[Speaker 1] (1:37 - 1:37)
Is there a flag?

[Speaker 2] (1:38 - 1:39)
Is there a flag? Oh, this side.

[Speaker 2] (1:40 - 1:41)
Out there.

[Speaker 3] (1:41 - 1:41)
Okay.

[Speaker 2] (1:42 - 1:51)
Thank you. Uh okay, good evening. We'll call the um Thursday August twenty-seventh meeting to order.

[Speaker 3] (1:53 - 1:54)
Be back.

[Speaker 2] (1:54 - 1:55)
Are you on teams?

[Speaker 3] (1:55 - 1:56)
Is your phone on?

[Speaker 1] (1:56 - 1:57)
Yeah, a little bit.

[Speaker 1] (2:02 - 2:03)
You just turn down the volume.

[Speaker 2] (2:04 - 2:05)
Does it mute?

[Speaker 4] (2:05 - 2:05)
Does that sound better?

[Speaker 2] (2:08 - 2:08)
Okay,

[Speaker 1] (2:08 - 2:09)
Here we go.

[Speaker 2] (2:09 - 2:09)
there it is. Okay,

[Speaker 2] (2:09 - 2:10)
sorry,

[Speaker 2] (2:10 - 2:10)
we had some feedback here.

[Speaker 2] (2:11 - 2:14)
So we will rise for the pledge.

[Speaker 2] (2:14 - 2:16)
The flag is out there.

[Speaker 2] (2:17 - 2:23)
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands,

[Speaker 2] (2:24 - 2:25)
one nation under God,

[Speaker 2] (2:26 - 2:28)
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[Speaker 2] (2:29 - 2:31)
Uh we are being recorded.

[Speaker 2] (2:33 - 2:36)
Audio and video recorded. And we will begin with the T_A_ report.

[Speaker 1] (2:37 - 2:40)
Okay good evening. Can you hear me okay, Ethan? Good.

[Speaker 2] (2:42 - 2:42)
Good.

[Speaker 2] (2:44 - 2:44)
Your sound.

[Speaker 1] (2:44 - 2:46)
Are we good? Okay great.

[Speaker 1] (2:47 - 3:11)
Um, I have a number of items to run through. I'm happy to answer questions after that. At the first I want to speak to the network disruption. We recently experienced a network disruption that has impacted some aspects of our operations. As a result, some of the functions uh of town hall have been delayed, but we're, you know, very close to full restoration. Upon learning of the issue, we immediately commenced an immens an investigation with the assistance of specialists to determine the nature and extent of the issues.

[Speaker 1] (3:11 - 3:14)
And as I said, we're working to restore everything.

[Speaker 1] (3:13 - 3:15)
everything fully as quickly as possible.

[Speaker 1] (3:16 - 3:23)
We're currently investigating to determine the nature and extent of the issue and working to restore all systems that were impacted.

[Speaker 1] (3:23 - 3:26)
As the investigation into this matter is ongoing,

[Speaker 1] (3:26 - 3:30)
we can't provide too many further details at this time, but we thank community members,

[Speaker 1] (3:30 - 3:37)
staff and others for their patience as we work through to resolve all these issues and will continue to monitor our systems going forward.

[Speaker 1] (3:38 - 3:51)
Um now to more of the report, uh I wanna start by congratulating the Swampscott Public Schools on the ranking uh that came out I think it was two weeks ago at this point uh for the high school. It showed tremendous growth and improvement, and although

[Speaker 5] (3:51 - 3:51)
Yep.

[Speaker 1] (3:51 - 4:02)
it's just one data point it's really great to see that the hard work is being recognised um by folks outside of the community. Uh and to be in the top fifteen percent of the commonwealth is uh really great um

[Speaker 1] (4:02 - 4:14)
Go a r really get great result and it's something that I know we will continue to build on and we're really happy uh working closely with the schools to make sure uh we do everything we can to support their efforts. Um

[Speaker 1] (4:15 - 4:20)
Getting forward, thinking about some of the things that are coming up. Swampscott Porch Fest is this weekend,

[Speaker 1] (4:20 - 4:21)
wanted to highlight that.

[Speaker 1] (4:22 - 4:24)
It's returning with performers,

[Speaker 1] (4:24 - 4:38)
you know, on porches and lawns throughout the area and in the neighbourhoods. It is noon to six on Saturday. The website for more details is swampscottporchfest.org. And so please check that out and we look forward to seeing folks there.

[Speaker 1] (4:38 - 4:41)
Talking a little bit about solid waste and recycling,

[Speaker 1] (4:41 - 4:43)
which continues to be, you know, a priority for us,

[Speaker 1] (4:44 - 4:50)
and I know the community is being impacted as we've worked through the transition over the last few weeks.

[Speaker 1] (4:50 - 4:54)
Service is a top priority in our office and also with DPW.

[Speaker 1] (4:54 - 4:58)
We continue to be trying to identify specific areas where service has fallen short,

[Speaker 1] (4:58 - 5:01)
and that has been both hearing from Republic,

[Speaker 1] (5:01 - 5:04)
but we really want to make sure we continue to invite residents.

[Speaker 1] (5:04 - 5:12)
to identify delays and times that they've been missed so that we can get to the root cause of those issues as opposed to just making sure we do those recovery runs.

[Speaker 1] (5:12 - 5:19)
So that communication is vitally important to us, making sure that we can get the service to the level that we really want and expect.

[Speaker 1] (5:19 - 5:28)
We're in close and regular contact with Republic. We are still doing the weekly calls to make sure that we are able to identify priorities for us and hear from them.

[Speaker 1] (5:28 - 5:29)
And in addition to that,

[Speaker 1] (5:29 - 5:31)
they have been over the last week.

[Speaker 1] (5:31 - 5:39)
week improving their internal processes so that we have more of a view into where they are on recovery runs and also which is when we identify an issue and they get out to fix it.

[Speaker 1] (5:40 - 5:57)
And they've also realigned their resources internally. They put more in different staff at their sort of headquarters office that manage the routes to make sure that we are getting the service we need after we identified a few issues that we felt needed to be addressed. So it continues to be something that we will work on. We welcome feedback.

[Speaker 1] (5:57 - 6:13)
Feedback, it is how we will improve, so please don't be shy about sharing it. Uh in addition, this Saturday the DPW during the um normal metal recycling will be accepting uh your old recycling bins.

[Speaker 1] (6:13 - 6:17)
Again, those bins are the blue bins, it's the barrels that have recycling stickers on them, that type of thing.

[Speaker 1] (6:18 - 6:22)
Uh this will be sort of our last chance in the near term for us to help dispose of them.

[Speaker 1] (6:22 - 6:24)
of them as easily as possible.

[Speaker 1] (6:24 - 6:38)
So please come out, drop it off, bring it with your other recycling and we look forward to seeing you there. I believe we may have at least one uh select board member who's volunteered to help out uh so you may see a member of your board there if you're if you're dropping it off.

[Speaker 1] (6:40 - 6:41)
Um what'd you say?

[Speaker 2] (6:41 - 6:42)
I said it's not me.

[Speaker 1] (6:42 - 6:42)
Okay.

[Speaker 2] (6:42 - 6:43)
Kate, you just made eye contact.

[Speaker 2] (6:43 - 6:44)
I won't be there.

[Speaker 1] (6:47 - 6:49)
Did you say it was unintentional?

[Speaker 1] (6:49 - 6:49)
Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (6:52 - 6:55)
I wanted to highlight as well at Littles Point,

[Speaker 1] (6:55 - 6:58)
29 Littles Point this weekend as part of our conservation restriction,

[Speaker 1] (6:58 - 7:03)
we do allow the property owner to restrict access a couple of times a year.

[Speaker 1] (7:03 - 7:09)
They've worked with both Marcy and Tony in the Conservation Commission for this one weekend.

[Speaker 1] (7:10 - 7:11)
There'll be plenty of signage posted.

[Speaker 1] (7:11 - 7:14)
It is a temporary closure. It is part of the agreement that we have,

[Speaker 1] (7:14 - 7:19)
but I wanted to highlight it in case anyone's out there sees it on the pathway out to the over.

[Speaker 1] (7:19 - 7:46)
The overlook at the water and wants to understand why. Um so I wanted to highlight that. Uh two items related to work being done. First looking forward Pine Street, um the the project of the 12 to 24 Pine Street. Beginning on Monday there will be heavily heavy equipment doing some testing for sort of environmental testing where there'll be some digging so that we understand what's going on there. I don't where y we fired the neighbourhood but I also wanted to mention it here in case folks see

[Speaker 1] (7:46 - 7:46)
See that equipment there?

[Speaker 1] (7:46 - 7:47)
It's not the beginning of construction.

[Speaker 1] (7:48 - 7:52)
It's us continuing to move through the process and make sure that we have all the information that we need.

[Speaker 1] (7:52 - 7:56)
Second is, you know, sort of request for forgiveness on our part.

[Speaker 1] (7:56 - 7:58)
The rail trailhead survey work done this week.

[Speaker 1] (7:59 - 8:05)
Both the surveyors and us did not, we did not notify the abutters that were going to be contacted.

[Speaker 1] (8:05 - 8:10)
It is a bare minimum of contractors working on our behalf that they do that notification as they are required.

[Speaker 1] (8:10 - 8:13)
For survey work, we will work with them to make sure that's improved,

[Speaker 1] (8:13 - 8:21)
but we are also going to make sure that we are doing a better job of communicating it out, reminding STB and our other vendors that they need to alert us in advance so that we have time.

[Speaker 1] (8:22 - 8:33)
The greater idea and the greater goal with transparency or communication on that is that Marcy and I are going to plan with STV to do a presentation of the 25% design,

[Speaker 1] (8:33 - 8:37)
which will be coming this fall. The idea there would be it would be the contractor,

[Speaker 1] (8:38 - 8:38)
myself,

[Speaker 1] (8:38 - 8:48)
Marcy in B129, similar to when we did the trash meeting to answer questions, where we will provide a presentation but be there for, you know, an extended period to ask questions that may come up.

[Speaker 1] (8:48 - 9:03)
come up as well. Um and from as a part of that twenty five percent design we will at some point obviously present that to you all. But we really think that community one will be one that would be better to do first, so that we can gather feedback, see where it can influence our uh impact potential designs,

[Speaker 1] (9:03 - 9:07)
and then come to you all with something that is the final twenty five that will go before MassDOT for approvals.

[Speaker 1] (9:08 - 9:14)
So that's just the thinking right now, happy to take feedback, as with everything else. Um I did wanna highlight, and this is something that's been

[Speaker 6] (9:14 - 9:15)
put

[Speaker 1] (9:14 - 9:20)
It's been posted, covered by the tides in the item tonight as the temporary outage that National Grid had mailed about,

[Speaker 1] (9:20 - 9:21)
posted about.

[Speaker 1] (9:22 - 9:24)
They are doing some work on the service into the community.

[Speaker 1] (9:25 - 9:34)
They had a very large area that is outlined in the map. It's been posted again both in the newspapers and online and on our socials if you want to see if you're particularly impacted.

[Speaker 1] (9:34 - 9:36)
I just wanted to highlight it one more time.

[Speaker 1] (9:37 - 9:56)
To make sure folks are thinking about it, uh and take a look if there happen to be at home watching us tonight and and are curious if they're gonna be impacted by that. But that is tomorrow morning between one and four A_M_ or the anticipated impact times that they uh mailed us about and I believe also mailed um ratepayers throughout the community. So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions

[Speaker 7] (9:56 - 9:56)
It should be

[Speaker 1] (9:56 - 9:56)
folks

[Speaker 7] (9:56 - 9:56)
clear,

[Speaker 1] (9:56 - 9:56)
may

[Speaker 7] (9:56 - 9:58)
it's have. tonight, overnight,

[Speaker 2] (9:58 - 9:58)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 1] (9:58 - 9:59)
That's what I said.

[Speaker 7] (9:59 - 9:59)
one

[Speaker 2] (9:59 - 9:59)
One.

[Speaker 7] (9:59 - 9:59)
day.

[Speaker 1] (9:59 - 9:59)
That's what I said.

[Speaker 2] (9:59 - 9:59)
When it

[Speaker 1] (9:59 - 9:59)
One

[Speaker 2] (9:59 - 9:59)
was

[Speaker 4] (9:59 - 10:00)
One

[Speaker 1] (10:00 - 10:00)
a a.m.

[Speaker 4] (10:00 - 10:00)
week?

[Speaker 2] (10:00 - 10:02)
it was tomorrow night at the very end I believe. So, it's or see you tomorrow

[Speaker 1] (10:02 - 10:03)
Or morning.

[Speaker 2] (10:03 - 10:03)
morning.

[Speaker 3] (10:03 - 10:05)
Or morning, it's one a.m. to four a.m.

[Speaker 1] (10:05 - 10:10)
One a.m. to four a.m. Friday morning. Sorry for any confusion.

[Speaker 4] (10:10 - 10:12)
Can you just call Wayne, just to remind him?

[Speaker 1] (10:13 - 10:14)
Twelve forty five.

[Speaker 2] (10:14 - 10:15)
I'll

[Speaker 4] (10:15 - 10:15)
Five

[Speaker 2] (10:15 - 10:15)
bet.

[Speaker 4] (10:15 - 10:15)
minutes.

[Speaker 2] (10:15 - 10:15)
It's okay.

[Speaker 1] (10:17 - 10:21)
With that I'm happy to take any questions before we move into presentations later on.

[Speaker 1] (10:22 - 10:22)
Y

[Speaker 3] (10:22 - 10:23)
Court, please.

[Speaker 2] (10:23 - 10:30)
Yeah, I just wanted to say one thing about the recycling bin collection, just for awareness. I know the press is here.

[Speaker 2] (10:30 - 10:33)
You know, one of the goals is to collect good.

[Speaker 2] (10:34 - 10:51)
Um recycling bins and the the effort will be made to try to rehome them if possible um for those who want it need it um for whether or not you're a contractor or whether or not you're just a person who wants to use it for um yard waste. So

[Speaker 2] (10:52 - 10:55)
Please please know if you bring a good one we're gonna try to rehome it.

[Speaker 3] (10:57 - 10:58)
We do a robo call for that.

[Speaker 1] (11:00 - 11:00)
For the recycling

[Speaker 3] (11:00 - 11:01)
For

[Speaker 1] (11:01 - 11:01)
opportunity

[Speaker 3] (11:01 - 11:01)
the recycling.

[Speaker 1] (11:01 - 11:02)
we can. Yes.

[Speaker 3] (11:02 - 11:11)
Just because I feel like if people aren't watching this or checking social media they might not necessarily know to bring it down and that way we won't.

[Speaker 1] (11:12 - 11:16)
Let's see if we can get our celebrity voice to record that one as well as we have for the other solid

[Speaker 3] (11:16 - 11:17)
Yep.

[Speaker 1] (11:17 - 11:18)
waste. Yep.

[Speaker 3] (11:18 - 11:18)
Oh wait.

[Speaker 5] (11:19 - 11:20)
Did you get another?

[Speaker 3] (11:20 - 11:23)
The no I they go to voicemail from my phone, so I know what they're saying.

[Speaker 4] (11:24 - 11:29)
So what is it people just bring it down to DPW and then they're just going to stay at the DPW until you can try to rehome them or?

[Speaker 2] (11:30 - 11:31)
For a short period of time.

[Speaker 1] (11:31 - 11:42)
We we have a we have a multi-yard container that will be putting them in will be holding out the ones that are conceivably most likely to be rehomed.

[Speaker 4] (11:42 - 11:42)
Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (11:43 - 11:46)
But the idea will be that they'll all go to dynamics which does recycling.

[Speaker 1] (11:45 - 11:50)
recycling um the rigid plastics at the end of that process.

[Speaker 4] (11:50 - 11:50)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 1] (11:50 - 11:55)
We'll keep them there for a bit, but it's not gonna be for, you know, a month. It'll be for a couple weeks.

[Speaker 2] (11:56 - 12:10)
So I'd volunteered to call along I I we can get other people on SWAC to call um contractors, roofers, landscapers and general public to come out. Uh Marblehead was able to get rid of twenty two hundred barrels.

[Speaker 2] (12:10 - 12:15)
Not when it has to get rid of like re-home 2200 barrels so we know it's it's doable

[Speaker 3] (12:15 - 12:16)
Oh.

[Speaker 7] (12:16 - 12:17)
Well for them.

[Speaker 3] (12:18 - 12:21)
If anybody locally is looking for a barrel, would sure they do show up at the same time?

[Speaker 2] (12:23 - 12:24)
I mean it's conceivably

[Speaker 3] (12:24 - 12:24)
If it's

[Speaker 2] (12:24 - 12:27)
it's conceivably possible I'd leave that up to Gino to kind of

[Speaker 1] (12:27 - 12:31)
The the easiest would be when it's already staffed which would be the Saturday. Yes.

[Speaker 3] (12:31 - 12:33)
Yeah, this Saturday. So if you're if you don't have a barrel and you want one.

[Speaker 3] (12:35 - 12:35)
Am I?

[Speaker 2] (12:35 - 12:35)
Yeah.

[Speaker 8] (12:36 - 12:36)
Yeah.

[Speaker 3] (12:37 - 12:37)
Okay.

[Speaker 3] (12:38 - 12:39)
So

[Speaker 4] (12:39 - 12:42)
I have a question. You mentioned rail trail.

[Speaker 2] (12:42 - 12:42)
Yes.

[Speaker 4] (12:42 - 12:52)
Can you reach out to National Grid to see, 'cause I believe they're the ones that have to maintain that stretch between Salem Street and Humphrey Street, there's that path.

[Speaker 4] (12:53 - 12:55)
That goes, that's part of the rail trail.

[Speaker 3] (12:55 - 12:57)
That has the National Grid sign right

[Speaker 4] (12:57 - 12:57)
Yeah.

[Speaker 3] (12:57 - 12:58)
there, yep.

[Speaker 4] (12:58 - 13:12)
Um our cross country team uses it and it's, you know, a lot of our kids bike ride to school through it and it's absolutely a mess. It's overgrown, it's, yeah, it's it it's unsafe.

[Speaker 4] (13:12 - 13:16)
So if we could reach out to them and see how they maintain it or if they

[Speaker 2] (13:16 - 13:16)
Yep.

[Speaker 4] (13:16 - 13:17)
can get someone down there to maintain it.

[Speaker 1] (13:17 - 13:31)
I'm happy to ask that and if and when we get an answer I will probably be back here to remind the abutters why it is thinned out, because that will be the the knock-on effect of getting that work done is that suddenly it's thinner than they're used to.

[Speaker 4] (13:31 - 13:31)
Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (13:31 - 13:34)
Um but yeah, absolutely we'll ask and then we'll be back here to let

[Speaker 1] (13:35 - 13:38)
Let you know what their answer is, and if it's happening, when we anticipate it happening.

[Speaker 4] (13:38 - 13:38)
Very good.

[Speaker 2] (13:38 - 13:38)
Can I help

[Speaker 4] (13:38 - 13:39)
But I

[Speaker 2] (13:39 - 13:39)
her?

[Speaker 4] (13:39 - 13:47)
can tell you several times in the past what they've done is they've hired a private contractor come in and they put a lot of um poison out there.

[Speaker 4] (13:48 - 13:49)
And so

[Speaker 3] (13:49 - 13:50)
To kill the uh to complaints.

[Speaker 4] (13:50 - 13:51)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

[Speaker 4] (13:52 - 14:00)
So I think uh I know I had talked to uh Tony Bandawith about this and she had looked into it and I don't know how it was left because

[Speaker 4] (14:01 - 14:19)
It I mean it was bad. It just clears everything out right away. And it's um you know I worry about people that are ha you know they go for walk back there with their animals the kids are out there running around and riding their bikes. So that's that's a concern that I have is the amount of

[Speaker 4] (14:19 - 14:21)
Pesticides that are used?

[Speaker 3] (14:21 - 14:21)
Yeah,

[Speaker 1] (14:21 - 14:21)
You

[Speaker 3] (14:21 - 14:21)
I just

[Speaker 1] (14:21 - 14:22)
could ask

[Speaker 3] (14:22 - 14:22)
want them to

[Speaker 1] (14:22 - 14:22)
if it's

[Speaker 3] (14:22 - 14:22)
get a

[Speaker 1] (14:22 - 14:22)
mechanical

[Speaker 4] (14:22 - 14:23)
sickle

[Speaker 1] (14:23 - 14:23)
mechanical

[Speaker 4] (14:23 - 14:23)
and whack

[Speaker 1] (14:23 - 14:24)
versus

[Speaker 4] (14:24 - 14:25)
it out personally.

[Speaker 3] (14:25 - 14:25)
Yep.

[Speaker 1] (14:25 - 14:26)
mechanical versus chemical

[Speaker 4] (14:26 - 14:26)
Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (14:26 - 14:27)
control

[Speaker 4] (14:27 - 14:27)
Yeah, we would prefer

[Speaker 1] (14:27 - 14:29)
is their quest their question. Yep

[Speaker 4] (14:29 - 14:32)
And I just want to point o are you finished, Daniel?

[Speaker 3] (14:32 - 14:32)
Yeah, go ahead.

[Speaker 4] (14:32 - 14:45)
Um on the rail trail, I just want to make sure that we have a serious conversation about financially how we're going to be dealing with the rail trail, because there's a limited amount of funds that were

[Speaker 4] (14:45 - 15:07)
appropriated for this, and out of those funds we were supposed to be um using money to uh take the land or borrow the land or whatever term you want to use for the land. And the question is, is there enough money in there and if there's not what what are we going to do? How are we going to really come to fruition on this rail

[Speaker 2] (15:07 - 15:07)
trail Because

[Speaker 4] (15:07 - 15:08)
because

[Speaker 3] (15:08 - 15:08)
Mm.

[Speaker 4] (15:09 - 15:15)
There are there there are other alternatives. Um I think there are other alternatives to make it happen without

[Speaker 4] (15:16 - 15:18)
causing a lot of issues.

[Speaker 1] (15:18 - 15:18)
Dude.

[Speaker 3] (15:19 - 15:26)
Are we clear what the what the asks are at this time or not yet? Like uh so obviously there are portions of land that we need to figure out how we

[Speaker 3] (15:27 - 15:28)
obtain them.

[Speaker 2] (15:28 - 15:28)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 3] (15:29 - 15:33)
Et are we sure how big, how far apart it has to be, h what the like

[Speaker 4] (15:33 - 15:42)
We voted, I um ninety percent sure in the article we actually voted for a a maximum space, the maximum amount that we would take.

[Speaker 3] (15:42 - 15:47)
Right, so it would be the most expensive version of this but I'm saying like, what's the middle ground? How do we like

[Speaker 3] (15:47 - 15:49)
should be on some sort of scale, right?

[Speaker 2] (15:49 - 15:49)
E yeah.

[Speaker 3] (15:49 - 15:54)
Like if we had unlimited funds we might ask for this, but since we don't we're asking for this or looking towards that.

[Speaker 1] (15:54 - 15:57)
So I think we would look to the design

[Speaker 3] (15:57 - 15:57)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 1] (15:57 - 15:59)
to understand what the alignment is.

[Speaker 3] (15:59 - 15:59)
Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (15:59 - 16:13)
And so is it than we want ten feet plus four on the shoulders each ten feet ten feet plus three on the you know it the alignment will be important because it it determines the impact on what people have been you is their own property or things that they've been using.

[Speaker 1] (16:14 - 16:16)
um the funding

[Speaker 1] (16:16 - 16:26)
But prior to my coming here, in sense we've done everything we can to use private donations or things like the mass trails grants to limit the spend down of the appropriated

[Speaker 4] (16:26 - 16:26)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 1] (16:26 - 16:26)
funds.

[Speaker 4] (16:26 - 16:27)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 1] (16:27 - 16:36)
Uh so they've been, you know, very specific in good stewards of that. I think it's great for us to come back and run through how we've done that over time and what the plans are.

[Speaker 4] (16:36 - 16:36)
Right.

[Speaker 1] (16:36 - 16:42)
And then as we get to that twenty five percent design, I think we would have a slightly better idea of the alignment and what the

[Speaker 1] (16:41 - 16:56)
And what the final cross section would be, in that do we want it to be ten feet at all places with the shoulder of a certain distance? Are there areas where we ha it necessarily has to be eight feet with the shoulder, you know? Those are things that we will come back to you as part of that twenty five percent design with the cross section to be able to tell you.

[Speaker 1] (16:57 - 16:59)
and the community, not just not just

[Speaker 4] (16:59 - 16:59)
No,

[Speaker 1] (16:59 - 16:59)
in response

[Speaker 4] (16:59 - 16:59)
no, no.

[Speaker 1] (16:59 - 17:00)
to this question.

[Speaker 4] (17:00 - 17:19)
No, I just think it's very important that we we're mindful of the fact that it was sold to town meeting that, you know, people didn't own the land and then later you had people uh do their research, go to court and find out that they do own the land and as a result uh that bill could be significant.

[Speaker 4] (17:20 - 17:23)
So I just want to get it all up front before we

[Speaker 4] (17:23 - 17:24)
Do all this research.

[Speaker 1] (17:24 - 17:33)
And just by way of further explanation, the appraisal process starts a clock, a a timing issue on any agreement or taking.

[Speaker 4] (17:34 - 17:34)
Uh-huh.

[Speaker 1] (17:34 - 17:41)
So the design is it's a chicken and egg thing, but really the design needs to be driving what we're looking to gain access to.

[Speaker 4] (17:42 - 17:42)
Uh-huh.

[Speaker 1] (17:42 - 17:48)
Uh so it is it it's coming, but we need to we need to highlight that I think for everyone to your point

[Speaker 4] (17:48 - 17:49)
Right.

[Speaker 1] (17:49 - 17:59)
at the twenty five percent design phrase and then everyone would have a greater idea of what the specific impacts individually the example in in landfill the individual cross-sections showed like you could find

[Speaker 1] (17:59 - 18:03)
an address on the street and look behind that house and understand what it would look like.

[Speaker 1] (18:04 - 18:17)
Uh in that case it was a right of way, it wasn't a uh taking, but you could understand what the impacts were behind individual homes. And this would be similar where we could say the impacts on the property as we talk about whether or not we have the ability to to gain access and to be be able to build this.

[Speaker 1] (18:17 - 18:25)
This is what the impact looks like. It's a a portion of the ten foot trail, it's a portion of a ten foot plus another eight feet of shoulder between the two sides.

[Speaker 1] (18:25 - 18:30)
we wanna bring all that uh the community when we get to this point with the twenty five percent.

[Speaker 4] (18:30 - 18:40)
Right. And then I just wanna make sure that so this is the second time now, you know, I don't know about the rest of you, but I received a number of phone calls with people upset that they were uh people in their yards.

[Speaker 1] (18:40 - 18:41)
Yeah.

[Speaker 4] (18:41 - 18:42)
And

[Speaker 4] (18:42 - 18:46)
You know, I'm sure s you got some calls after

[Speaker 1] (18:46 - 18:46)
I spoke

[Speaker 4] (18:46 - 18:46)
I told

[Speaker 1] (18:46 - 18:46)
to

[Speaker 4] (18:46 - 18:46)
people

[Speaker 1] (18:46 - 18:46)
him.

[Speaker 4] (18:46 - 18:46)
just

[Speaker 1] (18:46 - 18:46)
Yep.

[Speaker 4] (18:46 - 18:55)
call just call Nick and you know, this has happened on Pine Street and now this has happened over here and I just think you know, we have to do a much better job of notifying people

[Speaker 9] (18:55 - 18:55)
Yeah.

[Speaker 4] (18:55 - 18:57)
what's what's going on.

[Speaker 1] (18:57 - 19:02)
I think on Pine Street we d there was not uh trespass in terms of

[Speaker 4] (19:02 - 19:03)
No,

[Speaker 1] (19:03 - 19:03)
survey

[Speaker 4] (19:03 - 19:03)
okay.

[Speaker 1] (19:03 - 19:09)
or trespassing. It was that there was work being done the one abutting property that we were on, we had had discussions with the property owner.

[Speaker 1] (19:09 - 19:18)
And, you know, the fire that you all have and that the community and the Pine Street area got today, as well as my mentioning it, that's us trying to do better

[Speaker 4] (19:18 - 19:18)
Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (19:18 - 19:23)
and certainly acknowledging that we we could have done better on the rail trail is why I wanted to raise that tonight as well.

[Speaker 4] (19:23 - 19:23)
Great.

[Speaker 1] (19:23 - 19:24)
Totally agree.

[Speaker 2] (19:24 - 19:34)
So just a ca the comment the piggyback the comment specifically about the neighbourhood where the surveyor was I believe it's on it's the responsibility of the surveyor to give legal notice.

[Speaker 2] (19:35 - 19:46)
if they're going to be on the property. I mean, us as the town, obviously we either the contractor, the contractor may hire the surveyor, but I would be asking why did the surveyor not complete his or her duty to notify

[Speaker 1] (19:46 - 19:52)
I believe the M_G_L_ is reasonable notice, and it's intentionally vague in how it's written.

[Speaker 1] (19:53 - 19:54)
It doesn't say what re what is reasonable.

[Speaker 2] (19:55 - 19:55)
They

[Speaker 1] (19:55 - 19:56)
way other parts of the M_G_L_ do.

[Speaker 2] (19:57 - 19:57)
They I have

[Speaker 1] (19:57 - 19:57)
still completely

[Speaker 2] (19:57 - 19:57)
have to but they

[Speaker 1] (19:57 - 19:59)
agree that they need to contact them.

[Speaker 2] (19:59 - 20:03)
okay I was gonna say they have need some sort of notification and I don't believe that was given based upon the

[Speaker 1] (20:03 - 20:03)
A door

[Speaker 2] (20:03 - 20:03)
conversation

[Speaker 1] (20:03 - 20:07)
I I honestly a door knock is considered reasonable. So

[Speaker 2] (20:07 - 20:08)
Mm.

[Speaker 1] (20:08 - 20:08)
for they

[Speaker 1] (20:08 - 20:10)
If we were to rely on them telling us that,

[Speaker 1] (20:10 - 20:14)
I think what I'm ultimately saying is we are going to hold them more accountable,

[Speaker 2] (20:14 - 20:14)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (20:14 - 20:28)
and I'm saying that I am going to be more accountable for the town to be able to do it. And also out of one of the discussions that someone you sent to me is where we said like the idea of a public meeting that is well publicized, so proponents, opponents,

[Speaker 1] (20:28 - 20:30)
abutters, people live on the other side of town,

[Speaker 1] (20:30 - 20:35)
everyone can see where we are at the same time and also have an opportunity to ask questions of the contractor.

[Speaker 1] (20:35 - 20:46)
contractor that's working with us on the development and Marcy and myself. And similar to what we did, my hope is that we'll be able to sit there and take all or significantly all, depending on how many questions there are,

[Speaker 1] (20:46 - 21:01)
over a period of time where it's a brief description of the project with things to look at, but we're really there to have the conversation with people that are looking for more information with specific, like specific questions. Not so much what happens behind my house, but what is the way you're doing this? So what happens behind my house is where we would have

[Speaker 1] (21:01 - 21:05)
have the 25% design to look at with multiple cross-sections to be able to say,

[Speaker 1] (21:05 - 21:14)
let's pull up your your section of the roadway, then look behind and see what it looks like. So absolutely agree with everything that we need to do better.

[Speaker 2] (21:15 - 21:17)
When do you think that will happen

[Speaker 1] (21:17 - 21:17)
It'll

[Speaker 2] (21:17 - 21:17)
that?

[Speaker 1] (21:17 - 21:17)
be in the fall.

[Speaker 2] (21:18 - 21:18)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (21:18 - 21:20)
I would guess October, but I don't

[Speaker 2] (21:20 - 21:21)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (21:21 - 21:26)
it's it's something that is right now with STB. They're moving towards their 25% design.

[Speaker 1] (21:27 - 21:30)
Right. You know, I see notes being taken. Don't hold me till October.

[Speaker 1] (21:30 - 21:35)
It will happen in the fall as soon as we can make it happen. And I, in talking to Marcy today,

[Speaker 1] (21:35 - 21:42)
the idea was that we would do it prior to the 25 percent submission to the, to MassDOT so that it is not like, hey,

[Speaker 1] (21:42 - 21:42)
we're done.

[Speaker 1] (21:42 - 21:44)
Do you want to see it too?

[Speaker 1] (21:44 - 21:49)
It's, we've substantially completed the work. We want to have a conversation about it.

[Speaker 1] (21:49 - 21:52)
Are there opportunities for us to influence the design in a way that

[Speaker 1] (21:52 - 22:06)
Makes sense and that we can do, uh but certainly before we submit it, 'cause once we submit, it's sort of locked in for their feedback at the mass dot level. And that's part of staying in that tip process and uh making sure that going forward it's included in future tips.

[Speaker 2] (22:07 - 22:08)
Thank you for the clarification. Sure.

[Speaker 3] (22:10 - 22:11)
Good.

[Speaker 2] (22:11 - 22:11)
Good.

[Speaker 4] (22:12 - 22:15)
Great. We'll move on to public comment.

[Speaker 2] (22:15 - 22:15)
Uh-huh.

[Speaker 4] (22:15 - 22:16)
Actually, yes,

[Speaker 4] (22:17 - 22:19)
we'll take public comment. But I just want clarification,

[Speaker 4] (22:20 - 22:28)
Nick. Are there any parts of the new and old business that are not going to be dealt with tonight because we could not reorganize the focus to show up tonight?

[Speaker 1] (22:28 - 22:31)
So Kleinfelder is not here tonight.

[Speaker 4] (22:31 - 22:31)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (22:31 - 22:33)
We will schedule to get them.

[Speaker 1] (22:33 - 22:35)
And that's because we pulled this together

[Speaker 4] (22:35 - 22:36)
this Yes.

[Speaker 1] (22:36 - 22:39)
week to make sure that we could get everything in front of folks.

[Speaker 1] (22:39 - 22:41)
And then on the transitional ladder,

[Speaker 1] (22:41 - 22:44)
we have Patrick here to speak to it and to speak to the findings.

[Speaker 1] (22:44 - 22:45)
CLA is not available tonight,

[Speaker 1] (22:45 - 22:48)
so we can push that or Patrick can speak to what we have.

[Speaker 4] (22:48 - 22:48)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (22:48 - 22:51)
The idea with that is that once we speak to you all about it, we will share.

[Speaker 1] (22:52 - 22:57)
Both the memo from sort of Patrick and I in in response to it and the CLA audit itself,

[Speaker 4] (22:57 - 22:58)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (22:58 - 23:05)
by posting online and asking the moderator to distribute the link to all of the uh town meeting members via email so that anyone can take a look at it.

[Speaker 4] (23:05 - 23:11)
Okay, so then I just want s before public comment starts I want people to know what's on the agenda so if they came to uh

[Speaker 4] (23:12 - 23:13)
And obviously still

[Speaker 1] (23:13 - 23:13)
Okay.

[Speaker 4] (23:13 - 23:16)
think about it. But so we're going to table item number four,

[Speaker 4] (23:17 - 23:17)
the Kleinfelder report,

[Speaker 4] (23:18 - 23:19)
and we will still,

[Speaker 4] (23:19 - 23:20)
unless anybody has objection,

[Speaker 4] (23:20 - 23:22)
I think we should still talk about the transitional audit.

[Speaker 4] (23:22 - 23:24)
He came all the way here.

[Speaker 4] (23:24 - 23:27)
And if we have additional questions for CLA, we can get them to them.

[Speaker 2] (23:27 - 23:28)
Sure.

[Speaker 4] (23:28 - 23:28)
That work?

[Speaker 1] (23:28 - 23:29)
Agreed.

[Speaker 4] (23:29 - 23:29)
Okay.

[Speaker 4] (23:30 - 23:44)
All right, very good. Now we can start public comment. Um the microphone's over here for this room. Um public comment will be limited to three minutes. Please state your name and your address if you would like to make public comment. If you're online please raise your hand so we know that you would like to speak.

[Speaker 4] (23:48 - 23:50)
It's a unicorn night. Nobody wants to talk.

[Speaker 1] (23:51 - 23:52)
I can't see anyone online.

[Speaker 4] (23:52 - 23:53)
All right,

[Speaker 4] (23:53 - 23:54)
we will move on then.

[Speaker 4] (23:54 - 24:01)
Thank you very much. Moving on to new and old business, we'll begin with the discussion and possible on the sale of the bond anticipation note.

[Speaker 1] (24:04 - 24:05)
That might be easiest.

[Speaker 2] (24:06 - 24:06)
Yeah.

[Speaker 2] (24:06 - 24:07)
Can you hear me?

[Speaker 4] (24:07 - 24:07)
Yes.

[Speaker 4] (24:09 - 24:10)
How are you?

[Speaker 5] (24:10 - 24:11)
Good, how are you guys?

[Speaker 4] (24:11 - 24:11)
Great, thanks.

[Speaker 5] (24:12 - 24:20)
Um yeah, so this is a state house note, which is a slightly different form of borrowing where we don't have to go through some of the additional costs of a traditional borrowing.

[Speaker 5] (24:21 - 24:21)
Um

[Speaker 5] (24:22 - 24:37)
But we went through a bid process and had Oppenheimer be our main bid at just under three and a half percent. Um this note will go through May when we'll go through the traditional long-term debt process um along with our other issuances.

[Speaker 5] (24:37 - 24:47)
The main project driving this is the fire truck, which came last week and we made the payment um just a couple of days ago, the final payment for that.

[Speaker 5] (24:48 - 24:51)
Um so pretty simple, and I'm here to answer any questions if you have any.

[Speaker 7] (24:54 - 24:57)
I have a question. What happened with the first bid that went out?

[Speaker 5] (24:57 - 25:02)
Yeah, so we had a first bid and we did not get any bids back,

[Speaker 5] (25:02 - 25:07)
so we regrouped with our financial advisor and publicized a little bit better.

[Speaker 5] (25:07 - 25:16)
And basically what happened is everyone at these groups was on vacation over the summer and decided to not bid because they were on vacation,

[Speaker 5] (25:16 - 25:19)
so they got back from vacation and we got a good bid in.

[Speaker 2] (25:21 - 25:22)
Hmm, well that's interesting.

[Speaker 2] (25:28 - 25:35)
So I just want to thank you for at least one of the things I had asked for was to get an explanation of what the spend was for.

[Speaker 5] (25:35 - 25:35)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 2] (25:35 - 25:38)
So I appreciate you giving us some of the notes.

[Speaker 5] (25:38 - 25:39)
Yeah,

[Speaker 5] (25:39 - 25:39)
happy to.

[Speaker 2] (25:39 - 25:40)
Yeah,

[Speaker 2] (25:40 - 25:41)
in terms of the line by line,

[Speaker 2] (25:41 - 25:42)
that's helpful to understand.

[Speaker 4] (25:50 - 25:52)
If anybody has any additional questions,

[Speaker 4] (25:52 - 26:01)
Liam is here but otherwise the form of the vote is at the bottom of the memorandum on the second page of what's in here and we do have to read this specifically.

[Speaker 4] (26:01 - 26:15)
So I think it would be something along the lines of move that the written votes presented in this meeting in connection with the town sales of its note and bonds be adopted as written and incorporated into the minutes of this meeting in.

[Speaker 4] (26:15 - 26:20)
Poll, and let's see, poll text of the votes,

[Speaker 4] (26:27 - 26:34)
and the votes are attached here too, so we can adopt them into the minutes, if that is anybody's motion.

[Speaker 7] (26:35 - 26:36)
So moved.

[Speaker 4] (26:36 - 26:37)
Okay, a second?

[Speaker 8] (26:37 - 26:38)
Second.

[Speaker 4] (26:38 - 26:42)
Okay, and we are physically here so we can just say all in favor.

[Speaker 5] (26:42 - 26:42)
Aye.

[Speaker 4] (26:42 - 26:42)
Aye.

[Speaker 2] (26:42 - 26:43)
Aye.

[Speaker 7] (26:43 - 26:43)
Aye.

[Speaker 4] (26:43 - 26:45)
It's been a while since we could do that so.

[Speaker 4] (26:46 - 26:50)
Right, so this passes. Anything else for Liam?

[Speaker 7] (26:51 - 26:51)
Thanks, Liam.

[Speaker 2] (26:51 - 26:51)
Thank

[Speaker 4] (26:51 - 26:52)
Thank

[Speaker 2] (26:52 - 26:52)
you.

[Speaker 4] (26:52 - 26:53)
you so much. Appreciate it.

[Speaker 4] (26:57 - 27:01)
Alright, moving on to fiscal year 26 end of year.

[Speaker 4] (27:04 - 27:08)
First of all, Patrick, thank you for coming. I know today you had today off, so appreciate you rearranging

[Speaker 2] (27:08 - 27:09)
Yeah, I was wondering where you guys sat.

[Speaker 4] (27:09 - 27:13)
to come visit us. I know we had to re

[Speaker 4] (27:15 - 27:19)
negotiate these times. So appreciate it.

[Speaker 1] (27:22 - 27:24)
If you could just give me one second off of sharing, I'm sorry.

[Speaker 2] (27:24 - 27:25)
Thanks, Nick.

[Speaker 2] (27:41 - 27:41)
Kitchen

[Speaker 4] (27:41 - 27:41)
Fashion TV

[Speaker 2] (27:41 - 27:42)
on television.

[Speaker 4] (27:42 - 27:42)
table.

[Speaker 5] (27:42 - 27:43)
Great, say that's a throwback.

[Speaker 2] (27:43 - 27:44)
Back to dinner.

[Speaker 2] (27:44 - 27:44)
Flashback.

[Speaker 4] (27:44 - 27:45)
There you

[Speaker 2] (27:45 - 27:45)
1976.

[Speaker 4] (27:45 - 27:45)
go.

[Speaker 4] (27:47 - 27:48)
We're out of the microwave.

[Speaker 5] (27:49 - 27:49)
Thanks, John.

[Speaker 2] (27:49 - 27:51)
We didn't have microwaves back then.

[Speaker 1] (27:59 - 28:01)
I cannot get this into full screen. Where am I looking here?

[Speaker 2] (28:14 - 28:14)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (28:14 - 28:16)
Yep. I want you to go to the next slide.

[Speaker 9] (28:16 - 28:34)
Okay. All right. Um so thank you for having me tonight um here to give an update on the fiscal 26 financial results. Our year ended June 30th. Um originally this was planned for the 18th, so this is the same presentation that was gonna be given. Um

[Speaker 9] (28:35 - 28:39)
Overall high level, we had modestly favourable results for the year.

[Speaker 9] (28:39 - 28:48)
Revenues exceeded estimates by five hundred and eighty nine thousand dollars and expenditures were under budget four hundred and sixty one thousand dollars.

[Speaker 9] (28:49 - 29:00)
For comparison, F_Y_ twenty five, our revenues were eighty one thousand dollars over estimate and expenditures were only one hundred and seventy six thousand dollars under budget. So

[Speaker 2] (29:00 - 29:00)
Okay.

[Speaker 9] (29:00 - 29:00)
we're

[Speaker 9] (29:01 - 29:03)
We have a more favorable result this year than last.

[Speaker 9] (29:04 - 29:12)
Local receipts exceeded estimates by a million dollars, excluding some non-recurring revenues which would skew our result.

[Speaker 9] (29:13 - 29:22)
Um budget pressures this year revolved around public safety personnel, particularly fire and ratification of the new police collective bargaining agreement.

[Speaker 9] (29:22 - 29:34)
We had a heavy snow year so there was overages in the snow and ice removal costs. Uh we had some overage in town council expense, payroll tax and unemployment related expenses.

[Speaker 9] (29:35 - 29:38)
Savings, we saw savings in the areas such as health insurance,

[Speaker 9] (29:39 - 29:40)
state assessments,

[Speaker 9] (29:40 - 29:44)
and staffing vacancies that occurred, you know, during the year.

[Speaker 9] (29:45 - 29:49)
We have some funding issues related to overlay and COVID deficits that I'll get to.

[Speaker 1] (29:51 - 29:53)
Overall, positive result.

[Speaker 1] (29:53 - 30:09)
We're expecting free cash to be certified within our policies, uh which is three to five percent of the operating budget and water and sewer retained earnings are anticipated anticipated to be certified above the minimum policy which I talked about at our last meeting when we passed rates.

[Speaker 1] (30:10 - 30:14)
And peg and solid waste enterprise funds are expected to be certified positive.

[Speaker 1] (30:16 - 30:18)
Next slide.

[Speaker 1] (30:18 - 30:19)
There we go.

[Speaker 1] (30:21 - 30:24)
A little more detail on the revenue results.

[Speaker 1] (30:25 - 30:28)
Property taxes were below our budget estimates.

[Speaker 1] (30:28 - 30:34)
That's largely driven by the fact that we use free cash to reduce the tax rate this year in the amount of $720,000.

[Speaker 1] (30:35 - 30:57)
Stated less than estimates that's based on changes in charter school reimbursement that happened after the budget was passed based on enrollment and local receipts 46 percent above estimate driven largely by non-recurring revenue so we had a permit fee in the amount of seven hundred and seventy three thousand dollars related to redevelopment in Vinnan Square.

[Speaker 1] (30:57 - 31:07)
And we had a National Grid energy-related incentive for the new school in the amount of $374,000, so those are one-time things that are not going to, you know, recur,

[Speaker 1] (31:07 - 31:09)
but notable.

[Speaker 2] (31:09 - 31:10)
Patrick, that

[Speaker 1] (31:10 - 31:10)
Yep.

[Speaker 2] (31:10 - 31:12)
Vinins Square permit fee,

[Speaker 2] (31:12 - 31:15)
is that for the apartment building as well or just the shell in New Build?

[Speaker 2] (31:16 - 31:16)
Do

[Speaker 1] (31:16 - 31:17)
That

[Speaker 2] (31:17 - 31:17)
you have

[Speaker 1] (31:17 - 31:17)
the

[Speaker 2] (31:17 - 31:18)
that level of detail?

[Speaker 1] (31:18 - 31:21)
Um that I believe that is just the apartment building.

[Speaker 2] (31:21 - 31:21)
Oh, okay.

[Speaker 3] (31:21 - 31:21)
I

[Speaker 1] (31:21 - 31:21)
Okay.

[Speaker 3] (31:21 - 31:28)
think it's primarily the apart it's almost all the apartment there is it was a little bit below that I know so it's it's almost all the apartment building but not complete

[Speaker 1] (31:29 - 31:30)
We can get you the detail.

[Speaker 4] (31:31 - 31:37)
And the national grid money that's non reoccurring that was forecasted out to us a couple years ago, right?

[Speaker 1] (31:37 - 31:37)
Yeah, so

[Speaker 4] (31:37 - 31:37)
This

[Speaker 1] (31:37 - 31:37)
we

[Speaker 4] (31:37 - 31:38)
isn't

[Speaker 1] (31:38 - 31:38)
anticipated

[Speaker 4] (31:38 - 31:38)
new money,

[Speaker 1] (31:38 - 31:39)
this money. We

[Speaker 4] (31:39 - 31:39)
right?

[Speaker 1] (31:39 - 31:40)
didn't know the exact amount.

[Speaker 1] (31:41 - 31:45)
So now the work has been done and submitted and we have that result.

[Speaker 1] (31:47 - 31:49)
Okay, you want to go to the next slide?

[Speaker 1] (31:50 - 31:52)
This is a little bit of a busy slide, I apologize,

[Speaker 1] (31:52 - 31:56)
but just a little more detail on local receipts I'll call out.

[Speaker 1] (31:56 - 32:08)
Motor vehicle excise taxes are our largest source of recurring local receipts that exceeded estimates by 3.2%. Local option excise taxes, which include meals tax,

[Speaker 1] (32:08 - 32:09)
rooms tax,

[Speaker 1] (32:09 - 32:13)
cannabis sales tax, that exceeded our estimates by 37,

[Speaker 1] (32:13 - 32:15)
38%.

[Speaker 1] (32:16 - 32:28)
So there's actual growth there if you look at the last few years in all of those categories. So that's something that's going to help us out going forward to the level that it's sustainable obviously.

[Speaker 1] (32:29 - 32:32)
Penalties and interest on overdue taxes exceeded estimates.

[Speaker 1] (32:32 - 32:35)
78% were conservative in that number.

[Speaker 1] (32:35 - 32:40)
We have some large redemptions in delinquent accounts that can, you know, result in.

[Speaker 1] (32:41 - 32:55)
actuals over estimates like this licenses and permits exceeded estimates by a ton because of the been in square permit and the miscellaneous revenues that we just talked about any questions on this slide

[Speaker 5] (32:56 - 32:58)
Yeah, the options and exercises taxes,

[Speaker 3] (32:58 - 32:58)
Yep.

[Speaker 5] (32:58 - 33:03)
is any of this anticipated in the planning from last year? Was this?

[Speaker 5] (33:04 - 33:09)
Obviously, I mean, to be off by that, I mean, it's a good thing. I'm not complaining,

[Speaker 5] (33:09 - 33:15)
Yeah. but I mean did did did we have some forbearance or knowledge that this was going to

[Speaker 2] (33:16 - 33:16)
Be coming in

[Speaker 1] (33:16 - 33:23)
So we have a policy to estimate local receipts, which looks at the lesser of a three-year average or the prior year actual.

[Speaker 2] (33:23 - 33:24)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (33:24 - 33:29)
And then if there's any specific information that we can point to that would inform an estimate above that,

[Speaker 1] (33:30 - 33:31)
we would take that estimate.

[Speaker 1] (33:32 - 33:36)
Because these categories are actually growing and it's not like we added a third,

[Speaker 1] (33:36 - 33:40)
you know, cannabis shop or a large, you know, large restaurant.

[Speaker 1] (33:41 - 33:47)
No, we didn't predict this level of growth, but we did follow our policy and our mechanisms.

[Speaker 1] (33:47 - 33:51)
And to the extent that this is sustainable and continues, we will bake it in going forward.

[Speaker 1] (33:52 - 34:00)
I think one of the changes the Finance Committee made right before the budget was passed this for 27 was to increase some of the assumptions on the local option tax,

[Speaker 1] (34:00 - 34:01)
the cannabis tax,

[Speaker 1] (34:01 - 34:07)
based on what we were seeing in a trend that exceeded our typical measurement.

[Speaker 5] (34:08 - 34:08)
Okay.

[Speaker 7] (34:09 - 34:15)
So when we talk about the redevelopment of the NIN and the additional restaurants that are being added,

[Speaker 3] (34:15 - 34:15)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 7] (34:15 - 34:21)
will that potentially increase what our forecasting is for 28?

[Speaker 1] (34:21 - 34:22)
For 28.

[Speaker 1] (34:23 - 34:32)
Yeah, I think that's worth a conversation. There's, you know, new housing units coming online. Eventually that will bring people that will spend money at these places that are adjacent,

[Speaker 1] (34:32 - 34:33)
so.

[Speaker 1] (34:34 - 34:34)
That'll be a conversation.

[Speaker 4] (34:35 - 34:38)
But that would be reoccurring, not a permanent.

[Speaker 4] (34:38 - 34:47)
The one problem we've had in the past was using money that was not reoccurring and then baking that into our operating budget.

[Speaker 4] (34:47 - 34:50)
We've got to be very, very careful not to ever do that again.

[Speaker 4] (34:50 - 34:50)
So

[Speaker 1] (34:50 - 34:51)
Right. And we haven't here,

[Speaker 1] (34:52 - 34:54)
and that's why we're getting one-time money and it's showing.

[Speaker 1] (34:55 - 34:57)
As a positive variance, right? It's going to help

[Speaker 4] (34:57 - 34:57)
our Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 1] (34:57 - 34:59)
free cash, things like that.

[Speaker 1] (35:00 - 35:03)
So we're at that is in line with what what the practice is here.

[Speaker 3] (35:03 - 35:03)
And I think

[Speaker 7] (35:03 - 35:03)
I meant

[Speaker 3] (35:03 - 35:03)
to your

[Speaker 7] (35:03 - 35:04)
more,

[Speaker 3] (35:04 - 35:05)
point, we would o you mean restaurant tax?

[Speaker 7] (35:05 - 35:07)
Yeah, I mean more meals and

[Speaker 3] (35:07 - 35:07)
Yep.

[Speaker 7] (35:07 - 35:07)
beverage.

[Speaker 3] (35:07 - 35:08)
Right.

[Speaker 4] (35:08 - 35:09)
Yeah, that would be re

[Speaker 7] (35:09 - 35:09)
Yeah,

[Speaker 4] (35:09 - 35:09)
and you

[Speaker 7] (35:09 - 35:09)
that's

[Speaker 4] (35:09 - 35:09)
could bake

[Speaker 7] (35:09 - 35:09)
reoccurring.

[Speaker 4] (35:09 - 35:10)
you could you could bake that in

[Speaker 7] (35:10 - 35:11)
to

[Speaker 4] (35:11 - 35:11)
as

[Speaker 7] (35:11 - 35:11)
an estimate,

[Speaker 4] (35:11 - 35:11)
yeah.

[Speaker 7] (35:11 - 35:15)
because there are m now more restaurants therefore you would assume the percentage would

[Speaker 3] (35:15 - 35:15)
And you

[Speaker 7] (35:15 - 35:15)
increase.

[Speaker 3] (35:15 - 35:18)
I just want to highlight near one of something being open, we would

[Speaker 7] (35:18 - 35:18)
Yeah.

[Speaker 3] (35:18 - 35:20)
conservatively estimate and then

[Speaker 3] (35:20 - 35:22)
and have more information after a year of like something

[Speaker 7] (35:22 - 35:22)
Right.

[Speaker 3] (35:22 - 35:25)
like Sam Walker's as opposed to thinking it's gonna be

[Speaker 7] (35:25 - 35:26)
I have to think we're getting more

[Speaker 3] (35:26 - 35:26)
like big

[Speaker 7] (35:26 - 35:26)
than that.

[Speaker 3] (35:26 - 35:27)
hit no matter what.

[Speaker 7] (35:27 - 35:27)
And we

[Speaker 3] (35:27 - 35:27)
We

[Speaker 7] (35:27 - 35:28)
weren't.

[Speaker 3] (35:28 - 35:28)
want to

[Speaker 7] (35:28 - 35:28)
We're

[Speaker 3] (35:28 - 35:28)
guesstimate,

[Speaker 7] (35:28 - 35:28)
being cheap.

[Speaker 3] (35:28 - 35:35)
well conservatively estimate it having a new location, looking at what we have, and that way we're not planning for something that doesn't exist.

[Speaker 4] (35:35 - 35:42)
But we never know who's actually contributing to that extra addition because the state doesn't release that,

[Speaker 4] (35:43 - 35:43)
right? That's.

[Speaker 1] (35:44 - 35:46)
We don't get breakdown by establishment for

[Speaker 4] (35:46 - 35:46)
Right.

[Speaker 1] (35:46 - 35:48)
our meals or rooms tax because

[Speaker 4] (35:48 - 35:48)
Right.

[Speaker 1] (35:48 - 35:51)
of taxpayer privacy laws. The state doesn't provide that to us.

[Speaker 4] (35:51 - 35:52)
Proprietary info.

[Speaker 1] (35:52 - 35:54)
So yeah. So you have to do some deductive

[Speaker 4] (35:54 - 35:54)
So we have to,

[Speaker 1] (35:54 - 35:54)
reasoning.

[Speaker 4] (35:54 - 35:55)
we have to guess.

[Speaker 7] (35:55 - 35:56)
Yeah. Yeah,

[Speaker 1] (35:56 - 35:56)
Yeah.

[Speaker 3] (35:57 - 35:58)
Informed guesses.

[Speaker 7] (35:58 - 36:00)
they're, they're educated guesses.

[Speaker 1] (36:00 - 36:00)
Yeah.

[Speaker 4] (36:01 - 36:05)
Patrick, can you speak to the decrease in rentals and what that is comprised of?

[Speaker 1] (36:05 - 36:12)
Yep, so that's primarily due to the changeover from Cataldo to Beauport.

[Speaker 4] (36:13 - 36:13)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (36:13 - 36:15)
The rental agreement is different,

[Speaker 1] (36:15 - 36:25)
so there's, you know, a few months where there was less rent or no rent because there's a provision where they can make improvements and that counts towards their rent. So that's a piece of that.

[Speaker 1] (36:25 - 36:26)
gotten.

[Speaker 1] (36:26 - 36:37)
Um there's also a cell tower lease that it looks like they're late on a payment. So I have them being followed up on now. So we will see that money come in to twenty seven instead of twenty six, which is a timing

[Speaker 4] (36:37 - 36:38)
Great.

[Speaker 1] (36:38 - 36:40)
timing issue. Okay.

[Speaker 4] (36:40 - 36:40)
Thank you.

[Speaker 1] (36:40 - 36:41)
Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (36:48 - 36:57)
On the expenditure side, this just breaks down at a high level, you know, by function of government, the variance to budget. It's not really a useful chart,

[Speaker 1] (36:57 - 36:59)
to be honest, because everything was very close.

[Speaker 1] (36:59 - 37:04)
But if we go to the next slide, Nick, there's some more detail that we can talk about.

[Speaker 1] (37:06 - 37:14)
So I mentioned at the beginning there were some savings from several vacancies. Those are broken down kind of on the right by department,

[Speaker 1] (37:14 - 37:15)
accounting,

[Speaker 1] (37:15 - 37:19)
assessing, treasury were savings, and then there were

[Speaker 1] (37:20 - 37:45)
hires and building, um savings from health, public health nurse position changed, um recreation we spent more on lifeguards this year which I talked about um when we did the sh the year-end shuffle in j in July and um obviously the police and fire expenditures from the new police CBA and the um fire overtime costs which I also talked about when we did the year-end transfers. Snow and ice that was

[Speaker 1] (37:45 - 37:55)
Nearly $200,000 over budget. It was a very heavy snow year, so that's equipment, that's removal costs for the labor involved with plowing.

[Speaker 1] (37:55 - 38:00)
Town Council exceeded budget by 10%, $22,000.

[Speaker 1] (38:00 - 38:03)
And then we had some larger savings from health insurance,

[Speaker 1] (38:03 - 38:08)
almost $300,000, and some additional expenditures in payroll tax and unemployment.

[Speaker 1] (38:10 - 38:20)
And again, the the state assessments did um come in less than estimates at budget time due to changes in the the charter schools sending tuition based on in enrollment.

[Speaker 4] (38:22 - 38:28)
When we did the shuffle, we had to shuffle money because the fire department was once again over on overtime,

[Speaker 4] (38:29 - 38:31)
but the police department wasn't, correct?

[Speaker 1] (38:31 - 38:32)
Correct.

[Speaker 4] (38:32 - 38:33)
So

[Speaker 4] (38:34 - 38:36)
but the police department was over on their budget?

[Speaker 1] (38:37 - 38:45)
So from original budget, right, versus the amended budget with the transfers we did at town meeting for the new collective bargaining agreement,

[Speaker 4] (38:45 - 38:46)
Okay, I'm good with

[Speaker 1] (38:46 - 38:46)
that's

[Speaker 4] (38:46 - 38:46)
that.

[Speaker 1] (38:46 - 38:47)
the difference. We

[Speaker 4] (38:47 - 38:47)
That's

[Speaker 1] (38:47 - 38:47)
did transfer

[Speaker 4] (38:47 - 38:47)
great.

[Speaker 1] (38:47 - 38:50)
money into their budget at town meeting, so we should be factoring that in too.

[Speaker 4] (38:50 - 38:51)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 4] (38:51 - 38:55)
So they really weren't over their budget until we did the new

[Speaker 1] (38:55 - 38:55)
Until we

[Speaker 4] (38:55 - 38:55)
CBA.

[Speaker 1] (38:55 - 38:56)
passed the CBA.

[Speaker 4] (38:56 - 38:56)
Right.

[Speaker 4] (38:56 - 38:57)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 1] (38:57 - 38:57)
Yes.

[Speaker 7] (38:58 - 39:03)
We're so nice. I know that it's the only line that can run in deficit.

[Speaker 1] (39:04 - 39:04)
Yes.

[Speaker 7] (39:04 - 39:08)
Like, so I feel like it maybe gets used a little bit.

[Speaker 7] (39:09 - 39:25)
less judiciously like that it could it's sometimes the first to decrease because we have the ability to let it run in deficit so are we being more thoughtful about how we're factoring it for future years I think because this is a I mean yes we can't control the weather and we're not the almanac but

[Speaker 1] (39:26 - 39:34)
Yeah, I think to your point, right, there's a certain statute or regulation from DOR that says we can overextend our snow and ice budget so long as we have

[Speaker 1] (39:34 - 39:36)
We have not reduced the budget from what it was the prior year for

[Speaker 7] (39:36 - 39:37)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (39:37 - 39:37)
26.

[Speaker 1] (39:37 - 39:44)
We did reduce the budget as part of our cuts that were made so we are not legally allowed to overspend that.

[Speaker 2] (39:48 - 39:48)
Yep.

[Speaker 1] (39:48 - 39:49)
balance the budget.

[Speaker 1] (39:49 - 39:51)
If we didn't have tailings other places,

[Speaker 1] (39:51 - 39:55)
we would have an issue and have to fund that a different way.

[Speaker 1] (39:55 - 39:57)
So yeah,

[Speaker 1] (39:57 - 39:59)
to your point, I think going forward we need to.

[Speaker 1] (40:00 - 40:05)
look more closely at that budget when building our budgets and make sure it's

[Speaker 3] (40:05 - 40:06)
I just don't want to be

[Speaker 1] (40:06 - 40:08)
reflective of reality and not too wishful, right?

[Speaker 3] (40:08 - 40:13)
Yes, yep. I think Gino's the first to raise a hand sometimes, and we just want to be thoughtful about that.

[Speaker 4] (40:13 - 40:16)
During this d during this budget season at what point did you freeze the budget?

[Speaker 1] (40:17 - 40:19)
We froze the budget in March.

[Speaker 1] (40:25 - 40:28)
Any other questions on this slide before we move on?

[Speaker 1] (40:29 - 40:30)
Hearing none.

[Speaker 1] (40:34 - 40:38)
So this slide here summarizes our main reserves.

[Speaker 1] (40:38 - 40:44)
So stabilization and capital stabilization are within policy.

[Speaker 1] (40:44 - 40:47)
Stabilization is actually slightly above policy.

[Speaker 1] (40:49 - 40:50)
The ranges are listed there.

[Speaker 1] (40:51 - 40:52)
Free cash,

[Speaker 1] (40:52 - 40:56)
that's not an up-to-date number in terms of what our new certification is. We don't have that yet.

[Speaker 1] (40:57 - 41:05)
But that is reflective of what was unexpended at the end of FY26 after all of our appropriations at town meeting.

[Speaker 4] (41:11 - 41:14)
So stabilization available above,

[Speaker 4] (41:14 - 41:15)
we have over half a million.

[Speaker 4] (41:16 - 41:18)
Available above

[Speaker 1] (41:19 - 41:23)
Correct. So the high end of the range is 10% of operating budget.

[Speaker 4] (41:23 - 41:23)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (41:26 - 41:28)
That was as of June 30th.

[Speaker 1] (41:32 - 41:33)
Any questions on this slide?

[Speaker 1] (41:38 - 41:43)
The next few slides summarize the enterprise fund operating results.

[Speaker 1] (41:44 - 42:01)
Sewer fund had a favourable result actual revenue versus estimate, um so revenues exceeded estimates by ten percent. That was by design, we passed certain rates last year with the intention of replenishing those funds to a certain level.

[Speaker 1] (42:02 - 42:08)
Um so that that became reality here. Um so I've referenced that.

[Speaker 1] (42:08 - 42:17)
Um, expenditures, the uh personnel expenditures were right right on target and the operating expenditures were sli slightly under budget, two percent.

[Speaker 5] (42:19 - 42:19)
Hmm.

[Speaker 1] (42:19 - 42:22)
And this is for the sewer fund. If you go to the next slide, Nick.

[Speaker 5] (42:22 - 42:23)
So can I ask a

[Speaker 1] (42:23 - 42:23)
Yep, go

[Speaker 5] (42:23 - 42:23)
question?

[Speaker 1] (42:23 - 42:23)
ahead.

[Speaker 5] (42:23 - 42:30)
The last I think in your last presentation I had asked you uh a follow-up question regarding the amount of

[Speaker 5] (42:32 - 42:40)
The difference between the water consumption and the sewer consumption outflow to the water and sewer and to ask how much that was actually costing us.

[Speaker 1] (42:40 - 42:42)
Yes, I don't have that tonight. I apologize.

[Speaker 5] (42:42 - 42:42)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (42:42 - 42:49)
I will get that to you. It's basically you're asking for a quantity of unaccounted for water and estimate of what that

[Speaker 5] (42:49 - 42:49)
And

[Speaker 1] (42:49 - 42:50)
costs

[Speaker 5] (42:50 - 42:50)
what that cost was.

[Speaker 1] (42:50 - 42:52)
in terms of the assessments.

[Speaker 1] (42:52 - 42:52)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (42:53 - 42:54)
Just making sure I had that right.

[Speaker 1] (42:57 - 42:58)
Water fund.

[Speaker 1] (42:59 - 43:05)
Similar, we passed a certain rate expecting a positive revenue result that would replenish this fund,

[Speaker 1] (43:05 - 43:06)
replenish our retained earnings.

[Speaker 1] (43:07 - 43:08)
So that was realized,

[Speaker 1] (43:08 - 43:12)
revenues exceeded estimates by about 19%.

[Speaker 1] (43:13 - 43:15)
Expenditures, we had some savings in personnel,

[Speaker 1] (43:16 - 43:19)
we had a few retirements, and we hired at a lower level coming in,

[Speaker 1] (43:19 - 43:24)
and operating expenditures also came in slightly under budget, 5%.

[Speaker 5] (43:27 - 43:29)
And this all accounts for new water meters,

[Speaker 5] (43:30 - 43:30)
all that.

[Speaker 5] (43:30 - 43:32)
Does that go into that fund or is that a separate

[Speaker 1] (43:32 - 43:36)
So any capital projects approved for water or sewer operations,

[Speaker 1] (43:36 - 43:40)
the associated debt service is paid out of these budgets.

[Speaker 1] (43:40 - 43:41)
Yes.

[Speaker 1] (43:50 - 44:12)
PEG operations, which are which is our cable access team, um they had some favourable revenue, um the revenue comes from a surcharge on cable bills from Verizon and Comcast primarily, and that's uh nine percent uh positive variance to estimate expenditures, um personnel was slightly under budget, almost five percent.

[Speaker 1] (44:12 - 44:29)
Operating expenditures were right on target. They did use retained earnings to fund a portion of their budget previously. They're not doing that in FY27 in our current year, uh because they're not expecting their retained earnings to, you know, sustain that. Um so they used that money for some one time expenditures.

[Speaker 4] (44:31 - 44:31)
But is there regular

[Speaker 1] (44:31 - 44:32)
Twenty six.

[Speaker 4] (44:32 - 44:35)
going down each year because of people

[Speaker 4] (44:36 - 44:37)
Not using cable?

[Speaker 1] (44:37 - 44:38)
So

[Speaker 4] (44:38 - 44:38)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (44:38 - 44:39)
it's it's you might have cut

[Speaker 7] (44:39 - 44:39)
Go

[Speaker 1] (44:39 - 44:39)
me

[Speaker 7] (44:39 - 44:40)
ahead. I'm

[Speaker 1] (44:40 - 44:40)
okay

[Speaker 7] (44:40 - 44:40)
jumping

[Speaker 1] (44:40 - 44:40)
yeah

[Speaker 7] (44:40 - 44:41)
after you.

[Speaker 1] (44:41 - 45:02)
so revenue is tied by to subscribers so if you have a declining number of subscribers that hurts revenue it's also tied to how we are negotiating our license agreements for Verizon and Comcast because that surcharge and other items related to pay guard defined in there so if you have declining subscribers but an increased surcharge for example that could

[Speaker 1] (45:02 - 45:10)
negate each other. But generally if the agreement is not changing then their revenue is declining slightly each year, yes.

[Speaker 8] (45:11 - 45:28)
And the engagement with uh that we voted on three weeks ago I guess now was to enter and begin the negotiations with special counsel Bill August, which was part of the I wanna say it's part of the consent agenda the last meeting I was at. So

[Speaker 8] (45:29 - 45:32)
That process would be get Xfinity and a new contractor,

[Speaker 8] (45:32 - 45:36)
Comcast. It talks about both capital and what their capital

[Speaker 8] (45:38 - 45:40)
and what their, sorry,

[Speaker 8] (45:40 - 45:40)
their

[Speaker 3] (45:40 - 45:41)
They were

[Speaker 8] (45:41 - 45:41)
fees.

[Speaker 3] (45:41 - 45:42)
contracting you.

[Speaker 8] (45:42 - 45:47)
And so, and then Verizon is next year. So they are very closely tied together. They,

[Speaker 8] (45:47 - 45:48)
in some communities,

[Speaker 8] (45:48 - 45:49)
and I haven't looked at Verizon,

[Speaker 8] (45:49 - 45:51)
so I've seen Comcast in some communities,

[Speaker 8] (45:51 - 45:54)
the one that goes second will actually ask that.

[Speaker 8] (45:54 - 46:00)
You know, there's like a re-opener if there's a favourable change with the other contract,

[Speaker 3] (46:00 - 46:00)
Mm.

[Speaker 8] (46:00 - 46:20)
that type of thing. So we're entering into those negotiations, we'll have more information, but it is generally declining, their capital um contributions to communities and some communities are taking PEG in-house, others are doing it as a really robust non-profit. These are all parts of future discussions. The but state legislature has also

[Speaker 8] (46:20 - 46:35)
for I think three terms or three sessions had something in there to talk about cord cutters. And it dies in the legislature every time. But the idea would be that there is still some cost to just having internet service that would go to support community access.

[Speaker 8] (46:36 - 46:38)
But right now it's only tied to cable.

[Speaker 8] (46:38 - 46:42)
So that's with cable use going down, revenue goes down, the

[Speaker 8] (46:43 - 46:50)
Folks that deliver that service, RCN, Comcast, Verizon all want to negotiate contracts that are more favourable to them because their subscriber base is going down.

[Speaker 9] (46:51 - 46:51)
Hmm.

[Speaker 4] (46:52 - 47:01)
So that means everybody who's using cable is really subsidising this, and the rest of the people that are just streaming get a free ride.

[Speaker 8] (47:04 - 47:04)
I mean

[Speaker 8] (47:05 - 47:05)
I

[Speaker 4] (47:05 - 47:06)
Yes.

[Speaker 8] (47:06 - 47:08)
suppose, but at the same time streaming the

[Speaker 3] (47:08 - 47:09)
It's like

[Speaker 8] (47:09 - 47:09)
folks that are streaming

[Speaker 3] (47:09 - 47:10)
opinion,

[Speaker 8] (47:10 - 47:10)
the folks

[Speaker 3] (47:10 - 47:10)
Mariel.

[Speaker 8] (47:10 - 47:11)
that are streaming don't

[Speaker 4] (47:11 - 47:11)
That's

[Speaker 8] (47:11 - 47:11)
have access

[Speaker 4] (47:11 - 47:11)
right.

[Speaker 8] (47:11 - 47:16)
to cable access without going through the internet. So they don't have access to those stations.

[Speaker 8] (47:16 - 47:18)
If you do YouTube TV or something you don't

[Speaker 8] (47:18 - 47:21)
Get access to local cable, Well, cable access and peg.

[Speaker 5] (47:21 - 47:22)
we we

[Speaker 8] (47:22 - 47:22)
You have we to do it on

[Speaker 5] (47:22 - 47:22)
do

[Speaker 8] (47:22 - 47:22)
your do

[Speaker 5] (47:22 - 47:23)
broadcast

[Speaker 8] (47:23 - 47:23)
through cable

[Speaker 5] (47:23 - 47:23)
on yeah

[Speaker 8] (47:23 - 47:30)
cast. Yeah, I'm just saying it's not it's another step you're taking in order to try to access that content.

[Speaker 4] (47:30 - 47:30)
Got it.

[Speaker 8] (47:30 - 47:32)
And you don't get like the continuous,

[Speaker 8] (47:32 - 47:39)
like go to station I don't I honestly don't know what it is in town, but station 13 and it's constantly running meetings and

[Speaker 8] (47:40 - 47:41)
events and you know content

[Speaker 5] (47:41 - 47:42)
So

[Speaker 8] (47:42 - 47:42)
that's

[Speaker 5] (47:42 - 47:42)
in

[Speaker 8] (47:42 - 47:43)
created so

[Speaker 5] (47:43 - 48:02)
talking with Joe a couple of months ago, he had made an interesting comment that I just am kind of thinking about now that they weren't, and maybe he can speak to it if he's still around here, that they weren't able to get high definition on certain channels or they were limited and I thought that was kind of absurd in 2026.

[Speaker 8] (48:03 - 48:06)
So if we ask for something new like that we would

[Speaker 5] (48:07 - 48:08)
Okay.

[Speaker 8] (48:08 - 48:15)
Very likely in the course of the negotiation be told that your financial contribution from the providers will be lower because they're now going to provide

[Speaker 8] (48:16 - 48:18)
high definition bandwidth that we don't have right now.

[Speaker 8] (48:19 - 48:31)
So necessarily handcuffs Joe and what money he has to spend to support if we're asking for that in pr as part of the it's a it's a give and a take like anything else in a negotiation.

[Speaker 8] (48:32 - 48:45)
I suppose so, but you know the cost of them, if you asked this fifteen years ago it was a different story, right? If you ask it now, the ability to provide that band-width is is is pennies, right? So I d I'm just trying to understand why

[Speaker 8] (48:47 - 48:47)
it's

[Speaker 8] (48:48 - 49:00)
I guess I don't want to become a true negotiating point of a give or take, like you're giving giving it away. But I would just want you to keep that in mind that it seems kind of antiquated.

[Speaker 1] (49:00 - 49:00)
Waited.

[Speaker 8] (49:00 - 49:13)
Yeah, that um we would still be giving, you know, standard definition. And this is more along the lines of them trying to, you know, televise the sports games and and I was just noticing I was in I was in there

[Speaker 5] (49:13 - 49:22)
Or their awesome studio, which is incredible. Um I was just kind of uh stymied on the fact that they still didn't have H_D_ So

[Speaker 8] (49:23 - 49:31)
Yeah, the conversations that council will represent us in and that we will have with him as he prepares will not be me alone. It will be Joe and anyone else he wants from his team,

[Speaker 5] (49:31 - 49:31)
Okay.

[Speaker 8] (49:31 - 49:39)
so absolutely worth including. It's asking for more will be like okay we will, but then we have to give you less somewhere else.

[Speaker 2] (49:43 - 49:45)
Really? Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (49:45 - 49:51)
because they have a declining subscriber base, they are also very sensitive to any changes in what they offer to us.

[Speaker 3] (49:55 - 49:55)
Okay.

[Speaker 4] (49:59 - 50:02)
So our fourth and final enterprise fund is the Solid Waste Fund.

[Speaker 4] (50:03 - 50:20)
This fund is subsidized by the tax levy and local receipts pretty heavily so that that's the primary revenue source and there's some in 26 there were charges from overflow bags and bulk items stickers and things like that.

[Speaker 4] (50:21 - 50:37)
funded this as well. Those types of receipts uh were estimated at a hundred and seventy seven thousand dollars and they came in at a hundred and fifty four so we saw um a negative result in the revenues for this fund of about twenty three thousand dollars.

[Speaker 4] (50:37 - 50:54)
Um on the expenditure side we saw um you know eighty one thousand dollar budget savings primarily due to uh those those related to the strike and the fact that we uh altered our um payments to them based on the service we were receiving so.

[Speaker 4] (50:59 - 51:01)
The solid waste fund any questions?

[Speaker 4] (51:02 - 51:02)
Okay.

[Speaker 4] (51:03 - 51:05)
Next slide, retained earnings.

[Speaker 4] (51:05 - 51:09)
So we have a policy, financial policy,

[Speaker 4] (51:09 - 51:13)
we maintain 20% of budget in retained earnings for the sewer and the water fund.

[Speaker 4] (51:16 - 51:24)
We are estimated to be certified well above that based on the rates that were passed and the positive revenue results we saw this year.

[Speaker 4] (51:25 - 51:27)
And for PEG and solid waste,

[Speaker 4] (51:27 - 51:28)
I put an estimate as well.

[Speaker 4] (51:29 - 51:35)
that balance, which is positive. So any questions?

[Speaker 2] (51:35 - 51:39)
Yeah, just just a quick question. I'm gonna go back to the sewer and water fund

[Speaker 4] (51:39 - 51:39)
Okay.

[Speaker 2] (51:39 - 51:41)
because they're so capital intensive intensive

[Speaker 2] (51:42 - 51:43)
Do you ever?

[Speaker 2] (51:44 - 51:49)
break out what that as a line item as to what out of that the expenditures is capital debt

[Speaker 4] (51:50 - 51:52)
Yeah, that's itemized in the annual budget.

[Speaker 2] (51:53 - 51:54)
Yeah, but I'm just saying at a year end.

[Speaker 4] (51:54 - 51:56)
Year-end reporting, yeah.

[Speaker 2] (51:56 - 52:02)
Yeah, because I mean I see on the graph here, which you have, you know, water revenue versus water expenditures and that difference,

[Speaker 2] (52:02 - 52:05)
I'm trying to understand is that from debt service?

[Speaker 1] (52:06 - 52:08)
Or, Right. Is that yeah,

[Speaker 1] (52:08 - 52:08)
okay.

[Speaker 4] (52:08 - 52:20)
Right. So I can I will circulate the year-end financial report that has all the line items from town meeting with the board and the Finance Committee for you to look. It'll answer your question basically.

[Speaker 5] (52:22 - 52:44)
I just want to make one point on the water and sewer. I brought this up at the last time we had a meeting. I just want to take at some point I want to review the the process and how we charge people because you know I I'm not really sure I'm a big fan on the tier system and I really feel like we should be charging for water use and

[Speaker 2] (52:44 - 52:44)
Mm.

[Speaker 5] (52:44 - 52:53)
Are we charging for water use or the way we split it up, is that really the best equitable way for how people are paying? I'm not looking

[Speaker 2] (52:53 - 52:53)
for Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 5] (52:53 - 52:54)
an answer tonight,

[Speaker 5] (52:54 - 53:00)
I just wanna at some point, maybe early spring or whatever, we're just revisiting that.

[Speaker 4] (53:00 - 53:00)
Sure.

[Speaker 2] (53:00 - 53:01)
Right.

[Speaker 5] (53:01 - 53:02)
Especially for, you know,

[Speaker 5] (53:02 - 53:11)
for the people, for some of the on businesses that use water for um but mostly the condominiums.

[Speaker 5] (53:12 - 53:17)
You know how they how they have it broke down to make sure that it's just equitable for them

[Speaker 4] (53:17 - 53:20)
Sure. I think when we get to the transitional audit,

[Speaker 4] (53:20 - 53:22)
there's a comment in there, or a response rather,

[Speaker 4] (53:22 - 53:22)
that

[Speaker 5] (53:22 - 53:23)
Okay

[Speaker 4] (53:23 - 53:24)
would address that.

[Speaker 4] (53:27 - 53:28)
Development funds,

[Speaker 4] (53:28 - 53:29)
if you want to move on.

[Speaker 4] (53:31 - 53:35)
So this slide here summarizes our revolving fund activity for the year.

[Speaker 4] (53:35 - 53:38)
General government has seven revolving funds.

[Speaker 4] (53:38 - 53:43)
They have annual spending limits that are approved by town meeting and included in our bylaws.

[Speaker 4] (53:43 - 53:49)
So I've put the revenue and expenditures here and the ending fund balance as of June 30th.

[Speaker 4] (53:50 - 53:56)
Overall, we generally saw positive results across the funds. They're obviously intended to be self-sustaining.

[Speaker 4] (53:57 - 53:59)
The largest fund is the Rec Revolving Fund.

[Speaker 4] (53:59 - 54:00)
The

[Speaker 4] (54:01 - 54:19)
Uh spending limit was increased to six hundred and fifty thousand dollars for twenty six by vote of this board and the Finance Committee and they had uh favourable result of almost seventy thousand dollars. So revenues exceeded estimates um that's based on their growth and the I would say the additional programming they're bringing online.

[Speaker 4] (54:20 - 54:21)
Um so that was something that

[Speaker 4] (54:22 - 54:25)
We were pleased to see, and I wanted to just call that out,

[Speaker 4] (54:25 - 54:47)
on a smaller scale, the field maintenance revolving fund had a lot more activity this year than it usually does in terms of revenue and expense. I think that's related to use and the fees that we're collecting, and obviously the light usage of the fields is billed back out to those people, and we have to pay those costs out of the fund, so the fund did go slightly over its spending limit we found.

[Speaker 4] (54:47 - 54:56)
found at the end of the year, and so we'll be looking to increase the spending limit in that fund for FY27 to accommodate the additional use and expenditure.

[Speaker 7] (54:57 - 55:04)
So when a program uses the lights, for example, at the field, they pay

[Speaker 7] (55:05 - 55:11)
Where does the money get paid and how I know it gets paid out of this fund, but it gets reimbursed to this fund too right through the payment a

[Speaker 4] (55:11 - 55:11)
Back to portion their jobs.

[Speaker 7] (55:11 - 55:12)
of the payment goes in here.

[Speaker 4] (55:12 - 55:12)
DPW

[Speaker 7] (55:12 - 55:13)
Okay,

[Speaker 7] (55:13 - 55:13)
got

[Speaker 4] (55:13 - 55:13)
gives

[Speaker 7] (55:13 - 55:14)
it

[Speaker 4] (55:14 - 55:14)
them.

[Speaker 4] (55:14 - 55:14)
Yep.

[Speaker 7] (55:14 - 55:17)
So are we charging the right amount then?

[Speaker 4] (55:18 - 55:20)
Yes, I think we are.

[Speaker 4] (55:21 - 55:30)
And I think that the spending limit needs to be increased. There were also a few smaller field maintenance items that were paid for this year that contributed to the expenditure as well.

[Speaker 4] (55:30 - 55:30)
So that

[Speaker 7] (55:30 - 55:32)
And then is the payment for Clark,

[Speaker 7] (55:32 - 55:34)
to the school, come out of the revolving?

[Speaker 4] (55:35 - 55:37)
comes out of the recreation revolving fund, yes.

[Speaker 7] (55:37 - 55:38)
Okay.

[Speaker 4] (55:38 - 55:41)
So that's included in what you're seeing for expenditures.

[Speaker 7] (55:41 - 55:42)
Yep.

[Speaker 5] (55:42 - 55:44)
On the revolving...

[Speaker 5] (55:44 - 56:02)
A few months ago when you were doing another presentation we had asked for questions about paying for the fireworks and lifeguards out of the revolving account, and you were gonna go and double-check the mass general laws on that. So can you just look into that and get back to us at a later date? Thanks.

[Speaker 2] (56:02 - 56:02)
Well

[Speaker 2] (56:03 - 56:04)
Um question.

[Speaker 7] (56:04 - 56:07)
Sorry, one follow-up to the clerk. The utility is also

[Speaker 7] (56:08 - 56:13)
Are they paid by us or they're included in the MOU, right? So we, Charlotte has to pay for them.

[Speaker 4] (56:13 - 56:14)
Gas and electric are

[Speaker 7] (56:14 - 56:14)
Okay.

[Speaker 4] (56:14 - 56:16)
coming out of the REC revolving fund.

[Speaker 7] (56:16 - 56:16)
Okay.

[Speaker 4] (56:16 - 56:17)
Yes.

[Speaker 5] (56:17 - 56:21)
Um what about any maintenance or anything like that towards Clark? Is that coming out

[Speaker 4] (56:21 - 56:21)
Uh,

[Speaker 5] (56:21 - 56:21)
of there?

[Speaker 4] (56:21 - 56:23)
custodial yes is also coming out.

[Speaker 8] (56:25 - 56:28)
Several clarifications. When we say Council on Aging, are we talking about the Senior Center?

[Speaker 4] (56:29 - 56:37)
Yes, so the Senior Centre has a revolving fund for programmes. So voluntary participation, maybe a small fee for a particular programme, so people will pay that.

[Speaker 8] (56:37 - 56:44)
Just for clarification also I see an fund balance of six thirty twenty five. Does that mean six thirty twenty six?

[Speaker 4] (56:45 - 56:46)
Yes. Thank you.

[Speaker 8] (56:46 - 56:53)
No problem. And then under the recycling part I notice you have a note here that talks about rescinding it for FY twenty seven.

[Speaker 4] (56:53 - 56:53)
Yep.

[Speaker 8] (56:53 - 56:55)
I mean effectively I didn't even

[Speaker 8] (56:56 - 57:00)
I never noticed it before, frankly, because since we've had the enterprise fund,

[Speaker 8] (57:01 - 57:02)
for now four-ish years.

[Speaker 8] (57:03 - 57:05)
Is there still a need for the recycling fund?

[Speaker 4] (57:06 - 57:10)
So that was set up years ago when the town was issuing the, you know, the small

[Speaker 5] (57:10 - 57:10)
Rubbermaid

[Speaker 4] (57:10 - 57:10)
rectangular barrels.

[Speaker 5] (57:10 - 57:11)
the barrels.

[Speaker 2] (57:11 - 57:11)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 7] (57:11 - 57:11)
Yeah?

[Speaker 4] (57:11 - 57:13)
People would pay the fee for that.

[Speaker 4] (57:14 - 57:16)
That's not been the case for as long as I can remember.

[Speaker 7] (57:16 - 57:17)
Mm-mm.

[Speaker 4] (57:17 - 57:22)
There's no activity in the fund, so it should just be closed. There's $3,800 in there which would go to free cash.

[Speaker 8] (57:22 - 57:23)
Okay, thank you.

[Speaker 4] (57:23 - 57:24)
Yep.

[Speaker 7] (57:29 - 57:31)
increase Andrew's chapel limit also?

[Speaker 7] (57:31 - 57:33)
We didn't do that recently?

[Speaker 7] (57:33 - 57:34)
Andrew's chapel revolving?

[Speaker 7] (57:34 - 57:35)
Maybe that was a couple

[Speaker 4] (57:35 - 57:35)
That

[Speaker 7] (57:35 - 57:36)
years ago.

[Speaker 4] (57:36 - 57:37)
might be the increased limit.

[Speaker 7] (57:37 - 57:38)
That is okay.

[Speaker 7] (57:38 - 57:42)
I thought I remember talking about it. I'm sorry if it was not this year.

[Speaker 5] (57:42 - 57:45)
I just have one budget question.

[Speaker 5] (57:45 - 57:49)
How much has the school returned any money from their budget?

[Speaker 4] (57:50 - 57:52)
So on the expenditure side,

[Speaker 4] (57:52 - 57:54)
there was a line item for education.

[Speaker 4] (57:56 - 58:04)
As of the date of this presentation, it's seventy six thousand dollars being returned to the general fund, or unexpended budget, yeah.

[Speaker 5] (58:07 - 58:08)
Hello.

[Speaker 7] (58:08 - 58:14)
This school is going to present, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, Nick, at their September

[Speaker 1] (58:14 - 58:15)
The second meeting.

[Speaker 7] (58:15 - 58:18)
the second meeting in September, they'll present their year end.

[Speaker 4] (58:18 - 58:19)
Yes.

[Speaker 7] (58:20 - 58:27)
If you're interested, in a more detailed explanation, and then we can get maybe that presentation can be shared to the board after it's made public, that would be great.

[Speaker 4] (58:31 - 58:32)
Slide.

[Speaker 4] (58:33 - 58:38)
Okay. Um so this slide is a little different. Um there are two

[Speaker 4] (58:40 - 58:46)
account deficits that exist as of June thirtieth that need to be addressed in FY twenty seven.

[Speaker 4] (58:47 - 58:50)
So they're very different. So I'll talk about them separately.

[Speaker 4] (58:51 - 59:03)
Overlay, if you're not familiar with that account, that is money that is added to the tax levy each year to fund abatements. So if you file an abatement for your property tax,

[Speaker 4] (59:03 - 59:05)
the assessors determine it was overvalued,

[Speaker 4] (59:06 - 59:08)
you would get a reduction to your tax,

[Speaker 4] (59:08 - 59:11)
and the difference would come out of this fund so we don't have a hole in our revenue.

[Speaker 4] (59:12 - 59:34)
Um so as those there is also exemptions that people can apply for if you're a senior with certain uh qualifiers or if you have veteran status with certain qualifiers, you can apply for those and that is also funded out of this account. Um so this year there was a lot more activity in this account than last and we do have a deficit of three hundred

[Speaker 1] (59:37 - 59:41)
And I'll break down the activity and what changed,

[Speaker 1] (59:41 - 59:42)
but what that

[Speaker 1] (59:43 - 59:52)
There's two things that need to happen. First, that will reduce free cash certification by $371,000. And to resolve the balance,

[Speaker 1] (59:52 - 59:56)
we'll have to add that to our tax levy this year in FY27.

[Speaker 1] (59:57 - 1:00:01)
So that'll be an additional funding item that has to be addressed between now and when we set the tax rate.

[Speaker 1] (1:00:02 - 1:00:03)
And we could...

[Speaker 1] (1:00:04 - 1:00:12)
look at different opportunities to address that. If we we use free cash, that's an option. So we can talk about this further, but I wanted to flag it.

[Speaker 2] (1:00:13 - 1:00:14)
Why didn't we do it during the shuffle?

[Speaker 1] (1:00:17 - 1:00:24)
That's not this has to be voted by town meeting if we're going to use like a funding source, because it's not a budget item.

[Speaker 1] (1:00:25 - 1:00:26)
It's it's on the balance sheet.

[Speaker 3] (1:00:27 - 1:00:27)
One,

[Speaker 2] (1:00:27 - 1:00:27)
Got

[Speaker 1] (1:00:27 - 1:00:27)
So it's

[Speaker 2] (1:00:27 - 1:00:28)
it.

[Speaker 1] (1:00:28 - 1:00:31)
not an appropriation, so we can't use that process to do this.

[Speaker 2] (1:00:31 - 1:00:32)
It's on the It ballot

[Speaker 1] (1:00:32 - 1:00:32)
has

[Speaker 2] (1:00:32 - 1:00:32)
too.

[Speaker 1] (1:00:32 - 1:00:37)
to go to a town meeting or just get added to the levy, however that shakes out.

[Speaker 3] (1:00:37 - 1:00:39)
That includes senior work off?

[Speaker 1] (1:00:39 - 1:00:40)
It does.

[Speaker 3] (1:00:40 - 1:00:40)
It does.

[Speaker 4] (1:00:41 - 1:00:50)
How do we prevent this going forward and when did we know we were going to be in a deficit?

[Speaker 1] (1:00:51 - 1:00:53)
So the abatement season occurs,

[Speaker 1] (1:00:53 - 1:00:54)
it starts

[Speaker 1] (1:00:55 - 1:01:03)
January 1st applications are due February 1st and then they're reviewed by the board of assessors over a period of probably two months and

[Speaker 4] (1:01:03 - 1:01:03)
Yep.

[Speaker 1] (1:01:03 - 1:01:09)
decisions. The exemption applications are not due until April 1st.

[Speaker 4] (1:01:09 - 1:01:09)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:01:09 - 1:01:15)
So those come in later and so by June 3rd, we we knew before June 30th

[Speaker 4] (1:01:15 - 1:01:15)
Sure.

[Speaker 1] (1:01:15 - 1:01:22)
um that this would be an issue and the final number came, you know, as I was doing year-end.

[Speaker 1] (1:01:22 - 1:01:22)
And I

[Speaker 1] (1:01:22 - 1:01:33)
And I ha I do have a breakdown of uh the items that contributed to this 'cause there's one that's I would say abnormal and then other ones that are explainable and will probably mean we have to fund overlay more going forward.

[Speaker 4] (1:01:33 - 1:01:34)
Okay,

[Speaker 1] (1:01:34 - 1:01:34)
Okay?

[Speaker 4] (1:01:34 - 1:01:35)
great.

[Speaker 1] (1:01:35 - 1:01:43)
So I'll go with the an anomaly first. So there were two um two properties that

[Speaker 1] (1:01:43 - 1:01:46)
were assessed that should not have been,

[Speaker 1] (1:01:46 - 1:01:46)
right?

[Speaker 1] (1:01:46 - 1:01:50)
So they were redeveloped prior to FY26,

[Speaker 1] (1:01:50 - 1:01:54)
and there was a migration in the assessing system,

[Speaker 1] (1:01:54 - 1:01:58)
and these two properties came back on the tax roll and were assessed.

[Speaker 1] (1:01:59 - 1:02:04)
So that is one item that contributed to this that was $210,000.

[Speaker 5] (1:02:06 - 1:02:06)
Mm.

[Speaker 1] (1:02:06 - 1:02:07)
Okay.

[Speaker 2] (1:02:07 - 1:02:08)
Walk us through that one more time.

[Speaker 4] (1:02:08 - 1:02:09)
Yeah,

[Speaker 4] (1:02:09 - 1:02:09)
right.

[Speaker 1] (1:02:09 - 1:02:09)
I'm

[Speaker 4] (1:02:09 - 1:02:09)
Yeah.

[Speaker 2] (1:02:09 - 1:02:09)
I'm

[Speaker 1] (1:02:09 - 1:02:10)
happy

[Speaker 2] (1:02:10 - 1:02:10)
the one to that's

[Speaker 1] (1:02:10 - 1:02:10)
So

[Speaker 2] (1:02:10 - 1:02:11)
encouraged to say what?

[Speaker 1] (1:02:13 - 1:02:20)
the system that is used to maintain the assessing records by the assessor's office,

[Speaker 1] (1:02:20 - 1:02:23)
there was a migration or an upgrade,

[Speaker 1] (1:02:23 - 1:02:24)
right?

[Speaker 1] (1:02:25 - 1:02:29)
And we found after FY26 values were voted,

[Speaker 1] (1:02:29 - 1:02:29)
it...

[Speaker 1] (1:02:30 - 1:02:38)
became apparent that two of these properties that were assessed should not have been because they were redeveloped previously. So when you redevelop a property,

[Speaker 1] (1:02:39 - 1:02:41)
the original parcel is marked,

[Speaker 1] (1:02:41 - 1:02:44)
you know, inactive, and then you might have...

[Speaker 1] (1:02:44 - 1:02:50)
You know, multiple new parcels, for example, if something is redeveloped into multiple housing units and it was something else prior.

[Speaker 4] (1:02:50 - 1:02:52)
So they were wrongfully booked in the system,

[Speaker 1] (1:02:52 - 1:02:52)
Right.

[Speaker 4] (1:02:52 - 1:02:56)
which caused an increase of 110K in the assessment, I'm

[Speaker 2] (1:02:56 - 1:02:57)
I'm still going

[Speaker 4] (1:02:57 - 1:02:57)
sorry,

[Speaker 2] (1:02:57 - 1:02:57)
to

[Speaker 4] (1:02:57 - 1:02:57)
210K

[Speaker 2] (1:02:57 - 1:02:57)
interrupt.

[Speaker 4] (1:02:57 - 1:03:02)
when we talked about assessments.

[Speaker 1] (1:03:02 - 1:03:03)
Yes.

[Speaker 4] (1:03:03 - 1:03:05)
We recognized it later,

[Speaker 4] (1:03:05 - 1:03:08)
and once we corrected it, it created that negative impact.

[Speaker 1] (1:03:08 - 1:03:11)
Correct, because when you zero out that assessment,

[Speaker 1] (1:03:11 - 1:03:12)
it has to come out of overlay.

[Speaker 4] (1:03:12 - 1:03:13)
Sure.

[Speaker 4] (1:03:13 - 1:03:13)
Okay.

[Speaker 3] (1:03:14 - 1:03:15)
So it's a clerical error pretty much.

[Speaker 1] (1:03:15 - 1:03:16)
Yes.

[Speaker 7] (1:03:16 - 1:03:17)
When was that noticed?

[Speaker 1] (1:03:17 - 1:03:20)
That was noticed after the actual tax bills went out,

[Speaker 1] (1:03:20 - 1:03:26)
so I want to say March we knew there was a problem with one parcel,

[Speaker 1] (1:03:26 - 1:03:27)
and then subsequent,

[Speaker 1] (1:03:27 - 1:03:29)
the assessors did a review.

[Speaker 1] (1:03:29 - 1:03:30)
I didn't do the review,

[Speaker 1] (1:03:30 - 1:03:30)
I'll say that.

[Speaker 1] (1:03:31 - 1:03:31)
But

[Speaker 4] (1:03:31 - 1:03:31)
So

[Speaker 1] (1:03:31 - 1:03:31)
yes

[Speaker 4] (1:03:31 - 1:03:32)
there was like

[Speaker 1] (1:03:32 - 1:03:32)
sir.

[Speaker 4] (1:03:32 - 1:03:35)
an audit done across all assessments to make sure that this wasn't happening anywhere else.

[Speaker 1] (1:03:35 - 1:03:36)
Right. So

[Speaker 4] (1:03:36 - 1:03:36)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:03:36 - 1:03:37)
we're comfortable

[Speaker 2] (1:03:37 - 1:03:37)
Who did

[Speaker 1] (1:03:37 - 1:03:37)
it

[Speaker 2] (1:03:37 - 1:03:37)
the

[Speaker 1] (1:03:37 - 1:03:37)
was.

[Speaker 2] (1:03:37 - 1:03:37)
audit?

[Speaker 1] (1:03:38 - 1:03:38)
What's that?

[Speaker 2] (1:03:38 - 1:03:39)
Who did the audit?

[Speaker 1] (1:03:39 - 1:03:40)
The assessor.

[Speaker 1] (1:03:42 - 1:03:42)
Okay.

[Speaker 2] (1:03:42 - 1:03:43)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:03:43 - 1:03:45)
In conjunction with Patriot Properties.

[Speaker 8] (1:03:46 - 1:03:54)
So was the, is this, was this the issue with the vendor or we just had a clerical issue in-house?

[Speaker 1] (1:03:56 - 1:03:56)
I

[Speaker 8] (1:03:56 - 1:03:56)
Word.

[Speaker 1] (1:03:56 - 1:03:58)
think this occurred due

[Speaker 3] (1:03:58 - 1:03:58)
Oh, my God.

[Speaker 1] (1:03:58 - 1:04:00)
to the software upgrade that happened,

[Speaker 8] (1:04:00 - 1:04:01)
Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (1:04:01 - 1:04:07)
but I think going forward there'll be controls in place to look for this exact thing so that this doesn't happen again.

[Speaker 8] (1:04:07 - 1:04:08)
Happens. Yep.

[Speaker 1] (1:04:08 - 1:04:09)
This was unusual.

[Speaker 8] (1:04:10 - 1:04:10)
Okay.

[Speaker 3] (1:04:10 - 1:04:17)
So when we talk about the revenues that came in, did we account that $210,000 as revenue?

[Speaker 3] (1:04:18 - 1:04:18)
And we're over

[Speaker 1] (1:04:18 - 1:04:19)
So,

[Speaker 3] (1:04:19 - 1:04:20)
at the beginning of the presentation?

[Speaker 1] (1:04:20 - 1:04:20)
yeah,

[Speaker 1] (1:04:21 - 1:04:21)
yeah.

[Speaker 1] (1:04:21 - 1:04:25)
So your total tax levy is divvied up across all assessed property.

[Speaker 1] (1:04:27 - 1:04:33)
So the amount taxed does not change based on this.

[Speaker 3] (1:04:35 - 1:04:36)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:04:36 - 1:04:39)
So we didn't count this as revenue in my actuals, if that's your question.

[Speaker 1] (1:04:39 - 1:04:40)
Is that your question?

[Speaker 4] (1:04:40 - 1:04:41)
Was this the question?

[Speaker 3] (1:04:41 - 1:04:43)
Yeah, I just want to make sure we're not double counting it or undercounting it.

[Speaker 3] (1:04:44 - 1:04:45)
We had expected,

[Speaker 3] (1:04:45 - 1:04:51)
I mean, in other words, you've reported that whatever the tax property tax revenue was,

[Speaker 3] (1:04:52 - 1:04:52)
right?

[Speaker 8] (1:04:52 - 1:04:52)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 3] (1:04:52 - 1:04:58)
And now you're saying that we obviously overcharged that has to go into the overlay account.

[Speaker 3] (1:04:58 - 1:05:02)
Did we expect this and know that we're just transferring back?

[Speaker 1] (1:05:04 - 1:05:12)
So there's a distinction because the number that was reported at the beginning of the presentation for property tax revenue is actual funds collected,

[Speaker 1] (1:05:12 - 1:05:12)
not

[Speaker 4] (1:05:12 - 1:05:13)
Not predicted.

[Speaker 1] (1:05:13 - 1:05:14)
the

[Speaker 2] (1:05:14 - 1:05:15)
That's not the tax estimated.

[Speaker 1] (1:05:15 - 1:05:15)
levy, right?

[Speaker 2] (1:05:15 - 1:05:16)
That's Right. the estimated.

[Speaker 3] (1:05:16 - 1:05:17)
It was the estimated versus actual.

[Speaker 8] (1:05:17 - 1:05:17)
Yeah.

[Speaker 3] (1:05:17 - 1:05:17)
Yeah.

[Speaker 3] (1:05:18 - 1:05:18)
Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (1:05:18 - 1:05:20)
So this does not affect that.

[Speaker 1] (1:05:20 - 1:05:21)
Does that make sense?

[Speaker 3] (1:05:21 - 1:05:26)
It does. But had you estimated that it was included or it kind of came in as an error anyways.

[Speaker 1] (1:05:27 - 1:05:30)
The tax levy would not have changed if we...

[Speaker 1] (1:05:31 - 1:05:31)
caught thus prior

[Speaker 9] (1:05:32 - 1:05:33)
The pie stays the same size,

[Speaker 3] (1:05:33 - 1:05:34)
Exactly.

[Speaker 1] (1:05:34 - 1:05:34)
That's

[Speaker 9] (1:05:34 - 1:05:41)
but a what slice of each individual property would have been different by a small amount to make it because the pie was still the pie.

[Speaker 3] (1:05:41 - 1:05:41)
Yeah.

[Speaker 9] (1:05:41 - 1:05:43)
We just had two extra pieces.

[Speaker 9] (1:05:45 - 1:05:46)
I don't mean to make it.

[Speaker 4] (1:05:46 - 1:05:46)
Yeah, we double

[Speaker 2] (1:05:46 - 1:05:47)
That's

[Speaker 4] (1:05:47 - 1:05:47)
check.

[Speaker 2] (1:05:47 - 1:05:47)
really good.

[Speaker 8] (1:05:47 - 1:05:47)
So

[Speaker 4] (1:05:47 - 1:05:48)
Yeah, that's fine.

[Speaker 3] (1:05:48 - 1:05:48)
Yeah.

[Speaker 8] (1:05:48 - 1:05:49)
this

[Speaker 3] (1:05:49 - 1:05:50)
understand

[Speaker 8] (1:05:51 - 1:05:54)
might be a NIC question,

[Speaker 8] (1:05:54 - 1:05:54)
but so.

[Speaker 8] (1:05:55 - 1:06:06)
Glad we've got processes in place. How often are we looking at the property assessments and ensuring the accuracy of the property cards?

[Speaker 8] (1:06:07 - 1:06:10)
Or is that a too detailed question to get

[Speaker 2] (1:06:10 - 1:06:10)
That's

[Speaker 8] (1:06:10 - 1:06:10)
into right now?

[Speaker 2] (1:06:10 - 1:06:11)
all.

[Speaker 9] (1:06:12 - 1:06:13)
So there's the...

[Speaker 9] (1:06:15 - 1:06:16)
You can jump in if I didn't

[Speaker 1] (1:06:16 - 1:06:17)
You want me to jump in on that?

[Speaker 9] (1:06:17 - 1:06:24)
misspeak. No, there's the neighborhood-by-neighborhood, neighborhood in the broad sense of how they're determined within assessing,

[Speaker 9] (1:06:24 - 1:06:27)
not by how we would necessarily define individual.

[Speaker 9] (1:06:28 - 1:06:32)
That is done on a cycle where there's a certain portion done each year.

[Speaker 8] (1:06:33 - 1:06:34)
Okay.

[Speaker 9] (1:06:34 - 1:06:40)
Okay, and so that would be one opportunity, I believe, to catch something like this, but obviously we wouldn't want it to go more than one year anyway.

[Speaker 9] (1:06:41 - 1:06:49)
If someone at this property gets a bill and they're like, the home doesn't exist, it's now a two family or it was higher density was now built here,

[Speaker 9] (1:06:49 - 1:06:52)
I got a higher density bill and I get this one for the old property,

[Speaker 9] (1:06:52 - 1:06:55)
that would be like a request for abatement that would trigger.

[Speaker 9] (1:06:56 - 1:07:07)
So in one sense it's done bit by bit, the internal controls I think are more important so that when we are aware of changes that are happening we need to.

[Speaker 9] (1:07:08 - 1:07:20)
specifically be on the lookout for those anomalies and then the annual piece-by-piece review also would catch if I'm not am I missing something in describing this does that answer your question though

[Speaker 8] (1:07:20 - 1:07:30)
Um, on one hand. On the other hand, individual property cards obviously have the building characteristics of a home and if somebody adds an addition,

[Speaker 8] (1:07:30 - 1:07:30)
whatever.

[Speaker 8] (1:07:32 - 1:07:39)
How often do the how often do we audit those property cards to ensure the accuracy of the card versus what's actually there?

[Speaker 9] (1:07:39 - 1:07:45)
I mean, that's part of that process that goes on where the neighborhoods are handled on a rolling basis.

[Speaker 8] (1:07:45 - 1:07:45)
Got it.

[Speaker 4] (1:07:45 - 1:07:50)
I thought Charlie said sorry to interrupt you. I thought last time Charlie was here he said it was going to take us

[Speaker 4] (1:07:51 - 1:07:52)
Five years or something

[Speaker 8] (1:07:52 - 1:07:52)
Something

[Speaker 4] (1:07:52 - 1:07:52)
something

[Speaker 8] (1:07:52 - 1:07:54)
about five years is what I remember

[Speaker 4] (1:07:54 - 1:07:54)
many,

[Speaker 8] (1:07:54 - 1:07:54)
but

[Speaker 4] (1:07:54 - 1:07:56)
many years in order to go

[Speaker 3] (1:07:56 - 1:07:56)
Make

[Speaker 4] (1:07:56 - 1:07:56)
through all

[Speaker 3] (1:07:56 - 1:07:56)
sure

[Speaker 4] (1:07:56 - 1:07:59)
of them, make sure they're accurate at the rate that we're going right now.

[Speaker 9] (1:07:59 - 1:08:00)
Right, right.

[Speaker 4] (1:08:00 - 1:08:02)
And then we'd be starting all over again, basically.

[Speaker 9] (1:08:02 - 1:08:03)
In addition to that, though,

[Speaker 9] (1:08:03 - 1:08:13)
We are working and we're looking at what we can do specifically with OpenGov, but assessing and building prior to Paul and Rich being there,

[Speaker 8] (1:08:13 - 1:08:14)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 9] (1:08:14 - 1:08:16)
we're not talking as much as they should be.

[Speaker 9] (1:08:16 - 1:08:17)
So that,

[Speaker 9] (1:08:17 - 1:08:22)
and ideally Paul's process would be that before he closed out a building permit, the assessor is looking at it.

[Speaker 8] (1:08:22 - 1:08:22)
Right.

[Speaker 9] (1:08:22 - 1:08:26)
And so, you know, there's multiple opportunities to do this better.

[Speaker 9] (1:08:26 - 1:08:30)
The internal controls Patrick's speaking to are to make sure this is a mistake.

[Speaker 9] (1:08:30 - 1:08:32)
stake that shouldn't be happening. And then

[Speaker 3] (1:08:32 - 1:08:32)
Yes.

[Speaker 9] (1:08:32 - 1:08:34)
there's ways that we can improve the process.

[Speaker 8] (1:08:34 - 1:08:34)
Okay.

[Speaker 9] (1:08:34 - 1:08:37)
So I think it's two separate pieces, but

[Speaker 8] (1:08:37 - 1:08:37)
Yeah.

[Speaker 9] (1:08:37 - 1:08:38)
I'm not sure if I

[Speaker 8] (1:08:38 - 1:08:40)
Same vein, but two separate strands, but yeah.

[Speaker 9] (1:08:40 - 1:08:42)
I'm not sure if I'm answering your question at all at this point.

[Speaker 3] (1:08:43 - 1:08:49)
I think he'd a he'd ask the question about an audit, right? And and is that up to Patriot Properties?

[Speaker 9] (1:08:50 - 1:08:50)
No.

[Speaker 4] (1:08:50 - 1:08:51)
No.

[Speaker 9] (1:08:51 - 1:08:51)
Patriot

[Speaker 4] (1:08:51 - 1:08:51)
Our individual

[Speaker 9] (1:08:51 - 1:08:51)
Properties

[Speaker 8] (1:08:51 - 1:08:51)
So

[Speaker 9] (1:08:51 - 1:08:52)
do not

[Speaker 8] (1:08:52 - 1:08:52)
they

[Speaker 9] (1:08:52 - 1:08:52)
handle

[Speaker 8] (1:08:52 - 1:08:52)
just

[Speaker 9] (1:08:52 - 1:08:52)
transactions.

[Speaker 8] (1:08:52 - 1:08:53)
are just a software

[Speaker 9] (1:08:53 - 1:08:53)
They

[Speaker 8] (1:08:53 - 1:08:53)
vendor.

[Speaker 9] (1:08:53 - 1:08:53)
handle the information.

[Speaker 4] (1:08:54 - 1:08:54)
Yes.

[Speaker 9] (1:08:54 - 1:08:56)
They're a platform that our information lives Contain on.

[Speaker 4] (1:08:56 - 1:08:57)
the information they

[Speaker 4] (1:08:58 - 1:08:58)
Put it somewhere.

[Speaker 1] (1:08:58 - 1:08:59)
Good night.

[Speaker 4] (1:08:59 - 1:08:59)
Maintain it.

[Speaker 1] (1:08:59 - 1:09:00)
Can I ask,

[Speaker 8] (1:09:00 - 1:09:00)
Let's jump

[Speaker 1] (1:09:00 - 1:09:00)
because

[Speaker 8] (1:09:00 - 1:09:01)
in at any point.

[Speaker 1] (1:09:01 - 1:09:03)
I have that meeting with Paul regularly,

[Speaker 1] (1:09:03 - 1:09:10)
so Paul, the assessor, he is going neighborhood by neighborhood and looking at field cards for

[Speaker 8] (1:09:10 - 1:09:11)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:09:11 - 1:09:16)
individual properties for anomalies or things that, you know, need to be corrected basically.

[Speaker 8] (1:09:16 - 1:09:17)
Understood. Okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:09:17 - 1:09:20)
And the DOR assessing regulations,

[Speaker 1] (1:09:20 - 1:09:24)
there's a five-year cycle for you to go through your properties and kind of do like a

[Speaker 1] (1:09:24 - 1:09:26)
a turn of every stone, if you will.

[Speaker 8] (1:09:26 - 1:09:26)
So So every

[Speaker 1] (1:09:26 - 1:09:27)
he

[Speaker 8] (1:09:27 - 1:09:27)
five years,

[Speaker 1] (1:09:27 - 1:09:28)
that's in progress,

[Speaker 8] (1:09:28 - 1:09:28)
in theory.

[Speaker 1] (1:09:28 - 1:09:29)
he did some of it per during

[Speaker 1] (1:09:33 - 1:09:49)
It is tedious as you can imagine going through each individual property, and there's h you know, fifteen hundred properties in town. Um so that it's time consuming and it will take a number of years to to do that. But he's making good good progress. Um he did complete

[Speaker 1] (1:09:49 - 1:09:52)
another neighbourhood um recently. So

[Speaker 3] (1:09:52 - 1:10:10)
Well, he's he's been working on waterfront and waterfront properties are constantly being updated and field cards are being checked, whereas the rest of the community is not getting as the same attention as waterfront. And this year he was last year he did

[Speaker 3] (1:10:11 - 1:10:33)
the waterfront right in front of the water and this summer he said he was doing on the opposite side of the street so he's not able to do all the neighborhoods for so for example Roy Street Clark Street that area is really not being addressed whereas Puritan your area those you know and it's just it is tedious

[Speaker 3] (1:10:34 - 1:10:35)
tedious work.

[Speaker 4] (1:10:35 - 1:10:50)
N one of the reasons I was asking this is obviously the issue that conservation commission's looking at with the beach and the property over there and Wales, and I know that was something at least I read in the newspaper about the land area and tax issues and a s potential assessment.

[Speaker 3] (1:10:50 - 1:10:53)
Are field cards accessible online? Do you know?

[Speaker 4] (1:10:53 - 1:10:53)
Yes.

[Speaker 5] (1:10:53 - 1:10:54)
On Patriot.

[Speaker 3] (1:10:54 - 1:10:54)
Can they

[Speaker 4] (1:10:54 - 1:10:54)
Yeah,

[Speaker 3] (1:10:54 - 1:10:54)
You be

[Speaker 5] (1:10:54 - 1:10:54)
you

[Speaker 3] (1:10:54 - 1:10:54)
on can Patriot?

[Speaker 5] (1:10:54 - 1:10:55)
can search by

[Speaker 3] (1:10:55 - 1:10:56)
Okay.

[Speaker 4] (1:10:56 - 1:10:57)
It's on our G_I_S_ system, you can

[Speaker 7] (1:10:57 - 1:10:58)
Or by or by.

[Speaker 8] (1:10:58 - 1:11:04)
fl like you I think would look it's address at your ear. or yeah. It but it's like per address it would you would look up here and then they'd all come and it's Yeah,

[Speaker 4] (1:11:04 - 1:11:04)
Right.

[Speaker 8] (1:11:04 - 1:11:04)
not

[Speaker 3] (1:11:04 - 1:11:04)
It's

[Speaker 8] (1:11:04 - 1:11:04)
just

[Speaker 3] (1:11:04 - 1:11:04)
it's just

[Speaker 8] (1:11:04 - 1:11:05)
like one.

[Speaker 3] (1:11:05 - 1:11:08)
recently someone said asked me why the field cards weren't online

[Speaker 4] (1:11:08 - 1:11:08)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 3] (1:11:08 - 1:11:10)
any longer and I said I thought they were. So

[Speaker 4] (1:11:10 - 1:11:11)
Yep, they are.

[Speaker 8] (1:11:11 - 1:11:14)
It's usually if I'm not mistaken it's a tab at the top.

[Speaker 4] (1:11:14 - 1:11:14)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 8] (1:11:14 - 1:11:21)
But don't necessarily it doesn't look as good as other websites because pager it's ju but the tabs are like there are like four or five tabs across the top,

[Speaker 4] (1:11:21 - 1:11:22)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 3] (1:11:22 - 1:11:22)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 8] (1:11:22 - 1:11:23)
they would include that.

[Speaker 8] (1:11:23 - 1:11:24)
And we link to it on our website.

[Speaker 9] (1:11:25 - 1:11:25)
and

[Speaker 8] (1:11:25 - 1:11:25)
Yeah.

[Speaker 9] (1:11:25 - 1:11:26)
the link works.

[Speaker 4] (1:11:26 - 1:11:26)
Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (1:11:26 - 1:11:27)
Okay.

[Speaker 4] (1:11:28 - 1:11:32)
I just want to say you did a good job answering that question, but you answered it on the nose. So thank you.

[Speaker 4] (1:11:33 - 1:11:34)
No offense.

[Speaker 1] (1:11:34 - 1:11:35)
That's okay.

[Speaker 8] (1:11:35 - 1:11:35)
No.

[Speaker 3] (1:11:35 - 1:11:39)
So that was that's two hundred and ten thousand and what about the rest of the money?

[Speaker 1] (1:11:39 - 1:11:45)
Yes, so the other items that contributed to the shortage and the overlay

[Speaker 1] (1:11:46 - 1:12:12)
our our exemptions in our senior work off program and I I kind of broke it out so I'll just list them off so the veterans exemptions we saw an eighty thousand dollar increase from last year so last year we awarded the assessors awarded rather sixty four thousand dollars in veterans exemptions this year was 124 thousand dollars if you remember in 2025 we passed heroes act amendments a town meeting which increased the

[Speaker 1] (1:12:12 - 1:12:16)
The qualifiers for the exemptions and the award, like their value.

[Speaker 1] (1:12:17 - 1:12:17)
So

[Speaker 8] (1:12:17 - 1:12:17)
Okay.

[Speaker 3] (1:12:17 - 1:12:17)
for us.

[Speaker 1] (1:12:17 - 1:12:19)
this is the first year with that, and we're

[Speaker 8] (1:12:19 - 1:12:19)
Great.

[Speaker 1] (1:12:19 - 1:12:21)
seeing that being utilised.

[Speaker 10] (1:12:21 - 1:12:21)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 1] (1:12:21 - 1:12:33)
Okay. Uh same thing with the elderly exemptions. So uh last year we saw five thousand dollars of elderly exemptions, and this year there were thirty thousand dollars of elderly exemptions. So that's twenty five thousand dollars of growth there.

[Speaker 1] (1:12:34 - 1:12:39)
Um blind exemptions that increased from five thousand dollars to nine thousand dollars.

[Speaker 1] (1:12:41 - 1:12:41)
And

[Speaker 11] (1:12:41 - 1:12:42)
What was that one, sorry?

[Speaker 1] (1:12:42 - 1:12:42)
blind.

[Speaker 3] (1:12:42 - 1:12:42)
Blind.

[Speaker 11] (1:12:42 - 1:12:43)
Oh, blind.

[Speaker 1] (1:12:43 - 1:12:43)
Yep.

[Speaker 11] (1:12:43 - 1:12:43)
Excuse me.

[Speaker 1] (1:12:43 - 1:12:49)
So if you're you know blind to a certain extent you can qualify for a certain property exemption.

[Speaker 1] (1:12:50 - 1:13:00)
Um the senior work-off program, last year we did eighty two thousand dollars of abatements for senior work-offs. This year it was ninety one thousand dollars, so that's a nine thousand dollar increase.

[Speaker 1] (1:13:01 - 1:13:09)
And then there's the uh abatements for overvaluation. So last year the assessors awarded a hundred and sixty tha seven thousand dollars.

[Speaker 1] (1:13:10 - 1:13:23)
in abatements and this year it was 239 thousand dollars so that's a 72 thousand dollar difference and that's largely related to Elm Place, which was sixty thousand dollars. So the the growth if you eliminate that

[Speaker 8] (1:13:23 - 1:13:23)
Decrease.

[Speaker 1] (1:13:23 - 1:13:28)
'cause that's an a new property, I'd call that kind of an anomaly, that would be twelve thousand dollars net.

[Speaker 3] (1:13:28 - 1:13:29)
Elm place would

[Speaker 4] (1:13:29 - 1:13:30)
Can you

[Speaker 8] (1:13:30 - 1:13:30)
Westcott.

[Speaker 4] (1:13:30 - 1:13:31)
Can you just repeat

[Speaker 3] (1:13:31 - 1:13:32)
Well Westco wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

[Speaker 4] (1:13:32 - 1:13:32)
oh.

[Speaker 3] (1:13:32 - 1:13:32)
Wait, the Westcott's

[Speaker 8] (1:13:32 - 1:13:33)
Westcott, right?

[Speaker 3] (1:13:33 - 1:13:34)
got a sixty thousand dollar rebate?

[Speaker 1] (1:13:35 - 1:13:36)
an abatement.

[Speaker 3] (1:13:36 - 1:13:37)
Abatement.

[Speaker 1] (1:13:37 - 1:13:38)
Yep, related to their value.

[Speaker 1] (1:13:38 - 1:13:39)
Yes.

[Speaker 3] (1:13:40 - 1:13:43)
We overvalued what's

[Speaker 3] (1:13:44 - 1:13:45)
the criteria?

[Speaker 12] (1:13:46 - 1:13:46)
An abatement?

[Speaker 1] (1:13:48 - 1:13:54)
Um so it's unique to each property, so someone has to submit an application with um their

[Speaker 1] (1:13:56 - 1:14:00)
explanation of why they believe their property was overvalued. So it's really kind

[Speaker 13] (1:14:00 - 1:14:00)
And

[Speaker 1] (1:14:00 - 1:14:00)
of

[Speaker 13] (1:14:00 - 1:14:00)
so the of

[Speaker 1] (1:14:00 - 1:14:00)
a two

[Speaker 13] (1:14:00 - 1:14:00)
assessors,

[Speaker 1] (1:14:00 - 1:14:00)
-edged sword.

[Speaker 13] (1:14:00 - 1:14:05)
the board of assessors has the power to say, okay, we're gonna give you whatever

[Speaker 4] (1:14:05 - 1:14:05)
If there's

[Speaker 13] (1:14:05 - 1:14:06)
off,

[Speaker 13] (1:14:06 - 1:14:06)
or

[Speaker 1] (1:14:06 - 1:14:06)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 13] (1:14:06 - 1:14:06)
uh

[Speaker 4] (1:14:06 - 1:14:11)
criteria that they have to meet that are dictated largely by one of the state

[Speaker 13] (1:14:11 - 1:14:12)
State statute, okay.

[Speaker 4] (1:14:12 - 1:14:12)
Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (1:14:13 - 1:14:18)
And there's an a another level of appeal. So if assessors deny, I can go to the state appellate tax board.

[Speaker 13] (1:14:19 - 1:14:21)
And there's someone that checks that, all of that?

[Speaker 14] (1:14:21 - 1:14:22)
Yeah, like for example if

[Speaker 13] (1:14:22 - 1:14:22)
Just curious.

[Speaker 14] (1:14:22 - 1:14:28)
your backyard was a cliffside and you couldn't build on it, one might apply for an abatement.

[Speaker 14] (1:14:28 - 1:14:30)
The assessor might come look at your backyard,

[Speaker 14] (1:14:30 - 1:14:34)
see that it's not buildable, and then figure out.

[Speaker 14] (1:14:35 - 1:14:42)
Measure some things, figure out what you're owed based on your unduldgable, un unuse and unbuildability on your lot size.

[Speaker 13] (1:14:42 - 1:14:42)
Yeah.

[Speaker 3] (1:14:42 - 1:14:49)
Or you could have also, you know, just you rebuilt your home and at the time you rebuild then the assessor says the kitchen isn't excellent,

[Speaker 4] (1:14:49 - 1:14:49)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 3] (1:14:49 - 1:14:50)
everything's listed as

[Speaker 4] (1:14:50 - 1:14:50)
Right.

[Speaker 3] (1:14:50 - 1:15:01)
excellent condition and now you're ten years out you might say you know my kitchen's no longer excellent and then you file an abatement and then they lower that part of the formula and then you would get an abatement from that.

[Speaker 13] (1:15:02 - 1:15:05)
Oh I understand how it works, I'm just wondering if anyone's checking the checkers.

[Speaker 14] (1:15:06 - 1:15:06)
Oh.

[Speaker 13] (1:15:06 - 1:15:10)
That was more my question, and how do you how do you figure out if

[Speaker 4] (1:15:10 - 1:15:10)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 13] (1:15:10 - 1:15:12)
if that's accurate, right?

[Speaker 4] (1:15:12 - 1:15:15)
That was kind of a side point to the what I was trying to get at earlier.

[Speaker 4] (1:15:15 - 1:15:17)
Uh just one of many things can

[Speaker 13] (1:15:17 - 1:15:18)
Right, as

[Speaker 4] (1:15:18 - 1:15:18)
do a

[Speaker 13] (1:15:18 - 1:15:18)
we

[Speaker 4] (1:15:18 - 1:15:18)
lot of just changes.

[Speaker 13] (1:15:18 - 1:15:24)
accidentally saw two parcels that, you know, had a clerical error. How how do we know that

[Speaker 13] (1:15:24 - 1:15:26)
We're chucking the checkers. That's people

[Speaker 4] (1:15:26 - 1:15:28)
Not necessarily being the people on the board,

[Speaker 8] (1:15:28 - 1:15:28)
Do you

[Speaker 4] (1:15:28 - 1:15:28)
I just

[Speaker 8] (1:15:28 - 1:15:28)
mean?

[Speaker 4] (1:15:28 - 1:15:29)
or

[Speaker 13] (1:15:29 - 1:15:31)
People that are approving abatements for X.

[Speaker 13] (1:15:32 - 1:15:33)
Please.

[Speaker 3] (1:15:33 - 1:16:00)
Well, I can a actually I can answer that as c as I was the liaison at the time and you had your three um Board of Assessors, I think, were very diligent and worked very hard and the um Assessor Agent that worked for the town, I think they were all really really diligent and and did double check things and I do know that legal counsel had to come in a number of times for a different um larger complexes and

[Speaker 3] (1:15:59 - 1:16:00)
And legal,

[Speaker 3] (1:16:00 - 1:16:06)
I know a couple times they'd say, okay, you could just settle, and I know the assessors pushed back and said no,

[Speaker 3] (1:16:07 - 1:16:13)
and the reason they said no is because of the data that they had, and they saved the town a significant amount of money.

[Speaker 13] (1:16:13 - 1:16:16)
But that board changes, right? It's not always the same people.

[Speaker 8] (1:16:16 - 1:16:17)
Right, it's an elected board.

[Speaker 3] (1:16:17 - 1:16:17)
Yeah,

[Speaker 13] (1:16:17 - 1:16:17)
It's an elective board.

[Speaker 3] (1:16:17 - 1:16:20)
it's an elected board, but it doesn't really change.

[Speaker 13] (1:16:21 - 1:16:21)
The

[Speaker 3] (1:16:21 - 1:16:21)
It's

[Speaker 13] (1:16:21 - 1:16:21)
proposition

[Speaker 3] (1:16:21 - 1:16:22)
that much,

[Speaker 13] (1:16:22 - 1:16:24)
which is though, right? the people that are elected.

[Speaker 4] (1:16:25 - 1:16:25)
And

[Speaker 13] (1:16:25 - 1:16:25)
I'm just

[Speaker 4] (1:16:25 - 1:16:25)
yeah,

[Speaker 13] (1:16:25 - 1:16:25)
saying

[Speaker 4] (1:16:25 - 1:16:26)
I'm sure

[Speaker 13] (1:16:26 - 1:16:26)
they must

[Speaker 4] (1:16:26 - 1:16:26)
it'll change.

[Speaker 13] (1:16:26 - 1:16:28)
be various backgrounds of expertise.

[Speaker 14] (1:16:28 - 1:16:29)
Yeah.

[Speaker 4] (1:16:29 - 1:16:31)
I'm sure, I don't think there's any

[Speaker 8] (1:16:31 - 1:16:31)
The board of

[Speaker 4] (1:16:31 - 1:16:31)
issue

[Speaker 8] (1:16:31 - 1:16:31)
assessors,

[Speaker 4] (1:16:31 - 1:16:31)
with the

[Speaker 8] (1:16:31 - 1:16:32)
I think,

[Speaker 4] (1:16:32 - 1:16:32)
board

[Speaker 8] (1:16:32 - 1:16:32)
is a,

[Speaker 4] (1:16:32 - 1:16:33)
or the people,

[Speaker 8] (1:16:33 - 1:16:33)
they're

[Speaker 4] (1:16:33 - 1:16:33)
it's

[Speaker 8] (1:16:33 - 1:16:34)
also the only elected

[Speaker 4] (1:16:34 - 1:16:34)
just a

[Speaker 8] (1:16:34 - 1:16:36)
process. body that is required to go through training.

[Speaker 4] (1:16:36 - 1:16:36)
Yes.

[Speaker 8] (1:16:36 - 1:16:41)
DOR does training that is a requirement for them to be participating to the point

[Speaker 3] (1:16:41 - 1:16:41)
They have

[Speaker 8] (1:16:41 - 1:16:41)
where,

[Speaker 3] (1:16:41 - 1:16:42)
to get certified

[Speaker 8] (1:16:42 - 1:16:42)
right.

[Speaker 3] (1:16:42 - 1:16:44)
or pass,

[Speaker 3] (1:16:44 - 1:16:47)
I don't know if it's actual certification, but they have to pass a test.

[Speaker 13] (1:16:48 - 1:16:49)
Huh.

[Speaker 4] (1:16:49 - 1:16:51)
Yeah, but that's one of the reasons I was asking about just m looking

[Speaker 13] (1:16:51 - 1:16:52)
Yeah.

[Speaker 4] (1:16:52 - 1:16:53)
at the past results in audit

[Speaker 13] (1:16:53 - 1:16:53)
Alright.

[Speaker 4] (1:16:53 - 1:16:55)
not for any malfeasance,

[Speaker 13] (1:16:55 - 1:16:55)
Just

[Speaker 4] (1:16:55 - 1:16:56)
just to make

[Speaker 13] (1:16:56 - 1:16:56)
a matter

[Speaker 4] (1:16:56 - 1:16:56)
sure everything

[Speaker 13] (1:16:56 - 1:16:56)
of um

[Speaker 4] (1:16:56 - 1:16:57)
we have is accurate.

[Speaker 13] (1:16:57 - 1:16:59)
If there's a level of subjectivity

[Speaker 15] (1:16:59 - 1:16:59)
So are

[Speaker 13] (1:16:59 - 1:16:59)
or not or

[Speaker 15] (1:16:59 - 1:17:02)
in your opinion are we still adequately staffed?

[Speaker 15] (1:17:03 - 1:17:04)
We have a we have a part-time assessor,

[Speaker 4] (1:17:04 - 1:17:05)
No.

[Speaker 13] (1:17:05 - 1:17:05)
Alright.

[Speaker 15] (1:17:05 - 1:17:05)
right?

[Speaker 8] (1:17:05 - 1:17:07)
Uh i we still have there is

[Speaker 13] (1:17:07 - 1:17:08)
Job posting.

[Speaker 8] (1:17:08 - 1:17:13)
there is a job posting, there has been a job posting. I have had multiple conversations with uh

[Speaker 8] (1:17:14 - 1:17:18)
regional partner that could potentially do something together. I've

[Speaker 15] (1:17:18 - 1:17:18)
Okay.

[Speaker 8] (1:17:18 - 1:17:32)
talked to ones that currently have staff to see if there's something that we can do together, but there's a number of openings in the North Shore right now. There are not candidates that are applying that are leaving the jobs that they're at for the salaries that we as individual communities are offering.

[Speaker 8] (1:17:33 - 1:17:35)
There are a handful,

[Speaker 8] (1:17:35 - 1:17:36)
Reading,

[Speaker 8] (1:17:36 - 1:17:38)
Wakefield, Linfield all work together.

[Speaker 8] (1:17:39 - 1:17:54)
Where there's one chief assessor and staff at the in the individual communities, and then he's hosted in one community, but even that model, he's retiring anticipated to be retiring soon. So the three of them are trying to figure out what's next, because he brought that together in that case by,

[Speaker 8] (1:17:54 - 1:18:00)
you know, working between two communities, and there's still weaknesses to that as well, because he's not physically there.

[Speaker 8] (1:18:00 - 1:18:09)
It's not a full, you know, it's not a part-time person that it's a full-time person thinking about all three communities at all times, but he's not physically in any one community full-time either.

[Speaker 13] (1:18:09 - 1:18:09)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 8] (1:18:09 - 1:18:14)
So there's weaknesses to any model, but the candidate pool is

[Speaker 15] (1:18:14 - 1:18:15)
Lean.

[Speaker 8] (1:18:15 - 1:18:15)
tiny.

[Speaker 3] (1:18:15 - 1:18:18)
We're also we're also advertising for full-time, right?

[Speaker 8] (1:18:18 - 1:18:18)
Yes.

[Speaker 13] (1:18:18 - 1:18:19)
Yeah.

[Speaker 3] (1:18:19 - 1:18:23)
So what about if we advertise for part-time because now you have a lot of

[Speaker 13] (1:18:23 - 1:18:23)
We did that.

[Speaker 3] (1:18:23 - 1:18:26)
right, but what about if we continue to do that?

[Speaker 15] (1:18:27 - 1:18:29)
We would have two part-time assessors?

[Speaker 3] (1:18:29 - 1:18:31)
We could have two or three part-time assessors.

[Speaker 3] (1:18:32 - 1:18:49)
I'm just saying open it up because you have you have multiple people retiring within the Commonwealth and you know there's only a certain amount of hours they're allowed to work so if you can tap into that system I think I think that's an opportunity but that's actually not

[Speaker 3] (1:18:50 - 1:18:51)
on this agenda here, so.

[Speaker 15] (1:18:52 - 1:18:52)
Oh.

[Speaker 4] (1:18:52 - 1:18:52)
Yeah.

[Speaker 14] (1:18:53 - 1:18:54)
I have a question about senior work-off.

[Speaker 15] (1:18:54 - 1:18:54)
Yeah.

[Speaker 14] (1:18:54 - 1:18:58)
Can you explain like so we were up nine thousand.

[Speaker 14] (1:18:58 - 1:19:07)
Is there a cap to that? Can we cap that? Can any senior within the criteria obtain it? There's a limit to how much I think a household can obtain.

[Speaker 1] (1:19:08 - 1:19:08)
Right.

[Speaker 14] (1:19:08 - 1:19:09)
Could you explain that a little bit? Sorry.

[Speaker 1] (1:19:10 - 1:19:17)
Yep. So the program is limited in the sense that there's a limit of households can obtain off their property tax ballots.

[Speaker 1] (1:19:17 - 1:19:23)
They can work, they get credit equal to minimum wage, which is $15 an hour in Massachusetts currently.

[Speaker 1] (1:19:23 - 1:19:24)
And they can get up to

[Speaker 2] (1:19:28 - 1:19:28)
Per

[Speaker 1] (1:19:28 - 1:19:29)
many hours

[Speaker 2] (1:19:29 - 1:19:29)
household.

[Speaker 1] (1:19:29 - 1:19:30)
they're working. Yes, per

[Speaker 2] (1:19:30 - 1:19:30)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:19:30 - 1:19:38)
household. Okay. Um they fill out an application and they get matched with departments that might have needs that meet their um qualifications.

[Speaker 1] (1:19:39 - 1:19:41)
There is no um

[Speaker 1] (1:19:42 - 1:19:46)
stealing on the programme, on how much we're gonna allocate out of overlay to the programme,

[Speaker 3] (1:19:46 - 1:19:47)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:19:47 - 1:19:55)
I'm going to the board of assessors meeting on the third to discuss with them kind of like the overlay results this year and different things that they may have an opinion on that may be one of

[Speaker 3] (1:19:55 - 1:19:56)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:19:56 - 1:19:59)
them. Because the overlay is not a budgeted

[Speaker 1] (1:20:00 - 1:20:02)
account right it's not an appropriation that Right. goes to town meeting

[Speaker 4] (1:20:02 - 1:20:02)
Interesting.

[Speaker 1] (1:20:02 - 1:20:12)
it's kind of not something we could address through the budget process but I think a policy would make sense and I actually think it might make sense to start with them and get their thoughts on it so that's where I'm where I'm headed.

[Speaker 5] (1:20:12 - 1:20:24)
I just think that's a population that's growing in town right and as more people take advantage they talk to their friends and then they come and take advantage and it's great because it's like basically payment in lieu of taxes and we still get a benefit.

[Speaker 7] (1:20:24 - 1:20:26)
We'll get a whole labour f

[Speaker 7] (1:20:26 - 1:20:26)
Of course.

[Speaker 8] (1:20:26 - 1:20:32)
I, yeah, I I I just wanna caution thinking about a cap we derive a significant benefit the way

[Speaker 5] (1:20:32 - 1:20:32)
Oh I'm saying

[Speaker 8] (1:20:32 - 1:20:32)
it works

[Speaker 5] (1:20:32 - 1:20:33)
don't

[Speaker 8] (1:20:33 - 1:20:33)
in town.

[Speaker 5] (1:20:33 - 1:20:37)
cap it. But I'm just saying how do we sket how do we better forecast that we don't cap it.

[Speaker 1] (1:20:37 - 1:20:38)
It's been, yeah,

[Speaker 5] (1:20:38 - 1:20:38)
Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (1:20:38 - 1:20:38)
yeah.

[Speaker 5] (1:20:38 - 1:20:45)
I don't wanna capped. I think if you could work and you wanna help us in some way and you wanna give back to the community, we'd be happy to

[Speaker 9] (1:20:45 - 1:20:45)
And

[Speaker 5] (1:20:45 - 1:20:45)
continue

[Speaker 9] (1:20:45 - 1:20:45)
I'm sure

[Speaker 5] (1:20:45 - 1:20:48)
to subsidize your that like not subsidized but you

[Speaker 8] (1:20:48 - 1:20:50)
Yeah, I wanna highlight the way that we do it here also,

[Speaker 8] (1:20:50 - 1:20:52)
like actually engages skills

[Speaker 5] (1:20:52 - 1:20:52)
Yep, it does.

[Speaker 8] (1:20:52 - 1:20:56)
that in other communities it's just like you're a greeter at the front door like

[Speaker 5] (1:20:56 - 1:20:56)
Right.

[Speaker 8] (1:20:56 - 1:21:06)
and it's it ends up being someone reading and saying hello and helping you find someplace whereas like there are real skills put to work that we're very fortunate to have so I just wanted I didn't

[Speaker 5] (1:21:06 - 1:21:06)
Yeah.

[Speaker 8] (1:21:06 - 1:21:07)
know what direction

[Speaker 10] (1:21:07 - 1:21:07)
I'm

[Speaker 8] (1:21:07 - 1:21:07)
you were going

[Speaker 10] (1:21:07 - 1:21:11)
sure there's a big economic benefit for us too rather than having to go out to the market and hire somebody.

[Speaker 10] (1:21:12 - 1:21:14)
I mean this is great on so many different levels.

[Speaker 1] (1:21:14 - 1:21:15)
Who manages

[Speaker 11] (1:21:16 - 1:21:21)
the work force itself, that senior work-off workforce, is that in your

[Speaker 8] (1:21:21 - 1:21:21)
Yes.

[Speaker 11] (1:21:21 - 1:21:24)
bucket? Okay. So you can make the decision in terms of

[Speaker 11] (1:21:25 - 1:21:28)
Who you need, how much you how much help you need, you can allocate whatever it is.

[Speaker 8] (1:21:28 - 1:21:29)
Yeah, I mean primarily

[Speaker 11] (1:21:29 - 1:21:29)
Resources.

[Speaker 8] (1:21:29 - 1:21:40)
we work with department heads and so when we've had needs where someone's out for an extended period because of something going on in their family we might have two work offs that split that time you know that are doing administrative tasks not

[Speaker 11] (1:21:40 - 1:21:41)
I'm I'm

[Speaker 8] (1:21:41 - 1:21:41)
taking

[Speaker 11] (1:21:41 - 1:21:46)
not questioning the decisions, I'm just I'm just trying to understand from the management perspective that's in your wheelhouse.

[Speaker 8] (1:21:46 - 1:21:46)
Yeah,

[Speaker 11] (1:21:46 - 1:21:46)
Okay.

[Speaker 8] (1:21:46 - 1:21:47)
in

[Speaker 5] (1:21:47 - 1:21:47)
We don't

[Speaker 8] (1:21:47 - 1:21:47)
concert

[Speaker 5] (1:21:47 - 1:21:47)
try to

[Speaker 8] (1:21:47 - 1:21:48)
with department heads,

[Speaker 5] (1:21:48 - 1:21:48)
If

[Speaker 8] (1:21:48 - 1:21:48)
yeah.

[Speaker 5] (1:21:48 - 1:21:49)
somebody's available.

[Speaker 5] (1:21:50 - 1:21:57)
to work and the work exists we let anybody work like do we turn people away we don't turn people away okay

[Speaker 8] (1:21:57 - 1:21:58)
Not that I can think of.

[Speaker 5] (1:21:58 - 1:21:59)
just want to make sure

[Speaker 11] (1:22:00 - 1:22:03)
So because we don't budget for it, right,

[Speaker 11] (1:22:03 - 1:22:10)
there is still some level of control within the town administrator's office if we chose

[Speaker 8] (1:22:10 - 1:22:13)
to exercise in a way that we're the sole goal is limiting.

[Speaker 8] (1:22:14 - 1:22:15)
The exemption, yeah.

[Speaker 11] (1:22:16 - 1:22:16)
Okay.

[Speaker 8] (1:22:17 - 1:22:23)
And what I'm arguing is that I don't think that's a good idea based on what we the benefit we derive from it right now.

[Speaker 5] (1:22:23 - 1:22:23)
Great.

[Speaker 8] (1:22:23 - 1:22:30)
If it turned into we don't have things, we're not engaging people in a way that uses the skills and expertise that they've developed over a career,

[Speaker 8] (1:22:30 - 1:22:34)
you know, then I would absolutely agree we should look at it that way.

[Speaker 8] (1:22:35 - 1:22:46)
It is a well-functioning benefit to the community right now, both for the taxpayer as needing or seeking an exemption and the taxpayer that is funding general government operations.

[Speaker 10] (1:22:46 - 1:22:47)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 11] (1:22:47 - 1:22:54)
Okay, so but in the in the budget process, right, as we're looking for the gazintas and the gazatas, how do we determine

[Speaker 5] (1:22:54 - 1:22:55)
Is it Dr.

[Speaker 5] (1:22:55 - 1:22:55)
Seuss?

[Speaker 10] (1:22:56 - 1:22:56)
I was gonna say what

[Speaker 11] (1:22:56 - 1:22:57)
I don't know if that's a term.

[Speaker 5] (1:22:58 - 1:22:59)
Oh, okay. Just curious.

[Speaker 11] (1:22:59 - 1:23:01)
comes in, what comes, what, yeah.

[Speaker 5] (1:23:01 - 1:23:02)
Yes, got it.

[Speaker 11] (1:23:02 - 1:23:21)
Um how do how do you accommodate to know from one year to the next, I mean to budget for ninety one thousand dollars or next year is a hundred fifty thousand dollars or the next year is fifty I mean there's that wide variance. I'm just trying to understand what the controls are and what the mechanism is to when we're looking at the budget and we're trying to make choices and decisions.

[Speaker 11] (1:23:22 - 1:23:27)
Why is it not budgeted? Is it left to the discretion of the assessors to make that recommendation or to

[Speaker 8] (1:23:27 - 1:23:27)
Well,

[Speaker 11] (1:23:27 - 1:23:27)
the select

[Speaker 8] (1:23:27 - 1:23:30)
it's like board? the statutory exemptions that we've adopted.

[Speaker 8] (1:23:31 - 1:23:34)
If more visually impaired folks,

[Speaker 8] (1:23:34 - 1:23:36)
more seniors,

[Speaker 8] (1:23:36 - 1:23:39)
more veterans move to town,

[Speaker 8] (1:23:39 - 1:23:43)
it is impacted by those seeking the exemption.

[Speaker 11] (1:23:43 - 1:23:45)
I'm talking about the work off specifically.

[Speaker 8] (1:23:45 - 1:23:46)
It's an exemption ultimately.

[Speaker 1] (1:23:46 - 1:23:47)
Yeah.

[Speaker 8] (1:23:48 - 1:23:54)
If the policy direction from the board is that you would like fewer opportunities to seek that exemption,

[Speaker 5] (1:23:55 - 1:23:55)
No.

[Speaker 8] (1:23:56 - 1:24:04)
then that would be how we would go about looking for how do we limit it. Right now, if it's a $9,000 variance,

[Speaker 8] (1:24:05 - 1:24:10)
then we need to make sure that we're thinking about it in terms of the overlay and certainly when we talk to the assessors, does the overlay need to be different?

[Speaker 8] (1:24:11 - 1:24:21)
And you know, it's a that's something communities don't necessarily think about when they do adopt the statutory exemptions and the increases, where things will quite literally double in a single year.

[Speaker 8] (1:24:21 - 1:24:29)
Or if you talk about a circuit breaker tax exemption, if you don't allow the ability for the select board in a case like that to set what the match is,

[Speaker 8] (1:24:29 - 1:24:32)
you could again have this have a big one year jump.

[Speaker 8] (1:24:33 - 1:24:40)
Uh i it's it's part of the over it's an exemption it falls into the overlay we can manage as best as possible.

[Speaker 8] (1:24:42 - 1:24:47)
But as I said, I think the benefit outweighs trying to manage to a nine thousand dollar

[Speaker 7] (1:24:48 - 1:24:48)
Very

[Speaker 8] (1:24:48 - 1:24:48)
delta.

[Speaker 7] (1:24:48 - 1:24:48)
high.

[Speaker 5] (1:24:49 - 1:24:49)
Right.

[Speaker 11] (1:24:51 - 1:24:51)
Okay.

[Speaker 5] (1:24:53 - 1:25:04)
I'm saying advertise more get more people in I think it's a great benefit I think it's a benefit to the taxpayer itself like it just provides community and other things that you know seniors need to be getting anyways which is fantastic so

[Speaker 11] (1:25:05 - 1:25:07)
Is it I don't have a problem with that?

[Speaker 5] (1:25:07 - 1:25:07)
No,

[Speaker 11] (1:25:07 - 1:25:07)
This is

[Speaker 5] (1:25:07 - 1:25:08)
no, I'm not saying you do.

[Speaker 11] (1:25:08 - 1:25:20)
No, I'm I don't, but what I what I do have issues with is that when we let's say have to cut back summer help for kids who were be wait also making fifteen dollars an hour

[Speaker 7] (1:25:20 - 1:25:21)
It's totally different.

[Speaker 11] (1:25:21 - 1:25:24)
It's totally different. It's still money spent or or

[Speaker 7] (1:25:24 - 1:25:24)
He's it

[Speaker 11] (1:25:24 - 1:25:24)
or

[Speaker 7] (1:25:24 - 1:25:25)
Ryan is trying

[Speaker 11] (1:25:25 - 1:25:25)
accredited.

[Speaker 7] (1:25:25 - 1:25:27)
to say that it's unaccounted for money

[Speaker 12] (1:25:27 - 1:25:27)
It's just

[Speaker 7] (1:25:27 - 1:25:28)
right?

[Speaker 12] (1:25:28 - 1:25:28)
a budget.

[Speaker 7] (1:25:28 - 1:25:28)
It's it's

[Speaker 12] (1:25:28 - 1:25:28)
Unbudgeted.

[Speaker 7] (1:25:28 - 1:25:33)
unbudgeted money. So if it it skyrockets by twenty grand right?

[Speaker 7] (1:25:33 - 1:25:42)
Where are we where are we filling that hole? That's what he's saying. It's not project you're not projecting it. So you have no way to know what it's gonna be year to year right? That's I think what you're saying.

[Speaker 11] (1:25:42 - 1:25:42)
So,

[Speaker 12] (1:25:42 - 1:25:42)
Sure.

[Speaker 11] (1:25:42 - 1:25:47)
yeah, that seems to be one of the control the ability to control, not that I'm I'm

[Speaker 11] (1:25:46 - 1:25:47)
I encourage

[Speaker 7] (1:25:47 - 1:25:48)
I'm just trying

[Speaker 11] (1:25:48 - 1:25:48)
people

[Speaker 7] (1:25:48 - 1:25:48)
to control

[Speaker 11] (1:25:48 - 1:25:48)
to do

[Speaker 7] (1:25:48 - 1:25:48)
it,

[Speaker 11] (1:25:48 - 1:25:49)
that, right?

[Speaker 7] (1:25:49 - 1:25:49)
but yeah,

[Speaker 11] (1:25:49 - 1:25:50)
But at the same time,

[Speaker 7] (1:25:50 - 1:25:50)
okay.

[Speaker 11] (1:25:50 - 1:25:57)
we talk about what's the difference of $10,000 here and there. We just had an argument a month ago about every dollar counts,

[Speaker 7] (1:25:57 - 1:25:58)
Exactly.

[Speaker 11] (1:25:58 - 1:25:58)
right?

[Speaker 11] (1:25:58 - 1:26:05)
So what I'm trying to understand is when we are actively cutting back services,

[Speaker 11] (1:26:05 - 1:26:07)
let's say at the DBW for the summer help,

[Speaker 7] (1:26:07 - 1:26:07)
Yep.

[Speaker 11] (1:26:07 - 1:26:13)
but we're encouraging people at the same time to come in through this other entrance.

[Speaker 11] (1:26:14 - 1:26:17)
that we're still effectively paying for through the abatements.

[Speaker 11] (1:26:19 - 1:26:19)
I...

[Speaker 7] (1:26:19 - 1:26:21)
It's an inequity is what you're saying.

[Speaker 11] (1:26:21 - 1:26:24)
Not necessarily... Is it an inequity or not? It's just not controlled.

[Speaker 11] (1:26:24 - 1:26:27)
And it's like we're taking one to pay the other.

[Speaker 11] (1:26:28 - 1:26:28)
We...

[Speaker 8] (1:26:28 - 1:26:30)
It's not taking one to pay the other.

[Speaker 8] (1:26:30 - 1:26:33)
This is an exemption that is available to the community,

[Speaker 8] (1:26:33 - 1:26:36)
same as the other ones that have been adopted by the community.

[Speaker 8] (1:26:36 - 1:26:39)
If you would like us to limit it, we can.

[Speaker 8] (1:26:40 - 1:26:57)
And so we can say that there is a top an upper limit that we will not go beyond and we don't offer it or we limit the number of hours that someone can make or we lower the amount that someone could you know put towards gain as an exemption to put towards their property taxes.

[Speaker 8] (1:26:57 - 1:27:02)
It is an offered exemption so it's not the same as us saying our budgeted number for the year.

[Speaker 8] (1:27:04 - 1:27:10)
needs to be closed by $10,000, and there's a $10,000 expense which is seasonal help in the summer.

[Speaker 8] (1:27:10 - 1:27:18)
So let's have a debate about whether or not we want that priority to be funded or another priority to be funded among the things that are funded within the operating budget.

[Speaker 8] (1:27:19 - 1:27:19)
So

[Speaker 7] (1:27:19 - 1:27:19)
So that's

[Speaker 8] (1:27:19 - 1:27:19)
it's not

[Speaker 7] (1:27:19 - 1:27:19)
a different

[Speaker 8] (1:27:19 - 1:27:20)
apples

[Speaker 7] (1:27:20 - 1:27:20)
thing.

[Speaker 8] (1:27:20 - 1:27:20)
to apples.

[Speaker 7] (1:27:20 - 1:27:21)
That's an exemption.

[Speaker 11] (1:27:21 - 1:27:21)
I

[Speaker 7] (1:27:21 - 1:27:22)
That's the key piece.

[Speaker 8] (1:27:23 - 1:27:24)
It's reducing what we collect.

[Speaker 10] (1:27:25 - 1:27:26)
Hmm.

[Speaker 8] (1:27:26 - 1:27:29)
One is spending, the other is reducing what we collect.

[Speaker 11] (1:27:29 - 1:27:39)
And so if we reduce what we collect by a certain overage amount as a result of that, it still affects the final bottom line number of how much free cash we have and how much

[Speaker 7] (1:27:39 - 1:27:39)
Does

[Speaker 11] (1:27:39 - 1:27:39)
we can spend

[Speaker 8] (1:27:39 - 1:27:40)
what but

[Speaker 11] (1:27:40 - 1:27:40)
for the next

[Speaker 8] (1:27:40 - 1:27:40)
but

[Speaker 11] (1:27:40 - 1:27:40)
year.

[Speaker 8] (1:27:40 - 1:27:40)
what we're

[Speaker 5] (1:27:40 - 1:27:40)
You're

[Speaker 8] (1:27:40 - 1:27:48)
talking but what we're talking about is one is what we're passing for anticipated expenditures, the other one we're talking about what we're anticipating for income.

[Speaker 11] (1:27:50 - 1:27:50)
Yeah.

[Speaker 8] (1:27:50 - 1:27:51)
We vote on expenditures

[Speaker 11] (1:27:51 - 1:27:52)
I had

[Speaker 8] (1:27:52 - 1:27:52)
and

[Speaker 11] (1:27:52 - 1:27:52)
two sides

[Speaker 8] (1:27:52 - 1:27:52)
we set

[Speaker 11] (1:27:52 - 1:27:53)
of the coin.

[Speaker 8] (1:27:53 - 1:27:55)
that, but they're different processes that we engage

[Speaker 11] (1:27:55 - 1:27:56)
I appreciate that.

[Speaker 8] (1:27:56 - 1:27:56)
in as a community.

[Speaker 11] (1:27:56 - 1:27:57)
I do appreciate that.

[Speaker 8] (1:27:57 - 1:27:59)
One is the adoption of the budget,

[Speaker 8] (1:27:59 - 1:28:10)
the other is setting of the tax rate and the anticipated levy and what we think is coming in and what we all agree is going to be the pie from which we spend to fund the budget.

[Speaker 5] (1:28:10 - 1:28:12)
We take this into account when we...

[Speaker 5] (1:28:13 - 1:28:20)
Think about like yes, we we have taxes we are charging but then do we take that into account in taxes received back

[Speaker 5] (1:28:21 - 1:28:23)
Payments for those taxes.

[Speaker 1] (1:28:23 - 1:28:31)
Yes. So in terms of how this and other exemptions and abatements the assessors award and how that affects the budgeting process,

[Speaker 5] (1:28:31 - 1:28:32)
Do we forecast that within

[Speaker 1] (1:28:32 - 1:28:32)
we do forecast

[Speaker 5] (1:28:32 - 1:28:33)
the budget?

[Speaker 1] (1:28:33 - 1:28:35)
it as a total number and overlay.

[Speaker 1] (1:28:35 - 1:28:43)
So if you looked at the proposed budget this year, there was $300,000 proposed to be added to the overlay account. Obviously we did not anticipate to be.

[Speaker 1] (1:28:44 - 1:28:46)
in this position.

[Speaker 1] (1:28:47 - 1:28:47)
But

[Speaker 8] (1:28:47 - 1:28:48)
When you say this here, do you mean FY26

[Speaker 1] (1:28:48 - 1:28:49)
27.

[Speaker 8] (1:28:49 - 1:28:49)
or FY27?

[Speaker 5] (1:28:49 - 1:28:50)
Twenty-seven.

[Speaker 8] (1:28:50 - 1:28:50)
Okay,

[Speaker 1] (1:28:50 - 1:28:50)
Twenty-seven.

[Speaker 8] (1:28:50 - 1:28:51)
I just want to be clear.

[Speaker 5] (1:28:51 - 1:28:51)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:28:51 - 1:28:59)
And that was increased $50,000 from the prior year in anticipation of some increase in the Heroes Act related changes.

[Speaker 5] (1:28:59 - 1:28:59)
Yep.

[Speaker 1] (1:28:59 - 1:29:04)
Obviously that succeeded $50,000 now that we have one year of historical we can point to.

[Speaker 1] (1:29:05 - 1:29:11)
But when we're computing our levy and using that to build the budget it includes an amount for overlay each year so I guess

[Speaker 1] (1:29:11 - 1:29:14)
because that's the point of um forecasting,

[Speaker 11] (1:29:15 - 1:29:15)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:29:15 - 1:29:16)
if you will. Okay?

[Speaker 11] (1:29:16 - 1:29:19)
Okay. That I think uh answers my question

[Speaker 5] (1:29:19 - 1:29:19)
Okay,

[Speaker 11] (1:29:19 - 1:29:19)
or

[Speaker 5] (1:29:19 - 1:29:19)
we get there.

[Speaker 3] (1:29:19 - 1:29:19)
Okay, if we get

[Speaker 2] (1:29:19 - 1:29:19)
closely.

[Speaker 3] (1:29:19 - 1:29:19)
there,

[Speaker 4] (1:29:19 - 1:29:20)
Going

[Speaker 3] (1:29:20 - 1:29:20)
I think we

[Speaker 4] (1:29:20 - 1:29:20)
we

[Speaker 3] (1:29:20 - 1:29:22)
get to should. the two one have to listen to the other way. I think we get there.

[Speaker 2] (1:29:23 - 1:29:24)
There's some level of

[Speaker 3] (1:29:24 - 1:29:24)
There's

[Speaker 2] (1:29:24 - 1:29:24)
forecast

[Speaker 3] (1:29:24 - 1:29:25)
some level

[Speaker 2] (1:29:25 - 1:29:25)
and

[Speaker 3] (1:29:25 - 1:29:27)
of forecasting which appreciates that this is happening.

[Speaker 1] (1:29:28 - 1:29:28)
Right.

[Speaker 2] (1:29:28 - 1:29:28)
Exactly.

[Speaker 3] (1:29:28 - 1:29:29)
Yes.

[Speaker 2] (1:29:30 - 1:29:31)
Okay. Thank you.

[Speaker 1] (1:29:31 - 1:29:32)
You're welcome.

[Speaker 1] (1:29:33 - 1:29:34)
Next.

[Speaker 1] (1:29:34 - 1:29:35)
Um

[Speaker 1] (1:29:36 - 1:29:36)
COVID.

[Speaker 1] (1:29:37 - 1:29:38)
COVID. Let's talk about COVID.

[Speaker 1] (1:29:39 - 1:29:50)
Um so there is a deficit on our balance sheet related to emergency pandemic expenditures that occurred years ago as we're going back to 21,

[Speaker 1] (1:29:50 - 1:29:51)
22.

[Speaker 1] (1:29:51 - 1:29:55)
Um and this deficit comes about because

[Speaker 1] (1:29:56 - 1:30:02)
The rules related to the pandemic funds authorized by Congress changed multiple times throughout the pandemic.

[Speaker 1] (1:30:02 - 1:30:10)
And so there were certain expenditures that were ultimately disallowed under the CARES Act and FEMA emergency relief.

[Speaker 1] (1:30:10 - 1:30:13)
There were two different funding sources for these things.

[Speaker 1] (1:30:14 - 1:30:17)
And those costs were primarily related to

[Speaker 1] (1:30:17 - 1:30:44)
um the testing clinics which were quite costly. Um so it's not something that we're alone in. There were a hundred and forty communities in Massachusetts roughly that had some kind of cares and FEMA related deficit. Um and the DOR has provided exemptions through twenty six to say you don't need to uh fund these. Um you can carry them on your balance sheet. It won't

[Speaker 1] (1:30:44 - 1:30:53)
it won't reduce your free cash and all that so it hasn't really become an issue until now we're in twenty seven and the D_O_R_ saying these things need to be firmed up.

[Speaker 5] (1:30:53 - 1:31:08)
But we our our financial director was working very closely with the state to make sure that every penny we spent was within compliance of those laws. So

[Speaker 1] (1:31:08 - 1:31:08)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 5] (1:31:09 - 1:31:11)
You know, this is not a short amount of money, two hundred and four

[Speaker 3] (1:31:11 - 1:31:12)
It's

[Speaker 5] (1:31:12 - 1:31:12)
K,

[Speaker 3] (1:31:12 - 1:31:12)
two hundred

[Speaker 5] (1:31:12 - 1:31:12)
so

[Speaker 3] (1:31:12 - 1:31:13)
and two hundred four thousand

[Speaker 5] (1:31:13 - 1:31:13)
I

[Speaker 1] (1:31:13 - 1:31:13)
right.

[Speaker 3] (1:31:13 - 1:31:13)
and

[Speaker 7] (1:31:13 - 1:31:13)
I

[Speaker 3] (1:31:13 - 1:31:14)
three pennies.

[Speaker 7] (1:31:14 - 1:31:15)
just missed a couple pennies.

[Speaker 5] (1:31:15 - 1:31:20)
And how did, I you know, is this because the state gave us

[Speaker 3] (1:31:20 - 1:31:21)
I found advice.

[Speaker 5] (1:31:21 - 1:31:23)
bad advice or

[Speaker 1] (1:31:24 - 1:31:33)
I think it's related to the rules for each bucket of money. There was the CARES Act funding and there was the FEMA funding and the rules changed.

[Speaker 1] (1:31:34 - 1:31:35)
Multiple times throughout

[Speaker 7] (1:31:35 - 1:31:35)
Right.

[Speaker 1] (1:31:35 - 1:31:36)
the pandemic,

[Speaker 1] (1:31:36 - 1:31:44)
obviously we were making expenditures under emergency circumstances. We had to do, you know, testing.

[Speaker 1] (1:31:44 - 1:31:47)
I mean, I don't even want to go back there and list off all the things we had to do,

[Speaker 7] (1:31:47 - 1:31:48)
I'll bet

[Speaker 1] (1:31:48 - 1:31:48)
but

[Speaker 7] (1:31:48 - 1:31:49)
you there can't really speak to

[Speaker 1] (1:31:49 - 1:31:49)
were

[Speaker 7] (1:31:49 - 1:31:49)
all

[Speaker 1] (1:31:49 - 1:31:49)
a lot

[Speaker 7] (1:31:49 - 1:31:49)
of that.

[Speaker 1] (1:31:49 - 1:31:55)
of things that had to be done right away and seemed appropriate within the rules and when it all shaped out.

[Speaker 1] (1:31:56 - 1:31:57)
Two years later and

[Speaker 7] (1:31:57 - 1:31:57)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 1] (1:31:57 - 1:32:16)
everything was firmed up, it it it wasn't allowable. Um and there was opportunities to resubmit, you know, if you submitted expenditures to FEMA and they declined them, you could resubmit them under the CARES Act or vice versa. So there was a lot of like, you know, you can't double dip obviously, but

[Speaker 7] (1:32:16 - 1:32:16)
Right.

[Speaker 1] (1:32:16 - 1:32:22)
you need to you know, if you're declined you could go to the next agency and try and get that funding approved for it, but it was a lot it was very

[Speaker 1] (1:32:23 - 1:32:24)
back and forth and

[Speaker 1] (1:32:25 - 1:32:25)
So

[Speaker 2] (1:32:25 - 1:32:31)
Well, can you possibly explain I mean we're looking at five years ago almost six years ago at this point.

[Speaker 2] (1:32:31 - 1:32:33)
Why why are we seeing this now?

[Speaker 3] (1:32:34 - 1:32:36)
We could carry it on our balance sheets

[Speaker 7] (1:32:36 - 1:32:36)
up Up

[Speaker 3] (1:32:36 - 1:32:36)
to 2026.

[Speaker 7] (1:32:36 - 1:32:37)
to 2026.

[Speaker 1] (1:32:37 - 1:32:37)
Right.

[Speaker 2] (1:32:37 - 1:32:41)
Has this been already been carried on our balance sheet? This has been discussed in years before I guess this point of view.

[Speaker 3] (1:32:41 - 1:32:42)
No.

[Speaker 7] (1:32:42 - 1:32:42)
No, it's never

[Speaker 3] (1:32:42 - 1:32:43)
No, it

[Speaker 7] (1:32:43 - 1:32:43)
discussed

[Speaker 3] (1:32:43 - 1:32:43)
hasn't.

[Speaker 7] (1:32:43 - 1:32:45)
it, but we carried it probably that long.

[Speaker 1] (1:32:45 - 1:32:49)
Yeah, so this has existed since twenty three. We had a deficit on our balance sheet,

[Speaker 7] (1:32:49 - 1:32:49)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:32:49 - 1:33:02)
okay? So from 2023 to now, it existed. It what did not reduce our free cash, so we didn't have um that I guess penalty from DOR.

[Speaker 7] (1:33:02 - 1:33:12)
So so someone in your position knew about this since 2023 and this is the first time that we're hearing about it. Is that safe to say?

[Speaker 1] (1:33:13 - 1:33:15)
I can't say for certain that it wasn't spoken about

[Speaker 5] (1:33:15 - 1:33:16)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:33:16 - 1:33:17)
previously, you know, over the past

[Speaker 7] (1:33:17 - 1:33:17)
Right.

[Speaker 1] (1:33:17 - 1:33:17)
four years.

[Speaker 5] (1:33:17 - 1:33:19)
But it's never spoken about here.

[Speaker 3] (1:33:19 - 1:33:20)
I haven't not seen it as

[Speaker 7] (1:33:20 - 1:33:21)
As

[Speaker 3] (1:33:21 - 1:33:21)
much.

[Speaker 7] (1:33:21 - 1:33:21)
long as

[Speaker 3] (1:33:21 - 1:33:21)
Not

[Speaker 7] (1:33:21 - 1:33:21)
we've been

[Speaker 3] (1:33:21 - 1:33:21)
here.

[Speaker 7] (1:33:21 - 1:33:22)
here.

[Speaker 3] (1:33:22 - 1:33:22)
Okay.

[Speaker 5] (1:33:22 - 1:33:23)
Right. Right.

[Speaker 3] (1:33:23 - 1:33:24)
Right, yeah. I don't want to

[Speaker 2] (1:33:24 - 1:33:24)
That's

[Speaker 7] (1:33:24 - 1:33:24)
say Yes.

[Speaker 5] (1:33:24 - 1:33:24)
Certainly

[Speaker 2] (1:33:24 - 1:33:25)
it's disgusting.

[Speaker 3] (1:33:25 - 1:33:25)
not not

[Speaker 2] (1:33:25 - 1:33:25)
in FinCon?

[Speaker 5] (1:33:25 - 1:33:25)
you,

[Speaker 3] (1:33:25 - 1:33:25)
yeah.

[Speaker 5] (1:33:25 - 1:33:26)
I know that.

[Speaker 1] (1:33:26 - 1:33:26)
Yeah.

[Speaker 5] (1:33:26 - 1:33:26)
But

[Speaker 1] (1:33:26 - 1:33:29)
Yeah, but it was important for me to bring it to you.

[Speaker 7] (1:33:29 - 1:33:29)
Yes,

[Speaker 1] (1:33:29 - 1:33:29)
Obviously,

[Speaker 7] (1:33:29 - 1:33:29)
I apprec

[Speaker 1] (1:33:29 - 1:33:30)
it needs to be addressed.

[Speaker 7] (1:33:30 - 1:33:31)
appreciate that.

[Speaker 3] (1:33:31 - 1:33:31)
Well,

[Speaker 5] (1:33:31 - 1:33:35)
We we discussed we discussed ARPA money ad nauseum.

[Speaker 1] (1:33:35 - 1:33:36)
Yeah, this is not ARPA.

[Speaker 7] (1:33:36 - 1:33:37)
This is not

[Speaker 5] (1:33:37 - 1:33:37)
Right.

[Speaker 7] (1:33:37 - 1:33:37)
our problem.

[Speaker 5] (1:33:37 - 1:33:37)
Right.

[Speaker 5] (1:33:38 - 1:33:38)
Right.

[Speaker 8] (1:33:38 - 1:33:40)
How are other towns managing this?

[Speaker 1] (1:33:41 - 1:33:42)
Um

[Speaker 8] (1:33:42 - 1:33:43)
140 towns, you said?

[Speaker 1] (1:33:43 - 1:33:53)
Yep, so since then towns have funded this different ways. So if the GoR is requiring you to if you'd take no action fund this through your tax levy this year,

[Speaker 1] (1:33:53 - 1:33:54)
in FY27.

[Speaker 3] (1:33:54 - 1:33:55)
Lovely.

[Speaker 1] (1:33:55 - 1:33:56)
For sure.

[Speaker 7] (1:33:56 - 1:33:56)
All

[Speaker 1] (1:33:56 - 1:33:56)
And

[Speaker 7] (1:33:56 - 1:33:56)
in this Star

[Speaker 1] (1:33:56 - 1:33:57)
would

[Speaker 7] (1:33:57 - 1:33:57)
Trek.

[Speaker 1] (1:33:57 - 1:34:01)
be, you know, the the rules that changed were at the federal level. So, and

[Speaker 3] (1:34:01 - 1:34:01)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:34:01 - 1:34:02)
that's my understanding that was done with

[Speaker 3] (1:34:02 - 1:34:03)
That

[Speaker 1] (1:34:03 - 1:34:03)
OBRA

[Speaker 3] (1:34:03 - 1:34:03)
was done

[Speaker 1] (1:34:03 - 1:34:03)
and

[Speaker 3] (1:34:03 - 1:34:03)
and we're

[Speaker 1] (1:34:03 - 1:34:03)
HIPCIS

[Speaker 3] (1:34:03 - 1:34:03)
still.

[Speaker 1] (1:34:03 - 1:34:04)
Act. Okay. Yeah.

[Speaker 8] (1:34:05 - 1:34:06)
Do we know what?

[Speaker 1] (1:34:06 - 1:34:07)
Correct. Yeah.

[Speaker 5] (1:34:08 - 1:34:12)
And we had open COVID testing where anybody could come in and, but

[Speaker 8] (1:34:12 - 1:34:13)
I mean it

[Speaker 7] (1:34:13 - 1:34:15)
I didn't want to spend legal, spend legal money.

[Speaker 9] (1:34:15 - 1:34:19)
The next point, this is getting spent off of our balance sheet from free cash.

[Speaker 1] (1:34:20 - 1:34:23)
So just a couple of timeline items.

[Speaker 1] (1:34:23 - 1:34:29)
Obviously year-end has so just a couple of timeline items. Obviously year-end has happened.

[Speaker 1] (1:34:30 - 1:34:32)
I'm presenting the results to you now.

[Speaker 1] (1:34:32 - 1:34:36)
I'm submitting our balance sheet to the Department of Revenue in September.

[Speaker 1] (1:34:36 - 1:34:38)
We should get our free cash certification back.

[Speaker 1] (1:34:38 - 1:34:48)
back shortly after that by the end of October for sure. And then I'll submit schedule A_ which is just another report of revenue and expenditures to D_O_R_ in their format in November.

[Speaker 1] (1:34:50 - 1:34:51)
Great.

[Speaker 3] (1:34:51 - 1:34:51)
Thank you, Patrick.

[Speaker 7] (1:34:51 - 1:34:52)
Thank you, Patrick.

[Speaker 2] (1:34:52 - 1:34:53)
Thank you, Patrick.

[Speaker 3] (1:34:53 - 1:34:53)
Oh.

[Speaker 10] (1:34:53 - 1:34:54)
Just give me one second, man. Just give me one second, man.

[Speaker 1] (1:34:54 - 1:34:54)
Okay.

[Speaker 10] (1:34:54 - 1:34:55)
Just give me one second, man.

[Speaker 3] (1:34:55 - 1:34:56)
I'm sorry.

[Speaker 3] (1:34:56 - 1:34:57)
Oh.

[Speaker 10] (1:34:57 - 1:34:57)
Come on, news.

[Speaker 1] (1:34:58 - 1:34:59)
This is only four slides,

[Speaker 1] (1:35:00 - 1:35:00)
which

[Speaker 11] (1:35:00 - 1:35:00)
Great.

[Speaker 7] (1:35:00 - 1:35:01)
Yes.

[Speaker 1] (1:35:01 - 1:35:21)
which would mean an appropriation existed and a purchase order was set up and used to conduct that purchase. They also looked at procurement within the water and sewer enterprise funds. They looked at the expenditures for compliance with Master and Allow 30B, which dictates procurement for municipalities and the state.

[Speaker 1] (1:35:21 - 1:35:25)
And then they also looked at a rec revolving fund to review the

[Speaker 1] (1:35:25 - 1:35:33)
with the flow of transactions, basically how um you know all aspects of their financial operations were functioning. Next slide.

[Speaker 5] (1:35:34 - 1:35:35)
They didn't look at any other procurement?

[Speaker 1] (1:35:36 - 1:35:37)
Uh the procurement

[Speaker 5] (1:35:37 - 1:35:38)
Just was Waterfront?

[Speaker 1] (1:35:38 - 1:35:38)
was

[Speaker 1] (1:35:41 - 1:35:48)
Okay. To be done well in advance of

[Speaker 1] (1:35:49 - 1:35:50)
Uh, I would say March.

[Speaker 5] (1:35:51 - 1:35:51)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:35:51 - 1:35:52)
Okay.

[Speaker 3] (1:35:52 - 1:35:53)
Maybe at the same time as this one.

[Speaker 3] (1:35:54 - 1:35:55)
It's twenty five.

[Speaker 1] (1:35:55 - 1:35:56)
Um if

[Speaker 5] (1:35:56 - 1:35:58)
It could affect our bond rating.

[Speaker 1] (1:36:00 - 1:36:03)
the accounting system and to provide them some additional tre

[Speaker 1] (1:36:03 - 1:36:09)
That'll revolve a lot around training, so circulating the purchasing policy with uh to all the department heads and directors.

[Speaker 1] (1:36:10 - 1:36:23)
and getting a written acknowledgement of receipt of that policy and providing professional development opportunity during fiscal 27 for and providing professional development opportunity during fiscal 27 for department heads, directors,

[Speaker 1] (1:36:23 - 1:36:34)
and staff that are involved in the procurement process for their departments to make sure everyone has at least a general understanding of the rules, make sure everyone has at least a general understanding of the rules that apply.

[Speaker 1] (1:36:35 - 1:36:45)
I think we have a lot of turnover and a lot of new people and that's due um to make sure we're all on a level playing field that's due um to make sure we're all on a level playing

[Speaker 9] (1:36:45 - 1:36:45)
Like really impressive.

[Speaker 7] (1:36:46 - 1:36:46)
Absolutely.

[Speaker 8] (1:36:46 - 1:36:50)
It's October. We are not without fault. We

[Speaker 3] (1:36:50 - 1:37:00)
And so like we're able to say like go on the go forward there's some recent sample sample sizes that sample sample sizes that obviously matters because then the data is different but

[Speaker 3] (1:37:01 - 1:37:02)
If obviously

[Speaker 1] (1:37:02 - 1:37:03)
We just had done.

[Speaker 2] (1:37:03 - 1:37:04)
Okay.

[Speaker 12] (1:37:05 - 1:37:08)
Narrow roads, curvy streets. The cars that are still there, buy the list.

[Speaker 12] (1:37:09 - 1:37:12)
And to parking only, it doesn't say resident sticker parking.

[Speaker 3] (1:37:12 - 1:37:16)
from the residents, or it's going to be for residents.

[Speaker 12] (1:37:16 - 1:37:27)
That area was we've made recent commitments to the residents of those neighbourhoods about trying to control parking and geographically that was an easy one to us as an area that's walking distance to the schools.

[Speaker 12] (1:37:27 - 1:37:29)
This is an area that's walking distance to the schools.

[Speaker 12] (1:37:29 - 1:37:39)
From there we worked, worked on the beach side, on the beach side, basically allow,

[Speaker 12] (1:37:39 - 1:37:41)
we're not asking you to make allow.

[Speaker 13] (1:37:41 - 1:37:44)
We're not asking you to make a decision tonight, we're looking

[Speaker 7] (1:37:44 - 1:37:44)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 13] (1:37:44 - 1:37:44)
for any piece

[Speaker 5] (1:37:44 - 1:37:44)
No.

[Speaker 9] (1:37:44 - 1:37:49)
often looked at as a transit zone, but that development was not built as a tran development was not built as a transit zone.

[Speaker 12] (1:37:49 - 1:37:53)
Clearly the neighbourhood and the there is a need there. Clearly the neighbourhood and the there is a need there.

[Speaker 8] (1:37:53 - 1:37:57)
commuter spot because right now a resident on Pine Street that has resident

[Speaker 7] (1:37:57 - 1:37:58)
One

[Speaker 3] (1:37:58 - 1:38:01)
the multi-zoned distinction about

[Speaker 12] (1:38:01 - 1:38:02)
Um,

[Speaker 9] (1:38:02 - 1:38:02)
Right.

[Speaker 12] (1:38:02 - 1:38:02)
but

[Speaker 3] (1:38:02 - 1:38:04)
it because not everything is resident only.

[Speaker 13] (1:38:04 - 1:38:05)
Okay.

[Speaker 9] (1:38:05 - 1:38:05)
Correct.

[Speaker 12] (1:38:05 - 1:38:05)
Yes, but we

[Speaker 3] (1:38:05 - 1:38:06)
So you've only

[Speaker 12] (1:38:06 - 1:38:06)
haven't

[Speaker 3] (1:38:06 - 1:38:06)
given us

[Speaker 12] (1:38:06 - 1:38:06)
felt the need

[Speaker 3] (1:38:06 - 1:38:06)
the

[Speaker 12] (1:38:06 - 1:38:07)
to restrict

[Speaker 3] (1:38:07 - 1:38:07)
colors

[Speaker 12] (1:38:07 - 1:38:07)
every street.

[Speaker 3] (1:38:07 - 1:38:08)
streets that are rim and

[Speaker 7] (1:38:08 - 1:38:09)
Right.

[Speaker 7] (1:38:09 - 1:38:09)
Is it?

[Speaker 13] (1:38:09 - 1:38:17)
What is reasonable distance is a basic question. But on top of all that, it also lends itself to citizen-directed enforcement that's...

[Speaker 5] (1:38:17 - 1:38:18)
So

[Speaker 5] (1:38:19 - 1:38:22)
Could we just change the definition of what is r_ could we just be

[Speaker 14] (1:38:22 - 1:38:26)
And they'd been in I think we talked about DoorDash, Uber driver,

[Speaker 9] (1:38:26 - 1:38:26)
Yeah.

[Speaker 14] (1:38:26 - 1:38:26)
Uber Eats.

[Speaker 3] (1:38:27 - 1:38:27)
Sorry.

[Speaker 9] (1:38:27 - 1:38:28)
Changing it to away

[Speaker 12] (1:38:28 - 1:38:29)
No,

[Speaker 9] (1:38:29 - 1:38:29)
from the

[Speaker 12] (1:38:29 - 1:38:29)
absolutely

[Speaker 9] (1:38:29 - 1:38:29)
parking.

[Speaker 12] (1:38:29 - 1:38:30)
not.

[Speaker 9] (1:38:30 - 1:38:30)
Okay.

[Speaker 12] (1:38:30 - 1:38:31)
But if there was any unregulated spaces,

[Speaker 12] (1:38:31 - 1:38:32)
they'd become regulated.

[Speaker 12] (1:38:33 - 1:38:35)
I think we can skip a couple slides till we get to.

[Speaker 12] (1:38:37 - 1:38:52)
markings. Right now those are all problems that we, it would tremendously improve the ability um but these are the things that we would be recommending at some point the select board take action on which is the um parking committee.

[Speaker 12] (1:38:53 - 1:38:56)
That's really important and then the other proposals

[Speaker 3] (1:38:56 - 1:39:02)
Does anybody right now in discussion and not voting feel the fire, Gino, Marzi,

[Speaker 3] (1:39:02 - 1:39:03)
you're all having these conversations already,

[Speaker 3] (1:39:03 - 1:39:04)
we're just formalizing it.

[Speaker 1] (1:39:04 - 1:39:05)
All right.

[Speaker 9] (1:39:05 - 1:39:05)
And

[Speaker 13] (1:39:05 - 1:39:06)
For this,

[Speaker 9] (1:39:06 - 1:39:06)
putting

[Speaker 13] (1:39:06 - 1:39:07)
so the idea

[Speaker 7] (1:39:07 - 1:39:08)
That's what happened

[Speaker 13] (1:39:08 - 1:39:08)
is

[Speaker 7] (1:39:08 - 1:39:08)
last night.

[Speaker 13] (1:39:08 - 1:39:14)
to formalize something that people can participate. So the idea is to formalize something that people.

[Speaker 3] (1:39:16 - 1:39:17)
That's my inspiration.

[Speaker 2] (1:39:17 - 1:39:18)
Select board does maintain

[Speaker 3] (1:39:18 - 1:39:19)
Right.

[Speaker 2] (1:39:19 - 1:39:19)
the authority.

[Speaker 3] (1:39:19 - 1:39:21)
I just want to make sure that we're not

[Speaker 4] (1:39:22 - 1:39:30)
We did create a form, too, where the public would be able to submit additional recommendations that are supported by community outreach.

[Speaker 3] (1:39:30 - 1:39:31)
Okay.

[Speaker 4] (1:39:31 - 1:39:33)
That's what I was thinking. But if

[Speaker 3] (1:39:33 - 1:39:33)
I

[Speaker 4] (1:39:33 - 1:39:33)
you

[Speaker 3] (1:39:33 - 1:39:33)
would agree to that.

[Speaker 5] (1:39:34 - 1:39:39)
Yeah, the framework is what I like. So that's I'm just suggesting that we follow this and we can work out

[Speaker 7] (1:39:39 - 1:39:42)
situation in and around the elementary school.

[Speaker 7] (1:39:42 - 1:39:43)
Obviously, when it opened,

[Speaker 7] (1:39:43 - 1:39:46)
it was very cumbersome. It was new.

[Speaker 7] (1:39:47 - 1:39:48)
There was a lot of change.

[Speaker 7] (1:39:48 - 1:39:49)
People don't like change.

[Speaker 7] (1:39:49 - 1:39:51)
We tried to figure out the best way and how to handle it.

[Speaker 7] (1:39:53 - 1:39:55)
And in doing so, I think we did a pretty good job to start,

[Speaker 7] (1:39:55 - 1:40:00)
but one of the things that we kept in the back of our minds was very,

[Speaker 4] (1:40:00 - 1:40:01)
rolling

[Speaker 7] (1:40:01 - 1:40:03)
very well.

[Speaker 4] (1:40:03 - 1:40:03)
perfect

[Speaker 7] (1:40:04 - 1:40:15)
Received some complaints about the traffic flow that comes in there. In and out of there we've discussed different variations on how to handle that traffic flow and what we should do with those streets.

[Speaker 7] (1:40:15 - 1:40:22)
We don't want to do anything drastic and we think with our plans coming up that we can mitigate that, if you could go to the next slide,

[Speaker 7] (1:40:22 - 1:40:25)
and Laurel Road.

[Speaker 7] (1:40:26 - 1:40:34)
This is as it turns on as a very short street and creates a problem at the egress of part of the rolling pickup.

[Speaker 7] (1:40:34 - 1:40:40)
To about a 14-minute dismissed by roughly 2.24 p.m.

[Speaker 8] (1:40:40 - 1:40:41)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 7] (1:40:41 - 1:40:43)
And you have cars.

[Speaker 7] (1:40:43 - 1:40:44)
I also spoke with Mr.

[Speaker 7] (1:40:44 - 1:40:45)
Kalishman.

[Speaker 7] (1:40:46 - 1:40:47)
They're in agreement. They're understanding.

[Speaker 7] (1:40:48 - 1:40:51)
They're in agreement. They're understanding and appreciate.

[Speaker 7] (1:40:52 - 1:40:55)
and appreciate the multiple

[Speaker 9] (1:40:55 - 1:40:59)
They're going to block it with those cones so they can't They're get up going to block it with those cones so they can't

[Speaker 7] (1:40:59 - 1:40:59)
not

[Speaker 9] (1:40:59 - 1:41:00)
get up to shoot.

[Speaker 7] (1:41:00 - 1:41:02)
going to be able to pull up. We're obviously the

[Speaker 9] (1:41:02 - 1:41:02)
are they just going to

[Speaker 7] (1:41:02 - 1:41:04)
vehicles queued up,

[Speaker 7] (1:41:04 - 1:41:06)
vehicles queued up.

[Speaker 7] (1:41:06 - 1:41:07)
The school buses cannot,

[Speaker 7] (1:41:07 - 1:41:09)
the school buses cannot make it through.

[Speaker 9] (1:41:09 - 1:41:09)
No.

[Speaker 4] (1:41:09 - 1:41:11)
They drive down the middle of the road

[Speaker 7] (1:41:11 - 1:41:11)
So

[Speaker 9] (1:41:11 - 1:41:11)
Oh,

[Speaker 4] (1:41:11 - 1:41:11)
now.

[Speaker 9] (1:41:11 - 1:41:11)
they

[Speaker 7] (1:41:11 - 1:41:11)
the

[Speaker 9] (1:41:11 - 1:41:11)
drive

[Speaker 7] (1:41:11 - 1:41:13)
school buses come in.

[Speaker 7] (1:41:13 - 1:41:15)
We'll definitely have Chapman Ave,

[Speaker 7] (1:41:15 - 1:41:16)
Phillips Ave,

[Speaker 7] (1:41:17 - 1:41:17)
Atlanta Crossing.

[Speaker 7] (1:41:18 - 1:41:19)
It's the exact same distance.

[Speaker 5] (1:41:19 - 1:41:20)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 7] (1:41:20 - 1:41:21)
It was our goal.

[Speaker 7] (1:41:21 - 1:41:23)
I mean, I just got my feet.

[Speaker 9] (1:41:23 - 1:41:28)
Schools to get more kids walking or riding their bikes, whatever. Is that?

[Speaker 7] (1:41:29 - 1:41:30)
In short, no,

[Speaker 7] (1:41:30 - 1:41:31)
we don't really.

[Speaker 7] (1:41:33 - 1:41:34)
pruning of trees.