001I'll call the March 19th Town Town Council meets quarter at 7:02 pm and I'll turn it over to our town manager to go over the proposed FY 2025 26 budget all right thank you chair uh and thank you to my staff uh my finance director uh and the rest of my staff that helped prepare the budget that I submitted and thank you to my directors and staff that are here tonight uh to to see the uh presentation and assist council with any questions that they might have first we presented the uh the budget for 2025 uh 2026 uh on March 2nd I submitted my proposal uh there's three meetings coming up in the next couple days to prent but present this budget in its entirety to Town Council with directors present to answer uh any
002questions tonight's tonight's presentation is a general overview uh which I have our our finance department here to help assist with any questions then we are going to cover Planning and Development buildings DPW in solid ways Thursday uh is the finance department Revenue the assessors I'll pause on the assessors that'll be an opportunity for us to discuss in depth uh what I do not cover tonight in regards to the re revaluation and any questions that anyone has on that he will be thoroughly prepared is Thoroughly prepared to answer any questions it's been quite a process for our town but he'll be here tomorrow night to handle that at that meeting uh the town clerk's budget Public Safety budget Town manager's office budget registar and probate those are all on Thursday on Monday March 24th 7M we
003will cover law enforcement Human Services Senior Center Library Recreation and the Board of Education Dr Willet will be here uh to assist with any questions that might have in that this budget that I'm going to present is a moving Target and as you know there are fluctuations and changes throughout the budget process and we anticipate changes already uh in regards to this on April 1 there'll be a public hearing uh in regards to this budget and then April 3rd is the Town Council discussion obviously the elephant in the room the revaluations a concern to everyone it has been an extraordinary year by all accounts according to our cessor according to all the uh Municipal groups that that we long to through around the state it has been an extraordinary Year from Co of 2020 to
0042025 where we are now there has been extreme changes in uh real estate and real estate values I want to make it clear the revaluation process is not our decision to do that is a state law we are mandated to do it we do not want to do it we have to do it I can tell you we will do it again in 20130 we are budgeting to do it again in 2030 again the revaluation process is not the decision of the Town manager Town staff or Town Council this is a requirement of state law and we are going to have to do it again in um the our fiscal Department who conducted the reval uh through our assessor exactly follows professional in Industry standards for this process that will be clear if you have
005any questions regarding how that process is on Wednesday our property values went up that is a good thing our mill rate is going to go down that is also a good thing the two together will make our town even more attractive our property values when you consider from 2020 to where they are now went up a lot obviously and around 50% home in real estate went up roughly just under 50% it has been an extremely different Market from what it was in 2020 real estate market as a resident myself the big question I ask is if our budget my if this budget that I'm proposing is increasing by 3% why aren't my taxes just going up 3% why are they going up so much more than our budget our budget like any other year is
006is in range of what a typical year would bring with inflation with prices of everything supply cost everything has gone up the 3% is is fairly modest All Things Considered but why are our taxes going up so much more and that's the question uh that I have so we pay for our budget we pay for everything all these Town services and education through Revenue that we raise mostly taxes those two sources of taxes are houses basically in in layman's terms and the other source is commercial and Industrial taxes during this reval the houses went up in disproportionate value to Commercial and uh industrial so the houses the homeowners are taking a bigger role in paying for the town budget than they have in previous years they Rose disproportionately uh when compared to the businesses other
007factors uh every house since 2020 that had a foundation and now has been repaired and made better uh in almost every case is now fully valued on on our list uh that that those went up the veterans exemptions that came to us as a surprise with no no discussion from the state on how to make us whole or how to account for that uh loss for the veterans section and and the increased use of our ordinance 60 uh as well has led to the uh increase in taxes so the disproportionate real estate to commercial uh the veterans exemption the crumbling Foundation all coming back over in the five years and the increase in ordin six consistently over the last few years have all added up to uh these that the cost the increased cost there's
008other uh factors we'll get into that as we go our neighbors next door centry uh had a revalve this year as well eled is next year Cent trees eval their average home price went up 58% and they're much much seeing a much more increase than we are here in the town of Talon it's a good thing that property values go up but if if you're not PL if you don't plan on selling your home that doesn't really go very far uh into assuaging the pain of having to pay uh more taxes this year so we we understand that it's painful if I didn't say it before let me say it again this is not something the town wanted to do we had to do it by State law as directed by this by state law
009to do this revaluation again and it will come again in 2030 this is a balanced budget that I'm going to uh present uh we maintain our fund balances and reserves the best we can and it's this that goes to help us with our our AAA rating we look to enhanced programs modestly when we can when finances are available when we invest Capital we invest in capital and and life cycle replacement projects when we do this we consult with our uh our advisers and our Capital we presented our Capital plan in December and we consult with our debt with Barry babby our our adviser and consultant uh in regards to how we plan out our debt go ahead so let me let me try to get the presentation what do I need to do here just
010share thisen that's we good yeah because it's so you have to drive you want to me to drive yeah here we go also push the button in the lower right to the screen get the m you know what you're doing Dave I can you yes and thank you all right sorry about that I think we're in a good spot now for fiscal year 2026 the general fund revenue is expected to be 65,536 488 the expenditure is expected to be same 65,536 488 compared to fisc year 2025 the adopted budget has increased my proposed adopted budget uh is an increase of 3.03% the town operating budget increases by 2.80% or $ 39222 the Board of Education uh operations budget I propose increasing their budget $ 2.99% or 1.3 million roughly uh more than last year our
011Capital Improvements plan uh has risen uh 57.8% or $226 800 $9 this is all going to be offset with a proposed onetime expense to be offset by the unassigned fund balance uh our finance director can explain that uh if you have questions later the prow mill rate of 28.26% or 9.51 Mills from fiscal year 202's adopted mill rate of our Capital Improvement plan uh that we presented in December so looking at this column if you can see it uh the fourth column over is uh the fourth column over look at the look at the dollar amounts there you can see that there is an increase in $1.7 million to our budget that is$ 392,000 is from the town and 1.3 million is from the Board of Education if you look at some other things the
012state and federal grants roughly increasing by 3.9 3.29% that includes the motor vehicle Grant but we're not going to have that next year we do believe we do have it this year license permit and fees is going to go up $115,000 uh and that is due to the Cannabis and the trend in the building uh building uh uh department and and and fees that we're taking in and there however the clerk's office is going we project to go down $22,000 again that is based on the services and the trends in the clerk's office our investments we look to increase by about 22% or just under 150,000 uh going down you look at our our education grants right now we have it we believe to get about just about 300,000 less than we got last year
013although we do anticipate and believe that we might get that uh next year and we will look to see how that'll affect our budget but our state representative uh is fairly confident that we are going to get it uh and if and again as I mentioned before to offset the capital plan $227,000 uh to uh to help stabilize the the increase in capital look at at expenditures as I said before the expenditures for the town is up 392,000 1.3 million for the Board of Ed Capital Improvements up 226 and our debt service due to good planning uh is going to remain flat okay so so 2020 budget revenues some of the revenues are fixed and some are decided right here at Council you know our property taxes so where they're going to be so some
014we can we can uh we can have have a say in other we don't the proposed budget revenues for fiscal year 2026 reflect an increase as I said 3.03% totaling 1.9 just over to 1.9 million when compared to the uh adopted budget from last year the primary source of Revenue where we going to get make make up for this 1.9 million is property taxes which property taxes constitutes 80.4 just over 80% of our overall Revenue the second largest source is education grants which is around 133% the governor's prop proposed budget for the town of Talon decreased by $248,800 all it's a list of many grants that we have here in the town uh adult uh education ECS or W drct will can explain when he's here next week anything to do with LP uh ypa
015can do um the pilot is basically our state property in town uh director Lapin here tonight DPW you can explain the tar aid grant if you have any questions you'll L us talk about the municipal gr uh Municipal grants in Aid and then the motor vehicle reimbursements and supplement supplemental Revenue sharing if you have any questions these are grants many are flat again uh we we we heavily rely on the state and the 300K from the ECS we are currently not counting that that 300 that uh as Revenue because we don't know we're going to get it but we can um we can discuss that and have it applied to revenue moving on okay so how was how is the mill rate impacted by the appropriate that we decide to to um apply here the
016proposed mill rate is two 2826 the total revenue is uh to be raised by taxation is just over 52 million uh the Top Line Appropriations you can propose Appropriations the town again 14 just over 14 million education just over 45 million with 5 million in change going to debt and uh just over 600,000 going to Capital Improvements for a total of 65 million if you go down to the very bottom line on this it looks at our mill rate specifically all the way right you see is our mill rate 28.26% six is the is the town 19.6 is education 2.9 is debt and just 0.05 is the capital Improvement okay use of fund balance and Municipal tax stabilization fund the use of unassigned fund balance is higher by 227,000 when compared to last year uh
017last year the 2025 a total of 527,000 to offset this we're going to do a one-time CIP expenditure 300,000 the max allowed contribution the M we also are using a 300,000 uh contribution $300,000 contribution of M the municipal tax stabilization fund that's the maximum that we are allowed we can't spend another penny more out of the tax stabilization fund other non- tax revenues these are other places that we get money obviously again taxes is where the most of the our stuff our our Revenue comes from but we also have others uh non-education and federal grants disability grants veterans Town preservation you can see um pretty much stay the same uh Li but the state Municipal Grant we might not have next next year or could be a million less licenses permits in fees we usually
018collect about $115,000 this is thanks to the to our Buildings Department largely uh and also the increase in cannabis sales taxes that is that however is defined in how we can spend it you will see some of that coming up as we present the budget over the next few days uh charges for Cur current Services we're down 22,000 again this is based on Trends out of the clerk's office so this about $148,000 or just over that are some of the other non- tax revenues that we have coming in okay this proposed budget uh expenditure again is I'm I'm proposing 3.03 increase or 1.9 million compared to last year's budget the town operating budget again $14 million or an increase of3 392,000 so we in 2025 2024 25 we were 14 just over 14 million so
01914, 29,44 this proposed budget has us at 14, 421,000 for an increase of 2.8% uh Board of Education uh this this year I have it proposed at 4,174 144 an increase over last year's amount which was 43 mil 8626 $862 648 that's an increase of 1 Point uh 1.3 million just over that or an increase of 2.99 it's a total of 65.6 million an increase of 1.9 million again that's how we arrived at the 3.03% increase this chart is a breakdown of town increases Dr will it be in next week to get more defined if you have any questions on the on the board of ed but this is the town increases here uh leading to the the the increase in town most prevalently are two things one payroll Council approved payroll both contractual and
020planned and then Health employees uh the health insurance for our employees or E chip that is up 139,000 uh Mike Wilkinson's here if you have any questions about that amount uh $29,000 transfer out is another big one on this list $29,000 transfer out is US planning for as in case I didn't mention it the revaluation that we're going to have to do in 2030 it is a different reval than we are doing now this is an actual every piece of property has to be visited we will likely hire a company to do that as we do not have the staff uh to conduct that type of revaluation that is required uh by Connecticut state law so in order to accommodate that cost we are budgeting out 29,000 over the next five years so that we
021can pay for it when the next rebal comes is that year estimate uh do do we want to answer questions as we go or wait till the end chair um if we could do it by section so when you're complete with uh your introduction you could go for questions 29 every year for the total this is G be a same uh okay so the town manager proposed budget uh for fiscal year 2526 for the board of education is 45 just over 45 million again 2.99 uh on February 12th 2025 the board of education presented its budget to us the Board of Ed presented two separate budgets the first budget was for an 11.1% increase or 48 m737 71 the second budget was for 7.3 a 7.34 increase or 47 m 8238 on the 24th Dr
022Willow will be here for any questions uh in regards to that key budget dates I mentioned the next tomorrow night and Monday night for the these presentations in the individual departments departments following this General overview of the budget the 16th and 17th uh there'll be annual budget presentations one here in Council and one at the senior center I believe the chair will do the one in Council I will likely do if I can't talk into to the one at the senior center uh as well and then May 6th is the annual budget referendum should that pass on May 13 will be the Town Council the Town Council will establish a mill rate so that's major section uh happy to stop and pause now if you'd like and if I can answer um hers the 29,000
023is a Tot but times 5 is We Believe total cost to be that we're dividing it up equally that's why that's why I assume that thing right open it up to other counselors as well just to reminder this is an overview so you got a specific question there's a very good chance that we will talk about it again so is one of these a public hearing I thought I saw that in yeah there's a public hearing I mentioned this hold on and I wasn't sure because I I know in the schedule we got mailed to us I thought April 1st is the public hearing on the budget and then on April 3 you Council have the difficult job of discussing uh what you want to send a referendum y okay thank you other question okay
024yeah so I know you mentioned the ECS um you talk to the state representative to accurate but what do he or she say with the leg V of getting that very well you've heard me say in the past that I don't like to be a riverb gambler on these types of things her confidence in that we were going to get that 300,000 I would Define as very strong especially when compared to uh previous years I'm inclined to take her at her word I can apply that 300,000 to our Revenue that will lower uh the taxes and the mill rate by 300,000 just getting out of the gate I don't want to make that decision on my own I would want Council direct to direct me to do that as it it again it's a gamble
025if we don't get it and I made that decision on my own that would uh not look favorably upon my resume when I when I have to look for employment elsewhere so uh that's why I want Council to make that decision yeah or no and you can at any point when you guys have your Council deliberations you can decide but think about it until then yeah and we know we'll get more information let's try to make that decision as late as possible as we get more and more information okay yeah I have a couple ideas but anyways I'm gonna just move on real quick so that 22682 for Capital Improvements is that a must because that's a big chunk as well yes but remember that's planned out in debt and adjustments made to the capital
026Improvement plan have very little impact but this is an addition out of the general the extra not all of it is a must you know there are things that are must in there you know like the the um SE fees and such like that but no not not all is it is a must but again we have a fiveyear plan that we kind of have that debt planned out we got some big stuff down the road as well uh so we're trying to try to best with again with the advice of our uh Consultants tried to best shoehorn that in we can make adjustments but again understanding adjustment the capital budget does not have a huge impact on the mill rate um because it's it's planned out debt over a long period of time okay
027um and I know the health insurance is always a big topic I mean is there any way we can be more is there any rle room to the river Bo Gambler take them take you know a little more risk um it's certainly open for discussion uh Mike Wilkinson will be here to to discuss that again we have a consultant we have advisers um Dr Willet is the the shair of each chip he'd be a good person to to consult with that as well sure and then I think my last question is I know Legal Services have gone up what' you say 10,000 I'm not sure but is that over asking for that that's B jump is that uh legal you said like as in our I think the legal services were not yes we have
028some we have a lot of irons in the fire uh a lot of things in court right now while we are um discussing the sidewalks on the green and that is in litigation we are not paying for that okay uh we that that is being covered however uh we have some other uh the wells the contaminated Wells is is expensive um we're still dealing with some zoning issues um as well we the actuals are way over that so um why they're we ploted them to to where they could be [Music] thanks okay yeah I'll just add quickly I just looked at the legal budget earlier today as well because I had similar thought to it but I did see like that actual SL is yes all over the place usually higher than what we're bud
029so okay just something to okay yeah um customer I can't see oh you do have your okay Mar you have the floor thank you um just one quick question um with what we're budgeting or projecting for Education money um I know the legislature recently passed uh like a 40 40 additional million dollars for special education funding I think that's right now budgeted for fiscal year um but is it is it factored in at all is it something that we can consider that the legislature may add in for fiscal year 26 what what impact does that if anything have on what projecting so in those regards I would look to CCM and cost and um for those types of recommendations which it is I would love to it's too early I I I wouldn't even know
030where to begin on that Chris okay I think just something to keep in mind as we go through the process thanks any other questions from counselor just reminding you probably will have a chance to ask question in s are we we G to go over another session the general front budget summary all or is that part of you like the general government fund or well no it say on page 50 50 where we have the general fund sum and there's discussions about the revenue that's coming in versus the less all the less numbers that are on there just so we going to cover that in detail we do have a section that's focused on Revenue I think it's tomorrow okay so yeah if you could send an email with the questions or after if you
031want to meet with us and then we'll know what we can actually prepare for it if you'd like to as well it's kind of general questions that okay all right I I want to know more about the veteran fund or the vetal the impact reduction the that calculation y as well as um I always look at I always look at the senior the senior tax Rel program and compare to actuals we're going up a million and a half it seems like again this is it always seems like we shoot a really high number out there that never comes to fruition as a deduction of our net revenue so I just question why that's so high Jason I'll be here for that okay tomorrow gross that's a gross it's not like a it's not like a
032t I say t when I say gross because we're talking like a billion and assessed value here so really we're reducing that right that gross number the true dollar impact is far far less yep yes but we can talk more about that tomorrow get some explanations about those yeah I think the right people will be yeah call questions all right uh I'll have I go on to planning and Community Development Item B all right great thank you chair anyone second okay uh Planning and Development uh and as we move through I have uh several directors here David Cochran from planning Planning and Development Jim pacin from um permits and director Lapin for DPW and Summit his staff as well let's start out with the zoning board of appeals this is a small one uh again
033Dave's here if you needed the zoning board of appeals is on in our budget book pages 133 and one3 through 135 of my proposed budget for the details on the zoning board of appeals the uh proposed amount for for them I have at $3,620 uh the commission's budget has decreased uh or I'm proposing a decrease of $330 compared to last year's adopted budget due to significant reductions in advertising expenses um basically uh the major service for them is process variance applications and ensure compliance with legal requirements review zoning regulations and efficiencies uh but we are required by the state of Connecticut the zba is required to by Statute to provide a mechanism for issuing variances and commission members are required to complete mandatory training yearly uh some of the cost of that uh in that
034budget is the training moving on to Public Health Services this is our Eastern Highland Health District in the town of Talon we do not have our own Health Department like a big city would have their own health department so what we do is is there is a Regional Health Service that we pay them a yearly fee to use them as our health department they have absolutely stepped it up over the last couple years uh I'll get into that in a minute they're they the cost of their services has risen by $3,202 for a total of $ 9,630 so just under 90k uh we rely on them for many services here and that is to continue uh work to address and mitigate the contaminated Wells review and inspect construction projects uh and we work with local
035businesses to ensure they are operating by public health code and the state of connectic they also help us with with our um town events uh you know food restaurant inspections commercial septic again they they really stepped up in regards to the electric blue uh when we were having problems with their suing and and again with the contaminated Wells uh and working with the State Department of Health in more of a they've done a bunch of testing for us um they're also trying to repair or at least come up with some legislation so that there are boundaries around when and how you can get um a a water softener in your house which is U you know largely contaminating the wells in our town as a result of water softeners uh major Services uh I believe
036I already I covered that so let's move on to Planning and Zoning Services uh that is Page 139 through 141 in your budget book uh the budget for uh Planning and Zoning Services is $218,800 that's an overall budget increase by $4,000 compared to fiscal year 2025 largely due to uh planned and approved uh negotiated negotiated salary increases uh the actuals if you look are lower based on attrition that we tried or the attrition that we've had over the past couple years we are however currently staffed uh at 100% some of the major Services provided by this department as there's been it they've really done a wonderful job uh in changing the culture and customer service approach over the last uh five to 10 years they provide Technical and administrative assistance to five boards and commissions
037and other Town departments uh they respond to all customer increasing complaints and they identify opportunities to encourage development there are statutory requirements to amend the men zoning regulations to implement recommendations from the PCD that's the plan of conservation and development and modifications of State statutes PCD is required for so many different things to include when we apply for Grants often state grants we often have to have a PCD in place in order to get those uh grants and those are some of the bigger grants we have our PCD lasts about 10 years we are due to do it again is it 10 years Dave 10 years and we are due to again to have it in 2029 Dave's already started some of the preliminary process of that um that is basically the Strategic plan that
038we have here for the town of townland we they also process zoning permit applications and serves as the town zoning enforcement officers and Wetland agents we're on Wetlands our inlands Wetland commission I'm proposing a budget of 37 just over $3,700 that is flat from last year uh the statutory requirements for our Wetlands the wetlands commission is required by State Statute to enforce Wetlands regulations so we have to have a Wetlands commission um and they do inlands and wetlands stuff moving on to planning and zoning commission bzc uh we rely very heavily on the PCC uh they do a fantastic job if you attend any of their meetings they were all very committed um and do do a great job in understanding and moving things along I'm I'm proposing a budget of $8,900 uh that that
039uh remains unchanged from last year's budget uh the main fees that we go that go there are for cons for consultant clerk advertising and training maor Services provided by the PCC as they update our zoning regulations to implement zoning related recommendations the pccd including amendments to be more business friendly they've done an outstanding job with that they support a variety of housing options and price points and talent and modifi regulations as necessary to balance the desire for development with the needs of the community they streamline the application process and Department operations to improve customer service and encourage development our statutory requirements we're required to have uh to implement a 2024 affordable housing plan uh again the p CD they are required to approve special permit site plans and 824 referrals uh commission members complete State
040manded training yearly again that's a part of the built-in uh budget the Conservation Commission what a wonderful job they do with the Conservation Corps together that the Conservation Commission is in your budget book pages 148 through uh 150 uh the Conservation Commission budget is increased by $3500 it would have remained flat however the Conservation Commission wants to run a program to help pick up litter around town to include the knit bottles I am going to uh include 3500 the $3,500 ink will be entirely covered by the Cannabis uh Revenue that we have and we'll see how the program goes that was at the request of Bob Rino and should again it'll be covered it'll be covered under the um again the Canabis Revenue that we're anticipating yet uh the main thing again you can see
041the main things do is they're going to try to to do some more roadside cleanup I show a couple places I know where they are Reserve open space uh with a focus on Acquisitions that are meaningful and and Advance a specific purpose case in point the the T and Marsh that we were in the very close into uh purchasing uh through estate grant that we had uh they publicize Town's conservation areas and activities update uh Conservation Area signage they are statutorily mandated to do Dam inspection and maintenance uh we also have the conservation Corp uh attached to them that do so much work on our trails and conservation areas so very thankful for them uh budgets flat except for the 3500 Again by cannabis moving on the agricultural agricultural commission it's in your budget book
042page 151 through 153 uh they have become more and more active in our town not just working with the farmers but they also run the farmers market for the most part uh we started it in 2022 we could not be happier with how it's going it's been great on our Town green the budget of $1,500 remains flat however I may look into again Canabis money uh going to them if they if need be to help improve the um Farmers Market again they promote local farms and products uh they they do at the Talen Green Market encourage AGR tourism uh and continue to mod uh monitor compliance with lease terms for our town own properties that lease to Farmers cam Campbell's Farm uh for example if you look at go back to the agricultural commission and
043that's not there's one of the years we bought a roof for one of the farms and it was quite a spike uh in the budget but that that's going to be somewhere else I believe in here moving on to um engineering proposed budget of $ 71,3 180 uh the engineering service budget uh slightly increased by $46 as compared to last year so it's basically uh flat the engineers uh budget you can find in page 180 and 182 of of the um budget book proposed budget we have made a change in our in our engineering over the last few years and we have shifted to using um two uh doesn't mean we have the same amount of money budgeted but we are using a different engineer which we believe we will see some additional work to
044be done at a at a lower rate and that is from through Cardinal and Russo two local Engineers uh that that were so far very very happy with one compared to previous um experiences uh we have major projects on the horizon to include sidewalks uh on the green sidewalks connecting the green to our business district a new building at crandles a new state required uh animal shelter uh and other uh Bridge uh Culvert and Bridge repairs in town so we have a lot of engineering uh issues on our plate they review land land use applications for proposed developments the price that they charge to do that is already lower than what the previous uh engineer charged and they review inspection and construction projects ensure compliance with Statewide ms4 storm water standards that's going to wrap
045up uh Mr uh Corrin here if anyone has any questions before I jump to the next one for Dave um in regards to um his Department building inspection I'm going to jump to Mr pacin for that okay um just open it up for questions for Mr that so fast I think I only one question okay anybody else that good um so on the Planning and Zoning budget I think you mentioned that it was going up or you were expected to use all the money because uh it's fully snapped now and let me get back to you here hold on go ahead that is the eight the planning not the commission the actual Planning and Zoning yeah planning and zoning department $28,000 gotcha yes um we we plan on being staffed at 100% okay so I
046was just curious because looking in the budget book it's shows you have three positions filled in 2023 2024 um which is the same as this year um but you were still lower um like you still didn't get your your budgeted amounts $15,000 I'm just curious is there go ahead so so yeah so the way this operated I would say for the period from 2022 to 2024 is we had a executive secretary and the director we were filling the assistant planner position with a consultant who charge the flat rate which was significantly less than the budgeted amount for the assistant planner what we've done since is we've eliminated the executive secretary position uh which we did last year we mov the executive secretary up into the assistant planner Rule and we retain the consultant so before
047there was that I guess difference in price between the assistant planner and the consultant which is now I guess absorbed okay yeah and and so we're fully executing budget now and the consultant is still cheaper than an executive secretary so okay when did that happen again that happened last budget year okay or I guess this budget year that we're in right now okay like last last calendar year yeah okay the other question I had was the town engineer budget um I know you mentioned there's more projects going on um I think the ones you mentioned were ones I was familiar with but it's still like almost double what we're actually spending so I just want to dig into that a little bit more try to understand why we think we're going to spend 70,000 this
048year y so so some of that my understanding is the some of it has do with potential unknown emergency expenditures that may require significant engineering immediately a br fails something like that um I I believe in the past the town has used that fund towards the end of the budget year to fund discretionary items like a extra bulky waste pick up C from Road that's kind where that's done I can dig in and find out for when you guys have I could probably get that at the beginning for tomorrow night and get more clarity on that I I believe there's a definitive answer because we I have to ask that same question okay yeah i' appreciate that da you could dig in um that's all I have for now y kind of pick you back
049off of Jacob I know kind of know what's holding us up with the sidewalks but as far as the um building and cran and the animal shelter is that we know what fisical year that'll that's fored to be 26 or first first will be the crandles I believe it's in two years it's in the capital plan and then the um animal shelter is I believe four years or five years out we have to have it done by a certain time uh to meet State Standards we're to have close that building that's going to be impacted this year for our budget that's what that money that we're putting aside for that going to be affecting this year's budget it's in it's in our debt plan moving out technically we're only going to debt for what we're
050buying so year one um isn't it so we can move it out if you don't want you want to push those back even further we certainly could okay thank you good yeah any other questions you okay councelor Mor any questions I'm all set thanks okay um move on great thanks Dave thank you okay um that Jim pwin is here he's our director of uh Building Inspection Services they do bring in uh some pretty good revenue of the major services that they provide uh they administer and enforce Connecticut State Building Code and its amendments provide staff support to the historic district commission provide staff support to the Blake Review Committee I would also add that he asked as an adviser to my office on so many things as well as um Megan Masa our grants coordinator
051in regards to um construction projects and building uh Jim Jim always volunteers to go out and assist as we um move through any sort of building projects or any anything that I really need his advice on so uh he helps out with so much our um stat requirement Building Code Compliance is required enforceable under Connecticut General statute okay uh the budget I propose for them is $161,300 increase compared to last year uh the adjust the adjustment reflects a rise in approved uh payroll uh and the accounts for negotiated salary raises as well as additional raises allocated to non-union staff members also service contracts increased by $800 which is attributed to contractual obligations Pages this big bu book I don't have it I don't believe have it in the big yes we do 129 to 132
052I'm sorry this is the only department for yeah it's an easy one yeah open up questions yep go ahead a minute anybody else councelor Moran any questions on the building department no thanks okay okay I don't make questions either SP where usually up so good now Public Works Public Works SC okay I'll start with that director La it is here just stepped out for a second so as you know our public works department has two divisions both very fairly large uh parks and facilities and streets and Roads uh I would I would note that there's been some uh major leadership and and we're attempting some culture changes uh in the Department of Public Works since I've been here uh one of the the consistent sayings out of Public Works is we don't do it that
053way or that's not how we do things uh around here or we've always done it this way uh and and we've saw our assistant Public Works director uh leave uh to another town and we saw our Highway supervisor retire and we've we've um replaced them and uh it's been incredibly positive early on we've seen some savings there as well uh in regards to that um a lot of it is software different things that we're already paying for Pub works is one of the software packages that we have that we're going to start utilizing much more we're not going to do things from memory uh anymore we're going to do things um more professionally and more scientifically um moving forward and it'll it should make the job a little bit easier for everybody instead of just
054trying to do everything out of memory dpw's in your uh budget book pages 183 to 186 uh and for the parks and Pages 192 to 195 uh for the streets and uh so director laon's here now so we got uh the proposed budget for the entirety of DPW I have at 3,730 5,4 that's an increase of $1,234 so when you look at a three million almost you close to $4 million budget only going up $1,000 um that's that's a pretty best effort is to remain flat considering everything uh the payroll budget line increased by about $330,000 uh equipment uh rentals increased by about $5,000 and the communications budget up about 2500 however we were able to see significant Savings in salt Fuel and oil and contractual services uh to help uh lower that budget so
055I thank the director for bringing in an almost flat budget uh major Services as you know 133.5 miles of local roads we maintain Town buildings Parks uh and four cemeteries uh Public Works is committing to hearing to a strict budget and they did a good job there's some performance data uh in there as well um and so I I would say we're open for any questions for director Lapin if you have any regarding his budget thank you uh counc you check you I think so was there is the 30,000 there was a staff that you wanted to try and move from one to over to a truck driver is that that's in there that's not this though not the 30,000 no it's in there that's a part of the budget I'm sorry yeah all right
056I was just confused because on page 37 I enough that 30,000 was the ask two believe it is yeah there's two things in there right a part time yeah not the entire amount it was roughly $8,000 to move truck drivers okay that's I think it was 8,000 okay I mean 30,000 right 8,000 questions you can ask somebody else okay I just have a couple of quick okay go C has so I just wanted to check on um so typically um the last couple of items where you have like catch Basin cleaned and repaired and miles of roadways swept I'm assuming you're on some kind of like a cycle and is that sort of like a typical of what you shoot for every year typically what drives where we sweep and catch basins we clean are
057the roads that are being um resurfaced like that and then ACs on top of it probably these These are are uh targeted resurfaced roads yes okay um go ahead and let Chris okay comment and if I think it's not what you know thank you Council Mar thanks uh not a question just more of a comment um obviously DPW is a pretty big portion of the Town budget and so I just want to thank uh Brian and director Lapin for uh trying to keep the or working hard to keep the budget in inre is pretty minimal in this department so um nice nice job thank you for that I AG it's good it's like said um any other questions for counselors just just um Parks streets yeah yeah I guess the whole department one all right
058question I just a question okay y else is waiting yeah yeah um it is pretty FL really great budget your department but on page 179 in the budget the parks total Parks facility went up 17,000 what is that go to say it again I'm sorry um page 179 toal parks and facility facilities it's up $1 17,27 it's only 1.1% but I just didn't know what that hold on let me get to 179 you said right yes and that is this it's the one two just the third one down that just parks and facil I'm going to assume that's payroll but I again I can't see without pulling out the line by line you yes payroll it was it was payroll payroll actually went up 24,1 37 but then there were reductions in our fuel and
059oil to offset I know it's very small just question do you think that this budget is efficient for everything because I know i' seem like every year you guys take out another task or constantly adding um I just didn't know if you or gets a wish list I don't know if you have you know like walking around town I see some things that might need we can get a donation for or not I'm not good at granting wishes but for example like the ball fields at Cross you know you look at dugouts and the interior of them are fine but you know as a carpenter looking at that it's like man those could definitely be on repl that you when I got here there was no schedule for um the ball fields all the the
060sporting Fields I'm when to replace them and such uh working with uh DPW the um Recreation board and Bruce watt they came up with a schedule how many years out you think it is that 20 years out or yeah we're I think every other year doing ball field and you can see the softball field at the middle schools this year new infield some new fencing they also have a scoreboard I believe that we given them through arpa is that right col we get to to scoreboard for softball so you'll see each year we're going to pick off a field we can budget for it rather than doing it halfhazard and plan out it could change this was the girls softball this year was based on uh director Lapin and and Dr Willet looking and this
061the the athletic director and looking at the danger and the uh difference in height from infield to Outfield no that's great and when did you implement that program just last year yeah I mean six months ago or so months so okay 24 25 okay the scoreboard is the scoreboard is actually going in within the next few weeks we've got to Mark the areas for c for um are you done commissioner yeah okay so uh so he Peak my interest in something so if if there were groups that did want to do contribute to improvements is that something they would approach you about Brian what do you mean like like how Li how the the who helped us with lions field was it was our guys who did it but Lions um contributed is that what
062you mean that kind of thing right yeah yeah that would go through my office okay so that so if there are people that are interested in would love that have them contact you okay so just out there in The Ether and um for when you say Public Works is building a new parks and Facilities office cold storage building pole building has been constructed at the highway division facility um is are there are the engineering fees and the other construction costs of that included in your budget yes okay it's all it's all part so that's part of your budget it's not separate a separate part of like the Capital Improvements budget right we have it's a different engineering budget like I I believe we we budgeted in when we paid for the parks garage we budgeted
063in engineering fees okay so that's in this in the in the Parks and in the price of that building in the price of that building which was on arpa AR okay not it was not in this budget okay thank you just have one question so we're move the only real staffing change here it's even increasing head count but we're moving a nebor position to a truck driver position did you just kind of expand a little bit on why sure reting that um we don't have any truck drivers in the Parks and Facilities division we have all laborers and we have a working leader and then we have the um dentist car who is our Public Works um supervisor for the parts um CDO laws of changed if you drive a vehicle with a trailer on
064it that's over 10,000 lb and the vehicle is over such and such we have to pay um them to drive the CDL vehicle laborers have a CDL but it qualifies them as being a truck driver at that point so we figure instead of constantly you know saying all right for three hours we're going to pay this guy to drive a truck we're going drive if we have one truck one designated truck driver down there it make it a lot easier for us um especially if they have a class A license because we have to move our mini excavator up to the cemeteries for excavation of the graves things of that nature it also gives some room for advancement what happens everybody sees that you have truck drivers you have equipment operators in the highway and
065they're leaving Parks going to the highway just for that opportunity to advance so we figur if we got one position in there would at least you know open their eyes to that thank you makes sense appreciate it sure any other questions upon Department of Public Works um I can I add a couple things sure the Little League uh as merily to your point uh has money that they raise and spend or soccer clubs also have money that they raise and spend uh and that's often uh due to helps pay for the infrastructure of our athletic fields they work with Bruce SW and again our Recreation division so there's different revenue streams that we come in to help um pay for all that also um I want to introduce Chris Kelly you want to stand up
066Chris for a second Chris is our new assistant uh director at DPW comes with a Yukon degree in something related what is it again Landscape Maintenance or something uh just you know experience in the past but no Yukon experience there it's an English degree honestly oh okay right okay never mind it's an English degree perfect uh and Dave dros is is uh up Dave is in charge of our our Highway supervisor uh he's been here a long time knows knows the business um it was really working hard to attain uh that promotion and I and I thank both of them for their efforts thank you both for coming one last call for questions are you good I'm good right thank you conversation we have one more y Department cover tonight all right ref use and
067recycling garbage um this is this is handled largely by uh Mike Wilkinson uh out of uh human resources in the town manager's office uh the town provides as you know curbside residential pickup and Disposal of all our household trash recycled items and bulky waste additionally Talon participates in a regional hazardous waste program which Pro provides residents with opportunities to dispose of household hazardous materials during the spring and summer and fall months we also run an electronics recycling event shredding event um on top of the Hazardous Materials as well but that's that's paid for throughout alternative means uh not included in the part of this budget uh the overall budget for refuse is flat uh we know we took a big hit last year but the second year is is flat at 1,332 27 uh so
068no in increase uh and that includes the one complimentary bulky waste collection which we have included in our Capital plan Mike wion's here for any questions open it up to questions question yeah so previously we had seen that the cost of that the the monies that might be available for recycling right that we we had that that was a positive income stream at some point in time um what is the status of recycling as far as costs versus reimbursement for for more valuable things like aluminum and things like that go ahead Mike so yeah we uh a while back we were getting paid for um recycling um but as you may know uh there was a a worldwide shift in recy recycling um China stopped taking a lot of recycling um so that bottomed out
069the market so uh we went from getting $25 a ton down to 10 to zero um now we have to pay to throw get rid of our recycling so that's really where the market is right now so we're not getting any revenue for it um it's obviously cheaper to do it than uh our trash but um that's kind of where we are as far as are recycling um it's about $25 uh about $35 less than what it cost to dispose of our trash currently can you provide the the do you know offand the numbers uh per ton it's per ton right for trash versus recycling um I think trash is like 110 and I want to say um recycling is in uh it's either or around 75 or 80 I I'd have to get the
070exact number but it's about order of magnitude is fine thank you um what what strategies would benefit us to try to bring some of this expense down as far is there is there educationally is there anything that we can do or there strategies that we can take that you know of to try to to try to get this expense reduced um well uh if you look at the trajectory of what we've done uh with uh Recycling and trash over the years it's a pretty good story um uh before we went to um single stream things like that um our budget was pretty high um we got our budget down to where was or below what it was about 12 years ago which is is pretty remarkable um but with the change in recycling as I
071mentioned um and we talked about this last year uh just so you know we signed a new fiveyear agreement with our our vender last year so and the rate increases hit the first year that's why we're flat just to be clear on why we're flat um the second year all our our fees are the same um but um education's obviously important getting the word out to try to recycle as much as you can um uh but we're at the point where we don't have a lot of room to make huge changes we've done we've done single stream we've um we've switched to uh bi-weekly recycling over the years we've tried everything to kind of reduce our costs but we're in a we're in a period where it's it's it's kind of flattened out so um
072but obviously education is important thank you thank you any other questions from counselors coun sh yeah so um I'm looking at the actuals compared to budget for the past two years and we're we're typically below Budget Home the past couple of years by about 150,00 and if I annualize the current Year's actuals we're pretty much in the same boat we're going to be about $150,000 I personally I think we we don't do enough for our residents as far as trash removal and and cycl pickup um because we you know we' start we keep taking this way over the past several years you know we're down to one bulky waste pickup so if we do have this extra amount in our budget is there any chance we could potentially increase a second bu waste collection how
073much does that typically cost this the year I'm not seeing what you're saying no I think we went over budget we went over budget those aren't that's not the no the actuals oh I'm sorry I'm looking at 24 cred 25 yeah but if I annualize 25 I did that correctly it it comes out to up to about 150,000 less than what we have budgeted for the current year my columns correct so do you agree Mike we are we slightly no generally we don't usually come in under budget um it all depends on you know obviously these are estimates of what we think we're going to end the year with with our tonnages so um it really all depends on how much people throw out the rest of the year um but we're generally not under
074budget it costs about uh between 20 to $30,000 for a bulky waste pickup um so uh and again um when is that no October so we've already had that uh we've already had it for this year yeah it's uh um but we've programmed it again for October using Capital funds um so it's not it's not in the operating budget for next year it's a capital item I wanted it consistent so we put it into to into Capital yeah because remember I was getting you maybe you weren't here it was getting parlayed around and pulled and um it's too important you know we start pulling that we pull that budget you know Lapin picking up couches on all the dead ends and everywhere else so yeah no I agree that's why going down one was a
075concern for me you did it I I know the last bulky waste pickup if you drove around me people had a ton of stuff it took days to to finally pick all that up so to me it would be beneficial to add another one if we if we could get it in the budget well people can it's really cheap to call them and have them come do it Mike what's a what's a pickup cost like say for ACH it's it is really cheap it's only $34 if you wanted to pick up four reasonbly size items so say you had a couch uh a table uh a couple end chairs that would only cost $34 which if you had a private company come just for them to show up it'd be a hundred bucks so it's
076a really good deal um they're definitely not making money on that but um that's the cost if they want to if a resident wants to pay for it themselves and that's that's a pretty good deal we actually had a resident I we talked to today in our office who was saying how it's such a good deal um it is a good deal but it's still a lot of the mentality is why should I know spend $34 when I can throw it in a road for free so if you can avoid that by doing an extra bulky way pick up I if you want a budget it we can you know yeah it just seemed like we were low it didn't seem like we're were going to hit our budget number this year and I was
077just wondering if you know we got more efficient if people have less I'll be surprised when the tund were under yeah okay just something keep an eye I agree yeah I just just my own I think that down know a great job with the the bulk I actually think it's I was surprised moving back here and that was a thing you know like when I grew up I just you loaded your own truck and you brought Stafford and they paid you for it so Stafford yeah I don't really know how you can accumulate so much stuff in one year unless you're a picker which is cool because people will go through and pick at those files but I think one is great well when I first moved here it was free all year all you
078do was not call them ahead of time and they you know for your day of garbage pickup and they came you know whatever month that was and then we cut it down to two three or two and now we're down to one yeah so it's lot capacity is was eliminated right so part of the reason for that was that that many years ago um I know I'm aging you prematurely but that many years ago we had there was much landfill capacity and and those landfills have been has been closing so it's becoming more and more and more expensive to just throw stuff away um because it has to go farther and as to you know then the remaining facilities can charge more so um and I agree with you I I mean stuff that yeah
079I think we're spoiled stuff that we have that's like metal or valuable if we put it out it disappears it disappears like yeah it's it's really weird he might be a popular guy now Jo because the town loves those pickups yeah it's a good one I mean I agree with you I think we need a bulky Wass we did try to go without it once and we ended up with a lot of people and it bugs me because I I think you should be responsible for your own refuge and you should take you should not dump it on somebody else's property that's bogus but um but when we tried to get away from it and like we sold like little stickers or something for a little while you could buy put a sticker on it
080and it was it just didn't work so you ended up with couches at the end of poxs so just a question if you do something like that like if there's a giant pile of waste that that would end up becoming bloody right what do you mean like when uh if someone dumps something on somebody else's property and they just leaving trash everywhere it wouldn't become BL because um Jim our blight officer would tell us and Scotts people are great about picking uh that stuff up anyways it's it's an unfortunate outcome it's something I dealt with in Harford aund times worse than this um so I do value the bulk uh pickup but yes it's it's you know we try to get to it when we can it pops up on Facebook these two new new
081guys are watching it um and then we get to it pretty quick okay every everything that's popped up the last couple weeks a chair here or there these guys are on it before I can say hey pick it up in any case not good yeah right but no I think you guys do a great job I mean I think at some point it's you're VI you're violating like this it's like a litter litter little dispos disposal of rough use or whatever but it's a fine the $34 to pick up um the items you said four items yeah like that's actually really good like that's yeah that's a that's actually a really good price definitely yeah deal I think I you know we could publicize that more that would be great yeah or get paid to
082throw out your trash publicize that too yeah you to throw your trash on what it is Facebook Marketplace Facebook Market I see Council Mor has his hand rais yeah just uh one I agree with Alex when I moved to T I thought it was great that we had even one bulky way pickup um just the question though do with respect to whether we ever need to add another one are we having any problem where there like we're finding regularly like larger items being disposed where they're not supposed to or how I guess how is the one a year seem to be working Chris what what do you define as a problem you know I see it on Facebook and it annoys me so that's a problem for me um but we monitor it you know
083um and pick it up as as best as possible I don't want to flirt with it becoming a bigger problem by getting rid of the bulky waste um so I don't either I think we're in a good spot with the cheap pickup all year round and then one freebie um free for the residents but we pay for it here I think is a pretty good spot that we're in yeah I would agree I I agree yeah agree thanks questions or comments up on refuges all right I think with that that concludes our um substance in the agenda for tonight so I'll entertain a motion to adjourn at 87 second second I guess we do have to do a roll vote so i councelor n hi counc ioun hi thank you