Town Council - Regular Meeting

charging for I don't know I I have to educate I'll take the off.

I'll give you the signal. Thank you. You like this chair, don't you?

Yeah. you know there question I need you

if someone does not have a what we get things organized. Uh good evening. Uh welcome to the Plymouth Town Council special meeting.

Call this meeting to order 703 at April 14, 2026. Uh this is regarded as a special meeting because it was set up independent of our regular meeting which would needed to be postponed. So that's why this is deemed a special meeting just for the record. Um, I'd also like to uh recognize that we have a full quorum. All members of the town council are present this evening along with our recording secretary, our town clerk. Thank you very much for supporting the meeting tonight. Fire exit notifications. If you go to the to your backs uh directly out the back doors, if you exit to your left, go through two doors and that will take you to the exterior of the building. If you go to the right and follow the exit signs, you will exit through the police department through the first door. We'll go to your left and then go directly outside. Item four is our pledge of allegiance. Please rise for the pledge to the flag. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Uh this evening's invocation, we ask God to bless America and God bless the town of Plymouth. Item number six is the acceptance of the meeting minutes from the regular March 3rd meeting. Is there a motion to accept the minutes from March 3rd? Motion, Mr. Green. Second. Second, Mr. Zigerski. Is there any discussion on the meeting minutes from March 3rd? Hearing none, a regular voice. All those in favor of accepting the meeting minutes say I.

Is anyone opposed? Are there any abstensions? Abstension. That was Mr. Tisher, right? I'm sorry, Mr. Angel. I'll get you guys straight one of these days. Thank you very much. Four in favor with one abstension. Thank you. Item seven is accepting the minutes from the March 30th uh 2026 special meeting. Is there a motion to accept those minutes? Mr. Green

second. Did I get this one right? That was Mr. Angel. Thank you. Any discussion on the minutes from the special meeting of March 30th? Hearing none. Everyone in favor of accepting the minutes say I. I.

Anyone opposed? Any extensions? That is unanimous. Thank you very much. Item eight is public comment on agenda items. If there's any member of the public that would like to speak on an agenda item, please do so at this time. We will also have public comment available toward the end of the meeting for anything that's a non-aggenda item where you can address the council on any topic. Are there any questions or comments on agenda items at this time? I'm not seeing any. Thank you very much. I'm going to move to the mayor's report. I'll also note that the uh town council members, I was a little delayed in sending you the uh the supplemental report from the mayor's uh assistance. Uh that should have been in your email, but uh for the record, I'm going to uh report do the mayor's report this evening. Uh, I'd like to provide an update on the transfer station. As most everyone knows, the compactor unit uh at the transfer station failed this winter. The casing that housing houses the piston for that burst uh probably due to the aging metal and the extreme temperatures. I would like to thank the public works team as well as a local b our local business es metals who helped evaluate our options to move forward the repair of the existing uh operate the existing mechanical operation was not possible. So a temporary dumping area is being set up to make it as easy as possible for residents to access. Um that's still a little bit in progress, but we hope to have that wrapped up, I believe, by the end of this week and and by Saturday. Uh multiple companies have been contacted regarding a replacement compactor, and we hope to have a permanent solution option to bring forward very soon.

I'd like to announce that the position of the highway department's supervisor has been filled by Aaron Heler, who began service on March 30th. This was to replace the uh spot uh vacated by the retiring Jim Schultz. I'd like to thank Dennis Kizes who was filling in during a very difficult winter. He's returned to his role as the lead mechanic and I think he was relieved to do so. Uh I also want to announce that the agreement with our former highway supervisor Jim Schultz who provided temporary support was completed as scheduled at the end of March and that agreement has been terminated. Our public works director and highway supervisor have begun the process of filling the open positions in the highway department and those interviews and reviews are in progress. Uh just some general updates. Uh meetings are in progress with the Connecticut DOT officials to confirm and secure the schedule for the downtown Route 6 intersection project. Once we have those details, we can share with the public so we can plan for the road closures and possible detours and we'll keep the public advised as best we can as that project moves forward. We do expect construction and detours will be required overnight that will result in the closing of the main section of Route 6. And uh that's part of the scheduling that we hope to get available to you so folks can plan accordingly. plans for the Todd Street Bridge and the farms which is up in the old the Arm Brewster farm area. Uh that that farms was part of that work was done last year. Those road projects are near completion and this is going to and we're starting to work on the bond package to finish that what was planned for up at the farms. The finance team is working with the town's financial advisors and the bond council to issue $3 million in bonds in late May or or early June. Additional bonds can be issued later in

the summer if needed. We're reviewing the current budget balances in the town roads accounts to determine what roads the crews can be start to work on now and that will be based on the funds available from our current year's budget. I've received notice today that we've got about $240 to $260,000 in remaining in the town roads budget from their current year's budget. So, they will be able to start some of the work and some of that is already started. Uh they've done some drain replacement on North Street and some additional drain replacement um I believe in the South and Main Street area, but we are trying to pick our battles and determine what is is most appropriate. The uh town crew is out sanding now and part of while they're they're doing the sanding and picking up the sand from the winter time, they're keeping an eye on the roads and identifying any severe issues that need to be addressed immediately. I'd like to say that our IT team is still working to complete the website redesign. We do expect a launch and by miday there's been many competing priorities uh from a technical standpoint and some urgent technical matters have slowed our progress. Uh we're addressing issues as they come across and doing our best to keep on schedule with the website redesign. Um, I'd like to say that the uh announced that the the we have hired an interim building inspector. The main building inspector position remains open for now. Our interim inspector will work three days per week, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. And he has started work today. As a matter of fact, um, we will continue to ensure we have adequate services by using certified vendors to fill in the gaps until a full-time inspector is hired. We will begin we will be advertising for the open land use compliance official.

This position was vacated last at summer. Uh and as soon as the re revised job description is completed we will post for that position. Uh lastly, on kind of a public service note, I would like to congratulate our emergency preparedness director, Tony Orsini, who received a life member recognition from the National Fire Protection Association. Tony has served in a variety of roles in the Plymouth Fire Department for several decades. He would not let me say how many years he's been with us. Uh and he can add this honor to his list of accomplishments. would like to thank Tony for his continued service to the town of Plymouth. That concludes my mayor's report. I'd like to move to item 11 and this is an appointment and I want to uh alert people that um Oh, did I miss Tangle? I beg your pardon. Not intentional. Tom Council layers on reports. So, let's start with this. We'll start with Mr. Angle. Tom Council lays on reports. Thank you for the reminder.

Thanks, Sue. I think it was Linda that alerted me to that, miss.

I'm going to start with the board of finance report uh that we we we have passed the budget last night. forwarded budget to the council uh of 48,625 299 uh a 2.79% increase with a suggested um middle grade of 28.04. They they've also put forth a suggested triard meeting on February 24th 21st at 6:00 p.m. or April I'm sorry I'm still I lost my head. I'm sorry. April 21st. Um inland wetlands. Um there's nothing on the agenda for tomorrow evening and it looks like most um everything has been moved through the um meetings that have been out there and we met with the housing authority on uh 317. They passed their health inspection uh programs. We reviewed the fiscal audit which was uh they're they're good healthy shape at the moment and um they're looking that they may be looking at is a possible rate increase. uh that that's really about it at this time.

Thank you very much, Mr. Tisher. Yep. I don't have much. Um the planning zoning was canceled last week. Um board event will be doing tomorrow and also to feedback also. Thank you, Mr. Green. anything boy.

Um fire commission. Um I missed the last meeting because we were at the board of finance. Um they are looking for volunteers. So there's signs all over the town. Please volunteer and help help do a really good service to the town. Um the police department didn't have their latest meeting also. Um, and the board of finance, I want to thank them for all the hard work they did. I've been going to a lot of their meetings and I learned a lot and it's a huge process. So, thank you guys for all the work that you did. We appreciate it. Um, human services commission um was working on a they're having a duplicate of service issue and they worked all that out and they're very busy bunch of people. So, that's it.

Thank you, Mr. Zigerski. Yeah, I uh attended a bunch of quarter finance meetings over the past month, month and a half. Uh I also have uh public works. Joe's doing a great job there. He's trying to get everything up to snuff and up to speed. Uh he introduced us to Allan at the last meeting and they're currently down to five maintainers again. So, they're working on trying to get that filled. Uh park and wreck, they have a lot of activities planned for the upcoming year. Uh summer camp registration is now open. So, if you have anyone looking to get into summer camp, that is open. Uh they have a walk for hunger for the food pantry on April 25th at Lake Winfield, and they have the kids fishing derby on May 9th at Lake Winfield. Uh sewer commission, uh there's a lot going on there right now. They're in the final inspection phases of Nine Scott Road with the sewer connections and they're reviewing a large scale project. all the site plans up on solid distribute. So they have a busy time right now going through a bunch of different things. That's it.

Thank you very much council members and again my apologies my apologies for missing you. Uh we'll now move to item 11 which is boards uh dealing with boards and commissions. Uh we have a new appointment to consider. This is for a vacancy from a uh resignation for the housing authority. It's a 5-year term and uh we provided that information. Uh I would be uh looking for a motion to appoint Elena Squires to the Plymouth Housing Authority for a five-year for the balance of this 5-year term. Uh is there a motion to appoint Elena Squires?

Joe Green. Thank you. Is there a second? Second, Sue Bullyard. Any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor of the appointment say I. Anyone opposed? Any abstensions? Motion carries. Thanks, folks. Uh item 13. Uh this is our kind of our regular monthly tax rebate item. Uh,

I took my glasses off so I could see the paper because I can't see the paper when my glasses are on. Thank you very much for again for the correction. I guess we're going to take just a minute and allow the board of education to set up and finish setting up and then we will hear a presentation of the board of education. This was requested by several members of the town council. So, we'll give you a minute to set up. And again, it's been a long day. That's all I can tell you. Whenever you're ready, board of ed, let me know.

Hello everyone. Hello everyone. If you do not know who I am, my name is Karen Flesa. I am the current chair of the board of education. I appreciate you allowing us to come here to share our budget. Sorry. Thank you. I appreciate

I appreciate you having us come here to share our budget. Um we are really working hard to be as transparent as pro as possible and the more public uh forums that we have to share our information the better and any questions that anyone would have we are happy to answer as well. Um, again, thank you for having us and I'm going to turn this over now to our superintendent of schools, Brian Felcone, and our business manager, Matt Tenza. Uh, good evening everyone. Thank you to the mayor and the council for having us this evening. I'd like to thank the board of education as well. We have three evenings uh, this week alone and so I know they are working really, really hard for the paycheck they get uh, every year. So, I want to thank them as well. Um, so I know there are a number of council members that requested for us to be here. There's a number of board members that requested us to be here. Um, just to kind of give you a thorough understanding of the board of education's budget, our requests, our proposals, and our capital needs. So, I'm going to start real quick by showing you the calendar of our budget uh, and how we create our budget. It starts in October and we go all the way through. when I work with my uh administrative team, teachers and um Matt to create a budget that we present to the board in early January. And then between January and midFebruary, the board works to adopt and figure out what they want to add, adjust, and change within our budget. And then we bring it over to the board of finance. the board of finance looks at it and they go through and they make the appropriate adjustments they feel are necessary as well. And then that brings us to April 14th. So, as you see, a major chunk of our school year is creating this budget. So, with the budget and with the board

of education, remember our focus is children, schools, and our goals. And we have four goals that ground our work. student achievement, student engagement, well-being, and fiscal oversight of the school district. Those are our four goals that ground our work and that our budget is created off of. And so, you'll hear me reference some of these goals as I go through the presentation. So, our main goal in creating the 2026 2027 budget was to maintain our current staffing and programs. There were some additional things that I needed to added it add to the budget in my proposed budget to the board. The first thing I needed to add was three building substitutes. We were dealing with and are dealing with a union issue with regard to coverage at Plymouth Center School and at Fiser Elementary School. It's where the little ones are. We need coverage for classes and we just don't have the appropriate substitute coverage now. union came forward with a grievance and we are resolving it by putting this in place in next year's budget. So, we have two building subs that will be added um to Pin Center and one to Fiser. That was added in my budget. It's really not an option for us to put those in. I also added a chemical hygiene specialist. This is for OSHA compliance. We don't currently have one. We need one. Um, and that person will go around the district within the summer. Um, and then during the school year to go all the schools, check the chemicals from the paint and the art classrooms to the chemicals in the science classrooms and make sure that we're in compliance. And that is a $2,500 stipen position I had to add. And then finally, with regard to our lunch program, um the state has basically told us that we can only do so

much to to deal with students and families that don't pay their bills for their meals. So, to offset that and to help with the shortfall, we put $2,500 into each school uh to help offset whatever shortfalls we might have in our lunch program. Those are the items that I added in my proposed and recommended budget to the board. After the board looked at my budget, they made some adjustments themselves. Again, focusing on the board of education goals with student achievement. There was um a need and a feel that we wanted to add two regular education teacher aids into the school. They want them to the the goal here is to add them one to kindergarten, one to first grade. Next year, put in the budget, one for second grade, one for third grade. Next year, one for fourth grade, one for fifth grade, so that all of our elementary schools over a three-year period would have regular teacher aids in there to support our teachers in the classrooms. Currently, we do not have any, but again, it goes along with our board goal. Second, we looked at the daytime security monitor. Where that came from, that came from my building administration. When our board of education walked our buildings this year, and there were two different dates where they came in and walked the buildings with our administrators, they asked the question like in the budget, how could we support you the most? And each one of my administrators all said, a daytime security person. We have teachers teaching. We have par professionals working with some of our most needy children. We have our secretaries working in the office. We have our principal at a thousand different meetings running around the building. We need someone to look out for security, someone to be watching the monitors, someone to making sure the

doors are locked. And so again with the same kind of concept and idea of the the teachers aids, the board is looking to put in one daytime security person into each building each year. So we would start with one and next year we would ask for another one to kind of build up to our our building principles main priority. So, there's a lot of um there's a a lot of information out there, I would say, in social media land. We'll we'll put it out there. Uh that's not accurate. One deals with our enrollment, and people like to say that the school district has a declining enrollment. That's actually not the case anymore. This is a projected enrollment study that we had that goes to the the year 2036 and it shows that our enrollment is going to increase from now until then. I have some arrows in there and I can't see the first arrow because it's small and I'm scared if I walk this way it's going to echo. But the yellow arrow shows you what our projected enrollment for this year was and it's much lower than our current enrollment. I think by about 80 kids. So that projected enrollment from 203536 is probably higher than 1300 students. But the bottom line is our enrollment in the next 10 years is not going down. It is going up. To go along with enrollment, I wanted to show you where our positions were and where our students were. So we broke down each school because we always get the question of do you have extra staff? And I'm going to show you that we are using every single person to the max within our budget. So you have preK, kindergarten, first and second grade. On the top of this chart, you're going to

see the Fiser chart is going to look very similar after. You see the number of teachers we have in each grade, the projected number of students that we have in each grade, and the average class sizes that we'll have in each grade. And then underneath that, you'll see the certified support staff. We have their case loads, and then the unified arts teachers, the non-certified staff, and the building administration. I want to point out that the enrollment data is for next year, but the case load information you have for the certified staff is our current case load because that was too hard to project moving forward. Fiser has the same exact thing. Um, you can see our staffing, our number of teachers in each grade. You see the number of students, average class sizes, support staff, and so on. And as you go through and you look at the middle school and the high school, you'll see that it's not as easy to project how many kids are in a class because the students are choosing classes, they're choosing electives, there's conflicts within their schedules, but you get the idea of how many kids are in a grade and how many kids are going to be in a class. And it's important to point out when you look at Eli Terry, we have one social studies teacher in sixth grade. We have one social studies teacher in seventh grade and one in eighth grade. We only have three. And the same thing with math. Same thing with science. In English language arts, we have two because it's a double block of reading and writing. So we have two in that grade level teaching a double block. So it's important that you see that. So as our enrollment goes up, that might be something that we need to address as a board. And then Tergo High School, you see that we basically have four teachers within each department. And you'll see there's also additional electives. And then we go to the most controversial slide, which is central office.

So, I I normally um try to avoid the noise outside when I hear we're topheavy or there's too much administration. This is our central office staff. There are two certified administrators central office, myself and my assistant superintendent. We have a business manager. Our business manager takes care of a lot of our grants and obviously our budget, but there's a lot of things our business manager can't do with his certification that fall on myself and our assistant superintendent. We used to have an additional administrator, a curriculum director, um that was an administrator as well, but that was removed in last year's budget. But we have a lot of people that are supporting the work that has to be done to run our organization. And so it's important to point out you you have two certified administrators and a business manager running the whole operation across all four schools. Um and so we wear many hats. I am the curriculum director. I am the HR director. I am the superintendent and my assistant superintendent is the special ed director and the assistant superintendent supporting me in th those areas as well. And then Matt is wearing helping me with HR um and and all of the finance and all of the grants have slid over. So we're we're just we're we're running thin in central office. So this is how our budget is spent per school. Um I always also hear that we have, you know, $27 million budget. The school can take care of it. Um, and I and I think we we've hit some of those roadblocks along the way in working through situations where I want to show you how much money we actually have.

So, Plymmen Center's budget is $1.8 million and we have required costs that go along with that $1.8 million. salaries, extracurricular statements, which is part of a contract, a cont contractual obligation, cop your contract, dues, utilities, pest control, OSHA, emergency repairs, and postage. Those are required to run our school. What art principal works with and what she actually budgets and we give her to budget is about 20,000. Is it 20,000 or 28? I can't I'm sorry. I need my glasses. $20,000. That's what when we give her her budget, that's what we give her to work with. So, she works with her preK, kindergarten, first and second grade teachers with $20,000 to run their school for the year. Then you go to Fiser, it's very similar. So, what we did is we broke down the entire budget this way by condensing some things into required cost and remaining funds. The whole entire budget is in this uh graph or chart, I guess you can say. The most telling I would say is is special education, though. Uh our assistant superintendent has a $7 million budget. But when you break down outplacements and transportation and salaries and purchase services and travel and summer school and all the requirements that we have in special education, her budget that she has to work with is $15,000. So the reason why I did this and broke down the whole entire budget this way across each of our line items is to show you this slide. You have required costs that are 28,56,000. I I messed up the number, but you see

the number. And then you have the remaining funds of about a quarter of a million dollars. So 99.14% of our budget is required costs. The remaining 86 is where we have some discretion to spend. But we really don't have that much discretion because we still need supplies. We still need to do a graduation for our high school. We still like those are the discretionary funds. So I think it's important to show that we really don't have the extra money that people might perceive we have to do additional things. We really budget super tight. Here are some budgetformational items. Here's our contractual increases within the current operating budget. You see our certified staff, our non-certified staff, our administration, our benefits, transportation, outplacements, tuitions, and utilities. And the outplacement tuitions from when we started this to now is is very different than it looks now. Uh I would say we're not in the negative anymore. Um but you see that the overall increases are 3.67%. that we can't control. So, we are budgeting the best we can with what we can control and we're really thinking outside the box as a board. Here are some of bud budget adjustments that the board has made with myself. We are looking outside at changing our benefit plan. This is a complete risk. We met with the teachers union today with regard to negotiating um a new health benefit plan and we have placed in a half a million dollar uh a little over a half a million dollars in there as Mr. Engel will tell you it's probably a big risk. We have excess cost which that is a pretty safe number to put in

there. And then we have anticipated faculty for retirement savings. That's a total risk. Um, we're looking for two people to possibly retire in this year and we haven't received those at this point. Um, so that is a $75,000 risk within our budget. The things we've added, we've already talked about, but those are the costs that go with each of the items that are added. And you'll see from what I added and the board added, the board only added around $74,000 to the my proposed budget and it was for things that really go along to school safety and to improving student achievement. We loaded our grants with people. They're the best resource, our best resource for working with kids. And that is also a risk. a grant goes away and so do the people. Um, and so I wanted you to see that we have 12.6 positions that are grant funded in our budget and this is our current budget. This is the board adopted budget and it's an increase of 3.99%. Now, I understand that the board of finance reduced that number to um my original recommended budget. I'm not presenting that that evening because I don't agree with it. I'm presenting the budget that the board adopted that's right to move us forward. The adopt the budget that was sent forward from the board of finance keeps us right where we are. We need We need more. We need help. I actually have a chart that I'm questioning handing out that talks about from 2010 to now, the impact of just 2%.

If the board of education just got 2% from 2010 to now, how much more we would have? Well, now that I mentioned it, I'm going to hand it out. And this isn't to say anything negative about anyone. This is just to show that all of you on town council, the mayor, the board of education, the board of finance, we're picking up the pieces. We're picking up the pieces from some things that happened in the past. And what it will show you is that if we got 2% over the past 16 years or 15 years, our budget right now would be over $30 million. So that's why I'm presenting the 3.99 because I do strongly believe that's the minimum we should be moving forward with and I believe that's what the board feels the minimum we should be moving with moving forward because we are behind and we're trying to catch up just as I believe you feel the town might be behind trying to catch up on some things as well. This is also a misperception that's out there that people like to talk about how the board's budget is $28 million to the taxpayer. It's actually not because we get the educational cost sharing grant back. So the amount of money to the taxpayer in Plymouth off of this budget is $18,878,52. Still a lot of money. I don't question that. But I just want to make sure that perception is is out there because this is the reality. This shows you the the money that we need to support different percentages of our budget. Um if if you if the council makes a decision to give us 2%. Uh we

would have to cut $550,000 in our budget. Again, there's some risk in our budget. It would probably be more than that. Um, and if you gave us 3.99, we wouldn't have to cut anything. So that shows you that the scale and I also thought it was important for this because um I try not to listen to the noise, but this group that's sitting here um and I believe the board of finance heard this as well. They're aware of the struggle. They're aware of how difficult times are. Education funding has been flatlined for

since 2013 and that burden's fallen on the taxpayer. So when this is from CAPS, this is the Connecticut Association Public School Superintendent. And again, my budget came in at um 3.72. The average superintendent's budget as of yesterday came in at 5.23. That was their recommended budget. And the average adopted budget from boards of education across the state came in at 4.99. We're at 3.99. So, we're all aware of the struggle and we're doing the best we can to keep moving forward um in the most responsible way possible. So this is um if you've seen my my presentation the first time and second time it looked just like that. Changed some numbers here and there. This is all new. Um so I want we're doing we're showing you the capital improvement portion because we think you need to see this and understand. Um, the last time a capital project has been supported by the town and community was in 2016 14.

It was when Eli Terry's roof fell in. I was the assistant principal there at the time. Um, so it's probably about 17 years ago and that's the last time we've had support from capital improvements in the town. Now, we've been creative as a board over that time and we've been able to do a lot of things, but I think this slide is very important. The board of education's responsible for the day-to-day operations and maintenance of the school, and we address capital improvements projects that are $50,000 or less. Now, you all know the town charter says $5,000 or less or more, I'm sorry, is the capital. We're at $50,000 less. We're taking care of. We created that number. We just picked it. Um, but when we're talking about roofs, windows, parking lots, there is not a way for a public school that's not regionwise to save to legally pay for a project like that. It's not possible in your operating budget. We cannot do it unless we were a regional high school district. So, we do need support on those larger projects. But I want to show you some of the things that since Matt and I have started working with this board and with our previous board, some of the things we've been able to accomplish over that time. This is at Plymouth Center School. You see exactly where we got the funds from and how they were utilized, the projects that we completed in the years they were completed in. even to the point of 26 27 we are getting a brand new playscape at Plymouth Center school because when we recon constructed reconfigured the schools I apologize reconfigured the schools to a prek

through two school that playground is made for three through 5 year olds three through five grades three through five so our little ones are getting hurt it's not ADA accessible so we as a board made a decision on working with one of our contractors to extend a contract and in turn they're financing I would say 75% of that project to put in a playscape at Plymouth Center school again thinking creatively outside the box and it's not just me it's not just Matt it's Greg showers Jerry Robin Nicole Karen all of us I missed you I apologize um but it's it's all of us that are bringing ideas to the table on how we can make things better for our kids. Here are some things at Harry S. Fisher Elementary School. Um, again, we're trying to make the learning environment better for the kids any way we can. The newest thing that we're working on and we're looking at and we're going to discuss tomorrow at our board meeting are the heat pumps at Fiser Elementary School. The heat pumps are have have are are no longer working. um they're older and I I am not lying. They're older than me. Um and they can't be replaced. And so we have to figure out uh they can't be replaced. They can't be repaired. We have to figure out how we're going to do that. And so we're going to have that discussion as a board tomorrow because it's a necessity of something we need. And I assure you that's over uh $50,000. And then you go to Eli Terry, you have the same thing, the number of items that we were able to complete since 2022 2023 and we call it the new high school. It's almost 20 years old. You see a number of

the items that uh we are have completed at Terryville High School. So, we have some um capital improvement priorities that are our priorities that we're going to deal with as a school district. And you have them listed there. Some are in progress uh that we're currently working on. Others are priorities after those are done. Our goal is to finish all these up. We want to find ways, creative ways to finish all of these projects. um with whatever grant money we can get, whatever we can grab, we're going to try to fix these. But this next list, I don't think we can tackle. I know we can. These are all all large ticket items that need to be done. And if you look, um I know that many of you I sent you photos of Plymouth Center School's hallways and there were buckets. There were I was in the school walking the school a ceiling tile dropped to the ground. It was so heavy. Um and the the the roof is is is an issue there, but it's not our number one priority anymore. Uh after all the heating, we have a major sidewalk issue at Plymouth Center School. We have kids falling. It is a safety issue. That is our number one priority right now to get fixed. And then it's the roof at Plymouth Center. And then it's the roof at Fiser, which we also have ceiling tiles out on. Um, and I I understand this is a pretty hefty lift and the list is is long, but the last thing that happened, the roof literally had to fall in on the school

before we addressed it. We need help and we need support because these we can't help the age of the roof. We can't help the the high school parking lot falling apart. These are things that we can't help but we're doing our best. And that's all I have for you. That was just information. I It was more important that you have the actual presentation for you to look and refer to. Um but I just wanted to go through that and we're here to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you, Mr. Falcone. I will turn it over to any member of the town council that has any follow-up questions at this time. Does anyone at the town council have any questions regarding this? I'm seeing Mr. Green has a question. Please go ahead.

You want me to go back? No. Um, the sidewalk. How much is the sidewalk at that's deep?

We're trying to get quotes now to find out whether it's uh replacing it as concrete as it is now or do we look as an asphalt replacement but we're trying to get quotes for that right now. So I don't have an answer to your question. Uh second question is um under each remaining funds for for each school you you indicate you know you have 20,000 for the center then you write supplies and then you go on down. How much of that money do you think is getting allocated to each classroom and to each teacher? So, how we create our budget is uh we we'll start from the top up. Mike Holtz meets with his department heads at the high school and the social studies science. They all create their budgets with their teachers. They bring that information to Mike Holtz. At the middle school, the social studies department meets with Darren Migliotti. They share what they need. So on and so forth. The budgets created, they're allocated the money. We try. I mean, if anything over the years, we've cut maybe 5% off of supplies. We've done things like that. But basically, what they're asking for and what they need to instruct and teach is what we provide them. Unless they ask for items, for example, Mr. Green, say you taught home economics and we see every year you have a $15,000 budget and every year you spend 10, you don't spend the last five. that we're going to start questioning if you're still putting in a $15,000 budget. But basically, the teachers get the money. It's a matter of them spending what they get, but it is budgeted for them.

Do you think they have enough? No. How much do you think they need that they need?

I don't know if I can answer that right now. I can tell you we've been skimming off the top for a while. I we've been skimming off the top. I I I don't know if I could answer that. I would have to go back to my

if you could get me an answer because personally I would like to see that number go up because I feel that teachers are not given enough to just for the classroom from experience. My children come home and say here's our list. We're paying for it. So, I would prefer that we communicate when everyone else is on board. I would like to give more money to that line item to be able to give the teachers what they need in their classroom. We can schedule that. Thank you. I just I would want to work with my administration teachers. As long as I have an answer for next uh Tuesday, I'll tell them the answer Friday.

Yes. No pressure. That's it for now. Thank you. Thank you. Uh I think Mr. Got a couple of them here. Um healthcare, have we offered incentives to uh your any of your staff to retire? If so, what type? We have not offered an incentive for any

We again I'm going to go from experience from my last position. We offered a $15,000 healthcare targeted incentive. We received five weekly retirements. So just something to think about. It may help your budget and it will offer you. It does net you a health savings in the long run. It's just not sure if you can't if it's it might be too late, but something to think about that currently is very

Well, that's what I was going to say. We do look, we've met and I do look at it every year to see if it's worth it because we have done it in the past. We have we have a very small group. We have a high turnover rate in our district of teachers. When I just left, 90% of the staff was at 110. So that's why that's why we salary range is probably more 30 30 40 times. That's that's why we offer it. Uh second on the healthcare modifications, what um are we looking at a high deductible or how you deal with Ron Brown? We were looking to go to an HSA. Okay.

We still have we're believe it or not, it's not that we're working against the bargaining units. We're working with them to try to find the best solution because they understand the problem as well. Our insurance is going up 18%. Oh, 19 19 so 20%. And it's it's two are important, but it's it's it's it's out of control and it's not sustainable. So we're trying to find solutions working with them

between you and me. I something needs to not be done at a higher level because every, you know, I know every district is facing a 20 to 30% increase in healthcare cost. It's you can't keep up with it. And Mr. Angle, we're hiring people and their health insurance costs more than we're paying them sometimes.

Stanley plan is 35 $37,000 a year. I said we're hiring. So that cafeteria I'm going to move on to the next one that I didn't know. I noticed you bumped bumped up about $10,000 to cover any deficits on the cafeteria. Is that enough? Because my deficit, my last district was running about 100 to 120,000 just how much? We're not We're not that, so no. Our cafeteria right now, we are we're we are breaking even.

You're lucky. The money that's the money that we have listed there is for the unpaid debt, which as you know, the state has handcuffed us on collection. Correct. So, and even that number is too small, but it's more than what we've had. So, you sure? Excuse me. Anything from this side? I'm sorry, Ron. Anything? No, you're good. I said uh if you guys could get us a rough number for next Tuesday on the sidewalk at Plymouth Center and the roof at Plymouth Center to see if there's something we could look at for capitalists.

Yes. No, it's we did a we just recently did a scan of the roof. Um

so we just had the infrared scan done of Plymouth Center School. It was done on Saturday. We just got the report today as to what the results of that were and indeed we do have um moisture underneath the surface of the roof. Can't really tell under the solar panels, but the assumption is if it's surrounding all the panels, it's underneath there as well. Um the next step is to get a quote from uh the company for what it's going to be and we've asked for a rush on that. Um, and regarding the sidewalks, I have asked uh Jim as to get people out there as quickly as we can. We actually, this is a conversation we just had a couple of days ago as we kind of escalated things, but we appreciate the consideration and we're going to try to get you the information. I think we we our original plan was to try to patch up and repair the sidewalks again. We did it about three or four years ago. It cost us about $55,000 to do uh all the sidewalks all over again. it just comes right back up and and the board has received a number of concerns about that and they've literally seen some children fall and so it has moved up the list. So any questions?

Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you very very much for that uh detail. I think uh this has been beneficial to the town council. As we all know, the uh sometimes a tri board meeting doesn't give us the exposure and the depth of understanding of of what your budget is. So, I want to thank the town council members and the board of education members who requested this. Uh might become a regular thing. Probably need to do a little bit earlier, but at least it was it this evening and not next week. And I think the town council members appreciate it. And I hope that the listening audience also um maybe has a different perspective. So I look forward to working with the board uh next week and remind everybody that um the the public hearing and the tri board meeting will be scheduled for the 21st of April which is next week. Uh that posting will go up soon and the announcement will go in the newspaper tomorrow. By law, we have uh five business days that we have to post that. Is it seven?

That would regretfully that would even put us out past the other charter deadline, which is the 23rd, which is when it has to be done. So, uh, if that was an oversight, I can only apologize and ask for forgiveness, but we will review that tomorrow. We'll try to get that posted as soon as we can. Thank you for bringing that to our attention. Seeing no more questions, I'll try to uh look at my agenda and announce the proper item for this that has to come up before us next. Hang on, please. Uh, there's a request for a couple of minute break. Uh, if I don't see any objection to that, let's take a two-minute break and we'll reconvene. Let's make it a 5m minute break and we'll reconvene at 8:03.

All right. Um, thank you everyone for uh indulging us in that quick break. We've uh had a lot of information and certainly I needed to make sure I got my numbers straight. Uh so that being said, I'd like to reconvene this meeting of the uh the special uh meeting of the town council back to order and it is 8:06 p.m. Uh welcome again for anyone who's uh looking at home. Uh so we have reached item number 13 which is to discuss and take action to refund the overpayment of uh taxes. This is occurs on pretty much on a regular basis. This list that you see in front of you was uh prepared by the tax collector and these are taxes owed. I would entertain a motion to refund the taxes as listed um in the agenda. Do I have a motion?

Motion from Ron Tisha. Second Joe Green. I'll see you next week. Is there any discussion on the refund of taxes item? Hearing none. All those in favor of refunding the taxes as listed in the agenda say I. Anyone opposed?

Any abstensions? Motion carries. Thank you very much. Let me just get the second here. Second was Joe. Very good. Okay. Uh item 14. Uh this evening we uh conducted a public hearing to discuss the revisions uh recommended by our town attorney to the veterans ordinance that was previously passed. uh uh back in I think it was late summer of last year uh there was a couple of technical couple of technical items and when we reviewed that there was no public comment from the uh from the general public during the hearing. Um I would entertain a motion to approve the revisions that were presented to the town council by the attorney this evening. Is there a motion to approve that motion? It is Sue. I'll second it

and second TJ. Thank you. Any questions on that item? Any discussion on that item rather? Sure. Please do. Um I would just I got my days mixed up. So I wanted to apologize everyone that I did not make it at 6:00. I was outstanding signing be kind with the other lion. So I do apologize for not making the meeting but I did talk to the attorney. So I got caught up. So anyway, thank you and and try to be better next time.

Thank you. Appreciate that recognition. Not a problem. And I failed to and so while we're being transparent, I failed to say the roll call at the beginning of that meeting and I didn't recognize that you were missing. However, we did have a quorum, so we held a legitimate public hearing. Any other discussion on this item? Hearing none, all those in favor of accepting the uh ordinance say I. I.

Anyone opposed? Any abstensions? Motion carries. Thank you for that. Uh I will relay that information to our assessor's office. They had a lot of concerns about the technicalities and making sure that we got it right, especially that it is tax time. and also we want to make sure that the veterans are recognized appropriately and get their their deserves under the state and local rules.

Uh I would like to now move to item 15. This is to discuss and take action on the agreement to replace fire engine aid. I do want to just give a little bit of context on this. Uh the actual purchase of the fire engine to replace engine 8, uh the actual purchases doesn't take place until the end of fiscal 26 27. Uh so I don't have the exact schedule but we will not start to incur debt from this purchase until the very first part of fiscal 28. The reason that we're entering and requesting to enter into this agreement this evening is to put the lease agreement in place and secure the funding the agreement for financing for over a 7-year period and to ensure that we lock in the most available rates. We myself and the finance director met at length with the leasing company and the motion uh that we're looking for um defines the ordinance I'm sorry the resolution that is required by the leasing company for myself to enter into the agreement. I believe Mr. Zigerski has a motion ready to go. Uh

Mr. Mayor, uh, I make a motion to authorize the mayor to enter into the necessary agreement to replace engine 8 as per the filing resolution. Whereas the town of Plymouth has determined that the true and very real need exists for the acquisition of the equipment described in the in the lease purchase agreement presented to this meeting and uh and has further determined that the equipment will be used solely for essential government function and is not for private business use. Whereas the town of Plymouth has taken the necessary steps including any legal binding requirements under applicable law to arrange for the acquisition of such equipment. Be it resolved that the town of Plymouth that the terms of said lease purchase agreement and escrow agreement are in the best interest of the town for the acquisition of such equipment. Therefore, the town of Plymouth designates and confirms that the mayor to execute and deliver and witness leasing to Inc. lease purchase agreement and escro agreement. This includes any related documents necessary to the consumption and the transaction completed by lease purchase agreement and escro agreements. Thank you, Mr. Zigerski. I know that's a mouthful, but it's necessary for us to do this. Is there a second to the motion?

Sard is a second. Thank you. Okay. Uh, I will open it up to any uh discussion or questions. Uh, we have two representatives from the Plymouth Fire Department here this evening. I'm sure if there's any kind of technical questions. Uh, and I want to thank uh, Captain Greg Cody for working with the mayor's office and and the leasing company to get this agreement in place. So, um, if anybody has any questions or discussion on this item, we'll entertain that. Now, I just got a quick question. Okay, you flip on your switch there, sir. Thanks.

Uh, just a quick question. Where does fire engine 8 operate that?

Clement. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions or discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion say I. I. Anyone opposed? Any extensions? Motion carries. I will keep uh everyone advised of the uh Thank you very very much council for your support. Again, thank you uh officers of the Plymouth Fire Department for supporting this and being here this evening in case we have questions. Uh I will keep the council advised of the agreement and uh all those details as soon as we have them finalized uh along with the rate schedule and the debt schedule. We'll make that available to you. I will say our finance director was pretty happy because we are not adding any additional debt service for this equipment in this current year budget that's being uh proposed um for vote next week. Thanks again. Okay, we are going to move to item number 16, which is public comment on nine agenda items. Anyone from the general public? Um we also Oh, we got somebody from the back. would start with uh them and then uh we we do want to just documents. So if you don't mind writing your name uh on the on the paper before you speak and then you announce uh that'll help us make sure we get our meeting minutes accurate. So non-aggenda items public comment Melanie Church, 328 Main Street. I happened to get there was a discussion going on about the police contract. And in there, I find, lo and behold,

extra duty. The term extra duty for the purpose of this article shall mean police duty for which an officer is assigned to perform for any party or organization other than the tow. Such duties shall be paid at the rate specified in section two and shall be paid to the employee through its regular town payroll check not later than a week after payment is applied for by the employee. The town shall assume the responsibility of collecting payment from the private party or or organization. The board of ed is not an organization. It is part of this town and for graduation they should not be paying for police officers and cars or when there's a PTA thing going on. It's the same thing as when they have the thing at Lake Windfield they don't pay and all the board is paying. I think that should be stopped immediately. It's clear in here. It's on page six of the police contract. And I think it's serious enough. They're struggling to make ends meet. And then they're being demanded that they have to pay for all these um extra cops and stuff. If it's part of the town, it should not be paid by the by the state. That's almost like double dipping from the tax rate. And I think it's serious enough. I understand there's some changes that have gone through and one is Dave when you ran you said transparency and now

people can't speak to you. They got to go through your assistant. That's not the mayor. That's not the transparency. Then I understand there's meetings for dinner and it can only be with your parties, not with um anybody that's of the opposite parties of independent or unaffiliated or um Republican as you ran under as you ran Democrat. Um the increase in educating uh cost sharing. There's looks like there's going to be money added to that. I I called a couple things and and they turned around and told me that. And also OSHA and deep we were in violation. What is the cost? What did it cost the taxpayer and fines? We have a right to know. That's transparency. We can't change things if everybody keeps shoving everything behind the closed door and we're not supposed to know. People are not stupid. People are struggling to get by. At least be honest and give them the facts, not make it up or not say, "Oh, we can't tell you." That is transparency. And I have not seen it. Thank you. Thank you. Additional comments from the public on non-aggenda items or any other item. Connie Capales, South Eagle Street, Terville. I've been attending many

commission me. It's come to my attention that there are some commissions that are missing full quorum numbers and then there's also been some absences in these meetings which causes quorum problems. Perhaps we need to address the situation by increasing alternate alternate members in these commissions. Then this problem of having to cancel meetings because of lack of quorum might be corrected. Thank you. Are there any other public comments? Seeing none, I'd like to move to town council comments and then I do have something I can add with response to one of the public comments this evening and I will get answers to other questions as they've been presented uh by the next meeting. So, let's start with council comments first. Uh, Mr. Sigurski,

uh, the only thing I really had questions, I'm not sure if you have any answers to it or not, Mr. Mayor. 156 Main Street, 211 Main Street, and 8 South Main Street. Do we have any updates with any of those properties? Because those were all properties that were damaged or condemned at one point. And I know the 156 Main Street was like a huge problem with the displaced residents. So, I'm not sure if you have any information or you get that for us for next meeting.

I can do that. I can say that I know that there's um with 156 main uh there is a uh application for restoration of that building going through the process right now. That's the only one I know about, but um please get a hold of me with those addresses. Again, I can get you an update. But I know that there is movement on 156. I just look downtown and downtown is looking very very bad at the moment. Anything else?

Okay. Thanks very much, Miss Boyard. Any council general council comment? None. Okay, Mr. Green, no comments. Ron, anything? All set.

Mr. Angle, I got that right. Okay, great. Um, I do want to respond because I do have some information that I can share with the public with response to the question about OSHA fines. Um, I'm not aware of any deep fines. Um, so that was news to me. So, I'll look into that. Um, but regarding the OSHA fines, I will let the public know that uh the town of Plymouth uh just one month into my administration was visited by state OSHA officials and they conducted an entire OSHA review of all departments and all town buildings. Uh that was a lengthy process took nearly well it was the inspector was here for eight business days. Uh we had subsequent meetings and reviews with all the department heads. We met with the OSHA official who presented all of their findings at that time. Uh and then we were directed on how to proceed. Approximately a month later, we were presented with the final findings from OSHA. At that time, the fines were in excess of $15,000 total. Uh and that was applied in various departments. Some was at the in the town hall. Some was in the uh library, some was at the uh facilities at the at the at the um at the transfer station, some were around. So my point is that those violations were spread around. We met with members of OSHA. Uh, and when I say we, myself, uh, and all the various department heads, including, uh, our fire marshal, Charlie, who helped direct a lot of the activities. A lot of them had to do with safety. We were able to reduce the fines

uh, down by some 65% and the total fine, I think, came to about $8,000 something dollars. uh when we went to find out how the previous fines were paid uh we there was a lot of confusion. So uh right now those fines were paid out of a legal uh account uh because we don't have a OSHA fine account established. I'm working with the finance department to look for how they're going to deal with things of that nature. I'm again I'm not aware of any D. I I wanted to bring that right now because I I all of the and I I was going to include it in the mayor's report, but now all the abatements are completed. We asked for extensions on multiple abatements and an abatement means you fix the problem. That's what it means. So, so for example, we have something uh going on up at the library that has to do with um identifying leaks and potential uh asbestous. we have to work with a company to come in and do a full evaluation of some areas of library for asbestous. That's the one that comes to mind. Uh I am pleased please general public I'm not saying that there's a speestous in our library. What I'm saying is that that was a noted that we didn't have a program in place to identify that as a possibility. Um I will tell not only the folks here tonight but members of the council as well as the general public uh we have the entire OSHA report. It's sitting on my back table and it's also there's a copy of the report along with the filing at every one of the departments. So, if anyone is interested in getting the detail on the ocean inspections, the current state of the abatements, as well as the fines, the specific fines for each violation, that is readily available. Just contact my

office. I'll be glad to get that information for you. Um, that's an important uh item that I'm able to provide you detail on and I'm glad to do so. So, I thank the public for the question. uh regarding the other uh questions that were brought forward, uh we will look into them and as I've been trying to do, uh I will bring forward in part of my mayor's report at the next meeting anything to do with those particular questions. Thank you for indulging me on that extra comment. Um I appreciate everybody's time tonight. It was a lot of meetings, covered a lot of ground. And at this point, I will move to item 18 and say a motion for adjournment is in order. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Motion, Mr. angle. I second this bullyard. All those in fa All those in favor say I.

Is there anyone opposed? And this meeting is adjourned. Thank you and thank you for watching tonight. And those of you who may watch in the future, you can contact the mayors anytime any mayor's office anytime if you'd like to set up an appointment to come in and visit. I'd be glad to talk to you. Have a good evening. Tell me.