, right? Yeah. I'm sorry. So it's 6 1 44620. Correct. Sorry. I'll second that. What's the number please? 144620. Thank you. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay. Any abstensions? Motion passes. Thanks.

Thank you. So if we could skip over treasure and go to registars. Jen is here. What? Oh, yeah. I know. But you're staying all night. She wants to go home. I just want to let you all know that my counterpart Kathy Carter couldn't be here tonight, but we're unified in our approach for the budget. I mean, it's basically fl

Yep. Well, I should say Kathy and I did a comprehensive look at what uh line items we charge things to and we are coming up a bit more consistent approach to what how we build each thing. We kind of bucks come from where 25 25 bucks that's probably posted.

That's the only difference between last year and this year is 25ucks difference. Yeah, we did move things around a little bit like we reduced some lines and increased others to compensate. Like for example, printing. Uh sometimes we would put the ballots out of printing and sometimes we would put them out of election primary or referendum. So we're just being consistent with how we do it so that we have a better idea. And we did get a new uh person to help us this year. Um uh and she helps us with our payroll. I mean payroll during election season is crazy. We span three pay periods. And so she helps us to consolidate everything. So we actually know how much we're paying our poll workers for early voting, how much we're paying on election day, how much we're paying for recanvas, which we had this year. So, you know, it's going to be a busy year, 26. Um, we're going to have primary we anticipate in August, midterm election in November, and of course, we always have the school budget referendum, and who knows what other referendums we'll get.

So, Jen, and the school budget referendum is $12,000. Is that fully reimbured by region 8? So we actually we actually um budgeted for two possible referenda. The school budget um yes Anita and I work together to um get all the bills for that and she takes care of the revenue that reimbursement side that goes on the revenue side but they reimburse us but they but they they should fully reimburse us. Okay. So you added two two additional no two total we put in four. We don't know that we'll have another one, but sometimes they come up and we need to be um planned for them and uh you know we had the senior center. Okay. So the 12,000 is more than just the school. That is correct.

So the if it's 50/50 the school would reimburse us for six. Correct. Thanks. For example, yeah, we just had the um tour referendum obviously in December and I itemized all of the bills. We itemized all of the bills for that and submitted them to whoever is going to pay them. We're not sure yet. I don't know. That's that's not my department. And then Jen for education and training. Yes. Um you reduced it to to 1500 from this year's budget to 2000, but the 1500 is less than it's been for a number of prior years, right? Is that because you guys are all smart now and you don't have to get any Kathy, you're fully certified, both of us.

Okay. And so Kathy's journey was a little bit longer because she uh was interrupted with the COVID transition from inerson to online training. She completed all of her training. I completed all of my training. So if something uh either of us stepped down for any reason or deputies came in, you have two years from when you're um sworn in to get your certification. So we don't feel it's necessary to keep a high amount in that. It would just be for the regular conferences and trainings. Anybody else have questions?

And we spelled out um in a document that we sent to Anita and the board of selectmen um a pay structure proposal. Um we get paid by stipend. I don't think it's spelled out to any level of detail in the bigger document. Back up.

We'd like to switch from a statement for our deputies to hourly pay. it would be the same amount of money. It would just require them to be in office two hours a week. Um, which would help us with coverage for the public, especially during our busy election season. Um, and then we spelled out specifically what our site covers. And then we would get paid additional hourly like we have been paid for the past two election cycles for early voting and um for referenda also. So, you know, you're up 25 bucks this year. 25 bucks. We got that somewhere.

Car. And as Vicki was saying, we switched out the postage for absentee ballots to her line item. Our postage primarily comes year round. And then we have our canvas. We mailed out 375 canvas letters this year, including return postage envelopes to increase our return. Any questions, comments, motions? I'll make a motion for $145,035.

I'll second that. Kim and Candace, any discussion? 145035. Yep. All in favor say I. I. All right. Any oppose say nay. Any abstensions? Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks for watching. Thanks. Let us know if we get any federal inspectors coming home. I will. Um I know you're online, but Melinda has a long drive home. So, can we do Melinda first? Of course.

Thanks. Assessor Sorry, I'm so Okay. The real increase besides wages is the legal fees. Yeah, wages. And then we did add a line item to move our um vision camera system to cloud. That's really the two items that are not just increases to services.

Oh, the contracted services as well. Yeah, contracted services did go up and that's based on the vendors themselves. Um and then the 40 the 4500 was added to contracted services. Melinda, how many tax appeals in have been filed in superior court? We had eight filed. We have four that have not been heard yet. So, we have we've settled for Oh, okay. So, eight were filed. Settle four and you think four are going to going to continue to negotiate and if unsuccessful go to trial.

Correct. And so the 30,000 may pay for the negotiations, but it ain't going to pay for four trials. Um, out of the four, I anticipate one going to trial at this point. I don't anticipate the other three going to trial. Who who does your uh tax files? Susman Shapiro. As long as there's no conflict with the current board that we have, there is no conflict. And they think maybe 30,000 will get him. Yes.

For the current year, we have uh no continued appeals yet because the BAA meets in March. So I I will not know what the 2627 appeals look like. Out of curiosity, not having nothing to do with the budget with respect to the appeals and most of them have been settled. Have the settlement substantially changed the original assessment. It's about 50/50. Some some are material and some aren't. Correct.

Mhm. Probably not a material change of the grant list. Not enough to shift shift the numbers. Yeah, I'll move the 231108 for the assessor's department. I'll I'll second that. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I I Any oppose say nay. Any abstensions?

Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. It Tom is online so he's here for it questions. Info check. Good evening.

Hi Tom. Martha and Tom. The only question I had was the note that was in this for town hall website. It just said that Martha was going to look into standard package. Did that change anything? I so we're in the middle of a refresh for our website and what I did find out is that we're at the premium package. So, we're paying about um hold on, what was it? 14. It's 14,000 for our website, which um I have to tell you, I just was talking to another town who are at one of their standard packages, which of course is going obsolete, and they're going to get moved up and for their first year. They don't have to pay. it's free, but they're not going to be at the premium, but they're going to be at the next the new standard, which is whatever. So, um it's very interesting how this uh vendor um builds these things and uh periodically I'm called to jump in on a team's meeting and somebody's trying to sell us another upgraded package and or you know a side thing that'll help us so immensely. Um so we've kind of slowed that down. One of the things though that I will tell you and we're going to try to work with

Rivercog on this is by 2027 our website has to be um come up to ADA compliance. So we will have to have some type of an assessment on the things that we have to change. Um it's a new law from the federal government and we have to make sure that the people who are blind, hearing impaired, etc. can still access our website.

It's a Yeah, I mean it just me I can I can maybe think about how hearing impaired folks can be assisted but how blind folks can see a web. Well, I should I shouldn't say it to read. There are blind there are blind lawyers who are very very good when at my old firm and the the technology is amazing.

Yes, it is. So, we will have to put some of those compliance um requirements on. Um so, I did I had conversation with Chester and Deep River and Lime today to say what are we going to do? and we reached out to Sam Gold at Rivercog and said um the the towns and cities over 50,000 have to comply by 20 April of 26. Smaller towns have till 27. Um but I'm we're looking at sometimes a survey to see where your website is is or isn't in compliance can be anywhere from three to $14,000 just for the survey.

Just for the survey to figure out what's wrong. I'm we're gonna be playing paying much less than I mean I'm we're gonna find something that's like at three. Um there are some free um widgets that you can use now to sort of see where your problems might be. We'll try some of those as well. But we've been

is is our website vendor is this a standard package for small towns and they've got a whole long list of towns that are using using them for the website. um they've been using it for a number of years and then they did a refresh um Tim's last year they I think it was Tim's last year in office they did a refresh um and they went to a premium package with the same vendor you mean a premium package the same they they did a step up but is this the vendor that we've had for yes

I remember They're kind of new websiteed several years ago. It's Civic Plus. It's Civic Plus. It was It's a It's a company that does most of the municipalities. If you across the nation, they're nationwide. I mean, we've been looking at them for their refresh and there's anywhere from Kentucky to West Virginia. You can check out their websites and see what they have and what it looks like. But, you know, as technology grows, then there's always other things that they have to add on to to make us in compliance. So, Tom, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to steal your thumb thunder on that, but

that's that's fine. Martha, I had no information on that. So, I'm I'm hearing this and writing taking some notes. We'll have to have some discussion. big discussions. Yeah. Anybody have any questions for Tom on the infot budget? I I have a couple of things. Sorry, BJ. I'd like to just uh some things that were sort of changing in in near real time. Um Sure.

So, a couple of things. Um the budget for the internal stuff is is pretty self-explanatory. Um, obviously the the concern is the um the infoch consultant which at this point is CT computing and we talked about uh needing to go out to bid on uh those costs to make sure that we're getting um you know the right value uh for what we we've kicked off that process although we're not too deeply into it yet. Um but um between uh we had a meeting with u myself um Martha and a couple other gentlemen who um comprise our IT committee and um with Tom Ridgio from CT comp to get the background which is important because we can't define or design the RFP without some of that

information. Yes. Information through the um uh the information and Tom sent a bunch of documentation to back that up. Um I passed that along to the gentleman and the IT committee and suggested that we we put together a meeting to uh plan this out. So, we're still pending that. Um I did want to mention one other thing in that documentation. Um there was a change to the numbers that I used to populate this spreadsheet. Uh specifically there was an allowance um for end of life equipment uh specifically in in this coming fiscal year is is uh firewalls that we use at the town hall which uh I you know information security. Anyway, the the bottom line is the number that was was on that planning sheet uh that we got from CT comp was 45,000 as an allowance.

Tom, that's Tom. Tom, that's capital. That's in I understand that, but Well, we're not Okay, but we're not look we're we're looking at your general budget operations and maintenance, not the capital tonight. Okay. All right. Well, I'm just letting you know. Yep. Yep. Okay. I just wanted to uh Okay, I get it. All right. So, uh thank you. And um Andy uh if we can uh maybe have a chat sometime this week uh if it ever stops snowing um or we can talk even in the snow. Yeah, there you go. Okay. Maybe Thursday or Friday morning.

Good. I'll reach out. I I mean that'd be great. I I mean the line that Tom was talking about infoch consultant going from 135 to 1435 that's the one that's that is a number from CT comp. Um so the hope would be that we put it out to bid it'll be less than that. Um this is another area where we weren't sure if little old lime has the Cadillac of everything

and if it's needed. Not that we wanna, you know, we want to make sure our employees have certainly the hardware to get their jobs done. Um, but we're not sure if things, you know, maybe over overbuilt. The other, if I'm not mistaken, the other thing that will remain a question for a little while, again, this is capital, this is not operating, although operating might come into play. As you remember a few years ago, we bought servers for the police um cameras as if we were going to take over that service uh from the state police and we budgeted for it because during the budget season we didn't know when we were going to get the word the go-ahad that the state police were going to continue. Uh they did continue. I think we found out in May or June that they were going to continue. Um we may be in a similar situation this year. I don't know if anything's changed on that, Martha.

No, we won't know for a while. We I have and to re again, this is capital, not operating budget, but uh we we did buy those servers. We bought the server for the police cameras, but it was repurposed um to replace another server as a backup. So, we would have to buy a server if that happens again. And I don't know Tom if that's in your capital budget or not. Not because it's well that's different. You still have to have the hardware in place to capture it

and and etc. So anyway and Andy to your point it's not because um we we hadn't gotten a definitive answer. So yeah we may not until June again. So Right. Right. um when they vote on their budget,

right? And the other thing just to mention to the to the group here is that I had a discussion with um Tom Rigio this morning and uh just in in sort of casual way. We were talking about changes to the industry and the word on the street and I I you know I obviously we have to do our RFP diligence. Word on the street is that uh the memory um component of all this has doubled if not tripled in price recently and it is knocking this cost of equipment that uses memory way up. So, we're going to see I don't think it's going to matter which vendor we go with. We're going to see increases on in those things that we you know we're going to have to deal with because that's the way the industry is going. All the memory is going to AI now. So, the they're charging ridiculous amounts for internal servers and things of that nature in the small small market that we are. So,

hey Tom, with respect to CT comp, I understand the price the pricing is a question, but the quality of their services and the responsiveness, how would you rate that on a scale of 1 to 10? Uh, I' I'd be in in the, you know, the nine and a half plus BJ. Um, again from my perspective, um, because I'm, you know, I'm working teams and, uh, trying to stay ahead of problems and and we they they do a tremendous job of keeping us out of trouble. Um, okay. You know, there are

I'll give you an example. Yesterday we were no yesterday we were all starting to work from home and a lot of us we have VPN on our computers. Some of us had never used it and uh from my instance mine just needed to be rebooted so he had to go in and go to the backside and reboot it because it wasn't working properly. But this person named Mike, he was on the phone with me, I think three times yesterday, Tom, and um remoted into my thing. But then he called me back like an hour later and he goes, "I just want to make sure everything's still working." So he didn't have to do that and he did it

and I and he was jocking between me and Suzanne. So the the second question then is in for for this work how much institutional memory is there? In other words, if we leave them and go to a new vendor uh what will be sacrificed in terms of the learning they have about our our system and our needs? That's my biggest fear BJ. I I'm going to be honest with you. I think that's going to be a a very challenging thing. Um, and again, from my perspective, well, right. Yeah.

So, that'll be part of the decision making in when you when you interview new vendors. Okay. Yep. That's and and you know, I mean, reality being what it is, I think any vendor is going to tell you they can take care of it and no problems and we'll never see a, you know, uh, you know, an issue. But how, you know, I I don't know. I I'm from Missouri. Show me.

All right. Well, it sounds to me like you're not going to chain vendors for a couple of thousand dollar. Um, and I would also wonder, yeah, you know, have to be a material difference in dollars to make you think about it. And then you might think about going back to CT comp and seeing if they'll come down. That's right. We can use they're going to sharpen their pencils. They know we're going out to bid. Yeah. You know, they they're going to have to put a bid in, too. Just because they've given us a proposal doesn't mean that's their bid. Perfect. They you know, they should have the inside track because they know us well. Yes. They know our heart. They they've brought us in a very positive way to this point. Yes.

Compared to where we were before where we're our it uh was shaky. Um and they've gotten us to a very very good spot. But based on our policy, this should be going this has not gone out to bid and it should. Yep. All right. Well, this based on the dollars. Can I ask Andy, real quick question? Yeah. A look at the documentation that I passed along the other day. Did you see any major gaps in anything? Is there anything else you want to you'd like to have your hands on? You know, I've got to look at it again. There were so many documents. What were there about 15 attachments?

Yeah, it was a big big pile. Yeah, it was a lot. I I'll try to go through it and then maybe, you know, we can schedule a quick call. Okay, very good. I just want to make sure you have what you need. I got it more than I need, I think. Okay. I'd make a motion for the um 65305 for info. I'll second that. Any discussion? All in favor say I.

I. Any oppose say nay. Any uh abstensions? None. Okay. Thank you, Tom. Thanks, Tom. Thank you. Want to go back and finish page one? Yep. Resources. Human resources. Make a motion for the $51,037.

Second. Seconded. Kim, what was in 51037? Any discussion? All in favor say I. I.

Any oppose say nay. Any abstensions? That passes. Town clerk. We did tax collector. We did trash treasure all in salaries. I will make a motion for 321,184. I'll second that. Anita, do you know what the dues are on the treasurer line?

Which one? It's a budget of 2,800 that's not been spent. There is a full conference that GF GFO has. Um, and I went to it previous year. Last year I did not go my sister passed away and so I did not attend um while I was staying here. Um but the conference is about $500 and then last year was two years in Mystic. Uh last year was in Vermont, next year in

Okay. So we had overnight stay there as well. Um me and Tracy go to the quarterly meetings for the um government financial officers. It's fine as long as you're spending it. That's fine because it hasn't been spent in the past. Before you didn't spend last year was last fall unique. Any other questions about the treasurer motion? It's Candace and Anna already very been made.

What a short memory I have. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed say nay. Any absentions? Yes. Thank you. 321184. Michelle,

she got 321184. You got for that one, right? 321. Yeah. Oops. Probate is on the second page. We're basically told what we have to pay for this, right? Yeah. So, I'll make a motion for $12,493 for probate. Shared services. Who seconded it? I did. Kim did. Any discussion? All in favor say I.

I. Any oppose say nay. Any extensions? Passes. building department is at the bottom of that page. Mark is not here. He said it's pretty standard standard ask went up 4,000 3% $4,000. So the totals on the the next budget of 1425 compared to this year's 1385. I'll make a motion for the 142586. We'll second that.

Any discussion? All in favor say I. Any oppose say nay. Any abstensions? Passes

health department. I'll make a motion for the 1021 190. Second. 10 seconds. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay.

Any abstensions? That passes. I mean that's you know principally our mosquitoes and uh ledge light, right? And all expenses there chain bill and um river car river uh gave us um the $200 assessment. And the assessment was for athletic rem um and we have put some of it in um in the past we did it because there was no other place to put it under emergency management. They said it doesn't belong under his um so I

it's for Rogers Lake. It sounds like it's Rogers. No, this is Yeah, that's where our invasive species are. But this came from River County. Yeah, because they Yeah, but they handled that the hydrillaa and everything else. I didn't see this. So, I don't know where this came from. Okay. Well, I didn't see it. So, I would have told you to put it under Rogers Lake because they have an invasive species and they deal with them. After we already did. Okay. Well, we can go back. We can go back. I

Let me read it. So I know what I'm doing. Oh, yeah.

We'll find it. I'll pay it myself for $200. Well, that's why the miscellaneous. I just want to know what we're paying them for. That's all. I would think I would do this one. It just we not pass waves. So that was all February 2nd and then this is from 21 dues increase. This is all dues. I know another email

would have probably come from um it came from where was that? Yeah. I don't I don't remember Rogers Lake Authority having business with the COG. We work with deep a lot but I don't remember the COG. I know you don't do business with them but they are doing work that involves all the waterways. So it wouldn't necessarily I don't know but I haven't seen the letter. So yeah. Yeah. No, I I'm just trying to remember if there's anything like that discussed. I know we work a lot with Yale and and um she's gonna find it while it look for $200. Can we just get through my this budget and then we'll figure out where that goes if we find the letter.

I mean I'm sure you'll find $200. Like I said, I'll write you a check. Um, one of the questions I think we talked about at one of the meetings uh under uh town hall is the mileage and the thought of

Oh, that was under building because we were we did talk about Mark Wayland. He did go down. They cleaned up one of the cars. They took it all apart. Mark went down. It is a sedan. It doesn't work for him. He said getting He's a big guy. He goes, "Getting in and out of that is not going to be my forte." And it's got 153,000 miles on it. So, he said it doesn't work for him. I don't know how much you want me to push to say this is what we're doing. Um, we're talking about uh $500 a month in mileage. Um I did have a conversation, in fact I have another conversation with um our labor attorney that we don't have to pay mileage according to him uh for in town things when they're an employee um especially if they're coming to town hall from somewhere else. So there are some people in town that might use their they might have a come here to get their mail but they have an office somewhere else. So for those two three miles he said that's you're not supposed you shouldn't have to pay that. They're basically they work for town hall. If they choose to get their mail here you don't have to pay them to come get it.

Certainly makes sense to me that you don't pay somebody for coming to his office. Yeah. only if they're doing only if they have to drive somewhere and Mark's Mark and Eric when they go off to do zoning things or whatever. I think that they should get their mileage. So, I'm not fighting that. But, I wish that we can still take the car and use it here as a town car. I just don't think it's going to be the car that Mark wants to be in day in day out. He said if he one of the Ford Explorers came into play where it's higher up the ground off the ground, he would be interested in looking at that. Oh, I guess that's an employer. It's not the board of finance decision. That's the employer

as to what, you know, well, this is the car and we're not going to pay mileage. You know, we're going to provide a a town vehicle. Um, well, I just where we're going to go and right now this is what the town vehicle is. And if a all-wheel drive explorer when it's time to move out of the queue for the police department rangers, then that'll be what it is. I just learned this Friday afternoon because they just got it back and Derek called him and said, "Come down." And they had a thing and when he came back in the office, that is what he told me. So to move the seat back,

you know, that's Andy, I have this doesn't come under my town hall budget, though. It comes out of building. That's mileage. You just approved it. I guess that's part, you know, this year. Any of that can be recalculated and changed moving this budget forward, right? my the mileage that you see under mine and for town hall mileage is management and um I charge it if I'm going to Hartford or somewhere farther away. Okay.

But Tim uses that mileage account because he goes to the River Valley Transit meetings in Middletown. So I charge his mileage reimbursement to that account.

That's fine. that just worked. I tried the wrong department. Tim has a long-standing relationship with River Valley Transit when he was, you know, and so he said that he would like to stay on as the rep and I one less meeting for me to go to and it's a minor thing and he keeps me up to date on what's happening and sometimes they have virtual meetings, sometimes they go up, but he's got his buddies that he knows and we're going to be getting some new signage in town because there's changing. Oh, thanks. Here we go. There it is.

Okay. So, this is the aquatic invasive removal fee and they basically worked it out with each town. Ours we have $200. So, it's coming under looks like under household hazardous waste. So it's saying uh January meeting dues provide matches for state and federal grants each of cog dues leverages the rivercog dues amount will be calculated sum base six capita also shows the hazard household hazardous waste program and after the new contract 30% in disposal cost so the house that was h for h this is for household hazardous is waste

which we just did under just before the transfer station. So we have to match to make sure those numbers are the same. And basically he's got every town punching in $200. But he doesn't explain this. He does not explain the aquatic invasive removal fee book in his letter figure. It's 200 bucks. No, let me just had to do it regularly. But

I'm just going to go back to Ed's line just to make sure Anita that this is correctly. There's all right. We just I'll make a motion for the 213,259. I'll second that. Thanks. And Candace, any discussion? Could you meet that number again? 213259. Thank you. All in favor say I. Any opposed? Say nay. Any abstensions? That's approved. Yeah, we're not going to worry about this.

Let's not worry about it. We're if we bring aquatic invasive species over to them, they'll charge I mean insurance. We're 200 over on that line. We'll be fine. All right. Insurance. We have to pay for insurance. Okay. Um estimating a 10% and I the rate is approximately 14. It hasn't been finalized. You're talking about health insurance.

The health insurance the increase. Um what I did just in the calculations currently we have five people that are taking the buyout. Um we have four people four positions. We have three new fulltimes. Um and then we have the one that's the officer um retired. So basically um the reason why the number didn't go off as large is I basically kept the five people that were getting buyout and the buyouts and calculated positions with a two person.

Um so because maybe someone might be single, someone might be a family. Um and um I didn't uh fun the whole position. Okay. Okay. And this is something when do we get like a final?

They did the end of this month and they haven't set a date. Um the federal range the lowest it might go is 13 and it's only considered jails is the ratio for the whole cost. the big spike in the insurance costs. Um, so the lowest we'll go is 13. Um, they said right now we're about 14, but we'll go to 13. What's approximately how much is our cost per employee and what's the employee share? Just curious.

The employee share is going up to 19.25 mixure. Um, 19.25%. Yes. Um, where is it now, Anita? 19. Okay. So, it's going up a tiny bit. And about how much how much does health insurance cost for an individual employee? 22 22,000 2200 a month. No, there's a whole spreadsheet. She's got it. I did spreadsheet out there. When you look at the increases over the years, it it's for the number of employees. Yes. Year. It's bumping this partially. 22,000.

I mean, insurance is also just I can give you one for this side too. These guys who chair um I I can go make more copies.

So, your annual cost is 19,000 for a single person. That's that's the town cost or their cost. I'm assuming the town cost. our leasing number looking at a year. So like here you have a single person 1,000 that's per month. That's per month. Okay. Per month there and that's our cost per but then I I take away later on I take away the the co- share right over here that look. So really it's this less 19.25. Okay. Got it. That sounds But you're saying it's about about $1,500 a month.

Yes. And then the co uh the co- premium is yeah but just I'm just trying to get my head around $18,000 for an individual course. Yeah, that that's single. Yeah. Two and then um what do we what's and that's through the Connecticut partnership plan. So we're getting actually a state rate. So we're getting a lower rate than if we were to buy in the marketplace. Oh, you have to factor in. Okay. So, the women two people is uh so um 3,151 that percentage 19 um 25

is that for like what are we doing for married couples? What are we doing for families? Okay. Across the board. Okay. So, we absorb it. So if it's a a husband and wife, this we're really taking on the entire cost of the second person, the spouse, this family. 25% of whatever policy, whatever their policy is. If they're on a family, they're paying 19.25. If they're single, they're paying 19.25. On on this page, you have the word single, two person, and married. Does married mean a family? So it includes their dependence, right? So we're a bargain if they have five kids.

Yeah, of course. It always is. I mean, until they go to college. Until they go to college, right? Save family. I married. Yeah, it should save family. It depends on what you have a broker that's helping you run those numbers. Why does this number look out of line? In my experience, 14% even if the worm is when it this goes to yearly, it should be high number. Oh, we only have six people there. rate we got. That's what it is per month for the 62 person and then did you charging us $50

just to give us at the end of the year one quote for 550 it was a motion across the board 300,9 I'll Second that. Perfect. And let let me then So Anna Anna moved 1 million 921 or a second. Oh, Kim Kim second. Second. Kim seconded.

Okay. For discussion. I mean, I think these are these are all estimates and they could change on, you know, if some employee if their spouse gets a job with better insurance or vice versa, it could change or the renewal comes in higher than 14%. No. Well, they said that's that's the max it's coming. If anything, it it's going to come in at 13. But you said we would you would get that at the end of the month, which is pretty soon. Well, that's what they say. But we find even if you'll notice at the school board, the real tight numbers, the definite numbers come in more around the 1st of May. 1 of May, everybody's confirmed where they are. But they know they got you. No, they don't. They voted for it.

Question. When is open enrollment? That's not true because it's gone down at board. We could vote on a number and in June based on open enrollment it could change. Everybody do open enrollment in November? No, do well obviously the numbers can float around and we'll adjust if Yeah, but I think you've had good estimates in the past. So

take a look at the um bonds for officials number. You have $1,000 and then you say estimate 10% placeholder and thousand is less than it's been in the past. Oh, no. That was that one. I didn't change it. Okay. No, this one actually it came in lower this year. You think $1,000 is the right number? Yes. Mhm. Yes. Okay.

So, nobody's concealing anything apparently. put the $200 in that line item because then you know one year we paid for um No, but but every year going back to 21 has been at least $1,400. So I'm I'm not going to quarrel with a good, you know, a good number. Um so 1,300,921 has been made and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay.

Any abstensions? That passes. Dave, we voted for you. Muted. Yeah. special deductions. That's the function of everything we've already voted on.

This is this is the numbers based on the payroll. These numbers are there. Um pension is still well um the same for the fact is anybody starting you have that one year window. So they won't get into that nature. I'll move the 578-250. I'll second it. Yeah, second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. Any oppose say nay. Any extensions? That passes. We're almost done. You are done. I

think you are done. We have to approve the minutes. You're not You're not

the the February 10 minutes were circulated electronically. There may be other copies here. Does anybody need a minute to look at them? I can make a motion to approve the February 10th meeting minutes.

I've reviewed them and have no comments. I'm going to abstain because I wasn't present. Okay. So, the minutes have been um from February 10 moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay. Any abstensions? Candace abstains. Dave. I don't. Was Dave here at the meeting? No. But Dave abstains. I was at the meeting so I voted. Say what? I was at the meeting so I voted. Yeah.

Very good. Okay. Any other business? We don't even have a personal excellence before us on this agenda. Sorry, Martha. You have anything you want to say to us? No, we just I just I mean I just got to say that it's um you know, we have an amazing staff. They pulled together amazing over the last for this storm, last storm and this storm. They just go like wildfire and put things into place so that we're all clicking away.

Do the kids have school tomorrow? I don't even know. I as of six o'clock you do. Um but tomorrow morning could be a different story. Tomorrow morning could be a different I know all the other STS because since East Lime is out, Waterford's out, London's out, Stonington's out, Graten's out today or tomorrow? tomorrow. Tomorrow also. Yeah, there's there's snow that's supposed to hit at like 7 or 8 in the morning. 4:30 started. Oh, really? So, my daughter's at the magnet school in Gten and she they called it at 4:30 and said, "No, I guess it's going to start at 4:30." It might be delayed tomorrow.

You're going to take your time. Oh, we'll do that thing where we have a delay and then we have a long delay and end is your onetop shop. Oh yeah, forget it. Like lime old lime is still not on the list. Dante and I were making bets that we're going to have one and a half days of school this week. So the mag um today I'm sorry tomorrow. Maybe they'll do a before vacation a full week. Maybe they'll do a reverse t day. daughter's having a heart attack delay on Friday morning, so she won't graduate. It's going to snow on Thursday night, too.

Well, they they were saying that there's a lot of school about taking days away from the April break. That's a great idea. Maybe. So, who's worried on April 8th? My worry. They're never going to get if you had gave you permission to take your vacation if you had your plane tickets and reservations in hand. Couldn't go make a reservation. You have your reservations. We're not going to talk you that many people that I know you want to stay here longer. I'm good.