So, we had Sergeant Rocky and and Sergeant Pierce talk about the extra responsibilities that they have. Um, we have Officer Oriker who is our court officer. She's our evidence officer. She works handinhand with Kristen every day. um you know taking on multiple multiple roles. So adding that one person that trickles up and maybe it allows you know the sergeant to to not have to have one less responsibility and he can move on to something else needs to get done and it trickles up to maybe allowing me to have some more time um to to work towards that accreditation process or have one of the sergeants or a lieutenant help me help me further that. Um that is a very important goal of ours. Um you know and it's an expectation these days that that departments are operating at that high level. Um so again we're kind of starting from starting from behind.
>> So has that those conversations already started to take place that the >> I'm assuming the facility will be ready by next year. >> So the facility will open uh fall of 2027. Uh well, it'll it'll open in June of 2027, but start servicing Lilya complex in fall of 2027. So, the conversations are have already started. >> Thank you. >> And we have a plan to kind of going off on tangent, but our plan to roll it out is when it opens in fall of 20 27, we're going to start with four schools in Liha complex just to get things operations going. And then every quarter, we're going to expand five schools. So by the end of the first year we'll be servicing all of Lily and Milani Wua. The second year we're going to expand to Aya Monalor Radford. The third year will be into Leroy district.
Um this one officer again it's going to trickle up and allow us to really start um you know well stop spreading everybody so thin. Um but it's it's only step one to your point of of a of a bigger process. So I don't know if that answers your question but >> it does. I also does it open up the doors once accreditation is achieved does it open up the doors for additional grant funding? >> I don't know the ex the exact extent. I do believe that that is true. I don't know if Chief you might be able to talk to that more. >> We're getting to the point where in the next 3 to 5 years accreditation is going to become mandated. Post is going to mandate it is what we're hearing. >> Okay. So the days of, you know, getting accredited and it was a feather in your cap and you could apply for state and federal grants.
So Pearl City W Pahu Nanakuli Wai and then the last year will be Campbell Cap. So in four years we're going to be servicing all of central and leahu. >> Okay. One quick question. So that's all fine and well, but you in the meantime, you guys just kicking the ball because you know that the kitchens are going to open before scaling up because again, we brought this up last year. So I hope you guys just not waiting for the for the um regional kitchens because the clock is ticking and the money is going out the door. >> Yeah. >> Senator, >> are you intending um do you believe that this bill is intended to help you folks meet your 30% local food goal? I think the bill is not it's intended to help but not directly because 250,000 is not a huge part of 30% by 2030.
Um, it's going to be mandated. We want to get ahead of that, >> right? And and I think if if things go and we talk about our strategic plans and what we have, I think in the next 18 months, if we can give the deputy like six to eight months where he can dedicate the majority of his time to just accreditation, he will get it done. If anyone can get it done, he will. Um, and that's that's part of our goal. >> Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you, Mike. And um and so I I'll move to the buildings and grounds uh department and the $260,000 funded there. Oh, there's Doug. I knew you snuck in here somewhere. And Dan, um if you gentlemen want to come up here and help me, um I would have greatly appreciate it. Thanks, Captain. Um trying to think of the best place to start with this.
So, it's more it it'll help, but it's more of the it allows us to pilot bigger quantities to to try things out to see how it fits with our menu and just establish relationships with with the farmers. But then I also believe that that 30% goal is intended to help the local farmers as well. So increasing the threshold to 250,000 um might kind of squeeze the little guy out, have the big distributors come in. So it's kind of getting away from helping the local farmers. >> We can still do smaller amounts, too. >> How often do you Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. It's it's it's tricky because a lot of it is availability and it's like it's just not an attractive offer for farmers to have to deliver like one case here and one case there. So, um some of it is depending on their they might have sporadic supply and this might allow us to uh pilot with some of those supplies as well.
Let's let's just start with um why there's a need um for building a separate building and field operations. Well, DPW is a massive enterprise. It it it consists of highway, cemetery, parks and trees, water, sewer, storm water, fields, facilities, um engineering. What am I missing, gentlemen? Did I get it all? >> Oh, rubbish and recycling. It's a massive enterprise. And and so what happens is that um just not enough leadership focus, I think, gets put on on any one. It's really hard to balance them all out. And simultaneously, we're adding on more buildings, more complicated buildings, and we haven't grown our staff. Um, and some of these buildings require pretty significant preventive maintenance um to be done in order to maintain warranties and make sh things make sure things are working correctly. But just in our highway department, you know, we've seen an increase significant increase uh in work orders.
>> How often do you see if this bill passes the 250,000 how many times do you think you'll have to issue that? Is it a real barrier? >> I'm not sure. I can get back to you on that. I don't know what we anticipate for that. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Sean. Thank you, chair. >> Okay. Thank you. And thank you for reminding us that we need to schedule a recent briefing on this audit. Yes. >> Um so we can talk more about what's in the audit. >> Sounds good. Thank you. >> Thank you. U members, decision- making, I am going to recommend to defer all the measures on the agenda for decision- making till Monday. number of them requires a lot of um amendments. So I don't want to go and peacemeal it at this point and really thinking about you know how this works in relationship to some of the other bills that we passed.
And same thing with uh facilities requests. We're anticipating uh in FY27, almost a 20% increase. Um maybe you gentlemen can just talk a little bit. We're we're starting to do a better job of of of data collection and kind of seeing some of that, but um maybe you can kind of see where some of that demand, especially in the facilities um area where you're seeing a lot of that pressure. >> You start. Hi everybody. Um, >> okay. So, uh, start with the buildings. So, um, I think today we have the town of Ashlin has 12 or 13 buildings. Um, so 20 years ago, a little more than 20 years ago, the town hall, the library, and the community center came online. So, the community center was new. The library was refurbished, renovated, and so was the town hall. So that means all of the utilities in the buildings were also new at the time for over 20 years.
So it will give us some time to work on it and if you have any concerns or issues you can bring it up uh and then we can incorporate that into the decision making. Okay. So with that all measures will be deferred until our agenda on Monday. We'll probably do like a 110 agenda, something like that, after the direct hearings and all of those hearings. Okay, with that we are a journal number 229 here in this room. Anything else I'm missing?
So, and back then, I think we had uh two people in in the facilities department. And so they they they did okay because everything was new, you know, all the the boilers, the hot water heaters, the air handler units, things like that. So, but now here we are 20 years later with these three buildings and every day is a crisis. Every day. Not a crisis like police and fire, but it's a crisis every day. How was your heat today, Katherine? Was it out, Michael? >> Amazing. >> Thank you. Every day it's a new surprise, you know. So, it's a constant thing, you know, where every day we're putting out we're dealing with a a a boiler down or a furnace down or air handle unit or uh could be a a uh uh doorway or um anyways, it's just continuous. So, so that's the issue with those three buildings.
They're multiple. It's every single day and and I'm not I'm not joking. Um, and then as far as the public safety building, that is, uh, the technology in there is all fairly new and it's not something even your common average, um, uh, technicians are used to yet. Um, so it's a major learning curve uh, with these with the public safety building and, uh, Deputy Chief U. Ventula can definitely attest to that, too. So, um, so that's the public safety building, which is a whole other animal. Um, and then, uh, let's see. So, some of the other buildings. Anyway, so the facilities department, we call it the facilities department has been evolving very slowly for the last 20 years. Um, for example, uh, it's just been evolving very, very slowly. So, there's just two people in that department. Uh, one person has to work six days a week.
Um, and it's just it's too much. It's way too much. It's way too And it has been way too much for a long long time. And it is the facilities department is a particular department that has been overlooked for decades in Ashlin and it goes back to Mike Dion with a broom or you know working as a custodian. So, this is a way of being able to protect the taxpayers's money, their investment in these buildings. If we don't take care of them, it's only going to cost us more in the short and the long run. It's you can just think it is as simple as as an oil change for your car, you know. So, you if you go out and you change your oil every 3 to six months, you're going to spend about a hundred bucks. if you don't, it's going to cost you 5 to 10 grand to replace your engine.
So, that's the thinking behind the facilities department. So, >> so uh what one of the things that I can add and and help uh bring to light in that is uh so out of those two people, one of those person has to be on call 24/7. So, when we have you so not only she working six days a week, a lot of times she's coming in seven days a week. uh with the public safety building, a lot of these uh components and these uh different units, they're all specialized. So, even just to call your regular plumber, sometimes they can't help us. It's a very specialized system. Everything's computerized. And to be able to diagnose it properly, you have to make sure you get the right vendor. Now, she has to come back in and and be there with that vendor because anybody that goes into the public safety building and for that matter for any town building, uh the contractors has to, you know, we need to be there with them in case they need to access to certain areas of the building.
Um, and that it just at some point you're going to have employee burnout and that they're not going to want to continue to do that. Uh, there's got to be a quality of life somewhere in there, too. Um, so hopefully that helps shed a little bit of light on that. So, >> and and I this is field positions. It wasn't meant to be like green grass field, but like maintenance people in the field. Um, you know, we, as Doug said, we only have two people for 13 buildings. Um, and when you look at vacation time and things like that, my graph didn't turn out too great here. Um, but you know, it's it's less than 1.5 uh FTEES. again to maintain 13 buildings. Um those aren't good odds um if if you want to have a functioning um well-maintained facilities uh facility that is not like Doug said going to cost you an arm and a leg in the future.
One of the things that we felt that we heard a lot when we were going out to the vote for both buildings was that we didn't maintain the facilities that we had. Well, I'm trying to correct that. Um, and because I do think that that we weren't able to maintain them the way we should have, not because of lack of effort, just because of lack of resources. You know, I I hate as a manager. Um, the biggest thing I can the the worst thing I can do is actually set people up to fail. Um, as a manager, that's really that's that's almost negligent. Um, and any of you all that uh manage significant amounts of people and significant uh infrastructure and organizations understand that. Um, and and I think especially well with all of these, but with facilities, we're setting ourselves up for failure. We're setting our people up for failure.
Just the growth in town properties from 2006 to 2026, folks, we've gone from 15 assets to 35 assets. We've gone from like uh a few buildings and some grounds to like a full system, a a full system with um buildings, individualized buildings with specialized systems for operations and sustainability. We have all of these green spaces that we have to maintain like Mil Pond Park, which DPW built by the way at great savings to the town. I should point out uh the landfill, mill pond, park, all of these things have to be maintained and uh we have not grown our staff one lick in the whole time. One lick. Um so I think um I think just that it's look I mean I can throw all kinds of charts and data at you. It's really kind of simple. Um you go from 15 to 35 assets that need to be maintained and you don't invest in your staffing.
Um, that math ain't math, as we like to say around here, right, Katherine? Katherine's my math wiz over here. Um, and so, yes, I'm proposing that we we do a buildings and we stand up a buildings and grounds department and $260,000. And what does that look like? That looks like a a director. It looks like an additional maintenance person bringing our complement of maintenance people for the buildings to three. Um, it includes an increase in utilities because Claudia, as you mentioned, they're all going up. Um, and then, um, contracted services, we do a lot, uh, with vendors and so those prices are going up. >> Can I ask a question? >> Yeah. So, um the actual work going on in the in the buildings if um you have to call in vendors and things like that. So, is that already budgeted for and is that like is that a >> As best we can.
Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. So, >> we can't budget in if the roof leaks and the you know the RTU goes library I think has six or seven units on it just one building. >> Right. just like you can't you can't like expect a water mane break and what that would look like. But >> Right. Right. >> But um I'm just I was just curious when when you were doing the breakdown of the department if if that if um if the actual costs of the maintenance and stuff outside of our group would be included in that. >> It it is and it's significant. Doug. Yeah. >> Sorry, Michael. >> No, don't. >> So, what is it? March. We're already trying to put repairs on the shelf until June or until the next fiscal year. We're having so many breakdowns, so many repairs, you know, we're like, we can't do it.
We're afraid we're going to, you know, we'll be broke by the time we get to the the end of April. So, you know, we're trying to hold off as whether it's a generator or whether it's a um, you know, another air handle unit or an RTU like Dan said. So that's and then back to like you said the utilities they're through the roof right now and and all these street lights that's a whole other utility that we have Route 126 coming online right now we don't own that bill we're going to own that bill very soon for Route there's a 100 street lights on Route 126 so >> yeah and the maintenance so >> so can I I'm sorry >> just real quick so just to understand Doug you gave the analogy that you know if you don't do the oil change you then have a larger bill.