Finance Committee - Regular Meeting

Uh, good afternoon everyone. I'd like to call to order this meeting of the finance committee, April 17, 2025. Our first agenda item is just a reminder that this is this meeting is being recorded, including anything put into the chat. Um, open forum. Does anyone have anything for open forum? Nope. Okay. Uh, next item is re reserve fund transfer request from our town manager, Kristen Lass, for $4,500. Thank you, finance committee members, for pulling together um a meeting so quickly so we can manage uh several reserve fund transfers. The first one on your agenda is related to town manager expenses. Um this year we saw an exorbitant amount of printing costs related to printing postcards and other materials related to the special and annual town meeting. Uh we also have seen an increase in dues and memberships for some of the organizations that I belong to as well as uh our advertising legal costs um have exceeded our budget u and we anticipate to have several more legal ads throughout the months of April, May, and June. Uh, so we would ask that there be a reserve fund transfer from that account to the town manager expense line item for $4,500. And I'm happy to answer any questions that committee members may have. Um, my first one, Dan, what's our balance? Currently have $93,000. Okay. Anyone have any questions? So Kristen, you you mentioned that next year there's also potentially going to need to be a a transfer as well because the budget. Any idea what that might be?

So Dan and I have been working on that and we actually have something for a special town meeting uh to uh supplement that budget with $4,000 for printing supplies. Okay. Okay. I just want to confirm uh that uh our fiscal year ends July 1. That that's correct. And this $93,000 $93,000 is what we have left in it at the end of the year. So we've we're going to get uh an additional aotment as of July 1st. Is that correct? That's correct. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Um are there any other questions about this? No. Okay. I'll I'll take a motion to um approve this reserve fund transfer request. So moved. Second. Second. Thank you, Hari. And by roll call, all those in favor? John Frier? I. Dennis, I Shinji, John Lefers, I Hari, I Nate, I. And I'm an I. So, that's unanimous. Thank you all very much. Thanks. And the second reserve fund transfer request is from Jeff Goodwin for public building expenses in the amount of $20,000. Hi. Uh well, um I if you've all read the memo, uh you can see uh we've had a a challenging year here in our 199 budget uh particularly as it relates to the property at 28 North Street, which is the DPW garage. Um we had some unexpected expenditures, pretty big ticket expenditures over there, but um all of these were necessary repairs that needed to be made. Um we've spent uh a little over $39,000 just on 28 North Street alone this year. And some of these have been uh maintenance items that have been

kicked down the road for many years. Um and I don't anticipate seeing these crop up again in the near future. Um but uh due to the the expenses that we've incurred over there this year, it's it's left our budget short. And um the $20,000 that we're asking in a reserve front transfer today is uh is is what we're hoping will carry us to the end of the fiscal year. Um we we are hoping that we don't have any major expenses coming, but the um we're about ready to transfer from heating to cooling season and there's always a little bit of outsourced work that has to happen when we when we shut our boiler plants down and kick on our chiller units. So that 20 we're hoping is just it'll be enough to carry us through any any outsourced work that we might need to pursue. And uh anything that would be remaining from that we we would be returning back to the general fund at that point. Jeff, is there anything that's going to be coming to capital? Like are any of these items things that maybe should have gone to capital earlier or they just, you know, total out of the blue? Well, so um the the the generator repairs over there, particularly for the booster station, the the charge for 8748, that one was very much a surprise to me. Um, the maintenance team over there at the DPW garage had been handling a lot of the maintenance of the generators up until the end of last summer when I got this one thrown on my desk. Um, it needed quite the overhaul. New cooling system, new radiator. The whole thing basically had to be taken apart and put back together. Um, it's still well within the realm of its useful life, so we felt like that expense was worthwhile. Um uh and then the other one there is if you see the synchroflow booster pump repairs. So we actually brought that to capital this past fall and we we went to

town meeting and got approved to replace the entire booster system. The what you're seeing there for repairs which I think tallially just over 13K total between the three three numbers there. um that was just to repair and get back functioning the the second pump that was completely down. So, just to break it down, there's two very large pumps that pump water up to the top of the hill there to the garage. And um Kyle and I both agreed that we were very nervous about if we have only one pump, that leaves us with no redundancy whatsoever. So, if that pump went down, we would pretty much have to shut the building down because there'd be no domestic water. So we felt like the expense there was justified to make sure that we had that redundancy until we can replace the entire system. So that one has been brought to capital and approved at town meeting. And Christina, to further your question, with the facilities assessment and the 10-year capital plan that we're putting together now, I think that that will help Jeff and other departments better plan for this maintenance as well as plan for capital replacements and to be um more efficient with our budgeting related to that as well. Okay, thanks. Any other questions? Yeah, so John, so Jeff, a couple of questions. One, how old is the building at 28 mill? 2004. Okay. So, it's about 20 years old. All right. I I I just I just didn't know. And also, for the Since you've had the the second pump repaired, are you going to wait a while before you replace them both or does it just take a while before you can get somebody to do it? Uh, I have about seven other projects that I'm prioritizing getting out to bid at this point. Um, that one I'm hoping to have out to bid probably midsummer and have the work done before we get into the winter months again. Uh, but yeah, that that one I'm given the fact that we now have a fully rebuilt pump and the system

is working well right now. Um, it it's it's lesser of a priority than some of the other capital projects that I have to move a little quicker on. But All right. So, we will get some so we will get some use out of the money we've spent. Absolutely. And to be honest, the the new the new pump and motor um that that new pump when the new system goes in, that new pump and motor is going to be on standby in case if we have a failure in the future. We have an extra level of redundancy there at that spot. Okay. So, it it it's not ideal, but to go into the winter with only one of those pumps working was just uh that's the sort of stuff that causes a facilities director to lose sleep at night. Oh, no. I I completely understand. Yeah. Particularly all the way up that hill. Yeah. I mean, and I think the big one here is, and you know, this is this is just the this is kind of the $7,96 for roof facure and trim repairs. That roof has had leak issues uh pretty much since its inception uh for a long time. Uh and we had to spend a significant amount of money with Gibson roofs up there this year installing new fascia and trims, trying to clean up those issues, which we were successful in doing. Um, but it also included us having to repair a significant section of VCT flooring that wouldn't, you know, we had to replace flooring that was affected by those roof leaks over the years. So, that's one that was like a long-standing issue that we've now resolved and I don't foresee that, you know, being an issue coming forward. But, um, okay. you know, just to the to the point in general, you know, last year we went when we went through the override process and we had to trim the budgets and and you know, it I definitely made it clear that we could certainly maybe sustain for a short term, but you know, to trim 7% out of the budget is not sustain sustainable long term and here we are a year later and it's already proving to be a fact. So, okay, thank you. Anybody else? Dennis,

question your hand up. Yep. Go ahead, Dennis. Uh maybe you can answer this question for me, Jeeoff. I just reviewed the uh MUN's report, the print out, and I just need an explanation just for my own u edification here. Um under the uh uh the public buildings and property maintenance uh accounts, uh there's one line item uh for building maintenance and uh it it indicates that there's 15 about 15 grand 15.4 left in the in the account and there's one for two, one for 3.9. A question I have for you is uh do you have the capability of uh do you have the capability of of moving these funds from one from one account to be able to pay for these things or does it need to require it has to have an appropriation from us? Um we have the ability to maneuver funds between line items in the budget. Um okay so we we we can do that but all in all the bottom line is we're we're out of money. Well, I'm just I'm just wondering even if that that 15 grand if I mean can are have you got that planned out for for the next two months or or do you uh you got any wiggle room with that that you can move move money from there over? Uh I believe that might just be the maintenance line item. I think that other line items we're in the red with fire alarms. We're we're in the red. Yeah. Uh HVAC we're in the red. So the the total bottom line is we we're we're out. All right. I got it. Yep. Jeff, I just wanted to clarify that the the pumps that you were talking about. Yeah. So, are there So, one you've rebuilt. Yep. The other one. What What's the What's the status with the second one? The second one was, you know, so when we initially had issues with this back in the fall, um the building lost water one day completely. The alarm on the building was going off. We were we we

brought in a company to diagnose that we had one functioning pump, but it it malfunctioned that day, but they were quickly able to reestablish that functioning pump. And uh one of them was deemed that it needed to be completely overhauled or replaced. So, we had to spend an initial amount of money just to have them pull the pump, diagnose it, and give us, you know, a proposal for what it would cost to rebuild it or overhaul it. Mhm. Um, so we're running off the the new pump now and the the the pump that was functioning back in the fall is kind of our redundancy at this point. So, but but basically the way they're set up is it's like it's referred to as a lead and lag setup. They're they transfer, you know, to to even out the wear and tear on the pumps. They they automatically transfer between the two. So, they're kind of wearing them wearing evenly, so to speak. Okay. So when you when you do the replacement that was passed at town meeting, will you be replacing two pumps or one? We'll be replacing. So it's the the synchro flow system is a control box, all sorts of valves, pressure reducing valves, and then the two pumps that that feed into it. It's all connected as one system. So if you're going to replace the system, it would be the controls, the two pumps and pressure valves. So it'd be all one unit and the associated piping that goes along with it. Okay. But we'll still have the one that you rebuilt for the 13,000 as a that third backup or that that's going to be pulled out and that is going to be in the pump room. And if, god forbid, something happens down the road where we run into an issue with anything. I mean, the new system is going to come with a warranty, obviously, but if we ever end up in a bind, that pump and motor is going to be available to us that we can plug and play and and bring it right into circulation if we need to. So, what's what's the warranty on the new one? Um, I'd have to double check. I know it's it's five years parts and labor. Um, I I'd have to double check the warranty on the motor life. Um you know the

warranties are all very much contingent on ongoing maintenance and that's part of the proposal in the capital is uh they're going to take us through the whole O andM plan of this you know what our what our routine mainten needs to be on the system moving forward. So okay good. Um I was told that in the ideal conditions the system life is about 15 years. So the booster system in there is now 20 21 years old. So it's certainly beyond its useful life. Okay. Okay. And I and I can't really speak to what the maintenance of it was up until a couple of years ago. Yeah, sure. Understood. Yep. Okay. Any other questions? I'll take a motion to approve this reserve fund transfer, please. So moved. Second. Thank you. Uh and as a roll call vote, all in favor, John Frier, I. Dennis, hi Shinji. John Luffers. Hi Ari. Hi Nate. Hi. And I'm an I. So that's unanimous. Thanks. Thank you very much. Thank you. Um the third reserve fund transfer for animal control expenses in the amount of $4,000. Mike. Yes. Thank you, uh, members of the finance committee. So, we're requesting an additional $4,000 to supplement the animal control budget for the year. Um, we've got three primary reasons for this. Um, the the biggest one has been veterinary services. Um, we really have no operational control over that budget. Uh, they're required to respond. They're required to, uh, provide treatment when necessary. We we've had really two things kind of driving it this year. One is we had a very large bill associated with a public

safety call um for an animal that was taken uh from a home that was condemned where there was a fatality. Uh and we were fortunate that the animal was adopted out about halfway through its um vet bills. So we only are responsible for half of it. Um total bill on the animals about $3,600. We've got $1,800 hitting our account. Um the majority of the others uh just are rabies calls uh that we are required to submit for testing. Um we get one of those calls. It can be anywhere from $75 to $170 to have the animal tested. Um kind of timely at 112 I got an email from our animal control officer. Had to take a raccoon in. So we're we definitely need uh that budget. that budget's basically been held solid for the last six years. Our calls have more than doubled in that amount of time. So, the other two items uh that we have on there, their supply budget for animal control supplies has historically been very low. Um if we have one thing hit, it typically will put us over. Uh this year, our chip scanner failed. Uh those are the chips that they put in the animals, allow us to identify the owner. um they may do by going to the vet and having those checked for free. Uh but we we've got to get a new one of those. Uh and then you'll recall from our recent town meeting that uh they did pass an update to the uh dog control fines and the nuis nuisance dog fines. Uh that requires us to get new ticket books. So the estimate for that is $410. Okay. Thanks. Um, just do do those fines get separated or do they go to the general fund? They go to the general fund. Okay. And this is giving this looks like it looks like it's giving you a little bit of a cushion to last the rest of the year. Is that true? Yeah,

but that cushion just just decreased by $170. Uh, and we're seeing I mean we've had five rabies calls uh just in the last two months. Um, and you know, we're statutoily required to respond to those and to submit the animals for testing. So, um, it's, uh, they really just are responding to calls. There's not much operational control we have. Okay. And I, I will point out on the vet bills, uh, and I think you'll see this on your sheet, um, Kirstston and Stacy have have really done a fantastic job with building relationships with the local vets. Um, they get significant discounts in a lot of cases. They get treatment for free. Um, so you know, we we'd be paying about twice as much um if if in fact we had to pay full vote on these things. So that I noticed that. That's that's great. That is those two 100%. We don't have any formal agreements. They just really do a good job at building those relationships. That's great. If you could extend your thanks from the finance committee, I'd appreciate They they actually felt really bad about the rabies call that they just sent me a little while ago. So they were kind of nervous. Thanks. Any other questions? Chris, I have one. Dennis, why don't you go ahead and then then John will I'll go to you. Okay. Uh just a question. Who is it actually that's assesses us these fees? Who who we paying these fees to? Local veterinarians. Okay. It's a private vendor. Yes. Okay. All set, Dennis? Yeah. Okay, John. So, you know, given given the money that that you're requesting this year and the way things have gone up, what did we put into the budget for next year? Is there is there an increase over what we've traditionally had? We had an increase. Let me pull up the budget report. I'm sorry. I just don't carry it around

in my head. I apologize. Actually, Dan, do you have I know we put additional funds in there for um well, really we corrected the budgeting around the personnel services. We did add some money for vehicle maintenance and we added some funds for supplies that I remember vet bill we did raise as well. It if if this trend continues where we're getting this number of calls, we will probably need additional funds next year. You can kind of look historically at the animal control budget. It is woefully inadequate for for the number of calls we have. It's been held basically the same for a number of years. Our calls are more than double. Uh they're increasing at a much higher rate than uh than the budget has has kept pace with. So the expense budget did go up by $400 next year. So it's not substantial at all. O okay. Yeah. So we can probably expect something next year. Yeah. And it's I will say, you know, just like they've done with their um with their vet relationships, we're we're getting free kennel space from the town of Chumsford, for example. Um they they build relationships and get as much for free as you can possibly imagine. They take donations. We're we're actually looking for a donation now potentially uh that we we think the health department may be able to help us with for their dryer that broke that is sitting uh at at another location where they wash all of their own donated towels. So they're they they struggle with the budget that they have. Okay. Thank you, Mike. Any other questions? I'll take a motion to approve this transfer request then. Some move. All right. Second.

Thanks. All in favor by roll call. John Frier. I. Dennis. I. John Leers. I. Shinji. Hi. Hari. Hi. Nate. I. And I'm an I. So that's unanimous. Thank you. Thank you. Before we go on, Kristen, could I just ask either you or Dan um on public building expenses? I think Jeff's gone, which is fine. Did we increase that budget at all for next year? I will have Dan look that up. I don't have my binder in front of me. Um I think it was probably pretty nominal. Yeah, with the constraints that we had. But I guess we've got the assessment, the facilities assessment, which should hopefully be coming in the next few months or should be coming within the month, but that won't go until the fiscal 27 budget. So the the budget's actually increasing by 32,700, but we moved the council on aging expenses in there as well. So it's absorbing more to repair. So Okay. All right. Okay. Thanks. Um Okay. Uh let's see. any old business? I don't believe we really have anything unless anyone has anything on old business. Okay. Uh minutes from our uh February 27th, 2025 meeting. Everyone get to take a look at those. If so, do you have any minor comments or I'll take a motion to approve? A motion to approve the minutes. Thanks, Dennis. Second. Second. Thank you, John. All in

favor? Do a roll call. John Frier. I. Dennis. I. John Leers. Hi, Hari. Hi, Gingi. Hi, Nate. I and I'm an I, so that's unanimous. Thank you. Um, I'm going to Does anybody have anything for boards and committees? Any any updates? Like I really have anything. We haven't really met much. Okay. Um, future meetings. Right now, I don't believe we have anything planned. till 20. So there will there'll likely be a meeting with the select board and finance committee for any transfers. Uh likely the first meeting in June. Okay. Did you say there's a tribe board meeting uh Christina at some point? Oh, true. I think it's tender to be scheduled for June 12th. Is that the right date? Yeah. Yes, that's correct. Yep. Great. Thank you. Thanks for the reminder. The June select board meetings is either June 10th or June 24th. I would anticipate we do it on the 10th just in case we have something else that comes up the 24th. So that'll be a heavy week, two meetings, but and then after that I think we'll be looking at special town meeting. Um I think Yep. We're going to ask the board, the select board to put a date uh at one of their meetings in May. We're just waiting for the new board to change over. Sure. Okay. Um the only thing we may want to think about is we usually um sort of just kind of cycle through these these liaison positions. If anything if if anybody wants to change,

we could or we can wait and do that in September. If anyone has a strong feeling, I feel like most of these probably won't shift too much, but just think about it. if um make sure that you're still able to um fulfill your obligations to whatever liaison position you're you're currently in. If if some if something becomes an issue, just let me know. Okay. Um I think that's it. I'll take a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. Thank you very much. And all in favor, John Frier. I Shinji. Hi John. Leers Hari. Hi. I'm an I. Thanks everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Thank you.