001All rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, thank you everyone. So, this is our which but what the fourth or fifth budget workshop now for Tuesday, April 28th? Next up on the agenda is public comment. This portion of the meeting is specifically set aside for comments from the public who are asked to limit their comments to 2 minutes. Any person interested in providing public comment by email should email public [email protected] prior to 4:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting to have their public comment read into the record. Do we have anybody who would like to speak? I'll go first if that's okay.
002>> [laughter] >> You can skip the rest of the line. Yes. Ed Chickarello, 40 River View Road. Um Uh first of all, I I just want to thank you all for putting your time in, man. I know it's drudgery. I know it's hard. You put a lot a lot of time in and and I appreciate you all. I really do. So, thank you very much. Um now, I'm on the uh PIC committee, the plan implementation committee for the plan of conservation and development. And we had a meeting just recently and there was discussion about sidewalks. And you know how much I love sidewalks cuz, you know, my my doctor says I got to walk, so you know, everybody should walk, right? And uh the the discussion centered around uh something that's called the sidewalk waiver
003fund, if I'm correct. Sidewalk waiver fund. So, in other words, in lieu of um putting a sidewalk in front of a development, a developer can pay money into a fund. And that fund, in essence, should be for sidewalks. Now, my understanding in listening to that conversation was that uh the money that exists in there now is in a general fund. And I don't know uh maybe I'm wrong and I don't know the accounting. Uh but but the discussion at at the at the meeting was can't can that sidewalk fund be separate and dedicated. And and and you'll You can explain. There already is. Uh all right. Well, no reason for me being here then. >> [laughter] >> Maybe uh you'll she'll explain um Mona will explain everything and uh then I'll go sit down. But
004anyways, that that was my ask. Uh that's that was the the conversation we had at the meeting. And so, Mona, if you could educate us, I appreciate it. Thank you, folks. Thank you, Ed. Did we get anything in writing? Yes, I'm standing in today as our speaker. Oh, okay. >> one public >> know if I like the process, but We have one public comment from Anthony Saccullo, who lives at 58 Jennifer's Way. And the comment is, "I'm sorry that I will be unable to attend the April 21st Town Council budget workshop. However, I would like to provide my support for our town senior services department. My wife and I are relatively young senior citizens and we feel fortunate to have moved to Rocky Hill from Wallingford about 4 and 1/2 years ago. In speaking to
005our friends from other towns, it is apparent that our center, its services, the director and staff are in a class above most other towns. We avail ourselves to a few programs and social events, but we also make ourselves available as volunteers and have joined over 130 other volunteers to provide help and services to the older community members of our town. The reason why we have so many volunteers willing to help is because we have a proactive director and staff and that have set the tone and know how to motivate people to who use the center. I'm happy and proud to also say that a few members of our town council make themselves available as volunteers and as coordinators of educational programs. If you take the time to browse a copy of the monthly newsletter, The
006Compass, you will find transportation services, lunches, educational and instructional programs, exercise programs, and well-planned trips tailored for the senior community. The bottom line is our senior center and its director provide more than senior based services to the community. They provide a social outlet where seniors can meet others like themselves, can have a nutritious meal, perhaps the only one of the day, and enjoy themselves in a healthy, safe, and invigorating environment. Please consider the importance of this in your decisions. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Anthony." Thank you. Any other public comment? Going once. I wonder if Mona could just answer that question that if if, you know, Sure. Thank you. Uh if you look in the most recent finance committee report, it's in the non-recurring, which has a list of items and one of them
007will say sidewalk waiver. Uh I don't recall the amount off the top of my head, but it is in non-recurring and separated by the purpose. So, if you need a an actual dollar amount, you can I can email you or stop in. Okay. Thank you, Mona. Yep. Okay. Um going on to uh budget or uh agenda item four, budget review A, public works, highway road and maintenance. Good evening. I have your goals if you wanted to just ease in or however you want to proceed. Does Do you Would you like me to discuss the goals? Or I Has everybody read them? Do you have Is there any questions? Do you have any thoughts on on my goals? How about a highlight? You want me to highlight? >> Highlight, yes. All right. Um Obviously, for sanitation,
008uh I would love to reduce our waste and implement um some cost-saving measures with that. Um including um an enterprise fund for the sanitation department where um some of the items that we pay significant amount of money that we um start charging the residents for those costs. Like refrigerators and air conditioners, those kind of items. So, um Build a new transfer station. Um I believe that everybody's aware that the one we have needs um significant amount of work. Um Highway, obviously, we want to keep our roads safe for the residents. >> [clears throat] >> And um I want to protect the environment and all the work that we do around the culverts. Um Again, reduce waste. Educate residents even better than we're doing now. Um Town garage needs a little help more than a band-aid.
009>> [clears throat and cough] >> Um that's uh I can't even fit our trucks into the garage. So, I would love to have a new garage. Um I want to get back to the reduced waste and cost savings, generating income. Like I said, like an enterprise fund for the sanitation department. Um for uh chargeable items that we're I'm paying for currently. Tires, refrigerators, propane, those such items. >> [clears throat] >> Uh we've been working on a work order system for uh the highway crew. Um Mona and I Mhm. Uh we're really close with that. Um That goes along with the work order system. Uh I would love to add column lifts to the garage that we currently are working in. Um it would save on um vehicles going out to vendors. Right now, I only
010have one lift that lifts our big equipment. Uh having portable lifts to have another to work on a second truck instead of having to send it out. Um would save significant amount of money. And uh we're doing the amortization. I think it's working effectively. Um we had a couple bump years, but um we're I think we're back on a program. I'm requesting that uh we get rid of a truck that's 1999 this year. Any questions on the goals? Anybody have any questions? Uh just one uh Back, sorry. Yes. Yeah, no, it's just >> [laughter] >> No, you're good. You're good. Um Uh thank you for covering me for me for a second. I had a call. Um The you you talked about having to send vehicles out for repair because we can't you know, we
011don't have a lift to put one up on another. What Or you know, >> one lift right now. The portable columns would be like another lift. Instead of a it's the portable columns aren't going in the concrete. They are units that you wheel up to the axles and they lift up the truck. Yeah. But um but so, that would save us from having to send it out somewhere else cuz we just can't work on the amount of Do you have any Is Is it in the budget the amount of money that we currently pay to outsource some of that stuff because we don't have the second lift? Well, I No, I haven't kept track of that specifically. Um but I mean I could go back. I can look at all the vehicles that we sent
012out in the last year. And what I've what paid for, you know, having vendors do work. But I don't think this part of the this year's budget. I think he's just kind of thinking about it that way. >> that's that's down the road. Yeah. Well, I'm just going [snorts] to say it is in the CIP the rotary lift. So we'll talk about it again. And I think when you get to garage that overall line called equipment repairs, it would be within So somewhere in equipment repairs a portion of that is sending stuff. vehicle repairs. Yeah, so you'll have it within. Yeah, sorry. I'm ahead of myself. Okay. If you have any plans when you're talking about educating residents on reducing waste, do you have any proposal or plan on how to do that? Uh well,
013actually just talking to Alan last week. Um starting to visit down at the community center maybe this Thursday at 8:00. Um when he's educating everybody maybe I could step in and we'll start with that with the seniors. And then um implement uh some programs at the schools so they can do a better job with their recycling and their trash. Um yeah, we have some thoughts and ideas. It's just I got to get that ball rolling. Okay. I've got your highway maintenance budget up. Uh-huh. Before [clears throat] we before we go there, I just have one question and um actually two. For the department-wide goals, how often are these are these monitored? Are these tracked or are this Is this just once a year type thing? They are now. It's part of the uh update the
014town manager system. So these are in to be monitored. Um and then with regards to the performance measure I mean some of these aren't even performance measures. Road plowed activity activity measures All right. I mean it'd it'd be nice to see something relative to people served, you know, at the transfer station or something. You know, monitor the progress of that. Um is it going up every year or you know, I I don't know of any data of people residents going to the transfer station. I mean that would be nice to to see, but some of these are just givens, you know, road miles plowed and number of catch basins. Those are those are just given. Okay. All right, that's that's fine. Thanks. Yeah, who's to say we're starting to gather that. Yeah, go ahead. Well,
015like the the customers that we receive at the transfer station Yeah, I mean how many in a typical year? I mean has it been going up? >> the last seven Saturdays I've averaged 340 cars on a Saturday. But is that a year-over-year increase? I mean that we don't know any of that. >> Uh I I actually for my first five years I did keep track and I have those numbers too and it's about the same. They're all about the same. It's you know, 3 400. Um you know, especially now we're busy cuz spring people getting crazy and then June when everybody gets out of school that gets busy. Okay. You know, July August slows down. And then, you know, I pick back up in the fall. Um but, you know, 325 cars on a Saturday
016in that little parking lot. What about that Does that include landscapers bringing in stuff? No. It's all residents. >> All residents? >> Yeah, it's all residents. There's no just residents. You know, I mean that resident might be a landscaper I but he's whatever he's bringing me is coming from his house. Got it. That's what we're hoping when he tells us. Okay. After we check his license and >> [laughter] >> I I have a good staff at the transfer station. They do a fantastic job. We have eliminated the out-of-towners. All right. Um do you want to go through the >> you want to do highlights? You want What do you want me to do? Just Do you want me to go line by line with everything? >> Highlight your changes. Yeah. Pardon me? Highlight your changes.
017For example, I think you've got material and supplies has a large increase. Um Yes. So uh that's going to be um the main uh reason for that jump is uh we're going to be doing the line striping. Um for crosswalks, stop signs um parking lots, schools, BOE um Here we go. You want to pop in? I have numbers for you if you need it. Yeah. Yeah, he's okay. Of course the engineer has the numbers. We purchased a machine this year. Mona helped me um locate a unit and we purchased it and the same on Dave's um his uh fund we decided that the highway department could do it especially now that we're not really our capital improvement numbers have dropped and we're not paving as much. Um but if you have numbers, go ahead. real
018quick Yeah. I think you're okay. So in the engineering budget we used to have all the pavement markings and last year it was defunded quite a bit. down like 25,000 All right. We used the crowd bid for pavement markings this year. If we were to hire their low bid to do our whole town, it's 117,800 dollars. So as you can see 25,000 isn't going to cover it. We can do the hand work which is the machine that you walk behind so you can do crosswalks, uh the arrows, stop bars, that kind of stuff. The stuff the long lines, the double yellows, the fog lines, the skip lines, they have to be done by a truck. That alone is 30,000 dollars. So we we're going to keep that in the engineering budget and then the remaining
01988,000 which we'd pay is going to be done by Joe. So the paint is what? Maybe 50? So we're saving 30 grand right there. Yeah, so we're going to save quite a bit just doing it in house. So just give you an idea for numbers. That's why the jump is in there. I missed your overtime. I'm going to back you back up. >> Ah, I thought we were going to get by that. Up here. Yeah. Um It's a little low for me. >> [laughter] >> But you know, it's it's it's a it's the number. >> [clears throat] >> I mean and you know I don't you know, can't predict winter for sure. I think we got the leaf program nailed down with the overtime that we use for the removing the leaves. We limited quite
020a few hours on the overtime. Um the past two years three two and a half yeah. Yeah, we're doing really well and then we get those what massive snow storms and it Yeah, then it blows it all up. Right. Why aren't you budgeting what you need? You're under budgeting every year seems to be. We try. Well, like I said, we'll try to be conservative. I think if we each over budget, again this is one of those areas that is contingency which tends to help out with the salt and the overtime. So I think to be conservative [snorts] rather than to put the 180 and have a good storm and only need the 160. So we'll >> [snorts] >> be there and then the contingency can offset. I mean you can look at previous years we
021had 120 and I mean it's an increase. So Right. Yeah, I know. It is. Yeah. Moving in the right direction, I guess. Yes. >> [clears throat] >> But along those lines for 2026 actual actually [clears throat] you have about 180 and then projected is 190. So I mean what is the overtime for the next two months? Yeah, the the actual is where you are right here is where the actual of today is 180. And so yes, we've got some additional overtime. We we did well, if I We had a little situation with the transfer station where we had to have coverage and we had no staffing there so that used up a little bit of it. So I think by well, the 190 should be your end closeout. Okay. Yeah, unless there's any there's no
022snow storms. There's no there's not going to be any overtime. The only overtime would be an emergency service that is required. You know, let's say I get a microburst or something like that. Or that I need coverage for the transfer station. But it's it's minimal for the rest of the season. >> [clears throat] >> salt Well, before we get off that page, what's street lighting? And the [clears throat] actual in 2025 was 347,000 What's going on with that? Yeah, that's just the the electric bill on on that. We've had um I know, not to get too crazy, but we do have the credits that come in from solar. Uh what we've done is take some of those credits because we had them on buildings and they were [snorts] getting absorbed too quickly for buildings and
023we are allowed to now put the credits up against the the street lighting as well. So um So you think we're going to be safe with 275? Definitely. All right, that's good. We also did we also convert some of those lights, too, last year or the year before that? Prior to that, every every storm we changed it. >> It was a while back. >> Yeah, that was a while back. And salt on this page? What's that? Is salt on this page? >> next page. Next page. Next page. >> What's right here? Yeah, moving forward, salt. Um yeah, I'm not um particularly happy with that number. Um but again, you don't I don't know what kind of winter we get. I'm a little nervous for this year, though, because uh my barn right now only has
024two storms worth of salt in it. We're empty. When [snorts] When do you replenish? Um I would if I had money in the budget now, I would do it now. When do you do And then right away in July 1st, I can't wait till you know, December. Mhm. I would start immediately. Um and if I was to project from last winter, you know, we're looking at a significant number for next year. I mean, we did 20 events. There was significant ones, but we don't use as much snow when you get 17 in. I mean, much salt. You know, but we had so many events with ice, rain, sleet. 1 in, 2 in of snow, those are the ones where you're having utilize a little bit more salt. And we got killed this year with them.
025Quite a few events with there was no accumulation, it was just sleet and ice. We had three events alone just with that. You know, that that that uses more salt than when we get 17 in of snow. >> [clears throat] >> And then yeah, I went back to the last few years. Plus, I don't know the cost of salt yet. You know, that's the other problem. I could tell you I'm going to need um 4,000 ton. You know, I mean, 2 years ago it was $68 a ton. Now it's 88. You know, I don't know what it's going to be after July 1st. >> [snorts] >> Um I was going to say and I jumped ahead a little ahead, but wrote um when we get to CIP, there's the town aid road that's got 400,000,
026which is what offsets any excess salt, as well. So, we're should be okay. Is is the salt purchases by individual towns or can you go in with other towns in like a bulk purchase? >> the crowd bid. >> So, we we go through the crowd bid. Crowd just sent it out this week. So, I get the crowd bid. Rocky Hill's on there, we're district five. There's 10 of us towns on there. We all put in an amount. Glastonbury puts in 6,000 ton. I put in 2,000 ton of uh uh untreated and uh 2,400 ton of uh treated. You know, 4,500 ton. Mhm. But, you know, buying 4,000 ton right now, which I'll need to fill the barn, would be $188,000 for this year coming. Okay. That's the example. What's So, just to I guess if
027we're moving on, just to put a pin on road maintenance, so we're about 70 grand over our budget for this year, and that's basically because of the storm situations that we had. Yeah. Because of overtime and you know, salt and all that stuff. Correct. Um and then so, the increase in the budget for this year compared to last year is partially because we keep going over anyway, so we're just trying to be better at um ex- expectations. Um and the rest is related to salaries, you know, union and steps and all of that stuff. >> Right. Right? In a nutshell. And then some stuff with the paint moving around. >> Right, that's new. That's new. The materials. Right. What's that detail? Is that the salt? It says detail. Yes, [clears throat] yeah, it should have
028said salt and salt again, but Okay. That's all. What did we pay actual in 2025? But the salt is right here, the 151. Oh, it's above it. Okay. Thanks. Great. All right. >> Let's move on to garage. Oops, hold on. Oh, no. I'm not driving badly. >> [snorts and clears throat] [laughter] >> Take it away. Uh obviously, salaries are salaries. Um moving down to um service contracts. That's um we're going to keep that. Uh equipment repair. I was going to Joe, that's that might be where you might want to mention the response to the question that happened before a few didn't have the the rotary lift. Some of your repairs are there. And and on this page. Yeah, so Okay. um The there will be two items that were um and for uh this department
029this part of the budget. Uh the equipment repair and um the maintenance of equipment, those two items were added. Um one is with the lifts. Um Yeah, but the lifts are going to save me. That's so part uh part of the cost for going up um for the equipment repair was I need to start doing some rust removal and um hydraulic hose replacement moving forward for on the equipment repair. >> [snorts] >> The hydraulic lifts, obviously, that's going to save me money where equipment doesn't have to go out to vendors. Okay? Those lifts are going to They're going to save us some money. But that where they're saving us is on um like brake jobs. Um you know, there's some stuff that I I still have to go out that I need vendors for like
030springs for the trucks, those type of things. So, the truck's still going to go out to vendors cuz there's some stuff that I can't do. I only have two men working on big trucks. But if I can um not have a truck go out to a vendor and I'm working on it in my garage while we're working on another truck, then I'm saving. And it's the the time also saves me. Cuz we're working on it in-house. All right, that's a big thing cuz when I go out to these other vendors, that truck's there for a long a long time. Can't you prioritize what you're working on? I mean, are are you having several trucks go all going down at the same time? And you can't >> Well, I have I have the buses I'm taking
031care of. I got four buses over there. They need their their service is, you know, it's it's monthly. I'm I'm working on those buses constantly. Repair, you name it, everything. Service, repairs, they need special inspections monthly. Um DEP just up uh just we we just received it this year. So, this portable lift is going to help me not sending out human services buses to vendors that I've had one bus sitting at uh at a vendor since uh January 28th. We just got it back and they couldn't fix it. That's something that was unfixable by your guys? Well, it had to do with a part that was very difficult to get, but then I found out that we could replace the whole heater system in the back and just done our own system and and fixed
032it ourselves. Okay? >> You might not. Well, if I get these lifts, I will. You [clears throat] know what I mean? You don't have a lift in the So, right now I don't right now I don't need that heater in the back of the bus cuz they're turning on the AC. Right. So, I took the bus back and we're utilizing it. But once I figure out what I can replace it with and put it in, and then if I have these lifts, I'm going to do it myself. But you don't you have a lift in the garage. Yeah, I do. I have a lift, but that's for the the big trucks. This won't fit on it? Um to be honest with you, I don't I I don't think it will. Okay. >> [snorts] >> Is
033it like a wheelbase? I don't know 100%, but I don't think We've never put a bus on that lift before. >> car side? You don't have a lift there that would take the bus? Uh yeah, he does have a We do We could utilize that side if he's not but I mean, there's three, four cars in there every day. >> Uh so, I got two guys working on 70 cars alone Mhm. from next door. You know, Understood. they're uh that's a full house every day. Right. >> [snorts] >> Okay, thanks. I have a question. Um hi. Hi. It looks like your budget's being proposed to go up 75,000, but then you're also asking for the lift. Would the lift help reduce that at all? Yeah. So we can bring that down too. >> Yeah, especially
034on the human services side with the buses. It would be a lot of work. If we get these lifts in, it's going to save significant amount of money on the human services repairs. All right. Great. Are you asking for a multiple lifts or just one? Just one. Well, it's it's a package. There's there's four. Okay. >> It's It's four portable lifts. We'll get to the price, I guess, later. Um well, I did get a price, you know, uh from NAPA. Uh I just it's been a few months. Um and a lot has changed with the tariff stuff [snorts] and there's been a lot of changes to a lot of things. So, that cost hopefully it it stays right where it is. I I I won't know that till after July 1st. But you have a
035figure in this budget. A capital >> is a figure. When we get to CIP, there's a figure. >> Okay. That's good. So, we'll look at that. Thanks. It's a four year It'll be a four year figure. It's We can Okay. purchase, lease, or own. And the other uh significant is the um maintenance equipment. Um part of that would be for the other side of the garage uh where they're working. Um and well, I looked to work in a wheel balancer purchase. Um and a TIG welder um for both sides. But um the wheel balancer would uh help us save the instead of going up to a street for a balancing. Especially the police cars. So, that would help their budget. So, human services would get some help and uh police on their parts and repairs.
036Do we have a wheel balancer now? No. No. You take it down for tire, right? What? You take them to Town Fair Tire. >> Well, it's It's up the street to Modern. Modern, okay. Yeah. We have you know, that we got a vendor account with them. Where we get a discount cuz we bring all our cars there. Especially all you know, all the police cars and I mean, I don't have much with the public works. We only have whatever 10 vehicles, but But yeah, every time you get a new tire, you got to balance them. Right. It's not just as easy as getting a new tire and putting it on. Right. Um so, part of that cost is to purchase that. Get that into the budget. My question here, and it's you know, it's one
037of the line items around goals, is around fuel. What goes into that fuel number? Is that just for public works? No, it's for the whole town. It's the whole town's fuel number, right? >> Yeah. No. Well, police >> take the entire bill and we give it a portion out to the larger group, which is the minibus and the police department. So, this is basically all other pool cars, public works, and parks and grounds. >> This is the catchall for Correct. not Right. those ones. >> Yes. Yeah. And it's so the like 92,000 gallons estimated next year would be everyone. Is everybody? Mhm. Yeah. But the undersupplies the fuel and lubricants. That's just pool cars and public works. Right? Correct. The the 135 that we're estimating. Yes. Cuz we're projected to do 120,000 in gas for
038this budget, but the next one we're projected for 135. Right. Well, I think we've all seen how fuel prices have gone, so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That changes like like you change your day bra. Well, actually we I mean I should say we did lock in at a good price, so we're not getting the that impact that that everyone around us is. So, we're lucky that we did lock in at a a decent price. But the any of the other like your lubricants and the oils and all of that is still If only we could just buy it like salt and put it in a put it in a shed somewhere. >> [laughter] >> I don't have a big enough garage to do that. A bigger tank. [clears throat] I don't have any storage room.
039No, I'm just kidding. Thank you for for that, though. Anybody else? Anything for the garage? All right. Sanitation. >> on the uh the human service, while you were talking, I looked in they [clears throat] went from $3,000 vehicle repair up to I think a recommended 12. So, that's one of those where it would lower. You know. I actually recommended this year that you put in 25. I know. Slap some space heaters in the back and we are good to go. Plug it in and It's not going to be that easy. No. Sanitation. And and obviously in those those buses are a little bit bigger. Yeah. So, that means different transmissions and engines that not everybody can work on. As well as some of our other heavier equipment. It just Yeah. They're they're different. Uh I
040mean, but they're Fords. So, and you you know, you have the same problems that you have with any other Ford. You know, water pumps >> you trying What are you a Chevy guy or something? I'm just saying. >> No. We do we [laughter] we Ford has been good to us. Hello. Ford. >> [laughter] >> I'm just kidding. I know what you're trying to say. It's a domestic engine that the parts are generally readily available. Yes. Yes. Except for the buses, there's a few items, but overall, yeah. I mean, it's kept a 1999 pickup on the road for a while. So. Police vehicle. Those parts are still around somewhere. Yeah. Mostly. All right. Uh sanitation. Okay. Sanitation. Um Disposal contract. >> So, yeah, with the new contract um that uh obviously just went out to bid.
041We got it back. Uh they're working on that still. It's a work in progress right now. Um So, uh those numbers, I mean, If we're lucky, it'll be lower. We'll see what it looks like when we >> So, yeah, we don't know. Yeah, so we're estimating the same number for collection, but disposal is ex budgeted to go up. Correct. Collection was the next year the contract was locked in at the same price. Okay. Yeah. And we had to bid out on disposal. Right. Okay. We just had That's the three town Wethersfield, Newington three town bid. So, as three towns come up with their final decision. Looks good. Yeah, it looks Yeah, it looks good. But you But you're still working on it. Yeah, we're still working on it. Yeah. Now the collection or the disposal
042is the one that is based on a smaller trash can. Is that true or not true? >> of that's true. That That was all false that was written in there. Oh. Well, I should say I'm going to correct you on that one and remind you. Your disposal is, at least as the bid is coming in, is charging the per ton for uh MSW waste and then the recycle is a zero. So, the more you get on the recycle is the cheaper it is. >> Yeah, the MSW and the uh bulky is going up that 5%. But as far as the the collection, no, that's with a different company and the smaller carts, we've been actually that's been going on for 3 years. Okay. We've been doing that um since prior to Ray coming in. Um
043we've been trying to significantly um lower the amount of tonnage that is being picked up and delivered. And one of the things that helps is having a smaller cart at your curb. You know, you know, that's part of the education that we need to do. That you know, you can't put a carpet or a carpet shouldn't go in there. You should bring the carpet down to uh the transfer station, but not put it in your trash cart. Okay. You know, kitchen waste, bathroom waste, that's what goes in that green cart to the curb. Kitchen and bathroom waste. So, if anybody's watching this, that's what goes in that green cart. >> Easily five people watching this. >> [laughter] >> You'd be surprised what's in those carts at the curb. Yeah, so I think um to to
044kind of summarize everybody's points around that, right now the waste that's collected in the blue cart, we don't get charged per ton >> That's correct. >> Correct. >> Yes. So, that's paper, glass, cardboard. Right. The waste that is in the green cart, regardless of the size of the cart or how many green carts, we pay per ton. That's correct. So, everyone should do their best to get more in the blue cart Yep. Absolutely. than they do in the green. And I like that over time, you can see in our numbers that we've we are collecting less waste in 24 25 is uh 5800. I'm assuming that's not pounds. Uh it's uh No, tons. Right. >> Tons. Yeah. Um and then last in this year we're estimating about 5500 and we're anticipating 5400. So we're going
045in the right direction. >> Correct. Um >> We are doing better. No question. Yes. Uh but I think that's important for folks to know who maybe just don't think of it and they just say whatever wherever it fits it fits and you know, I'll just put everything in the green and roll it to the curb and be happy. That stuff adds up cuz we're paying to the tune of 1.4 million dollars for trash removal right now. Between collection and disposal. And we should be conscious of if the blue can goes away what that effect would be or if the cost to remove stuff in the blue can. Yes. Um but I I just have a couple questions. Um so you say you've been doing this reduction of the size of the cart thing for a
046few years now. How what is the deployment policy? How do you how do you do it? So we get the call. A broken cart or I need an extra cart. And I'll monitor. I'll look at the trash for the next pre- the next 2 weeks. To I'll check the cart before it gets dumped to see, you know, what they're throwing away. And you mean as in just drive by that house on the night before kind of thing? Yeah. Okay. Or the morning of. Okay. So I'll look at it and then if and I'll look at their and recycling I hope it's a recycling week so I catch both. If not then you know, I do that's why I do it 2 weeks. And then I'll see and then I'll communicate with them. And we'll have
047a discussion and I'll say maybe another blue cart will be better and you can recycle a little bit more and instead of getting a green I'll give you a blue. That that sounds pretty reasonable to me. So in in each case you're not just dropping the cart off as a replacement. You talk to them. Yeah, we we work with the individuals. I mean and you know, again we've been doing this for quite a while now and >> [snorts] >> I mean it's been working. You know, but you get a few that you know, it's an argument or they're not as happy. I leave them they're disappointed. But um so and I'll still help them like in other words if instead of giving them a 96 gallon I'll give them one a smaller cart so they'll
048have you know, two carts but they'll be smaller than the two 96s. Well, I'm I'm really happy to hear you have a conversation with everybody who ends up with one of these. I I'm curious though. Do they have the option? Do they end up being the one to make the choice at the end of the day? Are you educating them on why you think they should go in a direction and then giving them the option to go with their original choice if that's the case or are you kind of pushing them into that smaller cart or that other option that you suggested? >> leading. Sure. >> And and then do give examples and then show, you know, there could be more there's stuff in the green that could go in the blue. So that would
049give you more space in the green for you know, when you have that party or it's Christmas or it's 4th of July. I I I appreciate that. I I just want to make sure that we're we're giving residents the choice especially if the contract continues for another year where we have the recycling being the the free part of it for us. >> It's a It's a discussion with all of them. Yeah. >> And it it starts with the admin. The admin gets the call. She communicates. She lays down everything the whole program. And then if it gets bumped up she calls me, sends me an email then I come and visit, make the call whatever to make satisfied I appreciate that. I full disclosure I have two blue cans at home. I got a second
050one because I discovered that once we had our our first child there were lots of things that were recyclable that we could break down and put into those cans but even with breaking everything down we needed two. Um I'm really glad to hear that residents are involved in the process. I know that in the future we're probably not going to have this free recycling side of things and that we're going to have a lot more cost to look at. I did want to let you know I've heard from a number of residents that they're very concerned about this idea of having their trash can replaced with something smaller. We have some families where you know, more than 10 people live in a household and things like that and I I'm really glad to hear that
051you've got that personal touch with all of these and you're We're working with everybody on everything. Um I did want to also let you know that I've had some residents express that if in the future due to costs it made it much more difficult to have those extra cans some residents would be totally willing to pay at the cost itself that additional can value we determine some kind of level. So maybe a fee structure in the future if we need to go there. I'm sure that the next contract or the bid that has to go out for the trash collection um that will be added in the cost I'm sure if it goes out. I'm I'm sure of it too. Yeah. And and sorry for all the questions. I did want to say thank you
052for keeping the town running. Yeah. You do an incredible job down there. The the transfer station I've been so thrilled every time I go there. It's nice and easy to get through even when there's a line. And thank you for everything you do. Yeah, I got to I have some great staff. Great people. No question. Thank you. Um are there any I mean any thoughts or attempts at figuring out how to uh separate out the organics? Um cuz I know that that was something cuz that I mean I know with my household we eat a lot of chicken and we like the bones so we have a lot of organics and we use Blue Earth. So in this bid there's there was an option for residents which you know, uh again we can't give everything
053cuz it's still a work in progress but there'll be an option for residents to make a phone call and have that removed from their residence. So but um again that's get all getting worked on. Uh I can't we can't give you any specifics right now but once this bid is signed, sealed and delivered there'll there will be an option for our residents to place their uh food scraps in a container and have it brought to the proper facility. We had to make sure that the scope of service for that went out [snorts] this time was not as stringent and that's what happened to us before. It's that the last one said all tonnage went. So we were very clear but as you say we're not ironed out yet but No, we're we're scrubbing through the
054details just to make sure that the language is allows us to to go off and do our own food scrap operations. And I know I know cuz I know Mimi and I pay for our own. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, I know so do I. I they just came today to pick it up. >> the compost. Yeah, I mean we do get a free bag of compost with it. We're paying for it. All right guys I'll step up. I'll start doing it guys. It's the well, it's the heaviest waste is your you know, wet coffee like for us for me it's like coffee grounds every morning and all of that stuff. >> compost it in the in bin. Leftovers. I don't have a green thumb. He uses it on our for the farm. Okay. Would Would
055Counselor Whelan like me to stop by with my food waste? >> Absolutely. >> [laughter] >> Do we have a town farm that we're going to begin a compost pile down there? Maybe something that could be worked on down there. Excellent promo. Yeah, good promo. Before we move on to this off of this topic here I do have a question about the transfer station attendant. Why is there a $9700 raise in this budget for that individual? It's They I was going to say that particular contract had like it was 3.85% increase and then we had a step so this is moving up into that. So as you can see the others did not have that. That was the uh first contract that first year before we change >> limited. Yeah, the the increases. So it's a
056union one. Mhm. And what do you have for miscellaneous cost? 30,000. What what is miscellaneous cost? That's your barrels. That's all that the miscellaneous is all the recycling costs that I want to charge for all those items. >> Oh okay. It's above. Yeah, that's what it [snorts] cost me. Okay. And then the one below that is a little low too. For all the brush that we just collected at everybody's curb. >> [snorts] >> That that number should probably be double. You only could do so much each year. That's what you have to do. Really? Okay. >> [laughter] >> Collecting a lot of brush out there. I'm just saying. You know, the residents are happy with that program but it you know, and I think they you know, I'm going to see it advanced. I I
057concur that my experience with neighbors and folks around town is that they do really appreciate that service. They appreciate how Oh, I agree. how widely available it [snorts] is in terms of timeline. Um a lot of towns you go to they give you a date or a couple of dates where they might show up and get your stuff. But yeah, our residents take advantage of it too. I've got some neighbors who really take advantage of it. >> what I'm saying? >> [laughter] >> I I I'm telling you. I see it. It's all good though. It's all good but that um you know, uh I'm still trying to catch up from all the past years from not having a grinding service line item. And now that we have it, you know, I mean we started out
058low, but I'm still catching up. I still have brush from 5 years ago. So, you know, that's why that's why I say that number is a little low, but whatever. I'm happy with it. I'm happy to have a number there. For now. Yeah. Well, unless you guys change But, [laughter] you know, you could add to it. You have the power You guys have the power of the pen over there. Numbers can go in two directions there. [laughter] You just skipped your capital bill. Oh, yeah. All right. Capital? Capital. So, I have >> I wanted to point out cuz I know it says engineering, but just so when we're talking about that excess of the salt and the uh the overtime, that's this repair to to roads, the town aid road, and then the infrastructure reserve.
059Believe me, this is also the um and I might be taking away uh Steve Thunder. That's okay. I'll finish. You don't have to come up yet, but um But, they do have to share that. We don't have the uh road referendum uh coming up, so this will be the amount that's going to be shared for road improvements and also cover the winter and and salt, but Yeah, I was I was a little disappointed with that number that it was only uh that was engineering because I wanted that number just for highway infrastructure. Cuz, you know, we have there's still a lot of work that we need to do uh including catch basins um throughout the town. Um you know, behind the high school [clears throat] uh that that area around the track it really needs
060a a fix. And now that we're out of our capital um money, you know, I can't fix those items because I don't have a line item. I need my own $150,000 to do curb, to do catch basin work, to do maintenance, you know, crack seal, um you know, I would like to have my own 150,000. You can have his [snorts] for whatever he needs, but and you know, [clears throat] and even 150 is I mean, it's $6,000 for a basin. If I have to do 60 basins, you know, You you you know what I'm saying? Channel 14 parking lot. That's a you know, I've been I would love to fix that. But, you know, where am I getting the funds? You know, what channel [snorts] what Pardon me? Oh, yeah. And yeah, boat launch. The
061uh the TV station uh behind the high school, like I say, around that track. If you've ever gone to an event, you know, I would love to repair that and fix all that. >> [snorts] >> But, um you know, I'm going to I would steal his whole all his engineering 150. He might not be happy with that. And you have a truck? Oh, yeah, I got a truck that's going to replace the '99 that we have. Is that the Freightliner? Yeah. Well, the the one I'm replacing is a Sterling. 1999. But, yeah, the 2026 six-wheel dump truck that 50,000 highway highway department, and then the rotary lifts are right below right below that. That's a 4-year cost, 15 15 15 and 15. Actually, I Joe, just go go back a little bit to that 2025
062Freightliner truck. What's that replace? Up above? Yeah. That's uh we got one more year on that. Yes, but which uh vehicle did you have? Was that the Oh, god. a 2000 or a No, that was oh Yeah, that was a 2000. Yes. That was a 2000. So, Mona, these are not new. Some of these are continuing lease payments. >> Yes, yes. So, I'm pointing out for you just to make it easier. It's sorted by department, but I'll point out the new items. So, yeah, this one is his newer one that started last year or 2 years back, so the '25. This is 3 years back. This is his newest item from this current year budget, the leaf unit. And this is this year's a new request. Well, which way it might be easier for us
063to focus on the ones we have no control over. So, if it's in the middle of a lease payment, Right. we're not going to do anything. No, we're not. So, which ones are the new ones for highway? This one here, the 2026 six-wheel dump truck 4-year for 50,000. And his other new item is right below, which is the rotary lift. >> Okay. For 15. That rotary lift, is that a one-time payment or is that >> No, that's four that'll be four total payments. Four payments of $15,000. That's uh the I went out and got um three quotes from uh Actually, I got four. And NAPA had the best option because they had the lease. Okay. So, that helps our budget for 4 years. Do you think that 15,000 a year you'll have in cost savings
064for sending vehicles out? >> [clears throat] >> Yeah, no question. Okay. No question. Especially especially the buses. Um you know, and timing is everything. I mean, there's times when, you know, the garage is full. I have no choice. I have to send the vehicle out. I mean, we have that with police right now. You know, and you know, it is what it is. They got we got to get the you know, we got to we got to turn around. We can't it can't be a parking lot. You know, these vehicles are being driven every day. >> [clears throat] >> You know, um and I mean, I know they have a few spares, but um there's times when a vehicle's got to go out. You know, I can't spend 2 days on a water pump on
065a vehicle. You know, they need the vehicle. You know, we got to get it done. So, what is the savings offset? Well, like on a well, I I I can't I can't give you an exact number right now. I don't have an exact number. >> a ballpark. Like on for human services, you know, I think this year I we spent a significant amount. I I bet you I could save 10,000 on the first year. $10,000. You 4 years, $40,000. I'm right at, you know, I'm right there. Just for them. That's pretty significant. Yeah, that's a significant number. On the buses alone, I think I could save us $10,000. And I'll you know, I'll I mean, we keep track. I have, you know, everything. I just don't keep track of the daily number all the time.
066Yeah. You know, I need more staff. Okay. That too, huh? Now you got another lift. You need another man, huh? We need to We need to keep track of these savings. Well, well, we are. We're close to What's what's the useful life of the um the lifts? Like, how many years would they Oh. be functional? If we take care of it, like our other lifts, 50 years old. Old the old as the garage. You know, we take care. I have them serviced. I mean, we're you know, we're we're on top of our equipment. The guys do a fantastic job um taking care of their own uh equipment. So, that would that would last Them them lifts will outlast all of us in the garage. >> [laughter] >> For sure. So, after the 4 years, we
067would be No, we would After 4 years, we wouldn't need a new set. No, it would be probably 20 years. So, so we we finished paying after 4 years, and then we would be just making saving money Absolutely. No question. And then with regards to the other items, the Mason dump truck, there's only two payments left on that. The Freightliner truck, only two more payments left on that. And the leaf unit, Yeah. only two more payments left on that. Right. And then next next year we're looking at a 2007 20-year-old truck. So, that the the next two purchases for large vehicles will get our amortization to a lot closer to what we've been working on the last 3 years. We'll be really close to that. Where the turnaround would be, you know, better for us
068instead of just driving it to the ground. >> It might be a worthwhile exercise to see what items he needs to bring things more in-house, like the you know, something smaller like the tire tire balance. When does it get to the point where the ability to do things in-house exceeds the manpower that he has? Well, I'm hoping that at least that we're on the right track. Like I said, I I keep chiming about the work order system. We're really in the infant stage of it trying to just get all the vehicles in and, you know, the staff in, and we've got it linked up to the the gas pumps and tracking the the mileage. So, the next is going to be just getting the work in, and then match the dollar to the vehicle. And
069I think that way we're going to have a good tool. And you know, I'm hoping that come July 1, we can do a full year of of tracking, [snorts] but I've still got a few months. >> bringing things in-house. >> Mhm. Um especially mechanical and uh and auto body and a small part. Yeah. You know, if you have toolboxes that are rusting, there's no reason why you can't keep them for 20 25 years Right. if you maintain them. Absolutely. I totally agree. I'm on board with that, John. Absolutely. I just wanted to add a little bit of a comment. I can appreciate we're all sitting here looking at ways that we can conserve on this budget. We're we're in an economic moment where we need to, but I I don't want to have a chilling
070effect on folks talking about future needs like staffing. Like we were we were laughing and I understand that, but I don't want a chilling effect from that. >> No, no, there's a there's an equilibrium. You know, when you're bringing more things in-house, No, no, I I agree with everything you said. >> manpower needed to Agree with everything you said after the fact, but when first mentioned the concept of adding a staff, we all kind of had a laugh and the first thing I thought to myself is I I don't want to put a chilling effect on talking about long-term plans because quite frankly, we need to be talking about what do we need in the long term to stay sustainable as a community that's in-house as well. And you're talking about how we have vehicles
071that are [snorts] going out to get serviced because we're running out of manpower in the garage away in garage space, but running out of resources in-house to do it. And obviously, we're talking about where does it run up to a point where having someone additional on staff is going to save us money versus doing this. I mean, on the wheel balancer thing, I don't know. Maybe we can leverage that we're thinking about doing it to get an even better discount out of Midas. I don't know. But in any case, I just want to make sure that every department head knows that we're eager to hear about what we need in the future, too. It's also time. It's you know, time. If I can get that fixed, it's quicker than sending it out. Number one, I
072have to send it out. I have two guys that have to take that vehicle, go drop it off, and then it sits in a parking lot for however long, and then I got to do the same thing to go get it. You know, in the meantime, if I have that unit there, I mean, click, click, you know, we're done in 20 minutes instead of me being on the road for 40 and the car [clears throat] gone for a day and a half. Yeah, and I think when it comes to um uh mechanical repairs, too, you have two types. You have the routine maintenance, which is tires, brakes, that type of thing, and then you have the big jobs, transmissions, engines, water pumps, stuff like that. Um and at some point, part of why we need
073to have or part of why we now have so many fleet vehicles is because you might have one car tied up for a while, so you need to have a couple extra. If you can if people can easily come in and get that routine maintenance, the oil change, the tires, whatever done quickly, then that's at some point there's one that's one less cruiser that you need. That's one less, you know, um something else because you're doing it quickly. Um and those jobs like the big things with heavier equipment, the transmissions and stuff like that. I mean, that stuff takes a long time and it's super expensive because it's specialized. So, when you're sending out something to uh you know, Monaco or somewhere to like do a transmission, like, yeah, it's probably going to be gone
074for a while cuz it's not their priority to get that vehicle back on the road for you quickly the same way that it is for us to get it back on the road quickly, you know? Um Believe it or not, I actually worked for a summer in a garage. Yeah. It was not the proper career path for me. So, I have a lot of respect for the people that do that every day in a hot garage and you know, um but anyways, Yeah, I I have I have a phenomenal staff that's highway fleet. They're tremendous in all aspects and everything they do. I mean, the fact that we, you know, we have a truck that's 27 years old and it doesn't exactly have the easiest life, either. That it's a it's you know, a work
075truck. >> that's not a spare truck. That's a front line. That's that's that's in the trenches every day. So. And we've heard that I mean, luckily, we've heard that from a lot of our different departments. We heard from Parks and Rec about how they are very proud of how we maintain our equipment over time and take a lot of pride in making sure that it is stays and lasts. So, you know, I look at things like, you know, over the over 4 years, we're going to spend $200,000 on a truck cuz it's a you know, 4-year lease for $50,000, but you know what? If it lasts us for 20 years, now, you're going to be in an argument about how things don't last the way that they used to, but um Yeah, I have one
076truck that's a problem, but I call it my lemon. There's always one. Yeah. There's always one that doesn't work out. All right, anything else for capital improvements for Joe? What about the capital projects? Do we talk about that now or I think that will be when we go to engineering. All right. I'm sorry. Good luck. All right. >> [laughter] >> Have a great night. Thank you. >> Yes, have a great night. Thanks, Joe. Appreciate what you do. Yeah. Or maybe not. Okay, we'll start with >> If anybody needs to, you know. We're on a break. Oh, okay. >> Do we Do we want to recess for 5? Feel 5. All right. Everybody has left. We'll go for a 5-minute >> Y'all left anyways. Second. All in favor? All right. We'll be back in 5. >>
077No, we go back. You've got your engineering. >> [snorts] >> They have and then we've got planning but building no. Okay? All right. I don't know if we had anything. All right. All right, we're back. Engineering. Engineering. Engineering? Okay. Let me get to my engineering pages. I have notes in like a million places. Pardon me. All right, so first of all, Steve Solblak. I am the director of community development services in public works. And yeah, the public works is a little bit misleading. I don't do the day-to-day. That's That's Joe. Um and Mona. I am involved with the bigger ticket items. Like we're talking about roads and that and sidewalks and and the big projects. So, I'll explain that as we get into this. So, engineering, we have a uh a list of our goals
078here. Little bit different than my order here. So, let's see. So, MS4, that's an EPA Clean Water Act mandate. That's something we have to do. Um every year there's reporting to the DEP. We have a whole host of uh there's six major categories and items in each one. Some of them are complete, some of them are not. The goal is clean up of our waters. Uh part of that stormwater sampling, what they call IDDE cleanup and repairs, that's illegal discharges. Um illegal discharge could be something as simple as your roof leader gutter dumping on your driveway into the road. They don't want that. They want it to dump onto the grass. That helps clean the water. Uh a DCIAS direct connect impervious areas. Again, with the gutter um in the in the asphalt. That's a
079tough one to figure out, but they they want you to disconnect like 2% a year. It's very difficult. Uh we have to map all our detention ponds, who owns them, whether they're an association of the town. That's part of it. We have to get that. That's one that's That should be easy. Uh pollution prevention, that's sweeping uh street sweeping, catch basin cleaning. We have to continue to train folks. Every year there's a mandatory training with public works, uh park and rec, facilities. You all know the proper way to dispose of some things. Don't throw them down the drain, you know. Uh and then public awareness, you know, educating the public. So, that's all part of that uh EPA mandate. Uh we'll get into the numbers after. Next. Update the town pavement condition. And so, yeah,
080so um we're we're briefly discussing the pavement. I'll get into more details later, but the PCI is pavement condition index. It's a score zero to 100. Back in 2013, we came to the town council looking for a referendum to to do our roads uh all different type of treatments. We had two referendums, $20 later, we went from uh pavement condition index in the 60s town wide, which is failing to uh it capped out at 86. 6. And right now we've hired Beta. They are that's one of their specialties is pavements. And they're driving our roads now, analyzing them, and what they use is something called lidar. It's a 3D scanning. Scans the road, finds all deficiencies, cracks, all that, and then it assigns a number. So, that data, they just started driving, so we should
081have that and, you know, hopefully by the end of the spring here. Um and then I can update you where we are, but, you know, we've cuz we've done so much work, we've really improved our roads as you as hopefully you all see. Inventory toe trips and repairs required. Um again, that's we've had sidewalk program and we've had a hard time getting vendors to come perform work uh for a number of reasons. A, there's not a lot of them, but uh just some constrictions with state reporting. Uh if if we use state funds and it's over a certain threshold, used to be $50,000, the reporting that the vendor had to do is a 26-page form they have to fill out. It's crazy. Still there. Um they've raised that threshold to 150,000, so it's going to
082be a little easier now to get these guys hopefully to bid. But in the meantime, we have um a company that has gone out and actually gone through the whole town, walked every mile of sidewalk, which is I I think it was 46 miles of sidewalk, and mapped with GPS. I don't know if you use the phone, a tablet, whatever, and part of his deal was he'd slice them if if it was a little toe trip, you know, half inch so they'd slice it. It's pretty slick to see. Takes 5 minutes. Done. Sweep. Go on to the next one. Um we've done that in half the town. He just mapped the other half town, but didn't do anything because on the west side of town, believe it or not, the sidewalks weren't and there were
083a lot more toe trips on the east side of town. You think that was the newer side, but so he's mapped them all. It's on a It'll be GIS, so now we can bid easily get somebody in to do a section, but he's been slicing them as we go. So, hopefully I we won't be able to fix all of them, but at least we'd get the toe trips ground down um hopefully by the end of the year. Uh let's see. Construct sidewalks capital improvement fund grants. Yeah, so that's that's just a big issue uh sidewalks in general. We have um we have grants for Elm Street, which we finally got our hopefully our final piece of data that the state was requiring. Um and it's back at CRAG and the state for review. So, hopefully
084we're going to bid that. You I know you've been hearing about that for since like 2000 uh 20. Hopefully it's going to go this year. Century Hills Drive, we're hoping to bid that this year, phase two. Phase one is done. Phase two, it's still DOT has comments. We're going back and forth with them. Um Glastonbury Ave is another grant. That one's kind of uh that won't be this year. If hopefully [snorts] next year. Again, we're going back and forth with DOT on comments. You got to realize when we get these grants, uh it's just not here's the grant, build what you want. We got to go back and forth, you know, usually these things are are monitored and funded by DOT, so they have to review. And a lot of times it goes to this
085guy here at DOT, we make the changes, now it goes over there and they say, "Oh, change this." And it's back to what that one wanted, you know, so it's sometimes you get a lot of back and forth. Um so, it's a it's a process. So, >> [clears throat] >> wait. So, the Glastonbury Ave one, we're looking at next year now? Yeah, we won't have it ready then cuz it's >> When When did that start or when was it funded? Or I mean, when was the grant awarded? Grant was awarded in maybe No. 19 or 20? Glastonbury Ave, that was just like a year or two ago. No, we've been talking about it since 19. We've been talking about it, but it kind of got lost in the shuffle with CRAG in awarding it. It
086was never formally awarded, so we kept calling and they said, "Oh, no, you got that project." So, then we the pro- the plans went to the state. The state sent them back. We've made the corrections they want, now it's back with them to review, but I don't think we'll have it. Like I said, there's a lot of back and forth. I don't think we'll have it in time to bid this year. Great. So. It's coming. It's just I've heard that before. >> Yeah. Well, you've been hearing about Elm Street for 5 years. And again, that was stuck with um an appraisal. And that took we started that last year um with this appraiser and he finally got the data to us. That's what phone calls all the time. Hey, where's our where's our appraisal? So,
087we just got it Friday. So, now it's gone back to DOT for their review. So, hopefully we'll be bidding that sooner than later. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. You can continue. No, I think uh Counselor Manuel asked about the uh grants. And like I said, it's it's a process. It's not simple. You can get the grant and it could be 3 4 years before you get that project underway. So. And and all of that wait is not our fault. It's all on >> It's It's just the back and forth, you know, they make a comment, we got to make a change, we send it back. They They might find something different that they don't like. Somebody else looks at it, you know. We had a simple mill and overlay on uh Old Forge Road
088and and that they had an a consultant as a go-between cuz they didn't want to do it. He had like 100 comments for a mill and pave. You know, they had to address them all. It's silly things like there's a branch in front of that 25 mph speed limit. Has nothing to do with the project, but it's on the list. You got to address it. So, in a perfect world where magic exists, how do It'd be done by now. how do we What's the bottleneck? How do we expedite that? I don't know. It's It's, you know, we we get the project, we turn it around as quick as possible, send it out the door for review, and then it's out of our control. So. There's There's a lot of times that, you know, we'll [snorts]
089call over This is before the pandemic, so when you could actually call somebody. We call over, "Hey, what's the story?" "Oh, yeah, let me look Oh, yeah." And all of a sudden it gets Yeah, they have so many projects to review. 6 years ago now. Yeah, but what I'm saying is They have so many projects to review, they it gets lost in the shuffle at their end. And then now, they're working in the office once a week, so now we can't even make a phone call. If you go to the state's website for any department, there's like hardly any numbers. It's emails to a generic email address. Can the mayor reach out to the state? If we know, I mean, >> But I don't know who to even contact. >> to contact? That's >> the
090problem. We don't have a contact. Sometimes we have a contact and a go-between. Sometimes we don't. In this case, we don't. >> Well, we >> It's just through CRCOG and then the state. So, we reach out to CRCOG. They're actually, you know, Well, we can't be the only town, right? Oh, we're not the only town, no. Yeah, so I mean, every town has a state rep. Every town has a Every town, you know, we we have engineers meetings where and you know, we'll get together, group of engineers, and we go over our war stories and they're all sort of the same. It's not indigenous to the town of Rocky Hill. No, cer- certainly not indigenous to the town of Rocky Hill. I've heard these stories all over the state. It really, really is difficult at
091times to get responsiveness from certain state agencies. But at the same time, there are there's certain levers we can try to pull. Yeah. I'd love to to see you and the mayor get together and talk about the process with the Glastonbury Ave, particularly just figure out where we're at in it, and then maybe we should uh look at the state options in terms of outreach from you, outreach from our state rep, and uh possibly getting a person that you can actually get back and forth with. Yeah. And we got a lot you know, sorry, Melissa. I was going to say we we we proposed to have a at least a consultant also help us, didn't we, in our first meeting with the Are you talking >> Not our first meeting. >> For what? The I
092think wasn't it the grants person, a grant to help us with grants, and then >> That's grant writing. Yeah, but this is we have the grant. It's Oh, this is getting the >> happened is >> getting the money from the state. So, what happened is No. we applied and it goes through CRCOG. They make a selection and make recommendations. Those recommendations go on to the DOT. They decide are you going to get that award or not. Yeah. All right. Then it comes back to CRCOG, then they usually notify us. And then the last thing that happens usually before we really get rolling is a commitment to fund. And we don't have a commitment to fund on some of these until the plans are finalized, approved, and signed off on. So, so [clears throat] that one
093somehow got lost in the shuffle and we kept going back and forth and said, "Hey, what's the story of this?" And then finally it came back like last year, "Oh yeah, you did get that. You can start on it." So, you know, it was delayed. We thought we had it, but we were never formally notified. So, so now it's just the back and forth with DOT and CRCOG. So, I mean, I think we've got a lot of people that live in town from DOT. Oh, we do. Um We do. So, uh I think >> might not be the person that we got to deal with. >> Yeah, but I it there's a chance they might know the right person. May May I ask? My my suggestion, I think, would would be for for if we
094if we just get together for me and go over the steps in the process that have occurred so far, and then strategize about how we do outreach to DOT. I think there's a there's a pathway there. Yeah. My my worry is that there are opportunities for many grants, and I don't want to have the the deterrent up at the beginning and not even wanting to go after them because there's such a difficult process. So, I'm I would like to see what we can do to help. There's many towns. Um some of them have period have full-time staff that work on it, but some that are bigger and and others, but there are many towns that go after lots of grants and are very successful. So, I'd like to see us be more successful in grants
095somehow. >> been very successful with these CRCOG grants. Okay. >> Very successful. We've had I I mean, the only ones that we've had a difficult time are is um New Road. We tried to get it twice for road maintenance and once uh for sidewalks, which we just did. French Street, New Road, Newington Avenue, and we ranked near the bottom. Yeah, cuz I was going to bring up I'm too early, but I'm going to bring it up now since we're talking about grants. Um there's a FEMA hazard grant for the tank. And if my understanding is that tank is in really bad shape and is >> the fuel tank >> Oh, yeah, yeah. Um and it's at risk of leaking. So, we can put that together. If you have a link, send it to us, we'll
096put it together. Okay. Yeah. Okay, I'll see if I can >> I get monthly, I think it comes from CRCOG, maybe it's UCONN T too, I'm not sure, a list of all the grants that are out there. And we review them all. It has an orange heading, I think. We review them all, look at it, see what we qualify for, what we don't. A lot of times we don't qualify because it's you need to be in conjunction with another community. It's connectivity. A lot of them have also you have to be, you know, um Environmental justice? >> Just Yes. Yes. Disadvantaged. Yes. And we don't qualify for that either. So. Yeah. If you can make a good argument of, you know, for that FEMA one that it's a hazard, which it sounds like it might
097be, we could try to get >> Maybe get that one, yeah. Yeah. So. Does that one have a match? I don't know, that's the other thing. A lot of them will have a match. Yeah, that I think and I think that's the other thing. >> you know, 20% is better than the whole ball of wax to pay out. 75 750,000, so But those tanks are going to have to get done cuz they have a shelf life and >> Yeah, we have to see how long that takes. So. All right, where was I? That was uh sidewalks. We talked about the MS4 here already, the environmental protection. And then uh town-wide drainage study. So, that's something we applied for a grant for and still have not heard. I just spoke to the We actually hired a
098consultant to do that application for us. I just spoke to him this afternoon and they said they have heard nothing on this grant process yet either. They're expecting we won't have results till the summer. So, uh it's desperately needed, but uh right now we're in holding pattern. So, that's engineering. Do you want to go through the numbers first? Sure. Okay. So, let me get to my numbers here. So, uh really the the salaries, of course, are contractual. Uh we talked about the line striping, so that's a reduction from past years for engineering, but we've added the paint to Joe's budget. Uh but we do need to do what we call the long lines with the machine. We have to have that done cuz that's something we just can't do in-house. MS4, we we talked a
099little bit about that. We ran way over on that this year. Um that was due to a few items. One of them was uh was sprung on us that we had to a new permit for both our garages. That was something that was released by DEP after our budget was done. So, we had to take care of that plus some other just emergency kind of things we had to take care of. Um Trying to find that number here. What was that actual number? Yeah, for some reason this one I printed doesn't Oh, yeah, there it is. Yeah, we're at uh We're at the 25 >> over $50,000 there, yeah. Yeah. Right? Where is it? >> Yeah, I'm circling it right here. Yeah. Stormwater management. >> No, that's stormwater management. It was the uh the whole
100total MS4. If you look up top, we're right now we're like 51,900. You know, we budgeted nowhere near that just cuz we had some other items we had to take care of with that funding. Uh it's just it's an ongoing thing. We have to do it every year. We have to do these reports. We have to do the maintenance. We have to do the repairs. So, it's just something that is going to be there forever. Uh Training and business, that went up. Um some of you might be aware, some of you might not. I'm a member of an association called APWA, American Public Works Association. It's 33,000 members nationwide in in New England minus Maine, they're too far away. We have about 1,000 members. Uh last year I was elected vice president of the New
101England chapter. So, I'll move up to the second second vice president. I'll be pre- first vice president, then president. Part of that is traveling to just about all their events. And I sat down with Ray and Mona before I even said yes, I can do it, to make sure, you know, we'll have the backing of the town. So, usually it's local, but I the summer convention might be like this year it's on the Cape, I'm not going, but it's $300 a night. You know, um I will be going to nationals in Houston, which is actually cheaper than the Cape. So. So, those those are some of the increases that you'll see there. Uh uniforms and went up a tad, that's contractual. And member expense, inland wetlands. Oh, yeah. So, member expense, so uh state law
102the inland wetlands commission as well as the planning and zoning and uh What's the other one, zoning board of appeals, Kim? ZBA. They have to have mandatory training yearly, I believe, or bi-yearly. over a four-year period. >> Yeah. So, some of those classes were free. Now they're charging 50 or 60 bucks a class. You have nine members on a committee, eight times 60 bucks, you got to you got to account for that. So, all these folks need to take these classes. So, that's where that number's coming from. Any questions on engineering? All right. Next. What do you got next? Planning? >> Planning. All right. Uh Kim Ritchie, our town planner, is in the back of the room, as is Mike Violet, our building official. They were kind enough to come down tonight and support. And
103so, some of you may or may not know them. We'll put a name to a face, face to a name, whichever it is. So, planning. Go back to the planning page here. So, goals. Uh complete streets planning. That is an ongoing item. Uh It's a whole class on complete streets, but real quick, we've created a checklist. What happens is when we We've always done this. When we mill and pave a street, we'll look at the road and say, "What are our opportunities here?" Uh part of milling paving, any kind of paving other than the very thin micro uh paves, you have to fix the the you have to bring all the ADA ramps up to compliance. So, we brought them all up to compliance with this referendum and guess what? They moved the goal post
104last year to something called pro act. So, all our handicap ramps or a lot of them are not in compliance anymore. But, they don't have to be as long as we have a plan to do it the next go around. So, um but that's part of complete streets, making sure that, you know, we have the ADA ramps, sidewalks, uh bike lanes if if it can handle it. So, we have a checklist that we go through. Kim's uh formalized it. So, that's the complete streets. We look at these roads as we're working on them. Number two, implement the plan of conservation and development. As you heard from Mr. Chicarella, we just had a meeting the other night. They prioritized sidewalks in the sidewalk fund. Um and they want to, you know, focus on that portion of
105the plan of implementation. It's a mouthful. The PIC. For the POC. Um so, they're meeting bi-monthly now. So, the next meeting will be uh I guess that's uh we're April, May, June will be the next meeting. Um and some of those items uh Kim has been going to the various boards and commissions, wetlands, planning, zoning, sustainable CT, whoever else has uh economic development, whoever's got a piece of that document and filling them in on what they can do to help achieve the goals of that plan. So, I think she you've hit everybody now, right? Working on it. Okay. Last night she was at the sustainable committee. You know, and giving them assignments. And part of what you're talking about earlier about the trash and and education, that can fall to the sustainable group. Um That's
106all we got for Kim. We also talked ordinance update. We're looking at updating all our ordinances or not all, but we have about 30 that need to be updated. Uh so, between planning, engineering, public works, you know, whatever department that it affects, police, uh we're looking at up doing some updates. One of the things we have that happens is uh especially with planning and zoning is the zoning enforcement officer goes out there and issues something and he's got no teeth, no way to enforce it. Uh you know, oh yeah, there's fines or something, but who's going to collect them? Who's going to, you know, is it the police that are going to serve this? Is it the zoning enforcement officer? So, we're we need to we need to codify that a little better. Uh Steve,
107uh along those lines is did we learn anything from Consigliere? Do we have to add anything to our books to better I don't I don't think it's >> That's that's uh it's a private matter, as the the attorney general said. For him to even get involved was very unique. Um I I'm It's a private entity. >> If the new legislation gets passed, we can up we need to update our ordinances to reflect the new fines and whatever happens. >> Okay. Um but we have I I'd like to look at that whole our whole um housing code Yeah. ordinance. Yeah, I I'm actually excited to hear you talk about that because I know that, you know, many of these ordinances were written a long time ago and we absolutely should be looking at where the state
108law allows us our parameters around it and maximize our ability to show teeth in the situations where we need >> as simple as the the this winter we had a bunch of different snow storms, 18 inches or so. The phone ringing off the hook. Sidewalks not clear. Sidewalks not clear. Well, who's going to take care of that? Do the police go? Yeah, cuz they're the enforcement and is it, you know, it's in the it's in the ordinance. Does it fall to engineering? Does it fall to the zoning official? Who's going to do that? And then what what where's the teeth? Hey, you got to clear your sidewalk. What are you going to do about it? Okay, we're going to issue a fine. Well, I'm not going to pay it. 25 bucks. You know, people will
109say, "See you later." It's going to melt. So, you know, we got to we got to codify that and figure out how we're going to Yeah. >> get the folks to do it and collect if we need to. And you know, if you got to put a lien on the house, they don't sell it until it's paid. So. Thank you for the focus on it and anything I can do to be helpful, happy to. >> Absolutely. So, as I said, uh the PIC's goal none and number one item was sidewalk in in that the ordinance and and the the sidewalk fund. Just to clarify, Steve Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. No, no. I um I don't want to >> [clears throat] >> digress or anything, but with ordinances >> Mhm. uh and and Kim, you
110may want to weigh in on would there be financial implica- implications if we had an open space ordinance like Glastonbury, Cromwell Wethersfield? We'd have to look at it, I guess, first of all. I'm not familiar with theirs. Um it's to [snorts] to put aside open space for when there's a development. And I know I know there's [clears throat] some like what, 10% or something >> That's usually in the subdivision regs, right? Yeah, but there's an ordinance too for open space and I'm just wondering if we discuss that at a future meeting with like farmland or something. >> We'd have to investigate we you'd have to investigate it to cuz I want to make sure that, you know, while we're talking about the budget that there's no financial implications that adversely affect us. Mhm. >> Cuz
111I mean I just want to make sure that we're having all the tools that we have available um for open space and preservation. Do we Do we not Do we require that? I'm sorry. Don't we require like 20% of a subdivision to be open space? >> Do we still have that? We have open space design regulations. >> can answer that. Thank you. Hi, Kim Ricci, town planner. We do have regulations for set aside open space on um subdivisions. Uh I know in Glastonbury it's the town council that acts as the zoning commission. So, there may be different ways to get open space there because of that. I'm not quite sure. I'm going to, you know, I will check out their ordinances and uh review that for you, John. Okay. Okay, thanks. Is is ours Yeah,
112I know we're kind of off topic, but is ours One of the problems is when you ask for open space, they say, "Oh, you need 20%." Oh, here, have all this wetland. Well, it's kind of, you know, useless. So, is ours like a percentage that give 20% as wetlands, you can only give us 20% of the open space? >> [laughter] >> I don't think the ducks would say that. >> might not, but I think it's a translation issue. >> For if you want to go in there and walk, you're going to sink up to your knees in muck. So, you know, the average person. But, you know, some I I think sometimes do it. So, if I have a 100 acre subdivision, I got to give the town 20, it can't be 20 acres of
113wetlands, um you know, unless the whole property is wetlands. If only 15% of the whole property was wetlands, then only 15% of the open space can be wetlands. You know, that's one way of doing it. Our regulations the open space must be reflective of the property itself. So, if X percentage is wetlands, then X percentage of the open space could be that also. >> That's what I was just saying. Yeah, okay. So. Yeah, I thought we changed that. So, if they're subdividing in a swamp then 100% of that set aside could be >> a different committee. That's the birds and the ducks and everything out there. Yeah. So. All right. Um So, yeah, you can hang on. Thanks. I think we hit all of Kim's goals. Zoning regs need to be updated, so they're working
114on that, too. Um As for uh finance, I mean, there's virtually it's contractual, really. Um we did make some changes to some of the codes, you'll see, so cuz they were kind of out of line with what's going on here. So, we added a member expense. That's what I was just explaining about the training, I believe is that's where we got it, I believe, for the member training. Um Yeah, in planning between planning and zoning, they have 16 members uh between the two commissions. So, if say it's 60 bucks a pop you know, and I think somebody is reporting that could go $120. So, that's where that number came from. So, it's an unfunded mandate. Again, uniforms is contractual, you know, it went up. And uh that's about it. I just want to point out
115that also you'll see it says um IT technician. That's actually our assistant ZEO {slash} town planner. That's just an error in coding. Correct salary, wrong title. Yes, wrong title, correct. Everything else correct. So. What's the uh dues and subscriptions? Uh 2025 was only $125. Why is it everything up there? >> That is um for what's it called? CAS CAT CASIO? The the the So, Ben So, recently they changed the laws of the state, so the ZEO has to have a uh the um certification. It's through CASIO is the name of the group. And so, that's to pay his subscription to that and to be a member of the group. You got to you got to have that certificate and a membership. So, that's part of that. All right. Anything else? Do we want to go
116on to I will thank you. building or capital improvements? Do building. Building. So, I said we have Mike in the back. Um I don't have his uh All right. I can I can run them down. They're pretty they're pretty simple. So, goal number one is to get all our uh our paper [snorts] documents scanned. And we went out not to bid, but just talked to a couple vendors a couple years ago and at that time for them to scan all just the building department documents, 8 1/2 by 11s, not the big sheets, um was $80,000 and it was going to take him a year. It would take a couple boxes offsite, have somebody to take them apart, take the staples out, then they'd scan. The one plus with that is it the way they scanned
117it, everything was searchable. You type the word duck and then yeah, it's going to find every document duck. Ours so that was just cost prohibitive. So, over the last couple years, we've had um some monies from Was it left over from a grant? Yeah, so we've been able to hire part-time kids, we'll say. They're like high school seniors that are coming in doing basically the same work, scanning. Um they're just going to be a PDF document, but at least we'll have the records. So, if anything happened to them, we're going to have them and they're going to be backed up. Well, what's what's the town clerk's process? Cuz they've been scanning for years. >> They send stuff out. They send stuff out. >> believe that they send out. Yeah. They send it out. Some of
118the >> out and they use a thing called Laserfiche. >> Well, I mean I I remember what, 10 years ago there's I mean the scanning wasn't really good. Mhm. They scan their maps. >> And it was all in-house. Maps. We were doing in-house for them. Oh, it was maps from them. Yeah, we we were scanning ours. I I don't think that they need to go out. I think somebody comes in and does it in-house. I don't think they're allowed to leave the vault. So, we don't have an efficient in-house process currently. I I can't speak for the town clerk. Uh for us, this is what we need to do. Just to back it up. >> got a I I think the clerk got a Didn't Didn't their office get a grant in the last couple
119years to >> is the same source of funding. It's a record retention. So, it's a records of not just the clerk, it's just town-wide and that's allowed the engineering and actually the fire marshal as well. They've They've been really scanning and then storing a lot of very old documents. Yeah, we've been doing it all in-house. Yeah. I think the fire marshal, too. Cuz that that young man was the fire then came to us. Correct. >> Yeah. So, yeah, we've we've been lucky. We've had three really good kids working on it. So, but it's still taking time. We started a year ago and we're like maybe through the letter H. So, when they say it's going to take a long time, when this company said it's going to take us a year, I understand why. Um
120second, we have a few open permits. I um what happens is a lot of times somebody will get a permit on their house and not complete the job and they never call for the CO. So, there's a lot of those out there that we're trying to close out so we can close the books on it. It affects the program and and the and the records. Am I correct there, Mike? Yeah. So, that that's the goal is to close all those out. I don't How many do you have open, do you know? It's quite a few. So, >> Are we talking dozens? Are we talking hundreds? Thousands. Thousands? Not thousands, hundreds though. Okay. So, we're trying to get those closed out. Some of them may might not need anything except the final CO, but you know,
121they need probably need the final inspection and then the paperwork and close it out and then it's done. And it ac- actually affects a lot of people when they're buying a house, Mhm. they'll come in and research that and say, "Hey, where's the permit on this?" So, it might affect their funding. Um OpenGov permitting program. We're in our third year with OpenGov and it's been uh very difficult, very trying. Um we have an issue with the MAT, which is the master address table, and we've been going back and forth between us, OpenGov, and our GIS consultant for roughly 3 years. It's about at 70%. We hope soon it'll be 100%. Perfect. Um but there's I don't understand computer speak, but there's all these little quirks and things just aren't talking to each other and uploading
122right or communicating and I you know, so it's it's been It's not just this program. Everybody, you know, our our admin is talking to somebody in another town with a totally different program and they're having the same headaches with their program. So, it's just it's um I don't know. I don't know about that stuff. And then educating the public is a is their final goal. And it's something that they do uh routine basis, but you know, when you need a when you need a permit, when you should have a contractor versus when you could probably do something on your own. It's an ongoing process, but you know, they have a packet regarding pools. They have a packet regarding decks and probably a bunch of other ones that I don't even know. So, they hand them
123out. So, when somebody comes in or thinking about something, here you go. This is what you need. No, it's a nice package. You know, I don't think you want to dig a hole for your pool yourself, but in an above ground you could probably do. So, any questions on Mike's goals? Cool. All right, the budget. Mike's budget. So, again, it's a lot of contractual. Um And uh codebooks. So, every couple years the codes they update the books. So, we got to get new books. I know a lot of people like online, but it's you know, it makes it very cumbersome when you're trying to talk to somebody who comes to the counter. Um you pull out that book and they the guys make notes in them and and tab them. It's a lot more efficient
124to use the books. Um so, that's we're due for books, I guess. Yeah, coming up. The state is on schedule to adopt code cycle books October 1st. So, if you didn't hear that, the state's going to be adopting new code October 1. So, I'll have to get the new books come October 1. It's usually 3,500 4,000 dollars. 3,500 is what we put in. So, I guess that's hopefully the price. Um OpenGov, that's just their pricing. You know, that's our software program I was just describing for permits. That's the the cost to uh have their subscription. Steve, what's um just going back up a little bit to part-time salaries? What's What's fire watch and event? >> Yeah, I think that was an error. Oh, yes. I think I mentioned it way back in the beginning when
125we were starting that there was a duplication. So, today it should show and it does show in the fire marshal. So, this was already on that list of minus 30. Okay. Get us in the right direction. It's again, IT stuff that we, you know, sometimes it's quirky and does crazy things. Is that fire watch one also with the fire marshal? >> Yeah. Correct. Okay, both of those. Yeah, these guys have nothing to do with the fire. I think that's it. I'm building for finances. So, and I think any other questions on that? Same thing with the uniforms and actually there's this contractual, but they also have, you know, shirts that have their names and you know, identify themselves. So, that's always higher than the regular other contractual obligations. I just have a question around permitting.
126>> [clears throat] >> Cuz it was also in the it's, you know, in the budget somewhere else that you know, we were expecting X number of dollars in permitting last year. Mhm. But we didn't get it because there was building that we anticipated that never broke ground or never did anything. Um all of the work at Concierge, a lot of that has permits. Correct? Yes. Well, come on. Do they Let me Let me have Mike answer those. Is there revenue associated with all the permits that they've had to do as well this year? Hi, Mike Violet, building official. Um So, I'm sorry. I asked the question again. So, um All the permit >> All the the permit All the per- Does Concierge get billed for all the permits that they have to pull and all
127the things that you have to check and all of that stuff for the work that they're doing? Well, they uh the contractor they hired, Elite, um pulled permits for all the work they're doing, for all the repairs and all that. >> pay for all those. >> for all the permit fees, yeah. It's based on the value of the work. >> Right. Right. Um so, the in the budget elsewhere, it reflects that we received a lot less money in permits in this last fiscal year than we anticipated. Um but uh is that still reflective of all the stuff that we've potentially billed over the last couple months? I think I know cuz you like me to do revenue stuff, but we had budgeted about 900,000 and then up to the last finance meeting, we're only at
128about 50% collection. This will obviously bring it closer, but as we're planning for this coming Yeah. budget for the coming year, we're obviously not anticipating is not 900. It's more like the back to the norm. >> Okay. Um yeah, and we're not anticipating to go through all of that again, hopefully. Um Okay, I yeah, I just want I was wondering if that was reflected in in the permit dollars. Like have Have we received payment for all of those over the past few months? >> have. Okay. If you don't mind me asking questions, this might be more for you, but um that You know, actually, I just answered my own question in my head and that's not that important. >> [snorts] >> Apologies. >> [laughter] >> I got a question about the codes. You're saying that
129we have so many open codes that aren't are um Permits. permits that aren't closed out. Do you not have like a tracking like somebody take the permit out? >> We started doing that, but it's actually a code for the applicant to call for all inspections. Cuz we have so many permits, it's they're supposed to be doing it, but um now we started having our admin Good. uh with the new OpenGov permit software, it's easier. She could she like uh Do a report. Yeah, well, do a report, but also, you know, flag a permit once it comes in and then after 6 months, she'll get a notification that it's still open. So. Perfect. That's That's what I was getting at. I mean, there's got to be a way to track these things and contact the property
130owner and say, "Hey, are you done? We want We can inspect and close it." Right. We started focusing on pools and stuff like that where there might be safety concerns. And then, you know, work from there. >> Exactly. Yep. Good. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, I guess we're on to the CIP. >> Yes. And I think the list I have printed is different than yours. >> okay. I'm going to get you there. Yeah. So, I think we had talked about if you wanted to touch on this first. These are current year, and you've got a lot of multi-year if you want to touch on those. But, you've got current year as uh So, let me explain the the roads, first of all, real quick. Uh Councilman Neils asked me
131in between in the break. So, so as I said, >> [snorts] >> Joe and I kind of share that pot cuz I kind of handle the bigger projects such as the milling and paving. I get the contract, and we use the state vendor in place, VIP is called. Um it's better than bidding it ourself cuz it's always going to be low as the lowest possible bid. Uh so, we we try not to bid if we don't have to. We have that resource, Croc, and Crack School as actually is another source we can we can pull from. Um so, you know, we'll make the arrangements so he doesn't have to, and uh we process the bills and check, and we keep all the We do the inspections, so we check to make sure everything's correct. So,
132you know, it's it's a shared pot. It just falls on to under me on the big items such as the road repair reserve infrastructure, that kind of stuff. So, for infrastructure, I'm counting roads, sidewalks, curbing, signs, lines, um what else can we have out there? You know, that's that's pretty much our purview. Catch basins. Yes, catch basins. Okay. Actually, Steve, on that, um I know you're looking at the current year, I'm looking at the 5-year. So, for the reserve infrastructure, it's it's 150 for '27. So. But, then it jumps to 540 for the subsequent 4 years. I would love to touch on that one if I may. Please. Yeah. So, as you know, we had the state road referendum, the $10 million. We had started, and if it's may sound familiar to some, but we
133started the concept of creating reserves. We did one for the Board of Education, we did one for facilities, and we did one for uh infrastructure, and the original startup was to put 450 or 500,000 in for the reserve for infrastructure. So, what that would do is take this line that's coming from the state and the 500, which would give that department a million dollars each year. So, if we could get back into that mode of doing the reserve at the level that's appropriate, we could avoid uh potentially with a lot of good management, but I think Steve's got that uh to avoid going out for another $10 million referendum. Yeah. The roads have been two referendums back-to-back for $10 million. Yeah. No, I think that's that's that's a good point. Yeah, I think that's a
134good point, and I I don't want to go down a rabbit hole with the roads. Um I think what we need to do in the next 6 months is have Steve do a presentation for everybody on the where the road project first began with the referendum, and where we are today because in past years, there's always been a cut or reduction to money going to the roads, and I just want to see where we are today so that we're not in you know, things could be green right now in terms of funding for the roads. But, if we cut a certain point every year, it could turn yellow or red in terms of a project scope. So, I think I I think Steve doing a presentation with your nice colors on the roads and what
135things have to be done in the next 5 years so that everybody here understands that what would happen if there were reductions >> Mhm. and we fall behind. So, we we've done this presentation a couple times. Most of you Some of you might have seen it, but I mean, the first one was 2013, the next one was in well, 6 years later, so uh 2019. So, um and I I absolutely will do it again. Um but I like to wait till I get the data from Beta with the most up-to-date road ratings. So, that's, you know, as I said, it'll probably be the end of the spring here, so maybe June June, July when you're hopefully a little slower and you need something to talk about. I mean, it's easy for us to look at
136this budget item and say, "Well, you know, Yeah. >> he's looking for this, but let's give him 50% of that. We don't know what the subsequent years will will happen." >> So, let me put it this way. You go and buy a brand new car, you pay $60,000 for a nice new car. Are you going to park it outside and just leave it there for the next 5 years and do nothing? No, you're going to wash it and wax it and maintain it cuz otherwise, it oxidizes and starts to break down. And then, no matter what you do, it's probably going to start to rust eventually. So, and that's the same thing with the roads. We mill and pave, we leave it for 20 years, it's cracked beyond, you know, a lot of them are
137just a lot of alligator cracking or or different kind of cracking. That's a whole presentation itself, but there's all kinds of things that happen to it. So, now you're back to the mill and pave. Just give you an idea, mill and pave right now is about 20 bucks a square yard. What we're doing now is something called fog seal, and I have a list of roads where we've done some of that. Let me um Jason just sent it to me. So, easy ones to see is the the Silo Drive neighborhood, Silo Corn Crib, and um whatever the other one is, Side Ridge. Also, West Meadow, Sage, and uh and uh Nutmeg we did. So, those are pretty easy to uh shoot up and down. The Fernwood Drive, Garfield, Harvest. It's not um Knollwood, that neighborhood
138we've done. That's what was on called fog seal. What fog seal is, uh the best way to put it is it's uh suntan lotion in lotion, hand lotion. So, you're kind of remoisturizing the road a little and giving a little protection, and it's $2 a square yard, and it'll last for about 3 or 4 years. So, if you'd say you got a mill and pave, you this pavement's not holding up. Many times, you know, we Some of these roads, we've milled and paved after 10. Um so, at $20 a square yard, you know, if if I could hit it with fog seal, two bucks, and then 5 years from now, let's say even $3, you just got an extra, you know, bunch of years out of that the life of that road. Um and you
139pushed off the big repair further down. So, that's what we're doing. Weatherseal's done a lot of it, um as well as other towns. It's It's like the latest, greatest in pavement preservation. So, that's the way we're going to try and stretch the dollars for road maintenance. And And we keep saying roads, but I love to see it change to say infrastructure so we include the sidewalks, we include the catch basins, we include the drainage pipes, we include um you know, the sidewalk the the sidewalk uh ramps and and everything that's involved in maintaining our transportation system, not just roads. Is the road referendum money used up now? I think we had last half of that money. >> little left. Very little left. We're using it to pay uh Beta, which is like a $30,000 bill,
140and and uh very little after that. I think So, yeah, it's it's not enough to do much. You know, some curbing and stuff, but it's not like we can go and do a road. Like to One of the neighborhoods that's probably going to need it next, and this is how we did the micro-surfacing on in 2014, and it's still holding up pretty damn well, is um the Whitewood Drive neighborhood. I don't know if anybody travels up there, lives up there. But, those roads were done in 2014, and there's, you know, when we did they said, "Oh, you're going to get about 6 years out of it." It's now 12, and it's holding up great. It's not the prettiest thing, but it's holding up great. But, we can't fog seal over that. So, chances are that's
141going to be the next that needs to be milled and paved. That whole neighborhood's a couple million dollars to do. So. So, um if we could just boil [clears throat] down what's in this budget that we are funding for um infrastructure over the next year. Yeah. Well, we're talking we have the reserve. So, we're we're looking at >> 150 reserve. So, we're looking at doing that fog seal and those kind of things. Uh we sidewalks, Hayes Road is in there, I believe. I I I didn't see it on the list, but I think it was in there. I saw it. Yeah. So, that's one that that should be on there. Uh like I said, my list is different than this one. So, let me look here. Uh just the road maintenance, Hayes Road. Uh I
142think the community gardens might be in there. Is that in there, Ray? The farm. The farm? >> There's a portion of that Yeah. Cuz the farm, uh for those who don't know, is is about there. Uh we need to install a a holding tank. We can't do the septic at the the ledge is too shallow, so we're going to do a holding tank. That'll probably be in the fall. I don't have a price on those yet. We're looking at both uh like a a better terms, plastic and a concrete. Um probably a couple thousand gallons. Uh the interior walls in there, the the electrical is to the building, it just needs to be energized by CL&P, I believe it's or Eversource does that. And then, uh the water line's going to be installed hopefully next
143week, so they'll have water at the gardens. So, a lot of that's being taken care of this budget, but there's going to be some for next year. So, that's the CIP, I believe. We talked about repair roads reserve infrastructure. That doesn't count. Drainage study we talked about that as a grant. If I could, I just wanted while you're looking you're we're asking what's in this year. So, it's the 150 is the reserve and you've got the amount in there. That's the town aid road. That's 465 is state grant. So, you're going to see it on your revenue [clears throat] side and therefore it shows up on there. >> we're extending 465 but we're also getting 465. >> That's right. So, that's all you have for general fund for this. Everything else is either grants or
144I know I have I brought your list of unfunded Oh, yeah. I have a huge list. Yeah. I I gave you the mini list if you want to look at the screen. >> But so, really the 150 for reserve is the only thing that it we're paying for. Correct. Everything else has been funded somehow. Yeah. Yes. Um you know, last year I think it was last year the process we did. I had 21 items in there. Now, it doesn't show up in your book this year because so many we're not going to be funding them but there are some in there that are funded by grants like the Beach Road culvert design. Industrial Park culvert design. That's those are both grants. Veterans Memorial Green which we just awarded the design. Um that's a grant. So,
145we do have a lot of grants to Counselor Kaplan's point. We do have a lot of grants out there. Yeah. So, we're extending 465 but we're also getting 465. That's right. So, that's all you have for general fund for this. Everything else is either grants or I know I have I brought your list of unfunded Oh, yeah. I have a huge list. Yeah. I I gave you the mini list if you want to look at the screen. But so, really the 150 for reserve is the only thing that it we're paying for. Correct. Everything else has been funded somehow. Yeah. Yes. Um you know, last year I think it was last year the process we did. I had 21 items in there. Now, it doesn't show up in your book this year because so many
146we're not going to be funding them but there are some in there that are funded by grants like the Beach Road the actual construction. I don't I don't think many of you were here to for this. Some of you were but you know, we have an issue out there where that road floods. It gets about a foot of water over and we trap about 10 families. So, we're having a design done now but to the replacement kind of probably be a mill and a half to two mill. Um the biggest problem is the construction. It's only 18-ft wide road now. We need to widen out at least 24 but pretty steep coming down, pretty steep going back up and to get some kind of to do the construction and a bypass lane. So, I don't
147know if there's going to be a temporary bridge. They can phase construction. Um there's fortunately not a ton of traffic so, if you phased it, you could have one lane and people just have to you know, put stop sign at each end and just be vigilant of somebody coming at you if the side lane is clear. So, that's one of them. Can I just touch on that quickly? Cuz you you only have that budget in 2029 for $2 million. Why are we It's unfunded at this It's unfunded. It's on Yeah. We Do we know we're going to do it at some point? Why aren't we budgeting for that instead of hitting us off 2 million? If it's in the CIP plan, yeah, it it highlights it for grants. A lot of grants you can't get
148a project for if it's not in our Yeah. long range plan. So, that's why we're thinking that may go into a grant or some most of that. It would be nice. Yeah, that's that's the That one's going to be tough >> [cough] >> cuz there was one [clears throat] below that too. The That's getting industrial park. Industrial culvert. That's a big big amount of money too. It's not funded. It's another one that's unfunded. So, but if we identify and we can seek funding sources and or just break it out and say $300,000 a year and save up our pennies and then do it at the end. You know, the industrial park culvert we never intended to build it. Our intention was to get it designed and be an incentive for maybe possibly an investor to
149come maybe develop part of that property. And they do it. We have [clears throat] that grant for that though, right? We have the grant for the design. It's It's in process. Yeah. Both of them are in process. We have two separate consultants out there doing the work. And then the fuel tanks as we discussed there's a shelf life on those. I think they're 28 did we find? Yeah. That they have to be replaced by. There's a few things like that. You know, as Joe was saying about the garage we we'd love that at least be able to fund the study for the garage. You know, cuz they're not cheap. I know New Britain just built a new one. Beautiful. That was a mayor's priority. She She put it on the public works director get it
150done. She says, I think you had 20 million. Here's your 20 million. Get it done. And they built a beautiful facility like four buildings. So, yeah. But if we get a study so we know exactly what we need and you know, some some idea of cost would be great. So, Steve I know that Belden Lane that was one of the ones that was approved through the ConCom but that one it's like a slip lining, right? So, it's not That one is Yeah, that one's kind of on hold. We have an issue with easement. So, when it was designed back in 1950s, it was a DOT project actually, believe it or not. And they left So, the road only has so much right-of-way. And then if you got to work off of that right-of-way, you're on
151the private property. You have to have to have an easement. Well, the easement there is about the size of you know, your typical office 25 by 25. And it's 14-ft below grade. So, just to build a road to get any equipment down there, you got to be way outside that easement. And the the easement negotiations have not gone smooth. So, right now it's on hold until further notice. We have a design but that's it. It was permitted. Yeah, it was permitted. We have five five years on that permit. So. All right. Any other questions? Can I just ask for the the town farm? We've always had a line item for that. It's not on there. I don't see it in here. >> [snorts] >> It was part of that $150,000 reserve infrastructure. And that's what
152we have it as this year too. Once once we get those utilities in, pretty much done. Is that all that'll be used for that? The farm or not? Pardon me? Is that all that'll be used? We've only budgeted 50,000 in the past. Now we're there at 150. The 150 is The barn is included in that 150. The farm is included in within that 150. Multiple items in that 150. I think we need What's in it? What's in that line item? Right. Well, I think he may have touched upon it but it would be anything from the the curbing to any sidewalk repairs and whatever the engine engineering / public works needs for that year. Right. Yes. And as Ray is saying is matching up with the 465. So, it's not a standalone but they work
153together the 465 with the 150. And one of the things that doesn't show up anywhere is our regular sidewalk program which we're going to ramp back up as I was explaining with the the 50,000 now 150,000. Uh we get LOSIP 180 right for that. Again, it has to be identified in the capital improvements. So, we have sidewalk repairs identified. So, that will be you know, we bid it and then get reimbursed by the state. What's the funding in that sidewalk waiver that Mr. Piccarello was asking about? That's in the non-recurring fund. That it I don't have it in front of me now but it's it's not a ton of money. It's Yeah, I think we've only done two of them. Yeah. Really two or three. Yeah. So, are you using that money? We Not yet.
154You know, at the time the last one we did I remember is like 50 or 55 dollars a linear foot times you know, 100 feet that or whatever it was crossed. It wasn't a you know, five six thousand dollars that we had. So, it's it won't go very far. Might be able to do a handicap ramp or two. So, that's about what we have in there right now like six grand. Probably a little more than that. We'd have to look it up. No, it's it's greater than that. I I had access to some of these budget things and I had a tendency to believe it's gotten like between 50 to 100. Yeah. Okay, cool. We can Yeah, that's what it's geared for. It's for sidewalks. It's just I don't have the exact number. We can
155look that up tomorrow. I mean it's something that we could use in terms of if we have to you know, 20% match a grant or something or something like that. Well, it's for sidewalks. It has to be It's earmarked to sidewalks. So, yeah, that's what I'm saying for sidewalks. Most of the sidewalk grants we have I don't think are a match. LOSIP's not a match. No, our first phase of Century Hills I think was the ECD. Was that a match? It might have been a match. Century Hills was LOSIP [clears throat] I think. No, it's half and half. Half and half. I think it was One was LOSIP and one was STEEP. I think the STEEP we had to put up money. Now, we can't get one for Hayes Road. There's no way to find
156one for that. No, it has to go through CRCOG. Well, the easiest way is the ones through CRCOG and they solicit usually every year and this year was the most they've had. They had 17 standalone sidewalks. As I said, I put in for a France Street, New Road and New Britain Avenue figuring, okay, hey, we're going to close the gaps on France and then we're going to get people this new park in the barn and you know, the fields and the farm and all that. We ranked near the bottom. So, when the STEEP grant comes around it's not every year. Might be every two years. When that deadline rolls around that might be impossible to apply for a STEEP grant. But so, I thought that you had said before that that Hayes one was already
157That's So, that we we already funded it. The money's sitting there waiting to be spent type thing or Was that in last year's or no? Oh, it was. Okay. So, you have non-recurring funds. finished. Yeah, but yeah. >> So, we had already set aside the money for that. Oh, yeah. That was That's paying out of our pocket, not the grant. Yes, we're ready to bid that. Now that we have all our permits in place, we're ready to bid. Okay, so. But, if it's there, I'll bid it ASAP. It's there. Why is it showing on here, though, for 150 for this year? I didn't realize it was there from last year. I didn't see it in the I think we don't Do we have current year in there? I'm sorry. Which page are you on? Uh
158your screen right there it says Hayes Road sidewalk. We're asking 26 27 for 150,000. If you're saying it's already budgeted and we have the money, why are That's That's saying grant funded, so it'll be in the uh probably in the non-recurring. Wait, so is it the grant. Just sort of like that other example with the four 65 or whatever. Exactly. Yeah, okay. Wait, okay. So, is it grant funded? The Hayes Road one? No, we don't have a grant for Hayes Road. You don't have anything for it? No. So, was it funded out of last year's budget? Current. Current. Oh, yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah, that's what I mean. The one that ends And then it'll run into the non-recurring if for whatever reason he can't So, we don't need that 150 this year. Yes,
159and that's not a request >> Yeah, I don't think it's in this It says unfunded, yeah. Can we carry it over to next year? I don't think it's in the Right. budget. Um We are We are building the >> Let me see if I can Yeah, we're going to build the sidewalk. I know, but if you're saying you already have the funds Where's the Where's the funding? Yeah, I See, I didn't think we had it last year. Cuz I didn't see it, but I could be wrong. I don't think we did, either, Steve. Yeah, it was probably with this. For example, this would have been a 150,000 dollar in the 24-25 expending the 35 and the unexpended would go to non-recurring, and that's where you see that in the financial report. So, it's a roll
160over similar to this 150. If he doesn't finish any of his projects funded, it goes into the non-recurring and then he can spend it, and then it doesn't have the end of life. So, but these one they roll, you'll get them through a um a resolution. They'll come from finance to the council. So, you'll see them come through. So, I'm looking at last year's budget. I don't quite see it, so, but I could be wrong. Okay. So. My computer Okay, we can maybe circle back. We'll get the answer on that, whether it's there or not. But, if it's there, I'm going to go to bid now. We can get it rolling. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. All right, thanks everybody. Thanks, Steve. Thanks