Commissioner - Regular Meeting

opportunities to fund that. I think this the probability is very high. Um they had asked for $8,500 and I think um from a facade grant I think we just have a good opportunity for that and I I don't think it's they actually have an opportunity through facade to get more and the max they can get is 15. So, so yeah. So, I you know, we'll know about that in January. As soon as the Yeah, when the application um opens up, which is usually around May, June the application, and then we hear around December, January. Yeah. I know their timing I thought was based on trying to replace the roof and I don't know how critical that is for that particular project.

I I thought that that was the intent of that request. The request was for the painting. painting painting two walls and it was $6,900 to paint the two walls. You're talking about um Tucker House, whichever one. I don't have my binder on me, but I thought the other request was for roofing. We've already helped them with the roof. Yeah, I think other Yeah, this one was specific to the painting of the Yeah, it was two walls and the original quote was the 8,500 number and then it when she met with us, she said 6,900. That's right. Yeah. I remember something.

Very good. So again, I think I think there's opportunity there. Um and um to even maybe help them out more if needed relating to it because the buildings are very important to the town. Um I think we need to preserve those buildings. Um all of our historical buildings as it ties into uh the culture, the economic development associated with our town, they matter. So we just have other other options for this. Okay. So, can we get consensus on fully funding the arts council's request?

Okay. We're gonna ask Great. We're going to ask the veterans to come back and we'll revisit the statue and and continue to get updates hopefully from you, Council Member McNeel, on that as we go. Um, and then, yeah, we'll see ways to help the historic society. And then that that gives, you know, some room there. 5,000 right now. We can decide what we want to do about character counts, but for additional requests throughout the year with a goal, I hope of moving towards a process where people get their things in on time and there can be a thoughtful discussion during budget season. Okay. What else do we have? Council, we just asked some general questions. You want to do that now? Can we do that? Yeah. Okay.

Karen, help me out on the town what you gave us last week. Okay. On salaries. Oh, yeah. Crystals. Yeah. Yeah. Crystal, no problem with town salaries. If I win the lottery, I'll double them. All right, that's not a problem. Okay. A question, and this might just be a rookie's question. Uh the very first page, okay, on the town council salaries, uh there's $4,500 2026. Then to the far right, it's 48.69, a crease of an increase of 369. What is that? I'm not That's just if people take advantage of benefits. That's if they take if they enroll in the state retirement. Okay. We're not giving ourselves a pay raise. No. You legally can't. It's only for the benefits.

If you're not familiar what the poor county commissioners are going through, they gave themselves a health package which is just coming out. He served two terms on the county council. You get a lifetime health package. Wow. This is a lifetime when you're an employee here. Well, I was playing golf with a former councilman's retroactive. I mean, we we got to be very careful and obviously we are we don't give ourselves a raise or how about what's the difference? So again, this is Ricky's uh the bottom two, council 4 and 5319, 5319, 89. What's the difference in the salary? Still just the retirement, right? Yeah, it's based on the retirement. So they're taking benefits or something.

So these are pending pending October election. If there's two new council members, then if they decide to enroll in the state retirement, then I always try to anticipate, okay, how much is that going to cost? Great. Okay. I just want to make sure we weren't giving us a pay raise. Okay. Okay. Those were just whatifs. If they Those are all just whatifs. I have to have that flag, too. So, thanks for answering that. I just got one more and I'll be back tonight.

Can we go Karen or First of all, thank the staff for putting together this vendor thing. I call consultant. Terrific job. I really appreciate that. All right. Now, again, these might be rookie questions. I just got a couple, but let's go to like Brightly Software. That's page one. Uh $10,950. It says software assist management. What does that mean? I'm sorry. Very You can have Take mine. Give Give this to her. No, it's okay. That's the asset management software, too. Okay. Okay. Yes. That's asset management software that we have. Something you need to have. Okay.

Yeah, we track when we get it fully loaded. It can track everything. Um vehicles. I take it. You don't have to. I just couple words. I couldn't figure what. Let me just keep going. Christian Lipincot $1,500. It says contractor graphic design. What are they designing? That's for um Carol. That's for Main Street for the main. Okay. How about we go down to uh EPRPC 17,000 planning services? What are they planning? That was that we no longer use them. That was our our contract planner before we got Pete. We're not doing that anymore. We don't use them anymore. Yeah.

How about Flagger Force EPR? EPRPC. I'm on the first page for that. Okay. Yeah. How about down to Flagger Force LLC? 5319. Flagger Services. What how what are they doing? when we're working on the street, uh whether it's for a repair or um replace something in the street or we have to have flaggers on on the job flag. Oh, it actually is a flag. I couldn't figure it. And by the way, speaking of streets, you guys did a great job on Draper Road today. You have a new sidewalk, new corner. I really appreciate that. And we got that Dag burned water thing covered up. Little kid rode a bike and was knocked down the other day. So, I really appreciate that.

How about we go down to I think I'm on page three now. I'm almost done. You want to do that one? Oh, there. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Here's my favorite one. And I think it's been explained. Harris Jones Malone. And I think Caroline explained it. He gave him $110,000 a year. Now, you told us. I want to make sure I got right. This is 18 months worth. And yes, that's our lobbyist. And they got us 20 million, 15.9 previously and then 600,000 this year. Okay. So, we've got that. I mean that. Yeah, that's one in the back. Okay, there's a couple more. Uh QAC drug task force $10,000 donation to task force per Karen. So Karen, I guess you get this one.

That was Hobbs. We have to contribute as part of our mutual aid agreement with the county. We all contribute to the drug task force financially and like our dogs go out places outside of town and help with drug bus. This is police. Please. Okay. How about Southern Corrosion uh on the water tower? I'm assuming it's just painting the water tower. It's the the three water towers we have. We have a contract with Southern Corrosion. They take care of

the annual inspection. They take care of the painting uh both the dry interior, wet interior when it's needed, the exterior. They wash them. They are on a cycle to get the outside washed. I know it doesn't look like it right now because I wouldn't you wash them off and six to eight months later that that uh staying with the water tower the light doesn't work on top. What do we have to remember I asked you if we could do a veteran it used to be the town would do a green light for the month of November. What how do we do we need to something we need to address or what?

The tower in the middle of town uh behind the firehouse the lights don't work anymore. That's why it and they need to be replaced. It's just that with the budget we have. Yeah. But in the f not this budget with future, what would it cost to get those lights working again? We're uh depending on the type of light that you put up there if it's just a simple light. It could be as cheap as $20,000 because it needs new wiring. Cheap.

Does it serve a safety purpose or just a lighting it up for things purpose? That's just lighting it up to to see the town of Centerville on it. And it's not required by any means. The uh even the two towns that have the um the red lights on the top for aviation. Caroline will go up there. We're going We'll take turns with only 70 ft. I did 70 ft in the in the bucket the other day. I did. How about just two more? send the public safety US $12,000 AP ROS again the police department. What do we got there? What is it? What do you say?

Uh V E R S A T E RM public safety US incorporated down at the bottom 10 five or six on the bottom that their um it's a system. It's the internal affairs uh pro uh software that they use software. Okay, that's all I need. Okay, last one. I hate to ask this. Uh, I'll be struck down. White Hill Consulting. Obviously, that's that's Michael, I'm assuming. And that's that's his what figure I guess I need not to say out loud, but what is what is he getting? What are we paying him a year to do what he does? What does he do? So I guess he's asking

he he does uh like when we have things to go out to bid because of time consuming that it is he does the uh he'll prepare the request for proposals will

he does more than the parks advisory board that has nothing to do with the park advisory board but u he's also uh looks at planning and zoning issues and helps with that um old historical knowledge of the town because he had done so much work uh for the town. Also, he's lived here so long and he had been on the council and everything the historical knowledge he can fill in gaps when we're whether it's trying to figure out why they put the water main in this location uh those kind of things. He's saying it's

he's a big benefit to the town. Okay. It's worth everything. Okay. Yep. Thank you. I'm done. Thank you. Okay. Those are great questions. Any other questions while we're on the contractor list? Anything else on this before we move on? So, what um I have one I don't I think you spoke about it. So, Paige Industrial Services, which is the lab building upgrade. So, this is just this isn't recurring. No, no. Yeah. Just to verify with everybody, we got

this is large. We got a $200,000 grant towards the wastewater plant that we had to use. Um, so out of everything that was going to get done at the wastewater plant, uh, updating and remodeling the lab building was the cheapest cheapest project out of the list of all. So for the lowhanging fruit and we had to do it in quite a hurry. Uh, Paige Industries is part of the um, help me out. The is it ARPA money or Oh, no. It was the um,

we don't have In other words, this company puts bids out all the time and tracks them across the country. So, we're allowed to purchase whether it's labor or um equipment or anything off of other bids that have already been put out. So, Paige works for one of those companies. Like I say, it was a time issue that Gordian Gordian um Sourcewell Sourcewell. Thank you very much. Thanks, Karen. It took me a second. I'm sorry. It used to be boring.

Um, yes. So, uh, we were able to piggy back on other jobs that had been out been bid out for the the labor and the type of work. So, yeah. So, again, I just wanted to point out it's not recurring. We upgraded it. No, it's a large figure on the sheet and it's not recurring every year. So, and it was grant funded. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Okay. Anything else on the contractor list? I think that was, again, I said this last week, but just appreciate the town staff putting this together. I think it was really helpful to see, you know, we see the payments go out, but to really see the list and the notes and what things were for has been really helpful to me. So, I appreciate it. Yep. All right. Anything else in this budget? What else we got? not on that list, but in and I'm struggling with the different reports we sent out, but the one you you gave us what was the date

dated was for April 2nd is when you passed it out and that budget packet. I had a couple questions through that. All right. Let us know what page Okay. Um, on page four, because I'm down at the marina a lot, why has the marina revenue fallen off so much the last couple years? It all just depends on the revenue, like the fiscal year that it goes gets paid into.

Sometimes it straddles the years because um, and I don't want to speak for Gay, but I did it for many years prior to Gay doing it. You have people who have are part of their three-year lease that they have and then you need to call people on the wait list. Sometimes you wait forever for people to get back to you or yes, I'll be in tomorrow to pay and we don't. So it it ends up dragging out longer to get through the wait list to get the slips filled and sometimes it it it'll straddle a fiscal year. So the revenue sometimes is a little wonky, right? So everyone could pay in May. It could be done in May or it could be August before somebody gets a lease and pays. I've just noticed the last couple years some we may only have half the slips filled. They're rented.

No, they're all they're all rented. People don't put their boats in there. Yes. That's what I say to everybody calls and says, "Why can't I get a slip? There's nobody." It's paid. Whether they put their boat in or not is on them, but they've paid for their lease. All the slips have been leased. Yes. Yes. We just increased the cost recently, the last year or two with their two years. Okay. when we added what? Water and electricity or something. So, there was a which is a a nice addition to it being a full service marina. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you for that. Uh on page uh six. I'm just not sure what um cleaning

about 3/4 of the way down. MDIA contract services is 25. That's the inspector. I'm sorry. That's the inspector. So, like we used him a lot last year on the on the mill. Yeah. They they they review and approve all the building permits that come in and do the inspections for when someone has a building permit, they go out. They're the ones that go out and do the inspections. The electrical, plumbing, structural, we're not we're not doing that. We contract. Correct. However, that this there's also a revenue line in the beginning that covers this because we people pay for that. It's not that the town just pays for it. It when you come in for a building permit, you're paying for MDIA to inspect as well.

So there's a revenue line that goes with that. So it's just coincidental that it was 25,000 this year and budgeted for another 25,000. No, that those are both budgets. So we've only spent 7,100 this year so far. It budgeted 25 and then budgeted again 2550. Okay, good. All right. Thank you. And it's just depends on how many permits we get in. And yeah, if there's a big development coming, it might be much larger, right? But right, makes sense. Um, just a couple more on page 13. Um, streets.

Yeah. Yeah. It's under street department. Our salaries are going from 576 to 714. Is that just because we're adding new people or was that due to the increase? Two two new people. Two new full-time employees. Yes. Is the big chunk of that? Yeah. Plus all the other that you guys approved. Salary study. Well, I knew there was an increase with that, but that was just a higher percentage. So, I assume that we're adding a couple staff. And I thought we were. I just wanted to confirm. at two fulltime.

Um, why do I have a question on this page? I don't hold up time. Let me that was on the main street on page 18, but I'm not sure. We went from 65,000 to 65,000. It could be because we haven't spent that much. I don't know. And it usually used to be just 40, you know, across But the $25,000 grant, we consistently the MS. Yeah, it's actually just increased to 33 now. They'll start getting 33. The grant grant. Yeah,

good. Uh just two more pages. Sorry. Um another contract services thing. And I'm not sure it's just on page 26. Um um and again as we all get focused on contract services, I'm just uh we went from 238,26 and now we're forecasting 475,000. I would just Kip and correct me if I'm wrong. Part of that's the wastewater treatment plant operations. Um, and being this is water, it's it's mainly to operate the

water system, water treatment plants, but there's a there's a load of other things. It's not just the operation. It's the cost of um of the lab that we send the samples to that have to be um sampled, recorded, and sent to MDE. All of those mandated type of samples. Um the other things that are in there uh are contractors like when we have something at the water plant that is beyond staff's capability, right?

Uh we hire that out. Uh it also includes like uh when we have to replace the well pumps, things like that. Those are contractors as well. So that was you budgeted 413. It just went up to 475. I guess to date we'd only spent 238. So we've got another there is a note on that one too. I don't know what it says. Oh increase in cost of current wastewater treatment plant operations. So that's more than likely the contract that has Yeah. year increases.

They'll be having a new Yeah. The three-year one ended. So they'll be having a new one come and Yeah. and especially with the um the volatility of the economy now trying to be safe rather sorry at the end of the budget season for that. Yeah, the last thing was security upgrades that we're not doing right now. So, I'll hold off on that. I had questions with that, but thank you. Appreciate it indulging me. Oh, it's good. We We want to be thorough. Any anything down here on the balance of the budget? Nope. Sandy. Uh, no. I think um utility rate review will happen next week. Yes.

I was gonna give an update to Yeah. As far as an update, so that may possibly have an impact on the budget. Is that correct? How do we how do we view that? I just want to make certain. So as far as just so it'll be like the two thing big things that will can affect the budget would be the utility rate study for the services but also then the trash contract when kit brings that to us. Um and those would just be the recommendations to council on what the rate should be to cover future outliers. Um, and I will tell you like we were all very surprised or pleasantly surprised at, you know, the impact or how it came back to us on what the rates would need to be to to move forward and we were surprised.

Yeah, it definitely wasn't anything near what the last state study showed of 30 and 40% increases. So, um, we just got the PowerPoint today. So, next next week you'll get that and that will definitely have it'll be in your packets tomorrow too when we send you. Yeah. So that'll impact the budget potentially if we make a change to the rates. But and if you what so what'll happen like any outliers that happen after we finish our work session that you guys make an approved change on, I'll just resend out budgets as we go through via email before like the readings and the adoption just so you have the most current and we can also meet again if need be to go over any of the changes if you but

the the final draft of the proposed budget comes to us the first meeting in May. Okay. Well, I feel good about the work we've done in these work sessions and and really the work you all have done, right, to get us to a place where this was not a massive lift for staff, right? I mean, for council because the staff did the massive lift. Yeah. So, if we're feeling good, we can adjourn our fourth and final budget work session. No, I feel good about it. I think um again, I think it it went well. I appreciate everybody's work. Um, and um, so yeah, I I don't have any further questions.

Awesome. And thanks to the new council members for, you know, this is like the real first fire hose you get is your first budget session. And I think you guys asked some really good questions that created some thoughtful things like the vendor list and just having some really good discussion and so appreciate you both for how you approached the process and I've enjoyed working with you through it. Imagine being, you know, our elections used to be in April. So imagine being elected in April and going through this doing this at the same time. Yes. Absolutely madness. Wow. Rough. All right. Well, can't thank the staff enough. I try, but there's not enough I could say of how grateful I am for all of you. So, all right. Awesome. I see no citizens. We're adjourned. If someone motions, good. Great.